AFRICANLESS- NON AMERICANS

AFRICANLESS- NON AMERICANS?
by Chuck D.
January 30, 2008
I have a straight razor opinion about the electoral process in the USSA right about now. Since they've reduced politics into a game of sports highlights, people ask me these loaded questions, expecting some half baked safe ass answers. First of all, when folk ask 'what do I think about BARACK OBAMA?' - I dig the dude, although I think his track record has been conservative as hell for various reasons so he could get ahead in Uncle Sam's eyes. Cool, whatever... But I also retort that I think the United States needs 16 years of the man's intelligence, energy, and later as he develops a savvy and presidential skill while working in the public eye. To me Amerikkka is still about race like a black and white old TV set. There is no way one can avoid the race issue here in these image projected times. That's why I think that BARACK OBAMA can best serve the rebound image of the USA as the 'greatest Vice President' the country has ever had. Think about it. The VP position the past 8 years of bush and dick has been a position of power for all the wrong reasons. This is not 1936, every millisecond of presidential pressure will be felt by someone trying to lead the country the right way, not just the 'white' way. The way to lessen the pressure job is to have a powerful vice prez, cabinet, and to basically not give a damn. And today the VP position in Amerikkka can't be looked at as a second place job, rather a point guard position to the scorer. Or in CHI speak SCOTTIE PIPPEN.

This won't be Hillary or Barack , it will be Hillary AND Barack. They as individuals will try to show so much care and concern for their jobs if they get it that the intensity of the seat may be too much. Twice as much for Barack in trying to prove to everybody he can do it. Has anybody checked how the pressures mounted on Bill Clinton's appearance? And to son of a bush less because he doesn't give a squat. The rules were changed after the job killed FDR after 12 years of trying to fix a nation. That was way back when. These times in the smaller world every move is scrutinized. Lets say BARACK grows an afro or a beard, it will be a new relevant discussion on what's appropriate for the growth of black hair. Yeah, you cannot avoid the issue of racial difference here. Only work will absolve that. The pressure will take him out, he can't afford Crawford like retreats.

Hillary Clinton is hurling too much ego for her to appoint somebody like Barack as her VP ticket. She better realize an unprecedented team approach is her only chance. Taking ego and tradition out of this. Hillary and Barack will have to be more of a team than head and assistant to get this place somewhat back together. This team has to roll up the sleeves and drop the bucket and work. I hear people ask why would Barack settle for the second job? I say it's the wrong way to look at it. VP here has to be looked at as a lateral position. If Obama's president he will be tested internationally immediately. You don't think HUGO CHAVEZ is reaching out to brotherman? How about CASTRO if he's feelin his oats again. What's the middle east mess politic, his father's homeland continent. of Africa? I'm in France and they're watching the run offs like a game show with these crazy expectations. The republicans are the Bill Belicheks of politics, the axis of evil to do anything to steal a win, no matter who. At the end of the day they gonna make Mitt Romney look like the prettiest girl in drunk room at 4:44 am. He looks the part of the typical winner and loser Amerikkka has had.

Real talk is saying that investment in BARACK OBAMA is getting Amerikkka comfortable with him as a Vice President. This is the price. Hillary can still get strategy in the bed better that Barack can right now from a crew. Experience can be gained as Mr OBAMA roams free safety to deal better with issues and constituency without the pressure. It can be a four year soapbox campaign to turn heads. There's so much clean up work to do BARACK OBAMA 2016 sounds like a grand idea. For those that think it's far away they have the simple, nimble mind of a mere consumer, not realizing that companies already are breaking out mid teens strategies for robots to follow. As President ,I dare not expect anything done quicker for black people, in fact we better look at it the same way we look at a black judge. Don't expect to be a priority here. It's a reason that I recently ditched African-American as a term for blackfolk in 2008. The title is too ambiguous. BARACK makes me cringe when I hear this come out of his mouth. He's clearly African American, father from Africa, mother from here. Black people here- we're systematically detached from Africa and increasingly Amerikkka, as I say many of us made to think ' We don't give a damn or know enough about AFRICA, and Amerikkka don't give a fu*k about us.' Yes the term African-American is a noble idea to keep hope alive as REV JESS JAX tells us, but in 2008 black may be the grip to hold on to the diaspora.

The illusion of true diversity has faked us into a final position of thinking the ability to be a equal consumer makes us equal Amerikkkans. NOT. There are people in Amerikkka that have and will have long wealth in this recession as we think that a well plastered entertainer or athlete symbolizes the American chance for all of us. I don't know about the next African American person, but 95% of my family is check to check cash poor. We can't look back past 70 years of anyone owning a home in the North. This illusion of diversity makes Amerikkka see many colors and shades of folk on commercials today while the production companies that get those 6-7 figure jobs remain 99% white. Yeah. So lets be real about this next phase of America. The fact remains that every single President of The United States has been a white male, but the even more glaring one is that the runner up has also been of the same ilk. BARACK OBAMA for 16 years yall. But then as a black man whose been here almost half a century, based on the track record how do I really know a better Amerikkka is truly better for me? So I hear in the background 'keep hope alive....keep hope alive....keep hope alive....keep hope alive....keep hope alive....'

EVOLUTIONARY VS REVOLUTIONARY

So I get the feedback that DEF JAM will not replace the Presidential job JAY Z stepped down from. I ran into a lawyer that represents me with Universal, for my holdings, and songs etc. He said that these people are just business crunchers at best, I told him in the lobby in CANNES that those weasels couldn't do another business, that's why these lawyers hang around entertainment because they appear to be less dysfunctional. Here's my response to Universals announcement. ..and by the way I was ONLY concerned because it was DEF JAM, It's not that I was seeking anything else. Sht if you gonna be tossing around those positions giving it to folk with light resumes on diverse duty, then check my hand up. Well anyway...here's to the buzzards of business....

Chuck D's Statement to Not Filling the Position of DEF JAM President After JAY Z Stepped Down

"It's really disappointing that UNIVERSAL decided not to replace the vacated DEF JAM job. Its sort of expected, and a primary reason why the music business has collapsed. The sports world relies on a mix of business people, coaches, ex-players and players to further an organized growing path in what it does. It's why it does well and we remain fans. I'm embarrassed at how musicians and artists in other genres of music make us appear to be greed-infested, structureless idiots when it comes down to the organization of black music and culture.

And it's quite clear that these folks could care less. The same thing that happened to MOTOWN is DEF JAM's fate. In my opinion, the fact that 10 -15 individuals in the guise of hovering buzzards are given keys to the culture based on their alliances with these corporations, is a partial reason for the troubled condition it's in. Hence music, and especially this urban, black, whatever you wanna call it, is an incestuous inner circle of usual suspects that are financially trusted over black culture by a select 'other few.' It's evident that we are not the same people." Chuck D

I still get questioned on why I consider JAY Z the greatest MC up to his point. He embodied all the greats, developed his own style, made it work, and was later fearless and flawless in exhibiting this skill of song in front of any crowd. This is no knock against who I consider the most feared, yet respected, embodiment of a MC , Blastmaster KRS-ONE. No knock against who I consider the most skilled; BIG DADDY KANE, the wittiest KOOL MOE DEE, the most powerful MELLE MEL, and the most tenured LL COOL J, or the cleverest MR ICE CUBE. MOE DEE has a book about this so maybe yall should read it. There's a difference between evolutionary and revolutionary. For example RAKIM is clearly revolutionary as with KRS ONE . DE LA SOUL is revolutionary, TRIBE CALLED QUEST evolutionary. MELLE MEL revolutionary, LL evolutionary. We can go on. Certain MCS set a original path that they couldn't exploit themselves as someone riding behind their path.

