“Like all marriages, we have our ups and downs, and we are going through a difficult phase now. We are currently separated,” said Thomas.

He changed sex at age 24 and is legally a man. But keep the female sexual organs. When I was a woman, whose name was Tracy Lagondino.

His ex-wife Nancy had a hysterectomy and can not be a mother. The first child was conceived through artificial insemination with donor sperm. Then he had two sons, Austin and Jensen Beatie.

In April 2008, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Thomas said to him, “the necessity of having a child is not feeling masculine or feminine, but human.” “I’ma person and I am entitled to have a biological child,” he said at the time.

There was an angel, and her name was Whitney; and most everyone the world over loved her for the joys and melodies she brought into many homes in the United States and across the world. Over the course of history, however, humanity has learned that humans will only love you as long as you look good and deliver; as soon as you start to flounder, they can feed you to the sharks. This is what happened to dear Whitney – somewhere along the line, she did flounder… and it was not very long – not very long at all, before most folks simply gave up on her.

Yes, she had a voice that only could have come from heaven; but also she had a flaw, as most people would be quick to conclude, and the name of that flaw was Bobby. Yes, Ms. Whitney had a squeaky clean image in the media back then when she upped and married bad-boy Bobby Brown who could not stop being in the news for all the wrong reasons even though if life depended on it. This week it was an assualt and battery case, the next it was drug possession, and the very third it was driving under the influence (of something that was not necessarily alcohol). Well, it onlly made sense. The Don’t De Cruel crooner was the very picture of the quintessential bad boy, and it was not very long before beautiful sonorous Whitney Houston was in the news for all the wrong reasons too – black eyes, ‘crack is whack’ statements, and records that weren’t doing too good; in addition to eventual breakup with her beau, and breakdown of the voice that the whole world loved so much.

The world can be very unforgiving, and with Whitney it very largely was. Soon she was forgotten even though her songs were remembered… and then she went and ended up very dead – found so in a bathtub full of water in a hotel in Beverly Hills where she was supposed to perform that night. A lot of hoola has gone up and about concerning how she died or who may have killed her; what her alliances may have been while she lived; if she had strange contracts that may have contributed to her untimely demise at the very unripe age of 48.

Survived by her ex-husband, her parents, siblings, and daughter Bobbi Kristina, Whitney is Ms. Houston is suddenly all over the news again, only this time it’s too late for anybody to save her… so folks focus on what is left of her – her family, her music, and her legacy.

A lot of people had qualms with TV mogul Oprah Winfrey bringing a number of Whitney Houston’s survivors on to her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) show, Oprah’s Next Chapter, especially over daughter Bobbi Kristina. Many thought it was unfair that Bobbi’s mother’s body was hardly cold in the ground yet and Ms. Winfrey was being a bit too self-centered hurrying so hard for the first ‘Exclusive’ with the survivors.

Perhaps the most shocking part of the whole sordid tale was the revelations that came out during the interview. Wife of Whitney Houston’s brother, Patricia Houston, told Oprah Winfrey on the show that it wasn’t all bad. It certainly wasn’t all Bobby who was bad, and it wasn’t all Whitney who was good; and to cap it all, it wasn’t even Bobby Brown who introduced sweet Whitney to drugs in the first place.

Ordinarily, this would sound like a huge shocker, except, when one actually thinks it through in clear detail, it totally makes sense! Everyone who has been in half a marriage or serious relationship any time in their past or presently can attest to the fact that no one person in a relationship gets to dictate how that relationship turns out, no matter how good, bad, mean, nice, evil or angelic they are. Anyone who can think is proper can understand now that Bobby looking all bad may not imply that he really was.

Everybody knows that no one can survive the scrutiny of the media when they can on their case; and Bobby and Whitney were no exception. Perhaps the media merely focused on the one side of the equation and not the other. Certainly it is a fact that when one looks hard enough for anything, one tends to find it, even if it was not originally there in the first place.

Or, does everybody know this?

