Noose.

Are black people hanging themselves. By black people, I do not mean the ones out speaking for Black people. Thankfully they are exempt from this generalization, I'm speaking on the average black dude or homegirl. Are we hanging ourselves? Has the unflux of hip-hop culture been us slowly tightening the noose around our on necks? I look at the supposed evolution of hip-hop fro the 80's to the culture today and I see a bunch of blinged out coons, tapdancing on stage for a little change. I see the images of Birth of a Nation brought forth in real time and streamed for all audience to see. The internet provides a global stage for todays supposed "Black Culture" to poisen the minds of everyone. To create a universal disdain and, more importantly, a universal image of African Americans. There is a currently a debate going on BET (....) between scholars and 'conscious' blacks and with the rappers as well, who have milked this image to fatten their owners pockets. It was an interesting debate but the ignorance and routine statements by the rappers seem to generate more applause from the audience then the actual educated statements made by some of the more educated on the panel. I am one who follows of the path of criticism as a means to, hopefully, spur change. I criticize Black people pretty often because I know there is so much. If we could only stop willingly tieing the rope for ourselves and seperate ourselves from the rope then we can hope to move forward. At this point control no longer needs to be overt. We have a self governing way of dealing with issues and that is through ridicule and beating each other down. We only look to pick each other up when we are knocked down as a group. Why must it wait for that moment? Every other culture seems to understand the value of oneness and togetherness, why not us? Hasn't the shackles of slavery held us back for too long.

.......I never like to say slavery should be forgotten and we should move forward. I am complelty aware of the damage slavery had on the Black pshcye and I do see us moving in the right direction soon but right now we are still learning how to deal with freedoms and understanding responsibilies. In describing Black people, I think we are in our teenage years, we exagerrate alot, we are very materialistic, seemingly hard to please, we want to be left alone but still need the strength our parents provide, we are confused at the prospect growing in though it is a definite, we are in constant of defining ourselves, and most importantly we need to grow without the shackles of our parents. Mistakes will be made but that all leads to growth. But I guess moving is better then stagnating, I'm just afraid we might begin to stagnate because Black culture is almost definitly infused with hip-hop when it should not be.

Britney

First off I want to say that I hate Britney Spears. Now that the formailities have been taken care of, I would like to start by pointing an angry finger in the direction of our media. BRitney Spears is not headline news. I know this is over weeks old at this point but I was watching the news yesterday and there was a Britney bit in it and I was pushed over the edge. There is no reason her performance should occupy the attention of the nation. I have such a disdain for television as a result of the antics of Lindsey, Paris, Nicole, and Britney. They are everywhere I want to be. The lives of these bitches are grounds for intelligent interesting American conversation... But what I wanted to say specifically was that Britney Spears introduction into the music scene came at a time when the girls of my generation were teens. They have all grown with her. And i truly believe American women have grown up LIKE her. They lost there innocence and followed the timeline of Britney like stupid sheep and to me, her disgusting behavior parallels the majority of American women my age now. She is exactly the same as them. And I dunno if its an unconscious connection the girls of my generation have with Britney or what but I think its there. She came at a perfect moment in their lives to implant her sickness in all of them and as she started to bloom, so did her followers. Now the image of have is Briteny is mached with Images of American women in college. Most of them speak the same, dress the same, make the same mistakes, and think the same. I do not know why Americans idolize the destructive. Is it because of our film industry and how important movies have been to generating interest in anything. Americans have always been a film culture but has movies warped the minds of Americans. I move from Britney to film because I feel that a lot of the themes of music and the videos surrounding music stems from a film or film culture. Celebrity is a phenomenon I had never actually thought about until my senior year high school, when R-kelly was all over the place for having intimate relations with a little girl. I started having conversation with teachers about his behavior and class discussions would be held and his crisis would be the center of it. I didn't like the shift from books to tabloid gossip and I definitly do not like present day media situation. Britney Spears being the headline of every major news station in the nation is travesty. People need to turn the TV off. Stop buying the newspapers with that garbage as the headline. Force the media to shift. If they see that people will eat this crap up then they will keep serving you crap. And WORST OF ALL, they will keep feeding you the dumbest stories each time. The American Media at the very bottomline is a business and it has one real goal, money. Informing the people about meaningful topic is no longer financially viable but if it was then they would make the shift. But the people need to make the first step...show the powers that your not dumb...Force them to give you something that educates you and is useful to you...for your own sake...

