american black

Why Everyone Is So Dumb Nowadays

Prometheus 6 wrote an interesting post back in April on intelligence. He followed it up a few days ago with a podcast(?) on the subject. Pro seems to have a problem with the anti-intelligence streak which is sweeping the planet. As a person who has been called, among other things, an anti-intellectual by folks who think it's important to read the NYT everyday, I read the post and listened to the podcast with interest.

First, I think that he's using the wrong word. In my view, there isn't an anti-intelligence movement going on. I think the real problem is the lack of knowledge sweeping the fucking planet.

Knowledge is the awareness and understanding of facts, truths or information gained in the form of experience or learning. Knowledge is an appreciation of the possession of interconnected details which, in isolation, are of lesser value.

Intelligence is a general mental capability that involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. In psychology, the study of intelligence is related to the study of personality.

Of course the words are used practically interchangeably so I'm just nit-picking.

But I think his theory is wrong. This is what he thinks is the reason for anti-intellectualism:

The problem, you see, is that we humans want predictability. We want a nice, stable set of rules to operate under. But intelligence screw up any chance of stability. Intelligence changes the ground on which operations take place. And we're all past masters of ignoring the observations of other in order to maintain our stable set of rules but it's hard when the source of the new is internal.

Nah Bro'. Here's what's really happening.

 

Birthdays and Conservatives

Today happens to be my birthday. It also happens to be the birthday of the woman pictured on the left. Her name is La Shawn Barber and she writes a good blog if you happen to be  a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ and a renegade supporter of conservative ideals.

I am fascinated by the fact that a woman the same age as me, from the same culture, can have such a different set of ideals. I read her writings (she's a very good writer by the way) and I am usually bewildered.  She's like a Baldilocks without the military background.

At 38, you have pretty much figured out who you are. I'm a screaming agnostic, capitalist, libertarian with 2 ex-wives a daughter and a music fetish. Ms. Barber, though cute, is not.

Ms. Barber, Baldilocks, and her ilk are part of the cheap labor conservative movement which swept the blogospere and is slowly seeping into Black American culture.

And it is destroying us.

The AB 4 (expanded edition)

National Politics get people riled but local politics is where the fun is. One of the more interesting places right now is Miami. A few months ago Miami City Commissioner Art Teele was arrested and charged with two felonies. That meant he had to be replaced and instead of holding an election the rest of the Commisioners and the Mayor, decided to appoint someone. The reason they didn't want an election is because the Teele case was dead in the water and in an election Teele would more than likely run and win. After an exhaustive search that lasted roughly five minutes, Miami's city fathers found just the man to replace Art Teele: Jeffery Allen. But now Allen's problems are coming out...

The funniest guy in the blog universe is having a fight with fans of 13 year old JoJo.

Eight of ten Burundi Tutsi political parties have relented and accepted the new constitution, which gave it enough support to bring the constitution into force today. The Tutsis felt that there were not enough safeguards for Tutsi rights. However, the Tutsis, like everyone else, is tired of years of civil war and wants to "give peace a chance." At this point, the only real opposition to a new government, and elections, are the Hutu FNL rebels, who still have several hundred armed men operating south of the capital.

Via Micheal King: CNN/Netscape calls Bush "asshole" in pic name on website

BlackPundit is inspired by GWB's election to become intolerant of what others do in private..

And Debwire finds that there appears to be a connection between intelligence and how people voted:

Bush Ignores the Black Press

The Bush Administration continues to show contempt for Black people by refusing to be interviewed on Black news networks. Robert Johnson (owner of BET) went so far as to send letters to Colin Powell and Condeleeza Rice asking them to ask the President to reconsider.

No dice.

Here's an excerpt from the Birmingham Times:

President George W. Bush has rejected invitations to be interviewed by reporters from the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service, which provides stories to more than 200 African-American newspapers, and Black Entertainment Television (BET), which reaches 80 million households.

“It doesn’t make political sense not to talk to voters,” says Robert L. Johnson, president and CEO of Black Entertainment Television. “I think this doesn’t support the rhetoric I hear from the Republican Party that they want to compete for the Black vote and they are trying to reach African-Americans.”...

