New Smart Bullet Steers in Midair and Follows Target to Hit Targets a Mile Away

Gun violence has incessantly plagued the African American community. In 1996, 29,183 males were killed by guns: 12,014 in homicides, 15,808 in suicides, 1,004 in unintentional deaths, and 357 in deaths of unknown intent. During the same time period, firearms were the second leading cause of death for African-American males aged five to 14, and the leading cause of death among African- American males aged 15 to 24. In 2007, the homicide rate for black male teens was 67.1 per 100,000, nearly 20 times higher than the rate for white males (3.4 per 100,000). Now there may be a new factor on the horizon that may increase these morbid rates of violence. Just over the two weeks in Chicago, 55 people were shot of which 10 were killed by gunshot wounds withing 50 hours. This past Thursday, 13 people were shot and2 dead in an six hour period in Chicago.

Two researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have created a four-inch bullet that can hit a target a mile away. With the use of laser points at the target, and an optical sensor on the bullet, it locks in and follows its target until it hits it. The 4-inch-long bullet has guidance and control electronics to steer its fins in midflight as it homes in on a target as well as little fins on the bullet keep it from spinning and help “steer” its path.

Continual course adjustment means the bullet can hit laser-designated targets at distances of more than a mile making it in essence a 50 caliber self-guided , miniaturized, low-budget guided missile. “It’s a bullet that can change its flight path so that it can more accurately hit a target at long range,” said Red Jones, one of the two researchers, in an interview with ABC News.

According to a press released distributed by the New Mexico company, the bullet is a prototype, and “engineering issues remain. The new bullet can make course corrections 30 times per second and will hit within eight inches of its target.

Sandia is run by the U.S. Department of Energy and operated by Lockheed Martin, says it is looking for commercial partners to develop the new bullet for mass production. Potential customers include the military and law enforcement.

The concern is will these type of bullets, like most weapons be used to mow down traditional targets, African American males or even worse, seep into the streets as most weapons and technologies for African American males to used them on each other. The fact today remains that Blacks are victimized by offenders armed with guns at higher rates than other ethnic groups and continue to be disproportionately victims of firearms homicide

The Kim Kardashian syndrome: Why Black Pay More Attention to Things That Don't Impact Them

If you go on twitter, it is not hard to see what the average African American considers as being important and worthy of incessant attention. For that matter, you can also conclude why our community is in the state of disarray it is. Our main problem is not being able to prioritize in concert with not engaging our attention to matters and issues that proffer a tangible importance to our collective well-being.

Ask the average black person about Greece, they may something about the debt crisis, but for certain than can speak astutely on its salads and yogurt more than the former. Comparatively speaking, ask them about anything related to Ms. Kim and some self-absorbed rapper, they can speak with the prowess of a Neil Bohr on particle physics. This is what I find problematic: occupation with mundane idiocy that has nothing to do with our lives than those issues that do.We question why African American youth perform poorly academically in schools, or why we don’t attend or graduate from college, yet we never examine our own practices and behaviors that contribute to this. For the way I see it, it would be more reasonable to attend to the high unemployment and dropout rates in our community than what one Kardashian does.

This is not funny. Now I know folks say I am piling up on my folk, but really I am not. It reminds me of the student I may have in my class who is failing who ask for extra credit at the last moment just to pass, when they did not attend class regularly, did not do their homework and didn’t take notes when they did attend.This is equally comparable to our inattention to the Greek and European sovereign debt crisis.

For the record, the European sovereign debt crisis has more of an impact on our daily lives and is way more import than any Kardashian or Jay-Z and Kanye West Concert will ever have. Sadly I want to believe people know this, but more sadly is the possibility that they do and still don’t care to inform themselves on the topic as much as they do the Kardashian or the concert.

To put is plainly. Countries like Greek and Ireland and Spain and Italy have borrowed lots of money from other European nations and now they cannot pay it back. America in turn does business, a lot of business with Europe so it will hit us making us suffer just as bad also. Why because the global market is based on the massive buying, selling and trading of bonds and complex papers that bundle risk that folks buy in hopes of making a profit.

As it stands, short term Greek Bonds are still trading at 50% or less of face value. With the new Plan announced last Thursday the Bonds should be trading close to, or at par but they won’t since the Greek Prime Minister just announced that he will place acceptance of the Eurozone bailout up for a popular vote. A vote many Greek citizens equal to blackmail.

