Category Archives: communications/media

Neil Young sings Mother Earth

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What a stirring, beautiful song.  (Now THIS is what I’m talking about when I talk about music stirring the soul!) (hat tip to Global News Canada)

Thank you to Neil Young for making this available.  The video is just stunning…how beautiful the untouched Earth is when left alone…and how quickly it is destroyed by thoughtlessness and lack of vision of the future…

Young isn’t asking for any contributions, but I’m sure this song will be available for download.  If you’re able, please support him and this effort.  We are all connected.

The State of the Union

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Briefly, I shut off the TV after the President stated that natural gas extraction (fracking) should be pursued…if done cleanly…….(echos of “clean coal” and his push for nuclear renaissance before Fukushima)

I am not willing to sacrifice clean water and good health for the $$ gains for energy companies.  My children deserve to have clean water, clean air, and soil suitable for growing healthy, organic food.

Even IF one could extract the gas without using horrible chemicals that poison water supplies…what about the earthquakes associated with fracking?  What about the numerous sink holes appearing….are they, too, associated with fracking?  I suspect so.

And Fred Klonsky captured my thoughts on his opening remarks on education.  Three words:  Don’t Patronize Me.

It appeared at one point that President Obama was going to listen to us…but I no longer have that opinion.

(As a side note~  someone just called into the radio station and said they spotted the first robins of Spring. Woot!!  We’re all a little weather weary here.  Yes, I’m whining…so sue me…even those of us who love winter have our limit…)

 

NSA using phone apps like Angry Birds to gather personal info

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Well, I wish I could say I’m surprised, but no…nobody is going to design a game and give it away for free…ain’t gonna happen without some benefit for themselves.  No free lunches, folks.

Here we have another case of taxation without representation…since a majority of people want this invasion of privacy to stop.

 

 

Repost: Rape is Not Entertainment; The Grammys **edited

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After once again being subjected to Robin Thicke’s rape song, Blurred Lines, at the Grammys,  I feel the need to repost a couple of blogs on the misogyny:

Rape is not a joke.

Blurred Lines

Rape culture in living color.  Degrading women as second class starts with media images.  The media is a powerful messenger.   Fear and Anger and Sex are the major influences in Communications and the media uses them well to influence the public.

Music has been a part of my life since I could remember, and the Grammy’s were one of the shows I used to watch regularly, but last night was a reminder of why I quit watching the awards show…it’s more about promotion of artists than promotion of music as an art.  Because I don’t see that Robin Thicke and the others (including women) that sexualize women to promote their songs have a load of talent.

If one has talent, their music speaks for itself.

Good music stirs the soul….speaks to the soul…bad music is just noise to fill the airwaves.

And on a personal note~  I really wish Ringo would have sung “It Don’t Come Easy”…I requested this song for Christmas one year, and my thirty year old son liked it…it could have been a way for Ringo to reach the younger crowd, if he had introduced them to it….

The opening notes as they are played on the recorded version are beautiful and stirring.

**edited to take out video–oops, thought it was official. Apologies.

Action Alert: Pence Power Grab from Glenda Ritz

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Once again, Glenda Ritz is under threat of losing her authority granted to her by the citizens of Indiana….who voted more for her than Pence.

Calling all Hoosiers…send out emails to have your voice heard.  Don’t let Pence become a dictator!

The Newark Five: Being heard

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The Chalk Face has a video up of the Newark principals who were put on indefinite layoff (fired) for exercising their right to Free Speech. (hat tip GF Brandenburg)

This is probably the only place you’ll hear them…because no one in the mainstream media is covering this.  It is a hot topic going by the amount of activity my blog has received.  This should be a top story on the networks…and yet…*crickets*.

Why?

Dr. Martin Luther King

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Several folks have posts up this morning on Dr. King–

I’ll start with Mercedes Schneider — it is disgusting how George W. Bush used MLK to somehow try to link No Child Left a Mind with civil rights.  As we are seeing, most of the public schools being closed are in neighborhoods of the poor and minorities.  An excellent point made by Joanne Barkin about how they have appointed themselves as leaders of the reform movement without the rest of us included.  Our opinions don’t matter…unless, of course, we agree with them.

A quibble I have with “I Have A Dream…” is the sons of former slave owners and advocating brotherhood...what is glaringly missing are women being part of the whole.

As has been pointed out by others–Dr. King was defending workers who wished to unionize…he would have no part of the destruction of teacher’s unions.

Next, Diane Ravitch has a blog up on MLK.  When breaking the law is just…if one follows one’s conscience.

