Toot and Boot

. . . . . and not the pull-my-finger kind. Or the French one either.


Can't, get, it, out, of, my, head. Thanks KiiS.


Gotta.


Guerrilla Girls, holla!

Bop Bop!

Who's Word Is It?!?

Receiving Death Penalty Is As Random As Being 'Struck By Lightning': Report

By Laura Bassett:

Thirty-five years after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment and approved new sentencing criteria to make it less random, a new report has found that receiving the death penalty is still as arbitrary and unfair as being "struck by lightning."

A number of factors unrelated to the crime, including race, geography and money, influence the sentencing of capital punishment as much as, if not more than, the severity of the actual crime,according to the study released Wednesday by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Defendants who kill white victims are far more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill black victims, the study found. Further, a vast majority of U.S. executions occur in only a handful of states; the quality of defense a defendant is able to afford affects his chances of receiving the death penalty; and county budgets are often a deciding factor in whether a district attorney will seek the death penalty or not. A number of these cases are overturned on appeal and assessed very differently the second time around, suggesting the decisions are often unjustified.

"The lingering problem with death penalty is that it is applied unevenly and unfairly," Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, told HuffPost. "It's not always a matter of the worst crimes getting the worst sentences. Those that have fewer resources or don't get great lawyers or don't have someone reinvestigating are going to end up getting the death penalty, while the worst crimes sometimes get good representation and don't."

As an example, the DPIC report pointed to the case of Gary Ridgway, a serial killer in Washington State who pled guilty to murdering 48 people in 2003 and was given a life sentence in exchange for detailed confessions about the victims. By contrast, Teresa Lewis, a mentally disabled woman in Virginia who stood by as two men shot her husband and son, was handed the death penalty while the two murderers received life sentences.

A national poll conducted in 2010 by Lake Research Partners showed that the unfairness of death sentencing is a top concern among voters who oppose capital punishment. Two-thirds of voters said they would prefer alternative punishments for murder, such as life without parole, over the death penalty, and 69 percent of respondents said they disagreed with the death penalty because of how unevenly it is applied.

Having the death penalty costs states a significant amount of taxpayer dollars, even when the states barely use it. The DPIC report estimates that only one person is executed for every 326 murders, which suggests that the death penalty is handed down too sparsely to be effective as a deterrent or as retribution.

"The constitution requires fairness, not just in lofty words, but also in daily practice," the report concludes. "On that score, the death penalty has missed the mark."

Link

Images produced by Andy Warhol

Be Kind, Be Loyal

Video released today June 22nd 2011
Excerpt from the March 25th 2011 New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The percentage of the nation’s black population living in the South has hit its highest point in half a century, according to census data released Thursday, as younger and more educated black residents move out of declining cities in the Northeast and Midwest in search of better opportunities.

The share of black population growth that has occurred in the South over the past decade — the highest since 1910, before the Great Migration of blacks to the North — has upended some long-held assumptions.

Both Michigan and Illinois, whose cities have rich black cultural traditions, showed an overall loss of blacks for the first time, said William Frey, the chief demographer at theBrookings Institution.

And Atlanta, for the first time, has replaced Chicago as the metro area with the largest number of African-Americans after New York. About 17 percent of blacks who moved to the South in the past decade left New York State, far more than from any other state, the census data show.

At the same time, blacks have begun leaving cities for more affluent suburbs in large numbers, much like generations of whites before them.

“The notion of the North and its cities as the promised land has been a powerful part of African-American life, culture and history, and now it all seems to be passing by,” said Clement Price, a professor of history at Rutgers-Newark. “The black urban experience has essentially lost its appeal with blacks in America.”

During the turbulent 1960s, black population growth ground to a halt in the South, and Southern states claimed less than 10 percent of the national increase then. The South has increasingly claimed a greater share of black population growth since — about half the country’s total in the 1970s, two-thirds in the 1990s and three-quarters in the decade that just ended.

The percentage of black Americans living in the South is still far lower than before the Great Migration in the earlier part of the last century, when 90 percent did. Today it is 57 percent, the highest since 1960.

“This is the decade of black flight,” said Mr. Frey. “It’s a new age for African-Americans. It’s long overdue, but it seems to be happening.”

The five counties with the largest black populations in 2000 — Cook in Illinois, Los Angeles, Wayne in Michigan, Kings in New York and Philadelphia — all lost black population in the last decade. Among the 25 counties with the biggest increase in black population, three-quarters are in the South.

The Rev. Ronald Peters, who moved last year from Pittsburgh to Atlanta, said it was refreshing to be part of a hopeful black middle class that was not weighed down by the stigmas and stereotypes of the past, as he felt it was in the urban Northeast.

“Too often, people turn on TV and all they see are black men in chains,” said Mr. Peters, president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, a seminary in Atlanta. “Atlanta is a clear example of a different type of ethos. The black community is not people who have lost their way.”

Increasingly blacks are moving to places with small black populations. Just 2 percent of the black population growth in the last decade occurred in counties that have traditionally been black population centers, while 20 percent has occurred in counties where only a tiny fraction of the population had been black.

Segregation declined during the decade. Among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, 92 showed segregation declines with most of the largest occurring in growing areas in the South and West, Mr. Frey said.

The South was the fastest growing region over all, up 14 percent from 2000. Its white population increased as well, though whites grew substantially in the West as well, something that was not the case for blacks. Growth of Asian and Hispanic populations — which grew the fastest over all — was widely distributed throughout the nation.

“The center of population has moved south in the most extreme way we’ve ever seen in history,” said Robert Groves, director of the Census Bureau.

Northern blacks were a big part of Southern gains. There are now more than one million black residents of the South who were born in the Northeast, a tenfold increase since 1970

Continued

Which Type of Friend Are You?

A great time killing read from the folks over at Cracked.com. Now which type of friend are you?

Here is an excerpt:
Just like a superhero team or jewel thief gang needs each member to specialize in a different skill set, a good circle of friends also needs a wide range of useful skills. While a superhero team might need a guy who is superstrong and a guy who has a lot of gadgets, your friend team might consist of a guy who can get you discounts at the Best Buy and a guy who's totally cool with feeding your cats when you're out.

When I suggest assembling such a team, I'm not suggesting you go around preying on emotionally vulnerable people who can do useful things for you and pretend to be their friend. I'm just saying that if you happen to run into some cool people you enjoy hanging out with, who also own a pickup truck, don't take them for granted.

Sure, you can have friends that are just fun people, or that you are fond of for no logical reason, but that doesn't mean you don't also want to have friends such as:

#2.

The Friend Who Can Find Deals

This is the kind of friend you can miss out on discovering if you make the wrong choice in a minor moral dilemma. They often reveal themselves during an innocent group conversation when you mention a vacation you went on and they ask you how much you spent, then react by saying, "Oh no, that was way too much. You should have checked Kayak first. I saw fares for $400 less last week."

You have a choice here. You can get pissed off at someone butting in and Monday-morning quarterbacking you and making you look like a chump, or you can check this person out and see if you have a genuine Deal Finder on your hands.

Getty
To find out for sure, you just put them under a bright light and ask them to price products. Or maybe just hang out and get to know them.

This is the kind of person who thinks of comparison shopping as a recreational sport. You might think it is a tedious chore, going from store to store, and website to website, reading fine print, trying to figure out which coupons stack, and following every Twitter update on Black Friday deals. But for this person, it is literally like a game. When they get a new gadget, they are less excited about the gadget itself than about the fact that they "scored" in getting it for 60 percent off.

Read more: The 7 Types of Friend Everyone Needs | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-types-friend-everyone-needs_p2/#ixzz1PwLAj0Ti

A Tune for Tuesday

Paul Jones Instrumental #99

Nubs

. . . . . . . and not the cacao kind.


Want.

How can you not like this little nub of a badass. Tell me.

BOP!

P.s. Shout out! BKDP! Panda Bear! HOLLA!

Feel Good Radio Tunes Live Tonite!

