round 5

odds and ends

2005-08-01T01:17:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting article from the NY Times about how the ethnicity of those preparing your food frequently does not match the ethnic cuisine itself. Anybody that hasn't lived under a rock for the past twelve years has witnessed this ironic, but logical, trend. Despite its perennially craptastic Op/Ed page and slanted presentation of real news, the NY Times is still unmatched in its coverage of benign personal narratives and neighborhood meddlings.

I saw this message on Mason's webpage yesterday: As of Monday, Aug. 1, several parking lots and portions of others will be closed permanently to make room for construction of Housing VII in the northeast sector of the Fairfax Campus. Why this school insists on tacking Roman numerals to every construction project is a mystery. Is it really that hard to assign some generic, uninspiring name to a bunch of college dorms before they get built? The last two residential projects built on campus (presumably Housing V and VI) are Liberty Square and Potomac Heights. Just end the suspense and speculation and call the new digs Living-on-Campus-Sucks-Ass Village.

Heard on the radio today that Prince George's County reached its 99th homicide this year. PG County is largely suburban (some of it is even rural) and has a 2003 population of 838,716, mentioned in the link above. So far, very-urban Brooklyn is at 94 homicides (Brooklyn North has 48, Brooklyn South has 46). Brooklyn's 2003 population was pegged at 2,483,164. The Bronx, with a 2003 population of 1,363,198 has 57 homicides. PG has some grimey hoods just outside the District, but what the hell is going on over there? It's like crack is just making its way down to Maryland. 15 years ago, who would ever have guessed that the murder rate in PG County would be 3 times as high as Brooklyn, NY?

I was just watching something on Fox News about punk kids who are head over heels for Jesus Christ. One guy with piercings and tattoos is smugly quoting the bible to prove some point which validates his nonconformity. I think this might be worse than those holier-than-thou staight-edge losers who put "X's" on their hands to tell the world they don't do drugs. Has it ever dawned on these wankers that being an attention whore makes all their so-called piety and self-righteousness seem like a farce?

first thoughts from the campaign trail

2005-08-01T00:03:00.000-04:00

Conventional wisdom purports that door-to-door campaigning is the most fundamental undertaking behind successful grassroots efforts. Judging by the frenetic "get-out-the-vote" crusades in the last presidential election, I'd say the stock in this form of vote soliciting is higher than it's ever been. Curiously, this postulate remains unchallenged in both political circles and in the broader context of drumming up awareness for pet-causes. I say curiously because doorbell-ringing and neighborhood canvassing has all the hallmarks of an ineffective and inefficient activity. Now, I'll save my thoughts on voting for another post, but it's truly pathetic that Americans have to be repeatedly poked and prodded to fulfill a civic duty that people have died fighting for. In local elections the apathy is especially disgraceful with just a tiny fraction of eligible voters turning out to a precint five minutes away. There is a lot of validity to the rational ignorance supposition, but the long-term consequences of voter disconnect are not innocuous. But, back to the door-to-door stuff...

For the sake of simplicity, I'm setting aside preparatory and subsequential tasks and focusing solely on the groundwork aspect. That said, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention some of the duties associated with those phases. Among other easily-overlooked tasks, pre-canvassing functions include 1) financing, designing and ordering supplementary literature, 2) area mapping, 3) preemptive targeting and spreadsheet tailoring, and 4) recruiting and organizing volunteers. Post-canvassing responsibilites involve 1) collecting and aggregating the newly-acquired data in the form of an updated spreadsheet, 2) drafting and mailing follow-up letters, and 3) refining calling lists. Truthfully, I am not privy to all the complexities which arise in these stages and am probably forgetting an essential task. The point remains; there is a lot of ancillary things that need to be done. You can't just hit the ground running and expect to be taken seriously in a society saturated with solicitors and salesmen. Without an identifying sticker and some sort of handout you're just any jerk off the street.

Of course, I'm still operating with a steep learning curve, but I've done the routine enough to state the obvious and question the efficacy of the whole deal. Not only is the physical act time-consuming, but a widescale excursion requires a small army of trustworthy and presentable foot-soldiers to sell the candidate. Afterall, door-to-door politicking is not the same as leafleting the neighborhood with gutter-cleaning placards or stuffing mailboxes to hawk housekeeping services and takeout Chinese. For one, you have to deftly maneuver your way through all of Fairfax County's manicured yards. Rightly or wrongly, fucking up Ms. Caldwell's azaleas will probably earn a vote for the opposing candidate. God forbid you save five strides and sashay your way across somebody's front lawn, you risk the block's Barney Fife exposing you for as a wreckless gallivanter. Therefore, I've been real conscientious while making my rounds - strictly adhering to stepping stones, paved walkways, and sidewalks...

....I'm tired, this post is still a work in progress; I'll try to pick up the story in the next day or two and make my point...Mea culpa.

selective rights

2005-07-29T14:45:00.000-04:00

While conducting a raid on a would-be suicide bomber's flat, British police found themselves in an hour-long stand-off with the suspect. Upon instructing him to "Come out with your hands on your head and you will be all right!" this terrorist jabroni had the nerve to say "I have rights!"

Aww, how precious is that! Little-bitty bomber adopts the disposition of an ill-mannered six year old who doesn't want to clean up his toys off the steps. And to think I thought Kanye West was a fountain of hypocrisy. This guy is a gushing geyser of sanctimonious scum. It's kind of like that scene in Cliffhanger when John Lithgow snidely tells Sylvester Stallone "I must say, you're a real piece of work" to which Stallone replies, "I must say, you're a real piece of shit." Well Kanye is a piece of work and this terrorist is that piece of shit. This guy suddenly cares about his own glorious British rights? The same glorious British rights which he and his criminal cohorts seek to flush down the toilet and replace with 9th century Islamofacism. What about the rights of his fellow Londoners to get to work alive? What about the rights of the unfortunate soul sitting next to him who would have been impaled with a face full of nails, had the bomb exploded as intended? Was this vile dipshit going to give them a chance to walk off the train "with their hands on their heads" so "they would be alright?" No, he wasn't prepared to give them any such right. Only by the grace of God and because of their own ineptitude in handling explosives were innocents spared.

Now, with full knowledge that the British police will "shoot first and ask questions later," this guy is scared shitless. In a futile attempt to keep the cops at bay, this asshole (apparently his name was Mohammed - there's a shocker!), reminds law enforcement of the indomitable rights he never deserved in the first place. What a piece of ~~work~~ shit.

electro night at andy's

2005-07-27T08:27:00.000-04:00

Since at least eight grade, when I bought the Planet Funk trilogy (the highest-selling one ranks 349,765th on Amazon), I've been a mild enthusiast of the genre. I can't readily name more than fifteen "funk" artists, because I've never invested in full length CDs, save for The Gap Band's Greatest Hits, the 4-disk Street Jams: Electric Funk series and a burned Trouble Funk LP (which is more DC go-go). I've decided that when I have the money, I'm going to start a respectable collection. My iTunes library (painstakingly organized) shows my most prolific "funk" artists are The J.B.'s, The Gap Band, George Clinton & Parliament, James Brown, Fatback Band, Freestyle, James Brown, and Zapp & Roger. The other hundred or so funk songs are mostly singles with disparate artists. And I have a confession to make: I'm embarassed to listen to it in the company of friends. I shouldn't be, but there's never been any huge rebirth of funk since the '70s, which makes the whole genre seem especially dated and offensively retro. If you threw on a funk CD at a college party, two seconds into the first track every detectable modicum of fun would be sucked out of the room. Bewildered heads would turn to the source of the music, squint their eyes and make hand gestures of the "what the fuck is this shit?" variety. You would expect to hear the ubiquitous record scratch (like a needle dragging across a 45), stopping the offending noise dead in it's tracks. It would be the holy grail of all party fouls.

