Motivational Quote
 

Trump-loving pastor says ‘morality’ is not a necessary qualification for leadership

Black Trump-supporting pastor Mark Burns, the man who has lied about his bio and once tweeted out a cartoon of Hillary Clinton wearing blackface, is back but this time to defendAlabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore.

He was on MSNBC’s AM Joy and on the show, Burns said that in terms of Moore being accused by eight women of sexual misconduct, morality “wasn’t the only quality that makes a good leader.”

“Hold on just a second. One moment, hold on, hold on,” Reid cried. “I’m going to let you back in. You’re not a lawyer, you’re not a judge. You’re not here to judge whether or not in a court of law Roy Moore would be found guilty after nine women accused him of sexually molesting children.”

She went on, “We have you on because you’re a pastor. What your job is, in theory, is to provide a moral framework for the people who go to your church and listen to you. How can you say that in your moral framework, you’re not here to adjudicate the case, but you’re saying that morality is not the only important thing. Aren’t you a moral leader? Like, isn’t that what you’re supposed to be advocating for, for moral leadership?”

Burns replied that his job as a pastor is to see if someone needed to be counseled and to “first discover what do we need to do to start the healing process within that individual.”

“Roy Moore isn’t asking for redemption or healing,” Reid replied. “He’s denying he did it.”

Burns went on to say that we need to be asking ourselves if the women are more credible than someone who has been in public service for years. Reid then asked if that meant he didn’t find the women credible.

“I do find the fact that Roy Moore has served faithfully for over 40 years publicly in public office and these women had plenty of opportunity, plenty of opportunities, Joy, to come out and it is suspicious,” he stated. “I think the great people of Alabama are realizing that, which is why the majority of Alabamians are still going to vote for Roy Moore, even the governor, even the women that stepped up and said we’re still supporting Roy Moore, because their understanding, it is extremely suspicious that this is all coming out after he’s become the candidate.”

Reid then turned to Republican strategist Sarah Rumpf for her opinion and Rumpf said, “The idea that we’re going to discredit these women because they don’t have the prominence of Roy Moore, that is how Roy Moore and Harvey Weinstein and Bill O’Reilly and all the rest of these predators have been getting away with it for so long because they were in a position of power and the women were afraid of social and professional and cultural consequences.”

Texans driven mad as tolls burn holes in their wallets

Angela Dean spends at least $200 a month to cover after-school care for her 5-year-old son. Getting back and forth to work — and making sure she picks him up in time — costs another $200 just in tolls.

“If I didn’t take toll roads, my commute would be an hour-and-a-half or more depending on traffic,” Dean said. “I get off work at 5:30 p.m. and I have to pick my son up by 6:30 or pay crazy late fees. When I take the toll roads, I get there with about 15 minutes to spare.”

The North Texas suburbanite uses the President George H. W. Bush Turnpike or Sam Rayburn Tollway to travel between her Lewisville home and Richardson workplace each day. Those roads are like many across Texas built in an era when transportation leaders said there wasn’t enough tax money to fund all the construction needed to keep up with population growth.

Regional planners and state officials are also adding managed toll lanes alongside existing highway main lanes throughout the state’s urban areas. Those are used to partially finance road rebuilds and expansions — and to provide drivers with the option of paying to avoid congestion.

But as the number of toll projects continues to ramp up in the name of easier commutes, Dean is among thousands of Texans feeling anything but relief. Drivers across the state complain about paying tolls on top of gas taxes, being charged exorbitant late fees and having to choose between traffic delays or costly toll bills.

Texans, local officials and legislators have pushed back on plans for new toll roads and managed toll lanes in recent years. Voters in 2014 and 2015 sent the Texas Department of Transportation more revenue, after state leaders assured them that the money wouldn’t be used on toll projects. The agency considered using an accounting maneuver to still fund some new managed toll lanes but backed off that idea amid political pressure Thursday.

Meanwhile, Texans are seeing existing toll lanes impacting their pocketbooks — and influencing major life choices.

In 2015, an 11-mile stretch of Austin’s MoPac Boulevard expanded to eight lanes from six, and the two new lanes were tolled — to the displeasure of Laura Thomas.

The Austin resident bought a house near the corridor thinking the construction would be complete within a year. But construction on the $200 million project took much longer, making the drive to her daughter’s school “unbearable.” Thomas found herself having to choose between paying a toll to skip traffic or spend time trapped in gridlock.

