Free Republic

Ralph Nader has been many things: lawyer, consumer-rights bulldog, political activist and perennial third-party presidential candidate. He has now added a new title to his business card: fiction writer. His latest book, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, is a 700-page populist fantasy in which a small group of billionaires and media moguls — led by Warren Buffett and including Ted Turner, George Soros, Bill Cosby, Yoko Ono and Phil Donahue — pool their massive resources to reform the U.S. With the help of a $15 billion war chest and a p.r. campaign starring a talking parrot, the group successfully...

Dr. Bill Cosby, I am ashamed of you and for you. I have been a fan and admirer, of you from the days when your only exposure was your wonderful comedy albums. I still relish my memories of your stories about theme music and the movie theatre monster statue at the top of the steps. I have always considered you a man of good character, and of an honest and decent heart. And now I feel as if you have betrayed a lifetime of dispelling the evil that sneaks it's way into the hearts of men through racism. You have...

From Cosby’s Facebook page: I agree with President Carter that racism is playing a role in recent outbursts against President Obama. During President Obama’s speech on the status of health care reform, some members of congress engaged in a public display of disrespect. While one Representative hurled the now infamous “you lie” insult at the President, others made their lack of interest known by exhibiting rude behavior such as deliberately yawning and sending text messages ….

I agree with President Carter that racism is playing a role in recent outbursts against President Obama. During President Obama’s speech on the status of health care reform, some members of congress engaged in a public display of disrespect. While one Representative hurled the now infamous “you lie” insult at the President, others made their lack of interest known by exhibiting rude behavior such as deliberately yawning and sending text messages. Health care reform is the most important domestic issue facing America today. Disease does not discriminate. African American, White, Asian, Latino, Republican, Democrat, no one in America is immune....

Bill Cosby spoke about his feelings regarding black people and education in his recent rant called We Cannot Blame the White People Any Longer. Cosby is probably the only person who could get away with talking the way he does because he is well respected among people of all races. “People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around,” he says. “They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk….You can't be a doctor with that kind...

Police in Cambridge have reacted predictably to having the President call them stupid, as ABC reports today. Their union lashed out at Obama for commenting without having the facts on hand, and witnesses dispute Obama’s recounting of the event: .... I’ve heard about five different reports [on the details of the arrest],” Cosby said on Boston’s WZLX. “If I’m the president of the United States, I don’t care how much pressure people want to put on it about race, I’m keeping my mouth shut.” “I was shocked to hear the president making this kind of statement,” Cosby said referring to...

On a Boston radio program this morning, Bill Cosby suggested that President Obama spoke too soon on the controversial arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. “I’ve heard about five different reports [on the details of the arrest],” Cosby said on Boston’s WZLX. “If I’m the president of the United States, I don’t care how much pressure people want to put on it about race, I’m keeping my mouth shut.” “I was shocked to hear the president making this kind of statement,” Cosby said referring to the president’s remarks during last night’s press conference. The comedian appeared to have dialed...

Bill Cosby, the entertainer-turned-activist known for his controversial comments on race, told Washington’s WTOP radio station Saturday that Barack and Michelle Obama were examples of the parenting and family values he’s challenged Black America to strengthen. “Who is Barack Obama and what did he tell us, when he talked about his mother? What was it he was saying when he said his mother woke up, 4:30 in the morning…to correct his homework, to get it done?” Cosby asked rhetorically. “Let’s listen to Michelle Obama who talks about her father with a disease, but he doesn’t call in work and say,...

Life for the First Children By Derrick Z. Jackson Globe Columnist / December 26, 2008 With some minor irony, the longer version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" talks about Santa bringing "curly-head dolls that toddle and coo." So far, these girls, who are about to give curly hair an unprecedented place in American history, have done nothing but warm American hearts. Much has already been made of the potential of Barack and Michelle Obama being the ultimate Huxtable family of the old "The Bill Cosby Show." The incoming First Couple says they expect the First Children to do...

The 71-year-old actor-turned motivational speaker offered some blunt comments about the need to teach children about the dangers of having sex - and maybe more of his comments were directed at young women than young men - but despite his language, the message appeared to be well taken by parents, teachers, and teens alike. " There is no woman who has ever died because they didn't have sex," Cosby said. "And there is no boy who has ever died or had a bad orgasm from wearing a rubber." Cosby also said that young women aren't getting "pregnant." Rather, he said,...

