The Only Color That Matters is Green

Hat Tip to Davey D:

Who Will Speak for Albert

Inspired by the murder of Derrion Albert, though not necessarily reflective of his life.

Who will speak for Albert?

He
probably never saw it coming.
maybe too busy thinkin' on what he had to do
and they hit him.
Two by four to the head
boot to the gut
and death came.
Eaten by the spirits of ancestors long neglected and forgotten
abandoned like New Orleans to hell of high water
and who will speak for him?

his killers will have had their names on nightly news, blogs and websites
presidents will have no words
for Albert was not from Princeton, a no one
yes
thats what you are when you're young brainy and black.

If you don't sing or dance TV has no place for you
Albert
If you can't tell a joke, play ball or rock a mic
you are nobody
You
are worthy of ridicule
not worthy of consideration by those
who fight over streets they don't even pay taxes on
Albert
They hate you
Your women hate you for your pants don't sag.

Your draws don't show and you lack swagger
Your English was probably too good and your knowledge too deep.
Deep down,
they envied you.

Albert, you were a king among barbarians
working to be worthy of a queen, not a gangsta bitch.
and who will speak for you?

Probably got up from can't see and worked 'till can't see
Probably passed on pussy to pick up a book
did it so you could pass that test so you could get pass out that hood.
And they probably teased you.
Called you gay
I know, they tried that on me.

Probably spent your time avoiding bathrooms and other unsafe places where hoods lie in wait for victims.

Probably took the long way home sometimes cause you just didn't want to be fucked with.

And no doubt there will be sociologsts, psychologists
Urban professionals and black scholars

They will explain how your killers were deprived of good schools, good homes and fathers.

They will blame Bill Cosby for speaking truth and say I am blaming the victim
but who will speak for you albert?

And we are to blame
Albert
We keep buying music by self called gangsters, drug dealers and pimps
we pay black men who piss on and beat on women and then blame the media for their troubles.

Yes Albert we killed you

And while Beyonce wanted a soldier
but you would have been content with
president
architect
engineer
albert
you may have cured cancer.
And we failed you.

And after 25 years your killers, will show up on TV somewhere and they will say they have found Christ or the local Masjid.
They will claim to have learned their lessons and want a second chance at life.

There will be gang documentaries of their exploits with video of your beat down.


We will nod our heads,
we will nod our heads
we will be proud that yet another black man in jail has found the light
but who
who will speak for you
Albert?

Absolutely Unacceptable

I was about to post on the Iran nuclear bull when this came to my attention. Absolutely unacceptable for this behavior to happen.

Sacrifice

Got quite a bit of feedback regarding my story post about how a date went wrong with a discussion of religion. I thought it would be best to discuss the matter further.

When we look at religious and cultural practices among people it's important to look at them in a historical perspective. Many of us don't think to much about human evolution much less the evolution of cultures and religion. We live in a fantasy world where early humans had a life akin to the Flintstones. Many have been thoroughly confused by Adam and Eve stories as to how people started out. And I don't mean to offend anyone with that statement, it's just that Genesis is, well, fiction. Just as many cultural "how life began" stories are either fictional or allegorical including Ifa's.

The fact of the matter is that humans started out in particularly brutal conditions. Naked, hot (or cold depending), and competing with a lot of other animals for food and struggling for survival against predators, insects and plain bad luck from eating the wrong plant. Indeed the fact of the matter is that for most of humanities existence we have been quite comfortable killing things. Indeed every carnivore and omnivore on the planet is comfortable taking a life to sustain itself. There is absolutely nothing abnormal or immoral with the taking of life in order to survive. Indeed among certain species, if they do not kill to eat, they cannot survive. For example vitamin B12 is contained in meat. Cats cannot synthesize B12 and therefore must eat meat in order to get that vitamin. Now a days we buy Tender Vittles and whatnot that has B12 in it and so our pets do not need to kill to get that particular vitamin. But that is artificial and yes, unnatural.

