'Hunger Games' Success Marred By Racism

What should have been a celebrated, record-breaking opening weekend for the latest tween book-to-screen sensation 'The Hunger Games' was negated in my eyes by the continued ignorance of racism. I mean really, people, what year are we in?? Are we still going there??

What is very disturbing is that it is mostly young people making these disgusting comments. At the center of the controversy is the character 'Rue', who in the book is described as being dark skinned. What does that description mean? I think it means Black, maybe Native American... maybe.

So to the filmmakers charged with making the movie version remain as true to the book as possible, it would make sense to cast a Black girl in the role of the dark-skinned character, right??

Not to some of these ignoramuses. The comments made on Twitter.... (TWITTER!!) took me back to the history books and what I've read about slavery and the Civil Rights Era. I won't even re-write some of the garbage that was written in a public domain where "followers" could read the bigotry. Instead you can read the article here .

Most of these morons have since deleted their accounts or made it private. You can delete the words, but the sad part is the thought will remain in your minds and hearts. I mean to have one idiot say that she was shocked that 'Rue' was a little Black girl instead of the blonde she pictured? Did she even read the book??

How about the jerk that demanded that the filmmakers "stick to the book". They did, dumbass!

Sorry.

It's 2012, man. There are laws against this now. I never thought I would see in my lifetime such outward racism written and spoken in a public forum.

I'm at a loss...  

Tiger Woods Finally Wins A PGA Tournament

It was a tournament he won six times before. But still the seventh time had to be the sweetest for Tiger Woods. Woods won the Arnold Palmer Classic at Bayhill going away for his first official PGA tour victory since he forgot how to drive away from his house in November of 2009.

He has come close leading going into the final round of three of his last four events, but finally got over the hump. With the Masters on the horizon has Tiger turned the corner?

Tim Tebow to be introduced as a Jet today

Tim Tebow has landed in the Big Apple. For better or worse Tebowmania has arrived thanks to the same old Jets. The Jets management continue to insult the intelligence of the media and general public by sticking to the story that this signing was strictly a football move. We all know this is the same old Jets trying to steal the thunder of the New York Giants who are only the defending Super Bowl champions, who only go about their business quietly, who when their star receiver Plaxico Burress SHOT himself in a nightclub never got as much publicity as an organization as the hapless Jets.

Can you imagine if Santonio Holmes shot himself in the leg in a nightclub? The story would never go away. We would hear about his feud with STARTING quarterback Mark Sanchez, or some other frivolous gossip. The fact that there is a press conference to announce the signing of the BACKUP quarterback tells you what's going on in the Jets organization.

Giants owner John Mara had an excellent line when he said that he would hold a press conference for David Carr who just re-signed as Eli Manning's backup for the 2012 season.

It's ridiculous. Tebow is not coming to New York to ride the bench all season, not after the impact he had in Denver.

There will be no Rex Ryan or any of Tebow's Jets teammates present at this press conference, but the likes of CNN and FOX  News have media trucks parked next to the ESPN trucks.

CNN??

This is ridiculous.

I Am Trayvon Martin

George Zimmerman thought this Trayvon Martin issue would "just blow over". And with that logic Zimmerman continues to show how revoltingly ignorant he really is, most racists are. Yes he is a racist, despite what his father says about his own ethnicity. Minorities can be racist too. When you profile a young man because he is wearing a hoodie, call him a f-ing coon under your breath while following him and gunning him down, it will not just blow over. African Americans are sick and tired of this. We are living in 2012 not 1955 where another young Black teen lost his life for daring to look at a white girl.

In George Zimmerman's tiny world the premeditated killing of a Black teen may be just another statistic that isn't worthy of media attention, but not when said teen is unarmed, minding his own business, and trying to bring a pack of Skittles back to his younger brother and watch the rest of the NBA All-Star game.

I love that 30,000 people rallied in Sanford, Florida. I love that pastors in churches wore hoodies over their Sunday's best. I love that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade did not hide behind some sort of carefully crafted image and made a statement on a controversial issue, something that Michael Jordan never did.

