Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
Get 'em up against the wall!
There's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me!
Get him up against the wall!
That one looks jewish!
And that one's a coon!
Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?
There's one smoking a joint,
And another with spots!
If I had my waaaaaaaaaaay,
I'd have all of you shot!

- Pink, The Wall

In 2003, Mr. Eddie Jordan took office as Orleans Parish District Attorney. A mere eight days after taking office he fired 53 employees from the District Attorney Office; clerks, child support enforcement workers, and investigators. The employees all had one thing in common, their race. They were almost universally replaced with members of "the opposite" race.

Do you remember the outrage then? I don't.

In 2005, Mr. Jordan was found guilty of racial discrimination by a federal grand jury. Last week, his appeal was rejected by a Federal Court of Appeals. His last option is the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, the national media has been strangely silent on this story. You would think, especially in light of the recent Jena "Six" (which is New Math for "One," apparently), that this story would be much more prominent, wouldn't you?

You'd think that Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Martin Luther King III would be LEAPING at the chance to fight this OBVIOUS example of racial discrimination, wouldn't you? After all, Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH is "a progressive organization fighting for social change." Sharpton's National Action Network's platform revolves around "racial profiling." Martin Luther King III's Realizing the Dream "promotes and embodies justice (and) equality." Hell, Sharpton and King were just here yesterday, standing behind (well, being eclipsed by) my big fat-cow governor at a press conference triumphantly announcing that the prosecutor in the Jena "Six" case had decided to, well, pretty much do as instructed last week and try the case in juvenile court.

It would have been easy for them to say something about this case, too, huh? After all, it affected many more people than the Jena Six case, right?

Wait...oh I see...Eddie Jordan is BLACK, and he fired those employees simply because they were WHITE and replaced almost all of them with other BLACK people. Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Martin Luther King III only care about racism when it happens to black people, rather than fighting for racial equality for EVERYONE.

And again, I ask, who are the REAL racists here?

(NOTE: I am using the term racism in its new bastardized definition. Racism is defined as the belief that one race is SUPERIOR to another. This was just a case of prejudice, treating one race with preferential treatment, or a bias towards one group over another. Most of the time when you hear "racism" the speaker is actually talking about "prejudice." I don't believe Eddie Jordan was acting in a racist manner. I DO believe, though, that attention whores like Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton are racists.

My wife noticed this last night. I was surprised because usually I notice these things right away and she had to point it out to me this time. It's from one of those Holiday Christmas catalogs where you can buy candles, cookies, decorations, cheese and cracker sets, etc.

Perfect for winter mornings. With their scrumptious icing, sensual flame, and enticing aroma, no one can resist this set of delicious cinnamon roll candles. Set of 3. Unscented

See if you can guess what's wrong with this picture.

The thing is, I went to go see Wrath in the theater, I was just six or seven when I went to see it. I'm sure we went to go see it in the crummy little dollar theater in town, but I didn't care. I was at the movies!

"At the movies" used to mean something. I didn't have cable when I was a kid. We lived out in the country and we had three channels; the local NBC affiliate, an independent VHF channel and PBS. When the weather was good we could sometimes pick up the CBS station from Lafayette. At the time, VCRs were just beginning to be household items. (Ours was a great, lumbering beast with a spring loaded top-eject and a "remote" control that connected to the VCR via a 8-foot long wire.) Going to the movies was a real treat because movies were NOT an everyday thing. That said, movies tended to have a big impact on me when I was growing up. Or "impression," I should say. They were visual and aural feasts.

Not so, anymore. On the Pink Floyd album The Wall, Roger Waters sang "I got thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from." Today, we've got 400 channels of shit on the TV to choose from. You can turn your TV on and find a movie within 30 seconds. And that's if you don't have any of the preeemium channels. Going to the movies today means 10 bucks a ticket (I guess, haven't been in a while), sticky floors, assholes on cell-phones, constantly crackling popcorn and crinkling wrappers, people who won't shut the fuck up. That, coupled with the fact that you can buy the movie on DVD six months after the movie came out and watch it whenever you want, has pretty much meant the death of "going to the movies," at least for me.

How this really bothers me, though, is that for my kids there never will be the magic of "going to the movies." I've taken my son to a few movies, Revenge of the Sith, Cars, TMNT, a few others. But already I can tell the luster is not there, there's no twinkle in his eye. When I was a kid, seeing a movie was a rare treat. My son knows that if he wants to watch a movie tomorrow, all he has to do is pop one in the DVD player. There's no magic, its not something that he won't get to see anywhere else or only every once in a while. The only difference for him is that he gets to sit in one of those cool reclining seats, and we can't pause the movie when he's gotta go pee.

