"If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?" — Chuck Palahniuk
“There's a war going outside we ain't safe from...I feel the pain in my city wherever I go / 314 soldiers died in Iraq, 509 died in Chicago.” -Kanye West
I hate doing blog post's like I did Monday because of this simple quote. "Small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events and great minds discuss ideas." I consider my mind to be a great mind and I let myself be manipulated by stupid people into giving them validation by writing about them. However, I hate writing about this next topic even more. As you can tell by the picture it is a subject that we should all be sick of hearing about.
I had just finished talking to my sister in South Jersey about the Great East Coast Earthquake and I joke about it now but it did shake me up (pun intended) earlier when it happened. The ground should never move under your feet when you are standing still, but that is another post. So I poured me another drink to ease my nerves and all of a sudden shots rang out. Now while shots ranging out on Planet Baltimore is not uncommon, it has been for the past 15 years where I have lived in this city. Tonight though the shots rang out right under my second floor window. I heard three shots. I heard the first bang and then a few seconds later I heard another shot followed by a scream then another shot. Now there are a lot of kids in my neighborhood so my first reaction was that's just some kids with some firecrackers playing around, but something about the scream made me think that this was not just some kids playing around. After a few minutes after the noise quieted down I went to my window and didn't see anything so I sat back down and thought maybe it was just some kids playing around. Then here comes the sirens and a few minutes after that I hear the helicopter. I return to the window and look out and there is about 10 police officers outside my back window looking for gun casings and taping off the crime scene and also someone lying on the ground.
A few minutes ago I found out that it was two people shot the one lying on the ground 10 yards from my window was fatally shot. While the fact that this happened right outside my window really disturbs me but I am more disturbed by my own reaction. The fact that I thought no more of this than some kids playing around. That I am so used to hearing gunshots and people yelling and screaming that I have all but tuned it out says a lot about me also. Later this morning I guess the "paper is going to read murder black on black murder...again!"
I know I haven't been here in a while but that is because I have been dealing with matters of the heart and I am not going to lie my ass been spinning out of control but I got my perspective back and I need to tell ya whats been going on lately in my little part of the world cause it is some shit straight out of Bizzaro World! Planet Baltimore Shit for sure. Okay here we go...
I am not a tough guy it is not in my nature. I am lover! As a Taurus I am gentle, even tempered, good natured, modest and slow to anger except here lately. I will normally go out of my way to avoid confrontations and ill feelings. However, if pushed I will blank-out and lose all self control and you would think you have just been hit by a Cat 5 hurricane. Again I try to avoid that at all costs. Not that I am afraid because I am a big guy, I got muscles and I don't do dumb shit meaning dealing with other peoples hang-ups and stupidity. It is not in my nature to fuck with people and I hate it when people try to fuck with me because I am me. I put the "em-fassis" on try to fuck with me because you punks can't move me for real! Now I do look good as hell most of the time especially with a fresh fade and clean shave and the ladies love me and the guys want to be like me but I rarely say anything to anyone cause I don't want to have to hurt anyone or anyone's feelings. Plus when I do say something some of you people act real stupid. I feel ya staring at me from 3-4 blocks away sometimes so by the time you get to me I am trying to figure out if you're a fan or foe. Most times it's just a garden variety hater and I love you guys because if you're hating on me just from looking at me I know I am doing something right. If you're not a hater I know sometimes it's that look on my face, a mix of confidence and caution, but I am old old school I speak when I am spoken too otherwise I keep it moving. I may on occasion flirt with the ladies but for the most part I just look at you looking at me.
I have tried numerous times to figure out what about me that makes folks wanna try me or test my resolve. Maybe its the convinced look on my face because I rarely smile unless someone is telling jokes, I am wrapped in a chord, line or verse of music or I see some stupid shit. However, here lately a lot of people have been giving me hard looks, running past me in their cars and some of these people really seem to think they have some bearing on the decisions I have been making here recently. Uh NO! YOU DON'T! So stop wasting your time! I swear sometimes my life seems like some kind of TV "Sitcomdocudrama"! I say something in the place I am staying for instance like I am going to the store and all of a sudden the people above me start acting stupid walking back and forth stomping on the floor and popping out of they houses and seemingly following me, people trying to stare me down. It's really crazy shit! Yesterday for example I start walking to the 24hr 365 liquor store to get a pack of Newports and a 12 oz Heineken and all of a sudden there is all of this activity like little Indian girls (dot variety) staring me down while walking up on me acting like they are going to walk me off the sidewalk, cars with folks inside I have seen before mean mugging me rolling up on me and real recently the police rolling up and down eyeballing me. They rolled up on me like they had solid evidence that I was going to rob the damn liquor store I went to or to try to cop some weed or dope they way they was acting. Really?!? Cut it out! The same people that more than likely called you guys was smoking like the shit was legal when I walked past a group of them. Maybe they thought that me smelling it would make me break my sobriety and go get some. Haaaa! Then to top the shit off when I came home there were 3 squad cars and one undercover car sitting out in the parking lot. Then some Indian dude (again dot variety) was walking towards me like he was going to do something. Playing chicken with me. If he had of made any moves other than to get out of my way it was going to take all of those cops to get me off that ass!! Now maybe its for my benefit, but I get that tingling in my spidey senses telling me that either someone is calling them on me because they are afraid I am about to go the fuck off or some lame ass attempt to force some kind of outcome where I go the fuck off!! More Dumb Shit! For the record I carry one weapon with me at all times and that is my beautiful mind and it is moving 10 steps ahead of any of my body parts and most of you! So if you really think you have anything to do with any of my decisions stop wasting your time cause all you are really doing is pissing me off and wasting precious time you could be using to enrich yourselves or reading my blog so that you can have this inner peace and contentment like me.
