You lost him mama, the wars calling him / Feel its his duty to fall in line with all of them/ He's a soldier

"Flags of Our Fathers" is a new film by Clint Eastwood that premiered nationwide last Saturday. It presents the story behind the now immortal photo of six marines hoisting the American Flag atop Mount Suribachi, on the island of Iwo Jima, during World War II. Strategically postioned between the US controlled Maraina Islands, and the Japnanese archipelago, the U.S Marines securing of Iwo Jima was a crucial victory for the Allies in the Pacific theatre of the war. The resulting image inspired a war-weary public and reinvigorated the war bond effort at home

The Roosevelt and Truman adminsitrations went to lengths that were questionable at best to make national icons of the men in that picture, and to spin the authentic heroism of that day into the sort of unambiguous yarn that Americans love . But no matter how thick you pave it over, truth grows like a dandelion toward an ineluctable meeting with the light. The flag raising captured in the photo was actually replay of the original event which had taken place earlier that day. A man initally paraded before the public as one of the soldiers in the photo was not. The Government got its myth, and its money, and enough public support to prevail in the most important war that has ever been fought. The men involved in the photo and the publicity campaign got depression, and shame, and death.

"The first casualty when war comes is truth", offered Senator Hiram Johnson in 1918. When war came to Iraq the 611th american casualty would have been Corproal Patrick Daniel Tillman . Because our official casualty count does not include American soldiers killed by American artillery he actually has no number among the victims . His story, like the photo at Iwo Jima, was spun and sanitized by the government as a rallying cry to patriotism. Young ,blonde, blue eyed pro athlete walks away from millions in contract money to serve his country at war. In a round of vicious fighting with afghan rebels the hero loses his life trying to save the men under his command. It was the perfect tale and Pat Tillman was the perfect symbol to recommit the public to a war that it viewed with increasing ambivalence. The trouble, of course, was that the story was too perfect, and soon it would be dandelion season again.

First we were told that he was killed by afghan rebels in a firefight near the pakistan border. Then, later that he was actually shot by American in troops in the confusion of an pitched battle with the enemy.Then it turned out that the enemy wasnt even there, and that two of our own units had accidentally fired upon each other. Members of Tillman's unit were removed from the Army Rangers for buning his uniform and armor to conceal the circumstnces of his death. It was the same awful alchemy that occurred with the Iwo Jima photo...real valor is transmuted into myth, which then turns to controversy, and at last into bitter shame.

Kevin Tillman, who went into the army the same day as his brother Pat, has written a powerful indictment of our country's leadership in a blog at truthdig.com. He points no fingers, and produces no smoking gun in the conspiracy to mask the details of his brother's demise. He speaks frankly and poignantly about his disappointment in the current administration, and about what he regards as the traitorus silence of the masses ,who watch as democracy is stolen by those we asked to safeguard it. A little more than a year ago Pat's mom gave an interview to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which she disclosed Pat's own misgivings about the war in Iraq. Her statements, as well as her inquiries into the coverup surrounding her son's death, hackled many on the right who loved the myth but had no interest in the man.


The Tillmans are patriots in the most desperately needed sense. An American family, that has fought and sacrificed, here and abroad, in defense of America's principles. They have eschewed potemkin heroism for the real thing, because they understand what our President apparently cannot. The flags of our fathers were never intended to be gags in the mouths of our mothers, and we owe them more than a passing slaute as they go by, draped across the coffins of our sons.

Give Big a hug, tell Aaliyah I said hi, til the next time I see her on the other side.

Hip-hop has always been about defining yourself as a person. Because it is a male dominated form, in a male dominated culture, more than anything it's been about asking and answering the question of what it means to be a man. What is a man willing to do for his money, or his respect, or his women, or his people? Among the legion of artists who have contributed to this repository of shared masculine experience, Joseph Simmons occupies a very special place.