AHmadinejad

I was lucky that at the exact time the Iranian president was being introduced I was in a place to witness it. His speech says a lot about this country that many other countries just cannot say. To allow a university to openly invite the president of a country that has been deemed member of the axis of evil speaks volumes on the importance of allowing an open dialogue between potentially warring nations. However, if someone of this importance is speaking ears need to be perked and ready to take everything in. Free speech is only as poignant as the ears hearing it. If you are speaking to a crowd that already deems you a threat and hates you, then the speech gets lost and unforutnately dwindled down to an exerpt in the next days papers. AHmadinejad was very well composed and delivered his speech with dignity. He even made a hilarious joke at the end. He seemed at ease for the duration with the exception of the question of Iranian homosexuals being execution to which he accused homosexuality as being a western phenomenon that Iran did not have to worry about. People need to understand how grand of a gesture it was for AHmadinejad to accept COlumbia invitation and educate the students on Irans policy. I believe because his back was against the wall from the onset, in terms of, thepublic outcry, and the cheering for an incredibily disrecpectful Columbia Universty president. I can appreciate direct questioning but he was implanting a bias using the tired and done rhetoric of the United States government in his questioning. What people are praising as strength and courage I see as flagrant and disrespectful behaviour. If your going to invite him to speak, Columbia University, then allow him to speak. Some of his most poignant points were being cut short by the moderator or was lost in translation because of the bumbling translator, ESPECIALLY when it came to his feelings on Israel. The crowd showed blatant, yet typical, American disregard for authority as booing and such were skattered throughout the speech. I honestly feel that the world fears a man who should not be feared.
One of the things he mentioned and was interogatted about during the Q&A was his statements of the holocaust. He stated that, for one, the holocuast is a true and historical fact. Two, like any other event in history the Holocaust should be broken down and analyzed to tireless detail. As a student in Academia is see no problem with him saying that there should be more studies on the holocaust. Why not? And his third point was what did the Holocaust have to do with Palestine, the malnourished fetus baking in the womb of the Middle East. Palestinians have been abused for such a LOOOOOOOONG time, why is nothing ever being done...? How can country like Israel whose lost a lot of blood historically reciprocate that behavior on a smaller nation? However, I dont feel like getting into Palestinian-Iraeli conflicts rite now. In closing I feel that it took a lot for AHmadinejad to come to the an American institution of education and attempt to open up the lines of communication between the academia of the two warring countries. I pray something can be done with a pen in the stead of a bullet.

Excess and Unnecessary.

I support the death penalty. I think its effective method of punishment. I don't feel that everyone can be fixed. I heard a conversation today about people who felt the death penalty was an antiquated method of our judical system and that it should instead be substituted with a possible mind-altering drug or even more rigid prison sentences. Being that I have spent a considerable amount of time in a country that celebrates its use of the death penalty,I think I hold a bias towards death. It was effective. I understand that many people were unfairly put to death, so I do believe death should be reserved for those who, when evidence provided, are absolutely guilty not those unfortunately appointed a crappy lawyer. I drew up a program I intially wanted to push towards my state legislator (of which I will not go into any details about) a few years ago but I decided against. My program had death as the last possible means of 'fixing' these criminals because they had alreayd been given an exhaustive level of oppurtunity to better there lives. Every possible hand would be extended and more importantly visible for our imprisioned citizens. All they had to was take a hand and never look back. Once the fall back into the bad ways the will be put to death. I know its hard but what can you do? Given the options available to you being positive and you still make bad decisions, you obviosuly do not want to be a positive community role model. IF you can do no good for the collective then unfortunately you are no good to the whole. Excess and Unnecessary.

Islam in the mainstream.

