Amen - Christmas Spiritual

"Amen" - Gospel Christmas

Follow link for more info on concert.

~ Merry Christmas ~

Odetta: Rest in Peace

Best said by Christopher Chambers on his side bar at Nat Tuner's Revenge.

Odetta - Midnight Special [1957 studio recording] (1930-2008)

Happy Thanksgiving

One of My Favorite Things

My Favorite Things/ John Coltrane

Hurry up and Wait

Hurry up and Wait

It's an expression long associated with life in the armed forces: the endless lines, the delays while an assignment is being readied, the long night before a major battle, and finally, the anticipation of final orders. For some who serve during war, the sounds of battle remain tantalizingly distant, as they are left waiting stateside for the duration.

This the beginning of a section of the Library of Congress, Veterans History Project. This project features many veterans stories. These stories describe not only the heroic, exciting, transforming but also the mundane. One story, Irving Oblas' features a quote which is the essence of Hurry up and Wait. I and others have waited months for orders, being in that netherworld of doing odd jobs and many platoons learning the glory of raking sand. There was that anxiousness during Viet Nam from soldiers I knew, on where they would be assigned. The draftees who would rather be elsewhere, submitted to the mundane. If orders came for Viet Nam, they would sigh, but never the less would selflessly serve.

The President Elect - Barack Hussein Obama

WOW!

I had not been one of those who thought it would never happen in my lifetime, until recently when I entered the world of the net. Things said here and groups devoted to keep racism alive and well, abounded. I never underestimate the influence of such rhetoric and I didn't know how much it would influence an election. I didn't want Barack Obama to win because he was black, but I didn't want him to lose, because of it.

I don't have expectations that the world will instantly change or that Barack Obama will be able to govern extraordinarily, but I know that it will not be an ad hoc, seat of the pants, let see where that goes, presidency. Peoples liberties won't be abridged, the US will not become communist and terrorist will not be sleeping in Lincoln's Bedroom.

I don't have much more to say, but to say I am truly proud today.

VOTE

Are there not enough issues?

I have recently encountered a new blogger strategy for McCain Campaign. Using anecdotes, rumor, and a little factual information to say Obama supporters are naturally thugs or that thugs have Obama's support. What gets me, is the anger behind this, while the bloggers are trying to pretend to be disinterested and intellectually honest.

The Event - The Vote

Last Saturday my sister sent picture's of her, her mom and daughter voting early; she entitled the pictures 3 generations for Barack Obama. In some of the pictures they are smiling and standing proudly all dressed up. I really didn't think anything of them voting on a Saturday, dressed up, until I saw African American Political Pundit's post about a 106 year black woman voting in Atlanta, she was dressed up too. I do not know if many people dress up to vote, but I do feel the vote is worthy. It isn't even necessary to single out this election, it is always a historical event. Me? I'll trudge in before I go to work, probably looking like a ragamuffin, since the work I do, its best not to wear something that could get ruined; but then, what is important is that I have voted and it counts.

I need a hugh platform

Yesterday I head this woman interviewed about whom she would vote for. One of her reasons as to why she would vote McCain/Palin, she said she could not vote for someone who was named Obama; that his mother was an atheist, his father a Muslim and his Christianity was not in the Bible. I felt like she wrapped up all the stereotypes in that one name.

This made me want to shout from the world stage, that if the African slave had kept their real names, Barack Hussein Obama would be as common as Andrew Jackson. Also that many versions of Christianity had justified slavery and Jim Crow and had created schools in Virginia to subvert desegregation.

The story where I saw the interview was broadcast last night on PBS' NOW called Virginia's Vote, the lady's comment comes near the end of the segment.

