Sleigh Ride” is a popular light orchestral piece composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July 1946; he finished the work in February 1948. Lyrics, about a person who would like to ride in a sleigh on a winter’s day with another person, were written by Mitchell Parish in 1950. The orchestral version was first recorded in 1949 by Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops Orchestra. The song was a hit record on RCA Victor Red Seal 49-0515 (45 rpm) / 10-1484 (78 rpm), and has become the equivalent of a signature song for the orchestra. The 45 rpm version was originally issued on red vinyl. This original mono version has never been available on CD, although the later 1959 re-recording is available in stereo. The orchestra has also recorded the song with John Williams, their conductor from 1979 to 1995, and Keith Lockhart, their current conductor.
https://twitter.com/JRehling/status/544598866922721280/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Lib_Librarian/status/544634154931871744/photo/1
GrooveSDC @GrooveSDC
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You don’t know hate until someone dismisses your outrage not only over the death of unarmed Black men but their killers going unpunished.
GrooveSDC @GrooveSDC
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Not only do they deny you justice. But they mock your outrage. That’s pure hatred right there. That’s what my community faces.
1:23 PM – 15 Dec 2014 Bakersfield, CA, United States
https://twitter.com/goldietaylor/status/544587933882515456/photo/1
Propane Jane @docrocktex26
That awkward moment when a military trained assassin proves that the 2009 DHS report re: loan wolves was spot on. http://abcnews.go.com/US/dead-montgomery-county-pennsylvania-shootings-sources/story?id=27606093 …
Propane Jane @docrocktex26
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I swear if they apprehend this fugitive shooter alive, I don’t wanna hear one more fucking peep from the lethal force was required crowd.
2:26 PM – 15 Dec 2014
https://twitter.com/MomsDemand/status/544633536553439233/photo/1
Part of Ride-or-Die Joe’s Speech on Domestic Violence
Full speech here:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/bidens-speech-on-combatting-domestic-violence.html
https://twitter.com/TheRaceDraft/status/544639427461402624/photo/1
CNN Politics ✔ @CNNPolitics
President Obama applauds Senate for confirming Murthy as Surgeon General, stresses his focus on Ebola fight pic.twitter.com/H8rZ4hQ5dH
https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/544580881122619392/photo/1
Cute picture. Bo stays with Mom. Sunny visits new friends.
Bo has always been spoiled. He likes Flotus lap.
https://twitter.com/SBNation/status/544592510811533312/photo/1
Jeff Gauvin @JeffersonObama
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Russian economy is spiraling down. 17% key rate.., 40% stockmarket collapse. Ruble collapse…Putin owned Obama.
“To Protect You… From Me.”
ByJosh Marshall
PublishedDecember 15, 2014, 5:10 PM EST
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/to-protect-you-from-me
DOES SHONDA LOVE US ENOUGH FOR THIS?
……..
How to Get Away With Murder Books Cicely Tyson for Mystery Role
Earlier this year, she took The Trip to Bountiful. In early 2015, Cicley Tyson will pay a visit to Murder-ville.
The Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actress will guest star on an upcoming episode of ABC’s Thursday night hit How to Get Away With Murder, TVLine has learned.
As of now, Tyson is only booked for one episode — and the network remained tight-lipped regarding details about her character. (Could she be the mother of Viola Davis’ hard-charging defense attorney Annalise Keating? We can but hope!)
Tyson’s casting is yet another high-caliber get for the freshman drama. Last month, TVLine reported that Oscar winner Marcia Gay Hardern will board the series in a recurring role when it returns from its winter break.
How to Get Away With Murder returns Thursday, January 29 with the last six episodes of its Season 1 run.
https://tvline.com/2014/12/15/how-to-get-away-with-murder-htgawm-cast-cicely-tyson/#
Nik @harlemchik
some of these ferguson protestors really think NYC hasn’t been marching against brutality for years
GEEZY @GRYKING
.@GovJayNixon is a racist. Bob McCullogh is a racist. @clairecmc doesn’t give a fuck. Handle your bizness, Ferguson Celebrities.
he is SEVENTEEN
she is THIRTY-TWO
Ummmmm
…………….
