Category Archives: communications/media

Creatures of another name

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I think this is probably happening more frequently than women are aware of—

The police officer’s advice to “be aware of your surroundings and don’t rent from someone you don’t know” is so bogus.  I know of a woman who suspected her landlord was coming into her apartment while she was at work and she felt he was secretly filming her, too, but she couldn’t prove it.  She did come home for lunch one day (not her normal routine) and saw him taking a briefcase -sized black box out of the building (and trying to hide it behind him).

Always, always, always trust your instincts, ladies.

And as in the previous blog on the stupid MTV *cough* un-reality series of sexual titillation of nurses and women in general…this is playing into that mindset.  It’s degrading to women and once again turns them into objects to do things to instead of recognizing them as persons in their own right deserving of respect, honor, and equality.

 

….and a rainbow appears…

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Over the Mi’maq protest.

Singing praise for judge’s ruling. SWN loses bid to continue injunction.

Drums are not weapons

Songs are not weapons

Feathers are not weapons

Here’s a good piece from the Guardian writer Martin Lukacs.  He said there has been media coverage of the event…perhaps in Canada, but in the U.S.?  Doing a quick search, I only saw one U.S. reference by a blogger. Otherwise….*crickets*  It’s pretty telling when you see the nightly news plastered with commercials from BP and other energy companies.  All the news that money can buy, folks…

Lukacs makes a good point with how the coverage is slanted towards painting the First Nations people as violent, but not forthcoming with the great harm fracking will cause….and how many people will die from cancer and other diseases caused by the benzene and mercury and other horrible stuff in the chemicals used.  And of course, the media fails to mention the resulting earthquakes.

From Lukac’s article:

But Premier David Alward, hell-bent on opening up the province to shale gas, has spurned consultation with First Nations and the rest of the population. His latest step is demonization. “Clearly, there are those who do not have the same values we share as New Brunswickers,” he cynically announced on Friday. But the opposition to the Premier’s shale gas agenda is not just a supposedly isolated Indigenous community: it is two of every three people in Atlantic Canada. Little wonder he has repeatedly rejected a referendum on shale gas. It turns out the residents of Elsipogtog aren’t criminal deviants. They are the frontline of a fight for the democratic and environmental will of New Brunswick

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Now you’re talkin’.  The taxpaying public does not want fracking!

Stephen Harper’s history is a little warped, eh?  Um, I’m pretty sure there were people here before we ( “we” being Canada and U.S.)  before there were lines drawn by the Europeans.  And the people here were pretty much organized Nations.  They were here for 10,000 years and were much better stewards of the land and water.  You could drink from any stream.  There was no trash strewn across the land.  You could breathe.

Lukacs also brings up the repeated breaking of laws by those in power who then point fingers.  Do as I say, not as I do….

The fishing rights battles are eerily similar to the same battles in the U.S. with the Native Americans, having their boats rammed, and state officials created an atmosphere of incitement by showing films of Native Americans fishing in areas to the commercial fisherman who thought it should be theirs.  What was truly insulting to the Indigenous was the assertion by the Conservation Officers that the Native Americans would “overfish” the waters…when they had always practiced balance–they never took more than they needed.  If anything, it was the commercial fisheries that were destroying the fish populations.  The story is told in the book Now that the Buffalo is Gone by Alvin Josephy. Robert Satiacum was jailed for standing up for their rights.  Meanwhile, his wife and other women warriors defied the state officials by continuing to fish, using their wits to evade capture.  They were eventually caught, but I have to smile to myself in admiration of their wit and courage for fending them off as long as they could.

More pics here of the women warriors.

 

More reasons to love the Clintons

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…and their stealth gang of the dark side.  Not.

“Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra,” The Times further explained.

“The gift, combined with Mr. Giustra’s more recent and public pledge to give the William J. Clinton Foundation an additional $100 million, secured Mr. Giustra a place in Mr. Clinton’s inner circle…Giustra [also] co-produced a gala 60th birthday for Mr. Clinton that featured stars like Jon Bon Jovi and raised about $21 million for the Clinton Foundation.”

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Clinton on XL.

Hillary’s connection to XL.

Seeing the artist drawing of her astride the pipeline brought a flashback to Jane Fonda on the Vietnam tank.  I wish people were as outraged at Hillary “riding” the pipeline.    And one has to wonder at the Clinton ties to the Kochs after reading the article. …

I put my two cents on Clinton in another blog here. 

Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert, who otherwise is intelligent person who asks questions….has drunk the Clinton koolaid and continues to promote the creep.  Why??  Yeah, he’s over in Uganda?  Probably there to rape them for their resources….funny how nobody brings up the utter failure of his “help” in Haiti. 

Rape victim’s house burned to the ground

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Sweet Jesus, what is wrong with you??!

From the Anonymous link:

Two young girls have been raped in the town of Maryville, Missouri. Another high school football star, the grandson of a Missouri state official, has walked free. The people of Maryville turned their backs on these victims and one family has been forced to flee the town. Their house was later burned to the ground.

