Troy

Admin=Troy Yes I'm almost 21 years past 30 Pioneer. I have no recollection of speaking with someone who has died. Sure I've dreamed about people living and dead, but I never assumed this had anything to do with actually interacting with these people -- especially the dead ones. I've had dreams that I could l fly too -- but I don't assume I was actually flying. Of course I've read about people who have experienced the same thing, but claim they can control it and experience actual events, thousands of miles away. Until this is proven in a experiment (a very easy one to setup) I don't believe this either.

Hi Pioneer, your statement is the definition of a stereotype. Your observations only means something to you and can not, by extension, be ascribed to everyone else in the group you are stereotyping. No you don't have to meet every woman in the world, and while you may have met 1,000's of women, you can not associate your observations to the other 3.5 Billion woman. Your sample set is just too small and your way of making the determination of relative self-consciousnesses about appearance is flawed. That is you have not meet enough women, and you are not skilled enough to determine self-conscientiousness. Or maybe you just roll in an environment where self-conscious women are abundant -- do you see my point? It is like the cop cruising in Harlem that assumes every Brother with a nice car is a drug dealer, because he has arrested a few. Or the teacher who assumes every Black boy she teaches is not as smart as the white boys in the neighborhood she lives in. Of course the teacher, with 25 years experience, in a poor neighborhood, who may have taught a couple thousand kids, may be completely convinced her conservations must apply to all the other Black kids in the world -- even places she has never been. When in reality, her conservations aren't even valid in the sample of her own students - but she is too biased, racist, and prejudiced to see it. These racial biases are magnified in a racist culture, so much so that I'd be willing to bet, in their hearts of hearts, White people believe Black boys are just dumber on average than anyone else. The manner in which we are educated just reinforces the stereotypes to reflect this bias --and the resulting outcomes create a downward spiral... Stereotyping, while apparently natural, can lead to some disastrous decisions.

Pioneer, I think the prospect of getting caught and being punished right here on earth is a much greater deterrent for most people than "the divine" or some "innate sense that ultimate justice beyond this world". Obviously God is not deterring, or even a factor in Obama's decision to use flying death machines "drones" to kill people "sustain collateral damage" in the Middle East. Sure, I believe telepathy is possible, I just have not seen any evidence of it. Even Del's description of his experience is rather nebulous. I don't count people who "claim" they can do something as proof. I don't, for example, believe that anyone can communicate with the dead. Sure it is quite lucrative to convince others, willing to believe, but I don't think anyone has managed the feat. So while anything is possible, some things are very unlikely. Of course understanding where one's inspiration originates a worthy goal, so that you can get more of it whenever the mood strikes you. I just don't think the odds are very high inspiration comes from your recently departed aunt Gladys, or Zeus.

Pioneer1, what your are describing are classic stereotypes and are not based upon anything more than the observations of a subset of people, which does not mean much when you try to extend it to an entire group of people.. Some of what you describe in terms of behavior, dress, etc would be better attributed to social class of just being brought up in a similar environment.

Pioneer1 I assume this was written in jest....right? Del, what?!

I honestly agree with Cynique. Del is it your communications device that is forcing you to post each sentence on a different line, or are you doing that for effect? In any case if you could avoid that it would be helpful. Del when you communicate Telepathically does one personal biases disappear too. Cause I doubt I could handle the complete thoughts of those closest to me.-- and I sure would not want to share mine

