We are getting fat…fast
December 4th 2007
Ever wondered why there are so many overweight kids compared to about 10 years ago? Does it just seem like people are getting fatter on average? This image below says it all…
Archive for the ‘Posts worth wasting 2 minutes on’ Category
Sperm Donor Has to Pay Child Support
December 3rd 2007
The title is misleading just as the articles I saw on this story. OK, some doctor from New York gave his sperm to a female resident so she and her “partner” could have a child. Supposedly, the donor was more than a donor though. He sent cards and gifts to the child while he lived near him for a few years. Then, his mother left to Oregon and he only had contact with child a few years over the past decade. The only problem is that the donor had his name placed on the childs (well…he is 18 years old now so I should say young adult) birth certificate.
I think that if you are going to do something like that then let it be anonomous. No contact or anything. But, he tried to play the game both ways so it is his fault that they are coming back to him for child support. The birth certificate says he is the father so that is that.
Even without genetic evidence, the man’s interactions with the child over the years had a patriarchal nature, said Jeffrey Herbst, an attorney who represents the mother in the lawsuit through a federal agreement called the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.
“It’s still a parental relationship,” Herbst said.
According to the man’s testimony, in the late 1980s he was a physician at the same Nassau County hospital where the child’s mother was a resident. After learning the woman and her female partner wanted to have a baby, the man donated his sperm and the woman gave birth on July 26, 1989. Married at the time, the man agreed that he would not have any rights or benefits in raising the child, but the verbal agreement was never put in writing, according to court documents.
Still, he took the unusual step of allowing his name to appear on the child’s birth certificate because he thought it was in the child’s “best interests that he would have an identity when he grew older,” he said in court documents.
Before the mother, her partner, and the child moved to Oregon in 1993, the man had contact with the child, according to court documents. He also sent the child money, gifts, and cards and letters signed “Dad” or “Daddy,” and spoke to him by phone about seven times in the past 15 years.
Black KKK?
November 28th 2007
Yesterday, NFL free-safety, Sean Taylor, passed from the massive blood loss to a major artery stemming from a gun shot to the leg. The body has two major arteries in each leg around the groin area. If one of those arteries were severed or punctured (like a gun shot wound would do) you can lose all of your blood within 5 minutes. It is a shame that this happened to him. He was a father, a very young man, and an outstanding player.
Jason Whitlock, a Kansas City journalist, is a contributor for foxsports and espn. He wrote an article that is just on point dealing with what just happened. The Black KKK, as he calls it, is just the ignorance of the black on black violence that black men are inflicting upon themselves. I usually don’t post an entire article but I feel this is a must read…
There’s a reason I call them the Black KKK. The pain, the fear and the destruction are all the same.
Someone who loved Sean Taylor is crying right now. The life they knew has been destroyed, an 18-month-old baby lost her father, and, if you’re a black man living in America, you’ve been reminded once again that your life is in constant jeopardy of violent death.
The Black KKK claimed another victim, a high-profile professional football player with a checkered past this time.
No, we don’t know for certain the circumstances surrounding Taylor’s death. I could very well be proven wrong for engaging in this sort of aggressive speculation. But it’s no different than if you saw a fat man fall to the ground clutching his chest. You’d assume a heart attack, and you’d know, no matter the cause, the man needed to lose weight.
Well, when shots are fired and a black man hits the pavement, there’s every statistical reason to believe another black man pulled the trigger. That’s not some negative, unfair stereotype. It’s a reality we’ve been living with, tolerating and rationalizing for far too long.
When the traditional, white KKK lynched, terrorized and intimidated black folks at a slower rate than its modern-day dark-skinned replacement, at least we had the good sense to be outraged and in no mood to contemplate rationalizations or be fooled by distractions.
Our new millennium strategy is to pray the Black KKK goes away or ignores us. How’s that working?
About as well as the attempt to shift attention away from this uniquely African-American crisis by focusing on an alleged injustice the white media allegedly perpetrated against Sean Taylor.
Within hours of his death, there was a story circulating that members of the black press were complaining that news outlets were disrespecting Taylor’s victimhood by reporting on his troubled past
No disrespect to Taylor, but he controlled the way he would be remembered by the way he lived. His immature, undisciplined behavior with his employer, his run-ins with law enforcement, which included allegedly threatening a man with a loaded gun, and the fact a vehicle he owned was once sprayed with bullets are all pertinent details when you’ve been murdered.
