You Ain't Who You Think You Is

Tiger & Elin
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

As always I'm fascinated by the racial question that dominates the undercurrent in America's socio-politics.

A few years back when my paternal grandmother died, my younger brother was looking to get a sample of her mitocondrialDNA, said there was some test at Howard University (and a few other places) that enable one to determine the global-regional genetic make-up of an individual (my brother wanted my paternal grandmother because everything after her can be accounted for).

My dad wasn't going to allow his mom to be used in a science experiment, so my brother hoped to get some tissue samples from our grandmother's sister (who one recently passed) -- alas that never came to happen.

However, I ran across this article in today's NYTimes

Why Race Isn't as 'Black' and 'White' as We Think
By BRENT STAPLES
Published: October 31, 2005
People have occasionally asked me how a black person came by a "white" name like Brent Staples. One letter writer ridiculed it as "an anchorman's name" and accused me of making it up. For the record, it's a British name - and the one my parents gave me. "Staples" probably arrived in my family's ancestral home in Virginia four centuries ago with the British settlers.

The earliest person with that name we've found - Richard Staples - was hacked to death by Powhatan Indians not far from Jamestown in 1622. The name moved into the 18th century with Virginians like John Staples, a white surveyor who worked in Thomas Jefferson's home county, Albemarle, not far from the area where my family was enslaved.

The black John Staples who married my paternal great-great-grandmother just after Emancipation - and became the stepfather of her children - could easily have been a Staples family slave. The transplanted Britons who had owned both sides of my family had given us more than a preference for British names. They had also given us their DNA. In what was an almost everyday occurrence at the time, my great-great-grandmothers on both sides gave birth to children fathered by white slave masters.

I've known all this for a long time, and was not surprised by the results of a genetic screening performed by DNAPrint Genomics, a company that traces ancestral origins to far-flung parts of the globe. A little more than half of my genetic material came from sub-Saharan Africa - common for people who regard themselves as black - with slightly more than a quarter from Europe.

The result that knocked me off my chair showed that one-fifth of my ancestry is Asian. Poring over the charts and statistics, I said out loud, "This has got to be a mistake."

That's a common response among people who are tested. Ostensibly white people who always thought of themselves as 100 percent European find they have substantial African ancestry. People who regard themselves as black sometimes discover that the African ancestry is a minority portion of their DNA.

These results are forcing people to re-examine the arbitrary calculations our culture uses to decide who is "white" and who is "black."

As with many things racial, this story begins in the slave-era South, where sex among slaves, masters and mistresses got started as soon as the first slave ship sailed into Jamestown Harbor in 1619. By the time of the American Revolution, there was a visible class of light-skinned black people who no longer looked or sounded African. Free mulattos, emancipated by guilt-ridden fathers, may have accounted for up to three-quarters of the tiny free-black population before the Revolution.

By the eve of the Civil War, the swarming numbers of mixed-race slaves on Southern plantations had become a source of constant anguish to planters' wives, who knew quite well where those racially ambiguous children were coming from. This is what I want to know more about. What these so-called Women of the Master Race thought about the power of Negro koochie that had some uncontrolable magnetism. What does the slave master say to his white wife? That it's nothing to worry about, because it's just like fucking a farm animal (don't put this past white people, as indicated in the fantastic book GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL most of our infectious diseases came from white people in Europe living too close to animals and/or having sexual relations with the livestock)! Wouldn't that irreparably shatter the white women's sexual confidence? Or force them to be that much more sexually active? What ever the case, white woman no doubt made up all the lies about black female sexuality

Faced with widespread fear that racial distinctions were losing significance, the South decided to define the problem away. People with any ascertainable black ancestry at all were defined as black under the law and stripped of basic rights. The "one drop" laws defined as black even people who were blond and blue-eyed and appeared white.

Black people snickered among themselves and worked to subvert segregation at every turn. Thanks to white ancestry spread throughout the black community, nearly every family knew of someone born black who successfully passed as white to get access to jobs, housing and public accommodations that were reserved for white people only. Black people who were not quite light enough to slip undetected into white society billed themselves as Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, South Asian, Native American - you name it. Any thing that avoid a social damnation that is attributed with being called "black." These defectors often married into ostensibly white families at a time when interracial marriage was either illegal or socially stigmatized.

Those of us who grew up in the 1950's and 60's read black-owned magazines and newspapers that praised the racial defectors as pioneers while mocking white society for failing to detect them. A comic newspaper column by the poet Langston Hughes - titled "Why Not Fool Our White Folks?" - typified the black community's sense of smugness about knowing the real racial score. In keeping with this history, many black people I know find it funny when supposedly white Americans profess shock at the emergence of blackness in the family tree. But genetic testing holds plenty of surprises for black folks, too.

Which brings me back to my Asian ancestry. It comes as a surprise, given that my family's oral histories contain not a single person who is described as Asian. More testing on other family members should clarify the issue, but for now, I can only guess. This ancestry could well have come through a 19th-century ancestor who was incorrectly described as Indian, often a catchall category at the time.

The test results underscore what anthropologists have said for eons: racial distinctions as applied in this country are social categories and not scientific concepts. In addition, those categories draw hard, sharp distinctions among groups of people who are more alike than they are different. The ultimate point is that none of us really know who we are, ancestrally speaking. All we ever really know is what our parents and grandparents have told us.

Idiot & Fascist

Idiot & Fascist
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

The Chump-in-Chief has spoken again, and once again the worst kind of diarehha has come out.

Prescott's grandson has nominated Judge Sammy Alito to replace Sandra O'Connor. Alito is the kind of backwards thinking Republican thug who, while born '50s, believes that's the best decade of recent American history and that the nation should strive to recaputre those halcyon days.

For some reason the White House press conference today brought back memories of this unholy union:




I hope the Democrats fillibuster this nomination. The big thing is, will the GOP attempt to destroy the right to fillibuster the way they almost did early in the year.

The Olsen Twins of the White Supremacist Set

The Olsen Twins of the White Supremacist Set
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

I gotta tell ya, these girls are living life to the fullest as members of the Paris Hilton generation.

Hitler is being celebrated by some chump-ass white girls, most likely in middle America somewhere; girls who are waiting to get old enough to suck down crystal meth and get dicked down by white dudes (while they secret yearn for the rabid nature of Black dick as it is championed in the music videos) in the backseat of poorly-designed an uncompetitive cars from the Detroit Two.

I feel like vomitting -- on these girls sandaled feet after eating White Castle and Taco Bell.

In November's AMERICAN PHOTO there is an article about photojournalism stories that haven't been shown to America for being too sensitive. One of those stories is about the Klu Ku Klan, and how they are on the rise. In someplaces tripling in size since 9/11.

America's heartland is a joke, the wool has been pulled over their eyes and they don't even know that their way of life, is about to be under attack from peoples that they hate the most - brown and yellow skinned immigrants, who don't know a lick of southern drawl English.

The Original King of Cronyism

Crush My Enemies & Hear the Lamentations of Their Women
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Yeah, I swiped this entry's title from a goof name on last night's REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER (his guests were Spike Lee, Tucker Carlson, Michel Michaels, Chris Webber and Arianna Huffington).

Much to my delight ramrod Tom Delay was fingerprinted and photographer like the common criminals he hates this week. Unfortunatley he was released on bond (I wonder how much that was?), so he wouldn't have to suffer any more indiginity and share jail cell with some Mexicans and Blacks -- waiting to bend him over and fuck his ass, the way he's been doing it to the ever-dwindling middle class and poor since he was in short pants.

There is this claim by Delay's people that the venue of his embarrassment needs to be changed, because the overseeing judge is a sympathizer with MoveOn.org, that watchdog group that sticks it to the ass of each and every Right Wing Fuck that gets some shady soft money behind him.

What's really crazy is that the GOP changed the rules of conduct and perhaps the definition of "breaking the law" when it comes to their jack-booted, stuffed shirts up on Capital Hill and in the White House. Must I recall that fact that Bill Clinton was villified like he sold state secrets just for squirting nut on an LA dilletante's dress and face, and stimulating her labia with a Monte Cristo cigar.

