Shawn Carter (Jay-Z), Big Ben Roethlisberger, George W. Bush, The "N" Word

The Pittsburgh quarter back who was injured in a motorcycle crash while not wearing a helmet Ben Roethlisberger, announced he will wear a helmet when riding his bike. We were hoping he'd promise not to pursue such a dangerous hobby until his days as QB in professional football are over.

President George W. Bush is getting a lot of mileage from his recent late night trip surprise to Iraq. The Commander in Chief's impersonation of the "Midnight Rambler" was full of secret planning. News reports reveal Vice President Dick Cheney was about the only one among a Camp David after-dinner gathering that included several members of the Bush administration, the nation's top intelligence officials and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who knew about the super secret/surprise trip to Iraq.

Hip-hop mogul, Shawn Carter, known as Jay-Z and boyfriend of the lovely Beyonce Knowles has issued a statement regarding comments attributed to managing director for Louis Roederer, the company that produces Cristal champagne in The Economist magazine. Frederic Rouzaud said the company viewed the affection for his company’s champagne from rappers and their fans with "curiosity and serenity."

Asked by the magazine if the association between Cristal and the "bling lifestyle" could be detrimental, Rouzaud replied:

"That’s a good question, but what can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Dom Perignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business."

Carter who is currently president and chief executive officer of Def Jam Records, and a multi-platinum rapper, has decided to boycott his once-beloved bubbly. In his statement Carter said:

"It has come to my attention that the managing director of Cristal, Frederic Rouzaud views the ‘hip-hop’ culture as ‘unwelcome attention,’. I view his comments as racist and will no longer support any of his products through any of my various brands including the 40/40 Club nor in my personal life."

Carter plans to replace Cristal — which a club spokesman said it could never stock enough of — with Krug and Dom Perignon at the Manhattan and Atlantic City locations of his 40/40 Club where bottles of Cristal sell for $450 and $600. (There are plans for clubs in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong, according to the club’s Web site.)

Finally, if you want to know why you should eliminate the "N" word from your vocabulary and daily conversation some people in Brooklyn, New York have started a campaign to do just that.

"The dependency of this word as a greeting, to complete sentences and start conversations is a total disregard for every movement that gave us the many freedoms we enjoy today. This site is our answer to a call to duty. We now challenge you to make a personal commitment and join us in the movement to abolish the “N” word."

Check out the campaign, "Abolish the 'N" Word" and the site abolishthenword.com

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Suicide As A Public Relations Strategy

The lyrics for the song known as the theme from the movie and the television show "MASH".

Suicide is Painless
(lyrics by Mike Altman; music by Johnny Mandel)

Through early morning fog I see visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me I realize and I can see . . .
That suicide is painless it brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please.

I try to find a way to make all our little joys relate
Without that ever-present hate but now I know that it’s too late,and . . .
That suicide is painless it brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please.

The game of life is hard to play. I’m gonna lose it anyway.
The losing card I’ll someday lay so this is all I have to say.
That suicide is painless it brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please.

The only way to win is cheat and lay it down before I’m beat,
And to another give my seat for that’s the only painless feat.
That suicide is painless it brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please.

The sword of time will pierce our skins it doesn’t hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in the pain grows stronger . . . watch it grin, but . . .
That suicide is painless it brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please.

A brave man once requested me to answer questions that are key
'Is it to be or not to be' and I replied 'oh why ask me?'
That suicide is painless it brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please.
And you can do the same thing if you choose.

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MASH Television Program
MASH Motion Picture Steelers
MASH Theme Song
Mike Altman
Johnny Mandel
Lyrics Mike Altman

Music Johnny Mandel



YouThinkWhat
You Think What
You Think What
YouThinkWhat

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Suicide As A Public Relations Strategy (Continued)

According to the position taken by the United States government suicide is a war time strategy. The United Sates Department of State, led by Secretary Condoleeza Rice, is the top department for diplomatic representation for this nation. Officials at State say suicide is a very effective public relations tool.

