Controlled Chaos

BlackSox8 not everything is a conspiracy. You talk about reading between the lines...so do it?? There has never been a test of two planes filled with jet fuel flying into two buildings. So I don't give a f*** what reports you heard on radio and tv about how the buildings should have fallen. I saw how the buildings fell. We all did. We heard the phone calls from people on the planes to their loved ones. Go tell a widow that her husband wasn't on the plane he called her from. Go tell her and everyone else who lost someone on that plane...that their loved ones weren't really there. The governement really blew up the pentagon. As for Flight 77 and all it's passengers....umm perhaps an alien spaceship beamed the plane up into space and is currently performaing tests on all their bodies. Wake up....and smell the s*** you're shoveling. Young minds can be so easily influenced....

Beer b****...gotta get me one of these http://poststuff.entensity.net/082804/imag...c=beerb****.jpg

yeah no blood test here. Just 30 bucks and a signature. Unless of course we were 16. Then parents would need to be present. Jesus I can't imagine being married at 16. I was a totally different person. Id say immature...but that really hasn't changed so much...but theres other things... Oh well glad I waited!! Got my heavy partying out of the way Arrivederchi!

Going to get it in about 15 minutes. Wish me luck!

I think www.Psychob****esRUs.com is available! Female 'Jihadis' Get Online Magazine By RAWYA RAGEH, Associated Press Writer DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - An Islamist women's group has launched an Internet magazine aimed at recruiting Arab women to fight holy wars against non-Muslims. The Al-Khansaa magazine, launched about a week ago and expected to appear monthly, also provides fitness tips for female "jihadis," or holy warriors, information on treating injuries and advice on raising children to fight nonbelievers. The magazine, appearing on several extremist Islamic Web sites, claims to have been started "at the initiative" of two slain al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al-Moqrin and Issa Saad Mohammed bin Oushan. In June, security forces killed al-Moqrin, who was believed to be al-Qaida's chief in the Arab peninsula. Oushan, who was killed in July, and al-Moqrin were among Saudi Arabia's 26 most-wanted militants. The magazine said it was produced by the "women's media center" in Saudi Arabia, an Islamic nation where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) was born and Islam's two holiest shrines are located. Cairo-based Islamic expert Mohamed Salah poured scorn on the 22-page magazine, describing it as a "media stunt (by militants) to show their enemies that they can mobilize everyone, including women, against them." "What is new here is the use of the medium of the Internet to recruit women," he added. Al-Khansaa, the periodical's title, was the name of a revered Arab poet who converted to Islam during the time of the 7th century Prophet Muhammad. She later became associated with Muhammad's close acquaintances and was known for eulogies written for her brother, a sturdy fighter in pre-Islamic days. Al-Khansaa also encouraged her four sons to take part in jihad to spread Islam. Her sons died in battle. An unsigned magazine editorial says female Islamists "have set our lines next to our men to support them ... raise their children and be prepared. May God elevate us to martyrs." "We will stand covered in our veils and abayas (ankle-length cloaks), with our weapons in our hands and our children in our arms," it added. "The blood of our husbands and the limbs of our children are an offering to God." Women raising children, it says, must understand their "main mission is to present lions to the battlefield." Saudi journalist Saeed al-Sereihy condemned the magazine in an article published in the daily Okaz, saying its "rhetoric takes a very dangerous turn when it addresses women in light of their educational role and capacity to influence children's upbringing." Evan Kohlmann, a Washington-based counterterrorism expert, said the magazine appeared linked to Islamic extremists who "know about religion and fighting, but (they are) not necessarily people who have an effect over al-Qaida." Its first issue includes tales of famous women fighters and criticism of calls for improved women's rights in Saudi Arabia, a conservative kingdom where women enjoy far fewer freedoms and rights than men. The magazine says even though jihad, in terms of actual fighting, is primarily a man's duty, "women can fight without the permission of their husband or guardian since it would be a duty, and duties do not require consent." The notion is shocking in hard-line Saudi Arabia, where women are obliged to be accompanied by a male guardian at most times, particularly in public. "Theoretically this sounds so interesting, but on the ground it is unrealistic" for female militants to be able to endure the same rigors as males, said Salah, the Egyptian expert. Women did take part in the Egyptian Islamic Group's 1990s anti-government insurgency, Salah noted, and at least four were tried for involvement in violence. Palestinian, Uzbek and Chechen women also have carried out militant acts, including suicide bombings. The Tamil Tigers group fighting for independence in Sri Lanka used a woman, who detonated explosives strapped to her body, to assassinate former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during a 1991 campaign rally. Kohlmann, the U.S. expert, did not rule out the effectiveness of female militants, who he believes can benefit from an element of surprise, as many people don't expect women to carry out terror attacks. "Using women does not really fit the (militant) model ... which makes carrying out operations easier for them," he said. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ilitants_online