What the GOP leadership and Presidential advisors are being accused of should have them all drummed out of Washington in leg irons; ranging from Karl Rove's bitch-ass activities to Trent Lott's impunging Blacks to Prescott's Grandson sitting on his ass as he cuts taxes so he can accelerate the spiraling federal deficit -- when these guys ride off into the sunset like some banditos in a Sergio Leone western in January of 2009, the country will be slip-sliding into complete debasement. Yet all these supremem fucks will have fatter than fat bank accounts (chock full of Euros, Yen and Chinese Yuan in overseas banks), while the rest of you wonder why the heartland is being consumed by crystal meth.

I'll be watching from afar, shaking my head in disgust.

The Supremors

Apparently Harriet Miers' written questions to the Senate Judiciary Committee were handed back because the answers were insulting, insufficient and all-together bitch-ass.

I hope this woman gets recalled the way Bork did, just to give Prescott's grandson a slap in the face. He sure needs someone or something to kick him while he's down.

Strongman gets the Strong Arm!

Our favorite dictator Saddam Hussein started his FIRST of many trials today. He was his defiant self, glad to see that year of captivity hasn't diminished his spirits -- otherwise the trails wouldn't be that much fun (look at Slobodan Milosevic's boring shit in The Hague... can't have that with your boy!).



Saddam was shoving his guards away when they escorted him from the court, and damn near punked the judge.

Meanwhile, in Mr. Hussein's home town of Tikrit crowds gathered to show support for their former leader, chanting such slogans as "You are still the son of Iraq." They appeared to be in a frenzy, waving Iraqi flags and photos of Mr. Hussein. Iraqi police officers, wearing blue uniforms and carrying Kalashnikovs, walked through the crowds but did not appear anxious to break up the demonstration.

No that's the reason why Iraq just needs to disintegrate and we can forget about it. The oil field regions need to be autonomous zones controlled by the G8, so they can get their oil and refuse to make the drastic changes necessary to wean the Western economies off of oil for energy (it's gotta be saved for all the consumer products that eat the fuck up, since plastic is quite difficult to recycle -- which should be the number R&D Dollar Get'er).

I guess is Saddam gets all these accolades and plaudits from his hometown, then he still much loved. I wonder if Hitler was much-loved after the War or Stalin or Pol Pot or Pinochet? Or George H.W. Bush? I know Reagan was - for crying out loud.

State become Church

Wow, the chump-in-chief is really looking to push this country into something we haven't seen in a quite awhile a fundamentalist Christian state with the ability to shape the world.

This woman Harriet Mier is a scary person to even consider to have a Supremor, because her views don't reflect what the country was founded on a strict seperation of Church and State. She was baptized at the Valley View Christian Church. And apparantly, it was a pivotal personal transformation for the woman now named for a seat on the United States Supreme Court, not entirely unlike that experienced by President Chump and others in the Texas political and business establishment of that time.

Ms. Miers, born Roman Catholic, became an evangelical Christian and began identifying more with Republicans than with the Democrats who had long held sway over Texas politics. She joined the missions committee of her church, which is against legalized abortion, and friends and colleagues say she rarely looked back at her past as a Democrat.

That's because being a Democrat, for some strange reason, means that you can't have belief in God, that you fuck children in the ass and squirt nut in the eyes of women, or twist mens balls when your having sex.

yeah, that's how the GOP really see Democrats.

And there's really nothing the public can do about preventing someone so polarizing from doing what the GOP complains about the most - legislating from the bench!

Damn, we're fucked. We you're fucked, I'm getting out.

Bush with Clean Hands

Bush with Clean Hands
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

L.A. is perhaps the most geographically segerated city in the US, if not the world.

The city planners knew EXACTLY what they were doing when they errected the freeway systems and said (under their breath) put all the niggers and spics on the OUTSIDE boundaries of the freeways.

I was just listening to an interview of David LaChappelle about his film RISE, and his trip down to the oppresive neighborhood that is ignored by the entire establishment and community.

It's like 45 minutes from central Hollywood, but it's another world.

You can't even really get a healthy meal in South Central, 'cause only liquor stores and 7-11s and shitbag fast food joints litter the landscape which is fucked up...

All these people who are going to Southeast Asia or Africa to see "another part of the world" go check out South Central L.A.

And what's crazy is, South Central is probably where the most life and vibrancy in the entire city. Whereas in Beverly Hills and the Westside is a movie set for a story on childhood alienation...

South Central isn't even the kind of ghetto that is depicted in the media. It's not the burned out buildings of Detroit, Cleveland or New York... all the blue skies trick the fuck out of you.

But what seeps in is the vacant nature of the entire environment. The worst thing is that there IS NOTHING for the Blacks down in South Central, no after school programs, nothing but desolation. I wonder if this another varient of the Mad Max scenario that I see on the rise.

Of course, our chump-in-chief ain't doing shit about shit. I heard that the fool doesn't even read newspapers or watch TV or eventhing that gives a potential unadulterated image.

Slop Words For What We Love

Nude B&W
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Ever notice how there are uncomfortable words for things that we just LOVE. Take vagina for example, I'm reading this comic book today (Ex Machina #13) and at the end of the book a guy takes an old woman hostage, pulls a knife and tells the mayor, "back off, or I cut this bag from her dentures to her dick-slot!"

Dick-slot? I had never heard of that. You all know my favorite, "cumdumpter," but I

Take What You Can When You Can

haitian looter
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

I never knew how much Black people twist in the wind in this country. The more I think about it, the more I look at the Katrina Disaster and wonder what's going to happen to Blacks when the economies really begin to crumble?

Fuck that Black Gold, Find An Alternative. NOW PLEASE!

Oil Derrick
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Gas prices keep creeping up,
Today in CNN.com, there is an article about
On Why People Shouldn't Buy Hybrid Cars written by obviously the most-short sighted, in-the-pocket-of-big-oil dumb-ass that I can think of. The so-called reporter Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN/Money staff writer is up here asking you as Americans (or anybody on the planet) to save your hard-earned money and find some sort of alternative.

You know what? Fuck your money! 'Cause if we as a PLANET don't wean ourselves off of petroleum as an energy source and means of transportation, we're fucked in the short-run (in the long run chaos on the order of The Road Warrior will ensue).


Shit-for-brains Valdes-Dapena would have you believe that you need to save you dollars on the vehicle that you intend to purchase. He's not factoring in higher prices for food, energy, and ALL THINGS PLASTIC (which is just about every goddamn thing in your house) because as the price of oil rises, what ever uses oil -- not just gasoline prices -- begins to increase.

It's far easier to get people off of gasoline than it is of plastic (incidently: the Feds need to pass a law that incurs jail time and heavy fines for anyone not recycling glass and plastic).

Don't be fooled, get a hyrbid car. And then petition your government representatives -- at all levels (state, local and federal) to dump more money into alternative energy Research & Development. As it stands now, each year only about US$65million is spent on alternative fuel/energy R&D. Guess how much on oil R&D? US$2billion!!! That money is being thrown away -- the resource is limited and dwindling.

FIND SOMETHING NEW AMERICA! EUROPEAN UNION! CHINA! INDIA! You muthafuckas claim that you have top-notch scientists (especially India and China), come up with something new. The socio-geo-political upheveals from a rude severing from oil dependance is unthinkable -- imagine the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina ALL ACROSS THE GLOBE (in the 1st World Economies, the 3rd World knows how to exisit with limited resources).

I was reading an article in Esquire (the one with super-fucking hot Keira Knightley on the cover
)
about the end of oil, and the Saudi Energy Minister made this statement, "My father rode a camel, I ride a car, my son rides a jetplane, his son will ride a camel."

THINK ABOUT THAT. SERIOUSLY.

I'm out.
Ramses (email me at obfusc8@hotmail.com if you got something to smart to say, or even if you don't, but have something to say. Isn't the internet all about two-way communication?).

Krista Allen - Show Me Some Love

Krista Allen - Show Me Some Love
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Tricked you, this isn't a post about sex, that hot, fuckable broad you see to your right or anything titilating.