If they refuse, it means Greece and Germany will not agree to the conditions of the new Plan and that Greece won’t get an 8 billion-euro payment in mid-November that would most likely run out during January that would leave the government with no funds to function. This is not a good look for American citizens. And seeing that more than 60 percent of Greek citizens do not desire a bailout, and that G20 leaders are trying to get China to drop some loot to help folk out if all goes to ####.

Greek Prime Minister Papandreou, whose PASOK party has pushed sweeping austerity measures through parliament while protesters rally in the streets, has asked for major budget cuts. Now Italy Bonds are trading at the largest spread between Germany bonds in history because of the exposure contained by the major banks of Europe. Shares in France's Society General tumbled 17 percent and Credit Agricole was down almost 12.5 percent.

We can see the impact right here just by looking at MF Global Holdings Ltd. Like other major US banks, the folks who run these massive pension and hedge funds have provided most of the wealth of banks via negative rates of interest that guarantee their liabilities, and that in effect bailed them out unconditionally with our invested money. This means as Greece goes so do all of the other debtor nations, like the US. The more we ignore the importance of these events in Europe, our large indebted and over leveraged economy accomplished by our propensity for investing in financial instrument widely used by speculators to discredit government bonds, and undermine the country's weakening creditworthiness like credit default swap (CDS)., the more danger we are in.

The end result may be a freeze in the credit markets, similar to what we saw after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Consequently, it will also result in a net-negative impact on the job creation reducing the ability of U.S. manufacturers to sell their goods in Europe. This will give European manufacturers a significant pricing advantage over US manufactures because of the decline in the exchange rate. Thus a weaker European economy means reduce demand for U.S. exports, because with no disposable income, European consumers will not be able to buy autos, appliances and other goods.

So the significance of the Greek sovereign debt crisis has a large impact on the average American citizen.Yet still, it seems that what happens to Kim Kardashian is more important to most African Americans than the aforementioned. I do not know why but I would like to call this the Kim Kardashian syndrome – the reason why black folk attend and care more about things that do not impact them than things that do.

Tale of 2 America’s: Separate and Unequal

America is falling apart and is reverting to what it always was: two nations inside of one. A frightening prospective but not unexpected given the lack of leadership in Washington; both party’s included as well as each branch of government. Maybe unbeknownst to the President also, given that he is asking people to fight on his behalf yet forgetting that it is hard for people to fight when they are hungry or homeless.

Once the call of this nation was separate but equal, a statement that cannot be validated even by simple algebra. Unfortunately in today’s parlance, all indicators reveal the overt reality that as a nation, we are separate and unequal – a lucid fact visible in black and white. If this divide is not mended, there will be hell on the avenues across this great nation.

Although we excel in some things, as a people, African Americans comprise 13% of Americans but only 4% of U.S. physicians, 3.2% of Lawyers, and less than 1% of architects but 69% of NFL, 80% of NBA and 98% of all rappers. The infant mortality rate of African Americans is 13.4 deaths per 1,000 live births compared to 5.5 and 5.7 for Hispanics and whites accordingly. Just 12 % of AA fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 % of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.

What is real is that we are our worse enemy and that the American oligarchical powers have used this to their advantage. A new report has just been released confirming that as Africa Americans we watch more TV than any other racial/ethnic group in the U.S. according to figures released on March 30, 2011. Moreover, Based on data collected in November 2010, African Americans used their TVs an average of 7 hours, 12 minutes each day — above the U.S. average of 5 hours, 11 minutes. Yet still, the disparities across the board are due to systemic practices of racism that elected leaders, regardless of race and political affiliation ignore as well.

Between 2003 and 2007, African American mothers had infant mortality rates at least twice as high as white mothers and AA children ages 17 and under were nearly 50 percent more likely to be without private or government health insurance than white children and that AA children ages 18 and under were three times more likely to live in single-parent households than white children. Nearly two-thirds of all AA children lived in a single–parent household and were twice as likely as white children to live in a household where no parent had full-time or year-round employment. Just one-third of AA children had a parent with a high school diploma, 24 % had a parent with at least some college experience, and less than 15 % had a parent who held a bachelor’s degree. These figures are not from the Ante-bellum south or during Jim Crow, but from the past few years and are just some of the reasons why one out of every three AA children lives in poverty compared with one out of every ten white children.

