The “Honorable” James David Manning is the pastor of the ATLAH World Missionary Church located in ATLAH, New York.

Manning even blames Obama for the “Obama Girl” video that Barack had nothing to do with — and confesses that that was the first time Manning had even heard of Obama, while others of us were writing about Barack long before that.

Maybe he should read the real Word of God, and the account of what the Lord did to Miriam when she dogged out Moses’ interracial marriage…

Michele Hirschman - Who is Eliot Spitzer’s Attorney?

In all the buzz about Eliot Spitzer’s sex scandal (finding some of us waiting with bated breath for him to resign and let David Paterson, the soon-to-be-oh-please-Lord-please first African-American governor of New York rise to the top), I just heard on the news that Michele Hirschman would be Spitzer’s lawyer.

I can spell Michele Hirschman…

…but who is she, I wondered, once I finally figured out that her name’s not spelled Michelle nor Hirshman, but Michele Hirschman, so I went-a-Googling.

And the above clickable pic that leads to a short piece about Spitzer crying and infers Michele Hirschman was there for the “Oprah” moment, but the question is, which one is she?

Doesn’t this Spoiling for a Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer just beg for a follow-up — let’s see who gets it to print first — titled “The Fall of Eliot Spitzer: The Emperor Club Has No Clothes”?

You writers can have that one for free…

Robert Downey, Jr. pic of white actor in black face and body…

I keep looking at the pic of Robert Downey, Jr. as a black man in the upcoming movie called Tropic Thunder.

(Too bad TropicThunder.com is already taken. I checked…)

The movie sounds fascinating — with Ben Stiller having first gotten the idea for the film 20 years ago, and the first movie he’s directed since 2001.

Anyway, the only way I can really tell that’s Robert Downey, Jr. is from his eyes — I’d know those Less Than Zero eyes anywhere.

“How long, Jane? How did it take you to *$%@ my best friend?”

Sorry — I had a Robert Downey, Jr. flashback to 1987 in a role so excellent that we know now why he played a drug addict so convincingly.

When he died at the end of Less Than Zero riding in that convertible, I think I might’ve almost cried.

Of course I’ve been watching his ups and downs and rooting for Downey to overcome his demons with the rest of the world.

And now that he seems to have a leg up on things, how will the black viewing public react to the picture of Robert Downey, Jr. as a black man?

Will Robert Downey Jr.’s black face…

…go over better than Ted Danson’s black face did back in 1993?

Maybe so.

Maybe not.

We’ll see.

African-Americans like me love Ben Stiller and Robert Downey, Jr. — yet the black face on a white man raises all sorts of issues that I’m sure will be bandied about.

Folks will be sure to ask why the role didn’t go to a real black man, to which the filmmakers’ reply will inevitably be because that would negate the whole white-man-playing-a-black-man-movie-within-a-movie plot line.

Just like when C. Thomas Howell went black for “Soul Man” — there was much controversy then.

I watched “Soul Man” when I was a teenager, and back then I didn’t see what the big deal was.

I just hoped it was educational for white boys in real life when C. Thomas Howell’s black character got pulled over by the cops.

Now I understand more about the dearth of roles for African-Americans in Hollywood films that just ticks this kind of thing off more so than people might assume it would…

But Stiller is a funny writer and actor, so it’ll be interesting to see how far the black-I’m-really-a-white-man controversy goes.

Black Like Me Did it Best…

Black Like Me is a book by John Howard Griffin that I read some time ago, but it’s about a real white man who took tanning pills and really turned his skin darker for a while and really lived like a black man.

He got beat up and lived in such a sad state.

That’s the best interpretation I’ve ever seen of a journalist really wanting to get the real story.

As Stiller said, it depends on the context and treatment of the storyline.

Black people complained that Soul Man and Ted Danson did it in a buffoonish manner of sorts.

Will Ben Stiller make us change our minds?






Labels: Robert Downey, Jr. black man,robert,downey,blackface,black man pics,black man,pic,photo,trailer,movie trailer,watch online, tropic thunder,african-american,african,american,boycott,box office,funny,comedy

I’ve made money with them before on my WatchFreeEpisodes.com, but I’d removed the player and now I’m experimenting with putting it back.

Trouble is, many trusted YouTube channels’ videos aren’t showing up in my player: Like Ask The Builder, Ask the Decoration, TV Guide and others.

So I’m going with the entertainment category, and I’m wondering if it will show up inside my post on WordPress. I know this is harder to accomplish on Blogger, so I’ll try it over here.

If you see a video player here, it worked…

This IAT Test was written about recently in Newsweek, and purports to tell us about our secret prejudices.

Of course people who’ve grown up around racism would show up with racist tendencies.

I wonder if the IAT test shows any racists tendencies in blacks who’ve been subjective to negative images of other blacks on the news and such all our lives — and how that affect our view of our own race.

Okay, if there’s a simple way to take this test without wading thru all the psychologists’ long speak, let me know.

A listing on Google Hot Trends read as such:

Klu Klux Klan Endorses Obama

Daily Squib (satire) , UK - Feb 07, 2008

Placards for Barack Obama have been put up around the Klan’s Headquarters and the KKK have announced a television ad campaign to support the African …

Did the KKK really endorse Obama?

And now you can see that KKK-endorsing-Obama post has been set to forbidden.

The problem is, other folks are picking up on the KKK and Obama story as if it’s the Gospel truth.

However, Snopes is on the case to quickly dismiss the KKK and Obama piece as what it was intended to be: satire.

I remember I read TheOnion.com years ago, it took me forever to realize it was satire.

The issue continues, obviously, because people are searching up a storm for these terms:

kkk endorses obama, kkk obama, kkk supports obama, obama kkk, ku klux klan endorses obama

As if we would care if they did endorse him…

I couldn’t get it out of my head when I saw that BlackPlanet.com was on the list as one of the websites we’ll be able to target our ads to.

Though I don’t use BlackPlanet.com that much any more, I get a lot of friend requests from people using the site, and I know it’s very popular.

So I signed up to be a beta tester and got this reply email so far from the Google Team:

Dear advertiser,

We appreciate your interest in participating in our Demographic Bidding beta
test.

We’re in the process of inviting more participants, but due to the high
volume of applications, it may take some time before we are able to invite
you to participate.

If you’d like to learn more about the demographic bidding so that you’ll be
ready when we open up the beta to additional participants, we suggest
reviewing our frequently asked questions at
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=80588

Thank you for your patience. We look forward to providing you with a new way
to meet your advertising goals.

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team

I hope I get in soon.

Blacks’ buying power is in the billions, more than that of the gross national products of some nations — and is projected to grow in leaps and bounds.

It’s good to have a more clearcut way to tap into that prosperity on the online marketing side of things.

Let me know if you’re a beta tester and how the demo ad targeting works for you.

And I guess the hype hasn’t died down.

I couldn’t even get on SteveHarvey.com yesterday, and JetMagazine.com won’t work for me today.

I guess a whole lotta people still want to see his bald head.

Steve’s bald head looks fine to me. I like that he says at 51, he’s on top of the hill, not over it — as some woman said to him.

I’ll be turning 39 — Lord willing — this April, so I can understand the feelings behind growing older and trepidations that can surround it.

But he looks good. It’s an honest look. And bald is still in, so who cares? As long as he’s comfortable in his own skin.

More than what’s on top of his head, I like to know more what’s in a man’s head, and in his heart, most importantly.

Of course I mentally assented to the fact that there is a hell.

But the author’s experience there makes you want to “walk over broken glass,” as one woman said to a friend of mine, to prevent people from going there.

The torture and the continual pain were the things that caught my attention — it’s not the nicey nice party place falsely portrayed in some lying circles.

I haven’t read it yet, but the things he espoused on the show made sense and struck a chord within me.

“Follow your passion, the things you want to do…” Tommy said, which seems to be a common refrain as of late around me.

It makes sense.

Whatever you want to do the most, the stuff you lose time doing because you’re so joy-filled doing it — that’s probably your life’s calling.

And his other book — prolific guy! — called The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life, highlights the wisdom of Philippians 4:8:

Finally, my brothers and sisters, always think about what is true.
Think about what is noble, right and pure.
Think about what is lovely and worthy of respect.
If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, think about those kinds of things.

Sounds like good advice…