It's about New Orleans...
Here's an email that I received, please read -- my comments are in Italics at the end.


Please Forward
>
>Notes From Inside New Orleans by Jordan Flaherty Friday, September 2, 2005
>
>I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment
>I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone
>wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the
>victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee
>camps.
>
>In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway,
>thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud
>and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily
>armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it
>would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the
>barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given
>about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be
>told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas,
>Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for
>Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in
>Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through
>Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If
>you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could
>not come within 17 miles of the camp.
>
>I traveled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers, Salvation
>Army workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they were
>friendly, no one could give me any details on when buses would arrive, how
>many, where they would go to, or any other information. I spoke to the
>several teams of journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had been able
>to get any information from any federal or state officials on any of these
>questions, and all of them, from Australian tv to local Fox affiliates
>complained of an unorganized, non-communicative, mess. One cameraman told
>me "as someone who's been here in this camp for two days, the only
>information I can give you is this: get out by nightfall. You don't want
>to be here at night."
>
>There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp to set
>up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to
>get on buses, a way to register contact information or find family members,
>special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment
>for possible disease exposure, nor even a single trash can.
>
>To understand the dimensions of this tragedy, its important to look at New
>Orleans itself.
>
>For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible,
>glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere
>else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white
>supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid
>beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians,
>Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New
>Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation
>unlike anywhere else in the world.
>
>It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can
>take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and
>where a community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of
>extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state
>and federal governments that have abdicated their responsibility for the
>public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not
>only asks how you are, they wait for an answer.
>
>It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of
>New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300
>murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly
>black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't
>need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a
>shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.
>
>There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of
>Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months,
>officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption to
>theft. In separate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were
>recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several
>high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of
>Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several
>months.
>
>The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth graders
>will not graduate in four years. Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per
>child's education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher
>salaries. The equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop
>out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent
>from school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New
>Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where
>inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die
>in the prison. It is a city where industry has left, and most remaining
>jobs are are low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy.
>
>Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster
>is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence.
>Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of cruelty
>and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the treatment
>of the refugees to the the media portrayal of the victims, this disaster is
>shaped by race.
>
>Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of this week
>our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence. As
>hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to "Pray the hurricane
>down" to a level two. Trapped in a building two days after the hurricane,
>we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and tv stations,
>hoping for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a day
>of prayer. As rumors and panic began to rule, they was no source of solid
>dependable information. Tuesday night, politicians and reporters said the
>water level would rise another 12 feet - instead it stabilized. Rumors
>spread like wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse.
>
>While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to
>get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and
>national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As
>someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of
>this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.
>
>No sane person should classify someone who takes food from indefinitely
>closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a "looter," but that's just
>what the media did over and over again. Sheriffs and politicians talked of
>having troops protect stores instead of perform rescue operations.
>
>Images of New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged population were transformed into
>black, out-of-control, criminals. As if taking a stereo from a store that
>will clearly be insured against loss is a greater crime than the
>governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions of dollars of
>damage and destroyed a city. This media focus is a tactic, just as the
>eighties focus on "welfare queens" and "super-predators" obscured the
>simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams and mass
>layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a
>scapegoat to cover up much larger crimes.
>
>City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since at
>least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to
>New Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week's events, was more
>about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated
>exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently
>refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black,
>city. While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New
>Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the
>city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused
>to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of
>increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers
>rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized
>vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders.
>
>The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the elections of both a US
>President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern populist politics of
>Huey Long.
>
>In the coming months, billions of dollars will likely flood into New
>Orleans. This money can either be spent to usher in a "New Deal" for the
>city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs, new schools,
>cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be "rebuilt and
>revitalized" to a shell of its former self, with newer hotels, more
>casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former
>neighborhoods, cultural centers and corner jazz clubs.
>
>Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism,
>disinvestment, deindustrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from
>this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair.
>
>Now that the money is flowing in, and the world's eyes are focused on
>Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to
>fight for a rebuilding with justice. New Orleans is a special place, and
>we need to fight for its rebirth.
>
>----------------------------------------------- Jordan Flaherty is a union
>organizer and an editor of Left Turn Magazine (www.leftturn.org). He is
>not planning on moving out of New Orleans.
>
>-----------------------------------------------
>
>Below are some small, grassroots and New Orleans-based resources,
>organizations and institutions that will need your support in the coming
>months.
>
>Social Justice: www.jjpl.org www.iftheycanlearn.org www.nolaps.org
>www.thepeoplesinstitute.org/
>www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=crno_home
>
>Cultural Resources: www.backstreetculturalmuseum.com www.ashecac.org/
>http://198.66.50.128/gallery/
>www.nolahumanrights.org
>http://www.freewebs.com/ironrail/
>http://www.girlgangproductions.com/
>
>Current Info and Resources:
>http://neworleans.craigslist.org/about/help/katrina_cl.html


Okay check it, the Nation-wide disaster that is going to result from the Hurricane ravaging New Orleans is probably the final push this country didn't need into that seriously dangerous political state -- The Empire In Decline... look at every other Empire in decline - Rome, UK, Mexico in the early part of the 20th century, Russia, then the Soviet Union, any African nation post-colonialism, the destruction of the Death Star...

Did you know that the $1billion spent every week in Iraq for the past 2.5 years is effectively wasted money, and Bush's cronies in Haliburton are cleaning up. Surprise, surprise Haliburton has already been given the major contracts to rebuild New Orleans...

Did you also know the Bush diverted funds that were earmarked to bolster the flood control system for New Orleans to the post-miliatry operations in Iraq? More money in the Haliburton's pockets.

See what happens when an Empire is in decline is: the rich engage in snatch-grab tactics to horde the resources, consolidate their wealth and push the middle classes into poverty, and push the lower classes into the grave, jail or into rebel mode.

Usually there is a break-up of the control territories when an Empire Is In Decline. Which means that the Pacific States could easily jump ship, if an egregiously painful economic situation occurred. Such as funnelling money into parts of the country that can't create enough jobs to sustain the disappearing concept of The American Dream, nay the American Way of Life.

Watch what happens with oil and energy prices spike in the coming winter months. And LA, where anything auto related is a box of dynamite waiting to explode, is going to be hit with that gasoline lines. Will there be shootings at the Mobil stations? Firebombing of SUVs?

And we must thank the Bushes, the GOP and anyone who supported Reagan. yeah, it goes back that far. Peanut eating Jimmy Carter has his faults but he was looking for ways to stave of the imperial collapse that is predicated by reliance on the internal combustion engine. Not necessarily reliance on foreign oil, but how that oil is put to use. People trip because oil is directly related to the price of gasoline, but look around your house -- what the fuck is NOT made of plastic? The other major byproduct from petroleum... And why isn't failure to recycle a criminal offense?

Hmm....

Niggaz Can't Get A Break

Niggaz Can't Get A Break
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

So for niggaz it's "looting", but for whites it's "finding"? This is a PRIME EXAMPLE of how the media continues to tar-n-feather black people, make them look barbaric, uncivilized, not-to-be-trusted, dangerous, acting-outside-of-the-law.

Is it really considering LOOTING if your taking food (so you don't die) from a grocery store in a DISASTER ZONE, where all the businesses have insurance anyway! Isn't "scavanging" a better term to use for both BLACKS and WHITES?

The questions one needs to be asking is: if all the niggas who got trapped down in New Orleans when they had ample warning to leave, didn't leave because they didn't have cars or other means of transportation to avoid becoming disaster victims (not refugees) - then WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE WHITE PEOPLE DOING STUCK DOWN THERE? "Finding" food and risking their health in that foul, foul, FOUL water.

Have seen how on Fox News and CNN all the images are of the poorest of the poor when showing the dirty, desolate niggas? Something like 40% of the Blacks in southern Louisianna earn under $8,000 a year! They look like slaves -- with battered skin, bad teeth and other dignity deficits!

Big Screen -- No People?

