BlackMan Time

Archive for March, 2008

I'm not fund of sports people who unfairly take drugs to enhance their performances against drug-free competitors. When (or if) they are caught they should be punished to the full extent of the law.

Any athlete found guilty and have served whatever punishment they were charged and convicted for, should be forgiven and be allowed to return to improve on with their efforts.

In the case of Dwain Chambers, the British sprinter who was banned from UK athletics after he was found guilty of taking drugs to enhance his performance, he should be allowed to compete at whatever level he so chooses. But this is not the case.

He has done his crime and served his time, but the suits at British Athletics have deemed Chambers to be persona non-Grata. They have also made it clear that they do not want hime to compete at the highest level. Further, they have even alerted other athletic bodies around the world to adopt the same approach as them in connection with Chambers.

What this means is that they do not respect the fact that they have already punished Chambers and are going beyond what is usually accepted to make an example of him.

Talk about prejudice, hate and hypocrisy!

There is a subtle difference separating the word ‘gangsta’ from it's grammatically correct cousin gangster. Out on the street also the meaning is a world apart.

For instance a gangsta is usually a streetwise toughie who subscribes to a certain lifestyle where crime might be prevalent. However, they could also be someone who simply just loves the gangsta lifestyle and is not involved in crime at all.

On the other hand, a gangster is usually a criminal, or someone who is regularly involved in crime and either works alone or as a member of a crime syndicate or group to benefit from crime adventures.

For some reason it has become fashionable and quite a great compliment when someone calls you a gangsta. And the sad thing is that the mainstream media is only too happy to fan this sentiment to the point where it is now considered cool and trendy to be called a gangsta.

This is a classic case of them “taking bad things make joke”. Or, to put it another way, they are joking around with something that is very dangerous. But what do they care: it is not them or their families who might be killed in  gansta-related drive-by shootings.

Are you sure you want to be gansta?

Hilary Clinton’s quest for power, perhaps like all politicians, know no limitations. And that includes lying and spreading misinformation.

But she was caught out when she recounted how on a trip to Bosnia’s Tuzla American airforce base in 1996, while still White House First Lady, she had to run for cover because of sniper fire on her arrival at the airport.

Luckily CBS covered the event and their video report told a different story. There was no sniper fire at all and Clinton was in no danger whatsoever. Here’s the video…

Quizzed by the press about her having to duck sniper fire at Tuzla airport, Hilary eventually said she “misspoke” which is a polite way of saying “I lied”. It would have been so much more honest if she had admitted making a mistake as the Bosnian trip was over 12 years ago.

This is outlined in this MSNBC video which also questions her suitability for US presidency…

This video highlights the number of times Clinton is caught repeating her assertion she came under sniper fire in Bosnia. The question is, when is a misspoke a downright lie?

The words of one TV anchorman: “At what point does repeated misspeaking becomes lying? Is there a lying threshold test?”

It’s probably best not to ask Hilary Clinton: she might misspeak again!

It makes me chuckle when I see folks huddling in a group outside their workplaces, sneaking a smoke on a cigarette. They look like drug users desperate for a hit on their vice of choice, so I tend not to pity them but instead regard them as sad cases, ruled by their urge fill their lungs with cacogenic nicotine.

Driven by a need to satisfy their apparent addiction, they faithfully brave any kind of weather to have that all important cig on their Fag Break. And then I thank the lucky stars for the introduction of a smoking ban in public places. It still surprises me it wasn’t done sooner in England than from July 1, 2007.

I suspect powerful pro-smoking lobbyists (working on behalf of the giant tobacco companies, of course) would have been resisting attempts to enforce the ban sooner, despite the knowledge that cigarette smoking is a known literal wiki(Killer app)!

But they don’t care about human lives as long as a huge amount of money is being made.

That’s why it is easy for me to not feel sorry for those who choose to smoke. Their toxic fumes are not only killing them but also assaulting me when I have to pass their smoke trail. They are also killing the environment, but that’s another story…

Feel sorry for them? Ha! You must be choking!

A friend seems to think a woman who tricks a man to get her pregnant is acting out of love for him! I strongly disagree! Such a woman, I suggest may actually hate that man and far from there being a love motive, may have deceived him out of hate.

My perspective is forged around an experience I personally know about where a man was intimate with this particular woman for a little while.

After around three months the woman suggested they tried for a baby because “I’m not getting any younger”. She was actually 23 at the time and he was around 26.

He told her he wasn’t ready to start a family just yet but what he really meant was he wasn’t ready to start a family with her.

Great Gusto!

Anyway, the intimate part of their relationship heated up during one cold winter and they were having so much sex the thought occurred to him to ask if she was taking precaution as he didn’t want any unplanned children. She assured him she was “on the pill which is 98% safe”, she said. Satisfied he resumed with greater gusto and moments later they climaxed together.

Nine months passed but by that time they had stopped seeing each other after four months and as she was pregnant and about to give birth she called him to suggest a name for the baby. He was really angry and felt deceived, being forced into a situation he neither wanted nor was prepared for.

Did this woman’s apparent deception one of love? She clearly was not taking precaution but lied that she was in order to receive his unfiltered sperm. Tell me, was that really love?

US presidential hopeful Democrat senator Barack Obama is an “extraordinary political talent” who would provide a stronger opposition to John McCain, the Republican representative in the Whit House race.

This is the view according to Michael Gerson, former senior aide to President Bush, who suggested that Obama’s ascent to the White House would be “one of the great culminating moments in American history”.

Interviewed in The Times today Gerson said despite the recent controversies dogging Mr Obama, he nevertheless remained “the greatest threat to the Republican Party.”

Describing Obama as a strong candidate, Gerson said: “I think John McCain would have an easier job with Hillary Clinton who is actually a poor candidate and has poor political skills.”