Report: NC Teen’s Relationship With White, Crack-Addict Girlfriend May Have Led to Hanging
There are many questions surrounding the death of 17-year-old Lennon Lacy, but his family and friends tell reporters that the 32-year-old woman he was seeing may know what happened.
By: Stephen A. Crockett Jr.
Posted: Dec. 15 2014 3:11 PM
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/lennon_lacy_s_family_believes_teen_s_relationship_with_32_year_old_white.html?wpisrc=burger?wpisrc=mostpopular
Portrait of a Black Servant in Eastern Europe
Image of the Week: In accounts of the history of Africans in Europe, it is mostly the Western regions that receive the most attention. But an engraving hints at how the Diaspora also spread to the East during the Age of Enlightenment.
By: Image of the Black Archive & Library
Posted: Dec. 2 2014 3:00 AM
http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/12/blacks_in_western_art_portrait_of_a_black_servant_in_eastern_europe.html
http://youtu.be/8t_ogBgrRVM
http://youtu.be/zywR6zT7QoU
Simply lovely!
Top Five Might Be Chris Rock’s Best Film Ever
The new film has everything we ever loved about the comedian and more.
By: The Shadow League
Posted: Dec. 9 2014 2:30 AM
What does it look like when you finally accomplish a thing that is more indicative of the total sum of your talents than anything you have done before in your life? For Chris Rock, it would look something like his new film, Top Five, which he stars in, directs and co-wrote along with Scott Rudin.
Just as life often affords us multiple opportunities to right wrongs, Rock has afforded himself the opportunity to direct, write and star in a comedy that might be a hit. Though he has attempted to do so in the past with such offerings as I Think I Love My Wife and Head of State, we believe Top Five, which opens Friday, is the most quintessentially Chris Rock film of all time. Yes, we’re aware that’s saying a lot, but perhaps that hyperbole will give you some sort of an idea as to the content, scope and comic sensibilities of the movie.
Featuring an all-star class of elite black comedians, the likes of whom have not been seen since Eddie Murphy’s Boomerang and Harlem Nights, Top Five stars Rock, JB Smoove, Tracy Morgan, Michael Che, Cedric the Entertainer, Kevin Hart, Sherri Shepherd, Gabrielle Union, Leslie Jones and Rosario Dawson. This modern comedy is smart, funny, full of wit and delicious ribaldry.
Rock plays a standup comic named Andre Allen who made it big by portraying a man in a bear suit named Hammy, but now he wishes to move beyond that character and try to make a name for himself in dramatic roles. But things aren’t going so well because the media and his fans simply won’t take his career shift seriously and insist that he play a character he’s grown tired of.
Rock portrays Allen as intelligent, thoughtful, introspective and vulnerable to his addictions. In fact, he is a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for five years when the movie begins. At a press conference last month in New York City featuring the film’s stars, Union spoke of her own addictions.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/_top_five_might_be_chris_rock_s_best_film_ever.html
VH1 Announces the Premiere of Sorority Sisters
I see a lot of hate watching in this show’s future.
By: Yesha Callahan
Posted: Dec. 12 2014 12:46 PM
A petition couldn’t stop them. Angry members of the Divine 9 couldn’t stop them. So it looks as if VH1’s Sorority Sisters will either have people hating the new show, which premieres Dec. 15, or loving it. Or maybe hate-loving it.
Sorority Sisters, from VH1 and Mona Scott (the mastermind behind the Love & Hip Hop franchise), roused the ire of thousands when the announcement was made that it was in development. So much so, a petition was created to have the show stopped. Even with more than 46,000 signatures, however, the petition apparently fell on deaf ears.
Sorority Sisters highlights the lives of a several Atlanta women who attended HBCUs and pledged various black sororities. What do you expect from VH1 and Scott? They weren’t scouring the campuses of, let’s say, UMass looking for a bunch of white women who pledged. HBCU plus black women apparently equals must-see, drama-filled reality TV.
http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2014/12/vh1_announces_the_premiere_of_sorority_sisters.html
The Least Celebrated, but Most Successful, Colleges for Graduating Low-Income Black Students
We name 23 schools that have shown great success at graduating more than 50 percent of their black students without a lot of fanfare or high-priced tuitions.
By: Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D.