I do not like Geraldo Rivera blaming the hoodie for Trayvon's murder. Look at photos of Trayvon Martin. It is hard for me to believe that he posed a threat to anyone. Why is Geraldo still being given a voice to speak on anything? Are we still in the 80s? Kudos to his son Gabriel for having some sense.

Trayvon Martin could be any of our young Black men. He could be the Black fathers who like to wear hoodies on a chilly day while walking (such as myself). The George Zimmerman's of the world must be stopped. He must be punished. If he is Hispanic, he is a minority and he should know better.

So no, George, this will not blow over. We will continue to fight for justice in the senseless killing of another young Black man before he could reach his potential. We will protest and march and rally and make statements and blog until you Mr. Zimmerman are arrested and serve hard time for your gutless action.

It is not a crime to be Black. People like you who assume the worst of all Black people is why I fear for the safety of my five year old once he becomes a teenager. Luckily that time is more than five years away, but there are other Black teens who are in the crosshairs of maniacs with a vendetta. While these people still exist, the movement for justice needs to continue. For that reason I (pictured above) am Trayvon Martin.

Whitney Houston Cause of Death Revealed

The coroner's report on Whitney Houston's death has beeen released and according to the findings Houston died of accidental drowning. The coroner also revealed that heart disease and chronic cocaine use were contributing factors. Cocaine was found in the singer's system which leads many to believe she suffered a heart attack that made her lose conciousness and caused her to slip underwater.

There were no signs of cocaine found in the hotel room although there are reports that her drug supplier mysteriously removed all evidence of drugs before the authorities arrived. So her dealer was staying in the hotel??

This is incredibly sad. Combine that with the fact that her boyfriend Ray-J may have some X-rated footage of their time together that has her family very nervous and her daughter has taken up with her adopted brother and you have a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. 

I pray Whitney will finally ge to rest in peace. In the meantime I choose to remember her with one of the best interpretations of one of her classic songs:

LOL!

Woodsanity is on FIRE!

Don't look now but the New York Knicks are 5-0 under interim coach Mike Woodson... and they've won with DEFENSE... and Lin-sanity is still alive.

4 out of the 5 Knicks' victories during this streak have been by double digits beating the Indiana Pacers in back to back games (never easy) and the division leading Philadelphia 76ers last night (March 21st) on the road 82-79. Ever since former coach Mike D'Antoni (above right) resigned at the end of a six game losing streak, the Knicks have been playing the kind of swarming defense that makes fans of the team rub their eyes wondering if it is the early 1990s all over again.

While Charles Oakley and Patrick Ewing (above) are not walking through that door, Tyson Chandler has been a beast in the middle and Carmelo Anthony (first photo above left) has all of a sudden become a guy content with scoring under 20 points in 4 of the 5 games during this run.

And welcome back Amare Stoudamire (above). Someone must have delivered STAT's hops to Philly as he had the spring in his step, with chase down blocks and stand still dunks, that made him a 25 point per game man last season.

Any talk of Jeremy Lin's demise have been greatly exaggerated like D'Antoni's post game pressers. Lin remains the focal point of the offense racking up a double double versus Toronto on Tuesday night (March 20th) and has cut down on the turnovers, possibly because he is not running down the court like his hair is on fire after every rebound. Slow the ball down, make less mistakes: what a novel concept.

This team (at least the stars) quit on D'Antoni. There's no other way to slice it. Woodson has been on the bench all season. Where was this defensive intensity? These Knicks are unrecognizable and I love it. The offense is still putting up points (113 ppg average coming into the Philly game), the bench is still doing their thing, this team could be dangerous.

