TwoEdgedWords

Blacks' dilemma with Obama - Star Parker

2011-08-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

We have a black president and blacks are worse off -- not just a little, but a lot worse off.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Star Parker

http://www.urbancure.org/article.asp?id=3282

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Election of our nation's first black president is delivering an unexpected message to our black population.

Blacks are discovering that what a man or woman does -- their actions -- is what matters, not the color of their skin.

It seems ridiculous to point out that this was supposedly the point of the civil rights movement. Purge racism from America.

But blacks themselves have been the ones having the hardest time letting it go.

It is not hard to understand why black Americans were happy that a black man was elected president of the United States. It was kind of a final and most grand announcement that racism has finally been purged from America.

But for the highly politicized parts of black America this was certainly not the only message. Because for the highly politicized parts of black America, the point has always been to keep race in American politics.

For black political culture that dominated after the civil rights movement, the point was not just equal treatment under the law, but special treatment under the law. Plus the assumption that more black political power -- defined by more blacks holding office -- would mean that blacks would be better off.

In other words, post-civil rights movement black political culture embraced an agenda exactly the opposite of what the civil rights movement was about. Its agenda was to get laws and policies that were not neutral but racially slanted and to put individuals in power based on their race and not on their character and capability.

So, according to the script of this political culture, election of a black man as president meant more than an end to racism. The conclusion had to be that if the man holding the highest political office in the nation was black, it must follow that blacks would be better off.

Now blacks have a dilemma. We have a black president and blacks are worse off. Not just a little, but a lot worse off.

In the words of longtime Congressional Black Caucus member Maxine Waters, D-Calif., "Our people are hurtin'.."

Blacks now grapple with two possible conclusions.

One, our black president is a traitor to his race. Our struggles put him in power and now he's not taking care of his folks. He's become, in the words of left wing professor and activist Cornel West, a "mascot" of Wall Street.

Or, two, that the man's performance reflects his views and his capability, not his race. He's not delivering for anyone. Blacks are hurting more because they were already in worse shape when Obama got elected. Bad policies hurt the weakest the most.

And it happens that the bad policies that have always failed are the big government liberalism that has defined modern black politics.

With further thought, blacks might realize it's this same flawed idea -- that growing government and electing black politicians would make blacks better off -- that explains why blacks have remained disproportionately "hurtin".

Take the Congressional Black Caucus itself. The average poverty rate in Black Caucus districts is almost 50 percent higher than the national average. Yet, these black politicians have 100 percent re-election rates.

Maybe a real bonus that will have come from electing a black president is that blacks will take seriously Dr. King's dream that we judge men by their character and not their color.

The Civil Rights Movement took blacks to the edge of the Promised Land. But political activism can only remove barriers to freedom.

It's up to the individual to embrace freedom and take on the personal responsibilities that go with it.

Maybe blacks will realize that they should blame Barack Obama. Not because he is black, but because he is a liberal. And because he has grown government to the point where the oxygen necessary for freedom and prosperity is being squeezed out of our nation.

Star Parker (parker@urbancure.org) is president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education and author of the newly released and revised "Uncle Sam's Plantation."

Volusion Ecommerce - Free shipping & fixed shipping items in same cart break system (also custom shipping fail)

2011-08-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

I've already sent multiple support tickets and made many phone calls to no avail. Tech support suggested that I post this issue here.

We urgently need a solution for the shipping problems we are experiencing with our website. I have spent a number of days with the tech support team, and they have tried to provide assistance, but it seems that there are widespread problems with your system. And it is beginning to look as if we are paying for a service that is unable to fulfill basic eCommerce needs.

Here's the situation:

We sell wine.

There are certain states to which we are legally unable to ship wine.

We use a custom shipping fulfillment service (not UPS or FedEx)

Some products have a fixed shipping cost

Some products qualify for free shipping.

Here's what I've done and what's failed.

I have setup a custom shipping profile called "Custom Carrier" id=1. It contains a list of excluded states. I have tried setting it as a FIXED rate system using the shipping cost per product, and I've tried setting it to BACKUP and using a price per pound shipping method. In BOTH cases numerous similar issues occur. For example, take the case where I'm using the FIXED system.

Case 1: Product has a non-0 weight.

