PAULA WHITE… UNEVENLY YOKED…

I know…   I know… I’m late on this but from the moment that I found out… which was recently like last week… that Paula White got divorced and married a rocker I thought to myself.

Married a what???

A rock and roll rocker… as in musician????

Paula White the woman who became the head of what’s his name church in Orlando… who had a church in Tampa.   That Paula White???

Yes, that 1.

Needless to say that it struck me odd that a so-called woman of God would even consider marrying a man… all tattooed up and still plays as a musicians touring on the road.  He is in his mid-sixties while Paula claims to be in her mid-forties… with each
having married three times.

His name is Jonathan Cain… I’m not really familiar with him.  But then I have never followed rock music or any of its groups outside of the BeeGee’s, Hall & Oates… if you can call them a group… and maybe 1 or 2 others but that
has been it

But it is not him who I wish to speak about… but Paula.

I first saw Paula on television.  I guess the Word Network where she had been a fiery  woman of God, at the time… who definitely knew the Word and could preach it.   But over the course of time… lot most of the TV evangelists and pastors … or so-called… that I have seen on television they soon loose sight  of God and become all about money.   And that is exactly the only thing that Paula White seems to be consumed with getting… and does not mind freely letting you see that that is what she is all about these days.

I happened to come across the information of Paula’s wedding over the internet… on youtube.  Where I thought it was interesting that the 2 videos talking Paula White and her new man… were 2 white people.   Some man and some woman… who appeared to have a connection with each as the basic look of their videos were the same.  But since Paula White’s congregation for the most part… as part as I have seen… has primarily been and continues to be majority African American… I would have expected videos on youtube regarding Paula’s wedding to been from some black folk.

I read where someone on Facebook posted on their page last week this question, ‘Why can we find black churches under the leadership of a white pastor, but cannot find the reverse?’

That is a very real question.  Black are by far more accepting of having a white person leading them as a pastor than the opposite.  A perfect example of this is the break between the Church of God in Christ and Assemblies of God.

When the Church of God in Christ was birth under Bishop C. H. Mason a number of white folk were also involved and in membership but later the white member withdrew from the Church of God in Christ to create their own denomination known as the Assemblies of Christ.   This example of the split in membership between the white members and black members of the Church of God in Christ does strongly suggest that black people… though we had gone through slavery and oppression in many countries …not just in America but around the world… but when it comes to laying aside every weight and bias …especially when it comes to matters of God… black folk are by far more forgiving and tolerate than white people and can lay aside the color of someone’s skin.

But I am not trying to give a history lesson here.   I want to comment on Paula White becoming unevenly yoked.  But that is not to say that maybe she had not done so before.  Because after all she had had 3 prior marriages… just like the man she married.   So, both Paul and her rocker husband make the fourth marriage that each of them have said ‘I do’ to.

But how does a woman who professes to know the Lord.  None less a pastor of the Word of God marry 4 times?

And the the 4th time being to a man in his 60’s who has spent his life playing and writing rock and roll music… and still does for a living?

Clearly, he has money.  And we know that Paula definitely has money especially since her television time tab is picked up by the church she stepped in to assume the pastoral of following the death of Zachary Timms… giving way for a takeover by some church heads to put in slave master Paula White.   Because if you listen to those youtube videos this 2 people uploaded

While Zachary was making a name for himself in Orlando, with New Destiny Christian Center, a church under the order of Apostle Fredrick Price… Paula was busy with her then husband… husband #3… Randy White building up their church in Tampa, Without Walls International… which has bit the dust and gone under the auction block.

There was lots of controversy when somehow Paula White emerged as the pick to lead Timms church following his death, due to overdose.   To say the least it was a big mess.  But to tell you the truth there are a lot of big messes in
the church… as our home church is dealing with 1 itself.   But maybe sometime other time I will address that… but it was highly disappointing.

When I first saw Paula… I have no idea how long she had been on the scene prior as I never watched TV or had heard of her until I guess I used to start watching my sisters television on occasions and when I saw her preach at Bishop T.D. Jake’s Woman Thou Art Loose.  At that time she was different … not obsessed with riches here on earth as she had since become.  She today has stepped away from the ‘soul saving’ or ‘caring’ business to increase my pockets business.

It is interesting to me when I see these so-called pastors such as Rod Parsley… who when I first saw him he was different too.  Today the man seems to be on the deep end… tethering between sanity and insanity.  Money too has taken his mind.  And like Paula and more than three quarters of those preachers on the Word Network… all of them in search of getting rich on the backs of gullible black folk willing to send them in whatever amount they ask for of that given day.  As everyday on these people shows is a ‘give me’ ‘give me’ episode ‘if you want such and such.’   Or are looking for ‘such and such.’   It has become a real racket.

So, Paula is leading the black folk of Timms congregation now for the past 3 years or so… since Zachary died in New York City… found dead in a hotel room of an overdose.   It must have been like hitting the jackpot because Zachary loved media.  He loved being on television and had invested much in the state of art television and audio equipment.  Not to mention all the television time his church purchased weekly.  And Paula was and is a lover of media herself… it is what she has used to get her to the place where she now it.

But before at least Paula preached the gospel before.   She merely uses the gospel now.   But this marriage to this guy was a step way beyond ‘I could less what anybody thinks.’    It
was like ‘I’m going to have this man… and his money and I don’t care whether he ever finds Christ or not.’

Now, how does a supposed ‘woman of God’…  much less a pastor with a large congregation do that?

Isn’t she suppose to be the role model… the standard bearer?

Well, Paula is worry about any standards godly or otherwise.  She is too caught up in her own importance over her temple worshippers who I guess are willing to follow her straight into hell.   The woman must be into witchcraft… voodoo or something because they are servants and she is their god head… married to her prince of
rock and roll, baby.   And ain’t nobody up in arms about it… because Paula has her followers… the Destiny congregation
bewitched.  Just as bewitched as when whomever elected her to take over their church that cause the whole board of elders selected to aid in that process such as Bishop T.D. Jakes and Bishop Ivy Hilliard to both hit the door, and start walking.

So, this woman marrying an ungodly man should not upset anyone… because honestly speaking Paula White ceased to be godly a long time ago.

It is clear that for anyone who marries time and time again… then evidently that person must be marrying outside of the will of God.  There can be no other answer to that question… which would mean that any marriage outside of God’s will is doomed.   Thus Paula White’s 3 prior marriages… and this cannot be any otherwise as the man is not of God… but is in the world.

God bless… It’s almost time for me to get out of here now.   So I have got to hurry.   But before I check out of here I just want to say, ‘What a fool that guy was last night who followed President Obama during that press dinner event they had.   The guy was completely out of order.   And to use the ‘N’ word when referring to my President absolutely inferiated me.

These clown uncle toms need to go and sit down.   And never to arise again.

If I ever hope someone were to loose his job… on what overnight tv show he host… it is definitely him.  He is not worth whatever they pay him.   Kill that contract and bury that guy.   What a fool… in a clown suit and make-up.   No, maybe I am giving clowns a bad name to equate them and that idiot… whatever his name was.  

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 ©2016

Add a comment May 3, 2016

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

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

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

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

You would not believe the numbers…

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

What is the intrigue?

What is the enticement?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, I was shocked.

All I could think was…

“What kind of Preacher is this?”

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

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

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

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

This thing is an epidemic.  Truly…

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

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

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

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

Remember those?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the worst thing about it is this…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But Weiner was as dumb as they get.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But do we really need to… or expect to?

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

Do you recognize any of these faces?

Do you remember any of their initial stories?

And what was the final outcome?

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

Is  morality a thing of the past?

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

Well, God bless…

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

[youtube-=http://youtu.be/-jiNEOaCi5U]

Add a comment June 11, 2011

Who is to blame?

I rarely follow 1 blog right behind the other… but I just finished reading this as I hit the button and said ‘post’ to my last blog.

It is a story about a woman who killed herself and 3 of her children with her.   Perhaps, you heard or read this story.  I now recall hearing someone vaguely mentioned something about it last week while I was in the beauty salon getting my hair done for Easter.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110427/ap_on_re_us/us_river_deaths_blame;_ylt=AvTGBx5blvs4ltAwbzNIdjA7PcB_;_ylu=X3oDMTM3c3E4MGFuBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNDI3L3VzX3JpdmVyX2RlYXRoc19ibGFtZQRjY29kZQNvZmZwemYzMARjcG9zAzYEcG9zAzYEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNmYXRoZXJnZXRzY3I–

So, I just finished reading the story to the situation…just CLICK the LINK ABOVE if you want to read it too… if you haven’t done so already.

