-
To the Michael in All of Us
I never got the joke. Not the Wacko Jacko puns I was supposed to riff on as a tabloid headline writer. Not the corny late-night TV gags I was supposed to sneer along with. Certainly not the glee with which everyone gawked and cackled at Michael’s grotesque appearance and Peter Pan fantasies. I never found…
-
Cali Can't Balance Its Checkbook…or Yours
California and in particular, Los Angeles, is famous for harboring residents who will try to stunt on you in a brand new Audi but can barely afford to cover the cost of an entrée off the value menu at Carl’s Jr. Unfortunately, the botched budgeting that is spending more than what you bring in has…
-
Funerals, Memorial Services, Doing The Right Thing
Unless you’re one of the 17,000 or so who got a confirmation number in your e-mail box, you won’t be going to Michael Jackson’s funeral today, but that doesn’t mean we outside the Staples Center can’t use this whole sad past week as an object lesson in the business of remembering the dearly departed. For…
-
Washington's $1.4M Revolving Door
The lede to this WASHINGTON POST story on health care says all we need to know about the purported debate over creating a public plan to compete with private health insurance companies: The nation’s largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in…
-
Happy Fourth!!!
Last week I had the opportunity to tour George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate in Virginia. My nieces, 11 and 6, and I spent the day learning about Washington’s life, viewing historical artifacts, visiting the mansion and the gardens and, most of all, marveling at the model of integrity and leadership he established as our nation’s…
-
So…Black Women Shouldn't Cover the First Lady Because She's 'One of Them'?
From the Washington Post: “While Michelle Obama was meeting with doctors and patients at the Upper Cardozo Health Center, nearly two dozen journalists stood behind a white rope in a small room upstairs, most finally growing so tired during the hour-long wait that they sat on the floor. Finally the first lady emerged, read a…
-
Israeli Navy Arrests Ex-Rep. Cynthia McKinney
From CNN: ” The Israeli navy took control of a boat that violated an Israeli blockade and crossed into Gazan waters Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said, while a Gaza group said the ship was carrying humanitarian aid, a former U.S. congresswoman and a Nobel laureate. The boat’s crew included former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney,…
-
R.I.P., Vibe, 1993-2009
GALLERY—Losing the Vibe Vibe magazine is dead. Just like that. No wake, no second line, no funeral. Nothing. Vibe is gone like a pocket full of singles at an Atlanta strip club. Gone, but certainly not forgotten. I can remember the inaugural Vibe magazine cover like it was yesterday. Snoop Doggy Dogg—as he was known at the…
-
VIBE Magazine Folds
From Gawker: “Vibe Magazine—one of the biggest music magazines in America—is folding. The entire music magazine landscape is full of the dead and dying. Wikipedia sums up Vibe unexpectedly well: The magazine owes its success to having a broader range of interests than its closest competitors The Source and XXL which focus more narrowly on…
-
Why Shelby Steele Is Right
I can’t believe I am writing this. But I am. Shelby Steele is right. Not in the conclusions expressed in his recent article in the Wall Street Journal about Judge Sonia Sotomayor and what her nomination reveals about President Obama’s supposed contradictions. That is the stuff of fantasy. But Steele is right about one thing:…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