It sounds to me that's it's L and M Import/Export of Miami and they seemed arrogant as hell when questioned about it too.

I also received one of those "out of the blue" PM's last week. Cwsox and myself have never really saw eye to eye. Our views on most things are polar opposites. If there was one thing I think we agree on it is soxtalk. It's a place for sox fans to discuss everything from sex to politics, football to hockey, or just plain old baseball, with the common denominator being the analogous infatuation with a team that hasn't won a world seris since Oct. 15, 1917. cwsox, you weren't a sox fan becuase you were an admin on this site...you were an admin on this site because you were a sox fan. Come back and post.

Congrats guys!!!!

Where at? About a block north of Lake on Wells.

I had RICOBENE'S!!!!!!!!!!!! MMMMM they just opened one up right around the corner from my work. At least I never noticed before...it has to be kinda recent.

Ok...so let me get this straight, the govenor is gay. A PA announcer dedicates a song known as "the gay anthem" to him and he got fired????? Can I ask why?? It's a gay song, for a gay guy. If they played the Sopranos theme and dedicated it to James Gandolfini, would the guy even get a second look? Nope!! Soprano's actor = Sopranos song....Gay Govenor = Gay song. Not a big deal. Yes it is very cool, of McGreevey to stand up for what is right. However, I don't see it as a lapse in judgement on the PA announcer, as McGreevey said.

1987: Sharpton spreads the incendiary Tawana Brawley hoax, insisting heatedly that a 15-year-old black girl was abducted, raped, and smeared with feces by a group of white men. He singles out Steve Pagones, a young prosecutor. Pagones is wholly innocent -- the crime never occurred -- but Sharpton taunts him: "If we're lying, sue us, so we can . . . prove you did it." Pagones does sue, and eventually wins a $345,000 verdict for defamation. To this day, Sharpton refuses to recant his unspeakable slander or to apologize for his role in the odious affair. 1991: A Hasidic Jewish driver in Brooklyn's Crown Heights section accidentally kills Gavin Cato, a 7-year-old black child, and antisemitic riots erupt. Sharpton races to pour gasoline on the fire. At Gavin's funeral he rails against the "diamond merchants" -- code for Jews -- with "the blood of innocent babies" on their hands. He mobilizes hundreds of demonstrators to march through the Jewish neighborhood, chanting, "No justice, no peace." A rabbinical student, Yankel Rosenbaum, is surrounded by a mob shouting "Kill the Jews!" and stabbed to death. 1995: When the United House of Prayer, a large black landlord in Harlem, raises the rent on Freddy's Fashion Mart, Freddy's white Jewish owner is forced to raise the rent on his subtenant, a black-owned music store. A landlord-tenant dispute ensues; Sharpton uses it to incite racial hatred. "We will not stand by," he warns malignantly, "and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business." Sharpton's National Action Network sets up picket lines; customers going into Freddy's are spat on and cursed as "traitors" and "Uncle Toms." Some protesters shout, "Burn down the Jew store!" and simulate striking a match. "We're going to see that this cracker suffers," says Sharpton's colleague Morris Powell. On Dec. 8, one of the protesters bursts into Freddy's, shoots four employees point-blank, then sets the store on fire. Seven employees die in the inferno. Sharpton, who has long been dogged by allegations of financial impropriety, was acquitted in 1990 of charges he stole from a civil rights organization and pleaded guilty in 1993 to not filing a state income tax return in 1986. A report filed in July showed that the Internal Revenue Service has begun an audit of his finances, and in August, a travel agency filed a lawsuit claiming he owed them for nearly $200,000 in travel bills. Last week, Sharpton's campaign filed for $100,000 in federal matching funds, plus additional funds of between $30,000 and $75,000. Not to mention he is a full blown racist... Defend away....lucky for you god is on your side....cause your credibility gets worse and worse with each post

