6.25.2009
MICHAEL JACKSON - R.I.P.
Michael Jackson is dead at the age of 50.It's hard to know what to think about this. Michael was a pop icon and had more Number 1 hits than any other pop star.
On the other hand, he may have been a child molester.
May his children grow up to in a loving, understanding, compassionate environment.
6.19.2009
6.17.2009
6.16.2009
JUST HOW STUPID ARE WE?
That's the partial title of a book by Rick Shenkman: "Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter" (Basic Books, June 2008). Mr. Shenkman, an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter, is an associate professor of history at George Mason University and editor of the university's History News Network. It is also the title of his blog. The following is a post from June 2, 2009:
"Cheney Finally Admits No Connection Between Saddam and 9-11
"As anyone who has read my book knows, it was the Bush administration's success in making people believe that Saddam was behind 9-11 that triggered my decision to write 'Just How Stupid Are We.'
"Now along comes Dick Cheney to say--7 years too late!-- that Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11. Here's the money quote from CNN:
" 'Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he does not believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the planning or execution of the September 11, 2001, attacks. He strongly defended the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, however, arguing that Hussein's previous support for known terrorists was a serious danger after 9/11.'
"Cheney, in an appearance at the National Press Club, also said he is intent on speaking out in defense of the Bush administration's national security record because 'a clear understanding of policies that worked [in protecting the United States] is essential.'
" 'I do not believe and have never seen any evidence to confirm that [Hussein] was involved in 9/11. We had that reporting for a while, [but] eventually it turned out not to be true,' Cheney conceded.'
"He's still insisting that: the evidence was 'overwhelming' that al Qaeda had a relationship with Hussein's regime in Iraq, and that media reports suggesting that the commission investigating the 9/11 attacks reached a contradictory conclusion were 'irresponsible.'
"I guess we couldn't hope for him to completely abandon his ill-considered views. Cheney wants to blame George Tenet and notes that Tenet in open testimony before Congress declared that Saddam and al qaeda had a relationship. But who's Cheney kidding? We know from numerous books that it was his office that was responsible for pushing the Saddam/9-11 angle over the objections of people like Richard Clarke."
"Cheney Finally Admits No Connection Between Saddam and 9-11
"As anyone who has read my book knows, it was the Bush administration's success in making people believe that Saddam was behind 9-11 that triggered my decision to write 'Just How Stupid Are We.'
"Now along comes Dick Cheney to say--7 years too late!-- that Saddam had nothing to do with 9-11. Here's the money quote from CNN:
" 'Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he does not believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the planning or execution of the September 11, 2001, attacks. He strongly defended the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, however, arguing that Hussein's previous support for known terrorists was a serious danger after 9/11.'
"Cheney, in an appearance at the National Press Club, also said he is intent on speaking out in defense of the Bush administration's national security record because 'a clear understanding of policies that worked [in protecting the United States] is essential.'
" 'I do not believe and have never seen any evidence to confirm that [Hussein] was involved in 9/11. We had that reporting for a while, [but] eventually it turned out not to be true,' Cheney conceded.'
"He's still insisting that: the evidence was 'overwhelming' that al Qaeda had a relationship with Hussein's regime in Iraq, and that media reports suggesting that the commission investigating the 9/11 attacks reached a contradictory conclusion were 'irresponsible.'
"I guess we couldn't hope for him to completely abandon his ill-considered views. Cheney wants to blame George Tenet and notes that Tenet in open testimony before Congress declared that Saddam and al qaeda had a relationship. But who's Cheney kidding? We know from numerous books that it was his office that was responsible for pushing the Saddam/9-11 angle over the objections of people like Richard Clarke."
6.11.2009
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
Although I'm a couple of days late, the wishes are no less heartfelt. Congratulations on eight terrific years together, Greg and Jen! You are a delightful couple, and have created a beautiful family and life together.6.04.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far."
~~Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States.
~~Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States.
6.03.2009
6.01.2009
DISGUSTING
From our friend, Badtux, the Snarky Penguin:
"The right-wing terrorists are chortling over the murder of Dr. George Tiller. These are the same terrorists who threaten the lives of judges who rule according to what the law says, rather than according to what their Invisible Sky Demon says. They chortle that their invisible sky demon is happy about the murder.
"What a bunch of sick, disgusting terrorists. Who needs al Qaeda to threaten America, when we have our own home-grown terrorists willing to wage Christian jihad just like al Qaeda wants to wage Islamic jihad?
~~Badtux the Disgusted Penguin
"The right-wing terrorists are chortling over the murder of Dr. George Tiller. These are the same terrorists who threaten the lives of judges who rule according to what the law says, rather than according to what their Invisible Sky Demon says. They chortle that their invisible sky demon is happy about the murder.
"What a bunch of sick, disgusting terrorists. Who needs al Qaeda to threaten America, when we have our own home-grown terrorists willing to wage Christian jihad just like al Qaeda wants to wage Islamic jihad?
~~Badtux the Disgusted Penguin
5.28.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival."
~~C. S. Lewis
~~C. S. Lewis
5.27.2009
5.26.2009
5.25.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"When for too long I don't go deep enough into the woods to see them, they begin to enter my dreams. Yes, there they are, in the pinewoods of my inner life. I want to live a life full of modesty and praise. Each hoof of each animal makes the sign of a heart as it touches and lifts away from the ground. Unless you believe that heaven is very near, how will you find it? Their eyes are pools in which one would be content, on any summer afternoon, to swim away through the door of the world. Then, love and its blessings. Then: heaven."~~Mary Oliver, "The Faces of Deer"
5.22.2009
5.20.2009
5.18.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work. Work organizes life. It gives structure and discipline to life."
~~Bill Clinton
~~Bill Clinton
5.14.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"The Taliban tried to blow up Dick Cheney. ... He was never in danger -- at the time of the attack, he was safely asleep in his coffin. ... I just hope that this attempt on his life doesn't turn him bitter, vicious, and paranoid."~~Bill Maher
5.13.2009
5.12.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"I don't have a dime left. I am dependent on my friends for food and a small old-age pension."
~~Bela Lugosi
~~Bela Lugosi
5.10.2009
5.09.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
“I went to a conference on bisexuality about 15 years ago. A woman there said to me, 'I wish you gay men would stop putting your energy into fighting homophobia and instead put your energy into eradicating misogyny. Because the problem society has with gay men isn't that they're with other men - it's that they're men who are 'acting like women.' If it were ok to be a woman in this culture, homophobia would just disappear.' I think she's right.”
~~Jess Thompson-Adams, commenting on Judith Warner's Domestic Disturbances blog entry, Dude, You've Got Problems
~~Jess Thompson-Adams, commenting on Judith Warner's Domestic Disturbances blog entry, Dude, You've Got Problems
5.07.2009
BANNED BOOKS
Zztopdog's note: It is difficult to believe that there are still areas in this country where banning books is an accepted practice. The following article is from About.com. To find more articles and banned-book archives, please visit their Contemporary Literature site."A banned book is one that has been removed from the shelves of a library, bookstore, or classroom because of its controversial content. In some cases, banned books of the past have been burned and/or refused publication. Possession of banned books has at times been regarded as an act of treason or heresy, which was punishable by death, torture, prison time, or other acts of retribution. A book may be challenged or banned on political, religious, sexual, or social grounds. We take the acts of banning or challenging a book as a serious matter, because these are forms of censorship--striking at the very core of our freedom to read.
"A book may be considered a banned book if the work has been banned in the past. We still discuss these books and the censorship surrounding them not only because it gives us insight into the time in which the book was banned, but it also gives us some perspective on books that are banned and challenged today. Many of the books that we consider rather 'tame' today were once hotly debated works of literature. Then, of course, books that were once popular bestsellers are sometimes challenged or banned in classrooms or libraries because the cultural view point and/or language that was accepted at the time of the books publication is no longer deemed appropriate to read. Time has a way of changing our perspective on literature.
"Why Discuss Banned Books? Just because a book has been banned or challenged in some parts of the United States doesn't mean it has happened where you live. You may be one of the fortunate few who has never experienced banning. That's why it's so important for us to discuss the reality of banned books. It's important to know about the cases that are happening in other parts of the United States, and it's important to be aware of the cases of book banning and censorship that are taking place around the world. Amnesty International directs attention to just a few writers from China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, and Saudi Arabia, who have been persecuted for their writings."
About.com's reading list of banned books: http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/readinglists/tp/bannedBooks.htm
5.06.2009
5.05.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives
but are grateful for the abundance that's present - love, health,
family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits
that bring us pleasure - the wasteland of illusion falls away,
and we experience heaven on earth."
~~Sara Ban Breathmach, American Writer
but are grateful for the abundance that's present - love, health,
family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits
that bring us pleasure - the wasteland of illusion falls away,
and we experience heaven on earth."
~~Sara Ban Breathmach, American Writer
5.04.2009
5.03.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"There is no point dwelling on what might have been or could have been. You just have to go forward."
~~Jack Nicholson, American Actor
~~Jack Nicholson, American Actor
5.02.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"Love the earth and sun and animals,
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others...
And your very flesh shall be a great poem."
~~Walt Whitman
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others...
And your very flesh shall be a great poem."
~~Walt Whitman
5.01.2009
4.30.2009
WHEN POLICE DON'T TEST RAPE KITS
By Nicholas Kristof, on his blog, On the Ground:
"My Thursday [New York Times] column is about the extraordinary failure of police around the country to test rape kits promptly. Many kits are never tested, and others wait for a year before they are tested. There are a range of reasons, including the cost, but I think the underlying one is a deeply embedded skepticism among many veteran police officers about many rape cases, a sense that often it isn’t a truly serious crime.
"From the point of view of a rape victim, she undergoes the evidence collection procedure and then waits and waits and waits. She never hears any result, so she assumes that there was no DNA found, or no match. But in fact, what often happens is that the kit was never tested.
Police forces are to some degree at fault, but the problem is broader: It’s also politicians who allocate money to DNA testing centers, which are invariably starved of funds in ways that lead to long delays. The aim of this column is to offer a nudge so that prompt testing of rape kits becomes a priority.
"You may remember that last year one of the issues in the presidential campaign was the way Wasila, Alaska, charged rape victims to have their kits tested when Sarah Palin was mayor there. In fact, that’s not unusual. A number of states and localities have provisions requiring victims to pay for rape kit testing, although typically it is their medical insurance that pays. In some states, the women can be reimbursed.
"Please comment beside the column. I’d particularly welcome comments by rape victims, police or anyone with an experience in this area."
"My Thursday [New York Times] column is about the extraordinary failure of police around the country to test rape kits promptly. Many kits are never tested, and others wait for a year before they are tested. There are a range of reasons, including the cost, but I think the underlying one is a deeply embedded skepticism among many veteran police officers about many rape cases, a sense that often it isn’t a truly serious crime.
"From the point of view of a rape victim, she undergoes the evidence collection procedure and then waits and waits and waits. She never hears any result, so she assumes that there was no DNA found, or no match. But in fact, what often happens is that the kit was never tested.
Police forces are to some degree at fault, but the problem is broader: It’s also politicians who allocate money to DNA testing centers, which are invariably starved of funds in ways that lead to long delays. The aim of this column is to offer a nudge so that prompt testing of rape kits becomes a priority.
"You may remember that last year one of the issues in the presidential campaign was the way Wasila, Alaska, charged rape victims to have their kits tested when Sarah Palin was mayor there. In fact, that’s not unusual. A number of states and localities have provisions requiring victims to pay for rape kit testing, although typically it is their medical insurance that pays. In some states, the women can be reimbursed.
"Please comment beside the column. I’d particularly welcome comments by rape victims, police or anyone with an experience in this area."
4.29.2009
4.28.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"The bond with a true dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth will ever be."
~~Konrad Lorenz, "Man Meets Dog"
~~Konrad Lorenz, "Man Meets Dog"
4.25.2009
OUR NEW GRANDDOGGY
This is Penny, our new granddoggy. She is 6-months old, and came from the Grundy County, IL, Animal Shelter. Isn't she a doll?
4.23.2009
GIULIANI ATTEMPTS DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE
By Shirley Frank, West Branch, IA, in a letter to the Editor of the Quad-City Times:
"Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has announced that he's going to lead a drive to block the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York. Giuliani, a Catholic who is currently married to his third wife, apparently believes that marriage is the sacred union of one man and a different wife every few years."
"Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has announced that he's going to lead a drive to block the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York. Giuliani, a Catholic who is currently married to his third wife, apparently believes that marriage is the sacred union of one man and a different wife every few years."
4.22.2009
4.21.2009
JORDAN
After a brave battle with lymphoma, our sweet boy Jordan was euthanized today, at 9:00 AM, with his mamas holding him. We miss him terribly. Your pain and discomfort are over now, sweetheart. Rest in peace, dear Jordan. We will always love you.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion."
~~Unknown
~~Unknown
4.19.2009
IT'S 2009. DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR SOUL IS?
By Bono*, Op-Ed Columnist for The New York Times:
"... A few weeks ago I was in Washington when news arrived of proposed cuts to the president’s aid budget. People said that it was going to be hard to fulfill promises to those who live in dire circumstances such a long way away when there is so much hardship in the United States. And there is.
"But I read recently that Americans are taking up public service in greater numbers because they are short on money to give. And, following a successful bipartisan Senate vote, word is that Congress will restore the money that had been cut from the aid budget — a refusal to abandon those who would pay such a high price for a crisis not of their making. In the roughest of times, people show who they are.
"Your soul.
"So much of the discussion today is about value, not values. Aid well spent can be an example of both, values and value for money. Providing AIDS medication to just under four million people, putting in place modest measures to improve maternal health, eradicating killer pests like malaria and rotoviruses — all these provide a leg up on the climb to self-sufficiency, all these can help us make friends in a world quick to enmity. It’s not alms, it’s investment. It’s not charity, it’s justice.
•
"Strangely, as we file out of the small stone church into the cruel sun, I think of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, whose now combined fortune is dedicated to the fight against extreme poverty. Agnostics both, I believe. I think of Nelson Mandela, who has spent his life upholding the rights of others. A spiritual man — no doubt. Religious? I’m told he would not describe himself that way.
"Not all soul music comes from the church."
*Bono is the lead singer of the band U2 and a co-founder of the advocacy group ONE.
"... A few weeks ago I was in Washington when news arrived of proposed cuts to the president’s aid budget. People said that it was going to be hard to fulfill promises to those who live in dire circumstances such a long way away when there is so much hardship in the United States. And there is.
"But I read recently that Americans are taking up public service in greater numbers because they are short on money to give. And, following a successful bipartisan Senate vote, word is that Congress will restore the money that had been cut from the aid budget — a refusal to abandon those who would pay such a high price for a crisis not of their making. In the roughest of times, people show who they are.
"Your soul.
"So much of the discussion today is about value, not values. Aid well spent can be an example of both, values and value for money. Providing AIDS medication to just under four million people, putting in place modest measures to improve maternal health, eradicating killer pests like malaria and rotoviruses — all these provide a leg up on the climb to self-sufficiency, all these can help us make friends in a world quick to enmity. It’s not alms, it’s investment. It’s not charity, it’s justice.
•
"Strangely, as we file out of the small stone church into the cruel sun, I think of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, whose now combined fortune is dedicated to the fight against extreme poverty. Agnostics both, I believe. I think of Nelson Mandela, who has spent his life upholding the rights of others. A spiritual man — no doubt. Religious? I’m told he would not describe himself that way.
"Not all soul music comes from the church."
*Bono is the lead singer of the band U2 and a co-founder of the advocacy group ONE.
4.18.2009
NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT
From Bark Bark Woof Woof:
"This has not been a good month so far for the anti-gay brigades. First Iowa strikes down the anti-same-sex marriage law, then Vermont passes same-sex legislation. Then the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) launches an ad campaign that sets the bar for self-parody, and now they've announced a national campaign called '2 Million for Marriage' -- or 2M4M.
*snort*
"For those of you who are not up on the acronyms used in gay chat rooms, M4M means 'Man for Man,' as in one man looking to meet up/hook up with another man.
"So either there's someone in NOM who has not been outside of their cocoon since the advent of the internet, or there's someone inside the organization with a wicked sense of humor and playing these folks for the fools that they are. Either way, this is the best example of an unintentional double entendre in advertising since 1969 when Ford came out with the Rim Blow steering wheel."
"This has not been a good month so far for the anti-gay brigades. First Iowa strikes down the anti-same-sex marriage law, then Vermont passes same-sex legislation. Then the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) launches an ad campaign that sets the bar for self-parody, and now they've announced a national campaign called '2 Million for Marriage' -- or 2M4M.
*snort*
"For those of you who are not up on the acronyms used in gay chat rooms, M4M means 'Man for Man,' as in one man looking to meet up/hook up with another man.
"So either there's someone in NOM who has not been outside of their cocoon since the advent of the internet, or there's someone inside the organization with a wicked sense of humor and playing these folks for the fools that they are. Either way, this is the best example of an unintentional double entendre in advertising since 1969 when Ford came out with the Rim Blow steering wheel."
4.16.2009
4.14.2009
TODAY IS JORDAN'S FIRST CHEMO TREATMENT
If all goes well, Jordan will have his first in a series of five chemo treatments this afternoon. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers and waymedowns.
Thank you.
Jordan's moms and brothers and sisters
Thank you.
Jordan's moms and brothers and sisters
4.13.2009
THOUGHT FOR A MONDAY
“One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.”
~~Erich Fromm
~~Erich Fromm
4.12.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"No matter how little money and how few possesions you own, having a dog makes you rich."
~~Louis Sabin
~~Louis Sabin
4.10.2009
IOWA'S FAMILY VALUES
By Steven W. Thrasher, Op-Ed Contributor for The New York Times:
"IF it weren’t for Iowa, my family may never have existed, and this gay, biracial New Yorker might never have been born.
"In 1958, when my mother, who was white, and father, who was black, wanted to get married in Nebraska, it was illegal for them to wed. So they decided to go next door to Iowa, a state that was progressive enough to allow interracial marriage. My mom’s brother tried to have the Nebraska state police bar her from leaving the state so she couldn’t marry my dad, which was only the latest legal indignity she had endured. She had been arrested on my parents’ first date, accused of prostitution. (The conventional thought of the time being: Why else would a white woman be seen with a black man?)
"On their wedding day, somehow, my parents made it out of Nebraska without getting arrested again, and were wed in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on March 1, 1958. This was five years before Nebraska would strike down its laws against interracial marriage, and almost a decade before the Supreme Court would outlaw miscegenation laws throughout the country in Loving v. Virginia.
"When the good state of Iowa conferred the dignity of civic recognition on my parents’ relationship — a relationship some members of their own families thought was deviant and immoral, that the civil authorities of Nebraska had tried to destroy, and that even some of my mom’s college-educated friends believed would produce children striped like zebras — our family began. And by the time my father died, their interracial marriage was seen just as a marriage, and an admirable 45-year one at that.
"That I almost cried last week upon reading that the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the state law banning same-sex marriage will therefore come as no surprise. I’m still struck by one thought: over the years, I’ve met so many gay émigrés who felt it was unsafe to be gay in so-called flyover country and fled for the East and West coasts. But as a gay man, I can’t marry in 'liberal' New York, where I’m a resident, or in 'liberal' California, where I was born, and very soon I will have that right in 'conservative' Iowa.
"Of course, the desire to define relational rights and responsibilities with a partner, to have access to the protection that this kind of commitment affords, is rather conservative. But it’s a conservative dream that should be offered to all Americans. Though it takes great courage for gays to marry in a handful of states now, one hopes that someday, throughout the nation, gay marriages, like my parents’ union, will just be seen as marriages.
"It’s safe to say that neither the dramas of our family, nor its triumphs, could have been possible without the simultaneously radical and conservative occasion of my parents’ civil marriage in Iowa. And so when the time comes, I hope to be married at the City Hall in Council Bluffs, in the state that not only supports my civil rights now, but which supported my parents’ so many years ago."
"IF it weren’t for Iowa, my family may never have existed, and this gay, biracial New Yorker might never have been born.
"In 1958, when my mother, who was white, and father, who was black, wanted to get married in Nebraska, it was illegal for them to wed. So they decided to go next door to Iowa, a state that was progressive enough to allow interracial marriage. My mom’s brother tried to have the Nebraska state police bar her from leaving the state so she couldn’t marry my dad, which was only the latest legal indignity she had endured. She had been arrested on my parents’ first date, accused of prostitution. (The conventional thought of the time being: Why else would a white woman be seen with a black man?)
"On their wedding day, somehow, my parents made it out of Nebraska without getting arrested again, and were wed in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on March 1, 1958. This was five years before Nebraska would strike down its laws against interracial marriage, and almost a decade before the Supreme Court would outlaw miscegenation laws throughout the country in Loving v. Virginia.
"When the good state of Iowa conferred the dignity of civic recognition on my parents’ relationship — a relationship some members of their own families thought was deviant and immoral, that the civil authorities of Nebraska had tried to destroy, and that even some of my mom’s college-educated friends believed would produce children striped like zebras — our family began. And by the time my father died, their interracial marriage was seen just as a marriage, and an admirable 45-year one at that.
"That I almost cried last week upon reading that the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the state law banning same-sex marriage will therefore come as no surprise. I’m still struck by one thought: over the years, I’ve met so many gay émigrés who felt it was unsafe to be gay in so-called flyover country and fled for the East and West coasts. But as a gay man, I can’t marry in 'liberal' New York, where I’m a resident, or in 'liberal' California, where I was born, and very soon I will have that right in 'conservative' Iowa.
"Of course, the desire to define relational rights and responsibilities with a partner, to have access to the protection that this kind of commitment affords, is rather conservative. But it’s a conservative dream that should be offered to all Americans. Though it takes great courage for gays to marry in a handful of states now, one hopes that someday, throughout the nation, gay marriages, like my parents’ union, will just be seen as marriages.
"It’s safe to say that neither the dramas of our family, nor its triumphs, could have been possible without the simultaneously radical and conservative occasion of my parents’ civil marriage in Iowa. And so when the time comes, I hope to be married at the City Hall in Council Bluffs, in the state that not only supports my civil rights now, but which supported my parents’ so many years ago."
4.09.2009
MY BRUDDER JORDAN
Because my momma's mad at da computer right now, I thought I wood take a minute to tell u all dat my brudder Jordan isn't doing bery well right now. He is going to da vet tomorrow, so we may hear what is da matter wif him.
Jordan is not eating bery much fud. My mommas have to coax him wif treats and icecreamys and other fuds dat he likes. He has lost some wate.
We is all bery nervous about Jordan. So if you have a minute or 2, please say some laymedowns for Jordan. He is da bestest brudder a corgi boy could have.
Fank you!
Zorro, Rya, Morry, Livi
Jordan is not eating bery much fud. My mommas have to coax him wif treats and icecreamys and other fuds dat he likes. He has lost some wate.
We is all bery nervous about Jordan. So if you have a minute or 2, please say some laymedowns for Jordan. He is da bestest brudder a corgi boy could have.
Fank you!
Zorro, Rya, Morry, Livi
4.05.2009
A PEEK INTO DARFUR
By Nicholas D. Kristof, from his blog, On the Ground:
Since aid workers were expelled from Darfur, we’ve heard very little about conditions in the camps there. And of course, Sudan isn’t giving me a visa to report there. But this anonymous former aid worker describes conditions in a couple of camps that are consistent what I’m hearing:
Zam Zam camp in North Darfur has virtually doubled in size in the past two months. 36,000 people have arrived there since the end of January, fleeing fighting between government and rebels. They are homeless, hungry and desperate, and urgently in need of help. Many are women and children. Helping so many new arrivals would always be an enormous challenge, but with many of the biggest aid agencies now gone it is going to be nearly impossible. As a result, these families are not receiving the food and water they need.
In Kalma camp in South Darfur, the situation is even more serious. The entire camp, which shelters 90,000 people, has not received any aid in weeks. Feeding centres for malnourished children are running out of food. Water pumps have run out of fuel and stopped working. A meningitis outbreak has killed at least two people - there may be more but aid workers are no longer there to confirm it.
All this makes the Arab League’s decision to stand behind President Bashir simply blood-curdling. How can the Arab League have any credibility when it talks of human rights and justice when it stands united with the man whom an international court has indicted for “extermination” and “crimes against humanity”? The Arab League simply ends up complicit in the further horrors unfolding there.
Since aid workers were expelled from Darfur, we’ve heard very little about conditions in the camps there. And of course, Sudan isn’t giving me a visa to report there. But this anonymous former aid worker describes conditions in a couple of camps that are consistent what I’m hearing:
Zam Zam camp in North Darfur has virtually doubled in size in the past two months. 36,000 people have arrived there since the end of January, fleeing fighting between government and rebels. They are homeless, hungry and desperate, and urgently in need of help. Many are women and children. Helping so many new arrivals would always be an enormous challenge, but with many of the biggest aid agencies now gone it is going to be nearly impossible. As a result, these families are not receiving the food and water they need.
In Kalma camp in South Darfur, the situation is even more serious. The entire camp, which shelters 90,000 people, has not received any aid in weeks. Feeding centres for malnourished children are running out of food. Water pumps have run out of fuel and stopped working. A meningitis outbreak has killed at least two people - there may be more but aid workers are no longer there to confirm it.
All this makes the Arab League’s decision to stand behind President Bashir simply blood-curdling. How can the Arab League have any credibility when it talks of human rights and justice when it stands united with the man whom an international court has indicted for “extermination” and “crimes against humanity”? The Arab League simply ends up complicit in the further horrors unfolding there.
4.04.2009
ACTIVIST COURT IN IOWA DOOMS MARRIAGE
Another from our friend Badtux, the Snarky Penguin:
ABC News, April 3, 1949:
"A Republican congressman from Iowa warned Friday that the state could turn into 'the miscegenation Mecca' if the state legislature does not begin restricting marriage licenses to in-state residents.
"The statement from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, which followed the Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous ruling striking down a state ban on cross-race marriage, underscored the emotional power the issue holds for social conservatives in the state, which will hold the GOP's first presidential nominating contest in 2012.
"Iowa is now the third state where Negro and white mixed-race couples are permitted to marry. The other two are Massachusetts and Connecticut.
"Conservatives like King are pushing for a state constitutional amendment banning mixed marriage.
" 'It is the Iowa legislature's responsibility to pass the Marriage Amendment to the Iowa Constitution, clarifying that marriage is between one man and one woman of the same race, to give the power that the Supreme Court has arrogated to itself back to the people of Iowa,' said King.
"Given that Iowa is the state which kicks off the presidential contest, several Republicans who are eyeing a White House run in 2012 criticized the ruling and reaffirmed their opposition to mixed-race marriage.
" 'I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman of the same race and the definition of marriage should be left to the people and not to activist courts,' former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., said in a written statement provided to ABC News.
"The governor of South Carolina -- Republican Mark Sanford -- also criticized the ruling and touted his support for a constitutional ban on mixed-race marriage in his state.
" 'The governor supported a constitutional amendment here banning mixed-race unions. That position still holds,' Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer told ABC News. 'He's not the governor of Iowa, but he's against mixed-race marriages.'
"Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who supports civil unions for mixed-race couples, reacted to the Iowa decision by reiterating his support for restricting marriage to same-race couples. In 2004, Huntsman successfully backed a constitutional amendment banning mixed-race marriage.
" 'He believes all people should have equal rights,' Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley told ABC News. 'But when it comes to marriage, Gov. Huntsman believes that should be reserved for a man and a woman of the same race.'
"Asked if he favors the passage of a constitutional amendment in Iowa, Roskelley said, 'He would leave that up to Iowa and trust that they would address that appropriately within their state.'
"Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the winner of the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses, called the decision 'disappointing.' 'All Iowans should have a say in this matter, not a handful of legislative judges,' said Huckabee in a written statement. 'This issue is too important to not be made by the people of Iowa. It is my hope that the legislature will take the necessary steps to properly resolve this matter.'
"Erin Isaac, a spokesperson for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, said, '[The governor] supports civil unions but believes that marriage is for a man and a woman of the same race.'
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty also spoke out against the Iowa ruling.
" 'Gov. Pawlenty disagrees with the Iowa Supreme Court decision and believes that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman of the same race,' said Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung.
"An aide to another potential Republican presidential candidate, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, played down the decision's relevance to his state.
" 'Does it include Louisiana?' asked Jindal spokeswoman Melissa Sellers.
"Pam Pryor, a spokeswoman for Sarah Palin, told ABC News that the Alaska governor would not comment on the Iowa marriage ruling even though she is an ardent opponent of mixed-race marriage.
"Despite losing in court on Friday, social conservatives are hoping that they will prevail by amending the state constitution.
" 'Mixed-race 'marriage' continues to be a movement driven by a liberal judicial elite determined to destroy not only the institution of marriage, but democracy as well,' said Tony Perkins, the president of the Washington-based Family Research Council. 'The casual dismissal of the facts of human biology and thousands of years of human history, simply to pander to a small band of social radicals, is bizarre and indefensible.'
"While mixed-race marriage opponents are hoping that Iowa will follow California in overturning a decision of its state Supreme Court, supporters of mixed-race marriage are emboldened by the fact that it is considerably more difficult to amend the state constitution in Iowa than it is in California.
" 'The Iowa Constitution can't be changed quickly,' said state Sen. Matt McCoy, Iowa's first openly gay state lawmaker, in a YouTube video released Friday.
"A state constitutional ban on mixed-race marriage would need to be approved by two consecutive legislative sessions, the 2009-10 session and the 2011-12 session, before going to the voters in a general-election referendum, according to the Iowa Secretary of State's office.
This means that the earliest Iowa voters could weigh in on this issue would be in November 2011: smack-dab in the middle of the Republican Party's 2012 nomination fight."
"Original article: ABC News, April 3, 2009. It's only coincidence that, with very few modifications, it could have been written in 1949 about marriages between blacks and whites -- something which was illegal in most states until Loving v. Virginia overturned state miscegenation laws in 1967."
-- Badtux the Civil Rights Penguin
ABC News, April 3, 1949:
"A Republican congressman from Iowa warned Friday that the state could turn into 'the miscegenation Mecca' if the state legislature does not begin restricting marriage licenses to in-state residents.
"The statement from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, which followed the Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous ruling striking down a state ban on cross-race marriage, underscored the emotional power the issue holds for social conservatives in the state, which will hold the GOP's first presidential nominating contest in 2012.
"Iowa is now the third state where Negro and white mixed-race couples are permitted to marry. The other two are Massachusetts and Connecticut.
"Conservatives like King are pushing for a state constitutional amendment banning mixed marriage.
" 'It is the Iowa legislature's responsibility to pass the Marriage Amendment to the Iowa Constitution, clarifying that marriage is between one man and one woman of the same race, to give the power that the Supreme Court has arrogated to itself back to the people of Iowa,' said King.
"Given that Iowa is the state which kicks off the presidential contest, several Republicans who are eyeing a White House run in 2012 criticized the ruling and reaffirmed their opposition to mixed-race marriage.
" 'I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman of the same race and the definition of marriage should be left to the people and not to activist courts,' former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., said in a written statement provided to ABC News.
"The governor of South Carolina -- Republican Mark Sanford -- also criticized the ruling and touted his support for a constitutional ban on mixed-race marriage in his state.
" 'The governor supported a constitutional amendment here banning mixed-race unions. That position still holds,' Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer told ABC News. 'He's not the governor of Iowa, but he's against mixed-race marriages.'
"Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who supports civil unions for mixed-race couples, reacted to the Iowa decision by reiterating his support for restricting marriage to same-race couples. In 2004, Huntsman successfully backed a constitutional amendment banning mixed-race marriage.
" 'He believes all people should have equal rights,' Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley told ABC News. 'But when it comes to marriage, Gov. Huntsman believes that should be reserved for a man and a woman of the same race.'
"Asked if he favors the passage of a constitutional amendment in Iowa, Roskelley said, 'He would leave that up to Iowa and trust that they would address that appropriately within their state.'
"Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the winner of the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses, called the decision 'disappointing.' 'All Iowans should have a say in this matter, not a handful of legislative judges,' said Huckabee in a written statement. 'This issue is too important to not be made by the people of Iowa. It is my hope that the legislature will take the necessary steps to properly resolve this matter.'
"Erin Isaac, a spokesperson for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, said, '[The governor] supports civil unions but believes that marriage is for a man and a woman of the same race.'
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty also spoke out against the Iowa ruling.
" 'Gov. Pawlenty disagrees with the Iowa Supreme Court decision and believes that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman of the same race,' said Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung.
"An aide to another potential Republican presidential candidate, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, played down the decision's relevance to his state.
" 'Does it include Louisiana?' asked Jindal spokeswoman Melissa Sellers.
"Pam Pryor, a spokeswoman for Sarah Palin, told ABC News that the Alaska governor would not comment on the Iowa marriage ruling even though she is an ardent opponent of mixed-race marriage.
"Despite losing in court on Friday, social conservatives are hoping that they will prevail by amending the state constitution.
" 'Mixed-race 'marriage' continues to be a movement driven by a liberal judicial elite determined to destroy not only the institution of marriage, but democracy as well,' said Tony Perkins, the president of the Washington-based Family Research Council. 'The casual dismissal of the facts of human biology and thousands of years of human history, simply to pander to a small band of social radicals, is bizarre and indefensible.'
"While mixed-race marriage opponents are hoping that Iowa will follow California in overturning a decision of its state Supreme Court, supporters of mixed-race marriage are emboldened by the fact that it is considerably more difficult to amend the state constitution in Iowa than it is in California.
" 'The Iowa Constitution can't be changed quickly,' said state Sen. Matt McCoy, Iowa's first openly gay state lawmaker, in a YouTube video released Friday.
"A state constitutional ban on mixed-race marriage would need to be approved by two consecutive legislative sessions, the 2009-10 session and the 2011-12 session, before going to the voters in a general-election referendum, according to the Iowa Secretary of State's office.
This means that the earliest Iowa voters could weigh in on this issue would be in November 2011: smack-dab in the middle of the Republican Party's 2012 nomination fight."
"Original article: ABC News, April 3, 2009. It's only coincidence that, with very few modifications, it could have been written in 1949 about marriages between blacks and whites -- something which was illegal in most states until Loving v. Virginia overturned state miscegenation laws in 1967."
-- Badtux the Civil Rights Penguin
4.03.2009
4.02.2009
THE PLOT TO BRING SOCIALISM TO AMERICA
From our friend Badtux, the Snarky Penguin:"I am going to tell you a very important and little-known fact: I am part of an Antarctic conspiracy to bring socialism to America.
"Now, I hear you saying, 'oh get out with it!'. But consider. We penguins are amongst the most socialist creatures on this planet. We do everything in groups. We swim in groups. We fish in groups. We huddle together in groups while protecting our eggs from hungry critters. We are socialist from top to bottom. So we hatched this plot on August 4, 1961 to bring the benefits of socialism -- the raw herring, the huddling together in the cold, etc. -- to the rest of the planet.
"Yes, Barack Obama is ours, in most cunning disguise. The reason why he doesn't have his original birth certificate, just the re-issue from the State of Hawaii Birth Registry? It's because he doesn't really have one. Because we penguins are cunning hackers (see: Linux), we hacked into the Birth Registry's computers and placed a fake birth record there. We also bankrolled his career, using the vast wealth of the Antarctic, until now... now he is where we engineered him to be. Bwahahaha!
"So what next for America, you ask? Okay, first, we ban home heating oil, natural gas, and electricity. Nobody needs heat or light. If shivering in the dark and cold and eating raw food is good enough for penguins, it's good enough for you naked monkeys too. Next, we send our crack penguin goon squads to take away all your guns. No more guns. Then we round up all Republicans and place them into concentration camps where raw herring will be flung over the fences from time to time for the conservatives to fight over. And then when all you naked apes are shivering and freezing in the dark, puking on your raw beef or raw herring, then is when we shall dispatch our penguin armies to take over and impose a socialist paradise upon America under the leadership of our brave fellow penguin, President Barack Hussein Obama.
"What, you thought the right-wingers were engaging in tin-foil-hattery when they whined that President Obama was a foreign tool who was here to impose socialism upon America? Hah! You didn't know the half of it! Your problem is that you simply did not have the imagination to realize how daring the real plot to bring socialism to America was. Prepare to meet your new penguin overlords. Bwhahahahahaha!"
-- Badtux the Evil Penguin
"Now, I hear you saying, 'oh get out with it!'. But consider. We penguins are amongst the most socialist creatures on this planet. We do everything in groups. We swim in groups. We fish in groups. We huddle together in groups while protecting our eggs from hungry critters. We are socialist from top to bottom. So we hatched this plot on August 4, 1961 to bring the benefits of socialism -- the raw herring, the huddling together in the cold, etc. -- to the rest of the planet.
"Yes, Barack Obama is ours, in most cunning disguise. The reason why he doesn't have his original birth certificate, just the re-issue from the State of Hawaii Birth Registry? It's because he doesn't really have one. Because we penguins are cunning hackers (see: Linux), we hacked into the Birth Registry's computers and placed a fake birth record there. We also bankrolled his career, using the vast wealth of the Antarctic, until now... now he is where we engineered him to be. Bwahahaha!
"So what next for America, you ask? Okay, first, we ban home heating oil, natural gas, and electricity. Nobody needs heat or light. If shivering in the dark and cold and eating raw food is good enough for penguins, it's good enough for you naked monkeys too. Next, we send our crack penguin goon squads to take away all your guns. No more guns. Then we round up all Republicans and place them into concentration camps where raw herring will be flung over the fences from time to time for the conservatives to fight over. And then when all you naked apes are shivering and freezing in the dark, puking on your raw beef or raw herring, then is when we shall dispatch our penguin armies to take over and impose a socialist paradise upon America under the leadership of our brave fellow penguin, President Barack Hussein Obama.
"What, you thought the right-wingers were engaging in tin-foil-hattery when they whined that President Obama was a foreign tool who was here to impose socialism upon America? Hah! You didn't know the half of it! Your problem is that you simply did not have the imagination to realize how daring the real plot to bring socialism to America was. Prepare to meet your new penguin overlords. Bwhahahahahaha!"
-- Badtux the Evil Penguin
4.01.2009
3.31.2009
GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH
From our friend Badtux, the Snarky Penguin:
" 'Rick Wagoner is out at GM -- Obama said to GM, 'not a dime more as long as Wagoner is CEO', and Wagoner quit before he was fired by the board. Given Wagoner's unblemished record of failure as a manager, I agree with Jerry Flint: good riddance to bad rubbish.
"You'll note that neither Ford nor Chrysler are [sic] being asked to change management. That's because both companies already have new management rather than the management that got them into trouble. That is not, however, stopping the tighty righties from getting their panties into a knot over the firing of Wagoner. Nevermind that any investor investing money into GM would have said, 'not a dime until Wagoner is gone' because the man was clearly utterly incompetent, for some reason the job of a rich white man is more important to them than the jobs of the tens of thousands of working people that Wagoner's mismanagement has eliminated.
"But then, the Republicans only pretend to care about those tens of thousands of working people anyhow. What they are is the party of rich white men, in the end. Anybody who fails to see that is being blinded by ignorance and propaganda, because every single Republican policy -- *EVERY* single Republican policy -- is intended to benefit rich white men at the expense of, well, the rest of us. So now they huddle together and whine in defense of yet another rich white man -- Rick Wagoner -- while saying not a yelp about the millions of Americans who've been thrown out of jobs over the past year by the Bush Depression. How suprising."
-- Badtux the Unsurprised Penguin
"PS: The rich bastard is heading into the sunset with a $20M retirement package, so the tighty righties sure are getting their panties in a knot about nothing, we won't find Wagoner destitute and homeless and begging for pennies on the streets of Detroit anytime soon... alas, given how many of his victims have been reduced to that."
" 'Rick Wagoner is out at GM -- Obama said to GM, 'not a dime more as long as Wagoner is CEO', and Wagoner quit before he was fired by the board. Given Wagoner's unblemished record of failure as a manager, I agree with Jerry Flint: good riddance to bad rubbish.
"You'll note that neither Ford nor Chrysler are [sic] being asked to change management. That's because both companies already have new management rather than the management that got them into trouble. That is not, however, stopping the tighty righties from getting their panties into a knot over the firing of Wagoner. Nevermind that any investor investing money into GM would have said, 'not a dime until Wagoner is gone' because the man was clearly utterly incompetent, for some reason the job of a rich white man is more important to them than the jobs of the tens of thousands of working people that Wagoner's mismanagement has eliminated.
"But then, the Republicans only pretend to care about those tens of thousands of working people anyhow. What they are is the party of rich white men, in the end. Anybody who fails to see that is being blinded by ignorance and propaganda, because every single Republican policy -- *EVERY* single Republican policy -- is intended to benefit rich white men at the expense of, well, the rest of us. So now they huddle together and whine in defense of yet another rich white man -- Rick Wagoner -- while saying not a yelp about the millions of Americans who've been thrown out of jobs over the past year by the Bush Depression. How suprising."
-- Badtux the Unsurprised Penguin
"PS: The rich bastard is heading into the sunset with a $20M retirement package, so the tighty righties sure are getting their panties in a knot about nothing, we won't find Wagoner destitute and homeless and begging for pennies on the streets of Detroit anytime soon... alas, given how many of his victims have been reduced to that."
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"You have to start by changing the story you tell yourself about getting older...The minute you say to yourself, 'Time is everything, and I'm going to make sure that time is used the way I dream it should be used,' then you've got a whole different story."
~~Diane Sawyer
~~Diane Sawyer
3.30.2009
THOUGHT FOR A MONDAY
"Some of the fastest growing American corporations are the ones that, as they put in the business press, sell workers. So Man Power Incorporated is just booming. And the reason for the turn to temporary workers is perfectly straight forward. They can be treated just as goods, as material goods. If you want to throw them out, you throw them out. You don't want to pay them benefits, you don't pay them benefits."
~~Noam Chomsky, from Radio Free LA, 1997
~~Noam Chomsky, from Radio Free LA, 1997
3.29.2009
A BOY LIVING IN A CAR
By Nicholas Kristoff, Op-Ed Columnist for The New York Times:"As America’s unemployment rate rises, those paying the severest price aren’t necessarily in Detroit or Miami. One of the newest street children here in this northern Haitian city is a 10-year-old boy whose father was working in Florida but lost his job and can no longer send money home. As a result, the family here was evicted, the mother and children went separate ways to improve their odds of finding shelter, and the boy found refuge in an abandoned wreck of a car.
The boy is one of 46 million people in the developing world — more than double the New York State population — who will be driven into poverty in 2009, according to a World Bank estimate.
In Haiti’s largest slum, Cité Soleil, in the capital, Port-au-Prince, I stumbled upon a one-room public school. The principal, Claude Lafaille, lamented that enrollment had dropped from 150 at the start of the year to 60 today."
" 'Haitians in America stopped sending money back, and so their family members can’t pay fees,' he said.
"The school used to provide free breakfasts to ensure that students got at least one solid meal a day. But in January, the charity that provided the food had to stop because its donations were dropping, so now the remaining children are often too hungry to concentrate.
In the St. Catherine Labouré hospital in Port-au-Prince, the number of children admitted for malnutrition has approximately doubled since September, said a pediatrician, Dr. Armide Jeanty. She pointed to a 15-month-old child, Richardson, skeletal and covered with sores. He stared blankly, for when children are severely malnourished their bodies shut down and do not waste energy crying, laughing or smiling.
" 'It’s natural in an economic crisis to look inward, to focus on America’s own needs, but it’s worth remembering that the consequence of a deep recession in a poor country isn’t just a lost job but also a lost child.'
"In Cité Soleil, a woman named Chantal Dorlus told me that her 5-year-old daughter, Nasson, starved to death last month, and neighbors confirmed the account. Ms. Dorlus said that her three other children would have starved as well if not for the generosity of her neighbors, who share their meager food supplies.
"If slum-dwelling Haitians can share what little they have, I hope we can be equally generous during this downturn when needs are greatest.
"On this trip, I met a couple of American women, Sasha Kramer and Sarah Brownell, both in their early 30s, who offer an example of outward commitment at a time when most of us are retrenching and focusing on ourselves. Sasha and Sarah run a hand-to-mouth aid group, called SOIL; they speak fluent Creole and get around on motorcycle taxis while waving back at legions of fans on every street. (You can watch a video of them at nytimes.com/ontheground.)
I was interested in their work because it addresses two of the developing world’s greatest but least glamorous challenges. One is sanitation, for human waste in poor countries routinely spreads disease and parasites. The second is agriculture, for poor countries must increase crop yields if they are to overcome poverty and hunger.
Sasha and Sarah create dry composting toilets that turn human waste into valuable fertilizer. They say that the yearlong composting process kills the pathogens in the waste, making it safe to use the fertilizer.
"Frankly, I was taken aback when, 10 minutes after they had met me, they pulled out a Ziploc bag and proudly declared that it was compost made from their own toilet. They were so impressed with what they had accomplished that I felt obliged to take a whiff and hold it in my fingers; it simply felt and smelled like rich potting soil, and I would never have guessed its origins.
"Haitian farmers use virtually no fertilizer — less than a pound per acre, compared with about 90 pounds in the United States — and soils are severely depleted. But Sasha calculates that if half of Haitians’ human waste could be used as fertilizer, that would amount to a 17-fold increase in fertilizer use, more than doubling the country’s agricultural production.
"Sasha and Sarah have deployed 45 of their toilets, and now they are trying to introduce a municipal composting system in Cap Haitien.
"I don’t know if this is feasible. But I love the idea that even when the needs of the United States are so immense, a couple of young Americans aren’t complaining or finger-pointing, but are hard at work to assist others whose distress is incomparably greater than our own."
Zztopdog's note: Visit Nicholas Kristoff's blog, On the Ground.
Zztopdog's additional note: If you would like to sponsor a child in an impoverished country, there are many many organizations to choose from. A good place to start is http://www.ucc.org/child-sponsorship/
POOR MIZZOU
AP - "Missouri went down swinging in a spirited end to an impressive NCAA tournament run."Thanks, in no small part, to the cheering and support of one of Mizzou's biggest fans.
3.26.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure."
~~Sidney Harris, American Journalist
~~Sidney Harris, American Journalist
3.24.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands."
~~Barack Obama
~~Barack Obama
3.23.2009
THOUGHT FOR A MONDAY
"In the end, the size of a man's accomplishments can best be measured by the size of [his] heart."
~~Author Unknown
~~Author Unknown
3.22.2009
3.21.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge."
~~Phyllis Diller
~~Phyllis Diller
3.19.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"The secret of success is to realize that the crisis on our planet is much larger than just deciding what to do with your own life, and if the system under which we live the structure of western civilization begins to collapse because of our selfishness and greed, then it will make no difference whether you have $1 million dollars when the crash comes or just $1.00."
~~Marianne Williamson
~~Marianne Williamson
3.17.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY
"May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you."
~~Irish Blessing
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you."
~~Irish Blessing
3.16.2009
UNCONSUMPTION = FREECYCLE(TM)
By Rob Walker in The New York Times:"Getting new stuff can feel really good. Most everybody knows that. Most everybody also knows — particularly in the aftermath of the consumption-frenzy holiday season — that utility can fade, pleasure can be fleeting and the whole thought-that-counts thing is especially ephemeral. Apart from the usual solution to this problem (more new stuff!), it’s worth pondering whether getting rid of stuff can ever feel as good as getting it.
"A few years ago, a self-described tree-hugger in Tucson named Deron Beal was working for a nonprofit that focused on recycling as a way to minimize what was going into local landfills. While plenty of people were willing, even eager, to get rid of things they no longer wanted but that weren’t really trash, finding people who wanted those things was a challenge. Beal set up a Yahoo Groups mailing list, hoping to create a giveaway marketplace where people could list usable items and others could lay claim to them and then come pick them up. The mailing list became the basis for Freecycle, a Web-enabled network of about 3,900+ such e-mail groups, each dedicated to a local community and managed by a volunteer moderator(s), and claiming 2.9 million+ participants in more than 70 countries. One of the largest Freecycle groups, with 25,000 members, is for New York City.
"Save-the-earth types make up only a fraction of Freecycle users. Like any successful marketplace, this one works because it links people with widely disparate motivations. Some participants want to declutter. Some see it as akin to a charity. Some just don’t want to lug items to the dump. And of course, many people are looking for free stuff. As Freecycle has become a bigger and bigger de facto brand — Beal prefers 'movement' — its sheer scale no doubt attracts people who aren’t tree-huggers or 'simple living' fanatics but just have some item they’d like to unconsume and in the process see what all the fuss is about.
"Whatever attracts people to join, part of what keeps them involved, Beal says, is something they probably didn’t expect: the moment when someone thanks you backward and forward for giving him something you planned to throw away. 'There’s a sort of paradigm shift in your brain: ‘Wow, that feels really good,’ ' Beal says. 'That’s what I think is fueling this absurd amount of growth we’ve had.'
"But it’s not all one big love-in. Freecycle has also sparked squabbles, schisms and even legal disputes among its enthusiasts. Though Beal turned away venture capitalists, opting to register as a nonprofit, he did take on a sponsor, the garbage-hauling company Waste Management Inc. Some of the network’s purists didn’t like that idea; others didn’t like what they saw as too many Freecycle rules and split off to form their own groups. The legal wrangling (and some of the network’s rules) stem from competing efforts to claim the Freecycle name. Given all this turmoil, the online environmental magazine Grist was already asking in 2005 whether, only two years after Freecycle started, it had 'run its course.' Beal concedes that 'it was messy there for a while,' but membership has more than doubled since then, and Freecycle is still keeping tons of exercise equipment, old computers, Santa neckties, 80-pound bags of cement and whatever else out of landfills.
"In a sense, what Freecycle has done is channel the same blend of utility and pleasure that motivates consumption itself. Steve Portigal, a business-strategy consultant based in Montara, Calif., founded a Freecycle group for the San Francisco area’s coastal communities in 2004. 'Getting something you need and getting rid of something you don’t need are both satisfying as problems solved,' he points out. But while we’re all well trained in the former, the latter often exceeds our patience and know-how.
"Consider the unwanted shed in Portigal’s backyard. Instead of trying to figure out how to take it apart and hauling the pieces to the dump, he listed it on his Freecycle group. Sure enough, someone volunteered to take the thing, expertly disassembling it and moving it to a nearby farm. Thus a tedious hassle was converted into a virtuous act, and Portigal enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that his old shed had a new home. Moreover, he adds, 'it was great to get rid of it.' ”
"A few years ago, a self-described tree-hugger in Tucson named Deron Beal was working for a nonprofit that focused on recycling as a way to minimize what was going into local landfills. While plenty of people were willing, even eager, to get rid of things they no longer wanted but that weren’t really trash, finding people who wanted those things was a challenge. Beal set up a Yahoo Groups mailing list, hoping to create a giveaway marketplace where people could list usable items and others could lay claim to them and then come pick them up. The mailing list became the basis for Freecycle, a Web-enabled network of about 3,900+ such e-mail groups, each dedicated to a local community and managed by a volunteer moderator(s), and claiming 2.9 million+ participants in more than 70 countries. One of the largest Freecycle groups, with 25,000 members, is for New York City.
"Save-the-earth types make up only a fraction of Freecycle users. Like any successful marketplace, this one works because it links people with widely disparate motivations. Some participants want to declutter. Some see it as akin to a charity. Some just don’t want to lug items to the dump. And of course, many people are looking for free stuff. As Freecycle has become a bigger and bigger de facto brand — Beal prefers 'movement' — its sheer scale no doubt attracts people who aren’t tree-huggers or 'simple living' fanatics but just have some item they’d like to unconsume and in the process see what all the fuss is about.
"Whatever attracts people to join, part of what keeps them involved, Beal says, is something they probably didn’t expect: the moment when someone thanks you backward and forward for giving him something you planned to throw away. 'There’s a sort of paradigm shift in your brain: ‘Wow, that feels really good,’ ' Beal says. 'That’s what I think is fueling this absurd amount of growth we’ve had.'
"But it’s not all one big love-in. Freecycle has also sparked squabbles, schisms and even legal disputes among its enthusiasts. Though Beal turned away venture capitalists, opting to register as a nonprofit, he did take on a sponsor, the garbage-hauling company Waste Management Inc. Some of the network’s purists didn’t like that idea; others didn’t like what they saw as too many Freecycle rules and split off to form their own groups. The legal wrangling (and some of the network’s rules) stem from competing efforts to claim the Freecycle name. Given all this turmoil, the online environmental magazine Grist was already asking in 2005 whether, only two years after Freecycle started, it had 'run its course.' Beal concedes that 'it was messy there for a while,' but membership has more than doubled since then, and Freecycle is still keeping tons of exercise equipment, old computers, Santa neckties, 80-pound bags of cement and whatever else out of landfills.
"In a sense, what Freecycle has done is channel the same blend of utility and pleasure that motivates consumption itself. Steve Portigal, a business-strategy consultant based in Montara, Calif., founded a Freecycle group for the San Francisco area’s coastal communities in 2004. 'Getting something you need and getting rid of something you don’t need are both satisfying as problems solved,' he points out. But while we’re all well trained in the former, the latter often exceeds our patience and know-how.
"Consider the unwanted shed in Portigal’s backyard. Instead of trying to figure out how to take it apart and hauling the pieces to the dump, he listed it on his Freecycle group. Sure enough, someone volunteered to take the thing, expertly disassembling it and moving it to a nearby farm. Thus a tedious hassle was converted into a virtuous act, and Portigal enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that his old shed had a new home. Moreover, he adds, 'it was great to get rid of it.' ”
Zztopdog notes: Looking for a Freecycle(TM) group in your area? Visit Freecycle.org to view listings by state.
3.15.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care."~~Charles Schulz
THE POLAR PLUNGE
My wackie, wonderful daughter-in-law, Jen, participated in the Polar Plunge last Sunday, at Silver Springs State Park in Yorkville, IL. On that cold and rainy day, her team of 19 crazy people plunged into the lake (some even submerging themselves!) to celebrate raising money for Special Olympics Illinois.Her team won the coveted Golden Plunger for raising the most money (nearly $20,000.00) of all the teams at that site. To date, it appears that they may have raised the most money of all the teams in Illinois (final results still pending).
Jen, who is an occupational therapist, works with special needs kids. She said that for her, "it was the chance to actively show support for a movement that supports children and families with whom I work directly. A chance to support an organization that provides invaluable experiences for children who would otherwise maybe not know what it is like to get recognition or reward for dedication and hard work."
"To have a sense that you belong to something with a bigger meaning can really bring you moments of clarity about who you are and what life is really about," said Jen. "We were all there to be a part of something that had such a bigger purpose than just being cold and wet."
3.12.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry."~~Albert Einstein
ENDING THE 'RACE TO THE BOTTOM'
Op-Ed from The New York Times:
"was an impressive breadth of knowledge and a welcome dose of candor in President Obama’s first big speech on education, in which he served up an informed analysis of the educational system from top to bottom. What really mattered was that Mr. Obama did not wring his hands or speak in abstract about states that have failed to raise their educational standards. Instead, he made it clear that he was not afraid to embarrass the laggards — by naming them — and that he would use a $100 billion education stimulus fund to create the changes the country so desperately needs.
"Mr. Obama signaled that he would take the case for reform directly to the voters, instead of limiting the discussion to mandarins, lobbyists and specialists huddled in Washington. Unlike his predecessor, who promised to leave no child behind but did not deliver, this president is clearly ready to use his political clout on education.
"Mr. Obama spoke in terms that everyone could understand when he noted that only a third of 13- and 14-year-olds read as well as they should and that this country’s curriculum for eighth graders is two full years behind other top-performing nations. Part of the problem, he said, is that this nation’s schools have recently been engaged in 'a race to the bottom' — most states have adopted abysmally low standards and weak tests so that students who are performing poorly in objective terms can look like high achievers come test time.
"The nation has a patchwork of standards that vary widely from state to state and a system under which he said 'fourth-grade readers in Mississippi are scoring nearly 70 points lower than students in Wyoming — and they’re getting the same grade.' In addition, Mr. Obama said, several states have standards so low that students could end up on par with the bottom 40 percent of students around the globe.
"This is a recipe for economic disaster. Mr. Obama and Arne Duncan, the education secretary, have rightly made clear that states that draw money from the stimulus fund will have to create sorely needed data collection systems that show how students are performing over time. They will also need to raise standards and replace weak, fill-in-the-bubble tests with sophisticated examinations that better measure problem-solving and critical thinking.
"Mr. Obama understands that standards and tests alone won’t solve this problem. He also called for incentive pay for teachers who work in shortage areas like math and science and merit pay for teachers who are shown to produce the largest achievement gains over time. At the same time, the president called for removing underperforming teachers from the classroom.
"In an effort to broaden innovation, the president called for lifting state and city caps on charter schools. This could be a good thing, but only if the new charter schools are run by groups with a proven record of excellence. Once charter schools have opened, it becomes politically difficult to close them, even in cases where they are bad or worse than their traditional counterparts.
The stimulus package can jump-start the reforms that Mr. Obama laid out in his speech. But Congress will need to broaden and sustain those reforms in the upcoming reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Only Congress can fully replace the race to the bottom with a race to the top."
"was an impressive breadth of knowledge and a welcome dose of candor in President Obama’s first big speech on education, in which he served up an informed analysis of the educational system from top to bottom. What really mattered was that Mr. Obama did not wring his hands or speak in abstract about states that have failed to raise their educational standards. Instead, he made it clear that he was not afraid to embarrass the laggards — by naming them — and that he would use a $100 billion education stimulus fund to create the changes the country so desperately needs.
"Mr. Obama signaled that he would take the case for reform directly to the voters, instead of limiting the discussion to mandarins, lobbyists and specialists huddled in Washington. Unlike his predecessor, who promised to leave no child behind but did not deliver, this president is clearly ready to use his political clout on education.
"Mr. Obama spoke in terms that everyone could understand when he noted that only a third of 13- and 14-year-olds read as well as they should and that this country’s curriculum for eighth graders is two full years behind other top-performing nations. Part of the problem, he said, is that this nation’s schools have recently been engaged in 'a race to the bottom' — most states have adopted abysmally low standards and weak tests so that students who are performing poorly in objective terms can look like high achievers come test time.
"The nation has a patchwork of standards that vary widely from state to state and a system under which he said 'fourth-grade readers in Mississippi are scoring nearly 70 points lower than students in Wyoming — and they’re getting the same grade.' In addition, Mr. Obama said, several states have standards so low that students could end up on par with the bottom 40 percent of students around the globe.
"This is a recipe for economic disaster. Mr. Obama and Arne Duncan, the education secretary, have rightly made clear that states that draw money from the stimulus fund will have to create sorely needed data collection systems that show how students are performing over time. They will also need to raise standards and replace weak, fill-in-the-bubble tests with sophisticated examinations that better measure problem-solving and critical thinking.
"Mr. Obama understands that standards and tests alone won’t solve this problem. He also called for incentive pay for teachers who work in shortage areas like math and science and merit pay for teachers who are shown to produce the largest achievement gains over time. At the same time, the president called for removing underperforming teachers from the classroom.
"In an effort to broaden innovation, the president called for lifting state and city caps on charter schools. This could be a good thing, but only if the new charter schools are run by groups with a proven record of excellence. Once charter schools have opened, it becomes politically difficult to close them, even in cases where they are bad or worse than their traditional counterparts.
The stimulus package can jump-start the reforms that Mr. Obama laid out in his speech. But Congress will need to broaden and sustain those reforms in the upcoming reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Only Congress can fully replace the race to the bottom with a race to the top."
3.11.2009
3.10.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"Every patriot believes his country better than any other country . . . In its active manifestation—it is fond of killing—patriotism would be well enough if it were simply defensive, but it is also aggressive . . . Patriotism deliberately and with folly aforethought subordinates the interests of a whole to the interests of a part . . . Patriotism is fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave and blind as a stone."
~~Ambrose Bierce, Collected Works
~~Ambrose Bierce, Collected Works
3.09.2009
THOUGHT FOR A MONDAY
"When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers."
~~Colleen C. Barrett
~~Colleen C. Barrett
3.08.2009
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
“ 'WHEREVER you come near the human race, there’s layers and layers of nonsense,' says the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s 'Our Town.' ”
~~Thornton Wilder
~~Thornton Wilder
3.07.2009
What Battered Newsrooms Can Learn From Stewart's CNBC Takedown
By Will Bunch, author, "Tear Down this Myth," for The Huffington Post:"The most talked-about journalism of this week wasn't produced in the New York Times, CNN, Newsweek or NPR. It was Jon Stewart's epic, eight-minute takedown on Wednesday night's Daily Show of CNBC's clueless, in-the-tank reporting of inflatable bubbles and blowhard CEOs as the U.S. and world economies slowly slid into a meltdown. You can quibble about Stewart's motives in undertaking the piece -- after he was spurned for an interview by CNBC's faux populist ranter Rick Santelli -- but you can't argue with the results.
"The piece wasn't just the laugh-out-loud funniest thing on TV all week (and this was a week in which NBC rebroadcast the SNL "more cowbell" sketch, so that's saying a lot) but it was exquisitely reported, insightful, and it tapped into America's real anger about the financial crisis in a way that mainstream journalism has found so elusive all these months, in a time when we all need to be tearing down myths. As one commenter on the Romenesko blog noted, 'it's simply pathetic that one has to watch a comedy show to see things like this.'
"But that's not all. The Stewart piece also got the kind of eyeballs that most newsrooms would kill for in this digital age -- planted atop many, many major political, media and business Web sites -- and the kind of water-cooler chatter that journalists would crave in any age. In a time when newspapers are flat-out dying if not dealing with bankruptcy or massive job losses, while other types of news orgs aren't faring much better, the journalistic success of a comedy show rant shouldn't be viewed as a stick in the eye -- but a teachable moment. Why be a curmudgeon about kids today getting all their news from a comedy show, when it's not really that hard to join Stewart in his own idol-smashing game?
"Here's how:
1) Great research trumps good access to the powerful: The Stewart piece makes this controversial but critical point in two different ways. For one thing, the story shows how access to the nation's most powerful CEOs -- supposedly the big advantage of a journalistic enterprise like CNBC -- isn't worth a warm bucket of spit when it results in slo-pitch softball questions, for fear of offending the rich and powerful. And so we see Ford's CEO grilled about Kid Rock's performance at the auto show, Ponzi scammer (later revealed) Alan Stanford quizzed on whether it's fun to be a billionaire, and Maria "Money Honey" Bartiromo gushing at how corporate chiefs were still telling her that their companies were doing great, even as the massive iceberg was casting its shadow over the hull of the American economy.
"Jon Stewart's act of journalism -- reported, of course, by his ace team of writers -- worked because there were no interviews at all. It all hung instead on meticulous research, dredging up lethal quips of CNBC's stock pumping hosts to hang them with their own undeniable words -- Jim Cramer's "buy buy buy" when the Dow was roughly double what it is today, his touting of Bear Stearns' and Bank of America's doomed stocks. The kind of research that's so hard for most newspapers to do anymore, with downsized staffs and ever-looming deadlines, but which can so often belies the spin from our 'accessible' sources.
2) The American public is mad as hell right now, so why isn't the mainstream media? Balanced reporting is important, but a balanced, modulated tone of voice? Not now, not when millions are hurting from lost jobs and under-water mortgages, and many millions more are living in fear of the same fate. People need information but what they so desperately want an outlet that shares their passion -- and, yes, that rage -- and so Jon Stewart gave people what they weren't getting anywhere else.
3) Tear down this wall... of pretending that the media itself isn't a major player in American society, and isn't a factor in most big stories. Sure, there were greedy bankers and their pocketed politicians working in unintended tandem to take the Dow from 14,000 down to 6,600, but these popular TV pundits were there every step of the way, as The Daily Show revealed, and their contribution was consequential. Mainstream media, after all these years, has a hard time understanding that one of the major political forces in this country is mainstream media, something the audience knows all too well.
4) The First Amendment doesn't say anything about not being funny, or not being passionate. I don't know about you, if you actually watched the piece, but I feel like I learned something important -- confirming the cheerleading nature of the nation's most-watched source for business news, even in a moment of oncoming disaster -- but I also busted my gut laughing as I did. And there's nothing wrong with that, informing and entertaining at the same time -- isn't that what newspapers are charging people 75 cents for?
"You know, sometimes people do some crazy stuff when they realize their days are numbered. I don't have the answers to problems facing American journalism -- not my own newsroom, mired in Chapter 11, nor the others that face a possible death sentence. But fighting for life will mean living each day like it was your last, with passion, anger and laughter, the way The Daily Show shined a light on a crevice of the nation's battered economy on Wednesday night."
"The piece wasn't just the laugh-out-loud funniest thing on TV all week (and this was a week in which NBC rebroadcast the SNL "more cowbell" sketch, so that's saying a lot) but it was exquisitely reported, insightful, and it tapped into America's real anger about the financial crisis in a way that mainstream journalism has found so elusive all these months, in a time when we all need to be tearing down myths. As one commenter on the Romenesko blog noted, 'it's simply pathetic that one has to watch a comedy show to see things like this.'
"But that's not all. The Stewart piece also got the kind of eyeballs that most newsrooms would kill for in this digital age -- planted atop many, many major political, media and business Web sites -- and the kind of water-cooler chatter that journalists would crave in any age. In a time when newspapers are flat-out dying if not dealing with bankruptcy or massive job losses, while other types of news orgs aren't faring much better, the journalistic success of a comedy show rant shouldn't be viewed as a stick in the eye -- but a teachable moment. Why be a curmudgeon about kids today getting all their news from a comedy show, when it's not really that hard to join Stewart in his own idol-smashing game?
"Here's how:
1) Great research trumps good access to the powerful: The Stewart piece makes this controversial but critical point in two different ways. For one thing, the story shows how access to the nation's most powerful CEOs -- supposedly the big advantage of a journalistic enterprise like CNBC -- isn't worth a warm bucket of spit when it results in slo-pitch softball questions, for fear of offending the rich and powerful. And so we see Ford's CEO grilled about Kid Rock's performance at the auto show, Ponzi scammer (later revealed) Alan Stanford quizzed on whether it's fun to be a billionaire, and Maria "Money Honey" Bartiromo gushing at how corporate chiefs were still telling her that their companies were doing great, even as the massive iceberg was casting its shadow over the hull of the American economy.
"Jon Stewart's act of journalism -- reported, of course, by his ace team of writers -- worked because there were no interviews at all. It all hung instead on meticulous research, dredging up lethal quips of CNBC's stock pumping hosts to hang them with their own undeniable words -- Jim Cramer's "buy buy buy" when the Dow was roughly double what it is today, his touting of Bear Stearns' and Bank of America's doomed stocks. The kind of research that's so hard for most newspapers to do anymore, with downsized staffs and ever-looming deadlines, but which can so often belies the spin from our 'accessible' sources.
2) The American public is mad as hell right now, so why isn't the mainstream media? Balanced reporting is important, but a balanced, modulated tone of voice? Not now, not when millions are hurting from lost jobs and under-water mortgages, and many millions more are living in fear of the same fate. People need information but what they so desperately want an outlet that shares their passion -- and, yes, that rage -- and so Jon Stewart gave people what they weren't getting anywhere else.
3) Tear down this wall... of pretending that the media itself isn't a major player in American society, and isn't a factor in most big stories. Sure, there were greedy bankers and their pocketed politicians working in unintended tandem to take the Dow from 14,000 down to 6,600, but these popular TV pundits were there every step of the way, as The Daily Show revealed, and their contribution was consequential. Mainstream media, after all these years, has a hard time understanding that one of the major political forces in this country is mainstream media, something the audience knows all too well.
4) The First Amendment doesn't say anything about not being funny, or not being passionate. I don't know about you, if you actually watched the piece, but I feel like I learned something important -- confirming the cheerleading nature of the nation's most-watched source for business news, even in a moment of oncoming disaster -- but I also busted my gut laughing as I did. And there's nothing wrong with that, informing and entertaining at the same time -- isn't that what newspapers are charging people 75 cents for?
"You know, sometimes people do some crazy stuff when they realize their days are numbered. I don't have the answers to problems facing American journalism -- not my own newsroom, mired in Chapter 11, nor the others that face a possible death sentence. But fighting for life will mean living each day like it was your last, with passion, anger and laughter, the way The Daily Show shined a light on a crevice of the nation's battered economy on Wednesday night."
ZZtopdog notes: Please click here to watch the video.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"Weather is a great metaphor for life - sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, and there's nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella."
~~Pepper Giardino
~~Pepper Giardino
3.06.2009
FRIDAY'S LITTLE DOSE OF CUTE
From Cute Overload:ZZtopdog notes: This albino baby hedgehog was rescued from the wild because its color makes it much more of a target for predators.
3.03.2009
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us."
~~Black Elk (1863-1950)
~~Black Elk (1863-1950)
3.02.2009
THOUGHT FOR A MONDAY
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."
~~Ellen Goodman
~~Ellen Goodman
3.01.2009
HOW ERIC HOLDER & MICHAEL STEELE SPENT THEIR FEBRUARY
By John Ridley, on The Huffington Post:
"We come to the end of another Black History Month.
"Eric Holder, the Nation's first black Attorney General, spent February demonstrating he owned the stones to call out Americans for being 'in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards' when it comes having the tough discussion on race and ethnicity. That's when he wasn't putting the finishing touches on the bust-up of a major Narco ring.
"Michael Steele, the nation's first black chairman of the Republican National Committee, spent February explaining how he wants the RNC's new PR campaign to be 'off the hook,' featuring 'urban-surburban hip-hop settings.' That's when he wasn't giving a shout-out of 'slum love"' to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal who is of Near Eastern ethnicity.
"Slum love, get it? 'Cause, like, Slumdog Millionaire was, like, big.
"Can you imagine Holder publicly wishing President Obama some ghetto affection?
"So much for the GOP's new face.
"Despite a few critical posts -- call them my tough love shout-outs -- I actually wish Michael Steele much success in reinventing the Republicans. There's nothing wrong with a smart, ideas-oriented adversarial Party. A new version of Eisenhower's Dynamic Conservatism, as opposed to the same version of 'let's try tax cuts.' Though I personally appreciate them.
Steele, however, is not helping advance the cause, or sell the party beyond the base with his tone-deafness. Nor is he being helped by the 'new' GOP. I'm sure Bobby Jindal is thankful 2012 is three years away, and I'm sure Sarah Palin is thankful for Bobby Jindal. For all the ills of liberal paternalism, conservatives are learning you can't do diversity overnight.
"What's clear now is that after Tuesday night's 'I'm exotic like Obama, too' flame out by Jindal, Steele is going to have to work double time in finding a new messenger. First, perhaps, he needs to figure out what the message is and how to deliver it."
"We come to the end of another Black History Month.
"Eric Holder, the Nation's first black Attorney General, spent February demonstrating he owned the stones to call out Americans for being 'in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards' when it comes having the tough discussion on race and ethnicity. That's when he wasn't putting the finishing touches on the bust-up of a major Narco ring.
"Michael Steele, the nation's first black chairman of the Republican National Committee, spent February explaining how he wants the RNC's new PR campaign to be 'off the hook,' featuring 'urban-surburban hip-hop settings.' That's when he wasn't giving a shout-out of 'slum love"' to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal who is of Near Eastern ethnicity.
"Slum love, get it? 'Cause, like, Slumdog Millionaire was, like, big.
"Can you imagine Holder publicly wishing President Obama some ghetto affection?
"So much for the GOP's new face.
"Despite a few critical posts -- call them my tough love shout-outs -- I actually wish Michael Steele much success in reinventing the Republicans. There's nothing wrong with a smart, ideas-oriented adversarial Party. A new version of Eisenhower's Dynamic Conservatism, as opposed to the same version of 'let's try tax cuts.' Though I personally appreciate them.
Steele, however, is not helping advance the cause, or sell the party beyond the base with his tone-deafness. Nor is he being helped by the 'new' GOP. I'm sure Bobby Jindal is thankful 2012 is three years away, and I'm sure Sarah Palin is thankful for Bobby Jindal. For all the ills of liberal paternalism, conservatives are learning you can't do diversity overnight.
"What's clear now is that after Tuesday night's 'I'm exotic like Obama, too' flame out by Jindal, Steele is going to have to work double time in finding a new messenger. First, perhaps, he needs to figure out what the message is and how to deliver it."
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"March is a month of considerable frustration - it is so near spring and yet across a great deal of the country the weather is still so violent and changeable that outdoor activity in our yards seems light years away."
~~Thalassa Cruso
~~Thalassa Cruso
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"March is a month of considerable frustration - it is so near spring and yet across a great deal of the country the weather is still so violent and changeable that outdoor activity in our yards seems light years away."
~~Thalassa Cruso
~~Thalassa Cruso
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