Tuesday Open Thread | Otis Redding Jr. Week

Posted on March 31, 2015 by rikyrah

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101 Responses to Tuesday Open Thread | Otis Redding Jr. Week

  2. SouthernGirl2 says:
    March 31, 2015 at 6:37 pm

    Footage of street celebrations after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to Muhammadu Buhari.

    Reply
  4. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 6:13 pm

    Who Should They Cast in the Live Version of The Wiz on NBC?
    Luvvie — March 30, 2015

    NBC just announced that they will be bringing a live action version of The Wiz to TV screens near us on December 3. Then the show will be revived on Broadway in 2016 in partnership with Cirque du Soleil. YESSSSSS!!! This news made me hit a jig.

    The original film version from 1978 starred Diana Ross (Dorothy), Michael Jackson (Scarecrow), Nipsey Russell (Tin Man), Ted Ross (Cowardly Lion), Lena Horne (Glinda) and Richard Pryor (The Wiz). EPIC!

    So what if they mess this up? You know there’s a good possibility that they don’t do this justice. LAWD. We need to take certain things into our own hands to there’s minimal mess ups, at least on the cast side. My girl Shameeka Ayers (aka The Broke Socialite) kicked this off in Facebook and we had a GOOD ol’ thread with our different picks. Read the thread so you can cackle because Team No Chill was in full effect.

    I think the essentials need to be able to sing so here’s my choices:

    http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2015/03/cast-live-version-the-wiz-nbc.html

    Reply
  5. eliihass says:
    March 31, 2015 at 5:07 pm

    Funny watching Mike Pence trying out his presidential look and sound at that news conference. Even his facial expressions contorted to try to give out ‘presidential expressions’, are hilarious.

    What a joke.

    And please God, please. I do not want to spend the next few years watching or listening to Lanny Davis, Kiki Mclean, Jennifer Granholm or any of these Clinton acolytes trying to secure their salaries and positions in a hill-bill world. Please no.

    Reply
  6. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    March 31, 2015 at 4:24 pm

    What is happening! ??????

    deray mckesson retweeted

    “BREAKING: Arkansas legislature passes controversial religious freedom bill that does same thing as Indiana’s “

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/31/arkansas-religious-freedom_n_6979166.html?1427833486 …

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      March 31, 2015 at 5:00 pm

      Important to note that Kano in the predominantly muslim Northern part of Nigeria, is also the largest muslim state, and is also understandably pleased with the defeat of the outgoing president who they consider and infidel.

      Nigeria, a former British colony, is such a complex country with a vast variety of competing dynamics, interests and dubious motivations at work – not just in its politics, but in everything else. There are religious and tribal frictions, corruption, greed and so much more that’s driving the narratives being put out there.

      It’s important to take a wait and see approach to all of this.

      Reply
  14. SouthernGirl2 says:
    March 31, 2015 at 1:42 pm

    Congratulations, Nigeria! Power to the People!

    Whoo Hoo!

    Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 1:27 pm

    So Pence blamed OBAMACARE for the bigot bill?

    uh huh

    Many states have enacted [Religious Freedom Restoration Acts] of their own … but Indiana never passed such a law. Then in 2010 came the Affordable Care Act, which renewed concerns about government infringement on deeply held religious beliefs. Hobby Lobby and the University of Notre Dame both filed lawsuits challenging provisions that required the institutions to offer certain types of insurance coverage in violation of their religious views.

    Last year the Supreme Court upheld religious liberty in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, based on the federal RFRA. With the Supreme Court’s ruling, the need for a RFRA at the state level became more important, as the federal law does not apply to states. To ensure that religious liberty is fully protected under Indiana law, this year the General Assembly enshrined these principles in Indiana law. I fully supported that action.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-pence-ensuring-religious-freedom-in-indiana-1427757799

    Reply
    • eliihass says:
      March 31, 2015 at 12:55 pm

      The outgoing president was a doofus and completely ineffective, but there are also serious concerns about their new president-elect. A retired military general with fuzzy ties to fundamentalist Islam. Let’s hope this isn’t an out of the frying pan, into the fire type situation, and Nigerians don’t come to regret this ‘change’.

      Reply
  25. Ametia says:
    March 31, 2015 at 11:27 am

    Nigerian citizens be like GTFOH GOODLUCK! LOL

    Reply
  27. Liza says:
    March 31, 2015 at 11:20 am

    Testing.

