MF GALAXY

(Professor X, centre.) “A funeral was held Friday to mourn the passing of X-Clan standout Professor X, a.k.a. Robert ‘Lumumba’ Carson. “Rev. Al Sharpton, rapper Kurtis Blow and Afrika Bambaataa of the Zulu Nation were among the hundreds of people gathered at Antioch Church in Brooklyn, New York to remember Lumumba’s influence on hip hop and within the black community. “‘He made a difference. There is no doubt in my mind that the angels in heaven are saying 'Welcome home. You fought a good fight,’’ said Rev. Gaddy of Friendship Baptist Church. “According to Allhiphop.com, the service included hip hop performances, traditional African drums and a band, in addition to scores of motivational speeches that gave honor to Carson. “Kurtis Blow told mourners to remember the efforts Lumumba put forth in promoting cultural pride as part of the Blackwatch Movement , an arts-centered activist group the rapper founded. “‘I know that Lumumba would not have wanted people to be sad. He would not wa...

If you're planning to buy goods or services in E-Town , don't just flip through the White Pages--click on THE BLACK PAGES!

Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand ... Kurt Kleiner writes: "Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him , and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. "At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals. "The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right.... "Of course, if you're studying the psychology of politics, you shouldn't be surprised to get a political reaction. Similar work by John T. Jost of Stanford and colleagues in 2003 drew a political backlash. The researchers reviewed 44 years worth of studies into t...

I will share, sometime soon, my thoughts on the new films V for Vendetta and Beowulf and Grendel , as well as this season of Battlestar Galactica and my purchase of the 4-DVD boxed set The Best of the Electric Company . I will do so even if the plumber comes to fix the sink and dies after being harassed into cardiac failure by a parrot.

I don't often agree with CBC Cross-Country Check-Up host Rex Murphy, but he was dead-on when asking, in light of this case, whether Canadian troops should be in Afghanistan to protect this country's "right" to execute people for freedom of thought. As usual, the insightful Br. Sondjata at Garvey's Ghost has articulated some of the most distressing and disgusting problems inside the Islamic world (especially as faced by Afrikans). I've spent my life speaking up for underdogs, and for much of the time, that's included Muslims, especially when they're the victims of imperialist (i.e. Western) wars of murderous plunder and racist violence ; I'm proud to call many Muslims friends, and of course, my greatest hero, the honourable Malcolm X, was a Muslim. But when (certain) Muslims are the oppressors, then their actions, too, must be condemned in no uncertain terms. The issue must never be pro-Muslim, pro-Jew, pro-Christian, pro-Rastafari, pro-Ifa, pro...

Payment for Israeli soldier decried Hundreds of children have been killed since the intifada's start By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank Monday 27 March 2006, 18:18 Makka Time, 15:18 GMT "The outgoing Palestinian Authority government and the incoming Hamas-led administration have condemned the payment of compensation to an Israeli soldier after a court cleared him of killing a Palestinian schoolgirl in 2004. "The soldier will receive 82,000 shekels (roughly $17,000) as part of an arrangement reached between his lawyers and the Israeli military prosecutor, the Israeli press reported last week. "The compensation was awarded to cover legal expenses and damages. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the court 'agreed to compensate him because it was convinced that he was wronged'. Yousuf Rizqa, the new PA minister of information, described the acquittal in the killing of Iman Al Hams, 13, and the compensation as 'infinitely scandalous and defying logic and morality...

Orlando Patterson writes in The New York Times: "Why are young black men [in the US] doing so poorly in school that they lack basic literacy and math skills? These scholars must know that countless studies by educational experts, going all the way back to the landmark report by James Coleman of Johns Hopkins University in 1966, have found that poor schools, per se, do not explain why after 10 years of education a young man remains illiterate. "Nor have studies explained why, if someone cannot get a job, he turns to crime and drug abuse. One does not imply the other. Joblessness is rampant in Latin America and India, but the mass of the populations does not turn to crime. "And why do so many young unemployed black men have children — several of them — which they have no resources or intention to support? And why, finally, do they murder each other at nine times the rate of white youths? "...So what are some of the cultural factors that explain the sorry state of y...