About a year ago, my family and I were in Florida for a short business trip. While we were there, on a humble, we went to Disney World for a few days. My then-4-year-old daughter made us promise to bring her back for her birthday, and, being the good parents that we are, my wife and I planned it out, and a couple of weeks ago we spent her fifth birthday at Disney World. But even though I've been to the Magic Kingdom and the surrounding parks half a dozen times, in 2010, Disney World was an enti ... [MORE]

Is it any wonder how George W. Bush was able to roll congressional Democrats for eight years? (No--not just six, all eight. Speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately taking impeachment off the table was the first sign that the Democrats took all the bullets out of the gun.) If the Democrats in the House of Representatives can't even muster the gumption to pass the Senate health-care bill and send it on to the president, then they deserve to be slaughtered electorally in November. For years, at any tr ... [MORE]

Hey Baltimore, if you like the football and Your Baltimore Ravens, I'm real sorry, seriously, you have my Deepest Sympathies. I mean, the Ravens lost to the Indianapolis Colts for a spot in the AFC Championship, which is kind of an insulting injury if you are still holding on to all that Bad Stuff about the Colts leaving Baltimore a million years ago, but basically the Ravens lost, and their season is over, so for a lotta people that means Football is Over. Again, Deepest Sympathies for the los ... [MORE]

I wonder what Sen. Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) apology to Barack Obama was like. How do you apologize for saying that Obama was electable because he was "light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one"? As impolitic as the statements are, they resemble something like the truth. We don't like to talk about it, but, as Reid's cold-blooded assessment reflects, most of us approach the president as more symbol than individual. Like it or not, the comment about Obama's electability ... [MORE]

There is a time in the day of anyone who decides to run for office that that person despises. It entails sitting down in a small room, possibly with a staffer, and a phone and a piece of paper. On that piece of paper is a list of names. And that candidate--whether in office or just aspiring to run--will pick up the phone, start calling, and ask the people on that list for money. It is ugly, it is demeaning, it is humbling, and it is absolutely necessary. For statewide office, the candidat ... [MORE]

Mel Guapo

Hey everybody, Happy Fucking New Year, OK? Have a great big 2010 on me, seriously and for reals, I am all about the Positivity this time around the Sun, and I would enjoy to be one of the first who wishes you a big, wet, sloppy Happy Brand New Two Thousand Ten And No Cents. "No Cents," get it? That was a joke about the soon to be Ancient Practice of check writing, which I had to do the other day to pay another stupid fucking parking ticket, because sure, you can pay a parking ticket on the Inte ... [MORE]

I'm not a big reality TV person, but I have to say, the drama around Jersey Shore has been provocative enough to make me check out a few episodes of MTV's newest entry into the genre. Taking place on, well, the Jersey Shore, the show follows the misadventures of eight twentysomething self-proclaimed "guidos and guidettes" as they, well, I'm not really sure what the point of the whole exercise is, but I'm an old man and rarely understand what's going on with these kids and, hey, get off my lawn! ... [MORE]

Who would have thought that such a simple and historic process such as jury deliberations could be affected by the modern wave of social media? Currently, Sheila Dixon is mayor-for-now, but "now" may last a good long while, since her attorneys have a veritable candy store of arguments from which to choose in order to keep Dixon in her job. The most recent of these is the argument that the jury could have been "tainted" by the previous contact between Juror Number Three, Shawana Tyler, and fo ... [MORE]

Yeah! This week is "Top Ten," right here in the pages and pixels of City Paper, Baltimore's Free Alternative Weekly with my column in it, which already makes that my first "Top Ten," which is where people think of things from the present Year of Our Lord and type out the ones that are "Top," you get it? I wholeheartedly recommend you turn dirty inky paper-pages or click, drag, wave your fingers, whatever manner you employ to look at the World Wide Web, because elsewhere in this Printed Publicat ... [MORE]

Gospel superstar Donnie McClurkin spoke at a church conference a few weeks ago on the state of young black manhood, and though I honestly believe he's trying to help, he missed the point. McClurkin has bravely been forthright about the years of molestation and abuse he was the victim of as a child and has advocated for parents, and the community in general, to be more vigilant with kids. Regrettably, like a lot of black folks--and a lot of other kind of folks, too--McClurkin delivered a muddled ... [MORE]

Seriously, I'm starting to think some people have watched too many Die Hard movies. OK, so for years we hear about how if everyone were armed, there'd be a lot less crime in this country, because either the criminals would be afraid of the armed people, or they could be shot by those armed people in the commission of those crimes they'd be committing. Yet for the most part, the politicians who make or defend these kinds of arguments also seem to be the ones who are ramping up the fear when it ... [MORE]

So now the Mayor of Baltimore, USA, is on trial for allegedly, what, spending some gift cards, and some other crap? Being influenced, allegedly, by her alleged ex-boyfriend once removed or something? Allegedly? I don't know. I think I knew for awhile, but I forgot, because since they (and you know who They are) cut my column down from every-other week to almost never-any weeks and I went broke and had to get rid of my Cable Teevee, I been getting into this "Twitter" thing, and making it go into ... [MORE]

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