In the News
I haven't done a news piece in a while, so I thought this would be a perfect time to do so. So without further ado, here's a roundup of some of the things going on in the world:
Women refs are unholy
St. Mary’s Academy -- a private religious school outside of Topeka, Kansas -- removed a female referee from a boy's basketball game because of the often mistaken interpretation of a Biblical rule forbidding women from "having authority" over males. Though school officials had no comment regarding the affair, their website clearly indicated that they often practice separation between boys and girls in according to "Biblical standards."
Is there any wonder why I have a HUGE issue with organized religion...?
Overinflated economy
If you think you're getting poorer, you're probably right. According to reports, the rate of inflation has risen up 4.3% more than what it was last year. Between that, the ridiculously skyrocketing oil prices, and a weakening dollar, we should all start running for the hills. Pretty soon (with the mortgage crisis on our hands), we'll probably be living in those hills.
Boozed-up pregger
File this story under "Things We Can't Blame On Racism": A Pennsylvania woman seven months pregnant was charged for assaulting a bartender who refused to serve her drinks. The mother-to-be smashed the bartender in the head with a beer bottle. This incident required the bartender to get part of her ear reattached.
After hearing this story, I'm now convinced that some people just should NOT be allowed to procreate. Where's Darwin when you need him?
Funky cold Madea
As if he couldn't leave well enough alone with those insipid plays, Tyler Perry is now turning his horribly stereotypical character Madea into a cartoon. I guess -- on the one hand -- I can't hate on the brotha for his success. But a part of me just can't forgive him for his ministrel-like representation of black folks; particular black women when he performs in drag.
Perhaps I won't be as critical once my play blows up.
Pimp your gun?
Stories like this make you shake your head. Much to the dismay of police (and rightly so), Jim's Gun Supply store in Barbarro, Wisconsin is in the business of custom painting firearms. In doing so, firearms that should be distinctively recognized as dangerous items are starting to look more and more like toys. This supplier even does -- get ready for this -- Hello Kitty themed artwork. If this doesn't open a window for children to become further fascinated with guns...
Conservative joins ACLU for prisoner rights
Hat tip to Malik for this story: David Keene, Chairman of the American Conservative Union, has partnered with the American Civil Liberties Union in challenging laws currently in place to curb prisoners lawsuits. I should also point out that Keene's son is currently incarcerated himself.
I guess I can't blame Keene for wanting to get involved in this case. But he hasn't exactly been a champion for prisoner's rights before now. So that begs the question: Would this conservative hardnose be such a staunch supporter of convicts' rights if his son wasn't a con himself?
No supply of vitamin E(ar)
I thought I was finished with the stories that make you shake your head. But I guess not.
This time the story is about PETA's ridiculous fight to have Christopher McCuin (who was charged with killing and eating his girlfriend), placed on a vegetarian diet while being held by the police. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. Though there is no evidence showing that McCuin actually ate any parts of his girlfried, police did find what they think is an ear boiling in water and a piece of flesh in a plate on the kitchen table.
I'm in now way downplaying the heinous nature of this crime; but stuff like is the very reason why I despise PETA with all my heart and soul. Only they could somehow compare the killing and eating of a human being with that of an animal.
Jena 6 member in trouble again
This story is a little old, but still worth mentioning. Bryant Purvais, one of the members of the Jena 6, was arrested once again for assaulting a student; this time the student being someone whom he suspected of vandalizing his vehicle. Included in the charges are choking the student and ramming his head into a table.
When the Jena 6 case first went down, I was all for the organizing and protesting done to rectify some of the blantant civil injustice (trying teenagers for attempted murder because of a school fight). But I also get unnerved when Black America uses criminal defendants as the motivation behind different movements. Since (as far as I'm concerned), the civil rights component of the Jena 6 case has been addressed and resolved, our support of this situation should be over and done with. Now's the time to start to smacking some sense into these kids and holding them accountable for their actions.
McCain-gate
The NY Times released a stinging article accusing Presidential Candidate John McCain of having an affair with Vicki Iseman, one of his lobbyists. Naturally, Senator McCain is denying the incident.
I honestly can't say that I believe the reports; mostly due to opportunistic timing of it all. On the heels of a Presidential election, the almost sure-shot nominee for the right is being attacked by a newspaper commonly believed to have a liberal slant. Still, if it is true, I have to give Sen. McCain some dap. He did a whole lot better than Bill Clinton back in his day. *Joke*
But more importantly, if this is the kind of "political experience" that Sen. Obama doesn't have, all the better for him.
