Studio Conservatives

I have a question for conservatives. How did this guy get so popular with you? I have looked all over for something in his past that qualifies him to be a spokesman for the right wing agenda and have found nothing. He hasn’t worked for any Republican politicians. He didn’t go to school with Karl Rove. He’s not a member of Dick Cheney’s hunting party. I haven’t found one thing to make you guys love him so much other than the fact he’s on FOX news and says exactly what you want to hear. I’m not the biggest fan of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton but at least they have a history of activism that validates what they try to do. This guy was hosting Inside Edition and would probably be covering stories like why Paris and Nicole aren’t friends anymore if he hadn’t gotten replaced. Does that sound like the champion of American values to you? You people are so gullible. For all we know O’Reilly and Limbaugh get together on the weekends. They pop in a Tupac CD, roll up a fat one and laugh about how they are robbing you fools blind by validating your narrow minded way of thinking.

Love Thy Neighbor

Business travel sure isn’t like it is on the commercials. It’s boring. You don’t get to sleep late because the itinerary starts at 8:00 AM and then when it’s over you have to act like you want to socialize with these people just because you are at the same conference. Needless to say when you get home all you want is peace and quiet. I have been on two trips in the last two weeks and every time I get home my neighbor’s wife is tripping. We have been living next door to one another for years and never had a problem. Now, she has been home from Houston for a month and is losing her damn mind. See, there is a FEMA trailer in front of my home. When the assholes installed it they placed in a position that blocks half of my driveway. For the last year everyone has been pulling in at the front of my neighbor’s driveway and turning into mine. The other day I drove up tired as hell and when I got ready to turn in I noticed a damn barricade made of cinder blocks closing off the open part of the driveway. Before anyone thinks we were just using their space while they were not there, her husband has been home for a year and we have all been living in harmony with no trouble. We even feed the man from time to time like a member of the family. I asked the crazy woman if she was having a problem with people pulling into the driveway when I wasn’t home and she blew me off! I have never had a problem with this woman before and I don’t want to have one now. We already have a problem in our community with unnecessary conflict. I left the barricade there and parked in the street but the more I think about it the madder I get.

Everyone in this neighborhood had the same damn flood water. There are lots of people who haven’t been able to get back or just got back recently. You ain’t the only angry stressed out person around here. You should have kept your ugly, angry ass in Houston if you didn’t want to deal with things. She doesn’t understand that I am a peaceful man by nature and I can’t stand the kind of ignorant drama that causes violence and separation in our community. She didn’t have to disrespect me when I was being respectful to her. What she doesn’t know is that I had an energy bill that was higher than my car note, and that Wednesday would have been my grandmother’s 74^th birthday and that I miss my dog, and my windshield crack is starting to spread, and that I have sat through two weeks worth of seminars and boring conversation and my ears have yet to pop back in place after getting off of the airplane and the Saints are 0-3 and Drew Brees sucks at the moment. When you add all that up, it makes me want to do something to get revenge. I don’t want to hurt her or any of her family. I just want to do something dumb like let all of the propane out of the trailer tanks or fill the drain pipe with old socks so the next time she flushes the toilet it erupts under her. That would give me a good laugh for about an hour but it wouldn’t change the fact that there are people like this all throughout the city and no matter how good the intentions are of most people here there will always be this negative, miserable, close minded group that will suck the spirit out of everybody by doing things that make no sense. It’s people like you that make people like me load up the U-Haul and get my ass out of here.

Why We Don't March on The Thugs

Father Forgive Us For Livin' While All My Homies Stuck In Prison,
Barely Breathin' Believin That The World Is A Prison,
It's Like A Ghetto We Could Neva Leave, A Broken Rose,
It Could Bloom Through The Cracks Of The Concrete,
So Many Otha Things For Us To See, Things To Be,
Our History so Full Of Tragedy And Misery,
To All My Homies Neva Made It Home,
The Dead peers i Shed Tatooed Tears,For When I'm Alone,
Picture Us Inside A Ghetto Heaven, A Place To Rest,
Findin' Peace Through This Land Of Stress,
In My Chest I Feel Pain, Comin' Sudden Storms,
Life Full Of Rain In This Game Watch For landstorms,
Our Unborn, Neva Gotta Grow Neva Gotta See What's Next,
In This World Full Of Countless Threats,
I Beg God, To Make A Way For Our Ghetto Kids,
To Breathe Show A Sign Make Us All Believe

