State Of The Qusan

This Took Guts

2008-07-09T16:33:00.001-07:00

Jesse Helms was one of those figures you'd rather forget for his participation in one of the ugliest periods in this country's history. No comment is the best comment on his death I don't speak ill of the dead. This man gave up his job rather than have the flag lowered to half staff for a racist.

L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff Monday, as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley.

When a superior ordered the lab to follow the directive, Eason decided to retire rather than pay tribute to Helms. After several hours' delay, one of Eason's employees hung the flags at half-staff.

The brouhaha began late Sunday night, when Eason e-mailed eight of his employees in the state standards lab, which calibrates measuring equipment used on things as widely varied as gasoline and hamburgers.

"Regardless of any executive proclamation, I do not want the flags at the North Carolina Standards Laboratory flown at half staff to honor Jesse Helms any time this week," Eason wrote just after midnight, according to e-mail messages released in response to a public records request.

He told his staff that he did not think it was appropriate to honor Helms because of his "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice" and his opposition to civil rights bills and the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

I Wouldn't Have Done It

2008-07-02T13:05:00.001-07:00

I don't like this. I don't really get her point. I know the Black National Anthem well. In fact, if my recollection is correct, I learned all three verses by heart, by 6th grade, from white nuns at my Catholic grade school However, I love both The Star Spangled Banner and America The Beatiful. This was a city event. Why couldn't she just have sang the dang song?

One of the most notable incidents from Tuesday's State of the City address occurred even before the mayor's speech began.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, Rene Marie was introduced to sing the national anthem.

But that's not what she sang.

Marie actually sang the tune of the traditional national anthem with the lyrics to "Lift Every Voice and Sing." It's a song some have called the National Black Anthem, the Negro National Anthem or the Black National Anthem.

How NOT To Get The Girl!

2008-07-01T16:45:00.001-07:00

I'd call this idiot back just to cuss him the hell out!

Those Pesky Muskrats!

2008-06-27T20:49:00.001-07:00

This sounds crazy!

A heroic effort by hundreds of townspeople, volunteers and National Guardsmen to hold back the Mississippi River failed Friday — undone by a burrowing muskrat.

The furry rodent dug a hole through the earthen levee in this eastern Missouri community, allowing water to penetrate the floodwall, which failed shortly before dawn.

"It's so disappointing," said Linda Wilmesherr as she peered through binoculars at water pouring through a gap that appeared to be 30 feet wide. "With all the guns in this county, couldn't we kill a muskrat?"

CNN Is Slipping

2008-06-27T14:29:00.001-07:00

I hate to quote the ridiculous man that is Flavor Flav but all I can say is Woooow!

(h/t OW)

Didn't This Man See Mississippi Masala?

2008-06-26T13:16:00.001-07:00

This is the follow-up to this madness I posted on earlier this month. This man was found guilty of having his daughter-in-law murdered.

A Mississippi businessman born in India was found guilty Thursday on charges that he arranged to have a hitman murder his African-American daughter-in-law.

A Fulton County jury returned the verdict a day after closing arguments in the trial of 68-year-old Chiman Rai.

Sparkle Rai was killed in her Fulton County apartment in 2000, a month after marrying Rai's son.

Prosecutors contended that Rai had the daughter-in-law, Sparkle Rai, killed because he was a racist and believed an interracial marriage would embarrass his family in caste-conscious Indian society.

Prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty if Rai was convicted. The trial now goes into a sentencing phase.

Sparkle Rai was killed April 26, 2000, in a Fulton County apartment a month after marrying Rai's son. The case baffled police for years until two years ago and authorities arrested Chiman Rai and four other men, including the alleged hit man, a Rai business associate and a retired Jackson, Miss., businessman.

So now this man is going to get life or the death penalty over a "bad" marriage? I cannot fathom how all of this was worth it. Like it or not, he has a grandchild. His son has moved on in the "right kind" of marriage but how must he feel knowing his dad did this? How must his new wife feel knowing that her husband's family is capable of such a heinous act? I know this kind of thing may be fairly commonplace over there but it's just not going to fly here. How will this old man fare in prison in Mississippi with a whole bunch of folks who are black and know he had a black woman killed because he thought his son was too good for her? Other cultures have a right to their traditions but not when they break the law and not when people end up maimed or killed. I almost feel bad for him because he could have probably gotten away with this in India - and almost did here.

