Older and a wee bit wiser (late bloomer).

Special thanks to all the folks on Facebook for the Happy Birthday wishes.

Since I started blogging about digital music late last year, I’ve heard from readers who say they don’t listen to popular music but find the whole illegal downloading and file sharing debate interesting.

Others have suggested artists and bands I might like, and some said they’ve become fans of artists I blogged about. Some of you have turned me on to new artists and new sounds. I may buy a track or two or three. I rarely buy albums. Rarer still will I buy a physical CD. In fact, I may never buy another CD, unless a favorite band decides to release a new album on CD only.

The point is that in a small way, readers and I have been engaged in “digital discovery.”

Musically

In the digital age, it’s both easy and difficult to find new bands and artists. Let’s take file sharing web sites out of the equation for a moment. If someone suggests an artist or band, and you want to hear the music, all you’d need to do (most of the time) is surf to the artist’s or band’s site and listen to a song. Hopefully, they’ll have at least two songs available for full streaming. If not, the artist or band probably has a MySpace page, where you can listen to full versions of a few songs. In this way, the Internet has made music discovery easy.

Back in the day, people bought music based on what they heard on the radio. If bands (esp. independent) can’t get radio airplay, how do they get their music out there for discovery? They need to promote like crazy, online and offline, and allow users to listen to full versions of their songs.

On the other hand, there are “tens of millions” of music tracks out there. People who create and promote this music are competing with each other for our attention, which is already stretched to capacity. With scarce attention and a seemingly limitless supply of stuff out there (again, thanks to the Internet), finding new artists that we might like is difficult.

Media consultant David Jennings, author of Net, Blogs and Rock ‘n’ Roll: How Digital Discovery Works and What it Means for Consumers, Creators and Culture, wrote about how music services are trying to make digital discovery easier and more productive. Music streaming sites like Pandora, Last.FM, and iMeem allow users to listen to full tracks. The services and their users make recommendations based on your listening habits. Review sites like eMusic and All Media Guide help users navigate a vast sea of stuff.

But even these aren’t enough.

Personally

Of course, there are more important things going on in the world than “digital discovery,” but I’m on a quest to help people interested in finding new music and reading about tech issues in the context of music digitally discover me.

My blog has changed focus, and there’s a readership mismatch. How do I help readers trying to find digital music info find me? Ah, the age-old question for any blogger! One way is to become fully immersed in all things digital tech, blog in earnest about digital music, and write related articles for print and online publications. (Ah, the age-old quest of any freelance writer!)

(Side note: My latest aspirations are to land cover stories in Christianity Today and Wired magazines and sell, for six figures, a book proposal about…still hammering out the topic. Ha! Who do I think I am?)

Because I’ve blogged about politics for so long, I still feel the residual effects. I get e-mails from TV news show and others producers asking me to talk about the political race in the context of race (can’t stomach it anymore). Echoing country singer Rissi Palmer, who turned down a potentially star-making deal offered by R&B producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis because they wanted to tone down the twang, “[T]his could be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done before in my life, but I just don’t feel right about it.”

People still send links to political stories and posts, hoping I’ll take the bait and offer a rant or a reasoned critique. Even as I write, readers are landing on and bloggers are linking to old posts and analyzing them as if they were fresh.

My political past is a part of me, and it follows me everywhere. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I just want to do something else, talk about something else, blog about something else.

Alas, I’m attending a rather high-profile political event tonight, having accepted a gracious invitation from a blogging friend. Couldn’t turn it down. Who knows what will happen? Perhaps I’ll meet a jaded former political blogger or two who showed up hoping to find fellow former political bloggers. Perhaps we’ll have a long conversation about our growing mutual interest in something other than politics.

One great thing about doing the unexpected is the chance to gain fresh perspective. Discovering new things about yourself and the world, digitally or otherwise, can be habit-forming.

Update (11:42 p.m.): I’m glad I didn’t shun this political event. Tonight I met Tony Snow, President Bush’s former press secretary. Earlier today I wrote that perhaps I’d meet jaded former political bloggers who wanted to do something else. Well, Tony’s not a blogger, and he’s not giving up political commentary. After I told him I stopped blogging about politics, but will always blog about my faith, he said he wanted to write more about his faith.

And he plays in a band.

Rest easy this weekend, readers.

Once again, thanks for reading my blog.

Blogging is in the blood, baby.

Update (11/10): My new title: Writer-in-Residence at Biola University.

