In light of the attempted bombing of a Detroit bound plane the government has gone crazy. Law abiding Americans are now subjected to sitting at attention with their hands folded and their eyes forward as the plane lands.  Newt Gingrich put it this way “Today, because our elites fear politically incorrect honesty, they believe that it is better to harass the innocent, delay the harmless, and risk the lives of every American than to do the obvious, the effective, and the necessary.” What is the necessary? Profiling, but do we really know what a terrorist looks like?  Gingrich goes on to say, “before a lot more Americans are killed we must acquire the courage to tell the truth and to act on that truth. It is time to be honest about what we know. We know our opponents are radical extremists of the irreconcilable wing of Islam (Islamists, some would call them). We know they have an ideology which is anti-female, desires to impose fundamentalist Sharia as a form of law, is hostile to other religions and is prepared to kill the innocent to achieve their goals. We know how to identify these enemies but our elites have refused to do so.”  It would be easy to simply look at the obvious. Let’s look at everyone that has the last name of Mohammad or now let’s look at all Nigerians, but what about the born in the USA terrorists how will we identify them? This Nigerian bomber put a target on every foreign born black man and sadly every American born black man. The thing about profiling is it expands as it evolves. First it starts with let’s say Nigerian men and before you can say profiling it is looking at all black men. Where does it stop?  Since 2001 flying has gone from pleasurable to a miserable and soon it will just be intolerable, but is profiling going to solve our problem? Black men have complained of police harassment for simply driving while black. Well now thanks to the underwear bomber they will face that same harassment in midair.

*Human Events

Today I finally saw The Blind Side. My friend had been raving about the movie for weeks and she wrote a post on her blog (www.gaj1206.wordpress.com) where she compared The Blind Side to the movie Precious. She highlighted how two children had been forgotten by society, but someone finally saw them and helped them change their lives. Today I saw how Sean and Leanne Tuohy had helped a child because he needed help.  It was a feel good movie and the fact that it was based on a true story made it better. The movie did not gloss over the fact that the family was white and rich and the fact that Oher was black and poor. It was a thread woven throughout the film and that helped make the story so very believable and ultimately very touching. One thing that disturbed me in the movie was the role of the NCAA. The NCAA actually investigated the Tuohys involvement in Oher’s college choice Ole Miss. Both of them as well as the tutor that helped Oher prepare for college were Ole Miss alums. The NCAA contended they were boosters and that they had pressured him to go to Ole Miss.  In the movie the NCAA rep said “what would happen  if people just came down to the hood and took black kids in just to get them to go to their college?” She said this as if this was a bad thing. The Tuohys were actually a lifeboat for Oher. They rescued him from a life of poverty. This was a boy who had the clothes on his back and what he could carry in a grocery bag. Yes, others had helped him, but they took him as far as they could take him. The Tuohys had the resources to actually equip Oher for a future in college and ultimately a NFL career. It was absolutely galling to see the NCAA questioning their motives. The Tuohys did something that most people would not think about doing. They opened their home and their lives to a homeless boy and that should have been celebrated not investigated.

 The Nigerian terrorist would have been successful if he had been able to detonate his bomb. The frightening part is he was able to pass through the system while carrying this fatal substance. Now the airlines are on special alert. The horse has run off and now they are putting a new lock on the barn door. This guy came very close to committing a catastrophic act of terrorism on Christmas Day. His father tried to warn the US Embassy, the suspected terrorist bought a one way ticket and paid over $2000 in cash for it, but nothing he did set off any red flags. So now passengers must sit at attention the last hour of international flights. No pillows, no blanket, no nothing is allowed in your lap. On the Today Show Matt Lauer asked a terrorism expert what if he was traveling with his 3 year old son and the son needed to use the restroom in the last how what could he do? He responded that an airline official might accompany them to the restroom or take they might take his son to the restroom. Lauer might have to travel with pull ups for his son and himself in this new age of travel.

