Depictions of The Female Form

Artist Renee Cox portrays the plight of African American women. Yo Mama, a photograph taken in 1993, illustrates a slender and muscular black woman. She is naked and appears to be strong and powerful; she holds an infant in her arms as she stares intentionally into the viewer's eyes. The artist sought to capture the lingering horrors among African American families that stem from slavery and the separation from loved ones. African American family ties are notably strong today, as the illustration portrays (Source: Chicago, Judy and Lucie-Smith, Edward.
Women and Art: Contested Territory. The Ivy Press Limited, 1999.).

The Government Says Eating Cloned Meat Is Just Fine

You got to be crazy to feed this to your family. They won't be satisfied until babies are born with hoofs.

U.S. regulator declares food from cloned animals is safe to eat
By Andrew Pollack and Andrew Martin
Friday, December 29, 2006

NEW YORK
After years of delay, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has tentatively concluded that milk and meat from some cloned farm animals are safe to eat. That finding could make the United States the first country to allow products from cloned livestock to be sold in grocery stores.

Who Gets the Video of The Saddam Execution?

The international media is asking an interesting question - how are the networks planning to handle video of Saddam Hussein's impending execution, assuming it happens?

Think about it. Of course the MSM (Mainstream Media) networks will show all the moments leading up to death (Saddam alone in his cell, praying with a Koran, handcuffed, walk to the gallows, hooded) … but they will all go through the motions of not airing the actual moment of execution. Probably keep the audio while they fade to black. Whoomppphhh!! Aghhhh….

Of course Al Jazeera will air the execution in it’s entirety to it’s 1 billion viewers, and then the MSM conglomerates will go on a rampage about how Al Jazeera “provokes” Muslims. Naturally the few NeoCons that remain in the Pentagon will arrange some celebrating Arabs or tearful Khurds video footage to flash to while Wolf Blitzer compares Saddam to Hitler.

If none of the MSM networks air the execution, video of Saddam’s dangling at the end of a rope, will end up on You Tube anyway.

Why Now?

Hanging Saddam now, on international television, in front of perhaps 1 billion Muslims and 2 billion Christians, as the world teeters on global religious war - is an act of an anti-Christ.

Who else wants war that badly?

-

Senator Edwards Pretends To Shovel Mud With Black Katrina Victims

Guess who's running for president?

Welcome to another season of American Idol Politics. Our entire electoral process is a television show. I marvel at people who can walk into a "voting booth" and still manage to keep a straight face.

The Crucifixion of Cynthia McKinney

"Is it something I said?"

Well, yes Cynthia. It is something you said. You spoke the truth. You broke the biggest taboo in America - you addressed the obvious connection between faked evidence for war, US Foreign Policy not in America's interest, and the out of control Israeli Lobby.

Consequently you have become the target of overtly racist slander and the victim of illegal campaign tactics designed to drive you from office.

Sadly, more African Americans rallied to the defense of the strippers in the Duke case, who lied about being raped, than they did to the side of this brave US Congresswoman who stood virtually alone against the pro-War / pro-Israel lobby.

God Bless You



#1 “What is... disturbing to me is that many of these pro-Israeli lawmakers sit on the House International Relations Committee despite the obvious conflict of interest that their emotional attachments to Israel cause... The Israeli occupation of all territories must end, including Congress.”

#2 “The world is teetering on the brink of conflicts while the Administration's policies are vague, wavering and unclear. Major financial conflicts of interest involving the President, the Attorney General, the Vice President and others in the Administration have been and continue to be exposed.”

#3 “A cruel wind blows across American, starting in Texas and Montana, ... And despite our presence today, it continues to buffet and batter the American people (with) a war started on deliberately fake evidence ... and now, criminal incompetence in providing our security.”

#4 “The 9/11 Omission: Did the Commission Get it Wrong?”

