Djabdjab Gonna Git Ya!!!

Soft Power

2011-01-28T10:09:00.000-08:00

This is a video that speaks to my thinking of Trinidad and Tobago's relationship to kalinda...

Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue "soft" power | Video on TED.com

A loss

2010-12-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

Just found out the Hidmo Eritrean restaurant and cultural center closed down. Drag. Had a few really cool nights there playing with the DE CAJoN project, and checking out Brothas from Anotha. Matter of fact we just did an awesome Xmas show there on the 11th with Juan Medrano Cotito...hella good night. Don't know the circumstances of the place closing, but I was really hoping it would be a central place for folks to get their grub on and check out good tunes. Not to mention giving youth a place to try out their musical skills...sigh. Let's pray for the phoenix.

Soulja Boy's Lost Soul

2010-12-03T04:09:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across an article the other day which was so troubling that I can't let it go. It may be old news, but it's stuck in my mind and driving me crazy. You can read it here, and a gajillion other places. The crux of the article was that Soulja Boy essentially thanked slave masters for 'rescuing' Africans from Africa, and bringing them to the U.S. where they could buy diamonds and tattoos. Now that's just sad. Sadder than sad. I can't figure out what part of this boy's brain is functioning if this is what he derives from U.S. history. Or maybe he didn't learn history at all? Now I don't know the boy personally, but I have read that he grew up in the South. Really? You grow up in what can best be described as the heart of hell for Africans in this country for centuries, and you thank the devils that created that hell? All I can say is that the devils are still at work, and continuing to do the job they came here to do. Soulja Boy is another tool of Interscope Records, one of the devil's greatest institutions. It pains my heart because I remember the birth of hip-hop. I remember the positive, and intelligent vibe we all got from the music, and I have watched it get trashed like the lowest of street walkers. It's sad. I wish folks would educate themselves before opening their mouths and spewing ignorance. Imagine the Superman Soulja Boy is waiting for. Makes you think...

2010-11-21T13:55:00.000-08:00

A musical offering of sorts

Love this

2010-11-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

Seriously awesome

amywinehouse.jpg (image)

2009-03-31T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is jacked up!!!!!!

amywinehouse.jpg (image)

Sandra Laing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2009-03-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

This is why the whole APARTHEID system and way of thinking is sooooo freaking idiotic!!

Sandra Laing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Extraordinary Mind Card

2009-01-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

I love this.

2009-01-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

Yes WTF?

BBC NEWS | UK | 'No God' campaign draws complaint

2009-01-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

This cracks me up to no end. It's a shame that logic can be so severely skewed in our minds to think that we have a lock on what the truth is. As though there is only one version of this mysterious 'truth.' This is one ad campaign I can get behind regardless of my beliefs.

BBC NEWS | UK | 'No God' campaign draws complaint

stupidbats

2009-01-05T23:36:00.000-08:00

You know I liked this movie. My wife even liked this movie, and she hates this sort of stuff. Heath Ledger worked his ass off, and clearly paid the cost.

The Flying Shoe

2008-12-22T10:52:00.001-08:00

Because you owe it to yourself to feel a similar sense of satisfaction!

http://www.sockandawe.com/

2008-06-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

I may be getting old, but I still got some moves. This was a game of kickball played at our school recently. Notice the slick avoidance of being tagged on my part! Don't pay attention to the baseline though...they didn't either and I was soon safely on first!! JOY!!! Remember when getting to first was a big deal?

Oh yeah and Barack won...

Politics of Hope

2008-04-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

My friend Aaron wrote the following:

Hillary Clinton came to UC Davis.

Hillary's campaign manager incurred costs upwards of $5000.00 for use of campus space.

Hillary's campaign has yet to pay UC Davis (CNN, April 9th, 2008).

Not long after this report, Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination for president by a landslide and would go on to thoroughly trounce John McCain in the general election. A whopping 84% voter turnout, with fully 70% in Obama's favor, sets a record in global voting history. America would await, with rabid anticipation, for the ushering in of a new era of prosperity and goodwill, promised to spread throughout the world.

Sadly, all would not be well.

UC Davis would very nearly be forced to close its doors two years into the Obama presidency due to a broken gas main that couldn't be repaired because funding was lacking. Several major campus facilities would be irreparably damaged, forcing the registrar to schedule classes for the stadium.

Classes would become secondary to athletic training, as it was in the days of ancient Greece and Rome. Scholars and philosophers would battle over who had the privilege of teaching in the lower bleachers, leading to a huge die off among aging faculty forced to hike up the stadium steps day after day. Coronary failure would become the leading cause of death among UC faculty.

Students would tire of wiping sweat from their lecture notes and smelling each other during class time. Academia would falter, and, with UC Davis being among the preeminent learning institutions in the world, global collapse of scholarly effort would not be long in coming.

Obama's presidency, heralded to be the hallmark of a new golden era in American history, is instead remembered as the administration that oversaw the development of America's first…wait for it…Idiocracy.

If only Hillary had paid.

For a full-color, visually stimulating example of what Hillary's failure to pay her bills may portend, watch this movie:

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Idiocracy/70028899?lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=644097636_0_0

My response:

Idiocracy is a funny movie. Working in the public schools today, I see us heading in that direction on many fronts and it's not so funny. And while I find the story Aaron presented to be intriguing, I'm not sure it tells the whole story. Mind you I don't intend or pretend to be able to do such a thing myself, I merely want to add another possibility to the tale that has been presented. Bluntly, I don't think having Hillary as President would stem the wave of a looming Idiocracy. In fact she and Barack both stand to be recipients of a society that has been successfully dumbed down on its way to such a state. Granted the prez in Idiocracy was black (damn, we make prez in the movie industry, and it's over an Idiocracy - SWEET, at least we have 24?) What I see as being the difference in this universe, however, is that Barack (albeit a politician surely with his secrets and slippery side) at least offers a modicum of hope in terms of public discussions that can arise to help lay a foundation of hope. Yes I said it, hope.