Much effort in the story…the slant in the story is who is to blame.

Who is to BLAME??????

I am a firm believer that we all have to take responsibility for all our own actions.  It is something I tried to teach my son and to all of my nieces and nephews.  Because at the end of  the day… we have no one to blame but ourselves for the course of our own lives.  And many of the events that happen in it.

In the above story about this young woman who decided to take her own life and the lives of  her children… just 3 of  them by default.  Because she had a 4th child but when she drove into the Hudson River…he being older (her eldest child)…I think the story stated that he was anywhere from 7 to 10 years old.  But he somehow managed to swim a shore.

Supposedly, just prior to the woman driving into the Hudson River… she had just had an argument with her boyfriend.  The man who happened to be the father of  her last 3 children… to which she was not married.

The story states that the father… the man who was the father of the woman last 3 children was 25 years old.  Which leads me to believe that the woman who committed the murder/suicide… was also somewhere in her early 20’s.

The story goes that she supposedly became distraught after the argument… jumped into her car after packing in her children… and headed for a ramp leading into the Hudson River.

Now, who is to blame?

It seems that many in the story blame the supposed father.  They labeled him as a cheater and other things.

Some I have no doubt blame it upon the times.

Some maybe blame it upon the hardship of  just being a mother.

Others might say that she just became ‘overwhelmed.’

Then others might just say that she was just plain crazy.

Any and all of  these might very well be true.

But I see it as a bigger picture which is why I am taking this time now… while I should be up and doing something else… to write on this issue.

And it is an issue.

Recently, 1 of  my brothers started seeking treatment for diabetes.  A couple of weeks ago he was in the hospital due to now  dying kidneys.   Upon him being released from the hospital he called me and asked me to come sit with him.  So I have.

I have also started going with him to all his doctor’s appointments… and that has meant that every week since he came out of the hospital I have been sitting in some doctor’s office listening to them discuss my brother’s condition with him and me.

A couple of  times my brother had me pull up to a liquor store telling me he was going in to cash a check.  But the other day as we were on our way to the doctor I smelled the smell of  alcohol upon him.  So, I asked him about it and he told me that-

“Yeah, I take a couple of  sips every now and then.  Ain’t no big biggy.”

Here he is dizzy and hands shaking…and his kidneys on near collapse, and he is telling  me that taking a drink of alcohol  is ‘no biggy’  …not  a big thing?

Who in the world does my brother think that he is kidding?

Perhaps, he is trying to fool himself.

But I asked the doctors-

“Is there anyway possible that he can be maintained right here at this level without him going on dialysis?”

And somewhat hesitantly the doctor kind of  said yes.  But only if  my brother did what he was supposed to do.

But while at another doctor’s office when the doctor asked him about drug abuse… my brother informed him of something I was not aware of.   He told the doctor he used to snort heroin.  I just thought people shot that up… that is how native I am about drugs and alcohol.

But when the doctor asked my brother why he had done it… my brother told him because he had gotten with the wrong girl.

The doctor then commenced to tell me brother to not blame that on the girl.  And that he… my brother had made the choice for himself  to do it.   That the girl had not forced him to do anything.

And the doctor told my brother that he needed to take the responsibility for the choices that ‘he’  …my brother had made.

Having said that I imagine that you can guess where I am going with this.  But I am lead to speak it anyhow.

In regards to the young woman who drove into the Hudson River killing herself and 3 of  her children… who would you say is to blame?

Who would you blame for her chain of  circumstances?

Who would you say put her in the situation where she found herself?

Did her environment have anything to do with it?

Was it a matter of up-bringing?

Who made the choice to lay down and bare all those children?

Would marriage have made a difference in this story?

Can anyone say that anyone does not know or believe that the act of  engaging in sex was not given to us merely for pleasure… but for procreation?

A vast majority of  women become pregnant usually after indulging once… the very first time.   This was true for me as well.  So, I know this for myself.  But I elected not to continue.

I made my choices too.

Oh, I wasn’t against having children.  I wanted as many as I could have.  Truly, when I was a very young girl I made that decision 1 day.  But I also made another decision… that I wanted to save myself for my husband.  And I did up until the age of  25.

At that point I stepped into another lifestyle that greatly variated and deviated from the thoughts of  me as that young school girl.  But had I not… I still doubt that I would have laid down and allowed people to use me time and time again without any commitment… while yet aiding me into digging myself into a deeper hole.

Because truly 1 could say that the young man in this story…the supposed father… did aid in digging this young lady into a deeper and deeper hole.  And without a doubt he does have his own share of  blame concerning  some of the  problems and difficulty in her young life …and the lifes and end of  lifes concerning his children.

But every choice made by that young woman was her own… including the thought and action of  committing suicide …and the eventual murder of  3 of  her 4 children.

In terms of  Biblical text…1 could look at the story of  Leah.  But the difference here was that Leah was married to Jacob.  And  though Jacob loved Rachel… and was married to both… there had to been something about Leah.  Because she continued to give birth to children for him.  In fact, Leah was the mother of  Judah… and Judah is the line under which both David and Jesus emerge.

But getting off the Biblical angle and just going back to today’s reality… and this story there is only 1 reality when it comes to baring child after child for someone you hope you will be able to hold onto… or who will marry you.  And that is… baring children is not going to do it for you.

Yes, you have created a tie with a person that will be between you and that person for as long you and/or  he and/or the child lives… and in this case children lived.  But that is it.

It does not make them love you.  There is nowhere written that after Leah bared Jacob all those sons…and a daughter… that at any time Jacob came to love Leah.

But just for the sake of  Biblical text… let me note that Leah did get him in the end.  Because Jacob was buried in the tomb with her… while Rachel was buried along side the road on their way  after having died in child-birth.

It is evident that this young mother neither loved herself  or her children as much as she hated the prospect of  loosing this young man to another woman.

And that is the travesty of  it all.  Because at the end of  the day it does not matter what area you come from… or your level education… or your socio-economic advantages… or the lack thereof…  if you do not love yourself you will continued to make mistake after mistake and doom your own life.  And there will be no one to blame but you… yourself … and the ‘I’ whoever you are.

I have no doubt that the young woman in this story became overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed with having made 1 bad choice after another… and another.

Overwhelmed with trying to deal with those bad choices and not having any real support mechanism in place that might have aided her… or even assisted her in some way to start making some good choices in order to turn her life and situation around.

Nobody heard her voice.   Nobody saw her tears… nobody realized that she was way over being overwhelmed.

I am sadden by the lost of  her… and her innocent little children.  And by the knowledge that the little son  which survived will now live with this  for the rest of  his life.

If any of us were perfect then I guess we could all point fingers and laugh… joke about this… I guess to some degree.  But life is no joking matter.  It is precious.  Everybody’s life is precious.  And none of  us is exempt from mistake making.  Even at this age I still make mistakes.  But thank God…He is working on my behalf  that I am not overtaken.

I pray that God steps into every bad situation …and situation where people need help…

Now, maybe I can get up from here and finally do what I really have to do.  I have been up and working on blogs since 6 AM this morning.  And it really hadn’t even been my intent.  The day is slipping pass me… I have got to get moving.

Hope you have a beautiful rest of the day.

I have been searching for something that I really need to find.  So, I have really have to put my all and all into it today.

Well, God bless…

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

Add a comment April 27, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

And why not?

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

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

And he looked so innocent.  Perhaps, too innocent.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How sad can that be?

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

Truly sad.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why do we have to do anything?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

God heard our prayers.

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

Enjoy your Thanksgiving…  I know we shall enjoy ours.

Well, God bless…

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

2 comments November 24, 2010

First Michael… now Gary Coleman… Blanche… and the oil mess… Boycott BP

If seems that fame brings about a lot of  problems that many of us would really rather not have.  But so many only see the glitz and the gleam of the big bright lights…and nothing else.

They clamor to be in the videos, on the cover of the magazines, on the big screen, sitting on the Oprah show… or on somebody’s reality show.  They want it… want it… or 15 minutes of  it… if  that is all they can get.

Some people have committed various acts… including murder… shooting up high schools …bombing buildings …etc…  all in order to get their name in print and/or picture on TV.

Many have sought it… and many who found it have also turned and tried to run from it.  Because all that glitters is  really not gold.

If  many knew what that life was really like I doubt that they would pursue it.  It is a life filled with lots of ups and downs.  And plenty of  its own uncertainties… and always lots of money and work woes.

There are some things in the video clip above that you should play close…very close attention to.  First of all, is the lack of any real care or concern by the woman who claims to be Gary Coleman’s wife.

