Reality Bytes and Pieces

In 1999, then State Senator Barack Obama proposed a federal law banning licensed gun shops from operating within five miles of a school or park because, obviously, he was concerned about kids getting shot by gun shop patrons eager to play with their new toys. Duh!

However, as National Review’s Jim Geraghty reported in his March 3 column, “Obama appears to find another kind of establishment to be perfectly fine operating near your children’s school.”

“Obama was also the sole present vote on a bill that easily passed the Senate that would require teaching respect for others in schools. He also voted present on a measure to prohibit sex-related shops from opening near schools or places of worship, which ultimately did not pass the Senate.

“In both of those cases, his campaign said, he was trying to avoid mandates on local authorities.

“The bill did not get the required three-fifths majority, so it did not in fact pass. (Mr. Obama voted “present” on the measure.)” 

Geraghty brilliantly summarized the Obama voting phenomenon asking, “Why on God’s green earth does Barack Obama object to mandates on local authorities for porn shops but not for gun stores? Or conversely, why does he feel it’s necessary to keep gun stores five miles from a school, but no limit on porn shops?”

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Obama Employed Farrakhan Followers, Still Has Ties to Radical Islam
Obama Wants to Use “Bully Pulpit” to Advance Homosexual Agenda
Obama “Proud” of Militant Muslim Brother
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MEDIA COVER-UP: Man Claims He Had Sex, Used Drugs with Obama
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Media “Pimping” Obama Assassination Idea to Radicals
Rap Music Deemed Equally Inspiring as Obama

This is how we do it - A nice pictorial of African soldiers who have watched one-too-many bad American movies involving gangbangers gettin’ it done on the streets.

You’re cut-off, fatty! - Is your tubby kid watching too much Teletubbies? A nifty new device will turn of the tube when Tubby’s been sitting on his ass eating cookies for too long.

Saudi uncle beheads toddler in supermarket - “‘He chopped off the boy’s head in front of the mother to get back at her,’ a police officer was quoted as saying. The mother fainted and was taken to hospital…”

Now that Black History Month is over, I was just wondering if anyone can answer the 10 questions at the bottom of this post that were selected from the Black Heritage Trivia Game by the Chicago Daily Herald.

If you can, then I guess you paid attention to whatever commercials were airing on television during NBA and college basketball games, or during sitcoms on the networks. If you fail the quiz, I’m guessing that you’re no different than anyone else — black or white.

Hopefully, school kids came away with some new knowledge this past month, but some us were kids not so long ago and most of the facts and figures learned during Black History Month are just as fresh in mind as trigonometry and foreign languages.

You can argue that keeping black history relevant in the minds of kids is just a matter of teaching black history year-round, but I think the reality is that kids know what they need to know when they’re expecting to be quizzed and graded. It all just gets fuzzy when you’re an adult and no matter what type of history you’re taught — black, American or European — you can’t remember everything with the same clarity as you get older.

That said, Black History Month should not be so much about teaching history as it should be teaching the next generation to understand the struggles of past generations so they can work towards achieving a brighter future together in a colorblind America.

The quiz below means something, but it doesn’t teach understanding, tolerance, mending fences and building bridges. How many teachers probably pay lip service to Black History Month and just throw out a bunch of facts as included in the quiz below? Probably more than you’d believe, especially when so many white teachers have little or no connection to black culture, people and history outside of a textbook.

Maybe the focus of Black History Month needs to be re-focused on the message and not memorizing the facts and figures. Just my opinion, but that’s something kids can remember throughout their lives.

Here’s the quiz:

1. What were the black soldiers who helped protect pioneers during the settlement of the American West called?

2. The Amistad mutiny took place in what year?

3. What was Malcolm X’s given name?

4. Which U.S. president signed the bill that made Martin Luther King Jr. Day a national holiday?

5. How long did the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott last: six weeks, six months or more than a year?

6. What U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared that school segregation is unconstitutional?

7. Who was the first African American to win baseball’s Most Valuable Player award?

8. Who was the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize: Ralph Bunche, Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X?

9. Who was the first black woman nominated for an Academy Award for best actress?

10. What was the first hit song for Motown?

Answers: 1. Buffalo Soldiers. 2. 1839. 3. Malcolm Little. 4. Ronald Reagan. 5. More than a year. 6. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. 7. Jackie Robinson, in 1949. 8. Ralph Bunche. 9. Dorothy Dandridge. 10. “Shop Around” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Canine Sport Fighting for Fun and Profit - “With our system, your dog only needs to win a few fights per year to carry his own weight in the house and put a little cash in your pocket even after vet bills. It’s a win/win situation for everyone…”

Don’t believe the media hype about birth defects - “This must be the season to scare parents-to-be about birth defects. Two major reports offering reassuring news about birth defects in newborns and cancer mortalities in children have been issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The public would never know it, though, as the media has been busily reporting the opposite of the actual data…”

Mormons Used to Smoke Alot of Dope - Back in 1910, Mormons used to travel to Mexico for the “sticky-icky” and bring it back to smoke in Utah. Who said these people aren’t any fun?

“Former” Porn Star Releases Comic Book - “From the mind of Jenna Jameson, NY Times Bestselling author and iconic entertainer and written by Christina Z (WITCHBLADE) comes a dark tale of one woman’s struggle with forces beyond ordinary perception…”

Is Romney Pushing Harvard to Plug Mormonism? - Maybe it’s just a coincidence that Harvard is located in Massachusetts and Romney is the state’s former Governor. Or, maybe Romney’s taking a page from Tom Cruise and using his fame and influence to convert young, impressionable students to his “cult.”

Raelian “Alien” Cult to Open World’s First “Pleasure Hospital” - If your clitoris has been removed by fellow tribal members, fear not, the Raelians want to reconstruct your pleasure palace.

Evangelicals Find Value in Tom Cruise’s Scientology Recruitment Strategy - “Celebrities’ religious beliefs, no matter how strange or convoluted, can be a springboard for spiritual conversations about the true message of God’s grace and forgiveness as revealed in the Bible. Step up and take the opportunity to turn the conversation toward Jesus and share what He’s done in your life…”

Know Thy Neighbor - I live within a few blocks of a pedophile, a rapist and a stalker! How’s your neighborhood looking?

Ride ‘Em, Cowgirl! - As of yesterday, Texans can now legally purchase and use sex toys.

Gaybonics Conference in D.C. - Apparently, sounding gay and talking gay are two different things, and the brilliant educators at American University in Washington, D.C. are putting on a conference this weekend to prove it.

Fat Mom, Dead Kid - This is what happens when you put booze, an obese mom and a two-year-old boy in a room together. Talk about making your kids pancakes…

Extinction by Obesity Spares Taxpayers - Study claims, “Although effective obesity prevention leads to a decrease in costs of obesity-related diseases, this decrease is offset by cost increases due to diseases unrelated to obesity in life-years gained. Obesity prevention may be an important and cost-effective way of improving public health, but it is not a cure for increasing health expenditures.” Soon, there’ll be PETA campaigns to “Save the Fatted Redneck.”

“God, you smell sexy!” - “Virtue was conceived out of our desire to provide a perfume that would allow a person to be reminded of God and their Spiritual Self, by a simple whiff of it’s fragrant essence.”

Elderly Crooner Ensures His Chest Hair for Millions - “Tom Jones, 67, whose mop of luxurious curly brown hair has made him a hit with the ladies, has had his chest hair insured - for the princely sum of £3.5million!”

Go ahead! Burn that bridge! - If you’re looking for a simple and effective way of telling your current or soon-to-be-former boss what you really think about him or her, this just might get the message across loud and clear. 

In order to combat a forty-percent dropout rate among black high school teens in Toronto, Canada, school board trustees voted 11-9 to make schools “more relevant to black students” by opening an “Africentric” school in September 2009.

Urging support for the proposal, white school board Chairwoman Susan Ward said, “I don’t know what it’s like to be a black parent, but I do know pain when I see it and recognize despair when I hear it, from the deepest part of the soul of those who believe time is running out,” while a black mother of a high school student countered, “[T]his black school thing – no, it ain’t right.”