We are poor, jobless and in pain yet the nation’s first African American President and his political party ignore our desperate pleas as equally as the Republicans. Although Obama has proposed a job plan, it is difficult to see, unless targeted in urban areas and toward African American businesses, how this will aid in reducing the massive rate of unemployment we face.

For example, the dramatic difference with respect to access to capital. According to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau data, the median level of net worth among blacks is $6,200, eleven times lower than whites. Evidence shows that at startup, black entrepreneurs experience higher loan denial and tend to pay higher interest rates than white-owned businesses. Moreover, white-owned businesses have more than $80,000 of initial capital on average compared to black-owned businesses have less than $30,000 startup capital.

Regardless of the systemic constraints, we also must face the truth of aiding in our own demise and allowing these two nations within one to exist. From education to the correctional system this is observable. More than two-thirds of African American male dropouts are expected to serve time in state or federal prison. It would be idiotic to overlook the impact that arrests and incarceration have on African American families and communities. Since the 1990s, nearly one in three African-American men aged 20-29 were under criminal justice supervision, while more than two out of five had been incarcerated. Making African American males being incarcerated (4,618 per 100,000) 6 times more likely to be held in custody than white males: resulting in an estimated 1,559,200 children had a father in prison at midyear 2007; almost half (46%) were children of black fathers.Something is wrong with this America, the segment that has basically forgotten the sacrifices others made decades before them in order for them to be complacent, for they believe that they have theirs and that is all that matters.

But this is not reality. Today’s African American youth watch TV around 6 hours a day compared to 3 hours to whites and are exposed 6 hours more in total to all media when compared to white youth Even worse is that reading newspapers or books is basically none existence for African American youth, with whites and Asians reading way more each day, especially books, which if data is accurate, African American read on average 11 minutes a day and 33 minutes in total in terms of all print media.

If they do reach the point of completing High school and attending college, the nationwide graduation rate for African Americans is 42 %, most of which are females. As of five years ago, fewer than 8 % of young African American males graduated from college compared to 17% of white males in the same age group. What does this mean? It means that "The 4.5 million African American men ages 15 to 29 represent 14% of the U.S. male population of that age and
12% of all African Americans in the U.S. Their high rates of death, incarceration, and unemployment, and relatively low levels of college graduation rates raise concerns for African American families and the nation’s economy."

Yes America used to be a tale of two nations, black and white and separate but equal. Now this has returned however this time these two places are substantially unequal. Yes Obama wants us to get to marching, but he is missing the big social picture. People cannot march when sick and hungry. And they will not if the president is not open equally to hearing their pain. Instead they will be stealing copper from air conditioners and telephone poles, forming flash mobs and robbing stores and driving truck through beauty supply stores and stealing natural Indian hair.This is the new America and once people really get hungry, there will be hell to pay.

Obama’s Actions Purport Issues of American Jewish Lobby More Important Than Those of African American

One of the most prescient events of the Obama administration just occurred recently. It was not his vitriolic debt ceiling debate with the Tea Party leaning congress nor was it his recent jobs proposal and his impending standoff with the same house body. It was the loss of the New York 9^th district congressional seat vacated by Anthon Weiner. Many consider this a referendum for the democrats and more importantly the Obama’s administration policy and views on Israel.

Obama is losing support among Jewish voters due to perception of his insufficient support of Israel. Namely his pressure on Israel to halt further development of its West Bank settlements, something that Zionist and Jewish extremist are vehemently opposed to. They specifically reject the idea that the United States should ever pressure Israel over anything. Just because Obama did so was more than enough to confirm their belief he's anti-Israel. It all started when Obama called for a re-instatement of the 1967 borders and support for a future Palestinian state.

Although this is an underserved criticism, truth be told, there will never be a negotiated settlement as long as the current leadership exist in Israel and among US Jewish advocates, not to mention American has never been a neutral party to these negotiations. The US Jewish lobby will never allow the US government to champion freedom for the Palestinian people. Especially from supporters from New York, which has more Jewish residents than anywhere on earth next to Israel?

