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When the UPN sitcom "Homeboys in Outerspace" actually lasted an entire season on the air, I had heavy suspicions that Americans had severe psychological issues. Still, I dismissed it because after all, who could resist a homeboy in outerspace? Then there were all those times when we actually allowed Bob Saget to continue hosting "America's Funniest Videos" when we knew good and well that he was indeed, not funny. That too I forgave. I have now come to the conclusion that I am too forgiving, and so is the rest of America.

For the love of the Lord crying out in the night...CONVICT Michael Jackson! Does God need to come down from the heavenlies in a burning bush and write it in neon letters for us all?

They found child erotica? CHILD EROTICA?! It still amazes me that despite mounting evidence to the contrary, researchers in this country refuse to draw any type of correlation between pornography and child molestation.

Yes; I realize Mr. Jackson is a pop icon and famous, rich, exempt and all those other excuses. But really people, have we learned nothing from R. Kelly? Michael is not a "well" individual. He needs to be held accountable to the law like anyone else, and ultimately, he needs to be in a place where God can work on him. It is abundantly clear that Neverland Ranch is not that place.

My compassion is running low because I think people need to bury the "benefit of the doubt". It was killed when LaToya started talking to the press. The "benefit of the doubt" isn't doing Michael any good. We need to come to grips people. He has fallen and he can't get up.

Tuesday morning, the much anticipated Oscar nominations were announced, and as was expected, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ", the 8th highest grossing film of all time, was overlooked in all the categories that count.

Thankfully for us all, the accolades of mere men don't count for much in this life. Still, there is a manifestation of certain attitudes towards the cause of Christ that are made more explicit by many of the decisions made in Hollywood.

Granted, Gibson had quite a feat before him with absolutely no commercial support, tons of controversy, and film with subtitles in an ancient language hardly anyone uses anymore. Needless to say, if we're talking depth and quality, "The Passion" is certainly more deserving than the 1999 "Best Picture" winner, "American Beauty".

Sadly, this whole charade certainly isn't about who is more deserving. If so, then Halle Berry wouldn't have won an Oscar for her role as Leticia Musgrove in "Monster's Ball". Instead, this is about the politics of the film industry and the statements executives quietly send about who does and doesn't gain their approval.

Admitting defeat, several activist types lobbied throughout the year for at least a "Best Picture" nomination for the Gibson's vivid depiction of the last hours of Jesus's life. In a striking juxtaposition, "The Passion" and Michael Moore's most recent manipulative effort, "Fahrenheit 9/11" have ended up in the same sentence. Moore's flick (and it truly is a flick) was also snubbed by the "Academy". Unfortunately, one thing many have failed to realize is that unlike "Fahrenheit 9/11", "The Passion" was actually a good film.

Throughout the embroilments that plagued the release of "The Passion"--the most hilarious of which were charges from the Jewish community that the film incited too extreme a notion of good and evil (duh)--Hollywood's general attitude toward the film was blatantly stand-offish. Apparently, Hollywood is not comfortable with the idea that morality is fairly black and white.

However, much like the post-election Democrats scrambled to piece together some sort of morality platform, uncomfortable with the fact that a "faith film" was making money of which they had no part, Hollywood scrambled in search of some values. And just like the Democrats, Hollywood failed.

Unfortunately, the idea of morality, which suggests some form of absolutes just didn't jibe well with the general "ho-hum", NC-17 masquerading as PG-13, who cares if it's disgusting, "whatever's going to sell movie tickets", attitude that has so overtaken the film industry. Sharon Waxman of the New York Times writes:

"As divisions of major media conglomerates concerned with their public image, Hollywood studios have historically shied away from all but the most benign values, like friendship, family and love. Movies with strong points of view — political and particularly religious — have had difficulty receiving green lights."

In all fairness, "The Passion" was nominated for "Best Cinematography", "Best Make-Up", and "Best Musical Score". And in all fairness, those are pansy categories.

Critics have listed a number of reasons for why they believe "The Passion" was "deservedly overlooked", the number one being lack of critical acclaim.

Reviewers were generally split 50/50 on the film as CNN's list of reviews displays. Reviews ranged from "absolutely loved it" to "this is the worst film I've ever seen". Most negative reviews were directly connected to the film's graphic depictions. The fact that all of a sudden, critics decided to get squeamish is a bit ironic. For all the gore and raunchiness that's come out of Hollywood, it's amazing how hard it was for people to watch a depiction that didn't even come close to what Jesus actually looked like during his crucifixion.

Oh and then there's that other part about the film assigning Jewish responsibility to Jesus' death. The reality of what the Bible says doesn't really flow well with a lot of peoples' doctrine.

Who cares.

Critics' issues with the film's violence is merely a smoke screen. Let's just be honest. The main reason why "The Academy" and the other "powers that be" have overlooked "The Passion" is because of the controversy stirred up as a result of cries of anti-Semitism. There is nothing in the film even remotely anti-Semitic, but the accusation alone could kill a career in the historically Jewish-run Hollywood.

When Gibson refused to go the typical route and market his film for an Oscar nomination, a man named Patrick Hynes stepped up via his website passionforfairness.com and collected 25,000 signatures on a petition, demanding the Academy consider "The Passion" in some of the main award categories.

In an interview with CNN, Hynes declared:

"I think, given the success of 'The Passion of the Christ,' other people will start generating some faith-based films. And we're going to watch to see if those continue to get snubbed and ridiculed and receive the same kind of enmity that Hollywood ladled on Mel Gibson and 'The Passion.' And if they are, we're going to speak out against them."

Hynes reasons that just as Hollywood has long imposed their values upon the masses, the time has come to flip the script. If the revolution is televised, I might have to re-think my "turn-off the TV" policy.

(For reference, here are past "Best Picture" winners over the years.)

You have no idea what a sap I feel like when I slack on updating this site. Lots (and I mean lots) to say, but little energy to say it. For the record, I'm mentally exhausted. I have some big decisions coming down the pipe with regards to writing (one of which includes turning off the blessed television), and I'm somewhat resistant to change. It's mentally taxing. Being unemployed is taxing. For one second yesterday, I almost wished I was back living in the dorm in college. ALMOST. Ha ha.

By way of announcement, I'll be on the radio here on Sunday evening on the show "Toward Tradition" with Rabbi Daniel Lapin. I am told the interview will also be made available online.

Now the world can hear me mis-pronounce my own website. I have yet to decide how to pronounce "Nykola". When I say it, it usually sounds like some new kind of soda. Just curious as to how you all pronounce it in your brain?

Updates coming shortly, I promise. I may have to start blogging on the weekends again, with the rest of the nerds.

You have no idea what a sap I feel like when I slack on updating this site. Lots (and I mean lots) to say, but little energy to say it. For the record, I'm mentally exhausted. I have some big decisions coming down the pipe with regards to writing (one of which includes turning off the blessed television), and I'm somewhat resistant to change. It's mentally taxing. Being unemployed is taxing. For one second yesterday, I almost wished I was back living in the dorm in college. ALMOST. Ha ha.

By way of announcement, I'll be on the radio here on Sunday evening on the show "Toward Tradition" with Rabbi Daniel Lapin. I am told the interview will also be made available online.

Now the world can hear me mis-pronounce my own website. I have yet to decide how to pronounce "Nykola". When I say it, it usually sounds like some new kind of soda. Just curious as to how you all pronounce it in your brain?

Updates coming shortly, I promise. I may have to start blogging on the weekends again, with the rest of the nerds.

• Lauryn Hill is Back: Word is out that Lauryn Hill (winner of the 2000-2004 award for most wasted talent of the 21st century) is in the studios again working on another album. I hope she's working on getting outta that whack pseudo-spiritual cult life too.

• Too Much God: Peggy Noonan says there was too much "God" in the President's inaugural address. You know that annoying God guy. If only he would just leave us alone and let us run our own nation already.

• Katie Couric Talks Teen Sex: This Thursday, Katie Couric will host a special, "411: Teens and Sex" wherein the "truth" shall be revealed to us all. I'm certain I will have more to say about this later.

• Rolling Stone Accepts Bible Ad: Leading Bible publisher, Zondervan, approached the magazine about placing an ad for (TNIV) a new "hip" translation of the Bible (Today's New International Version). Originally rejected as a result of a "no religious ad policy", in a striking turn of events, Rolling Stone has agreed to publish the ad. They were probably afraid God would smite them if they didn't.