I hope that his speech on race, made after the preacher debacle, becomes a case study and window into discussions of race relations. For the sake of all the white liberals surprised to hear such rhetoric coming from a black church, for the sake of the Africanist militants who refuse to admit the white blood in their backgrounds, and for the multitude of mixed ethnicities in human form (myself included). I hope the way in which he handles Clinton's political attacks becomes a model for how to deal with verbal antagonism, because honestly it is a breath of fresh air to see someone utilize a t'ai chi like grace in the face of such attacks. It is also invigorating to see someone not go for a jugular kill shot when given the opportunity, because in the long run it serves no purpose other than to breed ill will.

Hillary is clearly not above using taking such shots, and jumps at every opportunity, her husband is quick to point out that "this is a full contact sport..." Blah blah blah. The Clinton's are not afraid to pull out the usual political crap. Hillary is eager to show she is a woman ready to fight. Well damn it this is the time to unite (150% on the cheesy meter I know), but it's true. Barack's comments about bitter America's cuts to the chase. He's right, and to think otherwise to me shows that you are out of touch for REALZ!!! And on and on...so ultimately I hope we can get an injection of inspiration and hope from Barack to keep us away from an Idiocracy, so we can engage in the dialogs needed to deal with the practical problems facing us. Like war, race relations, national identity, foreign relations, and paying our bills. Hillary not paying her bills says enough for me to seal the deal.

Margaret Seltzer

2008-03-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

This kind of stuff makes me sick. It's a disturbing trend that just locks us in the same cycles of idiocy over and over again. In the interest of fabricating an interesting life for herself (because hers is so boring I guess?), Seltzer creates a fictitious girls from the hood story that suckered folks yet again...

http://gawker.com/5003501/fabricating-writers-hilarious-interview

It's sad because she reaffirms the ghetto story and gives it cultural currency...which folks who actually live there consume and identify themselves with. It reminds me of a scene from Paul Betty's White boy Shuffle, in which the creation of a rap video relies on importing every single element INTO the ghetto (except the backdrop of those who live there), including the blood thirsty thug rapper himself. Post video shoot, they all leave...and those left behind are left with another false depiction of their lives, and another reinforcement of that falsehood within their own psyches.

It's sad.

That isn't to say that ghetto life doesn't have stories worth telling, including blood thirsty thugs and b-girl gang bangers. But ten to one they are a product of the snake eating its own tail...consumers of rap videos and Oprah's treatment of Seltzer's work. If Seltzer wanted to be of use and put her writing skills to work (which must be of worth since she got her lies published) why not write the truth of the hood? Or is she too scared to delve into the reality, preferring to stay in the sanctuary of her fictitious world?

Hah

2008-02-25T10:45:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry did I say I would be more preset here? That's slightly askew from the reality I know. Can't tell myself to write in this space when I should be writing my dissertation. Other focuses include the election (gotta go for Barack myself), and the family per usual.

I have finally concluded that Ethnomusicology needs a huge face lift. I'm not sure if my surgical skills are up to snuff, however. I often look at my own writing and wonder. Many tell me it is the process of writing the diss. We shall see. I know this post sucks, but it keeps the juices rolling.

This is funny...http://www.snotr.com/video/793

Outty

New Year

2008-01-02T11:35:00.000-08:00

It is indeed a new year, and I'm gonna try and be more diligent about writing in this space. how many blogs have I read with the very same sentiments. Honestly the task is a pleasure, but it feels guilty because I should be writing in other spaces...dissertation space for instance. Truth be told, if I spout the sputter here it might clear my head for the other spaces. We'll see. I have a few things on tap to spout about. All in time. till then...

Skull and Bones K.O.'d

2007-09-26T00:02:00.001-07:00

Damn. It's waved in your face.

Quinton

2007-09-10T00:26:00.000-07:00

Does it Again

What's in a Name?

2007-09-09T23:51:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia:
Gibraltar is a derivative of Jabal Tāriq, "mountain of Tariq," or from Gibel Tāriq, meaning "rock of Tariq." (the Berber Umayyad general Tariq ibn-Ziyad, who led the initial incursion into Iberia in advance of the main Moorish force in 711. Earlier, it was known as Mons Calpe, one of the Pillars of Hercules.

I know a Tariq. Hmmm…Weird Coincidence? I like him a LOT. He helped me in in the strangest of times…always the right place at the right time. He is a very cool person. A wonderful human being that I consider to be rather in tune to the flow of things more so than many around him. Perhaps that came from being set up and robbed at gunpoint at a “friends” house.

“The same sheisty cats that you hang with, and do your thang with could set you up and wet you up, nigga peep the language”
-Gang Starr, “Moment of Truth”

Jabal in Arabic means mountain, in Swahili rendered as Jabali

From etimologias.dechile.net:
La palabra jabalí se origina en el árabe "gabalī", que significa "montaraz". Se refiere a ciertos mamíferos que roncan como los cerdos y son paquidermos, es decir de piel gruesa.

En el Al-Andalus, el "jabalí" era un "cerdo del monte".

HEY, …I Snore!!!

What does this mean?

The Spanish turned a mountain into a pig on the mountain…a Herculean feat?

I should strive to be more Arabic in nature than Spanish?

Or perhaps I have multiple personalities…DUH

7.9 in Lima Pt. 1

2007-09-09T00:46:00.000-07:00

May these words find you all well,

It’s been long time, and that’s alright. Sometimes you have to step back and process what is happening; take stock of the situation around you and find your place again. Feel what that new skin is really all about. If you wake up thinking that you have it all figured out, then surely you will fall on you face. This summer saw me finishing another episode of LEEP (Lakeside Educational Enrichment Program) and it was amazing. I can’t tell you how much I love the program…so much so that I became the new coordinator! Unf big shoes to fill cuz my predecessor was/is amazing.

After the program was over I reconnected with my family in Peru. The left two weeks before meas I was still working. We stayed until the 3rd of September. The trip was interesting to say the least (I need to stop using the word interesting). We lived through a 7.9 earthquake without feeling anything. My belief in divine providence has been reconfirmed yet again. It is nothing short of amazing to live through an earthquake that is rocking everyone around you for HUNDREDS of miles…and feel nothing. That’s a lie actually. I was feeling really good with my wife, kids, and sister in law touring through downtown Lima at night on the Mirabus (since renamed the Mira(cle)bus. Life is so strange. I’ll tell you the story sometime.

It’s just good to sit down and begin the process of revealing that which has been processed. There is more to come in the very near future to be sure.

Beatings and Backing Up

2007-06-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

So I have to give Quinton "Rampage" Jackson props for beating the shit out of Chuck "The Iceman" Lidell. It was a quick fight with Jackson dropping Lidell on his ass 3 minutes into the first round, ending Lidell's quest to avenge his losses (to Randy Couture, Jeremy Horn, and Quinton Jackson). I like both fighters but have to say that Jackson earned his win. It'll be interesting to see what Lidell does now.

And just in case you wanna flame up (like Bill O'Reilly did - the shmuck) cuz of the Baraka poem from my earlier post, take a gander at Kurt Nimmo's analysis. I seriously think Bush should be tried for gross neglect...among many many other things. That fucker is going to walk out of office with pockets loaded, in search of more buried treasure. Makes me sick especially when you consider how many people he's killed under the banner of freedom. Fucking weasel.

Somebody Blew Up America

2007-06-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

To the Trinis in question...

SOMEBODY BLEW UP AMERICA by Amiri Baraka

(All thinking people
oppose terrorism
both domestic
& international…
But one should not
be used
To cover the other)

They say its some terrorist, some
barbaric
A Rab, in
Afghanistan
It wasn't our American terrorists
It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads
Or the them that blows up nigger
Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row
It wasn't Trent Lott
Or David Duke or Giuliani
Or Schundler, Helms retiring

It wasn't
the gonorrhea in costume
the white sheet diseases
That have murdered black people
Terrorized reason and sanity
Most of humanity, as they pleases

They say (who say? Who do the saying
Who is them paying
Who tell the lies
Who in disguise
Who had the slaves
Who got the bux out the Bucks

Who got fat from plantations
Who genocided Indians
Tried to waste the Black nation

Who live on Wall Street
The first plantation
Who cut your nuts off
Who rape your ma
Who lynched your pa

Who got the tar, who got the feathers
Who had the match, who set the fires
Who killed and hired
Who say they God & still be the Devil

Who the biggest only
Who the most goodest
Who do Jesus resemble

Who created everything
Who the smartest
Who the greatest
Who the richest
Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest

Who define art
Who define science

Who made the bombs
Who made the guns

Who bought the slaves, who sold them

Who called you them names
Who say Dahmer wasn't insane

Who/ Who / Who/

Who stole Puerto Rico
Who stole the Indies, the Philipines, Manhattan
Australia & The Hebrides
Who forced opium on the Chinese

Who own them buildings
Who got the money
Who think you funny
Who locked you up
Who own the papers

Who owned the slave ship
Who run the army

Who the fake president
Who the ruler
Who the banker

Who/ Who/ Who/

Who own the mine
Who twist your mind
Who got bread
Who need peace
Who you think need war

Who own the oil
Who do no toil
Who own the soil
Who is not a nigger
Who is so great ain't nobody bigger

Who own this city

Who own the air
Who own the water

Who own your crib
Who rob and steal and cheat and murder
and make lies the truth
Who call you uncouth

Who live in the biggest house
Who do the biggest crime
Who go on vacation anytime

Who killed the most niggers
Who killed the most Jews
Who killed the most Italians
Who killed the most Irish
Who killed the most Africans
Who killed the most Japanese
Who killed the most Latinos

Who/Who/Who

Who own the ocean

Who own the airplanes
Who own the malls
Who own television
Who own radio

Who own what ain't even known to be owned
Who own the owners that ain't the real owners

Who own the suburbs
Who suck the cities
Who make the laws

Who made Bush president
Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying
Who talk about democracy and be lying
WHO/ WHO/ WHOWHO/

Who the Beast in Revelations
Who 666
Who decide
Jesus get crucified

Who the Devil on the real side
Who got rich from Armenian genocide

Who the biggest terrorist
Who change the bible
Who killed the most people
Who do the most evil
Who don't worry about survival

Who have the colonies
Who stole the most land
Who rule the world
Who say they good but only do evil
Who the biggest executioner

Who/Who/Who ^^^

Who own the oil
Who want more oil
Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who/ Who/ ???

Who fount Bin Laden, maybe they Satan
Who pay the CIA,
Who knew the bomb was gonna blow
Who know why the terrorists
Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego

Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion
And cracking they sides at the notion

Who need fossil fuel when the sun ain't goin' nowhere

Who make the credit cards
Who get the biggest tax cut
Who walked out of the Conference
Against Racism
Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother
Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing?
Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln?

