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Troy

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Everything posted by Troy

  1. of course, evil should be discouraged and when excessive punished. As corporeal beings, bound by the constraints of the passage of time we exist in the world with the known and fixed past, and unknown but equally fixed future. We are, necessarily, content with the illusion of free will— otherwise, what meaning with life have? If there are multiple past and multiple futures, as some speculate, one can argue they’re all predetermined as well. And much the same way. We are unable to see the predetermined future. We are also unable to experience different realities within the Multiverse.
  2. Yeah, they got a lot of guns but who are the poor whites gonna go after and this so-called Civil War, the rich, Black people, immigrants, Democrats, the LGBTQAI2X+, who?
  3. I can tell y’all did not watch fortune video about Dr. West, if you had all the speculation and pondering would be unnecessary. I don’t know whether Travis is gay or not. I’ve never seen him with a woman but that doesn’t mean anything because I’ve never seen West with a woman and he’s been married five times! The following is a video it’s about 17 years old I guess during the launch of Smileybooks Tavis, Smiley’s publishing imprint. As Tavis mentions the wrong really was full of some very talented Black Book professionals. It is the first time I looked at the video in a long while, and I have a slideshow of photos which really brings back some memories. Some of the people I’m still very close to and work with including Paul Coates, Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati, Regina Brooks, Clarence Reynolds et al. Cheryl Woodruff, who actually did the work as Smileybooks is an iconic figure and Publishing.
  4. Sure, @ProfD I can see a bigger version of the January 6th insurrection being attempted. Sure, individual group of Americans may be nuts but collectively we are not and another January 6th would be squashed -- assuming if it was even able to get started. The divisions in America exist, but they are not nearly as profound and extreme as the media likes to emphasize. I'd argue that the media, social media in particular instigates, exacerbates, and even initiates divisions.
  5. Who is the Civil War supposed to be against the north v the south, The rich versus the poor, black versus white, Democrats versus Republicans, who is fighting who here? There is not gonna be a Civil War. Rich people already have everything; why would they jeopardize it with the war here?
  6. Thanks for sharing information about your book in such a detailed and professional manner. I often wonder why more authors don’t do this. This seems like a no-brainer to me. It’s easy to do and free. Your other books on the site too.
  7. Think that through for second… at any rate, what difference does it make? The notion of a choice or free will is an illusion, a function of our being constrained in time. The omniscient being you are referring to can move through time the way you or I walk up and down the street. The concept of the passage of time is nonsensical. They could observe something that “happened” 2000 years ago or 2000 years in the “future” it’s all the same. I bet you have no problem accepting that you can’t change the past, the future is no different.
  8. LOL! You think I'd be messin' 'round wit y'all knee grows if I was rollin' with the Boule?
  9. More gossipy stuff at the top of my YouTube Feed. I clicked because curiosity got the best of me, and the sources was Forbes. Cornel West is brilliant intellectual, but a regular man like the rest of us. I'm glad Forbes is not poking around my finances it would be embarrassing. Getting divorced is a great way to destroy wealth and he has been divorced 5 times.
  10. @richardmurray when I was younger I was not a fan of musical either especially those on film. That is perhaps the main reason I have zero interested in seeing The latest iteration of the color purple. Now I did see it on Broadway and it was entertaining enough, but again not enough for me to pay to go see it on the big screen. I have little interesting in seeing Hamilton for the same reason. People rave about it, but a musical about Alexander Hamilton, nah I pass. I have seen musicals I thoroughly enjoyed, Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, The Lion Kings, etc, etc But given the choice I will usually pick a drama over a musical. As a Trekkie, I watched an episode that was effectively a musical. I tolerated and appreciated the whimsy and creativeness of the episode, but one was definitely enough and they better not do it again
  11. A predetermined opening of doorway to another predetermined reality. Pioneers we should punish evil but not mistake those actions for ones have not been predetermined.
