-- Napoleon Bonaparte
Skimpy reports of Malcolm Shabazz's murder
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I was in Mexico when young Malcolm Shabazz was killed. However, I just now heard about it -- three weeks later. This is unbelievable. I flew into Mexico City on May 4th (and then traveled to the west coast) and Shabazz was beaten to death, presumably by extortionist waiters, on the night of May 9th. And this news I only happened to learn via The Christian Science Monitor article about last night's mass kidnappings in Mexico City. Unbelievable!
Yesterday I read about the (white)Arizona mother jailed in Mexico because of marijuana found under her bus seat (yesterday I travelled through Mexico on the bus!) and, before that, the sensational torture and gang-rape of Spanish tourists in Acapulco plus other similar crimes to other similarly pale skinned peoples...but nothing - nothing - about Shabazz. This could be me. Or someone who looks like me. Why does this not surprise me? I'm shocked as all hell but I'm not surprised. As I write, "Mexico kidnapping" is 'trending' on Yahoo.
Why? Because it does not concern black people.
At the risk of sounding selfish, maybe even racist, Ain't this a bitch!
This could be me. Or someone who looks like me
It is very easy for white people to caution, Don't play the race card; Like rich people extolling the virtues of humility and having-not to poor people. The news of Malcolm X's grandson's killing should have blazed across headlines, if only for that weekend. But not a peep did I hear and I'm here in the country, itself. Didn't come across a remark by President Obama in the Associated Press - but I'm convinced he's a lanky phony, anyway - didn't come across a 'trending' ticker-tape, didn't come across a social network meme, and I certainly didn't hear it mentioned by anyone in passing. This could be me. Or someone who looks like me. If I disappoint white friends or fans or casual readers over this, then simply go your way. And don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.
Methinks I've had my fill of this country. Pity. I so enjoy Puerto Vallarta. The living is easy, the weather is wonderful and I have several friends here. I have connections here. There's even a burgeoning theatre group I was looking forward to working with next season. But hang it. If Mexico is a corrupt country, then that means it is filled with corrupt peoples who, by no coincidence, guide their actions by corrupt thinking. And as a man habitually thinks, so he behaves.
sitting ducks in a sea of amnesiac eye-witnesses
A nation populated by cowards who only know fear and might means we're all sitting ducks in a sea of amnesiac eye-witnesses. There is absolutely nothing to stop what happens in Mexico City or Sonora or Sinaloa or Oaxaca or Acapulco or Queretero from happening in Vallarta. Nothing. Bet your bottom dollar that when it counts, cowards, those erstwhile smiling neighbors and friends, will see nothing, hear nothing, and sure as hell, will say nothing.
Somebody who looks like me mightn't make the news. But that doesn't save the misfortune from befalling someone who looks like YOU.
I oppose same-sex marriage
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If same-sex marriage is marriageequality,
then a paved road is a solid river
If same-sex marriage is marriage
then a paved road is a solid river
Stop and smell the roses
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Here's what my work desk looks like. My writing space is full of peace and grace. Good lighting, comfortable seating and elbow room, and quiet are the principals that thwart distractions for me. Right now I have a good space: a vase of fresh flowers, indispensable laptop and my trusty journal. I've kept journals and diaries for years. It's a good habit to have. So is stopping to "smell the roses". Every now and again I buy flowers for absolutely no other reason than they are nice. And enjoying nice things makes one's day or outlook that much nicer. As the sales pitch goes, "Say it with flowers!"
Now look closely at the vase. It's a re-usable plastic invention in the shape of a decorative flower holder. It's basically just a plastic bag. So often I had to pass on buying flowers because, as a traveller, I had nothing in which to put them -- until now. So cool. And what's as nice as fresh flowers? Fresh fruit.
Life is to be enjoyed. I looove my life.
fresh flowers..fresh mangoes..and a vase made to-go
Financial myths debunked
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Craving to buy instead of renting? Or think that 401(k) is the golden nugget in your benefits package? Think again, jack! Check out these "financial expert" myths debunked.
