Jesus Christ the Copycat?

     I grew up going to church 4 times a week. My father is a preacher and I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus died for my sins and that not believing in him would land you a life of eternal fire and brimstone...boy was I gullible, and you are too.


     I struggled about how to write this blog but I decided to just drop a few facts to open up your thinking. I don't believe in any religion but I decided to focus on Christianity since I believe this is the faith of most of the readers.

     The cornerstone of Christianity is Jesus Christ so that's gonna be my focus.  The Jesus we know from the Bible is a direct replication of several pagan stories from his immaculate inception to his resurrection .  Dionysus was born of a virgin on December 25 in a manger at that.  The Egyptian god Horus was born of a virgin mother (Isis) and was the only begotten son of his father Osiris.  At age 30 Horus was baptized and the person that baptized him was beheaded, doesn't that sound familiar? He also walked on water, cast out demons, was crucified, descended into hell and was resurrected in 3 days.  That's just out right plagiarism.

     I was going to write more, and was even encouraged to but I think that should be enough to spark your inquisition.  Just because something is common or the norm doesn't mean it's the truth. Research and self-educate.

-Irvin J. Powell

Endangered Species

"If you take away what we love we all would be Joe Paterno"

That quote is a lyric from Joe Budden. Metaphorically or literally, throughout history we've seen this to be true. Whether in Joe Paterno's case, or a married couple who spent 50 years together and passed away a couple weeks apart, life without love is death. I take this into real consideration when I look at black women in 2014. The son of a beautiful black woman, the grandson of one, and the father to the son of one, its safe to say I love black women. So I look at the vast majority of them in my generation from that perspective. Not with blinders on at all, I know they're a handful and a half but sometimes you have to look deeper than that. Can you think of another group more abused and neglected than black women? You and I would both be hard pressed to do so. I think back to the slave owner abuse stories we've heard, to the domino affect of the crack era of the 80's that led to decades of fathers leaving families, to the promotion of black women being trophies more so than gifts and I kind of understand their plight. I'm not here for sympathy or pity, most black women, or victims period, normally don't seek pity. That's why rape and abuse victims normally don't tell anybody. They would prefer just for someone to try to understand their struggle. Someone to help the wounds heal. Someone to make them feel like they aren't alone. Someone to remind them what LOVE feels like. Black women are the lowest group of married women. That's a fact. That constant reminder only gives light to the disappointment that then turns into fear, that then turns into resentment, that then turns into anger! One of the first things you'll hear a hurt black woman say about a black man marrying an outside race is "He just couldn't handle a strong woman". Pure ignorance because the idea that being black is a requirement to be strong is wrong. Or that always arguing, being loud, stubborn, and using profanity no matter the time or place is being strong is also wrong. I don't agree with any of it. And on occasion I may laugh and joke on twitter about it but I honestly look beyond the mask of fake toughness and beautiful brown skin, smiles and intoxicating curves and see the pain. They say that because they see strength as the amount of pain and rejection they have survived. Pain that hasn't been nurtured by the world or the very black men that should protect them and I understand. The feel no one else is fighting for them so its them against the world. I UNDERSTAND. It takes a lot of work to love a black woman, I would say more so than any other race of women, because that pain is deep rooted, it's passed down to daughters of scorned and neglected women. Daughters that are fatherless. Daughters that develop their gorgeous shapes at an early age and are preyed on by men. Daughters who weren't taught the right qualities to look for in a man so they fall victim to the games of boys all too often. We rarely see that Cosby love in black families these days. It's sad but it's it true, but black women I'm here for you. Even a diamond has to be polished first! It's time we start back loving our women before the pain kills them!

Just my thoughts,

Travis Cochran

Twitter: @ImMrCochran

Naw bruh..

   It's something that's been bothering me for a while now so I felt like I needed to address it and try to figure out where to place the blame. I wanna know when did it become cool for women to start talking like dudes! It's crazy out here these days.  Men can't even be men anymore without females trying to take that away from us. I never realized it until I started tweeting but even then it wasn't that bad until the last few years. 

   I think somewhere along the way women really started to feel like we wanted y'all to be our homeboys. What we actually wanted is just for y'all to be our best friends outside of our actual best friends. I mean it's dope when your girl starts picking up little slang from you and using it from time to time. My problem is when they decided it was cool to start saying.... Bruh. I guess it's the young niggas allowing it but my god when does it stop!? I can't even scroll the timeline (I don't scroll past 10 mins ago) without seeing at least 15 girls say bruh. At first I thought it was a southern thing but it's everywhere! My question to the guys is what kinda nigga are you to actually want that in your ear when you squeezing the buns? Even if she don't say it during just picture her saying this to her homegirl, "shit bruh put it down last night!" I don't know about y'all but I'm losing wood just thinking about it! 

   No man really wants you to be his homeboy because he got homeboys for that. You already wear J's, hats, hoodies, know how to play 2k and claim he too emotional now. Not to mention the dykes who taking all the women! I'm sure if some of y'all could have interchangeable genitals you would but it's time to relax. Take some of that bass out your voice, get back to drinking Smirnoff wine coolers and while you're at it knock down a few shots of estrogen. Sincerely... A concerned citizen. 

He's Going to Cheat on You

I've been married happily for 4 years and I've got some news for you. The man that you like/love/want is gonna cheat on you.  Now let me explain.  Your man needs his space, you can let him have it, or he's going to take it. So you can let him chill with homies, you can let him play his video games, and let him watch his sports; or he's gonna creep around you and do it anyway. You nagging him everyday, and you are nagging him if you love him, but you never let him unwind. But he's gonna unwind with or with out your permission.  And once he starts lying about little shit like hitting the blunt with his homies, or stopping at a bar just to kick it; he'll realize he can get away with texting this girl he met at work too. I think y'all now were it headed from there.