Supporters claim the all-black school with black teachers and “africentric” curriculum will plug the “school-to-jail pipeline.” Interestingly, the Toronto District School Board says the bulk of the black students they’re trying to help are Caribbean-born or hailing from east Africa, which makes it sound like they need to look in the mirror and realize they’ve done a miserable job of integrating these foreign-born kids in to Canadian society and that segregating them will only serve to increase the cultural and academic divide between black and white Canadian youth. Further, how is an “africentric” curriculum going to help black Canadian teens prepare for promising careers in “whitecentric” Canada?

If you want to close that “school-to-jail pipeline,” teach these black kids something that will empower them to excel in the future and not dwell on the past, which most likely will harp on past racial tensions and historic discrimination against blacks. Sure, you can fire-up the kids by telling them about how whites oppressed blacks throughout history, but that is not the inspirational message Canada should promote in its efforts to build a color-blind society that lives, works and plays in racial harmony.

There’s no better way to satisfy your craving for something sweet and taste the goodness of God all in one bite than these tasty treats from “Scripture Candies.” 

According to the Christian confectioner’s website, ”We take the best tasting candies and wrap them in Scriptures so that they can be passed out to everyone. It’s a great way to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A single piece of Scripture Candy is like that seed planted by the sower in the parable spoken by Jesus in Matthew 13; it has the potential of producing a tremendous harvest.” But wait, there’s more. If you act now, “[Y]ou can be one of the few workers Jesus was talking about by simply offering a piece of candy to everyone you meet, because they might be the next person the angels rejoice over in heaven for coming to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.”

 That sounds too good to be true, but if there’s a chewy nougat center and promise of eternal salvation, my mouth is watering.

Conservative parents across the U.S. have good reason to be concerned about what their kids are learning in so-called “sex-education” classes taught in the public schools as evidenced by a new report that reveals thirty-percent of Illinois’ sex-education teachers “had never received sex-education training.” Here’s the real kicker …  The report continues to cite that the national average for those teaching your kids about issues including “abstinence until marriage or older, HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, and contraception” without any formal sex-education training is eighteen-percent. This report makes you wonder what criteria these uncertified instructors have to meet in order to teach someone else’s kids about human sexuality and disease prevention — real world experience? You can get that from a prostitute.

“Good morning, Jackass!” - Well, who said you can’t make your boss’ life miserable when he insists on calling for early morning meetings? I applaud the geniuses who created this FREE online wakeup service that dials on demand. It’s the perfect way to make sure your boss isn’t late for the meeting, even if he’s reminded about it at 2am or every half-hour thereafter. This website has limitless potential for wreaking havoc on your worst enemies, or those who’ve yet to earn that honor.

Tiny “Bundles of Joy” Could Bring So Much More Joy - Not that I’m in the market or even remotely interested, but don’t you think this woman who creates lifelike re-creations of still-born babies could make a “bundle” selling lifesize sex dolls? Jan, the Gepetto of dead baby dolls, needs to stop peddling her current lineup of morbid dolls and realize her true potential for bringing joy to the masses in the sick and twisted world of sex toys. Sorry Mom, but this had to be said.

Translate Webpages into Funky Freshpages - Here’s a blast from the past. Anyone remember “The Dialectizer?” Well, it’s still alive and kickin’ it old school. Just copy the URL of a website and paste in to the prompt for a rough translation of how the website would look if a smooth jive-talker or Walt “Clyde” Frazier was in control of content management.

Guarantee Your Kid Gets Bullied - If you want your kid(s) to stand out from the rest on the playground, there’s no better way to guarantee they’ll be excluded and/or beat to a pulp than enrolling them in one of the “Profound Awareness Alliance’s” programs for “psychic kids.” Yep, Harry Potter is alive and well here in the “Enchanted Forest Intuitive Camp” where kids are taught to embrace their “sixth sense, second sight, natural mystic, clairvoyance, guardian angels, ‘imaginary friends’, other dimensions, just being different or any other experiencing expanded awareness.” Note to parents: Stock-up on bandages. It’s gonna be a long school year for Little Johnny and his imaginary friend.