Why Miss Black USA and Miss Black America are Actually White

Miss Black USA / America are White

Let’s take a peak in on the Miss Asian USA pageant right quick.  I’m in a balcony seat at the very back.  Being very dark myself, I blend in perfectly in the unlit auditorium, like a ninja.  Unlike other pageants, every contestant has to know poetry.  The best one was performed by Miss Okinawa, who recited a Haiku.  It said something about a cherry blossom withering in the winter.  While I couldn’t understand the Japanese exactly, I understood that it was talking about the current economy in America.  She nearly received a unanimous standing ovation from the audience.  Another section of the pageant was the traditional fashion.  The Miss Tokyo contestant came out in 12 royal kimonos and had a simple ribbon at the very end of  her waist long hair.  It was elegant and simple.  Not to be outdone by her, Miss Beijing came out in a imperial dress, but her hair was the show-piece.  It was in the ancient imperial head dress of nearly 2,000 years ago.  It was a very enjoyable evening.  Everyone danced in some traditional way and for their modern segments they always tied in their heritage with American history.

Fast forward to the Miss Black USA pageant.  I am simply dumbfounded.  Other than having a slight tan, it looks, feels and acts exactly like the Miss USA pageant.  Where you felt swept away to a different place and time, in the Miss Asian Pageant, the Miss Black USA pageant was nothing more than a watered down copy of the Miss USA Pageant.  Where the speech, dress and hair were firmly rooted in tradition and aboriginal heritage of the Asians, in the Miss Asian USA Pageant, the Miss Black USA Pageant bends over backwards to make sure you forget that the contestants are Black.  In short, there is nothing Black about the Miss Black USA and Miss Black America Pageant.

Now I ask you, dear reader, why would they feel so compelled to make their own Black pageants, only to turn around and make sure you felt like you were looking exactly at the white pageants?  There is no celebration of being Black.  There is no celebration of the history of Blacks in this country.  There is absolutely no ties to being Black in these pageants.  I remember years ago a contestant was booed off stage for daring to quote a “free the slaves” poem.

Also, the contestants do not look Black.  Except for a few Dark women that slip through the cracks, for the most part they are all super super super mixed with white blood.  One would think that going to an all Black pageant, that you MIGHT see a Black lady on stage somewhere.

Also, contestants all have long, straight, fake, weaved hair.  For this to be the epitome of Black beauty, apparently Black hair is not.  The few times I have seen the pageants, there wasn’t an afro in site, except for the janitor mopping up a spill down the hall, and myself [of course].  For all of these magazines, websites, and shows talking about “going natural” the Black pageants certainly are staying the hell away from it.

Also, contestants, are all anorexicly shaped.  Like their white counterparts, the Black beauty contestants are all underweight for their height.  Regardless of the countless calls outside of the industry to stop making that “look” be the standard of beauty, the Miss Black USA and America pageants continue it, just like the white pageants do.  Not that I’ve taken a poll, but Black men, whom I GUESS the pageant is for, do not like thin looking women.  I could be wrong, but from my experience, a “woman with meat on her bones” is considered the epitome of beauty to Black men.  What’s strange is, they DID do such a poll for women, and found that women do not want a skinny NOR 6-pack abs having man.  They found that women prefer men with a bit of gut and meat on his bones.  Also, I am no anthropologist, nor biologist, but I believe Black women tend toward carrying more meat on their bones than white women.  I am not saying they are fat, just that they are not anorexic looking, for the most part.  So it is astounding to me that an all Black pageant goes out of its way to find only anorexic looking Black women.

Conclusion

In my own VERY PERSONAL opinion, these pageants should stop existing.  Until they understand that the entire purpose of having a separate pageant called Miss BLACK USA and Miss BLACK America, due to the fact white people did not consider Black women good looking enough to be on stage with white women, was to edify and elevate the beauty of Black women, they have no purpose.  Why would the founders of these pageants make it their goal to elevate Black female beauty, only to turn around and make sure all the contestants looked white?  It smacks of saying that Black is in fact NOT beautiful.  If the epitome of beauty is:

• long fake, straight, white hair
• anorexic build
• as close to white skin as possible

then you’re saying being Black is not beautiful and being white is.  How many Black girls have watched these pageants and felt bad about themselves because everyone in the pageant was a high-yella, size 0 dress, and had long straight hair?

I say stop the entire pageant system, from the Miss Black high-school, all the way up to Miss Black USA / America.  All you’re doing is confusing people and not elevating Black women.  Until everyone on stage is smutt Black, with a round behind and an afro, you have no business calling it a Miss Black USA pageant.

I bet half of you reading that last sentence winced at it, thinking the description was of an ugly Black woman.  Check it out:

Dark Black Woman with Afro

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There is No More Love in America

The Scam of Love

There is almost no romance on t.v. or in movies any more.  “Falling in Love”, apparently now, is a 4 letter word.  The entire notion of the fantasy love story of a man and woman having a love so strong that it lasts, even beyond death is non-existent.  It has all been replaced with problems and problems, or slutty images and graphic sex.  They portray love stories now as being problematic to get the point across that loving someone is ALWAYS problematic.  They seek to destroy whatever notion of happiness you find in another human.  Why?  So you can look to them for your happiness.

The national entertainment outlets always create love “stories” in the same lame format:

• boy meets girl
• boy and girl aren’t perfect
• they obviously need changing
• problems
• problems
• problems
• story over

I want you to go sit through any 5 chick flicks in the past 5 years.  I want you to keep track of the outline I just set and see if I am wrong.  If you have been reading my blog for any time, you’ve seen my movie reviews.  I do not want to sound jaded or too cynical, but entertainment is now depressing and not fun.  Even kids’ movies are not fun.

The entertainment now seeks to depress you to such a degree as to make you discontent with your own life.  You’ve been programmed that you must return to the movies to get your entertainment.  Having a dinner party and inviting friends and playing board games is ancient history.  [although I did just that last year, was great fun]  People are now programmed to think that going to dinner, club and the movies are the ONLY ways to have “fun”.  The movies and t.v. for their part depress you to such a degree that it bleeds over into your real life.  Since they try to define what a “relationship” is for you, when you leave the movie depressed you will then seek out the problems in your own relationship.

“AHA, you did squeeze the toothpaste tube in the middle, this relationship is over.”

As stupid as that sounds, it is oh so sadly true.  The movies present generalities about problems in relationships and people watching these movies take it to heart thinking it is a universal truth, and break up with their loved one.

“Why did she break up with you man?”
“I don’t know, I guess we grew apart.”

No man, she, like an idiot, watched MTV or some stupid movie and thought that you checking your cell phone every 5 minutes was factual evidence that you were cheating on her.   She didn’t stop to realize that your grandma was in the hospital with cancer, on her death bed.  So now you’ve lost your grandma and your girl friend all in one day.

I can guarantee you this scenario happens daily across the land.

Oh don’t let me leave out the chick magazines.  When they aren’t depressing women with evidence that they are somehow not beautiful for NOT having a heroin induced, malnurished body, they are telling them that:

1. something is wrong with their man
2. you can change your man
3. if your man doesn’t listen to you, he’s obvious broken
4. if the mail-room boy asks you out on a date that somehow he’s a pervert and needs to be sued

The magazines defining women’s lives is completely over the top and out of hand.  A dress-size zero woman is not good looking to a man.  End of story.  If the bones in her arms and legs are the largest section of that particular appendage, men will stay away from them.  Also malnourished women look like children, and only a man with a tendency towards pedophilia would like that look.  How many men have to come out and say they like big breasts, big hips, big legs, before females GET IT.  How many real life celebs with larger measurements become the idol of millions of men, before females GET IT.  Stop reading these stupid magazines that tell you that the anorexic look is OK.

Then the magazines set you up for disaster in your relationship, by telling you, you can change your man.  Yes, simply go out and grab the nearest man you can find, and change him.  Obviously, putting effort into finding a decent man FOR YOU, is far too much trouble.  Isn’t that the message they are actually trying to say?  And, what human thinks that they can change an adult male?  “An old dogs does not learn new tricks.”  It’s not just a funny saying.  It is true.  If your ulterior motive in a relationship is to get some good looking guy and MOLD him into what you want him to be, then you are setting you and him up for a disastrous relationship.  Get off your lazy anorexic butt and go find a GOOD MAN.  And, if the one you find is not perfect, then you might need to change your notions of what perfect is.  Ask yourself, who taught you what a perfect man is?  I’m not saying go marry an axe murderer, but I am saying if he drinks beer and likes video games, that does not mean he is imperfect.  If you require 24/7 attention, the problem is with you, not him.  You be you, and let him be him.  If you’re doing it right, you will “grow together.”  If you go into a relationship with that open mindedness, then you will never break up / get divorced.

The magazines try to tell you what you want to hear.  Apparently, if your man does not listen to you 100% of the time, then something must be wrong with him.  Get rid of him.  That’s the message right?  Let’s see!   Movies and comics and magazines always say that females are “always right.”  You and me both, know that is a lie.  If you do not know all the facts and details about something, there is no possible way you could always be right.  You need to wake up and smell the coffee.  They are trying to sell you something by flattering your ego.  Females are not always right.  Men are not always right.  Noone is always right.  If these magazines are saying females are always right and their men should always listen to them, they are setting you up for a complete break down in communication.  How?  Because as soon as you get it in your head that “I am always right,” then that means you shut down when your man tries to say something.  You see how horrible that is?  And, you wonder why your relationships are rocky at best.

Finally, these womens’ magazines try to get across that if some random guy invites you to dinner, that obviously there is something wrong with him and he needs to be sued, and the company he works for needs to be sued.  The sexual harassment craze has gotten so far out of hand that it is destroying large segments of the populations.  Groups of  women are living completely single and wonder why, yet should any man approach them, they look for the sexual harassment umbrella.  The UPS guy asks them out to dinner – law suit.  The pizza delivery guy asks them out on a movie – law suit.  The mail-room clerk asks them for their number – law suit.  They look up 20 years later, surrounded by cats and wonder why.  Sexual harassment was intended to protect men / women from some ongoing pervert inside the workplace that holds their career in the palm of their hand.  While your boss asking you out to dinner, one time, might be unethical, it is not sexual harassment.  Sometimes people meet people they are attracted to and want to see if it is going to go somewhere.  You never know who might be the man of your dreams if you open yourself up to possibilities.  Sometimes the most unlikely sources are the best choices.  While everyone laughs at the mail-room clerk for hitting on the vice president, how chagrined are they when he gets a three million dollar inheritance from his dead uncle?  Or, the UPS truck driver that actually owns 20 routes and works one himself, making half a million a year?

These are just examples of how we take national media and let them define our reality, specifically relationship reality.  You should always hear stories from magazines, movies and t.v. as only applying to those particular people.  You should repeat to yourself, “that does not apply to me.”  Even if your mother is trying to give you sage womanly advice and she went through problems, “that does not apply to me.”  One person’s heartaches and mishaps does not mean that everyone is going to have heartache and mishaps in their relationships.

I know of so many women that are man-haters.  When I hear their story, it dawns on me that they are man-haters because they were and are immature and did not understand that the trivial problem they had with one man, does not apply to all men.  Even that one man, normally, did not do something to them, to deserve full on hate.  More than likely, they were listening to another man-hater or saw a stupid movie or read a stupid magazine telling them that if a man does ‘XYZ’ that he deserves hatred.

I met a lovely Black girl, long ago, that I wanted to date.  She stopped me one day and told me that she does not like Black men.  When I asked why, she said because her uncle had molested her.  I was speechless.  I still am.  I can only guess that it was just an excuse to hate all Black men.  Noone gets something done to them by someone and then equates everyone with some aspect of that one person as evidence that they are all completely like that person.  It would be like saying, all men with mustaches are Hitler.  As I think about it, I bet my computer that that Black girl had some ridiculous mother or aunt tell her that all Black men are just like her perverted uncle and all deserve to be hated.  But, as sure as I sit here typing this, I know thousands upon thousands of women have similar messed up stories like that and are so messed up that they write off whole segments of the population due to something someone told them, i.e. movies, magazines and t.v.

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For Blacks: He Wasn’t Man Enough for Me

Black Girl You’re Doing it Wrong

Pay a million dollars for a sick beat, get a catchy hook and then lay down the most F*ed up lyrics talking about how a Black man is a douchebag, and you have a national hit.  You will be sure it will go to the #1 spot in no time.  Is there something to these songs?  Where are these songs coming from?  Are there Black men out there, just breaking Black women’s heart after heart?  Where are these casanovas?  The answer is, there are none.  There is no mass Black man heart-breaking club.  Oh, I’m sure there are some male Black gigolos out there, don’t get me wrong, but there is no lonely-heart club out there for Black men.  So where do these songs come from?