The red haze that surrounds Islam in the headlines of our newspapers and televisions unfortunately leave me looking for a positive representation of my belief. I spent some time looking online for ideal leaders for Islam that have reached a level of noteriety who can possible use their image to couter the image set upon us by glorious miseducating headlines of international news. I came upon mostly sports stars who do little to change the negative social stigma of Islam, some which, Rasheed Wallace for example, has a history of violence and reckless behavior which goes against everything Islam preaches. Upon further research i find that T-pain and Akon are also Muslims. These two gentlemans are prolific in the hiphop scene, they have done work with just about everybody and continue to fill our clubs and house parties with music that preach sin. In saying this, i want to establish that I am not a prude and do enjoy some of these songs but the behavior of these men make it even worse for Muslims to be recognized as a positive. Recently Akon literally picked up a kid and through him offstage, in retalition for something thrown at him, a week before he was basically dry-humping a 15 year old girl on stage. Akon sings songs about ass-shaking and getting girls drunk so you can fuck them, which is perfect pop fodder. BUt this is not Islam. T-pain has had a huge amount of success from songs promoting like "Buy you a Drank", "I'm in Love With a Stripper", and a few other empty songs. Both of these singers have been known to make songs of depth and even sweetness but the sound associated with them is the resonation of self-destruction. I wish neither had come out with the fact that the were Muslim. Muslims like Dave Chapelle and Mos Def make it point to not speak on their religion because they do not want this beautiful religion to be associated with their weaknesses as human beings. Even though I speak negatively on Akon and T-Pain, it comes from my love of music and my love a positive image of Islam. Im tired of seeing Islam slandered and I do not like the way black music is reinforcing self-destruction. Hip-hop started out being about the DJ, then it evolved to the Dj and the Lyricist, then it became just about the Lyricist now its all about the bassline and hook. Its sad to see Hip-hop waterd down to where it has been but that is a blog for another time. Anyways, off track, these guys are our role models, the last thing we need is anymore western influence on Islam. The celebrity both these guys are blessed with has the power to persuade positive Muslims onto the wrong path. Both these men are capable of positive music, Akon especially. I still bump Ghetto and Locked Up. I think in order to make bank they are sacrificing themselves and their religion. Things have changed alot...Islam in the context of America society went from barely making ripples in the media to literally flooding your eyes and ears with bloodshed and aggression. Its enough we have people killing each other in the name of Islam, we do not need people numbing their minds and poisoning their bodies as a result of fellow Muslim brothers.
We need a move in the right direction.

Reading Judas (Harry Potter spoilers)

I read a book a couple months ago on possible theory on Judas, the infamous treachours character who called Jesus and got him propped up. This theory states that Judas was actually Jesus's most trusted disciple and the other disciples were the ones that were on the wrong path. It talks about dreams that Jesus and Judas have about the eminent Martrydom of Jesus and the role Judas will play. Jesus understood he needed what role he needed to make and asked Judas to do what he did. It was the work of God to have Judas snitch on Jesus, thus getting him killed. Judas being the most-trusted disciple did this knowing that he would be forever smeared with the blood of Jesus on his hands but because his faith in Jesus was so strong, he undertook that burden. The only reason I am bringing this up is because the latest Harry Potter book has a much similar ending. Snape gets Dumbledore Killed but towards the end of the latest gem of a read Snape is actually Dumbledore most trusted confidant. Both Snape and Judas follow their orders because they unfortunately have been burdened with the weight of love. One has a Love for Christianity and the other, a woman.
Its not a secret that bible has been edited throughly by men and pieces that may be unnsavory to the masses have since been cut out, like for example, Judas is theory. The book I am referencing is written by Elaine Pagel and is backed by the Gospel of Judas as well as Gospels of all the other guys, who stories all are very similar and have very important differences. I encourage all to read her book, its very interesting and im not going to spoil all her evidence for this possible pro-Judas theory. I'm only writing this blog because I found a similarity with that book and Rowlings book.
Sorry if I spoiled anything. But you know Snape was good anyways. I am convinced Judas was as well. call me whatever...

Apology for Slavery...

MAryland, after so long, you have finally issued a statement apologizing for slavery. At the same time O'malley decides to pass the nations first "living wage" to $8.50 for urban areas. Interesting...I like O'Malley so far...I am always skeptical about politicians but I like this guy.
On the Slavery issue, I didn't even know we were waiting for states to issues there statements. What does documenting your apology do exactly?? Change more social programs, put more money into education and housing for the poorer minority communities. Fix the problem slavery caused by attacking institutionalized racism (which is still very much alive...) Fuck statements of apology, the time for that is over. Give me a receipt for what you spent on fixing issues stemming from slavery.

Blaming Immigration?

Pat Buchanan recently wrote an article that pretty much blames our lax immigration policies as being behind the shootings at Virginia Tech. Which, to me, makes no sense. Cho immigrated here in the early 90's and pretty much was raised here. Buchanan argues that these immigrants are 'invading' our country and refusing to assimilate to our American culture. However, considering the actions perpatrated by Cho I dont see them that far off from an American. He had a gun, alot of American teens his age have guns, sure they hunt with them but still a gun is a gun. Cho was not a monster because of his 'apparent' failure to assimilate, he was a monster because he murdered people for no reason. He was not an outside attacker, America shaped him and created him. He said it himself. There is no need to speculate anymore on his motives because he vividly expresses them in his statement. In South Korea the murder by gun rate is no where the America rate. America has the largest death by firearm rate in the world, which could argueably stem from our cultures inability to separate guns with strength. What kind of arguement can be made for the two columbine shooters? They were homegrown as well but should we have sympathy for them because they were? NO. They did the exact same thing and it had nothing to do with our immigration policy. America is notorious for creating its own problem whether its on a global scale or domestic. The violence of Cho and the two Columbine kids is birthed from the violence we allow in America. It makes no sense to blame immigration. Lets not forget one of the underlying reasons the Immigration Act of 1965 was instituted was because of the Cold War. Russia had launched SPutnik into space and was flexing its muscle as a global power. America could not be seen as inferior because of their lack of Space program so they imported Smart guys and, sure enough, a few years later we landed Neil Armstrong on the moon. Being the first country to do so. There is a reason for everything. Cho unfortunately was America's son and should not be disregarded because he immigrated here as a child. He was raised by America and, frankly, carried out an infamously American act. I hope that immigrants do not assimilate and I think Buchanan has the notion of America a little misconstrued.
If you want to read his article here it is:
http://townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=the_dark_side_of_diversity&ns=PatrickJBuchanan&dt=05/01/2007&page=full&comments=true

I am torn.

The democrats in the Senate just passed a bill that would call for a troop withdrawal by Oct 1 if Iraq doesn't meet certain requirements. Although Bush is probably going to exercise his executive privilege and veto this bill as soon as it's placed in front of him, I am left wondering whether or not pulling out is the best decision. Historically, the United States pulling out of a situation they got themselves into has proved to lead to troubles later. My favorite example being Afghanistan. The Soviets were invading Afghanistan in the early 80's and the US during the Cold War could not allow for this so they armed many of the leaders of Afghanistan in order to contain any sort of Communist progression towards Arab states. When the Russian army pulled out, it hurled Afghanistan into a bloody civil war for years. Each local tribe was battling for control resulting in the deaths of many. The United States supplied ammo too keep Afghanistan communism free but neglected to actually aid with the set-up of a stable government. So when Russia was defeated the US left behind its arms and left the area in a very volatile situation. I'm glossing a lot of the facts because I do not feel like getting in depth on this issue but my main point is this, about 6 years after the Taleban assumed control of the region 9/11 happened.
We cannot just pullout now or years from now we may suffer later. Its a tricky situation and years ago I was totally behind no war at all, right now, pulling out may not be the smartest idea for Iraq. Iraq will be plunged even further into civil war and someone more heinous than Saddam will take power. I think in an effort to undermine Bush, Democrats may be hurting the US even more on a global scale by exiting. I think what needs to happen is for the US to ride it out and wind it down because at this point pulling out will be counterproductive. There will be an immediate power struggle once the US leaves and we will be playing roulette with the lives of the Iraqi people and the world in coming years.

GET YOUR BAKE SALE!

I dont understand. I'm walking by this area around our Stamp Student Union at the University Of Maryland and I see a table...it was a bake sale. My heart fluttered because I absolutely love baked goods! I skipped to their table and asked them what they were trying to raise funds for, and this pothead looking guy said back to me, Diabetes Research....
...I was a little...perplexed.
Why would you sell baked goods like, brownies, chocolate cookies, rice krispy treats, etc, if your are raising money for Diabetes research. To me there was a very sad irony in that marketing strategy. Are they also trying to increase the pool of patients to pull research of? I dont know.
I asked him how the bake sale was going and he replied, "not as well as you would think considering all the awesome stuff we have."
Maybe they should have found a better outlet for their fundraising.

They had great cookies though...

Things i Hate

1. I hate walking down a long hallway and seeing one person walking in your direction. You two are the only people in the hallway and you have both managed to avoid looking at each other for awhile. But the constant darting of the eyes can only last for so long. As you guys approach each other one person decides to finally say hi. You have shared a long moment of awkardness and now, a half-hearted hello. I hate Long hallways. They make me feel so uncomfortable...