Marcellus Wiley, a former NFL player, made the radio circuit Wednesday, singing the tune that athletes are targets. That was his explanation for the murders of Taylor and Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams and the armed robberies of NBA players Antoine Walker and Eddy Curry.
Really?
Let’s cut through the bull(manure) and deal with reality. Black men are targets of black men. Period. Go check the coroner’s office and talk with a police detective. These bullets aren’t checking W-2s.
Rather than whine about white folks’ insensitivity or reserve a special place of sorrow for rich athletes, we’d be better served mustering the kind of outrage and courage it took in the 1950s and 1960s to stop the white KKK from hanging black men from trees.
But we don’t want to deal with ourselves. We take great joy in prescribing medicine to cure the hate in other people’s hearts. Meanwhile, our self-hatred, on full display for the world to see, remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant.
Our self-hatred has been set to music and reinforced by a pervasive culture that promotes a crab-in-barrel mentality.
You’re damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there’s no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration.
Of course there are other catalysts, but until we recapture the minds of black youth, convince them that it’s not OK to “super man dat ho” and end any and every dispute by “cocking on your bitch,” nothing will change.
Does a Soulja Boy want an education?
HBO did a fascinating documentary on Little Rock Central High School, the Arkansas school that required the National Guard so that nine black kids could attend in the 1950s. Fifty years later, the school is one of the nation’s best in terms of funding and educational opportunities. It’s 60 percent black and located in a poor black community.
Watch the documentary and ask yourself why nine poor kids in the ’50s risked their lives to get a good education and a thousand poor black kids today ignore the opportunity that is served to them on a platter.
Blame drugs, blame Ronald Reagan, blame George Bush, blame it on the rain or whatever. There’s only one group of people who can change the rotten, anti-education, pro-violence culture our kids have adopted. We have to do it.
According to reports, Sean Taylor had difficulty breaking free from the unsavory characters he associated with during his youth.
The “keepin’ it real” mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution. There’s always someone ready to tell you you’re selling out if you move away from the immature and dangerous activities you used to do, you’re selling out if you speak proper English, embrace education, dress like a grown man, do anything mainstream
The Black KKK is enforcing the same crippling standards as its parent organization. It wants to keep black men in their place — uneducated, outside the mainstream and six feet deep.
In all likelihood, the Black Klan and its mentality buried Sean Taylor, and any black man or boy reading this could be next.
My Hunt for a Nintendo Wii
November 23rd 2007
I have recently found out that the Nintendo Wii console is not an easy thing to buy. If you go on Ebay the going price for a new Wii (sports pack) is in the mid $400 range. There are a few used ones out there (Amazon and Ebay) but they are in the mid to high $300’s. All the local, major chains (Best Buy, Circuit City, Walmart, etc.), where the purchase price should be $250, would be easy but of course EVERYONE is out of stock. Then, I go to shopping.com and any online store with a Wii has it at a minimum of $530. That is just crazy.
I fell like Ahab…”Hast thou seen the White Whale Wii”. I cannot find one of these bad boys anywhere, to save my life. What is funny though is that my son, who I’m trying to buy this for, doesn’t even really want this. He insists that a PSP would be better but a 7 year old who has lost a gameboy, 6 of 12 gameboy games, and 2 backpacks just isn’t a good candidate for a $200 handheld.
This search may be me just reliving my child hood again. I remember one Christmas that I wanted the Power Glove. That glove was a piece of trash but I had to have it. So maybe if I find one I should just turn around and sell it for $150 more than I paid for it like everyone else on EBAY? Anyway, I plan to sit out front of Circuit City Sunday morning and try to get a voucher. They usually get in about 10 a week and on Sunday they give out vouchers (first come, first served) an hour before they open. Anyone with one is guaranteed a Wii.
Glassbooth.org - Tool for the “Lazy” Voter or Innovative Way to Access Political Information
November 11th 2007
Whenever I find something online I like to give credit where credit is due. I found a site called KillerStartups where they go out and review different “start-up” sites on the net. They have a rating system similar to Digg where users can rate how they think a site will perform. Anywho, one of their reviews was for a site called Glassbooth.
Glassbooth gives you an independent assessment of where you stand with all the 2008 candidates. I love sites like this because you just answer the questions on the issues and then you can see how your answers stack up to all the different people in the race. I took this right off of their “about” page:
Glassbooth is a nonprofit organization that is creating innovative ways to access political information. An informed and interested democracy is a powerful thing. As an organization acting in the public’s interest, we are very serious about our core principles:
IntegrityAll information used in the Glassbooth process is of the highest accuracy and integrity. No process is perfect though. Please get involved and shoot us an email if you want to add or comment on any of our content.
