Posts filed under: ‘China‘
MUHAMMAD ALI… GONE AND I DOUBT THAT ‘THE GREATEST’S’ FLAME WILL EVER BE FORGOTTEN… OR GO OUT… and ORLANDO GAY CLUB KILLINGS…
Well, even his illness Muhammad Ali managed to avoid having passed long ago. For sure
LOUISVILLE, KY – JUNE 09: Muhammad Ali’s second wife Khalilah Camacho-Ali (L), his fourth wife Lonnie Ali (C), and daughter Laila Ali (R), holding a grandchild, attend an Islamic prayer service at the Kentucky Exposition Center on June 9, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky. The Jenazah service was held for the four-time world heavyweight boxing champion, who died on June 3 at age 74. A procession and memorial service are scheduled for Friday. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
some will say he fought a great fight… and perhaps his greatest was out side the ring fighting Parkinson.
I really do not know many people who have had the staying power of 
Muhammad Ali when it comes to battling the disease of Parkinson. And I guess 1 can say Ali fought and won because he managed, regardless of all the shaking… to keep his humor and be able to see the world in a light that most of us have no idea of… and the blessings we all have who do not have to battle to live or do for ourselves.
FILE – In this Oct. 1, 1975, file photo, spray flies from the head of challenger Joe Frazier as heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali connects with a right in the ninth round of their title fight in Manila, Philippines. Ali, the magnificent heavyweight champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality transcended sports and captivated the world, has died according to a statement released by his family Friday, June 3, 2016. He was 74. (AP Photo/Mitsunori Chigita, File)(AP6_4_2016_000105A)
I will never forget when Ali stood before the cameras and said because he did not believe in killing people based upon his religious belief… he, 
therefore, refused to be drafted and go to war, and fight in the Vietnam war. That action caused many who hated this young black kid, who was so skillful in the boxing ring to get the ammunition to really go after him. But though that action did color his earlier boxing achievements… and ended up with his title being taken from him, 
Muhammad Ali never let that stop him from being the regal sportsmen he continued to be until the day he died.
Another time I will never forget is when Ali during his time from being not allowed to box 
by the U. S. government… came to visit our college campus. He was in our Black House… the black student organization building… and he came to talk to us. I cannot remember what Ali talked about… as all I can remember about that day was that there were a number of us black students in the our Black House that day… and Ali took a hundred dollar bill and bought McDonald’s for all 
of us. This may not sound like much to you but to a whole bunch of mid-afternoon starving college students it was something truly great. We were ecstatic that this great boxer was on our campus and we had a chance to meet him 1 on 1. Could not get home quick enough to tell my daddy… who was a major Muhammad Ali fan.
Those of us who were fortunate enough to witness Ali from the
Mohammed Ali
beginning until his end can truly say that he was indeed ‘the greatest of all times.’ No other box has bought to the prize ring the kind of interest and excitement of an Muhammad Ali fight… which was always colorful and full of rhythms such as, ‘Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.’ Or give us a thrill like the ‘Thriller in Ma’nilla.’
Not many have lived to see the greatest basketball player of all times..
. Michael Jordan. Or the greatest female sister 
tennis players of all times… Venus and Serena Williams. Or the greatest base ball players of all times… Hank Aaron. The greatest golfer of all times… Tiger Woods. Or the greatest female vocalist of all times… Whitney Houston… and the greatest entertainer of all times… Michael Jackson. 
And Muhammad Ali the greatest heavy weight boxer of all times… from the Olympics into the professional boxing ring. And what a gift for trash talking
The winners of the 1960 Olympic medals for light heavyweight boxing on the winners’ podium at Rome: Cassius Clay (now Muhammad Ali) (C), gold; Zbigniew Pietrzykowski of Poland (R), silver; and Giulio Saraudi (Italy) and Anthony Madigan (Australia), joint bronze. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)
…until 1 day God shut all that down… but did not take his life until now.
Yes, he was pretty. No boxer prettier… or sharper or more on point 
than Ali. And an Ali fight was guaranteed to be exciting and filled with the unexpected.
Watching the funeral on the television and seeing all the religious leaders seated on the 
stage at Ali’s funeral, and being fully aware of Ali’s own religious beliefs… I could not help 
but think, ‘If you serve anything other than the 1 and only living God, and his son Jesus… than you can belong to as many religion groups as you want, and be the very best person in the world and never make it to heaven.’
It is my hope that Muhammad Ali’s last and fight battle was 1 he also won… and came to professed that Jesus is Lord, and not a lower prophet under Allah.
Odd how that massive and very powerful man was never stopped by any of his opponents, who were also big strong massive heavy weight men with plenty of strength. But having
U.S. boxing great Muhammad Ali poses during the Crystal Award ceremony at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland January 28, 2006. REUTERS/Andreas Meier/File Photo
suffered so many head injuries brought about a disease that ‘the greatest’ wrestled with for a very long time… and now probably never was overcome by it… but by age instead. And he went out of here smiling at the ripe old age of 74…smiling because he defeated Parkinson too… but could not overcome age though many have tried.
One thing is for sure …Foreman… Frazier… and all the rest would never be nothing if there had not been an Ali, who allowed them the privilege 
to claim into his ring…
Well, God bless… and hope you have a beautiful weekend this weekend. But as I close I cannot help but think about the terrible chain of events that took place in Orlando just this week.
After over a hundred people were shot and more than 50 killed it is insane to me to hear any pastor or supposed religious 
man laughing and stating from his pulpit that the cold blooded murder who shot and killed those people should have killed everybody who was in that 
gay club?
I have wonder what Bible are people studying from?
What manner of doctrine are they reading where it says, ‘God hated homosexuals enough to want them all dead.” If that were the case I am more 
than sure that God even back in Biblical times surely would not have stopped with merely 
Sodom and Gomorrah… especially since it is widely known as recognized as almost customary for such things as that among 
men in Greece during that time.
There is no way that this Orlando gay night club shooting should not be classified as a ‘hate crime’ irregardless of the ethnic background of the shooter and his religion… because this crime was perpetrated solely against the gay men in that club for reasons of hate… due to their sexuality … perhaps because he found them to be attractive… and of interest to his sick perverted sexual 
desires, which to the shooters ethnic group were both against his religion and ethnicity. Whom himself frequent that club trying to date many of those men… and met up with Hispanic gay men over the internet. And there can be denying that this all came about just as we entered into June, which is gay pride month.
Our God has not given unto us the spirit of hate… or hate mongering. But of love. Biblical scripture tells us that we are to love one another as we lover ourselves… this comes without conditions or any special exemptions.
http://www.advocate.com/religion/2016/6/14/baptist-pastor-who-cheered-orlando-murders-isnt-alone
I’m off my band wagon for now. But I pray that God sincerely touch every heart and change ever deprived mind that seeks to do evil.
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…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2016
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Add a comment June 18, 2016
WHAT IS ALL THE HYPE ABOUT??? WHO IS EDWARD SNOWDEN…
Concerning that guy held up in Russia. The 1 who supposedly spilled all the beans on the U.S. 
eavesdropping on its citizens.
I really don’t get it. Didn’t George Orwell spill the beans on that years ago, when he wrote that book that Big Brother was watching us… or would be. Since the book was futuristic.
So, the future has arrived and we find that the United States and probably every other country on this planet, with any kind of good sense is listening in on its citizens. Lets face it in the world that we live in today… it probably is a good thing that somebody other than thieves, murders… spies… rapists and espionage people etc. may or may not be listening in.
Oftentimes it appears that the wrong parties have the upper hand. In watching some of these television shows a lot more contracts would be put out for somebody to kill his or her husband or wife over the phone… or some other kinds of craziness… if they didn’t believe somebody might be listening in.
We live in a time of great peril. Hadn’t you heard, ‘Evil is everywhere?’
When George Orwell wrote ‘1984’ few people would have believed that 1 person would have be able to predict so much in our changing times that would someday come to pass. But Orwell did.
Was he a prophet?
Or was he just a person with a keen sense of being able to look at things as they were, and then be able to assess how they would be some time in the distant future?
When Orwell wrote ‘1984’ it was just 1949. What had been going on in the world then?
