HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY-KEITH'S SPACE IS 11 YEARS OLD!

ACTUALLY it was Wednesday, December 26th..but I forgot..Forgive me.....Can you believe I've been writing this blog since December 26th 2007....??? I can't either...

So many people who were in the game with me when I started this, the first of three active blogs I have still running have gotten out of the game..They've moved on to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

I have too, but I still write my blogs....I don't know how much longer I'm going to do this..but for the time being..I'm still in the game..

My Eigth Blogoversary!

Today makes eight years....Eight years since I began blogging....This...This was my first of three blogs...

And yeah I know...I always say this or something close to it.."Keith's Space" ...this little blog of mine was my introduction into the online world....

I published one three line post on that day and promised to come back with more posts in the coming year...2008.  I sure did...and I met other folks who also had blogs...Folks like Zack of "Go Zack" , who unfortunately, no longer publishes that blog...Mizrepresent , Eb The Celeb, Karrie B. , Pocohontaz, Ladylee, Don, 12Kyle, Southern Gal, Bored and Talkative, SLC and many many more...

People who like me, were finding their voices through this thing called Blogging... We helped get a President elected...(Twice) we shared our highs and lows....and we went on to become friends on both Facebook and Twitter...

 If not for this blog...I would not be in any of those domains... I owe it all to my wife... She had started a blog for our first grandchild  a year before....and had been begging me to start one of my own...I finally gave in and the day after Christmas, 2007...we sat down and she came up with the basic  design of this blog..(She has designed all of my blogs templates.)

We came up with a format...I said I wanted this blog to be about whatever was on my mind on any given day....I did a play on words of the popular social media format Myspace and came up with the name- "Keith's Space" and the rest is as they say...History...

By July of 2008, My blog was pretty popular,I was being added to people's lists and getting a lot of responses from all over the nation... So I created another blog..."Escapades" - Which features my poetry and Fiction and now also includes art, music and erotica....Serial Fiction and Short Stories....Two years later,I created "Good Foodie" my food blog...Not creating any more...Just having fun writing these three..

Was really thinking about quitting it all earlier this year or at least shutting down a few blogs...but I've discovered that I can't...I love blogging too much...It actually gives me a break from Facebook and Twitter...

Bet you don't hear anybody say that much....

I still have some readers...some who comment....Most who lurk...but I don't care...I love to write and I'd write if nobody commented or lurked...That's how much I love writing and the freedom this medium called blogging gives me...

So...Until my electric is cut off or my internet service...which ever comes first...I am here..with this and all of my blogs!

-The Maverick of All Bloggers!

KEITH!

While We laughed At Steve Harvey...Sandra Bland got killed again!

Yesterday...Social Media, Twitter,Facebook,Instagram, Tumblr and Blogs were all a buzz with the story of Comedian and Ms. Universe host, Steve Harvey's monumental gaffe at the Ms. Universe pageant.. He crowned the wrong Ms. Universe..

Naturally...The jokes came...The crazy memes..(that I'm still being tagged with) and of course the racism...

Almost immediately...a number of people from Colombia...began calling him a "dumb nigger:, a stupid nigger,.a monkey...et al and chiding him for reading the wrong woman's name...Ms. Colombia instead of the right woman's name..Ms. Phillipines..and then spelling the names of both contestants native lands wrong in his apology on Twitter, which he quickly deleted..

To tell you the truth,I'm surprised so many people care about this that much!  If a beauty pageant means that much to them, they must really have too much time on their hands..I mean the vitriol against the man was so bad, I thought maybe one of the guys was sleeping with the girl or something...I mean really, Why do you care so much?

I felt bad for both girls..It was very embarrassing and awkward..and I felt bad for Steve too...but hell, it's a damn beauty pageant...Life will go on...LIFE IS GOING ON!  It really wasn't that deep...Shame on those ignorant racist commentors on Twitter...I'm sure they don't represent the majority of the good people of Colombia.

Self righteous and judgemental Twitter and Facebook posters roasted the man to death and every news venue had this as it's lead story...Steve Harvey names the wrong contestant in the Ms. Universe pageant... It was funny for a hot minute, but damn,give it a rest! I haven't gone on Twitter or Facebook today,because I'm sure it's still going on...This public roasting of Steve Harvey....It'll go on until somebody else does something and takes the attention off of Steve...

The man made a mistake....Damn...People love to bask in other people's misfortunes and foibles...I suppose it makes them feel better about their empty lives...

It was called the Epic Fail of 2015 on one TV show last night.  Really?

So while we were laughing at Steve Harvey and competing to see who had the most clever meme concerning his gaffe...A Texas grand jury declined to indict anyone in the summer death of Sandra Bland!

Remember her?

A grand jury will not indict anyone in connection with the death of Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in a Texas jail cell in July.

 

Five months after her death drew national protests, one of the special prosecutors for the case, Darrell Jordan, told The Washington Post that the grand jury decided not to indict anyone, including staff at the Waller County Jail where Sandra Bland was held, in connection with her death.

The grand jury will reconvene in early January to “take up remaining issues,” Jordan said. He declined to comment on what those issues might be, because grand jury proceedings are secret. He also did not comment on what evidence led to Monday night’s outcome.

Sandra Bland, a young Black woman from the Chicago area , was arrested during a traffic stop on July 10 that turned confrontational. Police video released amid national attention after her death showed Ms. Bland refusing to get out of her car until state trooper Brian Encinia pointed a stun gun at her and shouted, “I will light you up!”

Officials said that Sandra Bland kicked Encinia, and she was arrested for assaulting a public servant. She was found dead three days later, hanging from a cell partition with a plastic garbage bag around her neck.

Sandra Bland’s death was ruled a suicide by the county coroner, but family members and protesters around the country disputed that conclusion, alleging that she should not have been arrested and had been the victim of racism. Her name joined others — Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray — as a byword of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Sandra Bland’s family has remained vocally suspicious of the coroner’s ruling of suicide, and in August family members filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Waller County Sheriff’s Office, jail officials and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Attorneys for Waller County have sought to have the lawsuit dismissed, saying that Sandra Bland killed herself out of despair that her relatives did not quickly bail her out.

Last week, a Texas judge set the trial date for Jan. 23, 2017 for Bland’s family’s wrongful death suit.

The announcement of the grand jury’s decision came just hours after Ms. Bland’s family criticized the handling of her case, which they said was not being thoroughly investigated by the Texas Rangers or properly presented by special prosecutors.

“Right now the biggest problem I have is the entire process,” Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, said at a press conference Monday, according to the Chicago Tribune. “It’s the secrecy of it all.”

Speaking to the Houston Chronicle after the news that there would be no indictments in Bland’s death, Cannon Lambert, an attorney for her relatives, called the grand jury investigation “a sham of a proceeding.”

“It’s exactly the type of thing we had a concern about, the fact that they were going to do exactly what they did,” he said, adding that the family had not been kept apprised of the investigation.

Within a few hours of the announcement, #SandraBland was trending on social media, where many of the activists who made her name nationally-known criticized the grand jury’s decision.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also tweeted a statement on the decision.

“Sandra Bland should not have died while in police custody. There’s no doubt in my mind that she, like too many African-Americans who die in police custody, would be alive today if she were a white woman,” it read. “My thoughts are with her family and her loved ones tonight. We need to reform a very broken criminal justice system.”

No other candidate had weighed in on the grand jury’s decision as of very early Tuesday.

In an interview with the New York Times, Jordan stressed that this decision does not signal the end of the investigation into Bland’s case.

“It’s all in the way you phrase it,” he said. “The case is not over. That’s what I’m stressing right now. The case is not over.”

So while everybody was busy laughing at Steve Harvey's gaffe at a beauty pageant that none of them probably watched..In a small Texas courthouse , Sandra Bland was being killed again...legally...and a number of people were using Steve Harvey's gaffe as a pass to post uber-racist tweets...

Yesterday was truly interesting!

Where Have All The Bloggers Gone

I have asked the question...Where Have all of the bloggers gone?   I have a list of my favorite bloggers, which can be found on the side of this blog and my other blog, Escapades and Good Foodie...The other day I went down the lists of blogs...unfortunately, only four of the blogs are still up and operating...out of maybe 20 some blogs...

I was saddened at how many of my favorite bloggers haven't written anything in years..and how many of the ones still somewhat active ,haven't posted in months...It's just not the same...

Circa 2008....Although I launched this blog in December 2007...I didn't really start writing good until 2008...When I launched my second blog, Escapades..By then I had been introduced to a number of young black bloggers who were just like me..

Excited...Those were heady times...Barack Obama rode into the White House and signaled a new era....We were politicized and full of piss and vinegar and had a lot to say...Politically and personally....I loved reading and commenting on these blogs as much as I loved writing my own...

We all commented and supported each other and helped each other grow and mature as writers and as bloggers...I'm willing to say that I did some of my best writing between 2008 and 2011....

Then came Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Tumbler....By 2012...Practically my entire Blogger family was on Facebook,Twitter and some form of social media..
Because it's so much easier to make a statement on these mediums and because it doesn't require the thought and effort that go into writing a good post...It was inevitable that a lot of the blogs died..

My wife said that this was the difference between those who are really writers and into good writing and those who had just jumped on the bandwagon of the latest fad..

My crazy ass went and launched a third blog...."Good Foodie" -A food blog in 2010...
Must have been out of my mind... As a result..I have three blogs up and running at the time of this writing...

I have pondered shutting down this blog and Good Foodie a lot ...but I can't bring myself to do it...This is my baby...My first blog..the blog that got me into this world in the first place...

Let's be honest...Life does get in the way of blogging...Being married, working a demanding job, raising kids, grandkids in my case and all the other things that fill up a day and a life can sometimes push blogging to the background... Some of my blogger fam have shut their blogs down when their life has come to a certain crossroads...Others just stopped writing....I've gone on their blogposts and found that their site has been taken over by seedy advertisements or by somebody completely foreign to me and unknown....It's been depressing...

I wrote a post last week that got me to thinking about how I tried to tailor this blog to fit modern trends like Tumbler...I began posting more memes and music posts on this blog to adhere to the short attention span generation that might not want to read the wordy posts I used to write....

Of course when I have to say something, when I need to educate the masses,I don't shy completely away from that...Still, I've added humor and short posts labeled as micro-blogging..that have modernized this blog somewhat....

Today...As of this writing...I feel like a dinosaur...The last of the original idealistic blogger family.....I have three blogs continuously running... this one, Keith's Space, Escapades, my poetry,fiction, art,erotica and music blog... (and my favorite to write of the three..it gets the most responses and readership...And for my money the most unique and innovative blog in the game...) and Good Foodie...my food blog..Most of my friends are on Twitter and Facebook...They don't blog much if at all... A few talk about coming back into the game....

I'll be here...waiting, still plugging away....

HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY!

I can't believe it!  Seven Years...Seven Years In .!!! Seven Years since I started this blog and I'm surprisingly enough still writing this and two other blogs!  Here's to seven more!

One Of My Favorite Bloggers

Today I had the pleasure of meeting one of my favorite bloggers....I won't use her government name in this format....But I will shout out her blog..."The F it List-"Throwin Mad shade since 197nunyah"  (http://www.randomnycsarcasm.net/)

You can tell by the title of her blog that she's got a great sense of humor and a wonderful way with words.....

I've been reading or I should say...We have been reading and commenting on each others blogs since around, 2008....When I first came into this blogging game...

Funny the way this game is...I met several like minded African -American bloggers during that time and we became a sort of cyber family...Folks Like Shelly Shell, Mizrepresent, 12Kyle, Eb The Celeb, The Original Glamazon,Southern Girl, The Karrie B. , Smarty Jones,The Field Negro, The Jaded New Yorker, Dollface, et al and many many others...We followed each others blogs and we followed each other to social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest and of course Instagram....

Even though I've communicated and talked to these people over the years like close friends...Sadly,I've never personally met any of them ....UNTIL TODAY!

The author of this great blog was here in the city of brotherly love at lunchtime today for a business meeting and informed me through Facebook that she was only a few blocks from me... I was able to take a subway ride to her destination and meet and have lunch with her...I found her to be just as down to earth in person as she is on her blog...

We talked about the blog community and how Facebook and Twitter has killed it...and she promised me that she is going to start blogging again...Which is why I posted the link to her blog,so you guys can read it and get the wonderful insight that I get from reading it...

I promised her that I was going to give her a shout out on my blog and I have..I hope she sees this .....

Keith's Passion (This Blogging Thing)

Wow! Today!  This day in 2007, Six years ago...My wife and I created this template...and published the very first blogpost I ever wrote...I believe it just said "Testing...One two three..." There was maybe a sentence more...but that was the beginning of my blogging career...Within weeks ,I was up and running, writing this blog on an almost daily basis, commenting on other blogs and making friendships with like minded people...