2. I hate lying to people.

3. I hate people lying to me.

4. I love to hate things I know nothing about.

5. I hate people who do not know why they are laughing at something.

6. I hate the reliance I have on my mp3 player in order to walk around campus.

7. I hate people who do not reciprocate.

8. I hate having a negative outlook on life.

9. I hate student apathy.

10. I hate job interviews

11. I hate relying on others.

12. I hate cold weather.

13. I hate you. And no, not actually You, I mean my computer screen.

14. I hate the integration of chocolate and fruit.

15. I hate people judging me based on how I dress.

16. I hate the Christian fallacy.

17. I hate religious extremist in general.

18. I hate the price of night out at the theatre.

19. I hate the Euro.

20. I hate country music.

21. I hate people who have a one-sided view on life.

22. I hate Mcdonalds, Starbucks, and Ikea.

23. I hate obesity.

24. I hate my broken body.

25. I hate smokers.

26. I hate drinkers.

27. I hate monotony.

28. I hate losing anything.

29. I hate violent little kids.

30 I hate editors.

Booty

Why the fuck are black dudes obsessed with ass anyways? Although, I also am a fan of the booty, why am I a fan? Where does this urge to have some ass come from? Why cant I look at girls hair and feel the same way about the ass? How come I look at ass first when a girl walks by me? There has to be a reason. If this many men are compelled to handle themselves the same way there has to be an explanation. Especially since it is primarily a "black thing".
I have a theory. I may be crazy and it may be redundant to blame the same people, but I think it is White related. As stated in my previous blog, white men have been sexually abusing their slaves since slavery began. But I do not think white men were the only abusers. Male slaves have been sexually abused and raped as well. Although to hear of any man being raped will inspire scoffs among many of us, this was true. Black men carried a reputation of being sexually...gifted, which is a stereotyped started by white women. White women had their fair share of indescritions. White woman would choose a young slave worker, typically a field worker because they were ill-treated and demoralized. She would get them alone and threaten him to fulfill her sexually. If he turned her down he would be killed. All she would have to do is tell the master that the slave had made a pass at her, and he would die. So naturally, the slave gave in to her request. Because the female feared her husband finding out she was "violated" by a slave she would not have the slave enter her vaginally. They have to go through the number 2. I think this has made Black men ass centric over the years. The fear of not being turned in to the slave owner has forced us to think ass first. We had to survive.
I think its funny that you can really find a way to blame anything on white people.

Respect sisters.

Another hip-hop inspired blog. Sorry but today I been thinking a lot about rap and whether I still have a connection to it like I used to.
I decided to listen to what is playing in the clubs and on peoples radios. Just to get a feel for what i hold so much angst towards, to see if it was somehow misplaced.
NOpe.
Same nonsense plays now as it was before, sadly I think hop-hop is getting dumber...but that goes without saying. What I was thinking about was the portrayal of women, particulary Black women. In our music, sadly, misogyny is common place. Our women are "nappy-headed ho's" and tip drills. The pursuit of a climax is all these songs represent. Whats interesting for me is Black rap artist portraying women the same way that White slave owners thought of Black women as well. Historically, black women have been beaten and abused by their masters. They have been sexually abused by the White man and completely objectified as having sexual prowess. They were exotic and different often the masters would force them to play role in their fantasies. Nowadays rappers are still abusing their women in their lyrics and feel that the only roll a woman can fill in their lives is to provide pleasure. Its interesting that rappers negative comments towards their own women parallel the sentiments of White slave owners. On top of that, the main people purchasing these songs are white people. It almost cyclical how everything works. I think Black men need to wake the fuck up. Why do we insist on walking backwards? Respect your women. Because of their strength you are here now.

Turn off the radio.

