Society’s worst actors aren’t necessarily beyond redemption. From 1960 forward, America has made great strides becoming more inclusive of formerly marginalized populations, including the “differently abled” and homosexuals. It may be that we can become more inclusive of the most outcast population of all: career criminals, also called psychopaths. Terminology “Sociopath” and “psychopath” mean the same thing. “Anti-social personality disorder” (ASPD) is the same as “psychopa

What does black America gain from flipping the bird at white people?

The story of Dez Bryant’s childhood nearly gave me nightmares.

← 5) Pray for the public schools. Home Hostility and turmoil pervade the places you don’t want to go. The spiritual darkness is palpable at noon, and the folk are too lacking in self-love to organize their lives. The area around my church is nowhere near that bad, but still significantly distressed. Prayer for my congregation is inseparable from prayer for that ‘hood, and I engage in such prayer every day.This prayer has evolved. Years back, I would visualize love like a br

Family classes tied to better school performance for poor kids On re-reading the article, I find that my memory was wrong: the program did not consist primarily of in-home interventions. Practically everything occurred outside the home. Note how much intense training the parents received. “Wisdom,” as I have used the term, refers principally to emotional intelligence or emotional maturity. I have discussed before (1) (2) how chaotic versus orderly contexts inhibit the dev

Some weeks ago, I stood in line awaiting check-in at the shelter. This place charges $3 a night. I was holding my money in my hand, and someone playfully tugged at it. I snapped. I said, “You don’t value your life much, do you?” Minutes later, I explained this to someone else. I said, “Don’t take a man’s last dollar.” “Why not?” he asked. I said, ” ‘Cause that’s the one he’ll die for. That’s the one he’ll kill for.” Don’t take my last dollar. That’s the one I’ll kill for. I’v

Stress in low-income families can affect children’s learning I am very excited about this. This is, as far as I know, the first study to attempt to measure the degree of chaos in the home. The researchers in an earlier-mentioned study (Related: Poor children have smaller brains) speculated that “poor families tend to live more chaotic lives, and that stress could inhibit healthy brain development.” The current study seems to indicate that it is directly so. As of this writi

I expect these reports to be vehemently condemned in the United States as racist, albeit the results are sure to be replicated in mono-ethnic nations such as Sweden.

“[T]he uprising in Ferguson was an inevitable reaction to the institutional racism coursing through the area for decades.” — Jack Kirkland I’m homeless. At this writing, I’ve been homeless for exactly 3½ years. When you meet a homeless man for the first time, you won’t notice his skin color. Not first. You’ll notice the condition he’s in. You’ll notice his clothes, his grooming, his conduct. Skin color is so far down the list, it might as well be left off completely. Som

Noise, in general, is chaotic or random sound. Danny personifies noise. He has a foul mouth, and talks constantly in a loud voice, usually about other people. His elbows are always sticking out, and he talks with these wild hand gestures like you see in a rap video. For some reason, he insists on sitting at my favorite table at meals. More than one of us are actually happy when he doesn’t come. In my years working at the dollar store, I found needless noise a great stresso

———— ♦ ———— Three thoughts on tohu (chaos) and tikkun (order) Wednesday 2014-10-15 Danny keeps breaking up his phones. Last night he had two of them. One of them, he’d bought just that morning. He said, “The guy at the store said, ‘This is the fifth one this month.'” Note: Thank God, these are not “Obamaphones.” He’s paying for them. Related: Easily breakable Next: This morbidly obese first-timer, last night, left garbage (sic) in the smoke pit, ignoring a trash can eight fee

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The only hell of concern to me is the living hell, in this life, here and now, that people create for themselves and one another. Today, the Central African Republic is a prime example. There is a history to this conflict that goes back to 1960, but as far as I can tell this land has never known peace at any time.