"Human beings, be they idealists or the psychologically vulnerable, have displayed an inexhaustible capacity for credulity when it comes to charlatans posing as political or religious messiahs."

"Honestly, the god in me, don't allow for modesty,..."

Hmmm. Apparently somebody at Lionsgate really messed up (The Mad Men Theme, below) and, in so doing, ensured I'll have RJD2's newest, bestest, weak at the knees but hard as day-old jello soundscapes (above) until the day that sucker stops,...or drops. 

Ain't that a bitch. 

A clear and definite reason to live:

At this point, it's kind of embarrassing,...

“Those that scraped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted...It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of... [The pilgrims] gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.”

"The treatment of enslaved Black people was generally characterized by degradation, dehumanization, and fatal brutalities. The violent tactics of whippings, rapes and executions was a normal way of life for them. Men were stripped of any form of pride and self respect by being humiliated in front of his family. Women were often taken from their husbands and raped at their owner’s discretion which further diminished the black man’s sense of self worth as well as the woman’s self esteem (Dubois, The Souls Of Black Folk, 1903).

The brutal treatment of Black people continued well after slavery legally ended, through the days of Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and, to a certain extent today. The trauma caused by this psychological brutality resulted in severe damaged to the mind of the victims, which manifested as an identity crisis, self hate,  low self worth, and  a distrust of the world at large. This mentality has been passed down through generations.

Today, conditions such as low socioeconomic status, social deprivation, inadequate education, high unemployment, and the criminal industrial complex has reinforced this negative mentality, which has and  still affects behavior in the Black community today, including young black boys."

"Being kind to black people can mark you for life, so consider this when you encounter racism and wonder why more people don’t stop to offer help."

"...I still wake up in the morning and check out reality carefully, as I would touch a sore tooth with my tongue, as I have woken up after someone has died or I've needed to incorporate some other piece of shocking news. In times of integrating something big and awful into my whole being, I often wake up thinking, 'Something's wrong. What is it?' And in this case, what has gotten into my system in a new, visceral, cellular level, is that racism is wrong. Is that racism and unconscious white privilege are radically, red level blinking light, call 911, wrong. Hold the presses, stop business as usual, put down your remote control and listen wrong. Not just before the Emancipation Proclamation, but now."

“'Many actually went out of their way to purposefully ignore me, and they wouldn’t even make eye contact. I’d approach them and say, "Happy Thanksgiving," many of them I wouldn’t ask for any food or any kind of money, and their inability to even acknowledge me being there was very surprising,' he said, noting that five people even asked him to leave."

"Even the most complex cult doctrines ultimately reduce reality into two basic poles: black versus white; good versus evil; spiritual world versus physical world; us versus them."

"Breitbart: 'Obama administration paves the way for sharia law.'”

And all in the name of "Freedom",...

 

"War-weary Americans and their distracted political leaders are less interested in responsibilities overseas, creating a vacuum of international leadership. But for better and for worse, neither China nor anyone else appears ready and able to fill America’s superpower shoes."

New Wave artists aging gracefully. An 80′s world gone by…

Even quacks must have free speech

Study: Casual Sex Might Be Making Teenagers Sad

9 Reasons 'Hookup Culture' Hurts Boys Too

Women are 'hard-wired' to regret casual flings - but men only regret NOT having them, study reveals

70% now think it is wrong for married people to stray

Michele Bachmann: ‘If God Wanted Everyone To Have Insurance, Why Did He Invent Miracles?’

 

A vision of men, unquestionably different from whatever they're selling,...

 

Anyone (PW comes to mind) brave enough to see the world as it is,...

This is probably the most important link, I've put up on race, today:

"Now more than ever I will engage in cross-racial relationships with an unapologetic and hopefully compassionate commitment to calling out the ways that people fail to see the complexity and reality of being black in America,…"

As usual, TMR's ahead of the curve:

And still burning rubber while doing it,...

 

Look at the poor guy's eyes,...

My friends are still at it,...

The standard for who can say stupid shit is pretty low out there.

“We have no direct information that religious beliefs factored into this, but there was a belief system and homeopathic medicine did factor in.”

Standards, for who, and why you can do stupid shit - they're low, too.

And for some reason, I really, really, REALLY wanted to say that, bad,...

 

"In all of these dramas, the black people's stories are simple, almost banal. As the kidnapping victim in 12 Years a Slave says, 'I don't want to survive. I want to live.' He simply endures, with all the courage and dignity he can muster. His situation, the heroism of his situation, is easy to understand."

"The slave owner, played by Michael Fassbender, is a far more mysterious, more fascinating type: What kind of man wants to flog nearly to death the mother of the child he adores? What kind of man rests against people as if they were furniture? It is a testament to the power of American denial that Fassbender's portrayal of a slave owner is the finest ever put down on film."

Gearing up for it:

"Of course we’re doing better than chattel slavery. Of course we’re doing better than legal segregation. But what material benefit do we get from the comparison?"

150 years after Frederick Douglas' mane, black people are still getting in trouble with whites over our hair. That's the limits of our  freedom. The wealth created by the labor of millions for centuries, under torture, has been declared,...disappeared, putting America on pretty shaky psychological footing - not to mention, grinding it's dishonesty into the soil. A dishonesty the exploited already knew quite well and, so, expected.

"The help would often have a private chuckle about what we had heard, and how obvious it was that those speaking must have thought what they were saying went over our heads. We had schoolteachers working as maids,..."

Ahem. "We had"? Who was "had"? We're trending!

"Wisconsin Followed Trend As U.S. Sent Higher Rate of Black Men to Prison"

Go on, Y'all, do your thing - it's cool. I've already been made aware of how this works:

It's their word over centuries of evidence.

My life Vs. their beliefs.

Whatever they may be.

It's simply never been different, and a safe bet it would always be so,...

 

I guess, it could go without saying, I am NOT a social scientist:

"It doesn’t take a social scientist to see that a blizzard of how-to books on “positivity” suggests its lack in everyday life. Behind the facade of smiley-faced optimism, American culture seems awash in a pervasive sadness,...."

But being able to see past the facade ain't exactly a party either,...

 ADDED - Forgot I had it waiting: