"A History of Ghost-Riding"

Guy ghostriding gets his car stolen









Hip-Hop Car Stunt Leaves 2 Dead

By GARANCE BURKE

Associated Press Writer

"Ghost riding the whip" _ a stunt in which a driver gets out of his car and dances around and on top of the slowly moving vehicle to a thumping hip-hop beat _ has gotten at least two people killed, led to numerous injuries and alarmed police on the West Coast and beyond.
A fad among devotees of a West Coast strain of hip-hop music called "hyphy," the stunt has been celebrated in song and performed in numerous homemade videos posted on YouTube.

"It did not take Einstein to look at this thing and say this was a recipe for disaster," said Pete Smith, a police spokesman in Stockton. "We could see the potential for great injury or death."

Earlier this month, Davender Gulley, a ghost-riding 18-year-old, died after his head slammed into a parked car while he was hanging out the window of an SUV in Stockton, police said. In October, a 36-year-old man dancing on top of a moving car fell off, hit his head and died in what authorities said was Canada's first ghost riding fatality.

The stunt has also led to numerous minor injuries.

Hyphy was born in the San Francisco Bay cities of Oakland, Richmond and Vallejo in the late 1990s, and devotees often hold late-night car rallies called "sideshows" where crowds perform risky stunts, including ghost riding.

"Ghost riding" refers to the absence of a driver. "The whip" is urban slang for your car. Typically, the driver drops the car into neutral and dances around and on top of the vehicle while it inches forward.

Sometimes it is a solo act; sometimes a half-dozen or more passengers get out and dance, too. The stunt is usually performed late at night, on a deserted road or in a parking lot.

The Vallejo-bred rapper E-40 introduced mainstream listeners to ghost riding with the single "Tell Me When to Go," whose lyrics describe how to pull it off. Another single, "Ghostride It," by Oakland rapper Mistah F.A.B., offers a step-by-step guide: "Pull up. Hop out, all in one motion. Dancing on the hood, while the car still rollin'."

The antics have gone nationwide thanks in large part to YouTube, where a search for ghost riding turns up hundreds of grainy videos of young people pulling the stunt. The videos were shot from Portland, Ore., to Chicago and many places in between, and judging from the backdrops, the phenomenon has crossed over from the inner city to the suburbs.

Joe Calderon, 17, of San Diego, posted a YouTube video of himself dancing alongside his moving, driverless 2005 Mazda. "We love that style of music," he said. But "my mom wasn't too thrilled about it."

Another video shows a man sitting on the roof of his fast-moving pickup truck and leaping clear seconds before it crashes into a telephone pole.

Where record labels see hyphy as hip hop's next big thing, police see a menace.

Stockton police said they have written more than 1,500 citations and impounded about 400 vehicles since late March for sideshow antics.

The spontaneous nature of the sideshows _ which are staged on interstates, in deserted parking lots, and on downtown streets _ keeps police guessing. Departments have spent millions in overtime policing the outlaw rallies.

Even F.A.B. concedes that sideshows have gotten out of control. He said he would like to stage sideshows in large arenas where organizers could charge admission.

"It would be like a ghetto NASCAR," he said.


Ghost ride

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

To ghost ride,ride the slumper, frequently used in the context of "ghost riding the whip" (a "whip" being a vehicle) or simply ghostin' is when the driver and/or passengers of any given vehicle exit while it is still rolling and dance beside it or on the hood or roof. Ghost riding is one of the latest trends to be popularized by Hyphy culture, which originated in the Bay Area of California. The act is one of the highest forms of "going dumb" and a representation of the style of hyphy. The term "ghost ride the whip" was given nationwide exposure in E-40's 2006 song Tell Me When to Go. However, E-40 was not the first to use this term, as it was coined much earlier by other Bay Area rappers such as Mac Dre.

Ghost Riding was also featured in an episode of The Girls Next Door When Kendra demonstrated the game for the other girls. The game ended predictably when Kendra's Escalade crashed into a stationary vehicle.Ghost riding as a term also has a history in motorcross and stunt cycling. The rider typically jumps off the back of the bike then runs after it and jumps back on.


http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/29/D8MAMLF00.html

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ghost+ride+the+whip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_ride

JOSEPH C. PHILLIPS COMMENTARY: The Power Of Words

The conservative Republican actor writes:

"There is a short story I have heard of.

Rather than protest the displaying of the confederate battle flag with marches and boycotts, Black folks decide to fly the flag at their homes, wear it on clothing and put it on their automobiles. Once Black people claimed it as their own, White folks wouldn't want anything else to do with it or so the theory goes. Taking ownership of it would deny the symbol of its power. As intrigued as I am by the story, I do not recall the author's name nor do I imagine such a strategy would result in triumph. In fact, I am fairly certain such a tactic would backfire horribly resulting in the display of more confederate flags than any of us could stomach.

Moreover, I can not imagine why on earth I would want to claim ownership of a symbol that represents my dehumanization? The story bears some similarities to the ongoing debate about the Black community's ownership of the word N___r or what we now refer to as the 'N-word.' Our claim to the word has expanded its use and even taken it international. A friend of mine tells of being in Bosnia and being greeted on the street by a young Slavic boy with a hearty, 'what up my n____r!' Baggy pants and Coca Cola are not the only things imported from America. There is of course the claim that the Black use of the word is different - We say N___a instead of N___r.

Admittedly, there is a difference between the word as used by the likes of Richard Pryor and what we heard pour forth from Michael Richards during his Laugh Factory break down a few weeks ago. However, words have meaning. Richards gave us a taste of the word's true gruesomeness. The actor didn't just use the word, he breathed life into it. Understand that Richards' tirade would have been as foul without the word. A description of lynching and pitch forks in various parts of the human anatomy is offensive and, as it happens, exactly what the word itself represents. Thanks to modern technology the word showed itself in the stark light of morning and we were repulsed.

That is as it should be. We are fooling ourselves if we believe the artistry of Pryor or the inanities of the new minstrels (or the addition of an 'a' rather than an 'er') somehow transform the word's meaning. Another tape making the internet rounds features two Black boys brawling in their backyard as their families egg them on. The use of the word on that tape reeks with contempt and subjection. It is as vulgar as Richards Laugh Factory rant. More so. So, why we would claim a word that's sole purpose was to tell black people that we weren't fit to walk the earth? And then use it as a term of affection for one another no less?"