    Reply
  29. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 10:42 am

    My co-worker gets us hooked every year.

    Watching Red Tail Hawks

    http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/16/Red-tailed_Hawks/

    Reply
  32. Liza says:
    March 31, 2015 at 10:33 am

    Testing. My comments keep going straight to cyberspace, they never show up anymore for the past couple of days.

    Reply
    • SouthernGirl2 says:
      March 31, 2015 at 10:38 am

      Let me check it out, Liza.

      Reply
      • Liza says:
        March 31, 2015 at 10:43 am

        Thanks, SG2, I think it might be on my end. I was working on my PC but didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. Just cleaned out temporary internet files, did two scans, and defragged. But who knows?

        Reply
    • Liza says:
      March 31, 2015 at 10:38 am

      Okay, this one showed up. I switched to my husband’s PC which seems to indicate the problem is on my end unless SG2 fixed it already. I’ll go back to my PC and test again.

      Reply
  33. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 10:31 am

    One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Why Elizabeth Warren Is Not Ted Cruz

    In which we learn that Elizabeth Warren and Ted Cruz are by no means the same.

    It is an interesting place in which Senator Professor Warren finds herself these days. If it’s not progressive nuisances acting as though she’s running for president, even though she’s not, it’s Republicans virtually daring timid Democrats to align with her so that they can then be defined by Republicans as radical redistributionists or some such nonsense. Naturally, the elite political press is above all this petty foolishness and trickery. It simply casts the whole business into the basic paradigm of Both Sides Do It, and it finds a template that does not require the messy business of actual analysis.

    One former Democratic staffer turned financial services lobbyist compared Warren’s involvement in the House to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who frequently meets with House Republicans. “Elizabeth Warren is the mirror image of Ted Cruz, and if we aren’t careful, she’ll drive the Democrats into the same ditch Cruz is trying to drive the Republicans,” the former Democratic staffer said.

    This person is an idiot and should not be allowed to hold anyone’s money, including their own. Is there an indication that Warren will shut down the government if she doesn’t get her way on the TTP? (And that’s leaving aside the self-evident fact that , as it turned out last fall, the Republicans ended up not at all in any kind of ditch.) Ted Cruz is an authentic extremist; his views on church-and-state are blatantly theocratic, and his notion of the federal union stopped evolving when the results came in from the presidential election of 1860. Elizabeth Warren’s primary mission during her time in the Senate is the re-establishment of an economic order with which most people were happy from 1945 until the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. There’s nothing radical about the Glass-Steagall Act. There’s nothing extreme about supporting both Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in their traditional forms. On the other hand, Ted Cruz has gone a long way toward mainstreaming crackpot notions that everyone thought dead and buried with the Goldwater campaign, if not the Confederate States of America.

    http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a34013/elizabeth-warren-ted-cruz/

    Reply
  35. yahtzeebutterfly says:
    March 31, 2015 at 10:18 am

    deray mckesson @deray · 19m 19 minutes ago
    “We are not conspiracy theorist. We have no need for theories. Our lived reality has confirmed the deep intentionality of white supremacy.”

    deray mckesson @deray · 1h 1 hour ago
    “To focus on the behavior(s) of the oppressed without acknowledging the conditions that cause and sustain the oppression is to misunderstand.”

    Reply
  37. Liza says:
    March 31, 2015 at 10:12 am

    Testing. My comments have just been disappearing into cyberspace for a couple of days. Just not showing up at all.

    Reply
  40. Liza says:
    March 31, 2015 at 10:02 am

    Testing. My comments are disappearing into cyberspace. Not showing up at all.

    Reply
  42. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 8:24 am

    Mo Abudu – “Africa’s Oprah” – Talks Africa as the Next Big Television Market + Projects She Has in the Works

    By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
    March 30, 2015 at 3:55PM

    Driven by the tastes, expectations and usage patterns of an extremely young demographic, innovative business models and rapidly rising consumer adoption of pay and satellite television, the African marketplace is now worth half a billion dollars in annual TV content wholesale sales – double the figure from 2010.

    Meaning, this should be a great time for content creators in Africa, and we will begin to see even more of the diversity that exists within the continent, represented in stories told in film, as well on TV, as the growth of Africa’s content industry and its role in the international marketplace continues to accelerate.