One thing is obvious, the response to the assertions that Obama’s lack of attention toward Israel by the American Zionist lobby, inclusive of fellow democrats like Former New York Mayor Ed Koch, obtained greater value and attention from the president than similar assertions made within the African American community. The American Jewish lobby is greeted with open arms when such idealism is fostered. But when African Americans even suggest the need for similar attention, it is down played based on the premise that ethnic, cultural and racial specific remedies are not needed as much as in time past.

How so one may query? After the New York loss, the White House appointed an "outreach" director to improve relations with the Jewish community. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other Jewish organizations have been getting all of Obama’s attention as of late, including the President giving a speech a few months ago at AIPAC’s annual policy conference. I cannot recall of such an effort and openness extended to the African American community addressing our concerns. He even spoke asking for the freedom of hikers held in Iran but no open word for Troy Davis.

Obama distances himself from affirmative action or programs designed to assist selected racial or minority groups yet seems to jump when certain aspects of his electorates’ cries foul. This even when he avoids any direct confrontation with issues of race that impact African Americans. Yes he uses his political capital openly to confront the needs and fears of Jews regarding Israel. Both, the concern for Israel and the disparate economic hardship of African Americans are long standing issues, but if an African American points out this lack of attention, he is considered selfish and less American but the American Jewish person doing the same is not.

We can speak of disproportionate levels of poverty and unemployment, and the impact that disparities in incarceration promulgate havoc, pain and suffering in our community, yet Obama policy tends to compartmentalize minority unemployment with solving the unemployment issues of all while forgetting that similar approaches in the past only make the rich richer, tend to make our economic conditions worse and supports merely the trickle down economic approach that Bush, Clinton and Reagan implemented and collectively African Americans argued against.

Especially with respect to mass incarceration, where I suspect the president will do little or ever mention this in the overarching discussion of what is best for America, let alone us African Americans who are the only ones stigmatized and gathering more and more decreased opportunity as a consequence of this injustice, socially and economically.

The position of the Obama administration implicates social and racial inequality as issues of an old world while conveniently ignoring that ethnic and cultural and gender specific remedies are necessary at times. He did such with regards to “don’t ask don’t tell” although he changed his belief while he was a senator that gays should be able to get married just as heterosexuals. He did this when he signed his equal pay for women executive order without a flip flop. Now he attends to the concerns specifically for Jewish Americans, while ignoring the specific concerns of African Americans.

Obama ignores racial politics and many of us give him a pass because he looks like us, when democratic progressives of the past attacked them head on. Seems they were more aware of the black and white reality – whites crated the black codes and enslaved us, not the other way around.

Politically, Obama is a throwback. He knows what he needs to win and serve those needs first. After all, many of his positions suggest that he understands he will get our vote regardless if he promotes our issues politically or not, because he knows we will vote for him because he is black (a reflection of our shallow preference for symbolism over substance). This is similar to the beliefs that produced the concept of separate but equal. Unfortunately such reflects a dysfunctional democracy, one that suppresses and disenfranchises some groups at the expense of others.

I know many in the Jewish lobby will call me an anti-Semite (I am not) and that many African Americans will call me a hatter. I call it objective. As Aldous Huxley once wrote, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” I know we give Israel tons of money and have for decades, I just wonder what could be done here in the US with that money, especially in deserving African American communities disproportionately immolated by poverty, incessant high unemployment and unbelievable rates of incarceration.

Shovel Ready Bull Crap

I would like to say the new world has not been in such a despondent state of precariousness since King Manuel I set Vasco de Gama loose of to this region from a village on the Tagus River in 1497. Although the same level of disease and pestilence may not be present, a future of slavery and servitude just might be.

Americans, especially African Americas, please wake up and stop falling for the okie dokie, this free thinker cannot think freely for us all. Historically we had jobs and our dollar was worth something in most cases when backed by Gold. Now with internationalist and globalism we do not because in decades prior, we would have stopped the outsourcing of jobs by imposing tariffs. And I anticipate things only will get worse before they get better for taking advantage of idiots is what politics is all about for the Obama administration and the republican led congress.

Yes Virginia, they are all in the same gang. They are all millionaires protecting millionaire interest, not your or mine or the average American. I just as, Tea party of Obama supporter, what do they have in common with you? Nothing, your wallet can empty and your house can foreclose but not theirs. True Obama at least promulgates a plan while the Republicans have no plan, but his plan worked for all in congress and the senate regardless of political affiliation.
Although the US consumer base is probably the largest in the world and buy more stuff than any other nation, our politicians both republicans and democrats only gives away access to the best market on the planet. Jobs will only return via a top level educational constituency and manufacturing growth. the only way manufacturing jobs are going to return to this country is if corporations find their foreign made products cannot compete with American produced ones.

