So, for about 5 days, the national media has covered the story of the "missing bride-to-be".
It turns out that this grown woman got cold feet and instead of facing it, ran!
Police inAlbuquerque say the bride-to-be discovered in New Mexico late Thursday told them she wasn't really kidnapped after all.
At a news conference, police said Jennifer Wilbanks admitted it was actually a case of cold feet. She says she needed some time along to rethink the wedding that had been scheduled for Saturday, April 30th.
I wondered from day one why that story made it to the national level. So, again, the question that seriously needs to be asked is, "What makes the media cover what it covers?"
Yesterday, on a local news station, I saw 2 news segments that covered teh disappearance of people. One was a college student who went to New York for the weekend to be with friends, another was a woman who disappeared going to a concert.
Neither of these cases have made the national news.
On the local level, some stories have made the news that I've wondered how they were able to get a local news television station to come out and waste time covering the story.
We are familiar with the "If it bleeds, it leads" angle of news coverage, but the case of scared bride-to-be had no blood. The Lacy Peterson case had blood, but it was a murder. We see local news coverage of murders every day on the news. They don't make it to the national level at all.
There is the recent case of the 5 year-old girl who went crazy in school. The ONLY reason this made national news is because there is a video tape of the incident. But, even then, it turns out that this happened WEEKS before it made it to the national stage.
While that madness had made the national news, another more serious incident also made the national news, but not at the same decibel level.
School officials may be charged in alleged sexual assault
Nick Juliano THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The girl was led by the arm behind a stage curtain in the auditorium. There, witnesses said her lip was bloodied and she was sexually assaulted by a group of boys, an attack videotaped by one student and watched by more than a dozen others who came running as word spread.
Within minutes, the developmentally disabled girl reported the alleged assault to a special education teacher, who said the girl "looked dazed and confused and was crying."
But principals didn't immediately notify police for fear of media attention, in violation of state law. When the girl's father arrived, he was asked not to call 911. He ignored the request and called police.
Now administrators at Mifflin High School face the possibility of being charged along with students in the alleged March 9 assault at the school, which has a history of violence.
Note that the information went out on the Associated Press Wire. So the Associated Press picked it up. It was published in newspapers outside of the area of where it occurred. It just didn't make that big of a splash on the national level.
Some people, like The Black Informant, are upset about that incident and believe Black media really should have picked up on this with vigor. (In my area, I first heard about the incident in the Black media. Those who commented on it were outraged).
I have no clue as to what makes things more "news worthy" on the national stage. Some things makie it while similar things don't make it. I guess it's a choice of the editors and how they feel that day.
For example, I asked my wife why the "missing bride-to-be" should have been national news from the start. One thing I do know, and that those who cover it from a racial angle, probably have it wrong as well.
What do I mean?
Some insist that "white on Black crimes" are reported with more vigor than "Black on white crimes."
I'll hit the racial angle in "What The Media Covers, Part II".
Given the thrashing we've been administering to (Uncle) Thomas Sowell, Cobb steps in with the question of all questions. What good is Thomas Sowell? His answer? Unless we've got somebody better up our sleeve Thomas' plan is as good as any we've got going.
But the thing is, I'm not looking for him to have a plan. I KNOW enough economists personally to know that they--just like most of us political scientists--are far more interested in getting interesting answers published in top notch journals than they are in planning and strategizing. The best public economist for my money is Paul Krugman, but I don't read him for his plans, I read him for his critiques.
So when Cobb asks, Who is better than Sowell? I've got two answers. On the straight academic tip--the only one that matters to me--I'd point to Glenn Loury (who is not only fiercely independent but who HAS published in top tier economic journals), Steven Levitt (who, while not black still asks novel questions about black urban life with novel data), even Roland Fryer. My real money is probably on Bomani if his ass would get his dissertation finished. But again, I'm not looking for plans from any of these joes. I'm looking for interesting questions, interesting answers, theoretical novelty, and fit (that is, the answers plausibly respond to social reality).
To that degree, Sowell doesn't pass the smell test. Period. And it doesn't matter whether anyone is better as far as "planning". Kind of like asking who was a better point guard, Mike Piazza or Tiger Woods. What the hell would we ask that question for? We've talked over and over here about how we're trying to come up with an independent mode of black leadership, a form of leadership that revolves around cell based organization.
Why would we want a two bit economist who has written the same book for the last thirty years without a journal article to his name, participate in that project? Check out what Brad Delong has to say about Levitt. We can quibble about the details, but this is what I'm looking for in an economist. Does Sowell even come close to this type of greatness? On the best day of his life...not even close.
Next.
So, The Washington Post says that Mfume has women problems.
It's interesting that this has come out after Cardin has announced his candidancy.
It's also interesting that Cardin announced with many Black politicians supporting him, while Mfume has no Black politicians publically supporting him.
It's also interesting that this allegation is out there and now people are wondering if it was Cardin's camp, someone inside the NAACP who doesn't like Mfume, Jullian Bond supporters, the woman, or maybe even the Maryland Democratic party.
Today on a conservative talk radio program, Gov. Ehrlich called in and said Mfume was a nice guy, his friend, and that the source of the allegations have to be considered. Previously, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele has said that he and Mfume are friends.
Can someone who believes that "Black leaders" lead Blacks to think a certain way, give me concrete proof that this is the case?
You have to be able to demonstrate that Blacks, as a group, believed one way until a "Black leader" said differently.
Or, you have to be able to demonstrate that Blacks, as a group, had no concrete opinion on something until a "Black leader" "told Blacks how to think".
This has to go beyond ancedotes, please.
Thomas Sowell has come out with a new book arguing that culture explains racial differences better than race or racism. My colleagues at Polysigh have weighed in as well as Baldilocks, Prometheus6, and God knows who else.