Had the first man walked in space by then?
No.
Had Kennedy been elected?
No.
So, what was happening in 1949 that Orwell could sit down somewhere and write a book called, 1984, that predicted events and changes in the world which did eventually come about?
One major thing was television. Electronic gadgets were starting to come into the market. The first 
commercial computer was introduced… didn’t do well and wasn’t well received. But it was there.
Color came into the homes when RCA developed the first colorized television set. China became a communist country and Russia unleashed the making of its first atomic bomb. Family incomes were growing, consumer purchases were sky rocketing, and the U.S. had emerged out of the Great Depression… and the 2nd World War had come to an end, 4 years earlier in 1945.
Undoubtedly, the U.S. at this point had emerged as a great World power. 
The Cold War between Russia and America was fully under way, and America’s Allies and its strength was growing. The C.I.A. was becoming active in aiding in setting up governments, and placing men of soon-to-be-power into power around the world. And Orwell was a journalist working for the BBC… the British Broadcasting Company.
When Orwell, a British Subject, as they say… and working for the BBC… wrote ‘1984’ he depicted a world run by a government that was omnipresent… observing all its people at all times… an existence totally politically directed by those in control…and where Big Brother’s eyes and ears were everywhere… an ever present force.
When you go outside today… out to the street and look up you see cameras on the street lights… hanging off of roof tops. They even tiny little cameras and mics that can be placed into very unsuspecting places… even in public places all about. Places like hotels… lobbies… even bathrooms… school rooms… commuter rails… even on someone’s person… etc. Therefore, it should not surprise you that you are being recorded… or your actions watched. We all have watched enough TV to see how detectives can go and acquire video footage from surveillance cameras in lobbies… 
parking lots etc… in order to aid them in tracking down criminals. Cabs have them… police cars have them… and sometimes full camera crews.
If they can use such equipment to observe and track criminals… what made you think it could not be used to observe you too?
I was surprised when someone told me that all I had to do was Google my address… and see what came up. What came up was not just a picture… but a whole satellite viewing of where I live… up and down my street… all around my house.
Then take for instance GPS systems… they can tell your whereabouts at any given time. You use them as directional devices, but that directional device can be used to track you. Such devices are embedded inside vehicles too by manufacturers. So, if you fail to make your monthly payment they no longer have to search or try to figure out where you are… if you are trying to avoid repossession. No, not any more. They can push it up on a computer and come right to where you are… wherever that it . And no matter where that is they will take possession of their property, depriving you of a vehicle until payment and fees are paid in full.
Rental cars too have embedded in them the same thing. So that if a car is not returned timely the ren
tal agency can go and get their property, as well.
When I read things on the social network it amazes me just how much information people share over such public outlets as the internet. They list their jobs… home address… phone numbers… email addresses… schools they went to… towns they live in… had lived in… show pictures of their children… list the names of their relatives… and show their pictures etc…
When Edward Snowden decided that he could no longer work for whatever governmental agency
that had hired him here in the U.S.A… because his conscious bothered him concerning how this government is secretly listening in on conversations of American citizens… my only question that came to mind was this…
Out of all the countries Snowden could have ran away to… why 
Russia?
I have heard people speak of Russia… ex-citizens of that country. And that government routinely indulges in practices that cannot even begin to come close to just listening in on its citizens conversations.
http://fox43.com/2013/07/24/snowden-still-being-held-up-in-moscow-airport/#axzz2aZnKWl4L
I was sitting in one of my college classes once… which wasn’t so very long ago contrary to popular belief… and this Russian woman came into our class to visit and speak about her country. She was a guest of our Professor. She spoke of how in Russia you could not just go into business unless the government allowed you. She talked about how the Russian government controlled the newspapers and television… all the media outlets in Russia. And how everyone there… in Russia was under the restraint and control of the Russian government.
So, isn’t it ironic to anyone outside of myself… did you not think it strange that Edward Snowden would have ran from Japan to go to Russia 
trying to seek asylum there?
It is very contradictory at the very least.
We are living in the turmoils of the many diverse problems in this world today, which include bombing of public places to kill and/or hurt as many people as possible.
I am one who believes that if the crooks and hackers can assess our systems, read our emails, go into our accounts… listen in on our conversations, go up over the internet to case our exact location and homes… apartments… where we eat… what we buy… then why would Snowden’s disclosure that our government is doing it… be of any great surprise or shock to me or any one of us?
It wasn’t… least ways not to me. I was never upset when after 911 they started stopping subway trains in New York City to do random bomb searches. And neither were any of the other passengers on the subways I rode with… we all understood the times we had just stepped into when the Twin Towers came tumbling down after being flown into by those 2 airplanes.
Why should I be?
Being held up for those searches we all understood… as we knew they were trying to protect us. Save more people from being killed senselessly. So, if the government has taken to listening in on phone calls and watching people… whose fault is that?
Whose fault?
The perpetrators. Clearly, they would love our government to sit back and do nothing… but wait until the
next strike comes… like helpless children.
Did not some kind of plan have to go into effect in defense of people possibly flooding into America to destroy her, and those of us who live here.
Yes, I do believe that Snowden should be prosecuted. Because he chose that job. I am sure that he was not brought into that job without the U.S. government informing him that he was going to come in contact with highly classified information. And based upon that… and I would have to believe that any oath he may have taken in order to obtain that job… which I assume paid Ed Snowden royally… he had a duty and responsibility to live up to. Up to the secrecy and security that that position called for him to maintain.
Information that has to do with the security of our country, and the means by which that 
information is extracted should be left to those who are the safe-keepers. However, should methods and techniques such as using undue force, harassment and intimidation etc. to acquire that information… those things I am totally and 100 per-cent against. And these are things that I hope anyone being party do bring forward… but I cannot put listening-in-on… upon that same level.
Now, had Snowden’s information been of something along the nature that may have caused mass harm or life threatening… like say the government was doing something that was detrimental to us… our health and/or welfare then I would weigh in on Snowden’s right of consciousness to do the right thing by disclosing that 
info to us. But to merely tell us that we are being listening in on by the government… No, that information played more to divulging our country’s security practices, more than any personal life threatening issues that we all needed to be made aware of.
I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I called the New York Telephone company to complain about other people being on my phone line. I could hear whole 2-way conversations. And I was sure that they could do the same when it came to my calls.
There was a time in this country and most countries, I suspect… when telephones first got started that there were nothing but what they then called ‘party-lines.’ Telephone lines where you could pick up the phone and if someone was on that line talking to someone else, you just hung up and waited until you could 
get a clear line. So, the ability to listen in on phone lines… and phone calls has a very long history, which dates back to the beginning of telephone service.
Lets face it, we are all aware that most of the phone lines and/or computer internet lines that we work on and/or talk over, and text over are not secure. In fact, when the portable phones came into 
being… you remember those cordless phones with the long antennas. Everybody knew that you could be listened in on at any given time, due to the lines crossing, by anybody in your neighborhood.
I frankly do not know anyone who talks about anything really important over a telephone… or in an email… or in a text.
We all of us… Or should I say most of us remember that it was text messages that brought down the Mayor of Detroit in
his escapades with his Office Administrator, Kwame Kilpatrick.
So, then how important was Snowden’s disclosure?
Not very. It just let out of the bag… and made public to all the world something that most people already understood to be happening or could possibly be happening anytime they picked up a telephone or cell 
phone to use it.
I would imagine that you would be very hard press at these times to find any country that is not using some type of surveillance system and/or listening devices in order to stem the tide of bombings, country take overs, aid in fighting against drugs and/or corruptness 
on ever level everywhere.
George Orwell when he wrote his book, 1984, saw many things. But he did not see the changes that would become necessary in a world that man would turn against man, for no unknown reason… or a just cause. Outside of shear hatred of a culture… and the freedoms of 1 country over another. Or a right to practice a different religion.
Snowden a 30 year old ex-C.I.A and National Security Agency employee leaked details on several top secret United States and British surveillance 
intelligence. A proclaimed Buddhist and whistle blower, Snowden grew up primary in North Carolina. And when all of this broken… this story on U.S.A secret surveillance programs… and about Snowden turning over these highly confidential government secrets, he had been assigned to a U.S. post in Japan, where which he later fled to Russia seeking asylum from the United States as a spy… espionage and theft of government information.
