I can't stand Geraldo Rivera,but damned if he wasn't right!He said that Rihanna was probably going to get back together with Chris Brown & she would refuse to press charges & testify against him.It looks as if he was right about the first part at least.Look what the Seattle Pi is reporting:
"Could Rihanna and on-again/off-again beau Chris Brown really be spending time together just three weeks after his arrest?
People reports the singers are at one of Sean "Diddy" Combs' homes on Miami Beach's Star Island. "They care for each other," a source tells the magazine. "While Chris is reflective and saddened about what happened, he is really happy to be with the woman he loves."
Brown was accused of attacking a woman and booked for making criminal threats in the early hours before the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Rihanna, who along with Brown canceled performances for the Feb. 8 show, was widely reported to be involved in the case, though police have not identified the woman.
Brown, who has not been charged, said he was "sorry and saddened" a week after his arrest. "I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones, and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person," Brown said in a statement.
Rihanna has not commented on Brown's arrest, but thanked fans a week ago for the support "she has received during this difficult time."
Brown reportedly reached out to Rihanna for the first time since his arrest on Feb. 18 - her 21st birthday.
Rihanna's father, Ronald Fenty, tells Us of the apparent reconciliation, "I love my daughter with whatever road she takes. I'm behind her win or lose. I will be supportive. If that's the road she wants to choose, I'm behind her."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
WTF are you thinking,Rihanna?!!!! Some women just never learn!
Rush Limbaugh tells the "drive-by media" today at CPAC that "he doesn't need a teleprompter to speak".Since nothing he says is of any real importance,I would hope that the crap he spews "comes from the heart"!But after he made that dig at President Obama,he even had to admit that President Obama is "one of the most gifted politicians & men".That's the best thing he's ever said about any black person besides Clarence Thomas.Kudos to him for his brief foray into honesty.
With all of the racist things that has come out of Rush Limbaugh's mouth,he claimed that he "wants every American to be the best he or she chooses to be".And according to him,everyone has equal opportunities,which he later contradicted by saying that capitalism causes inequalities!As an African-American female,I have seen my share of inequality & racism.More often than not,your choices are limited.
Unfortunately,I'm not one of those liberals Rush Limbaugh is talking about.I have no reason to pretend that there is discrimination when there is not!I'm not a democrat that's using race or gender to get elected.Heck,I've got no political ambitions whatsoever.I am simply a blogger that can speak from her own negative experiences.
Then,the great Limbaugh went on to say:
"The racism in our country was fully on display in the Democratic primaries."
And on President Obama,this whining rich man says:
"We didn't ask if he was authentically black."
"It doesn't matter to me what race he is."
"He just wants to expand the welfare state."
"Why does President Obama leave out the recession of the 80's? Because we got out of it with tax cuts."
"Do you know that President Obama has proposed more spending than from the founding of this country until his presidency?"
"He pursues a path that punishes success & achievers."
And on why there continues to be poverty & a great disparity in wealth in America:
"They remain poor because government destroys education & ambition."
"They destroy people's futures."
"The government destroys families and pays people to keep having babies."
"It's not about revenue generation with them.It's about control.
"Liberalism is about feeling good about themselves."
And on the past racism that Vice President,Joe Biden has shown towards Indians:
"I made a joke about the bigotry of the VP of the United States,Joe Biden."
On why the conservatives and liberals can never be bipartisan:
"The notion of partisanship,false premise,let me defined bipartisanship..."
"Bipartisanship only occurs after one other result and that is victory."
"To us,bipartisanship,is them being forced to agree with us."
"Where is the compromise on all of this spending? Where is the compromise in all of this punishment of the achievers?
"Where is the compromise between good & evil?"
And on the Iraq war:
"They wanted George Bush to fail".
Those are some of the things that Rush Limbaugh said that really stuck out to me.He tried to paint the conservatives as the party of good & the democrats as the party of evil.Then,he claimed that conservatives "love people" & the conservative Limbaugh went on to demonstrate just how much he "loves people" by calling a media focus group with Obama supporters "a bunch of losers".If you love people,you don't try to divide them.You seek to unite them!
Most of what Rush Limbaugh says is downright evil & full of contradictions.I found his joke about God thinking that he's Rush Limbaugh to be blasphemous & far from funny.What's good about Rush Limbaugh? Not one damn thing!This man demonstrated today that he is all about division.In this country,Limbaugh is promoting the idea that it's the conservatives against the liberals!And the achievers against the non-achievers.If you haven't made it,then it's because you are a loser that's depending on government.
He said that the liberals want to punish the people at the top for the inequalities of capitalism.There are a lot of women & minorities who don't receive equal pay & opportunities.And according to Rush Limbaugh,it's because the Democrats tried to have "a great welfare state" for the past 100 years.They have told women & minorities that the world will discriminate against them.
Unfortunately,as an African-Amercian female,I can tell you that I have worked for my living despite the very real discrimination that I have endured.I haven't been taught by my hard-working ancestors,who faced the very real possibility of being lynched by racist whites,that I should depend on welfare.My folks taught me that I would have to work three times as hard as a white person to be afforded the same opportunites.And affirmative action has never gotten me any grants,scholarships,or job promotions.In fact,I have lost chances at success because I have dark skin!The "great welfare state" has not helped me or my family one bit!
The real truth is that folks like Rush Limbaugh need the division in this country to continue in order to make a living.Limbaugh had no complaints about the way George Bush has destroyed America.Why is that?If he loved people so much,then he would use his big platform to give them the truth.While President Bush destroyed this country,Rush Limbaugh kept talking against liberals!He didn't say one negative thing about President Bush then or now!
He calls President Obama a fear-monger,but we all know that President Bush used fear to start the war in Iraq,spy on Americans,& get re-elected.Where was Rush Limbaugh's passion for the future of America,then? His only concern is to support an ideology,whether it is right or wrong.He asked why President Obama is trying to destroy America when he should have posed that question to George Bush.President Obama is trying to repair the mess.So,my question to Rush Limbaugh is why are you trying to destroy the president of the U.S.?
It's remarkable to me that a comedian like Rush Limbaugh is taken so seriously by the conservative party.How unfortunate for them!
Rihanna looks like she is deep in thought while she on her Mexican getaway.I'm sure she's still trying to come to grips with the latest turn of events in her life.Not only has she had to deal with the whole issue of domestic violence,but Rihanna has been the target of some venom as well!There are some Chris Brown fans & family members who have attempted to paint her in a bad light.I don't give a damn if she had the worst personality in the world.She did not deserve to get beaten like that.And,I think that people just want to make excuses for Chris Brown. Don't blame the victim.Blame the perpetrator!
The little boy that starred in "Slumdog Millionaire" was beaten by his father for not wanting to talk to journalists.The poor kid had jet lag & he just wanted to rest.And for that reason his father slapped him in the face!Here's more from The Daily Mail:
"He's become an object of adulation for millions, but ten-year-old Azharuddin Ismail’s stardom doesn’t appear to cut much ice back at home with his father. The youngster, who played the hero of Slumdog Millionaire as a child, received a beating from Ismail Usnay, 45, apparently for disobedience.
