Women who travel for sex: Sun, sea and gigolos
The men are young, gorgeous and up for it. No wonder Western women see a Third World holiday as the gateway to casual sex - sometimes in exchange for cash. But as a new film highlights female sex tourism, Liz Hoggard asks who really pays the price.
The Independent on Sunday, Published: 09 July 2006
An attractive woman sips a cocktail under a bamboo shade. The sand is dazzlingly white, the sea aquamarine. A handsome young man approaches her and showers her with compliments: she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, he says. For the first time in years, she truly believes she is desirable.
But this holiday romance is not all it seems. The woman is white, in her late 50s; the man, black, 18 - and paid for his attentions. The scene - from the controversial new French film, Heading South, which opened this weekend, starring Charlotte Rampling, makes us confront uncomfortable truths about sexuality in a globalised world, and the legacy of colonialism.
In the film, an intelligent, provocative take on sex tourism in the late-1970s, Rampling plays Ellen, an American professor, who spends every summer at a private resort in Haiti, where beautiful, muscled black boys are available to the female clientele, mostly affluent single women in their forties, who despair of finding mates through more conventional means. "More than sex, they are seeking a tenderness that the world is refusing them," the film's director, Laurence Cantet, explains.
Fast-forward 30 years, and the reality of sex tourism is anything but tender. Today beach resorts in developing countries such as Kuta in Bali, Negril in Jamaica and Boca Chica and Sosua in the Dominican Republic have become Third World pick-up spots for women tourists. Tour companies even market package deals as sex holidays for single and unaccompanied women. Forget Shirley Valentine, these women - who range from grandmothers to teens - don't want a long-term relationship. And there's plenty of live flesh on sale.
Take Jamaica, where 17 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. Hustling on the beach is the only way that some young men can feed themselves and their families. No wonder they choose older women who pay better than younger ones. InNegril, the men can earn $100 (£60) for sex with a female tourist, £90 for oral sex, which Jamaican men usually regard as taboo. Many others are hired as a guide to the island and throw in sexual services, often just for as meal or a place to sleep.
The definition of a sex tourist is an adult who travels in order to have legal consensual sexual relations with another adult, often for the exchange of money or presents. We still assume that a sex tourist will be male - indeed many regard the relationship between beach boy and female tourist as harmless fun. The woman gets guilt-free sex while keeping a firm hold on the purse strings. Where's the harm?
Jane, 67, a divorcee, has spent the past 10 years holidaying in West Africa. She loves the climate and the people - and she especially loves the men. "They are so wonderfully flattering. They make you feel like a real women. I don't mind paying for their drinks and meals if they stay the night." Divorced, with two grown-up sons, she explains, "White men my own age are so set in their ways; they just want another wife."
For others, this is exploitation pure and simple. Even where no money is exchanged, this sort of behaviour destabilises local communities and families. Ignorance and lack of concern about the abject poverty and lack of choice that characterises the men's lives leads the women to romanticise their actions. It is true that women sex tourists are still outnumbered by the legions of men who travel to Thailand and the Philippines for sex with prostitutes. Charities such as Amnesty and Unicef have no official policy on female sex tourism, preferring to focus on protecting trafficked women and children. Chris Beddoe, director of Ecpat UK, the children's rights organisation that campaigns against child sex tourism, believes: "If both adult partners are open and honest about what they're getting out of it, that's one thing. But it's another thing to continue the fantasy when there's a denial of the power that money brings to that relationship that creates a culture of dependency and exploitation.'
Nirpal Dhaliwal, author of the recent novel, Tourism (which satirises older white women turned on by young brown flesh), takes a tougher view. "Women enjoy casual sex and prostitution, too, but with far more hypocrisy. They help themselves to men in the developing world, kidding themselves that it's a 'holiday romance' that has nothing to do with the money they spend. Go to any Jamaican beach and you'll find handsome 'rent-a-dreads', who get by servicing Western women - lots from Britain. I've seen similar things in Goa."
Next month a new play, Sugar Mummies, about the pleasures and perils of sex tourism opens at London's Royal Court Theatre. Set in the Jamaican beach resort of Negril, it centres on a group of British and American women, seeking sun sea, sand ... and uninhibited sex with a handsome stranger. Sexually frank and often very funny, the play doesn't pull its punches. The playwright, Tanika Gupta, travelled to Jamaica to research the subject first-hand, and says she was shocked to find how female tourists objectify the black male body. "A lot of women talk about how 'big' black men are and how they can go all night. It becomes such a myth that even the men now use it. There is this terrible mutual delusion going on. And you do find yourself thinking, 'We're not a million miles from slavery.'" The older female tourists even confided to Gupta that although Jamaica was lovely and laid-back, the Dominican Republic and Cuba were "dirt cheap". "You can go as young as you want in Cuba," one woman boasted.
For all the talk of romance, the language of sex tourism is pretty basic. In Jamaica the men are called "beach boys" or "Rastatutes". The women are called milk bottles by the men - partly because of their ultra-white skin, partly because they are seen as vessels waiting to be filled.
Another myth the play explodes is that sex tourism is only perpetrated by white women. In Jamaica, Gupta met many black American women hiring beach boys. "They might be going back to their roots, or feeling more powerful because they had money, but they were still buying the same services."
In Bali, South-east Asia, Beddoes encountered wealthy Japanese women paying local boys for sex. The boys themselves claimed they found it less degrading because they saw the Japanese women as smaller and more childlike.
Gupta was inspired to write Sugar Mummies after reading the research by UK sociologists, Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor and Julia O'Connell into female sex tourism in the Caribbean. They decided to carry out their own research when they found that the usual analysis of sex tourism does not consider women as buyers of sexual services, because prostitute-users is seen as, by definition, male.
They interviewed 240 women holidaying in Negril, and two similar resorts in the Dominican Republic. Almost a third said they had engaged in sexual relationships with local men. Though 60 per cent admitted to certain "economic elements" to their liaisons, they did not perceive their sexual encounters as a prostitute-client transaction. Instead they insisted they were helping the men, and the local economy, by giving them money and gifts. When asked to describe "boyfriends", most emphasised how for them black Jamaican men possessed bodies of great sexual value. One 42 year-old English woman who travelled at least three times a year to Boca Chica in the Dominican Republic said: "I'm not naïve. I've been around the block. I come for sex - of course the sun, but mostly the sex. I'm not coming to live and set up house with a guy. I just want some fun and good sex."
"Female sex tourism is much more informal," says Sanchez Taylor, a lecturer in sociology at Leeds University. "It takes place in bars. There's no way for women to go into a brothel and say, 'I want a blow job.'
"Women who feel rejected by men in the West for being fatter and older -you know, 35, but they look 40 - find that in Jamaica all this is reversed," says Sanchez Taylor.
"There's a poetic lyricism to the gigolo's chat-up lines," agrees Gupta. "You very quickly understand why the women are buying this. On the first day, this baby aged 18 came to chat me up. At first I thought, this will be good for my play. But then he got a bit fast, so I suggested he move on to some younger women, And he said, 'Me no want the kitten, me want the cat.'"
The problem comes, she says, when the women start believing the men they have hooked up with are in love with them. "They confuse what is actually a financial transaction with real love. If you have low self-esteem, if you've not had much luck, if you're older ... you are likely to be more susceptible," says Gupta.
Some women even marry their boyfriends and take them home to the UK, although few relationships survive the cultural difference. Jamica's most famous holiday romance has recently come crashing down. Female tourism boomed after Terry McMillan's hit novel, How Stella Got Her Groove Back was made into a Hollywood film. The novel, in which Stella, a divorced black woman in her forties, takes a holiday to Jamaica, where she meets and falls in love with Winston, a local man half her age - was a fictionalised account of McMillan's own marriage to Jeremy Plummer, 23 years her junior. This year, McMillan, 53, filed for divorce, claiming that the marriage was based on a "fraud'' because Plummer lied about his sexual orientation and married her only to gain US citizenship. He denies it.
It is a nasty twist that the countries where this sort of tourism is most rife are ex-slave colonies. Many are still dealing with the fallout of colonialism. All the hotels, restaurants, cars and glass-bottomed boats in Negril are owned by Americans. The urban economy doesn't even belong to the local people.
Yet the women who sleep with the beach boys insist they are helping race relations. They flatter themselves they have gone native. "In my play there's a scene where a white woman is taking about how she loves R&B and reggae and what she calls hip and hop," says Gupta.
It is the female tourist who books the flights and determines the length of time she will spend with their boyfriend, as well as making day-to-day decisions when they are together, such as when and where they eat. One 21-year-old migrant from Haiti who had been working in Sosua, told Sanchez Taylor that he even had to "snog" his tourist client despite a bad toothache and a swollen face. If he did not, he would not be able to afford the antibiotics to cure it.
In Sugar Mummies, Gupta deliberately allows herself one relationship that might just work. "I'm not saying anything about mixed race relationships, I'm talking about these specific kinds of sex-tourist relationships where women go out there specifically to have sex. It will probably backfire and a whole load more women will go off to Jamaica."
'Sugar Mummies' opens at the Royal Court, London SW1 on 5 August (020-7565 5000)
No strings: 'I wanted to do sex like a man'
Lucy, a 23-year-old events organiser from London, visited St Lucia this year with a friend
The words "sex tourism" make me think of City boys who go to Thailand with their mates for seedy conquests to boast about. It's different for women. When they go abroad for sex, it's about wanting to feel special and escaping the boundaries at home.
My friend and I decided to treat ourselves to a stay in a luxury hotel in St Lucia for 10 days of pure pampering - and ideally a sexual encounter. This was the first time I'd gone on holiday explicitly with this intention. I was keen to find a St Lucian man as I'd heard they were very well endowed. I had my eye on Sandi from my first day. He was a local working in the cocktail bar, in his early thirties, and was very handsome, muscular and toned with the perfect six-pack. We spent several evenings drinking, chatting and flirting in the bar.
There are very strict rules at the hotel about staff and guests so I knew I had to make the first move. I told him I was going for a walk on the beach - and we spent our first night together. It was very romantic.
This was totally different from how I'd behave at home. In London, taking a man home with you, there's always the fear that friends might see you, not to mention potential dangers or the hassle of waking up in your flat with a stranger. But on holiday the boundaries shift and you can behave totally differently. You have a tan, you feel gorgeous, you're treated like royalty - and everything is available and easy.
Sandi and I had a great time. On his day off, he took us to a local street party. I paid for taxis, drinks and food. We needed his protection because St Lucian men had certain misconceptions about white women - although I probably wasn't helping.
When it came to leaving, I surprised myself by feeling quite gutted. I'd wanted to do sex without feelings, just like the men, but there was a definite trembling of the lips - for both of us. But as we flew home, my friend and I were very pleased with everything that had happened. I'm in a relationship at the moment but if I was single again I'd definitely go on that kind of holiday. Why not?
Around one in five British holidaymakers under the age of 25 is failing to practise safe sex while abroad, according to a study published this month by Trojan Condoms.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Bigots R Us!
I read about this on the BBC website --
The 20 “castaways” in the 13th season of CBS' Survivor will be divided according to their ethnicity. The contestants will be segregated into four “tribes” of blacks, whites, Asians and Latinos when the hit CBS programme returns on 14 September…
-- and people thought I've been out of my mind keeping this (and the previous) blog, that racism, racial strife, and ethnoxenophobia is still in FULL effect in Amerikkka.
CBS is completely reckless and socially irresponsible to sanction this kind of competition, because it's going to certainly justify certain racial/ethnic stereotypes about cunning, shrewdness, physical attributes and "get-along-ability." The contestants were smart, they'd work the white people off the Island first (I wonder what happens to the ratings when that happens... like the CBS/Survivor brass would allow that), then have the various ethnic groups go at it.
The 20 “castaways” in the 13th season of CBS' Survivor will be divided according to their ethnicity. The contestants will be segregated into four “tribes” of blacks, whites, Asians and Latinos when the hit CBS programme returns on 14 September…
-- and people thought I've been out of my mind keeping this (and the previous) blog, that racism, racial strife, and ethnoxenophobia is still in FULL effect in Amerikkka.
CBS is completely reckless and socially irresponsible to sanction this kind of competition, because it's going to certainly justify certain racial/ethnic stereotypes about cunning, shrewdness, physical attributes and "get-along-ability." The contestants were smart, they'd work the white people off the Island first (I wonder what happens to the ratings when that happens... like the CBS/Survivor brass would allow that), then have the various ethnic groups go at it.
War Writings, Part Deux
Ah... the LA Heatwave is still in effect. Nuthin' sucks worse than walkin by the on-ramp to the 405 and the cars zip by blastin you with a wave of hot air.
The heat makes you think, what's up with clean water? 'Cause you need so much to stay hydrated, and then more to be cool. Or maybe you just need to get to a ice cooler at the local 7-11, where a lot of beggars hang out.
Speaking of ice coolers, I was reading an article in Rolling Stone about the sectarian violence in Iraq, and the author was saying that Sunnis were killing Shi'ites (or maybe it was the other way around, I don't give a fuck, they's all the same to me) because they were using an ice machine.
Ice Machines!?! A potential messiah for desert folk, but since ice machines weren't around when Mohammad was toolin around the use of one marks you as an infidel-defiler that needs to be bucked down -- with a 7.62mm bullet bursting out of a -- you guessed it! An AK-47! Like those were around during the time of Mohammed. I don't even think gunpowder was discovered yet, so the "time honored tradition" of celebrating by firing a AK-47 into the air is another reason why the Arabs just pervert Islam. Or maybe their culture is just backward-ass?
Ya think? See what Islam needs is a Reformation -- the same way that Christianity and Judeaism had, so the religions could go with the flow of increasingly modern times. I mean, where's the Arabic martin luther? Slain as a child, or given over to twisted jailers to torture and maim, so an example can be set -- Imams and Ayatollahs don't tolerate people who want to shake up the power structure!
The war zone that's kicking the US's ass in Iraq, should be allowed to enter Civil War status. Let them fools kill each other off to the point, that it can be a clean sweep for the US Troops to mop up the surviving militias and insurgents. Plus, all the money that's being spent over there could be being spent on a new energy sources, or at least to build out more solar energy collectors.
Well, more news from the front when I can get back to the library again.
I wonder if Arab snipers is mad 'cause G.I. Joe's cruise around Baghdad with iPods blasting out beats by Tupac? You know the thing about not having any money for such a long time, and then eventually going homeless is that you don't get to have these little consumer goods that seem cool, and get a lot of pub in the media -- like a Blackberry or an iPod or a GPS in your car. I'm goin to have one of those installed in my car next time I have a garage to park my vehicle in.
The heat makes you think, what's up with clean water? 'Cause you need so much to stay hydrated, and then more to be cool. Or maybe you just need to get to a ice cooler at the local 7-11, where a lot of beggars hang out.
Speaking of ice coolers, I was reading an article in Rolling Stone about the sectarian violence in Iraq, and the author was saying that Sunnis were killing Shi'ites (or maybe it was the other way around, I don't give a fuck, they's all the same to me) because they were using an ice machine.
Ice Machines!?! A potential messiah for desert folk, but since ice machines weren't around when Mohammad was toolin around the use of one marks you as an infidel-defiler that needs to be bucked down -- with a 7.62mm bullet bursting out of a -- you guessed it! An AK-47! Like those were around during the time of Mohammed. I don't even think gunpowder was discovered yet, so the "time honored tradition" of celebrating by firing a AK-47 into the air is another reason why the Arabs just pervert Islam. Or maybe their culture is just backward-ass?
Ya think? See what Islam needs is a Reformation -- the same way that Christianity and Judeaism had, so the religions could go with the flow of increasingly modern times. I mean, where's the Arabic martin luther? Slain as a child, or given over to twisted jailers to torture and maim, so an example can be set -- Imams and Ayatollahs don't tolerate people who want to shake up the power structure!
The war zone that's kicking the US's ass in Iraq, should be allowed to enter Civil War status. Let them fools kill each other off to the point, that it can be a clean sweep for the US Troops to mop up the surviving militias and insurgents. Plus, all the money that's being spent over there could be being spent on a new energy sources, or at least to build out more solar energy collectors.
Well, more news from the front when I can get back to the library again.
