Wednesday, March 14, 2018

I'm Not Litigious

I have a friend who was the passenger when the car in which he was riding got struck by a car which ran a stop sign on a dark and rainy road.
Sure, the car struck the vehicle in which he was riding on his side of the car but my friend was fine - he even went to work at the club that night with no sign of injury.
The next morning his neck was a bit sore but not any more than it would have been had he slept on the mound of pillows with which women frequently litter their beds.

The following Monday, he received calls from lawyers, insurance companies, brokers,... - anyone trying to make money or those trying to avoid paying money.

My friend was advised to at least get checked out.

My friend went to see a doctor who sent him to see a chiropractor.
My friend told both that he was fine and that he wasn't injured.
X-rays were then ordered by the chiropractor 'just to make sure'.

The broker representing the lawyer ask my friend to lunch and asked my friend to sign a release which would allow the law firm to represent him in any insurance negotiations and to ensure that he would not be charged for his doctors visits.

The chiropractor scheduled treatments which my friend was told he was obligated - or else he would be billed for previous visits and procedures.

After a month of telling anyone who would listen - brokers, lawyers, doctors, chiropractors, insurance companies, imaging centers,... - my friend was then scheduled for an MRI ('Just in case.').

After the MRI, my friend was told he needed to see a pain management doctor for pain my friend said didn't exist. (My friend sees him tomorrow.)

No wonder our healthcare system sucks.
My friend told everyone that he just took an aspirin the night of the accident and slept just fine.
Everything should have been over.
My friend was checked out by a doctor and a chiropractor and he told them he was fine.
My friend wasted hours three times a week for a little over a month during his usual volunteer time just to satisfy the brokers/lawyers billing obligations.

My friend was told that he would get a settlement for his 'pain and suffering' even though he told each person involved that he had no pain and that he didn't suffer.

My friend told the law firm to keep the check but he was mad that they had wasted so much of his time.

Honestly, like many institutions - there is just too much profit to be made by getting over on others in the insurance business.
Their are too many levels of profit taking for even the simplest things.

(The driver of the car is getting his car fixed - as should be expected - but he is trying to milk every penny from an accident that caused no real bodily harm.)

What ever happened to honestly?

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Another One ?

As Hilary is still whining about her loss claiming that she 'won' the popular vote - the Trump team is, yet again, in reboot mode.

Monday, March 12, 2018

More BP

I read a lot of facebook posts, both on my personal page and my business page - people seem more honest when they're not speaking to you face-to-face.

The above image was snatched from the page of one of my friend's friend's pages on my personal site.
The lady was bragging about how cool her niece and nephew felt in their new Black Panther jackets and how cool she was for getting them for them.
Sure, he's a Marvel superhero but these kids view him as the coolest of them all.

Sure, they are growing up in an area (my hometown) and during an era where they see Blacks everyday who are not the stereotypical pimps, criminals and drug dealers.
Yeah, their family is filled with law enforcement officers who deal with crime on a daily basis - but these kids are exposed to enough real life Blacks who are good people that #blackexcellence is not beyond their understanding.

As BP crosses the one-billion dollar mark in worldwide ticket sales and is poised to become the second biggest superhero movie of all time - why don't the Chinese audiences get it?
I read about the reviews in China's Douban (Their version of Box Office Mojo or IMDB.) and many can't seem to imagine an idealic African nation.
In a country that bought nearly $400 million (USD) in tickets to see Fast-8, which featured a largely Black cast (Vin Diesel, The Rock, Tyrese, Luda and Nathalie Emmanuel), BP is said to be ' too black'.
While deals in China only return 25% of theater revenue to the studio, the shear potential of the market leads production companies to green light projects that will over-perform there.
(Since American theaters return 50% of ticket revenues to theaters, the larger domestic take for BP will probably compensate for any perceived lost revenue in China.)

In a country that plans to invest heavily in Africa - should countries on the continent be concerned that billions of people cannot imagine them as their equals?
To be honest, many Black people don't see themselves as being (at least) equal.

BP seems to have reignited the whole light vs dark pigmentocracy in some Blacks.
This past week: I've had some dark brotha' come at me as I was walking an attractive woman to her car at the club because he thought I was 'too light'. ('Wrong one to fuck with in this town cuzz.', his cousin would say as he walked him away.) My homeboy's son was shot in a restaurant parking lot by dark brothas who felt that they were now superior to all the 'Christopher Williams looking brothas'. Beastly looking Leslie Jones looking women are throwing shade at light-skinned fit and attractive women on my club's facebook page...
BP seems to have many Blacks caught up.

In spite of all the 4Chan/Reddit/Stormfront attempts at destroying this film - it has become a worldwide phenomenon.
It has become a gauge to measure one's true feelings when it come to race in America and throughout the world.

'Wakanda isn't real'?
Well, neither is Valhalla, nor Thor, Loki nor the Valkyrie.
'#Wakandaforever'?
Ethiopia was only occupied for less than ten years by 'colonizers' - so there's that.
Power is cyclical and who is to say that the Sahara wasn't created by a nuclear war thousands of years ago and Egypt was just an attempt at recreating past African accomplishments?
Maybe pre-Egyptian history was Africa's turn to do things right and it's ancient cultures were just the remnants from its failures.
If history repeats itself, maybe this is Europe's turn to prove that mankind is just an inherently screwed-up race of petty beings.


Friday, March 2, 2018

It Was the Best of Times...

It was California.

Honestly, I love Cali.
I just can't afford it.
In a state where one third of its residents are severely rent burdened (at least half of one's income is dedicated to rent) - housing is just too expensive.

Cali ranked dead last in quality of life - even behind New Jersey. (AccordIng to US News and World Report).
And then I read a story about a family with three children living in a plywood 'box'?
I guess the struggle is real.

I HATE Texas and it's Billy-Bobs.
I hate the (almost) antebellum feel.
I hate the lack of education.
I hate the segregation.

But Damn, even a regular ninja can be a bawse in this low expectation state.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Don't Hate




My club's facebook newsfeed is filled with broke, bitter, fat women who hate on Melania.
Honestly, she's not ugly.
(And while she's not on the Kim K/Beyonce/J-Lo level for booty - she had more than I'd imagined.)

#metoo

Nemesis
(The ancient Greek goodness of retribution.)
It seems as though feminists have found a new goddess to worship and she seems to be delivering the goods.