Troy

A sight for sore eyes Waterstar! Where you been? I agree with your last post 100% My tune on Perry has changed over the years, becoming more positive toward him because I really see that he is trying to make a positive impact with his movies and entertain at the same time he is getting better at it and making a ton of money to boot! Pioneer your contributions are certainly contributing positively to the discussion. You bring a perspective that is probably in the majority, but rarely expressed. If I could get you to; (1) stop using racial stereotypes in your reasoning; (2) stop using your personal experiences to generalize across entire group of people, I will consider my job done.

Waterstar I'm sure Cynique will have a insightful answer, based upon first had experience, but we HAD to be "more self-reliant and community-oriented when society was formally segregated". We had not choice. If was a time when we have birth to the great HBCU's founded thriving albeit segregated communities with professionals, and blacked owned business of every type. I think the American culture, in general, is less reliant on each other, more reliant on the government (which is not the same thing). There was another, more recent story on this American Life that spoke about some white communities were 25% of the population was subsisting on disability check from the government...

I do not believe in the legalization of gay marriage. Before you progressives hang me in effigy. I also do not believe in the legalization of heterosexual marriage either. The government should not be in a position to legitimize what two or more adults do behind closed doors. Waterstar, your point that "In America, it is perfectly legal for a man to have 10 different women and children with each, yet it is illegal for him to marry and be legally responsible for all 10 of them." Also illustrates why I do not think marriage should be a legal issue controlled by the government. What adults should to do with each other is up to them. Again gay and heterosexual people have been living together as a couples for as long as couples have lived together. The loudest argument against gay marriage has been the religious one. Christians, for example, do not believe people of the same sex should be married to each other. That is their belief and they are entitled to it. I don't think I, or the government, should be involved controlling what people choose to believe. That said, I think it is a good idea for people, who make babies, to live together with their children and share responsibility for raising them until adulthood. I personally do not care if they are married of not. I think the hetero combination is better for raising children. But two people, regardless of their sex is probably better than one person. If any couple who wants to go to a church and have a religious ceremony and get "married" that is fine. But if the a given church refuses to perform the ceremony, it is not up to the government to impose their rules on a church. If enough gay people or gay sympathizers wanted to, they could form their own church and make new rules to suit their own desires. Isn't that the reason there are some many varieties of Christianity anyway? They could get married in those churches and the government should not be able to do anything about it. I don't believe in the "legalization" of polygamy either. But if people chose to live a polygamous life style, and of course some do, that is up to them. They just should not expect the government to step in a force the Catholic Church to marry them.

Wow Pioneer you have taken the racial stereotypes to a new high. I serioulsy I believe you have been brainwashed by the media. Like so many white people you have been taken hook, line and sinker on pretty much all of the sterotypes applied to Black people and have firmly integrated, unfortunately, them into your world view. Of course you are not unique in this regard. Many people, if not most, do this as well. I just don't usually see these perspectives expressed by educated adults. That is not to say that our culture doesn't have conflicting and hypocrital standards when it comes to sexuality. It absolutely does, I'm not sure embracing promiscuity or pologamy is the answer. Perhaps for some individuals it might be, but for most of us it would make things far worse...

To answer your question, I seriously doubt it. In fact as much as I complain about our goverment we still have quite a bit of freedom that we would not have in a "majority rules" form of government as you would have in a deocractic government (The US practices a Republican form of governbment BTW). Of course a dictator is even worse where an individual decides what is best for you, like our mayor in NY City. While he might be right on every account, I still want the freedom to make bad choices, and the freedom to recover from them. True freedom is great, but most of us don't even begin to try to enjoy the benefit of what it means...

Cynique, are you trying to go straight to hell Seriously, if it were up to me the goverment would not be in the marriage business. They add nothing to the conversation. Indeed, they only complicate things. It two people want to live together, share resources, and raise any kids they make or acquire why does the government need to be involved? With a few documents same sex couples would have the same "rights" that married couple have today. It seems as though this is really more of an effort for homosexuals to force Christians and other groups to not only accept but embrace their sexuality. It never was clear to me homosexuals care what the Church thinks about them -- other than the extent to which Christians influence goverment policy. People who have sex outside of marriage (inclduing many Christians) don't seem to care what the Church things, why should homo's?

Speaking of Tyler Perry here is a video of him talking about his latest film Temptation. This would have been nicer after the film came out

Apparently people are finding it difficult to find the OWN channel number on their cable box. Here is the OWN channel finder: http://www.oprah.com/own/channel_finder.html Now if I could be Perry or Winfrey to help people find AALBC.com I'd call it even.

Interesting summary. The girl from the Montgomery CBS affiliate looked and sounded like she was in high school :-) The basketball game idea is nothing new they used to call it midnight basketball a couple of decades ago. Basically the idea was to give men something else to do at night other than shooting each other. Obviously the program was criticized. I have no idea how effective it was. I don't think the Basketball program is a solution. I'm reluctant to critique Blackshear's program based upon the so called news coverage -- you know how they do us. We are however a profoundly ill people in a sick nation. The older I get the plainer this becomes, or maybe the pendulum is swinging the other way and things are getting much worse. It is a wonder more people are out there going "postal". White people blow up buildings, kill DA's and shoot groups of people up in public places. Black men just kill each other one at a time.

