WHITNEY….

This is a hard one for me.  Trying to wrap my head around it…

At some time I will write something on this.

But angry at the Grammy’s for using Whitney as a means of increasing its viewership.  They didn’t do a tribute.  They barely mentioned Whitney during the show.  I knew the report was going to come out that they had their highest viewership… and it did.

If it had been the American Music Awards… or BET Awards they would have definitely done something special, in light of the sad events that unfolded this past weekend in the passing of Whitney Houston… truly an icon.

I really do not believe Whitney would have committed suicide… not with knowing how much it would hurt both her mother and daughter… both with whom she was very close.

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2012

Add a comment February 14, 2012

POST OFFICE CLOSINGS….

I don’t know maybe it is just a sign of the times.  But yesterday when I went by our local post office I was greeted with a big sign on the door.

At first I could barely believe it.  I thought it was something that ‘they’ were just talking about.  I didn’t know that ‘they’ were really thinking about doing it.

It is hard to believe that 1 day this world will be without a postal system… but I see that day rapidly coming.  A day when children will never know what it is to walk into a building called the ‘POST OFFICE’ to purchase stamps… or ship off a box… or express a package.  Gone will be that place where sometimes you ran into a friend or 2.   That place whose rates beat that of  UPS of  FEDEX.  That place where you could go to buy a money order for any amount at a price below a dollar.

Yes, 1 day this world will be without a postal system as we know it.  It will be replaced with over-rated email accounts, SUPER-FED or undoubtably become something… something  just like our current phone system.  It will be replaced by a bunch of people competing for our dollars… when we only used to pay just a few cents.

Yes, what was 42 cents compared to whatever fees they will being throwing at us? 

Gone will be the day you could just walk up to the counter and buy just a single stamp… or pick and chose between the Black History stamps, the flower stamps… or whatever other type of stamp you wanted.

Do you remember when television used to be free?????

I do…and I sure wish those day were back.  Because ounce per ounce who wants to pay for a bunch of re-runs day in and day out.  And with more than 100 channels… you still hear yourself sighing-

“There’s nothing on tonight.”

It is amazing how little we think of things until we loose them.

I like receiving my bills in the mail.  And I like sending off a check in the mail when I pay them.

Have you tried to pay a bill over the phone… only to find that there is a fee for doing so?

Have you ever had a dispute with a company… and didn’t have a detailed record… like your prior bills to prove that you were right?

Recently, we were hit with a major storm that put us all in the dark for a couple of weeks.  Everything was down.  The ATM machines were down, all the restaurants were closed… Walmart and everybody else was closed… and there he was…  that lone man in his uniform delivering our mail.

Treasure them while we still have them.  Because the world is changing.   And changing fast.

I’m missing ours already.

Can’t believe it.

Well, hope you had a good day.  Got much on my mind.  I have no doubt that I will probably write about it at some time or other.  But right now I’m just dealing with it…and depending upon the Lord to work it out on my behalf.  It is good to know that He is on my side.

Hope you had a great turkey day.  We had so much to be thankful for.  In fact, we always do.  And no matter what the situation God is forever good.  He never fails… even if the U.S. Postal system claims they are.

Well, God bless… and enjoy the rest of  your week.  How quickly these days are rolling by.

Almost December now…what am I talking about?  Tomorrow is December… and soon Christmas.  And then we will be into a new year… 2011 certainly did not stay around for long.

And soon… and very soon the rain drops in this picture will be replace by snow flakes.

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment November 30, 2011

I DECLARE…It’s my day…

Today was 1 of those rare days.  You know the kind of day you rarely ever get.  A day you wake up knowing that if you don’t get up at all it will be alright.

Didn’t have to rush to go catch nothing.  No buses… no cabs… no car pool… no ride to the store… no NOTHING. 

No need to ask my son for the keys to the car.  No need to beg-

“Can I catch a ride with you?”

“About how long for the cab?”

“Will you come by and get me?”

Yes, I woke up not having to go anywhere… or having to do anything.

I could lay there and there… and lay there enjoying the warmth of my bed.

I didn’t have worry about nothing.  Didn’t have to rush off to finish this… or finish that.

Today was… and is all mine.  ALL  MINE… all by myself.

Nobody to say-

“Auntie this…”

Or, “Auntie that…”

Didn’t have to answer any questions.

Didn’t have to worry aboout getting caught out in the rain.  Or go searching in my bag to pull out my sunglasses.

Didn’t have to search for my keys… lace up my shoes…. or make sure everything I needed was in my carrying case. 

Didn’t have to ask nothing… say nothing… or particularly do a thing.  Just lay back and enjoy it.

A day all to myself.

Don’t you wish you had 1?

When was the last time you could say this?

They don’t come often.  And for that reason I am going to end this blog, and continue to enjoy my day… with me… myself… and I.

Well, God bless… I’ve got a few more hours to this day… and I mean to continue to enjoy them.

And whatever your day is like I hope that you are enjoying it too.

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment October 24, 2011

THE VERIZON ATTITUDE… changes in the workplace…

I can’t imagine working for anyone who threatened me.

In reading a posting on my facebook page, I read where the daughter of 1 of my fackbook friends was told by her employer during Hurrican Irene-

“If any of you leaves, you’re fired.”

Meaning that if any of the employees left the job they would be terminated.

I can’t imagine me wanting to work for anyone who would even consider trying to strong arm me like that… and particularly in a state of emergency.   But it made me think of 9/ll.

On September 11th …on the day that the airplanes flew into the World Trade Center, after the first plane hit the first tower  …many of the workers in the second tower were told to remain seated, to continue working.

But friends of mine who were inside the 2nd tower of  the World Trade Center that day… told me that when they saw that first plane hit… they didn’t care what their supervisors said… they were getting out of there.  And because many people had already began evacuating that second tower, as soon as they saw what had happened to the first tower.   It for many meant the difference between life and death.

A few days ago while driving down to Atlanta, I happened to catch a news story on 1010 WINS …an all news radio network in New York City.  I had seen the picketers standing before various Verizon locations.  But I did not know what was going on.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023428/Verizon-worker-strike-Thousands-picket-line-east-coast.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/9/verizon-workers-hit-picket-lines-mass-va/

It seems that the contract for 45,000 Verizon workers had expired… meaning the Verzion worker’s contract is now up for renegotiation.  Playing hardball, Verizon withdrew their worker’s health plan when the workers went out on strike.  Verzion claim that they could no longer afford to pay for the worker’s health coverage because they were losing so much money with them being out on strike.

BALONEY.

Everybody who is doing any business with Verizon should cancel every service …or whatever have you with them.

What money is Verizon losing?

None.  In fact, with the workers out… they are saving money.  Because Verizon doesn’t have to pay them while they are out on strike.

But the problem we face today is this…    IT IS AN EMPLOYER’S MARKET.

Do you hear me?

Can you understand that?

It is like they say it is a buyer’s market in terms of  real estate sales.  Because not many people are buying homes …and banks are not lending as much as they used to.  So, if you got money …and it doesn’t matter about what the seller is asking for …make them an offer.  They may just take it… you never know.  Because they are not getting many other offers these days.  And who knows… your’s might be their only offer.

And you see this clear across the board.   Car sales and other large ticket items… because there is less cash flow these days with so many people out of work.

And therein lays the Verizon workers dilemma.Verizon is having its way with the Verizon worker’s union because so many people are out of  work… and Verizon knows that it has the power to wheel and deal as it pleases because of the way the job market is today.

These companies have no employee loyalty.  In fact, most companies today could care less about their employees.  This is why most companies today do not even offer full-time employment anymore.  Who needs full-time employees when there are millions of people willing… able …and ready to accept part-time employment with no benefits, and wages that amount to little… but beats nothing.

There had been a time when America was sending top executives to China to learn techniques of how to create a happy and more productive working enivorment.  It would seem that those executives learned some much more valuable to them.  How to take an iron fist and hold it over the heads of your employees… and keep it there.  Forcing them to produce more for less… while compensating them little… and forcing them to smile while the company broke their backs.

I dislike companies with the Verzion attitude.  My cell phone is a Sprint account… but my broadband was with Verizon.  I can’t tell you how happy I am that it is off … and has been so for some time now.  But I can’t see myself giving money to a company that will not do its employees right.

Though these companies may feel that they have the power… the truth of the matter is… no they don’t.  We do.  And our power can bring any company to its knees just as the Montgomery bus boycotts brought that city to its knees in the mid 1960′s, and gave to the opening of the doors that gave us all the right to vote, sleep and eat … etc… etc… where we wanted to.  Today we get on the highway and travel anywhere we want… as African American people in America… eat where we want to eat… and book a hotel and sleep where we want to sleep.  But for years this was not the case at all.

I remember listening  to Shirley Caesar talking about that very subject on a television show that she was being interviewed on.  She said that back then when they travelled… talking about her days as a young singer travelling with Albertina Walker and the Caravan… back in latter 50′s through the 60′s.   She said-

“We had to sleep in our car.  Because back then they did not allow us (black folks) to stay in the hotels or the motels like they do today.  And we just couldn’t pull up anywhere and eat either.  Because it wasn’t allowed.  If we wanted food.  We had to go back around to the back the door and see if they would give  us some food.”

Thank God for powerful people… who knew that they possessed power.  Or we would still be sitting on the back of the bus today.

Union busting is not anything new.  One of the greatest examples of it is when Ronald Reagon decided to infere in the air traffic controller strike, PATCO …in August 1981.  Reagon froze the air traffic controller’s $3.5 million strike fund in order to force the striking workers back to work… saying that they were in violation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKX9EXSvrQ&feature=related

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/reagan.years/whitehouse/airtraffic.html

And if you remember any facts to this story… you will remember how  quickly many of the striking air traffic controllers were replaced.  While a the powers to be… then trained a bunch of of  unprofessionals to replace to them.

And our air ways have never been the same.  They have found people sleeping and all kinds of crazy things.  And we will not discuss what took place on 9/11.

Because if the truth be told… that is still a mystery to me?

How is it that at least 3 airplanes took off from Logan Airport in Boston… and got so far off of their courses.  And nobody …not 1 person knew about it until very important buildings began to be flown into?

Something is wrong with that picture.  And for the life of me… how was it that the 2nd airplane was allowed to hit the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center?  This is even a bigger mystery to me?

Because before it did… every airplane and helicopter in New York City was up in the air that day soon after the 1st airplane had flown in the World Trade Center.  So then, how is it that nobody saw the 2nd airplane until after it hit the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center?