In human terms, we are separated from our natural need to kill that which we need to survive, because we have created an artificial food chain. We in essence outsource our hunting and killing to specialized professionals, who do our killing for us and who then offer this material for sale on various forms. An entirely artificial and unnatural state. Most of us who live in "developed" countries have absolutely no clue on how these things get to us and act accordingly. The "developed" countries, tend to waste more food than people in many less "developed" countries even consume. And so we have a situation where people are entirely separated from the process of life and therefore do not appreciate that which they have. If we look at the practice of animal sacrifice then, particularly in Ifa and it's related offshoots, we recognize that it is not about death and killing but about a recognition and appreciation of life.

One of my early experiences in grade school was studying Native Americans. One of the stories we were told was how when a hunter killed an animal, he would thank the spirit of the animal for allowing it's body to be given. It took me a long time to understand the full meaning of that but I do now. The Native American like the African saw that all things have a spirit, that spirit exists for some purpose and inhabits a particular physical form in which that particular purpose is carried out. Furthermore, it was understood that the only way life carries on is with the death of something else. Indeed life and death are partners in the cycle of the universe.

This is a totally logical position to have. If we look at how our own bodies work we would see this play out. We ingest food, be it meat or vegetable. the acids in our stomachs break down the food to smaller parts. The food enters our small intestines, where enzymes further break down these foods to get our amino acids, carbohydrates, etc. into a form that we can transport into our cells. These nutrients, once in our cells allow our bodies to maintain, grow and repair. Even in this process, we produce "waste" which we excrete in various forms and are picked up by plants, insects, bacteria, etc. which use these items for their own maintenance, growth and repair. So our own bodies confirms that death and life are all a part of one big cycle. If one needs any more proof of this, then think, imagine if every human being who ever lived was still alive. How many people would there be on Earth? And would we exist as a species? I don't have to answer that question because you know the answer.

And so one purpose of animal sacrifice within Ifa is the recognition by adherents of the significance of death and life. But there is more to it than that.

Recall in the beginning of this essay, I discussed the fact that humans have been intimate with the process of how they procured food. We also must recognize that for most of human history (and for much of Africa's history) the material wealth of a person was measured in livestock of some kind. This was probably due to the fact that if one had livestock, one had food. And since there wasn't fiat currency, if you needed to pay for someone's services, such as a priest, guess how that person was going to be paid? Sometimes animal sacrifice merely meant taking a goat or whatever and placing them at some holy site where a priest would later collect the sacrifice. I recall as a child, in church hearing "missionary stories" about how so and so missionary used the "Santa Clause" treatment to some unwitting native. The missionary would prove to their next victim that their idol wasn't a real god by showing the "idol worshipper" that the sacrifice or offering they gave never went anywhere. . The idol worshipper of course converted after such a demonstration.

What is lost particularly among persons with a novice level of understanding, is that many times the purpose of the sacrifice/offering is not so much that Ogun for example or the representative statuette, needs the food/money/wine/whatever. It is that the offerer needs to understand that nothing just "shows up" in life. The Yoruba visit a priest before just about everything. Planing a business? See a priest. Planning a family? See the priest. Taking a trip? You get the point. Success is facilitated by doing something. Much like that native American hunter who thanks the spirit of the deceased animal the offerer is made to understand that something must be sacrificed in order for one to get what one wants/needs. In other words, much of what happens in Ifa ceremonies are psychological in nature. The Ifa priest is in some ways a shrink. This is not an unfamiliar idea for many of us. Look at anyone who is successful in what he or she is doing and they will all tell you that they had to sacrifice things to get where they are. Matter of fact they had to sacrifice different things at different stages to get where they are.

So we see the psychology and history behind animal sacrifice as it pertains to the Yoruba (and others). It is not the bloodlusty, put a curse on somebody BS that has been perpetrated by movies people seeking to fatten their wallets.

Update on Caster Semenya

As I suggested in my last post, the blame for this mess lies with the governing body in SA and the doctors and trainers who would have had to have been incompetent to not realize something was amiss with Castor:

Leonard Chuene, the president of Athletics South Africa, today confirmed that world 800m champion Caster Semenya was subjected to gender tests before her victory in Berlin, and admitted lying about the tests in order to protect her privacy.