Keith's Space..."Whatever is On my Mind today" was born on this day...Blogs were in vogue...everybody who was anybody had one or was starting one...Everybody had something unique to say... Within eight months...I had the audacity to launch my second blog, Escapades...My Creative alter ego...A blog where because of it's episodic and serialized fiction...as well as erotica, poetry, art and music has actually surpassed this one in popularity and traffic... I waited two years and launched my third and final blog.."Good Foodie...My adventures in good cuisine and the places that serve it."

I write all three of these blogs on a near daily basis...Something I may slow down a bit in the future... Sad to say...Not too many of the people I originally started this blogging thing with still blog today...Facebook ,Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, Tumblar have all cropped up and many bloggers find it easier to say what they have to say in short quotes in these mediums...Blogs are no longer the rage anymore..

Also...that thing called life has crept up on many and they just don't have the time or the will to write blogposts anymore like they did in the beginning...Sad to say...Many of my former blog family have closed down their blogs or haven't posted in years....

I've thought about it....Because I too have a Facebook and a Twitter account..I was actually going to shut this blog and Good Foodie down this year at one point and just write Escapades....I thought better of it...I love all three of my blogs...And I like the fact that I can expound my ideas in more than 148 charactors...I like that I can tell my stories...Real and Fiction in this medium....My blogs are here to stay until I get bored or tired...Which I doubt will ever happen...I love to write....And this way..I can write whatever and publish it and it be seen by whoever is looking....

I have lots of lurkers out there...I see you...I wish you would comment...I'd love to hear your thoughts...I have a loyal following of friends who read and comment on all of my blogs...That gives me hope....But I'd like t hear from even more people.

Truth be told...I'd be blogging if nobody was commenting or reading...Because writing is just my passion...

So Happy Blogoversary Keith's Space..Six years and still going strong....And kudos to my fans and readers of Escapades and Good Foodie too..They aren't going anywhere ,anytime soon..

From A Bloggers Perspective

The woman in the photo above is former News Anchor, Shea Allen....She and I have only one major thing in common...We both have blogs...Oh yeah and we are both American citizens,so that's two things...
She got fired from her job as a TV anchorwoman because of things she wrote on her blog.

I'm shaking my head in disbelief!!! Where is the first amendment???

I write three blogs...This one...A fiction and poetry blog called Escapades that can get pretty racy at times, though not all the time and a food blog called Good Foodie. Good Foodie is tame...But this blog and Escapades could get me fired if I worked for some companies and they discovered it!

I mean...I expouse my political views very raw in this blog...with no punches pulled and unapologetically...I believe that this is my first amendment right of free speech as an American citizen...Some companies don't feel that way.

On My blog ,Escapades...there is some slightly x-rated material from time to time...Some of my stories and poetry and art is decidedly erotic...I'm writing for an adult audience...Not children...Perhaps I'll put a disclaimer on that blog for future reference...

Here's what's got me in such a huff....A teasing TV reporter who told fans she goes bra-less on air has been fired for her candid confessions.


Shea Allen - who also revealed her best stories came from people who fancied her — was booted from WAAY in Huntsville, Ala., after posting a tell-all blog on Friday.

"I've gone bra-less during a live broadcast and no one was the wiser," she wrote underneath the "Confessions of a Red-Headed Reporter" headline.

"My best sources are the ones who secretly have a crush on me," she added.

The mom-of-one admitted that she hates positive news stories, is so scared of old people and refuses to report on the elderly, and she hinted at stealing people's mail.

It's all said on her blog... I'm guessing that like me...She writes her blog for enjoyment and relaxation...I doubt that she's getting paid any money for it.  For me it's a hobby....Just like Facebook and Twitter.


"I've mastered the ability to contort my body into a position that makes me appear much skinner [sic] in front of the camera than I actually am," she also detailed.

Her bosses at the ABC-affiliate failed to see the funny side and immediately ordered her to take the post down, according to Gawker.

Mrs.Allen, who has previously worked as anchor at the station, obliged. But after a few hours she decided to re-post the list and add "No Apologies" to the headline.

"This post was taken down because I was momentarily misguided about who I am and what I stand for," she added into the text.

It's a blog...It's her personal blog...What right does her bosses at ABC have to dictate to her what she can and can not put on her blog??

I once wanted my blogs to gain wide spread attention....Now, maybe I've changed my mind on that...I have a small fan base and perhaps it's best to keep it that way...The less people that know about your blog...the less intrusion.

 Defending her decision, Shea  Allen wrote: "It's funny, satirical and will likely offend some of the more conservative folks. But it isn't fake and its [sic] a genuine look into my slightly twisted psyche."


I totally defend her right to post whatever she wants on her private blog and not have to suffer any repercussions for it...

On Monday, however, she tweeted that her job had been "terminated without cause" as a result of the post.
WAAY TV has not yet commented on the incident. They won't...But they're wrong, they are as wrong as hell.

I'm not surprised that this took place in the enlightened state of Alabama.... Could have been any red state for that matter...And writing this post could get me fired in one of those states or in parts of this one...

Just shaking my damn head!

HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY!!! (5 years in this Blogging game!)

Can you believe it was five years ago that this blog first began??? Yes..It was five years ago...But not only did this blog begin...but it was also a beginning for me...It was my entering into the wide wide world of the internet..

"Keith's Space" ...this little blog of mine was my introduction into the online world.... I published one three line post on that day and promised to come back with more posts in the coming year...2008.  I sure did...and I met other folks who also had blogs...Folks like Zack of "Go Zack" , who unfortunately, no longer publishes that blog...Mizrepresent , Eb The Celeb, Karrie B. , Pocohontaz, Ladylee, Don, 12Kyle, Southern Gal, Bored and Talkative, SLC and many many more...

People who like me, were finding their voices through this thing called Blogging... We helped get a President elected...(Twice) we shared our highs and lows....and we went on to become friends on both Facebook and Twitter...

If not for this blog...I would not be in any of those domains... I owe it all to my wife... She had started a blog for our first grandchild  a year before....and had been begging me to start one of my own...I finally gave in and the day after Christmas, 2007...we sat down and she came up with the basic  design of this blog..(She has designed all of my blogs templates.)

We came up with a format...I said I wanted this blog to be about whatever was on my mind on any given day....I did a play on words of the popular social media format Myspace and came up with the name- "Keith's Space" and the rest is as they say...History...

