"The wealthy, not only by private fraud but also by common laws, do every day pluck and snatch away from the people some part of their daily living. Therefore, when I consider and weigh in my mind these commonwealths which nowadays do flourish, I perceive nothing but a certain conspiracy of rich men in procuring their own commodities under the name and authority of the commonwealth.

They invent and devise all means and crafts, first how to keep safely without fear of losing that which they have unjustly gathered together, and next how to hire and abuse the work and labor of the people for as little money and effort as possible."

Thomas More, Utopia

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Our Loss

Gil Scott-Heron April 1, 1949 - May 27, 2011

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for remembering.

"leftisthebest"

Coldtype said...

He'd fallen off my radar for a while there and just as I was getting back into him... Boom he was gone. Not forgotten though. That "godfather of rap" crap was a bad rap and--to his credit--never cared much for it. GSH was a singer/poet period, full stop. A true American original.

Coldtype said...

My goodness! It looks as though it's going to be fun around here again. Since you enjoyed my GSH tribute so much you should love this...

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Coldtype: you really need to stop representing yourself as a Police Officer. Your disgusting video, among other disgraceful images, pays tribute to police killer Huey Newton.


Although I do not agree with his support of the BP he still did some good music and writings. And how is ColdType misrepsresnting himself as the police? Is it because he does not have the same political philosophy of most police?


I'm going to be hanging around a lot more. People like you aren't going to tarnish our star and get away with it. I'm going to call you out each and every time, you leftwing scumbag.



I sure ColdType would welcome your input. if you disagree come back. it gets boring on any webpage when all those posts are agreeing with the author.


so take a good look at my IP addy. you're going to be seeing a lot more of it, douche


Name calling is unnecessary. please come back but I am sure you can present your conservative viewpoint without sinking to such drivel (sp.?)

"leftisthebest"

You Can Call Me 69.47.19.122 said...

"It looks as though it's going to be fun around here again"

- If getting your ass handed to you is your idea of "fun" well, ok then. I aim to please. Also, nice job avoiding the point that no police officer should be paying tribute to cop killers. Just post another asnine video link. This confirms what a lightweight you are

"you can present your conservative viewpoint without..."

- Only problem is that, my viewpoint is not conservative. I am a revolutionary. My ideas are drawn directly from those who carried out the American Revolution. YOU are the reactionaries.

If you so desperately need to categorize and label people, then you may call me an objectivist libertarian. At least you will be more accurate next time, kid

69.47.19.122 said...

"GSH was a singer/poet period"

- LOL, yea like that's something to be REALLY proud of! Those "street poets" always seem to be catching bullets at a much higher rate than the general population [see below]. Any idea why that is? Hmm. I wonder


May 29, 2011 6:51 PM
NORTH MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – North Miami Police are trying to determine what led to the shooting death of local poet Willie Lee Bell, Jr., 46, in front of his Literary Café and Poetry Lounge.

The shooting happened just after 12:30 a.m. on the 900 block of NE 125th Street. According to police, someone drove up and the passenger got out of the car and shot Bell multiple times.

“At this time, we don’t have a motive but we can tell you that nothing was taken. He had jewelry on him, money on him, his car keys, so we’re looking for why this happened,” said North Miami public information officer Neil Cuevas.

According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Bell had appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam recently. Bell was known as “Da Real One,” and had also been featured on Rick Ross’ and Pit Bull’s albums.

Coldtype said...

"- If getting your ass handed to you is your idea of "fun" well, ok then. I aim to please. Also, nice job avoiding the point that no police officer should be paying tribute to cop killers. Just post another asnine video link. This confirms what a lightweight you are"-Anon

Let’s examine a few of your objections in detail shall we?

“... no police officer should be paying tribute to cop killers”-Anon

Ok, to my knowledge Gil Scott Heron, the subject of my tribute, never killed a law enforcement official, nor had he ever been accused of such an action. Secondly, GSH did not post the video that has so offended your delicate sensibilities but In fact the uploader was one of the late genius’s legions of admirers who selected various images to accompany GSH’s narrative. Ok, so epic fail on that score but why stop here? Wouldn’t it be instructive to actually examine the offending video in greater detail? Sure it would.

We was talkin' about television and doin' it on the radio
What we did was to help our generation realize
They had to get out there and get busy cause it wasn't gonna be televised
-GSH

Translation For The Simple (hereafter TFTS): Civil rights and true emancipation for people of color, women, and the working class generally cannot expect support from mainstream commercial venues being that anything the ruling class finds threatening is invariably co-opted and/or destroyed.

We got respect for you rappers and the way they be free-weighin'
But if you're gon' be teachin' folks things, make sure you know what you're sayin'
-GSH

TFTS: Here the uploader juxtaposes an image of the late rapper Tupac with those of Bull Conner’s finest at work. Message: think before you start talking out of your ass, a common rapper affliction.