I wonder if Arab snipers is mad 'cause G.I. Joe's cruise around Baghdad with iPods blasting out beats by Tupac? You know the thing about not having any money for such a long time, and then eventually going homeless is that you don't get to have these little consumer goods that seem cool, and get a lot of pub in the media -- like a Blackberry or an iPod or a GPS in your car. I'm goin to have one of those installed in my car next time I have a garage to park my vehicle in.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
War Writings
So it's been forever (in the technosphere that is) since I've posted, and that's mainly because I've been homeless since April and it's finally getting to me. Living hand-to-mouth, and sleeping on couches or in my car, and showering at the gym (gotta love that cheap Bally's membership I acquired years back), and washing my clothes whenever I can collect enough soda cans to recycle and get some cash back (at least I'm doing my part for the environment -- recycling is the next best thing to getting the fuck off of fossil fuels).
To entertain myself, I've been reading a lot of TIME magazine, Rolling Stone and Business Week... and James Ellroy's AMERICAN TABLOID (jesus christ, what a twisted, engrossing, stylistically insane book but probably the most illuminating fiction on how white people in the late 50s and earlyl 60s viewed Blacks and Hispanics (in the form of Cubans).
TIME and Rolling Stone have been covering the Debacle In Iraq with some fascinating reportage -- case in point last week's TIME had this article called Baghdad Diary, and man was it fucking interesting. The opening info about just how you have to be part of the lunatic fringe just to enter the Iraqi capital by air will make you rethink whatever you previously thought about the country-wide conflagration.
See the thing about this war -- what makes it most odd, fucked-up and out of control is that we live in a world where information, documentation, and transmission travels Gigahertz speeds, and yet the truth at the center of this conflict seems to be escaping just about every goddamn person on the planet. Why is Shi'a really fighting against Sunni, and how in the hell did Saddam -- a Sunni -- get to run rampant over the overwhelming Shi'a majority. How weak are those people? You have to be the worst cunt-laping faggot not to be able to express your differences without resorting unapologetic mass murder.
Otherwise a solution could be proffered -- whether it's Sectarian violence or al-Qaeda still trippin' or the "time-to-settle-old-score" fuckers, the violence in tha part of the world is never ending. I think they would have been better off, if Hussein was still in power or if he was assassinated. Full-scale invasion for reigme change just doesn't seem to work. When it happened in Germany, the country was split in two - Japan survived any kind of obscene breakdown of civil order because the country is so homogenous. Israel invade Lebanon in 82 and the Palestinian terrorities earlier and what in God's name transpired there? The entire world is fed shit on a stick, because of that continued conflict.
With all the IEDs and sniping and milita murder marches Iraq seems to be doing okay in Kurdistan. Yeah, that little corner in the North that the US had no-fly zones since the end of the first Gulf War. The Kurds have got their shit together, and they're dealing with the BOOLSHIT to the South as best as they can. I don't know if the Kurds are Muslim Arabs or even Arabs, but I don't think have the same inexplicable cultural issues as the rest of Muslim world. Why is the Shi'a vs Sunni debate still such an issue that has to express itself with such violence after multiple centuries. It's like if the Protestants and the Catholics were still waging unspeakable crimes against each other four CENTURIES after Martin Luther! [if you don't know -- and I don't know all the details or facts -- the issue between Sunni and Shi'a has something to do with who is the true inheritor of Muhammud's legacy. Who really gives two-tugs on a dead dogs dick?]
I don't think Arabs are interpreting Islam correctly at all! I really don't. And I don't give a fuck if is "their religion" -- it's supposed to be a system of tolerance and forgiveness.
Arabs trip me the fuck out, 'cause the guy in the TIME article was saying that pumping rounds into the stratosphere from an AK-47 is a time-honored Arab traditional sign of celebration... uh, the AK has only been around for sixty some years -- if you can pick up such and absurd-ass tradition, then you can figure the fuck out what's the deal with the Shi'a/Sunni clash.
It was written somewhere the the Debacle in Iraq is and will be the worst possible foreign policy mistake that United States will ever make -- short of using a nuclear weapon in Mexico to keep immigrants from coming across the Rio Grande!
I bet in five years the fighting is still going on. I bet in five years there would have been some sort of awful civil war in Iraq that tears the country into four or five punk-ass little city-states in the Babylonian desert. I bet in five years, American troops will still be dying for the sand-niggers who don't want them there in the first place. I bet in five years the Western world will have achieve a strong level of Green energy sourcing and other alternatives to fossil fuel that the supreme fuck-shit those goes on with these bitch-meat Arabs, that the Middle East won't mean shit to world energy prices. I bet in five years, Arab terrorist will destroy a few more US airplanes. I bet in five years Osama bin Laden will still be issuing video tapes (eventhough everyone else will have switched over to completely non-moving parts image acquisition) in caves in Tora Bora, and be thumbing his nose at the US.
I bet in five years, this blog will still exist. Only I won't be writing it!
To entertain myself, I've been reading a lot of TIME magazine, Rolling Stone and Business Week... and James Ellroy's AMERICAN TABLOID (jesus christ, what a twisted, engrossing, stylistically insane book but probably the most illuminating fiction on how white people in the late 50s and earlyl 60s viewed Blacks and Hispanics (in the form of Cubans).
TIME and Rolling Stone have been covering the Debacle In Iraq with some fascinating reportage -- case in point last week's TIME had this article called Baghdad Diary, and man was it fucking interesting. The opening info about just how you have to be part of the lunatic fringe just to enter the Iraqi capital by air will make you rethink whatever you previously thought about the country-wide conflagration.
See the thing about this war -- what makes it most odd, fucked-up and out of control is that we live in a world where information, documentation, and transmission travels Gigahertz speeds, and yet the truth at the center of this conflict seems to be escaping just about every goddamn person on the planet. Why is Shi'a really fighting against Sunni, and how in the hell did Saddam -- a Sunni -- get to run rampant over the overwhelming Shi'a majority. How weak are those people? You have to be the worst cunt-laping faggot not to be able to express your differences without resorting unapologetic mass murder.
Otherwise a solution could be proffered -- whether it's Sectarian violence or al-Qaeda still trippin' or the "time-to-settle-old-score" fuckers, the violence in tha part of the world is never ending. I think they would have been better off, if Hussein was still in power or if he was assassinated. Full-scale invasion for reigme change just doesn't seem to work. When it happened in Germany, the country was split in two - Japan survived any kind of obscene breakdown of civil order because the country is so homogenous. Israel invade Lebanon in 82 and the Palestinian terrorities earlier and what in God's name transpired there? The entire world is fed shit on a stick, because of that continued conflict.
With all the IEDs and sniping and milita murder marches Iraq seems to be doing okay in Kurdistan. Yeah, that little corner in the North that the US had no-fly zones since the end of the first Gulf War. The Kurds have got their shit together, and they're dealing with the BOOLSHIT to the South as best as they can. I don't know if the Kurds are Muslim Arabs or even Arabs, but I don't think have the same inexplicable cultural issues as the rest of Muslim world. Why is the Shi'a vs Sunni debate still such an issue that has to express itself with such violence after multiple centuries. It's like if the Protestants and the Catholics were still waging unspeakable crimes against each other four CENTURIES after Martin Luther! [if you don't know -- and I don't know all the details or facts -- the issue between Sunni and Shi'a has something to do with who is the true inheritor of Muhammud's legacy. Who really gives two-tugs on a dead dogs dick?]
I don't think Arabs are interpreting Islam correctly at all! I really don't. And I don't give a fuck if is "their religion" -- it's supposed to be a system of tolerance and forgiveness.
Arabs trip me the fuck out, 'cause the guy in the TIME article was saying that pumping rounds into the stratosphere from an AK-47 is a time-honored Arab traditional sign of celebration... uh, the AK has only been around for sixty some years -- if you can pick up such and absurd-ass tradition, then you can figure the fuck out what's the deal with the Shi'a/Sunni clash.
It was written somewhere the the Debacle in Iraq is and will be the worst possible foreign policy mistake that United States will ever make -- short of using a nuclear weapon in Mexico to keep immigrants from coming across the Rio Grande!
I bet in five years the fighting is still going on. I bet in five years there would have been some sort of awful civil war in Iraq that tears the country into four or five punk-ass little city-states in the Babylonian desert. I bet in five years, American troops will still be dying for the sand-niggers who don't want them there in the first place. I bet in five years the Western world will have achieve a strong level of Green energy sourcing and other alternatives to fossil fuel that the supreme fuck-shit those goes on with these bitch-meat Arabs, that the Middle East won't mean shit to world energy prices. I bet in five years, Arab terrorist will destroy a few more US airplanes. I bet in five years Osama bin Laden will still be issuing video tapes (eventhough everyone else will have switched over to completely non-moving parts image acquisition) in caves in Tora Bora, and be thumbing his nose at the US.
I bet in five years, this blog will still exist. Only I won't be writing it!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
F-- A Confidential Source
In today's NYTimes there is an article (reprinted below) about how Federal Prosecutors have won the right to inspect the telephone records to two NYTimes reporters to suss out their confidential sources.
This is just another reason why the GOP were depicted on the cover of TIME a few weeks back as an elephant showing its ASS! 'Cause these people want to be crusaders in the "name" of Patriotism but at the EXPENSE of so-called American Ideals.
Buncha bitches! As Gza from The Wu-Tang Clan has often said, most notably in the Dave Chappelle skit "Wu-Tang Financial"
Have you ever listened to this group called ANTIBALAS, they're a New York City-based Afrobeat group, and they're always talking about WWIV -- and how CNN and Fox News chose not to cover this war, as it took place on the Dark Continent.
U.S. Wins Access to Reporter Phone Records
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: August 2, 2006
A federal prosecutor may inspect the telephone records of two New York Times reporters in an effort to identify their confidential sources, a federal appeals court in New York ruled yesterday.
The 2-to-1 decision, from a court historically sympathetic to claims that journalists should be entitled to protect their sources, reversed a lower court and dealt a further setback to news organizations, which have lately been on a losing streak in the federal courts.
The dissenting judge said that the government had failed to demonstrate it truly needed the records and that efforts to obtain reporters’ phone records could alter the way news gathering was conducted.
The case arose from a Chicago grand jury’s investigation into who told the two reporters, Judith Miller and Philip Shenon, about actions the government was planning to take against two Islamic charities, Holy Land Foundation in Texas and Global Relief Foundation in Illinois. Though the government contended that calls from the reporters tipped off the charities to impending raids and asset seizures, the investigation appears to be focused on identifying the reporters’ sources. No testimony has been sought from the reporters, and there has been no indication that their actions are a subject of the investigation.
“No grand jury can make an informed decision to pursue the investigation further, much less to indict or not indict, without the reporters’ evidence,” Judge Ralph K. Winter Jr. wrote for majority, in an opinion joined by Judge Amalya Lyle Kearse. “We see no danger to a free press in so holding. Learning of imminent law enforcement asset freezes/searches and informing targets of them is not an activity essential, or even common, to journalism.”
George Freeman, vice president and assistant general counsel of The New York Times Company, disputed the majority’s characterization. Ms. Miller and Mr. Shenon, he said, “were conducting their journalistic duties by getting reaction to an ongoing story.”
Mr. Freeman added: “The move against the charities was not a surprise. No one has ever alleged that any federal agent was hindered or hurt or didn’t succeed.”
Mr. Freeman said The Times had not decided whether to pursue an appeal, either to the full appeals court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, or to the United States Supreme Court.
Ms. Miller, who retired from The Times last year, said she was very disappointed. “That this was 2-to-1 showed how close these issues are and the need for a federal shield law to protect journalists, their telephone numbers and hence their sources,” she said.
In an unrelated case last year, a federal appeals court in Washington ordered Ms. Miller and Matthew Cooper, then of Time magazine, to testify before a grand jury about conversations with their sources. They did so after receiving their sources’ permission, though not before Ms. Miller spent 85 days in jail.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald was the prosecutor in both cases, though he acted as United States attorney in Chicago in the charities case and as special counsel in the Washington case. His spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment yesterday.
While yesterday’s decision represented a clear loss for The Times, the majority ruled for the paper on several subsidiary points and left open the possibility that it would protect reporters’ sources in cases involving other kinds of reporting.
The majority said, for instance, that the paper had been entitled to bring a civil suit in New York to challenge a grand jury subpoena in Chicago. It also said that whatever protections the reporters had against being called to testify about their sources also extended to their phone records. And it said that “courts can easily find appropriate means of protecting the journalists involved and their sources” where “government corruption or misconduct” is involved.
But the court rejected The Times’s central argument, saying that neither the United States Supreme Court’s 1972 decision in Branzburg v. Hayes, which considered the scope of the protections offered by the First Amendment, nor later developments in other areas of the law provided the paper with the ability to protect the phone records at issue in the case.
The majority ruled that the government could overcome any privilege that even a broad reading of the Branzburg decision allowed. It also declined to adopt a so-called common-law evidentiary privilege based on the shield laws almost all states have adopted, saying the government could similarly defeat any plausible version of such a privilege.
In seeming to acknowledge the existence of privilege, though one subject to a balancing test, the decision differed from the one issued by the federal appeals court in Washington last year that sent Ms. Miller to jail.
“There is a lot more to be heard from the courts before this issue is resolved one way or the other,” said Floyd Abrams, who represented The Times in both cases.
In his dissent, Judge Robert D. Sack said the government had not shown that the phone records contained important information that could not be obtained elsewhere. Judge Sack added a cautionary note about the consequences of unfettered access to reporters’ phone records.
“Reporters might find themselves,” he said, “as a matter of practical necessity, contacting sources the way I understand drug dealers to reach theirs — by use of clandestine cellphones and meeting in darkened doorways. Ordinary use of the telephone could become a threat to journalist and source alike. It is difficult to see in whose best interests such a regime would operate.”
Judge Winter was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Judge Kearse by President Jimmy Carter and Judge Sack by President Bill Clinton.
This is just another reason why the GOP were depicted on the cover of TIME a few weeks back as an elephant showing its ASS! 'Cause these people want to be crusaders in the "name" of Patriotism but at the EXPENSE of so-called American Ideals.
Buncha bitches! As Gza from The Wu-Tang Clan has often said, most notably in the Dave Chappelle skit "Wu-Tang Financial"
Have you ever listened to this group called ANTIBALAS, they're a New York City-based Afrobeat group, and they're always talking about WWIV -- and how CNN and Fox News chose not to cover this war, as it took place on the Dark Continent.
U.S. Wins Access to Reporter Phone Records
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: August 2, 2006
A federal prosecutor may inspect the telephone records of two New York Times reporters in an effort to identify their confidential sources, a federal appeals court in New York ruled yesterday.
The 2-to-1 decision, from a court historically sympathetic to claims that journalists should be entitled to protect their sources, reversed a lower court and dealt a further setback to news organizations, which have lately been on a losing streak in the federal courts.
The dissenting judge said that the government had failed to demonstrate it truly needed the records and that efforts to obtain reporters’ phone records could alter the way news gathering was conducted.
The case arose from a Chicago grand jury’s investigation into who told the two reporters, Judith Miller and Philip Shenon, about actions the government was planning to take against two Islamic charities, Holy Land Foundation in Texas and Global Relief Foundation in Illinois. Though the government contended that calls from the reporters tipped off the charities to impending raids and asset seizures, the investigation appears to be focused on identifying the reporters’ sources. No testimony has been sought from the reporters, and there has been no indication that their actions are a subject of the investigation.
“No grand jury can make an informed decision to pursue the investigation further, much less to indict or not indict, without the reporters’ evidence,” Judge Ralph K. Winter Jr. wrote for majority, in an opinion joined by Judge Amalya Lyle Kearse. “We see no danger to a free press in so holding. Learning of imminent law enforcement asset freezes/searches and informing targets of them is not an activity essential, or even common, to journalism.”
George Freeman, vice president and assistant general counsel of The New York Times Company, disputed the majority’s characterization. Ms. Miller and Mr. Shenon, he said, “were conducting their journalistic duties by getting reaction to an ongoing story.”
Mr. Freeman added: “The move against the charities was not a surprise. No one has ever alleged that any federal agent was hindered or hurt or didn’t succeed.”
Mr. Freeman said The Times had not decided whether to pursue an appeal, either to the full appeals court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, or to the United States Supreme Court.
Ms. Miller, who retired from The Times last year, said she was very disappointed. “That this was 2-to-1 showed how close these issues are and the need for a federal shield law to protect journalists, their telephone numbers and hence their sources,” she said.
In an unrelated case last year, a federal appeals court in Washington ordered Ms. Miller and Matthew Cooper, then of Time magazine, to testify before a grand jury about conversations with their sources. They did so after receiving their sources’ permission, though not before Ms. Miller spent 85 days in jail.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald was the prosecutor in both cases, though he acted as United States attorney in Chicago in the charities case and as special counsel in the Washington case. His spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment yesterday.
While yesterday’s decision represented a clear loss for The Times, the majority ruled for the paper on several subsidiary points and left open the possibility that it would protect reporters’ sources in cases involving other kinds of reporting.
