"If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?" — Chuck Palahniuk
She didn't want to go to rehab she said, "No, No No"! Karma didn't like the example she was setting so she had to Go, Go Go!
First I gotta preface this post with a disclaimer. I loved Amy Winehouse as an artist. I think I might have even done a post where I compared her song "Tears Dry On Their Own" with Aretha Franklin's "Say A Little Prayer" both brilliant songs that were well written, well produced and well song. So this is in no way a post condemning her or any artist that had emotional and mental problems exacerbated by drugs and alcohol but more about the sadness in losing any person with the talent that she had at such a young age. I consider any one under the age of 50 still young also. But "Here We Goes"!
There is nothing cool or romantic about someone with the amount of talent Amy Winehouse had to die at 27 years of age. That old bullshit about "living fast and dying young" is just that bullshit. When I heard about Amy dying on Saturday I felt the same way did when I heard Kurt Cobain had committed suicide at age 27. Now Amy Winehouse in effect committed suicide at 27, joining Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix both of whom also died at age 27. Let's make no mistake about it they all committed suicide. The drugs and alcohol at young ages causes depression and other problems and when you add that on top of all the internal conflicts they had it is the recipe for ending your life early. Her problems with drugs were well documented so I wont repeat them here. While she wasn't going as hard on the drugs she was still binge drinking heavily and it is rumored that a "bad" ecstasy pill while drinking heavily might have led to seizures, she was suffering from, that ultimately killed her.
There is supposedly some kind of "Rock and Soul 27 Club" and it is linked to the fact that quite a few artists have died at age 27. The club now has a 35 person membership roster with the death of Winehouse which includes Jim Morrison, blues singer Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. On the surface it seems to appear that there is something to it but we have to realize not all the people linked to the music industry on that list that died at 27 was due to drugs and alcohol. Mia Zapata of the punk rock band the Gits was murdered at 27 nearly 28. Robert Johnson was supposedly poisoned by a jealous husband who owned a juke joint and was married to a woman Johnson was flirting with. Brian Jones former Rolling Stones musician was later thought to be murdered also. Now while it is a pretty impressive list one could say that maybe that is the age that the body finally just gives in from long term drug and alcohol abuse especially if it goes unchecked. I was on the same path back in the 90's with cocaine and if I didn't get some help I might have ended up the same way.
I hope you finally find some peace Amy and I just wanted you to know Imma miss you and that wonderful voice and the joy it brought me!
I happened to be up early Wednesday morning and I caught Matt Lauer talking to some guy who's name I can't remember and how he was saying that he thought that the premise of Rupert Murdoch not knowing what his executives and journalists were up to was sort of an inside joke at News Of the World and the hearings. Of course I cannot find any video of the interview or anything of any relevance except for the shaving cream incident, which I am sure Murdoch had set-up to interrupt the hearing himself. The guy Lauer was talking to about the Murdoch hearings with Parliament even hinted at that himself. The whole thing kind of reminded me of Junior Soprano in court playing the "I can't remember card". I was waiting for him to start acting like Frank Pentangeli from the Godfather 2 when he was called in to testify against Michael Corleone and saw his brother from Sicily sitting there, "I never knew no godfather. I got my own family, senator ". The same man that once said this:
I try to keep in touch with the details... I also look at the product daily. That doesn't mean you interfere, but it's important occasionally to show the ability to be involved. It shows you understand what's happening. Rupert Murdoch
Piers Morgan in his book stated that he used to consult with Murdoch weekly when he was editor of News of the World. Now we are supposed to believe the same guy that "kept in touch with the details" and "looked at the product daily" all of a sudden didn't know what was going on with how his tabloid was getting all of these sensational stories. Where our Star and National Enquirer tabloids just make shit up and embellishes little bits of truth, News of the World hacks peoples phones.
Monday Jon Stewart was feeling a little down about the state of affairs here in America, so John Oliver decided to cheer him up by comparing Americas troubles with the News of the World's Phone hacking scandal...
Now just like in the Abu Gharib scandal a few years ago the guys who were in charge and the rich guy in this instance are putting all of the weight on the "foot soldiers" and underlings who are just following orders from higher up. What a bunch of crudball bastards! However, I guess I cannot be too hard on the Scotland Yard Commander and the police over there "Across the Pond" when we got cops on Planet Baltimore selling dope...From CBS Baltimore.com:
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — He’s supposed to keep drugs off the streets, but a city police officer has been accused of selling heroin in uniform and in the parking lot of a police station.
Weijia Jiang explains how investigators unraveled the drug ring.
It was the Baltimore police department that asked the FBI to investigate. Now one of their own could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted of felony drug and gun charges.
Baltimore police officer Daniel Redd, 41, is accused of being one of the masterminds in a conspiracy to distribute heroin across the city with drugs shipped in from Africa.
“He’s supposed to be helping us, protecting us from the ones on the street doing it,” said Jackie Chukwu, Northwest Baltimore.
Redd and four others are named in a seven count grand jury indictment. It says Redd made drug deals while on duty at the Northwest District, where he’s assigned to patrol. Federal agents arrested him there on Tuesday morning.
“We hope that sends a powerful message that if you carry guns and deal drugs, whether you’re a street corner junkie or a police officer, you’re going to face a lengthy stay in federal prison,” said Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney.
In one of the most brazen accounts mentioned in the indictment, prosecutors say Redd walked right out of the Northwest police station wearing his full police uniform to another part of the parking lot where he handed off an undisclosed amount of heroin. MORE!
I can remember a time not long ago when CEO's and guy's in charge of other guy's who did dumb shit and got caught would own up to scandals and take the blame because it "happened on their watch". Not anymore even if they were once quoted saying:
The buck stops with the guy who signs the checks. Rupert Murdoch
I guess Murdoch was talking about the CFO or accountant guy that actually signs the bribery checks. I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about the underlings that quit, got arrested and fired in this scandal cause someone should have had the slightest bit of integrity and said, "hey this is wrong and needs to stop!" but I guess that is not an option when your livelihood is on the line. Also it seems like they have been doing this for so long, I guess they thought they could get away with it forever.
"Just Because It Has Always Been Done That Way Doesn't Make It Right!"
Try as I might I cannot remember "The Good Old Days" that everyone keeps talking about. I scour the Internet and read history books but these "Good Old Days" seem very elusive to me. There was the Ice Ages, The Dark Ages, The Crusades, The Inquisition, The Revolutionary War, Slavery (which is still in effect today just that includes all peoples), Civil War, Lincoln Assassinated, The Slaughter of the American Indian, The Rise of Organized Crime, Suffrage, Prohibition, The Great Depression, The Rise Of Hitler, World War 1 & 2, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, The Korean War, Vietnam, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Cold War, The Assassinations of the 60's (The Kennedy Brothers John & Robert, MLK, Malcolm X), The 6 Day War, Palestine, The Oil Embargo, Gas Lines, Watergate, Nixon Impeachment, AyatollahKhomeini, The Iran Hostage Crisis, The Iraq-Iran War, Iran Contra, Aids, The Rise of the Colombian Drug Cartels, Crack, Bush 1, Desert Storm, NAFTA, Bosnia, Kosovo, Bush 2, Large Tax Cuts For The Top 2% Of Americans, The Rise Of The Neocons, Enron, 911, US Attacks Afghanistan, US Attacks Iraq, Abu Gharib, Bush 2 the Sequel, Katrina, The Bailouts (Bear Stearns-$30 billion, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac-$400 billion, AIG-$180 billion, General Motors-$25 billion, TARP-$700 billion, Citigroup-$280 billion), Obama Elected, Afghanistan Troop Surge and most recently Rupert Murdoch and The Spying and Hacking Scandal. But no "Good Old Days". Yet we keep reminiscing about times that we the people never had. The rich and elite may recall "The Good Old Days" but damn if I can.
There are thousands more of these incidents that supposedly make up the "Good Old Days" and a lot of them are little things that seem harmless on the surface but they are deliberate and calculating steps to force certain outcomes. Random chance has all but been taken out of the equation. As far as the Murdoch debacle people have forgotten that they are being spied on, hacked, financially ruined and pissed on everyday by their own government and we will come to find out that the only crime the moneyed elitist Murdoch will be guilty of is getting caught. I hope you guy's didn't think that once Obama took office or rather it was given to him that spying on Americans stopped or torture ceased, that the wars were going to stop and all the troops would come home and Guantanamo Bay was going to close or any of the other thousands of promises he made on the campaign trail were going to see the light of day. We wanted Universal Healthcare not health insurance. We were promised and end to the wars, we got an escalation. We voted for change and we got more of the same in triplicate. There might have been good old moments, brief snippets in our personal lives but nothing in history past or recent that indicate there were "Good Old Days" for the majority.
If you really think about what all of those events really have in common you should be able to see that there is no such thing as democracy never was especially when a few control the many. It always affects first the poor who have been trained to expect the worse, the common working man and the almost non existent middle class who really doesn't realize or want to admit it to themselves that for every one step forward they are getting pushed back 3. The Christian Right or working class conservatives, the "1% wannabes" as I call them who are either to stupid to realize or have brainwashed themselves into believing that they are going to let you in their really really exclusive club. You are being used and then abused and ridiculed after you have played your part, well I might add. Then there are the real nutjobs like the "Teabaggers" that are always voting and screaming against the very social programs that they themselves use and have benefited from, like public education which has declined so much over the past 30 years its no wonder that they cannot understand that they are playing themselves. The disability they claim that there parents claim, the social security they might be claiming. Most of if not all the programs that FDR put into place. Thinking that they are entitled to it and everyone else is just leaching off of it. You are not entitled to a damn thing because you claim to be of a certain political color or set.
Here's a bit of irony about that situation too. We shake our heads in disgust about thugs in California and elsewhere nowadays killing themselves and each other over red and blue yet our country is fiercely divided, very unevenly I might add, along those same lines. Mainly throughout the South and the Midwest where you have a lot of poor to working class, Christian, slightly less educated people than their East and West Coast counterparts. We all know deep down inside that they are both just different sides of the same coin yet we rationalize it by saying it's the lesser of two evils, which will never change the fact that it is still evil nonetheless! If we really think about it we should be able to realize that over the past 20 years we have seen the greatest inequitable transfer of wealth never before seen in the history of mankind. Well over 16 Trillion dollars and counting. What did we the people receive? Yeah that's right about $600 dollars. If we really think about it we will realize that we are always reminiscing about a time that never occurred and will never occur unless we wake up, stop fighting amongst ourselves and recognize who the real enemy is. If you really think about it you will realize that religion, nationality, cultural differences, homophobia, racism (which is not even real because we are all of the same race - Human), sexism, nepotism and all the rest of the -ism's are all tools they use to keep us distracted from the rampant "class-ism" that like racism pits one small group of people (the rich and privileged) against a much greater group of people (the rest of us) who accept their lot in life because the rich and elite have used their tools really well to train the masses. Religion and the bible teach people to “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s”. It teaches people to wait for their rewards in the afterlife and heaven while the rich and privileged live heaven on earth.
If we really think about it we will realize we have made ourselves slaves to a few. The Good Old Days of the Feudal system retrofitted for the modern age. Sharecropping for the Corporations that now enjoy more benefits and freedoms than the majority of human beings. If we really pondered our situation we would realize we pay them to let us work for them in the form of income taxes. I do all of the work and someone takes a few percentage points off the top without providing any labor. I could understand if someone from the government came to the workplace and told me to take it easy for a few hours while they helped knock out the workload. If we really really pondered our situation we would realize especially you "1% wannabes" and you loud ignorant ass teabaggers that the very same corporations that are supposed to pay the taxes are enjoying the best and biggest social program of all time and that is corporate welfare. If we really tried to ponder our situation we would realize that the only tax I should be paying are on the items I consume or purchase. Maybe that would be a example of the "Good Old Days". The days before the Federal Reserve, Fractional Banking and Americans paying taxes to bankers to offset the cost of them printing our currency and charging us interest for the privilege of doing this. Yeah those were the days!
"My old man worked twenty years on the line, and they let him go. Now everywhere he goes out looking for work, they just tell him that he's too old. I was nine years old and he was working at the Metuchen Ford plant assembly line, Now he just sits down on a stool down at the Legion Hall, But I can tell what's on his mind.
Glory Days, Yeah go on back, Glory days, Ah he ain't never had Glory days." -Bruce Springsteen
So I normally write this shit on Friday nights so that it is ready early morning Saturday but I went out Friday night, first time in a long time to go to the 30th Annual Artscape Festival here on Planet Baltimore. Mainly to go see Fantasia to find out for myself if the rumors about her being pregnant AGAIN by the same married dude as before are true. I wish I got a photo but I left my camera at home. My bad! There are a couple of vids on youtube from the concert last night but I didn't run across any good photos and unless you were right up front it was really hard to see. I am sure alot of other folks went to see for themselves as well.
I did catch a couple of glimpses of Fantasia and she looked a little heavy around the belly to me but only time will tell if she is really pregnant. Now Fantasia is a "thick-um" to begin with and there are a couple other scenarios that could account for the recent weight gain, first the whole pregnant thing again. Then she is playing Mahalia Jackson in an upcoming movie and she might be putting on the weight and getting into character. Then of course her love of "Cornbread and Collard Greens" could be the reason but she was a little "thicker" than normal. You can see for yourself in THIS VID from last night. I suggest you turn down/off your sound because the sound of this video is horrible. No offense to the poster but it is what it is! Plus we are just trying to see here. She had on a big blousey thing that kind of reminded me of a toga. I did find a couple of pics online of her and her boyfriend (termed loosely) from June 29th.
According to the website Eurweb she is supposedly 2.5 months pregnant with dudes baby. The pics were taken back in June when she was in Barbados for a concert. By the same token radaronline reports back in February:
American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino is putting a stop to pregnancy rumors, but she does admit to gaining weight, saying it's for a role in a new film she'll be starring in.
"Fantasia is 100% not pregnant. The only thing she's pregnant with is prosperity," the 26-year-old's manager, Brian Dickens, told RadarOnline.com in an exclusive interview. MORE!