Craving to buy instead of renting? Or think that 401(k) is the golden nugget in your benefits package? Think again, jack! Check out these "financial expert" myths debunked.
all that glitters ain't gold
The Great White Hope...is black!
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White sports fans are never short on the lookout for the reverse token player that will 'tilt' the sports (or genre e.g., Vanilla Ice, Marky Mark and Emminem) away from the cool, dominating black player and back to them. In athletic parlance it is known as the Great White Hope. And they have found it -- in Jason Collins.
They thought they had a handle on Cassius Clay (who had the audacity to convert to the Nation of Islam and fail the military draft physical) and Arthur Ashe (the little uppity wimp) and O.J. Simpson (but he sorely 'let them down') and Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods (oh they're still pissed at him). Funny how they never coddled the Williams sisters. Oh well. Now, ladies and gentlemen, as thee gay pro athlete Jason Collins couldn't be any less threatening if he were Steve Nash. Yes, there is that queer Puerto Rican boxer but, well, he just ain't black enough to be considered a "historic homosexual". Hooray-hoorah their progressive poster boy has arrived!
White sports fans are never short on the lookout for the reverse token player that will 'tilt' the sports (or genre e.g., Vanilla Ice, Marky Mark and Emminem) away from the cool, dominating black player and back to them. In athletic parlance it is known as the Great White Hope. And they have found it -- in Jason Collins.
They thought they had a handle on Cassius Clay (who had the audacity to convert to the Nation of Islam and fail the military draft physical) and Arthur Ashe (the little uppity wimp) and O.J. Simpson (but he sorely 'let them down') and Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods (oh they're still pissed at him). Funny how they never coddled the Williams sisters. Oh well. Now, ladies and gentlemen, as thee gay pro athlete Jason Collins couldn't be any less threatening if he were Steve Nash. Yes, there is that queer Puerto Rican boxer but, well, he just ain't black enough to be considered a "historic homosexual". Hooray-hoorah their progressive poster boy has arrived!
The devil coaches basketball (VIDEO)
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Here is a SNL skit with the very funny - and not just because she's fat - Melissa McCarthy coaching basketball that would make Bobby Knight and Mike Rice, those dicks, proud.
Here is a SNL skit with the very funny - and not just because she's fat - Melissa McCarthy coaching basketball that would make Bobby Knight and Mike Rice, those dicks, proud.
Happy Easter. Don't plan on Jesus showing up
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In the spirit of the holiday here's a brief but thought-provoking read on the modern question WWJD?
"Sorry! Here's Why Jesus Wouldn't Join Today's Church" Damn, really? With a title like that who wouldn't be curious to read Jack Spatafora's article on Chicago Now.
And here's my little take on Holy Week in Mexico or, as it's called in Spanish, Semana Santa.
In the spirit of the holiday here's a brief but thought-provoking read on the modern question WWJD?
"Sorry! Here's Why Jesus Wouldn't Join Today's Church" Damn, really? With a title like that who wouldn't be curious to read Jack Spatafora's article on Chicago Now.
And here's my little take on Holy Week in Mexico or, as it's called in Spanish, Semana Santa.
Tomas Young dying young
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Don't just hate Bush Administration for being "compassionate conservatives" or for transforming our national surplus into years of saddling debt. Despise Bush & Cheney for the same reasons we pride ourselves on despising other lying warmongers: thirst for wealth and power at the cost of misguided lives.
Tomas Young was one of hundreds of delusional youth who enlisted in the military in the wake of 9/11. The economy wasn't great then either and the allure of the military begins to look more and more like a very tempting and "responsible" decision (he married young, besides) but the 22-year old Young signed up out of patriotism, not as a calculated career move. I almost did the same.
That was 2004.