If my cart contains ONLY products which have a fixed shipping cost AND if the product has a WEIGHT, then the custom shipping method never works, and ALWAYS defaults to "Downloadable", which makes no sense because the product is NOT weightless and the downloadable shipping option is marked as INACTIVE.

Case 2: Product weight is set explicitly to 0

If the fixed shipping product weight is entered explicitly as 0, then the correct fixed price shipping appears, however the custom method FAILS to exclude states.

Case 3: Product weight is NULL

Shipping ALWAYS defaults to downloadable, even though a fixed shipping cost is entered for the product, and the downloadable option is supposed to be inactive.

Correct Result SHOULD BE:

If I enter an allowed state, Custom Carrier calculates weight per product according to their Fixed shipping cost. If a user selects an excluded state and no other active shipping method can be found, then the MISSING method should be returned.

But this is not what happens.

Similarly, if I have ONLY free shipping items in my cart, which have to follow the same excluded state rule, if I select an excluded state, I get the download option.

But there's also another problem. If I add BOTH a fixed shipping item AND a free shipping item to the cart, then the shipping field NEVER works. It always returns the downloadable option even if I select an approved state.

The products that qualify for free shipping are large heavy 12 bottle cases of wine. They ship INDIVIDUALLY in all cases. These products are set as "Free Shipping Items". The Free shipping method is enabled. I have also checked the "Ships by itself" item which by your own system says; "With this option enabled, a product's shipping rate charge will be calculated by itself, as if the product was purchased as a stand alone order."

So, then WHY do both the fixed shipping rate products and the free individually shipped products appear in the same form? And WHY do they have any collective effect on the functionality of the shipping dropdown menu?

The latest response from tech support has said that a customer simply cannot order a free shipping item and a paid shipping item at the same time because the Volusion system doesn't support it. Which is simply ridiculous.

As far as I can tell I'm using your system as intended. If I'm doing something wrong, then please tell me so that I can fix it. However so far it seems that Volusion simply can not handle our fairly basic shipping requirements.

CarlaRiggi

Store Owner

An Apathetic America

2011-07-01T10:01:00.001-07:00

ap·a·thy/ˈapəTHē/

Noun: Lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern.

Food for thought!!

In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal
policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

The Obituary follows:

                        Born 1776, Died 2008
            It won't hurt to read this several times.


Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:

Number of States won by:            Obama: 19

McCain: 29

Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000

McCain: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million

McCain: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:

Obama: 13.2

McCain: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the
"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million illegal immigrants - and they vote - then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

This is truly scary! Of course we are not a democracy, we are a
Constitutional Republic. Someone should point this out to Obama. Of course we know he and too many others pay little attention to The Constitution.

There couldn't be more at stake than on Nov 2012.

If you as concerned as I am please pass this along.

Meet Lindsey Piscitell - Excercising Freedom Speech is not as Free as She Thought

2011-06-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

[To get the full story check out http://www.theblaze.com]
Copied from: http://thedarjeelingexpress.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/meet-our-asshole-of-the-week-lindsey-piscitell/

“Lindsey Piscitell is a twenty-something New Yorker/San Franciscan/Nomad who likes to think of herself as a member of the creative underclass. In between panic attacks and espresso-fueled internet benders she likes to write short stories and also sometimes poetry.”
Anyone who describes herself as a member of the creative underclass is conveying the following:
‘I write short stories, aka pieces, and my work is unknown because I’m unskilled at it. I’m unskilled at it, but I insist on doing it and branding myself as a writer because it makes me feel relevant. In the meantime I write for a zine!’
The truth is “creative underclass” means something far simpler: unemployed and unemployable hippie losers with no working skills to speak of, and no redeeming social value (i.e. are completely useless in a capitalist society) whatsoever. We sit around and write amateurish stories and poetry all day that no one will ever read. We submit our stories for short story contests, some of them get published by random nobodies (we’re still unpublished) and it makes us happy.
…
I’m not a regular Glenn Beck follower. I don’t have strong feelings about the man one way or the other. I don’t love him. I don’t hate him. But I certainly can’t stand rude assholes like Lindsey Piscitell who violate personal space. I can’t stand deranged toolbags who feel the need to be obnoxious New Yorkers in front of a man who is simply trying to enjoy an evening with his family. When you’re out with your wife and daughter in NYC you are as vulnerable as you can be because you’re trying to protect the only two people who mean the world to you. Your only purpose in life at that moment is to completely protect them from harm. And some asshole like Piscitell has to be a total bitch (sorry, there’s no other word) while the man is minding his own business and not bothering anyone. You throw wine on his wife — what is the best way for him to defend his family right at that moment? Tell me. How is he supposed to respond? The man has been on his Gandhi ‘turn the other cheek’ kick for a year. What’s he going to do? Respond to Piscitell? Chew her out? Move to another part of the park (give Piscitell that satisfaction?) My gawd, the man is with his daughter. Can’t you pick another time to be a total asshole??
Here’s Piscitell’s tweet:

dANGLINGbABY‎: Fucking #asshole @glenbeck is siting next to me at Bryant park movie night #getthefuckoutofmycity [pic]

Oh! So it’s your city now?? Manhattan was built off the backs, not of the “creative underclass”, but off the sweat and ingenuity of people Ms. Piscatell would take issue with: those evil, corporatist fat-cats with their big wallets, their clever ideas that allow people to get employed, and their tendency to throw their money and invest all over the City. Entrepreneurs, capitalists, ya know, people who dig money. People like Beck who apparently has done quite well for himself with his radio career. He wants to watch The 39 Steps with his kid, and this asshat Piscitell is just so offended that a Republican or conservative would show up to watch an Alfred Hitchcock film; as if true art only belongs to the cultured elites of the creative underclass and you’re repulsed that a know-nothing Neanderthal like Beck would show up (oh lord, he might share your taste in film and art. god forbid!) You’re so emotionally disturbed that you can’t get over yourself for a couple of hours??
This is what these people do, right? They have no real use in society. They bitch and moan. They’re frustrated with their lives. Persistently unhappy. Their writing doesn’t get published by a major publishing house (writing being the one field they feel they’re exceptional at). They suspect they’ve been giant disappointments to their parents who’ve been supporting them financially for years. Ya know, liberals.
So Piscitell claims that spilling wine on Beck’s wife was a “happy accident” (‘happy’? really? keep it class, asshole). But then there’s this tweet from Piscitell’s friend, Marissa Barker, in response to Pisc’s tweet about Beck:

Yes… “accidentally”. What a gem this one is. Her parents must be ever so proud.
More on Piscitell:

Lindsey Piscitell

Marketing & Media Strategist

Greater New York City Area

Marketing and Advertising

Current

Marketing and Media Manager at Roomorama.com

Past

East Coast Marketing Manager at Genesis Today, Inc.
Field Marketing Manager Northeast at Mix1 Beverage Company
New York City Marketing Coordinator at IZZE Beverage Company (Division of PEPSICO)
- Team Manager/ Research Assistant, Dept. Of Sociology atNew York University
- Intern at WCBS News Radio 880
- Law Intern at Dechert LLP
- Part Time Administrative Assistant at DAMG Worldwide

Education

New York University

A marketing and media strategist? Haha…okay, sure. Is there another more completely useless and uninformative job title in Manhattan? Basically you’re unemployed because you’re a loser. Another NYU genius.
Here are some more pics of Piscitell. She’s a peach, ain’t she. Lil’ miss “creative underclass”.

Here’s what Piscitell looks like mid-sentence as she’s harassing regular, hard-working people who have as much right to hang out in Bryant Park and watch classy movies as she does:

Here’s Piscitell on the left in all her toothy glory:
Piscitelli is the reason NYC went from being one of the awesome cities in the world to being one of those cities with a bunch of rude, obnoxious assholes. Thanks, Piscitell. You can’t leave people be? You can’t let a man enjoy a picturesque evening in Bryant Park? You have to be the rude, obnoxious New Yorker? You’re not even from New York, asshole. You’re a regular loser, leach, twat who contributes NOTHING to the city, but you take it upon yourself to throw wine on some woman you don’t even know. Classy.
If you wish to tell Ms. Piscitell your feelings personally, by all means: Lindsey.Piscitell@gmail.com or lindsey@roomorama.com (thanks, d)
[Whether or not I agree with Glenn Beck on particular issues, I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies to Mr. Beck, his wife, and his daughter. It's a shame they had to be exposed to Lindsey Piscitell. I feel bad your wife was essentially assaulted, and it saddens me that your daughter had to come face to face with the realities of people like Piscitell and their deranged version of civil and tolerant behavior.]