Saw 5 Teaser Poster

Because apparently 4 wasn't enough.

I'm still ignoring Saw 4.

Just ugh.

The Klan Promises To Assassinate Obama If Elected President

Absolutely disgusting. This is terrorism, plain and simple and ought to be fought against at least as fervently as we approach it overseas.

The only way to kill this noise is to expose it.

Interesting Audio About Barack Obama & His Mother & His Background

I expect, although I don't automatically assume to a 100% certainty, that a good number of you are Obama supporters, not unlike myself, and in the spirit of sharing interesting polls, stories and tidbits about the man that I come across, if you have four and a half minutes you really should hear this synopsis of Barack Obama and his mother and her background and influence on Barack and take the few minutes to appreciate where he comes from. This is from TIME Magazine:

Inside Look at Barack Obama by TIME Magazine

Fandalism Free MP3 Hosting

Wednesday's Woman: Bianca Lawson

One of those TV redbones you see and forget by the end of the movie even though you know she's fine. I think I first saw her on Save By The Bell: The Next Class and I knew about her ever since. I didn't follow up on her or nothing but when I came upon a movie or something with her in it, it was an added bonus.

She's 29 now and still bad as hell and if nobody else is going to post a spread of her, you best believe I will.
Those eyes and that mischievous grin. Like a black Wednesday Adams but without all that forehead.

I'm smitten.

Chad Johnson Addresses Offseason Turmoil

Shut up. Just don't talk anymore.

Jimmy Kimmel Eating Paul Pierce's HeadBand

He's a good sport.

In related news, Paul Pierce will be on tomorrow night's show, check your listings for time and channel.

Tueday's Top Ten "Nigga" Videos

Today's Top Ten revolves around ten of the funniest or best videos that capture the word 'nigga' in all my years of interactions with the word. For the record I'm black and so I'm doing this for humor, for entertainment and as a tribute to Nas' album before it got it's title changed to 'Untitled'. I didn't invent the word, so I'm not the problem you can track it all back to, but I'm not going to run from the word either so anyway, the top ten 'nigga' videos...


10.) Vince McMahon shoots the breeze with John Cena [The spectacle of a billionaire saying nigga is just something I can't pass up. Then again it's not like company bosses and people that are supposed to be hiring black folks aren't whispering the word in closed circles anyway. Boards of Directors look like country clubs, are you kidding me? Of course they use it. At least McMahon is doing it in front of a camera for gain.]

9.) Richard Pryor on the N word [Pryor fresh from Africa, rejecting the N-word, doing something most black people could never do at a time where it was unheard of. Black people's dependence on that word is only rivaled by American's dependence on oil. This clip was classic though.]

8.) 'Boss Nigga' Movie Trailer [An actual film from MGM Studios about a black man from outside of a the loops coming over and becoming sheriff of a town. All the makings for an awesome movie. I just hope I can buy this on the black market one day.]

7.) Booker T says Hulk Hogan is a Nigga [Just Funny.]

6.) did he...did he say, niggas? [This is from a spelling bee where the kid and the audience are as shocked as people on the other side of the television surely are. LOL]

5.) Nigga Nigga - Paul Mooney [If there was a Mt. Rushmore of black comedians, surely his face would be wedged in there someway, chisled into the rock. Here he is speaking on the N-Word.]

4.) Boondocks-Nigga Moment [Classic game-altering moment in television.]

3.) Nigga Technology [My favorite moment from the show, Boondocks]

2.) TEACHER USES N WORD [This is funny because it's real life and it's honest and prescient. God bless the teacher and the student.]

1.) Chris Rock - Black People Vs Niggas [There is no social commentary today without reverting back to this speech or stealing a talking point or two from this set. Genius.]

The Sky is Blue, Dogs Bark And Don Imus Is Racist, What Else Is New?

Talking about Adam "Pac Man" Jones, Don Imus makes another racist comment. This is pretty par from the course from him, he's a shock jock and a bigoted one at that. I'm not even that mad personally but it's what he does so well, hear it for yourself and decide.