Second of all, when she finally does start talking to him…listen to how she speaks rather…barks at him like she is talking to a little misbehaving child instead of a bleeding and near dying husband.

Third of all, how she announced to the operator that her name is Shannon Price…and not Shannon Coleman.

And Fourth of all, how much more concerned about herself and what she can’t stand and what is going on with her… which seems to be of  far more importance to her than a bleeding Gary Coleman.

Is it possible that Gary Coleman may have fallen prey to a person he should have chased back and away from him…instead of marrying her?

After several episodes of  run-ins with fans who seem to have gotten too close to him,  where Coleman had been noted as being mean and evil towards them.  And often it ended up with him punching 1 or 2 of them in the face.

Then how did he hook up with this woman?

Is it possible that she allowed Coleman to lay there bleeding until he was near death…and then decided to call 911 for emergency assistance for him?

Is it possible that she may have hit him or… somehow or other brought  about brain hemorrhage  that brought about his death?

Is it possible that she ever loved Gary Coleman at all?

Not if  you go by what you hear during that 911 call.

Gary Coleman’s burial has been postponed… though the article said ‘cancelled’ …hmmmm…

What does that mean?

At any rate Gary’s parents have sent their people to step into the picture between that woman and Gary…on their son’s behalf.   I really feel for them.

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/06/exclusive-todd-bridges-ex-manager-begged-gary-colemans-ex-wife-not-pull-plug

I had always thought it sad when Gary went into court with his parents, who are really foster parents to him.  But I guess the only parents he ever knew.  And after it happened, I had always hoped that time would have healed that wound between them. 

It does happen sometimes in families.  In fact in many families it does happen.  Most families experience some type of  falling out one time or other.  But then there are those families that go to grave not ever speaking again after whatever happened came between them.

Those family members who mature and/or come to know that ‘there is nothing like family,’  they learn to but aside differences in order to not to continue to tear the family apart.  Many times it is hard but you have to do it ‘for the sake of the family.’   Otherwise, there will be tons of  regrets on both sides years later… and usually well after it is too late.

I had to learn through the grace of  God to put aside some things dealing with family issues in our family.  The things that set us at each other, and all the name calling… finger pointing …can’t override the value of keeping the family together.  You have to work at keeping the family together… because no amount of things or ill  will or words can compensate for it…family.

Family is important.

Unfortunately, Gary Coleman may have elected to turn his back on the 2 people who may have well loved him the most… to run into the arms of people who filled him up with a bunch of  ill advice and evil counsel.

On the other hand Dana Plato’s, the young girl on Diff’rent Stroks, foster mother struck me as being much like Patty Duke’s family and aunt, who saw her as being a gold mine.  The same could be said about the father of  the star of  the movie  ‘Home Alone,’  McCaulay Culkin.

It is sad imagining any child who has to endure a life among people who really do not love them… or who value more what the child can earn for ‘them.’  At some point I guess this is exactly what Gary began to feel… though I must say I never believed it about the people who called him ‘their son.’

Personally, I think there should be an autopsy done on Gary Coleman.  Something just does not sound or smell right.  It is kind of  like how I still feel about Michael Jackson’s death.

I think it was murder.

And it would seem that he… Gary did still have  some money.  Look at what he was driving.

Michael Jackson was a young teen boy when people got in between him and his family too.  Over time and perhaps even out of  some degree of  necessity on both parts… their’s and his… they slowly came back together.  Because at the end of the day…family is all you have when you get right down to it.  All you have got to depend upon.

Perhaps, near the end of  Gary’s life he realized that too.

Going through pictures of  Gary Coleman, I can see that there were times when he wasn’t doing so well healthwise.  I produced a documentary on dialysis a while ago.  Before it I had never heard the word dialysis before or even knew that there people who could not urinate on their own due to problems with their kidneys.

But I had an aunt who started needing dialysis treatments due to her diabetes.  Through her I came to find out about the illness and how it ate away at  those who had to depend upon it.

In this picture you see a darker Gary Coleman.

Well,  that is one of the side effects of  dialysis.  Another is the obvious swelling of  his face… and the ashy-ness of  his skin tone.  Do you notice how his eyes appear to almost  be shut?

He does look sick doesn’t he?

With so many health issues due to his kidneys since being a young child and straight through his life… which also stunted his growth greatly… and other problems… it is not hard to see why Gary Coleman was as he was.  Though such adversity in the lives  of others has caused them to not only raise above their circumstances…but to truly go for the stars in ways that Gary did not.  They turn their circumstances around by working to benefit the lives of  others.  But it seems that  Gary could not rally that kind of strength.

He seemed to be alone in the world… and the 1 person left for him to depend upon wouldn’t even help him in his final hour of  need.   What a tragedy…for him …and maybe even for us.  As none us tried to help him either.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/06/04/gary-coleman-funeral-canceled/

If you would like to read the 911 call put in by Shannon Price, you can CLICK on the LINK  BELOW.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/06/04/gary-coleman-funeral-canceled/

I will never forget watching her taking some award where she graciously stepped to the mic  to said a few words to the teacher who told her that she would never make it as an actress.  It is amazing the things we remember.

Of course like millions I too sat watching nights of  Golden Girls.  Who didn’t love ‘ma’  Estelle Getty…or  Dorothy her larger than life daughter.  And that ditizy Betty White… and that over-aged sex kitten Blanche.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/arts/04mcclanahan.html?src=me

I had a lover… someone I lived with for over 9 years who loved to watch television.  She stayed in front of  it.  And Golden Girls was one of  the shows in the evening she would tune in to.

So, of course, over time I became quite familiar with them all.  The sassy Blanche, the dim-wit Rose and   Ma… and Dorothy.

One by 1 they are slowly departing this place.  First Estelle Getty, then  Bea Arthur,  and Rue McClanahan and leaving Betty White.  All of them better known by their character names… Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia…the Golden Girls.

And then there was 1…

Early this week Rue passed too…leaving Betty White as the lone survivor of  their lively cast.

Betty is lively as ever…spunky… and I guess you can even say sassy at times too.  She is hard at work on another series… and really hasn’t stopped working since her Golden Girls days.

Today there are reality shows… and shows about people trying to win a million dollars.  It all became so boring to me that I stopped watching TV a while ago.  And truthfully… I have not missed it.  Besides, as an adult person my schedule is way too busy for me to be sitting down and watching television.

Didn’t intend to write so much.  Now, I have a movie that I want to watch.

So, you have a good night… and a beautiful day tomorrow.

Update Saturday, June 5th:  I awoke this morning having left my son’s laptop up on some news items on the oil spill in the Gulf.  Listening to it… 1 news broadcast on the oil spill after another… the impact of  the breath of  this oil spill has finally really hit home to me.

The British people in the upper level of  BP really were such big liars.  They lied about everything… saying that they had it contained…that it was not going to hit the shores…and that it would not impact the local environment.   In the beginning that BP top guy was passing the buck of  responsibility on to someone else… some other company… and that it was not their oil rig at fault.  Their oil rig that had failed to have all the safety measures that by law they should have had in place. Yet other lies by BP.

Now, the oil slick has hit Florida and is on its way out into the Atlantic Ocean if  the clean up  doesn’t speed up and can’t contain it any better than BP already has.   It all makes me think about the Republican Convention during McCains’ run for the Presidency against Obama.  Where they walked around with ton of signs and cries of-

“Drill, baby…drill,” could be heard all over that convention floor.  The Republicans were excited about going out and digging more oil rigs… even stating that they would go into protected environmental areas to do so.

This is the video new items that awoke to.  And believe it became crystal clear to me that what is going on in the Gulf of Mexico right now is surely going to impact us all.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1499276788

It seems to me that we should all be boycotting BP gas stations.  And it is upsetting to me that this company is not even an American company.

How is it that a British oil company owns oil rigs in our own home waters… while we are seeking oil from foreign shores of countries such as those in the Middle East?

If we have oil right here in America then we should be producing it and controlling it for our own use.  And particularly since these oil rigs are so dangerous and can impact us in such a way as this gushing BP oil rig in the middle of  the Gulf of  Mexico.

Yes, I am advocating that we all boycott BP…it is time that they started feeling it in their pocketbook.  Perhaps then BP might realize that they can’t come into America and treat Americans any kind of way…or endanger us without a hefty price.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37463005/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf

God bless.