The majority said, for instance, that the paper had been entitled to bring a civil suit in New York to challenge a grand jury subpoena in Chicago. It also said that whatever protections the reporters had against being called to testify about their sources also extended to their phone records. And it said that “courts can easily find appropriate means of protecting the journalists involved and their sources” where “government corruption or misconduct” is involved.
But the court rejected The Times’s central argument, saying that neither the United States Supreme Court’s 1972 decision in Branzburg v. Hayes, which considered the scope of the protections offered by the First Amendment, nor later developments in other areas of the law provided the paper with the ability to protect the phone records at issue in the case.
The majority ruled that the government could overcome any privilege that even a broad reading of the Branzburg decision allowed. It also declined to adopt a so-called common-law evidentiary privilege based on the shield laws almost all states have adopted, saying the government could similarly defeat any plausible version of such a privilege.
In seeming to acknowledge the existence of privilege, though one subject to a balancing test, the decision differed from the one issued by the federal appeals court in Washington last year that sent Ms. Miller to jail.
“There is a lot more to be heard from the courts before this issue is resolved one way or the other,” said Floyd Abrams, who represented The Times in both cases.
In his dissent, Judge Robert D. Sack said the government had not shown that the phone records contained important information that could not be obtained elsewhere. Judge Sack added a cautionary note about the consequences of unfettered access to reporters’ phone records.
“Reporters might find themselves,” he said, “as a matter of practical necessity, contacting sources the way I understand drug dealers to reach theirs — by use of clandestine cellphones and meeting in darkened doorways. Ordinary use of the telephone could become a threat to journalist and source alike. It is difficult to see in whose best interests such a regime would operate.”
Judge Winter was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, Judge Kearse by President Jimmy Carter and Judge Sack by President Bill Clinton.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Debacle In Iraq
For some the Iraqis want to wipe each other off the face of the planet. And guess what? They can't even effectively put Hussein on trail (he or his lawyers are constantly walking out and/or boycotting the proceedings, and the lawywers are getting bumped off by the militias that roam the streets).
The decades, nay centuries, of simmering violence continues unchecked each and every day all over Iraq. And the American soldiers are probably sick to death of the bullshit that the towelheads keep perpetrating on themselves and the G.I. Joes. There's been a few cases in the news recently where American soldiers who "gone buck wild" and either raped and murdered or just plain murdered Iraqi so-called citizens... it's hard to really gauge how morally wrong this activity is, because historically occupying armies usually have the run of the place where ever they've conquered. Rampant fucking by soldiers, pillaging but grunts, and cover-up murders are par for the course.
I don't condone that kind of activity, but you can't be surprised by it. Especially after Abu Gahrib; as far as I'm concerned that was only the tip of the iceberg. We all forget that this is country where Hussein's malignant kids ran about and fucked with people with impunity. So there's a lot of shit that is kept quite and we're not ever going to hear about it...
I'm sure that there is a good 80% of Iraqis who just want this shit to go away -- by shit I mean the infidels who are perverting the teachings of Islam and twisting to their aggressive asshole beliefs... I heard this story the other day how Shi'ites can into a majority Sunni enclave, set up phony check points and started hemming people up for immediate execution. This went on unchecked for about three hours -- three fucking hours!!! How many people are just going to get wholesale slaughtered like that? Don't the militias realizes that everybody in
The absurdist counterpoint is, with all these people getting killed the country is better off because the division of scarce resources will have less claimants once Haliburton and the others have raped the natural resources, and then set-up a puppet economy. Under the guise the democracy leads to free markets, which leads to people buying US goods & services... well, mainly services as we don't make a damn with two tugs of dead dogs dick in the US anymore (auto industry is a joke; companies like GM lose money and every single fucking car! every car! they only make money on SUVs, which are atrocious because they demand some much gasoline to fuel, and spew so much additional CO2 in the air).
I was reading somewhere that a retired general estimated that Prescott Bush's Grandson's war on so-called terror is the single most harmful foreign policy act in the history of the country, and the near future -- only thing that potential be worse is dropping a nuke somewhere and then getting a nuke relaliation through a van-bomb in someplace like DC or LA.
I hyped up this webcomic a few entires ago called The Shooting War, it's a great look at G.I.Joe still kicking it around Baghdad in 2011, and yeah, we're still gonna be there that long. The iraqi government has no ability to control the various factions that are tearing the country apart.
Why didn't the people in the War Cabinet understand that nation building in a place with such a strong history of Ethnic hatred wasn't gonna work? Didn't they see how Yugoslavia erupted? That was the most recent case of ethnic groups not getting along, but being forced to live under the same aegis for far too long. Apparently bin Laden fucking around in that war, too. Unfortunately, the killings between Sunni and Shi'ites is very much akin to the Ethnic Cleansing that went on in the Balkins, yet no one seems to make the broader connection... I wonder why?
The decades, nay centuries, of simmering violence continues unchecked each and every day all over Iraq. And the American soldiers are probably sick to death of the bullshit that the towelheads keep perpetrating on themselves and the G.I. Joes. There's been a few cases in the news recently where American soldiers who "gone buck wild" and either raped and murdered or just plain murdered Iraqi so-called citizens... it's hard to really gauge how morally wrong this activity is, because historically occupying armies usually have the run of the place where ever they've conquered. Rampant fucking by soldiers, pillaging but grunts, and cover-up murders are par for the course.
I don't condone that kind of activity, but you can't be surprised by it. Especially after Abu Gahrib; as far as I'm concerned that was only the tip of the iceberg. We all forget that this is country where Hussein's malignant kids ran about and fucked with people with impunity. So there's a lot of shit that is kept quite and we're not ever going to hear about it...
I'm sure that there is a good 80% of Iraqis who just want this shit to go away -- by shit I mean the infidels who are perverting the teachings of Islam and twisting to their aggressive asshole beliefs... I heard this story the other day how Shi'ites can into a majority Sunni enclave, set up phony check points and started hemming people up for immediate execution. This went on unchecked for about three hours -- three fucking hours!!! How many people are just going to get wholesale slaughtered like that? Don't the militias realizes that everybody in
The absurdist counterpoint is, with all these people getting killed the country is better off because the division of scarce resources will have less claimants once Haliburton and the others have raped the natural resources, and then set-up a puppet economy. Under the guise the democracy leads to free markets, which leads to people buying US goods & services... well, mainly services as we don't make a damn with two tugs of dead dogs dick in the US anymore (auto industry is a joke; companies like GM lose money and every single fucking car! every car! they only make money on SUVs, which are atrocious because they demand some much gasoline to fuel, and spew so much additional CO2 in the air).
I was reading somewhere that a retired general estimated that Prescott Bush's Grandson's war on so-called terror is the single most harmful foreign policy act in the history of the country, and the near future -- only thing that potential be worse is dropping a nuke somewhere and then getting a nuke relaliation through a van-bomb in someplace like DC or LA.
I hyped up this webcomic a few entires ago called The Shooting War, it's a great look at G.I.Joe still kicking it around Baghdad in 2011, and yeah, we're still gonna be there that long. The iraqi government has no ability to control the various factions that are tearing the country apart.
Why didn't the people in the War Cabinet understand that nation building in a place with such a strong history of Ethnic hatred wasn't gonna work? Didn't they see how Yugoslavia erupted? That was the most recent case of ethnic groups not getting along, but being forced to live under the same aegis for far too long. Apparently bin Laden fucking around in that war, too. Unfortunately, the killings between Sunni and Shi'ites is very much akin to the Ethnic Cleansing that went on in the Balkins, yet no one seems to make the broader connection... I wonder why?
MOVIE REVIEW: WAIST DEEP
Vondie Curtis-Hall unleashed his urban update of a Bonnie & Clyde story (that outlaw pair gets much props in the hip-hopized urban community) WAIST DEEP a couple of weeks ago. I saw it opening weekend, and am only now getting around to writig about it, 'cause I was talking about this high school film noir called BRICK last night.
Curiously my new favorite actress Meagan Goode is the female lead in WAIST DEEP is also in BRICK.
Besides having a killa body, and some of the most beautiful lips taht have ever been on screen -- she has the ACTING goods! That role in BRICK as a white-bred Black girl in Orange County is 1000 miles away from the 'Round the Way girl from South Central who had never seen the Sunset Strip before.
Only thing is Hollywood doesn't tend to give roles to smoking hot young Black actresses (they usually have one ethnic girl getting the roles, and currently that's Jessica Alba).
The thing about Meagan is that as striking as she is, she doesn't distract from the movie -- in fact, she draws you in even more. Now that's the kind of charisma that 90% of the successful female actresses don't have. Take some like Catherine Zeta-Jones, pretty, real fucking pretty, but her beauty gets in the way and I have YET to see her do a strong performance (except for Ocean's 12 which didn't live up though).
I don't know what she's up to next, but I can't wait. I wonder if Hollywood will annoint her the Next It Black Girl, as Halle has kind of fallen off with her choices...
Curiously my new favorite actress Meagan Goode is the female lead in WAIST DEEP is also in BRICK.
Besides having a killa body, and some of the most beautiful lips taht have ever been on screen -- she has the ACTING goods! That role in BRICK as a white-bred Black girl in Orange County is 1000 miles away from the 'Round the Way girl from South Central who had never seen the Sunset Strip before.
Only thing is Hollywood doesn't tend to give roles to smoking hot young Black actresses (they usually have one ethnic girl getting the roles, and currently that's Jessica Alba).
The thing about Meagan is that as striking as she is, she doesn't distract from the movie -- in fact, she draws you in even more. Now that's the kind of charisma that 90% of the successful female actresses don't have. Take some like Catherine Zeta-Jones, pretty, real fucking pretty, but her beauty gets in the way and I have YET to see her do a strong performance (except for Ocean's 12 which didn't live up though).
I don't know what she's up to next, but I can't wait. I wonder if Hollywood will annoint her the Next It Black Girl, as Halle has kind of fallen off with her choices...
World Cup Antics -- Zidane's Headbutt
I saw a lot of the World Cup this year, something I hadn't really paid attention to in the past. But football/soccer has been on the come up
There have been many,. many stories in the news about the serious allegations of racism that spew forth from the mouths of Germans toward non-Europeans. But it's also true that the Italians can be held responsible for racist antics. It's a known fact that Italians have trouble with North Africans for several reasons (Mussolini couldn't whup on in them in the 30s was the last time the Italians tried to flex), but mainly because there is genetic unproven claim that reason why the Italians and certain Spanish are darker skinned is because of North African conquests throughout the ages.
Now what does all this have to do with the World Cup and Zidane's headbutting? It's simple, the Italian DID make a nasty comment about Zidane's Algerian heritage.
Zidane's agent Alain Migliaccio told BBC Five Live, "He told me Materazzi said something very serious to him but he wouldn't tell me what." Sources in France say it is believed Materazzi insulted Zidane's family.
Materazzi himself has not spoken publicly about the incident except to deny a claim by Paris-based anti-racism group SOS Racism, made on Monday, that he had called Zidane "the son of a terrorist whore". Criminal Expert Lip Readers from two different sources have verified this.
I don't know about you? But thems fighting words. The history of Algerians in France is tainted with terrorism allegations and activity. Algeria had to revolt quite substantially to get France's colonial yoke thrown off -- and that was as recently as the late 1950s.
"It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means," the Italian news agency Ansa quoted Materazzi as saying after the Italian team returned to Rome.
Now if you analyize Materazzi's statement you know he's lying out of his ass. He's claiming he's ignorant and doesn't know what the word terrorist means??! Uh, he's been alive and present over the past 5 years in particular, and he's definitely of age to have grown up in the '70s in Italy when it was racked by 5th Columnist terrorist activities. I bet Materazzi knows that the Red Brigades were terrorists.
Now granted Zidane shouldn't have reacted that way, but I'm sure many of his family and friends have been fucked with by the French for terrorist suspicions, and that's something that is more than a touchy subject. Because you can call someone a nigger or a monkey all you want, it's not necessarily that accurate. However, if you insult someone's heritage in a time when that heritage is under so much pressure ACROSS THE GLOBE, you're going to get a reaction that would no doubt seem inappropriate.
Racism and xenophobia will plague the world for the rest of its days, as it always has. It's stupid to think racism and bigotry can be stamped out like it is an science fiction novel (as you notice, niggas and spics typically don't exist in sci-fi, or in perfunctory roles).
There have been many,. many stories in the news about the serious allegations of racism that spew forth from the mouths of Germans toward non-Europeans. But it's also true that the Italians can be held responsible for racist antics. It's a known fact that Italians have trouble with North Africans for several reasons (Mussolini couldn't whup on in them in the 30s was the last time the Italians tried to flex), but mainly because there is genetic unproven claim that reason why the Italians and certain Spanish are darker skinned is because of North African conquests throughout the ages.
Now what does all this have to do with the World Cup and Zidane's headbutting? It's simple, the Italian DID make a nasty comment about Zidane's Algerian heritage.
Zidane's agent Alain Migliaccio told BBC Five Live, "He told me Materazzi said something very serious to him but he wouldn't tell me what." Sources in France say it is believed Materazzi insulted Zidane's family.
Materazzi himself has not spoken publicly about the incident except to deny a claim by Paris-based anti-racism group SOS Racism, made on Monday, that he had called Zidane "the son of a terrorist whore". Criminal Expert Lip Readers from two different sources have verified this.
I don't know about you? But thems fighting words. The history of Algerians in France is tainted with terrorism allegations and activity. Algeria had to revolt quite substantially to get France's colonial yoke thrown off -- and that was as recently as the late 1950s.
"It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means," the Italian news agency Ansa quoted Materazzi as saying after the Italian team returned to Rome.
Now if you analyize Materazzi's statement you know he's lying out of his ass. He's claiming he's ignorant and doesn't know what the word terrorist means??! Uh, he's been alive and present over the past 5 years in particular, and he's definitely of age to have grown up in the '70s in Italy when it was racked by 5th Columnist terrorist activities. I bet Materazzi knows that the Red Brigades were terrorists.
Now granted Zidane shouldn't have reacted that way, but I'm sure many of his family and friends have been fucked with by the French for terrorist suspicions, and that's something that is more than a touchy subject. Because you can call someone a nigger or a monkey all you want, it's not necessarily that accurate. However, if you insult someone's heritage in a time when that heritage is under so much pressure ACROSS THE GLOBE, you're going to get a reaction that would no doubt seem inappropriate.
Racism and xenophobia will plague the world for the rest of its days, as it always has. It's stupid to think racism and bigotry can be stamped out like it is an science fiction novel (as you notice, niggas and spics typically don't exist in sci-fi, or in perfunctory roles).
Friday, June 30, 2006
A Blast From The Past
I started reading James Ellroy's AMERICAN TABLOID today. I can't belive I bought this book TEN YEARS ago, and am only now just getting around to reading it. I was on an Ellroy kick back then... got roped in by his pieces in GQ magazine, and then picked up WHITE JAZZ just after the movie of L.A. Confidential came out. I didn' t know the book was going to be related to the storyline of the movie. I chose it 'cause I'm an avid jazz fan, and thought there'd be something curiously interesting int eh narrative.
Unfortunately, I learned that WHITE JAZZ was book four in the now infamous L.A. Quartet. So I went back to read THE BLACK DAHLIA (which is coming out as movie with uberhottie Scarlett Johansson -- see accompanying photo 'nuff said). The one thing I noticed is that reading WHITE JAZZ spoils you to rest of his previous novels, as none of them have the pumping rhythm that book has. I don't know how he came up with that literary style, but it boosted his status -- in my mind -- as one of the great American writers of the past century, if not of all time. Fuck it, Ellroy is one of the greatest American writers -- hands down.
What Ellroy does trenchantly good is delve into the unbridled id of his characters (and therefore his readers) and presents thought patterns and mucking around ideas that all men have (women are never expertly delved into , but hey Ellroy is the self-described Demon Dog, bitches ARE going to get short shrift) and makes you examine your core beliefs as a man -- are you an Alpha Male or a Beta Bitch? You'll empathize with murderers, psychos, perverts and all around deviants, because you had those thoughts, too.
Now you might not be considering butt-fucking yourself with a dildo the way one of the cops has a habit of doing in WHITE JAZZ or (ab)using a skull-carved wooden dildo on a stripper/hooker at stag party (do they even have those anymore), but you've been just as perverse in your own way. And Ellroy enables you to rejoice in your own degenerage behavior, because his characters are at once repelling and compelling -- much like each and every one of us.
