Monday, January 30, 2006

Afros and Gold Teeth

Man, I miss the crib. It’s just something about Memphis and the South I love. Maybe its because right now I’m in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico at the Tamaya Hyatt Resort and Spa. It is a nice place with Casino’s, a golf course and a luscious spa, but it is cold here man, real cold. I made the mistake of not checking the weather channel and came up in this camp thinking it’s the desert, that it had Mexico in its name and that it would be warm. But I was wrong. It was 40 degrees when I arrived and that was at 2pm. Now I’m stuck missing not only the crib, but the southern weather that was 67 degrees when I left the heart of the dirty.

But that’s not all, since I have been here I have counted three Negroes, and they were all in the airport. Memphis, like many other areas of the South is a heavenly place complete with Barb-Q, soul food, hustlers, pimps and more importantly, folks that look like me. Not that this is all good, but it isn’t al bad either. It just a truthful notice that when one is out of their environment, they miss those things they take for granted. Like a person who misses their girl friend or husband when they go away for a few days, or how one misses their children in the same manner. I miss the South man, especially Memphis, and my folk from my neighborhood from Castalia to South Parkway, complete with Afro’s and Gold teeth.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Play pussy and get fucked

I must say that as a whole, we have some dumb ass and even stupid politicians representing us to the world on behalf of us citizens – more aptly referred to as plebeians. Case in point regards the recent elections in Palestine. If you have been behind a rock or in the malls or strip clubs too long, you may or may not know that Hamas won an overwhelming majority in the recent elections. Elections that our president, G. W. Bush advocated would be required before we could work in concert with the Palestinians.

Not like this was new, but we have been recanting the same things for years as if there was an equal relation between democracy and electocracy. We complained about the mismanagement that has occurred, financially under the Palestine Authority and openly hoped for a sea change. Now that we have it, we run around hollering the British are coming – excuse me, I mean Hamas has won and we don’t deal with terrorist. Specifically folks that support violence for a political gain toward self-determination (war) or complete abrogation of an historic enemy – the Zionist sate of Israel.

Hamas ain’t gone change and worse of all it should have not been a surprise, given the public opinion polls that have been conducted in the west Bank among Palestinians that have consistently hovered around 70 percent in support of Hamas. They have always been a political party and we knew of such.

What we fail to relaize is that these are individuals who have been elected. Many Hamas-backed candidates elected since December are not actual Hamas members. They just selected them as opposed to the corrupt ruling Fatah Party. But our folk up in the Choclate city are to blind to see and realize this.

Man, a nigga ought to make this nigga here a politician. The truth of the matter is if we want peace, we will have to deal with the people in power. More importantly, Hamas are the best folks to be at the table with. Not only do they have popular support, they also have the guns and the penchant to use them. We need to step our game up, cause as it stands now, we may as well be playing pussy with our words and hard-line stance, and get fucked.

FOLK HEAD OUT TO ALBQ, THIS WEEK SO I MAY BE A LITTLE LATE BUT U KNOW A NIGGA GOT BRAIN CELLS TO WASTE

Can’t get down like that

What is it that Black women really want? I guess this question has been asked over the ages, and as for now, it seems that we brothers are still at a loss when it comes to an answer. Over the years, I have come to find out little myself about this question. I have dated all sorts and types of women, and it all seems to add up to this - they don’t know. On the one hand they desire to be treated like a woman and loved, but yet at the same time they desire some one that will mistreat them and basically disrespect and cheapen their woman hood. I figure sisters know when they have something good, but there still remains a small caveat of consternation.

One thing is for certain are that most women today are pessimistic and insecure when it comes to being in a stable and working relationship. Maybe it’s the television influence or maybe it is the social climate of the time. Whatever the case maybe, they seem to believe that no relationship will last, that men will cheat and that nothing from an interpersonal perspective that involves love is worth working for. It is a shame to me because I see so many people longing for a loving relationship but do not dare to search inside of themselves for the patience and resilience required for meaning commitment.

