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Finding the Art

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I’m sad to say that I just discovered this today, after having been here three years….but I couldn’t have afforded it, anyway, so it’s bittersweet…

They posted a funny advertisement poster on the grocery’s bulletin board, but I couldn’t find the corresponding poster on their website.  It’s called “Disaster Preparedness” and mocks the rules of Preparedness.   One rule was that there was probably a disaster underfoot if the electricity has been shut off, your cell phone doesn’t work, your neighbors are hysterical, and dogs are no longer running through the streets…:p

This site promotes the films I like.  I love, love, love independent films that aren’t the same old, same old.  I like the ones that make me think–that make me step outside the box….

….and I like the ones that highlight the aspects of society that are not all glamour, such as The Station Agent.   I picked this up at the library, and am sad that I’ll not get to see it anymore once I leave here.  It’s one of those tales that you don’t see that much out of Hollywood–and it’s well written enough that you empathize with Fin without feeling sorry for him.  It’s a wonderful story of friends’ experiences in life–a story of every day people.

 

 

Targets of drones not always criminal

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common dreams has a link up to this McClatchy piece on the targets of drones–an estimated 3,500 people killed.

From the piece:

“The United States has gone far beyond what the U.S. public – and perhaps even Congress – understands the government has been doing and claiming they have a legal right to do,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a Notre Dame Law School professor who contends that CIA drone operations in Pakistan violate international law.

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Mary Ellen O’Conell, from that radical leftwing university of Notre Dame.  :p
More:

The administration has declined to reveal other details of the program, such as the intelligence used to select targets and how much evidence is required for an individual to be placed on a CIA “kill list.” The administration also hasn’t even acknowledged the existence of so-called signature strikes, let alone discussed the legal and procedural foundations of the attacks.

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Does anyone else see the irony of Diane Feinstein being so anti-gun violence a la Newtown, but apparently thinks drone strikes are okay??
I also have an issue with calling drone strikes “self defense”.  It is self defense when you are face to face with someone and they are coming at you with fists, guns, or knives–then by all means, you have a right to defend yourself.  But hiding a thousand miles away in some darkened room with television monitors while you pull the trigger….um, no…not self defense in my book.  It’s cowardly.

In passing…

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…overheard just now in the library:

A grandmother is checking out books with her 4 year old granddaughter.  Granddaughter pipes up that she was promised candy.

Grandma says, “I must have been delirious….”

bwahahaha.

Teachers in D.C.

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…protesting the corporate take over of public schools.  Good for them.

A tweeter has a link up to The Nation’s take on it.

From the article:

The growing movement against corporate-style education reform has its work cut out for it. It is, after all, challenging an insidiously well-messaged behemoth funded by billionaires and sanctioned by both major political parties.

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Word.

How does one fight against something that both parties are for?  How does one fight against politicians who have not taught in a classroom, but seem to believe they know better than educators what our kids need?  And how does one fight against willful ignorance on their part when it is soooo obvious that No Child Left Behind is a colossal failure?

My prior posts on education here. And here. And here–profit factor. And here – about the kids who were most impacted by NCLB not graduating on time and dropping out.

No Child Left Behind is not about giving kids a well-rounded education with math, reading, art and music, and physical exercise, but going through the motions of educating kids with tests that don’t come close to evaluating what  a child’s potential truly is….

…worse than that, it pigeonholes kids, who are still developing, into boxes.  It takes away their uniqueness as human beings.  It does not recognize the potential because that is impossible to “test” for–their potential is the unexplored parts of themselves that they —and the world—have yet to discover.

I’m fifty years old and still have not reached my potential. 🙂

Thatcher

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The comments here are priceless on Margaret Thatcher’s passing.  Gah, I used to think so well of this woman in my repub daze.  Arrgh.

And even if I had the money, I would not have seen Meryl Streep’s version of her.  I was afraid that the worst would not come out, and from the comments on the movie, my guess was accurate.  Trying to make her into someone to admire?  Wow, Streep has gone so far away from Silkwood. 

The comments on feminists praising Thatcher as being a woman that “made it” is spot on.  One doesn’t have to look any farther than Hillary Clinton to see that.

I mean, really, Clinton makes a big deal about being asked about her clothes, and there are feminists who applaud that thinking she’s being assertive. Pfft.  Men are asked about the suits they wear.  I wouldn’t know what an Armani suit was if not for that.  And a man could not walk into a courtroom, to use the above example, in jeans and flannel shirt and expect to be given the same consideration from a judge that he would if he were wearing a suit.  Men notice other men’s suits, but they’re not as obvious about it.  It may come out as “hey, nice suit” and left at that.

Should a person be judged by appearance?  Absolutely not.

In my personal observation, we are becoming worse about judging folks by the outside instead of the inside.  Our cultural programming, from watching shows like Survivor, among other things,  buys into the notion that others are superior.  Some see clothes as an indicator of superiority.  I remember that it wasn’t so much so before we moved away from an agricultural (family farm) culture.  I remember when Levi’s became the preferred jean and you were “uncool” if you didn’t have those jeans.  Uncool = lesser person.  This also coincides with “poor person”,  btw….

Somehow our culture became twisted along the way and “rich people” became associated with “good people”.  Being poor, one comes to assess folks not on their bank accounts, but on their actions.  What do they do with their funds?  Do they help others or spend their time degrading others and, like the Kochs, do their best to make sure that they have it all?

 

Anyway, Margaret Thatcher and Ronnie Reagan were the architects of what we’re dealing with today–the culture of greed.  “I’ve got mine, screw you.”   or “I’ve got mine, and I want yours, too.”

Mea Culpa

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In my post here, I made a sarcastic comment on Mitch Daniels’ inability to comprehend a more complicated school “grading” system.

Thinking about that comment, I have to apologize for it.  That is not in keeping with  “Do Unto Others…”  I would not want someone to attack me personally, even if they didn’t agree with my politics.  This is the “old” me and I don’t wish to return to that.

Mea Culpa.

The sea turtle

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So, the calendar has changed to April (what happened to March?) and this month’s sea creature is the sea turtle. 

I was not aware that they couldn’t retract their outer limbs nor that it could take 50 years for some species to reproduce.

Here’s a story on a rescue-and-release of the turtles.  Again, their navigation is off and they end up in colder waters than they are accustomed to.

National Geographic has a nice photo gallery of the sea turtle.  More amazing facts–the Green Sea turtle is so ancient that it saw the dinosaur emerge and then watched them grow extinct.  Amazing.

On a visit with relatives, we were walking along a beach and saw the tracks made by turtles as they paddle in the sand.  My aunt explained what made the unusual design.  It was during this trip that I also saw whales in the distance spout water sky high.  Very cool.

Toxins and their effects on the sea turtles.  Not a surprise, but wish it was…

More from Sea Turtle Conservancy on pollution and its affects. Can we outlaw plastic bags, balloons, bottles, food wrappers, etc….? Nah…that would mean a little...inconvenience…to us…

A story here on a turtle being run over by an all terrain vehicle…this is a big problem with the North Carolina coast–environmentalists have been threatened by the off-roaders who for some reason feel the need to drive these vehicles on the beaches. And this on politicians with nothing better to do than interfere with efforts to stop it.  <sigh>

More here on beach roadkill from Ted Williams at Audobon–including birds.  Outer Banks Preservation Association.…pshaw.

Another fiasco by BP— their *cough* controlled burns probably burned turtles alive.