Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports uses the murder suicide of NFL linebacker Jovan Belcher and Kasandra Perkins, his girlfriend and mother of his 3 month old child, to lecture America on the Second Amendment. Who knew that he was a constitutional scholar?
I would argue that your rationalizations speak to how numb we are in this society to gun violence and murder. We’ve come to accept our insanity. We’d prefer to avoid seriously reflecting upon the absurdity of the prevailing notion that the second amendment somehow enhances our liberty rather than threatens it.
How many young people have to die senselessly? How many lives have to be ruined before we realize the right to bear arms doesn’t protect us from a government equipped with stealth bombers, predator drones, tanks and nuclear weapons?
Our current gun culture simply ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead.
In the coming days, Belcher’s actions will be analyzed through the lens of concussions and head injuries. Who knows? Maybe brain damage triggered his violent overreaction to a fight with his girlfriend. What I believe is, if he didn’t possess/own a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.
Given that this was a man of Herculean physique, I think it is likely that Kasandra Perkins would have been beaten to death and Belcher would have either found another way to take his own life or he would be left of the citizens of Missouri to decide his fate.
Liberals like Whitlock (he is a certified Sarah Palin hater) always take the Hobbesian view that the human simply is too savage and too weak to master his urges by himself and therefore must be controlled. To excuse the immoral actions, they personify an object like a gun or a drug, vesting it with the supernatural power to control a human mind.
I own multiple guns and assorted weapons, I get angry – but to date, grabbing a gun in response to an altercation has never crossed my mind. Ever.
It is instructive that Whitlock chose the term “gun culture” rather than “hip hop/gangsta culture” as his object of scorn…but I know why – if Whitlock was really interested in finding the root cause, he would have to address the exultation of the “gangsta” culture that predominates the mindset of young black men. While I cannot speak with certainty as this being contributory to this tragedy, it did happen following an argument with Miss Perkins after a Trey Songz (R&B artist) concert in Kansas City. I think it far more likely that Belcher was into hip hop than having a working knowledge of Dirks Bentley.
Whitlock needs to stick to writing about things with which he at least has a minimal level of familiarity – this article proves that isn’t guns, culture or the Constitution.
The Rio Norte Line 
Utah,
Please, stop. You’re making me want to cry over the level of ignorance and — frankly — the moronic state of our society in general. There are so few of you and I left…
Couldn’t you post about puppies and kittens in Santa Clause outfits or something?
😦
[no sarcasm or facetiousness was intended by anything in the preceding comment: it was 100% serious and sincere]
Your wish is my command – talking kittehs:
There are several people who think that fewer people like us would be a good thing…I’ve already accepted my fate as a fighter for the resistance and have started brushing up on my ruin navigation skills, my dark tunnel spelunking skills and my wall breaching/explosive ordnance skills.
Utah,
Remember, when you string the det-chord on the wall, you need to back it to make it directional. heavy gauge, 90 degree angle iron works in a pinch, but, if you know how to use it properly, water works even better. 😉
My dad owned a heavy equipment company and we did several river/creek channeling jobs for the Corps of Engineers flood control projects in north Mississippi. I learned to use det cord to snap trees off as easy as breaking a matchstick. It is amazing how even red clay mud can be used to create a pretty effective directional blast.
Then I preach to the experienced. My apologies, sir 🙂
Personally, I will be more than happy to leave the stuff that goes boom to you. My area of expertise lies more along the lines of the most dangerous battle implement ever known to man: a Marine and his rifle. And considering that I have made 850 yard head shots with iron sights, and that I might now have access to a Barret .50 cal… Well, you know 😉
One word: Loser. It’s one thing if you’re going to off yourself and deprive your child his father, but then to add insult to injury, this a**aholic loser deprives a woman her life and denies his child both parents. Money problems? Dun’t seem so. Gosh, what ever could it be? Moral/gangsta issues? Oops! That’s just flat out racist of me! Well, I’m jes sa damn dum! Reckon I shoulda seen it wuz that Smith and Wesson what caused all o this, cuz I know dang well it’s got nuthin to do with the govt. havin their hand in social programs.
Hip-hop gangsta IS racist, kells. How DARE you talk about Eminem that way?!
Or Vanilla Ice.