3rd - A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
4th - Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
Since I am highly versed in the Laws Of Stupidity you can rest assured I will not deal with stupid or stupid acting people at all. If that is what is pissing you off about me, the fact that I won't speak or or even acknowledge your presence it is either because I think you fall into one or more of those two categories or I have already have had contact with you and are convinced you are stupid. So let's review...I don't fuck with people so I do not expect to be fucked with or fucked around, I try to avoid confrontations at all cost, I am not scared I just hate all forms of stupidity and fuckery.
Now that is out of the way here is who I really am. I enjoy art, music and culture. I have strong aesthetic tastes, meaning I love art, I am an artist and consider what I do here an art form. I love all things beautiful...Ladies...And I can find beauty in most things, although I am repulsed by all things ugly and or sordid, which includes attitudes and feelings. I love music with a passion unmatched and I have a gift for making music and I have always wanted to make music. I believe just like Bill & Ted, that I am going to be the one the writes the song that brings the world together and ushers in the new utopian society. I am a poet, rapper and writer although I get so disgusted sometimes I refuse to share my art with the human race. I know there is only one race of Man and that we are different cultures and colors we all still have the same basics needs and wants. Racism is a trick that keeps us fighting among ourselves while the elite rape and pillage the earth and justify their greed.
While I detest religion, another tool of the rich and wealthy, I do have a very spiritual belief system that does include a God just not that jealous, vindictive, cruel, unloving, uncaring god with the human emotions that the rest of the world fears. I literally cringe when I hear people say they are god-fearing when God is love and with so much pure evil that exists in the world today to be feared. Why not be devil fearing or in fear of these human demons that walk the face of the earth and commit the most horrific crimes daily? Not too mention that for the life of me I cannot understand why can't people understand that God, the kingdom of heaven joy and all of those good things are inside of us all. That WE are the most powerful beings in our world, predict our futures and change our lives. That it takes Us to want to change our lives and worlds for the better not God. Cause if it was solely up to God alone wouldn't he change everyone? I mean really what makes more sense...That some imaginary hand from the sky pushes us to be better human beings or we decide ourselves we want to be better human beings? However, this post is not about god or religion I will save that for later this is about me and my mania or lack there of so back to it...
I am a comfort creature and pleasure seeker and I like to have the best of everything especially good food and drink although I do overindulge on occasion and suffer from it later in the form of sour stomach and the occasional hangover. However, if you drink from the top shelf and leave the cheap stuff alone you rarely have to worry about hangovers even if you do have one or three drinks too many. In my case I get hangovers when I mix and match liquors or drink too many beers and have a couple of drinks together. Lately, I have been avoiding the beer altogether because it makes me feel bloated and puts on weight fast.
I can be a little bourgeoisie hence my love for material possessions and the finer things in life. I am generally a good law abiding citizen with a strong sense of right and wrong, but it is my sense of right and wrong not someone else's. I dislike people that litter especially when there is a trashcan nearby it offends my sense of beauty for nature. Planet Baltimore would be a much nicer place if the indigenous people didn't litter. I have a quick wit and tend to be more practical than intellectual however, this Taurus is very high functioning, intellectual sometimes bordering on the brilliant and excelling in the written word. It takes me a minute to understand the higher abstract concepts of math like algebra and calculus but I am determined to excel in every endeavor I indulge in.
On the darker side I can sometimes be ultra conservative and self righteous, brooding, unoriginal, rigid and hostile to change. Over the years though I have learned change is gonna come whether I like it or not. I can be judgmental, bullheaded, downright mean and unforgiving. Stuck in my opinions and fears even if it is irrational. I have a favorite saying about "it" and I do not know who said it but I think I heard it in the rooms of N/A, "If IT doesn't get better with you, you better get better with IT cause IT don't give a shit." My sponsor used to tell me that all of the time. I really try to avoid going over too or giving into the dark side and if I do give in to the darker me it is after several days of pushing from forces outside my control. I let a lot of bullshit go on a daily basis from people no where near my mental or social strata because I recognize it for what it is but after a few days of the same bullshit I will defend myself viciously and when my mind fires it leaves big gaping holes in my victims!
Now by nature I usually give people the benefit of the doubt until they do something to me and then I have to refer back to the 1st Law of Stupidity:
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
At first, the statement sounds trivial, vague and horribly ungenerous. Closer scrutiny will however reveal its realistic veracity. No matter how high are one's estimates of human stupidity, one is repeatedly and recurrently startled by the fact that:
a) people whom one had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid.
b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, one is harassed in one's activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.
300 Million People In America, 299.9 Million Are Stupid!
Menace
I woke up this morning and I did not feel that usual dread I do most mornings because I feel all is lost and there is no sense in trying anymore. That it is going to be another day wondering if I am ever going to get a job or even a job interview because I swear I do not want to spend another day wondering if I will be able to hold my head up and act like the man I pretend to be from the shame of not being able to provide for myself and loved ones. It was also the first morning in a couple weeks that I woke up because my body got the proper amount of sleep and not because the new neighbors above me were stomping over top my head or the stress of facing another day dealing with that situation and not going up to the roof and giving them a little bit of their own medicine which would have probably felt better than the actual good nights sleep. I could bang on the ceiling and start a war of attrition but I do realize that my karma just like the United States can't afford another war and not too mention I have to realize that I have absolutely no control of what someone else does. Maybe they don't realize that what comes around goes around or they don't think about that. More than likely the latter. I know there is a simple solution to this and just about any conflict that may arise and that is to simply think about how you yourself would want to be treated and act accordingly but I guess when people are caught up in the moment they really do not think about that or rather they really don't think at all UNTIL they are on the other side of it, but today none of that mattered because they did and it was all quiet and peaceful.
