26 posts tagged “america”
"Daddy I don't like to dream anymore..." (My 6yr old daughter's response to my question at bed time)
What a scary thought if she only knew what that meant literally.
'Activists say North Korean woman publicly executed for distributing Bible'
Headlines in the Morning Report July 25, 2009 just above the headline 'Evangelist convicted of sex with girls.'
"If you're going to support it, you should understand it enough to debate for it. It just promotes common sense and competency in the legislature." -Jerrol LeBaron
LeBaron is promoting the "Honor in Office Act" a ballot initiative that requires lawmakers to actually read the laws that they vote for. (They don't read the Laws they pass???)
FREE Gram for 1st Time patients - Wide Selection - High Quality - Discreet Location - Knowledgeable Staff
Advertisement for Marijuana at the Florin Wellness Center.
"Bay Area Transit riders have been holding their breath for fear of a strike that would cripple the backbone of the area's public transportation system." - Oakland Tribune
As California unemployment rate hits 11.6% with a $26 billion ($26,000,000,000.00) dollar budget deficit and is paying its' workers with State issued IOU's.
"Tell me three things about your significant other two that are true and one that's a lie" - Dr. Ronn Elmore (Psychiatrist, Life Coach, Marriage Therapist)
The first exercise at the "Marriage University" (At a 7- Week Christian Based pre-marital course.)
'Both houses of Congress have now approved a resolution Wednesday urging a presidential pardon for former heavyweight champion boxer Jack Johnson' -NBC NEWS (100 years later)
Jack Johnson, publicly defiant of the Jim Crow-era laws that ruled the day (1908),
was the first person prosecuted under the Mann Act, which banned the
transportation of females across state lines "for immoral purposes."
The official offense cited was for consorting and traveling with a
white prostitute whom he later married.
The Youtube video the circulated over the internet like a firestorm purporting that Russian officials refused to shake the Black American President's hand (he was actually introducing the Russian President to other diplomats)
My thoughts...
I see this place (our social world) we call strange, home, heaven and hell all in the same breath. We are just keepers of what we have been entrusted with (this green earth) we govern ourselves with a complex set of laws, rules, beliefs and lies all in the pursuit of happiness, health, wealth, equality or the promise of everlasting life with the creator. When I hold up the mirror of reality this is the reflection I see however skewed, biased, negative or positive; but most importantly I wonder about the world (society) we will leave for our children.
Bycha Buxton
I have always thought that there were two times in a woman's life that natural beauty radiated from her. An aura, a divine beauty that transcends mere physical attributes like smoothly hued skin, high cheek bones, big beautiful eyes, full lips or a statuesque gait. Those times of divine beauty are (one) on her wedding day, I have never seen a woman glow like on that magical day when she stands before the altar with friends and family in the pews wishing her glad tidings and she gazes into the moment and for a flicker of time, you see the natural beauty that God has so designed and called woman. The second such time in life is that of the rounded belly of a woman with child, so perfect and shaped just for the coming of the greatest gift to preserve mankind, the glow she carries with her, for only she can understand the majesty and humility that comes with the bearing of a new life to this great spinning globe. The natural beauty of a woman as I see it...until there was the First "Black" Lady of the United States.
It's not so much about who; but like the the Office of the Presidency, it is the occupation, the representation, giving a nation something to look up to, an aspiring goal for our young girls. So I must say that not only did the nation get it right with the newly elected President it was a two-for-one deal we (America) got a great representative for the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama. It is so refreshing to see a positive image that is not exploitative of a Black Woman in America. It's not the sista' on the reality show acting like we know they can. Nor is it the sista' shown in the tabloids battered and bruised by her man, neither that sista' who feels she has to be a courtesan or sell her self-worth for a ticket to fame and fortune. No, it is a dawning of what the new "Black Woman" will become. What (Black) women can aspire too. Not just First Lady; but the defining of a new generation of role models.
Congratulations Women of America ,
Bycha Buxton
A Brief History...
I still have my residence in the Golden State (I will never leave for good) but it is not socially the place that I have grown to be most comfortable in. It is "the wild wild west", free and progressive in many ways and on many issues. But my love of that state, especially the Bay Area has definitely shaped who I am. A tolerant conservative, a moderate, now I do fault in some ways the pitifully waged war on drugs started by the former "B" movie actor, Governor of California and 40th President (God rest his soul) Ronald Regan (the Gipper). With his wife Nancy's (Regan) "Just Say No" campaign and Howard Jarvis author of Prop. 13 in 1978 ( "People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation"),which had a disproportionate affect on the Bay Area and Los Angeles it opened the border to Mexico for cheap labor and cheaper drugs.