But let me tell you about THIS brother...beyond all amazing emcees I've heard is someone I'm proud to know and work with, and hopefully you will witness as well. J LEE from the HEET mob in KANSAS CITY is the most awesome delivery emcee yet. He is simply a sensai of rap. Peep heet mob led by the amazing J LEE and beats by VIC HUNT aka Daheetius. Sht J LEE and his crew can get anybody scared....

http://www.beyond.fm/band_music.asp?id=16

JLEE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nfDprtEWZA

MUSIC

I have to be honest I'm not hearing much of anything as of now. Nothing. I think when you have a gang of evolutionary things happening, it takes time for something truly revolutionary to pop out. It's why peeping MYSPACE and iLIKE pages may be the place to hear some new sht.

LL and RUN

LL is my man as well as RUN but I've been totally confused by some recent decisions they've both made recently. LL has made some records recently be it for mixtape or next album that in my honest opinion has trekked backwards for a near 40 year old man with almost grown children. Trying to make Queens clubbangers is one thing, but he's reaching into inferior territory with wack N-word laden choruses and spray on street rough-cred. What's Your Hood Like and another called Queens. Cmon, L is way above that. Fu*k a mixtape and its appeal if it brings down everything you built over the last 25 years. Reach for higher ground L because you can touch it and then bring some integrity down to these streets. They expect that from you.

RUN on the other hand has said he's retired RUN-DMC because there's no longer JMJ. It's his excuse for not touring with DMC. Sad. Talking to RUN last year he said GRANDMASTER FLASH would be a great mix, as well as my suggestion of DJ HURRICANE whose HOLLIS CREW, AFROS, BEASTIE BOYS, DAVY DMX , connection makes him a no brainer. It's just that CANE don't take no crap. But he was truly JMJ's man and would stand the legacy proud. But RUN said it was over. But through the process he released a fantastic solo album called DISTORTION a couple years back, and now is going out on the road to pair up with KID ROCK. Cmon RUN-DMC just study the career of SAM and DAVE and put the small sht to the side. I'd pay to see RUN-DMC in a minute, in fact drive their damn tour bus if need be. It's a pact FLAV and I made long ago-, no matter what road we take, the group is greater than both of us and we will find time to do PE, regardless of the lectures, and tv shows we got.

DMC'S VOICE

After D and I participated in the launch of BEYOND.FM ( joined by FLAV in Vegas) I was telling DJ JOHNNY 'JUICE' ROSADO that his workouts are returning the voice back to raps 'KING OF ROCK'. It's getting stronger by the day, as I was emceeing next to D in a medley of classic and new cuts he was doing.

BOBBY FISHER

When he passed I saw all kinds of convoluted news reports about his eccentric directions and life. I saw news reports grasp and struggle with his alleged Anti Semitism and anti Americanism. Well there's an answer for the latter. The US snatched and forbid him 3.5 million dollars that he made in the early 90's in a BORIS SPASSKY rematch in sanctioned Belgrade. I'd be hot too. Like the USSA's fingers ain't meddled in enough pots. I can't stand these border principles. Asking for permission and having passports makes it definitely NOT a free country or world. For the Anti-Semitism part, they said his mother was Jewish, so he was half Jewish. I don't understand. If there was a black person lets say.... Clarence Uncle THOMAS passing bills that in essence handicapped poor black folk, would the press say he's anti-black while being black, or that was just the JOB?

Nutty Bobby Fisher was just plain crazy then, leave at that. Lets say his rants made it very difficult and sticky for his fellow Jewish constituents, like many black folk who speak contrary to the needs of black people,but get lauded and applauded in the western media as heroes for a an American liberal understanding. Sht, the confusing wild web of racism peeks its ugly head from ALL angles if you care to notice.

FRANCE

Just got back from MIDEMnet in CANNES FRANCE. The work and touring PE did last year has had a resonating effect in France. I swear that Paris is as a black city like Harlem or even the ATL. Tell the world. PE had established presence in legendary standing here by simply staying the course in revolutionary outlook. This place is also watching every second of the primaries. The expectation of the earth is hinging on this electoral balance. About MIDEMnet before it used to be 15-20% of the MIDEM convention, the largest international music convention on the planet. The remaining 80% would market, barter, and trade the traditional physical music business. MIDEMnet covered the digital delivery aspect with online, mobile, and computer hardware representatives and CEOs finding, and paving new roads for music related entertainment. This year I keynoted on a panel named 'Fans Business-They Care, How Can They Help You?' ALI PARTOVI from iLIKE , Bryan Perez, from Live Nation, Fabrice Sergent from Cellfish Media, and Johan Vosmeijer from Sellaband. Especially ALI from iLike spoke of the explosive viral attractiveness of iLike. Try it. Ever since Facebook adapted it as their multimedia widgetry , it's become MYSPACE plus.

Had to jet out after two days to get back, but headed back to FRANCE next week to perform with MR ARCHIE SHEPP with a contingent of SLAMjamz Artists, KYLE JASON, JAHI, BRIAN HARDGROOVE, and DJ LORD plus yours truly to come up with a dynamic improv. Two weeks back to back dealing with CHARLES DE GAULLE Airport is much. Usually I drive in France, I don't know exactly as I didn't drive in NICE -CANNES this time because I was in and out. BTW I'll miss the entire SUPER BOWL while I head again to Europe. When I land I'll know the winner.

GERMS , COVER YOUR FACE. In EUROPE there is a terrible habit of people not covering their mouths when they sneeze and cough. Coupled with a general rudeness from older EUROs especially if you come across them as a person of color. On the plane, tight azz AIR FRANCE I was squeezing by this coughing person in the aisle seat. He was older, coughing and sort of tired and sick and wasn't really trying to move so I had to limbo around and climb over him. I sorta fell into this 90 year old woman who had a blindfold over her eyes sleeping. She woke up and punched me in the back. Yo , I really could NOT stop laughing after she did that. And she had every right after I fell on her side.

HOCKEY

I just asked how the American sports media says very little of nothing about hockey fights while they'll say that when the brother-laden NBA has a fight it's considered 'disgusting' and 'deplorable in the words and tone of BILL WALTON. I was talking about this with MIKE TILLERY. It's not that I want to see brothers fight, but I don't wanna hear about how Canadians are another culture entirely.

PASSPORT

Let me tell you something. Before this presidential election becomes a 'selection' black folk better get passports. Yes I do realize this will be a challenge to Homeland security if a million folks bum rushed all of a sudden. Last year the services were shut down. Still there's no reason NOT to get one because with the failing economy this place may come up with all types of reasons to say you can't leave.

ILLEGAL Immigrants

I heard some idiot on the radio say the way to handle the illegal immigrant situation is to have citizens call them out and charge them with felonies. This person was a black talk show DJ. Shows you he can't spell diaspora. The border policy is so archaic it's a step away from forts. The nerve of the damn pilgrims who 'discover' a land. Build a fort to protect them from natives. Then venture out and maim the natives for 3000 miles to the west. Come up with some cock-laden flag, rhetoric, and anthem and name the states and streets from what they maimed. And got the nerve to say who deserves to be here. Please save that crap for FOOLS.

HEATH LEDGER

Sorry I didn't even know who this dude was....shows you either how much I know or how much I care about the movie industry. I heard he was talented yet not happy. My advice is to give your position to those that are next in line. Oops I guess he did, but it didn't have to be the death option. Couldn't he spell s-a-b-a-t-t-i-c-a-l?