Stop! Collaborate and Listen! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A7tLVIsuNw
I wonder if Mr.Whitlock would have said a similar thing if Jovan Belchar had killed Kasandra Perkins with a bow and arrow (our bow culture), a knife (our blade culture), an automobile (our car culture), or his bare hands (our finger culture?).
By the way, isn’t it ironic, Belchar’s degree was in child development and family relations? I wonder if Mr.Whitlock will blame our University culture?
Where is my “And the crowd goes wild” smiley??? 🙂
I am not going to play the race card, utah did that, with his casually tossed-off comment about hip-hop/gangsta culture(sorry, but naming the one white rapper does not convince that one isn’t referring, in the main, to blacks) . But when he excuses the fans of Dirk Bentley, he is offering a scenario that differs from the FBI’s report on violent crime in America for 2011.
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/october/annual-crime-in-the-u.s.-report-released
In that report, it is shown that the South leads the way in murders per capita, over the cowboy west, the urban Northeast, and the staid midwest. The numbers for other violent crimes show a similar geographical correlation
Unfortunately, I could find no simillar breakdown of Dirks Bentley’s fan base, but my guess is that most of his fans are from the South. I would further hazard, and my impression is buttressed by the august opinion of one social observer, Utah, b.s., that the majority of Bentley’s fans are white.
Perhaps we have more to fear, violence-wise, from yahoos wearing pointed boots and driving pick-ups than we do from that SUV with the lit-up rims.
Isn’t the Belcher boy a yankee?
Melfamy,
You are flat out wrong.
The highest murder rates are in the cities where firearms are completely restricted, or nearly so.
http://www.amazon.com/More-Guns-Less-Crime-Understanding/dp/0226493660/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354552902&sr=1-1
tell it to the FBI
Texas,
He can’t hear you. There are scales over his eyes and ears.
g – Here are some stats for you, by state (murder and nonnegligent manslaugter only – 2011) – rate per 100,000;
National Average – – 4.7
Puerto Rico – 30.6
Washington DC – 17.5
Louisianna – 11.2
Mississippi – 8.0
New Mexico – 7.5
S. Carolina – 6.8
Alabama – 6.3
Michigan – 6.2
Missouri – 6.1
Maryland – 6.0
That’s the Top 10 – Florida is 5.2 by the way
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-4
As a note, the FBI UCR does report that the South has the highest violent crime/murder rate per capita, but also states that the South has the highest population.
The South wins, using either vector,per capita and population
Your interpretation of the FBI report, I can only compare to the BS MSNBC wants it’s mental midgets to believe. You imply that the south is full of a bunch of backwoods, rural, country music listening to, murderous rednecks. But…in reality the high murder rates from the south are driven by cities/metro areas like Atlanta, New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis, Washingon D.C., Dallas, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Miami…. Dig a little deeper into your sources before you try and manipulate others of a common metal capacity with info that clearly contradicts your point. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table_14_crime_trends_by_metropolitan_and_nonmetropolitan_counties_by_population_group_2010-2011.xls http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6
All regions of the country have big cities, dimbulb.
Yeah, like Wyoming, Montanan and North and South Dakota. Who knew Panama City was a “big” city??? 🙂
(USA Urban areas)
Denver, Seattle San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Portland, Alberquerque, Phoenix,
Who knew you were so geographically ignorant?
Greg,
You are the one who routinely demonstrates that zombies are real. Your brain assumed room temperature long ago: your body simply hasn’t got the sense to fall down is all. Here, let me explain your latest bout of stupidity. You said:
To which I replied:
So, in your infinite, brain-dead lack of wisdom, you prove me wrong with this:
But, you see, NONE of those cities are in ANY of the States I listed. What’s more, I provided a link to some information that shows the States I listed don’t really have any cities much bigger than Panama City. That would mean — IF you are correct — that PC must be a big city (I was trying to be nice to you, but you just had to go and prove you were talking about cities much bigger, didn’t you?) So — to those whose brains are still alive and functioning — it becomes painfully obvious which of the two of us has no understanding of geography — YOU!
Greg, let’s face it, you need to ask Augger for help. You have obviously suffered a severe case of anal-cranal inversion linked to a direct force feed mechanism. maybe — if you are REALLY nice — Augger would agree to surgically remove your head from your ass for you.
The statistics were divided by region, the states you cited are in the west, as are the cities I mentioned.
