Random Blackness: Two-Minute Bass-Percussion Jam At NAMM 2012

Enjoy nearly two minutes of two instruments that we rarely get to hear or see up front, by two greats. Making it up on bass is my friend Nathan East, chasing some serious digital percussion by David "Fingers" Haynes. Turn up the volume and enjoy.

James C. Collier

H/T:Patrick Telev-Karanfilovic

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Random Slovakianess: Musician Rolls With Nokia Ringtone Punch

Some comments to this entertaining video argue that the musician's response is staged, but I think they miss the point, altogether. Staged or not, the editorial and lesson is both witty and good for all to hear, if they might avoid the cynic's vortex.

...and Nokia, once the shining star of Finland, presently needs all the help they can get.

James C. Collier

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Cobb GA Mother Arrested For Tattooing 10 Year-Old Son

From the video above, it is clear that Chuntera Napier, the arrested, while well-meaning, is also very ignorant. At minimum, the recipient of such needs to be eighteen to legally bear the risk of contracting any number of potentially fatal diseases, like hepatitis, from getting a tattoo. The misdemeanor charged Ms. Napier clearly misunderstands, like many folks, that all rights, including those of parenting and religion, derive from the constitution, not the bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, or the back of a cereal box. This is a good example of where children, and their desire to make adulthood decision, need protection. I hope the example of Ms. Napier's prosecution sends a strong signal that tattoos are for adults, period.

UPDATE: Police are looking for the alleged tattoo artist, but Ms. Napier is not cooperating, so far. The artist could face criminal charges, and so could Ms. Napier, for obstruction.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Cobb GA Mother Arrested For Tattooing 10 Year-Old Son, Chuntera Napier, Child Ink, Parental Rights, Funds Abuse, Acting White

Ward Connerly Facing Misdeed Allegations By Former Staffer

I continue to believe that Affirmative Action needs a revision, to focus on the greater inclusive group of economically-disadvantage Americans, rather than race, gender, or otherwise. This would exclude well-off minorities, while including those whites held-down by their meager economic background. Anti-Affirmative Action crusader Ward Connerly was never about this kind of fairness, but rather lining his own pockets, and it seems that it is all catching up to him (here), via a credible insider.

Stay Tuned.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Ward Connerly Facing Misdeed Allegations By Former Staffer, Prop 209, Anti-Affirmative Action, UC Regent, Funds Abuse, Acting White

Seven White Attackers vs. One Asian Teen In Chicago

Wow! Watching this horrible scene made me wish I was there to even things up a bit. Who would be surprised if the Asian kid started carrying a gun after a beating like this? Who could blame him? Very sick. Very tragic. And on top of it all, repeatedly calling him a Nigga' speaks to the universal standard that demeaning blackness has achieved, and that's everybody's fault (within/without).

1/18 UPDATE: A Sun-Times article (here), sheds some weird light on the 1/15 attack. The attackers were white AND Asian (predominantly), with the oldest attacker, Raymond Palomino (17), whose face was visible in the assault, charged as an adult. Palomino's father is a Cook County sheriff. One attacker was female, and lured the victim into the assault. The attack may have been random, and there remains no explanation for the 25 instances of the term nigga' use against the victim, captured in the video by one of the attackers, via their cellphone. Tragic and weird!

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Seven White Attackers vs. One Asian Teen In Chicago, Asian Assault, White Gang, Chicago Attack, Asian Called Nigger, Acting White

Slavery Math Taught in Georgia Elementary School

As reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution..."Gwinnett County (Georgia) parents and activists have blasted the school district’s response following reports that students at a Norcross elementary school received a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in word problems.

School district officials said the principal at Beaver Ridge Elementary School will personally work with teachers to come up with more appropriate lessons and will offer more opportunities for staff development following the uproar created by the worksheet that included questions such as the following: “Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” and “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?”"

I hope 'work with' is a euphemism for 'escort from the building'.

Full Story (here).

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Slavery Math Taught in Georgia Elementary School, Norcross, Racist Math, Bigotry, Georgia Ignorance, Acting White

Southwest Airlines Parodies Black NFL Players

Is this as cool (with folks), as it is funny? I think so, what about you?

James C. Collier

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Shit White Girls Say...To Black Girls

I thought this was well done, entertaining and thought provoking (more importantly).

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Shit White Girls Say...To Black Girls, Franchesca Ramsey, chescaleigh, Racism, Ignorance, Acting White

Obama Blows Hole In Constitution: Hero or Traitor?

The “New and Improved” National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is now the law – so don’t drop the soap folks!