By July of 2008, My blog was pretty popular,I was being added to people's lists and getting a lot of responses from all over the nation... So I created another blog..."Escapades" - Which features my poetry and Fiction and now also includes art, music and erotica....Serial Fiction and Short Stories....Two years later,I created "Good Foodie" my food blog...Not creating any more...Just having fun writing these three..

So what can I say?  Three blogs, a Facebook page and a Twitter account with friends and associates from around the globe...Who would have thought it, huh?   And I owe it all to this blog...My window into the new world!!!

Five years !  I'm just shaking my head!

Another One Crawls Out Of The Woodworks

You know...One night...I had a Pizza in my study...It had extra cheese, green peppers,sausage and pepperonis on it...The aroma emboldened the roaches , who usually are quite stealth and keep themselves hidden...At least until everybody is asleep.. This night..I killed about a record 11 cock-roaches...They were emboldened by the aroma of that pizza..They were willing to risk sudden death to get close to that smell...

I use this analogy because it seems that since Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States, the racists that up until 2008 kind of lurked behind the scenes and bowed to political correctness have become..just like those roaches....Emboldened....It seems like every other day..a new one comes out or writes something hateful....on a Blog, Twitter, Facebook, a website...what have you or even on Television or the Radio.

They seem to have no fear of losing their job or their lives if a Black or Latino person is within earshot of their ignorance.  Such is the case of a Blogger who wrote an op ed piece last week that created a storm of controversy...Another storm of endless controversy in a very mean season.

After Naomi Schaefer Riley(pictured above)  wrote a blog post for the Chronicle of Higher Education calling black studies "claptrap," based on the titles of a handful of dissertations, nearly 6,500 people signed a petition calling for her dismissal from the blog. Yesterday, Liz McMillen, the site's editor, wrote a note apologizing for  Ms.Riley's post, and said that the publication had decided to part ways with the author, who is also an affiliate scholar of the Institute of American Values, a conservative think tank based in New York.
Why am I not surprised that she's an affiliate of a conservative "think" tank.  Is that what they really do there?

Kirsten West Savali of NEWSONE had this to say-

"Every now and again, there is a manifestation of white privilege so brilliant in its ignorance, so delusional, that it actually makes me want to go back to my days of being a mental health professional and offer my services."

"This happens to be the case with “The Chronicle” writer Naomi Schaefer Riley.
In a piece reeking with condescension and low-rent bigotry, Schaefer makes the argument that Black Studies is a superficial academic pursuit that hinges on “left-wing victimization claptrap” as demonstrated in dissertations by up-and-coming Black scholars in the field. Peering through her indignation at topics such as “Race for Profit: Black Housing and the Urban Crisis of the 1970s,” she pronounced the fruits of long nights of rigorous research “so irrelevant no one will ever look at them.”

"Ms. Riley seems to believe that Black Republicans, such as Clarence Thomas – who have made a living being step-n-fetchit tokens — are being unfairly maligned by liberals who would rather cry racism than actually solve problems in Black America: 


“Seriously, folks, there are legitimate debates about the problems that plague the black community from high incarceration rates to low graduation rates to high out-of-wedlock birth rates. But it’s clear that they’re not happening in black-studies departments. If these young scholars are the future of the discipline, I think they can just as well leave their calendars at 1963 and let some legitimate scholars find solutions to the problems of blacks in America. Solutions that don’t begin and end with blame the white man.”

She also has the audacity to say that President Barack Obama should be proof positive that “a change gone come,” (Sam Cooke’s words, not Riley’s) as if we should gaze upon him with pride on our Civil Rights mantles while employment, housing and education opportunities burn to the ground.
But at least a brother is in the White house, right? 

Cue up Parliament- Chocolate City right about now folks!


Karen West  Savali went on to say-


"It is not surprising that Ms. Riley is so oblivious to “the white man’s” role in the prison industrial complex. Apparently she doesn’t realize that disparities in sentencing, especially as it pertains to cocaine vs. crack – which flooded our communities in the ‘80s under the Reagan administration – has played an integral role in the devastation that has plowed through Black America."

"Perhaps Ms. Riley also doesn’t realize that sex education under the Republican agenda is reduced to one long advertisement for abstinence, while simultaneously working diligently to eradicate Planned Parenthoods in urban communities. This ensures that Black women in a certain socio-economic bracket who do dare to have sex, not only are vilified for it but forced to have these children “out-of-wedlock” or risk their wombs being labeled “dangerous” if they dare to choose termination."

Furthermore, it would be ridiculous for Ms. Riley to assert that Black people are wrong to look to “the white man”  for issues with public education when it has been reported that Black students receive sub-par educations in comparison to their White counterparts."

Bottom line, unless Ms. Riley has completely lost her grasp on reality(ie(Her cotton pickin mind!) – if she ever had one – the “white man” is as responsible for the precarious position of Black America as Black America is responsible for stabilizing it.

When I read claptrap like what Ms. Riley ascertains...I just shake my head...She probably hasn't read many disertations by Black studies majors, probably doesn't know or have any Black friends either...If she does , it's probably the type that are just as delusional as she is (ie-"Uncle Toms) She hasn't lived where I live ,hasn't seen what I see....


The sad thing is...People like her...don't want to!

True Freedom of Speech?

If you know me, then you know that I have probably had an opinion on something as long as I could speak. I guess it all began at those Christmas and Thanksgiving Dinners I witnessed as a child , where the men, My Grandfather, My uncles, etc. would debate the young men,  my older cousins who were college students on every debatable topic...from sports to civil rights to politics in general...No, I didn't take part in them then....I was too young, but I listened and I learned and a generation later...I was involved in some of them...

I was also in the military too for a time...and serving under two Presidents I didn't particularly agree with...Ronald "The Great Communicator" Reagon and George Herbert Walker Bush.....They were my Commanders in Chief and I was forbidden by the UCMJ to criticize my Commanders in Chief or endorse any political party while in uniform....That's the law...That's the rule...All service members know that we don't have the same Freedom of Speech and expression that civilians do.

There was no Facebook or Twitter or Myspace when I entered the military and I think I was out of the military at least three years when two of these social networks did appear.  There was blogs, but they hadn't caught on the way they have now...If these things had existed...I might find myself in the predicament a certain U.S. Marine finds himself in now.

