Pioneer1

Troy again I say it is relative. If you put the building on the moon the result would be different -- even though the "law" has not changed. I never said it wasn't relative; but relative is just an individuals position with or perception of an established reality. How you RELATE to an object or subject doesn't change the reality of that object or subject. Like you said the law of gravity did not change simply because HE changed environments. It still IS what it is and if he comes back to THIS atmosphere he'll have to face it again. The moon's and Earth's atmospheres are still part of the SAME reality. To the other extreme others have posited an infinite number of universes with different physical constants were the incomprehensible can take place this too is reality, albeit one may may never experience. You said others have POSITED...and that's a key word. This is the multi-verse theory, but has it been proven? We can sit here and entertain theories all day long, but certain laws of THIS reality are constant and they rarely if ever change regardless as to how you relate to them or what your perspective of them are. 　 What is real is what we can perceive -- the example of the mentally disturbed man you provided aside. Are you suggesting that a person who doesn't perceive that they are sick can not have a disease simply because they haven't acknowledged it?

The only thing I thought was really "extraordinary" about what's happening in Chicago was the report that the transit authority is setting the train tracks on fire to make sure the commuter trains run properly. I thought that was interesting, everything else was pretty much business as usual for a typical Great Lakes winter. Like I said, if this starts happening in JUNE then it'll be something to talk about but until then.......... Troy Is the world really so bad off today compared to the past? I think for most younger people it actually IS worse off today than it was 30 or 40 or 50 years ago; there're just more gadgets and gizmos to DISTRACT them from their concerns....which was probably the goal anyway. Your son has autism, you only make $13 an hour, and neither of you have healthcare.....but you have the latest I-Pad!!! WOO HOO!! Most Millenials aren't making enough to take care of themselves as well as their grandparents were, most of them have inadequate health insurance, and they tend to take more mental medication to help them cope with their realities. The only things Millenials have today that is arguably better than their grandparents is more sexual freedom (along with more sexual confusion) . Cynique Your teenie-weenie is tailor-made for whipping out in public My "tail" isn't TAILored, it's all natural....lol. And if something must be "whipped" out it certainly isn't teenie-weenie but most likely long and lanky.

Nah.... "Pee-sicles" sound like something YOU'D be more interested in seeing (and making)....lol.

Troy I remember on 9-11 I was working with a young man who was a very religious Christian and as we were watching the buildings on television he turned to me and said "Jesus is coming back". Those who do marketing research know that a large pecentage of American people are fundamentalist Christian. They believe the world is going to end and Jesus is coming back soon, so every major disaster whether natural or man-made actully ELATES some of them because they see it as bringing the planet one step closer to complete destruction which they feel must happen before "glory" comes. 　 　 why should the folks down here, many of whom have never been north of the mason dixon, care? During the times I lived down South I met a suprisingly large number of adults who had NEVER left the South before! They'll move from Alabama to Texas to South Carolina to Florida all while never considering Pennsylvania, Utah, or Oregon. But a large number never even left their state, nor did they have a desire to. 　 Cynique Even if this wasn't the case, extraordinary weather is "news" so why wouldn't it be covered?? What's so "extraodrinary" about it being cold in January? If you got this weather in JUNE....now THAT would be news worthy!　 　 Many are able to survive adequately without being in a constant state of suspicion and paranoia, ever on the lookout for sinister forces tracking your every move in order to control your mind - something you know about because you are "in the know". Wooooo. Well, everyone SHOULD be "in the know" by now since Mark Zuckerburg told you this is what he's doing! When he sat before congress and testified under oath that social media like Facebook is tracking your every move and monitoring you to build a profile of you he pretty much confirmed suspicions.

Troy I wonder why he grabbed YOUR hand. I'm not sure why but the next time you decide to go gay-bar hopping down in Miami.........you should do a survey asking the men about the social interactions of their early childhood, lol.

Troy Everything is relative, but reality does not and cannot agree with EVERY individual's perception of it. Take the law of gravity for example..... If a man jumps off the Chrysler building it doesn't matter whether or not he perceives it or doubts it's existence. If he doesn't believe in it he is clearly WRONG and the REALITY of gravity will have an effect on him in just a matter of seconds despite his misperception. Del If I were you I wouldn't take Caucasian scientific gibberish too seriously, lol. They put some of this shit out here simply to confound you.

