The Institute

Watch "Hot Ghetto Mess" On BET

I just posted something on Acton's blog about a new show called "Hot Ghetto Mess."

The Washington Post just ran a story on it:

Since 2004, [Jam Donaldson’s] Web site, http://Hotghettomess.com, has featured a motley assortment of gangbangers, hip-hop poseurs and strutting hoochie mamas, set off by quotes and comments that suggest Donaldson’s disapproval. The featured “Mess of the Month” for June is an unnamed plus-size woman wearing a halter top split almost to her navel. Her accessories are arm and chest tattoos and an oversize necklace with a cross. The caption beneath her photo is a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “Nothing in [all] the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

[The show] features video clips of young African Americans (as well as folks of the Caucasianpersuasion) engaged in various acts of idiocy (random street brawls, gratuitous booty-shaking, etc.). It also puts cultural ignorance on display (people are asked in man-on-the-street interviews whether they know what “NAACP” stands for; they don’t). The tone, Donaldson says, is more or less in keeping with the same finger-wagging critique embedded in the Web site’s slogan: “We Got to Do Better.”

www.hotghettomess.com

Fellas, I don't even know what to say anymore.

Little Miss Sunshine--I Will Own This Movie; Now On "Favorites List"

Fellas, Little Miss Sunshine is amazing. It's so real at times it's scary. I totally balled watching the scene above (if you've seen the movie please don't give it away in the comments section below).

The sound track is amazing as well. I don't know what else to say. It was that good. You gotta see this.

Reviews welcome below:

18-Year-Old Enlisted To Prove His Masculinity, Got Killed Iraq July 14th

From CNN:

Army Spc. Christopher D. Kube was memorialized Thursday in a packed theater at this outpost in east Baghdad. Another fallen soldier. . .

Army Spc. Christopher Kube needed his parents' permission when he enlisted at age 17.He was 18. He was a newlywed.

He was killed on July 14, eight months after he arrived in Iraq on a deployment that made him nervous from the start, as one fellow soldier remembered. Back at his home station, Fort Carson, Colorado, he drew attention for being so young, so short, so slight and so cheerful.

"When I saw him I asked, `How old are you, 10?"' recalled his platoon sergeant, Staff Sgt. Eugenie Byron-Griffin. "`What are you doing here? You're a baby.' He looked me straight in my eye, with his chest poked out like he does, and he said, `I'm 17, and I ain't no baby. I'm a man."'

Tears flowing, she added: "Everyone in the unit used to mess with him because he was so small. And almost always he would fight hard to prove his manhood. Like when he purchased his first vehicle and bragged about how little he paid for it."

Fellas, this story was tough to read. Very tough.

Waste Facilities Target Minority Neighborhoods? White, suburbanites have cleaner environs, according to Bullard

If you don't live near racial minorities you have another unarticulated reason to be glad: your environment's probably cleaner.

From CNN:

As he surveys the nation's landfills, chemical plants, waste facilities, and smelters, Robert Bullard sees an insidious form of institutional racism.

Robert Bullard is the director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.

"When you look at the neighborhoods that are where you have a lot of different waste facilities... the people who live closest are oftentimes the most vulnerable people who have the fewest resources to escape neighborhoods because of residential segregation, housing discrimination, and limited incomes," said Bullard, a professor at Georgia's Clark Atlanta University and the director of that university's Environmental Justice Resource Center.

"Just because you're poor, just because you live physically on the wrong 'side of the track' doesn't mean that you should be dumped on."

Those people are predominantly minorities, Bullard said. In fact, more than half of the 9 million people living within two miles of the nation's hazardous waste facilities are minorities, according to "Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism," a recent report that Bullard co-wrote.

Wow.

"Dad Cheated On Mom" Should I Have a Relationship With Him? (and How To Stop Divorce)

Recently, I was talking to one of the kids at church who's Dad left the family for another woman. This kid said that he wanted to have a relationship with his dad but it was hard and awkward because of what the man did to their family. This high school student was deciding if he should have a relationship with his dad at all. Whew, tough. I had no profound words for him. I've had this conversation in nearly every church I've ever done youth work for (except for one very large black baptist church that seemed to have an extremely low divorce rate).

Living in a bad marriage or being a child-victim of divorce must be one of the most brutally painful things a person can live through. I long for the day when I can point my unbelieving friends to marriages at church as a possible model. There seems to be a few extremes: the puritan/Amish type family, the cultural Christian family, the luke-warm/laissez fair family, and "the Mom who's really the father" family--all can produce really jacked-up kids. I have seen a few families functioning well, not perfectly, with kids that love Jesus (and love the neighbors, including unbelievers of multiple races and economic classes as equals) but it wasn't Puritanical at all. They never did family devotions and stuff like that or sent their kids to Christian school.

I recently saw one of the myspace pages for a girl (now in her 20s) that I taught at a Calvinistic Christian school many years ago. I almost cried. She could easily be friends with Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears in every sense of the word. Her dad's ordained.

