The fast is over ...

... the fast is over, buh-da bye bye!!!
Cue the DJ, call the cable company and plug up my TVs, my self-induced TV fast is nearly over. Today is the last day that I go without my favorite glowing box of entertainment.
The last day I remember watching TV was Sunday, June 29. I don't remember what I watched nor do I remember why I didn't watch the following Monday. I only remember sitting in the 11 a.m., worship service at New Jerusalem Cathedral in Greensboro beside fellow blogger Sheletha.
I had been contemplating a fast to complete my business plan for my nonprofit organization. That Sunday, the pastor spoke about getting off track and using other vices to keep you from accomplishing your calling. My vices of choice were fear and that dang contraption.
While I think my fast has proven that I can go with out TV, it was the fear that kept me from moving forward with my ideas. And here's the kicker, I wasn't afraid of failure, I was afraid that the thing might be successful. This just might work!
I am happy to report that during this fast, I have been able to face, not only my fear, but so many other things that were laying dormant in my psyche.
You know, you learn a lot about yourself when you're forced to spend time alone with yourself. I can honestly say that I really know me now and I ain't half bad. Of course I am constantly trying to improve myself but I am really happy with who I am at this time in my life.
This fast was good for me but I am in no rush to do it again. I have been going through Law & Order withdrawals and CNN cravings. Quite frankly, I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. Just think, tonight at midnight, I can watch Larry King Live and then at 1, Anderson Cooper 360.
I can hardly wait!

Some people should just ...

... shut the hell up sometimes.
OK peeps, consider this a warning, I am a little more irritable than normal so this post may seem a little like I'm extra pissed off.
So, I was doing my daily rounds on CNN and I happened to see a video about a "shock jock" making downright dumb assessments about children with autism.
In case you opt not to follow the link, radio host Michael Savage made this comment:
"You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is, in 99 percent of the cases it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out ... what do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them 'don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life, stop acting like a putz. Straighten up, act like a man, don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot' ..."
I'm not sure how familiar you guys are with autism but, according to the Autism Society of America, autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others.
It is defined by a certain set of behaviors and is what is called a "spectrum disorder" that affects each person differently and to different degrees. There isn't a known single cause but a lot of mother suspect, and I do too, that it has something to do with all these vaccinations they're shooting kids up with now.
To my knowledge, there aren't any kids in my family on the spectrum and for that I'm thankful because I wouldn't want them to have to deal with the ignorance being spewed by Savage and a whole lot of other folks who don't recognize the seriousness of autism.
A blogger buddy of mine, Kim Stagliano has three girls who are all on the spectrum. She is the managing editor of the blog "Age of Autism" and writes on her self-titled blog. There's a wealth of information about the disease on the first blog and in the second one she shares a lot about her person experiences and what she endures daily as the mother of three children on the spectrum.
While autism is certainly not new, we've been hearing a lot about it because more and more kids are being diagnosed as on the spectrum. To my recollection, Oprah has done a couple of shows about parents who have children with autism. Two stick out because I remember a black man who looked drained and frustrated because of what he and his wife are going through with his son.
I also remember the show where Oprah talked to celebrities who have children who are on the spectrum. You guys probably know that Jenny McCarthy, Holly Robinson Peete and Toni Braxton all have children with autism. Toni Braxton sticks out in my mind because her son had recently been diagnosed and she spent a large part of the show in tears.
There are symptoms that kids on the spectrum show. Check out this video for some of those symptoms:


I do hope you all take a few minutes and do a little research to find out about autism. It's high time we all become aware.

They're at it again ...

... this time in Dayton, Ohio. Police in that Midwest city tasered a blind lady in her own home.
So, here's the situation. The police show up to this woman's house looking for her son. She is on the telephone when they get there. They obviously ask for her son, everybody heard the woman say that her son was not there. The woman says that the officers tried to make her get off the phone and when she told them no, they grabbed her and threw her on the futon. At some point, the woman ends up on the floor and an officer uses a taser on her.
Because the name of the game is CYA (cover yo' ass), of course the police are saying that she was combative when she opened the door and claims that she punched one of the officers.
The police spokesman says,"She was able to force herself down on to the floor and not be cooperative, grabbing on to the detective. A taser was dry stunned onto her arm to control her hand movement, then she was cuffed."
Keep in mind that this woman is blind and neighbors and family members say that she was robbed and assaulted by someone who knocked on her door claiming to be the police. So if she was swinging on them, she was justified.
Not only is this woman blind, she is also sick. She also has cancer. I don't know what kind because that has not been reported. But regardless, that taser had to wreak havoc on whatever kind of treatment she's been receiving.
For those of you who don't know, a taser is a weapon used to push electroshock waves through a person's body to cause muscle contractions or spasms to render the person incapacitated. So in other words, the thing shocks you into submission. It is called "less-lethal" force because in theory it won't kill the person on the receiving end of all that voltage and there are no stray bullets so bystanders won't get hit.