Recently, I have been audience too many conversations on hip-hop and its effects on mainstream America. And typically the rhetoric paints rap as mysogynistic and violent, which I do not think its fair. The rap that is played on the radio everyday is usually recycled between the themes of sex, guns, and riches. But who are these songs actually trying to reach? Who is this music made for? Black people do not purchase this music, the market focuses on white suburbia. Imagery perpratrated by the hip-hop elite allude to black males being violence driven and uneducated and the sad thing these visuals lead young black men to pursue activities that are self-destructive. Young Black men see these videos and listen to these lyrics and see only that. These actions are reciprocated, fake lines begin influencing real life. Even when I am outside at night, my image of someone who will cause harm to me is usually painted in black ink. Women in rap play no more a role than the necklace they wear and the cars they drive. They are objects that are used (often misused) and thrown out. Music videos of rap 'artists' rely on objectifying women to pull audiences. "Sex sells" and the rap industry is savagely siphoning off income generated by black female sexuality. But is the rap industry to blame?
It is common knowledge that what we hear on the radio and what gets promoted nationally is handpicked by very wealthy white men. Positive rap (which still exists) is thriving underground, and as I have found out, many college students are starting to understand that there is a place for it. Being a college student I, and my peers as well, begin to look at our choices through the lens of an adult. We question the music and critique the values the music is grounded upon, people who buy rap are typically those who are white but also, are young. I think that once we being interogatting why we like specific films and music, we start to see that some of it may be callous and nonsensical. I have grown from listening to bubblegum rap and graduated to new introspective lyrics of life. Lyrics that can spark debate, spark thought, spark change, spark understanding. Lines about how many girls I can get and how much money are silly and simple. Rap now fits perfectly in the Pop music genre and should be treated as such. It is purely superficial.
The damage, however, comes from the images. I know that what I see in a music video is fake but there are those that feel that this music is look into Black culture. Even Black people suffer from these repetitious images posing as an example to how black should be. Black men look at women exactly how they see on television. Women suffer from mistreatment because black men unconsciously seek to fulfill roles set forth by the examples of a Nelly or a 50 Cent. However I do not feel the fault lies exclusively on Black rappers. Sure they have a responsibility to their people but they unfortunately have a responsiblity to record owners as well. And even if they held their ground and denounced crap rap and stood for something real, there are a slew of hungry younger rappers that would take there place in seconds.
I find that as much as America likes to separate rap as its own minority inspired avenue for violence and misogyny, America itself needs to take the blame for those qualities. America is known throughout the world as a country of gun-totting cowboys, how kill first and ask questions later. The rhetoric of our president is riddled with Western vernacular and talks of "us against them". American culture is guilty of violence and being bullet ridden. Even our constitution allows for Americans to hold guns as long as its "a well regulated militia" that is set forth to protect free states. This is an outdated policy because we have a national military and no longer require a militia or an independent force to protect our states. But nevertheless we are the only country that allows gun usage, which just shows how gun focused America, as a culture, is. Our forefathers believed in arming themselves so why is it suprising that people now are killing themselves with guns. The explicitness of rap lyrics directly parallels American culture. These two are not mutually exclusive. Because the words are coming from a people who have a history of being oppressed, these words are demonized. I was shown clips of films that have been heralded in American cinema as being arguably some of the greatest films of all time, Dirty Harry, Good Bad and the Ugly, etc. And they shot down countless of guys all the time. Successful movies in America are largely big budget action flicks. Action flicks have been successful films since there were moving films. The market is here for violence, so why does rap catch flack for promoting gun-totting? There have been plenty of rappers actually referencing these western films in their lyrics. I do not like that hip=hop is being demonized for their gun violence when they are only promoting, through spoken word, what American cinema classics have promoted visually.

Talib Kweli

Wow. Great concert. I have wanted to see Talib in concert for years and I finally got the chance to!
He came to Maryland UNiversity as a part of the Virgin Mega College tour. Tickets were a steal for 15 dollars and I was in the absolute front. It was great.
However, in order to bypass the shitty opening acts, William Tell and Sugar CUlt, my friends and I decided to grab some smores outside my dorm and get there an hour after the show started. Sadly we entered as Sugar Cult was performing. We moved down to the front of the stage and sat down and proceeded to join the people around us in booing Sugarcult and pleading with them to exit the stage. We suffered through about 30 minutes of pop-rock, and made it without any fatalities. On a lighterer note, there was this white couple who provided us with ample entertainment during the shitty opening act. It was a white girl and a white guy and the girl was off beat with every motion in her body, even her clapping! Her boyfriend stood directly moving offbeat as well. They were attempting to grind to pop-rock and they were never moving in unison. One was going to the right and the other to left, it looked so awkward. The guy's movement were so jagged and uninspired that people sitting behind him started to stand and mimic the way he "danced". It was soo funny. The couple was so awkward and off.
Anyways Talib came out and recked the set. He performed cuts from Ear Drum and Liberation, classics from Reflection Eternal and kicked a couple freestlyes for us. When he performed 'Get By' the house went crazy! I always wanted to see that song performed live and it was everything i expected it to be. Great show! Great night!