Tupac Shakur

I read a post over at M.D. Filter’s blog that struck me. He listed all the names of the murder victims in New Orleans and asked the question why no one was marching for these men like they are in Jena. Now, M.D. is white but he is a good guy and I believe is sincere. He wasn’t being sarcastic or making the point out of spite like some people have this week in regards to the Jena 6 rally. I’m not an expert on everything involving black on black crime. I'm just an concerned observer who has lost some close friends to the streets and know how they got there. With that in mind I will try to explain the difference between the rally and the violence and answer his question. If anyone reads this and disagrees please feel free to let me know.
The first thing is that the Jena 6 Rally was not to excuse the actions of the kids involved. It was to call attention to the unbalanced charges given by the district attorney. That deserved attention no matter what is happening on the streets of the inner city. That’s an entirely different issue than black on black crime.
There is a difficulty with black on black crime as it relates to a solution. In my opinion, the only way to truly come up with a solution to this problem is to admit that the last 40 years after integration have been a failure and people gave too much to that struggle to admit that. This fight against destructive behavior would be easy if some group of old white men came out and admitted they have been altering the minds of young black people and influencing them to hate one another on a large scale. That would change everything really fast but it’s not going to happen. Black Americans feel a common bond to each other more than any other group. That’s a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing when something like Jena happens because it leads to common outrage. It’s a curse when it comes to violence because we are not comfortable turning our kids over to the system because when we do that’s an admission of failure by all of us on some level. I don’t think we have a clue what to do about all this killing.
What the rest of the nation is seeing is an internal struggle. It’s a struggle that leads to questions to ponder. Did we embrace the drug culture and subsequent violence because of the money involved? Have black men not had enough control over their need for sex, creating too many kids that were unplanned and abandoned? Are we making the educational system a scapegoat for the lack of home training? Many of our great grandparents could barely read and write and there wasn’t 300 murders a year in major cities. Have the black upper and middle class spent too much time convincing themselves that they have overcame and not enough time in the community trying to help? Is that even their obligation and if it’s not then who’s is it? What about the church’s effectiveness? Having a rally won’t do anything to answer these questions. These issues will only be solved from open and honest discussion. The solution won’t be easy to achieve and I am afraid that there will be more death before we even get close.
The only advice I would give to my white friends is if you have an idea to help save a kid from the streets where you live then by all means do so. I would also advise not to try and make sense of some this unless you want to admit that the culture of this country has messed up my people. If you can’t see that then I can’t have an honest discussion with you either because that means you are ignoring history. There are some built in obstacles that are not our fault that make this problem harder to deal with. We might have to march on those once we get this violence under control.

A Great Game To Watch

How much an event lifts the spirit of a community like New Orleans often depends on where you come from in this city. Last night I was at home as usual on Friday night so I watched McDonald 35 Senior High play St. Augustine on ESPN. There have been many games, stories and specials since the storm about the city. I have to say that last night ESPN did the best job of highlighting the fighting spirit of those kids, the schools and the community at large. I can’t recall or locate the names of the two announcers but it was refreshing to watch an event with the attitude those two guys had. I loved the fact that they made sure to include those young men’s grade point averages and favorite classes. I am sure some people around the country were surprised that there are young men in New Orleans that actually go to class and like it. Thank you ESPN for not exploiting the community. Thank you to Avery Johnson and Michael Smith of ESPN for representing their high schools and city. Thank you to the crowd for everyone behaving. Thanks to the parents of Derrick Dean, who did the interview at the end of the game and did a great job. Last but not least, thanks to Mother Nature and Tropical Depression 10 for not developing and running everybody out here before those kids had a chance to be in the national spotlight. I don’t want to be negative, but our local media sucks and only care about certain neighborhoods if someone gets shot or to tell us about all the people that have not came back. From my social perspective, watching that game on national television last night was more fulfilling then watching the Saints first home game in the Superdome last year. The Saints had the NFL, state and local government and surrounding parish support. The people involved in that game last night got back here on their own.