#5 "... Prior to its invasion, Iraq had not one (not one!) instance of suicide attacks in its history. Research shows a 100% correlation between suicide attacks and the presence of foreign combat troops in a host country. And experience also shows that suicide attacks abate when foreign occupation troops are withdrawn. The US invasion and occupation has destabilized Iraq and Iraq will only return to stability once this occupation ends.


#6 "We must be willing to face the fact that the presence of US combat troops is itself a major inspiration to the forces attacking our troops. Moreover, we must be willing to acknowledge that the forces attacking our troops are able to recruit suicide attackers because suicide attacks are largely motivated by revenge for the loss of loved ones. And Iraqis have lost so many loved ones as a result of America's two wars against Iraq."

#7 In a friendlier article, The Washington Times ( 8/22/02 ) reported: “Jewish money both national and local flowed into the campaign to McKinney's opponent.” Significantly, the paper then quoted a key Jewish McKinney supporter, Joshua Ruebner, Executive Director of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel: "This is a dangerous dynamic… doing irreparable harm to [Jewish] relations with African-Americans.”

Even in death ... Still The Godfather of Soul 1933-2006

Ladies ands Gentlemen,

There are seven acknowledged wonders of the world.

You are about to witness the eighth.Standing in the spotlight, on showcase, twelve young men, who have given you such tunes as [drum roll] "The Grunt", Pass The Peas", "Gimme Some More".

Ladies and Gentlemen, without no doubt, these are the J.B.'s !

“The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing”.

“I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.”

“Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that.”

“When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don't go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.”

“It doesn't matter how you travel it, it's the same road. It doesn't get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.”

Saartjie Baartman

Shá Cage plays Saartjie Baartman, a 19th century woman who represented "the other" to racist and sexist Britons.



Her exhibition in London created a scandal and a benevolent society called the African Association petitioned for her release. Baartman was questioned in Dutch before a court, and stated that she was not under restraint and understood perfectly that she was guaranteed half of the profits. The conditions under which she made these statements are suspect, because it directly contradicts accounts of her exhibits made by Zachary Macaulay of the African Institution and other eye witnesses (Strother 1999). She later traveled to Paris where an animal trainer exhibited her for fifteen months. French anatomist Georges Cuvier and French naturalists visited her and she was the subject of several scientific paintings at the Jardin du Roy.
Baartman died December 29, 1815 of an inflammatory ailment. An autopsy was conducted and the findings published by French anatomist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1816 and by Cuvier in the Memoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in 1817. Cuvier notes in his monograph that Baartman was an intelligent woman who had an excellent memory and spoke Dutch fluently. Her skeleton, preserved genitals and brain were placed on display in Paris Musée de l'Homme until 1974.

There were sporadic calls for the return of her remains beginning in the 1940s but the case became prominent only after US biologist Stephen Jay Gould published an account, The Hottentot Venus, in the 1980s. When Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa in 1994, he formally requested that France return the remains. After much legal wrangling and debates in the French National Assembly, France acceded to the request on 6 March 2002.

Whilst studying in Europe Diana Ferrus, a South African poet of Khoisan descent, wrote "A Poem for Sarah Baartman" which includes the desire "to wrench [her] away-/ away from the poking eyes..."

Baartman's remains were returned to her land of birth, the Gamtoos Valley, on 3 May 2002.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MEN

30+ Player … or Homosexual?

According to Henry Makow, Homosexuality is a developmental disorder defined by the failure to establish a permanent bond with a member of the opposite sex.

Becoming a husband and a father is the pinnacle of a man’s development. Creating and nurturing life is the stage when we graduate from self-indulgence and become God’s surrogates. Contemporary social engineering does not facilitate this level of maturity. Our culture is producing men who remain stunted: single, sex-starved, and self-obsessed.

It's time men jump off of the feminizing tread mill of perpetual courtship and build something with a woman that will transcend themselves.

Marriage, is cool ...

Then Almitra spoke again and said...
"And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:

You were born together,
and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when the white wings
of death scatter your days.

Aye, you shall be together even in the
silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between
the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together, yet not too near together.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress
grow not in each other's shadow.