WTULNewOrleans.com at 10pm until Midnight Central Standard Time, 11pm-1am Eastern Standard Time (New York). Twist, sip, and enjoy! 
A Taste:

The World's Shortest Living Man

What more can I say but that I am happy to see the little guy brimming with smiles. I am still conjuring
ideas for ideal job positions (I am sure some Chilean miners could have benefited from his services), but for the moment I will let Junrey shine (but of course feel free to chime in with your own needs or job recommendations for Junrey). 

Click through for the Associated Press story:

Arrested Development

A good song with a message great; A video with a backstory, that much better.


Via Youtube:

Tony Bingham, a sincere friend, found our location for this video at the last minute - and we were of course elated. But on the shooting day in question, the skies produced rain clouds for miles.
I sat silently, thinking how I'd finally gotten to shoot a music video for this band (I had already directed their EPK and documentary), and now the heavens were not cooperating. Clearly a disaster was abound. I decided to shoot anyway. Maybe two takes in, I'd pretty much given up on the clip having any signature look...everything was drab, muddy and dark.
But within, it seemed, seconds, a wondrous thing happened. I received a call from my steadicam operator who said prior his schedule would not allow for him to be there - now he was asking for directions. My smile began. Once he arrived, the cloud cover peeled back. We had a stretch of about 3 hours of moist sunlight! Outstanding!
After a bit of fertile photography, we packed up and left the farm location, stumbling accidently on a small shack in the middle of nowhere. Funny, when I entered the rickety structure, a visible hole stood out in the middle of the place. I thought out loud, "Quick, let's place the camera down there, and spin it in a circle to catch each band member in a different part of this open house. Worked like a charm!
And when I suggested Speech sit in the window, the sun grew brighter for our two only takes. God...is all one can say.
We traveled back to downtown ATL, where I was favored with the distinct honor of working with famed artist, Radcliffe Bailey. A polished professional. He braved rush hour traffic, and seedy alleyways for us to capture what was pure about his work even then.
We ended our spirited day at the Scoville Hotel, where we finalized our efforts for the remainder of the concept.

Mr. Wendal with decent audio makes that much more of a difference(goood). Also check the 15 minute live version with a funky break down:

Click Through For Lyrics, bio, and more:

Tinkers Didico Knackers

My blog mind, blown.



For all you Mc's out there, you need not worry, we won't judge you. Just don't paint your baby's toe nails florescent pink for their christening. Own it and paint them green with gold flecks.

South Carolina? Stop stealing my beer.

Dhalyōn munʹia!

O'Bop.
(I couldn't help myself)

tattaow tattow tatau tatu

Thank you sailors.

Bop!

Pharoahe Monch - "Clap (one day)" Extended Music Video + W.A.R.

I have never been that high on Pharoahe Monch, but I do appreciate when an artist surprises me with solid material.
"Clap" is off of Pharoahe's latest release W.A.R. of which is a solid output when I consider my previous encounterings with the MC.. I am going to start with the video that first sparked my interest in the album and then build from there sonically. Hopefully a career of hype can finally begin to pan out.

A few selected songs from We Are Renegades:

Click through for a song featuring Pharoahe from 2002's Soundbombing III

Muliebrity . . .

. . . . . at it's best, so that hopefully you won't be totally grossed out by my last post and the teenage boy lurking around inside me. I'm still a lady who likes a good picnic in the sun, grass blade tunes, unicorns, origami, and pretty birds.


Oh, and live Japanese puppies.

Bop!

RATATAT Presents: Remixes Vol. II

As Ratatat originally released Vol. II

As a free download album

and I am not sure what happened to 

the original link,

I went ahead and found another

for your enjoyment. 

Ratatat take from Fashawn:

Get The Fucking Fat Out Of Your Ears!

There is a whole lot of motion, a whole lot of high fivin', and a 
wholelotta of smiles between Zach Galifianakis and 
Will Ferrell on Between Two Ferns: 

Funny Or Die

Mac-Uh-Fucking-Rooooons.

Eat with me.
And shit by yourself . . .. . . regardless of what this installation implies.

Both of these are inevitable. In both bodily function(s!) and posting. I can't help but eat, I can't help but excrete, I can't help but share. I mean post.

kid ick, we miss you.