Bric-a-Brac
A co-worker made reference to my bric-a-brac approach to my column and this week will attempt to wrap up the month. Pop culture, politics and sports tend to have reports and stories that are hard to include in each week's column. I want to close out the month with a few of these.
Our first month in the summer movie season is proving to be a real let down, although many fans are thrilled with the "Star Trek" re-launch. "Terminator: Salvation" was a major disappoint for me (I'd give it 2 stars) as director McG delivered cliche after cliche, following a horrific script.
"American Idol" winner Kris Allen is entrenched into a minor scandal as Idol sponsor AT&T offered free texting to two Allen parties in Arkansas - a major rule violation that may have jettisoned Allen to victory over runner-up Adam Lambert.
So, let's wrap up...Buy Black & Check your Twins
Buy Black
"The Empowerment Experiment", the Buy Black experiment, a brainchild by Maggie and John Anderson of Chicago, sets out to buy and support only black businesses to support and empower them.
From the purpose on their website:
"Black businesses create the most Black jobs, they respect and understand Black consumers and investors, and the swelling pool of Black professionals drives growth of the Black middle class."
Imagine the headlines if "Black" was substituted with any other race.
There are factions of ethnicity and geography that result in a strong ethnic devotion, but not a directive from organizations or individuals.
So why aren't the Andersons being called racist? The moment any distinction is applied; black, white or otherwise, it becomes racism or, at minimum, prejudice.
This is another sign that the race barriers have changed dramatically in recent years.
Mr. and Mrs. Anderson: you have become what you've "fought" against your whole life, judging others by the color of their skin. Your focus should not be on exclusion but supporting black entrepreneurs. This support is should not be a marketing based on race, but on their value to the community.
http://www.eefortomorrow.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30707142/
Move over OctoMom
Doctors were probably a little freaked out when Mia Washington, a Texas Mother, brought her twins in for paternity testing after she began to notice differences in their appearances.
The result: the twins have two different fathers.
This is so rare, only about 10 cases have ever been known.
If a woman has more than one sexual partner while she is ovulating, there is a chance that different sperm cells can fertilize two separate eggs. It's called "heteropaternal superfecundation."
Washington has a 4 year-old son from another father and has announced a baby daughter is on the way. They've decided not to tell the "other" father as Washington's fiance has forgiven her infidelity.
Would you be surprised if there's a reality show brewing in the Washington household? They will surely be exploited in some way.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30864533/ns/parenting_and_family/BS Football & Supergirl
Rep. Barton takes on college football
Republican Representative Joe Barton of Texas took his turn to waste time, money, and poke the obtrusive nose of Congress where it does not belong - college football.
Barton made the ridiculous comparison to "communism" and suggested dropping the "C" from BCS, calling it the BS system.
Excuse me sir, why don't you spend more time reading the bills you sign and try to reduce our deficit, end a war or find a social issue that doesn't involve a ball.
Softball Supergirl going to LSU
Rachele Fico is officially headed to LSU after posting the most amazing career in high school softball. At last count, she has pitched 25 perfect games, 46 no-hitters and has an era of 0.06.
Fico's career record is 97-2, with over 1,700 strikeouts as she pitches around 70 mph.
If she were a baseball player, she'd already be featured on ESPN.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/11700467Chinese Gold Rush?
While the rest of the world's economies tumble month after month, China has a reported 7-8% increase in GDP. Some projections have China overtaking the US in terms of economic output within a decade.1
China has already shifted to investing, even negotiating a massive gold purchase from the IMF. This move would enable the IMF to distribute funds to other needy countries all over the globe.
The downside is simple, the US suffers. China trade "US dollars" to the IMF for their gold bullion and as the dollars saturate the market, our dollar devalues faster and faster.
The United States clings to their veto capabilities with the IMF, but that may change.
Barney Frank, who heads the House Financial Services Committee, has supported the decision to "help finance debt relief for poor countries."
China is stockpiling commodities to offset their "worries" over the US debt 2 as they enact a "deliberate reallocation of China's sovereign wealth."
In the US, GM is bankrupt, we're "Going Green" and talking socialized healthcare.
A decade may be generous.
1. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-gdp-overtake-us-early
2. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601083&sid=a5yhtDZx75kw
No New Taxes
Except Smokers
After the April tax hike on tobacco products, many states have raced to add an additional state tax. Here in Florida, a $1 increase will be effective this summer raising the total state tax on a pack of cigarettes to $2.27.
The tobacco industry will now be regulated by the FDA, which plan to increase the size of the warning, ban colorful labels and logos, and possibly put unpleasant images on the pack.
Does that deter you?
Soda tax
A smoking tax will hardly raise enough money, so how about a soda tax? Congress is weighing the possibilities of taxing for the companies producing "sugary" items and the items themselves.
If this movement gets traction, expect that the states to levy their own taxes as well.
Whoopi Taxes
Whoopi Goldberg regularly is ranting about increases in taxes, federal and state. From a recent show: "But I don't want to get it coming and going. I don't want to get the federal raised and then the state raised and then the phone tax raised and then the television tax raised...city taxed."
I don't understand why she's surprised.
The promises were made, the money is being spent and she's in the highest tax bracket. She does seem delusional that phone or real estate taxes effect only the wealthy and not all of us under $250,000 per year.Daddy's boy
Eugene Ashley raised the bar, or lowered it depending on your perspective, for child cruelty cases having his three year-old son tattooed "DB" -- Daddy's Boy.
From the article: ""The child said he tried to get his dad to stop, and had cried and his daddy held him down and did the tattoo anyway on his shoulder," said Sabrina Hill of the Floyd County Police Department."
I got a feeling Eugene is going to get a dose of being held down until he cries in the old Floyd county jail.
http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=130638&catid=3Drop rocks....sex me!
In Seattle, Josh Sizemore and Ashley Madison tried to start a new Memorial Day tradition of a game called "sex me" which resulted in throwing rocks off a bridge.
This is our "slacker" generation: get naked and hit cars with rocks to "pass the time."
Awesome video by the way.
http://www.nwcn.com/topstories/stories/NW_052609WAB-rocks-thrown-trestle-KS.1cebd866.html
And I'm Biased?!?
White House aide Kareem Dale: "At the White House, as we always like to say, we love MSNBC."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/04/white-house-aide-we-love_n_195897.htmlQuote of the Week
"First They Came" by Pastor Martin Niemoller
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent; I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest; I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out; I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.
"State of the Nation" is ©2009 by Brandon Jones. All graphics this page, except where otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.