A couple of comments:
1. This argument isn't new, even for Sowell. He's been writing on the same subject for the last 30 years. He's been arguing that black culture is to blame for black outcomes in most of his works on the subject. When Baldilocks notes that it is a "new perspective" I assume she means that it's new to her. Which is still mildly surprising given that he is the pre-eminent black conservative scholar of his generation. Which brings me to 2.
2. Sowell is the preeminent black conservative scholar of his generation. So why the hell hasn't he published a single economics journal article of note in his career? I've said this before--econ guys don't give a damn about books. I think it's that his argument (he only has one) doesn't really stand up to peer review. It could be ideology--but economics is the most conservative social science of the lot.
3. On to the argument. Sowell is the master of the anecdote. One of the anecdotes he uses to prove that it is culture rather than racism is to note that the most successful students at Harvard are now black ethnics rather than black Americans. If the central argument is that racism impedes the progress of black Americans, I'm not sure exactly what this proves. I recall an anecdote in which Dizzy Gillespie walked into a white only restaurant in the South and sat down to eat. When they tried to kick him out, he faked an African accent...and they let him eat. He wasn't a Negro you see. He was African. I'd also be interested in knowing about the backgrounds of the immigrants. Class DOES exist within black communities--and we shouldn't necessarily expect the sons and daughters of pipefitters to fare as well as the sons and daughters of diplomats. We wouldn't expect this of whites would we?
4. More on the argument. When we're talking about culture exactly what are we referring to? Sowell made the mistake before of using culture in one way when he was excoriating black people (saying for example that their artistic pursuits didn't mean a thing), but using it another way when he was applauding whites (saying for example that Beethoven and Mozart represented proof of the strength of European culture).
This is the type of work that can be used neatly to lay bare the oxymoronic nature of black conservative scholarship.
I was listening to the Kojo Nnamdi Show today, and part of the discussion centered on African American sports preferences. An old head like Gerald Early loves baseball like it was his second wife. But for a guy like me? I'm down with baseball when the Tigers are doing work. I keep up with them enough to have been happy that Alan Trammel, Lance Parrish, and Kirk Gibson were brought back into the fold, but I don't live and breathe baseball.
I live and breathe basketball. When I'm not thinking about writing, or researching, or writing? I'm thinking about a crossover. A jumpshot. A behind the back look off bounce pass on the break. And truth be told? I can't play. I play well enough to hold my own, but I can count the number of times I've been in the zone during a pickup game on one hand with two fingers lopped off. And I'm not alone. Starting with my generation I think, blacks have turned their backs on baseball.
Why?
One of the guys on Nnamdi's show made "the bling" argument. Black kids are transfixed by the dream of getting paid. Of getting on ESPN Sportscenter. Of being in the slam dunk contest.
I don't buy this. I called in for the better part of a half hour trying to smack some sense in them fools. NO one chooses basketball because of the promise of loot. After you CHOOSE basketball, and get good at it, you might try harder because you think you can make loot later down the line...but you don't pick up a rock at 6 and make a decision like that.
For me what looms large are three things: the first is the dearth of urban baseball diamonds. When cities started getting their budgets hamstrung, the first thing they cut was parks and rec. It's easier finding a Sharper Image within Detroit's borders than it is finding a nice serviceable baseball diamond. If you don't already have a group of baseball hardheads who are willing to dive through broken glass to snag grounders, nobody's going to pick up the game when the fields suck. The second? Getting 6 people to play three on three, 10 people to play five on five is easy.
Try getting 18 to play a pickup game of baseball. Who just happen to have gloves on them. Ain't happening. You can't find those types of numbers in the city anymore. Hell, how many times have we heard stories about pros practicing by themselves imagining themselves as Jordan, or Dr. J? Magic used to play one on NONE imagining he was Julius Erving taking the last shot. Do that with a baseball why don't you?
The third? The lack of a serviceable Little League infrastructure that can expose people to the nuances of the game. The reason why Detroit, Flint and Saginaw produce ballers left and right is because a dedicated basketball infrastructure exists that identifies and trains talent. It wasn't uncommon to see Isiah, Derrick Coleman, Chris Webber, all playing ball at Saint Cecilia during the summers.
Nowhere in this model does "bling" play a role. Kids don't make decisions on what to play based on potential income. And the thing is, if we were talking about white kids, I don't think anyone would make that type of argument. If the bling model held fast, then wouldn't white kids be moving away from the game too? Sheesh.
For me, Jelani Cobb, and Avery Tooley, not a damn week goes by when something doesn't happen and we're like "damn. I wish Wiley was here."
I think I'ma add a new category. Call it Wiley.
Hey. I'm not sure what's going on with Black Voices right now, but I was recently put down with News and Notes with Ed Gordon. The first commentary was on the filibuster battles in the Senate.
Mfume has an opponent for the Democratic nomination to run for the Maryland senate seat.
At first I didn't care if Mfume had to fit for the nomination. After all, he has experience and these battles make sure that the best candidate to run a campaign, wins.
But now that I think about it, I've changed my mind. The Maryland Democratic party should be doing what the Maryland Republican party and the national Republican party are doing. They should have cleared the decks for one person.
The GOP is pushing Lt. Gov. Michael Steele to get into the race.
Right now, if it comes down to Mfume and Cardin, Cardin wins because of the "racial baggage" of the NAACP. Even if all Blacks who are registered as Democrats vote for Mfume in the primary election, without a sizable white vote, Mfume will not win.
I don't believe white Maryland Democrat voters will give Mfume their votes. Additionally, Cardin has already lined up Black politicians to support him.
It is noticable that not one Black politician has said that he will support Mfume, although Mfume announced a few weeks ago.
Black Democrats in Maryland are about to get shown how much Black support of Democrats really means.
