Saturday Reads: Taking Aim and Hitting the Target
Posted: November 26, 2011 Filed under: Congress, cyber security, Egypt, Foreign Affairs, Hillary Clinton, legislation, morning reads, religious extremists, Stock Market, the internet, Violence against women, Women's Rights, worker rights | Tags: Black Friday, Facebook, Gov. Brownback, Kamal el-Ganzouri, police brutality, slavery, Slavery Footprint, Twitter 51 Comments
Good Morning!
I have some juicy links for you this morning…so go get your cup of coffee, cause it’s gonna be a long post.
There is a lot going on in Egypt…Egypt new PM claims more powers than predecessor – Yahoo! News
Egypt‘s military rulers picked a prime minister from ousted leader Hosni Mubarak‘s era to head the next government in a move quickly rejected by tens of thousands of protesters, while the United States ratcheted up pressure on the generals to quickly transfer power to a civilian leadership.
[…]
Kamal el-Ganzouri, 78, served as prime minister between 1996 and 1999 and was deputy prime minister and planning minister before that. He also was a provincial governor under the late President Anwar Sadat.
In a televised statement, he said the military has given him greater powers than his predecessor and he wouldn’t have accepted the job if he believed military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi had any intention of staying in power.
“The powers given to me exceed any similar mandates,” he said, looking uncomfortable, grasping for words and repeatedly pausing as he spoke. “I will take full authority so I’m able to serve my country.”
He also spoke about not being able to form a government in time for elections that were scheduled for Monday. The US issued a statement:
“We believe that Egypt’s transition to democracy must continue, with elections proceeding expeditiously, and all necessary measures taken to ensure security and prevent intimidation,” The White House said in a statement. “Most importantly, we believe that the full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and inclusive manner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people, as soon as possible.”
The stance is significant because the Egyptian military has over the past 30 years forged close relations with successive U.S. administrations, receiving $1.3 billion annually in aid.
El-Ganzouri’s appointment was announced by state TV following a meeting late Thursday between him and Tantawi. Tantawi was Mubarak’s defense minister of 20 years and served in el-Ganzouri’s earlier government.
Almost forty people have been killed in the last five days as protest turned violent against the military’s actions regarding a formation of a government. The generals apologized for the deaths, but their choice of prime minister angered the Egyptian people whose uprising earlier in the year brought about the ouster of dictator Hosni Muburak. Many believe that Egypt’s military has hijacked the revolution…by placing a member of Mubarak’s regime in control. Protestors have vowed not to leave Tahrir Square until the military resigns and is replaced by a civilian presidential council.
But not all of Egypt is angry at the military, it seems a bit like perfect timing. Egypt’s military leaders are bringing their own show of support. Egypt Military Tries to Woo Wider Public Beyond Protesters – NYTimes.com
Some call it the silent majority. In Egypt these days, the preferred term is the Party of the Couch. And in that ill-defined constituency, sometimes more myth than reality, Egypt’s ruling military has staked its credibility as it seeks to fend off the greatest challenge yet from protesters seeking to force it from power.
Drawing on sentiments pronounced Friday in the grittier parts of Cairo, even just a few blocks from the protests in Tahrir Square, and in a defiantly nationalist rally near the Defense Ministry, the military is offering either a canny read of Egypt’s mood or yet another delusional estimation of its popularity, a mistake that has bedeviled so many autocrats. With a mix of bravado and disdain, it has hewed to a narrative first pronounced after it seized power from President Hosni Mubarak in February: It bears the mantle of Egypt’s revolution.
“Egypt is not Tahrir Square,” Maj. Gen. Mukhtar el-Mallah, a member of the 20-member military council ruling since February, said in a news conference this week. “If you take a walk on other streets in Egypt, you will find that everything is very normal.”
In much of Cairo, and elsewhere in Egypt, the military has found a receptive audience for that message in a country buckling under a stagnating economy and a lurking insecurity. Even as it promises to surrender power by June, it has deployed all the platitudes of authoritarian Arab governments: fear of foreign intervention, fear of chaos, and fear of the rabble. One doctor quipped Friday that the sole change since the revolution was an extra digit added this year to cellphone numbers.
The concern seems to fall on who will lead Egypt’s government, if not the military…then who will it be.
“They think they can fill up a square?” asked Marwan Helmy, a 65-year-old high school teacher at a boisterous pro-military rally that convened Friday in Abassiya, a few miles from the far bigger antimilitary demonstration in Tahrir Square. “We will fill all the streets of Egypt and support the military. We can’t be silent any longer, the country is unraveling. Who gave them the right to represent us? Tahrir is not Egypt!”