• No Name-Calling Week:High schools across the nation will participate in a "No Name-Calling Week" initiative developed by none other than the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. The curriculum requires that students read, "The Misfits", a book wrought with gay themes and some parents are not happy. It's interesting that tolerance has become one of the chief messages of the rainbow brigade. Of course it only works one way you know...

• Intelligent Design Pre-Amble Required in Pennsylvania: Yesterday marked the first day Dover Area school district students heard about intelligent design in their biology classes. As you recall, this has stirred up some national controversy.

So I was sitting in a meeting yesterday with the Associate Op-Ed Editor of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, being asked to consider the possibility of becoming a guest editorial columnist and she says the magic words, (and I paraphrase),

"You can write about anything except the topics that have been over-done like social security and the war on Iraq."

I'm so there.

There's a plethora of things to comment on today so check later for updates.

Update (1/25): Clarification. I am not employed yet folks; I'm just a freelancer.

(Important: If you arrived here via a search for "Farrah Gray," his personal website is: FarrahGray.com)

Rebel: Farrah Gray

Age: 20

Representing: Chicago, IL/Las Vegas, NV

Why you should fear him: For starters, he probably makes more money than you. At age 14, this young entrepreneur was a millionaire.

Gray's entrepreneurial journey began at age six when he went door to door selling body lotion for $1.50. Always starting economic empowerment clubs at school, Gray got the idea to do a radio show. At age 9, Gray co-hosted a radio show called "Backstage Live" which eventually reached 12 million listeners.

Feeling lazy yet? It gets better.

By middle school, Gray had a nationwide speaking career, commanding $5,000-$10,000 per appearance. Puberty hits. While most young men were off discovering the opposite sex, Mr. Gray started his own specialty food company, "Farr-Out Foods", which he marketed to young people and sold for $1.5 million by his 14th birthday. He started the company with a make-shift "we're too poor to buy syrup" recipe from his grandmother.

Now at age 20, Gray has his hands in multiple projects including the acquisition of "Inner City Magazine", his charitable foundation, "The Farrah Gray Foundation", which helps empower young inner city kids to think economically, and lastly, real estate investing. January 1st of this year, Gray released his first book, "Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out", which lists the practical lessons that took him from public assistance to being a multi-millionaire. The book was published by "Health Communications Inc.) and is available at bookstores nationwide.

Most impressive about Gray is the fact that as the youngest of five children, in a single parent household, he was never handed anything. The media has packaged him as a "self-made millionaire", but Gray is quick to give the credit to God's grace and mercy.

His formal bio goes as such: "Farrah Gray was a card-carrying businessman at age six. At eight, he formed a business club that financed his neighborhood ventures. By age 14, he had an office on Wall Street and was a millionaire. He also served as the youngest member of the United Way Board of Directors. Gray's foundation provides seed money to young entrepreneurs. Now 20 years old, he’s the author of Reallionaire, which shares the lessons that took him from public assistance in Chicago’s inner city to millionaire row."

If Farrah were giving lessons, I'd line up.

Status: No college. Has opted to hold off on school, although he's stated in the past that he'd like an MBA. At this point, Wharton would probably grant him honorary letters just to have their name associated with Gray.

Press/Interviews: Farrah Gray's Official Website, NPR: Interview with Tavis Smiley, Good Morning America Interview, Teen Capitalist

Other Rebels: Hans Zeiger, Adam Hunter, Dwight Howard, Sheri Valera, Princella Smith

If you were so unfortunate last weekend as to have devoted three hours of your life to the pageantry and complete and utter waste of time also known as the "Golden Globe Awards", then I feel sorry for you. As it stands, I feel sorry for myself too because I nearly did. However, not before getting completely sick to my stomach due to what seems to be increasing hyper-glorification of reckless behavior.

I've decided that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is full it. What is "it" you ask? Read on.

Many are well aware that the Hollywood Foreign Press, also known as HFPA are the ones behind the Annual Golden Globe Awards, the traditional build-up to the Academy Awards. Normally I wouldn't write about something so incredibly shallow (says the girl who monthly publishes fashion critiques), but the show itself stirs up some topics worth noting.

Among the many awards given out, a few important ones note an overwhelming trend in the moral accountability of Hollywood: it's nonexistent. Any group of individuals that deem the film "Kinsey", a biopic of a pedophile with absolutely no redeeming qualities, as worthy of a "Best Film" nomination are clearly delusional.

For starters, "Desperate Hussies Housewives", a "satire" in which suicide is glorified and slutty married women commit adultery with their gardeners, is one of "the most talked about" new television series and was incidentally a big winner at the Golden Globes for "Best TV Series: Comedy". In addition, four of the show's main characters were nominated for "Best & Supporting Actresses", with two winning.

While many won't find this significant, in an industry where discretion and propriety are fleeting notions, awarding accolades to a show that makes a complete mockery of the sanctity of marriage only confirms that Hollywood is plummeting quickly into the abyss of foolishness and self-destruction.

It gets worse.

"Housewives" as it's marketed, is a vivid and sexually explicit soap opera made for prime-time television. And with that time slot comes a whole new audience of fecund young minds. According to Nielsen ratings, the show "boasted over a million elementary and junior high viewers" in the month of December. This ranks "Housewives" as the top-rated network broadcast television show in the 9-12 age bracket. For whatever sickening reason, cable companies seem to be proud of this statistic. Meanwhile, the HFPA puts its stamp of approval on the show.

Moving on in the moral decay, the other big winner for "Best Television Show: Drama" was the equally grotesque "Nip/Tuck", a show centered on plastic surgery, self-absorbed characters, and the glorification of things such as botched sex changes. Actor Joseph C. Phillips describes the show as:

"...packed full of unlikable characters who make stupid, immoral choices and then whine about the consequences. If this is what now passes for brilliant and provocative television viewers are in trouble."

Unfortunately, the Hollywood Foreign Press thinks it does.

I think it's clicking now. Disgusting = Provocative and Provocative = Brilliant.

Most disappointing was the "Best Supporting Actress" award given to Harvard graduate, Natalie Portman, a 23-year-old budding actress who'd managed to keep all her clothes on in her previous films, but unfortunately, had to play a stripper in the film, "Closer" in order to win some recognition.

Now there's a great message to send to young women everywhere. Study hard, develop your craft, and get nothing. Take off your clothes, and get everything. Perhaps Natalie Portman has been taking lessons from Halle Berry.

Even Jamie Foxx's well-deserved win for "Best Actor" in the film "Ray", could not save the train wreck.

With all the debauchery and lawlessness, it's no wonder why Hollywood is overwhelmingly Liberal. Those mean and crazy fundamentalists might take over and make them do something really crazy like put some clothes on.

And in case you're still wondering, "it" = sin.

If you've been around this site awhile, you're familiar with my pontifications on the state of American fashion. Generally, I snap shots of anonymous fashion victims to illustrate to us all how America needs healing in more ways than one.

But this time around, I think we have a winner. I must say, first lady Laura Bush worked her winter white inaugural suit.

Very well done. Classy, tasteful, fitting for the occasion, and very non-queen-of-England-looking.

Even the four loud-mouthed anti-traditionalists on ABC's "the View" (save Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who I like) had nice things to say about our first lady's ensemble.

Unfortunately, other Americans have not been so fortunate. See some of my past critiques:

Past Faux-Pas
- Attack of the Killer Patterns
- George W. Bush and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
- The Grizzly Bear
- The Blue-Haired, Gun Tights Wonder
- Stripey Girl
- Me Being Stripey Girl
- The Pimp
- The Cowboy Boots

Earlier this week "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (AKA the Oracle of God) highlighted a case of a single, 38-year-old woman whose invetro fertilization didn't go as planned and she ended up pregnant with quadruplets.

Unable to raise four children on her limited income, she faced pressure to use "selective reduction" (also known as playing God) to eliminate two of her children. She decided against it, and couldn't bear to go through adoption process either. Many critics "Left" and "Right" contended that the children had the "right" not to be born into a life where their mother couldn't provide for them.

Americans never cease to amaze me. I am often unable to reconcile how our society picks and chooses where and when it wants to think logically about how we ought to treat unborn babies. Check out the latest happenings in an Oregon State Superior Court:

Shawnna J. Hughes, 27, was headed for a routine divorce late last year from her husband, Carlos, who had spent time in jail for beating her.

The fact that she got pregnant during the divorce proceedings seemed inconsequential -- her husband wasn't the father.