Well, God bless… Well, I’ve got to run. I’ve noticed that the campuses are starting to co
me alive again. Saw a few school buses drive pass me today… a clear signal that school is just about in again. Hope you enjoy the rest of your week. The weather here is beautiful. Such a relief from all the tremendous heat we had been going through.
UPDATE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2013… Russia has now given asylum to Snowden. Supposedly it is for a year. But some South American country had offered Snowden asylum prior… but Snowden did not accept it.
It all strikes me as being a bit too odd. Why would this guy want to defect to Russia… of all places?
If he is so big on human right… the right of the public citizens… our right to not have government listening in on our conversations… then why choose Russia, of all places?
I am beginning to believe that Snowden was… and is a Russian spy. From the very beginning this guy was a 
little to shady, as they say in ‘the hood.’ First he was ‘anonymous.‘ Then he ran away getting as quickly as he could to Russia?
This whole supposed whistle-blowing thing… I believe it will be proven to have been some kind of a scheme, cooked up as a well thought out plan for Snowden to have released American Intelligence claiming it was due to his conscience bothering him over what the American Government was doing. When it was nothing more than sheer just fabrication on his part and those working with him, to cover-up who Snowden really is… and just who he was really working for in the first place.
Truthfully speaking if they found out today that this whole thing was just 1 big fat lie… I would not be surprised.
Who in their right mind defects to Russia… a country with a history of routinely victimizing its citizens and invading their privacy?
Something is way out of whack here. And it just does not smell right.
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 ©2013
Add a comment July 31, 2013
A PARENT’S WORST NIGHTMARE…Sandy Nook Elementary School
Wrote this on my Facebook page….
“Can’t imagine getting up early in the morning and rushing to work…and seeing my children off to school…only to hear my child’s teacher’s son came to school with a gun shooting to death his own mother…and stealing away the life and breath of my baby as well…and 17 other poor little children unfortunate enough to be that boy’s mother classroom.
And he takes his own life without enough courage to face me…
My, Lord…when will this come to an end?
Had that young merely taken his own life first…
This current situation is more than sad….
Christmas for those parents will never be the same…nor their lives…
I pray a peace that surpasses all understanding come to them all right now…in Jesus name…”
enlisted in the arm services dread getting that call… or knock on their front door telling them that their son or daughter had been killed in battle.
deranged intruder steps in wheeling guns and begins picking off your child and all his classmates. Bang… bang… bang… bang… bang… And the teacher of the class… the school principal and other members of the staff and school?
thought was safe?
too much today… and you hoped that they didn’t get sick from anything they may have eaten last night?
enough to despise your child and every child in his mother’s classroom enough to kill them too?
whole story sounds like one motivated by selfishness. Because if it wasn’t then what was the purpose of also killing every child in that classroom?
off every little child in his mother’s classroom?
No… I think not. It cannot bring back all… or even 1 of those innocent lives which it so ruthlessly took. Twenty-six people… 16 or 18 little children… between the ages of 5 to 10… whose parents will never forget yesterday… when they woke up their child was alive. And less than 3 or 4 hours later they were not.
the strong lobbyist that are so adamant against laws being put in place against guns… it is these very people who are not locking up their guns which become so readily accessible to their wacked out children… who think it fun to go to school and kill a bunch of people.
all should be saying enough is enough.
they own should be taken. They can, of course, never repay for the lives that may have been taken by their child. But the parents should suffer financially as well… because evidently they were not paying attention …or the guns were too accessible to their wayward child.
It is insane.
Add a comment December 16, 2012
LONDON…2012 Olympics….
They say a picture speaks a thousand words…
Allyson Felix…got it! She’s going home with gold.
Yea, America!
Gabby Douglas…got a $90 million endorsement deal with Kellogg’s. Didn’t you…
and don’t you still love Kellogg’s’ corn flakes?
The tag team known as Serena and Venus…took away the gold
in the Women’s Tennis Doubles. And
Serena sweep the Women’s Single’s to walk away with its gold.
Yeah, I do…think it. A picture really does say a thousand words.
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 ©2012
Add a comment August 8, 2012
I’M BLESSED… Celebrating Gabrielle and Dominique… Olympic Games 2012
Wow, over the period of a few short months it is amazing how quickly things can change.
I just finished getting a text from a friend… and she began laying out to me just 
how very different this summer has been for her …juxtapose to last summer. Last summer we were breezing around eating hot dogs and ice cream cones here and there. While this summer we have yet to even see 1 another… and she just told me why?
For 1 thing her husband has been ill. So, she has been in and out of the ER… and 
doctor’s offices all summer long, she texted me.
The other thing is she has also been shuttling her daughter around… because her daughter’s car blew its engine. And they kindda just within a few months or so… just bought her that car to get around in at school.
And on top of all of this …she has her own health issues… and to top it all off… just last year her mother passed.
Did somebody say, “When it rains it pours?”
I guess my friend can attest to that.
And I thought I was facing something.
While sitting there texting back and forth with my friend with her laying out her summer woes to me… some workers on the college campus came in and sat down in the school cafeteria near me. And Jim, 1 of the workers, began laying out his summer to me… saying what a nightmare it has been for him on the job.
It seems that the whole campus heating system blew… which also effected the school air conditioning system. This in turn it seems forced all the summer classes to be placed in his building… the building he cleans. Which meant that while most of the summers he has only had to strip floors and do some waxing here and there at his leisure… not so this summer. This summer the floor stripping and waxing had to be put off… as his cleaning 
responsibilities had been far more than just doubled … say trippled by the additional people now using his building for classes.
But what Jim also told me kind of gave me reason to pause. He said that the school heating 
system was going to cost the school $2 million to replace… and that the school just did not have the money to get it fix. Jim also said that this winter students may be sitting in the cold all over the campus.
Wow… and I thought I was dealing with something.
Two million dollars????
And I thought I had heating problems.
While sitting there texting my friend and talking to Jim… I then got a phone call from a niece asking for some money. She said she was short on her rent, and that she had no money for food.
It is funny just how quickly your prespective on your own problems can change… when you come to realize just what other people are going through.
You know what?
I just realized just how blessed I am.
I am blessed. I am truly blessed… doesn’t matter what it looks like… or what it sounds like …land court… foreclosure notices… bills… repo’s… shut-off notices… etc…etc…etc. I want you to know that I AM BLESSED.
Hey, I would like to take this time to acknowledge all of you who have purchased my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE… can’t believe it. I definitely hope that each of you are enjoying it and have found it to be a good read. Please let me know what you have to say about it… I would love to hear from you. 
You can reach me by either emailing me… of which my email address appears in my book. Or you can just leave a comment right here on my blog.
Well, it looks like rain… so I have to get out of here gotta get downtown to pay something on my parent’s taxes.
Well, God bless… and enjoy your weekend. I need some real rest. Lately been waking feeling tired…but I guess if you went to sleep most nites after 3 AM you would be too. But I think that I am going to try and take it this weekend… in between pulling out and trying to kill some 
weeds around the yard. 
The Olympic Games… haven’t said much about them… because I no longer watch much tv. But happy about Gabby grabbing that gold… hadn’t missed that since it is all over the internet. She is stepping in the steps of another great gymnast… Dominique Dawns. And what a champion she was… and still is.
Usain Bolt “the Bolt” proved again during the Olympic Games that he is unbeatable. He is the world’s fastest man… nobody can even touch him. “The Bolt” is in a class all of his own… just proves what ‘yard’ cookin’ (as they say in Jamaica) …and having to walk for miles can build strength like nothing else can. Yea, Jamaica!
And I really cannot say enough about Serena this year… she has turned it all the way up. In spite of earlier health issues she has the determination of a true winner to not give in to it. Because to win… to win big… and to continuously perform on a very high level takes a lot… and whatever that lot is
… lets say it is desire… a deep desire to win… and a desire to win all the time. Truly Serena has it.
