Only a heartless person would want to ruin this by fracking….
Category Archives: mothers
Anti-fracking activists struck by vehicle
(I really wanted to take some time off, but there is just too much stuff going on…)
Natives protesting fracking on their land have been run over. I’m unclear about the first paragraph and whether the persons were run over by SWN vehicles. In the posted tweets, note the upside down Canadian flag (on the mylar balloon)–I have to wonder if that were purposeful, as they have flown the U.S. flag upside down as a signal of distress. And support is growing around the world, with Ireland expressing their solidarity with the Elsipogtog. Bless the Irish 🙂
In this link, the journalists have rallied around Miles Howe, the journalist arrested three times so far:
The Canadian Association of Journalists issued a press release Monday calling on “the RCMP to either lay charges or stop harassing a journalist working in New Brunswick arrested for the third time on Nov. 28,” referring to Media Co-op’s Miles Howe.
“RCMP behaviour suggests they are unfamiliar with the charter rights of a free press and the allowances those rights permit journalists while covering controversial and volatile situations,” CAJ president Hugo Rodrigues said.
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More here.
This just in: RCMP arrests Santa. For shame.
Caption: “Well, that about sums it up.” Yep….except the politician needs to be wearing a blazer with all the corporate logos that sponsor him/her on it…..and their pockets full of cash they bribe with…
On a hot summer day, nothing sounds better than a cool drink of water….
(sorry for the visual, but you get the point…contaminated water is unappealing to look at as harmful to the body.)
Ways to help the Elsipogtog. You can click on the picture to enlarge. More here.
The Warriors send their greetings and Thanks.
Blessings to the defenders of the water and land…
Suzuki showing support for First Nations
David Suzuki is supporting the Elsipogtog protests. Thank you, David!
Meanwhile, the trucks arrive in convoy. Another pic here.
Harper spies on the peaceful group. Note that their own intelligence says they do not see them as a violent threat….yet, they show up in riot gear and tear gas the peaceful protestors. I’m glad to read that they are also protesting Enbridge, which is in my own backyard. “We want to keep the people and environment safe…” bwahaha, that’s rich. If you really cared about the environment, you wouldn’t be building a pipeline to begin with.
(DN also covered this happening in the U.S. towards nonprofit groups that big business perceives as threats. Big Brother has arrived.)
Lastly, this pic of a smiling female Warrior.
My other blogs on energy and fracking here, here, and here, and here.
The Good Enough Student
Assailed Teacher has a great blog up on a student “Tammy” who does okay in school….but is struggling to pass a global test. She must pass this one test in order to graduate. Again, the “good enough” mothers analogy of Phyllis Chesler passed into my head…and I thought that “Tammy” is a “good enough” student. Not perfect, but okay. What really bothers me about all of this is that they are labeling kids as stupid who are quite all right. They’re fine. They understand concepts appropriate for their ages. And yet, they are being put in categories that are not a true definition of their abilities.
Also, beneath this piece is an “interview” with Arne Duncan that’s pretty funny. Too bad that it gets a little too close to the truth.
The witch hunts of teachers
The latest from Teacher’s Letters to Bill Gates. Queen Melinda seeks to rule education high atop her perch in her gated castle.
I’m glad that someone else has noticed the disturbing similarities between the Puritan witch hunts of Salem and what is happening to teachers.
Again, I say that it has been happening in the private sector for awhile now, but unrecognized by others. As I read this disturbing piece, from the above link, the “good enough” mother espoused by Phyllis Chesler** popped into my head. Teachers will never be perfect. None of us will ever be perfect, even though some of us might try to reach for it. Again, there are disturbing similarities between the demands for teacher perfection and motherhood perfection. The demands against mothers has largely gone unreported and unnoticed by the mainstream media…except to pile on the negative. Mothers and teachers both have been pilloried by the media.
**A side note~ Wilson mentions in her article that uppity women and lesbian/bisexuals are likely to lose custody. One doesn’t even have to be a lesbian in order to lose custody–all the ex has to do is allege she is lesbian in order to lose custody. A woman who does not have a gentleman friend can be alleged to be a lesbian….and on the flip side, if she is a party girl and has dated frequently, she will also lose custody. In other words, if she isn’t screwing around, there’s something wrong with her. If she is screwing around, there’s something wrong with her. She can’t win.
Also mentioned in the Teacher’s Letters articles are the tent cities. They’ve been on my mind, lately, especially with all the happy, happy news that the economy has turned a corner and the jobs are flowing again….yeah, I’m not seeing it, either…
Here’s a list of Bush/Clinton cities.