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…

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  ©2010

Add a comment June 5, 2010

What women won’t do 2…Star Jones

 I don’t know… I just wanted to see.  I had heard that  Star Jones had started her own blog and I just wanted to see how it was going…and what she was talking about.  But as her blog site finally came up…I couldn’t help but to continue to look at her picture.  A very very large picture of  her which takes up…I don’t know…maybe about a third of  that page.  Yes, it is beautiful…but…

You really have to look to recognize that it is suppose to be  Star Jones that you are looking at. 

I don’t know…I haven’t always been fat.  And I thought that I hated what I looked like.  But I can honestly say…I do not think I have every felt about me quite the way that Star Jones obviously has felt about her ‘old self.’   She must have really hated that woman…and it was more than just being fat.

Besides having lost all that weight…she must have also done…and is doing all kinds of things to other parts of her body…including her face.

I would have never had paid to do what Star has done to herself.  I really do not see the benefit of  such drastic transformations.  Following the lost of all that weight…to me…Star looked like a pluck chicken… from those pictures to the one that is on her blog page…   Well…she may look like a cover girl…but all of that to get a man?  

Never.

Loosing the weight for health reasons is one thing.  But all that other stuff…that is just plain vanity.  And if you read her blog page…you really see that Star is a bit… well… maybe more than a bit…vain. 

“B. Smith 101, please get a grip.”

“Does that thing  make you horny or something?”

She has always thought she was a beauty queen (my sister)…but after that operation she has been none stop…gone wild in fact.  And I must tell you…I have truly been praying for her…because something is out of  whack. 

I can understand stepping into something in which you always wished you were…and how that must make you feel.  But how do you allow it to consume you in such a way as I have seen in my sister?

I wouldn’t want to do anything…that would take me over in such a way. 

 The only thing I want to be subject to is God…not to trying to attract and run down everything…or anything that I feel will validate me.  I am already validated.  God validated me…when He gave me  His love…showed me His mercy…and commanded me…to come out.

If  you are like Star Jones…or like my sister…and need that kind of validation…I sincerely feel for you.  But to me it just displays a lot of pent up self-hate.

My goodness….what some women won’t do.

My sister can’t keep anything down since that operation.  I can’t see myself  being sick for the rest of my life.  No…learn how to put down the fork…and get out and do some exercise first before considering all that cutting up and stitching.

And has Star been lightening herself up too?

Star says that she is trying to keep it professional… but I think that NeNe may have other ideas.   Or maybe it is Star who is plotting something… and just saying that it is ‘all’  Nene. 

I guess it will all boil down to who will be the ‘next’ Omarosa.  Now, what a ticket that was…truly.   I never missed 1 episode.   Omarosa was something… and evidently millions of  other viewers thought so too… and I guess so didn’t  the Donald.  Because he kept inviting her back… out of all those other contestants… I guess you could call them…  Omarosa has been the only 1 to return again and again.

Well, I’m not going anywhere today.  I am resting…keeping my feet high and been listening to the promo that I’m putting together for youtube regarding plugging my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.  This coming week…I will work on the visual content of it.   And then I am going to post it right here for you to see and hear…the voice is mine and the content I created using all the skills I have acquired while gaining expertise mastering various media related software. 

Yes, it’s coming…my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE, will soon be out and on sale.  That is kind of exciting…but I have written so much.  I can’t tell you how many plays and screenplays…10 screenplays alone and I have lost track of  how many plays.  Yes, I am mostly a writer along with all of the other things…and gifts that God has given me.

But my book…THE BISHOP’S WIFE will soon be out…and it really didn’t take me that long to write.  But it was the corrections and problems with the publishers that have eaten away at the time.  But for everything there is a season…the end product is much better for it all.

Enjoy your weekend…and if you need some much needed rest  too…awh…just go ahead and get it.  I’m getting mine.  Been burning too much of that midnight oil I’m afraid… too many late night hours.  It is amazing…how I remember back in the days when I could stay up all night and not feel it at all.  Gone are those days believe me…forever.

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK onto my book cover for the LINK to purchase my book.    Thank you. 

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…” http://www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

Add a comment May 2, 2009

Venus and Serena’s dad on his way to altar… Hammer time book… windshield fluid/Kool-Aid…

Can’t imagine anybody in their right mind giving MC Hammer any money…much less an advance of $61,000 to write a book. 

Who did they think would read it?

Who would want to read anything that he could write…especially a book called “Enemies of the Father: Messages from the Heart on Being a Family Man.”      Sounds like a really good read.

Now, because Hammer failed to deliver the manuscript for the book…the publisher is going to take him to court  if  he doesn’t return the money.

I am so sure that Hammer went dashing to the bank with that check…and couldn’t cash it quick enough.  Besides, everybody knows one thing about Hammer better than they know his rhythms…and that is…that Hammer is bad with money.  It’s what got him into trouble with the IRS way back when he was still hopping and rapping?  Poor money management…back taxes…etc…etc…  

And he supposedly now also has a deal to do some type of reality show…centering around his life.   I hope that he has some kids like Run has…because truthfully, I didn’t know what people were going to turn onto that show to watch either?

Thought about it then said-

“No.”

But really there is no fool like an old fool.  That is all I can say about Venus and Serena’s father…who is 67 years old and on his way to the altar with some young woman just a couple of years older than Venus…the woman is 30.  And I hear that the girls are none too happy…and who can really blame them.  After all, it’s their money Richard’s pretty young thing will be spending…as he is still his daughters tennis coach.  And their father is shelling it out like crazy on his new little bride to be…whom he has been living with for some little while now.

In fact, he is so in love…Richard…Venus and Serena’s father went out and bought himself some teeth.

My…my…my…

Oh, yes…I had said ‘no’…because I wasn’t going to touch the story.  But I guess my opinion just got the best of me…and I could not  let it pass without me saying something.  I just hope this break up their home any more than it had already splintered.

The date for the wedding is set for latter part of March to sometime after the 1st of April this year.

Oh, well…guess she has found herself an old somebody…and now she is going to love him to death.  And I guess…Richard won’t mind it one bit.

Free on 106 & Park…on domestic violence.  CLICK LINK BELOW to watch it.

http://www.bet.com/onblast/?chan=3&id=2784&itype=e

Can’t imagine what kind of day care center it was…but would you think your child was safe if the day care center he or she were attending accidently gave them windshield fluid believing it was Kool Aid?

I wouldn’t…and that center would be on the fast track to a law suit…as far as I were concerned.

How could such an accident…mix-up…or whatever they want to call it…have happened?

At a day care center where anything like that is not even suppose to be anywhere around for the little children to get into it.  And that is not to say that the children gave themselves the windshield fluid…because well…if you have ever been at a day care center you know that it is those who are in charge that distribute the food, drinks, toys and anything and everything else that is given out to the children.

There were 10 children ranging from the ages of 2-6 who were given the mistaken fluid. 

But do you make a mistake like that?

I understand that windshield fluid is an aqua blue color…but what was it doing in that class room?

And how did it get into a place where it could be mistakenly picked up and poured out in place of the correct drink?

Windshield fluid comes in a commercial bottle container unlike any Kool-Aid…I have ever seen come in.  Kool-Aid is a powdered mixed drink…usually mixed and poured from…a regular kitchen pitcher…be it plastic or glass but an item made to pour drinks. 

So, again…how did the windshield fluid get confused with that?

And though the reports said that all the little children are fine…and I wouldn’t trust that any more than I would now trust that day care center…or that my child would have never been served windshield fluid in place of Kool-Aid in the first place. 

The kids were 2-6 years old…what do they know about telling anybody about any symptoms?

And besides the affects of drinking that fluid may not show up right away…but sometime in their future.  It could appear in their mental and/or physical development and growth…or that of their children.

It is absolutely unbelievable…that such a thing could happen.  And I really can’t see how it could have possibly been a mistake…or by error.  I don’t know maybe I am just a bit too analytical.

But just how do you make a mistake like that?

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/03/13/Kids_mistakenly_drink_windshield_washer/UPI-28821236956145/

http://news.aol.com/article/daycare-windshield-wiper-fluid/381420

It was and is marvelously beautiful today.  The sun was out…the tempts high…and I could walk around
outside with my coat unzipped.  I think we have finally broken through to the warm weather now…and it seems that spring is in the air.

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

2 comments March 17, 2009

South Carolina Gov Stonewalling… Iraqi War 6th year… baby boom in white America…

Leave it to a Republican to try and throw a wrench into the works.  That South Carolina Governor really should consider his actions before he walks around trying to sound tough.

He claims that unless the Obama Administration allows him to do what he wants with the money to be allocated to his state…he won’t take the money…none of it.   Well, isn’t that just like a Republican?