But what amazes me more and more about the Williams Sisters is their great passion not only for 
the game of tennis… but for each other… and their family. What a family… It is wonderful to watch their great out-pouring of love for one another and dedication. Even though their mother and father are no longer together it has never prohibited them, mom and dad… from being in stadium for their daughters.
I like through thick and thin stories… and this Olympic Games has more than a few of them. Truly all the athletes are to be applauded. It takes a lot of lonely hours… mixed with sweat to be at the top of your sport… and they do it. They do what it takes to not only get to the top… but stay there.
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 August 3, 2012
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 facebook 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.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 how 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 acce
pt 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 enviroment. It would seem that those executives learned something 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 break 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 of Montgomery to its knees in the mid 1960’s, and gave way 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 interfere 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 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?
After the 1st airplane into that air space… clearly, a 2nd air craft entering into that same air space should never have happened.
First of all, the air space around the whole area of the World Trade Center and Statue of Liberty was and is…a protected air space. Which means it was supposed 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…and 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 diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?
But then of course… nobody knows exactly how long Reagon had actually been losing it. Though I must say that most of the Republican Party seems to be fit candidates 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 undermine 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 later turned into lovely condominiums. And if the companies still exists 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 exist. Bank tellers have been replaced by atm machines.
The same has happened to a position called ‘receptionist.’ When was the last time you heard that word?
It is voice mail… and automated voice activated systems now. No more receptionist 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 o
f mad dogs.
Whoever said that Barack Obama was a magician?
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 political 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 slimy 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 barrel… all clamouring 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 Presidential Election between George W. Bush and John Kerry to see how demented the Republicans are. They saw nothing 
wrong …NOTHING…in undermining 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 champion 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 exist.
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 emergence 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 stations 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 regenerate 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 efficiently 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 teaching 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… tenure. Tenures will bite the dust just like pension plans… and all other full-time employment; and whatever else they can do away with for the sank of the bottom line.
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Soon even common currency 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.
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
Serena and Venus $50 mil…but not half of what they should… O’mama… Michelle…war…
While the Obamas have been taking Europe by storm 
the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena have been hard at it on the courts.
Just finished reading that between them Venus and Sererna have amassed 
over $50 million in tournament earnings. Wow…that really should 
motivate some people to get up and go out and learn how to play tennis…big time. However, as strong as they may be on the court the endorsement dollars still have not totally represented who they are and their standing in the tennis world.
Considering the fact that there are other players who have yet to see the 
type of wins and tournament money that Venus or Serena have managed to win…yet they have not been able to match their court success with bigger endorsement dollars…unlike some of their white counterparts.
For 
example Maria Sharapova reportedly has earned about $30 million in endorsements while having won only a mere $10+ million in tennis tournament money.
It seems to me that something is terribly wrong with that picture. Considering the fact that Serena Williams most recently became the highest grossing female athlete of all times. Based upon this fact alone the ad agencies and major companies should be running to her to sell or aid in branding their companies and/or products. But this is far from the case.
Perhaps, Venus and Serena aren’t complaining about it. Maybe through the years they have come to grips with the way the world is…and how it operates. But it is a shame that with all their skills and finesse upon the tennis courts…the mega ad deals and corporate sponsorships have not come their way. Clearly they have earned the right to reap the full benefits of their labor…not just the tournament wins…but lots more 
of that other money too.
In her joyous victory over Serena in the Women’s Final, Saturday, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus jumped for joy…she managed to do what many wish to do. She beat Serena. 6-1, 6-1.
Wow…what a lost.
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Sport/Story/STIStory_360463.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/othersports/2008976683_digs03.html
This past weekend Serena and Venus had another finals show-down. Playing 
down in Florida in the Sony Erricsson tournament, They played hard…and in the end Serena won over Venus, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3…in the Women’s Semi-Finals.
It is amazing how they can compete against one another and not let it interfere with their love, appreciation and respect for 
one another. It is just amazing…truly in their own rights they are not only great sports women but also fantastic role models for how siblings should feel about and treat one another.
Oftentimes, when one isn’t playing…the other is up in the 
stands cheering on and rallying support for her sister…which ever one it may be whether she is awaiting her turn to play…or out of the tournament because she lost. As well as, their mother, Oracene, and other family members…including 
their father…who by this time has probably married his young girlfriend (that is in another blog along with a picture or 2). As he had planned their wedding for the end of March or sometime during the first of April.
Of which…being that the young woman isn’t much older than them…or somewhere near Venus’ age…and for other obvious reasons the girls…Venus and Serena were not quite tickled pink at the announcement that their father was heading to the altar with the young woman whom he has been seeing for some time now. And it seems that she loves to shop…which means…spending their money.
Mighty Michelle…that is the name that the folks abroad have dubbed
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her. She was indeed stunning…with beauty and brains to match it is hard to 
beat First Lady Michelle Obama. And with his hand in hers…and hers in his they looked liked 2 teenagers in love over in Europe.
It is marvelous to see a man and woman who obviously love each very much that every chance they get they find a way to 
connect themselves with one another.
The Queen too was smitten by the Obama aura…something which seems to have swept the world. France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy loves him…and calls Obama friend.
Who would have thought that a man who many had debated whether he would 
be able to answer the call if a call came in the wee hours in 
morn concerning some type of U.S. calamity. They questioned his…what they called ‘his lack of experience.’ They questioned his ability to be able to handle foreign affairs…and how he would be able to handle himself around other world leaders.
Well, Obama put all those fears to rest this past week during 
his first visit to Europe for the G-20 Summit. For a guy who many scoffed at…and grinned over what they called ‘his lack of credentials.’ Told him that ‘he was wet behind the ears.’ I don’t know…but maybe that community organizing stuff that people laughed about paid off this past week…when Obama managed to mediate between a 
riff that developed between France and China during the summit…when both men became angry at one another and were nearly about to fight.
Obama not only managed to calm them both down but also got them talking and they came to some type of an agreement.
You know what?
There are benefits to learning how to work with people in the community 
that can really pay off when you come together with world leaders…and it is
called knowing how to break up a fight…how to negoiate…and things like that. You can’t learn that sitting in some office shoving papers all day and playing like politics is all there is.
Imagine…at his first time on the world stage as 
President of the United States, President Obama brokered a peace agreement between 2 nations…that were well on their way to disrupting the entire G-20 Summit by having a fist fight. That’s pretty good. Better than good…for a man who many questioned whether or not he was qualified.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D97AHEDG1.htm
At the location where I am currently working to launch my website…there is this guy name Josh, who coincidently shares my birth date…he was telling me the most interesting story about his little niece, who happens to be the apple of his eye. He says that every time she sees Obama on the television she begins pointing at the television screen saying gleefully-
“O’mama…O’mama…”
She is only about 2 years old…and can’t pronounce ‘Obama.’
Well, that will clearly change as she grows up. She will learn in history that one of them started the war and that other one put an end to it. As I am sure that the history books will be filled with information on the controversy that the Iraqi War brought not only to this country but around the world.
After 8 days of trying to re-new the spirit and trust of foreign leaders in this country…Obama paid a surprise visit to Iraq. There is something about going somewhere in order to get the full impact of the real situation. I found that out for myself following my mother’s passing.
I had relied upon others…my siblings…as we spoke on the phone or during my weekly visits home…which would always be on one of my days off from my job…but I depended upon others to be my source for what was happening at home…in the house with my father once my mother had passed. I never would have believed that the sources of my information were anything but truthful. It was not until I was forced to go home to stay amid my father being what literally amounted to kidnapped…by another sibling (who was more interested in his money than him)…that I found out the truth…and nothing but the truth…as it started to be revealed to me slowly over time.
Had I never been forced to return home…I would still be living in oblivion and listening to lies about what was really going on at home.
Going and seeing for himself…was something that yes…President Obama had to do. And judging by the pictures…the troops were happy to see him…greet him…and take pictures of him. All of which was something I never saw in any of the media stuff when Bush went to Iraq.