The fact that Panam City is a smaller city, yet has so much crime, does more to prove my point than your enfeebled brain can comprehend.
have a nice day
They did that because they’re bean counters. The States named have more in common with each other than any other part of the country, yet they got stuck with other parts of the country because the idiots — LIKE YOU — are “urban-centric.” I do not have to accept the way they lay things out — especially when they only make sense for the purpose they were designed for.
The murder rate per capita, and crime in general, has decreased over the last few years in Miami, Atlanta, and New Orleans, although the latter still leads the nation.
Panama City’s murder rate per capita is higher than the state average.
Hurl insults all you want, it’s all you have going for you
Georgia, Florida and Louisiana all have the death penalty. Not too many repeat offenders to worry about. Wonder if death being a result and a deterrent would have an impact and bring the rate down?
You could be right. Myself, doing five years in prison is no better than a death sentence, so the deterrent factor is the same. But a fellow with no job, a bleak future, and with friends and family on the inside already, prison is not the horror show it would be to you or I.
Of course, most murders are committed in either in the heat of the moment, or done with the belief that they will not get caught. Guess they don’t watch CSI Miami.
That is short for Crime Stuff In Miami, btw
I do believe that — as with most things since Obama came to reign — they have changed the way they tabulate the death rates (new classifications have a way of making crime go down).
But then, the Left doesn’t see it when the govt. does it with the economic figures, so why would they see it here? 🙂
{crickets}
No crickets — just tired of trying to reason with the dishonest.
Oh? Let’s see something besides your feelings that the numbers are tampered with, because if that is all you have, you have nothing, and as for being dishonest, screw you, hypocrite.
I apologize for sinking to your level of discourse, but you are engaging in hypocrisy here. Remember how indignant you were while accusing me of questioning Augger’s charity? Yet calling people dishonest is second nature to you, and it obscures any point you might be making.
You bring out the worst in me, so I need to make you better; then my worst won’t be so bad. 🙂
MSA(s) = Metropolitian Statistical Area (again, murder and nonnegligent manslaughter – 2011, rate per 100,000 pop.)
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-6
Locally – State average 5.2, Panama City MSA 7.0
Fajardo, Puerto Rico 37.1 – Guayama, Puerto Rico 21.4 – Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 25.7 – Ponce, Puerto Rico 33.7 – San Juan PR 36.2
New Orleans 23.7 – Detroit/Dearborn 20.3
Chicago, IL 6.4 – Atlanta, GA 6.0
Augusta, GA 8.9 – Gary, IN 8.9
Baltimore, MD 9.4 – Birmingham AL 8.9
Flint, MI 15.0 – Jackson, MS 12.2
Decatur, IL 9.0 – Decatur, AL 1.9
Dallas, TX 4.5- New York, NY 4.5
And on, and on.
g – You’re using stats to try to prove a point, though I’m not sure what the point is. Is it that the South is more racist, or the South is more violent, or there are too many guns in the South, you hate everyone who lives in the South, you don’t like Utah’s post?
Floridacracker, I started out to make a little joke at Utah’s expense, i actually think he got it, as he did not respond in a mindlessly hostile manner, ,but people took it quite seriously, so I jerked the chain a bit
Country music fans are confined to the South, rap is not limited to the inner city. There are plenty of villent songs sung with a southern twang. One-Eyed Jack, by Johnny Burnette, includes the killing of a sheriff(but he didn’t kill no deputy). El Paso is about a murder.”Mama Tried’ is too, otherwise why would the protagonist be serving life without parole? Most modern country is about family and being country, and most of it is bland and forgettable.
Facts are facts, the South has a higher murder rate per capita, but blaming it on anything else but the moral lapses of the murderers is assinine
“Augger would agree to surgically remove your head from your ass for you.”
No he wouldn’t, and here is why …
Notwithstanding the geographical debate, Greg is a poor surgical candidate. Just look at him, a pompus intellectual chestnut.
Besides, he’s infinitely more humorous as is. You really would miss his ludicrous misinterpretations, and dogmatic pontifications.
Augger, you ought to be nicer to me, I did defend you the other day, after all. Someone told me that you weren’t fit to eat with pigs, and I said you were.
Come on, utah. Blaming hip-hop/gangsta culture? Seriously? That’s the same as what Whitlock is doing. There’s absolutely nothing that indicates that this guy was involved in any of that.