Accepting that his original denials of such tests ever taking place in South Africa were an "error of judgment", Chuene claimed he had never meant to mislead or deceive the public.

Oh I don't know how do lie to NOT deceive the public?

The Single Payer Benefit

Seelye quotes economist Skinner as claiming that Medicare expansion to cover every American would mean a tripling of the Medicare payroll tax—currently set at 2.9% of wages. But even if we accepted Skinner’s math, it is meaningless without looking at the savings side.

Sure expanding Medicare would mean higher Medicare taxes, but what about the following:

Medicaid, the program that pays for medical care for the poor, and is funded by federal and state taxes, would be eliminated, saving $400 billion a year.

Veterans’ care, currently running at $100 billion a year, would be eliminated.

Perhaps two-thirds of the $300 billion a year spent by federal, state and local governments to reimburse hospitals for so-called “charity care” for treatment of people who have no insurance but don’t qualify for Medicaid, would be eliminated.

Individuals and employers would no longer have to pay for private insurance.

Several hundred billion dollars currently spent on paperwork by private insurers would be eliminated.

Car insurance would be cheaper as there would no longer have to be coverage for medical bills.

Federal, state and local governments would no longer have to pay to insure public employees.

In short, if every person were on Medicare, the overall savings would overwhelm the small increase in the Medicare payroll tax of 5.8%.

The bottom line is that Canadians, who have Medicare for all, devote 10% of GDP to health care. Americans, who have private-insurance-based health care except for the elderly, devote 17% of GDP to health care.

Seelye and the Times have never mentioned any of this. Neither does President Obama or the Democratic Congress.

Dave Lindorff

The Hoftra Men are the Victims here

IN some segments of Black America, the above title apparently does not make sense. Let me say it again:

The five men wrongly accused of rape are the victims.

Perhaps it's the feminist in me, but I've long since come to the understanding that regardless to what a woman is wearing, how much she drinks, smokes, or pops, or with whom she's decided to flirt with, if a man has sex with her without her consent, it's rape. Full stop. Now I may have personal opinions regarding the conduct of a particular victim as it relates to what I consider proper behavior but at the end of the day, the blame is on the perpetrator.

This particular rule MUST apply to men as well. It is irrelevant whether a man likes to have sex in a room full of other men. It doesn't matter if he likes to have sex with a woman who's being "serviced" by some other man or men at the same time. Not only is it irrelevant, it is none of my business. The only thing that I require, and that the law requires is that all parties involved have given their consent.

What would Jesus do? Completely and utterly irrelevant.

There have been commentary loaded with the historic fact that black men have been framed up for rape by white women they have had consensual sex with but who later from embarrassment or fear of community ostracism changed the story. No doubt these things have happened and will continue to happen. However; it is irrelevant to this story because:

The five men are the victims here. Full stop.

While 90+ percent of black folk marry and only have sex with other black people, the fact of the matter is that many of them do in fact have sex with people of other races.I don't have to agree with or like it. It's really not my business. It is our job as conscious people to be of the position that regardless, no black person ought to live in fear of his or her life or liberty due to who he or she decides to lay with. Therefore the only proper response to this attack on the liberty and life of these five men is:

The five men at Hofstra are the victims.

Think on this for a minute. On merely the SAY SO of this liar, the police rolled up and arrested these men. The mere say so had these men put into the system. Finger printed, mug shotted, and possibly in danger of being assaulted in jail or even raped. Yes that stuff happens. And now the prosecutor feels that the liar's life may be put in jeopardy if she is named? Certainly she wasn't all that concerned about these fellow's safety when she told the lie. What she don't know that black folk get shot for small shit like laying on the ground in train stations or accidentally cutting off a off duty police officer on the road? What she don't know that folk been shot in their own homes while holding PlayStation 3 game controllers?

Naw, release the name of the liar. charge her with whatever is on the books for that, and if she feels that her life is in danger, let her do what black men in the South had to do when such lies were told on them: Move.

