Troy

By your definition @Pioneer1 no one is really free. But i would tend to agree. Then there is also the concept that freedom is an illusion to us, and everything that has or will happen has been set into motion from the moment of the Big Bang. That said, in the context of the “freedom” we actually have access to, i describe it as the ability to pursue one’s passions, or bliss, and still be able to support oneself in comfort and safety — ideally with a loving companion.

What is it with this photo @afro718? You’ve posted it before with a different question.

Del I thought I answered all of your questions. Which one(s) did I miss? Yes I agree, "Rape is sexual assault, but not all sexual assaults are rape." Again, there is a legal definition of rape and the description of rape I provided,that has nothing to do with the law. It is not clear to me which definition you are working with. It is clear Cosby sexually assaulted women, but did he "rape" anyone? If so, what specifically did he do that was called rape? It obvious you do not support Cosby. Is Cosby beyond redemption? Is he beyond rehabilitation? In order for either of those two things to happen the perpetrator has to be supported? When did Cosby lose your support @Delano? And before you go there -- this does not mean that I do not support the victims, you can -- and should -- support both.

@Delano You are throwing around a lot of words which really need to be defined. In your mind does rape equal sexual assault. Now if you told me Bill Cosby actually raped 52 women I think he deserves death or life imprisonment and one of those Supermax cells. But when I think of rape I think about a man overpowering a woman forcing his penis into her mouth vagina or rectum. As far as I know Bill has not been accused of anything like that. what he has been accused of, as far as I know, is “sexual assault.” I don’t know what Cosby did to 52 different women. I don’t think any of it rises to the level of rape (legal definitions aside).

Nope, just sharing an interesting piece of history and insight into the publishing industry.

Man you really trolled the archives for that quote. It was interesting to reread what I wrote 6.5 years later. Don't conflate my support of Cosby with my opinion of Cosby's guilt. I support Cosby, especially given all of the good he has done, and tried to do, for the Black community. Again, I never thought he was "innocent." It is clear did some very creepy things that, apparently, met the legal definition of rape. I think Cosby should have been punished. Whether he has been punished enough is a matter of opinion. Given everything Cosby has been through he has paid a very high price, would you agree?

Bill Cosby and Dr. Alvin Poussaint collaborated a great deal not just on the TV show but on books and other projects:

Found on Instagram: * Always avoid annoying alliterations.* Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.* Parenthetical phrases (the ones that break the flow of a sentence, no matter how relevant or insightful) are not necessary.* Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what YOU know.”* Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; don’t go on and on and on and on; just say it and move on.* Be more or less specific when writing about most things.* One word sentences? Reject. Eliminate. Avoid.* It’s not cool to use colloquialisms, and I ain’t whistling Dixie.* Even if a mixed metaphor sweetens the pot, take the bull by the hand and give it the boot.* Shy away from rhetorical questions. Who needs them, anyway?* Exaggerations are a million, billion times worse than understatements.* Don’t never use a double negative.* Prooofread carefully to see if you got it write.* If you reread your work you’ll find that your rereading might reveal repetitive and redundant uses of your words.* Avoid clichés like the plague: they’re old hat and fall on deaf ears.

LOL! That got you banned for two weeks?! Maybe the guy complained? That was a humorous and relatively innocuous comment. I imagine the things you’ve said to Pioneer, Sara, or Kola Boof I guess that would have gotten you drawn and quartered. Every man is not a potential rapist. I think most guys would stop if a woman changed her mind or made it obvious she was not interested. As far as drugging women without their knowledge, or permission, then screwing them — that is always wrong and not something the average guy will do.

I don’t recall saying he was “innocent.” as In completely free of guilt having never did anything wrong. A Brother, James McIntosh, a psychiatrist, whose opinion I respect, did an analysis of all of the individual cases. One thing that struck me was that the media treated each case as if they were identical a focused on the number of women. Which obfuscated the details. We know details is not social media’s forte. Visit this page: https://aalbc.com/events/bepaa-debate-is-bill-cosby-being-lynched.html Under related link you see a link to Dr. McIntosh’s supporting documentation.

