You Think

O.J. Simpson, the former NFL  football  Hall of Fame athlete, pitchman and actor, has returned to court in Nevada to request a new trial for robbery, assault and kidnapping charges.

Simpson has been incarcerated since 2008, when he was found guilty and sentenced to serve 33 years, with a minimum of nine years without parole. He is serving his sentence at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nevada.

Many of the experts have concluded the chances of his request being granted are very long; in fact they call his appeal the equivalent of a “Hail Mary ” pass. In other words, the football great known as “The Juice” has a snowball in hell chances of winning a new trial. Continue reading…

Our friend magician and champion public speaker, Ron Melvin also known as Mystical Mel, found this video. We think it provides, in an exaggerated way exactly the level of frustration, “Voice Recognition Hell”, we’ve all likely experienced when dealing with devices designed to recognize speech in order to function…whether telephone prompts for customer service, car phones, lights or even televisions.

We hope you’ll agree …this skit from the popular BBC  Scotland comedy sketch show “Burnistoun” is hilarious! Continue reading…

The staff of YouThinkWhat is weighing in on the controversy of whom to cast in the film role of one of our legendary musical heroes, the late Nina Simone. In the American Black African Community she is known as the High Priestess of Soul. Nina Simone is internationally renown for her activism, her love of classical music and her innovative American jazz musical stylings; she called jazz music America’s classical music.

As of today no release date for the film has been announced. It is reportedly in post production. We hope it remains on the shelf. This statement is disparaging,  and justifiably so because there was a time in Hollyweird when movie executives did not believe audiences would pay to see blacks on screen…at least not an entire feature length project with blacks, Negroes or coloreds in major roles. In those times the films remained in the can, on the shelf for years awaiting distribution to the public for viewing. How times have changed.

Nina Simone is an American music icon molded from the depths of the artistic joy, the angst, the pain, the struggle to be black, female and bipolar in the United States of America. Our current and future generations must be given the complete story of who she was and what she contended with to become the legendary music royalty she is. Continue reading…

A recent report in the English language Costa Rican online news site, The Tico Times,  tells us Barefoot Gourmet founder Andreas Schmidt and his team will launch the company’s new Local Food Network, an online service with its goal to change the way Costa Rican residents eat by connecting consumers directly to organic farmers across the country.

Despite Costa Rica’s worldwide image as leader in sustainability and green practices the World Resources Institute, WRI, provides data that sharply contradicts this image. According WRI to Costa Rica uses more pesticides in agriculture than any other country in the world.

“Barefoot Gourmet founder Andreas Schmidt and his team will launch the company’s new Local Food Network, an online service with its goal to improve the quality of foods available to Costa Rican residents.”

Schmidt, former CEO for AOL Europe, was also a co-founder of Napster the online music service. He says after the loss of its legal battles thus causing its demise, he decided to take a break from twenty-five years of working to sail around the world. That was five years ago when he first visited Costa Rica. Two years later he and his wife, who he met when she was the manager of an eco-resort in the jungle, decided to settle in Costa Rica.

The Schmidts found it difficult to find any fresh or organic food in the Nicoya Peninsula; as a result they developed the Barefoot Gourmet concept. It’s  a system designed to help bring change to one of the biggest problems faced by the inhabitants of the country: healthy food, nutritious food that doesn’t destroy the earth.

Stay tuned folks…this looks like a very promising enterprise!

We love everything about Janelle Monae! We love this single, “Q.U.E.E.N – featuring Erykah Badu”. It’s  from her soon to be released new album, “Electric Lady”.

We’ve been diggin’ Monae’s musical talent since her debut album with the hit single “Tightrope”. We like her style…black and white is a very smart fashion look. Continue reading…

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ~ Lao Tzu

Congratulations are in order to journeyman National Basketball Association, (NBA), player Jason Collins. After months of hints from sports reporters, social commentators and others, along with sly suggestions from professional athletes in other sports of the possibility there may be an active professional athlete in the National Football League, (NFL),  Major League Baseball, (MLB), or the NBA who may one day in the near future courageously disclose his sexual preference for other men.

