Highway to Hell

The ego of this minister is larger than believable. First asking his congregation to buy him a $68 million jet…

And now a highway.

The home Creflo’s parishioners paid for with plenty of parking for his several Rolls Royces.

Moneybags Pastor Creflo Dollar Might Get His Very Own Highway

Controversial megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar may soon have a namesake highway to coast down in his two Rolls-Royces.

It isn’t exactly a street paved with gold and, alas, it doesn’t include any pearly gates, but controversial mega-church pastor Creflo Dollar might be getting his own highway.

A Georgia state senator filed a resolution to rename a portion of Old National Highway in Dollar’s honor.

“It is abundantly fitting and proper that this enduring example of God’s message be recognized by dedicating a road in his honor,” state Sen. Donzella James (D-Atlanta), who appears to have nothing better to do, wrote in her proposed legislation. Last year, James successfully lobbied the legislature to change the name of a section of Spring Street to Gladys Knight Highway.

At least one Atlanta blogger is calling foul.

“There are many, many God-fearing Christians of every denomination who believe [Dollar’s] message is sinful at best, exploitative at worst, and want as much distance between their government and this man as possible,” wrote George Chidi forGeorgiaPol.com.

World Changers Church International, where Dollar is the founding senior pastor, sits in James’s south Fulton County district just outside of Atlanta. Its 8,500-seat World Dome is purportedly home to around 30,000 members, many of whom are pressed to “tithe” 10 percent of their gross earnings to support the ministry. At one point, in 2006, the praying enterprise took in nearly $70 million in cash collections.

While Dollar—who is often derisively called “Rev. Cash-Flow”—has never disclosed his income, he has been widely criticized for enriching himself on the backs of his working-poor and middle-class congregation. The sanctuary, built for $18 million without bank financing, stands in a predominantly black, economically depressed neighborhood. Meanwhile, Dollar owns two Rolls-Royces and flies around the world in a private jet. He made headlines last year when the church attempted to raise $65 million for a brand new luxury Gulfstream.

Dollar “renounced” his church salary in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press and said he relies on personal investments, including income from book sales. A U.S. Senate committee investigated Dollar, along with Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Baptist Church and four other faith leaders, but ultimately found no wrongdoing.

“Some people hear the name Creflo Dollar, and immediately sing his praises,” Andre Walker blogged at Georgia Unfiltered.

“Others hear the name Creflo Dollar, and think he’s a two-bit shyster who uses the Bible and poor religious people to support his lavish lifestyle through the so-called prosperity gospel.”

Dollar, who faced allegations that he punched and choked his daughter in June 2012, hasn’t said a word about James’s proposal. According to police reports, the pastor “slapped” his 15-year-old daughter in the face and “choked her for about five seconds.” Another of Dollar’s daughters, who was 19 at the time, allegedly witnessed the attack. In the heat of the accusations, the preacher denied that the altercation unfolded as his daughters reported and issued a public statement, saying he would never hurt them. His supporters pointed to a father’s “duty” to discipline his children….

 

Octavia E. Butler, And the Power of Determination

In the business world, there is a strategy called the “Self Fulfilling Prophecy”. Ergo, you can’t get that promotion to the executive suite – until you act like you already have it. One of the key steps to that is developing “presence” a self belief in yourself that projects to others. That same “presence” is what defined the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s that a long suffering people had dignity, the right to be treated fairly, and moral clarity.

Octavia E. Butler is best known for her Science Fiction novels, which incorporate aspects of African American spiritualism to create stories woven in deep characters, whose change in response to hardship and rejection chart humanism and the effort to mold the world around us. Her best known work is “Kindred”

Embrace diversity
Unite–
or be divided,
robbed,
ruled,
killed
By those who see you as prey.
Embrace diversity
Or be destroyed.

From “Earthseed: The Books of the Living,”Parable of the Sower.

Octavia E. Butler Wrote The Story Of Her Success Years Before It Happened

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Octavia E. Butler, the Hugo-award winning science fiction writer best known for the novels “Kindred” and “Parable of the Talents.” As an African-American female author in the predominantly white, predominantly male sci-fi landscape, Butler achieved extraordinary success over her decades-spanning career, even winning the MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant”.

And now, the release of personal journals from the late novelist has revealed one more extraordinary thing about her success: She wrote it down before it happened.

On Wednesday, the Huntington Library in California published a collection of notes and journal entries written by Butler throughout her lifetime. On one notebook from 1988, pictured below, Butler writes: “I shall be a bestselling writer… each of my books will be on the bestseller lists of LAT, NYT, PW, WP, etc. My novels will go onto above lists whether publishers push them hard or not.”

In addition to writing down affirmations of success, Butler also wrote her plans to “help poor black youngsters go to college” and “help poor black youngsters broaden their horizons.”

Amazingly, Butler would soon find the kind of success she wrote about not long after writing down these affirmations. Many of her novels, including “Clay’s Clark” and “Kindred,” were at the tops of bestseller lists around the world, and earned her honors and accolades including an induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. In 2006, in memory of her death, the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship was founded, providing Clarion Writers’ Workshop scholarships for young writers of color. This year, Butler will be honored in a year-long series of events and exhibitions in Los Angeles celebrating her life and her work. Talk about inspiring.

 

Rev “Mack Daddy” Church Repossed

Reverent Mack Daddy, Aka Pastor James David Manning of Atlah Worldwide Church and YouTube fame as a black conservative willing to attack President Obama…

Is going down. His Church is now up for Auction. Apparently being Hannity’s House Negro didn’t pay enough to pay the bills.

