There is so much hostility and bad blood from Professor West towards Barack Obama that I do not even know how to begin explaining it. The President did not invite Brother West to his private inauguration party in 2008. This has spun into a one way feud where the latter is made even more upset by the former's ignoring of his complaints. Moral of the story? Always send a "thank you" note during the holidays for your gifts, and also be sure to say "thank you" as one never knows how a perceived slight will turn into a blood feud.
It is Christmas Eve. Do treat this as an open holiday thread. Any great stories so far? Random happenings? Fun events planned? Obnoxious relatives you are dreading? What did Black Pete do to you this holiday season? Events in the broader world that we should be keeping our eyes open for?
I am going to be cooking a Christmas eve dinner of langostinos and pasta and drinking some Bell's Winter Ale. I like scavengers full of mercury which I cook with butter and mushrooms: this was a tradition when I was a kid, as whenever my dad would hit the lottery, seafood pasta would be our "eating like rich folks" meal that night. We would then go bowling and see a movie.
As I have gotten older, such memories have taken on more importance. If I am ever blessed with kids and a good woman, she a long suffering wife if said poor woman chose to mate with such an eccentric personality, I will spend a good amount of time making sure that we have our own rituals. Growing up, the kid(s) would hate it; when they are older, I do hope that there would be some appreciation for the "uniqueness" of their upbringing.
As I have gotten older, such memories have taken on more importance. If I am ever blessed with kids and a good woman, she a long suffering wife if said poor woman chose to mate with such an eccentric personality, I will spend a good amount of time making sure that we have our own rituals. Growing up, the kid(s) would hate it; when they are older, I do hope that there would be some appreciation for the "uniqueness" of their upbringing.
For the holiday, I will be hanging out with a friend, watching The Dark Knight Rises blu-ray a few times, cooking up some fried chicken, bacon wrapped filet mignon, salad, garlic bread, homemade fried mozzarella and rosemary potatoes. Stella is a perfect holiday beer and will accompany the dinner. I am going to cook up some old chicken for the animals outside and leave it strategically placed about. I also have a nice loaf of Parmesan Focaccia bread that went stale that I will give to my bird army. The soldiers need to eat too.
I will then fall asleep after using the toilet, watching A Christmas Story a few more times, and then finishing off the night with Star Wars.
Will the meal turn out well? Who knows? I will give it my best try in any event.
I got a few video games during the Steam and Gamefly holiday sale event that I will be playing as well. Word of caution--if you are one of the folks like me who has not upgraded from Windows XP Pro do not download the new X-Com game. You will be out 25 bucks because it requires Vista and above to run. Crooks. Liars. Charlatans. Heart breakers. I curse them.
Finally, I would like to formally thank all of the kind people who donated to our first ever fundraiser. Times are hard out there. I appreciate the generosity. I will be getting a proper mic for our podcast series, and getting a ticket to go home after the holidays. Thank you so very much. I mean that, truly I do.
Best wishes for the holiday. Do be good to each other. What is on your minds this holiday season? For those of you with kids, how are you making these next few days special and memorable?
18 comments:
An Open Letter to Cornel West
Cornel,
Once again you’re trying to defend the indefensible. And once again, you’re trying to blame your critics for your failure to communicate effectively. When you make a comment, it is up to YOU to keep your message focused and uncluttered enough to communicate your ideas effectively, not the listener.
In addition, when a listener listens to a speaker, he or she is not simply listening to the content of the speaker’s message, he’s also assessing the messenger himself for any subtleties or nuances that might suggest a hidden agenda, reckless and inefficient thinking, or any other shortcomings that might mitigate the weight that he should assign to the speaker’s message. Thus, when you added “in blackface” to your comment, considering it’s racist connotation, you should have known that it would overwhelm what you insist was the “core” of your statement. So the mere fact that you now, in my opinion, feign that the uproar caught you by complete surprise, speaks volumes about either your judgment, or your veracity.
West, I used to be a huge fan of both you and Smiley’s. But your tendency to engage in reckless, irresponsible, and unsubstantiated statements like the one currently under discussion led me to start researching who you really are nearly five years ago, and what I’ve found is literally embarrassing. Now, with this latest controversy, you’re merely reinforcing what I already know - if you were even close to the “powerful intellectual” that your 35 years of hype has suggested, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. And brother, that’s comin’ from a common hood rat.
http://smileyandwest.ning.com/forum/topics/take-em-to-task-blackface-comments
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Does Cornel West Harbor Racist Attitudes Towards Black People?(http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/12/cornel-wests-attack-on-jay-z-prime.html)
Chauncey, if you can cook like that, what woman could resist you? And the great thing about children is that they are your little captives, and you can increase the kingdom of black nerds all you want! (Seriously, your holiday celebrations--Star Wars, Batman, etc.--are probably what more children would enjoy than what their parents and grandparents have planned for them.)
