Do Better: Jim Crow Conservatism

Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly (to a lesser extent surprisingly), Ann Coulter, anyone who works for FOX News, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove...Karl Rove, each of these people make me cringe. I'm talking cringing in a different manner than my usual "I don't like politics" cringe. I'm talking about a deeper "I hope they don't believe what they're saying because it sets America back to the '30s" cringe. The previous article about election day illustrated my thought on Obama and Romney, but that's not what I'm speaking of right now. I'm speaking more broadly on the ideals of conservatism and how its base is shrinking in America. After Obama's re-election, many of the personalities mentioned earlier had similar messages to explain the disappointing (to them) results. There were common themes amongst them all: the white establishment is lo longer the majority, traditional America is no more, young people expect entitlements from the government, Latinos are only worried about amnesty and immigration, Blacks and women want to be given "stuff" by the government. They say these things with such confidence not seeing how a young, intelligent man (leave the Black out of it for now) reads between the lines to see what they're actually saying. They have singled out and badmouthed the perspectives of every demographic but one: Old...White...men; the traditional "American establishment." They have had ALL the power so long and don't see that the country has changed. They like things how they were 100 years ago when white men (whether smart, dumb, good, evil, etc) held all the country's power, achieved on the backs of the demeaned "little people" working but making virtually nothing and having no chance for upward mobility; let's just call it the Jim Crow dynamic. "Yeah, women should still make 77% of what men make; that's just good business." "These border-jumping illegals should work as cheap as the Chinese to save the jobs here; they're lucky we let them stay here." "Blacks went from being slaves to being criminals.""We don't need abortion under any circumstances because you can't get pregnant if it was truly rape, it was God's will for you to have that rapist's baby." "Gov't and gov't regulation are always the problem. Privatization is always the answer. What, you don't trust corporate America?" "We liked Bush, Obama is a retard though (courtesy of Ann Coulter)". It's 2012, these perspectives all sound remarkably backwards in today's America. We are a nation full of Immigrants, the only real Americans are Native Americans (now commonly referred to as 'Indians' since Columbus (who was not the first here by the way) missed his intended destination by 8000 miles and couldn't figure it out." Europeans showed up to a place with cultures intact and decided that this was their land to take over; and we have an entitlement problem? How do you argue you're more American than me (an "African-American")? We came on the same ship, it just so happens that you were lucky enough to be in the VIP section while my ancestors were confined like luggage inhumanely below the decks. Despite your actions, we were called 'savages', but it didn't stop you from raping our women thereby spreading previously European STDs to another population. Your plantations, your building, much of pre-Civil War America's infrastructure was ALL built on the backs of dehumanized slaves or other disenfranchised populations (see cartoon above). After the war, the same could be said of indentured servants (paid just enough to not be called a slave), then up to the present minimum wage workers. Then you have the nerve to say "You are weak, you need help prospering. We did it all by ourselves without help". That's the mind state of a place that we all knew existed but Jon Stewart finally named "Bullshit Mountain". On Bullshit Mountain, taking financial/tax loopholes and tax breaks makes you a smart business, but filing for Social Security or food stamps or disability if you qualify makes you a moocher. College is only for those who can afford to pay the tuition with a check book, which is why pell grants and scholarship programs should be slashed. Also, Viagra should be covered by health insurance but contraception should not. There are a million more examples. On the mountain, anyone who doesn't love or pray the way 'the Christian white establishment' wants you to has forfeit their right to reap the benefits of "the American Dream."  verall, what conservatives call "being principled" seems now to be holding on to previously acceptable bigotry. To be fair, I know all conservatives don't think the same. But as long as Limbaugh, Imus and others are the voices of the movement instead of Rubio, Christie, or someone who can truly explain their principles with a modern context, they will NEVER have National Appeal. Fuck all the bigotted talking heads I named at the beginning of this article. You are the reason that conservatives look like yahoos and I could never entertain the possibility of seeing things your way. America's better than than, you're not evolving with it. Do Better...

99 Problems

This is dope. Let me first admit, I was on the Nas side of the beef with Jay-Z. Although, I like Jay-Z, I think Nas is killing him on the basis of lyrical and substanceful music. I wish I could see how Jay would've turned out had he not decided to go commercial like he admitted on "Moment of Clarity". But the man's exponential explosion of wealth, power, and influence while avoiding hurtful stereotypes is remarkable. This guy has catapulted through every glass ceiling that a drug dealer turned rapper turned businessman would ever face. He got the Nets moved to Brooklyn, he's a half billionaire (plus another quarter bil from his lady), and he's got Obama brushing his shoulders off in pictures and this t-shirt is an amazing capstone to the election that just ended. I respect his hustle and business saavy. He's set the sky as the limit for musicians turned businessmen. Can't lie, he's living the American dream. I salute you sir.