The job that those young people and others have been forced to do was 
huge and the outcome was never one that was going to be good. For one thing though no one says it…it was an act of aggression on the part of the George Bush Administration to initiate a strike against a country that posed no possible immediate threat or otherwise to us. Thus, there was and is no way that what started off as being bad in the first place could possibly be turned around…as nobody who lost their life…or a limb…or mental or physical state of being…or other problems or complications due to that war…there is never any way that they…or their families…or their love ones will ever be the same. Nor this country…but perhaps somebody thought this when we dropped that bomb on Hiroshima …and then on Nagasaki.
When President Harry Truman, in August of 1945, made the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Like Bush…Truman had committed political suicide by believing war and killing people is the real show of power. Truman’s fear of communism…the Red Threat…and whatever else that was running through his head at the time…including like Bush…he too had a plunging voter approval rating.
It is interesting how past Presidents used war like some type of commodity to use at will…as a means of vamping up their voter approval. War to them has long been held as a means of engendering country loyalty and solidarity. And they used war also as a means of creating jobs…and all with little care for the lives these wars would exact in return.
The unleashing of the single most dangerous weapon known to all of mankind…the atomic bomb by Truman was the most atrocious thing that any country could do to any group of people. And from that time to this…this country has sought to wide the memory of it from history.
To view just DOUBLE CLICK the LINK BELOW…ignore the text.
It is my hope that such weapons are totally removed from society…as the technology is entirely too dangerous…to even be used as an energy source. And as it renders those countries which have it trying to monitor and prohibit others from obtaining it…which speaks to the fact that the world would be a far better place without nuclear weapons.
But I applaud President Obama for being strong willed about bringing to an end a war that never should have been started in the first place.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=53820
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/story/989579.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-iraq8-2009apr08,0,642881.story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_af/piracy
I really do not know how long the Somali pirates believe that they can continue to interfere with the waterways by pirating ships?
At some point somebody…some country will not take it. And frankly, I do not believe that Obama is somebody to be played with. I know that there might be those of you who have a different opinion of him…but I can tell that he is nice and easy-going as long as you do not cross him. It was in the way he looked into the camera and kind of smiled one morning…though you knew he really wasn’t smiling…and then he said-
“Leave my wife and my children alone.”
You do remember that…that is when the Republican party during the campaigning period decided to go after Michelle Obama. Once Obama stared into that camera and said what he had to say…that campaign launched against Michelle Obama came to an abrupt halt. An immediate halt. I couldn’t blame them…you could tell that Obama meant business. And that is why I say-
“Obama is not a man to be played with.”
Yes, he can kid and joke with the best of them. But for anybody who believes there is not another side to him…look out. Everybody has another side…even me. And as kind as I am (lol)…I have scared my share of people…and
still do…when I have taken all that I was or am going to take.
It would be very foolish of the people of Somali to believe that the events that happened when that Black Hawk aircraft was shot down in their country years ago under Carter…will ever be allowed to be repeated again…with them dragging the bodies of Americans through their streets.
No…I don’t think so. America is not going to take that twice.
First Lady Obama, Michelle’s mother, Marian Robinson, is gracing the pages of Essence magazine. Didn’t like the make-up job though…or maybe it was the photoshop touch-up…but she is still beautiful. And Michelle 
looks just as beautiful sitting beside her mother.
I have said it before…and I am going to say it again.
“What a family.”
It is great to see the type of black families I have known all my life finally hit mainstream media in a continuous manner.
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=12897430&ch=4226714&src=news
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090409/ap_on_re_us/meltdown_shriners_hospitals
I think that the above story is sad. The Shriners Hospitals are really just too valuable to allow them to close…even one of their facilities much less 5 of 
them. There must be someone who is capable of aiding them. The number of children who need special medical care is growing…and the Shriners Hospitals because they are made to service children their medical facilities are happier and brighter places for children who have to be hospitalized due to a variety illnesses and accidents…burn victims etc… And can provide them with long care treatment right in their hospitals.
I have a younger cousin who fell out of a 3 story window years ago. She had to spend a very long time in the Shriners Hospital here. The injury impacted her growth andshe had other medical problems which were brought about due to that 
fall. It caused her to have to stay there for quite a while. That hospital provided for her a happy atmosphere with a great team of care providers who really know how to deal with every need of children from fear…to tears.
There have often been times when I wished I had money…so I could give it away. This is one of those times. I would give it to them.
I never knew that they offered their services for free. Wow…all the more 
reason to give.
If you would like to make a donation or contribution…you can do so via their website… http://www.shrinershq.org/
Or by contacting: Shriners International Headquarters
2900 Rocky Point Dr. Tampa, FL 33607
813.281.0300
Well, today is so beautiful…that I shouldn’t even tell you about it. But just keep it to myself…and not share it with anyone…as if I could bottle it up and store it somewhere.
Was in New York yesterday. Bought some things for Easter. I decided that I wanted something new and springy. So, I settled on something yellow and can’t wait to get my hair done and put on my new earrings and new wears.
I am looking forward to Easter…not because I want to show off some new clothes…but because I am just so thankful that God loved us enough to endow us with a special gift…his son. And that his son in turn loved us so much…that he laid down his life that we might live…might walk in liberty and free from the yokes and bondage of all the things we once allowed to hold us hostage. And if you did not understand that…you should get yourself a Bible and begin to search it out for yourself. It is something that I am still doing…and have no doubt that I will be doing for the rest of my life. Continuing to read and search it out for myself.
Well, enjoy your Easter…remember Him and eat an 
Easter egg for me.
And to all of those of you abroad serving this country with pride and dignity…I wish you well. And with God’s speed hopefully you will soon be home.
Well, it is just about Easter…
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 ©2009
Add a comment April 10, 2009
More on the Olympics… Jamaica, yes…
What a season for Jamaica. They are
takin
g the Track & Field events by storm… from Usain Bolt…the lightening bolt..
.to Jamaica’s other lightening bolts…the ladies on the track…Veronica Campbell, Shelly Ann Fraser, Sherone Simpson, Kerron Stewart etc…etc…
CLICK the following LINK BELOW to see the Lightening Bolt take the 400 meters in Bijing.
http://newscenter.zideo.nl/index.php? Shelly Ann Fraser taking the gold followed by Jamaica also tying for double silver.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0628/p01s01-woam.html
Jamaica went crazy seeing Bolt take gold in the 200 meters…CLICK BELOW to watch.
Shelly Ann Fraser
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/08/21/jamaica.200.ap/index.html
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=207187&cl=9413754&ch=6527422&src=sports
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080814/sports/sports2.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/olympics/2008/08/track_flash_americans_jamaican.html
http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/beijing-games/story.html?id=737528
Audio only on the next clip…but well worth listening to as they call the race.
Now, watch it below…
This is so much fun. I enjoy putting these things together…and I hope that you are enjoying it as well.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,404804,00.html
http://www.spikesmag.com/news/usainboltfliestoolympicdoublein1930125.aspx
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2007/12/09/2007-12-09_jamaican_track_star_remembered.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0628/p01s01-woam.html#
http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/10935/48/
A few positive words from USA’s Allyson Felix on being positive and believing in yourself.
You have got to watch this clip below…and I only thought they won metals that went around their necks. Wooa!
Some pre-warm up tips from Sanya Richardson.
Thanks, Sanya…good looking out. We appreciate the tips.
Most have been disenchanted with the coverage of the Track & Field events which always draw huge amounts of interest…but unfortunately NBC felt it was much more important to watch Michael Phelps…following and watching his every move…rather than to watch records being broken in other equally important events…and of interest to wider audiences than swimming. Causing many who would have loved to see some of these other records being shattered in other sporting events to have missed out.
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=207187&cl=9335715&ch=6527422&src=sports
In other Track & Field news at the Bijing Olympics…Bryan Clay, USA, is working his way towards his decathlon metal. CLICK LINKS BELOW to read more on that. the.honoluluadvertiser.com/…/01/sp/sp02a.html http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/track_field/news;_ylt=AjsXbQYKTOdCPXWpgcM.Q_fQ1Zl4?slug=ap-ath-trackandfield-heats&prov=ap&type=lgns
More USA Track & Field news…both the men and women relay teams dropped the baton during the 400 relay…CLICK LINK BELOW to read more on the story….
