Cozmo D

Well, that song they started last week's episode with was THE BOMB!!! They played it for a LONG time too! Some lucky guy is gonna get PAID!!! :gettinjiggywitit:

The Knowledge in ID4 was how we are all human and that all of our squabbles are really petty. They brought that clearly into picture when at the end the whole world had to unite to destroy the aliens, and the president said that it was "our independence day". If you remember they even had a scene that showed Israeli and Arab fighter pilots and planes based together. Here's the president's speech: Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind. Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist. And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!" Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

What is the "myriad amounts of scientific evidence" that point to intelligent manipulation? The support for ID that I've seen is that things are too complex to be ascribed to chance. Be it the complexity of the first life forms or the complex structures of higher life forms. That there's no way for minor changes to lead to a certain complex system. This isn't evidence to support an intelligent design, all this is is showing that our current understanding of things is limited. And as much as folks say that ID isn't religously oriented, I'm not buying it. ID means that some some "thing" that is beyond this universe set things up for us. This "thing" would be the one who created everything. How is that not God? How is that not super natural? That's a religion or possibly philosophy, but not science. Man, I don't even have a smidgen of the amount of knowledge on this subject that you cats do, So I'll just pack up my opinions and step to the rear as quietly as possible. :heavy: :paperbag: :redface: :ohdear: Let me ask a few stupid questions before I go though, just to make myself look a little more foolish. Say, if 100 or 1000 years from now, some scientists pick a planet to experiment on that is in exactly the state that early earth was in, just so they can prove the theory of evolution. They do what they have to to manipulate that planets atmosphere, just like the scientists you guys mentioned earlier, to bring about the ideal environment to develop life. Say they are successful and they do indeed get life to develop. Is that proof of Evolution or Intelligent Design? 4 billion years later, if intelligent life on a par with our own develops, what conclusions do you think they will draw? And the stupidest question of all, why is it so absurd to ponder whether this same question or one of a similar nature may have been asked 4 or 5 billion years ago? There, I'm done. You can all commence to laughing now, I've got rhymes to write. :leaving:

well I think both cases should have to be proved ..not disproved.. :pony: Evolution hasn't been proven either.

Do you think that the search for extraterrestrial life is not scientific as well? We currently have more "evidence" of intelligent design than we do of extraterrestrial life.

See I don't think people are going to accept that as a scientific theory. We cant understand life its too complex therefore God exists.. its like God is beyond imagination, we cant imagine God. Therefore God exists. The argument in intelligent design is of a spiritual nature, not a scientific one.. just because certain scientists believe it doesn't make it any more important than someone on the street, because there is no proof.. Perhaps the mistake that many here are making is ascribing ID to a traditional religious idea of God. You all seem to be hung up on some old white bearded dude hopping from cloud to cloud. I think that most of us can agree that this idea is based on many parts myth and man's own imagination. IMHO, the best way to look at ID is to not make assumptions, but instead examine the myriad amounts of scientific evidence that seems to point to some sort of intelligent manipulation involved in the creation and existence of life. This is indeed science.

:word:

Just like not all Hip-Hop is Rap, not all Rap is Hip-Hop. The commercial Rap industry has been taken over and is now controlled by international corporations, who know and care nothing about Hip-Hop. Their only interests are profits. As in any other modern industry, the formula that they follow is mass duplicating, manufacturing, merchandising and marketing. The last thing that they want to do is to take a chance on an original design. They would rather adapt from or duplicate a successful design and mass market it. THAT is NOT Hip-Hop! Hip-Hop is a culture based on creativity and originality. The biggest crime you can commit against Hip-Hop is to steal somebody else's "style". Most of commercial Rap on the other hand is created through intentional style duplication and replication. That isn't Hip-Hop, it's Pop Rap. :word:

Must....resist....attempt....to....respond.......