@Nah'Sun good to read you again 🙂 Since I wrote this post more than two years ago, the eagerly anticipated follow up to The Coldest Winter Ever, Life After Death debuted as an AALBC Bestseller (the book made the New York Times list too). Preorder sales were so strong that the book made our December's bestsellers list, based upon preorders, three months before the book came out! As soon as the book pubbed it just died. I did not read Life After Death but everyone I spoke to about it (a handful of people -- all Souljah fans) did not like the book. They said her voice was different. At any rate, I'm not sure I can recommend a "good" urban fiction novel today though K'wan is still publishing books under the genre and I'm sure his Black Tous Setrices is good: Black Lotus 2: The Vow by K’wan

Who is that? Just kidding, but you know the good doctor would probably be (perhaps as been) "cancelled" due to his association with Cosby -- it would matter how much good Poussaint did ... to the youngsters cancelling folks the past does not exist and what Alvin F. Poussaint did for the Cosby Show is of no consequence or merit. I know you were laying in the cut, for years, waiting for me to slip up ROTFLMBAO!

Yes, everyone's opinion, by definition, is subjective, but I hope I did not come across as if one should not use multiple sources to form an opinion and that some sources are better than others in a given situation.

We live in a culture increasingly defined by ideas biased, and elevated, by algorithms designed by young white men to enrich themselves. This creates the false impression that the ideas which rise to the top of our social media feeds must be superior to ideas undiscoverable or unexpressed, on social media. Older media platforms reinforce this notion by trolling social media feeds for "news" to cover. Then working harder to elevation their social media presence than their own platforms. When a Kanye West expresses his political views it makes national news, while the thoughtful perspectives of the few remaining seasoned pollical journalists, who write for Black-owned newsletters, languish in obscurity. Is Kayne's opinion of Trump more important the someone who has studied pollical science, communications, and covered the political scene for decades? Seemingly it is, given the relative about of attention paid to Kayne. Some opinions are objectively "better" than others. Some opinions simply do not deserve an audience and other opinions should be shouted from the highest mountaintop. The idea that we should give equal time to opinions of anti-vaxxers is not only silly, it is dangerous. Anti-vaxxers rhetoric may attract a lot of attention (read: make a lot of money), but the coverage of their ideas by mainstream media gives credibility and a false equivalency to these hairbrained ideas. This is the same behavior that led mainstream media to clamor over every inane tweet generated by Trump. This not only gave Trump a massive and free platform, it eliminated the resources that should have gone toward covering other candidates. Our sorry reaction to the pandemic and the insurrection are just two terrible and direct consequences of our focus on what a Donald Trump thinks over experienced politicians. The idea that white women would choose Trump over Hillary Clinton is easy to understand if you believe that Hillary runs a pedophile ring, out of a Pizzeria, as social media made certain we were aware of this absurd "news" story. Social media's propensity to elevating the ideas of easily triggered young adults, who have not lived long enough to understand, or to have experienced, anything of consequence to "cancel" others is also an insane consequence of social media's bias. Our best and brightest minds will never be provided with a large platform by the mainstream media — especially if they are on Black-owned platforms. This is why we have to identify and elevate these people ourselves. I use AALBC to accomplish this, I will also promote other platforms when I see them to it. This is also why I actively promote Black-owned book websites, Black-owned book stores, Black-owned newspapers, Black-owned magazines, the best Black-owned websites, and much more. The support is not always reciprocal, but when it is, it is great, because it is mutually beneficial and one of the reasons AALBC has lasted almost a quarter of a century on the web. The support AALBC.com gets from institutions and people will never generate as much attention as as someone with, say, 100,000 Instagram followers. But the fact is AALBC has a much larger reach than someone with 100K followers, but again social media's focus is on themselves not — not Black-owned platforms. It never was the job of any social media platform to determine whose opinions should matter most to the Black Community, or to elevate Black-owned platforms — it is ours. Let do it!

That is Willie Tyler @Pioneer1ventriloquism used to be a much more popular form of entertainment. Nowadays you rarely of ever see one. I used to like Waylan and Madame (sp?) too. yes i know what happens astrologically matters to you @Delano I’m suggesting that interpreting astrological aspects is pretty subjective and should not over rule what we can observe here on earth? in other words we can let our interpretation overrule common sense. Do you see what I’m saying? You should follow @richardmurray’s blog he is always relating astrological happenings.

