I’ll admit it. I really need to lose weight. I am back on the “vegetarian” bandwagon and really cutting back on fried foods, refined sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.

The reason, beside my personal health, is that of my son. My eating habits become his eating habits and I don’t want a kid doomed to a life and health problems associated with obesity.

I go out to eat and see no shortage of people who are severely overweight. I used to wonder why foreigners would call Americans “fat” but, when I got off my butt, stopped watching so much TV and actually saw for myself, I noticed that Americans are fat. TV doesn’t have a lot of shows with fat people as central characters so, it’s easy to fall under an illusion that this is not the issue.

But, let’s face it, we can get a day’s fat from one burger and a day’s calories from one meal so, it’s no small wonder why we’re in the shape we’re in.

Now, a report from a study performed at Johns Hopkins University should send up red flags for us all. It predicts that, by 2015, a full 75% of all adult Americans will be overweight.

As black folks, we should be especially concern because, of the following:

An alarming 80 percent of black women aged 40 or over are overweight and 50 percent are obese.

While it doesn’t specifically refer to black men, trust me, too many of us are “big-boned”, as well.

So, black folks, let work on losing that middle. Our lives may depend on it.

Popularity: 21% [?]

You know what gets old? Republican double-standards. Do you remember when Republicans would harp on something called “personal responsibility?” It’s a simple and sound concept, each person is responsible for his/her own condition. On a certain level, even a person as liberal as myself can agree with it. However, especially over the last 6+ years, I have noticed that it’s no more than a cynical game played by those on the right. It looks good on bumper stickers and campaign literature but, is sorely lacking in their day-to-day political (and, in some cases, personal) lives.

That brings me to the Iraq War Occupation. This was started, and subsequently mismanaged, by a Republican administration. Though too many Democrats went along with the stupidity initially, it was a Republican-led Congress that allowed this mess to proceed with no oversight, despite that being their duty.

Now, into the 5th year of a quagmire that we were initially told would not last more than 6 months, would not result in significant U.S. casualties and would cost hundreds of billions less than it has, Republican leadership and their mouthpieces are calling for personal responsibility. Oh, it’s not a call for Bush and his apologists who misled the public and ineptly handled their prosecution of a war to accept the blame for their actions. Instead they blame people who they really think are responsible — critics.

So, what to they do? They have lapdogs like Thomas Sowell who will write hit pieces, basically saying that oversight of Bush’s actions in Iraq is harming our efforts there.

Sowell, and his ilk, forget that there are people who actually remember things like:

• The mission keeps changing. Remember when it was to find weapons of mass destruction or to make Iraq the shining example of democracy in the Middle East or the liberate the people of Iraq? What’s the mission now? I believe it is supposedly to fight al Qaeda, which brings me to…

• Bush and Co. ignored the threat of an insurgency and failed to anticipate the possibility of al Qaeda in Iraq. The Bush war planners were told by General Eric Shinseki that they would need about 500,000 troops to be successful in Iraq. Just look at this excerpt exchange between Senator Carl Levin and General Shinseki during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on February 25, 2003:

Sen. CARL LEVIN (D), Michigan: General Shinseki, could you give us some idea as to the magnitude of the Army’s force requirement for an occupation of Iraq, following a successful completion of the war?

Gen. ERIC SHINSEKI, Army Chief of Staff, ‘98-’03: In specific numbers, I would have to rely on combatant commander’s exact requirements. But I think–

Sen. CARL LEVIN: How about a range?

Gen. ERIC SHINSEKI: I would say that what’s been mobilized to this point, something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers, are probably, a– you know, figure that would be required. We’re talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes significant ground force presence.

Read More… »

Popularity: 13% [?]

Sphere: Related Content

I love how Republicans like to cheerlead from the sidelines on Iraq but, when asked to get in the game, they find all types of convenient excuses.

Max Blumenthal exposes they hypocrisy of the next generation of Republican “leaders”.

Also, check out the idiocy as they speak on abortion, gay marriage, etc. Sadly, it’s not youth. It’s the stupidity they received from people old enough to know better.

Popularity: 30% [?]

Sorry that I haven’t been posting much lately but, I have a good excuse.  My wife and I are looking into fostering (and hopefully adopting) a black child.  So, we are busy turning our house upside-down in preparation.  This means that the spare bedroom that used to be my “office” is gone (my biological son called dibs on it) and I had to relocate to a corner in the family room.  But, in the end, I believe this to be worth it.

You know, it’s funny how people react when you tell them what you’re looking to do.  They look at you like you’re some saint.  I ask them not to put me up that high. My wife and I aren’t “saints” — we’re two people that want another child.

This is something that we have talked about for years.  You see, about 7 years ago, my wife discovered she was adopted.  She found out by going through some of her mother’s papers after she passed.  Though shocking, it was by no means devastating.  In fact, she realized that she was lacking for nothing, especially love, as she was raised by two parents who instilled in her good moral values and a strong work ethic.  Thanks to her upbringing, she has a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s in Education and, hopefully, will one day have her doctorate.  Not bad parenting work for a truck driver and a housewife.

So, knowing the good that can come from adoption, we are looking to bring another child into our lives.  In our opinion, there are too many black children being bounced around here in “the system” for us to go looking for private domestic adoption or international adoption. Not that there’s anything wrong with going that route — we just chose a different one. We fully expect challenges and know from having a child of our own already that it’s hard work.   But, like I said, I believe it’s worth it.

