What's My Daughter Doing?She's Kicking Ass!

Before I Start...

let me make this clear: There is no EXCUSE!

That being said, I have a few words about Cho Seung-Hui.

The common variables among school shooters? Teasing, bullying and getting picked on.
Schools have zero-tolerance for any mention of violence. Little Johnny forgets that he left his pocket knife in his pocket from last night's boy scout meeting? Suspend his ass! No questions asked. No gray area.
But has anyone ever considered the violence to the spirit that bullying does? Bullying should have zero tolerance. We need to teach our kids to be strong people not weak followers. To stand up for others getting picked on. We need to teach them that self worth doesn't rely on the belittlement of another human being.

I was watching a national news program about the shootings when a correspondent said, referring to Cho Seung-Hui, "This kid was a nobody." Um...no he wasn't. No one is a "nobody". I can't help but look at his picture and imagine the little boy that he was. The one who was tormented and made to feel ashamed of himself, the one that was made to feel like he was a "nobody".
I'm always for the underdog. Unfortunately, the minute he decided to pick up the gun and start killing people, he switched from being an underdog to being the bully.

I hate bullies.

"Play it fucking loud"

The folk fans feel betrayed because he has traded his acoustic guitar for electric. They shout out "Judas". Dylan doesn't give a fuck. He won't be anyone's leader. He's not a spokesperson for a generation.
The definition of cool.

The Omen

I was opening a can last night when I happened to glance down at the expiration date. Best by Oct 13, 2010? That's the day I turn 40!

3 1/2 years left until it all starts going down hill.

Imus isn’t the real bad guy

Imus isn’t the real bad guy
Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.
By JASON WHITLOCK - Columnist

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

A Brilliant Mind

Vonnegut once said that of all the ways to die, he'd prefer to go out in an airplane crash on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. He often joked about the difficulties of old age.

"When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life; old age is more like a semicolon," Vonnegut told The Associated Press in 2005.

"My father, like Hemingway, was a gun nut and was very unhappy late in life. But he was proud of not committing suicide. And I'll do the same, so as not to set a bad example for my children."

___

Associated Press writers Michael Warren, Hillel Italie and Chelsea Carter


*My Favorite: Breakfast of Champions*

I Think I'm In Trouble

She thinks I'm so uncool. (true)
She thinks I have no idea what I'm talking about. (partially true)
I can't pick clothes for her anymore. Wahhhhhh!!!
If I hear one more AFI song I think I'm going to scream.
Oh, and the power struggles over the car stereo. Lordy.
The phone never seems to ring for me anymore. "Is Olivia there?"
She has a Myspace. nuff said.

All this makes me want to run to the arms of little Ruby, who loves my taste in music and still thinks I'm the greatest...but wait, can I find some positives? Sure I can.

We share inside jokes and have the same sense of humor.
She still likes it when I chase her down and tickle her.
We both like Johnny Depp. God, who doesn't. No seriously, WHO DOESN'T???
She likes to watch John Hughes movies with me.
She lets me kiss her before she walks out the door for school.

12 going on thirTEEN!
OMG. It is here.

This Morning

Sporting Peep jewelry and eating chocolate

Happy Easter

Spring BreakPt. 2

We saw two movies...

One was ab-fab, you know with all the shirtless men and whatnot
















The other was a favorite book from childhood that they thankfully did not massacre










Of course we went thrifting



















We ate at the most marvelous middle eastern buffet (on a tip from Chi)
I usually turn my nose up at buffets but this one renewed my faith in the words "All You Can Eat"

Caution: Food Porn Ahead


















Attention buffet owner- Don't let the smile fool you...he will eat his money's worth



















So even though our spring break didn't include jello shots and dancing naked in the streets of Cancun, it was enjoyable nonetheless.