Mayor Nagin is Smarter Than This Dude

The question I have is how did Nelson Mandela have the time to create enough babies for a tribe in Iraq when he spent most of his life in a South African prison.

I'm Wearing Black Today

I just got back to the Crescent City from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis is really nice and a good change of pace from being in the recovery zone all the time. If I wasn’t so used to two week winters here on the Gulf Coast they would be on my potential relocation list. I was supposed to post this yesterday before the march this morning but this is an ongoing thing so I can do it now.

My opinion about modern black protest is that it’s usually ineffective. The reason is that we have placed ourselves in a position has the victim so much that it causes us not to look internally at some of the situations we face and true change is never achieved. Sometimes our issues are not black and white but shades of gray with many different angles and challenges that need to all be addressed before we can deal with the problem. That’s why we put so much energy behind causes that don’t have a real impact. We need to validate that victim mentality or the last 40 years were a waste.

The case of the Jena 6 is not of those causes. This is nothing but shameless injustice based on race. There can’t be anyone that has heard or read this story and thinks these kids should still be in prison. Let’s take race out of the equation for a minute. When I was in high school I went to a graduation party with my boy. During the party he got mad at a guy at the party that happened to be with about 20 people. Thankfully I talked him out of hitting anybody. However, if the situation would have came to a fight, I would have started fighting too even if no one would have jumped into it. That’s all that happen in Jena. Those kids were scared and they started fighting. I can’t blame them for being frightened. I would have too with white only trees, shotguns and nooses hanging at the school. It probably would have been the Jena 7 if I was there. The craziest thing about it is the kid who was assaulted was out having fun the same day. If they were really trying to kill him do you think he would have been able to party that night? Sometimes you to stand up against things like this. Now, everyone in Jena, Louisiana isn’t a racist. However, they get the same negative spotlight because they should have never let it get this far. I welcome everyone down here to the great state of Louisiana. Feel free to talk as bad as you want about our state government because just like Katrina they chose to not take action and now look foolish in the national spotlight again. This could have been handled before the underground movement brought it to the national spotlight. If the bloggers wouldn’t have gotten on this story no one would have known about it and all six would still be awaiting trial as adults and Mychal Bell would be in Angola state prison right now.

It's one thing to be a crazy negro on the local level where the only people that know is your neighbors. It's an entirely different level of craziness to have a majority of the population just dying for your ass to get in trouble again so they can make you pay for getting away with double murder. O.J. is the Tiger Woods of stupidity. His greatness is far above any of his peers. Did anyone tell The Juice that Johnnie Cochran was dead?

Still The Same Sober

I have a formula for making this blog successful. I read, watch the news and observe things around me until I come across something that inspires me in some way and then I write it down. Since I don’t find what I had for dinner or what I did at work yesterday particularly interesting I usually wait until something comes across that I think other people will have an opinion on. The last two weeks I have made a commitment not to drink so much. I think the radio thing reminded me that it's probably not a good idea to always think while in a haze. I have been functioning on the premise that I was going a little crazy. I thought that Post K stress syndrome had gotten the best of me. Now I realize that the rest of these people are crazy like me. We all must be drinking too much.

We have a senator trying to get freaky in an airport restroom and he can’t figure out if he is guilty or not. My own senator is about to be taking down by Larry Flynt and a call girl. The good folks that manage the office building I work in decided that 9/11 would be a good day to have repeated emergency drills and kept setting off the alarm. That’s just what people in New Orleans need on the anniversary of another tragedy is an alarm going off and walking down those stairs to wake up those fond evacuation memories. Why does American media show Bin Laden tapes on 9/11 anyway? That’s like someone killing a family member, getting away with it and then you reading their Christmas card at the family gathering every year afterwards. There are six kids in Jena Louisiana that are in prison awaiting trial for the kind of fight that used to take place at the intersection of Galvez and St. Bernard Avenue damn near everyday when I was going to school. Meanwhile six people in West Virginia kidnapped and tortured a woman and got to post a bond? Kanye West and 50 Cent are having a contest to see who can sell the most records and if 50 loses he is going to retire? I realize I am spoiled by downloading but I remember when I did buy records and don’t recall a time when you were allowed to only pick one. If someone buys both albums does the person who the cashier scanned first get the credit? The suburbs around New Orleans are becoming more dangerous than the city. The governor’s race is in a month and we haven’t had one debate. There have already been 4000 presidential debates. When did every interest group and minority in America get their own debate? Why do all the answers sound the same no matter what crowd they are speaking to? General Petraeus came out with his report and I still can’t tell if we are doing bad or good in Iraq from the hearings. The only thing I learned from those hearings is that if Joe Lieberman was president right now we would be occupying everything east of France. There are killer bees in New Orleans(even the bugs know you can kill here and get away with it). A damn hurricane formed while I was sleeping Wednesday night ending the comfort of thinking you have a few days to plan before one comes ashore. Now I have to keep my Richard Pryor collection in the truck at all times because I am not losing it again.

