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....

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 .....

The Story Behind The "Selfie"

Yes...as much as I don't like talking about silly stuff like this.. I am forced to..

Everybody on social media had been posting photos of a sequence of events involving President Obama and the Prime Minister of Denmark and weighing in on whether The first Lady sat in between them after his speech and whether she was pissed because it appears the Prez and the Blonde Prime Minister were getting too chummy... 

People however convieniently did not post this photo (below).....(Some of us love to create and assume drama where there might not be any....) Truth be told...For all the speculation...We don't know what was going on up there!

The photographer who captured the picture of President Barack Obama posing for a selfie during Nelson Mandela’s memorial wants to set the record straight.

First, the president really didn’t commit a funeral faux pas by posing for the selfie, the photographer said. And second, the first lady wasn’t as annoyed as she looked.
“Photos can lie,” said AFP photographer Roberto Schmidt wrote in a blog post, “The story behind ‘the selfie.’”

Roberto Schmidt took the photograph of President Obama smiling Tuesday for a self-portrait along with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt, who took the picture with her smartphone.

Although other photos showed First Lady Michelle Obama looking peeved over the display, “in reality just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her, Cameron and Schmidt included,” the photographer said.
“Her stern look was captured by chance,” he said.

Many in the media, and online, had interpreted that “stern look” to mean disapproval of the president’s lighthearted behavior at a historic occasion. Schmidt addressed that, too.

When the Danish prime minister took out her mobile phone and took a photo of herself smiling with President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron, she did so in a celebratory environment, he said.

Of course people...and I hate to say this...Mostly Black women, didn't want to believe this....The truth is boring...They were busy cybe high fiving each other saying..."Go head Michelle...Aint gon be no scandal here......" a reference to the popular Television series in which an outside crisis management consultant is having a full blown affair with the fictional President. 

 

People watch too much Scandal-LMAO! Remember, that's a television show..It's made up! This is real life!

“All around me in the stadium, South Africans were dancing, singing and laughing to honour their departed leader. It was more like a carnival atmosphere, not at all morbid,” Photographer Schmidt said. “The ceremony had already gone on for two hours and would last another two. The atmosphere was totally relaxed — I didn’t see anything shocking in my viewfinder, president of the U.S. or not. We are in Africa.”

Schmidt said he doubts anyone could have “remained totally stony faced” for the entire memorial, especially as thousands of people celebrated in the South African stadium where it took place.

“For me, the behaviour of these leaders in snapping a selfie seems perfectly natural,” he said.

Of course...This won't be enough for people....Like I said...The truth is boring....Foolishness is much more fun!   

The Culture Of Mourning

I have an Aunt...May she rest in peace who used to critique funerals....I kid you not...She would go to a funeral and come back and be talking to my Grandmother or my mom or one of my other aunts about how well so and so looked in their casket.

"Ohhh he looked like he was sleeping." she would say... Now considering that the person was dead, I can't imagine them looking like they were doing anything else...

When I was a kid...I thought then that the way she talked about the job the funeral director did or didn't do was kind of morbid..

''Don't take him to Cantrell....They don't do the make up right...take him/her to Hawkins...They do the best undertaking..."

By the time I was a teenager....I used to find this kind of talk funny and would laugh about it with some of my cousins...(Sad to say, some of my older cousins didn't find the humor in a lot of what my aunt did at funerals and found it a bit offensive.)

My aunt used to snap photos of the dead body in the casket too....She snapped a photo of my grandfather in his casket and sent it to my mom....This totally freaked me out....I don't know how she felt about it...But I cut that photo up...I did not want to remember him that way...

But my aunt and her proclivities aside....This post is not really about her...

See..I was willing to put my aunt in a box and just say...that was her....It was not until I got on social media and the internet that I discovered that there are more people out there just like her and worse,if you can believe that...

Lord have mercy...I call them the professional mourners.....

If you have a decent amount of Facebook friends and Twitter followers as I do...then you know what I'm talking about...People that can't wait...can't wait for some celebrity to die, so they can post a RIP tweet or status update and act as if they knew the person....It's like a race to be the first person to mourn someone...