Once known as The Son of Kurtis Blow, later Run of Run DMC, and now Rev Run, he is more than just an popular icon. He's a monument. The songs he made are classics, and the rapid "handoff" style that he and his partner Darryl McDaniels pioneered remains the blueprint for the way 2 MC's share 16 bars . He wore Kangols and track suits on stage, because thats what he wore in real life, and he understood that hip hop was nothing if not real life. When beats and rhymes first met cinema in the movie Krush Groove, Run was there to make the introduction . When Rap married Rock in the form of "Walk this Way" he performed the wedding (In fact , he chaperoned their first date on the on the old school gem "King of Rock"). In a culture where nothing counts more than your manhood, for many years, Joe Simmons was The Man.

Joseph, and his wife Justine, recently experienced the birth, and death, of their child Victoria Anne on the same tragic day. MTV was on hand to tape the delivery for an episode of his family- oriented reality show "Run's House". As the baby entered the world doctors discovered that many of her vital organs had developed outside of her body.Her life lasted only a few minutes. In the wake of what was surely a shattering experience he issued the following brief statement.

On Sept. 26, 2006, Victoria Anne Simmons for some unknown reason chose to come early and unfortunately did not survive...We must accept whatever is there and once you accept unconditionally, then everything is beautiful. Every pain has a purifying effect. So whatever comes your way, just be thankful. We see life in death and believe in the celebration of life in death."

In 5 simple sentences that dont even rhyme, Run has raised the bar for every other MC again. No bullet riddled drug tale, and no ribald recitation of conquests, ever spoke more to the strength of a man than those words do. A man is someone stands squarely by his family, humbly before his god, and resolute in the face of a world he knows will break his heart some days. So whatever comes your way, just be thankful.... I'm very sad for one the heroes of my generation today. The Son of Kurtis Blow, and the father of Victoria Anne. But more than that I'm thankful that we still have Run to teach usl how to walk this way.

You ain't gotta go to church to get to know yo' God

I kinda felt after the last post that i had fully vented my spleen on the subject of religion, and planned to stay away from it for a long time. Then I read a piece entitled "When Atheists and Secularists Quote Scipture" on a conservative blog called Hot Air. Plan immediately aborted. The entry was thoughtful, well written, and thorougly researched. I have to admit that it succeeded in changing (by a few degrees anyway) my view of the conflict between islamic fundamentalism and the entire western world. You should definitely read it for yourself but I will sum it up in the following two paragraphs (with apologies for any violence that i might be doing to the subtlties of his take on the subject) :

Those Muslims whom the the majority of Americans might dismiss as extremists ,the ones who believe in the spread of Islamic values by way of suicide bomb, are not operating under a misunderstanding of their religion. They are not an insane fringe group of selectively reading from scripture to justify their madness. They are not the unwilling, or unwitting, dupes of the Khalifah of the moment. Those of Allah's followers who are actively practicing jihad against the West may not be a majority, but they are fully supported in ther actions by The Quran, no right reading of which can simply discount the numerous exhortations to violence against non believers.

Furthermore, Western apologists who in the name of tolerance or correctness draw parallels between the licence to kill provided in the Quran, and the violence against the pagans that The Lord demanded of his followers in the Old Testament betray their lack of understanding of both religions . Leviticus is a historical scripture, not an active one. It's permissions and restrictions are essentially overwritten (or abrogated) by the more recent New Testament. Christ's passion "fulfills" all preceding law, and his teachings offer absolutely no basis for violence against non-believers. The trend of the abrogation in the Quran, however, is precisely the opposite. Early suras on meeting the irreligious with tolerance are undone by later more forceful suras demanding conversion by the sword.

The writer admits he is not a theologian, and I'm definitely not one either, but there are some points here that deserve to be questioned. For one, the idea of abrogation in scripture is a useful tool if you are studying a faith in the abstract, but I dont believe it really applies to the way the faithful read scripture. Most Christians would say that they take the Holy Bible as one document given to men by God, in which all claims and demands are equally valid, and all apparent contradictions result from the imperfect understanding of men. In considering the question of whether the Pentauch still animates Christians it should be noted that you have probably never heard anyone argue for posting Matthew 5:40 or Luke 6:37 on a courthouse wall, but there is a great hue and cry for municipal display of the (presumably voided) Ten Commandments.