"No permanent friends. No permanent enemies. Only permanent interests."
Earlier Scalia had said, “In my view, the choice for the judge who believes the death penalty to be immoral is resignation rather than simply ignoring duly enacted constitutional laws and sabotaging the death penalty.”
Everyone is discussing the "out of control" 5 year old. Frankly, after listening to the mother, I think the mother needs to be pimp smacked.
But this isn't about that, directly at least.
Since the start of the 2004/2005 television season, "Nanny 911" and "Super Nanny" have been on the air and generating decent viewer numbers.
Both of these shows focus on traditional families, with out of control kids (or not in control parents), who seem to be middle and upper middle class.
Given that the talk show airwaves are lighting up on this event, I wonder how many columnists will tie the out of control kid and the "nanny shows" together? How many columnists will pull out the race card?
Stay tuned.
So nowadays damn near the only thing that keeps me watching television is Pro Basketball. Not college basketball (when was the last time YOU watched a college baseball game?). Pro. And for the umpteenth time last night's Dallas vs. Houston matchup had me crying out to the gods to bring Ralph Wiley back.
Of course my prayers weren't answered.
Well...not all the way.
If T-Mac isn't the Kwisatz Haderach I don't know who is.
Playing the Race Card in the post-Willie Horton Era: The Impact of Racialized Codewords on support for punitive crime policy
Abstract: To date, little is known about the precise impact of racially coded words and phrases. Instead, most of what we know about racialized messages comes from studies that focus on pictorial racial cues (for example, the infamous "Willie Horton" ad) or on messages with an extensive textual narrative that is laced with implicit racial cues. Because in a "post-Horton" era strategic use of racially coded words will often be far more subtle than those explored in past studies, we investigate the power of a single phrase believed by many to carry strong racial connotations: "inner city." We do so by embedding an experiment in a national survey of whites, where a random half of respondents was asked whether they support spending money for prisons (versus antipoverty programs) to lock up "violent criminals," while the other half was asked about "violent inner city criminals." Consistent with the literature on issue framing, we find that whites' racial attitudes (for example, racial stereotypes) were much more important in shaping preferences for punitive policies when they receive the racially coded, "inner city" question. Our results demonstrate how easy it is to continue "playing the race card" in the post-Willie Horton era, as well as some of the limits of such framing effects among whites with more positive racial attitudes.
Johnson, 33, and Taylor, 24, made headlines recently when they agreed to a truce after years of gang activity. Speaking on behalf of the gang members, Johnson told the audience he made the decision to follow Jesus Christ and expressed his thanks to those who had been working with him and others to stop the violence. Also thanking the Ebenezer congregation for accepting him and his friends into the church, Johnson decided to join the Fort Washington church. I want to "keep it real and do he right thing," said Johnson.
Howard County students change law and lives
Over the years, the young women involved in Sister to Sister, a service learning organization at Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, have constructed a quilt for an all-girls school in Afghanistan, staged a Jade Vaughn and Kim Sealy (both standing), members of Sister to Sister, helped passed a law that will enable minors in Maryland to donate bone marrow. Joslyn Wolfe, the group's advisor, introduced the idea to the group in 2003.peace vigil for victims of school violence and spearheaded a penny drive to provide stationary supplies for women victimized by sexual bondage in sub-Saharan Africa.
Now, the group can add changing public policy to their list of accomplishments.
Inspired by the story of a teenager in Washington State who helped pass legislation that allowed minors to donate bone marrow, the group decided two years ago to seek similar legislation in Maryland.
And after seeing their bill die in a House committee last year, the group saw their resubmitted bill approved by the Legislature this year, a change in law that may save the life of someone needing a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
"We didn't know anybody that needed a bone marrow transplant," said Kim Sealy, 18, a Sister to Sister member. "We just wanted to help people and make it easier for more people to find bone marrow matches."
The measure allows people younger than 18 to donate bone marrow as long as they have medical approval. The National Marrow Donor Program, the federally funded nonprofit that facilitates most of the marrow transplants that occur between non-related donors and patients, normally requires that donors be between the ages of 18 and 60.
Within my circle, most of us are doing well, with 2 families suffering the affects of being laid off due to a weak telecommunications sector and health issues.
Blacks' economic optimism overtaken by pessimism
Six and a half years ago, the African-Americans in Maryland who thought the economy was improving outnumbered by 5 to 1 those who said the economy was worsening.
Today, the numbers are almost reversed, with blacks who are pessimistic outnumbering optimistic ones more than 3 to 1.
Experts say the shift in The Sun Poll of Maryland voters might have relatively little to do with the state's economic health - possibly relating more to state and national politics and whether African-Americans who tend to vote Democratic have confidence in a Republican-dominated government.
From 1998 through 2003, African-Americans in Maryland have been generally more optimistic than whites about the health of the state's economy. But for the past two years, blacks have been more likely to say the economy is getting worse, a recent Sun poll found.
The current survey, conducted April 11-13 among 1,000 likely voters in the 2006 Maryland gubernatorial election, revealed 42 percent of blacks said the economy is worsening, while 12 percent of blacks say it's getting better. The margin of error is 3.2 percent, though it is slightly larger for individual demographic groups.
There's no simple answer to explain the grim economic outlook held by Maryland's African-American population.
Theories range from disparities in educational attainment - which can result in blacks earning less, on average, than whites - to black unemployment figures, which have been consistently higher than the Maryland average.
In 2003, Maryland's average black unemployment rate was 6.7 percent, nearly twice the whites' 3.6 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"I guess as long as you have a job, you're doing OK, but if you don't have a job, it's not good," said Michael Small, 44, a Maryland Transit Administration bus driver from Baltimore, who added that he thinks the economy could be doing better.