My niece woke me that morning with a phone call saying that an airplane had just flown into 1 of the towers of the World Trade Center.  And as she was still talking to me… some 20 minutes later the 2nd airplane flew into the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center.  How could that have happened?the 1st airplane into that air space…  clearly, a 2nd air craft entering into that same air space should have surel

First of all, the air around the whole area of the World Trade Center was and is…a protected air space. Which means it was suppose to be under the protection of fighter jets anyhow. But notwithstanding… the admission of the 1st air craft into that air space… clearly, a 2nd air craft entering into that same air space, should have most definitely been shot down long before coming in contact with the 2nd tower of  the World Trade Center.

But going back to the then President Reagon who decided that he needed to step in on the striking air traffic controllers… and teach them a lesson.  Reagon, of course, being the idol of ever Republican… the 1 that they most try to exemplify, and proclaim themselves to be the most like.  And I wonder if that was before or after he was diagnosised with Alzheimer’s?

But then of course… nobody knows exactly how long Reagon had exactually been losing it.  Though I must say that most of the Republican Party seems to be fit cadidates for an Alzheimer’s examination.  Because truly most of  them seem to be suffering from some sort of mental deficiency…  starting with but not limited to Palin.

Something has to be wrong …mentally with a bunch of people who claim that they love something and seek so vigilantly to destroy it.  And I am talking about America.

They claim that they love America.  Yet everything they have been doing lately… and I am talking … for years now… has been done to undermind America… if not to utterly destroy it.

One of the most disastrous things to happen to the United States of America was something called George W. Bush.  I understand how wars were used in past American History to re-jump start the economy.  But George who was supposedly an economy major from that great learning institution known as Yale University, in New Haven, CT.  George having gotten into hot water somehow either on his own… or via the un-wise thinking of some of his flunkies…they came up with a plan.  The plan was to go to war.  Start some wars and the economy will take off again… the money you spent will be forgotten… and forgiven…  and all will be well.

But there was a problem with the plan.  The work place had changed.

In years past America had plenty of factories and factory workers.  But by the time George stole his way into the White House all those jobs were gone.  Those factories had been closed… and years latered turned into lovely codominiums.  And if  the companies still exsists those jobs didn’t… robots had moved in and replaced the workers.

Do you remember when you used to read the Help Wanted Ads and saw a train of Bank Teller jobs being offered?

Look for that now.  You won’t find it.  Because many of those jobs no longer exsist.  Bank tellers have been replaced by atm machines.

The same has happened to a position called ‘receptiontist.’  When was the last time you heard that word?

It is voice mail… and automated voice activated systems now.  No more receptiontist jobs almost anywhere today.

Most utility companies have closed down their offices which used to handle bill paying services.  They don’t do that any more.  Oh, no…   If you can’t send it in by mail… or go to a local payment center at your check cashing center  …or corner store… then for a charge call them and they will take your payment over the phone.

In 2008 Americans voted for a change.   While Republicans are quick to say that Obama did not… or has not delivered.

Yet  on the other hand Republicans will never say-

“And we  have done everything within our power  to ensure it.”

On every issue… and non-issue Republicans have done their best to block Obama from even trying to do anything to fix the mess.  A massive and highly expensive and burdensome mess… that George W. Bush… a Republican …whom I believe will never ever be forgotten… for the mess that he left us all in.  And when President Obama has managed to get something pass them… they … the Republicans attack it like a bunch of mad dogs.

Whoever said that Barack Obama was a magican?

Whoever said Obama was Merlin?

Or even had some kind of ‘black magic?’

In case you did think that let me be the first to just say-

“Are you for real?”

Magic is an illusion.  It is based upon trickery… cunning and deceit.  Thank goodness these are not traits that are found within our President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama has never lied to us about ‘weapons of  mass destruction.’

He has never tried to pull the wool over our eyes… by blinding us with a bunch of codes that meant absolutely nothing… code RED…  code YELLOW…  (if you have no understanding of  this then you would have had to have lived in New York City following 9/11).

Obama has never tried to used 1 fear tactic to keep us up under our beds… or hid in our closets.

President Barack Obama is not the cause for why America is where America is today.   He had nothing at all do do with it.  He did not bring us here.  In fact, as quiet as it is kept… he is trying to fix this mess.   It is more than possible that he might aid in bringing us a long ways out of  this runt… if we all stop listening to lies.  Stop being deceived…  and turning every which way the winds blows.

It is Republican deceit and lies that have turned this country upside down… and not Barack Obama.

• Corporate greed and mis-handling of business was here long before Barack Obama walked into the White House
• Job losses many years before Obama
• National Debt was already there… but really began running away after George W. Bush stepped into the Presidential picture
• Problems on Wall Street with the stock market are not new… trace them back into the 1930′s

Several States now have had to fight against Republican Governors who lead people into believing that they were either the man or woman for the job… and would wholly work for them… the voters.  Telling them that they were a person with their interests in their mind and in heart… only for those voters to lament a vote that they ever casted in that person’s favor.  It ended up costing voters benefits… or their job… or a less powerful union etc.  Because that Republican politican had an agenda.  And that agenda had nothing to do with the people’s minds… or hearts that they  con into believing in them with their claims of  ‘I want to serve you.’

The Republicans are so slimmy they have created a 2nd Republican Party… the co-called Tea Party a group of real lunatics… formed by that lunatic queen Palin and few other crazies.  All of whom who have fallen out with one another… that is how firmly rooted they were.  Like a bunch of crabs in a barrell… all calmouring to be the top dog… and if they can’t then they pick up their marbles and go home.

They have all… whether they call themselves ‘Tea Party’ or not… they …the Republicans have all developed a seek and destroy attitude.  And that attitude did not just get started when President Barack Obama stepped into the White House… it is an attitude that they have long adapted to.

You need only to look at the 2000 Presidental Election between George W. Bush and John Kerry to see how demented the Republicans are.  They saw nothing wrong …NOTHING…in underminding the entire American practice of our right to vote… and to have ALL our votes counted.  And it was not something that they were not bold enough to do so all could see… and dared any of us to do anything about it.

So, don’t blame Obama.  This mess is not his.  But he decide to champinon the cause… to try to set America back on the right course.  To raise Her from low depths She sank to under what no one can call ‘leadership’… but just say… George Bush brought Her to.

Don’t look for magic.  Look at it as it really is.  The world has changed.  And the work place and work force has changed with it.

Many jobs that people used to do… no longer exsist.

Re-training people has it place… I guess.  But when they are re-trained where will they go?

Everyone is learning computers… but there are only but so many computer jobs.

The medical field is good.  In a field that had nothing but female mostly… had seen a great emergents of male.   Use to be you never saw a male nurse… but today hospitals are loaded with them.  Men are entering the nursing field in very large numbers.  And to think there was a time that such a thing… would have been seen as being sissy.

One thing is for sure… no matter what happens in this world… we all at some point or other need something medical.  As long as we are in these bodies the need for the medical profession cannot …or will ever be replaced.  But that is not to say that it too… will not evolve.  It has.

However, technology is forever changing things.  But even so there will still only be a need for but so many people to work in the medical field too… at any given time.

Radio stations have changed… television staions have changed.   Most newspaper companies have gone out of business… because few people read newspapers any more.  They get their news now over the internet… on their ipads… and cells.   And if you haven’t noticed… most news companies have cut back drastically on their staff.

For 1 of my journalism classes, my professor… a great woman… had been booted out of her position as a staff writer for a local newspaper… a job she had had for many years.  That company’s lost was of course … my great gain.  Because she came with a wealth of knowledge, and understanding about the history and future of journalism… and media at large.

But if you have noticed over the internet all the news sources seem to buy their stories from 1 source.  You can read the exact same story… word for word from 1 internet source to another.  And if you are like me… you always have a need to want to know more… but they don’t have it to give.

And somewhere along the way… they grab ahold of this attitude:   THAT LESS IS MORE.

Yeah, right…  When I want to know less…or read less… I will just stop.  I don’t need anyone deciding for me… when I have had enough.

Which I guess is the main reason why so many people like my blog… www.bsmith101.wordpress.com.  For as you can tell… I do not believe in the ‘less is more’ concept.  Nor do I just regenderate news items.  What a waste that is.  If  I follow a story… I want to read something I haven’t already read… or at the very least …give me some more details …or info on whatever it is I’ve come to your website searching for.

But going back to my thought… the workplace has changed.  It is not what it was 20 years ago… or even 10 years ago.

Remember all those customer service jobs that used to be in the newspapers?

Roughly about 20 years ago customer service became such a big thing.  There were tons of  ad campaigns about the type of  service you could expect if you did business with such and such.  Companies trained their employees to  greet you in a special way, and to service you as quickly and effeciently as they could.

Today all of that is gone to the wind.  You can stand in a line for up to 10 or 20 minutes listening to someone… who is working the only open window… or check-out line… carry on a conversation with another employee or either with the person who had been right ahead of before they got to the cashier.

Have you experienced that?

You are at the top of the line… but suddenly the ‘ONLY’ open window has a highly talkative employee… or someone looking around as though they are trying to wonder why ‘their’ window or ‘their’ counter is the only 1 open?

So, what do they do?

They slow down… as if mentally they have taken a mental stand in their mind… to not kill themselves trying to serve all the people who waiting in line.

No body cares about customer service any more.  And so… gone are these jobs.

Switchboard operators are a thing of the past too.  A little company in your area that hired local people… mostly women to man the phone lines.  But then it was for mostly doctor’s offices.  Today those people can be anywhere in the world taking tons of calls for everything from subscriptions to publications, orders for books or other products, complaints, messages, prayer requests …you name it.  But small companies in your town probably do not offer this service any more because it has been farmed out around the world.

Most of the manufacturing companies long departed …going into Mexico and other countries where the labor was cheaper.

This country really does not have a great number of blue collar workers any more.  Most of  the automobile workers were replaced by robots… or companies that sent large divisions of their manufacturing into other countries as well.

So where are the jobs?

Where are the openings that are available …or will become available for all the displaced workers who are currently out of  work… and have been so now for years?

There are none.   And nobody can do anything to change that… because of computers coming into the marketplace.  They… computers brought about an unpresidented change to what was our workplace.

The only thing you can do is look for the next big wave in the future.  That will

More and more colleges are offering on-line courses.  Have you noticed that?