Eloquence

Gerson added that Obama was: “likeable, a non threatening liberal in the same way that Ronald Reagan was, in America, a non-threatening conservative. Eloquent, genuinely eloquent, good on his feet, but also a compelling figure in the context of American history.”

The most remarkable thing about this is the fact that Gerson is not an Obama supporter and in fact headed the White House speechwriting team from President Bush’s inauguration until June 2006 and is credited with the “Axis of Evil” and “smoking gun/mushroom cloud” metaphors used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

It is perhaps a sigh of the times when such a prominent Republican can apparently endorse an African-American hoping to become the first Black president of the United States.

That in itself is a major cause for celebration: when we see this kind of apparently warm apolitical ‘love’ happening in such a cold cold political climate.

There was a time when I held Rastafarianism in great esteem and looked upon some Rastas as being great examples of an ideal that I knew was hard to uphold. Things are changing. I still respect the ideals and ideology of Rastafarianism but now I think I would be hard-pressed to find a Rasta adherent who didn’t prove to be just as hypocritical as the Babylon ‘Shitstem’ they so vehemently chant against.

My first encounter with this reality was when I met a very prominent so-called Rasta legend, music superstar and the Prima Donna, money grabbing materialistic ways he espoused, contrary to the sentiments in his most successful songs. I couldn’t reconcile this to the man I’d gotten to know through his music.

I was confused until I met another prominent top ranking Rasta music star, locks almost flowing to the ground. Same kind of attitude. Then I met another and another, until I reached the point of thinking that the most prominent a Rasta person was the more likely s/he was actually an impostor, someone hiding the cloak of true Rasta respectability while acting as a fraud behind what they thought was a closed door.

Now, I don't wish to chant against Rasta per se but it seems to me there is a lot of bad Rastas acting in a way that gives good Rastas a very bad name.

But I leave the final judgement to Jah Almighty himself because only he has the power to judge. Not I & I. And, it’s probably best to love a Rasta artist music rather the man himself.

But that’s another story.

I have always thought there was something particularly odd about Bill Clinton. But I never thought I’d ever call him a racist and be serious about it.

You would usually expect a Democrat to be more understanding of racial issues than what Clinton is currently showing but you can tell a person’s character from his actions. I first got a glimpse of this when he admitted ganja use. Any man who admits to smoking ganja and not inhaling has got to be the oddest man ever lived in my book!

When I first heard that he had actually said this as defence in admitting ganja use, I thought he was a clever liar, an idiot or a naive hustler trying to pull a fast one.

Then there were the number of affairs he had from Gennifer Flowers to Monica Lewinsky. In fact these two are the only ones that became public. Who knows how many others he might have had…

Scandals

The Whitewater property scandal which levelled allegations of sham land deals, tax benefits, illegal political funding, conflicts of interest and suspicions over the mysterious death, in July 1993, of a White House deputy counsel, hinted at a more shadier side to Clinton. And, there are numerous other scandals that have surrounded his name since he was in office.

But nothing says more about him than the overt racism he is currently showing towards Barack Obama in support of his wife Hilary’s effort to become US President. It neutralises the memory of his own time in office and clarify the big insult it now is when people refer to him as the first US Black President.

Bill Clinton is nothing more than a fraud that lied, slept and manipulated his way to the White House and now he is doing the same to help his wife get there.

If there is any justice in the world Barack Obama will be triumphant and the Clintons will be consigned to the history’s undesirable garbage can.

I hate having to pay for things you do normally as part of your function as a human being. For instance having to pay for taking a…leak! In fact I also bristle at the idea of having to pay for fresh air and clean water in some parts of town.

While we are at it I also detest having to pay to get my own money out of a cash machine, a practice every Tom, Dick & Harry with a corner shop and following in the banks footsteps, are now capitalising on. But, we’ll leave this topic for a next time.

But, you really have to wonder at the thought process of someone wanting to charge you for your passing urine or getting rid of waste matter. They will tell you, of course, that it costs to provide such facilities and they don’t force anyone to use them.

If I have to use these so-called conveniences I calculate whether I can hold out before I reach my next safe destination. They may only charge around £0.20 (around $0.40) for the privilege of using them but it is the principle of the thing. It would be just as cheap to find a deserted back bush somewhere (in time!) and letting go my bodily waste to provide irrigation or fertilisation for that land!

Depending on where you stand you may agree this is an alien and/or immoral concept for someone to make a business out of this for passing the cost unto humans, specie supposedly more intelligent than animals. Yet there is no precedent for this within nature or the animal kingdom.

It makes you literally want to pee all over these money grubbing parasites!

Oma my Pakistani friend was unusually chirpy when she called me this evening. I sound found out why. “I’m getting married!” she screamed, forcing me to almost choke on my glass of home-made lemonade.

“Oh, really?!” were the initially words that tumbled out of my mouth. “That’s…good…” What I really wanted to say was: “That’s a bit sudden!!!” She said: “I know but he's so gorgeous and we want to get married now!”

The last time we had spoken she was interested in this IT guy from Reading and before that the millionaire businessman who “treat me like a Queen”. It was more of a surprise than a shock.

She’s known this new man for just over a month but for several years she’s been under pressure from her Muslim family to find a husband as being single in her early 30s did not look good on them.

Meanwhile, as Oma gushed out the details I slightly hinted that I thought she was rushing it a bit but wished her all the best on her forthcoming marriage anyway. She had contingency if things didn’t work out and I got the feeling that it was more important to get married and fail than not to get married at all. I wondered what it must be like to be under that kind of pressure. I couldn’t!

All I could conclude was that maybe in her quest to satisfy her family and religious customs somehow she was sacrificing her own personal freedom and happiness. But maybe this is where she is best pleased.

What do you think?