I have posted about him previously –

Rev Mack Daddy At It Again

Rev Mack Daddy is Back!

Rev Long Legged Mack Daddy’s Meltdown – “Black People are Stupid”

Now it seems Mack Daddy has picked on the wrong folks in NYC…

This Vehemently Anti-Gay Church Might Get The Ultimate Karmic Smackdown

An LGBT advocacy group hopes to secure the ATLAH World Missionary Church for its homeless clients.

A New York church notorious for posting homophobic messages on its billboard may be on the auction block. But if fundraising efforts are successful, the parish’s history of hate could be repurposed into something truly beautiful.

A New York state judge has ordered the ATLAH World Missionary Church to be sold at a public foreclosure auction, according to court records cited by DNAinfo New York. The church, which has been known to display messages like “Jesus would stone homos” and “Obama has released the homo demons on the black man” on its billboard, has reportedly amassed debts and tax liens totaling more than $1.02 million.

The Harlem church could prove to be a commodity in Manhattan’s cutthroat real estate market. But the Ali Forney Center, an advocacy group dedicated to homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teens and young adults, hopes that an online fundraiser will help raise $200,000 to secure the property as housing for its clients.

Carl Siciliano, who is the Ali Forney Center’s founder and executive director, said in a press release that repurposing the church to house homeless LGBT youth would “truly be a triumph of love over hatred.”

“The biggest reason our youths are driven from their homes is because of homophobic and transphobic religious beliefs of their parents,” he said. “Because of this, it has been horrifying for us to have our youths exposed to Manning’s messages inciting hatred and violence against our community. It has meant the world to us that so many Harlem residents have stood up to support our young people, and are now urging us to provide urgently needed care at the site of so much hatred.”

LGBT rights activist Scott Wooledge, who is working with the Ali Forney Center to raise the funds to buy the church and has raised over $200,000 for homeless youth over the past two years, echoed those sentiments.

“We, as a community, have a golden, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn what was once a center of appalling hate into a home where our youth can be safe, nurtured, supported and thrive into self-sufficient adults,” he told The Huffington Post in an email. “Let’s seize the day, and turn the page on an ugly chapter in Harlem’s history.”

Stacy Parker Le Melle, founder of Harlem’s “Love Not Hate” Movement, told The Huffington Post, “When the ATLAH story broke on Thursday, immediately I heard from neighbors: Wouldn’t it be amazing if an LGBT group could acquire the property? What if it were the Ali Forney Center? We all knew that this would be poetic justice. We need to care for those kicked out of homes, often on religious-based grounds. We need to care for those most vulnerable to ATLAH’s hate speech.”

ATLAH’s pastor seemed to downplay his parish’s debts in an interview withDNAinfo New York, and vowed to cite the church’s tax exempt status in its fight against the foreclosure order, which he called a “land grab.”

“I assure you, it’s about a water bill and a tax that can’t be levied against this church,” Rev. James David Manning, who made headlines in 2014 when he argued that Starbucks flavored its coffee drinks with “sodomites’ semen,” told DNAinfo.

 

Yet Another Black Woman “Dead in Prison”

Yest another “mysterious death” of a black woman held in a jail…

The so called “choke hold” used in Martial Arts disciplines doesn’t produce unconsciousness by shutting of the air supply…It produces it by shutting off the blood supply to the brain. If you have ever watched MMA, check out how long it takes for these extremely well conditioned athletes to get up after being submitted with one of those holds. These holds can be lethal, which is why the referees in the sport are trained to jump in at the first sign of unconsciousness.

Using such on a child, with no threat of harm to anyone else is extreme. Yet another murder.

Detention staffer used martial arts hold on 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen before she was found dead: report

Gynnya McMillen

A staffer working at a Kentucky juvenile detention center used a martial arts hold on 16-year-old Gynnya McMillen hours before she was found dead in her cell,reports CBS.

According to a spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, the teen refused to remove her sweatshirt for a pat down search and to have her booking photo taken, leading a staffer to use an “Aikido restraint” on her in order to get her to comply.

“The staff performed an Aikido restraint hold to safely conduct a pat-down search and remove the youth’s hoodie,” spokesperson Stacy Floden stated. “The purpose of having multiple staff involved in a controlled restraint is to ensure the safety of the youth and staff.”

McMillen was found dead in her cell at the Lincoln Village Juvenile Detention Center on Jan. 11, after officials failed to check on her well-being throughout the night.

According to center policy, juvenile detainees in isolation cells must be checked on every 15 minutes by staffers.

On Thursday, Reginald Windham, a 10-year veteran of the juvenile justice department, was placed on administrative leave for failing to check on the teen.

According to the Kentucky Center for Investigative reporting, McMillen’s cold lifeless body was discovered “in a sleeping position” in a “secure” room at 9:55 a.m., after failing to respond to twice earlier when asked if she wanted to eat.

Despite her lack of communication, staffers never entered her cell to check on her.

According to the Hardin County coroner there were no obvious signs of trauma or a drug overdose, and that a toxicology report is still pending and could take two more weeks.

Juvenile justice expert Michele Deitch criticized the use of martial arts on the teen.

“I’ve never heard that phrase used in the context of a corrections setting,” Deitch said, adding refusal to remove a sweatshirt is not acceptable grounds for restraint.

“As far as I’m concerned that is a completely inappropriate use of a restraint,” Deitch said. “This goes back to not being so punitive with kids. That’s not just how you interact if you want to achieve a positive social response.”