No consideration to his state…but only to his will to do what he wants.  And undoubtedly he is hoping that other governors will follow suit.

But let us examine the state allocations of the Obama stimulus plan…

1.  $53.6 billion to help state budgets

2.  with 82% to be used for public schools and colleges

3.  and 18% on public safety and other government services

So, what is the problem?

I do not see anything wrong with that.  It is putting the money in some areas where it is definitely needed to be placed.  Schools everywhere are suffering…the state infrastructure…okay.

But the South Carolina Governor wants to take South Carolina’s share of the stimulus and pay down South Carolina’s debt rather than taking the money allocated by the federal government…earmarked for health care, jobs and schools.  For which he is playing politics…saying if he can’t do with the money as he wants he will decline to accept it at all.

Talk about cutting off the nose of  South Carolina in spite of its face.  Perhaps, if it were his personal nose the Governor of South Carolina would not be so quick to say ‘no’ to those funds.

The Democratic National Committee in an effort to inform the good people of South Carolina about the deed of their dearly beloveth Governor…began running ads on the matter.  For which the Republican governor called ‘foul’…saying that he thought the Obama Administration was not going to play politics as usual.

Those Republicans can always think of things when it suits their own purposes.  Those people in South Carolina deserve to know the kind of  fool they have running their state…and it is about time that Democrats have started standing up.

I sincerely applaud the Obama Administration concerning the matter…and taking their stance on the matter of not allowing anyone to bully them.  It is about time some Democrats with backbone finally got into some positions of real power…and used it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/ap_on_re_us/sc_stimulus_sanford

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=4226712&cl=12516236&src=news

In Willamina, Oregon, the school board is planning of distributing birth control pills to the teens in their high school.  Following what they call an outbreak in the increase of pregnancy in Willamina.  With fewer than 300 students in their high school system…they had 5 senior girls who gave birth to babies this year with another 9 girls on their way to the maternity ward.  So, feeling helpless and lost in a vote of 2-2 the school board was split on whether or not to start passing out birth control pills.

This to me is tantamount to an ostrich putting its head into the ground.

Now, not only an urban problem…the problem of teenage pregnancy is hitting the white suburbs with a bang.   After all…remember Sarah Palin and her 17 year old daughter…all the way up there in Alaska…facing the same issue.  When this issue was one confronting poor people…and mostly non-whites…the issue was lightly overlooked…much like the issue of drugs and AIDS used to be…in the beginning…when it only affected the ‘thems’…’those people over there…in the ghetto.’

It seems that when certain issues only affect certain people…nearly everybody in this country finds little effort in turning a blind eye to it and on them…just as long as those issues continue impacting certain people.  But like those teens in Massachusetts who made the pact to get pregnant…as if having a baby is a game…which sparked momentary conversations but that was it…don’t let it start hitting them.

But…what?

The lily white areas of Oregon now too?

And evidently…Alaska as well.

Well, now…now…now something really must be done…now.

http://www.kgw.com/education/localeducation/stories/kgw_031209_education_birth_control.2a07e217.html

http://www.newsregister.com/article/37963-willamina+balks+contraception

http://www.kptv.com/news/18919608/detail.html

Today is the 6th anniversary of the Iraq War.

Thank God…for a change.

Six years of suffering and dying…all for what?

What in this world has changed for the better since Bush and his friends decided they were going to strike Iraq?

Nothing.

In fact, things have gotten worst…and in a big way.  Everything is costing us far more today than what it did 6 years ago.  Many people have lost a son or daughter, niece or nephew…or grand child due to a senseless war that has accomplished nothing but caused more problems…hardships…pain…and hurt in the lives of people around this world…not just here in America.

Well, here is a story for you.  This story below is worth reading for all of those starving for love…but looking in all the wrong places.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090316/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_nigeria_australia_scam

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 March 16, 2009

Making the most of my day… Mothership and Parenting… Michelle O’ working soup kitchen line…

I must say…if I have to say so myself…that I am so proud of me today.  Oh…I mean this morning.  I do not know what time I got up but by the time I laid back down…it was only 7:57 AM. 

I got up and had my Cream of  Wheat.   And yes…I am still enjoying it.  I had me a cup of tea…and read my Bible and then laid back down.  A few minutes later…perhaps an hour later…I got up again.  I pulled out my bucket…got the scrub brush…and pulled out the cleaners and scrubbed down the kitchen again…then I hit the doors and wall in the small hall leading towards the bathroom.  I sprayed down and lightly scrubed down the bathroom…and left it soaking. 

Wow…yeah….  I think I should be proud of myself…and it is not even noon yet.

There is something about getting up early.  You will get so much more done for some reason or another…if you get up and get started early.  There is just something about getting up early…there really is.  I do not know what…but that makes you work a little bit quicker and harder…and you just acheve more.  And now I feel so good.  And so…so proud of myself for taking care of my parent’s house in their absence.  For me having gotten up early today..and gotten started the very first thing this morning.

I have been busy working on building my website for the past couple of weeks…and the pages are coming along well.  I am really impressed with the pages that I have created thus far.  A few years ago I decided to begin taking some graphic arts classes. 

When I was in New York and started my own homebased business, an advertising agency, Queen Bee Multi-Media Advertising Agency.  I used to hire students from the campus right around the corner from my apartment…Pratt Institute, to do artwork for me.  Pratt has a very high reputation as a good art school…which I never knew at the time…but the students on that campus turned out some fantastic work for me.  I never went to see a client without feeling proud of our presentations which they had prepared under, of course, my direction.

I represented schools, furniture stores, boutiques, concert promoters etc…  There is little about advertising that I do not know about…having also a history in radio sales, media buying, telemarketing, product placement…etc…etc…etc…  But I had always had an artistic bug.

When I was a child, I had begged and begged my mother to buy me a home study art school course.  After begging for some time my mother finally broke down and ordered it for me.  That home study art school cost $300…and my mother ordered it for me.  As much as I begged for it…I only did one lesson of that course.  

Eventually, I gave away one of the books…of which there had been 3.  They were very big and thick…in a large binder…bound in expensive red binding filled with my untouched drawing lessons…and I gave away one of the 3 large lesson books and never touched those books again.  Something that my mother had sacrificed to buy for me…and that I had begged and begged for it.   And I did nothing with it…short of giving it away…and back then $300 was an awful lot of money…that really had to have been a sacrifice.   But she did it for me.

I guess she always recognized that I had talent…that I was gifted.  Though she would have done no less for any of my other sisters or brothers…and did.  As we all had to take music lessons…and all had various interests.  She had bought us all our own instrutments which she had purchased for us one Christmas. 

I will never forget that Christmas…which was our musical Christmas.  My mother must have bought everything the music store had.  Whoever owned that music store must have loved her.  That Christmas morning when we awoke…we found a large electric keyboard, piano, drum set, guiatar & amp and accordian all up under our Christmas tree. 

Before the day was out I had mastered that keyboard and could play several songs on it.  The next day that keyboard was gone.  My mother replaced it was a real full size organ.  I think back on that now and believe that she did it…because it had posed no real challenge in order to learn.   Today both the piano and the organ are still here in the house with me…and nobody plays a note on them.  That is not to say that they cannot play them…they just do not bother to do so.

My father, who had a saxaphone, a ukalie and a trumpet…which you could hear him practicing on sometimes late at night…he made me play the accordian.  When he would come home from work…I would have to pull it out  after he ate dinner that is when he forced me to practice…night after night.  None of my sisters or brothers had to practice anything before him…but me.  And he always would fall asleep on me. 

The accordian which was under the Christmas tree was my 2nd accordian.  It was the bigger version of what they had already gotten for me before a year or so ago.  And I went out every week to accordian lessons for years. 

I hated the accordian.  I loathe pokas.  I wanted to play the piano…and in the beginning I had both piano and accordian lessons.  But daddy wanted me to play the accordian…and we never argued against my mother or my father’s wishes.  So, then my piano lessons were stopped.  

As I stated in an earlier blog…our piano teacher was also my mother’s voice instructor…a little white woman who used to pay a couple of visits per week to our home…Mrs. Marlow.   She was a very nice lady…and she knew her stuff.   We were fortunate to have her.   And that she didn’t mind coming to the home of black folks…though we lived well.  At that time my parents had bought their 2nd house.  This house had 15 rooms not including its full basement…and the house sat upon a hill overlooking the waterfront…with a long driveway leading in to our house.

I liked the house…but not as much as our other house.   But it was grand…and it was spacious…but it was far more for us to clean…and especially for me…being the oldest. 

