ProfD

Two years in development caught my attention because it coincides with pandemic outbreak. SARS-CoV (Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus) was identified in 2003. Scientists have had almost 20 years to play with the virus from mutation to deployment to treatment. That's why they want to hide the file for five decades. Follow the money and watch their hands.

IMO, believing in Jesus is neither moronic nor is it a strike against one's intelligence. It's no different from kids believing in Santa Claus. My hope is that human beings will be good to each other because it's the right thing to do and not just because they want toys, er, to spend eternity with a fictitious figure.

In related news, as folks are faced with the Omicron variant, there are long lines of people waiting to be tested in certain places. The government is pushing to have about 500 million home test kits available. A former virus czar thinks we should be producing 1-2 billion test kits per month. I cannot help but to wonder why we have never had test kits for the flu or common cold.

@Delano, It's the right thing to do. The gun range is a good place to unload several rounds. Nobody gets killed, injured or hurt.

That was a dumb decision to slash the police budget in a city with the highest murder rate in the country. That's like burning brand new KN95 masks and pouring vaccine down the drain in the middle of a pandemic. The city of Chicago should be paying police to work overtime in an effort to control crime. The mayor doesn't need ATF. She needs to WTF (wake the f8ck) up and empower the resources at her disposal.

That's a complicated question. But, in my optimism, I do believe a few decades from now, humanity will 'correct' in such a way that police won't kill black folks to the point that it leads to outrage and/or protests.

I have not seen the book but I learned of the Smithsonian Hip-Hop Anthology on the internet. Music is kinda my thing.

IMO, the inclusion of Blondie's "Rapture" on a Hip-Hop anthology wasn't necessary. It may have been a Jeff Chang decision. I'm glad Sequence "Funk You Up" was included. For those who don't know, that group had a young lady named B Angie B better known today as R&B soul singer Angie Stone.

Yep. I was aware of the Smithsonian Hip-Hop anthology. The curation committee included Chuck D, MC Lyte, Questlove? and 9th Wonder. They should know better. So, it really makes no sense whatsoever that Boogie Down Productions (Scott La Rock & KRS-1) "Bridge Is Over" isn't included in the anthology.

After rushing the vax to market and encouraging folks to get stuck, the lack of transparency on the back end is a head scratcher. There should be no reason to hide something especially if it's intended to save millions of lives.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/wait-what-fda-wants-55-years-process-foia-request-over-vaccine-data-2021-11-18/ Emergency Use Authorization was granted by FDA at warp speed but they need 55 years to tell us what's in the vax. If the youngest person eligible to get the vax today is 5 years old, they will be 60 years old before they can find out why they can glow in the dark on certain days of the week. I know the government can be slow when it comes to getting things done. This doesn't seem like a case of red tape. Reads more like a tub of super glue.

Yeah, strong arming folks for some raggedy azz sports memorabilia was definitely the dumbest thing to do. I thought the Juice was auditioning for a movie role when I first heard about that robbery. There's one man who will be hounding OJ for that $33.5M until he goes to the grave. The craziest part is OJ lives in a $1.8M house with access to a Bentley. He gets a $25k per month pension from the NFL that cannot be touched by the civil lawsuit. All he has to do stay low.

https://apnews.com/article/college-football-sports-entertainment-business-arts-and-entertainment-110d82684a8599f35deb0dd8529d6acb Former 1970s star football player OJ Simpson has been paroled two months early. The Juice is on the loose as a free man. As a 74 year old, I doubt OJ can still run fast. He probably doesn't want any more drama. So, I hope he will be allowed to live the remainder of his life free of hassle. It would be something if OJ and Bill Cosby teamed up to do a comedic buddy movie.

It may be hard to believe but I grew up during a time when black males did not have to fear the police nor did we have to know how to interact with them. Police officers were just one of us. Back in those days, the police officers would stop in the neighborhood and talk to people. With enough free time on their hands, they would get out the squad car and shoot hoops or throw a football or jump rope. Also, the police had a band and show. They would show up to perform at schools, parks and recreation centers. Young folks referred to the police as "Officer Friendly". During the late 80s and early 90s, things started to change. IMO, th,e war on drugs was the beginning of the end of positive policing in black communities.

Being an actor, he was still in character. The real question is whether his next job will require props or a costume or uniform.

A routine traffic stop should never end up with an unarmed and innocent person being killed by a police officer. Supposedly, police officers receive extensive situational awareness training especially as it relates to life and death. Unfortunately, there are bad apples who are motivated to join the police force for the wrong reasons. Bad police officers can only be weeded out through better psychological examinations and/or their colleagues indentifying those who slipped through the cracks. As citizens, the best we can do is be as polite as possible with police officers in order to minimize our interaction with them. If necessary, take down a name and badge # if the encounter with police was negative and report it up the chain.

Great question @harry brown. The short answer is not really. Black folks might own the network or media companies but they don't own the bandwidth on which it operates. It's the equivalent of owning a house but not the land on which it sits. The OWN network belongs to Oprah. Perry owns the production company responsible for the TV shows and movies he produces. Neither one of them owns the cable outlet, broadcast networks or movie theaters. So, to that extent, they're on a short leash in the content they can provide. IMO, that is why we do not see any programming that fully puts white supremacy and the crimes they commit against us on blast. So, black folks are left depending on their system to right any wrongs and/or transgressions against us.

Absolutely, parents are responsible for protecting their young people up to a point. However, parents should not be demanding participation trophies when their kids lose and/or getting involved in employment issues for their grown azz children. The world doesn't owe spoiled brats anything. But, life will definitely kick them in their pants.

This is a huge peeve of mine. Dudes are getting real soft mentally and physically because they are not being raised to man up. There is already a war on masculinity. The last thing we need is a bunch of marshmallows running around when the proverbial sh8t hits the fan.

@Mzuri, all is well on my end. Hopefully so for you and yours too. When I first heard that dumbazz story, I thought, this dude needs a real azz whupping Singapore style. Taxpayer money totally went to waste in pursing this one. At another place in time, they would have told him to shut up and take a few seats. However, nowadays because everyone has a right to be heard and taken seriously, we're forced to deal with a certain amount of foolishness. I believe he should have to pay a huge fine for wasting public resources on his publicity stunt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/arts/television/jussie-smollett-guilty.html I sure hope this n8gglet didn't go through all of this to further his acting career. If so, it backfired. I knew the whole thing was BS when it was initially reported. Just didn't add up.

Agreed. She needs to go to prison too. Also, thank goodness for technology and stupidity. Had the murder not been recorded, those killers definitely would have gotten away with it.

They either dropped off the virus or didn't want any parts of it. Either way, they decided not to stay. They'll catch up with us later.

People are running around doing enough dumb sh8t in crimes that require police intervention. They are safe from from being defunded. Police reform is easy. Hire police officers who look like the communities they serve. Do not drop a racist cop in an area predominantly inhabited by people of color.

@Troy, the latest mass shooting in MI might reignite the dialog on gun control. The parents have been charged. Those clowns tried to go on the lam. They weren't able to hide out for long. They were nabbed in Detroit.