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	<title>Yesha Callahan</title>
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	<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com</link>
	<description>random (a)musings</description>
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		<title>Black People &amp; Fried Chicken- A Love Affair in Advertising</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/05/08/black-people-fried-chicken-a-love-affair-in-advertising/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/05/08/black-people-fried-chicken-a-love-affair-in-advertising/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 14:47:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Culture & Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[entertainment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[adverstising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[black people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[churchs fried chicken]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fried chicken]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kfc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mary j blige]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[not all black people eat fried chicken]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Popeyes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[white people eat fried chicken too]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4467</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A few weeks ago I attempted to &#8220;research&#8221; where the notion that all black people loved fried chicken evolved from. By research, I mean I searched Google, of course. Even though I couldn&#8217;t find any information,  I was given alternate search ideas such as, &#8220;black people love watermelon&#8221;, &#8220;black people love popeyes&#8221;, &#8220;black people eat chicken&#8221;. Needless to say, there wasn&#8217;t any Wikipedia article referencing when the love of fried chicken solely fell on the clogged arteries of black folks. Recently, Mary J Blige came under fire for her modern day shucking and jiving crispy chicken wrap commercial for Burger King. It&#8217;s been reported that MJB was paid $2 million for the commercial, unfortunately less than 48 hours after the commercial aired, it was pulled because people deemed it &#8220;racist&#8221; and inappropriate. Sure, it was a little over the top with MJB screaming singing about chicken strips, but blame the advertising executives who thought it was a good idea. Mary J. Blige&#8217;s Crispy Chickengate  made me wonder when did advertisers blatantly start marketing fried chicken towards black people. Growing up I remember several KFC commercials like the ones below: In the 80&#8242;s, Advertising executives apparently thought white people were giddy over fried chicken because you were hard pressed to find a commercial with black people in it.  White people loved the finger licking goodness, just like the next person.  I&#8217;ll be the first to say, I love a piece of fried chicken like the next person, but what I don&#8217;t love is the stereotypical advertising that is now prevalent in most fast food fried chicken commercials. The first time I saw a full black cast in a fried chicken commercial was with Ella Fitzgerald and a then 10 year old Shanice, and of course I was able to find it on Youtube. Could this possibly be the first &#8220;singing for chicken&#8221; commercial? Ella Fitzgerald hocked fried chicken, maybe MJB was trying to follow in her foot steps? Let&#8217;s also not forget Fats Domino, how apropos for a fat man in a shiny suit to peddle chicken: Those commercials can now be considered subdued, compared to what we presently have in the form of chicken commercials. We have stepping for chicken, because everyone knows black people love stepping: The United States isn&#8217;t alone in it&#8217;s fried chicken marketing tactics towards black people.  In Trinidad/Tobago, there are &#8220;fete feasts&#8221; commercials for chicken: Last but not least, in Korea, fried chicken apparently soothes the &#8216;savage beast&#8217;: I&#8217;d like to know what goes through the minds of the people behind these commercials.  Do they try hard to be stereotypical in depicting black people and their love of fried chicken? What&#8217;s next a commercial with black people playing basketball, eating fried chicken during half-time and washing it down with some kool-aid followed by a dessert that consists of watermelon?  You&#8217;d be hard pressed nowadays to find a fried chicken ad with a non-black person in it. I wonder if white people feel left out?  Colonel Sanders is probably rolling over in his grave right about now because he proved white people loved fried chicken just as much as the next person.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How Birth Control Pills Turned Me Into A Mad Woman</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/05/02/how-birth-control-pills-turned-me-into-a-mad-woman/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/05/02/how-birth-control-pills-turned-me-into-a-mad-woman/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 May 2012 16:19:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[beauty & health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[me]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[women]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[birth control pills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fuck a birth control pill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heavy bleeding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[menstrual cycle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[micronor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[periods]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4448</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In 5th grade I remember sitting around the playground during lunch and watching all of the girls compare feminine products. They all carried their own maxi-pads and tampons in their purses. I carried a kickball in my backpack.  I didn&#8217;t understand why they were all so giddy about having their period.  In high school, the same thing happened. Girls shared their thoughts on tampons and which ones were better than others.  They hated their cramps and bloating.  Once again I had nothing to share.  By my senior year I still period free and I was happy for that.  I didn&#8217;t have to worry about cramps, bloating or stained panties.  I was free from all of those worries. Then it happened. The most dreadful day of my late bloomer life. During the fall of my freshman year at Rutgers, Aunt Flow made it&#8217;s unwelcomed appearance. I woke up in a bed and it looked like someone committed second degree murder.  Call in CSI, my lady parts have been murdered. I remember wondering how I was able to sleep through all of the bleeding, then looked over at desk and noticed a bottle of Mad Dog. Oh, that explains it. From that moment on, I&#8217;ve hated everything about having a period.  Seven whole days and out of those 7 days, at least 4 of them are competing with Niagara Falls when it comes to the flow. Thankfully, I don&#8217;t have to deal with cramps, but I&#8217;ll gladly exchange cramps for a shorter period. It&#8217;s been a while since I&#8217;ve  written about my battles with my horrible menstrual cycle, but most of my friends are the special ones that get to listen to me complain every month. Since I work with all women, we share our horrid period stories especially &#8220;Have you ever______&#8221; stories. The most remembered one is, &#8220;Have you ever laughed or sneezed and it felt like your tampon fell out?&#8221;, yeah, been there, done that, got the stained clothes to prove it. Recently I decided to take control over my period and take a stab at birth control pills.  For the longest, friends suggested that I try the pill to shorten my period, but I was so hell bent on not taking them, mainly because I didn&#8217;t want to die from a blood clot. Even though the chances of it happening are slim, why would I want to put myself into harms way?  I figured it would be good to test them out before a planned trip because I hate traveling on my period.  One of my biggest &#8220;oops&#8221; happened a few years back on a business flight from Baltimore to Miami and I had to walk off the plane with a jacket tied around my waist. Two weeks ago, I officially became a birth control pill popper. I even set an alarm on my phone as a reminder to take a pill at the same time each day.  I also spent time reading up on possible side effects, with my primary concern being blood clots.  I already know of three people that suffered from blood clots, and thankfully they didn&#8217;t die. The possibility of death just to shorten my period isn&#8217;t that becoming. Day 1- Ok, no blood clots Day 2- Ok, no blood clots Day 3- Why is everyone getting on my damn nerves? Day 4- OMG, I want to punch this chick in the face! Day 5- WHY IS EVERYONE &#38; EVERYTHING GETTING ON MY DAMN NERVES To hell with a blood clot. Birth control pills turned me into this &#8220;HULK SMASH&#8221; chick. My mood plummeted.  I was angry. Not just run of the mill angry, but angry to the point of wanting to throw and break things. My level of patience was gone.  I complained to my friend that I felt like I was about to go crazy.  I decided to head to the Google to see if I could find anything else about this pill. Lo and behold, I came across this little ditty of a site:  Ask A Patient, there are 8 pages (probably more) of women complaining about the same issues! Either they felt as though they turned into a crazy lady, or [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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		<title>Lena Dunham&#8217;s Girls, Isn&#8217;t For This Black Girl</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/04/16/lena-dunhams-girls-isnt-for-this-black-girl/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/04/16/lena-dunhams-girls-isnt-for-this-black-girl/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:23:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[entertainment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dunham]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[GIRLS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God this show sucked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[HBO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hipster Sex & The City]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lena Dunham]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lena dunham girls sucks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sex & The City]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tiny furniture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tiny House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4432</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was never a fan of Sex &#38; The City. Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte never did anything for me. I guess I could never relate to a bunch of white women living in NYC and with storylines around their shoes and love life. I take that back, I love shoes.  My major issue was for a show to take place in NYC, I was always amazed that there were never any major characters of ‘color’.  You know, like Seinfeld &#38; Friends. They all managed to live in NYC and not interact with people who weren’t white. Six years and two movies later, Sex &#38; The City lives on in syndication, but thanks to Lena Dunham, the hipster, patchouli smelling, totally filmed in Instagram’s Nashville filter version, has made it’s way to HBO. In Lena Dunham’s Girls, you’re thrown into the lives of 20-something angst ridden female characters, suffering from a horrible case of white privilege.  Girls is pretty much a spin off of Dunham’s Tiny Furniture movie from a few years back, which she wrote as well.  Girls is also written, directed and produced by Dunham, and she’s the main character, Hannah.  In the opening scene, to her dismay and astonishment Hannah is being “cut off” financially by her professor parents. She’s flabbergasted and doesn’t know how they could do such a thing, since she’s only working an internship, even though she’s been out of college for 2 years. Insert sympathy. The episode goes on to introduce you to Hannah’s even more angst ridden-hipster-clique. The roommate, Marnie, who’s contemplating breaking up with her boyfriend that loves her too much. The free-spirited accented friend, Jessa, who ends up being pregnant. Then there’s Hannah’s unemployed actor-wood carver-jump-off, who looks like he smells like old cheese, and attempts to have butt sex with her  and apparently doesn’t think condoms are always necessary. After watching the 30 minute episode online (I refuse to pay HBO’s outrageous fees) I wished there was a way to reclaim those 30 minutes that I lost. Unfortunately, there hasn&#8217;t been a “reclaim the time you’ve spent watching a shitty show” time machine invented yet. I think somewhere in this episode we’re supposed to feel sorry for Dunham’s character. Woe is her, for being a 24 year old, living in NYC on her ‘own’, wearing American Apparel skirts while suffering at an unpaid internship, then becoming cut off by her parents. The only thing I feel sorry for is the contrived “ironic” dialogue that has seemed to become a prerequisite in shows recently, (i.e, The New Girl on Fox).  