Now it's 2013 and Young has a new dying wish: to see the former vice president and his proxy express remorse...instead of backslapping on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War. And by 'dying' we mean just that. Young and his wife have chosen hospice care. Click above to read an excerpt of his Last Letter.
Don't just hate Bush Administration for being "compassionate conservatives" or for transforming our national surplus into years of saddling debt. Despise Bush & Cheney for the same reasons we pride ourselves on despising other lying warmongers: thirst for wealth and power at the cost of misguided lives.
Tomas Young was one of hundreds of delusional youth who enlisted in the military in the wake of 9/11. The economy wasn't great then either and the allure of the military begins to look more and more like a very tempting and "responsible" decision (he married young, besides) but the 22-year old Young signed up out of patriotism, not as a calculated career move. I almost did the same.
Iraq veteran's 'Last Letter' to Bush AdministrationHe got his wish. He was sent into combat. Only it wasn't in Afghanistan where the bad guys supposedly originated (or Saudi Arabia where some of the terrorists' funding flowed) but, oddly, Iraq. Anywho, he was dying for action and, man, did he get it fast. Less than a week into his first tour Young's convoy was blasted by insurgents (you all remember that word, right?) leaving him paralyzed and dependent on life-providing medicines.
That was 2004.
Now it's 2013 and Young has a new dying wish: to see the former vice president and his proxy express remorse...instead of backslapping on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War. And by 'dying' we mean just that. Young and his wife have chosen hospice care. Click above to read an excerpt of his Last Letter.
Google + hinders 'blog access
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Thanks to the ever-encroaching arms of Google, some of us are experiencing obstacles in accessing our 'blogs.
Namely, forced subscription to GOOGLE +.
Thanks to the ever-encroaching arms of Google, some of us are experiencing obstacles in accessing our 'blogs.
Namely, forced subscription to GOOGLE +.
(read more at Don't Go To Canuckistan)
No mas Niemans
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Well it's going on a month and La Maestra, Sra Gordillo is STILL in jail.
Mexicans are great at laughing at other people's misfortunes. Case in point: last week I saw a T-shirt in a souvenir shop with a caricature of Gordillo's surgically altered mug behind a window of bars. Attached to her black&white prison stripes is a red tag which reads: NO MAS MARCUS (No more Marcus)
A very, very clever pun at her infamous Nieman Marcus shopping spree.
Well it's going on a month and La Maestra, Sra Gordillo is STILL in jail.
Mexicans are great at laughing at other people's misfortunes. Case in point: last week I saw a T-shirt in a souvenir shop with a caricature of Gordillo's surgically altered mug behind a window of bars. Attached to her black&white prison stripes is a red tag which reads: NO MAS MARCUS (No more Marcus)
A very, very clever pun at her infamous Nieman Marcus shopping spree.
Elba Esther Gordillo
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The bride of Chucky sits in a jail. Not a metaphorical opulent palace providing for everything - sans the freedom of mobility - like the beautiful Taj Mahal or even the seat of power, the White House, which has, at times, been referred to by its occupants as something of a prison ("A cross between a nunnery and a penitentiary," remembered Susan Ford, daughter of President Gerald Ford) but, rather, an actual real as hell Mexican jail. Specifically, the weirdly named, Santa Martha Acatitla prison in Mexico City.
An incarceration hole named after a christian saint. Talk about a mind fuck!
Showy, brash, divisive Elba Esther Gordillo, a self-made caricature and political fixture of the country's standard bearer PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) forgot two important axioms:
The bride of Chucky sits in a jail. Not a metaphorical opulent palace providing for everything - sans the freedom of mobility - like the beautiful Taj Mahal or even the seat of power, the White House, which has, at times, been referred to by its occupants as something of a prison ("A cross between a nunnery and a penitentiary," remembered Susan Ford, daughter of President Gerald Ford) but, rather, an actual real as hell Mexican jail. Specifically, the weirdly named, Santa Martha Acatitla prison in Mexico City.
An incarceration hole named after a christian saint. Talk about a mind fuck!
Showy, brash, divisive Elba Esther Gordillo, a self-made caricature and political fixture of the country's standard bearer PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) forgot two important axioms:
- She's an ambitious woman in a man's world (not to mention - cough - Mexico!)
- Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Senora Gordillo also forgot about her people...her humble beginnings as a school teacher...her purported purpose in politics and life: to advance the formal education of Mexican students which, in turn, produces educated & civil members of society. Whether the charges of embezzlement stick are moot.
As the head of the immensely powerful teacher's union for the past 23 years (in October she won re-election to another 6-year term) this lady qualifies as a kingfish; And she behaved as a kingfish. She preferred to enrich herself and cronies, living the life of a big spender - a celebrity - while her very constituents, teachers, pinch pesos to make ends meet until they can plant enough besos on the right asses to eat from the trough themselves.
I don't know what the state of general education was like two decades ago and I'm sure it has improved since then, but in the many years I've been coming to Mexico I often wonder "Why aren't these children in school?", "Why aren't these children in bed on a school night?" and "Is school attendance mandatory in Mexico?"
Methinks she looks like the Bride of Chucky.
Remember the cute but demented murderous doll?
If you scream in Acapulco does it make a sound?
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Mexican authorities have arrested six men this morning in connection with the unbelievable assault and gang-rape of Spanish tourists last week at an Acapulco resort. I caution you to hold the applause: The policia is known for manhandling and arresting innocent people as well as working with known bad guys. Corruption is rife in Mexico.
You'll notice I said 'disturbing' instead of 'shocking'. Humanity's cowardice doesn't shock me anymore; but it still sickens the shit out of me.
Mexican authorities have arrested six men this morning in connection with the unbelievable assault and gang-rape of Spanish tourists last week at an Acapulco resort. I caution you to hold the applause: The policia is known for manhandling and arresting innocent people as well as working with known bad guys. Corruption is rife in Mexico.
read more about the incident hereThat Mexican bandits perpetrated their criminality with impunity in Acapulco is not so shocking. Unfortunately it really isn't. That they, thus far, have gotten away with it is not so shocking either...nor that it took over two days for arrests to be made. What is most disturbing, however, is that police didn't have a chance to apprehend the thug rapists sooner. Throughout the three-hour ordeal of drinking and raping none of the neighbors - NOT ONE - responded to the desperate screams and shouts of these women and their bound male counterparts.
You'll notice I said 'disturbing' instead of 'shocking'. Humanity's cowardice doesn't shock me anymore; but it still sickens the shit out of me.
Jesse Jackson, Jr
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Ain't easy being greasy. And, oh, has Jesse Junior learned that the embarrassing way. Gone - or, at least, dashed - are the grand dreams of "moving on up" to Washington. Had so much going for him. And now it's gone with the wind. Not to say that a comeback isn't possible; but you've got to have the chops and a mighty, mighty big set of brass balls for it (e.g., Silvio Berlusconi, Marion Barry, Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown).
It is curious that President Obama never pulled Jesse Junior within his administration. Then again Obama hasn't pulled any black brothers up.
Ain't easy being greasy. And, oh, has Jesse Junior learned that the embarrassing way. Gone - or, at least, dashed - are the grand dreams of "moving on up" to Washington. Had so much going for him. And now it's gone with the wind. Not to say that a comeback isn't possible; but you've got to have the chops and a mighty, mighty big set of brass balls for it (e.g., Silvio Berlusconi, Marion Barry, Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown).
It is curious that President Obama never pulled Jesse Junior within his administration. Then again Obama hasn't pulled any black brothers up.
don't cry for me Illinois
Beyonce shows you better than she can tell you
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You know the phrase Acta non verba? Well this is it:
You know the phrase Acta non verba? Well this is it:
makes me proud to be an American.
God bless the USA!
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