Oh, man…the living room had windows all the way around so you could look across at the water no matter whether you stood or sat.  And it had a very big fireplace…where we used to roast marshmellows…as though we were at camp.   It was fun.  And that house also had a raspberry tree growing in front of it, with a big lawn and all these beautiful trees with branchs swirling within it that yielded beautiful blossoms in the spring and summer.  

I liked it…but it was a lot of work that house…and none of my sisters or brothers had to do more of it than me.  I never held that against my parents though.  But I did against my sisters and brothers though.  They could never just drink from ‘one’ cup…or ‘one’ glass…I was washing dishes all day and night long.  I truly know how Cinderella felt.

My parents were hard working people…who always did things for other people…and were always doing  for us.    Their lives centered around us.  Which is why I regret never appreciating them as much as I should have. 

I appreciated them…in that I never once caused them any problems…(well…except for the time I thought I could drive…I will tell you about that in some other blog, I am sure).  I can’t say I may not have been a heartache…because I am sure that my being gay was not something hard for them to deal with…though they never once spoke about it.  I am sure they would be surprised that I am no longer in gay life.   But perhaps they had already known that at some point God was going to change my mind and my heart. 

But I never gave them as much as I should have.  Though they gave us the world…and everything else.  There was nothing new that came out that they didn’t buy…from dishwashers on.   As we became of age they bought us all cars.  And we were always going on trips. 

We went to the World Fair…

Do you remember that?  

It was here in the states…in New York City that year.  Now, only the big globe of the world remains at that site as a reminder of that very huge event.  The location today is where they play the US Open.  

But we were going to this place and that place…by train mostly when we were smaller…as we grew and learned to drive…mostly by car…and on by plane.  They took us everywhere…and everything was a family thing. 

I guess they lived the life that people who work…live for.  To be able to buy whatever they wanted…when they wanted it…and to do as they wanted.  And then…to be able to educate and provide for their children…which they certainly did.   And they did it well…as well as, for their god children, neighborhood kids, church people…and those in need. 

My parents had 8 of us…and spared nothing…including correcting us when it was called for. 

Today, I think my mother would be proud to know that her $300 investment in me…really didn’t quite go wasted.   As I later taught art in high school…which is so funny that should have happened…but it did.  But I don’t think my mother saw any humor in my wasting her $300 the way I did…because I didn’t even try to pretend to do any of those lessons from that home art school once I got pass the 1st lesson. 

One day…I think I was asking her for something else and she flared up at me suddenly saying-

“You are too talented and that is why you will never do nothing.”

Which was the tail end of whatever else she had said…I cannot remember the first part of it.  But she was mad when she said it.  And I was quite young…but somehow that always stuck with me.  I don’t know if I quite understood what she meant…but I had somewhat of a clue.  That statement has made me look at everything I have ever done…or thought to do…and it governs the things I am now doing. 

Everything I have ever done is in media.  From that day…when my mother told me …‘that is why you will never do nothing’…I have sought to not  half learn anything…or half do anything…but to become proficient in everything I lay my hands to…no matter how long it takes me…or how many hours in a day or night.  But if I set out to do it…then to stick with it. 

I had to learn how spend the time learning to perfect things.  To not get up from anything that I am doing…becoming readily interested in other things…other gifts…practicing something else. 

I do not eat or drink when I am working on something.   Nor do I take lunch breaks…or go to the bathroom…nothing.  I am throughly engulfed. 

Someone, an ex-,  told me that I have tunnel vision.  Meaning whatever it is, at that point or moment of my life, that I decide that I am going to do…I become so emerged and engrossed in it.  So much so…that I only see it…think about it…and in some cases dream about it.   I eat…sleep…and drink thinking about only what I am doing…when I am working on something.  When I had my advertising business…which I still do…there have been many nights when a client’s project concept came to me in my sleep.

A wise elderly woman…my friend who passed this pass August…whom I have wrote about in a couple of these blogs…she told me that my habit of not eating or going to bathroom from morning into the very late hours of the evening was not a good thing.   She told me that I would ruin my stomach…if I continued that practice.  So, I have since been working on adjusting myself…my schedule and my body.  I would hate to cause myself any medical conditions that I could have avoided.  I had always found her wise in her counsel to me.

Yes, I was too talented…like my mother said.  I could do a lot of things…and still can.  And there is a trap to being able to do so.  Most people are good at just one thing.  So, they focus on that one thing.   But to be multi-talented or gifted…you have to struggle with balancing your gifts. 

I had to learn to direct all those gifts…or I would have become a ‘jack of all trades…and a master of none.’   

My mother saw that…and that is what caused her to flare up at me telling me what she did that day…and how she told it to me.   From that moment I began to focus upon everything I do…like these blogs which to date I have written nearly if not more…than a 130 of them since starting in mid to late June of last year.   So, if you have just started reading them…you have alot of catching up to do.  And you will have an exam in the morning…

I have always had to direct everything…just so I wouldn’t be all over the place.  Though I do not think I have quite been so successful at doing that…I have endeavored nonetheless.  But the most I can say…is that it has all been media related.  But thank God for my mother saying that to me…and at a time when I needed to hear it…or I would have never been aware of something that was so crucial for me to grasp…and to have graspped it early.

It did not prohibit me from being more or less talented.  But made me aware that I needed to channel those talents and not be flighty with them…but to engage them…focus them…and develop them to their highest levels.  So, through my years that is what I have been doing.  And from time to time…I find myself taking classes here or there…just like my mother.  

That is so funny…when I think of.  That I continue to take classes just like my mother…which is also something that I wrote about….in a blog or 2 prior to this one. 

So, a few years ago, I decided to take some graphic art classes.  The marketplace has changed so vastly with the influx of computers and software…everything is done totally differently today no matter what field you are in.  So, I began taking these classes…and when I take classes I invest many after hours outside of the class to master the thing. 

I do nothing without mastering it…and I invest the time to do exactly that…and the effort.  Which when I decided to learn video production… it required me lugging around tons of heavy and very bulky equipment.   It was not uncoummon to find me shouldering a 3/4″ video recorder deck, tripod, large light kit and large video camera trying to board a bus.  And people wonder why I have muscles now…(smile).   And I learned all that equipment…every piece of it…every cable connector…every cable…every kind of editing system, software etc…everything.

It was a joke then…people would see me coming and say-

“Here comes Spike Lee’s sister.”

They don’t laugh any more though.  No, not today…instead they ask about my film projects and what I’m getting ready to do next.  I am no longer a joke…but it did not come without struggle.  Hours upon hours of vested  time, training, exploring…learning what I was doing wrong and trying to trouble shoot on my own…and sitting there until I got it done.  Never looking for pay…but always looking to assist others so that I could learn more and sharpen my own skills.  But I did what it took…and I still do. 

Sometimes even in writing these blogs…I work on them straight for more than 6 or 10 hours…if not more…and it is usually more dependng upon what I am writing about…including searching for pictures…seeking out errors etc.  

A professional is what I am…but a perfectionist is what I seek to be.  

So, to date the classes I have taken in graphic arts are these…Photoshop, Quark and  Illustrator…and additional software I have learned is FinalCut, Adobe Primere, Director, Flash,  Dreamweaver, Avid,  Fireworks…not to mention being able to write and read html…and having learned also all the latest stuff in radio studios.  Though I played a bit  with Freehand and at some point will try my hand at InDesign.  I love playing with this stuff…exploring the capabilities.

So, I am proud of myself  for having gotten up early this morning and gotten off to an early start with my cleaning.  I am proud that the website is coming along too.  And here is a preview , at the bottom of this blog, of something which I did this past week using the skills I have learned in graphic arts.  Those Pratt students can eat their hearts out now.   But those kids taught me a lot though…when they used to come for our conferences to discuss what my clients wanted.

Thank God for my mother and father…which is why I cannot understand that girl in Florida who killed her daughter and posted drawings of skeltons and other things symbolizing her acts.  Clearly, she was troubled.  But a guilty conscience will trouble you everytime.

There is something about mothers…real mothers…that when their child is missing nothing in this world can contain them.  They act in a certain way…they become obssessed…and there is no consoling them.  They are overtaken by grief and concern…and they are not interested in anybody or anything other than finding their child.

Once my son got separated from me.  You will not know the sheer horror that ran all through me during that very brief span of time…but it seemed to me to be enternity.  I was terribly horrorified.  I was overcome and on verge of perhaps loosing my mind.  I had lost my child in a large crowd of people at an outdoor affair which was quite crowded.  One second he was right there with me and the next he was gone. 

