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My Son the Drug Enforcer
My middle son is a cold-hearted drug enforcer who brutally murdered a young man poised to leave a life of crime. His father and I couldn’t be prouder. Darrell, 22, has for two years played O-Dog on The Wire, the searing HBO series about life on Baltimore’s drug-strangled streets that ended last night after a…
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Eco-Soul Kitchen: The Rebirth Brunch
DERIVATIVE Equinox-Easter; Rebirth and resurrection are synonymous. Betsy-Katrina; Rebirth and resurrection are synonymous. —b. terry I bet you’re already thinking about this Sunday’s Easter dinner. Come on. Admit it. Visions are dancing in your head of succulent honey glazed ham surrounded by sweet, caramelized, roasted root vegetables; rich, creamy mac and cheese with a golden…
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Postcard From Liberia
On my first night in Monrovia the rain pounds so hard on the tin roof of the house where I am staying, the sound is able to snatch me from a deep and jetlagged sleep. There is no rain like the rain in Liberia and I have heard it before, but this is February, the…
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Mission Aborted
Sergio Vieira de Mello is not a person that most of us would have known about had he not died in a vicious terrorist attack against the United Nations office in Iraq in August of 2003. In fact, the engaging Brazilian who became first United Nations Special Envoy to Iraq, would likely have been forgotten…
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A 'Wire' Addict on his Jones
My name is Steve, and I’m an addict. David Simon is my dealer. He got me in the early days with the five-part HBO mini-series, “The Corner,” and now, I’ve moved up to a full hour in front of the television, every, single, solitary Sunday night. Nine p.m. Sharp. I don’t answer the phone. I…
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Lifting the Lower Ninth
Conventional wisdom teaches us that historical fiction takes a while. It’s a process, much like the stages of grief. A culture must wade through the shock, acceptance, recovery and reflection of a particular incident in order to draw insight from hindsight. “Lower Ninth,” an original one-act torn right from the pages of recent history and…
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'The Eyes of the World Are Watching'
Picture this: the soon-to-be former President Bush’s motorcade is driving down the pothole-ridden streets of Africa, passing by dozens of tar-skinned locals standing along the road-sides with huge, welcoming smiles, holding signs which read “OBAMA 08.” It’s the exact scene that was captured in a photograph my friend emailed me about two weeks ago. By…
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The GOP's Next (Black) Idea?
Concerned that Republicans haven’t tried hard enough to reach out to black voters, Bruce Bartlett, a former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and treasury official under President George H. W. Bush, suggests a shocker: Republicans should come out in favor of reparations for slavery. Republicans for reparations? Bartlett makes the suggestion in Wrong on Race,…
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Will the Carrots Run out in Russia?
Dmitri Medvedev, a 42-year-old former first deputy prime minister, was overwhelmingly elected to succeed Vladimir Putin as president of the Russian Federation on Sunday, March 2. The election result was no surprise. Sunday’s contest was just a formality. Months ago, Medvedev secured the one vote that most mattered most, that of President Putin himself. The…
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So You Wanna Fight Dirty?
This is a dirty campaign and since Senator Barack Obama won’t say it, I will. The media has not been unfair to Senator Clinton, they have been extremely soft. There are elephants in the room that need to be addressed. Can anyone say Whitewater? How about impeachment? Let’s not forget Osama bin Laden. You can…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