I would agree that it is not the Holy Bible that has moved Christians in the past to burn women as witches, or which moves them today to bash gays as blasphemers. But "God's word" has certainly offered a philosophical skeleton to support those atrocious impulses ,and it has provided great moral cover for those and similar acts ex post facto. Rape, slavery, genocide... All of these are denounced in some part of national scripture, and then endorsed in another. It is, in part, this historically "accomodating" quality of Christianity that has allowed it to flourish. Whether you've just been conquered and disposessed by your enemies, or you're chaining up their virgins for the long ride home, The Bible has a verse that proves you are standing on the right side of Heaven and History.

While it is possible that muslims really are the Children of Pricklier God, to assume that Islamic hatred for America has arisen sola scriptura seems a little daft. Bin Laden may be living in a cave right now, but he wasnt born in one. He comes from a wealthy, worldly family many of whom are alot more learned than I am. (and most of whom have more land holdings and political access in America than I ever will.) Gadafi went to military school in England for a year. Saddam Hussein was once "western" enough to be accorded a key to the city of Detroit. I dont doubt that there is a significant Islamic laity that takes the whole "Great Satan" buisness without any salt at all. But I'm also sure that if our government switched sides tommorrow in the fight for the holy land, and we changed nothing else about ourselves , we would have little more to fear from Jihadists.


It was the biblical Sarah's political gambit to have her son inherit over his elder half-brother Ishmael that gave birth to Islam. If Peter had been able to keep his delegates in line at the Council of Jerusalem, Paul's new Gentile converts would have been subjected to mosaic law in all its rigor, and Christianty might have died quietly in committee. It was ever thus...Faith following Politics. Every scripture is intended as a roadmap to Grace, and they are subject to continuous redaction and reinterpretation, to better reflect to the changing social and political topography of this world.

Im far from being God ....but I work goddamn hard

Charles Dudley Warner once made an observation about the strangeness of political bedfellows that has certainly stood the test of time.But, in the history of the West, it is religion that makes the oddest and most baleful bunkmates of all.

A few days ago I read an article on MSNBC.com called the The New Naysayers. It was about the rise in popularity of what can be called “Strong Atheist” literature. These would be works such as “The End of Faith" by Sam Harris, that argue without apology that there is no such thing as God, and that religiosity of every stripe contributes much to human suffering . In my opinion the advent of moral monotheism has been an crucial stepping stone in the development of mankind. Most of the atrocities that are attributed to faith were actually the result of tribalism, the dark side of our patrimony as social creatures. If no one ever again spoke the name of God we’d just find other things to Crusade for, or Jihad over.

What I always find disappointing about the "God Debate" is the degree to which everyone seems to agree on the field of battle. It was 4000 years ago that a Mesopotamian merchant was called by an unseen voice to leave his home for a “land that I will show you” It is still that voice which the western world is following.It is still that land that we seek. But why is that true? Why in this age of clones and quarks do we cling to a pre- technological, pre-democratic, nearly preliterate formulation of Divinity. I personally dont think God is dead, but his resume seems to be hopelessly out of date. Deity must be, ex vi termini, so far beyond the pale of human comprehension that no theology could ever articulate him in full. Each religion captures some dimension of divinity (and humanity) that others have missed. There is a horizon for every eye, but none of them is the actual edge of the world.

Why, in all of the vastness of the Universe did Eloi choose a nomadic herding community in the middle eastern desert as his only people?

How can an entity be omniscient and still experience regret, or ever have “a change of heart” about anything ?

Why does a God who is entirely good allow evil to prosper?

Simple..He didn’t, He couldn’t , He doesn't.

For the sake of atheist and adherent alike, we need a radical redefinition of terms. I believe we are seeing the leading edges of this in the often ridiculed New Age movements, as well as those branches of science that concern themselves with cloning, and artificial intelligence, and the architecture of particles.

Those same middle-eastern nomads, yoked and oppressed by one empire after another have given the world an enormous gift. They handed down to us a story that summed up their highest hopes for a relationship with the numinous as they understood it. We, the recipients of that gift, have spent millennia arguing about (and killing over) the nature of the wrapping paper that surrounds it. Could this be the century in which we finally find the courage to look inside the box?

..So put your number on this paper, cause I would love to date ya//Holla atcha when i come off tour.

