A Rubber Door

This might be too easy.  I love this photo - only thing missing is a Budweiser in his hand.

Leave your potential captions as a comment.

This is a quote from the following article.  I post this article because I think the statistics are important - they provide important insight and distinction between black and white Americans.  I know some will say that there is only one America, and this should be true, but when you look at the difference in poverty, education, mortality rates, etc - it becomes apparent that this isn’t true.

I think what’s surprising is the comment about “white AIDS organizations” being concerned that money will be taken from them to combat the issues in the black community.  It seems sad that we need black AIDS organizations and white AIDS organizations.  One wonders if there are Native American and Eskimo AIDS organizations for fear of being left behind.  The problem that these different organizations face is that there needs to more than a “one size fits all” approach to battling the issues that face us as a country.

It is a failure for us as a country that this is an issue and we should be ashamed.  I know I am.

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Beyond the Spin: Worth the risk of rankling to say: AIDS is black disease

By George Curry

Inquirer Columnist

Phill Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Institute, utters five words that send people into a frenzy: AIDS is a black disease.

“Everytime I say ‘AIDS is a black disease,’ it irks everyone,” he explains. “Whites call me racist, and blacks say, ‘You have stigmatized us. We’re not the only people with AIDS.’ ”

Wilson says critics from both camps miss the larger point. He is trying to rally the black community to confront the raging epidemic, he says.

“What’s more disturbing is there are so many people more concerned about what other people think of us than whether we survive or not,” he says. And because the African American share of AIDS diagnoses has nearly doubled from 25 percent in 1985 to 49 percent in 2006, some white AIDS organizations fear that funding will now shift from them to black groups, Wilson says.

There is no question that African Americans are disproportionately represented among the ranks of those with HIV and AIDS:

Though blacks represent only 13 percent of the population, nearly 50 percent of all people living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are African Americans.

Although black teens represent only 16 percent of U.S. teenagers, they account for 69 percent of all new AIDS cases among teens.

A recent study in five major cities found that 46 percent of black men having sex with other men were infected with HIV, compared with 21 percent of white men in the same category.

AIDS is the leading cause of death among black women between ages 25 and 34 and the second-leading cause of death in black men between 35 and 44.

To dramatize the depth of the virus on African Americans, the Black AIDS Institute released a study titled “Left Behind,” which paints a portrait of what black America would look like if it were a separate country.

With nearly 39 million people, black America would be the 35th most-populous country in the world. It would have the 28th largest economy in the world.

In life expectancy, black America would rank 105th (73.1 years, 5.2 years less than U.S. whites), lower than in Algeria, Dominican Republic and Sri Lanka. The infant-mortality rate of blacks (13.6 per 100,000 live births) is twice as high as the rate in Cuba and considerably higher than the rates in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, ranking 88th.

With a poverty rate of 24.3 percent - a rate three times higher than for whites - blacks are substantially more impoverished than any of the 27 countries in the European Union. Black unemployment, at 8.6 percent, is higher than joblessness in Laos, the Philippines and Russia. One-tenth of blacks are incarcerated, with more blacks in prison than in every country but the United States, China and Russia.

A freestanding black America would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with HIV, exceeding the HIV population of such heavily affected countries as Botswana, Swaziland and Ukraine.

There are more black Americans infected with HIV than the total population in seven of the 15 countries in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that devotes $3 billion a year to the countries hardest hit by HIV.

Some worry that not enough money is being spent at home.

“Over the last five years, the White House and Congress have increased spending on HIV prevention, treatment and support programs for low-income countries dramatically - at the same time that domestic spending has remained all but flat,” according to the Left Behind study.

For example, PEPFAR spending increased 46 percent in 2007 as domestic spending on AIDS increased 2.5 percent. This year, global funding is expected to increase 34 percent, while domestic funding will rise only 1.2 percent.

Any effort to lower the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the United States must take into account the different ways black men and black women get infected. Of black men living with HIV, 49 percent were infected as a result of having sex with other men; 22 percent from women; 22 percent from injection drug use; and 7 percent from a combination of drugs and having sex with other men.

The overwhelming majority of black women - 75 percent - were infected by having sex with men; 23 percent from drug use; and 2 percent from other causes.

Wilson says he will continue calling AIDS a black disease: “I think it’s better if they think ill of us and we’re alive, instead of thinking well of us and we’re dead.”

Earlier today I decided to run some errands at lunch in Radnor, PA.  While there I wanted to pick up something at the Gap as I walked down Lancaster Avenue I saw Gap Kids and Gap Women but no Gap Gap.  I asked the sales person in Gap Women “where’s the real Gap?”  She told me I had to go to a mall.  I asked her if there was any place in the area that sold men’s clothes and her response: “K-mart?”

