top 5 things to rant about…today…

Two weeks ago, a neo-nazi group in Toledo (Ohio) had a march to protest “black gangs who were harassing white residents”. In an attempt to prove that the neo-nazi group was nothing but a bunch of redneck racists who were stereotyping them, black gang members decided to vandalize local vehicles and stores, burn down buildings, and shoot at police. Genius.

A week ago, the PM of France referred to young people, living in a certain area of the city and causing problems, as scum. A few days later a couple of youth from that area were electrocuted when they decided to hide from police in an electrical station. To show that the PM was nothing but a racist out to stereotype an entire community, youths from that community decided to start burning cars and shooting at police. A week later they’re still burning cars, killing old people, and shooting at police. Genius.

Is anybody using their brain here? By the way, that's all one thing...moving on.

Rap music. It would take me days to write down all of my thoughts concerning rap music. Especially right now. Out of the, approximately, 50 billion rappers who are out there with a record deal right now, there are only about four who are any good, and only about three who are doing anything unique and original. But I simply want to take this time to completely condemn those rappers who have no conscience, aren’t giving a thing back to their communities, and who are glorifying the kind of violence and lifestyle that are destroying the lives of young people. There is no way to justify the kind of stuff these guys are rapping about. For every protest song (and there haven’t been many in the past decade) there are thousands of songs simply singing of the joys of gun violence, drugs, and the sexual exploitation of women. A friend of mine says that the difference between judgement and accountability is that judgement goes the final step and actually sentences somebody, something that we as humans don’t have the right to do (spiritually). After seven years of working with inner city youth, and two years of working with kids who’s only knowledge of America revolves around the rap songs they listen to, I’d really like to take a shot at judging guys like 50 Cent and The Game. Not only are these guys regurgitating The Chronic album (and doing an extremely crap job of it) they are leading a generation of young people (who don’t know any better) to believe that gang/gun violence and drug use are something to strive for. Ultimately I don’t truly believe what I’m about to say, but right now, sitting here in Tottenham, these guys are worse than Hitler to me as they’re leading ten times the amount of people to their ultimate demise. They deserve to stand before the world one day and have every last one of us spit on them.

Stubborn/selfish Christians/churches who are only interested in lost people if those lost people are willing to come to them, talk, dress, and act like them, and find a way to be inspired by a god who we’ve made to look completely uninspiring. The world is doomed if this is their only choice! Churches/Christians like this may be doing just as much to lead a world to hell as The Game and 50 Cent. Bring on the nasty comments, but only if you can prove me wrong. I’m tired of winy comments from people who, in the end, spend their comment space griping at me but never actually coming up with any evidence that what I’m saying isn’t true. And by the way, this is on my top 5 list of things to rant about EVERY day!

London’s public transport! Assuming that the “scum” of Paris don’t burn it to the ground first, London could really learn a thing or two from Paris’ public transport. I shutter to think what’s going to happen here, in seven years, when the world converges on London for the Olympics. No space to drive, an underground with 1950’s technology (and also the last time it’s been cleaned), and a bus system that can only be used if you’ve lived here long enough to figure out where in the world the 329 will take you!

People living and working in DHQ’s across America, scoring free tickets to NFL games! I might hate you the most. Drew, this means you.

It’s been a tough day, but as every gay clubber in America will agree, I will survive. I took this photo for a good and gay friend of mine (you know who you are). It appears that they will sell anything here, so you might want to rethink that visit in the Spring!