George Bush Doesn’t Care About… Someone

Today, Inky culture writer Annette John-Hall writes about — what else? — Dancing with the Stars. And the results are in: Dancing is good for men, good for women, indeed, good for America!

You see, Evander Holyfield was on it once. And Jerry Rice was runner-up last year. And, this fall, Emmitt Smith will be on the show, making it three Hall of Fame athletes making some extra cash after their careers are over. (Well, Holyfield is now boxing again. But still.)

And so, John-Hall thinks it’s good for men, specifically black men, who are won over by the “cool-pose culture.” Maybe Emmitt Smith can show people it’s okay to dress up and dance. Fair enough. But, of course, there’s also this:

The message is reinforced widely - from the words and imagery of hip-hop, to the reproachful taunting in sports, even from the White House, [Mark Anthony] Neal tells me.

“Say what you want about [White House] policies, one of Bush’s successes was getting across the message that a real man never wavers. You attack first; attack before they attack you. So it’s coming from the top.”

Yep! All those kids in the cities, taking after the president, clearing brush on their ranches, still not being able to find WMDs. That kind of thing.

Manly men can wear cleats and dance shoes [Inquirer]

San Dimas High School Football Rules!

The Inquirer’s Annette John-Hall apparently has a blog called Free Flow — its tagline is “Viewing identity and society through a pop culture lens,” which just made us die a little inside — and she appropriately went to female blogging conference BlogHer (speaking of names that make us die inside).

Here’s part of her recap:

The most interesting part of the weekend? Meeting the wonderful folks who influence opinion and ignite discourse with blogs such as Mochamomma (shout out to my girl Kelly, heck yes hair is political!) Liza at Culture Kitchen; Negrophile (hey George, my fellow povocateur in print), Tiffany B. Brown (not be confused with Tiff Black, a former Inky online editor), Fizzle (prayers that your adoption in Ethiopia goes well, Fizz); and my dear friend Kim Pearson, who is the person who encouraged me to blog in the first place. ¶ And as soon as I figure out how to do it, I’ll give all my new pals some link love on a blog roll.

I know, you’re getting a little confused. Just where have you seen writing like this before?

Think about it…. right. You got it. It’s, essentially, an updated version of a shoutouts page in a high school yearbook. Let’s keep the trend: Shoutout to my girl Annette John-Hall for kickin’ it old school (OMG good luck on yr new blog)!

Blog, Sex, Stay at Home Moms [Free Flow]