10 Thoughts: Episode 1 of 'The GOP Presidential Candidate Dating Game' (Also Known as The GOP Presidential Primary Debate)

I managed to make through the entire telecast of Fox News' 1st GOP presidential debate featuring the presumptive 'A list' candidates.  In full disclosure, I only watched to satisfy my occasional jones for perverse entertainment and theater of the weird.  Here are the first 10 thoughts that came to mind:

• The candidates' latest idea for outlawing abortion involves invoking the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect the unborn.  The 14th Amendment, however, only applies to, "... persons born [emphasis mine] or naturalized in the United States...".  Don't these dudes read?
• The candidates -- most notably John Kasich -- gave Donald Trump a pass for his irresponsible comments on immigration
• Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson are only in the race for future book deals and speaking fees on the rubber chicken circuit
• Aside from Huckabee, most of the candidates with experience as public executives demonstrated the importance of pragmatism
• You just know someone reminded Marco Rubio not to bring a bottle of water on stage
• Rand Paul is his father with the crazy sanded off.  He desperately wants us to accept him as a 'free thinker', but... he's not.  By contrast, Scott Walker wants everyone to accept him as an friendly idiot.
• Ted Cruz' campaign isn't sincere either.  I think he's betting The Dumpster Fire Known as Donald Trump will die out by winter, so that he can resume picking up checks from soulless, faceless corporations.
• Jeb Bush is a mush-mouthed, equivocating wimp in public.  IMO, it's a calculated decision to cover up the fact he's an asshole.  The equivocating is his way of searching for an answer he thinks will shut everybody up, which is the sign of a clever person.  But let's be clear... being clever is not the same as being smart. 
• Chris Christie is an asshole too.  But he makes no attempt to hide his asshole-ness.  He actually upbraided Paul for defending (?!?) civil liberties
• The candidates are unanimous in their calls to 'repeal and replace' the Affordable Care Act.  However, not one of them has uttered a single word on ideas for what a replacement would look like.

And to think I missed watching 'The Avengers' for the 237th time for this.

28 Black Films Black Film Critics Need to See Before Pulling Someone's Ghetto Pass

I don't do lists.  Lists are for lazy people.  More often than not, a list, no matter how good the intentions, leaves off deserving candidates.  At other times, lists are created to lend the author or authors the appearance of credibility.  I came across an example of the latter the other day on Facebook in a link to a 2014 blogpost on Scott Woods Makes Lists from "librarian, writer, poet, and critic" Scott Woods titled 28 Black Films You Need to See To Keep Your Race Card.  The title King of All Blacks is conspicuous by its absence from Woods' blurb.

In scanning through the list, there are certainly a number of no-brainers: Love Jones, Do The Right Thing, Boyz n The Hood, A Soldier's Story.  There are several iffy entries, including Purple Rain and Waiting to Exhale.  But the list is undone with the inclusion of some real dogs, like Harlem Nights, The Wiz, and... Beat Street.

Beat Street?  WTF?!?!?

So without further ado I'm submitting for readers' consideration my own list of 28 Black Films Black Film Critics Need to See Before Pulling Someone's Ghetto Pass (ranked in no particular order):

1. Juice
2. Down in The Delta
3. Pootie Tang
4. If God is Willin' and da Creek Don't Rise
5. Shaft (1972)
6. Brother From Another Planet
7. Def by Temptation
8. The Inkwell
9. Bird
10. Malcolm X
11. Fear of a Black Hat
12. Good Hair
13. Cornbread, Earl, & Me
14. Paid in Full
15. House Party
16. When The Levees Broke
17. Dead Presidents
18. Coming to America
19. Bird
20. Mississippi Masala
21. Always Outnumbered
22. Cooley High
23. American Pimp
24. Dreamgirls
25. Antwone Fisher
26. Deep Cover
27. Baby Boy
28. Car Wash.