The curious thing about reading Ellroy ten years after his serious climb toward national fame as a literary figure, is that his hatred of LA women (not women in general although it sure feels that way) is a direct result of him being a misfit and spending too much time in Los Angeles in his young adult years. Any straight man who spends too much time in LA -- with aspirations of grandeur mind you -- is going feel like dicking down women with impunity and leaving them in cold, because of the sheer ice queen behavior most women exhibit out here.
I certainly became that way... right about the time I was reading WHITE JAZZ, he tapped into the frustration I had with meeting suitablly fuckable women in Los Angeles. The I'm-better-than-you-just-because-you-want-to-fuck-me mentality that far far far tooooo many LA women have was fucking with my brain, and I harbored a lot anger.
Ellroy taps into his own personal anger about the grand dame bitch that is LA and squeezes out curiously attractive vitriolic prose and repugnant storylines with ease, that it made serious think about writing harsh harsh material
What I'd like to see Ellroy do is tackle modern day LA -- with it's moral Babylonian activities of Paris Hilton's Hollywood.
The beauty of entering into a by-gone world as novelist and exploring its unrepentant underbelly is that 20/20 commentary about those times is everywhere and its up to a skilled storyteller to wade through most of the carp to weave a dense story that resonates more so now, because the times were simpler then and therefore more apt for incisive allegory.
I'm only a few pages in on AMERICAN TABLOID and I'm completely reminded of why I liked this underworld storytelling in the first place, but it doesn't have to bite of WHITE JAZZ... although it's too early I guess. And stylistically, the first 50 pages or so of WHITE JAZZ can be alienating.
Howard Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover and the Kennedy brothers seem to be at the heart of this novel, the same way the ripping up of Chavez Ravine was at the center of WHITE JAZZ.
I can't wait to see Scarlett Johansson's nubile flesh in the upcoming film. She fucks pretty good on camera, yet I still haven't seen a break-oout performance by her... mabye this will be it. It sure would sad if her only talked about performance this year is when Isaac Mizrahi squeezed her tit at the Golden Globes...
I digress into slanderous talk.
But that's why you read, isn't it!?!!?
Unfortunately, I learned that WHITE JAZZ was book four in the now infamous L.A. Quartet. So I went back to read THE BLACK DAHLIA (which is coming out as movie with uberhottie Scarlett Johansson -- see accompanying photo 'nuff said). The one thing I noticed is that reading WHITE JAZZ spoils you to rest of his previous novels, as none of them have the pumping rhythm that book has. I don't know how he came up with that literary style, but it boosted his status -- in my mind -- as one of the great American writers of the past century, if not of all time. Fuck it, Ellroy is one of the greatest American writers -- hands down.
What Ellroy does trenchantly good is delve into the unbridled id of his characters (and therefore his readers) and presents thought patterns and mucking around ideas that all men have (women are never expertly delved into , but hey Ellroy is the self-described Demon Dog, bitches ARE going to get short shrift) and makes you examine your core beliefs as a man -- are you an Alpha Male or a Beta Bitch? You'll empathize with murderers, psychos, perverts and all around deviants, because you had those thoughts, too.
Now you might not be considering butt-fucking yourself with a dildo the way one of the cops has a habit of doing in WHITE JAZZ or (ab)using a skull-carved wooden dildo on a stripper/hooker at stag party (do they even have those anymore), but you've been just as perverse in your own way. And Ellroy enables you to rejoice in your own degenerage behavior, because his characters are at once repelling and compelling -- much like each and every one of us.
The curious thing about reading Ellroy ten years after his serious climb toward national fame as a literary figure, is that his hatred of LA women (not women in general although it sure feels that way) is a direct result of him being a misfit and spending too much time in Los Angeles in his young adult years. Any straight man who spends too much time in LA -- with aspirations of grandeur mind you -- is going feel like dicking down women with impunity and leaving them in cold, because of the sheer ice queen behavior most women exhibit out here.
I certainly became that way... right about the time I was reading WHITE JAZZ, he tapped into the frustration I had with meeting suitablly fuckable women in Los Angeles. The I'm-better-than-you-just-because-you-want-to-fuck-me mentality that far far far tooooo many LA women have was fucking with my brain, and I harbored a lot anger.
Ellroy taps into his own personal anger about the grand dame bitch that is LA and squeezes out curiously attractive vitriolic prose and repugnant storylines with ease, that it made serious think about writing harsh harsh material
What I'd like to see Ellroy do is tackle modern day LA -- with it's moral Babylonian activities of Paris Hilton's Hollywood.
The beauty of entering into a by-gone world as novelist and exploring its unrepentant underbelly is that 20/20 commentary about those times is everywhere and its up to a skilled storyteller to wade through most of the carp to weave a dense story that resonates more so now, because the times were simpler then and therefore more apt for incisive allegory.
I'm only a few pages in on AMERICAN TABLOID and I'm completely reminded of why I liked this underworld storytelling in the first place, but it doesn't have to bite of WHITE JAZZ... although it's too early I guess. And stylistically, the first 50 pages or so of WHITE JAZZ can be alienating.
Howard Hughes, J. Edgar Hoover and the Kennedy brothers seem to be at the heart of this novel, the same way the ripping up of Chavez Ravine was at the center of WHITE JAZZ.
I can't wait to see Scarlett Johansson's nubile flesh in the upcoming film. She fucks pretty good on camera, yet I still haven't seen a break-oout performance by her... mabye this will be it. It sure would sad if her only talked about performance this year is when Isaac Mizrahi squeezed her tit at the Golden Globes...
I digress into slanderous talk.
But that's why you read, isn't it!?!!?
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Soviet Gun-totting Bitch
So this is a plug for a really fascinating webcomic that I was hipped to by, by, by I don't fucking remember, but this is a good story... if you like good stories, told visually (i.e. as graphic novels or movies and shit), then check out The Shooting War, it's futurist story about a v-blogger in Iraq in the year 2011... yeah, George Bush's war on terror is still being fought in the Fertile Crescent by insurgents who could hope to see us all slaughtered before them.
There's great pastiche use of mixed media in The Shooting War, and a great piece of satire (as the best satire doesn't have to be laugh out-loud funny, it is supposed to tickle your intellectual brain center... that is if you've developed one -- something that's hard to come by via public school education).
It reminded me of this short film I saw an early cut of called "Fuck You, Pay Me." It was a sci-fi satire about the future of debt collectors, in which the Credit Card Companies (those soulless bastards) have the authority to hire mercenary police officers to come and TAKE YO' SHIT! with impunity. It's pretty good. It'll probably be at a bunch of film festivals in the fall or early next year... i guess. Hopefully, the filmmakers will have a website to watch the short as streaming video. Who knows...
There's great pastiche use of mixed media in The Shooting War, and a great piece of satire (as the best satire doesn't have to be laugh out-loud funny, it is supposed to tickle your intellectual brain center... that is if you've developed one -- something that's hard to come by via public school education).
It reminded me of this short film I saw an early cut of called "Fuck You, Pay Me." It was a sci-fi satire about the future of debt collectors, in which the Credit Card Companies (those soulless bastards) have the authority to hire mercenary police officers to come and TAKE YO' SHIT! with impunity. It's pretty good. It'll probably be at a bunch of film festivals in the fall or early next year... i guess. Hopefully, the filmmakers will have a website to watch the short as streaming video. Who knows...
Men v. Women -- Nigga Style
You knew I was going to weigh in on this, you just knew it. I bet you were wondering, when though. This is something that PISSES me off to the highest level. Seriously.
What am I talking about?
This the Tired Blackman movie trailer. Check it out (use that open in new tab on Firefox, so you don't lose this page... what no Firefox? You're slipping).
I actually know two of the actresses in the trailer. They originally hippped me to this a couple months back, and I was going to create a post but I haven't been posting that much over the last three months (no time, and not much to say, so sue me if you wanted more).
Anyway, if you don't have a video plug-in installed on your browser (and why the fuck not?), I'll give you a brief summary: it a a clip from the upcoming film Diary of a Tired Black Man (i don't where the funding is coming from, it might always be an "upcoming film") and the scenes features a Black Man (played by an African though, I wonder why not an African American) arriving at the house of his former spouse with a new partner: a white broad.
This website and the trailer has sparked a heated debate over the many issues it raises, from interracial dating to whether many black women are simply "too angry" to be datable. This is true for a lot of black women, but it also needs to be pointed out that many a black woman wants a thug type nigga, as glorified in them music videos of our over-hip-hopped culture.
The short clip (just 3.5 miuntes long) will leave most viewers either waving their hands in the air -- either in agreement or frustration.
This trailer brings the spotlight on the BOOLSHIT that black women do when they sit around with their friends. The women (nay, shrews) castigate the ex-husband, James, as a "weak punk" who has chosen to date outside the race rather than handle what they call a strong black woman. James blames the women for their inability to find, much less keep, a decent black man at their side -- because of their penchant for drama.
See a "strong black woman" is what you might call a piece of work. And they don't have any qualms about hitting below the belt, even if they're not interested in you (as a black man). Case in point, I'm out a couple weeks ago to this black girl's birthday party at this ritzy club in Beverly Hills, and I run into this black woman who meet me maybe 8 months ago at a dinner club. This black woman happened to be from a run-down ghetto section of my sad hometown Cleveland, Ohio. Anyway, we're talking, flirting a little bit and things are looking like they might be promising... until she drops some info about how I should be going to church more often (red flag!). So I cool to her, and then the dancing begins and she says to me, "I see that there are some pretty white girls here, aren't you going to talk to them?" And I was like, what the fuck brought that on? So I asked her, and she said, "I saw you last time talking to those white girls." I had to think back... oh, yeah the first time I met her I was talking with these two white actresses who were going to be in a commercial that I was getting ready to direct -- a little flirting going on, but nothing serious.
AND THIS BLACK BITCH REMEMBERED IT LIKE I WAS KICKING HER IN HER CUNT!
I kind of walked away, but she then let it slip that her own mother was white. I was like, you's a mean-spirited bitch!
But back to the Tired Blackman film clip; it was controversially created by first-time filmmaker Tim Alexander, who claims that being provocative is second nature to him. Alexander states emphatically that there's a disease out there called the "angry black woman syndrome." He says it must be identified, diagnosed and treated (with ruthless dicking?).
Alexander believes African-American women who grew up in fatherless homes, heard this CONSTANT REFRAIN from their aunts and grandmothers that black men are "no good" -- an opinion that is stridently reinforced in the international media -- are now these angry adult women.
"They grow up, deal with the wrong men, finally meet the right guy and don't know how to turn it off," Alexander says. "They are so used to fighting; it's the only way they know to have a relationship. So when a man is a good man, they think he's a punk."
The flipside is that African-American men who grew up in fatherless homes have a undrecurrent of disrepect for black women -- outside of their mothers (hence the fact that "mama cracks" are the most viruelent of verbal assaults among black males.
The one thing Alexander's movie scene revives is the always rancorous debate that has been going on in the African-American community for decades: Why can't black men and women deal with each other in a positive way? And what does that mean for the future of the black family?
On a certain level, the black family has been targeted for execution since the end of the civil rights era.
It is a burning question for many, including the callers that flooded the phone lines during Alexander's recent appearances on nationally syndicated black radio shows. When Alexander appeared on Rev. Al Sharpton's show, Keeping It Real, one female caller argued that black women's anger "generally starts from the man." A male caller countered: "When we come home, we don't need that loud-mouthed, self-sufficient, independent macho woman disagreeing with everything we say. We need kind women."
I can't comment from experience, as I haven't lived or dated a black woman -- simply because it never gets to the dating stage before my choices in life and my backstory raise the ire of the typical black broad...
Niggerized View of Fuck Partners
African-Americans have been bombarded in recent months with negative messages about the outlook for black couples. The Washington Post fronted a weekend "Outlook" section with the headline "Marriage Is for White People," and there are many books with titles such as Black and Single. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington says the percentage of black women who've never married has more than doubled between 1950 and 2004.
"If you internalize that, you will enter a relationship where you are doing everything or putting up with anything just to have someone," says LaDawn Black, a Baltimore-based author and radio host. Her show deals with relationships between black men and women. She says things aren't as bad out there as one might think.
Only thing LaDawn is ignoring is that, society has targeted black men is very cunning way, a way that makes having a stable relationship quite difficult. And the pop culture that black people in general subscribe to, tells them that fucking as many bitches as possible WITHOUT the thought of commitment or sacrifice IS the way to go. That's the hype that needs to be believed and targeted for execution.
UCLA professor and sex therapist Gail Wyatt agrees. She says African-American men and women have to stop allowing outdated concepts -– and media-driven angst -– to divide them.
"Our strength is in our ability to stand together," Wyatt says. "I don't care if a black man marries a black woman or not. I care if we support each other and don't buy into myths that make us look like and live like stereotypes." The myth/stereotype is that black men have no right to find non-black women attractive unless they're slumming and are weak.
White women are usually very HAPPY in their daily lives, if they get the basics in life they're usually happy. Fuck 'em well, give 'em presents and suprise them from time to time, and keep the finances in order and you'll have a great time with a white broad -- maybe this white broad is considered subservient to a black man, because she doesn't challenge his manhood on the regular. However, for a white woman to even suck a black man's dick, she's taking a risk that white men won't want her if the relationship goes bad. So they might work a little harder at the relationship to keep it going; which might mean taking more shit from the black man. but the giving and taking of shit between black men and women is a two-way street.
There's no quick fix for the issues between African-American men and women, Wyatt purports, but she believes they can be solved. Alexander hopes his movie sparks a discussion that can bring some change and healing to the black community.
What am I talking about?
This the Tired Blackman movie trailer. Check it out (use that open in new tab on Firefox, so you don't lose this page... what no Firefox? You're slipping).
I actually know two of the actresses in the trailer. They originally hippped me to this a couple months back, and I was going to create a post but I haven't been posting that much over the last three months (no time, and not much to say, so sue me if you wanted more).
Anyway, if you don't have a video plug-in installed on your browser (and why the fuck not?), I'll give you a brief summary: it a a clip from the upcoming film Diary of a Tired Black Man (i don't where the funding is coming from, it might always be an "upcoming film") and the scenes features a Black Man (played by an African though, I wonder why not an African American) arriving at the house of his former spouse with a new partner: a white broad.
This website and the trailer has sparked a heated debate over the many issues it raises, from interracial dating to whether many black women are simply "too angry" to be datable. This is true for a lot of black women, but it also needs to be pointed out that many a black woman wants a thug type nigga, as glorified in them music videos of our over-hip-hopped culture.
The short clip (just 3.5 miuntes long) will leave most viewers either waving their hands in the air -- either in agreement or frustration.
This trailer brings the spotlight on the BOOLSHIT that black women do when they sit around with their friends. The women (nay, shrews) castigate the ex-husband, James, as a "weak punk" who has chosen to date outside the race rather than handle what they call a strong black woman. James blames the women for their inability to find, much less keep, a decent black man at their side -- because of their penchant for drama.
See a "strong black woman" is what you might call a piece of work. And they don't have any qualms about hitting below the belt, even if they're not interested in you (as a black man). Case in point, I'm out a couple weeks ago to this black girl's birthday party at this ritzy club in Beverly Hills, and I run into this black woman who meet me maybe 8 months ago at a dinner club. This black woman happened to be from a run-down ghetto section of my sad hometown Cleveland, Ohio. Anyway, we're talking, flirting a little bit and things are looking like they might be promising... until she drops some info about how I should be going to church more often (red flag!). So I cool to her, and then the dancing begins and she says to me, "I see that there are some pretty white girls here, aren't you going to talk to them?" And I was like, what the fuck brought that on? So I asked her, and she said, "I saw you last time talking to those white girls." I had to think back... oh, yeah the first time I met her I was talking with these two white actresses who were going to be in a commercial that I was getting ready to direct -- a little flirting going on, but nothing serious.
AND THIS BLACK BITCH REMEMBERED IT LIKE I WAS KICKING HER IN HER CUNT!
I kind of walked away, but she then let it slip that her own mother was white. I was like, you's a mean-spirited bitch!
But back to the Tired Blackman film clip; it was controversially created by first-time filmmaker Tim Alexander, who claims that being provocative is second nature to him. Alexander states emphatically that there's a disease out there called the "angry black woman syndrome." He says it must be identified, diagnosed and treated (with ruthless dicking?).
Alexander believes African-American women who grew up in fatherless homes, heard this CONSTANT REFRAIN from their aunts and grandmothers that black men are "no good" -- an opinion that is stridently reinforced in the international media -- are now these angry adult women.