Johnson, BET’s top executive, says he is not surprised by Bush’s decision to avoid taking questions from Black journalists.

“I don’t think we were surprised because we’ve tried on other occasions to get him [president Bush] to speak,” Johnson explains. “It leaves one wondering were they [the Bush administration] only paying lip service when they said they wanted the Black vote.”

[emphasis mine]

It Really Is ALLABOUTGEORGE II

As I posted earlier Black Internet Blogging Star George K. emailed me asking to have his site removed from my blogroll. He didn't give an explanation so I asked for one. This is what I got in return:

I assure you, there is nothing more to it than that. I simply don't want to be listed on your site at all...

In my eyes this is an insult. Not to me (because I know how to get to his site), but to you, the readers of my blog. He obviously thinks that the readers here are not good enough to visit his site. Maybe you are carrying some diseases with you. Maybe you're gay. Maybe you support George Bush. Maybe you only speak english. Maybe you fuck too many hot women. Whatever it is George doesn't want you to visit his site.

So I had a conumdrum. How do I please Black Internet Blogging Star George but still be true to my readers and the spirit of this blog?

After 2 minutes of thought here's what I decided to do. I am going to take the link to All About George off of my blogroll...in 2 weeks. That gives you, my readers, time to check out the site and bookmark it. And it also gives Black Internet Blogging Star George the satifaction of knowing that links to his blog won't be long contaminated by the likes of you.

The countdown starts today. 2 weeks left to visit his site from this one. I'll be posting gentle reminders so that no one can say they missed out. I think this is a fair way to handle his predjudice.

It really is ALLABOUTGEORGE

Contrary to what I thought, this is not my own peice of cyberspace. I got this email today from George K. who's tells what I can and cannot link to.

I'd appreciate it if you would please take my weblog, All About George, off your blogroll. Thanks in advance.

No explanation given. But he visits my website and then tells me what links I can or cannot have?!? WTF?!?

Maybe if he gave a reason like "Prince your site sucks and having you link to it just brings traffic to my site from people who don't know quality." That would be something I could understand. But to just want me to remove his link is rude and without giving me a reason, dumb. Is he baiting me?

I'm just a simple guy who promotes records for a living. Should I be able to walk into his house and tell him he can't have a record I promoted? Of course not. I'ld sound ignorant. I'll let you decide how he sounds.

Outsourcing, Doctors and how Jay-Z will save the Economy

We already know the hypocrisy of cheap labor conservatives. It's o.k. for Corporations to outsource work to foriegn countries but citizens can't outsource their pharmacy. And god knows they are going to raise hell about this...(via slashdot)

"Here's the summary from the most emailed article in The Washington Post today -- about an American who went to India for heart surgery, which he could never have afforded here. U.S.: $200,000 total cost ($50,000 deposit required) for heart operation. India: $10,000 total bill, including hospital, air fare, and a side trip to the Taj Mahal. And the Indian doctors are probably at least as good as those one is likely to get in the U.S.

From the article: 'Eager to cash in on the trend, posh private hospitals are beginning to offer services tailored for foreign patients, such as airport pickups, Internet-equipped private rooms and package deals that combine, for example, tummy-tuck surgery with several nights in a maharajah's palace...'"

Unlike most liberals I have no real problem with outsourcing. It's the age we live in. Companies shouldn't get tax cuts and incentives to outsource but their choice to do it shouldn't be taken away. Where I differ from cheap labor republicans on this issue is that I feel we private citizens should be able to outsource,too. If I can get good medical care (and a vacation!) cheaper in another country I should be able to. But mark my words, the Bush administration will fight this tooth and nail. Doctors will bitch and moan. You'll hear how dangerous it is, etc. Don't beleive the hype. This is a global economy. The same information is available all over the world. So are the same tools. Local doctors better work on their UVP (unique value proposition for you non-marketing guys!).

When I telll people this folks think I'm being silly but it's true. Knowledge is losing value. Everything anyone knows will soon be available everywhere. I could be up in the mountains and my partner cracks his head on a rock. In a few months I'll be able to take out my cell phone and watch a video of a doctor during brain surgery and just do what he does to save my friends life. Of course I may not have the same skills ( and will only be using a swiss army knife!) but it's possible that I could actually save him.