 Charlie Sheen star of the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men has been charged with domestic violence. He was arrested and jailed on Friday in Colorado. “Sheen, 44, was charged with second degree assault and menacing, both felonies, and criminal mischief, a misdemeanor”.  What will CBS do about this? Will his sitcom be put on hold while this case moves forward? America can not stand an abuser. Case in point Chris Brown. Brown beat up his then girlfriend Rihanna and he became public enemy number one. What Brown did to Rihanna was indeed despicable, but America has refused to forgive him. Even the couple who used his song for that very popular viral wedding victim spoke out against Brown just a week ago. So I know Sheen is in for some of the same kind of American justice. Or is he? Sheen is said to have even brandished a knife in this incident. Sheen has a history of bad behavior, but the media tends to laugh it off and say that is Charlie Sheen being Charlie Sheen. He is simply the “bad boy” of Hollywood even though he is a middle aged man. It will be very interesting to watch how this case unfolds. Will Sheen be demonized or will he just give us his trademark smirk and simply film another Hanes commercial with basketball superstar Michael Jordan?

I just finished reading an article about the Wayans Brothers. One of their former assistants is suing them because he contends the brothers stole his idea for their book, You Know You’re a Goldigger…, Jared Edwards said he worked for them a decade ago and he wrote jokes about women using their wiles to secure status. He said the brothers rejected his book idea but later published a book that was similar in nature. After reading this I thought of the Chris Rock movie Good Hair. A woman that worked for him while he was doing Everybody Hates Chris said she showed Rock clips from her film Nappy Roots and some of the segments of Rock’s Good Hair are quite similar to the film she showed Rock. She too is currently suing Rock, and finally Steve Harvey’s book Think Like a Lady Act Like a Man. Sharon P. Carson  claims that Steve Harvey’s new book Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man is not his, but hers.  Carson said she holds the copyright to a book of the same exact title with the same exact premise. And much of his book is way too similar to hers. “She wrote her book back in 2004 and is speaking out about Steve (or his people) stealing it and changing some words, then slapping his name on it so he could go make money for the publishers and “writers”.” So are all of these people delusional or are celebrities actually taking their ideas and turning them into moneymakers? So often people know someone famous and they think that the person could help them. So they do share their idea with the celebrity hoping and trusting that they will help them make their dream come true  but sadly in some cases the celebrity sees a good idea and they have the clout and the connections to actually turn a concept into reality. I am no judge and I don’t know if the celebrities actually stole the ideas from these visionaries, but I believe the takeaway from this is before you share an idea you need to have the viewer sign a contract so that if they do steal your idea you will have some kind of legal recourse, and do not forget to copyright your work.

 Today David Goldman left Brazil with his son, Sean. This story has been in the news for at least 4 years. Goldman’s former wife was from Brazil and she took the boy there on a trip and ended up divorcing Goldman. She remarried and died in childbirth and the boy’s stepfather fought for years to keep the boy. David Goldman never gave up and he had powerful allies including NBC News. His story has been featured on Dateline, The Today Show and the Nightly Network News. His congressman intervened and there was talk of the Secretary of State Clinton even getting involved. Finally today he was able to bring his son home, but it truly took a village to make this reunion happen. This brings me to the Mitrice Richardson story. I first saw her story on the Today Show. Her parents appeared and shared the story of her disappearance. She had been arrested by the LAPD regarding a restaurant bill. She was taken to the station and her car was search and a small amount of marijuana was found in the car. She was released from custody in the middle of the night and no one has seen her since. It has now been 3 months since she left the station. Last week I read a blog by Jasmyne Cannick in which she said the family was trying to get Maxine Waters to initiate a federal investigation into to this case but at the time the family’s plea for intervention had not been answered. Publicity is the key to solving crimes. The Richardson case deserves more press than it is getting. It is wonderful that David Goldman will have his son for the holidays, but today they rejoice and Mitrice’s family is in agony because they simply want to know what happened to her. They need more media coverage of the events that led up to her disappearance. She deserves to be remembered for more than her disappearance.

http://www.bringmitricehome.org

Yesterday I read an article about a mother begging for Christmas presents on Craigslist. I remember as a child some years we got what we wanted and some years we did not. If the money was running funny we did not get the things we asked for and we survived.  My parents were hard workers and they never would have begged for gifts for us. It is understandable that parents want their children to have a Merry Christmas, but some things are nice and some things are necessary. It is nice to have a big tree surrounded by lots of presents, but it is necessary to be able to feed and clothe your children. Our society has commercialized this holiday to the point that it is unrecognizable. This is what makes parents feel guilty if they can fulfill the Christmas that their child has fantasized, and leads to begging on Craigslist.