When I left my house this morning I noticed the heatwave had dissipated and it was a nice breeze flowing. Seems people have recognized that global warming is not some made up liberal plot but is actually man made from cars, industrial pollution and cow farts. That they have started driving less not because of the ever increasing gas prices, but their concern for the environment and their children and their children that will inherit these problems. I heard that conservatives and teabaggers like Sarah Palin have given up on the lie that CO2, CO1, Methane and other greenhouse gases are good for humans and the environment. I always think about that absurd commercial that shows a highway with a 1001 cars on them spewing black smoke and some yo yo coming on and talking about how a pack of cigarettes are worse than that. Fill your car with automobile exhaust and smoke you die. Fill it with cigarette smoke you may get sick or smell really bad but you live.
While I was at the bus stop I actually saw a guy start to throw his trash out his car window and I guess he saw me standing there with the tear in my eye like that slot Indian dude Iron Eyes Cody from those old littering commercials and decided against it and actually pulled over and placed the trash in the trash can. I didn't really have a tear in my eye but I did shake my head with a disgusted look on my face, but I guessed it worked. Then like magic everyone else I saw today actually put the trash in the can instead of throwing it on the ground next to the can. What struck me as odd is that those same people that usually throw the trash on the ground and out their car windows are normally the very same people screaming the loudest about the big ass killer rats that roam the streets of Planet Baltimore kicking cats in the ass. I also noticed that the apartment complex where I live has started making people recycle by putting signs on the three dumpsters instead and fining people for not sorting. I mean it only makes sense after the Planet City Council spent so much money and time on a massive campaign to get everyone to recycle and save a few bucks in the process for more police protection.
I heard that the oil companies agreed to re-write a new energy bill that have them paying much more in taxes because they realize for the last ten years they have made record profits and since they have been more than just partly responsible for what is going on with the environment. I mean they let oil spew from an underwater leak for literally months and that is just here in the United States. We are not even skimming the surface (pun intended) of all the different environmental disasters and oil spills that didn't get as much press as the Valdez and the latest the Gulf Oil spill. I also read that Exxon finally paid for the Valdez oil spill with interest for all the years they held it up in court, again from the enormous profits they have made over the last two decades since the spill.
I read or heard that our leaders stopped playing politricks and passed a debt ceiling bill that taxed the rich who were paying less in taxes than people making hundreds of thousands of dollars less than them and struggling to pay their bills while working harder and longer. I heard they cut military spending and entitlements. I read that Congress gave up on massive spending cuts that only hurt the poor and working class and didn't touch Social Security or Medicare and fixed that disastrous Medicaid Prescription program. I heard the President and Congress made a reverse NAFTA type deal with Canada to allow we the people to get cheaper prescription drugs, so that my mother and elderly aunts and uncles and the rest of we the people's elderly or sick didn't have to decide which was more important month to month, eating or taking care of their health. I heard he stopped spending billions of dollars in stupid overseas wars against abstract ideas and concepts and brought our soldiers home. He eventually put those billions of dollars to use helping those soldiers get re-acclimated to life at home and rehabilitation programs and giving tax breaks to companies that created jobs here in America and not in China, India and elsewhere.
Someone told me that President Obama actually signed a bill that officially closed down Guantanamo Bay and 100's of other secret prisons, stopped renditions and torture, formally brought back habeas corpus and stopped all military tribunals saving us millions of dollars that he put back into education and fixing America's rotting infrastructure. I taped a brilliant speech by the president like the ones he made on the campaign trail urging the world to come together and stop world hunger and to cure all the treatable diseases in Africa and other third world countries where people were dying from simple diseases like malaria and complications from drinking dirty water. He urged the world's pharmaceutical companies to stop stifling promising research into real cures and not just medicating them with overpriced drugs that had more side effects than the diseases they were supposed to be helping. I remember hearing him say some things in his speech about equality and true democracy and I was happy and smiling because I finally felt that this man was actually gonna make America live up to it's promise. Instead of just talking though he actually wrote out a plan to accomplish all these things I heard him urge the world to wake up and and that resonated with me until I woke up and realized I had been sleeping and all of this had been a dream...I think it was a combination of the stomping above me, the trash that actually hit my foot from someones car and the sheer absurdity of all of this stuff happening over night!
*****UPDATE*****
I heard the president actually really caved in and gave the republicans and teabaggers 98% of what they were asking for and these assholes are still talking about this is not a deal they can vote for. I really wish that was a dream but alas it is the cold hard reality of just how determinedly destructive a few stupid people with a little bit of power can be!
She didn't want to go to rehab she said, "No, No No"! Karma didn't like the example she was setting so she had to Go, Go Go!
First I gotta preface this post with a disclaimer. I loved Amy Winehouse as an artist. I think I might have even done a post where I compared her song "Tears Dry On Their Own" with Aretha Franklin's "Say A Little Prayer" both brilliant songs that were well written, well produced and well song. So this is in no way a post condemning her or any artist that had emotional and mental problems exacerbated by drugs and alcohol but more about the sadness in losing any person with the talent that she had at such a young age. I consider any one under the age of 50 still young also. But "Here We Goes"!
