Andretti is 2 for 2

John Andretti was able to qualify for this weekend's NASCAR race in Fontana, CA. Let's hope that he has a stronger finish than last week. Go John!

Tavis on Healthcare

Tavis Smiley hosted a forum on African American and healthcare today on C-SPAN. I found his behavior to be very tiresome. He wise-cracked the throughout the performance. When he wasn't wise-cracking, he was "keeping it real" with all sorts of side-bar comments and distracting theatrics.

This is not the first time that I have seem him behave as if he is running for the position of king of Black America. He is our spokesman, our most authentic voice. As if we all think alike. And where were the people who had points of view that did not match his? Where were the conservative voices? Where were the libertarian perspectives? He is clearly not interested in these groups and neither was his audience.

The show was laden with empty calories. What a waste.

Chuck Colson

I was able to listen to Chuck Colson on Bill Bennett's Morning in America. I appreciated his comment that conservatives adhere to "revealed truths" . Revealed truths are not about liberals' favorite words: "should," "ought," "fair," "must," "can't," and "if."

Revealed truths are about "is." People who are liberal cannot accept some things are just as they are. A power greater than man ordained things to be as they are. One of our jobs is to accept those things which cannot be changed. Too many miserable policies have been created backed by "ought" "fair," "must," "can't," and "if." Oh yeah, I forgot about "but," "if's" best friend.

I used to be an "if-but" kind of guy. The path to a good excuse is paved with plenty of "ifs" and "buts." I catch myself now when I start to use "if." Now I tell folks that I don't believe in "if," only "is." I had to adjust my language and, more importantly, my behavior to comport with reality. Dropping "if" and "but" was (and still is) a significant endeavor.

Fowler, NFL

The following appeared in the Baltimore Sun:


Vikings bidder's claims don't square with facts
By Jay Weiner
Minneapolis Star Tribune
February 17, 2005
MINNEAPOLIS - In a biographical fact sheet, Reggie Fowler - who earlier this week announced he had signed an agreement to buy the Minnesota Vikings - declared that he'd played in the Little League World Series, implied he'd earned a business administration degree from the University of Wyoming and said he played for the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals and the Canadian Football League's Calgary Stampeders. Apparently, none of those claims is accurate.

What is going on with this guy? Sounds like he has some major character defect(s). If he is not accurate on his bio-sketch, where else is he inaccurate? His personal financial statement? Could you imagine negotiating a contract with this guy?

I am sure that there are more qualified black suitors out there that the NFL could court. I sure hope that the NFL won't come out and defend this guy. My guess is that the league knows it has a tiger by the tail. If they promote Reggie Fowler, they know that there will be big trouble in the future. If they push Fowler aside, the black mis-leaders will scream and cry and make headlines. Let's hope that the NFL does not cave in.

As an aside, Tedy Bruschi did not have a minor stroke; there is no such thing. Every stroke is a major event. "Minor" strokes happen in persons other than the individual who is declaring it a "minor" stroke. In other words, a "minor" stroke happens in the other guy.

Kings and Queens

If you have listened to black talk radio or to a black history lecture, you have probably heard that we are the descendants of "kings and queens." The speaker receives adulation, but the royalty premise is never challenged. It is possible that some of us are descendants of kings and queens, but what about the rest of us? Were some of us descendants of ne'er-do-wells? Thugs? Solid cititizens, but whose feats were nothing to write home about? Of course. We are descendants of the accomplished as well as the unaccomplished. Winners and losers.

Why must the "kings and queens" comment be brought forth so often? Are we so in need of a boost in self esteem, that we have to make a shallow grab for royalty? Are we that unsure of our intrinsic merit that was conferred to us just for being born? Some of us are just that insecure.

Enough of that false pride. Let's hear it for our ancestral losers. They shaped us as much as our winners.

Nascar

My eyes will be glued to thetelevision set at 1 PM this Sunday as NASCAR season has returned. Happily, John Andretti has qualified for the big show at Daytona. My hope is that his season is successful. Top 20 would be awesome, but may not be achievable, but we shall see.

Henry Vinton Plummer

"The Army's first active-duty black chaplain" is cleared.

Pears?

This morning I was (as usual) listening to Bill Bennett's Morning in America. At one point, his wife essentially took over the show. It reminded me of something I saw in the Lexington Market in Baltimore. I was there shopping for pears one day when I saw a little sticker on one brand of pears. The sticker read "Ripe when yields to gentle pressure." I thought, that isn't the definition of a good pear, but the definition of a good husband!

This morning, Bill was ripe.

WMD's Were Found

We found weapons of mass destruction: we captured one (Saddam Hussein) and killed two (Uday and Qusay). Is there anything else that needs to be said? No.

Debt Again

I was about to write about how long it had been since I had heard any reparations noise, but then I opened the Baltimore Sun yesterday and there it was: reparations blather. I sent the following letter to the editor:

In her essay "Healing the Divide," Taunya Lovell Banks argues that "racial reconciliation" is the missing component to the argument for reparations. Rather than unearth this key component, Professsor Banks has shown us a new whip for the proverbial dead horse. The good news about the argument for reparations is that its time has come. The bad news is that its time is long gone. My grandfather's parents were eligible for reparations, but I am not.