Troy

I was joking about dropping the likes of Sluder from the gene pool. It is very possible that he can give birth to the person who cures cancer. Traits like intelligence, while inherited, has not been pinned down; there is no one gene for intelligence. I'm sure the environment's influence on gene expression relative to intelligence is not understood well either.

"Interesting" is one way of putting it. I used to think our generstion was truly fortunate. No one under 60 was ever forced go to war and die. We never suffered overt, government sanctioned racism, we never knew starvation (shoot most us are obese) or pestilence. We have freedom of press and can pretty much do what we want with liitle restriction relative to every generation that proceeded us. Today I'm afraid all of that is in jeopardy. I too lament the lost of Ebony, but it did not happen overnight. Perhaps covid19 accelerated the inevitable. Given all I'm dealings with in the context of this pandemic it is hard to muster empathy. Perhaps once the pandemic is over I can properly mourn Ebony's loss. Jet's site is down too. I just removed them both from my list of The Top 50 Black-Owned Websites.

Cynique writes, "Tell all of my AALBC 'frienenemies' I said, "stay well." I know we all (at least I have) have been jonesing to read something from Cynique about the passing scene: “Welcome to 2020! I always knew things would catch up with this country, but I never imagined that I would be around to see it. Unlike some, however, i don't believe a conspiracy theory is at work via the new world order; the inevitable has just come to pass. I don't think the USA will ever be the same after this pandemic, and the shit is really gonna hit the fan come election time. But, whatever. I'll be doing good to even be around in November. So far, i haven't exhibited any corona symptoms and like everybody else, I'm social distancing myself on voluntary quarantine. If the virus doesn't get me, my intense loathing for Trump might bring me down. I.DESPISE.HIM. I can't believe how the Universe has put him in place as a leader during this time of crises. But with his luck, he might just emerge smelling like a rose when this new flu proves to be much ado about nothing and that the real disaster was our overreaction to it. Me and my cynicism do find the way the media is handling it to be a bit much. Yet, I have mixed emotions. In addition to the radiation being emitted by cell phone towers being the origin of the virus, another one of the theories out there on FaceBook is that if your ears are ringing, you are getting signals from unseen forces about to take over Earth, and my ears are really picking up a lot of static! Oh, well, i always did think I was an alien. And the bizarre supernatural activity that continues to occur within the walls of my bedroom in the middle of the night are very unnerving... “

OK it must be a feature of a "club" which is slightly different than the discussion forums.

That is what I think about myself. A friend once told me that I need to turn my brain off, relax and just enjoy the nonsense. I'm just not built that way fortunately there is a pretty of stuff that I do find funny. It is not that stereotypes are not funny, it is just the gratuitous use of them is not funny to me. I thought for example that The Boondocks satire was funny and at times brilliant -- which is particularly remarkable coming from the brain of such a young man (at the time). @Walkman93 please email or message me the name of the the channel I'd like to check out one of the book reviews.

@Delano we used to say "psyche" too but I thought saying the entire phrase would avoid the miscommunication you described. I don't think. It is an obscure phase that no one I know used sort of like "flat leava," you know what Cynique did 😉 I almost never communicate to anyone via private messages. Any issues I had with kareem I would share publicly. Speaking of that, @Pioneer1 what do you think about my theory that Kareem was a troll. You know the kind you find on Facebook formorting controversy and descent. I mean think about it, if you listened to Kareem you would have nothing but hatred and contempt for the United States. Think about some of the things he wrote about stockpiling weapons and going out in a blaze of glory... Look, you'd be a fool to completely trust our system, but Kareem had zero trust. If I take him at his word (i.e. not a troll) some of his beliefs were simply irrational. If you believe Black people are immune to the virus, you are irrational, because you'd have to deny the fact that Black people are dying everyday from the virus. Did you not watch very short video explaining the nature of Covid-19 and how it originated or did you simply not understand it? OK I see it is not my in ability to explain it is your unwillingness to believe. When I was really young I recall trying to explain to one of my little playmates why Santa could not possibly be real. We lived in the projects and I remember waving my hand across the landscape trying to help him understand how it would be physically impossible for someone to deliver presents to everyone in a single night -- we did not even have chimneys. He refused to accept it. I mean we were little and this conversation took place 50 years ago, but I just could not understand why he could not accept that Santa could not possibly be real. @Pioneer1 you remind me of my young playmate. I heard he became a minister ... a field in which faith in the impossible is required.