Yesterday President Obama sat down for an interview with April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks.  She asked him why were some portions of the black community losing faith in him. Ryan specifically asked “speaking of the African American community, this seems to be a shift in black leadership, as it relates to supporting you. You have the CBC that’s upset with you about targeting on the jobs front — African Americans, 15.6 percent unemployment rate, expected to go to 20 percent; mainstream America 10 percent. Then you have black actors who supported you — Danny Glover, who’s saying that you’ve not changed; your administration is the same as George W. Bush. What are your thoughts about the fact that black leadership is grumbling, and the fact that people are concerned with you being the first African American President, and they thought that there would be a little bit more compassion for black issues?” The president responded, “Well, first of all, April, I think you just engaged in a big generalization in terms of how you asked that question. If you want me to line up all the black actors, for example, who support me, and put them on one side of the room, and a couple who are grumbling on the other, I’m happy to have that. I think if you look at the polling, in terms of the attitudes of the African American community, there’s overwhelming support for what we’ve tried to do. And, so, is there grumbling? Of course there’s grumbling, because we just went through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And everybody is concerned about unemployment, everybody’s concerned about businesses not hiring, everybody’s concerned about their home values declining. And in each of these areas, African Americans have been disproportionately affected. We were some of the folks who were most affected by predatory lending. There’s a long history of us being the last hired and the first fired.” I find the president’s response to be very interesting. The fact is he has not lost all of the capital with the black community but there are more than a few voices grumbling and it would be very dangerous to simply dismiss it as the discontent of a few. Yes the president is president to all of America, but he assembled a coalition last fall that captured the black vote which was a critical part of his successful election so he needs to listen even to things he does not want to hear.  He also said  “ this notion somehow that because there wasn’t a transformation overnight that we’ve been neglectful is simply factually not accurate.” Mr. President no one expected an overnight transformation, but what we do expect is to be taken off the back burner and put on the 2010 To Do List.

*Transcript from April Ryan Interview

When a young person goes off the serve their country friends and loved ones pray for their safety. One such young person was Private Clifford Williams. He was home on a 15 day leave. He wanted to spend Christmas with his son and he would have celebrated his 23^rd birthday the day after Christmas, but sadly his family is now planning his funeral. What does it say about urban America when a young man can survive Afghanistan and get killed at home on leave? He was out shopping when his car was hit by barrage of bullets. “Police have no suspects or a motive in the shooting. Williams enlisted in the Army in February 2008 and was deployed in April to Afghanistan, where he performed maintenance on planes, an Army spokesman told the Associated Press.  It’s a very, very sad case,” said Lt. Col. Nathan M. Banks, an Army spokesman. We always expect to be killed over there. When we come home to American soil, this is rare.”* The police are going door to door trying to put the pieces back together, but this will be a hard case to solve. I am sure Private Williams looked forward to being home for the holidays he never knew he was safer in a war zone than on the streets of his own country.  

*Baltimore Sun

 Steve Harvey has enjoyed unprecedented success this year. His book Act Like Lady Think Like A Man was on the New York Times bestseller’s list for weeks. He has appeared on Oprah, he is also a contributor on Good Morning America, and he continues to host a popular syndicated radio show. In a word Steve Harvey is hot and everyone wants a piece of him including Essence magazine. Essence has rewarded Harvey with his own monthly column. The column is called “Think Like a Man”. I understand that Harvey will be offering insight into how men think, but why do women have to think like a man? Is there something wrong with how we think? The title is sexist and this is a woman’s magazine. Harvey has been divorced twice and is currently with wife number three. I am sure he has some very interesting perspectives but should Essence magazine be his forum?