Posted: Dec. 15 2014 3:00 AM
Analyses that evaluate the success of HBCUs by observing their six-year graduation rates often miss the mark. On the surface, graduation rates tell us little about a college’s or university’s ability to educate a racially and economically diverse student body.
HBCUs have garnered well-deserved praise for successfully educating a cross section of black students; however, they are often chided for having low graduation rates. The average graduation rate for students across all HBCUs is 42 percent, slightly above the graduation rate for black students at all institutions, but less than half the rate of the predominately white institutions that have the highest graduation rates for black students.
Institutions like Spelman College, Howard University and Hampton University are often touted as model HBCUs because their graduation rates exceed 60 percent. However, each of these institutions also reject applicants at a higher rate; have tuition and fees that exceed $20,000, more than twice the HBCU average of $9,701; and have less than 50 percent of their freshman classes eligible for the federal Pell grant. Only students from families with economic need are eligible for the Pell grant; however, the colleges and universities that serve Pell-eligible students best are rarely portrayed as having model programs.
………..
This is the list of the 23 schools, of more than 2,100 evaluated, that fit my criteria. I call them the 50-50 club for serving more than 50 percent Pell-eligible students and graduating more than 50 percent of their black students:
Institution, State: (Black Undergraduate Population): Percent Black
* Talladega College, Ala.*: (867): 85 percent
* Agnes Scott College, Ga.: (309): 32 percent
* Apex School of Theology, N.C.: (609): 81 percent
* University of California-Riverside, Calif.: (1,170): 5 percent
* University of California-Santa Cruz, Calif.: (335): 2 percent
* William Carey University, Miss.: (1,025): 30 percent
* Adventist University of Health Sciences, Fla.: (530): 17 percent
* Georgia State University, Ga.: (11,343): 35 percent
* Shorter University-College of Adult & Professional Programs, Ga.: (1,077): 66 percent
* William Peace University, N.C.: (358): 36 percent
* Berea College, Ky.: (250): 14 percent
* Bethune-Cookman University, Fla.*: (3,071): 78 percent
* Morehouse College, Ga.*: (2,411): 96 percent
* University of California-Merced, Calif.: (372): 6 percent
* CUNY Hunter College, N.Y.: (2,273): 11 percent
* Johnson & Wales University-North Miami, Fla.: (531): 24 percent
* Fisk University, Tenn.*: (513): 84 percent
* CUNY Brooklyn College, N.Y.: (4,295): 25 percent
* Tougaloo College, Miss.*: (1,026): 97 percent
* Union Institute & University, Ohio: (399): 22 percent
* Everglades University, Fla.: (256): 16 percent
* Saint Peter’s University, N.J.: (612): 21 percent
* Bluefield College, Va.: (254): 23 percent
* after state name denotes an HBCU
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/the_most_successful_colleges_for_graduating_low_income_black_students.html
Thanks for posting this article, rikyrah!
Ohio Requires Religious Partner For School Mentoring Program Funds
ByCaitlin MacNeal
PublishedDecember 15, 2014, 1:46 PM EST
Under a new Ohio law, Gov. John Kasich (R) will require schools to partner with a religious group in order to receive state funding for mentoring programs.
The state legislature passed a measure that would direct $10 million in casino revenue toward a mentorship program. The original language did not require schools to work with religious organizations, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
But now the state requires schools to work with both a faith-based group and a nonprofit set up by a business in order to receive funding.
Buddy Harris, a senior police analyst for the Ohio Department of Education, told the audience at a Thursday information session about the requirement.
“The faith-based organization is clearly at the heart of the vision of the governor,” he said after the session, according to the Plain Dealer.
“We do not forsee any proseletyzing happening between mentors and students,” Harris added. “That’s not really what we’re seeking.”
The program was always meant to include religious groups, but their participation was not originally required in order for schools to qualify for the funding.
“Eligible school districts shall partner with members of the business community, civic organizations, or the faith-based community to provide sustainable career advising and mentoring services,” the original law reads.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ohio-mentoring-program-religious-groups
How Brownback Is Relying On O-Care To Close Kansas’ Huge Budget Hole
ByDylan Scott
PublishedDecember 15, 2014, 6:00 AM EST
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) is calling all hands on deck to fix his state’s huge self-imposed budget crisis, which nearly cost him re-election this year, and the staunch conservative is now receiving an assist from an unlikely source: Obamacare.
The state’s well-documented budget troubles came after Brownback’s dramatic reductions in taxes since taking office in 2011. With its revenue drying up and cash reserves depleted, Kansas is staring at a $280 million hole in its $6.4 billion FY 2015 budget, which ends in June.
Brownback offered his proposal for closing that hole last week, a mixture of spending cuts and transferring funds from other parts of the budget to fill it. And second biggest of those transfers is $55 million in revenue from a Medicaid drug rebate program that was bolstered under the Affordable Care Act.
The short version then is this: Obamacare is helping Kansas address its fiscal crisis — even if Brownback’s administration seems loath to admit it.
“In the simple version, it would be like with your own bank account, you are transferring money from your savings account to your checking account,” Duane Goossen, former Republican state legislator and state budget director who now blogs independently, told TPM in a phone interview on Friday.
The Kansas Health Institute first outlined what was happening in a story last week. They noted that Kansas Budget Director Shawn Sullivan didn’t credit the federal law when explaining why the state would be able to use that money to close the gap.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/kansas-budget-hole-brownback-obamacare
TIME.com ✔ @TIME
Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo will star in film adaptation of “Americanah” http://ti.me/16ovEP6
http://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/david-oyelowo-americanah-lupita-nyongo.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1
Tyler Perry opens up on being a new dad, reveals baby’s name
by Chris Witherspoon | December 15, 2014 at 2:04 PM
Tyler Perry was all smiles as he walked the red carpet Sunday night for the premiere of the Martin Luther King Jr. inspired film, Selma.
The Madea director has a reason to celebrate, as he recently became a father for the first time.
The actor and director, 45, and his longtime girlfriend, model and activist Gelila Bekele, welcomed their first child in late November.
Perry opened up about fatherhood in an interview with theGrio.com.
“I wish I could say that I’m up all night, but [Gelila] is doing alot of work,” Perry said. “She’s a great mother who just wants to be there for the baby. We have no nannies, we have no help. She wants to do it all. So we’re doing it all. I’m getting a little sleep, but she’s not getting any.”
Perry later revealed that his son’s name is Aman.
http://thegrio.com/2014/12/15/tyler-perry-son/
Yes, I did the google.
The name Aman is a Muslim baby name. In Muslim the meaning of the name Aman is: Protection. Without fear
Questlove is right, hip-hop is too silent on Ferguson and Garner
by Demetria Irwin | December 4, 2014 at 4:11 PM
in the wake of numerous well-publicized incidents of black men dying at the hands of police officers, one would think that hip hop artists would be at the forefront of creative and activist endeavors in response to those tragic events.
After all, hip hop brought the world passionate and justifiably angry protest tracks such as Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” and NWA’s “F*ck tha Police.” A couple rappers have released songs directly related to these killings. J. Cole’s “Be Free” is an emotional ode to Michael Brown and all of the Michael Browns of the world. The track even includes quotes from Dorian Wilson, Brown’s friend and also witness to his death. J. Cole has also been at numerous protests regarding Brown.
Kendrick Lamar’s “i” is not explicitly about the recent volatile situations in the news, but the lyrics and tone of the danceable track are very much in line with the sentiment of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag that appeared in social media after Darren Wilson was not indicted for the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. It’s a song about loving yourself and each other and understanding that all of us matter.
http://thegrio.com/2014/12/04/questlove-hip-hop-protest-song/
Listening to Rev. Al. He’s like, for all the talk of him and others being ‘too old’, how come White Progressives aren’t calling Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders too old? How come it’s only the Black folks that are suddenly ‘ too old’ to lead?
itgurl @itgurl_29
So, so sad. RIP Titi Branch, co-founder of Miss Jessie’s natural hair care line, dead at 45 http://wapo.st/12SRF6A
Another domino falls: Medicaid expansion advances in Tennessee
By Steve Benen
12/15/14 12:02PM
The more red-state governors embrace Medicaid expansion through the Affordable Care Act, the harder it is for the dead-enders to rationalize their obstinacy.
Take Tennessee, for example, where the Commercial Appeal in Memphis reports this morning on another step forward for the policy.
Gov. Bill Haslam plans to introduce his Insure Tennessee plan, an alternative to expanding the state’s Medicaid program, at a special session of the legislature in January.
Monday, the governor’s administration described a two-year pilot program that “rewards healthy behaviors, prepares members to transition to private coverage, promotes personal responsibility and incentivizes choosing preventative and routine care instead of unnecessary use of emergency rooms.”
Haslam, who recently took over as the chair of the Republican Governors Association, will reportedly call a special session of Tennessee’s legislature to consider the package he’s worked out with the Obama administration
http://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog
Agence France-Presse ✔ @AFP
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#BREAKING: Russian ruble falls by 8% in one day, trading at over 63 to the dollar
10:16 AM – 15 Dec 2014
Congratulations to Zoe Saldana! The Guardians of the Galaxy star has just given birth to twins.
The two bouncing baby boy bundles are just the first in what Saldana hopes will be a big family. When asked about her plans for family, she said she wanted “two or three” kids but then added, “Or four or five! I don’t care. They’re just so delicious. I love the anxiety, the pressure of the loud room full of yapping kids. But I’m a kid myself. I get along very well with animals and children. I dig them. I get them. They make perfect sense to me. A child speaks more sense than an adult half of the time.”
http://thegrio.com/2014/12/13/zoe-saldana-welcomes-twins/
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Last Call For Uber Uber Alles
Posted by Zandar
Ride share bad boy Uber is flipping the country’s taxi services upside down, proving that when you combine the ambush tactics of the Tea Party right and the pitiless analysis of Silicon Valley’s left, there’s very few local and state legislatures and regulators you can’t curbstomp.
The poor guy never had a chance.
…….
Why bother with lobbyist organizations like ALEC when you can cut out the middleman, aggressively leverage the internet and your own customers, and crush any and all regulatory opposition? Just roll through and take over before anyone can react. Yes, the article does point out that Uber has screwed up so far on more than a few occasions, and maybe people are starting to wise up to what’s going on.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/12/last-call-for-uber-uber-alles.html
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Cruz Uncontrolled Con’t
Posted by Zandar
So Sen. Ted Cruz’s plan to force the Senate to stay through the weekend and vote on every single nomination the Dems wanted in order to pass this year’s spending bill to stop a shutdown was a disaster.
For Ted Cruz.
Democrats called his bluff
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2014/12/cruz-uncontrolled-cont.html
Oprah lets loose on Ferguson and Eric Garner: ‘People are awake’
Oprah Winfrey is speaking out about the untimely deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown and other black men who were killed by police.
Oprah joined her castmates for the New York City premiere of the Martin Luther King Jr. inspired film, Selma.
“Even if we didn’t know about a Ferguson, or an Eric Garner or a Michael Brown … they were going on,” Oprah told theGrio.com. “The fact that they may have now become newsworthy or made national or international news doesn’t mean there haven’t been nameless Michael Browns or Eric Garners before.”
“My feeling is everything is always happening exactly as it should and on time. There’s no coincidence that this is happening now, but because it’s happening now, people are paying more attention.”
http://thegrio.com/2014/12/14/oprah-ferguson-eric-garner-protests/
“My feeling is everything is always happening exactly as it should and on time. There’s no coincidence that this is happening now, but because it’s happening now, people are paying more attention.”
Well, make no mistake, Ms. Winfrey’s support is welcome. She commands a huge audience. I know that a lot of folks think this way, that things happen when they should happen and so forth. But IMHO, too many black lives have been stolen in so many ways from outright murder, outrageously harsh punishment in the criminal justice system, wrongful conviction of the innocent, and the murder, excessive punishment, and harsh treatment of black children.
So, whether or not all of this is right on time is debatable. But it is finally happening, and that’s good. Young folks need to be watchful and aware and engaged in the 21st century. It is, after all, their world now.
Forced To Seat Blacks, Ala. Restaurant Complied With History
December 13, 2014 9:42 AM ET
Andrew Yeager
“Most people going to say the heart of the matter was the rights of black people,” he says. “The real heart of the matter was, now wait a minute, the federal government can’t come in and tell us what to do. We’re a local business.”
http://www.npr.org/2014/12/13/370470745/forced-to-seat-blacks-ala-restaurant-complied-with-history
https://twitter.com/VanityFair/status/544510274309730304/photo/1
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Morning, everyone!