"Kobe you couldn't do it without me"- Shaq

A bit on the childish side but this is probably the funniest shit I've seen in a long time from him and right on schedule I might add.

"Kobe you couldn't do it without me"- Shaq

Once again, childish and in the end Shaq takes an L for this but it's still funny although David Stern won't enjoy this especially the 'white boy line'.

The Truth About Paul Pierce

"So maybe the enduring lesson of Paul Pierce, owner of the most under-rated sports nickname of the last decade, is this: the truth is never quite as exciting as perception. "

I like this article and smiled when I read it so I'm posting it. If you aren't a fan of Paul Pierce or the NBA skip past this article to the wonderful Meghan McCain below this post.

--------------------------------

If nothing else, the 2008 NBA Finals will be remembered for proving several theories beyond a reasonable doubt.

For instance, we can now be sure of the following.

1. Sasha Vujacic is the most annoying professional basketball player since Bill Laimbeer (and the worst part of the ongoing soccerization of the NBA).

2. The idea of Lamar Odom is always preferable to the reality (see also Gasol, Pau).

3. If you are a pregnant woman on a television sitcom and your water breaks and you need to be rushed to the hospital, Kevin Garnett is the not the person you’d want driving the car. (To use another medical-related analogy, if KG were a heart surgeon, he’d punch a hole in your chest and rip the still-beating organ out with his bare hands. Impressive in his intensity, physical ability and determination, sure. But not the guy you want to save your life.)

4. Jack Nicholson is now slightly more interested than Phil Jackson in coaching the Los Angeles Lakers.

5. Chris Mihm is still alive.

6. Paul Pierce is a Hall of Famer.

With all due respect to Sasha, Lamar, Jack, Chris and KG’s ultimately crushing fear of failure, it is this sixth confirmation that is most intriguing. Because previous to this Paul Pierce was the least remarkable superstar in the NBA. Or at least the least celebrated. And this was probably unjust. If not at all that surprising.

After three years at the University of Kansas, where according to Wikipedia he majored in crime and delinquency studies, Pierce was taken 10th overall in 1998, a third of the way through maybe the worst first round in NBA draft history. Behold those 29 picks and try not to laugh (or dry heave). Michael Olowokandi went number one to the Clippers. Raef LaFrentz went third. Robert Traylor, sixth. Jason Williams, seventh. Pierce was taken one spot ahead of Bonzi Wells, two spots ahead of Michael Doleac.

(Not to dwell on this draft, but seriously. Bryce Drew? Michael Dickerson? Brian Skinner? Mirsad Turkcan? And in addition to Wells, you’ve got a starting line-up of headcases with Keon Clark, Ricky Davis, Ruben Patterson and Rafer Alston. Even the good picks were somehow awful. Milwaukee took Dirk Nowitzki ninth but dealt him to Dallas—for Tractor Traylor and the rights to Pat Garrity. Toronto flipped the eventually reliable Antwan Jamison for the periodically crippled Vince Carter. This is why those guys who run mock draft websites are primarily driven by unresolved sadness.)

In his rookie season he scored 16.5 points per game, but has since never averaged less than 19.5 ppg (peaking in 2005-2006 when he averaged 26.8). He has played in six all-star games, led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference semi-finals in 2002, and shot more free throws than any other player in the 2002-2003 season.

Still. Though he made the all-rookie team in 1999, he’s since never been named to the first or second all-NBA teams. He’s never finished higher than 11th in MVP voting. He led the league in total points one year, but the official scoring title goes to whoever averages the most points per game (and that year Allen Iverson was smart enough to boost his average by strategically missing 22 games). The only other time Pierce led the NBA in anything was in the 2003-2004 season, when he finished with the most turnovers.

Indeed, the most singularly remarkable achievement of his career to date is probably playing a full 82 games in the 2000-2001 season after he was jumped from behind in a bar, hit over the head with a bottle and stabbed eleven times just before training camp. Of course, were he Michael Jordan, his recovering from lung surgery, playing an entire season, averaging 25.3 points per game and, you know, not dying after such an attack would be the stuff of legend and myth and 72 columns by Rick Reilly. Since it’s Paul Pierce, his wounds were described as “superficial” and all record of the incident is now kept in that “Let us never speak of this again” file David Sterns keeps in the bottom drawer of his desk.

(In that file you’ll also find pretty much everything to do with Kobe Bryant that doesn’t involve him being super fantastic. That halftime vignette on his idyllic home life the other night was breath-taking. Is Andy Samberg now writing for ABC? Are they trying to be ironic? I look forward to future stories about Ron Artest’s role in negotiating Middle East peace, Isaiah Thomas teaching inner city kids valuable money management skills and Donald Sterling’s enduring commitment to winning with class.)

Of course, Pierce is not nearly the player Jordan was. Nor has he ever, even once, been the dominant player of the post-Jordan era. That list is a fairly short one, probably including Kobe, Iverson, Shaq, Wade, LeBron and Duncan. But nor would you have included Pierce among the next tier of unique, if not quite legendary, stars—Nowitzki, Nash, Garnett, Kidd and maybe Yao Ming—either.

He isn’t as spectacularly skilled as Carter, but obviously possessed twice the work ethic (in fairness, most 12-year-old boys could claim as much). Is he better than Tracy McGrady? Probably not on pure talent, but maybe on overall result. But what about, say, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Richard Hamilton, Gilbert Arenas, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Amare Stoudemire or Antawn Jamison? Would Pierce have ranked ahead of some of those guys? Most? Surely not all. At least in terms of measurable stardom.

Even on this Celtics team, Pierce tends to get lost. Ray Allen is a better shooter. Kevin Garnett is a better rebounder (and more impressive presence). Rajon Rondo is a flashier passer. James Posey might be a superior defender. Leon Powe is more endearing. And Sam Cassell is weirder-looking. Glen Davis even has a larger ass.

(This also makes Pierce and the rest of the Celtics roster perfectly suited. Since he’s very good at half a dozen things, but not the best at anything, every other player with some specific skill easily complements him. To speak in terms Bob Villa can understand, he is the wood frame of the house. Or possibly the cement foundation. To be honest, I don’t know much about architecture.)

Pierce’s actual numbers then are kind of surprising. He’s ninth among active players in total points (behind Shaq, Iverson, Kobe, Garnett, Allen, Duncan, Webber and Nowitzki). And on a per game basis, he’s sixth (behind Iverson, LeBron, Shaq, Kobe and Vince). He’s also eighth in steals, 10th in three-point field goals and 12th in Player Efficiency Rating (a measure no one understands, but everyone mentions when it helps in making their point).

According to Basketball Reference’s vaguely reliable Hall of Fame Probability, Pierce is the 11th most likely current player to eventually join the Hall. All-time that rating puts him 65th overall, just ahead of Tiny Archibald, Jo Jo White and Kevin McHale. (Granted, Basketball Reference puts Vince Carter 51st. So being a sociopath apparently isn’t taken into account.)

Pierce has essentially spent the last decade playing great basketball. Just not of the kind that would make him more freakishly impressive than Amare Stoudemire or as relentlessly polarizing as Manu Ginobli. It would help of course if he starred in a stop snitching video (see Anthony, Carmelo) or blogged (see Arenas, Gilbert). But he hasn’t. He’s just played consistently at a very high, but not dominant, level. Which is obviously a problem.

The closest comparison to what Paul Pierce has accomplished in these Finals is probably what James Worthy, MVP in 1988, did with the Lakers. Their Finals numbers are even similar (22/7/4 for Worthy, 21/5/6 for Pierce). But Worthy was never the best all-around player on his team. Pierce always was, the vast majority of us just never realized it.

So maybe the enduring lesson of Paul Pierce, owner of the most under-rated sports nickname of the last decade, is this: the truth is never quite as exciting as perception.

The NBA, like most forms of public life, rewards the exceptional. But Pierce, at least when compared to the best of his profession, does nothing obviously exceptional. Despite two certifiably great games (28 points and eight assists in Game 2, 38 points, eight assists and six rebounds in Game 5), two other nights of 20 or more points, a double-double in Game 6 and admirably guarding Bryant for long stretches, I’m not sure he made a single memorable play in these Finals. He goes to the basket relentlessly (he shot 19 free throws in Game 5), but Pierce doesn’t so much drive to the basket as wander there, stumbling from one obstacle to the next before lunging at the hoop. He also always seem on the verge of falling down (something that helps him draw so many fouls).

Even his signature moment in this series—collapsing in Game 1 as if shot in the knee, requiring a wheelchair ride to the dressing room and then coming back a few minutes later with no visible sign of pain—was strangely anti-climactic. Less than impressed, the crowd in L.A., in a rare moment of attention, chanted “wheel-chair! wheel-chair!” at him once the series moved to the West Coast. Indeed, he seemed somehow to have deflated his own moment. If only he’d limped a little more noticeably afterwards. Or grimaced more frequently. He didn’t sell it.

That’s apparently where we’re at. Reality demands a certain level of theatre. You have to act the part. And what’s probably the fault of MTV. Or Karl Rove.

But that also probably makes Paul Pierce the sort of unheralded, quietly great, professional athlete we’re always wishing we could root for. Only we don’t. Because we’re too busy wondering how good a father Kobe Bryant is. Or why KG won’t do everyone a favour and disembowel Sasha Vujacic.

Such is the NBA. Such is life. The truth, as always, hurts.

John McCain's Daughter Meghan Is a Problem

And I don't even usually like blondes but damned if she ain't fine...

Really a damn shame she's a Republican and all.

That and oh yeah, her dad is in Obama's way. Hope there's no hard feelings after the election is over and your dad loses, ma.

LOL @ This New MTV Show Called "Exile"

MTV is wild as hell for this. LOL. Apparently this is the opposite of the Sweet Sixteen show where rich, spoiled brats get what they want from their parents and now the kids from the same episodes are sent to live in destitute places and perform daily tasks that they're forced to. Looks funny enough.

Movie Trailer For Bill Maher's New Movie 'Religulous'

Visit the official website here

Fox News Smearing Obama Again

This time they play up the muslim card.

Apparently Making Racist and Insulting Obama Merchandise Is All The Rave

Where will the madness end? Seriously.

The Washington Post sent a reporter to town a few weeks ago to attempt to capture in prose our "different state of race relations."
As lazy journalists on safari will do, the reporter found several black Utahns with predictable horror stories to tell; dutifully plugged into conventional wisdom, statistic and stereotype; marvelled at the state's real and imagined developmental delays and then produced a lengthy bit of journalistic imperialism with a few wry turns of phrase:
"Come to the Beehive State, where race relations is a topic of bracing freshness."
I dismissed it as the easy work of an oh-so-sophisticated coastal journalist - the kind who marvel at Rocky Anderson's anti-Bush protests and assume all Utah women wear the FLDS flour sack dress.
But then David and Elizabeth Lawson validated every condescending word.
The West Jordan couple who designed a monkey sock puppet in honor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama still don't get it.
"We don't want to say goodbye," they said in a press release earlier this week.
I wish they would.
Last week, when the blogosphere was peppered with pictures of the suited monkey, the Lawsons wondered what all the fuss was about. They insisted they made the puppet out of "affection" for America's first black presidential nominee. But they pledged to return payments and offered a non-apology for offending anyone. (Conscience didn't kick in; the toy's manufacturer pulled out, leaving them in the lurch.)
Then the next day, with flowery prose, the Lawsons pledged to continue selling the $39.99 doll and a cream-colored McCain version at www.sockpoliticians.com.
Through it all, they went on the offensive, feebly trying to flip centuries of racist American history and imagery: They lectured the rest of us for clinging to our interpretations of stuffed monkeys.
"We don't think in terms of myths, fables, fairy tales and folklore," they wrote, apparently, in all sincerity. Their sock puppet would somehow heal the racial divide.
In an aside, they asked their critics to stop assuming they are Mormon (they aren't), cease stereotyping Utahns as racist and "refrain from unkind remarks about our neighbors and friends of the Mormon faith." They told a Tribune reporter the Deseret News and KSL Radio are their "local media voice." They worry more about an anti-Mormon backlash than about making money reviving a painful remnant of the Jim Crow South.
"When you're marketing these kinds of images and attach a person's name to them, you have a high burden of responsibility," says Forrest Crawford, Weber State University's vice president of diversity. "You have an obligation to really ask yourself a lot of questions about what your intentions are. Who gains? Who is harmed? Embedded in free enterprise is responsibility and judgment."
Crawford is patient, willing to give the Lawsons the benefit of the doubt, chalk their stupidity up to living in lily-white Utah or the dearth of slave narrative reading in high school English classes. He'd like to talk to them.
He's more charitable than I am. I can't decide if the Lawsons are cynical race-baiters, completely clueless or both. Like West Jordan Sen. Chris Buttars, who thoughtlessly amped up another lawmaker's joke by calling a piece of legislation a "dark, ugly thing" and clued the Post in to Utah's embarrassing insensitivities, the Lawsons seem oblivious to the hurtful fallout of their little Internet venture.
But ignorance only works as an excuse for so long. Now that the Lawsons know better, they still are willing to cater to and capitalize on the worst of human nature: bigotry.

So in conclusion, I'm discouraged by 21st century racism every time I hear about it and encouraged by the bad press it's getting and it not being okay on the whole by the vast majority of America.

------
Update
------

New Button Being Sold:

Paul Pierce As Michael Corleone In The Godfather

Paul Pierce: Today Kobe Stans are dead to me. So is Phil Jackson. Antoine Walker. Rick Pitino. Kobe. Today I settled all family business so don’t tell me that you’re innocent. Admit what you did. Admit it you Kobe Cultists. You sided with the enemy. You said nobody is beating Kobe this season. Not me.…not anybody. It’s not so much what you said, but how you said it. Like you were in bed with him. Spooning him. Whispering sweet nothings in his ear. Whispering sweet nothings in Kobe Bryant’s ear about being on the level of Jordan.” Michael Jordan! You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Kobe Stan sobbing]

Paul Pierce: Get him a drink. Don't be afraid, Stanley. Come on, you think I'd make Kobe into the scapegoat? I'm Godfather to your Kobe.

[Kobe Stan gets handed a drink]

Paul Pierce: Go ahead. Drink. Drink. No, you're out of the NBA prediction and prognosticating business, that's your punishment. You're finished. I'm putting you on a plane to Vegas. Doc?

[Doc Rivers hands Stanley the tickets]

Paul Pierce: I want you to stay there, you understand?

[Kobe Stans nod]

Paul Pierce: Only don't tell me that you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and it makes me very angry.

Wednesday's Woman: Ana Ivanovic

Not really a need for a huge introduction here considering she's the top ranked woman in tennis right now, Ana Ivanovic is the truth. She's everything Serena & Kournikova were supposed to be and more. Beauty, talent, skill, body; pretty much the whole package. Enjoy these pictures and be won over.


To borrow a Tennis phrase on the cheap, Love.

NBA Finals Game 6 In Pictures

No words this time, you know what I've been saying about Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant for years, so tonight just pictures.
Okay maybe a few comments:

Contrary to every talking head or half-way self pronounced that says otherwise Paul Pierce is as great as Kobe Bryant. There's nothing Kobe can do that Pierce can't do. You may like Kobe's style more but that's a style preference not based on substance. Sorry.

Robert Horry can retire because James Posey is the new you.

Paul Pierce has been the greatest player on the bad Celtics teams, the so-so Celtics teams and a great Celtics team. The man is almost unstoppable.

Kobe Bryant is NOT Michael Jordan.

Kobe Stans will never run out of excuses and ready made explanations everytime he comes up short. This time it was referees, Andrew Bynum and bad teammates. Funny how no one complained about his teammates when they got him to the #1 seed in the West and later got him to the NBA Finals in that vaunted, all-time most competitive Western Conference. Even though they were just outplayed, outclassed and outgunned collectively and individually (yes Paul Pierce outplayed Kobe Bryant) you just know there'll never be enough mulligans in the world that the stans won't use to write-off his failures.