Race and Health

it’s time to start acknowledging what ‘they’ have known and we’ve suspected for sometime….watch the videos, get the book and decide for yourself.

Morality mixup

“The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said its 2006 report showed Alabama has one of the nation’s highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases.”

how is it possible the same state that ranks 2nd, 4th, and 5th for 3 different STD’s would want to prosecute someone under the hate crime status for defacing a “monument”.

and what of education you say? 45th!

For whom the vote goes?

Once again I find myself posting a blog on something that I said I wouldn’t partake: The upcoming presidental election, pre-election debauchery. I held off as long as I could, as it is a part of daily news coverage from what I see of it. And as a person who did not vote for the encumbent president (omg, is that unpatriotic), I have to ask: Can we afford to leave the next election in the hands of those who got us into this current snag, shall we say?

I’m talking about the one’s with the “W ‘04″ stickers on their cars. It’s difficult to say what might have happened in lieu of the current situation, but it sure leaves plenty of room for wonder.

Which also begs the question, why should we listen to their oracles in Iowa? New Hampshire? California? Seriously. I’m always up for a persuasive argument. Surely 62,040,610 people didn’t have the wool pulled over their eyes. Now some of those same people are disappointed on how the president is spending their precious ‘political capital’.

In addition, 52,505,022 voters who unassumingly altered the course on which we now travel also deserve a swift kick in the rear-at least 1,226,257 of them. That’s the number of eligible voters it would have taken to “win” the election. Then again, with the electoral college and the power of the “justice” department, it really doesn’t matter how many people voted.

parental involvement

i did not intend for this to be a place where i blogged about my everyday life but oh well….

recently, my son asked if he could borrow the dvd player to use in his room one day while i was on the phone (no he doesn’t have one already and not for the upcoming reason). i quickly said no sensing he was up to something.  i told my friend with whom i was talking what I suspected. i figured he’d been over one of his friend’s house- one in particular who has an older brother-and got something he wanted to see. 

fast forward 2 weeks: i just happened to go into his room to take some clean clothes-seriously!-and ran across what i thought was one of my cd’s, which he often borrows, leaves on the floor and/or never puts back. not the case this time. it was a ‘girls gone wild’ dvd. shocked and amazed is was! not that my son would ever do such- just that is was THAT! that cheap, exploitative stuff. the epitome of trash, in my humble opinion.

i’m not coy, but that brand of entertainment inherently seems disgusting. and before some first amendment purist jumps down my throat, i understand his right, but with rights come duties.  and it’s his duty (he accepted the duty when he accepted money on behalf of his company from sales) to respect the rights of the girls that went wild, even if they themselves don’t.

i pondered greatly on how to approach this with my son. i cannot very well allow him to pursue this avenue of self-discovery. while seeking advice on the matter with friends, male and female, whom that have and don’t have children, and the best advice (and more aligned to my own) was to explain to him not the “wrongness” of his actions–let’s face it sexuality is real–but to focus more on the essence of the matter; the fact remains, the products produced by that company are done manipulatively. 

In actuality, its not a far cry from what goes on everyday: people getting into things (jobs, marriages, business dealings, voting!) without full understanding of what that ’something’ is.  whether it is lack of disclosure or investigation. Point is information is premier.

as i type, i realize this is a complex vexing that touches on a variety of tangents, like do you respect someone else’s rights even if they don’t reciprocate? and the deal between rights and duties.

just so you know, i email my son and requested a response. i figured it was a way for him to ‘talk’ to me without the embarassment associated with the sex talk. everyone knows that my son and i have a pretty open relationship but that’s me…he’s still shy, or so i thought.

is this legal

looks like the people aboard the plane that burst into flames in Hawaii will receive 100 bucks for their inconveinence.  is that legal? no rhetoric here, i’m really looking for an answer

the bigger picture

thought this article very interesting. i’m sure this isn’t new for something like this to happene but it’s the first time i can recall it having a significant impression on me. maturity perhaps.

what’s the difference between randsom and bail? depends on where you stand.

que pasa?

