Your Monday Random-Ass Roundup: Mama Say I Should Reconsider Law School.

Two years ago, I started out doodling my own inconsequential thoughts at my own, long-since abandoned blog site. A few months later, I was fortunate enough to be invited onto the esteemed blog roll here at PostBourgie.

But to take that next step toward world domination, it’s looking like I’m going to have to change-up my strategy a bit.

The World Wide Web is inundated with great writers, good writers, mediocre writers, limited writers and terrible writers and consequently, opinion and analysis come cheap and unsolicited and without much filter these days. If there’s something you’re interested in, no matter how trivial, there’s lots of people out there writing about it – gorgeously or poorly, whatever you want.

To get noticed and make enough money for a decent car payment, however, you need an angle. So I’m hoping someone can steer me in the direction of some disenfranchised or underprivileged class of people – even a species of animal, so long as it’s a mammal – that hasn’t been flogged enough in front of a national audience.

It worked for Armstrong Williams, Michelle Malkin, the #nwnw crowd. Now it’s my turn.

And I promise not to forget y’all when I blow. Promise. You, my dear and faithful readers, will each get a front-row ticket to my first speech at Emory University.

On to the roundup:

1. For one of the rare thoughtful takes on Bishop Eddie Long scandal, you should try out Jelani Cobb’s post about his visit to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday. Ta-Nehisi follows with a piece that, in a way, steels us for the looming media coverage of THE BLACK CHURCH. Somewhat related: over the weekend, CNN anchor Don Lemon admitted on-air that he “was the childhood victim of a pedophile.” (Blackink)

2. Monica weighs in on the No Wedding No Womb business over at The American Prospect. “But we can’t tell women to dream bigger without acknowledging the role socioeconomic forces and race play in shaping opportunities for them. Empowering women isn’t the same thing as excoriating them.” (G.D.)

3. One more: New York magazine notes that Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer thinks Stephen Colbert mocked the hearing process when he testified about the AgJobs bill — addressing the numbers of illegal immigrants in the agricultural workforce. That was sorta the point, Hoyer. (Monica)

4. Star Parker hopes to go from welfare recipient to far-right commentator to U.S. congresswoman from California. (Blackink)

5. A Brooklyn Tea Partier says American immigrants should change their culture when they come here. Yet his group started meeting in a local pizza shop, and now meets at a Kosher Hut. Curious. (Monica)

6. A somewhat-comprehensive guide to some of Christine O’Donnell’s wackiest statements. (Blackink)

7. The fight for a not-funded-by-SNAP (food stamp)-cuts Child Nutrition bill is on, and it doesn’t look good. (Nicole)

8. Being a small-town mayor in Mexico is dangerous business. “Mexican drug cartels have increasingly targeted such officials as they fight the government and each other, seeking control of drug markets and routes to the United States.” (Blackink)

9. David Broder and Bob Woodward are still writing for the WaPo and “buckracking” without impunity. (Blackink)

10. Underwire bras: they turn ladies into a danger when on, sluts when off. (Shani-o)

11. Men and women actually can enjoy purely platonic friendships, and in fact, they probably should do so. (Blackink)

12. Adam Serwer is now writing once a day for Greg Sargent’s blog at the WaPo. (Shani-o)

13. Michele Bachelet has been named undersecretary general for United Nations Women, the UN agency that includes the UN Development Fund for Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. (Nicole)

14. Citizen-journalist Mayhill Flower explains why she left The Huffington Post. In short, it’s about the money. (Blackink)

15. This American Life has returned to greatness lately, with an infuriating episode on police malfeasance and a short history of flopping in basketball. (Nicole)

16. Ways to dig out of crushing student-loan debt. (Blackink)

17. Alyssa Rosenberg theorizes that female actors continue working with Polanski because he’s not a threat to them, specifically. (Shani-o)

18. “Community” is better than anything else you’re watching. (Shani-o)

19. King Hammer, don’t hurt Hov. (Blackink)

20. There is a reason Miami Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano wears sunglasses all the time. (Nicole)

Enjoy the week, peeps.

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.