Thousands turned out for the Abassiya rally, waving flags, chanting slogans more visceral than meditated and crowding overpasses and the square below. In its ardor, it seemed to manifest a militant nationalism that added a new wrinkle to all the divides in Egypt pitting Islamist against secular, rich against poor, and city against countryside.
It is going to get more contentious in the coming weeks. When Mona Eltahawy writes up her experiences being arrested and assaulted by the police and Ministry of the Interior…I am sure the truth will eventually come out.
Next up are some articles about present day slavery. First is a link to an Al Jazeera video report: The Al Jazeera slavery debate – Slavery: A 21st Century Evil – Al Jazeera English
Why, hundreds of years after it was legally abolished, does slavery persist? The last episode of Slavery: A 21st Century Evil is a televised debate in which this question, among others, was posed to a panel of those who direct or seek to influence government policies on slavery across the world.
The debate was held at Decatur House on Washington’s Lafayette Square – the site of the only remaining physical evidence that African Americans were once held in bondage within sight of the White House – as an iconic venue for the debate on a trade that refuses to die.
Moderator Rageh Omaar was joined by: Luis C d’Baca from the US State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; Kevin Bales, the president of Free the Slaves; David Batstone, the president of Not for Sale; and Joy Ezeilo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons.
This next link is to the State Department Blog, as it connects us to modern day slavery in a very personal way. One Million Footprints on the Path to Freedom | U.S. Department of State Blog
Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca directs the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Two months ago, the Fairtrade Fund launched Slavery Footprint, a web- and mobile-based application that allows users to understand how their lives intersect with modern slavery. Through a grant from the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, the Fairtrade Fund developed this tool to help more people understand the way their lifestyles and consumption habits fuel the demand for forced labor and sex trafficking.
The app works by asking users to complete a quick survey about where they live and what they buy and eat. That information is processed in an algorithm that analyzes the 400 most common consumer items and determines the likelihood that those items were tainted by modern slavery somewhere along the supply chain.
The goal announced at the time of the launch was to register 150,000 people having taken the survey by September 22, 2012, the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Twelve months to get 150,000 people engaged. What’s been revealed instead in the last two months is that people care about this issue, and aren’t going to wait on our timetable to join the modern abolitionist movement. On November 11 , only six weeks after the site launched, the millionth Slavery Footprint survey was completed. And it’s not just Americans — people from a hundred different countries have taken the quiz.
[…]
By taking the survey, they have learned that human trafficking doesn’t just affect people in faraway parts of the world. We touch this crime in the clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the technology upon which we rely — and we can do something about it. Slavery Footprint and its partners like MTV have made it possible to take action by letting companies and universities know that you care about modern slavery and that you hope they do as well.
The road to freedom is long and hard, but there are now millions of footprints on that path. I encourage you to visit www.slaveryfootprint.org, take the survey yourself, and join us as we seek to deliver on the promise of Emancipation.
![Screenshot of Slavery Footprint website, as seen on November 22, 2011. [State Department image]](https://i0.wp.com/blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2011_1123_slavery_footprint_ver2_m.jpg)
I took the survey and here was my results:
That figure is shocking, my numbers were higher than an average single person because I included my two kids in the survey. This really puts the issue of slavery directly on me, and how my family is connected to the modern slave trade. I urge you to take the survey, it will make you think about things from a different perspective.
Moving on from slavery to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Here is Hillary Clinton on the importance of eliminating violence against women.
Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of StateWashington, DC
November 25, 2011Today, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we are reminded of the horrific acts of violence against women that take place every day around the world and pledge to recommit ourselves to changing attitudes and ending all forms of violence against women and girls.
Gender-based violence is a global pandemic that cuts across all borders and impacts all peoples and societies – regardless of ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, or religion. One in three women around the world will experience some form of gender-based violence in her lifetime. The medical, security, and legal costs to countries are incalculable. It dampens economic development and tears at the fabric of societies. The health costs to women includes not only the detrimental impact on their physical well-being, such as increased susceptibility to HIV infection, but also mental health costs for both women and their children.
We need to improve our efforts to prevent and respond to this crisis. When women are afforded their rights and given the chance to pursue education, employment, and political participation, they drive social and economic progress. They lift up themselves, their families, communities, and their nations. But to build this future girls must be able to learn without fear and women must be able to make decisions about their own lives and the future of their families.
Prevention, protection and prosecution are essential to combating this violence. But we must add a fourth “P” as well – Priority. Empowering women and girls is already a priority of the United States, but we need more countries to step up and take on this challenge. The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the 16 days Campaign Against Gender-Based Violence is an opportunity to renew the commitment to free women and girls from the nightmare of violence, because the future safety and security of our world depends on it.
Geez, I can’t help but think just how much better off we would all be if she was in the White House.
You probably have to go get another cup of coffee, so go ahead…there is more after the jump.
Ah, have you ever played six degrees from Kevin Bacon? Well it looks like that number will need to be revised to under five degrees: Separating You and Me? 4.74 Degrees – NYTimes.com
Adding a new chapter to the research that cemented the phrase “six degrees of separation” into the language, scientists at Facebook and the University of Milan reported on Monday that the average number of acquaintances separating any two people in the world was not six but 4.74.
The original “six degrees” finding, published in 1967 by the psychologist Stanley Milgram, was drawn from 296 volunteers who were asked to send a message by postcard, through friends and then friends of friends, to a specific person in a Boston suburb.
The new research used a slightly bigger cohort: 721 million Facebook users, more than one-tenth of the world’s population. The findings were posted on Facebook’s site Monday night.
And of course we all are connected…now with social media being what it is, we are even closer that we were before.
The experiment took one month. The researchers used a set of algorithms developed at the University of Milan to calculate the average distance between any two people by computing a vast number of sample paths among Facebook users. They found that the average number of links from one arbitrarily selected person to another was 4.74. In the United States, where more than half of people over 13 are on Facebook, it was just 4.37.
“When considering even the most distant Facebook user in the Siberian tundra or the Peruvian rain forest,” the company wrote on its blog, “a friend of your friend probably knows a friend of their friend.” The caveat there is “Facebook user” — like the Milgram study, the cohort was a self-selected group, in this case people with online access who use a particular Web site.
In other internet news, this next link give you all the background information you need when it comes to the legislation coming before congress regarding the internet. The Definitive Post On Why SOPA And Protect IP Are Bad, Bad Ideas | Techdirt
There’s been plenty of talk (and a ton of posts here on Techdirt) discussing both SOPA (originally E-PARASITE) and PROTECT IP (aka PIPA), but it seemed like it would be useful to create a single, “definitive” post to highlight why both of these bills are extremely problematic and won’t do much (if anything) to deal with the issues they’re supposed to deal with, but will have massive unintended consequences.
Give that article a read if you want to know more about SOPA and PIPA.
We all heard about the violence on Black Friday, well here are the numbers, and they should not surprise you…
US Stocks: Dow, S&P Log Worst Thanksgiving Week Since 1932 – US Business News – CNBC
Stocks closed in negative territory in thin, shortened trading Friday as investors were reluctant to go long ahead of the weekend and amid ongoing worries over the euro zone.
The Dow and S&P posted their worst Thanksgiving week since the Great Depression on a percentage basis.
Boston Boomer sent me this next link:
Black Friday draws crowds, but spending in doubt | Reuters
Deals are always part of the picture on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year was notable for an earlier opening for some retailers and possibly for the one shopper using pepper spray to make sure she could get a popular video game system.
[…]
“It seems like a lot of teenagers were the primary shoppers, maybe because of the hour, but I think net-net it’s not really going to result in an incremental positive for retailers,” Ed Yruma, senior equity analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, said after checking out crowds at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. He said shoppers were not carrying a lot of shopping bags.
[…]
More than 120 stores at the Mall of America opened at midnight. The crowd at that point was about 15,000 people. Mall operators estimated that it was the largest crowd ever at the mall, which is big enough to hold seven Yankee Stadiums.
While eager shoppers emerged from stores around the country lugging big-screen TVs and bags full of video games and toys, it was far from certain that people will pull out their wallets for much more than the best deals this year. Shoppers with limited budgets started using layaway at chains such as Walmart as early as October.
Retail shares fell more than the overall market on Friday.
“Americans are still worried about jobs, still worried about the economy,” said Mike Thielmann, group executive vice president at J.C. Penney , who noted that shoppers were buying gifts and for themselves, and said jewelry was selling well.
That seems to be the obvious take away from the biggest shopping day of the year. People are concerned and they’re being more choosy with their money, if they are lucky enough to have some discretionary income.
This holiday is going to be a slim one for my kids, and it upsets me that we won’t be able to get them the things that they are asking for Christmas…everything just sucks!
I seemed to have wandered there a bit. This next link may be from a foreign press, but it is reporting on a police incident (a tragic death actually) that occurred in South Carolina. Police ‘killed deaf cyclist with stun gun after he failed to obey instructions to stop’ | Mail Online
A police officer killed an elderly, deaf and mentally disabled man riding his bicycle by shooting him with a Taser stun gun after he failed to obey instructions to stop.