FAMOUS TO BE FAMOUS

But at least that dude had talent. I don't understand this famous to be famous sht. Cmon real talented people are struggling to get noticed, while assholes are spread over the media for absolutely NO reason.

FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT (VEGAS)

Upon performing with DMC and FLAV in VEGAS, I was taken aback by how the crowd was mimicking every club video the past 12 years. They in my kid's vernacular looked mad 'fake'. Like they sprayed on a club state of being. It seemed like they had to move to the music and the music was not moving them. To me it's the same feeling as the last years of disco. How many years can peeps keep it moving to the same beats? Something has to be new on the horizon. FAKE has been in style a bit too long... Speaking of fake, 90% of all rappers who claim to be a roughneck gangster is borderline fake. Now I know that this is the entertainment biz, and behooves an acting mode, but damn. I'd like to see the rap world really get with the heart of the people.

We need some JOHNNY CASH type cats to get true, or to be made true by testing themselves in front of a crowd that knows well. Too long the thrill of the crime-rhyme has been pushed as fascination to school kids, and the general public as the representative of hip hop. I challenge cats to take it all the way to their real constituency and fan base. To not get locked up short term for press reasons. The cats serving real time are COOL C, STEADY B out of PHILLY, and JAY DEE from the LENCH MOB in LA, all those brothers I know and are tragic cases we ALL need to know about. They would have a whole different thing to tell the public than most of the CRACK rappers we hear on modern urban radio, TV, and especially mixtapes. Real talk means to protect the people and lead them not just lead them into consumption.

WHAT DOES WHAT I GOT GOT TO DO WITH GETTIN?

Last note on me trying to get that DEF JAM gig, I was reading all the responses and I appreciate the public's approval of your fellow enemy. 90%, damn I can see that the people are not blind. But I wasn't twisted I knew this wasn't a public office so the people really don't matter unless they're consumers of the highest degree. When it comes to art nowadays and especially music, people want to integrate their participation into the things they dig. Why would people be fans of a baseball team for 100 years, or there's waiting lists for the NY football GIANTS over 4-5 generations. Its more than just good product, there's interactive consideration and partial participation. The sports world works on that. Anyway the point is that the criteria of the record company head is based on what? I saw on the blogs wondering and basing me on how rich or lack of I was. Let me tell you this. If my position of anything is based on showing off what I have and exposing my personal life, I'll never get anything because you will never hear or see me say where I live. What I purchased. The name of family members. My account. My net worth. If it was up to me my government slave name wouldn't be out there. The answer is that it ain't nobody's business. Just because the masses are trained to connect the collection of MTV cribs, pimped rides, famous to be famous do nothing social idiots, jewelry laden, yacht ridin', caviar and champagne guzzling VIP fools, doesn't mean you'll get it from me.

FAT AND LAZY DJS

Lastly the reason that the music can't levitate is because we have some short termed neglect as far as the level of mobile, club, and especially radio DJs who are supposed to evaluate all the records that come out today. A close source told me his conversations with a radio person had said unless a product came from a major brand it was tossed. The same thing with digital mp3s sent. Today I would think that DJs couldn't have it any easier. So what they gotta go through 250 songs a week as opposed to 50 twelve inch records every two weeks from about five years ago. Like what else can they be doing with their time? I came from a high school track meet where they assembled over a thousand athletes in an armory seamlessly to compete in a myriad of events. Now a DJ can't sit in one place and listen to new music for 3-4 hours in a week. There are 24 hours in a day. Most people have mundane jobs that keep them working 8 hours for 5 days a week. And a DJ is swamped? No excuse, especially for the DJs too big to work. And they're big for a reason. The DINER Cards in lieu of airplay, web, or satellite play have them too bloated, too lazy, and a detriment to the organization of an art form I always considered the parallel of sport. Every statistic is kept to the T in sport, people work around the clock, library systems record every print, audio, and visual in their banks, even retail is detailed in order to sell. And you mean to tell me that a DJ in 2008, on Serrato who no longer or never lifted a crate of vinyl, can't listen to an independent artist or check their MYSPACE page because they consider it a task? Give me a break. This disease of ease has also spread to journalists who claim they can't balance their time. Give me a break. Again it's another reason why the movie and sports businesses whip music's ass, and make tall submit to the standard those industries set.

Out - and may the NEW YORK football GIANTS fold them axis of evil Patriots

mistachuck@rapstation.com

Creator of OBEY GIANT sticker campaign officially endorses Obama

I believe with great conviction that Barack Obama should be the next President. I have been paying close attention to him since the Democratic convention in 2004. I feel that he is more a statesman than a politician. He was against the war when it was an unpopular position (and Hillary was for the war at that time), Obama is for energy and environmental conservation. He is for healthcare reform. Check him out for yourself www.barackobama.com. Proceeds from this print go to produce prints for a large statewide poster campaign.
Thanks. -Shepard

This graphic artist started a movement in the early 90's using he image of late wrestler, Andre The Giant where art students would plaster the walls of public buildings with posters of the image that also said OBEY GIANT.

In Shepherd Fairey's own words:

The OBEY sticker campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology. Heidegger describes Phenomenology as "the process of letting things manifest themselves." Phenomenology attempts to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation.

The FIRST AIM OF PHENOMENOLOGY is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one's environment. The OBEY sticker attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the sticker and their relationship with their surroundings. Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the product or motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with the sticker provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer's perception and attention to detail. The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker. Because OBEY has no actual meaning, the various reactions and interpretations of those who view it reflect their personality and the nature of their sensibilities.




Since then he has developed a HUGE underground following and whether you know it or not, you've seen his posters and stickers practically everywhere.

Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race

I think many Southerners still believe this garbage.


In this article, "Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race," Dr. Samuel Cartwright, a highly respected and widely published doctor from the University of Louisiana, discusses two diseases which he claims are unique to African Americans.

One is his newly-discovered "Drapetomania," a disease which causes slaves to run away; the other, "Dysaethesia Aethiopica," a disease causing "rascality" in black people free and enslaved.



Drapetomania


In psychiatry [1], drapetomania was a mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity.[2]

Today, drapetomania is considered an example of pseudoscience,[3] and part of the edifice of scientific racism.[4]

The term derives from the Greek δραπετης (drapetes, "a runaway [slave]") + μανια (mania, "madness, frenzy").[5]


Cartwright described the disorder — which, he said, was "unknown to our medical authorities, although its diagnostic symptom, the absconding from service, is well known to our planters and overseers"[5] — in a paper delivered before the Medical Association of Louisiana[6] that was widely reprinted.

He stated that the malady was a consequence of masters who "made themselves too familiar with [slaves], treating them as equals.[7]

In Diseases and Pecularities of the Negro Race, Cartwright writes that the Bible calls for the slave to be submissive to his master, and by doing so, the slave will have no desire to run away.[8]

In addition to identifying drapetomania, Cartwright prescribed a remedy to cure the malady.

His feeling was that with "proper medical advice, strictly followed, this troublesome practice that many Negroes have of running away can be almost entirely prevented."[5]

In the case of slaves "sulky and dissatisfied without cause" — a warning sign of imminent flight — Cartwright prescribed "whipping the devil out of them" as a "preventative measure."[9][10][11]



Dysaethesia Aethiopica

Dysaethesia Aethiopica was a psychiatric[1] disease described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 which proposed a theory for the cause of laziness among slaves.