Technorati Tags: hink

On Caster Semenya

And so it appears that Caster Semenya is a hermaphrodite. I fault this entire thing on the Caster's trainers and the SA Atheletic authorities. All that could have and should have been found out before Berlin. There are a lot of people making a lot of fuss over this. On the one hand I agree that the way this got out to the public was very bad. However as an athlete myself, I believe the investigation itself was totally acceptable.

There is a reason why men and women do not compete directly in track and field. Talk all you want about men and women being "the same" but the fact is that there are significant physical differences between men and women and these differences are very much on display when it comes to top sports, in this case track and field.

There are no actual women who can outrun Usain Bolt. In fact most of the fastest women in the world cannot compete with some of the slowest of the top mens contenders. It is a physical impossibility. And that's OK. It wasn't meant to be that way. When someone says so and so does such and such well for a woman, in certain sports that is a compliment, not a put down. Are there women who can beat men at track events? Certainly. I get beat by women in better physical condition than I am all the time. But I would be a fool to extrapolate that to some social PC statement about females in sports.

The determination that Coster is a hermaphrodite, is good for female athletes. You know, the ones who don't have testicles that have not dropped or Testosterone levels 4X what normal females have. That is like allowing a team that uses steroids to compete.

Lastly, for those that want to see racism in this, please note that in the history of track and field and other sports like gymnastics and weight lifting there is a history of countries passing off men as women. Particularly from Soviet block states. It is unfortunate that Caster is on suicide watch, but as I said earlier the blame lies with her trainers, doctors and yes, family for not dealing with this. With all the anti-doping measures in place, there is no way that her high testosterone levels were not noticed. How could it be that if she had no uterus (as was reported) that anyone missed that she never had a period (assuming that to be the case)? I know that women who are body builders and the like can frequently have their periods missed, but the training for track and field is different and I would suspect that such a thing should have been noticed.

Anyway. I hope that she recoups from this and I wish her the best.

Obama was sold out

Obama was sold out by Terry Moran and co.

In this video:



It is clear that Obama wanted that off the record. Terry "Moron" decided to twit that comment anyway. If I were Obama Mr. Moron would not be allowed to interview me ever again. In fact anyone in the room would be barred from an interview with me.

Congress Needs More Catcalls

As seen on Counterpunch:

Perhaps one of the biggest lies of the night was the president’s claim that while there are “arguments to be made” for single-payer systems like Canada’s, switching to single-payer in the US would require building “an entirely new system from scratch.” The truth: Medicare is already a successful single-payer system and in fact, it is bigger and older than Canada’s own nation-wide system. Expanding it to cover every American would not be starting from scratch at all. It would be expanding something already proven. Where were the shouts of “What about Medicare!” from Rep. John Conyers (and his dozens of cosigners), whose bill, HR 676, to expand Medicare to all has been barred from getting even a hearing by the House leadership with encouragement from the White House?

And a note that I first saw this particular line of thinking from Lester Spence via twitter.

Hat Tip to Carter

I am going to give mad props to Carter for stating the obvious. While I'm still mad at his deal with Papa Doc during his presidency, I have to respect the man for calling Israel's actions for what they are and for opening his mouth and calling what we, sane black folk, have known for a while, These birthers, people calling Obama Communist and Socialist and the oft referred Muslim (as if that's bad) commentary. The calls for death, the guns at appearances. We know what it is. And no amount of blathering from Wilson, his kid or others will make it not true.

Mr. Carter: The Ghost salutes you.

Picking on Black Folk...again

Like a worn old record the press, via Obama is at it talking the proverbial crap about black folk. Reportedly Terry Moran, whom we shall rename "moron" forgot his professional ethics and taking a cue from the Fox "News" network tweeted that President Obama had called Kanye West a "Jackass". Of course this comment was off record and should not have seen the light of day, but like Jesse Jackson's "balls" comments in the age of the internet even professionalism goes out the window for page hits.

