This coming Saturday from 10-2pm is our KKLA Family Fun Day here outside our studios in Glendale, at the northwest corner of Brand and the 134. We'll have free carnival games and prizes, photos with our KKLA hosts and hostesses, and we'll be giving away tickets to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Spa Visits, overnight hotel accommodation and restaurant gift certificates! Parking is $7.00. Go to kkla.com for more info.
400-408 – Anthony Bradley, Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at The King's College in New York (tkc.edu), research fellow at the Acton Institute (acton.org), and author of Liberating Black Theology: The Bible and the Black Experience in America, and author of the new Black and Tired: Essays on Race, Politics, Culture, and International Development (YouTube Trailer). You can contact him through his website dranthonybradley.com. Today we talk about the impact of the recession on the black family, and the many failures of our inner-city schools. A big theme for Anthony is to emphasize what all of the social and economic research indicates, which is that our social problems are not rooted in race, but in class – and, it is supported by international evidence.
• Westward (7/8/2011) Colorado day-care center proposal: Dolls must represent at least three different races.
• Jesse Washington (Chicago Sun Times, 7/10/2011) The disappearing black middle class.
413-423 – Anthony Bradley,
428-438 – Anthony Bradley,
443-452 – Anthony Bradley,
458-508 – • Jason Gay (WSJ, 7/11/2011) Returning the Ball, and the Humility. Calls – Did he make the right decision? Would you have done the same? If it were your 3000th hit, would you want someone to give it back to you? If the Golden Rule is the fundamental moral principle, would you apply it in this instance? What are you teaching your kids? Have you ever returned something that you could have kept just because it was the "right thing to do?"
(:41) Jeter's Ball. (Fox News w/Shepard Smith on 7/11/2011. Christian Lopez is the man who gave back Jeter's 3,000th career hit ball to him as a gift, instead of bargaining for money.)
512-523 – Calls
528-539 – Calls
544-554 – Calls
558-608 – Gary Schneeberger, VP Communications, Focus on the Family. I'm so proud of how Focus is handling this whole thing! It's about the kids getting their shoes, not about the gays getting same-sex marriage. Hopefully, Blake will re-think the whole thing too.
• MS. Magazine petition at Change.org (7/10/2011) Tell TOMS To Cut Ties with Anti-Gay, Anti-Choice, Anti-Woman Group. Below is the petition letter that gained 400 signatures in a few hours, with the total as of this posting at 566.
PETITION LETTER: End partnership between TOMS and Focus on the Family
Greetings,
I just signed the following petition addressed to: TOMS shoes founder Blake Mycoskie.
End partnership between TOMS and Focus on the Family
TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie has begun working closely with the notorious extreme right-wing, anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-woman fundamentalist Christian group Focus on the Family. He recently appeared at a Focus on the Family event where he discussed "faith in action" with Focus on the Family president Jim Daly. Focus On The Family is in the process of becoming a TOMS international distributor in Africa.
The TOMS "One for One" movement, which matches every pair of shoes sold with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need, has become extremely popular with consumers who appreciate the philanthropic benefits of buying TOMS. However, this affiliation with a group founded on anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-choice principles tarnishes the company's reputation as a force for good. What's more, TOMS affiliation with this extreme right-wing group serves to legitimize the fringe organization,
Sincerely, [Your name]
• Joe Mirabella, Seattle Post Intelligencer, "Step Forward: Progressive LGBT Politics" (7/9/2011) Focus on the Family Misrepresented Relationship with TOMS Shoes.
// The Mycoskie statement was released to Change.org after I contacted the company on Friday night to seek clarification on why the brand would associate itself with a group known for fighting against efforts to expand the rights of LGBT and female Americans. According to Doug Piwinski, a TOMS spokesperson, both he and Mycoskie were on separate vacations when the news broke and were unaware of the developing controversy (although Mycoskie appears to have written this blog post on July 5 during his vacation). After receiving my call, they realized the "situation was serious" and decided to issue a statement.
• Blake Mycoskie, Startsomethingthatmatters.com (7/9/2011) A Sincere Apology.
Had I known the full extent of Focus on the Family's beliefs, I would not have accepted the invitation to speak at their event. It was an oversight on my part and the company's part and one we regret. In the last 18 months we have presented at over 70 different engagements and we do our best to make sure we choose our engagements wisely, on this one we chose poorly.
Furthermore, contrary to what has been reported, Focus on the Family is not a TOMS giving partner.
So there is no misunderstanding created by this mistake, let me clearly state that both TOMS, and I as the founder, are passionate believers in equal human and civil rights for all. That belief is a core value of the company and of which we are most proud.
• Focus on the Family (7/10/2011) Focus on the Family Still Wants to Help Kids Get Shoes Through TOMS. The official FOTF statement.
• Christian Post (7/10/2011) TOMS Founder Distances Company From Focus on the Family.
// TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie is an evangelical Christian who attends popular Mosaic Church, led by Pastor Erwin McManus, in Los Angeles. Mycoskie is not shy about talking about his Christian faith and its influence on his business-charity model.
At the 2010 Global Leadership Summit at Willow Creek Community Church, Mycoskie shared, "I think that TOMS represents a lot of different biblical principles but the one that I kind of go back to again and again is in Proverbs, where it says 'give your first fruits and your vats will be full.'"
The young entrepreneur says the Bible and C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity are among his favorite books. But Mycoskie, like a growing number of young evangelicals, has stayed away from culture war issues and focuses his efforts instead on battling humanitarian problems.
612-623 – Gary Schneeberger, Calls – What's your view of Blake Mycoskie and Tom's Shoes now?
628-639 – Gary Schneeberger, Calls – What's your view of Blake Mycoskie and Tom's Shoes now?
644-654 – Gary Schneeberger, Calls – What's your view of Blake Mycoskie and Tom's Shoes now?
• Patrick Range McDonald (LA Weekly "Queer Town", 7/11/2011) Did TOMS' Blake Mycoskie Really Not Know About Anti-Gay Focus on the Family?
• Sarah Pulliam Bailey (Christianity Today, 7/10/2011) Exclusive: Focus on the Family Responds to TOMS's Founder Apology. Blake Mycoskie distanced himself from the organization yesterday.
• Christianity Today (7/1/2011) Refocusing on the Family. Like many evangelical organizations that were built in the past 50 years, Focus on the Family is attempting to thrive—and survive—past its founder.
• NRO Editors (7/11/2011) Make Ours Medium.
• WSJ (7/11/2011) Taxes Upon Taxes Upon . . . Obama wants $1 trillion in taxes on top of what he's already signed.
• NJ.com (7/7/2011) Judge rules use of GPS to track a cheating spouse is not an invasion of privacy.
Beware, all you cheating husbands and wives.
The use of a GPS device to track your whereabouts is not an invasion of privacy in New Jersey, a state appellate court panel ruled today.
// Appellate Judge Joseph Lisa, Jack Sabatino and Carmen Alvarez said Villanova had no right to expect privacy because the GPS tracked his movements on public streets.
"There is no direct evidence in this record to establish that during the approximately 40 days the GPS was in the ... glove compartment the device captured a movement of plaintiff into a secluded location that was not in public view, and, if so, that such information was passed along by Mrs. Villanova to (Leonard)," Lisa wrote.
// GPS doesn't just track cheating spouses. Private investigators use it to keep tabs on the subjects of insurance fraud investigations, background checks and child custody cases, Mesis said. "The tracker's not doing anything different than what a person in a car would be doing," he said.
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