That's sad.

Reed Walters, the Jena district attorney, is being accused of racism because he didn't show Bell compassion when the teenager was brought before the court for the third time on assault charges in a two-year span.

A black U.S. attorney, Don Washington, investigated the "Jena Six" case and concluded that the attack on Barker had absolutely nothing to do with the noose-hanging incident three months before. The nooses and two off-campus incidents were tied to Barker's assault by people wanting to gain sympathy for the "Jena Six" in reaction to Walters' extreme charges of attempted murder.

Much has been written about Bell's trial, the six-person all-white jury that convicted him of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and the clueless public defender who called no witnesses and offered no defense. It is rarely mentioned that no black people responded to the jury summonses and that Bell's public defender was black.

It's almost never mentioned that Bell's absentee father returned from Dallas and re-entered his son's life only after Bell faced attempted-murder charges.

It's rarely mentioned that Bell was already on probation for assault when he was accused of participating in Barker's attack.

You won't hear about any of that because it doesn't fit the picture we want to paint of Jena, this case, America and ourselves.

...we as black folks need to question ourselves about why too many of us can only get energized to help our young people once the'’re in harm's way.

As usual, the whole story is not being presented.

It all started over a year ago during a Q&A session at Jena High School. A black student had noticed that only white students sat under a tree during the lunch period and asked "in a jocular fashion" if black students could sit there as well. The school's principal replied that students could sit wherever they wanted. A few days later, two ropes were tied into nooses and hung from the trees limbs, which sparked controversy in the small community.

The school investigated the incident and found the three students responsible. Parents of black students demanded that that three students be expelled from school. The school's principal wanted to do the same. However, the district school board, IN KEEPING WITH DISTRICT POLICY, choose to suspend the perpetrators for three days.

On September 30, 2006, the main academic building at Jena High caught fire and the building destroyed. Investigators found that arson was to blame, the fire had been set in multiple locations. Two years earlier, a tornado had destroyed LaSalle Parish's only other high school. Students were adamant that they wanted to return to class. Seniors insisted that they wanted to graduate from Jena High. Instead of canceling the school year and busing students to other Parishes, the Parish decided to hold classes in existing buildings at the school like the Band Room, the school's gymnasium, and an undamaged wing of classrooms. On December 4, despite the fact that most of the school's classrooms were unusable, classes resumed for the students of Jena High.

That same day, Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High, was attacked at the school. He was knocked unconscious and later transported by ambulance to a local hospital where he was treated for 3 hours. Six students, Jesse Ray Beard, Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw, all black, were implicated in the attack. Bailey and Shaw were also involved in a fight on December 2 where they attacked in individual in a store parking lot. Bailey was also involved in a fight on Dec. 1st. Investigators say that the three fights were all connected, but were NOT connected to the school arson case OR the noose-in-the-tree incident.

On Dec. 16, the "Jena Six" were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder in Justin Barker's beating. In early January, 5 of the students were expelled from school (Beard was not) in accordance with district policy. In May, as the trial dates for the defendants approached, protests started demanding that the charges be either dropped or reduced. "How can a simple school fight be attempted murder?" protestors asked.

In June, court documents were released where OVER 40 EYEWITNESSES gave statements regarding the incident:

"When I heard a black boy say something to Justin, I turned my head and I saw somebody hit Justin," one student wrote in a statement. "He fell in between the gym door and the concrete barricade. I saw Robert Bailey kneel down and punch Justin in the head. ... Then Carwin Jones kicked him in the head. ... Theo Shaw tried to kick him so I pushed Theo Shaw down. I also saw Mychal Bell standing over him."

Phrases like "stomped him badly," "stepped on his face," "knocked out cold on the ground," and "slammed his head on the concrete beam" were used by the students in their statements.

In late June the jury was selected for the trial. Over 150 people were sent summons, but only 50 reported, which is normal for LaSalle Parish. Since punishment for refusing a jury duty summons is typically left up to the judge, no effort was made to get the other 100 people to show up (again, this is typical for LaSalle Parish). Race is not recorded in the LaSalle Parish database so it will not appear that race is not used as a factor in jury selection. Although both black and white people made up the 150 people who received summons, NONE of the 50 people that actually REPORTED were black.

Defendant Mychal Bell's charges were reduced to second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit second-degree battery and Bell was convicted on those charges. In early September, the charges of conspiracy to commit second-degree batter were thrown out. Prior to this incident, Bell had been adjudicated four times for violent crime, two each for battery and damage to property.