No Pregnancy Pact?

2008-06-24T13:43:00.001-07:00

Just 17 individually stupid teens breeding for no damned reason!

pregnant high school student disputed the notion Tuesday that girls in this New England fishing town made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

"There was definitely no pact," 17-year-old Lindsey Oliver told "Good Morning America" on Tuesday. "There was a group of girls already pregnant that decided they were going to help each other to finish school and raise their kids together. I think it was just a coincidence."

Oliver, who is five months pregnant, said she and her 20-year-old boyfriend, Andrew Psalidas, a community college student, were using birth control and her pregnancy was unplanned.

I didn't post on this when the story broke because this just makes me soooo mad!

Imus At It Again

2008-06-23T19:12:00.001-07:00

Imus clearly can't help himself however at least this was on his radio show and not on MSNBC in the morning where he co-mingled this BS with reputable, informative guests. He's where he belongs with the kind of audience who lives and breathes this foolishness.

Wolf: "Defensive back Adam 'Pacman' Jones, recently signed by the Cowboys. Here's a guy suspended all of 2007 following a shooting in a Vegas night club."

Imus: "Well, stuff happens. You're in a night club, for God's sake. What do you think's gonna happen in a night club? People are drinking and doing drugs, there are women there, and people have guns. So, there, go ahead."

Wolf: "He's also been arrested six times since being drafted by Tennessee in 2005."

Imus: "What color is he?"

Wolf: "He's African-American."

Imus: "Well, there you go. Now we know."

Update: So, Imus says he was defending Pacman and was not being derogatory. I actually heard a longer segment of the program and I can see where that might be the case so I'll backpedal on my criticism. But, I do think that someone needs to tell them that "African-American" is not a color.

Links for 2008-06-23 [del.icio.us]

2008-06-24T00:00:00-05:00

Jamaican-Spiced Chicken Thighs
Jamaican Recipe

Does Obama's "Tightly Wrapped Message" Exclude Muslims?

2008-06-23T17:00:00.001-07:00

Congressman Keith Ellison seems to think so.

As Senator Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa last December, Representative Keith Ellison, the country’s first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help.

Mr. Ellison believed that Mr. Obama’s message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims. He volunteered to speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf at a mosque in Cedar Rapids, one of the nation’s oldest Muslim enclaves. But before the rally could take place, aides to Mr. Obama asked Mr. Ellison to cancel the trip because it might stir controversy. An aide appeared at Mr. Ellison’s Washington office to explain.

“I will never forget the quote,” Mr. Ellison said, leaning forward in his chair as he recalled the aide’s words. “He said, ‘We have a very tightly wrapped message.’ ”

When Mr. Obama began his presidential campaign, Muslim Americans from California to Virginia responded with enthusiasm, seeing him as a long-awaited champion of civil liberties, religious tolerance and diplomacy in foreign affairs. But more than a year later, many say, he has not returned their embrace.

While the senator has visited churches and synagogues, he has yet to appear at a single mosque. Muslim and Arab-American organizations have tried repeatedly to arrange meetings with Mr. Obama, but officials with those organizations say their invitations — unlike those of their Jewish and Christian counterparts — have been ignored. Last week, two Muslim women wearing head scarves were barred by campaign volunteers from appearing behind Mr. Obama at a rally in Detroit.

In interviews, Muslim political and civic leaders said they understood that their support for Mr. Obama could be a problem for him at a time when some Americans are deeply suspicious of Muslims. Yet those leaders nonetheless expressed disappointment and even anger at the distance that Mr. Obama has kept from them.

“This is the ‘hope campaign,’ this is the ‘change campaign,’ ” said Mr. Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota. Muslims are frustrated, he added, that “they have not been fully engaged in it.”

I like Keith Ellison, particularly with the classy way he handled some of the heinously ignorant people he had to endure in the run up to his election and just after - including some of his fellow members of Congress. If he's concerned, I am too. While I fully understand what a hot button issue the very word "Muslim" has become, I'd think that someone who is being pegged as an ultra liberal University of Chicago elite would take the high road and thumb his nose at closed-minded thinkers and embrace the Muslim Americans who, at least now, are supporting him.