Anybody that has read this blog for any length of time knows that I am a Black Liberal -Progressive ,damn near radical thinker...So it would amaze you that I am the least bit concerned about a Marine who is a Tea Party sympathizer and who is anti- Obama....Let me tell you his story first ,if you haven't already heard and then I'll make my point.

Gary Stein, the Marine pictured above who criticized President Barack Obama on his Facebook page has committed misconduct and should be dismissed, a military board recommended late last Thursday.

The Marine Corps administrative board made the decision after a daylong hearing at Camp Pendleton for Sgt. Gary Stein. The board also recommended that Stein be given an other-than-honorable discharge. That would mean Stein would lose all of his benefits and would not be allowed on any military base.

The board's recommendations go to a general who will either accept or deny them. If the general disagrees with the board, the case could go to the secretary of the Navy.

Sgt. Stein's lawyers argued that the 9-year Marine, whose service was to end anyway in four months, was expressing his personal views and exercising his First Amendment rights.

"We're truly surprised and disappointed but it was an honor to fight for a hero like Sgt. Stein and every other Marine's right to speak freely," Stein's defense attorney Marine Capt. James Baehr said.

Sgt.Gary Stein addressed board members during Thursday's hearing, telling them he loved the Marine Corps and wanted to re-enlist, Baehr said.

During the hearing, the prosecutor, Capt. John Torresala, said Stein went as far as superimposing images of Obama's face on a poster for the movie "Jackass."

Captain Torresala argued that Stein's behavior repeatedly violated Pentagon policy that limits the free speech rights of service members, and said he should be dismissed after ignoring warnings from his superiors about his postings.

The government submitted screen grabs of Stein's postings on one Facebook page he created called Armed Forces Tea Party, which the prosecutor said included the image of President Obama on the "Jackass" movie poster. Stein also superimposed President Obama's image on a poster for "The Incredibles" movie that he changed to "The Horribles," the prosecutor said.


Torresala also said anti-Obama comments by Stein that were posted on a Facebook page used by Marine meteorologists were prejudicial to good order and discipline, and could have influenced junior Marines.

Stein's security clearance was taken away and he has no future in the Marine Corps because he can't do his job without that clearance, Torresala said.

"The Marine Corps community views the command's lack of action as some kind of knock on good order and discipline," Torresala said. "Our own people are questioning why this Marine is not being held accountable."

Baehr said during the hearing that prosecutors were trying to dredge up any damaging information they could against Stein.

"There is no basis in this case," Baehr said. "Sgt. Stein has broken no law."

Baehr expressed after the hearing that he hoped that the recommendation would be rejected by the general, saying the case will go forward. "The issues are too important for this to end today," he said.

The military has had a policy since the Civil War of limiting the free speech of service members, including criticism of the commander in chief.

Pentagon directives say military personnel in uniform cannot sponsor a political club; participate in any TV or radio program or group discussion that advocates for or against a political party, candidate or cause; or speak at any event promoting a political movement.This is what I spoke of a few paragraphs above...We are clearly informed of that as early as Boot camp or Basic training as it is properly known.Commissioned  and Non-Commissioned officers also may not use contemptuous words against senior officials. Another thing we are all told in basic training.

Backed by a team of lawyers and congressmen, Sgt.Stein has said he is fighting for his constitutional rights and should be allowed to stay in the military. His lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union contend his views are protected by the First Amendment.

"Think about how dangerous this could be if the U.S. government can prosecute you for something you say on your private Facebook page," Baehr said.Which is my only concern here...I could care less about his Tea Party beliefs..You know I abhor the Tea Party , but I am concerned about employers asking for your Facebook log in and actually terminating people for things they've posted on their private Facebook page. This is the main reason...I write most of my political thoughts on this blog and keep my Facebook and My Twitter page drama free.

Sgt.Gary Stein has said his opinions are his own and has put a disclaimer on his Facebook page saying so. His attorneys argued service members have a right to voice their opinions as long as they do not appear to be presenting their views as being endorsed by the military. They say the Pentagon policy is vague and military officials do not understand it. Actually it's not vague at all...It's very precise and we do understand it.

I could have very well of found myself in Gary Stein's position had Facebook ,Twitter and Blogger been around when I was in the military. I was very much opposed to President's Reagon, Bush and Bush Jr.'s Economic and Foreign policies when I was in the military...but back then I kept my opinions to myself or expressed them behind a beer at a bar to like minded individuals...I left nothing in
print back then...But is that exercising free speech?

I have my own ideas on this subject...What are yours??

Goodbye and Good Riddance! (Andrew Breitbart)

1969-2012

I usually write these kinds of posts as tributes to people I admire who die...This is not one of these kinds of posts..Let me make that perfectly clear. There was nothing about this man that I admired.
On March 1,2012, shortly after midnight.. Andrew Breitbart, Conservative Activist, Blogger and Tea Party champion collapsed outside near his Brentwood house and died...

For those who don't know who this man is...let me tell you...He is exactly what I am...A Blogger and an Activist...The simularities stop right there...He was a rethuglican in the worst way and a darling of the dim witted Tea Party people.

I know it's not good to speak ill of the dead and usually I do not, but before I am taken to task...Let me say that this man couldn't even wait until Senator Edward Kennedy was in the ground before he got on Twitter and called the late Senator, who served this country for over 40 years a "vile piece of excrement."  He made cruel jokes about the man ,saying 'Rest in Chappaquidix"' I'm going to be a lot kinder to this prick in death than he was to many people in life.

You can disagree with people politically without making it personal and without using underhanded tricks to try and ruin someone's life . I have written my opinions in this blog for close to four years.  I have never slandered anybody and I have never attempted to cause any of the targets of my vitriol any personal harm or displeasure...All things that Mr. Breitbart did during his short career.

He was a disgrace to Blogging and Social Networking.On July 19, 2010, Breitbart posted edited and doctored videos of United States Department of Agriculture official speaking at NAACP fundraising dinner in March 2010. Breibart"s videos showed Sherrod admitting a racial aversion to helping a white man.

The videos led to Sherry Sherrod's dismissal from government service on July 19. Following criticism for taking Sherrod's words out of context, Breitbart posted the complete 40-minute video of the speech. After viewing the entire video, the NAACP said that the Breitbart's editing was deliberately deceptive, by leaving out that Mrs. Sherrod said her reluctance to help a white man was wrong and unworthy of her.
The NCAAP said Breibart had "snookered" them and they were reversing their rebuke of Sherrod. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack later apologized to Mrs.Sherrod and offered her a new job.