Seriously, let me get this straight, Mr. Obama. As president, sworn to uphold the US Constitution, you sign a law, bearing your fingerprints, on the day of the year (12/24), at your choosing, when the citizens are most distracted, and then promise that you will never use the “unconstitutional” parts to do what you surreptitiously demanded the right to do. Sounds like something Bush/Cheney would have pulled, right? Well, yes, they definitely pulled some three-quarter-Monty crap like this, but in this case it was you, Barack Obama, and this is definitely the full-Monty (buck-ass-naked).

The Huffington Post (here) cleverly apologizes for the President on this tearing down of citizen rights, as they make it seem like he was somehow forced (by bad people?) to sign the law against his will, which is not true at all. The Huffington ignores that Obama insisted that American citizens be included in the indefinite detention language, or he would veto the bill. So in reality, that which the Huff and the President said he was against, jailing Americans indefinitely without trial, he is absolutely for and directly responsible. Politics and the media doing the nasty out in the open! A-friggin-mazing!

Like I said before (here), no politician in their right mind would bastardize the constitution, if they did not think they needed it – as the original laws have served the rich and powerful very well for 200+ years. The reason Obama specifically thinks HE needs this change is that the world-wide economic poop could hit the fan in 2012 (here), and the blood on Main streets won’t be on some fake Hollywood movie set. In fact, the ‘debt-storm’ has already begun.

If you think things are bad now, stay-tuned folks. The year 2012 marks the calendar, in US history, where life-expectancy is going down and the times definitely went from bad to worse. When you know the game’s about to change and you want to preserve your position on the sinking ship, you change the rules. Happy New Year!

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Obama Blows Hole In Constitution: Hero or Traitor?, NDAA 1031, Indefinite Detention, Occupy Wall Street, McCain/Levin, Acting White

Walter "Sweetness" Payton: Timeless

This time of year (on Sundays) I always remember one of the greatest to ever play any game. Sweetness was his handle, but 'air' was his domain. Check out two YouTube minutes of the man, if you doubt me. (here)

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Walter "Sweetness" Payton: Timeless, Chicago Bears, 1985 Super Bowl, Hall of Fame, Football Legend, Acting White

Random Whiteness of the Two-Wheeled Dare-Devil Variety

Get ready for five knuckle-biting minutes of fun. I won't spoil the ending, either.

James C. Collier

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Shameless Promotion Dept.: Fine Art Drawings On The iPhone

My business partner and I are getting close to delivering our first iPhone app (isn't everybody?) - stippled drawings. Android is soon to follow. It's no secret that I love dots, and this has been a labor of such. Look for it in the App. store in a month or so. In the meantime, enjoy these two iconic examples of what can be done with your favorite photographs, inspiration, and some cool software.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Shameless Promotion Dept.: Fine Art Drawings On The iPhone, Ali vs. Liston, Norma Jean Dress, Stipples, Apple, Acting White

White-on-White vs. Black-on-Black Violence

New Details Emerge in High School Basketball Game Fight in Baltimore: MyFoxDC.com

One of the most popular Google searches to this site are questions of Black violence. In this post, I grabbed the closest examples I could find showing that neither group holds a monopoly. It really depends on who is looking, and where they look. Interesting.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: White-on-White vs. Black-on-Black Violence, Basketball, Soccer, Thugs/Hooligans, Europe/USA, Acting White

Why Obama Needs To Indefinitely Detain YOU!

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) et al Movement is leaderless, fragmented, and muddled in what it seemingly wants from those of various authority. However, what is not muddled is discontent with direct and indirect elites, and steadily reaching significant numbers that are willing to put their displeasure on the line – against batons, rubber-bullets, tear gas, pepper-spray, and arrest.

To date, the Occupy Movement, which has been labeled domestic terrorism by some, has mustered only short bursts of hundreds to thousands of protesters. But what would happen if rotations of hundreds OF thousands of people descended upon Washington or NYC, for weeks at a time, and continually harped on governmental failures? Mr. Obama’s conundrum gains some clarity. Clearing out these disrupters under the Jeffersonian constitution could prove difficult, if not impossible. The fundamental right to freedom of speech and assembly, AND due process, requires that whoever collects and detains these people also have ready and reasonable ‘processes’ for fair judicial rendering. Frankly, the country has no administration in place for such a constitutional exercise, either as a one-time event, and certainly not as continuous public theater, fueled by problems that are not going away anytime soon.

Hence, the president needs the unassailable latitude to label any citizen a terrorista, command the military, forcibly extract said disgruntled accused, and warehouse them in some rural barb-wired tent-city, INDEFINITELY or, until Prez figures out how to release them, ready to behave themselves. This is why the current administration needs NDAA 1031 on the legal books, constitutionally poisonous as it is. Detaining US citizens has little or nothing to do with protecting us from bona-fide terrorist, but rather removing the constitutional barriers to controlling free movement, assembly, and speech/protest – otherwise showing people who the ‘eff’ is boss. Call it a preparatory-step toward Martial Law (here).

O-man's Harvard Law Review plaque is looking like a Crackerjack prize right about now, and the late Steve Jobs may have been more right about a one-term Obama than his Siri could have ever thought differently. Or maybe Americans ARE as ignorant as the White House believes.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Why Obama Needs To Indefinitely Detain YOU!, NDAA 1031, Indefinite Detention, Occupy Wall Street, McCain/Levin, Acting White

Why Obama May Lose in 2012

It’s an outrageous thing for a bunch of predominantly white senators and congresspersons to piss on the constitution, via NDAA 1031 legislation (here), because they seemingly lack the cojones or ovaries to tell their parties to go to hell, but I suppose there’s safety in numbers. However, for our first-black President, Barack Obama, sitting at the helm of this travesty is likely to get him run out of office in 2012. Mind you, not just because he is black, or a Democrat, but because he’s the president for godsakes, and his veto and pulpit are suppose to protect fundamental constitutional rights, not strip them away, as does the pending National Defense Authorization Act.

Under no condition should American citizens face “indefinite detainment” by the president or the military, or anyone else. But let’s be clear, Obama threatened to veto the bill if it did NOT contain the indefinite detainment of US citizen’s language (above). How about them apples? If the opposition can only field a candidate with half a communicating brain, Mr. Obama could be in big trouble come next November. Unfortunately, the half-brain requirement has been an on-going problem for the party of Lincoln. Regarding NDAA 1031, we are all in big trouble, forget the election.

And furthermore, how come black folks can’t see that ‘indefinite detainment’ is the wet-dream of every racist ever born – 95% approval rating my ass – folks need to wake up!

So I asked myself, why would a left-leaning, constitutional lawyer-turned-president, want the ability to throw US citizens in jail, without ever putting them on trial. What could make this man toss the constitution he knows so well into the crapper? The short answer is that he thinks he needs it.

To expand, I can only imagine that somewhere within the bowels of the White House, is a windowless room where a bunch of allegedly smart people have surmised that the shit is about to hit-the-fan on the home front. But how so? Hmmmm. Let me think. The country is in financial crisis because a Goldman-Saks led Wall Street decided they could top the Savings & Loan rip-off, with the mortgage-back securities rip-off, and they did. Obama lets the thieving 1% walk. Oh yeah, Mr. Bernanke is printing money as fast as it takes the ink to dry, and giving it to banks for .01% interest (free), who are in-turn buying T-bills paying 3%! The remaining 99% of Americans are increasingly fat, lazy, ignorant and entitled up the kazoo. Europe is in a financial melt-down of its own. China is headed toward crisis, because there may be no one to buy all the crap they are preparing to build. Japan is completely jacked, (see Fukushima). We are fighting battles in the Middle-east that are more about enriching defense contractors, than eliminating terrorist. Yep, the Main Street-level poo-poo could really hit the fan, and I ain't talking occupy.

So, President Obama’s White House, the Senate, and Congress are all preparing to keep order, by suspending our rights. The only thing Obama has to worry about now is if Americans wake the hell up before next November. But, whether voters jam Obama or not, history will say we are witnessing the gasps of a 200+ year-old glutinous giant, about to fall - hard.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Why Obama May Lose in 2012, NDAA 1031, Indefinite Detention, Constitution, McCain/Levin, Acting White

Christopher Hitchens: 1949 - 2011

NYTimes obituary.

James C. Collier

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Diversity Pro and Con: A Nigerian Case Study

After recently attending the award-winning Nigerian musical FELA!, about a musician’s travails in that challenged African nation, I was out in Berkeley with friends enjoying a great Nigerian band (BaBa Ken/Katoja). The venue included many ex-patriot African patrons. While enjoying the music, my party ran smack dab into the issue of recklessly importing people who grow up in a very different and, in the case of Nigeria, dangerous place. Shit happens, and it did.

