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New Feature: Kaze's Hip-Hop Hater of the Week: Jere Eaton
In my ongoing return of fire to those that wish to attack hiphop, especially those who attack it with hidden motives at heart. Each week I will be identifying a hater of hiphop. No, it won't be someone who wishes to end the use of derogatory language. Instead it will shine the light on those who simply arbitrarily attack hiphop for fame, because they are seeking public office, or simply because they're old and uninformed on the good that we as hiphop artists do. If said hater has consequently caused an event that would have benfitted kids or their community to be cancelled, they get extra stars. This week's winner gets 5! Read along.
Fear is a Four-Letter Word
Harvey Johnson is not the only one who lost the mayoral primary last week. So did fear. Yes: fear suffered a resounding loss in Jackson.
Melton to Devise New Budget
Jackson Mayor Frank Melton told City Council members this morning to toss out the current city budget after some members criticized the discord between the mayor and his own budget. He vowed to produce a new budget by tomorrow morning.
Barbour's Cross to Bear
In 1968 in Yazoo City, Police Chief Ardis Russell Sr. arrested a black mother, LeBertha Owens, for trying to take her young daughter, Gloria, to the public library for materials to complete her school assignments. Her daughter was left behind, as she watched the sheriff take her mother to jail for trying to help her get a decent education.
King Freak
On a Sunday evening in fall 2009, Patrick Grogan painted his face and arms black and walked into a service at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans. Earlier that day, he had noticed that the congregation was mostly white, and wanted church members to think about why God's temple lacked people of various races and colors.
What Would God Think?
George County Justice Court Judge Connie Wilkerson kicked over a fire ant mound when he wrote in a letter to the George County Times, published March 28, that "in my opinion, gays and lesbians should be put in some type of mental institution instead of having a law like this passed for them." He was writing the letter in response to a recent California law that gave gay partners the same rights to file wrongful death suits as spouses or other family members have. The letter prompted statewide gay rights group Equality Mississippi and Lambda Legal, a nationwide gay rights organization, to file an ethics violation complaint against Wilkerson, arguing that the letter is evidence that the judge cannot be impartial.
Jewish Organization Asks City to Block Holocaust Denier
UPDATED October 14, 2009
The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants sent an e-mail to the Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. last night asking him to bar Holocaust refuter David Irving from speaking at City Hall on Oct. 21.
Plan B? Flood Control Beyond Lakes and Levees
Flood-control options for the Pearl River seem limited as Jackson-area residents compare the ungainly design of the levee plan designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1996 with the $1.4 billion cost of a lake-development plan.
Seeking Perfection
Six shirtless men bolt onto the stage with fierce precision and boyish grins. They dance to a Prince tune, one leaping as high as the top of a door, another spinning gracefully over and over again, and another kicking his legs apart and together like scissors. They do it all with swashbuckling charm. The crowd screams and begs for more. This is ballet.
Road Strip
It was the first time I had ever seen an entire trunk full of beer. I take that back. It was the second time I'd ever seen a trunk full a beer. It was just the first time the beer was all mine and wasn't soon to be implanted into the belly of an undeserving frat boy with a bad haircut and an even worse attitude. The only other time I'd seen that much alcohol in one small space was attending a fraternity party at Ole Miss where the main form of courting behavior began with the sentence, "My daddy owns. …" God, how I used to love a self-centered frat boy.
Whistleblowers and Secrecy?
I'm going to be blogging about this issue on my About.com site, but I'm mentioning it here because I'm annoyed at the way our local newspaper has covered it.
My Story on Melton in Reason Magazine
Read the piece.
The libertarian Reason magazine today published a piece they asked me to write about Frank Melton and his shenanigans to date. Check it out here (note that a couple of factual things happened in editing, like saying that my ride-alongs were this year, instead of 2006. I've asked them to fix those things; let me see if anyone sees anything else.)
Hills And Gullies On State Street
I've got two different things I need to say this week, and they're almost impossible to segue between, so let me just get the first one out of the way.
Summer Arts Preview
We were in denial for a bit there, but now that the thermometer has reached an official 100 degrees, we're not going to keep it from you any longer: This is your summer arts preview.
Where There's Smoke, There's Haley Barbour
During his long tenure in Washington, Haley Barbour was known for his love of Maker's Mark bourbon, good cigars and Republican politics, not necessarily in that order.
Spring Arts Preview: Shouts And Murmurs At ‘Ground Zero'
A few weeks ago, as I stood in the crowd at the opening reception for the Jacob Lawrence "Migration Series" at the Mississippi Museum of Art, I wondered exactly what each individual person was getting out of the tiny, simplified, almost abstract panels spaced across the room. The gallery was filled with a mix of black and white people that included old men and women clad in perfectly pressed garments, sporting sweater pins and ties; middle-aged and young professionals in casual evening wear, the men wearing open-collared shirts and the women's heels clicking across the museum floor; trendily accessorized young people; and artists who set themselves apart with their clothing.
Community Events and Public Meetings
Events at Fleet Feet Sports (Trace Station, 500 Highway 51 N., Ridgeland). Free; call 601-899-9696.
Christopher Hitchens on Katrina and Bush's Response
The neo-cons' favorite Brit did an interview with Austrailian Broadcasting Corp. yesterday that won't fly so well with Bush supporters. Here's an excerpt, but read the whole thing:
[Isbister] What About Women Musicians?
As I left my office June 15, I had a heavy heart. Everyone was getting ready for Jubilee!JAM—the barricades were going up and parking had been a nightmare for two days.
The Death of Conservatism (As We Know It)?
Conservative columnist David Brooks rethinks today's Republican Party in the cover story of this week's New York Times Magazine: "Democrats may imagine that the G.O.P. is an amalgam of fat cats and conservative ideologues, but things feel different inside Republican circles. Inside there are, beneath the cheering and the resolve, waves of anxiety, uncertainty and disagreement. You hang around Republicans, and you begin to hear all sorts of discordant things. Jesse Helms recently remarked he wouldn't have voted for the tax cut if he'd known how bad the deficit would become. Three of the senior right-wing columnists -- George F. Will, Robert Novak and William F. Buckley Jr. -- have come out, in their different ways, against the war in Iraq. I had lunch recently with a senior Republican official who said his party had succumbed; it was ''defeatist'' about reducing the size of government. As Will himself has observed, under President Bush, American conservatism is undergoing an identity crisis."