Belated R.I.P. - Gil Noble

Gil Noble hosted “Like It Is,” an award-winning Sunday morning public affairs program in New York, one of the longest-running in the country dedicated to showcasing black leadership and the African-American experience.

My Mom was Gil's god-mother!   Keep his legacy alive!

R.I.P. Gil.

I could write a book on this!

First…it was “Don’t Quote Me on this”!   Then it was “Don’t Get Me Started”!   Now it’s “I Could Write a Book on This!"   Why the name change?   I think the “Don’ts” may have had a negative connotation.   No?   Agree?

This whole thing started because my daughters often repeated my favorite saying…"I could write a book on this"!   So that’s what I’m going with from here on in.   Maybe one day I’ll write a “book” book…but for now…this is it!

PIPCORN @ Smorgasburg

It’s official!   Members of my extended family launched their new business today…PIPSNACKS at Brooklyn’s Smorgasburg.   Their first creation is PIPCORN…a hull-less variety of popcorn.

Available in a variety of flavors and when popped, its shell breaks up into teeny tiny pieces.   There are no more hard shells to get stuck in your teeth and it’s a treat that is much easier on your digestive system.   I can use that!

I ventured to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to be a part of their launch day celebration.   My first impression…a great variety of food goodies…in a very cool location, East River State Park.

Second impression…as a baby boomer…I think I was one of a few senior citizens in attendance (other than the parents of the PIPSNACKS founders).   In abundance…twenty-somethings with pretty faces; skinny jeans; hip sunglasses; hip shoes/sneakers…hipsters everywhere…not to mention the abundance of inter-racial couples (yeah baby!!!) and all sorts of ethnicities…and IMHO…a few too many four legged friends!   Did I mention there were a whole lotta young hipsters…females right outta Elle and males outta Essentials.

Need to get me some cool sunglasses and skinny jeans.   On second thought…forget the skinny jeans!   Oh…to be young again! All-in-all…a really a great experience!   I will definitely go back!   It’s every Saturday…rain or shine…through November!

Go buy some …PIPCORN!

We're all in this 2gether

 The son of a friend of mine (and former colleague) co-wrote and produced this video.   I think it’s an amazing piece of work.   He was working on this project while his grandmother was ill and recorded her in the last few weeks of her life.   The final picture and voice is his grandmother’s.   I’m sure she would have been very proud. The artist is Lalah Hathaway, daughter of Donny Hathaway, and is available on itunes. Enjoy!

zerosixnine Hiatus

Not only has my little zerosixnine space in the blog-sphere been on hiatus, but everything that has to do with my Windows XP laptop was on hiatus!   A virus!   A spent battery!   Numerous calls to the Philippines!   I think it's time for an Apple...but more about all of this soon!

Uncle Tom's Cabin!

Religiosity 2011

Same ol' ... same ol'.....no new news here"




So what else is new???   Via Pew Research (details here).   And the usual suspects here!

A boy to be sacrificed!

Wow…I read this in this  Sunday’s NY Times.   It was difficult to get through.   It‘s heartbreaking and I’m at a loss for words.   But here it is…

In the Morocco of the 1980s, where homosexuality did not, of course, exist, I was an effeminate little boy, a boy to be sacrificed, a humiliated body who bore upon himself every hypocrisy, everything left unsaid.   By the time I was 10, though no one spoke of it.   I knew what happened to boys like me in our impoverished society; they were designated victims, to be used, with everyone’s blessing, as easy sexual objects by frustrated men.   And I knew that no one would save me - not even my parents, who surely loved me.   For them too, I was shame, filth.   A “zamel.”

It all came to a head one summer night in 1985.   It was too hot.   Everyone was trying in vain to fall asleep.   I, too, lay awake, on the floor beside my sisters, my mother close by.   Suddenly, the familiar voices of drunken men reached us.   We all heard them.   The whole family.   The whole neighborhood.   The whole world.   These men, whom we all knew quite well, cried out: “Abdellah, little girl, come down.   Come down.   Wake up and come down.   We all want you.   Come down, Abdellah.   Don’t be afraid.   We won’t hurt you.   We just want to have sex with you.”