Dr. Ron Paul understands, for if Obama or the congres did, they would have proposed a value added or import fee to raise the cost of foreign made products to the comparable US produced materials to mathematically negate foreign cheap labor. Yes 3^rd grade math would advocate such. Lesson being, if a company desires to sell in America, then make it in America. This would also go a long way to assist in paying down the nation’s debt – but what do I know as a free thinker?

In terms of a corporate tax rate of 35%, most US corporations don’t pay anything near that if anything at all, since the corporate share of income tax in terms of all income tax collected is about 7%. Part of the decrease is due to the moving of companies off shore. Part is due to the loopholes and tax credits that companies use to decrease their tax. A flat corporate income tax would help solve the deficit. Tariffs would force more companies to do business here which increase the corporate share of income tax. Obama’s jobs bill speech indicated he was not on my side and it broke my heart. I know he is smart enough to understand what is aforementioned, but it proposed nothing that would help the average American and actually sounded as if his sole goal was to fire up his union base: union construction, teachers and other public sector workers like police and fire persons.

Although Obama’s plan does not do enough, a proposed 1.5% GDP increase in 2012 with 1.2 million – 2 million jobs isn’t bad given the Republican congress as his opposition. But facts are facts, job creation requires more than yelling, demanding and good subject verb agreement when many parts of the world, pay is around 15 dollars a day or lower. Nothing in his plan deals with this, or preventing jobs from being shipped out of the country or even maintaining Davis-Bacon act wages. More interesting, it Seems Obama forgets us little guys while Republicans ignore us. The many who do not have a drivers license, and now on a felony probation for not paying child support, and as a result not able to pass background checks, or who have a bad credit report due to becoming one of the long-term unemployed?

America, any dream of days of yore may be over. The Middle Class has disappeared along with manufacturing. All we have is quasi-sovereignty and our debt is eroding that. Only a question of time when what we see in the streets of Greece, Italy, Israel and Libya takes root here. There are no shovel ready jobs in America, we don’t even have shovels let alone make them anymore.

The charcoal Forest of African American Public Though

I am taken back by the level of conformity and tolerance in my community for mediocrity, acceptance of the status quo and the derisory fatuity we display with respect to everything from our comprehension of politics and economics to our limited understanding of history and learning from past and present experiences. Conformity in the sense that all information seems or must be presented in the form of “one approved perspective” as Juan Williams described in his latest book Muzzled. Tolerance in the form of people seemingly being afraid to speak out or complain about anything which if viewed objectively, may have a negative impact on others, particularly African Americans just because it originates from within the African American community

My beliefs and opinions, both written and oral have been vilified and called rude, condescending, wrong and even unreasonable just because I state them with sincere vehemence and temerity and because the acceptance of hypocrisy is more haute couture than dealing with the facts and truth. Sadly is that most of such individuals do not or cannot read a simple 300 page book in a night or two days nor do they read any newspaper daily, but rather regurgitate what they hear from television or some singular web site that likely supports their views. Growing up when I did, nearly everyone I saw always kept a book or newspaper and read one daily.

Now, many with such dispositions may have never lived outside of the US for more than a few months or worse, have never been outside of the country except in the capacity of a tourist – yet they contend to be worldly in thought and disposition.

Often, if I express a position, even if objective with fact, one risks being ignored, shunned, blocked (in social media) or ridiculed for the sin of free thinking based on diverse information just because they disagree with what I may say. Whether it is pointing out the impact of unproductive and gratuitous violent misogynistic lyrics in most hip hop music, the media messages that mainly spoon feeds garbage to the masses that are void of utilitarian value or asserting Obama’s problematic and misguided preoccupation with Keynesian economic philosophy; they disagree simply because the subject matter deals with or originates within the African American community, and as such are off limits to critical discourse and seen as an attack and results in a muted discussion - for the defensive posture people tend to take. It is a sadly funny predicament to say the least.