Big Screen -- No People?
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Empty Theater Seats -- the biggest scare for people in the Westside of Los Angeles since the Rodney King induced Riot. All year there has been talk of the "Death of Hollywood." Hollywood actually died when all the corporations decided that making money is more important that making compelling, entertaining product in a business that called "The Entertainment Business." You would think the foremost priority is to at least entertain, then challenge and get you talking to your friends and neighbors about whatever product you bought and liked (TV, music, movies, video games) -- not so in Hollywood, if the Numbers Guys tell you, "that film is a bad bet, it's not going to make money to justify the costs" then a movie is not made. Guess what? The Numbers Guys don't know SHIT about what brings people in droves into the theatres.

Apparently George Lucas, Bob Kane (the creator of Batman), Stan Lee and Steve Spielberg do... but aren't those guys smart, shrewd businessmen/entertainers? Of course they are, not any dumb fuck who crunches numbers on Wall Street or on Olive Avenue in Burbank.

A few years ago a friend of mine was telling me about the wonders of Japanese cinema as we talked about Takashi Miike's disturbing AUDITION. He pointed out that in Japan, the domestic films routinely perform the poorest, so the Japanese film industry pretty much lets their filmmakers make whatever the fuck that they want -- they have nothing to lose and everything to gain; hence, the violent, repellent masterpieces by Kitano, Miike and others.

The majority of the films that come out of Hollywood are just too damn boring and plain. Shit, HBO and FoxTV offers better entertainment.

You know what I'm doing -- a spoof PSA on those Movie Piracy Ads you see in front of movies now, where the stunt man or the construction guy is crying about the potential loss of work. Complaining about Runaway Production (that's when US Studio movies are shot outside of the confines of southern California) and what not; well in my Ad we're going to be complaining about Runaway Star Salaries.

For instance, take Nicole Kidman here –


hot, fuckable, talented actress, darling of many, envy of others, but did anyone go see BETWITCHED? Fuck, no! And did you know that it cost upwards of $80million... yeah, I said that right $80million!!! On what? Mostly Nicole's salary (I'm thinking around $15 to $20mil) and the woefully unfunny Will Ferrel's salary is around the same, then you add in Mike Caine (probably $5mil) and then the script, director and producer (another $5 - 8mil) and you're looking at $50 million in salaries of only the key people. In a movie concept that has never performed well -- the TV Remake. So BEWITCHED only makes money somewhere in the mid $30 dollar range -- a FUCKING FLOP by anyone's standards. And you could see why from a mile away.

Obviously there have been some surprises - WEDDING CRASHERS, something all the Industry so-called "Know-It-Alls" were sketpical about because it was a R-Rated Comedy, and those are tough to sell because the offend a lot of people in the Red States who then complain to Congress, and then Congress WITHOUT SEEING the films in questions, chastise Hollywood and the filmmakers on the Capital Floor. BULLSHIT!

Then you had FANTASTIC FOUR, which a lot of people thought wasn't going to perform that well.


Well, Jessica Alba's fat tits and ass not withstanding, the movie wasn't half bad -- it could have been 20 or 30% better, but it easily could have been 300% worse. And thankfully it made enough movie to justify a sequel, where we can hopefully see the FF do what they do best -- stop galatic menances from destroying Earth or this Solar System.

Then you have films like THE ISLAND, with big-titted Scarlett Johansson (reason alone to see the movie), but who's behind that film? Michael Bay, then man who brought us BAD BOYS 2 and PEARL HARBOR, such obscence stinkers... if BAD BOYS 2 was an original film, with different stars into, that movie would have SERIOUSLY flopped too. Meaning that Bay's films since ARMAGEDDON have been beyond atrocious. Mainly because he thinks that story and characters has less priority than how much shit blows up, how many cars get trashed and how many near naked women he's going to put on screen...

I look at this way too, the home theatre system makes going to the movies seem like chump change for most Americans, because the theatres don’t have THX quality sound and picture. With home theater you can get HDTV, JBL speakers, the dopest of the dope chairs,

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But see I also need to blame DVDs… yes they are great, I watch them quite a bit (still I find more movies to watch on Turner Classic Movies and Fox Movie Channel that DVDs to rent) and they are the latest form of “Catching Up With The Jones” in regards to who has the biggest collections. However, all the “extras” on DVDs – value-add content as they put it in the home video departments of the studios – show the average person TOO MUCH about how films are made. These documentaries and commentaries and deleted scenes and photo galleries remove that elusive “movie magic” or as the late great Chick Hearn would say, “the mustard is off the hotdog.” Movies seem to be nothing more than assembly line products, and these Behind-The-Scene featurettes remove any sense of wonder or awe – and when movies have no more “how did they do that” factor (considering all blockbusters strive for that) because we can cue up a DVD special edition and figure it out… then man. Why even go see the stinking rot that Hollywood thinks we all want to see.

The Village of the Damned!

WOW! New Orleans is never going to be the same again. The fact that it's below sealevel means that the water drainage is going to be slow, slow, slow.



What kills me though about the whole thing is the looting. Why? Because the video images are constantly showing niggaz stealing. In what is probably the worst natural disaster to hit the US, niggas need to eat and do what ever they can to survive. If that means robbing from stores THAT ARE NO DOUBT INSURED, then gotdamn it do it.

See if this situation continues to spiral out of control, the New Orleans Blacks are liable to pull an African militant on people and start bucking people down for simple reasons like, "you splashed water on me."


I read somewhere that there are supposed to be a lot dead bodies in houses... people who choose not to evacuate, to stay with all their damn worldly possessions instead of saving their lives. I wonder what Robert Paulson would say?

I guess Prescott's Grandson is doing something about it, but I don't know how anyone can really help. The thing I want to know is... will the rest of the world funnel in monetary assistance the way everyone did when the Tsunami fucked the shit out Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Africa? Or has America engendered too much hate, too much "y'all muthafuckas is rich, ya don't need our money." I bet bin Laden is recording a video claiming that this a result of America's evil ways toward Muslims.

Will Ferrell in TV

Will Ferrell in TV
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

i'm going to go out on a limb here -- this muthafucka, Will Ferrell... he's NOT FUNNY AT ALL! Who the fuck appointed this chump the new funny man de jour?

ELF - sucked, didn't laugh once.
ANCHORMAN - turned it off 10 minutes in.
WEDDING CRASHERS -- Adds an extremely annoying 10 minutes to an otherwise funny-ass movie.
BEWITCHED - Was that supposed to be an easy payday?
KICKING & SCREAMING - Uh, did anyone see that schlock?

And that Cow Bell Thing, come on now! Why is that even supposed to be funny?

Just don't think this guy is anywhere near the hype he's getting. The true comic genius of the age is Vince Vaughn. Give it up for Vince!

Bombs Away? Don't Blame Those Tits

Nubile Nyphm Johansson
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Have you seen the biggest movie bomb in recent memory The Island? Probably not, 'cause that's why it was a stinker!

Movie doesn't too much redeeming about it, except for the visual beauty of Scarlett Johansson.

Apparently that was the problem with the movie... according to the DreamWorks producers, who have blamed big-breasted, DSL Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor for the critical-mauling its received. Producer WALTER PARKES and his wife LAURIE have used their website to stage a vicious attack on Johansson and McGregor, claiming their half-hearted efforts have resulted in a poor reception for the high-budget sci-fi epic.

See, now I thought it was because the story was SHIT, and the directing was more concerned with the explosions and fancy camera moves than with character, dialog and dramaturgy... I guess my criteria for a good movie is different.

And Johansson's talents take the biggest beatings, with the husband and wife team claiming a television actress could have done a more professional job. They write, "Listen those are superstars of the future, not superstars of the present. Even lesser television actresses, quite honestly would have more connection to that audience."

The only thing that kept my eyes from collapsing was watching Scarlett's tits bounce around in a skin tight outfit... not that I'm a crass misanthrope, but everything else about the film (from the man who brought us THE ROCK and BAD BOYS) was at the end of the incoherent, inconsistent and insulting.

Why did the movie seem like a bad rip of LOGAN'S RUN (which is being remade)? When the majority of the dialogue spoken by Johansson is "run." You have to question the integrity of the movie.