NonbiasWe believe Glassbooth’s success is contingent on nonbias in our process. We have worked closely with partners and experts to insure our language is in no way misleading. Again, feel free to email us with suggestions as to how we can improve.
NonpartisanGlassbooth does not affiliate with any political party, political organization, or ideology…we can’t and we won’t.
TransparencyAll information used by Glassbooth will be available for the public to view and scrutinize. We are not Google…we want you to know why your results are delivered the way they are.
InsightGlassbooth is always learning and adapting to how people are using media and interacting with information. We are constantly adding new features to the site so check back often.
One feature that I really liked about the site is that you can look at every issue for each candidate and see their stance for that issue. There is also a link to the transcript/article when they said it. I was actually pretty surprised on where I thought different candidates were on a position (e.g. I didn’t know McCain flip-flopped on abortion…he was originally pro-choice but now he is pro-life). Overall, I thought is was a good information site. Check it out and see where you stand. Later on in 2008 I may post how my survey turned out but I will say I lined up with the candidates. I will say I had a mixture of both parties have the highest comparison to me @ 70%.
To Learn Who You Are You Must Learn Your Weaknesses
November 10th 2007
I have always had a hard time saying NO. This is a problem that has carried over into many aspects of my life and it is rooted in a character trait that i have…i hate to disappoint people. Call it what you want but it is the way I am. Learning your skills and discovering who you are is not just about finding your strengths but also your weaknesses. And for me not being able to say ‘no’ sometimes is a weakness.
But, this is a common problem
“The disease to please” as it has been called is very common. I pulled an interesting article googling “saying no” and they broke it down the main reasons people can’t say NO:
Why is it that men and women can’t say no — whether to onerous tasks or to enjoyable activities they just don’t have time for? Townsend says the reasons fall into a few categories of fears:
• A fear that we will lose a relationship with the person who is asking us for something if we don’t say yes. “As humans, we are relational creatures, so this can be difficult for us,” Townsend says.
• A fear of someone’s anger. “Most of us want to avoid conflict, so we will give in, not realizing that we are training the person to treat us this way in the future, by them threatening to get mad at us,” he says.
• A fear of hurting people. “This causes more damage than you would think, because we are not treating the person like an adult,” Townsend says. So we end up getting angry or resentful, or show by our attitude that we really didn’t want to say yes.
I ran into a situation at work where I’m caught between two of my managers on a task…a specific task of me traveling from around now until sometime into early December. Just to fully describe the seen my office is kind of like the office in the movie “Office Space”. There are about as many managers as workers and on a given day you can get tasked 3 or 4 times to do the same thing. But, you still have only one “main” manager who you answer to so in most cases you just ignore what everyone tells you and listen to your one main manager. The only problem I have, and where I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, was that my direct manager is leaving in a month and the guy trying to get me to travel will probably be the person I report to once he leaves.
Continue Reading »
Before you get married, keep both eyes open, and after you marry, close one eye.
November 2nd 2007
An African proverb states, “Before you get married, keep both eyes open, and after you marry, close one eye.”
I received this in a forward today. You know I hate forwards but this had a really good message and I thought it was good to share. Enjoy.
Before you get involved and make a commitment to someone, don’t let lust, desperation, immaturity, ignorance, pressure from others or a low self-esteem make you blind to warning signs. Keep your eyes open, and don’t fool yourself that you can change someone or that what you see as faults aren’t really important.
Once you decide to commit to someone, over time their flaws, vulnerabilities, pet peeves, and differences will become more obvious. If you love your mate and want the relationship to grow and evolve, you’ve got to learn to close one eye and not let every little thing bother you. You and your mate have many different expectations, emotional needs, values, dreams, weaknesses, and strengths. You are two unique individuals who have decided to share a life together.
Neither of you are perfect, but are you perfect for each other? Do you bring out the best of each other? Do you compliment and compromise with each other, or do you compete, compare, and control? What do you bring to the relationship? Do you bring past relationships, past hurt, past mistrust, past pain?
You can’t take someone to the altar to alter him or her. You can’t make someone love you or make someone stay. If you develop
self-esteem, spiritual discernment, and “a life”, you won’t find yourself making someone else responsible for your happiness or responsible for your pain.
