Slow News Day (Beyoncégate)

Well the question has been answered and America can breathe a sigh of relief. As the war persists in Afghanistan, civil unrest and religious conflict continue to plague the Middle East and the U.S. economy remains in need of resuscitation, yes folks the question has been answered, it’s true. Beyoncé pulled a Milli Vanilli while singing the national anthem at the presidential inauguration last week and the nation’s outraged. So has the press done anything to find out who is behind this travesty of a performance? Did President Obama know about this fraudulent presentation beforehand and is he a participant in the cover-up, or was he lied to as well. Was the White House sound technician part of the conspiracy? Did Beyoncé impose conditions on the United States Marine Band that backed her up? America demands the truth! Seriously, who gives a flying f*ck and why has so much press been devoted to this? With all the media fallout you would think she had been caught secretly shopping for outfits at Wal-Mart or something (although some of those House of Deréon so called fashions designed by her mother…just saying).

To be honest, those who watched expected and got a Beyoncé performance, which was all that was promised. It’s not like she did a lip synched performance to someone else’s vocals and tried to pass them off as her own (coughs Paula Abdul’s name). So why the outrage? New York Senator Chuck Schumer who organized and hosted the event says he is still waiting for an apology from Beyoncé, to which I have to ask, really senator? An apology? All references to hell freezing over aside I think the senator may be waiting a while, mainly because I don’t think she owes an apology to anyone. Her highness the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin weighed (no pun intended) in saying "I thought it was really funny, but she did a beautiful job with the pre-record.” Ouch…talk about a back-handed compliment. She added that it never occurred to her to sing to a pre-recorded track when she performed at the 2008 inauguration ceremonies even though it was so cold her false teeth were chattering…and they were still in the glass. She added, "I wanted to give people the real thing and pre-recording never crossed my mind." Thanks for the shady support Ms. Franklin. To be honest I was so distracted by that damn hat I don’t know if Aretha was singing or not, I wasn’t listening. Hell she could have been reciting the Gettysburg Address for all I know. Jennifer Lopez never one to miss an opportunity to bask in the glow of others offered her support as well to which Beyoncé probably thought, “thanks but no thanks” because really when it comes to a question of singing, is this the person you want defending you.

The bottom line is it was her voice, not someone else's and despite what Hateretha and all the armchair critics had to say, it is quite understandable why someone may want to preserve their voice and not sing live in the cold windy weather. And ultimately, who cares. But let’s all forget President Obama’s stirring inaugural speech. Let’s ignore the significance of the fact that we had an African-American President inaugurated on the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday. Let’s instead focus on that which doesn’t matter. Let’s allow ourselves to be distracted from the coup going on in Virginia as redistricting threatens to eliminate a Democratic state senate seat or as Republicans attempt to break the system so that the will of the American electorate no longer matters. After all what’s more important.

Whole Fools Market

It’s the first of the year and I’ve spent the last several weeks negotiating with insurance brokers for renewal rates for the company’s healthcare plan. You would be surprised how many brokers attempt to use President Obama’s Affordable Healthcare Act (I refuse to use the derogatory Obamacare) as an excuse to increase premium rates. I do agree that the President’s plan is not perfect in fact one of the failings of the plan is that it does not allow the federal government to reject increases so the insurance companies are free to raise rates as they please where they are not regulated by local or state agencies. The plan does however require the insurance companies to spend less on administrative costs and more on actual healthcare which should actually result in better coverage for us the consumer. Of course this will mean lower profits for those companies so if premiums are going up its most likely because insurance companies are banking on perceived Obamacare hysteria (ok just this one time) to pass their losses on to consumers by raising rates. This is not some new phenomenon and contrary to what opposition would have you believe President Obama did not create it as businesses have passed their costs on to the customer since the original troglodyte sold his first wheel.

So after weeks of negotiation we ended up with an overall increase of 5% over last year’s healthcare rates. After discussion with the owner of our company it was decided that he would not pass the increase on to the employees and their share of health insurance premiums would remain the same as last year. The owner of the company knows that this increased expense will result in lower profits for the company but he also knows that not taking a bigger cut and instead paying more for his employee’s share of healthcare will result in happier employees which can increase productivity. He also knows this will allow them more money to seed the nation’s struggling economy. All of this leads me to the CEO of Whole Foods Markets, John Mackey. Mr. Mackey has decided that president Obama’s healthcare plan is a form of fascism. Specifically, he feels that the requirement that employers provide healthcare for their employees is fascist. To be honest I’m getting a little sick of these conservatives, tea baggers and the GOP in general throwing out these terms of Socialist, Marxist, Nazi and even communist illegal alien terrorist when it comes to describing our president…it’s all simply code for the “n” word.

