Now didn't I tell you Iverson would be back?

What a great player. My man cried during the press conference after Philly resigned him. This joint brought me to tears....

Tiger?

Almost chewed out a kid today because he came into the teacher’s lounge with some “You heard Tiger Woods been cheating on his wife?” which made me snap and defend, “His wife was using the golf club to pry him out…you and the media are trying to make something out of nothing. Now get the hell out of the teacher’s lounge!” Almost gave him demerits. Almost gave him detention. Almost recommended for superintendent suspension.

Then I read this…
“Jaimee Grubbs has also stated that she had sex with Tiger Woods twenty times and that the two engaged in the practice of sexting.”

Oops.

Wait.

She counted?

Sorry, I got off topic for a second. Squeaky clean Tiger? Well, as we learned with Chris Brown beware of the squeaky clean guy. BECAUSE NOBODY IS SQUEAKY CLEAN! Plus Tiger has a billion dollars. Panties get tossed at him like horseshoes in a barn. You expect a man not to succumb to that? Just like my history teacher told me in eleventh grade, “Great men are great fuckers.” It was my favorite quote back then because it had the word “fuck” in it.

But now it makes perfect sense.

Afghan News

The latest from Afghanistan courtesy of USA Today...with my edits in bold of course :)

"The main thing is when you make a concerted effort to attack into fortified (helpless) areas … you are going to take more casualties," said Fred Kagan, who helped produce an assessment of Afghanistan for Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said the plan gives him enough time to achieve results (stall). "I believe that by next summer the uplift of new forces will (not) make a difference on the ground significantly," McChrystal said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he expects to see "measurable progress (decline)" over the next 18 to 24 months.

The military hopes to seize the initiative from insurgents (innocent civilians), reduce increase violence and build adequate (unnecessary) security forces so they can begin a transition to Afghan security forces by mid-2011.

Many of the 30,000 reinforcements will be headed to the contentious (neutral) south.

U.S. forces are (not) likely to encounter resistance as they enter areas that have not had a strong NATO presence. For example, Marines have secured much of the Helmand River Valley, but don't have enough forces to clear Marjah, a rural district that has become an insurgent (uninhabited) stronghold.


...any questions :) ?

Facebooking at the Altar

Thanks for the forward, Ben! Now this is what I call updating your status...

My Favorite Five On-Screen Teachers

In honor of Ms. Rain, life-changing teacher, from the movie newly released movie Precious, here are my favorite five teachers from the movies.

5. John Kimble (Arnold Schwarzenegger) Kindergarten Cop 1990



Though a middle-aged man with a pet ferret teaching kindergarten would be rather creepy in real life, it warms the heart here.

4. Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) Freedom Writers 2007



Yeah, yeah, yeah...well aware of the middle class white women superheroine who swoops into the hood to save the inner city youth issue, but she did help those kids--the ends justify the means.

3. LouAnne Johson (Michelle Pfeiffer) Dangerous Minds 1995



Ditto. Might have done it a little better than Swank.

2. John Keating (Robin Williams) Dead Poet's Society 1989



Edgy, unconventional, creative, Mr. Keating made boarding school seem like rock star camp.

1. Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) To Sir With Love 1979



Classic. Though, if you watch the movie again, any school teacher would tell you that Mr. Thackeray's class wasn't all that bad in the beginning.

I Have Been Waiting for this Site My Whole Life

...oh yeah, and enjoy this Lupe Fiasco mixtape, courtesy of this dream web site....

file:///Users/sidikfofana/Music/Enemy_of_the_State_Mixtape.zip

Allen Iverson and the Divorce between Basketball and Hip-Hop

Once the NBA's version of Samson snipped his cornrows for the first time, it was a symbolic bookending of an era between roundball and rap. Allen Iverson was a rapper disguised as a ball player. His jumpshot was a rhyme. His crossover, a punchline. Just like a gangster would say, "Probation?", Allen Iverson said "Practice?" Now he's retired. Here's to my favorite ball player, AI.

But he'll be back...trust me

Sapphire and Monique

"Just for waiting for the Academy's nod..."

The New Black Power by Jesse Washington

Jesse Washington is holding down the cultural political wing of the Associated Press all but singlehandedly. Here's his latest:

By JESSE WASHINGTON
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Ten months after Democrats took over the Capitol and the first African-American president moved into the White House, black lawmakers are in control of some of the most powerful positions in Congress — and face new challenges to using their long-sought influence.

There have been some victories — guaranteeing that stimulus money reaches some of the poorest parts of the country, expanding hate crimes legislation and moving to close health care disparities.

But "in some ways, our strategies haven't caught up with our own power," said Benjamin Todd Jealous, chief executive of the NAACP.