Roger Anthony, 61, was killed as he made his way home in Scotland Neck, South Carolina, after officers responded to a 911 call about a man who had fallen off his bicycle in a car park.
The caller told dispatchers that the man appeared drunk and that it looked like he had hurt himself.
Officers said they repeatedly told Mr Anthony to get off his bike, but when he didn’t respond, they shocked him.
Of course they hit him with a taser, that is the expected police action these days…
Family members claim Mr Anthony had hearing problems and suffered from seizures. Now they’re considering whether to file a lawsuit against the town.
His brother Michael said: ‘What did they tase him for? It’s hurting me. It’s really hurting me.’
Scotland Neck Mayor James Mills said he wouldn’t blame the family for suing.
‘There has been no information that this man was a threat to anybody,’ he said.
‘If I was a family member, I’m sure I’d be thinking the same way.’
Mills said he has tried to get information from the police department about what happened to Mr Anthony, but they have turned him away.
Police Chief Joe Williams says the officer is on administrative leave while the SBI conducts its investigation.
He declined to comment further.
Horrible isn’t it? At least the mayor is not trying to cover for the cops…yet.
In other crime news, Boston Boomer sent me this link too. I had not been following these series of attacks within the Amish Community…7 arrested on hate crime charges in Amish hair cutting attacks – Crimesider – CBS News
Authorities raided the compound of a breakaway Amish group in eastern Ohio on Wednesday morning. They arrested seven men on federal hate crime charges in hair-cutting attacks against Amish men and women.
Among those arrested were the group’s leader, Sam Mullet, and three of his sons, said Mike Tobin, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Cleveland.
Authorities have said several members of the group carried out the attacks in September and October by forcefully cutting the beards and hair of Amish men and women. Cutting the hair is a highly offensive act to the Amish, who believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry.
The attacks struck at the core of the Amish identity and tested their principles. They strongly believe that they must be forgiving in order for God to forgive them, which often means handing out their own punishment and not reporting crimes to law enforcement.
Hate crimes bring a possible sentence of ten years…all these attacks stem from a dispute between Mullet and the Amish Bishops, at the core it had to do with Mullet wanting certain members excommunicated. The bishops did not feel the members broke with any of their teachings or scripture, so they would not penalize the members.
Mullet told The Associated Press in October that he didn’t order the hair-cutting but didn’t stop his sons and others from carrying it out. He said the goal of the hair-cutting was to send a message to Amish in Holmes County that they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they were treating Mullet and his community.
“They changed the rulings of our church here, and they’re trying to force their way down our throat, make us do like they want us to do, and we’re not going to do that,” Mullet said.
I don’t want to step on anyone’s faith or beliefs, but IMHO any form of organized religion will get you nothing but misery…or trouble.
Another thing that will bring you trouble…the Twitter. We’ve see what can happen to politicians dumb enough to tweet pictures of their penis bulges. Now it looks like politicians are taking the “tweet” to a new level of ridiculousness. Kansas Principal Stands Up to Governor Brownback Over Student’s Free Speech Rights [not]
Shawnee Mission East (Kansas) high school principal Karl R. Krawitz bravely stood up to the office of Governor Sam Brownback over a visiting student’s joking tweet about the Governor. Brownback’s communications office, reviewing social media scrupulously for messages related to the obviously thin-skinned governor, took great offense to high school senior Emma Sullivan’s Monday tweet from the back of a student tour group as Brownback delivered an anodyne greeting about public service and civic engagement:
“Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot”
She made no such comments at the event, of course: Emma Sullivan provided her light-hearted (and fictional) Twitter take on a typically ho-hum event featuring the right-wing governor, to her few followers. Later, speaking to a reporter, Emma Sullivan made clear their politics diverge sharply:
“We all are liberal, and we are opposed to a lot of his views,” she says. “I’m just an 18-year-old girl who knows what I believe, and I know what he believes, and we disagree. That is not going to change.”
Luckily, Emma Sullivan’s high school principal values her free-speech rights and stood up for her when contacted by Sherienne Jones-Sontag, Dear Leader’s director of communications.
“That wasn’t respectful,” responded Sherriene Jones-Sontag. “In order to really have a constructive dialogue, there has to be mutual respect.” [snip] “It was important for the organization to be aware of the comments their students were making.” Jones-Sontag says. “It’s also important for students to recognize the power of social media, how lasting it is. It is on the Internet.”
And wouldn’t you know that her principal took the side of Brownback…hmmm, does that make Principal Krawitz a “Brown Nose?”