But Spokane County Superior Court Judge Paul A. Bastine disagreed, saying Shawnna Hughes was ignoring the right of her child not to be born out of wedlock.

"The paramount right of the state and the obligation of the court, and in fact, probably the obligation of the parent as well, is to protect the legitimacy, the appropriateness of the child's relationship to his or her parents," Bastine said during a hearing in November.

He concluded that "not only is it the policy of this court, it is the policy of the state that you cannot dissolve a marriage when one of the parties is pregnant. Now, you won't find a statute with regard to that. But it is implicit in everything we have in the case law and the statutory law."

Do mine eyes deceive me? Did the judge really include in his decision the phrase, "the right to be born"?

Why yes he did.

Very well then, let's build from there. Based on growing evidence that an unborn child of at least 20 weeks has the necessary physical structures to feel pain, state Sen. Mike Foley has sponsored a bill requiring that women who seek late-term abortion are automatically given information asking them if they'd like their child to be anesthetized.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports:

The bill is modeled after the federal "fetal pain awareness act" that has been introduced in Congress. It requires that women seeking an abortion have information that the abortion procedure will cause pain to the unborn child, he said.

But pro-choice leaders say the information about a fetus feeling pain is political rather than factual.

"There is a great deal of debate in the medical community about this issue and what is contained in this bill is based on speculation and inference," said Bobbie Kierstead, with Planned Parenthood Nebraska and Council Bluffs.

"There is no agreement in the scientific community," she said. "In fact, there have been several court cases that touched on this. And what the courts have found is that there is no scientific agreement."

Similar bills in Congress and in several other states are "another way for the anti-choice community to chip away at reproduction rights," she said.

If I were of the pro-choice persuasion, I'd request that Planned Parenthood's representatives keep their collective mouths off my argument. Quite simply, they lack credibility.

The opposition to such a bill is rather telling because scientific proof or not, what would be the harm in offering a mother the opportunity to spare her child from additional pain? The harm would be that we'd have to acknowledge that the "fetus" was a real person and that mother would have just one more opportunity to reconcile her actions.

You may recall last April when President Bush signed the "Fetus Rights Bill" -- a bill which Sen. John "Compassionate Catholic" Kerry voted against -- requiring that the federal crimes of violence against a pregnant woman be acknowledged as two victims and two offenses when appropriate. This is one of the many moves President Bush made during his presidency to push a platform that was not in favor of child genocide.

At the time, Bush invoked the case of Laci and Scott Peterson. Since then, Scott Peterson was convicted on two counts of murder and sentenced to death.

These are all sweeping indications that this country feels a child has a right not to die, not to be born into poverty, and not to be born to divorcing parents.

Tell me, how do we reconcile it all?

As of late, the war on abortion has really been relegated to a battle on terms. There's been a very crafty attempt to exchange the word "kill" with "abort", "murder" with "abortion", and "child/baby" for "fetus". Attempting to expose the reality of how these terms have left much of America confused isn't really the issue. It's bigger than "terms". The war is on a mindset. People have been brainwashed and told how to think about the issues.

Every year in America, more than a million babies are killed via "abortion", including tens of thousands of late-term abortions (after the 12th week). The build up to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was a huge marketing campaign that ultimately gave way to the term "reproductive rights". Since the unprecedented Supreme Court ruling, American doctors have performed over 40 million abortions.

That's more than the amount of people who died during the Holocaust, the Middle Passage, and Japanese Internment. The definition of "abortion" in our dictionaries and encyclopedias should read "the most thorough and destructive holocaust the world has ever experienced".

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of NARAL/Pro-Choice America, was a well-known abortion doctor with over 70,000 murders under his watch when he had a shocking change of heart. With cutting-edge technology in his hands, he decided to place a camera inside a woman's body to record the process of the abortion as it took place. He recalls his experience:

"...as a result of all of this technology – looking at this baby, examining it, investigating it, watching its metabolic functions, watching it urinate, swallow, move and sleep, watching it dream, which you could see by its rapid eye movements via ultrasound, treating it, operating on it – I finally came to the conviction that this was my patient. This was a person! I was a physician, pledged to save my patients' lives, not to destroy them. So I changed my mind on the subject of abortion."

Since his "conversion", Dr Nathanson has confessed and exposed the abortion industry's corrupt practices, one of which includes placing young pregnant girls with counselors that are paid to convince the girls to get abortions. Dr. Nathanson has also been very candid about the roots of the pro-abortion movement and how their deceptively strategic marketing plan was full of lies and misleading information.

The effort to move the focus away from the morality of killing unborn babies has been very successful. This is no longer made to be a moral issue. Now it's about some "sexy" and abstract notion of freedom and women owning their own bodies. A monster has been created.

WorldNetDaily's Managing Editor, David Kupelian is the author of the forthcoming book, "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom". In Kupelian's latest WorldNetDaily column, "How lying marketers sold Roe v. Wade to America", he uses interviews and confessions of Dr. Nathanson and other research to uncover some sickening realities of the pro-abortion movement. Kupelian writes:

"Women must have control over their own bodies."

"Safe and legal abortion is every woman's right."

"Who decides? You decide!"

"Abortion is a personal decision between a woman and her doctor."

"Who will make this most personal decision of a woman's life? Will women decide, or will the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington?"

"Freedom of choice – a basic American right."

In one of the most successful marketing campaigns in modern political history, the "abortion rights movement" – with all of its emotionally compelling catch-phrases and powerful political slogans – has succeeded in turning what once was a heinous crime into a fiercely defended constitutional right.

......................

Although polls consistently show a clear majority of Americans disapprove of unfettered abortion-on-demand, the movement's well-crafted, almost magical slogans – appealing to Americans' deeply rooted inclination toward tolerance, privacy and individual rights – have provided the abortion camp a powerful rhetorical arsenal with which to fight off efforts to reverse Roe, which struck down all state laws outlawing abortion.

In marketing wars, the party that frames the terms of the debate almost always wins. And the early abortion marketers brilliantly succeeded in doing exactly that – diverting attention away from the core issues of exactly what abortion does to both the unborn child and the mother, and focusing the debate instead on a newly created issue: "choice." No longer was the morality of killing the unborn at issue, but rather, "who decides."

Safe to say, this tactic has worked with remarkable delusion. In an interview, Dr. Nathanson spoke of the forming of NARAL upon distorted truths:

"We sat down and plotted out the organization now known as NARAL. With Betty Friedan, we set up this organization and began working on the strategy.

We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal, enlightened, sophisticated one, knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60 percent of Americans were in favor of permissive abortion. This is the tactic of the self-fulfilling lie. Few people care to be in the minority. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000, but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1 million. "

In much of his interview, he speaks with gut-wrenching detail on the actual steps in various abortion procedures. Efforts to keep Dr. Nathanson quiet and discredit his testimonies began the moment he released the film "The Silent Scream", based on video footage of abortions as they take place. The pro-choice opposition has never desired for people to know the truth.

We cannot continue to allow people to flippantly dress up the lie as the truth. The expose is long overdue.

(Tips #1-3)

Tip #4: Set Standards Early
Your weblog is your domain on the web and is much like a newly formed friendship or relationship. In the beginning, you dictate how it looks, feels, and is perceived. It's important to set clear standards for how you will conduct yourself not only as a blogger, but also as a "host" if you ever intend to have an audience.

There are some good questions to ask yourself before you delve too deep: Will I use my real name? Will I discuss my personal life? Will I talk about my family members? If so, will I use their real names? Will I talk about my job or mention the company I work for? Will I use certain language or touch on certain subjects? Will I allow people to insult me in the comments?

All of these topics will come up at some point or another, so it's best to address them early on and then do your best to stick with the standards you set. It's easy to get caught up in the passion (okay this may be taking the relationship analogy too far) and forget about the standards you originally set way back in yesteryear of blog beginnings.

The standards you set should also be transferable to those who visit your site. I am a firm believer that the host sets the tone. If you don't use profanity, those who comment on your site won't use profanity (for the most part). Those who attempt it will at least feel guilty after the fact. There are always people who have no class and sometimes you have to get legalistic about it. I whipped up some commenter guidelines to inform the public of my standards. "Profanity" doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. Write it down. Make it plain. Don't be a jerk about it either.

I've never been very strict about people opposing my views. Compared to other bloggers, I've been very liberal (ew) in allowing people to call me a complete idiot on my own bandwidth. I do this because it ultimately makes them foolish. There is a line that can be crossed. Decide what that line is early and stick with it.