As one writer from Gawker noted, “Everyone&#8217;s sentences begin with &#8220;OK&#8221; or &#8220;Yeah, so&#8221; or &#8220;Yo, hey. Yeah, no.&#8221;”  Where Sex &#38; The City at least had fashionably dressed white women, who were upwardly mobile and career oriented, Girls gives us a main character with low self-esteem, her “ironic” hipster friends and a glimpse into Opium drug use.  The one silver lining was Hannah’s father, played by one of my favorite actors, Peter Scolari from Bosom Buddies.  I think I may be better off watching reruns of Sex &#38; The City, then feeling like I’m watching a poor attempt at trying to garner pity for 20-somethings that look like they haven’t bathed in days with crappy dialogue.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Men: You&#8217;re Not as Good as You Think You Are</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/04/02/men-youre-not-as-good-as-you-think-you-are/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/04/02/men-youre-not-as-good-as-you-think-you-are/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Apr 2012 15:13:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[men]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[women]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chris jones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[esquire magazine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4423</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of my favorite writers at Esquire, Chris Jones, wrote an article that I thought was pretty hilarious.  &#8220;Ladies: You&#8217;re Not as Good as You Think&#8220;, talks about his experience with those women he refers to as, &#8220;unenthusiastic, uncomfortable, and uncommunicative, the human equivalent of the space between the couch cushions&#8221; during sex.&#8221;  The article is filled with his gripes with women when it comes to sex and how most women that he&#8217;s experienced boast and brag about their abilities, only to come up short in the bedroom. I appreciated the fact that he was honest about his &#8216;abilities&#8217;, stating, &#8220;On the spectrum of male lovers, I believe I would fall somewhere between &#8220;not totally unpleasant, but not totally pleasant,&#8221; which shows he&#8217;s not claiming to be some Adonis with a three minute refractory period, I assume. I don&#8217;t take issue with anything he stated in his  piece, but for every woman that is unenthusiastic, uncomfortable &#38; uncommunicative during sex, there are those men who are clueless, inattentive and lack variety. Let&#8217;s start with the clueless. The cartoon I&#8217;ve used for this post is very relevant to this area.  It&#8217;s a shame in 2012 that there exists a large population of men that are clueless when it comes to foreplay. The &#8220;just stick it in &#38; go&#8221; population still run rampant.  They tend not to care that your vagina may be the equivalent to the Sahara desert at the time, they&#8217;re just ready to saddle up with not a care in the world.  What they don&#8217;t realize is that foreplay plays a huge role in sex. It always has and it always will.  Foreplay doesn&#8217;t have to be this long, drawn out experience, kissing, caressing, fondling all count as foreplay. Most women aren&#8217;t asking for the kama sutra crouching tiger hidden penis version of foreplay.  Speaking of fondling, sure a little finger stimulation is ok, but damn, you&#8217;re not shooting marbles. Plucking the clitoris is never a good thing. The clitoris is a delicate flower that should be treated as such. God, I forget my mother reads my blog. Hi, Have We Met, Have We Talked, Do We Know Each Other? I&#8217;m not sure about others, but usually there&#8217;s always some type of conversation about what a person likes and dislikes before jumping into the sack with another person. This conversation allows for people to understand what&#8217;s acceptable and what isn&#8217;t.  Let&#8217;s speak hypothetically about a couple. I&#8217;ll call them Sam &#38; Jane.  Sam and Jane dated for a couple of weeks before &#8220;doing the do&#8221;. During that time period Jane mentioned several times about her &#8220;uncharted&#8221; territory and how she&#8217;s never had any desire to experience butt sex.  At the time of conversation, Sam seems to be ok with this and doesn&#8217;t make it out to be an issue. Weeks go by, not that 90 day bullshit Steve Harvey talks about, and Sam &#38; Jane finally consummate their relationship. &#8220;Sam, that&#8217;s not my vagina!,&#8221; Jane yells. &#8220;Oh, my bad, I forgot,&#8221;  Sam says as he becomes disappointed.  Apparently Sam was really looking forward to becoming the first man to charter Jane&#8217;s territory, he also shows how inattentive he was during their conversation about her &#8220;unchartedness&#8221;.  Well maybe it also shows both inattentiveness and not giving a damn. Either way, no bueno. I&#8217;m not saying all men don&#8217;t pay attention, but I&#8217;m also not saying all men pay attention. See what I did there? &#160; Is the Bunny Hop &#38; The Battering Ram The Only Stroke You Got? Variety is said to be the spice of life. I&#8217;m not exactly sure what spice they&#8217;re referring to, but that&#8217;s neither here nor there.  Variety is also good in the bedroom. By variety, I&#8217;m speaking specifically in reference to pace and stroke.  As I&#8217;m writing this, the Waiting To Exhale scene with Wendell Pierce and Lela Rochon having sex popped into my head, because it included every thing I&#8217;ve pointed out so far. There wasn&#8217;t any foreplay, or any conversation leading up to it and he did his best interpretation of a bunny having sex. The energizer bunny has nothing on him.  I also imagine John Witherspoon in the background yelling, &#8220;Bang, [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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		<title>In Present-Racial America Post-Racial Is Just A Pipe Dream</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/27/in-present-racial-america-post-racial-is-just-a-pipe-dream/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/27/in-present-racial-america-post-racial-is-just-a-pipe-dream/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Mar 2012 23:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Culture & Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news, law & politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George Zimmerman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[post racial america]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[present-racial american]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sanford Florida]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trayvon Martin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4397</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday marked a month since Trayvon Martin was murdered by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Till this day, Zimmerman is a free man, while Trayvon&#8217;s parents and millions of others are calling for justice.  If you take a look around the internet this week, you&#8217;ll also notice the smear campaign that is being directed towards Trayvon as well. Sealed school documents have been released in reference to his suspension from school. His tweets and Facebook page has been scoured and put under scrutiny. He&#8217;s been labeled a &#8220;thug&#8221; and &#8220;drug dealer&#8221; in certain news articles and the comment sections of most pieces written about him are vitriolic to say the least. Also this week, we&#8217;ve learned that not only are racists, umm&#8230;racist, but they also lack reading comprehension. This past week, &#8220;Hunger Games&#8221; topped the weekend box office and is expected to break records this weekend as well.  Unfortunately, it has also unmasked more racism that exists in our society. As most people know, two of the main characters in &#8220;Hunger Games&#8221; are Rue and Thresh. Clearly noted on page 45 of the book Suzanne Collin&#8217;s describes Rue as, &#8220;…a twelve-year-old girl from District 11. She has dark brown skin and eyes, but other than that&#8217;s she&#8217;s very like Prim in size and demeanor…&#8221; and goes on to describe Thresh as, &#8220;&#8230;. has the same dark skin as Rue, but the resemblance stops there. He&#8217;s one of the giants, probably six and half feet tall and built like an ox&#8221;.  Yesterday, Jezebel posted a series of tweets from upset racist fans of the movie.  Apparently these upset racist fans lack comprehension skills, or didn&#8217;t bother to even read the book because plenty of them were disappointed in finding out several main characters were black: Way to go post-racial America! Let me be blunt in saying this, but shit is fucked up. These past few weeks, living in present-racial America has reiterated the fact that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Two years ago I saw Mario Van Peebles&#8217; documentary, &#8220;Fair Game&#8221;. I remember a woman in the documentary stating, &#8220;I&#8217;m not a racist. I&#8217;m just tired of hearing the black people complain. Obama&#8217;s election proves it. It&#8217;s a fair game.&#8221; If present-racial America had it&#8217;s own slogan, it would be &#8220;I&#8221;m Not Racist&#8221;. It would be on bumper stickers, right next to the Confederate Flag. People would wear t-shirts with it stated across the front while typing racist comments on news articles, all the while forgetting that they&#8217;re posting on a comment system utilizing their Facebook pages with their names exposed (they&#8217;re racists, not smart). In present-racial America, we still march for justice in senseless murders.  In present-racial America, you have sites like Stormw&#8212;-.org and members of it sending me hate mail practically on a daily basis because of my Trayvon Martin post, even though they&#8217;re happy that Zimmerman, isn&#8217;t white (in their books) but a Jew. In present-racial America, it matters to dumb ass people that the main characters in a &#8220;fictional&#8221; movie like &#8220;Hunger Games&#8221; are black. You have to wonder, if they actually know black people in real life. In present-racial America, my 11 year old nephew gets bullied because of his dark skin and has to defend himself after school in fights because of it. In present-racial America, you have idiots like Geraldo Rivera insinuating that a hoodie is what killed Trayvon. In present-racial America, there are birthers and people still demanding Obama&#8217;s birth certificate and this bumper sticker: In present-racial America, post racial is just a pipe dream.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Be Safe, Young Man</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/22/be-safe-young-man/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/22/be-safe-young-man/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:32:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Culture & Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news, law & politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kobe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trayvon Martin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4380</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My morning routine  during the work week  is pretty typical. I&#8217;m usually up by 5:30 a.m. and my son usually drags himself out of the bed by 6:30 a.m. There&#8217;s always a constant, &#8220;Kobe, hurry up and get dressed&#8221; yell coming from my bedroom. Unlike myself, he&#8217;s not a morning person. Usually, on a good day, we&#8217;re out of the house by 7:15 and I drive him to school, but this morning he wanted to walk. I don&#8217;t live in what some may describe as a &#8216;bad&#8217; neighborhood. Columbia, Maryland has it&#8217;s fair share of crime, that usually includes home break-ins &#38; robberies, but you rarely hear about murder and violent crimes happening. With all of that said, I&#8217;m still cautious when it comes to my son. Anyone who knows my son, knows he&#8217;s the complete opposite of me.  He&#8217;s the extrovert to my pseudo-introvertness. He&#8217;s the optimist to my pessimism. My son refuses to speak ill of people, even when those same people have spoken ill of him.  I occasionally ask myself at times, &#8220;Where did this kid come from?&#8221;. Our relationship isn&#8217;t filled with the typical parent/child dynamics.  He&#8217;s his own person with his own opinions. I give him certain freedoms that most parents wouldn&#8217;t think of.  The only thing I hold a tight reign on is his clothing.  He still hasn&#8217;t figured out that you can&#8217;t wear two different plaid patterns.  We talk about everything and he&#8217;s not afraid to ask me a question, and I never shy away from giving him answers.   I remember shortly after turning 11, he ran into my bedroom to inform me about his first ejaculation.  