Category Archives: mothers

The Onion: Charter Schools Lottery

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(hat tip Diane Ravitch)

The Onion has their usual satirical take on the Charter Schools lottery “system”.

“Between small class sizes, longer school days, individualized instruction, and superior college admission rates, charters provide amazing opportunities for students who don’t enter a convulsive state, fall into a coma, stop breathing, and cease all bodily functions during the admissions process.”

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bwahahahahahahaha.

Spot on.

It’s really sad that the article hits Charter snobbery at its heart….and the kids suffer most of all.

Alert

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Just wanted to give you a head’s up on something the mercury group has posted~

Vitamin Research Products (vrp.com) is no longer stocking DMSA, one of the chelators of mercury and lead.  They just suddenly stopped stocking it and have even removed the page from their website.

This is not good news.  They were the main supplier of DMSA.  Theories are abound that Big Pharma is behind this–buying out the competition.  And if they can buy out natural cures, they can force sick people to buy their side-effect-laden crap.

There are also allegations that Obamacare is limiting natural methods of healing, such as chelation supplements, making it harder for folks to get well. I don’t know this for fact, but it is one of the reasons I have not signed up for the health care.  Another reason is the link to the insurance industry instead of single-payer, which would have been more palatable, being like Medicare for All.

I can tell you that many of us on the group lost jobs as a result of mercury–therefore, we had lost the ability to pay for medical insurance and the ability to pay for supplements that insurance didn’t cover.   But at least the supplements were available…and cheap.  I would have not gotten well without that.  So once again, the poor take a hit for the uber wealthy to make even more profits….

I suspected that Big Pharma would try to grab this part of the market again, because they had in the past and continually try to get some twerp in Congress to do their bidding with making supplements illegal.

With billions of dollars and high-priced lawyers, they have gotten away with trying to take credit for natural healing herbs and methods, such as those used in India.  These were used for thousands of years…and Big Pharma comes along and tries to claim a patent.  Utterly mindboggling.  More here on Big Pharma’s battle to get a share of the market in India. An even better explanation of it here.

Big Pharma tries to claim that compulsory licenses aren’t available for cancer drugs – a lie; or that they are only available for national emergencies – another lie; or that India is establishing a general exception to patents for pharmaceuticals – an even bigger lie.  Sovereigns retain the right under TRIPS to issue compulsory licenses or to allow public, non-commercial use of patented products or processes.  As long as the correct procedures are followed and adequate remuneration is paid, the patent holder has nothing legitimate to complain about – unless, of course, it is a U.S. multinational who doesn’t want an emerging country like India to get in its way.

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…or for a group of U.S. citizens who want natural methods to heal their bodies to get their way….

And unfortunately, that’s not all that the greedy are trying to patent.

Lastly, here is a good segment on DN! with Vandana and Mira Shiva–two “uppity” women I admire for fighting the good fight~~

Vandana brings up the point of liability.  It would seem that none of the chemical companies — be it Dow/Union Carbide or any Big Pharma — want to take responsibility for the harm that they cause.  All the profits. None of the guilt.

She also highlights the attitudes towards the poor–they don’t matter so let’s poison them or use them as guinea pigs.

It was great to hear of them speak of their strong mother in the end~~no junk food in the house.  My father, too, did not allow junk food in the house when I was growing up–a parent who cares is not going to feed their child junk.  I heard the other day of parents of my children’s generation feeding their kids nothing but junk…and they don’t see anything wrong with that.  Very unsettling.  Regretfully, I didn’t appreciate my Dad’s wisdom until recently.  I always felt deprived because other kids got to have a “treat” of junk food on Friday night.  Just before the divorce, my sister would make Chef Boy-ar-dee pizzas on Friday night.  I felt happy at getting that “treat”.  Pfft.  The “treat” that kills.

Food is medicine.  Weeds are medicine.  When will we learn to value that which is not valuable by profit-making and make that available to all, not just those with cash in hand??

 

 

CNN explores the backlash of Elliot Rodger’s misogyny

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Well, now…CNN still has some chops:

The former video of Elliot Rodger has been made “private” now, so one cannot view his rant on how deserving he is of women’s attention and sex.  One cannot see the blatant sense of entitlement. Nor his viewing women as objects for his personal pleasure.

I love that CNN explored this topic–one that women deal with on a daily basis, but has been ignored by mainstream media…well, ANY media, be it liberal or conservative.  Women’s concerns, up to now, have been ignored or if any attention is given to it, their concerns are belittled to be insignificant.  Elliot Rodger is a product of the rape culture–I’ll take what I want if she won’t give it to me willingly.

My other posts on rape culture:

Pamela Anderson

A father is harassed after his daughter is not only raped, but bullied afterwards.

Promoting rape culture in popular media.   And...joking about raping others….

The police ask “why didn’t you try to get away?” when she is beaten within an inch of her life.

In Steubenville.

In India.

In France.

In Australia.

Native American women, who, until very recently, could be raped without retribution.

Boasting about rape on social media.

They’re only raping prostitutes…

The alleged abuse of Terry Richardson….and how he’s allowed to get away with his predatory behavior by those that employ him and even praise him.

Lastly, the alleged abuse of Dylan Farrow by Woody Allen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 60s Scoop in Canada

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What is amazing about this is that this stuff was happening up to the 80s (and up to the 70s in the States)…and had pretty much been happening since the European invasion.  Terrible, terrible thing to do to these families.  We now know that this wasn’t about the child’s welfare as much as it was about a self-righteous idea of imposing one’s religion upon others–about forcing others to conform to what your narrow view of how a society should operate.

P.S.

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More thoughts on the prior post and feminism in general.

Because the thing that continues to upset me is that there isn’t much mention of women who stay at home.  The emphasis is on women and careers…but not embracing the women and particularly children.  Women at home are particularly vulnerable…and in need of support.  Note that I don’t say they need protection, as in overbearing control–but rather, support for whatever decision they make.

As I get older, I realize more than ever how much it meant to stay at home…even though at times it nearly drove me crazy…because it was so isolating.  Women who stay at home need to be connected without being smothered…is that a possibility?   They also need financial support in the way of Social Security in their own names and accounts.  This would ensure her being taken care of in old age and a small price to pay for giving kids the best start in life.

I mean, if this country values kids, giving them that special time to grow up in a place where they’re not treated like a number, not held to a rigid schedule (yes, I know some households are kept on a schedule–mine wasn’t– other than mealtimes, bedtimes, that sort of thing.).  Being un-scheduled allows one to just let the mind run free–openly explore, and clear the mind for new ideas.  I look at daycare centers as making kids feel like a number.  And feeling rushed in life.  I can’t see a kid being able to ride a bike down the lane when at daycare five days a week.  They get little time after they get home on weeknights (none in the winter for any outside activity).  And by that time, the creativity and spontaneity is dulled…if not completely gone.

I’ve just seen such a dramatic change with my generation’s working mothers that it can’t be denied how important it is for someone–be it mother or father–to stay home and allow kids their childhoods.  I know that is difficult with the stagnant wages and for single Moms…but there again, we should be supporting them with livable wages and a support system so that the kids could be at home.

Just airing my thoughts…

 

Mom pays off Every student’s lunch bill after son denied lunch

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What kind of cruel person would throw a student’s lunch in the trash because they didn’t have the money to pay?

Does anyone believe Mark Daniel, the superintendent, that there are “policies in place to avoid instances such as these…”?  Me, neither.  Somebody has given permission to that minimum wage cafeteria worker that it is perfectly okay to waste good food to punish a child for the parents’ mistakes.  I don’t know if you can even call it a mistake when this parent is a single Mom working two jobs to take care of her family.  What is missing from this picture, besides compassion…?  The father, who is probably paying very little in support or nothing at all.  My ex only paid one-fifth of his $100k income to support three children.  And he begrudged even that little amount…

There is more to this story, folks, than is being written about here.

And God Bless the mother for her compassion and generosity.  God Bless the son for he learned something through his pain of humiliation.

The story behind the story…

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…of the 15 year old boy stowaway who traveled to Hawaii in the wheel well of a plane.  His story is yet another tragedy in angry divorced fathers who take children away from their mother, who is living in poverty.  He was told his mother was dead–how horribly selfish and psychologically traumatizing to a child.

I hope that Hawaiian authorities will not release the boy to his father, who obviously cares more about revenge than his child’s emotional health.  Rather, it would be refreshing to see someone stand up for the mother, and help her reunite with her child.

 

Stranger hacks baby monitor, screams at baby

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Surreal. 

I don’t even know where to begin with this…

It’s disturbing that a complete stranger had access to the private home of these folks, and could see their child, see into their house, and do something so troubling.

Then there’s the mother, grabbing her phone to see the baby.  Good Grief, I would have been running for the baby’s room, not grabbing the stupid phone to look to see if the baby was okay.

Not to mention exposing the child (and parents) to EMF’s which can cause damage that we are not even aware about yet.

The whole story is just unsettling.

 

Arne Duncan is not only racist, but sexist, too

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Carol Burris, a highly regarded public school principal, has a piece up exploring the degrading comments directed at opponents to Arne Duncan’s brainless education policies.

He actually states that the Governor of NY, Cuomo, is a “profile in courage”.  Bwahahahaha *snort*  Yeah, because it takes courage to make children cry from tests that are above their intellectual development level….

He dismissed parents who criticized his policies as “white suburban moms” who thought their little darlings were much smarter than they actually were….because education guru Arne said they were. Someone whom has never taught in school…methinks Arne thinks he’s smarter than he is.  Ahem.

Burris also notes the misogyny in Duncan’s comments…labeling women opponents as “hysterical” and “dramatic”.  Oh, and “noisy”, to me, equals “uppity” women.   Yep.  He must be taking his cues from Freud’s playbook, the Diagnostic Manual.

As a side note~~I found a blog on misogyny here.

And on the link for reddit creep shot, this disturbing info on the rape/violence against women culture:

The fiasco comes on the heels of a highly-publicized flap between reddit and Gawker, after Gawker journalist Adrian Chen’s investigation of an infamous user of the subreddit who went by the handle, Violentacrez. According to the The Guardian, that user “set up hundreds of sub-forums where users post links and images including bestiality, rape fantasy, under-age porn and upskirt photos.” 

Among the sections that Violentacrez created or moderated were: Chokeabitch, Niggerjailbait, Rapebait, Hitler, Jewmerica, Misogyny, and Incest

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…created by 49-year-old computer programmer and misogynist, Michael Brutsch.

But back to Arne Duncan…what do his comments signify?  That perhaps his hatred of public education proponents, mostly women, is part of a hatred of women in general?

And “stay the course”….really?  You couldn’t think of something original besides Bushisms? Yeah, because the Bushes have done *so much* for this country and public education with No Child Left a Mind…/snarky to the extreme

Duncan keeps knocking our public school system, especially the individualistic nature of public school before NCLB or Race to the Bottom…while ignoring those folks who made phenomenal contributions to society, from those same individualistic school systems, such as Neil Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Frank Church, Paul Wellstone, Birch Bayh, Dwight Eisenhower, a great grandson of immigrants, who loved art, math, spelling, and history; Gloria Steinem, and any number of musicians who got their start in music programs that included actual instruments, that went on to get private instruction to become great musicians.  Same with artists.

If you view Duncan’s video, it is stunning that in the first minute, he talks of John being orphaned at a young age…and he had teachers –-public school teachers–who helped him along his path to become productive.  He also was a product of the public education system before NCLB could dull his creative expression, his critical thinking skills, and his own expression of his individuality.

I wonder what his public education teachers think of him trying to destroy those very things in children today with the rigidity of Common Core and Race to the Bottom…?

He mentions that the First Lady had a teacher that told her she shouldn’t aspire to Ivy League schools because it was too good for her.  That makes me sad to hear.  Is that a reason the First Lady is against public education?  I suspect that those who are against public education had bad experiences with teachers…and then project that onto all teachers.

I had some bad teachers, but for the most part, my experience with public education was good.  Yes, those experiences with bad teachers were hurtful but the ones who were encouraging when I was discouraged made up for that.  And it was an intrinsic thing, too, because I loved learning.

I guess that is where you have to be responsible for your own education…to go on even though they tell you that you can’t.  Because, believe it or not, my first class of composition in college, I had a white instructor who, when I asked her about a career as a writer, told me “don’t quit your day job.”  So, there you go…