Lets Get All The Facts, First

Let's Get All The Facts, First!!

By now we all have seen and have been encouraged to sign a petition to "Free the Jena 6" for the social injustice of bigotry. Those of us on the board have opined emotionally about perceived racism and outright injustice. I think it's irresponsible to not "research" and try to get the facts or the other side of the story. I think most people want to keep the story that keeps them openly satisfied with half truths. Now let me tell you, there's a site detailing about the incident, and I perused through it. Truthfully, it looked shady, but when the Chicago Sun Times and a local Louisiana Newspaper confirms or reports the same "other side of the story." Then I'm sorry, I can't support half truths and just take up a cause for a thug! and that's what he (Defendant Mychal Bell) is!.
This morning, on Steve Harvey Morning Show, and I hate to continue using them as a example. But they had Bell's father on Wednesday 8/29 to discuss this matter. Now, I don't know if they were just hearing about this story and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but no one asked pertinent questions to the father. And I get they are entertainers, but they do have a voice and a large audience. They should have asked a tough question, at least one! For instance, Sir, your son has a criminal record and is on probation can you tell us why? And if he chooses to get his backside off the hook and lie! then it's on him..but at least the question was asked..and who knows, he might say, well yeah, he's been in trouble with the law and that's why I had to move to Jena to reel his azz in. Install some type of discipline, like a good father would. Now who could blame him? No one! But noooo! softball questions and freedom to spew his portion of the story was all we heard and now millions of people are going to open their pocket books and give a dollar or two for the Mychal Bell Defense Fund....For what?! the same outcome in the appeals court?
So, having said all this, I urge everyone to sit back and watch the events unfold. I admit it's a hot news item with huge ratings, but we have to be more responsible in the internet age! to get all the fact and not half truths.
Here's a portion of an column by Jason Whitlock, titled: "Journey to Jena and justice is long, misleading" www.foxsports.com/other/story/7170510:
This belief crystallized for me over the past couple of months as I tracked and researched the case involving the "Jena Six," a group of Louisiana black boys who have been charged with a very serious crime after jumping, beating and stomping a white boy on school grounds.
The "Jena Six" are becoming a cause célébre for Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the media. At least two or three times a week for the past three months, I have received an e-mail from someone asking me to support the "Jena Six."
On the surface, the story sounds like a horrifying tale of Emmett Till-style justice. At a predominantly white high school in a segregated town (Jena), a black student sat under a shade tree that was traditionally used by white students. The next day three white students hung nooses from the tree, sparking racial tension and a sit-in (under the tree) by black students. The principal attempted to expel the three white students, but the school board overruled the principal and the students were given a suspension, which sparked more racial tension.
Police patrolled the school's hallways. The town's district attorney visited the school for an impromptu assembly, allegedly looked at the black students and said he could end their lives with one stroke of his pen. A little more than three months after the noose incident - and just days after two off-campus fights/heated exchanges involving a black student and white former students - the "Jena Six" punched, beat and stomped a white kid who made fun of a black kid for getting whipped in a Friday-night fight.
The white kid was knocked unconscious. After a three-hour hospital visit, he was released. The town prosecutor initially charged the "Jena Six" with attempted murder. Mychal Bell, the first of the six to stand trial and a Division-I football prospect, was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy by an all-white, six-person jury, a white judge and a white prosecutor. His public defender did not call a single witness in his defense. Bell could be sentenced to 22 years.
Whew!
Before I go any further, let me state this: The prosecutor should've never charged these boys with attempted murder. The entire school board should be replaced for stopping the noose-hanging kids from being expelled.
OK, having said that, much of the mainstream reporting on this story has been misleading, irresponsible and inflammatory.
No one mentions that Mychal Bell's clueless public defender was black. No one mentions that there were no black jurors because of the 50 people who responded to the more than 100 summons, none were black. No one mentions that Bell was already on probation for battery relating to a Christmas day incident in 2005. No one mentions that Bell was adjudicated (convicted) of two other violent crimes in 2006 and one charge of criminal damage to property. No one mentions that Bell's father acknowledged he moved back to Louisiana in February (after seven years in Dallas) to supervise his son because of the "Jena Six" mess. No one mentions that Bell starred on the Jena High football team while constantly jeopardizing/violating his seemingly flimsy probation.
This was all talked about in open court during a bond hearing for Bell, and a newspaper in Alexandria, La., wrote about it. Just about everybody else has pretty much ignored the "other side" of the story. Including the fact that not one witness - black or white, and there were 40 statements taken - connected the jumping/beatdown of the white student (Dec. 4) to the noose incident (Sept. 1).
No one mentions that a black U.S. Attorney, Donald Washington, investigated the "Jena Six" case and held a town-hall meeting explaining that there was no evidence connecting the jumping/beatdown to the noose incident.
Only after the prosecutor overreacted (or tired of letting Bell and others skate once the successful football season was over; Bell wasn't the only football star charged) did the "Jena Six" blame the attack on the nooses and the white shade tree.
Rather than report the truth, flames have been fanned by lazy or cowardly or agenda-driven members of the media. Because the white kid regained consciousness and survived the attack with only a swollen eye, defenders of the "Jena Six" have called it a typical "schoolyard fight." Would anyone call it that if six white football and basketball players jumped one black kid?
I've mulled this topic for months, and I keep coming back to one question: Where in the hell were the parents - all of the parents, white and black?
Shame on the parents of the kids who hung the nooses for hiding behind a seemingly racist and insensitive school board when their kids were inexcusably wrong. Shame on the parents of the "Jena Six" for blaming white racism for the cowardice of a six-on-one attack.
And shame on the prosecutor, the media and Al Sharpton for not rising above the ignorance and distortions, and seeking a truth that will set everyone in Jena free, including the "Jena Six." - End of Whitlock column portion.

Mychal Bell's Prior Conviction:
Alexandria Daily Town Talk: www.thetowntalk.com
The teenager convicted of beating a student at Jena High School in December 2006 had been convicted as a juvenile for attacking someone a year earlier, then committed three more crimes while on probation for that one, prosecutors say.
That makes Mychal Bell's aggravated second-degree battery conviction his fifth conviction for a violent crime, state District Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. said Friday.
Because of that record, the judge said, he will not reduce the $90,000 bond he set for Mychal Bell, one of six black students arrested in the attack which left a white student bleeding and unconscious.
"Past behavior is the best prediction of future behavior," Mauffray said.
The court hearing revealed no details about the earlier juvenile convictions, called adjudications. They were for battery on Christmas Day 2005 and Sept. 2, 2006, and for criminal damage to property on Sept. 3 and July 25 of 2006, said Cynthia Bradford, LaSalle Parish deputy clerk.
Bell and the other five were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy in the fight with Justin Barker.
The charges sparked outrage in the black community, drawing attention from the American Civil Liberties Union, which is now monitoring the case, and civil rights leaders who contend the youths have been treated unfairly by the justice system.
Bell, who was 16 at the time of the assault, was tried as an adult in June on reduced charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. An all-white jury convicted him.
The other students Theo Shaw, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and an unnamed juvenile are awaiting trial on the original charges.
Bell faces up to 22 years in prison when sentenced on Sept. 20.
Pause: Here's the money shot!!!
At a motion hearing Sept. 4, Bell's attorneys plan to argue that his adult conviction should be wiped out and the case sent to juvenile court, or that he should get a new trial because his original defense attorney did a poor job.

Pause: I thought the new reason for wiping out Bell's conviction is that he had all white jury! No one, not even Bell's father mentioned the incompetancy of Bell's publ. defender!!! Wanna know why?!! because his publ. defender was BLACK!!! Is it possible that the PD saw Bell for what he really is and in fact urged him to take the plea of a lessor charge....

A Dog is a Dog of Course of course...

You know with all the hoopla about the Michael Vick situation and the cruelty of animals charges in which he has plead guilty too. I am starting to get tired of people imposing their emotional opinions and feeling about dogs. Lets get this out, Vick owned those dogs! Did you hear me? The dogs belonged Michael Vick and they, it is his property. He bought them, he fed them and did, although illegal, what he did. He chose to use pit bulls and put them in a wooden fight ring to fight other pit bulls. And he also destroyed dogs that he deemed were not fighters. Now did he go across the street and steal someone elses dog? No!

They were his dogs!! And I'm sick and tired of dog lovers who are so appalled by the actions of Vick that they think what he did was two steps above murder. Where are we as a society where we abort thousands of fetuses across the country and yet eight to ten dogs are destroyed, it's get rope time. Where are we, where a city like Baltimore is living by it's negative nick name, Bloodymore and no one bats an eye, but a few dogs are electricuted by it's owner, he deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life.

Have we lost our sense of values? A few weeks ago, Robert McCellan, a self confessed pedaphile, was going around taking pictures of little girls and posting them on the internet. On his site, he pointed out where to see these young girls. Would like to take a guess of how many people rose up and tried to block the northern border of California to prevent this person from getting in. None. As a matter of fact, this man got more press time and interview request than lets say a missing college black woman's family got. Everybody is up in arms about some damn dogs, but a self professed pedaphile can go state to state with camera in tow and no one says a damn thing. Well until a child is harmed and that will register moderately on a pissed off scale. But Vick fights dog and destroys them...He's worse than the devil....

Please!

Whitlock: We Must Learn From Vick's Fall

Jason Whitlock: We Must Learn From Vick's Fall
MSN.com
We've been here before. It was November 7, 1991, Magic Johnson stood before hundreds of cameras and told the world that he was HIV positive.
His announcement rocked the sports world. Allegedly Magic's johnson taught us all a lesson about irresponsible sex, groupies and the pitfalls of a celebrity lifestyle. We vowed to do better.

Nothing changed.

Last week we learned that 28-year-old Travis Henry, a decent NFL running back, has fathered nine children by nine different women in four different states. In America, especially among superstar athletes, sex is still mostly thoughtless and unprotected.
Worse, 16 years after Magic's announcement, there are far more average Americans chasing the lifestyle that nearly killed Magic, incarcerated Paris and drugged Lindsey Lohan.

So, forgive me, I'm not all that hopeful that we will implement anything we've gleaned from Michael Vick's reality TV show.

As I watched Monday as Vick contritely apologized for the actions that will seemingly land him in jail and cost him more than $100 million, I thought of Earvin Johnson, who, like Vick, performed magic with a ball.

Vick's comeuppance and remorseful, four-minute, post-guilty-plea mea culpa shook the sports world to the same degree as Magic's tear-provoking press conference. Obviously, there were few tears shed for Vick. Unlike Magic's misdeeds, many of us cannot see ourselves making the same mistakes as Vick.

But the bottom-line reaction is the same: We hope that young people, particularly young athletes - and, in the Vick case, most particularly young black athletes - will choose a different course of action based on lessons learned from Vick's fall.

To Read More: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7160334?MSNHPHMA


http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7160334?MSNHPHMA

When Keeping It Real....Gets Jail....

RF23 Commentary: When Keeping It Real...Get Jail

You know we all laughed at the skits performed by Dave Chappelle and we all have our favorite ones. One skit for instance is called, "When Keeping It Real...Goes Wrong." It's about a person who starts off real cool, got it together and looks pretty, well..sane. Until one thing sets them off and they revert to whats called keeping it real. The end result is disasterous and the person ends up messed up for their actions or in jail. Well soon to be NFL quarterback, Michael Vick is about to find out what happens when keeping it real....goes wrong, and in jail.

Yesterday Vick agreed to plead guilty to charges of illegal dog fighting and cruelty to animals resulting in the gruesome deaths of these animals. Vick will also stare down the possibility of being banned from the NFL for gambling charges.

How does this happen? You have a young man, with great talent, great ability to put asses in seats and eyes on the television to see this 4.2; 40 yard dash time, left handed quarterback run circles around linebackers and out-run cornerbacks and safeties by a huge margin. I'm talking 5 to 6 yards ahead! and still in stride! Vick's exploits on the football are stuff that made grown men, stand up and yell out a big ooooweeee!!! and say did you see that?! We all have our favorite Vick moment. Theres one, when the Falcons were playing the Vikings and the Vikes 'D' got a good rush from it's d-line and forced Vick out of the pocket to scramble. Vick obliged and took off running, two Viking defensive players had great angles to stop Vick and probably punish him for the run. They attempt to tackle at the same time, with Vick in between them, theres a collision, an oooo and awe and eventually a roar from the crowd. The Viking defensive players look up and see Vick heading toward the sideline, giving high fives. They look at the huge video monitor and find out what happened. They just became castmembers of Vicks highlight reel. You see the two players did have Vick in their sights, did have great angles to deliver a punishing blow. But when it came time to deliver those hits, Vick wasn't there. The two players hit each other and Vick swished through. It's those exploits that had hundreds of fans standing on one sidewalk in support of Vick for allegations and now truths before him. And unfortunately, its those exploits that drew racial lines between white and black.