Fact is she made a lot of points. You picked out the smart ass comments she made...ie: "Drawing on his vast foreign-affairs experience acquired on the streets of Brooklyn" and "It was entertaining to hear the man who achieved fame with the Tawana Brawley charade" as if that was what her article was about. It was two sentences in the article. Yeah it was bashing from the right, but that's what an article from someone on the right will do....throw a couple left jabs while making the point. Just as someone from the left...hence the majority of major media outlets, throws right jabs while making their point. Right Jabs, Right Uppercuts, Right Roundhouses, Right Elbows, etc.... I just found it very unusal for a black female journalist to criticize Sharpton. He gets a free pass from everyone else. It was nice to see someone criticize him, especially someone he can't claim is a racist. I'm glad you weren't defending Sharpton...he is a liar and a crook and there is no defense for him or his actions. and fact is...Many Republicans have voiced their displeasure with the expansive government growth...Im not sure if she has or hasn't...but you have no right to assume she hasn't...

To include a previous post in your post click QUOTE on the original post. It's possible Garland said that......If a reporter questioned me about being more aggresive I would probably say the same thing. He's not gonna say yeah your right....got any other tips?? He pitches the way he wants to pitch. I'm sure he listens to Coop...I've heard Coop talk about how hard Garland works with him. Besides, I'm not sure if aggresive means attacking hitters and pitching inside...which I totally agree with or if it means acting like an idiot like Zambrano. I like Garland's attitude on the bump....not too high not too low....he just needs to be more consistant. Oh BTW, Welcome aboard!!

Put him out of his misery!!

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/StarPar...p20040803.shtml Sharpton a good fit for Democrats Star Parker I never thought I'd be nodding my head in agreement with Al Sharpton. However, I certainly was when, at the conclusion of his address to the Democratic National Convention, he noted that only in a country as great and free as ours could someone like him run for the nomination for the presidency. Unfortunately, I had to sit through a whole speech of impassioned distortions and insults to America, Americans and particularly black Americans, waiting for Reverend Al to stumble into something true. Drawing on his vast foreign-affairs experience acquired on the streets of Brooklyn, Sharpton opened his remarks by criticizing President Bush's foreign policy. It was entertaining to hear the man who achieved fame with the Tawana Brawley charade attack the president for supposedly misleading the nation. Clearly, Sharpton let our black secretary of state and our black national security adviser off the hook for supposedly misleading the nation on Iraq because surely, in his view, they are just puppets, like all black Republicans, so they can't be held responsible. My particular concern is the destructive and wrong message that Sharpton delivered to all African-Americans in inner cities around our country who listened to his address. What did he tell them? That government doesn't care about your personal life, your moral life or how you conduct yourselves as citizens and as people. But it is the government's job to "guarantee" that food is in your refrigerator. This is exactly what a community that is being torn apart by AIDS, illegitimacy, abortion, crime and 50 percent school dropouts needed to hear. Particularly from someone who calls himself a minister. Sharpton then went on to infer that without political intervention, Clarence Thomas would never have gotten through law school. Another beautiful message to black children. You'll never make it on your own. You're a basket case without government. Don't even believe that that black man who is a justice on the United States Supreme Court is there because of his brains and talent. Is it any wonder that we have problems in the black community? In the Al Sharpton view of the world, blacks who are making it in our country today fall into two categories: those who are making it because government makes it possible for them to make it, and those who are making it because they have sold out and have been bought off by the white establishment. The idea that a black man or woman has innate ability and can make it under any circumstances with faith, values and hard work is either incomprehensible to Al Sharpton or an idea that he perceives too incompatible with his career path to be given any credence. Sharpton claimed that his remarks were constructed to answer the questions that George W. Bush posed in his recent address to the Urban League. Frankly, I would have found it much more interesting if Sharpton chose instead to answer Bill Cosby's questions about why blacks are not waking up to the fact that they need to dump the politics of impotence and victimization and start taking personal responsibility for their lives. There seems to be some good news here, however. Sharpton, in his nomination bid, picked up a whopping 26 delegates, barely 1 percent of the 2,000-plus needed. He finished nowhere in the South Carolina primary, heavily dominated by black voters. Clearly, the Sharpton message to continue worshipping the welfare state is not selling well to black voters. This leaves two questions. First, why did the Democratic Party give a man with no political future, whose presidential bid was a joke, a high-profile speaking slot at the convention? Why, for instance, if they wanted to showcase a black politician, didn't they give the slot to someone like Rep. Harold Ford, who talks about ownership and choice and new ideas for the Democratic Party? The answer here is clearly that the Democrats wanted a black preacher who could stir the crowd up, play to their worst fears and drive home the true agenda of the Democratic Party, which is exactly the left-wing, big-government, welfare-state stuff that Sharpton is talking about. The next question is: If black voters are not buying this agenda from Al Sharpton, why are they buying it from two mega-millionaire white guys who know as much about the realities of life in the inner city as black kids in South Central L.A. know about life at Yale? The Kerry-Edwards ticket is perhaps the wealthiest team to ever run for the White House. Do blacks really need these guys, with their $2,000 suits and $300 haircuts, telling them that they need government to solve all their problems, decide where and how to educate their kids and provide for their health care? As the rappers say, "Let's get real." The Democrats should have just nominated Al Sharpton.

