Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat" Not So Appropriate

As my 11-year-old daughter (and the rest of her 6th grade class) is in love with the song "Crank That Soulja Boy" by Soulja Boy, I was keeping up with propriety and checking the artist out to make sure that it was something appropriate for an 11-year-old. I ran across a fan site that had the lyrics.

From the song:
I'm Jocking On Yo Bitch Ass
And If We Get The Fightin
Den im cockin on ya bitch ass

And then there's the song "Bootymeat."

Needless to say, the music is not appropriate for my daughter. What surprised me more was:



"A Positive Direction for Young America."

Isn't this kind of the opposite of that?

Nebraska Shooter Caps 8, Saves One for Self

As a man of sometimes-supreme excess, I spend most of my work-from-home day listening - that's right, listening - to Headline news or some other network iteration of force-fed prioritized reality. Yesterday was no exception, and CNN Headline News was the source of my information as the shooting in a Nebraska mall was rippling through the newsosphere.

Early, but the last point I was paying much attention, the live afternoon anchor stated that the shooter was wearing a green army jacket. Then: "the shooter is an African-American male."



Wait a second: that guy isn't black!

Perhaps a poor man's rendition of Tom Cruise in Risky Business, but he's no Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Wait a second: black people don't wear green army jackets! Wait a second: there's no black people in Nebraska!

Ah, but I jest.

Two questions rattle the brain cage:

1. How did grunge teen angst with the bouffant a la Journey get described as an African-American male?


2. Why can't these people just go down with their own ship? Someone plese spread this generalization: suicide is a private event.


3. When will there be broad recognition that antidepressants can actually cause depressed people to drop even further into depression?


4. Do any black people live in Nebraska?

Okay, that was more like 4 questions. You know.

At least there's LOLcats.

I Don't Think Anything Predated Christians

"I Don't Think Anything Predated Christians."

That's what Sherri Shepherd said on The View. Check the clip here until it's yanked, but be forewarned that for anyone with any sense whatsoever about history will be in physical pain after the 42-second exchange, not just for Shepherd's idiot comment, but for the complete lack of certitude used to contradict her statement:



And this is television on your planet? Yes, Mr. Alien, this is television. (That's longhand for being embarrassed for humanity.)

(h/t to Phil at Bad Astronomy)

TV Stations Sites: Can I See Some ID?

I was going to mention this story about a man who was shot with a taser as he stepped out of his bathtub. The man was deaf.

But I became increasingly frustrated at the website as I glanced and scanned and checked it out: where the hell are we?

In a world of ever-growing, worldwide internet presence, I'm continually surprised by how lacking local news stations are in one very simple item: city and state. I can tell you KWCH is west of the Mississippi River, and reading the entire article places the deaf man in Wichita (call letters are similar), and working through the menus shows me we're in Kansas. But are we? I've gotten this far by a lot more deduction than I should be expending simply trying to figure out where the station posting the article is based.

Summary for every local news station in America-

Your Local News Internet banner should contain the following:

• Your call letters
• Your city and state
• The pretty faces we would see were we living locally and turned on the news
• A generalized, trite, non-descriptive slogan that you think sets you apart from the rest of the local news stations in your market (optional)

So hurry up and get your web guy/gal on it! And while you're making phone calls, call the cops and tell them to stop tasing deaf and/or pregnant people.

Kucinich 2008 - Fundraising Push December 15th

Dennis Kucinich is focusing a blast of fundraising on December 15th, the historical day on which the Bill of Rights was adopted by America.



Are you tired with the War in Iraq? Support Dennis.

Do you support equal (not separate) rights for same-sex couples? Support Dennis.

Are you tired of corporations running America? Support Dennis.

Are you tired of struggling to pay ever-increasing premiums as the insurance companies the world over post record profits? Support Dennis as the only candidate who proposes universal, not-for-profit health care.

We (and that includes me) sit around our dinner tables or barroom tables and we shoot barbs at the system or talk about how we need to take action and change America. This is our chance to do just that: stop bitching about the itch and scratch it for God's sake!

"But Ricky, Davis says $100 in the video and it's almost Christmas and...." You know better than that. Is $100 ideal? Yes. Would the Kucinich campaign raise their noses at $50 or $10. Hell no. Every piece helps. Do what you can.

Support Dennis Kucinich.

It's time to make a change in America. And that starts with me and you. So shelve the plans for la Résistance for a minute and let's see what we can do through Dennis.

Religious Hatred for Islam from Muslims

Last week, British teacher Gillian Gibbons was convicted of religious hatred for letting her Sudanese class name a bear "Mohammed." Last I heard, while Mohammed is a popular name for males in Sudan, it's not to be used for an animal. Or, apparently, a stuffed animal.



In a related story that I just made up, the Sudanese people were also convicted of religious hatred because mobs of people, some wielding large knives and other weapons, calling for the execution of a Brit, make the rest of the reasonable world hate Islam.

As a liberal, I am more than willing to give religions the benefit of the doubt in the depth and breadth of the belief of their followers. Unfortunately, when a mob forms about giving the name of a prophet to a stuffed bear, and they want to kill not the namer but the off-nationality teacher who let it happen, I have to say to Sudanese mob: Hey, you! Get your shit together! You are making Islam look very, very bad and irrational to a world that is already open to that interpretation!

And I don't even like exclamation points.

The Sudanese government needs to either rein in this catastrophe or give the hidden Gillian time served for surviving hiding out and let her go home.

No, I don't like whackjobs of any flavor.

UPDATE: Either the folks in Sudan read my blog or I write unquestionable reason and common sense that needs not be read to be understood: British teacher pardoned. Or, as is true in most of the world, a bundle of whackjobs does not the masses make, much like a Bill Donahue and a Pat Robertson, while inflammatory and offensive and even representative, do not stand for the compassion that many of their followers hold dear.