This is a three post showcase of popular hip hop, rap and R&B videos from 1990, give or take a few months.
Yo-Yo, You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo feat. Ice Cube
Boogie Down Productions, Love's Gonna Getcha(Material Love)
Bel Biv Devoe, Poison
Public Enemy, Fight the Power
Salt-N-Pepa, Let's Talk About Sex
A Tribe Called Quest, I left My Wallet In El Segundo
2 Live Crew, Banned In The USA
Gang Starr, Just To Get A Rep
De La Soul, Me, Myself and I
N.W.A, 100 Miles and Runnin'
Too Short, The Ghetto
LL Cool J, Boomin' System
The Geto Boys, Do It Like a G.O.
Brand Nubian, Wake Up
Kool G Rap and Dj Polo, Streets of New York
English speaking politics is littered with funny names such as England's, Ed Balls, America's, Dick Swett and Canada's, Inky Mark. But this week a name was revealed to me that overshadows the lot. South African Sketchball/Politician Jacob Zuma ousted current President Thabo Mbeki as leader of the African National Congress in a highly contentious party meeting. While Zuma and Mbeki recieved the most votes, there was a dark horse in the mix, South African businessman politician, Tokyo Sexwale. Mr. Sexwale (pictured right) is a Soviet military trained former anti-apartheid freedom fighter who is now a mining and commodities centimillionaire. Unfortunately not much is known about his private life except that he is the real father of Jamie Lynn Spears' baby.
While I'm on the subject...electing Jacob Zuma to a national leadership post is a bad idea. While the best one hears about Mbeki's personality is that he is "aloof", the country has made strides towards meeting the majority of its UN Millennium Development Goals for 2015 (shown here in a format even a Kucinich supporter could understand). But as usually happens in developing countries(and even developed countries), as the economy grows, some at the top get very wealthy while those at the bottom,while earning more, don't see their individual rewards expand as quickly as those nouveau riche bastards covered ad nauseam in the media. So I may be better off but some dude is waaayyy better off, so Mbeki must be corrupt Q.E.D., hence the election of populist semi-literate Zuma. During his trial for rape last year, for which he was acquitted, Zuma revealed his true colors by claiming on the stand, "I can tell when a woman wants to have sex with me by the way she is sitting" and "you won't get AIDS as long as you have a shower after sex". These are idiotic if not dangerous sentiments from a man whose own home province has a population that is 30% HIV positive. Luckily for the people of South Africa, the National Prosecuting Authority is expected to bring corruption charges against Zuma after the first of the year. This should loosen the ANC leadership, easing Sexwale's insertion into a top ministry position.
If this guy survived his coke heart attack of 1986 I am pretty sure he is singularly responsible for the STD epidemic among the elderly.
The most important stories of the past weeks have been avoided by my laziness couched in buziness. Last week the fed, agreed to stem inflation by decreasing the interest rate they charge by only one quarter point. Wall Street whiners threw a major temper tantrum and the Fed some what reversed this decision. They did this by announcing they were going to auction off $40Billion this week to add liquidity to the market. Many more people believe this is a bailout than believe that the following story is a bailout.
The Executive Branch exercised its executive powers to freeze increases for adjustable rate mortgages of which people should not have agreed to in the first place. Poor lendees, are absolved of accumulated risk. Sound lendees are left feeling like their leader lost the coup. In short, it punishes people with good credit scores while bailing out the people who don't know the value of money. As usual Dealbreaker.com has two good summaries of the bailouts.
Dealbreaker on TFA
Dealbreaker on whatever it is
Disclosure: My opinion is lied about by various special interest groups and other dishonest people.
The actual reason being that local authorities are afraid of a monetarily losing demobbed force.
Credible Political Economist Willem Buiter asked an interesting though likely unanswerable question in his latest blog posting: What is the optimal temperature for humanity? He also presents some dubiously sourced data to give a much longer view of earth's climate than is commonly presented by the shrill ones.
Libyan Strongman, Muammar al-Gaddafi, exposes trite players for what they really are by rolling into Paris with an entourage for all times. And what about this suit to the right? Muammar to his tailor, "Yeah I'm thinking Miami Vice meets Soviet General, you feeling me?".
Mitt Romney continued a long tradition of Mormon intolerance this week. Firstly he lied and cheapened his own religious beliefs by claiming that Mormons believe there is validity in the "symphony of religion", including the disparate houses of Pentecost and Islam. Is that why Mormons baptize Jews after they have died? Secondly he threw enlightened people and secular people under the bus by presuming that they would destroy freedom given the opportunity to lead our nation. For more on this topic please watch this debate between a logically and historically challenged Dinesh D'Souza and a drunk Christoper Hitchens.
Amazon.com's share price rose 4% this week on news that some mentally ill 19 year old gunned down 8 people in a suburban mall. We all hate going to the mall and may harbor such thoughts but we are not that mentally ill as to premeditate such behavior. In reality our national bi-monthly shooting rampage is not enough to have driven AMZN's market capitalization to $39 billion this week. The reason is that the country is populated by morons who feel that all malls should now have airport like security. I wish I was kidding. Can you imagine the experience of going to the mall with the added horror of dealing with TSA like schmucks?
MSNBC give us a choice.
Full disclosure: The price of amzn may be affected by other events.
At the risk of turning this into a Bad Cop blog, I'm going to post this doozy from today's Austin-American Statesman. Not only is Georgetown(north of Austin) cop, Jimmy Lewis Fennell, Jr. being charged with sexual assault but his arrest has triggered an investigation into the the 11 year old murder of his pregnant fiance. Currently another man is on death row for the crime. There should be a new secret hiring policy for law enforcement officers, if after getting hired you shave your head and sport an intimidating goatee you are automatically fired for probable arseness. It's comforting to think that this guy will no longer be tormenting the citizens of central Texas and will likely be spending the friendless remainder of his life getting aired out. To clarify, again, all cops are not bad and the good ones undoubtedly agree that the power they wield should necessitate them being held to a more publicly scrutinized standard of conduct than citizens. As Americans slowly yield privacy and power to law enforcement for reasons of national security the need to rid themselves of the bad elements is self evident.
Pleasure Marriages, oxymoron yes but also the Middle East's answer to hookin' up. If we are lucky this will lead a generation of young Arab men towards the dent in the couch we call being a man. And at the very least they will spend more time knockin' sandals and less time with eachother getting riled up over glasses clinking in the west.
I like the sperm shiller. He is a true auteur who has also put out some fine records. A rare, truly multi-talented individual among the sycophantically deluded smegma we read about on so many tacky blogs. So I ponied up 20 bones to check out his new band RRIICCEE Monday night at the new Alamo Ritz in the ATX. RRIICCEE includes Eric Erlandson of Hole and some pretty, young people on drums and keyboard respectively. Most of the songs started out sounding like a bunch of stoned teenagers who weren't that familiar with musical instruments slowly working into a slint/blonde redhead/ improv sound. It wasn't bad, there were moments of beauty but the overall effect was bland. There is risk in playing live music that one hasn't really played before because it is difficult to tell whether your personal feelings for a sound are resonating with the audience. Especially when you are sitting on the floor with your back to them. Of course maybe the audience isn't your primary reason for playing the music. Maybe you would prefer not to agonizingly reflect on what may or may not be a tired tonal cliche. In this case you probably wouldn't save a piece to share with them in their more solitary moods. I'm not sure whether the guy who screamed, "YEAH!!" from the rafters during the audience's perfunctory golf clap would agree with my criticism, but what I am sure is that most people in the building, at least one band member included, appeared more thrilled by that interjection than the entirety of the show. However, I will be in the theater for the next Vincent Gallo movie and will probably buy tickets to see him play again.
Nothing was happening in the world today. Then Pimp C was found dead in an upscale hotel room. One half of the Port Arthur rap duo UGK, Pimp C is an original legend in the annals of Southern Rap, especially in the Houston scene.
Pimp C on Russell Simmons, "I just made peace with the lil change his name. Yeah, I said 'dick-in-the-booty-ass-nigga.' I know what I'm talking about. Bitch, I'll air you out too."