This Kansas principal could have been a hero among educators, administrators, students, and free speech advocates across America. Student free speech is a core value of American public education, as the right move here would have reminded the governor. Instead, Krawitz is the new poster boy for craven apparatchiks everywhere who bow to the whims of unelected authority-worshipping courtiers, when they should instead educate their student charges about their civil rights versus the state’s heavy-handed reach.
[…]
Well played, gubernatorial director of communications Sherriene Jones-Sontag and Shawnee Mission East High School Principal Karl Krawitz. These two will both go far serving Dear Leader Brownback and his New Authoritarian State, the Republic of Gilead-Kansas.
Since that principal has his lips firmly planted on the Governors ass, it seems appropriate to end this post with a bit of bathroom humor…well make that bathroom video games. Men’s room in bar features urine-controlled video games | The Raw Story (And this was yet another link from Boston Boomer…Thanks woman!)
It was bound to happen.
Reuters reports that “after three years of development, the men of Britain can at last get gaming while they pee.”
The urinal-based video game system uses infrared sensors to enable users to steer down a ski slope while knocking over penguins or perform other simple actions by aiming their urine to the left, right, or center.
You know, when my son was being potty trained, I used to toss a few Fruit Loops in the bowl to make it a game for him. He would move those loops around the bowl by peeing on them…what a huge mistake that was, because now he still can’t seem to keep his aim on a direct target…inside the bowl.
According to Tech Digest, “Featuring a 12-inch LCD screen with an Atom-dual core microprocessor running Windows 7 embedded, Captive Media’s urinal game features a patented contact-less sensor unit that tracks the heat and movement of a user’s urine stream. It’s a bit like a Wii motion-sensor for wee.”
Developer Gordon MacSween told Reuters that he wasn’t certain how his brain-child would be received until “a group of American servicemen were in the bar, and I heard one of them coming out, high-fiving his mates, saying ‘Twelve!’ And his pals were saying, ‘No way, dude.’ They were going off to play and compete, and I thought, ‘This is good.’”
“Because you’ve got a minute of a guy’s time with nothing else on his mind, it’s a great time to put messages in front of them,” MacSween explained. “Sales [at the bar] have been up between 40-50%.”
This reminds me of the flies painted in the men’s urinals…you may remember this a few years back. When Humans Need a Nudge Toward Rationality – NYTimes.com
THE flies in the men’s-room urinals of the Amsterdam airport have been enshrined in the academic literature on economics and psychology. The flies — images of flies, actually — were etched in the porcelain near the urinal drains in an experiment in human behavior.
Images of flies in airport urinals have taught a lesson about human behavior, says Richard Thaler, the behavioral economist.
After the flies were added, “spillage” on the men’s-room floor fell by 80 percent. “Men evidently like to aim at targets,” said Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago, an irreverent pioneer in the increasingly influential field of behavioral economics.
Mr. Thaler says the flies are his favorite example of a “nudge” — a harmless bit of engineering that manages to “attract people’s attention and alter their behavior in a positive way, without actually requiring anyone to do anything at all.” What’s more, he said, “The flies are fun.”
Yup, there is nothing more fun for a guy than pissing, and hitting his target!
Well, that is it for today…you all will be eating left overs again, while I will be painting a fly on my toilet upstairs. Perhaps that will solve my son’s poor “stream” management problem for good.
So what are you all reading about today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I’m still recovering from Thanksgiving. Not the fabulous food but the company of two invited guests who were “swooning” over the idea of a Newt Gingrich presidency!
It took all I had to restrain myself from heaving the cranberry sauce at them but as I was also a guest myself I thought I owed it to my children who were eyeing me throughout knowing full well that I was about to explode.
These idiots fully accept that Newt is “a changed man” since he became a Catholic and are absolutely certain that he could “take on” Obama any day in a debate. Really? How does he account for closing down the government and bringing forth an impeachment process when he was doing the same thing? But I digress.
I think I ate more than was necessary since my kids kept passing me platters of food in the secrets hope that by filling my face I would refrain from arguing against the hypocrisy. It worked. Someone had enough sense to remove the wine bottle at the same time which was a fast thinking move until someone jumped in and brought up the Patriots chances of going to the Super Bowl.
A few more minutes of “we love Newt!” and I think I would have completely lost it.
Just had to share.
Your story was spectacular Pat…I can just imagine how difficult it must have been to have kept quiet. But it does bring up a good point, that there are lots of people out there who are as ignorant as those Newt crazed guest.
Mink: These people are educated and have buckets of bucks.