It is true that bystanders won't get hit but I don't know about it being less lethal. It's certainly not humane. I don't know if you've ever had a muscle spasm but that crap is no walk in the park. Muscle spasms are violent, involuntary episodes that you have have to endure until they are over. Why would anyone want to inflict that on anyone is beyond me.
Granted, if someone is coming at you swinging a weapon or you know that they are coming toward you and can actually cause harm, that is one thing. But to use a taser on someone you can control with a side step or a simple hold it ridiculous.
During my sabbatical from journalism in 2006, I worked with kids with behavior problems and granted I did want to shoot those bad a-- kids with something but there are ways to restrain folks without using voltage. I know grown people, in theory, are bigger and stronger than kids. But, those same holds work on grown people too.
I don't understand why the cops are so taser happy. I think if they all had to take a taser in the ass they'd be a little less likely to use that dang thing on people at the drop of a hat.
I hope that lady sues the city and gets enough money to pay her medical bills and then some! ***SMH***
That just don't make no damn sense!!!

Crocodile tears?

So, I was checking my e-mail earlier today and someone sent me a link to watch a video of Elizabeth Hasselbeck crying on The View - again.
The unique thing about this is her tears came during a heated discussion about use of the word Nigger, Nigga or however you want to spell it. One of the hot topics was of course the video of The WRONG Rev. Jesse Jackson using the word at the same time he mentioned his desire of neutering the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
Since there are now two black women on the show, of course the entire panel was looking to them to "explain" why it is OK for black people to use it but not white people. This probably the dumbest segment of hot topics I've ever watched.
Take a look:


Of course, anytime the word nigger/nigga comes up in conversation amongst a crowd of racially mixed people it's going to get heated. I didn't expect Hasselbeck to cry and I didn't expect the ignorance that flew from Sherri Shepherd's mouth on the subject. I have heard the argument that Whoopi Goldberg has about the word having as much power as you give it. I've listened to my brothers and my cousins and in some cases some of my best friends who defend themselves by saying "it means ignorant" and they grew up using it.
I got news for some of you guys who think the word nigga means ignorant. That's not what it means. Take a few minutes and look the word up in the dictionary, it'll piss you off.
The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines the word as:
nigger:1. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a. a black person.
b. a member of any dark-skinned people.
2. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a person of any race or origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant, etc.
3. a victim of prejudice similar to that suffered by blacks; a person who is economically, politically, or socially disenfranchised.
In the description, Dictionary.com states that nigger is probably the most offensive word in the English language. I'm going to have to agree with that. How is that word endearing?
I think it is agreed that words do have power. I think that we as bloggers have no choice but to agree because why else would we further exhaust ourselves after a full day's work, some of us write for a living, just for the sake of putting words together.
Since we know words have power, we should assume that their definitions and origins should as well. I've already addressed this in a much early post but since this keeps coming up, it may warrant redundancy.
The word nigger is derived from the Latin word nigre which means black. Some where around the 1700s, some southern slave owner got a hold of the word and butchered it and it derived into the racial slur that it is.
I don't, won't and will not ever use the term "the n-word" because I think it takes away the power and seriousness of the word. It should never be shortened or otherwise disregarded because it does carry a lot of weight.
The first time I ever remember hearing the word in a song was in Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman." After that, rappers picked it up and you started hearing it in all their songs. Rappers began describing themselves, their friends and their enemies as niggas.
Personally, I think the gratuitous use of the word is a testament to the hate that so many black folks have for themselves. Whether it is sub-conscious, subliminal or blatant, a lot of us do hate ourselves and how could we not? It's what we've been taught and fed throughout history. It's in everything that we do.
Going back to slavery, our ancestors were not viewed as people, they were viewed as livestock and treated as such. They were beaten and degraded and they passed that along to their children who in turn passed it on to their children.
We have come a very long way and I am thankful, but there are some things that we have yet to let go of and this word is one of those things. It saddens me that we continue to degrade ourselves and piss on the memories of our great ancestors with not only this word but some of the downright ignorance that we subject ourselves to on a regular basis.
I don't want to get up on my soapbox but I think it is high time we kill the word. Hell, the NAACP had a funeral for it, buried it and everything and it has risen again. How in the hell do we expect the rest of America to stop treating us like niggers when we insist on identifying ourselves as such and acting that way?
Because of this, I can see why some white folks in America would be confuzzled as to why they can't use it. Hell, I wonder the same thing. I get offended when anybody, and I mean anybody calls me a nigger. If you call me a nigger/nigga, be prepared to fight me.
I won't lie, I've used it before. People in my family, my parents included, use the word - often. But I'll tell you what, if I call somebody a nigger/nigga, I mean to offend them. Shoot, every time I hear somebody use it, I take it as a teaching moment and tell them why I don't want to hear it. Now, they get tired of me bringing it up and now I rarely hear it when I'm around. We've got to police ourselves.
It's going to take some of us "educated and enlightened" folks to keep saying until it gets on their nerves to the point where they will stop saying it. Better yet, let's try to get us all some help to deal with why it is we hate ourselves so much that we have to to degrade ourselves every chance we get. Then, let's stop using it. Let's start one person at a time and we won't have to have dumb ass conversations like that one.