The Black Informant

‘Ex-Gay’ Controversy Mars Gospel Concert Tour for Obama

By Randy Hall

CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor

[Excerpted]

[...]

However, Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), told Cybercast News Service on Friday that such activities by homosexual activists “demonstrates a disregard for diversity and a refusal to respect a basic human right to dignity and self-determination.”

“Ex-gays have the same right to participate in the political process as other Americans and should not have to endure this type of abuse because they chose to leave homosexuality,” Griggs stated.

While homosexual advocacy groups “demand hate crimes laws and sexual orientation non-discrimination legislation,” they would deny the same protections to ex-gays, which she called “irrational behavior towards those who have overcome unwanted same-sex attractions.”

Griggs also called it ironic that homosexual activists — who often compare their efforts to those of the African-American civil rights movement — “have turned against African-Americans who no longer want to engage in homosexuality.”

“Yet many in the African-American community, especially black churches, support the ex-gay community,” she stated. “PFOX has spoken at black churches and exhibited at African-American conferences, including the NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus.”

As a result, Griggs urged homosexual organizations to show the same kind of compassion and acceptance of ex-gays that African-Americans have. “Gay groups must stop promoting discrimination against former homosexuals,” she stated. “Gay activists cannot claim sympathy as victims when they victimize others.” (more…)

Charlene E. Cothran, Black ex-gay publisher of Venus magazine has written about how the homosexual community dropped her when she announced that she was no longer gay. Do a Google search under her name and see just how “welcomed” she is amongst gay activist now.

A gentleman by the name of Scott Lively wrote the following excerpt on the double standard amongst these activists.

” I hate being called a homophobe. It has such an ugly connotation. Its especially unpleasant because, as a Christian, I’m supposed to have a reputation for loving people, not hating them. So I’ve worked really hard over the years to try to get the homosexuals to stop calling me a homophobe. I’ve pointed out the difference between hating people and hating their behavior (loving the sinner but hating the sin). They hated that. Then I tried “walking my talk” by taking an ex-”gay” man who was dying of AIDS into my family. My wife and I and our children loved and cared for him during the last year of his life. They hated that even more.

Then I began asking for guidance from homosexuals themselves: “Tell me, where is the line between homophobia and acceptable opposition to homosexuality?” I asked. “What if I just agree with the Bible that homosexuality is a sin no worse than any other sex outside of marriage?” “No, that‘s homophobic,” they replied. “Suppose I talk only about the proven medical hazards of gay sex and try to discourage people from hurting themselves?“ “No, you can’t do that,” they said. “How about if I say that homosexuals have the option to change if they choose?” “Ridiculous” they answered. “Maybe I could just be completely positive, say nothing about homosexuality, and focus only on promoting the natural family and traditional marriage?” “That’s really hateful,” they replied.

After I while, I realized that the only way I could get them to stop calling me a homophobe was to start agreeing with them about everything. But here’s my dilemma: I honestly believe the Bible which says that homosexuality is wrong and harmful and that all sex belongs within marriage. I’ve also read the professional studies and know that “gay” sex hurts people because it goes against the design of their bodies. And I’m friends with a number of former homosexuals who are now married and living heterosexual lives. Do I have to give up my religion? Ignore scientific facts? Betray my friends? Is that the only way to avoid being called a hater and a homophobe?

There’s no escape. A homophobe is anyone who, for any reason, disapproves of homosexuality in any way, shape, manner, form or degree. This leaves me with just two choices: agree that everything about homosexuality is natural, normal, healthy, moral and worthy to be celebrated OR be labeled as a mentally ill, hate-filled bigot.” (source)

That does not sound like diversity.

A few months ago I received an e-mail from a reader of this site in the U.K. He described himself as a young Black and gay male who was in search of Biblical references that supported the gay lifestyle. I responded by telling him that the only time the Bible refers to sex in a positive manner is when it is between a man and woman within marriage. I then told him that if he was looking for some justification for his chosen lifestyle, he would not find it in the Bible. I must have hit a nerve because the next few e-mails from him were filled with very hateful comments towards me. Pretty soon, he just stopped e-mailing me altogether.

Like Lively, I too have come to realize over the years that “tolerance” amongst homosexual activists simply means a full AGREEMENT of their chosen lifestyle. This definition in of itself slaps in the face of the actual meaning of diversity.

This is by far the #1 whine I hear and see all the time online being directed towards individuals who are simply stating what they see within certain segments of the Black community. I have met more than my fair share of Black folks who are oftentimes very hesitant to state the obvious when there is the remote possibility that Whites are within earshot. This is why I find it interesting that when these same things are being said on the comedic stage, all of a sudden its alright.

The following is a video that I put threw together over the weekend. It provides a very good example of how “beating up on Black folks” can be so funny.