Wish us luck!

Popularity: 17% [?]

This is a prime example of how to exacerbate a situation.

Across the country, police are cracking down on gangs. Good, right? However, the methods of enforcement are actually creating stronger gangs.

It seems that by locking up young people, particularly those as young as 12, for extended prison sentences, is putting them into situations where they can interact with other gang members and actually form stronger gang allegiances.

This is based on a report today from the Justice Policy Institute, a D.C. think tank.

While critics call the findings as coddling criminals, the report actually deals with the need to address the root causes of why people join gangs:

Arthur Lurigio, other academics and gang intervention workers have echoed elements of the report that found gangs need to be viewed as a symptom of other problems in poor communities, such as violence, teen pregnancy, drug abuse and unemployment.

The report says Los Angeles and Chicago are losing the war on gangs because they focus on law enforcement and are short on intervention.

Sadly, reports like this will be placed on the back burner until we get people in positions of power who are more interesting than treating the disease than the symptoms.

Popularity: 33% [?]

“Unreal” and “You’re a Queen” from the album Hood Treason

If you don’t have it, get this album! This is what hip-hop’s been needing for too long.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Troy Davis has been on death row for 18 years, convicted of killing a police officer in 1989. Yesterday, he was set to die but, was spared at the last minute by a 90-day stay of execution.

90 days may be enough time to review if Georgia was about to execute the wrong man.

I don’t know anything about this case so, I can’t say if he’s innocent or guilty but, having seen so many stories about men (most of them black) who have spent decades in prison, only to be found innocent of the crime that sent them to prison, I think that getting down to the truth is important.

This stay was not without merit. It comes after nine eyewitnesses came forward to say they were pressured by police to identify Troy Davis as the killer. Other witnesses say that they saw another man commit the crime.

So, it could be very likely that Davis had nothing to do with the killing at all and he would lose his life based on the actions overzealous cops and prosecutors.

I am not against the death penalty but, I am against killing the wrong person. So, if we need to put the death penalty on “pause”, so to speak, while we fix the system, that would be fine by me.

Popularity: 11% [?]

If you believe former chairman of the Roger Williams University, Ralph Papitto, this is what happened.

Pappito was a board member for nearly 40 years so, I can only imagine how he might have used his position to make it harder to recruit black students and staff. I say that because last May, when the board met, there was a heated discussion on the university’s difficulty in recruiting black people to the school.

Then it happened.

Barbara Roberts, then a board member, said Papitto became irate when he discussed pressures to make the board more diverse, at one point using the slur to refer to black candidates.

She said he then told the board he knew he couldn’t say that because of Don Imus, the radio host who was fired after referring to Rutgers University women’s basketball team members as “nappy-headed hos.”

“There was, like, this complete and utter silence, and I was shocked beyond belief and very angry,” Roberts said.

Papitto has given the school at least $7 million, and his name is on the law school, the only one in Rhode Island.

He said he had never used the term before.

“The first time I heard it was on television and then rap music or something,” Papitto told WPRO.

Awww…hell no. You’ve never used the word before and your old a$$ first heard it while listening to rap? Please stop. There’s no fool like an old fool. The sad part is that he’s been able to hold this attitude while overseeing the direction of an institution of higher learning. This says a lot about Roger Williams University.

Popularity: 45% [?]

Is racism a public health problem? Granted, for many years, some have tried to get racism (as in being racist) categorized as a mental condition but, this time, the question is whether or not being the recipient of racist treatment puts one a risk for health ailments.

There is much controversy and dispute but, some researchers are looking into whether or not the stresses of dealing with such treatment are manifesting themselves in the form of physical ailments.

Consider the following:

The burgeoning research comes at a time when lawmakers and government officials are increasingly focused on the problem of racial disparities in health. African-Americans today, despite a half century of economic and social progress since the civil rights movement, face a higher risk than any other racial group of dying from heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and hypertension. In the United States, affluent blacks suffer, on average, more health problems than the poorest whites. Spurred by statistics like these, dozens of states and cities have been passing legislation intended to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health.

…

Critics of the new research tying racism directly to disease have charged that it is flawed because one cannot objectively measure “racial discrimination.” But the science has grown more sophisticated, allowing investigators to measure people’s experiences with prejudice more precisely. And its proponents argue that the sheer breadth of the work suggests the conclusions are important. Most of the investigations have been done in the United States, but a growing body of literature originates elsewhere — from Finland and Ireland to South Africa and New Zealand. These studies have found connections between racism and physical health in populations ranging from Brazil’s African-descended citizens to black women in the Netherlands who had immigrated from the former Dutch colony of Suriname.

“Across multiple societies, you’re finding similar kinds of relationships,” said David Williams, a sociologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. “There is a phenomenon here that is quite robust.”

For decades, experts have agreed that racial disparities in health spring from pervasive social and institutional forces. The scientific literature has linked higher rates of death and disease in American blacks to such “social determinants” as residential segregation, environmental waste, joblessness, unsafe housing, targeted marketing of alcohol and cigarettes, and other inequities.

So, are race and health tied more closely than we think? Research just might prove it so.

Popularity: 22% [?]

So, the Republicans want the black vote but, guess how many Republican candidates showed up for the NAACP Republican forum? Is that Tom Tancreado standing there by himself?

Popularity: 14% [?]