ABOUT BLACK AMERICANS - RELIGION

2004 Black Entertainment Television/CBS poll, 2003 & 2004 Pew Research Center surveys, 2003 Harris Poll, 2004 Religion and Ethics Newsweekly survey

71% Protestant, 15% non-denominational Christian, 7% Catholic, 4% no religion, 2% Muslim, 1% other

Evangelical Christian rate: 62% say Bible is God's literal word
Religious service attendance: 41% attend every week, 22% a few times a year, 19% once or twice a month, 12% almost every week, 6% never

96% believe in God
76% believe in the devil
86% believe in heaven
77% believe in hell
88% believe in Jesus Christ's resurrection
79% say soul survives after death
78% believe in the Virgin birth
90% believe in miracles
29% believe in reincarnation
Islam is fastest-growing religion (40% of U.S. Muslims are black)
USA has special protection from God: 58% yes, 28% no, 14% don't know
USA's strength & success is based on religious faith: 69% yes, 28% no
Must believe in God to be moral: 69% yes, 25% no
87% believe USA moral values are on the wrong track
Views of Muslim Americans: 58% favorable, 22% unfavorable, 20% don't know
Views of Muslims abroad: 52% favorable, 30% unfavorable, 18% don't know

Lessons of 9/11: 58% say religion has too little influence in the world, 22% say too much

42% believe Jews were responsible for Jesus' death

Israel fulfills biblical prophecy: 51% yes, 33% no, 16% don't know

How religion affects their vote: 26% frequently, 20% occasionally, 51% rarely
Proper for media to ask politicians about religion: 59% yes, 39% no

Should religious institutions express political views: 66% yes, 30% no
President Bush, religion, and policymaking: 56% relies too little on religion, 28% right amount, 8% too much

Consider not voting for president (can pick more than one): 51% atheists, 30% Muslim, 17% Catholic, 12% Jewish, 10% evangelical Christian

Philly's drug dealers: Younger all the time

By SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM

DRESSED IN A black Dickies suit and black Timberlands, the chubby-faced 17-year-old crack dealer paced around the desolate lot working another graveyard shift.

In the darkness, a steady stream of addicts ambled toward him to make a buy. Then he saw a familiar face: his close friend's mom. "I need a nick," she mumbled to him. Without hesitation, he sold her a nickel bag - $5 worth of crack.

"I was surprised that she was a smoker," Mikey recalled, months after that night. Today he calls it "the deal I will never forget."

"I was thinking that a real friend wouldn't sell to his mom," said Mikey. "If he found out, how would he feel? But that is life. If she won't get it from me, she will get it from somewhere else."

On the toughest, meanest streets of Philadelphia, hundreds of youngsters like Mikey live by the rule that money is thicker than anything - even loyalty.

It is one of the most appalling features of Philadelphia's deadly year of crime: The youngest drug dealers are getting younger.

Cops consider Mikey a veteran dealer. (It's not his real name; he asked that his identity be obscured to protect him from other dealers who don't want the details of their business exposed.)

Drug dealing now attracts children as young as 10, and top police brass admit they are only beginning to scratch the surface of the kiddie drug world.

More children selling drugs means more children being shot. Among the biggest increases in shooting victims this year are 14-year-olds, police said.

Sometimes, the innocent are caught in the crossfire: The men behind the shooting death of 5-year-old Cashae Rivers - who was killed in her family's car on a Strawberry Mansion street in September - had drug records that stretched back to their teens.

"Drug corners are every police officer's problem," Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said. "I am holding everyone accountable. This is the new focus."

Seeking to understand why some Philadelphia kids risk their lives to sell poison, the Daily News spent weeks with a teenage drug dealer in the Abbotsford Homes public-housing complex in North Philadelphia, and also visited a busy drug corner in West Kensington filled with high-school hustlers - and found that:

• Kids are lured by cheap promises of cash and respect - currency hard to find elsewhere in a city in which 40 percent of public-school kids drop out and the supply of menial jobs for those without a diploma is shrinking.

• All too frequently, the corner life is the entrance door to violent crime. Young dealers often carry guns and stand exposed to thugs twice their age, who are quick to pull triggers and spill blood to win turf.

Mikey started selling at 12, the age when he also bought a revolver from another kid in exchange for $50 worth of weed. He has sold marijuana and crack cocaine off and on for five years. He has one gun arrest.

Mikey and other young drug dealers say they don't fear death.

"Most people don't stop hustling," Mikey said. "They are scared of the real world. So they stay on the streets."

Another dealer, "Donnie," 16, and his corner crew laughed when asked about murder. Donnie is proud of being a "corner boy." He said he and his pals sell crack around Clearfield and Hartville streets in West Kensington, where the only open businesses are bodegas and barbershops.

"I am not scared," Donnie said, his skinny frame hidden under his tan Edison High School uniform and an oversize black Rocawear jacket that reached his knees.

"I don't care," he shrugged. "You are going to die anyway."

Donnie excused himself. An emerald-green Oldsmobile driven by a man in his 20s pulled up to the corner. Donnie slinked into the back seat.

"That's his old head," said one of the boys, using street slang for mentor. He was Donnie's boss.

The car sped off.

How to buy six pairs of white Nikes

A desire for designer clothes and shoes drove both Mikey and Donnie to the street corners, or so they say.

Their families couldn't support their hunger for blue jeans, Nike sneakers, Lacoste shirts. The boys said they had no other choice but to find the easiest and closest job available: hustling.

"I had to do me," said Donnie, explaining in street slang that he had to survive. The lanky teen boasted that he'd bought six pairs of $75 white Nike Air Force sneakers after his first crack payday at age 14. That way, he wouldn't have to clean his old pair.

Rule One of urban chic: Keep your sneakers spotless.

Those reasons seem superficial, but the truth is that drug dealing can seem an appealing career in tough city neighborhoods void of healthy businesses and jobs.

Forty percent of city residents over age 15 are out of work and not collecting unemployment, according to U.S. Census data. One-quarter of Philadelphians live in poverty, which can be difficult to escape.

Computers have become central to most city businesses, yet too many kids can barely read at the grade level for their age group, said Elijah Anderson, an urban sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Four of 10 public-school students never earn a diploma, according to a recent report on Philadelphia's dropout epidemic.

"They feel alienated," Anderson said. They embrace the street life because "it is functional. You rely on yourself."

And so, in many tough neighborhoods, the economy is made up of low-wage jobs, government-funded checks, and an "idiosyncratic, irregular underground economy of bartering, hustling, and begging," Anderson said.

Complicating that mix, single mothers and their children have lost a legal source of income to welfare reform that put five-year limits on assistance.

"In this distress, drug dealers are becoming younger and younger," Anderson said.

One narcotics cop said recently that teen dealers typically don't know their Social Security numbers. Some mfay not have them.

Since 2004, more than 2,000 Philadelphia juveniles have been arrested for selling cocaine-based drugs, the most popular product among young dealers. The largest increase in those arrests has been in the 10-to-12 age group.