Found exclusively among Blacks, dysaethesia aethiopica — "called by overseers 'rascality'" — was characterized by partial insensitivity of the skin and "so great a hebetude of the intellectual faculties, as to be like a person half asleep."[4]

Other symptoms included "lesions of the body discoverable to the medical observer, which are always present and sufficient to account for the symptoms."[5][6]

Cartwright noted that the existence of dysaethesia aethiopica was "clearly established by the most direct and positive testimony," but other doctors had failed to notice it because their "attention [had] not been sufficiently directed to the maladies of the negro race."[4]

According to Cartwright, dysaethesia aethiopica was "much more prevalent among free negroes living in clusters by themselves, than among slaves on our plantations, and attacks only such slaves as live like free negroes in regard to diet, drinks, exercise, etc."
— indeed, according to Cartwright, "nearly all [free negroes] are more or less afflicted with it, that have not got some white person to direct and to take care of them."[7]


Cartwright felt that dysaethesia aethiopica was "easily curable, if treated on sound physiological principles."[8] Insensitivity of the skin was one symptom of the disease, so the skin should be stimulated:


The best means to stimulate the skin is, first, to have the patient well washed with warm water and soap; then, to anoint it all over in oil, and to slap the oil in with a broad leather strap; then to put the patient to some hard kind of work in the sunshine.[8]


Vanessa Jackson has noted that lesions were a symptom of dysaethesia aethiopica and "the ever-resourceful Dr. Cartwright determined that whipping could ... cure this disorder. Of course, one wonders if the whipping were not the cause of the 'lesions' that confirmed the diagnosis."[9]

According to Cartwright, after the prescribed "course of treatment" the slave will "look grateful and thankful to the white man whose compulsory power ... has restored his sensation and dispelled the mist that clouded his intellect."













"Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race," by Dr. Cartwright (in DeBow's Review)

DRAPETOMANIA, OR THE DISEASE CAUSING NEGROES TO RUN AWAY.



It is unknown to our medical authorities, although its diagnostic symptom, the absconding from service, is well known to our planters and overseers...



In noticing a disease not heretofore classed among the long list of maladies that man is subject to, it was necessary to have a new term to express it.


The cause in the most of cases, that induces the negro to run away from service, is as much a disease of the mind as any other species of mental alienation, and much more curable, as a general rule.

With the advantages of proper medical advice, strictly followed, this troublesome practice that many negroes have of running away, can be almost entirely prevented, although the slaves be located on the borders of a free state, within a stone's throw of the abolitionists.


If the white man attempts to oppose the Deity's will, by trying to make the negro anything else than "the submissive knee-bender," (which the Almighty declared he should be,) by trying to raise him to a level with himself, or by putting himself on an equality with the negro;



or if he abuses the power which God has given him over his fellow-man, by being cruel to him, or punishing him in anger, or by neglecting to protect him from the wanton abuses of his fellow-servants and all others, or by denying him the usual comforts and necessaries of life, the negro will run away;



but if he keeps him in the position that we learn from the Scriptures he was intended to occupy, that is, the position of submission; and if his master or overseer be kind and gracious in his hearing towards him, without condescension, and at the sane time ministers to his physical wants, and protects him from abuses, the negro is spell-bound, and cannot run away.


According to my experience, the "genu flexit"--the awe and reverence, must be exacted from them, or they will despise their masters, become rude and ungovernable, and run away.

On Mason and Dixon's line, two classes of persons were apt to lose their negroes:

those who made themselves too familiar with them, treating them as equals, and making little or no distinction in regard to color;

and, on the other hand, those who treated them cruelly, denied them the common necessaries of life, neglected to protect them against the abuses of others, or frightened them by a blustering manner of approach, when about to punish them for misdemeanors.

Before the negroes run away, unless they are frightened or panic-struck, they become sulky and dissatisfied.

The cause of this sulkiness and dissatisfaction should be inquired into and removed, or they are apt to run away or fall into the negro consumption.

When sulky and dissatisfied without cause, the experience of those on the line and elsewhere, was decidedly in favor of whipping them out of it, as a preventive measure against absconding, or other bad conduct. It was called whipping the devil out of them.


If treated kindly, well fed and clothed, with fuel enough to keep a small fire burning all night--separated into families, each family having its own house--not permitted to run about at night to visit their neighbors, to receive visits or use intoxicating liquors, and not overworked or exposed too much to the weather, they are very easily governed--more so than any other people in the world.

When all this is done, if any one of more of them, at any time, are inclined to raise their heads to a level with their master or overseer, humanity and their own good require that they should be punished until they fall into that submissive state which it was intended for them to occupy in all after-time, when their progenitor received the name of Canaan or "submissive knee-bender."

They have only to be kept in that state and treated like children, with care, kindness, attention and humanity, to prevent and cure them from running away.

DYSAETHESIA AETHIOPICA, OR HEBETUDE OF MIND AND OBTUSE SENSIBILITY OF BODY--A DISEASE PECULIAR TO NEGROES--CALLED BY OVERSEERS, " RASCALITY."

Dysaesthesia Aethiopica is a disease peculiar to negroes, affecting both mind and body in a manner as well expressed by dysaesthesia, the name I have given it, as could be by a single term.

There is both mind and sensibility, but both seem to be difficult to reach by impressions from without. There is a partial insensibility of the skin, and so great a hebetude of the intellectual faculties, as to be like a person half asleep, that is with difficulty aroused and kept awake.

It differs from every other species of mental disease, as it is accompanied with physical signs or lesions of the body discoverable to the medical observer, which are always present and sufficient to account for the symptoms.

It is much more prevalent among free negroes living in clusters by themselves, than among slaves on our plantations, and attacks only such slaves as live like free negroes in regard to diet, drinks, exercise, etc.

It is not my purpose to treat of the complaint as it prevails among free negroes, nearly all of whom are more or less afflicted with it, that have not got some white person to direct and to take care of them.

To narrate its symptoms and effects among them would be to write a history of the ruins and dilapidation of Hayti, and every spot of earth they have ever had uncontrolled possession over for any length of time. I propose only to describe its symptoms among slaves.

From the careless movements of the individuals affected with the complaint, they are apt to do much mischief, which appears as if intentional, but is mostly owing to the stupidness of mind and insensibility of the nerves induced by the disease.

Thus, they break, waste and destroy everything they handle,--abuse horses and cattle,--tear, burn or rend their own clothing, and, paying no attention to the rights of property, steal others, to replace what they have destroyed.

They wander about at night, and keep in a half nodding sleep during the day. They slight their work,--cut up corn, cane, cotton or tobacco when hoeing it, as if for pure mischief. They raise disturbances with their overseers and fellow-servants without cause or motive, and seem to be insensible to pain when subjected to punishment.

The fact of the existence of such a complaint, making man like an automaton or senseless machine, having the above or similar symptoms, can be clearly established by the most direct and positive testimony.

That it should have escaped the attention of the medical profession, can only be accounted for because its attention has not been sufficiently directed to the maladies of the negro race. Otherwise a complaint of so common an occurrence on badly-governed plantations, and so universal among free negroes, or those who are not governed at all,--a disease radicated in physical lesions and having its peculiar and well marked symptoms and its curative indications, would not have escaped the notice of the profession.

The northern physicians and people have noticed the symptoms, but not the disease from which they spring.

They ignorantly attribute the symptoms to the debasing influence of slavery on the mind without considering that those who have never been in slavery, or their fathers before them, are the most afflicted, and the latest from the slave-holding South the least.

The disease is the natural offspring of negro liberty--the liberty to be idle, to wallow in filth, and to indulge in improper food and drinks.