About Vegas: If you had no conscience and a lot of money, you could have a really good time/get in big trouble (the same thing, in most cases!). Now I know why people say, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

That’s all I’m saying.

Update II (11/11): Biola London? Hmmm…

Update III (11/12): Likewise, John Mark. See you next year, Godbloggers!

Thanks, again!
——————————————————————————-
Today I’m 40! Whoa…

I’m thinking only happy thoughts today. That means NO politics. No news. No surfing. Just hanging out with family and friends, celebrating my 40th year on the planet. It will be a happy day.

My before-I-turn-40-goal from last year was to have a book deal by now. You know, I’d probably have one if I weren’t such a procrastinator and bad prioritizer. I’m focused on maintaining and acquiring new consulting work (must come first – bills, bills, bills!), keeping up with this blog, and trying to crank out columns. There are ready, willing, and able folks waiting for me to put pen to paper and send a proposal.

To make it so, I’ll have to let something go. Temporarily. Or else give up sleep. Or my offline life.

Wish me luck!

Happy birthday to me! And thanks for reading LBC. And the other blog.

…incognito, incommunicado…

Are you doing or receiving something special today?

Update II (12/20): Some truth, much exaggeration…and a bit of blog envy? More on media bashing.

Update (12/19): Fellow Examiner Blog Board of Contributors blogger Dan Gillmor on “Citizen media is shifting power back to the people.”
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AND YOU, TOO, bloggers, blog readers, Wikipedians, YouTube-ers, and everyone else who contributes to and consumes a growing pile of information — user-generated content — on the web.

It’s a gimmick, but I’ll bite.

Every year TIME magazine chooses a “Person of the Year” and highlights whatever “good works” he/she has done. In 2004, TIME did something radical when it chose Power Line as “Blog of the Year” after bloggers, led by Power Line poked holes in CBS’s flimsy story about George Bush’s National Guard service. Rathergate, in my opinion, still is the most significant moment in blogosphere history as we watched the veneer of mainstream media’s “objectivity” crack and crumble to the ground.

To its credit, CBS posted my review of An Army of Davids, with criticism against the network intact. (Also see The Blogging Panel was…, and the Rathergate and Easongate categories)

Two years later, TIME has gone a step farther. I am “Person of the Year” because of this blog and my all-consuming focus on developing it, promoting it and my work, and collaborating with you the reader to make an impact on the world and influence people. You are “Person of the Year” because you go online to read it and e-mail links to other people. You the reader and/or commenter and/or blogger — each of us is Person of the Year because of the parts we play in a bold new mission.

To call the web, and blogging in particular, revolutionary is not an overstatement. Never before have individuals had such power to disseminate news and opinion. Finding news and reporting or commented on it is one thing, but without the means to get it out to the masses, it was like the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it.

The world wide web and the self-publishing tools it spawned have empowered individuals in ways similar to the Protestant Reformation. Cheap (relatively speaking) computers and broadband Internet capabilities have leveled the playing field of amateurs and professionals considerably. Traditional media companies still are powerful, but we saw that power erode over the last few years, thanks to ordinary people like you and me.

Journalists read blogs. They may not admit it, but they do. They pay attention. They use blogs as sources without citing them. Journalists who used to hate blogs are now blogging.

I am biased because I’m a blogger, but the revolution is not limited to blogs. For example, what’s happening with YouTube is astounding. What began as a site for regular folks to upload silly home videos has become a place to generate word-of-mouth advertising, job hunt, promote your band, your work, yourself. Television networks and film makers upload previews for user feedback. People upload banned videos and other “controversial” clips. Yes, there are copyright issues, but uploading is unstoppable, and big media are finally realizing that YouTube actually can help them. (See YouTube on Wikipedia)

The information reformation has flourished in part because government has kept out of the way. From the TIME cover story:

Car companies are running open design contests. Reuters is carrying blog postings alongside its regular news feed. Microsoft is working overtime to fend off user-created Linux. We’re looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it’s just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

The current level of productivity and innovation on the web is possible because of government non-interference. The web has evolved and grown because it isn’t regulated. In a pure libertarian sense, the government’s job is to simply “preserve the rules of the game by enforcing contracts, preventing coercion, and keeping markets free,” not control or reign in the development of businesses and ideas. People are allowed to stretch the boundaries of their abilities and energy and create and share content (text, images, music) and “open source” software that other like-minded individuals can add to and improve on. WordPress, the program that runs this blog, is one such program.