"They grow up, deal with the wrong men, finally meet the right guy and don't know how to turn it off," Alexander says. "They are so used to fighting; it's the only way they know to have a relationship. So when a man is a good man, they think he's a punk."
The flipside is that African-American men who grew up in fatherless homes have a undrecurrent of disrepect for black women -- outside of their mothers (hence the fact that "mama cracks" are the most viruelent of verbal assaults among black males.
The one thing Alexander's movie scene revives is the always rancorous debate that has been going on in the African-American community for decades: Why can't black men and women deal with each other in a positive way? And what does that mean for the future of the black family?
On a certain level, the black family has been targeted for execution since the end of the civil rights era.
It is a burning question for many, including the callers that flooded the phone lines during Alexander's recent appearances on nationally syndicated black radio shows. When Alexander appeared on Rev. Al Sharpton's show, Keeping It Real, one female caller argued that black women's anger "generally starts from the man." A male caller countered: "When we come home, we don't need that loud-mouthed, self-sufficient, independent macho woman disagreeing with everything we say. We need kind women."
I can't comment from experience, as I haven't lived or dated a black woman -- simply because it never gets to the dating stage before my choices in life and my backstory raise the ire of the typical black broad...
Niggerized View of Fuck Partners
African-Americans have been bombarded in recent months with negative messages about the outlook for black couples. The Washington Post fronted a weekend "Outlook" section with the headline "Marriage Is for White People," and there are many books with titles such as Black and Single. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington says the percentage of black women who've never married has more than doubled between 1950 and 2004.
"If you internalize that, you will enter a relationship where you are doing everything or putting up with anything just to have someone," says LaDawn Black, a Baltimore-based author and radio host. Her show deals with relationships between black men and women. She says things aren't as bad out there as one might think.
Only thing LaDawn is ignoring is that, society has targeted black men is very cunning way, a way that makes having a stable relationship quite difficult. And the pop culture that black people in general subscribe to, tells them that fucking as many bitches as possible WITHOUT the thought of commitment or sacrifice IS the way to go. That's the hype that needs to be believed and targeted for execution.
UCLA professor and sex therapist Gail Wyatt agrees. She says African-American men and women have to stop allowing outdated concepts -– and media-driven angst -– to divide them.
"Our strength is in our ability to stand together," Wyatt says. "I don't care if a black man marries a black woman or not. I care if we support each other and don't buy into myths that make us look like and live like stereotypes." The myth/stereotype is that black men have no right to find non-black women attractive unless they're slumming and are weak.
White women are usually very HAPPY in their daily lives, if they get the basics in life they're usually happy. Fuck 'em well, give 'em presents and suprise them from time to time, and keep the finances in order and you'll have a great time with a white broad -- maybe this white broad is considered subservient to a black man, because she doesn't challenge his manhood on the regular. However, for a white woman to even suck a black man's dick, she's taking a risk that white men won't want her if the relationship goes bad. So they might work a little harder at the relationship to keep it going; which might mean taking more shit from the black man. but the giving and taking of shit between black men and women is a two-way street.
There's no quick fix for the issues between African-American men and women, Wyatt purports, but she believes they can be solved. Alexander hopes his movie sparks a discussion that can bring some change and healing to the black community.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
HipHop Mogul Boycots Champagne
In a recent issue of ROLLING STONE there was a little blurb about the return to the microphone by rapper-cum-business man Jay-Z. We all knew he wasn't going to retire... no one who gained their fame through the media spotlight willing gives it up -- flops and fickle fans force you to leave. I'm assuming that
However, what was interesting in the blurb was that Jay-Z's 40/40 Clubs -- all across the land -- were boycotting French champang staple Cristal. Apparently, Cristal's head honcho Fedreic Rouzard made some remarks in an issue of The Economist, in which he felt uncomfortable about his beverage being lauded by hip-hop culture. J-Hova thought these comments were racist, and instituted the ban.
That's some dumbass shit, as you'd be hard pressed to find any luxury goods manufacturer embracing the fact that a mysoginstic, violent, counter bouregois subculture headed up by mainly ignorant Negroes (still a hated group) -- witness what happend with Oprah and Hermes last summer. I bet Lius Vuitton's people have thought the same thing, and no doubt then-Daimler Benz was pissed the fuck off when rap world personalities like Flavor Flav were sporting the Benz hood ornament as necklace in the '80s.
Now, people like Puffy Combs, Russell Simmons and Jay-Z and others have made an extraordinary amount of money by bringing hip-hop and its cultural artifacts to the masses, that is the young masses. Whereas what hip-hop represents, a snatching of white wealth & power into the hands of Black people -- ultimately, it's going to rankle the noses of high end people, e.g. Rouzard et al.
Why? Because white people in that upper 1% of society don't GIVE A FUCK about Black people, especially American Blacks -- the former chattel property -- and in fact, look upon them with great apprehension... and rightly so, because Black people instill a sense of social upheaval, that things associated with them lose their luster. Whether that is true or not is another post, another debate and another piece of societal understanding in its own right.
So in the end Jay-Z is being foolish. If he's going to take that stand, then he's trying to fight someting that he's never gonna change. What he needs to do is use his marketing prowess to help combat the Thornstein Veblenesque spending habits of niggas in America! And do something about global warming, assist in the weaning of America off of oil ('cause it ain't the gasoline you need to be worrying about, it's all the plastic that's in your daily life -- same oil makes both, which one can we do without easier?), and help expose the Econmonic Hit Men that the government leaders employ in their private business opportunities.
That's what J-Hova needs to be mad about.
I wonder why he's not?
However, what was interesting in the blurb was that Jay-Z's 40/40 Clubs -- all across the land -- were boycotting French champang staple Cristal. Apparently, Cristal's head honcho Fedreic Rouzard made some remarks in an issue of The Economist, in which he felt uncomfortable about his beverage being lauded by hip-hop culture. J-Hova thought these comments were racist, and instituted the ban.
That's some dumbass shit, as you'd be hard pressed to find any luxury goods manufacturer embracing the fact that a mysoginstic, violent, counter bouregois subculture headed up by mainly ignorant Negroes (still a hated group) -- witness what happend with Oprah and Hermes last summer. I bet Lius Vuitton's people have thought the same thing, and no doubt then-Daimler Benz was pissed the fuck off when rap world personalities like Flavor Flav were sporting the Benz hood ornament as necklace in the '80s.
Now, people like Puffy Combs, Russell Simmons and Jay-Z and others have made an extraordinary amount of money by bringing hip-hop and its cultural artifacts to the masses, that is the young masses. Whereas what hip-hop represents, a snatching of white wealth & power into the hands of Black people -- ultimately, it's going to rankle the noses of high end people, e.g. Rouzard et al.
Why? Because white people in that upper 1% of society don't GIVE A FUCK about Black people, especially American Blacks -- the former chattel property -- and in fact, look upon them with great apprehension... and rightly so, because Black people instill a sense of social upheaval, that things associated with them lose their luster. Whether that is true or not is another post, another debate and another piece of societal understanding in its own right.
So in the end Jay-Z is being foolish. If he's going to take that stand, then he's trying to fight someting that he's never gonna change. What he needs to do is use his marketing prowess to help combat the Thornstein Veblenesque spending habits of niggas in America! And do something about global warming, assist in the weaning of America off of oil ('cause it ain't the gasoline you need to be worrying about, it's all the plastic that's in your daily life -- same oil makes both, which one can we do without easier?), and help expose the Econmonic Hit Men that the government leaders employ in their private business opportunities.
That's what J-Hova needs to be mad about.
I wonder why he's not?
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Stop The (Social) Violence, Yer headed For Self-Destruction
It never ceases to amaze me the trouble that Black men have in this country. It's constantly ignored by most people in the mainstream, and then when a cultural event like the Oscar-winning film CRASH comes on the scene and asks people to take a look at the fraying edges of society, dumb cunts like Annie Proulx get upset that the film is out of touch with what's really going on.
Below is an article from the New York Times that recounts recent studies about the continuing plight of America's most endangered species -- The African-American Male.
It's pretty heart-wrenching to know that if you're a Black man eluding jail time is the most difficult thing you'll face in your life -- not buying a house, not having children, not getting married, not getting divorce, not losing your parents -- getting locked the fuck up, damn. Damn, damn.
Read the article, and my commentary is interspersed throughout... as you knew I would do!
NYTIMES
March 20, 2006
Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn
By ERIK ECKHOLM
BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups.
Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.
What does this translate to? Violence and crime. The cycle begins and can it ever end? Not without extensive societal work.
Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined.
This is a dishearthening truth that stinks to HIGH HEAVEN! The Black Community needs to figure out why its men don't GIVE A FUCK about school, and get them to stop selling drugs whether to other Blacks or to the other minorities (keep selling to the White man though!).
Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face.
"There's something very different happening with young black men, and it's something we can no longer ignore," said Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of "Black Males Left Behind" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).The crazy fact of the matter is -- people genuinely want to ignore Black men in society, unless they're on the latest hip-hop music video-related image. I can't understand this. The vibrancy that African-Americans bring to global culture has at its cornerstone with the health and well-being of Black males. But perhaps maybe not, maybe the continued beatdowns handed out by society at Black men is what makes them the most creative groups on the planet. HANDS DOWN.
"Over the last two decades, the economy did great," Mr. Mincy said, "and low-skilled women, helped by public policy, latched onto it. But young black men were falling farther back."
Many of the new studies go beyond the traditional approaches to looking at the plight of black men, especially when it comes to determining the scope of joblessness. For example, official unemployment rates can be misleading because they do not include those not seeking work or incarcerated. Uh, how fucking misleading are the figures for young Blacks? Because so many of them are in the slammer, AND, AND, when I was growing up it was urban lore that 1 in 4 Black men would have spent SOME time in the joint by the time they reached 25. The corrolation being, once you've been in the Man's prison you can't really get a job anyway. So why bother even looking? You can only take so much rejection that stems from have a rap sheet that stems from just existing as a Black man.
"If you look at the numbers, the 1990's was a bad decade for young black men, even though it had the best labor market in 30 years," said Harry J. Holzer, an economist at Georgetown University and co-author, with Peter Edelman and Paul Offner, of "Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).
In response to the worsening situation for young black men, a growing number of programs are placing as much importance on teaching life skills — like parenting, conflict resolution and character building — as they are on teaching job skills.
These were among the recent findings:
¶The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990's. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless — that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20's were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000. Oh, I guess you were all mistaken about the systematic destruction of the Black man is a plan, right? What the FUCK kind of numbers are these?!?! Niggaz can't catch a break, can they? And none of the other ethnic groups even want to help out. All they (or rather their young) want to do is steal what cool pop culture elements Blacks create for hustling purposes.
¶Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990's and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20's who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30's, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison. No excuse for this. This oughta shut up the people who say Black men shouldn't get any special treatment... you add this info with the fact that white and hispanic high school drop outs don't nearly go to the big house as much, and you gotta ask yourself, what's up with the Po-Po?
¶In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.
Truth be told, in Black neighborhoods and households that fall under the rubric of "inner city" education is NOT somethign that is exalted. Just the other day I went to see my six year old neice -- who lives with just her mother, my brother like all good black men couldn't be bothered -- and I wanted to see how well she could read now that she's been through a year of formalized, albeit public, education and she was reading okay... I guess. I'm not entirely sure how well a six year old is supposed to read. However, three days later I go over to my white friends' house who has a two year old and this kid can speak more clearly than my neice, can count to ten in English AND Spanish, and can say words from a book on dinosaurs with a clarity that was shocking -- I was like, "niggas are fading away..."
None of the litany of problems that young black men face was news to a group of men from the airless neighborhoods of Baltimore who recently described their experiences.
One of them, Curtis E. Brannon, told a story so commonplace it hardly bears notice here. He quit school in 10th grade to sell drugs, fathered four children with three mothers, and spent several stretches in jail for drug possession, parole violations and other crimes.
"I was with the street life, but now I feel like I've got to get myself together," Mr. Brannon said recently in the row-house flat he shares with his girlfriend and four children. "You get tired of incarceration."
Mr. Brannon, 28, said he planned to look for work, perhaps as a mover, and he noted optimistically that he had not been locked up in six months.
A group of men, including Mr. Brannon, gathered at the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, one of several private agencies trying to help men build character along with workplace skills.
The clients readily admit to their own bad choices but say they also fight a pervasive sense of hopelessness.
"It hurts to get that boot in the face all the time," said Steve Diggs, 34. "I've had a lot of charges but only a few convictions," he said of his criminal record. A boot in the face is de rigor for Black men in America, it's just how it is -- damn near regardless of education level or class. And everything points toward continued and more pervasive problems
Mr. Diggs is now trying to strike out on his own, developing a party space for rentals, but he needs help with business skills.
"I don't understand," said William Baker, 47. "If a man wants to change, why won't society give him a chance to prove he's a changed person?" Mr. Baker has a lot of record to overcome, he admits, not least his recent 15-year stay in the state penitentiary for armed robbery.
Mr. Baker led a visitor down the Pennsylvania Avenue strip he wants to escape — past idlers, addicts and hustlers, storefront churches and fortresslike liquor stores — and described a life that seemed inevitable.
He sold marijuana for his parents, he said, left school in the sixth grade and later dealt heroin and cocaine. He was for decades addicted to heroin, he said, easily keeping the habit during three terms in prison. But during his last long stay, he also studied hard to get a G.E.D. and an associate's degree.In prison, it's like "well, I ain't got nuthin' else ta do, so I might as well get my G.E.D., at least it'll keep me from getting shanked this semester... hopefully."
Now out for 18 months, Mr. Baker is living in a home for recovering drug addicts. He is working a $10-an-hour warehouse job while he ponders how to make a living from his real passion, drawing and graphic arts.I wonder why he didn't study this in jail? Anyway, who is going to hire an ex-con nigga? That's the plan, ain't it? Keep niggas in jail to keep them from competing to get real jobs that you can make a living off of.
"I don't want to be a criminal at 50," Mr. Baker said. He should have said, "I don't want to be a criminal at any age, but society encourages Black men to be criminals -- and there's always a cop around to make you a con.
According to census data, there are about five million black men ages 20 to 39 in the United States.
Terrible schools, absent parents, racism, the decline in blue collar jobs and a subculture that glorifies swagger over work have all been cited as causes of the deepening ruin of black youths. Scholars — and the young men themselves — agree that all of these issues must be addressed. Swagger OVER work! Yep, that's how we do. Don't we care too much about how we appear to the material world at large and what other no-status Nig-roes think, than we do about proper life planning and working smartly.
Joseph T. Jones, director of the fatherhood and work skills center here, puts the breakdown of families at the core.
"Many of these men grew up fatherless, and they never had good role models," said Mr. Jones, who overcame addiction and prison time. "No one around them knows how to navigate the mainstream society." Yeah, 'cause the G-Unit and Dip Set aren't to be lauded by any man - young or old!
All the negative trends are associated with poor schooling, studies have shown, and progress has been slight in recent years. Federal data tend to understate dropout rates among the poor, in part because imprisoned youths are not counted.
Closer studies reveal that in inner cities across the country, more than half of all black men still do not finish high school, said Gary Orfield, an education expert at Harvard and editor of "Dropouts in America" (Harvard Education Press, 2004).
"We're pumping out boys with no honest alternative," Mr. Orfield said in an interview, "and of course their neighborhoods offer many other alternatives."
Dropout rates for Hispanic youths are as bad or worse but are not associated with nearly as much unemployment or crime, the data show. This is because Hispanics will do those jobs that niggas don't want to do. And those usually the same kind of jobs that ex-con are only able to get. So niggas get faded on that level. Plus, Hispanics WORK THEIR ASSES OFF! You seen that movie A Day Without A Mexican? Or been following the recent immigration debate, in which the Latinos didn't show up for work that one day in May? Could niggas do something like that? Nah! And that's why we lose as a racial group in this country.
With the shift from factory jobs, unskilled workers of all races have lost ground, but none more so than blacks. By 2004, 50 percent of black men in their 20's who lacked a college education were jobless and if you have a college degree, it's still probably around 25% -- most of the those who do work are underemployed -- so, shit!, as were 72 percent of high school dropouts, according to data compiled by Bruce Western, a sociologist at Princeton and author of the forthcoming book "Punishment and Inequality in America" (Russell Sage Press). These are more than double the rates for white and Hispanic men. As I always rant -- U.S. Society don't want the Black man; except for his artist influence on what makes money and entertains
Mr. Holzer of Georgetown and his co-authors cite two factors that have curbed black employment in particular.
First, the high rate of incarceration and attendant flood of former offenders into neighborhoods have become major impediments. Men with criminal records tend to be shunned by employers, and young blacks with clean records suffer by association, studies have found.