Merry Christmas & to all a good dark night.
Please. Cornel West is saying what Cornel West says about this kind of thing. And he's ... he's oversimplifying things ... obviously affluent kids of *any* race deserve all the chances life affords ... if the kids on the Cosby Show were killed the nation would be horrified too ... but it's silly to pretend that all the kids killed this past year weigh equally on our souls as loyal Americans.
Here's something to complete the ghetto nerd xmas lineup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42psjIlRIYM
Not even sure if I want to listen to the Professor anymore....just seems like another sandblasting of the President all because the good Professor never got an invitation.
Let it go, sir. Let it go.
Have a great holiday, Chauncey. And thanks for the info on the games; I'm playing a rented copy of BORDERLANDS 2 and waiting for LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW from GameFly, but MASS EFFECT 2 and 3 are also on the side. And for my PSP I'm loving GODS EATER BURST and MACROSS ULTIMATE FRONTIER, which is one of the best import games I've ever played.
And I have to get THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Already got THE AVENGERS for my brother and his wife, and I want to show my niece JOHN CARTER, since I loved the movie (and screw the critics who hated it....but that's just me) and feel that it was given a bad hand. It didn't deserve the mauling it received from critics, but thankfully many who had seen it loved it. Even those who had never read the original Burroughs novels.
Happy holidays to all--looks like the Mayans were misinterpreted, we dodged a serious calamity this year (hey, maybe Professor West and a lot of folks on the Progressive side would've preferred a President Romney? Sure as hell seemed like it sometimes....), but we made it.
@openletter. brother cornel loves you and all his black, brown, and purple vanilla children. seriously, i have no doubt that his heart is in the right place as are his concerns. i am especially happy that he is mentioning the violence on the Res. But, you are spot on in the power of language.
@historiann. many women resist me. i have deformed genitalia, am a troll or garbage man like frank on always sunny in philadelphia, and am a cousin to billy d williams' diabetic santa clause. i also suffer from night terrors. who would want such a beast!
@tom. I don't know. Hard one. I am saving my thoughts on that issue until after the holidays.
@gee thanks. do be well.
@marc. you have a full lineup. a good friend suggested i watch john carter. i was not disappointed. did you ever read the comic book from marvel back in the 1980s? is macross the very same macross that we known--rightly or wrongly--as robotech here in the U.S.?
"Let it go, sir. Let it go."
Oh, please. YOU let it go. The canard that the only reason West criticizes Obama is because of some personal slight. He criticizes him because he is not a very good president. The worst since the previous worst, George Bush. I find nothing controversial about West's statements. "Cowardly"? "Doesn't care"? Certainly matches what I have observed.
@Chauncey: I do remember a few issues of the John Carter comic from the 1970s as a kid, but I also recently bought the book that collected the entire run of the Marvel series.
Dark Horse Comics has a couple of collections of the different John Carter comics available. Great to read them; they were stories weaved into the continuity of the books and also had the great art of Gil Kane and others (including a young Frank Miller!).
As for MACROSS--yep, that very series was used as the first part of ROBOTECH. The original show celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Strangely enough, not much editing was done to the show when it was part of RT--aside from the removal of some nude scenes and a violent scene or two, the show was pretty much intact, even if the names were changed and the story was altered to fit into the main RT story.
Whew! A bit of a long-winded explanation, but I hope this helps...
@Marc. I have seen the original Macross. The legendary sex scene with Minmei and Rick is one that I am still looking for. I thought I had found it a few months back but was gently corrected? I gave up trying to track down all of the various versions of Robotech. If I can get my hands on the one done by animeigo cheap one day--after I get all of the Lone Wolf and Cubs as well as The Razor. I would be happy.
Hi. This is Oaktown Girl. Signing in is such a nightmare, I'm just doing "anonymous" so I can post the damn comment:
I have not seen "Dark Knight Rises" yet because it did not get the kind of enthusiastic reviews and word-of-mouth that would entice me to endure theatre ticket prices. But I did enjoy "The Dark Knight" quite a bit. If you're watching "Rises" at least twice as part of your holiday celebration, you must be giving the moving very enthusiastic thumbs up. Maybe I should think about watching it sometime?
My must-see holiday viewing recommendation for everyone is the "Family Guy" Christmas episode from 1999. I think it's called "A Freakin' Sweet Christmas" or something like that. Anyway, it's outstanding. It's my new standard along side the classic animated Seusse "Grinch".