This eNewsletter is numbered 197, but I've published well over 200. I only have them archived going back to February of 2001. I guess it never occurred to me to save them. I guess I never thought I'd be creating them for so long... http://aalbc.it/newsdec12 Let me know what you think good or bad -- seriously. I've been doing this thing for almost 15 years and there are things I can still learn. At the top of my wish list is an editor, I could also use more fiction book reviews too. There no fiction book reviews in this issue that may have never happened. Book review writing It is a dying art, but so desperately needed. So many reviews I read are simply promotional copy written to benefit the author -- or haters doing the opposite. I see you can get some positive "verified" Amazon reviews written for 5 Bucks over at Fiverr. Indeed reviewers especially for a film will review a movie more favorably than it deserves in order not to lose access to future films or to the principals involved. Would you believe we have lost access to an individual for slamming a film. Reviewing is a corrupt, petty business. Without independent entities with the willingness to tell the truth and ask hard questions we are all being lied to. That is one thing I miss about Thumper he never pulled any punches you could disagree with him but if he did not like your book, that fact would be plain as day -- the same was true if he liked it -- authors and readers appreciated his honesty, nothing political just his honest opinion. I've begun to solicit subscribers to pay a modest $7.99 annual fee to receive the enewsletter. Thank you Cynique and any other lurkers here who may have paid for their subscriptions. The money will help pay book reviewers and the overhead to produce the eNewsletter. I started to drop a few thousand subscribers names from my mailing list to save some money. The bigger your mailing list the more it costs to maintain with these 3rd party services. I ran some queries to identify people who had not opened an eNewsletter in over a year and figured I'd drop them and save some money. But I ran into a couple of snags because unless people down load the images in my eNewsletter, which is optional in programs like MS Outlook, I can't tell if they actually opened the email. The email contains an very small image which tells my system the email has been opened, so if they only read the text or can only accept text, I can't tell if the opened the email. I got too many email from people who said they read the enewsletter when I'd flagged them for deletion. It looks like I'm not going to save any money dropping subscribers - I can't risk dropping people who actually read the eNewsletter. I got an email from someone who wrote they would pay for a subscription if I did not cover Urban Fiction. This is not an uncommon sentiment. I wanted to say go "F" yourself, but I tried to show how I cover all types of authors. I knew I was wasting my time as people like that are really not interested in really understanding a different perspective... I get emails all the time from authors asking if I can review their book or cover them in an eNewsletter. None of these author have paid to subscribe to the eNewsletter. Of course this is not a requirement... I'm just saying. Jayne Cortez, passed a few days ago. More people should have been aware of her work. Frank Yerby, who I included in this month's eNewsletter is perhaps the highest grossing African American author who ever lived, but I don't think anyone knows who he is. Shoot a lot of people don't know who Alice Walker is... Today everyone knows Spike Lee does not like Django, but know one knows the title of Spike's last movie. Maybe if Tarantino would trash Lee's next movie publicly some buzz would be generated. Over the years, it seems to me that Black people know less and less about their culture as time goes on. This is just based upon what attracts people's attention as viewed from the narrow lens of my eNewsletter and website activity. i had no intention of writing all of this. I was just going to post a notice that I'd pubbed a eNewsletter. I guess i needed to vent , before going out an drinking too much for my own good tonight. Happy New Year Everyone!

I just published Kam's 100 Favorite films for 2012. He ranked Django, amazing, 3rd in the big budget film category: http://aalbc.it/bestfilmsof2012 Kam and I rarely agree on movies I re-watched Root within in the last few years and it seemed innocuous by today's standards...

Yeah it is interesting how the conversation went quickly from where do we get your inspiration to one of life's most fundamental questions, what is the nature of the universe and where do we fit in it. I guess, fundamentally, the answer to that big question is indeed the answer to the original question; Where Does Your Inspiration Come From? At various readings and lectures I've heard writers say their inspiration comes from the Lord, Our Savior, Jesus Christ, or spirits who speak to them or just the desire to make more money. Religious folks will say religion was inspired, if not outright brought to us by a divine spirit. A Supreme Being or Ominipotent Force are indistinguishable to their God, or Gods, or for some, ourselves.. We all have some belief system. Some believe it is perfectly perfectly OK to kill someone else for something they have, that you want. Others believe this is evil. Some entities, like governments, say something is evil, but take direct actions exhibiting exactly what they said was evil. Of course people do this too, but governments get away with it more. If there is a universal truth -- it is anything but universally accepted, known or understood.

My reviewer Kam liked Django: http://bit.ly/django2012

Pioneer check out this short video where several physical are asked a simple question: Do you believe in God? I'm not suggesting that these responses should be extended to the entire population of scientist, but their reasoning would be useful. Also I think FAR more people, lie about believing in God than the other way around.

Great recommendation Nah'Sun! THIS is why we need independent, Black owned websites AND Black bookstores! I learned about the 1st Hidden Colors, this Summer, in a Bookstore in Virginia Beach, VA, Positive Vibes. I asked them to show me the most popular thing in the store It was the 1st Hidden Colors. I knew the 2nd one was coming but had not heard anything about it until now. The Black people bitching about Tanrantino or what Spike thinks about a movie he has not seen need to be talking about Hidden Colors 2 Nah'Sun, I really can't recommend what people should do about going to see DJango. They will need to make there own decision. For people with a similar sensibility to me, I would recommend waiting for Netfix. But if you want to be part of the conversation, you may not want to wait that long. My wife felt the same way I did, perhaps more negative. My daughters who are 19 and 20 enjoyed the film. Though the 19 year old admitted dozing. It was a long film that felt longer.

You may here Jamie speak here: http://aalbc.it/jamiefoxx2012 and Tarantino here: http://aalbc.it/qt2012

Deep. Pioneer I had not considered Sharpton using Obama. Sort of the woman who marries a rich celebrity she knows is gay. There s something in it for both...

Well Cynique that perfectly explains why Obama aligned himself with Wright, sort of like teaming up with Calvin Butts in Harlem. Obama's current alignment with Rev Sharpton is a little more curious. I guess he needed a foil from the criticism of Dr. West an anit-Tavis so to speak.