SHE went to the concert not him so maybe she was the one that was “thugged out”.
“Kansas City police have not released a motive for the shooting of 22-year-old Kasandra M. Perkins, other than to say the couple had been arguing in recent days”
Obviously BEFORE the concert ever happened.
I would look at the number of NFLers with brain damage from concussions before looking at “hip-hop culture” or “gun culture”. That’s just me though.
“While I cannot speak with certainty as this being contributory to this tragedy, it did happen following an argument with Miss Perkins after a Trey Songz (R&B artist) concert in Kansas City”
That’s the best you go to substantiate your claim? Did you stay in a Holiday Inn Select last night?
Wills, do you dig this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e5doDoNp1Q Why waste the instrument on that? It’s really not about wasting the instrument, though, is it?
Now listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCYIv6z1Ri4 He could sing opera, you know. But that’s not cool, now, is it?
I will agree with you that while music is provoking, it cannot be the blame. The blame is on the sorry SOB that took out his wife and himself.
Actually, it was a Holiday Inn Express.
But thank you for making my point that Whitlock immediately jumping to the “gun culture” being at fault was in exclusion of everything else. My point was that the gun wasn’t just sitting there telling him to kill – something other than a gun overrode whatever value system that was governing Belcher to allow him to kill another human being.
So what if Belcher grew up in a culture of gansta rap and gangs who taught that the appropriate reaction to a situation like this was to kill a bitch for disrespecting her baby daddy? Would it be legitimate then to consider that his value system wasn’t like that of reasonable society?
My bad on the hotel.
“But thank you for making my point that Whitlock immediately jumping to the “gun culture” being at fault was in exclusion of everything else.
Absolutely. I agree that he jumped immediately to that. We agree 100%.
“So what if Belcher grew up in a culture of gangsta rap and gangs who taught that the appropriate reaction to a situation like this was to kill a bitch for disrespecting her baby daddy?”
This is where the problem is. So what if he didn’t? What if he grew up on a farm listening to Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown singing “Sweet Home Alabama” all summer long? Why did Whitlock jump at what he did and you jump at what you did? This isn’t the first time that this has happened to an NFL player, but probably the first time I’ve heard gangsta rap being introduced as possibly component of the cause or gun culture. But rock and roll was also labeled as the devils music and “Stairway to Heaven has Satanic messages if played backwards.
I’ve listened to plenty or Tupac and NWA and it’s never made me want to kill anyone. Maybe someone with mental issues it may.
Remember this guy?
“Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth immediately emerged as a fan favorite, thanks to his impressive rookie season. That adulation ended for the 1997 NFL draft pick after the night of Nov. 16, 1999. Fingered by his dying — and pregnant — girlfriend Cherica Adams as the man responsible for shooting her four times as she sat in her car (Carruth blocked her path with his car while the shooter drove by in another vehicle), Carruth was tried and in January 2001 found guilty of three charges, including conspiracy to commit murder. The football star was sentenced to 18 to 24 years in prison.”
Junior Seau
Ray Easterling
Andre Waters
Dave Duerson
Jeff Alm
OJ Murdock
Kenney McKinley
All these guys shot themselves to death. All NFL players. Studies have shown NLFers with 3 or more concussions linked to clinical depression. Murdock and Belcher were both only 25 and both thanked their coaches before killing themselves. McKinley was only 23.
It’s wrong for Whitlock to blame gun culture but I also think it’s wrong to black a culture of “gangsta rap and gangs” until there’s evidence of either. At this point, both are assumptions with no evidence, but assumptions based on what? Her going to a concert? His choice of weapon being a gun? Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. I think I’ll look more towards the studies of brain trauma and depression before I looked anywhere else for a solution though. But that’s just me.
“95% of all songs are love songs. If music had that much power, we would all love each other.”–Frank Zappa, at congressional hearings about warning labels on rock albums.
Which is why his pupil, Socrates, said:
And Professor Anthony Esolen remarks:
In other words, grandma and grandpa were right when they said rock music would be the ruin of our society. Looking backward, one can argue they were wrong, but one would argue in the face of empiracle evidence to the contrary.
thanks for the input.
Joe, Impressive.
I was thinking about music like the late Johnny Horton’s patriotic music versus the rap that degrades women and their sexual organs as something to merely dominate ….
Oh you mean like the Johnny Horton classic “I Hate Niggers” real classy role model man.
“real classy role model”
Just saying …
Who said Mike Tyson was my role model, who even mentioned mike Tyson?
Karlton,
Seriously? You missed Augger’s point? Really?
(shakes head)
Folks like Karlton just simply aren’t worthy of response. Karlton, come on back one day when you have a bit of common sense about you. The statement does not require further explanation.
Joe,
Seriously? Did you miss Karlton’s point (to Texas’ post)? Really?
I like sugar I like tea
But I don’t like niggers no siree
There are two darn things that’ll make me puke
Its a hog eatin’ slop and a big black spook
an’ you know it ’cause I show it
Like barnyard rooster I crow it
And the NAACP would sure like to get a hold of a nigger hatin’ me
Roses are red and violets are blue and niggers are black you know that’s true but they don’t mind ’cause what the heck you gotta be black to get a welfare check and I’m broke no joke I ain’t gotta nickel for a coke and I ain’t black you see so Uncle Sam help for a nigger hatin’ me
Jigga boo jigga boo where are you?
i’s here on the woodpile watchin’ you
jigga boo jigga boo come out
na’s i’s scared of the white man way down south
you know it cause I show it stick your black head out and I’ll blow it and the NAACP can’t keep you away from a little old nigger hatin’ me
mirror mirror on the wall who’s the blackest of them all a man named king there ain’t no doubt and he’s makin’ lots of trouble with his baboon mouth
o ruin he’s a doin’ it’s caused by the trouble he’s a brewin’ and the NAACP can’t win at a white man’s stick with a nigger hatin’ me
hey Mr. president watta ya say when are we whites gonna have our day the niggers had theirs such a long long time I’m a white and I it’s time that I had mine you know it cause I show stick your black head out and I’ll blow it and the NAACP can’t win at a white man’s stick with a nigger hatin’ me
a nigger hatin’ me
a nigger hatin’ me
a nigger hatin’ me
A nigger hatin’ me
Johnny Horton – I Hate Niggers
Wow, that’s racist.
But it wasn’t Johnny Horton, it was a guy called Johnny Rebel. Horton’s biographers have never found any evidence whatsoever that Johnny Rebel had any contact with Horton except that Rebel allowed people to think it was Horton. Some of the racist songs were even produced AFTER Horton died with Rebel claiming that Horton wrote them. There is no evidence that he did.
It is an urban legend.
FC,
I see you missed it too. There’s another squirrel for you:arrow:
Looks like it is an urban legend. Seems that Johnny Rebel (Clifford Joseph Tahran) took credit for that one along with several others just as bad or worse. Still, racist “music” is racist music, whether its Johnny Horton, Johnny Rebel, NWA (Niggas With Attitude) or anyone else who uses this as a medium.
“Johnny Rebel is the pseudonym of Cajun country musician Clifford Joseph Trahan (born October 3, 1938), also known as Pee Wee Trahan. Trahan has used this pseudonym most notably on racist[1] recordings issued in the 1960s on J. D. “Jay” Miller’s Reb Rebel label of Crowley, Louisiana.[1][2] Johnny Rebel is often misidentified as the pseudonym of David Allan Coe, and some of his songs have been misattributed to Johnny Horton.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Rebel_(singer)
Horton did a song titled “Johnny Rebel”. Many think that was why the misattribution occurred.
Still doesn’t change the fact that there was a racist song out there, but it wasn’t done by a Grammy winning country music star.
Ah, and now — after slandering the name of a dead man to make a point — here we go: back peddling and saying it still stands because it’s racist music.
Well, just in case you forgot the point, it was that Horton made music supporting the nation’s history. If he did not have anything to do with this racist song as you now appear to be saying, then the point IS defeated and THE ORIGINAL HORTON ILLUSTRATION STANDS!
Apologies are in order. Let’s all hold our breath and see how long it takes for them to come…
FC,
Sorry, that last post was meant for the board in general. It was not aimed at you specifically. I apologize (not in position to edit my post right now or I would) 🙂
UTAH, Thank you for clearing up KARLTON’S MISREPRESENTATION and SLANDERING of JOHNNY HORTON.
Karlton?
“We” will graciously and honorably accept your apology for the misrepresentation, if it was made in honest error.
texas – Likely an honest mistake. You put I Hate Niggers into your browser, you get the lyrics credited to Johnny Horton. At least I did.