They come from music producers hell-bent on trying to bring the Black man down.  And, you buy it.

But, this article isn’t about retarded folk who make retarded music and the retarded folk that buy it.  This article is about how YOU can assure yourself that you are not going to end up with a scrub.

Lesson One: How Not to Date a Scrub

Yes, this article is directed at women.  Apparently, since I am not a father of a daughter, I always feel the need to be an internet dad to young / or not so young ladies.  All my cousins are married, so I feel the need to protect some other young lady from evil men. HAHAHAHA!!!  Internet dad to the rescue****

So anyway.  Before we get into dating / marrying a good Black man, let’s talk about you first.  A man does not define you.  You should not let a man define you.  You are your own person.  You have your own tastes, likes and dislikes.  You should have your own source of income.  If you go to a club, you should be able to afford the entire night by yourself, i.e. buying your own drinks.  There is nothing more annoying than a woman that comes up to me asking me to buy her a drink.  I’m not a charity fund.  All this talk about being an independent woman goes out the window when you cannot afford your own room and board.

How not to date a scrub.  First of all, if you want to catch a Black man who doesn’t have to worry about can he afford the dollar menu, you need to step up your own game.  Stop going to clubs to pick up the man of your dreams.  Really?  Did ya think that would work?  And, if you just have to go to a club, and you’re hell bent on picking up the man of your dreams, go to a club with a steep cover charge.

Here’s the theory about the club with a cover charge.  The owner gambles that if he charges a cover, it will keep the “riff raff” out of the club.  It makes the club more exclusive.  So if you go to such a club, you hedge your bets that you will not run into “riff raff”. 

The same theory can be applied to landing a good Black man.  If you want to catch a non-riff-raff Black man, then you should go where riff raff do not and cannot go.

Attend Events: Every town / city caters to their upper echelon type of citizens.  You simply then read where these events are held.  Expect to pay money if you’re going to attend these.

Join Clubs: Due paying clubs are everywhere.  You can rest assured that if you go to an even sponsored by a club, that more than likely any Black man there is more than likely not worried around the dollar menu.

Politics: Getting involved in your political party [you’re a libertarian right?] is another great way to meet a non-“riff raff” Black man.  More than likely a Black man that is involved in a political campaign is probably not a street thug.  Now understand that going to a political rally, does not mean you are politically involved.  I am talking about fund raising events or even joining a campaign.  These are the people you want to meet, not the street rally.

Don’t Find a Black Man in Church: 50% of the people in church do not want to be in church.  It’s probably closer to 75%, but I’m wagering conservatively.  That being said, you have an over 50% chance that the guy you run into at church is not going to look out for your best interest or selflessly give of himself, to you.  People find themselves sitting in a church for many strange reasons.  Also, church doesn’t discriminate.  Anyone can walk into a church.  And, the bottom line is, you don’t want to date / marry just anyone.

For those who are saying to themselves that “just because a Black man has money, doesn’t mean he’s a great guy.”  You are delusional.  I am sure there are some great guy, poor, Black men out there.  But, being a great guy, super sexy, and muscular does not pay bills.  So much misery comes from just being poor in America.  And if you do not realize this, you are sticking your head in the sand and pretending otherwise.  At the end of the day, you want a Black man that can provide for himself and for you, if need be.  I personally would have you date / marry someone that can provide for you, not that you absolutely need it, but when you get married and have children, you want to stay home with the kids, for their sake.

A lot of Black folks do not plan their life out.  They don’t sit down and ask themselves what they want out of life and where do they see things going.  At the very least, I would have you plan who you are going to date.  I would have you put yourself in the position to find someone with some get-up-and-go.  I would have you open yourself up to options of a great selection of Black men and not the ones that these fake songs talk about: Scrubs.

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The Marginalization of the Black Community

Blacks Don’t Know How Powerful They Are

The Black community controls 10% of the buying power in America yet bottoms out the lowest income bracket.^cite   Until Blacks actual pool their resources and consciously agregate their buying power and political muscle, they will accomplish nothing given the current trend in marginalizing the Black community.  The national and local media constantly bombards the Black community with negative images of itself.^cite   National entertainment outlets also applauds the worst in the Black community, leaving the younger generation to aspire to nothing more than rappers with known criminal backgrounds; athletes with questionable ethics and morals; or Black individuals with a complete lack of intellect or financial education.^cite   Blacks are portrayed as dumb, going nowhere and fit only to be killed in movies.^cite   Until we Blacks make our own movies and t.v. shows dealing with REAL Black issues that we define, we will constantly be marginalized in the media.

The Damage to the Younger Generation

If you repeat a lie long enough, people will tend to believe it as fact.  The Black community is constantly bombarded with images of Black males as being the originators of crime.  Time and again, study after study has shown that Blacks are no more criminal than any other race.^cite   However, Blacks are 90% more likely to be portrayed in the media as being criminals and / or being arrested for crimes, regardless of their guilt or innocence.^cite   The general population, being law abiding citizens, then think that those portrayed in the media as being primary suspects in a criminal case, deserve nothing less than jail or some form of punishment.  It stands to reason that since they are the chief suspects that they deserve to be suspected.  However, while the media portrays Blacks as being the normal criminal suspect of police, they never retract any of their stories, should the person be proven to be innocent.^cite   This constant barrage of Black suspects then, ingrains itself into the brain of those who watch it and people then come to expect Blacks to always be the primary suspects in criminal cases.  After some time, this becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Young Blacks are bombarded with images of Blacks being criminals.  The next step is to cast Black artists in the images of criminals and have them praise their own fake criminal backgrounds.^cite   As sure as the day is long, this recipe comes to fruition and idiot Black youth start acting out the very images they see in video and in movies.

Years ago when the mafia movies first started coming out, there was a minor group that protested the movies, saying that they glorified violence, and the criminal element.^cite   They were against white Italians being portrayed as criminals and the movies glorifying crime.^cite   Hollywood of course never listened.  So to the various groups chagrin, Italians were permanently cast as being mafioso.  However, the vehement fight the groups put up left an indelible impression on me, that we should always fight when the national media and entertainment outlets seeks to define an entire race or country of origin of a group of people.

In a country where young Black kids are constantly bombarded with images of Black men being IN prison or an idiot rapper glorifying his criminal past, it is no wonder that Black youth first seek to resort to a criminal option to a situation.  In fact, it is now considered a part of a Black manly identity if you dress, act and think like a prison inmate.^cite   The Black male group thinks it weak if you do not disrespect women.  The Black male group thinks it weak if you don’t act like a “thug”.  In fact the word “thug” has completely been usurped by the Black male group.  Instead it being a male criminal, normally of Italian origin, it has been recast to mean a Black male individual.  Also being a “thug” is now seen as being both cool and sexy.

The Destruction from Without

From the highest office in the land, Blacks are now the prime target for incarceration. ^cite According to research, president Nixon conducted a national study and then changed the results to reflect that Blacks were the originators of all of the unrest in the country. Knowing full well that the entire country was against his Vietnam war, he nevertheless targeted Blacks as the chief source of unrest.^cite He then started his “war on drugs” with the primary target being Blacks.^cite 90% of all Blacks in prison right now are there due to some form of a drug charge.^cite Meanwhile drugs were being introduced into the Black community from a mysterious outside source. Before the 60s there was no drug presence to speak of in the Black communities across the land.^cite But, after this time drugs in the Black community became rampant and readily available. For a community that was generally isolated, having rare, imported drugs being spread wide and readily available is suspect all by itself.  No Black leader has ever raised the issue of where any of these drugs have come from, nor has any media outlet ever let on that drugs were not a “Black thing” before.  For all intents and purposes, Black history month goes more along the lines of Black fantasy month, because they never show how financially sound, well adjusted and progressive the Black community was before civil rights.  Study after study has shown that the income gap, the educational gap and the buying power was aggressively decreasing before desegregation, while now it is widening at an alarming rate.^cite  No Black leader wants to admit that desegregation and civil rights destroyed the Black community, not build it up.^cite

The Financial Miseducation of Blacks

Wells Fargo has been the current love child of predatory lending and wiping out Black wealth.  While calling a house an asset is a misnomer, 90% of all Black wealth is derived from their family house.  In other words, of all the assets you can use to judge a Black families financial worth, their house is usually the only “asset” a Black family has.  That being said, if you were to concoct a scheme to swindle a Black family out of their house, you could wipe out nearly all Black wealth in the nation.  Wells Fargo is under investigation for just that very thing.^cite  They systematically targeted Blacks, based on the fact that Blacks are completely financially ignorant, for predatory lending.^cite

What is predatory lending?  Unscrupulous actions carried out by a lender to entice, induce and/or assist a borrower in taking a mortgage that carries high fees, a high interest rate, strips the borrower of equity, or places the borrower in a lower credit rated loan to the benefit of the lender. As with most things of a dishonest nature, new and different predatory lending schemes frequently arise.^cite

The easiest way to completely avoid predatory lending is to SHOP AROUND.  Remember that song?  Even the most financially ignorant person can hedge their bets that they will not be “taken” if they simply shop around.  Normally the loan scam starts by either, the bank coming to the doorstep of the person, or if they’re buying a house, the realtor suggesting the bank. The buyer then signs the loan with that bank without ever looking at another bank or lender for better terms.  It would completely disrupt the scam if the buyer simply went to at least 5 other banks, credit unions, or lenders to compare terms.  However, no Black leader or Black organization, *cough*NAACP*cough*, ever brings a law suit on behalf of a Black community that has been the target of predatory lending.^cite   Right off the top of my head, Memphis has born the brunt of Wells Fargo’s predatory lending campaign.^cite   It took city leaders to bring a lawsuit against them.  Seems Jesse and friends have been completely silent on the issue.  And, why would I say Blacks were the target?  Because, employees of the company have signed affidavits attesting to the fact that supervisors in the bank specifically said to target Blacks because they are not financially savvy.  They had Blacks sign mortgages with 29% interest when they qualified for 5% interest.^cite   They had Blacks strip themselves of all the equity in their home, saying it was a lower interest loan to consolidate ALL of their debt, when in fact it was an interest only with a balloon payment mortgage, or adjustable-rate mortgage.^cite 

Stop Predatory Lending: A Guide for Legal Advocates

What is an ARM?  An adjustable-rate mortgage is a type of mortgage in which the interest rate paid on the outstanding balance varies according to a specific benchmark. The initial interest rate is normally fixed for a period of time after which it is reset periodically, often every month. The interest rate paid by the borrower will be based on a benchmark plus an additional spread, called an ARM margin.  For example a 2/28 arm loan would have you pay a very low interest rate for 2 years, however for the next 28 years that interest rate would keep adjusting up and up, even monthly.^cite

Black communities like Memphis, were wiped out by predatory lending and the sub-prime mortgage crash.  The Black wealth was completely robbed.  Where white wealth was not wiped out, the biggest losers have been the Black community, across all racial boards.

What Has to Happen

First and foremost, we as a community have to acknowledge what has happened.  Until we can come to terms with the factors that are leading to our downfall, we cannot hope to progress.

• Blacks are constantly the butt of crime
• Blacks are portrayed as criminals
• Black entertainers glorify crime
• Black males glorify being a criminal
• Blacks are portrayed in movies as being criminals
• Blacks are portrayed in movies as being unintelligent
• Blacks are never portrayed as a bad guy with tremendous intellect, i.e. a nemesis or arch-enemy
• the Black community before desegregation was on tract to close the income gap between Blacks and whites
• Blacks are the chief target of predatory lending
• Blacks are never educated financially
• Blacks have suffured the most in the sub-prime crash
• due to complete financial ignorance, Blacks signed sub-prime loans when they qualified for low interest prime loans
• the current economic crash wiped out nearly 50% of Black wealth in the entire nation
• due to a general lack of Black owned and operated businesses, Black unemployment is triple the national average, in some sectors it is nearly 50%
• due to a general lack of Black reinvestment into the community there are less and less Black businesses

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For Blacks: I Am Unapologetic

I Am Unapologetic for Discussing Black Issues

Time and again when I mention the word Black in mixed [read white] company, I immediately get harassed and get the “why does it have to be a Black issue”.  What’s worse is, when I bring up a Black issue in the company of a young Black man and he does the whole Sambo dance in front of me about how “color blind” he is.  For instance last night I was having a conversation with two tourists, both young Black men.  The one was discussing how he was staying at a hotel shaped like a pyramid.  I made the joking comment how all of the fixtures and decorations depicted the Africans as being white.  The Black man that made the comment went into a tirade of how it shouldn’t be a Black issue.  The two Puerto Ricans and his own friend tried to explain what I had said to him.  We all finally gave up when he continued to stand by how I had said something remotely offensive or racist, even after the Puerto Ricans pointed out that it was racist to depict Africans as being white.