They kept yelling for a long time.   My nickname.   Their desire.   Their crime.   They said everything that went unsaid in the too-silent, too-respectful world where I lived.   But I was far, then, from any such analysis, from understanding that the problem wasn’t me.   I was simply afraid.   Very afraid.   And I hoped my big brother, my hero, would rise and answer them.   That he would protect me, at least with words. I didn’t want him to fight them - no.   All I wanted him to say were these few little words: “Go away!   Leave my little brother alone.”

But my brother, the absolute monarch of our family, did nothing.   Everyone turned their back on me.   Everyone killed me that night.   I don’t know where I found the strength, but I didn’t cry.   I just squeezed my eyes shut a bit more tightly.   And shut, with the same motion, everything else in me.   Everything.   I was never the same Abdellah Taïa after that night.   To save my skin, I killed myself.   And that was how I did it.

Conservative Teen Magazine!

This is for real people!

Stand Your Ground!

He was a 17 year old high school senior who lost his life in Florida…under the premise of   “Stand Your Ground”.   Florida's "stand your ground" law, allows citizens to use deadly force if they "reasonably believe" their safety is threatened in a public setting, like a park or a street.

Floridians are not restrained by a "duty to retreat" from a threat while out in public, and would be free from prosecution or civil liability if they acted in self-defense.

There are 23 other states that have a “Stand Your Ground” provision/law. Below is a list of the “stand your ground” states (and their murder rates…in 2010…source).   Most of them are the usual suspects and not a surprise to me!



Rest in peace...Trayvon Martin!

Mississppi, Alabama...and Kentucky too!

Well...the votes are in! Some Republikkkans in my favorite 3 states believe that Santorum is their guy!   Why am I not surprised?   Some incredibly scary data according to the Public Polling Policy website:





Alabama:

• Edmund Petus Bridge (Bloody Sunday)
• Blew up a church (and killed 4 innocent young girls)
• Governor George Wallace
• 9th poorest state in America (16.1% poverty rate)
• 2nd fattest state in America (32.3% are obese)
• 2nd most religious state in America (86% believe in God with absolute certainty)
• 9th lowest state with college degrees (31.6%)
• last state to repeal anti-miscegenation (interracial marriage) law in 2000!   Yes…2000!

Mississippi:

• Murdered James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner (details)
• Murdered Emmett Till (details)
• Poorest state in America (21.3% poverty rate)
• 3rd Fattest state in America (32.2% are obese)
• Most religious state in America (91% believe in God with absolute certainty)
• 5th lowest state with college degrees (29.3%)

Although the citizens of Kentucky have already given Santorum their "blessings", they're right up there with Mississippi and Alabama.

Kentucky:

• home to Mitch McConnell (Senate Republican leader)…born in ALABAMA!!!
• home to Rand Paul
• 8th poorest state in America (17.3% poverty rate)
• 6th fattest state in America (29.5% of the people are obese
• 7th most religious state in America (83% believe in God with absolute certainty)
• 4th lowest state with college degrees (29.2%)

I could never live or retire to any of these beauties!

Sources:
Poorest
Fattest
Most Religious
Least Educated

Japanese Tsunami - One Year later. WOW!

God, Tornadoes & Prayer!

"Prayer Could Have Stopped the Tornadoes"



She Prayed That Tornado Away From Her And Right
Into Her Neighbor's House!



Stories of God's Protection Emerge After Storms
Leave 38 Dead!

In a small eastern Kentucky farming town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the Rev. Kenneth Jett of the West Liberty United Methodist Church is grateful to God for his family's safety when storms were causing destruction in five states: Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

"We're thankful to God," The Associated Press quoted Jett as saying. "It was a miracle that the five of us survived."
Full story here

Democrats for Rick Santorum

Be careful what you wish for!

Let's do it again! Obama...2012!