Jason Collins, who is nearly seven feet tall, plays center and made public his choice of lifestyle in the current issue, May 6, 2013, of Sports Illustrated Magazine. He’s the cover story. It’s a very interesting read of how he wishes to be “to be genuine and authentic and truthful.”

“Though I’m coming out to the world, I intend to guard my privacy. I’m making this blanket statement in part to keep rumors and misunderstandings at bay. I hope fans will respect me for raising my hand. And I hope teammates will remember that I’ve never been an in-your-face kind of guy. All you need to know is that I’m single. I see no need to delve into specifics.” ~ Jason Collins, NBA professional player on announcing he’s homosexual.

Personal choices, public discussions…of who and what a person prefers for the most intimate of relationships/acts is somehow to us out of order. We believe what is private should remain private. Continue reading…

Be afraid…be very afraid…That is the message being transmitted to the residents of the United States of America.

Since September 11, 2001 people living in the U. S. of A. have been living in a state of constant fear. For those old enough to remember, for those who were alive, this current period is in some ways reminiscent of the 1950s when fear was in vogue. Fear of communists, the Red Scare; fear of Negroes, the Black Scare. (Sadly fear of Negroes,  coloreds or blacks continues in our society.)

The government, with the support of the mainstream media, has fostered a culture of fear. We believe it is to control the masses, when and if they ever decide to protest the abuses they suffer at the hands of the militarized police, restaurants and food outlets; corporate employers, banksters, educational institutions, state and local government agencies. Whatever institution citizens of the U.S. must interact with daily there is abuse and disrespect, manipulation of the bad kind, thus more fear, more dread, the existing apprehension is augmented to guarantee further compliance.

As a public service YouThinkWhat provides a list of people,  items and situations the average U.S. citizen fears…

Our list begins with Arabs, or anyone of Middle Eastern ethnicity. Since September 11th 2001, anyone of Middle Eastern heritage, (except Christiane Amanpour who works for CNN, and is perceived by the public as being aight), is suspect for committing terrorist acts.

Any person of swarthy, brown skinned complexion with or without the traditional keffiyeh headdress is to be feared. This description includes homegrown Black Americans of African, or Hispanic descent. (The darker they are the more trepidation expressed.)

Muslims are next on the list of people feared by those living in the U.S. of A. Muslims and any aspect related to Islam…in fact the words, “Muslim” and “Islam” strike fear and loathing in the hearts of many red blooded all Americans. Even some black people in the United States are afraid of anything associated with Muslims…mosques, Korans, prayer five times daily, ethnic clothing; any and all of these items cause the condition of being afraid!

Envelopes received in the mail laced with white powder are dangerous. Never mind the powder may be harmless talc and not anthrax  at all. Remember all those envelopes received in the mail following the disaster in New York City in September 2001.? (We refer to 9/11 as the modern day false flag incident which killed more than 3,000 people.) Soon after there were those horrendous shootings in the DeeCee Metro area found to be perpetrated by two guys in a very old car; one of them was installed in the trunk of the vehicle to shoot through a hole in the trunk lid. Really? Another incident of instilling fear, causing people to be afraid when there is no justification for the dread.

Shoes are an item so dangerous, the Transportation Security Administration, (TSA), requires passengers, for domestic as well as international flights, to remove theirs before being approved to board the aircraft. This requirement comes  following the attempt by then 28 year-old Richard Colvin Reid, a British citizen, aka The Shoe Bomber, to interrupt an American Airlines international flight from Paris to Miami by lighting his shoes which are said to have contained plastic explosives. (??) Is the American public so gullible as to believe terrorists from the Middle East are so primitive as to detonate their shoes filled with plastic explosives with the old school match or Bic lighter? Who’s the provincial in this picture? Continue reading…

“This is unprecedented and is very dangerous. We must educate ourselves and others about our precious civil liberties to ensure that we never accept demands that we give up our Constitution so that the government can pretend to protect us.” ~  Ron Paul in an op-ed piece titled, ” Liberty Was Also Attacked in Boston“

We agree with former Republican Congressman from Texas Ron Paul. He’s an advocate for civil liberties, who likened the federal government’s response to the tragic events which took place during the 117th Boston Marathon earlier in April, and the subsequent manhunt to “a military coup in a far off banana republic.”