The hatred and loathing that Obama invokes is fueling the idea that the GOP could nominate just about anybody and their are willing to suspend their own moral outrage and critical thinking to support whoever gets the nod.
Left with poor choices delivered up on either side, this is what we are contending with.
I am unable to muster up much in the way of an Obama election but the GOP will do whatever it takes to push their choice into the WH.
That’s the difference between us and them: we may hold back and offer criticism where they will put the “awfulness” aside and climb onboard.
BTW: One of my kids just called and extended “congratulations” for remaining mute during that conversation. Knowing that I usually “give voice” to my rants he was obliged to offer thanks that this time I held back.
But I make no promises in the future should this come up again.
I would have left the table and not come back. You are a lot more tolerant than me. I almost walked out for bring drug into a circle to say grace. Youngest daughter and I just held hand and looked straight forward the entire time since her roomate and her mom had made all the food and I didn’t warn to create friction for her. I didn’t stay long because I also had to endure football on the TV continually. What makes me most mad is that these kinds of people think they are so right and that every one agrees with them. They just don’t seem to be open minded or smart enough to realize that theirs aren’t the only way to do things. It is so selfish and arrogant. If you speak up it usually does no good. I hate when I have to sit there and develop an ulcer.
Obama’s leaning towards giving more organizations exemptions. This is an outrage!
Respect Mah Forced Pregnancy Dickishness | TBogg
Geez. Glad I just stayed home and vegged out.
Huh?
A lot of Christians aren’t happy unless every one is forced to thank their invisible friend and his side kick for their misery in life. I don’t drag them into my fantasies, although I start getting ones that include lions when I’m forced to participate in their shows. The thing that really bugs me about this time of year is that you’re continually forced into participating in their things and they scream you persecute them when you ask them to be left out of it. Going to the store this time of year is like getting a root canal. I hate it when you can’t live your life normally for two months out of the year because some one else is going to get the vapors if you want to opt out of their mass hysteria and a bunch of greedy retailers play them like fools.
Yeppers, dak, I know about grace and what it is.
Re lions – You should perfect the art of roaring. I did it once, like a lion, and my tormentors ran away with their tails between their legs. Very hard on the vocal cords, though.
On second reading, I finally got what you meant – not “drug” as in substance, but “drug” as in dragged! Yeah, that’s majorly wrong, insensitive and stupid of them to drag you into their religious rituals against your will. A form of assault, really.
Ditto this. I’ve suffered through this a million times. I usually keep my opinions to myself in such gatherings because I know not everyone agrees with me, and these people never shut up about theirs. Maybe that’s part of the problem. Arrogant, bullying people never stop if they aren’t stood up to. But I can’t do it by myself!
My father was trying to equivocate Newt’s level of corruption with every one else in Washington including Clinton. I think the Freddie Mac money should stop him from every running for federal office again. Newt is like the poster child of DC corruption. He makes Tom Delay and Bill Jefferson look like pikers. I could care less about his multiple marriages or what ever superstition he chooses to embrace. The Corruption alone should deny him any standing in a political party. The guy was the first speaker essentially fined over and over for breaking laws having to do with using the speaker position for personal gain.
This is going to be a problem…Pakistan stops NATO supplies after raid kills up to 28 | Reuters
Pakistan: NATO Raid Kills 26 Pakistani Troops « VOA Breaking News
This is looking as if it will cause some serious problems, adding to the more serious issues everyone is talking about via the comments by Michelle Bachmann during the last GOP debate and the vulnerability of the nuclear sites in Pakistan (mentioned six attempted attacks and 16 sites that were not adequately protected). The latter raised more questions than answers and the Pakistani government is positioning itself to look strong and defend its sovereignty (which is what it was doing today via the media).
I loved this post on feminism and “domesticity” by Darren Hutchison
Yup. I read the WAPO item he’s commenting on yesterday. She obviously hasn’t read any of the feminists she mentions because it’s not about shrugging off being a homemaker, it’s about giving women choices. about what they want to do. Also, her idea of domesticity sounds a lot like a series of hobbies that she wants to wrap up in some sanctimonious rationalization. If she can stay home and wants to do these things, good for her. I’ve yet to meet any one of my daughters friends that are going to drop out and sew buttons full time. They are all either working their jobs or looking forward to their first big girl jobs.
The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy | Naomi Wolf
Home land Security is evil. A Prez who orders and approves drones to kill US citizens is not above approving a military organization to aid local cops in beating up peaceful protesters.
0bowma is a passive aggressive and his kind of violence is always done with many levels between him and the target.