Election Night for an Overjoyed Panthers Fan

Election Night 2012 was a victory for me, but not necessarily how you'd think. Although there's always trepidation when an incumbent (particularly one in polarizing and difficult economic times) is facing possible replacement, but a year ago I thought to myself "None of these clowns deserve the White House over Obama"; I'll get into the reasons why in a minute. So subconsciously I expected him to win. I can say that now but I was significantly less secure in that the last few months, especially when facing a candidate versed in saying whatever is necessary (and I mean whatever) to sway the crowd he's in front of. What had an effect on me that I didn't expect to is "The Redskins Rule." The rule is if the Redskins win their last home game before Election Day, the incumbent wins. If the Redskins lose, the challenger beats the incumbent. Since 1940, this had been correct all but one time. The Redskins lost their last home game on Sunday...to my hometown Carolina Panthers. I'm not even overly superstitious, but how would I feel if I spent Sunday cheering Cam Newton and the Panthers on to a victory that would put Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in charge of our country? I may have been borderline suicidal. The picture above of Cam standing beside the President would have been burned like LeBron's Cavs jersey when he leave for South Beach. I like RGIII, I only cheered against him because he was playing MY team. Luckily, I don't have that dilemma today. Since many of my readers don't know me personally, let me clarify some things about my political views. I hate politics, I despise politicians in general. I think most of them were born into power and money and become politicians more to feed their egos and have their hands in those powerful decisions at the top more than to truly help those constituents at the bottom. Even those like Obama who are born from more meager beginnings and started out of a genuine desire to help people and communities can transform as they rise through levels of power and have to deal with inevitable political aspects like fund-raising and playing party lines. Presidential elections are often about selecting the lesser of two evils because politicians are somewhat required to be at least part snake charmer or double talker. But even in this political climate with my cynicism for politics, I see Obama as more morally down to Earth than most politicians and Romney as less genuine/honorable than most, which fueled my bias in this debate. How in the world do you go from Liberal as governor 10 yrs ago, to moderate as a candidate 4 yrs ago, to all out conservative now? Sounds like u're trying to roll with what will get you elected. Obama is a politician and he's far from perfect, he's made plenty of mistakes in his first term. He spent too much money trying to address issues that help the "little people" who aren't typically seen as important enough to dominate the platforms of many politicians; as you can see, they are not the ones who control the media, so rich political analyst demonize him all day instead. First time home buyer programs help ppl (including my brother). Increasing pell grants and scholarships helps ppl get better lives. Medical bills are one of the biggest causes of bankrupcy, Obamacare will help little people. The combination of Social Security and Medicare keeps many elderly peoples afloat. Also, living overseas as I did (in Muslim Southeast Asia for 1.5 years), I've seen what his election and policy have done for the international perception of America abroad. Despite all the "the US is the laughingstock of the world now." The world's perception has gone from "I hate the US, fucking violent imperialists" to "I hated Bush and Cheney, but the US is ok" with the exception of certain nit-picky and pessimistic European countries (hello, UK). He has to do something about the debt (which he's been trying for two years but can't get the GOP or rich ppl to help him out), but I remember when the country seemed to be falling into the ocean 4 yrs ago; Recovery has been slow but undeniable if you put ur partisanship aside and simply look at the results. Now, I could see why someone like Romney doesn't see things the way I do. His dad was a auto big shot and governor, his dad could write a check for his tuition to Yale. He made a fortune thought private equity (he's the real life Gordon Gekko trimming down, liquefying  outsourcing, reorganizing, etc). Since a child, he has had the best healthcare money could buy. He went to the best private schools and probably doesn't know where the public schools are even located. He makes $20 mil a year and hides enough to avoid paying average taxes, he doesn't need anyone's help on anything. He's a man of balance sheets and instant results who "enjoys firing people" who don't deliver instantly and think 47% of Americans can't take responsibility for anything. His budget...well, his budget is hardly defined but coincides with Paul's Ryan's scary budget. How can I expect him to understand how detrimental his cuts to public education, Medicare & Social Security, college assistance, planned parenthood programs, and more would do to those who didn't come from the background he came from? When I see a bill saying women should only make 77% of what men do to work the same job, I see some outdated backwards hypocrisy; he sees an opportunity to save 23% on their salaries, which aids company profit. I have no doubt that if he became president, he would do things that would help the country's "balance sheet" (reduced gov't spending, decreasing deficit) but just as with big corporations, it almost always happens at the expense of the little people. Who gets fired first, despite the fact that they didn't make the bad decisions that led to reduced profit? Whose benefits get cut first when those at the top decide it's too costly? He'll find a way to keep the tax cuts on the rich though, so he can keep paying a third what I do on my taxes. He'll keep powering our military industrial complex too. The little ppl are consistently deemed expendable and unimportant by many corporate tycoons; which is why corporate tycoons are the only ppl I distrust more than politicians. That's the world Romney came from and he was probably a great businessman which I can't take away. But I don't elect businessmen, I have a vote for president. And let's not even talk about how he pissed off allies and others alike at every stop on his world foreign policy tour. How do you put ur foot in your mouth in every country when it's not even a confrontational visit? The entire point of your trip is to prove you can handle it, you should be on your best behavior. So, even through mistakes, adversity, crisis and everything else, I believe Obama has something a President needs, which many politicians lack, and which is a sin in corporate power circles -- a moral compass. That's why I'm riding with him, flaws, missteps and all. So before anyone starts chattering about how I'm just another young Black male voting for Obama because he's Black, shut the fuck up and read this before you try to insult my intelligence. Your disrespect will not be tolerated. I know "I've Been Called Worse" is the title of my blog but what thing I don't tolerate being called is ignorant...