Although, Parkes & MacDonald no doubt overpaid for Johansson and McGregor -- two actors who have never been in films that trulyl captured the broader public's eye/attention -- and that's unforgivable, because her fees is boosted for studio projects when she's not proven her value in the marketplace. Everything outside of Lost In Translation hasn't done well (i.e. made more than $100 million in the US).

Hmm... more piss-poor planning by Hollywood, right? No wonder people have been staying away from the movies this year.

It's not over yet, and it doesn't look any better.

PodCasting v. Blogs

Someone left a comment on the blog the other day, stating that I've been living under a rock for most of 2005 'cause I'm not podcasting to express myself.

Podcasting is an interesting convergence of technology, and I've thought about doing an audio-blog, but then I said to myself -- I'm a writer... I like the writing, the burst of words emanating out from my finger tips... a man (or woman) of letters is infinitely more fascinating to me, as podcasting is just people talking, written language has its own unique experience... not to say that it's is better or worse than the spoken word.

Also, I'm not an actor (although I do work with actors from time to time) and I think one of the things that doesn't make podcasting that intriguing (yet) is that too many amateurs do it. Not to say that their information/content isn't valuable, but the key to spoken content delivery is the skills of the orator... if I couldn't express myself with the skills of a Cicero or Orson Welles, then the audiology isn't as powerful as it could be.

Plus were would I be without my photos...

Fucking -- It's All Business, Ain't It?

Argh… the rigors of dating in Los Angeles. It sucks shit out of a dead dogs ass. I was talking with some friends of mine about the whole thing, and at the end of the day it boils down to what Viennese poet Rainer Maria Rilke said, “In life what is important to men is women, and what is important to women in money.” You know the old phrase, “seal the deal” in terms of getting a girl in the position to dick her down? Think about that, “seal the deal” even at that early stage in a relationship it’s viewed as a business dealing, and it doesn’t stop there. Once you get married you better get to know the ins and outs of Community Property Law, and then Divorce law, and then you’ll be kicking yourself for not get a prenup; again that’s a contract. Even the marriage agreement requires a legal document, a martial contract is essentially what it is.

Isn’t that fucked up? The search for money by women drives everything. You ask them and the deny it, that they want a man who can make them laugh and has a good personality. But I ask you, if a man who was make $500,000 year approached a woman, asked her out, and started dating her, but didn’t have the best personality, and wasn’t all that jokey, nor does this dude have a lot time to spend with the broad, ‘cause of his job, yet he showed her the best, most exciting times, because he had a lot of cash to burn to make his experiences with the women fun (‘cause as a dude you got to be with someone that you’re spending money on).

Or would she take the dude who made her laugh all the time, had all the time in the world for her, and had basically the same personality, but maybe version 1.2… although this guy was barely making over $40K… which guy would the woman take? Guy #1!!!

Girls just want to have fun, right? Doesn’t money mean more opportunities to have fun? Yes, it damn well does.

Broke muthafuckas have it bad. They can get a girl, and get married, but they lose a lot of power in the relationship. You all know the one… they have to ask their bitch for permission to do anything, like take piss with the toilet seat up!

When the game of fucking, it's a game of power -- like every other game. As a male, if you don't set the precedent of how shit is going to be... then you're setting yourself for countless times that you have to bite your tongue! 'Cause you let the girl get away with something THE FIRST TIME, when you should have nipped that shite in the bud. Can't go back on it the second time you see something and don't like it, 'cause the girl just will not understand.

So if you want a Dimepiece like the one to your right... then you gotta be a man, and put your foot in that ass.

I remember a few months ago when I was reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and in the Detroit Red section, Malcolm talked about his time when he kicked it with hookers; hookers told Malcolm that most of the time Men need to be gruff with their women, and from time to time be sweet and affection and kind. If you don't, per the hookers, then the Men will frequently outside sources for their pussy; pussy that doesn't cut your balls off just so you can "get some tonight."

With hookers or any other kind of so-called pay-for-pussy girl, one isn't necessarily paying for the ses -- one is paying for the bitch to hit the bricks after you nut and wipe your dick on the curtain.

But on the reals, as a man you're paying for pussy any way you look at it. The gas, dinners, movies, horseback trips, picnics, bottle of wine, trips to resorts -- that's all money out the pocket, right? Money that is used to create a sense of happiness within the woman so she'll fuck. Couldn't that same money be spent on a bitch in a brothel?

The World's Lifeblood - SUCKED DRY, BITCHES!

The World's Lifeblood - SUCKED DRY, BITCHES!
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

And you thought I was trippin' back on The Nigger Factor when I was claiming that Oil was going to hit $80/barrel before the end of the year! Mark my muthafuckin' words, it's going to happen?

And then what?

Nuthin'! Muthafuckas cain't do shite 'bout it. Can they? Nope, 'cause nobody thought it was smart to dump goo-gobbs of money into alternative power sources, particularly for the god-forsaken internal combustion engine.

What's the world to do?

China is going to keep fucking the West because they don't have a decadent lifestyle that can shatter into a million pieces and cause urban riots throughout the US and Europe (more so the US though). See China and the rest of the emerging economies that are consuming huge quantities of Geoblood are used to living in slums -- in fact only the Uber-rich, the rich like the 1% of Americans who own all the shit, in China know what it's like to be profligatae with its disposable resources.

You think the barely literate 20 year old coming about the western Chinese countryside gives a fuck about the latest cellphone or who the fuck Jennifer Aniston is getting dicked down by? Hell, no! So the Chinese are even expected to feel the crunch of the sppiralling oil prices.

And there's nothing one can really do about.

And the U.S. is fucking up, because far too many refineries aren't operating efficiently -- bunch a bitches. Remember my column just recently about American Workers not being able to compete... case in point.

San Andreas - Niggas Gonna Work It Out!

San Andreas - Niggas Gonna Work It Out!
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

I came across this article a few days ago -


Video game industry seeking minorities
More heroes and heroines instead of hoods and hoodlums
The Associated Press
Updated: 9:05 a.m. ET Aug. 5, 2005

ATLANTA - In the popular video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," players assume the lead character of Carl Johnson, a down-on-his-luck criminal who roams city streets, stealing cars and helping gang members knock off rivals in drive-by shootings.

"CJ," as he's known by his pals, is

black — and to some in the video game industry, that's a problem.

A growing number of people in the booming industry believe there should be more black and Hispanic heroes and heroines instead of hoods and hoodlums.

"Not everybody goes outside with bling-bling and listens to rap music all day," says Amil Tomlin, a black 15-year-old from Baltimore who plays hours of video games each day.

Among those trying to paint a different racial picture is Mario Armstrong, who hosts a weekly National Public Radio program on technology. He and two fellow black colleagues have started the Urban Video Game Academy, a virtual programming boot camp for minorities.

"It's been said that a bunch of nerdy white guys are creating these games," Armstrong said. "The problem with a bunch of white guys creating the games is that the story isn't being created with balance."

Roughly 80 percent of video game programmers are white, according to preliminary results of an International Game Developers Association survey of some 6,000 in the industry. About four percent of designers are Hispanic, and less than three percent are black.

The institute, formed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May, is holding summer workshops in Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington D.C. to give minority students like Tomlin an opportunity to learn the basics of making video games.

Organizers hope this early exposure will inspire a new generation to make minority video game characters that go beyond typecast racial roles.

"I'd love to hear what other stories exist in the world besides the stereotypical ones. There are good people in the ghetto. There are role models," said academy co-founder John Saulter, who runs Entertainment Arts Research, one of the industry's few black-owned video gaming companies.

A five-week Baltimore program began June 27, with 50 high school students getting a tour of Maryland's tech-friendly Hunt Valley and a visit in the fall with Sid Meier, an industry pioneer.

In Atlanta, more than 200 applicants applied for roughly 20 spots in a two-week program set to begin in early August. Another camp in Washington, D.C. spearheaded by Roderick Woodruff, who runs a minority gaming Web site, begins later.

Organizers say they aren't surprised interest is so high. A March study by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that black youths between 8 and 18 years old played video and computer games roughly 90 minutes a day — almost 30 minutes more than white youths. And Hispanics play about 10 minutes more per day than whites.