A few days ago there was a monster storm in the Mid-Atlantic region. In Washington DC some young people were having a snowball fight and one of the snowballs hit a red Hummer. The driver got out holding a pistol. We learned later that he was an off duty policemen, but why would he react so violently to such an innocent act. Over reaction to the slightest ill or insult has gotten to be the norm. We are witnessing a new level of rudeness in media, politics and on the streets. President Obama’s healthcare bill has been passed by the Democratic controlled Senate. Michael Steele, GOP Chairman said this bill is akin to the Democrats “flipping the bird to the American people.” This is the kind of verbiage that has become acceptable in our political discourse. This kind of visceral commentary is espoused by both parties, and the media has taken it to new and lower levels. Friday MSNBC Dylan Ratigan while interviewing Congressman Debra Wasserman became extremely combative and rude as they discussed the healthcare bill. He was talking over her so much that she said he could really interview himself. He finally became so frustrated that he ended the interview. His behavior was so high on the egregious meter that on Monday’s show he had to apologize for his rudeness. Cops, politicians, television pundits, your next door neighbor everyone seems to be on the edge and ready to blow. Why? Times are tough, but we will survive, but will we recognize who we have become.

Natalie Holloway was a high school senior that disappeared on a class trip to Aruba. Her mother effectively used the media to keep this story alive. She traveled to Aruba and challenged the police. She confronted the men that her daughter was last seen with before her disappearance. Her mother was tenacious and the media stayed with this story. Holloway was never found but it was not from lack of media coverage.  One of the suspects said her body was dumped in the ocean. Obviously this was not the end the family was looking for but at least it gave them some closure. Mitrice Richardson has been missing since September.  She disappeard after being released by the LAPD in the middle of the night.  The family has reached out to Congresswoman Maxine Waters and asked her to start the process of opening a federal investigation into this case, but as of December 16^th they had heard nothing from their Congresswoman. We know the media is more interested in Jon and Kate plus eight, the Balloon Boy and his camera-ready family, the White House Gate Crashing Salahis and let us not forget the salacious details of the sexual escapades of Tiger Woods. All of these stories commanded the news cycles for days, but Mitrice Richardson’s story has garnered minimal media attention. As we move toward Christmas I am sure her family simply wants answers and that can only happen if somebody besides her family gives this case the attention it deserves.   

http://www.bringmitricehome.org

Today I am home because my city got socked by a snowstorm. Normally I would be at church on a Sunday morning, but today I will have to make do with watching televised ministries. In switching from channel to channel I am struck by how many churches talk about finances. They give 5-7 common sense solutions that will ultimately lead the listeners to financial success. The viewer is left to wonder are all the members in some kind of financial bind?  The preachers promise “supernatural debt cancellation” this theme is echoed on more than one of the shows I watched.  They tell the listeners to look out for checks that they did not expect to appear in their mailboxes, but I wonder where do they find biblical verses to back up their guarantees?  I remember attending a church in Chicago years ago where the preacher asked everyone who wanted to be a millionaire to jump up and say I want to be a millionaire. He called it an act of faith, but it was more an act of foolishness. Some of these people that were willing to jump into the air were not even willing to work a full time job, and this was during a time when jobs were plentiful. The reality is they jumped up broke and they came down the same way. This morning as I look at the faces of the listeners I am reminded of some of those air jumpers, they are looking for a quick fix and they receive an emotional jumpstart as they listen to the dynamic oratory of the evangelist, but how does this affect their bottom line? People often say the Bible says “God helps those who help themselves”, but that’s not in the Bible, but what the Bible does say “faith without works is not dead.”  I just hope that the listeners are inspired to trust God, but to also know they have to work to make their own dreams become a reality.

When I was a child we asked Santa for toys. We were children and we really did not have a care in the world, but sadly children have been robbed of this child-like innocence. Mall Santas across the country report more and more children are asking Santa for essentials.  “A couple of years ago, children were shooting for the moon, asking St. Nick for Xboxes,  and laptops. But with the economy still fragile, many children are requesting basics such as shoes, library cards and even eyeglasses, say dozens of Santas who work at malls or on the party circuit. Kids will hear the E-word, but it’s not Elmo,” says Tim Connaghan, who runs a Los Angeles Santa-training school. It’s the economy.” * It is a sad sign of the times. Hopefully now that the healthcare debate is subsiding the president and his merry band can concentrate on the economy. One of the things I remember about the campaign is the fact that the president said the president needs to be able to address multiple issues at a time. Well now we need the president to make good on his promise and let this be the last Christmas that chilren need to ask Santa for things they should really already have.