  12. As websites wane in effectiveness, email will become more important again. However, AI threats both. I think videos (not games) can be an effective substitute. However, sources matter. It is possible we will be see a world where much of what we consume is generated by AI from a handful of companies whose only motivation is increasing profits.
  13. Z: this seems like a video game of beat an insufficient substitute for reading a book. 5: I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Although given the technology available to the characters in Star Trek, I have no idea why people still grow old and die. #: these are very different protocols, created to do very different things. what function are you looking to address?
  14. Richard I don’t understand your poll or the questions. Can you rely by just posting the questions more concisely?
  15. I remember this very well. I can remember when the Jackson 5 came on the Ed Sullivan show it was just so surprising and I was so excited I ran through the house telling everybody. That was 1969. The show Julia was on by then, but Black people were still largely under represented.
  16. Again the period of time I’m talking about is the 70s through the 90s in New York City When my mother said when she moved into the housing project it was beautiful. There were flowers growing on the lawns, and the whole property was well-maintained back then I believe it was only opened to married people, and someone had to have a job. I believe these rules changed, and as a result, the class of people changed. NYCHA also failed to maintain the properties very well. I read recently that the projects were in such a state of this repair that the city could no longer afford to maintain them, and are now looking at options to allow private ownership. many who lived in the projects, believe that this was always a plan to private the apartments kick the poor people out, the gentrifiers would love nothing more than the happen, or to have to build and completely torn down As an adult, I lived in Harlem for 17 years and it was far better than it was when I was a kid, so I’m not talking about Harlem in the after the turn of century. New York City in the late 20th century had more than 2,000 murders a year the city was about to default financially and crime and filth and graffiti was everywhere and all of this was worse in poor communities. By the time I was raising kids in Harlem, the crime rate was down significantly the murder rate was down by a By the time I was raising kids in Harlem, the crime rate was down significantly the murder rate was down by an order of magnitude the subways Were bar cleaner and safer When I was a kid, prostitution and drugs, Rained supreme in Times Square, the movie houses played triple X movies today. It is family friendly more like Disney. look, I don’t doubt that some people lived very well in New York City in the 1970s 80s and 90s but they had to have some serious paper. If you grew up in an impoverished neighborhood During that time, I do find it hard to believe that one would have no complaints unless they’re entirely delusional or in incomplete denial. To answer the main question of the post however, when I was a kid, the police were more harmful than helpful. Indeed, we didn’t even like the police. Giving them more money. Would not have made things better. I don’t think the police need more money. They just need to be better at their jobs. I also wonder how much of the budget for the police department go to paying into their very generous pensions, which allows them to retire in their early 40s.
  17. It is not a matter of my personal belief, there is ample documentation to prove the Willy Lynch letter is an authentic @Pioneer1. not only was a formally enslaved brother literate he was extremely articulate and was good at math. The letter is dated August 1865. He was presumably freed shortly after the war ended in April of the same year any acquired all of these skills in a matter of months? That is why I said the brother must be a genius. In my opinion, and exchange like this seems highly unlikely. Now I don’t know if the letter was even presented as being written by an ex-slave at the event. I looked at the information provided with the YouTube video and it is indeed presented as an authentic letter. Jourdon Anderson, the former slave, escaped an 1864 they don’t say what month, but presumably he had a year to learn to write. However, it was said the letter was dictated, so that gets beyond the requirement to write, but it does not explain the vocabulary. It also does not explain how to general knew where to even send the letter. It is no doubt, humorous and powerful letter. I’m just not 100% convinced it is real.
  18. I could not hear the woman speak, but we’ve o for a long time google uses all our personal information. Look at all Gmail accounts that google mines for financial gain. The only way you gonna stop is not to be online. If you think for one second, there’s some other web based company is not selling your data. Good luck.
  19. @richardmurray i’m not on the lineup year. I don’t think it’s the largest lineup. They generally have a lot of people speak and workshops, but there are quite a number of high profile accomplished people this year. I’m still debating if I will attend. But if I was within driving distance I would not miss it. Honestly I can’t imagine anyone with the marginal interest and Black Book would miss it.