@Karlton, I have never heard of your song..
Here is an example of what I meant: “The Battle of New Orleans”
“And when we set the powder off the gator lost his mind….” that stanza always made me laugh as a kid, it still does
Did you ever hear Homer and Jethro’s version? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0mGFjAySTw
Oh yes, did I tell ALL of you racists: I never heard of Karlton’s song?
Here is another example of a song I knew and appreciated:
Joe, not to mention Mr. Whitlock has somewhat of a colorful history in his castigation of as he would put it “wanna be gangstas”, as well as an apparent problem with Asians (from earlier this year).
Utah’s commentary may touch to tip of a deeper issue with Mr. Whitlock.
Look, I don’t agree with Mr. Whitlock’s statement that if Jovan Belcher didn’t have a gun he and Kassandra Perkins would still be alive, if he wanted to kill her he would killed her period. As for everyone who is blaming “Gangsta” rap, please do your homework and check your facts. Belcher was known to listen to Heavy Metal music, not “Gangsta” rap. Bottom line is NONE of us will ever know what caused this tragedy and we need to stop playing “Armchair” criminal psychologist. If you don’t know what you are talking about, stop blaming inanimate objects and music and focus on stopping future tragedies such as this from happening again.
(shaking head)
Do you guys REALLY think Utah was blaming this incident on hip-hop or gangster rap? Come one, seriously? Are you all that shallow in your thinking? And do you hold that low an opinion of Utah?
If so, why are you wasting your time here on the RNL?
Sorry I missed the fun but I see that the usual suspects are ready to call me a racist – If I was doing that, I would be doing exactly what I accused Whitlock of doing, excusing a murderer.
I only cited hip hop as an example of Whitlock’s dishonesty in assigning the blame to “gun culture” so he could call for a ban – I didn’t hear him call for a ban on hip hop.
I never used race as a cause but it is interesting that a couple of people jumped right to that to accuse me of doing it.
Belcher is solely to blame for his actions whatever the influence, Whitlock looks for every reason other than that one.
Utah,
Are we sure Belcher is to blame, or is FOOTBALL to blame?
Browns employee commits suicide at team facility
Don’t you see the REAL connection? FOOTBALL! Ergo, being the good little progressive drone convets they want us to become, we should start a campaign to end football where we get the added bonus of ending the evil capitalist and all those unearned millionaires to boot.
“I never used race as a cause but it is interesting that a couple of people jumped right to that to accuse me of doing it”
Utah, do not forget while these folks attempt to moniker you as a racist for citing hip-hop, gangster rap, or what-have-you … they ignore the fact that with bands such as The Beasty Boys, Insane Clown Posse, Eminem, and others …. hip-hop, and gangster rap is not solely the possession of the black culture.
In fact, if my memory serves me well, Debra Harry is attributed as the very first rapper.
Debra Harry, singer for Blondie, did a rap song, but they were honoring a style that already existed, Grandmaster flash, Africaa Bambaata, and others preceded that song.
In my humble opinon, Jimi Hendrixcould be named as an originator of rap. His spoken-song style on Crosstown traffic is an example
I’m not the only soul who’s accused of hit-and-run
Tire tracks across your back tell you’ve had your fun
But darlin, can’t you see my signals turn from green to red
and with you I see a traffic jam, straight up ahead!
There is another similar rap in House Burning Down, on Electric Ladyland
There was also Gil Scott-Heron (“Johannesburg”, “You’re Daddy Loves You”) and The Last Poets.
None of the artists I mentioned used samples, of other songs, which is a hallmark of most of what we consider rap today, and most of their output was more political in content, not about scoring poontang and wearing outsize jewelry.
I disagreed with your assessment and his never said anything about race but that you were doing the same as Whitlock. I can only assume that I’m included in the “usual suspects are ready to call me a racist” since I only read a couple of responses that disagreed with you and mine was one.
If you think anyone here that’s what I’m doing, just say so, and let’s get it out in the open. I felt my posts were well reasoned with examples and have no agenda attached. I also feel that just as you had the right to critique and disagree with Whitlock’s post, I had the right to critique and disagree with yours without being accused of something that’s not there.
But you disagreed with something that I didn’t say.
Well if that was the case, and I’ll take your word for that, where is it that I included race and “ready to call you racist”?
