THE NOBLE PECULARITY THAT IS STILL AMERICA

In the wee hours of the morning, the news came that Senator Edward Kennedy had succumbed to brain cancer. No sooner had the Senator died, the condolences were coming in from across the political spectrum's. The various voices paying respect is a testament of how unique this country is…where ardent political rivals can pause and genuinely pay respect when one of them is fallen. An apt example of this country’s uniqueness is the friendly relationship between Orin Hatch…the staunch conservative…and Senator Kennedy…the ultra liberal. This aspect of politics is absent in many countries but hear it flourishes and I hope it continues to do so. Though the debates affecting our lives are spirited, we still can get together and respect the institutions protecting the many differing voices. Senator Kennedy is and was symbolic of this uniqueness, which is now being dismantled. The truth is that there were many issues that the members of Verily Prime and the Senator disagreed on, but we must always give honor to whom honor is due. Specifically, I thank the fallen Senator for his contribution and advocacy on behalf of legislation, which assisted the poor, minorities, and the elderly. I am especially grateful for legislation in the sixties and early seventies which enabled minorities and gave teeth to Constitutional mandates to enforce the franchise. It is said that the angel of death prematurely visits the Kennedy males, but Senator Edward Kennedy escaped this fate and lived three scores and seventeen years-seven more than the Good Book says we are allotted--I hope that he is resting in peace.

-Verily Prime

PUSSILANIMOUS

I wonder what would have the great General Patton think about the state of affairs in America, especially on the subject of the treatment of our intelligence operatives. Today, Attorney General (A.G.), Eric Holder, decided to appoint a special prosecutor to look into and to possibly prosecute our CIA operatives who threatened Gitmo terrorists with death if they did not divulge secret plots to kill Americans. This is the same Holder who engineered the pardon for Mark Rich and pardoned the Puerto Rican terrorists who blew up government offices, which may have caused a police officer’s death. We are aware what Holder is attempting to do; his president popularity is tanking so why not go after the CIA and let it dominate the news circle for a while… taking the focus off the health care reform debacle. The problem is the potential damage it could cause in the CIA current ranks and recruiting. In addition, why would the Israeli’s Shin Bet, Mossad, or the British MI-5, who a re very good at what they do, wants to work or share intelligence with us…perhaps, the only good news coming out of Washington was that Leon Panetta, the current head of the CIA, was incensed at A.G. Holder’s decision. Some years ago, I attended basic training in Alabama (Fort McClellan); in order to graduate, we had to enter a room filled with tear gas without the benefit of a protective mask, and try to repeat our names and SSNs…needless to say, my eyes were on fire and sprouting tears…and my sinuses were involuntarily cleared. What if our CIA operatives had subjected the Gitmo terrorists to a spell in a room and set off the tear gas…the pusillanimous crowd would have deemed such actions torture. I say to A.G. Holder and President Obama, popularity is fleeting… one only has to ask the many past flavor of the month celebrities…Jesus, riding on an ass, was welcomed into Jerusalem with palms and shouts of “Hosanna in the Highest;” and, moreover, as King of the Jews, yet in three days, those same folks called for his crucifixion. So do not feel too bad Mr. President….

-Verily Prime

A Bad Fortnight For Our Secular Messiah

It is being telegraphed so that one can see it coming from a country mile away; we see and hear some of the president’s supporters intimating that the protesters against his health care reform policies are racists. Someone enlighten me, but I thought that Blacks only make up 15% of the population, which means many of my whites brothers and sisters voted for our secular messiah. The bad fortnight President Obama is having and the likes of MSNBC disparaging the protesters as racists is akin to the proverbial Blackman trying to catch a cab in Manhattan. How many times have we heard some Black male celebrity opining on not being able to catch cab in some major city--no doubt this is a legitimate gripe and sometimes, indeed, racist. But let us supposed that these cab drivers who refused to pick up a Blackman because he is genuinely afraid for his life-should he put his life in what he sees as genuine danger, even if the cab driver is misguided in reading the occupant’s intentions. I do no t know what is going on in these folk’s minds who are protesting; if they are doing so because of hatred for the first black president-shame on them, but I cannot second guess them because I really do not know. Now when the cab story is told, it is confined in politically correct verbiage; the truth is that in Brooklyn where members of Verily Prime reside, there are taxi drivers who will not pick us up, especially if we are asking to go to certain areas of Brooklyn-incidentally, these cabbies are Black. Why is it that it is ok for Black cabbies to be genuinely concern about picking up some Black men and not none black cabbies in Manhattan….? We have written in past blogs how race is that cancerous wound that works corruption of blood and that no matter how upright a Blackman may be in his every day life, there are those who will always hate him. This does not mean that we should paint everyone--protesters against the president’s domestic agenda--with the collective racist brush.