On Thursday Azharuddin had returned to Mumbai after Slumdog’s triumph at the Oscar ceremony.Exhausted by a chaotic welcome and a long flight from Los Angeles, he was given the day off school yesterday. But when he refused to step outside his home in the Dharavi slum in Bandra to speak to journalists, his father lashed out. ‘His father went mad,’ said a witness.
‘He wanted to show his son off to journalists and local people, but Azharuddin said he wanted to be left alone because he was tired.’
Crying and holding his ear, Azharuddin ran inside the makeshift home and tried to hide in the corner.
The ugly scene lasted no more than 30 seconds after Ismail, who is infected with TB, was restrained by neighbours.The child's mother, who is blind in one eye, had also begged Ismail, 45, to stop the physical punishment.Last night Usnay apologised for striking his son.
‘I was so confused and stressed by my son’s homecoming,’ he added. ‘I love my boy and I am very happy to have him home.’ The aggression was in stark contrast to the previous day's triumphant return to the slums, when Azharuddin's father lifted him up and paraded him like a trophy for the expectant crowds. With the massed media long gone and the euphoria of returning home ebbing away, the reality of life in the slums seemed to be hitting the child hard."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
Now,I don't care how much stress his father is under.There is no excuse for slapping & kicking your child! WTF?!!This kid's role in that movie really brought good fortune to his family.His father ought to be grateful & angry at the media for invading his son's privacy.Instead,this man just wants to milk his son's sudden fame for all that it's worth.How shameful is that!
Ingrid Betancourt is one of the former Farc captives that is regarded as a hero.She is a woman who was well respected for enduring six long years in captivity.But,now her heroic status is in jeopardy of being diminished by a new book that two of her fellow hostages wrote.Here's more from the Guardian:
"There was celebrating all around the world when Ingrid Betancourt was rescued last July from the Colombian jungle, where she had been held hostage for six years by leftist guerrillas. Newspapers dubbed her the new Joan of Arc, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy greeted her with a hero's welcome in Paris and a special service in her honour was held at Lourdes.
But reverence for great people never seems to last long these days. And so it comes to pass that Betancourt, a Colombian-French politician who once stood for president in Colombia, has been partially toppled from her pedestal.
The attack on her exalted reputation comes from two of the three US military contractors who were among the 14 other hostages rescued alongside Betancourt. In a new book published in the US yesterday in which they describe five years of jungle captivity at the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, they present Betancourt as a domineering presence who suffered from arrogance and egotism.
The strongest attack contained in Out of Captivity comes from Keith Stansell, a former marine from Florida. He was head of the mission run by a private company Northrop Grumman to gather intelligence on the Farc's drug running activities that came a cropper in February 2003 when their surveillance plane crash-landed in the middle of a FARC training camp.
In passages of the book written by Stansell, he accuses Betancourt, who was kidnapped by the rebels a year before the Americans, of haughtiness and self-obsession. She would steal food from other hostages, refuse to share the scarce books that the group managed to obtain and even put the Americans' lives in danger by telling the guerrillas - wrongly the men claim - that they were CIA agents.
Stansell, 44, told the Associated Press: "I watched her try to take over the camp with an arrogance that was out of control. Some of the guards treated us better than she did."
Similar complaints have been made by a second of the Americans, Thomas Howes, 55, a co-pilot of the stricken plane. He told a Bogotá radio station that Betancourt was "a person who likes to control and manipulate, for whom being in captivity was very difficult". "She did not like to share food in equal portions and was "interested in herself."
The 15 hostages, including Betancourt and the three Americans, were snatched from the Colombian jungle on July 2 last year in dramatic fashion. Colombian military forces, with the help of US intelligence, conceived an elaborate plot in which Farc leaders were conned into handing over their prisoners."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
This man knew that he had herpes for a long time & still had unprotected sex with this poor woman anyway.If he really knowingly infected this lady with an STD,then I'm glad that she sued his ass & got $7 million dollars!Here's more on this story from The Associated Press:
"A jury awarded nearly $7 million to a 56-year-old woman who said she was unknowingly infected with herpes by the 77-year-old founder of a hair-care company.
The lawsuit alleged that Thomas Redmond knew he had genital herpes for more than 25 years but did not disclose it before his sexual relationship began with Patricia Behr, and did not use a condom.
The Riverside County jury awarded Behr $4 million in compensatory damages and $2.75 million in punitive damages. She was also awarded a 2004 BMW car that Redmond had originally given her as a gift.
Redmond, of Las Vegas, is the founder of Redmond Products Inc., which was the maker of the Aussie line of hair-care products. The company was sold in 1997 to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and became part of Clairol, which was sold to Procter & Gamble Co. in 2001.
The defendant's lawyer, Robert M. Frisbee, said the verdict is "outrageous" and his client will seek to have it overturned.
Frisbee said Behr failed to prove it was Redmond who infected her with herpes, and that she had sex with him knowing that he had the incurable sexually transmitted disease."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
Janeane Garofalo was on the Keith Olbermann show last night talking about Rush Limbaugh.While discussing why women don't care for Rush Limbaugh,she made some interesting comments.One funny thing that she said is that "any woman or person of color that would join the Republican party must have Stockholm Syndrome." Before that,she said that Michael Steele was trying to "curry favor with the oppressor." Since I think that Mr. Steele is the prime example of a token black guy,I would have to agree with Ms. Garofalo!And,I have to add Bobby Jindal to the list as well.He is a token,as well.Republicans use folks like Jindal & Steele to curry favor with the oppressed!
I don't care how many gun advocates don't like what I'm about to say! But,Jordan Brown should have never had a gun for any purpose whatsoever.I know some folks love to hunt & they want to pass that tradition down to their kids.But,look at what the end result can be.I hate to pass judgment on anyone.In my opinion,little 11-yr.old kids shouldn't even be playing with toy guns,let alone shooting real ones.You should at least wait until your kid is old enough to drive.Would you let an 11-yr. old drive your car? No,you would not!
So,why is it perfectly legal & fine for an 11-yr. old boy to own a gun? In my mind,if children are allowed to handle guns,then they should be permitted to handle cars.How is it safer for a child to own a gun!?It just doesn't make any sense to me!Here's more on what Jordan Brown did with his "youth" gun from ABC News:
"An 11-year-old Pennsylvania boy accused of killing his father's pregnant girlfriend last week reportedly used his own youth model shotgun, a smaller-size gun designed specifically for children. 11-year-old is in jail charged with two counts of criminal homicide.
Jordan Brown has been charged as an adult with two counts of criminal homicide in the deaths of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk and her unborn child. Houk was eight months pregnant with Brown's father's child, and also had two daughters, 7 and 4, who lived with her and the Browns.