Oprah built a staggering fortune out of the pockets of average poor women. But when there was finally a solid, viable, female candidate for president for either major party, Oprah took all that money and used it to back a man.

Say what you will, but I believe there would be no wars if women ruled the world. It is that simple. Men draw lines and wave flags and get violent. Women exercise social strategies against their foes. So if women ran the world, nuclear weapons would not exist, and Iran and the U.S. wouldn’t be speaking to each other. U.S. would be publicly bending Britain’s ear and then they would both glance over toward Iran and erupt in shitty laughter. Iran would be pretty sure that everybody is getting together without her. She would be considering strategies for getting everybody to like her again.

I agree with Maureen Reagan. She said “There will be no true equality until women of mediocre ability achieve positions of great importance.” And I believe it is true. I believe it was that important, when we finally had a chance to cast a rational vote for a female candidate, it had to be done. No matter what the woman’s politics. For the sake of the world.

What Oprah did changed my life for the worse forever.

Even if that female candidate turned out to be a mediocre president, the precedent would have been set. Never again would voters think “I don’t know…she seems like a solid candidate, but….we’ve never had a female president, and….there has to be a reason for that….you know?”. After there had been a female president, the question forever after would have been, at the bottom of “Who has the best credentials? The best history and records and demeanor and stated intentions and etc…?”:

Who is the best candidate?”

When that was prevented from happening, I knew it would be the same as it was with the vote.

After a long time, Black men finally got the vote.

Women got it seventy years later.

Then there’s Hugh Hefner.  Hugh Hefner dragged porn out of the opium alley and the outhouse and made it the thing smirked at affectionately when encountered in a disheveled stack on some bachelor’s shelf. Hefner and his magazine arrived, portraying a lifestyle and a worldview that was away from the values that first generation of men had been raised with. Thanks to the permeability of this male-dominated culture in the U.S., it soaked right in. Their eyes opened, they became more openly and vigorously alert about all attractive women in their environment and more careless about the idea of straying sexually from prior commitments. Next, young women who were just a spraycan of paint away from nudity were selling cars and everything else on billboards you drove your six-year-old past to get home.

I mean, if you want to have a nudist society, I say go for it. But don’t reflect to the children that clothes are required in Society, and then allow them to be exposed to essentially unclothed people. Too confusing.  No kid needs those kinds of issues for any reason. 

Now lots of those guys who bought the first issues of Playboy are gone, and many of the ones who followed have ended up divorced, sad, with adult kids who seem distant. Meanwhile, Mr. Hefner said I’ve got mine now, and got monogamous (with Barbie Benton, followed eventually by a cavalcade of other serial monogotoys). Now Hugh had all their money and all those old guys’ dreams away from them.  And that same life that sounded ideal to all of  them, back before Playboy came along.
　

Here comes Tyler Perry, the second richest man in Hollywood second only to James Cameron, the movie maker of Avatar to promote his upcoming movie entitled “Colored Girls.” After watching the emotional spill of Tyler Perry tearful rendition about his painful childhood past complete with two molestation from two men and one woman, an insert in the show promoted his upcoming movie venture that was off the usual track of Tyler Perry’s genre of movies.

The movie that was being promoted with the tearful revelations about “the dead years of Tyler Perry from about five to twenty eight years old,” which was a venture unlike anything that Tyler Perry had sought to accomplish. The upcoming movie is based on a book written back in the 1970’s instead of Tyler Perry’s life experiences or the popular iconic movie character, Madea. Tyler Perry was pleased with his production of the movie and was like many other movie and book writers on Oprah to promote it.

After the audience and even Oprah teared up about the father who beat Tyler Perry merciless for not being man enough to change a tire as he held onto the barbed wire of a gate until his hands were bloody,  was sure to get movie patrons. Tyler Perry forgave his father for the abuse and his father never sexually abused Tyler Perry but for the entire abusive behavior, he received  a mansion from his son.