I can't tell you just how disappointed I am to read in today's Oakland Press (MI)that Cosby is campaigning for Obama in Michigan. I guess I just assumed that their values were polar opposites. The article that the link refers to is not nearly as comprehensive as the actual article that appears in the paper, but it's by the same writer and is the only article in the online edition. Cosby has three appearances scheduled in Michigan.

Bill Cosby pleaded with blacks to stop blaming the "white man" for their problems on Thursday, and he reiterated his harsh critique of the current state of African-American culture. "It is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us, and it keeps a person frozen in their seat. It keeps you frozen in your hole that you are sitting in to point up and say, 'That's the reason why I am here.' We need to stop this," Cosby said in an address before Jesse Jackson's 33rd Annual Rainbow/PUSH Coalition conference in Chicago.

Hey you guys! An old favorite is available on DVD and your child can learn to read with a little help from Morgan Freeman, Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno and a cast of funny and talented actors whose goals are to keep your children interested and teach them words and concepts without them realizing they're learning. That's right, "The Electric Company” is now available, and it actually works. Adults who grew up watching it on PBS will remember the classic songs, like "Hey Diddle Diddle,” "Knock Knock Rock” and "Whimper and Whine” (You know you've heard it: "We are the kids...

"We are living in a new time, where people are behaving in abnormal ways and calling it normal…No longer is a person embarrassed because they're pregnant without a husband. No longer is a boy considered an embarrassment if he tries to run away from being the father of the unmarried child" -- Bill Cosby, speaking to African-Americans at St. Paul Church of God in Christ, Detroit, July, 2007. As Mother's Day approaches, it seems a fitting moment to point out the truth of Bill Cosby's observation. Left unsaid but well understood by him: This "new time" and these "abnormal ways"...

NEWARK, N.J. -- Comedian Bill Cosby told several hundred people at a conference of community associations Thursday to stand up and confront the ills facing black Americans and ignore those he called "intellectual panhandlers." Characterizing his own words as "blunt, but not harsh," Cosby criticized a culture in which "babies are wearing $40 sneakers while their mothers are feeding them Oodles of Noodles" and in which pimps and murderers are seen as heroes. During a speech that lasted nearly an hour, he began by comparing current attitudes to a patient who ignores a toothache until it requires major surgery. Several...

The audacity of Bill Cosby’s black conservatism ___ Last summer, in Detroit’s St. Paul Church of God in Christ, I watched Bill Cosby summon his inner Malcolm X. It was a hot July evening. Cosby was speaking to an audience of black men dressed in everything from Enyce T-shirts or polos to blazers and ties. Some were there with their sons. Some were there in wheelchairs. The audience was packed tight, rows of folding chairs extended beyond the wooden pews to capture the overflow. But the chairs were not enough, and late arrivals stood against the long shotgun walls, or...

They called it "a Bill Cosby moment" when an Atlanta judge cleared whites from his courtroom to lecture black youth last month. Thursday evening, Bill Cosby joins that judge for an invitation-only "fireside chat" with at-risk Atlanta teens. WSB's Veronica Waters reports Fulton County Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington asked white lawyers to leave, then dressed down the black defendants who were gathered in the courtroom when he emerged from his chambers. "It was spontaneous," Arrington tells WSB. "I was sitting there literally with tears in my eyes." Though some criticized him for excluding white people from the lecture, Arrington—who...

Bill Cosby's path has taken him from pudding pops to hip hop. The 70-year-old has recorded a hip-hop CD set for release next month. "Cosby Narratives Vol. 1: State of Emergency'' blends the comedian's concepts and stories with a hip-hop, pop and jazz soundtrack. "I do not rap on any of these things,'' Cosby told The Associated Press on Monday. "I wouldn't know how to fix my mouth to say some of the words.'' What Cosby does know, though, is that the hip-hop music he hears is profane and degrading. His album is "the opposite of what I think is...

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Comedian Bill Cosby's hip-hop album, described as an "unflinching look at life in the 21st century, but without the profanity, misogyny, violence and braggadocio" is expected to reach stores within the next several weeks, a spokesman said. "Cosby Narratives Vol. 1: State of Emergency" is designed as a companion to Cosby's provocative book "Come on People: On the Path From Victims to Victors," which he co-wrote with Dr. Alvin Poussaint last year. The album weaves hip-hop, jazz, pop, funk and other genres around frank, positive messages drawn from Cosby's lyrics, stories and musical ideas. Cosby does...