Os(b)ama
It's possible that this one may get chalked up to being a simple mistake, but I'm not entirely convinced. An MSNBC employee was recently reprimanded for flashing an image of Osama bin Laden while Chris Matthews was leading in on a story about Barack Obama. This isn't the first time that such associations have been made publicly, though I can't recall it coming from the usually liberal MSNBC. Despite all of that, I'm in favor of the reprimand; especially since I'm always on Fox News for their constant mishaps.
Hillary's concession?
According to sources, some of the folks in the Obama camp are calling for the Hill machine to call it quits. While I'm truly excited that Barack Obama has built considerable momentum over the past few weeks, he really needs to put his surrogates in check. There are still over 1,000 delegates left to earn. This thing is far from over. As I've stressed before, the fat lady hasn't sung yet.
Bill-O's lynch party
In an attempt to give Michelle Obama the "benefit of the doubt" about being an angry militant, conservative pundit Bill O'Reilly recently said that he wouldn't form a "lynching party" against her unless there's evidence supporting that claim. (H/T to Mirror on America for the story).
Now I know that O'Reilly would never personally organize a lynching party for Michelle Obama. So I'm not taking his words directly to heart. Still, you'd think that with all of the uproar about blacks and lynching, a little more caution would be used when linking those two ideas together in a discussion. But I guess that being conscious enough not to make those kind of comments is asking too much.
Bush = Worst president ever
An American Research Group study indicates that -- at 19% -- Dubya's approval rating is the lowest ever. You don't say?! I suppose that next they're going to tell us that Michigan is a cold and miserable state to live in. Sheesh!
Castro resigns
Fidel Castro, the aging leader of Cuba has retired after 49 years. But Cubans who were not necessarily loyal to Castro are not so quick to celebrate; considering that Castro's brother Raul is set to take over. I wonder what this will do to US/Cuba relations -- if anything.
Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm done entertaining you for one day. Until next time: Peace!
- ACL
7 "Insiders" spoke their mind. Join in...:
informative as always!
i was watching one of the late nite shows tuesday or wednesday and he was talking about Obama and with a slip of the tongue (so he said) said "Barack Osama, i mean Barack Obama."
don't forget, i'm one of the co-producers of your play.
Hey Dre,
1) Considering how many female teachers are getting caught, (almost daily now), sleeping with their 12, 13, or 14 year old male students and then getting treated like celebraties instead of pedophiles, I have to say they may be on to something.
2)The golden rule of being a economist is: "If things are going well, predict a downturn. If things are going bad, predict an upturn-eventually you'll be right." After 6 years of positive growth they predicted would end any day, I have to agree, they're finally right.
3)Sigh, what else can I say. A parenting license is beginning to sound like a good idea. Now if we can just convince people that being a good parent doesn't mean letting your kid do or have whatever he/she wants.
4) I'm too white to comment.
5) Don'tcha hate when someone in a group your in (pro-gun) makes all of you look stupid.
6)I have to say on this one Andre, I'm not very concerned. Let me explain: When we have a prison system that allows gangs, rape, drug dealing, and even murder of people (mostly by other inmates) that are simply trying to do their time, I'm not feeling the pain of the cons needing more rights so the guards are afraid to search violent criminals because it makes them feel degraded or humiliated.Maybe a better answer would be better oversite of the guards or harsher sentences for infractions. Ending general population, (interaction between prisoners) would stop a lot of the problems, but groups like the ACLU think that would be inhumane. Every state in the U.S. has incidents everyday in their prisons that would make Abu Graib pale in comparison. More suing of the system simply leads to less money, less guards, less oversite, and more gangs, rapes, and murders. You want better, safer prisons? End G.P.. But then watch the ACLU sue on behalf of the worst of the bunch.I'm willing to bet the guards are a small portion of the problem.
7)PETA-Nice people with a damn dim understanding of almost everything.
8)It's hard to find any good in this story.
9)Could this be Mitt's second chance?
10)Sheesh! will these newspeople ever learn?
11)I'm picturing Hillary sitting at home with a quart of gin listening to The Doors "The End". But I'm with you, I'm not celebrating just yet (I do carry confette in my pocket though just in case)
12)I actually heard that one I remember thinking "Uh oh Billy, that wasn't a good choice of words."