It does not matter what happens on a cosmological scale @Delano, Cosby is not going back to jail. I have not followed the story; this is based purely on common sense 😉

Please quantify, "A lot." There are many who strive to make millions, but very few who do. I don't have firm numbers, but I'm certain it is far fewer than you probably think. But you make a good point @Pioneer1; If he was put in "Instagram jail" he may have lost some sponsorship revenue (though it is hard to imagine a business that would sponsor him) How much money to you think he may have lost? Does that now excuse his reaction?

I agree with your assessment, but you have to understand that frequent users of social media are changed. The platforms hack into your brain and control your behavior -- that is how they were designed. So while it might seem unreasonable to you or I that this guy would throw a hissy fit over being booted from Instagram for two weeks, to him it is 9obvious a very big deal. Being forced to take a two week breather from Instagram is a blessing... maybe going cold turkey for a couple of weeks will give him some time to get some perspective.

I guess HTC makes you faster. If it imparts no advantage it seems like a dumb punishment. Presumably she knew weed was a banned substance...

@Pioneer1 the video you posted of Tommy is hard to listen to for more than a minute or two. This video portrays him in a much better light interesting the people who created this video used controversy with Kevin to get people to watch this video. While this video couches Tommy perspective in a much more tolerable fashion. I still do not agree with his reasoning; his is a juvenile perspective. Kevin Samuels's platform is much larger than Tommy's, so only Tommy would benefit from any public beef with Kevin.

Facebook recently banned a little old lady and that reminded me of the regular emails I get from Facebook rejecting innocuous books that I've place on their site. Below are a few examples. This is not to say Facebook should not ban things, but it seems to me when it comes to Black things (people and books in this case) that their algorithm is pretty aggressive against us. Algorithms created by young white boys are inherently racist. I've mention many times how Google's algorithm coupled with their monopoly on search has distorted our images, killed Black websites, and severely hampered this one for several years. This will only get worse, because can not stop using the sites, whose algorithms constantly screw us. I ignore all of these warnings...

What?! Facebook is now banning little old ladies LOL! What did you say and who did you say it to? On a more serious note Facebook blocked posting of some of my books:

I hear you Mel. Your statements plus @Pioneer1's statements about women relating stories about dealing with rape and "rapey" men is something I've experienced as well. Again the need to teach people not to rape each other, in my mind, is tantamount to the need to teach people not to murder or enslave each other. Obviously, given our collective behavior as a species, we need to teach each our youngins not to rape, murder, and enslave each other. Some suggest religion is what we need to teach our children these lessons. Whatever the tool is, it needs to be taught, and more importantly we need to punish folks who transgress. The wealthy and famous must be held accountable as well.

Yeah that statement does not surprise me at all. Apparently Cosby's freaky predication includes sex with incapacitated women which is apparently why he drugged her. Yeah like in Singapore -- they don't play there. Again, the need to teach boys not to rape I'd hope it would be unnecessary, but apparently it is and I'm, all for it. As far as promiscuity and sophistication I was referring to the effort required to get into a woman's pants (smooth music, alcohol, drugs, etc... But this assumes the person is not a rapist; Cosby got off drugging woman without their permission then sexually assaulting them -- this is never cool. Again, the notion we have to teach boys not to do this is reflective of a sad state of affairs.

It is both alarming and sad that you feel it necessary to make that statement Mel. As I man, I can not relate to the vulnerability of a woman. Men who take advantage of weaker people -- be they male, female, or any of the other new fangled genders -- is a piece of crap. I hesitate to say the I believe/disbelieve the women, because each person, and situation is different. I'm sure some women were less sophisticated or promiscuous than and others. I met Cosby once too -- nothing formal -- we happened to be alone for a few moments at the Jackie Robinson Benefit. I introduced myself to him. What stuck me most about him was that his handshake was weak. I just attributed it to age... Hey Mel if Dr. Cosby invited you to his hotel or home that evening would you have gone?