More than 800 children under 18 have been arrested in Philadelphia for gun crimes since 2004, and kids are being shot at a record rate. Fourteen-year-olds have had one of the highest jumps, said Deputy Police Commissioner Patricia Giorgio Fox. Cops counted 14 shooting victims in that age group during the first eight months of 2006, compared with six victims during the same time in 2005.

"This is our future," Fox said. "Something has to make these kids see differently."

Yet Mikey thinks hustling leads to success faster than a high-school diploma.

Mikey proudly cited one 30-something dealer he knows who invested his drug money in several North Philadelphia barbershops. Another dealer opened up a recording studio.

"They went legit," Mikey said with a proud smile.

Andre Chin, 26, case manager in the probationary program Don't Fall Down in the Hood, said Mikey is one of 50 boys with whom he works who have been charged with gun and drug crimes. The youngest, he said, is a 13-year-old boy charged with selling drugs.

Mikey told him how hard it is to turn his life around, Chin said: His mother was too sick to chase after him, his father was gone, and the streets were more welcoming than his own house.

Mikey and the other boys in Don't Fall Down can save themselves only if they stay away from older drug dealers and focus on school, Chin warned.

"A lot of these kids need a father figure in their lives," Chin said. "They only have a mother at home who is busy raising four or five kids on below a minimum wage. Then there is a man on the corner who can give these boys the money that their mothers can't give them."

Pre-teen and dealing

Mikey had a rough start in life.

His mom, relatives say, busted her knees as she escaped from a West Philadelphia apartment fire with her two young daughters, three years before Mikey's birth. His mom told a Daily News reporter she's in too much pain to talk about her son.

Mikey's father lives in the Midwest and never talks to him. His two older sisters, ages 32 and 26, moved out of Abbotsford years ago, leaving their baby brother to fend for himself.

By 12, Mikey rarely went to class.

Instead, he spent his mornings hanging around Abbotsford Homes with his role model - a drug dealer with wads of cash.

The young man taught Mikey the fun side of being a hustler. He bought Mikey a PlayStation and took him on drives in his blue Pontiac and his orange Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.

He introduced Mikey to the essence of being a man in their neighborhood - hustling while armed.

"You can find an old head and he don't care that much about you," Mikey said. "He knew I had potential to stand on the block with a gun on my hip."

Mikey heeded the advice and started to sell weed.

"I didn't notice it at first," said Mikey's oldest sister, Shirley, 32. "My brother could do no wrong." (Her name has been changed to protect Mikey's identity.)

Shirley wanted to confront the older men in Abbotsford, but she knew better than to get involved with hustlers.

"They would protect him," she said. "I guess they are respected because of their quote-unquote power."

His family caught wind of his new job and sent him to live near Harrisburg with one of his adult sisters.

But Mikey couldn't give up the fast money.

His Philadelphia connections set him up with a dealing gig in his new housing project outside Harrisburg.

Mikey needed protection. He traded $50 worth of marijuana for a stolen "cowboy gun," a .22-caliber revolver.

"That is how it is in the drug game," Mikey said. "You need a gun so nobody will mess with you."

During his trips back home, Mikey studied crack: how to package it, how to make it, how to use gimmicks to persuade addicts to come back.

At 14, he was ready for a promotion.

Mikey's Abbotsford contact handed him pre-packaged baggies of crack to sell in Harrisburg. He had trouble pricing it.

"I was selling big $20 rocks for $5," he said. "I was messing my money up."

Still, Mikey became tough.

He broke juvenile curfew and cost his family a $375 fine. He pulled his cowboy gun on a group of boys who shouted in his face. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

Mikey moved back to Abbotsford and enrolled as a freshman at Roxborough High School. But instead of going to class, Mikey made money without a middleman.

He bought 8-balls, or 1/8-ounce bags of cocaine, from various dealers across the city. He carried the white powder back to Abbotsford and usually paid an addict $10 worth of the finished product to use the addict's kitchen.

The two mixed the concoction with baking soda, boiled it down with water, cooled it off, and smashed the rock into tiny pebbles.

Mikey hated the salty smell of the cooked drug, but his helper liked to take deep breaths as the white paste simmered on the stove.

At 15, Mikey had a routine. His workday began at 3 p.m., even after a typical morning of skipping school. As users called his pre-paid cell phone with their orders, Mikey raced around Abbotsford on a minibike with his crack baggies stuffed in his pockets.

When he got tired, he went to his usual spot.

"I would just walk down the strip or stand on top of the hill," he said. "People know where I would be at."

In darkness, the tree-lined complex is hidden from the city. It sits atop a nondescript hill where the grass is always cut and children play tag in the streets.

Shiny new Mercedes and Cadillacs sit doubled-parked on the complex's curvy roads. The SUVs belong to the older dealers, who often return to Abbotsford to show off their wealth, Mikey said.

He wanted to live like them and one day open a business.

When Mikey worked hard, he made more than $1,400 a night. He usually aimed to clock 15-hour shifts, especially at the beginning of the month, when addicts received their government checks.

He bought mostly clothes and fast food with the cash. Not wanting to look like a thug, he typically dressed in preppy clothes such as tapered blue jeans, Lacoste shirts and white Adidas sneakers.

Mikey, whose chubby cheeks, bright eyes and wide smile give him an innocent look, never seemed like a criminal.

But, he said, "once money touches your hand, that is all you think about."

Giving up freedom

In September 2004, cops nabbed Mikey near the old Budd Co. building on Hunting Park Avenue in East Falls with $200 worth of crack in his pockets.

Authorities learned of the outstanding warrant for his gun charge. Mikey's decision to pull out his cowboy gun had caught up with him.

Ten months later, Mikey was sentenced to Don't Fall Down in the Hood, the juvenile probationary program.

He hated it. "I'd rather do my bid" - his jail sentence - he always said.

Mikey left Roxborough for De La Salle Vocational School in Bensalem. The school gave him the chance to graduate with a high-school diploma and earn a certificate in general carpentry. Teachers told Mikey that carpenters can earn more than $90,000 a year. But Mikey didn't care. He rarely went to class and continued to sell drugs for another six months.

This past March, Mikey's mother found a pile of crack baggies in her daughter's old bedroom. Mikey admitted he sold drugs despite being on probation. Still, Chin pushed for Mikey to stay in the program and asked Mikey to promise to quit.

"He needs a male figure who is constantly there," said Chin, who believed in Mikey.

When Mikey ditched Don't Fall Down classes at Temple University, Chin drove around Abbotsford to find him.

When Mikey complained that he didn't have enough money to ride SEPTA to the university, Chin gave him tokens.

Still, Mikey became broke and frustrated.

