If you haven’t noticed, Angela and I have been on an Internet hiatus. Ang was in Puerto Rico and I, well, I have a crappy computer (death to Toshiba!) and haven’t been able to do anything but play with Twitter on my phone.

 

Being away from the Internets isn’t half bad. Sometimes I feel like I’m on information overdrive and the web definitely doesn’t help those gloomy days when I’m down and out. Reading about death, recession, and school cuts doesn’t necessarily make me want to run down the street doing cartwheels, while singing Pretty Rickey songs. 

 

Don’t fret though, the world didn’t become any less diabolical during our absence:

 

-Death Row refuses to die and plans to release another Tupac album. Luckily we have till next June to convince EverGreen publishing that there is a reason some tracks never see the light of day: nobody wants to hear them.

 

-Health experts wonder why the Swine Flu H1N1 hasn’t wreaked havoc in Africa. My guess: Black don’t crack, but here’s a more logical explanation.

 

-U.S. Supreme Court denies convicts the right to test DNA despite the fact that  238 people have been exonerated by DNA testing in the last two decades. Even more disturbing: the Obama administration supports the ruling. Witness LA points out that even a convicted rapist has a right to due process. 

 

-Raw cookie dough can kill you give you E. coli. My fat alter ego is highly disappointed.  

 

-Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, will announce, or if all is right with the world, denounce, a gubernatorial run on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer”  at 1PM PST. 

 

-While Villaraigosa suffers from low approval ratings, LAPD approval ratings are at its highest mark since the 1980s. LA Times suggests Police Chief Bratton’s outreach to South LA neighborhoods has increased the departments approval ratings. Ironically enough, Bratton’s approval rating among whites has decreased as the departments focus shifted.  

 

-And The Root goes all out for the 20th Anniversary of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.”  Natalie Hopkinson says that Mookie was wrong for throwing the garbage can through the window at Sal’s. I’m not sure I agree with everything here (more on that later) but it’s still a good read.

 

The greatest rant of all time after the break.
“TIMMMME OUT!”

Tags: Do The Right Thing, LAPD, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Proper Talking Points, Spike Lee, Swine Flu, U.S. Supreme Court