McMillen was taken into custody after a fight at at a Shelby County residence shortly before 2 a.m. on Jan. 10, according to the Shelbyville Police Department. The teen was was charged with misdemeanor assault after leaving her victim with what were described as “minor injuries.”

The family of McMillen have asked for a full investigation into the teen’s death, and video from her cell has yet to be released.

 

Poor in America Worse Off Than Some Poor in 3rd World Nations

Yeah…That is a shocking assertion. Unfortunately it is true. And while Donald Trump and the rest of the right jump around like syncopated baboons, the truth of the matter is that America’s decline started just about the moment Raygun took office, and modern conservatism gained political majority in the state and federal legislatures.

And unless there are some very fundamental changes in the sort of people who get elected in this country it is just going to get worse. And that needs to be a bipartisan change.

I mean as a recent example of the failure of conservatism, HTF do we get lead contaminated water killing and maiming the children of Flint, Michigan? I mean access to clean water is one of the measurements we use to gauge the progress of Third World countries. And we let a morally bankrupt political system based on the blathering of a neo-nazi sympathizer drive our state governments? Atlas “Shrugged” right after he took a shit all over you.

 

We’re No. 16! Why Donald Trump’s boorish American exceptionalism is so wrong

Here’s how we need to make America great again. In most every metric that counts, we are slipping against the world

As a resident of white suburban America, I grew up believing that, as Fox News host Sean Hannity once so eloquently put it, “The U.S. is the greatest, best country God has ever given man on the face of the earth.” This article of faith in the superiority of the U.S. was instilled deep within my brain as a child, right next to the belief that Jesus was born of a virgin and then visited by three Wise Men. But as I began to travel the world a few years ago — a globetrotting adventure that took me through Europe and Canada and inspired me to start a journal of international rankings of countries according to various metrics — it became increasingly clear that American exceptionalism is a baseless mythology of tribalistic self-aggrandizement perpetuated by people who (if I may generalize a bit) can’t locate Denmark on a map.

As it happens, the champions of this unique brand of nationalism are largely concentrated on the political right, where one also finds the attitude of anti-intellectualism in toxic doses. I don’t think this is a coincidence. The fact is that when one looks at infrastructure, life expectancy, family paid leave, health care, social mobility, income inequality, political corruption, government efficiency, economic stability, childhood poverty, student debt, water quality, education, prosperity, happiness and even Internet speed, one finds the U.S. absent from the top 10 “best countries” in every single instance. While the U.S. continues to have the largest economy in the world and by far the biggest military budget, in most categories relating to prosperity, security, happiness and well-being, the great American empire falls somewhere between the developed and the developing world.

But don’t take my word for it. As the ancient philosopher Plato once observed, beliefs without justification aren’t knowledge, and justification requires evidence. So, let’s take a gander at some statistics from various sources, beginning with the World Economic Forum (WEF), a Swiss not-for-profit foundation that’s “independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests.” According to the WEF, the U.S. fares as follows relative to the rest of the world: 16th in quality of overall infrastructure, 22nd with respect to competition, 33rd in terms of public institutions, 34th in terms of ethics and corruption, 35th in terms of health, 58th in terms of primary education, 67th in terms of security and 73rd in terms of wasteful government spending.

In terms of the WEF’s overall “global competitiveness index,” Switzerland comes in first with a value of 5.7 (out of 7), followed by Singapore with 5.6, and then the U.S., Finland, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands all tied with 5.5. So, not terrible overall — yet conservatives would cringe at the thought that we’re tied with multiple “socialist” countries for third place. As it happens, though, the U.S. is far behind such countries according to other international rankings. Forbes, for example, ranks the U.S. as the 22nd best place for business in the world, with countries like Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Finland above us. Eventhe Heritage Foundation’s 2015 Index of Economic Freedom leaves the U.S. out of the top 10, placing Hong Kong, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland and Denmark at the top.

In terms of “prosperity,” a concept that includes factors like governance, education, health, personal freedom and the economy, the London-based Legatum Instituteranks the U.S. 11th, with Norway, Switzerland, Canada and Sweden being the most prosperous. We’re also ranked 13th in the world with respect to social mobility, or the freedom for underprivileged individuals to climb the social ladder and become successful. The result is that, as Politifact confirmed in a “Mostly True” rating from 2013, it’s actually “easier to obtain the American dream in Europe” than it is in the U.S. Take a moment to let that sink in. According to the research that Politifact cites, “Of the 10 countries studied, the United States had the strongest link between parents’ education and a child’s economic, educational and socio-emotional outcomes … more pronounced than in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Nordic countries, as well as Canada and Australia.”

Social mobility is important in part because studies show that “a lack of wealth does make poor people sadder,” and social immobility prevents those without wealth from acquiring it. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the U.S. isn’t among the top 10 happiest countries. According to the most recent data, we’re the 15th happiest country in the world, behind Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and our gentle neighbor to the north, Canada. Another factor relevant to happiness concerns the overall empowerment of women, who constitute 50.8 percent of the U.S. population. As the Global Gender Gap Index reports, countries like Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark score the best, while the U.S. ranks a shameful 20th. Yet another happiness factor relates to the prevalence of childhood poverty. Here the U.S. ranks 34th out of 35 countries considered by a recent study. Sadly, this is consistent with a 2014 report from Johns Hopkins that found that “teenagers in Baltimore face poorer health and more negative outlooks than those in urban centers of Nigeria, India and China.” Other studies have revealed that rates of PTSD among inner-city residents in America are “as high or higher than [rates among] Iraq, Afghanistan or Vietnam veterans.”

