Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Death of Kwanzaa



Its almost about that time of year when you might start hearing about the Holiday that isnt. Nooooo I'm not talking about Black Friday, I'm talking about Kwanzaa!!!! Kwanzaa is the Holiday you cant really talk about because no one wants to be politically incorrect. Some of us though, really DO want to know "whats the deal with Kwanzaa? About 5 years ago,"Kwanzaa" showed up on hallmark cards, and in local and National television news stories. How did Kwanzaa make the jump from 60's radical idea, to "Hallmark" type mainstream celebration?




Kwanzaa was created by an American, Maulana (Ron) Karenga in 1966 to symbolize African family values...and to give blacks an alternative to Christmas. Karenga was also founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers and a dupe of the FBI. The roots of Kwanzaa are nefarious indeed. I dont care how benificial the concept of the Holiday is to some. The very essence was/is to create an "us vs. them" divide, around arguably the World's most unifying Holiday. How wrong is that? The answer to my question about how Kwanzaa has been legitamized over the last 5 years in America's National Psyche is, "I have no idea!"




Enter President Barack Obama. What do you think Obama will do with Kwanzaa? Can you say "Cant touch this"? America will follow Obama's lead on small matters like this, and Obama will leave Kwanzaa A-lone. I'm guessing in about six years it will be completely dead, as it should be. So Hallmark, are you listening? Mainstream Network News, let it go! We dont need any more made up Holidays to divide us. We have Christmas, Hanukkah, ...and Festivus for the rest of us.


Work for you?




Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Last FM is the BOMB!



Elvis Costello. Elvis Costello rocks my world. I feel lucky to have been around the same time EC wrote his songs, to the point where listening to his greatest hits feels like a soundtrack to my life. Allison, Pump it up!. Whats so special about peace, love, and understanding? Watching the detectives, Shipbuilding, Love for tender, Radio, Radio, and So like Candy. But hey, I feel the same way about Prince, too. Party like its 1999...and the Boss! Jungleland and Born to Run. Tom Petty, "Wont back down"... and lets put on a little John Mellencamp -Pink houses and *Poof* I'm instantly a hell of lot younger as I hear Mr Mellencamp say "Aint that America"... and I can track time and places with the one hit wonders like Nick Gilder's "Hot Child in the City" (Who doesn't like this song? and did you know Nick is a GUY? Always sounded like a girl to me ) and Steely Dan's Aja - I close my eyes and I'm on the beach in L.A. OK, so where the hell am I going besides memory lane towards Manhattan Beach? The mother of all applications for the iPhone (The World's BEST Gadget in the history of gadgets), LAST FM. magically and wonderfully plays your favorite music. You put in your favorite artist or song and LAST FM finds the artist and the song, and then it goes one better, it keeps playing the genre of songs from other artist... without a commercial!!!! Its CRAZY cool awesome all at the same time. Its like having your own little DJ playing your favorite songs. There is also a nice detailed "Bio" on the artist that brings back the long lost idea of learning something about the band, something peope used to do, and also spinning the record on my finger (that you still cant do that anymore). If you really like the song, just add it to your playlist. (I just added the English Beat "Tears of a clown" Boom!... AND GET THIS, it shows the band's TOUR dates, for like RIGHT NOW. Attending the concert?, there is a tab to indicate if your planning to go..or you might go, and then it takes you to a map of where the concert location. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? It THEN links you to your BUDDIES, where you can see who is going to the concert!!! Lets say you just broke up with Zack or Mia... no Problemo, LAST FM gives you a list of other peeps hitting up your tunes, and also GOING to your SHOW!!! (Hey... the Killers - December 14th at the Gibson in LA OR Dec 9th at the WaMu in Seattle (I saw them last summer, and the Killers R-O-C-K!) I mean, you could get a date for a concert AND meet your SOULMATE, all at the same time ! This is one unreal application for people who like music and gadgets, and people with gadgets and music. Its the motherload of music! You can also send songs to your friends!!! Better than the shuffle on your iPod - I like it that the next song is a total mystery, BUT it will likely be in your "wheelhouse" - Like Al Green's "Love and Happiness" its makes you do right, and make you do wrong...make you come home early, and stay out all night long...its the power of love". Now who doesn't love AL Green!!! Babies born last night, instantly move their new booty's to Al Green. I LOVE this gadget!!! Last FM is da BOMB!