Earlier this month, the charges against Jones, Shaw, and Bailey were reduced to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit second-degree battery. Bell's conviction as an adult was overturned by a state appeals court. LaSalle Parish must now decide if it will appeal the decision, or accept it and either try Bell with attempted-murder as an adult, or aggravated second-degree battery as a juvenile.

So when you hear tonight that the "Jena Six" were convicted by an "all-white jury," remember that only ONE member of the Jena Six was convicted of anything, the conviction was overturned, and ONLY WHITE people showed up for jury duty in the first place. When you hear the "noose incident" mentioned in the same breath as "Jena Six," remember that at no time was the noose incident mentioned as a catalyst for the attack (at least not until after the boys were arrested), and investigation found that the victim was not involved in the noose incident at all. When you here that nothing was done about the "noose incident," remember that the three boys responsible were punished in accordance with district policy, and that Federal and state investigators checked in to the incident and could not find were any violation of the law occurred. When you hear that this was "just a schoolyard fight," remember that the victim was beaten unconscious and required a trip to the ER by ambulance. A "fight" is when two guys square off and go at it. Reports indicate that Jenkins was sucker-punched, and repeatedly hit and stomped on while lying unconscious on the ground.

Also, ask yourself these questions:
1) If the victim were BLACK, and the six who attacked him were WHITE, would Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton have immediately come to their defense? Would 60,000 black people have hopped in buses and rushed to their aid? Fuck no. Who are the real "racists" here?
2) If everyone involved, the attackers and the victim, were black would anyone even give a shit?

Jena Six FAQ and timeline

Unfortunately, the show came off like a bad Miami Vice rip-off. Uneasy cop partnership? Check. Seemingly random but connected acts of violence (which the two cops just happen to witness)? Check. Bad tries to get away by fleeing to a waiting aircraft only to be stopped in the nick of time? Check.

A lot of things in the pilot episode seemed so implausible. First, there's the criminal act. A young New Orleanian socialite is heading a charity that is trying to bring back the citizens of New Orleans, specifically the 9th ward. Unfortunately, there are drive by shootings at two functions she is hosting. In fact, after the first shooting, the two cops run through New Orleans with guns blazing. Are the cops placed on administrative leave, as is common practice for a cop who discharges his firearm? Nope, they are present for the second shooting, and subsequently run down the street chasing the shooter, guns blazing, again.

Well, as it turns out, this young woman's brother was robbed and beaten to death one night four years ago when he stopped in the 9th ward to change a flat tire. The young woman (whose family owns a New Orleans Casino), is actually running a company that is buying up all the property in the 9th ward. She has never forgiven the people of the 9th ward for the death of her brother, and does not want them to return, so she is purchasing all the property in an attempt to prevent them from doing so. She runs the charity and stages the drive-bys to keep from drawing attention to herself. (Huh?)

No one had yet made the connection to the woman and the company buying up all the 9th ward's property, and no one had even thought to look into it until the drive-by shootings at her two charity events. If she had just left well enough alone...

During the climax of the episode, the main bad guy (who is a former special ops agent and current head of security of a casino...don't former special ops agents EVER turn out to be good guys?) tries to escape our intrepid duo by leading them in a high-speed chase (in a car that had just crashed head on at full speed into another vehicle) to a dock, where a helicopter is waiting for him. (At this point, I told my wife that if the two cops shot the fucking helicopter down with their handguns, this would be my new favorite show.)

Actually, one of the cops runs under the helicopter as it is taking off and fastens a chain to the helicopter's landing struts. The helicopter lifts off about 20 feet in the air when the pilot realizes that there is something holding him down, and decides to set it down. That's right, the 3000 lb. helicopter doesn't break the chain or rip the chain out its concrete mooring, the chain is strong enough to hold the helicopter in place. I think that was even better.

Pronunciation
New Orleans is only pronounced "Nawlins" or "nyou ore-LEANS" by sportscasters and Yankees. (Southerners will sometimes say "Nawlins," but only when we're being facetious). Yet this is the way everyone on the show said "New Orleans." One of the cops tells us he "grew up in Nawlins East" which I've never heard of (8th or 9th ward, maybe?)

There are only three accepted ways to pronounce New Orleans:
"nu ORE-lens" (emphasis on the "ORE" syllable, lens like "camera lens."
"n'ORE-lens" It's as though the speaker is attempting the first pronunciation, but just roles the first two syllables together.
Cajun pronunciation - I can't really transcribe it phoenetically, it sounds like a cross between "nu UHL-lins" and "nu AWL-lins"

Hollywood, please take note.