<p>Last summer, in Detroit’s St. Paul Church of God in Christ, I watched Bill Cosby summon his inner Malcolm X. It was a hot July evening. Cosby was speaking to an audience of black men dressed in everything from Enyce T-shirts or polos to blazers and ties...</p>

<p>Last summer, in Detroit’s St. Paul Church of God in Christ, I watched Bill Cosby summon his inner Malcolm X.</p> <p>He began with the story of a black girl who’d risen to become valedictorian of his old high school, despite having been abandoned by her father.</p>

Even as Barack Obama’s speech on race Tuesday morning was being widely hailed for its candor on a subject about which Americans—and, it must be said, especially liberal Americans—are notoriously less than candid, it strived to set, and limit, the terms of this long overdue conversation. Yes, Obama acknowledged, there is vast miscommunication between the races, a constant misreading of signals and intent. Things get said on both sides that, while regrettable, aren’t meant precisely as they may sound to ears of a different color. Obama readily admitted that his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, as a man who came of age...

A few years ago, Bill Cosby set off a fire-storm with a speech excoriating his fellow African-Americans for, among other things, buying $500 sneakers instead of educational toys for their children. In a recent book, Come On People, he repeats his argument that black Americans spend too much money on designer clothes and fancy cars, and don't invest sufficiently in their futures. Many in the black community have been critical of Cosby for blaming poor people rather than poor public policies. Others have defended Cosby's comments as an honest expression of uncomfortable truths. But notably absent from the Cosby affair...

Bill Cosby’s status as sage is confirmed by the release of his new book, co-authored with Dr. Alvin Poussaint of Harvard Medical School, Come On People: On The Path From Victims to Victors. Cosby and Poussaint remind us that black America’s hope for escape from abysmal self-destruction is moral formation — not government programs or blaming white people.  This book will arouse needed controversy as it challenges the victim mentality often promulgated by men like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, and other black liberal elites. Cosby and Poussaint are direct, candid, and engender a spirit of urgency. We...

It's no secret that in America knowing how to speak the English language is the basic requirement for success -- if you can’t speak the language everybody else speaks, you are back at the Tower of Babel wondering what everybody around you is trying to say. For any youngster starting out in life, knowing and speaking the common language is the first step in moving up the ladder. And in the United States, English is the common language, and has been from the beginning. The Constitutional debates were conducted solely in English. Only English is spoken in Congress and in...

Comedian Bill Cosby laced some humor into his messages to Lakewood kids and parents in an afternoon session Tuesday, but he also earnestly urged youngsters to talk to others about feeling sad before it grows into something worse. To hundreds of kids in the audience, he said: “Whatever you’re sad about, the longer you leave the sadness in, the more it turns into frustration and anger and will come out some way.” To parents, he said: If your children complain that they have nothing to do, “and if you believe that, you’re not parenting. Give the child something to do....

Martin Luther King had a dream that some day his children would "live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." He wanted his children to become strong, beautiful people. But what we see today in poor African American neighborhoods is a nightmare. We know there are forces that make the ability to escape poverty seem bleak: overburdened single-parent homes, a high dropout rate, joblessness, gangs, drugs, crime, incarceration, deaths at an early age from guns fired by angry black men. We know that systemic racism...

As a longstanding fan of Bill Cosby, it pains me to criticize a man whose comedy and politics have been overwhelmingly constructive. But in the matter of AIDS, he needs to be a bit more forthcoming. A report published Monday by University of Arizona evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey has traced the path of AIDS from its origins in the Congo to the United States via Haiti as early as 1969.  It depicts an HIV epidemic ignited by Haitians returning home from Africa and spreading undetected for over 10 years within their country before expanding to America and, ultimately, throughout the...

Happy Halloween! It's an all Halloween edition with lots of funny/scary cartoons, a montage of poor pets costumed by their owners and some people costumes as well. Plus some more miscellany including Bill Cosby's book excerpt, food ads versus the reality with appropriate pics and other this-and-that including some reverie on the ugliest but most comfortable of shoes.