I figure trust and faithfulness are what most people lack when they burden themselves with thoughts of infidelity. Namely because they have some sort of guilt or burden over themselves that makes them desire others, even when they do not have no desire for them. I believe in being honest until the point that it hurts. It is not a good thing nor is it bad. It is a reality that the insecure cannot desire to face because it will require that they look deep and long at the mirror at themselves and dig deep into their souls. In order for a relationship to work, one must have faith, whether in a higher authority or in themselves and the choice they make throughout life. Sure, I’m certain women will desire to want what they cannot have, and that they will take for granted what they already have. Which brings us back to the question: what do women want? I still don’t know but in my heart, I have the faith to try to find and keep my soul mate, because I think that a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. I just wonder which one I am since I desire to treat that special person like I want my mother to be treated. My advice is do the dirt fella’s it more attractive to them and because the more pain and heart ache you cause them, the more they will want to be by your side. My fault in the long run and I guess as a result I may never find love because I can’t get down like that. And women ask me why I think it is best to Bone and dis-own. I say I can stop, if I found one that wanted me and just me - period.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Neocons and the Carlyle Group

There has been a new buzz word sprayed around by media and political pundits in the post September 11 era – Neoconservative. The new conservatives (neocons for short) have been able to change dramatically the landscape of American Foreign Policy. From a philosophical perspective, this wing of GOP formalist believes that all US foreign policy should be engineered so that America is placed in the situated to reconstruct the world to serve its own interests.

The reticular formation of the neocons is varied and ranges to include folks the like Rupert Murdoch, who owns and runs the Fox media empire. Mainly occupying the Department of Defense under the current administration, they also include members of think tanks like the Heritage foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, financial institutions like the Bradley foundation and news commentators. My concern regards the hawkish manner I which these individuals place their beliefs on others without scrutiny.

Neocons believe that policies that are preemptive and unilateral are best for the American populous. This has been more than apparent with the Iraqi war. Now this group of zealots is moving toward another thorny position – privatization of US nuclear facilities. Touted as being one of the largest defense contractors in the United States, the Carlyle group is going all out to implement plans that will allow the current administration to make it easy for private contractors to run US nuclear facilities. Its Directors include Frank Carlucci, former Reagan Secretary of Defense and James Baker, former Bush Secretary of State. With the assistance of the Defense Departments top brass, the Carlyle Group will accept a management contract to run the nuclear weapons laboratories at Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos. The contract is supposed to be transferred in one year to the University of Texas, where the military and the Carlyle Group will have control.

The Carlyle group is already making big sums of loot from the India-Pakistan conflict, due to its connection with the companies (aerospace giant BAE Systems North America) and the CIA which supply both countries. I’m troubled by any effort to place nuclear weapons in the hands of private citizens. Aren’t you?

Sunday, January 22, 2006

a fuckd up view of manhood

I often feel bad as a representation of what I feel is a dying breed - real community based and responsible men of African descent. Too often we forget of how what we do and suggest can impact others around us, even those whom we do not know or come in contact with. It used to be a time when hard work and responsibility were rewarded with personal humility for its own sake. Now, it appears as if such morals are a thing of the past. It is fashionable now to use money as the bridging gap to success and importance. Now we all need money and know of its value, but does a stack of processed and dyed tree-pulp actually define ones manhood? That’s the query I am attempting to answer as I pen this essay.

I am troubled that we have reduced ourselves in terms of defining manhood as a function of wealth. Is one who robs and jack cars and accumulates wealth considered to be a man? Is an athlete, actor or musician, who spends most of the time on the road, in clubs, cheating on their significant others a man? Is one a man if he maintains his family yet keeps secrets from his wife or woman regarding their bisexual tendencies a man? Is one a man if he selects not to take a job because he feels his value is worth more, when he has no job to begin with? Or is the man who claims that he is in a committed relationship but looks for excuses to back out of a marriage - Omar Tyree for example.