Who invaded Grenada
Who made money from apartheid
Who keep the Irish a colony
Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later

Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani,
the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral,
Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,

Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane , Betty Shabazz, Princess Margaret, Ralph Featherstone, Little Bobby

Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo,
Assata, Mumia,Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton

Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton,
MedgarEvers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney,
Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel
Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed

Who put a price on Lenin's head

Who put the Jews in ovens,
and who helped them do it
Who said "America First"
and ok'd the yellow stars
WHO/WHO/ ^^

Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt
Who murdered the Rosenbergs
And all the good people iced,
tortured , assassinated, vanished

Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti,
Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,

Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo
Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians' blankets
Who thought up "The Trail of Tears"

Who blew up the Maine
& started the Spanish American War
Who got Sharon back in Power
Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo,
Chiang kai Chek who WHO W H O/

Who decided Affirmative Action had to go
Reconstruction, The New Deal, The New
Frontier, The Great Society,

Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for
Who doo doo come out the Colon's mouth
Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza
Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro
Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus
Subsidere

Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop,
Who poison Robeson,
who try to put DuBois in Jail
Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs, Garvey,
The Scottsboro Boys, The Hollywood Ten

Who set the Reichstag Fire

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why did Sharon stay away ?
/
Who,Who, Who/
explosion of Owl the newspaper say
the devil face cd be seen Who WHO Who WHO

Who make money from war
Who make dough from fear and lies
Who want the world like it is
Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror
violence, and hunger and poverty.

Who is the ruler of Hell?
Who is the most powerful

Who you know ever
Seen God?

But everybody seen
The Devil

Like an Owl exploding
In your life in your brain in your self
Like an Owl who know the devil
All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl
Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise
In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog

Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell
Who and Who and WHO (+) who who ^
Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!

2007-06-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

Tis post comes at a request from BDBP...
Dancing. It is a good thing. Just look at the Patrick and Jennifer in that picture. Clearly having a good time...although Patrick does look a bit stiff, and intense. Maybe he's just really feeling it...really feeling that, that, that - DIRTY DANCING. Cuz that's what dancing is after all, at least according to the church back in the day. There is ample material explaining how the church side stepped the biblical depictions of dancing, and went straight to social dance as a pathway to hell. From the 19th century (probably sooner actually) we have folks explaining the ills of dancing. Jacob Ide's in 1818 gave a sermon entitled, "The Nature and Tendency of Balls." "Ide criticizes the expenses associated with balls and dancing's "tendency to excite a vague, indiscriminate love of company.""

But the attack did not come from just the church. Oh No. Other good citizens of the US devoted to maintaining the purity of its noble settlers were involved in slighting dance as well. Consider T. A. Faulkner's book, From Ballroom to Hell, which depicts the depravities brought about by dancing. It should also be pointed out that Faulkner was one time owner of the Los Angeles Dancing Academy as well as once President of the Dance Masters Association of the Pacific Coast! If anyone had insight into the ills of ballroom it was Faulkner. And so the onslaught continued fueled by anti-jazz sentiments, which were really anti-black sentiments, until today which is why it's illegal to dance in the bars of NY. Sweet. I love the land of the free...where you can pursue happiness as long as it does not imply dancing....or smoking...or...or...or...

Kill Me

2007-06-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

It's official, Jack Kevorkian is out of jail, and is once again a free man. Free to kill any one who wants to be killed, although he has said he does not wish to do this work any more. It's rather sad. I thought this was the land of freedom. I thought this was a land in which if a person was terminally ill, they had the right and the freedom to end their pain. In such a land it is nice that there exists an individual who can and will assist in the passage from life to death with comfort, ease and respect. But, this is not such a land.

"Idol" Rehab

2007-05-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

No this isn't about American Idol, which by the way reveals either how stupid the American populous is (how could Melinda not be the better singer of them all this year? And Blake in the Finals? PLEASE!!!!!)...this is more with regards to idiots like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan etc., who can't seem to handle their intoxicants without making an ass of themselves. Afterwards they run off to a luxury rehab clinic and act like they are getting over what ever it is that ails them.

The thing is I don't really care about these people and their habits. If they want to act like jackasses then so be it, but don't take valuable news time to tell me about it? I don't care. If Britney shaves her head cuz she's freaking out about being a mom and a downward sliding pop star, so what! The whole "idol" thing needs to be killed off any way. All these rehab reports confirm is that these people are not fit to be idolized...and probably shouldn't have been idolized any way. America's fascination with idolatry of celebrities (some of whom have no apparent talent what so ever, like P. Hilton) is the real addiction in need of rehab. Take Heed.

Idoless by The Distillers

i dont know but i know it
you better find out what your place is
urban plight is in the city streets
its infectious and its complacent

idoless

over expression and rationed, assimilated temptation
integrity- integrate...integregation
molestedm accosted, detested
ill wreck this coming down like the apocalypse

idoless..syndication

i dont know but i know it
you better find out what your name is
arrested, infested, its your collective
coming off like you wrote the ten commandments

idoless

i dont know but i know it
you better find out what your place is
urban plight is in the city streets
its infectious and you are complacent

idoless
the idol is within you
watch it come on through
the idol is within you
watch it come on through

Welcomes

2007-05-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

A big hearty welcome goes out to the new born Henry V.P., and big congrats to parents BDBP and BMD. I had to laugh my ass off cuz Henry was born the day Jerry "Fallwell" died...BDBP put it this way..."New baby boy is born, and Jerry Falwell spends his first day in hell, today was a good day!" I couldn't agree more.