(The skips are because of quick editing to remove 4-letter curse words)

Kenya: Report Shows 600 Women Raped Daily

East African Standard (Nairobi)

29 October 2007

Edith Fortunate

Nairobi

More than 600 females are raped daily, a new report shows.

The report, compiled by Gender Violence Recovery Centre (GVRC), indicates that the youngest rape survivor is five-months-old while the oldest is 86.

The statistics, which have been compiled in hospitals and community-based organisations where the victims go for treatment and counselling, approximate that there are at least 16,482 rape cases every year.

Reported cases of assault and battery in the country have also increased from 6,255 to 9,169 while a third of adolescent girls’ first sexual experience is coerced, Health Policy Initiative Kenya adds.

The girls, who end up married at a tender age, report of power inequality in these relationships.

The risk of violence and sexual abuse is high among girls who are orphaned by Aids, many of whom face a heightened sense of hopelessness.

Most of the reported cases of rape are coupled with severe physical injury like excessive bleeding, strangulation and swollen faces.

The report also shows that incest contributes to the high number of rape victims while minors between the ages of one month to eight years are the highest targets. These cases are still rampant despite implementation of the Sexual Offences Act.

Of the 717 reported sexual abuse cases, 43.5 per cent involved are girls between the ages of one month to four years, while 33.2 per cent are aged between five and eight. (more…)

#

Dancing is all the rage again as hip-hop lightens up

By MALCOLM VENABLE, The Virginian-Pilot

Rapper Soulja Boy might be just a kid doing a simple, extremely popular dance, but he also represents a sea change.

Back in the glory days of hip-hop - the late 1980s and early ’90s - every real fan could perform a catalog of moves - The Roger Rabbit, The Running Man (the MC Hammer), The Wop, The Cabbage Patch.

Kids were just expected to do them with the right song at the right time. Otherwise, they stood awkwardly on the sidelines at backyard barbecues and school functions.

In the late ’90s, though, everything changed. As landmark artists including Wu-Tang Clan, the Notorious B.I.G. and Snoop ushered in a “gangsta” ethos, dancing was out. Being “hard” was cool. Shuffling frantically and dropping to the floor was not.

The pendulum is swinging back.

YouTube.com is propelling a new dance revolution. Enthusiasts have a whole slew of new dances to perform these days, each with its own song. There’s the Aunt Jackie, The Heisman and the Chicken Noodle Soup. In a matter of months, these songs go from local fads to YouTube phenoms to mainstream radio and MTV hits. (more…)

Yeah, gangsta music really took the fun out of hip hop. You can’t do much dancin’ over someone singing about getting a capped in the chest.

I remember times when our family would get together for parties, we would do things like the Soul Train line, The Bump and The Robot.

Dang, I’m getting old.

When it comes to the offerings in the open market, I will always side with the consumer–no matter how much I may not like the product. Pornography is something that I despise, but I am totally against the creation of any laws that attempt to eliminate it (except of course child pornography–which involves minors). Hip hop videos and music that degrade our woman is another thing I despise, but as one commenter on this site described, there will always be a segment of our society that will always pay their money and attention for such entertainment I deem as ‘crap’.

In recent years, the fast food industry has been under attack by those who are rightly concerned about our nation’s health, but constantly go after the wrong and easy target: big business.

When my family and I lived in Atlanta, GA, both my wife and I were overweight. I was about 235/240 and my wife—do you think I am that crazy to tell you her weight?

What was the main contributor to our obesity? Our constant diet of fast food and fatty meals we prepared in our home. Long story short, we lost much of that extra weight since that time thanks to a drastic reduction of fast food restaurant trips and educating ourselves on healthier options for home-cooked meals.

Wendy’s has been taking a lot of heat recently for their Baconator sandwich which according to their website has a whopping 830 calories. Critics have already been condemning the company for creating such a sandwich, but one important point they are missing here: Wendy’s is driven by consumer demand. No matter how unhealthy this sandwich may be, time and sales will ultimately tell whether or not if the company is out or in touch with what their customers want. Who am I to enforce my preferences on what others want?

Before someone goes there, companies DO NOT have any responsibility to see to it that customers are eating healthy. Leave that responsibility to the consumer.

Bottom line, if you don’t like it, get out of the line.

This is what happens when the consumer speaks:

(2006)

(thisislondon.co.uk) McDonald’s is closing its outlet in a town known for quality food and healthy, local produce.

The fast food chain in Tavistock, Devon, simply wasn’t being used enough by locals.(more…)

Found these on the net.

Imagine waking up to this view?

Story #1

‘Miracle’ fuel that made a mockery of Mugabe

Jan Raath in Harare

timesonline.co.uk

When Nomatter Tagarira, a spirit medium, claimed that she could conjure refined diesel out of a rock by striking it with her staff, ministers in Robert Mugabe’s Government believed that they might have found the solution to Zimbabwe’s perennial fuel shortage.