I find it offensive when people attack me for mentioning Black issues.  As far as I can tell, noone is talking about Black issues.  Oh, people are talking about “latino” issues.  People are talking about women’s issues.  People are talking about Jewish issues.  Absolutely noone is talking about how the Black community is being defined by the media and being destroyed.  Noone is talking about how Black women are gracing the covers of XXL, King and SSX looking like complete prostitutes, with distended breasts and distended behinds.  Noone is talking about how although the U.S. Black buying power has risen from $318 billion in 1990, to $590 billion in 2000, to $799 billion last year, and will rise to $1.1 trillion in 2011 – a 237 percent increase in 22 years, they still have the lowest median household income of ALL races in America, even if you included Latino as a race [which it is not].  Noone is talking about that Blacks spent a larger percentage of their income on natural gas, electricity, telephone services, and footwear, and a higher proportion of their money on groceries, housing and women’s and girls’ clothing than others.  Noone is talking about that Black consumers account for almost nine cents out of every U.S. dollar spent.

I am unapologetic for discussing the complete lack of Black financial education.  Wells Fargo is under investigation as being the TOP reserve-redlining bank in the entire country.  And how were they capable of single-handedly taking down nearly all of the Black wealth in the country?  By targeting Black folks who were completely financially non-savvy.

You want to harass and complain about me discussing Black issues?  Take down Fox.  Take down Rush Limbaugh.  Take down Michael Reagan.  Take down Michael Savage.  Take down Bill O’Reilly.  Take down Pat Robertson.  Take down Glenn Beck.  Take down Ann Coulter.  I will never apologize while these … people are up and running with their hate mongering, fear mongering and divisionary revision of current history.

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For Blacks: What is a Man?

Are You a Man?

Read any man-hating feminist website and you’ll find 10 definitions of what a man is.  They all circle, like vultures, around the key talking point of the definition of a man being somehow related to the financial responsibility male humans having to their unborn or born children, conceived and delivered out of wedlock.  Contrary to statistical facts to the contrary, these definitions are ultimately aimed at the Black “man”.

The straw that broke the camels back, and why I’m writing this article, is when a facebooked “friend”, a “brother” [you know the type, a stereotypical black guy that MTV loves to put on some stupid reality show they have], parroted that same lame definition that a man is somehow defined by his lack of financial backing of some bastard child he has had.

Let’s set the record straight to all you idiots who read this crap and don’t do your own research:

• regardless of your specific retarded Black man that doesn’t give you a dime personally, Black MEN spend:
1. more money, percentagewise, compared to their own income – for their children
2. more time and more quality time – with their children

than any other racial category out there.* 

• there is not a widespread unwed mother epedemic in the Black community – they are a small minority*
• once married, Black couples tend to stay together for life, moreso than any other racial group – yes Black people have a lower divorce rate*
• Black people in general are LESS promiscuous than other racial groups – Black people tend to have less premarital sex than other races*

So when you see some Black woman talking about shiftless, trifling, deadbeat Black fathers, you need to correct her and tell her, that that’s just HER man.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d venture to guess that the people trying to say Black men have a tendency to be deadbeat fathers, probably aren’t even Black.  Say it enough times and people will believe it is true.  But, who would want Black men to have a bad reputation with Black women?  *GASP*  who could it be? [sarcasm off]

The Real Definition of a Man

All stupidity aside, the definition of being “a man” has nothing to do with finances.  Quite frankly, if women didn’t open their legs to begin with, we wouldn’t even have an unwed mother issue at all.  Yes, I said it.  And, it needs to be said.  You don’t blame T.V. for your child copying a show and killing itself, you blame the parent for being bad parents.  Just as you don’t blame some lower income class boy for not paying money to some girl who opened her legs several times.  You knew he didn’t have money when you met him.  What’s the big surprise he doesn’t pay you money for you having a bastard child?  Close your legs and none of this would be a problem.  And, quite frankly, in my book, both do not share the responsibility of her being an unwed mother.  A man and a woman are not equal in pregnancy.  Stop trying to put it on the boy that he is somehow equal to a female.  Once you divest yourself of this notion of equality among the sexes you’ll notice that women and men are vastly different when it comes to child bearing and rearing.  This carebear, huggably soft, society we live in today is leading us down a blind path towards a cliff.  Once we fall off, there is no turning back.  Women and men are not equal.  Women and men are not the same.

Do you think for a minute, if I, a man, could get pregnant from having casual sex that I would EVER have casual sex?  Oh, let me answer that for you, in case you didn’t get my drift.  HELLLLLLLLLLLLL NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I would never have casual sex.  I would need ironclad assurances before I had sex with anyone.  I would need legally binding documents.  I would need spiritually binding ceremonies.  I would need cosmic forces that would come to bear upon my female counterpart, to force her to raise the child with me and be financially committed to it, before I had sex with her, if I could get pregnant from having sex.

You think that’s a joke?  I am in no way joking about that.  I already know the consequence is having a baby.  Why on earth, would I risk that?  I am not kidding at all.

Everyone is quick to say 2 things:

1. kids are just kids and don’t know anything
2. kids are so grown up these days and know everything

I tend to think the 2nd is true.  I think kids know that by having sex, a baby will pop out.  So I do not think it’s harsh to say that EVERYONE knows the consequences of having sex.  If they know to have sex, they know what’s going to happen at the other end of that.  Even if you never told a child that, instinctively they know that having sex is different from anything else they have EVER done.  That instinct alone tells us that sex is something unique.

[for those saying it’s not kids fault if they have children after having sex, reread the above paragraph]

So I have told you so far that we all know where babies come from; we all know that unwed mothers are a minority within the Black community; so what is the definition of a Black man.  I said all the above to bring you to the frame of mind that, this negative propaganda against the Black man has nothing to do with the core definition of a Black man.  Why in the hell would you define your races strongest sex, by some political mumbo jumbo that’s based on lies?

What Does it Mean to be a Black Man?

A man in general is someone who is capable of putting bread on his own table, putting a roof over his own head and standing by his own word.  Notice I made the definition selfish.  Why is that?  Because it is the reality of the definition.  A man is not defined by what he does for a female, nor is a female defined by what she does for a man?  Somehow our society tries to put man and woman together and try to equate them.

When you, a female, goes out to find yourself a “man” you should not looking for a male that has done tricks for other women, you need to find yourself a male that can do for himself.

This is exactly why we are in this stupid predicament of “he my baby daddy and he don’t pay me”.  If you find yourself a “man” then none of this would happen.

Let’s go over that definition.  It has 3 parts:

1. capable of putting bread on his own table, 
2. putting a roof over his own head
3. standing by his own word.

Immediately, if you have studied any psychology or anthropology, that you see the basic human needs are met, food and shelter.  But, for our modern society I have upgraded it to gainful employment and self sufficiency.  Once you find a brother that is self sufficient, the search for a “man” is nearly over.  The very last part of the definition elevates a man as someone that is trustworthy.  You should never jump in bed with anyone, ever, to begin with.  However, should you find yourself in the predicament of falling to lust, make sure you’re with a trustworthy man.  If your man is trustworthy to begin with, for the most part, he was probably going to marry you anyway.  Even if he wasn’t considering marrying you before you getting pregnant, he would probably go ahead and marry you.

[for those with this foolish notion that marriage isn’t everything or that marriage means nothing, someone needs to knock some sense into you.  marriage is everything and children are everything. family is everything. without family you have nothing. regardless of how much money you make in your life, at the end of the day money is meaningless and the lasting impressions are what life is about.]

It’s the finding the man you can depend on and trust, that’s the hard part.  I know it’s easy, in a time of weakness, to just go find any old Tom, Harry and Dick, but the onus is on you to bear the brunt of the responsibility if you end up in a life changing predicament.  You literally have noone but yourself to blame.  Once you have found a dependable man, it is rather easy to date him and / or marry him.  And, as long as you don’t sweat the small stuff, your marriage will last forever.

So let’s not fall into the trap of letting some bitter man / woman define what a Black man is for us.  With a cool head and mind, we can define what a real Black man, all by ourselves.

Loose Ends

Some people take my definition to mean that they should only date Black men who drives BMWs.  Since I said you should look for a man that can provide for himself.  But, I was being literal when I said he can provide for himself.  Instead of looking for a Black man driving a BMW, you need to look FOR a BMW [Black Man Working].  If you live in gang territory, and the nerd that goes to his Famous Amos job every day and only makes $150.00 / week net take home, isn’t considered to be a “baller” in your hood, then you’ve got your head screwed on wrong.  First of all a “baller” isn’t someone who spends lots of money, but someone who makes lots of money.  If the brother is spending lots of money, it means he’ll quickly end up without that money.  [hello Toni Braxton, is broke, cuz she spends money like a drunken sailor]

Don’t look for the flashy guy, look for the guy that has the mind to be responsible.  If he’s responsible to himself, he’ll be responsible with you.  If a Black man HAPPENS to drive a BMW, he better be making so much that the cost of the car was negligible to him, meaning in relative terms he could more than afford to buy it and is not going broke from it. [hell for that matter find a brother driving a BMW that is paid off, screw a car payment]

Also do not discount a Black man that lives at home with his parents.  I wish I had parents I could live with, I’d be saving so much money it wouldn’t be funny.  If you find a Black man that has a job, or runs a business [even better] and lives at home, then more than likely you have hit the jackpot.

1. he’s not stupid enough to be paying rent, giving his money away to someone else
2. he’s probably stashing away money like a squirrel in summer
3. he’s probably got a lot going on upstairs [as in his brain] since #1 and #2 might be true

So many females disrespect a Black man that lives at home.  More than likely, they don’t have a clue about life themselves.  But, should you be one of those females and you’re reading this understand this: paying rent makes someone else rich.  Sure you have some privacy [not really if it’s an apartment].  Sure you have some security [not really if it’s an apartment].  But, for the most part you are working to pay off someone else’s mortgage.

Sadly Black people pay a much higher percentage of their monthly income in housing than any other race.  This means that Black people tend to go over the financially sound principles of maintaining and gaining wealth.*

If I were you, you being a young female, I would actually LOOK for a Black man with a job or who owns a business that lives at home.  Unless you can find a Black man that runs his own business and has a house that’s already paid for, look for the one that lives at home, the rest are foolish and don’t know the value of a dollar.

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Movie Review: Flipped

Flipped Needs to be Flipped Off

Rob Reiner takes us through a very weird tale of “young love”.  With an all star cast, how could you go wrong with this movie?  But, he does it in style and with aplomb, crashes like a Japanese Kamakazi going down in a blaze of glory.  It is 90 minutes of torture.  I don’t think the Alquaeda could have done a better job.

Cast: Juli Baker by Madeline Carroll; Bryce Loski by Callan McAuliffe; Patsy Loski by Rebecca De Mornay; Steven Loski by Anthony Edwards; Chet Duncan by John Mahoney; Trina Baker by Penelope Ann Miller; Richard Baker by Aidan Quinn; Daniel Baker by Kevin Weisman.

Flipped is a period piece of two very young kids and their changing opinions of each other through the ages from age 4 – 12 years old, and their coming into a mutual affection.  It is an on again, off again affection, on both sides.  The young girl admires the young boy, while the boy dislikes the young girl.  We are made to watch this scenario play out for 8 years of their life.

What was right about the movie?: The movie did have the correct cars and costumes for the period.  There were some wide shots of landscape vistas that were pretty.  That is the only thing the movie did right.

What was wrong with the movie?:

• first and foremost the movie sexualized children.  It was 90 minutes of cringing.  It was sick, sick, sick.
• the movie was a period piece and so many things were wrong
1. none of the dialogue was from the 40s or 50s. The very essence of the period was the very proper and fantastic way Americans spoke at that time. The slang they used in those days was so colorful. All of this was completely gone in the movie and replaced with regular modern vocabulary and 2010 euphemisms. It’s a travesty.
2. none of the manners that were widely observed in the 40s and 50s were apparent. If this movie is really targeted at baby boomers, as the movie suggests, they will be horrified by how the kids treat the adults.
3. everyone cursed in the movie. To my knowledge, and I am fairly old, people did not walk around cursing each other out, however in this movie, kids, teens and adults cursed like sailors.
4. other than people wearing funky clothes, there was nothing that took you back to the 40s and 50s.
• there was no point to the entire movie. The diaglogue was boring, and the entire screenplay was narrated. To add insult to injury, the narration “flipped” between both lead characters. The only relief of something actually happening was when the kids interacted with the adults in the movie. I don’t hate kids, but come on, they are not fun to watch.
• Finally, kids acting like kids, but written by hairy old white men, with Harvard Business School vocabularies, removes all semblance of somehow being transported into a “kid’s” world. Someone should have clued Rob Reiner into how kids actually talk, before he sat down to write an entire screenplay about them.

The movie does not fit into any demographic that I could tell. I have no idea who this movie would appeal to. I say that to say, don’t go see it, but if you’re … I have no idea … then go see it, but… I have no idea who would like this trash.  It was agonizing to watch this.

I kept expecting something to happen and … then the movie ended.  It was a very Sopranos ending.  I am sure more than a few people will be angry at having sat through this movie only to have it end without any conclusion to the story whatsoever.

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Fox Refuses to Pay Black Couple $800,000 on Their Show Fox "Million Dollar Drop"

“Million Dollar Drop” Says Black Couple Answered Wrong

On Fox’s premier episode of “Million Dollar Drop”, on Monday, a Black couple prepared to answer a question presented to them worth $800,000.00.  The couple answered the question correctly, but Fox claims the wording of the question made the answer wrong and refused to pay the Black couple the $800,000.00.  A blogger caught the show and posted that the producers of the show were wrong for claiming the contestant got the question wrong.  Gabe Okoye and Brittany May felt confident that the category “Inventions” would be easy to answer for them.  The host asked them this question:

“Which product was first sold: the Macintosh computer, the Sony Walkman, or 3M’s Post-It Notes.”

Okoye answered that 3M’s Post-It-Notes was the first product.  The controversy is over the wording of the question, versus the technicality of the answer.  Also keep in mind that the category was inventions.

The producers of the show gave the host Pollak the answer that 3M was not the first product, and that the correct answer was the Sony Walkman.  Richard Lawson of Gawker.com expressed his doubts. Post-Its first started trickling into the marketplace as early as 1977 — so, earlier than the Sony Walkman, which debuted in 1979 (and not, as Okoye guesses on the show, in “the ’90s”).

It seems that by including 3M in the answers, that the entire question is a trick question.  You see 3M Post-It-Notes although nationally marketed, were only given away to a select area, for free in 1977.  The marketing ploy made headlines and garnered some free press nationwide.  I personally remembered stories about the actual inventor of Post-It-Notes getting ripped off by 3M, i.e. although he invented it, he got nearly nothing compared to the millions the company made, because he was under contract with 3M at the time.

The Post-It-Notes were not made available in stores nationwide until 1980.  Now although the product was available for free in a select few markets, I personally got a stack before 1980, in Nevada.

However, Fox sticks by their fact-check of the question, as directed by 3M that they were available for sale nationwide in 1980.  My guess is, that Fox did not ask 3M when was the product invented and introduced to the market.  It’s like the difference between you getting your hands on a new Hershey’s chocolate bar, and not knowing it’s not in a store, versus the actual first contract to sale them in stores.

My guess is that 3M provided Fox with the answer to the question they asked, i.e. when were Post-It-Notes first SOLD.  I guarantee if Fox had asked: “when were Post-It-Notes first invented and made available to the public” they would have gotten a completely different answer.

The executive producer of “Million Dollar Money Drop,” Jeff Apploff issued a statement to Gawker, “The integrity of the questions and answers on our show are our No. 1 priority. In this case, our research team spoke directly with 3M, and they confirmed that although they had given out free samples in test markets in 1977 and 1978, it wasn’t until 1980 that Post-Its were sold in stores. Million Dollar Money Drop stands behind the answer that was revealed on the show.”

However, upon further research, it seems the producers have let a few questions slip between their grasps, as several sources have found their answers to be wrong in addition to this question.

In my opinion Fox is splitting hairs on this answer.  And, we are talking about splitting hairs on a $800,000 question.  It seems that their integrity is rightfully in question if at this early stage in the show this controversy is already arising.

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Christmas Should Be More About Family and Food Than Gifts and Debt

Going Into Debt Over Christmas

They are going to try to get you to spend all your money you made this entire year in one shopping period, Christmas.  It is where they spend the most time and money for marketing.  But, if this economic period has not awakened you to how our country is completely upside down, then you truly need to wake up.  First of all, understand what the “holiday” is.  Christmas is the Christian observance of the birth of their messiah.  It is a strictly religious holiday.  If you’re not Christian, you shouldn’t even be observing the holiday to begin with.  However, because Americans have such a herd mentality, even Atheists buy their children presents on Christmas, because “everyone does it.”

If you’re not Christian, you shouldn’t even be observing the holiday to begin with.

What’s more is that, the Christian Messiah wasn’t even born in December.  He was born in June.

Dies Natalis Solis Invicti

Sol Invictus was the official sun god of the later Roman empire. The religion was created by Aurelian in 274, who made it an official religion alongside the traditional Roman religions. Scholars disagree whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin religion of Sol, a revival of the religion of Elagabalus or completely new. The god was favoured by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD. and there were enough devotees in the 5th century that Augustine found it necessary to preach against them. A festival on 25 Dec. is sometimes thought to be responsible for the date of Christmas.

The Roman gens Aurelian was associated with the religion of Sol. After his victories in the East, the emperor Aurelian thoroughly reformed the Roman religion of Sol, elevating the sun-god to one of the premier divinities of the empire. Where previously a priests of Sol had been simply sacerdotes and tended to belong to lower ranks of Roman society, they were now pontifices and members of the new college of pontifices instituted by Aurelian. Every pontifex of Sol was a member of the senatorial elite, indicating that the priesthood of Sol was now highly prestigious. Almost all these senators held other priesthoods as well, however, and some of these other priesthoods take precedence in the inscriptions in which they are listed, suggesting that they were considered more prestigious than the priesthood of Sol. Aurelian also built a new temple for Sol, bringing the total number of temples for the god in Rome to (at least) four. He also instituted games in honor of the sun god, held every four years from AD 274 onwards.

The confusion surrounding Aurelian’s reforms has been significant, much of it rooted in the mistaken opinion that he was introducing a new religion, which, as is now clear, he was not. The following constitute the most common errors of fact attributed to Aurelian and his reforms.

Aurelian called his sun god Sol Invictus to differentiate him from the earlier Roman god Sol.

Actually, Aurelian is twice as likely to call Sol Oriens on his coins as he is Sol Invictus.  Only one of the fifteen or so pontifices of Sol adds the epithet invictus; all others simply call themselves “pontifex Solis”.

Aurelian built his new temple for a Syrian sun god, not the Roman one.

There is no credible evidence to support this, and ample evidence to refute it. The “Syrian Sol-hypothesis” is therefore now rejected by all specialists in the field.

Aurelian inaugurated his new temple dedicated to Sol Invictus and held the first games for Sol on December 25, 274, on the supposed day of the winter solstice and day of rebirth of the Sun.

This is not only pure conjecture, but goes against the best evidence available. There is no record of celebrating Sol on December 25 prior to CE 354/362. Hijmans lists the known festivals of Sol as August 8 and/or 9, August 28, and December 11. There are no sources that indicate on which day Aurelian inaugurated his temple and held the first games for Sol, but we do know that these games were held every four years from CE 274 onwards. This means that they were presumably held in CE 354, a year for which perchance a Roman calendar, the Chronography of 354 (or calendar of Filocalus), has survived. This calendar lists a festival for Sol and Luna on August 28, Ludi Solis (games for Sol) for October 19–22, and a Natalis Invicti (birthday of the invincible one) on December 25. While it is widely assumed that the invictus of December 25 is Sol, the calendar does not state this explicitly. The only explicit reference to a celebration of Sol in late December is made by Julian the Apostate in his hymn to King Helios written immediately afterwards in early CE 363. Julian explicitly differentiates between the one-day, annual celebration of late December 362 and the multi-day quadrennial games of Sol which, of course, had also been held in 362, but clearly at a different time. Taken together, the evidence of the Calendar of Filocalus and Julian’s hymn to Helios clearly shows, according to Hijmans and others, that the ludi of October 19–22 were the Solar Games instituted by Aurelian. They presumably coincided with the dedication of his new temple for Sol.

After Aurelian, Sol became supreme deity of the Roman Empire.

Therefore, if you, as a Christian, celebrate December 25th as the birth of your messiah, you are celebrating a pagan holiday and not the actual birth of the messiah.  And, how was the pagan holiday observed?  By gift giving!

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The exchanging of gifts is one of the core aspects of the modern Christmas celebration, making the Christmas season the most profitable time of year for retailers and businesses throughout the world. Gift giving was common in the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, an ancient festival which took place in late December and may have influenced Christmas customs. Christmas gift giving was banned by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages due to its suspected pagan origins. It was later rationalized by the Church on the basis that it associated St. Nicholas with Christmas, and that gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh were given to the infant Jesus by the Biblical Magi.

I don’t think any more evidence need be put forth for the argument that what Christians are being taught as being the most holy day of their religion, is an actual pagan celebration, with a pagan ritual of gift giving.

It can be said that people going into debt, in general, just to give gifts deserve what they get.  I am here to tell you that there is another way.

I think a new tradition for Christmas should be started: paying off debts.  That means, instead of buying gifts and giving them away, families should come together and try to pay off or pay down debts, so the entire family prospers.  If you truly are Christian, there could be no more appropriate observance of the messiah that forgave all our debts, than a ritual paying off of debts.

A Jewish friend once told me that it is ungodly to be in debt to another man.

Proverbs 22:

7. The rich rule over the poor,and the borrower is servant to the lender.

22. Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court,

23. for the Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them.

26. Do not be a man who strikes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts;

27. if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.

I don’t think I could warn you any more than this.

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Stock Index Futures Make Investors Bullish

Stock Index Futures Signal Gains, Adobe Eyed

PARIS (Reuters) by Blaise Robinson – Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.36 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.32 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.27 percent at 0928 GMT (4:28 a.m. EDT).

Adobe Systems Inc (ADBE.O) will be in focus after it issued an earnings forecast sharply above Wall Street projections, contrasting sharply with a pessimistic outlook three months ago when it was concerned about the weak economy. Its shares surged more than 7 percent afterhours, and were up 4.4 percent on Frankfurt (ADBE.F) on Tuesday.

Genzyme Corp (GENZ.O) held its second investor meeting in two months to argue that its most promising experimental drug will capture five times the sales that Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) has assumed in a hostile $18.5 billion takeover bid.

Dutch chemicals group DSM (DSMN.AS) said on Tuesday it would buy Martek Biosciences Corporation (MATK.O) for $1.087 billion (829 million euros) in cash to specialize further in the niche food nutrition industry.

Constellation Brands Inc (STZ.N) is close to selling most of its non-U.S. wine portfolio, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Alpha Natural Resources (ANR.N) has made an offer for rival U.S. coal miner Massey Energy (MEE.N), the Wall Street Journal reported, citing members of Massey Energy’s board.

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO) is close to an agreement to buy Chrysler Financial from private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management (CBS.UL) for $6.3 billion, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Jabil Circuit Inc (JBL.N) posted market-beating first-quarter results, helped by strong growth across segments, and forecast a robust second quarter, sending shares of the electronics manufacturing services provider up 3.5 percent in trading after the bell.

U.S. diversified manufacturer 3M Co (MMM.N) denied on Monday a published report that its top executive, George Buckley, was seeking to step down before his contract expires in early 2012.

Oil prices rose for the third straight session on Tuesday, supported by cold weather in the United States and Europe, seasonal gasoline demand and an expected drop in U.S. crude stocks.

European stocks were up 0.7 percent in morning trade in thin volume, with record-high copper prices helping mining stocks while investors brushed aside Moody’s warning it may downgrade Portugal’s debt rating.

On the earnings front, ConAgra Foods (CAG.N), Carnival Corp. (CCL.N), Cintas Corp. (CTAS.O), Nike (NKE.N) and Red Hat Inc (RHT.N) are among companies expected to report results.

U.S. stocks tacked on further gains to push the S&P 500 to a two-year high on Monday, continuing a steady upward march investors believe will continue in 2011.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dipped 13.78 points, or 0.12 percent, to 11,478.13. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.SPX) added 3.17 points, or 0.25 percent, to 1,247.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) rose 6.59 points, or 0.25 percent, to 2,649.56.

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Wall Street Not Giving Up on a Bullish Market

Merger Action, Earnings Push Stocks Higher

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks rose on Tuesday as solid earnings and a new flurry of merger action laid the foundation for a steady upward trend in the equities market that investors believe will continue.

U.S. stock indexes hit new highs after topping key technical resistance levels. The S&P 500 has rallied 6.1 percent to two-year highs this month and was up around 22.5 percent from closing lows this year.

Analysts said equity markets were also lifted as fund managers reallocated cash to equities from fixed income and reduced cash positions.

“The psychology has changed. With interest rates coming up, the bond market is telling you, you don’t want to be in bonds if the economy may be improving next year. So a lot of that money is starting to move into the stock market,” said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

“This is your Santa Claus rally. Everybody is coming in, you are clicking on all eight cylinders here.”

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) gained 40.31 points, or 0.35 percent, to 11,518.44. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.SPX) rose 5.26 points, or 0.42 percent, to 1,252.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) advanced 12.65 points, or 0.48 percent, to 2,662.21.

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Adobe Systems Inc (ADBE.O) jumped 4.6 percent to $30.53 after an upbeat forecast in contrast with a pessimistic outlook three months ago. For details, see [ID:nN20202319]

U.S. coal miner Massey Energy Co (MEE.N) rose 1.3 percent to $52.49 after the Wall Street Journal reported that rival Alpha Natural Resources Inc (ANR.N) offered to buy it. Alpha Natural climbed nearly 3 percent to $55.15.

Further supporting rising stock indexes were recent technical signals indicating the march upward could continue.

The S&P 500, which has gained in each of the last three weeks, broke through the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement of the 2007-2009 bear market slide earlier this month.

Technicians say the next stop is the 76.4 percent retracement at 1,362.

John Brady, senior vice president at MF Global in Chicago, expects the market to move either slowly sideways or higher as S&P 500 works off an overbought condition shown in the seven-day and nine-day Relative Strength Index (RSI).

“It’s a grind trade higher on not a whole lot of volume,” he said. “A trade between 1,250 and 1,230 (in the S&P 500) seems really well contained, and any profit-taking will probably be modest.”

The RSI provides a measure of higher closes to lower closes over a given trading period and is closely watched by traders.

In other individual movers, Martek Biosciences Corp (MATK.O) surged 35 percent to $31.54 after Dutch group DSM (DSMN.AS), the world’s largest vitamins maker, agreed to buy the maker of U.S. baby food ingredients.

Jabil Circuit Inc (JBL.N), the electronics manufacturer, advanced 10 percent to $19.38 a day after it reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and forecast a robust second quarter.

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CarMax Reports Quarterly Profits for 3Q

Summary Box: CarMax 3Q Net Income Up 10%

By The Associated Press – PROFITS UP: Used car dealership chain CarMax Inc. said its fiscal third-quarter net income rose more than 10 percent to $82.4 million, or 36 cents per share, in the three months that ended Nov. 30, up from $74.6 million, or 33 cents per share.

DOUBLE-DIGIT GAINS: Revenue rose 23 percent to $2.12 billion on strong used car sales and higher prices. Sales at stores open at least one year increased 16 percent during the quarter.

IT’S THE ECONOMY: Used car sales have been strong all year as buyers look to cut costs out of job security fears, and the demand has pushed prices to record levels.

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New Jersey State Supreme Court Orders Mortgage Lenders to Answer for Fraudulent Foreclosures

Mortgage Lenders Ordered to Appear in NJ Court

By DAVID PORTER, Associated Press NEWARK, N.J. – Six lenders who have combined to file nearly 30,000 foreclosure actions in New Jersey this year face the possible suspension of their operations next month under a court order announced Monday by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner.

The action follows a report submitted to the Supreme Court that, citing depositions and court filings in other states, paints a picture of systemic abuses in the filing of foreclosures that include so-called “robo-signing,” in which employees signed hundreds of documents without checking them for accuracy.

In one instance cited in an administrative order, an employee of OneWest Bank, formerly IndyMac Federal Bank, said in a deposition that she signed 750 documents a week, taking no more than 30 seconds per document and relying on others to check the documents’ accuracy prior to signing.

Employees testifying in other depositions said they were authorized to sign documents despite having no background in the mortgage industry and little or no understanding of what they were signing.

OneWest and five other lenders were ordered to appear in state Superior Court in Trenton on Jan. 19 to demonstrate why the state shouldn’t suspend their foreclosure actions. The others are Ally Financial, formerly GMAC; BAC Home Loan Servicing, a subsidiary of Bank of America; JP Morgan Chase’s Chase Home Finance; Wells Fargo Financial New Jersey and CitiResidential Living, a subsidiary of Citibank.

“It’s important that the judiciary ensures judges are not rubber-stamping documents that may not be reliable,” Rabner said in a conference call Monday.

He said he believes New Jersey is the first state to take such action against mortgage lenders, a view echoed by Ira Rheingold, an attorney and executive director of the Washington-based National Association of Consumer Advocates, which has tracked the foreclosure crisis.

“To have a state Supreme Court haul in these lenders, it’s something I have not seen reach this level,” Rheingold said.

Spokespeople for Bank of America and Ally Financial said the companies wouldn’t comment on the order. Wells Fargo spokesman Jason Menke said the company “intends to comply with the New Jersey court’s order and demonstrate why the foreclosures scheduled in New Jersey should move forward.” The other companies didn’t immediately respond to e-mail or phone messages seeking comment.

Rabner announced that 24 other lenders will be required to submit documentation to a special master, retired state Superior Court Judge Walter R. Barisonek, to demonstrate that there are no irregularities in their handling of foreclosure proceedings. Rabner stressed that that group of lenders has not been accused of wrongdoing and was selected because each had processed at least 200 foreclosures this year.

The six lenders scheduled to appear in court next month have processed more than 29,000 foreclosures in New Jersey this year, Rabner said. The other 24 have filed about 16,000. The total represents nearly three-quarters of the 65,000 foreclosures filed in New Jersey, a number that has tripled since 2006, Rabner said.

More problematic, he said, is that 94 percent of the foreclosures have been uncontested, often due to homeowners’ inability to afford legal counsel.

“That means there’s no meaningful adversary process to protect them,” Rabner said.

The Supreme Court on Monday also issued an order requiring attorneys in all residential foreclosures to certify that lenders have reviewed documents for accuracy and confirmed the accuracy of all court filings.

Homeowners in several states have filed lawsuits recently alleging their homes were foreclosed on even though they were up to date on mortgage payments. In some cases, banks carted away belongings and changed the locks on the wrong homes.

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SEC Investigates Mark Hurd for Insider Trading

SEC Investigating Hurd’s Exit from HP: Source

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) by Gabriel Madway – Regulators are looking into the events surrounding Mark Hurd’s abrupt exit as chief executive of Hewlett Packard Co, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday.

The SEC’s probe was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cited anonymous sources as saying the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating claims that Hurd shared inside information with an ex-contractor ahead of its $13.9 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems in 2008.

Hurd’s departure in August stunned investors and sent shares tumbling 8 percent in the first trading day after the announcement. Now an Oracle co-president, he left under a cloud of sexual harassment accusations, although the board found no evidence to back up that allegation.

HP instead accused Hurd of filing inaccurate expense reports to conceal a “close personal relationship” with a former contractor, although Hurd’s representatives have disputed that.

Now, the government was also examining the claims of inaccurate expense reports filed by Hurd at HP, and looking into whether Hurd destroyed computer evidence related to his departure, the Journal reported.

HP confirmed the SEC probe but declined to comment on what the government was specifically investigating. Hurd declined comment through a spokesman.

“HP is cooperating fully with the SEC on its investigation,” a spokeswoman for the technology giant said.

Oracle declined comment. The SEC also would not comment.

Jodie Fisher, the contractor at the center of the controversy that led to Hurd’s ouster on August 6, alleged in a June 24 letter that Hurd divulged details about HP’s plans to acquire EDS before the deal was announced, a source said last month.

At that time, Hurd’s representatives denied the allegations, which were contained in the same letter in which Fisher accused Hurd of harassment.

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Sunday: Give Me That Old Time Religion

What is Religion?

The people in America feel that everything they started is the newest, bestest, most special thing on the planet.  They also think that everything they started is the most pure and innocent.  But, the reality is that behind every idea in this country, someone is sitting in a grand hall somewhere, who actually started and sent their “people” out to get the people to make it popular.  Most times, it’s done simply for the love of money.  Take religion, for example.  Everyone thinks the country was started based on some innocent and moral Christian ideal.  It is not true in the least bit.  Oh, don’t get me wrong.  Telling elementary school kids that the pilgrims came to run from persecution is a great story, but it is not the truth, in the least bit.  America was started for money pure and simple.  But, we tell each other these lies so that we can feel better about ourselves.  You cannot sell, “land of the free, and home of the brave” if the truth is rich men were sent here to basically be lords and duke over huge tracts of land, we know now as states and from day one they wanted cheap labor, like the Mexicans we have today.  Back then, they were called indentured servants, and then slaves.

This notion that religion played a part in this country is so ingrained in people that they refuse to believe this country was a money venture then, and is still a money venture today.  Instead of slaves and indentured servants, we simply have the poor and middle class.  And, religion still keeps the masses upon masses of people from rising up and defeating the upper class and becoming masters of themselves.

Let’s look at religion for a second.  The entire foundation of this new country is a mere two centuries.  It is a drop in the bucket, in the history of man. Yet, Americans delude themselves with the opiate of religion telling themselves that they are better than other countries because we take care of our poor and have charity for the disabled.  It is so far from the truth, as to be not even conceivable that one could tell one self that.  Other countries truly take care of their poor and truly take care of their disabled.  The current administration passed a law stating that charitable donations are taxable to nearly every penny donated.  In other words, “give to charity and we’ll tax you”.  Apparently churches and charities don’t have enough money to lobby congress to get that repealed.  Oh, there’s that word money again.

The country is also sold on the marketing scheme that Christianity is the only religion on the planet that leads to this so called Heaven.  In fact, no other religion on the planet, today, has so many splinter groups.  Everyone wants to call themselves Christian and yet wants their way of being a “Christian”.  But, they all agree that other religions, definitely are not the way to get to Heaven.  The truth of the matter is, Christianity is just another religion among religions: Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Scientology, Sikhism, Taoism, Baha’i, Confucianism, Vodun, Asatru, Druidism, Goddess Worship, Wicca, Witchcraft, Caodaism, Damanhur Community, Deism, Druze, Eckankar, Elian Gonzalez religious movement, Gnosticism, Gypsies, Hare Krishna – ISKCON, Ifa, the religion of the Yoruba people of West Africa, Lukumi, Macumba, Mowahhidoon, Native American Spirituality, Rom/Roma/Romani/Rroma (a.k.a. Gypsies), Santeria, Satanism-The Church of Satan, Unitarian Universalist Symbol Unitarian-Universalism, The Creativity Movement (formerly called World Church of the Creator), The Yazidi branch of Yazdanism, Zoroastrianism.

For the most part, religion is a case of location and not a case of actual belief.  If you’re born in a certain country, for the most part, you’re going to have a state religion that everyone believes in.  Americans like to delude themselves that there is no state religion, while 75% of the country believes in Christianity.  Is that by accident?

According to David Barrett and team, there are 19 major world religious groupings in the world which are subdivided into a total of about 10,000 distinct religions. Of the latter, there were 270 religions and para-religions which had over a half million adherents in the year 2000 CE. Within Christianity, they have identified 34,000 separate groups (denominations, sects, individual unaffiliated churches, para-church groups, etc) in the world. “Over half of them are independent churches that are not interested in linking with the big denominations.”

Even considering a single religion, Christianity, within a single country, there are often thousands of individual “Christian confessions and denominations.” For example, Barrett et al. states that there are:

• 4,684 groups in the U.S.
• 3,364 in South Africa.
• 2,079 in Nigeria.
• 1,581 in Brazil.
• 1,327 in South-central Asia.

Among other English-speaking countries, there are:

• 828 groups in the UK.
• 469 in Canada.
• 267 in Australia
• 175 in New Zealand.

 But, you might be asking yourself, what is the “true religion”.  Here’s a quote that might shock you:

“…just because you don’t bow on your knees and worship an idol or an invisible being, does not mean you are not a Satan worshiper. The worship of any other god (s) is the same thing. There are no other gods. They are demons and Satan is in control of them.” From the website http://www.exposingsatanism.org

I’m sure a lot of Christians would be horrified if they found that they were worshiping Satan all this time, all the while thinking they were being pure and holy.

Everyone wants to believe that they have the true religion.  But, what does “God” want?  Many have claimed that they have prayed and asked “God” and come to the conclusion that he told them to start a religion.