There is nothing cool or romantic about someone with the amount of talent Amy Winehouse had to die at 27 years of age. That old bullshit about "living fast and dying young" is just that bullshit. When I heard about Amy dying on Saturday I felt the same way did when I heard Kurt Cobain had committed suicide at age 27. Now Amy Winehouse in effect committed suicide at 27, joining Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix both of whom also died at age 27. Let's make no mistake about it they all committed suicide. The drugs and alcohol at young ages causes depression and other problems and when you add that on top of all the internal conflicts they had it is the recipe for ending your life early. Her problems with drugs were well documented so I wont repeat them here. While she wasn't going as hard on the drugs she was still binge drinking heavily and it is rumored that a "bad" ecstasy pill while drinking heavily might have led to seizures, she was suffering from, that ultimately killed her.
There is supposedly some kind of "Rock and Soul 27 Club" and it is linked to the fact that quite a few artists have died at age 27. The club now has a 35 person membership roster with the death of Winehouse which includes Jim Morrison, blues singer Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. On the surface it seems to appear that there is something to it but we have to realize not all the people linked to the music industry on that list that died at 27 was due to drugs and alcohol. Mia Zapata of the punk rock band the Gits was murdered at 27 nearly 28. Robert Johnson was supposedly poisoned by a jealous husband who owned a juke joint and was married to a woman Johnson was flirting with. Brian Jones former Rolling Stones musician was later thought to be murdered also. Now while it is a pretty impressive list one could say that maybe that is the age that the body finally just gives in from long term drug and alcohol abuse especially if it goes unchecked. I was on the same path back in the 90's with cocaine and if I didn't get some help I might have ended up the same way.
I hope you finally find some peace Amy and I just wanted you to know Imma miss you and that wonderful voice and the joy it brought me!
I happened to be up early Wednesday morning and I caught Matt Lauer talking to some guy who's name I can't remember and how he was saying that he thought that the premise of Rupert Murdoch not knowing what his executives and journalists were up to was sort of an inside joke at News Of the World and the hearings. Of course I cannot find any video of the interview or anything of any relevance except for the shaving cream incident, which I am sure Murdoch had set-up to interrupt the hearing himself. The guy Lauer was talking to about the Murdoch hearings with Parliament even hinted at that himself. The whole thing kind of reminded me of Junior Soprano in court playing the "I can't remember card". I was waiting for him to start acting like Frank Pentangeli from the Godfather 2 when he was called in to testify against Michael Corleone and saw his brother from Sicily sitting there, "I never knew no godfather. I got my own family, senator ". The same man that once said this:
I try to keep in touch with the details... I also look at the product daily. That doesn't mean you interfere, but it's important occasionally to show the ability to be involved. It shows you understand what's happening. Rupert Murdoch
Piers Morgan in his book stated that he used to consult with Murdoch weekly when he was editor of News of the World. Now we are supposed to believe the same guy that "kept in touch with the details" and "looked at the product daily" all of a sudden didn't know what was going on with how his tabloid was getting all of these sensational stories. Where our Star and National Enquirer tabloids just make shit up and embellishes little bits of truth, News of the World hacks peoples phones.
Monday Jon Stewart was feeling a little down about the state of affairs here in America, so John Oliver decided to cheer him up by comparing Americas troubles with the News of the World's Phone hacking scandal...
Now just like in the Abu Gharib scandal a few years ago the guys who were in charge and the rich guy in this instance are putting all of the weight on the "foot soldiers" and underlings who are just following orders from higher up. What a bunch of crudball bastards! However, I guess I cannot be too hard on the Scotland Yard Commander and the police over there "Across the Pond" when we got cops on Planet Baltimore selling dope...From CBS Baltimore.com:
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — He’s supposed to keep drugs off the streets, but a city police officer has been accused of selling heroin in uniform and in the parking lot of a police station.
Weijia Jiang explains how investigators unraveled the drug ring.
It was the Baltimore police department that asked the FBI to investigate. Now one of their own could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted of felony drug and gun charges.
Baltimore police officer Daniel Redd, 41, is accused of being one of the masterminds in a conspiracy to distribute heroin across the city with drugs shipped in from Africa.
“He’s supposed to be helping us, protecting us from the ones on the street doing it,” said Jackie Chukwu, Northwest Baltimore.
Redd and four others are named in a seven count grand jury indictment. It says Redd made drug deals while on duty at the Northwest District, where he’s assigned to patrol. Federal agents arrested him there on Tuesday morning.
“We hope that sends a powerful message that if you carry guns and deal drugs, whether you’re a street corner junkie or a police officer, you’re going to face a lengthy stay in federal prison,” said Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney.
In one of the most brazen accounts mentioned in the indictment, prosecutors say Redd walked right out of the Northwest police station wearing his full police uniform to another part of the parking lot where he handed off an undisclosed amount of heroin. MORE!
I can remember a time not long ago when CEO's and guy's in charge of other guy's who did dumb shit and got caught would own up to scandals and take the blame because it "happened on their watch". Not anymore even if they were once quoted saying:
The buck stops with the guy who signs the checks. Rupert Murdoch
I guess Murdoch was talking about the CFO or accountant guy that actually signs the bribery checks. I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about the underlings that quit, got arrested and fired in this scandal cause someone should have had the slightest bit of integrity and said, "hey this is wrong and needs to stop!" but I guess that is not an option when your livelihood is on the line. Also it seems like they have been doing this for so long, I guess they thought they could get away with it forever.