I don't really think Garland and Crede have an "oh well" attitude. I have seen Garland get pissed when he gets out of the game. He usually keeps his cool on the mound, but that doesn't necessarily mean an "oh well" attitude. As for Crede, he definitely seems introverted, but I don't think it has to do with not caring. Plus he is also a pretty dam good 3rd baseman, so if he's not hitting he is contributing in other ways. I think the Loaiza move has alot to do with Ozzie not liking something about him. Whether it's his work ethic or attitude.....I don't know, but I'll trust Oz with his players.

Used to hang around with Jenny McCarthy in high school...but that's about it for me. By the way I would hardly call this a brush with greatness...

I must admit I never thougth about Ozzie's involvement until I read it, but now I think this has as much to do with the trade than anything. I mean I looked at Este's lackluster year. I looked at the Yankee's wanting veterans. I looked at Yankee's not wanting to work with Contrearas any more. I looked at what's wrong with Contreras or what's wrong with Loaiza or what's right with both of them. I looked at a bunch of possible scenarios for the trade, but bottom line is....I don't think Ozzie really cared for E-Lo too much. I mean he called him out a few times this year...all the way back to spring training. I mean he didn't just say "some of our pitchers need to step up" He specifically called Este out. Maybe he told Kenny...if you can move him....DO IT. I'm not judging Ozzie...cause I don't know how Este's attitude was. Ozzie would know better than us. All in all...I like the trade. Hopefully Contreras and his family can get comfortable here. He'll feel stable and start throwin lights out.