Older folks in our neighborhood got plenty of know-how
Remember if it wasn't for them, you wouldn't be out here now
And I ain't comin' at you with no disrespect
All I'm sayin' is that you damn well got to be correct
Because if you're gonna be speakin' for a whole generation
And you know enough to try and handle their education
Make sure you know the real deal about past situations
It ain't just repeatin' what you heard on the local TV stations
-GSH

TFTS: Worthies such as Thurgood Marshall, Muhammad Ali, and Frederick Douglass flash across the screen as GSH speaks these words, driving home the obvious point that poseurs screaming in microphones can hardly assume the role of those who blazed the trail...

I think even you should get the drift by this point, however, not wishing to leave anything to chance I’ll leave this link to the complete lyrics of Message to the Messengers in the hope that by seeing them in print without the scary images of black people to distract you maybe, just maybe you’ll stop embarrassing yourself all over my blog.

Anonymous said...

isnt it great that we have these two softballs on the job wasting taxpayer dollars!!

69.47.19.122 said...

Well, it seems that I have hit a sore point - "embarrassing yourself all over my blog" - this is a classic example of what Freud called Projection. Your ego knows that it is you who is being embarrased on your blog, so you project this onto someone else.

And quite frankly, you disappoint me. I've had many exchanges with many leftists and your debate skills aren't even near the middle of the pack, as leftwingers go.

Your feeble strategy seems to consist of three things:
1 - Avoidance
2 - Overcompensation
3 - Distraction

You avoid the question/point as I have noted before. Again, I asked you a question which you avoided - Those "street poets" always seem to be catching bullets at a much higher rate than the general population. Any idea why that is? I'll just go ahead and answer that for you: because they are involved in Crime, Gangs & Drugs any real police officer would know this.

You overcompensate by cut-and-pasting a wall-o-text or various links and toss out well known names in an effort to overwhelm. Sorry pal, I'm not falling for this ploy.

Then we have the ever-so-predictable Race Card distraction - "without the scary images of black people". First of all I know your leftist playbook better than you do. Race Card is the last resort of a desperate leftist. Sorry pal, but that dog won't hunt.

Secondly, where do you think I work every night? Black people don't "scare" me or I wouldn't be doing the job that I do in the place that I do.

Epic Fail

Coldtype, you really are a disappointing lightweight. But as I previously vowed, you're not going to go unchallenged. I will keep calling you out on your leftist b/s.

Anonymous said...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x56r85_riskay-feat-aviance-real-smell-yo-d_music

Coldtype said...

My, what a pretty strawman you have there sir. Does it come with assessories?

Street poets? What the hell are you going on about? The point of this post and my response to you was with regard to the merits or lack thereof of Gil Scott-Heron. Period, full stop. You have yet to respond to the man's actual words which, they being the point of my post, have been put before you in all of their naked glory. Rather than acknowledge your near total ignorance regarding GSH and his work you launch into a feverish tirade about a completely unrelated matter in Miami. You then compound this madness by making wild assertions about the matter without supporting facts in evidence. Outside of the news reports you don't know jack shit about what went down in North Miami and neither do I. None of this is relevent to GSH's Message to the Messengers:

WHICH WAS THE POINT OF THIS POST!

You now have before you line for line both the lyrics and the full context of the video (uploaded and edited by a third party unrelated to GSH) so I will now give you a third opportunity to discuss the merits of Message to the Messengers.

If you wish to have a different discussion about rap or rap culture in general I'd be happy to have it but this post is not about rappers it's about GSH who was not a rapper and, as I made clear upthread, he long rejected the "Godfather of Rap" lable that others assigned to him. Furthermore, GSH makes clear in Message to the Messengers, again the point of this post, how rappers fail those they seek to influence.

Anonymous said...

Ronald Reagan was the greatest AMERICAN and president of our time.

And people need to buy more guns and ammo to suppress the black and brown man.

These are my real beliefs!

"leftisthebest"

Anonymous said...

Join the NRA and ISRA today!!

nra.org

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Ronald Reagan was the greatest AMERICAN and president of our time.

And people need to buy more guns and ammo to suppress the black and brown man.

These are my real beliefs!

"leftisthebest"

7:07 AM

Lefty,come into the light,please....

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLQg-Mv9Hfg&feature=related

Anonymous said...

To 7:07 a.m.:



you really think that ANYONE would believe I would support Ronald RAYGUN, the worst president of my life-time, next to Bush II.

The union-busting, anti-working class. WWW II draft-dodging RAYGUN was a disgrace.


"leftisthebest"

Coldtype said...

I read that post as that of a troll from the word go Lefty. No worries.

Coldtype said...

“It’s the death of the vertical,... [t]hey have taken all this time to stand up straight so that they can say ‘I.’ They’re very proud of that. The way you get to know yourself is by the expressions on other people’s faces, because that’s the only thing that you can see, unless you carry a mirror about. But if you keep saying ‘I’ and they’re saying ‘I,’ you don’t get much out of it. They’re not really into you, or we, or they; they’re into I. That makes conversation slow.” -GSH

Let this be the final word on my man Gil; the good, the bad, and the indifferent...