I thought about titling this post “How women have ruined the selection of men’s clothes”.  Men buy, women shop - because of this there has to be 100 times the selection than a woman needs.  This is why every department store has a corner focused to men and three floors focused to women.

All I wanted was a pair of socks.  I guess that’s the problem - I would have walked out with nothing more than a pair of socks.

Interesting story on ABC News on how Keira Knightly objected to the digital enhancement of her chest in publicity shots. What’s interesting is that apparently this is so rampant, that the fact she objected is even news.

The lengths that marketers will go to to sell a product has always been shameful, what is changing is that technology is giving them the means to make more dramatic changes. In time we’ll be changing skin color, gender, age, etc to tell a better story. I can see a time when sporting events will place specific signs in the stands that aren’t really there, or the broadcasting of political conventions will be altered to change the messages of protesters.

With the power to use this type of technology inappropriately, it will become increasingly more obvious that no one is keeping industry honest.

Makes me wonder if all those amazing photos of Scarlett Johannson’s “talents” are in fact real? Ah - in that case I’ll decide not to care.

It’s been hard to build up excitement for this movie since they really didn’t promote it much. I knew it was coming, but there was so little advertising, that I thought it might have been moved.   It probably should have been - so it wouldn’t have to face Dark Knight.  I hoped it would do well enough to warrant another sequel in 2012 but it didn’t fare too well.  At least it didn’t cost much to make.

Anyway.

First off, if you’re not a fan, X-Files will be an easy watch for you. There aren’t any aliens or black oil, for lack of a better comparison, it was essentially a weird procedural. Basic story is Mulder and Scully on the chase after bad guys. Yes, Mulder does lose his phone at some point and light is shed on their relationship, but the focus is on the bad guys. That said, it’s hard to recommend this movie to the non-fan. If your significant other is a big fan, you’ll easily follow the story, but I think having some X-Files history under your belt does make the movie more enjoyable. Mulder’s obsession with believing and trust; Scully’s internal conflict between science and religion - all come into play in this movie and adds more layers to the proceedings. So all said:

X-Files: I Want to Believe: if you’re a fan, catch it in the theater, if you’re not, catch it on cable.

BTW - fans should stay to the end of the credits.

Great song - I wish I was listening to this type of music, when it came out.  I had a few bands that fit this genre that I listened to in the early eightie - like Tears for Fears, but I feel I missed the boat on a bunch of bands like Split Enz (especially considering how much of a Neil Finn/Crowded House fan I am).

This is for those of you that use Blogger - you need to open up your comments so that commenters can put their URLs in their comments.  This is just plain old part of blogging.

Open up your comments.

Everyone wants to talk about Rollins’ being benched yesterday and while I’ll get to that, I think everyone is ignoring the other more concerning issues with this team.  Here’s what I’d discuss:

• Charlie Manuel should be benched - In the 8th inning yesterday, the Phils had the bases loaded and two outs with Jason Werth facing Oliver Perez.  The Mets bring in Aaron Heilman a side-winding righty;  Manuel had 3 left-handed bats on the bench - Rollins (reigning MVP), Greg Dobbs (leading pinch-hitter in the majors), and Geoff Jenkins.  All three remained on the bench and watched Werth fly out.  I don’t care what the reasoning, that roles is for Dobbs, he’s supposed to be in in that situation no matter what.
• Chase Utley and Ryan Howard go a combined 2 for 24.  Take away the 9th inning in the first game of the Mets series and the Phillies have scored 10 runs in the past 5 games.  I am so tired of seeing easy runs die at 3rd base.    I don’t care what the talent is, this team can’t hit anything other than a home run - no way to get to the playoffs like that.
• Lost in this is how well Jamie Moyer, Cole Hamels, and Kyle Kendrick are pitching.  I’m afraid that when the hitters finally come around, the pitching will be in a rut.

Now the Rollins’ situation.  Totally mishandled by the Phillies.  Alright, yes he was late and deserved to be punished. You don’t do it in that situation in that game.  Bench him today.  Fine him.  That does two things - it keeps the issue in the clubhouse and not in the press and it keeps him in the game.  Everyone wants to say you treat MVPs like everyone else - BULLSHIT.  Yes Jimmy let the team down yesterday, but all Uncle Charlie did yesterday was cut off his nose to spite his face.  If this is the playoffs, you think Charlie benches him?  If he does, I’ll rub my face in Howard Eskin’s greasy mane.

I don’t know what you can do to fix this.  Rollins, Utley, and Howard hitting would fix a lot of things, but there’s nothing you can do to get that done.  Maybe they need to start playing for one run all the time - bunting, squeezes, hit and run (when have you seen Charlie do that)?  It’s time to put the players in situations where they don’t have to think - they just do.