Monday, November 24, 2008

The World's Ugliest Porsche! - The Panamera


There are ugly cars...and then there are UGLY cars! Shockingly, Porsche's long awaited four door sedan, the "Panamera", is a BUTT UGLY car! This is a really tough pill to swallow because (if anyone cared to read my earlier blog on my favorite cars), you would know that I am a Porsche enthusiast, big time! I'm at a point now where it would feel strange NOT to have a Porsche in the garage. Porsche makes special cars... er, well, they used to make them anyway. This is a car that was targeted for a guy like me. (Mid life crisis family guy cornered to "do the right thing" and buy a four door family car, passing on a 2 seater Porsche and becoming a grown up with a *uber* fast Porsche Sedan. But Noooooooooooooooo! I wouldn't touch this car if they GAVE it to me (and please Porsche, dont try to give me one, I will trade it for a Maserati or a Jaguar. I'm not sure WHAT they were smoking in Stuttgart, but they were smoking something good! These are not the engineers that gave us the sublime Carrera, or the understated Boxster, or even the curvy Cayman. WHAT were they thinking???
There is a silver lining with this four door disaster. Maybe Porsche will give up on trying to design a Sedan (unlikely), OR, they will go back to some of the "teaser" designs leaked earlier and "tweak" some beauty in it. As it is today, this is one Edsel of a car, and I can bet you that the auto world is not going to do the typical Porsche "cha cha" over this Autobahn stinkbomb. Its a modern Edsel, no matter how fast it is. In this Global free fall economy, how in the WORLD could Porsche make a sedan, so hideous from every angle?

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Kinda bigger than the first Black President...Disney's First Black Princess!!!


By Arifa Akbar, Arts CorrespondentThursday, 17 July 2008

When Disney announced it was casting its first black princess for its latest animation film, the African-American heroine was hailed as a positive role model for little girls and an ambitious marketing ploy, not to mention an attempt to ward off the allegations of racism that have lurked since the heyday of Walt Disney Productions in the 1940s and 1950s.
But now the film studio finds itself fending off a chorus of accusations of racial stereotyping in its forthcoming big-budget cartoon, The Princess and The Frog: An American Fairy Tale, which marks a return to hand-drawn animation.
A musical set in 1920s New Orleans, the film was supposed to feature Maddy, a black chambermaid working for a spoilt, white Southern debutante. Maddy was to be helped by a voodoo priestess fairy godmother to win the heart of a white prince, after he rescued her from the clutches of a voodoo magician.
Disney's original storyboard is believed to have been torn up after criticism that the lead character was a clichéd subservient role with echoes of slavery, and whose name sounded too much like "Mammy" – a unwelcome reminder of America's Deep South before the civil rights movement swept away segregation.
The heroine has been recast as Tiana, a 19-year-old in a country that has never had a monarchy. She is now slated to live "happily ever after" with a handsome fellow who is not black – with leaks suggesting that he will be of Middle Eastern heritage and called Naveen. The race of the villain in the cartoon is reported to have also been revised.
The film studio began making changes a year ago, first to its title, The Frog Princess, which some had interpreted as a slur. Amendments to the plot followed.
Rodney Hinds, features editor of The Voice newspaper, said: "We are talking about a big company who has had to go back to the drawing board. It's disappointing... Some of the stereotyping of people from our community is still rigid in people's minds. We have our own dreams and stories like everyone else, and we want them to be portrayed positively. This is about how people are perceived and a princess is normally a positive character who most people aspire to."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uppity's spin...

