this is what really grinds my gears

no idea's original, there's nothing new under the sun

it's never what you do, but how's it's done

- nas "no idea's original" from the lost tapes



maybe it's me because i'm still kinda new to this blogging thing but it irks the hell outta me to see a damn near plagarization of my words relatively near my original words with no reference to my words, no shout-outs, no nothing. i mean, damn. can a sista get some love? i understand how easily accessible anyone's random thoughts are nowadays with every tinitra, dylan and asha having a blog. and while i'm not expecting to see my name in the footnotes, it would be nice if someone credits you in some way if they are going to "expand" upon your thoughts. it's only right. usually, you'll see "re: so-so" in a comment thread so you know that someone is responding to someone else's comments before them. it's keeps things in perspective, especially if someone goes off on a tangent somewhere along the way. but it also furthers the conversation into an area that the original author may not have thought of. so, while "no idea's original, there's nothing new under the sun", i really don't want to see my words re-arranged and re-posted by someone else (on the same site no less!!!)


ok, now that i've gotten that outta my system, stay tuned for some more things that "really grind my gears".

i think very deeply

hey fam. i've been writing a lot, just not here, lol. my bad. in any event, in between my original posts, i will posts links to some of my favorite blogs by other people where i usually comment. i'm not being lazy. sometimes, great minds think alike and it makes no sense to repeat topics. that being said, here is some of my personal favs.

an excerpt from my response to Wine...in a cup - it would be nice if we knew that there was a magic age at which we'd figure everything out but that would make life a race to that age and you'd miss out on the fun and important lessons along the way.

an excerpt from my response to jesse jackson's desire to "cut [obama's] nuts out - keep hope alive, jesse. your love child is calling you. a week after my comment, kenrya expanded upon my general gist and was a little nicer. sorry jesse, i'm still not feeling you.

an excerpt from my response to The "T" Word - and as for your aversion to therapy, you’ve already started so keep up the posts…and my bill’s in the mail, lol.

shout-outs to d from a belle in brooklyn and bundy and the rest of the parlour fam.

what are we celebrating?

here's something to think about as you prepare to go to that 4th. of July bbq. let me know what you think.

Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me by asking me to speak today?...What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

- an excerpt from a speech given by Frederick Douglass on July 4, 1852