Some of my peeps have too much drama. Some of them have decided in their mid 30’s that they want to relive their teens. A few of them just can’t get it together. I don’t have anyone to hang out with that doesn’t get on my nerves. To top it all off, an anonymous employee at my job lobbied to our director and now there is a ban on perfume, cologne, and aftershave. I can’t say for certain but I am sure this is the same employee that uses the evening restroom instead of the public one during the day and sprays so much Glade air freshener that my eyes water and little purple elves start dancing across the top of my desk. She can stand that tear gas she sprays to cover her stank but she is subject to a seizure if I wear my Axe body spray?

I picked the wrong time of the year to try and give up drinking on the weekday. I should have at least waited until hurricane season was over.

Another Broken Handout

I would like to take this time to recognize EarthLink for being the latest company to go back on a promise it made to the city. They announced that they will not be expanding their free internet service throughout the rest of the city, giving everyone outside of Uptown and the French Quarter another reason to feel envious. I guess I should not be writing about this. I probably owe everyone at EarthLink and around the country an apology. I forgot that New Orleans is the only city where anyone who expects people to live up to things they committed to is a whiny, lazy, and shiftless bastard that can’t do anything for themselves and constantly looking for a handout. Foolish of us to expect that when someone stands up in front of the public and tells you they are going to do something you are supposed to believe them. God forbid you actually ask questions about it. Oh well, I guess it’s back to opening You Tube clips 15 minutes before I want to watch with my Verizon wireless card.

50.00 Fine If I Can See Your BVD's

New Orleans hijacked my blog for two whole weeks. Now I want to get into something more national. I am a week behind on this so forgive me.

I want to make a few things clear first.

1. I can’t stand white tees and pants hanging down to someone's knees. I am tired of looking at a man’s drawers that’s not my brothers or my dad ( I hope everyone knew what I meant by that).

2. I think it’s tacky, looks sloppy and I don’t know why you would want to walk around looking like you have to go to the bathroom and holding your crotch all day.

3. I also can’t believe that with all the creativity we have as a people we have gotten this lazy when it comes to fashion. We went from Cross Colours and FUBU to a plain white t-shirt like my grandpa use to wear to bed and prison pants. Brothers used to like to look clean!!! Karl Kani is probably working at a gas station.

4. Plus, I am getting tired of not having anything in my size when I go to the store because some kid who should be in a medium has bought all the 3X sizes out of big and tall. Everything they leave behind is ugly or looks like something an old dude wears to play bingo (no disrespect to old dudes or bingo).

But do we really need laws against it?

Don’t young brothers have enough reasons for the police to pull them over already? Do we really want to make bad fashion sense a reason to go to court? What if I am running late and forget my belt one day? People spend too much time in court for foolishness. If you don’t believe me, go down to traffic court and see all the working people in there fighting every ticket imaginable and losing a day’s work. I also find it funny that Atlanta wants to pass this law considering they have the greatest strip clubs in the world especially for brothers. Let’s keep it real. Going to Atlanta and not visiting the Blue Flame is like going to Orlando and not visiting Disney. You just don't get the full city experience if you don't. Now, if you really want to give people citations for bad fashion, I am all for a law banning anyone from wearing those ridiculous 1960 sunshades that cover your whole damn face that everybody seems to think looks good on them. I think wearing those should cost you 40 hours of community service because I have yet to see anyone make those things look cute.