Here is a link to a page on AALBC's my bigcommerce site: https://aalbc.store/9781982126674/ One can create a wishlist here, with the account that you create on my store. But roughly half of book order are made by "guests," people who don't create accounts. Again, I only use bigcommerce for my the buy bitton on my book page: https://aalbc.com/books/bookinfo.php?isbn13=9781982126674 which is dynamically generated when I add a book to the site. Now a developer could probably figure out a way to pull the wish list over here, but that really would be in the realm of companies who create their own custom shopping carts and discussion forums. That is were the real value comes in. That level of development will be the next phase of AALBC. 😉

You mean a wish list on the profiles here? OK here is the thing; my shopping cart software is run by Big Commerce. The website is by Troy Johnson, and he discussion forums are by Invision Power. three separate databases. AALBC is really quite unique in that it is built by me. That offers many advantages and some disadvantages. Most web based book sellers use software from companies like Big Commerce to run their entire website. This provides the ability for anyone to run a bookstore but much less flexibility than a custom website. Software like big commerce is more likely to have a wish list feature because that is a popular feature for ecommerce sites. Since the forum and my shopping cart are developed by two different vendors tying these features together would be tough. Other platforms used by online book stores include shopify (which I can't use because it really is not designed to integrate easily with existing websites), and the platform provided by Indiebound for ABA member brick and Mortar bookstores. I'm not aware of another web based book store using a custom designed website and database, as AALBC does. Most websites running discussion forums use discussion forum software to run the entire website. I thought about tying the logins created here to the rest of the website, but now that I'm collecting customer information through bookstore sales, it might be better to use those logins. I;ll look info it -- thanks for the idea @Mel Hopkins

Thanks for helping to spread the word Wendy that is the only way the site can grow.

You beat me to the punch @Wendy Jones i was gonna share this today. Amazon's effective monopoly over the sale of independenly published Black books is now they can decide when it is important to stock, sell, and ship them. As long as USPS, UPS, FEDEX, and any number of other delivery services are out there AALBC, nor any other bookseller, has to slow down your book delivery. Amazon stocking fewer books and delaying delivery is only a problem for authors because they put all their eggs in one basket -- Amazon's I'm still doing three day delivery on the books in my store and im getting more customers everyday.

I basically agree @Pioneer1. I did not find the first video very funny because it used worn out stereo typical Black tropes and the acting acting was bad. For that reason i did not watch the second video. It is why i don't find Madea film very funny. If you've seen on you've seen them all. But i get why owople find this stuff funny, so I dont try to kill anyone's "buzz."

Plus they lock poor people up when they can't post bond. New York City has hundreds if not thousands of people locked up awaiting trial because they can't make bail. Kalief Browder spent two years, most if it in solitary, because he could make make bail of $500 (i think it was $500 but it was something small). He was ultimately found innocent, but ended up killing himself because the experience drove him mad.

This short video does a very good job of explaining why Covid19 is so much more dangerous than the seasonal flu. When Kareem posted the link to that error ridden article calling into question the seriuosness of the pandemic. I called it out as such and pointed out a fundemental flaw in the article's reasoning. Interestingly, after doing that Kareem stopped posting. @Chevdove you were surprised by his reaction -- indeed I was too. But in hindsight I'm beginning to think Kareem was a troll, a sophisticated one, but a troll nonetheless. Trolls do a number of very bad things; one is spreading misinformation. If you go to a Black website and constantly assert that covid19 is a hoax, and if you get folks here to buy into that false belief, and Black people die, who does that serve? There are Black people in America who believe Black people are immune. This should be absurd on it face, but it is not to many. Troll's like Kareem who spout this nonsense then point to serious looking sites with articles supporting this bullshit not only confuse people, but puts them on serious danger. What makes what Kareem did so dangerous is that people will die as a result.

@Delano you forgot what "psyche your mind" means?

I not disputing Neanderthal DNA in some humans this would be considered factual information. Now once you start questioning facts and drawing conclusions on one facts you dispute; this is where we have to part ways. If you dispute 1+1=2 we can't have a meaningful conversation about arithmetic can we?

I decided to vote for Hillary Clinton, rather that opting out completely when she ran against trump. That is one that I've previously mentioned. I decided that I was too critical on women's obsession with their hair based upon what serval of the women here wrote. I now believe man-made climate change is a hoax -- psyche your mind!