Electro music would elicit the same reaction. I suspect most people don't even know what the hell it is. I, for one, don't know what genre it falls under. All Music Guide groups it in the ambiguous "Electronica" category and describes electro as having been a short-lived fad: "Blending '70s funk with the emerging hip-hop culture and synthesizer technology of the early '80s produced the style known alternately as Electro. But what seemed to be a brief fad for the public -- no more than two or three hits, was in fact a fertile testing ground for innovators who later diverged into radically different territory." As a hip-hop culture devotee and fan of '80s songs juiced on synthesizer steroids, it's only natural that electro music pleases my musical palate. In my head, I associate electro with funk; it just sounds more like '70s funk than hip-hop. Interestingly, it's easy to see how freestyle emerged from the same lineage as electro since they both depend on synthesized beats. One key difference: electro can be over-the-top corny or even painful to listen to because many tracks are heavily laced with quasi-cyborg sounding words. But unlike the Zapp & Roger's tasteful use of the vocoder, electro artists just went nuts with the damn thing. Relatively few electro songs have recognizably human lyrics. A good majority have the stupid robotic cyborg nasally spouting commands and some tracks are strictly beats and synth loops.

Alright, now that I've come out of the funk-fans closet and given a short primer on electro, I'm composing a list of my favorite electro tracks. Your homework is to open up your P2P software (Limewire, Kazaa, Warez, etc...) and download one or two. If you don't like it, I apologize in advance for wasting your time. If you like it, you're welcome. I should point out that some people feel some of the earlier old school rap songs by Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, and Run DMC fit in this category. Well I know old school better than most and that's a real stretch. There's a distinct difference between the silly verses heard in electro funk and the more serious themes dropped by those early rap outfits. But I digress. Without further ado:

ANDY'S TOP 20 ELECTRO SONGS

1. Hashim - "Al-Naafyish (The Soul)": "It's tiiiiiime!!" is the nasal incantation that sets this dope track off from the gates. Depending on the flow (which varies), the song evokes images of flying through deep space or watching street kids do the "Robot". This might be the coolest song of all time.

2. Freestyle - "Don't Stop The Rock": This is an awesome, energetic track with a powerful synthesizer riff that everyone has heard in some reincarnation or another.

3. Afrika Bambaata - "Planet Rock": An Afrika Bambaata/Soulsonic Force classic that never gets old. Constant shout-outs normally ensure a short shelf-life for songs, but Bambaata pulls it off. At the 3:50 mark, the pinnacle of cool is reached.

4. Man Parrish - "Boogie Down Bronx": I love this song because it reminds me of Mantronix (which belongs in its own category along with Malcom McLaren). This song is one of the few successful examples of a track with simultaneous vocoder and human vocals (in the form of a rap). Just an all arond cool song.

5. Cybotron - "Clear" : If humans were condensed to the size of atoms and darted through circuit boards, this would be the soundtrack. Overrated Missy Elliot stole the signature synth loops from this song, but that won't stop the whole media from worshipping her as an innovator. Just like Radiohead, Missy Elliot can do no wrong. She should go back to wearing black garbage bags and rapping about how she needs to "shave her cho-cha."

6. Pretty Tony - "Fix it in the Mix": The bass groove is real tight in this electro classic. Just as he demonstrates in "Jam the Box," Pretty Tony shows why he is perfectly comfortable mixing in an endless array of quirky sound effects throughout the song.

7. Afrika Bambaata - "Looking for the Perfect Beat": The other Bambaata classic. Contagious beat from one of the pioneers of rap and freestyle. I remember rewinding the first 45 seconds over and over when I had this song on cassette because I thought it was so cool. I like when they shout out "We are your future, you are the past!" six minutes in.

8. Newcleus - "Jam On It": Not the original "wiki-wiki-wiki" song, but you still to get hear it. The first and last minutes of this eight minute cut are the best parts. The robots in this song are cute and remind me of the gadgets from Batteries Not Included. The original "wiki-wiki-wiki" song sounds pretty similar, but is called "Jam on Revenge." In some respects "Jam on Revenge" is the better cut, but you can't go wrong with either one.

9. Pretty Tony - "Jam the Box": There must be 30 different sound effects going on in the background, but the song flows on with it's syncopated beat. My favorite effect is the glass shattering.

10. Twilight 22 - "Siberian Knights": There's a lot of anger in this track, but the pulsating drum beat is fresh. "Electric Kingdom" was their other well known song.

11. The World Class Wreckin' Cru - "Juice": Believe it or not, this was what Dr. Dre was doing before he became a gangsta rapper. This is a really powerful song, very cool.

12. Herbie Hancock - "Rockit": Everyone knows this song which was a major departure for Hancock at the time - The video for this track was great. MTV used to play it as a throwback, but MTV probably hasn't played a music video in nine years anyway.

13. Nuance - "Take a Chance": Unmistakably 80s, but it's hard not to like this one. The female singing has almost a salacious tone to her voice which is probably not unintentional.

14. The Megatrons - "Rock the Planet": This song would rank higher if they didn't keep saying "Let's Rock the Planet." Lots of synthesizer action, but it works well. I like the "S-s-s-s-s-s-sucker MC" part. The only other stuttering song I know of is the Joe joint "Stutter." Maybe The Megatrons inspired him?

15. Jive Rhythm Trax - "122 BPM": Refreshingly uncluttered and not overproduced. Sounds like an oft-sampled break beat sample, but I can't put my finger on it.

16. Laid Back - "Ride the White Horse": This song builds up real well; the keyboard and synthesizer riffs break up the monotony of the lyrics. There is one good line though - "If you wanna be rich, you got to be a bitch." Heh.

17. Planet Patrol - "Play at Your Own Risk": A lot of undulating singing that nicely compliments a piano-keying on top of your prototypical electro beat. This particular beat is heard in A LOT of freestyle music.

18. Newcleus - "Computer Age (Push the Button)": This song didn't age well, but infectious keyboard riff and it's still cool when he says "Push the button!" in such a deep robotic voice.

19. Man Parrish - "Hip-Hop Be Bop (Don't Stop)": This one almost sounds like a Kraftwerk song; more spacey electronic than the others and less bass-heavy. Even though it's a short track, you'll swear it was longer.

20. Freestyle - "Party Has Begun": Very catchy groove; gets a little too repetitive. By the way, "It's Automatic" is another cool Freestyle song, but the human lyrics are so unbearable that this track gets the nod instead.

Honorable Mention: Jonzun Crew - "Look Out (For the OVC)": Good song, but you don't want to hear it twice in a row, ever. I have a couple other songs by Jonzun Crew and all their stuff is spaced-out to the extreme.

