Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, 1918 – 2013: "Never Give Them Away"

On the death of Nelson Mandela:

       I will remember so many great things about a truly great man, but I was inspired by the memories shared recently by President Bill Cllinton.  Clinton, when going through some of his trials as a President had a moment to ask Mandela how did he survive all of those years in prison and not grow to hate his oppressor.

       Mandela in response tells Clinton that he had to realize that while they had the power to take everything away from him, they could not take his heart and his mind unless he gave them away and he decided not to give them away.  Then he reminded Clinton, "and neither should you".

     Neither should we.

#FASTTAILEDGIRLS.......Fair or Foul?

http://thegrio.com/2013/12/03/fasttailedgirls-hashtag-has-a-painful-history-behind-it/2/

I added this to the post because I think it belongs here.....SquareBiz

Muhammad Ali's advice to his daughters...Powerful! An incident transpired when Muhammad Ali’s daughters arrived at his home wearing clothes that were quite revealing. Here is the story as told by one of his daughters: “When we finally arrived, the chauffeur escorted my younger sister, Laila, and me up to my father’s suite. As usual, he was hiding behind the door waiting to scare us. We exchangedmany hugs and kisses as we could possibly give in one day. My father took a good look at us. Then he sat me down on his lap and said something that I will never forget. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Hana, everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to. Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground, covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You've got to work hard to get to them.” He looked at me with serious eyes. “Your body is sacred. You’re far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered too.” From the book: More Than A Hero: Muhammad Ali's Life Lessons Through His Daughter's Eyes.

       I am a father of five girls (no boys) and when I read this article (#FastTailedGirls has a painful history behind it by Goldie Taylor...the grio) and your comments I am confused as to whether there is a problem with the term or the impact of the term because a rose by any other name..... becomes the Scarlet letter.

       My point is that we have to teach all of our daughters how to embrace their femininity without dressing in a way that sends the wrong message. My wife and I had to do the same with our girls regardless of their genetic make up. It seems that we are not accepting that there is a manner in which any person can intentionally carry themselves (including dress) that will attract the other sex. Your article talks about the drop in teen pregnancy but not among young teens. I assume that some of the younger teens that Goldie refers to in her statistics about teen pregnancy did not get raped but became sexually curious and proceeded to do something about it. Some of them grew up (probably without a dad or an active one) needing male attention or learning the power of female sexuality from unexplained male attention or from female role models in their midst. Most women grow to recognize this power. Fass girls in the projects were I grew up as a kid were the ones who seemed to use it liberally. We could have called these girls fass, Crass, Lass or any other degrading term but they all would lead back to the manner in which we carry ourselves.

       There is never an excuse for older men who take advantage of these young ladies. Most young men are more afraid of sex than they would ever admit so I am not surprised that the exploitation happens with older men. I guess my point is to say there is a problem with young girls who are conditioned to explore their sexuality before it is prudent to do so as it relates to their maturity. On the other hand, there are girls who simply develop quickly who can get painted with this broad brush if they are not 'taught how to dress and how to handle themselves". I believe that people who abuse kids (boys get abused too) don't care if you are fass or not. In these scenario's, fass becomes an easy way out for an abuser who needs one.



       The gap between an adult who notices fast tailed girls and one who pursues sex with them is a very wide one. When the girls who gets abused is not fass, then the abuser must alter the excuse a bit. All problems have roots and fast tailed girls (or whatever you want to call 'em) is a problem that is rooted in family dynamics that need to be addressed within America. Rape and abuse is a separate problem (most abusers were abused themselves) that we might allowing this topic to distract from a different problem in this case.

       Women are majestically beautiful and powerful in ways that are unimaginable to many young women who limit their beauty to a myopic view. Fashion trends like skinny jeans today and daisy dukes way back when demand that we teach our girls to know that the booty is not your beauty. It's just an ass. Dress to turn yourself on and walk like you got it going on and you might be called a few things worse than fass, especially as a woman. But that's another topic for another day.

America's Shame Removed With Affordable Care Act

The website is up, but with so much partisan bickering on this matter, the citizens who this was intended to help are more confused than ever.

I got your back....SquareBiz.

       With all the varying opinions about the ACA, can we at least agree that the old system was not worth keeping, and for now the ACA is not just an idea, but a law?

       Okay, whoever is still reading, this article is for you?  Most Americans have no clue....still, what is in this law because this law was designed for minimal impact of the masses.  In other words, if we are truly a what's in it for me' society than we function on a need to know basis.  If I never had healthcare all I need to know is where to get it and can I afford it.  If I already have insurance all I need to know is what changes should I expect and when will they occur. 

       85% of you  need to check next year to see if your employer has decided to continue carrying insurance or dump insurance altogether since we no longer need our jobs to get affordable insurance.  While this may seem scary for someone who has work insurance (that you hardly use or understand), don't worry.  Since incomes have dropped over the past decade many Americans are teetering near the poverty line  (What Is A Poverty Line?)  , which means you will get free or reduced insurance.  This will put some money back into the pockets of most Americans.   Some of you don't like to read much so I'm excusing the 85% now, but be back here next year so I can explain the changes in your work insurance. 

       10% more of you are at or below the poverty line and did not have insurance (even if offered at work) because you simply could not afford it.  Most of you probably have already signed up for MediCare.  If you have not, stop reading this article and do it right now (Medicare.gov). Open enrollment for MediCare ends Dec. 7th. (for those with  insurance at work)  if you qualify for Medicate and want to drop insurance to get this free benefit instead.   

        So who did I miss.  Oh yeah.  The infamous 5%.  These are actually  the people that get private insurance because they are either self employed or work for a small business who does not offer health insurance (or a myriad of other unique scenario's).  HealthCare.gov, the website, the exchange (whatever term you use for it) is currently targeted at the 5% market who need to shop multiple insurance carriers at once.   Healthcare.gov is a website for price competition  and to determine your subsidy amount.   As it turns out, only .06 percent of Americans carry private insurance but make too much money to qualify for an ACA subsidy.

       I have to stop here for a minute because there are those out there who not only do not wish to have MediCare because they do not believe it will cover them as well as private insurance or for other personal reason's.  There are also those who don't want the subsidy  because they see it as a government handout like foodstamps. If this is you, I am curious if you see tax credits and charitable exemptions each April as government handouts too? (We may have lost a few more just now but I will move on.)

      

       The only tricky part of this website is that it connects the subsidy to the person needing insurance.  This means that you have to input your information first (to determine your subsidy amount) before you can shop the exchange. Healthcare.gov is a marketplace intended for competitive pricing. For those who are concerned about website security and are not interested in getting a subsidy, shop as you did before the ACA law. If you shop online, shop online one company at a time. If you shop by phone, make a call. All insurance providers will attempt to make sure that you do not qualify for a subsidy before they sell you insurance these days, so expect this hurdle no matter where you will shop.

      For example, I went onto the Kaiser Permanente website and played with some numbers and discovered that a family of 3 that makes $70,000 a year still qualifies for some type of subsidy and has 16 plans to choose from through Kaiser alone.  On the exchange, that family will find the Kaiser option alongside multiple other competing insurance carriers. 

       If you are concerned about MediCare insurance you should know that most of healthcare cost is impacted by MediCare. The reason the cost curve bent on healthcare when the law was inacted is MediCare.  MediCare eliminated much of the inflated payments that occurred from hospitals and doctors that knew they could get away with overbilling the government. Those inflated billing tactics impacted all of healthcare.  Overbilling may have been a MediCare problem only, but I suspect that providers began to inflate all billing to avoid the impression that only MediCare was being overbilled. Now MediCare has a 'take it or leave it' payment system in which they have pre-determined the cost of most procedures and will only pay that cost.

      Now it is true that some doctors and hospitals have dropped MediCare patients in a form of protest against the ACA law, but this is not truly a problem.  Why?  Because of the famous "provider network".  The presence of a provider network list for all insurance policies is evidence that not all hospitals or doctor ever accepted all insurance anyway.  For every story of people who might need to change doctors due to the ACA, there will be stories like my family.  For us, work insurance changes (aka. provider network)  caused us to lose key doctors in treating her pre-existing condition, but we have regained them thanks to MediCare.

       If we are also in full agreement about the nature of free market competition, then soon the competitive environment alone will make the cost that all insurance companies pay on procedures the same as it is with MediCare because insurance companies are too greedy to continue paying more for a procedure while hospitals currently accept less from MediCare. At that point (which is really soon), the type of insurance you carry will not matter to any care provider because healthcare costs become indirectly regulated....by MediCare.