There’s also evidence to suggest that people “are happier in times when the gap between rich and poor is smaller.” In other words, if a country is rich but all its wealth is concentrated among a small class of elite billionaires, society as a whole might be miserable. So, how does the U.S. fare in this respect? To quote a Pew Research Center article on the issue, “the U.S. has one of the most unequal income distributions in the developed world … even after taxes and social-welfare policies are taken into account.” In fact, of the 10 richest people in the world, eight are American. And the situation of inequality is only getter worse globally: just six years ago, the 388 most affluent people owned the same wealth as the poorest 50 percent. Today, Oxfam reports that “The world’s 62 richest billionaires have as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population.” Yes, you read that correctly: 62.

The U.S. also ranks 43rd in the world for life expectancy, 37th with respect to health care, 20th in terms of political stability and 26th with respect to cleanliness, according to the Environmental Performance Index, maintained by researchers at Yale and Columbia University. And while we’re often an early adopter of new technology, we rank 22nd with respect to our Internet speed. Regarding our moral behavior in the world, the Global Peace Index, which ranks 162 counties according to their “national peacefulness,” places the U.S. in 94th place — closer to the bottom of the list than the top. (In fact, a 2014 global survey found that the world as a whole sees the U.S. asthe number one threat to world peace.) Furthermore, unlike many other countries in the developed (and developing) world, college education isn’t free for Americans, we don’t have a universal health care system, and we’re the only “major country” in the world that fails to provide family paid leave, as Bernie Sanders is fond of pointing out. Even our tap water isn’t among the safest in the developed world, nor do we have any of the best airports.

The point is that, as should be clear by now, there’s an unequivocal pattern of American inferiority when our country’s performance is juxtaposed with the rest of the developed world’s. Indeed, in many categories — such as childhood poverty, income inequality and family paid leave — we’re just barely a developed country, if even that. The result of these failures is that our collective quality of life is not nearly as high as it ought to be. Here it’s worth turning to the Mercer Quality of Life Survey, since it attempts to quantify the livability of some 221 cities around the world. And guess what it finds? The U.S. has only a single city in the top 30 — and it happens to be the ultra-progressive den of liberal debauchery called San Francisco. At the pinnacle of Mercer’s list are cities like Vienna, Zurich, Auckland, Munich and Vancouver. In fact, of all the cities in the North American continent, the top four are all in Canada. Now that’s just embarrassing, eh?…Read The Rest Here…

 

The Educated, Professional Black Man and Dating

Found this article and though it encapsulated modern black professional dating, although it was published 2 years ago.

Hate to tell this guy, but even making substantially more than some professional black women I’ve gone out with – it can be difficult. I drive a modest car, having gotten out of the childhood stage of driving the high end cars a long time ago to impress anyone. Other than a job interview or meeting a new client for the first time, I don’t get chance to wear the nice suits anymore due to the “full time casual” nature of the tech industry. Don’t talk about the other homes or properties or possessions until things begin to go well, and avoid talking money. I rent a house to be near work. Have no intention of retiring off to shuffleboard city. Seems that even at my age, many black women are looking for Mr. Perfect – and the least imperfection derails things.

Met an attractive black woman a few weeks ago on a website who lived locally. After exchanging mails back and forth she asked for my real name. Obviously to do a background check, which is not that uncommon with professional women in DC. I suggested she look at my LinkedIn page instead, which discusses some of my work and for whom I worked for – and some of my professional relationships proving that. Told her I had worked in some places that require security clearances, and one which required ongoing background checks and random drug testing. Most people in this city know what that means. Ergo – no criminal background, decent credit, and no drugs or excess alcohol. Told her point blank that some of the work I have done cannot be discussed on an open forum, and as such isn’t going to be on the resume. Several reasons for that, one being under non-disclosure working for companies which don’t want certain financial or business transactions to be public, or a company operating in “Stealth Mode” prior to a public announcement.

She bailed apparently insulted that I knew her program.

 

Well-Traveled, Intelligent Black Man, 34, Seeks ‘Sista’ OK With Him Making Less Money

He’s got a degree. Check. A job. Check. Money. Well, that’s where Terrell Jermaine Starr’s dating story stops adding up.

BY: TERRELL JERMAINE STARR

When I tell my friends that the last time I had a girlfriend was during my freshman year in college in 1998, they respond with disbelief.

For them it’s bemusing to fathom that a man who is well-traveled, gainfully employed, bilingual, degreed, childless, not living in his mother’s basement and debt-free could go 16 years without being in a relationship and years at a time without having sex. What people don’t understand is that my income isn’t as high as many would expect, and it makes me feel insecure about how women may view my current professional station in life.

I only began working full time in my 30s; I spent all of my 20s traveling around Eastern Europe—mainly through Peace Corps, Fulbright and language study-abroad programs—and earning degrees. I consider myself a very late bloomer who has just recently realized I can make a living keystroking breaking-news stories and Brooklyn Renaissance-ing my way into a literary career. As intellectually fruitful as my 20s were, my worldly and academic sojourns did little for my bank account. All my education and travel were fully paid with scholarships, so I guess that means something.

But I wasn’t climbing any corporate ladders and adding zeros to my salary year after year during my 20s, like most women my age were doing, so I find myself financially incompatible. I can’t say that I’ve dated dozens of women who’ve told me as much, but my female friends have given me the impression that someone like me doesn’t bleep on their “He is dating, and perhaps marrying, material” radar.