• Got Osama Bin Laden!
• Got 1.3 million jobs created with no GOP help
• Ended war in Iraq
• Repealed DADT
• Added Sonia Sotomeyer to the Supreme Court
• Added Elena Kagan to the Supreme court
• Saved the auto industry and 1.5 million jobs
• Mortgage modification to save homeowners' homes
• Reforming healthcare making it affordable
• ONLY President to receive the Nobel Peace Prize while in office

…and he can sing!
...and you can order the "Let's do it again" T-shirts here!

Republikkkans in the European press!

Although the entries below are somewhat dated, they give a glimpse into what the European press thinks about the (then) Republican candidates for the office of the Presidency of the United States.   Need I say more?

Germany:
The Republican presidential contest in America is a "freak show," said Marc Pitzke in the German Der Spiegel.   The candidates vie with one another to spew the most outrageous hard-right positions, denying evolution while endorsing torture and joking about electrocuting illegal immigrants.   How did a major party in the world's sole superpower become a "club of liars, debtors, betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites, and ignoramuses?"   These know-nothings are enabled by a U.S. press that has been "neutered by the demands of political correctness" so that it can't say what's obvious: These people are daft!   Instead, it "proclaims one clown after the next to be the new front-runner."   The current favorite, Newt Gingrich, is actually considered an intellectual merely because he can create sentences with multiple clauses.   Scarcely a one has even the most basic grasp of foreign policy.   One said Africa is a country, another that the Taliban rule in Libya.   Collectively, "they expose a political, economic, geographic, and historical ignorance that makes George W. Bush look like a scholar.”

France:
That's the scariest part, said Lorraine Millot in the Paris Liberation.   The only GOP candidate who knows a thing about diplomacy, Jon Huntsman, is dead last in most polls.   The others "careen to extreme positions that include starting new wars and abandoning old allies."   And that's when they even have a position.   Herman Cain, now thankfully out of the race, was the front-runner even though he couldn't find a single coherent word to say about President Obama's policy on Libya.   He even boasted of knowing little about foreign countries.   And yet it was his adultery, not his astounding ignorance that brought him down.

England:
There's a simple explanation for this bizarre phenomenon, said Max Hastings in the London Daily Mail.   In the "lunatic, gun-toting badlands of America's Hicks-ville, Tea Party country," it's considered suspiciously elitist to show any interest in modern science or the world beyond America's borders.   "Say what you like about British politics, no MP of any party would dare to offer themselves as town dog-catcher while knowing as little about the world as the Republican presidential candidates."   We take public service seriously.   Yet we in Britain, and everyone in the rest of the world, will suffer if "one of the lunatics" vying for the nomination makes it to the White House."   The American political system has seldom, if ever, looked so inadequate."

England:
Don't worry, said Matthew Norman in the London Independent.   The fact that Gingrich is the latest threat to Mitt Romney's inevitability just "confirms how inevitable" Romney's nomination is.   The thrice-married, ethically challenged Gingrich is unlikable in the extreme.   Which means the nominee will be Romney, "the slimiest, phoniest opportunist to run for president since...well, ever.   " So sit back and enjoy this circus passing for a presidential election.   It can't possibly end in a GOP victory.   Can it?

Whitney Houston...1963-2012

Pew study on current events!

This is an interesting test.   Unfortunately, the results indicate that the majority of Americans don't have a clue about what's going on in the world.   I'm really not surprised.   Sad to admit that...but it's true!

Winter Pork Stew

Okay…I’m not a cook.   Right now, I have about a dozen meals in my culinary repertoire.   I make a mean spaghetti and meat sauce…and Aunt Nancy’s chicken (recipe coming soon) is always a hit.   I chatted with my best friend last week.   He is quite the gourmand and was putting together a pork stew to take to a wine tasting party the following day.   He said it was awesome and assured me I could do it…even with my limited culinary skills!   Game on!