I'm No Kobe Fan But Dang!

2008-06-23T16:19:00.001-07:00

Shaq is crazy! Kobe is a punk but, dang, Shaq had to write a rhyme about it?

Shaquille O'Neal took the mic at a NYC club last night, unleashing a freestyle verbal assault directed at his arch-enemy Kobe Bryant -- blaming his former teammate for ruining his marriage and imploring him to "Tell me how my ass tastes."

After spending several verses shredding Kobe apart for losing in the NBA playoffs, Shaq drops the line, "I'm a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that's why I'm getting divorced."

Launch photosThe line most likely references a comment Kobe made during his infamous 2003 rape case, when he told Colorado police that he "Should have done what Shaq does ... Shaq would pay his women not to say anything." The two became famously bitter rivals after the incident.

The video is a riot!

Links for 2008-06-22 [del.icio.us]

2008-06-23T00:00:00-05:00

Tuscan Pot Roast

This Is Booty

2008-06-22T06:25:00.001-07:00

Zimbabwe needs to do better. This stinks!

Zimbabwe's opposition leader says he is pulling out of Friday's runoff election against President Robert Mugabe.

Morgan Tsvangirai says this is because of mounting violence and intimidation against the opposition during the campaign.

Tsvangirai announced his decision during a news conference in Zimbabwe's capital on Sunday after thousands of ruling party militants blockaded the site of the opposition's main campaign rally.

The opposition says that police in full riot gear and soldiers have taken over the site of the rally.

Scottie's Still Singing

2008-06-20T16:39:00.001-07:00

I like that he's speaking out but I just hope he is able to get a job when he's done. He's dead meat to Bushites.

Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan told Congress Friday that the Bush-Cheney Administration continues to conceal information about abuses of power committed to punish former Ambassador Joe Wilson for challenging the President's storyline with regard to the "need" to invade and occupy Iraq.

"This matter continues to be investigated by Congress because of what the White House has chosen to conceal from the public," McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee. "Despite assurances that the administration would discuss the matter once the special counsel had completed his work, the White House has sought to avoid public scrutiny and accountability."

A Super Stupid Super Delegate

2008-06-20T16:32:00.001-07:00

After you find people this stupid, why elect them?

Last week, Fred Hobbs, a state Democratic Party Executive Committee member in Tennessee, told Nashville’s City Paper that for all he knew, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) “may be terrorist connected.” In a letter of apology to the Executive Committee, Hobbs now says he had that “incorrect” impression because he watched Fox News:

I was not as well prepared as I should have been when speaking with reporters, and I should have taken more time to research Senator Obama’s positions. My comments did reflect questions I had after what I had seen reported on Fox News, but I should have taken some time to check the accuracy of what I saw on television before speaking publicly. My statement that Senator Obama “may be terrorist-connected” was incorrect, and I apologize for making it.

Holding A Patient Hostage?

2008-06-20T12:34:00.001-07:00

Simply unbelievable!

A doctor and two staffers at a Duluth medical practice face charges of false imprisonment for allegedly locking a patient in a room when concerns arose about her ability to pay the bill.

Dr. John Drew Laurusonis and office assistants Leslie Ann York and Alexander Acquah of the Doctors Medical Center were indicted this week on false imprisonment charges. The three face arraignment July 3 on the charge.

Police say Frances Bales, 36, of Duluth, was held against her will on Oct. 4, 2007, when she went to the clinic seeking treatment for arm pain.

A receptionist at Doctors Medical Center said the clinic would have no comment and then hung up. Office staff for Laurusonis' attorney, Richard Ryczek, said the attorney would call back later for comment.

Bales' attorney, Joseph Fried, said Friday she was told initially that the visit would cost $98. Bales had been visiting from out-of-state and didn't have health insurance, Fried said.

"They took her debit card and her driver's license at the reception desk," Fried said. "She figured with X-rays it might be a little more."

Instead, after tests, she was charged $755, Fried said.

"She says, 'I don't have the money,' " Fried said. "They direct her to go into what they called their billing office." For several hours, the staff refused to allow her to leave, locking her in for periods of time, Fried said. They had her log into her bank records from a computer while she was there, he said.

