Category Archives: equality

Opposing Enbridge

by

Warrior Publications has this up on the curious fact that people opposing the Enbridge pipeline are not the radicals that the Oil industry and the politicos would like you to think.

Like I’ve said before, there are a lot more people in favor of protecting the environment but are afraid to be categorized as terrorists or radicals, so they remain silent.  It really came home to me when I wrote an op-ed for my local paper talking about environmental concerns, including GMO labeling.  I had people call me and talk to me in person (in a low voice, no doubt so no one else could hear the conversation) about how they agreed with me.  But they didn’t take that next step and write their own op-ed on how they, too, wanted to protect the environment.

The oil industry and others have done a bang up job of portraying *all* environmentalists as radical, violent people….when only a small number of people have done things that are disagreeable to the rest.  And I’m sure there were agent provocateurs amongst the violent ones.

The following isn’t related to the environmental protests, but it is helpful in understanding that it isn’t paranoia on the part of protestors:

 

Israel citizens want to teach Peace

by

The opening quote is an understatement. (love the mural, too)

Of course, the people want peace–it’s the politicians and war profiteers who want war.  Most of the people in the world just want to live in peace…raise their families…earn a living…follow their own paths….

…but then you get to the end of the article…<sigh>….well, baby steps towards Peace…but I’ll take it.

The culture of violence against women

by

…continues.

Break a woman’s head in three spaces? Hey, that’s okay…I’m sure you didn’t mean to hit her with such force that you broke the bone.

From the link on the sentencing:

Chief Deputy Yellowstone County attorney Juli M. Pierce said after the hearing that she respects the two sentences the judges gave Ferguson.

“We’ll continue to prosecute domestic violence cases no matter what the outcome is,” she said, shortly after Ferguson was taken into custody. “We’ll continue to fight that fight because that’s why we’re here – for the protection of the community.”

~~~~~~~~

You call *that* prosecution?  God help the women of Yellowstone County.

School Colocation

by

Yeah, I didn’t know what “colocation” meant, either. The former post on Bloomberg at Diane Ravitch’s has led to a great discussion on it and there is a   charter school troll there advocating Success Academy, a charter.  A poster supplied a link to an insightful post here.

This is just absolutely wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Another link provided a report on Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy receiving preferential treatment from the DOE.  Good Grief, can they be any more of an enabler?

More  here,

The preceding also has a link to Juan Gonzalez’s column on the sardine-like atmosphere in the colocation schools.  Shocking cannot even describe the overcrowded conditions that led to an autistic child disappearing.  Good God.

…and $1300 on marketing…per child….are you kidding me??  That money could have been used for public schools in more education-oriented ways.  It’s just mindboggling how dense and misguided this misuse of funds is…

…and how the public is being ignored:

Moreover, it is also clear from the abundance of comments at public hearings that the vast majority of parents oppose these proposals – and these parents’ choices are being ignored.  Just check any of the Public comment analyses on the DOE webpage.  In many of these summaries, every single parent who spoke opposed the co-location, as well as representatives of the Community Education Councils and elected officials.

~~~~~~~~

The public, that pays the taxes for the public schools, is…ignored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why won’t public schools just go away already?

by

(said very snarkily)

Jan Ressenger has this up on the recent nominee to the Dept of Education.  Yeah, if you were hoping that President Obama had somehow seen the light about the U.S. education fiasco, well, you (and I) were sadly mistaken, because he’ s nominated another corporate takeover twerp.

Be sure to click on the link to the Nation’s report:

In addition, [Ted]  Mitchell serves as an adviser to Salmon River Capital, a venture capital firm that specializes in education companies. Mitchell sits on the board of Parchment, an academic transcript start-up that is among Salmon River Capital’s portfolio. Salmon River Capital helped create one of the biggest names in for-profit secondary education, Capella University.

~~~~~~~

Italics mine.

That, my friends, should read as a rap sheet.

~~~~~~~~~

In other Education News, School Matters has this blog on the lack of transparency for the State of Indiana….so what else is new?

I agree that individuals should probably not be named, but there absolutely needs to be an accounting of how many students went to school B, and how much money was diverted from School A.

~~~~~~~

School Finance 101 has a good report on the lies and statistics of mis-edumucation.  One can make statistics say anything you want, if you know how to skew the data…or leave out the data that doesn’t agree with your goals.

Boiling the frog…

by

Idle No More has a virtual “teach-in” up on the web (scroll down) by Sharon Venne.   It’s a really interesting piece on the historical treatment of the indigenous and how s-l-o-w-l-y their culture and their land has been “disappeared”.

As she says in her talk, it goes on over such a slow period of time, that one doesn’t realize what is happening until it’s almost too late….like the frog put in a pan of water that the heat is turned up so slowly that the frog doesn’t realize it’s being boiled to death.

It’s really worth watching it all the way through–she has such a good story to tell of her own struggle to get an education.  She tells the story of not being able to read until going to university.  (By the way, Literacy Volunteers are out there to help folks learn to read–check with your local library). She was continually kept in stress mode by them not sending her monthly stipends on time so she could pay her rent.  God Bless the administrator who helped her.

She makes an important point at about 29:00 minutes in– of what sounds like the precursor to “corporations are people, too”.  If anything, we need to pay better attention to what is going on in other countries…especially to the poor and minorities…because it seems to be a worldwide power grab–given that there have been austerity measures all over the globe and attacks on teacher’s unions and such.  More here.

And here.

The feminine of culture

by

I found this piece so interesting.  It perfectly illustrates how much the so-called feminine crafts impacted...created.…cultures.  Would we not all look alike but for our unique sense of style, color, texture in our cultures?  Sooooo boring…

Without the warmth of blankets and solid clothing, wouldn’t we have perished long ago?

…and the creativity of the feminine…is awesome….

And yet, the feminine is still treated–historically as well as today–as if it was not that important for survival…even by women who claim to be pro-woman.

If women had not had the ingenuity to gather nuts, berries, and seeds to eat, would humanity survived? (likely not–men weren’t that good at hunting before tools came along).  How about their intuition in cooking…?

What about their intuition for using plants for medicine?  And yet we have been dumbed down to not trust our instincts that were once keen….

Medical professionals will intimidate a women into dismissing what she knows to be true…because….well, because he’s the doctor and he’s had all these years of schooling and he has that certificate on the wall saying that he is smarter than she…

Allen Dulles and his brother

by

Elliott at firedoglake has this preview of a book salon today at 5:00 p.m. EST.  Wow.  Just listening to the short video just sends the mind reeling….if there were any reason for limiting the power of the defense dept, and especially defense contractors, this is IT.  Dulles had entirely too much power to manipulate situations towards his own personal goals instead of what was best.  And his warped view of what freedom means is just stunning….it’s all about the money.

A wiki entry on JFK and Allen Dulles here.

I’ve read a couple of blogs on JFK and the CIA theories, and Huffpost mentions Senator Hart, who was on the Church Committee to investigate. He put it on the press’ failure to follow up on the witnesses being shot and other leads.  He also states that nobody wants to put this out there because whomever did it is still “out there”.  Well, I don’t know about that particular person or persons, since it was 50 years ago….but yeah, there are still mercenaries born every minute who would just as soon shoot you as look at you.  It’s called courage, Gary, when you speak out even though you’re scared.

Another Presbyterian, Maggie Kuhn, spoke the phrase:  “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”

Funny that she and Allen Dulles could be of the same faith with such opposing views…

Teen drunk driver gets probation…

by

…because his family is….wait for it….the wealthy one percent.

He sounds like a holy terror.  I feel sorry for anyone who gets in his way, because obviously no one is going to hold him accountable for his actions.

I disagree with the “if this kid were black” theme….if this kid were poor, yes, you would have me in complete agreement.  But I’m not certain that if this were a black kid from a wealthy family, he would be put in jail.  The wealthy have connections that poor folks don’t.

But this isn’t the only thing rich kids get away with–they also abuse drugs and are not sent to prison (there I would agree that black folk are unfairly sent to prison when white kids are doing the same thing).  And, as this story also illustrates, they can get away with sexual misconduct.

Like the blogger says–there’s a different set of rules for some Americans.  And Lady Justice is no longer blind in the eyes of justice….but serving the highest bidder.