*MSNBC

A few days ago Lisa Warren wrote a piece for the Huffington Post, regarding the toppling of black role models. The two prominent men she compared are President Barack Obama and golfer, Tiger Woods. Warren said “In the past few weeks, the two most famous and arguably most successful black men in America have taken a huge fall. It has become clear that both pro golfer Tiger Woods, just named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press, and the American president, Barack Obama, the first black person to lead the country, suffer from a surfeit of hubris which has finally caught up with them. If both men somehow thought they were untouchable, they have been put to right. Both have crashed to earth and it may well be true that they can never recover their earlier status again.” Hubris means an overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance. She went on to say “While Woods’ indiscretions” affect only himself and his family, he has felt the sting of the media invasion and a permanent loss of privacy. His reputation as sport’s good family guy is gone. For Barack Obama the honeymoon is really over, even those who wanted to give him a chance are getting tired of what is not getting done, what was promised and reneged on. There is disappointment enough in both of them.” I am trying to figure why she would compare the two men because their situations are so dissimilar. The only two things these men have in common are being famous and bi-racial. They have two distinctive skill sets and they engage in two dissimilar professions. Woods has acknowledged his personal failures and President Obama is in the first year of his first term as president. I hardly think his tenure could be characterized as crash and burn. I also take offense to her characterization of their “overbearing pride.” Both men have excelled in their endeavors and both men have played the game according to their own rules and that rankles the establishment.  It is so funny that when white men demonstrate excellence in their endeavors they are called confident, but when men of color exemplify those same traits they are labeled arrogant and uppity. She compares both Woods and the president to other famous black men who she characterized as “tragic”. Warren said “when a black icon stumbles the tragedy seems doubly problematic. Mike Tyson, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jackson were all at the tops of their fields before revelations that made them less palatable as heroes and less of a role model for young black men. They have all been partially rehabilitated but not without a huge cost.” Warren has managed to compare Woods and the president to every sensational black scenario that has happened over the last 20 years. The only one she left out was OJ Simpson. She must be saving the OJ comparison for her follow up piece.

Team Tiger got some good news for a change yesterday.  He was named AP Athlete of the Decade. Why are so many people so fascinated by this story? My friend said I failed to recognize the global presence of Woods. Our NFL and NBA athletes are regarded as the locals when compared to Tiger Woods. So his story garners more attention because he is truly a world wide sports icon. I was looking at him as a big star who was the pride of this country and who also had fans in the black community. Some who embraced him when he refused to return the embrace. So I was truly underestimating the level of interest that a story like this would garner. Woods is still not speaking to the press and that is his right, but is this the best way to quell the storm? It would have been disingenuous for him to have done the Kobe style tearful confessional, but maybe he should have read the last website statement. The other irony to this story is the fact that Tiger’s  adultery is more of a sub-story. The bigger story is the sheer number of women that he is said to have had affairs with, and in some quarters the fact that they are all white. Last night DL Hugeley described Woods activities as “pedestrian”. He acknowledged that he too had had numerous affairs in the course of his marriage. He also went on to jokingly say 12 women is a typical week for a NBA player. Not all black athletes are running around like crazed sex addicts and it is insulting with statements like this are said and affirmed as if they are facts. This story will not end soon because it contains too many salacious elements that will keep it going well into the new year.