In 2011, Sherry Sherrod sued Breitbart for defamation. In response to the resulting controversy, Breibart said he never intended to show Sherrod to be a racist. Instead, his target was the NCAAP and how the audience's reactions to the speech proved that NCAAP was racist.

Andrew Breitbart was also involved in the 2009 ACORN video controversy. Hannah Giles posed as a prostitute seeking assistance while James O'Keefe portrayed her boyfriend, and clandestinely videotaped meetings with ACORN staff. Subsequent criminal investigations by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office and the California Attorney General found the videos were once again heavily edited and doctored in an attempt to make ACORN's responses "appear more sinister", and contributed to the group's demise. Breitbart then provided a forum for O'Keefe on his BigGovernment.com blog and defended his actions on Sean Hannity's Fox News Channel program. ACORN subsequently lost it's government funding anyway.

On May 28, 2011,Andrew Breitbart posted a sexually explicit photo on his BigJournalism Web site of New York Representative Anthony Weiner obtained through Weiner's Twitter account.  Anthony Weiner initially denied that he had sent a 21-year-old female college student the link to the photograph, but after questions developed, he admitted to inappropriate online relationships. On June 6, 2011, Andrew Breitbart reported other photos Weiner had sent, including one that was sexually graphic. On June 8, 2011, the sexually graphic photo was leaked after Breitbart participated in a radio interview with hosts Opie and Anthony, though Breitbart stated that the photo was published without his permission. Weiner subsequently resigned from his congressional seat on June 21, 2011.

Here are three examples of the type of mean spirited tactics this guy was famous for... A good friend of mine had this to say about his death  yesterday and it sums up how I feel about it- " I know we aren't supposed to celebrate anyones death. However, in lieu of all the attempts to sully Whitney Houston's name, I will just say that the world is a better place and journalism took a step toward credibility again now that this asshole is gone... Forgive me.Lord, but Andrew Brietbart was a shit bag. Have mercy on his soul..... Or not." That's exactly how I feel about this man...

I will close with a quote from my fellow blogger, activist and Philadelphian- "The Field Negro" who said-
"Honestly, for all of you people whose lives were destroyed by this despicable prick, I would love to join you for long slow waltz on his grave."

And that just about says it all for me!

Have a great weekend!

HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY!!! Four Years and Counting!

I was four years old ,I think when I realized what a birthday was...This blog and my entrance into the world of blogging and the internet period began today when after much plodding from my wife, We got together and launched this, my first blog...It's like my first child....

I think I've covered just about everything with this blog.....and hopefully will continue on...Last year I said I was going to do some new things with the blog...Hope you noticed them... The new recurring posts ( "Keith's Favorite Quotes", "Keith's Music Spotlight", "Weekend Humor", and" 5") , more pictures, and now the addition of music and video.....Hope you all enjoyed it.

Next year..look forward to more innovations...and more attacks on the far right.....I'm serious.... I also hope more people check out and support my other blogs..."Escapades"  ...I'm really writing some great long form fiction or "nigger novels" as one of my fans affectionately calls them...I prefer the term Urban dramas myself..
as well as original short stories, original erotica,  original poetry, more spotlight on african-american art and now as with "Keith's Space" I've added music and video to this blog also...

Don't sleep on my food blog -"Good Foodie" either ...In addition to recipes...I'm going to deal more with food and health... food and sexuality...and some real restaurant reviews....I promise...

Another change with all three blogs is that I'm going to publish less.... Doing 20 posts an average a month for three blogs takes it toll on my time...So I will be publishing less...but you will be getting better quality posts...
Hope I can keep that promise.....

But...a toast to my wife who brought me into this blogging thing and all of you good folks who read and comment and those of you who read and don't comment......I couldn't do it without you....Thanks again for your continued support! Here's to the new year!

Sports and My Internet Evolution

I'm a social kind of guy...I love getting together with people and sharing food, conversation  and what not...During the past decade, me and several people who I used to hang out with at a certain bar and grill that is no longer open anymore used to meet at several people's home anytime there was a big Football game or a big Basketball game or especially if there was a big fight....Someone would bring hoagies, cheesesteaks, a case of beer, pizza, et al... The host would two or three guys barbecuing chicken and ribs...(Even in the dead of winter) and these sporting events became essential...indoor tailgate parties....

I loved them...but in the meanwhile...The downside is...When they are over....Somebody has got to clean up!
Drat!...Since these get togethers were always at one of three places..I imagine it got a little rough on them..The result is...They rarely call or send e-mails and invites out for them anymore. 

Sometime around the time the bar I used to hang out at closed and everyone seemed to go their seperate ways, an amazing thing happened....I started this blog that you're reading, KEITH'S SPACE  That would have been in December of 2007...I wasn't too tech savy then...I didn't even know how to download photos on my blog...I usually wrote the text and sometime in the afternoon my wife would edit my text and add photos to my blog...Right about now you are probably wondering what if anything this has to do with my topic....Well,I'm getting to that.

This blog started off slow, but in the coming months it began to pick up and I began to make friends...friends from all over the country who like me were starting blogs...We read each others blogs and began to cheerl ead each other and in the fall of 2008, We helped elect this country's first African -American President...I developed a community of sorts..I also launched another blog...ESCAPADES ...It features Poetry.Short Stories,Serialized Fiction,Erotica and Art....I developed an even bigger following with the two blogs and I got a little tech savy..My wife taught me HTML and I learned how to download photos to my post...When she launched her two blogs....I realized that I had to pick up the editing chores and the downloading of photos myself...and I did...Thus I was able to turn out more posts on both blogs at a more rapid pace..

2009 saw me get both a Facebook account and a Twitter account....These social networking accounts opened me up to a whole new world of people....Folks I knew from High School, College, The Air Force, My Fraternity, other fraternitys and sororities, My job and folks I never knew before, but who all became my "friends" if you would...I carried on conversations and debates all day long on Facebook and Twitter....I also launched my third and final blog...GOOD FOODIE...a blog with recipes and restaraunt reviews.....No one blog could contain all of my interests and ideas...So I created three to cover everything.. Needless to say , I've been in an intensely creative state for the past three years...Writing three blogs and communicating with the world on these social networks..