I’ll readily admit if I’m wrong. But you wouldn’t like someone calling you racist if you’re not, just like you don’t like if people call you racist if you don’t agree with Obama’s policies, right? Then I don’t like if people say that I’m calling them racist and them also stating that I’m calling them racist because I don’t agree with their post. Because, that I didn’t do. I would have disagreed if you would have said pop-tarts caused the incident.
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I seem to reblog and repost to facebook much of what you write. please acknowledge such as the compliment it is intended to be. RNL has an intelligence and a direct manner in its writings. keep up the good work.
Hey, Aver1,
My friend, if you like this place, my hats off to you. Oh, it isn’t that i disagree with your assessment (I better not, I’m sort of the 2nd in charge around here). It’s just that the RNL is a rough-and-tumble sort of place to hang out so, if you’re diggin’ on it, you’ve got to be made of my kind of metal. 🙂
As far as the assertions that I was playing the “race card”, let me ask: how is it legitimate to take race into consideration when criticizing Susan Rice, Eric Holder or Obama on Benghazi or Fast and Furious for an objective failure of policy but not legitimate when it may well have played a cultural role in the incident?
I clearly stated that I do not have first hand knowledge of Belcher or his situation other than to see through empirical knowledge that a 25 year old black football player in a league where the majority of the players are black – and by and large come from lower income families and areas – is far more likely to be informed culturally and morally by a “gangsta” culture than a political operative with an Ivy league degree.
Belcher is listed as being from West Babylon, NY and that is a predominantly white, middle class area – which I knew before I wrote this – but based on what I read, Belcher was not a shooting enthusiast and all he owned were handguns. By all accounts, the kid was a straight arrow with no criminal record – so you have to ask if he was impacted by the sports version of the outlaw culture as displayed on your TV screen at college and NFL games and in the arrest records of prominent players like Michael Vick, Lawrence Taylor, Ray Lewis, Chad Johnson and others. It also includes white players who seem to think that they are above the law as well. Gangsta culture is not limited to black players…as augger pointed out, there is Eminem, Insane Clown Posse, Beastie Boys and so on…even middle class and “rich” white kids emulate the culture because they see it as “cool”…
So why is it considered racist or playing the “race card” to bring something up that is easily observable?
Let me state the obvious for you: This shooting was Bush’s fault……..you racist.
You are right. I deserve a spankin’.
Your wish is my command.
“So why is it considered racist or playing the “race card” to bring something up that is easily observable?”
It isn’t. Opportunistic people with either a chip on their shoulder, or an agenda just simply play the card.
“So why is it considered racist or playing the “race card” to bring something up that is easily observable?”
Who brought up race? Not me.
I brought it up in a joking manner. I used Verna’s southern voice. The whole crux of my comment was to show that the individual is the responsible party, not any outside entity; particularly not the govt. Unfortunately, my humour flies over heads….
NEITHER GUNS NOR RACE
have anything to do with
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, MURDER, OR SUICIDE !
Agreed.
OK, everyone, I will share a “personal” story with you. A close friend, mentor, father figure of mine, has operated a small business for 20 + years. About 10 years ago, one of his male employees, who had worked for him for quite some time. A good man. Hardworking, polite, pleasant, etc. ZERO criminal history/arrest. Married and in love with his wife.
His wife tells him she wants a divorce. Unexpectedly to him.
He snaps, kills her and commits suicide. ALL OF US WHO KNEW HIM, WERE SHOCKED BEYOND DISBELIEF. WE KNEW HIM. RESPECTED HIM. STILL CAN’T BELIEVE IT AS I REMEMBER IT.
Sometimes people just SNAP. Only G-d knows why. It just happens.
The tools used are sometimes the man’s own hands by choking, kitchen knives, any blunt object like a broom handle or telephone, or a firearm.
So when some IDIOT calls for GUN CONTROL in response to a trajedy such as this, WATCH FOR IT ! AGENDA ! Not real problem solving, mere AGENDA to disarm lawful people…
I’ve known three Vietnam vets who have died by their own hands. The instrument of choice was different in each case; a heroin overdose (deliberate, he left a note), gas oven, and gun-eating.
Calling for gun control now is like trying to put the whoop-ass back in the can, more trouble than its worth, and ultimately futile.
melfamy, agreed