the Observer has this up on new fashion.
What’s wrong with this picture?
You got your edgy purple hair, shaved sides of the head, afros….and yet something is missing…
…body fat.
…because you can look edgy all you want…just as long as you don’t eat like a normal person.
Now that, my friend, would truly be edgy in the fashion world.
President Obama was featured on MSNBC talking about the sexual assaults on college campuses.
One thing that bothers me is the focus on one area of a woman’s life….
But the thing that bothered me the most was when the President said that nations that treat women unequally…do poorly.
I beg to differ.
Our nation being one that has thrived because of women being treated as second class.
When you’re second class, it is easier for employers to justify paying you less…because you’re a woman and your work is inferior, or simplistic (anybody could do *that*), or seen as demeaning (cleaning houses).
The wealthiest of corporations have been built by paying low wages, mostly to women workers…Walmart being the best example of that.
President Obama should understand that, more than most, because of his African American ancestry. Corporations also were built by paying blacks much less than whites. Plantations are the best example of that.
Related to this is the Columbia University student who has been carrying her mattress around the school in protest of the schools’ handling of her rape by a fellow student…who still attends the university.
And the NFL spouse speaking out on the code of silence.
Maria Fernandes died while sleeping in her car between work shifts. She is the face of the minimum wage worker trying to make ends meet and have a little extra afterward.
(I’ve had a stupid migraine the past few days. I thought I was going to go migraine-free this month. I started to get one last week, my usual time, but I stopped it with ibuprofen. I was hoping that I had healed to the point that I could stop them with ibuprofen, which used to work for me. But, alas…)
Wow. what a great piece.
When I first saw the title, I thought it was going to be a piece on the unsung workforce of women who take care of the home and children…with nary an acknowledgement by law or wages…but I was pleasantly surprised that even though it was about a mother who works outside the home, it held such a great depth and context.
I disagree with the author’s assertion, however, that the education “reformers” don’t seem to grasp the hard-won battles women have had to fight for the same rights that men enjoyed without resistance….
…the “reformers” know EXACTLY what they are doing. They know that the teacher’s unions have protected working women with equal pay for the same work performed as men teachers, with protection of being dismissed for asserting the same equal rights enjoyed by men such as being able to be married, have children, have reasonable work hours and good pay. You have to remember who the “reformers” are and their indifference towards women, or worse, loathing of women.
(By a weird circumstance, I belonged briefly to the American Federation of Teachers and was amazed at their strength, unity, and benefits. It was like nothing I had seen before. )
What are your first thoughts after reading this? “What a terrible mother” “She should lose those kids”
Clearly, they can’t continue living in those conditions….but instead of taking her kids away, how about helping her clean out the place and getting her some help? Clearly she is overwhelmed with five kids and too many dogs—
…and as usual, the story fails to ask….”where is the father?” Why is he not helping out–financially, physically, emotionally? Where were her family members before it got to this point? Is she making a living wage to be able to support herself and her family?
I’m not saying she doesn’t bear responsibility for what happened…but where is the support system?
Gene Logsdon has put up a post on his thoughts on population growth and food availability.
It’s a touchy and uncomfortable subject….to say the least.
It brings up eugenics–there are stories out there of people like Bill Gates and the Rockefellers advocating for population control via eugenics and even through genetically modified food. There is a video out there of Bill Gates advocating vaccines for this purpose. I don’t know what to make of the video, so I’m not posting it– you’ll have to go find it yourself.
I think advocating de-population is morally and ethically wrong. We get into the self-righteous, superiority of those who think they are *more special* than the rest, therefore, they should live while others die.
The comments are as interesting as the blog–with one suggesting that the population growth perhaps was a spiritual one of bringing more light into the world….
…with that, I would disagree. There is so much negative energy on Earth that I would happily volunteer to go right now if God would take me. Just give me enough morphine to stop my heart, and I’m good to go…
Speaking of negative energy, I was just thinking last night how much I missed teaching. I enjoyed it and the kids’ earnest quest for knowledge. I also liked that I didn’t have to put up with office politics nor office gossip. When I was teaching, I would stay in the room and eat my lunch so I didn’t have to hear the teachers gossip (yes, they gossiped…mostly about stupid substitutes…). I went in, did my job, and went home while avoiding all of that negative energy. I didn’t have to put up with the tired questioning of my single status–there is definitely a prejudice against single people in this country. The downside, of course, is the pay and the work-on-demand instead of a steady schedule.
And if you try to avoid the gossip and cut people off…as some suggest you do…you’re still screwed because the gossips then turn on you as a target. I’ve actually had that happen to me. I ended up leaving a good job because of it.
I suppose the questioning of population growth is related to our bad economy…not enough jobs that pay living wages….while jobs are shipped to other countries for even lower wages…and Burger King and their ilk go to other countries so they don’t have to pay their fair share of taxes….while war hawks push us towards another war again…while not taxing the rich….
Yeah, I’m in a negative mood…how could you tell? 😦
DN! has a good report up this morning on *why* Hamas is not backing down. Palestinians don’t necessarily support Hamas, but they are left without any other means to break the blockade of Israel the bully. It impacts their ability to get supplies, water, wages, etc. It affects every single thing in their lives.
As President Kennedy said–when you make peaceful protest impossible, then violent protest is inevitable….
Diane Ravitch has a blog up on one of the teachers involved in the Vergara case. Ms. McLaughlin had replied to the “witch hunt” charges that she was a bad teacher…made by a student who also said there were five bad teachers and only one during her education–the one that wanted revenge apparently for being let go.
As I read the comments, the one by Chi-Town Res made me cry:
Yeah, and just wait until he hits retirement age and realizes that teachers with no union protections like me are exploited terribly. We are very low paid (and often hourly workers), don’t make enough money to get by on, let alone to save, have no pensions and are expected to live on about $900 per month from Social Security when we retire.
I could go live in a ghetto, since I will officially retire next month, because I can’t afford to continue living where I’ve been (renting) for the past 15 years, but I have no money to move. (Yes, homeownership was never an option for me.) Anyway, that’s the kind of income that even poor people in the ghettos can’t survive on in my area.
The reality is that I’m in arrears on my rent due to a further decline in my already low income and a high increase in my rent. I have applied to many places but I’ve been unable to find additional work. SS won’t actually start paying me until mid-September, my job put limits on our income and wouldn’t give me work for July, and I don’t qualify for unemployment compensation. I won’t get paid my measly wage again until the end of August. My landlord will not wait to be paid, and anyway I won’t get paid enough money then to cover back rent. I’ve been fighting becoming homeless for about three years now but, at this point, I have no more resources or anyone to turn to for help, and absolutely no one cares. So I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will lose everything I own and be put out on the street and homeless before the fall. The only thing that could save my life now would be winning the lottery, but that is an intolerable hope.
The truth is that I could never afford to really stop working either, but SS has a limit on the amount of income I can earn. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. No one fully appreciates the “I’m living on a fixed income” cries, because the elderly are not revered in our society. No wonder the suicide rate for seniors is high.
As problematic as unions can be, not valuing the protections that unions provide workers is extremely short sighted.
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Also noted in the comments was that one of the plaintiff’s lawyers was Ted Olson, who ended the vote recount and handed George W. Bush the presidency, against the American public’s wishes. Blood is on his hands, as well, for the wars and the economic mess Bush left us in.
Be sure to click on the link for Diane’s original post on Ms. McLaughlin. Really stunning to see how she is “witch-hunted” by those with their own agendas. She seems to be an outstanding person with true caring about her students, as a good teacher needs to be.
From the link:
“Indeed, this whole Vergara trial was like something out of Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” in China during the 1960′s. For those not acquainted with this, here’s primer: zealous students, under party leaders’ directions, would persecute their teachers. Kids would get their jollies as they put their teachers on a stage, put dunce caps on them, then screamed at them while forcing their teachers to bow their heads, kneel down, and confess their “crimes” and on and on…
These kids—appointed and empowered as “Red Guards” by Mao’s henchmen— would parade their former teachers through the streets…
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Diane has also put up a link to a short film clip on the red army of children that illustrates the terrible time.
(A side note~I got this weird message that Diane Ravitch’s site was “untrusted”. Say what?? It’s on a wordpress platform…why would I get that message? Is someone trying to interfere with the traffic to her site??)
Abby Zimet has a post up on the vulgarity of the 9/11 museum commercialization. It’s more like an enterprise than a solemn memorial to those who experience the horror of that day.
And, as is brought up–the end of our civil rights, specifically, the First Amendment and Fourth Amendment is hardly reason to “celibrate”…or perhaps one should say, bank upon…
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
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Violation of our right to peacefully assemble:
And, of course, the violation of our right to privacy against government intrusion unless there is a court warrant with justifiable cause.
Perhaps it should be called the Museum of Lost Civil Rights…
And like a couple of commenters, I take exception to the dismissive tone of Abby on the Architects and Engineers –who are not claiming to know if 9/11 was an inside job, but rather, they are stating that Building 7 was not hit, but nevertheless collapse as one does in a controlled demolition. THAT is what they’re saying.
The comments:
(A side note~ Hello! to my Russian reader. Glad you’re back and apparently able to access the ‘net again.)
…well, here we go again with the “plan” that won’t die. Pun intended.
You might recall this is an old scenario bordering on ridiculous. I can’t believe the money spent.
The report is short on details–who were the sponsors that paid for this? If the attendees only paid $1,000 to go, who paid for their hotel rooms? Meals? Flight tickets? Rental cars? Lots of questions here, not a lot of answers.
Nor can I believe the concept that one can kill the undead…how does one do that, anyway?
What they really need are un – brain -dead Dept. of Defense employees who quit looking at life as one big disaster waiting to happen. And that the American public is the enemy–guilty until proven innocent.
Eagle 
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