An Open Letter to US (and Japanese) Law Enforcement

Other people charged in connection with “Operation Shockwave” are Steven Lamont Lowe, 35, Carla Criswell, 27, Dalton Morrow, 30, and Jason Matthew Gatewood, 31, all of Bowling Green.

Morrow, who was arrested Dec. 9, has been charged with five counts of possession with intent to deliver crack cocaine. Gatewood, who was arrested Feb. 3, has been charged with one count each of trafficking in crack cocaine, using a firearm in a drug trafficking crime and convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Their cases are pending.

via bgdailynews.com

I better not go home and find someone using my name to commit crimes!!

Dear US Law Enforcement & Courts Officials:

Please get and keep your paperwork RIGHT!!

In 2004, I spent a night in St Louis County Jail in my hometown, St Louis Missouri because SOMEONE got my information from a speeding ticket I paid 2 years prior, mixed up with some fool who had reckless driving, DUI, and a bench warrant on his record. The cop who pulled me over even said "I don't think you're the type who comes from Humboldt County, Missouri..." I don't even know where the hell that is, and I'm pretty sure not one Black person lives wherever that is... Even so, he was bound by law to take me in and have the judicial system do its thing...

Even now, my MOM is going through hell trying to get a passport because the State Department has her mixed up with some lady that committed check forgery in California back in 1993... Never mind the fact that we moved from L.A. in 1992.... And the crime in question here is IDENTITY THEFT. WTF?! Who's the victim here?

Now I know solving crimes is a hard job, and is VERY DANGEROUS. Those of you that work hard to protect and serve, and DO IT CORRECTLY (i.e. by using sound judgement, upholding everyone's constitutional rights, not on the "dole", not arbitrarily harassing, intimidating or just whooping some ass because you hate someone of another race, sexual orientation, religion, or just on GP because you're a dick) --if this is you, then GOD BLESS YOU, and PLEASE BE SAFE OUT THERE. But since 1% of y'all are the opposite of all this, then please note the following:

For the last 2 years, I've been in NAGOYA JAPAN. I am NOT this guy from Bowling Green. Please do NOT stop me and ask me about drugs, guns, or anything else that this dude may have been a party to. I am NOT him. We just share the same name (and my middle name is different to boot)

Thank You.

Posted via email from ...all about starrwulfe...

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African American Vernacular English, AKA "Ebonics"

AAVE grammatical Aspects

Aspect	Example	SE Meaning
Habitual/continuative aspect[54]	He be workin' Tuesdays.	He works frequently or habitually.
Intensified continuative (habitual)	He stay workin'.	He is always working.
Intensified continuative (not habitual)[55]	He steady workin'.	He keeps on working.
Perfect progressive	He been workin'.	He has been working.
Irrealis	He finna go to work.	He is about to go to work.a

via en.wikipedia.org

I get asked a ton of questions from Japanese learning English like, "Why is African-American English so much harder to understand than 'normal' English?"

Well I could go into the whole slavery-creole-no-real-education-for-blacks-at-that-time thing, but I think there's a more studied answer that I can give my students... Hence me looking on Wikipedia...

After reading this, I'm convinced--There must be at least 100 linguists that got their PhDs from hanging out in a North St. Louis liquor store...

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車に楽しんだ♥ I missed my car...

See and download the full gallery on posterous

I missed my car. ...really missed my car. A lot.  I love to drive, and I like the "freedom" I get from having a car here back home in America...
However, I'm glad I have limited access to a car in Nagoya; I only use it if I need to get someplace far and have to take things with me, or if I have to move something awkward.  Most times though, I'm on the subway, train, bus, bicycle or my shoes.  I think we Americans are too damn sedentary anyway.  We eat in overly-large portions, too many times a day, and the food we eat is too high in calories.  And to top it off, we're too car-centric.  We live in cities that make it all but impossible to walk or take transit to get anywhere or do anything.  And it's simply cheaper to own a car here than most places in the world...

US/State of Georgia:
Road Tax: $200/yr
Inspection: $25/yr
Gasoline:  $2.87/gallon  (63¢/liter)
Parking:  Home--FREE  ...and most places are also free too.  when you do pay, its around $1.25/hr or LESS.
Highway Tolls:  This varies where you live, but in Georgia, we have one tollway, and it's just 50¢ to use.