Amazingly, there's someone with even more free time on their hands than myself. The person(s) behind this page compiled the 200 greatest electro songs of all time; but provided no descriptions to supplement their list. I'm sure there is a ton of great electro tracks I missed, but this list is all over the place. It's cluttered with freestyle, rap, pop, and modern 'funky breaks' from the Florida sound. My list is more concise and strictly early-'80s electro. If you want to go on an electro downloading binge and fully immerse yourself in the genre, than check out that monster list.

summer memories

2005-07-26T17:18:00.000-04:00

'Ghetto Talent Show', Watermelon Eating Contest Outrages Community. Best part:

The release said that children participating in the summer camp who "know the meaning of ghetto style" would have a chance to "prove just how ghetto they are.''

Some memories from working at the Green Lane Y that "prove just how ghetto" that place was:

8 year-old Camper Fontaine describing how he would have sex with 9 year-old camper Georgeanna. He said he would "stick my penis in her butt" in case you're wondering.
Turning one camper's swim-bag upside down (to find his underwear), causing live cockroaches to fall out and scurry away.
Getting a filthy penny, found underneath a vending machine, for my summer tip.
My group of 9 year-olds performing the uncensored version of DMX's "Party Up" for the talent contest, complete with mock fist-fights.
Having campers whose Mom "forgot" to pack them lunch for a week straight.
Seeing morbidly obese bus driver Jefferson getting stuck in a phone booth.
Seeing morbidly obese bus driver Jefferson dump his trash-bin full of garbage on some kid's front lawn.
Seeing morbidly obese bus driver Jefferson shouting hosannas when he (incorrectly) thought he won a scratch-off lottery.
Seeing morbidly obese bus driver forced to sit in the aisle of the last row in the upper-most deck of Yankee Stadium to accomodate his morbidly obese ass.
Getting kicked out of Waterfront Park (way down in Mercer County) after the campers beat the shit out of the mascot.
Having an day-trip to "Elmora Avenue."
Finding a brown paper bag of drugs at the park across the street.

million muslim march

2005-07-26T13:08:00.000-04:00

A couple years ago, on an old blog, I wrote:

To this day, I have NEVER, not even once, heard a satisfactory renunciation of the 9/11 terrorists by the Muslim community, especially by converts who should be the first ones to say the terrorists were totally inexcusable, unacceptable, and evil. All I hear is apologists who are reluctant to say what's obvious and instead make excuses after the perfunctory, "Well, of course I don't support what happened on September 11, but." It really unnerves me that no converts have been outspoken against Islamic terrorism without making absurd moral equivalancies to the "occupation of Israel" or the "terrorism waged daily by the IDF." I'm fucking sick of it and until I hear a genuine denouncement of Islamic terrorism from within the Muslim community, I will continue to be suspicious of Muslims in general and converts in particular.

It's a good thing I didn't hold my breath. With that said I was pleasantly surprised to come across this letter from Iraqi-American Ahmed al-Rahim in the Wall Street Journal.

Sadly, only the voices of Western political leaders constantly remind us that Islam is a “religion of peace.” Where are the Muslims, especially those living in the West, who have the freedom to organize and make their voices heard? It seems that the only time we hear from the Muslim masses is when there are alleged desecrations of the Quran, or of prisoner abuse in Iraq. Where is the Muslim outrage, the mass protests to defend Islam, in whose sacred name murder is committed nearly every day, against what Western leaders describe as a “perversion of its true nature”?

Alas, the battle against Islamism — and also for the heart of Islam — has become a battle for the West to fight. As a Muslim, these acts of terrorism committed by fellow Muslims — and yes, they are Muslims, from whom we cannot distance ourselves by the sophistry that asserts that their version is but a perversion of Islam — are a great source of shame. But what is more shameful is that there are no mass Muslim protests to speak of against terrorism that is committed in our name. In the same way that Muslims have protested against alleged desecrations of the Quran, they now should be out in full force in the streets of Cairo, London and New York, sending a clear message to the Islamists that Enough is Enough. Why not a “Million Muslim March” on Washington, of law-abiding Muslim citizens clamoring to reclaim their faith from those who would kill innocents in its name? Muslims must no longer stand by while murder and suicide bombings are committed in their name.

Of course, this will never, ever happen. Simply put, there is no critical mass of like-minded Muslims to accomplish anything on such a scale. Similar campaigns in the past, organized by the ever-dauntless Kamal Nawash managed to draw only a smattering of protestors. Nawash's Norther Virginia home base has tens of thousands of Muslim adherents, but his Free Muslims Coalition has never amassed the traction to become a national force. Very unfortunate, but such is life.

1515 broadway

2005-07-26T00:27:00.000-04:00

Spent a few hours on Sunday helping Mike with some things at Jack FM. Here's some pictures from the 40th floor of One Astor Plaza, located smack in the middle of Times Square. Viacom is the tower's principal tenant and MTV is headquartered on the lower floors of the building.

Exterior Shot (from Wired NY)

Blurry shot of Mike at his cubicle

Empire State Building, looking southeast

Gigantic One Penn Plaza (left) with Jersey City in the distance

The beautiful Paramount Building

Conde Nast Building, with The Lion King sign

Looking north

There's a McDonalds way down there

More of the same, plus Times Square Tower (center-right)

gay groupthink

2005-07-23T17:03:00.000-04:00

America's mainstream gay organizations (HRC, GLAAD, NGLTF) are just as worthless as America's most prominent feminist groups (NOW, NARAL, Feminist Majority) and powerful black organizations (Rainbow/PUSH, NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus). How so? Because all these groups are irreversibly blinded by partisan agendas. Rather than speak objectively and risk publicly agreeing with a Republican president, these groups remain deafeningly silent at opportunities where they should be natural allies with the current administration. Sadly, they are too preoccupied with smearing conservatives at every beck and call to comment on weighty issues that deserve their attention.

Here is a perfect example: Iranian Gay Youths Hanged, complete with a picture of these teenagers on the gallows. One of the links hints that the young men may have engaged in sexual activity with a younger teenager. Obvioulsy that didn't help their cause, but the underlying fact remains that two gay men were publicly hanged for the crime of homosexuality which, under Islamic Sharia law, is punishable by death. You might think gay rights advocates would have just the slightest bit of empathy for President Bush's efforts. Afterall, uprooting Islamofacism and supplanting them with liberal democracies would be beneficial to the plight of millions of homosexuals. Nope - rather than forcefully condemn Sharia law, which kills homosexuals, the front page of Human Rights Campaign is in full doom-and-gloom mode over Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts, but has no mention of the Iranian executions. The last time I checked, the right to live was a pretty fundamental "human right."

