Category Archives: ethics and morals

Food, Food, Food

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Apparently, there is a square knish shortage due to a factory fire in New York.  I had no idea what a knish was until this piece, so thanks for enlightening this writer.  It sounds yummy.

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In other food blogs is Michael Twitty’s piece on the life of a slave.  A great glimpse into history we don’t usually read about.  It’s well written–puts the reader into the daily struggle for them.  I was thinking when he wrote about catching the fish, that the fish must have tasted so good being caught in non-polluted waters.  And even though the work was hard,  it must have been nice to work outside in the sunshine….don’t misunderstand me–I know it was very hard, but I personally really enjoyed working on a farm.  I even liked it when the rain came down.    I would be weeding the old fashioned way of pulling them, and a grasshopper might leap onto a leaf nearby…..or a butterfly come floating past….birds singing….

 

 

Education News

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Diane Ravitch highlights a blog by David Greene. 

From the post:

When Hinshaw compared the rollout of these school policies with incidences of A.D.H.D., he found that when a state passed laws punishing or rewarding schools for their standardized-test scores, A.D.H.D. diagnoses in that state would increase not long afterward.

Nationwide, the rates of A.D.H.D. diagnosis increased by 22 percent in the first four years after No Child Left Behind was implemented.

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Bingo. Greene says it’s not a causal, but yeah, I disagree.  It’s certainly one of the causes, in addition to toxins in the environment and probably GMO’s.  

And it’s not that the kids are suddenly stricken with this subjective “disease”—rather, they are a) made to feel inferior by testing that isn’t really able to define what their brain cells are capable of (potential); and b) put under pressure by teachers and parents who must teach to the test in order for the school to keep from being downgraded to “failing” in order for them to get the money from the Federal gov’t to keep the school open….and do it all again the next six months….

That is a HUGE burden to put on a kid.  For shame.

He links to A World Without Privacy by Joe Nocera of the NY Times.   He talks of “The Circle” of a hybrid of internet companies like Google, F_cebook, and Twitter and the information they gather.    Even if you don’t subscribe to the last two, your privacy can be taken away from you by family members and friends who do use them.    That is probably how Nocera’s acquaintances/colleagues were connected to him. 

And they say you should not expect privacy in today’s world.  I say, unless you express in writing your willingness for someone else to have private information, then, yes, you have an expectation….and a right to privacy.  And giving up the right to privacy should not be coerced, as in, you have to click on this agreement to use our website.

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.