You see the reality of the whole thing, it doesn't matter what my opinion or the next guy's opinion is. We're going to think what we want. But the reality is, that Vick can't blame no one, nobody, no skin color, no upbringing or no lack of what have you on anyone, but himself. The decision to fund, bet or even participate in dog fighting was on him. The decision to retain friends that haven't made positive progression in their own lives, but maintained negative lifestyles that didn't fit or vibe with the lifestyle Vick worked for himself. Is on Vick.

Besides if they really were his boys, they should have figured out that Vick found a way out of his hood through athletics. They should have respected that and let him go. Unfortunately for Vick, when they decided to let him go.

It cost Vick everything he worked for.

RF23 Commentary - Admonished from the NAACP Group on "Black Planet"

RF23 Commentary - Admonished From the NAACP Group on "Black Planet"

How is that possible? How can I, a black american be admonished from the NAACP site on black planet. The moderator of the group, deleted at least two of my post in regard to the decline of the NAACP and one post in regard to the liberal media and some black journalists asking if Barack Obama is black enough. Now, hey we're family, I like ya'll. Some of you have seen the light and tired of the rope a dope, that both parties are spewing to us. Kind of reminds of the movie "New Jack City." When the old man comes and chases the kids from Nino Brown. And Brown asks what the old man, what can he tell him, besides another "I have a dream" speech. Remember that?

Well some of us are tired of the speeches and empty promises from not one of the parties but both It's just that Democrats are in deeper doo doo than republicans. We need not look any further than the flooding caused by Katrina in Nawlin's. Over thirty years of democratic rule and what we saw was over thirty years of gov't dependance. What was it that Wolf Blitzer said, "Soooo poor and soooo black." Nawlin's not a good enough example, how about your local neighborhoods where crime is rampant.

But anyway I got admonished for saying the above, and not offering "solutions." which was funny, since the NAACP hasn't offered a solution since, since, Desegregation of our schools and over forty years after that feat.....what it get us? High drop out rates and kids not reading their grade level.

Solutions anyone?

and oh yeah! the same moderator who admonished me for not offering "solutions," on another thread was read saying, Bush lied, people died and war for oil montra. His solution...Impeach the president.

Well he's got Julian Bond down. I'm sure he's private messenging folks on the board, claiming that the group has been infiltrated by the "taliban right wing conservative."

Real Talk With Jason Whitlock

Real Talk with Jason Whitlock:

I'm sorry. I apologize for taking the summer off.
We've missed Real Talk, the column I started over at America Online a year ago, the column that I'm now bringing to a new home here at FOXSports.com, the column that is a mix of sports, entertainment, culture and unbiased, agenda-less opinions.
Man, we need the Real Talk now more than ever. We need a place to aggressively and unapologetically discuss the most controversial and sensitive sports topics of the day.

For those of you unfamiliar with Real Talk, let me give you a quick primer on its history and points of emphasis:

1. Real Talk is a must-read for any hardcore football fan. No one in America writes more provocatively and intelligently about football than yours truly. Football is in my blood.

2. If you have a closed mind or agenda when it comes to American race issues, you will not like Real Talk. I love to write about race. It's a pervasive issue in the sports world and should not be ignored. My opinions on racial matters are unpredictable. Black or white, liberal or conservative, you should leave your expectations at the door. I'll disappoint you.

3. The AOL version of Real Talk gained national notoriety when I exposed NBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas for being the gangsta paradise, Black KKK rally that it was. Real Talk became a world-wide playa when I dissed Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Vivian Stringer for turning Don Imus' inappropriate attempt at humor into a national pity party/recruiting video/marketing tool for their individual cause$.
So it only makes sense to start Real Talk's resurrection from exactly where it left off.

Read More: http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7127682?MSNHPHMA

Whitlock: Aaron Wise to Remain Silent

Kansas City Star: Hank Aaron Was Wise to Remain Silent
Jason Whitlock

The worst thing about Barry Bonds’ historic run at Hank Aaron’s home-run record was listening to members of the mainstream media try to interpret Aaron’s feelings.

