Here is an interesting perspective on the Sean Taylor murder, from Award-winning Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock.

"You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there's no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration."

"The 'keepin' it real' mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution. There's always someone ready to tell you you're selling out if you move away from the immature and dangerous activities you used to do, you're selling out if you speak proper English, embrace education, dress like a grown man, do anything mainstream."

These are Mr. Whitlock's words, not mine, and they cut. I'm fairly sure that labeling Hip Hop culture as the "Black KKK" won't be winning him any accolades, but it is a distinctly visual term that reflects an emerging viewpoint, expressed by other members of his community including Bill Cosby, Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson.

FOX Sports on MSN - NFL - Taylor's death a grim reminder for us all

Dear Red States, "...we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us."

Cronus Connection

"No one taught us that democracy was this shining, inspiring thing."

"They need a crash course in democracy, ... in how easy it is to close down an open society if steps are taken such as those we see our government taking now."

Hey, Young Americans, Here's a Text for You By Naomi Wolf

Yet another hilariously sarcastic web comic- WE THE ROBOTS » Archive » Damned if You Do…

A Stealth Attack On The HIV-Positive? Why does this not surprise me...

"No other democratic country bars people with HIV from even entering their borders; no other democratic country uses HIV as a bar to becoming a permanent resident or citizen; no other democratic country treats HIV as if it were malaria."

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Bob Harris: Violence Against Women in the D.R. Congo: The Most Horrible Thing You Will Read Today -- And, Unfortunately, Perhaps The Last You'll Hear Of It For Weeks - Politics on The Huffington Post

I know I keep linking to HP a lot these days, but I'm really doing that to help spread the news of stories like this, which needs much more public discussion, much more...

The Dilbert Blog

"Sally added Third Eye Blind to her favorite music three minutes ago! Well thank god I found that shit out!" - tapviva blog

Jermaine Dupri, who was named the most successful R&B producer of all time by the Guinness World Records 2007, is a Grammy-award winning music producer, president of Island Urban Records and author of Young, Rich and Dangerous: The Making of a Music Mogul (Atria, October 2007). For more information about this blogger, click here.

"My book, Young, Rich and Dangerous: The Making of a Music Mogul, came out in hardcover last month, but Simon & Schuster doesn't let the book stores tear it up and sell it chapter by chapter. A record is no different."

A Good Album is More than Just a Collection of Singles

This is a great, and timely article relating to the music industry, and how the artists involved need to "take back the music". I happen to agree completely, especially as it relates to the artist making a living by deciding how their music is distributed. Of course, I'm un-officially "semi-retired", but once I complete my new recording project, I plan to follow these very simple business guidelines.

Three posters that highlight the decedent run of the Bush Administration
A HuffPost Project: Posterizing the Modern GOP

My favorite:

"I used to smoke two packs a day and I just hate being a nonsmoker.... but I will never consider myself a nonsmoker because I always find smokers the most interesting people at the table." ~Michelle Pfeiffer

The G Manifesto

I didn't want to believe the title of this link when I found it on reddit.com, so I decided to give a quick read, just to see what kind of numbers it would put out there.

"At least 6,256 US veterans took their lives in 2005, at an average of 17 a day..."

"CBS quoted the father of a 23-year-old soldier who shot himself in 2005 as suggesting that the military was covering up the scale of the problem. “Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total,” Mike Bowman said. “They don’t want the true numbers of casualties to really be known.”'

America suffers an epidemic of suicides among traumatized army veterans - Times Online

From The Gibson Guitar Company, World's first 'robot' guitar. You can get all the details, as well as, enter a contest for one of the first 4000 limited edition guitars, from Gibson.com.

Facebook News Network - CollegeHumor video

Redacted

Amanda Knox and the Internet: Are we being fair?

Well, Are we? It seems to me that when you put yourself out there, "it can and will be used against you". Kids, hiding the photos of you and your pals smoking weed and drinking, by setting your myspace.com or facebook.com profile to "private" really isn't going to do to cover your collective asses. Parents are tech savvy, and well, those embarrassing photos have been copied to every computer between yours and your "friends" who have had a chance to see them (not to mention the entire MySpace.com DataCenter)!

The Internet may prove to be a brutal killing floor of a social environment, as written about this teen, who couldn't handle the social pressures from what she thought were fellow classmates, and which was only discovered after her death to be the actions of malicious adults. Needless to say, this article nearly made me vomit on my laptop.

Granted, I can change my opinions faster than I change my underwear, but I do take a minute to pause on what I post. I prefer not to call it what it really is, which is self censorship, so crank up the "self spin" engine, and refer to it as "acting responsible". Call it what you like, and maybe if you are lucky I'll dig out those high school-era pictures of myself wearing spandex and the 80's hipster perm hairstyle.

What can $611 billion buy? - Boston.com

The Internet on a disc - Uncommon Pics.com

Some of the weirdest images I've seen lately, and quite the extensive collection...FFFFOUND!

Today is my first day visiting the self described live music capital of the world, Austin, Texas. While this is supposedly a business trip, I am hoping to get out and take in some the spectacular and very lively night life that Austin has to offer. All the Texans that I've met so far have be more than friendly, and there is clearly an alt-country vibe, at least here at the Hotel San Jose, and it's neighbor, the Continental Club. It is a bit of a personal thrill to walk the very streets that guitar icon Stevie Ray Vaughan traveled in his youth. The wallpaper of concert and live performance posters that sparsely decorate city streetlight poles here in the "SoCo" (South Congress) neighborhood, as well as, most restaurant and beer joints, subtly reminds me of the grunge era of Seattle's Capitol Hill and University Districts. The Austin Chronicle is the local entertainment 'zine, and it hold the valuable info of what makes Austin nightlife tick.

 "Happy Counterterrorism Day" by Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)

Charlie Chaplain - Amazing Speech - video powered by Metacafe

Earth 2007 (image)

All the usual suspects here, Johnny Cash, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix...

Face the Music: Rock Star Mug Shots : Photos : Rolling Stone

Facebook | Guitar Chords

I came across some links to free open courseware programs offered at several universities, and thought it would be nice to share. Of specific note, Stanford and Yale both took an interesting approach, making their content available only via Apple ITunes. I'll likely spend most of my time at Berklee!

These link are the ones I'm digging deep on:

DR-21 Three-Dimensional Modeling, Animation and Rendering Using Blender 3D Software, Spring 2006

French at Carnegie Mellon

I'm surprised I missed this article when it was first published. There are some fantastic quotes in this article, most of which should be made in to t-shirts or bumper stickers:

• "Sanity is an island battered in an ocean of frothing delusion."
• "Jesus was insane and the God he thought would rescue him did not exist. And he died on that cross like a fool."
• "Have I offended you? That's too bad. Stop killing each other in the name of false and ridiculous Gods and I will stop ridiculing you. Trust me, your offense is much worse than mine."

Cenk Uygur: If You're a Christian, Muslim or Jew - You are Wrong - Politics on The Huffington Post

Form our sister site, Channel 9 - Cakewalk: Making Music with Sonar