For example, if I say George Bush and Obama’s use of economic stimulus served as a short term fix and only made America’s economy worse in front of republicans they get defensive and complain and say I am attacking Bush and he is not even in office. If I say George Bush and Obama’s use of economic stimulus served as a short term fix and only made America’s economy worse in front of democrats, especially black folk, they get defensive and complain that he inherited it from Bush ,that he needs more time and that I am either a hater or an uncle Tom. Although both do not deal with the objective reality that the stimulus, regardless of who supported and implemented it that it was short term and resulted in a worse economic standing for America objectively, they equally attack the messenger and the message that it did not work just to support their position albeit fact states otherwise (economic growth continues to fall, value of dollar continues to fall, jobs continue not to be produced). Ironic and funny, since both condemn the other for the same action.

This gets even worse with so-called talking heads. Al Sharpton will get on stage with George W. Bush and applauded his No Child Left behind Educational imitative as he did during the Bush years but did not speak out against schools being punished and loosing funding if they did not meet the rigorous program education standards. Today, ex post facto the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating scandal, he blames it on that very program he proffered support for implemented by George W. Bush. Lesson being – say what is popular with your supporters void of critical foresight and thought and don’t think for yourself.

Thus, we black folks are lost and have lost our way in the world. Our world view is a ghetto fabulous one in which we don’t snitch and keep it real while we ride or die – for nonsense. Sad fact is keeping it real is equal with keeping it ignorant and promoting behavior that destroys all around us including ourselves. Since this merely means be leery and suspicious of anyone that thinks for themselves if they do not support all that is black, even the negative aspects of our culture or do not think like us. That we should only say and think things that will be accepted by the people such statements are being presented to.

The free thinker in me would tell all folk as the aforementioned to suck my dick. But since I am trying to be politically correct I will refrain. Keeping it real means that we need to recognize the burned down and charcoal forest of ideas that exist around us and either move beyond them or stay in a dead zone mentally and wait to pass into extinction.

Brilliant Dumb: Notes on a Lost Generation

The temporal distinction between the generations in terms of temperament and belief orientations is vastly opposite today. So much so that the purview of a man approaching 50 in the African American community is a diametric contrast to a man in the same community approaching the age of 30. In years past this was not the case either in the 1960s or the immediate decades to follow.

Just yesterday I had a discussion with a man on a social media platform which started when I noted that young African Americans appeared to be more excited and interested in the release of a rapper from prison than Mumia Abu Jamal remaining in prison. Our back in forth in which he defended and justified this interest , ended with him suggesting that I did not include white supremacy in my asserting that such an interest is why young black men can’t read or do math yet adore a man who’s music basically encourages sociopathic behavior among them as being appropriate and acceptable.

Truth is that white supremacy was the context and barometer of the time in which I was raised more so than his and always will exist as such. More importantly it was not an excuse for inaction as it seems to be for this current generation.

The differences are several. First reasoning and critical thinking has been lost and the current generation is much less serious about attending to the problems confronting our community. Historically reading in itself was a revolutionary act making education our best weapon in the fight against inequality. I was raised in a family that read voraciously. Even to this day I read the “weekly standard” and “National Review” – republican slanted publications that many around the age of 30 who are black will never pick up simply because they disagree with republicans. Information has no political affiliation and if one ignores the views of others because you disagree with them, we limit our intellectually capacity to recognize and solve our problems strategically. But if such is stated, this generation will likely get defensive as opposed to respect and address this concern openly in an objective fashion.

This generation has tools that past generations did not have. Martin King or Rosa Parks or the Black Panthers did not have fax machines, email or face book was were way more effective organizers and getting issues of civil rights dealt with on behalf of our community. Yet with these tools, they do not or are unwilling to mobilize the masses for social change because they are not serious and ignore the fact they place celebrity, entertainment and other mundane abstractions as paramount over collective community well-being. Maybe even because selfish dispositions care more about appearance and swagger than substance and the issues that matter.

Unlike the youth in Egypt and Syria for example, who use social media for revolutionary change, we use it for flash mobs to rob and attack people in the name of fun. We can go to a movie and learn that we can drive a truck through a window and steal but ignore such behavior as being a form of psychopathy. Yes the new generation is smart but in a morose stupid and brilliant dumb way.

