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Sarah Palin and her supporters may think she’s hot stuff, but reality says different.
According to a new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, 59 percent of Americans think Sarah Palin is not fit to be president of the United States
Meanwhile, 26 percent say they think she would be an effective commander-in-chief. The poll also shows Republicans splitting 47-40 on the question of whether Palin can lead the country.
Those numbers should be comforting to liberals, but on the other hand, 76 percent of respondents said Mel Gibson’s recent misogynistic and racist tirade won’t affect whether or not they’ll see his movies
When Hugh Hefner’s name is mentioned the very first thing that comes to mind for most people is Playboy (the magazine and the bunnies). That white bunny logo placed against an all black background has provoked the social consciousness of America since the 1950s.
To some, Hugh Hefner has made this country a better place by dragging our sexual consciousness in to the future kicking and screaming, yet to others he is little more than a charlatan.
To some he’s thought of as the prehistoric forerunner to the P. Diddy school of overindulgence and bling. He’s been accused of being a pornographer, the king of all chauvinist pigs and even the reason for the marginalization of morality in this country.
But, like most people, there are other sides of the story. Playboy and the player lifestyle that Hugh Hefner was supposedly living were simply for show. The man was far, far deeper than that.
Sure, he loved and still loves the ladies (lots and lots of ‘em, we might add, thanks to Viagra), but he doesn’t get half the credit he deserves, and gets most of the darts for what he does not.
“There are probably a lot of people today enjoying freedoms who have no idea Hugh Hefner was the pioneer who got all the arrows. He fought for it on every level, everybody, and if you think it’s just about sex, then you’re looking through the keyhole, and you’re not seeing the whole picture” — Bill Maher, comedian/talk show host
81-year-old Hugh Hefner is also a man with many causes, one of which was his support of the civil rights movement and, surprisingly, the women’s rights movement as well. He was even an early proponent for the legalization of marijuana. Academy Award winning director Bridgette Berman tried to capture all of his many sides and the 2 hour running time of “Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel” are barely enough to contain his larger than life persona. Berman was kind enough to forward us a copy and, we have to say, it’s very interesting, no, fascinating stuff to say the least.
For those that are too young to remember, and for those that may have forgotten, Hugh Hefner was against all of the social norms of the day. He was not only against the prudish sexual nature of the day, but he was against racism and for the women’s suffrage movement. All of this while being targeted by the Catholic church, the religious right and the FBI. An incredible man to say the least. “Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel” also features commentary from some of his harshest critics and that makes the film that much more interesting. How many biographers will add the naysayers commentary?
Brilliant as far as we’re concerned!
“Playboy magazine and that whole mind set, that whole philosophy, that whole attitude of no restraint whatsoever, moral, spiritually any other way, has contributed more than any other single ingredient, to the breaking of the moral compass,” says Christian activist and singer Pat Boone.
“There was no situation as to whether Hef would allow it,” said Berman of including dissenting views in the documentary. “He truly believes in freedom of speech, first amendment. With that comes yay and nay. You can see that it’s a labor of love and a lot of work went in to it. It was important for me that this not be a Valentine to Mr. Hefner. Even though I am a friend of his, the friend retreated to the back and I became a filmmaker, first and foremost.”
The film is honest and includes many of Hugh Hefner’s staunchest enemies, but it includes some surprising friends as well.
“Many people in the festival screenings have said they came under protest,” said Berman. “They didn’t really want to see a film about Hugh Hefner and were kind of dragged there. They said they were astonished about the things that they learned; his activism in civil rights, his friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jim Brown and he have had a long, outstanding friendship.”
Some may have also forgotten that Martin Luther King Jr’s last article was published in Playboy and was edited by Coretta Scott King. History bears witness to, and the film reminds of, the fact that Hugh Hefner has gone to great lengths to do what he saw was right. In the 1960s the Playboy Clubs in Miami and New Orleans would not allow African American patrons in, so Hefner used his money to buy the clubs back at a considerable loss so black patrons could be allowed in. In the late 1960s his late night variety show “Playboy After Dark” featured mixed race musical acts and audience members when America was still soaked in bigotry and hate. Also, Hugh Hefner was instrumental in pushing jazz to the mainstream with his Playboy Jazz Festival. Because of Hefner, a lot of black people got to feed their families and that’s not even the half of it.
The Cabinet minister actually in charge of the controversial file raises a good point: Why hasn’t the captain or the crew of the Tamil refugee ship been busted for trafficking in human cargo?
Surfacing for the first time since the MV Sun Sea docked in Victoria three weeks ago, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says it seems a “sensible” result.
However, the fear-mongering face of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who was eager to blast the ship as a terrorist trawler when it docked in August, is mostly silent on the situation now.
Cracking down on human smuggling is the number one issue on voters’ minds if office feedback is any indication, Mr. Kenney insists, pooh-poohing the notion of scandals like the long-form census controversy as a figment of unimaginative media minds.
So where’s the rap sheet for the guy at the helm of a rustbucket that charged the equivalent of 20 first-class return air fares for one person’s ticket into a ship’s cargo hold?