Halloween 2012

First and foremost, yes, I know. That picture is absolutely disgusting and the person wearing it paid to present themselves this way. Since I've been an adult, I"ve found Halloween to be an interesting time of year for lots of reasons. It's not exciting for other reasons that don't involve shopping bags full of candy that end up being savagely consumed in about a week. As an adult, this time of year is both a relief and a source of comedy. The process of making a costume is a way to let your hair down as an adult. You can even get frustrated because your costume isn't exactly how you want it to be (Ex. I had to settle for a cigar rather than a pipe to complete my Hugh Hefner outfit because I refused to use a corn cob pipe when I was going more for the Sherlock Holmes pipe look). Also, when you go out to grown up Halloween parties, there is usually no shortage of two things: unorthodox costumes made of some combination of ingenuity/convenience/douchebaggery (see tampon costume pictured above), and typically women trying to use show off their sexiness. The Halloween party I attended Saturday night had a little bit of both but not in optimal ways. Some of the costumes in the building included an Afrocentric demon, Pai Mei (the old Chinese kung fu instructor from "Kill Bill" with the white hair), and the one that beat me out for "Funniest Costume", the half naked squatter. Literally, he was in the party wearing nothing but black underwear briefs and black socks. Imagine how uncomfortable it is to be sitting on a couch and a dude sit beside you wearing nothing but drawls and socks. What if his thigh skin makes contact with me or something? That's not cool, I show up for parties looking to make inappropriate contact with women, not men. His exposed banana hammock was making me uncomfortable. As for the women trying to show off their sexiness...they tried to missed badly. The main women trying to show off their sexy were the ratchets. One was dressed as a nurse, the other a gangster, each with a lot of skin showing in a way that made you wonder if they were strippers from a low budget brothel and a shameful bachelor party was about to break out; those costumes may have fit each 20 lbs prior. It was quite shameful. Quite possibly my favorite part of this time of year though is the endless stream of horror movies; mostly terribly unrealistic or predictable. I find them hilarious in several ways. There may or may not be extra low budget camera work, there's terrible acting, worse decision making by the movie's characters, etc. Despite the fact that they're being chased by a murderer who doesn't run or move fast, they always find a way to fall, start crawling, pick an obvious hiding place/run upstairs where the stairs are the only access, become easily distracted and/or loud, etc and meet their demise. And these slasher killers...they don't eat, don't drink, don't shit, don't sleep, they don't even get women. And of course they don't die, meaning if I was in one of those movies, instead of shooting them or stabbing them a time or two and turning my back, I'd be cutting heads off and burning them... movie over; hence why I they'd never base a horror movie character on me. The horror movie industry wouldn't survive if the young Black male (typically first to die) gets smart and kills and dismembers the killer 28 minutes into the movie. I was watching these movies the entire time Hurricane Sandy was dumping rain on my house. So all in all, despite the fact that it's become commercialized to the poing where people have lost sight of its true origins (like Christmas), I enjoyed my Halloween fun and I hope everyone else did the same. Enjoy the holiday and stay safe from the hurricane.

Uncontested ratchetness.