A lot of time these people don't fact check and they wind up reporting someone dead who is actually very much alive...Ask Bill Cosby, Sinbad, Eddie Murphy, Nelson Mandela to name a few who have been declared dead a number of times...

The most ridiculous one was this summer when several people were mourning the death of Lena Horne...
Despite the fact that Lena Horne actually died about four years ago... People were writing tributes and RIP's like it was going out of style...

A phony story started going around about Jackie Chan being dead....I told people that it was a hoax....Even sent them a link saying that it was a hoax and some of the same people kept reposting the same phony story about Jackie Chan being dead...

These are the same people who will glide by their real friends tweets and status updates about a family member who has passed and won't even offer a condolence...but let some celebrity who you don't know and had no chance of ever meeting die and they are posting heart felt condolences as though it was a member of their family!

I have to shake my head.... My Aunt was old and I'm going to give her a pass....She was at an age when most of her friends and loved ones were dying.....These folks on Twitter and Facebook are young people...So what is their excuse?????

We have created a culture of mourning.

Facebook Fading

You know...I could have predicted this...I am not surprised...As more people my age take to facebook and bring to it all of our uptightness, advertsing and soul less ness..The young people are starting to drift to other forms of social media.

Of the original Blogger family that started out with me...I am one of the few who consistantly blogs...


It's true though that young people have "waning enthusiasm" for Facebook, but they're still using the social network while upping their time spent on other social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr, according to a new study.

The Facebook diss is because of the "increasing adult presence, people sharing excessively and stressful 'drama' " on the site, says the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. But teens "keep using" Facebook because "participation is an important part of overall teenage socializing."

Facebook takes a bit of umbrage at the finding, albeit politely."We are always focused on making Facebook a great experience; and we're gratified that more than 1 billion people, including enormous numbers of young people, are using Facebook to connect and share," a spokesman said in a statement to TODAY. "As we recently announced, 665 million people use Facebook daily, and over 750 million people are now accessing Facebook on mobile devices."
Indeed, 94 percent of teen social media users interviewed by Pew say they have a Facebook profile, and that it's the social media profile they use most often. But teens are starting to "diversify" their social media diet, says Pew in its report,"Teens, Social Media and Privacy."

More teens are starting to gravitate to Twitter; 24 percent of online teens use it, up from 16 percent in 2011, says Pew,but only 7 percent say it's the social media profile they use the most. Another 11 percent have an Instagram account, but only 3 percent says that is the social media profile they use most often. (Instagram was bought by Facebook last year.)

Pew notes that 70 percent of teenagers on Facebook are "friends" with their parents, and 76 percent are "friends" with their siblings. Contrary to what you might think, many of them aren't trying to hide what they share with with family members by blocking information that's posted, the study found.


Only "18 percent say that they limit what certain friends can see on their profile," Pew said. "The vast majority (81 percent) say that all of their friends see the same thing on their profile. This approach also extends to parents; only 5 percent of teen Facebook users say they limit what their parents can see."
Teens are also relatively comfortable with managing their Facebook privacy settings, unlike many adults; 60 percent of teens say they keep their profiles private, and "most report high levels of confidence in their ability to manage their settings," Pew says.

The findings are based on a nationally representative phone survey of 802 teens, ages 12 to 17, done between July and September 2012.

Young Folks who use sites like Twitter and Instagram "reported feeling like they could better express themselves on these platforms, where they felt freed from the social expectations and constraints of Facebook," Pew says.

And they're not the only ones reacting to those "social expectations." Some adults, too, are gussying up photos and life experiences to match what they think followers will want to see or "like." (Like my wife...Don't tell her I said that!)

Like Sheep

This is so true...We follow behind trends like sheep...I thought social media would connect us, make us more aware faster...This was the dream I had when I started this blog...but I see social media has actually exposed how lazy and stupid we are...

We follow anything that's trending like it is gospel...We have gotten so lazy that we don't even research things anymore...Case in point..