Screens

I am surrounded by screens. Aren't you? I staring at a screen right now typing nonsense into a box that no one really reads. When I answer the cell phone there is a small screen and when i close my phone there is a smaller screen. I goto my classes and we sit and watch movies. I hang out with my friends in front of a television screen. Even my fucking car has a screen in it. Do we really need to be sitting in front of a screen for the majority of lives. Get Out! DO SoMETHING! Boycott screens!
Being exposed to this much illumination has to be bad for your eyes and your brain. I gotta go...I've sat here for too long...

Virginia Tech

I would have put all my savings on the murderer being a white man. I was shocked to hear about the massacres but this happens frequently...anyone remember Iraq? This happens all the time. IS it fair that we, as Americans, freak out anytime our complanacency with life is stirred. ANytime we are reminded of how brutal life is, we blow it up for about a week then move on to Brangelina or some pop culture haberdashery that has no substance. I truly am sorry for those in Virginia Tech but this nonsense has been occuring for awhile now. America is not above falling victims to these actions. How come no one says anything when this happens in Iraq? Is it because violence is acceptable there? Or is it because Iraqi lives are worthless? No one shed any tears or held any vigils for the massacre of those students attending Mustansiriya University. Why does America have a monopoly on sympathy? For as much problems we cause in the world, if find it really surprising that people have sympathy for us at all. These are humbling times in our country and sadly these are the incidents that bring us back to reality. Life is not sweet and apathy gets you nowhere. Wake the fuck up. Open your eyes. Other people suffer too. I feel incredibly sorry for the students of Virginia Tech because they have been scarred for life, in one or another. It is unfair for students to die in any country, they are only trying to educate themselves.
One thing I have been asking myself and my friends is if the administration of Virginia Tech could have done something to prevent this? After the 2 shootings in the morning could they have stopped the killings two hours later? I would like to think if school was canceled something might have been able to change. An act like this has forced every college in the nation to reevaluate their emergency procedures. Although I don't think anything can happen to prevent a shooting, the difference here is that he shot people 2 hours prior to playing host to the massacre. I dont think, if this was to happen again you would have the luxury of two hour buffer. I wonder if this changes the teacher/student dynamic a little bit because the murderer was such a troubled person. His troubles inked out into his homework and as result of his disturbing words the teacher did notify the police. But due to legal restrictions they could not read his work, so how does this change that policy? What will be the ramifications following the Hokie massacre? Time will answer these questions but until then, peace be upon those who have suffered from this tragedy.

Bombings again.

It has been awhile since Al-Qaida has done anything outside of Iraq. Now they come back with a bang. They attack my home country of Morocco and also are neighboring neighbors ALgeria. 3 bumbling terrorists blew themselves up in Casablanca, Morocco, taking only a few people with them. Relatively speaking it was not very successful, but the one in Algeria did more damage. From what I have noticied about AL-Qaida and there bombing strategies they do not typically attack on back to back days. Usually some time has elapsed for things to get complacent again before they bomb something else. I think the bombing in Algeria was sped up because of the 'foiled' Casablanca attacks. They were fearful of being caught so they implemented their plan sooner. I hope these attack that have been plastered all over the media do not force other attacks to happen soon. Sometimes I think the media plays a role in terrorism. The reportings and updates on terrorists and terrorist cells force them to shift and change their plans depending on the latest developments. Maybe things should stop getting reported...
If you take away the cameras, you take away their message...right?

Housing.

In case you have not heard the University of Maryland has decided to formally boot out all seniors from acquiring housing for the next semester. This unfortunately includes me. I have been at Maryland for 3 years and have maintained a positive record in my dormitory. This means nothing to our residency director. Seniors are effecting Marylands cash flow. The influx of freshman next semester has forced the University to reconsider the value of their rising seniors. Based on all the news reports these rising seniors are worthless. This is deeply disconcerning, especially if this is the beginning of a new standard in housing policy. Will this be a policy for future seniors? University of Maryland has been cashing in on its students for a long time. Establishing senority on the campus means you have gone through hundreds of dollars in bullshit fees and unfair ticketing. Above is a picture I have taken that represents the senior protest of the housing situation. They have camped out now for 2 days in order to show the unfair policy our resident director has instituted. This protest, as far as I know, has reached the local news and I hope soon it will reach a bigger stage.
If your thinking about attending University of Maryland, please seek an instituion that cherishes its seniors and not a school where seniors are easily cut-off from campus life. I'm sure actions like this will definitely be chartered in the future alumnus donations. I for one, will not give a cent to this university. I will end with this, do not come to the University of Maryland.