Fruits of Fukushima

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Where’s my fork…??

A picture speaks a thousand words….

It is so obvious to everyone but those in a position to do something that nuclear radiation caused this food to be deformed.

Wonder what it’s done to the animals, birds, insects, and the no-see-ums (microbiological growth in a normally healthy soil).

Wonder how this will show up with the women reproductively?

How many have now been diagnosed with either thyroid cancer or low thyroid or thyroid nodules?

Well, I did a little search and found this.  Good Grief, forty-three percent!!

They’ve found butterflies with abnormalities here.  Note that the scientists say insects are rarely affected by radiation.  This is significant.

I couldn’t find a specific animal they had observed for abnormalities, but I’m sure they’re out there.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps…

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…I was flipping through the channels this morning, and happened upon Paul McCartney singing George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”…then the camera pans to Eric Clapton taking over singing lead and playing guitar. …later the camera focuses on the drummer, and you guessed it–it’s Ringo playing with passion.  And I think, but I’m not sure, one of the younger guitar player  might have been George’s son….or else he just bore a remarkable resemblance to him.

A poignant moment because Clapton and George were friends when Clapton had an affair with George’s wife.  Which led George to have an affair with Ringo’s wife…it’s wonderful they were able to get past it and reconnect.  And a wonderful tribute to George.

(We’re in something of a heat wave here…and the power has gone out three times while trying to post this.  I think the “hamster” overheated. haha)

A post script

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A post script to this blog…what I meant when I referred to Katrina is that I told them I thought the George W. Bush administrations’ slow response to the emergency was racist.  It was September, 2005, so it was only a month after the storm hit, but it was apparent to me.  What really shocked me was how only the one black woman agreed with me, again, subtly, but she saw it, too.    This why I probably began to think that Daniels was dismantling or weakening the Civil Rights Commission and blurted that out.

When I think about that interview and how I missed such a fabulous opportunity–a  life changer- because it would have been a career I would have enjoyed with its daily change, using the creative along with the analytical, and fighting for the underdog—and all the misery that mercury has caused me, I want to cry in despair.   This poison has taken so much more than can be neasured…

I give myself 24 hours to feel sorry for myself, and then move on…

Bill Gates hasn’t destroyed public education yet….

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…but damn,he sure is trying with everything he’s got.

<sigh>  I was all ready to rip into Gates once again… but I’m halfway through the article of Chronicles of Higher Education….and this one sentence that Gates “just wants to get more people through the system with college degrees so that it will lift them out of poverty…”

bwahahahaha.  That’s rich.

Then, further down, they disclose that Gates Foundation is supporting the Chronicles of Higher Education financially.  I think I’ve already read that somewhere, but alas, the brain didn’t bring it up…the article is clearly a promo by Gates…so yeah….

So…I’ll have to refer to previous blogs on Gates…

Here.

Here. Silencing teachers.

Here. Supporting Brookings Institute that dismissed Diane Ravitch

Here. Not content with just controlling education, but the food supply, as well.

Here.

Indianapolis schools target for charter takeover

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Diane Ravitch has this up on the continuing guttering of public schools….now with Indianapolis in its sights.

This sentence pretty much tells you they’re up to no good:

Kloth’s been loath to share the NEO Plan with taxpayers through Indy’s media. He especially didn’t want this columnist to have a copy.

Keep out the press so that we can do our dirty work in the dark before the public knows we’ve taken their key to a better life away from them and given them junk instead.

And then there’s this:

Since African-American researchers were forbidden to participate in NEO, I did my own research.

And this:

African-American students have a greater higher risk of attending a low performing school in Indianapolis/Marion County than whites and Hispanics.

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Black folks should be all over this.  A clever way to get Separate but Equal schools.

The gun wins

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Zimmerman is found not guilty.  <sigh>

The jury asked for clarification of manslaughter, but the court would not tell them what the law means?  WTH?

Unless you have had some legal training, you’re not likely to be up on what the charge “manslaughter” means, and it’s perfectly reasonable to ask for clarification.  They said they would answer specific questions, but the jury never sent another question.

This leads me to believe they didn’t understand the term “manslaughter”….because this case met the criteria.

I forgot to mention in the other post that the fact that Zimmerman lied about the money he had showed his true character, and that should have been considered in the trial.  What else did he lie about?

 

(With that, I’m out of here for a few days–getting my migraine.  See you all in a few.)

Israel launched Air Strike Against Syria

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You know, I have been wondering about all the important news out there that has been happening while they’ve been broadcasting the Zimmerman trial nonstop….

It’s not that I don’t think it is important–it is….but it does not need 16 hour coverage five days a week!

And I think the minute Zimmerman grabbed his gun and uttered the words “I’m sick of these punks getting away…” he met the legal standard of manslaughter, perhaps even murder.  I hedge on that because murder is premeditation–you decided you were going to kill your spouse when you found out they were cheating on  you.  This, on the other hand, sounds more like manslaughter–you weren’t intending on killing someone, but nevertheless, you did.

Self-defense is the only reason for someone to be set free.  I don’t believe in my heart that Zimmerman feared for his life.  Again, the words “I’m sick of these punks getting away” is an aggressive stance, not one of fear.

So…what’s been happening?  This, for one.  Happened a week ago!

More on the abortion debate in Texas.  I agree with limiting it to 20 weeks, even twelve weeks, but the rest is draconian and meant to interfere with a woman’s right to an abortion in that time frame.

Good for you, Suri

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Suri Cruise gave the stalkerazzi a piece of her mind.  Good for you, Suri.  And good for your mother raising you to believe in yourself and your right to privacy.

…and don’t mind the “bitch” word–you’ll hear that word when you stand up for yourself, as you have now experienced.  Embrace the word–it becomes a word of power once you realize it means you aren’t a doormat and you have set your boundaries.  Bravo.

And the Kardashians? Meh.  You can’t have a TV show exposing your every move and then claim you want privacy.  It messes with the  mind.

 

Obama and the Education Fiasco?

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One of the commenters on Diane Ravitch’s site has this link up .  An excellent timeline on what has been going on behind the scenes with *cough* education reform.

I really, really, hope that Barack Obama has changed his mind regarding this–as Diane Ravitch did when she came to realize that education reform was actually turning schools into for-profit centers.

From the link:

“When teachers are given powerful opportunities for career advancement, ongoing professional growth and recognition for outstanding achievement, we see increased student achievement in TAP schools,” Lowell Milken said in a December 2008 press release. “Chicago TAP schools are off to a strong start in continuing efforts to achieve these goals.”

Milken, unmentioned in most accounts, has a vested financial interest in school reform efforts and “fixing failing schools.”

That’s because Milken is a major investor in K12 Inc., a corporation traded on Wall Street that sells online schooling and curriculum to state and local governments. Milken invested $10 million in K12 Inc. in 2000, a stake that is now worth over $125 million, according to a July 2008 article in Forbes.

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Milken is full of it, to put it bluntly.  Nobody who knows anything about teachers and education would ever make such an idiotic statement.  Most teachers are in the profession because they want to see children learn, NOT because they want “career advancement”.  Their professional growth comes with experience….there is no substitute for that and no amount of money can magically *poof* experience.

Truly, to say that a student’s achievement is the teacher’s achievement is, in my view, taking away from the student’s hard work.  A good teacher is only part of the student-parent-teacher equation.  ALL of them play an important role in how well the student does.

When I first went to college, I wanted to be a teacher.  When I discussed this with my college advisor, she discouraged me from going that route–she said the jobs wouldn’t be there.  I wonder what she knew and when she knew it??  Anyway, I decided to go into Communications so that I could make documentaries and still somewhat “teach”.

However, when I was on what was supposed to be a progressive jobs website, there was Teach for America.  I applied, writing in my application how I had helped my daughter overcome dyslexia and learn to read.  I wanted to teach in inner city schools, I told them, so I could help the little ones with such learning hurdles.

I was turned down flat.  Not even an interview.

Knowing what I know now, it is obvious they were never interested in educating kids.  They didn’t want folks who were passionate and truly wanted to help kids learn.

When you couple this with the military in schools, it’s truly scary, indeed, on what is happening to our schools.  God help us.