Internet Radio

A place to rave (or rant), share musical coincidences, artist discoveries, tech support, etc. about Yahoo!LauchCast Plus. For the novice, its a service offered by Yahoo to help its’ users create a personalized radio station. Its a program similar to what Google uses…from what I understand. And I am in no way a programmer, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn once :-/

Anyway, for the price I’d say it’s a steal. However, paying for the services was after, of course, I (and my best friend if I recall correctly) discovered that you only get so many plays per month on Yahoo without an upgraded package. We’d listened to it before but never did we run out of songs until this one day. Travesty I say! That and despite the fact when I did decide to pay on a per-month basis, I had to receive several credits due to some malfunction where I couldn’t listen to the radio that I was paying for! I was peeved to say the least. But I stayed loyal. Almost.

I got fed up and left and tried AOL’s thing….whaddaycallit? It was ok, but it didn’t know me. My likes, my dislikes. The station choices were more narrow, or so it seemed. Had I become one of those people I said I never would be ? You know, the one’s so use to the familiar until too afraid to fully experience something new. It felt like had very little control.

Lest I forget, there was one thing that I did like. Chuck D has/had? a radio show and I just so happen to catch it one day. That’s how I got up on Madlib. (Thanks Chuck!) All in all, I figured the “radio” was also included in the price of the AOL service, which was superhighway robbery within itself. How I sorely missed my Yahoo.

For a year and a half I went back and forth with Yahoo! about my service. Tech support sucked. There was absolutely NO ONE to TALK to. All correspondances were done via email. I think I had more non-service than service. But yet I stuck it out. Febuary ‘07, I decided to go all out and pay for an entire year of service. 42 bucks. I’d spend that on dinner outting with my friends or with my son and his friends–no harm, no foul. Albeit to say, there where technical problems at the beginning. Windows Media Player upgrade whatnot. Overall though, I am extraordinarily happy.

You know, all this talking has me thinking…AOL, Yahoo, Google….XM Radio, a computer program that anticipates your internet search and music choice preferences…the value in the freedoms of choice and privacy, all in pursuance of a common good?….

Anywho! I’ll be posting comments along with the rest of you…so let’s start talking!

Steps to free enterprise.

1) Read this article .

2) Educate yourself on real deal with taxes, tariffs, and other price controls.

3) Exercise your rights.

Trick memory, sliding scale of justice.

I hate to do it. I hate to comment on things happening in the news that I don’t consider newsworthy, but this whole thing with Michael Vick is taking its toll on me.

In the middle of my workout, a lady out of nowhere asks me, “What do you think about this whole thing?” and without giving me time to respond, answers herself “I think it’s terrible. Anyone who would do that to an animal has got to have some problems.” Well.

As the breaking news story broke across the television and she finished her soliloquy, I chimed in by saying, “What I really wonder his how much time and productivity is being lost by all those people standing outside the courthouse? I wonder who’s paying for that.”

I just find it interesting how we can become totally oblivious to common sense when absorbed with passion.

From the circus outside the courts to the “big tent” of Capitol Hill, where Senator Byrd made comments regarding the pending case but careful not to mention Vicks’ name, the most senior senator managed to convey his deepest sympathies to all the animals’ and the people who love them:

“I am confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God’s creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt.”

This from a man who served time as a local leader in the KKK. Hypocrity runs deep. In all fairness, according to Byrd, he only served for a short time, later calling his decision to join the group “immature” and a “mistake”. How is it, you may wonder, that he is able to ask and be forgiven of his sins against humanity but can turn make a statement suggesting he wouldn’t mind attending another execution-over animal crueltiy?

This is in no way an attempt to spin what may or may not have happened on that property in Virgina but it is an opportunity for some serious self-evaluation. Are you quick to align yourself with a notion (or person) that reflects your beliefs or are you open to seeing things from a different perspective that challenges what you think you know?