Most of them are making six-figure salaries, or near that amount, and insist that their partners make at least as much. I’m a senior editor at a website—not an entry-level money earner, but I’m not making six figures, either, so I’m pretty much out of their league with regard to dating. Of course, I’m acutely aware of the fact that many black women have “dated and married down” economically, but I surmise they’ve grown weary of doing so. Complaints about men taking advantage of their financial status pervade most conversations I hear over why many women prefer to only date men who are their economic equals. For the record, I’d have no issue dating women who earn more than I do, and I’m not exclusively pursuing women with deep pockets, so don’t tweet me your foolishness.

When I took to Twitter several days ago to ask my female followers if they would date a man who earns less money than they do, all replied, “Yes.” In fact, many of them balked at my claims that I have a hard time dating because of my income. I’ve also been told that my background in Russian affairs and European wanderlust lead many black women to assume that I only date white women. To the contrary, I’m only interested in sistas. (At the egging on of my former boss, I wrote a funny piece about my type of woman called “Sophistiratchet” a few years ago that I encourage you to read, if you have a sense of humor.)

Most women are also shocked that I’ve gone as long as five years without sex. While I’m as sexual a being as any man, women aren’t disposable to me. I’ve never been able to engage in sexual relationships without establishing some emotional intimacy. Yes, such men do exist.

Some of you will quickly dismiss me and conclude that I’m penning this piece as a cheap attempt to evoke sympathy from female readers. That’s not the case. I’m writing about this because women have repeatedly asked why I, a man who wants to date and eventually marry, find it challenging to do so. There is, indeed, a swath of men in the dating pool who feel they are boxed into a space in which their incomes have yet to catch up with their professional statuses, thus making them less appealing.

For every woman who says she wouldn’t mind her partner making less money than she, there are just as many who do mind. Men like me who are professional late bloomers can conceivably find such dating pools nearly impossible to access when women at this age are beginning to think long term. And I repeat: I don’t have an issue with my financial status; it is something, however, that I find many women care about, and it makes me not even try to put myself out there at all because I feel I won’t measure up in their Excel dating-requirements spreadsheet.

You don’t hear us discussing it often because we’d have to admit to our fears of not feeling valued because we aren’t where we are “supposed to be in life.” Think about it: Thirty-four-year-old men aren’t supposed to be five years removed from an internship and expect to find a woman who will view them as potential relationship material. Most women my age have children and may see a man who makes less than they do as another mouth to feed. I’ve been told this, in so many words. Remember that society views me as “old” and “late in the game,” too. Being a man doesn’t make that any less challenging.

While I’m more than happy with myself, most women could care less that I speak several weird languages they’ll never understand, am a good person, have a promising writing career and can carry on a stimulating conversation, if they don’t find my income attractive. I’m not begrudging women who demand that their partners make as much as or more than they do. Most reasons I’ve heard are perfectly reasonable; money is very important. But this notion that I should have no issues dating is dismissive of all the points I’ve made.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that all high-income women fit into the dilemma I’ve described. I am saying that my background—sans income comparable to or more than that of my potential partner—doesn’t make me the automatic catch my female followers on Twitter claim that I am.

 

Teen Shake Up How New Jersey Counsels Teen Abuse Victims

Wow…Making it better for Teen abuse victims…

These Teens Just Made It A Lot Easier For New Jersey Kids To Get Counseling

When one young man was let down by the system, he decided things had to change.

It all started three years ago, when Jordan Thomas, then 16, decided he needed to talk to a counselor.

At the time, Thomas was experiencing emotional and physical abuse at home, and he wanted to talk to a professional. Because Thomas was a minor, New Jersey law said he needed the consent of a guardian to do so. But when Thomas asked his mother for permission, she said no.

“I have no idea why she would say no,” said Thomas, now a freshman at Rutgers University. “All I know is that she did say that.”

Thomas, now 19, was never able to get his mother’s permission, but his experience ignited in him a desire to fix the system. Working with his peers at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hudson County, Thomas helped fix the law that had stopped him from accessing mental health services.

Thomas and the BGCHC were the driving forces behind the Boys & Girls Clubs Keystone Law, which passed this month in New Jersey. Thanks to their efforts, New Jersey minors no longer need permission from a guardian to receive therapy.

Not every teen experiencing abuse is as lucky as Thomas, who had a support system of peers and adults in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hudson County, of which he was president in 2014. He ended up entering the foster care system just a few months after his request for counseling was rejected.

At the same time that Thomas was struggling to find help, the Keystone Club — the service branch of the BGCHC — was looking for ways to address the problem of teen suicide. In 2014, the National Keystone Project called on participants to address the issue. Jordan shared his story with Keystone members, leading others to speak up about their own experiences.

“A parent might not want to give consent to a kid seeking mental health services… because sometimes they might not want outside people to know what’s going on in their house,” said Damiya Critten, 19, a member of BGCHC’s Keystone Club. “They might say, ‘What happens in the house stays in the house.'”

The teens met with the family of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University student who took his own life in 2010 after being cyberbullied. They also met with state Assemblymen Carmelo Garcia and Raj Mukherji, who agreed to sponsor a bill on the topic. In October 2014, four members of the BGCHC testified before the New Jersey Legislature.

“[Thomas] ended his testimony saying that he easily could have become another teen suicide statistic had it not been for the Boys and Girls [Clubs] and the support he got here,” said Janet Wallach, director of program development and teen services at BGCHC. “But not every child in New Jersey has that support, and he wants to make sure there are not other young people in that situation.”