The great Lena Horne died three years ago on May 9,2010...Yet somebody on either Twitter or Facebook posted that she just died on Friday...I was amazed at how many of my friends...people who I thought were reasonably intelligent began immediately posting eulogies and condolences and writing -"Awww Lawd, Lena done died..." Like it just happend..

Lena Horne has been dead and is cold in the ground...Yet all weekend there were tributes on Facebook and Twitter...

These rumors have had Bill Cosby, Nelson Mandela and Yul Gibbons all dead...Wait a minute....Yul Gibbons is dead!  But the Cos is very much alive... So is Nelson Mandela.  This is why people will believe things like the so called Benghazi conspiracy that was created by FOX NEWS in colusion with their political arm ,the Republican Party...

I've been saying it since I started this blog...We have got to read more...Investigate more...It is so easy...You don't even have to go to the library...You can,with the touch of a keystroke...Google or Bing anything...Are we THAT lazy that we won't even Google or Bing something???

Don't just take everything you see on Facebook,Twitter,Instagram,Blogger,Tumblr or whatever as gospel...Don't even take what you read in the newspapers or magazine as gospel...Look into things...It's not that hard...Hear an opposing opinion, Read every side of an issue...Not that hard,doesn't take that long and costs you nothing...

Just a keystroke....Just a damn keystroke... Damn!  Sop being like Sheep.

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!

A Hairy Issue!

One of my friends on Facebook shared this story with me yesterday...Unfortunately..I was busy working on another post...

Apparently this beautiful woman answered a racist twit on her station's Facebook page who criticized her short hairstyle....and has lost her job because of it. I read her answer to him...there was nothing vulgar or disrespectful about it...and yet she was fired.

Rhonda Lee, a meterologist (Weather Girl) was terminated from her position at KTBS 3 News, an ABC affiliate in Shreveport, La., after responding to racially charged remarks about her short natural hairstyle. The exchange between Lee and a KTBS viewer happened back in October on KTBS 3 News’ Facebook page, where a viewer, Emmitt Vascocu, posted a comment that referred to Lee as the "black lady that does the news" and suggested that she should "wear a wig or grown some more hair."

Ms.Lee responded to Vascocu's comment at length on the Facebook thread, saying, "I’m sorry you don’t like my ethnic hair. And no I don’t have cancer," Lee wrote. "I am very proud of my African-American ancestry which includes my hair. For your edification: traditionally our hair doesn’t grow downward. It grows upward."

In the end, Mr.Vascocu apologized to Lee via Facebook and reportedly called KTBS’s station manager to express his regret as well.

However, in the wake of all the publicity surrounding Ms.Lee's firing, KTBS has issued a statement making it clear that they do not typically comment on personal matters, but felt that due to the interest surrounding the issue, it has decided to speak out. Here is KTBS' official statement:

 On November 28, 2012, KTBS dismissed two employees for repeated violation of the station’s written procedure. We can confirm that Rhonda Lee was one of the employees. Another employee was a white male reporter who was an eight year veteran of the station. The policy they violated provided a specific procedure for responding to viewer comments on the official KTBS Facebook page. Included is an email that was sent to all news department employees informing them of this procedure. This procedure is based on advice from national experts and commonly used by national broadcast and cable networks and local television stations across the country. Unfortunately, television personalities have long been subject to harsh criticism and negative viewer comments about their appearance and performance. If harsh viewer comments are posted on the station’s official website, there is a specific procedure to follow. Ms. Rhonda Lee was let go for repeatedly violating that procedure and after being warned multiple times of the consequences if her behavior continued. Rhonda Lee was not dismissed for her appearance or defending her appearance. She was fired for continuing to violate company procedure.

Rhonda Lee tells a different story....I happened to catch her on CNN yesterday and she told Soledad O'Brien..-

 "I have yet to see this policy. Upon my termination I asked, 'Could I see it?' and I was told, 'No,'" Lee told CNN. "I pled for my job again just this past Friday and asked to see the policy and was told that there isn't anything written down."