So....How does this affect the way I view sports?  Glad you asked...Here it is...Nothing will ever beat actually going to a game..We have two brand new stadiums here in Philly ...The Linc or Lincoln Financial field for Football and Citizens Bank Park for the Phillies...I have been to both of them...and if invited to another fight party or get together...I will certainly go....but.........I have found that I really like sitting in my living room ,by myself..Watching my favorite teams on my Flat screen TV!   I get (sometimes) a better view of the game than I would if I were actually there....I can eat what I want...Popcorn...Nachos with cheese...My own grilled hot dogs, et al and enjoy the beverage of my choice and watch in peace.......

I keep my android nearby and I can enjoy the game in real time with all of my "friends" who are doing the same thing...and tweet and do facebook updates while the game is going on....It's almost like them being at my house...minus the clean up and the mess and the volume of loud voices...Is this truly a sign of the times or what?

I Upped My Game!

Okayyyyy, Sunday, My wife and I joined the 21st Century.....Yup, we upped our phone game...I got tired of this young girl who works in my building ,laughing at me because I was pulling out my flip phone to make calls.  She would look at me and giggle everytime I pulled it out...

That phone pictured above isn't exactly what my wife and I had, but it was close to it. I purchased it about three years ago and I actually thought it was pretty cool...I felt pretty cool pulling it out, flipping it open and making a call.Kind of felt like James Bond. It was only three years old and in just that short of time, it had become obsolete...The girl in my building said to me..."Mr. Keith, when you gonna up your phone game man?"  See, That right there is proof that I'm officially old....When people I work with start referring to me as Mister.   I am old enough to be her father...This girl in particular is a few years younger than my daughter...

So, after much hemming and hawwing and gnashing of the teeth...My wife and I enjoyed a delicious post anniversary brunch Sunday afternoon and then promptly walked across the street from the IHOP to our wireless provider....Wireless provider....Wasn't that long ago that it was Ma Bell and it was the phone store.
Was the 1980's and 1990's THAT long ago...I mean, for real???

Anyway....Long story short...We got some of the best customer service I've seen since I went to the car dealership and informed them that I was paying for my car lock stock and barrel in cash...That's a time , when I don't mind being called "Mister"   ("They CALLL ME MISTER TIBBS!" One of my favorite movie lines from back in the day.)


My wife and I wound up buying his and hers HTC-Androids , exactly like the one pictured above...We can go on Facebook, Twitter and Blogger....I'm writing this blogpost on it.(I'm kidding, no I'm not, but I could if I wanted to or had the patience, which I don't.) It even has You tube and Google...I get the time and the weather and of course I can download music and take photos and send photos....I can even Skype..

My wife and I are still learning the basics though and I'm sure we'll have it mastered in a few days...much to our daughter's amusement... I can remember when I was the hip one who was introducing new things to my amazed family, like the CD player, The DVD player, The Ipod....Okay, I talked about the last one, I didn't actually purchase it...Now I've appeared to have fallen off.

Today in the elevator, I showed off my new Android...I casually pulled it out and went to my Facebook page while we were going up....That smart alec girl got on and saw it and you should have seen how her eyes just lit up....

"Mr. Keith, you upped your phone game...You got a droid....alright!!!!!" she said..

I proudly smiled and showed it off....Sad thing....I know that in two or three years , this will be obsolete and I'm wondering will I accept an upgrade? Will I still want to learn a new thing?  Will I care?? Stay tuned.....You know, The Temptations had a song out called , "Don't Let the Joneses Get You Down"...It might be good for me to give that a listen.

Bridging The Great Social Networking Divide

Here is a rare spice of life story for you.   It seems there are people who get paid....(Yes there is always someone somewhere who gets paid) to watch Black social trends are saying that Black folks are increasing in numbers as far as users of Facebook , Twitter, Blogger and now Tumblir is concerned.  If you catch the drift of my title...We are bridging the gap between the great social networking divide baby!!!

According to no more than two articles I've read on the subject ,the influx of Blacks on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook is increasing day by day and like music , sports and other art forms, it seems as though we are adding our creativity and cultural tilt to it.

There is the constant well of verbal creativity. It's not what you'd call great writing, by a long shot. But that's not the point. Not all that we write is actually quote unquote classic or great writing. This is why worries about what email and blogging are doing to "writing" are misplaced; Emailing is really speech, except with the fingers. A little humor there...I know...Very little.

Needless to say, Facebook ,Twitter (and even Blogging to some extent) is more of this new written speech, and even more like speech in its restriction to 140 characters (Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr)It's casual speech that comes in packets of seven to 10 words. Face book and Twitter are now home to dazzlingly articulate speech, and if that's by more black people proportionately than one might expect, then this is even better.

I could just hear one of my old high school english teachers now..."OH My God..Inappropriate capitals, no apostrophe in "its," funky punctuation. No, no -- If we are going to understand this new part of our culture and by that, I'm not just talking about Black culture, but culture period..then we have to begin by expanding our sense of just what language is or has become.

(I think this blog post is beginning to read like a Facebook status update or a tweet!)See, even in the case of the missing apostrophe -- This conveys that this is a real person living and talking to you right now, quite germane to this willfully humble little scene. Even if they left the apostrophe out by accident -- and the person probably did -- I, if "editing" the Tweet or status update, would make sure it stayed out. There is a kind of art here if you look for it. Twitter and Facebook means black people being articulate with one another, live, nationwide and 24-7. I say go for it...I love it..

Remember a few years ago people (the same folks that get paid to study black trends)were saying that black America was getting left on the wrong side of the digital divide? Have you noticed that this has started to sound a little 1993? Twitter and Facebook as well as Blogger can be seen as the official end of this take on black America.

There was an article in the Atlantic Monthly in 1999 that earnestly argued that technology "has not been black people's friend," and history has made us shy of it. Even then, the legions of black people cherishing their VCRs and Discmans would have been surprised at this gloomy conclusion.It was just another gloom and doom message that has since been proven untrue, but yet is marketed as the truth over and over by whoever gets paid to study and speak on black trends...You can bet that these people aren't black...and therefore they sometimes taint their findings with their own personal agendas....I'm not sayin that they lie, I'm just sayin....

It is true that Black Americans (myself included) were getting online a lot less than their white counterparts, but Economics(money ,honey)  had a lot more to do with this than culture, and we've come a long way since then -- Laptop ownership is now about even among the races. And now we have a concrete smackdown to the notion that there is, or ever was, something anti-technological in being black in the 21st century. With Twitter and Facebook we now have something quite "technological" that black people are more into than anyone else. Or so it seems...

