Archive for April, 2009
24
One of the things President Obama stated in his inaugural speech was that he was going to reach out to enemies and try and make them friends. After years, if not decades of animosity, this will be no small feat. Iran, North Korea, and even Venezuela, are now countries that we would like to bring into the global family. So when President Obama visited Venezuela, it was with the intent to open dialog with a country that has long said that it will not bow to U.S pressure on anything. From most accounts, the meetings between Obama and Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, went well. So I found it funny that there are certain segments of the press, the right wing nut jobs, who are focusing on something like a handshake.
CNBC host Larry Ludlow was INCENSED that President Obama and President Hugo Chavez greeted each other with the “Boyz in the Hood” handshake. For those of you who don’t know what that means it’s when two people shake hands but instead of grasping each other’s full hand first, you grasp each other’s thumbs first. The venom with which Ludlow voiced his opinion speaks more about him than it does about President Obama. Ludlow stated that the picture of them shaking hands “bugged the hell out of him and really pissed him off all weekend.” A HANDSHAKE did all that? He does admit that they “greeted each other warmly.” But that is the point DUMBASS!
Those people in the “know” are aware that you greet friends, family members, co-workers, and business associates differently. Friends and family members call each other names that they would never say to anyone else. I’ve seen Black, White, Asian, and Latino people great one another and their own race in this manner. It is a greeting of LOVE and RESPECT, PERIOD! The greeting between Obama and Chavez was that type of greeting. Two people who have a mutual respect for one another.
People of African descent have never done anything to anyone on the same or similar levels as to what was done to them. And that is a reason the world was euphorias when Obama was elected. Because the hope is that instead of blowing into countries and pushing our military weight around, we will be able to sit down with people FIRST and try and come to an understanding. And the “Boyz in the Hood” handshake was just that kind of understanding. The problem is that Larry saw something that he didn’t understand and to deal with it, he lashed out at it.
Ludlow should be glad that President’s Obama and Chavez didn’t break down and have a “dance off.” Or do the “fist pound.” Or a “chest bump.” Because he might have had a heart attack!
24
The latest salvo in the Same Couple Marriage debate, was a “bikini model” masquerading as a Miss USA candidate, speaking for the “whole country, saying that marriage is between a man and a women.” And this is what was taught to her in her home mind you. What galls me is that while people are more than within their right to state their bigoted opinions, those opinions affect people’s lives. Within the last two weeks, two bright preteen boys committed suicide because they were being bullied and teased MERCILESSLY because they were thought to be gay. Another kid, 17yr old Eric Mohat, was told to go ahead and commit suicide, because “no one will miss you.” It is in this climate of BIGOTRY, HATE, and INTOLERANCE, that the way to keep “someone in their place” is to call them “gay!”
That two kids committed suicide because of being teased at school has pretty much gone unnoticed. Kids tease other kids. Boys will be boys. But for those two kids, it obviously was more than that. That days of upon days, weeks upon weeks, and months upon months, of being called “fag“, “queer“, “homo“, and “gay” took their toll of these young boy’s self esteem. And even when the mother’s of these two boys continually called to try and resolve this situation, it was met with a blind eye and a deaf ear. When the government requires that you attend school, doesn’t the government have the obligation to make sure it is safe, physically and emotionally, to be there?
As I stated in an ealier post, I was teased in college about “looking” at girls. Nothing to the extent that these kids went through but yeah, it got old quickly. So I know EXACTLY how they felt. For me, the torment would be intermittent and last no more than 3 hours, depending on the class. I can’t imagine being someplace for 6 or more hours and treated to choruses of verbal abuse. So even when they woke up in great moods, ready to tackle the world, within minutes of being in school, that state of mind was under assault, on a daily basis, for no good reason.
Continue reading “No one will ever miss you!” »
23
When I initially heard the comment from Miss USA runner up Carrie Prejean, I just shook my head. Another IDIOT using bigotry to justify a situation that has nothing to do with her. What do I mean by that? NO ONE has yet to give a satisfactory answer for why they care about Same Couple Marriage. The only answer they give is to hide behind the bible. Yet there are tons of other things in the bible that they either PURPOSELY forget, WON’T admit, or RESEMBLE a little to close for their own good. Who someone marries has NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYONE ELSE EXCEPT THOSE TWO PEOPLE! Why is that so hard for people to understand?
It’s interesting that days later bikini model number two is now couching her words more carefully. On the Today show, her words now seem conciliatory. She is now talking about how “great it is that in America we have the right to choose what partner we want to have.” Two days ago, she “stood behind her answer” and “wouldn’t change a thing.” What a difference a few hours make!!!! If she had made that statement during the pagent, she would have a crown on her head instead of a high heel pump in her mouth! Now we know why our parents told us to “count to ten” before answering delicate questions. I bet she wishes she would have done just that!