This is not to defend the actions of Kanye West (for the record I was watching The Matrix Reloaded) at the MTV VMA awards. The point here is that Obama has been directly smeared by a whole host of white folk. Beck, Palin and Limbaugh all come to mind. Yet I do not recall that Obama has called any of them "jackass" on or off the record or within' earshot of an itchy reporter. There are a few possible reasons for this:

1) Obama has never said such a thing about any of the mentioned people.
2) Obama has said such things but they have not been overheard by reporters.
3) Obama has said such things within earshot of reporters but those reporters had the "integrity" to not report on it since it was said off record.
4) Obama has said such things but the reporters didn't find it amusing enough to report.
5) The media loves to dump on black folk when the opportunity arises.

I'm partial to option 5. Why? Well lets look at Serena's outburst. Yeah, she was mad. She was losing. Anyone in competitive sports knows full well the frustration that can come when you cannot get your game together. But I don't think I've seen Serena on TV that many times in such a short period of time when she's winning much less when she catches diarrhea of the mouth.

Anyone my age knows full well that a certain white, male tennis player who shall go unnamed, was not only known for his antics on the court, but people actually tuned in and showed up to see when, not if, he would go off. This unnamed white male ex-professional tennis player has parodied on many a comedy show and even has of late been featured in commercials. I don't recall EVER having seen this cat been asked to apologize to the public. No one was talking about how his antics were a disappointment to his young fans. No that was just how he was. You shook your head, you laughed, and the game went on.

Oh and this isn't the first pick at Serena. Earlier this year it was bout how "loud" the women were being when they were playing. And of course the lead to that particular "news" segment was Serena loudly serving. Hmmmm...really. So she's not being lady like? Is that the message here?

Anyway, lets not be distracted by the antics of Kanye or the mouth of Serena. And if Obama wants to impress me, he can call Cheney a jackass. He can call Beck, Limbaugh and Palin jackasses. And he can do it on record. But I suppose that would be too much to ask.

The Health Care Sham

While it's appropriate to make fun of those people who are using the health care issue as a cover for unmitigated racism, let us not lose sight of the fact that what is coming down the pipe is by no means an acceptable form of "change." Paul Craig Roberts runs it down yet again:

The private sector is no longer the answer, because the income levels of the vast majority of Americans are insufficient to bear the cost of health insurance today. To provide some perspective, the monthly premium for a 60-year old female for a group policy (employer-provided) with Blue Cross Blue Shield in Florida is about $1,200. That comes to $14,400 per year. Only employees in high productivity jobs that can provide both a livable salary and health care can expect to have employer-provided coverage. If a 60-year old female has to buy a non-group policy as an individual, the premium would be even higher. How, for example, is a Wal-Mart shelf stocker or check out clerk going to be able to pay a private insurance premium?

...What the US needs is a single-payer not-for-profit health system that pays doctors and nurses sufficiently that they will undertake the arduous training and accept the stress and risks of dealing with illness and diseases...

When the "news" doesn't do it's job

Watching these people who had their "tea bag" demonstration in front of the white house just really showed how inept the so called mainstream "news" people are. The NY Times has a report where some woman in the crowd talks about how this was "long in coming" and how it's not "just one thing." Really?

There is only one question that needed to be asked of these people: Where were you when Bush admitted on national TV that he committed treason by directly and purposely violating the 4th Amendment as head of state?

Where were these people with "the constitution is in a grinder" signs when that went down?

I won't even get into torture and how those "pesky" treaties that the US signs are as sovereign as the Constitution. Simply put, when the 4th Amendment was directly attacked by the Executive, where were these people?

Shouting Down The President

Is it of any surprise to any sane black person that the voice that called Obama a liar on international television (and be sure, this was viewed overseas) came from a state that has one of the most brutal records of treatment of the African under slavery? Is it not surprising that it was from the state that first seceded from the Union? The state with perhaps the most brutal of the post-civil war Jim Crow laws?

Not surprising at all.

Update: It has come to my attention that this fool was a protege of the late Stom " I breed negroes in private but segregation now and forever" Thurmond.