  20. I saw Ruskin and enjoyed it, but it definitely would not be near the top of my list of films. American Fiction was excellent, I probably enjoyed it more because I’m Black and in the book industry. I can't wait to read Erasure. which is the book that the film was based on. I have no interested in watching the new Color Purple Film. If you'll rave about it, I'll check it out, otherwise I'll pass on this one. We have some a long way when it comes to Black film. I remember a time I would watch ANY Black film -- even a white film with a Black character- because there were so few. Today we have the luxury of passing on films because there are just so many.
  21. Thanks man. Funny you should mention that street. I grew up on Park Ave -- that very same Park Avenue walking distance form the most valuable real-estate in the country. Of course I had no idea, as a kids that fantastically wealthy people lived down the street from me. I lived on 113th street anything south of 96 street was "white-boy territory." The stick-up kids used to go down there to rob the rich kids. The funny thing is that I did not know this as a kid. As an adult, white guys would tell me how they got robbed and Brothers told me usually older how they would rob the kids downtown. One thing that was different when I was a kid in NYC versus what I read about Chicago, Philly and other Black northern cities now is the gun violence. When I was a kid you might catch beat down, but you'd live to see another day. The chances of you actually getting shot was relatively small unless you really were about that life... Gun violence over the past two decades is just sad -- another reason I'd hate to be a poor Black kid today. I'm not in favor of these lax gun laws because of this.
  22. This popped to the top of my feed this afternoon, this was a worthwhile distraction. If this is indeed a letter from a formerly Black man. The brother was a genius.
  23. tell me more about this Boule you speak of.
  24. Well, I grew up in a NYC too, and I’ve been a victim of a crime several times indeed virtually everyone I know has been a victim of a crime or has had a family member who was when I was a kid my family (two little kids and my mother) was robbed at gunpoint in the lobby our apartment building. On another occasion, a robber held a knife to my little sister‘s throat, and stole my mother‘s purse. This was in the stairwell of my building during that period virtually. Every one’s mother was mugged. Neither of these violent crimes were reported to the police. Often, when crimes were reported to the police, they were miss categorized. The NYC crime statistics as bad as they were, were grossly under reported. People. In New York City would carry money in separate places on their person; one for the mugger. Generally it was just easier to give them something and get the robbery over as quickly as possible. When I was a kid Street gangs would rob other kids all the time I knew kids who had their sneakers stolen right off their feet and who were beat up for walking in the wrong neighborhood. I won’t even get into the poverty, the burnout buildings, the street prostitution that open air drugs trade the corrupt cops and the filth. It probably comes as no surprise that I know people who have been murdered one of my earliest memories was an older kid involved with drugs, who was murdered. his body was dumped on the sidewalk in front of his building. People were was dying from overdoses dope fiends were all over the place. As an adult in the mid 90s My car was stolen in New York City from right in front of the apartment I lived in. That was not uncommon. Many of my friends have had at least one car stolen. By the time, the 2000s came along crime in New York City was infinitely better. By the time I moved back to Harlem from brooklyn, there was crime, but it never touched me. my kids, who grew up in New York City, have never been robbed , beat up by rogue gangs. they've never had to fight in the streets or gotten jumped the way we did growing up. I don’t know what world Richard, and the good professor grew up in, but the New York City of my youth was hellacious. The stress alone sent many adults to the bottle and early graves. Of course, it was not all bad and I have many good memories for my childhood. The countless games we played in the street, Doing the freak in some recreation center party during the early days of hip-hop and more. But make no mistake. A great many lives were destroyed, cut short, adversely impacted by the crime of the city during a decades of the 70s through 90s.
  25. I didn’t see Biden speech. had I had knowledge of the specifics, would’ve prompted the AI to include some of those specifics, and it would’ve been a better poem
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