Arrests of black men climbed steeply during the crack epidemic of the 1980's, but since then the political shift toward harsher punishments, more than any trends in crime, has accounted for the continued growth in the prison population, Mr. Western said.
By their mid-30's, 30 percent of black men with no more than a high school education have served time in prison, and 60 percent of dropouts have, Mr. Western said. No need to say it, any other way -- Niggas, graduate high school and get a college degree -- even if it's only community college!
Among black dropouts in their late 20's, more are in prison on a given day — 34 percent — than are working — 30 percent — according to an analysis of 2000 census data by Steven Raphael of the University of California, Berkeley. WOW!!! FUCK GOD DAMN!
The second special factor is related to an otherwise successful policy: the stricter enforcement of child support. Improved collection of money from absent fathers has been a pillar of welfare overhaul. But the system can leave young men feeling overwhelmed with debt and deter them from seeking legal work, since a large share of any earnings could be seized.
About half of all black men in their late 20's and early 30's who did not go to college are noncustodial fathers, according to Mr. Holzer. From the fathers' viewpoint, support obligations "amount to a tax on earnings," he said.That's my younger brother, he never finished college, has a kid that he doesn't live with, and in fact has another broad who he's probably going to have a kid with!
Some fathers give up, while others find casual work. "The work is sporadic, not the kind that leads to advancement or provides unemployment insurance," Mr. Holzer said. "It's nothing like having a real job."
The recent studies identified a range of government programs and experiments, especially education and training efforts like the Job Corps, that had shown success and could be scaled up.
Scholars call for intensive new efforts to give children a better start, including support for parents and extra schooling for children.
They call for teaching skills to prisoners and helping them re-enter society more productively, and for less automatic incarceration of minor offenders.
In a society where higher education is vital to economic success, Mr. Mincy of Columbia said, programs to help more men enter and succeed in college may hold promise. But he lamented the dearth of policies and resources to aid single men.
"We spent $50 billion in efforts that produced the turnaround for poor women," Mr. Mincy said. "We are not even beginning to think about the men's problem on similar orders of magnitude."
Below is an article from the New York Times that recounts recent studies about the continuing plight of America's most endangered species -- The African-American Male.
It's pretty heart-wrenching to know that if you're a Black man eluding jail time is the most difficult thing you'll face in your life -- not buying a house, not having children, not getting married, not getting divorce, not losing your parents -- getting locked the fuck up, damn. Damn, damn.
Read the article, and my commentary is interspersed throughout... as you knew I would do!
NYTIMES
March 20, 2006
Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn
By ERIK ECKHOLM
BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups.
Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.
What does this translate to? Violence and crime. The cycle begins and can it ever end? Not without extensive societal work.
Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined.
This is a dishearthening truth that stinks to HIGH HEAVEN! The Black Community needs to figure out why its men don't GIVE A FUCK about school, and get them to stop selling drugs whether to other Blacks or to the other minorities (keep selling to the White man though!).
Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face.
"There's something very different happening with young black men, and it's something we can no longer ignore," said Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of "Black Males Left Behind" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).The crazy fact of the matter is -- people genuinely want to ignore Black men in society, unless they're on the latest hip-hop music video-related image. I can't understand this. The vibrancy that African-Americans bring to global culture has at its cornerstone with the health and well-being of Black males. But perhaps maybe not, maybe the continued beatdowns handed out by society at Black men is what makes them the most creative groups on the planet. HANDS DOWN.
"Over the last two decades, the economy did great," Mr. Mincy said, "and low-skilled women, helped by public policy, latched onto it. But young black men were falling farther back."
Many of the new studies go beyond the traditional approaches to looking at the plight of black men, especially when it comes to determining the scope of joblessness. For example, official unemployment rates can be misleading because they do not include those not seeking work or incarcerated. Uh, how fucking misleading are the figures for young Blacks? Because so many of them are in the slammer, AND, AND, when I was growing up it was urban lore that 1 in 4 Black men would have spent SOME time in the joint by the time they reached 25. The corrolation being, once you've been in the Man's prison you can't really get a job anyway. So why bother even looking? You can only take so much rejection that stems from have a rap sheet that stems from just existing as a Black man.
"If you look at the numbers, the 1990's was a bad decade for young black men, even though it had the best labor market in 30 years," said Harry J. Holzer, an economist at Georgetown University and co-author, with Peter Edelman and Paul Offner, of "Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).
In response to the worsening situation for young black men, a growing number of programs are placing as much importance on teaching life skills — like parenting, conflict resolution and character building — as they are on teaching job skills.
These were among the recent findings:
¶The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990's. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless — that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20's were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000. Oh, I guess you were all mistaken about the systematic destruction of the Black man is a plan, right? What the FUCK kind of numbers are these?!?! Niggaz can't catch a break, can they? And none of the other ethnic groups even want to help out. All they (or rather their young) want to do is steal what cool pop culture elements Blacks create for hustling purposes.
¶Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990's and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20's who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30's, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison. No excuse for this. This oughta shut up the people who say Black men shouldn't get any special treatment... you add this info with the fact that white and hispanic high school drop outs don't nearly go to the big house as much, and you gotta ask yourself, what's up with the Po-Po?
¶In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.
Truth be told, in Black neighborhoods and households that fall under the rubric of "inner city" education is NOT somethign that is exalted. Just the other day I went to see my six year old neice -- who lives with just her mother, my brother like all good black men couldn't be bothered -- and I wanted to see how well she could read now that she's been through a year of formalized, albeit public, education and she was reading okay... I guess. I'm not entirely sure how well a six year old is supposed to read. However, three days later I go over to my white friends' house who has a two year old and this kid can speak more clearly than my neice, can count to ten in English AND Spanish, and can say words from a book on dinosaurs with a clarity that was shocking -- I was like, "niggas are fading away..."
None of the litany of problems that young black men face was news to a group of men from the airless neighborhoods of Baltimore who recently described their experiences.
One of them, Curtis E. Brannon, told a story so commonplace it hardly bears notice here. He quit school in 10th grade to sell drugs, fathered four children with three mothers, and spent several stretches in jail for drug possession, parole violations and other crimes.
"I was with the street life, but now I feel like I've got to get myself together," Mr. Brannon said recently in the row-house flat he shares with his girlfriend and four children. "You get tired of incarceration."
Mr. Brannon, 28, said he planned to look for work, perhaps as a mover, and he noted optimistically that he had not been locked up in six months.
A group of men, including Mr. Brannon, gathered at the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, one of several private agencies trying to help men build character along with workplace skills.
The clients readily admit to their own bad choices but say they also fight a pervasive sense of hopelessness.
"It hurts to get that boot in the face all the time," said Steve Diggs, 34. "I've had a lot of charges but only a few convictions," he said of his criminal record. A boot in the face is de rigor for Black men in America, it's just how it is -- damn near regardless of education level or class. And everything points toward continued and more pervasive problems
Mr. Diggs is now trying to strike out on his own, developing a party space for rentals, but he needs help with business skills.
"I don't understand," said William Baker, 47. "If a man wants to change, why won't society give him a chance to prove he's a changed person?" Mr. Baker has a lot of record to overcome, he admits, not least his recent 15-year stay in the state penitentiary for armed robbery.
Mr. Baker led a visitor down the Pennsylvania Avenue strip he wants to escape — past idlers, addicts and hustlers, storefront churches and fortresslike liquor stores — and described a life that seemed inevitable.
He sold marijuana for his parents, he said, left school in the sixth grade and later dealt heroin and cocaine. He was for decades addicted to heroin, he said, easily keeping the habit during three terms in prison. But during his last long stay, he also studied hard to get a G.E.D. and an associate's degree.In prison, it's like "well, I ain't got nuthin' else ta do, so I might as well get my G.E.D., at least it'll keep me from getting shanked this semester... hopefully."
Now out for 18 months, Mr. Baker is living in a home for recovering drug addicts. He is working a $10-an-hour warehouse job while he ponders how to make a living from his real passion, drawing and graphic arts.I wonder why he didn't study this in jail? Anyway, who is going to hire an ex-con nigga? That's the plan, ain't it? Keep niggas in jail to keep them from competing to get real jobs that you can make a living off of.
"I don't want to be a criminal at 50," Mr. Baker said. He should have said, "I don't want to be a criminal at any age, but society encourages Black men to be criminals -- and there's always a cop around to make you a con.
According to census data, there are about five million black men ages 20 to 39 in the United States.
Terrible schools, absent parents, racism, the decline in blue collar jobs and a subculture that glorifies swagger over work have all been cited as causes of the deepening ruin of black youths. Scholars — and the young men themselves — agree that all of these issues must be addressed. Swagger OVER work! Yep, that's how we do. Don't we care too much about how we appear to the material world at large and what other no-status Nig-roes think, than we do about proper life planning and working smartly.
Joseph T. Jones, director of the fatherhood and work skills center here, puts the breakdown of families at the core.
"Many of these men grew up fatherless, and they never had good role models," said Mr. Jones, who overcame addiction and prison time. "No one around them knows how to navigate the mainstream society." Yeah, 'cause the G-Unit and Dip Set aren't to be lauded by any man - young or old!
All the negative trends are associated with poor schooling, studies have shown, and progress has been slight in recent years. Federal data tend to understate dropout rates among the poor, in part because imprisoned youths are not counted.
Closer studies reveal that in inner cities across the country, more than half of all black men still do not finish high school, said Gary Orfield, an education expert at Harvard and editor of "Dropouts in America" (Harvard Education Press, 2004).
"We're pumping out boys with no honest alternative," Mr. Orfield said in an interview, "and of course their neighborhoods offer many other alternatives."
Dropout rates for Hispanic youths are as bad or worse but are not associated with nearly as much unemployment or crime, the data show. This is because Hispanics will do those jobs that niggas don't want to do. And those usually the same kind of jobs that ex-con are only able to get. So niggas get faded on that level. Plus, Hispanics WORK THEIR ASSES OFF! You seen that movie A Day Without A Mexican? Or been following the recent immigration debate, in which the Latinos didn't show up for work that one day in May? Could niggas do something like that? Nah! And that's why we lose as a racial group in this country.
With the shift from factory jobs, unskilled workers of all races have lost ground, but none more so than blacks. By 2004, 50 percent of black men in their 20's who lacked a college education were jobless and if you have a college degree, it's still probably around 25% -- most of the those who do work are underemployed -- so, shit!, as were 72 percent of high school dropouts, according to data compiled by Bruce Western, a sociologist at Princeton and author of the forthcoming book "Punishment and Inequality in America" (Russell Sage Press). These are more than double the rates for white and Hispanic men. As I always rant -- U.S. Society don't want the Black man; except for his artist influence on what makes money and entertains
Mr. Holzer of Georgetown and his co-authors cite two factors that have curbed black employment in particular.
First, the high rate of incarceration and attendant flood of former offenders into neighborhoods have become major impediments. Men with criminal records tend to be shunned by employers, and young blacks with clean records suffer by association, studies have found.
Arrests of black men climbed steeply during the crack epidemic of the 1980's, but since then the political shift toward harsher punishments, more than any trends in crime, has accounted for the continued growth in the prison population, Mr. Western said.
By their mid-30's, 30 percent of black men with no more than a high school education have served time in prison, and 60 percent of dropouts have, Mr. Western said. No need to say it, any other way -- Niggas, graduate high school and get a college degree -- even if it's only community college!
Among black dropouts in their late 20's, more are in prison on a given day — 34 percent — than are working — 30 percent — according to an analysis of 2000 census data by Steven Raphael of the University of California, Berkeley. WOW!!! FUCK GOD DAMN!
The second special factor is related to an otherwise successful policy: the stricter enforcement of child support. Improved collection of money from absent fathers has been a pillar of welfare overhaul. But the system can leave young men feeling overwhelmed with debt and deter them from seeking legal work, since a large share of any earnings could be seized.
About half of all black men in their late 20's and early 30's who did not go to college are noncustodial fathers, according to Mr. Holzer. From the fathers' viewpoint, support obligations "amount to a tax on earnings," he said.That's my younger brother, he never finished college, has a kid that he doesn't live with, and in fact has another broad who he's probably going to have a kid with!
Some fathers give up, while others find casual work. "The work is sporadic, not the kind that leads to advancement or provides unemployment insurance," Mr. Holzer said. "It's nothing like having a real job."
The recent studies identified a range of government programs and experiments, especially education and training efforts like the Job Corps, that had shown success and could be scaled up.
Scholars call for intensive new efforts to give children a better start, including support for parents and extra schooling for children.
They call for teaching skills to prisoners and helping them re-enter society more productively, and for less automatic incarceration of minor offenders.
In a society where higher education is vital to economic success, Mr. Mincy of Columbia said, programs to help more men enter and succeed in college may hold promise. But he lamented the dearth of policies and resources to aid single men.
"We spent $50 billion in efforts that produced the turnaround for poor women," Mr. Mincy said. "We are not even beginning to think about the men's problem on similar orders of magnitude."
Sunday, May 21, 2006
White Men Can't Help It -- FUCK!
In the May 15, 2006 issue of BusinessWeek, there is an article with the same name as this post. It talks about a legal theory that being used quite a bit to win class action discrimination law suits around the country. The theory is called "Unconscious Bias" -- and it basically states that white men are prone to diss women and minorities because the culture, their family and everything else has conditioned (and continues to reinforce) them to hold everyone else in damn near contempt.
So not only when it comes to who gets what promotion, raise and unsaid employment benefit, Unconscious Bias can also be applied to why niggas get treated like they're unwanted stepchilds.
The guy behind the whole thing - a white guy mind you - is University of Pennsylvania Sociology Professor William T. Beibly. i want to buy this can a case of the best scotch I can afford.
I don't think Beibly is suffering from white guilt or anything like that, I think that he's uncovered a mindset and given it qualitative (and perhaps quantitative) evidence, so we people of color can understand the rapacious nature of white men.
After reading Confessions of an Economic Hitman, the true nature of white men and the business empires the serve, work in or run -- it's becoming more and more clear just how bad any body born after 1980 is going to have it over the next 20 to 30 years.
What say you?! Read the article though. It's quite interesting.
So not only when it comes to who gets what promotion, raise and unsaid employment benefit, Unconscious Bias can also be applied to why niggas get treated like they're unwanted stepchilds.
The guy behind the whole thing - a white guy mind you - is University of Pennsylvania Sociology Professor William T. Beibly. i want to buy this can a case of the best scotch I can afford.
I don't think Beibly is suffering from white guilt or anything like that, I think that he's uncovered a mindset and given it qualitative (and perhaps quantitative) evidence, so we people of color can understand the rapacious nature of white men.
After reading Confessions of an Economic Hitman, the true nature of white men and the business empires the serve, work in or run -- it's becoming more and more clear just how bad any body born after 1980 is going to have it over the next 20 to 30 years.
What say you?! Read the article though. It's quite interesting.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
I thought "Brothers were gonna work it out?"
I don't know if this is all true, but it SOUNDS true...
USA Today article on Black Spending Habits: These are tough economic times, especially for African-Americans, for whom the unemployment rate is more than 10%. Alarmingly, rather than belt-tightening, the response has been to spend more. In many poor neighborhoods, one is likely to notice satellite dishes and expensive new cars.
According to Target Market, a company that tracks black consumer spending, blacks spends a significant amount of their income on depreciable products. In 2002, the year the economy nose-dived; we spent $22.9 billion ($22,900,000,000.00) on clothes, $3.2billion ($3,000,000,000.00) on electronics and $11.6 billion ($11,000,000,000.00) on furniture to put into homes that, in >many cases, were rented. Among our favorite purchases are cars and liquor.
Blacks make up only 12% of the US population, yet account for 30% of the country's Scotch consumption. Detroit, which is 80% black, is the world's No. 1 market for Cognac. So impressed was Lincoln with the $46.7 billion ($46,000,000,000) that blacks spent on cars that the automaker commissioned Sean "P.Didy" Combs, the entertainment and fashion mogul, to design a limited-edition Navigator replete with six plasma screens, three DVD players and a Sony PlayStation . Shame Puffy, shame! you're up here murdering your people!
The only area where blacks seem to be cutting back on spending is books; total purchases have gone from a high of $356 million in 2000 to $303 million in 2002. This shortsighted behavior, motivated by a desire for instant gratification and social acceptance, comes at the expense of our future. The National Urban League's "State of Black America 2004" report found that fewer than 50% of black families owned their homes compared with more than 70% of whites. According to published reports, the Ariel Mutual Funds/Charles Schwab 2003 Black Investor Survey found that when comparing households
>where blacks and whites had roughly the same household incomes, whites saved nearly 20% more each month for retirement, and 30% of African-Americans earning $100,000 a year had less than $5,000 in retirement savings. While 79% of whites invest in the stock market, only 61% of African-Americans do.