"The civil rights community is used to passing big omnibus legislative acts," he said. "We're not so accustomed to having the power to slice and dice that into 20 pieces and attach that to various other appropriations bills."

For generations, civil rights were inseparable from black politicians. That era ended with President Barack Obama, who has declined to engage in traditional black advocacy.

So any new efforts to help blacks who remain disproportionately unemployed, incarcerated, unhealthy and undereducated will most likely come from the 42 members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

"The goal is closing all of these gaps," said Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the caucus and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which oversees budgetary spending. "When you look at all these huge systemic gaps, there's still not equality and justice for all."

But due to recent advances among blacks — Obama's election chief among them— there is a new resistance toward efforts aimed at helping black people specifically, said University of Pennsylvania history professor Mary Frances Berry.

"We're used to being supplicants at the table," Berry said. "Now they have to be smart. If they want to do something about unemployment, they can target those who have the highest rates. If you target education, target the lowest achievement rates. Don't say, 'We're doing this for black folks'; you say, 'We want to target where the problems are.'"

That strategy has been taking shape for some time, said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who as majority whip is the third-ranking member of the House.

Clyburn cited an amendment in the economic recovery package that he worked on with Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, to ensure that 10 percent of federal stimulus dollars are spent in areas where at least 20 percent of residents have lived in poverty for the last 30 years.

"If I were designing a quote-unquote affirmative action program today, that's what I would be using, the 10-20-30 formula," Clyburn said. "We are finding more and more sophisticated ways of doing this on a nonracial basis."

But some still say the fractious black caucus — which famously split over endorsing Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 presidential primaries — should be doing much more to bring together leaders from the private sector, education and local government to tackle problems facing black America.

"The black power establishment altogether should be given a B-minus or a C-plus," Berry said. "They need to pull together, join together and be smart about how they articulate what the goals and opportunities are."

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said recently enacted legislation expanding hate crimes protection and changes he is pushing to mandatory minimum sentencing laws are evidence of "a whole new power syndrome on the national scene."

He also said he planned to bring a bill through his committee calling for the government to study the issue of reparations to descendants of slaves. "This is not just a feel-good measure," Conyers said. "This is very serious business."

Obama opposes reparations and has said "the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed."

The caucus also played a major role in pushing the House to formally rebuke Rep. Jim Wilson, the South Carolina Republican who shouted "You lie!" during Obama's health care address to Congress.

"We weren't just going to let that go and not say something about it," said Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y.

She said Clyburn's position as majority whip was crucial to this and other caucus priorities: "We're able to sort of project and amplify our voices because he's in the leadership."

Clarke said that in bills such as the stimulus package, health care reform and auto industry bailouts, caucus members affect "the chemistry of the legislation" by ensuring that provisions to help minorities are included.

For example, the House health care bill provides billions of dollars to address the substandard health care many minorities receive. It's unclear whether the provisions will remain after negotiations to reconcile the Senate health care bills.

Berry, the Penn professor, said the caucus' effectiveness should ultimately be judged by results on problems in poverty, education, unemployment and other areas.

"We're going to find out how smart they are, how committed they are and whether they have a fix on what the people need," she said.

The Life of a Soccer Star

...and boy does it rival that of a rock star!

Going McCarthy

An interesting editorial by Washington Post blogger, Abed Z. Bhuyan, comparing Islamophobia to the Red Scare...

Going McCarthy

Today's guest blogger is Abed Z. Bhuyan. Abed is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service where he majored in International Politics and minored in Islam and Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is currently a high school teacher in New York City with Teach for America.

In his most recent weekly column at Forbes, New York University Professor Tunku Varadarajan asserts that the recent murders at Fort Hood is a case of an individual, Nidal Malik Hasan, "Going Muslim." A term coined by Varadarajan himself, it is an adaptation of the phrase "Going Postal." While Varadarajan pats himself on the back for his neologism, he only succeeds in showing his own ignorance and bigotry.

In fact, Varadarajan is the latest in a series of individuals who engage in something that might be called "Going McCarthy" -- after the anti-Communist, fear-mongering Sen. Joseph McCarthy of the 1950s. Indeed, the fear-mongering that Varadarajan espouses is not uncommon to us now nor is it unusual in our collective national history. Islam has been conveniently placed in the void left by the Soviet Union and communism in the post-Cold War world. Modern-day McCarthyites, including Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson, pride themselves on instigating a paranoia that targets American Muslims like me. Let there be no doubt that Varadarajan has officially joined their ranks.

Varadarajan defines his new term as one that describes "the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Muslim-American--a friendly donut vendor in New York, say, or an officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood--discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his religion in an act of messianic violence against his fellow Americans."

