Replying to myself, but speaking of Walken, everyone knows the "cowbell" sketch, which heavily features Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper". I guess NBC felt that that skit was classic enough to keep paying the royalties on that song.

So THAT's the reason! I've been looking at SNL's archive on Netflix and sat there perplexed about certain classic sketches not being included - one of my favorite Christopher Walken sketches is "Stalk Talk" - but for some reason it wasn't on the Best of Walken DVD and stricken from Netflix. It starts off with a portion of The Police's "Every Move You Make". Thank God I still have a crappy rip of it from one of my old VHS tapes from when it first aired. Otherwise I'd have to question whether or not it ever truly existed!

Er, no - I don't want to sell my house to somebody that is not willing or able to pay the highest offer I get for my house. What is wrong with that? If the family that offers the highest bid happens to be Black, I have no problem at all selling it to them. The race of the highest bidder should not matter at all, right?

I must have missed the part where you added that the "victims" of that system must take on some of the responsibility of fixing things as well.

I lived in a neighborhood that became a ghetto. I know of which I speak. Besides, sorry, I'm not going to put myself in harm's way just so I can contribute to a community that doesn't give a shit about me.

No, you're not forced to do anything. You have two choices: you can sell to a black family at a fair market value, or you can wait it out for other homes to be sold so you can sell your home at a higher price to a richer white person.

No, you are suggesting that I sell my house at lower than market value. If I want to sell my house at $300k and 3 White families make me an offer for that price, then the fair market price is $300k. If only one Black family came along and made an offer at $200k after that, that doesn't suddenly make the fair market value $200k. In this scenario, I want to sell my house within 6 months for $300k. You are saying that I should not be allowed to do that if no Black families can meet that criteria. How is that not "forcing"??

It's your choice ultimately. If you don't like the choice, tough.

Or, I can vote Republican to reduce the chances of totalitarian policies such as what you are suggesting affecting how I sell my house or where I live. If you don't like that choice, tough. (Mind you, there are many things Republicans do to piss me off, particularly the Religious Right - but I realize that crap like that is less likely to effect how I live my life in the end.)

Those are the breaks of propping up, either pro-actively or through inaction, an unofficial apartheid system which, regretfully, exists in many places in the US.

Oh please....we can go all day on that never-ending spiral. At this point it's not solely the fault of "Big Bad Whitey" that the situation is what it is today.

I don't see your point. Are you trying to imply that that's somehow my problem if they can't?

Yes, it is your problem. Why would you think it isn't?

Because my ancestors came to the US in the late 20's and lived in the NYC area. In fact, they were discriminated against back then, themselves. They never owned slaves or did anything to oppress Black people. No, it is NOT my problem.

"after a few decades of blacks and whites, you know, actually living together and treating each other as equals"

Careful. Under what you were proposing under previous posts, you'd end up with the whites resenting the blacks for forcing them to sell homes below what they are worth, or forcing them to not be able to sell their home until one of "them" came along. You're not going to end up with the civil society you are hoping for that way.

"No. You can always not sell your home until you get the price you want"

So, lets say I have my house on the market for 6 months, and in the time only 3 families come and offer the price I want. But they all happen to be White. Are you suggesting that I should be forced to keep my house on the market even longer until a family of a race that you approve of comes along?

"And BTW, did it occur to you that if black people can't afford your prices, there might be a reason for that?"

I don't see your point. Are you trying to imply that that's somehow my problem if they can't?

"...but the number of racist assholes posting to this thread makes me think it's time to require that people selling homes in neighbourhoods with a very high proportion of white people (say, more than 95%) be required to sell only to members of ethnic minorities."

Ummm....so you are advocating forcing White people to sell houses for less than they are worth? There are already laws prohibiting people selling homes based on race. So if a White neighborhood is "too white" for your tastes, then it's most likely because not enough Black people looking to buy in the area can afford the asking price.

"Precisely how are those neighborhoods supposed to clean up if people are being constantly scared away by folks like MS? "

It's not our job to bring money to businesses in Ghettos. Change comes from within.

'Nuff Said.

Right, well to support the guy you are replying to, Apple _didn't_ get into the ebook market. Well, not the dedicated ebook-reader market, at least.

If that were so, then why did Apple provide a hardware capable of playing decently-performing games, if Apple never intended the first iPhone to play games in the first place? Sounds like a waste of over-specced hardware, which is not something that Apple is known to do.

Oh, I know, which kinda backs up my point - AT&T made it pretty obvious that a duopoly was at play. Why would the government make it even easier for that to take hold?

Y'know for the past year or so I've been wondering how AT&T was ballsy enough to drop unlimited data and tiered text messaging for users, not to mention their tethering plan scam, when they should have been keeping up appearances to the DOJ that they actually care about their customers. Looks like that was a bad idea!

Ok then I guess I stand corrected. You're on the fringe that may not have benefited. Though tell me, by which operating system and desktop environment are you posting, now?