They’re standing on the corner and they can’t speak English. I can’t even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain’t, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be… And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. Everybody knows it’s important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living. People marched and were hit in...

They are a longtime odd couple, Bill Cosby and Harvard’s Dr. Alvin Poussaint, and their latest campaign is nothing less than an effort to save the soul of black America... ...There is a sense of deep sadness and loss — grief — evident in both men over the tragedy that has befallen so many blacks in America. They were on “Meet the Press” for the entire hour Sunday, talking about their new book, a cri de coeur against the forces of self-sabotage titled, “Come On, People: On the Path From Victims to Victors.” There weren’t many laughs over the course...

If Bill Cosby walked up to Virginia Smith today, the Roanoke woman would affably extend her hand. Three years ago, Smith would have given him a piece of her mind. She was among blacks who condemned Cosby for calling out the black underclass for its troubling ranks of unwed mothers, absent fathers, disengaged parents, high school dropouts and prison convicts. Smith, 63, was outraged. The entertainment icon was being "uppity," she thought at the time. She stopped watching him on television afterward. "He didn't understand," Smith said last week, recalling her reaction. She was in the camp that believed Cosby's...

I did a search and didn't find this posted in the past on FR. I also checked Snopes and found this is TRUE. They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be.. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. Everybody knows it's important to speak English... except these knuckleheads. Mushmouth is what they speak! You can't be a doctor with that...

The reader outcry was loud and long. Late last year, essayist John Ridley wrote an article for Esquire magazine, using an in-your-face style to rip the black underclass. He went on to describe famous blacks who've excelled in recent years -- Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell -- and argued that the whole group benefited from their work. It's up to us, he wrote, to emulate their success. It quickly became clear that irate readers weren't much concerned with Ridley's argument. They were derailed by the fact that a black had blasted other blacks. In a national magazine. With a mostly white...

NEW YORK — An English springer spaniel with a preference for chicken-and-garlic treats prevented America's top dog event from turning into "The Cosby Show" on Tuesday night... Diamond Jim beat out a Dandie Dinmont terrier co-owned by Bill Cosby, as he did at the big AKC/Eukanuba event in December...

A tamer, more timid Bill Cosby came to town last week. After an 18-month pitched battle with former DePaul University professor Michael Eric Dyson and others who have criticized him for bashing the black poor, the celebrity comedian was more defensive than defiant Wednesday as the featured attraction at the Chicago Public Schools' fourth annual Parent Involvement Conference. "In closing, ladies and gentlemen," the entertainer/educator told the gathering of 7,000 or so, mostly poor parents, in the audience, "I have never given any crowd a whuppin'." True and false. While picking up an award from the NAACP during the celebration...

Comedian talks tough at LeMoyne-Owen Bill Cosby doesn't sugarcoat his words. The sitcom star, author, comedian and former Jell-O spokesman told a crammed cafeteria at LeMoyne-Owen College Saturday that "the new Ku Klux Klan happens to be us, we're the Ku Klux Klan, and we have not protected our children." He continued: "Children need confidence and if you don't give it to them, how are they going to know that they can do something?" If Cosby's October visit to Memphis aimed to entertain, his most recent jaunt to town intended to inspire inner-city students. He spoke on education and personal...

Actor and comedian Bill Cosby spoke at a rally in Newark this afternoon and urged the federal government to spend more money on healthcare for veterans. Cosby, a Navy veteran, told a group of about 100 veterans that they had the power to be heard in Washington. "You may be in a wheelchair, you may have lost fingers, but you are strong," Cosby said. "There is no reason to cut back on anything involving you...you didn't cut back when you were over there because you knew there'd be bullets coming from all over the place at you." Cosby, who flew...

Comedian Bill Cosby, making an all-day visit to Baltimore on Tuesday, took absentee fathers to task, urged elementary school students to study and suggested unusual methods to prevent teenage pregnancy. "If you hear a female say, 'I want to have something that loves me,' stop her," Cosby said during a visit to a West Baltimore elementary school. "Stop her quickly. Duct tape her to the closet. This is no time to fool around. You can't dump this (baby) on your mother, you can't dump this on your grandmother." Cosby was serious most of the time, however, including, at a panel...

by Mark Finkelstein August 24, 2006 - 07:32 Talk about your culture clash! A hip hop music site juxtaposes a report on Bill Cosby's condemnation of that musical genre with news of the latest criminal doings of hip hop stars. AllHipHop.com bills itself as 'The World's Most Dangerous Site.' Currently up on the site is an article reporting a recent speech in which Cosby . . . "went on the offensive against rap music." States the article: "'They put the word 'nigga' in a song, and we get up and dance to it,' Cosby said. "The two-hour Coppin State University-hosted...