When President Obama was elected last year we believed things were going to change. He talked about how he was going to change the way Washington did business. He was the idealistic former community organizer with a real vision for the country.  He assembled a powerful coalition of progressives, minorities and people who had long given up on changing the system from the inside. He talked about universal healthcare, ending the war in Iraq and finding a way to combat unemployment. Now we sit here a year later and we can hardly recognize the man we voted for last fall.  The president has compromised on the healthcare bill to the point that it is no longer reform. It has become less about healthcare and more about the 2010 election. Healthcare has dominated the political dialogue for months while other pressing issues have been put on the back burner. President Obama set a hard deadline for getting the healthcare bill passed and in doing so he and his team have created a bill that will not offer healthcare to every one.  President Obama also will be remembered for the bank bailouts. The banks were too big to fail so we had to bail them out. Obama told us if we did not unemployment would skyrocket. Well we did it but unemployment skyrocketed anyway, and those same banks developed new ways to stick it to the consumers.  So what was the point? Unemployment in the black community is close to 20%. The Congressional Black Caucus is asking the president to really look at ways to help the community, but the president’s response is if the economy gets better it will help everyone. The black community is literally bleeding and the president is denying a transfusion and only offering a bandage. The black community was firmly behind him during the election. No one expected 40 acres and a mule but we never expected to be ignored or placated. President Obama’s approval rating has dropped below 50% for the first time and it really is no surprise. In his effort to appeal to the right he has run from his base. He is no longer dancing with the one that “brung him.” and that is sad.  Hopefully, he will enjoy this term because he can not keeping ignoring us and expect us not to ignore him in 2012.

Tiger Woods received good news today when he was named AP Athlete of the Decade. There is no disputing Woods incredible talent and this award is well-deserved, but there will be many offering different opinions on the choice.  “He won 64 times around the world, including 12 majors, and hoisted a trophy on every continent golf is played. He lost only one time with the lead going into the final round. His 56 PGA Tour victories in one incomparable decade were more than anyone except four of golf’s greatest players won in their careers.”* Woods is currently battling his own personal demons and he is doing it out of sight which is driving the media crazy, but this prize acknowledges the incredible contribution he has made to golf.  It is so fascinating to watch athletes, reporters and the man on the street expressing their outrage with his personal choices. Woods has incredible wealth and with that incredible access to decadence that the common man can only dream about. What he did was wrong, but he is no demon. He is an incredible athlete, but a flawed human being, but this award was not based on his personal choices it was based on his indisputable talent.

*Huffington Post

As we come to the end of the year I am struck by how little one can buy for a buck or even a few bucks. Saturday while shopping at the grocery store I noticed a big end cap display of cereal. The sign said 10 for $10 so I walked over to take a good look at these family size boxes of cereal to see the real deal. There were only 6 ounces of cereal in the box. So unless your family is populated by a bunch of Stuart Littles (imaginary mice)  6 ounces of cereal is not going to go very far. Another thing that is gradually disappearing from the grocery aisles are Glad plug-ins. Glade plug-ins are these gel like substances that you put into a holder and put the plastic holder into one of your electrical outlets. This inexpensive product can give a room a nice fresh smell. Well this inexpensive alternative is being phased out and replaced by a more expensive scented oil replacement. No there is no big sign saying “No More Plug-ins”, but you can see the plug-ins are losing shelf space and the scented oil is now occupying that space. Where can you find a half gallon of ice cream? At the grocery store we are now paying the same price we once paid for a half gallon, but we are now getting a little more than a quart. This is not a comprehensive list, but it it representative of a very bad trend. We have less money and the retailers are sticking us up. They are not wearing masks, but the result is the same.

 This Christmas is going to be a very different Christmas for many Americans including me. I lost my job in July so I will not be spending like I have done in the past. So today I decided to go to TJ Maxx. Their slogan used to be the “max for the minimum”. So I went hunting for bargains. I found some good buys and went to the checkout line. The store was recently remodeled so I was standing at the counter in the wrong spot. One of the associates of the four standing idle at the counter informed the line started at the other end. I forgot to say one of the perks of being unemployed is you can shop while the working people are at work. So there were very few people shopping and only me at the checkout counter. So when I was admonished about being in the wrong position for service I apologized and proceeded to go to the other end to be served, but one of the associates said that’s alright I will take you. So at this point the story should be over but the first associate that got me straight said to the one who had consented to serve me “thank you” and then she said “next time you will know the line starts down there.” Well, I was in a particularly good mood today so I just looked at her and said “I said I was sorry”, and then she looked at me as if she wanted to say something else but thankfully she didn’t because my holiday good cheer was about to come to a screeching halt. I looked at her and took my things and left. As I was leaving the store I thought about this holiday season and the fact that nothing in the bag I had was actually a necessity. Yes there were some trinket gifts for friends, but I really didn’t need the things in the bag, and I probably could have gone online or to another store to buy them, but today I chose TJ Maxx, but I don’t think I’ll need to worry about where to stand because I don’t think I’ll be in that store anytime soon. So warning to merchants treat us right, treat us nice or we will find a store or a website that will.