When people pray to God for enlightenment, most seem to conclude that their own religion and faith group is the true one. If people could access the will of God on this matter, then a vast majority of the world’s population — the folks who pray — would realize that their faith group was not the true one. They would gradually migrate to the true religion. There would eventually be only one religion and one tradition within that religion left standing. Otherwise, people would be rejecting the will of God. All the other 11,000 religions and their tens of thousands of denominations or traditions would be phased out.

Think about that for a second.  If we could pray to “God” and ask him what his true will would be, the Christian religion would be wiped out, Judaism wiped out, Islam wiped out and we’d be left with one world religion and only one sect of it.

In America we have marketing.  You cannot just be a Christian.  You HAVE to go and get your neighbor to be a Christian too.  Apparently, “God” needs help with people getting to believe in him.  Maybe, he’s not as powerful as Christians say he is.

It is illogical.

You cannot have both an ALL-POWERFUL “God” and yet he can’t convince the person next to you that they should believe in him?  Either he is not all-powerful and not a “God” at all, or your religion has no basis in a “God” to begin with.  Because, an all-powerful being does not need an ant like you to convince people that he is all-powerful.  The right conclusion then, is that you are caught up in a marketing scheme and your “religion” has no basis in actual fact.  It makes more logical sense that you are spreading your religion, and not a belief in “God”.  People seem to confuse their religion with reality.  If you say to them that, they believe in a religion and not believe in “God” they get very defensive.  In fact, they cannot divorce themselves from their religion.

For instance, if you said to a Jew to work out the logic behind “God” being the creator and making everything perfect, and “God’s” need for men to circumcise themselves, they would go into their religious diatribe and not give you any logical answer how the two can coexist.  If you said to a homosexual Christian how they could call themselves a Christian, when the religion itself has many many direct strictures about being homosexual, they would go into their personal beliefs and how they can be both homosexual and yet still try to belong to the religion.  If you said to a Christian to explain how the founder of their religion, Jesus, was a Jew and yet Christians have hated Jews for over 2,000 years and even slaughtered them left and right, they cannot.

For most Americans they have no idea that what they are worshipping is a religion and not actually “God”.  They have bought into some else’s marketing scheme and believe whole-heartedly that their religion is the one true religion and that ALL others are wrong.

The truth of the matter is, Christianity, Islam and Judaism are just a few religion in a vast sea of religions.  They are no more right than the other half a million religions around the world.  And, according to the scholar on satanism, they might all be simply a deception to get people to worship Satan instead.

Give Me That Old Time Religion

THAT (REAL) OLD TIME RELIGION
     (with apologies to Pete Seeger)

Chorus:
    Give me that Old Time Religion,
    Give me that Old Time Religion,
    Give me that Old Time Religion …
    It’s good enough for me!

We will worship Aphrodite,
‘Though she’s kind of wild and flighty –
We will see her in her ‘nighty
And that’s good enough for me!

We’ll sing praises to Apollo;
Where the Sun God leads we’ll follow
(‘Though his head’s a little hollow) –
He’s good enough for me!

With the aid of my athame
I can throw a “double-whammy”
(And can slice and dice salami!)
So it’s good enough for me.

Let us raise a toast to Bachus,
We will raise a royal ruckus,
Then we’ll lay us down and f**k us –
That’s good enough for me.

It was good enough for Buddha,
As a god he kinda cute-a,
And he comes in brass or pewta’
So he’s good enough for me!

Well the Christians all are humming
‘Cause they say their God is coming;
Our God came three times this evening;
That’s good enough for me.

Uncle Crowley was a dreamer
At the Abbey of Thelema
But his magic is a screamer,
So it’s good enough for me.

When the clouds they are a’rumbling
And the thunder is a’grumbling,
Then it’s Crowley that you’re mumbling,
And it’s good enough for me!

We will worship Great Cthulhu,
We will worship Great Cthulhu,
And we’ll feed him Mr. Sulu
‘Cause that’s good enough for me!

It was good enough for Dagan,
A conservative old pagan,
Who still votes for Ronald Reagan,
But he’s good enough for me!

Well I’m tired of Ronald Reagan,
He’s too square to be a pagan,
Let’s all vote for Carl Sagan!
He’s good enough for me.

We all worshipped Dionysus
‘Till we ran into a crisis –
The bar had raised its prices;
That’s not good enough for me.

We will worship like the Druids
And drink strange, fermented fluids
And run naked through the woods
‘Cause that’s good enough for me!

We will go and sing “Hosanna”
To our good ol’ pal, Gotamma.
He will never flim or flam ya’,
And that’s good enough for me!

It was good enough for Isis,
‘Cause she comes through in a crisis
And she’s never raised her prices
So she’s good enough for me.

There are some that call it folly
When we worship Mother Kali.
She may not be very jolly
But she’s good enough for me.

Shall we sing in praise of Loki,
Though he left poor Midgard smokey?
Oh, his sense of humor’s hokey,
But he’s good enough for me.

It was good enough for Loki,
The old Norse god of chaos,
Which is why this verse doesn’t rhyme or scan,
But it’s good enough for me!

Montezuma liked to start out
Rites by carrying a part out
That would really tear your heart out,
But it’s good enough for me!

It was good enough for Odin
Though the tremblin’ got forbodin’
Then the giants finally strode in,
But it’s good enough for me.

There’s that lusty old Priapus –
He’s just itching to unwrap us.
(He’d do more to us than tap us
And that’s good enough for me!)

Shall we sing a verse for Thor,
Though he leaves the maidens sore?
They always come back for more,
So he’s good enough for me!

It was good enough for Venus,
Of the Gods she is the meanest
And she bit me on my … elbow
But she’s good enough for me!

There are those who practice Voodoo,
There are those who practice Voodoo,
I know I do, I hope you do –
It’s good enough for me.

Meeting at the Witching Hour
By the Bud and Branch and Flower
Folks are raising up the power
And that’s where I want to be.


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Bleach 300-301 Aizen Pwns the 3 Best Captains ( Spoiler )

Isshin Trains Ichigo

Sōsuke Aizen

For those who watch Japanese Animation, and specifically Bleach, this post is for you.  So Aizen finally has done away with all the riff-raff of the leiutenants and scrub captains and even his own Vasto Lorde.  Suddenly, the three most enigmatic Death Gods show up: Shihoin, Yoruichi former captin of 2nd division a.k.a. the Onmitsukidō a.k.a. special forces, those who are in charge of investigating and bringing all the other captains and their divisions to justice; Kisike, Urahara a.k.a. Sandal Hat, ( due to him wears a bucket hat and traditional japanese sandals, “geta”), and exiled “candy shop” owner, and is the former captain of the 12th division which is the Shinigami Research and Development Institute; and finally Kurosaki, Isshin the father of Kurosaki, Ichigo, more on him later.

The surprise was that Aizen killed his own Vasto Lordes at the end, before taking on the other captains.  Noone could have foreseen that switch.  But, we are talking about the most pompous, arrogant, megalomaniac this side of the spirit world.  He said that the Vasto Lordes were a disappointment to him, and he regretted ever having created them.  It appears that Gueco Mundo’s preparations to fight the Vasto Lordes was successful, because one by one they started to fall.  We even got to see Hitsugaya, Tōshirō’s ultimate attack, Hyōten Hyakkaso (literally “frozen sky-hundred flowers funeral”). This attack causes 100 snow flakes to fall from the sky, freezing anything they touch in a flower like shape. When all 100 flakes fall, the life of the one trapped by the attack is ended.  He launched this attack against Harribel, Tia, who unfortunately, for Toshiro, got out of it, only to be killed by Aizen, talk about having a bad day at the office.

We were also briefly graced with the capatain commander, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto fighting Aizen, briefly, as in if you blinked you would have missed it, no bankai, no super duper techniques.  Those who watched the fight, might disagree with me here.  But, the thing is, there was all this build up that the captain commander, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, was THE oldest and most powerful death god in the entire spirit world and that his zanpakto was the oldest and most powerful fire element.  It is even said that his zanpakto has more attack power than all others in the spirit world. And, yes he used Jōkaku Enjō “Fortress Blaze” which creates an immense wall of flame that surrounds the target and then forms a huge contained sphere of flame in which to imprison enemies. It is shown to be immensely powerful as it was capable of imprisoning three Captain-level Shinigami, Aizen and his two flunkys.  And, yes he used Ennetsu Jigoku “Flames of Hell” which creates seven or more immense pillars of flame that surround an area. The intent of this technique is to trap the opponent in the caged inferno and destroy him. The power of this technique is lethal enough to destroy everyone caught in its vicinity, even Yamamoto himself. But, we got no bankai, no ultimate technique and he used kido as much as he used his zanpakto.

After dealing with the riff-raff Aizen is able to concentrate on Ichigo. After he allows Ichigo to take a couple of swings he is nonplussed at his power level and his “progress”.  Yes, progress!  Aizen then goes into a diatribe telling Ichigo that he is an experiment, OF HIS.  When Ichigo claims to be just a human, Aizen is about to reveal that, in fact, he is not. But, he is cut off by the appearance of …

Kurosaki Isshin

Kurosaki Isshin as a Shinigami

We are blind-sided by the appearance of Kurosaki Isshin, Ichigo’s dad, in full Shinigami clothes.  However, if you have been paying attention, he shows up in the Grand Fisher arc, as a Shinigami to protect Kon of all people, although the initial introduction of Ichigo’s modified spirit was more powerful than him, he is relegated to comic relief in the form of Kon, the stuff animal lion.

Isshin uses shunpo, flash step, a movement technique that allows the user to move faster than the eye can follow, to get Ichigo far away from Aizen to explain to him who he is and how he was born.  However, Ichigo shuts him up and says that he doesn’t blame him for not telling him, and that he knows when Isshin is ready he can tell him.

All we know of Isshin is that for a majority of the animated series, he has been the comic relief when Ichigo returns home.  We do know that Isshin has been “training” Ichigo all his life to fight, via surprise attacks.  Isshin really doesn’t hold back when launching into a surprise attack against Ichigo.  Upon many occassions we see Isshin execute a full fledged front-snap-kick to Ichigo’s face, or send him crashing into a table.  Ichigo is not slouch himself, he takes it and dishes it out just the same.  We are not aware of what is going on, until Ichigo first goes to train with Urahara and he informs him he’s been trained by his father.

We also know that Isshin used to be a Death God.  We do not know which division he was in nor his rank, however, he does wear what looks to be white captain’s robes slung over one shoulder.  It is also revealed that he had captain level attack power.  But, we learn all this before Bleach 300 – 301.  So in the heart felt conversation between Ichigo and Isshin, nothing new is actually revealed.  Awww, sad-face!

Aizen vs the Enigmatic 3

Aizen in Crysalis Stage

Aizen starts to attack Isshin when he returns from his Father / Son chat, only to be ambushed by Urahara and Yoruichi.  Aizen explains that the Hōgyoku actually materializes the hearts around it. In other words, it materializes a persons inner desires. It was invented roughly 101 years before the main events of the story.  Meaning Urahara was exiled shortly after invention and Kuchiki, Rukia was assigned to watch over Ichigo’s town.  He specifically states that Chad and Innoe both developed powers due to their proximity ot the Hogyoku.  (I thought it was their proximity to Ichigo, but apparently it was due to them being very close to Rukia)  If you recall, Rukia lost her Shinigami powers when, after being nearly mortally wounded by a Hollow, she transfered her powers to Ichigo.  She then received a gigai or physical form, so that she could interect with humans, since she was a spirit.  This gigai sapped her of her Shinigami powers.  And, the reason?  Because Urahara had hidden the  Hogyoku inside of her, and by sapping her of her Shinigami powers, noone in the spirit world could detect her, nor it.

The 3 try different techniques and combinations to take down Aizen.  All of their efforts are in vain however.  They cannot compete with his power level.  His spirit power is so huge that they cannot even detect it.

Meanwhile, Ichigo squares off with Ichimaru Gin.  Ichimaru, Gin finally shows off his bankai.  I was not really pleased at it though.  It’s just more of go go gadget extendo sword. *sad face*  They try and build it up by Ichigo making a big deal that as quickly as it extends, it shrinks even faster.  Big whoop!  To me, they just really dropped the ball on coming up with ideas for Gin having an even cooler bankai.  So Gin and Ichigo come to a draw, and they are constantly interrupted by Aizen anyway.  However, it’s fairly quickly obvious that Gin doesn’t want to really fight Ichigo, as much as keep him busy while Aizen beats the crap out of the other two and Ichigo’s father.  This is finally revealed when Aizen shows up and demands what the hell Gin was doing.  Gin sheepishly says he was just testing the boy.