Years ago, I was told that the only good model for family was the Puritanical one. Is that right? What about the ancient Jewish one, Greek, Italian, Spanish, African, Asian, etc? I dunno. . .

Hey, I saw this list in stop-divorce-now.com advertised on CNN's website. This list seems odd but it's suppose to keep your spouse from walking out. The site offers the magic book that gives the following wisdom:

(1) What to say to your lover if you think they have been unfaithful.

(2) The exact 17 words to say if you discover your mate is going to move out.

(3) What to buy at a drug store in the "baby" section that will totally win your mate back. It's a device so powerful you'll keep it around the house all the time.

(4) How to use your radio to make a "cheating" spouse forsake the affair and be devoted to you.

(5) The "grocery list" you should make to get your mate "addicted" to you.

(6) The "Two Month Trick" one woman used to fall head-over-heels in love with her husband whom she previously hated.

(7) Why you should not listen to most so-called marriage therapists.

(8) How to use the 80/20 rule to make your lover feel totally bonded to you.

(9) The 3 movies you should watch that will reveal the most powerful love secrets ever discovered. (Hint: It's not what you think.)

(10) How to recognize your lover's hidden desires and longings that will make it so that they never leave you.

(11) Don't write a love letter. Don't buy them another gift. Don't fix their car. Don't fix them breakfast... UNTIL you know the addictive power of getting them hooked on THIS.

There's more:

You Can Fake Like You Live In Miami

Even though you can't live in one of the coolest cities in America (Miami) with a huge population of Cubans, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans, you can listen to salsa, merengue, bachata, and cha-cha atLa Kalle 98.3 FM. That station has a live stream. It's mostly salsa and amazing stuff.

I've got to find the Puerto Ricans in my town or I'm gonna loose it. I'm seriously thinking about contacting the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce to try to create a special program to attract Puerto Ricans to St. Louis. A city without a large population of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans is one word: aburrido!

Miami's amazing!!

Cuidate!

Teen Sex On The Decline, Yeah Right!

The New York Times today ran an Associated Press story reporting that teenage sex rates have hit a new low. This is good news. The teenage birth-rate has hit a record low as well.

In 2005, 47 percent of high school students — 6.7 million — reported having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 percent in 1991. The rate of those who reported having had sex had remained the same since 2003.

Of those who reported having had sex during a three-month period in 2005, 63 percent — about 9 million — said they used condoms. That is an increase from the 46 percent reported in 1991.

The teenage birth rate in 2005, the report said, was 21 per 1,000 young women ages 15 to 17 — an all-time low. The rate in 1991 was 39 births per 1,000 teenagers.

However, there may be other factors that mask the fact that teenage sexual activity hasn't really changed at all.

(1) Teenage birth rates are lower because more and more teens have easy access to abortion and birth-control. There is no social stigma assigned to being a sexually active or pregnant teenager and baby-boomer parents have no scruples about encouraging abortion and birth-control for kids, unlike any other generation of parents in American history. This is a moral problem.

(2) Teens have redefined what constitutes as sex. While the rates of intercourse may have declined the study leaves unanswered questions about the rates of other forms of sexual activity including oral sex, pornography, etc. "Hooking up" can include all sorts of sexual activity that is not specifically intercourse. The myth, of course, is that only intercourse negatively affects teenagers psychological, emotionally, and spiritually.

The Washington Post reports that nearly half of all teens engage in oral sex.

I discuss it here more at Acton.

More thoughts?

Racially Segregated Schools Aren't The Problem, Low-Performing Schools Are (Kozol/NY Times Gets It Wrong Again)

At Acton I posted a response to Jonathan Kozol's column in the New York Times regarding the Supreme Court's brilliant decision to end desegregation programs.

For some reason the elites think that schools made up of blacks and Latinos, predominantly, is a problem. It's not. Blacks and Latinos don't need to be around white people in order to get a great education.

I argued this five years ago and yesterday (again).

Hail Robert Dabney? Is This Reformed Presbyterianism Virginia Style?

Photo courtesy of our friends at Spirit, Water, Blood.

I keep trying to find the guys who are trying to route this juxtaposition out of American reformed circles for good--beyond the occasional document, comment, or lip service but the "grassroots" guys actually doing things on the "streets" in the South (or maybe on the golf courses). When I search I only seem to come across PC-USA stuff. Am I looking in the wrong places? Any ideas on where I can find the websites, sermons, or articles of the southern guys who are risking their own reputations and church political(power) ambitions on this issue? More PC-USA stuff here at the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns (ACREC). Any ideas?

Remember Dabney's A Defense of Virginia and The South

Will The National League Ever Win the All-Star Game Ever Again?

Sports Illustrated reports on the game:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- On a night of tricky hops, Ichiro Suzuki and the American League also bounced back to win.