Fear mongering. It also supports the "sign of the times" narrative being promoted by the media for the past 30 years or so. Theu aim this mostly at their Christian fundamentalist audience in the United States who routinely believe that any change in the weather or any other major unusual event signals the end of the world. Ooooooh.....every eclipse, every earthquake, every cold snap is the BIG ONE

Don't get me wrong, MOST of my dealing with Black businesses have been positive also. Infact the VAST majority were. But in a society like the United States where you have so much variety and opportunity, the issue of supporting ANY business is more than whether or not you simply have a positive experience but also COMPARISON to other businesses and COMPETITION comes into play. Most consumers of any race are less concerned about who owns the business and more concerned with how much they will save and the quality of goods or services they will receive. Black businesses can't rely on getting support from the community simply because they exist....they must figure out a way to either have lower prices and/or superior production to the competition. A good example of this are Chinese restaurants. Not only is Chinese food relatively cheap and tasty but Chinese restaurants are found in almost every community in the United States and are open everyday despite holidays, weather, or economic downturns. They are sucessful because they cater to not just Chinese people but to everybody....including in the ghetto....and they make sure they have all you want anytime you want it! You've never seen a Chinese restaurant closed during daylight hours...lol.

Not sure what happened before my generation but even as a child I don't remember little boys ever holding hand with eachother. I remember one time back when I was 7 or 8 I was playing with a group of boys and while we were playing one of the boys grabbed my hand and tried to hold it while we were walking looking for the others. Although there was no anger or disgust at him I had an immediate reaction to jerk my had away because of how akward it felt even at that young age and he just looked at me with a nervous grin and moved on. Later on I notice he would stare at other boys in the eyes an extra few seconds longer than usual while playing with them and a few years later we find out.....you guessed it, LOL.

You're welcome. And the next time you're in the mood for more education, feel free to either ask a direct question or say just something else ignorant that begs for a correction...lol.

Cynique I'm trying to figure out why do you have the SAME expression in EVERY photo? Whether you're standing there in the front yard or out with your daughters showing off new shoes, you have that expression. When you're sitting to a table full of cake with a paper cap on your head celebrating your birthday, you have that expression. Even in a photo 30 years ago when you were wearing an Afro you had that SAME expression on your face. You seem to have only ONE expression.....lol.

Reality is the object and perception is simply a perspective OF that object. We can't say all perceptions are reality because some perceptions are erroneous and based on a mind that could be impaired by drugs or mental illness. Other misperceptions are based on false or limited information. For millenia many people believed that the Earth was flat. That was THEIR perspective of the Earth based on their limited information, despite the reality being much different.

Yes it's going to be cold, but all of this "record breaking this....." and " coldest in a generation that...." is a bunch of media-hyped up bullshit. The Winter or 2013/2014 that we had just 5 years ago was much worse with SUSTAINED tempuratures of 30-40 BELOW zero for days at a time! I think they're taking advantage of the short term collective memory of the American people by making every cold snap seem like the worst they've ever seen.

Cynique i said criminal "mentality" which is different in that it has to do with thinking it's ok to commit whatever constitutes a crime as long as you don't get caught. Even so, it's still an improper term. "Criminal mentality" implies that their sole purpose is to break laws when in actuality their purpose is to do what they WANT to do whether it's a crime or not. The term "criminal mentality" is more "us against them" speech as if there's a group of born criminals out there. The term you WANT to use is "anti-social" to describe the people you're speaking of. In another post, you said slavery should be reformed, but slavery and reform don't belong in the same sentence. Slavery is what it is and freedom alone is its anti-dote. I never said slavery SHOULD have been reformed, I said it WAS re-formed but SHOULD have been eliminated. Incarceration, per se, is not the flaw in the prison system. Everybody agrees that the fault lies with and occurs in a corrupt society where the court systems do not dispense equal justice under the law. There is fault to be found at EVERY level, including the level of incarceration where madness and injustice is ALLOWED to go on on between inmates.

Lol, and how do you know this isn't simply part of a slightly larger plan to let you continue to make a fool of yourself ?

Chev I see people holding hands and walking around that appear to be homosexuals, but I really don't look that much I remember the first time I saw East Asian women walking around holding hands and walking arm in arm locked tight against eachother.....I thought they were in lesbian relationships. But after seeing more and more of it I realize it was just a cultural habit. Infact, in some Middle Eastern nations MEN hold hands with eachother as they walk and talk together.

Let me ask, if black people were more involved in the political process in America, could that bring about more positive change in our communities? Yes......IF....most of us rallied around a solid agenda with well defined goals and interests. For example, and agenda that included demanding Universal Healthcare, demanding more Africans and Carribeans be allowed to immigrate into the nation, or demanding more government grants and contracts to fund AfroAmerican businesses are all issues that would CLEARLY benefit our community. But simply going along for the ride on someone else's agenda (gay marriage, legalizing marijuana, border wall funding, ect.....) is a waste of time and effort. I personally want to see more AfroAmerican representation at the STATE level like Governor and state Legislators because this is where the majority of policies that immediately impact our communities are made.

