Dear Sirs:
David Stern is quite possibly the best friend black, American-born professional athletes have ever had in the commissioner's seat of a pro sports league.Quit fighting David Stern. Quit complaining about the dress code. Work in partnership with Stern while he's around running the league.
Because you're young, because many of you didn't place a high priority on education, because you were handed lots of money at a young age and because most of your agents don't waste time explaining things to you they don't think you can comprehend, you have trouble grasping the big picture.
The owners and the commissioner have decided one of the main things standing in the way of growth is the negative, thug image NBA players have here at home and abroad. Now, if you like, you can blame the "racist" American media for this negative image. Besides being a copout, it won't change the negative image.
Too many young, black professional athletes have too closely aligned themselves with the hip-hop culture, which in reality is nothing more than prison culture. Shut up! You know it's the truth. Gun-toting, drug-dealing, full-body-tattooed, gang-repping rappers have overrun hip-hop music and hip-hop culture and have poisoned just about the whole scene.
It's comical to listen to you all call Stern's dress code racist when black-owned nightclubs have been enforcing similar dress codes (and using metal detectors) for years just to keep the hip-hop thugs out.The NBA wants this element/image out of its arenas for the same reason black nightclub owners want it out. It's bad for business. I'm not knocking everybody in the joint. But I can't find fault with the NBA for wanting to rid itself of prison culture. You guys should be asking yourself why you're embracing prison culture. You want to be 50 Cent?
I guarantee you that if you keep fighting Stern, the main person looking out for your best interests, the NBA will eventually quicken its importation of overseas players and you'll all get your chance to rap. Without your cooperation, the NBA will go the same road major-league baseball has taken.
Stern wants you to come to work dressed like a professional. He wants that image, and he wants you to come to work with a professional mindset. He's not asking a lot. He's asking you to protect the financial interest of the game you made great. If you won't do it, he'll be justified in finding players that will.
Jason Whitlcok, KC Star
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Friday, November 04, 2005
You Can't Take The Newport Out Of Newport On The Levee
From its scenic location to its popular entertainment offerings, Newport on the Levee has become the apple of every riverfront developer's eye. But in recent days, the Levee has attracted the attention of some less reputable folks, intent on walking off with a little bite of the big apple of local development, one logo'd chunk at a time.
Like at most malls and entertainment venues, signage and inexpensive furnishings are frequently reported stolen from Newport on the Levee. But over a recent two-day stretch, a couple of more expensive items disappeared.
The question is, why?
Why, for instance, would anybody risk felony theft charges to steal a big blue, $350 "Newport on the Levee" rug, which, it would seem, might look a lot out of place anywhere except ... Newport on the Levee.
Like at most malls and entertainment venues, signage and inexpensive furnishings are frequently reported stolen from Newport on the Levee. But over a recent two-day stretch, a couple of more expensive items disappeared.
The question is, why?
Why, for instance, would anybody risk felony theft charges to steal a big blue, $350 "Newport on the Levee" rug, which, it would seem, might look a lot out of place anywhere except ... Newport on the Levee.
The Old Peanut Farmer Is Finally Making Some Sense
Former President Jimmy Carter yesterday condemned all abortions and chastised his party for its intolerance of candidates and nominees who oppose abortion.
"I never have felt that any abortion should be committed -- I think each abortion is the result of a series of errors," he told reporters over breakfast at the Ritz-CarltonHotel, while across town Senate Democrats deliberated whether to filibuster the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. because he may share President Bush and Mr. Carter's abhorrence of abortion.
"These things impact other issues on which [Mr. Bush] and I basically agree," the Georgia Democrat said. "I've never been convinced, if you let me inject my Christianity into it, that Jesus Christ would approve abortion."
Mr. Carter said his party's congressional leadership only hurts Democrats by making a rigid pro-abortion rights stand the criterion for assessing judicial nominees.
"I have always thought it was not in the mainstream of the American public to be extremely liberal on many issues," Mr. Carter said. "I think our party's leaders -- some of them -- are overemphasizing the abortion issue."
While Mr. Carter has previously expressed ambivalence about abortion, his statements yesterday were "astonishing," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America.
"He has long professed to be an evangelical Christian and yet he had embraced virtually all the liberal political agenda," said Mr. Knight. "Maybe with Jimmy Carter saying things he never uttered before, more liberals will rethink their worship of abortion as the high holy sacrament of liberalism."
Running for president in 1976 -- just three years after the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision -- Mr. Carter took a moderate stance.
"I think abortion is wrong and that the government ought never do anything to encourage abortion," he said during that campaign. "But I do not favor a constitutional amendment which would prohibit all abortions, nor one that would give states [a] local option to ban abortions."
In Washington to promote his latest book, "Our Enduring Values," Mr. Carter acknowledged he made mistakes in office.