    As South Africa’s Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile, states, “… Our continent is increasingly being viewed as the continent of hope, the continent of the future and a new growth frontier. We have no doubt, therefore, that emerging […] will be effective partnerships and programs aimed at accelerating the growth of film and TV production across the African Continent.”

    Enter Mo Abudu, also known as “Africa’s Oprah Winfrey” (not my words; that’s what she’s been called within and outside of Africa, although she’s originally from Nigeria, born and educated in the UK primarily. And I should note that it’s a label she rejects. I wonder if the two have ever met. I couldn’t find any evidence that they have).

    Abudu is a talk show host, TV producer, media personality, and more. Her talk show, “Moments with Mo,” was launched in 2006 on South Africa’s subscription-funded TV network M-Net, and is said to be the first syndicated daily talk show on continental African regional television.

    http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/africas-oprah-talks-africa-as-the-next-big-television-market-projects-she-has-in-the-works-20150330

    Reply
  43. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 8:15 am

    GOP candidates back Indiana’s anti-gay law amid uproar
    03/31/15 08:00 AM—UPDATED 03/31/15 08:14 AM
    By Steve Benen

    As the national controversy grows surrounding Indiana’s new right-to-discriminate law, the pushback against Gov. Mike Pence (R) and his allies is intensifying. The Indianapolis Star, the state’s largest newspaper, abandoned subtlety this morning, running a full-page, front-page editorial with an all-caps headline that serves as a powerful command: “Fix This Now.”

    But among Republican presidential hopefuls, the uproar is misguided – according to the national GOP candidates, the new law is great and doesn’t need “fixing.”

    The scope and scale of the criticism continues to reach new heights. Private-sector leaders are demanding action; other states are launching boycotts; entertainers are canceling shows, and some Indiana communities are taking action on their own in the hopes of preventing discrimination.

    But while much of the American mainstream moves in one direction, Republican presidential candidates are quickly scurrying in the other direction.
    Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida weighed in Monday on the debate that has engulfed Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana over a new religious freedom law in the state that critics are calling legalized discrimination.

    Speaking to Hugh Hewitt, the conservative talk show host, Mr. Bush defended the law as similar to legislation in Florida and as a safeguard for religious belief. “I think Governor Pence has done the right thing,” said Mr. Bush, who is expected to run for president in 2016. “I think once the facts are established, people aren’t going to see this as discriminatory at all.”
    Remember, Jeb Bush is supposed to be the “gay-friendly” moderate of the GOP’s 2016 field.

    Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) offered his support for the controversial Indiana law. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) did the same. Right-wing neurosurgeon Ben Carson has become an enthusiastic supporter of the Hoosiers’ anti-gay measure.

    Around the same time, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) eagerly announced his support for the right-to-discriminate law, as did former Sen. Rick Santorum (R). Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) was slightly more circumspect, though his super PAC’s press secretary said in a statement, “As a matter of principle, Gov. Walker believes in broad religious freedom and the right for Americans to exercise their religion and act on their conscience.”

    Republican presidential politics is often an ugly business, requiring national GOP candidates to position themselves surprisingly far from the American mainstream. The electoral challenge is obvious: one of the far-right candidates is probably going to be the party’s 2016 nominee, and incidents like these will be hard to forget.
    \
    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-candidates-back-indianas-anti-gay-law-amid-uproar

    Reply
  47. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 8:07 am

    yes, they are.

    I doubt Rahm has seen this many Black people in his life.

    …………………..

    Emanuel and Garcia scour city for votes

    By Bill Ruthhart and Juan Perez Jr.

    yor Rahm Emanuel and challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia held dueling rallies and both made appearances before an African-American women’s convention Saturday as they scour the city for votes ahead of the April 7 runoff election.

    Following various musical acts and the Jesse White Tumblers, Emanuel delivered a speech before a predominantly black audience of nearly 500 at the Harold Washington Cultural Center in Bronzeville.

    The mayor told the crowd that “for too long and too often the city did not invest in its future, the children of the city of Chicago,” and then sought to portray his education initiatives as having prevented Chicago from sliding from its status as an elite city.