I'll wait.... Once you can accept that Neanderthals no longer exist we can proceed to examine your other ideas. I'm not evolutionary biologist, but we have not climbed out of high school Bio yet😉

I can't any more than I can explain to you how the warpage of space/time causes the Earth to revolve around the Sun. You see the entire planet reacting to Covid19 in ways they do not act in reaction to the flu. You are so distrusting of all the planets doctors and scientists that you would ignore all of these signals indicating how highly contagious and potentially deadly this virus is and dismiss them as a conspiracy or stupidity. I'm sure there is NOTHING I can say that will help you understand. No, there would be nothing negative about it. Sometimes the different perspectives help me think about things differently. When humans come into contact with one another there is risk of fighting. Crowd them into really harsh conditions and you will have conflict. People wanna blame poor Black people for the higher levels of crime in their neighborhood, but when you live in a big house, with land, and everything you need you don't; need to bop you neighbor over the head for their welfare check. @Chevdove, of course I did not have malintent against Kareem. Honestly, I think he was in a bad mood that day, because I've been critical of his sources in the past and this did not cause him to leave in a huff before. Look, the man posts a video of some guy purportedly being thrown out of a store for wearing a mask;he takes the video at face value and rans with it. I wouldn't do this, because this is how fake news and conspiracies propagate. Some people are inclined to believe in conspiracies and I understand this, but you can't continue to entertain a conspiracy when there is a preponderance of facts, science, and objective evidence which rejects the conspiracy. Some people really believe the world is flat. There are sources on the web to support this belief. Now if someone wants to assert that the world is flat then leave the forum because I strongly rejected their world view and there evidence in favor of reality, is that being closed minded and dogmatic?

@Chevdove Again please share one reputable source that says neanthedals still roam the Earth. You will not be able to do this because no reoutabke source currently asserts such a thing. You wrote a lot and it is too much to parse and correct. But different species can mate despite the dictionary definition you linked to, which i did not read, because as you pointed out horses and donkeys can mate and they are different species. Neanderthals and homo Sapiens while both human are different species and could barely mate. Maybe this is why you bring up the lack of a neanderthal Y chromosome in Homo Sapiens but I dunno, as i really could not follow you point past Neatherdtals not being extinct. When you say science changes you must know this is a good thing; they discover new info and they change. To call it a "lying" is just wrong. If scientists prove something they previously believed is wrong they change without hesitation and dispense with the old false belief. I wish we all could do this.

I've changed my opinion on things based upon what I've read here 🙂

I posted a video of the conversation and a transcript of the chat here

Neither did I @Chevdove, but people have to make their own decisions. If your ideas can not be questioned or challenged then this is not the forum for -- indeed no open forum would be. Sometimes people take (or make) disagreement personally. Others just want their worldview supported; social media is vast and it is very easy to find filter bubbles that support any world view, where these people would be happier. Of course forums need participants to survive, but having one in which there can be no expression of and working through the differences in opinion is not one I'm interested in running or participating in. Expressing differences is easy, working to getting closer to truth is a heck of a lot harder.

@Chevdove you wrote that Neanthedals are not extinct. Which reliable source did you get that from? Purely African people don't have neanderthal DNA and they vary widely in complextion (levels of melamin). Neanderthals went through the same biological adaptations as homo sapiens to adapt to climate, and it is possible those adaptations were passed along. But again, black people dont have neanderthal DNA. if some of us did inherent a little from white ancestors it seems unlike that it significant impacts our levels of melamin that most likely came from homo sapien ancestors.

Nothing. Mine was a PSA too. Do you believe everything you find on social media @Kareem? Dude this virus, unlike the seasonal flu, is highly contagious. Have you not heard this before?! If no action was taken MANY more people would die. What don't you understand? Seriously? Sad to know if politicans were not so to act. Many lives could have been saved and the rest of us could have been spared this looming depression...

@Kareem Black people that I know have died of Covid-19 in NYC in the the past few weeks. I know many more directly and indirectly who have it. I have never known anyone in my, 5 decades+, of life who have died of the flu or complications from it. People need to protect themselves, which is increasingly difficult to do given the mistrust and misinformation out there. Time will tell. The United States is now the epicenter of the outbreak and NY City is the epicenter of the epicenter.