The Travesty of Plaxico Bruress’ Sentence

One of the rear seminal moments of elitist hypocrisy is a situation which happened on live TV during the now cancelled Rosie O’Donnell show. Rosie had invited Tom Selleck of Magnum PI fame to be a guess on her show-he was pitching his new television movie. When Mr. Selleck arrived, he was ambushed by Rosie about his poor judgment for his ardent support of the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. As Rosie’s audience roared in support, Mr. Selleck calmly told Rosie that when he came into her studios…her security were armed with 9 millimeter weapons…the look on her face was priceless. Today, a travesty took place in New York; Mayor Bloomberg and District Attorney Morgenthau vigorously prosecuted Plaxico Burress, a football player, who took an unlicensed gun to a club and accidentally shot himself in the leg. Someone explain to me the utility or who will be deterred in placing Mr. Burress in jail for two years, especially a man who has no criminal record. As of last year, an athlete playing for Washington Redskins was killed in his home; a basketball player from the Houston Rockets was carjacked and shot; A Denver Broncos football player was killed in his SUV-I can only guess what would have happened if those athletes were armed, but I am certain they would have had a better chance of protecting themselves. In Crown Heights where my Jewish brothers and sisters congregate, there are times we see on the local news of all sort of crimes occurring there, especially money laundering and crimes against women seeking the Get (Jewish Divorce)…then we hear nothing else about said crimes because the powers that be like Mayor Bloomberg and District Attorney Morgenthau influenced the process. Tomorrow is the Sabbath and both Morgenthau and Mayor Bloomberg, if they are practicing Jews, will leave to go to temple; accompanying both men will be their respective retinues of security armed with sub-machine weapons. Mayor Bloomberg may have the wealth of the poet King Solomon--but on this issue of calling for the incarceration of Plaxico Burress--he sure lacks his wisdom….

-Verily Prime

GRAVITAS

Recently, my brother, the other member of Verily Prime, took our beloved mother out to dinner; apparently, during the dinner, the surrounding tables were opining about Michael Vick. My brother conveyed to me that the consensus among the dinner guests was that Michael Vick was an ogre and basically should be a candidate for the funeral pyre. Of course my brother had to engage the guests by asking the question--has anyone around the tables had an abortion and if she did, did she consider herself better than Michael Vick? I am told that there was an elephant pregnant pause, along with unsettling silence at the tables. I am not certain if I would have had the gravitas to do what my brother did, especially with our mother at the table. In a similar vein, to that lady who, via this blog, has argued the merits of her abortion and boasting about being a Christian, I am not worthy to judge, but I will vehemently disagree with you that abortion is an act sanctioned by Jesus. I say to my confuse sister, peruse anyone of the Gospels, especially Luke, and you will be edified. In law school, one must stud y Roe vs. Wade and one will learn about quickening, trimesters, and demarcation lines like 24 weeks. To my sister, I put no stock into those brilliant Constitutional judicial prose authored by flesh and blood we call jurists--my stock is in the Gospel of Luke, and we are told that John the Baptist, while he was six months old in his mother, Elizabeth’s, womb, started kicking his mother when Jesus, who was only three months (12 weeks) old in Mary’s stomach, passed by--John the Baptist kicked out of respect when he recognized the Messiah. I need not go any further my sister because you could decipher for yourself the meaning and believe me when I say that part of the Gospels refuting abortion is not written allegorically. Many of my brothers and sisters on the left would always repeat the mantra that only Cuba, South Africa, Russia and the United States sanction Capital Punishment; they say this to make people like me feel guilty…Right back at you brethren, not even bin laden would engage in the abomination call abortion….