He managed to save $4,200 during the winter, but loaned his last $800 to a friend for bail money. He was tempted to hustle. Mikey struggled to avoid the streets. He even contemplated working at a Bensalem McDonald's that paid about $7.50 an hour.

"If I got a job, I would want to hustle again," he said, explaining that he'd use hard-earned money to buy drugs and sell the dope for more.

Donnie, meanwhile, disappeared. By the end of the summer, he had left his West Kensington corner and couldn't be reached again.

In September, Mikey gave up. He saved himself the only way he knew how. He turned over his freedom, telling a judge at a scheduled hearing that he didn't want to be part of his probationary program anymore and was willing to enter a juvenile institution. Mikey knew that he didn't have the family support or the will to stay off the streets.

Mikey is now serving a minimum six-month sentence at Saint Gabriel's Hall in Audubon, Montgomery County, a boarding school for young criminals.

"I always say that a kid who asked to be placed is showing signs of maturity and is also a cry for help," Chin said. "Maybe things will work out for him."

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/16325574.htm

The Black Republican College Network

The HBCU Republican Connection is a forum for Republican HBCU students to share, debate and network.

Meet the future of the Republican party!

http://www.hbcugop.blogspot.com/

OP-ED

By Stanley Crouch

The modOP-ED: Past Can Jolt Us To A Better Futureerate-conservative columnist discusses the evolution of popular music's lessons in American culture: "I became even more convinced of the music's lessons in our culture as I looked at a recent documentary about the making of the forthcoming 'Dreamgirls' movie and two books, 'Cole Porter Selected Lyrics' and 'Motown in Love: Lyrics from the Golden Era.' "Dreamgirls" is a fictionalized story of a group of young black women with allusions to the story of Motown's Diana Ross and the Supremes.

Even if it does not live up to the hype, the film should remind audiences of one thing that they may have forgotten: Once upon a recent time there were black men and women who could sing notes and not merely chant gutter doggerel. The lyrics back then also did not constantly refer to men and women in demeaning and derogatory terms. The movie will also remind audiences that there was a time when women in the music business knew that being successful did not include embracing the looks and manners of hookers or women taking a break at a strip club."He continues: "The book of Cole Porter lyrics and the best of the Motown lyricists might surprise people who spend too much time listening to pop radio, where a good number of words are bleeped. Porter was about as good as one could get at the writing of lyrics, and he consistently showed off great invention, wit and sophistication.

It is unnecessary to compare the songs of Porter with those intended for adolescents, the target audience for many Motown songs. In their gleaming outfits, the Motown singers performed in the community theaters where young men and women went to learn something about how to express the feelings they might have for each other. Because something that strong existed in popular music it is hard to believe that it has largely disappeared and been replaced by the dreck we hear delivered by those from the world of rap. But perhaps we are only in one of the valleys on the roller coaster that this culture can so often be, reaching unprecedented highs and falling to lows so far below the sewer that we cannot believe what we are witnessing."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/scrouch/

Malcolm X Quotes

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, also known as Detroit Red and Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Omaha, Nebraska, May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965 in New York City) was a Black Muslim Minister and National Spokesman for the Nation of Islam. He was also founder of the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

During his life, Malcolm went from being a drug dealer and burglar[1] to one of the most prominent black nationalist leaders in the United States; he was considered by some as a martyr of Islam and a champion of equality. As a militant leader, Malcolm X advocated black pride, economic self-reliance, and identity politics. He ultimately rose to become a world-renowned African American/Pan-Africanist and human rights activist.

Following a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, Malcolm converted to orthodox Islam. Less than a year later he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week. Although three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of his assassination (one of whom confessed), there are several conspiracy theories positing the involvement of elements of the United States Government.


Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.


You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

I am not a racist.... In the past I permitted myself to be used...to make sweeping indictments of all white people, the entire white race and these generalizations have caused injuries to some whites who perhaps did not deserve to be hurt.

Because of the spiritual enlightenment which I was blessed to receive as a result of my recent pilgrimage to the Holy city of Mecca, I no longer subscribe to sweeping indictments of any one race. I am now striving to live the life of a true...Muslim. I must repeat that I am not a racist nor do I subscribe to the tenants of racism. I can state in all sincerity that I wish nothing but freedom, justice and equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people."

For 12 long years I lived within the narrow-minded confines of the 'straightjacket world' created by my strong belief that Elijah Muhammad was a messenger direct from God Himself, and my faith in what I now see to be a pseudo-religious philosophy that he preaches.... I shall never rest until I have undone the harm I did to so many well-meaning, innocent Negroes who through my own evangelistic zeal now believe in him even more fanatically and more blindly than I did."

"I had blind faith in him. My faith in Elijah Muhammad was more blind and more uncompromising than any faith that any man has ever had for another man. And so I didn't try and see him as he actually was."


"The thing that you have to understand about those of us in the Black Muslim movement was that all of us believed 100 percent in the divinity of Elijah Muhammad. We believed in him. We actually believed that God, in Detroit by the way, that God had taught him and all of that. I always believed that he believed in himself. And I was shocked when I found out that he himself didn't believe it. And when that shock reached me, then I began to look everywhere else and try to get a better understanding of the things that confront all of us so that we can get together in some kind of way to offset them."

-Malcolm X

Hard Questions About Hip Hop

By ERIK ECKHOLM

CHICAGO — Byron Hurt takes pains to say that he is a fan of hip-hop, but over time, says Mr. Hurt, a 36-year-old filmmaker, dreadlocks hanging below his shoulders, “I began to become very conflicted about the music I love.”

A new documentary by Mr. Hurt, “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes,” questions the violence, degradation of women and homophobia in much of rap music.

Scheduled to go on the air in February as part of the PBS series Independent Lens, the documentary is being shown now at high schools, colleges and Boy’s Clubs, and in other forums, as part of an unusual public campaign sponsored by the Independent Television Service, which is based in San Francisco and helped finance the film.

The intended audiences include young fans, hip-hop artists and music industry executives — black and white — who profit from music and videos that glorify swagger and luxury, portray women as sex objects, and imply, critics say, that education and hard work are for suckers and sissies.

What concerns Mr. Hurt and many black scholars is the domination of the hip-hop market by more violent and sexually demeaning songs and videos — an ascendancy, the critics say, that has coincided with the growth of the white audience for rap and the growing role of large corporations in marketing the music.

Ronald F. Ferguson, a black economist and education expert at Harvard, said that the global success of hip-hop had had positive influences on the self-esteem of black youths but that children who became obsessed with it “may unconsciously adopt the themes in this music as their lens for viewing the world.”

With the commercial success of gangsta rap and music videos, which portray men as extravagant thugs and women as sex toys, debate has simmered among black parents, community leaders and scholars about the impact of rap and the surrounding hip-hop culture.