Although Tyler Perry said that he did not want to see his father or to have a relationship with his father, the gift of a new home meant that the abuse had been forgiven which is not a bad thing. As Oprah said, all of Tyler Perry’s success did not dim the memory of the childhood molestation. The timing of the emotional Tyler Perry story is of question, however.

The father was threatened with a weapon on many occasions from the aunt that was on the Oprah show and is the prototype for Tyler Perry’s popular movie character, Madea, so the abuse was all too real. But from a commercial standpoint, would seeing the real Madea cause the audience members to remember to see the new Tyler Perry upcoming movie?

And the award of a new home and probably with a bank account to an abuser is in direct opposition of one of Oprah’s causes and that is to hunt down men who abuses children even if they are family members.

The bottom line is that in advertising,  it is the big names that can get the most people to new movie ventures and Tyler Perry went right to the source, Oprah. Sure there was a lesson to be learned about forgiving those who are abusers but to shower them with mansions and a bank account lessened the impact of the emotional story of Tyler Perry’s abusive childhood.

Photos of Tyler Perry as a child flashed on the Oprah projector screen and Tyler Perry at one time looked as though the pain was too much to bear to look too long at the little boy. But one would wonder if the little boy appreciates being used as a pawn to promote an upcoming movie and then to award the abuser even if not sexually based with a home and a bank account. The aunt gave the show a second photo of child Tyler Perry smiling and to be in tune with the script, Tyler Perry said that the boy had sad eyes.

Because it is unusual for a man to talk about being sexually molested on the Oprah show and could have been a subject on the Jerry Springer show, Oprah is inviting two hundred men who has experienced sexual abuse to her television audience to have an open forum on the subject. The televised show is to be aired prior to the opening of Tyler Perry’s new movie venture and will undoubtedly get the wives and girlfriends of these abused men’s attention to pay their money to see the new movie.

Tyler Perry was emotional and could not help but be in that state because the story was his and it was great for him to share his story. A female audience member learned how to forgive by attending Tyler Perry shows when he was performing Madea in Christian plays. In fact, over the course of four years the woman lost over two hundred pounds as she started to shed the pounds that the abusers had caused her to gain out of defiance and anger. However, this added part of the Tyler Perry emotional spill on the Oprah show did not soften the fact that his appearance was basically to promote his upcoming movie.

Tyler Perry had been interviewed on a television news program about his childhood experiences of hiding under the house crawl space for protection to find himself and escape in the mental safety of being in a park. At one time Tyler Perry’s rendition almost seemed scripted with Oprah’s relevant incidences of childhood abuse added.

Nevertheless the impact of the television program with Tyler Perry graphically describing his childhood molestation would have been better left on the television news program where there was not the proclivity to promote a new movie as he did on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Oprah Winfrey attended the funeral Whitney Houston, As quoted by Femalefirst, besides Oprah, other celebrities who certainly comes across that the service that is Kevin Costner, who became his co-star in the film The Bodyguard, Stevie Wonder and Arteta Franklin.

Oprah Winfrey attended the funeral Whitney Houston

Image via Wikipedia

Cameras will be allowed on the show before the funeral that took place in the church. Later, the event will be broadcast live on the internet, so the event can be witnessed Whitney fan.

After that the service will be buried at Whitney Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey, next to his grave.

Although friends and relatives invited to funeral Whitney, the Whitney’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown as not to come. Whitney family forbids Bobby to attend the funeral.

For the most part, we all like things we can control and things that we know well. But, as Helen Keller once said: “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” The fact of the matter is that to be alive at all involves some level of risk. Every significant activity involves uncertainty and requires us to take risks. Learning to be a wise risk taker is the key.         

Just like businesses need to have a business plan, those who have become successful all say that if you want to have your dreams come true, you need to have a plan and a plan involves risks.

If you don’t have a dream then it is about time you create one. The fact of the matter is, if you want to have a dream come true you first have to have a dream. Knowing what your dream is and taking the necessary steps to get there is exceptionally wise.

Look at Oprah Winfrey for instance. As a child she was once asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, and she answered without hesitation, “I want to be paid to talk.” She started out as a determined little girl who made her dreams come true and today Oprah has become a financially successful woman and she has touched many people’s lives. She took a risk when she moved from Baltimore to Chicago and took a job as a news reporter. Some didn’t think she could do it but she followed her heart she believed it was a possibility and she made it happen.

Some risks are bigger than others and so it is important that you calculate the risks involved, some are a matter of life and death. Oscar Schindler is a man who took a big risk and because of that risk, thousands of people were saved. Today there are more than 6,000 descendants of Schindler’s Jews living in the USA and Europe, and many in Israel. What would possess him, with all of his power and money, to risk his own life to save others? Somewhere along the line, Schindler decided that it was more important to follow his personal convictions than to follow Hitler’s rules. He risked it all to save lives.

The biggest leap for some is to step out of their comfort zone and reach for success. There comes a time when you have to push towards your fears and tread on new territory, push some boundaries. That is what Mother Teresa did she had a dream of helping the poorest of the poor. She took a risk and traveled to India with a vision and not much else. In the end she built a ministry that is known around the world. It wasn’t always easy and it may not have been the safest route to take but Mother Teresa stepped outside her comfort zone and made a difference.

Not everyone who takes a risk makes it big, that’s why it’s called a risk. But, if you are going to fall, fall forward. When you fall, dust off your knees and get back up. If you find yourself ship wrecked, rebuild, count your losses and move on.

Use common sense. There are times when a ship needs to come into the harbor for repairs and maintenance. There is also a time to play it safe. But, risks are a part of life and we need to realize that it’s okay to make mistakes along the way. But, never be afraid to take on a challenge, always keep focused on your dreams and do whatever it takes to achieve them.

Risks can be a good thing and they can cause us to do something that forces us to stretch ourselves, to challenge us. So, what are you waiting for? Hoist your anchor and set sail. Take a risk, map out your course and move your ship out of the harbor, after all, you are the captain of your life.

Live to make a difference, live your life to the fullest. Don’t be afraid to risk it all for the things that matter. 

This week we tackled a major creative block – money. We were asked to really look at our own ideas around God, money, and creative abundance.

There really was only one question to explore in our morning pages: Write about the god you do believe in and the god you would like to believe in. We were also asked to keep track of the money we spent.

Since this is the week before Christmas it seemed ridiculous to me to keep track of the money I spent. It was a spending week. I do recognize God at work in my life especially when it comes to our finances. I have been unable to work due to illness for 15 years. My husband, on paper, cannot support this family alone. When I first became ill he picked up a lot of overtime at work. God provided for us. We never missed a mortgage payment, never lost our house, never had to deny our children the necessities of life including extra-curricular activities which I believe ARE necessities of life for children.

Image by epSos.de via Flickr

I also believe God only gives us what we can handle. As Joyce Meyer says, “Why would God give you a million dollars if He can’t trust you with the ten that you’ve got?” She also rephrases a scripture from the bible saying, “God will give you double for your trouble.” Or as Oprah says, “Give to the world and you get back to the world.” At this time of year, Christmas, I am always prompted to help those in need, and so I gave.

I also felt guilty about spending money buying Christmas presents. I found it a hassle and hard to think of new things to give. I would rather be helping those less fortunate.

Some of the tasks were a little difficult because of the season – collecting stones, leaves and flowers. However, it was a very creative week for me. I began painting a Christmas figurine; I shopped and wrapped Christmas gifts; I baked; I came up with the idea of using pictures as clues for my daughters’ Christmas Eve Box. I went around the house and took pictures of objects and printed them out; and I wrote (not my novel). Then I became exhausted – too exhausted to do anymore, too exhausted to come up with something new and creative to put in that Christmas Eve Box. Looking back at the Artist’s Way’s Basic Principles, which we were to read every day this week, the first one reads, “Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.” I decided I had used up too much creative energy. I needed to refuel. I never did come up with that something else gift. I’ve been itching to write a poem but have yet to put pen to paper.

I discovered that the stories I write could do more to help people than entertain them. I tend to write about social issues. It is time I finished my novel and bring awareness to these issues. This is God’s work.

We need to enjoy our lives, feel free to pamper ourselves without using lack of money as an excuse. I have always complained that my husband spends money we don’t have for his own pleasures such as golf and trips to visit his family. I used this as confirmation that God would not give us a million dollars if we can’t spend wisely the money we have. Perhaps I am wrong. My husband is enjoying his life, am I enjoying mine? It’s time I stopped making excuses and get out and do what I want to do. My only concern is that doing all these other things will take me further away from my writing.

Affirmations:

I will not let money control my life. God will provide.

I can use my creativity to help others.

I need energy to boost my creativity.

I can and will finish writing my novel.

Those same African-Americans she alienated all of these years might just come around.  If anything this should give those Blacks that were watching her for free when she was on network TV, a reason to pay for expanded cable.  This Negro will not be watching her shows; they were hard enough to watch when she was bourgeois, and I certainly do not want to see ghetto coonery on her network. 

Walk through the Pure Food and Wine restaurant in fashionable area of ​​Manhattan Irving or its spacious and luxurious garden and could encounter with actress Katie Holmes.

It could also meet Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea, who have made a series of visits together to enjoy the corn tamales with portobello mushrooms, cashew or mint ice cream for dessert. The place also attended by many Wall Street tycoons.

It could be any trendy restaurant in New York, but Pure Food and Wine serves only raw food and vegan, without an egg or an oven in sight. His upper class clientele consists of a mixture of vegans, vegetarians and lovers of food, but is clearly an indication of how it has changed the face of veganism in recent years.

But the celebrities that we championed the lifestyle of this type of vegetarianism is not just young actresses who are just beginning to shine in public. There is also the host of television talk shows Ellen DeGeneres, with wife Portia de Rossi, as well as Oprah Winfrey, who, though not vegan, led his team to undergo a regime of this kind for 21 days.

In addition there are men like Ozzy Osbourne and Russell Brand, who in recent weeks said vegans. There are even athletes like Carl Lewis and Mike Tyson.

VEGETARIAN DIET

However, among all the high profile vegan stands Bill Clinton. Last year, the former president told CNN that his impressive loss of weight 24 pounds was due to a diet based primarily on plants. Said he was confident that his new regime will prolong life.

The question is how many of these celebrities are influencing Americans.

“All this exposure (the media) is influencing, absolutely,” says Joseph Connelly, editor and publisher of trade publication VegNews. “People can now pronounce the word” vegan “(vegan)! Five or 10 years could not. It’s just something positive. “

The Vegetarian Resource Group, an advocacy group and educational non-profit, says its latest figures show that about 5% of American adults are vegetarians never eat meat, fish, shellfish or pollo_, and that half of these are vegan, then do not eat dairy products or eggs. Vegans do not eat even stricter honey.

ON THE RISE

Moreover, the proportion of vegetarians vegans among Americans seems to be growing, says Charles Stahler, co-director of the group.

Veganism “is no longer seen as a diet of  chickpeas pureed and alfalfa sprouts in a little healthy but very dry bread,” says a prominent chef of this type of food and cookbook author may Ronnen, who has worked with celebrities like Oprah and DeGeneres, is a chef and partner in two hotel complexes in Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn.

“They are not hippies who preach peace and love. Now we have a mix of business people and celebrities most important attractive “.

Losing weight is not the reason I chose to be vegan Daelyn Fortney. The mother of a family and a resident of Greenville, South Carolina and director of vegetarian and vegan ThisDishIsVeg site-focuses on the ethics associated with respect for animals.

However, claims to be delighted that people like former U.S. president will be giving veganism a fresh face and powerful.

“That will probably be the way that will have many more people” on veganism, says Fortney. “It’s always great when a cause has a big name behind.”

However, he adds a note of caution about the celebrities who are vegan.

“I hope we do not proceed!” Says Fortney. “If they do, could do enormous damage.”