So basically, Ms. Lee was let go for violating a policy that in actuallity, does not exist!!


KTBS provided Soledad O'Brien with an email that was issued to the staff on Aug. 30, 2012, that outlines how employees should respond to Facebook complaints from viewers. In short, employees are encouraged not to respond, but if they do, the "only proper response" is to provide the viewer with the contact info for a designated staffer that can help with any pressing issues.

Rhonda Lee told CNN that she never saw the email, but that she feels as though she is being harshly punished for defending herself.

I recall an  incident just a few months ago where a white female reporter was harshly criticized for being too heavy by a viewer and she got on Television and eloquently defended herself.. She was praised on talk shows and news reports across the nation... While Ms. Rhonda Lee was fired for violating a phantom policy!

Hmmmmm... Definitely a double standard....Racism??, Sexism?? I don't know....but if it looks like a duck and waddles like a duck....

Sexiest Man Alive???

You know...every once in awhile, it's good to have something in the news to laugh about...Thank God for the Peoples Republic of North Korea and their wacky leaders...Apparently Kim Jung Ho...The sun of the equally bizzare Kim Ill Sung is "The sexiest man alive!!"

Stop laughing....It seems that Hong Kong media picked up the piece by U.S. satirical website The Onion a week ago while explaining to readers in Chinese that it was a farce. But from there, it jumped over the Great Firewall and landed into the official, irony-free Chinese media.


When Hong Kong's Phoenix TV website, ifeng.com, ran its story on its fashion channel on Nov. 21, the story's second paragraph clearly stated: "The Onion is a satirical news organization."

But, when state-run Yangtse.com picked up the Phoenix piece a few hours later, it had morphed into a straight news story. The piece never mentioned that the original was a joke, instead plucking comical reader comments attached to the Phoenix story and running those.

"A man with so much fat on the face, and the double chin, and the excessively white skin. And they call him the sexiest. They do deserve the name Onion. I can't help but shed sad tears."

The editor cited for the story, Yang Fang, could not immediately be reached — and two employees who answered the phone at the Nanjing media outlet said Wednesday they weren't even sure if Yang still worked there.  (He doesn't deserve to)

Five days after the Yangste piece, Beijing's Guangming Daily website took the story for a spin, cutting it back and citing Yangtse.com as its source. The Guangming piece was still live Wednesday and the story's editor told The Associated Press that she had not realized it was a joke until the AP called.
The editor, Wang Miaomiao, said she wasn't worried about the gaffe.
"Even if it was satire, the report itself was true. The content is not made up. Also, we have to go through a procedure to take something down from the website," Wang said. "In addition, it is not a fabricated report, and it does not jeopardize society."

The story next made it to the flagship paper of the Communist Party, the People's Daily, on Tuesday. An editor at the People's Daily website who refused to give his name said the story was picked up from the Guangming Daily site, running on three channels in Chinese and English.

Upon realizing it was a spoof, the People's Daily decided to take down their versions on Wednesday. But not before The Onion updated their original piece with a link to the People's Daily and a shout-out: "For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc."



"Exemplary reportage, comrades," The Onion wrote.

This is not the first time Red China's heavily censored media have fallen for a fictional report by the just-for-laughs website, The Onion.

In 2002, the Beijing Evening News, one of the capital's biggest tabloids at the time, published as news the fictional account that the U.S. Congress wanted a new building and that it might leave Washington. The Onion article was a spoof , you know like of the way sports teams will threaten to leave cities in order to get new stadiums.

Jeremy Goldkorn, director of Danwei.com, a firm that researches Chinese media and Internet, said that one of the peculiarities of the Chinese news business is that stories can be freely shared by any other media outlet in their entirety, or edited, as long as the original source is credited somewhere on the page.

"It does mean that stuff gets circulated a lot more widely because you don't have intellectual property restrictions on articles that you would in the U.S. for example," he said. "So when you mix that up with this culture of no fact-checking and not really having a news editor whose main job is seeking truth, then what you get is The Onion being taken seriously in the People's Daily."