(Will government remain out of the way? With politicians threatening to write laws that place burdens and retraints on blogs and other social media that may curtail freedom of speech and “net neutrality,” the government is itching to control the web, which will stifle innovation and growth, just as it has in other industries.)

I called the TIME story a gimmick because we bloggers have known for years that what we have the power to do is the real news. Echoing the sentiments of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, media blogger Jeff Jarvis says that “person of the year” stories are relics from the “mass era” anyway.

The era of “hits” was a product of market scarcity. Because it costs money to store records and CDs and broadcast TV shows, sellers allowed only the most profitable to occupy shelves and airwaves. But the web has ushered in the niche-market era. The mass market still exists, but it no longer dominates the way it used to.

Supply is no longer limited to what sellers can afford to store or display or what manufacturers can afford to make and deliver. A medium like blogs, for instance, and commerce sites like ]]> http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/18/time-person-of-the-year-me/feed/ 20 http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/11/three-diversity-birds-one-stone/ http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/12/11/three-diversity-birds-one-stone/#comments Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:03:55 +0000 La Shawn http://lashawnbarber.com/?p=2279 Deborah Howell, Washington Post Ombudsman
ombudsman@washpost.com

In yesterday’s Washington Post, you bemoaned the excess of white male opinion writers and columnists and the paucity of blacks and females.

You wrote that the Washington area is “a remarkably diverse region, and that should be better reflected in columnist jobs” and proceeded to list the paper’s columnists according to section, sex, and race. Especially notable was the number of white men in the opinion pages. Out of 20 op-ed writers, 17 are men, three are women, one man was born in India, and two men are black.

With all due respect, the title of your column is somewhat misleading. “Diversity of Opinion” is what the paper should be concerned about, but its chief concern seems to be diversity of skin hues, not of opinion.

This is where I come in.

You wrote:

So how could The Post increase diversity as the staff and space for stories got smaller? It wouldn’t be easy, but here are some thoughts. On the op-ed pages, don’t run all the columnists all the time. Create some space for new voices. In Close to Home, make a point of seeking out more women and minorities. Outlook can also bring in more such voices.

More women and minorities… that’s noble but very predictable. Might I add a third category? Why not add more conservative writers to the roster? If you want diversity of opinion, as your column title indicates, it will require the paper to publish pieces written from a non-liberal worldview, one that differs from the view of the current editorial board and stable of writers.

And the Post can begin with my voice. First, I’m black. BAM! Second, I’m a woman. BOOM! Best of all, I’m a conservative. ZING! By hiring me as an op-ed writer, the good liberal folks at the Post would kill three diversity birds with one proverbial stone. How cool is that?

Ms. Howell, the Washington Post needs diversity of thought, ideology and worldview, not just of race or sex. Skin deep-only differences aren’t very interesting to anyone but liberals. The real test of tolerance is how well you tolerate differences of viewpoint.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I care more about reading articles written by someone whose opinions and values — not race or sex — are similar to my own.

But that’s just me.

I look forward to your reply and hope your week is enjoyable.

Yours most sincerely,

La Shawn Barber

Update: Commenter Mike writes:

When I first saw the Post article, I immediately thought of you as a candidate. Not only do you fit their categories, you also live right there in D.C. making you local AND “urban”! How could they possibly turn you down?

Oh, that’s right, you’re a pariah – a black conservative.

By the way, I sent Deborah Howell a link to this “tongue-in-cheek” post and a short note asking her to pass along my name, and she replied, “Sure, I’ll pass along to the op-ed editor.”

In a million years the Washington Post wouldn’t hire me.

Read about the infamous Washington Post Telephone Rejection.

My blog has grown so much in the past three years because of the time and energy I’ve put into it. That hasn’t left me with much of a social life. My blog has been my baby, my business, and — I hate to say it this way — my life. Although I will continue blogging, I’m at the point where I need to release this blog’s hold on my time. I wish I could be a blogging and writing Wonder Woman like Michelle Malkin (I have yet to figure out how she does it!), but I just don’t seem to have the knack.

I noticed that she and other bloggers tend to mix in short posts with longer ones, but if I can’t write a decent longish essay-type post, I figure, why bother? I blog long, and I’ve never wanted to post five or ten short posts a day like others do. I don’t know. I’m weird that way.

I want to get to a point where this blog supplements my writing rather than my writing supplementing the blog. I tend to write off-blog articles to bring people to my blog, and at this point in my life/career, that’s the wrong focus. I want to be known primarily as a writer with a blog and not a blogger who writes the occasional article.