With this term, Varadarajan concedes what many Americans already knew about the likes of Varadarajan: they do not distinguish between the few violent members of a religion and the overwhelming majority of that religion's practitioners, who account for as much as 25% of the world's population. Moreover, Varadarajan absurdly creates a world where an American Muslim can either be the friendly donut vendor or the mentally disturbed mass murderer.

He argues that religion has been privileged and exempt from rules of normal discourse. This, apparently, is a recent concern of Varadarajan. After all, he made no claims this past summer that the assassination of abortion doctor George Tiller was an example of "Going Christian."

To say that I am baffled by Varadarajan's calls to end the political correctness when publicly discussing Islam is an understatement. Political correctness is not there simply because he says it is there. On the one hand, we have Pat Robertson stating that Islam itself is the problem, and on the other Bill O'Reilly admits that America is trying to win the hearts and minds of Muslims because "we can't kill them all." If this constitutes political correctness in 2009, then I shudder to think of what a politically incorrect statement would look like.

Perhaps even more disturbing to me was that an official at NYU, where Varadarajan teaches, quickly dismissed calls from Muslims and other people of conscience who found Varadarajan's article hateful. "We are an institution that treasures free speech and open dialogue," wrote Dean Thomas Cooley in a condescending e-mail reply. "You need to think more about what this means since you don't seem to understand it."

Of course, in giving Varadarajan this free pass, Dean Cooley only exacerbates the situation, not only by insulting the intelligence of his own students, but by giving the cop-out answer that is too often used to defend and facilitate Islamophobia in our midst. It is important for leaders like Dean Cooley to firmly reject the dangerous narrow-mindedness and intellectually baseless claims of men like Varadarajan, who should not be granted immunity simply because he wears an NYU or Forbes uniform.

One can't help but wonder whether Dean Cooley would have been more thoughtful in his response had homophobia, anti-Semitism, or racism been at issue.

The fact of the matter is that all forms of bigotry must be condemned and certainly not glorified in the name of free speech or academic freedoms. The same way that homophobia, anti-Semitism, and racism must never go unchecked, Islamophobia must never go unchallenged. Allowing any form of bigotry to fester is irresponsible at best, and dangerous at worst. [To his credit, NYU President John Sexton has publicly stated that Varadarajan's article was offensive and wrong.]

The horrifying tragedy at Fort Hood is a time for solemn remembrance of the brave soldiers who died. Sadly, for opportunists like Varadarajan, it also serves as an event ripe for exploitation. His published bigotry is an insult to the institution of free speech and ought to be wholly condemned.
The content of this blog reflects the views of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of either Eboo Patel or the Interfaith Youth Core.

REVIEW: Sum and Belief are the Lone Wolf

For my organic Hip-Hop lovers out there. This was a pretty good CD. Here's my official review off okayplayer.com...

The Lone Wolf
Sum and Belief
by Sidik Fofana

I guess “flow” is the right word for it. However, Sum’s impressive rhyming is—if one is searching for a more apt analogy—like surfing. Some MC’s can surf the wave of the beat a half-a-bar or a full bar before having to breathe or break up the continuity with an abrupt phrase. This is not Sum’s style. His producer, the LA bred Belief makes the background a melodious vessel and Sum does what he knows: rides it to the fullest extent. Thus, the two put their heads together for the cogent The Lone Wolf , which bundles well-tailored lyrics into a concise half-an-hour of music.

Sum sounds like what you would get if you forced Jesse James to tell his life story on Def Poetry Jam. There’s definitely something cowboyish about this album—the lingering acoustic guitar notes and the harkening harmonicas over Hip-Hop beat breaks—that beckon the Wild West. The sound, along with Sum’s damn-near elegiac storytelling, gives The Lone Wolf a certain type of ghostly mystique that’s unfamiliar to Hip-Hop. This distinguished vibe presents itself in songs like, “Breakfast on the Moon,” a speculative ballad that’s one part science fiction and two parts slave narrative. All the while, Sum’s breathless rhythmic delivery continuously pops up during the LP begging for praise. In “35 Cents,” he uses his nimble tongue and squeezes the line, “Evaporated pieces of a story that you can’t encapsulate and carry with you when you lonely,” effortlessly into one bar.

The Lone Wolf is more a conceptual album than a musical one. It’s the type of release one appreciates and not necessarily dances to. Catchy hooks take a backseat to well-crafted lyrics (see “Next September”). Sum and Belief have concocted an opus that sounds dope on speakers and even doper on paper as poetry. Whether this music stands the test of time, depends on which definition of “music” applies.

100 Greatest Wire Quotes

Is you taking notes on a criminal *@# conspiracy?

Good looks to fellow teacher Abed Bhuyan for forwarding this!

Klassic Kreationz

They're like the 2009 version of the Souls of Mischief. Check out the track "I Just Wanna Be Me". Very nostalgic.