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DON'T BE BLUE

Hypocrisy of hip-hop

Artists and producers of Hip-Hop and Rap "Music" claim the lyrics are only a statement of our current life and times. A picture of the environment of life in our modern culture. And I suppose that makes it right?

Politicians, journalists, and critics refuse to condemn its content, yet will shout to the walls and condemn the content of "The Song of the South", even today.
Contrary to popular belief, the "The Song of the South" story takes place after the Civil War and after slavery, not during or even about slavery.

Lyrics that are MISOGYNISTIC, homophobic, hateful, racist, vulgar, anti-authoritarian and an all-around bad influence on anyone's children, the list of grievances against hip hop is a long one, are all present in the content of Hip-Hop and Rap "Music", and nowhere to be found in the lyrics of the Disney classic "The Song of the South", which was a statement of our life and times in the 40s and 50s.

"The Song of the South", has a happy feeling and atmosphere, while there is no happiness in any part of most rap and hip-hop music.

I can understand the rationale of the critics of "The Song of the South", but those same critics encourage their children to listen to bad rap and Hip-hop, give them awards in televised events and bestow them with "Best of" honors. Which is a sad commentary on the state of the music industry to bestow accolades on something that is at best a sad story of disrespect for everyone and everything and not even good rhyming.

Don't buy the lyrical abusers' CDs, don't buy their gear, don't go to their concerts, don't watch their videos, don't memorize the lyrics to their songs, and don't dance to their tunes.
Wrong is wrong, no matter what color you are.

Check out:

Hip Hop Hypocrisy: When Lies Sound Like the Truth

Alfred 'Coach' Powell (Author), Donna Williams (Editor)

http://www.acoachpowell.com/

http://hiphophypocrisy.blogspot.com/

Also: Who's Afraid of the Song of the South? And Other Forbidden Disney Stories by Jim Korkis.

The genre may have changed, slightly, but the legacy lives on. It's a sad commentary on the music industry when a Grammy Winner, several times in his career, is looked down on when the fans, fellow artists and producers of Hip Hop & Rap music complain that his music is not "black" enough. Just ask Will Smith about it.

 DON'T BE BLUE 

Has HE seen the Elephant?

Michael Moore calls our soldiers cowards!

"Has Michael Moore seen the Elephant", or anyone else who wants to criticize our soldiers?

http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,Galloway_062304,00.html

One phrase familiar in enlisted men's writings is, "I've seen the elephant," or, "I'm off to see the elephant." Used to describe the experiences of war and soldiering, the term has many possible origins. Old soldiers in the Civil War coined a phrase for green troops who survived their first taste of battle: "He has seen the elephant."

This Army lieutenant sums up the combat experience better than many a grizzled veteran:

"Well, I'm here in Iraq, and I've seen it, and done it. I've seen everything you've ever seen in a war movie. I've seen cowardice; I've seen heroism; I've seen fear; and I've seen relief. I've seen blood and brains all over the back of a vehicle, and I've seen men bleed to death surrounded by their comrades. I've seen people throw up when it's all over, and I've seen the same shell-shocked look in 35-year-old experienced sergeants as in 19-year-old privates.

"I've seen that, sadly, that men who try to kill other men aren't monsters, and most of them aren't even brave - they aren't defiant to the last - they're ordinary people. Men are men, and that's it. I've prayed for a man to make a move toward the wire, so I could flip my weapon off safe and put two rounds in his chest - if I could beat my platoon sergeant's shotgun to the punch. I've been wanted dead, and I've wanted to kill.

 "I've heard the screams - 'Medic! Medic!' I've hauled dead civilians out of cars, and I've looked down at my hands and seen them covered in blood after putting some poor Iraqi civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time into a helicopter. I've seen kids with gunshot wounds, and I've seen kids who've tried to kill me.

"I've sworn at the radio when I heard one of my classmate's platoon sergeants call over the radio: 'Contact! Contact! IED, small arms, mortars! One KIA, three WIA!' Then a burst of staccato gunfire and a frantic cry: 'Red 1, where are you? Where are you?' as we raced to the scene...knowing full well we were too late for at least one of our comrades.

"I've heard men worry about civilians, and I've heard men shrug and sum up their viewpoint in two words - 'F--- 'em.' I've seen people shoot when they shouldn't have, and I've seen my soldiers take an extra second or two, think about it, and spare somebody's life.

"They say they're scared, and say they won't do this or that, but when it comes time to do it they can't let their buddies down, can't let their friends go outside the wire without them, because they know it isn't right for the team to go into the ballgame at any less than 100 percent.