I had a whole spat of things to say, but at this point I really don't feel like spewing any of it. I was going to speak on Barack's comment's at the Dem. debates regarding checking at home before launching any retaliation attacks...come to think of it I will speak on it a bit. I don't think it was that big of a deal to be honest, and was sickened to see people point to it as a weakness...blah, and horse shit to that analysis. His response was that of a good leader. If I was part of any group whose leader did not check in with their people to make sure the situation was taken care of, BEFORE running off to obtain vengeance - you can bet I'd be checking out of that group with the quickness.

It only makes sense, and it should have been the first thing to come out of every single one of the candidates mouths...but they are all very well trained in telling the people of the United States what the want to here as opposed to what is good for them.

When will we learn?

B.I.H. Jerry "Fallwell"

I Love This!

2007-05-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

"The National Academy of Sciences warns: "…it is possible that crops transformed to produce pharmaceutical or other industrial compounds might mate with plantations grown for human consumption, with the unanticipated result of novel chemicals in the human food supply." And the editors of Nature Biotechnology recently warned: "Current gene-containment strategies cannot work reliably in the field." A contamination incident may already have occurred as one biotech company official noted at an government-industry conference that: "We've seen it on the vaccine side where modified live seeds have wandered off and have appeared in other products.""

Reminds me, later I have to stop by the grocery and pick up something for dinner.

Ahem...

2007-05-10T10:21:00.000-07:00

Back in the saddle again after a sad spell of time. It'll take a while to get over that one, but life moves on.

It's funny how moments like these can render you speechless, not really knowing what to say. Seems like everything that was so important to rant about is reduced to meaningless shit. I suppose in the end once you leave this Earth, this is somewhat the case. You can't take it with you. Which makes me wonder about all the assholes that horde and horde and horde, when they know they can't take it with them. Leaving it for their offspring is not a better reason either since the kids will have no idea what it means to work for anything. In fact the many folks in this country with their inheritances based in slave labor, who now spout shit about working for a living etc, can lick my balls. We all know this system is built on exploitation and corruption. why must we delude ourselves continually?

Dark Day

2007-04-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

Sigh. I hate days like yesterday. It just happens. Out of the blue, when you least expect it. The day had been so sweet too…we took the kids to the zoo, and it wasn’t raining. That in itself is sweet here in Seattle. When we got home and settled in for a little rest the phone rang and my son answered it. I could tell it was my aunt, but all sounded well. She probed him about the zoo and school etc.. He handed the phone to me, and this is when everything got quiet. “So you’re having a good I hear?” my aunt asks. “We were too, but what I’m about to tell you will change all of that.”

Now I have to say I am thankful for my family because there is no bullshit. We get right to the point, no dragging it out and beating around the bush, or telling me after a half-hour conversation. “Your uncle died today.” WHAM!! Wasn’t ready for that one. He had been flying in his gyrojet mobile when things went really bad and gravity took over. Eyewitnesses say the vehicle flipped upside down in the air. That’s bad. I hate to think about his last few minutes on earth. It horrifies me. My only consolation being that he died doing something he loved, and that his mother – my grandmother had already passed away, and would not have to live through the death of another of her children.

What do you say to news like that? Shit. Damn. Oh My God. No Way. Shit. I didn’t say all of these to my aunt because she’s a gospel musician. I think the third one was about all to leave my lips. After that a certain numbness reserved only for such occasions set in, and I knew I would need time to process it all. In that time I thought about my uncle. Uncle Stanley. He was huge, and it was muscle. Flew copters in Viet Nam. Threw shot put, was a principal of a school and just all around badass. You didn’t mess with Uncle Stanley. For us male youth, Uncle Stanley was the reality check as far as your masculinity. “Oh you think you’re bad?” No way. I grew to be taller than him, but I’ll be damned if I would have ever tried anything. He was a solid man.

Uncle Stanley was very direct, per the family way, and a little bit more to boot. If he didn’t think what you were doing was sound, quality work – he would let you know. Always pushing us to be better than we were/are, I can only imagine what it must have been like to be a student in his school. I can’t imagine how his daughters, granddaughter, wife and ex-wife for that matter must be feeling. His daughters were everything and they exceeded his expectations, always pushing themselves with amazing results – and this is an understatement. He wives by necessity were bad asses in their own rights as well.

Damn, it’s still unreal. To see one of the strongest people you know removed from the face of the earth. It took plummeting from the sky to accomplish the task. It seems so meaningless, but I know it’s not. I wrote him a last little note just cuz.

The day in which
Every soul you know
Utters your name,
Is the day you die.

R.I.P. Uncle Stanley.

4/30/07

4/20

2007-04-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

Looks like Gonzales is getting his ass handed to him. Another Bush administration scapegoat bites the dust. In the Washington Post today:

"Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the panel's most conservative member, joined Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and other committee Democrats in calling on Gonzales to resign.

"I believe there's consequences for mistakes. . . . And I believe the best way to put this behind us is your resignation," Coburn said."

Translation:

"Damnit Gonzales you fucked up big time. You didn't get the job done cleanly like the Don told you. Now WE gotta clean up your mess. It's only business." BLAM!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

Cuz that's how we do things in this country after all.

Which leads me to my thoughts walking to work this morning. I as a citizen of the United States of America am free to certain rights, including the right to bear arms. Arms meaning guns not appendages. These guns can then be used by me or against me. They can kill. That is why humans created them. Guns kill effectively. There is no other utility for a gun. They are not good for your health unless you are the one doing the killing, but even this is no certainty...revenge is a bitch.