This time he wasn't here to save black Milwaukee from the demons that plague us. This time it was just another gig. But Bill Cosby still cares about the issues he's been talking about all over the country in a one-man campaign to send a message to African-Americans about personal responsibility, good parenting and the need for education. Even when Cosby's mainly in town to make people laugh, the plight of black America is never far from his mind.

    Racism vs. Cultural Failings? Journalist Sides With Cosby BY Jonathan Tilove    In "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- and What We Can Do About It," longtime journalist Juan Williams argues that Bill Cosby was right in blaming the ills of black America on factors other than racism. (Photo by Michael Temchine) WASHINGTON -- The question of whether racism or cultural failings are more to blame for the crisis in black America has been much debated in recent years. In 2004, Bill Cosby weighed in on the...

WASHINGTON-Bill Cosby can be a very funny guy, but he does not suffer fools gladly.A heckler found that out the hard way after shouting at the actor-comedian last week during a forum at the University of the District of Columbia, the latest of about 20 cities to host a free "A Call Out With Bill Cosby" symposium for black parents and community leaders.

Rev. Al Sharpton got a surprise Tuesday during his national radio broadcast. The preacher was talking to Bill Cosby about his controversial speech at the Spellman College commencement, in which Cosby urged graduates to "pick up the pace" because "most [African-American men] are in prison." As Cosby took calls from listeners, a very special voice came on the line. It was the Natural Woman herself, Aretha Franklin, calling from her home in Detroit. The Queen of Soul backed Cosby's remarks. "It was the ultimate defense from the ultimate black woman," Sharpton told The Post's Stephanie Gaskell after the show. Continue...

"The only thing that makes me interesting as a writer," Shelby Steele says, "is that I'm just talking common sense. The most ordinary, everyday sort of common sense." Correction. What sets Steele apart is that he's saying things many people, even those who secretly agree with him, would rather not hear. He says that blacks should take responsibility for their own disproportionate crime rates and poor academic performance and not blame a system imposed on them by whites; that whites support affirmative action and other "silly racial policies" out of fear, to avoid accusations of racism. He says that blacks...

Cosby challenges Spelman graduates 'to take charge' CHARLES ODUM Associated Press ATLANTA - Bill Cosby challenged Spelman College's graduates "to take charge" Sunday, adding those leaving the historically black college for women have no choice but to lead. "You have to know that it is time for you all to take charge," Cosby said. "You have to seriously see yourselves not as the old women where the men stood in front and you all stood behind, because the men, most of them are in prison." Added Cosby: "It is time for you to pick up the pace and lead because...

Bill Cosby Tells Parents To Take Control Of Their KidsFriday, April 14, 2006 Comedian Bill Cosby brought tough talk to Cincinnati Thursday night with his controversial "call out" to the Tri-State's minority community. Cosby's dialogues on parenting, crime, and social responsibility caused uproars in other cities. About 600 people attended the first session at Xavier's Cintas Center. About 1,200 came to the second. Cosby's message was very much one of personal and family responsibility. He did crack some jokes. Yet, you could tell the audience was unsure how they were going to take his message to the streets. The comedian...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Entertainer Bill Cosby urged New Orleans' black population on Saturday to cleanse itself of a culture of crime as it rebuilds from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina last year. Cosby, whose criticism of some aspects of modern African-American culture has stirred controversy in recent years, told a rally headed by black leaders that the city needed to look at the "wound" it had before Katrina struck. "It's painful, but we can't cleanse ourselves unless we look at the wound," Cosby told the rally of about 2,000 people in front of the city's convention center.

Where is the outrage that was manufactured to run Rush Limbaugh off the air? Is it absent because Gumbel is allegedly black? So just picture for a moment, if you will, that you're watching SportsCenter tonight and Dan Patrick says, "The lack of whites in the NBA makes it look like a welfare office." Think that would get buried like Gumbel's comments? For what it's worth, maybe Gumbel should do some research on the emerging face of the GOP.