"They said, 'Don't you have anyone who loves you who can come and help you? Because you're not leaving until this bill is paid,' " Fried said. "They made her feel like she was a criminal. She was made to feel like she couldn't leave without something bad to happen to her."

Fried described Bales' personality as less assertive than other people.

At one point, they allowed her to go to her truck to get a paycheck, but held her keys while she looked, unlocking the vehicle's doors with the electronic key fob on the keychain, Fried said.

I don't believe this is the first time this has happened to someone. People who bully have bullied before. I hope folks come out of the woodwork on this one.

Everyone Wants To Be Like Michelle Obama

2008-06-20T12:09:00.001-07:00

I was a little pissed the day after Obama sealed the nomination because, for all the hysteria that some folks were in over the battle with Hillary, some women on one of my yahoo groups launched straight into a "Michelle needs a stylist" critiques. I was floored that the same folks who behaved as though they were so into the political process and mocking every move that Hillary Clinton made, would find joy not in Barack's win but in bashing his wife's wardrobe and hair.

In any case, seems they are in the minority as far as opinions. Many people like her style just fine. The dress that Michelle wore on The View was cute to me and apparently to lots of other folks!

On Wednesday, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama took a turn as co-host of TV talkfest “The View.” When the show’s audience saw her breezy, black-and-white, high-waisted print dress designed by Ricco, they had to have it. Virtually overnight, the dress all but sold out at the White House/Black Market boutiques that sell it for an affordable $148.

“I’m very happy. I’m very surprised. I had no idea she would be wearing this dress,” Ricco told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Friday in New York. “But it’s sort of a natural happening for me, because I’ve been designing dresses a long time. We ship a lot of dresses to the stores, and I’m happy that Michelle chose this dress to wear on ‘The View.’ ”

The Real Reason We Are In Iraq

2008-06-19T15:41:00.001-07:00

All for them ...

Four Western oil companies — Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, and BP — are in the final stages of “talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields.” The New York Times writes:
The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India […]

There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract. The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq’s Oil Ministry.

These current contracts are reportedly a “foothold” in Iraq for companies striving for more lucrative, longer-term deals.

Give It A Rest Chick!

2008-06-19T04:08:00.001-07:00

Okay, blonde person, give it a rest! We all know how proud - as a former beauty queen, husband stealer and heiress - you must be of being an American.

ABC News' Ed O'Keefe Reports: Laura Bush may be ready to give Michelle Obama the benefit of the doubt when it comes to her patriotism but Cindy McCain may not.

"I don't know why she said what she said," Mrs. McCain explains in an interview with ABC News' Kate Snow airing on "Good Morning America" Thursday. "Everyone has their own experience. I don't know why she said what she said, all I know is that I have always been proud of my country."

Ten Cents More For Gas

2008-06-19T03:28:00.000-07:00

I fill up my tank once a week (sometimes sooner) each week at Costco because that is about as good as it is going to get as far as price. Last week I closed my eyes and tried to avoid the $4.33 for regular price tag as I still had the $4.19 receipt in my car from the week before. Last night, I paid $4.33 and for the first time, filling up my Nissan Sentra registered at more than $51. This is when I miss Chicago. Yes bus/train fares have gone up as have the fares for the commuter trains. But, there was easy access. There were regular schedules and I could save some money. Here, I'm stuck because I'd spend more time getting to work than working given the lack of a viable transit system.

Telecommuting is a definite option. I need to take that up with my manager sooner than later.

Leave The Backwards Ways In The Homeland

2008-06-17T18:47:00.001-07:00

As if America doesn't have enough home grown problems and black women don't have a hard enough time as it is, this man allegedly had this young mother killed because she married his son.

Theirs was a whirlwind relationship: The 18-year-old running his dad's hotel in Kentucky and the 20-year-old Atlanta native hired as a clerk.

Two months after Ricky Rai started dating Sparkle Reid in October 1998, she was pregnant with their daughter, Analla, and in March 2000 they were wed.

But the relationship ended as abruptly as it began. A few weeks after their marriage, she was found dead in her Union City, Ga. apartment, strangled with a vacuum cord and stabbed more than a dozen times.

The trial began on Monday for the unlikely suspect prosecutors say plotted to have the 22-year-old killed. Ricky's 68-year-old father, Chiman Rai, a native of India and a former math professor at a historically black college, could face the death penalty.