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/track_field/news?slug=ap-ath-relays&prov=ap&type=lgns
http://www.nbcolympics.com/trackandfield/news/newsid=242887.html?_source=rss&cid=
Well, if you have spent the past week getting your sport’s craze on…good for you. There has been much to digest…and it has been exciting…seat clutching in fact. And if you are like you have can’t get enough of Track & Field. Well, I hope that this blog along with my other one on the Olympics has aided in some small way to help you get your dose of sports…and caught you up on things that you may have missed.
And as I close…don’t forget…to ‘pass it on’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com …God bless and have a beautiful day tomorrow.
I’m suppose to be working on my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE. But I can’t stand hold ups. When I finish a thang I finish it…and move on to the next thing. I don’t like having to come back unless there is 
some type of benefit to doing so…in this case there was. But it doesn’t mean I don’t hate it nonetheless. But this delay has probably saved me a lot of money. In fact, it has saved me money…at corrections costing $2/per correction…then consider me being ahead of the game.
I caught stuff this time that would have definitely sicken me if my book had been published with them. Even with these blogs…I have to keep going over and over them…often resting between reading them…so, that I can read them with a fresh eye. That way my mind won’t read the text as I believed how it typed it…but as it is.
It is not easy…so, bare with me.
Follow your dreams…and hold fast to your vision.
Finally, took an iron tablet today…can’t remember when last I took one. I am trying to be diligent in taking them…but sometimes I just forget. Then as my energy level sinks, I remember them. But I thank God that all I need is a little iron tablet. I am bless…and hope that you are too. ©2008
Add a comment August 21, 2008
Olympics 2008… Williams’ …Track & Field, baby
The Bijing Olympics Games 2008 are almost over…and to date we’ve have only grabbed 22 gold metals compared to China’s 39…and Great Britain l2. If 
you have been like me and haven’t watched any of Olmpics yet…it is till not too late. There are still plenty of events straight through to the 24th of this month.
1. Track & Field
2. Basketball
3. Canoeing
4. Equestrian
5. Gymnastics
6. Swimming
7. Volley Ball
8. Diving
CLICK BELOW for scheduling of events….
http://www.chinaorbit.com/2008-olympics-china/olympics-2008-timetable.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92642187
For their second time in the Olympics, Serena and Venus have walked off the courts with the gold in the Women’s Double’s match…they walked all 
over the competition delivering 6-2, 6-0 to take home the gold.
And if you’re like me…and missed them during the Olympics…but can’t get enough of the Williams’…here’s something for your Williams sisters’ habit.
Just love those Williams sisters…Venus and Serena. Now, that is what I call family…and as all families should be. CLICK BELOW for the full story.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-olytennis18-2008aug18,0,2450347.story
Cannot close without mentioning a little Track & Field…just lov
e the sport. In fact, many would not believe this…but when I was growing up…I used to fantasize about being a Track and Field star.
Well, lets face it if you’re going to fantasize…why not put yourself at the very top. So, yes…star. And I really really did fantasize about it…and often. In 9th Grade, I was the fastest girl in my class. During gym…as a warm up the teacher would take us outside (our
school had a track) and he would have us all line up and then count us down to ‘go.’ For the first 50 yards…no one could catch me…but I would always be the last one walking around track…into the finish. But I prided myself on that first 50 yards…I could not be caught.
Once my father took us out to one of the local tracks and raced us. He shouted ‘go’ and let us all start running before he started running…but once he started running he blew right pass us. I recall feeling the win
d as he sweep pass me, my other sisters and brothers. I will never forget that day…because I never knew daddy could run. But he’s a Jamaican…and even though he was years older than us…and we were not young kids when he did it…nevertheless, he beat us ha
nds down. I marvelled at it…I was amazed by it…I thought about it all the way home as daddy drove us first to get some ice cream cones, and then home from the track. I wondered how he had done it. And when I say ‘flew pass us’…you would’ve had to have been there. It was definitely one for the books. Today, when I think back on it…and realize that maybe I could have been that Track & Field star…as speed evidently was and is in my genes. “Go, Jamaica!”
Boy, I could have been a Wilma Rupdol
ph or an Evelyn Ashford…Flo-jo…Marlene Ottey…if only somebody could have seen my potential. I could have been the Tiger Woods…Venus and Serena…Cullen Jones…all wrapped in one of the track. And yes…as you see I am still fantasizing. But I could have been it though…I could have… I know I could have.
http://www.2point6billion.com/2008/08/14/asians-win-31-gold-at-the-olympics/
Jamaica…1-2 & 2…in for gold and a tie for double silver…what an Olympic story. Go Jamaica…go!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/jamaicans-1-2-3.html
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/track_field/news?slug=ap-ath-mens200&prov=ap&type=lgns
More men track & field events….
And of course Cullen Jones…taking home his gold…
To read more regarding the Bijing Games CLICK on the LINKS below…and check out the info on the Women’s and Men’s basketball beneath it.
Congratulations to Lisa Leslie and American Women’s Basketball team from bringing home yet another gold metal…their 6th total…straight. Go, USA!
http://www.abc.net.au/olympics/
http://news.yahoo.com/fc/Sports/Olympics
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/news/olympics/
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/olympics2008/index.html
http://www.examiner.com/x-426-Sports-Examiner
Women’s basketball…
http://www.lsusports.net/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5200&KEY=&SPID=2167&SPSID=27830
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/basketball/story/2008/08/11/olympics-basketball-women.html?ref=rss
Men’s b-ball…
http://www.sportsline.com/olympics
http://www.usabasketball.com/news.php?news_page=2008molyschd
Enjoy your day…and the Olympics.
Bring home the gold…
Had a busy weekend. But it was a good weekend…I am paying for it now. But I won’t regret it.
Be encouraged…love the Lord…and always believe. God bless…
And keep reading…thank you for reading.
And I do hope that some of this is making sense to you…if so ‘pass it on…’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2008
Don’t forget that your vote counts…so, please get registered if you are not. And if you are registered…stop by your local Voter Registration Office to double check on your registration…so, there won’t be any surprise
s on Election Day. It has happened to me a couple of times. Once they claim I hadn’t filled out a US Census form…and I hadn’t. But did that have to do with my vote? It is a game…to keep down certai
n numbers…any ol’ thing to hinder you. That is what they will do…throw up anything ol’ thang to stop you from voting. So, don’t be hindered…double check your registration before November just to ensure you won’t have any problems casting your vote come Election Day November 2008. ©2008
Add a comment August 18, 2008
Cullen Jones, Venus & Serena …Michelle O
It’s 4:00 and I’m just getting up. Didn’t go to sleep until after I mopped the kitchen and bathroom early this morning and scrubbed down the tub. Sometimes you just can’t sleep until you have done some things…and that was after 5 AM this morning.
I guess I sho
uld have turned on the television yesterday so I could have seen Cullen Jones shatter the World Record at the Olympics in China. He is classified as the fastest swimmer in the world…#1, baby. Ching-ching…I hear the cash registers now.
And they said we couldn’t swim.
Born in the Bronx…as in New York City…all the more reason why he should not be a swimmer…but maybe a ball handler.
So much for stereotyping.
New York is known as the concrete jungle…simply because there isn’t much green. Few trees, grass, parks etc. But plenty of playgrounds and basketball courts. It is a wonder that more champion basketball players don’t come from it…which by the way is the home of LaBron James…Brooklyn in the house.
Raised in New Jersey…Irvington…which at one point was rated as the having the higest rate of auto thief in the U.S. It’s part of the Newark, East Orange part of Jersey…and it can be very rough.
Did I say can?
It is very rough.
In fact it is so rough…that Whitney Houston made a point of reminding Wendy Williams that she was from Newark.
When I heard Whitney say that…I had to laugh…because I knew what it meant. It meant that Whitney was not afraid of storming up into that radio station and taking care of Wendy on-air or off of it. That is how those folk in Newark think…those Jersey people. They are rough.
I never really listened to this Wendy and Whitney interview (all the way through) until after I posted this blog…and though I am not a cursing woman…and hate to hear such language…I can only say that one day Whitney will look back (as many of us have) and wished she could remove all of these things which are in the public domain…because she will regret them. Maybe the not telling off of Wendy part…but she will regret the state that she was in at the time.