Finally, Democracy Now! has a video up on MLK.  When I first clicked on, I heard “I Have a Dream…” and sighed that it was going to be yet another rehash of the I have a Dream speech without reference to his other great speech, Beyond Vietnam. 

http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2014/1/20

I was so glad that they aired this speech.  It was so wonderful hearing Dr. King’s voice again…hard not to get emotional at the love that was flowing from him.  He and John F. Kennedy were advocates of Peace working against dark forces.  Both were killed for it.  But as Dr. King said prophetically, he had been to the mountain top and was not afraid of the consequences of doing what he knew God wanted him to do.

I want to say something about this speech by Amiri Baraka, also on DN!

He speaks about women being raped and wanting to have reparations for it…does he not think that white women have been raped, too?  Where is the white woman’s reparation?

What about the Irish slaves whom also worked for no wages?  Where are their reparations?  What about the Irish women whom were forced to birth babies for lighter-skinned African Americans?

The music we stole?  Didn’t all music come from the great classical composers?  Isn’t music supposed to be a shared experience?  Did we not enjoy each other’s music and share that special connection?  It is deflating to hear such anger for something we both enjoyed.

And then he says “give us our lives or be prepared to forfeit your own…”

Dr. King was against violence of any kind.  I can’t see him agreeing with advocating violence.

And I don’t understand “giving” someone their life….you can’t “give” someone their life.  You can’t give someone self-esteem nor a purpose in life–it has always come from within…from that connection to God (or your Higher Power).

Dr. King knew this…it emanated from him.  He was solidly connected and acted accordingly.   He mentions the overzealous need for material things…and questioned why someone had more than enough while others had to beg for the things they need.

Advocating violence against whites is just as bad as a KKK leader advocating violence against blacks.

I see white faces amongst the black faces in the civil rights protests.  I read a story of a white guy being hosed down and beaten along with the blacks during the civil rights riots.  He nearly had an eye gouged out.

Other whites wrote that they had fought alongside blacks and  then were told they were not welcome anymore.

White folk were right there alongside black folk, and now it seems that part of history is being rewritten.

I know I’ll probably catch hell for writing this, but it is written with an open heart, and not meant to offend, but to question biases and prejudices….and somehow get back to that love that emanated from Dr. King.   Violence, anger, and hatred don’t serve anyone.  Anger is only useful if that energy is used in a positive way.

As a side note~ Dr. King spoke about them keeping Vietnam going when they knew it was wrong.  I happened upon this the other day–and how Kissinger was behind the scenes prolonging the war…because he loved the power and he, Nixon, et al, wanted to “save face”.  They prolonged death of our soldiers, death of Vietnamese so they could keep their reputation intact.  Remember, he had stated that power is an aphrodisiac…it’s as if he thought of himself as some sort of “James Bond”….how disgusting.

Young: Tar Sands are Canada’s Hiroshima **edited

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Neil Young is finishing up his “Honor the Treaties” concerts in Canada.  He compared what is happening to Hiroshima, which irked a few people.

He is being compared to Jenny McCarthy, whom has spoken out on vaccines causing autism.

McCarthy, a former model/actress, vehemently claims childhood vaccinations cause autism and other disabilities, despite those claims having been disproven by rigorous scientific research.

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…disproven by rigorous scientific research….

bwahahahahahahahaha *snort*

Well, as I posted recently, scientific research has a few flaws in it that the vaccine apologists, as Dr. Cutler refers to them, choose to ignore.

I hope that Neil Young considers being compared to Jenny McCarthy a compliment, because I do….much as I do when I’m called a bitch for speaking up for myself or others…

People who diminish others have little facts to back their claims up…that’s why they attack the person instead of the person’s arguments.  Ad hominem.

**edited to add:  I just wanted to say that Global News pushes vaccines.  They had article after article on scaring people into getting vaccination, and that the flu season was horrible, and that they were running out of vaccines.  Very lopsided reporting.

Gosselin and crocodile tears

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I usually don’t comment on this stuff, but this is too, too much–

The media is taking Kate Gosselin to task for their interview on TV.  They seem ready to blame her, but give Jon a pass, even putting him as a sympathetic character.  Puhlease.  He was right there with Kate putting their poor children through the misery of having their lives broadcast on national TV. 

“It just kind of proves my point of Kate bringing the kids out instead of her just sort of doing it herself,” he explained. “It all blew up in everyone’s face and I feel horrible for my children because now they’re going to have to deal with the public.”

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Did you “feel horrible” for your children, Jon, when you were making $$ off of them for the TV show?  You already put them in the public eye, so stop with the false concern about their welfare now.

I have no sympathy for parents who use their children this way. None.