The motive: "Because she married his son, because she had a child with his son, and, ladies and gentleman, because she was black," prosecutor Sheila Ross argued to jurors.

Defense attorneys contend the case is not so cut-and-dry. Attorney Don Samuel acknowledged Chiman Rai was "not crazy" about his son's relationship, but said he would never pay someone $10,000 to have her killed.

"It was outrageous," Samuel said of the killing. "But members of the jury, that outrage, that tragedy, will not be mitigated or eliminated by the conviction of an innocent man."

Sparkle Rai was found dead in her apartment in April 2000, her daughter unharmed nearby. But investigators could find little hard evidence pointing to a killer.

The case went unsolved until two witnesses came forward in 2004, a breakthrough the investigators said helped them piece together a trail that eventually led to Chiman Rai.

They charge that Rai teamed up with Willie Fred Evans and Herbert Green to serve as middlemen for the hit squad. The two men passed along $10,000 to brothers Cleveland and Carl Clark, they say; Carl drove the car and Cleveland, a 300-pound ex-con, carried out the killing.

I won't even address the two criminals who carried out the horrific act. I do know that there are customs some folks need to leave in their native lands. When I was home for Christmas another man killed his pregnant daughter, grandchild and son-in-law because he was from the wrong caste. He kerosened their house and set it ablaze. Many families are unhappy with a child's choice of a mate but is it really worth killing for?

Cindy McCain And Cookiegate

2008-06-17T18:17:00.001-07:00

I won't lie. If I were sitting on top of a $100 million fortune, I wouldn't be baking no dang cookies. I wouldn't have a favorite recipe because I wouldn't be baking a thing! I'd be eating!

Here we go again. Just two months after we broke Recipegate comes news that Cindy McCain is up to her old tricks. The July 2008 issue of Family Circle featured an article in which each (it went to press before Hillary conceded) of the presidential candidates' significant others submitted a cookie recipe. A tipster caught a whiff of something besides sugar after reviewing Cindy McCain's Oatmeal-Butterscotch cookies, and quickly found the original recipe at Hersheys.com (see image below). While McCain, or that same low-level staffer, managed to take the time to switch a few minor details in her version of the recipe this time around, there is no doubt that the recipes are the same.

While Bill Clinton gives credit to the family cook, and Michelle Obama to the godmother of her daughters, Cindy McCain attributes her cookie recipe to "a good friend."

Unless John McCain was a childhood friend of Milton S. Hershey or her beer baron family worked with him on a chocolate beer bar back in the day, it seems Cindy is a plagiarist of the most delicious kind. Again.

They need to stop this madness! Hillary told y'all in 1992 that she wasn't baking no cookies! Why can't we just let this out dated, Betty Crocker mess go?

Can They Get Some New Material?

2008-06-17T16:50:00.001-07:00

Like the "stuck in a 70s sitcom" folks who thought they could pass off the "whitey" word on Michelle Obama, other clowns are running through the same lame "black jokes" from yesteryear. Can they get some original material?

While a number of speakers --- such as Railroad Commission chairman Michael Williams and Mike Huckabee --- have praised the advance of Barack Obama and what it means towards a colorblind society, at least one vendor hasn't gotten the message.

At the Republican state convention, a booth hosted by Republicanmarket was selling a pin Saturday that says: If Obama is President will we still call it the White House.

Summer is upon us. How long before the "my suntan makes me as dark as Obama" remarks?

No Lectures Please

2008-06-17T16:00:00.001-07:00

Obama's not having it!

A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain's aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism.

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. "This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse."

Guiliani, Pie Hole, Shut It!

2008-06-17T14:11:00.001-07:00

Who asked him?

In addition to the earlier back-and-forth over Obama's remarks yesterday on prosecuting terrorism, former presidential Rudy Giuliani -- remember him? -- has now weighed in.

"Throughout this campaign, I have been very concerned that the Democrats want to take a step back to the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter rather than a clear and present danger," Giuliani said in a statement released by the McCain campaign. "Barack Obama appears to believe that terrorists should be treated like criminals -- a belief that underscores his fundamental lack of judgment regarding our national security. In a post-9/11 world, we need to remain on offense against the terrorist threat which seeks to destroy our very way of life. We need a leader like John McCain who has the experience and judgment necessary to protect the American people."