“There’s a conversation going on now; a lot more people are trying to figure out a way to intervene that’s productive,” said Tricia Rose, a professor of Africana studies at Brown University.

At one extreme are critics, both black and white, who put primary blame for the failures and isolation of urban black youth on a self-destructive subculture, exemplified by the worst of hip-hop. But many of those critics, Dr. Rose said, fail to acknowledge the deeper roots of the problems. At the other extreme are people who reflexively defend any artistic expression by young blacks, saying the focus must remain on the economic and political structures that hem in minorities.

“That’s the real catch,” Dr. Rose said. “The public conversation about hip-hop is pinned by two responses, neither of them productive.”

Among blacks, to criticize rap, especially in front of the wider society, is to risk being called disloyal, said William Jelani Cobb, a historian at Spelman College in Atlanta, at a recent screening of the film in Newark. But the exaggerated image of male aggression, said Dr. Cobb, who also speaks in the documentary, actually reflects male insecurity and longstanding powerlessness, while the image of women resembles that held by 19th century slave owners.

Chris Bennett, 36, took his daughters, ages 15 and 11, to see Mr. Hurt’s film in Chicago because he said he wanted them to think about the music. Mr. Bennett, a school security guard, said he saw the effects of gangsta rap in his job. “Everyone wants to be tough now,” he said. “Everyone wants to be hard, and education has taken the background.”

The event in Chicago drew some 250 people, including several high school groups. Many of the boys were skeptical about the supposed dire influences of rap. Jock Lucas, 16, hotly argued with female students about the prevalence of lyrics that denigrate women, asserting, as many of the boys did, that a girl who dressed provocatively deserved such labels and might even like them.

“I don’t think rap is a bad influence,” Jock said. “They’re just speaking about how it goes where they come from. If the people who listen go out and do these things, it’s their own fault.”

Another high school student at the Chicago event, Vasawa Robinson, 19, said rap showed “real life” and that “if you try to show a different picture, the kids won’t want to listen.” The more political, socially conscious rap, Vasawa said, was for an older generation.

Mr. Hurt’s film includes clips from a music video by the rapper 50 Cent, from his album “Get Rich or Die Tryin’, ” in which the singer re-enacts a drive-by shooting he survived and boasts in crude terms of his power and readiness to kill his enemies.

It also includes portions of the video “Tip Drill,” an extended fantasy of male sexual domination by the rap star Nelly, who has won praise by promoting literacy and bone marrow donations, but, as the film notes, also markets a drink called Pimp Juice.

Mr. Hurt, who grew up in a black neighborhood of Central Islip, N.Y., in modest circumstances, was quarterback of the Northeastern University football team and said he had been a fanatical “hip-hop head.”

“It was music created by people your age who looked like you , talked like you, dressed like you and weren’t apologetic about it,” he said.

His views changed, he said, when, after college, he worked in a program teaching male athletes about violence against women.

“Here’s the conflict,” Mr. Hurt said. “You still love hip-hop and you love to see the artists doing well, but then you ask, ‘What are they saying? What is the image of manhood?’ ”

White males may be major customers, Mr. Hurt said, “but it influences black kids the most.”

“They’re the ones who order their days around it,” he said, “who try to conform to the script.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/us/24hiphop.html?bl&ex=1167282000&en=6a74696a57b63afa&ei=5087%0A

-I don't think rap is a bad influence," Jock said. "They're just speaking about how it goes where they come from.

False.

They're speaking about how they IMAGINE it goes when they turn their adolescent imaginations loose. They're saying anything it takes to attract the attention of a producer.

They're wondering how they can have "street cred" when the "street" involved is a naive, melodramatic fantasy. And they're doing all of this instead of getting educated and taking up the rights and duties they have coming to them. It's sad, really.

Republicans and the Civil rights movement

Image is everything especially in the business of politics and race. The picture of Lyndon Johnson siging the civil Rights act of 1964 gaves a false impression to millions that Republicans sat on there hands why Democrats passed laws for oppressed blacks in the south.

This of course is in many ways the same kind of spin the Democrats use whenb they say that Bill Clinton passed "welfare reform". The truth is he signed it into law but it was Republicans who advocated for it.

The left likes to pretend that the civil rights movement began in the 1960's any one with a basic knowledge of that time knows that such a suggestion is naive to say the very least. For the left to credit Democrats for the civil rights movement is absurd. The other myth that democrats throw around is that every single racist Democrat from that era switched to the Republican party.

But on occasion they are force to admit some survived till this day since a few are still in the parties leadership position. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was filibustered for 14 hours by Democrat Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) a former Klu Klux Klansman, and a current US Senator (still a D-WV).

FACTS
(Do Not Let Democrats Rewrite History)

The Civil Rights Act of 1964..who voted for who voted against

Vote statistics

Vote totals

Totals are in "Yea-Nay" format:
The Original House Version: 290-130 (69%-31%)
The Senate Version: 73-27 (73%-27%)
The Senate Version, as voted on by the House: 289-126 (70%-30%)

By party Vote

The original House version:
Democratic Party: 153-96 (61%-39%)
Republican Party: 138-34 (80%-20%)

The Senate version:
Democratic Party: 46-22 (68%-32%)
Republican Party: 27-6 (82%-18%)

The Senate version, voted on by the House:
Democratic Party: 153-91 (63%-37%)
Republican Party: 136-35 (80%-20%)

Switches in position:

"Yea" to "Nay": Earl Wilson (R-IN), Bob Wilson (R-CA), and Charlotte T. Reid (R-IL)
"Nay" to "Yea": John Jacob Rhodes (R-AZ), J. Edward Hutchinson (R-MI), and Charles Weltner (D-GA).