Present Day...
The great state, the "Golden State" now leads the nation in unemployment(updated 2/27/09 10.1%), the public schools now rank 48th out of 50 states and they have recently had a $42 billion budget deficit. A bill from Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco -- where else?) would tax marijuana sales. It would, first, decriminalize the possession and sale of marijuana under state law, and, second, set up a system for regulating and taxing it. The sales and taxation part only happens, though, if the federal government decriminalizes marijuana too, or at least allows states to make their own decisions about the drug. It puts the "legalization of drugs" on the table in possibly the most liberal government that has occupied Washington D.C. since JFK and LBJ. So we have come full circle back to the 30% tax reduction that was Prop. 13 to be replaced with another tax increase. Better off the backs of California homeowners and on the butts of the blunts and the bowl of the bongs. Ammiano and his supporters argue that the state is losing out on more than $1 billion a year in tax revenues because its biggest cash crop, marijuana, is illegal and therefore not taxable.
The Future...
A myriad of health related issues will consume the California heath system related to the increase in smoking. Bronchitis, asthma, lung cancer; a number of studies have shown an association between chronic marijuana use and increased rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and schizophrenia (sounds like growing up in the 'hood). In one study, heavy marijuana abusers reported that the drug impaired several important measures of life achievement including physical and mental health, cognitive abilities, social life, and career status. Several studies associate workers’ marijuana smoking with increased absences, tardiness, accidents, workers’ compensation claims, and job turnover. So the future of California's marijuana policy will have little change on the current state of affairs (sad but true) it (pot smoking) will not stop.
The Remedy...
It is time to surrender and be prudent about the lost revenue (I am a fiscal conservative). Maybe the coalition against Prop. 8 will be too "high" to mount an effective campaign (a much more important social issue) because the war on marijuana is moot. It (legalization) has the possibility of creating thousands of jobs related to the cultivation, processing, sale and monitoring of the product. Also one of the most prized jobs of all "quality control"second only to that of "profiteer". It could reinvigorate the once and much ballyhooed agricultural industry of California that has given way to dot com start-ups and bio-tech innovation of the nineties.
Yours truly, but I never inhaled ;-)
Bycha Buxton
He is our President. It says volumes how far this country has come. I am a proud black man; but "cash rules everything around...dolla' bill ya'll ....dolla', dolla', dolla', dolla' bill ya'll" Since the close of the DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average a collection of 30 of the largest and most widely held public companies in the United States.) on January 16, 2009 at 8281.22 opening again on the most historic day in US modern history 2/20/2009, until today February 23, 2009 a mere 35 days into his Presidency the "market" (DJIA) has had a precipitous drop of 1166.44 pts. to 7114.78 these are 1997 levels. Now I do have to fault my former party leader G.W. Bush for the current fiscal status but this is ridiculous for it (the markets) to continue in a free fall. Many fault the appointment of Timothy Geithner (Treasury Secretary) and his lack of a detailed plan, general aloofness and inability to convey confidence.
President Obama's economic plan though a milestone in effectiveness in getting a major piece of legislation passed so quickly has not been able to inspire the "markets". When the markets are in a "bull run" money flows it does have a trickle down effect. A rising tide lifts all boats. But now we (America) wait for the big ship (the Titanic) to give us a lift out of these deep recession waters. Who will talk the helm of the Titanic? Even though the historic ship sank their were survivors, such as the case with this economic downturn. We will go down, some institutions will find themselves at the bottom of the abyss never to see the sun shine on their dariaires again; but that is the nature of the beast called the capitalist market. The health of the Dow Jones is directly connected to most 401K retirement accounts, pension funds and dictates the mood of business worldwide. Not that policy should dictate or be dictated by the whims of wall street; but as the nations Chief Executive Officer he (President Obama) has to be aware of his adverse affect on the financial markets and its effect on the very poor and disaffected citizens he is trying to help.
