Most men might be irked if they heard that someone wanted to have their genitalia removed. Barack Obama, however, is probably celebrating. Drudge Report says Jesse Jackson apparently was caught on tape suggesting the procedure for the Democratic nominee because he felt Obama was spending too much time lecturing black churches on morality.If you’re trying to prove you’re not a black radical, it doesn’t hurt to be attacked by Jesse Jackson for your moral prudishness. It’s not just vividness of Jackson’s comments — the delicate Drudge Report referred to the candidate’s “n**ts” — it’s the substance. Jackson apparently was suggesting that Obama has focused too much on black behavior and not enough on the government’s responsibility. If Obama is lucky, this will highlight some of what Obama’s been saying in black churches. On Father’s Day, Obama said to the congregation at Apostolic Church of God in Chicago (according the prepared text):
“If we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing — missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it. You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled — doubled — since we were children. We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.How many times in the last year has this city lost a child at the hands of another child? How many times have our hearts stopped in the middle of the night with the sound of a gunshot or a siren? How many teenagers have we seen hanging around on street corners when they should be sitting in a classroom? How many are sitting in prison when they should be working, or at least looking for a job? How many in this generation are we willing to lose to poverty or violence or addiction? How many? Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Yes, we need more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the classroom, and more after-school programs for our children. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities. But we also need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child — it’s the courage to raise one.”
Here’s the full speech on video:Everyone kept wondering when Obama was going to have his Sister Souljah moment (a reference to Bill Clinton going out of his way to diss the star over nasty rap lyrics to show he was a centrist). Maybe Obama didn’t need that after all. He just needed for one of his supporters to suggest his castration. Obama gets all the breaks.
posted July 9, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Obamarama says, “We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child — it’s the courage to raise one.”
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Why doesn’t he recognize, then, as a matter of equal protection, application and Rights, that mothers ALSO have this responsibility???? And, if mothers have this responsibility, what’s all this talk about abortion “Rights”???
Now, if fathers [and mothers] have this responsibility, there must be something to be responsible for. Pro-choicers say there is nothing, before birth, for which to be responsible.
So, which is it???
posted July 9, 2008 at 11:44 pm
There can be no better thing that can happen to a candidate than to be attacked by Jesse Jackson. He just gave Obama three states.
posted July 10, 2008 at 8:05 am
==He just gave Obama three states.==
Oh? Howzat?
posted July 10, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Howzat?
Many whites have wondered if Obama would somehow be beholding to dinosaurs like Jackson who still see racial issues in 1960′s categories?
I’ve never thought he would be. But for anyone who entertained such notions…this little clip (no pun intended) helps to clarify where Obama stands.
The truth is that the media props up Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as some kind of spokesmen for all African Americans, which is an outdated and intrinsiclaly racist notion. In a large portion of the African American community, Jesse is seen as a one-time hero who has become a camera-chasing has-been. Dazzled and seduced by the bright lights, he is a caricature of himself.
posted July 11, 2008 at 12:51 am
==beholding ==
Not a word.
The word you want is “beholden,” meaning, “indebted, obliged.”
posted July 11, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Thank you, Mr, Incredible. In fact, I knew that; but the fingers and the brain did not entirely mesh at that moment.
posted July 11, 2008 at 2:07 pm
==Thank you, Mr, Incredible. In fact, I knew that; but the fingers and the brain did not entirely mesh at that moment.==
I didn’t mean to come off as harshly overcorrecting, if, in fact, you got that impression.
I’ve heard “beholding” before — or, as teenagers/early 20-somethings say, “beholdeen”; they turn the “eeng” into “een” — and it seems to me that it comes from hearing the proper pronunciation, “beholden,” thinking that “beholden” is a mispronunciation of “beholding,” when it’s not, as you know.
posted July 11, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Nope. No problem. Glad to see some folks who prefer accuracy in linguistics. The internet and texting have certainly not helped iin that regard!
posted July 11, 2008 at 8:17 pm
==Glad to see some folks who prefer accuracy in linguistics.==
I used to be in radio news and some teevee news. Anchor, reporter, writer, and I was always fine-tuning my language. I hate to see and hear radio and teevee people sound as though they slept through English, speaking like stupid people.
I heard a tlevision news anchor, taling about the Olympics the other day, and she mentioned something about a contender in the Shortput, saying, “throwing the shotput.”
Well, immediately, I called the newsroom and said that the “ball” is the “shot,” and that the “throw” is the “put,” that the “thrower” puts the shot, not throws the put. My goodness.
I hate split infinitives, too, cuz you can’t split thinking, and the infinitive references a specific process of thought that cannot be split.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I, myself, for effect, use informal forms, like “wanna” and, thanks to Steve Harvey Show, some street language.
However, today’s news presenter knows nothing else and, what’s more, doesn’t even care! Yet, they try to tell us that they are accurate, objective, credible!
== The internet and texting have certainly not helped iin that regard!==
Still, intelligent people know how to shuttle between forms of language, in order to suit the situation.
posted July 11, 2008 at 8:20 pm
CORRECTION
“I heard a tlevision news anchor, taling about the Olympics the other day, and she mentioned something about a contender in the Shortput, saying, ‘throwing the shotput.’”
See? There go my fingers now.
CORRECTED: I heard a television news anchor, talking about the Olympics the other day, and she mentioned something about a contender in the Shotput, saying, “throwing the shotput.”
posted July 11, 2008 at 8:23 pm
That last post is from me. My name didn’t take.