Before any of us gets on our superior American High Horse....Just remember....Several hoaxes that pass as news story facts get passed around on Blogs, Twitter and Facebook right here in the U.S. of A. everyday and we fall for it....and I have to admit...that before I discovered that the Onion was a satirical website...They got me a couple of times.....but Kim Jung Ho....The sexiest man alive??????? PUH-lease !

Further proof that there is no longer a threat from communism and the cold war is really over!

Her Hair? Really??

This is a problem I have with social networking now of days....It makes otherwise small minded and unimportant people feel as though they are instant celebrities..Makes people who should not be heard heard!
I know that there are people out there who might be saying the same thing about me....but I digress....

Thanks to Twitter more so than Facebook...people actually think that because they follow a celebrity, they can actually talk to them and have an impact on their lives...

I might as well get to the meat and potatoes of what I'm actually angry about..

In case you're wondering..Women's gymnastics all-around champion Gabby Douglass likes her hairstyle just fine, thanks.Okay???

The 16-year-old said Sunday she was a little confused when she logged onto her computer after winning her second gold medal in three days and discovered people were debating her pulled-back look.
''I don't know where this is coming from. What's wrong with my hair?'' said Gabby Douglas, the first U.S. gymnast to win gold in team and all-around competition. ''I'm like, `I just made history and people are focused on my hair?' It can be bald or short, it doesn't matter about (my) hair.'' I agree with her... What hurts me to my heart is that most of the tweets were coming from other African -American Women...In fact ,probably ALL of the tweets were coming from "sistas" criticizing this girl's hair!   Her HAIR?? REALLY??
She just became the first African-American female...as well as maybe the first American female period to do what she did and these women are on twitter tweeting about why didn't somebody do her hair!!!
It's the Olympics...who the hell besides you care?
These women have been criticized royally , as they should have on Facebook and Twitter and they probably have gone underground! I wish all of the mean spirited and narrow minded people who give their unwanted opinions on Facebook and Twitter would just go away....but then...we wouldn't have any fun would we?



Just so you know..Gabby Douglas uses gel, clips and a ponytail holder to keep things in place while she competes, a style she's worn for years.
''Nothing is going to change,'' she said. ''I'm going to wear my hair like this during beam and bar finals. You might as well just stop talking about it.''
The only reason why they probably will is because they are getting so much negative feedback for their comments. They ought to know better...but unfortunately, we still have some people in our own race who would rather say something unkind or negative about one of our own who does good , rather than be happy for  them.
Crabs in a barrel anyone??

' 'I don't think people should be worried about that,'' she said. ''We're all champions and we're all winners. I just say that it's kind of, a stupid and crazy thought to think about my hair.'' I agree.

The bubbly teenager is the first African-American gymnast to win her sport's biggest prize. She had no idea she was lighting up social media until she Googled herself hours after winning her gold medal.

If I were her...I'd just go on with my life and ignore the small minded....While she's getting all that endorsement money and living the good life.....Her haters and all those worried about her hair can continue to live in anonomity and tweet and do hateful status updates... Maybe one day they'll get a reality show!

Backtrack!

The Olympics are just beginning good and the foolishness is just beginning...A female would be contestant recently got caught with her foot in her mouth or should I say her tweet in her mouth! (That sounds nasty.)

That damn social media strikes again....Before Facebook and twitter, people kept their most foolish thoughts in their heads..but now....now it all comes out for the world and I do mean the entire world to read.

Triple jumper Voula Papachristou (pictured above)was expelled from Greece's Olympic team Wednesday for her comments on Twitter mocking African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right party.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee said Wednesday that Papachristou is ''placed outside the Olympic team for statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement.''

Voula Papachristou is in Athens and has not responded to calls from The Associated Press. The committee said she was to travel to London shortly before the track events start.

Voula Papachristou's Twitter account (@papaxristoutj) contains several retweets and postings of YouTube videos promoting the views of Golden Dawn, a formerly marginal extreme right party that entered the Greek Parliament in the recent two national elections - in May and June this year - by polling almost 7 percent of the vote.

