Rap Culture

One can trace the commercial history of rap back to 1979 when the Sugar Hill Gang produced the enormously successful song entitled, Rapper's Delight. The raw beginnings of contemporary rap music can be traced to the Bronx in the mid 1970s.9 Rap music was a way that urban black youth expressed themselves in a rhythmic form. Rap music, along with graffiti and breakdancing was the poetry of the street.

According to Patricia Rose, rap music continued to blossom after the release of Rapper's Delight. It was “discovered” by the music industry, the film industry, and the print media. Artists such as Run DMC, Whoodini and the Fat Boys helped what seemed like a fleeting phenomenon persist in changing popular culture.10 Krush Groove, a highly successful movie depicting the life of rap music, further elevated rap music into the mainstream. This movie earned Warner Brothers $17 million worldwide, a gold soundtrack, and most importantly, highlighted the potential of this art form.11
...
Unlike any other subculture in American history, the hip hop culture has transcended ethnic boundaries. Because of its eclectic audience, it has the greatest opportunity to build ethnic bridges and mend ethnic relations. Hip hop has taken hold and permeated significant regions of the world. The clothing, music, mannerisms, and lexicon, are unmistakably the same in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Zurich, Milan, and Tokyo. Indeed, this culture has the potential to make it cool not to commit hate crimes, not to discriminate or be homophobic or mysogynistic, and not to be racist.

http://www.csupomona.edu/~rrreese/HIPHOP.HTML

wow, back when PhDs wrote papers about it, and suburban parents were afraid.

I can remember owing the Sugar Hill Gang Rappers Delight long play 78 when I was in 8th grade. I listened to rap up through the 90s and the like of Ice Cube, NWA, etc. This article reminds me of how much attention, negative and positive, hip hop received - especially once white kids started getting into it and scaring their parents. I wonder if it will ever be that big again.

What do you think?

wikipedia - iraq war

Seems pretty straightforward and correct. I stopped after three paragraphs for copyright reasons.

The Iraq War

The Iraq War[nb 1] was an armed conflict in Iraq.[42] It is usually dated to begin with the invasion of Ba'athist Iraq starting on 20 March 2003 by an invasion force led by the United States, although clashes between the Iraqi military and U.S./U.K. air forces had been ongoing since December 1998. [43][44][45] It was followed by a longer phase of fighting, in which an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces and the newly formed Iraqi government.[42] The U.S. completed its withdrawal of military personnel in December 2011.[46][47] However, the Iraqi insurgency continues and has caused thousands of fatalities in 2012.

Prior to the war, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom claimed that Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed a threat to their security and that of their coalition/regional allies.[48][49][50] In 2002, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1441 which called for Iraq to completely cooperate with UN weapon inspectors to verify that Iraq was not in possession of WMD and cruise missiles. Prior to the attack, the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) found no evidence of WMD, but could not yet verify the accuracy of Iraq's declarations regarding what weapons it possessed. [51] After investigation following the invasion, the U.S.‑led Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its nuclear, chemical and biological programs in 1991 and had no active programs at the time of the invasion, but that they intended to resume production if the Iraq sanctions were lifted.[52] Although some degraded remnants of misplaced or abandoned chemical weapons from before 1991 were found, they were not the weapons which had been one of the main arguments for the invasion.[53]

Some U.S. officials also accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of harboring and supporting al-Qaeda,[54] but no evidence of a meaningful connection was ever found.[55][56] Other proclaimed reasons for the invasion included Iraq's financial support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers,[57] Iraqi government human rights abuses,[58] and an effort to spread democracy to the country.[59][60]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_war

to kinda catapult the propaganda

Ed Meese

“I believe that Ed Meese- being a person without any honor, a fat bastard, really a congenital cheap pig in the style of and on the level of Richard Nixon- should be locked in a concrete basement with an elk. And the elk should be ram-fed full of acid before he’s put in there”
Hunter S. Thompson

http://www.hotlikesauce.com/2009/12/13/3936/

The Meese Commission

With the election of Ronald Reagan as President in 1980, the United States entered a new era. The reassertion of traditional moral values was seen by some analysts to be part of an overall conservative realignment, due in part to the aging of the baby-boom generation. However, while polls showed a renewed appreciation for traditional values, tolerance of Americans for the right of others to reject those values showed no corresponding decline (Stengel, R. et al. 13). An example can be seen in the results of a referendum in Maine on June 10, 1986, when voters there were asked to approve a new statute designed to "make it a crime to make, sell, give for value or otherwise promote obscene material in Maine." The vote was 16,101 for and 48,976 against. The people of one of the more conservative states seem to be "unambiguous in their dislike of censorship and the busybodies who promote it" (Hertzberg 23).