A good article here.
Another here:
They fail to go into more depth about all the factors leading to the economic collapse, which is so important because those factors–deregulation of the banking/insurance industry, NAFTA, ignoring antitrust laws, not taxing corporations nor the rich, 40% of the budget going towards the defense department, and stagnant wages–have not been dealt with and the economy will not become robust again without correcting them.
Education News
Here’s a great post on what is happening to the kids. You know….those kids that the reformers say they are concerned about??
G2 put a comment linking to this post. I found this passage especially poignant:
It is imperative, therefore, that we make school a supportive environment free of the extreme stress that can harm healthy development. Some stress is productive and promotes growth. However, especially for children living in poverty, creating an unnecessarily stressful environment has long-term damaging effects.
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To label schools as “just” a place to get an education is a short-sighted, narrow view. Children in poverty are already stressed out by worrying that they won’t have enough to eat that day…that Mom will be crying again because she doesn’t know how she’s going to pay the bills…
…and the one thing that can make that child feel worth something? Knowing the answer to a question the teacher asks. Getting an “A” or even a “B” on a test. Having a teacher provide a treat on his/her birthday….which he/she might not get at home because there just isn’t any extra.
School can be the difference between a poor kid seeing beyond their environment and reaching beyond their little world.
More here:
Child-development experts have decried the age-inappropriateness of the Common Core. In 2010, more than 500 people signed a statement stating that the “standards conflict with compelling new research in cognitive science, neuroscience, child development, and early childhood education about how young children learn, what they need to learn, and how best to teach them in kindergarten and the early grades.”
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A reminder of the nonsensical approach of Common Core.
This just says it all:
The U.S. Department of Education hyped the Common Core as creating a “national market” for “educational entrepreneurs.”
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Makes you sick, doesn’t it??
One of the commenters said that homeschooling is the next step. Yes and No. If you’re wealthy enough that one parent can stay home, you can do that. And we would lose so much of the connectedness that school encourages. We would be further isolated from each other. I just can’t wrap my brain around that–our children and grandchildren will be living in the same neighborhood, but regarding the others as strangers. I see kids out playing in the neighborhood and it makes my heart sing. If this continues, there won’t be the shared experience of discovering new things together, of sharing their personal stories in class discussions (finding common ground or discovering other cultures), of class plays, of singing together, of inspiration…
Bring it on, Arne. She’s referring to this by Duncan. Oh.My.God. Did he really say that?? Did he really just insult a group of women who know their children and know their schools and know their teachers? Is he really that condescending and arrogant? And racist? I mean, really, if it was stated that a group of “angry, black women” were not accepting their failing schools, it would be seen as the racist statement that it is.
There’s another link here, to a report on Common Core playbook, from the Perdido site.
There’s more but this is making me so depressed I need to step away for the moment.
Education News **edited
Think the NSA is bad? How about the Gates Foundation?? Sends chills down your spine how this non-government corporation has so much free access to personal data. The next question is: for what purpose? Sheila Resseger posted this letter to Secretary Duncan. Thank YOU, Senator Markey, for asking these important questions. Tim Furman posted this link for a gathering in Chicago on student privacy.
Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal, along with other *cough* news rags, allegedly stole private information via cell phones to use against the owner. Keep in mind that Coulson was directly linked to the British Prime Minister. And the Gates Foundation is sponsoring “news” stories running in The Guardian.
Diane has a link up to this excellent post that just hits the nail on the head—how does one stack the deck so there is as little opposition as possible….? One holds meetings at times that almost guarantee low attendance by those involved–teachers, parents who work and parents with little ones ( they won’t bring little ones to the meetings and single parents will have difficulty getting sitters,too.)
The post features this video (under immature link):
Really eye-opening, eh? Is it fair to characterize Deasy as a bully and an idiot? From this episode, he seems to be a control freak running amok whom is more interested in feeding his ego than actual concern for the children. He claims she is being disrespectful to the kids, while he is showing disrespect for their teacher. Blessings to you, Patrena Shankling. Nobody should have to be treated in such an abusive manner—and what you experienced was classic verbal abuse where it doesn’t matter what you say, the abuser will escalate his tirade.
More on Deasy here.
Speaking of abuse, Diane posted this on a child psychotherapist’s assessment of the testing, testing, testing of our children and how demoralizing it is to them. Six years old!
And JCGrim posts a comment on how the abuse gets worse—Good God:
School leaders say La Vergne High has a split lunch period, half academic intervention to help students who may be struggling in a subject and half lunch.