-Verily Prime

Affirmative Action

Many are loathed to opine on the subject of Affirmative Action but this is the freedom a blog provides…to lave our dirty laundry. How could I as a Christian decide that those fire
men in Connecticut did not deserve their promotion in light of their test scores; yet, I would be hypocritical because I too have been a beneficiary of Affirmative Action. To attend law school, it requires good grades—of which I had—and a good LSAT score—of which mine was average, yet I was accepted into law school. Now, I met the criteria of my law school by maintaining my 75 average and wrote what amounted to a dissertation to graduate…the later is only required in a few law schools. I surmised that because I graduated, the template to get into law school is not a definitive barometer as to success….In law school, I studied Bakke, the seminal case on Affirmative Action and the fur flew and the Socratic debates on the subject matter were spirited. Now, before some of my white brothers/sisters start engaging in the merits of eugenics about whose mental faculties are superior-incidentally, we are told now that East Indians and Chinese students are being discriminated when it comes to entrance in our Ivy League schools even though they are consistently scoring hire than others-is it because they have superior faculties than whites or blacks or is it that they have figured out a way to take the tests and are simply more discipline.…In Connecticut, the substance of the test was given to all the potential candidates and the scores reflected the diligence that each candidate put in…To punish those who studied hard is just wrong…but someone also must explain and provide a remedy on how to address an all white fire or police department…in New York, I am reminded that an Irish man in the fire department is said to be partaking in “Irish welfare…”are we to believe it is not who you know, sometimes. I have a lawyer friend in New Jersey, who gave me my first job out of law school as a legal consultant. I watched this Black man, who had passed the respective bars of New York-a feat I have yet to conquer—New Jersey and Florida, and still wasn’t hired as an associate, yet he had to teach many whites, who were hired as new associates, the duties of the position...The reason this was so was because he did not know the right people. We cannot look at Affirmative Action in a vacuum…I watched a Sixty Minutes episode where this law professor was saying how immoral Affirmative Action was with respect to entrance into the University of Michigan…this may have been so but the Michigan basketball athletes, who were 95% Black, were providing hundred of millions of dollars to the university and they were not paid…I wondered how much that law professor salary was dependent on the revenues brought in during March Madness….I do not recall the case in Law school, but I know it dealt with Pornography, where one of the presiding Associate Justices, Potter Stewart, opined on porn, saying, “I cannot articulate what it is (Porn), but I know it when I see it.”…It is the same situation I am in when I look at all the current remedies for addressing past prejudice…I’ll know it when I see it….
-Verily Prime

OUR MOUTHS AGAPE LIKE THE DUCK IN THE AFLAC COMMERCIALS

There are things that the members of Verily Prime see and hear that make our mouths hang open like the Aflac Duck in those funny insurance commercials: some of the women whose birth canals are veritable highways of death, yet pointing their accusing fingers at Michael Vick; during the primaries when our current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said that they should fumigate the White house because of the deeds of President George Bush and Cabinet--and she said it with a straight face; the deafening silence by so many women’s groups, as all manner of chauvinistic diatribes are directed at Sarah Palin; watching Terrell Owens explaining why he is estranged from yet another quarterback; the love fest between Hugo Chavez--who have curtailed all manner of free speech and who have persecuted the gays in his country--and Sean Penn; the fact that the young man who got mauled at the San Francisco zoo received much, much less flowers than the tiger who mauled him and was put down; watching Nancy Pelosi’s press conference explaining her water boarding briefing from the CIA and then not being immediately taken out in a straight jacket; President Obama being lauded on the speech he gave on race after sitting for over twenty years listening to his preacher espousing that perversion call Liberation Theology; illegal immigrants flying the Mexican flag during their protests than Old Glory; some advocates of Obama’s health care plan extolling the Cuban health care system over that of the USA; the Mother Teresa like coverage Michael Jackson received after his death; the Boston Police Officer who called Professor Gates a “jungle bunny” and is now suing the Boston Police Department; the many explanations given by Casey Anthony why she waited over a month to report her daughter missing; those who would tell you that George Bush made America less safe, even though we’ve had no more attacks since 911; those who will tell you that 911 was an inside job, blaming George Bush, and when you ask them to explain who was responsible for the first terror attack on the first World Trade Center when Clinton was the president, they become mute with a look of confusion; the sheer hypocrisy of members of the current administration opining on CEOs pay, when many of them came from Goldman Sachs; and one of the readers of this blog who accused Sarah Palin as pretending to be the members of Verily Prime…our mother thought that you were hilarious….