Isshin to Teach Ichigo the Real Getsuga Tenshō

Getsuga Tenshō, Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer – During his battle with Aizen in the Fake Karakura Town, Isshin uses Getsuga Tenshō by gathering spiritual energy in his Zanpakutō’s blade and slashing down his opponent. When used against Aizen, Isshin’s blast was able to demolish a large radius of the fake Karakura Town and leave behind a huge crater.  During their fight, Ichimaru, Gin notices it and tells Ichigo that apparently the Getsuga Tensho has reached its limit of how much power it can do, since it did not kill Aizen, and the one Ichigo threw at Gin didn’t even scratch him, since he blocked it with his super fast extendo sword.

However, putting two and two together, the problem is Ichigo doesn’t know the full form of Getsuga Tenshō.  Also, Isshin alludes to the fact that Ichigo is on a whole other power level than the rest of them, and is possibly equal to the spirit power of Aizen.  Therefore, the real Getsuga Tenshō in Ichigo’s hands might prove to be and immeasurable attack.  Isshin promises to teach Ichigo the attack, since Aizen and Gin leave the fake Karakura Town to go get the key to Heaven.

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Why We Are Poor: Late Fees

Fees Paid by Poor People

The Credit System is a Ponzi Scheme

We are in an economic depression.  nearly a quarter of the U.S. population is unemployed or out of work.*  I make a distinction between those two words, because the U.S. government also makes a distinction between the two words.  To the common man, out of work and unemployed means the same thing, but not so to the government.  To the government, unemployed means that you were recently employed and are capable of receiving unemployment insurance payments and that you will soon return to work.  All three of those stipulations must be met for you to be called unemployed.  And, that is how they can completely ignore the fact that we are in a depression.  Calling what we are in a “depression”, in the government eyes, might provoke nationwide riots.  They want to avoid this because if the entire nation rioted then the outcome might just be we would throw them out of power, and they do not want that.  The reality is though we are in a depression.*

One of the most fascinating things during this time were all the hearings that were held on capitol hill, for those financial experts who received bailout cash, to explain why they received money to avoid raising fees and interest rates on consumer, while actually raising fees and interest rates on consumers.  The hearings of course meant nothing.  Not only were they, the policy makers, not going to demand the money back, but they were no more interested on whether or not fees and interest rates were raised than the man in the moon.

What was interesting however, was the follow up that all the media did on the financial institutions and credit card companies.  Here is what came out of those hearings.

College Students Given Credit Cards

College students are a special target for credit card companies.  Having zero credit rating is no bar for receiving a very high limit credit card.  Here is why:

• college students as a whole have higher paying jobs than those with less education
• college students will buy into the debt system easily because they are young and gullible
• college students who make purchases during college will also take out loans for cars and houses later on, instead of saving their money
• even if a college student does not pay off their credit card, it can be written off or the U.S. government will bail the company out

Credit cards were initially unavailable to the average citizen.  You could only get a credit card, if you had such a history of having excellent “paying off history.”  There was no “credit rating.”   Later a credit rating was devised and the system was rewritten to get most vendors of goods to only sell to those with good credit rating.  This way, those who would normally have a bad “paying off history” would think twice about not paying back their debts.  Thus the entire credit system was born.

Poor People are the Best to Give Credit To

It seems like an oxymoron to give credit to a poor person.  Common sense would say that a poor person, by definition, has no money.  But, it is untrue that poor people do not have money.  What is true is that poor people make horrible, awful, terrible decisions about the little money they have.  This is true, because this is why the financial institutions love poor people.  The worst bank on the planet Wells Fargo, specifically targets poor neighborhoods to open their banks.  Here is why financial institutions and credit card companies love poor people.

• poor people have zero financial education
• poor people tend to not read documents they sign
• poor people take out loans
• poor people think they have no choice when it comes to financial decisions
• poor people, due to transportation issues, will more often than not, travel only two blocks away from their house to conduct major financial business
• poor people will sign high interest loans, regardless of their financial circumstances
• poor people have more trouble than others paying on time [this is a good thing in the credit card/bank’s eyes]
• poor people will always make payments instead of defaulting / closing accounts
• poor people pay late fees
• poor people pay fees
• poor people will not pull their money out of the bank regardless of how many fees they are charged, because that would mean walking another 4 blocks to another bank
• poor people pay more fees than any other financial group

The list is nearly endless.  And, while everyone is feeling sorry for the poor, you’re thinking you’re not “the poor”.  The fact is, unless you fall into a household income of $100,000.00 / year, you fall into the category “the poor.” *  What’s interesting about the list is that poor people pay more fees than any other financial group.   Literally, Bank of America makes about $2 billion a year just in fees.  That is to say, Bank of America makes money off of nothing.  No goods are exchanged.  No transactions are made.  Hardly any labor is involved, since it is automated.  No services are given.  And, where services were rendered before, we are charged for ordinary transactions, just to do business with them.  They are literally charging you to do business with them.  They offer no explanation where the fees come from, but allocate it to things that, before, were the simple cost of running their own business, i.e. providing a live teller to conduct transactions.*

Poor people are a fantastic target for these institutions because they have no financial education whatsoever, nor do they shop around for the best possible financial solution.

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I personally belong to a bank/credit union that has a total of 2 locations in the valley.  Sure it is not convenient, but I have no fees whatsoever just to conduct business, not even ATM fees.  Before I banked with several banks and fees started to creep up and up.  I took stock of what was going on immediately moved my money to my current bank.  It made no sense to make a pittance in a savings account and come out behind, annually, with fees.

What is eye popping crazy, is that late fees can be as much as half the cost of a monthly payment.  So the poor person is struggling to make the regular payment, and tacked on top of that is a gargantuan late fee.

We shouldn’t feel sorry for the poor.  We, instead, should educate everyone financially.  The poor person should take stock of their situation and not get themselves into debt.  They also shouldn’t send their family into debt, i.e. poor parents kicking their children out of the house.  That is just perpetuating poverty.

Here is something interesting.  In Italy, the cost of living in the city is ridiculously high.  Absolutely noone buys a house, nor moves out of their family’s home.  So it is quite common to have 3 generations of family under the same roof.  In America we need our space.  Parents systematically kick children out of the house.  Can you imagine if not only your parents didn’t kick you out of the house, but you, your wife and kids – your brothers and sisters and their spouses – also lived there?

Wealth Preservation

I already discussed wealth preservation in a previous article.   The concept is really simple.  And, it is this.  Instead of you living your life just so that you, yourself, can be rich and famous, you live your life so that your family can be rich and famous.  Most of the people that make it big with a personal skill, like sports or the arts, were backed up by family and friends who sacrificed of themselves to assist that person.  The rich do this as a matter of course, just living their daily lives.  They will not allow their children to go out of the house and split the families income, just because it is convenient.

I have heard poor people say hundreds of times, “I’ll be glad when Johnny turns 18 so he can get out of my hair.”  I want to turn to them and say they shouldn’t have had kids, and if that is their attitude then they are an unfit parent or family member.  And, for all the people reading this and sympathizing with the person, I guarantee you, that woman/man probably was kicked out of the house at 18 themselves and has no wealth to speak of.  It was done to them, so they have no concept of family.

Family is for life, not just till college, or even worse, high school.  There is a large percentage of marriages that end in divorce shortly after the last child graduates from high school / college.  The two people were simply together once the children were done with them.  Neither person had any concept of family nor wealth preservation.  Not only did their children not pool their resources with the parents, but the parents split and split their own resources.

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Conclusion

Finally, you cannot preserve any wealth if you are paying fees, “just cuz”.  Remove your cash from any institution that charges you fees, just as a matter of course of doing business.  Do not take out loans.  It is fine to pay rent for 15 years and then purchase a house with cash.  In fact, you come out way ahead.

Credit is only good if you are using the credit to expand your business due to increased demand, not to buy groceries.  There is absolutely no need to have a personal credit card.  If you cannot afford something right now, you cannot afford it.

Pay cash for everything.  This includes writing checks.  Checks do not equal cash.  You need to budget yourself to such a degree, that you pay yourself an allowance.  You take your allowance and spend it however you want, but do not withdraw anything more until your next allowance.

The middle class is slowly disappearing.  Thirty thousand dollars a year in salary is no longer a good wage.  A vast majority of people make under twenty thousand dollars a year and are forced to support families on it.

Continuously educate yourself financially.  Educate your children financially.  Absolutely read everything before signing it.  You can negotiate terms on a contract, even if it is printed out.  If you do not agree to something then they have to rewrite the agreement or you can go somewhere else where they do agree with you.  There is absolutely no reason that you should sign a document that calls for tremendous interest rates, just because you want something right now.

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Please visit my legal website: Las Vegas Nevada DUI Penalties
See me on YouTube: Shakaama Live

Pay Less Now,Get Less Later: Social Security in Trouble

Social Security Advocates Fear Payroll Tax Cut

WASHINGTON – (AP By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER) President Barack Obama’s plan to cut payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers, but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the retirement program’s finances.

The plan is part of a package of tax cuts and extended unemployment benefits that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would cut workers’ share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages would get a $1,000 tax cut; those making $100,000 would get a $2,000 tax cut.

The government would borrow about $112 billion to make Social Security whole. Advocates and some lawmakers worry that relying on borrowed money to fund Social Security could eventually force it to compete with other federal programs for scarce dollars, leading to cuts.

Social Security taxes “ought to be held sacrosanct,” said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security.

“When you start to signal that the (Social Security) tax levels are negotiable, you end up in long-term trouble, I think, in terms of making absolutely certain that the entitlement funding streams are secure,” Pomeroy said.

Social Security is funded by a 6.2 percent payroll tax on the first $106,800 earned by a worker. The tax is matched by employers. The package negotiated by Obama would reduce the tax paid by workers to 4.2 percent for 2011. Employer rates would stay unchanged.

Obama administration officials say that a payroll tax cut is an efficient way to stimulate the economy by immediately increasing take home pay for about 155 million workers. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office agrees, and many business groups and Republicans support it.

“What came out of the compromise was the idea of the payroll tax holiday, which, frankly, a huge number of economists and other experts had been talking about over the last two years with a lot of support in both political parties,” said Larry Summers, Obama’s chief economic adviser.

The United Auto Workers endorsed the deal, saying, “Working families will likely spend this money in their local communities, creating jobs and stimulating overall growth.”

The payroll tax cut is part of a larger package negotiated by Obama and GOP lawmakers to extend a sweeping array of Bush era tax cuts that expire at the end of the month. Some Democratic lawmakers have balked at the plan, saying it is tilted too much in favor of the rich.

The payroll tax cut would provide relief to any worker earning a wage. It would replace Obama’s Making Work Pay tax credit, which has provided modest increases in most workers’ paychecks for the past two years.

The payroll tax credit would be more generous to individuals making more than $20,000 and married couples making more than $40,000. For those making less, the payroll tax cut would be less than the Making Work Pay credit.

Making Work Pay, which expires at the end of the year, gives workers a tax credit of 6.2 percent of their wages, but it is capped at $400 for individuals and $800 for couples. The credit is phased out for individuals making more than $75,000 and couples making more than $150,000.

A worker would have to make $20,000 in wages for the payroll tax cut to equal the $400 Making Work Pay tax credit; couples would have to make $40,000.

At the wealthy end of the pay scale, workers making $106,800 — the maximum amount of wages subject to Social Security taxes — would see their payroll taxes reduced by $2,136. That worker’s spouse could also get a payroll tax cut of up to $2,136, if he or she makes at least $106,800.

The proposal requires the Treasury Department to replenish Social Security with other government funds, which would have to be borrowed.

“The payroll tax cut has absolutely no effect on the solvency of Social Security,” said White House economic adviser Jason Furman.

Social Security has accumulated a $2.5 trillion trust fund since the 1980s. But the government has borrowed that money to pay for other programs. The Treasury Department has issued special bonds to Social Security, guaranteeing the money will be repaid, with interest.

As aging baby boomers start to retire and strain the system, advocates worry about future benefit cuts. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it collects in payroll taxes. Without changes, Social Security’s trust funds will run out of money by 2037, according to the trustees who oversee the program.

To save money, the leaders of a bipartisan deficit commission recently proposed a gradual increase in the full retirement age, from 67 to 69, drawing opposition from groups representing older people.

“This 2 percent payroll tax cut is the beginning of the end of Social Security as we know it,” said the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, which is led by former Rep. Barbara B. Kennelly, D-Conn. “Worker contributions have successfully funded the program for 75 years and that critical linkage between contributions and benefits is what keeps Social Security a self-funded program.”