I know a changed Whitney Houston is going to emerge one day…one who will proclaim that this was who she was…’but today I am a new creature through my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.’ And she shall walk in the steps that God has ordered for her.
Once I started looking up in youtube for the Whitney stuff and Wendy…I could not resist these other videos.
Let me take the time to say that I am praying for Whitney Houston who after a 
concert at Radio City (some years ago) where I had an opportunity to be at the after party…and everybody who is anybody was there…LaToya Jackson, Cicely Tyson…I can’t even think of half of the people who were there…just everybody…Stevie…every artists and New York City media person and politician etc. All of them clamoring for a piece of Whitney. She was the diva of the hour. In demand at every turn. My how they seemed to love her then.
I think back on that night and Whitney’s fall…and all the jokes that have come upon her since having fallen…and I think about how people truly are. Everyone loves you when you’re up…but don’t fall. They’ll make jokes about you and call you outside of your name. There is something about kicking people when they are down…that so many seem to love to 
do. I suspect it all stems from some level of envy of the person while they were up…and of course, there is money in being mean…just ask Wendy.
It is sad…I pray that Whitney’s life will turn drastically around and that she will become a true witness and testimony about the goodness of God…because He is capable of doing all things. I can say this because I know what He did for me.
How could I have been so deep into lesbianism…and yet He pulled me out…and turned me around?
I was far from seeking a change in my life…but God wasn’t.
I see it in her…Whitney…particularly in that youtube clip where she talks about her daughter…of one day sitting back and seeing her daughter as a woman of God. That speaks volumes…for Whitney and the training that her mother instilled in her.
***She is on her way back!!!
Praise the Lord.
I serve a God who can do all things…but fail. I am happy to see that 
Whitney is getting her life back on track. And hopefully at some point that she will begin to walk in the steps that God has ordered for her life.
Though you can see the scars from the years of the drug abuse…but she looks great… and more and more like her aunt…Dionne.
The prayers of the righteous availeth much.
Now back to Cullen…that other person from New Jersey…the Jersey boy…or should I say young man who will be coming home an Olympic Champion…and had left for China as already being one.
I used to work at a radion station in Jersey, WNJR…and had to go through those mean streets many a days to get to and from work. Newark…Irvington…Union and the Oranges are no joke…New York was a lot milder.
Ranked #1 in the world the 50 meters freestyle, Cullen already has a 7 year deal with Nike which is
reportedly worth more than $2 million. Not bad for a bright young man with some really fast swimming skills.
At 24 years of age…Cullen having broken 3 world records can look forward to many more endorsements…which will surely be for quite a lot more money since he will be returning home all wrapped in gold after last night’s race through that beautiful water of that Olympic pool in China…and the team gold he also managed to acquire.
An English Major with a Minor in Psychology from North Carolina State he is said to be very humble. And he is a champion who wants to give back to his community and that is oh so…so important.
Cullen is to be saluted…for his valour, his devotion, his God given skills, humility and generosity of spirit…a real champion. His mother and father taught him well.
Serena and Venus have won 3. On Tuesday they won in their singles matches and in their doubles game. CLICK below to read more.
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/tennis/news?slug=ap-ten-tennis&prov=ap&type=lgns
Shame on China for deciding that one little girl was not good looking enough…but that she had a great voice. So, they elected to allow a more visually attractive little girl to lip-sync while the other little girl, 7 years old, with her crooked teeth and lack of stage presence was hid away from the public eye…as she sung their Olympic song.
What a sad story that is. And that 7 year old will probably grow up to be such a beauty…and still have a fantastic voice…probably even better. And she’ll have the last laugh then.
What a disgrace for China.
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ap-china-lip-synchedsong&prov=ap&type=lgns
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=207187&cl=9247790&ch=6527422&src=sports
The Democratics are getting ready for the Democratic National Convention set to kic
k off on August 25th in Denver, CO. During the first night of the convention Michelle Obama is set to be speaking.
I guess I will have to turn on the television…I do not want to miss a minute of the convention. This is as much history in the making as when the founding fathers decided how this country was going to be run…and formed the policies for its operation…called the Constitution of the United States.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080812/ap_on_el_pr/democratic_convention_speakers
Xia xia…that’s is Chinese for thanks or thank you…for reading. And pass it on… www.bsmith101.wordpress.com to all your friends, family and foe. Enjoy the rest of your day…and God bless… ©2008
Add a comment August 12, 2008
John Edwards… biggest con job …Hayes & Mac
For some reason I just can’t get out of my head how John Edwards had me 
completely fooled.
It has to be the biggest political con job in the world.
I will tell you this…if I had known anything about that video footage that that woman had shot of John behind the scene…I would have been able to tell that he was not what he projected in public…on the political stage.
Where I had thought of him being quiet and comtemplative…in the footage he is chatty and laughs a lot…such as the time in his behind the scene footage where he is in the car. He tells how he told the television host that if he were going to run for President then he would announce it on his show. In that sequence…you see a John Edwards who marvels at his own craftiness…something that you totally would not expect of him. Then there is another sequence where he looks into the camera playfully teasing with the woman (Rielle Hunter) and calls her ‘camera-girl.’ Yeah…and that was not all she was.
Yes, in that footage of John Edwards behind the scenes…you do see a side of Edwards that you didn’t know was there.
It would seem that the person whom I thought he was…was really just a fake.
Media is a great tool…but you better know how to use it. And use it wisely.
If you are going to have a camera following you shooting behind the scene footage of you as a mean of aiding in people getting to know you…you better not forget that there is a camera there catching your every nuance and word.
In fact, if a camera is there…you better remember that you are still on stage. Something that Jesse Jackson, I think, recently just learned.
But Edwards…I thought he was a family guy.
I thought his wife was his childhood sweetheart…and the only woman he had ever known.
Well…that is what he made it sound like every time I ever heard him tell the story.
The Nightline interview was a disaster for poor John…whom in watching you got the distinct idea that maybe his wife told him that she wasn’t going on the show with him. It was in how when he tried to explain her not being there…he stammered and stuttered through it…which is something he did through much of that interview.
Finally, poor John just broke down saying he was a man who needed to do it alone…talking about the interview. And I am sure he was right…as it seems he had no problem doing a lot of other things alone…I mean without his wife.
A novice filmmaker whom Edwards met in a bar in New York City, Rielle Hunter managed to land a job on Edwards’ staff during his 2004 bid for the White House. And he paid her $100,014.00 to do it…to shoot behind the scene video footage???
Hiring that woman…putting her upon his payroll was more than a one time thing…she got to fly around the world with him pretending to just be shooting behind the scene video footage.
For Edwards to claim that being 99% honest is not enough…shows just how far off the mark he really is.
What kind of a dumb statement is that?
Ninety-nine per-cent?
His claims of no affair…and not being unfaithful to his wife…were 100% untrue. He wasn’t even 1% honest. So, how could he lay claim to being 99% honest…when he was not being honest at all?
What a con job.
What a con job.
To read and see more on this CLICK the 2 LINKS below and then check out the youtube footage.
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=9217808&ch=4226716&src=news
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=9217808&ch=4226716&src=news
How do you throw away everything just like that?
People do it everyday…they just take everything and flush it down the toilet for something that later on they mostly all come to regret…all for a few fleeting moments of supposed ecstasy.
Being in media as a woman you come in contact with a lot of men. Sometimes it can be quite sickening. There seems to be something inside men that can’t stop them from trying to chase down women…young and old…no matter what they look like. And, of course, the opposite can sometimes be equally as true of women chasing down men…particularly rich and powerful men…or men in the arts and media.
But lets stick with men for the moment…maybe it is a thing of trying to see if they still have it going on. Who knows.
Sometimes it is just about seeing how many women they can get sexually.
I recall getting into a cab and the cabby telling me out of the clear blue sky that he was not one of those 30 second men. Which he followed up by asking me to have sex with him.
I acted as those I had not heard him…and never commented on the subject.
He was not a bad looking guy…but why bring up something like that? Or ask me something like that?