-Verily Prime

MARKED DIFFERENCES

It was the poet warrior, King David, who coined the phrase, “I hate you with a perfect hatred” in one of the many Psalms he authored--so I am adopting this phrase for the recent death, via a drone, of one of the prominent leaders of the Taliban in Afghanistan. This posture is a marked difference on how many on the left would have reacted if it were President George Bush in office. Anyone who reads this blog knows that the members of Verily Prime are not adherents of President Obama, yet we will adamantly support him on his policies in Iraq and Afghanistan or anywhere the troops are fighting. When Bush was in office, much of the discourse on the war from many on the left seemed to have want the casualties to be astronomical so that Bush would look bad; some of these Democrats were so partisan that they did not care that soldiers were dying in the interim--so long as it was a catalyst to drive the Republican President from office. The members o f Verily Prime will make no such mistake…notwithstanding our opposition to many of Obama’s policies. I hope and pray that the President successfully prosecutes the wars in all the theatres where the United States is fighting and we will not be partisan, so as to overtly or tacitly put our men and women in jeopardy. There have been recent policies enacted supposedly to honor the military families; an example is letting the media take pictures of the caskets of fallen soldiers. I am almost certain that this was not done out of respect for the military heroes/sheroes, but to embarrass the President, especially if said president wears Republican stripes. Another difference between the members of Verily Prime and some of the loons on the left--is the later penchant for excoriating America on foreign soil, especially, again, if a Republican is President. When members of Verily Prime travel outside these United States, we become mute on matters concerning America’s foreign policy, and confine our critique of this great country within its borders. We cannot say the same for the Dixie Chicks, Harrison Ford, and Gwyneth Paltrow, all who have spouted anti American rhetoric to appease those who would give their kidneys to walk these shores; and then these Hollywood loons would feign amazement when there was a backlash against them, bitching when the folks did not go to see their movies or purchased their CDs. And finally, the loons are saying that conservative talk radio are influencing sociopaths like the recent shooting at the holocaust museum in DC-I wonder who enticed the guy who went to Yemen for Muslim training and came back and murdered the Arkansas soldier…perhaps, it was the pictures depicting prisoner abuse at Abu Grave being shown repeatedly on MSNBC or on the pages of the New York Times…as I’ve said, marked differences….