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Conclusion

The more the nation clamors for an end to the “nanny state” the more they clamor for more government oversight and handouts.  Social Security is just one such complete “father knows best” hand out.  They allegedly, take your money, save it for you, at no interest, for 45 years, and then give it back to you every month until you die, and you don’t receive the total back if you die beforehand.  The kicker, is that the program is made mandatory and there is no guarantee that you will ever receive a dime of it.

Opt Out of Social Security?

Can you opt out of social security insurance? The short answer is actually: yes! The long answer is, it depends on if you meet the requirements as set forth, NOT by the social security administration, but by the IRS. *sad face* Yes, the good old IRS is the one you answer to for social security and noone else. The short list of those that can “opt out” of social security is:

• religious leader [write a book and start a religion][just kidding][no I’m not]
• be a christian science practitioner [there seems to be some confusion, but according to the IRS website, CSI practitioners are, in fact exempt [I know that’s taking the low road calling them CSI]
• be amish
• be menonite
• be uh … that … uh … other sect of amish… uh … anabaptist [you see a trend here?]
• earn no income [oh this is a tricky one isn’t it?][if you earn no income, then turn 65, do you get social security payments, just cuz?]
• incorporate yourself [oh this is gonna get me in trouble probably] earn no income, have the corporation provide “expenses”, like paying your light bill, rent, car note, car insurance; but you earn no income [hmmmm]

For a country that sues people left and right based upon the whole “separation of church and state” there are sure a lot of exemptions if you are religious.  Isn’t that odd?  You cannot have it both ways.  You either give the same benefits you pay to secular public and private schools, to religious private schools as well or you deny everyone benefits and exempt everyone from things like social security.  [that was a super convoluted sentence I know.]

Basically in a supreme court case, the court held that although the very same parents that lived in a small town paid their property taxes, along with everyone else, they could not get any state allocated funds for their children’s school, like all the other secular schools had received, because their kids school was a religious school. 

However, if you are of a certain religion or a certain position in a religion you are exempt from having to pay into social security insurance.  It seems that, in one instance the religious folk are being swindled out of money completely, but in the other instance they are being exempt from being swindled out of money, while the rest get swindled.

Please visit my legal website: Las Vegas Nevada DUI Penalties
See me on YouTube: Shakaama Live

Miley Cyrus Turns 18 and Smokes Salvia from a Bong

Miley Cyrus Smokes Salvia from a Bong

Montana Marijuana?

TMZ is at it again, ruining the career of someone else for a buck.  This time is the adorable Miley Cyrus.  This teen pop idol is at the center of attention again.  My beef with TMZ is not that they are not reporting something correctly, but that they are reporting something, that could appear to be something else, i.e. Miley Cyrus doing drugs.  The backlash will be against Miley Cyrus, not TMZ.

Miley Cyrus celebrated her 18th birthday by experimenting with a bong and catching a case of the giggles reports TMZ.

The video was shot during a party at Miley’s L.A. home 5 days after her 18th birthday. According to a source connected with Miley the smoke filling the bong is a natural herb called Salvia.

Miley Cyrus is a role model for ‘tweens’ she is going to be held responsible  for her decisions and how they affect her younger fans.

Salvia Divinorum has become both increasingly well-known and available in modern culture. The Internet has allowed for the growth of many businesses selling live salvia plants, dried leaves, extracts, and other preparations.

Salvia divinorum was the subject of the first use of YouTube within drug-behavioral research when scientists at San Diego State University rated randomly selected videos of salvia users to study observed impairment. Their findings corroborate reports that the most profound effects of smoking salvia appear almost immediately and last about eight minutes. Effects include speech and coordination loss

Salvia – it’s important to note – is legal in California and most other states, and can even be bought online.

Cyrus giggles (a lot) and chats with the friend filming her (who tells Cyrus she’s “gonna document the s**t outta this right now”). At one point, Cyrus claims someone off camera resembles her boyfriend Liam Hemsworth and then wonders whether the bong hit caused the confusion.

The video, which was posted on TMZ, was reportedly recorded by a friend. It’s believed a third party copied the video from the camera.

 Please visit my legal website: Nevada DUI Penalties
See me on YouTube: Shakaama Live

DUI Tests: The Case is Against You

Unconstitutional Per Se

M.A.D.D. and W.P.L. (Womyn’s Prohibition League)

MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) struck a tremendous blow to the constitutional and the rights of every citizen of the united states when they got 48 states in the union to immediately pass an illegal per se law in DUI cases.  An illegal per se law makes it illegal in and of itself to drive with an alcohol concentration measured at or above the established legal level. Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia have established a per se law.  The legal limit in most states is .08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) per se. That means it is against the law to drive a motor vehicle if you have a BAC of .08 or more, without having to prove intoxication. So on its face the illegal per se laws are saying that once the prosecution presents evidence that you had a BAC of 0.08, you are presumed guilty and a judge is then instructed at that point to tell the jury to declare you guilty, and you have to prove your innocence.  The prosecution literally does not have to have a case.

Some of you might be wondering what’s the big deal, isn’t a BAC of 0.08 mean you’re drunk?  Categorically the answer is no.  First of all, the point of DUI laws should not be about proving pseudo-scientific evidence and convicting based on that merit, but to prove that that one person, you per se, were incapable of handling your car at that time and presented a danger to others [ and although I abhor it ] or a danger to yourself [ it smacks of Orwellian big brother talk, which is the basis for all of our drug laws. if you do drugs in your home, you’re a danger to yourself, so we throw you in jail. it’s rather nanny state thinking, but i digress].

The pseudo-science of BAC.  First of all, every human is different.  I know people try to say we all have the same basic physiology and biological responses, but when talking about alcohol, it’s not true:

• a 120lb man is not going to react to alcohol like a 320lb man
• a consummate drinker is not going to react to alcohol like a tea totaler
• a woman is not going to react to alcohol like a man
• a young person is not going to react to alcohol like an old person

The BAC basis ignores all of those factors listed above and presumes everyone is the same.  The prosecutor does not have to even present, nor introduce evidence that you as a 120lb, young, female tea totaler cannot tolerate alcohol and therefore were unable to control a vehicle properly.  BAC based laws then simply say that, here’s this number and we presume you are guilty.  BAC is pseudo-science in that it proves nothing other than a number and we infer from it a presumption that all humans, regardless of actual physcial make up, cannot handle a vehicle.  The basis of all real science is that, based upon a given factor, an exact reaction will occur over and over and over again.  A heavy reptitive drinker, will more than likely not be remotely phased by a BAC of 0.08, while a tea totaler would.  An older person, might not be phased by a BAC of 0.08, while a young person would.  This is exactly why 0.08 and illegal per se have no basis in reality.

In every criminal case the trial is to prove you are guilty of and underlying crime.  The state has to present enough corroborating evidence to prove your guilt.  It is not the case that the state simply present 1 piece of evidence and you then proceed to prove your innocence.  However, this is exactly what illegal per se does.  Once the prosecution presents to the court that you had a BAC of 0.08, they literally sit down and you have to prove your innocence.

FAIRFAX, Va. — A Fairfax County judge is dismissing cases against drivers charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

District Court Judge Ian O’Flaherty said the law prosecutors use to convict drunken drivers is unconstitutional.

A Virginia state trooper sent News4 an e-mail saying police are upset about the dismissals. Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Horan confirmed that the judge is ruling against prosecutors, making it harder to get drunken drivers off the road.

The judge is challenging one of the powers police and prosecutors rely on for arrests and convictions: the results of breath tests given to suspected drunken drivers. Virginia law says that anyone with a blood alcohol content level of 0.08 percent or more is presumed to be driving under the influence of alcohol. It is then up to the driver to rebut the presumption or prove he or she wasn’t drunk.

O’Flaherty began dismissing DUI charges two weeks ago, ruling that the law is unconstitutional because the burden of proof in all cases rests with the prosecutor and this law puts the burden on the defense.

The state law presumes that someone with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher is intoxicated, denying their right to a presumption of innocence, Judge Ian O’Flaherty ruled in dismissing charges against at least two alleged drunken drivers last month.

Imagine the following scenarios from three separate criminal trials:

1.  Burglary.  Police find fingerprints at the scene of the crime.  The prosecution introduces evidence that they match the defendant’s fingerprints.  The judge then instructs the jury that, based entirely upon that evidence, the defendant is presumed to be guilty and that they must convict him — unless he can prove his innocence.

2.  Forgery.  The prosecution offers evidence that the forged handwriting is that of the defendant.  The judge instructs the jury that he is presumed by law to be guilty — unless he can prove he is not.

3.  Drunk driving.  The prosecution produces evidence of a breathalyzer test that the defendant’s blood-alcohol level was over .08%.  The judge instructs the jury that they must convict him (of both driving under the influence and driving over .08%) — unless he can prove he is innocent.

In the first two cases, the convictions would immediately be reversed on appeal — and the judge probably castigated for both shifting the burden of proof from the government to the defendant and violating his presumption of innocence. The Virginia judge is simply saying that the third case should be no different.

“The Fifth Amendment,” said O’Flaherty, 59, “is an absolute protection against requiring the defendant to say or do anything in the course of a trial. . . . The Fifth Amendment means the defendant can sit there, not say or do anything, and at the end of the case say, ‘Can I go home now?’ ” 

The judge is well regarded by lawyers who practice before him and has received high marks in Fairfax Bar Association evaluations. He listens carefully to every last speeder and drunk driver and clearly explains his rulings. He has been a judge in Fairfax for 15 years and said he would like reappointment to another term in 2008. But he also said he would be perfectly satisfied if the legislature decided not to renew him in light of his stance on the drunken driving law.

After O’Flaherty dismissed one drunken driving case in July, in which police said the defendant had a .21 blood alcohol level, and another in early August, Fairfax prosecutors began dismissing the cases themselves before trial and then indicting the drivers in Circuit Court. But Oct. 12, when veteran Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Kathryn S. Swart tried to do that with a driver who she said had a .20 blood alcohol level, O’Flaherty would not allow it.

Swart argued with the judge, then declined to call any witnesses, prosecutors said. O’Flaherty swore in the defendant and then dismissed the case.

The next day, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands asked O’Flaherty to recuse himself from a DWI case, saying it appeared that he would not consider all the evidence. “I’m going to consider all the evidence,” the judge told her. “I’m just not going to have a presumption that requires the defendant to testify.”

Sands asked him to allow her to dismiss the case so it could be indicted in Circuit Court. “That’s denied,” O’Flaherty said. “That’s unethical. That’s called ‘forum shopping.’ “

Sands tried to argue, but the judge cut her off. “I heard a whining diatribe yesterday from one of your associates,” O’Flaherty said. “Next time I hear that from her, I’ll put her in jail. You might tell her.”

O’Flaherty explained that he had allowed prosecutors six dismissals without cause, so those cases can rise through the system and possibly to the appeals courts, where a formal opinion could be issued. “Half a dozen seems like a reasonable number,” the judge said. “After that, there’s no reason not to proceed in a regular manner.”

He then heard evidence of the defendant’s driving and performance on a field sobriety test — the blood alcohol test was not submitted — and dismissed the case. Several days later, after receiving evidence that a driver had registered .11 on a breath test but had not failed all the field sobriety tests, he dismissed that case.

O’Flaherty also believes it is unfair to presume that a breath test taken 90 minutes or more after a traffic stop is an accurate reflection of a driver’s blood alcohol content at the time the person was driving. Defense lawyers have argued that the blood alcohol content of someone who drinks immediately before driving could still be rising when the person was tested later.

Corinne Magee was the defense lawyer who first won a DWI case in front of O’Flaherty by citing the 1985 Georgia case of Francis v. Franklin . She said the idea to use the Francis case came from everyday discussions among lawyers in the courthouse hallways about how to defend DWI cases.

O’Flaherty said that he was not disregarding blood alcohol results and that he allowed them as evidence when they were properly obtained. But he said alcohol affects people in different ways, so presuming someone with a .08 blood alcohol content is drunk might not be correct.

Similarly, the judge said, “sometimes these tests are taken two hours after” an arrest, and there’s no evidence of the blood alcohol content at the time of the traffic stop. O’Flaherty said one way to quickly obtain a blood alcohol reading would be to have a mobile van available with breathalyzer equipment, though he realized that would be costly.

“Criminal law shouldn’t be built around saving a buck,” O’Flaherty said. “We shouldn’t convict people because it’s cheaper and easier.”

Please visit my legal website: Nevada DUI Penalties
See me on YouTube: Shakaama Live