"If you've got kids who can sit in front of a game for eight hours, then they have the cognitive thought process to learn how to build the game," Saulter said.

Some in the industry believe race in games is a serious issue that has been ignored for too long. "For a long time, we've talked in the game industry about gender diversity as the one problem on the radar, but the racial split is worse," said Ian Bogost, a Georgia Tech game design professor who recently published a book on video game criticism.

Jason Della Rocca, IGDA's executive director, said the industry must confront a cycle that threatens its creativity: Educated, young white males create games for other educated, young white males.

"Games are an expressive medium. They are an art form, just like movies, theater and literature," Della Rocca said. "We're seeing, to a large extent, that the games that are being designed unconsciously include the biases, opinions and reflections of their creators."

In a way, he said, stubborness to diversify runs counter to the industry's tolerant roots. "We like to think that game design is a higher calling and that no one really cares what your skin color is or your sexual orientation," Della Rocca said. "But that doesn't seem to manifest itself in terms of a more diversified workplace."

Reaching out to minorities might also make financial sense. "Look at the Sims, the best-selling game of all-time. The development team was very gender-balanced," Della Rocca said.

Imagine, he pondered, what an ethnically diverse team could create. Like that will EVER happen!


This is a funny article, 'cause I believe that video games are worse that Hollywood when i comes to enabling African-Americans a chance at "playing in that sandbox." The egregious stereotypes offered in games like Vice City and San Andreas just let us know what people are really thinking about African-Americans regardless of what the company line is.

Ironically, Sam Jackson provides one of the voices for San Andreas... I guess he didn't see the entire script...

The line -- young, educated white males create games for other young education white males if perposterous.

African-American males spend more time making love to their PS2, because education is sacrificed for time in front of the Xbox in many a minority household. And I wouldn't characterize the bulk of the white playing audience as being educated.

Think about all the EA Sports games that predominanly feature African-American characters -- showboating and taunting after scoring, behavior that's unacceptable in the real world, yet acceptable for pixalated niggas?!? Don't those games sell a fucking hell of a lot?!?

The video game is just another place where niggas get short shrift at the hands of their one-time oppressors.

Uh... I guess My Body Is Fish Food

Missing Rich Bitch
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

For some mutahsuckin' reason Natalee Holloway's body HAS YET TO BE FOUND. The only thing I can assume at this point is that killer kids dismembered her body, cut it up and put it in Hefty Bags and dumped into the Caribbean Sea.

Truth be told, it's hard to find sympahty in this case -- just look at the cold, hard facts: rich, white girl from the US is VACATIONING in Aruba as part of a High School Class Trip(!?!), she cuts loose because her parents aren't around and grossly uninspired rap videos have shown these island paradises to be places where a lot of fucking, sucking, and drinking go on with reckless adandon. And then just like most rich, so-called pretty blonde girls, Natalee thought and acted like her pussy was gold that young men and boys have to scrap for. The Islanders weren't having that and they did whatever they did (all wrong, of course), making a big mistake by perhaps choking the girl with several dicks and hands on her throat (just a hypothesis)... and she died. So the Islanders had to cover it up, and US movies have told people that getting away with murder is perhaps easy; so they attempted it and failed.

Only the body is not able to be found... what gives? See if the boys ini question do point out where they LEFT the body, I doubt any DNA evidence (from semen) can be used to convict. Although there might be skin under the fingernails (and you know in most murder cases, the cops don't have all the hi-tech shit used to solve crime like in CSI at their disposal, but with this case you best believe they're going to pull out all the stops. Natalee's family will pay the additional expenses if need be!), if the body was sliced, diced, then dumped I don't know what physical evidence can still exist if the corpse has been sitting in salty seawater for an extended period of time.

The truth will come out... although not always...

ENOUGH Already

I guess we're not going to stop hearing about Jennifer Aniston's romantic woes... as Vanity Fair moved up her cover story to this month's.

All I can say is... her pussy ain't gold, and obviously Angelina's vaginal juices are more potent. Is she a good person? Don't know, and neither does 99% of the people gobbling up all the shit and dirt that's been splattered on the tabloids for the past 6+ months. I hope she's a good person, and therefore deserving happiness. But as a uber-successful actress the odds are against.

I was talking with a friend of mine and she told me that she refused to see the wonderful action-romantic-comedy MR. & MRS. SMITH because it featured the great chemistry between the former Mr. Aniston - Brad Pitt, and the former Mrs. Billy Bob Thorton -- Angelina Jolie -- all because of the cheating that those two did on poor little Jennifer.

I don't know Jennifer (but jugding by those nipples I'd like to!), but she can't feel that bad because cheating and imploding relations is par for the course of celebrity weddings, and for that matter any time when the woman in a marriage is especially powerful and has a hoarde of sycophants around. Plus relationships bust out -- she's part of the micro-age, a child of concrete & steel of the 20th century, marriages aren't supposed to last for us. Or maybe it's the concept that one's first marriage is "for practice" and the second one is the keeper... too bad this was Jen's second memory.

You know what's funny about this image of her that I dug up... you never she her exploiting that kind of dick-stiffening sexuality in her film roles! I wonder if she embraced that cunniligus-inducing outward behavior on screen more, would she be what everyone accuses Jolie of being? Hard to say... but I'd wage that Jennifer is no where near as self-destructive and destructive to her men as Angelina Jolie.

By the end of next year, Jennifer will be with her next man, and SO WILL ANGELINA. The question is, what's going to happen to Brad Pitt's career... you think I'm tripping? Look at the careers of all the men Jolie has left in her wake.

Oil -- still going sky high, and Iraq's not online??!

Iraqi fucking with their oil
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Yesterday the price of oil hit a record $64/barrel! And people thought I was tripping when I made pleas about oil reaching $80 barrel the year is out (this was back when oil was breaching $50 and Prescott Bush's presidential grandson was talking about destroying the Alaskan wildlife reserves to line the pockets of his friends and constituents over at Haliburton).

The price of gasoline in Los Angeles is off the change, routinely flirting with $3/gallon. It made me pull this widget from the internet (for my new PowerBook that's running Tiger) to tell me where the cheapest gasoline is in my area.

See the biggest problem with the high price of gasoline in LA, is that it adds more ammo to my theory that Los Angeles is strangling itself with an increasing cost of living where the economy doesn't create enough of jobs or have jobs that provide enough income to match the inflation of just about fucking everything.

Still can't understand why the Iraqi oil fields aren't just pumping, pumping, pumping. It's been over two years and the insurgents are gumming up the words like that? FUCK!

I heard that there are HUGE oil fields -- larger that what's in Saudi Arabia -- underneath the Rocky Mountains, yet accessing that oil is probably on the scale of nuclear fusion.

Well, the high cost of oil is only one of the contributing factors that pushing the US of A to 3rd World Status -- which it'll probably embrace within the next 20 years, and I don't think there will be the rioting in the streets that I've been predicting -- except by Blacks.

America On The Way to 3rd World Status

Graduation Day
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Do you remember that comic strip/weight-lifting ad in the back of magazines where a skinny guy gets sand kicked in his face by a ripped up bully?

Well I saw it again on the cover of this month's FORTUNE magazine, with this slight twist: the skinny bitch was Uncle Sam and the ripped dude was a Chinese personifcation. The cover story was coming down hard on the impending Chinese threat to America's way of life (best be sure that the valued American standard of living is stalling right now, and soon will be falling -- plunging is more like it).

The author wasn't saying that American can't compete in the global market, because it can. It's the American workers who ain't worth shit! Yeah, and if you think about it that statement has a lot of truth to it. Ever since the mid-70s American education has been steadily declining -- particularly in any hard science field. Across the board education - public and private is steadily falling behind too many countries that American workers need to compete against. Sure, childrenof East Asian immigrants have been making up the slack for whites and Blacks, but why is that the case? The article pointed out that American youth culture is one that sees any kind of "heavy" studying in math, science and computers as being nerdy and uncool -- and in America there is NOTHING worse than being labeled a nerd or being perceived as being "uncool."