@OG. Hmmm. I saw it four times in the theater if that is any indication. One of the best movies of the year inmao. What are you getting yourself for the holidays?
Oaktown Girl said:
Four times in the theatre?! Wowweee, that's a hell of a recommendation. That is, assuming you have "good" taste. : )
My treat for myself is a day free of obligation and family stress. And that's a big treat for me. Going to get Chinese food with some other "heathens", and then going to a yet-to-be-determined movie. Maybe "Django Unchained", unless I'm really, really in the mood for something more lighthearted. Thanks for asking. Hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow.
Oaktown Girl said:
News Update: The Family Guy Christmas episode, "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas" will be shown on the Cartoon Network tonight (the network that has the "Adult Swim" shows). Check your local listings! And Merry Freakin' Christmas!
I can't be mad at West. President Obama IS a coward, in a politician sort of a way. He plays it safe, in my opinion. He is not going to make the bold sort of moves exclusively for our benefit. He's going for legacy and his vision of it is not relegated to one sub-class or even one political party. He wants to be known as the great middle of the road man, even if it drags him further to the right. He spoke up on the children because he knew that it was politically safe for him to do so. The level of outrage would temper any backlash from the right or the NRA. I could be wrong but,it is the only explanation I can think of that would explain the continuous concessions to the right despite having won a clear re-election.
Happy Holidays all.
SabrinaBee
Dr. West raises some legitimate criticisms, but they have a hollow ring because he voted for the “coward.” America bombs children abroad; gunfire is killing American children at home.
The Children's Defense Fund reports that in 2008-09, the number to children and teens killed in America by gunfire was 5,740. Of that total 45 percent—2,583—were Afrikan Americans, although they were only 15 percent of the child population.
[Where is our anti-war movement here at home? Why does a nation with the largest military budget in the world refuse to protect its children from relentless gun violence and terrorism at home? No external enemy ever killed thousands of children in their neighborhoods, streets and schools year in and year out.] -- CDF
@Chauncey: As far as I know, there was never a sex scene between Rick and Minmei (or rather, Hikaru and Minmay) in the original MACROSS. There was Minmay's shower scene in the 1984 MACROSS film (subtitled "Do You Remember Love") but that film was released in a heavily-edited English version in the late 1980s. If you look around, you can find the Blu-Ray for DYRL or a non-region DVD.
...And you saw THE DARK KNIGHT four times in the theater? No, not knocking you for that. I loved the film, even though I saw it only once in the theater but plan to pick it up on DVD or Blu-Ray. I had seen BATMAN BEGINS twice in the theater (and the 2009 STAR TREK film as well), but then again, if I really do like a film, I try to catch it twice in the theater.
@Nomad: The worst President since George W. Bush....my God. Are you freaking kidding me? You have GOT to be kidding. Obama isn't perfect and he's made mistakes, but by God and Sonny Jesus there is no possible way on this Earth or in this whole bloody universe that he is worse than Bush. None.
Well, I agree with investigative historian Eric Zuesse, a proud Democrat BTW,
"any President who blatantly violates his Oath of Office... deserves to be prosecuted."
...President Obama violates his Oath of Office by systematically appointing, and supporting, appointees who carry out a rabidly discriminatory system of “justice,” which holds some people to be above the Law; that is, above the U.S. Constitution, and free from its legal requirements.
***This is an incredibly ironic accusation to bring against the first black President, but here it is (after all, Obama’s being black doesn’t free him of any guilt for a crime that he is committing***),
...I charge him with systematically violating the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
...
Furthermore, Barack Obama, by his rabid violation of his Oath of Office, and his enormous violation of basic Democratic Party principles of justice, and of absolute equality before the Law, is a historic embarrassment to the Democratic Party.
Obama is the worst U.S. President in history as regards equal application of the Law. He is worse even than the previous worst, which was George W. Bush."
And these are just his failings in the area of justice. Don't get me started on the corporate healthcare sellout and the trillion dollar wall street bailout and the middle finger for mainstreet and the sellout of Social Security. Bush was bad. But Obama's worse. His worseness is marginal though. I can see why some people think Bush still holds the title. I am, however of the other opinion. Obama has outBushed Bush.
And @Sabrina
"He is not going to make the bold sort of moves exclusively for our benefit."
His concessions are not because he's playing it safe. He allows the right to win -even helps them to win- because those are the policies he believes in. He's a Trojan horse game thrower for the other side. He is not working for you. That is the deception. He is secretly working against you. That is the lesson of the last 4 years.
Oops. Forgot the link
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/a-case-to-indict-barack-obama.html
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