This post scares me a little Them postseason stats are a JOKE and I find it laughable they were posted. Contreras' ERA is 5.73 in the postseason. The Contreras-bandwagon is full of delusional liars apparently. DID YOU ALL NOT WATCH THE POSTSEASON LAST YEAR? Do you not recall Contreras pitching? He really did a great job for us starting all those games...........oh wait a minute, he didn't make a single start!!! He jsut came in to do mop-up work and he was terrible at it. He's 0-2 with an ERA of 5.73.....an amazing 11 innings and 7 earned runs. What a stud!!!! I notice that Loaiza's postseason ERA is 3.86. One start, 7 innings and 3 earned runs. Would all of you Contreras lovers saying "that's all that matters" about Jose's great stats care to explain yourselves now that the lies being posted here were exposed? You can't take it back now. Esteban's been better in the postseason and actually made a start!! Shouldn't have looked at the stats before you opened your mouths. You want the real skinny on this trade? Well open your eyes and keep your bias to yoursevles: Esteban Loaiza is averaging 6 2/3 innings PER start this year. Do you all understand that and what it means for this team? This team, as in the Yankees. What is are major concern right now? The overworked bullpen correct? Esteban seems capable of pitching deep into games on a regular basis. Contreras has NEVER done this. Now, do you know who is LAST, I repeat LAST IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE IN INNINGS PER START? That's right, ya boy Jose Contreras who is BARELY averaging 5 innings. Open your eyes people. This deal wasn't made to get us an ace. We don't have the goods to get that done. This was a deal to give us a guy who gives up less runs than headcase Contreras and pitches DEEPER into games to give our bullpen the much needed rest they deserve to be effective come October. Is that too hard to understand? 5 innings a game and an ERA over 5 isn't worth 32 million dollars. We're rid of Contreras. He was never going to make it here. He was flat out terrified to pitch here. Loaiza: 140 innings and 45 walks Contreras 95 innings and 42 walks! Really, you can't slice it anyway and defend Contreras beyond the same stuff that's been said since day one, "He's got such great stuff and he's turning the corner.....just wait till he get it together........CY YOUNG CY YOUNG" Enough is enough. He didn't work out. We salvaged what we could out of him and got a guy that can give our bullpen some much needed rest. Very solid move. Enough said.

Just Moore Lies!!!!!!! Pantagraph to Moore: Headline use 'misleading' Explanation, apology sought By Bill Flick [email protected] BLOOMINGTON -- The Pantagraph has a message for Michael Moore, creator of the movie hit, "Fahrenheit 9/11": If he wants to "edit" The Pantagraph, he should apply for a copy-editing job and not simply show made-over and "falsely represented" pages from the newspaper in his movie -- or he should at least ask for permission first. In a letter drafted Thursday and sent to Moore and the movie's Santa Monica, Calif.-based distributor, Lions Gate Entertainment, the newspaper admonished him for his "unauthorized ... misleading" use of The Pantagraph in the film. He also was cited for copyright infringement. The letter, drafted by J. Casey Costigan of the Bloomington law firm, Costigan & Wollrab, seeks an apology, an explanation of how such a strange discrepancy occurred in his movie and compensatory damages -- of $1. "While we are highly flattered to be included in the movie," said Pantagraph President and Publisher Henry Bird, "we are a bit disturbed that our pages were misrepresented." Previous attempts to reach Moore through Lions Gate by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful. In the film, Moore criticizes President Bush's handling of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the president's and his associates' ties to Saudi Arabian oil interests. In a moment early in the movie, newspaper headlines from around America that relate to the legally contested 2000 presidential election flash across the screen. One of them is purported to be from a Dec. 19, 2001, edition of The Pantagraph. But a check of that day's newspaper revealed the large headline prominently flashed in the movie -- "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election" -- never appeared in that edition. Instead, the headline appeared in a Dec. 5, 2001, edition -- but not as a news headline. It was in much smaller type above a letter to the editor. Those headlines reflect only the opinions of the letter writer and are not considered "factual" news stories. In the movie, The Pantagraph page, as shown, was not how a real page from the newspaper would have looked. Moore's version had a different typeface and a different headline size from what The Pantagraph uses. The newspaper's name, however, appears in the correct font. The letter calls all of this a "misrepresentation of facts." The discrepancy first came to light in a July 16 Bill Flick column. Since then it has become a topic of newspaper articles, radio talk shows and various Web sites. "In an instance that The Pantagraph prints materials in which there is a mistake," the Costigan letter to Moore reads, "it is corrected. It is our hope that you would adhere to the same high ethical standard and correct the inaccurate information which has been depicted in your film." The letter calls into question the ethics of how Moore made his movie, a movie whose primary purpose is to call into question the ethics of the Bush White House. http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/073004/n...040730034.shtml

Everytime I read something by Larry Elder...I say they same thing. It makes too much sense!!