I felt someone had stolen him.  And that was all I could think.  I did not know which way to turn.  People were all about me.  I thought to scream out…but suddenly I looked up and across the field.  It was as though a  path had opened up…and there was my son.  One of  our neighbors had found him somewhere in the midst of all those people…and was bringing him back to me.  

I dropped to my knees and embraced my son so hard…I know I must have been crying.   I was so relieved…so happy…so overjoyed that someone had found him…and that it was one of our neighbors.  I never experienced another moment like that…as I learned like every good mother who loves her child or children…how to keep my eyes or hands on my child at all times. 

So, I certainly know the state that a real mother can fall into just believing her child is gone.  She begins grieving immediately…because she will only think of the worst scenario.

That is what I thought about the Susan Smith case.  The mother down in South Carolina…or somewhere south…that said that some black man had leaped into her car while she was stopped at a stop light.  She said that he had stolen her car and drove off with her 2 small children in the back seat.  I do not think that many people had to think twice about that story…but it was her actions following the supposed incident which gave her away.  And likewise…were the actions of this young woman in Florida.  She was out partying and having a good time.  

http://news.aol.com/article/caylee-anthony-documents/373178

When I thought of this young woman’s actions following the supposed disappearance of her 2 year old daughter…it made me think of that teenager who was at the prom and gave birth to her baby in a bathroom stall.  And how she had walked off and left the bady there in that stall.  She had returned to prom dance floor…and continued to dance and enjoy herself as if nothing had happened.  For which she only got 2 years…or something…might have been counselling.

I understand denial.  I understand that mothership may be difficult for many.  But what I do not understand is when someone…a mother…or who be it…commits such acts as these young women against innocence.  I cannot understand it.   I just can’t…I just can’t…   There are so many other options.

Parenting is a process…but some people they are just not equipped or mature enough to handle the responsibilities that it brings.  This is the reason…that I know that young kids should never be bearing children.  Everybody deserves to enjoy their youth…and have a time to grow up before taking on the task of motherhood and fatherhood way beyond the grade school level…and many times even beyond college.  I was 48 years old before I realized that I had become a woman…and that I needed to grow up and start acting like one.  Truthfully.

Not  to say…that I did not mother my child.  Oh, no…  I was at doctor’s appointment, dentist appointment…sitting in the back of  of my son’s classes when I had to…at every open house almost…and when I wasn’t my mother was.  You have to stay on top of your children (just a frame of speech…not literally)…and certainly not in a bad way.  But you have be conscious of them…what they are doing…who they are with…caring of them…and for them.   And you should never feel that they are an inconvenience to you…and certainly never give them to feel that.  

Therein lays the problem for the 3 young women whom I mentioned above.  They felt that they could just rid themselves of their unwanted burdens by doing away with them.  How sad for their children.  How very very very sad……..  Sad.

I was checking through my blogs today…I watch to see what people are reading and who has linked up with me etc…  I came upon this link in which the blogger found fault with a person who was standing in a soup kitchen line…and that person having a cell phone.  The blogger felt outraged because the person was supposed to be down and out…yet he had a cell phone.

I found that to be as selfish…as a time I was waiting in the grocery checkout line.  I never pay attention to what other people are buying…but this person near me…I believe she was just ahead of me but after the person who was checking out.  I overheard her saying-

“Did you see that?  She’s buying shrimps with foodstamps.  And do you see her pocketbook?  Honestly, buying shrimps on our money.”

Overhearing that, my curiosity was pricked…so I leaned a bit and saw that the woman had a Louis Vuitton handbag…a very nice and big one…and very nice expensive coat.  These are things I also never pay attention to.  What do I care about what people have on…as long as they have on clothes…or what type of pocketbook or handbag they have?  

It doesn’t make a difference to me.  

But I thought it a bit aburd of that the woman making the comment…that she was upset about the shrimps being purchased with the government supplied foodstamps.

Now, how stupid is that?

Even if she had gotten upset over the woman’s handbag…that would have been stupid too.

But she got upset…as if  poor people can’t…or should not be allowed to eat shrimp.  And that is not to say that that woman was poor…as none of us standing in that line knew her circumstances.  But to question what people can or cannot eat depending upon what is or is not our preceived notion of them and as to their place or circumstances in life is absolutely foolish. 

Why should that woman in that line…or anyone else in that line…or the whole store, for that matter…care whether or not that woman paid for those shrimps with her foodstamps?

Or whether or not she should eat shrimps or not?

She can eat whatever she wants.  And she had legal tender by which to purchase it.

Perhaps, it is just me.   Maybe, I’m the one obssessing.   Could be…

But I think that some people concern themselves with so many things that really…that they have no right to be thinking about.  As it is simply not their concern…or any of their business…nor their place to assess who can eat or cannot eat whatever. 

Just how dumb is that? 

But that is how I felt about that blog about a supposed poor person standing in a soup kitchen line taking a picture with his cell phone.   And here is that picture…

Yeah, he was standing in a line that Michelle Obama, First Lady Obama, was assisting in at a shelter kitchen feeding needy people in Washington, DC…which I believe she does every Friday.  I imagine a bunch of people were taking her picture including the camera crew that got these shots.  If I was there…I would have taken her picture.  And then asked her-

“Can we get one together?”

And whoever wrote that blog probably would have done the same thing. 

How many times do you come face to face with the President of the United States…or his wife?

“Better start snapping, baby.”

But why should anyone feel that other people…black… checkered….green…poor… or otherwise are not entitled to have certain things?

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/03/05/at_miriams_kitchen_michelle_ob.html

That really seems stupid and quite selfish to me…and certanly demeaning.

It is the way I feel when I hear someone say-

“Well, if they couldn’t afford the mortgage they shouldn’t have bought the house.”

 And I have heard this more than a few times…particularly following the last bailout of the banks on Wall Street. 

Did not your parents struggle?

Don\’t we all struggle to pay off stuff?

Most people do.  And they are not wrong to do it.

I believe that everyone wishes they had the money to buy and pay for everything that they want…when they want it…or need it.  But that is not how life is. 

The unfortunate thing about it…is that no one knows what tomorrow will bring.  And we are all looking towards tomorrow. 

When I looked upon house after house..and business after business boarded up in Detroit…I know that those people had been looking towards tomorrow.  But none of them realized that when tomorrow came it would mean that jobs would be cut back.  They did not see that the company they worked for…that their father and grand father had worked before them…that they would be downsizing or laying them off.  Or as they call it now…’re-organizing.’

Who thinks like that? 

 The wrong does not lay with them…most of the people who find themselves in foreclosure…it lays with the mortgage companies which preyed upon people with over inflated interest rates…red lining, offering higher rates to certain people…higher closing costs…a bunch of double talk and small print…with high late payment penalties…and absorbent legal costs which they love attaching to their costs.

I don’t know if any of you have ever had anything repossessed.  But once they repossess your vehicle or house or whatever…the company then comes back at you to extract the money even though they repossessed and sold off whatever it was…and they leave it sitting on your credit reports for years upon years hindering you from getting anything else.   This clearly is double dipping…and these companies…none of them should be allowed to do that. 

Once they have repossess the object…and they have sold it off that should settle the debt.  But no…they come back after you.  And not for the debt minus whatever they got for it…but the entire debt plus all other costs. 

A friend of mine who worked for Greyhound buslines once told me how she had been sold a faulty vehicle.  She said it was a real lemon from the day she pulled it off the dealer lot.  So, she returned the vehicle several times to the dealership who in turn never did anything fix the problem. 

Finally, she became tired of trying to deal with the auto dealer…and just returned back to the car to the dealership where she had bought it.  She said that she drove right up on the lot in the middle of the day and left it there.   She stopped making payments on it…telling them as she left the lot that they could keep their car. 

Years later, however, she noticed that her pay was being garnished…it was the dealership.  They had kept the car but now they were forcing her company to withdraw payments from her pay check in order to pay them for a car which she had given back to them.  And at this point…she just folded her hands and gave up.  She let the company take her money…because she felt that it was a hopeless situation.  

There is something seriously wrong with the system that allows companies to use these kind of tricks to get over on and rob people.  Companies like that dealership abuse…exploit and use the system…to their benefit…a company that knowingly sold her automobile which was not in sound operating condition…and they knew it.

I had asked her if she hadn’t gotten the notice to go to court?   And she told me that she had not.  Without going into court to defend yourself…as I have stated in another blog…the other side wins automatically.  If summoned to go to court…go.  It is scary…yes, but go.

