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Showing posts from March, 2006
Black. White. Part 4 As everyone is seen gaining understanding and knowledge about themselves as individual and others in different races, there is one glaring stalwart, stone, immovable figure. Bruno. Oh, Bruno. At the end of last night’s episode, he presents a DVD that he had made months before the whole project had even presented itself because of his frustration with the whole “rap video” thing. Oh. My. Gawd. To say it was probably the most discomforting display of white stereotyping and disrespect I have ever seen would be an understatement. He talks about disrespecting women, getting in trouble with the police, being inarticulate, etc. I don’t really understand why he did this project. There’s Nick, the son of the black family, who allows kids to say the n-word around him, because he doesn’t care. Mom and dad hit the roof, realizing that their son does not get it. Dad takes him to a barbershop so that the barber can give his son a talking to. Nick is open to this an...
Can I just say that I am sick to death of these blanket statements about Mexicans? Gangs. Drugs. Welfare. Poverty. Too many kids. Lazy. Stupid. Anyway, I am repulsed by this constant bombardment of vile erroneous depictions of an entire group of people. Every day, especially in an area so close to the border, I have interactions with Mexican immigrants countless times a day. Have I ever been assaulted? Have I ever been offered drugs? Disrespected in any way? Have I ever had even one minor altercation with a Mexican immigrant? No. And I have had plenty of opportunities. All I see are people who work their butts off, learn the language and the customs, smile at me, hang out with their family, love their community, and are a growing force to be reckoned with. And maybe that’s the problem. Maybe there is too much influence and it bothers the insecure. What is the percentage now of Latin American/south American/ Hispanic people in this country? Over 50%. Yes, we need to do something sma...
Minor Musings Woohoo! Little Christian Science Monitor reporter girl released after three months. Jill, is it? Jill Wheelen? Or is that the daughter of the captain on The Love Boat? Oh, well, nevermind. I’m happy she has been released. Real quick about the kids protesting immigration. School district authorities say - You protest you will get either suspended or ISS. Being the parent of a two teenage boys I know ISS rilly, rilly well. In school suspension – where you sit in a room and miss instruction time but get handed a packet of work that is being done in class. Here we go again with the BRILLIANCE of our modern school system. Miss instruction time because you left school to go and protest a government action that might monumentally affect you and your community? Punishment? Miss more instruction time! HAHAHAHAHAHA! That’ll teach ya! Or not. Idiots. And something that has become a bit of ritual – on my way to pick up my son in high school I tune in to Yawn Hannity to h...
Multiple Musings I have been rolling something around in my mind for about a week or so, that I just can’t seem to shake. It’s creepy how it keeps popping into my head at the most inopportune times. The question is: Is Rush Limbaugh….gay? Now before you think this is some Rush bashing, give me a minute. It all started with the big deal he made about some guy who was center court during this whole basketball shindig that’s going on right now that I am not paying any attention to that, when the game ended, sat down, head to knees and cried. Rush said he was embarrassed by this display. One caller said – I played college ball and I have to say, it’s an emotional time. You have put all this time and energy and effort into this team, with these guys and it’s over. Hey, I did the same thing in high school, it’s the end of an era. Rush’s comeback was – does this guy have a pro future? The caller said – I think so. Rush then blustered on and on about how it wasn’t over and “be a man!...
Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says By DON VAN NATTA Jr. LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq , as the United States and Britain United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war. pressed for a second But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times. "Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," David Manning, Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote i...
Read it and Weep Vague Law and Hard Lobbying Add Up to Billions for Big Oil By EDMUND L. ANDREWS WASHINGTON, March 26 — It was after midnight and every lawmaker in the committee room wanted to go home, but there was still time to sweeten a deal encouraging oil and gas companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. "There is no cost," declared Representative Joe L. Barton, a Texas Republican who was presiding over Congressional negotiations on the sprawling energy bill last July. An obscure provision on new drilling incentives was "so noncontroversial," he added, that senior House and Senate negotiators had not even discussed it. Mr. Barton's claim had a long history. For more than a decade, lawmakers and administration officials, both Republicans and Democrats, have promised there would be no cost to taxpayers for a program allowing companies to avoid paying the government royalties on oil and gas produced in publicly owned waters in the Gulf. B...
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this is from harpseals.org a comprehensive, all volunteer site dedicated to ending the seal hunt. MARCH 25, 2006 The massacre has begun: THE SEALERS OF THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS AND PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND HAVE STARTED SLAUGHTERING HARP SEAL PUPS TODAY. THAT IS, THEY HAVE BEGUN KILLING THE FEW SEALS WHO SURVIVED THE WORST ICE CONDITIONS IN RECORDED HISTORY. We sounded the alarm in early February: Where is the ice? The year 2006 was declared the worst ice year in recorded history. In late February and early March, the seal pups were born around the Magdalens and Prince Edward Island. The tour groups saw them. Paul and Heather McCartney saw them at the beginning of March. But where are they now? Rebecca Aldworth of HSUS is there now to document the massacre. She was there with the McCartneys. Now, she finds broken up ice floes where there were large floes supporting newborn pups. She has seen mother se...