I’m sure that you’ve heard by now that Brian Nichols, have been accused of shooting a judge, two deputies, a federal agent, and a court reporter here in my hometown of Atlanta. The state of Georgia gets the first crack him since the feds will have a difficult case in the murder of the federal agent: The feds must prove that Nichols knew that the man he killed was a federal agent in order to convict. Ashley , one of Nichols’ captors managed to keep herself alive and end all of this stuff. Props to her. She deserves every penny of the reward money. She should take it and whatever book or movie deal she gets and bail outta town.

I had the day off when all of this was happening. I was sitting in front of the computer, getting ready to listen to Neal Boortz. There was some special alert on. I turn off the radio and flip to WSB Channel 2. There is was: Chaos in downtown Atlanta. The suspect was black, bald, and six foot two. If you haven’t been to Atlanta, our unofficial nickname is "The Chocolate City". Finding a bald, black guy over six feet tall is NOT hard here. Plus, that’s is MY physical description. My wife, The Pook, told me to not go out. She was afraid that I was going to be accosted by the police. In this case, she is probably right.

Twenty four hours later, Nichols is in custody. I watch the press conference with the various law enforcement agencies regarding the Nichols capture. Is it just me or does the Fulton County Sheriff needs to be taught how to speak in public? This guy was sounding like someone who was just hit with some novocaine. Great, I thought. Let’s give the people who think that Georgia is some backwoods state a little bit more ammo, shall we? Anyway, I just hope Nichols gets the arm and the hammer on this one. I’m surprised that the death penalty hasn’t been discussed yet. I have problems with the death penalty in some respect, but this guy is screaming to be put in old Sparky. Guess we’ll see what happens.

President Dubya and this Republican Congress ARE NOT looking out for the common man. If he is, then why is this bill take makes it harder for people to declare bankruptcy going through so quickly? There are people who lost their jobs. There are people with huge medical bills. There are people who have nothing after divorce. Yet, this so called Congress is making in harder for people to get the slate clean. Don’t give me this garbage about people should be more responsible and should pay their bills. Sometimes, people can’t, okay? THINGS HAPPEN BEYOND PEOPLE"S CONTROL SOMETIMES. The credit card companies and other companies sell accounts to collection agencies: They ARE NOT losing any money. This bankruptcy bill is a total joke.

Okay, put this one down on the list of books I recommend. This time around, I present to you Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailckas. These are the memoirs of a New Englander who chronicles her ten years of hard drinking, starting at age fourteen. Koren has a way of speaking with the horrors of alcohol abuse through her high school and college days without getting too gory in the details. Between the bad dates, the blackouts and the vomiting, Koren manages to avoid any jail time or hurting someone else. I would say that this is a good cautionary tale for the women regarding drinking and living. I read this with amazement. I don’t consider myself too far of the chart as far as relating to the youth: I was in high school in the 90’s. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have even known where to begin to get hooch. At any rate, this book is getting mad props from Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times. She’s been traveling to college campuses trying to prop the book and to enlighten some of the women out there regarding alcoholic excess. It’s probably not too late or too early to grab this book for your coed daughters and nieces and sisters.

Please forgive my lack of attention, folks. It’s just that things have been so busy. I will try to catch up on as many things as I can.



So the Iraqi people had their elections . The neo-cons and President Dubya are calling this one a victory. They think that it is a good this that this election is supposedly allowing the Iraqi to vote on their own fate. "Finally, they are a democracy like us", they say. Let me say a few things.

First of all, the United States IS NOT a democracy. Got that? This country was NEVER meant to be a democracy. This country is a constitutional republic. Everything, on paper at least, must fall within the parameters of the United States Constitution. Remember that democracy is what the majority of people want. We have certain rights and processes here that can’t be taken away because the "majority" wants it that way. For example, the majority of white people in this part of the country wanted to deny blacks the right to vote back in the 1960’s. However, the law trumped the majority. Hell, you don’t even vote for President here. You vote for people that will vote for the President FOR YOU. Anyone who tells you that the form of government here is a democracy is stupid or full of garbage.

Second of all, you can’t vote just for the sake of voting. The Iraqi people are voting, at the risk of getting capped by insurgents, on people who they don’t know because THEY fear getting shot. How can you vote based on a symbol? How can you vote for someone when you don’t know their stance on issues or what they look like or even their freaking name? Yes, it’s like a lot the people who vote here. However, the people in this country CHOOSE to be ignorant. The Iraqis can’t get that information because everyone’s afraid of being shot by the insurgents. What’s the point? Shouldn’t you cast your vote based on knowing all of the facts? Or am I crazy?

I hope that the Iraqis do get their act together. When they do, it means our enlisted men and women can get the hell out of there. No matter what your political persuasion, Stevie Wonder can see that this war was started based on false pretenses. The original reason was Saddam had WMD. Then, when none was found, it was something else. Then, it was liberating the Iraqis. Well, which is it, Mr. Dubya? Hey, you can call me whatever you want to, but I’m not going to take what this presidential administration or ANY presidential administration at face value. Yeah, I know about 9/11 and all. I still think that it is not the job of the United States government to place policeman of the world. The Armed Forces shouldn’t act unless the country is directly in harm’s way.

Michael Jackson’s trial is underway. I think Mike is going to do some time. I see no way that he can get out of this one unless the children refuse to testify. You’d think after the first accusation of child molestation, he’d learn his lesson. There is no reason for a grown man to be in the same bed with children that are not his own. It’s going to be hard to find an impartial jury. Who hasn’t heard of Michael Jackson? Unless you’re dealing with the Quakers, you’re not going to find two many people that has not heard of the King of Pop. More importantly, who hasn’t heard of Michael Jackson AND not have formed an opinion of him? Again, tough crowd. Mike has been creeping folks out for years. This should be an interesting trial.

The Pook’s birthday was here recently. I hope that she liked everything that I got her. I got her the first season of Arrested Development on DVD, a directory of every doll museum in the continental United States, and a Billie Holiday CD. There is one gift that I wish I could give her that I can’t: Good health.

The Pook has been diagnosed with diabetes for a couple of years now. Even though I am perfectly healthy for the most part, I have been as much of a causality as she has been. If for no other reason, the fact is that I feel just as helpless as she does. There is no perfect thing that I can say. There is no magic wand I could wave. There is nothing that I can do to make a genetic flaw go away. All I can do is try to assist her to the best of my ability while she dances with the thin needle while dissecting foods and liquids like a mad scientist. All I can do is try to remember all of things I was taught it that diabetes class that the health services class that work provided. There is so much to learn even now. There is so much to remember. If there were something that I can do get stem cell research legal in this godforsaken country, things would have a chance to improve for her. However, I will save that rant for another day.


Props to Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman for their Oscar wins. For Jamie, a home run. For Morgan, an honor that was long overdue.

Sorry, that’s all I got right now. More later.