De Bow's Review
Southern and Western States
Volume XI, New Orleans, 1851
AMS Press, Inc. New York, 1967

Ignorance Has No Limits....

Racist Hampton Newspaper Disses Barack Obama

I guess no matter what you do there are some who simply won't let rascism die. This article appeared in the Long Island Newspaper the Independent which serves the Hampton Community which is home to wealthy folks like Martha Stewart and P-Diddy. It would be nice if some of those who have lots of resources would be enraged enough to publicly express their displeasure, but alas they have not....I mean where not talking about a controversial figure who is being targeted here. We're talking about Barack Obama. Regardless if you agree with his politics, he at least has made a strong attempt to bring people of all races together. Whoever wrote this article along with the people who silently chuckled along with it, are a big part of the problem we have in terms of getting us to all come together. You can write the editors or call them and express your anger..
Phone: 631-324-2500 Rick Murphy, Editor
rmurphy@indyeastend.com

Davey D

Why I Should Be Our Next President
By Yo Mama Bin Barack


My name is YoMama Bin Barack, and I want to be your next president so together we can begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.

My opponents say I live in a dream world. That may well be true, for I believe in the dream of Doctor Martin Luther King, the dream that all men are created equal.

His words resonate in my very being: "Some day, you too can be a black man who makes a difference in this country, and you too can be called 'Doctor' even though you are not a doctor of any kind." I believe that, and someday I hope people will call me Doctor YoMama. In fact, I hope someday people will call me President Doctor YoMama (but please don't call me Luther, I hate that name).

I was telling this very thing to my wife AliBama the other night while we were in bed, umm, praying. I said, "AliBama, I want to be your next president so together we can begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today."

And she said, "YoMama, then why don't you cut out the president shit and get a real job and make some freakin' money?" But I explained I have plenty of money, because bleeding heart liberal Democrats from all across this vast country of ours have felt it in their hearts to send a contribution to my campaign so I can begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today and also because I need to buy my little daughter Bama Slamma a PlayStation so she will get off my back.

Why do I think I am the best candidate for the job? Look at my resume – it speaks for itself.

Educational background: Doctorate

Military background: I was the first black troop leader of the Boy Scouts Troop 43 in my home state of Illinois. Well, that's not quite true, because they didn't let black kids in the Boy Scouts, so I lied and said I was Hawaiian, which I kind of am, sort of. You see, part of my strategy of becoming our first black president is to deny I am black unless I am campaigning in Harlem. The truth is, I don't know many black people, but my advisors have drafted a strategy to reel in the black vote:

1) Call everyone "Brother." Blacks, I am told, do this, even if their real brothers are mostly in jail.

2) Talk Jive. Brothers want to hear jive. During my speech I told the crowd "We be, you know, sick of whitey supressin' and congestin' so, you know, we won't denigrate or sophisticate but emulate and populate, you know, the system is, like, broken, y'all!"

I have no idea what that means. The black folk loved it, though, so they all vowed to vote for me. The New York Times covered it, but they are so afraid of saying something racist they twisted my words around and reported:

"Yesterday in Harlem YoMama articulated his vision of a new America, an America with less congestion, a country free of drug use, a world without segregation or racism where citizens emulate the lives of great Americans like YoMama, John F. Kennedy and Doctor Martin Luther King."

So you see, there is my strategy. I get the black vote, I get the white vote, and then I go after the female vote by attacking that bitch Hillary for being the Nasty Witch from Hell.

Anyhow, girls think I'm cute. I'm kind of like Will Smith, except he's got those Dumbo ears and mine are normal. So, for the next six months, I am going to fly all over the country, and every place I speak I am going to tell the people:

"As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it."

To be honest, I have no idea what that means. If you analyze it carefully, it really doesn't mean anything. But it sounds like something a president or a doctor would say. I can make that speech every day and no matter how many times I do the stupid newspapers will report it differently. They will make me sound like the smart, young, new voice of America, because most editors out there figure anything is better than having a cow like Hillary Clinton snorking around the White House making weasel deals again.

Ultimately, if she gets too close, one of my New York advisors has advised me to, "Bitch slap that ho." White women, I am told, like that. (Black women, on the other hand, do not. I tried that once on AliBama and she beat the living shit out of me.)

Of course, I also have to contend with John Edwards. My strategy is to ignore him until he actually manages to win a primary. Since he's, like, zero for 43 so far, that should be the end of him. You see, Mr. Edwards hasn't figured out that to win an election some people have to actually vote for you. (If he does make a run at me, I might consider bitch slapping him, as he is somewhat of a Pretty Boy if you get my jist.)

In closing, I humbly ask for your vote on Election Day, even if I did hang around the school yard and smoke pot when I was getting my Doctorate in Blackstuff. And, oh, by the way, I am in the process of finding out how I can also call myself "Reverend." I have a call in to Al Sharpton.

Hillary...Hillary...Hillary

Hillary Goes Negative

January 24th 2008

Employing innuendo and half-truths against Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton and her husband, the former President, have introduced the politics of personal destruction to the Democratic presidential campaign. They bear responsibility for cheapening the tone of the contest.

Sen. Clinton began distorting Obama's record in Monday night's debate and yesterday began airing a television attack that twists a recent Obama statement about former President Ronald Reagan to the point of clear inaccuracy. Bill Clinton, meanwhile, has wrongly accused Obama both of injecting race into the debate and of running a negative campaign against his wife.

They have gone well beyond engaging in tough political jousting while steering the campaign far from the substantive issues. Their tactics are reminiscent of the unproductive, distasteful mudslinging that started with Bill Clinton's election and continued through George W. Bush's reelection.

Sen. Clinton has an obligation to restore her competition with Obama to the level of fairness that has generally prevailed for the past year. And Bill Clinton should heed the counsel of Democratic elders, including Sen. Ted Kennedy, Rep. Rahm Emanuel and former Sen. Tom Daschle, who have called on him to cease fire.

This is not to say that Obama deserves a pass from scrutiny and criticism. Nor is it to endorse him as the better of the two candidates. It is only to express distress that the Clintons have crossed the line into attacks that raise questions about how she might campaign were she the Democratic nominee and how she might govern were she elected to the Oval Office.

She is indulging in the partisan-style politics that Americans are desperate to leave behind and certainly don't want in a President. And she is either giving free rein to, or failing to control, her husband. Neither possibility bodes well.

In one attack in the debate, Sen. Clinton accused Obama of helping a corrupt Chicago businessman with his "slum landlord business." The truth is that Obama had put in five hours of work as a junior law firm associate helping to represent a community organization that had partnered with the businessman. The truth is also that Obama fought slumlords as a community organizer.

In the debate, Sen. Clinton also charged that Obama had said that he "really liked the ideas of the Republicans," and she amplified the allegation in her TV ad, suggesting that Obama might support "special tax breaks for Wall Street" and refuse to raise the minimum wage.

The truth, as Clinton well knows, is that Obama supports hiking the minimum wage and opposed fat-cat tax breaks. And the truth, as she knows, is that Obama merely cited Reagan as an example of a President who transformed American politics by reaching out to Democrats and independents.

And then yesterday Bill Clinton cynically claimed that he and Sen. Clinton are merely defending themselves against a rival who had gone negative and had played the race card. But the truth, as voters have plainly seen, is that Obama has run a unifying campaign free of invective. And the Clintons should know better.

http://www.nydailynews.com/index.html

FINALLY!!!!

I've been saying this since the 6th grade.....

Professor: Fractions should be scrapped
By Maureen Milford, USA TODAY
PHILADELPHIA — A few years ago, Dennis DeTurck, an award-winning professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, stood at an outdoor podium on campus and proclaimed, "Down with fractions!"

"Fractions have had their day, being useful for by-hand calculation," DeTurck said as part of a 60-second lecture series. "But in this digital age, they're as obsolete as Roman numerals are."

The speech started a firestorm, particularly after the university posted it online.

"There were blogs and rants, and there were some critical e-mails," said DeTurck, who is now dean of the college of arts and sciences at Penn. "They'd always boil down to: 'What would we do in cooking and carpentry?' "

DeTurck is stirring the pot again, this time in a book scheduled to be published this year. Not only does he favor the teaching of decimals over fractions to elementary school students, he's also taking on long division, the calculation of square roots and by-hand multiplication of long numbers.
"Mathematicians are always questioning the axioms. Everybody knows that questioning those often results in the most substantial gains in terms of progress," he says.

Questioning the wisdom of teaching fractions to young students doesn't compute with people such as George Andrews, a professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania State University and president-elect of the American Mathematical Society. "All of this is absurd," Andrews said. "No wonder mathematical achievements in the country are so abysmal.

"Arithmetic is the basic skill. If children do not know arithmetic, they can't go on to algebra, which leads to calculus. From there you go on to other things," Andrews said. "It's fine to talk about it, but this is not a good pedagogy."

Others see value in both fractions and decimals. To Janine Remillard, associate professor of education at Penn, the decimal system is "incredibly powerful." And fractions can be a powerful steppingstone to understanding decimals, she says.

"Fractions, if taught well — and that's a huge caveat — can actually help kids understand the value of the size of the pieces," Remillard says.

DeTurck does not want to abolish the teaching of fractions and long division altogether. He believes fractions are important for high-level mathematics and scientific research. But it could be that the study of fractions should be delayed until it can be understood, perhaps after a student learns calculus, he said. Long division has its uses, too, but maybe it doesn't need to be taught as intensely.

Penn State mathematician Andrews says he believes DeTurck's ideas will "unfortunately" gain traction because of the misguided belief that math education can somehow be made easy:

"Math is hard. The idea that somehow we're going to make math just fun is just a dream."

Milford reports for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.

Artists & Their Abuse....

You know if I had to stop listening to my favorite musical artists because they did drugs or abused women...my collection would be REALLY slim. There's a video floating around the net of one of my favorite singers smoking crack. Amy, PLEASE get some help! Here's a short list of some of my favorite artists that love/loved mind-altering substances, abused women or both.I've never had any interest in mind-altering (some would say that it's already naturally altered). Abusing a woman is not even a consideration.
Marvin Gaye
David Ruffin (of the Temptations)
Smokey Robinson
James Brown
Jimi Hendrix
Miles Davis
D'Angelo
Rick James
George Clinton
Bootsy Collins
Eddie Hazel
Jackie Wilson
Bob Marley
Gregory Isaacs
Dennis Brown
Chaka Khan
Billie Holiday
Dinah Washington
Elvis Presley
Johnny Cash
Ray Charles
Dennis Edwards (of The Temptations...man they partied too much!)
Ali-Ollie Woodson (of the Temptations...wait a minute)
Eddie Kendricks (of the doggone Temptations...ggggrrrrr)
I guess that song by the Temptations & Rick James "Standing On The Top" has taken on a whole new meaning for me.

Dr. King's Legacy

Historians say King was far from revered as he pushed activism beyond race
The Associated Press
updated 4:53 p.m. ET, Sun., Jan. 20, 2008




NEW YORK - They are some of the most famous words in American history: "I have a dream ..." And the man who said them has become an icon.


Martin Luther King Jr. has certainly received his share of attention this year, the subject of a presidential campaign controversy over his legacy that blew up just around the time of the holiday created to honor the slain civil rights leader.


But nearly 40 years after his assassination in April 1968, after the deaths of his wife and of others who knew both the man and what he stood for, some say King is facing the same fate that has befallen many a historical figure — being frozen in a moment in time that ignores the full complexity of the man and his message.


"Everyone knows, even the smallest kid knows about Martin Luther King, can say his most famous moment was that "I have a dream" speech," said Henry Louis Taylor Jr., professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Buffalo.


"No one can go further than one sentence," he said. "All we know is that this guy had a dream, we don't know what that dream was."

At the time of his death, King was working on anti-poverty and anti-war issues. He had spoken out against the Vietnam War in 1967, and was in Memphis in April 1968 in support of striking sanitation workers when he was killed.



Sought ‘to make equality something real’

King had come a long way from the crowds who cheered him at the 1963 March on Washington, when he was introduced as "the moral leader of our nation" — and when he pronounced "I have a dream" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.


By taking on issues outside segregation, he had lost the support of many newspapers and magazines, and his relationship with the White House had suffered, said Harvard Sitkoff, a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire who has written a recently published book on King.

"He was considered by many to be a pariah," Sitkoff said.


But he took on issues of poverty and militarism because he considered them vital "to make equality something real and not just racial brotherhood but equality in fact," Sitkoff said.


While there has been scholarly study of King and everything he did, that knowledge has not translated into the popular culture perception of him and the civil rights movement, said Richard Greenwald, professor of history at Drew University.


"We're living increasingly in a culture of top 10 lists, of celebrity biopics which simplify the past as entertainment or mythology," he said. "We lose a view on what real leadership is by compressing him down to one window."

Legacy co-opted for present purposes


That does a disservice to both King and society, said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University.

By freezing him at that point, by putting him on a pedestal of perfection that does not acknowledge his complex views, "it makes it impossible both for us to find new leaders and for us to aspire to leadership," Harris-Lacewell said.


She believes it's important for Americans in 2008 to remember how disliked King was in 1968.


"If we forget that, then it seems like the only people we can get behind must be popular," Harris-Lacewell said. "Following King meant following the unpopular road, not the popular one."


In becoming an icon, King's legacy has been used by people all over the political spectrum, said Glenn McNair, associate professor of history at Kenyon College.


He's been part of the 2008 presidential race, in which Sen. Barack Obama could be the country's first black president. Obama has invoked King, and Sen. John Kerry endorsed Obama by saying "Martin Luther King said that the time is always right to do what is right."


Not all the references have been received well. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is trying to become the first female president, came under fire when she was quoted as saying King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.


King has "slipped into the realm of symbol that people use and manipulate for their own purposes," McNair said.

Harris-Lacewell said that is something people need to push back against.


"It's not OK to slip into flat memory of who Dr. King was, it does no justice to us and makes him to easy to appropriate," she said.



"Every time he gets appropriated, we have to come out and say that's not OK. We do have the ability to speak back."

The Campaign In Black & White

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

He's a smart fellow and so Barack Obama surely knew what was in store
for him if he ever looked like taking the Democratic nomination away
from Hillary Clinton. The Clintons' relationship with African-Americans
has always been starkly instrumental. When he was in trouble with white
voters in New Hampshire in 1992 Governor Bill sprinted back to Little
Rock to preside over the execution of a mentally retarded black man. To
ensure her husband's victory in his reelection race in 1996 Hillary
insisted Bill chop poor mothers--a good slice of them black--off the
welfare rolls. Nonetheless many blacks rooted for Bill, absurdly dubbed
by Toni Morrison "the first black president" and in the impeachment
crisis over Monica Lewinsky they were his most steadfast friends, as
Bill recognized when he summoned the Rev Jesse Jackson into the White
House to help him pray for forgiveness and redemption.