It frightening in a sense, for it makes one think that a person can be emasculated if they lose their material wealth. I was raised to believe that a man was never judged by his greed, avarice or wealth, but more so by personal integrity and work ethic. I saw we all take a part in redefining our manhood and I admit I need to start with myself. No im not like any of the examples I cited, but I do have baggage and things I need to work on. I can always be a better father and a better partner to my significant other and I have to remember that, while at the same time not falling for defining my manhood by what I have as opposed to what I can create with my mind and my work ethic on behalf of my family and community.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

What’s a Sexual agreement?

I was asked by a publishing friend of mine to write a piece on sexual agreements. Many of us are involved in relationships and do not actually understand what it is about relationships that make them work. The first and most important thing is an attribute of ones character and integrity – honesty. Honesty goes along way with regard to trust and respect. Honest must be the ground work of all relationships especially as it deals with sex.

So I ask the question, how many of us have sexual agreements with our partners. I am not talking about agreeing to conduct the act, but agreeing on what intimacy and sex is for both parties in a relationship. For starters, it is important for people to communicate their expectations and be truthful from the start, if you know your partner has a high sex drive, and then it is not appropriate to change in mid-stream when you knew this up front. In addition, it is important to tell your partner about any discretions or infidelity that you may or may have been involved with so that you can grow and share a mutual passion together. Finding out after the fact by another party can only make it worse. True if you are honest and tell your partner, they may leave but it is something that will still gather respect via telling the truth.

It is essential that you talk about such issues, for it is more important to inform your partner if you truly love them of your actions in particular in this age if HIV. More importantly is indicating if you used protection or not. These are just small ways to show how you care about your mate, for loving and being in q relationship is a growth process that involves give and take and compromise, communication and understanding on both people’s behalf.

Another essential part of a sexual agreement is being knowledgeable of your partners sexual fantasies. If one doesn’t know their partners sexual fantasies or worse don’t have any fantasies about their partner, then they may fall short of keeping their sex lives fresh and it may lead to infidelity. The bottom line is that we need to have strong sexual agreements in our relationship if we do not want our partners to stray and/or obviate a good, working health and growing relationship between two people.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Democracy, Plutocracy or Civil war

From the laymen’s perspective, it is a rather thorny position to impose a democratic structure on a sovereign state upon a military invasion. Thus the question is proffered, how can one exist in a democratic state when it is thrust upon them without the benefit of self determination? One such example of this, outside of holding an election where people are unaware of the candidates, or where people from other countries can cast votes without knowing or hearing any political positions of those running for office, regards some of the changes that have been instituted by the U.S. government without the purview of the Iraqi population. The Former American Administrator of the Iraqi Coalition ProvisionalAuthority updated law makes saving seeds planting, practiced byThe majority of Iraqi farmers to now are illegal. Based on the current provision of the law as documented in the Coalition ProvisionalAuthority Order 81, Iraqi farmers are allowed only to plant seeds obtained from licensed and authorized U.S. distributors. The order, called the “Patent, Industrial design, undisclosed information, integrated circuits and plant variety law has some strange implications for a purported democratic state. On the outside, it looks as if the only benefits being delivered are for U.S and Western multinational companies like Halliburton and seed making giants Archer Daniel Midland and Monsanto Company. The Monsanto company by the way, just reported that it will be spending $1.4 billion to buy a California company called Seminis Inc. that will take its molecular breeding technology to the next level, making the company the largest seed distributor in the world. There will not be a democracy in Iraq if people are not allowed the right to self determination, instead, there will either be a plutocracy - The corruption of democracy designed to benefit politicians, corporations and the media - or worse, civil war
Torrance Stephens is the Author of the novel A Matter of Attention and two books of short stories called Rockstar, Stud, Gigolo and Fast and Gamin’, available at amazon.com and bbotw.com.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

