Bad Choices

Everyone knows that for the most part life is a series of choices based on circumstances,situations and strategy. Yup, it's kinda like a video game. As with any video game, there are some things that are totally out of your control. This is even more true in real life. In real life you always have to deal with insane,unplanned and ridiculous variables. Because of these variables things such as choice are nonexistent. For some people these variables range from being too short to ride a roller coaster to being born with a debilitating disorder. For many millions of people this variable was being born into slavery. Slaves had no choice. For them it came down to stay a slave or face certain death in an attempt to escape. Of course most of you knew this but if you ask the fine people who wrote United States History for Christian Schools, 2nd ed., slavery itself was a choice and probably not a bad one. While the fact that a textbook with this amount of ridiculousness in it even exists is offensive enough, what's worse is that this is being taught in schools that are funded by our tax dollars. Specifically it's being taught in Louisiana. Louisiana is a state that has a governor that believes that private schools should be able to operate without any oversight whatsoever. This is also while he has 0 problem funding private schools with scarce public money. To read more and be amazed by the idiocy of Bobby Jindal, click this half of the sentence.

Read More

Something bugging me

Earlier today while reading things on twitter and trying to relax after another day of riding around the metro area applying to jobs that I probably wont get, I came across an article that kinda got to me. It didn't make me tear up. It made me angry due to the stupidity in the video that accompanied it. In the article, the author points out that the GOP and the people at CPAC in particular are having a hard time reaching out to people who aren't old white men. In the video we get to see pretty blunt evidence as to why this is true. In the video a presenter is trying to teach the crowd how to deal with accusations of racism when it all takes a weird and stupid turn.






What the guy in the video doesn't get is that slavery did nothing good for anyone,ever. It held us back as a nation for generations. It was the reason behind America's bloodiest war and honestly it made a lot of people lazy. It annoys me when I see a white person or anyone for that matter say that slavery wasn't that bad. I'm sure the 16 hour days of backbreaking labor,in the hot sun while being beaten severely and wondering if your wife is going to be sold off was a breeze for my ancestors. I mean, we did invent that wonderful blues music from it. I'm sure the prospect of possibly being killed for trying to escape to a life that doesn't involve systematic mental torture was also a fun time for my ancestors. It bugs me knowing that even after slavery, we as black people have not had an easy time or even a fair shake in America. I'm sure some white person is going to read this and note that our current president is a black man but I'm going to preemptively counter and point out the amount of racist bullshit he has had to deal with due him being a black man. He's the leader of the free world and people still look at him like a common criminal. It also bugs me to know that I am by blood related to people who did in fact own slaves. It bugs me even more that those slaves are my family members. It also bugs me that I can find out everything about the white members of my family and trace them as far back as 17th century Ireland on my mom's side but I can't get past the 1850's for the black members. I also realize that my story isn't that unique. It's long, it's weird, it's complicated and kinda sad but it's not unique. I don't know where I truly come from and there are tens of millions just like me. We could all get expensive DNA tests and the best that it would do is tell us which geographical area of the continent of Africa, which happens to be the largest land area with actual people on it. I guess what I'm saying is that it sucks not knowing who I am and it sucks even worse knowing that I'll never get a real answer to that question. Thank you white people.

Read More

Limbaugh Lunacy

As you may have already known, yesterday, the Catholic church chose a new pope. It's a huge,monumental,celebratory event for people all around the world. It's one of those events that makes the world stop and ask "Who is this new guy and what is his philosophy in life?". It's an event that brings people of all faiths together just to enjoy the atmosphere of love,optimism and jubilation. Of course Rushington P Limbaugh is not normal people. In fact he may be the one guy that saw the election of a new pope as an opportunity to go after people who slightly disagree with him politically in an almost religiously blasphemous type of way. Listen to Rush as he explains why he thinks that those slightly left of him might want the new pope to renounce the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Read More

Song of the Day

I haven't done one of these in a minute but I felt that this was important. I, like many of my other black brethren have been a bit annoyed by the "new" dance craze the Harlem Shake. I'm not annoyed at the song despite it's repetitive boring beat. I'm not mad at the goofy dance. I'm kinda annoyed at how it's totally mislabeled. What they're doing is not the Harlem Shake. The Harlem Shake is a dance that has been extremely popular in and around NYC for my entire life span. That's 25 years! It's a fast paced,highly skilled and on beat dance that has been used by many skilled dancers for decades. This new craziness is not that, at all. In fact the real Harlem Shake has been popular in the national and international hip hop community for at least a decade and it's thanks to none other than Sean "Diddy" Combs, G. Dep and the rest of the old Bad Boy records crew. Click on the first video to see professor Melissa Harris-Perry explain the history of the dance and it's significance to black culture. Click on the 2nd video to see how it was first introduced to people not living in and around the New York, tri-state area. If I wanted to sum this up in ridiculous hyperbole, I would say that calling the new dance the Harlem Shake is like me calling myself an Italian just because my first name is an actual Italian name.

Read More

Droning on

If you were on Twitter on Wednesday you may have noticed Rand Paul being the top trend most of the day. This is due to his stance against the Obama administration wanting to have the legal capability to target and kill Americans with drones if it ever came down to an outlandish situation that warranted a drone. I for one do not like the idea of drones at all outside of using them to spy on people. Of course with that said I think Rand Paul and his filibuster happen to be complete bullshit. In fact I kinda dislike most of the people who suddenly found it horrible that we might use a drone to possibly one day shoot at an (white)American in America one day for being a terrorist. I find it a little ridiculous that no one has a problem with the nearly decade of us using drones to kill people in other countries that we aren't at war with but are outraged at such tactics possibly one day being used here. I find it funny that Rand Paul, a man who is on record as being cool with discrimination and for some reason voted against the violence against women act is now being hailed as a guy who cares about civil liberties. In fact he was one of only 8 to vote against that bill but now he's the new champion of civil rights for one shitty filibuster. If you really think that he gives a shit about you,you are an idiot. Also, if they wanted to, congress could introduce a bill to outright ban the use of drones and if that fails to get enough votes someone can always sneak it in a more popular bill. Of course that would get in the way of some of the money Rand's comrades are making from drone makers. Just sayin....

There's more that I have to get off of my chest as I type while listening to some of the finest southern rap music available. I for one am sick of fake outrage. In the other paragraph I pointed out that we as a country did not give a shit about drones until the possibility of one of us being shot came up. Why is that? Were those entire neighborhoods being hit by missiles in Pakistan and Yemen less important? Are we only using moral objectivity to raining robots of death when it comes to saving our own asses? And thanks to the precedent we set years ago, what's stopping the Russians,Chinese,North Koreans or Iranians from getting drones and shooting at people in the United States right now? Is it only legal because we do it? Someone give me some answers! This all seems like something that I see on the news way too often. A black kid gets shot in Detroit and no one cares but if one suburbanite gets killed it becomes a national outrage. Basically we're cool with savagery as long as it happens to the right people who happen to not live around us. When most of you move past your double standard on drones and life in general you can talk to me. Until then keep pretending to care while openly showing that you could not care any less. Congrats to Rand Paul on not wanting Americans to get shot by drones in America but that filibuster is the most transparent,grandstanding bullshit I have seen in a while.

Read More

Random act of failure

Normally when I post these types of blogs, I wouldn't have this type of content. In fact this may be my first time posting a song on here as a complete failure but I feel that this one deserves it. It has a myriad of things to not like about it. These things range from the generic beat,weak at best rhymes,terribly sung/autotuned hook and the fact that we can't even get a clear picture of the guy doing the rapping. Click on the video below and be amazed at this adventure in sucking.

Read More