But it was her attempt at a joke Sunday that went viral. Commenting on the widely reported appearance of Nile-virus-carrying mosquitoes in Athens, Papachristou wrote: ''With so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitoes will be getting home food!!!''. Her tweet prompted thousands of negative comments that snowballed Wednesday. Not exactly what the little blond haired, blue eyed racist expected.

Since anyone can access an unprotected Twitter account, Voula Papachristou's YouTube links and retweets inevitably became known. Several of her retweets were original tweets by Ilias Kasidiaris, the Golden Dawn spokesman and one of the party's 18 Parliament members, who became notorious a few weeks ago for striking a woman Communist MP in the face and throwing water at another female MP during a TV talk show. Papachristou tweeted to Kassidiaris on his name day, last Friday, ''Many happy years, be always strong and true!!!''

Voula's initial reaction to the negative comments, on Tuesday, was to tweet: ''That's how I am. I laugh. I am not a CD to get stuck!!! And if I make mistakes, I don't press the replay! I press Play and move on!!!''

However, her attitude changed completely Wednesday and she has posted five, yes..five apologetic tweets in less than two hours. The last tweet, a very long one in English, which she has also posted on her Facebook account, reads: ''I would like to express my heartfelt apologies for the unfortunate and tasteless joke I published on my personal Twitter account. I am very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights.
''My dream is connected to the Olympic Games and I could not possibly participate if I did not respect their values. Therefore, I could never believe in discrimination between human beings and races. I would like to apologize to all my friends and fellow athletes, who I may have insulted or shamed, the National Team, as well as the people and companies who support my athletic career. Finally, I would like to apologize to my coach and my family.''

Uhhh huh!  Yeah!

"The people and companies who support my athletic career" says volumes...Racism can sometimes be expensive...Not good for business...

Before the publication of the last tweet, Democratic Left, one of the three parties in Greece's coalition government, had published a statement assailing the ''racist humor'' and calling on the Hellenic Olympic Committee to expel Ms. Papachristou from the Olympics.

''Let her make any miserable ''jokes'' on social media while watching the games on TV. She definitely cannot represent Greece in London,'' the Democratic Left statement said.

I agree...It's (supposedly) a new day!

To Be Happy

I didn't write this...but it being a slow news day, I thought I'd share this...One of my Facebook friends posted this and I found it interesting...They didn't write it either.

Here is a list of 15 things which, if you give up on them, will make your life a lot easier and much, much happier. We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering – and instead of letting them all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy – we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready? Here we go:

1. Give Up The need to always be right.

 There are so many of us who can’t stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question: “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?” Wayne Dyer. What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big?

2. Give up your need for control

Be willing to give up your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel.

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond winning.” Lao Tzu

3. Give up on blame

 Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.

4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk

 Oh my. How many people are hurting themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating mindset? Don’t believe everything that your mind is telling you – especially if it’s negative and self-defeating. You are better than that.
“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.” Eckhart Tolle

5. Give up your limiting beliefs

about what you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. From now on, you are no longer going to allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread your wings and fly!
“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind” Elly Roselle

6. Give up complaining

 Give up your constant need to complain about those many, many, maaany things – people, situations, events that make you unhappy, sad and depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy, no situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to. It’s not the situation that triggers those feelings in you, but how you choose to look at it. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking.

7. Give up the luxury of criticism

Give up your need to criticize things, events or people that are different than you. We are all different, yet we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to love and be loved and we all want to be understood. We all want something, and something is wished by us all.

8. Give up your need to impress others

Stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not just to make others like you. It doesn’t work this way. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not, the moment you take off all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly.

9. Give up your resistance to change

 Change is good. Change will help you move from A to B. Change will help you make improvements in your life and also the lives of those around you. Follow your bliss, embrace change – don’t resist it.
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” Joseph Campbell

10. Give up labels

 Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don’t understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open. “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” Wayne Dyer

11. Give up on your fears

Fear is just an illusion, it doesn’t exist – you created it. It’s all in your mind. Correct the inside and the outside will fall into place.
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

12. Give up your excuses

Send them packing and tell them they’re fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses – excuses that 99.9% of the time are not even real.