George Bush, who lied multiple times, many times directly in front of congress and many times directly in front of TV cameras was never so rudely interrupted by members of congress. Ever. And that fool committed acts of treason. I don't even have to say why this happened. Ya'll know what's up.

Update 2: And from what I saw on the news this evening, Wilson is claiming that it was not his apology but he did it because he was asked by the Republican leadership. See thems, yes thems, the apologies you just don't accept.

Van meet Bus

Warning: This post contains some swear words. Otherwise known as profanity. You've been warned.

It was with a chuckle that I listened to the announcement that "Van" Jones was resigning from his job in the White House for essentially being "too black". The Irony.

I chuckled for a few reasons. First was that from the clips of what "Van" had reportedly said, not a single commentator actually said he was incorrect. For example, on the issue of Columbine, with the exception of the Asian kid at Virginia Tech, we do not have cases of black kids running up into schools, distraught over their treatment as "outsiders" by various cliques and shooting anyone in sight and then blowing off their own heads. Not reported. Ask an FBI profiler and they will tell you the same thing.
Is there violence in some predominantly black schools? Absolutely. But Mr. Jones was discussing a specific phenomenon and in that same clip even mentioned the contrast of black school violence.

Then there was the piece about 9-11. Where Mr. Jones apparently signed a petition where he and many others felt that the government did in fact know that an attack on the US was eminent. Well aside from the interview with Bin-Ladin where he explicitly mentioned the Twin Towers; and aside from certain facts like the CIA knowing a few of the hijackers and such and a whole lotta questions regarding those exercises that were going on that day, at that point in time you'd have to be a damn fool to not start questioning things. And since then the amount of lies and shady dealings that went on in the White House and Pentagon really underscores that even IF there was no government complicity in the attack there was definitely government complicity in the aftermath and that list is extremely long.

I won't even touch the "communist revolutionary" statement. When there are people in office, elected multiple times who believe such things as the Earth being about 5 grand years old and that people and dinosaurs were chillin' in Central Park. Who weep blood for single cells residing in a uterus but have absolutely no qualms dropping atomic bombs on various brown people the world over. They don't have much credibility to question the ideology of a college student figuring out his political identity. Ya heard?

But the real deal here is not about all of the above. Seriously. Look, lets lay this out here. This is about niggas in the White House. Full stop. Niggas in the White House who aren't going with the status quo and actually are planning new and innovative shit. Niggas ain't supposed to be doin' all that. Niggas are supposed to be in background fetching coffee and talking about race. Or on TV shakin' they asses. Niggas are supposed to be making failed states while hoarding money in Europe.

All this "hands off my medical insurance", and socialism and Obama as Hitler are proxies for raw, unmitigated race hate. When Garvey, the NAACP, King and others were agitating for a better America and world, Hoover and his fellow crackers threw the Communist book at them. The "thinking" being that Negroes are too stupid to think for themselves and needed communists to tell them what to do. This communism, socialism charge is just what it was back then: bullshit intellectual white sheets to cover up the ugly white supremacist that lurks within.

This has been most evident with the whole non-issue of president Obama giving a 1st day of school speech. These white supremacists are not mad because the president was to speak to their kids. It has always been an "honor" to have the president speak at any place in the country regardless of stripe. Like the president or not. Voted for the president or not. President shows up you show the proper respect afforded the office. Oh no, these people objected to the fact that this "son of a Kenyan" was going to stand up in front of their kids and speak to them and talk "black" to them. Mind you I will lay a thousand bucks right now that a good number of these people's kids are allowed to watch black folks make total asses of themselves on TV and it's OK with those parents.

But back to Van and why he should have seen this coming. If Mr. Jones was paying attention he would have noted that the Obama transition team had a fairly lengthy list of requirements for having a spot on Team Obama. One point was whether one had written or said anything that would be considered controversial. Now here's the rub, either Mr. Jones failed to disclose these "inflamatory" comments or when Team Obama looked them over they didn't think anything was wrong with them. If it was the latter then Mr. Jones was indeed betrayed by Team Obama, but he shouldn't be surprised.