“At peak times the cost of the toll could be over $10,” Thomas said. “My stress level was through the roof.”

Christie Nichols Duty and her husband received a $35 invoice from the North Texas Tollway Authority. They didn’t initially pay it, and now it’s ballooned into a $1,200 bill. Christie Nichols Duty

Eventually, Thomas sold her house and downsized to an apartment in another part of the city that had 500 fewer square feet and one less bedroom.

“Obviously it was a big trade-off,” Thomas said. “But my main question to myself when making the decision was, ‘Is my sanity worth it?’ And it was worth sacrificing some things for peace in the mornings.”

For Christie Nichols Duty of Kaufman, a town about 35 miles southeast of Dallas, toll roads have proven to be hard to avoid — even when she tries. Last year, she and her husband were driving on Interstate 35-E near downtown Dallas when they realized they were in a lane that would force them to enter the Dallas North Tollway. The couple tried to change lanes, but weren’t successful.

Duty said they’ve also had problems with confusing signs on other highways, like LBJ Freeway, that have managed toll lanes running alongside main lanes.

“For people that are not used to the area, it can be very deceiving,” she said.

When the couple received a $35 bill from the North Texas Tollway Authority, they didn’t initially pay it because they weren’t happy with being “forced onto the tollway.” Now it’s ballooned into a $1,200 bill.

“We’ll have to do a payment plan because we don’t have that kind of money sitting around,” Duty said.

Michelle Kelly of Mesquite used to rely on toll roads all the time when she was a student at the University of North Texas in Denton. These days, she uses the Bush Turnpike to go to nearby Rowlett or visit Firewheel Town Center in Garland. But she said the “pricey tolls” mean she only uses that corridor on occasion.

“I’m on a budget, and it hurts my budget if I drive on them on a regular basis,” she said.

Dean, the Lewisville commuter, is among many people who thought that once toll revenues paid off construction costs, roads and toll lanes would become free for drivers. But toll agencies and the Texas Department of Transportation instead plan to use excess toll money to fund road maintenance — and construction of new projects.

That includes new toll projects.

“The sad thing is, the tolls never go away,” Dean said. “Oftentimes we are paying tolls just to sit in traffic, and the toll roads are supposed to alleviate the traffic.”

 

A video game for Black women tired of people touching their hair

If you’ve never had a stranger try to touch your hair without permission, you’re lucky. You’re also probably not a black woman.

A new video game will give you a taste of how frustrating the experience can be.

Creator Momo Pixel designed the game after she was tired of people making unwanted touches of her hair. And other black women are equally tired of undesired touching, which is why the game, released on Wednesday, has gone viral.

It’s a conversation that keeps happening, although black women have repeatedly said, “Don’t touch my hair.” The message has been relayed in the news, in entertainment media and now in video games. Pixel says the message needed to be shared once again “so we don’t have to keep having this conversation.”

She remembers trying to explain this phenomenon to her boss, who’s white. Pixel is an art director and pixel designer for Wieden+Kennedy in Portland. Her boss tried to imagine what she and other black women experience when people touch their hair without warning.

“He was dodging and ducking. He looked so silly,” Pixel said. She mumbled to herself, “This would make a hilarious game.” And the idea for her video game “Hair Nah” was born.

The title is a play on the phrase “hell nah (no).”

“When people ask you if they can touch [your hair], you want to say to them, ‘Hell nah,'” Pixel said. “These are moments you want to say ‘nah’ but for your hair.”

Gamers are taken on a journey in this game. Literally. There’s a choice of going to Osaka, Japan; Havana, Cuba; or the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California. You can even craft your own black woman avatar, choosing the skin color and hair style, so you’re truly in character for this experience.

As you make your way to the airport to catch your flight, you must swat away the many white hands that suddenly pop out of every direction to touch your avatar’s hair. A narrator avatar, based on Pixel, guides you along with encouraging messages, reminding you that you’re a black girl who rocks. But just catching flights and not feelings is difficult in this game.

Pixel says she wants people to know “how much of an invasion of privacy and personal space this is.” She admits that she made the game difficult because she wanted to create a sense of anxiety, since that’s what a “hair nah” moment induces.

One of the worst memories she has of a “hair nah” moment was when she was checking out at a grocery store. The cashier reached over the conveyor belt and grabbed her braids. This ironically happened during the time she was designing the game.

“It felt like getting molested, because she was caressing them,” Pixel said. “Even thinking about it now, I just want to throw up. I was uncomfortable.”

Pixel, who’s been wearing her hair in vibrant, multi-colored styles since 2011, says it happens “abundantly” in Portland, which she describes as a very white place. “I’ve lived a lot of places but people touch my hair here more than anywhere,” she said. “I remember being mad all the time. I used to just hate walking outside because [I] knew someone was going to invade [my] space.”

That feeling is what she wanted to convey in her game. If you reach your destination in the game, you’re congratulated and left with a reminder that, although the game is over, “this is an issue black women face daily. So a note to those who do it, ‘stop that sh*t.'”

But she says it happens to black men, too, with the hair on their head and their face. Pixel plans to make a version for black men.

Her future plans also include creating a “hair nah” app and clothing line based on the game with an ’80s aesthetic.

“Sometimes I just have to do it for the culture,” Pixel said.

Activists protest Bob McNair during Texans game

Several people rallied outside NRG stadium during Sunday’s Texans game in protest of a recent statement by team owner Bob McNair.

Protesters chanted, “McNair don’t care.”

Their signs painted a picture of the problem protesters have with the owner of their hometown team.

“These are not inmates,” said Jeffrey L. Boney, the associate editor for Houston Forward Times. “These are skilled, highly paid professionals who are doing a great job.”

A year after Colin Kaepernick first took a knee during the National Anthem and weeks after dozens of players followed suit, Texans owner Bob McNair said the following about sideline protests:

“You can’t have inmates running the prison.”

He later clarified that he was not referring to NFL players as inmates, instead referring to the relationship between the league office and team owners.

“Well, I guess the question that we’ve come to ask is, with his apologies, and his apology statements, should those statements be taken literally?,” said Boney.

As the Texans beat the Cardinals, there were dozens of people rallied against racism, bigotry and police brutality. The core of why Kaeperneck says he took a knee.

“When it comes to you targeting our children in this wicked criminal justice system in Harris County and the State of Texas, today we come to say enough,” said Deric Muhammad, a protestor.

The Houston Texans issued another statement about the matter Sunday evening.

“We made it abundantly clear that Bob McNair was referring to the league office and its employees, not the players, when the statement in question was made. McNair’s many contributions to the community have been well documented. The Texans will continue to support our players commitment to the city.”

 

Russell Simmons accused of sexual assault

Keri Claussen Khalighi alleges that Russell Simmons sexually assaulted her in 1991, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“I looked over at Brett [Ratner] and said ‘help me’ and I’ll never forget the look on his face. In that moment, the realization fell on me that they were in it together,” she recalled, according to the Times.

Khalighi was a 17-year-old fashion model from Nebraska when she met with Simmons and Ratner for dinner at a New York restaurant. The three of them went back to Simmons’ apartment where he forcibly removed her clothes. Khalighi said she fought Simmons’ sexual advances but ultimately yielded to his demand for oral sex before he later penetrated her briefly. According to Khalighi, the two men lured her to Simmons’ apartment after dinner that evening to show her a music video they were creating. The Def Jam Recording mogul was about twice her age at that time, she added.

The music mogul, now 60 years old, denied her recollection in a statement, saying that she consented to whatever happened. Ratner, meanwhile, speaking through his attorney, said he does not recall Khalighi asking him for help. Ratner, the director of hit movies such as “Rush Hour” and “The Revenant,” has been accused of sexual misconduct by several other women, including actress Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, according to the Times. Simmons wrote in his book, “Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success,” that Ratner, a film student at New York University in 1987 when they met, supplied him with models after Ratner figured out what Simmons liked, the newspaper said

 
The PINNACLE Center is free* for use to Fort Bend and City of Houston residents that are ages 50 and above.
Location Hours

5525#C Hobby Road, Houston, Texas 77053
Phone: 832-471-2760 or 832-471-2765

Monday – Friday 7:30 AM - 7:30 PM

Saturday 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM

The PINNACLE Center includes:
  • Wi-Fi Internet Café
  • Fitness Center
  • Outdoor Walking Trail
  • Fitness Classes – Self Defense, Weight Training, Zumba, Flexibility, Aerobics, and Chair Fitness
  • Ping Pong
  • Dance Classes – Line Dancing, Two Stepping and Swing Out
  • Veterans Assistance & Social Service Assistance
  • Financial Planning  
  • Knowledge is POWER DAY
  • Computer Classes
  • Table Games - Bingo, Dominos and various Card Games
  • Marketplace Monday - Vendors welcome on the 1st Monday of each month