The teens said the two-year process of getting the bill passed was a lesson in civics for all of them….More…

 

Uncle Ben’s Best Sno’ Ho’ Impersonation

Caribou Barbie is known for nonsensical stream of (non)consciousness blathering in front of elderly male right wing fans who are stupider than she is (the Viagra generation).

Apparently the plan to resuscitate Uncle Ben’s rapidly collapsing campaign is to imitate Palin.

Uhhhhh…Uncle Ben…

“Putin” is not a country…

It is the world’s second most powerful superpower…

And while they make a lot of money on oil and gas…Their economy is still $2 Trillion a year – 9th largest in the world.

 

Faux News – “That Monkey Actress”

It is unbelievable the scum that Faux News trolls up to be their “guests”…

Vice co-founder and frequent Fox News guest Gavin McInnes refers to Jada Pinkett Smith as that “monkey actress”

Vice co-founder and frequent Fox News guest Gavin McInnes was attempting to praise his son’s verbal and intellectual dexterity on “The Gavin McInnes Show” earlier this week, but ended up revealing more about himself than his progeny.

“My son,” McInnes began, “says all this awesome shit and wife gets to enjoy him more than I do. He was watching some documentary about those monkeys that are most like us — they’re monogamous and cool and they wear suits and they go to work and they use umbrellas and they play cards.”

“They are the most human-acting apes,” he explained. “Anyway, my son’s watching it, and he’s eating popcorn, and he thinks he recognizes one of them from another movie.”

“He goes, ‘Oh, I like this,’” McInnes said with a lisp, adding that his son has one, so he’s simply making fun of him on a nationally syndicated radio program. “‘Oh, I like this monkey actress’ — which is what I said when Jada Pinkett Smith did her video about the Oscars.”

 

Cam Newton’s Historic Blindness

Cam Newton is a great quarterback, and he has led the Carolina Panthers to the Superbowl. He may wind up to be one of the best ever to play the position. Only time will tell.

Along the way, there has been some media flack about his touchdown dance and other sports related bar talk. To which he has responded …

“I’m an African-American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven’t seen nothing that they can compare me to,” Newton told The Charlotte Observer yesterday (January 27). 

Uhhhh Cam…Doug Williams ring a bell? The primary storyline surrounding Super Bowl XXII was that Washington’s Doug Williams was the first African-American quarterback ever to start in a NFL league championship game, let alone a Super Bowl. He became the first player in Super Bowl history to pass for four touchdowns in a single quarter, and four in a half. Williams was the first black starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl in 1988, and the only one until Russell Wilson won Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014. Just to jog your memory, Cam…

And Russell Wilson isn’t anyone’s slouch.

And he (Williams) did that on one good leg, after being injured in the first quarter. .

They ain’t scared because you are black, Cam. And you ain’t Doug Williams…Yet. A guy who played for years on some crappy Tamp Bay Teams with mediocre receivers until he was traded to he Redskins, and lit things up with what was then one of the best receiver corps in the league. And Doug went through weekly crap about black players “not being smart enough” to play the position, and left Washington after winning the Superbowl.

Cam Newton: ‘I’m an African-American Quarterback That May Scare a Lot of People’

The Carolina Panthers quarterback dropped hard truths during a recent interview. 

Even as he lead the Carolina Panthers on a steady march toward this year’s Super Bowl, star quarterback Cam Newton caught flack for his unapologetic self-assurance and penchant for celebratory “dabbing.” In a new interview, Newton spoke frankly about why he has gotten more scrutiny and criticism than most other NFL players.

“I’m an African-American quarterback that may scare a lot of people because they haven’t seen nothing that they can compare me to,” Newton told The Charlotte Observer yesterday (January 27). He then added, “People are going to judge and have their own opinion on certain things that I don’t have control over, nor does anybody else.”

Newton has faced this kind of criticism from journalists, commentators and football fans alike ever since he was drafted to the Panthers in 2011—all of it focused on behavior that doesn’t draw nearly as much scrutiny for White  players. One Seattle Seahawks fan even petitioned to ban Newton from CenturyLink Field, calling him “one of the most unprofessional, unsportsmanlike individual [sic] on the face of the planet.” We need not spell out the subtext behind much of this criticism.

Besides his legions of fans, Newton has an ally in Doug Williams, who in 1988 was first Black quarterback to play in the Super Bowl. Williams won the MVP award (for which Newton is considered a front-runner) during that game after leading theWashington NFL Team to a 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos—the same team that Newton and the Panthers will face in the 50th Super Bowl on February 7. Speaking to USA Today, Williams discussed the culture of denial surrounding criticsm of Newton:

“I’m not going to be the one who says what my thinking is, because sometimes it don’t matter what I think,” Williams said. “It ain’t going to matter what he thinks. Because at the end of the day you’ve got a lot of people denying [racism is behind the criticism of Newton], that that’s not true. Even if it’s true, they’re going to deny it.”

When Newton squares off against the Broncos’ veteran QB Peyton Manning in San Francisco, he will be only the sixth Black quarterback to start in the Super Bowl.

 

Minnesota Cop Encourages Public to Run Over BLM Protesters

Amazing!

Cop Tells Drivers to Run Over Black Lives Matter Protesters

“Don’t slow down for any of these idiots who try and block the street.”