But some economists suggest attitudes have more to do with politics than economic indicators such as unemployment and job growth.
"In 1998, we had a Democratic governor and a Democratic president, and today we have neither," said Anirban Basu, chief executive officer of Sage Policy Group, a Baltimore economic and policy consulting firm.
Southern heritage buffs vow to use the Virginia gubernatorial election as a platform for designating April as Confederate History and Heritage Month.
The four candidates for governor have differing views on whether to pay official state homage to the Confederacy, an issue that has been debated for years in the commonwealth.
"We're not just a few people making a lot of noise," said Brag Bowling, a spokesman for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the oldest hereditary organization for male descendents of Confederate soldiers. "This is not a racial thing; it is good for Virginia. We're going to keep pushing this until we get it."
[ Emphasis mine ]
To the spokesman I write,
BULL.SHIT.
Russell Simmons and the Hip Hop Summit was in Baltimore this past week. Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, a Republican, took part in the all day series of events at Morgan State University.
This is one of the reasons why I say that Steele is a man to watch and why I have respect for the man. Steele is a Black Republican who spends time going to Black groups in the state and making his case.
Russell Simmons urges 'empowerment' at summitRap mogul, other music executives join Ehrlich, Steele at Morgan State University to encourage youth to 'take responsibility' for financial future
Old-school hip-hop artist Doug E. Fresh's signature song, "The Show," was blasting through the speakers as he shouted: "If you're making money in the 2006, say, make money money, make money money money!"
Audience members nodded to the beat and screamed back the response in true hip-hop concert form. But they didn't pack the Murphy Fine Arts Center at Morgan State University Thursday solely to be entertained. They were there, as the rapper reminded them, to learn the financial tools to "get their money right."
Sponsored by Russell Simmons' Hip-Hop Summit Action Network and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, the event consisted of such seminars as repairing damaged credit and buying a first home. It wrapped up with a town hall meeting that was part concert, part financial-literacy conference with panelists such as Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and the R&B group 112.
The Baltimore summit was the second of nine planned in cities nationwide, designed to harness the raw energy of hip-hop to teach young fans to build wealth.
"We're pushing to encourage young people to think broader about their future and take responsibility for their lives," said Simmons in an interview. "One way to do that is: Be financially literate."
A staff member at the summit helped Cassandra Hall, 39, of Baltimore obtain her credit score and create a plan to help her buy a first home.
"I'm really trying to open a business -- buying homes and fixing them up for low-income people," she said.
So I'm listening to the Fox talking head show and they are discussing the judicial nomination games.
If judges are being blocked because of their faith, as some are saying or are saying that "a pattern is emerging that judges of faith are being blocked", then shouldn't they be mad about the 124 appointees that have not been blocked?
What do I mean? Well, if Democrats have let 124 appointees go by, then they must not be people of faith. And if they are not people of faith, then shouldn't the people complaining be asking why Bush is nominating people who are not people of faith?
[ Update ]
Oh yes. Isn't it interesting that people are bringing up fillibusters that happened against the Civil Rights era to brow beat Black people who seem to support what's going on?
Race card anyone?
(I'm reading off the beaten path for a bit...)
I figured that the sunday shows would be dealing with the Pope. At least one poster is upset at the coverage. But thinking back to Mike's cautious celebration on Ratzinger's nomination, I think much more (rather than less) analysis is in order. Listen to the English translation of Benedict's positions. He's talking about a culture of life, fighting against stem-cell research, and arguing for Spanish bureaucrats to act as conscientious objectors of sorts to same-sex marriage. The election of Bush, the Shiavo case (sp?), the fight for the judiciary, and Benedict XVI are all part of the same phenomenon.
And while Mike's happy about the return to prominence of what perhaps he'd call Old School Catholic values, I'd just ask about Pope Eugenius IV and Pope Nicholas V.
Over at Running Scared they ask the question What Issues Do We Tackle?, among other questions. I think they are missing one question that's essential--where do we tackle them? Conservatives have made it very difficult to work at the federal level, and most of their gains of the last 20 years have really been at the state and non-metropolitan local level. This is where we have to do the work, and it's another reason why I think that the WalMart decision in Maryland was brilliant.
In this year's moot court competitions Howard University beat Harvard in what was a first for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
My man Bomani, himself a proud product of Clark Atlanta (where his old man Mack produced a generation or three of black political scientists), chimes in.
There is a pride in attending schools like Morehouse, Howard, Clark Atlanta and even Tennessee State that is as strong as fealty to a Christian denomination amongs Christians with a capital "C". I've been to more than a few black homecomings in my day, and there's nothing like being at the football game and hearing thousands upon thousands of black men and women singing their fight song at the top of their lungs.
But I think that we're making too much of kids' decision not to attend black schools.
The bottom line is that the comparison between Howard and Harvard is apt on one level--Howard is the best black law school, and Harvard is the best non-black law school. But on another level it makes much more sense to me to compare Howard as a law school in general to Wayne State. If a student tells me he got into Howard and Wayne State and wants to know which one he should choose? He should choose Howard. Better networking capabilities, better name recognition, probably a better learning experience. If he tells me he got into Howard and Harvard (or a Michigan)? He should choose Harvard.
What about at an undergrad level? I've told my peers that I'd be down with any decision my children make...almost. If they told me that they wanted to go to Mississippi State for undergrad? I'd withhold my loot. If they told me they wanted to go to Morris Brown? I'd do the same. Harvard vs. Howard? Probably a push.
Michigan vs. Howard?
Michigan.
Elite Eight fraternity or sorority vs. Non-black fraternity or sorority?
A Whole Nother Conversation.
I had no idea something like this existed. I play in the Hollywood Stock Exchange, but this is another animal. It'd be interesting to look at the value of specific types of blogs within the black blogosphere. The hip-hop blogs for example, or the bohemian blogs, vs. the more explicitly political blogs (like Vision Circle, Prometheus6, or Negrophile).