So here's the solution, offer him his time away.  Encourage him to hang with his homies, leave him the fuck alone while he's playing his games. If he likes to smoke, let him smoke; he likes to drink, let him drink.  If you give him his space he won't take it, because he's gonna have it either way.

Your man is gonna have a life outside of you, he's gonna cheat on you with things you don't like to do. Let him do it.  Or he's gonna start regretting you and start talking to shawty with the curly hair and light eyes that's laughing at all his jokes in the office.

I'm trying to save you heartache, heed my advice.

-Irvin J Powell

Bring em Bring em back!

What's your favorite Nikes? Don't matter if they just came out or OG's... Mine are the Nike Pro Streak Max. They came out in '96 I think and I got em for $120. My grandfather paid $100 and I put the 20 spot with it lol. I happened to see a pic of them online and the price that followed made me wanna shoot whoever was around me then lol. $620 good lawd that's a lot of money! I couldn't afford em in 8th grade and now at 31 with a full time job I still can't! What part of the game is that!? So what's your favorite? 

Nothing really....

I feel like a lil kid trying to avoid sleep even though I work 8:30-7pm tomorrow I'm still up for no reason. You ever wonder how much control you actually have over your life? I mean of course you have free will and all but you ever think that every choice you make whether moving your finger slightly or deciding to marry your high school sweetheart was already decided way before you got here? How far back does it go? Is everything decided on a daily basis or right before it happens? That's crazy when you think about it! 

"What you eat don't make me s#!+"

Today I was vacuuming out my car and for some reason I thought about how old I was. I'm 31 but nothing in my life makes me feel like I am. Then I thought about how much I've grown mentally and how little I care about what anybody thinks of me. 

Does it come with age or just some level of the stairway we reach at different times in our lives. (Lives meaning either your life, my life etc... Or lives in the sense of our past lives because I feel like we've all lived before as a different form. This could actually be a past life we're living. Ok I'm rambling) I've gotten to a place where I really don't care anymore. I know this because I used to have to match when I left the house. Now I literally leave the crib wearing anything I can grab. Even if I'm going out and everybody is rockin jeans and hard bottoms, which I despise by the way, I'll be good with my jeans, Lebron's and a hat or beanie. I'm sure many can relate but it's a great feeling doing what makes you happy regardless of who's watching. 

I hate to see people living to please everybody else especially somebody they don't even know! That makes zero sense to me but maybe I'm crazy. The need to be accepted by strangers gotta be a disease or something. Just do what makes you happy and fuck what everybody has to say! I'm starting a Tshirt line AND recording a few joints because it makes me happy! Before you ask yes I can rap but that's neither here nor there lol. Imagine how dope the world would be if everybody did what made them happy without causing harm to anyone. Everybody wants or tries to be different but then that makes us all the same. I just want everybody to be themselves and make themselves happy because in the end that's all that matters. 

What You "Posed" To Do!?

      One thing I love about being black and our culture is how we can take normal things and go the extra mile with it. I don't need to go into detail about things because we all know of something that we put our own personal touch on. I'm here today to discuss the art of posing for pictures. I'm mainly talking about the fellas right now so ladies y'all can rest easy for now. Whatever happened to the days of just smiling and standing with, let's just say, your hands in your pockets? It was simple right? Someone would snap a pic and you'd do one of those two things or even both. If you were in the picture with a girl you'd put your arm around her. Those were pretty standard poses in my opinion. Then somewhere along the way we had to change the game.... Forever... So allow me to quickly breakdown the evolution of the pose.

             The Peace Sign- This was when the game changed. Two fingers up signaling peace had become the pose for all pictures. Men, women, kids, everybody was doing it. In high school one of our boys called it "Rockin the Peace" and we even had the old white people who supported the football team doing and saying it. Then it became the "deuces." This was acceptable across the board and became the norm for picture taking.

             The Salute- Around 1997-98 Terrell Davis, former running back for the Denver Broncos, introduced the "Mile High Salute." This touchdown celebration was simply a salute. I'm guessing it was to the military, which is where it comes from obviously. Of course "we" figured this would be a great pose and there you go. The "Salute" pose. I can't lie I'm guilty of this one. Earlier this year for my brother's birthday celebration I did it twice. In true negro fashion thought I only used two fingers smh. Don't ask what it meant I just thought it looked cool. 

             The Praying Hands- This of course has a biblical or religious origin but do we care about that? NOT AT ALL! First it was a tattoo but that wasn't enough. Somebody and I'm guessing a rapper decided to pose like this now this has become a favorite among the hip hop community. I'm not one to judge they might actually be praying. For what though I'll never know. Success? Money? A hit? Kush connect? Groupies? Maybe all in one brief picture. I haven't done this yet but I'm just waiting on the right time to break it out!

              The Pointless Pointing- The first person I saw pointlessly pointing at something or at least called it that was Charlemagne The God. It goes back further though. You'd put one finger up to simply say "We're number one" after winning the big game. It was simple back then but guess what happened... "We" had to take that as well! Now on any given picture you'll see somebody pointing at something. I'm guessing it's something outside of the picture but who knows. All I know is hand placement is everything! No lower than the stomach and no higher than the chest. I don't think I've done this but I might as well. 

      So that's the history of the picture pose brought to you by black people everywhere. You definitely have to love how we can make something out of nothing.