The cool, fuck-it-all attitude that arose in the late 60s, took root in the 70s and because a way of life in the 80s (termed the slacker) that was eventually lauded and cheered -- but at the expense . America is already an 80% service economy, what happens when those services can be primarily provided overseas for cheaper (we're already seeing it with Call Centers and other low wage customer service jobs)?

Whites just don't see tech driven education as a way to "get the girl" as it is drilled into the publics brain by lifestyle-commericals, MTV and youth oriented TV shows.

Niggaz never prized education -- any kind of education -- in the first place (which means that cycle has to be broken before Niggaz can begin to embrace tech ed), so you know the hard sciences are eschewed even more by Niggaz! From a certain viewpoint, Black pop culture has signed the death warrant for Black people as a viable economic entity as the 21st century rolls along. And as racism seemingly goes to the wayside (not truth, but...) and the Latino population gorws faster, Niggaz aren't going to get the

What Niggaz do bring to the table is fastily becoming easily mimicable for whites, Asians and Hispanics... so Niggaz aren't going to have place? Except as the permanant underclass that believes they are too good for certain jobs that they were forced to take in the 8 decades after slavery, thus condemning Niggaz to a poverty level, class, societal rank that they won't be able to escape. The ghetto increasingly cramps the mental outlook of those living it and Niggaz will be living in the ghetto more and more, as China continues to bully the U.S. And thanks to the decades of propaganda that portrayed American Blacks as dangerous the Chinese aren't going to want deal with Niggaz either.

(more shortly)

Oprah, yeah you're black, but you're not above it 'cause of your money

Halle & Oprah
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Of course I'm late on this one, 'cause I don't have the time like I used to have to seek out these kind of inane stories. But WAAAY back in June, Oprah Winfery -- arguably the riches Black woman EVER -- was snubbed at the tres chich boutique Hermes in Paris.

There has been talk that it was because Oprah was Black... that's a possibility, however extremely unlikely, as in Paris if you are noticeably an American Black, you'll get much love. If you come up to any place nice looking like you're from Senegal or some other African country -- expect the same kind of treatment white Americans give Mexicans.

Here's a recap of the incident.
Fashionistas and social commentators alike are watching developments as they unfold surrounding Oprah Winfrey's apparent snub at the exclusive Hermès luxury store in Paris on June 14.

The big question: Was Oprah's rejection from the store racially motivated by the Hermès staff, or was she simply turned away because the store had just closed? Number one Oprah is VERY recognizable -- across the globe, so such a racial snub I just don't think would happen.

Winfrey, 51, apparently stopped by Hermès to purchase a watch for Tina Turner before the two had dinner. Though the store had closed about 15 minutes before, Winfrey and three friends – who saw shoppers inside the store – reportedly asked to be let in, only to be rebuffed.

Hermès – which has branches throughout the United States – said in a statement that it "regrets not having been able to welcome" Winfrey to the store, but that "a private public relations event was being prepared inside." Sounds like a convenient excuse -- and maybe that's exactly what it is... but we will ever know?

Winfrey believes the store's staff had identified her, according to a spokeswoman from her Chicago-based company, Harpo Production Inc. According to Winfrey's rep, the talk show queen asked if she could just run in and buy the watch, but was snubbed by a clerk and a manager. Winfrey's friend, Gayle King, who was in Paris with the media queen, told Entertainment Tonight, "I saw it, and it was really, really very bad," then added: "Oprah describes it herself as one of the most humiliating moments of her life." Now this is the part that trips me the fuck out, and where I have no sympathy for the woman! Oprah lives in a gilded life where everyone does for her what ever the fuck she wants -- no questions asked. And Paris, as we all know, loves to rebuke Americans, especially celebrities who think they own the world and can do whatever with impunity. Parisian are probably sick to death of so-called wealthy or celebrity Americans coming over and expecting the red carpet treatment IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY just because they are treated like royality in the most hypocritical country of them all.


Hermès says their version of the story is all documented on a store videotape, although they are not currently releasing it to the press.
This tape could show Oprah being a straight bitch, acting like her money can buy the stink off her shit.

Harpo says Winfrey plans to discuss the incident in the context of race relations on her highly influential show when it returns to the air this fall. Should she call for a boycott of Hermès, the effects could be highly damaging – though it has also been suggested that viewers of Oprah's show aren't really in the market for $6,000 handbags.

Winfrey has often plugged Hermès products – a $135 tea cup and saucer was featured in her magazine in 2001 and was still on her Web site Tuesday, along with the company's phone number, reports the Associated Press. But she has said she will no longer be shopping in its stores.
She'll go back once the whole thing gets taken care off, and notice how it doesn't say that she would refuse any gift from Hermes -- so maybe Tina Turner can do all the shopping for her?"

The Race Card

The Race Card
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

What is the Race Card?

I think white people hate the concept of the race card, because Black People.

Sex has No Place in the eyes of Kids??!?!!?

Salma Hayek - Hottest thing going!
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

What the fuck is going on in this country? Well, I do know -- it's the rise of Evangelicalism, the religious right and assbag groups like The Parents Television Council.

So what's got me hot today? A
I'll reprint it for your eyes--

Video Game Known for Violence Lands in Trouble Over Sex

By SETH SCHIESEL
Under pressure from Democratic senators, the board that rates video games assigned the latest installment of the Grand Theft Auto series an adults-only label yesterday, effectively removing it from the shelves of most major retail stores.

The decision comes a few weeks after independent programmers uncovered a sexually suggestive scene that the game's creators say was never meant to be seen.

The board's president, Patricia Vance, said yesterday that the move was the first time in years that the group, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, had changed the rating for a game that had already been released. The rating was changed to "Adults Only" from "Mature," which is meant to signal appropriateness for players 17 and older.

Several top video game retailers, including Wal-Mart and Target, said yesterday that they would no longer sell the current version of the game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Like the motion picture ratings system, the video game's review system is nominally voluntary but usually compulsory in practice. Just as major movie theater chains almost always refuse to exhibit NC-17 movies, most mainstream retailers refuse to stock adults-only games.

The game's developer, Rockstar Games, which is owned by Take-Two Interactive, said yesterday that it would stop making the current version of the game and would release a new version as soon as possible.

Fueled by a mix of freewheeling play and rough-and-tumble urban motifs, the Grand Theft Auto series has become one of the world's most popular game franchises. According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, the game had sold more than 21 million copies since 2001 and had generated $924 million in revenue for Rockstar Games.

Even as game players, mostly young men, have flocked to the series, politicians have singled it out for its violence and sexually suggestive material.

The franchise's latest installment, San Andreas, has sold almost six million copies since its release in October but has drawn close scrutiny in recent weeks after independent game enthusiasts uncovered a sex-oriented "minigame" that had been hidden in the program's code.

To unlock the hidden scene, a user must download a program from the Internet known as Hot Coffee that was created by fans of the game. The scene depicts mostly clothed digital people performing sex movements.

"An artist makes a painting, then doesn't like the first version and paints over the canvas with a new painting, right?" said Rodney Walker, a spokesman for Rockstar Games. "That's what happened here. Hackers on the Internet made a program that scratches the canvas to reveal an earlier draft of the game."

Yesterday's decision by the rating board is sure to fuel tension between game companies and a subset of their players, known as modders, who make modifications for their favorite titles. Many companies, including Rockstar, have traditionally encouraged modders as a way of extending the life and relevance of their games.

But yesterday's action may also encourage publishers to make their games less alterable so that they are not held responsible for the changes that modders make or the old code that they unearth.

In a statement, Take-Two said that it was considering legal action against companies that help game players change the content.

Game players can buy devices on Web sites that allow them to alter games for consoles like Sony's PlayStation 2 that are impossible for normal users to change. On personal computers, users can change their games without special hardware.

Ms. Vance, the board's president, said that the mere presence of the Hot Coffee scene on the game disc, even in locked form, was cause to change the rating.

"This is the first time that we have dealt with a third-party modification and this raises a number of issues that we as an industry will have to deal with," Ms. Vance said.

"We want to make it very clear to publishers that they must clean up their product before shipping it," she said. "In the past they may have included content on the disc that they never intended the audience to access, but now hackers have sophisticated tools to unlock this stuff and the publishers have to be sure to either disclose the material to us or delete it."