List - Republican Firsts

August 6, 1965 - Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolishing literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent African-Americans from voting, signed into law; higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats vote in favor

May 17, 1954 - Chief Justice Earl Warren, three-term Republican Governor (CA) and Republican vice presidential nominee in 1948, wins unanimous support of Supreme Court for school desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education

May 2, 1963 - Republicans condemn Democrat sheriff of Birmingham, AL for arresting over 2,000 African-American schoolchildren marching for their civil rights


July 27, 1960 - At Republican National Convention, Vice President and eventual presidential nominee Richard Nixon insists on strong civil rights plank in platform


December 16, 2003 - President George W. Bush signs law creating National Museum of African American History and Culture

November 17, 2003 - First generation immigrant, Austrian-American Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, sworn in as Governor of California

May 23, 2003 - U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduces bill to establish National Museum of African American History and Culture

May 8, 2003 - Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and other Republican leaders gather at Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, announce $1 million restoration effort

January 13, 2003 - Jennette Bradley (R-OH) becomes first African-American woman to be Lt. Governor of a state

December 20, 2000 - California Republican Ann Veneman nominated as first woman to be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

December 17, 2000 - Republican Alberto Gonzales named as first Hispanic to serve as White House Counsel by President George W. Bush

December 15, 2000 - President-elect George W. Bush nominates Colin Powell as first African-American Secretary of State

December 5, 2000 - Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) becomes first woman elected to U.S. Senate Leadership

December 3, 2002 - Jewish Republican Linda Lingle (R-HI) inaugurated as state’s first woman governor

November 26, 2002 - Republican Judy Baar Topinka becomes first woman to chair either major party in Illinois

November 13, 2002 - U.S. Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) elected as Chair of House Republican Conference; she is highest-ranking woman in House majority leadership in U.S. history

November 5, 2002 - Michael Steele, former Chairman of Maryland Republican Party, elected as first African-American Lt. Governor in state history

November 12, 2001 - President George W. Bush proclaims National American Indian Heritage Month

September 4, 2001 - Republican U.S. Senate selects Alfonso Lenhardt as first African-American Sergeant at Arms

July 25, 2001 - California Republican Gaddi Vasquez nominated by President George W. Bush as first Hispanic to be Director of the Peace Corps

May 9, 2001 - President George W. Bush nominates Miguel Estrada to be first Hispanic to serve on U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit; Democrats in Senate successfully filibuster nomination

January 11, 2001 - Republican Elaine Chao, first Asian-American woman to hold a cabinet position, nominated as U.S. Secretary of Labor

January 20, 2001 - Mississippi Republican Rod Paige is confirmed as first African-American U.S. Secretary of Education

January 22, 2001 - Republican Condoleezza Rice becomes first woman and second African-American to serve as U.S. National Security Advisor

January 24, 2001 - Republican Mel Martínez, appointed by President George W. Bush as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, becomes first Cuban-American in Cabinet

January 30, 2001 - Republican Gale Norton, appointed by President George W. Bush, becomes first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Interior

June 6, 2001 - President George W. Bush issues Executive Order enhancing federal employment opportunities for Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders

July 31, 2000 - African-American U.S. Rep. J. C. Watts (R-OK) presides over Republican National Convention in Philadelphia

April 26, 1999 - `Legislation authored by U.S. Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) awarding Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks is transmitted to President

November 28, 1989 - President George H. W. Bush establishes National Museum of the American Indian

August 20, 1996 - Bill authored by U.S. Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY) to prohibit racial discrimination in adoptions, part of Republicans’ Contract With America, becomes law

June 25, 1996 - Death of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Elbert Tuttle, appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower; eulogized for ensuring that Brown v. Board of Education became “a broad mandate for racial justice”

January 4, 1995 - SpeakerNewt Gingrich appoints Republican Cheryl Lau first Asian-American woman to serve as General Counsel of U.S. House;

January 4, 1995 - Republican Robin Carle becomes first woman elected Clerk of U.S. House

July 22, 1993 - Death of Roscoe Robinson, first African-American four-star general in the U.S. Army; promoted in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan

November 21, 1991 - President George H. W. Bush signs Civil Rights Act of 1991 to strengthen federal civil rights legislation

August 3, 1990 - President George H. W. Bush declares first National American Indian Heritage Month

July 26, 1990 - President George H. W. Bush signs Americans with Disabilities Act, world’s first comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities

May 7, 1990 - President George H. W. Bush proclaims first Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

March 8, 1990 - Republican Evan J. Kemp appointed by President George H. W. Bush
as Chairman of U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; first person with a disability to serve on the Commission

August 29, 1989 - U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) becomes first Hispanic woman and first Cuban-American in Congress

September 13, 1988 - President Ronald Reagan proclaims first National Hispanic Heritage Week

August 10, 1988 - President Ronald Reagan signs Civil Liberties Act of 1988, compensating Japanese-Americans for deprivation of civil rights and property during World War II internment ordered by FDR

May 27, 1987 - Vietnamese-American cadet Hoang Nhu Tran, former boat person, graduates as valedictorian from U.S. Air Force Academy; nominated by U.S. Senator Bill Armstrong (R-CO)

November 4, 1986 - Republican Kay Orr of Nebraska elected as state’s first woman governor;

November 30, 1983 - Clarence Pendleton completes first term as first African-American Chairman of U.S. Civil Rights Commission; appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981

November 15, 1983 - President Ronald Reagan’s nominee to Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Susan Meredith Phillips, confirmed as first woman to serve as Chairman

November 2, 1983 - President Ronald Reagan makes Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday

October 2, 1983 - President Ronald Ronald Reagan proclaims first Minority Enterprise Development Week

May 13, 1983 - President Ronald Reagan designates first national observance of American Indian Day

May 5, 1983 - Hispanic Republican Patricia Diaz Dennis appointed by President Ronald Reagan as first Hispanic woman on National Labor Relations Board; later served as FCC Commissioner under Reagan and as Regent of Texas State University under Gov. George W. Bush

February 7, 1983 - Republican Elizabeth Dole appointed by President Ronald Reagan as first woman to be U.S. Secretary of Transportation; she would later become first woman to represent North Carolina in U.S. Senate

August 12, 1982 - Hispanic Republican Faith Evans, first woman in nation to serve as U.S. Marshal, sworn in following appointment by President Ronald Reagan

June 29, 1982 - President Ronald Reagan signs 25-year extension of 1965 Voting Rights Act

December 21, 1981 - President Ronald Reagan establishes Task Force on Legal Equality
for Women

September 25, 1981 - Republican Sandra Day O’ Connor, nominated by President Ronald Reagan, is sworn in as first woman to serve on U.S. Supreme Court

September 15, 1981 - President Ronald Reagan establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to increase African-American participation in federal education programs

January 29, 1981 - Jeane Kirkpatrick appointed by President Ronald Reagan as first woman to be U.S. Ambassador to United Nations

August 9, 1988 - Lauro Cavazos, first Hispanic to serve in Cabinet, nominated by President Ronald Reagan to be Secretary of Education

July 15, 1980 - NAACP President Benjamin Hooks addresses Republican National Convention; previously appointed by President Richard Nixon in 1972 as first African-American member of U.S. Civil Rights Commission

February 19, 1976 - President Gerald Ford formally rescinds President Franklin Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII

September 1, 1975 - Gen. Daniel James receives fourth star from Republican President Gerald Ford; first African-American to hold that rank in U.S. Air Force

April 25, 1975 - Appointed by President Gerald Ford, Dick Yin Wong becomes first Asian-American to serve as judge on a U.S. District Court