My AC's not working right, and its hot as hell outside.
I'm bone tired from helping one my friends move.
I've had less than very little sleep and hardly any caffeine in the last 3 days.
In short, I lack the requisite verve to to strive for pith or poignance today .... so in lieu of those i offer you the following:

The FHM 10 sexiest women in the world list (for '06) .
A brief explanation as to why that list completely wrong .
A more accurate list of the 10 sexiest women in the world( for '06)

So, first, here are the Top 10 as voted by FHM readers…….

Number 10:
Teri Hatcher.

Number 9
Carmen Electra

Number 8
Maria Sharapova.

Number 7
Jenny McCarthy

Number 6
Halle Berry

Number 5
Keira Knightley

Number 4
Jessica Simpson,

Number 3
Jessica Alba

Number 2
Angelina Jolie

Number 1 sexiest woman alive is (supposedly)
Scarlett Johansson


Now, this is not a terrible list...I do love Jessica Alba's shape, and Keira's accent, and Johansson's ta-ta's are so luscious that apparently even gay guys are driven to grope her in public. I would certainly concede that every man has longed for a hot, crazy, freak bitch like Angelina Jolie at some time in his life. Of course, leaving your wife for one is not widely regarded as a perspicacious choice, but thats another blog altogether.

The list does have some plausible entrants, but it's still very flawed. First of all somebody at FHM isnt reading the memos. Skinny chicks are over . Thick is the new thin. When mainstream magazines like People and US devote cover space to outing Nicole Richie's extreme angularity you know the cultural sand has shifted on you.

Also I know its entirely possible to be sexy at 30, 40, or even 50, but Teri Hatcher looks like she has skidded down some long hard roads since her "spectacular" days on Seinfeld. Mostly on her boobs and butt. The recently exed- Mrs Dave Navarro, (and former Prince sex toy) is still most famous for having once survived a brutal four-day steel cage marriage to Dennis Rodman, and the wear is definitely starting to show.

And Halle is...well she's Halle, timeless and perfect. But its going on ten years now that she's been the default response whenever "mainstream" america is asked to name a beautiful black woman. She still fits the bill, but i think we need more than one entree on that menu.

So, as a corrective for FHM's numerous faux pas and I offer you now the definitive, multi cultural, age appropriate list of the 10 sexiest women of 2006

Number 10:
Nicole Alexander- better known to the world as Hoopz, the former future mrs Flavor Flav

Number 9
Jessica Biel

Nunber 8
Nicole Scherzinger(The lead Pussycat in the dolls.)

Number 7
Wanita Woodgate - aka D. Woods of the group Danity Kane ( who are b.k.a. "those chicks from Making The Band")

Number 6
Sofia Vergara

Number 5
Rhona Mitra (of Boston Legal and last seasons' Nip/Tuck)

Number 4
Serena(The Chocolate Goddess) Williams

Number 3
Beyonce

Number 2
Janet Jackson -She's doin 40 sexier than Ciara is doin 15 (or 12, or however freakin old she is) and she deserves genuine kudos for her humaitarian work (i.e. Jermaine Dupri.)

Now Ladies and Genlemen I give you the number one sexiest woman of 2006 (cue D'angelo singing "Brown Sugar")

The honey-drip complexion, that little extra dip in her walk, and that "lets do something naughty" smile....mmm-mmm-mmm it could only be: Sanaa Lathan

Sanaa is gorgeous, gifted, and absolutely not guilty of fucking Denzel Washington (would y'all please stop makin my girl out to be a home wrecker). If you look up Sanaa Lathan in the dictionary you will find the following:" Her combination of stunning beauty and 'girl next door' approachability have made her one of the most popular Black actresses of her generation." And the fact that I put it there doesnt make it any less true, because once something is on the web you know its got to be right.


If my AC kicks in i will try to come up with something better than this tommorow

And when I'm gone, just carry on, don't mourn/. Rejoice, every time you hear the sound of my voice

The Crocodile Hunter is gone.

Steven Robert Irwin was killed several days ago while diving off the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. He was a renowned wildlife expert and conservationist, as well as a popular spokesperson for Australian tourism. He leaves behind a wife and two kids whose loss is terrible, and whose grief should be respected. Maybe they shouldnt read the rest of this.

The first report that I read about his death was on was MSN .com. It said that the he had inadvertently cornered a stingray on the ocean floor, and that the critter reflexively lashed out with the toxin loaded barb at the end of its tail. The stinger pierced his heart. Someone in the MSN piece depicted the fatality as a "freak accident". Many of other articles that i've read about his death used this phrase as well.. While it is apparently true that the strike of a stingray is very seldom fatal, this description of Mr Irwin's demise seems a bit misguided. His public persona was largely defined by his proximity to dangerous creatures. He handled poisonous snakes. He sidled up to vultures in the wild as they fed. And of course, there were all those nasty crocs. During his life his particular brand of 'eXtreme zoology" had its critics, who felt that he sometimes antagonized and exploited the creatures he sought to educate us about.

To say that he deserved his death would be unfeeling and unfair, and that is not my point. But Irwin knowingly risked sudden annhilation at the jaws, claws, and tails of wild animals for much of his adult life. These adventures were his passion and his purpose. When his end came suddenly in the form of a stingray, during a trip he took to film a TV special called "Ocean's Deadliest", Steve Irwin was a lamentable victim. Not of a freak accident ,but of one of the occupational hazards of being The Crocodile Hunter.

Take the evil out of people theyll be actin right, Cause both black and white'll smoke crack tonight.

I havent been been on here in a couple of days so Im feeling a little blog-stipated. Alot of stuff has happened in the last few days that i wouldnt mind ranting about, but I think today I'm gonna spend a little time discussing an appearance that Michelle Malkin made on CSPAN a few nights ago. She was taped earlier this year at Oberlin College promoting her book "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild". This was my first exposure to Mrs Malkin and her views and right off the bat I'd like to make one important observation...She's hot. Very, Very hot .

Her hair is dark and luxuriant, and she has a pearly, winsome smile. I happen to believe this is good news for liberals and conservatives alike since we may finally be able to put to rest the notion that Ann Coulter is "The Right Wing Sex Kitten" I have always been of the opinion that Ann Coulter looks like Ed Harris in a wig. Or maybe William Hurt. Or pretty much any pasty, lantern jawed male with apparent paralysis of the levator and frontalis muscles. Uggggh!! Any way.. back to very hot Michelle.

I havent read her book so i cant critique it, but her presentation was essentially an indictment of liberal posturing on the subject of prejudice and exclusion. She referred to several instances of bigotry that she herself sufffered at the hands of "the left" for daring to be a Filipino and an Arch Conserative. She says she has been called a sell out and a traitor to her race, and one person even apparently asked her if she had collagen injected into her lips so she'd look more "ethnic". That may have been more of a backhanded compliment that an aspersion, since she does have a great lips

She also cites a number of examples of the Democratic party leadership commiting egregious solecisms on the subjects of race ,gender, and religion. These instances were cited to contest what is , supposedly, the largely unchallenged assumption that liberal politics are politics of inclusion and fairness. Hypocrisy is a word that came up more than once in her discussion.

Mrs Malkin is right in her assertion that Republicans dont have a monopoply on intolerance or ignorance, and if there really is anyone in America who didnt already know that then i guess they ought to pick up her book. ButI still think that she is (despite her smoking hotness) totally full of crap. Liberals arent held to be more inclusive because we are free of all prejudice. We arent the standard of multi-culturalism because we are, to a man, more culturally enlightened those who disagree with us .

Liberalism is simply the belief that government has a responsiblity to protect the least powerful people in our society. It is believing that a military that can be anywhere in the world in 48 hours, should'nt need 5 days to find the ninth ward of New Orleans. Liberals are the guardians of diversity simply because we are not the proponents of redlining, redistricting, mandatory minimums, and racial profiling. When the haves and have nots in America are distributed much more evenly among the different races, maybe Blacks and Browns will identify a little more with the Reds. But until then liberals will continue to be associated with racial tolerance and inclusiveness, not because we are the perfect exemplars of it, but because were the only that ones who aspire to it.