(Akiit.com) Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama received a lot of (generally positive) media coverage for his sermon last Sunday delivered before more than 3,000 worshippers at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. It was basically a “tough love” speech castigating Black men who father children but fail to stay around to raise and nurture them.

It was a great sermon. I agreed with just about everything he said. Nevertheless, I do not think he should have given it because it targeted the end-result manifestation of a problem and not the cause of the problem.

I have long been convinced that white Americans get a twisted thrill out of hearing Black people criticize one another. Such criticisms tend to let whites off hook. It enables them to feel that the problems and social pathologies confronting Blacks are just a result of individual failures and not a result of 240 years of slavery, 100 years of systematic discrimination, 100 years of state enforced poverty and a culture which has long denigrated and denied social value to Blacks.

What I want Obama – a man I find truly amazing in many respects – to understand are some basic principles of rational thinking which are necessary to grasp if we are going to solve the problem of the missing Black father and not just talk about it. I assure you that these principles are sound and must be followed.

The first two rational thinking principles are these: Everything has a cause but nothing is the cause of itself. The primal example of these two principles is the phenomenon called a baby. Like all phenomena in life and nature, the baby does not cause or bring itself into existence. It is the product of causes external to itself - a mother and a father.
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(Akiit.com) A peek into the lives of the rich, famous and infamous is intriguing, fun, and maybe just a little voyeuristic. We love living vicariously through celebrities, and are fascinated by every aspect of their lives.

The hair styles, the clothing choices, even the latest guy or gal escorting them on the red carpet. Heck, you may even visualize yourself walking the red carpet with your favorite star crush!

So what’s the draw? It’s that flawless physical appearance that exudes a seemingly perfect picture of health.

From Halle Berry’s post baby body, to those oh so scrumptious biceps of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, how do they pull it off? Aside from the additional paid help, what do they have that we don’t? Honestly, there is no magic spotlight that takes you from flab to fab.

According to published reports, celebrities work their posteriors to firmness the old fashioned way, through diet and exercise. Their careers and livelihood depend, in large part, on their looks.

Okay, so they can afford trainers and nutritionists to educate and guide them on how to diet and exercise. They get paid twenty gazillion dollars for their talents. Can you blame them for haulin’ it to the gym? But, did you know that you have access to the same health information that they receive?

Enter Healthy You! The time has come to turn the camera lens and make you the focus. Stop dreaming about the perfect you, and start working to make it a reality. Healthy You! can help. This column does the health research, talks with industry experts and then passes the information along to you, so that you can gradually incorporate healthy habits into your lifestyle. Learn how to make subtle changes in your life that will garner results to help you look and feel your healthy best.
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(Akiit.com) I lay in bed floating on an antihistamine high. I felt a presence at the side of my bed so I opened my eyes and stared into the face of innocence. Barely able to see into the bed my four-year-old son stood on his toes watching me. “Daddy, are you okay?” he was concerned.

“Daddy is just a bit under the weather today.”

‘Can I give you hug?”

Let me tell you, nothing satisfies like those little skinny arms around my neck. I felt better immediately. He ran downstairs to announce to his mother that he had given daddy a feel better hug.

Ahh Childhood. A time when puddles are for stomping in, running is just so we can feel the wind in our face and a hug and a kiss will cure most anything that ails you; A time that disappears all too quickly. Age often brings more than just wisdom it brings cynicism as well. Perhaps we suffer too much heartbreak. Maybe its just that we no longer have boundless reserves of energy, but as we get older what was possible becomes impossible or not worth the effort. We avoid puddles lest we dirty our shoes, run only so we can lose weight and for my money we don’t hug or kiss nearly enough.
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(Akiit.com) NEW YORK, NY - Nearly 60 percent of African-American children cannot swim, almost twice the figure for white children, according to a first-of-its-kind survey which USA Swimming hopes will strengthen its efforts to lower minority drowning rates and draw more blacks into the sport.

Stark statistics underlie the initiative by the national governing body for swimming. Black children drown at a rate almost three times the overall rate. And less than 2 percent of USA Swimming’s nearly 252,000 members who swim competitively year-round are black.

USA Swimming is teaming with an array of partners — local governments, corporations, youth and ethnic organizations — to expand learn-to-swim programs across the United States, many of them targeted at inner-city minorities. One of the key participants is black freestyle star Cullen Jones, who hopes to boost his role-model status by winning a medal this summer at the Beijing Olympics.

USA Swimming’s motives are twofold, executive director Chuck Wielgus said.

“It’s just the right thing to do — making an effort so every kid can be water-safe,” he said. “And quite frankly it’s about performance. We’re something of a niche sport and for us to remain relevant, considering the changing demographics of the population, it’s important we get more kids involved at the mouth of the pipeline.”

Study surveyed nearly 1,800 children

As part of the initiative, USA Swimming commissioned an ambitious study recently completed by five experts at the University of Memphis’ Department of Health and Sports Sciences. They surveyed 1,772 children aged 6 to 16 in six cities — two-thirds of them black or Hispanic — to gauge what factors contributed most to the minority swimming gap.

The study found that 31 percent of the white respondents could not swim safely, compared to 58 percent of the blacks. The non-swimming rate for Hispanic children was almost as high — 56 percent — although more than twice as many Hispanics as blacks are now USA Swimming members.
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(Akiit.com) Are you the guy or gal that has to stop at Starbucks every morning to get that liquid rush? Would you just have the most terrible day if you were running late for work and had to skip it? If you are, than you make up an estimated 90% of Americans that need that fix everyday!

Despite recent controversy about alleged benefits of drinking coffee, you may want to reconsider your position upon considering some not-so pleasant long term effects.

Coffee contains nearly 200 chemicals. Many of these chemicals are oil based and therefore put an added stress on liver function. One chemical, caffeine has several different ill-effects on the body. Here are 4 reasons to kick your coffee habit:

REASON #1: In large amounts, caffeine can interfere with normal sleep patterns as well as become difficult for liver metabolism.

REASON #2: Caffeine in coffee consumed during mealtime, fools the stomach’s ability to secrete the needed amount of Hydrochloric Acid. This reduced Hydrochloric Acid often times contributes to an Acid Reflux response.

REASON #3: Caffeine stimulates adrenaline, the “fight of flight hormone”; however once it wears off, you face fatigue and even mild depression. So then you have to take more and more to get the adrenaline going again. That’s the typical addiction that you want to stop!

REASON #4: Although some studies have shown coffee may reduce your risk of developing breast cancer; coffee drinkers are also more likely to increase their risk of stomach cancer and leukemia.

These are just a few of the known effects that coffee can have on the body, but understand that coffee, with its hundreds of chemicals, affects each person differently and it is still a drug - even if legal!
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