It almost goes without saying that a black man in America, and for that matter black people around the world, by and large associate with the Democratic party though they are noticeably ignorant and only blindly subscribe to their policies. The simple truth of the matter is that if you really stop and think about it, blacks are much more attuned to the ideology of the Grand Old Party than to the Democratic or Libertarian stance. It was a Republican (Abraham Lincoln) that signed the Emancipation Proclamation (albeit under duress) formally abolishing slavery, Republicans support less taxes and less involvement in the day to day lives of citizens, and the laundry list goes on and on.

If blacks do indeed have the same ideals as Republicans then why do so many identify with Democrats? I believe a lot of it has to do with the GOP’s name. It sounds classist and exclusionary with a huge throwback to slavery and the Great House. All in all it kinda rubs you the wrong way. This alone couldn’t be the reason however (one would hope) and I’m sure each person could give their own story. I’m no exception.

Again, if the views of republicans line up almost purposefully with my own, then why do I trumpet my democratic status. It’s simple really; I’m a Democrat because Republicans are nonsensical and oxymoronic. If that comes off as a little too harsh then lets just say that at the very least they’re…convenient.

Their policies of less taxes and more independence come from the concept of “small government”. The idea being that citizens should not have the government interfering with there day to day lives, and should be granted certain inherent freedoms. This comes from the belief that the Free Market is a perfect, self correcting entity that will always work out for the economy’s and its citizen’s best interest. Now while there are many instances of the market healing from a scratch or a jolt, there’s zero evidence that this mantra holds true for gaping wounds. The Great Depression (1929) and The Greater Depression (2008) are both instances of the market failing horribly and in both instances the government (correctly) intervened. The idea that if left alone, the market will always (eventually) be in the right seems to be an unrealisable fantasy. None the less, this is what Republicans believe and while I disagree with it, that’s not what I have a problem with. My problem is that their idea of small government only extends as far as giving you freedoms that do not trample on their own moral judgement. The things that are personal and *should* be left to individual judgement are being governed by persons with a “I’m right, fall in line” mentality. If they believe that the government should stay out of our lives then they have no business legislating about issues such as gay marriage and abortion. Regardles of my own stance on those or any such issue, I don’t believe the impact on my own sense and sensibility gives me right or reason to impede on someone else’s decisions. In other words, stay out of their lives. Be a small government.

The moral right is highly subjective. Parents, friends, school, community and church have the voting majority in moulding your view of the world. It seems to me that Democrats realise this, and as such don’t impose their will in areas where shades of gray exist. When it doubt, let them work it out. When you start to govern with a view of not just managing the business of the country but also its moral fibre, then it’s easy to develop a school of thought that those who don’t agree with you are against you. And we’ve seen where that leads.

So I’m a Democrat because I differ morally with some beliefs of Republicans and the convenient way in which some issues require small government while others do not. My wish is that more (black) persons would pause for a minute and figure for themselves why they’re drawn to the party, though it might be too late to make sense from all the noise. With Obama in the White House, it’s pretty hard to think you need any reason beyond that.

In a world where spelling, context, and proper sentence structure is all but ignored by anyone under the age of 25, what was once the scourge of online discussion threads may be the only ones who can keep the English language alive for future generations. The Grammar Nazzi (Also referred to as Grammer Police in homage to their kin, The Spelling Police) spend a disproportionate amount of time trolling around online forums and comment threads, not learning or contributing to the collection of knowledge found therein, but rather to point out to unsuspecting posters their abysmal inability to properly wield the Queen’s idiom. Grammar Nazis are far from revered and are in fact considered by some to be one of the lowest forms on life on the internet, just above spammers and MySpace pervs. This however does not negate the value of the selfless service that they provide to the interwebz at large.

This has been a bad few years as far as language is concerned. As a devout English speaker it pains me to see my mother tongue butchered the way it has. Being monolingual, I can’t speak with any certainty about the state of any of the other 3 languages in existence, but I get the distinct impressions that English has been the martyr for everyone else. Displaying for all to see the evils of late night blogging. chatroom hijinx and the rapid decay of formal structure that follows when left unabated. It has been the endless march of the Grammar Nazis that have brought this evil to light. Standing on “Reply to this” soup boxes, they have made us realise and face the horrible truths of our lazy, grammatically incorrect ways.

There was a time when they would not have had a place in popular culture. In fact there was a time when the act itself would be fruitless. I speak of a time gone by when language was respected, and the quill was only wielded by a select few whom, I assume, had taken a blood oath to protect the words with which they welted us with the weight of their worldly wisdom. Before everyone with a random thought in their head had an avenue to present it to the world, there was no need for policing. The power resided with a select few and there was order in the world. As those days are now long behind us so too is our collective trust that sentences have proper word placement and context. Because of this we owe acknowledgment, if nothing else, to the men and women living in basements who have answered the call to correct us and be loathed for all their days.

Shun them if you must, but they are truly the heroes of the written word, champions of transcribed speech and the last line before we free fall into the never ending abyss of linguistic hell.

Being hated is a wonderful thing. You might not understand this until you give it some serious thought, so let me save you some time. Simply put, being hated is a good indicator of you doing something and going places with your life.

When people take time out of their own lives to form such strong opinions of you it’s one of two things: you’re either doing something very wrong or doing something very right. If it’s the former, it takes nothing at all for people to simply ignore you and move on. If you’re living a less than stellar lifestyle people will react according to whether they want your kind of influence around them and often times they wont. This simply means that the vast majority of times when someone makes their dislike of you known, something is going well for you.

Borrowing from the insightful Kat Williams, Haters are gonna hate. That’s just what they do. It’s a very peculiar human trait, some persons just don’t like to see others doing better than they are. Whether you’re ahead of them or stepping on their coattails, people like being the fastest mover and, if they can, will apply the required pressure on you to slow your roll. On it’s own this can simply be entertaining, but it can at times affect you personally, professionally and monetarily if the person with this character flaw is put in a position to derail you. Whether it be directly via authority, indirectly via associations, or passively by the misuse of information, a person who feels strongly enough can interfere with your game plan. This means you always have to be on the lookout. As you tally up your list of haters make sure you keep them in check and avoid any influence they may have on you. If you can accomplish that then it’s smooth sailing.

Once you’re at the point where you can observe these individuals for the pure entertainment that they provide, then you’ll fully realise; being hated is a wonderful thing.

I’m getting old. I know I’m getting old because whenever I hear a ball being kicked outside my house I look out the window just waiting to yell at the kids to get off my lawn (they’re never actually on my lawn, but that doesn’t quell the urge). For the last 20 years or so I’ve been trying to come to grips with it and to age gracefully; I’m still trying. While it doesn’t depress me I can’t help but think about how much time I’m losing and not doing anything with it. Every second you waste is (as best we know) gone forever and I’ve frankly wasted more than average.

Exactly how old am I? My age can be summed up in 2 words: Circle Square. For those too young to know or too old to remember what the heck I’m talking about, just liken it to the Barney of today (is that still on the air?). This was one of the ways my generation learned sharing, caring and talking about our feelings. It was Canadian so probably not very popular to the other 50 states or the rest of the world, but in Jamaica it was probably the only thing that our lone television station could afford to syndicate. It wasn’t all bad, I mean I even got the song book with Super Hymnal Action. HIYAH!!!

At this stage I can’t help but think that I should be making some life changing affirmation about grabbing life by the horns and making the best of each day, but I’ll be honest: I’m in bed right now and will probably be taking a nap as soon as I finish typing this. I say nap because I will most certainly be wide awake again by 12 when the munchies kick in. A Carpe Diem moment this is not.