She has also stated that her sister, who is in the military, supports gay rights. Did Miss “walk and twirl” just OUT her sister? Or did she forget about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell! Even if her sister isn’t a lesbian, her military life just a little harder. I can guarantee you that! THANKS SIS! Again, talking without thinking. Making light of someone else’s life. While you people are making flippant remarks, we are dealing with REAL LIFE AND DEATH SITUATIONS! And you’re a CHRISTIAN RIGHT!!!
I don’t have the slighest idea who told her that she speaks for the WHOLE DAMN COUNTRY, but she doesn’t. She speaks for those people who are MISERABLE in their own lives and want to make sure they are not alone.
I have a great idea for her next gig. She could be the next person in the Southwest Airlines new “wanna getaway” commercials!!! Or she could be in the next Twix candy bar commercial where she is asked a question and keeps stuffing Twix candy bars in her mouth until she can think of an answer! Or maybe we could wait a few years when she is a footnote in history, posing for Playboy, and saying that it has “nothing to do with her faith.”
04
Lost behind all of the bullshit rhetoric about Same Sex Marriage is the fact that REAL PEOPLE and REAL PEOPLE’S LIVES and HAPPINESS are at stake. That the unfairness of it all seems to be lost when people try and defend “traditional marriage.” And what is even more galling is that other than them making these two statements “it’s against god/the bible” and “because marriage is between a man and a woman” they never put forth any other argument. Relationships whether Gay or straight are the same. The only difference is sex. Just like there are striaght marriages that have been together for 20, 30, and 40 or more years, there are Gay marriages that have been together 20, 30, and 50 years or more. The late Del Martin and her WIFE Phyllis Lyon were together over 55 years are were only able to get married during that brief period in california when Lesbian marriages were legal. Let me repeat that. They were together 55 YEARS and were only able to get married in 2008 during that brief period when Lesbian marriages were allowed in california. I would hope that even those people whose underwear get in a bunge when Same Sex Marriages are brought up would see the utter travesty in a situation like that. If you think being in a relationship with someone for 55 years is not a marriage then you don’t really know what a marriage is. And more the pity for you!
We now have another situation where the fact that Lesbians can’t get married is affecting REAL PEOPLE’S LIVES. Shirley Tan and her WIFE Jay Mercado have been together for 23 years. They have twin 12 year old sons together. Shirley is from the Phillipines and is facing deportation. She came here seeking asylum because she was shot in the head as a result of an inheritance dispute. If Jay were a man, she could have, YEARS AGO, sponsored Shirley, and she would have already become an American citizen. But because they are both women, that is not possible. How can ANYONE say this situation isn’t just WRONG????
As a heteosexual man, and maybe a woman, I can go to a website and ask for a catalog to be sent to me. In this catalog there will be young women from different continents like Africa, Russia, Asia, Europe, and South America, who are willing to marry any SLUB who will bring them to America and make them citizens. And this is COMPLETELY LEGAL! Yet two lesbians who have spent 23 years together in a loving, crying, playing, fighting, bill paying, in sickness and in health relationship, getting married is ILLEGAL. There is something very wrong with this situation. And if you can’t see how WRONG this is, ALL THE MORE PITY FOR YOU!!!
Continue reading “Because it’s just WRONG!” »
04
The Iowa Supreme Court has legalized Same Sex Marriage!!!! In a UNANIMOUS DECISION, the Iowa Supreme Court said, “We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective.” They also said, “The Legislature has excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification.” To re-phrase what the Iowa Supreme Court said, they said that excluding Gays and Lesbians from getting married has nothing to do with the government and serves no purpose. They also said that excluded a “disfavored” group of people is without constitutional justification.
For people who have been constant readers of this blog, they know my feelings about the MISERABLE COWARDS and POOR EXCUSES for HUMAN BEINGS in the HOMOPHOBIC state of california who voted against Same Sex Marriage. We are currently waiting for the california Supreme Court to decide whether to uphold or strike down prop 8, the Anti Same Sex Marriage proposition that passed in 2008. The only reason the proposition was even on the ballot in the first place is because the california Supreme Court had already ruled that excluding Gays and Lesbians from getting married is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!! So this should be a Slam Dunk Ruling! But from watching the two sides present their side of the debate before the Supreme Court, it looked like they are going to allow prop 8 to stand but for those 18,000 couples who were married during that brief 5 month period when getting married in california was legal, those marriages may remain legal. And if that is the case, that will set up another round of propositions, demonstrations, and UNGODLY amounts of money spent to fight BIGOTRY and by BIGOTS to justify their HATEMONGERING.