Certainly, higher rates of unemployment, income disparity and credit discrimination are financial impediments to the economic vitality of blacks, but so are our consumer tastes. By finding the courage to change our spending habits, we might be surprised at how far the $631 billion ($631,000,000,000.00) we now earn take us.
We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages regarding life affirming choices, people think twice about sharing. So please pass this on. Knowledge is power!!
USA Today article on Black Spending Habits: These are tough economic times, especially for African-Americans, for whom the unemployment rate is more than 10%. Alarmingly, rather than belt-tightening, the response has been to spend more. In many poor neighborhoods, one is likely to notice satellite dishes and expensive new cars.
According to Target Market, a company that tracks black consumer spending, blacks spends a significant amount of their income on depreciable products. In 2002, the year the economy nose-dived; we spent $22.9 billion ($22,900,000,000.00) on clothes, $3.2billion ($3,000,000,000.00) on electronics and $11.6 billion ($11,000,000,000.00) on furniture to put into homes that, in >many cases, were rented. Among our favorite purchases are cars and liquor.
Blacks make up only 12% of the US population, yet account for 30% of the country's Scotch consumption. Detroit, which is 80% black, is the world's No. 1 market for Cognac. So impressed was Lincoln with the $46.7 billion ($46,000,000,000) that blacks spent on cars that the automaker commissioned Sean "P.Didy" Combs, the entertainment and fashion mogul, to design a limited-edition Navigator replete with six plasma screens, three DVD players and a Sony PlayStation . Shame Puffy, shame! you're up here murdering your people!
The only area where blacks seem to be cutting back on spending is books; total purchases have gone from a high of $356 million in 2000 to $303 million in 2002. This shortsighted behavior, motivated by a desire for instant gratification and social acceptance, comes at the expense of our future. The National Urban League's "State of Black America 2004" report found that fewer than 50% of black families owned their homes compared with more than 70% of whites. According to published reports, the Ariel Mutual Funds/Charles Schwab 2003 Black Investor Survey found that when comparing households
>where blacks and whites had roughly the same household incomes, whites saved nearly 20% more each month for retirement, and 30% of African-Americans earning $100,000 a year had less than $5,000 in retirement savings. While 79% of whites invest in the stock market, only 61% of African-Americans do.
Certainly, higher rates of unemployment, income disparity and credit discrimination are financial impediments to the economic vitality of blacks, but so are our consumer tastes. By finding the courage to change our spending habits, we might be surprised at how far the $631 billion ($631,000,000,000.00) we now earn take us.
We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages regarding life affirming choices, people think twice about sharing. So please pass this on. Knowledge is power!!
Sunday, April 23, 2006
MOVIE SHILL - United 93
Universal Studios is releasing a film on April 28th called UNITED 93. It's supposed to chronical the last few hours of that one al-Qaeda hijacked flight that was supposed to be flown into the White House or Capital Hill (as we don't REALLY know what the crazed hijackers would have actually done).
I was reading somewhere that 80% of polled potential viewers said they wouldn't see the movie, with most stating that "it's too soon" to see a re-enactment (particularly one sanctioned by Hollywood) of those wake-your-ass-up events of 9/11.
Some people claim that Universal should donate all profits to the victims families. Now that's a good idea, and Universal definitely needs to make that pledge.
Only things is we all know about Hollywood's creative accounting processes, Universal would say that the film only lost money.
In any event, it's not too soon to see these events made into entertainment fodder. I say this because, perhaps it can foster additional healing that apparently still needs to happen.
'Cause it'll always be "too soon" until the next freedom fighter act on American soil wakes us up from the global raping that the U.S. has done since the end of WWII.
The Sylvia Saint image is in action, because we're still at war, and it's a perverted war, where we're fighting for our rights to see nudity on the web (eventhough ICAN got punked by the Commerce Department a few days ago and they postponed the creation of the .xxx Web-address signifier).
I was reading somewhere that 80% of polled potential viewers said they wouldn't see the movie, with most stating that "it's too soon" to see a re-enactment (particularly one sanctioned by Hollywood) of those wake-your-ass-up events of 9/11.
Some people claim that Universal should donate all profits to the victims families. Now that's a good idea, and Universal definitely needs to make that pledge.
Only things is we all know about Hollywood's creative accounting processes, Universal would say that the film only lost money.
In any event, it's not too soon to see these events made into entertainment fodder. I say this because, perhaps it can foster additional healing that apparently still needs to happen.
'Cause it'll always be "too soon" until the next freedom fighter act on American soil wakes us up from the global raping that the U.S. has done since the end of WWII.
The Sylvia Saint image is in action, because we're still at war, and it's a perverted war, where we're fighting for our rights to see nudity on the web (eventhough ICAN got punked by the Commerce Department a few days ago and they postponed the creation of the .xxx Web-address signifier).
Friday, April 21, 2006
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA -- CHECK OUT THIS MOVIE
C.S.A. - The Confederate States of America
I heard the filmmaker on the Elvis Mitchel show on KCRW, and he made some funny-ass statement in that anytime you hear the term "aunt" or "uncle" then you're talking about slavery.
Even though CRASH won the Oscar, the skewed nature of race relations in America haven't been "handled."
I heard the filmmaker on the Elvis Mitchel show on KCRW, and he made some funny-ass statement in that anytime you hear the term "aunt" or "uncle" then you're talking about slavery.
Even though CRASH won the Oscar, the skewed nature of race relations in America haven't been "handled."
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Soul Food On The Comeback!!!
I stopped eating Negro soul food about 10 years ago, as it is extremely bad for your health (your heart and your arteries will thank you for cutting out that swine), and I'm not really a fan of the taste of that so-called "scrap food."
However, people love to eat their junk food, particularly anything that's made from pork products. I'm not the nutritionist, but I believe pork is chump for you because it's so dense in fats.
Some people don't give a fly-F and they just keep eating pork anyway.
Well I've got good news for you, read on...
A group of university researchers in the United States announced Sunday that they had created what sounds like a nutritional holy grail: cloned pigs that make their own omega-3 fatty acids, potentially leading to bacon and pork chops that might help your heart.
For now, the benefits of the research are highly theoretical. Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked to reduced incidence of heart disease, are primarily found in fish. No one knows whether the omega-3s would have the same effect if people ate them in pork, because the saturated fat in pork might cancel any benefits.
And government approval for such genetically modified foods is certain to face opposition from consumer groups.
Alexander Leaf, an emeritus professor of clinical medicine at Harvard, said he was confident that pork and other foods with omega-3s would eventually get to consumers and that consumers would be the better for it.
"People can continue to eat their junk food," Leaf said. "You won't have to change your diet, but you will be getting what you need."
For years, nutritionists have urged people to eat fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids. But fish can be expensive, not everyone likes it and omega-3s are in greatest abundance in oily fish like tuna, which contains mercury. Not to mention the fact that fish tastes a WHOLE LOT BETTER THAN pig!
However, people love to eat their junk food, particularly anything that's made from pork products. I'm not the nutritionist, but I believe pork is chump for you because it's so dense in fats.
Some people don't give a fly-F and they just keep eating pork anyway.
Well I've got good news for you, read on...
A group of university researchers in the United States announced Sunday that they had created what sounds like a nutritional holy grail: cloned pigs that make their own omega-3 fatty acids, potentially leading to bacon and pork chops that might help your heart.
For now, the benefits of the research are highly theoretical. Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked to reduced incidence of heart disease, are primarily found in fish. No one knows whether the omega-3s would have the same effect if people ate them in pork, because the saturated fat in pork might cancel any benefits.
And government approval for such genetically modified foods is certain to face opposition from consumer groups.
Alexander Leaf, an emeritus professor of clinical medicine at Harvard, said he was confident that pork and other foods with omega-3s would eventually get to consumers and that consumers would be the better for it.
"People can continue to eat their junk food," Leaf said. "You won't have to change your diet, but you will be getting what you need."
For years, nutritionists have urged people to eat fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids. But fish can be expensive, not everyone likes it and omega-3s are in greatest abundance in oily fish like tuna, which contains mercury. Not to mention the fact that fish tastes a WHOLE LOT BETTER THAN pig!
Monday, March 27, 2006
Quit Pushing Dave Chappelle
Over the weekend I had a chance to see Dave's flick Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and I was extremely surprised. Mainly because the trailers and promos don't do the film justice. It's not a comedy film, it's a music documentary up there with the Woodstock film or The Last Waltz or Gimme Shelter or any of the other successful concert films that we've seen over the past forty years. The one interesting note is that concert was record in September 2004, right before John Legend droppped his amazing debut album, and we see John up on the bandstand backing up Kanye West. Curious bit of history missed, in that we could have seen an early performance of John before he became a staple in the urban music scene.
The film is one of the most entertaining films in recent memory (as 2004 & 2005 were rife with junk from all corners of the entertainment spectrum), Dave continues delight and entertain like the best of them (sadly, though this is before he cancelled Season Three of his wildly popular show, so who knows if he'll want to invite this kind of attention again..."
It was interesting seeing The Fugees come back together and preform. I wonder if this performance was the catalyst for their supposed reuniting to record a new album (it was scheduled to drop last December, so I'm not going to hold my breath).
I couldn't understand Erykah Badu's presentation... I'd be extremely curious to talk with her, as most entertainer men who have kicked it with her have suffered some sort of distortion affect.
Favorite Lines: "How many white people does it take to change a light bulb? None, they'll just get a nigga to do it."
(sic)The thing about The Sty is, you walk down one street and it's right out of the Cosby Show, you turn the corner and it's something right out of Good Times.
The one thing this film shows, at the end, is that Dave has thumbed his nose at the white power establishment, in that he's told them, "ya can't buy me, ya cracker bastards." This makes him more of an icon, but also puts him in a weird place, because I think a lot of people don't want to deal with a Black man in entertainment who can't "be bought."
The film is one of the most entertaining films in recent memory (as 2004 & 2005 were rife with junk from all corners of the entertainment spectrum), Dave continues delight and entertain like the best of them (sadly, though this is before he cancelled Season Three of his wildly popular show, so who knows if he'll want to invite this kind of attention again..."
It was interesting seeing The Fugees come back together and preform. I wonder if this performance was the catalyst for their supposed reuniting to record a new album (it was scheduled to drop last December, so I'm not going to hold my breath).
I couldn't understand Erykah Badu's presentation... I'd be extremely curious to talk with her, as most entertainer men who have kicked it with her have suffered some sort of distortion affect.
Favorite Lines: "How many white people does it take to change a light bulb? None, they'll just get a nigga to do it."
(sic)The thing about The Sty is, you walk down one street and it's right out of the Cosby Show, you turn the corner and it's something right out of Good Times.
The one thing this film shows, at the end, is that Dave has thumbed his nose at the white power establishment, in that he's told them, "ya can't buy me, ya cracker bastards." This makes him more of an icon, but also puts him in a weird place, because I think a lot of people don't want to deal with a Black man in entertainment who can't "be bought."
Friday, March 24, 2006
Enough Already
Okay, you know what's killing me (softly)? Is that the Natalee Holloway investigation is still in the news. The chick's been missing since las May -- from a tropical island! She's not even fish food anymore, she's plankton. or part of the reef right now!
And yet, she's gets full story write up on CCN.com today.
No one is every going to find her.
Just chalk it with the rest of disappearances or killings that never get solved. Some old Jack The Ripper type of shits.
And yet, she's gets full story write up on CCN.com today.
No one is every going to find her.
Just chalk it with the rest of disappearances or killings that never get solved. Some old Jack The Ripper type of shits.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Americans = Idiots On The Higest Magnitude
Recent reports have stated that far too many students can't pass the High School Exiting Exams. In fact some kids are suing their State government, because they've passed all their classes and done everything else required by their school district to get a diploma, but the State says no.
One huge problem with the United State Education System is that each little township controls the educational standards.
Funny thing is people enjoy being dumb. Take the Gas Pricing, it's averaged out to 2.51/gallon. Pretty much what it was when everyone was screaming bloody murder last year, and the Oil Industry made such record profits that the leaders of that Industry (part of the Bush cabal) have been called up to testify in front of Theocratic control GOP run Congress.
And do the under-40 set give a shit? Nope!
The public is so selfishly caught up in what ever else is infecting their puny little lives that they've just absorbed the price hike like it ain't no thing.
What it is, is a Tax that feeds the corporate robber barons, instead of the government, to pay for the War In Iraq. Bush is playing it smart, he's refusing to raise taxes, because that just puts money in the hands of the Government; by enabling the petroleum industry to gouge the fuck out of the consumer, the so-called Gas Tax is making all the Bushies who are getting no-bid hand-outs, uh I mean contracts, from the Government more wealthy than they need to be.
What's the biggest kick in the pants (or should I say nutsack) is that Hybrid Car sales are faltering, because consumers have "done the math" and feel that the premium price tag of the hybrid doesn't off-set the higher gas prices (at their current level, they will go up by next summer, breaching $3/gal. for most places except the Heartland of America) IN THE MUTHAFUCKIN' SHORT RUN.
The issue with hybrid cars is not to save a quarter or two at the pump, but to ween the country off of diminishing fossil fuels for transportation; thereby localizing oil for use only as a power source for the Big Grids that juice up our over-populated megaopolises.
If I still didn't owe money on my car (5 payments left!!!), I look into getting a hybrid. Only thing is I'm NEVER going to have a Car Note again. Which means that if I don't the cash to pay for it, or some other income stream that can handle the car note and still pay for the rest of car owning expense AND still kick me a little cash, then I'm not getting rid of my current car for another 3 to 5 years.
Have you ever seen how the Taliban-esque Evangelical Christians that dominate the South and Republican politics believe in this janky-ass concept called Imminent Rapture? Not the expert, it's basically a concept where the Earth is 'bout to get ass-fucked and only the true believers of Christ's teachings (as outlined by people like Jerry Falwell) will survive by going to Heaven (apparently there's a whole cottage industry on this belief, with millions of books being sold and converting Southerns into this boolshit line of thinking). Anyway, the shameless trick about Imminent Rapture is that it forecasts a wild explosion of the society that we know, which makes planning for the future, completely and totally unnecessary.
We can listen to Prez. Bush with a tin ear, 'cause he doesn't really have to means or power or political clout to ween the adicted American economy off of oil from those chumps in the Middle East.
Americans will reap what they've sown. Malcolm X said it, and I'm saying it again.
One huge problem with the United State Education System is that each little township controls the educational standards.
Funny thing is people enjoy being dumb. Take the Gas Pricing, it's averaged out to 2.51/gallon. Pretty much what it was when everyone was screaming bloody murder last year, and the Oil Industry made such record profits that the leaders of that Industry (part of the Bush cabal) have been called up to testify in front of Theocratic control GOP run Congress.
And do the under-40 set give a shit? Nope!
The public is so selfishly caught up in what ever else is infecting their puny little lives that they've just absorbed the price hike like it ain't no thing.
What it is, is a Tax that feeds the corporate robber barons, instead of the government, to pay for the War In Iraq. Bush is playing it smart, he's refusing to raise taxes, because that just puts money in the hands of the Government; by enabling the petroleum industry to gouge the fuck out of the consumer, the so-called Gas Tax is making all the Bushies who are getting no-bid hand-outs, uh I mean contracts, from the Government more wealthy than they need to be.
What's the biggest kick in the pants (or should I say nutsack) is that Hybrid Car sales are faltering, because consumers have "done the math" and feel that the premium price tag of the hybrid doesn't off-set the higher gas prices (at their current level, they will go up by next summer, breaching $3/gal. for most places except the Heartland of America) IN THE MUTHAFUCKIN' SHORT RUN.
The issue with hybrid cars is not to save a quarter or two at the pump, but to ween the country off of diminishing fossil fuels for transportation; thereby localizing oil for use only as a power source for the Big Grids that juice up our over-populated megaopolises.
If I still didn't owe money on my car (5 payments left!!!), I look into getting a hybrid. Only thing is I'm NEVER going to have a Car Note again. Which means that if I don't the cash to pay for it, or some other income stream that can handle the car note and still pay for the rest of car owning expense AND still kick me a little cash, then I'm not getting rid of my current car for another 3 to 5 years.