buyer beware - whats a sugar daddy

How many of yawl bitches – excuse me, women, got sugar daddies? I figure it is a popular term now days seeing the basic groupie mentality that some women seem to show and enjoy. First, I must query, what is a sugar daddy. Is their an age limit or is it just a basic relationship between a man and a woman where the woman is not really interested in the man but more so his money? I do not know, but a woman told me that she was looking for one and I indicated to here that I was more of a sour poppa. What I do know is that they get no pussy and they pay for everything. My niggers in Three –six Mafia say they sleep on the floor and the dog sleep in the bed. I guess a sugar daddy is what we used to call a steak daddy.

I think they have been around a long time, but they have become more popular today given the influence of pop culture and the keen interest women place on the unreal desire to be with an actor, musician or professional athlete. I would figure that these folks would make the best sugar daddies since they have all the loot. But it is the opposite, with their name and status; they can get a woman to suck their dick in a limousine and move on to the next without a concern for the woman. Maybe that’s it, maybe sugar daddies don’t date women – they date hoes that the aforementioned folks disregard at the drop of a hat like a cheap trick.

Sugar daddies are also dumb. And their supposedly women tell them this. So I guess we men if the shoe fits, deserve what we get thinking love is real. But the truth, as I stated earlier is that they women likely never loved or were capable of love in the first place. Any woman who would love u would not intentionally talk and say negative things about their man or treat them like a meal ticket. The truth is that a woman with a sugar daddy does not see the man but more so the wallet and their earning potential. Sugar Daddies may also be annoying to them and they may be feeling as if without you they can’t make it. So let this be a lesson to the wise, if a woman insults you, only calls to ask for something when she needs you, makes you sleep on the floor, and idolizes rappers, professional athletes and folks they see on television, they are likely a ho or a trick. So buyer beware.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Federal Drug Cartel

We all know about the power of lobbyist in Washington, DC. The most powerful or one of the most powerful lobbying groups is the pharmaceutical, industry. It is apparent that the ambition of both the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry is to get that loot. I first recognized this with the creation of disorders by the industry just to sale drugs. Most scientists would agree that Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), a disorder characterized by inappropriate levels of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, does not exist and did not exist before the pharmaceutical giants wanted to market drugs to deal with this made-up disorder.

Since then, we have seen a rapid change in the FDA and its protocols in an effort to please these drug makers. Now the industry has hired former U.S. Congressman Billy Tauzin (R-La) to be president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. He was a 13 term congressman and the former chair of the Energy and Commerce committee. It is the oldest legislative standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and takes the lead on matters relating to the promotion of commerce and to the public’s health as well as other issues.

My concern is that 20% of FDA scientist have reported being forced to approve drugs they were unsure about with an additional third being unconfident in the FDA to assure the public safety regarding drugs being placed on the open market. With the apprehension and trepidation associated with Celebrex, Viox, and Naproxene, one can see why the scientist feels this way. Even the drugs used to treat the made up disorders mentioned above are problematic, often resulting in condition like narrow angle glaucoma. Add to this the new approach of direct marketing via television, we are creating an environment were drugs are going to be releassed before they are proven safe.

Then there is RU486, the drug that is supposed to trigger abortions within 48 hours of conception. It was released under an expedited approval system, a system that is supposed to be only employed with life saving drugs.

The FDA is not protecting the public safety of the American citizen but rather making profits for the pharmaceutical industry. The war on drugs should be redirected toward the FDA for they are the biggest drug dealers I am aware of. They may be using the DEA to get rid of the competition because from this individual’s purview, they should be the federal drug cartel, a title more accurate than the Federal Drug Administration.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Change the Channel