UGK classic, Diamonds and Wood
I've been searching for some good news about the economy today per Ben Stein's instructions but unless you were long white truffles the past year the news continues to be gloomy. For the good news, Macao gambling magnate "Uncle Stanley" Ho, bested the highest price ever paid for a white truffle by over 50%!! This will undoubtedly have a negative effect on my power to purchase even low market truffle goods such as pizza and scrambled eggs(that's right). I'm more than a little annoyed that The Merc has yet to create a forward market for this good that would allow me to hedge my future truffle needs. When will they get off their duffs and start meeting the world's demand for unique derivatives? And for the bad news... I won't even explain, you should just be aware of it all before you go into Christmas shopping mode. Bad, Badder, Badderer
When John McCain was asked how he felt about his captors in the Hanoi Hilton, he responded, "I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.". He later clarified by saying he was referring to his captors and not the Vietnamese population in general. Politically incorrect, yes, but also an eminently reasonable sentiment from a man who spent five years being beaten in a prison that probably did not meet Geneva Convention standards. When I refer to the police officer in the linked video as a pig I'm saying it in the same way McCain meant. Not all police officers are bad, I have met many more good ones than bad ones, my distaste for many of the laws they enforce not withstanding. But the actions of this cop render him a truly diseased swine pizzle and is one of the reasons I have such a soft spot for Ron Paul. The increasingly militarized police force in this country needs less funding not more in order to rein in their all too frequent unnecessarily violent and aggressive behavior. I hope this guy loses his job and pension.
FOLLOW UP: Apparently the swine served three(!!!) days suspension and returned to duty where he is free to terrify the citizens of Austin again. I bet the suspension was paid as well. Pig.
Tay Zonday has received a LOT of well deserved attention for his unique song Chocolate Rain. We wouldn't know who he was if he hadn't been born with that voice but he is utilizing it to the max right now and he seems to be a smart dude so will probably make the right decisions on how to use it in the future. One aspect of his oeuvre that hasn't gotten as much play is his exquisite reading of Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried". The reading sounds great and showcases a talent for comedic timing as well. GTFO James Earl Jones.
I am extremely excited to see that the New Hampshire Union Leader has endorsed John McCain in the upcoming primary. Like everyone else in America I don't agree with everything the candidate I've chosen to support believes in, but overall John McCain is correct on the issues that will keep America competitive economically for the coming years. There are obviously other issues but economic health is the macro issue from which many aspects of society are derived. Most importantly he is correct about free trade. This is one reason I could not vote for a Democrat. People who don't support international free trade don't understand the way the world really works and are taking the short term view over the long term benefits that trade brings and will bring. The trade imbalance is a problem right now but it is a natural step in the path to increased wealth per capita for the entire world. It is cheaper to buy goods from overseas because labor is relatively less expensive. As they provide us with goods, they will become more wealthy, healthy and educated. When this occurs they will increasingly demand the higher quality and more technologically advanced goods that we create. Wealth can be created, it is not a zero sum game where capital is shifted around creating only winners and losers. Not supporting free trade will cause the price of goods in America to rise unnecessarily but more importantly will deprive developing countries the opportunity to better themselves. Many on the left argue that factories and long work days are not beneficial to the beautiful pastoral societies that existed before capitalism moved in, they stubbornly refuse to see that when a society becomes richer that it means better schools, better hospitals and longer lives, which is better for us and them. America went through an industrial revolution with the same pains and consequences. Why deny others the chance?
Here is a McCain endorsement by thoughtful moderate David Brooks. I will provide more justification for my support later or as demanded...
The lazy folks over at the 700 Club have finally figured out what Austin residents along America's middle finger have known for a long time, I-35 is a crappy highway. What we, or at least I did not know is that I-35 was mentioned in the Bible and is the actually highway to holiness! Unfortunately it is abutted by numerous Gay Hangouts, Porn Stores and Mexican Restaurants so a brave group of Christians on fire has taken it upon themselves to consecrate the holy asphalt delivering it from Satan's glory holes. And for those of you not fortunate enough to be touched by the Holy Spirit, Mr. Stabile offers a testimony of which you will no doubt understand, man.
Good time guy, Charlie Rose, recently did a two part interview with Director of CIA Michael Hayden which offers insight into this former military man's thoughts on the future of our national intelligence service. Wait did I say former military man? Why is he still wearing his uniform? Isn't that a little Musharrafy? Part 1, Part 2
My friend Krishan linked me to this blog, BiblioOdyssey, which is a compendium of scans from very old books. My fortune says ten hours spent on this over the Christmas holiday. Hold on a sec, it is also telling me that the big trend in tattoo's for the next five years is going to be pictures from 17th century texts. You heard it here first. Get 'em while they are hot!
