Friday Morning Links

I'm not quite sure what happened, but it looks like the Cynics' Party morphed into Stinque. Does anyone know what the story is?

Stinque commenter RomeGirl hits the nail on the head when talking about Palin, "She and, I presume, some kind of professional person who is paid to look after her interests, walked around a turkey farm, saw two drains and a bloodbath, and said, RIGHT HERE IS FINE."

The Sexist is 70% man. - Ever wonder what your writing style says about you? I did to and apparently I'm only 65% man.

What's the German Word for Douchebag? - Stunning, guys get a tattoo of whorehouse on their forearms for a lifetime discount. Good ol' progressive Europe!

Criticism of Eric Holder coming from a few different sources - As Ta-Nehisi points out, Obama's rhetoric on drug law enforcement is quite different from what Holder was saying during the Clinton administration. Hopefully the new AG will get with the new boss' program.

The Copy Ranter on Russian Bear vodka ad - CR is right, "real men" WTF? Totally inconsistent with the tone, tenor, and style of the rest of the ad.

From the Root: Busta Rhymes continues to reach out and spread understanding - I'm sorry I even asked if it was fair to brand Busta homophobic. Especially distasteful was Busta glomming onto Obama saying, "After Nov. 4, we gettin' so much new sh**, we gonna call that motherf$#%&@ Ay-rab money." It's an ignorance dog, slathered in stupidity.

Malcolm Gladwell gets put on blast - Saw this link in a tweet from Jay Smooth and dude gives Gladwell the business something fierce.

The Sports Guy - Amazing column on "The Battle of the Network Stars".

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Last Pre-Election Politics Post - Updated

Let's see if I can get through a post of links without diverting onto a tangent.

1. I don't know who this Smokey Fontaine cat is, but this video is pretty decent.

2. Barack is now getting love from white racists. Obama is a phenomenon.

3. The good ol' Root has a piece on brothers and sisters who have been talking out of their ass during this campaign. Bob Johnson, Jesse Jackson, and Juan Williams all get lit up here. Conspicuous by his absence is Rev. Al Sharpton.

4. KnockoutEd reminds folks to vote over at COINTELPOL.

5. I've got to give a link to NylonThread, who got me involved with NaBloPoMo.

6. Andrew Sullivan has a nice little quote about the flap on Obama's plane.

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Small World - Waaaasssssuuuuuuuuup

So after playing legos, playing with clay, scooping the seeds out of a pumpkin, and cleaning up the kitchen (all before 8:30am) the wife and I relented and let BabyRat watch TV. Now the wife is chilling with the New Yorker and I'm trying to bang out my blog post for the day. I look at my blog roll and I see that my home boy and my blogging idol, Ta-Nehisi Coates, have both posted the video below within an hour of each other. I'm jumping on the bandwagon too.

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The Beautiful Struggle

I've been in the tank for Ta-Nehisi Coates since the first time I read his blog a few months ago. In addition to bringing a strong voice new voice to the Blogosphere, TC is the only blogger (that I'm aware of) that has seen fit to bless me with a link. I hold tight to that link as a soupçon of legitimacy for my blogging. Herr Coates just published his first book earlier this year, The Beautiful Struggle and I finally got a chance to read it.

I'm gonna try not to get too caught up in a bunch of superlatives here, but the book is damn good. Even though I'm a few years older than TC and we had vastly different upbringings, I knew that as a Black man and an aspiring writer this book was going to have something to say to me. I read the book in two sittings; after I woke up from a nap today I read the first half while enjoying a couple of hours home alone and then after I put BabyRat to bed I finished it off. I think the last book I devoured like this was the Godfather.

What struck me about this book was that it seems like a spiritual companion to so many other great coming of age stories, both real and fictional. Even though I want every Black man and boy in America to read this book, I hope that others who didn't grow up Black or in an urban environment will read this book and find some reflection of themselves and their life in TC's words.

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I'm in Fargo on Saturday Night, Here are Some Links

If TC’s stuff wasn’t always so on point I wouldn’t constantly link to him; but he is, so I do. Maybe I’ll just ask him if I can be his publicist.

And here I was thinking this kind of stuff only happened to us Black guys.

Ha, ha! Wanksta rappers get brutally clowned

Here I am stuck in Fargo for six months and the first band worth seeing (the SuperSuckers, at a small venue to boot) comes around on a weekend when I gotta head back to DC. So. Fucking. Lame.

Also harshing my mellow; the Points are playing at Memory Lanes on August 11 in the cities while I’m going to be at the lake with the whole in-law clan. I’ve been warned not to write anything about how badly a certain in-law was annoying me earlier tonight.

Just downloaded Exile in Guyville by Liz Phair the other day, can’t believe I missed this album the first go ‘round. Attention Avril, Alanis, and all of you other angst ridden grrrrls: you will never get close to doing anything this good.

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Nooner

Who knew what I was missing by always taking cabs?

A lot of folks are talking about how Obama can win over White voters; some are serious and some aren't.

I don't give a rat's ass about Imus, but Jimi Izrael tells like it is on the latest idiocy surrounding radio's psycho geezer.

While on the topic of douchey old geezers, it's worth mentioning that even GOP dead-enders like Robert Novak are already making excuses for McCain's crushing defeat in November.

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