Japan/Aichi Prefecture:
Road Tax: $200/yr ($331.44)
Inspection: Depends on what they find; each car MUST be within factory specs, so if there's something wrong like worn brakes or bald tires, they add that to the cost of the inspection.  The average is around ¥70000 every 2 years (about $773)
Gasoline:  EXPENSIVE!  ¥125/liter or $6.35/gallon!!!
Parking:  Free on your own property...  But I live in an apartment...  There's no on-street parallel parking ANYWHERE in Japan as far as I know.  Right now in my neighborhood in Nagoya, a spot in a parking lot is about ¥13500/month ($150).  Parking elsewhere like shopping areas, business districts, etc, vary...  But you will pay.  In malls, as long as you purchase something and validate the parking ticket, you'll get 2 hrs free parking.  But if there's nothing like that, expect to pay about ¥150/$1.66 EVERY 15 MINUTES!
Highway Tolls.  Just about EVERY highway is tolled in Japan.  Tolls are calculated at around ¥26/km (45¢/mile) So that would make my drive from Atlanta to St Louis a $248 tolled drive...  Wow.  If you have ETC (like GA Cruise Card or EZPass) in the car, on the weekend or holidays you get a good discounted rate; around 30~70% off...  Still distances are closer together in Japan and again, anywhere there are people, there will be trains and busses, so its very unnecessary to drive most of the time.
That being said though, I am gonna enjoy my 2 1/2 weeks of freedom until I have to get back on the crowded subways and trains of Japan in April...  This is the foolishness I get into with my brother in the car with me...

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Conversations about MARTA

MARTA is Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, and they run the subway and bus system here in ATL.
I took MARTA from the airport to Chamblee near my mom's house, due to her adversion to driving through downtown Atlanta's bad traffic. After living in Japan again, I'm not complaining. I took the Meitetsu Mu-Sky Rapid to Centrair-- it was very nice, and I fell asleep. I wouldn't dare try any of that here though...

While riding the subway I noticed the new maps are all color coded. Instead of saying "north-south line" or "airport line" now there's red, blue, green and yellow.... yellow-- gold? huh?

The problem here is that the yellow--er gold line runs through an asian part of town at it's terminus. I don't think when the map was created, anyone ever intended as a bad joke to say "hey lets call this one the yellow line since it runs through little Asia in Atlanta" I actually had the job of redesigning MARTA's map back in 1998 when the north line (now the Red line) was extended.

I guess I find this strange now since I live in a country that's 99% one ethnic group--Japanese. No one ever does a town hall meeting about anything concerning the other 1% of people... which is why things like the Obama monkey TV commercial happen...

I think everyone should turn their sensitivity meters down a little bit. What if the rail line was ALREADY called the Yellow line BEFORE the Asians moved to that part of Atlanta (and I remember 15 years ago, there were none up that way...) would they have asked MARTA to change the signs?

And before the table turning begins, I don't care if they rename the Green line to the Black line. It does have a station that is in the projects--and the other end lies at the Martin Luther King Memorial... Suits me just fine... The line passes the State Capitol and CNN center too. I already know I can go anywhere, and am NOT limited to a line drawn on a map!

Posted via web from ...all about starrwulfe...

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OBAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

I'll say it-- For the first time in a long damn time, I actually do have hope in my country and fellow countrymen again. Over here in Japan, I was told by by students that Obama had won. See here in Japan, the polls closed at around 12 noon... So I was in the middle of a lesson. As soon as it was over, one of my students checked the internet and ran back yelling "Sensei, Sensei!!! Obama katsushitaaaaaa!!" Which means "Teacher, Teacher, Obama woooooooon!!!"

I actually got emotional, and had to try to explain to the kids around me what this meant. But this has been all over the news-- just today I woke up and watched NHK news and they dedicated 20 minutes to the American presidential race (most of it talking about Obama actually) I think the Japanese like Obama more than McCain for the same reasons that most of the world does-- He symbolizes home and change for the better. My students certainly know-- they asked me who did I vote for when I first got here. I said "Obama", and they say "yokatta na"-- "That's good isnt it?" Yes it is.

The picture BTW is of me and some fellow teachers from other schools I ran into-- some have "I <3 Obama" on their faces!!

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Michelle Obama Speech At The 2008 DNC Convention

What a good way to celebrate the last hours of my birthday than to see a beautiful, educated sister speak her mind about her life, husband and how he may bring about change. I don't care if you're black, white, red, yellow, brown or whatever shade-- if you've lived in the ghetto, or off in the cut (someplace in an undesirable area for those that aren't into slang) then you know what Mrs. Obama meant when she said "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country." She didn't mean that she hates it here, she was just disappointed all those times. Hell I'm still disappointed on an almost daily basis when it comes to being an American, because I know our true potential and we aren't living anywhere close to it.