Over the past few weeks, I was reminded of how often we neglect the past. I was reminded of this from the celebrations and specials and television segments specifically designed to target our attention on the recanting of the Jewish Holocaust. The specials were touching and diversified. Some were on individual survivors and notorious death camps while others were human, ranging from one area teacher’s vow to not let her students forget of this terrible time on our history to personal memories of the infamous hardship families faced in their effort to escape the deadly vise of Hitler’s evil. I was glad to see the effort the major media had made to remind us of this problematic period in our history. Yet at the same time, I was heart torn for I had never seen such recanting of the period of slavery and its aftermath in a similar vein.We often forget or worse, are unaware of how the Portuguese led the West to Africa and introduced to the world the term Negro. The term was used because according to Europeans, the most arresting characteristics of the people of Africa were our skin color. For it was during this moment on the globe when the people with the least amount of skin pigmentation came into contact with those with the most.
The impact of Europeans on Africans can best be reflected in the relationship of one culture dominating or superseding another. In slavery, the views, beliefs and practices of Europeans were imposed on individuals of African origin. As a result, through the slave experience, Africans developed a disorientated self-image based on the standards set and described by Europeans. I hope we never forget or desire to forget about this period, and if the mainstream media want to forget, then let us change the channel.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

More than Average

Since the five Bills I won on the University of Texas National Championship game win, I have been hearing the unthinkable – that Vince Young is Average, or better yet, will make an average pro, if that. He is 6 feet 6 inches tall and about 250. He has the speed approaching a Marcus Vicks, and makes the throws of a Warren Moon and Joe Gilliam Hybrid. Like Warren, he has accuracy and arm strength and like Joe, he makes what ever throw – even if it is ugly, to advance up the field and get the completion. He won the Maxwell Award (nation's top player) and was voted the Cingular/ABC Sports Player of the Year.

As a starter, Young was 30‑2 and set Texas career records in total offense (9,167 yards), rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (37) and touchdowns (81). He also won the Davey O'Brien Award for the nation's best quarterback and the Maxwell Award for the top college football player.

This season, Young became the only player in NCAA history to pass for 3,000 yards (3,036) and rush for 1,000 (1,050) in one season. His 4,086 total yards set a school single‑season record.
He won the Davey O'Brien Award for the nation's best quarterback and in the Rose Bowl game against USC, he had 200 yards rushing and 267 passing and three touchdowns

Add to the mix that he was Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in 2005 and is 29‑2 as a starter. In High school, he started for three years and collected 7,624 yards from scrimmage, I’m thinking I should be a pro scout. Now I’m not suggesting statistics make the player, but I do know that winning is the bottom line and that Vince Young is a winner – and he big too. So what’s my point? Well throwing a football doesn’t have to look pretty. The spiral doesn’t have to be perfect nor the arm motion just right. The real is that Vince Young makes all the throws, including ones not taught and/or viewed as classic quarterback pitches - which make him more than just average.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Chips Ahoy

In this age of instant media with the internet and cable, it was only a matter of time before the government AKA Big Brothers started to make use of microchip technology for doing evil. Several examples of this are the Clipper, V-chips and Veri-chips. This new age can be connected with Former President William Clinton, for it was he who put in place Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD-63) which has laid the groundwork for the Federal Intrusion Detection Network (FIDNET). During his two terms as president, Bill Clinton averaged about one executive order each week.

The Clipper chip was designed by the National Security Agency (NSA) under the auspice and wiles of the FBI. It was their claim that the availability of strong encryption programs for the general public will get in the way of conducting surveillance. Their (the government's) logic was to make mandatory the installation of such chips in all devices that might use encryption, namely computers, telephones, and televisions, thus giving. The government – via control of the encryption algorithm the ability to decrypt any messages it obtained.

In addition to the Clipper chip technology, there is also the V-chip. The FCC has approved policy that necessitate all television sets with picture screens (13 inches) or larger to be equipped with V-chips so that people can block the display of television programs based upon its rating. This policy was made effective as of July 1, 1999. The problem is the reverse nature of such technology. Based on my understanding of reverse-engineering, the V-chip can easily be used as a surveillance and spying device. Being small enough to hold cameras, the circuitry itself can not be obviated or detached from television sets.