I say this because it is dumb to attend to applauding a man like T.I., who initially went to prison for weapon distribution, weapons [ his guns in picture from arrest] that would likely be used against other black men as opposed to members of the Aryan nation, while at the same time giving him a pass and complaining that there are too many guns in the hands of young black males and all we do is aim them at each other.

Why Black Folk Will Always be Broke

In these times of economic turmoil and instability, many are tightening their purse strings across the nation. However, a large segment of the population continues to spend and live above their means — African Americans.

The simple fact is that African Americans do not save money and tend to spend before even considering putting a few coins away. The average African American’s savings level is about 1 percent of annual income when compared to other ethnic groups. This represents the percentage of disposable personal income held in retirement plans and liquid financial assets.

This is strange given the massive spending power that we have as a collective. African Americans spent $645.9 billion in 2002, an increase of 104 percent from 1990, according to Target Market News, a consumer market research and information company. In 2004, blacks' spending power increased to $723 billion, according to U.S. consumer market data, and is currently estimated to be $913 billion.

If African American spending power were considered Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — the measure of a nation’s wealth, we would be ranked 13th, lower than Russia and higher than Mexico, Australia, Netherlands and South Korea. Given this accomplishment, why can't we save some of this money?

We comprise less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, yet account for 30 percent of the country’s Scotch whisky consumption. Detroit, which is 80 percent African American, is the No. 1 market in the world for cognac consumption. According to Target Market, African American consumers spend a significant amount of their income on depreciable products such as $30 billion on clothes and around $15 billion on furniture to put into homes that are mostly rented. The average African American household has also increased its annual spending on entertainment by nearly 30 percent over the past few years.

Regardless of age or income, African Americans contribute less often, and less money to 401(k)s than whites and Asian-Americans. African American employees who earn $120,000 or more have saved $154,902 in their 401(k)s on average compared to $223,408 for whites. Even when comparing households with roughly the same incomes, whites saved nearly 20 percent more each month for retirement.

From income to homeownership to household wealth, we continue to lag behind whites, according to a United for a Fair Economy study. This report observed that a typical white family had six times the wealth of a black family in 2001 and that the gap is growing continuously, particularly with respect to savings and investing.

If we truly desire economic empowerment, then the burden is on us to save. We cannot copy the attitudes of celebrities like Ciara, who in a recent issue of Pride magazine stated that she spends "about $11,000 a month" on shoes and that she owns "maybe a thousand pairs."

new hampshire and Iowa?

Riddle me this Batman and woman? Why is it that of all the cities, states, municapalities and principalities that it has been selected that Iowa and New Hampshire be the profile for all of these United Sates of America? I cannot figure it out. Neither of these places on the outside is reflective in posture and human make up of the rest of the country. Taking Iowa for starters, African Americans make up 2.1 percent of the total population compared to 12 percent nationally and they have a home ownership rate of about 72 percent compared to 66 percent nationally. Add to this that 92 percent of Iowa’s land is devoted to farming which is the highest percentage for any state in the country.

In New Hampshire we can note a similar picture. African Americans comprise less than 1 percent of the population with just 6.5 percent of the total population being below the poverty line. In comparison, Georgia and South Carolina the African American population is 28.7 and 29.5 percent respectively according to 2004 census numbers with both states having 13 percent and 14.1 percent below the poverty line respectively.

In a different way if we take Los Angeles for example, they have more people in the city than almost Iowa and New Hampshire combined. Major cities have a different barometer. In a place like Memphis you have a city that is 62 percent African American Des Moines; Iowa has about 8 percent with Concord, New Hampshire with just 1 percent. These small differences in demographic profiles for me suggest that politicians will always be off point if these two locations are the central means by which to find out what is important to common or most Americans. Unlike the farm retail, most African Americans business owners are in urban areas that focus on retail. In 2002 African American-owned firms accounted for 5.2 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the U.S. In addition, retail trade, and health care and social assistance accounted for 28.6 percent of all African American-owned business revenue.

It just doesn’t make any logical sense to me, given the manner in which problems and issues come to the fore based on environmental circumstance that varies across the country. I feel that politicians will always, miss the picture and never desire to want to get it. All they are concerned with are lobbyist and re-election. So if you are anticipating that any of these Presidential hopefuls, from Hillary to McCain really care (and Newt also) then think again, cause listen to folks in Iowa and New Hampshire, may have them think Slavery is popular according to main stream America once again.