Anonymous said...

PART I

Dear LeftisDepressed & HoleWipe:

Why am I not surprised at your firing of cheap shots at the Most Popular President [1] in our nation's history - Ronald Wilson Reagan?

Your enduring sour grapes towards the Gipper are merely proof positive of his remarkable efficacy in defeating the Left. Time and again his razor wit, his steel resolve, his self-depreciating humor, his love of country/patriotism, and his unimpeachable character have had leftists across the globe apoplectic.

To be honest if I was a brainless leftist, as you both are, I would probably hate him too. After all, his decades-long crusade against Communism eventually resulted in the crumbling of the Soviet Empire of Evil along with the Berlin Wall. If you have never read Reagan’s War by Peter Schweizer [2] then I would suggest you do yourselves a favor and slog through it. You just might learn something.

Anonymous said...

PART II

Let us dissect your latest inane nonsense:

Union-busting? A total lie. Those air traffic scumbags broke the federal law known as 5 U.S.C. (Supp. III 1956) 118p. which specifically banned strikes by government unions. Reagan had no choice, and in fact a moral obligation, but to uphold the law. PATCO were the real “union busters”, not Reagan. If you think ignoring the law is sometimes ok then this verifies my previous estimation that you do not belong anywhere near the law enforcement profession. Thanks for the confirmation. You are not cops. You are not LEOs. You are not police.

Anti-working class? First of all, there is no such thing as “working class”, or any “class”, in this country. There are Citizens, period. One citizen - one vote. That’s how it works. That’s how we do it here in the US. If you so desperately need to categorize people then you may use the terms “employers” and “employees”. Not “workers”. The marxist rhetoric is invalid, laughable and irrelevant today. Equally laughable is the notion that RR was somehow anti-employee. Ronald Reagan was at one time a union president (SAG) before he became the US president [3].

Draft-dodger? See, this is where you tread upon very dangerous ground LeftisDepressed. What exactly is the summation of YOUR military service? My guess: never served. Or tucked your tail and stayed in the rear. Because only a coward would speak this way about a real military person like RR. Your pussy ass would NEVER have the stones speak such nonsense in the presence of any military vet of any branch. Because as we both know you would quickly receive a much-deserved beatdown.

Anonymous said...

...

yea, finally, just as i figured. HOLEWIPE has CENSORED my comments

You refuse to allow my PART III? Fine, your blog dude. But I'm guessing that will help make sure that everyone knows you are a coward

Anonymous said...

one more try...

PART III

Reagan’s military career was long and illustrious. He enlisted in the Army Enlisted Reserve on April 29, 1937, as a private assigned to Troop B, 322nd Cavalry at Des Moines, Iowa. He was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Cavalry on May 25, 1937, and on June 18 was assigned to the 323rd Cavalry. Reagan was ordered to active duty for the first time on April 18, 1942. His first assignment was at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation at Fort Mason, California, as a liaison officer of the Port and Transportation Office. He applied for a transfer from the Cavalry to the AAF on May 15, 1942, and was assigned to AAF Public Relations and subsequently to the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California. On January 14, 1943 he was promoted to First Lieutenant and was sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of This Is The Army at Burbank, California. He returned to the 1st Motion Picture Unit after completing this duty and was promoted to Captain on July 22, 1943. In January 1944, Captain Reagan was ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the opening of the sixth War Loan Drive. He was re-assigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit on November 14, 1944, where he remained until the end of World War II. He was separated from active duty on December 9, 1945. By the end of the war, his units had produced some 400 training films for the AAF [4].

Anonymous said...

This is the real "leftisthebest"


The other posting is none other than cold type and his personality disorder, that he believes he is more than one alter ego.

I truly do beleive that Ronald Reagan was the greatest president, and I truly beleive that the black and brown man are destoying our white race, and country.


THE REAL
"leftisthebest"
not the phony radiator hose sucking imposter

Coldtype said...

This is like "I say tomato you say bunny rabbit"...

WTF?

Look, I'm planning a post on the class issue soon with Richard M. Daley and his recent leap into the lap of the outfit who helped to engineer the greatest heist in Chicago history as the set-piece so be patient. You do recall that the public once owned the Skyway, parking garages, and parking meters in our egalitarian city without class divisions don't you?

Anonymous said...

Reagan’s military career was long and illustrious.


What, you gotta be kidding! By your own admission he never served overseas or saw active combat.

Unlike many movie stars of his day who did see active combat duty. Many of those actors even looked down upon RR for not going overseas.

As for his being the president of the SAG. He was placed there by studio executives to control any attempts for true union activism.

And as for not being a member of the department. Stay behind your computer at 35th st., buddy. The boss needs more coffee.

"leftisthebest"