March 10, 1975 - President Gerald Ford appoints Republican Carla Hills as first woman to be U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; later first woman to be U.S. Trade Representative, appointed by President George H. W. Bush

January 14, 1975 - Republican William T. Coleman nominated as first African-American to be U.S. Secretary of Transportation

July 12, 1974 - Republican National Chairman George H. W. Bush establishes Republican National Hispanic Assembly

April 24, 1974 - James M. Rogers, Jr. is first African-American selected National Teacher of the Year, by President Richard Nixon

October 1, 1973 - Richard Cavazos promoted by President Richard Nixon to be first Hispanic Brigadier General in U.S. Army; in 1982, President Ronald Reagan made him first Hispanic four–star General

February 17, 1973 - Republican Navy Secretary John Warner commissions frigate in honor of first African-American naval aviator, Jesse L. Brown, who died in combat during Korean War

October 24, 1972 - Death of Jackie Robinson, athlete and Republican civil rights activist

October 11, 1972 - Horacio Rivero, first Hispanic four-star Admiral, appointed by President Richard Nixon as U.S. Ambassador to Spain

May 14, 1971 - Republican Senators Jacob Javits (NY) and Charles Percy (IL) appoint the first female pages in U.S. Senate

April 28, 1971 - Rear Admiral Samuel Lee Gravely becomes first African-American to achieve Flag Rank in U.S. Navy, promoted by President Richard Nixon

April 23, 1971 - Republican appointee Herbert Choy becomes first Asian-American federal judge, named by President Richard Nixon to U.S. Court of Appeals

July 8, 1970 - In special message to Congress, President Richard Nixon calls for reversal of policy of forced termination of Native American rights and benefits

August 6, 1965 - Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolishing literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent African-Americans from voting, signed into law; higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats vote in favor

August 4, 1965 - Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) overcomes Democrat attempts to block 1965 Voting Rights Act; 94% of Senate Republicans vote for landmark civil right legislation, while 27% of Democrats oppose

March 21, 1965 - Republican federal judge Frank Johnson authorizes Martin Luther King’s protest march from Selma to Montgomery, overruling Democrat Governor George Wallace

June 20, 1964 - The Chicago Defender, renowned African-American newspaper, praises Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) for leading passage of 1964 Civil Rights Act

June 10, 1964 - Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) criticizes Democrat filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act, calls on Democrats to stop opposing racial equality

June 9, 1964 - Republicans condemn 14-hour filibuster against 1964 Civil Rights Act by U.S. Senator and former Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd (D-WV), who still serves in the Senate

January 27, 1964 - U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), first woman to be considered for nomination by a major party, announces candidacy for President; she finishes 2nd at Republican National Convention

May 2, 1963 - Republicans condemn Democrat sheriff of Birmingham, AL for arresting over 2,000 African-American schoolchildren marching for their civil rights

July 27, 1960 - At Republican National Convention, Vice President and eventual presidential nominee Richard Nixon insists on strong civil rights plank in platform

May 6, 1960 - President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1960, overcoming 125-hour, around-the-clock filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats

February 4, 1959 - President Eisenhower informs Republican leaders of his plan to introduce 1960 Civil Rights Act, despite staunch opposition from many Democrats

June 23, 1958 - President Dwight Eisenhower meets with Martin Luther King and other African-American leaders to discuss plans to advance civil rights

September 24, 1957 - Sparking criticism from Democrats such as Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, President Dwight Eisenhower deploys U.S. troops to Little Rock, AR to force Democrat Governor Orval Faubus to integrate public schools

September 9, 1957 - President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republican Party’s 1957 Civil Rights Act

November 6, 1956 - African-American civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy vote for Republican Dwight Eisenhower for President

July 9, 1955 - Republican attorney E. Frederic Morrow becomes first African-American executive in White House; served as advisor to President Dwight Eisenhower

May 17, 1954 - Chief Justice Earl Warren, three-term Republican Governor (CA) and Republican vice presidential nominee in 1948, wins unanimous support of Supreme Court for school desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education

http://www.marioburgos.com/2005/06/barbs-list-republican-firsts.html

Somalis Urge Muslims Worldwide To Join Jihad

Hatip to BookerRising




Somali Islamists urged foreign Muslim fighters today to join their "holy war" against Ethiopia after days of heavy fighting between Islamist and pro-government troops (hat tip: Jihad Watch). The Islamists and pro-Somali government fighters have been firing artillery and rockets at each other across frontlines since Tuesday, killing dozens and wounding hundreds. "Our country is open to Muslims worldwide. Let them fight in Somalia and wage jihad, and God willing, attack Addis Ababa," said Islamisti defense chief Yusuf Mohamed Siad "Inda'ade". The most sustained fighting to date between the two sides has heightened fears of a major regional war that would suck in Horn of Africa rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea. Diplomats fear the Somali conflict could also trigger suicide bombings in east Africa.

Ethiopia poured scorn on the Islamists' call for international support from foreign jihadists, saying it proved the "extremism" of a movement that the Ethiopian government accuses of being run by militants linked to al Qaeda. The African Union added its voice on Saturday to U.N. and Western condemnation of the fighting and urged both sides to resume peace talks.

This week's combat started after Tuesday's expiration of a deadline that the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had given Ethiopian troops protecting the government to leave the country or face war. The SICC accuses Christian-led Ethiopia, a U.S. ally in its war on terrorism, of invading Somalia and has said it would wage holy war against the Horn of Africa power.


My response: It is bad enough that Arab Muslims occupy vast tracts of Africa - a longtime occupation that very few folks will highlight, while folks whine bad nauseum about Israel's tiny sliver of real estate in the Middle East. Now black Muslims are advancing the interests of Arab Muslim jihadists and forcing Arab Muslim cultural values on black folks (e.g., Somalia's new entertainment rule, with no dancing or music....that is definitely foreign to black cultures), on our ancestral continent. Wonderful.

http://bookerrising.blogspot.com/

With ths passing of the "The Godfather of Soul", James Brown one is forced to the question what in hell happened to the days when R&B/Soul music had meaning?

Stevie, Aretha, Donny, Luther, Chaka, Lauryn and others have tried to pave the way slowly, but now that James Brown is gone that vision is being lost. More and more, artists are being signed without having one major component a true singing voice.People are complaining in large numbers that radio is boring. Instead of finding original and unique talent, labels are continually focusig on selling a look, rather than selling music.

May the God Father of Soul Dead of soul rest in peace!

A Bio of James Brown's Early life

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brown was born in the small town of Barnwell in Depression-era South Carolina as James Joseph Brown, Jr. As an adult, Brown would legally change his name to remove the "Jr." designation.