I'm watching the NFL Draft while waiting for the NBA Playoffs to draft. Chicago's on the clock and they select Cedric Benson out of Texas.
Scroll down to see the photo.
When they draft him, he's crying tears of joy. The announcers are talking about the passion they see in his eyes, the sign of a sure winner. Then they flash to a couple of Texas highlights.
Then I notice the second thing--he had dreads in undergrad, but doesn't have them now. Why?
They cut to an interview with Susan Kolber (used to be "Suzy" but she chopped that I guess, for good reason). I like Kolber, but I didn't expect anything more than a perfunctory interview. She asked him the standard question "How do you feel?" And he responds noting that it's been a long road for him, given the "Ricky" stuff.
Ricky Williams was also a star Texas running back, with dreads. Has had a history of problems--has had a hard time fitting into the NFL culture more than anything else. So Kolber pushes him on it, and asks him why he cut his dreads off. Benson noted that he wanted a "fresh start" with a nice "clean cut" that could look "businesslike." But even that didn't seem to be enough for the coaches. From jump, during workouts, during interviews with various squads, they treated him like he was a boy, then a piece of meat, then a shiftless bum. We all know where those discussions were coming from. I'm willing to bet that the #1 pick (quarterback out of Utah) didn't undergo similar treatment.
After the interview was over, the commentators swiftly moved on.
So, this year I had to write another check to the I.R.S., and again I wasn't happy. I made, what I thought were, the necessary adjustments and still I owed. But at least I didn't get caught in the A.M.T. trap that 2 other people I know did.
The A.M.T. has been talked about by politicians on both sides of the aisle, yet nothing has been done about it.
Why? Could it be because they both want to spend our money? Naaaahhhhhhhhh. We know only the Democrats spend our money.
So, I was sent a link about a government program that over spent its budget by hundreds of millions of dollars, is running late, isn't going to produce what was supposed to be produced, and is going to take hundreds of millions of dollars more to "complete".
Wonderful.
I have to sign onto an idea I heard somewhere else.
Let everyone who gets a check from their employer be responsible for sending in their own taxes. That way, when the government does something silly with our tax money, maybe the public will feel the pain and do more demanding on the public officials to spend our money better.
I guess I should mention that I get rowdy about taxes this time of year. And I guess I should mention that I was told that the A.M.T. will get more people next year and in 5 years, about 60% of middle class families are going to get hit.
So, why are the congress-criters not doing anything?
May everything come true, may they believe and may they laugh at their own passions. For what they call passion is not the energy of the soul but merely friction between the soul and the outside world.
But above all, may they believe in themselves and become as helpless as children.... for softness is great and strength is weakness. When man is born he is soft and pliable. When he is older he is strong and hard. When a tree grows, it is soft and pliable but when it is dry and hard it dies. Hardness and strength are deaths companions, flexibility and softness are the embodiment of life. Andre Tarkovsky
Just finished reading today's final installment, "Security, please escort Dr. Kilson off the premises. No, he doesn't get to go by his office to pack his shit. Tell him we'll mail it to him!!!"
With nary a single novel suggestion outside the status quo - save yourself the effort and pick it up here in ~45 words:
1. Ancestral moral imperative
2. Pan-African leadership outreach
3. Economic Outreach
4. Political Outreach
5. New Era Outreach to Black Masses
6. Slap Roland Fryer upside the head for cooning.
7. Black Civil Society Enhancement?
8. Paraphrase of what I said more compactly last week :
A genuine afrostocrat would have the pride and testicular fortitude to step up and exemplify for all Americans..., and damn-well expect all Americans to follow their lead. Going forward, this will be my personal litmus test for separating 21st century responsible negroes from a 21st century black elite.
at least he's been surfing the net reading VC....,
Wisdom. One definition:
Wisdom comes when you are old enough to have made quite a few mistakes and have learned from those mistakes so that you don't make them again. You know that if you see situation A, last time you reacted by doing B, but you learned that C was better. So next time, situation A comes along and you go for C, instead of B.
Given that the youth aren't joining the NAACP, and the membership is getting older, isn't the NAACP reacting from their learned experiences, hence "wisdom", when the come out against vouchers?
For those who care to look into the history of vouchers, vouchers first came about in reaction to school desegregation rulings. For example, in Virginia, private academies were created and public funding when to white parents to send their children to private schools.
So, when critics, rightly, say that they seem to be stuck in the past, it may be because, collectively, they are reacting to situations that they learned from yester-year.
That's what I find interesting about the "Black liberal" vs. "Black conservative" sham that the Black community -- me included -- has allowed ourselves to be sucked into.
By targeting the "under 40" crowd of Blacks, the focus is being paid to those without the institutional memory to help form a basis for making some decisions. To put it more bluntly, and probably grammatically correctly, the "under 40" crowd is being targeted because of their "ignorance".
That is not an attack this is just an observation.
Outsourcing not all it's cracked up to be
Just when the zealots would have us believe that outsourcing was on the verge of steamrolling IT departments and leaving far fewer employees in its wake, Deloitte and Touche issued the results of a study that indicates myriad twists in just such a plot.
Deloitte's report, Calling a Change in the Outsourcing Market, found:
-- 70 percent of participants have had negative experiences with outsourcing.
-- One in four respondents realized that they could handle certain functions better in-house, and yanked those back inside the corporate walls.
-- 44 percent did not see cost-savings from outsourcing.
-- 57 percent ended up absorbing costs that they believed were included in the contracts with vendors.
-- Nearly 50 percent cited hidden costs as the biggest problem.