On the North Dakota Republican Party website homepage they have a joke of the day, and today the joke was on the president. The picture shows the party crashing Salahis shaking hands with the president and he asks can he see their invitation, and they reply can I see your birth certificate.  Funny stuff?  No its more birther nonsense that the Republicans keep spewing. When the political director of the North Dakota Republican party was questioned about it he said “it’s a joke.” It’s simply nothing funny about this birther drivel and things like this just emboldened the movement.

Last night I watched the ABC Oprah Christmas Special. She interviewed the President and the First Lady. Most of the show was devoted to all things Christmas, but Oprah did ask some substantive questions, and one of them was what grade would the president give himself for his first year in office? He said B+, but I have to wonder what would he base this analysis on? He is Commander and Chief over two wars, the country has an unemployment rate of 10%, and in the black community that number is almost doubled, he has spent the entire summer pushing a healthcare bill that probably won’t be signed until next year, and that might not happen. So what curve would allow him to grant himself such a good grade? My son is a very likeable boy and that likeability has probably factored into some of his grades. If people like you they grant you a little more slack than they would if they didn’t. President Obama is a likeable guy, but no way has he earned such high marks with the American public. It is true that he inherited the wars, but he signed off on the too big to fail freight train, and now we sit watching the bailed out banks racing to pay off the government so that they can shower their executives with big year-end bonuses while the government stands mute. I don’t think most Americans blame the president for all the country’s ills, but let’s get real this year he deserves a C for working hard, but he has a lot of work to do to earn that B+ he thinks he deserves.

We are coming to the end of two weeks of Tiger Woods coverage. It has been Tiger, Tiger, Tiger almost 24/7. Everyday seemed to bring another former conquest in search of a podium or megaphone to recite her sordid tryst with Tiger. The sports columnists, pundits and the man on the street have all had an opinion on what Tiger needed to do to move forward. The prevailing point of view was that Woods needed to come out and talk to the media. He needed to recite his sins and beg our collective forgiveness. He needed to do this soon or it would be everlasting too late, but Tiger decided not to follow the script. Tiger decided to do a Frank Sinatra and do it his way. He made his first statement which talked about his “transgressions” on his website, and he made his last statement that admitted “infidelity” on his website. He has asked for privacy and he has stepped off the greens for the time being. He has not stepped in front of the media with his wife at his side and cried crocodile tears for the media to analyze whether he was sincere enough. He has just decided to step back and let the ladies have the floor, and he will go somewhere and try to salvage his life and his marriage, but he is doing it his way.

A few months ago I wrote a post about Mitrice Richardson. She is a 24 year old black woman who was arrested and released in the middle of the night by the LA police. She is still missing, but her family and friends are still looking for her. For more information go to: www.bringmitricehome.org.

There is really no difference between tabloid television and morning news. I really should put air quotes over the word news. For almost two weeks we have been the forced to watch the unraveling of Tiger Woods marriage. TMZ and tabloid newspapers received an early Christmas present when Woods crashed his car into that tree. We have come to expect sensationalism from entities that were built to deliver it, but we now can put the Today Show in the same category. This morning they interviewed Jamie Junger. She is one of the women that claim to have had a relationship with Woods. She had the audacity to express anger at a NY Post story about her. In the story they claim she was paid for her sexual favors. She said she was not that kind of girl. She is the kind of girl that knowingly sleeps with a married man but she would not accept money. As she said she and Tiger enjoyed sex and not the “boring married couple sex.”  She claimed she was doing the interview to clear the air, but why was the Today Show interviewing her? The Today Show is Number 1 and they want to stay Number 1. So if occasionally they have to gutter troll to keep the ratings up they will do it. The Today Show was once a news show with some human interest stories sprinkled in, but now it is on the same level with TMZ and that’s  shame.