The 2011-12 Knicks are so frustrating. We thought they turned the corner at the beginning of Linsanity, then Carmelo comes back and they lose 9 of 12. D'Antoni leaves and they are world beaters again, this time with Anthony and Stoudamire on the floor.... at the same time... with Anthony passing the ball...when he is at the rim!! Can it be? Another run like 1999-2000 when another labor dispute cut the season to 50 games and the eighth seeded Knicks supposedly had no chance against number one seed Miami? Allan Houston is still with the Knicks. Even though he is not on the court to hit another improbable runner to end the Heat's season there's no reason why these Knicks can't do the same thing...

in a later round ^ _ ^

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In other NBA news Derek Fisher (above left), traded by the Los Angeles Lakers earlier in the week was bought out by the Houston Rockets (he refused to report) and cleared waivers on Wednesday (March 21st). Well, Fisher has signed on with the Oklahoma City Thunder!

Et tu Brute? 

These traded Lakers vets are spiteful aren't they? Lol.

First LaMar Odom goes to Dallas, now Fisher joins Durantula in OKC. Kobe Bryant, who was probably already pissed his best friend was shipped out, can't be too happy about this.

   

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Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) coach Shaka Smart has declined an offer to take over the Illinois coaching job. Smart who led the HBCU school to the Final Four last year and the round of 32 this year decided to shun the prestige and notoriety of the big name program and stay with the players that most likely need his guidance much more. Good for him! 

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And finally 39 year old Andy Petitte has ended his retirement and returned to the New York Yankees. He signed a minor league contract and may most likely make the big club sometime in May after he gets back in game shape.

Why retire in the first place??

Commissioner and NFL bury the Saints

The New Orleans Saints may feel like another natural disaster just ripped through their city. After details of a team bounty system was revealed the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell laid the Thor hammer on the team for their indiscretion. Coach Sean Payton suspended for the ENTIRE 2012 NFL season without pay, assistant coach Joe Vitt out for six games, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, the alleged mastermind of the bounty program, now a defensive coordinator with the St. Louis Rams has been suspended indefinitely (meaning beyond the 2012 season), and the Saints GM Mickey Loomis will be banished for half a season (eight games). The team gets fined $500,000 and loses second round draft picks in 2012 and 2013.

OUCH!

If this does not send a message to any other team yet to be caught (if you listen to former players turned ESPN analysts, this is going on around the league) I don't know what will.

It was reported that NFL investigators uncovered this program in 2009 and warned the Saints to end it. Well that warning went unheeded and thus the New Orleans massacre....

Welp no matter what quarterback Drew Brees does now the Saints are out of the Super Bowl conversation.
All you can ask is 'was it worth it?'

I got your message loud and clear, Commissioner. Thank you!

Everyone's saying how great a guy Payton is, but he had to know that his players were launching themselves at opposing offensive guys with intent to injure and decided to cover it up anyway. That's not a great guy to me.

Just my thoughts....

Jets Sign Tebow

The New York Jets have signed former Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. Tebow, who led the Broncos to a division title last season after becoming a starter following a 1-4 start, became expendable after Peyton Manning signed with the team on Monday.

I'm not sure why the Jets would make a move like this when they just gave their starting QB Mark Sanchez a 3-year extension when it was clear they would not get Manning. Tebow comes with his own fanatical fan base that got so boisterous last season Denver brass had no choice but to start him full time despite his glaring deficiencies as a passer. I can only reason that the Jets wanted to steal back some of the thunder from the rival Giants who won the Super Bowl for the second time in four seasons.

This puts more undue pressure on the fragile Sanchez and further divides a toxic locker room that imploded last season with three staright losses to miss the post season for the first time under coach Rex Ryan. Tebow, who is on record stating that he does not want to be a back up or used as a running back or tight end, will most likely be used in a few wild cat packages...

This move makes no doggone sense. Do the Jets management care about winning football games or gaining headlines?? The natural move for Tebow would have been to go to the Jacksonville Jaguars since he is a god in Florida. Jacksonville would have instantly been relevant, something they have not been since Giants coach Tom Coughlin left town.

Sanchez must feel like a million bucks.

Same old Jets.