ARE POLITICIANS STILL RELEVANT?

If we had 30 Harold Ford's, 5 Barak Obama's and 2 Jesse Jackson's in Congress - 1 million black men and women would still be in prison. Our nation would still occupy a country that had nothing to do with 911. 60% of the African American population would be suffering from obesity, diabetes and colon cancer.

What's Going On ...?

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today
Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on
What's going on

The Wire

Last night HBO aired the season finale of The Wire. There really is no reason to watch TV again until next season.

If you don’t watch The Wire, you are unfortunate.

If you don’t like The Wire, there is something wrong with you.

Calling it “the best show on television” doesn’t do it justice. More novel, than TV Show, The Wire is among the most accomplished art this country has produced since Miles Davis recorded “Kind of Blue” and Marlon Brando did his thing in “On The Waterfront”.

What is often overlooked, is that The Wire presents more positive portrayals of black men than any other show produced by corporate media. Yes, most of the black male characters are drug dealers, addicts, gangsters or compromised cops. However, despite the coincidences of their various occupations, the black men on the show are portrayed as something rarely seen on TV – as human beings. They are ambivalent, complex, subtle, cunning and often principled. The Wire does not patronize the audience with cookie cutter “good guys” and one-dimensional over the top ‘thug for the sake of thug’ bad guys.

At a time when the mass media shoves T.O. down our throats as the prevailing image of the black American man, I’m happy to see Avon Barksdale, Stringer Bell and Marlo Stansfield.

The Wire is critically acclaimed though it typically draws only about 1.5 million viewers a week - a small audience when compared with 15 million for Fox's 24. Marx was right. The masses are basically ignorant.

Decisions

Week 1
December 2nd 10:03pm.
Curtis Martin


Your life is the sum total of all the decisions you have or have not made, therefore you are where you are in life because you have chosen to be there. If your decisions have placed you where you do not want to be, then only your decisions can get you out of where you are.

Lesson: Your life is your decision!

December 3rd 6:43am.

How many times have you said or done something without thinking? The truth is none, there is no such thing as not thinking before you make a decision. You may not have given enough thought or the right thought to your decision, but your words and actions are simply the servants of your mind. The body does not work alone; it does what it is told to do.

A decision is only as good as the information one has, and the power of that decision is greatly enhanced with the presence of information. Without the correct information every decision becomes a guess, and it is rare to guess right. We tend to rush into our decisions and hope for the best, instead of patiently making the best decision that yields the best results.

Lesson: Right thoughts and right actions don't produce wrong results.


December 4th 11:17am.

Even though emotions are true feelings, they are not always true facts. In the midst of emotion we tend to disconnect with reason and accept our feelings as reality. This is oftentimes the furthest thing away from the truth. During our deepest times of pain and our greatest moments of bliss, we tend to make our biggest mistakes by doing what feels right. These decisions are usually the ones we regret. You should never make permanent decisions based on temporary feelings. When making a decision remember: All sin promises to serve and please but only desires to enslave and dominate.

Lesson: Beware when all you can see is the benefits, and have never considered the consequences.

Athletes With Something To Say ...

I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong!

I ain't draft dodging. I ain't burning no flag. I ain't running to Canada. I'm staying right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I've been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for 4 or 5 more, but I ain't going no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people. If I want to die, I'll die right here, right now, fightin' you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won't even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won't even stand up for my right here at home.

- Muhammad Ali




I believe that us going to war would be a mistake. Being a humanitarian, I think that war is wrong in 99.9 percent of all cases. I think it has much more to do with oil or some sort of distraction, because I don't feel as though we should be worrying about Iraq.
- Steve Nash



'What's the Iraq war all about?' he said, his voice rising. 'If it's about oil, just say that. Don't give us this Weapons of Mass Destruction crap when all you find is three firecrackers.'
- Adalius Thomas Baltimore Ravens



"I am Totally Against This War"
- Etan Thomas NBA Washington Wizards