Manipulation, control, jealousy, neediness, and selfishness are not the ingredients of a thriving, healthy, loving and lasting relationship.
Seeking status, sex, wealth, and security are the wrong reasons to be in a relationship.
What keeps a relationship strong? Communication, intimacy, trust, a sense of humor, sharing household tasks, some getaway time without business or children and daily exchanges (a meal, a shared activity, a hug, a call, a touch, a note). Leave a nice message on their voicemail or send a nice email. Sharing common goals and interests.
Growth is important. Grow together, not away from each other, giving each other space to grow without feeling insecure. Allow your mate to have outside interest. You can’t always be together. Give each other a sense of belonging and assurances of commitment. Don’t try to control one another.
Learn each other’s family situation. Respect his or her parents regardless.
Don’t put pressure on each other for material goods. Remember for richer or for poorer.
If these qualities are missing, the relationship will erode as resentment, withdrawal, abuse, neglect, dishonesty, and pain replace the passion.
“Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.” The grass withers, the flowers fades, but the word of God stands forever.
Isaiah 40:8 - Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight.
Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary. The difference between ‘United’ and ‘Untied’ is where you put the i. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
From Africa to Haiti to America - The Spread of HIV
October 30th 2007
This week’s online publication for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has is a new article describing the origins of the HIV virus. Michael Worobey, PhD from University of Arizona, and his team basically deduce that the HIV strain that is widespread in America spread from Central Africa to Haiti by Haitian emigrants working in Congo.
It seems that the basic theory is that the virus went from the animal population (chimps) to humans in Africa, developed into different strains of the virus, and made it’s way through the majority of the world through Haiti. There are two additional theories that carry on the story: a) Some of these infected migrants made their way to Miami and introduced it to America there or b) homosexual sex travelers went to Haiti and Trindad, caught the virus and spread it through the homosexual community in America.
This is an abstract of the original article:
The Emergence of HIV/AIDS in the Americas and Beyond
Gilbert MTP, Rambaut A, Wlasiuk G, Spira TJ, Pitchenik AE & Worobey M
(2007) PNAS In pressHIV-1 group M subtype B was the first human immunodeficiency virus discovered and is the predominant variant of AIDS virus in most countries outside of sub-Saharan Africa. However, the circumstances of its origin and emergence remain unresolved. Here we propose a geographic sequence and timeline for the origin of subtype B and the emergence of pandemic HIV/AIDS out of Africa. Using HIV-1 gene sequences recovered from archival samples from some of the earliest known Haitian AIDS patients, we find that subtype B likely moved from Africa to Haiti in or around 1966 [1962-1970] then spread there for some years before successfully dispersing elsewhere. A ?pandemic? clade, encompassing the vast majority of non-Haitian subtype B infections in the US and elsewhere around the world, subsequently emerged after a single migration of the virus out of Haiti in or around 1969 [1966-1972]. Haiti appears to have the oldest HIV/AIDS epidemic outside sub-Saharan Africa and the most genetically diverse subtype B epidemic, which might present challenges for HIV-1 vaccine design and testing. The emergence of the pandemic variant of subtype B was an important turning point in the history of AIDS but its spread was likely driven by ecological rather than evolutionary factors. Our results suggest that HIV-1 circulated cryptically in the US for approximately twelve years before the recognition of AIDS in 1981.
Rant on the Red Sox…
October 29th 2007
First, let me say, congratulations to the Boston Red Sox! As you know, they are the World Series Champions. On the field, you can’t take anything from them. It’s their off the field actions that has me a little perturbed. Am I the only one who was annoyed by Red Sox players wearing goggles while popping champagne to celebrate their victory? Unless it’s a condom, putting on protective gear to celebrate seems, well a little lame. This time old tradition needs to be buried along side the Babe Ruth curse.
KFC…I don’t like what you think of the black family!
October 25th 2007
Take a look at these 2 commercials and what sticks out the most?
Old School:
New School:
Anything catch your attention about the commercials. Of course the old commercial is corny but did you notice the difference in the families? Where is the father in the new family?
When I saw this on TV I got a little mad and said to myself. “Is it just the norm now to depict the black family as a single mother household?” “Have you ever seen an advertisement with any family sitting at the dinner table and it is not a traditional family unit?” But, I guess this is the new reality of how the black family is perceived. The statistics also don’t lie because we have so many children born out of wedlock. It is a subtle message but sometimes the truth hurts…
-
Sponsors