Now this is pretty Amazing Stuff. We are getting our first Black President BEFORE we are getting our first black Disney Princess. I guess better late late late than never (They opened the first park over 50 years ago). My 4 year old has already been to Disneyland a number of times already, and she has punched her "Princess" ticket for "Ariel", the redheaded Mermaid Princess. She is all about Ariel (She was Ariel for Halloween (meaning she is STILL sporting the Ariel duds till they fall off of her)) and she relates to her above of all other Disney Princesses because of her great love for the pool. She even told me she is intent on becoming a mermaid and a mommy when she grows up. Not sure if Tiana/Maddy will draw any mindshare with my little Princess, but I do think its interesting that Disney took sooooo long to make this addition. However, digging into the "Disney way" and its history, its really not all that surprising it took so long. Part of Walt's vision fantasy of Main Street USA, involved zero things Black. Even the audio-animatronic "Great moments with Mr. Lincoln" completely skipped any mention of slavery. There was only one spot in all of Disneyland where you could see a black Star, and that Star was Aunt Jemima. Yep, from Opening day in 1955 until 1970, the only Black star at Disneyland (Not counting Mickey) was Aunt Jemima. (See a picture of her from the Park below) The Frontierland restaurant that is now the River Belle Terrace was the Aunt Jemima Pancake House from 1955 until 1962. After absorbing the adjacent Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue Restaurant, it became Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen, a name which it kept until 1970. That was also the year the Black Panthers sat down to dine at Aunt Jemima's, and that pretty much ended the Aunts gig at Disneyland.
So it appears Black folks are "movin on up"! Now even Disneyland is stepping into 2009 with a new Black Princess. All I can say to that is...Woo Hoo!


Saturday, November 22, 2008

Dare to be GREAT!




Next time you're in a conversation with someone, talking about a crazy idea you simply don't understand, where you don't see how its "going to work" or you "can't get your head around it", Don't be so quick to dismiss the absurd. The silver lining in this down economy is there will be tons and tons of new opportunities....Opportunities we cant even imagine right now. We all have a little Bill Gates, or Larry Page in us... The key is, you have to be open to new ideas, and you have to ready for anything.

Friday, November 21, 2008

BHO - LBJ or JFK?




Obama will be sworn in as our 44th President on January 20th, 2009. Already he is being compared to LBJ, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy!!! I cant ever recall, nor have I been able to find such comparisons being laid on a President Elect! The chances of President Obama coming near earshot of the transformational policies of the "New Deal" in the next four years are so unlikely. Clearly, big changes are desperately needed, but I'm doubtful we will see transformational changes (such as) overhauling, and completely reforming Credit card companies legal right to insanely charge whatever interest rates they like on the backs of the poor. (and look for the Credit Card Companies to be the next big Industry to go bankrupt (and boy did they have it coming...and Oooooooooooooooh No bailout for you!!))...but real change in this toxic and still Lobbyist driven political environment??? The People voted for Hope, but come on... will the people get their due ahead of AIG, Wallstreet, Ford, GM,??? We are in the back of the line.


I don't want to say Obama isn't capable of becoming more than simply being the first African American President, but how in the world can you say Obama's name in the same breath as Roosevelt (Either TR or FDR) or Lincoln, before he has even been sworn in??? We desperately need a"get things done Politician like LBJ. I'm not sure people can appreciate just how extraordinary a politician Johnson was, nor how much he contributed to the American way of life. In many ways we would not HAVE an Obama some 40 years later without LBJ.


Talk about a game changer...

LBJ as a CONGRESSMAN. gave Electricity, (yes Electricity!) to his West Texas district as part of Roosevelt's New Deal. The people of West Texas suffering through the great depression, didn't have power in their homes nor on their streets. In 1957 as a Texas SENATOR and Senate Majority leader, he convinced Southern Democrats and Northern Liberals to pass the first Civil Rights Bill since reconstruction. Compared to LBJ, BHO's "Pre-Presidential" resume is kind of weak, wouldn't you say?



So in reality, it was LBJ who led the charge for Civil Rights in the Senate, not Kennedy, yet it was Kennedy who won the 1960 Nomination. LBJ became JFK's #2. LBJ and "#2" Never quite went together. Bobby Kennedy didn't like him, as did most of JFK's Cabinet... He was the outsider. And then one sad day in November (exactly 45 years to this day in 1963), LBJ became the 36th President of the United States. Remarkably, he convinced the entire Kennedy Cabinet to stay and help begin the end of Segregation after suffering an eight-month-long filibuster, with the Civil Rights act of 1964. I'm not sure (and many others also believe) Kennedy could not have got it done by 1964, or perhaps at all!. Quoting a Historian "This Southern President broke the Southern system of racism".