There are not very many pure Atheists, people who are certain there is not God, higher power, universal mind or any of the other stuff you mentioned. I'm inclined to agree that most scientists would be agnostic, Since they simply can not prove there is no an after life. -------------------------- Throwing up my hands in exasperation, Del I'm afraid I'll have to give you an "F". What you are saying does not make sense. You are comparing something completely unrelated and drawing a false conclusion. Not everything can be explained or understood with an analogy...

Cynique, children act up as they go through developmental stages where they learn that they are actually sentient beings with wants and desires that are completely unknown to others. It is a complicated process. Tantrums in and "bad behavior" (behavior not desired by a parent) is normal. This is not evidence that people have to learn to be nice, or need to be medicated. I agree completely with Pioneer. Del and I part ways with the love come naturally bit. Sure it sounds beautiful to say and it would be nice to believe, but I see no evidence that it is true. In fact I'm more inclined to agree with Cynique, based upon my observations. People behave like crap because they were not raised properly - taught to respect themselves or others.

You may be correct Pioneer. But I choose to believe he had a plan and advancing in politics was his goal, Wright was a stepping stone. I don't trust politicians. In our current political system righteous people don't seem to do very well -- indeed they don't even get involved. The people who enter politics, at the highest levels are ambitious power or status seekers. Money has screwed the whole thing up...

Cynique scientists are essentially ignorant about the universe. Indeed the more they learn the more they realize how much they really don't know. :-) Del I don't follow your reasoning. A fact is a fact, it is not a function of a belief. It is what is is. It is not up for discussion. Generally scientists are very careful about saying what they "know". If a fact is "proven" wrong then it was not a fact, maybe it was a theory, or a belief, but a fact can't be proven wrong. Pioneer, scientist can reproduce the near death experience in a person. Again, man makes up stories to explain what they don't understand. it is natural, but it does not make it true. I'm not discounting your experiences...I'm just saying... The brain is an amazing thing, but it can be easily fooled. Some otherwise normal people can be made to do astonishingly evil things, with seemingly very little effort. A charismatic leader can get hundreds of people to kill themselves with the promise of being picked up by a comet, or 42 virgins in heaven. Or they get get them to exterminate some Jews or believe they are superior to blacks and enslave them for centuries. Even the God fearing, Nobel Peace prize winning Barack Obama, has a "hit list". My honest opinion is that nobody "knows" anything -- or they know so little it may as well be nothing. Some can can spin a better tale than others but they are still all stories. Scientists are much more rigorous in their thinking because they won't start saying something is true until is has been tested and they are always testing. They've broken Newton's laws when they started looking at matter at the quantum level, then they broke Einsteins laws when they looked at Black holes. EVERYTHING to a scientist is open for analysis. The majority of people KNOW far too much about the universe. It may be the dictates of their religion. They are right and ALL other belief are wrong. People who say they know the answers make me nervous. I'm curious fellow, but I'm find with not knowing, over accepting the beliefs of someone who claims that they do. ____________________ Del now I see why you are confused about the Digital to analog thing. The information is simply stored digitally. You can here this they are discrete samples. Once the signal is decoded into an analog signal (that you can hear). The signal is a accurate representation of the source signal.

http://aalbc.com/aalbc-feedback.html Would you all please consider thanking my website and eNewsletter feedback survey. I'm just looking for information on what I'm going well or poorly. It can be completed in just a couple of minutes. I truly appreciate ALL Feedback. Thanks, Troy

Well I'm back from the flick and am about to play some Monopoly, but I just wanted to pop in and say The movie was a disappointment. Sure there were some entertaining parts, but overall the movie could have been better edited, seemed very disjointed, and was way too long. The quality of the actors saved the film from being a complete disaster. Oh well...

No the government is racist for this reason and many others. Indeed ofr most of out countries history racists laws were n the books. we have not emerged from this situation. Race conscious is too sloppy a term is changes frequently as is based solely on how people look -- which in my mind is just a dumb (and racist) activity for the government to spend my money engaging in...

LOL! The really interesting thing about the Wright affair was that initially when Obama was claiming Wright as his "spiritual leader" , in reality like most Brother he spent very little time in the Church. So when Wright would were being used against Obama it would have been much easier for Obama to simply say well i really did not go to Wrights church very much. Instead since he'd exaggerated his position as this devout Christian, since votes like to hear this, he had to make up another "story" to justify throwing Wright under he bus.

Welcome fengwenshu. ...I think

"Nobody is denying that the government is racist." Funny it never occurred to be to simply say it plainly; the government is racist -- there it is. I agree a child can naturally distinguish that a person looks different from himself (I never meant to suggest otherwise) I do not agree that accepting the difference is a learned reaction. I think not accepting the difference is learned, but I'm sure there have been studies on this. Any rifts in the family because or difference skin color were probably caused by the racist culture not nature. Unless you believe racism is natural... maybe it is. Adopted children develop rifts because the differences cause them to come to the realization they were adopted -- a completely different dynamic.