Some schools are over the internet only.

I am dropping hints here.   Personally, I hate on-line courses… and feel that they are a huge waste of  time.   If you are going to sit in isolation… with no classroom interaction… then you might as well just read the book and be done with it.

But if you were considering a teaching career.  Great… but you should also consider this fact.  That soon many of  those teacing jobs too will soon be gone.  Due to on-line classes and on-line classrooms… and schools… cities… colleges and universities looking to cut their budgets.   It is coming… and soon the classroom as we know it today will  be gone forever too… just like yesterdays work force.

And with it will be gone… tenture.  Tentures will bite the dust just like pension plans… and full-time employment;  and whatever else they can do away with for the sank of the bottom line.

Soon even common currancy as we know it will be gone too.  They are already talking about stop minting the $1 bill.  Soon it will just be all plastic… be it a debit card …or credit card…. or something else.  But the coins will be gone …and the paper bills.

Bet all those folks working at the Mints all felt that their jobs were well secured.  We have all better start to think again.

Who ever thought there would be no more pension plans?

Or health care benefits on your job?

I didn’t.

You really have to be a visionary.  You have to look deep into the future.  You must go beyond your nose… if you truly want to have a chance in the future.  You have to look deep beyond what you see.  The future is what you cannot visually see… but something coming.

Many people now do not even go into the office any more.  They can do all their work from home.  They write their news articles at home… edit news copy at home… edit books at home… and mother-frames and inter-locking networks are big things in corporations now.

I do see computers… and our dependence upon them growing.

In New York City they have all most totally done away with ticket booth operators down in the subway system.  They too have been replaced by machines… which can dispense to you fare tickets.  And while in Boston not so long ago… I noticed that they were doing the same in their subway system.

The world is becoming a place of less working people… and more automated machines.  And unless you are prepared to service these machines… or program these machines… your work history will too soon come to an abrupt end.  And you will find yourself with a need to be re-trained… to nothing.

So, when George W. Bush thought that he could jump start the economy by creating a war… with the hope that the war would create jobs.  He and his people forgot something.  All those factories were gone… and so weren’t those jobs.  And even if  the jobs could be revived… robotics still had replaced the manpower that used to produce the goods.

So, the wars didn’t work.  But only sunk us deeper and deeper into debt as the years have dragged on.  But of course …the Republicans will never tell you any of  this.  Any more than Verizon will tell you that they were happy for any old excuse to rid themselves of paying their employee’s health benefits.

Irene hit the East Coast hard… and it seems that my cousin who informed me of the storm was right.  Sadly there were a few deaths.  But thank God He saw most of us through it safely.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44304431/ns/weather/t/irene-weakens-packs-punch-it-slams-coney-island/?GT1=43001

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44304431/ns/weather/t/irene-weakens-packs-punch-it-slams-coney-island/?GT1=43001

My cousins and friends in various places… including my brother had to deal of electrical outages.  But that is the least.  Many suffered damages due to flooding and/or falling trees.

The good news is Irene wasn’t as bad as what had been expected.  To God be the glory.

The New York subway is up and running once again.  Though on our way back from Atlanta… I did notice where many of the over-passes in the New York area were being worked on.  And that was following the earthquake that hit us… before Irene came bouncing and blowing in.

Well, God bless…and enjoy the rest of  your week.  Amazingly we are at the end of August already.  Schools and colleges are already in.  I pray that all are safe and do well.

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment August 28, 2011

THE TIMES…Pastor Zackery Tims and Nicholas Ashford… gone…

First Zackery Tims …and now Nicholas Ashford.

Oh, I know… I know that Nick was not known for writing and singing gospel music.  But no one can deny that he did come from a strong gospel background… that sometimes even managed to show up in his song writing and way of singing.

And what songs they were.  He was gifted… and what he didn’t have …his partner and later to become his wife… Valerie Simpson had.  Together they wrote some of Motow’s best known music.  Songs like ‘Ain’t No Moutain High Enough,’ ‘It Takes Two,’ ‘Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand’ ….just to name a few.  And I do mean just a few… because their list does indeed truly go on and on.

For a while Val and Nick could be caught holding down the evening drive-time radio slot at WBLS,in New York City.  In fact, 1 afternoon I decided to drop by BLS with the hope of getting in to see Vinny Brown, an old friend and co-worker who at the time was the Program Director for the station.  While waiting …to my unexpected surprise as I happened to look up… standing before me were 2 people I would have had to be totally blind to not to have recognized from the very moment my eyes came up on them.

“Val and Nick,” I heard myself say… as my head jerked back slightly in surprise.

It just kind of eased out of my mouth… I hadn’t realized they were handling BLS’s on-air  drive-time shift at that time.  So, I was really surprised to look up and see them, standing right there before me… close enough for me to just reach out and touch them.  Nick slightly smiled at me… while Val kind of looked off.

From the time I hit college Nick and Valerie had been busy in recording studios.  So, I had looked at and played  just about every album of their’s.  Definitely a sign of the time… because most of the kids don’t even know what an album was …or a 45 for that matter.  But yes …I had played Val and Nick for many years.  And it didn’t hurt for me to be a big fan either… which meant as often as I could I would sneak them in on my music lists rotations.

As the years went on I didn’t have to continue to ease… I just played them… back to back …or however I wanted.  Them and Phyllis Hyman… Donnie and Roberta… Friends of Distiction… Dells… Roy Ayres… George Duke… and whoever else I wanted to program.  Including Motown’s Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye… and just so much good music…  The kids don’t even have a clue… they have nothing like it today.

Nobody writes good music any more…  they don’t even know what it is to have anything called ‘good lyrics.’  They… the kids are too busy buying beats.  A lot of which are stolen from times gone… times that music like that during which Val and Nick came from …and wrote during.

Though they …Val and Nick had long since turned their attention to other things …such as going into the restaurant business… New York’s Sugarbar and I forget what their first restaurant was called …it had been on 22nd Street also in Manhattan.

And whenever traveling home on I-95… as I passed Stamford, CT… my mind would always run across them, as I knew that for a while at least they had made their home in Connecticut.

Having their number I called them once while seeking investors for 1 of my feature film projects.  Though I failed to reach them initially… you will never know to my surprise… how thrill I was to receive a call back from them concerning the message that I had left.  Val told me that they were just getting ready to open up another restaurant… which was to become the Sugarbar.  So, they couldn’t afford to do it at the time.  She appologized and told me maybe the next time.

I hung up not at all feeling let down.  All I could think was… wasn’t that nice for them to take the time to call me back?

This is my all time favorite song by Valerie Simpson and Nicholas Ashford.

While living in Chicago… Millie J… used to visit a friend of mine by the name of

Jean… who was Tyrone Davis’ sister.  Millie had come to town to perform and while talking with Jean… I overheard her say-

“While I was coming through the airport guess who I came across?  These two people walking around holding hands.  I didn’t even have to look twice.  I knew right off it was nobody but Nick and Val.”

They had that something special… kind of like what Michelle and Obama have.  A total appreciation for each other… and a desire to always be in touch with one another… as though they cannot do or bear to be without each other.

Just a few seconds ago, a friend of mine informed me that Nick had dealt with sustance abuse.  Never knew that …or ever heard that.  So, I don’t know for sure.  I have not seen him or Val for years now.  But I know their music anywhere or anyhow I hear it.

Personally, I cannot imagine Val without Nick.  She loved him… and held on to him.  And he loved her… and held onto her.   And together they held on to each other …a profoundly good example of 2 people who truly walked in love with one another.  I certainly pray her strenght in the Lord… and that of their children and other family members.

I had heard his testimony.  And what an awesome testimony he had had regarding how God had saved and pulled  him out of a messed up life of drug addiction… and having come from a home where nobody knew the Lord.   How God had put someone in his path that gave him an invitation… and 1 day for whatever reason Zackery Tims, some 8 or  so years ago… called a man on his job who had invited him to come and go to church with him.  And that night he got saved… and his life was forever changed.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20092873-504083.html

A megachurch Pastor having a congregation of more than 4,000 members in the Orlando, FL area… on this past Wednesday, Pastor Zackery Tims was found dead on the floor of his Time Square hotel room.  The first information said… heart attack.  But later information started circulating… that a white powder sustance… cocaine had been found on him.

I had long ago stopped watching him … or some reason or other.  I cannot remember why… but it always seems to me that as you watch some of these television evangelists… you like them in the beginning, but then they begin to shift.  And everything about them and what they are preaching changes.

I cannot say that about Pastor Tims… because I cannot remember what prompted me to stop watching his program. And it might not have had been anything with him… but a time conflict between the show schedule and my schedule.

His eyes lately were watery or shiney… glossy I guess you could say… whenever I would happen to catch the tailend or some part of his show.  And I am not just saying that because I am hoping that after the autopsy is finally released… it will show any drugs in his system.  Because I am not… if anything quite the opposite.

I would hate to think that he would have been drawn back… into something that he was blessed enough to have been released from.   But when you think back to the events that lead to his divorce… you have to think…    Well, maybe.

He was involved with a stripper for a year… that is what the article read.  But if it read a year… then it is possible that it was for a longer time than that.  While he was engaging in adultry with her… it is very likely that he was also indulging in other things too.  And while that relationship may have ended… and who really knows…  But if  he was drinking or indulging in drugs as well… it is not so likely that he also just stopped abusing either.  And do note I said ‘if’… because I don’t  know.

I didn’t know him… or much about him except what most of you who also watched the Word Network knew about him.  But I was watching the day he leaped upon the top of his pulpit  podium to dramatize something he was preaching.  I did think that  was very odd… and all I could think was-

“That is suppose to be holy.  How could he jump up on it?”

But it would seem that not much is still considered to be holy any more in church.  I see preachers with baseball caps and hats on in the pulpit… and sweat suits and sneakers.  Anything it seems  goes today… whatever… however…  whenever.   My, Lord…

Whatever happened to reverencing the house …and the things of the Lord?

UPDATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 2012…As of New Years Eve this year Pastor Paula White has been chosen the Board of Regents of New Destiny Christian Center.  And it would seem that since the autopsy done on the body of  Pastor Tims was never released to the public…that drugs had indeed been found in the blood system of the late Pastor Zackary Tims.