It was embarrassing. Bonds’ mostly hypocritical detractors desperately cast Aaron’s silence, indifference and refusal to participate as a sign that Aaron was disgusted by Bonds.

No one seemed to consider the real possibility that Aaron was and is disgusted by everything that revolves around the record, especially simple-minded, inconsistent, biased media members who wanted to use Aaron as a tool to make another man’s life miserable.
I can’t in any way speak for Hank Aaron. I’ve met him once — at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum — but I don’t know him at all. His actions over the past year, including his decision to record a taped, congratulatory message for Bonds to commemorate 756, don’t strike me as odd or confusing at all.

Aaron’s behavior reveals an intelligence, maturity and sophistication that we should all aspire. He set the standard for how we all should have handled Bonds’ pursuit. "Restrained and respectful" is how I would describe Aaron’s comportment.

In my opinion, Aaron recognized early on that the American media had absolutely zero interest in hearing his real, complex opinions on Bonds, the home-run record and Babe Ruth. We can’t handle the truth. Not the whole truth. We want bits and pieces to twist. Or we ignore, dismiss and ridicule the truths that don’t fit our agenda.

To Read More: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/columnists/jason_whitlock/story/228341.html

What Civil Rights?

Momma white. Daddy African Black. Born outside of the United States in 1961. Raised by American White grandparents in rural America. So exactly what civil rights movement did Barack Obama involve himself in? If you answer, well, he represented people in discrimination claims. Well, for about two years so did I. And never in those two years, did I compare the plight of my American-Black relatives and other blacks who were denied their basic civil rights because of racism and legal discrimination in some Southern states to homosexuality. Hell the jury is still out if this type lifestyle is a choice and not as some would like to believe born with. The one thing it can't be is the same plight as blacks in the civil rights movement. It just can't be and I refuse and will debate anyone straight or gay to the bone on this. Last checked, no gay person has been denied the right to vote, no gay person or persons have been segregated against. I have not in 2007 or years leading to, seen any signs that said "straight only" and "gays." No gay person has been told to sit in back of the bus or told to give their seat up to a straight person, cause the bus is crowded. So exactly where is this plight Obama was talking about in Los Angeles last night. And lets get this straight, Republicans aren't against gays, they are against or don't support gay marriage and you don't have to be a conservative to have those views. That doesn't make them prejudice. A large percentage of blacks agree that marriage should be for a man and a woman. Does that make them prejudice..No, but blacks are god-fearing folk and believe in the word.

But back to Obama, I can't talk about his life's experience, and he may have been called the n-word from some kids. Hell, who hasn't, I lived in the white part of Milwaukee, had white friends my age, and was called a nigger, and after whooping their ass, we went to being friends again. Somehow this experience didn't stunt my growth and it obviousely didn't stunt Obama's.

Obama should run his race, as to his identity. He should'nt try to be something that he's not.

Black American, with Black American plight.

Inspirational "Yeah" Moment!

Quote from the movie "Rocky Balboa." Yeah!!

"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that! " - Rocky Balboa

ESPN: Todd Boyd
Bonds and Race
On April 4, 1974, Opening Day for a new season, baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn and Vice President Gerald Ford were in attendance at the Cincinnati Reds' home opener against the Atlanta Braves to witness Hank Aaron attempt to tie Babe Ruth's celebrated home run record. This record was held by the most beloved figure in the history of the game, and it was also a record that many felt would never be broken.
As Aaron got closer and closer, it became clear that it was only a matter of when, not if, the record book would be altered to accommodate the new home run king. Considering the iconic status that Ruth held in the game's history, the fact that baseball had been integrated a mere 37 years before and the lingering feelings of racial animosity that still existed in the decade immediately following the civil rights movement in America, many were not too happy with the fact that Aaron, a black man, would be displacing their beloved Babe at the top of the home run chart.
On April 4 six years earlier, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated on the balcony of a Memphis motel. Aaron had asked the Reds organization if it would honor the sixth anniversary of Dr. King's death with a moment of silence before the game started. The Reds refused to do so. Aaron, on his first swing of the new season, tied the record anyway. Four nights later, Aaron went on to break the record in front of his home crowd in Atlanta.
As Aaron approached the record, he started to get something like 3,000 letters a day. Most of those letters were hate mail of one sort or another, many even containing death threats. Aaron now traveled with an armed police officer for his own protection. At the peak of his sports life, a time when a man should be feeling nothing short of the unabashed joy that accompanies a major accomplishment like this, Hank Aaron could not fully enjoy the moment because he had to be concerned that he might actually lose his own life, simply for hitting a baseball.