Not only are black people using Facebook and Twitter a lot, but the black comedy style and phraseology of the times is calling the tune to a considerable extent, catching on among all Social Networkers. This is part of something that has happened over the past 20 years and is little remarked upon, the African Americanization of American language.

I remember about ten years ago when I was still in the Air Force...I was in Japan..I was out on a street corner and these Japanese teenagers were dressed like the homeboys on 52nd street in my native, Philadelphia...They were quoting Jay-Z, 50 Cent and other popular hip hop artists or that time verbatim....So see, Black Culture has already spread worldwide...thanks to MTV, VH-1, BET and cable networks that are watched globally...The reason why I bring that up is because ...that was 2001...Those Asian teenagers are adults now...Wanna make a bet, when they're not at work and having a beer..they're still talking and jiving each other just like that?

At my job, I listen to a group of 20-something white males having drinks after work on the rare occassion that I join them.. You wouldn't mistake them for black men if you couldn't see them -- but close your eyes and listen and they don't sound anything like their equivalents on Mad Men, either. It's about more than speech -- it's communication in general. Watch the way they hug when greeting one another or taking leave. Among this demographic, the handshake now comes off as a bit stiff. And these guys' favorite music is just as likely to be hip hop as anything else. It cracks me up...They give each other dap and they fist bump just like Barack and Michelle. (Thing is...Me and my partners were doing that years before Barack and Michelle made that a national phenom!)

But I've gone all willy nilly on you...All of this is just  black "flava," if you will, in folks who would be perplexed to be told of it. That is, it's the real them -- their subconscious, spontaneous way of being. America talks blacker now than ever before. Hell,  America is blacker now. What black music did for America is now happening with language -- so much so, that it is only predictable that  Facebook &Twitter's toastmasters are disproportionately black., Or so they say....

It does seem like in the past few years, everybody and their grandmother has gotten a Facebook page and or a Twitter account...I just find it all fascinating and amusing...but then I would...We crossin the great digital divide baby! One tweet, status update and blogpost at a time!

System Disconnect!

Sometime after midnight, this past Wednesday or it could have been Thursday something peculiar happened.
Every post I wrote for this blog, my blog, "Escapades" and my blog -"Good Foodie" just up and vanished! Poof!  Yeah...I know I wasn't imagining it!

I hope you read my post 'Extending The Olive Branch", Thursday, May 12th 2011...because if you didn't...It's lost forever...Gone!  My "Weekend Humor" post and my "Saturday 7" post vanished too, although they have both been restored.  In "Escapades" , the conclusion to my recent story about a guitarist and a singer..."Play To You Strengths" also vanished... In "Good Foodie" ,my recipe for Beef Stroganoff, which yall probably didn't want to make anyway vanished as well...It too has been restored....

Needless to say, I was very upset....I put in a lot of good time and work to create these posts (for free, I know) and it hurts to think that because of some system malfunction or virus or whatever they could all just disappear into "bloggerland" as my fellow blogger and Philadelphian, The Field Negro put it! (Plus it messes with my incredible vanity and huge ego as well!)

I sent the good people of Google, the parent company that owns "Blogger" a very strongly worded e-mail(yeah,I'll bet that scared them!) in which I voiced my extreme displeasure and threatened to take all three of my blogs either to Wordpress or a paid site. The people at Google know that I was just blowing off steam...I don't particularly care for Wordpress and being the cheapskate that I am, I am not about to pay for anything...

Google replied by explaining to me what had happened...They wrote to me- "Dear Keith, we are sooooo sorry, see, what had happened was ,We experienced some type of virus that corrupted our system..In order to combat it we had to take down our system and put it in a "safe" mode. We think that this was some type of Al Queda plot to disrupt our country's great past time of surfing the internet.We are very sorry that users are unable to publish to Blogger right now. We have rolled back the maintenance release from last night and as a result, posts and comments from all users made after 7:37 am PDT on May 11, 2011 have been removed. Again, we apologize that this happened and our engineers are working hard to return Blogger to normal and restore your posts and comments. We will post a report once this work is complete."

I still was not satisfied and I sent another strongly worded e-mail to google. What I couldn't know is that some of you, who like me are also bloggers ,were sending your strongly worded e-mails to google too..This prompted this response some 24 hours later.."Nearly all posts since Wednesday (5/11) are restored, and we're now bringing back comments from last couple days. They should be back this weekend or sooner."

Well, Like I said...All of my posts on all of my blogs are back, except for one.....Any comments you guys left are unfortunately gone.....It was only one or two....but hey, that one or two is all I get on a good day.. I am sorry about any confusion that any of you, my loyal readers have had- Oh who am I kidding...It's not like a lot of you even noticed..unless like I say...you are bloggers too...I do have a few people who read my blog who aren't bloggers and don't have a google account...This was really an explanation for you guys...

As for the brilliant folks at Google- I'm watching you!!!! I certainly hope that this doesn't happen again anytime soon.

Random Thoughts

1. Looks like The Lakers , The San Antonio Spurs and possibly the Celtics are having or (in the case of the latter two) have had their last hurrah...There is a new pecking order about to begin in the NBA.

2.I've noticed that this blog has been dropped from the blog rolls of some of the people I used to commiserate with in the so called blogosphere...I don't take it personally...I suppose it's because I don't come around much anymore...(as in comment) Facebook and Twitter will do that to you!

3. Don't you just hate people who switch lanes all of  a sudden and don't use their turn signals?

4.Jennifer Hudson's song -"Where You At?" reminds me of every sister I know, who's been mis treated and lied to over and over again by the same guy...

5. Is it me or is an inordinate number of reporters "accidentally" saying "Obama" , when they actually mean ''Osama"? Hmmmmmmmm!

6.And speaking of Osama Bin Laden...Now that he's dead...will there be a group called  "Deathers" Who'll demand to see a death  certificate or photos of his corpse??? Eeeek...(This is so stupid, no illustration is necessary!)

7.Isn't it Amazing how gas just quietly creeped up to four dollars or more?

8.Back on Osama Bin Laden again...You know...People keep saying that he was living in a mansion...but I saw that place he was staying in...You mean to tell me that for one million bucks, he couldn't do any better than this???

9.Why Is "Sugar " Shane Mosley still boxing?

10. It won't be long before we will be downloading all of our music, movies ,books and magazines and carrying them on ipads, ipods and kindles.....What will our living rooms have in them? Just a thought!

I mean....I'm just sayin!