A St. Paul, Minnesota police officer has been placed on administrative leave after allegedly telling drivers to run over Black Lives Matter protesters who planned to block traffic as part of a march on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Around 1 a.m. on Saturday, a Facebook user named “JM Roth” posted a comment on a Pioneer Press article about the scheduled protest that said: “Run them over. Keep traffic flowing and don’t slow down for any of these idiots who try and block the street.” The comment then suggested how drivers could legally justify hitting protesters with their cars:

Screenshot by Andrew Henderson, via St. Paul Pioneer Press

Andrew Henderson, a local activist who maintains the Minnesota Cop Block Facebook page, first noted and reported the comment, which has since been deleted, to the St. Paul Police Department. In phone conversations he recorded anduploaded to YouTube, Henderson told Saint Paul Police Department officials that the “JM Roth” account belonged to Sergeant Jeffrey M. Rothecker. Henderson said Rothecker had admitted in previous comments that he was “JM Roth.”

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief Thomas Smith have denounced the comment and announced that an investigation into the matter is underway. Senior Commander Shari Gray, the head of the department’s internal affairs unit, also met with Henderson on Sunday, according to the Pioneer Press.

“There is no room in the Saint Paul Police Department for employees who threaten members of the public,” Coleman said in a statement released on Monday. “If the allegation is true, we will take the strongest possible action allowed under law.”

The St. Paul Police Federation, the union for officers, is representing Rothecker,according to the Star Tribune.

The news comes one year after motorist Jeffrey P. Rice struck a teenage girl who was protesting outside a Minneapolis police station. The girl was part of a November 2014 demonstration that took place after a Ferguson, Missouri grand jury declined to indict the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. The girl suffered a minor leg injury. Last October, Rice, who is from St. Paul, pleaded guilty to a charge for failing to yield to a pedestrian. He was fined $575 and ordered to attend a driver’s education course….More Here…

 

Outdoor Afro

Analysis of visitor data has shown that black folks are among the lest likely to enjoy our National Parks system, and to engage in outdoor activities. Getting out and doing activities is one of the most important things in terms of long term health. Doesn’t men you have to zipline Grand Canyon or scale El Capitan – but moderate hiking has great cardio benefits. Not to mention the psychic benefits of just seeing something wonderful.

One of my hobbies for years has been Landscape Photography. Backpacking gear into the wilderness to photograph the scenery, wildlife, and beauty in the mountains, desert, or coastlines. Walking through the 2000 year old Old Grove trees in the Pacific Northwest can be a religious experience, as can the silence of the Desert. Many of these places are located within a few hours drive of a city – some are so remote only a few people even get to them a year.

 

This Woman Wants To Encourage More Black People To Embrace The Outdoors

“There’s something so dynamic about a forest environment,” she said

One woman wants to inspire more black people to participate in outdoor activities, so she created a network where “black people and nature meet.”

Rue Mapp is the founder of Outdoor Afro, an organization that encourages black people to embrace the outdoors and all the activities it has to offer.

“I found that in the nature experiences I had, I was far too often the only one who looked like me,” Mapp said in a video by Facebook Stories. “So I decided to do something about it.”

The nationwide network was created in 2009 and started out as a Facebook group Mapp made to help connect black nature-lovers everywhere. The social media platform and its offerings has become a useful tool for many organizations. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday that now one billion people are using Facebook Groups every month.

“Outdoor Afro is a perfect example of how people can use Facebook groups to build relationships around the things they care about,” Alex Deve, a product manager on Facebook Groups, said in a statement to HuffPost.

Since its launch, Outdoor Afro has grown significantly and now has over a dozen chapters across the country with more than 13,000 members. According to a 2015 report released by the Outdoor Foundation, 70 percent of people who participated in outdoor activities last year were white. Only 10 percent were black.

“National park visitorship, especially in more remote areas, can be as low as 1 percent African Americans,” Mapp said. “I just felt that there were these opportunities and lessons I was learning that more people could benefit from.”

Outdoor Afro has been able to reconnect black people with nature. It encourages black people to invest more in the planet by inviting them on outings such as nature trails and teaches them important lessons on conservation. Mapp said the work she is committed to has evolved beyond her wildest dreams.

“At the end of the day, this is about love and connecting [with] one another,” she said. “Connection is strength and the chance to be better, bigger, stronger and sustainable.”

The Bioblitz Dance – Outdoor Afro and the California Conservation Corps Dance. That is Rue Mapp on the lead in.

 

DeLoreans Back in Production

In another situation of those fiction over reality things – a company in Texas is again building DeLorean cars made famous by the movie “Back to the Future”.

Why…I have no idea. The original car had only a 2500cc engine producing 130 HP with manual fuel injection at 5500 RPM. This gave the car 0-60 times in the 8.5 to 9 second range, 1/4 mile times in 17.5 seconds and a advertised top speed of 130 MPH. As a comparison the Datsun (NIssan) ’83 350Zx car was capable of 0-60 times in 7 seconds and 15 seconds in the quarter, about the same as the bulked down ’83-85 L88 Corvette, which was a full 2-3 seconds slower than the 60’s models Corvettes. Which doesn’t mention the Jaguar XKE v12, the semi custom TVRs (which, due to a light fiberglass body were quick at the track), Toyota’s excellent Supra, and Mazda’s high revving RX7 which all competed in the same space. All of these cars were designed for the general market, instead of the decidedly better heeled market for Porsche, Maserati, and the other high end sports car manufacturers.

Ergo – you didn’t buy a DeLorean for performance.

Another very similar small car manufacturer which failed of the period was the Bricklin –

Delorean top, Bricklin on bottom

Look similar?

DeLoreans to go back to the future and into production

The DeLorean is going back to the future and into production.

We first saw the time machine three decades ago in the movie, “Back to the Future.” But the last time a DeLorean was built was about 35 years ago. Soon that will change at the DeLorean Motor Company in Humble.