The Recipe:

• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. each kosher salt, black pepper & dried thyme
• 2 lb. pork stew meat or shoulder, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes (“huh…2 inches”...I don't think so!)
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 2 cups chopped onion
• ½ cup chopped carrot
• ½ cup chopped celery
• 1 tsp. chopped garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ dry white wine
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken or beef broth (32 oz. Box = 4 cups!)
• 1 ½ cups of peeled and cubed sweet potatoes (that’s about one large sweet potato for us non-cooks).
• 1 ½ cups peeled and cubed russet potatoes (that’s about one large russet for us non-cooks).
• 1 cup of diced turnips
• 1 cup diced parsnips (turned out to be about two “carrot sized” parsnips…see comment below
• 2 Tbsp. Unsalted butter, softened
• 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

The journey:
I wanted to prepare this as a surprise for my wife…before she got home from work (I’m unemployed)!

For starters…if a recipe has more than 6 ingredients…it’s not for me!   However, in this case, my friend, once again, assured me that I could do it.   He told me that it was the chopping, dicing and cubing…more than anything else!   My first dilemma was…what’s the SIZE difference between cubed, chopped, and diced.   After a google search I found a definition for the latter two…diced (about the size of a pencil eraser) and chopped (about 5/8” square).   I never did find a definitive answer for cubed! (see epilog).

Now it was time to go shopping for the ingredients.

Before leaving I had to google an image of parsnip.   I’ve never had parsnips before!   Seriously!   I found out that they look like white carrots.   OK…this is an x-rated version of parsnips!



I called my friend for the 4th or 5th time asking a few more questions…many of which still had to do with diced, versus cubed, versus chopped.   He asked if there was a Williams Sonoma nearby.   There was!   He then recommended that I go and buy this!   He assured me it would be quite the time saver!   I left the house and took a side trip to the local William Sonoma…and then proceeded to my local supermarket.

During my search for parsnips (the white carrots) I passed an aisle and low and behold…right before my eyes were packages of “chopped waxed turnips” and “chopped” sweet potatoes.   Of course they turned out to be more than I needed and twice as expensive of doing it myself…but I snatched them right up anyway!   Then I proceeded to the butcher counter and asked for the pork.   I wound up with a piece weighing in at about 2 ½ pounds…bone in!

The process:
Combine ½ cup of flour, salt, pepper and thyme in a re-sealable plastic bag.

Add “cubed” pork, toss to coat, then shake off the excess.   Brown ½ the meat in 1 Tbsp. of oil in a Dutch oven (fortunately I know what that is…and we have one!) or large pot over medium high heat, 7 to 9 minutes.


Transfer (the browned pork) to a plate.   Brown the remaining pork in the remaining oil and remove.   Reduce heat to medium.   So far so good!

Add onion, carrot, celery, garlic and bay leaf to the pot; “sweat” for 5 minutes.   (WTF is “sweat”?)

Deglaze (google it...I did) the pot with wine and simmer until (the wine) is nearly evaporated.



Then stir in the broth and the “reserved” pork (aka…the pork you’ve already cooked!).   Bring the stew to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer (covered) for 30 minutes.



Stir in sweet potatoes, russets, turnips and parsnips.   Cover and cook for 30 minutes more.

Combine butter and 2 Tbsp. flour.   Add to the stew.   Simmer 5 minutes to thicken.   Remove bay leaf and season stew with salt and pepper!

“Wha la!”

Epilog:

• Later that day…after all the chopping and dicing and cubing, my wife informed me that if a recipe calls for cubed…it usually indicates the size of the “cube”!   This recipe didn’t!
• For this recipe…I think the suggested “2 inch cubed” PORK would have been too huge and I suggest (and opted) for 1 ½ inch or slightly less pieces.
• My wife also let me know that, if I had asked, the butcher at the supermarket, he would have “cubed” the pork for me!!!
• The last sentence in the process said to add salt and pepper “to taste” (whatever “to taste” means)!   I didn’t!   After the first bite…my wife and I looked at each other…and although we agreed it was delicious…it seemed sort of bland…to which my wife said…”it needs more salt and pepper’!
• More wife advice.   “Did you season the pork first” (with salt, pepper, etc.)?   My response…”No”!   The recipe said to add salt & pepper (along with the thyme) to a re-sealable bag and shake!   The Mrs.’ advice is…always…and I repeat…ALWAYS…season the meat first!   Lesson learned!

