Hey Young World

More news from Albany, the New York governor David Patterson pardoned Slick Rick for the attemped murder of his cousin in 1991. The exoneration of the aggravated weapons charge makes it easier for Slick Rick to challege removal proceedings.

Hang it Up

A victory plaque that is. Newly sworn in governor of New York state David A. Patterson has just signed a bill outlawing the displaying of nooses. Citing such racially motivated instances at Columbia University's Teacher's college, the Hempstead, Long Island Police Station, and the Jena 6 cases in Lousiana, a prior draft of the bill that passed in the New York State Assembly describes the noose "as a frightening reminder of the lynchings that took place in our nation`s past and is used to threaten, intimidate and terrorize its recipients." Interestingly enough when backtracking to last year's Jena 6 outrage, one of the jarring points of protest was the FBI's and resultingly the United States Attorney's office's initial refusal to label noose hangings a hate crime. In the words of the Christian Science Monitor, the nooses were communication symbols to the Jena High School Rodeo team who were white and any notion of racial animosity was a myth. Hopefully the recent bill passed in New York state, overcomes that hurdle. Diversity Inc.'s Noose Watch lists 76 such incidences since early 2006. It was astonishing to me to witness nooses hung as an outdoor Halloween decoration this past October when visiting family and friends in South Orange, New Jersey. Somehow this hatemongering display has become passively acceptable to the federal government and the evergrowing fellowship of race-baitors. Race relations have come a long way but to dismiss a crucial part of the country's legacy and label it antiquated is an exile from the United States' short two hundred year run of jurisprudence.

A Dead Letter?

Ellen Degeneres will be marrying her long time girlfriend Portia Di Rossi at the President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. Laura Bush and her newlywed daughter Jenna Hager obliged that Ellen Degeneres would be able to use the ranch for her wedding when both were guests on Ellen's show today. To complete the 180 degree shift, John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2008 election will be officiating the ceremony. Who in the hell opened the let flood gates open or rather the Golden Gate Bridge? A Republican avowed non-supporter of same-sex unions officiating gay marriage ceremonies on President Bush's ranch? Gay marriage is still unlawful in Texas so the validity of the arrangement looks like a bum steer. However, it is possible in Massachucettes and California, and other states like New Jersey with favorable state court rulings. Maybe McCain is clearing the way for a middle of the road Vice Presidential candidate like Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachucettes and my top pick for nominee.

Catch a Fire

Catch a Fire is the title of the Bob Marley and the Wailers song that threatens retribution for slavery and oppressive ignorance. Far from anti-white uprising, South Africa has resorted to black on black violence utlizing apartheid-like tactics to preserve nationalistic integrity.

On top of the country's AIDS and HIV pandemic, South Africa has been reeling from violent clashes of xenophobia, and racial upheaval. Silencing tactics like those used during apartheid such a tire "necklacing" have been revived against immigrants from other African nations like Zimbabwe. Humanitarians believe the violence to be contrived by a nationlist opposition party and fueled by the bribery and corruption rampant in the South African immigration system. Self-deprecating racism is now apparent as well. Maligned by the international press, white Afrikaaner Free State dormitory students videotaped a black housekeeper initiation by videotaping the middle aged women and men drinking urine drenched stew and repeating racist and sexist slurs. These actions are assumedly generated by a desperate willingness on the part of the African National Congress to preserve black and white South African relations by acquiesing to overt racism to differentiate black citizens from destitute immigrants.

The 2006 film with the same title recaptures and reinvents Marley's Catch a Fire. In the film, a young adult South African man played by actor Derek Luke is wrongly jailed for pro black militarism, is released, and engages in the same behavior he was wrongly charged for. I had a chance to view Alicia Key's new video starring Luke for the song "Teenage Love Affair" early morning last week. Unlike the title of the song, it depicted Key's as a college student circling around her black power activist love interest played by Derek Luke. Unlike Luke's character in the video, Alicia Key merely flirts with the focus of her attention, Luke himself. They catch eyes on the steps of the college. They pass each other in the campus stair wells and engage in coy hand play. The couple arrives at a school dance separately. As Keys walks in the room with her clique of similarly clad co-eds, she and Luke share an intoxicating gaze and thus ends the video. The dormitory that housed the Free State School initiation rites is now closed. However, South Africa's numerous problems stay constant and severe with no end in sight.

Science Fiction

I hate posting articles of spurious origin however I thought that an IBM tracking Heineken database might be more of a pearl for you and a pill for me. If you aren't an alcohol drinker, the message in a bottle for you might be choice-enabled programmable soda pop. By the way FYI, the slick deal for today is at Restaurant.com so you might want to pull up a chair and have a meal, imbibe something, and wait until gas prices go down.

Direct Flights to Havana

Cubans can now use American cellular phones thanks to George W. Bush. Ahh... if the United States had that same discretion over communist China. One billion served.

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Tennessee Valley Authority

Is this commercial from the same group that sponsors ads against candidates that take money from porn hustlers?

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