commonsensanity

Seth Janklowicz. Born May 19, 1969.

I was born a poor black child in the South...

Kidding. I do that a lot.

Seriously I was born in Long Island, New York. (or Lawn Guyland as my fellow countrymen call it.) Like Howard Stern, I have the distinction of being one of the few non-African Americans in the town of Roosevelt. (Roosevelt, Wyandanch, Hempstead, Freeport, Uniondale -- these were all the main "ghetto parts" of Long Island. They spawned several stars such as Julius Erving, Eddie Murphy, and tons of rappers like Public Enemy, EPMD, Busta Rhymes, and others)Admittedly though, I did not go to any of the local high schools, but instead to one of the preppiest of prep schools, Woodmere Academy.

However, I value my time growing up there as I experienced a closesness to black people that few jews or whites in general ever get. In my writings you'll see times where I talk about black topics or black history or such, not because I think I have some sort of "ghetto pass" but because I have first-hand knowledge of the history and struggles of African Americans.

Both my parents were teachers, and strong civil rights advocates. My father, like many jews, hates racism or bigotry in any form. And he passed along to me and my two siblings and his students a worldview that there is only ONE human race not several, and if one person in America is denied their civil rights we are all denied civil rights. I would add something to that though: We are a nation of different cultures, subcultures and "tribes" if you will and resistance to outsiders is not necessarily always racism. I'm sure I'll be expounding more on this later.


I went to college, Long Island U, got my degree in communications and immediately set out to see some more of the world beyond the Verrazanos Bridge. Traveled out to California and even spent a little time in Texas. Tried to get into the movie biz and while I got some middling work in radio, my naive 22-year old ass quickly discovered that trying to compete with about 8Billion other damned communications majors just wasn't cutting it. Los Angeles is a...well its a different sort of place than planet Earth. San Francisco is kinda the same. I'm sure I'll be expounding more on this later.

I had to leave California though as much as I liked it. The reason? One word. Drugs.
Now I didn't get so fucked up that I had to go through, like a dozen rehabs. Nor did I have a $1000 dollar a day coke habit. Where pot, jack daniels, ectasy and yes even coke a few times did me in was that I would just forget to do shit. Forget to file tax returns, forget to bring the car in for that tune-up, forget that deadline, forget this forget that. It was just too much. I had to get away from some of the people I hung out with and headed back to New York in the 1998 and then to Washington D.C. My folks do NOT know I was a druggie. They assume that the reason I haven't gone to grad school, directed a big-budged motion picture, cured cancer or visted Israel yet is because I "lack motivation". I'm in no rush to dissuade them of that.
I'm also in no rush to tell them that I've accepted mainstream Christianity in the course of recovering from drug use. They wouldn't understand, you can be a Jew and a Christian at the same time.


BTW, I'm against the Phony War On Drugs, big time. It has worked about as well as prohibition. Sure we should teach kids to avoid all unnatural effects. I mean shit, its ALL bad for you. But making it illegal doesn't work. I call it the Phony War because it allows administration after administration be it Dem or Repub, the opportunity to promote a "new front" or a "new program" or some shit. Dump a billion here for the police, another billion for more jails, and another billions for spraying pesticides in Columbia...I mean...shit.
You'll hear much more from me about this.

This is one two things that has gotten me involved in politics. The other is the Coup d'etat that this nation saw in the year 2000, when George W. Bush and his backers stole this country's election. That lit a fire under my ass big time. I fully believe that you can tie a direct line from John F Kennedy's assassination all the way to the enshrinement of George W. Bush.

Yes, I believe fully that the CIA or a secret cabel within same, DID in fact orchestrate the assassination of Kennedy, and not just because of Oliver Stone's flick.

So if you have come here to converse on that topic, great. It'll be a prime topic here for sure. I regularly scan about 10 newspapers a day, so I'm pretty well informed about a lot of things. Sociology, demographics, immigration, business, etc.
Note: I am not a hardcore "Liberal" in fact I don't even like the word because well, one, it has been successfully demonized by conservatives, and two, the very meaning of liberal is that one is open to other ideas, other than what has been deemed "liberal" over the years. There's a number of things I agree with conservatives on -- or at least the conservatives of generations past, not the Talk Radio Idiots of today. I believe in the politics of COMMON SENSE, hence the title of this blog.

This is also a place for me to rattle on my pop culture obsessions. I, like many Gen-Xers grew up in front of the TV and as a result have a head full of the minutiae of our TV culture. Im into music, movies, pro wrestling, basketball, comic books, conspiracy theories, etc etc. I don't really go too much for sports other than basketball, but I do keep up with things. In Washington DC if you're not concerned with the fate of the Redskins as if it's a life or death matter, you may be asked to visit St Elizabeth's -- the same place they've got John Hinckley Jr. shut away. You know Hinckley -- guy who shot Reagan. Guy who's parent's were VERY CLOSE TO THE BUSH FAMILY. Yes, the family of one George H.W.Bush. Who would have become President MUCH sooner than he eventually did if his FRIEND'S SON had had better aim.

You'll get tons of going-off-on tangent stuff like that from me.

Oh yes, you'll also get -- WOMEN!! I consider myself pretty progressive minded and all, (pro-choice, pro-ERA, pro-equal rights) but there's no doubt that I cannot resist a beautiful woman's visage. HOTTIES, DIMEPIECES, whatever you want to call them, I will willingly post pictures or link to websites with babes on it. Like this one for instance.
So women, you are welcome to come here, and I'm respectful, but I'm just puttin the cards on the table. I'm not a lech -- uh at least I don't think -- I respect the body as ART so nacherally, it follows that women would fall into that purview. I'm also into fuzzy kitties as well.


OK, enough for today. Time to show this to some of the mooks who inhabit RSPW,
(the usenet site for Rec.Sport.Pro-Wrestling, a place I've inhabited for years under various id's such as Boobah, Janklowicz, and DAVENOSPAM; about 728 posts thus far.)
See teh archive here.

posted by Seth Janklowicz @ 11:36 AM