Unfortunately, the same myopic hypocrisy is practiced by feminists groups in their non-denunciation of Islamic female castigation and by black organizations that systematically oppose anything a conservative says or does. Someone once described this problem as "hermetically sealed and stultifying groupthink." It's the very reason I am so jaded about my college experience. There's no better way to witness stultifying groupthink than by walking through the corridor of college professor offices. All you have to do is read the cherry-picking crap they zealously and liberally tape to their doors. It's like a bunch of fucking 12 year-old girls making collages from cut-outs of Teen magazine. No diversity in thought whatsoever, the whole routine is predictable. Bush is Hitler. Wal-Mart is evil. Gary Trudeau and Ted Rall cartoons for white professors, Aaaron McGruder for black ones. Typically, they'll pin up some tripe they or a close colleague wrote expressing the same sentiments expressed elsewhere on the door. Professors love relentless self-promotion; it's how they massage their egos and reaffirm their moral superiority over the rest of the population. But I'll save that rant for another day.

just read it

2005-07-23T03:08:00.000-04:00

The latest and greatest from Victor Davis Hanson: And Then They Came After Us. As usual, Hanson is cogent and convictive. However, I take issue with his assertion that India has largely been let off the hook by Islamic extremists. Perhaps relative to its enormous population and since much of the violence is associated with India's interminable conflict with Pakistan, India's victimization is devalued by mainstream media. In any case, a quick glance at this site reveals that Indians are consistently killed at the hands of Muslims. If one remains unconvinced, click here, here, and here for more conclusive evidence on the matter. India has NOT been spared.

burning bronx

2005-07-22T06:27:00.000-04:00

Plowing through South Bronx Rising in breakneck fashion. Jill Jonnes recounts the political power struggle especially well. Most narratives of political infighting are tedious, back-and-forth affairs; confusing to follow and arduous to read. Somehow Jonnes' gripping accounts avoid this tendency and illustrate the moxie and puissance of each character. What really makes this book worth reading are the vivid descriptions of South Bronx-life before, during, and after the cataclysmic blight of the 70s. Certain neighborhoods self-destructed so completely and so rapidly that their velocious demise hardly seems possible. Several times, I've had to reread passages laced with figures and timespans to make sure I wasn't mistaken because my brain didn't believe my eyes. When shit hit the fan, the inconceivable was conceivable in the South Bronx -- conditions were out of control, big time. I might post some descriptive passages later, but here are some stone-cold sober realities of Bronx bedlam. Just to stress the point, these facts are only related to ONE indicator of urban downfall - fires/arson. Similar patterns affected all poverty indicators and measures of deviant behavior:

During 1970 Engine Company 82 made 6,204 runs to 4,246 fires.
In one two-week period in August 1973 the blocks immediately around Charlotte Street had 56 fires in 22 buildings.
Fires in the borough had tripled from 11,185 in 1960 to 33,465 in 1974.
At Charlotte Street there was 1,200 false alarms in one year.
In 1975, the Bronx District Attorney wrote federal authorities about the urgency of the fire crisis, "Last Monday night, the fire problems reached a new high, with an outbreak of 40 fires in a three-hour period, 18 of which were described as major by fire officials."
As recently as 1990, one Community District in the South Bronx reported 678 structural fires and 1,332 nonstructural fires (anything outside a building: trashcans, cars, fields, brush).

Check out more pictures here.

hood hop

2005-07-20T01:42:00.000-04:00

While dropping by Barnes & Noble to pick up something for a friend, I decided to do my own shopping. My new summer reading is now: South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City by Jill Jonnes. I've barely cracked the cover of this 480 page monster, but the topic is interesting and the author is a sharp writer with a knack for detail. Jonnes makes a point in the introductory foreword that never dawned on me until now; classifying neighborhoods as the "South Bronx" was a new phenomenon that latched on only after the area declined precipitously. She writes:

Year by year as the arson epidemic raged, Melrose, Mott Haven, Hunt's Point, Morrisania, West Farms, Tremont, Concourse, Highbridge, and Morris Heights were overwhlemed, immobilized, destroyed, and subsumed by the "South Bronx."

Sure, they identify these areas in newspapers or on local newscasts, but the dubious "South Bronx" label is still pretty common. Even rap artists from the Bronx don't bother giving deference to their hometown hoods whereas other New York rappers constantly pay homage to their stomping grounds. Listen to a rap station for 10 minutes and you'll probably hear at least one Brooklyn or Queens neighborhood directly referenced (Bed-Sty, Flatbush, Hollis, Brownsville, Jamaica, East New York, Bushwick). Some are such turf loyalists they boast and bluster about their specific housing projects (Queensbridge, Marcy, Harlem River) in addition to the greater neighborhoods that contain them. But seldom will a Bronx rapper go that route. For unknown reasons, one notable Bronx hood that is mentioned often is Soundview.

That the all-conquering "South Bronx" brand discussed in the book has probably manifested itself into the world of hip-hop is not that surprising. Here is something else for thought; it's possible that the overwhelmingly black hoods in other boroughs are more territorial than the Puerto Rican and Dominican dominated localities in the Bronx. Afterall, Puerto Ricans might have more affinity for their Puerto Rican ethnicity than for the specific New York neighborhood they call home. Accordingly, for purposes of self-identification, simply saying you're from the Bronx is enough as long as we know you're Puerto Rican. Black Brooklynites don't need to distinguish themselves from any generic "Spanish" label, and could be more concerned with their geographical differences. If one gives credence to this theory, the blacks in a Puerto Rican hood would adopt the delineative propensity of the majority population and resolve themselves to being just from the Bronx and nothing more.

As you can see, I'm interested in only the MOST important, groundbreaking research questions. Screw global warming - I want to know where da hood at?

political quiz

2005-07-18T22:36:00.000-04:00

Most the quizzes you'll see uploaded on MySpace pages are mind-numbingly juvenile and totally meaningless. Still, the fact remains that many people find it amusing to know Which Sex and the City character you are? or What kind of kiss are you? and What does your name mean? Those are all cuddly cute and oh-so-adorable, but not my kind of thing. For political wonks, there is the World's Smallest Political Quiz. And here is where it says I fit on the political map:

Yes, the questions are simplified and the source is unapologetically libertarian. Nonetheless, it takes all of two minutes and if you can get past the rhetorical questions and answer truthfully, it should yield honest results. If you're so inclined, take the quiz and post your results in the comment section.

te están buscando

2005-07-18T20:05:00.000-04:00

The Record is usually not worth the paper it's printed on, but today had an extensive and captivating cover story on Paterson's drug market. In case you're curious, the article can be read online: In Paterson, the drug-dealing life is a career for many.

The article profiles the army of actors involved in a typical corner operation, describes the cat and mouse game with the police, and chronicles the trials and tribulations of some low-level dope-pushers. Although the staff writers don't really deviate into the self-perpetuating pathology behind Paterson's grittiest streets, one telling bit of information is brought up:

On average, 1,000 freshmen enter Paterson's high school system each year. By senior year, their class will shrink to 400. Of those who stay, only half will pass the state's graduation exam.

Remember the great Morgan Freeman movie, Lean on Me, about Paterson's troubled Eastside High? Well, by now it should be pretty clear to everyone except liberals and idiots that these kids don't need "Crazy Joe" Clark as their principal. What they need is Joe Clark as their unwavering and authoritative father who'll kick their ass when they act like fools.

the miseducation of kanye west part II

2005-07-17T20:19:00.000-04:00

More Kanye West hypocrisy from Live8, courtesy of Wikipedia:

He also criticized Western leaders, but not African leaders, for "riding in their Bentleys and Benzs", even though he himself has a collection of 12 cars and is a very rich individual.

There might be a small handful of G8 politicians worth more than Kanye West, but they didn't earn their money in politics. Now, if he is referring to presidential motorcades, perhaps he should suggest a suitable alternative for transporting leaders of the free world instead of those "Bentleys and Benzs" he finds so offensive. Moreover, I wonder if he knows that American statesmen ride around in American cars, like Cadillacs and Lincolns - who would have guessed? Meanwhile, Kanye will never have to worry about being ushered around in the same vehicle for two consecutive months thanks to his own fleet of a dozen cars. God forbid.

For the life of me, I can't figure out how this guy gets the gall to trash everyone else and not see the blatant Grim Reaper of Hypocrisy punching him in the gut. On top of giving corrupt African autocrats get a free pass, Kanye makes no mention of $40 billion in African debt relief recently agreed upon by those greedy Westerners. What a dick.

weekend update

2005-07-17T03:39:00.000-04:00

I've been back in Jersey after a completely unproductive and unemployed week in Virginia. The past few days weren't a waste, per se, but I accomplished nothing work-related and earned no money. I feel like a total bum.

Yesterday, I hit up Sand Bar in Jersey City. Here is an accurate description of the place from AOL's CityGuide:

Sand Bar is a huge, sprawling restaurant, bar and nightclub, with two very large dance floors, four lounges, a separate dining area, and four outdoor bar pavilions with a magnificent view of the Statute of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. The dance floors come equipped with extensive light shows, and all summer long, you can dance to rock and reggae bands or DJs spinning house or techno. Saturday night is for Latin grooves. Thursday through Saturday they won't let you in wearing sneakers, jeans, work boots, hats, or baggy pants. There's a cover charge for the weekend nights, and ladies' nights and drink specials of bewildering complexity, so best to call ahead. Sand Bar also closes up when the weather turns. There's ample parking for up to 1,000 cars and you can dock your boat at the Sand Bar, too. You wind up tightly packed in with a bunch of sweaty, hormone-addled cats on the prowl, so be careful; Sand Bar is known for the brawls that periodically go down there.

Too many juiceheads and fist-pump guidos for my liking, but that's any large club in Jersey that isn't exclusively black or Spanish. I wasn't there long, but had the pleasure of witnessing one brawl that undoubtedly went down because some D&G-wearing asshole made eye contact with another dickhead's girlfriend for half a second. On a side note, driving through downtown Jersey City makes me wish I could fast-forward time ten years to catch a glimpse of its future. Presently, there are still dozens of vacant lots and open parcels preventing downtown from feeling like the "Sixth Borough" it. The newer growth might be more incremental than the boom of the 90s, but I think the area adjacent to the Grove Street Path Station is poised for major urban renewal.

Saturday night I had dinner with my parents at an old-school Italian restaurant called Libretti's. It's the kind of dimly-lit Italian restaurant where Jersey's mafiosos used to hang out when organized crime was more organized. To boot, the atmosphere isn't pretentious and the food is first-rate. And while Northern Virginia has an endless variety of ethnic cuisines to choose from, their Italian food doesn't hold a candle in comparison. As proof of its authenticity, Libretti's is located smack in the middle of Orange, a small, formerly Italian, city which turned black decades ago. Directly across the street from Libretti's is a dilapidated, 100-year-old, seven-story factory with broken windows and crumbling concrete girders. It's kind of a mixed blessing - the restaurant's rent is probably cheaper, but their neighbor is a colossal eyesore. Anyway, nobody seems to give a shit since the food brings people back in spite of the place's ghetto surroundings.

Saw "War of the Worlds" Saturday night. This movie sucked more dick than the biggest dick-sucking slut you can think of. I'd rather be lectured on the complexities of psychiatry by Tom Cruise than watch this piece of shit again. On a lighter note, nice shots of the Bayonne Bridge until the queer giant tripod androids fuck it up.

africa addendum

2005-07-14T19:52:00.000-04:00

More things worth reading on Africa from two of my favorite columnists - Thomas Sowell writes on the troubled continent in Tragedy of Africa and Tragedy of Africa Part II. Walter Williams, a professor at George Mason, titled his latest column, Aid to Africa.

don't make me beg

2005-07-14T16:38:00.000-04:00

It would be really great if one of the six Fairfax County District Supervisors would get back to me. I mean one actually said last Thursday, "We'll contact you early next week and arrange an interview." That came and went, so I call back and now and am told to send my resume to the same address as the first time. Finding a job is such a pain in the ass - why can't they meet you halfway? If there really is no openings available, just say, "Sorry, good luck, have a nice day." I don't want to hear run-around platitudes or false promises. Give me a chance to prove myself or tell me to fuck off.

the miseducation of kanye west

2005-07-13T20:59:00.000-04:00

What's more objectionable than an ignorant, assclown celebrity who uses his clout to spew personal political beliefs and religious doctrines? How about an ignorant, assclown celebrity who routinely barfs out a complete distortion of facts and doesn't get called on it. Not only is Kanye West a sore-loser with a super inflated ego, but his words and actions reveal him to be both a hypocrite and a borderline racist. That probably describes most rappers, but unlike his contemporaries, Kanye is regularly described as a "socially conscious" artist to be revered and emulated by all. Here is one of many gushing write-ups on College Dropout, depicting Kanye as wise, thoughtful, and - of course - socially conscious. The balance of evidence doesn't support any of these labels.

First things first. I do like a handful of his tracks (e.g. 2 Words, All Falls Down). I've also probably bought something he's produced or otherwise been connected with. Still, it doesn't excuse his boneheaded comments or render me unfit to expose Kanye's hypocrisy to the millions who read my blog. There isn't enough time in the day to comment on all his moron antics and silly lyrics (don't get me started on Kanye's interpretation of Jesus Walks). To begin, let's look at this comment West made during an MTV interview at Live8 in Philly:

"The concept of AIDS alone -- my parents always told me ... that it's just a man-made disease in the first place that was placed in Africa just like crack was placed in the black community to break up the Black Panther party."

Jesus. I don't know who should be more embarassed by this remark - Kanye, his stupid parents, a caught-off-guard MC Lyte (who was interviewing Kanye), MTV for allowing him to talk backstage, or those Africans and other scientists fighting tooth and nail to rid all the ignorance and disinformation surrounding AIDS. Not content with just leaving the idiotic comment to fall by the wayside, Tim Kash of MTV UK, shortly thereafter called Kanye "the thinking man's rapper."

By the way, the first moonbat myth Kanye spouted about AIDS being a man-made disease is thoroughly debunked here. The second spurious shit-for-brains statement that the evolution of AIDS in Africa is analagous to the spread of crack in black ghettos is discussed here. The whole CIA-crack myth is based on the tiniest ounce of truth; the US government probably willingly turned a blind eye to Nicaraguan cocoa growers and drug traffickers so a home-grown junta could be funded. Most objective accounts say the whistle-blowing reporter was pressured out of his job for writing on such a controversial topic. I remember seeing Gary Webb on some Larry-King type show years ago and he seemed credible. Even so, there was never any racial dimension to the drug-smuggling accusations until conspiracy theorists glorified Webb and added one to excuse racial disparities in crack usage. More to the point, to suggest blame for crack's proliferation across the United States, is impractical and ridiculous. Drug pushers don't need the government's help to spread their product and never did.

