Oliver Willis has this excellent article in the American Times:

How 'Barbershop' Exposed Jesse and Al

Go read it.

The Museum of Sex in NYC opens to the general public soon and is the latest buzz. I'd like to pay them a visit, just for kicks ... but who knows what I might learn. Stay tuned.

Turning a City Into Hell

Norman Solomon has this perspective on the Iraq situation that is well worth the read.

"Looking out at Baghdad’s skyline, I think about the terror likely to descend on this city. For some people underneath the missiles, their last moments will resemble what happened at the World Trade Center a little more than a year ago.

Quite appropriately, the media response to 9-11 included horror, abhorrence, and 100 percent condemnation. The power to destroy and kill did not in the least make it right.

But now, day by day, the power to destroy and kill becomes more self-justifying as reporters and pundits acclimate to the assumptions of official Washington.

This has happened before. When war appears on the horizon, and especially after it begins, a heightened affliction seizes most news outlets. The media spectacle becomes steady regurgitation of what’s being fed from on high. And right now, the nation’s media diet is stuffed with intensifying righteousness.

War gets attention. But already, with sanctions, the US government has led a more insidious assault on Iraqi people for more than a decade. How do we grasp 5,000 children a month dying as a result? The grim statistics, even when reported and attributed to such sources as UN agencies, haven’t made much noise in the media echo chamber."

Enough of that

MGM has delivered its answer to the ongoing flap between Civil Rights leaders and the filmmakers behind the studio's Barbershop by deciding to make absolutely no cuts to the hit comedy.

The film had been under fire from the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who asked the Barbershop brain trust to snip dialogue poking fun at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks from the upcoming DVD and video versions.

Glad to see that MGM didn't take the bait.

Hi

Erica, Trina, and Mistory. Thank you for being you.

Symbiosis

(The he said/she said series)

She said: "What we have here is symbiosis"

He said: "Symbiosis means a prefect relationship, that doesn't really exist - assuming you're not at all interested in relating to me."

She said: "But we have something really great going on here"

He said: Sure, things are good speaking in terms of the moment. But looking at in the long term, things have a tendency to become challenging if we become complacent in this so called 'symbiosis' "

She said:"So how would you define symbiosis?"

He said: "Take for instance, the rhinoceros and the yellow tickbird ..."

She said "Wha?"

He said: "The tickbird dines on parasites infesting the rhinoceros' horny skin; The Rhino iches less and is warned of danger when the tickbird, sharp-eyed and skittish abandons him for the nearest tree. Each compensates for each other's shortcomings rather than duplicating their talents. There's no dialog and both parties benefit."

She said:"you know, you've been watching the discovery channel a bit too much lately. But we do complement each other. We provide for each other's needs etc. What are you talking about?"

He said: "Yes we do, but we are also deriving the same benefits from each other - sexual gratifcation, romance and finance are just a few examples. Once perspective and communications are added to the fray, things can never be perfect. But we can certainly work at it, oh, and the discovery channel is a fine network by the way, you should watch it sometimes."

She said: "You're just being too analytical ..."

He said: "I'm a realist. It's just too easy to put labels on things. The symbiosis label should be saved for an arrangement between partners with widely divergent priorities, such is not the case here."

She said: "Just forget it."

Fumblin' Dubya

There was a clip on a tv news program the other day that showed Bush II recently addressing an audience with the following words of wisdom:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee, I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, fool me once, shame on....shame on you... fool me...you can't get fooled again."

Here is the video clip from MSNBC.

You can see the frustration on his face, he knows the cameras are rolling. Priceless.

Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools Up for Seventh Straight Year

In fall 2001, an estimated 99 percent of U.S. public schools had access to the Internet; in 1994, when the annual survey on Internet access was first conducted by NCES, 35 percent had access. Eighty-seven percent of instructional rooms in U.S. public schools had Internet access in 2001, up from three percent in 1994....In 2001, 85 percent of public schools used broadband connections to access the Internet.

Does Mike Tyson know anything about This? Where was he during the incident?

THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS

will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday. What took so long?

Their Hall of Fame credentials are beyond question or compare.

We're talking 76 years, 120 million people and 117 countries.

We're talking generation after generation of wildly skilled ballhandlers, shooters, ambassadors of the game, entertainers.

We're talking about generations of African-American men, whose team was formed because of and against racial segregation, who turned out to be one of America's greatest symbols of freedom, expression, self-realization. We're talking Meadowlark Lemon, Goose Tatum, Marques Haynes.

We're talking about Fred "Curly" Neal, a bald-headed star long before Charles Barkley, who could spin a ball on his finger, dribble a ball like it was a yo-yo. And the list goes on.

here are the 2002 Harlem GlobeTrotters, and a history timeline with photos, dating back to the year the organization played their first-ever game in 1927.

Gentlemen, I salute you, America salutes you.