Upon further review, I met with the council (it consists 3 members: me, myself, and I) and have determined that the trio I shared an elevator with in Atlanta may have been the most ratchet group I've ever been in the presence of. Here's the kicker...nothing dramatic happened. Usually when you think of ratchetness, someone is being loud, ignorant, belligerent, inappropriate, etc. 90% of that didn't happen. I was riding the elevator down to the hotel lobby with a friend and we stop on a floor where three individuals enter the elevator. As soon as the doors open, the smell of weed (possibly with something extra involved as well) and just a little bit of cheap "smell good" (possibly Axe) punch me in the face like a quick jab to the nose...on an elevator. It takes me 10 seconds to remember that's it's not even lunch time yet. That's what Snoop used to call "the wake and bake" I guess. As they have a calm, louder than normal but not yet inappropriate conversation about their respective choice of drug to help them sleep soundly through a long plane ride, I take a closer look at them one-by-one. There are two women and one guy, all in about their late 20s or early 30s. The guy has on a smedium V-neck white tee, keeping the shirt simple so the jewelry on his neck and wrist can steal the show; also to put the interconnected tats covering his arms, chest, and neck on display. The belt on his jeans is keeping them secured right at the very bottom of his butt, entire ass full of drawls on display because of aforementioned smedium shirt. He has a flame like design on the side of his head, the type you probably couldn't wear to a good job because it would be seen as unprofessional. The first woman I see is a thick chick (a lotta woman) who is wearing an outfit she clearly bought 30 lbs (12 of those in the stomach) ago. Her weave was either 6 weeks old, or was only worth about $6, I'm not sure which. It looked like recycled roadkill.  The other visual catastrophe from where I was standing (behind her) was the colorful yet indistinguishable tattoo running from one shoulder to the other. I couldn't figure out the motivation of it...or the purpose. The second woman was about as thick but slightly more dumpy. She had the official hoodrat "I want hair down to my butt but bangs to my eye lashes in the front" weave; which she was scratching profusely with her acrylic nails. Her clothing selection seemed to be an attempt to taste the rainbow; I couldn't establish which colors were dominant and therefore which colors didn't match the others. She had "unprofessional piercings" (I'm a fan of sexy piercings on sexy ppl, on her, it just looked nasty) and her tattoos likely numbered in the dozens. One tattoo in particular caught my attention and may have been the most ratchet in my memory. She had the Louis Vuitton pattern going from her shoulder to her elbow area. Not one symbol, not one strip of it, her entire upper arm had the pattern of a handbag. I'm glad they never turned around and saw me, I was stuck between contemplating a laugh and a look of awe from what I was witnessing. They were putting an all out assault on almost all of my senses; the smell was so pungent that I felt like they would taste terribly as well. It was simultaneously entertaining, informative, and embarrassing as a young Black observer of this. I never thought I'd see that level of ratchetness in calm situation. U learn something every day I guess. Am I being overly judgemental? Maybe. I've Been Called Worse...

Stop Me When I Start Lying: The Illusion of Cristoforo Colombo

I had to work the holiday to celebrate the arrival of Cristoforo Colombo (later made Spanish into Cristobal Colon and then further Westernized into Christopher Columbus) in the 'New World' some 520 years ago. It would've been nice to have an additional day in Atlanta, where I spent my weekend and hell, everybody likes an extra day off. But the truth of the matter is Columbus (like many people in history) gets more credit than he deserves. Did it take balls to leave your home country and ask rival countries to get support to finance his insatiable thirst of exploration? Of course. It took even bigger balls to go out and do it. Kudos to him for that. BUT, his credit stops there for several reasons: 1) He was not the first person from another continent to land there, Chinese explorers, African explorers, and possibly others beat him to North and South America; which was also inhabited by Natives anyway. It's nice how history tends to take your side when your sponsors have more map makers and book writers than the competition 2) Dude missed his target (India) by 8000 miles and somehow couldn't figure that out. I know navigation wasn't what it is today but that was a significantly shorter trip. If I didn't use GPS or maps but planned on driving to California and got there in 12 hours, I'd know I was somewhere other than my destination. Wanna know why it's called America and not "Columbus Land"?? Because Amerigo Vespucci could figure out that he was in The New World instead of India and Columbus was running around calling Native Americans "Indians." Plus we all know the gruesome process of colonization that Columbus essentially pioneered in this part of the world; there came to be a practical 10 step manual --1) Befriend Natives on arrival, 2) Exploit Natives for all useful knowledge (farming, hunting, climate, geography, resources, etc), 3) Kill strongest members of Native culture, 4) Kill children who seem to have capability of growing into future threats, 5) Enslave remaining women and children, 6) Rape Native women therefore passing Euro-based STDs globally, 7) Burn and pillage Native villages, 8) Denounce Native traditions and religions, 9) Oppress Native people with white superiority logic, 10) Take credit for all knowledge gained (which will make it into future History textbooks) and call Native people "Savages." Although Columbus wasn't as heavily involved in all 10 of these steps as other Conquistadors (Hello, Henan Cortez), his hands were dirty enough to be disliked for his involvement. But hey, the spoils go to the victors when it comes to tell the stories of history. So I'd take Columbus Day as another excuse to miss work if I got the option, but I'm not sucking him off like everyone else. Stop Me When I Start Lying...

