The Enormity of the Moment

History has been made! Were you there? Share your experience......

The Post Obama Civil Rights Paradigm

I was part of an interesting discussion and thought it would be good to serve it up at Brother's Place. Is there a need for the Civil Rights organizations of yesteryear? What is the purpose of the SCLC? The co-founder, Joseph Lowery did the benediction at the inauguration and prayed for "the red man to get ahead man". The red man has gotten ahead, or the closest thing to it...casino's. That may be a little facetious, but you get the point. Another question, with a black president in office, does this put out the fires that have fueled black fraternities and sororities up to now?

Interested to hear what the brothers think. Either way, the electing of a BLACK president has to cause a reassessment.

My Man Madoff...50 Billion

How do you swindle $50 BILLION out of anyone, with a name like Bernard? He had to be the only Bernard ever to receive money from the Jewish community, except for that $100 Bernard Jackson won in the Passover Brownie eating contest at his high school classmates bar mitzvah(excuse my attempt at a Dennis Miller rant). But either way, Bernard Madoff was able to have individuals, corporations, churches and non-profits give him billions of dollars without any paperwork? Obviously none of his victims went to an HBCU because everyone knows rule #1, "You got to have your paperwork". Moreover, this is my main issue with the entire situation, one must feel extremely comfortable with doing business this way if they are willing to part with that type of coin on a handshake, with the promise x return and no questions asked. It's tough for me to think he accumulated this monumental amount of money all from first time "investors". And if that's true, you're telling me these "investors" have actually "invested" this way before and received 'x' return without even seeing the company letter head?

So I guess my question really is, will America ever get out of debt, if the way we do business is to fall for the best pansy scheme?

Say Man, What's Behind that Curtain Pt. II: OJ Convicted to 15 Years

OJ Simpson has been convicted to 15 years in prison. He is eligible for parole in five years.

OJ is obviously guilty, but what is more interesting is how much evidence they had. The judge, in so many words said she had never had this much evidence in a case and IT WAS ALL ON TAPE.

Why would an illegal memorabilia dealer set up audio recorders to tape his own illegal transactions? That's like a computer hacker saving all his stolen id's and passwords on the desktop of his own laptop.

What do you think about The Juice?

Today is World AIDS Day. Here are some alarming statistics:

• Blacks bear the brunt of the AIDS epidemic in America. The number of new HIV infections in Blacks was 1.6 times the number in whites
• Blacks carry the bulk of the epidemic among women. While men accounted for two-thirds of new infections among Blacks, the infection rate among Black women is 15 times higher than among their white counterparts. High-risk heterosexual contact accounted for 80% of new infections among Black women.
• Black gay and bisexual men under 30 are hardest hit. Black "men who have sex with men" between the ages of 13 and 29 had infection rates roughly twice that of their white and Latino counterparts. This group had the highest number of infections of any other subset of gay and bisexual men.

Is there any explanation for these disproportionate figures? Are Blacks more promiscuous? Are Blacks more genetically inclined to receiving HIV? Are Blacks less educated about AIDS?

What do you say?

The Black College Xperience Video Game

Did you see the Bayou Classic on Saturday? The Grambling State Tiger's (my wife's alma mater) finally beat the Jaguars of Southern University 29-14. But more exciting than the game, was the battle of the bands. Who do you think won? It's very difficult to tell with the limited split coverage that doesn't even include the best part....THE BREAKDOWN. NBC is covering the battle of the bands much better now, but someone has to let them know about the BREAKDOWN. But even more exciting than the Battle of the Bands was the introduction of The Black College Football Xperience, the Doug Williams edition (see the commercial above). The advertisement got me geeked and I don't even own a XBox, Playstation or Nintendo WII. I wonder if they are considering making a classic version for the Atari 2600? Even if not, this would make a cool gift for your cousin, nephew , mentee, etc.

There is one thing I wonder though.....what part of the Black College Xperience do you think they forgot to add?

Comments please, we're ready to laugh....

Say Man, What's Behind that Curtain.....pt. I

If you haven't heard, after February 17, 2009 you will no longer be able to receive a free analog signal to your television antenna without a converter box. I'm sure this isn't a big deal for most because many are already paying for Cable, Direct TV, Dish Network, etc. which will not be affected. For those that don't pay for television I imagine the question is where do I get a converter box and how much does it cost. These are logical questions, and the answers can all be found at https://www.dtv2009.gov/, but be prepared to be perplexed. First, you can get them almost anywhere (Target, Radio Shack, Wal-Mart, etc) and second they only cost about $30 - $70. But wait, if you act now you can apply for assistance.......government assistance. All you have to do is go to https://www.dtv2009.gov/ApplyCoupon.aspx and you can get $40 gift cards (2 maximum) that can be used at all of the retailers that offer these boxes. So that's free for the low end models, with no brand recognition. Sounds nice and easy, right?

Have you ever heard the saying, "If it's too good to be true, it probably is"? Since when has the government been so gracious and generous that out of the kindness of their hearts they are willing to give every household something free of charge? The welfare system might come to mind, but even then it's not like you go to the office and they ask, "How much money do you want"? There is a real application process and background check to make sure everything is kosher. And at the end of the day, you know it comes from taxes. Wait-a-minute, is the government using my tax dollars, so that we can have converter boxes and ensure that we are most informed and don't get left behind by "The Jones's" and their new technologies? I didn't know the government knighted new technologies and freely gave them to the people? That is so thoughtful. They really do care about me and my well being? And all this time, I thought big government was wasteful and small government was voluntary irresponsibility, but they really are looking out for me.

The American auto industry is going bankrupt, greenhouse gas emissions are at an all-time high(wink-wink), unemployment is skyrocketing, 1 in 10 workers are directly affected by this mess, but there is technology that creates hybrid and electric cars that reduces the affects of global warming and the government can't figure out what to do about this "crisis"? I smell a RAT. Why don't they just cut to the chase and put a converter box in our hybrid cars so they can show us what they want us to see while they drive us to where they want us to go and do it all via satellite. But look on the brighter side, they'll probably be able to beam your favorite artist into your passengers seat to make the ride a little more enjoyable.