    “We have the best art museum in the world. We have the tallest skyscrapers in the world, but if four out of 10 of your kids are dropping out of high school, you won’t be a world-class city much longer,” Emanuel said. “If half your kids are missing out on a full day of kindergarten, you won’t be a world-class city much longer.cComments

    “If your kids have the shortest school day and the shortest school year in America, you won’t be a world-class city much longer. … The way we measure ourselves is when we walk through that door of opportunity, do you reach back and shut it or do you reach and pull a hand through that door of opportunity?”

    Emanuel was greeted with chants of, “Who you with? I’m with Rahm!” following his 13-minute speech, during which he was joined on stage by Secretary of State Jesse White and U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.

    Meanwhile, Garcia spent his Saturday morning on the South Side, appearing first with the Rev. Jesse Jackson at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s headquarters in Kenwood, giving a brief campaign speech at a West Englewood barbershop and touring a South Shore commercial district with supporters. Then he headed to a rally at Piotrowski Park in his Little Village neighborhood, where he urged a crowd of roughly 150 supporters to vote early.

    “There’s something urgent happening in Chicago,” Garcia said. “Just like you have assembled here today, so have people in their neighborhoods, saying ‘We want Chicago back. We want to be important. We want to be the boss of the city of Chicago, as it should be.’ That’s known as good, old-fashioned democracy, and that’s what you’re engaging in today.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/chi-chicago-mayors-race-20150328-story.html

    Reply
  56. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 7:53 am

    this is why they worked their azzes off to get Harry elected the last time.

    https://twitter.com/Carrasquillo/status/582557629463052288

    Reply
  67. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 7:42 am

    This is ridiculous.

    ……………………

    Monday, March 30, 2015
    The Gunited States Of Gunmerica
    Posted by Zandar

    There’s something that bothers me about this story about gun shops teaching kids to shoot from the Chicago Tribune.

    GAT Guns in East Dundee started offering these classes about a year ago because parents wanted to bring their kids in to shoot, manager Randy Potter said.

    Another store — On Target Range and Tactical Training Center in Crystal Lake — offers a class to children ages 7 to 11 on firing .22-caliber rifles. At GAT, the children are trained on pistols.

    “We couldn’t allow them to come in cold, not knowing what the parent and the child’s shooting ability was like,” Potter said. “Well, now what we do in the class is put them through and give them a card that fits in a wallet. They can show it at the counter, and the people at the counter will know that kid has been trained in safety and gun handling so it’s OK to let them shoot.”

    The sound of gunfire is constant from the two shooting ranges inside the store, pistols upstairs, larger weapons downstairs. LED lights illuminate paper targets that glide back and forth at the command of the shooter and a touch-screen computer.

    On the second floor, rifles line the walls and handguns fill display cases. To the side is a door leading to the classroom, which can hold a few dozen students. The first floor is taken up mostly by display racks of ammunition.

    Before the children arrived, Wayne Inzerello sat in front of the room with a roster and a collection of bullets, ranging in size from bigger-than-your-thumb to smaller-than-a-fingernail.

    In walked Sergio Meilman with his 12-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter, carrying a gun case, a box of ammunition and two sets of ear protection like airport workers wear.

    Inzerello checked the kids in and made sure their names were spelled right, then asked them to take a seat up front. He repeated the routine as the room filled, trying to put the nervous ones at ease.

    More than half of the four girls and 13 boys had fired guns before.

    I grew up in western North Carolina, where rifles especially were tools that signified you were a responsible person. The implicit understanding growing up in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains was that you learned to care for the rifle, clean it, load and unload it, and all the “boring” safety stuff before you ever were allowed to actually fire one, and that’s what the NRA stood for.

    Here’s my question. Imagine all the kids and the instructors in the above picture were black and/or Latino. Would you still feel the same way about kids in suburban Chicago having firearms class?

    I’m thinking the answer is no.

    http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-gunited-states-of-gunmerica.html

    Reply
  68. Ametia says:
    March 31, 2015 at 7:35 am

    Good Morning, Everyone! :-)))))

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      March 31, 2015 at 7:36 am

      LOL don’t these folks know that it’s Bill Clinton & Barack Obama’s fault…says MURDERING JOE & Co. Can’t wait for that show to GO DOWN IN FLAMES.

      Reply
  70. rikyrah says:
    March 31, 2015 at 7:34 am

    Good Morning, Everyone :)

    Reply

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