I looked from behind my book, and the first thing that came out of my mouth was, &#8220;I hope you didn&#8217;t touch the doorknob&#8221;. All he could do was laugh, but he did say no. This morning, after he asked if he could walk to school, I was hit with a very melancholy feeling. I didn&#8217;t want to say no to his request, because I didn&#8217;t want him to think I was treating him like a baby, because after all he&#8217;ll be 13 in May.  It was at that moment when I realized why I always made it a point to drop him off to school every day.  As a parent, you never realize what will happen to your child after they leave your presence. You never know what&#8217;s lurking around the corner.  During our 3 minute ride from the  house to the front of his school, we talk. We say our &#8220;I love yous&#8221; and wish each other a great day. Before he leaves my car, we give each other kisses on the cheek.  He acts like he hates it when I grab his face, but deep down inside, I know he loves it. My son is my world, just as Trayvon Martin was his parents world. Sure we have our parent/child arguments.  Of course I&#8217;d love it if he was getting a higher grade in Science this marking period, but if something every happened to him, I probably wouldn&#8217;t know what I would do. This morning, Insanity Report, tweeted about how well Trayvon&#8217;s parents are holding up in the light of  events from the past month.  I could only hope to be that strong. This is why I make an effort to take my son to school in the morning, this is why I make an effort to make sure I let him know how much I love him after I drop him off at school, even though just about every morning we argue about his clothes.  Although, I share a lot with my son in regards to things and people he should watch out for, I try not to tarnish his optimism. This morning we didn&#8217;t get to have our talk. I watched him &#38; his backpack run out of our condo&#8217;s parking lot.  I got into my car and caught up with him before he crossed the street. I yelled, &#8220;Be safe, young man&#8221; and he said he loved me. Not to long ago  I received a text message from my son and he asked if he could attend the Trayvon Martin [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
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		<title>Walking While Black- Trayvon Martin Killed By Neighborhood Watch Guard</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/09/walking-while-black-trayvon-martin-killed-by-neighborhood-watch-guard/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/09/walking-while-black-trayvon-martin-killed-by-neighborhood-watch-guard/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:50:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[news, law & politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[black teen killed by neighborhood watch in florida]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[black teen murdered trayvonne]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Florida's 18th District State's Attorney Norman Wolfinger and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George Zimmerman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[george zimmerman sanford florida]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George Zimmerman watch guard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[george zimmerman: kills trayvon martin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[is george zimmerman white?]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sanford Florida]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sanford florida teen killed 2012]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sanford george zimmerman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Teen Killed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trayvon Martin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[walking while black zimmerman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zimmerman florida neighborhood watch]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4326</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I would go into a rave about how utopian our present day &#8216;post racial&#8217; society has been, but unfortunately, that would be chock full of lies.  Just take a look at the life of Trayvon Martin that was ended at the hands of George Zimmerman, a Jewish/Latino neighborhood watch guard,  on February 26.  Trayvon Martin was on his way home from a 7-11 with skittles in his hand and $20 in his pocket, when his life was ended with a single bullet to his chest from the gun of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch guard in the  Sanford, Florida gated community Trayvon was visiting. According to reports, Zimmerman  followed the teen in his patrol car while he was walking down the street an cited it as &#8216;suspicious activity&#8217; when he placed a call to 911.  Zimmerman then stated he acted in self-defense against the 140lb 17 year old. I can see how a bottle of Arizona Ice Tea and a bag of Skittles could be considered dangerous. No. I really can&#8217;t. It is now March 9th and Zimmerman still hasn&#8217;t been arrested for the murder. Authorities have offered very little information to the public and Trayvon&#8217;s family is outraged and rightfully so. Their answers about their son&#8217;s murder have not been answered by the authorities. Zimmerman has not been charged or arrested. An incident like this can happen anywhere. What&#8217;s even more astounding is that Zimmerman was not a police officer.  He was just a person working with the neighborhood crime watch.  It&#8217;s bad enough police brutality exists, but when trigger happy vigilantes take the law into their own hands, the only people left without answers are the victim&#8217;s family members. In the age of internet rallying for justice, a petition has been set up on Change.org to encourage Florida&#8217;s 18th District State&#8217;s Attorney Norman Wolfinger and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to formally file murder charges against Zimmerman. To sign the petition visit: http://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-murderer-of-17-year-old-trayvon-martin Update as of 3/22: HLN has posted a copy of the police report filed by the Sanford Police Department: Trayvon Martin police report &#160; *Comment moderation is used on MY site. Before you start typing out any ignorant or racist comments, don&#8217;t waste your time because they will not get approved* &#160; &#160;]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>47</slash:comments>
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		<title>Is Hipster Activism The New Activism?</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/08/is-hipster-activism-the-new-activism/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/08/is-hipster-activism-the-new-activism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:38:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[news, law & politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Activists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hipster Activism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Invisible Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Russel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jason Russell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jason russell kony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joseph Kony]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kony 2012]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kony 2012 hipster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uganda]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4301</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday a movement went viral.  Cloaked in sentiment and thriving on being a tear jerker, Jason Russel&#8217;s 27 minute film , &#8220;Kony 2012&#8243;,  brought to light the atrocities in Uganda and by the end of the day already yielded 7 million hits.  The video was every where. Facebook, Twitter, blogs and even celebrities jumped on the Kony 2012 bandwagon. Not too  many people knew of Joseph Kony until yesterday, and I&#8217;m definitely one of them. Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army and is known for crimes such as murder, rape and abduction. His army has been responsible for stealing children and forcing them to join his army. Kony has been on the run for years, and the U.S government has made numerous attempts on capturing him, but have failed. Jason Russel&#8217;s polished video, shares the story of his friend Jacob, who witnessed his brother being killed at the hands of Kony&#8217;s men. Russel uses this video to shed light on the atrocities and to hopefully aid in Kony&#8217;s capture. Of course in the contrarian society we live in, no good deed goes uncriticized. Many people have referred to Russel&#8217;s video as &#8220;hipster&#8221; activism and yet another form of &#8220;White Savior&#8221; mentality.  A fellow blogger, that has been keeping up with Ugandan issues for several years, wrote &#8220;So they made a MTV-esque DVD about what was happening there. Do not be fooled by slick video editing&#8221;.  Another favorite site of mine has also been quite critical over the issue as well. Jezebel&#8217;s article, &#8220;Think Twice Before Donating to Kony 2012, the Charitable Meme du Jour&#8221; cited issues with the organization&#8217;s finances: From &#8220;Visible Children&#8221;: &#8220;Invisible Children has been condemned time and time again. As a registered not-for-profit, its finances are public. Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven&#8217;t had their finances externally audited. But it goes way deeper than that. Since the advent of the Occupy Wall Streeters and activism going viral many people feel that &#8220;hipster&#8221; activism has become a quick way for people to feel as though they&#8217;re doing good, without really doing much at all. Sending a tweet, posting a Facebook status, donating to a Kickstarter fund and forwarding an email to raise awareness has become a new form of activism.  Grassroots movements have now turned to trending topics and Youtube views. But who&#8217;s to say any of these are bad? Up until yesterday, how many people actually knew anything about Uganda? Hell, with the educational system the way it is in the U.S., how many people on Facebook and Twitter, actually knew Uganda was a country in Africa?  If more people spent time being less contrary about a movement that is attempting to do good, and actually join to help a cause, imagine how much of a difference it could actually make? Even if people don&#8217;t want to join Russel&#8217;s movement, there are certain plenty of others to consider as well. It&#8217;s all about educating yourself and picking the one you feel more comfortable with.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
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		<title>Courage Is The Power To Let Go Of The Familiar</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/06/courage-is-the-power-to-let-go-of-the-familiar/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/03/06/courage-is-the-power-to-let-go-of-the-familiar/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:56:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[me]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Courage Is The Power To Let Go Of The Familiar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yesha Callahan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4174</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This past weekend on my flight back from California, I found myself flipping through the USAirways magazine, which is something I never do. I truly hate touching those magazines because there&#8217;s no telling how many dirty hands have grazed them. As I&#8217;m flipping through the magazine, I came across a quote by Raymond Irving Lindquist. The last time I saw that name was when I was a kid &#38; came across a book my grandmother had called, &#8220;Notes For Living&#8221;. I remember the aged book having yellow pages and the smell of &#8220;oldness&#8221;.  I skimmed through the book, but never fully &#8216;grasped&#8217; it when I was a kid, until now. Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. I&#8217;ve been saying this to myself for the past few days.  Throughout the past couple of years, I&#8217;ve learned the familiar is not always the best for me and I&#8217;ve been slowly trying to let it go.  It definitely hasn&#8217;t been an easy process. Bad habits are the familiar. Unhealthy relationships are the familiar. Courage to leave &#38; change either of these isn&#8217;t always easy to come by, but at times it&#8217;s a necessity for growth and peace of mind. I&#8217;ve recently made a promise to myself that no longer will I let the familiar linger, but find the courage to let it go. Forever.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
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		<title>How The Facebook Social Plug-In Unmasks Idiots &amp; Racists</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/02/21/how-the-facebook-social-plug-in-unmasks-idiots-racists/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/02/21/how-the-facebook-social-plug-in-unmasks-idiots-racists/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:21:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Culture & Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dumbass of the week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Commenting Systems on News Sites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook Social Plug-In]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Keyboard Racists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personal sites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[privacy settings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social networking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[washington post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yeshacallahan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4063</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I rarely read the comment section of sites like The Washington Post or local news sites like NBC Washington, but when I do, I&#8217;ve noticed a trend among people who comment on certain articles that, indirectly or directly, involve topics like race, women &#38; culture.  People are never afraid to show their true &#8220;colors&#8221; when they think it&#8217;s anonymous. Keyboard racists &#38; sexists tend to run rampant on the internet.  Unfortunately, due to many sites using the Facebook Social Plug-in, they&#8217;re really not so anonymous any more. The Facebook Social Plug-In is a commenting tool that has seemingly replaced the traditional commenting section of websites.  If you&#8217;re already signed into your Facebook page, it will automatically pull that information and allow you to place a comment on a site, exposing your Facebook name. The social plug-in also allows for you to choose whether or not to have that comment shown on your Facebook timeline.  The only way for your name not to be shown is if you have already adjusted your privacy settings.  I&#8217;ve also noticed that a lot of news sites &#38; personal sites have taken away the option of giving people the ability to choose whether to use the social plug-in or the generic comment system built into sites. For example, on this site, I use both the social plug-in and the generic WordPress plug-in, but of course that doesn&#8217;t mean I&#8217;m immune to the ignorance. Below is a comment that someone left using their Facebook account: Kayla Wilson, apparently isn&#8217;t the sharpest tool in the shed, and she admits that she&#8217;s &#8220;not qiute there yet will be though&#8221;.  Although she works at &#8220;None of your dam business&#8221;, she still found the time to leave psychotic comments that directly link to her Facebook page.  Kayla isn&#8217;t alone in the world of irresponsible social networking. This morning, NBC Washington  posted a horrifying article about a car crash in Landover, Maryland on MLK Blvd that resulted in one fatality and several injuries after a car crashed into a KFC.  Apparently, this brought out several chicken and racist comments among the keyboard racists. With comments ranging from sarcasm in regard to Martin Luther King, Jr Blvd and how nothing ever good happens there, to other comments about black people and fried chicken, it&#8217;s astounding to see how people freely display their ignorance when it&#8217;s connected to their real names. What people fail to understand is that since the advent of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), nothing is very anonymous. Although the Facebook Social Plug-in states that most search engines will not crawl content within an iframe (where the comments are housed on the site), the operative word is most, so there is the possibility that the views and opinions expressed by idiots will follow them around the internet for quite some time. So while social networking irresponsibility runs a muck on news sites, it&#8217;s definitely proved as an easy way to unmask certain individuals online.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>One Moment In Time</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/02/13/one-moment-in-time/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/02/13/one-moment-in-time/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:06:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[entertainment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[One Moment In Time]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RIP Whitney Houston]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Whitney Houston]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yesha Callahan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4054</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Words cannot properly explain how I felt the moment I found about Whitney Houston&#8217;s death. Saturday evening I was in my bedroom catching up on one of my favorite tv shows and chatting with my friend Danielle on gtalk, when she IM&#8217;d with &#8220;Whitney Houston is dead??&#8221;. My heart literally skipped a beat. We went from talking about Braxton Family Values and Mob Wives to the death of another icon. The first site I went to visit was TMZ, because they&#8217;re pretty much the news source that has turned into the &#8220;go-to&#8221; site. Of course the website wasn&#8217;t loading. Traffic surge I suppose. I grabbed my remote control and turned to CNN and there was Don Lemon in his hipster glasses, reporting on her death. Disbelief was an understatement. When you&#8217;re from New Jersey, Whitney Houston&#8217;s success was something you learned about and cherished at an early age.  I can only imagine how many times her songs were sung during school graduations.  I particularly remember my 8th grade graduation at Alexander Hamilton Middle School in Elizabeth, NJ. During our music class we were tasked with singing &#8220;One Moment In Time&#8221;, and every week we would sing that song at the top of our lungs in preparation for the graduation ceremony.  Truth be told, I can&#8217;t sing worth a damn, but you couldn&#8217;t tell me that when you&#8217;re surrounded by thirty other 8th graders. You couldn&#8217;t tell us anything once we got on that stage.  There were about 40-something Whitney Houstons; Black, White, Asian &#38; Latino singing with all their might. That was our moment to shine. Whitney Houston made anyone believe that they could sing her songs. Whether you were an 8th grader or grown woman in your car like I was this morning, teary eyed and singing to One Moment In Time while I was driving to work. You belted out those notes regardless of the fact that you couldn&#8217;t carry a note. When you&#8217;re singing to a Whitney Houston song, you&#8217;re in your own moment. Instead of focusing on how she died, I rather focus on how she impacted music like no one else did and focus on how she inspired so many present day singers. Whitney took her one moment in time and made an impact. Rest in peace to the incomparable, Whitney Houston. You&#8217;re a winner for a lifetime.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<title>This Father Is Now An Asshole Because He Shot Up His Bratty Daughter&#8217;s Laptop?</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/02/10/this-father-is-now-an-asshole-because-he-shot-up-his-bratty-daughters-laptop/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/02/10/this-father-is-now-an-asshole-because-he-shot-up-his-bratty-daughters-laptop/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:28:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dad Shoots Daughter's Laptop With .45 Because of Facebook Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[father shoots daughter's laptop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yesha Callahan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4047</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the toughest jobs in the world is being a parent.  Ironically, it&#8217;s the one job where you don&#8217;t receive a salary &#38; there&#8217;s definitely no 401k. You spend countless minutes, hours, days, years providing for your child and trying to raise them in the way you want to see them go. No matter how much hard work that goes into raising a child, ultimately, one can never be sure what type they&#8217;re going to end up with.  If you&#8217;re lucky, you&#8217;ll have a child that is grateful for all of the hard work &#38; lessons you&#8217;ve taught them.  You&#8217;ll have a child that gets excellent grades in school, not because it makes you happy, but because they know that&#8217;s what should be done.  Your child will realize that money doesn&#8217;t fall from trees and chores are a way of life when you&#8217;re a kid.  They&#8217;ll understand the value of a dollar &#38; earning their keep. In a perfect world, you&#8217;d have a perfect child like this. Unfortunately, we don&#8217;t live in a perfect world, and there are some pretty shitty children out there. Case in point, the father pictured above.  Today circulating around the internets is a video of him responding to his daughter&#8217;s Facebook rant she posted on her page. She assumed her father would not find out about her rant. Unfortunately for her, her father happens to be an IT professional and while he was updating the software on her laptop, he of course found it. Apparently this wasn&#8217;t the first time he&#8217;s found defaming items on his daughter&#8217;s Facebook page about her parents. But I guess he wanted to make sure this would be his last time. &#160; After ranting about how spoiled his daughter is and every thing they&#8217;ve done for her, the father then decides to put an end to her laptop by pumping several rounds of bullets into it. *gasp* You&#8217;d think he just killed his own child with the comments people have made on several sites. Every one has pretty much called this father an asshole for making the video &#38; &#8216;killing&#8217; his daughter&#8217;s laptop.  People have seemingly glossed over the fact that this man&#8217;s spoiled daughter basically shitted on everything her parents have done for her after posting her &#8216;ode&#8217; to them on her Facebook page. Guess what? Some teenagers are shitty selfish and spoiled brats. Not all teenagers are assholes because their parents are assholes.  I truly don&#8217;t think this father did anything wrong.   Sure, maybe him and his wife quite possibly, could have been enablers and allowed certain behavior in the household, but who knows?  I guess making a child do chores and expecting them to do it for free is too much to ask nowadays? My son has chores. He pretty much does most of the household chores, that include cleaning the kitchen, living room, vacuuming &#38; making sure his bathroom and bedroom are up to par. Does he complain? Sure he does. Does he receive an allowance? No, he doesn&#8217;t. Welcome to my house. I run this. My house. My rules. Is my son a perfect child?  Hell no. He&#8217;s far from it.  I&#8217;ve kirked out before just like this father in the video did. But no, I didn&#8217;t have bullets or a laptop. This past summer, his PS3 did meet it&#8217;s demise when it came in contact with the sidewalk.  Needless to say, I proved my point that day. From that day out, he hasn&#8217;t complained about one chore he&#8217;s had to do. Everyone has different parenting styles and apparently this man&#8217;s style is now under scrutiny.   In some ways I feel sorry for him.  Do I feel sorry for his child? No, I truly don&#8217;t. I doubt she&#8217;ll resort to bashing her parents again on Facebook any time soon.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
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		<title>Mariah, Jennifer, Janet &amp; Charles: Celebrity Weight Loss Overkill</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/01/12/mariah-jennifer-janet-charles-celebrity-weight-loss-overkill/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/01/12/mariah-jennifer-janet-charles-celebrity-weight-loss-overkill/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:29:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[beauty & health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[men]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[women]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[annoying commercials]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Celebrity Weight Loss Endorsements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Charles Barkley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[diet commercials]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[janet jackson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[janet jackson does nutrisystem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jennifer Hudson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jennifer hudson does weight watchers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jenny Craig]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mariah Carey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nutrisystem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[weight watcher celebrity endorsers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Weight Watchers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yesha Callahan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=4001</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the first celebrities I can recall endorsing a weight loss system was Sarah Ferguson aka &#8220;Fergie The Duchess of York&#8221;. Before her endorsement of Weight Watchers and after her divorce from Prince Andrew, the 2nd son of Queen Elizabeth II, she was commonly referred to as &#8220;The Duchess of PORK&#8221;. During her &#8220;reign&#8221; as spokesperson for Weight Watchers, she also &#8220;wrote&#8221; several books that were backed by Weight Watchers. Who says you need monarchy backed dollars when you&#8217;re pulling in Weight Watchers money? Most recently the airwaves, tv &#38; internet have been inundated with diet commercials. From Jennifer Hudson&#8217;s god awful annoying commercials with her singing to her former fat self, to Janet Jackson&#8217;s whispery Nutri-System commercials, Mariah Carey&#8217;s &#8220;Post Dem Babies&#8221; Jenny Craig ads and finally Mr. Mumbles himself, Charles Barkley attempting to garner Weight Watchers some male clientele. Every time I see one of these commercials I feel like Susan Powter &#38; want to scream: STOP THE INSANITY!! &#160; The overkill is getting ridiculous. What people fail to realize is that these diet systems are not cheap! On average, most people end up spending about $300 a month on Nutrisystem and in their defense, at least they have the fees on their site: Weight Watchers on the other hand is not so transparent when it comes to stating their fees. Trying to find the costs of their program isn&#8217;t easy at all. Why? Because it&#8217;s no where to be found on their site, unless you sign up for a membership, but according to Online Diet Service Reviews: We found this service friendly and easy to use. However, like many other online diet services, they do not provide you with much access to the website and features without signing up for a membership first. There are two subscription plans, monthly and quarterly. The initial cost of Weight Watchers online is $17.95 a month, but there is a $29.95 start up fee. The three–month program is $53.85 plus the start up fee. After your first three months, if you signed up for the three month plan, you are automatically switched to a monthly plan with monthly billing. If you would like to continue your three month billing cycle you will have to manually change it in your settings. Should you decide to drop the service, there isn&#8217;t a long term membership requirement, so you can cancel at anytime. Let&#8217;s not forget about Jenny Craig. One former pissed off Jenny Craiger wrote: Do you have money to burn? If so, join Jenny Craig. This is the biggest rip off in the dieting industry I have ever seen&#8230; When you start the program they will tell you that their meals cost between $15-$18 per day but I figured out my daily cost and it was an average of $20.00 per day which doesn&#8217;t include the optional items you can buy from Jenny Craig that they list on their weekly menus. To spend $600 on one person per month on Jenny Craig food (and I use the term loosely) is ridiculous. Add in the cost to buy the groceries you need to supplement this horrible diet and you are paying an awful lot of money to lose 1-2 lbs per week. The counselors at Jenny Craig don&#8217;t know anything more about nutrition than an experienced dieter and if you need to be motivated by someone, don&#8217;t pay Jenny Craig for counseling. Ask your parent, spouse, or good friend to be the one to give you encouragement and weigh you weekly. Trust me, someone who cares about you will give you more inspiration and motivation than the counselors at Jenny Craig &#8211; they don&#8217;t really care if you lose weight because the worse you do the more money they make on their food sales. Please don&#8217;t waste your money on Jenny Craig. It is so not worth it despite what their celebrity endorsers might say. &#160; &#160; In the grand scheme of things, sure Weight Watchers is a lot cheaper than Nutrisystem &#38; Jenny Craig, but guess what else is cheaper? Here&#8217;s a novel idea. &#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.. &#160; A gym membership! &#160; Yeah, yeah yeah&#8230;easier said than done! Believe me I know. Hell, [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Michelle Obama Says She&#8217;s Not An Angry Black Woman</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/01/11/michelle-obama-says-shes-not-an-angry-black-woman/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2012/01/11/michelle-obama-says-shes-not-an-angry-black-woman/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:57:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[news, law & politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gail King]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gail king/michelle obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gossip]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kantor The Obamas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[michelle obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[washington dc]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=3990</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor&#8217;s new book, &#8220;The Obamas&#8221;, Kantor attempts to expose so-called tensions between Michelle Obama &#38; White House Staffers, including Rahm Emanuel and Former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. In a response to the book, the White House has already called it over dramatized &#38; old news. “The book is about a relationship between two people whom the author has not spoken to in years.… The emotions, thoughts and private moments described in the book, though often seemingly ascribed to the President and First Lady, reflect little more than the author’s own thoughts.” – (Eric Schultz, White House Associate Communications Director, The White House blog) Some of the &#8220;juiciest&#8221; tidbits included an Alice In Wonderland type bash thrown that included the likes of Tim Burton &#38; Johnny Depp and the original Chewbacca costume from Star Wars. The book also goes on to speculate, because that&#8217;s pretty much all it is, about disagreements with Emanuel &#38; Gibbs. Considering that the information didn&#8217;t come directly from the Obama&#8217;s mouths, but from 33 supposed White House staffers, I think this book might as well be lined up  next to The Star magazine in the express check out line at Safeway. Today on the CBS Morning Show,  Oprah&#8217;s best buddy, Gail King  had a chance to sit down &#38; speak with Michelle Obama about these &#8220;tensions&#8221; in the White House. She tells Gail, &#8220;I never read these books.  So I&#8217;ve just gotten in the habit of not reading other people&#8217;s impressions of people.&#8221; Do you blame her? Michelle Obama has been under scrutiny since her husband took office. The media has kept  her under a microscope and has dissected every little piece of her. From the way she dresses, to other politicians making disrespectful comments about her physique. Michelle feels that people shouldn&#8217;t believe everything they read about her, because it&#8217;s pretty much not true. She dispels the notion that she&#8217;s sitting besides Barack in meetings, &#8220;I guess it&#8217;s just more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here,&#8221; she said. &#8220;That&#8217;s been an image people have tried to paint of me since the day Barack announced, that I&#8217;m some kind of angry black woman.&#8221; I&#8217;m glad  Michelle Obama made mention of being painted as an &#8220;Angry Black Woman&#8221;.  This is what some in mainstream media, especially people like Kantor &#38;  Fox News tries to get the world to believe.  Michelle Obama goes on to say, &#8220;There will always be people who don&#8217;t like me.. I&#8217;m just trying to be me, and I just hope that over time, that people get to know me.&#8221;  Do I even have to go into the rant on how a lot of black women are painted as being ABW (Angry Black Women)?  Why can&#8217;t Michelle be painted as just a woman who chooses to stand by her man &#38;  raise their two daughters effectively, even under constant scrutiny?  I&#8217;m sure Michelle has her moments of anger, she&#8217;s human &#38; she&#8217;s a woman. We all do. I truly don&#8217;t see her as being this tyrant of a wife that Jodi Kantor is attempting to paint her as in the book. The unfortunate truth in the matter is that this book mostly likely will end up a best seller, the comment section of every mainstream news site will have plenty of vulgar &#38; racist comments aimed at The Obamas, Jodi Kantor will continue her promo tour &#38; Washingtonians that thrive off of White House gossip will love it. &#160; &#160; Soledad interviews the author:]]></description>
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		<title>I Was A Poor Black Kid</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/12/13/i-was-a-poor-black-kid/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/12/13/i-was-a-poor-black-kid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:56:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Culture & Society]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gene Marks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[I Was A Poor Black Kid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[If I Was A Poor Black Kid Forbes Article]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=3807</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This morning I read Forbes contributor, Gene Marks&#8217; piece, &#8220;If I Was A Poor Black Kid&#8221;. Marks&#8217; a self-described, &#8220;middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background&#8221; gives his blueprint on how poor black children can better themselves, given their circumstances.   Since he is a technology contributor, it would make sense that most of this suggestions focus on how poor black children should use technology to their advantage. He also feels that more poor black children should take the initiative to apply to charter &#38; private schools as well, to get a better education. Could it all be so simple? Apparently through Marks&#8217; rose colored glasses it is, but in all actuality, as a former poor black kid I know it isn&#8217;t. See the thing about these poor black kids, is that they come from poor black families. Most of these children have parents that barely have an education beyond high school. There&#8217;s the saying, &#8220;Each One Teach One&#8221;, if their parents weren&#8217;t  taught, how could they possibly teach their own? Marks  suggests the use of technology in aiding poor black children. When I was a kid, technology wasn&#8217;t something that was readily available. In our classes in middle school we had a few Apple II computers,  at home my version of technology was a typewriter &#38; calculator.  It wasn&#8217;t until I was in high school that we had our first computer in the house. The same exists today. How many poor black families can afford to have technology in the home? Have you seen the cost of a Macbook?  Sure, a lot of schools in poverty stricken areas have &#8220;some&#8221; form of technology, but 3 computers to every 10 students isn&#8217;t much.  What happens after school?  Schools aren&#8217;t allowing children to check out Macbooks like library books, that&#8217;s for sure.  So those websites that he list in his article are moot, after the school bell rings. Marks also touches on the subject of private schools &#38; charter schools, options which he states poor black children should take advantage of.  He did mention how charter schools were competitive to get into, but what he fails to realize is that all charter schools aren&#8217;t created equal. Some of them have sub-par standards like a lot of public schools. Then there&#8217;s the private school issue. Once again, these poor black kids come from poor black households, even if 60% of the tuition is being paid by scholarships, where might these parents get the other funding? Sure, lets start families off on  loans (if they can get approved for them) to pay for  a secondary school education so by the time college rolls around, how much less will they be able to afford?  Fortunately I had the opportunity to attend the largest high school in New Jersey, Elizabeth High School. Although EHS was in an &#8216;urban&#8217; area, it afforded students the opportunity to excel in either academics or a technical trade.  Through Advance Placement classes, extra-curricular activities and the help of the guidance counselors,  the senior graduating class typically had about 900+ students. Most of these students either went on to college, the military or a technical school. I have plenty of friends from high school that grew up poor, that are now doctors, attorneys, and even educators in the same high school &#38; district they graduated from. It&#8217;s always easy to make suggestions when you&#8217;re on the other end of the spectrum.  Being poor isn&#8217;t just a state of mind, that you can easily escape with technology and a charter school. If a child&#8217;s parents are barely making ends meet, being poor is about survival and in some cases education is a second thought.  There are plenty of single &#38; married parent households that are barely surviving  in this economy. The saying goes is that you&#8217;re one paycheck away from being broke or homeless. Well, what about the people that are still broke, even when they receive that one paycheck?  I&#8217;d be interested in knowing how many poor black kids Marks come across during the day as a &#8220;middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background&#8221;.  How many of these poor black kids [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Parents Of Morbidly Obese Children</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/11/29/should-parents-lose-custody-of-morbidly-obese-children/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/11/29/should-parents-lose-custody-of-morbidly-obese-children/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:59:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[childhood obesity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eating habits]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fat kids]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medical neglect]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[morbidly obese child placed into foster care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[neglect case]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[overweight children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state of ohio]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=3794</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My neighbor is morbidly obese.  When I say morbid, if I had to make an estimate about her weight I would put her at about 5&#8217;6 &#38; 350 lbs. She is also the mother of 3 children.  Her son 12 year old son, who is friends with my son, probably tips the scale at 250lbs and is only about 5&#8217;4. Her daughter is 8 and is probably about 140 and about 4&#8242; tall.  I have yet to see her youngest son, who should be almost a year old.  I&#8217;ll be the first to say that I could spare to lose about 10-15 lbs and my son could probably benefit from losing 10  pounds.  I hate to qualify our weight with the fact that we&#8217;re both taller than average, but it does factor in. During my morning commute, I was on the phone with a friend of mine and he was listening to a local morning show and the heated debate around an 8 year old boy who was placed in foster care because his mother was not doing enough to control his weight. At 8 years old, he was already more than 200lbs. The State of Ohio considers this a medical neglect case and was involved with the family for 10 months before they decided to remove the child from the home. They gave the parent time to change the eating habits of the child, but apparently she failed to do so. To make matters worse, the child also suffers from sleep apnea which is exacerbated by his obesity. Before I was able to research the details surrounding the case, I told my friend that I didn&#8217;t feel that it was right to remove the child without providing resources to the mother before hand. In learning that there were resources provided, for the health of the child, it was probably a good idea to have the child removed from the home and placed in a home where his eating habits could be monitored.  With that said, I&#8217;m hoping that this child isn&#8217;t placed into just any type of home or care facility. As my friend said, sometimes the home a child is placed into isn&#8217;t better than the one they were removed from. There have been many times when I&#8217;ve wondered if anyone at my son&#8217;s school has ever questioned his friend&#8217;s weight and thought of it as being child neglect.  When I look at the family struggling to do simple things like get in &#38; out of the car  or walk up the stairs to their house, I couldn&#8217;t help but to feel sorry for them. I remember a few summers ago, when the little girl was around 6 years old, I thought to myself, &#8220;Thank god she&#8217;s not fat&#8221;. Last week there was a knock on my door and I answered it, I looked down and there she was, looking for her brother and bigger than I remembered her. Since obesity is an issue that now seems to warrant the removal of children from their parents. I wonder if the reverse will happen as well.  Will anorexia and other eating disorders in children/teens warrant the removal of children as well? Share your opinions in the comment section!]]></description>
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		<title>Who Will Cry For The Little Boy</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/11/14/who-will-cry-for-the-little-boy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/11/14/who-will-cry-for-the-little-boy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:30:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[men]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[paterno]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Penn state]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sandusky]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sexual assault]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.yeshacallahan.com/?p=3770</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week as I scrolled through the Sandusky grand jury report, I couldn&#8217;t help but to think of a friend of mine. He was one of the first people I met when I moved to Maryland about 8 years ago. We immediately hit it off and became really close friends. A few months into our friendship he told me about the abuse he suffered at the hands of a male family friend, from the time he was 6 until he was 11. He didn&#8217;t tell anyone about this abuse until he was a college student and at the insistence of his therapist. In college he developed an addiction to drugs and sex. Both of which abused his body. He didn&#8217;t know what a healthy relationship consisted of. The men he involved himself with were always old enough to be his father and knew they were taking advantage of his insecurities and aided in his drug abuse. After divulging information about his abuse to his parents, instead of being supportive, they ostracized him and went into denial. Where he thought he would receive hugs of encouragement, he instead received arms extended from his parents that forged a distance between them. Years later, although he had long given up drugs, he still hadn&#8217;t come to terms with other demons in his life. By the time I met him, I saw the self destructive behavior and experienced it first hand. I remember urging him to get back into therapy and get rid of some of the bad influences in his life. In 2006, my friend died from a lethal combination of heroin and prescription drugs. At his funeral I saw his mother walk up to the casket to hug him. The hug he received in death was what he yearned for in life. So many times, sexual abuse either goes unreported or it&#8217;s not even acknowledged when it is reported. Although the percentage of sexual assault among boys is drastically less than that amongst girls, it is still prevalent. Whatever the outcome of this Penn State mess, it is shedding a light on the fact that sexual abuse doesn&#8217;t discriminate and that there shouldn&#8217;t be a stigma of shame when it comes to coming forward. I cried for my friend as I was reading the grand jury report. I cried for my own son in hopes that he will never come across predators in his life and I cried for the boys that are now grown men that carried this Penn State experience around with them for so many years. &#160;]]></description>
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		<title>DVD Giveaway: Michael Jackson: The Life Of An Icon</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/11/01/dvd-giveaway-michael-jackson-the-life-of-an-icon/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/11/01/dvd-giveaway-michael-jackson-the-life-of-an-icon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:26:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[music]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[david gest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DVD Giveaway: Michael Jackson: The Life Of An Icon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[katherine jackson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[king of pop]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.flyblackchick.com/?p=3761</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[IN CELEBRATION OF ‘MICHAEL JACKSON: THE LIFE OF AN ICON’ BLU-RAY AND DVD RELEASE, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS ENTERTAINMENT WANTS TO TAKE YOU TO THE WORLD PREMIERE IN LONDON LIVE ON NOVEMBER 2. An all-star World Premiere of David Gest&#8217;s new film &#8216;Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon&#8217; in London on November 2, 2011 at Empire Leicester Square. In attendance will be Michael Jackson&#8217;s brother Tito, sister Rebbie, David Gest, the film&#8217;s director Andrew Eastel, the event will feature a special Q&#38;A session with Tito and Rebbie Jackson, moderated by David Gest.  Plus live Red Carpet coverage of more than 100 celebrities including many of the music industry&#8217;s top recording artists, motion picture and television stars, sporting legends and other well-known personalities. Live steaming of the webcast is from 1:45 PM &#8211; 3:45 ET / 5:45 PM &#8211; 7:45 PM GMT on Wednesday November 2 &#38; will be available here on my site. Michael Jackson: The Life Of An Icon is available as of 11/1 on Blu-ray and DVD. See Michael Jackson, one of the most recognizable and popular entertainers of all time, like never before in the feature-length tribute Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon. Known to millions of fans worldwide for his record-breaking albums, groundbreaking music videos, mesmerizing dance moves and humanitarian efforts, his true story has never really been told&#8230;until now. This unprecedented look into the King of Pop&#8217;s fascinating life includes all-new interviews with his mother Katherine Jackson as well as siblings Tito and Rebbie Jackson, family, friends and music legends such as Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick and many more. In addition to the live stream on my site tomorrow, I&#8217;m also giving away 2 copies of the dvd! In the comment section below, just let me know what your favorite Michael Jackson song is &#38; why! The winner will be picked randomly. Watch live streaming video from mjlifeofanicon at livestream.com]]></description>
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		<title>Missing &amp; Black: Jahessye Shockley</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/10/23/missing-black-jahessye-shockley/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/10/23/missing-black-jahessye-shockley/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:46:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news, law & politics]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[fly black chick]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Glendale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Glendale Arizona Crime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jahessye Shockley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jahessye Shockley Kidnapped]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jahessye Shockley Missing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kidnapped]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kidnapping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[missing child]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Missing Children]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Missing Persons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yesha callahan blog]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.flyblackchick.com/?p=3745</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Three years ago, I stood inside the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, in downtown Chicago. I was in the area on a business trip and I was also joined by a close friend of mine. As we&#8217;re taking photos from the tower, I received a phone call from my sister in Maryland, who was watching my son while I was traveling. Within in seconds into the phone call, my heart sunk. I started to hyperventilate and shake. She called to let me know that my son (9 yrs old), nephew (10 yrs old) and cousin (7 yrs old) were missing and she couldn&#8217;t find him. His cell phone was going straight to voice-mail, and she hadn&#8217;t heard from them in hours.  All I could think of was how fast I could get back to Maryland from Chicago.  My friend saw the panic in my face and hailed the first taxi to the hotel. In the taxi I called every parent&#8217;s phone number that I had.  No one saw either of them.  Once we arrived back to the hotel, the police and my aunt were already at the house, questioning my sister.  All I could think of was the fact that 3 little black kids were missing and how historically there has always been a lack of media coverage in cases of missing black kids. To make a long story short, eventually my son and his minions arrived home from a friend&#8217;s house. Apparently, they lost track of time and didn&#8217;t realize how late it was.  When I got the call that everything was ok with them, I was relieved, but I also knew a few kids had some explaining to do. I was one of the lucky ones.   I didn&#8217;t have to rely on the local police or media to aid in finding a missing child. Unlike Jahessye Shockley&#8217;s family, from the Glendale, Arizona area, I didn&#8217;t have to bear witness to the lack of media coverage after their child had been missing for over two weeks.  This is not the first time the media has neglected a child of color when it came to alerting the public.  A few months ago I wrote about  Phylicia Barnes, a teen that went missing while visiting family in Baltimore.  Two months later, I wrote about her again. Weeks later, they found her dead, about 100 miles away from where she was abducted, and they still haven&#8217;t found the person responsible for her murder. Unfortunately, Jahessye Shockley&#8217;s life hasn&#8217;t been a crystal stair. There are reports surfacing that her mother, Jerice Hunter, has a history of child abuse and neglect and served half of an eight year sentence for child abuse &#38; endangerment.  Regardless of the circumstances surrounding Jahessye&#8217;s life with her biological mother, the fact still remains that immediate media coverage is pivotal in locating missing children. Jahessye  Shockley was last seen by her three older siblings at her Glendale home while their mother was running an errand. Police  say that she may have left through the apartment door, that was left unlocked. Currently, there are no suspects or leads, but Jerice Hunter, feels as though she&#8217;s being treated as a suspect. &#8221;They&#8217;re treating me like that &#8211; the interrogations and the way I&#8217;ve been spoken to,&#8221; Jerice Hunter said in an interview with the Associated Press. &#160; One has to think, if Jahessye was a blond haired, blue eyed little white girl would her image and details of her kidnapping  have been splattered across every news media outlet within 24 hours of her being reported missing. Unlike Jaycee Duggard,  Natalee Hollaway, Caylee Anthony or Polly Klaas, black children gone missing have received little or no &#8220;fan fare&#8221; from mainstream media.  Getting the word out about a missing black child currently relies heavily on social media. A black child&#8217;s photo is reblogged, facebooked &#38; tweeted 1000&#8242;s of times before mainstream media takes notice.  Thankfully, these outlets are at people&#8217;s disposal, because without them, no one would even know a black child has gone missing.]]></description>
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		<title>When Plastic Surgeons Attack</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/10/19/when-plastic-surgeons-attack/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/10/19/when-plastic-surgeons-attack/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:25:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[beauty & health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recent]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.flyblackchick.com/?p=3719</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Joan Rivers is infamous for ripping apart celebrities and their fashion faux pas. Joan Rivers is also infamous for having her face ripped apart by plastic surgeons. Lil Kim used to be known  as the &#8220;Queen Bee&#8221; for her raunchy rap and over the top  lyrics, that may or may not have been written by her. Now the &#8220;Queen Bee&#8221; looks as though she&#8217;s suffered some type of allergic reaction in the facial area after being stung by a million of them. This man used to be Kenny Rogers. Apparently he didn&#8217;t take his own advice.  He&#8217;s infamous for singing, &#8220;You got to know when to hold &#8216;em, know when to fold &#8216;em, Know when to walk away, know when to run&#8221;. Apparently he didn&#8217;t share the same sentiment when it came to plastic surgery. I don&#8217;t understand why plastic surgeons are allowed to slice &#38; dice on a person&#8217;s face multiple times. Sure, it&#8217;s the patient&#8217;s money to spend it on whatever procedure they choose, but when should a doctor stop and say, &#8220;Ma&#8217;am, you&#8217;ve had 20 face lifts. You&#8217;re running out of face&#8221;? Some of the top plastic surgeons in the world are single-handedly butchering the faces and bodies of celebrities and non-celebrities.  Recently I ventured out to a well-known strip club in the DC area, and was able to bare witness to several horrible breast implant jobs. I&#8217;m not sure what the going prices of implants are today, but apparently looking like you&#8217;ve had shot puts shoved into your boobs is probably on the lower end of the price scale. Not all plastic surgery is bad. There are doctors that routinely perform procedures for people that have been involved in accidents or born with distinct facial malformations.  For the record, being born with a wide nose, is not a distinct facial malformation. There are also people out there that has had more &#8216;realistic&#8217; procedures done for whatever the reason, and chose not to go overboard. But those aren&#8217;t the ones I&#8217;m referring to. Just take a look at a few before &#38; afters below: In the words of Susan Powter, someone needs to &#8220;Stop The Insanity&#8221; and regulate some of these plastic surgeons and their practices of botching faces and bodies.  The number of deaths involving plastic surgery has risen over the past couple of years. Just recently, in Miami, a woman saved up the $3600 she needed for a liposuction procedure at the Aylne Center for Cosmetic Surgery. In the middle of the surgery she stopped breathing.  She was eventually taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.  According to the Miami Herald, this wasn&#8217;t the first time someone died cosmetic medical surgery in South Florida Just last month (June 2011), Rony Wendrow, 61, died while having her neck and eyelids tightened at Strax Rejuvenation and Aesthetics Institute in Lauderhill. In December 2010, Lidvian Zelaya, 35, died after problems arose during what was to be a simple procedure transferring fat from her waist to her buttocks. In September 2009, Rohie Kah-Orukotan, 37 and a mother of three, underwent several seizures during a liposuction operation at Weston MedSpa before being declared brain dead. In 2002, Olga Myers, a 42-year-old real estate agent, died while undergoing a face-lift at the Cosmetic Surgery Center in Hollywood. State regulators found that no licensed anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist was present during the surgery. If l had to choose between living life a droopy neck, flabby breasts or a saggy ass when I&#8217;m old and possible death from a botched procedure, I&#8217;m choosing life with a droopy neck, flabby breasts and a saggy ass.]]></description>
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		<title>Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Sept. 25 Season Premiere with Michelle Obama</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/09/20/extreme-makeover-home-edition-sept-25-season-premiere-with-michelle-obama/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/09/20/extreme-makeover-home-edition-sept-25-season-premiere-with-michelle-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:34:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.flyblackchick.com/?p=3661</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Since 2003, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EM:HE) has provided 188 home renovations to less fortunate families throughout the United States. Each episode has consisted of telling the story of a family that has endured hardships and their attempt to make the best of their situation. Former model, carpenter &#38; TV host Ty Pennington and his team of designers have dramatically changed the lives of many people throughout the last 8 seasons and this season&#8217;s premiere with Michelle Obama definitely will definitely tug at the heart. Michelle Obama joins Ty Pennington to celebrate and honor Barbara Marshall, a 15-year Navy Veteran, who is fighting to end homelessness among her fellow woman veterans. Barbara Marshall established The Steps-N-Stages Jubilee House in Fayetteville, NC, using her own money and hard work. Jubilee House is a place where homeless female veterans can turn to in their time of need. Jubilee House offers the woman veterans shelter, support and services such as career and life coaching. Barbara&#8217;s life has been dedicated to making Jubilee House successful and offering the women who come through the doors a second chance at life. Not only does Barbara Marshall strive to take care of the woman veterans, but she also is a mother herself. Her daughter is currently serving in the military, and her teenage son, who suffers from a learning disability,  lives with her full time.  At the taping of the show, Jubilee House was the home to three other families as well, and unfortunately the house needed additional space and repairs in order to stay afloat. Mrs. Obama, Ty Pennington and the “EM: HE” team of designers Paul DiMeo, Tracy Hutson, John Littlefield, Sabrina Soto, local builder Blue Ridge Log Cabins and hundreds of community volunteers helped build the new Jubilee House, which in my opinion, is one of the most amazing homes I&#8217;ve seen so far on EM:HE. The most important aspect of this season premiere is that it also sheds light on the issues so many veterans face after leaving the military. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) states roughly five percent of the nations&#8217; homeless veterans are female. This show does what television does best it shines a light on the best of who we are as a country&#8230;She (Barbara Marshall) represents what military familys are&#8230;.she&#8217;s served in the military herself, and continues to serve ~ Michelle Obama The Season 9 premiere of &#8220;Extreme Makeover: Home Edition&#8221; airs SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (7:00-8:00 &#38; 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. &#160; &#160; &#160; To learn more about The Steps-N-Stages Jubilee House and to make a donation, visit their website: http://www.stepsnstages.com. Steps &#38; Stages, Inc.: Resourcing Disabled Women Veterans P.O. Box 9764 Fayetteville, North Carolina 28311-9764 Tel: 910.977.2303 email: womenvets@stepsnstages.com &#160; Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Sept. 25 Season Premiere Michelle Obama joins Ty Pennington to celebrate and honor Barbara Marshall, a 15-year Navy Veteran, who is fighting to end homelessness among her fellow woman veterans. Barbara Marshall established The Steps-N-Stages Jubilee House in Fayetteville, NC, using her own money and hard work. Jubilee House is a place where homeless female veterans can turn to in their time of need. ]]></description>
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		<title>Serena Williams: The Outbursts &amp; Backlash</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/09/12/serena-williams-the-outbursts-backlash/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/09/12/serena-williams-the-outbursts-backlash/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:14:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.flyblackchick.com/?p=3635</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Serena Williams is no stranger to controversy when it comes to her outbursts on the tennis court. Two years ago during the 2009 US Open, Serena Williams issued an apology to a  lineswoman, who was on the receiving end of her outburst, as well as her opponent, and also received fines from the United States Tennis Association (USTA). What seemed to be a bit of deja vu with her infamous outbursts, last night at the 2011 US Open, Serena once again voiced her displeasure in a call made by umpire Eva Asderaki. “Code violation for this? I expressed who I am! We’re in America last time I checked,” “I despise you. You’re not only out of control, you’re a hater, and you’re just unattractive inside,” As I wrote last year, one of the main reasons I started watching tennis as a kid was because of John McEnroe, the original bad boy of tennis. McEnroe&#8217;s outbursts were legendary. You knew the moment he hit that court that not only were you in for a hell of a match, but you could probably assume he&#8217;d lose his temper as well.  McEnroe did every thing from curse, yell and break rackets. In his total career, he received over $91,000 worth of fines, which is nothing in comparison to the fines that Serena have already received.  His larger than life attitude also became immortalized in various rap songs, as well as joke punchlines through out several Hollywood movies. Granted the age of anonymous comments on blogs/news sites weren&#8217;t around in McEnroe&#8217;s era, but he definitely had his share of &#8220;haters&#8221; back then as well, but the amount of hate that is spewed online towards Serena Williams pales in comparison. So far today, I&#8217;ve seen her being called: Man&#8217;ish Boorish Ape-like Ugly Aggressive Overweight &#8230;and those are the less harsh terms. I think it&#8217;s a sad commentary on society&#8217;s views about black women in general.  I understand everyone has a freedom of speech and opinion, but to discount the fact that Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players ever, to only negate her physical attributes is just ridiculous. As of this afternoon, Serena Williams has been cited for verbal abuse and the USTA has fined her $2,000 for verbal abuse toward the umpire. Maybe the issue isn&#8217;t with Serena&#8217;s outbursts but with the archaic ideologies surrounding the rules of tennis. Imagine if you couldn&#8217;t express any type of emotion in football, hockey, baseball, basketball? They&#8217;d make for pretty boring games.  Serena&#8217;s intensity and competitiveness is what has gotten her this far in tennis and it&#8217;s why she&#8217;ll remain a force to be reckoned with.]]></description>
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		<title>EBT Cards &amp; Extra Value Meals</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/09/07/ebt-cards-extra-value-meals/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/09/07/ebt-cards-extra-value-meals/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:32:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Culture & Society]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.flyblackchick.com/?p=3601</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a kid, this was me: &#160; I hated being sent to the store for groceries. I hated it even more that instead of money, I was sent with food stamps.  Even though it was pretty much commonplace to  see them being used, there was the stigma attached to them and embarrassment as well. I still remember on one occasion running into a classmate at the corner store. I tried my hardest to hide the food stamps, but failed. He pulled them out of my hand and waved them around.  I could feel the tears well up in my eyes, but the store owner quickly came and snatched them from the boy&#8217;s hands and threw him out of the store. Since the advent of the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, I guess you can say using public assistance has become a lot more inconspicuous.  No one has to see you pull out food stamps from a book, instead your benefits are accessed through your EBT card. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, between 2005-2010, the number of business that accept food stamps have grown by 1/3. In a report done by USA Today, many restaurants are now trying to get a share of the food stamp/EBT money: Louisville-based Yum! Brands, whose restaurants include Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver&#8217;s and Pizza Hut, is trying to get restaurants more involved, federal lobbying records show. That&#8217;s a prospect that anti-hunger advocates welcome, but one that worries some current food stamp vendors and public health advocates. Federal rules generally prohibit food stamp benefits, which are distributed under the USDA&#8217;s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), from being exchanged for prepared foods. Yet a provision dating to the 1970s allows states to allow restaurants to serve disabled, elderly and homeless people, USDA spokeswoman Jean Daniel said. Pros? Cons? Of course there are both to consider. How would allowing the use of EBT cards at fast food restaurants affect childhood obesity rates? Like my friend Danielle said today, &#8220;the hood doesn&#8217;t have grocery stores&#8221;, and she definitely has a point.  When I was a kid, you couldn&#8217;t just walk to a grocery store. We had bodegas on just about every corner that accepted food stamps, and let me not forget the Korean owned &#8220;fish&#8221; markets, where you could get a healthy fried fish sandwich, which most people preferred to the fresh fish they also had available. Some parents are lazy, and would probably use the EBT access in a heartbeat at the likes of Taco Bell, KFC &#38; Long John Silvers.  So I can see why people like Kelly Brownell, director of Yale&#8217;s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity would have an issue with it: &#8220;It&#8217;s preposterous that a company like Yum! Brands would even be considered for inclusion in a program meant for supplemental nutrition.&#8221; But if we&#8217;re speaking in regards to the homeless population that typically doesn&#8217;t have access to refrigerators and grocery shopping, how preposterous is it for them to have access to already cooked food? &#8220;They think going hungry is better?&#8221; counters Edward Cooney of the Congressional Hunger Center. &#8220;I&#8217;m solidly behind what Yum! is doing.&#8221; So do we worry about the obesity rate or the fact that this could actually help people in the long run? &#160;]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
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		<title>Pi Nappa Kappa-The Natural Hair Sorority&#8230;Seriously? This Has To Be A Joke&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/08/29/pi-nappa-kappa-the-natural-hair-sorority-seriously-this-has-to-be-a-joke/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/08/29/pi-nappa-kappa-the-natural-hair-sorority-seriously-this-has-to-be-a-joke/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:00:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been natural since &#8217;94, before You Tube tutorials, before the thousands of web sites geared towards natural hair and even before there were a quarter of a billion products (most of which aren&#8217;t natural) hit the market. I&#8217;ve seen and heard every word of advice given to women before they&#8217;ve done the &#8216;big chop&#8217; after they&#8217;ve done the &#8216;big chop&#8217;. I&#8217;ve seen people &#8216;teach&#8217; others on how to maintain their natural hair and everything thing else under the sun pertaining to natural hair. When I&#8217;ve thought I&#8217;ve seen and heard it all, I notice my friend &#8220;RyceJuanton&#8221; tweet this: So being the nosy inquisitive person that I am, I did the first thing that came to my mind&#8230;I headed to the good ole Google. That&#8217;s when I sat in my office and couldn&#8217;t help but to literally Laugh Out Loud. Well I&#8217;ll be damned, there is now a &#8220;sorority&#8221; (I use the term lightly) called Pi Nappa Kappa. I&#8217;m going to assume the &#8220;Nappa&#8221; is a play on &#8220;Nappy&#8221;, but to me the whole concept is a play on stupid. So I&#8217;m going to assume this is where the nappier holier than though Natural Hair Nazis, pledge their nappiness.  According to their &#8220;pledge&#8221; site, it states: More details Pi Nappa Kappa Natural Hair Sorority is dedicated to the advancement of natural hair knowledge, preservation and the development of integrity. In order to thrive and excel, this natural hair community must preserve the freedom of thought and expression of all its members. A culture of respect that honors the rights, safety, dignity and worth of every individual is essential to preserve such freedom. By choosing to be members of this natural hair sorority, we pledge our respect for the standards of the Sorority and for the rights and well-being of all its natural members. As a member of the Pi Nappa Kappa Natural Hair Sorority, I pledge that: 1. I am a smart, special, valuable person! 2. I respect myself and I respect others. 3. My words and actions are kind and honest. 4. I will respect the dignity and essential worth of all individuals. 5.I will promote the diversity of opinions, ideas, hairstyles and backgrounds which is the lifeblood of the sorority. 6. I will promote a culture of respect throughout the natural hair community. 7. I will not tolerate bigotry, discrimination, violence, or intimidation of any kind. 8. I will practice personal integrity and expect it from others. 9. I will always be proud of my natural born hair. 10. I accept only my best in all I do. I am PROUD to be ME! Seriously, is there a Relaxer/Chemically treated sorority out there also? I have tons of friends, well just about all of them, that have been natural for decades, and never have I heard of such craziness. Sure, be proud of your natural hair, exalt in it as a matter of fact because it can be a beautiful thing, but&#8230; &#8230;and this is a big BUT&#8230;. Isn&#8217;t it a bit much to create a &#8220;sorority&#8220;? Imagine if it was a real sorority, what would their intake process consist of? Coming up with the best natural hair products?  Making the best two strand twist out? Reciting the ingredients to a jar of relaxer? Will there be a comb test? If your hair can get through a fine tough comb, will you not be allowed? Anyways, I&#8217;ll just sit around and wait for the &#8220;Lye Phi Lye&#8221; sorority to pop up, just so those that live for the creamy crack can have something to call their own as well, why should the &#8220;naturalistas&#8221; at Pi Nappa Kappa- The Natural Hair Sorority have all the fun? &#160; &#160; * Before all of yall happy to be nappy nazis get your panties in a bunch and get ready to type 100wpm in the comment section..you&#8217;ve missed the 48hr comment period..no new ones will be approved *]]></description>
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		<title>My Gordon Gartrell Birthday Dress- A Lesson In Online Shopping</title>
		<link>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/08/19/my-gordon-gartrell-birthday-dress-a-lesson-in-online-shopping/</link>
		<comments>http://www.yeshacallahan.com/2011/08/19/my-gordon-gartrell-birthday-dress-a-lesson-in-online-shopping/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:24:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Yesha Callahan</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Is this my shirt? Is this the shirt I paid $30 for?  Is this the shirt they&#8217;re supposed to think is a Gordon Gartrell??&#8221; ~ Theo, Cosby Show I&#8217;m pretty sure everyone remembers the infamous Gordon Gartrell shirt Denise called herself making for Theo.  The shirt was horrendous. Lopsided sleeves, and lowered pocket, just a hot ass mess. Well in everyone&#8217;s life a Gordon Gartrell shirt surfaces. Well maybe it doesn&#8217;t, but in my life it did as a dress unfortunately. See what had happened was (don&#8217;t you love when people start stories off like that), a few weeks ago, I was in search of a new birthday dress for my party at One Lounge in Dupont Circle. I searched high &#38; low. I didn&#8217;t know what exactly I wanted, but I wanted something different and unique. My closet is lined with Ann Taylor, Calvin Klein, Buffalo and a few other of my favorite dress designers, but I wanted to &#8220;think outside of the dress box&#8221;.   One night during my googling, I came across Wanda Grace, a designer based out of Chicago and I saw this dress:   I immediately fell in like with it.  It was definitely unique and I immediately emailed the merchant to see how long it would take to receive the dress, because my birthday was about 3 weeks away. The merchant promptly replied and said I would have it before August 4th, so I went ahead and made my $85 purchase.  The only thing that I changed about the dress was the color. The merchant gave me a list of colors to choose from so I went with cream. Anyone who knows me, knows I&#8217;d never pay $85 for a dress. I&#8217;m pretty much a frugal shopper when it comes to dresses &#38; shoes. I try to buy most of my items on sale. You can never go wrong with a Macy&#8217;s or Nordstroms sale, so for me to spend $85 on a single item was kind of like a big deal. At least to me it was, but hell, it was my birthday. In all of my years of online shopping, I never had a problem with any items I&#8217;ve purchased, ever.  I&#8217;ve purchased every thing from Emu Oil for my hair, to dresses from Amazon.com, so I like to pride myself on being an online shopping connoisseur. Until this birthday dress fiasco. A few days before my birthday I was starting to panic. I hadn&#8217;t received my dress. I emailed the merchant asking if it&#8217;s been shipped and she replied back with a USPS tracking code.  Great. The pony express was handling my delivery.  If anyone&#8217;s ever used USPS to track anything, it&#8217;s a major fail. Their system doesn&#8217;t update usually until AFTER an item is delivered. Every day I inputted the tracking number on their site to get NOTHING. No information about it at all. More panic. Finally two days before my birthday I received my dress. I remember my son calling me to let me know I received a package in the mail and of course his nosy behind opened it. Kobe: Mommy, you got something in the mail today. It sort of looks like a dress Me: Um. What do you mean sort of? Kobe: Well it&#8217;s a dress I guess. Whatever, what does a 12 year old know about fashion. I was excited after work and rushed home to try my new dress on. I ran into my bedroom and picked up my already opened package. *record scratches* *Insert the sound of Theo screaming at Denise* What in the holy hell was I looking at? Seriously. First of all, the dress I ordered was long sleeves. Yes it was a 90+ degree weather week, but I purposefully ordered a long sleeve dress so that it could be worn in the fall. But guess what, I received a short sleeved dress. Second of all, the dress was horribly made. The seams/hems weren&#8217;t finished; it seemed as though I was sent an unfinished dress: Yup, so like any angry, pissed, upset person I tweeted: Immediately, my friend Nikki sent me a text message asking what was wrong and I rambled [...]]]></description>
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