Kanye's hypocrisy knows no bounds. In his new remixed single "Diamonds (from Sierra Leone)," West raps about blood diamonds:

"Good Morning, this ain't Vietnam still/people lose hands, legs, arms for real/little was known of Sierra Leone/and how it connect to the diamonds we own/when I speak of Diamonds in this song/I ain't talkin bout the ones that be glown/I'm talkin bout Rocafella, my home, my chain/these ain't conflict diamonds, is they Jacob? don't lie to me mayne/See a part of me's sayin' keep shinin'/How, when I know what a blood diamond is? / Though it's thousands of miles away, Sierra Leone connect to what we go through today / Over here it's the drug trade, we die from drugs. Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs / The Diamonds. The chains, the bracelets, the charms is / I thought my Jesus piece was so harmless till I seen a picture of a shorty armless, and here's the conflict / It's in the black person's soul to rock that gold. Spend your whole life tryin' to get that ice / On a polo rugby you look so nice, how could something wrong make me feel so right."

Here is what self-proclaimed messenger from God, Kanye West, said before his head got so big it exploded and was unable to speak:

"I wanted to do whatever I could to learn more and educate people about the problem," West told a US entertainment magazine.
He has also claimed, "I'm just one messenger and I felt like God wanted me to deliver this message."
Some have acclaimed this black artist for recognising the plight of the poorer African nations - a hot topic with today's Live8 concert in full swing.

Wow, could Kanye West be the hip-hop generation's protégé of Mother Theresa? Not so fucking fast. His half-assed attempt to distinguish legitimately-mined diamonds from conflict diamonds is ambiguous and lost in some lyrical clutterfuck. I know it's just a rap song, but it makes all the difference in the world. While the video brings to mind the black and white De Beers commercials, it is doubtful Kanye has a clue whether or not De Beers has any association with blood diamonds. A huge, distinguished company like De Beers already has enough PR problems without putting their reputation on their line over debauched mining practices. Not surpringly, a quick search shows De Beers has disassociated themselves with blood diamonds. They deserve, but shouldn't expect an apology from Mr. West. In fact, the United Nations imposed a worldwide ban on the export of diamonds from Sierra Leone five years ago at the height of the civil war. Things calmed down and the ban has since been lifted.

What Kanye doesn't seem to realize is that when big name rappers like him bling-bling and bling-blow, they are just increasing diamonds' glamor and desirability. American entertainers are trendsetters in fashion and design. Specifically, rappers set the trends that the whole world follows because they're pereived as bad-ass and street-approved. They are popular culture and what they do has influence far beyond their immediate audiences. For instance, I have a CZ in my ear. You think I'd be rocking a fake diamond earing if Pauly Shore or Garth Brooks was sporting ice? Fuck no. On some subconscious level, I'm just trying to be like Kanye and P-Diddy. Maybe Kanye should look in the mirror and convince his fellow celebs to stop wearing the precious stones if he wants to make any meaningful difference in fueling worlwide demand for conflict diamonds.

And one more thought. If Kanye wants to give everybody a guilt trip over their jewelry, why is he so fucking iced out in every music video, awards appearance, and photo shoot? Does Kanye know where his diamonds were mined and who mined them? He had his fucking birthday party at a big-ass diamond store and celebrated with a $12 million dollar necklace. What kind of extreme "do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do" example is this guy setting? This guy is such a clown, how does anybody take him seriously? Okay - there's lots more to say about Kanye, but I'm getting dumber just writing his name. Look for a sequel to this post in the future:)

keep working at it

2005-07-11T16:09:00.000-04:00

America's dependency on foreign oil does have ominous consequences - namely geopolitical ones that transcend any environmental fears. The real technological breakthrough of the 21st century will surely be the discovery and widescale application of a clean, cheap and efficient oil alternative. Since nobody is willing to give nuclear energy the time of day, it's hard to say what the future will hold. But here is what it will not, Biomass for biofuel isn't worth it:

"The United States desperately needs a liquid fuel replacement for oil in the near future," says Pimentel, "but producing ethanol or biodiesel from plant biomass is going down the wrong road, because you use more energy to produce these fuels than you get out from the combustion of these products."

Maybe nice in theory, but look how inefficient using plants for fuel is. Next time some bleeding-heart university brags about their fleet of buses running on ethanol, remind them that they aren't doing Mother Earth any favors.

In terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol production, the study found that:

corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced

switch grass requires 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced

wood biomass requires 57 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced

soybean plants requires 27 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced

sunflower plants requires 118 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced

How any of this stuff works is way over my head, but the results speak for themselves. Back to the drawing boards...

worst song ever

2005-07-11T12:28:00.000-04:00

The Eminem single, "Ass Like That" is pure garbage. Definitely one of the worst songs this year. I'm not an Eminem basher (click here to see kind things I wrote about him in 2002), but he really dropped the ball with Encore. The other singles released so far (Mosh, Just Lose It) have been terrible. Simply stated, the whole effort seems lazy -- like he was just cranking out tracks to satisfy a contract. Even Aftermath's usually air-tight production is lacking. Naturally, at least one ass-kisser on the internet dropped to his knees and showered praise on the "Ass Like That" song:

On the first listen I was't too impressed with the song, but after a couple of spins, it worked its magic and grew on me to the point of glee.

To the point of glee? Even two times in a row seems painful. He must have gone delirious. C'mon Eminem - Stop being lame.

mainstream media morons

2005-07-10T22:40:00.000-04:00

Anybody who listens to the mainstream media will have a totally warped view on levels of charitable spending between countries. The prevailing wisdom repeated endlessly is that Americans are greedy and Europeans are selfless and altruistic. The root of this fallacy stems from comparing percentage of federal aid to developing countries as a percentage of GDP. It's worth noting that nobody disputes that, in absolute dollars, America has been far more generous than second-place Japan. Still, the GDP statistic is what everyone hears ad nauseam.

First, a serious argument can be made that taking money from American taxpayers and giving it to other nations (without the taxpayers consent or any referendum) is an egregious act of selfishness in its own right. Did the government ever ask you whether you wanted to donate your money to Africa or elsewhere? No, they took your money and gave it away whether you wanted them to or not. Some might counter that the government doesn't directly poll the populace seeking approval for the annual defense budget. Fully answering that claim goes beyond the scope of this post, but real quickly: Most economists will tell you national defense is a public good the government has an obligation to provide; few would suggest that providing aid to developing countries qualifies.

A second contention can be put forth that America's massive military provides de facto aid to developing countries while simultaneously asserting the nation's international hegemonic responsibilities. To take the most obvious example - Canada can sleep peacefully with their sissified army, precisely because they know America will protect their country if necessary. The same holds true for almost every country in the world - even when the culprits are internal factions. Likewise, the tens of billions of dollars the US has poured into Afghanistan and Iraq will never be recorded as official development aid despite the fact that building modern infrastructure, constructing schools, and feeding people is aid. But back to the matter at hand -- why the mainstream media consistently distorts the truth on this issue, regardless of the aforementioned military angle.

Mostly it's because they always ignore the private aid 296 million Americans give; a figure that far outstrips that of Europe where the population is 731 million (460 million in the E.U.). In fact, a recent article entitled, US donations to Africa outstrip Europe by 15 to 1, spells out the reality quite nicely.

