Michael Steele wins RNC chairmanship

More relevant evidence that America has matured from her toddler stage and is now entering her pre-teen years.  First Obama now this from the Republican party, picking a Black man to run the party!  My My My, what fruits shall this tree bore?

Why might it be a bigger statement of America's evolving face?  Because, the Democrats choosing a Black man to lead the party is one thing; but the Democrats have always been cast as the party of the minority coalitions after they cast off their white hoods and cloaks.  

Conservatives and Republicans however were stuck in a rut.  They fully embraced all the buzz words of White supremacy; state's rights, southern pride, smaller government (euphimism for no government intrusion into my rights to segregate)...at least it was seen as such.  They visited Bob Jones University with malicious contempt, they flew the stars and bars with utter arrogance, they embraced and encouraged a dying dead ideal that America was in its infancy.

They surrounded themselves with people who clung to belief that people may not be property but they should be marginalized, ghettoized and given limited opportunity to succeed.  They hated the idea of co-mingling, they hated the idea of inter-racial, they hated the idea of equality.

Now with this news, it may once again be possible for Blacks to take Conservatives and Republicans at face value when they say that they believe in complete equality, that they believe in States rights provided it does not impose upon human rights.  It's possible to believe that smaller government and personal responsibility are no longer code words for something sinister.  It's possible to believe that they support full civil rights for all.

Mind you, the election of one Black man does not change all minds in one day, but it's a good start on the road to reformation of a once proud party that stood for equality and freedom for all God's children.