Why Is It Okay to Say "White Trash?" By Larry Elder "LATINO TRASH." Who would dare use that expression -- especially in public? Yet calling poor, presumably morally degenerate Caucasians "white trash" is perfectly OK. On the television show "Politically Incorrect," host Bill Maher and his panel discussed the recent shooting death of a guest who appeared on "The Jerry Springer Show." A couple -- a man and a woman -- accused the man's ex-wife of stalking them. Then the alleged stalker, the man's ex-wife, also appeared on the show. Guess what, learns the alleged stalker, her ex-husband is now ... married! And he's married to the woman who appeared with him on the program! Gotcha! Now, weren't you embarrassed, you stalker. But the show fell flat when the alleged stalker seemed indifferent about the revelation of her ex-husband's new marriage, asserted that she wanted nothing further to do with him, and calmly walked off the stage. But shortly after the program aired, the police in Sarasota, Fla., found the alleged stalker dead, and the couple on the lam. On "Politically Incorrect," Maher asked whether to hold the "Springer" show morally, if not legally, responsible for the guest's murder. One of his panelists called those who appear on such shows "white trash," and humorously suggested that these programs provide a kind of safety valve for troubled guests who, for whatever reason, agree to appear. To this, Maher said, "So you're saying Jerry Springer is doing a service to America by having white trash kill each other?" White trash? Interesting. We live in an era where radio talk-show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger catches fire for calling homosexuals "biological errors." Schlessinger apologized, but protesters remain unappeased. On the NBC program "Will & Grace," critics attacked the show when a character referred to her Salvadoran maid as a "hot tamale." In response, the network dubbed in a less offensive expression. We call illegal aliens "undocumented workers." We call blacks "African-Americans." Fine. But why, then, is it perfectly OK in polite company to call to low-income, often southern-dwelling people "white trash"? Take the President Bill Clinton-Paula Jones scandal. Is there a greater example of the harsh treatment and media pile-on against so-called "white trash"? Recall that Jones, then an Arkansas state employee, claimed then governor Bill Clinton groped her and solicited sex. The National Organization for Women did nothing. Anita Hill, on the other hand, made a far less serious and less provable accusation against then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. She claimed that Thomas wanted to date her, and, among other things, suggestively told her about a pubic hair on his Coke. OK, not exactly one of the greatest opening lines, but Hill and supporters pronounced it sexual harassment. Experts in sexual harassment law considered Jones' case far stronger. After all, she told people about it when it happened and specifically named Clinton as the perpetrator. And in the Jones case, the accused had a pattern of coming on to women -- one of the customary ways in which a plaintiff proves a he-said-she-said sexual harassment case. But Anita Hill became a heroine, a symbol of the oppression women experience in the mean streets of corporate America. NOW championed her cause. Some even likened her to historical black heroines like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth! As for Jones? Remember Clinton defender James Carville's famous line, "Drag $100 through a trailer park and there's no telling what you'll find." In today's era of racial sensitivity, safe targets like white trash remain. Former California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown once called political opponents "white boys." Al Gore's campaign manager, Donna Brazile, referred to the GOP as the "party of the white boys." Comedian Jeff Foxworthy makes a good living by poking fun at "rednecks." But Foxworthy, himself a Southerner, calls his humor respectfully self-deprecating, rather than insulting or dismissive. But apparently anybody can ridicule low-income, uneducated whites by branding them "white trash." Could someone like Bill Maher go on national television and suggest that only "black trash" or "Latino trash" appear on such programs? What's the point? When a guest or host appears on a show like "Politically Incorrect" and derides a category of people by race, that's entertainment. But were the host to blanketly ridicule low-income minorities, that's hate speech. Indeed, many colleges have passed "speech codes," outlawing insensitive or demeaning language directed towards racial or ethnic groups. Try it. Substitute "black trash" for "white trash." After all, a disproportionate number of blacks appear on these tabloid shows. Frankly, by not calling black guests "black trash," aren't we suggesting blacks who appear on "Springer" represent mainstream black America? Now that's insulting. Picking on, demeaning, and ridiculing whites is OK. But by demeaning any group by race, we open the door and grant permission to demean others. Bottom line, either race-based insults are offensive or they're not. Pick one.