...Bookworm.com, a piece of Librarything, and God knows what else I guess when books are sold by only one big website people will finally wake up and do something. Of course Black folks will not start complaining until books with Black folks in them are completely invisible. Maybe Amazon can break off a few bucks and buy AALBC.com. Ah, nevermind they are in business to make money The WSJ reports Amazon recently paid ~$150MM for Goodreads. Amazon is really smart. I guess they will either buy or put Barnesandnoble.com out of their misery (business) pretty soon. And that is just the book world

aalbc.it/news03262013

In one of the earliest scenes they showed this woman was a huge butt, obviously positioned and shot so the audience would not miss it. Would you believe I had no clue what Kim Kardashian looked like prior to seeing this film. Her acting was just adequate to pull off her lines, mostly for comic relief. But I'd imagine she was included to draw a more diverse (young white audience). I also just recently learned Kim is the daughter of Robert Kardashian the attorney from the OJ Simpson trail. This info was related to me when I asked someone to explain to my why Kim is a celebrity. I also learned that her step father is the former Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner. Wikipedia says Kayne West is her partner -- whatever that means. Kanye West, Robert Kardashian, Bruce Jenner talk about 6 degrees of separation, wow. Of course I realize this is not be "news" to most people but I admit my pop culture quotient is really low.

I went to see Perry's film Temptation last night. In general the critical reviews of this film (save the one I published on AALBC.com) were horrible; so much so I was reluctant to check it out. Considering some people, not me of course, can easily check out two or three flicks for the price of a single movie ticket the risk can be minimized ;-) At any rate, the film was not bad at all. Sure it was the typical drama laden "Tylerperryesque" flick, but it was also a story that relates the complexity of marriage, and is sure to resonate with many people. Sure the situations were over the top, in the plausibility department. But it was far more plausible than the movie "The Fall of Olympus" which happened to be playing in the theater next door ;-) So if you can get the left hand side of your brain to take a hiatus for two hours, you'll enjoy the flick. The more highly motivated might even learn from this Perry's parable and deal constructively with issues in their own relationships as well. Either Tyler Perry's film are actually getting better or maybe I'm warming up to him. Sure I have complaints about the film but overall the merits out weight any complaints that I have. I also appreciate the fact that Perry does not have his actresses engage in the on screen pornography. He is able to convey the sexual passion without actually showing the physical act -- which in many ways is far more effective.

Pioneer, I agree with Cynique in that a solution only makes sense if it is viable, otherwise it is just fantasy.

Anika Thank you. If this was 10 years ago you probably would have learned of Achebe's passing sooner. The sites most likely to share the information are disappearing or being rendered invisible. In the future the question will not be why did I not know this or why are more people talking about it. The question will be "Who is Chinua Achebe?" I should re-read the novel Things Fall Apart myself.

Pioneer your reasoning is exactly why we are in serious trouble as a nation. Sure we can print more paper, but why do you think that money will hold value? You realize every time we "print" money the value of all money does down. It is like a ponzi scheme destined to collapse. Ultimately the lender comes to collect. I don't think the Chinese are taking any shorts. Learn to speak Mandarin my friend you are gonna need it....

From Publishers Weekly The Bestselling E-books of 2012 Jaw-dropping numbers in digital sales By Daisy Maryles | Mar 17, 2013 "And while we estimate that we have more than 1,000 e-books with sales of 25,000+, we know this does not reflect all e-book sales in the book industry. 15 Million+ *Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One. E.L. James. Vintage *Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two. E.L. James. Vintage *Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three. E.L. James. Vintage One Million+ *Gone Girl: A Novel. Gillian Flynn. Crown 850,000+ *Fifty Shades Trilogy Bundle. E.L. James. Vintage *Bared to You. Sylvia Day. Berkley 500,000+ *The Racketeer. John Grisham. Doubleday *Reflected in You. Sylvia Day. Berkley The Lucky One. Nicholas Sparks. Grand Central (569,544) 400,000+ *No Easy Day. Mark Owen. Dutton *Defending Jacob. William Landay. Delacorte *The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Book 1 of the Millennium Trilogy. Steig Larsson. Vintage *A Game of Thrones. George R.R. Martin. Bantam 11/22/63: A Novel. Stephen King. Scribner (441,152) The Innocent. David Baldacci. Grand Central (432,098) *The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest: Book 3 of the Millennium Trilogy. Steig Larsson. Vintage *The Last Boyfriend. Nora Roberts. Berkley *The Help. Kathryn Stockett. Berkley *A Dance with the Dragons. George R.R. Martin. Bantam See the rest of the list Compare with AALBC.com Bestselling eBooks of 2012

AALBC.com mourns the passing of Nigerian novelist and poet Chinua Achebe (November 16, 1930 — March 22, 2013), author of classic novel “Things Fall Apart”

AALBC.com mourns the passing of Nigerian novelist and poet Chinua Achebe (November 16, 1930 — March 22, 2013), author of classic novel “Things Fall Apart”