The ironic thing is that, I'm willing to bet, the majority of rappers live "better" lives than they rap about. Kids probably would be better off seeing those rappers real lives rather then listening to their music. I used to argue that very point to rappers that I worked with back in the '90s, when the NY thug rap scene was at it's peak. Every rhyme these cats would drop would be about drug dealing and shooting and killing, and when I took them to task on it they claimed that they were "keeping it real". I would point out that not one of them lived that sort of reality EVERY FRIGGIN DAY!!! So why the hell is it in every friggin rhyme??? :shrug:

Yeah baby that's me. :1-say-yes: Oh shoot really.We have a celebrity in our midst people.I love jam on it Cozmo d and I forgot the others guys name i'll kick myself when I figure it out.You would problaby think I was older but I'm only 21 I'm just a huge old school fanatic.Music choice channels I keep it on old school rap they play Jam on it all the time.Wow this is amazing :rockon: I'm honored man, thanx. :kool: The "other guy" is Chilly B. Damn it I knew it was chilly b all along dag I'm kicking my ass right now.If you don't mind me asking what's he up to and do you guys still roll. Yeah we still do shows and tour together. We don't work on music as much together anymore, but that may change soon. Lady E and I will be doing a show in Gloucester, England this Saturday, and all of us will be performing in Palm Springs, CA on the 19th of November. There's a possibility that we'll be on a 32 city tour next year.

Yeah baby that's me. :1-say-yes: Oh shoot really.We have a celebrity in our midst people.I love jam on it Cozmo d and I forgot the others guys name i'll kick myself when I figure it out.You would problaby think I was older but I'm only 21 I'm just a huge old school fanatic.Music choice channels I keep it on old school rap they play Jam on it all the time.Wow this is amazing :rockon: I'm honored man, thanx. :kool: The "other guy" is Chilly B. :lol:

Yeah baby that's me. :1-say-yes:

True that! Those who would seek to lead through their songs, especially if they reach out to the young, have a responsibility to lead by example as well. I would put KRS and Chuck D as well as others in that category, and have found reason to fault KRS for falling short in the past. I do draw a line between leading and teaching though, and frankly I haven't seen much evidence of Kanye West doing either. :lol:

I agree and I see your point. Because of the dire lack of music with any substance or integrity, when people do find some they tend to expect perhaps a bit too much from the artist. Having been an artist for so long I tend to forget that sometimes. You and I see it all the time with PM Dawn, and how people are often taken aback to find that Prince Be is not really some rapping reincarnation of Buddha, he's just a talented everyday brutha with deep thoughts and exceptional writing skills. Frankly, I've been in this business for so long that I expect humanity at every turn. They're all human you know, every one of them. Not one of them is working for free either. When you come to this realization, you learn to appreciate the music even more, because a good song is immortal. Anything that can move or inspire you so much both emotionally and physically, and perhaps even spiritually...simply by hearing it...is truly amazing. The fact that it came from a flawed, tarnished individual shouldn't sully that.

I think music is a very personal thing, If you are making statements in your music, or advocating a certain lifestyle, or even giving your opinion on issues. I expect that to be how you would represent yourself in real life. If you are making throwaway candy coated music then I don't care what you are doing. I think this applies to all musicians not just rappers. It annoys me that someone is telling me to live positive in their song and they aren't even doing it themselves.. I think the musicians that show real honesty in their music the good and the bad are gonna make a greater connection with there fans.. For me it's just like religion, too many people focus on the teachers instead of the teachings. Most of the greatest teachers and philosophers in history were flawed, because they were human. That doesn't necessarily mean that their teachings were flawed as well. Hell, even Jesus had his flaws, though Christians today choose to ignore that fact. Now mind you, no way am I elevating Kanye up to anywhere near that kind of standard. :lolsign:

No, there are mainly Arab people living in Bethlehem today. During the time of Jesus there were mainly Hebrews and other Semitic tribes. Semites are Asians, not Caucasians, and given their close proximity to Africa (basically walking distance) they were probably more of a darker hue than lighter. Blacks were not used as slaves in those times. The people of that time did not have a concept of race, they thought in terms of nationality and lineage. Anybody could be a slave or anything else, race, color, religion, tribe, or language had no bearing on a person's station whatsoever. The concept of race was developed in relatively modern times, chiefly as a means to justify the subjugation, exploitation, and/or enslavement of non-Europeans.

