Category Archives: violence

Speaking Truth to Weiner

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I saw this a few days ago and wanted to get it posted.

Let’s pick this story, as reported, apart, shall we?

As someone says in the comments, this wasn’t a “heckler” this was someone speaking the truth.  She is a voter, she has every right to call him on his criminal behavior.

“You’ve got little kids here”  Is he kidding me?  He puts his penis out in cyberspace, and he’s now worried about cuss words in front of kids?!

And then…the word that will piss off even the most even-tempered woman who is speaking her mind….he tells her to “relax”.    Grrrr.

Then he accuses her of putting on “a show”….degrading her opinion as less than valid.  She’s just out for attention instead of speaking out publicly.  Where else would she be able to voice her opinion to his face?  In some structured town hall meeting?  I think not. 

See…politicians just can’t handle all that freedom.

Anyway, back to the Weiner saga,  this part of the story was disturbing:

“Oh, take is easy. Lighten up. You put your show on. Why don’t you beat it? Beat it!” Mr. Weiner shot back, strutting in front of his sign-holding volunteers.

“Beat it?” Ms. Borock, incredulous, said back.

Several men to the side yelled encouragements for Mr. Weiner.

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This just sent chills down my spine.    Several men to the side yelled encouragement for Mr. Weiner.   Kind of like a verbal gang assault.   Bullying, anyone?  And they wonder why kids bully?

And then Weiner just dismisses her after she tells him that she voted for him.  Just plain dismisses her instead of humbling himself and apologizing for his behavior.

But one would have to admit to himself that his behavior was unacceptable and even criminal.

I still don’t believe Weiner has done that:

Not long after, Mr. Weiner seemed to revel in the sparks. “I love how crazy I make some people,” he said, grinning.

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He still thinks it’s a joke.

 

Pacific Sea Nettle

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…or more commonly known as the jellyfish.

It’s the animal of the month on my Ocean Conservancy calendar. It’s really quite beautiful in these photos.

Doing a check of the internet, I don’t see where it is endangered, although one site mentions that jellyfish are getting caught up in fishing nets, so the potential is there.

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In other marine news, a small whale was left stranded for thirty minutes while trainers stood on the sidelines. Another whale tried to help, but could not. You can hear people screaming at the trainers to do something.  (Warning: it’s tough to watch)

Their excuse was that there was lightening in the area….so, you know, it’s okay to leave this animal that you took from the wild (or bred in captivity) stranded so it might possibly die from dehydration or lightening strike…?

This is why we have no business imprisoning these animals.

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Speaking of Badasses

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Diane Ravitch has a blog on the Badass Teachers Association:

 

 

 

 

I didn’t know what they meant when I searched for G4s –it came up a security agency and had many links including Israel.  However, when I searched for Gates and prisons, voila.

So I’m trying to wrap my brain around this, because Gates had invested in Monsanto, which purchased Blackwater/Xe…

…..so I’ve read several different sites that claim Monsanto did NOT buy Blackwater.  Stay tuned…jury is still out.

Whether Monsanto owns Blackwater or not, it is still a reprehensible corporation, and owning prisons?

Yeah…this would not have been possible if we didn’t have state governments privatizing state services like prisons…

Do you get the theme here?  Privatizing schools, privatizing prisons, cornering the biotech market and bullying farmers….

I found this on Cascade Investment, which is owned by Gates and family. More stuff here

Limbaugh and Hannity being cut by Cumulus

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Well, now.  Didn’t expect they would do it.  I seriously thought that Limbaugh was entrenched and nothing short of him murdering someone would they cut the strings.  I’m happy that they are cutting off the hate-filled blather.   Who are they going to get now to bang the drum for the rightwingers…?

I just hope they aren’t replaced with more hate-filled blather by someone even worse than Limbaugh and Hannity.

Teacher confronts Weiner

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(hat tip to Diane Ravitch)

Well, now, teachers may be the nation’s punching bag right now….but this one isn’t down with this predator’s actions.    As she said, she would have lost her job if she had done what Weiner did.  Not only that, she would be in jail.

The Predator **edited

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Thomas at Yes Means Yes! has a blog up on the criminal activity of Anthony Weiner that is not being prosecuted.  As someone says in the comments (on Melissa McEwen’s blog)–if Weiner had exposed himself to someone on the subway, he would be charged with a crime.  And this happened after his first mea culpa–after begging forgiveness and of course, people wanting to give him a second chance…

…but this is Anthony Weiner, I’m-special-because-I’m-a-politician who has a likable personality….so he will skate by the city jail.

Granted, it is hard for women to confront someone whom has crossed boundaries….we aren’t raised that way.  And, the point was raised that someone in a position of power, be it political or business, can make serious trouble for a woman who stands up for herself.