Private American citizens donated almost 15 times more to the developing world than their European counterparts, research reveals this weekend ahead of the G8 summit. Private US donors also handed over far more aid than the federal government in Washington, revealing that America is much more generous to Africa and poor countries than is claimed by the Make Poverty History and Live 8 campaigns.
Church collections, philanthropists and company-giving amounted to $22bn a year, according to a study by the Hudson Institute think-tank, easily more than the $16.3bn in overseas development sent by the US government. American churches, synagogues and mosques alone gave $7.5bn in 2003 - a figure which exceeds the government totals for France ($7.2bn) and Britain ($6.3bn) - according to numbers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which deal a blow to those who claim moral superiority over the US on aid.

In stark contrast, in separate exploratory work for the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Adelman found that the maximum EU figure was a mere $1.5bn in private sector donations, 14.6 times less than the comparable US figure.

$22 billion dollars is a pretty considerable oversight, don't ya think? What's most signficant about that total is that nobody forced it out of their paychecks. People were allowed to use their brains and decide for themselves how and where they wanted their money to go. That counts for something. These hoity-toity Europeans can say they're more generous, but at the end of the day, the money their governments doled out in development does not demonstrate any overwhelming generosity on the part of the citizenry. They didn't even have a fucking choice. And there is more:

In addition, the US economy's large immigrant population, which makes up 12% of its population, almost twice that of Britain, allows $40.1bn of wages earned by developing world workers to be sent to their home countries in the form of remittances.
Adelman said this transforms the picture on aid to the developing world, showing how America's stronger economic growth and lower taxation is giving indirect aid to the Third World which dwarfs the government's donations.

Did anybody catch the operative words in the above passage? Lower taxation having a positive economic effect. Well, knock me over with a fucking feather! It explicitly says that lower taxes lead to more indirect aid, which is a misnomer anyway. Aid is aid. Does it really matter if it gets to be called "direct aid" by meeting the technical OECD definition which applies to governments? Not in my book. While I'm still bitching about this, remember the fuss over America's purported stinginess after the December 2004 tsunami? Look at this - Over 1.5 billion dollars in cash and in-kind gifts given by private aid. Download the PDF and crunch the numbers if you are skeptical. It's truly remarkable. Personally, we should have no ethical qualms about withholding aid from Indonesia altogether. The amount of anti-American hatred, bile, and jihadist sympathizers coming from that country is ridiculous. But, I digress. Has the mainstream media paid one iota of attention to America's magnanimity? Of course not. Lesson over.

bizarro land in CP

2005-07-10T15:24:00.000-04:00

Last night I met up with Alan and friends in College Park to hit up a party for their friend's roommate. Al warned it would be a freak show, but I didn't really understand or care for that matter. Afterall, it was Saturday and it's depressing to stay home and watch TV when the rest of the world is having fun. Just from the stragglers on the porch, it was clear that this was no run-of-the-mill house party. Although I wasn't overdressed (t-shirt, frayed shorts, and a cheap hat, sneaks), the rest of the crew I rolled up with were out of place. They were dressed pretty modestly by most standards, but everyone else looked like they were putting on a fashion show for the Salvation Army thrift store. Birthday boy was a flaming gay Indian kid with emo hair, a skinny red tie, and other fag accessories. For reasons unknown, he changed clothes every half hour. Don't get me wrong - he was a nice enough kid, but eclectic doesn't begin to describe his group of friends. Apparently he DJ's at the University of Maryland and he did a first-rate job of getting the word out about his party.

It gets better. The hammer and sickle flag graced the front door; indicating the party's theme: none other than the world's most failed ideology, that shining beacon of hope responsible for the deaths of 100 million - Communism! As Mehgan astutely pointed out, this so-called block-party was actually a bloc-party. The writing was on the wall the whole time. Some other party-goers did get the memo. One guy was dressed as Fidel Castro, a couple people showed off their Che shirts, another loser had a CCCP shirt, and a large contingent just wore red. At least one equally overweight and unattractive girl took the iniative to make her own Commie creation. She "X'd" out the "A" in an I Love the USA shirt and replaced it with an "SR" On the back she drew a cardinal sitting on a tree-branch with an accompanying quip that, if I remember correctly, asked, "What kind of bird is the best?" Then below her picture it said, "The red one on the left!" Oh my god, how clever is that! I'm sure the victims of the Soviet gulag would be so thrilled.

With all the confused faces and paused conversations greeting us inside, you might have thought we were cops on a drug-bust or parents coming home early to interrupt a high-school party. In any case, the mixed bag of people can best be described as formerly unpopular kids reborn as emos, flamboyant homosexuals, poseur-hipsters, and Depeche Mode groupies. Upstairs there was a "Fuck Room." You might of thought such things were the stuff of urban legends, but there it was with all the accoutrements of an authentic sex palace - a sign-up sheet, locked door, and the words "Orgies Encouraged" for those wondering if it was proper sex etiquette to bang out multiple partners under that particular roof. I think the sex curiosity among this crowd is an offshoot of the well-documented band-camp phenomenon. Every band geek who could never get play in a normal setting goes to sleep-away camp and walks away with more experience than Peter North and Jenna Jameson. The kid goes off to camp whacking off twice-a-day and leaves with stories about how he fucked 2 girls in 7 different holes. The people here are social-cousins of that guy.

At one point, I was taking a leak in the upstairs bathroom when a kid knocks on the door, bursts through, falls over and hurls all over the place - still feet away from the bowl. This scrawny-ass kid with floppy hair must have puked 10 gallons worth of liquid. His vomit looked like toilet-water from someone who had the stomach flu all day. Not only did this guy drench the carpet and tile between the hallway/bathroom, but his brown puke splatter covered the bathroom door. I finished up pissing, asked if he was okay and walked over him. I guess he was unfazed because I saw him dancing with Elton John glasses 10 minutes later.

The dancing was also bizarre. I don't know how'd you label it, but some combination of interpretative dancing and crazy dancing. Screaming out the lyrics was also par for the course. Any song and artist was fair game - Kelly Clarkson, Banquet, Michael Jackson, and Nelly were all heard, just to name a few. Later in the night, the party's demographics took a turn for the curious when a small crowd of black guys showed up. There was already at least one gay (bisexual?) African-American who looked like Hootie (I'm sorry, Darius Rucker) and some other black emo girls, but that's different. These late-comers were your typical hood brothers with doo-rags, nappy hair, and bad attitudes. One guy was hardcore jacked, but he had the gentle, effeminate voice of Mike Tyson. Caused no trouble, but never in a million years would I have expected their appearance at the Commie party. Mostly they just hung out on the porch and hassled some fat white girl. I wonder if they have a jaded view of all white people after witnessing such a freaks-and-geeks festival. On the lawn there were multiple circles of these nutjobs, drinking and engaging in heavy-petting with one another. Around 2 am, we stepped around them and called it a night. If nothing else, it was one of the most memorable people watching experiences that I have ever had. Hooray for Communism!