13) Dude, you've got to stay away from left wing sites. Here's a good one with several major polling groups that ALL have him in the 30's http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm
Still, you may be right about the worst president ever thing.
14) YES, the embargo finally worked!
Thanks for the fun Dre! Great work.
@ Heiress: As one of my co-producers, we need to get this thing on Broadway soon. I'm sick of being broke.
@ Hippie:
1) Considering how many female teachers are getting caught, (almost daily now), sleeping with their 12, 13, or 14 year old male students and then getting treated like celebraties instead of pedophiles, I have to say they may be on to something.
Awww, whatever man! I could only be so lucky to be able to get with one of my hot teachers in junior high.
3)Sigh, what else can I say. A parenting license is beginning to sound like a good idea. Now if we can just convince people that being a good parent doesn't mean letting your kid do or have whatever he/she wants.
4) I'm too white to comment.
Nobody's too much of anything to point out the ridiculousness that is Tyler Perry.
5) Don'tcha hate when someone in a group your in (pro-gun) makes all of you look stupid.
Or like when a President of a country makes us all look stupid?
RE: The prisoners rights story: I could go on and on about injustices in the prison system, but I won't. That said, I don't lose sleep either over criminals losing certain 'comforts'; so long as they are not inhumanely degraded. Still, the ultimate point of my take was not the existence of prisoner's rights, but how people only support them when they're affected (directly or indirectly).
9)Could this be Mitt's second chance?
At least Mitt can use his religion to justify polygamy.
11)I'm picturing Hillary sitting at home with a quart of gin listening to The Doors "The End". But I'm with you, I'm not celebrating just yet (I do carry confette in my pocket though just in case)
Guess that now's a bit too early to get fitted for my inaugural day party tuxedo.
12)I actually heard that one I remember thinking "Uh oh Billy, that wasn't a good choice of words."
See? You get it. I mean, even the Prez gets it. What's wrong with everybody else?!
13) Dude, you've got to stay away from left wing sites. Here's a good one with several major polling groups that ALL have him in the 30's http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm
Party pooper.
Funky cold Madea
This may be the single greatest headline ever.
"This may be the single greatest headline ever."
Or the most tragic.
Greeneyed King ,
The world's gone mad I tell ya , MAD!!!!!!
great read ,and insight , thank you .
God Bless
Greeneyes
On Pimp your gun?: Why not? We pimp everything else, right? Seriously though, I'm hardly a gun-nut (I own 0, but due to my very real paranoia about 2012 and/or an inevitable need for post-apocalyptic survival, I plan on acquiring 1...or 5), but if a firearm is able to be accessed it's the fault of the owner. Hello-Kitty paint or no Hello-Kitty paint, an uneducated kid, hell sometimes even an educated kid, is going to mess around w/ a gun if it isn't secured. Like I said, I'm not the biggest fan of guns, but I'm even less of a fan of placing blame for things where it doesn't necessarily belong.
On No supply of vitamin E(ar): PETA would be absolutely huge if they only quit being so bloody crazy. But I don't get it...isn't eating your girlfriend considered to be a non-vegetarianistic activity? Hrm.
On Jena 6 member in trouble again: When will everybody learn from past mistakes & stop jumping on band-wagons until they have 100% of the information? Wait, I'll answer that...we won't. And thus history repeats itself, once again.
On McCain-gate: "But more importantly, if this is the kind of "political experience" that Sen. Obama doesn't have, all the better for him. Gawwwwwd, that's true on multiple levels! The moral aspect AND the political aspect! Bravo! This is the type of politiking that makes me question my fascination w/ the subject.
On Os(b)ama: I'm betting that this was some rogue schmuck, but still, this is an excellent opportunity for me to point out (for the 26263367th time) that nearly all day-to-day media is now controlled by LESS THAN 10 mega-conglomerates. Of course, none of them have any political preferences/bias/interests. Right?
On Bill-O's lynch party: Almost zero publicity. Imus, who throughout his career has, much like Bill, stated ridiculous comments in the name of publicity & ratings, received a national uproar. Why not Bill? *Scratches chin* I wonder...
Keep up w/ this stuff, as 1/2 of this was news to me (and I claim to be a news-junkie!). Well done, again.
-n
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