Police said Brown went downstairs from his bedroom with the gun hidden in a blanket, shot Houk in the head while she lay in bed, then took the bus to school. Brown is being held in the Lawrence County jail, though he is segregated from the adult prisoners. He has not entered a formal plea.
"It's tragic because a woman lost her life. The baby lost her life and you have an 11-year-old that's well on track to spending the rest of his life in jail," said Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo. Brown got the youth-size shotgun as a Christmas present and used it to win a turkey shoot on Valentine's Day, police said.
The 20-gauge shotgun was a gift from the boy's father, Chris Brown, according to Bongivengo. Brown was training his son to be a hunter, the New York Daily News reported. Houk had also encouraged Brown to buy the boy his own gun, according to the Daily News.
Youth model guns are generally shorter and lighter than regular rifles or shotguns and have lighter recoil, making them easier for children to use. Dozens of gun manufacturers offer both rifles and shotguns aimed at the youth market.
Though not uncommon, the guns have been the target of criticism from some gun control activists, who say that children may not understand the danger of such weapons.
"To specifically market a gun designed for a kid is outrageous," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control group. "To have a gun specially designed for junior, we're talking about a lethal weapon here, you're not talking about a toy anymore."
Pennsylvania State Trooper Ronald Kesten said police don't encounter the smaller guns very frequently and said they have not been a problem.
Bongivengo also said it was not uncommon for boys Brown's age to have their own shotgun, though he said the gun should have been locked up and inaccessible.
The gun was kept in a place to which the boy had full access, according to authorities."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
Guns in the house & children are not a good mixture!But,a kid owning a "youth" gun is absolutely ludicrous to me!That's just my take on the youth gun issue!
Dr.Anna Julia Cooper was a Leo woman like me & she was an African-American woman who cared deeply about the advancement of the black female! Born a slave,she was so intellectually gifted that she was accepted into a teaching program at the age of 7! She was a firm believer & fighter for the rights of black women.Here's more on one woman that you should know about from BNET:
"Cooper's life spanned several distinct eras that covered profound social, political, and economic changes in the American social order, during which Black Americans remained a marginalized group actively struggling for social justice and equal citizenship rights. At the time of her birth, the majority of Blacks in America lived trapped within the institution of slavery. At the time of her death, Blacks were on the forefront of political and social activism fighting for citizenship and human rights through the collective efforts of the Civil Rights Movement. The notion of collective struggle for social justice and human rights transcends this time span.
Although not as well known as many of her peer leaders and intellectuals, such as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington, Cooper articulated a strong-willed activist position. Cooper blazed many trails in educational and social activist settings. For example, her social activism included participation in several national Black women clubs and charity organizations; she co-founded the Colored Women's League in Washington, DC in 1894, and helped organi/e the National Conference of Colorado Women in 1895. Cooper attended and delivered a stirring speech at the first Pan-African Conference in London in 1900 (Lemert & Bhan, 1998; Roediger, 1998).
Cooper's lifestyle reflected her Victorian upbringing and in many ways modeled notions of true womanhood. She carefully followed the moral proprieties and strictures of her era, yet vigorously supported the intellectual vibrancy of women and the need to agitate for women rights, specifically the rights of Black women. Most of all, she believed in Black women possessing and exercising a political and cultural "voice." Shirley Carlson (1992) noted a difference between the norm of true womanhood and the version she describes as "Black Victoria." Black Victoria's perception and expectations were slightly different from the larger society's conception due the emphasis placed on her by the Black community. Carlson considered Black Victoria as possessing a high level of "community and racial consciousness" (p. 62). This analysis describes Cooper. She believed in the transformative power of education and intentionally devoted her professional life to the educational and professional advancement of the Black community.
ANNA JULIA COOPER
"Annie" Julia Hay wood was born into slavery on August 10, 1858 in Raleigh, North Carolina (Gable, 1982). Born five years before the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, her memories of slavery were recounted in her later life in vaguely written recollections (Hutchinson, 1861). Her mother, Hannah Stanley Haywood, was the mother of two older sons by a wealthy slave owner, who sold, or loaned, Hannah to his brother George Washington Haywood, a prominent Raleigh attorney, who was most likely Anna's father (Cooper, 1988; Gable, 1982; Hutchinson, 1981). Hannah worked as a domestic servant in the Haywood home, a position which commonly included sexual abuse from White slave masters (Gable, 1982; Gates, 1987; Stevenson, 1996). Thus, Cooper was born to a familiar union between master and slave that might have added a sense of desperate determination to her future endeavors.
Cooper held her mother in high esteem, commenting in an autobiographical sketch,
My mother was a slave and the finest woman I have ever known. . . .Presumably my father was her master, if so I owe him not a sou & she was always too modest & [sic] shamefaced ever to mention him. (Cooper,. 1988, p. xxxi)
This declaration makes plain the personal shame and conflicted distance Cooper held regarding her paternal heritage. Perhaps her life-long efforts to represent exemplary personal and professional behavior were a result of her resistance to the typical assumption and stereotypes of immorality and low intelligence of Black women. Regardless of any deeply ingrained personal shame over the circumstances of her birth, throughout her adult life Cooper remained a strong voice for Black women' rights. She became a foreshadowing matriarch of Black feminist theory."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the article in its entirety here.
Here's an excerpt from a speech that Anna Julia Cooper gave in 1893 from Black Past.org:
"(1893) Anna Julia Cooper, “ Women's Cause is One and Universal”
On May 18, 1893, Anna Julia Cooper delivered an address at the World's Congress of Representative Women then meeting in Chicago. Cooper’s speech to this predominately white audience described the progress of African American women since slavery. Cooper in many ways epitomized that progress. Born into slavery in North Carolina in 1858, she earned B.A. and M.A. degrees at Oberlin and in 1925 at that age of 67 she received a Ph.D. at the Sorbonne in Paris. Cooper spent much of her career at an instructor of Latin and mathematics at M Street (later Dunbar) High School in Washington, D.C. She died in 1964. Cooper’s speech appears below.
The higher fruits of civilization can not be extemporized, neither can they be developed normally, in the brief space of thirty years. It requires the long and painful growth of generations. Yet all through the darkest pe¬riod of the colored women's oppression in this country her yet unwritten history is full of heroic struggle, a struggle against fearful and overwhelming odds, that often ended in a horrible death, to maintain and protect that which woman holds dearer than life.
The painful, patient, and silent toil of mothers to gain a free simple title to the bodies of their daughters, the de¬spairing fight, as of an entrapped tigress, to keep hallowed their own persons, would furnish material for epics. That more went down under the flood than stemmed the current is not extraordinary. The majority of our women are not heroines but I do not know that a majority of any race of women are heroines. It is enough for me to know that while in the eyes of the highest tribunal in America she was deemed no more than a chattel, an irresponsible thing, a dull block, to be drawn hither or thither at the volition of an owner, the Afro American woman maintained ideals of womanhood unshamed by any ever conceived. Resting or fermenting in untutored minds, such ideals could not claim a hearing at the bar of the nation.