"Just Because It Has Always Been Done That Way Doesn't Make It Right!"
Try as I might I cannot remember "The Good Old Days" that everyone keeps talking about. I scour the Internet and read history books but these "Good Old Days" seem very elusive to me. There was the Ice Ages, The Dark Ages, The Crusades, The Inquisition, The Revolutionary War, Slavery (which is still in effect today just that includes all peoples), Civil War, Lincoln Assassinated, The Slaughter of the American Indian, The Rise of Organized Crime, Suffrage, Prohibition, The Great Depression, The Rise Of Hitler, World War 1 & 2, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, The Korean War, Vietnam, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Cold War, The Assassinations of the 60's (The Kennedy Brothers John & Robert, MLK, Malcolm X), The 6 Day War, Palestine, The Oil Embargo, Gas Lines, Watergate, Nixon Impeachment, AyatollahKhomeini, The Iran Hostage Crisis, The Iraq-Iran War, Iran Contra, Aids, The Rise of the Colombian Drug Cartels, Crack, Bush 1, Desert Storm, NAFTA, Bosnia, Kosovo, Bush 2, Large Tax Cuts For The Top 2% Of Americans, The Rise Of The Neocons, Enron, 911, US Attacks Afghanistan, US Attacks Iraq, Abu Gharib, Bush 2 the Sequel, Katrina, The Bailouts (Bear Stearns-$30 billion, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac-$400 billion, AIG-$180 billion, General Motors-$25 billion, TARP-$700 billion, Citigroup-$280 billion), Obama Elected, Afghanistan Troop Surge and most recently Rupert Murdoch and The Spying and Hacking Scandal. But no "Good Old Days". Yet we keep reminiscing about times that we the people never had. The rich and elite may recall "The Good Old Days" but damn if I can.
There are thousands more of these incidents that supposedly make up the "Good Old Days" and a lot of them are little things that seem harmless on the surface but they are deliberate and calculating steps to force certain outcomes. Random chance has all but been taken out of the equation. As far as the Murdoch debacle people have forgotten that they are being spied on, hacked, financially ruined and pissed on everyday by their own government and we will come to find out that the only crime the moneyed elitist Murdoch will be guilty of is getting caught. I hope you guy's didn't think that once Obama took office or rather it was given to him that spying on Americans stopped or torture ceased, that the wars were going to stop and all the troops would come home and Guantanamo Bay was going to close or any of the other thousands of promises he made on the campaign trail were going to see the light of day. We wanted Universal Healthcare not health insurance. We were promised and end to the wars, we got an escalation. We voted for change and we got more of the same in triplicate. There might have been good old moments, brief snippets in our personal lives but nothing in history past or recent that indicate there were "Good Old Days" for the majority.
If you really think about what all of those events really have in common you should be able to see that there is no such thing as democracy never was especially when a few control the many. It always affects first the poor who have been trained to expect the worse, the common working man and the almost non existent middle class who really doesn't realize or want to admit it to themselves that for every one step forward they are getting pushed back 3. The Christian Right or working class conservatives, the "1% wannabes" as I call them who are either to stupid to realize or have brainwashed themselves into believing that they are going to let you in their really really exclusive club. You are being used and then abused and ridiculed after you have played your part, well I might add. Then there are the real nutjobs like the "Teabaggers" that are always voting and screaming against the very social programs that they themselves use and have benefited from, like public education which has declined so much over the past 30 years its no wonder that they cannot understand that they are playing themselves. The disability they claim that there parents claim, the social security they might be claiming. Most of if not all the programs that FDR put into place. Thinking that they are entitled to it and everyone else is just leaching off of it. You are not entitled to a damn thing because you claim to be of a certain political color or set.
Here's a bit of irony about that situation too. We shake our heads in disgust about thugs in California and elsewhere nowadays killing themselves and each other over red and blue yet our country is fiercely divided, very unevenly I might add, along those same lines. Mainly throughout the South and the Midwest where you have a lot of poor to working class, Christian, slightly less educated people than their East and West Coast counterparts. We all know deep down inside that they are both just different sides of the same coin yet we rationalize it by saying it's the lesser of two evils, which will never change the fact that it is still evil nonetheless! If we really think about it we should be able to realize that over the past 20 years we have seen the greatest inequitable transfer of wealth never before seen in the history of mankind. Well over 16 Trillion dollars and counting. What did we the people receive? Yeah that's right about $600 dollars. If we really think about it we will realize that we are always reminiscing about a time that never occurred and will never occur unless we wake up, stop fighting amongst ourselves and recognize who the real enemy is. If you really think about it you will realize that religion, nationality, cultural differences, homophobia, racism (which is not even real because we are all of the same race - Human), sexism, nepotism and all the rest of the -ism's are all tools they use to keep us distracted from the rampant "class-ism" that like racism pits one small group of people (the rich and privileged) against a much greater group of people (the rest of us) who accept their lot in life because the rich and elite have used their tools really well to train the masses. Religion and the bible teach people to “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”. It teaches people to wait for their rewards in the afterlife and heaven while the rich and privileged live heaven on earth.