Early on in my site's history, I made a few decisions:

1. Keep Work Life Separate. I wasn't going to name my employer or even speak of my work life. Not a great deal of good that did, but all isn't fair in love and blogging.

2. Keep it Clean. I was going to keep my content honest, yet "clean". Would you feel comfortable if your mother read your site? I'm a youth leader so at any given point, my site should be clean and civil enough that young people can read it and not have their perspective of me changed.

3. No Trash Talking. I wasn't going to engage in flame wars. If you don't personally attack other bloggers, they're less likely to personally attack you. Those who do will just look silly. I'm all for making people look silly. Never answer the fools according to their follies.

4. Don't Write Senselessly. There will be days when the last thing you want to look at is your weblog. I decided early that if I didn't have something to say, I wouldn't post. Sounds simple, but you'd be surprised at how many people throw up some post about what Teletubbie character an online personality quiz told them they are because they've run dry on material.

   Save it. We'd rather catch you on a good day than read something you threw together for the sake of keeping continuity. Lots of people will say it's important to "blog everyday", but I contend that it shouldn't be done at the cost of quality and purpose.

These are just a few of the many standards I set early on. It can get difficult at times to stay true to your standards, but consistency in content and character is just as important as consistency in posting. There is such a thing as blogging with integrity.

(More tips to come)

Just got finished watching President George W. Bush's inauguration. I won't comment fully on his speech yet because I need to read the transcript first. Despite great content, you may recall my frequent inability to stay focused when our dear president gives formal addresses. I need Bush's typical Southern twang and mispronunciation of words to keep me engaged.

What I will comment on is the benediction. If I had to sum up my sentiments of Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell's prayer in one sentence, I'd say, "Now THAT WILL PREACH." With much respect to Franklin Graham, and those who've delivered the benediction in the past, I'd say Rev. Caldwell's words were more unadulterated than benedictions past. In it, Caldwell called Americans to be held accountable to their purpose in life. He also sought repentance on our behalf for exalting partisan politics above the God of the universe (haven't I been saying this for months?).

I especially appreciate that he ended his prayer "In the name of Jesus". To many that may not be significant, but in the era of vigilant opposition to the very name of Jesus, I take great courage in seeing people in high places who quite simply, don't care what fickle Americans think.

I've always greatly admired Rev. Caldwell, pastor of Houston's Windsor Village United Methodist Church (probably the most unorthodox United Methodist Church in the entire country). He's remained a close personal friend and spiritual advisor to the president throughout the last four years.

Many may recall that Rev. Caldwell gave the benediction four years ago as well. He caught a bit of backlash at 2001's inauguration because he ended his prayer with the words, "Let all who agree say, Amen."

Many found this to be offensive for its exclusion of those who "don't believe". Nevermind the fact that the word "Amen", which loosely translated means "it is so", is itself a statement of affirmation and agreement. Americans just like to complain. If you don't agree, don't say Amen. It's really not that deep.

The Houston Chronicle reported:

The first time the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell took the stage at the close of a presidential inauguration, his prayer caused more of a stir than he intended.

That was 2001 and the official start of President Bush's first term. Caldwell called on a God of "peace, prudent policy and nonpartisanship," and asked for an end to inequities of wealth and education.

He offered his "humble prayer in the name that's above all other names, Jesus the Christ."

And he ended by saying:

"Let all who agree say, Amen."

For some, that was the rub.

What about those who don't consider Jesus as the name above all others, the critics asked?

Rev. Caldwell chalked up his mistake to "public prayer naiveté". This time around, he seemed flawless enough not to ruffle the feathers of America's easily offended citizens.

Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed the suit by atheist Michael Newdow, ruling that a public prayer would not cause the plaintiff any harm. Newdow previously contended that separation of church and state should warrant that prayer is inappropriate at an inauguration. Newdow appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. Newdow is also one of the weaklings leading the fight to remove the words "under God" from the pledge of allegiance.

Nineteen-year-old columnist Hans Zeiger hit the nail on the head in January 11th column "Michael Newdow Against America":

I would contest that more than anything Bush has done as president, and more than any other gesture that could be made at the Inauguration, the invocation of Almighty God is the surest defense against tyranny. Those who claim that Bush is a despot do so not only erroneously, but also without regard to the fact that the other thing he is loudly criticized for – his faith – is the most reassuring guard against him becoming a despot.

An atheist, whose god is himself, has no right to replace the principles of our national founding – that our rights come from God and our laws are subordinate to "the laws of nature and of nature's God" – with his own religious principles. It is one thing to have the benefits of private conscience which have their expression in the Declaration of Independence; it is quite another to impose private conscience on the whole land. Neither a Christian, who would define God by the Bible, nor an atheist who would define god as himself, has the right to rule other men by religious coercion.

Here's to four years of liberty, and Americans taking enough responsibility to connect their actions with consequences.

Although I am currently unemployed, I, do pay my blog bills. The site was down Wednesday due to excessive (and I mean excessive) comment spam (when it rains it pours). Everything should be straightened out by now, but this is just getting ridiculous. I'm off to seek techie aid in the interim.

Update 1/20: For those of you who've emailed me about donating, I'll swallow my pride and get a paypal link up sometime today. (Updates this afternoon)

At last night's Youth Inaugural Concert, hosted by Jenna and Barbara Bush, and packed full with the Hillary Duff crowd (also known as the "tweens"), one of the performers dropped a choice word that no parent wants their child to hear at a presidential celebration (or period for that matter). The AP reports:

"You might say the Janet Jackson moment of President Bush's inaugural festivities came Tuesday at a youth concert with hundreds of preteen Hilary Duff fans in the audience.

No nudity was involved, but the Vince Neil-style profanity probably didn't win rock band Fuel any fans at the Federal Communications Commission, nor from the parents at the concert. Now the Pennsylvania band is just hoping the concert, "America's Future Rocks Today," wasn't aired live.

Borrowing a word from Motley Crue's Neil, the lead singer of Fuel proclaimed, "Welcome to the greatest ----ing country in the world." Brett Scallions followed with a quick apology of "excuse my language."

How Classy of him. Call me crazy, but I think it not the least bit unreasonable to assume that people know better than the curse in front of children, and certainly not at an event with the word "President' attached to it.

Can we say Tacky?

Name: Hans Zeiger

Age: 19

Status: Sophomore American Studies major at Hillsdale College in Michigan.

Why you should fear him: He's everyone's favorite boy scout (correction, Eagle Scout). He's brash, he's a Republican, he's Hans Zeiger. Up until he wrote some grossly ignorant and misleading comments about voting and people who listen to hip hop, Zeiger was on my very good side.

Still it remains, Zeiger is a force to be reckoned with. Once called one of the most opinionated teenagers in America, Zeiger is a national columnist and an activist. He is the president of the Scout Honor Coalition, a network dedicated to countering politically correct attacks on the scouts.

Last year Zeiger was also a runner-up in MTV's "Stand Up and Holla" essay contest.

Zeiger's column appears in too many papers and online news sources to name them all. A few include the Seattle Times, WorldnetDaily, and TownHall. While many of us were home watching television, Zeiger was penning his first book, "Get Off My Honor", published by Broadman and Holman publishers, and due out in 2005.

Most importantly, he's a young man devoted to community service, serving in his local church, and being a responsible citizen. Can't ask for more.

Representing: Puyallup, Washington (also know as the cultural wasteland)

Articles: See HansZeiger.com

I'm not a fan of rock music so take my title in the spirit it's intended. The phrase "like a rockstar" implies some element of risk and originality. I'm a throw out the rulebook kind of gal. If everyone else is doing it, then by golly, I don't want to. Being trite is overrated. Being boring is even worse. It is with that same unconventional attitude that I approached blogging, and with which I offer my advice on the matter.

Many people have given their tips on how to build a successful weblog. There are many articles, editorials, and even books available on the subject. Joe at the Evangelical Outpost has a running series on how to blog, as does "The Living Room", as do 2700 other people that I'm too lazy to find, read and link. I've read lots of them and their tips are fantastic so I won't bother repeating what's already been stated.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll state for the record that I've broken nearly every rule there is in blogging and still my site has steadily grown from 6 hits a day (4 of which were probably mine, and 2 of which were someone googling "cat dreadlocks"), to now over 1,000 daily hits. In my book, 1,000+ hits a day is small potatoes compared to the millions of hits available via the world wide web, but considering that I've done absolutely nothing by way of personal promotion to increase my audience, I count that as a small victory in my first year of blogging.

Don't believe the hype. Self-promotion is overrated and can often become obsequious and pretentious. Not once have I ever emailed anyone asking them for a link. Not once. Simply be a presence and people will notice you.

Whether you're considering starting a weblog, or you've already begun the downward spiral of obsessive compulsive blogger behavior, I'm kicking off my series of no-nonsense tips and hope there's something in it for you.

Tip #1: Stop Emulating the Success of Others
I've often read people speculating on who will be "the Next Instapundit" or "the Next (Insert Popular Person)". Along with this comes tips on how to become an A-list blogger. Newsflash: we don't need another Instapundit. We need you to be you. Bring what you have to the table and stop trying to emulate the success of others. Throw out the hope of attaining someone else's level of success. I promise your blog will be much more successful as a result.

Tip #2: Get Some Motivation
A character in a Sprite soft drink commercial once asked a very wise question, "What's my motivation?" It may sound incredibly cliché, but this is the first and foremost thing anyone who seeks to start a weblog should consider. What will be your driving motivation for publishing your thoughts, pictures, and essays on the world wide web? The answer doesn't have to be some deep manifesto or objective. It could be as simple as "to use my blog as a creative outlet" or "to vent" or "to learn html" or "to get a book deal".

When I started my weblog, my pure and unadulterated reason was because I needed to practice writing and I was extremely lazy about it. My motivation was simple: become a disciplined writer. After some time, your motivation behind your blog may evolve, but it's always good to bring yourself back to that reason why you started in the first place. It is after all, motivating.

Tip #3: Decide Your Genre
Everyday, people all over the world start weblogs and while it's fairly impossible to categorize or fit everyone into a box, there are a number of broad classifications we can make on overall style. These classifications are important because they allow us not to compare blogs based on the same standards.

The two dominant types of blogs seem to be personal journals and political/current event blogs. Other genres may include culture, sports, music, life, photography, and just the all-around hodge podge of stuff, or as I like to say "Neapolitan" flavored blogs.

Whatever you choose, be true to what you're after. If you simply want to filter the news and the blogosphere, then by all means do that. But don't play with it; embrace it for all it can be. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit proved himself to be one of the best link shepherds in the blogosphere and its reaped tremendous dividends. Reynolds is now known as one of the most influential bloggers.

If your blog is more of a personal journal, don't shy away from that, embrace it. If you want to pour out details of your personal life on the internet, do that, but don't be insecure about it. Before I started my own blog, I was a frequent reader of the now defunct Madpony.com, a site run by two sisters in Oklahoma, one in high school and one in college. Every few days the sisters would post pictures and recount hilarious tales of shoe shopping, life in a sorority and growing up in Oklahoma.

The site was very suburban, and very shallow content-wise (not a lot of pontificating on the future of social security if you know what I mean). But it totally worked for them and their readership skyrocketed in the two short years they were on the air.

Don't ever feel obligated to talk about politics or "serious matters" because it's the popular thing to do. Do it because it interests you. If your journal is all in fun, or all about your family, then let it be that and don't worry about what everyone else is doing. Your blog's style will make room for you if you keep it true to you.

(Click for Tip #4)

Speaking of Planned Parenthood, Consumer Reports recently released some research that suggests that just maybe, they hand out condoms and birth control with the hopes that youth will fail and become customers in the infanticide turned big business holocaust known as "abortion clinics". Ya don't say?

Apparently, the condoms Planned Parenthood give out rank very low compared to other brands. And here I thought PP wasn't capable of lies...

Last May, I wrote about the Food & Drug Administration's rejection of Barr Laboratories' (makers of the morning after pill) proposal to make the drug available over the counter. The FDA promised to reconsider the proposal if Barr could find a way to only allow women ages 16 and older to purchase the pill.

Well, they're back, and this time proposing that drug store clerks check identification to verify that "Plan B" pill buyers are 16 and older. Becuase we all know how reliable drug store employees are, and considering how well the whole "must be 21" to drink alcohol bit is working, I'm sure this idea is destined for success.

CNN reports:

Fierce arguments have gone on inside and outside the Food and Drug Administration, which may decide as soon as this week whether drug stores can sell the emergency contraception known as Plan B without a prescription to women age 16 and older.

Each side accuses the other of manipulating science for political purpose.

Plan B supporters say the pill is a safe way to prevent thousands of unwanted pregnancies and the abortions that sometimes follow. Making the contraception available over the counter, they say, is crucial for women who might need the protection over a weekend or when it is difficult to obtain a prescription.

Plan B can prevent pregnancy for up to 72 hours after sex. The sooner the pill is taken, the more effective it is.

"Women's reproductive rights shouldn't hinge on someone else's schedule. We should have this at our fingertips. It should be next to condoms in drug stores," said Kelly Mangan, 22, president of the University of Florida's chapter of the National Organization for Women. She was arrested this month in a protest outside the FDA's headquarters in suburban Maryland.

Opponents worry that the drug encourages women -- teenagers in particular -- to have risky sex. If over-the-counter sales are permitted, older teenagers or adults might buy the pills for some of their younger friends or their sexual partners, critics say.

"It encourages risky sexual activity with the promise 'just pop a pill in the morning and you don't need to worry about pregnancy,"' said Wendy Wright of Concerned Women of America, a conservative group that focuses on social issues.

It never ceases to amaze me what great lengths we go to in this country to ensure that people don't have to deal with the consequences of their actions. I said it from the beginning. This entire effort is intended to get the morning after pill into the hands of teen-agers. (See Planned Parenthood's nifty little pamphlet with instructions on how to use the pill) They sure are on top of their game.

The current number one film in the country, "Coach Carter", tackles an incredibly important topic: the exaltation of sports and athletes. This isn't the most popular topic in a culture that essentially allows their professional athletes to be above the law and morality.

From drug and assault charges, to fights on the basketball court (whether justified or not), today, bad behavior and professional sports go hand in hand. And as if those realities weren't enough, we also have the rapid decline of sportsmanship and class both on and off the field. Recently, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss's fake mooning of Lambeau field after a touchdown during an NFL playoff game left a bad taste in the mouths of many.

It's simple really. Athletes, paid or unpaid are hot commodities. Nowadays it only seems as though college sports is breeding a pool of reckless, arrogant, and irreverent talent. Professional athletes get paid well to do what they do and they do it quite well. And in return for their services, they also get an adoring fan base that is more interested in the scoreboard than with their rap sheets. "Sports" is the altar at which much of America goes to worship. There every Sunday, they are a faithful crowd.

(See the following photo I took from the airplane on my last flight from Dallas. Seattle's two semi-brand new, multi-million dollar [and severely over-budget] baseball/football stadiums, side-by-side, and erected for two teams that haven't won any sort of championship in who knows how many years.)

"Coach Carter", which stars Samuel L. Jackson, is based on the real-life story of Coach Ken Carter, a no-nonsense disciplinarian who turned an ailing Richmond, California high school basketball team into a powerhouse both on the court and in the classroom. I know I know, "it's been done" right? Some saintly teacher/coach figure waltzes into the classroom and does a number on some rebellious hoodlum types who end up realizing their true potential and living happily ever after. "Dangerous Minds" meets "Remember the Titans" meets "Sister Act 2". The stories all sound the same, but "Coach Carter" promises a twist on the Cinderella story.

The film highlights Coach Carter's strict coaching methods, a few of which include making all players sign a contract requiring them to wear blazers and ties on game days and pass all their classes, among other things. When the team goes undefeated, egos rise and some of the students begin failing their classes. Carter stands firm on the terms of the contracts and locks the gym, not allowing the team to play until grade point averages go up. As a result, they forfeit their undefeated status and the community, parents, and the majority of the school board grows enraged with Carter's decision to bench the entire team.

The notion of the student/athlete and high school sports being a privilege is somewhat foreign to many, especially in the urban centers of America. The film forces us to answer the seemingly simply question of "what is more important than winning basketball games?" In the life of a young person, the answer is simple: "everything is more important". However, the continual exaltation of the great NBA hope and the excuses like "but sports is the only place where he finds affirmation" are severely crippling the athletic demographic that has never had anyone demand excellence from them in the classroom.

Since we're talking basketball, I may as well be honest and point out that the majority of the student athletes falling through the cracks are black. Here in Seattle, the only predominately black high school, "Rainier Beach High School" has the lowest test scores in the entire state, but has managed to win state championships in track, football and basketball. Several years ago, this school which has no computers and outdated textbooks that can't be taken home because there aren't enough for all the students, built a brand state-of-the-art sports complex. The school is in virtual shambles while the new exterior of the football stadium and track glisten in the sun.

Priorities? Winning state championships. We have the Seattle School District to thank for decisions such as that.

I've heard it discussed and debated many times over that black athletes dominate because they're naturally inclined to do so. Personally, I pull the reigns on that assumption because there are far too many variables present to make that type of a blanket statement. Binge drinking and water polo don't come naturally to white people simply because they're white. There are other circumstances involved in that equation.

There has been an unsettling weight placed on athleticism over academia in much of the black community. Many kids spend less time on their homework than they do after school playing basketball at a neighborhood court. Today, there is a warped mindset that has seeped its way into the consciousness of secondary and higher education. It's the philosophy that says it's okay to be dumb if you can play a sport well. It's also the philosophy that doesn't believe the job of an educator is to well, educate.

I salute people like the real-life Coach Carter and those like him who don't mind being disliked and unpopular for the sake of standing firm on principles that build character. Regardless of athletic ability, integrity is far a hotter commodity these days. Us younguns will figure that out sooner or later. If it were game, I'd sure pray that sooner beat later.

Yesterday, I wrote some elegant, choppy and scatteredly poignant thoughts on this "great" (quotes indicate sarcasm) holiday on which most people sleep in and do nothing. Then my computer froze and I lost the entire essay. The funny part is, I wasn't even sad. Rather telling I'd say. This comes a day after the fact so I'll keep it brief:

I started getting sick of this holiday back when I was in the eighth grade. For me, Martin Luther King Day always seemed like a reason for everyone to get together and act deep and "conscious" for one day to make atonement for their "sins".

While growing up in school, they usually had an assembly where they'd play black and white clips from "Eyes On the Prize" and make us join hands and under the most subtle of socialist pretenses one could ever imagine, we'd be forced to sing "We Shall Overcome" in beautiful harmony.

That song deserves to die a slow and painful death. To all the believers out there, I'm serving notice, we HAVE overcome. Let's kill that song.

The commercials with the soft flowing music and the words "He had a dream" flashing on the screen ever so slowly have become really hokey.

For me it really comes down to the fact that celebrating a dead person is fairly pointless. Let's aim to celebrate philosophy instead. Continuing to carry out the work a person started is far more important than exalting the dead. The more we focus on one individual, the more of a foothold we give the rainbow brigade and all the other ultra-liberal hijackers that run around trying to associate their plight with the civil rights movement.

Speculating about what King would and wouldn't support, do, say, speak, feel, is ultimately futile because no one will ever know.

Although Dr. King is a sacred cow, there are messy parts that have yet to be fully addressed. That doesn't change the fact that he was a vessel. If Jesus could use 12 jacked up disciples, one of whom was a liar and thief, to make an impact on the world, then surely we all qualify for greatness in some way or another.

King was used as a prophetic voice to his generation. In spite of my own disagreements with Dr. King, I won't, can't and don't knock his legacy. I get to stand on his shoulders so the least I can do is say thank you.

Last year's post: Happy Birthday Dr. King.

If she looks evil, that's because she is. And I don't accuse individuals of being evil all that often, but I've watched as Washington's political decorum has gone to shambles during this last election and I'm convinced that this woman will be the bane of our existence for the next four years.

A few of my thoughts on Washington's Ukrainian election: I watched recently as news reports confirmed that our new "Governor" Christine Gregoire's husband's official title is "First Gentleman".

Riiiight. I am so not calling anybody a "First Gentleman".

Am I the only one who thinks that to be completely out of order? Perhaps I'm just old fashioned like that, but "First Gentleman" just seems like a fake title to keep the feminists happy.

If you hadn't heard, Washington finally inaugurated our new "Governor" (quotes indicate some foul play) this past Wednesday. Why is this big news you ask? Well, as I'm sure most of you are aware, Washington state has been on a two-month-long quest to show the utter wickedness and incompetence of our state government. In other words, the Democrats cheated. For the last two months, they've been re-counting the ballots.

There was a recount. Then there was another recount. It's been embarrassing to say the least. "Missing" ballots have mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. Extensive research has shown that ballots have been cast by dead people, nonexistent people, and people who aren't even registered to vote. People who improperly filled out their absentee ballots therefore rendering them void were permitted to fix their mistake after the election in order to make their ballot count.

The battle has been over which ballots to count and which ones not to count.

I'd made predictions in the past that Washington would have its first Republican governor in 20 years. That was because the first time the ballots were counted, Republican candidate Dino Rossi, a self-made millionaire and former state senator (and favorite of even the NAACP) won by 241 votes. Then after a machine recount, he won by 42 votes. In the end, after a hand recount (which is by the way, even less accurate than an electronic one), and some rule-bending on the part of the Democrats which included but was not limited to paid individuals breaking down crying on national television, Christine Gregoire, former state attorney general won.

The crying I am referring to is when our Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt broke down crying on television when the judge gave him and his donkeys permission to continue in their cheating. At the time he claimed, "We just wanted to give everyone the right to vote."

Cow dung. The Democrats continue to front as if their motivation was based on civil rights and equal voting opportunity. Meanwhile, the deceased were casting their vote for Gregoire.

I'm sorry, but these people get paid far too much money to not be able to pull together their emotions. There's no crying in politics.

There were times when the election was looking more like "Days of Our Lives", than a political race. I was just waiting for some political official to get amnesia and forget their identity whilst being buried alive by their evil sister-in-law who is actually their birth mother.

Okay there's a confession. A long, long, long time ago when I was in sixth grade, I watched a soap opera. There I said it, and trust me, I feel bad about myself.

Currently, the GOP is pushing for a re-vote which is unprecedented. They appeared at the state capital the day before the inauguration pushing a motion to delay the swearing in ceremony until the court cases are complete. Needless to in a liberal state with a Democratic majority in both state Senate and House, it wasn't going to happen. Says Rossi:

"There are so many improperly cast and counted ballots that this election is invalid. You cannot tell who won. The only way for us to get out of this problem is for us to have a revote."

Personally, I think winning an election that's already been tainted is would be worse. Rossi should concede the classy way. Like Israel, Washington wanted their King, and they got her. We'll pay later.

I am a not-so-frequent writer at Sound Politics where a team of insanely astute individuals (myself not included) have broken down this election with amazing clarity. Go there if you want the gory details.

I've often stated my complete contempt for the demeaning tripe being passed off as "creative" in these modern-day music videos. Currently, hip hop is probably the biggest repeat offender in this arena. Now it seems that a few sensible and grounded women have decided to wage war against hip hop's misogynistic undertones. Much of hip hop doesn't just have misogynistic undertones. It has misogynistic under, over, all the way through, up, down and around tones. It is safe to say that the "tones" are ubiquitous.

Myrna Blyth's latest NRO column, "You Go Girl!", discusses the recent protest by Essence Magazine against the offensive way in which black women have been portrayed in lyrics and music videos. "Essence" is of course the largest and most successful magazine geared towards black women (and might I specify liberal and "sexually liberated" black women). Although, in the past they've managed to publish a column or two on abstinence.

Essence Magazine's new campaign called "Take Back the Music" came onto the scene with a big agenda and a flashy new webpage. In spite of my tendency to want to place my hand on my hip and roll my eyes, the year-long campaign does have some promising aspects. One being an upcoming study on how young girls who watch hours of music videos are affected. Organizers have made it clear that facts, not just feelings, are necessary to prove to people how dangerous degrading lyrics can be. As if the arrests, killings, stabbings, and fights during award shows hasn't been evidence enough.

Another ray of hope is the campaign's partnership with well-known historically black women's college Spelman (almost went there). Many may recall last year when some Spelman College women protested the on-campus performance of rapper and licensed misogynist Nelly, causing him to cancel his performance. These are all great strides. I even have great faith that the effort of Essence Magazine will spur some to action and create a stir amid the numbness.

But as always, there's a "but/butt".

I know I run the risk of becoming that jerk who always comes into the room you just spent all day painting and proudly declares, "hey you missed a spot", but I must say, I'm not the least bit impressed with these latest "stop the men from being ignorant" tactics; especially when the tactics are being endorsed by the likes of Ms. Magazine, the hub of the new age feminist movement. Sounds really great and all, and I'm sure this "take a stand" thing will catch-on for the moment. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't we the ones taking off our clothes and dropping it like it's hot? Did we not call ourselves female dogs on more than one album? Was anyone being held hostage and forced to don dental floss and red pleather with rivets? When was the last time you had to twist some girl's arm to become a video ho? And are we not the same women that allow our children to watch BET and all its filth? This entire "Take Back the Music" effort will be in vain if the mirror doesn't get pulled out expeditiously. And might I suggest we use a little Windex too?

The creators of the "Take Back the Music" movement gave this opening statement on their website:

"We are mothers, sisters, daughters and lovers of hip-hop. We’ve emulated the sexy confidence of Salt-N-Pepa and the toughness of MC Lyte. We’ve wept over Tupac Shakur’s visceral poetry and marveled at the lyrical dexterity of Notorious B.I.G. When Nas said, "The World Is Yours," we believed him. And today we stand at the forefront of popular culture: independent, talented and comfortable with the skin we’re in. We are really feeling ourselves. Perhaps that’s why we’re so alarmed at the imbalance in the depiction of our sexuality and character in music. In videos we are bikini-clad sisters gyrating around fully clothed grinning brothers like Vegas strippers on meth. When we search for ourselves in music lyrics, mixtapes and DVDs and on the pages of hip-hop magazines, we only seem to find our bare breasts and butts....he damage of this imbalanced portrayal of Black women is impossible to measure. An entire generation of Black girls are being raised on these narrow images. And as the messages and images are broadcast globally, they have become the lens through which the world now sees us. This cannot continue.

Well cry me the Nile River. Does anyone honestly expect a declaration against misogyny that includes the phrase "we've wept with visceral tears over Tupac Shakur's poetry" to be taken seriously? For. Crying. Out. Loud. I mean really people, let's at least pretend we have a clue. If we believed the delusional "Nas" (a rapper so confused he can't decide if he wants to be "conscious" or a "thug") when he said "The World Is Yours", then we were just plain stupid, and chances are, we need therapy.

Should the men in the music industry be held accountable to properly represent women? Absolutely. As leaders, protectors, heads of households, and fathers, they should be ensuring that women are treated with the utmost respect. Men certainly hold a great deal of responsibility in this whole female image disaster.

Women however, should not be without standard. Of all the talk I've heard against Gangsta Rap's foes (and it should be noted that Gangsta Rap in and of itself is one gigantic foe), rarely do I hear the flip side of the coin discussed. Granted, there is clearly some mental slavery that needs to be broken in our thinking, but no woman is being forced to partake in or support the dog and pony show.

Still, the issue is greater than just some song lyrics and music videos.

Other publications have covered the story on Essence's campaign. One article in the CS Monitor came to a most excellent conclusion:

"Of course, hip-hop is hardly the first, or only, form of contemporary music to portray women in an unflattering light. In the 1970s, and even more so in the 1980s, it was the spandex-clad, heavy metal crowd whose lyrics, videos, and album covers portrayed women as sexual objects.

That certainly suggests that the demeaning of women - and even misogyny - is a part of a wider societal problem that isn't peculiar to hip-hop. Nor is it just a black problem, since white consumers account for a huge share of hip-hop sales."

Now we're cooking with gas. This isn't just a "black problem". Once we realize this, our problem solving tactics will kick in with force.

It doesn't exactly help that the conquistadors of hip hop are completely blasé about the way women are portrayed. In her NRO article, Blyth was none too pleased with Russell Simmons's following defense of the industry:

"Although these records and videos are offensive, young girls can learn a lot about the mind-set of the young guys they're going to school with. Now that the truth is out there more, young girls can learn how to deal with guys."

Seems like old Russell "I'm too rich and stubborn to have my speech impediment fixed" Simmons must be smoking the same mind-altering substance his wife was a few months ago. Still, I bet we wouldn't see Aoki Lee and Ming Lee (Simmons's daughters) shaking their behinds on high definition television. Then again, considering the output of Simmons's wife Kimora Lee Simmons's hootchie-mama clothing line, Baby Phat, which she markets to pre-teens, I could be very, very wrong.

The attack on self image is a much bigger problem than a genre of music. When I wrote about singer Christina Aguilera a few months ago, it took me about 30 minutes just to find a photo of her online that was decent enough to post. Quite simply, the girl is not a big fan of clothing. All over the world, women are whoring themselves in and out of the limelight. It's a statement about the values of our culture. Fifty years ago, girls wouldn't get away with half of what they're currently wearing. Today one has to wonder, "is that a shirt, a skirt, a belt or a headband?" It's all the same size. Modesty and propriety are but a vapor.

The good news is that carnality gets old and eventually, women will get tired of feeling cheap, and music will come full circle. That isn't a license to shrink back. Taking back our dignity is a process that beckons more than just some chastising of the music industry. We must also cultivate an atmosphere where women can be taught to see themselves properly and take responsibility for their bodies and their purpose in this life. This peep show and the degrading names are the truest form of identity theft.

It's official. I'm done acting like a non-writing sap. This week's been tough mentally; too much change at one time. Besides, not writing has been really bad for my complexion and there's nothing like a pimple to motivate you to get your rear-end on the computer. I was preoccupied with other important things like paying the bills and acting like a ninny, and then I wake up this morning to this. Oh and then there's this. Life is such an incredible training ground and I'm really feeling accountable to doing what it is I love to do: communicate.

A few of you have emailed me requesting an update so here goes: there isn't one yet.

Thank you to all who've commented or sent me emails or leads over the last week. I've said it once, I'll say it again, I have a fabulous group of people reading this website. I truly mean that. Even the commenters that have copped a spot on my everlasting nerve and manage to oppose my every word sent me encouragement. And to them I temporarily apologize for the mean thoughts I've entertained about them and their future children. I say "temporarily" apologize because I know it won't be long before I'm ready to hurl my computer at their foreheads once again

But I'm not a violent person. I'll continue to chant that as my mantra.

I'm officially finished with this "I don't feel like writing" stint I tried to pull on myself. When this whole shebang first went down, the first mandate I received from an unnamed source was "whatever you do, don't stop blogging". Needless to say, I've been disobedient to that suggestion. The thing that really gets me is how many cheap shots at the NAACP I've missed over these past weeks. Bummer.

The blogosphere rocks and I'm sorry I've been away so long. Thanks everyone for the support. If I could do this and get paid, life would be grand.

In the interest of full disclosure, the potential sympathy of readers who are tired of me "not-posting", and because I’m just downright flippant, I regret to inform you that last week, I was dooced. See the famous Heather Armstrong’s recap of her experience for reference.

I love and respect my former company and therefore will say nothing more on this subject, let alone tarnish their name on the world wide web. All is unfair in love and blogging. Just thought you should know. Such are the elements of a faithwalk.

Reports say, "Blog Readership Up"

I'm curious to know peoples' thoughts on the future of this blog medium, blogosphere thingy. Since I just reached my one year mark as a blogger (with only two week-long breaks in 365 days I might add), I have decided to call myself an expert.

Just kidding.

What I am compiling however, are my tips on successful blogging. Not the cliche stuff, but the real stuff. You know, stuff like don't tell us about what PowerPuff Girl character you are based on some online personality quiz you took. No one cares. Really. I started a series a few months ago but never posted it called "How to Blog Like a Rockstar". I was waiting until I could say I'd been doing it for year before I posted it. And now after some degree of success, I think I have at least a tad of unorthodox wisdom to throw into the pot. We'll see.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the world crisis taking place in the aftermath of the Tsunamis along the coast of Asia. Anyone with their head buried in a pillow over the past week is probably awestruck, wondering why flags everywhere are flying at half mast. Meanwhile, news reports are informative, yet relentless. At what point does seeing the same graphic footage of thousands of bodies being carried from the rubble cease to aid us in being empathetic and start enabling us to fall further into our numbed state of desensitization?

It’s just unreal the numbers.

And is it just me, or does it almost seem like the financial relief effort is an auction to the highest bidder? Ever since it was falsely declared that Americans were stingy, it seems like countries have been competing to give the most money. This isn’t to say that more money towards the relief effort is a bad thing, although I think the whole “we’re the biggest givers” complex is a bit disheartening. In the case of America, I don’t necessarily think our substantial giving garners us a pat on the back, much less a chocolate chip cookie. We’re a blessed country that has been given much and therefore much should be required. We shouldn’t get special brownie points for holding up our end of an expectation.

The thing that’s really struck me is how unimaginable the loss of life is to our puny understanding of “tragedy”. As a precursor, what I am about to say in no way diminishes the blood spilled on September 11th. When two terrorist planes hit and destroyed the Twin Towers, early predictions of lives lost were in the low thousands. The thought of that was more than many Americans could bare. The big difference between September 11th and the Asian Tsunamis is that one was a terrorist attack while the other was a “natural” disaster. That of course depends on your definition of “natural” and your definition of “terror”.

Still, with the ultimate September 11th carnage being less than 5,000 lives lost, many Americans were convinced that we had just experienced the worse loss of life in the entire universe. And while even one life lost is significant, I think our outlook on things bares a bit of perspective. I don’t pretend to know and understand the reasons why God allows certain events to take place, but I tend to think that humanity is more at fault than anyone would like or care to believe. More on that later.

With current estimates in the hundreds of thousands with far too many unaccounted for, we cannot even fathom that type of destruction. The value on human life doesn’t go up when it happens to Americans. In the least cliché way possible, we must reaffirm to ourselves the sanctity of human life.

I found myself in observation mode late yesterday afternoon as I stood in Concourse B baggage claim of the Dallas Fort Worth Airport. I was hot, edgy and exhausted when I saw a young man, no older than 30-years-old, reuniting with his entire family after what was clearly a long distance and time of separation. There were many tears. Forget the security hassles, and losing luggage, this was the stuff airports were made for.

Meanwhile, I stood next to a man who donned an old and tattered “I’m a Vietnam Veteran” hat. He was with his teenage son. Right before our eyes, hundreds of Army soldiers began walking by with their tickets in hand, on their way to help in some international relief, I’m sure. Many of them stopped to shake the vet’s hand, thanking him for all he did in Vietnam. The man’s son couldn’t have been more proud of his father. Life is indeed precious.

Today, thousands of children are left parentless and parents left childless. Siblings have been left sibling-less, and families broken apart. I often ponder the importance of my own family. Sometimes, out of selfishness, I’ve wished that I didn’t love them as much as I do because then if something ever happened to them, I’d be spared my own pain and suffering. Yet at the same time, I’d die for every single one of them. It occurs to me that God didn’t make a mistake when He designed human beings to need love and interaction with other human beings. It’s a privilege to have a loving family and relationships of depth and meaning.

More than anyone, Americans should know what it’s like to feel vulnerable. What a tremendous time for us to step outside ourselves and consider someone else. The good news is that historically, every great revival followed a major disaster. Protestant Reformation, Azusa, you name it.

God’s will be done.

I think I’ve figured it out. Most companies stink at customer service. I know I know, big revelation. Perhaps I’ve been a little too open-minded to think otherwise, but America has once again proven me oh so wrong. And silly me to think that by choosing to spend my hard-earned dollar at your nice little establishment, you would at least treat me like 3/5 of a person and not just some speck in your sales quota.

I find it very interesting that at any given time, you can walk into a Verizon Wireless Store and be hounded by sales people trying to sell you some new brand of cell phone that can do push-ups and take out the garbage. Really folks, I don’t need to be able to take pictures and email people in Bora Bora with my phone, I just need for it to work when I dial. How ‘bout that eh? A working cell phone...who knew it existed!

In less than five minutes, a Verizon Wireless sales associate can run a credit check, set up a new phone number and account, take your money, and send you on your way. But if one were to walk into that same Verizon Wireless Store two days later with an issue or complaint about the phone, one would be asked to pick a number and stand in line for two hours because there aren’t enough available service representatives.

We can help you spend your money with us, but we can’t help you when we don’t hold up our end of the bargain. Oh I see how this game is played.

To all you companies that use automated telephone answering systems, I’m glad that you “Value my call” and that “My call is very important to you” and all that lovely verbal fluff, but if my call was really all that important, you wouldn’t have me waiting on the line for 45 minutes listening to looped elevator music and a robotic voice asking me to “press 1 if...”.

I have a proposition for you. When customers call, please add to your menu and option that goes something like this, “If you’re sick and tired of waiting on the phone for nonexistent employees, please hang-up.” I guarantee you it would decrease your call volume significantly.

And to all you companies with voice activated systems, may you receive 10-fold what you deserve.

To every young lady who works in the clothing industry, chews gum on the sales floor, makes personal calls to her boyfriend in front of customers whilst ignoring them, and gets an attitude when asked to go into the back to get a different size of jeans as though the fact that she's collecting a paycheck doesn't entitle me to her "services": please quit your job now. You are a disgrace to the customer service industry.

And lastly, on behalf of disgruntled customers everywhere, we’d like to remind you that we do have a choice in where we shop and while you may think you’re doing us a favor by allowing us to patronize your establishment, the reality is you need us more than we need you.

Act like you know.

Yesterday, I embarked on a two-day trip to one of my favorite places in the United States: Dallas, Texas. I’ve made it clear in the past that I adore the “Big D”. Given the political and racial history of Texas and other neighboring states, many Americans have developed an aversion to all things “South”. Being among black people, I’ve often heard people railing against southern white culture and the Republican majority and the racism and the bigotry and blah blah blah. Still I say, the South is the only place in all of America where a white person and a black person can sit down together at the same table and eat a bowl of grits.

I’m no dummy. The South has left many wounds yet to heal. I realize the South is far from perfect. Then again, so is the Pacific Northwest so what's with all the fuss? All the blabber really means nothing to me when confronted with the reality that some of the nicest and most genuine Americans you will meet are in the South while some of the meanest ones are in the North.

Sometimes I wish the South could come up North and teach classes. On the top of the docket of topics would be “How to open a door for a woman, How to say 'Ma'am' and 'Sir', How to say thank you, How to fry food, How to barbebque, How to worship God.” In defense of the South, a region about which people generally have very few nice things to say, I’m going to re-run my list of things I love about Texas:

1. Chivalry
   
2. Everything’s big
   
3. Chapels in the airports
   
4. The presence of the following fast food chains: Chik-fil-A, Whataburger, Popeye’s, Sonic
   
5. White people who know how to barbeque and eat grits
   
6. Nice, friendly, and outgoing people
   
7. Christian bookstores within a 5 mile radius
   
8. Four bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2500 square ft. homes for sale at the sickeningly low price of $175,000 (you couldn’t even buy a 350 sq ft condo in Seattle for that price)
   
9. State pride.
   
10. Primetime television starts at 7:00 pm
    
11. Biscuits with everything
    

So I know what you're thinking: this "Ambra chick" went off and abandoned her weblog for good. And it's not like I didn't consider it once or twice during the time I was gone. I'd liken it to a parenting situation when you send your kiddies off to Grandma's for the weekend and after 24 hours, you realize that life without children isn't all that bad.

I think I hit a bad case of the single life. Life without a weblog, oh the things I could do!

Catch up on the last 15 episodes of "Punk'd", that's what. Incidentally, both my grandmother and mother are now hooked on the show.

Eat lots of fatty food and gain a few pounds, that's what.

Subject myself to mediocre renditions of "Joy to the World" sung by a mass choir of four people, that's what.

Grunt my way through extended family discussions on the "lack of critical thinking skills" in every American that voted for Bush, that's what.

What started out as the mere "weekend off" turned into a nearly 2-week long hiatus wherein I got some much needed practice in holding my waggly tongue. And yet, I made it through my singlehood realizing that life is indeed better with a weblog. Not having an outlet, makes one grumpy.

While I was gone, many have reported to me that the site's been down and that emails to me have been bouncing back. Chalk it up to technical difficulties. Couple a winter vacation with technical difficulties plus too much food plus an exorbitant amount of sleep and you get an impromptu hiatus. For the record, I'm sick of airports. Just sick I tell you.

I trust everyone rang in the new year in style. If it weren't for "don't drink and drive" commercial #642 and the special on Binge Drinkers on the Dr. Phil show, I would've nearly forgotten about New Year's Eve. Jet lag will do that to you. Still, I can say with a great deal of certainty that whatever you were doing at 11:59 pm on December 31st was ten times more fun than what I was doing.

Happy New Year everyone.

I suppose all this is my long way of saying, "I'm back", and not without an abundance of commentary so stick around. I'd say 2005 should be bigger and better. Well, maybe just better. Thanks for the emails of concern. Contrary to semi-popular belief, I am still alive and kicking. One year and three days on the internet and not going anywhere anytime soon.