Instead of a Barry Bonds splash shot, the defining hit at Tuesday's All-Star game was Suzuki's inside-the-park home run, the first in the game's history.

Suzuki lined a go-ahead, two-run drive off the right-field wall in the fifth inning, Carl Crawford and Victor Martinez later hit conventional shots and the Americans made it 10 straight over the Nationals, holding on for a 5-4 victory.

BTW, what do you guys think about the "home-field advantage" for the World Series being based on the outcome of this game? Personally, I think it's stupid.

Thoughts?

Are Christian School Teachers Christians?

A Pentecostal dude and his wife questioned whether or not I was a Christian at a wedding I recently attended in Philadelphia.

After telling him that I was the groom's 9th-grade Bible teacher at a (Reformed Presbyterian) Christian school (that his friend actually attended) and after telling him that I've done some teaching at the seminary level, he looked at me dead in the eye and asked, "so are you a Christian?"

Then his wife chimed in to tell a story of a men they've known who knew the Bible in-and-out but weren't Christians. This guy said that some people just studied the Bible for "religious purposes" and didn't actually believe it. While this is true given the fact that this wedding was held at an old-school, dispensational, arminian church (see I'm ecumenical), I was taken back a little.

Am I a Christian? Am I a what? I wish I could tell you that he was joking. I'm not sure I convinced him. This would be like asking me if I liked teaching, or breathing, or french fries, or something like that.

There are so many mean things I thought about saying to him later because of his church background (which he made a point to tell me) but my only response was, "yes."

NAACP Holds Funeral For The N-Word, So?

I blogged about it on Acton's site, suggesting they should bury more words and phrases like, "it's because of racism."

Check it out here.

Sorry About The Non-Postings--I just bought one of these

Friends, I'm totally swamped right now. I just moved into a one of those house things (like the one pictured above) and I'm totally climbing out of boxes and trying to figure out where to put stuff. I've got 100 million little decisions to make. It's about to drive me batty. UUUgghhhh!

I don't have the internet at home yet so I haven't been blogging but hopefully I'll be up and running soon after my trip to Philly July 5-9.

Peace and Soul!

Supreme Court Strikes Down Decorating Public Schools Like Racial Christmas Trees

I talk about today's Supreme Court decision at the Acton blog.

Tonight, Live, 311 & Matisyahu--In St. Louis--I'm There!!

Tonight I'll be watching 311 & Matisyahu live! I've got GREAT, GREAT seats too. I was in line 8 minutes after the tickets went on sale.

Woot, woot!

New York Times Reports That 17 to 29-year-olds lean left politically

I posted it here at Acton's blog. From the article:

More than half of Americans ages 17 to 29 — 54 percent — say they intend to vote for a Democrat for president in 2008. They share with the public at large a negative view of President Bush, who has a 28 percent approval rating with this group, and of the Republican Party. They hold a markedly more positive view of Democrats than they do of Republicans.

Forty-four percent said they believed that same-sex couples should be permitted to get married, compared with 28 percent of the public at large. They are more likely than their elders to support the legalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Tiger Woods And His Wife Now Have A Daughter, Should He Retire From Golf?

At Tigerwoods.com you can catch the shots of Tiger's new kid: Sam Alexis Woods.

I wonder how this is going to change how he trains/practices/plays, etc. He's on the road constantly. Practices hours and hours per day. Pro golf marriages don't have the best histories (Fred Couples, John Daly, etc.).

How is he going to do this? I do give him props for missing the Buick Open to stay at home with the fam.

Lake Tahoe Fires--Can You Imagine Your Housing Burning Down? What would you try to save?

The remains of a house that burned up in Meyers, Calif., is seen Monday morning, June 25, 2007 during a wildfire. (AP / Paul Sakuma)

State of emergency declared for Lake Tahoe area

Associated Press

MEYERS, Calif. -- California officials declared a state of emergency Monday in the area near Lake Tahoe where firefighters battled a raging forest fire that has destroyed 225 buildings and forced the evacuation of hundreds more.

I can't imagine this. Here are the top things I would save. (1) Pictures and (2) My laptop. You?

New Book--Rishistan:A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich

Written by Robert Frank

* Category: Business & Economics; Social Science
* Format: Hardcover, 288 pages

Get the book at Amazon.

About this book:

The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through “Richistan” entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own “arborists.” They’re also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.

Richistan is like the best travel writing, full of colorful and interesting stories providing insights into exotic locales. Robert Frank has been loitering on the docks of yacht marinas, pestering his way into charity balls, and schmoozing with real estate agents selling mega-houses to capture the story of the twenty-first century’s nouveau riche:

House-training the rich. People with new wealth have to be taught how to act like, well, proper rich people. Just in the nick of time, there’s been a boom in the number of newly trained butlers—“household managers”—who will serve just the right cabernet when a Richistani’s new buddies from Palm Beach stop by.

“My boat is bigger than your boat.” Only in Richistan would a 100-foot-boat be considered a dinghy. . .[more below]