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On January 8th, a 14-year-old girl named Daisy Coleman and her 13-year-old friend were both raped in Maryville. Evidence of this assault was captured on film. Daisy’s unconscious body was later dumped into her family’s yard, left alone for hours in freezing weather. One of Daisy’s attackers was initially in police custody, where he admitted to having sex with her while she was under the influence. He claimed it was consensual. The hospital states the young girl’s blood alcohol level was almost twice the legal limit and they discovered three tears inside of her body, 2-4 inches in length. When asked if a crime occurred, the Sheriff told the press, “Hell yes, it occurred… And did these boys need to be punished for it? Absolutely.”

It goes on to say that evidence was captured on film.  Good God, what depraved evil person would not only commit raping a woman, but then take glee in it by filming it?   what the hell is wrong with our society that men hate women so much?

I’m sure she was blamed for drinking…as I posted before, it doesn’t give him the right to rape her.  If she is intoxicated and cannot give her consent with a clear mind, he should take her home.  What is wrong with our society that it is okay to take advantage of the situation?  Why is she blamed and not his violence?

Even more appalling are the girls that participate in the hate:

At a dance competition, Melinda Coleman says, a girl arrived wearing a homemade shirt: Matt 1, Daisy 0.”

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No doubt Daisy was the target of a jealous girl who perhaps wanted to date Barnett.  You can have him, lady.

Lastly, the comments section just left me sad—-especially about the ones on small towns.  Um…Daisy and her family lived in a small town, too, and were products of that small town as well as the Neanderthals.  I was raised in a small town.  I was raised Republican.  After going through my own metamorphosis, I realize some of what I was brought up to believe were not in keeping with my inner feelings and not in keeping with what Jesus taught.  Yet, those comments lump all of us together as if we are all mean and hateful.

And it also ignores that these crimes happen in large towns, as well.    It’s unfair and prejudiced thinking.

Signs of Dyslexia

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(A note~ I changed the video in the previous blog on Education and Malala)

As you know, I’m dyslexic.  I thought I’d pass along this list of symptoms for those who may be similarly affected:

1. Known in family tree.

2.  Not speaking by 1st birthday.

3.  Twisted Oral Speech – Multiple Syllables  (like saying am-in-al for animal or pasghetti for spaghetti — my daughter did this and I thought it was just a cute part of being a little one “dutchy” as my Mom would call it.)

4.  Stuttering in early years

5.  Cluttering early

6.  Articulation Difficulties m/n, r/l, even in adults

7.  Chronic Ear Infections  (I would say chronic earaches, too.  Get this–many of us on the mercury poisoning list have earaches or history of ear infections.  When I’m chelating, I always get an earache.)

8.  Can’t master tying shoes.

9.  Trouble with left/right

10.  Late to establish a dominant hand.   (I’m not sure why it is important to establish a dominant hand.  I would think after all the years of abuse connected with forcing left handed children to use their right hands, that the thought of a dominant hand being important would die away….)

11.  Mixed dominance w/hand per task.  (Again, I don’t know why such importance is put on this–)

12.  Can’t say or write alphabet in sequence.

13.  Difficulty spelling last name.  (Ha.  Try one with four syllables)

14.  Address/Phone # difficulty

15.  Sequence, Names, and Sounds of alphabet (where one has to keep starting over from the beginning to name all the letters)

16.  Sequence Days of the Week and Month  (I solved this by creating a picture in my mind of the months and the days of the week–the days look connected like a telephone pole line.  The months look like a calendar in my head.)

17.  Multiplication facts (Math is difficult because there is no reason.  Dyslexics need to have a reason.  This really slammed me–one of the things I told my calculus adviser was that the instructors tell you a problem. I wanted to know “why” .  I knew by the look she gave me that there was a reason they didn’t do this (in Indiana University, their math program featured books written by women mathematicians that explained it in a way that I (and probably other dyslexics) could understand.  We want to know why and if we don’t know why, it gets in the way of solving the problem.

18.  Knows a word on page 1, but not on page 3.  In the excellent book I got from my PUBLIC Library, it explained that dyslexics get stuck on words that they can’t associate with a picture.  This was my daughter’s difficulty, too.  I would point to the word “the” and then turn the page and point to it again, and she couldn’t recognize it, even though she just looked at it.  This was because a, an, and the don’t stand for any particular object.  She could remember words like “ball” because it stood for this round thing that bounced.

19.  Won’t try to sound out unknown words.

20.  Terrible Spelling – often no vowels.  This is the opposite of me–I was an excellent speller.  I have lost the ability, however, with the mercury poisoning.  I misspell words that I know. (updated 5.2015: I am now recognizing and spelling words better….so there’s progress in that direction.)

21.  Terrible Penmanship–dysgraphia.  (Again, the opposite of me–I have very nice penmanship.  This is explained that dyslexics are highly creative–supposedly, the right side of their brains are larger.)

22.  Impacts Visual Memory–3D is the gifted area

23.  Handwriting posture – Often head on desk or turning paper.  Yup, that would be me.

24.  Extreme difficulty with cursive. (Again, not a problem for this dyslexic — nice cursive writing.)

25.  Reversals after 2 years of writing practice instruction.

26.  Writing Conventions are very poor, but content is okay.  (Poor capitalization and paragraphing.  Dyslexics need to write first, take a break, and then come back to edit later.)

27.  Word retrieval issues

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Seriously, writing this entry, I’ve had to re-type several times because of the backwards letters.  Being dyslexic requires more energy–hence the reason they tend to want to give up in frustration. (I’m also chelating, and it’s amazing how much worse my symptoms are….so yeah, you know what I’m thinking–is dyslexia related to mercury/heavy metal poisoning?)

It also should be noted that dyslexics are often treated as if they are stupid, but evidence proves that is not correct.  Dyslexics are highly intelligent.  My daughter would have been branded stupid for the rest of her life if I had listened to her teacher.  I just want to encourage parents that you are the best judge of your child, and to listen to your instincts.

Group Hatred towards women

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Stoning of women by a group continues in many countries.  Be sure to click on the link to the Independent–many countries and religions practiced this barbaric ritual–not just followers of Islam.

Again, the culture is the problem–women not seen as equals, but sub-human.  And while I’m reading these stories, I’m wondering why the men who also “committed adultery” are not also stoned??  The article goes on to say that men are stoned, but are buried up to their waists, to allow them to escape, while women are buried up to their chests.

And just because women are not stoned in other cultures does not relieve them of other ways of “stoning” a woman–by words and actions of derogatory nature.

The Cyrus/Thicke misogyny comes to mind.  I admire Gloria Steinem for her work on women’s equality, but disagree with her sentiments on Cyrus.  As she speaks in the video, saying that it’s too bad that we have to be nearly naked to be noticed, I’m wondering WTH?  Gloria knows what it feels like to be degraded as a Playboy bunny.  She says we need to change the culture….and I’m thinking the misogyny in the media is a huge part of the problem!!  Therefore, Cyrus and Thicke are reinforcing misogyny. 

It’s not Obamacare….it’s Social Security they’re after

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Center for Media and Democracy has this up on what the Koch Brothers and Pete Petersen and their toady Paul Ryan are really after–what they’ve been after all along—Social Security and other “entitlement” programs.  I still hate that term”entitlement”  as it alludes to a giveaway when folks pay into these programs all their lives.

Here’s the video by Mark Fiore:

 

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Also from CMD–

Profiting off the poor.  With Indiana being All Republican, All the Time in the Legislature, I rather doubt that they have slayed this dragon.  I suspect that privatization will be back…probably by backdoor deals.

Also, Indiana will be dropping ISTEP (Indiana Statewide Testing Educational Progress)next year BY FEDERAL REQUIREMENT.

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…and profiting off of our children-–and ultimately, our Democracy. (Just a refresher of the Charter school scams and hedge fund managers/Wall Street making a profit off of schools.)

From the report:

In recent years, there has been an explosion of full-time “virtual” charter schools paid for by the taxpayer. From 2008 to 2012, 157 bills passed in 39 states and territories (including the District of Columbia) that expand online schooling or modify existing regulations. Many of these bills are attributable to American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) politicians.

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I was thinking about this other day while teaching–online is such a ripoff in that you don’t get human interaction.  Granted, the Wall St. types probably loathe human interaction…but I really wonder if they’re human to begin with….the rest of us,however, actually want to be around other humans.

Anyway, a teacher can often pick up on cues to help a student “get” a subject that a stupid computer could never do.

A teacher can give encouragement when a student wants to give up.  This is especially important for students who are having difficulty–I thought of myself  and my daughter being dyslexic.  If I hadn’t tried to teach my daughter through Phonics and patiently sitting down with her every night to read, she most likely would not have reached her potential.  Again–computers cannot help when there is a learning disability.

Lastly, a teacher is going to lay the hammer down if a student comes in without homework done or starts goofing off during class instead of doing the work they’re supposed to be doing…online courses cannot do that, either.  And a teacher is also a sounding board for a student who may be dealing with issues at home…

As I’ve noted before, there is something lost when the classroom lacks discussion and interchange of ideas or more in-depth on the subject.

And, of course, a computer can’t teach art or music the way that it should be done.

The article makes note that the virtual schools enroll kids that never take courses, never answer emails, and so on, but still take tax dollars for them.  One had to reimburse the state $800k for “ghost” students.  This is a huge red flag in that while the neocons are so very worried about voter ID to “prove” who someone is so they don’t vote twice….well, I don’t see the same concern with these “ghost” students who may or may not even be real persons.  Who is checking on them?

And this just made my heart sing:

Affidavits from former K12 Inc. teachers that were incorporated into the complaint paint a devastating picture of an enrollment-driven, profit-driven corporate culture that leaves kids in the dust. (Note to Wall Street: If you want to exploit children, don’t hire a bunch of teachers who actually care about kids.)

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Sadly, I think Wall St. will actually take that advice and will screen teachers who don’t give a rip.  Or Wall Streeters will make a construct that they “can’t find any good teachers” so they will be “forced” to plead for the ability to hire non-teachers to….teach.