With the announcement of  Paula White becoming the chosen replacement…  Well, it did not seem to sit right with Pastor Tims ex-wife.  Tims’ ex-wife claims that Tims’ and her children are being robbed of their inheritance.  You can read more on that by CLICKING the LINK below.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/riva-tims-paula-whites-appointment-process-was-illegal-and-deceptive-66161/

Since I am on the subject of Pastors… and since I did write a blog on it.  Let me just note here that I read somewhere… or heard it… that Bishop Eddie Long quietly settled his cases with the young men who had filed law suits against him, for supposedly taking sexual advantage of  them while they were under his religious leadership as young teenaged boys.

The settlement is said to have been $15 million total going out to the young men in question.

Perhaps it is a sign of the times… but I sincerely hope not.

Visiting with a niece and enjoying myself.   Can’t you tell?

I have so much time on my hands that I decided to take some of  it to write this blog.  I rarely have much time these days.  I am on assignment… and must pick up my pace.  I have to stay busy in the things of the Lord.   And at the end of the day… I just want to be ready when He comes.

And for as long as I can remember that has not changed.

I still love this picture… It is sooooo refreshing looking.

Speaking of which… while talking with a cousin this evening… she told me that they were buckling down for a bad storm that they… the insurance claims agents of the company she works for …are being prep for if  it should hit us this week on the east coast.

Better get out and pick up a few things for just in case.  And no need to wait until the last minute… do it now since you have gotten some advance info.

One other thing… while here.  My niece took me by Dr. Martin L. King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  Took a picture with a tour guide who informed me that every house on his street was bought by the Federal Government… and the only house on the street that is not owned by the Federal Government on that street is the King house… which is still owned by the King family.  But the house is open for tours …which are done on the half-hour. 

It was amazing watching the people… black and white touring the grounds of the King’s house and the Center for Non-Violence.  And it is all free… parking and everything without any hassles.

Mrs. Coretta Scott King was a very smart woman.  A woman who was determined that her husband’s death was not going to be in vain… or forgotten.  And I mean she did it… and she didn’t do it half-stepping either.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

4 comments August 23, 2011

Blessings Abound… Politics & Republicans…

It really should be no surprise to me to be on the bus or out anywhere… to hear someone call my name.  But I guess I am still not quite used to it yet… though it has been going on for years and years.  It comes with the terriority I guess… of being somewhat of what they call a star.  At least, some people think so.

They are always reminding me of my days on radio… things I used to say… music I used to play… events I put on etc…etc…

And it is always nice to meet up with them… though many of them I do not even know their names… but they know mine.  And know it well.

In fact, they strike up conversations with me as though we were old friends.  That’s nice…  To think that they consider me a friend… a voice that used to invade their homes… their offices… and automobiles.  I guess you could say we have a connection… and I appreciate their kindness to me.   That they should feel that.

Nearly 40 years now… and I am still a shinning light to them.  Truly, I have been blessed.

Yesterday, while riding the bus I overheard some people talking about the deficit reduction plan.  Talking about how various social programs were in for big cuts… cuts to social security…. medicare and medicaid… college money etc.  Not up on the news… I sat listening to them while looking off in another direction.

One lady said that at anytime now we will  start to see major cuts in our income.  It made me start to think…   And…oh, yeah, the sky could come crashing down too.

Then she said… and I ain’t got nothing now.  I don’t even have $5 in the bank.

It made me think that just a few days ago, and for more than 20 days my own bank account was in the red by nearly $120.   Oh, woe is me…

I can’t imagine what $17 trillion dollars may look like… but I do know that Oprah doesn’t have enough to even try to cover that bill.  But it is the state that we are in.   And yes, I am going to throw a stone… a big fat rock if I can find 1 nearby.  Because it is very true… when George Bush stole his way into the White House successfully proclaiming himself ‘President’ …we had a surplus.   And that was under a Democratic President… a guy from a little ol’ State called Arkansas.

That guy’s name was Bill Clinton… but from the moment George W. Bush hit the White House all of that went bye-bye.  The guy was a one-way force stronger than any tornado… the way he whipped in there, and blew us up hard against the rocks… just as hard as he could.

So, here we are today… left in this mess.  One of the worst and  most massive messes to hit this country… and if history has its way, and the truth finally does  come to light… probably worst than the day that Wall Street went dark after the stock market crashed in the 1930′s.

And who was George W. Bush?

He was a Republican!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44005778#44005778

The Republicans are up to their old tricks again… and it may be cliche to say.  I know… you’ve heard time and time before.   But it is true.  They never fail to keep pulling out that same old smelly trick bag.   And always just about every election time… in order to make the Democrats look bad.

And it is not the Democrats really that they are after… not really… but Obama.  Oh, yeah… I forgot he is a Democrat too… not just ‘a black man.’

How do we stop Obama… is and has been the foremost thing on their minds… and on the tip of their tongues…of every almost 1 of those Republicans.  Because lets face it… as hard as it may seem.  There are some Republicans with a moral consscious and true sense of responsibility to their constituents… and to this country too.

But for the most part…most of those Republicans do not.  They sleep dreaming about this.  How they can keep the poor poorer… and the defenseless weaker.

They lay at night… and so even in the day thinking…

Well, lets make Obama look bad… in effective… and lets just not pass anything that will get Americans back to work …or aid Obama in better doing his job for America.  Lets just block everything we can… clog up the process… ‘hem and ha’ for as long as we can… go on vacation… and when we get back… vote against everything that Obama puts on the table.

That’s the sentiment.  The vibe… and silent agreement among them.

Well, my friends so you have it in a nut shell.  Oh, my goodness!   Forget that I said that.   But this is the rational of the Republicans… people you may have …or may not have voted into office… but they are there.

Why would a group of people who profess that they love this country …and the people of this countr…  be out to do such harm to this country?

It really doesn’t make much sense…

Well, not to us.

Because they like playing political games.  It is not about you or I.   It is about the game, baby.   And seeing who will win… who can make the most money… what friends and compadres… and co-hearts they can make rich today… so that they will able to turn around and bless me tomorrow, when they run for President or that Congressional seat next term.

This is their warped thinking.  That 1 hand washing another hand thang… in the back room thinking.

Someone over the internet asked-

“What does warped thing mean?”

Three answers were given:

• deviant thought process
• inappropriate modes of thought
• …and worst of all…  acting upon those thought

Great numbers of people cast their votes for people who go under the title “REPUBLICAN.”   Within the past few months of  this year, in some State elections many people came to grieve the vote that they may have cast for some men whom they voted in as Governors of their States.  Men who were “REPUBLICANS” who set about to undermind and destroy their State… and attempted to cut their jobs and/or lay them off… and called it in the name of  ‘cutting their budgets.’  They targetted unions, state workers, teachers… and everything else they could set fire to in order to in truest essence … to breakup Democratic strongholds.

Democratic strongholds????

What is that?

That is groups or organizations that continually work to support those candidates which they believe they can trust, and who have their best interests at heart.  Which usually ends up being anybody but a Republican… and usually the  Democratic candidate.

If the Republicans worked as hard at winning back the trust and faith of Americans on the merit of ‘good works’ for the good of the people at large… not just for a chosen elite few… maybe then there would be more trust in the Republican Party.

The Republican Party is not about building trust or faith… or any type of merit… with any kind of real sincerity or genuine heart.  They are full of deceit and corruption… lies… and malice for most of us.  If it were not so then they would not be playing politics with every issue that effects the well-being of the American public.

The FAA today has some 70,000 airport workers laid off from work, because of the political games that Republicans like to play.  They are not into job creation… because the creation of jobs would make Obama look good.  And heaven forbid that should ever happen.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-03/airlines-poised-for-1-3-billion-fare-windfall-in-faa-shutdown.html

Both sides talk a good game… but none can out-talk those double-talking tricky Republicans.  They are even so cool and cunning that they decided to create a 2nd Republican Party… and call it the Tea Party.  Now, I ask you… how cunning is that?  And what a bunch of extreme jerks they are.   But then anybody who would have gotten their start under the gumption of someone by the name of Palin can’t have ‘em all anyway.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44002915/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

I am sicken by all kinds of acts and crimes against children.  Perhaps it stems from myself having been abused as a small child.  But I have no tolerance for it… and desire that all such people be put where they truly belong …away from all mankind forever.

Though one might argue about what harm does it do if someone only wanted to look at pictures of small children.  But thoughts bloom into acts and actions… and once carried out these acts and actions can never be taken back… or erased from the minds… and sadly from the behavior of many children.  Child abuse on any level does hurt.

I love this picture… so until I get tired of it you will see it again and again.  I just love the rain.  And doesn’t this picture look sooooo refreshing.

Speaking of which… while on my return trip the bus driver started talking to me.  He told me about those places where people are in dire need of rain… as there has not been any for so time now.  If you live in 1 of  those… I hope this picture gives you some relief… and know that rain is on the way.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment August 4, 2011

Weiner as dumb as they come… sexual intrigue over the internet…

How do you jeapordize everything by getting caught up in virtual sex?

Believe it or not so many people are caught up in sexual internet encounters.  They are intrigued with meeting up with sexual partners over the internet…and go rushing to get back on-line day after day… or night after night to continue their on-line internet intrigue of sexual encounters.  With many of them… ‘the people’  doing this…ending up rushing off to meet physically  with their virtual love interest.

You would not believe the numbers…

Yes, ‘the NUMBERS’ of people that become introduced via social networks over the computer is astounding.  And they become so wrapped up in technical instrutments… be it their computer or their cell phone… their ipad… or laptop …as long as it keeps them plugged into whoever it is that is whetting their sexual appetites over those instrutments.

What is the intrigue?

What is the enticement?

What makes so many men and women crazy enough to get so deeply involved in this kind of thing?

And you would be surprised about the number of  women and men who are in ‘the church’ who are as involved in this type of  behavior… if not more so than those outside of the church.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks-20110611,0,6807419.column

I first learned of  this when I happened to be downtown Brooklyn preparing to get ready for an edit session, when a older minister came swinging into the room.  He proclaimed that he was on his way out of  town but wanted to check on something over the computer.  The room was lined with computers… and he fell into a seat at 1 of them… and he began talking to me as he struck the keypad to the computer.

He told me how he was meeting up with women over the internet for sex, and that this was how he was now spending much of his time.

Without any shame or remorse he began openning up pictures over the internet to show me various black women he had carried on with… and was now carrying on with.  They were mostly women outside of  New York… a lot of them in the south.  But I was…

Well, I was shocked.

All I could think was…

“What kind of Preacher is this?”