At one point in the evening, my girlfriend whipped out her recently acquired iPhone 4s, to take a picture of me. Immediately afterwards, we were faced with a very angry Nigerian fellow who thought she was taking pictures of him to somehow facilitate his untimely demise. Perhaps he left Lagos under a cloud - I do not know. The country is certainly a very dangerous place where a small amount of tribal difference, hostility, or money, can get someone killed.

Anyway, despite our attempts, the Nigerian fellow could not comprehend that his identity did not reside on the phone, and that we did not work for the government. At one point he grabbed the phone, to get a closer look, and then refused to return it. In all his yelling, he asked me if I wanted to fight. I said no, but also that he was not leaving with that phone. His final word was that he was keeping the phone and dared that I should call the police. It was as though he thought the police would either support his obstinacy, or (more likely) that calling the authorities was silly.

I approached the club owner, explained the events and asked him to call Berkeley PD. Before making the call, the owner wanted to talk to the guy and ‘straighten out this misunderstanding’. That conversation ended with the owner fending off the beginnings of a battery by the Nigerian. I then became adamant about calling the police, even if I had to make the call myself.

The Berkeley PD quickly arrived and patiently threatened the man into returning the phone. On their way to this result, they explained all the rights and responsibilities that governed his free attendance at the night club, including possible photos, and admonished that those ideas he brought from Nigeria carried no weight in the U.S. Although he eventually relented, he clearly was not convinced by anyone that Berkeley was not Lagos, Nigeria and that his understanding was inadequate, nor was his behavior in need of adapting.

I went home that night with a profound feeling that this man should not be here, and there are probably many others like him. It is too damn easy to get into this country! Thank goodness he did not have a weapon. While his influential experiences may be little fault of his own, there is no reasonable excuse for his theft or refusal to accept and follow the laws of his adopted land. And whether his ancestors were brought here in chains or he came willingly, the requirement is the same – know the law, follow the law, or suffer the consequences.

At one point early in the dispute, the Nigerian’s female companion attempted to guide him, but his words and body-language, and her immediate retreat, quickly established that he would not hesitate to ‘knock the you-know-what out of her’. His words to her “you, shut up!” were sautéed in a violent tone and look, and the instant fear in her eyes told a deeper and chilling story, by itself.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Diversity Pro and Con: A Nigerian Case Study, Nigeria, Immigration, FELA, Berkeley Police, Acting White

Penn State Coach McQueary As Coward, Like Father Like Son

It is no surprise that Penn State Assistant Coach Mike McQueary is now double-talking that he contacted the police regarding his witnessing of the Sandusky rape of a 10-year old boy on campus in 2002. Only thing is that neither Penn State Police, or the campus police, have a record of McQueary saying peep to them, unequivocally. As well, McQueary's grand jury testimony makes no mention of contacting any authorities other than Head Coach Paterno, Athletic Director Curley, and University VP Schultz. Oh yeah, McQueary did first contact his own father (John J. McQueary), presumably the cowardly example-setter who reared his son onto the ill-fated, protect-your-own-ass, path upon which he nows finds himself.

I'm fortunate. My old man would have only had one question, if I had been in McQueary's shoes - can he touch the blunt object I used to smash Sandusky's degenerate scull? Any other question or response would have been unacceptable! Momma McQueary must feel pretty good right about now.

With nearly a decade of silence behind them, I pity the chip-off-the-old-bastard McQueary that he and his old man had no heart to help that poor boy or the other boys they should have imagined, from the clutches of a monster. However, it is the faded hope that had to be in the boy's eyes that night, as McQueary arrived and departed the rape scene never to be heard from, that breaks this father's/son's heart.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Penn State Coach McQueary As Coward, Like Father Like Son, Joe Paterno, John McQueary, Tim Curly, Gary Schultz, Acting White

Penn State Coach Sandusky Suspected Of Preying Upon Poor Black Boys

The case against Sandusky bears an uncanny resemblance to the one against former Boston Red Sox Club House Manager, Donald Fitzpatrick, who was convicted of sexually abusing poor black boys in Winter Haven FL, off-season training home of the baseball team (here). What people are not yet saying about Sandusky is the question, in addition, of if the eight victims were predominantly, if not all, poor and black - and there are at least ten more similar at-risk victims in the queue, if you believe Pennsylvania's Governor.

Why is this question/answer not in the MSM (main stream media), but rather I had to dig to find it? (here) and other out of the way places?

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Penn State Coach Sandusky Suspected Of Preying Upon Poor Black Boys, Joe Paterno, Sexual Predator, Tim Curly, Gary Schultz, Acting White

Dwight Arrington Myers "Heavy D": 1967 - 2011

James C. Collier

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