I agree, and if we are truly for Freedom we shouldn’t fear people peacefully protesting and we shouldn’t fear the press covering the protests. It will be interesting to read about this time period eight years out, when hopefully some documents finally are released.
That was a great article. It pointed out that OWS was stepping on the 3rd rail of our oligarchs.
Great point Dak…And that is why the occupy movement got me so excited. I had hoped it would bring attention to this kind of outrageous corruption going on behind the big white columns of the Capitol, but the right wing meme being pushed by the media is turning the discussion into hippie bashing propaganda. There has to be some way to get the message out that gets the public’s attention.
Many people are now attacking Naomi Wolf for writing the truth, which in itself is a chilling affect, and we should pass the articles around to raise the alarm of the threat that is The Patriot Act on a supposedly free society.
Call congress today.
Amazing – 40 years after I reached legally recognized adult status and people are still focusing on women’s reproductive organs. Why? Personally, I cannot understand these men who have a fascination with what is essentially a physiological issue that is confined to women. Why don’t these guys take off their sanctimonious grins, eschew the publicity that makes them horny and go after their counterparts that don’t just talk about how evil women are – those guys rape and kill women. Why don’t the Steves go after them? Oh right, women are soft targets. Going after brutal people would mean they might get physically hurt. check.
My apologies, I’m seeing a lot of this crap in the news lately – you know the crap that should only be discussed by women, but there ain’t a woman who isn’t RC in the bunch discussing it? And they are few and far between. I suppose it comes to basics with these men – their semen defines them and is blessed.
MM,
Thank you for including the slavery survey and the piece by Al Jazeera. The survey and the AJ piece are truly eye openers.
This is truly a shame, as life has lost meaning while people step over a human being who is in distress to grab a dollar in savings…but at what cost? Next year I will again boycott this madness of Black Friday, humanity and love for one another is by far worth more than a quick sale.
They had to pepper spray some shoppers at a Walmart who were rioting over a $2 waffle iron. Gotta love the person who is flashing their ass because they jeans aren’t big enough already. Yup. they really need that waffle iron!
http://mashable.com/2011/11/25/walmart-waffle-maker-black-friday/
Merry Crassmas!!
I hope this isn’t a prelude to the actions of our beloved America in the event of a natural disaster…good grief…
I do place blame on the stores, because they create this madness.
I hope some of them get sued to the max, frankly.
Merry Assmas is right! Geez…
Christmas shopping is not that serious. wow….
Hillary 2012
I’ve worked retail many years, and it never seemed this desperate before…the past several years it has been getting more and more ridiculous.
Yep and it’s all artificial. Driven by advertising and hype. We are stupid people
I can’t understand how so many people can be driven like lemmings to behavior that dooms them.
thank MM for an excellent section of articles…two cups worth..cheers
Yes, she did a great round up of information for Saturday’s reads.
Thanks y’all! I appreciate it…
Has anyone taken the slavery survey? I’d love to hear what numbers you got.
I scored a 31. 😦
Hillary 2012
It’s “selfish and arrogant” for people to say grace in their own home on Thanksgiving? Uh, no, it isn’t. Surely, you know that a whole lot of people do just that every year even if they don’t bother to pray before meals the rest of the year. Why didn’t you ask your daughter to check with her roommate about their practices before you accepted the invitation? Why didn’t you just tell them that you weren’t religious? No one would’ve “screeched” at you and you wouldn’t be seething with resentment now.
I’m a Methodist. Most of us are fairly reasonable people. We have more women in ministry than any other Christian church, are officially pro-choice and recently voted to approve same-sex marriage. Methodists also emphasize mission work but we don’t force people to accept Christ either before or after we offer them aid.
Everyone has their own path. As long as their path does not materially harm me or others, I respect everyone’s right to their own beliefs. It would be nice if everyone did that.
It wasn’t their own home. It was a house my daughter shares with four other girls. I wouldn’t have gone under other circumstances. Outwardly religious people make me very uncomfortable. It’s like being around children that believe in Santa Claus and you get drug into the conspiracy of the big lie. I don’t disguise my feelings well at all. I don’t inflict my religious practices on other people when they are in my home. I consider it rude. I don’t do it as a Buddhist and I didn’t do it when I was as a Methodist or Presbyterian. I guess my family came from the school of thought that read the Jesus teaching that said to go close the door and pray in private. That any thing else was prideful. The room mate and her mom were asking for volunteers and neither of us spoke up. I thought that would’ve been a bit of a hint. I was going to sit there in silence as usual until one of the boys next door grabbed us all and made us stand in a circle holding hands. I actually felt somewhat violated but I didn’t say anything. I guess I’m so used to being around people where no one does that, that it still catches me off guard. Usually, I avoid any circumstances where I know I will find outwardly demonstrative religious people because it really creeps me out and like I said, my horror generally shows.
