- The Root Recommends: ‘Ice’ | The Root
- In his new memoir, Ice: A Memoir of Gangsta Life and Redemption, rapper-turned-actor Ice-T gives readers a peek into his fascinating life and career…
Although Ice-T's off-screen persona isn't for everyone, this honest and sometimes surprising memoir might just be worth the read.
- Lessons in Ebonics: What’s Up? | The Root – By: John McWhorter
- What does not come across in most defenses of Black English is that it's intricate. This will be the first of a few columns I will be doing, once a month… Today, let's look at what's up.
Or better, what "up" is. …
This usage of "up" is not spatial at all. It has a whole different meaning, although because we speak language mostly unconsciously, we would hard-pressed to tell a foreigner what this "up" meant. What it conveys is that the speaker has an intimate relationship with the location.
…one could give away an infidelity in Black English by unthinkingly referring to having been "up" at someone's apartment, someone with whom your partner had assumed you were only briefly acquainted.
- Trump On Obama’s Birth Certificate: I’m ‘Honored’ — But Where Are His School Records? (VIDEO) | TPMDC
- Beaming with pride, Donald Trump took credit on Wednesday for President Obama releasing a copy of his long-form birth certificate — but with some qualifications.
"I'm very proud of myself because I've accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish," he said …He added: "It is rather amazing that all of a sudden it materializes." And, Trump said, there are still questions about President Obama's background.
- Hundreds rally to protest 2 Fla. immigration bills – BusinessWeek
- "Hundreds of immigrant activists and supporters are organizing protests this week across Florida to protest two tough immigration bills being debated in the Legislature.
A House bill allows local police to check a person's immigration status if they suspect the person is in the country illegally and requires they check the status of anyone under investigation — though not necessarily arrested — for a crime. Courts have blocked similar provisions in Arizona's new immigration law.
The bill also makes being in the country illegally a criminal misdemeanor. Under federal law, it is a less serious civil infraction. The House bill also mandates employers use a federal database called E-Verify to check whether new employees are eligible to work in the U.S."
- Today in African-American History by Lisa Vox, April 25, 2011
- After high school, Ellington stuck around DC for a while, serving as a messenger for the Navy and the State Dept. by day and jamming on the piano by night. In 1923, Ellington decided to follow the drummer in his band to New York, where he became part of the Harlem Renaissance.
It was in Harlem's Cotton Club that he made his name, launching a career that lasted until his death in 1974. Ellington wrote an estimated 1500 pieces during his career, a number that makes him the most prolific jazz composer of his generation.
- Tripolitan War, 1801 – 1805 | About.com African History
- When the United States of America gained independence from Great Britain there was an unexpected problem – piracy. Removed from the protection of the world's greatest navy, US ships were prize targets for pirates all cross the seven seas. In 1783, the same year that the Treaty of Paris was signed, corsairs from the Barbary States began to attack American shipping in the Mediterranean.
…Recorded as the first land engagement of American troops outside the American continent, the battle at Derna [Apr 7, 1805] has a particular place in the memory of the United States Marine Corps. The trek across the desert is commemorated in the first verse of the Marines' Hymn: "to the shores of Tripoli".
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
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