If we really think about it we will realize we have made ourselves slaves to a few. The Good Old Days of the Feudal system retrofitted for the modern age. Sharecropping for the Corporations that now enjoy more benefits and freedoms than the majority of human beings. If we really pondered our situation we would realize we pay them to let us work for them in the form of income taxes. I do all of the work and someone takes a few percentage points off the top without providing any labor. I could understand if someone from the government came to the workplace and told me to take it easy for a few hours while they helped knock out the workload. If we really really pondered our situation we would realize especially you "1% wannabes" and you loud ignorant ass teabaggers that the very same corporations that are supposed to pay the taxes are enjoying the best and biggest social program of all time and that is corporate welfare. If we really tried to ponder our situation we would realize that the only tax I should be paying are on the items I consume or purchase. Maybe that would be a example of the "Good Old Days". The days before the Federal Reserve, Fractional Banking and Americans paying taxes to bankers to offset the cost of them printing our currency and charging us interest for the privilege of doing this. Yeah those were the days!
"My old man worked twenty years on the line, and they let him go. Now everywhere he goes out looking for work, they just tell him that he's too old. I was nine years old and he was working at the Metuchen Ford plant assembly line, Now he just sits down on a stool down at the Legion Hall, But I can tell what's on his mind.
Glory Days, Yeah go on back, Glory days, Ah he ain't never had Glory days." -Bruce Springsteen
So I normally write this shit on Friday nights so that it is ready early morning Saturday but I went out Friday night, first time in a long time to go to the 30th Annual Artscape Festival here on Planet Baltimore. Mainly to go see Fantasia to find out for myself if the rumors about her being pregnant AGAIN by the same married dude as before are true. I wish I got a photo but I left my camera at home. My bad! There are a couple of vids on youtube from the concert last night but I didn't run across any good photos and unless you were right up front it was really hard to see. I am sure alot of other folks went to see for themselves as well.
I did catch a couple of glimpses of Fantasia and she looked a little heavy around the belly to me but only time will tell if she is really pregnant. Now Fantasia is a "thick-um" to begin with and there are a couple other scenarios that could account for the recent weight gain, first the whole pregnant thing again. Then she is playing Mahalia Jackson in an upcoming movie and she might be putting on the weight and getting into character. Then of course her love of "Cornbread and Collard Greens" could be the reason but she was a little "thicker" than normal. You can see for yourself in THIS VID from last night. I suggest you turn down/off your sound because the sound of this video is horrible. No offense to the poster but it is what it is! Plus we are just trying to see here. She had on a big blousey thing that kind of reminded me of a toga. I did find a couple of pics online of her and her boyfriend (termed loosely) from June 29th.
According to the website Eurweb she is supposedly 2.5 months pregnant with dudes baby. The pics were taken back in June when she was in Barbados for a concert. By the same token radaronline reports back in February:
American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino is putting a stop to pregnancy rumors, but she does admit to gaining weight, saying it's for a role in a new film she'll be starring in.
"Fantasia is 100% not pregnant. The only thing she's pregnant with is prosperity," the 26-year-old's manager, Brian Dickens, told RadarOnline.com in an exclusive interview. MORE!
The photos are supposedly from June and the reports are from February but the youtube link is from last night and imho she appears she could be pregnant. Only time will tell though! On another note she did sound good. I know a lot of you might be wondering who cares and why am I blogging about it? Well this is Politics, BS (Bullshit/Belief Systems) and The Tinfoil Tirades so file it under BS and keep it moving. Not to mention it goes with the title Really and the picture asking are you really that dumb? But hey like she said last night after belting out the song, "I know y'all done heard a lot of stuff but I am just doing me Baltimore"! Speaking of bs Casey Anthony will be released tomorrow and that is not the bs I am referring too but all this bs about someone hurting her and death threats and shit...From msnbc.com:
The Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — Casey Anthony is spending her last day in jail Saturday preparing for an uncertain future after nearly three years behind bars.
Anthony was acquitted of first-degree murder in Caylee's death earlier this month in a sensational trial that was carried extensively on cable television stations. She was found guilty of four counts of lying to police, but with time served and good behaviour credits, she didn't have to serve out her four-year sentence.
Orange County Jail officials planned to release Anthony sometime Sunday under circumstances they refused to disclose. One of her attorneys, Cheney Mason, said Friday that Anthony is scared to leave jail, given numerous threats on her life and the scorn of a large segment of the public that believes she had something to do with the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Mason said he isn't taking any chances: "We are all vigilant and I am armed. MORE!
Let's hope Mr Mason doesn't go from vigilant to vigilante. Everyone needs to leave that trick alone. Stop with the death threats and let it go. If she actually killed that little girl you can best believe God's guy Karma will get her ass or she is gonna do something stupid like OJ did and end up in jail. Like I said last week if ya wanna be mad at anyone be mad at the prosecution cause they didn't meet the burden of proof.
How about 178 educators told to quit or be fired in the aftermath of that Atlanta test cheating scandal. They would have to fire my ass because idk how it is in GA but here in MD you can't get your unemployment if ya quit. From CNN:
Atlanta (CNN) -- The superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools has ordered that 178 educators allegedly involved in a teaching scandal resign or face termination proceedings.
In a letter, Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. gave them the opportunity to resign by Wednesday, said Keith Bromery, director of media relations for the schools.
The letter was sent Thursday to educators listed on a report about the state Criterion-Reference Competency Tests as having confessed to or having been implicated in testing improprieties.
On Monday, at a school board meeting, Davis replaced four area superintendents and a school principal. MORE!
Back in June the same thing happened in Baltimore. From WBALTV.com:
BALTIMORE -- Some staff members at two Baltimore City schools played a role in cheating to help students pass a major state exam, authorities said.