Resolutions for the Underprivileged By Larry Elder Victicrat (vik'ti krat) n. (victim + -crat) 1) a supporter of the mentality believing in perpetual victimhood, who blames his or her plight on other person(s), event(s), or circumstance(s); one who refuses to accept personal responsibility for one's own actions. Victicrats blame "outside forces" for their "plight" while rejecting the proposition that nothing succeeds like hard work. Victicrats take comfort in placing the burden of failure or lack of effort on others, rather than looking to themselves, digging in, working hard, and fighting back. Consider yourself blessed if you, like myself, grew up with parents who taught personal responsibility through leading by both word and deed. Yet lacking an in-home role model or role models -- my father grew up as an out-of-wedlock only child -- does not necessarily determine one's fate or destiny. Sometimes one must become one's own role model, a responsibility made easier by following this prescription, originally printed in my first book, "The Ten Things You Can't Say in America": Personal Pledge 32 1. There is no excuse for lack of effort. 2. Although I may be unhappy with my circumstances, and although racism and sexism and other "isms" exist, I know that things are better now than ever, and the future is even brighter. 3. While I may be unhappy with my circumstances, I have the power to change and improve my life. I refuse to be a victim. 4. Others may have been blessed with more money, better connections, a better home environment, and even better looks, but I can succeed through hard work, perseverance, and education. 5. I may be a product of a single or no-parent household, but I will not hold anyone responsible for my present, or allow anyone to interfere with my future. Others succeed under conditions far worse than mine. 6. Some schools and teachers are better than others, but my level of effort, dedication, curiosity, and willingness to grow determine what I learn. 7. Ambition is the key to growth. 8. I will set apart some time each day to think about where I want to go, and how I intend to get there. A goal without a plan is just a wish. 9. "Luck" is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. 10. If suitable role models are not nearby, I will seek them out. 11. A role model is someone who, through hard work and a positive outlook, has achieved. 12. A role model may be a parent, relative, friend, church member, judge, doctor, attorney, businessperson, or someone I've read about in the newspaper or seen on the local news. 13. I will contact role models and seek their advice, guidance, and counsel. People remember when they were my age and are eager to help. 14. I will seek out recommended magazines, articles, books, biographies, videos, and motivational and how-to books, and use them for education and motivation. 15. The light is always green. You cannot go full speed with one foot on the brake. 16. I am always "in school," and I will not waste my summer by failing to read about and speak to people who can inspire me. 17. I will avoid friendship with people who do not share my goals and commitments. Non-supportive relationships waste time and energy. 18. I will not seek immediate results, as I understand life is a journey and not a destination. 19. I will read a newspaper each day. 20. I will entertain myself in ways that challenge and expand my mind. As someone said, a mind once expanded never returns to its original size. 21. I will pay attention to my diet and overall fitness, as they are the keys to a healthy and productive body and an enthusiastic mind. 22. Drugs are stupid. People who believe in drugs don't believe in themselves. 23. I understand that jobs of the future require more preparation and training than ever, and I am determined to obtain the necessary background. 24. A well-rounded, competent student studies math and science. 25. People are not born "deficient in mathematical ability." Through hard work and dedication, the subject can be mastered. 26. It is essential that I learn to speak and write standard English. This is not "acting white," but acting smart. 27. A strong vocabulary is the key to communication, and I will read books on vocabulary enrichment. 28. I expect sometimes to be teased, even ridiculed. This will not stop me; it will only make me stronger and more determined. 29. I control my body and will not create a child until I am spiritually, psychologically, educationally, and financially capable of assuming this awesome responsibility. 30. Life is difficult. I expect setbacks and will learn from them. Struggle creates strength. 31. Every day is precious, and one without growth is squandered. 32. There is only one me, and I'm it!

Can I borrow 5 bucks?