WORK, HOUSE ARREST, & FLASHLIGHTS

Good afternoon EVERYONE who is reading this! This week was quite a week in my little world. For everyone that is not aware, I have a 110 MILE DAILY COMMUTE to work and back. So, in TIME terms, this means about 3 hours/ day on the average. To add to that, here is how my week went: Monday: @ work = 11 hours; Tuesday: @ work = 9 hours. But Tuesday was a special day because I went to a cOmpAnY-spOnsOrEd seminar by dAlE vErmIllIon This day most likely changed my life permanently. We'll see... Anyway, I followed up that day on Wednesday with a LONG 12 hours. Thursday : @ work = 10 hours; Friday: @ work = 10.5; Saturday: @ work = 5 hours. So now I rest on Sunday (at least physically). Cuz now that I actually have time to sit down and reflect on my past week, I've made it a math problem and 74% of my available time (minus sleep) was dedicated to my job. Sorry bAbe!!!

INSERT PITY HERE!!!

Just playin'... Because now that I have that off my chest, I'd like to discuss and manifest what I did with my other 26%. Unless this is the first time you've read anything I've written, you know that I'm very concerned with the direction of our country, the politicizing of serious issues to distract us from them, the withering away of our personal rights, etc., you get the picture...so A LOT of my driving time is spent listening to shAdE 45 on SIRIUS satellite radio. If you don't have it, get it. At least an internet membership. You'll be amazed at what uncensored, live programming can do for your world view.



I wanna preface this comment with I detest gossip, especially "HOLLYWOOD" gossip, but there's a point to be made here. Uncle Jemimah above, or you may be more familiar with his government name Tracy Morgan, apparently rEAllY lOvEs tO drAnk!!! Which, if he'd keep it off the road, would be no business of ours. But what really grabbed my attention was he is now serving 30 days house arrest, and he's forbidden to drink. I'm sure many of us know folks who were on house arrest, probation, parole, whatever, where they weren't "aloud" to drink...but WE found this out discussing their civil restraints over a couple beers. Tracy, though, is wearing the infamous ankle bracelet with a twist. The one he wears automatically checks his blood-alcohol content every 30 minutes through whatever comes out of his pores. This is the first I've heard of this. WOW!

And a similar DUI-related discovery for me was how EVE got busted as a result of the flAshlIght brEAthAlYzEr! I may just be ignorant on this one, but this was the first I've heard of this. Whatever happened to OUr rIght tO plEAd thE 5th?, like Ollie North!?!

I THOUGHT THE REASON SCARFACE LOST WAS BECAUSE ALL HE HAD WAS HIS BALLS AND HIS WORD, AND HIS AMERICAN OPPONENTS HAD THESE!!!

With all that being said, let's get serious here...

WE HAVE TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT REALIZING WHAT'S IMPORTANT!!! Tell everyone you know that is pissed about their life in one way or another to VOTE. Straight up!!! Think about ALL the people in your circle of life who don't vote, as well as the people who cast ignorant votes. For example, voting REPUBLICAN ACROSS THE BOARD! Not a well thought out strategy. You need to realize that if everyone you know that has similar beliefs (that don't vote NOW) votes, it's gonna make a difference. That's the real reason people from ALL OVER THE WORLD come to this country. It's because of the type of government we have. But if you haven't been paying attention, gOvErnmEnt has been getting a lot MORE privacy, while we've been getting lEss & lEss!



TO BE CONTINUED...

ImUs & hIp hOp!

Good morning beautiful people! I hope everyone who knows the significance of 4:20 enjoyed themselves Friday night. Today's rambling is gonna be a little tough for some ears. So don't say this out loud, and you should still be safe. If you read my last blog, this one kinda pIggY-bAcks off the RACE discussion. And what really got me thinking more intensely about this is the RIDICULOUS amount of coverage by ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX the last 2 weeks of Imus and the V. Tech mAssAcrE!

I can't even front, this guy ImUs, I stereotyped him from the gate! I don't know if it's just me, but pretty much ANY whItE dUdE thAt OpEnlY wEArs A cOwbOy hAt is racist until proven otherwise. The ONLY exception to this rule is if the dude actually awakens when he hears cOck-A-dOOdlE-dOO, milks the cOws, then is outside in the sun the rest of the day rustlin' cattle or whatever. That would make sense to me; the hat is practical and serves a purpose; keeps the sun OFF your face and neck. Imus, on the other hand, wears his cOwbOY hAt to HIDE his red neck, not to prevent it.

Now that you know my stance on him, we can move on to the REAL issue I have with the coverage of this most recent dIstrActIOn. SOMEHOW, the discussion got to the point of this crazy dOUblE stAndArd jIvE! We ALL know the biggest prerequisite for reporting the news is to sOUnd As whItE As pOssIblE! Ask the Gumble's... And to hear these guys say If rAppErs sAy hOE, nIggA, bItch, Etc., thEn whY cAn't ImUs? makes me sick. It's crazy!!!

OK, I know some of you might not be agreeing with me right now. Like, what the hell is this guy talking about? Well, if you're feeling like that right now, let me explain where I'm coming from...



HIP HOP IS A CULTURE that has evolved through the lessons learned by inner-city (mostly Black & Hispanic) poor folk after the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT OF THE 60'S Hip Hop, to me, is the result of how these people decided to live their lives after evaluating WHAT THEY HAD ACCOMPLISHED versus WHAT THEY HAD SACRIFICED in the previous 10 years.

Without a doubt, huge LEGAL strides were made (in some areas) for non-whites' civil liberties as a result of the sacrifices made/dues paid in the 60's. But something even more important than that manifested as a result; that would be to realize the POWER words really have, and how they can mentally enslave you if you're not aware of them. I'd be willing to bet that if I had .0000001 cent for every time a White person called a Black person NIGGER out of pure hatred/ignorance in the 60's, I'd be richer than Bill Gates. What's the point? It's that if you've only ever heard a word used out of negativity, then it becomes negative--and you can only imagine how many times that multiplies when the word is used to attack you, or used to let you know YOU ARE INFERIOR.

So what happens is that Blacks reverse the energy of the negative words into positive energy. That's why RAPPERS use words that Imus cannot. When words are said by a rapper, they're speaking from within Hip Hop Culture--where words have different meanings to different people. Imus will never OVERSTAND that. And by putting these words to music, it empowers them that much more. I might've lost some of ya'll on this one, so if you're lost, ask a question...

I can't believe these guys are trying to argue/debate from the angle of not being equal in some way, when they've been (unknowingly?) reaping the benefits of the WHITE PRIVILEGE seed that was planted for them when the first WASP's arrived and started killing off the rEd mAn These same reporters will NEVER do a story like why did GEORGE W BUSH make it to Virginia Tech the day after the massacre, BUT didn't make it to n'AwlIns fOr wEEks AftEr kAtrInA



Well, I gotta wrap this up prematurely, because MySpace is acting funny right now, and I don't wanna lose any of this.

I guess the moral of the story is DON'T DISCRIMINATE BLINDLY; DO YOUR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE EDUCATED DISCRIMINATION!!!

P.L.U.R.,
zAy

rAcE!

Hello to all on this EAstEr mOrnIng! Today's RAMBLING is gonna be about a topic that many of US reading this will not have a problem discussing amongst ourselves, BUT we also know that this topic can gEt pEOplE kIllEd! The topic is RACE!

This topic is always scary, mainly because you don't know what another person has been through. This is VERY sensitive to some and a JOKE to others. I usually don't like to refer to TV to make a point, but remember the show blAck. whItE., about a Black family and a White family who "switch places/races." The Black son was about 15, and the way he dealt with race was to ignore it and joke about it. It was just easier for him.

But others who take it VERY seriously and are frustrated with it will have shorter fuses. They'll also be less likely to wanna hear your side of the story because yOU nEvEr gEt A 2nd chAncE tO mAkE A 1st ImprEssIOn...as cliche as it might sound, it's the truth.



OK...as always, on these SENSITIVE TOPICS, I'll will start with MY stance, viewpoint, reasoning, experience, whatever you wanna call it, etc....

Born as JOSE VICTORIANO FRAYRE JUNIOR, I have to tell ya: A rOsE bY AnY OthEr nAmE dOEs NOT smEll As SwEEt!

I lived in Harrisburg until the 5th grade, with majority Black friends @ school, my name was Jose. This is ages 5-10, the beginning of sports and competition. While the White kids were busy studying and going to church, I was with my Black friends playin' ball and listenin' to hIp hOp. And that was early 80's--around the last time thEsE gUYs won a championship...

Then I moved to Middletown...CULTURE SHOCK!...and that's weird because the shock was from not seeing any BLACK folk. In the mid-80's Middletown was practically segregated. There was definitely a "BLACK SECTION." One thing I can say I learned from this timeframe is that RESPECT means something different to WHITES than it did to BLACKS. Looking back now...I think it boils down to $$$mOnEY$$$ again. And here's what I mean by that: it seemed to me that the white dudes always ULTIMATELY had money to fall back on...if they lost a game or a fight, it wasn't that important because they were gonna sleep in their own bed in their own room that night. On the BLACK side, sports and fighting defined you more because you tend to have to curve out your own niche A LOT more. Ask any White kid who has really entered into the Hip Hop culture about curving out your niche. I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THESE DUDES THAT SAY THEY'RE HIP HOP AND DON'T EVEN KNOW ANY BLACK FOLK! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Anyway, it's as basic as MENTAL vs. PHYSICAL. It's the root of the relationship between Black Africans and the fOUndErs Of thIs cOUntrY.

Other than Africans, I consider anyone with NON-WHITE skin in my generic definition of the category BLACK. Because, unfortunately, the ONLY time thE mAn has historically proven not to discriminate is when he's deciding WHO to discriminate against.

Ask the Japanese, Mexicans, Cubans, Chinese, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and the list goes on and on...



OK, I guess this is really turning into a rambling...let me reel it back in...

I've been aware and interested in this complex paradigm we call RACE for my whole life. So I spent a lot of time researching it and doing my own "social experiments" to try and understand it better. It means a lot to me to do what I can to allow different races to be patient enough with each other to actually LISTEN to where the other is coming from. I have great BLACK friends; I have great WHITE friends; And I know that WHITES & BLACKS can get along GREAT! Because if they couldn't, there wouldn't be so many MIXED babies running around!

Our generation has the opportunity to turn around this country's philosophy about characterizing people by race. We have a WAY better understanding of how much skin color DOES NOT MATTER than our grandparents had. Unfortunately, our generation is also a generation of do-nothings. REVOLUTION no longer has the same meaning; although this country was founded as a result of a REVOLUTION. People are so concerned about their little RAT RACE that they ignore the fact that they would be SO much more POWERFUL as a group of like-minded people of ALL races fighting for the same reason. It's true that DEMOCRACY is the government OF THE PEOPLE.

The people need to be aware of this. Because the PEOPLE can be the PEOPLE'S worst nightmare if they are ignorant to what their GOVERNMENT is doing; Within a DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT, it is the PEOPLE'S (ANY COLOR) RESPONSIBLITY to revolt and make sure the government's policies reflect the majority. Race is the ultimate dIstrActIOn! While the poor and uneducated babble back and forth about it, kill themselves over it, the most powerful look at their plan and celebrate as people of all races get FATTER, ADDICTED TO MORE DRUGS(LEGAL), SPEND MORE THAN THEY MAKE, AND JUST GO ALONG WITH THE STATUS QUO.

Using this characterization of RACE is no different than using other similar labels, like Christian, Gay, Liberal, etc., to motivate people to engage in emotional HATE CRIMES. And if you think that these kind of distractions are too little to make a difference. Imagine if the KKK used their power and influence to LOVE instead of HATE. CONFLICT based on emotional factors can take over individuals, as well as groups, so much that not much else matters. IF YOUR BIGGEST CONCERN IN A DAY IS JUST TO GET THROUGH IT, THAT'S NOT HEALTHY!

I can ramble on about this forever. It's a very complex issue that affects us all. I just hope and pray that ONE DAY IT WON'T MATTER. Before that day, WE'RE going to have to take politics and government way more seriously. Until corporations like DuPont stop researching EUgEnIcs, we all have to have each other's back.

CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS BASED ON THE SPIRITUAL CONNECTIONS YOU SHARE; NOT SKIN COLOR!

HIP HOP CULTURE IS OUR GENERATION'S CHANCE TO BREAK THE CYCLE! DON'T LET IT GET PIMPED!



P. L. U. R.,
zAy

5 mOst ExpEnsIvE AddIctIOns!

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, HOMIE!!!

For those of you who don't know, my cat's name is HOMIE!. And it usually takes a little cAtnIp to get him to at least THINK outside the box.

Anyway, today I wanna talk about thE 5 mOst ExpEnsIvE AddIctIOns:


And ironically on this st. pAtrIck's dAy wEEkEnd, the MOST expensive addiction is Alcohol, w/ an estimated annual cost of $166 BILLION! Now, I know this is a sensitive subject for A LOT of people out there. And without a doubt, alcohol and I are very, very fond of one another. I had some of the bEst and dEfInItEly thE wOrst experiences of my life UndEr thE InflUEncE. I started drInkIn' at a pretty young age, and although my consumption has definitely decreased over the years, there was never a time that I can remember where I didn't drink ANYTHING for longer than a year or two. We're talking probably a span of 15-16 years (half of my life); and strangely I've never considered myself dependent on alcohol. Hmmmm...? I have thought of completely quitting as a goal. sUch A dIlEmma!

How about this? ...LET'S ELECT SOMEONE WHO WILL MAKE ALCOHOL ILLEGAL!!!

The 2nd most expensive addiction is SMOKING, estimated $157 BILLION ANNUAL COST!


Excuse me if it sounds like I'm taking these personally, but hopefully we can get to one that I'm not contributing to. AAAAHH! So this one is even more personal than the drinking because I'm cUrrEntlY At wAR wIth nEwpOrts! I haven't had a puff since the first week of January! This is a battle I've had many times before, BUT this time, as you noticed, I referred to it as a WAR. And I say that confidently because this time I had the mEntAl wAkEUp cAll!

This story can be confirmed by thIs gUY......but the first day of my quit-smoking-struggle, I was TAKEN to a few bars and I didn't pay for one drink, but I had a lot to drink!!! And I was even voicing my concern to this non-smoking group of unsensitive, peer pressure-applying, unsupportive, drink buyers...but my words fell upon deaf ears. MORAL OF THE STORY: I DIDN'T SMOKE! thIs AlsO hElps! I'll keep you updated...



The number THREE spot also hits pretty close to home. DRUGS! Let's try to look at this at a very basic level. Besides the thE wAr On tErrOr, the WAR ON DRUGS is the most ridiculous idea ever created. It's a great POLITICAL strategy! And executed beautifully I must add. WOW! Drugs are a part of OUR culture! That's what happens when a government recruits the best scientists from EVERY country in the world, and has a pOpUlAtIOn Of OvEr 300 mIllIOn, of which the bottom 1/3 is slowly being exterminated by various physical, mental, economic, etc., experiments and studies. AND DRUGS ARE A BIG PART OF THIS!!! I guess my biggest frustration when it comes to drugs is the hypocrisy involved. Don't get me started on prEscrIptIOn drUgs...and that whole mess! Even if we ignore HOW drugs get in the country, WHERE they end up, WHEN they're available (usually kinda tuff around election time, I've heard), we're left with the WHO and WHY!

WE SHOULDN'T HAVE PLACES IN OUR COUNTRY WHERE IT'S EASIER (SOMETIMES CHEAPER) TO GET DRUGS THAN FOOD!!! This is such a SAD and DISHEARTENING subject. Amazingly, it took us till the 3rd spot to come to a partially ILLEGAL addiction.

NUMBER 4: OVEREATING($107 BILLION)



The mere existence of the chart above is CRAZY! Add to that, ESPN televises these "competitions(?)" now! People are being rewarded for THIS! The direction MY FINGER is pointing on this one is fAst fOOd and vIdEO gAmEs Who knows what's in fast food? YOU?

With all that being said, I must admit that I am yet again contributing to the list. For me though, it's more LACK OF EXERCISE than OVEREATING. But I gotta plan for that too. With the weather trying to break into spring here in the NORTHEAST, my plan is to run the track around my complex on Monday and Wednesday mornings before I go to work. In the meantime, I'll be playing basketball Fridays, 4:30-6:00. AND WHAT ABOUT YOU? START HERE!

I COULDN'T RESIST THIS PIC! But #5 is GAMBLING! And I can honestly say, I've never had a close affiliation with the gambling community! For me, it never went any further than some scratch-offs or a MARCH MADNESS bracket @ work!

MY STANCE AS OF 3-18-2007:
(ON A SCALE OF 1-5, 5 = QUIT, 1 = IGNORANTLY LOVIN' IT)

1) ALCOHOL: 3, Cutting down, but I'm lOvIn' thIs shIt rIght nOw!
2) SMOKING: 4.8
3) DRUGS: 1
4) OVEREATING: 4
5) GAMBLING: 5

CHECK YOURSELF! IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD! PEACE!

mOnEy!

Hello all! Today's random rambling is gonna be about $MONEY$ But before I get into that, I'd like to pay respects to the dollar above. I actually ordered A LOT of these, so if you want one let me know. Anyway...I found them on this site when I was researching for a paper I HAD to write for a Philosophy class back in 2003, titled "The United States Government and Cocaine." But to make a long story short, this guy Michael C. Ruppert was the one who blew the whistle on the CIA for introducing crAck cOcAInE to South Central Los Angeles in the 80's. And it's fact that said area (along with MILLIONS of other cities) has not yet recovered from the aftermath. And what I got a much better understanding of was what the root cause of this was. Now, I'm sure we all heard of this guy OLLIE NORTH, but not sure why. Well, I'm old, I mean WISE, enough to remember back in the 80's when this fool was on TV all the time...and if you are as WISE as I, you remember he was in court more than thE jUIcE. Bottom line on this: Ollie & R-Double sold drugs to Americans to fund a WAR!

..">

I'm proud to say that I actually took the picture above. And even though the money wasn't mine, I did have it under my command. I guess I was kinda holding it for the Air Force. But the point of all this is that holding and having control over that much money was as powerful, if not more, than carrying a gun. Both ways too...the way I felt personally, and the way people treated me in return...VERY POWERFUL!

As we all know, the amount of $MONEY$ we have dictates what kind of life we can have in a Capitalist Economy. And doesn't it suck the more you make the more taxes you "have" to pay? That's where I wanna pause for a second...

Does EVERYBODY remember the Boston Tea Party? Well, if you're a little too WISE to remember, it was about being taxed without any representation. Kinda like, "FUCK YOU, PAY ME!" The way I see it, in order to prosper in a capitalist society you need as much cash as possible. And letting the government hold a couple g's of your money all year without paying you any interest is not the right decision. Here's just 2 reasons why: 1) when you owe taxes, YOU'RE PAYING INTEREST on that starting April 16 every year. NO NEGOTIATION! 2) they ARE gaining interest on your money AND funding wars, AND paying companies like THESE no-bid contracts for jobs American Servicemen (and women) used to do. And on top of that, pay the contractors 3-4X as much as the soldiers, marines, airmen, and sea-men <---whY I wOUld nEvEr jOIn thE nAvY--->...oh yeah, they work right beside them doing the same jobs. If that's not supporting the troops...WHOA!---that was a rant...I wanna try & keep this Random Rambling RANTLESS...

...back to the point...use this IRS CALCULATOR to get your W-4 correct. This is the money you need to be saving for your RETIREMENT! Because let's face it, WE'RE NOT GONNA GET SOCIAL SECURITY PERIOD! A very common mistake made by people like me (and probably you too to some extent) is we feel that if we can't put a SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT in some sort of savings, then we'll wait 'till we can and put NOTHING away right NOW. TERRIBLE MISTAKE!

BUT, check this out...TIME is far more valuable than money. cOmE hErE, I'll prOvE It...

To those who know me best, this will come as a big shock...BUT I have to actually give some credit where it is due. In 2003, YOUR government not only InvAdEd IrAq On mY 7th yEAr AIr fOrcE AnniversArY, but also did something good. They established the US Financial Literacy & Educational Commission, and their site is excellent for those of you who are not as fascinated with numbers as I. Check it out! GET IN THE KNOW!

And since this is such a rare happening, I might as well have the lightening strike twice. Another kudo for the GOV'T/IRS: sOmEthIng fOr thOsE Of yOU thAt wAnt tO stArt sOmEthIng fOr thE bAbIEs' cOllEgE and get a TAX BREAK at the same time. This is an EDUCATIONAL TRUST that you can switch over to anyone in your family to use for education costs, including ROOM AND BOARD (over half of total costs). So PLEASE start saving NOW...

I'd love to sit in front of this computer ALL DAY, but that wouldn't be right. I do have other things that need tending to. So I'll leave you with this sUpEr nEws!

tIll nExt tImE...

rElIgIOn!

What's up, ya'll?! I sit here writing this listening to B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) by GZA, while millions of people are getting ready to go to church and practice his or her RELIGION. For some odd (or intentional) reason I was checking out AlEx grEY's wEb sItE. this morning. DISCLAIMER: If you like art and don't know him, check him out. Anyway, the cUrrEnt prOfIlE pIc is from Mr Grey and profiled under my TV section.

So the point of all that is this...RELIGION is a very complicated and complex thing. VERY COMPLEX AND COMPLICATED!!! Before I get too far on this subject, I just wanna let everybody know my stance because I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings when it comes to their beliefs. But I am an outsider to most because I wasn't brought up anywhere near ANY church. Which if you think about it, kind of voids any chance of a debate without bias from the side that was brought up around, in, or AS the church. And I can confidently say that because if you don't know about something, or only hear about it from someone else, there's no emotional connection (or fear) to it. And that's kind of the elementary difference; because once you add the saturation of "what a good person is supposed to say, do etc., etc.", that churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, and whatever other house of HIGHer whatever undeniably does, it kind of overwhelms the balanced scales. I don't like to use the word PROGRAMMING loosely, so I won't. But looking from the outside in, gives me a chance to objectively observe and analyze human habits. And let's face it, CHRISTIANS are not a small group of people. And that makes it that much easier to see a consistent pattern of behavior. AND I'M NOT HATIN'!

...really I'm not. There are ALWAYS GONNA BE EXTEMISTS. I understand that. What I'm interested in is the PURPOSE of religion. Higher Beings, Spirituality, Gods, Metaphysics--I'm cool with all of that. It's the actual organizing of the people and the influence over GENERATIONS of humans' minds. It's very powerful; and unfortunately history has shown us that RELIGION and WAR are very, very fond of each other.

WORLD MATHEMATICS:
Religion + War = Money

Money and Power are synonymous. And how rich do you think George Bush is? Either one? And this is the man who said that God appointed him President! And you know, I believe him; because I know he didn't get the votes. So tell me...could it be possible that FEAR caused by ONE'S RELIGIOUS BELIEFS trumps ALL other layers of reasonable and potential thought? Huh, you say? Then why do so many not care about the Iraq War? The TROOPS, for God's sake! Or how about global warming?

OK, so these issues are too big for one person to make a difference, right? Well, what about what the PATRIOT ACT and THE MILITARY COMMISSIONS ACT OF 2006 have done to your personal rights. HABEAS CORPUS ACT OF 1679 IS GONE!!! If you don't know how real that is, get your Habeas Corpus-game up!

Please someone help me make sense of any of this. I feel confident in saying that I've seen more of the world than the average person. And on top of that, I've seen the majority of these places at the resident-level. Not just the tourist spots. I've been IN PEOPLE'S HOMES in Mozambique, Panama, Germany, and England. That's some serious access to different cultures. And there's DEFINITELY a spiritual connection between you and the people you "click" with. Even if you don't speak the same language.

So tell me what, who, where, when, why YOU believe in. And most importantly let me know why your way is THE WAY...



P.L.U.R.,
zAy