I recall once in New York City having to rush a package to Fed-ex on 42nd Street…as it was the last Fed-ex office open any where in the city at that hour which near midnight…and my package needed to be in the mail and postmarked before midnight.
I jumped into the cab in the Wall Street area and asked the cabby to rush.
Through the whole ride, from Wall Street to mid-town, the cabby was try
ing to seduce me. He would not hear anything I was saying…no matter how many ways I said ‘no.’
When I was getting out of the cab to rush inside Fed-ex…happy to final reach my destination and get out, he took my money asking me-
“Do you want me to wait?”
And I said, “No, it is going to take me a while.”
“That’s okay. I don’t mind waiting.”
I told him no…but that cabby waited and waited just outside that Fed-ex office on me.
Once I was through getting my package off…I stood inside wondering what I was going to do…as I could clearly see the cab outside throught the window of the Fed-ex office…he was really waiting on me.
Of all the women in New York…why me?
Luckily that Fed-ex office stayed open through the night. But also very fortunate for me…I noticed that there was a bus stop right outside it’s door.
A group of people were waiting on the bus…and as the bus pulled up…I dashed out of the Fed-ex office and leaped on the bus taking it to the nearest train station so I could jump the train to Brooklyn.
Talk about ‘Sex n da City.’
But why are men like that?
I once got a job offer to do radio…I forget where really but it was somewhere South. The radio station manager/program director and I were talking on the phone trying to work out all the particulars for my arrival…when I asked-
“So, where will I be staying?”
“I thought you could stay with me until we can find you a place.”
He went on to tell me about his house and how much room he had.
There went that job.
That was it for him. Needless to say…I never set one foot in that radio station or his house. But thank God he had be truthful in saying what he did…otherwise I may have been stuck.
Enjoy you day. and God bless….
UPDATE on EDWARD’S STORY: It is amazing to me just how many men… and I guess women also… toss aside a good decent relationship. They chose trash over class… and seem to at the time be obssessed with what they are doing and who they are doing it with… until it all starts to fall apart. And they find out they lost more than they can ever hope to regain.
Below is the LINK to Elizabeth Edward’s story of her final battle with cancer. But let me preference this by saying… I truly believe that no matter what doctors say… God has the final word. And I pray that she will yet some more time… and without pain.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101207/ap_on_re_us/us_elizabeth_edwards
Oh, yeah. I’m usually excited about the Olympics but this year for whatever reason I could care less. Haven’t turned on the television one time to watch anything…and probably won’t. May regret it…but for some reason I am just not interested.
Can’t believe that Issac Hayes, 65, just died. And right after Bernie Mack, 50. They 
say that death comes in 3’s.
I have 2 funerals this week that I must attend. Thursday is the funeral for my friend whom I informed you in earlier blogs that we believed that she was in the process of passing. The following day after she had passed I received a call that a cousin in Florida had just passed, as well. I am happy for them both to be released from the cares and pain of this world. As I know that in the end they both were suffering and had lingered in states that they really didn’t want to be in.
It is so hard to loose love ones. But it is exceedingly hard to see someone suffer…and get so far down that they can do nothing for themselves.
My friend whom we had believed was passing had gotten into a state where she could not walk, eat or talk…and could not even turn herself having become bed ridden. It was hard seeing someone who had been so active and alert in that state…someone with whom I had shared some much and her with me. I 
wanted to take her out of the rehab center and take her for one last drive around the city…but I was told she was unable to leave.
All I could think about was giving her one last time out in the fresh air.
When I was in LA…one morning we went for brunch on Sunset Blvd at some vegetarian place. We were seated at the table…and I heard a voice. The voice caught my hear and it was right beside me.
I knew immediately who it was…I afterall had played his music over the radio airwaves for years. And at college when his ‘Black Moses’ album came out…if you worked overnight…or late into the AM…we would just put it on and let a whole side play.
When I heard the voice I didn’t dare look over. I looked down instead. And there to my surprise was this long leg stretched over near me…with a loose sandal on its foot.
I knew that voice anywhere…and had often debated who was greater…more talented…him or Barry White.
It was of course, Issac Hayes…in my opinion. He was seated at the table with a white woman…who I thought was an agent or PR person…as they were talking business.
I could not believe that I was in LA…and seated right next to me was Issac Hayes…the Black Moses. And when I say seated next to me…he wasn’t even 5 inches away.
I didn’t say anything to him…we never interrupted him…as I made everyone at the table aware that I was sitting next to Issac Hayes.
You don’t interrupt the Black Moses.
Then a few weeks after getting back into New York…there was that voice again. He was now on my radio…aiding in doing the KISS-FM morning radio show…Issac Hayes, Linda Tripp and the whole 98.7 FM morning crew.
Sorry, but 
I don’t have any Bernie Mack stories except I liked his TV show…the few times I had an opportunity to watch it. It definitely was an intelligent program that not only entertained but tried to pass along a lesson or 2…Bernie style.
There is much death all about.
The Bible says…we know not when…or where.
Thanks for reading. and pass it on…share this blog address with all your friends and family…and anybody and everybody else…. www.bsmith101.wordpress.com pass it on…and have a beautiful day.
Don’t forget that if you are not registered to vote…please get out and get registere
d…and take everybody with you who you know is not…or bring them back the registration forms to get registered. And we will see you all in the voting booth come November…Obama…all the way! © 2009
Add a comment August 11, 2008
It hurts sometimes… but you just have to say it
Let me apologize to all the office workers out there…because the worker who was trying to help me…well, she was right.
I had it all messed up. Sent them the wrong forms and everything.
So, office worker’s of America…I apologize. It is not always you. Nor is it always your fault. But sometimes it is us. (you can read my last blog to get the whole story)
I was talking with a friend most recently who told me that I rarely think that I am ever 
wrong.
Which is definitely not the case.
Only a fool would think that. And there are a lot of people who believe that they are never wrong…but I am not one of them.
Not only can I be wrong…but I have done some stupid things in my life. Said some things…that I should not have. Acted in ways…that I wouldn’t have liked to acted but did.
That is why growing up is so important. Accepting responsibility is a very necessary factor…and just being able to say-
“I was wrong.”
Or yes…even, “I’m sorry.”
Sometimes if you just say it to nobody but yourself…
“I was wrong.”
It is better than never saying it at all.
But here is one that really should be said as often as you can.
“I love you.”
And to as many people as you can say it to…with truth.
The Olympics start tomorrow. I understand that there are some issues with smog. Some of the athletes are even wearing facial masks in order try to keep out the pollution. Though the Chinese Government says that there is no reason for alarm or concern. They, however, placed a ban on their over 3.3 million
vehicles on the road by drasticly cutting the number of vehicles they will allow to operate on the roadways during the Olympic Games.
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ap-ioc-pollution&prov=ap&type=lgns
Just a little tidbit on the effects of bad quality air.
When I was in LA for the first few days it didn’t bother me…but as the days worn on. I started feeling continuously dehydrated. I could not get enough to drink. I didn’t know what it was. Then physically I started feeling sluggish…like my energy level was way down.
It was the smog. And LA is loaded with it…you can see it.
When you are accustom to breathing that in everyday…of course, it won’t have any effect upon you. Because your system is use to it…and your body has adapted to it. But coming from the East Coast….no, baby.
It bothered me. And the effects of it were very real.
Well, thanks for reading. ….and God bless.
Oh, yes.
I’ve got to get you ready for November. Please at some point just drop by City Hall and double check your voter registration. There is nothing as frustrating as waiting in line to place your vote…and then being told that there is some kind of problem.
One time it was because I hadn’t filled out some consensus form which had bee
n sent to the house. And another time…I can’t even remember what that was about.
But both times I was prohibited from voting. These are the kind of things which come up and can make a large difference in whose votes get counted and whose 
don’t.
So, before November run into your local Voter Registration Office and just double check your status…to ensure that you vote gets into the mix and is counted.
And while you are in that office grab up some voter registration forms to pass out to all your relatives and friends…get it back from them and take them to the voter registry yourself. Lets get everybody registered and out to vote this coming November.
And don’t forget to pass it on…. Why not share me with all your friends and family etc…etc…? www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2008
Add a comment August 7, 2008
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