Deja Vu

When you live long enough, you get to see history repeat itself. In my childhood, the fear was Communism and if the Russians would use the Bomb. A national paranoia was stirred up by Joseph McCarthy and his hearings that tried to weed out Communist in every faze of life, even though is was legal to belong to the Communist Party. In the south with an emerging civil rights movement, the white southerner in order to discredit civil rights leaders, tagged them communist. It must be a communist conspiracy and instigators who came south to stir up their Negroes. This could then be presented to the nation as acceptable rhetoric as why it was justified to vilify civil rights and shroud their racist attitudes. The strength of the civil rights movement did push the white southerner to show his real intentions.

Fifty years later, terrorism has replaced communism. There are no McCarthy hearings now, but bloggers and the McCain's presidential campaign are stirring up the paranoia. The intellectual rhetoric of the bloggers is falling apart on the ground, where the McCain's campaign is creating suspicion, mistrust and inciting violent outburst. A terrorist is the Democratic nominee.

McCains dangerous game backfires as nutjobs scream "Kill Him"

DN! "KILL HIM!!![OBAMA]." PALIN SAYS NOTHING IN RESPONSE.

So easy to lead the silent bigots into revealing themselves, just as the segregationist move from "communist instigator" to "uppity nigger," saying "he's an Arab" probably implies the same.

Palin proved she's common

Yesterday.

They all look alike

Or is it "Birds of a feather..."

Is there nothing new under the sun?

Twice this week I have been told that since the events on 9/11, partisan politics has been stronger than ever. Divided to the point where we have become two countries; Us and Them. This morning I saw an educational project on TV which gets students involved in solving problems. Some novel ideas were presented to some old problems, which made me think that in the future, there has to be a new approach to government and problem solving in order to maintain the integrity of this country. I had once thought that the constitution was a document that would forever be the idea. The parties quarreling does not reflect that we are now in the 21th century with problems no eighteenth century person could have imagined. We as a society do not even define the role of government in maintaining a civil society. We are stuck, in trying to define ourselves by the past. I would hope that our youth find a different approach to government and be wary of ideology guiding their creativity. Our technology is new under the sun, that is in human history, so why not our philosophy and politics.

The Unanswered Question

Charles Ives

This Year

Seven years have passed, grief and anger have subsided in the nether regions of the mind, but this date always reminds me that no one has yet to pay for committing this crime. Over five thousand dead, the victims, our casualties and untold tens of thousands civilians dead; in our government's pursuit of its agenda. I do not say War on Terrorism, because the Al Queda we were told that were responsible; still alludes us. The second in command in Iraq and the chauffeur is all we had? It seems that Osama Bin Laden will die a natural death, because our war has become a War on Civilization, not a war to bring Justice for all the dead.

Dynasty Update

BBC News headline: Bhutto's widow wins presidency

An update to my post Dynasties.

Dagny Taggart she ain't

Sarah Palin is being adored because to some she is the embodiment of their fantasy woman, Dagny Taggart, the brash individualistic heroine of Atlas Shrugged. This seems especially evident since the Republicans didn't have a counterpart to Barack Obama.

I have gotten old enough, where the allusions I make are not understood, but I did have to say this.

Experience

In situations at work, when a decision needs to be made, and senior management will not step up to the task; I am often heard saying

"How do they manage their personal lives, if they can't make a decision?"

Sometime in family situations, decisions have to be made that affect lives profoundly. There is no one else to do it. It may not be a right decision, but most of us will make the best decision with the choices we have.

My initial issue with Sarah Palin was wondering if her governance would lead to more imposition of religion on the state, since she wold have a high probability of becoming president if the McCain-Palin ticket won.

After reading articles about Palin and blog about the rumors about her pregnancy, her judgment after her water broke, this late breaking disclosure of her daughters pregnancy, I am now clearly questioning the maturity of her experience. I am not blaming her for her daughters pregnancy, but you would think she would have told this to John McCain. It has been 4 days that the rumors have been floating, so why had it taken so long to explain her daughters pregnancy.

H/T Plezworld & News

Old and singular

I have been called bitter, because I thought I had deserved more in life and said so. I am invisible, because I am older and I am also singular.

I became a singular person during my last marriage, I can’t really say how this happen. I have never been an outgoing sort of person, but I had had a few friends before.

I thought I would take a vacation and now I find that I am penalized for being singular. The better bargains are for double occupancy.

Too old to get a date, but not quite old enough to get those senior discounts.

My View

This is not a proper forum; the inverview at at Saddleback Church of Senators Obama and McCain by Pastor Rick Warren. I think this is quite different, than a candidate attending a church and giving a speech.

We stop the fiddlers

While all the philosophical bull about health care is going on, in the think tanks, blogs and the presidential candidacy; people are being made poor and dependent, trying to stay alive. Quite often loosing their dignity and abused by the personnel helping them get through the paperwork. I think the worst is losing what you have worked for, and change in the quality of life, as poverty, not illness, brings. In the mist of surgery, chemotherapy, pain medications and other sticks, jabs and tests; coherent decisions have to be made more about your finances, than what you are required to do for your illness.

Space Travel, a thought

The Bubble Nebula from NOAO

Credit: Brad Ehrhorn & Adam Block, NOAO, AURA, NSF

While I was watching the preparation and launch of the last Martian Lander Phoenix; I began to think of a spacecraft powered by a CERN accelerator. CERN had been in the news lately because it was ready to come online, and some scientists think the experiments will be unsafe. It is suppose to create new particles and perhaps mini black holes. I was thinking if the could create mini black hole perhaps it might manipulate gravity such that it could use the effects of gravity to propel matter with high mass. Create a bubble of anti-gravity around an object that could of bounce off earth’s gravity. Like when you push magnet together of opposite poles and let go, they fly apart; I should say repelled. The problem would be to get a portable accelerator and figure how to power it. I am sure that we can figure how to create the anti-gravity, by finding particles with this property.

You see I imagined the space ship and the sound as if I had seen it in the future.

When the race of spades is the largest trump card

Just saw this article Graham: It's a "lie" to Say Obama Not Injecting Race into Campaign.

“To say that Barack Obama did not intentionally inject the idea of his name and his race is a lie,” Graham said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

“There is no doubt in my mind that Sen. Obama is trying to suggest that he is the victim of something,”

The only people that have ever said the word race are Obama's detractors and those who are calling out the right's antics.

Once again the Race Card is being played by white folks as a trump card to win this election. They don't think "drilling for oil" is a big enough issue to make folks pull that lever for McCain.

A Manufactured Crisis

The crisis of the food supply dwindling, due to the use of grain to make ethanol. The politicos saying that Mexico will starve, their will be less grain to supply the hungry of the world. Grain will be priced out of the market for poor countries.

The crisis would become so, because of the money manipulators, placing all their bets on grain, specifically corn.

The one thing politcos can't change is sugar and cellulose can can be made into ethanol.

Fermentation of sugar

C₆H₁₂O₆ → 2 CH₃CH₂OH + 2 CO₂

sugar --> ethanol + Carbon Dioxide

Wikipedia:Ethanol

Cellulolysis (biological approach)

There are four or five stages to produce ethanol using a biological approach:

1. A "pretreatment" phase, to make the lignocellulosic material such as wood or straw amenable to hydrolysis,
2. Cellulose hydrolysis (cellulolysis), to break down the molecules into sugars;
3. Separation of the sugar solution from the residual materials, notably lignin;
4. Microbial fermentation of the sugar solution;
5. Distillation to produce 99.5% pure alcohol.

Wikipedia: Cellulosic ethanol


There are more than a few sources of sugar and cellulose, for example, sugar beets, switch grass, sugar cane, and garbage. This a scientific fact, corn is not the only source of ethanol. The politicos cannot manipulate that chemistry reaction to suit their purposes, like they do with the science of Global Warming. Today I learned that the lowly plant, Algae can produced ethanol.

It was refreshing to hear Senator Obama say we should look to Cellulosic sources other than food stocks to produce ethanol. He mentions switch grass and wood chips as a source during his interview at KY3 Political Notebook while he was visiting Missouri. View his answer during the interview answering the question, What's his position on mandating ethanol?


H/TNot Right About Anything

Beware! Black and White World

The fear that collectivist will create the next Nazi like regime exist.
Creates fear in this persons mind, that it will be the individualist who actually does this.

In defense of liberty, their idealism so perfect, that imperfection can not be.
They will demand that I see.
O me, an imperfect being, a person oppressed.
My liberty suppressed.

The 11th Anniversity of Independance: More work to be done

Courtesy of www.aviewoncities.com

This picture might represent how Independence Hall looked as the Convention adjourned to July 5, 1787 .

Monday, July 2, 1787
Debate of how the 2nd branch of government should consist and as ever, a committee was formed.

On the question for committing ¹⁵ "to a member from each State."

Massts. ay. Cont. ay. N. Y. ay. N. J. ay. Pa. no. Del. ay. Md. ay. Va. ay. N. C. ay. S. C. ay. Geo. ay. ¹⁶

The Committee elected by ballot, were Mr. Gerry, Mr. Elseworth, Mr. Yates, Mr. Patterson, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Bedford, Mr. Martin, Mr. Mason, Mr. Davy, Mr. Rutlidge, Mr. Baldwin.

That time might be given to the Committee, and to such as chose to attend to the celebrations on the anniversary of Independence, the Convention adjourned till Thursday.

From the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 by James Madison

Regulated Militia = Self Defense?

Amendment II, United States Constitution

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html#amendmentii

Nowhere do I see the constitution giving one the right to self defense in that amendment. I wish people would stop using that argument. The unalienable rights are intrinsic to humanity and not something the constitution has conferred as so stated in the preamble. How we got to view the 2nd amendment as an extension of an unalienable right is beyond me. This is why I don't think it is for an individual, but for a group. To form a militia, the group has to be of like minded folks, there is no such thing as a militia for one. My first thought would be community having the right, and I would think the community should have the right not to bear arms.

I think the writers of the constitution were literate and knew the difference between the plural and the singular. It did not say "the right of each person." I think they were cognizant of the impact an individual would have in the pursuit of freedom, as certain individuals had sparked the sentiment of rebellion.

Maybe this is not much of an argument, but would it take 22 bound volumes to make this argument?

Seasons

Older men in fall
In their summer's humid mind
Do winter with spring

Another Question

How can AP sue a blogger for using quotes or excerpts, if the blogger properly cites the article? In this article apparently AP wants bloggers to pay for the use. How is my use in a post any different if I had cited their article in an essay or research paper and used their article from the newspaper, either real or on microfiche?

HT/MTA

Questions on relationships

I have no idea what the answers may be, I have only had successful relationships that last from a few weeks to a few months; my two marriages were not.

Does if depend upon the people involved, whether a relationship works as a complement? You often hear of couples who complete others sentences; is that just time together, or are they very much alike? It that something that is really desirable in a successful relationship?

Congratulations, Senator Obama

The historic moment will be when I hear Four Ruffles and Flourishes before your introduction.

Free Will

I used a quote of Senator Obama's in my post, Lives Undone by Words of Reconciliation, which leads to question whether we as blacks have free will over our own destiny.

....wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had power and you didn't. If he decided not to, if he treated you like a man or came to your defense, it was because he knew that the words you spoke, the clothes you wore, the books you read, your ambitions and desires, were already his. Whatever he decided to do, it was his decision to make, not yours, and because of that fundamental power he held over you, because it preceded and would outlast his individual motives and inclinations, any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning. (85)

Has he forgotten the words of his youth, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. It has now happened in the political arena, not the Basketball court. Has he sold out using his freewill or was this predestined. No other candidate has had to leave their church or give up their faith in order to run for president. NONE ! All those who have questioned Barack Obama's faith; could not say that in fact they agree with all of the theology of their religion, that is if they even understand it. I can not say that being raised Presbyterian, that at the time, I ever was able to grasp the concept of predestination.

I am angry and didn't have the words to express my outrage over Senator Obama resigning from his church. In some ways I found the words, although they are not mine. From a quote in The Baltimore Sun's The Swamp, Obama's independence from that pulpit, by Mark Silva.

The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and president of the Interfaith Alliance, calls it "a sad day in American politics and even sadder in American religion.''

"No candidate for the presidency should ever have to resign from or join a particular house of worship in order to be a viable candidate for that high office,'' Gaddy says. "To make such a decision for political reasons dishonors religion and disrespects the Constitution. This is a sad day in American politics and even sadder in American religion. Sen. Obama is at the center of the storm, but all who wed religion to partisan politics share responsibility for this tragic development."

This expresses some of my outrage, but it doesn't cover the way it has played in Obama's campaign. It has been used to shape what kind of black man Obama must be, beyond moral and just.

Silva begins his post with this.

On this Sunday when a candidate's church again has become the focus of his campaign - something which Sen. Barack Obama has attempted to resolve by removing himself from that congregation - many voices will be raised.

Although several Afrosphere bloggers have anticipated this here and here; I haven't heard a lot of voices yet, except the one in which Silva quotes.

Obama had failed, not that these events had been a test, but to withstand a minor crisis in his campaign; what will he do in a world crisis. He had also failed to understand that it will only cost him the voters who thought he understood his identity; the others will find some other issue to nick pick, so they can say it isn't race the reason that they aren't voting for him. Many will be glad he resigned, because now they feel he is the neutral race candidate. A Rev. Wright will not let those same people relax in their delusions about America, in fact Obama's association with what is considered too black, spawns unrest. What they want is the "Invisible Man". Isn't that what they thought he promised?

This brings me back to free will. One has to look at America honestly and not thought the eyes of what has been, but what is. For a person who is perceived to be black, society is a maze, with predetermined outlets to success; except that person enters without knowing about the maze, he only knows he will have choices to make and can anticipate what most will be. Since the maze is huge, there be many paths which are successful, which give him the confidence that his decision making has been good. Then one day there is a path that is a dead end and as he find his way out, he learns this has nothing to do with his good decisions.

Islam is not a Virus

I read yet another article today about Racheal Ray's Dunkin' Donuts commercial. This article stated Michelle Malkin's protest was partly responsible for Dunkin' Donuts removing the commercial from the airways.

“The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad," Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin wrote in her syndicated column.

"Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons," Malkin wrote.

Dunkin’ Donuts denied the similarity, but decided to pull the ad.

“Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial," the company said in a statement.

Malkin said she was pleased with the company’s response.

Dunkin' Donuts Yanks Rachael Ray Ad

The first thing I thought, how did she get so much power and secondly I thought why is there so much fear. Are things that look like Arab or Muslim to be feared, such that we adsorb in our brain the tenets of the Qur'an. Are we to be afraid of every Mediterranean looking person, black, Puerto Rican, or even Southeast Asian, which resemble Malkin, because we perceive them to be Muslim? Perhaps we should start to use Roman numbers again. Aren't the America people secure in their own beliefs that exposure to Islam should affect them? Hearing, seeing or touching anything Muslim only becomes an act of terror when the individual self induces it. It may be that Americans are not fearful, only the pundits that have begun to believe their own fear mongering rhetoric, which they chose in order to maintain their 15 minutes of fame. The disturbing problem is the influence these pundits have on the market and government.

Decoration Day

For many, an important part of the remembrance of our fallen soldiers is in the decorating of their graves. I have read several interesting stories this morning of citizens who have taken the task themselves.

Civil War vets honored anew
A warrior's dignity
Volunteers put flags in National Cemetary

Setting in a sleeve

This is my poor reproduction of a sleeve about to be set in a dress, coat, or a blouse. One of the hardest task in sewing, was to sew this so that the sleeve would lay smooth and flat on your shoulder. It would either come out puffed or wound up with pleats. This file shows the steps in how to get that flat look. I hope this isn't too confusing for those that do not sew.

The first thing I noticed about the FLDS women were that they looked like a 19th century version of the Steppford Wives. Each only distinguished by the height of their pompadour, color of their dress and their physical size.

When this group started, many women made their own clothes, so setting in a sleeve would have been known. Did the woman who determine the style of the dress and coat actually know how to sew, or was just to lazy to set in a sleeve. For whatever reason this has been duplicated thousands of times. The one thing I would have like to have asked the ladies, was it going against god if they had gathered the sleeve while sewing it on; or did they never think of it.

You see every one of these sleeves are pleated and so are their coats. This could be that style, but usually it is a way a novice copes with setting in a sleeve.
I do think this is just specific to this one church.

2nd Amendment: A Rant

To some the 2nd Amendment is above all others in the constitution, even above the 1st. I didn't think the order made any other more important than another. Those who would argue that the 2nd Amendment is sacred would argue the uselessness of the 14th. Some think that the right to bear arms is a natural right and therefore should not have any law that prohibits or regulates this right. I have given these thoughts before, on another post recently. Since then another 3 year old has shot herself in the head, and a brother of my son's friend was killed today, just 18 years old. The latter I knew as a very small child and can't imagine his death. I don't have any details. I do know that there are other reasons why using a gun and murder is commonplace, but I do think having guns is not a natural right and some restriction would save lives. I also think the machismo and uber patriotism that is enmeshed in the defense of the 2nd Amendment, is part of the American myth, which would make any other point of view, harder to prevail.

These same people talk about responsibility; if they don't think they owe a responsibility to society to regulate their gun sellers or have other restrictions that might actually reduce the number of weapons on the street, then I think they should all live as hermits outside the society. There is a responsibility as a member to make society as viable as possible. We do have restriction on speech in certain circumstance, so why is liberty at the greatest risk, with restrictions on gun purchase. This is going to be the next battle; Pennsylvania, NRA and the City of Philadelphia. I think these people live in the 19th century and think there is some kind of Code of the West. They think their children are more mature to handle weapons than to handle sex and other children are just born thugs. I think some think that the more the other children murder each other; that it would be good riddance. They think the other children have superior prowess, because they always say that if they didn't have a gun they would kill with a knife. That's possible, but let get real; the probability of an ordinary child, unskilled in knife fighting, killing someone is much lower than with a gun.

You know, those same people think their weapon would solve the violence. If they lived where guns were sold out a trunk two blocks from they lived, I think they would live in so much fear that they would probable kill pre-emptively; Not in self defense, as it is so often depicted in their fantasy laden scenarios.

Hathor's Evolutionary Theory 157

I have recently learned, that I have Diabetes. Yes, one more thing to deal with. I have been given oral medication, told to loose weight and to watch what I eat. The diet recommends that I eat whole grain breads, cereals and pasta.

Well, I bought a multi-grain loaf of bread. Since I had lost my partial, I don't have enough molars to properly eat the multi-grain bread. I'm thinking why is all this hard crap in the bread. Isn't one of the first things early man invented, was stone grinding? Humans do not have teeth like Moose or even a Gorilla's. I think those that think the bread I had was more natural, don't realize that one of things that differentiate man from other animals is that we have the ability to adapt. We have strove to make life better and livable and to extend our diet in order to survive. We ground our cereals and cooked and smoked meat. We did this many thousands of years ago, so why are we trying to live like man before he discovered fire?

An Evening Forty Years Ago

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. When I began to think about that night, I think of the failed effort of a group of us to gather with others to decide what to do. We were in an accident on our way to campus; our driver hit a pedestrian. The person, thankfully, wasn't badly hurt.

