They plastered the sky yesterday with 26+ chemtrails. I woke up this morning with a pale, swollen face–indications of adrenal distress brought on by toxins. Adrenals take a big hit from heavy metals. Getting a migraine. See you in a few.
Category Archives: public protests
Silkwood
Karen Silkwood died on this day nearly forty years ago. Her death was ruled an accident, but there was controversy surrounding her. I didn’t want to let this day go by without putting her story out there. Her story highlighted another aspect of the nuclear industry–manufacturing. As always, when there is a profit to be made, corners are cut to obtain the biggest profit.
Karen was asking questions and that is never a popular with manufacturers who cut corners on safety.
I hope she is at peace.
Education News
First, the bad news. Blessings to you, Diane, for healing. Take care of yourself–your body is telling you to take it easy. Believe me, I understand better than most. Having said that, your contributions to fighting the good fight are truly inspiring…you are needed as never before….but it can wait until you are rested.
This from Seattle Education. Pretty depressing that Wall $t. has turned its eye$ toward$ the school$….how much can we wring out of them?
The sidebar says it all:
First Nations continue standing up
This is a pretty good report of the events surrounding the recent clash with the armed forces and the First Nations of Canada.
From the post:
It is of particular importance to note that – according to Augustine – the Warrior Society and the RCMP had even negotiated for the possibility that an ISL security guard would want to come and pray at the sacred fire. The guards could come and pray any time they wanted, but neither they, nor anyone else, was permitted to bring weapons of any kind to the sacred fire.
“[ISL] already knew,” says Augustine. “When we negotiated the first time, when an ISL worker comes out to the sacred fire – because they were welcome, anytime they were welcome – as long as they don’t have any weapons. [But] they could come and pray with us anytime they want. And that was part of the negotiations. They could come out at any time and pray with us, or go out the back way and shift change then.”
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I think it’s important, too, to note the First Nations people welcoming the guards into camp–as long as they were not armed. And praying together? What a wonderful way to seek spiritual guidance together—to seek that which feeds the Light. I don’t believe that God would sanction polluting the Earth….and causing all the misery to humans, animals, plants, the soil, and the water that fracking does.
If you recall the previous videos on the confrontation, the female Warrior was clearly upset at them offering tobacco. Now we see the story behind that–they offered tobacco the night before as a symbol of wanting peace for everyone. Then the very next morning,they show up with guns drawn–even when they knew the indigenous were unarmed and seeking a peaceful way to get SWN off their land.
Here is a look at Chief Arren Sock presenting their demands to the public/press:
I think what is hard for white folks to understand is that the indigenous society is not based on hierarchical status. Until recently, I didn’t understand all of what that means, myself, because it’s so ingrained that *somebody* MUST be in charge. The Chief system was something imposed upon the indigenous by the Europeans–they required someone to be spokesperson and to call all the shots. The people were offended by this because their society was not set up that way. As Chief Sock states in this video, he does not speak for the others. He doesn’t tell the other indigenous what to do —they act on their own autonomy. They see this as each person acting according to what the Creator wishes for them to do, as far as my understanding.
A couple of tweets here and here on it. The last pic with the story behind the brave Warrior standing between a pregnant woman and this armed guard…who’s the terrorist, again…?
Another tweet here on once again labeling environmentalists as terrorists. If you recall, when I worked for the state health dept., one of the training sessions I had included Dept. of Hysterical Security. They did an exercise where environmentalists were going to use bio warfare by injecting food borne pathogens into food at a fair booth. The whole scenario was outlandish and reminded me of the story of Chicken Little who ran around crazy exclaiming that the sky was falling because an acorn dropped on his head. It makes a broad sweeping generalization about a group that is generally peaceful with a few idiots who resort to violence as a means to an end. Unfortunately, they not only achieve their goal, but they also persuade others NOT to join the movement because they don’t condone that behavior and because, as said previously, they don’t want to be labeled as troublemakers. **not to mention that some of those causing trouble could be agent provocateurs who are not actually environmentalists, but paid disruptors from the outside posing as environmentalists.
Some good news here. Glad to see someone has some sense and vision to look beyond today and the $$$ short term gain. Just say NO to the money, honey.
The Professional Teacher
Assailed Teacher has this excellent blog on how a professional teacher makes teaching look easy….but wait….not so.
Mi’kmaq not backing down
Checking in with the First Nations protestors in Canada….
SWN refuses to acknowledge they are trespassing on First Nations land and continue to use that land for fracking, despite the protests. My understanding is that they have started a fire blockade today at noon.
Someone posted a link to this video that captures in pictures when words fail…
…at 1:25 and 1:38, look at the concentration of teargas on ONE individual!!
….at 1:56,and the next photo should have the caption underneath with one word: COURAGE
…at 2:12 full disclosure: both sides had dogs. Gotta love their sense of humor.
…at 2:19…<sigh>….really? Is this man armed? He appears to be unarmed and of smaller stature than the SWN security officer.
Another video here on the mistreatment of the protestors taken in:
First, Do No Harm…
…is what doctors affirm when they get their degrees. But the Bush/Cheney Administration demanded physicians and other medical professionals to abandon that rule and devise ways of torturing people. Some of these people were innocents who ended up at Guantanamo because their accuser was paid some cold, hard cash….