"I can't deny I'm a better ex-president than I was a president," said Mr. Carter, who in recent years has traveled the globe with his wife Rosalyn, "trying to help hold 61 elections" in developing countries.
He has been outspoken in condemning Mr. Bush's policy toward Iraq. "I think all Christians -- and certainly all Baptists -- are different," Mr. Carter said yesterday. "I have a commitment to worship the Prince of Peace, not the Prince of Preemptive War."
But he praised Mr. Bush's policy toward war-torn Sudan, and declared that the best treatment he has received since leaving the Oval Office was from the first President Bush, and the second-best treatment he got was during the Reagan administration, especially from Secretary of State George P. Shultz. The worst treatment he's received, the former president said, was from President Clinton.
Mr. Carter said his party lost the 2004 presidential elections and lost House and Senate seats because Democratic leaders failed "to demonstrate a compatibility with the deeply religious people in this country. I think that absence hurt a lot."
Democrats must "let the deeply religious people and the moderates on social issues like abortion feel that the Democratic party cares about them and understands them," he said, adding that many Democrats, like him, "have some concern about, say, late-term abortions, where you kill a baby as it's emerging from its mother's womb."
"I never have felt that any abortion should be committed -- I think each abortion is the result of a series of errors," he told reporters over breakfast at the Ritz-CarltonHotel, while across town Senate Democrats deliberated whether to filibuster the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. because he may share President Bush and Mr. Carter's abhorrence of abortion.
"These things impact other issues on which [Mr. Bush] and I basically agree," the Georgia Democrat said. "I've never been convinced, if you let me inject my Christianity into it, that Jesus Christ would approve abortion."
Mr. Carter said his party's congressional leadership only hurts Democrats by making a rigid pro-abortion rights stand the criterion for assessing judicial nominees.
"I have always thought it was not in the mainstream of the American public to be extremely liberal on many issues," Mr. Carter said. "I think our party's leaders -- some of them -- are overemphasizing the abortion issue."
While Mr. Carter has previously expressed ambivalence about abortion, his statements yesterday were "astonishing," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute at Concerned Women for America.
"He has long professed to be an evangelical Christian and yet he had embraced virtually all the liberal political agenda," said Mr. Knight. "Maybe with Jimmy Carter saying things he never uttered before, more liberals will rethink their worship of abortion as the high holy sacrament of liberalism."
Running for president in 1976 -- just three years after the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision -- Mr. Carter took a moderate stance.
"I think abortion is wrong and that the government ought never do anything to encourage abortion," he said during that campaign. "But I do not favor a constitutional amendment which would prohibit all abortions, nor one that would give states [a] local option to ban abortions."
In Washington to promote his latest book, "Our Enduring Values," Mr. Carter acknowledged he made mistakes in office.
"I can't deny I'm a better ex-president than I was a president," said Mr. Carter, who in recent years has traveled the globe with his wife Rosalyn, "trying to help hold 61 elections" in developing countries.
He has been outspoken in condemning Mr. Bush's policy toward Iraq. "I think all Christians -- and certainly all Baptists -- are different," Mr. Carter said yesterday. "I have a commitment to worship the Prince of Peace, not the Prince of Preemptive War."
But he praised Mr. Bush's policy toward war-torn Sudan, and declared that the best treatment he has received since leaving the Oval Office was from the first President Bush, and the second-best treatment he got was during the Reagan administration, especially from Secretary of State George P. Shultz. The worst treatment he's received, the former president said, was from President Clinton.
Mr. Carter said his party lost the 2004 presidential elections and lost House and Senate seats because Democratic leaders failed "to demonstrate a compatibility with the deeply religious people in this country. I think that absence hurt a lot."
Democrats must "let the deeply religious people and the moderates on social issues like abortion feel that the Democratic party cares about them and understands them," he said, adding that many Democrats, like him, "have some concern about, say, late-term abortions, where you kill a baby as it's emerging from its mother's womb."
How Times Have Changed
From the NY Sun:
Back in the 1990s, the French sneered at America for the Los Angeles riots. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 1992: "the consensus of French pundits is that something on the scale of the Los Angeles riots could not happen here, mainly because France is a more humane, less racist place with a much stronger commitment to social welfare programs." President Mitterrand, the Washington Post reported in 1992, blamed the riots on the "conservative society" that Presidents Reagan and Bush had created and said France is different because it "is the country where the level of social protection is the highest in the world."
How the times have changed. Muslims in Paris's suburbs are out shooting at police and firefighters, burning cars and buildings, and throwing rocks at commuter trains. Even children are out on the streets - it was reported that a 10-year-old was arrested. The trigger for the riots was the electrocution of two teenagers last Thursday, which the rioters say came following a police chase, a charge the police deny. But even if the charge by the rioters is true, that the police are culpable in the deaths of the two youths, the fact that such an incident would spark a riot is a sign of something deeper at work - no doubt France's failure to integrate its immigrant Muslim community.