If I'm right then it raises some questions on how we do everything. What's the point of sending a kid to college? What are the new skills for the future? And how in the fuck is anyone gonna make any money?
Actually Jay-Z and P. Diddy answered that question for us long ago. They are perfect example of (in my opinion) our future economy. Though I'm sure there has been articles written about it but they picked up on it instictively.

The American economy is only going to be able to make real money by selling the invisible. A t-shirt may cost $0.90 to produce but if you add a Sean John logo to it's worth $90.00. In an age where everything is a commodity the rules change.

Doctors (and everyone else) are going to have to figure out what intangibles they are giving us the consumers to convince us not to follow the cheapest price. And they need to be figuring it out fast because because Indian doctors will be advertising soon. And a trip to the Taj Mahal sounds nice.

Four

4. Decent guy but Black cheap labor conservative Micheal King posted an interesting story about a woman suing the police department because her son swallowed cocaine while in police custody and died. In typical screw-the-people fashion he took the typical conservative stance when it's big guy vs.people complaining about dead family members: I'm sorry. The cops, nor the city, are not responsible for her son's stupidity.
Tavares Forby of Black Pundit kept the abuse going with another dumb comment: The blame should be on the root of the cause, which was him having illegal drugs in the first place. And I know his mother knew he either sold drugs or used them. So why is the police being blamed? Instead of the police being sued, the mother should be taken to jail for manslaughter for not preventing her son to use/sell illegal drugs.
The only person with any sense seemed to be Young-White-and-Liberal who said:If they did know he had ingested a large amount [of cocaine]... then they should have taken him to a hospital.
The entire thread was just another fine example of compassionate conservatism.

3.angela bowers took the time to tell us about Britney Spears saying she wants to have kids and that they will have her husbands last name. But the real story is the on her husband has to tell. Federline (Britney's husband) was previously involved with actress Shar Jackson of TV's "Moesha." They have two children, a 2-year-old and a newborn. I would love to be a fly on the wall during the upcoming holidays...

2.Where HipHop and Libertarianism Meet found out something interesting via Alina Stefanescu. The term 'McJobs" is actually a registered trademark of McDonald's.

1. Dru Blood finds the final words that need be said on the KRS-1 issue from the man himself.

For the record, I am an American philosopher. I speak and seek truth. If the slander that the Daily News has printed regarding my political views has disrespectfully offended anyone in any way I truly apologize. Again, it was never my or Hiphop’s intent to disregard, disrespect or demean the tragedy of September 11th 2001 and those that died that day.
However, we do have a voice and a point of view and if you are not prepared to hear what Hiphop has to say about its view of world events then don’t ask!

Dru Blood closes it with: I'm beginning to think, actually, that American Society is completely nuance-impaired.
I have two words. No. Shit.

Why I started Blogging Again

Last year, I decided to start blogging because I was disappointed in the way Black media stories were being covered. It was a sorry state of affairs with Black magazines dying and no one really giving a fuck.

I decided I would start a blog writing about stuff I thought was important. Like most bloggers, I have a huge ego and thought the internet was the perfect place for it. The world would get the chance to read my noise.

I was fortunate enough to piss off George early on. He bashed me for "stealing links" and since people actually read him I received a nice early boost in traffic and was called a theif by strangers. It also helped that I got on the nerves of some black cheap labor conservatives such as Cobb and Baldiilocks. Those 2 and others were nice enough to bash me as I commented on on what I felt were their innane posts.

But real life butted in. I started a business with a friend of mine in Florida. That meant packing and moving from the drunken debauchery of New Orleans to the urban stripmall sprawl of Tampa. Quite a culture shock.

And starting a business is a fulltime gig. I am just now feeling comfortable enough to get back to doing other things I enjoy, like giving my views.

I still think Black media is in a sorry state. If I had the time I would find one of the pretty girls I have had sex with and have her do a daily 5 minute video of Blackcentric news I could put on the web. That would be cool. But until I get the time I will just spit my venom here and let people ignore it.