13. Give up the past

I know, I know. It’s hard. Especially when the past looks so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for – the past that you are now dreaming about – was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.

14. Give up attachment

This is a concept that, for most of us is so hard to grasp and I have to tell you that it was for me too, (it still is) but it’s not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn’t mean you give up your love for them – because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another,  attachment comes from a place of fear, while love… well, real love is pure, kind, and self less, where there is love there can’t be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words.

15. Give up living your life to other people’s expectations

Way too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people’s expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need….and eventually they forget about themselves.  You have one life – this one right now – you must live it, own it, and especially don’t let other people’s opinions distract you from your path.

Good thoughts to live by.

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??

The True Cost of Freedom

Oh with yet another Republican primary coming up there's a longer-term issue that will affect voters in several states come November: These Photo-ID laws. While arguments about the disparate impact of these new laws are usually couched in lawsuits and research studies, some activists are now pushing beyond identifying the problem to help voters get the information they need.

I wrote about this last week..But what I didn't write about was a group that is basically saying...Let's move beyond all of the lawsuits and challenges.
The Cost of Freedom Project, a crowd-sourced initiative that is developing a Web application to provide people with information on how to get a voter ID.

The project has focused its efforts on the sixteen states(including mine) where photo-ID laws -- which require government-issued photo ID to be presented at the polls in order to vote -- will go into effect this November.

By typing in an address, users will get a list of the documents needed for a state ID, the offices where they can obtain said documents (as well as their hours of operation and public transportation directions) and the costs. Voters will also be able to get the information through text messaging.

"I got frustrated with only hearing about lawsuits and studies around the problem of voter-ID laws," said Faye Anderson,project manager for the Cost of Freedom team.

"Yes, it's important to challenge voter-ID requirements. But the clock is ticking, and a lawsuit and yet another study will not help one voter who needs a photo ID to get one."

Faye Anderson presented the idea last December at Random Hacks of Kindness Philadelphia, a competition held at Drexel University to develop technological solutions for real-world problems.

From there a team of Web developers, graphic designers and researchers began forming. Faye Anderson demonstrated the application on Feb. 14th during a panel at the Social Media Week conference in Washington, D.C., and she officially launched the site A few weeks ago on March 7th.

The Cost of Freedom tool was designed to be concise, offering just the information voters need. "We don't want to overwhelm them with information. When you start talking about 21st-century poll taxes, people's eyes glaze over," said Ms. Anderson.

She added, however, that such an argument is nonetheless valid. In most states with voter-ID laws, citizens must present a birth certificate to get their ID. "That can cost as high as $25. If you get it online, tack on another $12," said Anderson. "During a recession, having to provide a series of underlying documents is an unreasonable burden. And as a practical matter: While you need a birth certificate to get photo ID, in order to get a birth certificate, you need photo ID."

But despite the many aspects of photo-ID laws that may block voters from accessing the ballot, the Cost of Freedom is focused simply on helping people get what they need in time. "We want to give voters information as quickly as possible," said Anderson, "To minimize the number of voters who say 'Oh, forget about it.' "

You know, I joked about needing a birth certificate last week. These fools aren't joking though... I don't know about you, but I don't carry my birth certificate around with me.

As I stated before...While this is all well and good..Most people have a drivers license...(Which is a valid State issued form of identification.) If you work somewhere or get any kind of public assistance you have a photo ID of some sort..

If not...You can go to your local Driver's Education center and have a State ID made for you for a minimum cost..It looks just like a Drivers License", except that it says Indentification card.

This is crazy...I never heard of such....These people (and you know who I'm talking about) will go to any length to discourage us from voting...We must be vigilant and we must do everything possible to meet their challenge and thwart it...

They're trying to rig the game in their favor....  They stole an election once...We can not afford to allow them to steal another one.