The anxiety from the accident and the inability to express anger and rage were most of my emotions, but no sorrow. Because King's death was not totally unexpected, there was an uneasy acceptance. Now was the time to act, mourning would be another day.

Tonight when I began to think about that night, I hear this music.

Adagio para cuerdas en G menor

Lives Undone by Words of Reconciliation

The words of Barack Obama in Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, his earlier biography, describing the double bind of racism and the conundrum that blacks find themselves when they express themselves as equal.

I had begun to see a new map of the world, one that was frightening in its simplicity, suffocating in its implications. We were always playing on the white man's court… by the white man's rules. If the principal, or the coach, or a teacher... wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had power and you didn't. If he decided not to, if he treated you like a man or came to your defense, it was because he knew that the words you spoke, the clothes you wore, the books you read, your ambitions and desires, were already his. Whatever he decided to do, it was his decision to make, not yours, and because of that fundamental power he held over you, because it preceded and would outlast his individual motives and inclinations, any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning. In fact, you couldn't even be sure that everything you had assumed to be an expression of your black, unfettered self -- the humor, the song, the behind-the-back pass -- had been freely chosen by you. At best, these things were a refuge; at worst, a trap. Following this maddening logic, the only thing you could choose as your own was withdrawal into a smaller and smaller coil of rage, until being black meant only the knowledge of your own powerlessness, of your own defeat. And the final irony: Should you refuse this defeat and lash out at your captors, they would have a name for that, too, a name that could cage you just as good. Paranoid. Militant. Violent. Nigger. (85)

So after Senator Obama’s speech on race, where he thoughtfully brought up the topic, told people what he understood the issue of race to be, offered words to renew efforts of reconciliation and was not willing to demonize his church or his pastor; this was not enough. Even though he had tried to run as a candidate for all people, that was not acceptable to those who thought for him to run, he had to give up his blackness. They are enraged by the fact he didn’t. You could hear the words start to pour out of their mouths; militant, violent, fraud, racist, Islamist, nigger.

You still find many white people wanting to define how one must feel, think and merge into the world. If they say you are race baiting, it must be so, because they are not racist. It doesn't matter if you are not making the argument personal. They claim your experience and tell you that even if you have suffered at the hand of racism, you can not have any pain, because they are not racist. Are you not grateful for the changes, because they or their ancestors weren't slave owners or belonged to the KKK? They are talking to you as if you are inferior. They can not understand that the conversation, itself, is a result of biased thinking. They have defined all knowledge and their words of reconciliation; negate all of your complaints. This will sometimes enrage blacks, because the words also negate their existence. It put blacks outside the American experience and in some nether land of citizenry and humanity.

When it is acknowledges that rage wont work in a day to day life and blacks fold it up in the recesses of the mind. It seeps out when blacks rationally think that they can be themselves and give their experience of the world; then words of reconciliation call them paranoid, militant, racist, victim.

In case you haven't seen or heard the complete speech.

Roland Martin post both the text and youtube video on his blog. Whose speech? Why it is Barack Obama, speaking in Philadelphia, of course.

A Soldiers Soliloquy

President Bush Is A Liar And A Coward is a powerful post by a recent veteran, UCrawford, at The Liberty Papers.

Now

Here is a blogger who understands how the recent past impacts today's politics.

Say What?

Iraqi defense minister dubious on independent security soon

by Thom Shanker

FORT MONROE, Virginia: The Iraqi defense minister said that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on to defend Iraq's borders from external threat until at least 2018.

Here's the story from the International Herald Tribune

It takes an American soldier 16 weeks; 8 weeks of basic training and 8 weeks of combat or specialized training. 16 weeks from taking an oath to deployment for many soldiers during our previous wars. We have been supposedly training soldiers and police officers for 5 years. I realize that this was in extraordinary circumstances, but 5 years and the defense minister wants 4 to 8 more? Now the US is working out a deal that might keep us there, even if the Iraqis get it together.