To Read More: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=boyd/070508

Scoop Jackson: The Defiant Jersey

Scoop Jackson: The Defiant Jersey
Waging War Amid Shadows: The Saga of a Bonds jersey
ESPN Page 2

I brain wrestled for over a year about buying a Barry Bonds jersey. Worried about what it would mean. What it might say.

But through thick and Nicole Richie, I had his back. As I should. So I went on a mission.
716. 717. 718.

Watching what Aaron went through when I was a kid, a spot in my soul resented what Babe Ruth and "America's game" stood for. Made me feel like the part of the Constitution that considered my grandfather three-fifths of a human being. We'll call it defiance.

I searched for a game-used jersey. Couldn't find one immediately. So I laid off it.
740. 741. 742.

As the number grew closer, my defiance increased. Not because of love for Bonds, but because of the way he was being treated. The picture painted of him was incomplete. It was of him on an island, alone, as if no other player faced the same accusations. As it turned out, Rafael Palmeiro joined the 3,000-hit club after he tested positive for steroids, but never saw or heard the same outcry (he was later suspended for 10 games). Watched Jason Giambi do everything except not admit to doing what the "Sultan of Steroids" was being accused of. Giambi never faced the same wrath. Heard Roger Clemens' name surfaced in the Jason Grimsley affidavit. It seemed unfair, even if Bonds was wrong.

Defiance grew. Was it the record he was chasing or was it because of who he was? The answer, I thought, could be found in the jersey. The search was back on.

Bonds hit 754.

To read more. Paste or Click on Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/070806

ESPN Page 2 - Stop Hatin', Hank

ESPN Page 2 - Stop Hatin' Hank

An open letter to Hank Aaron,

I really wish I didn't have to say what I'm about to say, but as my friend Branford Marsalis once told me, "Speak the truth and shame the devil." Hopefully you are sitting down when you read this. OK, here it goes: Hank Aaron, you are a hater! That's right Hank, you're a full-fledged, bona fide, 100 percent playa hater of the highest order. There, I said it. What a relief.
I was hoping you would come to your senses and realize how important it is for you to show Barry Bonds some love right now, in spite of whatever misgivings you might have about your home run record being broken. Hank, I wanted you to take the high road. But, no, you decided that you would, in essence, point a huge extended middle finger in Bonds' direction. As they say in Detroit, "If you don't start no s---, won't be none started." Well since you took it there, you leave me no choice.

In case you are unfamiliar with the term "playa hater," Hank, let me pull your coat. A playa hater is someone who harbors extreme jealously and animosity toward someone else's success, especially if that person's success overshadows his own. As Puff once said on Biggie's track "Playa Hater," "You see, there are two kind of people in the world today. We have the playaz and we have the playa haters." Well, Hank, your refusal to recognize Bonds' accomplishments clearly demonstrates that you are in the latter camp.


To Read More: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=boyd/070802

Larry Elder: Bush-haters Endure Tough Week

Bush - Haters Endure Tough Week
Larry Elder

I did it again -- opened my mouth.

I drove behind a car carrying two guys. Their bumper sticker read, "War Is Not the Answer." I knew better, but I pulled up next to them at a red light, rolled down my window, and said, "OK. If war is not the answer, what is?"

"Peace!" the driver angrily responded.

"Just curious," I said, "do you think people in Tehran drive around with bumper stickers like that?"

"So you support the war?!" his passenger shouted.

Gee, I thought, what a sudden change of topics. All I wanted to know, if war is not the answer, then what is?

"Which war?" I said. "Iraq? Afghanistan? World War II? The Civil War? Can you be a little more specific?"

The passenger turned purple. "The war in Iraq! And where are the weapons of mass destruction?"

"Look," I said, "I've got some bumper stickers in my trunk that say, 'Beheading Is Not the Answer.' Would you guys like a couple?"

"F--- off!" they said in unison. Their car roared off.

To read more: Paste or Click on Link - http://townhall.com/Columnists/LarryElder/2007/08/02/bush-haters_endure_tough_week