Ingesting marijuana, mushrooms psilocybin mushrooms, opium, hash, crack, cocaine, heroin, etc., however, is not within my rights. Presumably because these substances are bad for me...like guns. The big difference here being that I can legally buy the gun as opposed to the substances. This makes no sense to to me. Add to this to the possibility that substances legal for consumption like tobacco and alcohol are more damaging than certain substances that are illegal, and it makes even less sense.

Ah, you say, but some of those drugs you listed are really bad for you and I've seen people go down a bad road with them (and I would agree with you). We've also seen people go down a bad road with bullets, never mind which kind. But they are legal. Professor David Nutt of Britain's Bristol University and colleagues concluded that the legality of drugs is arbitrary, and that legal cigarettes and alcohol are more damaging than illegal marijuana. I see a pattern here.

I have rightful access to the things that will really harm me like guns,tobacco, and alcohol; but I don't have rightful access to less damaging things like marijuana. The logic explains so much about the mentality of those steering this God forsaken land. I am free to die by a bullet but not with a spliff in my hand??? It makes no sense. If my rights lead me to living in a society where I might be gunned down by some asshole, then I fucking damn well want the right to smoke some pot. Bastards with your bastard laws.

Guns

2007-04-19T22:46:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that very few are asking the real question when it comes to the V.Tech killing. A Gallup poll suggested that most Americans will blame the person, their culture, and background before they blame the ease with which a person can acquire a gun. In England's gun restricted society however, gun crime accounts for less than half a percent of all crime reported by the police. They resort to stabbing and stomping each other to death, which at least gives folks a sporting chance. A gun is so easy the weakest link in the gene pool can become victorious. Anybody can look at the situation in the US and recognize that VTech would happen, and will happen again somewhere else...maybe in your neighborhood. I mean if the Amish could be visited ANYBODY can be. Despite this we Americans will quickly forget this happened, and the talk about control will die down so that the words "right to bear arms" can continue to work their magic on the country. I love how Bush adds "but that all laws must be followed," bit...as though he abides by his own words. The Garlic got it straight when it comes to the 2nd amendment. When the Constitution was penned muzzle loaded muskets were in fashion. So if you want to bear arms then that is what you will use, not a 9mm or an Uzi or some shit.

Consider this from Zein Basravi...

"Australian Prime Minister John Howard was more candid in his remarks, offering his sympathies, but condemning U.S. gun culture as a negative force in society.

Howard, who staked his political leadership on pushing through tough laws on gun ownership in Australia after a lone gunman in his country killed 35 people, said the Virginia shootings were a tragedy of a kind he hoped would never be seen again in Australia.

"We had a terrible incident at Port Arthur, but it is the case that 11 years ago we took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country," he said."

hmmm...that's just daft isn't it? Unconstitutional and unpatriotic. In this country we want access to things like this

(and they are selling like hotcakes!)

More V-Tech

2007-04-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Ahh yes and check out this insanity from Delusions of Grandeur. (Thanks BDBP)

170+...

2007-04-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

...more lives to add to W's list. The blood just keeps on flowing since we accomplished that mission over there in Iraq. It's absolutely ridiculous. The current administration has botched things so badly even they can't keep track. Solution? Send in more troops. That really seems to be working well.

Lordy

2007-04-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

I suppose the first wave of wrenching wretchedness has passed. The V. Tech shooting was a mind bender, and we were just coming off of a homicide/suicide here at UW. It's all a bit much. I think my favorite part was the report that said this behavior is sure to continue as opposed to abating. There will be more mass killers , who knows where and when, could be playing at a venue near you. It makes me pretty ill, and I really feel for the students at V. Tech and others in the past who have suffered such trauma and/or death. The Amish kids, Columbine, and on and on. Live by the gun, die by the gun. It's just a shame that the history of this country has brought us to this. For too long the gun has been used to take what was not initially owned. The right to bear arms has lead to the ability/freedom to kill wantonly.

Charlton Heston, how does this all sit with you? Kinda making you feel warm and fuzzy?

American Hardcore

2007-04-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, just finished watching American Hardcore, and I don't care what anyone says it was good. I dug the 'vintage' footage, and the interview with a lucid HR. Yeah I know SF didn't get theirs, DK didn't get theirs and things ended with the end of Blackflag yadda yadda...well damn there were lotsa bands that didn't get theirs, and yes I know DK is big and all, but still...the movie was a nice bit of homage to the time period. It would be impossible to get everything and everybody included. I think it sets up the arena for additional work. It's not an end all project...and I don't think it's supposed to be. It's just a window, one window, into the explosion of sonic fury in the early 80s.

What I don't like is the repeated "it's dead" shtick that always follows these things. It's not dead, it just splintered again, like the original sonic fury. The other thing that kills me is the "we felt no guilt cuz we weren't stealing black music." Well shit of course you were. Rock ain't Black free, but Black built...

I could go on and on, and perhaps will later...now I gotta roll.

Damn

2007-04-05T02:12:00.000-07:00

Kids in bullet proof vests...

War

2007-04-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

vs.

I just watched Jesus Camp and I have to say I was amazed and overjoyed. It was brilliant and I couldn't stop saying Wow. I think the funniest part of the whole thing was that it was produced by a company called Loki Films - Loki being the Norse trickster spirit/god/demigod who supplies the gods with what they need to defeat evil. Was Loki providing us humans with armament through the film Jesus Camp. I think so. In the movie Becky Fischer repeatedly tells the youth under her tutelage that they are at war, and the war is religious of course. In this war Harry Potter would be put to death, as would most assuredly any non-Christian. Fischer points out that democracy is a flawed system because it implies an equality of thought, which she believes can not exist because she and those like her have the TRUTH! The kids all then proceed to pray to a cardboard cutout of George Bush.