I stood there looking down on the man… as he gleefully went about his task of communicating with these women over the internet.  I could not phantom myself wanting to do anything like that.

That man had it bad… but if I thought he was bad… 1 of my sisters overtook him.  And soon after…

Well, maybe a year or so later after finding out about her absortion in this mess… I came to find out that thousands of women had fallen into the very same trick bag.  And they too were rushing off to points unknown… like crazy to meet up with men that they had become enticed with over the internet.

Not to mention the hundreds of  women who up and marry strangers that they become entangled with over their computers.

This thing is an epidemic.  Truly…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/08/anthony-weiner-wife-pregnant_n_873429.html

I don’t understand it… but I know that it can all happen quickly.

I recall when I first started learning the computer… which believe it or not really wasn’t so long ago.  Oh… yes it was… now that I think about it.  It was about 10 years ago…   No, I think a little more.

My then lover had taken it upon herself  to teach me how to get started.  We had gone up over to the Black Voices’ site into a chat room.

Remember those?

Don’t hear too much about them today… since 1 on 1 conversations have proven to be far more better…I guess.  You also don’t have wonder about who is talking to who.  And besides  the technology has improved vastly.   It has become by far very much more advanced.

But back then it wasn’t all that shabby either  over a period of time… basically slower… much slower.

But getting back to what I was saying… as we were sitting there at the computer… me and my lover… I got my first ‘IM.’   I didn’t even know what the thing was… it was an ‘instant message’ she told me.  But it was really more like an ‘instant photo.’

Wow… this was great I thought.  But my lover didn’t like it… because the woman was attractive and told me all kinds of information about herself.  She lived in D.C. etc…etc…  But that thang came so quick… it was just like that.  And if my lover had not been sitting there I might have struck up a conversation with that woman.

But today the technology is even better… and quicker.  The systems are more compact and lighter as well.  You don’t need to sit at your dusty computer all night anymore.  All you need is your cell phone or ipad… or whatever you have and the possibilities are unlimited.

But would you really risk it all for some lewd encounter over the internet?

I was never really a chat room person.  But the 1 sister I referenced above… she stayed there.  Now, she is on to the next level…social networks.  First it was myspace…now facebook… and who knows what else.

She has met countless men during the course of these past …I don’t know …but I am sure more than 10 years of being involved in this type of behavior.  She is overcome by it… and sadly many many …many other women are too.

Personally, I think it is just a step up from prositution.  You are just not getting paid for it.  Well, maybe they are if you consider dinner and a cheap hotel constellation for your services.

Needless to say… I have spent many hours considering the actions which she takes so lightly… and prayerfully so.  I find it hard to believe that anyone would trust such encounters… if for no other reason than just the health risk alone.

How do you so willingly trust people who many of them over the internet… use a bunch of alias’… and tell a bunch of lies.

And if they really had anything going on in their lives would not have to be meeting up with people over the internet.

And the worst thing about it is this…

• How do you go running off to meet up with somebody you don’t even know?

And all that you do know is what they have told you… which for the most case is a bunch of  nothing.  Just some stuff to make you all hot and bothered… and eager to give them what they want.

Maybe, I am not the brightest or the smartest… but I am not going to involve myself with seeking out people over the internet to fall into bed with… or with the hope that they will become my husband or wife.

The old fashion way of meeting people… and getting to know people worked just fine for me when I was doing that kind of thing.  And I would never be fool enough to want to risk my life… or livelihood on a virtual reality relationship of any sort.

Evidently, Congressman Weiner was quite proud of his lower half.    So much so that he would take pictures of it and forward them out to women …and possibly young girls… over the internet.

It is all so boyish to me… childish.  I recall when growing up… and it seemed that young boys are so anxious to show you their stuff.  I really cannot remember how many times those of the male species had exposed themselves to me.  Or tried to grab my hand and try to force me to touch something that I did not want to touch… that was attached to them.

But certainly by the time they become adults… I would think that they would have all grown out of obsession with it.  But not so.

Once while standing down on the platform of the subway waiting on my train… I happened to glance across to the platform just across from me.  There staring at me was a man openly exposed with his penis in hand and ejaculating.

I have no idea of what all the intrigue with their lower part is… but somehow those men who have not outgrown playing with themselves in public places… or flashing themselves at women… truly they need to get a life.  And put their hands and heads on bigger and brighter things in this world.

And some women are just as bad… but they do it in other less obvious ways.

No doubt it is truly a spirit which overtakes people.  But the Bible says… ‘be ye not enticed.’

I find nothing enticing in it.  I have always shyed away from people who seemed to be too sexually agressive.  I found it to be a big turn off.  Today… though I do not dwell on sex… but I know that many do.

I am so happy that God released me from the trap that I was in.  I used to be driven by sexual desire.  It was all I could think of.

Some might say that I was a late bloomer since I had not dealt sexually until after I hit the ripe old age of 25.  But even then I was timid… highly selective… and quite discreet.

But sexual desire had me.  It held me captive.  But thank God… He set this captive free… and I now walk in liberty.

I cannot think of anything I would rather not do …than to once again fall prey to my old sexual ways.  To be caught up in sex.  It was all I would think about… and all I wanted to do.  I am soooooooo happy to be free.

But Weiner was as dumb as they get.

As much as I was driven by my desires… I never did anything that would make a fool out of me.

Perhaps, I was a bit prudish in my ways.  I had heard it said of  me… that I liked doing it… but I just didn’t like talking about it.  Nor was I willing to film any video tape footage of me indulging sexually… or take any photos of me naked.  I have to admit that… at the time I liked to hang out at a certain nude beach… but that was the extent of my public exposure.

Once a woman sent me a nude photo of  herself.  This was before computers… when I opened the envelop I was horrified.  I dropped that picture like it was something hot.  The woman was totally naked… and she had positioned herself with her legs wide open. I will stop there.

I could barely pick up that picture.  I didn’t even want to touch it to stuff it back into an envelop and forward it right back to her.  How dare anyone send me such filth.  I forgot what I wrote back to that woman… but it was not nice.

No rational person would involve themselves in such behavior.  The man had a wife who based upon the news is currently pregnant with their first child… and he was or ‘is’ a Congressman.  How could he have acted so foolishly …and so carelessly.

The Bible says… ‘what is done in the dark will come to light.’

Weiner after initially lying… saying that a hacker had done it… he now states that he mistakenly sent the photo of his lower part by error over Tweeter.  He stated that when he realized his mistake he quickly tried to remove the photo.  Needless to say… by that time it was a little too late.

In all of  his excitement… Weiner certainly ‘exposed’ himself.  It came to light…

Well, I really only got up to go to the bathroom.  Never intended to write this… but I had fallen asleep with my son’s laptop resting partly on my stomach and upper legs.

So, just as I crawled back into bed… I decided to check the news headlines.  And it read… ‘Weiner admits lewd tweets.’

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/anthony-weiner-officials-investigate-messages-exchanged-teen/story?id=13818788

After nearly 2 weeks of lying about it Anthony Weiner finally decided to breakdown and tell somewhat of the truth.  It is kind of like John Edwards over his mistress and baby outside of his marriage… or like Bill Clinton in the White House with Monica.  Or like that Senator in the men’s bathroom… something about his foot and the stall next to his.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-anthony-weiner-denies-tweeting-lewd-photo/story?id=13736214

We have been through it before… and it  always seems that if we give it a week or so the story will change.  The lie becomes a half truth… because you can’t really believe that a liar is really going to tell you the truth… not the whole or even the real truth.  They only admit to just enough… but never tell us really ‘the truth’ concerning the matter for which they have become embroiled.

We never quite get the whole sorted truth out of them.

But do we really need to… or expect to?

Just know for the next time… from the on-set when the story first breaks… always expect to hear the lie first.  And then later maybe… just maybe some part of a manufactured truth.

Do you recognize any of these faces?

Do you remember any of their initial stories?

And what was the final outcome?

Wait a minute… I think that there are a few pictures missing.

Is  morality a thing of the past?

I have got to get some sleep.  It is starting to rain now.  I hear it lightly hitting the windowpane.  Good night… rather morning…and enjoy  your weekend.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment June 11, 2011

Wolves in sheep clothing…

They are tall dark and handsome.  They look like a breath of  fresh air.  You think they are just what the doctor ordered.  But… what is really on their minds?

You vote these people in believing you are getting back at some other political party… when it really plays out to your own deficit.

What the people fail to realize when they listen to all the highfalutin talk made by Republicans during their campaigns to win political office… talk like government is too big… we need to cut taxes…  bring down the deficit …and slash all unnecessary spending… what they need to ask is who is he or she talking about?   Could it mean my job?

Because for the most part when Republicans talk… that is exactly who they are talking about.  They are not talking about slashing anything away from the rich… which is their political base and core supporters.  No….but they mean they will be going out after the poor… the hard workers … labourers …blue collar people …people who barely can make enough to make ends meet.  And yes… as found out in Wisconsin… that includes unions and union workers too.

What a set-up. 

In the 2010 November elections the govenor race in Wisconsin was between a Republican named Scott Walker and a Democrat named Tom Barrett.   In that race Walker a political Republican insider after years in public service… sweeps the Wisconsin Governor’s race with more than 52% of  the votes.  While the Democrat, Barrett who had been the Mayor of  Milwaukee, only garnered a mere 45% of  the votes.  

Walker was younger, and looked like a Mit Romney type.  While Barret was older, and had grey hair compared to Walker’s thick dark hair.  And if  anybody tells you looks doesn’t matter… tell them to go and take a back seat somewhere.  Because it  does. 

Have you not heard that  image is everything.  It doesn’t matter whether the image is a false image or a sincere image… it just matters how that image comes packaged.  And that will determine the outcome.

You can have more knowledge and skill than someone on your job, while outwardly they are better put together… classier… more out-going in their personality… but lack organization, effective communication skills and dedication… but they look better than you.   Who do you think will get the job… or the promotion?

More than likely the one well put together… though they come with none of  the expertise or inner skills to sufficiently do the job.  They just look good… or let me phrase it this way… they look better.

How do I know?

Because most of  my life I was looked over.   Looked over to the 1 that wasn’t fat… better put together …and looked pretty.   While she or  he couldn’t carry a note  to  me… if  they wanted to.  But they got picked… and I didn’t.   But in saying that… let me also say that it never made me bitter.  I do not become bitter over such things.  I just get better …and better.  And God has worked it all out for my good.