Links for 2008-06-16 [del.icio.us]

2008-06-17T00:00:00-05:00

Yucatán Lime and Chicken Soup
Spring Panzanella Recipe - 101 Cookbooks
Spring Panzanella Recipe
Tomato Egg Cups Recipe at Epicurious.com

Bush In Good Company

2008-06-16T16:41:00.001-07:00

He's in a league with Musharraf, and Ahmadinejad.

U.S. President George W. Bush is ranked only slightly above the rulers of Pakistan and Iran as one of the least-trusted leaders in the world, a survey released on Monday showed.

The survey, carried out by WorldPublicOpinion.org in 20 countries around the world, found that no national leaders inspired wide confidence outside their own countries. But Bush, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranked at the bottom, the polling showed.

Only 23 percent of people outside the United States had "a lot or some" confidence in Bush, compared to 22 percent for Ahmadinejad and 18 percent for Musharraf.

Did I Not Say This?

2008-06-16T09:02:00.001-07:00

I am cracking up here! I know I'm not crazy! A few days ago I asked my mom if she knew any black people who called white people "whitey" and she said, "other than George Jefferson, no!" I feel sorry for the "white folks" still waiting for the Michelle Obama "whitey tape." They are some stupid ass "honkies!"

What he hasn't done—because he cannot if he wants to win the presidency—is roll out the clearest and most obvious knockdown of Whiteygate. Namely this: "When the hell was the last time you heard a black person call somebody 'whitey?'"

I mean, come on. White man, please.

Speaking as a person who has been black all of my 40-plus years on the planet, I can say with some authority that no self-respecting black, African-American, Negro, colored or even "there's only one race: the human race" person I know would use the word.

Not unless they were quoting Rush Limbaugh. Or maybe George Jefferson.

The accusation is insulting not only because it so clearly reveals the desperation of right-wing zealots terrified of losing their stranglehold on a gasping America by playing to baseline anxieties and sad, unfortunate fears of those hard-working white Americans we've heard so much about; but because, frankly, it's so ham-fisted in its mendacity.

I mean, 'Whitey?'

The woman has a law degree from Harvard, for crying out loud. If, for some reason, she was trying to rile up a congregation she could do much, much better than that. I have spent the afternoon trying—with all the honesty and courage and humble introspection that is called for in this historic moment, with America poised to finally cast off its original sin and move into the full realization of those ringing words in the Declaration of Independence—to think about the terms black folks use when talking among themselves about white people.

I could barely move my pencil tip. Probably because black folks spend a lot less time talking or even thinking about white people than most white, right-wing reactionaries and their black counterparts dream in their hot little dreams. I had trouble, and, after hours and hours, the best I could come up with was this:

White folks. Whites. White people. They.

Or, in the case of Limbaugh in particular: Hophead. Pill-popper. Junkie nincompoop.

But really, that was pretty much it. When I was growing up in Memphis in the groovy '70s, some people tried to get the word "ofay" going, but, in my circles at least, it never really took. My mother's generation used Mr. Charlie, my older sister's cool boyfriend use to say The Man. There was redneck, of course, but growing up in Memphis, the only people I ever heard use that word were white people.

There was cracker, but usually that referred to a certain, specific kind of hog-jowled, Southern racist, as in "That cracker had the nerve to make me wash his sheets—and I don't mean the ones he use on his bed!"

I know a genteel older black woman who, out of delicacy or discomfort, will never use the words white or black when referring to people associated with those hues. Instead she says "wonderful people" and "beautiful people," which I think is kinda sweet.

But whitey? Uh uh! I'm sorry. No.

Links for 2008-06-15 [del.icio.us]

2008-06-16T00:00:00-05:00

Filipino "Adobo"-Style Chicken
filipino "adobo"-style chicken

Links for 2008-06-14 [del.icio.us]

2008-06-15T00:00:00-05:00

Greek style with guest Michael Psilakis
Lamb Yiouvesti
Roasted Halibut with Pickled Beets

Links for 2008-06-11 [del.icio.us]

2008-06-12T00:00:00-05:00

Links for 2008-06-10 [del.icio.us]

2008-06-11T00:00:00-05:00

Shrimp & Cheddar Grits
Shrimp & Cheddar Grits