The photos are supposedly from June and the reports are from February but the youtube link is from last night and imho she appears she could be pregnant. Only time will tell though! On another note she did sound good. I know a lot of you might be wondering who cares and why am I blogging about it? Well this is Politics, BS (Bullshit/Belief Systems) and The Tinfoil Tirades so file it under BS and keep it moving. Not to mention it goes with the title Really and the picture asking are you really that dumb? But hey like she said last night after belting out the song, "I know y'all done heard a lot of stuff but I am just doing me Baltimore"! Speaking of bs Casey Anthony will be released tomorrow and that is not the bs I am referring too but all this bs about someone hurting her and death threats and shit...From msnbc.com:
The Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — Casey Anthony is spending her last day in jail Saturday preparing for an uncertain future after nearly three years behind bars.
Anthony was acquitted of first-degree murder in Caylee's death earlier this month in a sensational trial that was carried extensively on cable television stations. She was found guilty of four counts of lying to police, but with time served and good behaviour credits, she didn't have to serve out her four-year sentence.
Orange County Jail officials planned to release Anthony sometime Sunday under circumstances they refused to disclose. One of her attorneys, Cheney Mason, said Friday that Anthony is scared to leave jail, given numerous threats on her life and the scorn of a large segment of the public that believes she had something to do with the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Mason said he isn't taking any chances: "We are all vigilant and I am armed. MORE!
Let's hope Mr Mason doesn't go from vigilant to vigilante. Everyone needs to leave that trick alone. Stop with the death threats and let it go. If she actually killed that little girl you can best believe God's guy Karma will get her ass or she is gonna do something stupid like OJ did and end up in jail. Like I said last week if ya wanna be mad at anyone be mad at the prosecution cause they didn't meet the burden of proof.
How about 178 educators told to quit or be fired in the aftermath of that Atlanta test cheating scandal. They would have to fire my ass because idk how it is in GA but here in MD you can't get your unemployment if ya quit. From CNN:
Atlanta (CNN) -- The superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools has ordered that 178 educators allegedly involved in a teaching scandal resign or face termination proceedings.
In a letter, Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. gave them the opportunity to resign by Wednesday, said Keith Bromery, director of media relations for the schools.
The letter was sent Thursday to educators listed on a report about the state Criterion-Reference Competency Tests as having confessed to or having been implicated in testing improprieties.
On Monday, at a school board meeting, Davis replaced four area superintendents and a school principal. MORE!
Back in June the same thing happened in Baltimore. From WBALTV.com:
BALTIMORE -- Some staff members at two Baltimore City schools played a role in cheating to help students pass a major state exam, authorities said.
Baltimore City schools CEO Andres Alonso broke the news Thursday morning, saying two of his most prized and once high-performing elementary schools in east Baltimore had been caught cheating on the Maryland School Assessment test."We felt that this kind of behavior by adults was a crime toward our kids," Alonso said.Test answers at Fort Worthington Elementary School were changed and attendance records were altered during the 2009-10 academic year, WBAL-TV 11 News Education Alert reporter Tim Tooten said. Staff members are also accused of giving some students special accommodations in violation of state testing law. MORE!
Over at the Md State Dept of Eds website they are touting that for the 3rd straight year Md schools have received number one rankings in 2011. Maybe cheating is the reason why? I am just asking! I do have to say that although these educators were dishonest I have to put the blame on that No Kid Left Behind legislation that puts a lot of pressure on educators to get kids to pass test's to get tax dollars instead of teaching them to learn.
Speaking of education. Do you guys remember Blossom real name Mayim Bialik? Had her own TV show in the 80's? Well not only did she play a scientist on TV in the '"Big Bang Theory" she is one in real life from CNN:
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN
July 15, 2011 7:24 a.m. EDT
Mayim Bialik plays Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory."
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Mayim Bialik plays Amy Farrah Fowler on "The Big Bang Theory"
She's written a book about parenting based on hormones involved in parent-child bonding
Bialik holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA
(CNN) -- You may remember her as the title character from NBC's "Blossom," or recognize her as brainy Amy Farrah Fowler on the CBS hit comedy "The Big Bang Theory."
Mayim Bialik has made a name for herself in the entertainment business, but she's also had a lesser-known career in a similar field as her "Big Bang Theory" character: neuroscience.
Bialik, 35, who will attend her first San Diego Comic-Con next week, studied neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles. She's also written a book about parenting based on the science of hormones involved in parent-child bonding, to be released by Simon & Schuster in 2012. MORE!
Here's one for the not so educated files. Pops really wanted him some hotdogs. I could see if they were some Sonic Dogs. From WBALTV.com:
According to the police report, Webb told police his vehicle’s throttle stuck and he could not slow down as he approached the building. Tests showed no alcohol in his system.
The truck collided with a moped, sending it under a sport-utility vehicle. The pickup crashed through a brick wall into an area with deep fryers, knocking about 100 pounds of hot grease onto an employee who suffered first- and second-degree burns.Business owner Dennis Rupert said Webb got out of his truck after the crash and tried to order some hot dogs. MORE!
Since we are talking about not so educated let's get to the rethugs. I found this particularly (C)Wrap-Up worthy. Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supremes, not Dinah and nem, has a boblehead doll coming out this fall. From CNN:
By Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer
July 16, 2011 1:50 p.m. EDT
The Justice Clarence Thomas Annotated Bobblehead is the latest in a series that originated eight years ago.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Seven current or recent justices have been made into dolls
Thomas doll will be released this fall in honor of his 20th anniversary on court
Justices rack up the airline miles with summer engagements
Washington (CNN) -- The black-robed figure stares straight ahead, stalwart and silent, his head nodding appreciatively. He carries a big stick, which happens to have an American flag attached. And the man proudly stands on a toy truck and a pair of pizza boxes.
Say hello to the Justice Clarence Thomas Annotated Bobblehead, about the closest thing a member of the Supreme Court gets to collectible immortality.
The sought-after doll -- it's OK to call them dolls -- is the latest release in a pantheon of justices past and present honored in cold-cast ceramic. MORE!
Shouldn't he be standing on a Cadillac and "chicken boxes"? Again just asking. For this next piece imma let you make the call. First there is the Bachmans in particular the good Dr. Marcus Bachmann. After denying that their clinic offers "pray away the gay" therapy there comes that pesky videotape thing. From Crooks & Liars:
ABC News presented undercover video Monday that confirms the clinic owned by Michele Bachmann and her husband Dr. Marcus Bachmann does indeed try to "pray away the gay."
The Nationreported last week that Andrew Ramirez's mother took him to the clinic in 2004 at the age of 17 because he said he was gay.
"[One counselor's] path for my therapy would be to read the Bible, pray to God that I would no longer be gay," Ramirez said. "And God would forgive me if I were straight."
Undercover video from the pro-gay group Truth Wins Out provided further evidence that the Bachmann clinic practices gay-to-straight therapy.
John Becker, who visited the clinic with two hidden cameras, was told that he could be completely free of his homosexual urges.
"You're in the midst of a storm, in the midst of a battle," a therapist explained. "I think it's possible to be totally free of them."
"The truth is God, God as designed our eyes to be attracted to the woman's, to the woman's body, to be attracted to, you know, everything. You know, to be attracted to her breasts," he added.
"He seemed to believe genuinely in his heart of hearts that, somehow, my homosexuality could be cured and could be eliminated," Becker told ABC News.
The American Psychological Association has said that there is no evidence that therapy can change sexual orientation.
Here is where you make the call though. After ABC airs that report Jon Stewart of the Daily Show airs this:
In November 2006, escort and masseurMike Jones alleged that Haggard had paid Jones to engage in sex with him for three years and had also purchased and used crystal methamphetamine.[1] A few days later Haggard resigned from all of his leadership positions.
After the scandal was publicized, Haggard entered three weeks of intensive counseling, overseen by four ministers. In February 2007, one of those ministers, Tim Ralph, said that Haggard "is completely heterosexual."[2] Ralph later said he meant that therapy "gave Ted the tools to help to embrace his heterosexual side." On June 1, 2010 Haggard announced that he intended to start a new church in Colorado Springs.[3] In February 2011, Haggard came out as bisexual.[4] MORE!
Now this next one is just scary. Minnesota's Queen of Crazy is actually the front-runner in the GOP bid for president. CNN:
(CNN)-Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann may have announced her bid for the 2012 GOP nomination for president well into the second fundraising quarter, but she still managed to outpace competitors.
Bachmann will report $4.2 million in contributions to the Federal Election Commission for the second quarter, according to a Friday release. Reports for the second quarter were due to be filed Friday.
Almost half the amount to be reported by Bachmann, $2 million dollars, was transferred from her congressional account. The rest was raised in more than 88,000 contributions that averaged $48.00 each. Funds raised for federal campaigns can be transferred from one federal account to another according to FEC guidelines. Funds raised by political action committees, or PACs, cannot be transferred to campaign coffers.
Bachmann, a tea party darling who's recently faced both acclaim and criticism, has $3.6 million in cash to spend on her presidential campaign efforts. MORE!
I cannot wait to see those debates! Now all the rest of the GOP candidates are gonna try to go one crazier than Bachmann! It should be hilarious. Here is a little reminder of just how crazy she is. From Businessinsider.com:
1. On the granite State (NH): "What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love of liberty...You're the state where the shot heard round the world in Lexington and Concord."
~ March 12, 2011 speech to the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire.
Note: The 1776 Battles of Lexington and Concord took place in Massachusetts.
2. On President Obama: "We will talk a little bit about what has transpired in the last 18 months and would we count what has transpired into turning our country into a nation of slaves."
~ July 9 2010 Western Conservative Summit in Denver.
4. On the Census: "I know for my family, the only question that we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."
- Interview with the Washington Times, June 17, 2009.
Note: The Constitution doesn't say that. It's illegal to not fill out the entire Census.
5. More On the Census: "Take this into consideration. If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that's how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps. I'm not saying that that's what the Administration is planning to do..."
6. On Government Spending: "During the last 100 days we have seen an orgy. It would make any local smorgasbord embarrassed...The government spent its wad by April 26."
7. On the Swine Flu: "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence."
~ Interview with Pajamas Media, April 27, 2009.
Note: The 1976 swine flu outbreak occured during Gerald Ford's presidency. Ronald Reagan was president during another, smaller, outbreak in 1988.
8. On global Warming: "The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It's all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax."
~ March 15, 2008 speech at the Sherburne County Republican Nominating Convention.
"There isn’t one such study because carbon dioxide is not a harmful gas, it is a harmless gas. Carbon dioxide is natural. It is not harmful. It is part of Earth’s life cycle...And yet we’re being told that we have to reduce this natural substance and reduce the American standard of living to create an arbitrary reduction in something that is naturally occurring in the earth."
9. On homosexuality: "Normalization (of gayness) through desensitization. A very effective way to do this with a bunch of second graders is to take a picture of "The Lion King" for instance, and a teacher might say, "Do you know the music for this movie was written by a gay man?" The message is: I'm better at what I do because I'm gay."
~ November 6, 2004 speech at Edwatch National Education Conference.
Here is a pic of the rest of the field she is running against
They are Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum, Bachmann and not pitured due to being still on the fence Texas Gov. Rick Perry. CNN should make this a reality TV show cause it is going to be hilarious watching them try to out crazy Bachmann.
Getting a little "serious-er" is the GOP as we get closer to the Debt Ceiling Deadline which is Aug. 3rd not because they have come to their senses per se but their big business backers are starting to get a little worried and have been since April. From PERspectives:
Nothing focuses the mind, it is said, like the sight of the gallows. So it is for the American business community as the clock ticks down on the looming deadline to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. Over the past few days, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street executives, the National Association of Manufacturers and a host of the GOP's other big business allies have warned the Republican leadership that the party's grandstanding risks an economic calamity for the United States.
During George W. Bush's tenure in the White House, Republican majorities voted seven times to increase the U.S. debt ceiling. (The current GOP leadership team cast a total of 19 yea votes.) But demanding a vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and draconian budgets cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as preconditions for boosting the $14.3 trillion ceiling, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor are creating fear, uncertainty and doubt about the full faith and credit of the United States.
But as The Hill reported this morning, the same business backers who bankrolled the GOP's overwhelming victories in November has had enough of the FUD:
The Obama administration will likely have the support of major business groups as it works to round up Republican votes for raising the federal debt ceiling.
Groups such as the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) plan to step up their advocacy for a debt-limit increase as the deadline for congressional action draws closer.
Lobbyists for several major trade associations told The Hill that they have already had discussions with first-term House Republicans about the necessity of lifting the debt ceiling to avoid a default on U.S. debt. MORE!
I am going to end this (C)Wrap-Up with this next piece. Only a real crackhead would say that he doesn't "smoke rocks"! From Crooks & Liars:
The Republican candidate running to unseat a Democratic Wisconsin state Senator in next week's recall election said Thursday that a child abuse investigation against him was "just another false accusation."
But discerning voters might think otherwise, considering his history.
"I read a social services report yesterday that says I smoke crack," David VanderLeest told Wisconsin Public Radio's Joy Cardin. "None of it's true. I don't smoke rocks, and that's the truth." MORE!
Watch the vid:
He doesn't say it once but twice. However that is par for the course with the rethugs! I could go on and on for days but this should give you enough to last you all day Sunday.
I am normally an easy customer to get along with just don't be giving me any attitude cause you hate your job, yourself or you hating on me cause I'm buying some shit you can't. Remember stupid if I don't buy it you don't have a job. Pay Attention! Customer service 101: No Customers, No Business, No Job! Got it? Good!
So all this started a couple months ago with Pizza Boli's @ 5020 Sinclair Ln. next to Kimmie's carryout, who is still on my good side so far and Radioshack another store I will not spend another dime in due to piss poor customer service and lots of attitude. However, right now it's all about Pizza Boli's! That day I was craving a slice of pizza like a pregnant woman craving pickles and ice cream. I had just landed on Planet Baltimore a few weeks earlier from Jersey where they do know how to make a great pie and I wanted me a slice so I went in Pizza Boli's. I asked for a slice with sausage on it and the girl behind the counter looked at me like I was speaking gibberish. She then told me they don't have sausage, and I looked at her like she was speaking gibberish. What pizza place don't have sausage? I guess she caught the look on my face and said no sausage on slices and of course I wanted to know why and she just said they don't. Of course I was like I will pay for it, but she just repeated herself and said they don't put sausage on their slices just pepperoni. I like pepperoni too but it gives me indigestion so I didn't want any pepperoni, but I did want that slice of pizza so I caved in and paid the $2.00 bucks for a regular cheese slice and walked out. I may have muttered, "what kind of shit is that when you can't get a slice with what ya want on it?" The slice was alright but it wasn't great especially without sausage.
I thought that was really odd and it really bugged me because it is the only pizza place with-in close walking distance and since when does a pizza place not have sausage on their slices if ya want? I have seen slices with just about anything you could imagine in Jersey and even downtown Baltimore, from anchovies to zucchini, but Pizza Boli's 5020 Sinclair Ln only offers cheese and pepperoni. Other places uptown on Planet Baltimore offers slices with sausage why not Pizza Boli's? That is the only reason I want a car again so that I can get to places that will appreciate my business and not take it for granted.
I thought maybe the counter girl was having a bad day and taking it out on me, but one day I saw her walking across the parking lot and I asked her about the sausage thing and she still didn't have a satisfactory answer and although it was a strange conversation to begin with when she thought it even stranger that I would get mad about not being able to get sausage on my slice. I should have known then that I was wasting my time and any further attempts to get sausage on my slice from this particular Pizza Boli's was going to be fruitless. I remember another attempt another day to get sausage on my slice and I walked out disgusted this time actually making enough fuss to get another customer to ask me about them not giving me sausage and we both just shook our heads, but that is not why I am writing this post about them.
Yesterday I wanted pizza and tried Pizza Boli's @ 5020 Sinclair Ln again with the same results but at least I got a reason why this time and it was because the sausage is frozen and it wouldn't be properly cooked while heating up a slice. Okay while I didn't like the reason I understood. I of course left this time without buying a slice of regular old cheese pizza and walked home still wanting some pizza though. I thought okay since I can't get a slice with sausage maybe I can get the whole pizza with sausage on it and proceeded to call Pizza Boli's @ 5020 Sinclair Ln and order. From the time I called and was placed on hold I knew that this was a bad idea I should have hung up but I want what I want when I want it. When she came back on the line I detected a lot of attitude in her voice and she was acting like she couldn't hear what I was saying. I was asking what specials they had and she proceeded to tell me one medium one topping $8.99 and one large with one topping $10.99. Nothing at all special about either one of those offers, but I ended up ordering anyway. Now the whole process was getting me angrier and angrier especially because I was spending my money and this chick was giving me A LOT of attitude. After I hung up it came to me that all the attitude and pretending she couldn't hear me or understand me was an attempt to get me to say never mind and not order anyway. Okay no problem, first of all the specials sucked ass and her attitude really sucked ass so I gave her her wish called back and cancelled the order where upon she told me not to call back to her shitty pizza palor anymore in effect telling me they do not want my business. Not realizing she had already lost my business! I almost forgot to mention she also told me it would take 45 minutes to get me my pizza and they are literally 5 minutes on foot from where I live!
Her telling me not to call back is really not a problem because the pizza tastes like crap and looks the same as it tastes anyway . Not too mention that the place looks dirty along with the people that work in the place cooking the pizza. I think they are owned by some real "african americans" and while I thought it was a myth, some of them actually do treat black people like they are beneath them. Now here is where I get even angrier! At them for treating their customers like they have to eat their shitty pizza AND the customers that let them treat them that way. I know their are other people who also just want a slice of pizza with sausage on it and wonder why Pizza Boli's @ 5020 Sinclair Ln can't or rather won't serve them and settle for pepperoni or regular old cheese slices. They are wrong for not offering their customers what they want and you as the customer are wrong to keep supporting a business that doesn't give you what you want. While they are one of a few places uptown that offer slices they are not the only one.
I finally called Papa John's @ 5246 Harford Rd. and the young lady that answered the phone although she put me on hold came back on the line promptly, was not giving me attitude and they had real specials! And while they said it would take 40 minutes I think they made it in under 30. The moral of this little rant/story is I should have known better and Pizza Boli's @ 5020 Sinclair Ln has lost my business and hopefully a lot of other business of other people who are tired of their shitty attitudes and pizza. I will be contacting there main offices and relating this to them also. They cater too a predominantly black area and they treat us like they do yet we still spend our precious dollars with them. We as black people have got to demand better from these businesses. Like I said before some of these people on Planet Baltimore are real special!
"This kind of validation is sweet because I did nothing but write what I had been writing and felt with every part of my being for a long time. The words validated themselves!" -Menace
FINALLY! I am not going to lie I absolutely LOVE IT when all the shit I have written and been saying for the past two years when I wasn't writing gets validated! I mean to tell ya! This is for all the people that cussed me out, called me crazy, said I was full of shit, called me a conspiracy theorist and then discounted everything else I would write because THEY were brainwashed, short sighted and would rather follow the herd than to think for themselves. To This Very Day! For all of the people I admired, called my friends and acquaintances who turned their backs on me after that last election, because I only voted for Barack because he was (half) black not because of all the slick shit he was saying that had my man Jesse Jackson crying like a baby, but not because Barack won but because Jesse was thinking it should have been him saying all that shit. You all should have known that I only voted for the brother because of the delicious irony of a black man being the HNIC of the most racist place on the planet. Nothing Else! I will admit I got caught up a few times and even then I still voiced my concerns and doubts, but I wanted to believe. However those doubts still overrode the feel good speeches he was giving. I knew he was retuglican lite like $Bill Clinton and would serve his corporate masters well!
I can remember it like yesterday when I commented on a post over at Multiply as to why I thought it was absolutely absurd that Obama should have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize and I was viciously attacked, ridiculed and ultimately decided that the sheeple were on their own and stopped writing. I played it off at the time but it really hurt considering I had been validated a few times before. For example about the apologies for slavery that although the federal government never professed it there were a few states that did. I mean unless your counting the ultimate profession electing Obama to office but remember he is half white and part of the American elite. Check his bloodlines! Sorry to tell you this but lil Tyrone, Pepe or Billy Bob can NOT be president even if he does speak eloquently.
I knew this day would come just like the truth about all of the rest of the lies THEY have told. I blogged about the secret societies and told you all who was really ruling the world and about how they both democrats and rethuglicans were all the same, how the Democratic party always played the lesser of two evils and reminded everyone that It Was Still Evil nonetheless. I will warn you again about the coming depression and the NWO that is coming. About how the real war is in America and it IS class war! It's all here just scroll through my shit! Oh M Gee! It is so good I decided to start writing again so that I could write this post. However, I am through gloating and will present without further comment my validation!
This picture above is your Senate my fellow citizens. The average age of a US senator in 2008 was 62. There are 11 Senators over the age 75 and 26 who are at least 70 years old. The profile for the average Senator is rich, white and supposedly more educated than most. That last part about being educated I really have a lot of doubt about seeing some of the latest laws and decisions they have made but for arguments sake lets just say its true. Is it any wonder that they are so vehemently opposed to tax hikes and the rescinding of those enormous tax breaks for the 1% of the richest Americans and corporations for that matter? You hear them on the news crying about a class war they are winning handily. OMG just think how they would feel if they really had to pay their fair share! You poor well not so poor guys! They would rather let the country go broke than to even think about new taxes. Apparently this is only when a Democrat is in the Whitehouse though. From PERRspectives:
Here, then, are 10 things the GOP doesn't want you to know about the debt:
I don't know about you but I am sick of all the "politricks". I love #4 about how the republicans voted 7 (seven) times to raise the debt ceiling for George "the decider" Bush. I would also have to mention #10. America was involved in two simultaneous wars and a lot of covert actions supposedly aimed at keeping America safe from terrorism, spent trillions which 3 trillion is still unpaid, and for some reason I still don't feel as safe as I did since never. Remember before the "War on Terror" coming to DVD and BluRay soon, I had to live through the"Cold War" where I was constantly worried about someone bombing us back to the Ice Age and Nuclear Winter.
I do know of a way to get these old rich white guys attention though and while it's not that hard for most Americans, some of the "1% wannabes" might have a little trouble with it but it is a "no spend nothing day". We do not even have to do it for an entire day, maybe just 3-4 hours I bet them Senators and their corporate masters will notice then. I did say that most Americans will have no trouble with a "no spend nothing day" because they really have nothing to spend anyway, but the corporate machine is strong and they have a lot of the citizenry hypnotized by their slick ass psychological advertising and people are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt they cannot live with out the latest pad, phone or pill. However, if the republicans "no new taxes" blackmail scheme fails and that would take the democrats getting a spine and not giving in, default would be a big problem for old, rich white guys too. See item #1. At least my way would only last for a few hours or until they fixed the problem. Or we could take door number 2 the republican gamble that could have ramifications for decades. Can you say Great(er) Depression?!
Here We Go Again! That was one of my favorite little sayings until that beer company hijacked it. Oh well still kind of appropriate for this post.
I was over at my newest favorite social media site (still not facebook) and someone asked a question, "Why Do Men and Women Cheat?" I am glad the original poster of said question included women too because most times its all the mans fault and the question is usually "Why Do Men Cheat?", but us men gotta cheat with someone cause not all of us are gay. However, all you have to do is check out "Jerry Springer" or an episode of "Cheaters" to realize a LOT of people cheat even the gays. It doesn't matter if your filthy rich or profoundly poor, what culture you claim, whether your a democrat or republican, young or old. It's happened, it happens, it's happening and it doesn't look like it will never stop. Just like the constant question "WHY?". You might as well be asking, "Why are we here?" or "Which came first the egg or some animal that eventually evolved into the modern day chicken?" (there's a hint there).
There are as many reasons as there are people and I want to examine some of those reasons. The first reason I always think of when this question pops up is nature. Part of the reason we are here is to propagate the species, being fruitful and multiplying. We naturally seek out what we perceive as the best mate that we believe will produce the best offspring, but apparently our perceptions really suck, or is it really in our nature to be in lifelong relationships with one individual?
Before marriage was made into the institution it has become it was thought our early ancestors lived in groups sort of like animals for example like a wolf pack, where there were a few dominant males who shared a group of desirable females and the children. As time went on and we evolved from the hunter gathers to a more agrarian society or farmers for short, the trend of needing to know who's kid was who's was more important. I am thinking that it was for the purposes of carrying on certain traits, strengths and traditions. In other words if Ogg was a great hunter but the son Ogg claimed was a little feminine it might not have been his son. Plus Ogg might have wanted to leave his land that he farmed after he stopped hunting to his legitimate offspring and there was no sure way back then of knowing which kid was actually Oggs. Kronk might have slept with Loki right before Ogg and it might have been Kronks son or daughter. Today we have "Maury" for that, but back then all they had to go on was traits and looks.
The earliest recorded history of the one woman for a man trend was back in Mesopotamia about 2350. Before that was One Million Years BC with Loana (played by Raquel Welch) and Tumak (played by John Richardson) I actually thought Tumak was Charlton Heston for the longest time but I was wrong. Anyway, what we have to recognize is those relationships had very little to do with love or whether or not we wanted to be with each other or not. Early on it was a way to make sure a mans kids were legitimately his. Ancient African and Hebrew's could have many wives and them nasty ass Greeks and Romans could have concubines, prostitutes and even teenage boys to satisfy their sexual urges. Over the next few thousand years religion evolved Christianity in particular and marriage became an institution, still nothing like we have now but it was a little better for the female. Christianity taught men to treat their wives better and forbid them from divorcing but that did not stop men from doing what they did. And even after religion came into the picture love still hadn't entered into the marriage equation, most marriages were arranged for practical reasons, to stop wars and to keep the royal bloodlines pure. Now I am sure some of the arrangements over time became romantic and there was a mutual love and respect for each other but love didn't figure prominently until the middle ages as far as white folks go. I personally do not believe it took Christianity to teach men because a lot of ancient cultures already revered their women and they were spiritual teachers and priests. I won't go into a lot of history here, I suggest the Metu Neter for further reading and better understanding, but in ancient African and even Sub Saharan Indian cultures the female was empowered and played major roles in the history and cultures of these ancient civilizations of course until Christianity came along. Even when love actually entered the picture, and I will go back as far as King Arthur and Sir Lancelot, there was cheating as Lancelot had an affair with Queen Guinevere.
As animal lust evolved into love women's roles were no longer just to serve the man in fact it was now the man's role to serve the woman he wanted to have or "loved". However, for centuries men were still considered owners of their wives. Even when the first settlers came to America -when polygamy, having multiple wives was still an accepted practice- the husbands ownership was recognized by a legal doctrine called coverture absorbing the wives identity into his. That is the reason women give up their last names until today. Now part of that is tradition but until women were given the right to vote back in the 1920's they were still not considered citizens, they were just one rung up the ladder from black people. After women gained rights marriage changed dramatically, now the union was between two equal citizens. So the whole concept of a private relationship for the fulfillment of two equal individuals is still fairly new maybe 90 years as opposed to the previous 5000. In other words both men and women have had to learn and teach each other what a relationship should be. But love and sex are not the same thing and we constantly confuse the two and while we as humans need both again I have to stress they are not mutual.
So along comes this guy named Maslow and he comes up with this theory of needs , which is illustrated in the following diagram and they are all part of evolution this time however a mental evolution where the goal is self actualization which is a beautiful place to be...
As you can see we have basic needs that have to be met which is on the lower end of the scale. Not meeting these basic needs can and will result in death, you can do without them for a while but they have to be met eventually. Sex is one of those basic needs. As we travel up the scale we come to love and surely that is the goal to evolve as humans to reach the top of the scale but not everyone makes it to the top of the scale as you can plainly see in your daily interactions with people. A lot of us get stuck in the lower level of the scale and surely this attributes to the reason we cheat. A big part of this is the misunderstanding that love and sex are not the same thing. For example and you can check Masters and Johnson on this, but most people can have sex with multiple partners and love never enters their minds. They are just satisfying a need. And then there are others that claim to love one person exclusively but still can have sex with multiple partners. Rationalizing that it's just sex. However, this is where societal pressures kick in. Things like religious teachings, what others think of us, which is another step in the hierarchical of needs, gender stereotypes, body images and a basic misunderstanding of what love really is. So as we move up the scale or evolve this becomes a real challenge because while love becomes a real need to move on we still have to deal with our basic needs, you know the needs that if they are not met we could very well die from not meeting them. Now I am not saying that we have to have sex, personally I can go months without sex, but I am not that pleasant to deal with. As are most people that don't get some every now and then. And on a serious note going without one of our basic needs has to throw our balance off ie; I am not a good person to deal with after three months of no sex and in extreme cases this could possibly lead to rape and other dysfunctional behavior. I guess one could argue that if we just evolve beyond our basic needs we could eliminate cheating. Oh if it was really just that easy!
I would risk a guess we have to consider the individual, how they were raised and how they deal with societal pressures. When we do evolve, we change and sometimes that change involves not feeling the same way about the person that we fell in love with or in a relationship with. It used to be men cheated for purely physical reasons and women cheated because they were unhappy but that has gone out the window. Now in 2000 just as many women cheat as men for purely physical reasons or to meet needs and men are falling in love with the "other woman". Welcome to equality folks! But don't take my word for it check this out...
The reasons we cheat are more complex than you may think, and the motivations are vastly different for each person.
Emotional Needs Not Met
When one partner feels lonely, misunderstood, ignored or emotionally "uncared" for by their mate, the stage is set for infidelity. It's cases like these where the person will seek to have their emotional needs met by talking with friends and coworkers, perhaps even confiding in them about their relationship problems.
If a physical attraction exists between the person and the new confidante, it could lead to first flirting and then all-out cheating.
Physical Needs Not Met
Similar to emotional needs, if a person isn't satisfied by their partner physically, they may seek this out from another person. This could be done consciously or unconsciously, but a person who feels isolated physically will often be drawn to someone who shows them affection and physical attention, which could lead to infidelity.
A relationship that's in constant turmoil grows an environment ripe for cheating.
Constant Conflict Within the Relationship
If the relationship is plagued with problems - -these could be related to finances, different values, in-laws, career, location, etc. -- a person may seek refuge in the arms of someone else. This may be done as a way to escape from the conflicts at hand, or a person may cheat to make themselves feel better about the conflict (for instance, a man who loses his job and feels unable to provide for his family who has an affair with a younger woman, which makes him feel a sense of accomplishment and self-worth).
One Person Just Wants Excitement and Attention
Sometimes couples get stuck in the routine of everyday life so severely that it leads one partner to stray. It may be a mid-life crisis of sorts, a way to recapture youth or just a strong feeling of wanting some excitement (for some, an affair can add excitement just for the very fact that it is "forbidden).
Along these lines, a person may cheat to feel they're desirable to another person (not just to their mate). When a person cheats for this reason, it's often to enhance their own self-esteem -- and, "There is nothing like a flirtation to restore a sense of self-esteem," says Sheppard, "But sometimes that flirtation gets taken to far."
Empowerment
There are those out there who simply believe they are entitled to more than one intimate partner. Perhaps they are following "traditions" set up by their family, in which one parent was overly flirtatious or cheated, or they may just do it because they feel they can.
To End a Relationship
A person who is unhappy in a relationship may cheat as a way out. They may do so hoping to get caught, and therefore thrown out of the relationship, or they may be seeking to find a new mate and start a new relationship before letting go of the former, unhappy one. Says Lonnie Barbach, PhD, co-author of Going the Distance: Finding and Keeping Lifelong Love, of this type of cheating, "[It's] different from the person who cheats while maintaining the dating relationship--this person is much more likely to cheat during marriage." [Source]
Personally I still think it has a lot to do with how we are wired as animals and the fact that we are only in our 92nd year of looking at this from both perspectives equally. We also have just begun to break the habits of almost 5000 years of mental conditioning. Like I stated earlier there really isn't a definitive answer and there are as many "reasons" as there are people and until we all evolve up the hierarchy of needs, realize that sex and love are not exclusive and get a better understanding of love, which is loving all people equally, or come to a universal mindset we are gonna cheat.
Hear are a couple of things to ponder as you try to find the answer that works best for you, "No animal is 100% exclusive 100% of the time" and from a mans perspective, "We men never really grow up, we give in!"
We Are All Just Like Fat Kids In A Candy Store! Menace
I used to write a post every Friday called the Weekly (C)Wrap-Up and I would add some cutesy title behind it highlighting the biggest story that caught my attention during the week then I would decide which person that made the (C)Wrap-Up was the worst person of the week, but when I stopped writing about 2 years ago I also stopped watching the news and reading the blogs and basically said fuck it all! So I am really lacking about what's really going on in the world and I apologize for that. I have forgiven myself and I hope you guys can forgive me and we can try to get this thing started again! This post every week was my signature piece and I really missed writing it and I want to get back to writing it but I have to get back into the daily bump and grind and so far I haven't had the stomach for it however, I did watch a bit of the Anthony trial if that counts? Again I haven't been as vigilant as I used to be so bear with me as I try to make some order out of all the chaos!
I put that space shuttle pic in there cause its cool and it is historic because it is the last one at least funded by my tax dollars and now I will never get to ride in it! Remember the space program started back in 1962 almost 50 years and what has it really produced?!
But lets get it poppin'!
NOT GUILTY!!
Okay so she got away with murder same with OJ and just like OJ she is going to say or do something that is going to put her back in jail or worse Karma's pimp hand is going to come down real hard on her ass! However, she as with OJ was judged by a jury of her peers and was acquitted! She went through the legal system just like you or me and got off! I know everyone is mad and disappointed but like with the OJ trial as with this one we have to put the blame where it belongs...The jury of course! No just joking. The blame sits clearly with the prosecution...From the LA Times :
If the demonstrators outside the courthouse were angry about the verdict, they should have blamed the prosecution, because its approach was probably responsible for Anthony's acquittal.
First, prosecutors overcharged the case. What they knew is that Caylee's mother didn't report the child missing for a month, and that when she did, she told lies. By the time the body was found, it was too badly decomposed to provide clear evidence of the cause of death. Yet prosecutors chose to bring a charge of first-degree murder and ask for the death penalty. Why did they take this route? They tried to gain a tactical advantage, and it backfired. More!
While we are talking court and justice lets talk about the Supremes, no not Diana and 'nem but the other Supremes in the robes that make the laws. Now there were two significant rulings out there a couple of weeks ago that I just have to chime in about! First off the violent video games and since it was about a California ruling lets go to the LA Times:
Supreme Court strikes down California video game law
Banning the sale of violent games to minors is a violation of free speech, justices say in a victory for the entertainment industry.
The Supreme Court ended its term with a vigorous defense of free speech, striking down a California law that banned sales of violent video games to minors and effectively shielding the entertainment industry from any government effort to limit violent content.
"Like books, plays and movies, video games communicate ideas," said Justice Antonin Scalia in his majority opinion Monday. And he said there was "no tradition in this country of specially restricting children's access to depictions of violence. … Grimm's Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed." More!
Okay here is the deal; First I will give the obligatory nod to free speech and blah blah blah. Yes the games should be protected no matter how gory and bloody they are you have the right not to buy them just as much as the game makers have the right to make and sell them. What I think is being glossed over is the fact that it is also a big nod for good old fashioned parenting. It is not the governments job nor should it be even more added to my tax burden to raise your bad ass kids! If you do not want them to play these games start paying more attention to what they are buying and or renting and playing in your house. Yes some of those games are terrible, I was watching the Daily Show and Jon Stewart was showing a video of some girl being ripped in half but you as parents can put a stop to that. Monitor your kids purchases and do not buy any game without doing some homework of your own. Remember those violent ass cartoons we used to watch? Tom and Jerry and the ultimate Bugs Bunny, Wile Coyote, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck (the black duck) and Yosemite Sam! I swear I heard him cuss a couple of times! So another even more accessible avenue where parents should be more vigilant is TV. Lets look at some stats:
What about TV and aggressive or violent behavior? Literally thousands of studies since the 1950s have asked whether there is a link between exposure to media violence and violent behavior. All but 18 have answered, "Yes." The evidence from the research is overwhelming. According to the AAP, "Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed." [14] Watching violent shows is also linked with having less empathy toward others [14a].