The list goes on and on. Literally. More than 80 percent of respondents have either limited or no transparency to a vendor's pricing schema, 73 percent are working to reduce outsourcing vendor dependancy, and nearly 50 percent lack a corporate-wide methodology to evaluate the business case for outsourcing.
More at the link provided.
When I posted the link to part I of Kilson's article a couple of weeks ago, I made it clear that I was not sanguine about his concluding prognosis. Now that I've read and reflected on Part II in which we hear one deafening silence and two modest challenges to the afrostocracy to step up; I'm even less sanguine about whatever Kilson has to say - though I found his data useful.
1. Family Structure/Poverty Problem Sphere - deafening silence (though I gave that prescription a long time ago)
2. Racist Criminal Justice Problem Sphere - afrostocrats must challenge it. Start with the War on Young Black Men I mean Drugs and leverage off the crank epidemic among poor whites and the disparate sentencing standards and voila!
3. Education Opportunity Performance Problem Sphere - afrostocrats should study it. Kilson please! Surely a Hahvahd professor can do better than that! Come study this exemplary institutional effort and consider yourself schooled on the optimal solution.
So, while I lack Kilson's bully pulpit, my faith in the creativity and capability of technocratic black autodidacts willing to step up and personally shoulder our guardian/teacher role within the community - remains unbounded.
As long as afrostocrats don't call foul on the kneejerk and racist tendency to scapegoat poor black kids/parents and and prescribe policies that lift all boats - they don't merit the title "elite". Such as they've demonstrated themselves to be, they're just entertaining 21st century "responsible negroes" with a little money.
The afrostocrats have pretty much played themselves...., you'd think that Cosby/Oprah/Diddy et al..., would've figured out - given the extent to which their commercial successes have been rooted in crossover appeal - that whatever solution the black elite is capable of proffering will have to be an all inclusive solution that leads all America forward out of its malaise. Poor white kids are struggling with educational woes in larger masses than poor black kids and until and unless we bind all our interests together, it's simply not going to get fixed. Freebooting, globalizing plutocrats love the American divided and conquered as they're so much easier to hoodwink, bamboozle, and ultimately govern.
A genuine afrostocrat would have the pride and testicular fortitude to step up and exemplify for all Americans..., and damn-well expect all Americans to follow their lead. Going forward, this will be my personal litmus test for separating 21st century responsible negroes from a 21st century black elite.
Four men thoroughly immersed emerged through the other side of a tortuous process that taught them the importance of group cooperation, group initiative, and group loyalty. And the blessed nature of a beautiful sunlit day.
The strength of Omega Psi Phi lies in our unabashed blackness, and also in our representative nature. From the thugged out to the sublime...Omega represents the total spectrum of the African American male experience.
Often in the same Brother.
We are the Dogs of War, and the Sons of Blood and Thunder. The ones who'll smack you for spite, and uplift you when you're in need of a friend. 89 was a damn good year. There's no way in hell I'd be here without the Ques.
Deadly Sirius
1. Samuel D. Kirkland
2. Dr. Lester K. Spence
3. Darius V. McKinney
4. Glen B. Eden
4.18.89
Phi Chapter
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
When I was much younger, I used to dream of being an astronaut. My father, and his father before him would regale us with tales of the Old Negro Space Program. Loopy Lou...Stinky Pete...Billy Starfire Boston...most of the old school was familiar with these names long before Aldrin and Armstrong rang bells. It's about high time these stories were made public.
I'm starting to get into the mode of looking for a new car. My car is now 8 years old with 160K miles on it. It's a decent car and I'm sure I could get another 100K out of it easily, but I have to admit that cars are a weakness of mine.
I can delay big financial purchases easily, but with cars, it's a different matter.
I was looking at the Acura MDX and the Lexus 330, but the idea of paying $40K for an Isuzu Rodeo or $40K for a nice looking, but small, SUV didn't sit too well with me. Besides, it's the Toyota Highlander.
It irks me that the luxury cars provided by the Japanese car makers are plushed out versions of their more pedestrian line.
Then I started thinking, I could get a nice car for that price, even though, sometimes, I really need the space of an SUV. But if I'm going to pay that kind of money, let's go with BMW or Mercedes Benz.
The new 3 Series looks nice, especially since they are going to give the car more room. I really like the 5 Series, but the comments about the "I System" have turned me off.
The Mercedes Benz C class always catches my eye. But the amount of horse power for the car is a concern. I've had enough weak engines. My wife's car is a V6, and though it's not fast from stop, once it's up to speed, it goes.
Then I think about the recall the BMW and Benz's have had and I wonder how such "German engineered" cars can be in the state that they are in. I won't even consider Audi, though they are pretty cars. The track record for finding a good mechanic for Audis, and Volkswagons, is not good.
I guess I should consider American iron. Uhh.... Then again, they have been having recall problems as well, right?
NEXT!!!!!
Back to the Japanese lux-cars again, and what do I see? The new Lexus GS.
Oh, and look at the Infiniti M!
Queue Christopher Williams...
Don't wake me.
I'm dreammeennnnnnnnnnn
Jermaine O' Neal asked whether race had something to do with the desire to add an age limit to the NBA. Jason Whitlock says that it's all business...his post is too idiotic to link to. Find it if you want. I just want to take a look at two paragraphs:
No, it's not. It's business. Despite James' success, and the fact that seven strait-outta-hi-skool players earned spots in the NBA All-Star Game, the influx of unprepared teenage ballers has been bad for the NBA. The growth value of NBA franchises is not keeping pace with NFL and MLB franchises. The league isn't as important as it once was, and Stern is trying to head off a tidal wave of negative publicity directed at the league.
Statement: The influx of unprepared teenage ballers has been bad for the NBA.
How many teenage ballers have entered the league? When he says they are "unprepared" exactly what does he mean? Is Stoudemire unprepared? James? Was Kobe unprepared? Garnett?