-Verily Prime

POURING GASOLINE ON A RAGING FIRE

When I first came to this country from the Eastern Caribbean in1981, I resided in Concord, California; and my father, who was an Oakland police officer then, recommended to me and my brothers that we should read the newspaper editorials and watch the program Nightline to get knowledge about our newly adopted country. I cannot say how much my brothers adhered to dad’s edict-but I did. On one occasion, I was watching Ted Koppel’s Nightline when I realized what a fraud Jesse Jackson was…allowing race to take precedence over what is right. Our Civil Rights leader told, the host, Ted Koppel and a number of black foster care children, who were adopted by whites, that he would have preferred if they had remained in the foster care system, even though they were now living among loving parents. All Jesse cared about was that the foster parents were white--and not the fact that they were loving....Even as young boy, I knew something was seriously flawed with that kind of thinking; perhaps, this was because of my being from the Caribbean and that I was putting too much=2 0credence into the fact that Jesse was known as “reverend.” In the same vein, recently, five police officers were brutally murdered in Oakland, California, and our Civil Rights leaders (Jesse and Al) were conspicuously absent; yet, when the police shoot someone unjustly, they are out there--as they should--but no such discourse, healing or otherwise, and visibility in the case of the five murdered officers mentioned above. No one can or should take these so called Civil Rights leaders seriously because of their obvious bias and blatant racism. Take for instance, when Martin Luther King wife died, President Bush attended the funeral. You would have think that the funeral would have been void of politics, but you would have been wrong--instead, it was one the most despicable act of incivility I have ever witnessed. The hatred and vitriol that were directed at President Bush, while his wife sat with him, by these civil rights leaders and President Jimmy Carter, were unprecedented--I recommend you go to the internet to see it. Only Andrew Young had enough class to chastise these civil rights leaders and politicians for using Mrs. King Funeral to berate President Bush. Just imagined, if President Bush had not paid his respects and not attended Martin Luther King widow’s funeral….In the future, we will see these so called civil rights leaders--and to borrow and paraphrased lines from one of David Bowie’s song--putting out the racial fires with gasoline…or petrol.

Verily Prime

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY CRITIC

The members of Verily Prime have extolled the merits of those who are expressing their Constitutional rights to protest, but we would be hypocritical if we did not take issue with some of the tactics of those who are voicing their opinions in these town hall meetings against Obama’s health care reform. When advocates for the Armed Forces were trying to argue the merits of having the National Guard on our academic campuses, and were denied by opponents shouting the advocates down, we were outraged, even though then we were not authoring a blog. But we are equal opportunity critics…so that those who read this blog can say, even though I seldom agree with the members of Verily Prime, they make more than an effort to be even keeled. Now, to get back to the issue, we watched many of the politicians who were advocating President Obama’s health reform being shouted down-this is not civil behavior for addressing members in authority, no matter that you do not agree with their positions. It was wrong when the students of Columbia University here in New York acted in the most uncivilized of manner against the advocates for the Armed Forces or those who they disagreed with on other topical issues of the day, and it is wrong now for those who opposed the advocates for President Obama’s health care reform. The least we can do is listen…then vehemently disagree in our responses…But at least, we should give the opposing advocates, no matter their positions on any given issue, the courtesy to voice their opinions, especially when they are invited to the forum.

-Verily Prime

HYPOCRATS

A few blogs ago, the members of Verily Prime coined the phrase “Hypocrats” to show the dearth of coverage received by the Democrats when they engaged in hypocrisy as opposed to when Republicans do it. Last week down in Ohio-in counties that the President carried in the elections—many of the citizens were out protesting the pending health reform legislation being debated in Congress. No sooner had the White House Press Secretary was asked about the protesters, he deemed them as right wing fanatics. The reason why this is of such import is that it is coming from the White House, meaning that it was sanctioned by the President. It is one thing for the New York Times and CNBC to deem protests against our secular messiah as right wing fanatics--but not from the White House. The White House actually told people to report to them anyone who basically reached out via e-mails, if said missives opposed the President’s position on health care-we do not know what the White House will do if and when it receives opposing missives against it health care position. Recently, we wrote and briefly discussed George Orwell’s 1984 and its all consuming corrupt power; it seems life is imitating art. The sickening irony is that we have a President who has a law degree from one of the most prestigious law school in the world-I did not attend such a prestigious law school, but I got the gist of the First Amendment Jurisprudence-I may not have agreed with what Cindy Sheehan and the many critics of President Bush were positing, but it was their rights under our Constitution First Amendment jurisprudence to do so. Think of all the protests we saw against President George Bush—some even took place down in Crawford, Texas where President was vacationing. It is a mark of a narcissist not to understand why everyone does not genuflect when he or she makes an entrance--such it seems is President Obama’s psychosis.

-Verily Prime

The Current State of Race Relations In America

We will dare open Pandora’s Box; we will peel the scab off and expose the festering wounds; and in the process, we will even implicate ourselves because it is what the members of Verily Prime do in discussing the issues affecting all us as Americans. Notwithstanding that we have our first Black President, Verily Prime’s barometer to measure race relations is how the races are portrayed on the silver screen. Specifically, when, and if, you see a prominent white actress kissing a black male thespian on the silver screen, then you will know that there is genuine progress in race relations. Look at the movie Monster’s Ball, which garnered Halle Berry her first Oscar; can my white brothers and sisters honestly and objectively say that Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep in her heyday, or a Megan Foxe, would have been subjected to that graphic sex scene between Billy Bob Thorton and Halle Berry? Another example is the movie Hancock, which starred Will Smith and Charlize Theron; normally, with such high caliber thespians, there would be love scenes between the two stars, but the script had the characters be ex-lovers, therefore relegating the love scenes off camera. Interracial relationship, between a prominent white actress and her black male counterpart is the one thing, even the so call progressive Hollywood is not comfortable with, although it is rampant on our college campuses on the “down low.” It is said that Sally Hemings slept with her slave master, Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson; however, when it is discussed, it is conveyed as such that Sally should be still giddy-upping with joy in her grave for being Jefferson’s concubine. When this member of Verily Prime was in grad school, Shaquille O’Neal blabbed that among the women he had bedded was the super model, Cindy Crawford. No sooner had Shaq said this, Cindy was out with a press conference, nonetheless, denying that Shaq slept with her--now, Venus Williams, the black tennis player, and the late songbird Aaliyah, who were among Shaq’s conquests, did not see fit to deny Shaq’s story, or moreover, hold a press conference to deny Shaq’s tales of conquest. We contend that even if Shakespeare were magically resurrected and authored an interracial tome, be it one of his comedies, which always ends in a marriage or one of his tragedies, which always ends in a death, we dare say that the Bard would have a hard time finding a prominent white thespian actress to take on the role--This would reflect the pulse and sentiment of most whites vis-à-vis interracial relationships. Consider this particular blog a primer or the opening salvo; later blogs will delve into Bakke, the seminal case, which articulated the merits or de-merits of Affirmative Action.

-Verily Prime

PART TWO OF THE MAVERICK BLACK MAN

The members of Verily Prime, of which there are two, have never responded to any of the criticisms to their blogs, but we feel the need to do so now because of the consternation and hits that were received for the blog titled “The Maverick Black Man.” Incidentally, lest you think that our family is simpatico with the members of Verily Prime’s take on the given issues, you will be wrong. My father is an ardent, rabid supporter of President Obama and vigorously voices his criticism on our take on issues he takes umbrage to-only, he does so intellectually, as opposed to the ad hominem attacks endemic of the blogosphere. For those who sought to tutor and admonish us about the separation of church and state, a venerable check and balance, nestled in our First Amendment, need not do so. One of the few subjects this member and author of this blog excelled at when attended law school was Constitutional Law, which means that I am intimately familiar with Lemon, the seminal case president on freedom of speech and separation of church and state. No founding father’s words nor no charismatic president, republican or democrat, black or white, can cause the members of Verily Prime to replace the primacy they place on scripture. Case in point, you cannot pay us enough to be an advocate for Planned Parenthood because we see abortion as the most heinous act humans can partake in, notwithstanding the few tenable exceptions. So again, if President Obama, via his economic policy, provided the proverbial cornucopia for us-I still wouldn’t vote for him due to his stance on abortion. Our brand of traditional Christianity isn’t biased only against Democrats who support abortion or homosexual marriage; it is against those Republicans who are pro choice too. From our vistas, we can see that members of Verily Prime will not be voting in the near future because there are pundits who have said that the Republican Party need to change with the times and embrace the secular tenets that are in vogue like gay marriage and no limits on abortion rights, if it wants to take back the White House. When I served in the Army, I was wiling and still am, to make the ultimate sacrifice because of what this country stood for, providing that it didn’t conflict with my religious beliefs. I am more willing to die for Jesus and so I try to live my life the way that would give me the benisons of the afterlife-simply because forever is a long time--even if you disagree with my interpretation on how to get there…For now, these Jesus freaks are signing off….happy spirited debates….

-Verily Prime