On a very hot fall day in 1991, my husband and I were married in his backyard in New Orleans by Marryin' Judge Dom Grieshaber. I bought a lovely, satin, three-quarter length resale dress for $30 and added seed pearls to the bodice. We blew up our own balloons (hundreds of them), filled lots of vases with cheap gladiolus, made our own banners, had a ($100) cake made in the shape of the shotgun house we were about to begin renovating, got a relative who was a caterer to deliver the food at something of a discount, bought cheap wine and champagne to serve our 50 or so guests, and hired a friend to play classical guitar for a couple of hours. We exchanged simple gold bands and asked my husband's brother to serve as photographer (unfortunately, he got drunk and forgot to turn on the camera). It was a lovely day, if a bit hot, and our guests seemed to enjoy the informality of it all. There was no contest to see who could come up with the most lavish wedding present. In fact, our guests weren't even expected to bring gifts. The next day, we left for our grand, three-day honeymoon on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the venerable family vacation shack in Waveland (with no a/c).

I doubt we spent more than a thousand bucks, if that, on the whole affair. We needed to save every cent we could to pay for our upcoming, full-out renovation (which cost less than many contemporary weddings), and our guests surely understood that. Years later when we had to sell our beautiful house post-Katrina, the profit from the sale saved us financially, something the most gorgeous wedding gown and engagement ring in the universe could hardly have done.

I've never understood the drive for ruinously expensive weddings in recent years. They're akin to flushing money down a goldplated toilet. That's nothing to do with love, but rather with a very fleeting sense of status.

But I don't cotton to the idea of a Great Black Father any more the the Great White version. Obama is NOT the country's parent in chief. He was elected to serve an entire country's interests, not to define them for us with an endless stream of empty, moralizing, platitudinous, self serving speeches. Obama wants to address the nation's children for one reason and one only - to give himself yet more face time. Maybe he figures this is the one remaining age group which has any degree of tolerance left for his incessant commandeering of the airwaves.

Some of us are well and truly sick of Obama's face already. We're surely sick of his words words words. For that, I suppose we automatically qualify as racists. Unfortunately for some, the crying wolf syndrome kicked in way back down the road. This is one all purpose accusation which has become all but toothless.

Gender?

Maybe, Jimmy, just maybe, Obama is a lousy leader. He was elected precisely because he is (half) black. It doesn't follow that he's a failure as a leader because he's (half) black.

I lived in New Orleans for many years, a city where the primary qualification for winning political office was being black. I watched the city nearly destroy itself because of this dynamic.

There's so much wrong with your post, there's no point in even trying to respond to it. Except for one thing: Moon Landrieu wasn't known for corruption. Not hardly. He was the mayor vilified by many for opening up New Orleans city government to blacks.

But boy, just like Carter, you sure like to wag that finger of righteousness at others, don't you?

A/k/a klytus and whatever the last nom de plume was. Still enjoying that all-white North Shore enclave from which issues your never ending stream of j'accuse racism pronouncements?

Are you quite sane?

Well, thanks for answering my question.

Curious how all you Upstanding Anti-Racism Guys thrive on finding other targets for your inner venom. Many's the time I've wished I'd picked a screen name like erxylbrim.