An average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV by age 18 [15].
Two-thirds of all programming contains violence [16].
Programs designed for children more often contain violence than adult TV [17].
Most violent acts go unpunished on TV and are often accompanied by humor. The consequences of human suffering and loss are rarely depicted.
Many shows glamorize violence. TV often promotes violent acts as a fun and effective way to get what you want, without consequences [18].
Even in G-rated, animated movies and DVDs, violence is common—often as a way for the good characters to solve their problems. Every single U.S. animated feature film produced between 1937 and 1999 contained violence, and the amount of violence with intent to injure has increased over the years [19].
Even "good guys" beating up "bad guys" gives a message that violence is normal and okay. Many children will try to be like their "good guy" heroes in their play.
Children imitate the violence they see on TV. Children under age eight cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy, making them more vulnerable to learning from and adopting as reality the violence they see on TV [20].
Repeated exposure to TV violence makes children less sensitive toward its effects on victims and the human suffering it causes.
Viewing TV violence reduces inhibitions and leads to more aggressive behavior.
Watching television violence can have long-term effects:
A 15-year-long study by University of Michigan researchers found that the link between childhood TV-violence viewing and aggressive and violent behavior persists into adulthood [21].
A 17-year-long study found that teenaged boys who grew up watching more TV each day are more likely to commit acts of violence than those who watched less [22].
Even having the TV on in the home is linked to more aggressive behavior in 3-year-olds. This was regardless of the type of programming and regardless of whether the child was actually watching the TV [23]. [Source]
Now that is just TV we are not even talking about movies! If you are really concerned whether or not your raising a psychopath start with television. Okay lets move on to the Wal-Mart ruling. From Time:
Protesters hold signs in front of the Supreme Court over Dukes v. Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. on March 29, 2011
Larry Downing / Reuters
The Supreme Court's decision to throw out a sex-discrimination suit by a large group of female Walmart employees may seem like a mere procedural decision on class-action rules. But it is a much bigger deal: it significantly shifts power from workers to big employers.
The ruling on Monday in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. puts a halt to a class action that could ultimately have included as many as 1.5 million current and former female employees of Walmart. It also weakens Rule 23, the federal procedural regulation that allows plaintiffs to join together to file class actions.
The court ruled on two issues in the case: back-pay rules and class-action standards. The Justices were unanimous in ruling that the women were not eligible for back pay, but split 5-4 — along the court's now predictable conservative-liberal lines — on the more far-reaching class-action question. The 5-4 ruling against the employees was at odds with two lower federal courts, which had approved of the class action.
The Walmart women had put forward a classic case of sex discrimination. They noted that women fill 70% of the hourly jobs at the company but make up only 33% of the managers. They also introduced evidence of serious mistreatment, like their contention that senior managers often refer to female associates as "little Janie Qs." For its part, Walmart denied that it discriminates against its female employees. More!
To add to women's woes I noticed this from one of my favorite blogspots Crooks & Liars:
By Susie Madrak So it's not your imagination: Women are losing jobs and men are finding them. Thank God we're back to the Godly order of things, right? The sluggish recovery from the Great Recession has been better for men than for women. From the end of the recession in June 2009 through May 2011, men gained 768,000 jobs and lowered their unemployment rate by 1.1 percentage points to 9.5%.1 Women, by contrast, lost 218,000 jobs during the same period, and their unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 8.5%, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. More!
And the hits just keep on coming ladies! Now I didn't know much about Betty Ford for a long time other than her name being on that clinic in California back in the day. I just thought she was being a presidents wife and doing something good for the nation by opening up clinics for alcoholics. I learned that she herself had struggles with Alcohol and prescription drugs. From USA Today:
Ford helped pioneer addiction treatment
Alcoholism was declared a disease by the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association in 1955.
"The fact that Betty Ford lent her name to the center had a profound effect on the treatment of alcoholism," said Dr. James West, a medical director at the Betty Ford Center from its opening until his April 2007 retirement.
"When she made it clear that she was the head of this place and a recovering person herself, that had a very profound effect on the whole system throughout the country."
Ford embraced the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program while being treated at the Long Beach Naval Hospital's Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Service in 1978.
The Navy pioneered alcohol and drug treatment when it discovered its sailors were abusing drugs during the Vietnam War. More!
RIP BETTY and Thanks!
Okay lets move on. I gotta blog about this guy in Michigan because it also relates to all the abuse and bad luck the ladies have been having here recently. So this guy goes on a rampage and starts hunting old girlfriends and baby mommas then the coward kills himself. From the Detroit Free Press:
GRAND RAPIDS -- Before he, in the words of Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk, "went out hunting down ex-girlfriends" Thursday and became a mass murderer, 34-year-old Roderick S. Dantzler had a long history of temper, violence and assaults on women.
His mother kicked him out of the house at 18 for serial abuse and got a court-issued restraining order to keep him out. In 1997, he went into a violent rage against his 17-year-old girlfriend, then five months pregnant with his child.
Yet Victoria Dantzler appeard not to have lost hope. When he was sentenced to prison for firing five shots at a stranger a few years later, she asked the judge for leniency, calling him "affectionate and free-hearted ... never quick to start a fight."
Thursday afternoon, she had to call Grand Rapids police and tell them her son told her that he had killed another former girlfriend. Within hours, authorities realized Dantzler had killed six more people, including another ex-girlfriend and his own 12-year-old daughter. In a rampage and police chase that rocketed around the city before ending in a hostage-taking and Dantzler's eventual suicide, he shot two more people, including another ex-girlfriend. She survived. More!
I love this quote from his momma 5 years after she had put him out cause he scared her about him being "affectionate and free-hearted ... never quick to start a fight." Yeah maybe not quick to start a fight but quick to kill someone! I also have a problem with guys like this that end up shooting themselves! If you a killer I expect you to go out like Scarface guns blazing but that's just my bullshit. Ahhh so much stuff so little time!
I don't know about you but I am so glad they are ending this space shuttle program. All that money and they have really nothing to show for it! By now I expected them to have colonies on the moon and us doing interstellar space flight. All that money WE spent in taxes and NONE of US will ever get to travel in the Space Shuttle! Good riddance! Personally I think the whole thing has been a big hoax since the very beginning. We supposedly went to the moon 6 times between 1969 and 1972 however, scientists say it will take another 15 years to get back. With all the advances in technology since then? Not too mention no stars in the pictures! Where are all the thousands of stars that should be in the pics from the moon?! Okay so that is more of my BS (belief systems) too!
And we have not even gotten to all the stuff our government has been doing while we were all engrossed in the Casey Anthony trial but thinking about radiation belts and the like has worn me down...Next weeks (C)Wrap-Up will be much better I promise!
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She didn't want to go to rehab she said, "No, No No"!
11 p.m. Report: City Leaders Respond To Allegations