“It’s fantastic. It is a game-changer for us. We’ve been wanting this to happen,” DeLorean CEO Stephen Wynne said. “That was a green light to go back into production. That was prohibited. It was against the law to do it.”

Wynne brought the DeLorean Motor Company to the Houston area in 1987. For the first time, the DeLorean will be manufactured on American soil.

Dozens of DeLoreans are at the Humble facility. Some are owned by the company but many are shipped there from around the world to be refurbished.

Wynne said the company will build replica 1982 DeLoreans under a low-volume manufacturing bill approved by the federal government. He estimates he has enough supplies in stock to build about 300 cars. He hopes to go from building one a month to one a week.

“It’s huge for us. It means we’re back as a car company again,” Wynne said.

You can buy a refurbished model for $45,000 to $55,000. Wynne hoped to sell the new ones for less than $100,000. The price will depend what modern engine he chooses.

“There’s no reason to change the appearance of the car. As we go into the program, we’ll decide what areas need to be freshened up,” Wynne said.

Wynne hoped to have the first car completed in early 2017.

 

Megyn Kelly Owns the Trump

Whose afraid of Faux News commentator Megyn Kelly?

Nobody it seems…Except the Trump!

Megyn owns his behind!

Trump Chickens Out!

Trump ‘Definitely Not’ Participating In Last GOP Debate Before Iowa

The GOP presidential candidates will face off Thursday in their final debate before next week’s Iowa caucuses — this time, without Donald Trump.

Fox News, which is hosting the event, announced on Tuesday which candidates made the cut for the primetime debate, which will begin at 9 p.m. EST.

Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski confirmed to the Washington Post on Tuesday that the GOP front-runner is “definitely not participating in the Fox News debate.”

In a statement, the campaign announced that Trump will hold his own separate event in Iowa to raise money for wounded veterans.

“Like running for office as an extremely successful person, this takes guts and it is the kind of mentality our country needs in order to Make America Great Again,” the campaign said.

Fox News issued a statement on Tuesday night that blasted the Trump campaign for making ridiculous ultimatums and threatening the reputation of anchor and debate moderator Megyn Kelly.

 

Nat Turner…”Birth of a Nation”.

Quite frankly, I would hold off on any “Winning the Oscar” predictions for this dramatization of the Nat Turner Rebellion. As any student of American History should know, the Nat Turner Rebellion was one of many acts of defiance and outright rebellion by slaves being held in bondage. Making the Southern Myth of “happy darkies down on the Plantation” utterly bankrupt.

The film has been a major hit at the Sundance Film Festival, whether that will carry through to larger commercial success dealing with this decidedly uncomfortable chapter in American History for the confederate flag waivers…Is yo be seen.

‘Birth of a Nation’: Sundance’s Record-Breaking Remedy to #OscarsSoWhite

Acquired for a Sundance Film Festival record $17.5 million, Nate Parker’s dramatization of Nat Turner’s slave rebellion will be a major Oscar contender in 2017.

Actor-director-producer Nate Parker made history by inking a landmark $17.5 million Sundance deal to sell his slavery drama The Birth of A Nation to Fox Searchlight, starting his 2017 Oscar campaign a full year early. The vibrant and lyrical portrait of the divisive African American hero is an incendiary inquiry into themes of racism and faith that still echo today.

A perfect storm of elements converged to make Parker’s pre-Civil War slavery biopic the most electrifying debut of this year. It began, of course, with the provocative true story of Turner, a slave and preacher turned rebel leader whose violent uprising left 60 white slave-owning men, women, and children slaughtered and has long occupied a morally ambiguous place in American history books.

Then, from Nat to Nate: Parker’s own seven-year quest to bring Turner’s story to the screen—boldly co-opting its title from D.W. Griffiths’s 1915 film, one of American cinema’s most famously racist “classics”—saw him quit acting for a year to finally make it happen after being discouraged time and again. In the end it took a village, as evidenced by end credits naming four production companies, over a dozen exec producers, and special thanks to folks like George Lucas and, curiously enough, Mel Gibson.

And third, the fortuitous confluence of timing that aligned The Birth of a Nation’s world premiere with peak industry fury over racial homogeny at next month’s Academy Awards. This year’s Oscars will be so white, but 2017 now already has its first Best Picture contender of color since 12 Years A Slave—not coincidentally, also about the ugly stain slavery left on America’s past.

As journalists scrambled to ask every marginally famous celebrity about the lack of black Oscar nominees this year in the snowy white-blanketed and predominantly white ski resort town of Park City, Utah, The Birth of a Nation felt all the more urgent and relevant. “If it doesn’t get nominated next year,” I heard a (Caucasian) man joke, cluelessly reaching for the zeitgeist while waiting for a shuttle at Sundance, “there could be an uprising!”

Some might dismiss the film’s hot buzz as merely a byproduct of the diversity crisis in Hollywood—particularly serendipitous timing for a movie directed, co-written, produced by, and starring an African American filmmaker, about the most despicable era for racial injustice in our country’s history. But it’s not so much the series of documented events depicted in The Birth of a Nation that earn it its resonance, as it is the stirring, soulful, and incendiary spirit that courses through its veins, anchored by an utterly extraordinary performance by Parker himself.

The real Turner was a slave and homegrown Baptist preacher famed for spreading the gospel in sermons to other slaves. He reported having religious visions and took a solar anomaly in the skies in August of 1831 as a sign from God to commence his bloody insurrection…Read The Rest Here…