As President, LBJ declared war on Poverty. 35 Million Americans lived below the poverty line at the time. So, with that, the "Great Society" was born. This was the son of the "New Deal". LBJ wanted to help everybody, not just the poor. He won in 1964 in a landslide. LBJ gave us Medicare, Medicaid, and federal education funding, which continue to this day. (Of course, those programs years later have been sliced diced, marginalized and minimized).




For all LBJ has done, he simply does not get the love, appreciation, and respect he deserves... On the other hand Kennedy gets all the Glory in a revisionist "Camelot" and all the Kennedy Moxi. At the end of the day, What did Kennedy do while he was President? He had about 1000 (1036 days to be exact). He gave us the Peace Corps, one hell of a inaugural speech, and yep, he gave some of us "Hope" (Play Twilight Zone Music and insert Charismatic Black President here). But I digress. Lets Hope (and you gotta have Hope) President Obama will achieve greatness and rise to the Zenith of the unappreciated greatness of an LBJ, and not the hype of a JFK.


Peace Out!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Four wheels of Love... My Car Obsession





















Some people love cars and others tolerate them, but I think most people "like" cars. Since I wrote about the Motown Meltdown, I thought I would share with you my car obsession.



Lets start with my FIRST car. The four door, lime green, 1972 Buick Le Sabre. (ABOVE) Every teenage boy LOVES his first car. I loved my Buick. I picked up girls with this car...I got around town, I listened to Cheap Trick and Queen (with some really bad speakers I paid for with my afterschool job at MacDonald's. I drove all over Ohio in this baby... and I also forgot to put oil in it. (No one told me about the oil). One day, the engine exploded. And that was the end of my first car.





Move a decade later and I am r-o-l-l-i-n-g in a Suzuki Samurai! I'm (amazingly, picking up girls with THIS thing) , I am all over Houston with this puppy. I even remember to add oil once in a while. This was not a comfortable car. The AC barely worked! Slightly cool air coming out along with mostly hot air from the engine and Mercury like Houston, Texas. It was like a motorcycle with four wheels...No, skip that, it was like riding a horse through the desert...but I was happy.






And life got better... way better. I was blessed to drive some of my dream cars (which I'm about to share). At the time, the Samurai was a dream car to me, and it got me around town, and come to think of it, the little thing was great on gas.











This was my first 911. This was like my "Barack Obama" moment of Cars. "Yes I can!" When they gave me the keys, I simply couldn't believe it. I wanted one these things since I was a kid, and this one was mine! I was only 30, so you couldn't call it a mid-life crisis. I have had cars much nicer than this since, but very similar to the feelings of getting my first car, my first Porsche was crazy exciting...I couldn't wait to drive this thing. Remember Tom Cruise driving his Dad's Porsche in "Risky Business"? Tom did donuts in an empty parking lot. Just like Tom in the movie, I drove to an empty lot and did donuts (driving the car backwards in a continuous circle of joy). I really did that...and probably shouldn't admit it, but, it was one of the happiest moments of my life. There is a smell that these older Porsche have, that the new ones seem to lack and Purist call it the "Porsche smell". This 911 also sounded better than the newer ones I bought. It had what they call a "Whale tail". Truly, this was a street legal race car. Worth every penny. I didn't try to pick up girls with this car, it WAS the girl. I was in love with this car, and she was not a cheap date. I didn't mind.



And then we come to the most Beautiful car I've ever owned. This is a 1963 Porsche 1600 S. Mine was silver (like this one) with a red leather interior. The only car I ever bought on e-Bay, and the ONLY car I sold for more money than I paid for it. As beautiful as it was, I could only drive it to a few places. I also had to carry jumper cables and it leaked oil a little bit. I didn't have the mechanical skills, and I take that back. I had the skills, I just didn't enjoy working on the car. Looking back, I think I would really enjoy working on the car, just like now I enjoy cooking. At the time, I wasn't ready to own this kind of car. I regret selling it though. Oh do I regret it. Maybe one day, I will get another one. Super special car. Stunning... A Stunning car.


The 1998 Ferrari F355 Spider. This car was my Dot Com Car.


The Nation was on a giant drug called the NASDAQ. This was my gift to day trading. I didn't tell my friends about it because I was never comfortable "owning" a Ferrari. The stereotype associated with owning this car is so not true. The Ferrari folks I have met are the nicest people. Not arrogant, not flashy. They just loved these cars. I've had two Ferrari's. (Not at the same time but over time) The silver 355 and a Rosso Firoano 360 Coupe (a very rare colour) I even made the trip to the Ferrari factory in Maranello, TWICE to tour the plant and the public Museum nearby. In the end, I couldn't stomach the constant attention. The attention was constant. I did like that I could park this car just about anywhere and not worry about a ticket, but I didn't like there were almost ALWAYS people near the car when you would come to drive off. Maybe if I lived in Cali it wouldn't have been an issue. Who knows? In Seattle, its an attention grabber.


This was the best sounding car I ever had. There is the unmistakable whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine" of a Ferrari, and the 355's had that sound DOWN! The car was a rock star of sound. No need to listen to the radio...the car made its own music.




So what the hell am I driving now?




I'm not going to say. We all need a little mystery...and I'd like to hear your guesses. But what ever "it" is, I'm still driving around town, and I'm still rocking to Cheap Trick and Queen, and ok some Kanye, (this time on some really fantastic speakers). And instead of picking up girls, I will pick up my wonderful girl of a Daughter, from Montessori school.


Ah, progress. :)



























































Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Motown Meltdown






Ah man! I'm having writer's block. I cant get a blurb going and I cant harness my thoughts. There is SO much to write about and I honestly don't know where to start...or where to finish. Lets start with the economy. Things are not looking good in Motown. heck things are not looking good in "Yo-town", either. Detroit, the city that gave us the first car, Aretha Franklin, Kiss and Madonna, is going through some difficult times. OK, lets get real. Detroit has been in a funk since 1970. We traded Passion and style for a K-Car. Goodbye to those cars that were inspired by America's Optimism. Those fabulous fins... the incredible curves. The cars that looked like they could fly (even though they couldn't) to us, seemed like they did. In the 50's, and 60's, America was flying.
------------------------------------------------------------
So do you bail out Detroit? I say yes, but with some serious conditions. #1 End the Unions. Union agreements amount to a burdened cost of $1600 dollars per car. Honda and Toyota has a burdened labor cost of only $200 dollars. There was a time and place for Unions, but they have ultimately negotiated unsustainable labor contracts. In the long term, reasonable labor agreements will mean MORE American workers. Lets get real with Unions. #2 Fire the current CEO's and leadership teams. They drove GM and Ford in the ditch with Big SUV's and uninspiring designs. Giving them 25 Billion would be a total waste of taxpayer dollars. #3 Make a serious commitment to Beautiful, fuel efficient (in the short term) cars, and (in the long term) next gen alternative fuel vehicles, that would be viable to sell not only in America but in Europe and Japan. Yes, let America own the Automobile world again. We CAN do this. #4 Make cars AFFORDABLE! In India, they came up with a car that retails for $2500. A $5000 car is not impossible. Make affordable cars, and they will sell. It should not take 60 months or something crazy like 72 or 78 months to pay for a car. THIS is the kind of conversation they should be having in Washington and Detroit.
Word!


Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Meatless in Seattle

One year. Its been one year now since I've eaten chicken, or beef, or bacon, or any meat. And this isn't another lefty speaking against cruelty to animals (although the idea of eating dead flesh seems especially barbaric to me now) I was gladly chomping down MOSTLY meat every day until one day I felt sick. I thought I had food poisoning since the day before I ate at an authentic dim-sum joint in downtown LA. I was in the Bay Area and I was feeling like I was going to puke. I and puked...and I puke I did...and I puked some more. And I had this crazy headache. It was September 5th. So with these symptoms, and like any other guy, I tried to shake it off and go about my day....Not a good idea. It wasn't until 8 or 9pm that I decided I would go to a local ER and get checked out. I told them I was still very nauseous, so they could catch me in the bathroom when it was my time to be called. They finally brought me in about 30 minutes later and they guy took my blood pressure. Right after he took it he called a doctor and said something about a "code". Before long I was in another room and they had put an IV in me. They were worried about me having a stroke. My blood pressure was 230 over 140, a crazy number. I was told later that this was the highest number anyone in the ER had seen in a patient. They had given me Nitro to bring my BP down. I was on the phone with my wife, telling her what was going on when they took the phone out of my hand. I felt like I couldn't breath, and for a moment I thought "this is it....this is how I am going to die". Turns out my BP was going down too fast and that was a problem... I blacked out. I woke up sometime early the next morning. I was moved from the ER to ICU where I stayed for 3 days. I had more IV's in me and I had oxygen tubes in my nose, and I had the MOTHER of all headaches. This wasn't good. The Nurse had told me my boss was there to see me, and something about my wife being on the way down. The next day they did a bunch of test and scans. Turned out my kidneys were failing. I had about 15 percent use of my kidneys. The Nephrologist said I would need a kidney transplant, and she had the bedside manner of Dr, Kavorkian. Listening to her, It seemed it was just a matter of time before I was going to die. She was terrible. Not hopeful at all. It was that moment that my headache went away, and I havent had a headache ever since. So what does this have to do with my eating habits? As I began to prep for the long process of getting a kidney transplant, (we were targeting April of 08'), I did a evaluation of my diet and I did lots of reading on kidney disease. It was clear to me that eliminating meat protein would give my kidneys a long overdue break. So I gave up meat. Since my life depended it on it, it wasn't very hard to stay with this plan. Sure, I wanted to eat a burger or a steak at first, and every now and then I still get a craving... but it passes. So the combination of diet, meds to lower my blood pressure, and faith (yes, faith), brought some amazing results. Within 3 months, my kidneys were at about 20 percent use. (Btw, 20 percent is the threshold for needing a kidney transplant. You cant go on the list for one unless you are at 20 percent or less. In 6 months I was at 30 percent. I probably have about 35 percent use of my kidneys today, well about the 20 percent transplant threshold (which is awesome!). I will need a transplant one day, but it could be 5, 10, maybe even 30 years from now. The move towards becoming a vegetarian (I do have cheese, but I do try to limit my dairy) has brought some other great benefits. I lost about 20 lbs. I sleep through the night, and I feel really great...better than I felt well before my kidneys started failing. I've also have become quite the cook these days!

The point of my post is not so much to highlight the benefits of "skipping the cow", but I wanted to point out just how critical it is that everyone take ownership of their own medical circumstances, and not let your Doctors decide your fate. One of the people I am following is doing a blog on the Middle Ages. As much as we have progressed since then, so much of our medical decisions are still "best guesses". We cant forget that.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Rocky 6 - America fights back!

You know, this is totally strange I know, but I LOVED the ending to "Rocky Balboa" which is unofficially Rocky 6. I'm not sure how many people saw it, but it was the real deal. Sly shows a humility in Rocky he hasn't shown since the first Rocky. This humble character is a shadow of the 80's Gordon Gecko/Ronald Reagan type "Greed is Good" Rocky's that took over the lovable lump, who used to punch beef in a meat locker. This is an older, almost uncertain Rocky who doesn't have the snap and the pop, but the cracks and Kringle's of old age. This movie is about America and the American dream. America is about coming back,...Its about coming off the floor when you've been knocked down,...its about coming back when your doubting yourself. The ending credits, People from all over the city, young and old, black and white, run up the steps like Rocky, and shadow punch and put their fist in the air to celebrate VICTORY! Its such a powerful moment, you cant but help to get emotional about it. Even the "Philly Fanatic is running up the stairs (and folks this is 3 years before they won it all) America is like that. Just when you count us out, BOOM! we come back with a big giant SHOW ME THE MONEY! That's why I love America, and this is why in this darkest of times, you cant count us out. America will be back, and it wont be long... and Nobody will celebrate our being "back" like me. I'm going to buys something BIG, like a Jet, or a baseball team. Hey, you never know...

In America, ANYTHING is Possible!

Aint that right Rock?!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

The Next Blog - What happens when you search at random

So its a Sunday night in Seattle (Close enough, its right across the 520 bridge) and I'm looking at my umpteenth football game as a FF junkie, the players I'm playing aren't doing squat, and the ones I sat are tearing it up = I'm LOSING. So, I surf the Blogger Bogs and and I surf some more, and... its magical. I was looking at Blogs of folks who enjoyed the same movies as me. I'm amazed there are almost 300 people who listed "A Place in the Sun" as a favorite movie. The Stories! The Pictures! Who needs HBO? Who needs Football? (Alright, I didn't say that) Unlike Twitter, you really get to learn more about people...way more than a "quick blurb". I found some extraordinary stories. You just never know whats going to show up in the NEXT BLOG!

Post Racial America?

Let me say first that as a Political Junkie, I'm having a bit of a hangover from this Election actually being over. Its over! The Good Guy won, but I've noticed in my lingering Euphoria, the Sunday News shows, talking about a Post Racial America. WHAT is THAT? I mean, I am ecstatic we have the first President of Color...I'm walking on AIR! But does this wipe out the Silent Elephant in the great room of our Society? Did we become a colorblind society overnight? No...Not even close. Yes, a Black President is a dream most of thought we would never see... its hopeful, its wonderful, amazing and unbelievable all at the same time. But we cant say we live in a Post Racial America. I will say there are "Pockets" of "PRM" in cities like Seattle (and I can vouch for Seattle), San Francisco, and parts of Manhattan. I've never been to the great State of Vermont, but I'm guessing Vermont is a "Post Racial "State". I also imagine the 6 black people living in Vermont must love it. Children, like my four year old, are "Post Racial", as were all of us until some of us were tainted by society. No one is born disliking people because of race, it has to be taught. It appears we are not teaching our kids to hate these days. So yes, there are pockets of a post racial existence, and we can see "PRM" in our kids. That said, this is NOT the time to become complacent and ignore all the evidence that the Elephant is still in the room...actually several of them. Poverty, Crime, Education (lack thereof), and the broken black family. Clearly, we still have a lot of work left to do. So while we wait to greet our First African American Leader of the Free World on January 20th 2009, lets not mistake this remarkable sign of progress as the beginning of a "Post Racial America". I hope that when we sober up from the hype, we will see our work is far from done, and we can't expect to put everything on our new President, to get us the rest of the way home.

Friday, November 7, 2008

History lesson #1

Presidential Speech....

"In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next 5 years will be worse than the past 5 years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.
As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.
These changes did not happen overnight. They've come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.
We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Water gate.
We remember when the phrase "sound as a dollar" was an expression of absolute dependability, until 10 years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our Nation's re sources were limitless until 1973, when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.
These wounds are still very deep. They have never been healed.
Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our Nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our Government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.
What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.
Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don't like, and neither do I. What can we do?
First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this Nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.
One of the visitors to Camp David last week put it this way: "We've got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America."
We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars, and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world.
We ourselves and the same Americans who just 10 years ago put a man on the Moon. We are the generation that dedicated our society to the pursuit of human rights and equality. And we are the generation that will win the war on the energy problem and in that process rebuild the unity and confidence of America.
We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.
All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path, the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our Nation and ourselves. We can take the first steps down that path as we begin to solve our energy problem.
Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this Nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our Nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.
In little more than two decades we've gone from a position of energy independence to one in which almost half the oil we use comes from foreign countries, at prices that are going through the roof. Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous tool on our economy and our people. This is the direct cause of the long lines which have made millions of you spend aggravating hours waiting for gasoline. It's a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our Nation.
The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our Nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.
What I have to say to you now about energy is simple and vitally important.
Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this Nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 -- never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980's, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade -- a saving of over 4 1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.
Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my Presidential authority to set import quotas. I'm announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.
Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our Nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the Sun.
I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace 2 1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation will issue up to $5 billion in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so that average Americans can invest directly in America's energy security.
Just as a similar synthetic rubber corporation helped us win World War II, so will we mobilize American determination and ability to win the energy war. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this Nation's first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.
These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. It will be money well spent. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans to Americans. These funds will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment.
Point four: I'm asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our Nation's utility companies cut their massive use of oil by 50 percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.
Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the redtape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.
We will protect our environment. But when this Nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.
Point six: I'm proposing a bold conservation program to involve every State, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.
I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I'm proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I'm asking you for your good and for your Nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense -- I tell you it is an act of patriotism.
Our Nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate way of rebuilding our Nation's strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives.
So, the solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our Nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.
You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more oil in our shale alone than several Saudi Arabias. We have more coal than any nation on Earth. We have the world's highest level of technology. We have the most skilled work force, with innovative genius, and I firmly believe that we have the national will to win this war.
I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our Nation's problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act.
We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively and we will, but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.
Twelve hours from now I will speak again in Kansas City, to expand and to explain further our energy program. Just as the search for solutions to our energy shortages has now led us to a new awareness of our Nation's deeper problems, so our willingness to work for those solutions in energy can strengthen us to attack those deeper problems.
I will continue to travel this country, to hear the people of America. You can help me to develop a national agenda for the 1980's. I will listen and I will act. We will act together. These were the promises I made 3 years ago, and I intend to keep them.
Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty our treasuries, and we may summon all the wonders of science. But we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources -- America's people, America's values, and America's confidence.
I have seen the strength of America in the inexhaustible resources of our people. In the days to come, let us renew that strength in the struggle for an energy-secure nation.
In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our country. With God's help and for the sake of our Nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.
Thank you and good night."