After witnessing her apparently miraculous gift they gave her five billion Zimbabwean dollars in cash (worth £1.7 million at the start of the year but now worth one seven-hundredth of that) in return for the fuel. Ms Tagarira was also given a farm, said to have been seized from its white owner during Mr Mugabe’s lawless land grab, as well as food and services that included a round-the-clock armed guard on the rock in the district of Chinhoyi 60 miles (100km) from Harare, the capital.

More than a year later officials realised they had been duped. Ms Tagarira is now in custody, awaiting trial on charges of fraud or, alternatively, of being “a criminal nuisance”. Details from court papers published this week said that over 15 months, until July this year, Ms Tagarira convinced Cabinet ministers, ruling party heavy-weights and top army and police officers that by striking the rock with her staff she could produce enough fuel to supply the country for 100 years.

[SNIP]

According to the police docket at the court, Ms Tagarira, 35, discovered a large bowser of diesel last year, suspected to have been abandoned in the hills of Chinhoyi during the country’s civil war in the 1970s.

She laid pipes from the bowser to a point at the bottom of the hill. Whenever she assembled an audience, she would strike a rock and an assistant at the top of the hill would open the tap and lo, fuel would pour out. The bowser eventually ran dry but that didn’t stop Ms Tagarira. “They would buy diesel from lorry drivers and keep it in the pipe on the pretext it was coming from a rock,” the docket said. (more…)

Story #2

Zimbabwe’s millionaires worth only $1

Jan Raath in Harare

timesonline.co.uk

Zimbabwe’s currency has fallen to record levels, with one million Zimbabwean dollars buying a single US dollar (48p) and inflation reaching 8,000 per cent.

The bleak data was announced as people in the capital Harare struggled to cope without electricity for the third day. “We closed our business today,” said a woman who helps to run a major petrol supplier. “We just can’t operate like this.”

The National Blood Transfusion Services said that it had been unable to test blood since Tuesday. “We are in serious trouble,” said a doctor.

At independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean dollar held parity with the US dollar but the currency has suffered from the recent economic policies of President Mugabe; at the beginning of this year it was $Z2,800 to one US dollar and ten days ago $Z500,000.

President Mugabe has struggled to keep inflation under control and in July ordered businesses to halve their prices to alleviate the country’s woes. The order resulted in the arrest of about 10,000 business people as thousands of police officers raided companies, shopping malls and markets to take goods marked above price control levels. Now the supermarkets are bare and it is almost impossible to buy food. (more…)

Don’t know who she is? Do a google search under Superhead (Hint: If you are under 18, ask your parent first).

Read the title of this post s-l-o-w-l-y (for those who may not be too swift).

More commentary that writes itself.

Hat tip: rtkzradio.com

Anytime there is a natural disaster, you can count on the fact that the finger pointing is just over the horizon.

Before I get to the article, it appears that our community has been spared because the fire never came over the mountain peak behind our homes. As you can see from the third picture I posted yesterday, it came pretty close.

Folks from the community began calling us because word was out that the community next to us was evacuating. One family had already packed and another family was getting ready to do the same. Seeing all of this, my neighbor, his friend from out of town and myself climbed into his truck to go straight to the horse’s mouth–the homeowners association of the community that supposedly was evacuating. Long story short, although the air was worst that it was in our neighborhood coupled with the fact that they are right against the Cleveland National Forest, there was no planned evacuation. We also went to the local fire department and they told us the same thing. Apparently the low winds coupled with the hard work of our firemen was able to keep it from coming over those mountains.

Another lesson getting your facts from the source learned!

Our area today looks much clearer with white smoke and the smell of it in the air.

Anyway, let’s go to the article.

Air Tankers, Helicopters Grounded as California Fires Burned

Friday, October 26, 2007

LOS ANGELES — As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.

How much the aircraft would have helped will never be known, but their inability to provide quick assistance raises troubling questions about California’s preparations for a fire season that was widely expected to be among the worst on record.

It took as long as a day for Navy, Marine and California National Guard helicopters to get clearance early this week, in part because state rules require all firefighting choppers to be accompanied by state forestry “fire spotters” who coordinate water or retardant drops. By the time those spotters arrived, the powerful Santa Ana winds stoking the fires had made it too dangerous to fly.

The National Guard’s C-130 cargo planes, among the most powerful aerial firefighting weapons, never were slated to help. The reason: They’ve yet to be outfitted with tanks needed to carry thousands of gallons of fire retardant, though that was promised four years ago.

“The weight of bureaucracy kept these planes from flying, not the heavy winds,” Republican U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told The Associated Press. “When you look at what’s happened, it’s disgusting, inexcusable foot-dragging that’s put tens of thousands of people in danger.” (more…)

Slap ‘em all!