I remember this 1 job where I was doing sales for a radio station in New York.  I really wanted to be on-air but they didn’t have any openings … so I took sales.   As God would have it… I didn’t know that then but I do now… I somehow became the number 1 sales person at the station.  They gave  me the whole of  Jersey to work… and I was bringing in new accounts like crazy. 

But I also worked the New York side of the Hudson River also.  And many times when the owner or the person responsible for making decisions wasn’t  in the business when I dropped by… I would get his or  her name and number and leave my card.

What I didn’t know was that there were times when I was out of  the office… which was pretty much most of  the time… that I got calls from businesses that I had visited… and these calls were passed on to another account executive. 

Her name was Carla… and was a pretty young woman who rarely left the office.  She seemed timid and often talked about how much she hated sales.  The chile couldn’t sell her way out of a trash bag… so of  course she was going to hate sales.  But it never dawn on me that some of my leads were being passed onto her. 

But she worked there… and on that job  where you had make sales in order to earn any pay.  It was commission only.  So, Carla was doing something.   And the something she was doing was robbing me.  Because our boss had her hooked up… she didn’t have to worry about a thing.   And it had never… ever dawn on me.  

 Never thought about it really… but now it hits me.

While I had to get out and hustle for my bread and butter.  But she had looks… and I had that something which God bestowed upon me… something that seems to make everybody like me.  When I was young I didn’t like it… because even my friends parents loved me.  And I thought that was weird… and it just seemed odd to me.  I had no understanding of  the  wonderful gift that God had given to me.  None whatsoever.

People said they liked Walker because he would be good for the economy… he would turn the state around… and would cut out all of that state bureaucracy.  Yeah… but what… or better yet.   At  whose expense?

Did anyone ever stop to ask Walker that question?

Perhaps not.

Or was it that he was younger than his oppossing canidate? 

Was it Walker’s good looks and seemingly good-guy demeanor… if  he has 1?

Was it how he spoke it… or the gleam in his eyes… or an easy smile?

What was it that the voters in Wisconsin fell for?

A  lot of  it has to do with political games.  And Republicans have become the master at it.

They munipulate the people with a bunch of  sweet sounding talk… laden with lies.   They spew out all kinds of  promises telling you how bad government is… but miss out on telling you who has richly aided in making our government so. 

Long before Obama tried to save our automobile industry Republican Senators and Congressmen were laid up in bed with them… and with the lobbyist … the insurance companies …and the phramaceutical companies… the oil barons… utility companies… and anything and everybody else who could make them some  money.   And yes… many Democrats are guilty of  doing the same.

But I do believe that there are more Democrats fighting and trying to do the right thing… than there are Republicans. 

The Republicans love winning political races and turning everything around… and more times than not… to suit  their owe benefits… and agendas.

I think …because I come from media… 1 of  the worst things that the Republicans could have done was remove FCC Rules and Regulations regarding sex and sexual content in music… and explicit language over the airwaves.  This was the Republicans doing… and the affect of  it has been devastating to this country. 

But it has made a whole lot of money for some… and I am not talking about the little ignorant artists or other so-called talents who believe that they are doing something.  But I am talking about the kingpins in the back who own the companies that produce, release and distribute… exhibit and play the garbage that has worn away at  the very  moral fabric of  this country and the world.

I will get off  my soap box now… and  go back to politics.

Today they come beating a path to your door… or their recruits coming seeking your votes while knowing they mean you no good.  Shirt collars open and trying their best to look and smell like you… when they are just a bunch of wolves in sheep clothing.

Every political race does matter.  You cannot afford to become complacent with your vote.  Because your complacency is being used against you. 

Republicans know that historically most people turn out for political races which they think really matters… the big ones… like voting in a President.  But they fail to take local races seriously. 

But it is the local political races which will affect you the most.  The local races have to do with state matters… and state matters do not take as long to come into affect as do Federal matters… which have long processes to go through before even being voted on and then signed into affect… which entails some years before actually happening even after being signed into law by the President. 

In the case of  Wisconsin …Walker decided that state workers were being paid too much, and were virtually holding the state ransome through the collective bargaining process of  their union.  He decided that in order to aid in cutting the state deficit he needed to put a restraint on the union so that the state would not be forced to issue increases in benefits or pay to state employees.  Which on its surface may sound like a good idea… but at the same time it plays a major role into weakening the power of  the worker’s union… giving the worker’s no voice to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay.’

There can be no arguement that unions have played a major role in this country in aiding voiceless employees, who were badly treated… forced to  work long hours without compensation or other benefits… by improving their working conditions etc. 

If  there had not been a dire need for unions in this country …as they are needed around the world… American workers would have had to continue to work under whatever standards  …conditions and orders issued to them by the entities for which they worked for…  and to do so without proper compensation and under hazardous conditions  in many cases to their lives and/or limbs …without health benefits …or re-course against false firings… promotions and/or  other forms of  help etc… that the unions protect them from.

While running for office Walker promised to cut both the state taxes and the government spending as the state of  Wisconsin was in dire financial straits.

Could Walker have come up with another plan other than virtuely stripping the state worker’s of  their say so… destroying their right  to collectively bargain (under their union) for their raises, changes in their pension plans, health benefits etc.?  

Probably.

Well, how do you know?

Because other states have faced the same kind of  problems… and so have individual cities… but none of  them set out to destroy the unions that represented their workers.  And yet those states and cities survived… managed… and eventually pulled through.  New York City had to do it... Boston had to do it… you name a place that has not had to suffer some kind of  re-arrangement in order to pull their city or state out of  near  financial collapse.  Even Calafornia has and is going through it.

So, why did Walker chose to go after the states public workers and their union?

In order to shut down the power of  the union.  The power of  the union to wheel and deal to the benefit of  its members.  Butt most importantly… because there is a push by Republicans  to stop union support of  political canidates which the unions  feel they cannot trust… which mostly tend to be Republicans. 

They …the Republicans are just not for the working class.  And though in history that was different… today it is their stance… a  360 degree turn from how they throught during their early history which dates  back  to a pre-Lincoln.  

Today they celebrate their great champion  that former actor… better known as Ronald Reagan… and the trickle-down theory.  Which never quite worked… and star wars.   What a massive waste of government spending there.   But the Republicans  didn’t and don’t today in hind sight see it that way… just a bunch of  short term memory people when it suits them.   They loved the theories anyhow.  

 And can anybody believe that they …the Republicans are out against Obama’s pledge to up-grade our infrastructure and bring rapid mass transit into the states as it is aboard.   Yes, Republicans are lining up to say that they will go against it.

Hmmm… wonder how Obama’s ideas would fare if  he were a Republican?   

And I won’t even say that other thing… that has to do with color… but it plays a big factor.  It just would not do to have a black man’s stamp  on such a big historic thing  as that.   It would be big… a rail system that cuts down commuter and travel time by shaving off  hours on long distance ground travel?  Adding ‘zoom service’  to commuter service…    Come on, that’s big.   And it  means big money… money that I  am sure that the Republicans would rather see in  their control and in the hands of  their many friends.

Can you imagine if  Obama came out talking about spending money on a project… hmmm… say ‘star wars.’   The Republicans would have been all over him…  even more than they are right now… and that’s kind of  hard to beat. 

Think about it trying to beat the Russians into space  was utterly riddiculous.   The laugh is on both sides… as space cannot be conquered.  It will forever be an item of  mystery to us… as much as   the deepest of depths of   the sea.

Seeing how the Republicans stay on Obama about the Health Care Reform Bill  …Guantanamo Bay… to you name it… just take your pick… no matter what he does.   If  he had come up with a  star wars  idea  they would have chewed him up…and  laughed themselves into stitches while doing it.  

Here it is  Obama comes up with highly sensible ideas like improving our country’s infrastruction and instituting  a rapid mass transit system in America (which really could bring about tons of  new jobs) …they bawk… and say they won’t support it.    Those Republicans. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110312/ap_on_re_us/us_high_speed_rail;_ylt=AthNvCRGYlehqbpbYiOSaPtH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTM2OXIwMjkzBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMzEyL3VzX2hpZ2hfc3BlZWRfcmFpbARjY29kZQNtcF9lY184XzEwBGNwb3MDNARwb3MDNARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2Zsb3JpZGFsb3Nlcw–

It is sad when you vote somebody into office… then realize… you made a mistake.  The same thing happens in churches… somebody gets appointed to fill a vacancy left by a passing pastor… or 1 who has moved on.  The replacement is fine for a short period of  time  …but gradually he or she starts making their moves.   And they …the congregation begins to find out that the person just wasn’t who or what they presented themselves to be… but now it is too late.   So it is in Wisconsin.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/02/republican-walker-defeats-barrett-win-wisconsin-governors-race/#

God bless… may you enjoy the remainder of your day. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42076054#42080998

Was up last night and caught the news over the internet  about the tsunami that struck Japan.  The  news piece said that the tsunami caused an earthquake that was the strongest ever in history… 8.9 in magnitude.  I could not help but think of  just how close we are coming to last days and times. 

I know you probably do not want to hear this.  But it  is  true… devastation upon devastation.  There can be or is no other explaination for it. 

You may say global warming… changing climate … and the changes with our eco-systems is causing them.  And that may appear to be the case… but there is something  greater operating who is orchestrating it all.

http://www.euronews.net/nocomment/2011/03/11/8-8-magnitude-earthquake-hits-japan/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110312/ap_on_re_us/us_japan_earthquake_pacific

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake

“…a thousand shall fall at thy side, and 10 thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh to thee.” 

We pray for the people whose homes, families, jobs and lives  have been impacted and turn around by this massive devastation.

Though I didn’t write anything on it… the devastation that hit Australia earlier this year with massive flooding… did not get pass me.  

Truly sad… we cannot imagine.   Our hearts go out…

UPDATE:  Monday, March 14, 2011… What a massive devastation.   And now radiation problems from their nuclear reactors being breeched due to the earthquake.

And now our West Coast shores are being bombarded as a result of  the tsunami that hit Japan as well… from California to Oregon and Washington State.  Not to mention Hawaii… 

My…    We’re now being told it was he 4th most powerful earthquake known ever.  And thousands have been washed away… and was said to of  the magnitude of 9.0.