“They are not segregating them in the traditional sense. If the kids’ scores are low in certain areas, they are getting help in that area. If you want to label that segregation, then that’s not the correct way to label it,” said Rutherford County Schools spokesman James Evans.
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Well, you know, they say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Whether the segregation is intentional or not, it is still segregation. And what is wrong with you that you can’t even give the kids a break from learning for a half-hour? The brain needs a break, for crying out loud! Let the kids be kids and socialize without being overshadowed!
Diane posts here on Mark Naison. He describes how and why he became an activist. **edited to add link. Oops.
From his post:
Teachers everywhere were being driven out of their jobs and stripped of their autonomy and creativity. Children everywhere were being deluged with tests, and subjected to a one size fits all curriculum that, in all too many instances, smothered their unique talents and aptitudes.
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(sorry for the large text) — as I’m reading this, I’m reminded of something a nun said at a parents’ meeting once: we all have gifts to bring to the world–we have the jocks and beauty queens, but we need the nerds, the clowns, the creative, the stoic, etc. — those that are not necessarily celebrated in popular media, but whose gifts would surely be missed had they not graced the world. Even those who are mentally challenged bring something to the world.
Naison is understandably upset with the Administration for the education policies. However, I have seen a change in President Obama in the past, oh, year or year-and-a-half, in that he seems to be breaking away from the Clinton -thinking. My hope is that the more President Obama sees the damage that is happening to the children and public education as a whole, he will rethink the policies and replace Arne Duncan. We can hope….
Diane also posts the links to the Daily Show appearance. When she stated that Jon was upset about Common Core and how his staff was personally experiencing what we’ve been blasting about, I was upset that he doesn’t talk about it on air! Arrrgh! A missed opportunity to help the public understand why we are so upset and how our children are being psychologically abused!
(A side note~ I admire Jon for adopting the pit bull, but still would not recommend them. They have been bred to be fighters, and as such, their powerful jaws make it impossible to separate them from anything they’ve sunk their teeth into—there are stories of pit bulls who would not release even when someone was beating on them to get them off of another dog/human being. )
Diane has a link to Mercedes Schneider’s debunking the Louisiana “miracle”. This is why one needs to ask how statistics were compiled and what methodology they used. The lies will be exposed when these questions are answered.
Diane and Michelle Rhee will debate Feb. 6. Rhee made increasing demands which seem to speak of the lack of substance to her arguments.
Finally, in my own little corner of the world– a quiz on Indiana politics and ruining public education by devious means.
Note in the comments that charter school proponents are now trying to market charter schools as “community schools” to make destroying public schools more palatable.
This comment just makes me want to cry because it’s so true:
Carol Ring
Indiana gets national recognition once again!
We are ‘leaders’ in many areas…eighth most polluted air in the nation, broken infrastructure, roads with cracks and potholes, 47th in the nation for adults with college degrees, most polluted rivers in the U.S., underfunding of public schools [so more money can go to charter schools], eighth most overweight population in the nation and our recent achievement in outstanding ‘education reform’ is an increased number of vouchers and charter school expansion!
Add to this list of achievements the desire of our GOP controlled Congress and Tea Partier Governor Pence to dilute Superintendent Glitz’s responsibilities simply because she understands the needs of children and teachers.
It sometimes feels overwhelming.
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God help Indiana.
….and a rainbow appears…
Singing praise for judge’s ruling. SWN loses bid to continue injunction.
Drums are not weapons
Songs 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.
First Nations Protests in Canada
The picture here of the First Nations female Warrior is quite stirring….
The eagle feather she is holding is a sacred symbol of the indigenous. It is a powerful symbol of the connection between God and Earth.
Crooks and Liars has this up on the protest. It appears that it didn’t turn violent until the police began assaulting the protestors. They claim there was a shot fired from the protestors….um hmmm….they all claim it was a peaceful protest.
More here.
While I’m looking at this, I’m thinking–these folks’ salaries are paid by taxes….and the taxpayers do not want fracking, for the most part….why are they going against what the taxpayers want?
More here.
Peacefully protesting:
The scene of confrontation:
They weren’t doing anything. As the woman said, the female Warrior was praying–not bothering them at all.
Why they’re there:
Act of Sovereignty:
This is like Church to them– a gathering where they sing songs to God. They see the fight for the environment as a spiritual thing–the Earth is seen as a part of God and their “Mother”—so to pollute the Earth is seen as disrespectful towards God. Also –they see everything on Earth as connected, so one has to consider every action in how it will impact another.
Balance is always sought…if you take something, you must also give something in return.
Rape victim’s house burned to the ground
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.
Eagle 