The white woman could least plead for her own emancipation; the black woman, doubly enslaved, could but suffer and struggle and be silent. I speak for the colored women of the South, because it is there that the millions of blacks in this country have watered the soil with blood and tears, and it is there too that the colored woman of America has made her characteristic history, and there her destiny evolving. Since emancipation the movement has been at times confused and stormy, so that we could not always tell whether we were going forward or groping in a circle. We hardly knew what we ought to emphasize, whether education or wealth, or civil freedom and recognition. We were utterly destitu¬te. Possessing no homes nor the knowledge of how to make them, no money nor the habit of acquiring it, no education, no political status, no in¬fluence, what could we do?"(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
Elaine Davidson is the Brazilian woman in this picture who is known as the world's most pierced woman.But,why in the hell would she even care to bear that title in the first place?Ooh,it looks so-o-o painful!This lady must be dealing with some serious mental issues.Because this is one heck of a way to leave your mark on the world.Here's more from the Telegraph:
"When first accredited by a Guinness World Record official in 2000, Davidson had 462 piercings, with 192 in her face alone.
Now, nine years later, she has 6,005 including more than 1,500 that are "internal".
However, despite her eye-watering record, Miss Davidson, born in Brazil, claims she doesn't like being pierced, and suffers for her art.
She said: "I don't enjoy getting pierced, but to break the record you have to get to a high level.
"I wanted to break the record.
"My family don't even like tattoos or piercings.
"But I am happy. I decided to change myself and be me."
Miss Davidson, a nurse who now lives in Edinburgh, was speaking in Darlington, Durham, as she opened a piercing studio."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
All of that just to break a world record.Well,if she's happy,I guess that's all that counts!
Remember the outrage that the public expressed over the fact that the "Slumdog Millionaire" children were underpaid? Well,apparently the Mumbai government has decided to step up & give them a free home.Here's more from The Guardian:
"Forget the Oscars, the biggest Indian winners of the Slumdog Millionaire fairytale are two of the film's child actors plucked from the shanty towns of Mumbai, after it emerged they are to be given "free homes" by the state government.
Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, and Rubina Ali Qureshi, nine, who play the lead characters in their younger years, currently live in shacks in the Garib Nagar slum in Bandra East, Mumbai. But Amarjit Singh Manhas, the chairman of the Maharashtra housing authority, told the Times of India: "We felt that since the children have made the nation proud, they must be given free houses."
There had been anger after pictures emerged of the child stars living in squalor despite the £10m movie earning about £69m since its north American release in November. Set in Mumbai, which is part of Maharashtra state, Slumdog Millionaire won eight awards at the Oscars on Monday, including best picture.
Danny Boyle, who won best director for the movie and cast the Hindi-speaking children from Mumbai's slums in the two lead roles, has repeatedly denied accusations he had exploited the children and not paid them enough. Film-makers pointed out that trust funds had been set up for the children and they had been sent to school.
The Mumbai board's decision has delighted the children's families, according to the Times of India. Azharrudin's father, Mohammed Ismail, told the newspaper: "We have barely got any money from the film-makers. In fact, whatever came, has already been spent. We do not even have a pucca wall in this shanty and our future is equally uncertain. In fact, this decision is definitely a piece of good news for us."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the entire article here.
This Alabama funeral director has been charged with leaving a decaying body in the back of the hearse.Why would someone do such an evil thing,you ask? Well,it was all for the money.Here's the whole scoop from The Associated Press:
"A funeral director faces a felony charge after police found a woman's decomposing body in the back of a hearse. Police said the 76-year-old funeral home owner was charged Tuesday with abusing a corpse. Police said the woman died of natural causes in November 2007 at the age of 52. Relatives said they wanted her remains cremated.
But police said the family never signed papers for a cremation or paid the funeral home. So the owner allegedly put the body in the back of a hearse and parked it on a lot with other old vehicles.
Someone complained about a foul odor, leading officers to discover the decomposing remains."(END OF ARTICLE)Taken from this site.
There is a scandal brewing in the town of Los Alamitos in California.The mayor of this town has sent the above image to an African-American businesswoman & she didn't appreciate the "humor".And I can see why she didn't find such blatant racism funny in any way!Yes,the liberal state of California has more than it's share of racism.Do you know how many fried chicken & watermelon jokes I have heard people tell?!Hell, the last time I heard a racist "joke"it was a Mexican co-worker of mine that told it.Stereotyping people is never funny.And guess what? I hate watermelons!I prefer seafood & beef over chicken.
This type of ignorance shouldn't be tolerated by anyone.I believe that is why Keyanus Price has spoken out about this racist e-mail that she received from the mayor.Here's more from the OC Register:
"Price said she wanted a public apology for the e-mail and today contacted The Orange County Register to share the brief exchange that took place on Sunday.
Grose's e-mail included the picture with a heading that read, "No Easter Egg hunt this year."
"I think he's saying that since there's a black president, there will be no need to hunt for eggs since they're growing watermelons in the front yard this year," Price wrote.
She responded to the e-mail with: "Hey, that's not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon… you should know better than that."
Grose replied: "The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests."
Price said Grose's response upset her more.
"As soon as I saw his response; that put me over the top because it was no big deal to him," she said.
Price and Grose have worked together in the past – they both sit on the board of the Youth Center, and she often works with city officials in the community representing her employer. The two have exchanged e-mails in the past.
The e-mail was sent to at least one other person, but the mayor said he isn't sure how many people received it. He said there is a "small group" of people he sometimes forward e-mails to.
In his apology to Price via e-mail, Grose wrote that he was not representing himself as a public official.
"It was not sent to a whole bunch of people, and it went through my personal e-mail," he said. "People e-mail things all the time, but that's not an excuse."
Peter Eliasberg of the ACLU said that while the mayor wasn't acting as a city official at the time, it doesn't mean that it was OK to send.
"Even though as much as we may always think they're always public officials, they're not always public officials; it's kind of going out as a private citizen," Eliasberg said. "That doesn't mean that she doesn't have every right to demand a public apology. It seems like it was pretty offensive."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
A mother who was taunted by her daughter's rapist became infuriated & set the man on fire.He had been in jail,but was out on a 3-day pass!If he provoked this woman,maybe he got what he deserved!Obviously,this rapist had not changed after being in jail for 9 years.He felt no remorse for what he did!Here's more from the Telegraph:
"A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday.
Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca.
While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out "How's your daughter?", before heading into a crowded bar.
Shortly after, the woman walked into the bar, poured a bottle of petrol over Soriano and lit a match. She watched as the flames engulfed him, before walking out.
The woman fled to Alicante, where she was arrested the same evening. When she appeared in court the next day in the town of Orihuela, she was cheered and clapped by a crowd, who shouted "Bravo!" and "Well done!"
A judge ordered her to be held in prison and undergo psychiatric tests, provoking anger from friends and neighbours, who have set up a petition calling for her release.