"That's combat, I guess, and there's no way you can be ready for it. It just is what it is, and everybody's experience is different. Just thought you might want to know what it's really like."

The challenge: "Can't think of a book title" or "Can't think of a book idea"?

I've always thought that the book title was the easiest part, but the book story the hardest. I tried this idea for both titles and story lines. Use the names of songs and the lyrics to get ideas. When listening to a song one day I said, what if that was a book title, what would the story be, and it took off from there.

Top 10 songs today:
Royals; Roar; Wrecking Ball; Wake Me Up; Hold on, We're Going Home; The Fox; Rap God; Holy Grail; Applause; Blurred Lines.

All but two are easy or the least challenging. Wrecking Ball and Blurred Lines look the most intriguing.
Let's take Wrecking Ball as the title of a book.The best part is whether you like or don't like the song and or artist, it doesn't matter. You don't even have to listen to the song and it's probably best not to be swayed by the meaning of the actual song. You could even take the worst song and make a book title out of it.

What could the title be about? An abused relationship, or some crazy home breaking adultery, a couple of angles here; the last dance at a high school homecoming; a detective or soldier who goes on a rampage.

How about some Lyrics to the song as titles:
WE clawed, we chained our hearts in vain.
Some possibilities here. Mostly as a love story gone wrong, but the clawed part could lead to a monster or the current vampire/werewolf craze.
We jumped, never asking why.
How about a sky diving group and their charismatic or hypnotic leader.
We kissed, and fell under your spell.
Lots of obvious ones here. Black magic, etc.
A love no one could deny.
This one has a very wide range of topics. Love of whom, what, where, even Why. Love of adventure; self; addiction; God; food; dieting; just too many to chose from.

Blurred Lines is an interesting title:
Obvious is right and wrong, but what kind of right or wrong? Same thing about Good and Bad; How about a race driver losing his sight. A portal between two worlds. Someone deciding to come out of the closet or have a sex change.

You could probably take each of them and try to match a genre to it. Mystery, Detective, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Love Stories, even your favorite person as a back door approach to their life or a back door approach to a time in History.

You could do the same thing to the Top 10 Songs of all time or the Top 10 songs of an era or year or ANY song if you thought about it.
Just try the title or look at the lyrics.
There are endless possibilities.
Misspelling the title or using homophones, homographs or homonyms also works in thinking of book titles.

Explore your fun side or dark side.

Consequences => Choices

When I was learning to take tests, one of the benchmarks of taking tests was that anything with "All" in it was false. Not so when it comes to the choices you make and the consequences that result. All choices have consequences!

Choices have 6 stages, related to the 5 senses plus one, which really could be plus 2 if you insert intuition.
Any or all of these could be involved in the consequence of the choices you make.
The first is just thinking about it. The more you just think about it, the more likely one of the 5 senses will come into play. But just thinking about it could be the point of no return in regards to the consequences that could result. Part of thinking about a choice could be effected by your intuition about the consequences, but intuition may not become cognizant until one of the 5 senses kicks in.

Any of the 5 senses could be the trigger to making the choice.
Smell and sight could be the first stage depending on which one becomes the one which jolts your mind, or hearing the known or unknown sound, or even the lack of sound.
A reflex action of touching something, the interaction of taste and smell because taste is largely dependent on smell.

The consequences though are time insensitive. The consequences of the choice you make could be instantaneous or not realized until after you die.
The quicker consequences are realized as being either good or bad or neither, the easier it is to change or reverse them if desired. The longer it takes to determine if it is good or bad, the less likely they can be changed or reversed. Most people just learn to live with consequences that don't cause them physical harm.

The point of No Return is the defining point of consequences. The point of no return doesn't usually start in an instant, it builds until turning back has escaped the thought process or the consequence has reached the tipping point of disaster. Beyond the point of no return lies truth and the understanding that the sign posts along the way were missed.

I know you'll come back home, Dorothy on your return to OZ

One Baseball Record That Did Get Broken

Hats off to Jackie Robinson, but.....................

John W. "Bud" Fowler

Born: March 16, 1858 in Fort Plain, New York, US

Died: February 26, 1913 in Frankfort, New York, US (Aged 54)

Played from 1878 to 1895.

John "Bud" Fowler is the earliest known African-American player in organized professional baseball; that is, the major leagues and affiliated minor leagues. He played more seasons and more games in Organized Baseball than any African American until Jackie Robinson was into his 11th professional season in 1958.