Shit. Truth my ass. These puppies is sick.

Enter Ted Haggard the derailed pastor from New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO. Haggard with all of the wisdom the truth can provide forcefully opposed homosexuality. I believe his words during a sermon in the movie were "we don't have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity. It’s written in the Bible." As leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, Haggard helped promote "engagement in traditional culture was issues such as abortion and gay marriage but also poverty, education, taxes, welfare and immigration."

No Haggard, you're right we don't have to debate the subject at all, especially after finding out that you frequent male prostitutes and get down with the meth. SWEET. That's the truth and you got it...no we got it. You tried to hide it behind a veil of shit that is infecting the minds of little kids throughout the country. Some 9 million self-proclaimed evangelicals exist I believe?

So if it's war you want, war you will get. Culture war is familiar territory for me I am more than willing to wage it. With folks like Haggard, Fischer, Coulture and Bush on the scene there's a lot of work to do, but at the same time they make it easy. Give em enough rope....all thanks to Loki and the rest aiding in the war

Let's end this with a little truth from the mouth of Chris Rock (thanks BDBP)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RlVtsAvKfs

Ugh...

2007-03-22T15:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks to BDBP for this one:

Costa Rican President President Oscar Arias recently cut the ribbon for a new breast implant factory in the country. His remarks...

“I have no doubt… that of the many businesses around the country that I've inaugurated, none manufactures a product that not only brings happiness to women, but especially to us, the men,” a smiling Arias said as he wrapped up his speech at the inauguration of the medical product manufacturer Allergan's new plant in Heredia, north of San José.

Outsourcing knows no boundries, and Arias has no taste. What a pig, and the fact that he places the desire of a plastic chest high on a man's list just pisses me off. What an ass, his remarks completely detract from any benefit the implants may have for women who suffer from the pain of mastectomies. I mean come on he basically is saying we men want you healthy women to create a negative image of what you were naturally given (love yourself damnit) and fill your chests with this crap just so that we can have what the magazines tell us is the good stuff...nothing like squeezing and sucking on silicone.

There is so much so wrong with it all. Listen to Borat people really love doesn't come from a plastic chest a la Pamela Anderson. And for you women who think men will love you more if you have bigger tits...do we need to question the foundation of love? Does it really lie in your chest? If so consider the negative effects of a bad boob job on your love life...and I'm sure your baby (should you shoose to have one) will love those new boobs of your even if they negatively effect breast-feeding (which is what they are for, or have we forgotten that?).

Hell the FDA points out that:

Breast implants will not last a lifetime. Either because of rupture or other complications, you will likely need to have the implants removed.

You are likely to need additional doctor visits and reoperations because of one or more complications over the course of your life.

You are likely to have the implants removed, with or without replacement, because of one or more complications over the course of your life.

Many of the changes to your breast following implantation may be cosmetically undesirable, as well as irreversible (cannot be undone).

If you later choose to have your implants removed, you may experience unacceptable dimpling, puckering, wrinkling, loss of breast tissue, or other undesirable cosmetic changes of the breast.

The FDA's take on plasitc chests

But if breast envy, the fucked up perception of males due to media inaccuracies, and female objectification are gonna push you to get a boob job I suppose the president of Costa Rica and his friends will be more than happy to stare you up and down to your and his heart's content.

Just consider the following

Good Boobs vs. Bad Boobs

A plastic overview

Rome Part 2

2007-03-21T21:02:00.001-07:00

So I haven't posted in awhile and I'm ok with that. It's been a crazy little spell lately. Had a birthday, and then got sick right after that. Then finals week kicked in and then I woke up today. On top of that we are trying to get the little one (Cecilia) to sleep through the night...which is my job! So I'm up all night patting her back to sleep, and oh man am I tired. It's all good though. What makes me more tired I think is the pressure of the dissertation that hangs over my head always...it's the stone around my neck right now, and I can't stop thinking about it. So I sit here on myspace writing this blurb now.

I've been tossing the future over and over in my head these days. It becomes all the more important when one has children. I see them inheriting a big ball of crap and it sickens me. The current administration is doing nothing to help the situation...and unfortunatly they are training future idiots as well...the struggle will continue until the masks are ripped off and Rome part two burns to the ground, victim of its own greed and lies. The damage done in the meantime?? I pray my offspring make it through to the other side to help rebuild things in a better way. It's funny because I actually wake up and check the news every morning for some sign that the end of days is coming. Train the kiddies well is my mantra...

Watched Borat last night. If you haven't seen it, you really need to. America never revealed itself better...cracked me up. And to top it off the final message was brilliant. A job well done in my opinion. Ok I gotta jet, but will try to be more regular in the future...for my sake if nothing else.

Make A Wrathful Noise Unto…Those That Deserve It: A letter to Bush and His Fellows

2007-03-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

You see the thing is I hate you. I just fucking hate you. There's no two ways about it, and that's just the way it is. It's a deep seated thing too. The base of my spine feels the poison of the ill intent that I wish upon you. Broadcast it to the world too. Ya evil fuck. There's no other way to put it, and that's as far as I'll take that. It says it all quite simply, and simply. Damn, and the moments when I feel as though a peace could wash over me and I might actually trust you, or feel as if there was anything to this for you at all…other than leeching and much much worse. Children die unnecessarily. Because of what? Because you want what??? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT!!! WHAT THE FUCK DON'T YOU WANT???? For Christ's sake, he is your God after all….fucking deal with it, or shut the fuck up and face the consequences.