In connection with the signing of the Child Protection Act of 1984, President Reagan announced his intention to set up a commission to study pornography, apparently with the goal of obtaining results more acceptable to his conservative supporters than the conclusions of the 1970 Commission. The result was the appointment by Attorney General Edwin Meese in the spring of 1985 of a panel comprised of 11 members, the majority of whom had established records as anti-pornography crusaders (Wilcox 941).
The Meese Commission

http://home.earthlink.net/~durangodave/html/writing/Censorship.htm

Our Teflon President and his Attorney General, Edwin "There Is No There There" Meese III, have thrown a big, juicy bone to the mad dog packs of the New Christian Right. The Justice Department recently appointed a Commission with the mandate to overturn the 1970 Presidential Commission on Pornography's finding that there is no evidence of a link between sexually explicit materials and delinquent or criminal behavior. The final report of this new Commission, published in July, 1986, holds out the hope that by using draconian measures against pornography we can turn America into a rerun of "Leave It to Beaver." The Commission's findings should placate the lowest common denominator of the citizenry who made a drugstore cowboy our Chief Executive--those folks who believe the Bible should be taken literally, but the First Amendment should not.
In a press conference to announce selection of Commission members, Meese claimed that since l970, "the content of pornography has radically changed, with more and more emphasis upon extreme violence." He also claimed that his Commission "has not come to their task with minds made up. Their job is to approach the issues objectively...In any recommendation the commission makes, it will carefully balance the need to control the distribution of pornography with the need to protect very carefully first amendment freedoms." [1]

....
The report also makes generous use of feminist antiporn rhetoric. New York Women Against Pornography (WAP) helped the Commission staff locate witnesses who testified as "victims of pornography," but at some point it occurred to WAP leaders that it was time to duck the charge of being tools of the state. Dorchen Leidholdt (along with several other WAP leaders) had been willing to testify before the Commission in Washington, D.C., but on the first day of the New York hearings, she led a demonstration against them--the critical edge of which was blunted a little when an officer of the court opened the gate and escorted the WAPettes to a microphone at the witness stand. Chairman Henry Hudson even asked for a copy of her remarks to enter into the record!

http://www.webcitation.org/5zxNbOev8

cesspool of greed and reactionary politics began with nixon's southern strategy

then came Reagan and his welfare queen lies, all of this while forming a coalition with the Religious Right. This coalition is now coming apart at the seems. Clinton did retarded their advance but really only slowed it down.

now, after being beaten twice by the "socialist kenyan" they are in full circular firing squad formation.

Greek soccer player banned from national team after Nazi salute goal celebration

The growing sentiment of neo-fascism in Greece appears to have spread to the beautiful game, as AEK Athens midfielder Giorgos Katidis "pulled a Di Canio" by apparently giving a Nazi salute after scoring in his side's 2-1 victory over Veria on Saturday.

For the gesture, the tattooed 20-year-old has been handed a life ban from the Greek National team, whom he once captained at U-19 level. Katidis, however, will not join Di Canio and Christian Abbiati in the pantheon of proud football fascists, as he has denied knowing what the gesture meant on Twitter.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/greek-midfielder-giorgos-katidis-banned-nazi-salute-goal-174344969--sow.html

what is greek for teabag?

i hold doors open for everyone

since this is now the benevolent sexism underground, i thought i'd get on the record. now the rest of you can too.

My door opening policy can best be described as (and the poll is based on the assumption that we are talking about men opening doors for women, it would have taken too many questions to get women's policy regarding opening doors for others, though it would be interesting, so feel free to comment):

CPAC Event On Racial Tolerance Turns To Chaos As ‘Disenfranchised’ Whites Arrive

A CPAC session sponsored by Tea Party Patriots and billed as a primer on teaching activists how to court black voters devolved into a shouting match as some attendees demanded justice for white voters and others shouted down a black woman who reacted in horror.

The session, entitled “Trump The Race Card: Are You Sick And Tired Of Being Called A Racist When You Know You’re Not One?” was led by K. Carl Smith, a black conservative who mostly urged attendees to deflect racism charges by calling themselves “Frederick Douglass Republicans.”

Disruptions began when he started accusing Democrats of still being the party of the Confederacy — a common talking point on the right.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/03/tea-party-event-on-racial-tolerance-turns-to-chaos-as-white-supremacists-arrive.php?ref=fpa

oh, boy

male and female we ordain them.

Top 10 Reasons to be an Episcopalian
(from the comedian Robin Williams, who is an Episcopalian, on a recent HBO special)

10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.

7. You don't have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. Church year is color-coded.

4. Free wine on Sunday.

3. All of the pageantry - none of the guilt.

2. You don't have to know how to swim to get baptized.

And the Number One reason to be an Episcopalian:

1. No matter what you believe, there's bound to be at least one other Episcopalian who agrees with you.

http://www.saint-augustine.org/_sep02/ef0902b.htm

these people are either a threat because they have become marginalized or

they are marginalized to the point of presenting no real danger to public order and safety.

the right-wing christian radio station was playing one of the Focus on the Family related shows today in which the subject at hand was Americans entering one of the service branches had to sign a paper saying they were willing to fire on "peaceful civilians." Obviously this is bullshit; the only thing close i can imagine is the oath to defend the constitution against "enemies foreign and domestic." and as we know, this is nothing new and from time to time american soldiers have been called on to defend the const. against domestic enemies.

but the point is, these people have gone off the european-style neo-fascist cliff. they were rolling gun control up in the whole thing and basically preparing their listeners for hostile action against the united states government - all in self-defense, of course, to hear them tell it. crazy, crazy shit, i tell you.

i think if the economy continues to grow these types saying such things in broad daylight will marginalize themselves to the point of there being no need for worry. if things start heading in the crappy direction again, these loons will have just enough support to cause trouble. granted it is a trouble i hesitate to define in advance, and it won't be civil war; but it will be trouble.