I’ve slowly let go of my “concern” with rankings. Like many bloggers, I do watch my Site Meter and TTLB position, but much less so than I used to. I owe that to a change of direction. I suppose I’m going through a pre-midlife crisis crisis; I’ll be 40 real soon, and just as I began writing for publication when I turned 35, I need to refocus and get back on track to do what I started out to do: consistent publication.

This blog has been a pleasant and profitable side-track, but it’s time to take risks the way I used to and channel some of this blog-energy into other pursuits. In the pipeline: a book review for Christianity Today, an article for the Christian Research Journal, and a book proposal for a Christian book publisher. Book editors have pursued me, and I foolishly dragged my feet. Why? Fear of success, fear of failure, laziness…There are no guarantees the proposal will sell, but my feet-dragging days are over. God has guided another editor into my path. I think he’s trying to tell me something…

As I take the time to pursue writing assignments and engage more in life off-line, blogging will be somewhat lighter than it already is. In fact, blogging this week will be light. I’m presently in my native South Carolina and will travel to California for Thanksgiving. I have family and friends to see, clients to serve, a column to crank out, and a new diversion to enjoy.

Once again, thank you for reading LBC.

I’ll return shortly.

Three years later, I can’t believe public ranting and raving has been so good to me.

Other bloggers travel to hear me speak, and a few journalists have written about me and quoted me. I’m actually making a living, barely, blogging for myself and for others. Over 4,000 visitors a day click on my URL to find out what I think about the latest news and to read about my faith.

There will be no colorful “Happy Anniversary!” graphics today. I’m humbled by your readership and thoughtful feedback. LBC has received about 2.7 million visitors since its inception. Thanks for reading, and God willing, I’ll be here for another three years.

(By the way, I usually forget the exact date of my entry into the blogosphere. I thought it was Nov. 8, but it’s actually Nov. 5.)

Related post:

• Two-Year Blogiversary
• Happy Blogiversary To Me!!!

• A story in the Baltimore Sun about blogging — World wide gab — and a podcast link in the sidebar.
• Download (MP3) an interview with Stacy Harp (It was on a Friday and I was in a silly mood – the most unusual interview I’ve done in awhile).

Last year I was interviewed by a reporter from the Baltimore Sun for a story on actor Morgan Freeman’s remarks about Black History Month. Freeman said the whole thing is ridiculous and unnecessary. I agreed. My quotes weren’t included in the story. In fact, the only quotes included were from people who support BHM and disagreed with Freeman.

Update (7/20): The Pew Internet and American Life Project has released a new report on blogging. Among the findings: most blogs are personal and over half the bloggers surveyed were under 30. The researchers felt it necessary to point out that bloggers are more ethnically diverse than ordinary Internet users.

The sample size is small. I’m confident that somebody, somewhere is working on a massive blogging survey.

I’m doing an interview this afternoon with a national newspaper for an article and/or podcast. The topic? What else?
———————————————————————————————-

Look at those big blue balls! (And “brown” ones, too!) I didn’t know Uranus and Neptune were that much larger than Earth, did you? But there is no life on those planets.

Far out, man! (Really far out.) Look how small Earth is compared to the Sun. No wonder so many people worship that sucker.

Well don’t I feel the insignificant little speck of dust! Not really. We Christians believe there’s method and purpose to the breathtaking astronomical “madness.”

The God we worship, our Creator, knows the number of strands of hair on our heads. And his Son, the divine One who became a man and was nailed to a cross 2,000 years ago, will return to deliver his Father’s wrath. For the Christian, what a terrible and glorious day that will be. From time to time I say aloud, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Check out A Greater Freedom, a new web site for and about Christians serving in the military. (Via Sara Horn)

Do you want to help actual victims of rape? Consider donating to the Grace Bay House project. Sydney Tyler Thomas, a rape survivor, plans to buy a house on the Eastern Shore in Maryland and turn it into a place where rape victims can attend four-day recovery and restoration workshops.

I like all 16 of Bob Parson’s (founder of GoDaddy) rules for survival. But these are my favorites:

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be — Sometimes I take an “embrace the fear” stance. Instead of running from it, I walk toward it, imagining the worst case scenario. So far, actual events have never confirmed my fears. The anticipation of a thing is usually worse than the thing itself;

6. Take things a day at a time — This is the best way to beat an addiction. Trying to plan and manage recovery weeks or even days ahead of time is unthinkable. “I don’t have to drink today. I’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow”;

12. Never let anybody push you around— Story of my blogosphere life! Eat my virtual dust, haters;

13. Never expect life to be fair — Take a memo, whiners. Life is not fair, nor was it ever meant to be fair;

16. There’s always a reason to smile. Find it— Let’s see…the agapÄ“ of Christ, a wonderful family, each member blessed with a great sense of humor, a wild-ride career, endless opportunities and possibilities stretching out before me…

(The above rules for survival are Copyright © 2004-2006 by Bob Parsons. All rights reserved.)