Other well known landmarks in the Clintons' relations with blacks
include Bill Clinton's set-up of Sister Souljah and his disgusting
treatment of Lani Guinier and Jocelyn Elders. The Clintons reach out
when they have no alternative and stab you in the back when it seems
marginally to their advantage. They are without doubt among the most
unprincipled duos ever to have operated in the upper tiers of American
political life.

Obama learned too from Jackson's fate in 1988 when the Chicago preacher
took Iowa by storm and surged on unprecedented victories in a slew of
spring primaries. The press ignored the hefty white votes for Jackson
and within weeks Jackson had been neutralized by the opportune
disclosure (by a black Washington Post reporter) of a private
conversation in which Jackson had deprecated New York as "Hymietown". He
spent the rest of the year alternately apologizing and complaining
correctly that his function was to "bale up" black votes for the white
Democratic ticket.

So Obama tried to inoculate himself by sticking limpet-like in his early
Senate days to Senator Joe Lieberman, Israel's most rabid advocate in
the U.S. Congress. Any black community organizer in Chicago is no
stranger to the downside of the American dream but Obama purged his
rhetoric of populism or outrage and has levitated on soft cushions of
hot air about "change", thus emulating Franklin Delano Roosevelt in
1932. As Eva Liddell recently pointed out on this site , FDR talked also
in vague terms about change and told jobless and starving Americans that
the only thing they had to fear was fear itself. He was elected and the
outgoing Congress rewarded him by repealing prohibition. Americans duly
banished fear and welcomed hope by getting legally drunk.

Obama led a charmed life and then he won Iowa. Already in New Hampshire
Hillary's campaign manager Billy Shaheen had warmed up voters by
reminding them Obama was unelectable because of his past "drug use" as a
pot-smoker and a cokehead. Between the tears that established her
femininity Hillary snarled that whereas the black Martin Luther King was
a merchant of dreams it took a white president, Lyndon Johnson, to get
the Civil Rights bill through Congress. Andrew Cuomo, a prominent New
York Democrat, said he was tired of Obama's "shuck and jive". The former
US senator from Nebraska, Bob Kerrey, hammered home the insinuations
that Obama had Husain as a middle name, Muslim family affinities and
went to school a madrasseh. Bill Clinton, a career liar, said Obama was
a peddler of fairy tales.

Then came the announcement earlier this week of a truce on the growing
racial acrimony. This was instantly broken as Bob Johnson, a
communications czar, America's first black billionaire and a big Hillary
supporter, stood next to Hillary on a campaign platform in South
Carolina and said the Clintons had been fighting for black justice while
young Obama was still "doing something in the neighborhood"--i.e., doing
drugs behind the schoolyard fence.

Racial decorum is paper-thin at best in America, and already the gloves
are half way off. Obama's home preacher and spiritual counselor,
Jeremiah Wright, told a huge and applauding congregation in his church
in Chicago that "some argue that blacks should vote for Clinton because
her husband was good to us. That's not true! He did the same thing to us
that he did to Monica Lewinsky." The Rocky Mountain News excitedly
reported that at a stockmen's gathering in Colorado a speaker had joked
that if Obama becomes president it won't be called the White House any
more. So now the press is relaying rodeo banter? Of course this went up
on the Drudge site in a matter of seconds.

Now the couple have been locked in grim struggle, in Nevada and most
momentously for now in South Carolina, scheduled for January 26. This is
called the black primary since it's the contest most likely, on the
Democratic side, to be swayed by the large black vote. Clinton campaign
money has been liberally distributed to the all-important black churches
whose preachers will be rallying the vote. The Clintons' instinct is to
trash Obama, betting that whatever offense they cause to blacks will
abate by the time Hillary has to face a Republican in the fall. Obama
has the same problem in reverse. Any angry black talk may help him in
the short term in South Carolina but would get him trashed by the
Clintons and in the press as "divisive" and explode the vital message
that he is safely "above" the racial divide. As the Nevada deadline
neared he even invoked Ronald Reagan as a benign and creative force,
drawing yelps of reproof from Hillary Clinton on account of Reagan's
antilabor record. As if Clintonism wasn't the quintessence of
antilaborism, as articulated by the Democratic Leadership Council.

It won't be long before the Clinton campaign circulates some of Rev
Wright's sermons linking Zionism with racism, and brandishes the photo
of Mr and Mrs Barack Obama having lunch with the late Edward Said,
America's best known Palestinian. Already they're trying to link
Wright's church to Louis Farrakhan. Jackson can predict accurately to
Obama what will happen next and those speeches praising Senator Joseph
Lieberman won't help. No, a Clinton-Obama ticket is not likely. The
Clntons take their fights bitterly and while it may be true that America
is ready for a woman president, the notion that it would be similarly
receptive to a black president is truly open to challenge.

Sean Paul Triggers Seizures

A Musical Link To Epilepsy
Woman Suffered From Song-Induced Seizures; Rare Condition Called Musicogenic Epilepsy

Jan. 18, 2008

(CBS/AP) In 2006 Sean Paul's "Temperature" was hot, rising to the top of the Billboard charts. But the pop song had a much more chilling effect on 25-year-old Stacey Gayle.

Gayle, a customer service employee at a bank in Alberta, Canada, was suffering as many as 10 grand mal seizures a day, despite being treated with medications designed to control them. The condition became so bad she eventually had to quit her job and leave the church choir where she sang.

Appearing on CBS' The Early Show, Gayle told co-anchor Harry Smith that she was 21 when she first started having seizures, but it was in the summer of 2006 when she began to suspect a possible trigger.

She recalled, 18 months ago, being at a barbecue and collapsing when the Jamaican rapper Sean Paul's music started playing, and then remembered having a previous seizure when she had heard his music. "I would get that aura before that song would come on," she said.

Music wasn't the only trigger, but it was an important one.

"I was just having seizures, just found it was triggered by music," she said.

It was Sean Paul first, and then others.

At first, doctors didn't believe a rap song could induce an attack, so Gayle proved it. At the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Stacy had a video EEG - a medical test measuring electrical activity produced by the brain. The video showed Stacey Gayle having three seizures shortly after listening to the Sean Paul song on her iPod.

"Sometimes it's very challenging to find that abnormal area of the brain that may be causing someone's epilepsy," Dr. Ashesh Mehta, the hospital's director of epilepsy surgery, told Smith. "Given that she had such a specific trigger, we were able to play the music and do a PET scan. That gave us an idea of where the seizures may be coming from.

"Ultimately we have to implant electrodes to find the area, [and then] we played the music."

Doctors determined the cause of Gayle's seizures was an extremely rare condition called musicogenic epilepsy, in which seizures are actually induced by music.

According to the hospital, there are only five such cases known worldwide.

During the first surgery, doctors implanted more than 100 electrodes in the right side of her brain to pinpoint the abnormal area of her brain.

The surgeons followed that procedure with a second surgery to remove the electrodes, along with parts of her brain suspected of causing the seizures.

"Did you really think this is one of those 'Eureka!' moments?" Smith asked.

"Absolutely," Mehta said. "It's fairly common in a lot of people who have epilepsy. That area happened to be triggered by the music, and we took it out, and she's done wonderfully.

Gayle reports that she is now seizure-free after three and a half months.

"I want to show others that life does not end at epilepsy," she said.


© MVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Letter To The Record Industry

Saw this posted online....




this is intended for all of you lowly puppets who sit in your big offices in big buildings that will soon be out of business & thus, forced to hold vacant memories of an industry that once was . this is for all of the big wigs in suits & ties who sit at the head of the conference room table with creative opinions as empty as the "music" they force down the throats of the now bored & uninspired creative consumers . this is for all the idle assistants who only work hard enough to get their names on the grammy party lists, or whose only existence remains obsolete if he/she can't get into the hot new band's hollywood show debut . this is for the borderline retarded a&r guy who should in fact abandon his dreams of changing the failing record industry to become a highly paid talent scout at a modeling agency . this is definitely for all the marketing low lives who fail to avidly push great talent because the world's fave reality slut randomly decided one day while botoxing her armpits that she wants to be a rockstar .

yes .
this open letter is for all of you .
come feast your eyes upon the truth behind your insolence for 5 minutes , if you even have your job for that much longer.

your blatant lack of respect & worship for the oldest & dearest artform has brought a once thriving & artistic industry to a grinding halt . your willingness to believe that the world wide web has killed the consumers' thirst for new & exciting talent is wildly ignorant & safe . you would like to feed into this stupidity because you are too lazy to stand behind substance ; you'd rather take the low & easy road than take the time to nurture true talent . you'd rather tirelessly feed us the same carbon copied , lip synching , sex dripping , faux punk "i got my entire outfit from hot topic" rocker , buffoonishly ghetto "are they even speaking english?" hip hop , "same old same" sound from song to song type image & force us to believe that this is all the world's artists have to offer . you'd rather watch your company stocks & yearly record sales severely plummet than take strong initiative to fix the current problem . you'd rather see hundreds of employees laid off & out of work during the holidays because you're too afraid to stand up for something new & different . you're content with creating a 1-hit wonder society , where any idiot with anything shockingly catchy can enjoy a sorry 15 minutes of fame & a future segment on vh1's "biggest 1-hit wonders of 08" extravaganza .

where is the new generation of legends ?

radiohead & outkast comes to mind , & then i draw a big blank .

the latest thrill in music has been an over abundance of great dancers with mediocre voices , albums , singles , concert ticket sales , etc . thank god the internet allows every joe blow in the universe a free forum to overexpose every little thing , especially mediocre celebrities . thank god for online music forums , such as myspace . artists are able to directly connect with the people & expose themselves & their art to everyone everywhere at the click of a button . myspace proves that music can no longer fit into a box . long gone are the days of urban vs pop vs alternative radio . gwen stefani had hit songs for years on the pop & alt charts , but she records a song written by pharrell & she's instantly on top of the urban charts as well . this new r&b dance pop music crosses over to white kids & that kelly clarkson "since you've been gone" song was smeared across the lips of many a young black girl last year . m i a is all over the indie alternative stations , & lets not even get started on gnarls barkley .

all signs point to the obvious : true music consumers right now are a ) young , & b) smart . young kids are able to point & click their way to every new trend . they arguably have short attention spans & they want to be in on what's cool & personable to them . when madonna emerged in the '80s you had tons of girls around the world imitating her every move & style down to the mole . kurt cobain turned grunge commercial when he was exposed to millions of kids who felt like society's outsiders looking in . hip-hop has been a huge influence on mainstream culture since the early '80s because of it's relativity . kids have not changed . young people are not mindless robots who like what you tell them to like with no opinions . the youth are always looking to be enthralled .

they want to be entertained . they want to feel as though they are a part of something that will be written about , studied , & revered 20 years later . they , like all of us old & young alike , want to be inspired . when i was a kid i saw prince prance around on stage & dazzle people with his art & i felt inspired to do the same thing . why are you music industry idiots attempting to tell us that we don't want to be touched ? why are you trying to rob us of new musical experiences ? will there ever be another motown 25 / michael jackson moonwalk experience ? will we never again hear a single like queen's "bohemian rhapsody" on the radio because the hook isn't catchy enough ? will we never see another band like the talking heads & joy division or parliament ? will there never be another artist to rival frank zappa ? will we be forced to hear different versions of the same dumb song on every single radio station every 5 minutes simply because the record label had enough money to pay off the station manager ? are we still supposed to care about mtv when there are hardly any videos in rotation ? do i even need to mention b e t or v h 1 ? are any of the classic record industry outlets working these days ? as of late it seems that artists are independently breaking ground with their own efforts . songs are being licensed for national commercials from artists' myspace pages & personal websites . ellen degeneres has been known to book musical guests from videos seen on youtube , & as i aforementioned , gnarls barkley not only created a new genre , but they also won grammy awards for an album that was recorded in home studios & released through an indie label .

why should artists even seek major label deals ? they are completely outdated & obsolete . artists are sold the dream that talent can secure superstardom , but it becomes evident that labels only sign bands nowadays because of the band's existing fanbase & record sales , or because they dig the artist's look & want to cash in . they don't want to develop the art . they don't want the artist to express his/herself entirely . they just want the artist to comply with what will get the company a big monetary return . they sign you for millions , pimp you for pennies , then drop you a year later when the music they made you record & release is no longer relevant . you're left on the streets unsigned & irrelevant & ready to infect the world with the music you've always wanted to make , but no one will take a chance on you due to your previous material . meanwhile , the label has already put white out over your signature on the slave deal & replaced it with a younger version of you . cold game , ain't it ?

the age old model is failing . as an industry based on faithful consumers you have lost your connection with the people who matter most : the PEOPLE . you have yet to show them that you are with the changing times & able to adapt to something new . you are proving that you are too afraid to promote good music . you would rather let the monotonous drone of what is today's music remain unbalanced by substance . you would rather watch more legendary artists abandon you for direct deals with itunes & touring companies . you would rather allow the internet to defeat what should be your life's work . maybe you should excuse yourself from the next a&r meeting to go take a look in the bathroom mirror . stand there & ask yourself why you took this job , & when you realize it's simply because you wanted to be cool & "in the mix" then return to the conference room , take that gun out of your pocket , & shoot yourself in the head in front of your coworkers so that you are made an example of . if you can in fact leave that conference room & look in the bathroom mirror with pride & hunger to break the monotony then head back into that conference room , jump on top of the table & read this manifesto .

this is a challenge .
we're calling your bluff .
record labels are nothing but banks that give artists hi price loans in exchange for artistic control . put your money where your cocks are . go out on a limb & support real music for a change . find the line where the internet & the real world meet & infect more people with something magical . start building more legends . it's almost too late . interscope is dead . def jam is next . motown who ? mca what ? warner , you're not too far behind . the war sirens are ringing & you're content with playing deaf & dumb .
we're calling your bluff !
we're here to reprogram how you & the rest of the world listen to music .
we can do this together , or you can stick to your own devices & peril in the process .
we are the people . we are the future . we are the present .
who are you ?

Are They Serious???

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. recording industry has intensified its fight against illicit downloading, saying it is illegal for someone to transfer music from a CD onto a computer.

As part of the industry's ongoing legal effort against Jeffery Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., resident accused of sharing nearly 2,000 songs, industry officials said even legally owned discs should not be copied onto one's computer, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The Recording Industry Association of America's position that Howell broke the law when he copied a legally purchased disc to his computer was immediately attacked by a lawyer familiar with such charges.

"The basic principle in the law is that you have to distribute actual physical copies to be guilty of violating copyright. But recently, the industry has been going around saying that even a personal copy on your computer is a violation," said Ray Beckerman, a lawyer who has represented several of the association's targets in the past.

The Post said the industry's announcement comes in the wake of October's federal jury case in which a Minnesota woman was ordered to pay $220,000 to record companies for downloading 24 songs.