Pinkflame1983: December 2011

Swords of Wisdom

"Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses." ~ Ann Landers

"I don't need nobody to give me nothing. I'll open up the door and get it myself." ~James Brown

"You gotta fight for your happiness." ~ Unknown

"Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me." ~Zora Neale Hurston

"Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence." ~ Unknown

"Luck is the time when preparation & opportunity meet." ~ Roy D. Chapin Jr

"I gotta 99 problems, but a b*tch aint one." ~ Jay-Z

''Don't ever argue with fools, because from a distance people can't tell who is who." ~ Unknown

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence." ~ Vince Lombardi

"Dont worry your haters are just confused admirers." ~ RevRunWisdom

"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive." — Audre Lorde

The size and stability of the American middle class were once the envy of the world. But changes unleashed in the 1960s pitted Americans against one another politically in new and destructive ways. These battles continued to rage from that day to now, while everyone has fallen behind economically except the wealthy. Right-wing culture warriors blamed the decline on the moral shortcomings of "other" Americans—black people, feminists, gays, immigrants, union members—to court a fearful white working- and middle-class base with ever more bitter "us vs. them" politics. Liberals tried, but mostly failed, to make the case that we're all in this together.

In What's the Matter with White People?, popular Salon columnist Joan Walsh argues that the biggest divide in America today is not about party or ideology, but about two competing narratives for why everything has fallen apart since the 1970s. One side sees an America that has spent the last forty years bankrupting the country providing benefits and advantages to the underachieving, the immoral, and the undeserving, no matter the cost to Middle America. The other sees an America that has spent the last forty years bankrupting the country providing benefits and advantages to the very rich, while allowing a measure of cultural progress for the different and the downtrodden. It matters which side is right, and how the other side got things so wrong.

Walsh connects the dots of American decline through trends that began in the 1970s and continue today—including the demise of unions, the stagnation of middle-class wages, the extension of the right's "Southern Strategy" throughout the country, the victory of Reagan Republicanism, the increase in income inequality, and the drop in economic mobility.

Citing her extended family as a case in point, Walsh shows how liberals unwittingly collaborated in the "us vs. them" narrative, rather than developing an inspiring, persuasive vision of a more fair, united America. She also explores how the GOP's renewed culture war now scapegoats even segments of its white base, as it blames the troubles of working-class whites on their own moral failings rather than on an unfair economy.

What's the Matter with White People? is essential reading as the country struggles through political polarization and racial change to invent the next America in the years to come.

From the inside flap via Amazon.com

Random Gibberish

I didn't vote for Barack because he's black. I voted for him because Michelle's black.

Ugly people should be quiet.

Gauchos don't look good on anyone.

Short girls + big boobs = gross

"Don't love me off a cliff." - Me

"F*ck what you heard. You KNOW what I said." - Me again

I'm still laughing at Chris Rocks "Black people vs. N******" routine.

Beyonce should keep her mouth shut.

"Tooken" is not a word!

A real "EBP" would know the difference between "then" and "than."

When you talk badly about a person who hasn't done anything to you, you are confessing you are are a hater.

If all you talk about is money, cash, or hoes then you should have money, cash or hoes.

If you were a broke arse, unemployed lazy arse negro before Obama, then you will be a broke arse, unemployed negro aftter Obama.

B.M.W (Bodies Made Wrong)