The most that can happen is that the judge won’t decide in your favor. 

There is always a case that you may not receive the  summon…if they have it sent to another address.   These are games that people play.   It is the game that CitiMortgage played against my parent’s property.   But they had not counted on the fact that I knew…by the grace of God…to go into court and file my own complaint against them…to stop the auction…and have since gotten that mortgage nullified and made void.  And believe me when I said…by the shear grace and mercy of God.  That is how it was done.

In closing let me just say…

“Stay away from bad deals.”

If you are interested in something…or getting ready to sign a contract for the purchase of  something and that contract is not in your favor…do not sign it.  Do not go into a deal…or debt…in any type of an agreement in which you are not at least a partial winner.  Or at the very least…where the pain is not so great. 

Sometime, we have all had to swallow a little pain…until we can fix things…like our credit.  But yet beware of the sharks…stay away from them.

In the claim I had to file against CitiMortgage…they claimed that my father had taken a loan against the house for some $27,000 at a 16.20%  interest rate.  This total agreement netted CitiMortgage over $60,000 in interest money…making the total contract for over $97,000 worth of debt against my parent’s house. 

My father would have never made an agreement like that.  And the other part of it is…he wasn’t much of a borrower.  Didn’t have any charge cards or anything like that…because he earned money to pay for what he wanted.  And that is what he did.

Nobody in there right mind would have signed a deal like that.  The company was making 3 times as such as it was giving out…that is robbery no matter how bad your credit may or may not be.  And my father did not have bad credit.  

I knew that document was a forgery even before I saw the signature upon.  So, I took the case to court…claiming that they had preyed upon my father, if indeed he had signed it.  At the time that contract was supposedly sign my father had been diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s which would have rendered him as being legally incompetent to enter any type of legal or binding agreement.  Plus my father had several bank accounts and definitely had at least one which had more money than that in it.   So, I sued…of which I wrote about in a prior blog also.

I continue to pray for you and whatever situation or condition you are facing.  Be encouraged.   And stay away from bad deals.

Well, my little siesta is over…it is time for me to go back to work.   Actually, it ended hours ago.  

I have to finish scrubbing down the bathroom.  And I am getting a bit hungry now too.   But enjoy your weekend.  

I just finished looking out and it looks like snow…again.  But it is warm on the inside.  Though it might be that I am running a slight fever.  Been fighting off a dry cough for the past few days…but I am winning.  Well…some times…I think.

Maybe, I will just finish the bathroom…take a shower and crawl back into bed…and forget about mopping the floors tonight.  It’s late now.

Well…God bless…

Oh…yes, here is a taste of what the website will look like.  Now, you tell me whether or not if  you think some of those classes that I have taken are starting to pay off? 

Thank goodness for a mother who was not afraid to speak truth into the life of her child.

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

4 comments March 8, 2009

Aretha’s diet…losing weight… finding someone

 Didn’t she look good?

Heard her talk about being on a diet…and when she showed up at Barack Obama’s inaugural in her grey suit with her Sunday morning go to church hat…she looked fabulous.

She was most recently spotted here on her way from the White House…pushing a shopping cart in Walmart.  Signed autographs and took pictures…and people crowded around.  I said I wanted to see the pictures…but my son saw them.  And he said-

“Ma, it was her.”

I thought it interesting when I saw that Obama’s oldest daughter made sure she got a shot of Aretha with her camera during the inaugural ceremony.  Those Obama’s are teaching their children well.   She knew Aretha and who it was she was looking at…and she wasn’t going to let Aretha get pass her without grabbing a picture.  Smart girl.

I didn’t know that Aretha had signed up with Jenny Craig back in 2007.  She might have lost some pounds…but evidently had like most…put them back on and then some.  But at the inaugural she really looked great.  And I was happy to see that she had shed lots of that extra added bagage…those dirty little pounds. 

Her plan was this…

I heard her comment on some show that…she eats what she’s suppose to for 4 or 3 days…then on 3 days eats whatever she wants.  I think that is a great plan…because it seems to be working for Lady Re.’  

Now, I have just found out what it really is.   She has a new somebody in her life.  It will make you want to do something… and real quick.   Get somebody…and see if you don’t want to make sure he only has eyes for you.  Oh, yeah…you’ll start losing real quick.  

And don’t have him look good.   Because if he looks good…you will want to look good with him.  No self-respecting woman would think any differently.  And Aretha is the real r-e-s-p-e-c-t woman…didn’t you know?

I just hope that this one is the one she has always been hoping for.  After 3 or 4 prior marriages…a bout with the bottle (many many years ago)…one of her mansions burning down…and some local legal worries.  I think it is about time…for plenty of happiness in her life. 

And I certainly wish you well, Lady Re.’  

One thing about Aretha Franklin…no matter what…you can always say that she has been a class act.  I remember when I had considered her for a concert gig…the price tag, however, was a bit too much for this little ol’ country girl…$65,000.00 with a quarter of it up front…and I think maybe a precentage.  Now, that is business.

But that whole diet thing is mind over matter.  If your mind is not there…then save yourself from the bother.  It won’t work. 

But if you can get your mind there…you have won before you start.

I know some people who did the gastric bypass and a few other things.   Though I must say…my friend who did the lap band raved about.  And she truly did look good.  But she told me that before she did it she went to meetings and read lots of information on it first.  And she said she spoke in great detail with the doctor who was going to handle her surgery…and she too told me she was on her way to the altar once again. 

I must admit to admiring women…and men who don’t want to just lay around with everybody.  And then find out that have nothing. 

Marriage is good…and if you are going to be with somebody then let them marry you.

But that gastric bypass…I have a sister who did it.  She can’t eat anything without getting sick to her stomach.  And the worst part is…though…yes, she lost lots of weight and even though she can’t keep much down…she is still over weight.  And it is all due to not having gotten her mind to where it needed to be.  Sick or not she eats and then throws up some of everything she eats.  I would hate to live like that.

If you really want to lose weight…learn how to put the fork down first.  And believe me…you won’t need anything else.

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2007/05/30/aretha_franklin_chooses_celebrity_diet_t

http://www.singersroom.com/news/entertainment-story-841.asp

It’s Black History Month…so enjoy…

Wow…the kids do not have anything compared to this.

I hope all of this downloads properly…and doesn’t take too much time. Guess I got a bit carried away.

Enjoy your day…and this weekend. It’s freezing cold outside…but the funny part is that the house doesn’t seem quite so cold to me any more. Guess I must be getting used to it. My father would smile. All of my life I have been cold…because I am extremely anemic. I, in fact, am suppose to be taking iron tablets everyday…and I do when I can remember. But I have to really work on that.

Since, so many people have so much more to take by way of medication…and if I desire not to join them… Well, you know…   I better take what I have to right now. Because based upon what they say having a low number of red blood cells can be very unhealthy.  And I do not want anything to sneak up on me.

Between yesterday and today…it has looked like snow. In fact, there were flurries this morning. Might be too cold…it can’t snow when the weather is too cold. But I guess even in that we are doing okay…because Vee, my friend’s daughter in Chicago…had told me that Chi-town was definitely freezing.

Well, God bless…

THE BISHOP’S WIFE  is now on sale…CLICK this LINK to purchase my book.  You do not need a paypal account to purchase, and you can purchase using a debit card.  Thank you. 

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

11 comments February 21, 2009

First Lady…Michelle…Inaugural wardrobe

Okay…okay…   I have gotten the message.  

Everybody wants to see what Michelle Obama was wearing today during the inaugral of  her husband, Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America.  There has been so much talk about what Michelle would be wearing and who made it…that…  

Okay.  I too have been bitten by all the talk. 

However, I am not a fashion anything.   So, don’t expect much from me.  But she looked fabulous.

So, here you are…feast your eyes…

 Absolutely stunning. 

There can be no doubt that the President has  much to be proud of when he looks upon his beautiful wife.   What a great pair they make.   No country could have better…or any 2 people more meant for each other.

The yellow suit dress First Lady Obama wore to the Presidential Inauguration was made by a Cuban born seamstress by the name of Isabel Toledo. 

Her gown for the Inaugural Balls was made by a young designer named Jason Wu.

 

For those of you who are really into this fashion stuff…these are Michelle’s  shoes in a low angle shot of her gown…which was made of ivory silk chiffon, embellished with crystal rhinestones and silver thread embroidery…etc…etc…  Really sounds like something to behold. 

http://news.aol.com/main/inauguration/article/obamas-dance-to-at-last-at-first-ball/312613

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/inauguration.balls/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1872698,00.html

Add a comment January 21, 2009