Troy I doubt @Cynique, for example, is a shop-a-holic, or has a closet full of clothing with the tags still on them. Uh......actually.....she IS and she DOES. And I know this for a FACT, because I know who gives her the money for this nasty habit, lol. 　 Cynique You lament that a little black girl wants to grow up and look like a white fairy princess. Why wouldn't she when fairy princesses are better off than African queens in this country? You can't fix all the ills of this world. But you can adjust and adapt. You can't adjust nor adapt to systematic destruction. There is a well researched and well funded agenda to destroy the self-esteem and image of African people not only in this nation but around the globe. What Nubian is detailing in this thread only covers a FRACTION of what's really going on. There is even an agenda to marginalize the well established patterns and syntax of AfroAmerican speech/grammar in this nation's educational institutions.

Cynique Slavery and prison are technically not the same. (And when was slavery ever reformed?) Slavery (involuntary servitude) is a major part of the penal systems of many nations around the globe today including China, North Korea, and the United States where thousands are FORCED to work regardless as to how much or how little they are paid. 　 Brick and mortar prisons exist to incarcerate those who commit crime, Correction: They exist to incarcerate those who have been FOUND GUILTY of committing a crime whether they actually committed the crime or not. 　 and the principle of punishing those who do wrong is a tenet of all cultures. Penal institutions are a pillar of civilized society, made necessary by people who don't obey the law, and it would be disastrous to "eliminate" these places of confinement for outlaws. This assumes that the laws you are expected to obey are just and correct in the first place. But these laws didn't come from God, they came from other human beings with their own opinions and agendas. And what is to be said about problems like poverty, lack of decent paying jobs, and improper mental health treatment that force people to commit crimes in the first place? Obviously what's called for is more emphasis to be placed on rehabilitating inmates, many of whom do improve themselves during their prison stays. But those with a criminal mentality or a killer instinct, are repeat offenders who are incorrigible. Although there is a killer instinct.....there is no such thing as a "criminal instinct". Crime...just like laws..are man-made social constructs and the concepts of what's considered a crime vary from one society to the next. In the past, two men having sex with eachother would have been considered criminals, today they are just considered lovers.

Sheeeeeeyyit..... I'm a straight brother and never had a gay fantasy in my life but for 10 million (tax free) dolllars I'd put a dress and lipstick on! Pay me millions more and I'll even agree to it becoming syndicated so you can see RE-RUNS of the shit on TV One years from now...lol. People can't figure out why so many Black men in Hollywood would wear dresses, but if you know who you are and what you like you don't give a DAMN what other's may think as long as you can get paid and then take that damn dress off, hop in your Bentley and scoop up who you REALLY want for the night.

Based on my experiences and observations, TRUST and DEPENDABILITY tend to be the biggest issues when trying to support and cater to most Black businesses. The paricular PRODUCT that the Black business may be selling (food, hair cuts, clothing, braiding, ect...) is usually superior to what Caucasians have to offer, but the SERVICE is often shitty. Too many excuses are made for ROUTINELY not having what the customer wants when they want it. Too many excuses are made for why the establishment isn't open on time or even open at all, again...not just sometimes but ROUTINELY. And while some Black customers expect to get an unreasonable deal, or the same product at a ridiculously lower cost from a Black business ------- on the flip side of the coin some Black businesses expect for their Black customers to patronize them unconditionally, give them bigger tips for less service, or overlook their lack of professionalism simply because they're Black as a way of showing support.

.....wanna try me?

Both AfroAmerican men and women can stand to improve themselves, but since this thread is about Black women in particular let me say........ From what I've both heard and observed, the issues so many AfroAmerican women face concerning their perceived "unattractiveness" has less to do with how they LOOK and more with how they ACT and sound. Many Black American women...as opposed to Black women from Africa or other parts of the globe.....are perceived as being more aggressive and vulgar and THIS tends to detract from their attractiveness far more than their skin tone or hair texture. Evidence of this is how the blackest and kinkiest haired woman from Africa can come to the United States and easily find a husband (usually White) so attracted to her and inlove with her he's willing to put her up in a home, have children by her, and shower her with expensive gifts as well as send money back home to her family.

Cynique "Junk" food would be more accurate. Oh.... In other words my words are a rich and delicious temptation some may even find addicting. How flattering.....lol.

Chev Are you saying that you see 'drunk Caucasian men' fight each other and Caucasian blood relatives, like White brothers fight each other? ?????? I don't understand your question. But as far as the rampant homosexuality among the Black population of Florida.......... Are you saying that homosexuality is huge among the Black CARRIBEAN population of Florida or among the Black population in general? Troy There was nothing no one could have done to turn me gay. What did you do, offer them a $1,000 challenge.....LOL.