I can’t wait until recipes tell you the number of pieces versus the number of cups! This would eliminate the guesswork!   For example, 1 ½ cups of sweet potatoes wound up to be the equivalent of one large sweet potato!   Same for the russet potato!

Bottom line?   This is a keeper!   Live and learn!   Thanks to my best friend…and my wife!   Served over broad egg noodles!   Bon Appetite!

ps.   Didn’t take a picture of the final outcome.   It didn’t look like the first picture (above)!   But again…it was damn good!

Republikkkans!

Here are the top 10 racist moments by the Republican presidential candidates so far.   [via Alternet]

1.   Newt Gingrich puts Juan Williams "in his place" for daring to ask an unpleasant question during the South Carolina debate.

This was the most pernicious example of old-school white racism at work in the Republican primary campaign.   Newt Gingrich, a son of the South who grew up in the shadow of legendary Jim Crow racist Lester Maddox, is an expert on the language and practice of white racism (in both its subtle and obvious forms).   He has ridden high with Republican audiences by suggesting that black people are lazy, and their children should be given mops and brooms in order to learn the value of hard work.   With condescending pride, Gingrich has also stated that he would lecture the NAACP--one of America’s most storied civil rights organizations--that they ought to demand jobs and not food stamps from Barack Obama.

2. Herman Cain, in one of the most grotesque performances in post-civil rights-era politics to date, deftly plays his designated role as an African-American advocate for some of the Tea Party and New Right’s most racist policy positions.

Most notably, in numerous interviews Cain alluded to the Democratic Party as keeping African Americans on a “plantation,” and that black conservatives were “runaway slaves” who were uniquely positioned to “free” the minds of their brothers and sisters.   Doubling down, as a black conservative mascot for the fantasies of the Tea Party faithful, Herman Cain also suggested that anyone who accuses them of “racism” (ignoring all available evidence in support of this claim) were in fact anti-white, and the real racists.

3.   Ron Paul argues that the landmark federal legislation that dismantled Jim Crow segregation in the 1960s was a moral evil and a violation of white people’s liberty.

Ron Paul’s claim that the rights of black Americans are secondary to the “freedom” of whites to discriminate, is an almost perfect mirror for the logic of apartheid.

4.   Rick Santorum tells conservative voters that black people are parasites who live off hard-working white people.

Santorum’s claim that “I don’t want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money” is problematic in a number of ways.   First, Santorum channels the white supremacist classic Birth of a Nation and its imagery of childlike free blacks who are a burden on white society.

5.   In keeping with the class warfare narrative, and as a way of proving their conservative bona fides, Republican candidates have crafted a strategy in which they repeatedly refer to the unemployed as lazy, unproductive citizens who would “be rich if they just went out and got a job.”

In fact, as suggested by Mitt Romney, any discussion of the wealth and income gap in the United States (and the destruction of the middle class), should be done in a “quiet room,” as such truth-telling stokes mean-spirited resentment against the rich.

6.   Mitt Romney wants to "keep America America."

The dropping of one letter from the Ku Klux Klan’s slogan, “Keep America American,” does not remove the intent behind Romney’s repeated use of such a virulently bigoted phrase.   While Mitt Romney can claim ignorance of the slogan’s origins, he is intentionally channeling its energy.

7.   Rick Perry’s nostalgic memories of his family’s ranch, "Niggerhead."

You cannot choose your parents (or decide what your ancestors will christen the family retreat before your birth).   You can, however, choose to rename the family ranch something other than the ugliest word in the English language.

8.   Former candidate Michele Bachmann suggests that the black family was stronger during slavery than in freedom.

Her claim is not just a simple misunderstanding of history and the importance of family in the Black Experience.   No, she is signaling to a tired, white supremacist, slavery-apologist narrative which opines that African Americans were/are not yet ready for freedom, and could only “flourish” under the benign guidance of the Southern Slaveocracy.

9.   The Republican Party’s 2012 presidential candidates' near-silence about how the Great Recession has destroyed the African American and Latino middle-class.