Have you ever seen how the Taliban-esque Evangelical Christians that dominate the South and Republican politics believe in this janky-ass concept called Imminent Rapture? Not the expert, it's basically a concept where the Earth is 'bout to get ass-fucked and only the true believers of Christ's teachings (as outlined by people like Jerry Falwell) will survive by going to Heaven (apparently there's a whole cottage industry on this belief, with millions of books being sold and converting Southerns into this boolshit line of thinking). Anyway, the shameless trick about Imminent Rapture is that it forecasts a wild explosion of the society that we know, which makes planning for the future, completely and totally unnecessary.
We can listen to Prez. Bush with a tin ear, 'cause he doesn't really have to means or power or political clout to ween the adicted American economy off of oil from those chumps in the Middle East.
Americans will reap what they've sown. Malcolm X said it, and I'm saying it again.
BOOK REVIEW - AMERICAN THEOCRACY
Kevin Philips, the man who coined the term Sunbelt in the late 60s and predicted the rise of the neoConservative Moment, smacks the hell out of that brand of corrupted politics in his new book. A semi-polemic that meticulously outlines what will cause the end of America, as it still vociferously
Although Phillips is scathingly critical of what he considers the dangerous policies of the Bush administration, he does not spend much time examining the ideas and behavior of the president and his advisers. Instead, he identifies three broad and related trends — none of them new to the Bush years but all of them, he believes, exacerbated by this administration's policies — that together threaten the future of the United States and the world. One is the role of oil in defining and, as Phillips sees it, distorting American foreign and domestic policy. The second is the ominous intrusion of radical Christianity into politics and government. And the third is the astonishing levels of debt — current and prospective — that both the government and the American people have been heedlessly accumulating. If there is a single, if implicit, theme running through the three linked essays that form this book, it is the failure of leaders to look beyond their own and the country's immediate ambitions and desires so as to plan prudently for a darkening future.
The American press in the first days of the Iraq war reported extensively on the Pentagon's failure to post American troops in front of the National Museum in Baghdad, which, as a result, was looted of many of its great archaeological treasures. Less widely reported, but to Phillips far more meaningful, was the immediate posting of troops around the Iraqi Oil Ministry, which held the maps and charts that were the key to effective oil production. Phillips fully supports an explanation of the Iraq war that the Bush administration dismisses as conspiracy theory — that its principal purpose was to secure vast oil reserves that would enable the United States to control production and to lower prices. ("Think of Iraq as a military base with a very large oil reserve underneath," an oil analyst said a couple of years ago. "You can't ask for better than that.") Terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, tyranny, democracy and other public rationales were, Phillips says, simply ruses to disguise the real motivation for the invasion.
There is little in "American Theocracy" that is wholly original to Phillips, as he frankly admits by his frequent reference to the work of other writers and scholars. What makes this book powerful in spite of the familiarity of many of its arguments is his rare gift for looking broadly and structurally at social and political change. By describing a series of major transformations, by demonstrating the relationships among them and by discussing them with passionate restraint, Phillips has created a harrowing picture of national danger that no American reader will welcome, but that none should ignore.
Although Phillips is scathingly critical of what he considers the dangerous policies of the Bush administration, he does not spend much time examining the ideas and behavior of the president and his advisers. Instead, he identifies three broad and related trends — none of them new to the Bush years but all of them, he believes, exacerbated by this administration's policies — that together threaten the future of the United States and the world. One is the role of oil in defining and, as Phillips sees it, distorting American foreign and domestic policy. The second is the ominous intrusion of radical Christianity into politics and government. And the third is the astonishing levels of debt — current and prospective — that both the government and the American people have been heedlessly accumulating. If there is a single, if implicit, theme running through the three linked essays that form this book, it is the failure of leaders to look beyond their own and the country's immediate ambitions and desires so as to plan prudently for a darkening future.
The American press in the first days of the Iraq war reported extensively on the Pentagon's failure to post American troops in front of the National Museum in Baghdad, which, as a result, was looted of many of its great archaeological treasures. Less widely reported, but to Phillips far more meaningful, was the immediate posting of troops around the Iraqi Oil Ministry, which held the maps and charts that were the key to effective oil production. Phillips fully supports an explanation of the Iraq war that the Bush administration dismisses as conspiracy theory — that its principal purpose was to secure vast oil reserves that would enable the United States to control production and to lower prices. ("Think of Iraq as a military base with a very large oil reserve underneath," an oil analyst said a couple of years ago. "You can't ask for better than that.") Terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, tyranny, democracy and other public rationales were, Phillips says, simply ruses to disguise the real motivation for the invasion.
There is little in "American Theocracy" that is wholly original to Phillips, as he frankly admits by his frequent reference to the work of other writers and scholars. What makes this book powerful in spite of the familiarity of many of its arguments is his rare gift for looking broadly and structurally at social and political change. By describing a series of major transformations, by demonstrating the relationships among them and by discussing them with passionate restraint, Phillips has created a harrowing picture of national danger that no American reader will welcome, but that none should ignore.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
MOVIE REVIEW - BRICK
everyone has a soft spot for a center film genre, and mine is for film noir. I was bitten by the hard-boiled bug when I was in high school, and American Movie Classics just debuted. I saw a bunch of those 40s flicks, stuff like Murder, My Sweet, The Big Magambo, Out of the Past, Where The Sidewalk Ends, and Laura. I couldn't get over the distinctive dialogue and delivery style of Spade, Marlowe and the others. I loved the twisted motives that circled around the murder and mayhem in that underbelly of society that those films mined so well.
Even when the genre got revivied in the early 80s and then again in the early 90s, that rip-your-head-off dialogue was absent (except in a few notable films). Obviously audiences wouldn't put up the now-cliched dialogue in a now-cliched situations in New York or LA.
Last night however, it was back (not in its glory, but close enough) in a seeminly slieght film called Brick, a film noir set in of all places southern Orange County, CA with high school seniors as our players. The cast is a bunch of nobodies, except for the weird performance by , the luminous key, but bit role by Emilie de Ravin (the best thing going on LOST) and the hot, hot, hot Meagan Goode - you remember her, right?
How can you forget those DSLs? I can't.
Meagan's performance continued make me a big fan, because it was role that showed she has some acting skills -- basically because she's not playing an archetypical Black Girl role; you know what I'm talking about... a hoochie, a golddiggin' slut, a neck-snaking ghetto bitch, or a gangster's moll (surprising, considering this was a film noir).
The Orange County location with its absentee adults and wacked out kids is a perfect setting for a new entry into the genre. Mainly, because you can't go a month without reading in the newspaper about some sad saps in the O.C. doing some bizarre-ass shit, like schoolyard planned & sanctioned gang rapes, E and coke trafficking in the cafeteria or at the local Carl's Jr., and laughable gun violence that these wannabe's emulate from their silly infatuation with the likes of the gangsta rappers they somehow feel kinship with.
The movie does a great job lifting and re-imagining the hardboiled dialogue that made everyone believe Humphery Bogart was a tough guy.
I don't know when it's coming out, and it's probably going to be overshadowed by the wildly overhyped V FOR VENDETTA - could be good, could be bad, the Wachowski Brothers are only batting .125, let's not forget that (how'd I get that number? They've been behind 5 films, so you do the math. Not living up to their potential, I'd say).
Anyway, the only interesting film noir that was out recently was that UK import Layer Cake, I'm reading the novel right now, I'll tell you how it is once I'm done. Good so far. A bit cheeky, but that's the point.
Even when the genre got revivied in the early 80s and then again in the early 90s, that rip-your-head-off dialogue was absent (except in a few notable films). Obviously audiences wouldn't put up the now-cliched dialogue in a now-cliched situations in New York or LA.
Last night however, it was back (not in its glory, but close enough) in a seeminly slieght film called Brick, a film noir set in of all places southern Orange County, CA with high school seniors as our players. The cast is a bunch of nobodies, except for the weird performance by , the luminous key, but bit role by Emilie de Ravin (the best thing going on LOST) and the hot, hot, hot Meagan Goode - you remember her, right?
How can you forget those DSLs? I can't.
Meagan's performance continued make me a big fan, because it was role that showed she has some acting skills -- basically because she's not playing an archetypical Black Girl role; you know what I'm talking about... a hoochie, a golddiggin' slut, a neck-snaking ghetto bitch, or a gangster's moll (surprising, considering this was a film noir).
The Orange County location with its absentee adults and wacked out kids is a perfect setting for a new entry into the genre. Mainly, because you can't go a month without reading in the newspaper about some sad saps in the O.C. doing some bizarre-ass shit, like schoolyard planned & sanctioned gang rapes, E and coke trafficking in the cafeteria or at the local Carl's Jr., and laughable gun violence that these wannabe's emulate from their silly infatuation with the likes of the gangsta rappers they somehow feel kinship with.
The movie does a great job lifting and re-imagining the hardboiled dialogue that made everyone believe Humphery Bogart was a tough guy.
I don't know when it's coming out, and it's probably going to be overshadowed by the wildly overhyped V FOR VENDETTA - could be good, could be bad, the Wachowski Brothers are only batting .125, let's not forget that (how'd I get that number? They've been behind 5 films, so you do the math. Not living up to their potential, I'd say).
Anyway, the only interesting film noir that was out recently was that UK import Layer Cake, I'm reading the novel right now, I'll tell you how it is once I'm done. Good so far. A bit cheeky, but that's the point.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Tit Grabbing And Other Funny Moments
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Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Make Fun Of The Prophet... And Die!
There's been a lot of hub-bub about the so-called venerable prophet Mohammad getting skewered in European (mainly Danish) political cartoons -- and it has the Arab world up in arms (like that's something new).
From what I can tell, the Europeans have been satirizng Mohammad for quite some time, and it's only now that it's boiled over...
But the fact the Arabs are tripping points to the fact that they are basically perverting one of the tenants of Islam -- which is tolerance. YEAH! You wouldn't know it, by the way the Arabs behave. But you have to look at it this way: Arab culture took claim of Islam and the rulers and reactionary clerics have systematically used it to continue to oppress the people. Everything that hinders so-called progress (in terms of what the Occidental economics would call progress) can be justified by the Arab elite by turning to the Quran or siting something Mohammad said.
And keeping the people down is what the Arabian oligarchs do best -- better than anybody on the planet, maybe in the history of the world...
Check this out -- I was reading an interview with the State Department's press liaison, and she made a remark that tripped me out. When she was in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi women were upset at Bush and the U.S. Government for permitting Oprah to do a show about sexual repression in the Muslim world. Indicating that in the Muslim world the citizenery is so ignorant (and sheltered) as to think that Oprah's show is a government program. They honestly believe that. It's easy to see why... in their frame of reference TV and all its programming is controled by the fat, wealthy as hell rulers, sanctioned by clerics and thus there is no creatively free shows or shows that operates with a license to say what they want without repuercussions (like getting your tongue cut the fuck out!).
In the eyes of the liberal West, Islam and Mohammad are just plump and juicy ripe for satire and comedy. I have to believe that something will pop up on South Park (I never watch the show anymore, but know that scandalize Jesus and the Devil).
Arab culture needs to take the reins off, get sucked up in the maelstrom of conspicuous consumption and abusive capitalism -- then religion can get attacked, questioned, revered, and celebrated the way it is in the West... but will that ever happen?
Nah -- the Arabs have been trippin' since before the time of Caesar, they'll keep trippin' forever if you ask me.
From what I can tell, the Europeans have been satirizng Mohammad for quite some time, and it's only now that it's boiled over...
But the fact the Arabs are tripping points to the fact that they are basically perverting one of the tenants of Islam -- which is tolerance. YEAH! You wouldn't know it, by the way the Arabs behave. But you have to look at it this way: Arab culture took claim of Islam and the rulers and reactionary clerics have systematically used it to continue to oppress the people. Everything that hinders so-called progress (in terms of what the Occidental economics would call progress) can be justified by the Arab elite by turning to the Quran or siting something Mohammad said.
And keeping the people down is what the Arabian oligarchs do best -- better than anybody on the planet, maybe in the history of the world...
Check this out -- I was reading an interview with the State Department's press liaison, and she made a remark that tripped me out. When she was in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi women were upset at Bush and the U.S. Government for permitting Oprah to do a show about sexual repression in the Muslim world. Indicating that in the Muslim world the citizenery is so ignorant (and sheltered) as to think that Oprah's show is a government program. They honestly believe that. It's easy to see why... in their frame of reference TV and all its programming is controled by the fat, wealthy as hell rulers, sanctioned by clerics and thus there is no creatively free shows or shows that operates with a license to say what they want without repuercussions (like getting your tongue cut the fuck out!).
In the eyes of the liberal West, Islam and Mohammad are just plump and juicy ripe for satire and comedy. I have to believe that something will pop up on South Park (I never watch the show anymore, but know that scandalize Jesus and the Devil).
Arab culture needs to take the reins off, get sucked up in the maelstrom of conspicuous consumption and abusive capitalism -- then religion can get attacked, questioned, revered, and celebrated the way it is in the West... but will that ever happen?
Nah -- the Arabs have been trippin' since before the time of Caesar, they'll keep trippin' forever if you ask me.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Natural Born White Trash -- It's All Over And Growing
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Sunday, February 05, 2006
Servey Says... Smack That Booty!
Have you ever been to the website
www.bootyvote.com?
It's exactly what the title purports to be a place where ass photos are rated by the myriad of viewers (4000+) who visit the site on a regular basis.
This shouldn't really cause any comment, least of all from me, but it got me thinking -- entertainment has changed quite considerably since the Internet has infected the culture.
Digital, disposable, solitary entertainment experiences is what the the under 25 set is going to know and love -- group enjoyment is old school, because the effects of letting the computer, VCR and latest gaming console act as the main forms of occupying a growing kids time has pushed the youth, particularly young males, into a more solitary existence. Where interaction with other humans becomes an annoyance or an obligation, not something that is cherished, relished and expected.
The other day I was at the Santa Monica mall and saw these two teenage girls shopping together. Nothing out of the ordinary, except they were both listening to their iPods as they walked around, and only disengaged their headphones to test an item with the other. I thought, this is disturbing because they aren't really together -- they're not socializing the
On a certain level, I don't give a good fuck, because I'm not going to be living in the U.S. that much longer. All of the Baby Boomers are going to suck this country dry once they begin to retire, and need all sorts of social programs to deal with the decaying of their bodies. And who's going to pay for it? All the new immigrants from South and Central America and East Asia that are going to be coming over here. The population growth is going to continue to come from immigration, and the work opportunities are going to be less and less. Thus extending the gap between the haves and the have nots.
So when the average white kid gets displaced 'cause he's been spending too much time in front of his webcam singing to the Web-universe and not learning Spanish, advanced mathematics and Chinese, it's not going to be my problem at all. 'Cause I'll just shake my head from Sydney or Madrid...
If figure Europe will retain it's cultural identity and standard of living better than the US, because they'll pass laws to protect their culture -- as they do with movies and TV.
The US will be a true melting pot of megacities that have humdrum exiistence in cubicles or working shit jobs just get by on credit.
www.bootyvote.com?
It's exactly what the title purports to be a place where ass photos are rated by the myriad of viewers (4000+) who visit the site on a regular basis.
This shouldn't really cause any comment, least of all from me, but it got me thinking -- entertainment has changed quite considerably since the Internet has infected the culture.
Digital, disposable, solitary entertainment experiences is what the the under 25 set is going to know and love -- group enjoyment is old school, because the effects of letting the computer, VCR and latest gaming console act as the main forms of occupying a growing kids time has pushed the youth, particularly young males, into a more solitary existence. Where interaction with other humans becomes an annoyance or an obligation, not something that is cherished, relished and expected.
The other day I was at the Santa Monica mall and saw these two teenage girls shopping together. Nothing out of the ordinary, except they were both listening to their iPods as they walked around, and only disengaged their headphones to test an item with the other. I thought, this is disturbing because they aren't really together -- they're not socializing the
On a certain level, I don't give a good fuck, because I'm not going to be living in the U.S. that much longer. All of the Baby Boomers are going to suck this country dry once they begin to retire, and need all sorts of social programs to deal with the decaying of their bodies. And who's going to pay for it? All the new immigrants from South and Central America and East Asia that are going to be coming over here. The population growth is going to continue to come from immigration, and the work opportunities are going to be less and less. Thus extending the gap between the haves and the have nots.
So when the average white kid gets displaced 'cause he's been spending too much time in front of his webcam singing to the Web-universe and not learning Spanish, advanced mathematics and Chinese, it's not going to be my problem at all. 'Cause I'll just shake my head from Sydney or Madrid...
If figure Europe will retain it's cultural identity and standard of living better than the US, because they'll pass laws to protect their culture -- as they do with movies and TV.
The US will be a true melting pot of megacities that have humdrum exiistence in cubicles or working shit jobs just get by on credit.
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