Mr. Kenney defers to the cops. The way the RCMP explains it, the captain and crew are missing. They mingled with the refugee claimants departing the Sun Sea gangway and disappeared under a conspiratorial cone of silence.
How 492 Tamils could have roamed the Pacific for four months until they arrived in Victoria on Aug. 13 without passengers noting the person or persons in charge is one of those head-scratching scenarios mere Canadian pleasure boat users cannot comprehend. But police plead for more time as they sort passengers from crew while gathering data to make any charges stick. It could take a long time.
Says RCMP Constable Michael McLaughlin: “I can’t comment yet. The investigation is ongoing and it’s nowhere near its conclusion.”
Now, apparently, this is not unusual. The first Tamil ship, Ocean Lady, docked in Victoria last October carrying 76 men and they still haven’t charged anybody. But Mr. Kenney insists it’s only a matter of time before the bad guys face the music as smugglers who could qualify for a life sentence.
“Anyone who was paid to facilitate this voyage in terms of crew members are likely involved in human smuggling,” Mr. Kenney said in an interview. “But these are complicated situations and a lot of fear is used as a tool…. [The operators] have a way of keeping people quiet.”
U.S. police shot and killed a man who took three people hostage, waving a gun and apparently fitted out with explosives, in the headquarters of the Discovery Channel near Washington on Wednesday.
Officers who had been watching the hostage drama on a building security camera crept in while police negotiated with the emotional gunman and shot him when he pointed his pistol at one of the three men he held hostage.
“A hostage moved, he pulled his gun, and a shot was taken,” Montgomery County police chief Tom Manger told reporters. He said the suspect was killed and the hostages were safe.
The man, named by a U.S. law enforcement official as James Lee, had been arrested before for protesting against Discovery Channel over environmental issues.
“He had a history … of conflict with Discovery,” Manger said.
The incident caused chaos in Silver Spring, Maryland, a shopping and office district and commuter hub on the edge of the U.S. capital.
Police sealed off the area around the building and SWAT teams deployed shortly after the suspect entered the building carrying a handgun at about 1 p.m. Manger said county and state police, FBI and Homeland Security agents joined the operation.
The building, where nearly 1,900 employees work, was evacuated and children were rushed from a day-care centre.
Police said they were still trying to determine whether two boxes and two backpacks that the hostage-taker had were explosive devices. Bomb-sniffing dogs checked the area before workers were allowed to leave neighbouring buildings.
My hat is tipped off to our young Black geniuses today. A group of high school students at De LaSalle High School in Kansas City, Miss. have taken part in a project that will go into history books.
When compared with the amount of energy needed to run a regular car powered by gasoline, the electric car built by the De LaSalle students is equal to 452 miles per gallon!
One student, Kevin Duley (pictured above), had the typical dream of becoming a professional basketball player, but the invention changed his mind. He now wants to be a scientist.
The great thing about this story is that is emphasizes the importance of extra-curricular activities in the schools. These students’ futures depend on these programs, especially in the Black community.
Our politicians need to stop trippin out and get it together. They keep taking money out of the school and putting em over seas and in our prisons. If we had it right, prison populations wouldn’t be so high and we’d have more kids going to school instead of jail. But who am I. Just a blogger.
American Frankenstein is written as a timely response to the need to revisit the history and realities of the Black existence in America… As with Dr. Frankenstein’s creature, African-Americans have been aimlessly trying t find their way in society, trying to fit in… Likewise, as with Dr.
Frankenstein’s creature, the African-American plight has been filled with hatred, mistrust, neglect, and outright violent rejection…
Society demonized and criminalized the Black man… and relegated him to second-class status, capable only of menial, labor-intensive, low-wage employment… While African-Americans strived to assimilate into society… they were still, by and large, unaccepted and unappreciated… They were generally rejected just as Frankenstein was.
The irony is that if care and fairness had replaced hatred and bigotry, the African-American would have developed into one of the country’s greatest human assets over the last few hundred years… The question is, is there enough compassion in American society to recognize the error of its ways and enough esteem left in African-Americans to correct for past indiscretions?” — Excerpted from the Introduction
*Given the ascendancy of Barack Obama to the Presidency, and the country’s concomitant cultivation of black billionaires like Oprah Winfrey, and Bob and Sheila Johnson, there are many who point to such successes as proof that America has finally arrived at a point where it should congratulate itself for finally achieving that colorblind society envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King. Not so fast, suggests Kyle Stanford Cramer who argues that U.S. still has a long way to go to be considered post-racial.
In his thought-provoking book, American Frankenstein: How the United States Created a Monster, Mr. Cramer makes a novel analogy between the history of mistreatment of African-Americans and the way the misunderstood movie villain was so heartlessly hunted down by an intolerant mob of townspeople armed with torches and pitchforks. The author is admirably earnest in his endeavor, recounting in chronological fashion how black folks have repeatedly been denied access to mainstream society, despite exhibiting extraordinary patience, bending over backwards while waiting for that ever-elusive opportunity to assimilate.
