Free period

Before you sneak out of the office today, make sure to check out the Friday Genius Ten playlist over at PostBourgie.

My submissions for the week: "Warm It Up, Kane" by Big Daddy Kane; "24K Rap" by J Dilla feat. Havoc and Raekwon; "Oh No" by Chico DeBarge; and "Birthday Sex" by Jeremih.

Yes, that last choice is pretty awful. But it is the First Lady's b-day, and believe it or not, there's really not a lot of good birthday songs to choose from out there. As always, she deserves so much better.

I'll do my best to make it up to her.

Until the next post, how about some more Chico with some bonus shots of Taral Hicks?



By the way, did you all know that there's another generation of singing DeBarges out there? Meet Kristinia. Continue Reading »

Hawaii: No longer home of the Rainbows

Via The Big Lead, Hawaii football coach Greg McMackin strikes yet another blow against the oppressive forces of common sense, tolerance and political correctness. I salute you, sir:

"I know most of the coaches in the country are rooting for us to beat Notre Dame," McMackin said. "Charlie gives this talk, 'We do something special at Notre Dame,' and(the players) get up and they do this little cheer ... this little faggot dance. ...

... After describing the dances, McMackin asked reporters not to write about it and made a reference to Karl Benson, the WAC commissioner who was in the room.

"Don't write that 'faggot' down. I was misquoted," he said. "Just please … cover for me," McMackin said Thursday. "Go ahead, say ‘faggot dance.’ No. Please cover for me on that, too — right Karl? I’ll deny it. Anything else?"

About 15 minutes after McMackin left the room, he returned and added, "I want to officially, officially apologize. Please don’t write that statement I said as far as Notre Dame. The reason is, I don’t care about Notre Dame. But I’m not a … I don’t want to come out and have every homosexual ticked off at me. You know what I mean. Because I don’t have any problem with homosexuals. But I apologize for saying that and I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t run that word. If you said dance, that’s OK. But don’t use the bad term that I chose, please. Thank you."

I should also mention that the only team in college football known for its pre-game dancing is ... Hawaii:



Nothing gay about that. Continue Reading »

Preserving post-racial America

After hearing MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell invoke the term "post-racial" last evening in a non-ironic way, I nearly hurled all over my laptop. I want nothing more than for this word to be tossed off a cliff into a river of molten lava.

But then a friend reminded me over Facebook what that might mean: banishment of "the face of post-racial America":

It's not a chance that I'm willing to take.

Also, here's a very short list of some of my favorite clips involving Tracy Morgan: 1. Pick Up the Pieces; 2. Doug Flutie; 3. NFL 2K - "Ya understand me, sweet tooth?"; 4. Cornbread; 5. NBA 2K4 - "The way I dunk on you is going to look unorthodox'd."

It's like picking your favorite kids, ya know?

Remind me to tell you all someday, my wonderful readers (all six of you), why Tracy Morgan, Mike Epps and Marlon Wayans are on my list of the 10 funniest people in the world. Continue Reading »

WTF

Unusual Paintings of Obama Naked with Unicorns. The mind reels:

h/t S.K. Continue Reading »

Beyond ridicule

Obama denialist Orly Taitz on "The Colbert Report":

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Womb Raiders - Orly Taitz
http://www.colbertnation.com/
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Tasers

If you want to know more about this attorney/dentist/interior decorator/second-degree taekwondo black belt/tinfoil saleswoman/aspiring wig model/certified clown, you should go here. And here. Please. Do it.

And she represents Alan Keyes. So you know she's official. Continue Reading »

The Hate That Hate Produced

Media Matters presents "Fear of a Black President." Enjoy:



Rush Limbaugh thinks President Obama is "angry" and "has a chip on his shoulder"? That's rich.

It's the pot calling the kettle ... nigger. Continue Reading »

A word about acting stupidly

At a certain point, I was really close to brushing off Gates Gate. I thought it was clear the cops had overreached and that Professor Gates should have known better than to engage the authorities in that way, if only because it spoke poorly of his self-preservation skills. What else was there to say?

I didn't have anything to add to the conversation. And I'm still not sure if I do.

But this fantastic post from digby needs to be acknowledged. Here's the thrust of it:

Now, on a practical, day to day level, it's hard to argue that being argumentative with a cop is a dangerous thing. They have guns. They can arrest you and can cost you your freedom if they want to do it badly enough. They can often get away with doing violence on you and suffer no consequences. You are taking a risk if you provoke someone with that kind of power, no doubt about it.

Indeed, it is very little different than exercising your right of free speech to tell a gang of armed thugs to go fuck themselves. It's legal, but it's not very smart. But that's the problem isn't it? We shouldn't have to make the same calculations about how to behave with police as we would with armed criminals. The police are supposed to be the good guys who follow the rules and the law and don't expect innocent citizens to bow to their brute power the same way that a street gang would do. The police are not supposed wield what is essentially brute force on the entire population.

And yet, that's what we are told we are supposed to accept. Not only can they arrest us merely for being argumentative as they did with Gates, they are now allowed to shoot us full of electricity to make us comply with their demands to submit.

Please read the rest.

I should have known better than to dismiss the incident, having been stopped by cops on a number of occasions and reading through comically unreliable arrest reports on a daily basis. I should have been smarter. I should have been more empathetic. And most importantly, I should have been more skeptical.

Amanda Marcotte points out this tendency to reflexively side with the authorities, even in clear cases of abuse:

But by and large, I’ve seen more concern out there with whether or not Gates was stupid for not staring at his shoes and apologizing for breathing the second a cop started speaking to him. Since I’ve been blogging for a long time, on and off, about the politics of rape, I know this behavior when I see it---it’s victim-blaming.

And it's easy to see how this societal acceptance of inexcusable behavior, of cops acting "stupidly" if you will, can start with Gates and end with Shem Walker.

Continue Reading »

What's beef?

Apropos of nothing, I read this hilarious e-mail exchange between comedy writers Judd Apatow and Mark Brazill sometime ago and was reminded of it yesterday.

Stuff like this is why the Internet was invented. Continue Reading »

The Birth of an Idiocracy

And Sarah Palin could be their leader.

Even with Palin out of power and momentarily out of spotlight, I'm not sure there is a limit to how low some of these guys can go:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

It's clear that, as TNC often says, Barack Obama has a way of driving some conservatives absolutely insane. But this goes beyond the usual radio bluster from Beck or Hannity or Limbaugh.

These are actual elected officials.

What's the endgame here? What do they want to happen?

Continue Reading »

Bush, Kardashian call audible

I should be above posting this sort of stuff, but because it involves two of my favorite things - football and women, and not necessarily in that order - I can not resist:

Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend of two years, New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush, are going their separate ways, the reality star's rep confirms to PEOPLE.

The pair, who recently returned from a charity trip to Africa with Kardashian's sister Khloe, just last May talked about "heading" toward marriage, but sources tell PEOPLE their relationship suffered from the time they spent apart – with yet another separation looming with the upcoming NFL season.

Not sure that I really have much to add here. The picture is enough. Continue Reading »

Free Period

Because of technical difficulties and an unusually busy work day, today's edition of the roundup almost became Your Tuesday Random-Ass Roundup. Sorry I’m late again.

This week, we bring you news about soon-to-be Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, Skip Gates, health-care reform, the rape culture of South Africa, more evidence that poverty sucks, some positive legislative moves on the Hill and tributes to the late, great boxing champ Vernon Forrest. And much more.

Check it out.

Also, courtesy of friend and regular reader ljh (actually, I jacked this from his gmail status line), here's a peek at one of the world's least intelligible people:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I think she uses the same speechwriter as Sarah Palin. Continue Reading »

Memory Lane

Back in the day, I was never a big fan of this song. But I never missed a chance to watch the video.

Wonder why?

On an unrelated note, I'm officially hating Grant Hill.



Post-script: I just had to post one of these comments from her "Officially Missing You" video: "If I were Grant Hill I would try maybe a year or two more to win a ring and if it doesn't work out I'd retire. Tamia's the real prize. Fuck a Larry O Brien trophy." Continue Reading »

Priorities

Thers seems to have it about right:

Stupid foreign wars: cheered for, given blank checks, can't end them.

Decent health care for Americans: worrying, can't be paid for, unsustainable.

Continue Reading »

Remembering Reign Man

Via Ave and apropos of the thorougly underwhelming LeBron dunk tape, Sports Illustrated submits its summer list of 10 memorable bangers.

And there's not much to quibble with there. Any respectable list should include Vince Carter in the '00 Olympics over 7-foot-2 Frederic Weis (for my money, the best in-game dunk ever); B-Diddy over AK-47; and T-Mac with a dunk that essentially ended Shawn Bradley's career.

But somehow, someway, homage must be paid to the most vicious dunker of my lifetime: Shawn Kemp.

Were it not for struggles with cocaine, condom use and carbs, no doubt we'd be talking about the Reign Man as one of the best power forwards in league history:



Goodness knows, if Kemp ever had his head on straight, no way my beloved Rockets would have won two straight titles in the mid-90s. I hate admitting that. Continue Reading »