I have a GREAT IDEA for all those people who are against Same Sex Marriage ….. DON’T HAVE ONE!!!!
02
Madonna is at it again. She is again attempting to adopt a child from the African Country of Malawi. This time she is going to adopt a girl. While the press is turning back flips over this event, the Black folks in America could care less. Because for most of us, Madonna stopped being relevant over a decade ago! The props she once had in our community evaporated, at least for me, back in 1996 when in a Spin magazine article, she said that she was treated worse by Black men than any other man. That Black women just accept it, that it’s a cultural thing, essentially Black people ain’t shit!
In the Spin Magazine article, she vacillates between saying things like “Blacks were/are treated badly” to things like she was surprised by how badly some Black people treat her because “she is a minority too!” A white woman is a minority. Yeah, ok if YOU say so. But I digress. The fact is that early on, most people thought she was Black and she used that to further her career. Then when it was “safe” she dogged Black folks out. And ever since that time frame, most Black folks have stopped paying attention to her. And her career has not been the same since. The media continues to tell us about her every move, but we aren’t buying her cd’s. We aren’t buying tickets to her concerts. Taking off her clothes and “telling the man” what time SHE thinks it is, no longer interests us. She has become irrelevant to us. So her adoption of a young Malawian boy a few years ago and her attempt to adopt a Malawian girl now is being received in the Black community with a collective yawn.
We all know that Madonna is a calculating woman. NOTHING she does is “out of the goodness of her heart.” And her adoptions are being looked at as an attempt to get back into the good graces of Black folks. Not as an attempt to give a Black kid a better opportunity in life. We all hope she is trying to help two young children out, but we are skeptical. We all know better.
Continue reading “Madonna. Relevant or Irrelevant” »
02
The officer who pointed a gun at and refused to allow Professional Football player Ryan Moats and tried to prevent his wife Tanisha from say their final goodbyes to Tanisha’s mother has resigned from the Dallas police force. He said he resigned so that the Dallas police Department, his fellow officers, and the citizens of of Dallas can “ learn from this experince, the mistakes made, and move forward.” Notice that NOWHERE in that statement did he say that HE needed to learn from this experience. Or the mistakes HE made. Or so HE could move foward.
His resignation is an easy, COWARDS way out of this mess. He should have been FIRED and it have should gone on his permanent police record so when he goes to the neighboring city and applies for a job, they know EXACTLY what kind of person, and I use that word lightly, they are dealing with!
01
Ain’t that a bitch. We finally have a First Lady that we all can be proud of, regardless of the color of your skin, and we have people verbally beating her down damn near on a daily basis. In the last week there was a NUT CASE name Tammy Bruce who called Michelle Obama “trash.” Then there was a commentator, Bert Prelutsky, on a supposed “Christian” radio station who that racism doesn’t exist in America because if it did, Oprah, Will Smith, Colin Powell, and Denzel Washington would be serving Mint Julips on the plantation. He also called Michelle a bitch! Seems like there is a segment of America who is fighting “tooth and nail” against the idea that a country that is less than 200 years past slavery is now being led my ancestors of those exact same people! Well get past it! A Black man is the leader of the free world! And his Black wife is the First Lady!!!!
The capper is that a Republican Congressman from the assbackwards state of california, Darrell Issa, is sponsoring a bill that would make it a crime for First Lady’s, read Michelle Obama, to do any “substantive work.” WOW!!!
Let’s break this down. We just got rid of the worse president probably in the history of the presidency in george w bush. (lowercase on purpose). His wife, Laura Bush, was omnipresent on TV talking about being a big brother or sister. She spoke and advocated for women’s rights both here and Internationally. Yet NO ONE said anything about what she was doing. But when Michelle, who has only been in office for a little longer than 2 months, begins to put her stamp on the First Ladyship, a bill is sponsored to have her sit her ass down. I’d hate to say this was racist, but it is beginning to smell that way!
Bottom line is this. For the first time since the 60′s, we have a President and First lady we all can identify with. Two people who, if politics were taken out of it, we could see ourselves being friends with. There is hope for this country like never before. Even with the recession. And if the saying “behind every great man, there is a great woman” is correct, the last thing we want is for Michelle to “sit down.” If Michelle can help polish our tarnished image both here and abroad, I say, “do yo thing sista!!!!!”
Issa has more things to worry about. Like a california economy that is in the tank. An unemployemnt rate that is at or near the top of the list. He also needs to remember that this issue was settled in 1993 when the role of the First Lady was clarified when Hillary Clinton took an active part of creating a Comprehensive Health Plan.
So Darrell, relax. Barack and Michelle “Got this!”