Mr. Jones ought to recall that during the primary when Clinton asked Obama to denounce Min. Farrakhan, Obama's response was to use every D word he could think of. Never mind that the NOI has never burnt a cross on anyone's lawn. That the NOI has never been implicated in any hate crime whatsoever. That no members of the NOI have been implicated in racially motivated rapes, murders, assaults or destruction of property. Never mind all that. When a white person tells a black person whom to associate with, and that black person has "high office" in his or her eyes, you better believe that certain black people will meet the underside of a bus.

After that, we had the next Black-man with no backbone moment when in Philly, Obama had the unmitigated gall to compare the issues of black folk to that of his grandmamma clutching her purse. Like his granny EVER had to worry about being lynched cause she was in the wrong town when the sun went down. Like THAT chick ever had to be worried about being pulled over "just because". That whole speech was a slap in the face to black folk who, unfortunately, ate that shit up. You couldn't say a bad thing about Obama without black folk acting like you said something about their momma's momma. And white folks wept like Jesus in Gethsemane. Rev. Wright, the man who married Obama to his wife (who was by no small part why black women lined up for Obama), and gave Obama political legitimacy in Chicago, met the underside of the Obama bus.

So didn't Mr. Jones know that things come in threes? Did he really think that the president who shot his race wad on, of all people, Skip "I couldn't find negroes to work on Encyclopedia Africanna" Gates, and was thoroughly cuckolded by the press for it, was going to spend any more political capital defending a Negro who had the nerve to talk negatively about white folk in public? And on camera? See what Mr. Jones will come to understand is that there is a class of negroes out there that have absolutely no love for, but plenty of use for folk like us. See we're good to have around when a police officer shows up at the front door demanding ID. Or when they're humiliated by a local police officer for driving the wrong kind of car in the wrong type of neighborhood and get shown the "common man" treatment. Then all us "angry" negroes are called upon to blog about racism and shit like that. We're supposed to fall in line and defend these "bright spots" of our community who are "doing things". But when it's time for these big Negroes and Negresses to give us some backup, to perhaps push back on clear racism from those "high up racists": Meet the underside of the bus.

That's how it is. You can ask Biz.

[edit 11:47 AM EDT: "former" to "latter"]

Why Not Sanctions against Israel

Another on point piece by Paul Craig Roberts

Iran is developing nuclear energy, which is its right as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran’s nuclear energy program is subject to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which consistently reports that its inspections find no diversion of enriched uranium to a weapons program.

The position taken by Israel, and by Israel’s puppet in Washington, is that Iran must not be allowed to have the rights as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty that every other signatory has, because Iran might divert enriched uranium to a weapons program.

In other words, Israel and the US claim the right to abrogate Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy. The Israeli/US position has no basis in international law or in anything other than the arrogance of Israel and the United States.

The hypocrisy is extreme. Israel is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and developed its nuclear weapons illegally on the sly, with, as far as we know, US help.

As Israel is an illegal possessor of nuclear weapons and has a fanatical government that is capable of using them, crippling sanctions should be applied to Israel to force it to disarm.

Some Research on Serial Monogamy in Tanzania

when Dr. Borgerhoff Mulder looked at who extracted the greatest reproductive payoff from serial monogamy, as measured by who had the most children survive past the first five hazardous years of life, she found a small but significant advantage female. Women who worked their way through more than two husbands had, on average, higher reproductive success, a greater number of surviving children, than either the more sedately mating women, or than men regardless of wifetime total.

Via NYTimes

The Response Not Given

When the question came, the writing was on the wall.
Been here and heard that. Never goes well.

"So what is your religion?"

Figured I'd make the answer last long enough to finish dinner. I was feelin' the chicken, I was hungry and since I was paying I thought I'd at least get to enjoy the meal. After swallowing I said:

"Ifa." and got to another piece. I knew what the next few questions would be:

What's that?
The who?
Where?

And the inevitable: "Is that voodoo?"