**edited to correct ADD moment of attributing quote to Lisa Weiss that was the teacher Nobles.  Sorry.  Chelating…so ADD is worse…

The Uniparty

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One of the commenters here called the absence of real oppositional parties the “Uniparty”. …yep.

See…the Dems really believe in the Fourth Amendment and the rights of the American public to be let alone…

bwhahahahaha *snort*  bwahahahaha…

Don’t blame me.  I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000.  The first time in all the years that I had been voting that I wrote a candidate’s name on the ballet.  Of course, now Indiana has changed to the computerized system so a voter wouldn’t be able to just write in a candidate.   Supposedly, they have paper ballots at each voting station, but this voter was not told there were paper ballots available, not even when I voted early, nor were there any paper ballots visible so that one could ask for it.

They changed the law so that one had to have 2% of the general votes cast for the Secretary of State in the previous election.  Note the deadlines were repeatedly pushed back in order to diminish the ability to gather signatures during summer events where crowds gather…

I found this page absolutely fascinating.  I had no idea that we had other candidates to choose from, as the write in candidates were not on the electronic ballot.  And being without access to media (no TV antenna in the community room at the time), nor did I have more than an hour per time from the library’s internet computers…so information was limited, as are most poor.  And I would venture a guess that even with cable TV, many middle class were also ignorant of this–funny how the nooz just doesn’t seem to get around to covering important issues like this….they’d rather scare you into getting a vaccine that will likely cause as much harm to your body as any good or tell you not to take Vitamin E because some bogus *study* says it’s bad for you…pfft.

Juror speaks out on Zimmerman trial

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(I was going to take a break from blogging, but this is so compelling…)

One of the jurors in George Zimmerman’s trial, the only minority, spoke out on the verdict.  Democracy Now!  explores how the case was mishandled by the prosecution AND commentary on the juror’s misgivings about the verdict.

From Maddy’s own statement, she says she thought that they had to let Zimmerman go because they didn’t have clear evidence that he intended on killing Trayvon that night.  But that is a murder charge, not manslaughter.  Manslaughter is different from murder by intention, as the attorney states in the DN! interview.

I also think Maddy was intimidated into giving in–because she states she was holding out to the end.

And please, can we stop complaining about jury duty?  You can’t complain about verdicts if you’re not willing to do your civic duty and serve on jury duty.

 

 

 

 

President Obama’s speech

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Diane Ravitch has this up on the President’s “I could have been Trayvon” speech yesterday.  Lots of passion on both sides about his thoughts.  Of course, educators are up in arms that he does not address education in raising up poor black boys (and girls), and that the destruction of public schools going on will do more damage than good.

I, myself, am a jumble of feelings about it.

I understand the educator’s feelings.  I also know that just because someone is better educated, doesn’t necessarily mean they will not resort to violence to get their way.  Look at all the world leaders who are educated and still promote and advocate violence….

I also understand, as best I can as a white woman, President Obama’s passionate response.  He has been the target of racial profiling.  He knows what Trayvon Martin was experiencing in those moments of being followed by George Zimmerman.  He was innocently walking home, doing nothing wrong….and yet, here was this guy, who for all Trayvon knew, was going to rob him.

But I would argue with President Obama’s  assumption that white folks don’t know what it’s like to be profiled….as my recent experience in FW has proven.  It’s not criminal profiling, but the effect is still the same.

Racism, by either side, is wrong.  Like I said, I felt hopeless.  Despair.  I had treated folks as I wish to be treated.  I was respectful to the elders, addressing them as “Miss” or “Mr.”, as I would my white elders.  If I didn’t particularly care for someone, I wasn’t disrespectful…but I also didn’t have anything to do with them.  It had nothing to do with the color of their skin, but everything to do with their personality.

You know, someone gave me some advice once that resonates here–I had been the subject of bullying after my divorce.  The viciousness is really something someone has to experience in order to understand it.  After being a victim, you tend to take on the victim persona and see yourself in that light.  You begin to believe what others say about you.

The advice I was given was this:  There is no doubt that you were victimized.  But you need to break away from the victim mindset.

In other words:  don’t let others define who you are.  Only you get to do that.  Don’t let others’ actions define your actions–rise above it and be the person you wish to be, not the person they are trying to make you out to be.

Again,speaking as a white woman, it seems to me that black folks have adopted the victim mindset and sometimes think people are being racist when a) they’re just ignorant ; or b) they don’t like someone not because they’re black, but because they’re being a jerk.

I hope this makes some sense–like I said, I’m a jumble of emotions this morning.  Why is it so hard for us to cut each other some slack and try to see each other’s point of view and try to find some common ground?