This show has tremendous potential. If they patterned the show after Miami Vice (at least the early episodes) and made it a human drama more than a grandiose story about New Orleans, it would work better. They also need to work on the musical score. Vice is remembered, in large part, because of its music video-like segments that featured relatively litte, or even no, dialog. There was no memorable music in the show at all, and its just begging to be used as a showcase for the music of New Orleans.

The show could also be used as a way to show the rest of America the situation in New Orleans, but instead it was just used to parrot some tired old lines. One of the characters tells us that her neighborhood "reeks of toxic sludge and mold." Another character is upset when he learns his neighbors are selling their home rather than choosing to stay in New Orleans. In order to be truthful, the show needs to present the whole story. Yes, the 9th ward is still in shambles and, yes, a lot of this has to do with reluctance on the city, state, and federal government's part. But a lot of it ALSO has to do with the former citizens of the 9th ward, a lot of whom, after 2 years, are still living in the cities to which they evacuated. The rest of the city, though, is doing better, there are signs of rebuilding all over the place. The people that want to be there, for the most part, are there. The people that don't care...well, they're still in Atlanta, Houston, Oklahoma, etc. I think the show would do well to present New Orleans' situation in an unbiased manner.

My new job is as a Recruiter with the same company. I'm now partially responsible (with a team of 2 other recruiters and 1 staffing manager) for staffing about 40 different construction sites and maintenance departments for 20 different companies in 10 different states.

It's really exciting. In the old job, most of the applicants/new hires I was dealing with were the most basic entry-level candidates. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, everyone has got to start out somewhere. But most of the guys that we dealt with weren't very educated or motivated. Employee retention was simply dismal. Since we were a small site, and the jobs were permanent, our pay rates weren't as high as sites where the employees worked based on turnaround (that is, work at the site for a few weeks or months before the job ended.) Guys just weren't used to that.

Here, I'm dealing with very skilled craftsman. We are able to offer incentives like per diem, and the pay rates are higher to staff these positions. Most of these guys are used to this kind of atmosphere. They go out on a job for three months, take a few weeks off, and then go look for another job. At the other job, I had to sell the job to the applicants, here, most of the time guys are trying to sell themselves to us.

The drawback to this is, I'm going to be a lot busier. Which means less inane ranting posts from me. Not that the world will miss much, but just to let you know.

"Send her to my office."

So, she comes to my office and confirms that she saw the guy "roughing up the suspect." However, she didn't get a good look at who it was. Just that she saw he "had his stuff hanging out all over the place," and she turned and ran away.

I was tempted to ask her if she was willing to look at a line-up...

I can't put my finger on exactly when this all started, but I CAN positively identify the date I figured out the source of this uneasiness. It was January 21, 2007 at 12:00 pm Central time. That was the kickoff time in the NFC Championship game. My beloved Saints (bums) were playing in the NFC Championship game for the first time in the team's 40 year history (say that again?). They were in the playoffs (for only the 6th time in team history.) They had won in the playoffs for only the SECOND time in team history (huh?). They had won the NFC South and clinched a bye in the Playoffs (que pasa?)

The Saints are bums. They will always be bums. They are a shoddy, poorly-coached, hard-luck team composed of misfits, cast-offs and whodats. Always have been, always will be. Even if they were to win the Super Bowl, they will be bums. Though they are MY bums, bums they remain. And before you Saints fans get all riled up (both of you), you need to know that I've been rooting for the Saints since the days of Bobby Hebert, Dalton Hilliard, Hoby Brenner, Joel Hilgenberg, Stan Brock. Most of you (even NFL fans) are probably asking who most of those guys are, but Saints fans know. These are the guys we praised and rooted for. I would say "back during the dark times," but the whole of New Orleans Saints history could be classified as such.

Anyway, I'm now happily back in reality. The Saints played the Colts in the first game of the 2007-08 NFL season and it was typical Saints fair. The score was close at the end of the first half, 14-10 Colts. However, the second half featured a (normally "monumental," but quite "normal" for the Saints) collapse, and the game ended as a 41-10 drubbing. The best passing team and one of the best offenses in the league last season was held without a single offensive touchdown. The sole Saints TD came on a 55-yard fumble return by Saints corner Jason David, who was torched by the Colts wide-outs for 3 TDs.

Ahhhh...Everything is as it should be.