Add to these the Veri-chips which are also called radio frequency identification devices (RFID’s). These are injectable microchip/radio transmitter developed by Applied Digital Solutions have the potential to be used in a variety of personal identification applications. RFID chips can store much more information than bar codes and do not need line-of-sight proximity, which means that the information they hold can be read anywhere without swiping.

I mention these technologies because it is more than palpable that America is no longer a democratic nation. On the contrary, it is a nation totally controlled by the rich. So the next time you see that chips ahoy commercial on television wave and smile, you never know who may be looking in.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Loose Lips Get Busted


Man, what is the world coming too? I just found out that one of my favorite boxers growing up (along with Ali, Simon Brown and Marvin Hagler) Thomas Hearn’s was arrested. Hearn’s at one time in his career held the WBA, WBC, WBU and IBO titles in the welterweight to cruiserweight divisions between 1980 and 1999.
But check this out, he wasn’t driving drunk, beating on a woman, or transporting narcotics like so many athletes have done so in the past to have confrontations with twelve (police). No, he was exercising his parental obligation and authority over his child. I just can’t figure what is going on when a nigga get arrested for being a parent. They don’t arrest folks for neglecting their parental responsibility. Personally, I do not think Hearn’s should have been charged with a crime at all. If as reports read are correct, if his 13 year old son swung at him sounds like he has forgotten that he was a child and wanted to pretend to be a man. As a result, if he is a man, I’d knock him out if possible if he was my son. Maybe not with a complete fist, but I would. Hearn’s really took the high ground by just pimp slapping him.
I figure we all have heard that if a child is living in their parent’s home, then they should do what they say, or that I brought you into this world and I will take you out. My concern is that liberty and being a responsible parent is at odds with law enforcement officials, lawyers, and child advocates. In addition, I don’t know about you, but I do not want anyone telling me how I should discipline my children. Not to mention that the Southfield Police Chief Joseph Thomas indicated that the child hit his 47-year-old father first.
It appears that Michigan law requires police to make an arrest if someone is injured in a domestic assault case since Hearn’s left the boy-child with a swollen eye, and cuts on his nose and chin. Since when does the law suggest that a person, parent or not, do not have the right to respond to a child's punch or slap, by punching or slapping the child back?
I guess if it was me, and I were in Michigan, I’d be in jail too and would be facing misdemeanour assault and battery charges as well as being out of ten stacks ($10,000) for bail. Good Looking Mr. Hearn’s for showing the rest of the world what it takes to be a parent.

women get pregnant by men all the time

I was told that it was news that Angelina Jolie was pregnant with Brad Pitt’s Baby. At the same time, I was informed that it was a big story and even important. The cue at the bottom of the screen added that she had called Jones old girl friend, and informed her directly of the impending birth – fingers crossed. Now as you may or may not know, I am the personification of the saying “there is a fine line between brilliance and insanity.”

And as I wait for the 2006 National Championship game, I am laughing on the inside and also dismayed personally, that I was attracted to the tele-prompted words to the extent to write about its mediocre (if that) relevance to anything. To make things worse, television-typing Jones described her as the sexiest woman in the world.

So as pedantical lust would have it, I would indulge to proffer that silicon injected lips don’t make a woman beautiful. Rather it is the heart, the eyes, smile, skin complexion and legs. This is the case at least in this man eyes. Slim, Ms. Jolie looks attractive, but that’s my take on it as a nigga that has never seen her in person, nor desired to do such. Second, I am a person who had never paid no never mind to slim any who. It just fascinates me how folks personal business is considered news if they are famous. It also makes me think as to the kind of scrotum sack this Dame must be totin'. Any sister would have to be the evilest and none motherly person around to call another sister and deliver similar information. Moreover, the deliver of the message would be expectating retaliation in the form of sugar in the gas tank, the ubiquitous keyed car or more appropriately, an ass kicking.

