Ta-Nehisi Coates

On our third day of so-so meals, erratic service and no Jacuzzi or bike repair, I went to a manager and complained, telling him that we felt as if we were at a dress rehearsal for someone else's vacation. 

He was very polite and apologetic, but there was a look in his eye that spooked me -- like that of a hostage who opens the door and pretends everything is O.K. though there is a gun prodding his back. He thanked me for my comments, and though there was no discernible improvement in service, we did later get a thank-you note from the general manager with a tray of chocolate-dipped strawberries. 

So we decided to head over to Miami, restoring our pride and palates over Cuban sandwiches and croquetas at the Versailles restaurant in Little Havana. But all it took was a few minutes in South Beach -- and a peek inside Dash, the Kardashian boutique, where sunburned tourists took pictures of one another -- to make us realize that we didn't have it quite so bad on Fisher Island. 

At least there we weren't surrounded by drunken, half-naked college students racing Segways along Ocean Drive. "I know I sound like I'm 90," Emma whispered, "but I just want them to put some clothes on and go to vocational school." 

 We took the ferry back to the island and felt a surge of affection for its verdant, antiseptic beauty. 

That didn't last. I walked over to the mansion at sunset, pleased to see a line of golf carts parked in front and the sound of laughter and clinking stemware -- le tout Fisher Island had poured out in full resort finery -- for what turned out to be a $125-a-head four-course meal prepared by Daniel Boulud.

That sounded fun and almost like a bargain compared with his New York restaurants, so I raced to the front desk to ask if there was room for two more -- and why had we not been informed about the dinner ahead of time. The woman at the desk looked embarrassed, telling me that it had been mentioned on a flyer given to guests on arrival (I never got one) but that anyway it had sold out long ago.

A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation...  

The morning after the shooting, on Feb. 27, Zimmerman sought treatment at the offices of a general physician at a family practice near Sanford, Fla. The doctor notes Zimmerman sought an appointment to get legal clearance to return to work. 

But the report also shows Zimmerman declined hospitalization the night of the shooting, and then declined the advice of his doctor to make a follow-up appointment with an ear nose and throat doctor. In addition to his physical injuries, Zimmerman complained of stress and "occasional nausea when thinking about the violence." 

Applauding the president for endorsing same-sex marriage last week, the rapper said, "I think it's the right thing to do ... whether it costs him votes or not." 

"I've always thought it as something that was still, um, holding the country back," Jay-Z explained. "What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That's their business. It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It's discrimination plain and simple."

The opinions of whites largely reflect the population as a whole: 49% say Obama's expression of support for gay marriage did not alter their opinion of the president. Among those who say it did, somewhat more say it made their view of him less favorable than more (29% vs. 20%). 

Most African Americans, on the other hand, say the announcement did not alter their opinion of Obama. About twothirds (68%) say this, while about as many say it made them view Obama more favorably (16%) as less favorably (13%).

There's also the data cited above. As of April, the gap between African-Americans and white support for gay marriage was eight points (39 percent of African-Americans support, while 47 percent of white support.)  The gap between the same groups in terms of opposition was four points (47 percent of blacks oppose and 43 percent of whites opposed.) 

This not strike me as the kind of yawning gulf which could sever Obama from his base. I would go further. Given black America's particular characteristics--more Southern, more culturally conservative, and more religious--focusing on "race" as the defining difference seems like a bad idea. 

It also isn't a very forward-thinking one:

Since 2008, the proportion of African Americans favoring gay marriage has increased from 26% to 39%, while opposition has fallen from 63% to 49%.

In future races, religious people are going to start going after people's political careers," Jackson, the head of Stand4MarriageDC, told U.S. News and World Report. "You're going to see a bloodletting that is going to mark a new style of engagement for people who are against same-sex marriage." Jackson's was no idle threat. 

Stand4MarriageDC is backed by the National Organization for Marriage. NOM's president, Brian Brown, serves as Stand4MarriageDC's treasurer. In the past two years, NOM has successfully exploited local backlashes against advances in gay rights. In Maine, NOM worked to secure a ballot initiative to outlaw same-sex marriage. 

In New York, it helped torpedo the nomination of moderate, marriage-equality-supporting Republican Dede Scozzafava, which left the contest to two candidates who both opposed same-sex-marriage rights. It aided in the passage of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the same election that sent Barack Obama to the White House. 

The California victory was initially pinned on the increased turnout of black voters, so on paper, it's easy to see why NOM might have seen Washington, D.C. -- which is more than 50 percent African American -- as the site of another potential victory. Last night's primary election was the time to make good on Jackson's threat. 

But in the nine months since, there's been a lot of cash spent with little blood spilled. According to filings with D.C.'s Office of Campaign Finance, NOM has spent around $140,000 opposing pro-equality candidates in Washington, D.C., all of whom won last night or were defeated by other pro-equality candidates.

An influential rabbi came last summer to the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, with a message: his ultra-Orthodox advocacy group was instructing adherent Jews that they could report allegations of child sexual abuse to district attorneys or the police only if a rabbi first determined that the suspicions were credible. The pronouncement was a blunt challenge to Mr. Hynes's authority. 

But the district attorney "expressed no opposition or objection," the rabbi, Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, recalled. In fact, when Mr. Hynes held a Hanukkah party at his office in December, he invited many ultra-Orthodox rabbis affiliated with the advocacy group, Agudath Israel of America. He even chose Rabbi Zwiebel, the group's executive vice president, as keynote speaker at the party....

In 2009, as criticism of his record mounted, Mr. Hynes set up a program to reach out to ultra-Orthodox victims of child sexual abuse. Called Kol Tzedek (Voice of Justice in Hebrew), the program is intended to "ensure safety in the community and to fully support those affected by abuse," his office said. In recent months, Mr. Hynes and his aides have said the program has contributed to an effective crackdown on child sexual abuse among ultra-Orthodox Jews, saying it had led to 95 arrests involving more than 120 victims. 

But Mr. Hynes has taken the highly unusual step of declining to publicize the names of defendants prosecuted under the program -- even those convicted. At the same time, he continues to publicize allegations of child sexual abuse against defendants who are not ultra-Orthodox Jews. 

This policy of shielding defendants' names because of their religious status is not followed by the other four district attorneys in New York City, and has rarely, if ever, been adopted by prosecutors around the country.

Some African Americans will think twice about voting for President Obama in November after he declared his support for gay marriage, according to Republican Rep. Allen West of Florida. 

"I think it's going to cause an incredible discussion in the black community, because, as you know, on Sundays in the black community the most conservative people in America are in those black churches," West told ABC News on Thursday. 

"I think it may have been a huge miscalculation, especially when you have 41 states that recognize marriage between one man and one woman, and you just came off an incredible loss to them. Sixty-nine percent voted for [the recent same-sex marriage ban] in North Carolina, which is a key swing state he barely won last time," West said.

We will be lining up on Taaffe Place between Myrtle and Willoughby Avenues in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, right near the Pratt University campus. Our costume department humbly requests that all extras try to bring or wear lightweight fall clothing. No heavy jackets. Pants and long sleeves. Preferably no bright colors or logos. 

The call time for extras will be 7:30 a.m. (It's early, yes. But this way, you can participate and still make it in to the office on time.) If you know in advance that you're going to be able to make it, please drop me a line by emailing me or leave confirmation in the comments section below. This is strictly for headcount reasons. You can also just show up. The production will be most grateful either way. 

In addition, we will be staging a mock reading with The Atlantic editor and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 12, at a wonderful bookstore in Soho. If interested, contact us via email and we will provide the location and further details. As my assistant director says often and with gusto: "Let's make a movie, people!"

The post prompted a torrent of left-wing outrage and, ultimately, Riley's sacking - which brought out the right's counter-outrage. This time, it seems clear to me that the right is right. Riley's commentary is well within the bounds of provocative opinion writing. Firing her was an act of cowardice and an assault on intellectual freedom.

If ever there were a case for eliminating the discipline, the sidebar explaining some of the dissertations being offered by the best and the brightest of black-studies graduate students has made it. What a collection of left-wing victimization claptrap. The best that can be said of these topics is that they're so irrelevant no one will ever look at them.

Finally, since this is a blog about academia and not journalism, I'll forgive the commenters for not understanding that it is not my job to read entire dissertations before I write a 500-word piece about them. I read some academic publications (as they relate to other research I do), but there are not enough hours in the day or money in the world to get me to read a dissertation on historical black midwifery. In fact, I'd venture to say that fewer than 20 people in the whole world will read it. And the same holds true for the others that are mentioned in the piece.

If you're going to go down (and I don't think he is) go down with your sword:

OBAMA: I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.

Arrington, who played linebacker in the NFL for seven seasons and made three Pro Bowls, said during today's Outside the Lines discussion of the hazards of youth football that the risks associated with playing football aren't as bad as the risks associated with teaching your kids that they should be afraid of engaging in physically strenuous activities. 

"To me, it's sissification, and I think that's the only way to put it," Arrington said. "I will not go through my life scared and I don't want my children to go through life scared. I started playing football when I was 8 years old and I would never not want to give that opportunity to my children."

Arrington says he wants his son, LaVar II, to play football, and he believes that when young children are properly supervised and playing the game correctly, they're generally not big and strong enough to seriously injure each other in collisions.

The cycle starts when we are young boys and girls. Let me illustrate it for you: Li'l Johnny is outside playing and falls. His dad tells him to get up and be strong, to stop crying because men don't cry. So even from the age of 2, our belief system begins to form this picture. We are teaching our boys not to show weakness or share any feelings or emotions, other than to be strong and tough. Is that ''validating''? 

What do we do when Li'l Susie falls? We say: ''It's OK. I'm here. Let me pick you up.'' That's very validating, and it's teaching our girls that expressing emotions is OK. We wonder why it's so hard to bridge the communication gap between men and women. 

This presented itself clearly when I was going through group therapy and was the only man in my groups. Better yet, I was there for three months, and there was only one other guy in the program. In therapy, I learned how to express my emotions and talk about my problems, then apply it to my real life. I had to work through my entire belief system, train myself how to think, not what to think, and let go of the things that had me in bondage. I had to bridge the gap. It wasn't going to do it on its own. It's a cycle. 

Can you imagine how this presents itself even more so in football players? Junior Seau, Kenny McKinley, Dave Duerson, Brandon Marshall, etc. I am the only one in that group who is living because I got help before it was too late. In sports, those who show they are hurt or have mental weakness or pain are told: ''You're not tough. You're not a man. That's not how the players before you did it.''