- Jimmy Carter July 15, 1979

Ronald Reagan's first official acts of office included removing Jimmy Carter's solar panels from the roof of the White House, and reversing most of Carter's conservation and alternative energy policies.

I dont want to rub it in BUT....

Its HAS to be a bummer to drive your own car again (especially when your 72!) or to lose your Secret Service detail. Wouldn't you like to have a Secret Service detail? I would. I mean, I wouldn't want them 2 feet away from me or anything, but to have them "around" would be Bad Ass. I imagine you could be a pretty tough guy when you got armed special agents around you. I guess it would be even better to be a Kid and have the Secret Service detail. I bet Palin is missing those Guys and their guns... and their credit cards (maybe they bought the clothes??? No?) and I bet Todd (the nauseating "First Dude") is glad to be alone with his "snow machine".

I'm just so glad to see these guys ride off into the Sunset. McCain "McMeanie" and his wife the "Ice Princess" with insane amounts of beer money. Sarah, Todd and 15 kids and that preggo one. Tell me, you think that pregnant teenager is going to Marry that boy NOW? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! All bets are off! The strange thing is, you would think Palin returned to Alaska, we would have seen her ONCE with that special needs baby. ONCE! Who is watching that baby? Ironic and SAD... it seems the baby got more "Mommy Time" during the election, than afterwards.

I didn't want to rub it in, but... Ba-Bye! and to use their own words... "Thanks but no Thanks!

There are a LOT of UPPITY BLACK PEOPLE!!! (Who Knew?)

Gosh, (and I do say "Gosh" a lot because I have a 4 year old), just when I thought I was on to something, I look up "Uppity" and found a butt load of Uppity black people. Maybe I should have done that first! "The Black Snob", the "Uppity Negro NETWORK", and more. I guess with our new black President (NBP), a lot of Uppity Blacks will come out of the woodwork. Damn! Props to the Snob as it appears she has been snobbing it up for a while. I will do my best to bring a Pacific Northwest Spin to my Blog... Or my Technology background to this discussion. To my knowledge, the Snob is a writer, and UNN is (looks like) more writers. Clearly, I'm not a writer. I work for a Huge software company out of Germany (and you thought I was going to say Microsoft). I'm in Technology. I promise to do my own thing...and do the right thing. I may not be the first to cover this subject (and I damn sure wont be the last), but I hope to add to the conversation PEEPS! Here we are, only three days after the "Moment", and I'm already used to having a Black President. I'm ready for his first Press Conference. I can already tell that following President Obama will be like following the Seahawks, or the Sonics (OOPS, skip that). The Lakers. And how WONDERFUL it will be that some of these little black kids (Future Uppityblacks) will be following President Obama, and NOT the Lakers.

Uppityblack - What is it?

Welcome to Uppityblack - So what is Uppityblack? Its not what you might think. Its not a black thing. Its not a snob thing. Its the voice of People who don't exactly fit in to the Ebony/Jet scene, yet they are Proud of their African American roots. UB is not only for Black People, its for ALL People, because People, there wont be black people and white people in 300 years...we will be ONE people. Its about people who actually don't see race first, or even second or third. Its about issues, Sports, and Pop Culture, in a rapidly changing World ... and oh yeah, it is about our new President, Barack Obama, and how this extraordinary Man in this shinning moment, has shattered everything we used to know about race. So Uppityblack is about NOW.

Welcome! - Shelby