He says that the disparity created during slavery was not corrected in the wake of emancipation, given that the government reneged on the promise of 40 acres and a mule. The failure of Reconstruction was followed by the rise of Jim Crow segregation which was brutally enforced by the Klan via a century-long reign of terror which can only be described as domestic terrorism.
Cramer concedes that the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties made some significant inroads, however even that effort was effectively undermined by the backlash of white flight from the inner cities, the crippling crutch of welfare and the tease of token affirmation action. He persuasively augments his arguments with both statistical evidence and personal anecdotes recounting his own experiences as a black kid growing up in Chicago where he miraculously overcame the odds to earn a master’s degree at Northwestern University.
Seeing himself as an anomaly, Kyle Stanford Cramer is today committed to alleviating the persistently-desperate plight of the bulk of the still-marginalized masses of black people. His solution? While stopping short of a call for reparations, he nonetheless adamantly insists that America ought to opt to make amends by belatedly funding a Federal Reconstruction program which he envisions as incorporating everything from an apology for slavery and subsequent oppression to mental healthcare to an overhaul of the criminal justice system to education reform to job training to social support services to genealogical research critical to retracing roots and thereby knowing oneself. That’s a man with a plan.
Frankenstein resuscitated as a civil rights figure. I love it, What’s next, using The Joker to make the case for gay marriage? I think I just gave somebody an idea.
Here we go again. The Hurricane Katrina nightmare continues. A story at the Washington Post tells the tale of how New Orleans’ recovery diverges for affluent whites and low-income blacks.
“For people who were well-off before the storm, they are more likely to be back in their homes, back in their jobs and to have access to good health care,” said one leading advocate. “For those who were poor or struggling to get by before the storm, the opposite is true.”
Earlier this month, Lousiana’s program to hand out grants to property owners whose holdings were damaged by the hurricane was found to discriminate against black homeowners.
In Mississippi, low-income, uninsured homeowners were hurt by a decision to refuse rebuilding grants to property owners who suffered wind damage.
And a recent survey found that African-Americans in New Orleans are more than twice as likely to believe they have not yet recovered from Katrina.
Although it wasn’t too glamorous, the evening was sure pumped with star power at Tuesday night’s screening of Andrew Young’s documentary “Change in the Wind.”
Atlantamagazine.com reports that the film chronicles the secret correspondence between Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell and Morehouse College president Benjamin Mays, and the unlikely friendship that developed between the Civil Rights crusading educator and the author of the novel glorifying the Old South and eventually led to Mitchell’s decision to (secretly again) sponsor Morehouse medical students.
Atlanta Daily World publisher Alexis Scott and other big timers perused the lobby filled with artifacts from the University of Georgia. Other big wigs who attended include Kasim Reed, broadcast journalist, Margaret Mitchell House & Museum founder Mary Rose Taylor, Jasmine Guy.
Jay-Z and U2 are coming together for the first big gig under Live Nation Austrialia. The rapper, a very busy man lately, is going to appear as a special guest on state during U2’s 360 Tour in Austrailia.
The five-city tour will be the first concert promoted by the new Live Nation Australia. The outing will begin in Auckland’s Mount Smart Stadium on November 25 and make its way to amphitheatres across the country, stopping in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. It will conclude at Perth’s Subiaco Oval on December 18.
This isn’t the first time the two nearly opposites have joined forces. Earlier this year, both acts, as well as Rihanna, performed their benefit song “Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)” as part of the “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon.
In addition to their charity song, Jay-Z and U2 also proved to be music heavyweights when they made the top 10 on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s top-earning musicians.
Automakers are operating in terra incognita as they prepare for the biggest change in the way cars are powered in a century. As they begin to add battery-powered cars to their lineups, they will have to solve some fundamental problems about how the cars are built and sold.
For engineers, the questions include:
Should automakers be technology leaders or fast followers?
Should they develop their own batteries or leave that to specialists?
Should they focus on one technology or hedge their bets with several?
For marketers, the issues are:
Should automakers use existing body styles and model names or create new ones?
Should they start slowly and wait for demand to develop or try to grab market share immediately?
Should they distribute cars through existing dealer networks or start from scratch?
There are few guideposts to follow. The only equivalent parallel in recent history has been the launch of the hybrid gas-electric vehicle, where, arguably, only one company has been successful.
That is Toyota (TM), which unlike most other manufacturers, built a hybrid-specific car, the Prius. The car’s unique character attracted early adopters as well as the environmentally-conscious who wanted to visibly demonstrate their commitment, and Toyota promoted it effectively.
Honda tried to drive the same road with its own hybrid, the Insight. But both the first- and second-generation vehicles sold poorly.
Other automakers installed their gas-electric powertrains in existing models, essentially making the hybrid device an option. The cars lacked a distinctive identity, most have suffered weak sales.
If there lessons to be learned from Prius, they haven’t been reflected in current battery-electric strategies, no two of which seem to be alike.
Two French automakers, for instance, are using sharply different approaches.