I am proud to be here and to be born into my culture; I've been to other places in the world and no one quite does it like we do it here. But there is room for improvement, and room for change. I truly believe we have had an 8 year backslide and now it's time to clean that mess up, restore our honor and remove the tarnish from our name.

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An Open Letter to members of the U.S. Congress about the FairTax...

Please read the FairTax books by Congressman Linder and Neal Boortz. Visit www.Fairtax.org and look at all the empirical data and research that has been done on this taxation system. I won't pretend to be an economist, but I have worked for the IRS and currently am employed by a large banking firm in the tax compliance section. I am behind the FairTax 100%--even if it means I'd be unemployed! It just makes more sense than the 65000+ page code I have to read in order to make sure my clients are within the boundaries of the law.

I vote independent, but lean just left of center--moderate democrat. PLEASE DEMOCRATIC SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN/WOMEN, don't for the love of our nation play the normal partisan game with this... Vote with your hearts and minds, actually read Linder's bill *YOURSELF* and then decide clearly if it makes sense or not. This can be the policy that makes America the best country to live in and restore confidence in our nation just like the New Deal did after the Great Depression. I invite any member of congress to call me personally if they need reasons why they should consider voting on the FairTax... I'll gladly take them on a tour of St Louis, MO--my hometown, or Atlanta GA, my home now. Show them how good hardworking Americans are jobless now with the vanishing of GM, Ford and Chrysler plants in both towns. Show them how it's cheaper to build ANYTHING overseas half a world away and ship it here to be sold, rather than build it across the street from the store it would be sold in here in AMERICA!

Lastly, some of you may have questioned my patriotism when people like me were against the war in Iraq... But now I question yours if you are against the FairTax. Think about that. I love my country, and 3 generations of my family have worn its uniform, even while fighting to be equals in this country (I'm afro-american) So now I pose this question to you--why be against something that would truly help restore the USA to glory and keep our hard earned dollars in this country and bring even more money, people, and RESPECT to us in the world... ...are YOU a PATRIOT?

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Attention Black Folks...

I never ever go looking for reasons to pull the race card... My circle of friends is a veritable rainbow of colors; people from all walks of life, from all over the world... But dammit, I am a African-American--- A Black man in America... And yeah, I grew up in L.A. Inglewood... I'll never forget April 1992, so I still spell America like AmeriKKKa-- Listen to Ice Cube from back in the day and you'll understand. Lately rap music, hip hop, crunk, snap, whatever-the-hell-25-and-under-muhfukaz is listen' to these days is FUCKED UP!!!! Ain't no more substance in the lyrics, and the videos are even worse. I never shot nobody, never robbed no damn body, and the only time I ever spent in jail was on some bullshit traffic shit.

This is a wake up call... Hip-hop culture in this country is getting outta hand. It's gone from consiousness and state-of-the-culture to "let's come as close as we can to shooting porn and gangsta movies." Even the shit I see in the clubs lately. I would get the hell slapped outta me if I grabbed some chick's ass in a shopping mall, but if I do it in a club, she'll look back at me, and either smile if she thinks I'm cute, or at worse, simply walk away... I'm not saying flirting is wrong, but there is a double standard...

We as black people also need to stop judging our peers based on THINGS! I'm tired of people asking me how come my car has 18" rims instead of 24" ones... or why I tend not to wear jewlery... How come I don't own a plasma screen TV or have the latest $150+ shoes... Why does what I choose to spend MY money on matter so much to what people think of me?

Never was a baller, pimp, drug dealer, gun trader, terrorist, or any other illegal shit... And I ain't about to sit here and glorify that shit either... Wake up my people... wake the f*** up!

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Conscientious Objector or Unpatriotic Soldier?

First Lt. Ehren Watada, a 28-year-old Hawaii native, is the first commissioned officer in the U.S. to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq. He announced last June his decision not to deploy on the grounds the war is illegal. I believe he is simply practicing his constitutionally approved and protected right to protest. Our military is currently an all volunteer one. Although you're sworn to protect and serve the country, Why should it supercede the constitutional laws granted in this country? Ehren is simply utilizing the values he was sworn to protect. You don't get any more American and patriotic than that. Besides, would you do something against your values if you were in the same position? Let's say you're given the job to protect a person... You have to do whatever this person demands no matter what. That person orders you to walk into a lion's den blindfolded with raw steaks taped your naked body for his/her entertainment. Do you do it? Well??

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