It turns out that France's Muslim community lives in areas rampant with crime, poverty, and unemployment, much the fault of France's prized welfare system.
Back in the 1990s, the French sneered at America for the Los Angeles riots. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported in 1992: "the consensus of French pundits is that something on the scale of the Los Angeles riots could not happen here, mainly because France is a more humane, less racist place with a much stronger commitment to social welfare programs." President Mitterrand, the Washington Post reported in 1992, blamed the riots on the "conservative society" that Presidents Reagan and Bush had created and said France is different because it "is the country where the level of social protection is the highest in the world."
How the times have changed. Muslims in Paris's suburbs are out shooting at police and firefighters, burning cars and buildings, and throwing rocks at commuter trains. Even children are out on the streets - it was reported that a 10-year-old was arrested. The trigger for the riots was the electrocution of two teenagers last Thursday, which the rioters say came following a police chase, a charge the police deny. But even if the charge by the rioters is true, that the police are culpable in the deaths of the two youths, the fact that such an incident would spark a riot is a sign of something deeper at work - no doubt France's failure to integrate its immigrant Muslim community.
It turns out that France's Muslim community lives in areas rampant with crime, poverty, and unemployment, much the fault of France's prized welfare system.
Will The Fools Go After JoPa
A week after Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry was publicly reprimanded for insensitive comments about black athletes, Joe Paterno did not shy away from the topic of race during Tuesday's Big Ten coaches teleconference.
At one point, the topic of the teleconference turned to the increased scoring in the Big Ten this season. After first mentioning that improved indoor practice facilities have helped the conference recruit kids from warm-weather climates, Paterno offered a supplemental explanation.
"You have to be careful the way you say things sometimes," the Penn State coach said. "Poor [Air Force coach] Fisher DeBerry got in trouble, but the black athlete has made a big difference. They have changed the whole tempo of the game. Black athletes have just done a great job as athletes and as people in turning the game around."
Last week, after a 48-10 less to TCU, DeBerry noted that TCU "had a lot more Afro-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did.
"Afro-American kids can run very well. That doesn't mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can't run, but it's very obvious to me that they run extremely well."
DeBerry was reprimanded by Air Force's superintendent, and issued a public apology for his remarks.
At one point, the topic of the teleconference turned to the increased scoring in the Big Ten this season. After first mentioning that improved indoor practice facilities have helped the conference recruit kids from warm-weather climates, Paterno offered a supplemental explanation.
"You have to be careful the way you say things sometimes," the Penn State coach said. "Poor [Air Force coach] Fisher DeBerry got in trouble, but the black athlete has made a big difference. They have changed the whole tempo of the game. Black athletes have just done a great job as athletes and as people in turning the game around."
Last week, after a 48-10 less to TCU, DeBerry noted that TCU "had a lot more Afro-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did.
"Afro-American kids can run very well. That doesn't mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can't run, but it's very obvious to me that they run extremely well."
DeBerry was reprimanded by Air Force's superintendent, and issued a public apology for his remarks.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
This Is Alarming
The following table showing the Office of Management and Budget's estimates for the coming decade of US defense expenditure as a percentage of GNP shows America is preparing to spend proportionately less for military activity than at any time in the recent past.
Decade Percent of GNP
1960s 10.7
1970s 5.9
1980s 5.8
1990s 4.1
2000-2009 (projected) 3.4
Decade Percent of GNP
1960s 10.7
1970s 5.9
1980s 5.8
1990s 4.1
2000-2009 (projected) 3.4
You Will Reap What You Sow
AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France Nov 3, 2005 — Rampaging youths shot at police and firefighters Thursday after burning car dealerships and public buses and hurling rocks at commuter trains, as eight days of riots over poor conditions in Paris-area housing projects spread to 20 towns.
Youths ignored an appeal for calm from President Jacques Chirac, whose government worked feverishly to fend off a political crisis amid criticism that it has ignored problems in neighborhoods heavily populated by first- and second-generation North African and Muslim immigrants.
And I thought Parisians were peace-loving, can't we all just get along types.
Youths ignored an appeal for calm from President Jacques Chirac, whose government worked feverishly to fend off a political crisis amid criticism that it has ignored problems in neighborhoods heavily populated by first- and second-generation North African and Muslim immigrants.
And I thought Parisians were peace-loving, can't we all just get along types.
Quote of the Day III
"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years. And that may happen sooner if he can obtain access to enriched uranium from foreign sources -- something that is not that difficult in the current world. We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction." -- Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller
Quote of the Day II
If stealing and destroying secret documents, stuffing them into your pants and then lying about it isn't a crime worthy of jail time, why is having a different recollection of events than Tim Russert? -- Investor's Business Daily
Quote of the Day
"Republicans in just 10 years have developed the arrogance it took the Democrats 30 years to develop." -- Former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts
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