Peyton Manning chooses Denver

Peyton Manning will resume his Hall of Fame football career with the Denver Broncos according to reports. Recently cut by the only team he has played for after missing the entire 2011 season, Manning had narrowed his choice of teams to three after fielding as many as 12 calls.

In the end the Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers lost out. In my opinion te 49ers would have been the best fit if Manning wanted to win a Super Bowl immediately. They were a muffed punt away from going to the big game this passed season and they just signed Randy Moss and Super Bowl hero Mario Manningham to bolster the receiving corps.

It is said Manning wanted to stay in the AFC, but for a guy who played his home games in a domed stadium why give up the warmth of California for the thin air and frigid temperatures of Colorado when you have struggled in cold weather games during your career?

Former HOF quarterback, Broncos Super Bowl MVP, and current VP John Elway must have really had an affect on Peyton.

What does this mean for Tim Tebow? Most likely he's looking at the front door, Main Source style.

Trayvon Martin R.I.P.

In the tragedy that is the Trayvon Martin profiling case as of March 19th FOX News has been the only "news" outlet that has ignored the story altogether.
Shocker...

Trayvon Martin was killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman while returning from  the store to buy Skittles and Iced Tea. Martin had on a hoodie and apparently that was enough for Zimmerman to follow Martin when he was deliberately asked not to by the 911 dispatcher he called.

Zimmerman's 911 call


Trayvon begging for his life in the background

R.I.P. B.I.G. 15 Years Gone

It is hard to believe it has been 15 years. The Notorious B.I.G. would have been 40 years old this May. His kids, infants when he died, are all grown up now. His daughter T'yanna, the baby he kissed in his first video "Juicy", is a freshman at Penn State University ("f*** the state pen/ f*** hoes at Penn State" - It's All About the Benjamins remix). His son Christopher Wallace, Jr. is now a teenager and a spitting image of his pops.

Still the memory of the morning Christopher Wallace was gunned down remains fresh in my mind. Not only for the gaping hole it left in Hip Hop music, along with the death of Tupac Shakur six months earlier, but also because the man had just begun to come into his own. He was looking forward to living. He was ready to be a father, he was ready to be a business man with the launch of his Brooklyn M.I.N.T. clothing line (how many rappers has had one since?), he was ready to take over the world.

Heavy D (R.I.P.) was a good friend of B.I.G., and while he set the blueprint for the oversize rapper as sex symbol, Wallace was ready to take it next level. B.I.G. didn't have ten albums worth of material in the vault. As a fan you were left to wonder how he would have sounded on a song with Big Pun, how The Commission (the supergroup consisting of B.I.G, Jay-Z and Charli Baltimore) album would have sounded, how he would have followed up Life After Death?

I just wish these two icons (B.I.G. and Tupac) could have sat down and talked out their differences for the good of the culture.

Besides the fact that the crimes are still unsolved, the promise left unfulfilled hurts more.

To read B.I.G's kids talk about him and his music in the March issue of XXL Magazine gave me chills. The music is all they have of a father they never really knew, which is a testament to how timeless the material Christopher Wallace blessed us with is.

I wish he was still here. I wish I could hear more music...

http://ultramedia.blogspot.com/2012/03/mister-cees-notorious-big-hot-97.html?spref=tw

Peyton Manning Released By Indianapolis Colts

Just want to let the title of this post sink in for a second.

After 14 seasons in which Peyton Manning, a sure fire Hall of Famer, resurrected the Indianapolis franchise, a freak neck injury combined with a 2-14 2011 regular season that allowed the Colts to earn the number one pick in next month's draft and the right to pick Stanford QB Andrew Luck, upper management has decided to cut ties with their once franchise quarterback.

Watching the press conference on Wednesday at noon, to see Manning struggle to hold it together while reading his prepared statement was difficult. Certain players in sports you just associate with certain teams. You just figured Peyton Manning would retire a Colt.