Then he says that this group has been "bad for the NBA." How? Here's where the next paragraph comes in:
Fans don't enjoy the game the way they used to, and they're becoming more and more hostile toward the players. O'Neal has a $100-million contract. In his mind he's a huge star. He has no clue how much more of a star he would be had he spent two or three years in college being hyped up by Dick Vitale, Billy Packer, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and Clark Kellogg. O'Neal spent his college years sitting on the Portland bench, collecting a fat check. That was good for Jermaine O'Neal. It was not good for the NBA.
Statement:Fans don't enjoy the game the way they used to, and they're becoming more and more hostile towards the players.
Ok. How are you defining "enjoying the game?" Is it by seats in the stadium? By ratings? By the purchase of jerseys? What? They're becoming more hostile towards the players? How? By what measure?
Then comes the kicker--O'Neal's sitting on the bench was good for him...but he SHOULD'VE been in college.
Whitlock's column consists of a bunch of implied causal statements, with absolutely no attempt to actually show the linkages between high school aged ballers and the problems he notes. Hell, last I heard Ron Artest actually WENT to school. Damn I wish Ralph Wiley were here.
Which Podcasts Can I Download From The RNC?
Right now the RNC is offering "BookCast," an interview show with Conservative book authors, and "Off The Record," a web interview series with Republican leaders, for download. Additional podcasts will be available soon.
Today's edition of The Black Slate looks at my family's decision to homeschool.
...on at least one point.
Slate ran a small snippet designed to amp up interest in the book. I plan to pick it up, perhaps by reviewing it for Africana.com. One of the academic articles that Levitt has made the rounds presenting looks at the impact of black names. What does naming a child Taquiesha for example mean for that child as far as economic impact? While the social psychology research says that people with names like this tend to be hired less often than those without those names, Levitt argues that it isn't the names but the economic status of the parents that do the naming.
Taquiesha isn't poor because her name is Taquiesha, she's poor because her parents are most likely poor.
Levitt is both correct...and off his rocker.
Take a given neighborhood in California, where Levitt took his data from. A neighborhood in South Central, one very poor, and black. The people in that neighborhood are not only likely to have children who themselves will be poor and without resources for most of their lives, those children are likely to have black names.
Fine.
But those aren't the only children with those names. Furthermore SOME OF THOSE CHILDREN MAKE IT OUT. So what happens to THEM?
Here is where the social psychology research comes into play. WHen a given individual with a black name steps up to the plate it doesn't matter what his qualifications are, he is at a deficit solely because of his name. Now we don't know WHY he is at a deficit. Could be that the person making the decisions is racist. Could be that he is classist (Jack and Jill types don't give their kids names like Tyrone on average). Could be both. COuld be something else.
But it is NOT correct to say that "names don't matter." They DO. The question is, what should we do about it in the meantime?
(As an aside, Prometheus slyly rakes Levitt for not putting Fryer down. For what it's worth I don't think Fryer should've been co-author for Freakonomics at all. Not just because he didn't contribute much, but because Fryer doesn't have tenure yet. Books don't mean jack to economists. It's all about the articles. Ask Bomani.)
Run a quick scan of any mid- to major-market city newspaper over the last six months, and I'm sure you'll run into stories about how so-and-so is considering moving from X to Y and will be given tax abatements as part of the enticement. Whenever a ball squad (be it base- foot- or basket-) considers moving, you can bet your bottom dollar that the owners are looking for tax incentives. YOU build it and WE'LL come.
What we're gradually seeing is a turning back of the tide. As it stands, citizens feel they are over burdened with taxes, and they believe that corporations aren't paying their fair share. And they're actually more right than wrong.
What the Maryland deal--which asks WalMart to either pay for a share of the health costs of their employees or pay a tax to the state--represents a long needed return back to sanity. As long as corporations are viewed as legal persons, states should make every effort to treat them like legal persons--which means giving them rights AND responsibilities. We give individual deals to corporations all of the time. Time to go the other way. Especially because the current way doesn't work.
Your mother and father are together.
They are having problems, but everyone has problems. You love them both.
The neighborhood finds out that your father is cheating with an old girlfriend. Your mother is embarrassed, you are embarrassed, and everyone knows your family business. Meanwhile, your mother is getting some on the side but is doing a better job keeping hush hush about it.
Later on, your mother is killed in a tragic accident. Then to your dismay, all of her business becomes neighborhood gossip as well as your father's business.
Some time later, your father decides to marry the woman who he was cheating with on your mother. The same woman who used to be an old girlfriend. And your father asks you to take a part in the wedding.
If that ain't Jerry Springer, what is?!?!?!
Poor trash meet royal trash.
Of the Sunday talking head shows, Fox Sunday and Meet the Press are the cream of the crop. Meet the Press, in my opinion, towers above all. Russert really is non-partial in his questioning and does not let the politicians get away with much.
Today, I saw Fox Sunday but not Meet the Press. If you watched the show, and if you are not so much of a partisan that you just refuse to admit "your side" is ingenuous, then you have to admit that the Republican and Democratic senators discussing judges and the blockage of voting for judge appointees are a good reason why politicans are held in such low regard.
Fact: Republicans did not allow many of Clinton's appointees to get a vote by using secret holds or just refusing to allow appointees to get a vote in the conference committee. If Republicans want to discuss constitutional issues, then they have to admit that there is no constitutional support for conference committees in the Constitution.
Fact: Democrats are not allowing some appointees to get a vote by invoking the fillibuster tactics. Republicans have firm ground in saying that judge appointees, by tradition, have not been fillibustered, although there is one situation in the 1800s that it happened.
From my point of view, they both came off looking like snake-oil salesmen. They both are playing the American public for fools.