I guess i'm just blowing off steam to the Memphis lost to Texas, or maybe, I just don’t have anything to do, until the game comes on. Either way, slim ain’t all that and women get pregnant by men all the time.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

W.E.B. Dubois on the NFL


This year was a good year for football, especially the NFL, but maybe not so much of a good year for coaches. As of yesterday, there were at least 8 NFL coaches given their pink slips and I suspect that as many as 6 more may also get the boot. Why do I say this? Because it seems that the obvious – successful coaches in the NFL as of current times seem to be of the African American persuasion. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that if you are of the swarthy hued complexion, that it guarantees success. But it is strange, that maybe my dream of seeing two African America head coaches square off in the supper Bowl may be realized. First up to bat is Cincinnati under the leadership of the defensive minded Marvin Lewis, who while as the Baltimore Ravens Defensive Coordinator was passed up on seven coaching positions just two years ago. Now his team is 11 and 5 and has received a bye in the first round. Then there is the fresh changes that have been made by Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith who has his team at 11 wins and 5 loses and have earned the number two seed in the national league behind Seattle.
Lastly, there are the Indianapolis Colts' and Tony Dungy who had a chance for greatness until they lost their first game this season. At 14 and 2, they re the favorites. Not to mention that Coach Dungy has managed to show that character is more important than games played by men after the loss of his 18 year son James. Many speculate that Lewis and Dungy will face each other for the AFC title. Still others feel that Smith’s Chicago Bears has the defense to make it to the Super Bowl as the NFC representative. Which means there could be to African America coaches in the Super Bowl this year?

As of date, there are six African American head coaches in the National Football League's among 32. However, with all the success evinced by this cadre of coaches, I am sad to say I do not see any more being added to the NFL ranks, even with eight to thirteen vacancies available. Although I believe that Minnesota defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell, Buffalo defensive coordinator Jerry Gray, San Francisco assistant head coach Mike Singletary and Jets defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson would be excellent head coaches. Especially given the observation of the available aforementioned defensive minds and their winning ways on and off the field. I mean, although Dennis Green, Romeo Crennel and Herman Edwards of the Jet’s are not in the play-offs, they have been to the play-offs and have been successful in the NFL when their teams were healthy.

I would hope that one of the three (Dungy, Smith and Lewis) would actually be considered for and win the prestigious Coach of the Year award. But I doubt it. It seems as W.E.B. Dubois was right, given that the problem of Football remains to be the one of the color line. I wonder if any of the four names I mentioned were white, would they be considered for these newly opened head coaching jobs.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Only One

It was once sung that “one is the loneliest number.” This is namely a consequence of the mathematical singularity of the number itself as well as our consistent western belief orientation that promotes the self and the individual more so than the collective.

Over the past year, we as a notation have been focusing on the collective. Whether it is related to collective responsibility of Americans protecting themselves from future terrorist attacks or in the simple form of supporting our troops in Iraq, politicians in particular keep singing these mantra’s in an effort to secure support and finalize their base constituency during this election year.

In the universe there is but one Sun and at the end of each sporting season there are but single champions in Hockey, basketball, baseball and football. But this focus on the single and first unit figure after zero is not a constant as is The Natural Logarithmic Base, e or Planck constant . No indeed in politics, it normally represents a sign of elitism.

I have come to find out that the members of both the House and Senate seem to be disingenuous war mongers. For starters, since the recent war began, there has been a constant banter of support for our troops by these so-called representatives of the people. However, of all the members of these bodies, only one has a child serving voluntarily in the current war effort. There are 535 members of the U.S. House and Senate, only one has a child or grandchild serving in the military. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., has a son in the Army who is serving in Afghanistan.

Making this worse is the observation that neither George Bush nor John Kerry has children serving in this war, yet they always talk about serving the nation. Maybe this is why every politician seems to be so supportive of the war. But it is reasonable to assert that if more members of the House and Senate had children in the military serving their country, they would be less likely to vote in sustain of this occupation.