Always find that question the funniest. After all if that was what it was, I would have said so. But all folk know about African religion is what they got from Chucky, Tarzan movies, occasional episodes of Law and Order and sermons from people who don't know of what they speak but who's word is taken at face value. Or the occasional Nigerian priest who odds are goes to see the Ifa priest when HE has issues. Yeah it's been reported.

So I endeavor to explain that Voodun is a combination of Ifa, the religion of the Yoruba, The traditional religion of the Ngola of what we consider modern day Angola and Catholicism. And that's not me. It's taken different forms in different countries where Africans populated with varying levels of mixture. In short there are a number of "Vodoos" (Santeria, Palo, Candomble, Shango Baptists in Trinindad, etc.) and I ascribe to none.

This. This is the point where confused looks abound. Any teacher would be familiar with that look on students. It's the WTF look that students get when first confronted with say, algebra or calculus. So many unknowns. X,Y, N, whaaat?

Ordering dessert, a piece of chocolate cake, your next question came as expected: "So what do you believe?"

"One God. Many messengers. No Devil."

"No what?"

"No Devil. No hell underground. No character behind the scene to blame for 'tempting' you to do anything. You do it 'cause you chose to. It's your responsibility, good or ill."

Trust me; this is not a conversation I was looking to have. Particularly on a first date. For some reason I feel compelled to answer questions and I've yet to master the art of shallow or deceptive conversation. I'd make a bad spy. Get caught, spill beans.

Anyway this would not be the low point of this part of the conversation 'cause out in the parking lot while attempting to dodge light raindrops came the coup de grace:

"So you guys, like, sacrifice animals?"

This was going to be "good."

"It's done."

"That is so barbaric." Slipped from her lips. Easy. Unforced. Almost reflexive.

Wow. I believe I was called a barbarian.

Started having flashes of English missionaries with branding irons passing judgment on Ngolans and breaking promises of not enslaving those who accepted Christ. That was barbaric, but I suppose the evil one does under a "legitimate" religion is somehow more civilized. But I said nothing and just walked you to your vehicle. But what I shoulda said was:

When your momma was pregnant with you did she have a party?
When you were born and came home was there a party of any kind?
When you were presented at church was there a party of any kind?
And when you got baptized did you have any kind of celebration?
When you get engaged will there be a party of any kind?
When you get married will there be a ceremony or party of any kind?
And when you die will there be a ceremony or party of any kind?

Really?

And at this party will there be food? Meat per-chance?

Yeah?

And just how do you think that meat got there? You think the meat fairy just makes the meat show up like a replicator in Star Trek? How, pray tell do you think that meat got to the supermarket?

I mean, you DO know that at some cattle farm somewhere a cow was lead to a stall where a metal shank was thrust between his or her eyes resulting in immediate brain death? You do know that that cow dropped to the ground far less clean than anything you'd accept on your kitchen counter top. Oh yeah and someone, likely an underpaid immigrant from south of the border, strung up that cow and then slit it's throat so the blood could drain out...all over the floor. Guts cut open to remove the intestines, etc.

And don't think that if you eat chicken that it's much better. wrung necks, chickens floating through the air on conveyor belts like clothes at a laundry drained and plucked, gutted and sliced.

All that before it got to your plate after your "religious event" where long after the killing is done, you complete the "animal sacrifice" by 'blessing" your food. Never thought of it like that did you? You think because you weren't there for the killing that you're not "barbaric"? You pass off the killing to other people and now got your nose in the air tryin' to belittle me?

See it's easy to pass such judgments when you live in a metropolis and food is magically delivered to your supermarket. But think of places, even in the US, where dinner is literally walking around outside. The taking of life is not a big deal, whether it be for dinner or for some ceremony.

Look, unless you're a vegetarian, you really have nothing to say on the subject.

That's what I should have said. Right there and right then. Probably would have gone in one ear and exited the other or been retained in memory long enough to be the subject of "Do you know what he said" conversations with friends and family who will no doubt comfort you by telling you that you dodged a bullet by unhooking this "devil worshiper" who'll probably try to work some "root"on you. or whatever the type of ignorance passes for informed opinion these days.

Instead though I told you to drive carefully and let me know when you got home safely.