Maria Niles

my top 5 currently airing are: 1. Parks and Recreation 2. The Office 3. Grey's Anatomy 4. Criminal Minds 5. So You Think You Can Dance - Jason Toney

you're welcome. I limited my childhood to before high school :-) - Jason Toney

We do not control our media and cultural systems or the institutions of civil society, and therefore the narrative of black female citizenship has been used in so many ways as the lynchpin to justify the most brutal democracy in the world. The lies that our citizenship is somehow a gift and not a right, that our mothers are responsible for the socialization of black children and therefore the cause of their incarceration, and that our daughters have drained and massacred the economy, have justified mass incarceration, war, the privatization of social services and health care, and the defunding of public education. The same has been done to black men, using different stereotypes. But this, right here, is about black women. - Maria Niles

A consultant also has to have business experience and understand traditional marketing because there should still be an overall marketing strategy. Social media is just one part of it and does not replace it completely. Stats say traditional television still works. Do banner ads still work? No. Does everyone need to develop a community? Not necessarily. An expert is not that kid who comes out of college. It could be a traditional marketer who is learning some of these new tricks. It can be people with anthropology, journalism, or even scientific backgrounds. - Maria Niles

"Michael K. Williams might have a legion of hardcore fans (including a certain President of the United States) from his defining role as Omar in the epic series 'The Wire,' but that didn't stop him from being awed by working with Viggo Mortensen when shooting 'The Road.' "Come on, we've all been Viggo-tized before," Williams says of the 'Lord of the Rings' stud and 'Road' co-star. "He has that charisma, he has a swagger. He's a great dude."" - Maria Niles from Bookmarklet

"(Obama) was like 'Where's Omar at!!! That's my man!! He's a man with code,'" Williams recalls, beaming. "He found me and gave me the homeboy handshake with the hug and the pat behind the back. I had this thing I was going to tell him which was like you take over Washington and I'll take over Hollywood and I'll meet you back at the ranch. And I looked in this man's face and I saw his grace. He has a light over him. I was just like, 'God bless you, God Bless you.' That's all I could say." - Maria Niles

A public insurance plan offers a real alternative to the morally bankrupt idea that health care can and should be big business. Unless health insurance companies are in some way compelled to change their definition of success, we will all be at the mercy of policies that put profits before a patient’s life-and-death needs. - Maria Niles