Soriano suffered 60 per cent burns in the attack on June 13 and was airlifted to a specialist unit. He survived for 11 days before succumbing to his injuries."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
For heaven's sakes!Bobby Jindal's response to President Obama's address was very poor & disjointed!And I didn't understand why he used a horrific tragedy like Hurricane Katrina to emphasize why people don't need the government.I thought that was really insensitive of Mr. Jindal to use the victims of Hurricane Katrina as examples of people depending on government handouts.Especially since folks like Neal Boortz said that "New Orleans was a welfare city". Here's more from Media Matters:
"On the January 30 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing former Sen. John Edwards' (D-NC) then-upcoming announcement that he was withdrawing from the 2008 presidential race, Neal Boortz asserted: "But I am fed up with this conventional wisdom that Katrina and the disaster that followed was George Bush's fault. It was not. The primary blame goes on the worthless parasites who lived in New Orleans who you -- couldn't even wipe themselves, let alone get out of the way of the water when that levee broke." Edwards made his withdrawal announcement in the city of New Orleans.
Earlier in the show, Boortz described the city of New Orleans as having been, prior to Hurricane Katrina "a city of parasites, a city of people who could not and had no desire to fend for themselves." During the show, Boortz also said, "When these Katrina so-called refugees were scattered about the country, it was just a glorified episode of putting out the garbage." Responding to a caller who said she used to work for the post office and claimed that "[t]he people in New Orleans were waiting on their government checks. They weren't moving until they got them ... trust me. As a mail carrier, they were waiting on their checks," Boortz stated: "Well, I don't know if -- you see, I don't think they were waiting on their checks before they would evacuate after a flood. But I do think, I do think that their entire lifestyle prior to Katrina was sitting around on their asses and waiting for checks."
Reading from a January 30 Associated Press report on Edwards' withdrawal, Boortz said:
BOORTZ: I like this: "Edwards' campaign will end the way it began 13 months ago, with the candidate pitching in to rebuild lives in a city still ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Edwards embraced New Orleans as a glaring symbol of what he described as a Washington that didn't hear the cries of the downtrodden." Cries of the downtrodden, my left butt cheek. That wasn't the cries of the downtrodden; that's the cries of the useless, the worthless. New Orleans was a welfare city, a city of parasites, a city of people who could not and had no desire to fend for themselves. You have a hurricane descending on them and they sit on their fat asses and wait for somebody else to come rescue them. "It's somebody else's job to get me out of here. It's somebody else's job to save my life. Not mine. Send me a bus, send me a limo, send me a boat, send me a helicopter, send me a taxi, send me something. But you certainly don't expect me to actually work to get myself out of this situation, do you? Haven't you been watching me for generations? I've never done anything to improve my own lot in life. I've never done anything to rescue myself. Why do you expect me to do that now, just because a levee broke?"(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
Bobby Jindal must have been speaking to folks like Neal Boortz when he talked about Hurricane Katrina tonight.Because we all know how the Hurricane Katrina victims got blamed for depending on the government to rescue them.And he has used Hurricane Katrina to gain political points in the past.Here's more on that from The Hindu:
"One reason Jindal did not defeat Blanco in 2003 is that he was unable to draw the full weight of the white vote. Many conservative whites preferred to vote for a white, Cajun (“native” Louisianan) Democrat than an Indian American, albeit born in Louisiana, conservative Republican. David Duke, leader of the virulently racist Ku Klux Klan, won 44 per cent of the Republican vote in a 1990 primary election (60 per cent of the white vote) here. A year later, Duke repeated this feat and bragged, “I won my constituency. I won 55 per cent of the white vote.” Despite having the second largest African American population in the U.S., Louisiana’s politics are structured around the ability of the State-wide candidate to draw in the white vote.
Racist vigilante violence marks the State’s history. After the Civil War ended in 1865, for example, some legislators considered a change in the State’s Constitution that might allow blacks the franchise. Recalcitrant citizens formed the White League, whose violent tactics succeeded in ending any talk of equality. It was in New Orleans that Homer Plessy, a light-skinned black man, was removed from a train in 1892 because he sat in a “whites only” section. The Plessy v Ferguson case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided that blacks and whites should have separate facilities although these should be equal – the “separate but equal” statute.
In New Orleans again, a black man, Oliver Brown, began a court case to get his son, Earl, into an all-white school. Eventually, in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Brown v The Board of Education that segregation of this kind, known as Jim Crow, is illegal and should be abolished. Drawing energy from this decision, young Martin Luther King, Jr., and his fellow liberal clergy formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in New Orleans in 1957. In response, the White Citizens’ Council, an organisation of the landed white aristocracy of the region, announced, “Integration is the Southern expression of Communism”. King and others took the fight against racism to the doorstep of the enemy.
Hurricane Katrina revealed the rot of a racist, segregated society. King’s movement ended de jure segregation, but it did little against de facto segregation and inequality. Almost 20 per cent of Louisiana’s residents live beneath the poverty line, and a dramatic number of blacks live not only in poverty but also in jail. The incarceration rate in New Orleans, where most blacks in the State live, is twice that of the average U.S. rate: 1,480 prisoners for every 100,000 residents of the city.
Katrina tore through the city and State, exposing inequality and shocking the nation. Jindal, then a Congressman, held his tongue. His main carp was not against the Bush administration, which had sent the bulk of the State’s National Guard to Iraq, and so away from their posts when the disaster struck, nor was it against the long history of inequality revealed by the aftermath. Jindal decided to speak out against the “red-tape” of government response.
Katrina, which had come to mean the racism of the federal and State government, provided the young Congressman with an opportunity to champion less government and more “faith-based” reconstruction solutions. No word about the dispossession of his fellow citizens, and little care that the white elites were now moving to grab the land which once housed a large black population. Scott Crow, who worked in the reconstruction of New Orleans, recalls how white militias roamed the city after Katrina, making sure to run the blacks out of town: “These white militias made it their jobs to secure law and order in the absence of the police. Their brand of justice was to intimidate any black person walking on the street alone, or in any number that was smaller than the militia.” Blanco’s inaction compromised her; Jindal’s silence on issues of racism enamoured him to a section of the white voters.
As the election campaign heated up, a terrible incident in the town of Jena brought national attention to the enduring racism in Louisiana. When white students intimidated black students at Jena High School by hanging nooses on a tree and by pointing shot guns at them, the school authorities blamed the black students for making trouble. The police joined the administration and in the course of an altercation jailed six black students, all teenagers. The Jena case angered the nation. On September 20, thousands of people converged in the town to demand the release of the six students.
Jindal, in the thick of his election battle, took a strong stand against the demonstrations. “We certainly don’t need any outside agitators coming in here,” he said. The phrase “outside agitator” has a long lineage in the anti-Civil Rights movement and within the White Citizens Councils. Jindal’s heavy-handed code sent a strong message to the racist vote that he could be trusted not to “pander” to the black population. Jena is in the LaSalle Parish, whose white voters overwhelmingly voted for David Duke in 1991. This time Jindal carried that vote, winning the parish with a handy 55 per cent; his closest opponent Walter Boasso won short of 15 per cent. “Don’t let anyone talk bad about Louisiana,” Jindal said as he claimed his victory. In other words, do not talk about racism. “Those days are officially over.”
A few days after the victory, Rev. Nehemiah Thompson of the National Association of Asian Indian Christians wrote a letter to The New York Times. Thompson’s advice was simple, “Go easy on conservatism. Ideology is a luxury of the upper class. But rebuild New Orleans. Care about the poor, the children, the elderly, the unemployed, blacks and Hispanics.” Jindal’s programme, however, opposes stem cell research and abortion and is in favour of “faith-based” public policy and corporate solutions to social problems. His election coffers were lined by oil and petroleum magnates.
Other Indian Americans share Thompson’s concerns. Deepa Iyer, head of the South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow says, “Bobby Jindal should not get a free pass solely because he is of Indian descent.” She is concerned about his civil rights record. During his time in Congress, Jindal voted against hate crimes legislation and for strict immigration enforcement. “As the Governor of Louisiana,” Deepa Iyer says, “Jindal will have to confront some of these issues.” But will his confrontation be in the vein of Bush, or as Thompson put it, will Jindal “teach and practice what Jesus taught: non-violence, compassion for the poor and the oppressed and healing of sick [health care for all]?”(END OF EXCERPT)Read the entire article here.
It's obvious to me that Bobby Jindal is still doing his best to secure the white vote!
There are some folks who claim that we are living in a racial Utopia.Folks like Morgan Freeman don't see the need for a Black History Month.He says that he studies black history throughout the year.But the reason that we have it is that there is barely any mention of blacks in the U.S. history classes across America!Believe me,I wish that America was really all-inclusive.U.S history is still taught from a Eurocentric point of view.Therefore,people still need to be made aware of the contributions that countless African-Americans have made to this country.Here's more from The Arizona Republic:
"Tony Norman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette argues, "Now that Barack Obama and his family have moved into the White House, it's time to rethink the holiday Carter G. Woodson came up with nearly a century ago. Times have changed. Even the Republicans have a Black guy running the party. Maybe February can go back to being for all of us."
In 2005, actor Morgan Freeman denounced Black History Month during a 60 Minutes interview as "ridiculous," asking, "You're going to relegate my history to a month?"
While I admire Freeman's passion and agree with the spirit of his convictions, I disagree with his conclusions. Although "African-American history is American history" and, as such, should be integrated into the fabric of our education and daily consciousness, it also warrants particular attention.
America's promise, past, present, and future, will always be tied to, and measured by, the socioeconomic status of African-Americans. No matter how much we grow, and no matter how unified we become, we will always be a post-slave and Jim Crow society.
Black History Month, therefore, will never be obsolete. It will always be in our best interest to pause and explore the meaning of freedom through the lived experiences of a people who forced America to be true to its creed and reaffirmed the American dream. Those who would eliminate Black History Month often miss the point.
Should we educate ourselves about Black history throughout the year? Of course we should. Should we also take time out to acknowledge the fact that, without African-Americans, our understanding of "freedom and justice for all" would not exist? Yes.
If treated seriously and executed effectively, Black History Month could stimulate more concern for inclusive and probing educational curricula, intercultural communication and democracy itself.
Knowledge of African-American history is essential to comprehending our nation's character, and we should do everything that we can to ensure that all Americans know precisely who we are and how we came to be.
Moreover, Black History Month not only reminds of how far we've come, given all the challenges that remain, it also reminds us of how far we still must go."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
Binyam Mohammed is the terror suspect that was allegedly tortured at Gitmo.He was released & has returned to the U.K.Although he didn't want to speak directly to the media,he has written a piece in The Guardian.Here is an excerpt:
"Worse than my darkest nightmare As I gain my freedom, I am determined that neither those who remain in detention, nor their abusers, are forgotten.
I hope you will understand that after everything I have been through, I am neither physically nor mentally capable of facing the media on the moment of my arrival back to Britain. Please forgive me if I make a simple statement through my lawyer. I hope to be able to do better in days to come, when I am on the road to recovery.
I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares. Before this ordeal, "torture" was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim. It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways – all orchestrated by the United States government.
While I want to recover, and put it all as far in my past as I can, I also know I have an obligation to the people who still remain in those torture chambers. My own despair was greatest when I thought that everyone had abandoned me. I have a duty to make sure that nobody else is forgotten.
I am grateful that, in the end, I was not simply left to my fate. I am grateful to my lawyers and other staff at Reprieve, and to Lt Col Yvonne Bradley, who fought for my freedom. I am grateful to the members of the British Foreign Office who worked for my release. And I want to thank people around Britain who wrote to me in Guantánamo Bay to keep my spirits up, as well as to the members of the media who tried to make sure that the world knew what was going on. I know I would not be home in Britain today, if it were not for everyone's support. Indeed, I might not be alive at all.
I wish I could say that it is all over, but it is not. There are still 241 Muslim prisoners in Guantánamo. Many have long since been cleared even by the US military, yet cannot go anywhere as they face persecution. For example, Ahmed bel Bacha lived here in Britain, and desperately needs a home. Then there are thousands of other prisoners held by the US elsewhere around the world, with no charges, and without access to their families."(END OF EXCERPT) Read the rest here.
Nadya Suleman is ridiculously self-absorbed.The money that she used to get plastic surgery should have gone into a trust fund for her kids.If she planned to have these kids,then why in the fuck didn't she do some financial planning as well? I can tell you what I think.She is the kind of person who is completely dependent on other people.Nadya Suleman seems to think that the government,her parents,& the general public should help her take on such a huge responsibility.She acts like an insolent child who just can't understand why she can't get her way.In this video,she tells her mother to stop harping on her decision to have all of those kids & move on!Since her parents are in debt because of her stupid ass,that will be really hard to do.Nadya Suleman is a disgusting leech!
Herbert Gutman has assembled through great research one of the best studies of black family life during the era of slavery.So many folks love to throw out statistics about how there are so many single black mothers & irresponsible fathers.They act as if there is no such thing as a black family.This textbook gives you the history of black families whose ties could not be broken by the horrors of slavery.It is a very important piece of work.Here's a more extensive review of the book from Associated Content:
"Gutman challenges the views of historians like E. Franklin Frazier, who asserted that "The crisis accompanying emancipation tended to destroy all traditional ways of thinking…promiscuous sexual relations…became the rule" (Gutman 9). Gutman asserts that, "The familial condition of the typical ex-slave differed greatly from that emphasized by Frazier…the typical ex-slave family was composed of a poor husband, his wife and their children" (Gutman 9). Gutman shows that the end of slavery posed new challenges from African Americans. The thirteenth amendment abolished the individual ownership of one person by another but did not remove the culture and institutional system of slavery, making life oppressive for African Americans.
After an initial attempt to force the ex-slaves into labor on the plantations failed, the system of farm tenancy, or sharecropping emerged by the end of the century. The majority of African Americans were to work under this regime for most of the first half of the twentieth century. Also, during this period, a minority moved to the cities, where they faced, in the North, racist resistance and exclusion from the emerging industrial revolution.
As the book reveals, in adapting to these new environments, African Americans drew upon two sects of cultural resources: those they had developed during the period of slavery, and those of the White majority. The nuclear family was threatened; however, a family unit still existed in most cases. According to Gutman, "Migration and the changing composition of the Afro-American household (especially the relative decline of the nuclear household) among New York City blacks in 1905 were not evidence that husbands and fathers were less frequently with the family than in the South in 1880 or 1900" (452). After emancipation, Black families had a dual responsibility. They had to teach their children how to be proud of themselves, how to work hard, and how to achieve. In addition, they had to teach their children how to get along in a White world, how to get along with White people, how to get along in a situation that sometimes defined them negatively, how to get along in situations that were not always fair to them. They taught them how to get along without being bitter and losing their own humanity. Black families still have this dual responsibility and most have succeeded in teaching their children how to manage those two worlds. According to Gutman, "Enslavement was harsh and constricted the enslaved. But it did not destroy their capacity to adapt and sustain the vital familial and kin associations and beliefs that served as the underpinning of a developing African American culture" (463).
Gutman's book is a necessary part of the literature on the black family and the impact of slavery. His book illustrates that out of slavery grew a spirit of achievement and survival and humanity. The heritage of African Americans came from Africa and a sense of belonging to each other, a sense of responsibility to the other. The West African proverb, "It takes a whole village to raise a child," illustrates the idea of the community as the family. Gutman shows that the black family was supported by the larger society. This collective responsibility still exists for the African American family. Also, from West Africa, the idea of responsibility for kin-folk was very strong. So blood ties are still very strong in the African American community, some-times stronger than marital ties. Negative portrayals of the African American family continue to dominate in the media. These stereotypes can be countered with a reading of Gutman's book, because it provides a positive affirmation of the strength of the black family despite obstacles and adversity, which consisted of: two and a half centuries of powerlessness, sexual degradation, male emasculation, childhood neglect, legal nonexistence, in which being raped by anyone white was not a crime, and racist oppression. Gutman's book is a demonstration that slaves cared deeply for their kinsmen and went to great lengths, in spite of the restraints of slave owners, to maintain ties with their kin, and after slavery, to find long lost relatives."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the entire review here.
Binyam Mohammed is the Ethiopian Gitmo detainee that was the subject of one of my recent posts!He has now been released from Gitmo & he is back in the U.K.!Mr. Mohammed said that he was tortured at Guantanomo Bay & his case has gained world-wide attention.Here's more from the Telegraph:
"The Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed has now been released amid claims he was tortured with the full knowledge of British intelligence. Mr Mohamed said the worst moment in the last seven years had come "when I realised in Morocco that the people who were torturing me were receiving questions and materials from British intelligence."
He added: "I have been through an experience that I never thought to encounter in my darkest nightmares…It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways, all orchestrated by the United States government."
Mr Mohamed, who had broken a hunger strike before his return, was well enough to walk across the tarmac at RAF Northolt in West London, and in a statement he thanked the Foreign Office for their role in his release
But his arrival back in the UK is likely to bring further pressure on David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, who has referred the question of whether British agents were complicit in torturing Mr Mohamed to the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, for consideration over whether to bring a prosecution.
The US government was criticised by judges in the High Court for blocking the release of documents relating to Mr Mohamed's treatment in detention and he is expected to continue to fight for their publication, saying: "I am not asking for vengeance, only that the truth should be made known, so that nobody in the future should have to endure what I have endured."
Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, declined to say what restrictions Mr Mohamed may face.
"I don't think it is for me to announce the details of that," he told reporters. "What I can say is that at all times the security of the country will be protected.
"Of course, we have got to look at the details of the arrangements, but at all times the security of the British people comes first."
Mr Brown said he would not publish US documents on Mr Mohamed's treatment in captivity, adding: "I think the important thing about intelligence information is that you share it with other countries on the basis it remains confidential." (END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
Rap artist David Banner says black women that perm their hair have no pride.But,David Banner doesn't have one black woman with natural hair in this video.All of these women have perms.Black women go through all of that trouble because most black men don't go for women with natural,kinky hair.Let's use David Banner as an example.He's talking to all of the women "looking good in the club".They all just happen to be black women with perms & weaves!Where are the women with natural hair?Even Mediatakeout wants to know.Here's more:
"Here’s his quote, as reported by the Times And Democrat
In a question-and-answer session, Banner challenged black women in attendance to explain why they perm and straighten their hair. In response came the defense that “hair perming” is equated with being able to get a decent job as a professional and not being viewed as a threat by bosses who are usually of a different race.
“This is what I mean when I say black people don’t love themselves,” Banner said. “Perming your hair is a clear example of ‘black-on-black crime’ and media control. Black-on-black crime is not just a black person committing a violent act against another black person.
This is an age old argument, usually made by men – who have NEVER dated a woman with natural hair. We know there’s SOME merit to what he’s saying, but we ain’t trying to hear this argument from this dude.
David … until we see natural haired chicks EXCLUSIVELY in your videos … you really need to close your trap. …"(END OF EXCERPT)Read the entire post here.
I almost forgot about this unusual story.Ladies,whenever your man tells you he doesn't want you to wear a fake ass weave tell him Briana Bond's story.She's the woman underneath that mountain of hair that stopped a bullet.Briana says that she's been wearing weaves for years.Ms. Bonds is just glad that it saved her life.Not to mention that her investment more than paid off.She might have been injured or killed if it weren't for her weave! Knowing that a hair weave could save more than your looks may convince your man to shut the hell up about fake hair.Some dudes really nag there women about not wearing their natural hair.At least,that's been my experience.
I don't watch "Big Brother",but even I became aware of the questionable remarks that Jade Goody made on that reality show.She showed her true colors & they weren't pretty!She insulted fellow contestant Shilpa Shetty & was accused of being a racist.Now,Jade Goody has redeemed herself to many in the public eye.She is making news for a whole different reason now.I was so sorry to hear that she is dying from cancer.But,I was glad to hear that she got a chance to fulfill her last wish.Here's more on that from the Telegraph:
"As with every other stage in Goody's life since she found fame on Big Brother seven years ago, the ceremony took place amid a media circus.
Goody organised the wedding in just seven days after learning she has weeks to live. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in August and chemotherapy treatment failed to halt the spread of the disease.
"It was a very heart-rending, happy ceremony. There were lots of tears and lots of smiles. She looked absolutely beautiful," said her publicist, Max Clifford, adding that the wedding had lifted her spirits: "She's absolutely thrilled. She's like a little one who has just woken up on Christmas Day."
Guests at the venue, Down Hall in Hertfordshire, dined on lobster tagliatelle and were serenaded by pop group Sugababes.
The bride wore a £3,500 gown donated by Harrods boss Mohamed Fayed. The 21-year-old groom wore an electronic tag, a condition of his early release from prison where he served a sentence for assault. The couple were able to spend their wedding night together after Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, relaxed Tweed's curfew.
Despite her failing health, Goody was determined to walk down the aisle and a pocket was sewn into the lining of her dress to conceal an intravenous morphine supply. Nurses from the Royal Marsden Hospital were in attendance.
She was given away by her grandfather, John Craddock, who said it was both the happiest and saddest day of his life.
Goody has struck media deals in order to provide for her sons Bobby, five, and Freddie, four, after her death. Proceeds from the wedding will go into a trust fund and she wishes them to be privately educated, giving them the opportunities she was denied. Goody endured a miserable childhood on a council estate in Bermondsey, south London, brought up by a heroin-addicted lesbian mother.
The decision to turn her illness into a public spectacle has left some feeling uneasy. However, she received words of support yesterday from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, who urged people to pray for her."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
And I will pray for Jade Goody & the rest of her family.
Sean Penn was very gracious in his acceptance speech tonight.He acknowledged Micky Rourke's roaring comeback.Sean Penn even admitted that he wasn't a very likeable person,which has probably stopped him from getting it in the past.But,tonight wasn't just about who would get the "Best Actor" award.The fact that Sean Penn won an Oscar for playing a gay man in "Milk" not long after Prop. 8 passed isn't going to be lost on anyone.Especially since Sean Penn addressed the issue in his speech.He basically said that he hopes that people who don't support gay marriage will change their minds.I don't think they will.People are already griping about the Academy Awards being too political.Some folks would have been much happier if Mickey Rourke would have won.Whether it was politics are not,they both turned out some damn fine performances.Therefore,they both deserved an Oscar!
One of my favorite films won "Best Picture" tonight at the Oscars!I'm so happy for all of those who were involved in "Slumdog Millionaire" because they received the recognition that they deserve.There was some very fine directing & acting in this movie.But,not everyone enjoyed the film,as the report in this video shows.There are protests going on at the Oscars because some Indians feel that this movie misrepresents their community.And they are very angry at the director,Danny Boyle.
I didn't expect anything less from Pat Buchanan.He served under President Nixon & Mr. Buchanan still carries those antiquated views towards race into the 21st century.During a debate over what Eric Holder said about race,he told Dr. Michael Dyson that he needs to worry about his "own" community instead of blaming the white race,which Dr.Michael Dyson was not doing!
This segment of Hardball really pointed out just how correct Eric Holder is.It demonstrates how intense discussions about race usually gets between blacks & whites.Pat Buchanan is being disingenious when he starts using statistics to make his points.Any educated person knows that statistics should be taken with a grain of salt.Why did Pat Buchanan throw out these numbers in the first place?Well,he wanted to divert attention away from the subject.Pat Buchanan hurled a bunch of insults at an entire race of people when he should have just debated Dr.Michael Dyson.
And poor Michael Dyson kept getting cut off due to "technical difficulties"!I guess they didn't want him to get his point across.They should have cut Pat Buchanan's mike off.Because his racist ramblings made him look a bit senile.It's 2009 not 1969!!!!!
Malcolm X was a self-taught intellectual whose oratorial style would give President Obama a run for his money!"By no means necessary" was his motto.In other words,his speeches weren't about non-violent protestations in the face of brutality.He was the antithesis of Martin Luther King,Jr,but he compelled people to face racism just the same.Here's more on this great black leader from Wikipedia:
"Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz,[1] was an African American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans.[2] His detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence.[3][4][5] He has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.[6][7][8]
Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. By the time he was 13, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in the criminal underworld in Boston and New York. In 1945, Malcolm X was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.
While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam. After his parole in 1952, he became one of the Nation's leaders and chief spokesmen. For nearly a dozen years, he was the public face of the Nation of Islam. Tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, led to his departure from the organization in March 1964.
After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East. He founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular, black nationalist Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in New York."(END OF EXCERPT) Read the rest of the entry here.
Sorry to say,but this speech that Malcolm X gave is still relevant to this very day.
So,Michael Steele will use his "blackness" to bring "change" to the Republican Party.As it's new head,Michael Steele has come up with a tried & true strategy to reform his struggling party.In order to remain relevant,he has decided that the way to modernize the GOP is through hip-hop.You see,Michael Steele believes that will be the way to win more votes.Does he care anything at all about the hip-hop community?What is his strategy when it comes to dealing with poverty & the host of other issues that plague most in the hip-hop community?
I would be interested in hearing how he will deal with the problems that are expressed in the lyrics of many rappers who come from the ghetto.But of course,Michael Steele is only interested in the amount of votes he could generate from celebrities & their fan bases.In other words,Michael Steele is a very willing "token".He knows full well that he is only the head of the GOP because they desperately need the minority vote!Now,he's looking to hip-hop not because he's a fan of the genre,like President Obama.Michael Steele just wants to find more tokens for the Republican party.Here's more on his phony hip-hop endeavor from The Village Voice:
"Now, this comes as no surprise from a party that famously managed all of 26 total black delegates at the 2008 Republican National Convention, a figure that was good for slightly less than 2% of the total delegation. This, among other things, represented a 40-year-low: a flashback to 1968 for a party that was running against an African-African candidate in a country that's 15% black. Michael Steele was there of course, getting his credentials in order: we have him to thank for "Drill Baby Drill."
Add the murderous drubbing the Republicans took from so-called hip-hop voters (a demographic approximated by mashing up the African-American vote and the youth vote, which both swung overwhelming Democratic compared to 2004, to the tune of as many as 73 electoral votes), not to mention actual hip-hop stars, and Steele's coronation was probably inevitable. And not because Steele was likely to be more effective. The tokenistic-type magical thinking that the Republicans awkwardly flashed in Minneapolis basically prophesized the party's ensuing blind faith that a moderately qualified former Lieutenant Governor and current Fox News talking head would, by virtue of being black, somehow turn back the tide.
And Steele, apparently, is going to get very complicit with this myth indeed:
"There was underlying concerns we had become too regionalized and the party needed to reach beyond our comfort" zones, he said, citing defeats in such states as Virginia and North Carolina. "We need messengers to really capture that region - young, Hispanic, black, a cross section ... We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings."
Nevermind that "urban-surburban hip-hop settings" are fundamentally deaf to a message that involves enormous emphases on incarceration, draconian drug laws, regressive taxes, and the shredding of whatever meager social safety net still remains in this country. "Under Mr. Steele's helm," writes the piece's author, Ralph Z. Hallow, "the 'old' may seem inappropriate in the Grand Old Party's affectionate nickname. [Steele] said he is putting a new public relations team into place to update the party's image. 'It will be avant garde, technically,' he said. 'It will come to table with things that will surprise everyone - off the hook.'"(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.