Baltimore City schools CEO Andres Alonso broke the news Thursday morning, saying two of his most prized and once high-performing elementary schools in east Baltimore had been caught cheating on the Maryland School Assessment test."We felt that this kind of behavior by adults was a crime toward our kids," Alonso said.Test answers at Fort Worthington Elementary School were changed and attendance records were altered during the 2009-10 academic year, WBAL-TV 11 News Education Alert reporter Tim Tooten said. Staff members are also accused of giving some students special accommodations in violation of state testing law. MORE!
Over at the Md State Dept of Eds website they are touting that for the 3rd straight year Md schools have received number one rankings in 2011. Maybe cheating is the reason why? I am just asking! I do have to say that although these educators were dishonest I have to put the blame on that No Kid Left Behind legislation that puts a lot of pressure on educators to get kids to pass test's to get tax dollars instead of teaching them to learn.
Speaking of education. Do you guys remember Blossom real name Mayim Bialik? Had her own TV show in the 80's? Well not only did she play a scientist on TV in the '"Big Bang Theory" she is one in real life from CNN:
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
July 15, 2011 7:24 a.m. EDT
Mayim Bialik plays Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory."
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Mayim Bialik plays Amy Farrah Fowler on "The Big Bang Theory"
She's written a book about parenting based on hormones involved in parent-child bonding
Bialik holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA
(CNN) -- You may remember her as the title character from NBC's "Blossom," or recognize her as brainy Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory."
Mayim Bialik has made a name for herself in the entertainment business, but she's also had a lesser-known career in a similar field as her "Big Bang Theory" character: neuroscience.
Bialik, 35, who will attend her first San Diego Comic-Con next week, studied neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles. She's also written a book about parenting based on the science of hormones involved in parent-child bonding, to be released by Simon & Schuster in 2012. MORE!
Here's one for the not so educated files. Pops really wanted him some hotdogs. I could see if they were some Sonic Dogs. From WBALTV.com:
According to the police report, Webb told police his vehicle’s throttle stuck and he could not slow down as he approached the building. Tests showed no alcohol in his system.
The truck collided with a moped, sending it under a sport-utility vehicle. The pickup crashed through a brick wall into an area with deep fryers, knocking about 100 pounds of hot grease onto an employee who suffered first- and second-degree burns.Business owner Dennis Rupert said Webb got out of his truck after the crash and tried to order some hot dogs. MORE!
Since we are talking about not so educated let's get to the rethugs. I found this particularly (C)Wrap-Up worthy. Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supremes, not Dinah and nem, has a boblehead doll coming out this fall. From CNN:
By Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer
July 16, 2011 1:50 p.m. EDT
The Justice Clarence Thomas Annotated Bobblehead is the latest in a series that originated eight years ago.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Seven current or recent justices have been made into dolls
Thomas doll will be released this fall in honor of his 20th anniversary on court
Justices rack up the airline miles with summer engagements
Washington (CNN) -- The black-robed figure stares straight ahead, stalwart and silent, his head nodding appreciatively. He carries a big stick, which happens to have an American flag attached. And the man proudly stands on a toy truck and a pair of pizza boxes.
Say hello to the Justice Clarence Thomas Annotated Bobblehead, about the closest thing a member of the Supreme Court gets to collectible immortality.
The sought-after doll -- it's OK to call them dolls -- is the latest release in a pantheon of justices past and present honored in cold-cast ceramic. MORE!
Shouldn't he be standing on a Cadillac and "chicken boxes"? Again just asking. For this next piece imma let you make the call. First there is the Bachmans in particular the good Dr. Marcus Bachmann. After denying that their clinic offers "pray away the gay" therapy there comes that pesky videotape thing. From Crooks & Liars:
ABC News presented undercover video Monday that confirms the clinic owned by Michele Bachmann and her husband Dr. Marcus Bachmann does indeed try to "pray away the gay."
The Nationreported last week that Andrew Ramirez's mother took him to the clinic in 2004 at the age of 17 because he said he was gay.
"[One counselor's] path for my therapy would be to read the Bible, pray to God that I would no longer be gay," Ramirez said. "And God would forgive me if I were straight."
Undercover video from the pro-gay group Truth Wins Out provided further evidence that the Bachmann clinic practices gay-to-straight therapy.
John Becker, who visited the clinic with two hidden cameras, was told that he could be completely free of his homosexual urges.
"You're in the midst of a storm, in the midst of a battle," a therapist explained. "I think it's possible to be totally free of them."
"The truth is God, God as designed our eyes to be attracted to the woman's, to the woman's body, to be attracted to, you know, everything. You know, to be attracted to her breasts," he added.
"He seemed to believe genuinely in his heart of hearts that, somehow, my homosexuality could be cured and could be eliminated," Becker told ABC News.
The American Psychological Association has said that there is no evidence that therapy can change sexual orientation.
Here is where you make the call though. After ABC airs that report Jon Stewart of the Daily Show airs this:
In November 2006, escort and masseurMike Jones alleged that Haggard had paid Jones to engage in sex with him for three years and had also purchased and used crystal methamphetamine.[1] A few days later Haggard resigned from all of his leadership positions.
After the scandal was publicized, Haggard entered three weeks of intensive counseling, overseen by four ministers. In February 2007, one of those ministers, Tim Ralph, said that Haggard "is completely heterosexual."[2] Ralph later said he meant that therapy "gave Ted the tools to help to embrace his heterosexual side." On June 1, 2010 Haggard announced that he intended to start a new church in Colorado Springs.[3] In February 2011, Haggard came out as bisexual.[4] MORE!