I am keenly aware that people read this blog all over the world.  And  I often see comments from folks in  the European Union, Asia, the Baltics and  Australia etc…   Thank you all for taking the time to read what I have to say.  And may God bless you and your families… and it is my sincere hope that God is keeping you and your families from all hurt and harm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12102126

The Church of  God in Christ recognizes  and mourns the passing of  Bishop Chandler D. Owens… one of  our  leaders. 

http://www.jacksonadvocateonline.com/?p=2569

 Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

 

Add a comment March 12, 2011

What is the question here…

What is responsibility?

When somebody espouses a whole lot of trash talking in the ghetto…

Well, they just better be able to back it up or say nothing.

That is how it is in the hood.

Now, I have never lived in the streets or out on the lane …or down on the blvd.  But I do know that when you fool around and talk a lot of   junk you better be ready to back it up… or suffer the consequences.

During the pre-term elections recently held this past November… Sara Palin did a whole lot of  big talking… before and after.   Even as far as pasting up a bunch of  cross-hairs upon certain campaign areas that she and her supposed ‘tea party’ crew… or group of  flunkies… were aiming to take over.

This past weekend in 1 of those areas … a congresswoman was shot in the head and 6 others were killed in an area that Palin singled out on her cross-hairs map.

That sounds like a whole of  lot of big time talk.  The which if  it had been done in the hood it would have meant all out and out war.  Because it would have certainly meant that you were out to get somebody.

And it would have meant that you were gunning for them.  And in hood talk… that means to kill ‘em.

You don’t go around drawing pictures like that in the hood… and nobody knows what it means?

No, that is a loud and cyrstal clear message… ask any black folks.

Frankly, such a thing should be as illegal as shouting “FIRE” in crowded place.

I do not think that it is a coincidence that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Arizona State Representative, and liberal politican was shot in the head some 2 days ago.

Nor do I believe that the shooting was some ramdon act of some dissatified Arizonian voter.

No, I think that the picture is a lot bigger than that.

It is a picture of  hate mongoering and fear embedding that became very popular under the Bush administration.  Something that the Republicans have become very famous  …or should I say… imfamous for doing.    Then turning around and crying that they ‘had nothing to do with it.’  

But the tactics are theirs.  And they pull them out whenever a political race is hot… meaning close… and when they wish to get an upper hand. 

So, they set about envoking weak minded people to do tragic things like shooting an innocent woman in the head, who was working hard to  the benefit of  the people which she represents.

And, yes.

Sarah Palin is to blame along with those who coach her.  And  they need to go up on charges of  conspircy.    For acting to incite individuals to go out and commit murder or other type of criminal acts against politicans that they are against.

If a person worked in an insane asylum and gathered up the interest of a resident in that asylum provoking that person to hate someone enough to hurt or even kill them.  And the insane asylum person upon his release goes in search of the person they had been provoked against… and somehow hurts or otherwise kills the person… who would be to blame?

Clearly, the person who provoked the insane person to do so.

And the law would seek that person out.

So, why should Sara Palin and her people be any different?

This world is full of a lot  of sick and/or weak minded individuals who listen and believe  a lot of the political rhetoric that they hear… watch or read.  A lot of  it is devicely twisted to anger people falsely.  And in cases such as in the Palin camp… they work to implant seeds of  voilent acts. 

And anyone who does this is looking for a violent outcome.

Why esle would anyone put up gun cross-hairs if they were not insinuating that someone should go out and shot somebody that they have set their sights upon?

That is the only reason why someone would do that.

And to do so is illegal.

And is certainly not a joke.

Lets say the shoe was on the other foot… and the congresswoman and launch a website and put up a map with gun cross-hairs on it.  And in the center of those cross-hairs was Palin and her family.

What do you think would have been Palin’s out-cry?

Would there have been one?

Yes.  You bet… and a loud one.  And Palin would have been seeking some type of  action.  Maybe even legal I have no doubt.

The Republicans love double standards.  They can play certain games… but not you. 

You can’t… because they are quick to cry ‘foul.’

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_congresswoman_shot

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/national/12003221441268/arizona-rep-giffords-shot-6-killed-in-rampage/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110110/ap_on_he_me/us_med_congresswoman_brain_injury

If  a  group of  cons or crooks…. or drug cartel…. or thugs had mastermind such a thing without a doubt they would have all been rounded up by now and charged.

Is this not the same thing when a drug dealer puts a gun into the hand of  little child 12 or 13  year old, and tells them to go out and shoot somebody?

They know that the little 12 or 13 year old is a kid, and not likely to serve a sentence as long as theirs would be, if they went out and perpetrated the crime themselves.

What is the difference between using weak minded people that do what some of  these politicians tell them to do via their commercials and other rhetoric used to poison the minds of  such people, in order to have  them go out and do their dirty work?

I am for justice and totally against people who would ever try to inciderate anyone against somebody simply because we do not agree politically… or religiously.   Or for any reason really.

In the  1980′s when the anti-abortion acted in simular ways… the outcome was abortion clinics being bombed, and abortion doctors were killed.

How crazy was that?

You don’t believe in abortion but you blow up people in an abortion clinic?

Or go out shooting abortion doctors?

What kind of  life did they believe in?

Only that of  the fetus… and not that of  the adult people they were killing?

Is life not life?

Are we all to agree on every subject?

Just how boring would life be if we all submitted ourselves out of  fear to being liked minded because someone was holding a gun over us.

Their is a sickness that prevails and is festing, least ways in this country, that makes 1 re-consider George Orwell’s book.  And perhaps we need not look at  Big Brother as  a government system… but as a political party.  The Republican Party.

Well, this is my first post for the New Year.

I was so busy prior to stepping into this New Year that I literally barely got any sleep for almost 8 days.  A whole lot of  legal work to take care of.

First of all, the city had come up agains my parent’s house for property taxes.  And I had to act really quickly in order to try to head it off. 

So, that is still in the works.  Hopefully, we will get a court date and God will give the Judge to be kind.

Then there some other legal matters that I wanted to have out of  hair before stepping into 2011… and finally I did manage to do that too.

So, you see I wasn’t just goffing off.

And I had to go out to shovel snow 2 times this past weekend.  But thank goodness it was neither heavy or a lot of snow. 

So, all is well. 

And I am wishing you a great and highly prosperous year.

And thank goodness God is still on throne.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2011

Add a comment January 10, 2011

Mind games…

After meeting up with the religious nut in the back of  my parent’s yard… I strongly believe that people today are looking for some ray of  hope… some divine saviour to remove all their woes and care away. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/645182.stm

The man spoken about in the above news LINK… looks very much like the image we have all come to recognize as Jesus Christ.  He walks around barefooted and in a robe.  His hair is about the length of  the hair we have all seen in those pictures and statues of  the supposed Jesus.  And he leads people to believe that he is Jesus… but he never discloses his true name.

They call him “What’s his name.” 

They marvel at him and look upon with reverence… as if they truly believe that this man walking around trying to pretend in the most obvious ways that he is Jesus re-born or something.

Well, going back to our neighbor in the house behind us.   This man believes that he is Jesus too.  Truly.

And not only does he believe it… but he tries to force the thought down my throat.

There is but 1 God.  And clearly whether most people believe it or not only 1 Jesus Christ… who will eventually return.   But he is not here yet.

I am not foolish enough to believe that the guy behind our house is the second coming.  Who often tells me that God spoke to him and told me that he should come and rake or otherwise clean our yard.  All this… while asking me to kiss him.

What kind of  God would have me to do that?

Not the 1 that I know. 

So, I do not entertain the man.  Because I recognize that something clearly is wrong with him.  And something is wrong with the guy in Hazelton, PA… who believes he can walk around in a robe, wear his hair down to his shoulder, while walking around barefooted , speaking in  a soft voice while all the while pretending in some less than subtle kind of way that he is Jesus Christ.

It is a con job.  And it comes at a time when many people are unsure about a lot of  things… such as whether or not their house will be foreclosed on… how they will get the money to  heat bill… or will their children be able to stay another semester in college… or whether or not they will be able to find another job.

In times of  hardship, distress and unrest we all look for something.  But it is not the time to reach out to people pretending to be something which they clearly are not.  And could never be.

Perpetrators come in all sizes, shapes and forms.  And 1 of the biggest type of  perpetrators… even since

Biblical times have been those who wanted to pretend like they were and are holy… while seeking to do evil.

In the Appalachian Mountains of  this country live some of  the countries most tested people.  People who have been used, abused and exploited for more than just capital gain. Made to drink and bathe in dirty contaminated water, while sucking in air full of cancerous and poisonous pollutants… in places that used to be so prestine, so pure and so clean.

Now, in walks this man… “What his name.”

On the political front I received a call from a friend of mine last night saying-

“What do you think about your President?”

I really didn’t at first know what she meant.  But as she went on she expressed her disapproval of  Obama caving in to the Republicans concerning the Bush tax cuts.

It seems she had been watching a lot of   TV lately… following closely those debates where everybody sits around debating every turn or statement and action that Barack Obama does.

I told her that it seemed to me that there were a lot news shows lately that seemed totally dedicated to critiquing any and everything Obama did or said… especially every policy and word he utters.  Yet, as dumb as George Bush was nobody sat around disecting every little thing he did.  And clearly somebody should have.

If we voted Obama in…then we should be willing enough to allow him to do his job without all of  us standing over him with a whip.   Or by allowing others  to get  us to try and second guess him… on everything.

Who can work like that?

Who wants to work like that?

Oh, ye  of  little faith.   Politics is about making concessions.  It is all about give and take.   It is the first rule of  lawyering and anything else where there are 2 opposing sides. 

Without subcoming to part of  what the Republicans wanted millions of  poor people and out of  work people would  suffered otherwise while Republicans having a majority vote would still be able to push through whatever they want to.

I believe Obana to be shrewd and a strategic man.  A man who makes no moves or plans without thoughtfully weighting them out fully and all their possible ramifications.  With all of  that being said…

“Let us all please let him do his job without all of  us falling prey to what news media  and so-called would-be experts would have us believe.”

As dumb as George W. Bush was… and as much of  a liar he proved himself  to be… he never suffered this much scrutiny and lack of  confindence as is being levied against Obama.  Or disrespect either.  Far be it that a black man should succeed or prove to be successful in the office of  the President of  this country.

I am very sick of  hearing… that Obama does not know what he is doing.  It is very  very easy to sit in a seat over in a corner  or somewhere and say that.

Don’t fall for the lies… and fake analyses.  They are only meant to belittle and berate him.  And to make Obama appear ineffective and unknowing… and worst of  all  ill informed.   He’s bigger than that.