I have a Dream

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King Jr speech

Movies

• "Bride Wars"As if to assuage the anxieties of the millions of same-sex couples deprived of the right to wed in this nation, here comes “Bride Wars” to make the entire institution of marriage look almost as awful as last year’s dreadful “27 Dresses” did.
• "Not Easily Broken"Somehow bypassing a Promise Keepers’ weekend marriage encounter and going directly into mainstream theaters, “Not Easily Broken” takes a moralistic view of relationship problems by suggesting that everything will be fixed if the wife spends less time in the office and more time having children. This may well be the first film ever made about the male biological clock.
• "The Unborn"The Kabbalah. Hot college students. An abandoned mental institution. Gary Oldman. Jogging. Twins. Nazi scientists. A suicidal mother. A lost blue mitten. What do these things have in common? They’re all pieces in the convoluted mythology of “The Unborn.”
• "Good"Jean-Luc Godard once said that the best way to review a movie is to make another movie; sometimes, all it takes is seeing a second movie about a certain subject matter to highlight everything that the first movie did wrong. Such is the case with “Good,” which deals with an intellectual who gets swept up into the Nazi party without ever thinking about the larger issues at stake; it’s a powerful film on its own merits, but it also points out how tame and impotent “The Reader” is in examining similar issues.
• "Defiance"“Defiance” director Edward Zwick certainly isn’t afraid of archetypes: We know who the villain’s going to be (it’s the guy with the bad teeth), we know who’s going to marry the hero (it’s the one woman who looks stunning with apparently no makeup on) and we know who the hero is (it’s Daniel Craig as the movie’s one blond, blue-eyed Russian Jew).
• "Revolutionary Road"I genuinely regret never having read Richard Yates’ novel “Revolutionary Road,” not only because its admirers tell me it’s a compelling look at mid-century ennui but also because any future attempts to read it will be tainted by the dreary film adaptation currently being inflicted upon audiences.
• "Valkyrie"Mark Twain might have subtitled “Valkyrie,” “The Not-So-Private History of a Campaign That Failed.” Director Bryan Singer is a master of forward motion in his storytelling, but he never distracts us enough from the knowledge that doom is around the corner for our heroes, a cadre of Nazis who sought to kill Hitler and negotiate with the Allied forces in the waning days of World War II.
• "The Spirit"The previews and trailers indicated this movie would be “Sin City” 1.5 in terms of art direction. I knew enough about the comic books to know that this style might conflict a bit with the source material. Despite this conflict, or perhaps because of it, somewhere inside “The Spirit” is a great film. Its potential can be seen in bits and pieces all over the screen.
• "Bedtime Stories"Even though “Bedtime Stories” represents a first for Sandler — a comedy that’s appropriate for all ages — it still feels like a giant leap backward for him. As Skeeter Bronson, the handyman at a boutique Los Angeles hotel, Sandler is doing that same silly, growly voice he uses in his “Hanukkah Song.”
• "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"Screenwriter Eric Roth is no doubt hoping that you won’t notice how many of his ideas from “Forrest Gump” have made it into his adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novella “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” And even fans of that earlier film may find themselves overburdened; “Gump” director Robert Zemeckis isn’t exactly known for his light touch, but next to “Button” man David Fincher, he’s practically Ernst Lubitsch.
• "Last Chance Harvey"If there’s such a thing as the Laptop Lotto for screenwriters, “Last Chance Harvey” writer-director Joel Hopkins hit the Superball. Hopkins, best known for his award-winning 1998 short film “Jorge,” somehow scored Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson for a screenplay that, by rights, should have snagged Daniel Hugh Kelly and Catherine Oxenberg before winding up on one of the channels you’d ignore on a trans-Atlantic airline.
• "Waltz With Bashir"Unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, “Waltz With Bashir” will change your ideas about the possibility of film. It’s an animated documentary, which probably sounds like a contradiction in terms, but even describing it that way threatens to place it in the kinds of tidy, well-defined boxes that “Waltz With Bashir” consistently defies.
• "Marley and Me"A word of warning to parents out there who have been seduced by the adorable-puppy-in-Christmas-bow advertising of “Marley & Me” and are considering taking their youngsters to see it: Don’t. The dog — and this may technically count as a spoiler, even though the movie is based on a best-selling book — dies. And “Marley & Me” milks audience grief (and will traumatize children) more than “Bambi” and “Old Yeller” combined.
• "Yes Man"“And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself” isn’t just a line from “A Visit from St. Nicholas” — it’s how I felt about Jim Carrey’s performance in the new comedy “Yes Man.” Having been annoyed by his antics in many of his recent outings — take “Fun with Dick and Jane,” please — the world-class mugger dials it down and delights in this breezy (if somewhat formulaic) flick.
• "Seven Pounds"“Seven Pounds” slogs about, impressed with its own supposed depth, as we watch Will Smith play a man attempting to pay for his past sins. Director Gabriele Muccino (“The Pursuit of Happyness”) seems to think he’s in Ingmar Bergman territory, but he’s actually made the longest, most dour episode of “My Name is Earl” imaginable.
• "The Wrestler"It’s hard not to look for traces of the off-screen Rourke, ’80s movie legend gone off the rails, in his portrayal of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, past-his-prime ’80s wrestling legend, in “The Wrestler,” and perhaps director Darren Aronofsky would rather we didn’t. But Rourke’s work in the film transcends mere stunt-casting; his performance is a howl of pain that seems to come from a very real place, and it’s a potent reminder — as was his compelling role in “Sin City” a few years ago — that even if Rourke has made a mess of his career, his talent remains intact.
• "The Tale of Despereaux"Which came first, the rat or the mouse? Doesn’t really matter. Even though Kate DiCamillo’s book “The Tale of Despereaux” came out in 2003 — and won a Newbery Medal for outstanding children’s literature — the animated film version still feels like a rip-off of “Ratatouille,” which was only released last year.
• "The Day the Earth Stood Still"If you’re looking for chuckles this holiday season, bypass the miserably unfunny “Four Christmases” and go where the real comedy is — “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” a clumsy, moronic remake of Robert Wise’s brilliant 1951 classic about an alien invader trying to save the human race from its own self-destructive impulses.
• "The Reader"I’ve generally been a defender of the films of Stephen Daldry, but seeing “The Reader” made me understand why some people hated his previous movie, “The Hours.” That film, they said, was fussy and airless, tamping down truth and humanity in favor of the brand of dry “culture” that lures certain segments of the moviegoing public with the promise of a tastefully prim Sunday matinee.
• "Gran Torino"You’ll pretty much figure out exactly where “Gran Torino” is taking you within the first 30 minutes, but it’s a testament to the vehicle that you’ll mostly enjoy the ride anyway. Director-star Clint Eastwood brings his advancing age front and center here — he could have called the movie “Grandpa Torino” — with a performance that’s almost shamelessly crowd-pleasing at times.
• "Nothing Like the Holidays"Like the plantains and empanadillas that adorn the film’s Christmas dinner table, “Nothing Like the Holidays” is comfort food. Though its title suggests uniqueness, “Nothing Like the Holidays” is exactly like most holiday films, with the notable exception of an almost entirely Latin cast.
• "Doubt"I never saw John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” performed onstage, but Shanley’s film version certainly doesn’t shy away from theatricality. Light bulbs explode, telephones ring insistently during tense arguments, literal and metaphorical winds whip up — heck, an actual cat chases an actual mouse, just to make sure the audience knows what’s going on.
• "Che"Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” is by no means a perfect film, but in a season laden with dopey historical movies like “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and “The Reader,” it’s exhilarating to watch a film that doesn’t hit all the usual biopic script beats.
• "Frost/Nixon"You know how a comedian can completely ruin his own joke by stopping to explain the punch line? The filmmakers behind “Frost/Nixon” do the same thing, undercutting some of the film’s most powerful moments by tossing in scenes where the characters tell the audience what it has already seen.
• "Cadillac Records"While it tells the story of an exciting period in American pop culture, “Cadillac Records” winds up being so trite, tidy and two-dimensional that you would swear you were watching a late-night infomercial for the great music of Chess Records. All that’s missing is a toll-free number and a paid walk-on by Frankie Avalon.
• "Nobel Son"Just in time for year-end “worst movie” lists comes “Nobel Son,” a movie far too confident in its own cleverness and charm, two elements it lacks in abundance. “Nobel Son” is so utterly idiotic, that I can’t even bring myself to explain the plot.
• "Four Christmases"Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon star in this holiday comedy that starts out casting a sardonic eye on marriage and family but winds up being a treacly advertisement for those very things.
• "Milk"“Milk” brings the politician’s story to life, but it almost mechanically ticks off all the moments you’d expect to see in a biopic. Watching director Gus Van Sant tamp down everything that makes him interesting as a filmmaker to make a big mainstream movie is rather disheartening.
• "Australia"Nobody does “outsized” like Baz Luhrmann, who most recently juiced up both the musical and the tragic romance to heart-exploding intensity with “Moulin Rouge!” Now he’s back to give the business to romantic epics with “Australia,” a sprawling ode to his home country that throws kangaroos, didgeridoos, the outback, a cattle drive, Japanese air raids and Nicole Kidman into a slightly overboiled stew that’s never less than compelling.
• "Twilight"“Twilight” is a vampire movie, but it’s not a horror movie. It’s never an easy task to bring a hit book to the screen, but by filling the screen with stares, stammers and silences, director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg tread into the territory of unintentional hilarity.
• "Bolt"One could forgive a movie aimed at children for shamelessly cribbing plot points from “The Last Action Hero” and “The Truman Show” — which “Bolt” totally does — since its target audience is ostensibly not familiar with movies that came out way back in the ’90s. But when the canine protagonist of “Bolt” borrows a character arc from Buzz Lightyear, even youngsters will smell a rip-off.
• "Quantum of Solace"As played by Daniel Craig in “Casino Royale” and now “Quantum of Solace,” there’s a case to be made for 007 as masochist. Craig’s Bond lets the audience feel the impact of every blow to the head, every bullet to the shoulder, every face-first landing into the side of a building.
• "Slumdog Millionaire"“Slumdog Millionaire” is a movie so compelling and, ultimately, upbeat, that it left me grinning wider than anything I’ve seen in ages.

New Year's Resolutions

OK, so I figure I'm going to at least give the vegetarian thing a half-hearted attempt. I'm not going to eat meat from Monday to Thursday inclusive. I am not going to be one of those fake vegetarians that say that chicken and fish don't count as meat but I'm not going to be one of those crazy psychos that wont eat eggs or drink milk. I'm simply going to give up meat for 4 days a week.

Already I'm hearing the gasps of incredulous disbelief and comments like;
"you're body needs meat everyday"
"it's too big a change for your body to adjust to"

Like really...come on!

What you're really trying to say is that you like me fat and unhealthy so you can always point to me and say, at least I'm not like Garfield.

The other resolutions are to study more, read more, and continue to expand on my activities.