"Federal Government's pockets are deep" Though the government may behaving this way this can be no further from the truth. The Federal Government is no different than your local government, in that THEY have no money -- other that what WE give them (or rather what they take from us). If you are assuming that the federal gvernment can provide money for jobs because they have so much you can not be MORE wrong. The government is running trillion dollar deficits each year and have a cummulative in the trillions of dollars for the foreseeable future. Again, if the government is going to provide money for jobs they too need to get the money from somewhere. Obviously the people who need the jobs can not provide those funds. So the government can borrow more, tax us more, spend less, or some combination of these. None of which the government seems willing to do, really. If you think they are going to do this to "create" jobs for Black and brown people you can forget it. The best we can do is go old school and create our own jobs. The government has NEVER displayed a propensity to take of us in the manner you think they should....

These are all services that any well run city performs as a matter of course. It is called maintenance. If a community does not perform these tasks they have more profound problems and are usually cash strapped -- otherwise they would do it, right? That said many communities have programs were people in public housing, or who were formerly incarcerated are provided jobs like these to supplement regular city services. Usually to build work skills, like showing up on time. In any event, this would not address you "living wage" issue, because at the end of the day all the money you want to pay these workers have to come from somewhere. Which means you have to tax other people more, cut services somewhere else or both. What you are calling for would not work in our current system, not unless rich people, out of the blue, decide they want to share some of their wealth with other people. I'm not holding my breath.

JOAN RIVERS TO HELM PROVOCATIVE AND OUTSPOKEN COMEDY DOCUMENTARY Why We Laugh: Funny Women takes an uncensored look into the lives of female comediennes Premieres on Showtime TONIGHT, March 21, 2013 at 8pm EST/PST New York, NY (March 21, 2013) – Codeblack Films, a Lionsgate company, partners with Emmy Award winning, Tony nominated comedian Joan Rivers’ Rugby Productions, LTD produced an in-depth 90-minute documentary exploring the cultural and social journey of the female stand-up comedian titled Why We Laugh: Funny Women. Why We Laugh: Funny Women includes personal interviews with some of the most prominent female voices in comedy and entertainment, and is enriched by live performance footage from some of the most talented female comedians working today. Funny Women sheds light on the legacy of the female comedian and the dedication, courage and passion that is required to be successful in a male dominated stand-up comedy business. These courageous women have broken the mold and have created a new and more inclusive landscape that expands beyond the comedy club stage. Rivers states, "Funny Women is about the legacy that comediennes are carving out in this industry and I am happy to be part of a project that explores the huge dedication and passion that my fellow comediennes and I share for the craft. These women of comedy are outspoken, unapologetic, bold and extremely funny." 29 funny women participated in the doc and shared their personal perspectives and experiences including; Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Griffin, Lily Tomlin, Janeane Garofalo, Sandra Bernhard, Brett Butler, Kym Whitley, Holland Taylor, Merrill Markoe, Jane Leaves, Kim Wayans, Rita Rudner, Kathleen Madigan, Robin Schiff, Tig Notaro, Kathy Najimi, Amy Hill, Aisha Tyler, Sheryl Underwood and more. Why We Laugh: Funny Women follows in the path of the critically acclaimed 2009 Sundance Film Festival documentary, Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy, which was co-written and produced by Codeblack Films’ Quincy Newell. Newell produced Funny Women along with entertainment veteran Sheila Ducksworth. “I am thrilled to be able to bring such an important and necessary project to life,” said Sheila Ducksworth. “Funny Women not only champions the contributions of these phenomenal women, it also shines a light on so many truly fearless females who dare to speak their truths through laughter.” Jeff Clanagan of Lionsgate’s Codeblack Films and Joan Rivers serve as Executive Producers. Joan Rivers narrates. Why We Laugh: Funny Women is produced and distributed by Codeblack Films and will premiere on Showtime tonight, March 21, 2013 at 8pm EST/PST.

Pioneer you can't simply flood a community with jobs. Jobs are created as a result of a matching of a demand for good or services with a supply of the same. Give me one example of a job (a job description) that you would flood the community with.

OK Pioneer if you believe that then who makes the decision who get stuck the low paying, low skill jobs. The problem with your world is that Black folks are kept on the proverbial plantation, working for someone else or working a low wage dead end job, regardless of their ability. You do realize there were geniuses picking cotton and that there are brilliant women today working mundane jobs or failing to advance because of sexism and racism -- especially Black ones. If that is the case why bother to education people if they are just going to flip burgers or shine shoes? As far as Black boys are concerned this is already happening... But they are being queued up for prison not McDonalds.

"create units that combine female and gay soldiers..." That sounds more like the setup for a reality TV show or sit-com. "using drones to survey gang territories and attack offenders." Just wait, that is what they want to do anyway... "social media has turned the younger generation into a bunch of idiots who NEVER seem to consider the consequences of their ridiculous behavior" I think social media just makes of all more aware of the fact. By doing so it also desensitizes us all to these situations, making them seem less outrageous and even fueling the behavior.