I’m looking forward to great things from what history will prove to be a great man… and perhaps our greatest President.

It has  started snowing here.  And it has been soooooo cold. 

Today I stayed mostly in bed.  But finally I started feeling guilty.  So, I got up and started stirring about. 

I have got a ton of  boxes laying about.  I am trying to clear up the house a bit.  I figure if  I do a little a day I might just get it all done.  So, I am working on it.

Forgot to mention that last Saturday… are you ready for this?

Last Saturday I got my first royalty check for my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.  Can’t believe it.  Wasn’t much… but it is just the idea that somebody read… or is reading my book.  I really hope to get some feedback on it if you are 1 of  them.  Thanks so much.

And I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  Ours was great… filled with lots of  family, friends and food.

And I do note the passing of  Elizabeth Edwards who loss her battle against cancer just a couple of days ago.  There is 1 thing about strong women they never let anything take them down.   Not heartache or disappointment… or  even sickness.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2010 

Add a comment December 11, 2010

Eva Longoria headed for divorce… North Korea milliary strike… Palin’s reality…

It never fails to amaze me just how stupid some men can sometimes be.

What was wrong with Tony Parker that he just could not be true to one of most beautiful women in Hollywood?

Clearly, Eva  Longoria loved him.  And he appeared to be happy with her.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/11/23/eva-longoria-tony-parker-cheated/

I recall that when the rumors surfaced regarding his bachelor party and some ‘woman of the night.’  Eva  quickly dismissed it.  She totally declared it to be false and denounced anyone who dared to even claim such a thing about her then husband to be.

And why not?

Aren’t you suppose to trust the person who your are going partner youself to for the rest of your life?

But it would seem that Tony has proven those rumors …and all tho stories to be true.

And he looked so innocent.  Perhaps, too innocent.

What is it about men that when they have a good woman… a loving and caring mate… that they fail to be able to be true to her.

You often hear men… and many womas as well… often belly aching about how they cannot seem to find  the right persong… a good person… a decent person… a harding working man… or a loving and caring woman.  Yet, when presented with 1 they fail to be able to appreciate him… or her.

I remember Donald Trump and his parting from Ivana.  Just about everybody on this planet thought he was crazy.   Even Marla  probably had to laugh about that… as she took the Donald to the bank.

Then there was Rick somebody or other…  Oh, yeaj… Rick Fox  and Vanessa Williams.   What a jerk he must have been.  Who in his right mind would ever want to be kicked to the curb by Vanessa.

But some of these guys are just to pretty.  But then when they loose out on what they had… and find themselves out in the cold reflecting on their errors… it is always too late.

Grow up gentlemen and ladies… learn to appreciate and respect what you have already while you yet  have it.

I have had at least 2 men cry in my presence while telling me about their wives.  The wife they cheated on… took for granted… could have cared less about… until she was no more.  She passed.

As I listen to 1 of  them tell me how his wife had been his best friend… his childhood sweetheat… and how he cheated on her so many times… I could not help but think as  tears rolled down his face-

“Why is it that you can always see a good thing when it is gone?”

All chances of  showing her… or rectifying the situation had been removed.  She was dead.  Gone forever…and now he didn’t want anybody else.  He  had stopped with all the other women.  All when it didn’t matter… because she was gone.

How sad can that be?

But it happens day in and day out.   Some people have everything that anybody could ever want… and they just do not appreciate it.

Truly sad.

Today North Korea launched deadly rockets into South Korea killing both soldiers and civilians.

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/obama-pledges-us-would-defend-south-korea/19731500

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-attack-unforgiveable-2141389.html

In my Just War’s class this would be called an act of  ‘aggression.’

In Political Science there are a couple of ways that ‘aggression’ can be allowed and/or tolerated by the national community.  One is for the reason of  an ‘assumed threat’  by another nation state.  Or 2  for a reason where 1 country  believes that there is real  and eminent threat of  being struck first.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/11/23/16279961.html

Because of  nuclear weapons small Nation States no longer fear hegemon states… large powerful nations such as the United States or Great Britian… or Russia  any more.  The power that hegemon states once wheeled has long fallen by the wayside.  The ability to create and use nuclear weapons has become the great equalizer.  And now small nation states such as North Korea, Iran, Pakistan etc… now feel their muscles geginning to bulge beneath their shirts.  And are anxious to have their voices heard around the world on the world stage.

What action can the United States taken against North Korea for shelling a small South Korea island with deadly mortar?

Why do we have to do anything?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/obama-south-korea-commitment_n_787864.html?flv=1

Yes, we have to side with our allies.  And it is in our best interest to do so.

But when acts of  aggression occur do not our allies  likewise have an obligation to stand with us?

Today there is only 1 real super power left in this world… and that is the United States.  But with soaring illegal immigration around the world… drug wars… rogue states… religious fanatics… and even some very unstable people running some foriegn governments… it would seem that other like-minded nations have no choice but to stand with us.  There is just too much going on in the world today… for any nation which is an allie of the United States to just sit back.

The ills that face this world take an united effort to quail and try to lay to rest.  And that is the force that will overcome rogue nations… religious fanatics and zealots from destroying the world… unity.

Palin’s real world reality is…is that nobody really wants to watch her or her family on television.  She is just not that exciting … or intriguing.   And the show may hit the dust before its 8 week contract is up.

When the idea for  this show was pitched… every thumb in the room should been turned down towards the table.  That is what  TV exec’s should have done… tabled it before it got out of  the box.  But now after the dim ratings i just 2 episodes… they soon will.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/sarah-palins-alaska-ratings_n_787454.html

Well, we are now almost just 1 day away from Thanksgiving.  This afternoon I made 8 apple pies.   I have to make at least 2 more tomorrow…and then put a few sweet potato pies into the oven too.

I had bought the peaches for peach cobbler but decided to hold off on that until Christmas.

I do not know about you… but I can’t get to th table quick enout or to that turkey. 

Tomorrow, I have to pick up the video camera equipment because I  have decided that I wanted to video tape us all together.  This year we came awfully close to having lost 1 of my sisters.  She suffered a heart attack.

She is doing just fine now… but during the course of  the week she was in the hospital all I wanted to do was pray.  And is all I did really.

God heard our prayers.

Hope that He has heard yours too.  Through the course of  a  year many situations come up.  It is good to be able to depend upon the Lord.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving…  I know we shall enjoy ours.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2010 

2 comments November 24, 2010

Albertina Walker…. gospel legend in a big way…

When I went up over the internet tonight I wasn’t at all surprised when I saw something come up with Albertina Walker’s name in the title.  I felt that it was an announcement about her having passed… even though I hadn’t heard anything on it until that time. 

But I had noticed in seeing Albertina in various video footage and on a television program that she seemed weaker… a bit more sickly.    The television show I saw her on was a reception honoring her. 

It is nice to give people flowers while they are yet alive.  That is what these people at that event had come to do for Albertina.  And she seemed so humble as she sat in her wheel chair bleaming  up at them all bearly able to speak.

Sometimes, when you begin to age and fall off  the horizon people turn away from you.  They forget your name… who you are… or  who you were.  But Albertina Walker did more for gospel music than just sing  it… and sing it with a passion.   She knew also talent when she saw it… and could pick voices… people with unspeakable gifts by way of  their vocal cords.    It is through her that such notable gospel artists, such as Shirley Ann Caesar first caught our attention… when she began performing with Albertina’s group, the Caravans, at a very young age.

http://woldcnews.com/national/woldcnews/albertina-walker-passes-away-at-81/

Also  part of  Albertina’s group, the Caravans, was Dorothy Norwood… who is still on the gospel scene just like the Queen of  Gospel Music, Shirley Caesar.  But the Caravan also included some other great and mighty powerful gospel singers… such as Inez Andrews,  Rosetta Stone and others. 

In fact, I was surprised to read in the annoucement of  Albertina’s passing that I found in my email today…  that James Cleveland also got his start under Albertina Walker as well.

I also did not know that Albertina Walker had been a protege of  the late and very great Miss Mahali Jackson.  What a background… what musical history… and what  gospel music history.  My mother …and I guess everyone about her age and older…all loved Mahali.  She was truly an icon.

While I was working at a radio station in Jersey some years ago… I got the opportunity to see Albertina perform.  The show was at a small church some place in Newark, New Jersey.   I got there early because I wanted a good seat… so I was there to see when Albertina first walked in. 

Albertina came walking in …in this fabulous full length fur coat.  And ever since having seen that coat… I have had my sights on buying me a fabulous full length fur coat ever since.  

That coat was talking.   It was absolutely beautiful.  And I could tell that it was also absolutely expensive.

And it looked fanastically marvelous on Albertina.

The show was  promoted by 1 of  the other radio announcers from the same radio station that I worked for.  His name was Herman Amish. .. I call it because I know a lot of  people know him, as he was popular on the gospel circuit.   Especially with the old timer gospel acts…  because Herman did a lot of  gospel promoting in and around Newark area at that time.  And he knew almost   all of the gospel acts during and before that time… as he had more than likely probably booked them for a show 1 time or other.

But of all the shows that Herman had done… it  was Albertina Walker’s show that I went to.  I had long admired her voice and her musical skills and  genius when it came to relaying feeling in her songs.   But I never knew she was a song writer too.  Albertina wrote “Please Be Patient With Me”  …and personal favortie of mine… “Joy Will Come.”  

I will never forget that when my mother passed Shirley Caesar had released “Joy Will Come” on her then latest CD.  And it was a duo with Albertina… there is nothing like it.

I have hunted high and low to find that CD ever since.  Because it gave me so much comfort at a very low time in my life… to hear it.  And I would sit at that radio station playing it over and over…and over again  just crying and thinking about my mother.

There are few real song writers any more.  And even fewer real people with true talent.

Truly, Albertina may have been gone from the scene for some time but her imprint will linger forever in gospel music… and its history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caravans

This morning a true gospel legend passed…  and her name was Albertina Walker.  She passed due to respiratory failure.   She was 81… and has now gone on home.

I don’t know about where you live… but the weather here has been unpredictable.  For a few days it has been wet and cold… then suddenly it is unbearably cold. 

At any rate the leaves are starting to change colors now.  So, I guess we are really into fall now.

Hope you have a great weekend.  I understand that it is supposed to be a 3 day weekend.  Guess I’ll run around tomorrow so I can rest all day on Monday.  Definitely, sounds like a plan.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2010 

Add a comment October 9, 2010