Playground rules.

It's in your ink and blood. Is this the value of your blood? The physical manifestation of the spirit that fuels you? What is that anyway? A bullet, a bomb, a burning car…a plastic mask grin on stripes. Damn I hate you. It doesn't have to be like this and we all know it. We all have the capacity…but you…don't even wanna try. Damn. It hurts so much. Children die. For what? A four year old boy screaming in terror seconds before he's shot. His father crouched beside him, looking around a corner for safety. Were I he, I see myself hunting you until somebody is dead...whatever the mask you bear today, I will find you. I will smell you...plastic. I smell. You stink.

I fucking hate you. In all of your pins, and pens telling it just so. Wielding your power with arrogant laughter, never wondering why. Divine right and all of that. Damn. I hate you…for my mother and father, I hate you. For my sister and cousins, I hate you. For my aunts, uncles, grandparents, greats, and friends I hate you. For my wife, and children I hate you. I hate you. I don't want them to bear the ill of such a hate…I wish to absorb it from all their bodies that they may step forward. I do not care. It is worth the weight to oppose the likes of yourself. I fucking hate you. Did I mention I hate you…slit your throat hate. It hurts.

Are off.

Enh. 'So what and who cares,' you say. 'Nut-job, and he seemed so nice.' Iss'ok, me don min' non sah, sho' nuff….jes Watch Me. Can you pick the right shell? We'll make the fucker hop. That shit is gonna skip, and the best part is you have no idea what I'm talking about. It has to be as such. I'm sure you understand. If you watch Jack in the Box ads carefully you may break the code, but that's some high level shit. Nah you ain't got it, and we done killed Earl. Suckers. Overlooking a unity, because ya can't get beyond a duality.

And really, it's the losses that suck. We've lost good people. With more to come or go as it were. You've got the guns, and you write the laws which say we can't use the guns on you…after you use the guns on us…that's fair. Turn the other cheek and all that right. I believe in Gods and Goddesses that were intent on revenge. They didn't die. But I won't be meeting you on your level…Violent Killers with your primitive guns and weapons of mass destruction. I prefer to kill Roberta Flack style. Which is just what I'm going to do. I'm gonna write a song, hell maybe two. Will it be an American Idol pop smash hit? I hope not, but it would be deliciously ironic if it was. Any way it doesn't matter, the underground always seems to rise. Just so long as your kids hear it. Hmmm, I wonder what it'll sound like…

Back at you Mutha Fucka.

martial arts

2006-04-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

Something that I will come back to and grind upon for a bit....the idea that Christianity and martial arts are incompatible? I've jsut now come into this idea and I think it's stupid. Especially when the base line argument is that training in a martial art leaves you open for cult teachings...i.e., Buddhist teachings. Stupid Stupid Stupid. Start here for beginners

http://www.gotquestions.org/martial-arts-Christian.html

Once Upon a Time...

2006-04-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

There was a blind man. He told me it was not a good idea to hold the sun in my hands without protection. I didn't listen to him because I figured he was blind and couldn't possibly know what he was talking about. Of course I neglected to ask him the cause of his blindness. I write this in my dark corner now. The blind man comes by a visits sometimes. The two of us laugh at the remarkable condition that brings about such an existence...over and over again.

2006-01-26T01:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah so the time moves on. And here we are. Or at least here I am. Ever wonder seriously about that camel passing through the eye of a needle? I have seriously thought about this one for awhile and it just eludes me. I for the life of me don't understand how the words "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:24) can exist, yet we still live as we do?

Writing "In god we trust" on the money doesn't make it any better. Hmmm...unless money is a sacred thing? The more you have the more sacred you are? But then the camel spits in your face.

Yeah.

Or perhaps money is indeed divine and stealing it is like strealing a person's divinity. The good folks at Enron should fry. After the camel spits in their eyes.

But those bastards are just a product of our environment.

"Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers' tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. (Matthew 21:12)"

Then those that bought and sold found a way to create a society in which they were the center piece. The market is king of kings, weapon of choice, and best of free...or at least on a discount in case of defect. We focus more of our lives on what Christ threw out of the temple. Don't make no sense.

2006-01-13T01:41:00.000-08:00

It's late. 1:41 AM by the computer clock. I'm having trouble sleeping. My mind is racing over a thousand and one thoughts and ideas. I have proposals, and abstracts to write...instead I'm sitting here writing this. My grandmother passed away Xmas eve. Thoughts and feelings abound from the loss. she was a good woman and we were close. I will miss her dearly. But what are you gonna do? Everybody has to die sometime. Which makes me wonder why we covet youth so dearly (At least in this country)? Why do we glorify youth as being the pinnacle and peak of our lives, thenmeasure every passing year by what once was? The aged present only viewed through bitterness and despair? Doesn't make sense...big name Hollywood actors and actresses are so very young...watching them in movies has been a chore lately...suspension of disbelief becoming all the more difficult.

Bah. I'm really just waiting for Abramoff to fall, thus removing the final Jenga block from the stack...I wanna see that shit topple. I wanna see this whole thing recreated. The origins were never to my liking, and apples rarely fall far from the tree. Are we really so desperate to be lied to? It seems like it...it really does.

New Beginnings

2006-01-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

So I'm here to ply my hand at this practice. Doing publicly what I have been doing privately for some time now. I'm always curious as to how far I'll let myself stretch. I guess we'll find out. I'm sure it will most likely depend on the given day...