This speaks volumes about just how selectively inclusive the Republican Party—which markets itself as the defender of the “American Dream” and of an “opportunity society”—really is.

10.   The echo chamber that is Fox News, right-wing talk radio, the conservative blogosphere, and Republican elected officials daily stoke the politics of white racial resentment, bigotry and fear.

Ultimately, the Republican candidates would not use racism as a weapon if it were not rewarded by their voters, and encouraged by the party’s leadership.   An army travels on its stomach; it needs foot soldiers and shock troops to advance its aims.   From the ugly, race-based conspiracy fantasies of Birtherism to the astroturf politics of the Tea Party to a news network whose guests routinely disparage Barack Obama with such labels as “ghetto crackhead” to the bloviating racist utterances by opinion leaders such as Rush Limbaugh, to the common bigotry on display at right-wing Web sites that use monkey, ape, gorilla, pimp, and watermelon imagery to depict the United States’ first black president and his family, it is clear that racism “works” for the Republican Party.

More detail and the full article at Alternet

Obama against Religion & Romney anti-Semetic!

Folks...it doesn't get any better than this!   And Ms. Palin is a Newtie!



Like I said...it doesn't get any better than this.   Can't wait 'til Crazy Eyes chimes in!

The "State" of Religion in the USA!

An analysis of more than 350,000 interviews conducted by Gallup in 2008 finds Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas to be the most religious states in the nation.



Not much new news here!   All the top 10 religious states represent the cornerstone of the bible belt. I can't retire/relocate to any of them!

If Newt stays in the Republican primary until Tampa (and I hope he does)...it will be interesting to note how many of the bible belt states want Newt to be the next president!

The Year of the Dragon

Happy New Year!

"Occupying the 5th position in the Chinese Zodiac, the Dragon is the mightiest of the signs.   Dragons symbolize such character traits as dominance and ambition. Dragons prefer to live by their own rules and if left on their own, are usually successful.   They’re driven, unafraid of challenges, and willing to take risks.   They’re passionate in all they do and they do things in grand fashion.   Unfortunately, this passion and enthusiasm can leave Dragons feeling exhausted and interestingly, unfulfilled."

I was born in the year of the Dog!

"Occupying the 11th position in the Chinese Zodiac, the Dog symbolizes character traits such as loyalty, compatibility and kindness.   Dogs frequently offer kind words and useful advice, always listening and lending a shoulder when necessary.   Dogs often become deeply involved in others’ lives and are sometimes perceived as nosy.   Ensuring others are happy is more important to the Dog than wealth, money or success."

OK...I can deal with being a dog...but I don't think I'm nosy?

And the winner is...Newt!

“We all know the record.   He was run out of the speakership of his own party, he was fined $300,000 for ethics violations.   This is a guy who’s had a very difficult political career at times and has been an embarrassment to the party.   The fact of the matter is I don’t need to regale the country with that entire list again except to say this.   I’m not saying he will do it again in the future, but sometimes past is prologue.”

Chris Christie   (Governor of New Jersey)

“Newt Gingrich wants us to know that he did not ask his second ex-wife for an open marriage.   An honest open relationship was never on the table. Newt and Callista’s six-year-long adulterous relationship was grounded in deceit and betrayal from the start, and Newt and Callista never wavered from the path of deceit and betrayal.   Newt Gingrich was making an implicit promise to socially conservative voters:   He did not ask his most recent ex-wife for an open marriage, and he will not ask any of his future ex-wives for an open marriage.”
Dan Savage   (Media pundit and author) via the New York Times

Newt

For me…it all boils down to “the content of their character”.   That immediately eliminates Newt.

This is the same guy (along with his buddy Ken Starr) who led the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton while he was cheating on his wife.   What’s really scary about this video clip, more than anything else, is the audience gave him standing ovations!   I realize it’s a room full of Republicans…but that still scares the shit out of me!   I know this is South Carolina…and that’s a whole ‘ nother story…but a standing ovation for this hypocrite, serial adulterer and defender of the sanctity of marriage is just unbelievable.   Damn!