“Forced lockdown of a city. Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door armed searches without warrant. Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause. Businesses forced to close. Transport shut down.

These were not the scenes from a military coup in a far off banana republic, but rather the scenes just over a week ago in Boston as the United States got a taste of martial law. The ostensible reason for the military-style takeover of parts of Boston was that the accused perpetrator of a horrific crime was on the loose. The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city. This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.” ~  Ron Paul
Continue reading…

A public memorial is scheduled for Monday, April 29, 2013 in New York City at the City Winery for the recently deceased Richie Havens.

Havens, 72, an iconic folk musician, composer, singer, and activist passed away in his home in New Jersey, on the morning of April 22, 2013, Earth Day, of a sudden heart attack.  He had retired from touring three years earlier due to kidney surgery from which he never recovered enough to perform concerts as he once did.

In the following video we see Havens during his performance at the 40th anniversary celebration of Woodstock, 2009, and an earlier performance of Van Morrison’s composition “Tupelo Honey” segued with Bob Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman”.

Richie Havens, beloved around the world for his unique interpretations of music of various genres, folk, rock, blues, gospel, was a musician who enthralled a generation with his  improvised performance of “Freedom” as the opening act of the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. He was also cherished for his activism and his humanitarian efforts for which he received numerous commendations.

Richard Pierce “Richie” Havens will be remembered for having  created his foundation for marine study and conservation, composed the remarkable song that sent him on a mission of peace to the Middle East, his work mobilizing schoolchildren as environmental activists…

In 1991 he received The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his continued presence in and advocacy of sociopolitical consciousness by the public. Continue reading…

 On April 28, 2012, comedian, tv personality and writer, Jimmy Kimmel said and did this at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C. when he was the featured act:
“I also want to thank Mr. Mills, my 10th grade high school history teacher, who said I’d never amount to anything if I kept screwing around in class. Mr. Mills, I’m about to high-five the President of the United States.”    Kimmel then high-fived the President, Barack Obama,  returned to the podium, and concluded with, “Eat it, Mills.”

Around here, at YouThinkWhat, our staff often pose the question in jest, particularly after conversing with someone who doesn’t know what they do not know:

“Do two people who do not know what they’re talking about know more or less than one person who does not know what he is talking about?”

Jimmy Kimmel, one of our favorite late night comedians, provides the answer to the question in his regularly featured comic segment, “Lie Witness News”; it’s a series of comic video sketches which spoof the news format, Eye Witness News, created in the 1960s by teevee news executive Al Primo.  He’s also the innovative  genius who brought to the world of television news, “happy talk”. “Happy talk”, as Primo named it is what news anchors and weather or sports presenters are doing when they chit and chat with one another like old friends at a cocktail party or other social events, before, during and after delivering the news of the day . (We think “Lie Witness News” is what viewers are getting everyday from the mainstream media. All the networks serve daily lies created by and promulgated for the governments.)

In a two to three minute video featured in Kimmel’s “Lie Witness News” segment, a question is asked of the man/woman on the street being interviewed; typically the person(s) has no clue, however the respondent forges ahead with a made up answer in order to appear hip, happenin’, informed, and socially acceptable, while not realizing they’d be better off being socially awkward, admitting they are uninformed on the topic, rather than looking the total fool as they endlessly bloviate about a topic of which they know absolutely nothing. The result is two to three minutes of great comedy.

In the following example we see people telling us about bands they enjoy at this year’s Coachella Music Festival held annually in Fornicalia. On the face of it their responses sound credible…except the bands are made up! They do not exist. Jimmy Kimmel explains as he introduces the piece. Continue reading…