In America, nearly every black person believes in conspiracies. Now that I've gotten that massive generalization out of the way, think about it for a second. No matter how rationalist an African-American you may be, history has already provided plenty of evidence. What was slavery but a conspiracy against an entire race of people? Jim Crow? A de facto (when it wasn't de jure) combined effort to deny people of African heritage the fruits of the living experiment that is America. Black folk to ... [MORE]

So They (and you know who they are) want to make a Walmart in Remington, a neighborhood of Baltimore, U.S.A.,1 and some Concerned Citizens are against it and they have a petition thing on the Internet where you can go and say you are Anti the Walmart.2 Personally, I am more on the laissez-faire3 side of the issue, especially when we're talking about any enterprise that would increase the Tax Base of Baltimore, and I'm not getting off my ass any time soon to go signing a "pro Walmart" petition ... [MORE]

I am hypnotized by dancing Predators. About a week ago, I ran across a video on the interwebs showing a group of men in surprisingly authentic-looking Predator costumes doing, like, the Chicago Bears Super Bowl shuffle in what looked like the Predator ship from Predator 2. Now, if the existence of the footage only served to provide me an opportunity to use the word "Predator" four times in the last two sentences, it would already be worth its weight in gold. But no, just when you process that h ... [MORE]

One thing you learn about politics is that the closer you get to the local level, the harder it is to just talk and not get the job done. Former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill codified this in his timeless aphorism, "all politics is local," and nothing makes it more obvious than when 40 inches of snow gets dumped on your doorstep. People who talk about how "the government that governs best governs least" suddenly start singing a different tune (usually complaining) when the snow starts comin ... [MORE]

Wow, that Blizzard was pretty fucking awesome, eh? I think it's over. It's over, right? Man, I mean, first it was kinda like an old Monster Movie where you're waiting and waiting for The Monster to show up, and then KABOOM, errbody was under two feet of snow. I stayed up almost the whole night while it was Blizzarding, because Nature is very entertaining, seriously. It's better than Avatar and anything else in 3-D when you're outside watching the Blizzard and then there's giant winds and the tr ... [MORE]

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]

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