ByronCrawford.com

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict according to Kevin Smith

Yeah, that Kevin Smith, director of Clerks and a number of other really, really bad films.

One of his Hollywood pals explained to him recently what happened at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, and so he decided to dedicate an entire episode of his popular podcast to discussing. Does this mean that Abe Schwartz will be hitting him up on Twitter, ordering him to explain why he's interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, when he doesn't even live there?

I know I mentioned this year's Toronto International Film Festival in a post here the other day. It was boycotted by a number of liberal filmmakers and other various members of the intelligentsia, because of its spotlight on the city of Tel Aviv, which was obviously part of Israel's public relations campaign to take people's minds off of all of the kids they killed in Gaza earlier this year.

The entire podcast, which is about an hour long, discusses these issues. I've edited it down to about 20 minutes, for your listening pleasure. It goes to show a couple of things. First of all, we can hip a lot more people to these issue, if we're diligent about discussing them, like I've been. Kevin Smith is knocking down 40's door and apparently hardly ever heard of any of this. Also, it goes to show the kind of brainwashing we're up against. Notice how Kevin Smith's mind immediately goes to antisemitism, as if it's anti-Jewish to be against killing children.

Kevin Smith - Bar Smitzvah [zSHARE]

Protest over Israel roils Toronto Film Festival [LA Times]

The Tel Aviv Party Stops Here [The Nation]

Jasiri X "The Only Color That Matters Is Green"

A music video shot at the G-20 Summit, right out in front of the heavily armed police.

At least Mr. Do is having a good week

Word on the street is that Al Sharpton is banging LisaRaye, the video ho and former first lady of Turks and Caicos. The two of them have been spotted together recently at a number of political events.

I should have known something was up, weeks ago, when I read on Twitter that the two of them were at Michael Jackson's funeral - not that weird memorial service shit they had on every channel on TV on a random Tuesday afternoon, the actual funeral, when they finally stuck him in the ground. I thought it was weird that Mr. Do would feel compelled to mention on Twitter that he was there with LisaRaye, but I figured they were just hard up for celebrities to invite. You know how they could mostly only get black people to show up for that memorial service.

Mr. Do took to Twitter today to address the matter. He didn't state categorically that he isn't banging LisaRaye, but he said that people keep asking him if the two of them are an item, because the two of them are hard at work on the education issue; what's next, are people gonna start asking if he's dating Wyclef? I guess he's also working on some sort of policy initiative with Wyclef. But does he really expect us to believe he's working on education with LisaRaye? Does this bitch even have an education. The girl from the YBF thinks she might be using him to get into some of these political functions, where she might find another sucker.

Exclusive New Couple Alert: Al Sharpton & LisaRaye! [The YBF]

Ho tendencies die hard [XXL]

Mr. Do @ Twitter

That's gonna leave a mark

A word of advice to those of us who live near high schools in less fortunate areas: If you're walking down the street, and you see a group of kids jumping around like monkeys, beating the crap out of each other, and a few of them happen to be carrying 2x4s, don't walk towards that shit. Just turn and walk away. And quickly!

You might be tempted to get close enough to take it all in, out of sheer amazement, but you don't want to run the risk of getting involved in it yourself. Plus, the shit's probably gonna end up on World Star in a few days anyway.

16 year-old Derrion Albert found out the hard way what happens when you don't take this advice. In the snuff footage after the jump, he can be seen walking towards one of these fights. Then common sense must have kicked in and he turned to walk away. But not before one of the guys with a 2x4 could knock him right the fuck out. Then when he tried to get up, several other kids stomped the shit out of him.

The grisliest parts of the video, which has been all over the news today, have been blurred out. But what remains is bad enough. I watched it like five times, to get the sequence of events correct, and I'm not even sure how I'd be able to get to sleep tonight, if it wasn't for all of this alcohol I'm about to drink. Consider yourselves warned.

Israelis on Obama: "He's bad because he's black"

Lushlife - Cassette City: Album Review

Lushlife, Cassette City (Rapster, 2009)
You might remember Lushlife from the time his girlfriend emailed me a picture of her cans, then he asked me if I could review his album. I figured that would be the least I could do, it's just taken me a while to get around to it. I'd already been to the mountaintop, so to speak.

• Lushlife @ MySpace

FACT: Women hate life

Five things I learned reading a recent MoDo column:

1) Men are getting happier, while women are getting sadder.

According to the General Social Survey, which has tracked Americans’ mood since 1972, and five other major studies around the world, women are getting gloomier and men are getting happier.

Before the ’70s, there was a gender gap in America in which women felt greater well-being. Now there’s a gender gap in which men feel better about their lives.

2) Black women, despite their well-documented relationship issues, are bucking the trend.

As Arianna Huffington points out in a blog post headlined “The Sad, Shocking Truth About How Women Are Feeling”: “It doesn’t matter what their marital status is, how much money they make, whether or not they have children, their ethnic background, or the country they live in. Women around the world are in a funk.”

(The one exception is black women in America, who are a bit happier than they were in 1972, but still not as happy as black men.)

3) There's an inverse relationship between a woman's happiness and her distance from the stove.

When women stepped into male- dominated realms, they put more demands — and stress — on themselves. If they once judged themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens and dinner parties, now they judge themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens, dinner parties — and grad school, work, office deadlines and meshing a two-career marriage.

“Choice is inherently stressful,” Buckingham said in an interview. “And women are being driven to distraction.”

4) Reproduction is for suckers.

One area of extreme distraction is kids. “Across the happiness data, the one thing in life that will make you less happy is having children,” said Betsey Stevenson, an assistant professor at Wharton who co-wrote a paper called “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness.” “It’s true whether you’re wealthy or poor, if you have kids late or kids early. Yet I know very few people who would tell me they wish they hadn’t had kids or who would tell me they feel their kids were the destroyer of their happiness.”

5) No one likes an old woman.

Another daunting thing: America is more youth and looks obsessed than ever, with an array of expensive cosmetic procedures that allow women to be their own Frankenstein Barbies.

Men can age in an attractive way while women are expected to replicate — and Restylane — their 20s into their 60s.

[...]

Men also tend to fare better romantically as time wears on. There are more widows than widowers, and men have an easier time getting younger mates.

Blue Is the New Black [New York Times]

The Sad, Shocking Truth About How Women Are Feeling [Huffington Post]

I thought Ill Bill was into conspiracy theories?

I heard they actually play this on the radio in Atlanta

Confirm or deny, Teh Gyant.

Brother Ali - Us: Album Review

Brother Ali, Us (Rhymesayers, 2009)
Brother Ali is a huge white albino Muslim rapper from Minnesota. His music tends to deal issues faced by huge white albino Muslim rappers from Minnesota, i.e. himself and himself only, but don't let that be a turn off. He happens to be a really good rapper.

• Brother Ali @ MySpace