I guarantee you that Will Smith had more than his share of groupies before he got married. I also guarantee you that just about every adult male entertainer and most of the females have watched porn. As for the living up to your music thing, why is it that only rappers seem to be expected to do that? They're songs people, nothing more. I do believe that rappers have a responsibility to at least balance their lyrics so at least their every word is not influencing their fans into a self-destructive mind state. We all know that many are failing at that woefully. But, they should be able to live their lives as they choose, as long as they're not hurting anybody else. They're only entertainers after all. A few quick points on the Bible. As the 10 Commandments were understood and practiced at the time they were written and throughout the Old Teastament, Adultery could not be committed by a man unless he slept with another man's wife. It was a rule intended to keep wives in line. The rules on fornication were to keep female virgins in line. If a man slept with a virgin that was unbetrothed he had to marry her. If she was betrothed they would both be put to death. Otherwise, men, married or not, could sleep with whomever they chose (outside of family and in-laws and such) whenever they chose. Of course, that basically only left prostitutes, but the 10 Commandments was quite fine with that. I would say that if the Old Testament didn't frown on men sleeping with prostitutes it would probably not care much about men enjoying porn either. BTW, I am a deeply Christian, though just as deeply non-religious person, and have been for many years. I have been with my wife for over 26 years now and married to her for over 24. I have never cheated on her, with groupies or anybody else. We have a nice little porn collection (and even a few toys) and enjoy them together from time to time. :1-say-yes: Oh, and anybody who would think of Kanye West as some kind of leader is easily misled. I also agree with MaxFly that Jesse Jackson lost his leadership card a LONG time ago, and as far as I'm concerned Al Sharpton never even had one. Hell, I know That I never voted for either of them. I must have missed the memo about the election. :shrug: :rofl:

You came at me personally first, just like you did BigTed and others, I just don't back down easily. My whole purpose of capitalizing the word "OUR" when speaking of racist perceptions was to include myself in that boat as well. Maybe you missed that. We actually agreed far more than we disagreed on this whole thing. Our only true differences of opinion were on the level of violence, on the justification of the "shoot to kill" orders and whether racism was involved at any point. We now have a much clearer picture of what the true level of violence was, and I'm sure we can agree to disagree on the "shoot to kill" issue. As for racist involvement, my point was never that the inaction, reaction and slow response were racist, but that OUR racist perceptions were catalytic. Perhaps if you hadn't tried to shut me down in such a condescending manner I would not have responded in kind. I even tried before to bring civility to the discussion, only to find myself enduring your threats. As for my demagoguery, I am nobody here, while you are a Mod. I presented facts at every turn, and they have all stood up. I have used creative, objective and open-minded thinking throughout. How that makes me a demagogue I have no idea. Perhaps your forum mates are used to being treated in that manner, but I'm sorry, I am not. I am both a mod and admin at other forums and I would never treat my forum mates like that. However, I realize that that is me, and I am much more genteel than most. I do realize that more Mods behave as you have than not, so I guess then that I am the one in error. For that I apologize, because I probably should have just accepted it and tried to make my points without returning the vitriol. Hopefully you won't find a need to further insult me. I don't mind you having the last word at all, but I've got this terrible habit of just having to answer back to insults. EZ, Coz