Read up if you don't know:
http://rense.com/general43/before.htm

http://wn.com/1421_the_year_china_discovered_america?_%7B1_of_8%7D

Are u serious: Dumbest Money Management I've Ever Heard

I often use the phrase "the dumbest shit I've ever heard" usually for emphasis rather than truly believing it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But (**turns on Katt Williams voice**) "this shit here nigga" actually may be the dumbest thought process about managing money that I've ever heard. My brother works with two young women, one about 24 and the other 22 I think. Each is said to have the same problem, frivolous spending...or in my analytic point of view, the lack of proper self control that an adult needs to stop themselves from spending frivolously. I don't know their names, so even though they are both young Black women, they will be referred to by names I believe Dumb Blondes would have for the purpose of this blog entry. So the first, Cindy Lou, is 24 years old and despite having a decent paying job with career possibility, she didn't feel she was getting paid enough. So she takes it upon herself to get another job as a waitress at a bar. Young lady, sees a problem takes action, sounds like a cool chick, I like her at this point...until the story goes sideways. Well, once she gets the side job, she finds that she is spending too frivolously on clothes and shoes...despite that fact that between her two jobs she never has time to go anywhere. So what would I do at this cross roads I wonder? I'd likely try to increase the amount of money I'm actively saving (extra savings account, start an IRA, high yield, or something) or make a list of meaningful items that I need to buy and make a plan to use the extra money to get those. Everyone doesn't think like me, so maybe the better answer for her is something like dropping the side job (which eliminates some of the extra cash while giving her back some of her social life), right? Wrong. Blonde Cindy decides that she needs another LARGE BILL to eat up her extra expendable cash. So she buys a new car....WTF??? Let's analyze this. She has now in effect locked herself into having two jobs (negating her social life and ensuring her erratic sleep schedule) because it's the only way she can afford her bills and newly acquired car. If she does want to shop for shoes/clothes or take a trip or anything else that may require a large amount of cash at one time, she probably can't because she consciously decided that she is going to swallow up all of her expendable cash. She is likely one of those women who is attractive, has a good job, now drives a nice car, and can't figure out why she doesn't have a quality man; she may claim there aren't any (and I know that there are a lot of "ain't shit" dudes around). As a quality man myself, I'd like to sit her down, put my hand on her shoulder and say "Baby, although u seem like a great catch, ur though process is ridiculous, I'd guess that it's not just limited to money management. This may make you seem toxic and/or too unstable/unpredictable to be true wifey material." It's a lot more polite than what ran through my mind when I first heard this story. So, what? If we were serious and we're taking trips and stuff, I just have to pay for everything for "us" because you've decided that every penny you make will be dedicated to "you"? You working two jobs to not have any extra spending money for anything? And for this reason, I only get to see you once a week or something because your schedule is crazy? I don't play that shit. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, take a moment and try to think of what could make less logical sense that Cindy Lou's idea of managing her spending. Over here behind door #2, Tammy Lynn takes that train of thought to a new level. Tammy Lynn has the same spending issue as Cindy did. It was never explained to me if these two formulated the plans together or what. She decides that not only does she need a new car, but she's going to lease a luxury vehicle, something that should cost her about $700-800 a month to help 'relieve her' of this extra cash that tends to be spent on clubbing, shopping, etc. Here's the kicker, Tammy Lynn (who is about 22) still lives with her parents. Let that marinate a moment...***Elevator music***...Yeah. No wonder she has all this expendable cash, she has a career path job living at home with her parents. So instead of getting her own spot, she's determined to make herself strapped for cash in her parents house. How the hell are you ever gonna make it out of your parents house if you've consciously decided not to save any money? You expect some dude to date you for a little big and then turn Captain Save-A-Hoe like "Don't Worry, Keep ur luxury car, I'll pay for everything"? It baffles me how a fully functioning mind can come to this conclusion as the best solution to a problem. Face the truth, the problem is not that you have this extra money, the problem is that you have no self-control and dont' bother planning and doing something constructive with that money. Get yourselves together ladies. You're making your gender, your race, your family, and everyone else look bad right now. SMH.