By the way, now anybody can post comments:)

ron reagan taken down a peg

2005-07-09T14:37:00.000-04:00

Metrosexual Ron Reagan (the former president's son) has been an annoying liberal twit for longer than anyone can remember. Accordingly, it brought me great pleasure when I learned his jean-jacket wearing ass got owned by Christopher Hitchens on Reagan's MSNBC show. Politically, it's hard to say where Hitchens falls because he really marches to his own drummer. He's not a conservative; he is no fan of Bush to the say the least. Moreover, he wrote for The Nation, an ultra-leftist publication not worth the paper it's printed on. But the man does understand the war on terror and it was awesome to finally see someone tear Reagan a new one. Best line:

How can you know so little about this, and be occupying a chair at the time that you do?

Yikes! It takes some brass balls to suggest the host of the show isn't qualified for the position. And he isn't - Reagan wouldn't have media employment except for his name. I'm sure Hitch won't be invited back, but then again, nobody watches MSNBC in the first place.

dawshon's creek

2005-07-09T01:58:00.000-04:00

Here is a mind-blowing article that will make you roll your eyes and shake your head, Mother of drug kingpins gets 120 days in jail - Basically this woman was put behind bars for failing to do some community service for harboring her dope dealing sons. My favorite part is when the judge sarcastically chastises her for being a terrible mom:

"You are one heck of a mother," he said, pointing to the fact that her sons were juvenile delinquents and subsequently descended into a life of crime.

Jackson's three sons, Dawud, 29, Dawshon, 27, and Dawmeen, 25, are each serving life in prison for running a million-dollar drug ring in Elizabeth. They were sentenced in April.

Now with high-class names like Dawud and Dawmeen who would have suspected these guys to be on the streets clocking paper? I would have guessed successful investment banker for Dawud and dental hygienist for Dawmeen. The article goes on to mention Ms. Jackson also has a 9-year-old and takes care of 4 grandchildren - I'm dying to know what their names are. By the way, the new book, Freakonomics, explores the correlation between first names and income. Thanks to regression analysis, it's easy to map out such relationships. It's mostly common sense but the results are still interesting.

africa must sink or swim

2005-07-08T20:27:00.000-04:00

The latest obsession with giving even more money to Africa is the epitome of guilt-induced symbolic politics. This is nothing new. 20 years ago everybody knew Africa was desperately poor and in economic shambles. There was huge international efforts undertaken, heart-wrenching charity drives showcasing starving children, and celebrity-driven concerts to raise awareness. And what's to show for it? If nothing else, the past couple decades underscore the importance of instating stable and uncorrupt governments that respect property rights. If this is just intrinsically impossible in Africa, then it's time to throw in the towel and concede the continent is doomed. Just how wasteful has aid to Africa been? This from William Easterly by way of Mahalonabis:

"If Zambia had converted all the aid it received since 1960 to investment and all of that investment to growth, it would have had a per capita GDP of about $20,000 by the early 1990s. Instead, Zambia’s per capita GDP in the early 1990s was lower than it had been in 1960, hovering under $500."

The list of other corrupt theocracies is endless. Nigeria and the Congo immediately come to mind with Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Angola, Rwanda, Somaila, and Zimbabwe (in recent years) also fitting the description of perennially dysfunctional nations. Mark Steyn says Africa must learn the boring stuff and he is absolutely right. Until, and unless they do, it's a safe bet that more of Africa's most capable citizens will pack their bags and go elsewhere. And of course the whole world can look forward to another 20 years of Bono's useless fundraising escapades and G-8 whoring.

london lunatics

2005-07-08T02:14:00.000-04:00

Provided I stick with this blog, there will be plenty of time for me to mouth off about radical Islam and their fetish for terrorism. But in the wake of the London bombings, I'll just relay a comment that sums up my feelings on Thursday's attacks. It comes courtesy of Lee from Right-Thinking and can be found in its entirety here. He writes:

Call me crazy, but I’m much more interested in killing the fucking pieces of shit who did it than offering platitudes to the families of the deceased. This is EXACTLY what all us drooling, single-neuroned American morons have been saying would happen. Suicide bombings are going to come to America, too. I’ve been saying this for two years. There is still this lingering European idiocy, put forth by your astonishingly anti-American, anti-Israel media, that the problem of radical Islam is something that can be talked to or negotiated with or dealt with diplomatically. It can’t, and if this incident wakes the British population at large to the threat that they actually face then at least some good might come out of it.

Exactly. By the way -- the notion that the UK or any other targeted country somehow caused the bombings or had it coming for supporting the war in Iraq is just patently false for a thousand reasons. Plenty of people ascribe to that view (certainly a majority of Europeans do), but they are both naive and ignorant of history. To quickly dismiss the claim that only war-supporting Western nations are targeted, see this and this. Just because some asshole in a cave declares these actions as some sort of tit-for-tat revenge doesn't mean they're not making a convenient excuse to commit buckwild jihad. The whole "violence begets more violence" is total bullshit if you aren't willing to take off your moral equivalency glasses and make distinctions...

music rundown

2005-07-08T01:37:00.000-04:00

Back in the 90s people used to ask "So what's in your CD player right now?" as a getting-to-know-you type question. If said with the right inflection, it might have worked as a pickup line. Now, with the advent of digital audio players, the updated version is "So what's on your iTunes?" Anyway, here's a short list of some of the songs I've listened to in the past hour with the Party Shuffle feature in full effect.

T.I. - Asap
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo - Streets of New York
Jon Secada - Do You Believe In Us
Buckwheat Zydeco - Alligator Stomp
Boogie Down Productions - Poetry
The J.B.'s - I'm Paying Taxes, What am I Buying
TKA - Don't Be Afraid
Yaz - Situation
One Cool Guy - Urban Ninja
Eric B. & Rakim - Just a Beat
Bob James - Shamboozie
Alan Parsons Project - Sirius
Murphy Lee - Wat Da Hook Gon Be

Party Shuffle? Yeah, girls always shake their asses when Buckwheat Zydeco comes on. I will bet my rent money that no party, anywhere, at any point in history has ever played 5 of those songs in one night. Let's give it up for total randomness and iTunes insanity.

genesis

2005-07-08T01:06:00.000-04:00

hey yo! A.P. is back blogging. This would qualify as the fifth time I've started a blog in the past four years which explains the title, round 5. This lack of perseverance is part of a greater character flaw which has formerly revealed itself in prolonging relationships, tackling summer school and getting daily exercise. I get lazy, busy, sick, or bored (or a combination thereof) and consequently things fall apart -- derailment ensues, and the blog becomes just another broken-down car on the shoulder of the world wide web -- waiting for the internet police to put the orange flag on the windshield and tow the junker to the compound. Of course, no such authority exists and the web is littered with the corpses of a million neglected sites waiting to be stumbled upon. I can personally attest to this type of electronic immortality because a Houston Rockets page I made in 1996 still exists for the world to visit. A quick Google search confirms that it still pops up first when entering Rockfan. In any case, I'm sure this blog will be just like the rest - a smorgasbord of general observations, news commentary, bloviating rants, and economic lessons in the tradition of Henry Hazlitt, but shorter with more profanity. Since I keep on creating this type of online soapbox, I guess I'm just inherently drawn to do so. Alright, fuck it, that's enough of an introduction...And fuck this battle, I don't wanna win, I'm outty,
Here, tell this people something they dont know about me!