       One true opportunity with the ACA law is the issue of access. Healthcare can not be outsourced so this law will create jobs...Period. The ACA law included funding to take care of the physical expansion of community health clinics, but even they will need workers. This problem is actually a gift horse that should finally move the needle on our stagnant employment rate.

       Many try to compare our future to that of Canada's healthcare.  Their concern is that hospitals are busy now and could be twice as busy until we can meet the demand. Overloaded hospitals will be the first sign that people understand the importance of preventative care, which is as much a weapon against the cost curve of healthcare as the insurance itself. Unlike food stamps, health insurance is not something anyone is jumping to use...except sick folk, and even they search for a solution other than a doctor visit.  The Chris Rock joke of putting Robitussin on every ailment comes from longstanding widespread LACK of access to affordable healthcare.

       Some of the saddest shames become the source of humor, but America should be ahsamed of how many people were able to relate to that joke simply because few could afford the alternative. The ACA has removed the shame, even for those who are trying to dismantle it.  

Broncos Are So Good They Bore Me

       So what do we know here?

       The Broncos have 2 losses in which they fumbled the ball to end games that they could have won. They have an overtime win that took a flying interception to secure and they have a lot of dominant play that seems to come on demand. They can beat you bad with Julius Thomas but they will Jacob Tamme you if they must. When they lost Champ, DRC was the key. Knowshown is no longer a no show, but if they need they can roll out the Ball. When Demarius is nefarious, double the Decker. When Peyton starts out slow, the defense gets on a roll. If Fox goes down, they take a trip to Del Rio. Chris Cooper has done so well I can't even remember who he replaced.

       We have seen this team overcome several obstacles, but have we seen the best of the Broncos yet? It does not appear that way, yet they keep winning and have had the chance to win them all. Personally, I am sick of the regular season already. I know what the Broncos can do and what they should do at any given moment. Sometimes they do it and route teams, other times they don't and let them gain confidence. However, in every game I have always felt like the team to beat. What I also know is that our opponents can play their best game and that might not be enough. Even when it was, the victorious teams felt like they got away with one....and they had.  I love the Broncos like all true fans, but I am so ready for the playoffs its sickening.

       Big Al said it and I will repeat.  This regular season feels like preseason, and we all know how hard that is to watch. What they will do to win it all is the only thing we don't know about this team.

       Bring on the playoffs.....please.

American's Held Hostage By Do-Nothing Congress. The Power Is In The Vote

First of all, I hate labels. All of them.  Islam is not a terrorist organization but a religion of many people in our world. If we wish to demonize religion for causing pain than I would quickly stand to second that argument (another blog...another day). To connect the entire faith of  Islam with terrorism makes ignorant people paint those who appear to follow Islam with a wide brush. Similarly it is unfair to the Republican party to call them all obstructionist'  just because a few used a  (Ted) Cruz missile as a political tactic, defying the spirit of democracy.

       Democracy. What a great word. It is one that we love to laud when our bombs are flying abroad and we have to account for misplaced violence because in the name of democracy much is accepted. When the constitutional process of our democracy enacted ObamaCare,  it ignited so called defenders of democracy (aka, Obama blockers). These Obama blockers are currently using ObamaCare as the new target of Obama hate like Birtherism or Benghazi have been used in the past.

       I hate to label anyone with the do-nothing tag but the do-nothing congress and voter suppression is not a bi-partisan effort the last I checked.  There must be something to this voting focus from the Right because 3 bills are currently sitting in the House of Representatives that have the numbers to be passed but are being held up from the up or down vote. If our power is in the vote and our vote is held hostage, then America is enslaved as well.

       Because our strength and power is connected to the vote, individuals at the state level of government have begun to use the ballot initiative approach to jump over the head of do nothing legislator's (see Colorado Marijuana Law). On a Federal level I see a day in the near future when key initiatives are no longer allowed to be held hostage by Congress as states develop the power to force the hand of Congress with national ballot initiatives.

       Political involvement means more than voting these days because the people who keep begging us to vote are the very one's we must retake the power of the vote from.  The freedom and the action of voting are key attributes to the spirit of democracy. WE must be given the chance to act when those we elect to represent us choose to defy the spirit of democracy.

       Bills and nominee's that are blocked from the act of voting should have a deadline for debate and a separate deadline for the up or down vote before a state ballot initiative process can be triggered.

The message will be clear.  Do your job, or get out of the way.

ATTENTION: Racism Is Over? You Be The Judge!

ATTENTION:  Racism Is Over    by Autumn Alston (attorney, Charlotte, N.C.)
PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE: http://www.liberalamerica.org/2013/12/02/attention-racism/


       I was on twitter when  I ran across a hash tag that read #RACISM ENDED WHEN.

       As I followed it I came across this article (link is above) which I believe articulates a common theme relative to racism.  I pulled a quote from the article (next paragraph), but I encourage you to read it in its entirety.

       This theme  happens to be both true and misguided. I will explain why

"They do not seem to understand (or aren’t willing to admit) the role that the past plays in the present, and will play in the future; for most people aren’t POOR just because they want to be, but rather because of the decades and centuries of lack of opportunities and downright discrimination plaguing their families and themselves." -Autumn Alston.

      

 Autumn, your spirit and your arguments inspire me because I am the father of 5 beautiful daughters (no boys), the oldest is your same age, and I used to speak just like you. As I've matured, I have started to really listen to what my inspiration (MLK) was saying at the point of his death and he realized what your quote points out. Poverty knows no color and what is right for poor people of any color is right for blacks of America regardless of our history in America. Your article points out the value of Affirmative actiion, but sometimes Affirmative Action will choose a black student who's parents have money (but may not have gone to college) and exclude a first generation poor inner city white kid because he is white.

       I get that the reverse scenario happens all the time, but justice should not attempt to balance history, it should attempt to balance the scale. My point is that descendants of African American slaves will never catch up from a socio-economic standard because both of our ancestors have lived and died and what they've given us can not change. What we can do is insure that the spirit of justice exists within the systems that matter. Preferences will always exists because we ALL use stereotypes.  If an Italian pizza shop owner seems to have a lot of Italian looking staff because that is his comfort level, legislation can not change that . However, his kid who will own the shop one day and loves him some Jay-Z is likely to make the shop look a bit different in the future.

       Here's to you Autumun, (and the young man who loves Jay-Z).......the future.

So Is Racism Over?  Who knows.  Thanks to Political Correctness, we haven't had a Real Talk about it.
Let's Talk!
(Leave your Comment Below)

Shaw Snags Win Again. Denver Starts Roadie With Raptors

I came an excited second from sending out my prediction on the Nuggets and Raptors. I knew we were starting a road trip in Toronto, but I did not quite realize that 1pm Toronto time meant 11am Denver time. I awakened thinking I was scrolling through a menu of football and was shocked to be watching the pre-game interview with coach Shaw.  Coach was concerned about  how well they rebound on offense and I panicked since I don't follow the Raptors but I know that the Nuggets do not rebound well. Well they can, but they tend to let the bigs do all the dirty work and they get burned for it. I walked by my computer and nearly blasted my fear to the blogosphere. Instead, I watched with trepidation.

Sure enough, the Nuggets came out sluggish as I suspected and went down by 7. No, not 7 points, the largest point deficit was 15 points early in Toronto. On the way to a 15 point deficit the Nuggest were down 17-10 on the boards. If George Karl had this same team it might have been time to call it an early game let down. When I heard Andre and them come in I got excited about the future.

       Andre Miller and Nate Robinson are like a two head point guard that is complete with YMCA swag and heat check bravado. Timofey Mosgov is slowly becoming a serious force in the paint and that hook shot is unstoppable. I could break down the game and give out kudos all around, but if you're not watching I will let you catch up later like the rest.  Final score: Denver 112 (we get tacos), Toronto 98.

       The fact that they won this game does not compare to how they won this game. George could have found the pieces to make it close late, but this was a game that demanded you snatch the heart out of your opponent. Rudy Gay, Demarr Derozan, Kyle Lowry. These guys are game closers, so you never want  them to hang around late and let their heroics rise with the game temperature. Shaw knows this and Miller knows this. Robinson understands it, but he has the same mentality as the Toronto 3 and will live and die by his own sword at times. Shaw has decided to simply coach Nate through Miller.  As you watch games, you will hear Miller calling Nate's number over and over and orchestrating offense until that well runs dry. Lately, it floweth over.

        Brian Shaw, Coach of the Month......and Andre Miller, Assistant Coach of the Month......Nate Robinson, back-up point guard of the Month, and of course Ty Lawson Player of the Month.



                                              Is it time for Jason Kidd to put on a uniform?


Nate Robinson thinks that referee's hate on him. Is he right?