First I didn't insist on the guilt of the populace. Don't put words in my mouth. From the very beginning, I expressed that any crimes taking place in New Orleans were the act of a those who would take advantage of the horrible situation post Katrina for selfish reasons. The populace at large were victims, but there were a few who used the situation to their advantage. You are trying to twist that into saying that I was attempting to demonize the public. The demagoguery is obvious, and I don't think it will be lost on those reading this. Again, this is why when you say that you deal in "facts," you have to forgive me for being skeptical. I'll state what I posted in the other thread you created. Here lies the break down in the logic of your "racist perceptions" theory. The race of those in New Orleans had absolutely nothing to do with what I believed to be the case in terms of crime in the city. I wasn't more willing to believe these things because the population was largely black. Your only link to "racist perceptions" is the word "black" in statements such as "You went even further by being willing to believe that black people were capable of these horrible atrocities even with EVIDENCE THAT THEY NEVER HAPPENED..." However, I have not said anything intimating that I believed these things because black people were said to be involved. Again, your claims are merely asinine personal attacks that are completely baseless, but it doesn't surprise me. Incidentally, if you think I actually care whether you believe me or not, keep thinking that... I find it amusing. Why did I believe these things to be true? I'll first reiterate that it has nothing to do with the race of those who were believed to be involved in crimes. That being said, police officers, local government officials, and citizens themselves had attested to many of these things, making definitive and unambiguous statement. The first contrary evidence was that there were not official reports. Considering that New Orleans had no real way to report crime, and lacked a police force capable of carrying out any serious investigations, this "evidence" was suspect. Further evidence of a lack of bodies found in the convention centers and the superdome was more believeable and more easily verifiable, yet these didn't address things that took place outside of those two sites. The evidence simply wasn't expansive enough to speak on the conditions in New Orleans as a whole, as the claims of violence and disorder spanned beyond just those two sites and the majority of troops were commited to areas other than those two sites. I've already admitted it Tim. It's the "racist perceptions" theory I'm trying to clarify. You have to admit, it's a heinous accusation, especially since I haven't said anything that would intimate that race was a factor in what I belived. It also doesn't mean that the government's slow response was due to racism. I suspect that Cozmo's goal is to link something... anything... to racism by the end of this discussion. You may have admitted that the reports were wrong, but you have yet to admit that YOU were wrong. You have yet to put YOURSELF on blast for standing by something that has been shown to be inaccurate or ambiguous. As for the racist perceptions thing, fine, I don't believe you. I think that you have racist perceptions and your actions here have proven it. I think America has racist perceptions and OUR actions here have proven it. That is all that I said from the very beginning and the evidence has and is continuing to support my position. It is a position formed from many years of intensely studying the racial climate in this country. It was impossible to conceive of Americans raping and murdering babies, but the fact that these Americans were black made the impossible possible. I'm through, except to say this. You should try to show a little respect to your forum mates from now on. They could be right just as easily as you could be wrong. EZ, Coz

Yeah, that story reached here, and is a perfect example of why I am against "shoot to kill" orders when involving the general populace. As I said earlier, when you issue "shoot to kill" orders when dealing with American citizens (in our case) you usually end up with dead Americans. I will not be at all surprised if a similar truth turns out to be the case in the NO bridge shooting incident.

Your willingness to believe that black people en-masse committed the purported horrors and atrocities, even in the face of evidence to the CONTRARY is PROOF of your racist perceptions, I can't say it any plainer than that, and I have said it now many times. You may say that the fact that these people were black had no bearing on your perceptions, but I don't believe you and I highly doubt if anybody else here does either. By assuming the guilt of the populace there, without any evidence or reasoning beyond that of rumor, you showed your inclination to believe the worst of that populace. By INSISTING on the guilt of that populace DESPITE HARD EVIDENCE that showed that populace to be INNOCENT, you showed your DEDICATION to believe the worst of that populace. You may very well claim that under the same circumstances you would believe the same of white people, but I don't believe you, and why should I. The one thing that you have yet to answer is WHY DID YOU BELIEVE IT EVEN WHEN ALL OF THE AVAILABLE EVIDENCE POINTED AGAINST IT? To the point that you even ridiculed that evidence and me for presenting it? If it wasn't because these people were black then give us a reason for your totally illogical position. :shrug: Oh, and as for your latest attempt to twist my words, I never said that at all. Here is the direct quote of what I said:

Because I see something in him, or at least I thought I did. Because there was a time that I was very much like him, but I was lucky enough to have people around me who never hesitated to put me in check when I thought too highly of myself. Humility is truly a blessing! You are right though, and I appreciate your question and concern. I have a trip to England to prepare for, so let me get about my business. Thanx yo! :whew:

I'm more than willing to concede that you are smarter than me. In fact, I believe that I did so from early on. This thing is about the truth for me, as the truth is what I love above all else. My point from the beginning was that the whole damm country was willing to believe that black people were capable of these horrible atrocities even without corroborating evidence, and that reveals OUR racist perceptions. You went even further by being willing to believe that black people were capable of these horrible atrocities even with EVIDENCE THAT THEY NEVER HAPPENED, and that reveals YOUR racist perceptions. Even now, you stand in favor of the deployment of troops with "shoot to kill" orders when it is obvious that no such thing was needed. Thank God that the only people killed were those who purportedly shot at the engineers. BTW, care to place a wager on what the truth will be of that situation once it is finally investigated?

True that, and I actually have plenty other things that I should be doing as well. :1-say-yes: