Project 21: New Visions

Comedian Chris Rock used to play a recurring character on "Saturday Night Live" named Nat X. During the humorous, nonsensical rants of this Black Nationalist talk show host, Nat X would sometimes be chased by his studio's "white-man cam." When it caught him, bars would appear on the screen and Nat X would yell "That's what you wanna see!" April's cover of Vogue magazine, featuring an Annie Leibovitz photo of basketball phenomenon LeBron James and supermodel Gisele Bundchen promoting its "shape issue," is drawing fire for what magazine critic Samir Husni calls an image that "screams King Kong." Leibovitz's photo ...
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With the economy stagnating, unemployment climbing and families struggling to pay bills, Congress and the White House finally agree on something - government needs to "prime the pump" and deliver financial relief.  They've jointly approved a stimulus package to provide aid. But lawmakers are acting like make-believe doctors, prescribing aspirin to a patient continually and knowingly poisoned with arsenic. Any shot of economic medicine is likely to be counteracted by existing and proposed toxic policies that drive up prices, cause layoffs and put families on energy welfare.  It would be laughable if it weren't so hypocritical. Oil, gas, coal and ...
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After decades of neglect, effective health care is one of the biggest concerns in Africa. Both foreign donors and African governments, making finding a solution a priority, have opened the money taps.  Foreign hard currency is flowing into the health ministries of African countries in unprecedented quantities. Despite this generosity, there is little improvement: health care professionals are demoralized, access to essential medicines remains low and corruption is still a serious problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 50 percent of Africans lack access to essential medicines.  Children in developing countries unnecessarily die from preventable diseases such as ...
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For someone once considered "our first black president," Bill Clinton seems to have particular disregard for the economic well-being of minorities when it comes to energy. At a recent rally, the former Man from Hope said: "We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren." Slowing down the economy won't hurt Clinton and Al Gore - his former vice president and self-appointed global warming czar - as it will hurt lower-income families, especially minorities.  With all the panic over indications the economy may already ...
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Since long before I became involved in Washington politics, my fellow conservatives have sought an American withdrawal from the United Nations. Reasons for getting the U.S. out the U.N. include revulsion over allowable human rights abuses by member nations such as Thailand and China.  Conservatives also note the U.N. props up dictators and manages failed and corrupt relief efforts.  Then there is the U.N.'s preferential treatment of less developed nations while the U.S. pays a substantial amount of the U.N.'s bills. For these reasons and more, conservatives have generally not participated in the U.N.'s many international conferences as non-governmental organizations ...
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Companies manufacturing new drugs to combat illnesses from the flu to AIDS are at risk of losing their patent rights.  Supporters of this say it will make drugs cheaper and more plentiful.  Stripping drug companies of this financial security, however, removes the incentive for them to continue the costly process of developing new and more effective drugs. I recently escorted a delegation of American patients' rights activists to a meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss this problem.  The WHO is a United Nations agency that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health ...
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Senator Barack Obama's success on the campaign trail has presented Americans with the first truly viable black presidential candidate.  This unprecedented situation has made some wonder whether race should trump other traditional criteria in selecting a commander-in-chief. Using a more traditional criteria such as economics, for example, people support candidates they believe will help improve their bottom line.  This could mean tax breaks for individuals, families and businesses or better and cheaper health care or education through increased spending.  In this situation, people are more likely to support a candidate they believe will enhance their economic outcome. But what about ...
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"Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place."  - Frédéric Bastiat I am a long-time critic of overregulation, including the increasing trend of government anti-smoking initiatives.  When I recently moved from Georgia to Texas, I was perhaps too naïve in hoping I would escape the inane policies of out-of-control legislators.  I did not, but it would have been a surprising change of pace to avoid those who intend to regulate every facet ...
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Back in 1958, the pollsters at the Gallup organization began what became a regular survey of American attitudes about race.  In particular, they asked people whether they approved of interracial marriage and if they could support a black person running for president. The successes of Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) in his campaigning for presidency this year proves Gallup's 2007 finding, in which 94 percent of those polled said they could vote for a black person (though not necessarily Obama) running for the highest office in the land.  This figure had improved from only 37 percent in 1958. On the subject ...
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If a tree falls in the forest with no one there to hear it, does it make a noise? Likewise, if someone says something inappropriate and Al Sharpton isn't around to hear it, is it really racist? Sportscaster Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Channel is likely pondering this right now. She's apologized for a recent ill-considered comment and has been suspended by her employer, but Al Sharpton - coming in late in the game - wants more.  He belatedly wants her fired, and he is taking the Golf Channel to task. During Golf Channel coverage of the Mercedes-Benz Championship on ...
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Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - "unalienable rights" cited by our Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence - are now at risk as left-wing activists seek to curtail our liberties and personal choices to save the planet from supposedly man-made global warming. No one is saying global climate change doesn't exist.  We all know the hot era of the dinosaurs later gave way to the frigid Ice Age.  Throughout recorded human history, with and without the presence of factories and other factors blamed for today's alleged rising temperatures, there have been many warming and cooling trends. What ...
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Money talks. This is a truism black Americans relied upon to enact change during the civil rights movement, with protests such as the Montgomery bus boycott.  Its power was seen again in this century with the boycott of Adam's Mark hotel chain after black customers were treated disrespectfully. In applying the power of not buying, blacks have successfully hit businesses and other organizations where it hurts the most - in the pocketbook. But are equal rights, equal access, equal treatment and the like the only causes for which the flexing of black financial muscle is worthy?  Furthermore, can we honestly ...
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It was the American Dream on steroids. Mortgages were offered at low initial interest rates without down payments.  Many were helped to purchase homes for the first time.  Others bought second homes and investment properties.  Still more refinanced existing mortgages, subsidized home improvements and - at times - extravagances. Then, like all unnatural highs, a bad turn of events created a nightmare for thousands of homeowners and their lenders.  Many homeowners began feeling the squeeze when rising interest rates triggered a dramatic rise in monthly payments on loans with variable rates.  Foreclosure has too often been the result. Liberal activists ...
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  What the Church and State Battle Is Really About by Bishop Council Nedd II (bio) What would happen if a presidential candidate stood up and declared the primary role of our federal government is to preserve the rights given to man by God? Presumably, they would be ridiculed by late-night talk show hosts while left-wing bloggers would classify the statement as a hate crime and demand that the candidate face prosecution. Yet that is exactly what the Declaration of Independence proclaims: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by ...
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Faith in Isolation by Bishop Council Nedd II (bio) I have never served time behind bars.  As a priest, however, I have made my fair share of prison visitations.  If there is one thing I have learned from these visits, it is that there are diverse personalities among the incarcerated. From my experience, there are some prisoners you are secretly happy to see locked away from society.  There are those who did wrong and are simply serving their sentences.  Others cause you to wonder what miscarriage of justice occurred to land such a timid soul into such a hostile and ...
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Earmarks Rob Taxpayers to Benefit Politicians by Deneen Borelli (bio) Remember "The Mod Squad" television series that ran on ABC from 1968 to 1973? Chronicling three diverse, hipper-than-hip young cops working in the counter-culture movement of the day, the network promoted it with the tagline "One White, One Black, One Blonde." A similar group seems to have formed among some prominent New York lawmakers. Instead of Pete, Linc and Julie, however, the team is now composed of Senator Charles Schumer (D), Representative Charles Rangel (D) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D). Call them "The Rob Squad." Today, it's all about "earmarks" ...
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  If A Tree Falls... by Mychal Massie (bio) If a tree falls in the forest with no one there to hear it, does it make a noise? Likewise, if someone says something inappropriate and Al Sharpton isn't around to hear it, is it really racist? Sportscaster Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Channel is likely pondering this right now. She's apologized for a recent ill-considered comment and has been suspended by her employer, but Al Sharpton - coming in late in the game - wants more.  He belatedly wants her fired, and he is taking the Golf Channel to task ...
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When Silliness Is Serious by Bishop Council Nedd II (bio) To make a point about frivolous lawsuits, Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers decided to sue God. Millions of people the world over undoubtedly got a snicker over his efforts to get a county court to stop God from causing "calamitous catastrophes resulting in the wide-spread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants including innocent babes, infants, children, the aged and infirm without mercy or distinction."  Then they went about their day. Similarly, I'm sure most people just rolled their eyes when they heard about a ...
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  Blacks and Anemia Medications by Lee H. Walker (bio) Have you heard federal regulators want to cut back on the amount the government will pay for certain drugs for cancer patients and people on kidney dialysis? Any changes in how the government regulates health care assistance should be of particular concern to the black community, since blacks disproportionally rely on federal programs such as Medicare to pay for their prescription drugs.  Blacks, for example, make up 13 percent of the general population but comprise nearly 40 percent of dialysis patients.  The drugs currently in question are related to anemia.  ...
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I Forgive Dog the Bounty Hunter by Darryn "Dutch" Martin (bio) I won't deny that I was sickened and repulsed when I first heard the racial tirade of reality television bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman.  Despite the fact that it occurred in a private telephone conversation with his son Tucker that Tucker later sold to the National Enquirer, I still couldn't help but be offended and angry at what I heard coming from the mouth of this very public man. In the call, Chapman complained viciously about his son's black fiancé.  In his rage, he used the "n-word" several times.  ...
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