Here at You ThinkWhat we've been tossing around a few ideas that some in government may also consider effective tools for public relations. In this age of BushCo newspeak, with a president who makes up words and people in government who define the words he makes up, one must be prepared. So as a public service to our readers we suggest the following..are you reading along U.S. State Department officials as well as with your colleagues in the Department of Defense? Pay attention. Here we go:

Self-Mutilation: to increase popularity. Many adolescents are performing this techniqe. Little did they know this painful activity would increase their popularity among schoolmates and adults.

Starvation: we hear this is a surefire way to gain attention. This technique has been successfully used by activists, and revolutionaries alike. From Dick Gregory to Randall Robinson, to the late Katherine Dunham at age 83. Today's example of smart,sharp, PR savy combatants are some of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in Cuba.

In an article published in the Chicago Tribune on May 17 2006, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the seemingly benevolent commander of Guantànamo, defended the treatment of detainees.

"Conditions have improved dramatically for detainees since they first arrived in 2002. More important, we aggressively look for ways to build on the 'safe and humane care and custody' mission ...We hold men who proudly admit membership at the leadership level in al-Qaida and the Taliban, many with direct personal contact and knowledge of the September 11 2001 attackers. We are keeping terrorist recruiters, facilitators, explosives trainers, bombers and bomb makers, Osama bin Laden bodyguards and financiers, from continuing their jihad against America ...

We provide safe shelter and living areas with beds, mattresses, sheets and running-water toilets. We also provide adequate clothing, including shoes and uniforms, and the normal range of hygiene items, such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and shampoo. Even so, many detainees have taken advantage of this - crafting killing weapons from toothbrushes and garrotes from food wrappers, for example ...

We provide outstanding medical care to every detainee, the same quality as what our service members receive ... That said, many detainees persist in mixing a blood-urine-feces-semen cocktail and throwing this deadly concoction into the faces of the American men and women who guard them, feed them and care for them ...

Despite articles written by defense attorneys and young translators arguing the contrary, these are, in fact, dangerous men in our custody. Make no mistake about it - we are keeping enemies of our nation off the battlefield. This is an enormous challenge. These terrorists are not represented by any nation or government. They do not adhere to the rules of war."

Listening to this official one could almost be convinced the Jews and others were at fault when they were confined to German concentration camps during World War II. He could almost make a successful case for believing that it was acts of aggression on the part of ungrateful prisoners that caused so many to die in detention camps like Majdanek, Treblinka, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Belsen.


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Suicide As A Public Relations Strategy

The deaths of two Saudis and a Yemeni, identified as Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi al-Utaybi and Yasser Talal al-Zahrani ,and Ali Abdullah Ahmed who used knotted bed sheets to hang themselves in their solitary cells, brought renewed calls from European governments and human rights organizations to bring the 460 inmates to trial, or close down the camp. Bush administration officials reject suggestions that the three had killed themselves in despair over their indefinite confinement.

The deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy, told BBC's Newshour on Sunday,

"Taking their own lives was not necessary, but it certainly is a good PR move."

The camp's commander said,

"..... I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us,"

The Pentagon had actually cleared Utaybi for transfer out of Guantànamo in late 2005 - although it was uncertain whether he knew he would be leaving, Cully Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of detainee affairs told the Guardian a London newspaper. He said that Utaybi, who belonged to a militant Islamic missionary organization, had been recommended for transfer to a third country.

Stimson described Ali Abdullah Ahmed as a mid-to high-level al-Qaida operative with connections to Abu Zubaydah, the former chief of military operations in US custody. The third man, Yasser Talal al-Zahrani, had been captured on the battlefield in late 2001 during the prison uprising at Mazar-i-Sharif.

In Britain, Massoud Shadjareh, of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said of the US officials' remarks:

"This is the sort of statement that SS officers in Nazi Germany would have been envious of."

Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, deplored the "incredibly insensitive and callous" comments.

"The deaths of these three people was not an act of war, it was an act of desperation."

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