Yesterday's move came as the industry and the ratings board have come under increasing political pressure. After reports about the modification, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, called on the Federal Trade Commission last week to investigate the game's earlier mature rating.

Mr. Walker of Rockstar said the company intended to release a new version of the game without the Hot Coffee code as soon as possible.

Ms. Vance said such a move would restore the Mature rating, and a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said that her company would almost certainly restock the new version.

Nonetheless, Take-Two lowered its financial forecast for its year that ends in October.

The company said it expected net sales for the year of $1.26 billion to $1.31 billion, down from an earlier forecast of $1.3 billion to $1.35 billion. The company said it expected earnings of $1.05 to $1.12 a share, down from an earlier forecast of $1.40 to $1.47 a share.

News Bulletin from CULTURE JAMMERS

I subscribe to a newsletter from that magazine called AdBusters, it's called Culture Jammers and they dropped this bomb about the bombing in London last week. And no, I don't have anything to say about it. It's what you expect you know, from crazies who follow a militant form of Islam, an aggressive imperialist form of Islam. Plus people in London are used to bombings... remember all them IRS suitcase bombs from the mid70s to the early 90s? Oh, you forgot about that? Do some research online.

Anyway, here's the news letter.

Jammers,

Today, millions of people around the world -- in cities from Paris to
Rome to Toronto -- spent two minutes in silence to honor lives lost
in last week's London bombings. It was a fitting, human tribute. It
was also a capstone to a week of extraordinary response, one that may
have opened a whole new chapter in how we understand a War Against
Terror.

From day one, world leaders and commentators publicly debated what
motivated the bombers to commit this terrible crime. Even more
importantly, many have gone on to discuss the real injustices and
inequalities that may have led to such desperate and misguided acts.
This sober, insightful, even introspective thinking shows how far
we've come since 9/11 -- when the range of acceptable reactions
rarely strayed from shouts of "evildoers" and "freedom-haters."

It's a welcome shift, signaling that we may in fact be ready to
seriously tackle the most important question of all: What are the
root causes of terrorism, and what responsibility does each of us
have to do something about them?

Together, over the next few weeks, let's tackle this question head on.

Here's one suggestion on how we can start: Let's recognize we have a
responsibility to treat the deaths of all people in the so-called War
Against Terror with the same solemnity and grief we have afforded the
54 victims in London. Since the coalition invasion of Iraq, tens of
thousands of innocent people have died as a direct result of the
conflict. Are they not equally deserving of two minutes of our time?

Should we, as Culture Jammers, challenge this double standard and
spearhead a day and time for two minutes of silence to remember these
victims? Two minutes of silence, two minutes of contemplation, two
minutes of reflection. Would you be on board? Would you be willing
get on the internet and help spread the word to pull this off? All
80,000 of us could really make an historic step forward in the
process of reconciliation. Send your pledge to:

Of course, there are innumerable other ways to spark this necessary
discussion about the root causes of terrorism. Let us know how you've
decided to contribute, or send us some of the most insightful
analysis you've read or heard in the media. We'll feature the best,
most fearless, most inspiring submissions on our website. Send them
to:

Onward.

If You Can't Say "FUCK" on TV? When can you say? Only In the Bedroom?

Electra - Stuff(ed with cock?)
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

ABC apparently let the "f" word slip by its screeners during the Live 8 Concert when The Who took the stage. While the expletive made it into the east coast feed, it was edited out before the mountain and west coast feeds. Not good enough says the complainant - the Parents Television Council (PTC). Who we all know are a bunch of suburban bitches with asses so tight they can turn coal into diamond (guess they need an ass-fucking?) and hen-pecked so-called men... usually GOP loyalists who have their hands in the air with the other cunts... they need to rehumanize themselves.

In the east, the word was uttered during the 8pm hour. While the PTC recognizes and apparently appreciates ABC efforts throughout the broadcast, this "slip" they say still warrants an FCC ruling. Please! Spare me this kind of moral highground crap. Take a look at the economic prognosis of this country, and quit clouding the reality of the future with piddly-ass comments about so-called offensive speach! Shit, Karl Rove's face broadcasted into my living room is offensive AND obscene -- to me, at least. Is the FCC going to rule against CNN and Fox News for their round-the-clock coverage of Rove's Snivelly Whiplash countenance? I thought NOT!

Said the PTC: "This kind of language does not belong on network television, particularly when so many children are in the audience." Apparently, they didn't see the rating. 'cause kids are surfing the net watching German porn where men and women get fisted and laugh with glee about it. Nor do kids in America give a FUCK about the systemic kleptocratic problems in Africa. All American kids give a rat's ass about is - when does PlayStation 3 hit the streets?!

The complaint was files against Allbritton station WJLA, who has an indemnification clause in its network affiliation agreement against any improprieties by the network.

Get Your Terrorism On???

You know the BIG reason that Prescott Bush's grandson is clammoring for increased aid to Africa? Well, it's multifold, but it occurred to me after the Live 8 concerts over the weekend, that the US can't allow any African nation to reach the level of abject loathing of America and its decadant ways that the plethora of countries in the Middle East have. The attempt to uplift sub-Saharan Africa is a shrewed manouever to nip terrorism in the bud. As we've seen in countries like Liberia, Sierre Leone, the Congo and Rwanda -- Africans, when pushed to rabid levels, can be some dangerous, heartless muthatfuckas. And the GOP doesn't want any Nigerian terrorists running wild in the South Bronx or Knoxville or any place else for that matter.

Of course the big difference between African states and Middle Eastern states, in terms of zealous factions of the population, is that African don't hate The Hate that begat their probelms. They recognize the complete rape-n-pillage movement that was colonialism, and they try to deal with it.

See in the Middle East all them shiekdoms and tyrannical so-called Presidents aren't at the level of kleptocracies that are blights to almost every African nation. Yeah, the Saud Royal family GETS OVER, but they don't pillage their own peoples' wealth and infrastructre and food, just to buy some gold jackets and kick it in BMWs. The Middle Eastern rulers don't share the wealth they already amassed. African rulers take all the aid money that receive and dump it into palaces in Spain or bank accounts in the Caymans or fly barbers in from New York City at $5000 a pop for the latest bald-fade. Yeah, Mubutu of the former Zaire was all about doing just that.

No, the current GOP president might have a good intentions, but ultimately the West is gearing up for the next level of rape-n-pillage of the Motherland.

Leaving The Country To Get Fucked

Leaving The Country To Get Fucked
Originally uploaded by Phalanx.

Man, I can't believe that Sandra O'Connor is stepping down from the highest court in the land, leaving the chump-in-chief to select a replacement. I KNOW he's going to follow in his dad's footsteps and nominate a dangerous person to be part of the Supremes.

This is a test of Prescott's Grandson's convictions and past promises, and his biggest opportunity yet to assure that this Current Dangerous presidency will leave a conservative stamp for a generation to come.

A Generation to come.

Not that it really matters, because America is tearing itself apart at the seams (and we refuse to recognize it), so in the next generation is going to rioting a lot more than we've ever seen. And the Supreme Court just won't have any kind of control.

Still, if there is a chance for the country to survive the MAJOR MAJOR economic shifts that are approaching, then the ability to thwart conservative agendas is paramount. And the best way to do that is on the Supreme Court.

Justice O'Connor wasn't a liberal or a conversative, but more of a pragmatist who did what she thought was right for the country.

The interesting thing is that a new supremor doesn't have to follow the party doctrine at all -- but he or she could easily be a wack-ass like Clarence Thomas, someone who is still so damn young (meaning decades still on the bench) and has nothing to contribute. I don't see why he doesn't step the fuck down!

Will the country really know how to deal with a most conservative Supreme Court?

The selection need not be as devicisive as we all expect. The current commander-in-chief, if he wants to be a unified, will rebuke the party extremists and moderates, and choose someone that will effectively government for the next twenty years. And considering that Billy Reinquist is on his way out, too, the GOP has a chance to consolidate its power more and concentrate the wealth into fewer and fewer hands.