Boy talk about not knowing your customer. Who does Mr. Mackey think shops at Whole Foods? His customer is more likely liberal, educated, upscale and health conscious. His customer is more likely to agree with the policies and plans of the Obama administration than those of the GOP. You certainly won’t find many conservatives roaming the aisles of Whole Foods looking to kick start their vegetarian lifestyle and willing to pay $5 for a tomato even if it does come with a coupon good off your next package of tofu. So now backtracking Mackey says his “poor word choice” was due to his frustrations with the current administrations attempts to socialize healthcare in the United States. You know socialized like Medicare and Medicaid. He says he objects to the increased business costs associated with the law, although the law does not dictate how you share that cost with your employees. The goal of healthcare reform is to insure that healthcare providers no longer take advantage of their customers as well as make changes so those with lower incomes have the ability to get insurance. I find it funny that all these companies that make millions sometimes billions of dollars a year are so fervently opposed to having to pay more so their workers have healthcare. So basically being greedy and selfish is more important than the actual employee’s health. What’s so hard to understand about healthy, happy employees being more productive? I gotta say as a CEO, this guy is not very bright.

So let’s put the blame where it belongs. I’m certainly not anti-business or even anti-profit but greed and profit at all costs over people is never the solution and these companies who make this the norm when it comes to business while touting the need for moral values and a more traditional America are not helping to secure a stable economy. Maybe it’s silly of me to assume that these executives actually want to help to bring our economy back around but how about taking some of those corporate tax breaks and incentives you take advantage of annually and instead of lining your pockets, reinvesting them into your companies to help cover the costs of added healthcare? In the end these CEOs who complain about the Affordable Healthcare Act whether it’s at Papa John’s, Applebee’s or Whole Foods Markets never have to worry about affording healthcare personally. It’s something they take for granted a luxury not afforded to the working class.

The Huxtables, 2013

Happy New Year folks! Took me a minute to get a grip but I’m with it now so let’s get this year going. Wow 2013 who would have thought, but I gotta ask where the hell are the damn flying cars, floating skyscrapers and space travel. Weren’t we supposed to have that stuff by now? Where’s the futuristic utopia I was promised as a child and I’m not talking about cell phones, iPads and other devices, I want my personal robot dammit. Instead we get All My Babies Mamas, a new reality show from rapper Shawty Lo (who I’m proud to say I have never heard of and what a stupid ass rap name anyway) but seriously All My Babies Mamas? What the hell?? I don’t know where to even begin. Apparently this man has 11 children by 10 different women, none of whom he is married to and felt this senseless stupidity was something he should share with the rest of America. When asked about the criticism surrounding his upcoming show Shawty Lo (just typing his stupid name makes me feel dumbed down) is quoted as saying "You can hate all you want to, I didn't ask for it. It just happened” as if he just tripped and fell into 10 different vaginas…idiot! And just who the hell does he think is hating on him, like we’re all just green with envy and dying to have 10 baby mamas…I think we need to retire the whole hating thing, people just don’t know how to use it properly.

Now before you say it, I know I have a right to not watch this silly mess of a show and believe me when I say I won’t but I need to know whose idea this was and why the reinforcement of stereotypes we’ve been fleeing for decades is suddenly considered entertainment. I don’t have to watch but that’s not the point because I will still be affected by it as we all are by the negative destructive images which continue to depict us in entertainment. Young men who admire this person and want to emulate him (which is a discussion for another day) are being taught its ok to act irresponsibly, reproduce with reckless abandon and generally exude amoral behavior and remain unaccountable. And the women in this are not blameless either. What would motivate you to be this man’s baby mama number 4 or 5 let alone 10? How the hell did that happen? Are none of these people familiar with condoms? The fact is there are plenty of normal, professional, educated intact traditional families within the African-American community. These dysfunctional types of family dynamics aren't the rule they're the exception, so why are we constantly exposed to those which demean us? Of course we all know why, it’s because the money hungry entertainment industry would promote any garbage that increases their bottom line and they’re banking on this nonsense becoming a hit. Unfortunately, people will watch anything so odds are in their favor to get a good return on their investment.

At any rate these so called reality shows and their degrading misrepresentations of African-American men and women are becoming increasingly more insulting and offensive and they must be stopped or more importantly we need to stop watching them. We cannot continue to allow ourselves to be portrayed as shiftless, lazy, morally bankrupt, welfare seeking baby makers and we’ve got to stop flocking to these vulgar disgusting spectacles. No matter how they attempt to glamorize or sensationalize them, they’re still minstrel shows and frankly I’d feel a whole lot better if they just painted their faces black and sang Mammy. And by the way, where the hell are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson when you need them? Oh, and I want my damn space mobile it’s 2013 dammit.