My understanding is that if a member of the military is required to do something that is against their ethics, they have the right to respectfully refuse the order.
Just imagine if they had….
Some physicians do care, however, and marched on Washington….
I wonder if they had closed their offices for a day in protest…or God forbid, if they refused to implant a new heart in the Dark One Cheney in protest…
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.
Blackfish
CNN has aired the Orca documentary Blackfish–specifically the captive Tillikum that killed trainer Dawn Brancheau. Not only did he kill her, but another trainer twenty years before, and there was a dead man found on Tillikum’s back, mysteriously appearing one morning. As the researcher states during the documentary, orcas are not known to attack human beings while they are free–it’s only in captivity that they have attacked humans. My recent post on OSHA (or Sea World) refusing to release information on their protocol.
Before, when I commented on the Blackfish doc, I remarked how the “whale song” made me cry. I didn’t understand why at the time….but now I am wondering that this whale’s cry is from being separated from its family and/or a mother whale being separated from her child….knowing that these mother whales cry as a human mother would after having her child taken away….it makes sense.
I posted a link on the Fu Manchu blog on an organization fighting to stop holding whales captive. It’s a brutal, selfish practice and it needs to stop.
At the closing scene of Blackfish, they show the orcas swimming freely as they were meant to, and how spirited they were–their dorsal fins are proudly straight–not flopped over like Tillikum’s. It is awesome to watch them. As I watch that segment, it occurs to me that perhaps if they took Tillikum back to the Washington State area where they captured him, perhaps he could find his family and rejoin them? I know that sounds like a long stretch, because he has been in captivity so long, but I would think that his mother would recognize him. It would be worth it giving it a shot. He deserves that.
Education News
Diane Ravitch has this up on an open letter to the Los Angeles School Board. A report here on Deasy and the electronics fiasco.
You might recall that the Smartboard in the classroom made me ill with a headache and nausea and causing adrenal distress, making me extremely tired. I had to shut it and the “wand” used with it off and felt better within about 30 minutes. I wonder how many kids in the classroom were affected and not know enough to speak up? (or worse–when they complain of nausea and want to see the nurse are thought to be making excuses?)
A commenter on the Deasy article posted this link on the electro-magnetic (radiation) exposure to the teachers and the kids in the classroom.
I was watching the South Bend news station last night where they were proudly promoting a woman whom had donated money to the school system to purchase smartboards for those classrooms that did not have one, I believe it was kindergarten through second grade. For someone who hasn’t see them–these things are huge monstrosities that cover probably six feet across (guessing).
The news video showed a child at the smartboard pointing to a picture and the word that goes with it. A teacher spoke and said it was a great way to see how well the child was learning. While the story was running, I was thinking that a child could just as easily go to a chalkboard and demonstrate what they have learned.
And then there’s the waste of electricity plus exposure to electronic pollution. When there is a smartboard in a classroom, there is little or no space for writing on the blackboard. So I am left with the option of using the smartboard, which I won’t do anymore after the experience I had, or speaking in front of the class to get an idea across, which sometimes is not the best option, especially for someone who is dyslexic and needs the visual cues of writing on a chalkboard.
Finally, I don’t see where the smartboard actually helps a child to learn better. Somebody made some major bucks on foisting yet another useless tool onto the cash-strapped public schools.
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In other, more sobering news:
The New York principals write a letter outlining why Common Core is failing the kids. Reading of the effect on children who react with physical symptoms is heartwrenching. Those poor kids will hate learning, when it’s their natural instinct to learn and explore. Way to go, Common Core! /snark
Additionally, the letter states that children whom have never been labeled as learning deficient are now being so labeled and missing out on music and art classes that would most definitely help them to learn.
As I read about the students feeling like failures, my heart sinks. I know how they feel–my dyslexia (undiagnosed) would have surely put me in the “dumb” category when that wasn’t the case. I already felt dumb, however, and through my own will learned to adapt. If a child is labeled as dumb by testing that does not allow for differences in learning, that child will never realize their true brain power. They will not seek to move beyond the label placed upon them.
And this comment from Neanderthal really strikes to the heart of this debate:
neanderthal100
I paid a young man $1000 plus just the other day for a maintenance job for my house…Graduated around 2007..
He said to me…”You know, I never could do fractions when I was in school because they wanted us to use the calculator and it made no sense to me..I could get the right answer on the calculator but I never understood what I was doing.
I took so many tests that my guessing was really good.and I passed.
My father was shocked to find there were no vocational classes that I could take so he taught me the skills I need to know .
Now that I have to measure for my job and get paid for what I do….I learned the fractions and they are so easy.
I remember the math that I did was always for test questions…
My nephew is having a hard time because it is even worse now with this new math..
His teacher tells him everyday that he has to know this or that for a test and he gets ill on every test day.
Why don;t they have classes for construction workers?
That would have made so much more sense as I do not like the math with the y’s and x’sI am very glad I am out of school and if and when I have children. I will teach them myself”
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Pretty telling, isn’t it, when a child doesn’t learn the skills needed for a paying job. This is just insanity.
Eagle 