*Which are your favorite rules?

In other news, my Crash Course on Blogging partner Ken Yarmosh sums up my ennui with the political blogosphere of late:

Do bloggers really think their numbers are going to go down (or up) if they don’t cover these stories? Do they think they are reporters? There’s only a few blogs that truly offer “scoops” and news…the rest just become noise in my opinion.

And in other news, isn’t it interesting that so many in Big (Old) Media are now writing about these same stories? Now, I realize they are catering to an entirely different audience but they essentially are repackaging busted up blogosphere memes and running them as technology headlines.

One of his commenters, a new blogger, adds:

I’ve sometimes felt compelled (but have generally resisted) to post on something just because it was “big news”, but after having read it twenty times already myself, I figure all my readers know it anyway, so what’s the point? The real challenge lies in expanding on a story or generating ideas rather than regurgitating headline news – of course that probably means fewer posts and (maybe) less frequent return visits, but in the end readers will come back if they know that what you post is always something worth reading…

Take it from me, resisting the blogospheric mob mentality and doing something different is good for sanity and soul. Oh yeah, I was heavily into blog swarming once, and if the occasion warrants it, I’ll catch the wave again. But all things in moderation…

And I’m so sick of bloggers blogging nastily about other bloggers. A lot of that has been going on across the “left” and “right” blogosphere lately, and it’s stupid. It’s mostly male bloggers, grown men having what I consider a pi**ing contest. But hey, that’s what freedom of expression is all about. I suppose.

I’m going to Love Cafe and have myself a chocolate cupcake with lemon frosting. Later. Right now I have deadline fever. I’ll re-emerge in a day or two. Be good.

Ciao. Adios. Sayonara. Auf Wiedersehen. Au revoir. Goodbye.

(Thanks for the shout-out, Kiril.)

Later…I don’t like Townhall.com’s new look, and it seems I’m not the only one with criticism.

I’ve been on a roll with the racial stuff lately. One of my disgruntled detractors finds it disturbing that I always seem to end up “siding” with the race other than my own. Sometimes it’s incidental; other times deliberate. Others are upset that I seem to always blog about race. In fact, I’ve got three draft posts, all race-related, screaming to be published. I’ve explained why I take that approach, but if you’re not a regular, long-time reader and just a casual reader who checks the archives now and then or never, you probably missed it. Check Do You Hate Black People? and other posts. This post may be helpful, too.

Although I never intended to write about race and politics so much in my long-ago bi-weekly column and on this blog, racial topics take up a lot of my bandwidth. I’m drawn to such topics. I hear and read opinions about race and read opinions disguised as news stories about race in mainstream media, and left-leaning reporters seldom get it “right.”

I focus on the media because, like it or not, they are influential. I’m a commentator, not a community activist, so my focus is on how politicians, organizations, the media, and entertainment industry portray blacks. Individual blacks I know work hard and try to live their lives in peace, but system-wide, race-based group preferences have fostered a disturbing entitlement mentality. If all else fails, one can always use skin color to lodge a complaint.

I’ve been tempted, but I refuse to do it.

For the most part, liberals see minorities as oppressed. I see them as blessed, fortunate to live in a free, vibrant country where they can succeed if they dare. When liberals write about race, they begin from a position of weakness: that blacks are put-on children who need government to survive. I start from a position of strength: that individual blacks who’ve shaken off the victim robes and embraced America’s vast opportunities can and do succeed, and that big government intrusions have provided strong incentives not to try.

The whites-as-oppressors thing is so old, and I frankly don’t care if it exists in the real world or only in people’s minds. But there are too many people who make a living perpetuating its existence. As long as they do, I’ll keep blogging and speaking about race from a totally unexpected and out-of-the-mainstream point of view, and as often as I deem necessary.

Make sense? If not, read the archives (beginning in late 2003) and read this blog every day.

On a final note, I must clear up a misconception about this conservative. I can’t speak for others, but I don’t push the “colorblind” idea because I think it’s stupid. We couldn’t ignore differences if we tried. That’s not the way God made us. He created a truly diverse universe that is beautiful and awesome. Its various colors, shapes, and sizes are pleasing to the eye. I won’t pretend we’re all the same except for skin color. We are all part of the American culture, but each of us is also part of a sub-cultural group. These have much in common, but they also have their differences.

