Tag Archives: the south

March 26, 2011 · 10:03 am

Obesity Rates Higher Among Churchgoers | AlterNet

Another reason I steer clear of organized Religion….

It just isn’t healthy…

Young people who are active in their religion are more likely to become obese by the time they reach middle age, according to a new study. Participants who go to church at least once a week were found to be about twice as likely to have a higher body mass index than those who attended infrequently or not at all.

The LA Times reports:

Young adults age 20 to 32 who were on the high end of religious involvement were 50% more likely to be obese by the time they hit middle age compared with those in the “none” category. This was true even after researchers adjusted for sex, age, race, education, income and the participants’ body mass index at the start of the study.

More about the research, which was presented at an American Heart Association conference, from CNN:

“Churches pay more attention to obvious vices like smoking or drinking,” said Matthew Feinstein, lead author of the research and fourth-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Our best guess about why is that…more frequent participation in church is associated with good works and people may be rewarding themselves with large meals that are more caloric in nature than we would like.”

The [research] involved 2,433 people enrolled in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. The group was tested – at first between 20 and 32 years old – for various cardiovascular disease risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, and smoking. Those same tests were repeated in the same group over the next 25 years.

CNN quotes a pastor in Chicago who suggests two factors that may be involved: the disappearance of church-sponsored sports leagues, and that church attendance will often displace involvement in less sedentary activities.

via Obesity Rates Higher Among Churchgoers | AlterNet.

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March 25, 2011 · 3:55 pm

Many U.S. Blacks Moving to South, Reversing Trend

Fascinating article on the front page of today’s New York Times…

It will be interesting to see the political implications of this new migration…

Hopefully, this will help reduce the GOP’s hold on the South….

The percentage of the nation’s black population living in the South has hit its highest point in half a century, according to census data released Thursday, as younger and more educated black residents move out of declining cities in the Northeast and Midwest in search of better opportunities.

The Rev. Ronald Peters, above, who moved last year from Pittsburgh to Atlanta, said the black middle class was more hopeful in the South than in the Northeast.

The share of black population growth that has occurred in the South over the past decade — the highest since 1910, before the Great Migration of blacks to the North — has upended some long-held assumptions.

Both Michigan and Illinois, whose cities have rich black cultural traditions, showed an overall loss of blacks for the first time, said William Frey, the chief demographer at the Brookings Institution.

And Atlanta, for the first time, has replaced Chicago as the metro area with the largest number of African-Americans after New York. About 17 percent of blacks who moved to the South in the past decade left New York State, far more than from any other state, the census data show.

At the same time, blacks have begun leaving cities for more affluent suburbs in large numbers, much like generations of whites before them.

“The notion of the North and its cities as the promised land has been a powerful part of African-American life, culture and history, and now it all seems to be passing by,” said Clement Price, a professor of history at Rutgers-Newark. “The black urban experience has essentially lost its appeal with blacks in America.”

via Many U.S. Blacks Moving to South, Reversing Trend – NYTimes.com.

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March 16, 2011 · 7:44 pm

Forever Prep: Virginia Living Magazine Feature Shot at Sweet Briar College- and some other school

There is a photo spread in this month’s “Virginia Living” magazine called “Forever Prep.”

For  those who don’t know, the Virginia  college circuit is the epicenter of Prep in Virginia and the South.

There is an article in the “paper” magazine also that talks about the Virginia Prep lifestyle of the 1980’s that I and many of my friends were part of at Sweet Briar, Washington and Lee, Mary Baldwin, Hollins, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and UVa….and how it translates to today’s world.

It’s  also a reference to “True Prep” that came out late last year and the 30th Anniversary of the “Official Preppy Handbook”.

The photo’s were shot at Sweet Briar College and Hampden-Sydney…

Sweet Briar makes perfect sense, but Hampden Sydney???

This Washington and Lee Man may have to cancel his subscription….

And I do have a subscription…

It’s a sickness…

Here is the Link: http://www.virginialiving.com/downloads/slideshows/274/slides/0/index.html

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March 5, 2011 · 12:53 pm

Chapter 52: Sex in the South: Part 2- The Queen of the South | My Southern Gothic Life

New post up on my other blog, MySouthernGothicLife.com….

Here’s a brief excerpt and a link to the full post…

Like fashion, new movies, ethnic food and just about everything else, the Sexual Revolution came late to Danville, Virginia.

However, given the sexually repressive atmosphere, it should be no surprise it led the way in one area:  Outdoor Porn Drive In Theaters.

via Chapter 52: Sex in the South: Part 2- The Queen of the South | My Southern Gothic Life.

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March 4, 2011 · 7:43 am

Chapter 51: Sex in the South: Part 1- Setting the Stage | My Southern Gothic Life

There is a new post up on my other blog:  My SouthernGothicLife.com

Here is the intro and a link to the full post:

To put it bluntly, when we were growing up, we knew sex was everywhere in the South.  It was poorly hidden, but not a topic of socially approved conversations.   Or at least it once wasn’t…

We came from, perhaps, the last generation to be fed totally screwed up information about sex.  At least, I hope so…

MORE:   Chapter 51: Sex in the South: Part 1- Setting the Stage | My Southern Gothic Life.

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February 22, 2011 · 7:14 pm

One in four U.S. counties “dying”: Census Bureau – International Business Times

Danville/Pittsylvania County, VA is included in this list.

I checked…

Emphasis/Italics are mine…

One in four counties in the U.S. are ”dying” – meaning, they are recording more deaths than births – according to findings by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Demographers call this phenomenon a “natural decrease.”

The data shows that 760 of the nation’s 3,142 counties are in this category – exacerbated, analysts say, by an aging population the mortgage crisis, record high unemployment in many states and the ever-fragile economy.

These counties exist in all parts of the country, from the old Rust Belt areas of Pennsylvania and Ohio, to rural East Texas and even in the wine country of northern California.

West Virginia is the first state to experience this “natural decrease” statewide over the last decade. Maine, Pennsylvania and Vermont may soon be next, the Census data suggested.

“Natural decrease is an important but not widely appreciated demographic phenomenon that is reshaping our communities in both rural and urban cores of large metro areas,” said Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor and demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute.

Such areas typically have aging white people who are not having children, as well as grim job prospects that drive younger adults away. These locales also tend to have few Hispanic immigrants, who, on the whole, are younger and have more children.

Indeed, the population of the entire U.S. grew by only 9.7 percent since 2000, the lowest such decade-rate since the Great Depression.

via One in four U.S. counties “dying”: Census Bureau – International Business Times.

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February 22, 2011 · 6:30 pm

Poll: Whites Without College Degrees Especially Pessimistic About Economy

I’m not really surprised by this, but still don’t get why this group primarily votes Republican.

Well, I have some theories…

  1. They are particularly susceptible to the Republican disinformation campaign.
  2. Racial prejudice
  3. Most importantly, they have been hit hardest by the Economic downturn and don’t know where to turn.

My guess is this demographic was open to Obama and the Democrats, but was the first group to become disillusioned when the focus turned to Health Care, instead of Jobs, and no one was punished for the economic collapse.

These folks aren’t dumb.  They know the Rich and the Corporations have bought the government.

The Democrats need to work harder to make their case to this group and not let the GOP control the narrative.

It would also help if they acted like real Democrats instead of Republican Lites and delivered for this group…

From the Washington Post:

The deep recession has had a profound effect on virtually every segment of the country’s population. But if there is an epicenter of financial stress and frustration, it is among whites without college degrees.

By many measures, this politically sensitive group has emerged from the recession with a particularly dark view of the economy and the financial future. Whites without college degrees also are the most apt to blame Washington for the problems, and are exceedingly harsh in their judgment of the Obama administration and its economic policies.

These findings come from a new national survey conducted by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. The numbers represent a fresh look at the effects of the long recession on all Americans, but particularly “non-college whites,” a group of long-fought-over voters often considered a bellwether of the political ramifications of economic woes.

A mere 10 percent of whites without college degrees say they are satisfied with the nation’s current economic situation. Most – 56 percent – say the country’s best days are in the past, and more, 61 percent, say it will be a long time before the economy begins to recover.

Fully 43 percent of non-college whites say “hard work and determination are no guarantees of success,” and nearly half doubt that they have enough education and skills to compete in the job market.

Not everything is bleak in this group’s outlook, according to the survey. Nearly seven in 10 say they are mostly optimistic about their future, although that is somewhat lower than for whites with college degrees, and for most other groups in the population. More than six in 10 report feeling at least somewhat secure financially.

The survey also found differences in the outlooks of younger and older whites without college degrees. Those younger than 50 were more optimistic about the future than were those older than 50 and were somewhat less pessimistic about how long it will take the economy to recover.

via Poll: Whites without college degrees especially pessimistic about economy.

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January 17, 2011 · 8:34 am

Chapter 46: The Evolution of One Southern Liberal or Some Thoughts on Martin Luther King Day | My Southern Gothic Life

I have a new post up on my other blog.

Here’s an excerpt and a link to the full post…

As we approach the Holiday recognizing the contributions of Dr. King, I always tend to think about where we were, where we are and where we have yet to go.  To me, this is a day to stop and think. And remember.

As a Southerner of a certain age, I just can’t let this day pass without comment.  I don’t see how anyone of my generation can.

I grew up in the South before integration and during the Civil Rights Movement.  I’m not sure if I even spoke to a black person, other than our maid, before the schools were integrated when I was in the 5th grade.  People seem to forget the South in the early 1960′s was like South Africa under apartheid.  It was a very separate and scary place.  Everyone–and I mean everyone– had their place and society tried to keep them in it.

I think the late, great Molly Ivins said it best.  Molly once wrote:  ”I believe all Southern liberals come from the same starting point — race.  Once you figure out they are lying to you about race, you start to question everything.”

via Chapter 46: The Evolution of One Southern Liberal or Some Thoughts on Martin Luther King Day | My Southern Gothic Life.

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December 10, 2010 · 10:49 pm

Chapter 45: The Help | My Southern Gothic Life

Yet another new post is up on my other blog.

Here is the beginning and a link to the full post:

I can’t encourage you enough to read the book “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett.  If you haven’t read it, put it on your Christmas Wish List.  If you have read it, give it to your friends.

I’ve never read a truer book about the interaction between black women who worked as Maids in the early 1960′s and their “white ladies.”

Although the book is set in Mississippi, it could very well have been set in Danville, Virginia.  I remember those days too well.

People seem to already be forgetting that the South in those days, from Richmond to Mobile, was like South Africa under Apartheid.  I was in South Africa in 1997 and felt just like I did in Virginia in 1965.

Everyone had a place and stayed in it.  But the times were beginning to change…

In the 1960′s, the bus line ran near our house.  The corner of Brook Drive and Lansbury Drive was a major stop for the Maids.  Six or seven women would get off the bus around 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. and walk back down there to go home around 6:00 or so.  Some of them wore their bedroom shoes to work as their feet were so tired and broken down from standing all day, all they could wear were scuffs.

Most of the White Ladies in Temple Terrace had maids.  They didn’t have jobs, but they had Maids.  I remember our “car pool” for Miss Touchstone’s Kindergarten, our Mothers would throw a London Fog all-weather coat over their pajamas to take us to “school” and only get dressed and made up around 4:30 before our Fathers came home from work.  I don’t know what they did in the meantime…

MORE:   Chapter 45: The Help | My Southern Gothic Life.

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December 9, 2010 · 9:51 pm

Chapter 44: Christmas With the Grannies | My Southern Gothic Life

Another new post is up on my other blog.  I’m rather prolific this week…

All the Christmas Drama and mayhem at our house was off set by the simplicity of Christmas at Granny’s.

By this I mean, my Mother’s Mother, not my Father’s Mother, who was safely packed away to the State Hospital for the Insane in Staunton and, later, Petersburg.

But we did have to go visit my Father’s Mother, Granny Susie, AKA Susan Catherine Rush Michaels,  sometime around Christmas.  This was always an ordeal.

This was before there was an Interstate Highway to Staunton, so we had to travel along winding mountain roads to get there.  With not many restaurants or gas stations to stop.

A few times, my Great Aunts wanted to go along.  Aunt Lily and Little Mary were her sisters and her brother Joe’s wife, Big Mary, usually went along, too.  The one trip I remember was when we still had the station wagon- before Daddy flipped it coming home in an ice storm from Earl’s Bar and Grill.  They were all lined up in the back seat in their black wool coats, hats and white gloves.  Aunt Lily would always pack her lunch and refuse to share it.  When I was about 5 or 6, I asked once and she told me I should have planned better.

Link to full Post:   Chapter 44: Christmas With the Grannies | My Southern Gothic Life.

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