Your Monday Random-Ass Roundup: We Taking Over.

Hey, Negroes. We’re kinda like a big deal. At least, according to The Root.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re far too kind. Hold your applause. This is your blog, not mine.

And now for more of what you all love:

1. President Obama refuses to protect our borders, complete an electric fence with barbed wire, snarling dogs and armed gorillas and wants to give a strip of Arizona back to Old Mexico. Or something. Also, Foreign Policy thinks Secretary of State Hillary Clinton erred in announcing the administration’s plan to sue Arizona  during a TV interview in Ecuador. (Blackink)

2. The Black Scientist has another interesting take on Seattle cop-punching case, and Latoya Peterson keeps our eyes on the macro picture. (Monica)

3. It’s dangerous out in them streets for census workers: “They have been shot at with pellet guns and hit by baseball bats. They have been confronted with pickaxes, crossbows and hammers. … They have been nibbled by ducks, bitten by pit bulls and chased by packs of snarling dogs.” Hard to disagree with Gawker’s take: “Whatever census workers are paid, it’s not nearly enough.” (Blackink)

4. Digby vents about “journalistic malpractice,” particularly the Washington Post’s suggestion that election-year worries about the deficit are hindering President Obama’s agenda. (Blackink)

5. If Gov. Rick Perry and the rabidly right-wing Texas School Board of Education can’t find the money, schoolchildren across the state won’t be learning about the Heritage Foundation and the NRA anytime soon. Pity. (Blackink)

6. The root cause of California’s $20 billion budget gap? Welfare. Corporate welfare that is, says Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times. (Blackink)

7. Neil Swidey of the Boston Globe tries to get inside the mind of anonymous online posters. Hope he brought some disinfectant. (Blackink)

8. The British newspaper, The Independent, covered the firing-squad execution of Utah death-row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner this weekend. From their own words in the subhead, “David Usborne reports on the disturbing details.” (Blackink)

9. This Patient’s Voices feature, in which several people with Tourette’s Syndrome talk about how they deal with the disease, is incredibly moving and on point. Tourette’s Syndrome runs in my family, and it’s one of the odder rare diseases with which people have to deal. From the man who says he compensates by being the “funny guy” to the man who says he’s lost his free will and anonymity, it becomes easier to imagine how hard it is for patients to have no control over their bodies or their mouths. And because it’s so rare and poorly understood, there aren’t many good treatment options, another point which many of the patients make. (Monica)

10. Jonathan Bernstein thinks Andrew Sullivan is right to keep an eye on Prime Minister Palin but wonders why he/we should care so much about the story behind the birth of her youngest son, Trig? (Blackink)

11. Kids Prefer Cheese flags a piece in the Wall Street Journal that makes the case for having more kids. Angus is not all that impressed. Will Wilkinson, guest-blogging at Megan McArdle’s spot, fleshes out the case against that case. (Blackink)

12. CNN and The Associated Press are taking a break from each other. (Blackink)

13. Following a number of ridiculously apoplectic dispatches about officiating following USA’s draw with Slovenia in the World Cup, Zunguzungu penned an appropriate – given the initial outcry – takedown of the “insufferable sports buffoons.” (Blackink)

14. What if an 11-year-old actress went on “The View,” told the audience she was “already a good kisser” and then lifted up her shirt to show off her … abs? What if that 11-year-old was Jayden Smith? Gwen at Sociological Images thinks it through. (Blackink)

15. A new report by the Knight Commission found that the proportion of money spent on athletics by universities in the Football Bowl Subdivision is outpacing that of spending on education — the ratio jumped 15 percent between 2005 and 2008 —  and  Chad Aldeman at the Quick and the Edpoints out that this trend continues even as the overwhelming majority of schools lose money on sports. “In 2008, less than a quarter of sports powerhouses made money off their athletics programs, and collectively these same institutions lost nearly $1 billion on sports. These funds must be made up by state taxpayers or student tuition bills.” (G.D.)

16. On a more somber closing note, we must mention the death of former NBA player and true humanitarian Manute Bol over the weekend. He was 47. Kevin Blackistone lays out the impressive legacy of Bol. And in addition to all of his great work in the Sudan, Bol may have also originated the phrase “my bad.” (Blackink)

Also,

Ron Artest > Kevin Garnett. But you already knew that.

Peace.



Joel

Joel Anderson —blackink —  writes about sports, politics, crime, courts, and other issues far beyond his competence at BuzzFeed. He has worked at media outlets in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Atlanta and contributed to a number of publications, including The Root and The American Prospect, among many others.
  • R.A.B.

    Wait, I’m sorry, Joel, was that…that was a Blueprint 3 shout-out, right? Oh, word?

    • shani-o

      no, black album.

    • It’s the best song on a mediocre album. A good song. Mediocre album. But yeah, it’s “Thank You.”

      So whaddaboutit?

  • R.A.B.

    “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re far too kind. Hold your applause. This is your blog, not mine.” = ‘Thank You’, BP3