(God, in his infinite and unknowable wisdom, created different racial groups for his own purpose. It is not unbiblical for us to recognize and acknowledge differences between and within those groups. Spiritually, though, there are no differences. Each of us will be judged for our sins, and “racism” or “superiority” won’t excuse those sins. God’s elect belong to all racial groups, and he saves them without regard to race. He is a true equal opportunity Employer.)

We can no more ignore these differences than we could a mack truck barreling down the street as we go to cross it. What I advocate is colorblind government policy, which is definitely do-able. As long as “affirmative action” exists, however, and government tries to justify it, we will never have colorblind policy. As long as this hypocrisy flourishes, you’ll hear from me. As long as blacks embrace the double standard, I’ll keep blogging and writing about how wrong it is. As far as I can tell, I’m one of only a few doing so consistently and honestly.

If my posts disturb you and cause you discomfort, you have my sympathy. You really do. Take a pill, stop reading the blog and pick up a book instead, start working out — whatever you need to do to relieve the stress, because I promise you this: It’s going to get a lot worse.

Update: Commenter Tiffany says:

Your post on ‘Do You Hate Black People’ helped me to understand you a lot better in terms of what you feel called to do and though I don’t always agree with you, I can definitely respect your convictions. I admire folk with conviction.

With that being said, I think that some on your readers relish when you make these types of posts because it allows them to say the things they really *wish* they could say about black folks but probably don’t in public. Being an avid reader of your site for some time know, the commentary tends to be really reflective and constructive in the beginning of the thread and tends to descend into “piling on” of the Negroes by the thread’s end.

That is just my general observation…Otherwise keep it coming!

Thanks for being a regular reader, Tiffany, and you’re right. People sometimes will use what I say for nefarious purposes and pile it on. But as I’ve written before, that’s a risk I take running a public blog open to all eyes. The best I can do is make sure the discussion is civil.

A reader pointed me to this gem by Jason Whitlock:

[Bill] Cosby spoke for nearly an hour. He was funny, articulate, passionate, concise, profound and inspiring. Controversial? Not in any way. He didn’t utter one word or phrase or opinion that I haven’t heard from my parents.
…
He blasted parents for being uninvolved in their kids’ education. He invited guest speakers who shared their own stories of overcoming incredible odds or they talked about the startling negative health, education, murder and poverty statistics impacting black America.
…
Blaming racism is a copout, an admission of inferiority, an easy excuse of the sedated. Cosby wants to help black people realize that in America — even though the country isn’t perfect — the solution to any problem begins with the person with the problem.

Update II (5/26): Commenter Terrence says:

You crack me up… in a good way.

Thanks for your insights. I believe the lure of racial topics in your writing is from a desire to know the truth, even if it make us feel uncomfortable. But that’s a good thing – keep up the good work.

Full of flaws, yet so divine,
La Shawn Barber is…39!
Lordy, lordy…she’s almost 40!!!

Important before-I-turn-40 goal: A six-figure book deal. OK, five. Four?

Things to do, people see. No workie for me! See you on Monday. Or Tuesday.

Oh, wait, before I go…have you read Dr. Shelby Steele’s Opinion Journal piece, White Guilt and the Western Past? Overall, I agree, but I have a point or two of contention. Guess what they are. If you like that op-ed, you’ll like this one.

I appeared on a panel last year with Steele (author of newly-released White Guilt) and actor Joseph C. Phillips (author of newly-released He Talk Like A White Boy) as a last-minute replacement. It was awesome, for lack of a better word at the moment. If inclined, read about the discussion. Bye!

(Jesse L. Peterson, me, and Dr. Shelby Steele)

It’s funny, in a way, that I have less time to blog now that I’m working from home than when I was working eight hours, five days a week at the day job.

I’m laboring under a couple of deadlines, so I won’t do much blogging today. Tomorrow…we’ll see.

As an aside, my new friend from the endangered species is a fan of Harry Potter. One more thing in common. I love discussing Book 7 theories. (Only die-hard HP fans will understand.)

If you’re bored with the posts at LBC, visit Fantasy Fiction for Christians and The Language Artist. If you’re bored with those, peruse my very long blogroll.

Consider this post “open” to anything you want to discuss (within reason). Announcements? Breaking news? A new blog? New job? New toy? An outstanding post?