Moses Fleetwood ″Fleet″ Walker 

Born: October 7, 1856 Mount Pleasant, Ohio

Died: May 11, 1924 Cleveland, Ohio (aged 67)

Moses Fleetwood Walker and Cap Anson
Better known, and credited for being the real reason it took so long for players like Jackie Robinson to be allowed, as well as encouraged, to play Major League Baseball, was Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother, Welday Walker, thanks to the Hall of Fame player Adrian "Cap" Anson, the Babe Ruth of his time.

Walker had his first encounter with Cap Anson in 1884, when Toledo played an exhibition game against the Chicago White Stockings on August 10. Anson refused to play with Walker on the field. However, Anson did not know that on that day Walker was slated to have a rest day. Manager Charlie Morton then decided to play Walker, and told Anson the White Stockings would forfeit the gate receipts if they refused to play. Anson then agreed to play.
Walker and Anson crossed paths again with the famed Negro pitcher George Stovey, making them the first negro battery, Walker was the catcher. As portrayed in the book Get That Nigger Off the Field. by Art Rust Jr., Cap Anson did not back down, and segregation was cemented in Major League Baseball until 1947. Both Stovey and Walker watched the game from the bench.
On the same day as this exhibition game, the owners of the International League formally voted to not sign black players to their team rosters. Soon, the National League and American Association would follow suit, and blacks would be excluded from all minor and major leagues by the beginning of the 1897 season. Although nothing was formally put into the major league rule book, baseball’s color line had been drawn.

The owners made the rules and it took Branch Ricky, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the ban.

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson 

Born: January 31, 1919 Cairo, Georgia,

Died: October 24, 1972 Stamford, Connecticut (aged 53)

The first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947. As the first major league team to play a black man since the 1880s, the Dodgers ended racial segregation that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades.

It's Baseball time again. Here are some Baseball Records that will not be broken. Not this year or EVER!

Charles 'Old Hoss' Radbourn's 59 games WON in 1 year.

OK, pitchers don't even pitch 59 games a year now, unless they're a relief pitcher. The last pitcher to even get 30 was Denny McClain in 1968 with 31 wins. Radbourn not only won 59 games, he started 73 games. He had an ERA of 1.38 and struck out 441 batters.
Ted Williams, 84 game On-Base Streak
And I thought the 56 game hitting streak of Joe DiMaggio was the one to beat. Getting on base 84 times in a row, WOW!
Matt Kilroy's 513 KO's in one year
No modern pitcher, Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, even had close to 400.
Joe DiMaggio's famous 56-game hitting streak
Never, never, never, going to be broken, Pete Rose came close.
Ted Williams .553 Single Season On Base Percentage
No one will even get close to .500
Babe Ruth's .847 Single Season Slugging Percentage
Hugh Duffy's .440 Single Season Batting Average
The last one to do it was Ted Williams .402, in 1941. Closest after that is George Brett's .390 in 1980
Babe Ruth's 1.379 Single Season OPS (On Base + Slugging %)
Billy Hamilton's 198 Single Season Runs Scored
Chief Wilson's 36 Single Season Triples
Tim Keefe's 0.86 Single Season ERA
George Bradley's 16 Single Season Shutouts
Fernando Tatís 2 grand slams in a single inning

Josh Gibson’s 84 Home Runs in 1936. (Negro Leagues, no steroids!)
Cool Papa Bell's 175 stolen bases in a 200-game season in 1933

Cy Young's 7356.0 innings pitched in a career.

Cy Young's 511 Lifetime Wins
Sam Crawford's 309 Lifetime Triples
Pete Rose's 4,256 Lifetime Hits
Tris Speaker's 792 Lifetime Doubles
Nolan Ryan's 5,714 Lifetime Strike Outs
Nolan Ryan's SEVEN Lifetime No Hitters
Only 26 players in baseball history even have two. Only five have three, only two have four

But -----Johnny Vander Meer  had TWO in the same year, 
Back-to-BACK!

Cal Ripken's 2,632 Consecutive Games Played
Joe Nuxhall, Youngest Player, 15 years old and 316 days,
Satchel Paige, Oldest Player, 59 years old and 80 days
Will White's 75 Most complete games in a season

The safest of them all is Walter Johnson's Lifetime 41 triples, as a batter, and he was the PITCHER!

Possibilities for this and any season, BUT HIGHLY UNLIKELY:
Rickey Henderson's 130 Single Season Steals
Baseball Almanac
Major League Baseball