Brown's family eventually moved to nearby Augusta, Georgia. During his childhood, Brown helped support his family by picking cotton in the nearby fields and shining shoes downtown. In his spare time, Brown variously spent time either practicing his skills in Augusta-area halls, or committing petty crimes. At the age of sixteen, he was convicted of armed robbery and sent to a juvenile detention center upstate in Toccoa from 1948.

While in prison, Brown later made the acquaintance of Bobby Byrd, whose family helped Brown secure an early release after serving only three years of his sentence, under the condition that he not return to Augusta or Richmond County and that he would try to get a job. After brief stints as a boxer and baseball pitcher (a career move ended by leg injury) Brown turned his energy toward music.

Brown was married four times. He and his last wife, Tommie Raye Hynie (also cited as Tomi Rae Hynie), were married in 2001, but whether either marriage was legal is disputed. Tommie's prior 'husband' was a polygamist and thus her 3-day marriage to him should have never counted (i.e., since he cannot legally marry someone when he is already married). Based on this reasoning, the 2001 marriage is legal and she would be Mr Brown's wife. They had one child together, but according to Brown's attorney, the two never remarried. Brown also had two children by his first wife, Velma Warren, and three more by his second, Deidre Jenkins. His eldest son Teddy died in a car crash in 1973.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brown

James Brown's Body to Lie at Apollo

The body of soul singer James Brown will be returned Thursday to the site of his debut _ the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem _ so the public that saw and heard him leave a lasting impression on music can see him one last time, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Tuesday.

James Brown Olympia 1966

Ethiopian Forces Near Somali Capital

Ethiopia pressed on with its offensive against Somali Islamists and threatened to seize the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

At least two Ethiopian jets fired missiles on retreating Islamist forces, prompting the interim Somali government to claim a partial victory.

Hundreds of troops have been killed during a week of heavy artillery and mortar fighting amid fears that it could spark a wider regional conflict in the Horn of Africa.

"Ethiopian forces are on their way to Mogadishu. They are about 40 miles away and it is possible they could capture it in the next 24 to 48 hours," Somalia's ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdikarin Farah, told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The State Department signaled support Tuesday for Ethiopian military operations against Somalia, noting that Ethiopia has had “genuine security concerns” stemming from the rise of Islamist forces in its eastern neighbor.

Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos also said that the Ethiopian military acted at the request of Somalia’s internationally backed secular government, which has been resisting with little success the spreading influence of the more powerful Islamist forces.

Gallegos noted that Ethiopia has said that its action is intended to prevent further aggression by the Islamic Courts militias.

More Here & Here and if you must Al Jezzera

Ethiopians will not be playing by European Pansy rules, and as a result, in the end, the lives of tens of thousands of Somali women and hildren will be spared. Our current effort in Iraq is more bloody, for Iraqis, than it needs to be because we make war by "we want to feel good about ourselves" rules (WWTFGAO rules), which give the throat slitters and backpack bombers carte blanche.

Ethiopian airforce (imagine what they could do if they just had 4% of our air power capability?):

Combat aircraft
4 Canberra B57
20 MiG-17
28 MiG-21
19 MiG-23
26 F-5
2 Su-25
8 Su-27
Trainers
20 Aero L-39
4 Cessna T-41
16 T-33
30 T-28
36 F-86
47 Saab 91

Transport aicraft
13 An-12
2 An-26
1 An-32
3 DHC-6
13 C-47 Skytrain
2 C-54
10 C-119
2 Harbin Y-12
1 Il-14
4 C-130
1 Tu-154
1 Yak-40

Attack helicopters
5 Alouette III
2 Ka-50
16 Mi-24

Transport helicopters
1 Eurocopter Puma
6 Bell 204
16 Bell 205
2 Mi-2
22 Mi-8
2 Mi-14

Ann Coulter Educating Liberals

The Real Santa Claus

We all we all know the fat Santa Claus with the red nose who gives out gifts on Dec 25th . Most of you who read this blog think he is just a made up person but you are wrong and as with most things the truth about Santa Claus is better than fiction .

St Nicholas was born in Asia Minor during the third century in the Greek colony of Patara in the Roman province of Lycia, at a time when the region was Hellenistic in its culture and outlook.

Nicholas became bishop of the city of Myra. He was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity. He is said to have been born to relatively affluent Christian parents in Patara, Lycia, where he also received his early schooling.As the patron saint of sailors, Nicholas is claimed to have been a sailor or fisherman himself.

More likely, however, is that one of his family businesses involved managing a fishing fleet. When his parents died, Nicholas still received his inheritance but is said to have given it away to charity. So was St Nicholas a working, albeit wealthy, man who complemented his day job with caring for his congregation, or was he a full-time bishop?

The impressive list of deeds of Nicholas seems to point to the latter. This does not mean, however, that his appointment to priest or bishop meant a complete rupture with his former life. More likely this was a gradual process.Nicholas's early activities as a priest are said to have occurred during the reign of co-ruling Roman Emperors Diocletian (reigned 284–305) and Maximian (reigned 286–305) from which comes the estimation of his age. Diocletian issued an edict in 303 authorising the systematic persecution of Christians across the Empire. Following the abdication of the two Emperors on May 1, 305 the policies of their successors towards Christians were different. In the Western part of the Empire Constantius Chlorus (reigned 305–306) put an end to the systematic persecution upon his accession to the throne.

In the Eastern part Galerius (reigned 305–311) continued the persecution until 311 when he issued a general edict of toleration from his deathbed. The persecution of 303–311 is considered to be the longest in the history of the Empire. Nicholas survived this period, although his activities at the time are uncertain.

Following Galerius' death his surviving co-ruler Licinius (reigned 307–324) mostly tolerated Christians. As a result their community was allowed to further develop, and the various bishops who acted as their leaders managed to concentrate religious, social, and political influence as well as wealth in their hands. In many cases they acted as the heads of their respective cities. It is apparently in this period that Nicholas rose to become bishop of Myra. Judging from tradition, he was probably well loved and respected in his area, mostly as a result of his charitable activities. As with other bishops of the time, Nicholas's popularity would serve to ensure his position and influence during and after this period.

The destruction of several pagan temples is also attributed to him, among them one temple of Artemis (also known as Diana). Because the celebration of Diana's birth is on December 6, some authors have speculated that this date was deliberately chosen for Nicholas's feast day to overshadow or replace the pagan celebrations.

Nicholas is also known for coming to the defence of the falsely accused, often preventing them from being executed, and for his prayers on behalf of sailors and other travelers. The popular veneration of Nicholas as a saint seems to have started relatively early. Justinian I, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (reigned 527–565) is reported to have built a temple (i.e. a church building) in Nicholas's honour in Constantinople, the Roman capital of the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas