The soldier that prays together slays together.

It looks like there is a staff Sergeant in the US Army who takes that song "Onward Christian Soldiers", literally.

"RICHMOND, Va. – A staff sergeant erred when he banished dozens of soldiers to their barracks and ordered them to clean up after they refused to attend a Christian concert on a Virginia Army base last year, an investigation concluded.

When the Army learned the soldiers were punished, the company commander apologized to them the next day, according to the investigation's findings, released Tuesday to The Associated Press.

The actions of the staff sergeant, who was not named, were referred back to his battalion commander for nonjudicial action, according to Col. Daniel T. Williams, a spokesman for the Army's Document and Training Command, who detailed the findings of the investigation in a telephone interview. He said any punishment, if it occurred, would be kept confidential.

The sergeant's actions in May 2010 at Newport News' Fort Eustis were not consistent with the voluntary nature of the concerts, Williams said.

The command did not find sufficient evidence to indicate there was any malicious intent and therefore deferred any discipline down to the battalion command,' Williams said.

Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which first reported complaints by the soldiers, described the investigation's conclusion as typical for the military.

'Blame some lower-ranking enlisted guy who didn't know any better,' he said in an interview. 'That is just a completely inappropriate and disgraceful statement.'

Weinstein called the Christian concerts 'an absolute attempt to establish fundamental Christianity in the military.'

Williams described them as "nondenominational with no particular religious affiliation."

Two soldiers who were punished told the AP they felt pressured to attend a performance by the Christian rock group BarlowGirl, as part of what was billed as the 'Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts."' [Source]

"Spiritual Fitness Concerts"? OK, so I guess all those jumping jacks while they listen to "Rock Of Ages" is really good for morale.

Finally, I need you all to help me with something. I am sure you have heard about Evan Emory by now. He is the man who thought he was being funny by tricking a school into letting him sing for a bunch of first graders, and then, thanks to some new age trickery, dubbed in some explicit lyrics in the songs and posted the video on the web. [I would show it to you, but I don't think it is available anymore] It was a hit with his friends and on You-Tube, but, unfortunately for him, not with the authorities.

So here is what I need to know from you: The DA in Muskegon, Michigan is throwing the book at him, and I want to know if you think it's excessive. My man is looking at 25 years in the big house and having to register for 25 years as a sex offender. (Talk about a practical joke gone wrong.)

Now what he did was appalling, and if I had a child in that class I would want to go all Mike Tyson on him my damn self. But did he actually abuse these children with his digital prank? Or is this uncharted territory calling for careful navigation on our part? Let me know what you think.

Tiger and my other cousins.

Tiger, how is that "Cablasian" thing working out for ya? While you keep trying to work that "Cablasian" angle, certain folks will have no problem reminding your black ass that you are just another N*&&#r who happens to have a sweet golf swing. I know that you are probably the greatest golfer of all time, but now that you aren't smoking fools and going in the red on your score card come Sunday, folks are feeling more comfortable about calling you out.

"Is Tiger Woods another Mike Tyson?

Woods hasn't won a tournament since the scandal over his extramarital affairs that cost him his marriage, multiple corporate sponsorships and world's No. 1 ranking. Johnny Miller, lead golf analyst for NBC Sports, compared Woods' crash and burn to Tyson's during Golf Channel's first State of the Game Live special Friday night.

After winning the WBC heavyweight belt at age 20 in 1986, Iron Mike flamed out. He was divorced by wife Robin Givens and knocked out by Buster Douglas in 1990. Tyson was sentenced to prison for rape in 1992. He declared bankruptcy in 2003.

"It's a little bit like a Mike Tyson story to be honest with you," said Miller during the Golf Central special. "Sort of invincible, scared everybody, performed quickly under pressure. Until a Buster Douglas came along...His life crumbled. It's like Humpty Dumpty. He was on the high wall, way above all the other players, and had a great fall, and there's pieces all over the place trying to put them together." [Source]

Yes, that's the ticket Johnny; Tiger Woods and Mike Tyson. They have so much in common: One is a boxer, the other a golfer. One went to prison for rape. The other...wait.. Woods didn't rape anybody. Never mind.

Finally, if I told you that folks in a suburb of Detroit are up in arms because some...ahem, ahem, "city folks" are moving into their neighborhood, I bet you would think there goes whitey again trying to keep us out of their neighborhoods. You would think it, but you would be wrong. This little saga playing itself out in Southfield, Michigan happens to pit cousins against cousins.

"SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Three years ago, Lamar Grace left Detroit for the suburb of Southfield. He got a good deal — a 3,000-square-foot colonial that once was worth $220,000. In foreclosure, he paid $109,000.

The neighbors were not pleased.

"They don't want to live next door to ghetto folks," he says.

That his neighbors are black, like Grace, is immaterial. Many in the black middle class moved out of Detroit and settled in the northern suburbs years ago; now, due to foreclosures, it is easy to buy or rent houses on the cheap here. The result has been a new, poorer wave of arrivals from the city, and growing tensions between established residents and the newcomers...

"There's a way in which they look down on people moving in from Detroit into houses they bought for much lower prices," says Grace, a 39-year-old telephone company analyst. "I understand you want to keep out the riffraff, but it's not my fault you paid $250,000 and I paid a buck."

The neighbors say there's more to it than that. People like John Clanton, a retired auto worker, say the new arrivals have brought behavior more common in the inner city — increased trash, adults and children on the streets at all times of the night, a disregard for others' property.

"During the summer months, I sat in the garage and at 3 o'clock in the morning you see them walking up and the down the streets on their cell phones talking," Clanton says. "They pull up (in cars) in the middle of the street, and they'll hold a conversation. You can't get in your driveway. You blow the horn and they look back at you and keep on talking. That's all Detroit." [More here]

Real talk. Some of my cousins can be...well, how do I say this? Not quite as considerate as they should be of their neighbors. I hear it from some of you Negroes right here in Philly when your less desirable cousins move into your neighborhoods. ----White folks, don't trip. I hear it from you as well. I know some white folks with homes at the "Jersey Shore", and they absolutely lose their minds if a "certain type "of white person buys (or rents) a shore home even on the same block with them. So this little issue seems to be color blind.

Still, to my friends in Southfield, all I can say is can't we all get along? Why don't you throw a big block party and invite all the neighbors. After barbecues and a brew or two, folks will open up and feel free to talk. At that point tell Pookie an em to try to be more considerate of their neighbors and then duck.