Now this next one is just scary. Minnesota's Queen of Crazy is actually the front-runner in the GOP bid for president. CNN:
(CNN)-Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann may have announced her bid for the 2012 GOP nomination for president well into the second fundraising quarter, but she still managed to outpace competitors.
Bachmann will report $4.2 million in contributions to the Federal Election Commission for the second quarter, according to a Friday release. Reports for the second quarter were due to be filed Friday.
Almost half the amount to be reported by Bachmann, $2 million dollars, was transferred from her congressional account. The rest was raised in more than 88,000 contributions that averaged $48.00 each. Funds raised for federal campaigns can be transferred from one federal account to another according to FEC guidelines. Funds raised by political action committees, or PACs, cannot be transferred to campaign coffers.
Bachmann, a tea party darling who's recently faced both acclaim and criticism, has $3.6 million in cash to spend on her presidential campaign efforts. MORE!
I cannot wait to see those debates! Now all the rest of the GOP candidates are gonna try to go one crazier than Bachmann! It should be hilarious. Here is a little reminder of just how crazy she is. From Businessinsider.com:
1. On the granite State (NH): "What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love of liberty...You're the state where the shot heard round the world in Lexington and Concord."
~ March 12, 2011 speech to the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire.
Note: The 1776 Battles of Lexington and Concord took place in Massachusetts.
2. On President Obama: "We will talk a little bit about what has transpired in the last 18 months and would we count what has transpired into turning our country into a nation of slaves."
~ July 9 2010 Western Conservative Summit in Denver.
4. On the Census: "I know for my family, the only question that we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."
- Interview with the Washington Times, June 17, 2009.
Note: The Constitution doesn't say that. It's illegal to not fill out the entire Census.
5. More On the Census: "Take this into consideration. If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that's how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I'm not saying that that's what the Administration is planning to do..."
6. On Government Spending: "During the last 100 days we have seen an orgy. It would make any local smorgasbord embarrassed...The government spent its wad by April 26."
7. On the Swine Flu: "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."
~ Interview with Pajamas Media, April 27, 2009.
Note: The 1976 swine flu outbreak occured during Gerald Ford's presidency. Ronald Reagan was president during another, smaller, outbreak in 1988.
8. On global Warming: "The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It's all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax."
~ March 15, 2008 speech at the Sherburne County Republican Nominating Convention.
"There isn’t one such study because carbon dioxide is not a harmful gas, it is a harmless gas. Carbon dioxide is natural. It is not harmful. It is part of Earth’s life cycle...And yet we’re being told that we have to reduce this natural substance and reduce the American standard of living to create an arbitrary reduction in something that is naturally occurring in the earth."
9. On homosexuality: "Normalization (of gayness) through desensitization. A very effective way to do this with a bunch of second graders is to take a picture of "The Lion King" for instance, and a teacher might say, "Do you know the music for this movie was written by a gay man?" The message is: I'm better at what I do because I'm gay."
~ November 6, 2004 speech at Edwatch National Education Conference.
Here is a pic of the rest of the field she is running against
They are Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum, Bachmann and not pitured due to being still on the fence Texas Gov. Rick Perry. CNN should make this a reality TV show cause it is going to be hilarious watching them try to out crazy Bachmann.
Getting a little "serious-er" is the GOP as we get closer to the Debt Ceiling Deadline which is Aug. 3rd not because they have come to their senses per se but their big business backers are starting to get a little worried and have been since April. From PERspectives:
Nothing focuses the mind, it is said, like the sight of the gallows. So it is for the American business community as the clock ticks down on the looming deadline to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. Over the past few days, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street executives, the National Association of Manufacturers and a host of the GOP's other big business allies have warned the Republican leadership that the party's grandstanding risks an economic calamity for the United States.
During George W. Bush's tenure in the White House, Republican majorities voted seven times to increase the U.S. debt ceiling. (The current GOP leadership team cast a total of 19 yea votes.) But demanding a vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and draconian budgets cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as preconditions for boosting the $14.3 trillion ceiling, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor are creating fear, uncertainty and doubt about the full faith and credit of the United States.
But as The Hill reported this morning, the same business backers who bankrolled the GOP's overwhelming victories in November has had enough of the FUD:
The Obama administration will likely have the support of major business groups as it works to round up Republican votes for raising the federal debt ceiling.
Groups such as the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) plan to step up their advocacy for a debt-limit increase as the deadline for congressional action draws closer.
Lobbyists for several major trade associations told The Hill that they have already had discussions with first-term House Republicans about the necessity of lifting the debt ceiling to avoid a default on U.S. debt. MORE!
I am going to end this (C)Wrap-Up with this next piece. Only a real crackhead would say that he doesn't "smoke rocks"! From Crooks & Liars:
The Republican candidate running to unseat a Democratic Wisconsin state Senator in next week's recall election said Thursday that a child abuse investigation against him was "just another false accusation."
But discerning voters might think otherwise, considering his history.
"I read a social services report yesterday that says I smoke crack," David VanderLeest told Wisconsin Public Radio's Joy Cardin. "None of it's true. I don't smoke rocks, and that's the truth." MORE!
Watch the vid:
He doesn't say it once but twice. However that is par for the course with the rethugs! I could go on and on for days but this should give you enough to last you all day Sunday.
.jpg)
11 p.m. Report: City Leaders Respond To Allegations