I misunderstood. I thought that you were at the roommate’s parents house. Since it was a home shared by your daughter, her sensibilities should absolutely have been taken into consideration.
It is not, immo, rude or “prideful” to say grace in one’s own home even if there are visitors. I believe that you’re misinterpreting that verse.
Asking people to stand in a circle, holding hands and praying should be reserved for situations when everyone present shares the same beliefs and one of the believers there should have vetoed it. I’m sure that did make you uncomfortable but, if it were me, I think that I would have simply said, “I’m not religious” and remained seated.
Still, considering how much outward displays of
I accidentally posted before I was finished.
Still, considering how “creepy” you find others’ outward displays of faith and the “horror” it generates in you, I would think that you would have thought ahead and dealt with the issue before you agreed to participate in a group meal with a bunch of people you didn’t know well on Thanksgiving Day. Surely, you didn’t think that everyone there would share your loathing of Christianity in any form.
I don’t loathe christianity. I just assume people are polite enough to not assume that any one wants to participate in whatever brand of whatever they practice unless you are specifically asked to come and it’s an implied religious celebration of some type. Dinner is not an excuse to be rude. Talking to imaginary friends is something children and insane people do. You expect kids to chat up invisible friends. You see an adult chat up an imaginary, invisible being and you cross the street. It creeps me out in that same way. None of my Hindu or Muslim friends do this kind of thing. I can go to their house knowing I’m not going to be drug into anything weird. Offering up prayers does not have to be a circus event with tears. What was really creepy was she cried even. I wanted to spend time with my daughter but frankly, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. My major professor is Muslim and does the daily prayers every day. He goes in his office, closes the door and prays. He doesn’t expect me to sit there and validate his beliefs.
I’m with you Dak, at the funeral of my friend a few month ago, I almost walked out because of the things the preachers were saying…(And that was an expected religious event.) Using my friend’s death as a reason to save souls…yes, it was a good thing he died and left his two kids and wife because it got people to come to his funeral (in church) so that they could tell the “unsaved” that we are going to hell if we don’t commit ourselves to Jesus. It was infuriating.
That’s just really tacky and horribly disrespectful of your friend’s memory and his family.
Why bother to even deny your bigotry, Dakinikat? It’s so petty, so dishonest. Be a woman and own up to it instead of playing word games where you infantilize those who are different from you. Exercize some responsibility and class and don’t inflict yourself on people whom you’re just going to mock and insult behind their backs.
Minx, it may well be that the kind of funeral that was preached was exactly what your friend and his family wanted and expected. If it wasn’t, they could have chosen a different preacher.
I wonder when you two determined that everything was all about you?
Look. I don’t care if it is Loki, Athena or the celestial teapot. It is rude. Polite people would ask if it bothers any one and not just assume every one is okay. It made both my daughter and I highly uncomfortable. It is creepy. It fills like being a voyeur to some odd disability. If I am forewarned I can avoid it by not going or preparing a response. It is a violation to just get drug into something you find objectionable.
The funeral, which was held in the largest church in town just to accommodate the large amount of mourners, was hijacked by the preacher, who was not btw my friends preacher. Derrick was not a very religious person and did not attend a church regularly. He was a good and kind person, who kept his faith and belief to himself……he was good in a genuine way, he was not a hypocrite…and did not use “Jesus” as an excuse to be a good person.
Who would want someone talking about what good there is in the death of a 38 year old deputy with a wife and 2 young kids…because it got a huge crowd to come to the funeral, and be held as captive audience to a good ol’ revival sermon about going to hell…
No, how could you think that was what they wanted? There was no good in his death…no matter what people say about God taking him early for a reason. That kind of reasoning makes me sick…and if anyone thinks there is “good” in something as tragic like this really has a fucked up sense of reality.
Bank of America is foreclosing on the widow and her children’s home, just 3 months after her husband was killed in the line of duty…where is the good in that?
The tasing of a 61-year-old man under the conditions described is outrageous. I have to wonder if the officers involved were just being lazy.
It seems that police are getting pretty comfortable using things they don’t consider deadly. Maybe it is just easier to subdue them that way so they don’t have to work as hard.
If those officers were actually trained on the proper use of a taser, they knew that tasing someone can, in rare circumstances, cause death. If the facts were as reported, I predict that small town is going to be paying a very big civil settlement to that man’s family.
Funny that a student who identifies herself as liberal was the one to use a homosexual slur to try to insult someone.