If this madness is true, then I have a question:
Why wait years before speaking up that you saw this kind of act?
Some people besides Jacko belong in jail: the kids' parents who let them go over Jacko's house and sleep in the man's room, the people who saw things but didn't notify the police, and the lawyers who took part in the pay offs.
I myself believe that today’s early 21st century Black elite will fulfill its outreach-to-Black-masses-leadership obligation. Today’s Black elite confronts a situation involving 40% of today’s African-American households that suffer numerous social crises.
As I read the article, common sense begged the question, "how did the black nation get from there to here?" Frankly, I have greater faith in the activated capabilities of a few unbowed, innovative, and autodidactic technocrats and academics - whose acts and whose facts may align to precipitate real interpersonal engagement with the "popular culture". The stench of Cosby's afrostocratic solipsism is still a tad acrid and thick in my nostrils...,
Part one of a three-part series at the Black Commentator - I can't wait to see on what basis Dr. Kilson makes his concluding sanguine prognosis.
The answer is: “The facts don’t exactly match the acts.”
So what is the question? -- that’s right:
“How would you best describe an ordinary man’s intellectual life?”
Whooops.
Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo
Martinez Aide Who Cited Upside For Party Resigns
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A01
The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.
Brian H. Darling, 39, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.
Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."
Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.
1. The power of blogs is over-rated.
2. Blogs have the same problem the "MSM" has when it comes to source verification and validation, fighting deliberate hoaxes, biases, etc.
The Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund
Thurgood MarshallThurgood Marshall successfully argued the 1954 landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, ordering desegregation of public schools. He later became the first African-American appointed to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
The Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund (TMSF) was established in 1987 to carry on Justice Marshall's legacy of equal access to higher education by supporting exceptional merit scholars attending America's Public Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The Office for the Advancement of Public Black Colleges (OAPBC) created TMSF with Justice Marshall's support. [OAPBC is an information and advocacy unit of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) in cooperation with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.] Today, 47 schools are members of the TMSF, including many of the nation's largest and most prestigious institutions of higher education.
Graduating StudentsTo date, the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund has awarded more than $50 million in scholarships, capacity building and programmatic support. More than 200 Thurgood Marshall Scholars have graduated and are making valuable contributions to science, technology, government, human service, business, education and various communities thanks to the support they received from TMSF.
Alumni of TMSF member schools include civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson; CBS News "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley; NFL football great Walter Payton; actress Lynn Whitfield; opera star Jessye Norman and astronaut Ronald McNair, who died when the Challenger space shuttle exploded just after it launched in January 1986.
Thanks to TMSF scholarships and programs, public historically black colleges and universities are preparing a new generation of leaders.
Now, why in the world would any politican want to do something this stupid?
Maryland lawmakers yesterday approved legislation that would effectively require Wal-Mart to boost spending on health care, a direct legislative thrust against a corporate giant that is already on the defensive on many fronts nationwide.
"We're looking for responsible businesses to ante up . . . and provide adequate health care," said Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles), the Finance Committee chairman, as the Senate approved the measure with a majority wide enough to survive an anticipated veto. A similar bill has cleared the House of Delegates, and legislators expect to reconcile their differences easily.
Lawmakers said they did not set out to single out Wal-Mart when they drafted a bill requiring organizations with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits -- or put the money directly into the state's health program for the poor.
But as debate raged in the Senate yesterday, it was clear that the giant retailer, which has 15,000 workers in Maryland, was the only company that would be affected.
It's one thing to have the "not in my back yard" nut jobs crying about WalMart (while shopping there!), it's totally another thing to create a bill targeting ONE COMPANY and dictating what they have to provide, IN THE FORM OF BENEFITS to the employees!
There are no laws, until now, that requires a company to provide health care! In fact, to me, it makes no sense!
This is going to come back and bite Maryland WalMart shoppers, MANY OF WHOM ARE FINANCIALLY STRAPPED, in the ass.
Why?
Do you think WalMart is going to eat this cost? No. They are going to pass the expense on to the customers!
Or, they will do something like provide it's own health care service, which turns out to be no damn good.
Unbelievable.
"It is an unhappy truth that racism is a way of life for the vast majority of white Americans" Martin Luther King, Jr., March 1968
I'd heard about this story on one of my mailing lists. A woman sues harvard claiming race and gender discrimination (layer "appearance discrimination" on top of that because the woman is supposed to be attractive). She loses the lawsuit.
Do a google search on "bobo" and "honorary degree".
Larry Bobo is one of the best social scientists in the game, and he's black. He is now at Harvard in the Department of African American Studies. You see that "honorary" degree that Bobo got from Harvard in 1997? There is no way in hell Harvard is going to hire someone with an undergraduate degree from Loyola Marymount. Ain't gonna happen.
Unless you change the rules. Like award the Loyola cat an honorary Harvard degree.
The woman was lost from day one...because she received her Master's from Simmons College. And while you can sue for race and gender discrimination (while not both simultaenously) you cannot sue for class discrimination.
Go to the right school and the world opens up. Go to the wrong one and try to get into the right networks, and in many cases the world will swallow you whole.
I saw He Got Game for the first time in seven years just a few minutes ago. The last time I saw it was the weekend it came out. Caused me to resurrect the dead so to speak, and bring this old piece out. My ideas on it haven't changed much.
Ruminations
4/26/98
I checked out a piece in Esquire about Denzel Washington, and He’s Got Game , the newest movie from Spike Lee. Given that Washington and Milwaukee’s Ray Allen are starring, I figured that it’d automatically be the greatest basketball movie ever made, with the probably exception of Hoop Dreams on one side, and Hoosiers on the other. At first I thought that this one was probably a keeper—the first Spike Lee movie I’d seen at the theaters since Malcolm X.
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