It was like watching Joe Montana, who made his Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, suit up in a Kansas City Chiefs uniform. Brett Favre in a Jets then a Minnesota Vikings uniform. It didn't make sense.

Manning never took a snap in 2011 and the Colts finished with the aforementioned 2-14 record. Since Manning went under center in 1998 the Colts have won 10 or more games in a season 11 times, went to two Super Bowls and won one. He has been a class act on and off the field. I think of all the commercials he has appeared in representing "The Horseshoe" with his sarcasm and sense of humor and to compare that with the sobbing man that stood at the podium like someone had killed his dog... it's not right.

Yeah business is business, but I'm sorry, the Colts organization owed Peyton Manning more than a release. Especially since it was Manning who put the clause into his contract that ultimately led to his dismissal. The $28 million that he would have been owed on March 8th would have been guaranteed money if it were up to Colts owner Jim Irsay, but Manning said no. Just in case he could not perform up to his standards when it came down to the last year of his contract, Manning did not want to tie up money he did not feel he earned if his skills were diminished.

His skills never diminished. He was just the victim of an unfortunate neck injury that required the kind of surgery you don't risk playing after. Manning had shown he was returning to the player that threw for over 4000 yards in 2010. Still he was dumped. All the quarterback eggs being put squarely in rookie Andrew Luck's basket.

No pressure.

Do we really know if Luck will be that good? Of course not. Yet the Colts have all but demanded he be the franchise savior out of the gate. For if he stumbles, Peyton Manning will ride into town on whatever AFC (yeah I'm calling it - Houston, Miami, or Denver) team he signs with to let the young whippersnapper know the enormous shoes he has to fill.

Brett Favre got his revenge on Green Bay as a member of the hated Minnesota Vikings. You better believe Manning will have a huge chip on his shoulder.

In the immortal words of Bart Scott: "Can't Wait!"

Whitney Houston A Mistress?

Whitney Houston cannot rest in peace. Now there is a rumor that she was the "other woman" in an affair with none other than Jermaine Jackson. Jackson was still married to the founder of Motown Berry Gordy's daughter Hazel at the time. Here's where it gets crazy. The popular Whitney song "Saving all My Love For You" is said to be about her relationship with Jackson. The lyrics do talk about a love affair with a married man who she tries "to resist".

The affair ended reportedly because Whitney got upset because Jermaine would not leave his wife for her.

Shocker.

According to the New York Post, the two met when Jackson was brought in to produce songs for Whitney's debut album. It was lust at first sight. Michael Jackson was one of the few who knew of the affair and disapproved of it.

Wow.

One Jermaine Jackson song in particular sounds like a response to the end of their relationship. Take a look at some lyrics to Jackson's song "Don't Take It Personal":

"don't be sad don't be blue/ you have your whole life ahead of you" (Whitney would have been in her early 20s) "love was here now it's gone/ so it's time you keep moving on...."
Chorus: "Don't Take It Personal/ take the bitter with the sweet/ easy come easy go... some good things come to an end..."

That's cold, Jermaine.

Take a look at the two videos below...

Whitney still has hope....

Jermaine dashes them in song four years later!

Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose Are Engaged

That picture above just about says it all, doesn't it?

I'm speechless....

Wilt Chamberlain Hit the Century Mark 50 Years Ago Today

I'm not talking about women he's been with (that's allegedly a much higher number!), but the 100 points Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain scored against the New York Knicks on this date in 1962. Chamberlain hit 36 of the 63 (!) fieldgoals he attempted and the career 50% free throw shooter missed only 4 of his 32 attempts from the line!

I always said if Shaquille O'Neal was half a decent free throw shooter he could have averaged 50 points a game like Wilt did. But guess who is the only person saying this record can be broken.... Kobe Bean Bryant.

The owner of the 2nd highest scoring game in NBA history (81 points) is not as skeptical as everyone else who says Wilt's mark will stand the test of time.

I wonder why...

Don't try it, Kobe... you know what, screw it. Go for it! Make sure it's a televised game when you do.