I remember the schemes of my day that weaved their ways through the neighborhood of inner cities and urban areas like "Friends helping Friends" in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, also the investment scheme started in Atlanta with Ware Enterprises "Dreamkeeper Investment Program". I participated in both to some extent and either I or my family lost big in both. The lure of get rich quick schemes are enticing. Money seems to be the panacea for the ills of poverty, love and unhappiness. The basement meetings, the hotel conferences, pre-staged shows of well to do newly endowed upper-middle class investors who were eager to show off their new designed blueprint for success. Yes I (we) fell for them all as well as the NSA water filtration system (Muti Level Marketing). We (my dad and I) still have a garage full of the NSA Air and Water purifiers. Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes and multi level marketing are all different in there approach to create wealth but all the same in deceit, manipulation and preying on the fears and dreams of the poor and uninformed.
There has been a sea change of late within politics as we begin to conclude the first decade of the 21st century. With the accidental but timely appointment of the first Black Governor of New York. Then the overwhelming victory of the Presidency by a African American and the most recent appointment of a Black U.S. Senator by a now impeached Governor. Leave it to my party the GOP to get on the bandwagon albeit late but on the wagon with the appointment of the first African American RNC Chairman.
The GOP lost the presidency, 21 House seats and at least seven Senate
seats on Nov. 4. The party that emerged was concentrated in the South
and several Mountain West states, and it had little appeal to blacks or
Hispanics and problems attracting better-educated voters. So now Micheal Steele our new RNC Chairman, impervious to the race card sits atop the throne to guide the Grand Ole' Party to at the very least a congressional comeback with increases in representatives in the House and Senate or the coup de gras POTUS (President of the United States). But for now this chairman post is too important to be considered a token appointment but well within reason of status quo for D.C. politics. As a proud black man it would be my pride to assume that we as a people have finally arrived on the political stage as a force to be reckoned with; but as a realist and sometime cynic I see the world through a filtered lens. I cannot believe that all the barriers have come down post January 20, 2009. So with great reservation do I look to our new leader Chairman Steele not because of who he is but what he has become. The leader of a party in disrepair; the party that I chose because it did not have any representation by African Americans. I have been a member of this party for 21 years and just now does the RNC see fit to be lead by a man of color. Is it a fad or is it status quo?
It is that time again, the time when family and friends get together over cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, beer and hotwings or whatever you crave between commercials. The Superbowl, yes the single most watched game in the world (est. 90 million pairs of eyes) it's not as exciting without my team, the Oakland Raiders in the starring role but none the less it is a bonanza of nouveau commercials and halftime extravaganzas with an American football game weaved in between. But the excitement is not at fever pitch this year. The country is in a lull, by far the two best teams did not make it to the game this year; but that's just my opinion. The Playboy Superbowl Party was canceled, the Victoria Secrets Superbowl Party was canceled and the halftime musical guest is Bruce " The Boss" Springsteen. Well el hefe I really would like my wardrobe malfunctioning superstar back this year or some other scantly clad, over exposed beauty prancing about and pumping up the crowd.
The country is in need of some mothers milk (insert pun here). Okay I will expect to see the "Go Daddy.com" girls, but that's not enough. The country needs something that gets them out of their seat, makes them turn their popcorn over, spit their drink up and shout out "replay that!!" This country needs another infamous nipple slip. Yes I requested it, The country needs to be fed a breast of perfected proportion. This is a mans game, not the family power hour show. This country has moved so far since that famous incident. We actually tried to act as if this country's morals were challenged by that "wardrobe malfunction". Yet gay marriage, torture at Guantanamo Bay and in vitro fertilization all fall morally short to the split second over exposure of the female torso. You could call it the selling of sex; but is that anything new in this post modern world. Commissioners at the FCC if you read your consumers opines please consider the welfare of this nation, we need an adrenalin boost, America needs a Monday morning water cooler topic to take our minds temporarily off of this dismal economy; we need to be breast fed.
Bycha Buxton
George Bush has been so instrumental in the advancement of African Americans to position's of power and influence.
Sincerely,
Bycha Buxton
I remember a conversation with my dad and I was telling him how I wanted to follow in his "footsteps". I remember a conversation like that with my son too. I told him what my dad had said to me. I said, " Sure son I want you to be like me in someways and follow in my footsteps..." my son, wide-eyed and in awe of the status that I had achieved at that time; "but..." as I began to utter the very words my dad had spoken to me, "...don't follow me too closely son, I might have stepped in some sh** along the way."
Bycha Buxton