Shanker goes on to describe Iraq's defense minister Abdul Qadir al-Obaidi reason for his visit here; discussion of an agreement of the military responsibilities between the US and Iraq. The defense minister has a wish list too.

Qadir sketched out a shopping list that included ground vehicles and helicopters, as well as tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers.

Those, he said, are needed as Iraq moves toward taking full responsibility for its security.

In the years after that, as his nation assumes full control over its defense against foreign threats, Iraq will need additional aircraft, including warplanes and reconnaissance vehicles, he said.

Did the US destroy all the equipment Iraq had and didn't they have a chance to rebuild its military after our first war? They managed to do it after the war with Iran. I'm puzzled. I am beginning to think that the present Iraqi government intends to play at democracy, so that it can suck at the teat of America's Military Industrial Complex.

Another Hustle

When the America Civil Rights Institute accomplish what they want, how will it have advanced the cause of liberty. Abolishing affirmative action wont do it, because there is more to equal justice under the law. It will not automatically change anything and is it not going to effect the justice system. Will just saying the words make it so or really wishing hard. Hiring lawyers to take cases for individuals who rights are being abused would advance the cause of liberty. It would seem that would be a better agenda that would serve America better, than to serve some rich white conservatives.

But I guess, then one couldn't be special.

Discombobulated American patriots.

Check out this Lil Sambo site.

My blog may not be blocked yet.

Update: I was informed by blogger that her blog had problems during the extreme weather in her area and this was the reason that her blog was inaccessible from other links.

Light

Status of Status of the Art is a medical doctor and during his travels he takes extraordinary pictures. In this post Speakers' Corner captures Status' unique perspective of people. If you follow his link to the complete photo album, you will see others at Speakers' Corner; the pious, the enraged, the stoic and controlled lunacy. These are among other great photos of London. Even though I provide a link on my side bar, I was so impressed with these photos, I wanted to highlight his talent.

Breath from the diaphragm

All newswoman's voices should sound like Diane Sawyer's.
In fact, unless there is a physical reason, no adult woman should sound like this.

I'm tired!

For me and millions of other Americans, when we are said to play the victims or have a victim mentality, I will say that in some ways that is right. We have lived under a system where we were victims, without liberty and citizenship. However we did not live our lives as victims, within our isolated society. Outside we lived within a system of rules, Jim Crow. In some cases violating these rules could mean lost of livelihood or even life itself. Today, some would say that was insignificant; that was then and this is now. Since, we and the ones that made the rules are still living now and have raised several generations; how can the past not effect the present society.

I'm tired of being told I know nothing of freedom, liberty or citizenship. Unless you have immigrated from a totalitarian regime, we can certainly say we know more about living without liberty than you. It is not a philosophical premise, it is a fact.

I'm tired of hearing the way I should be. I damn well can be resentful of not having the same opportunities. Something as simple as watching figure skating on TV, as a little girl and wanting to learn how to Ice Skate. I think that is why Christianity was shoved down our throat, always wanting us to take a Christian path. We are not supposed to be angry and be forever forgiving.

I'm tired of being told who are my leaders. Questioned why I don't make certain choices. They know what's right for us. Don't they know that what they want us to do has become another set of rules.

If we become all that they want, we will be as we were before. I am certainly tired of Jim Crow.

Divided

United States and Mexico, 1839

Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division.
[Call number: G3700 1839 .B81 RR 6]

When I worked in the Records Department, I had to research property descriptions. Sometime I would find properties that lie in two counties. It is not uncommon for properties to lie in two states. I am sure most people have heard of towns divided by a state line, so why did the U. S. Government not expect to find resistance to where they want to build the Border fence, since there are properties that lie in two countries.

Interlude

Baroque Mandelbrot Zoom

"La Villageoise" by Rameau, performed by Trevor Pinnock.
Creative Commons Licence

I thought everything had been said

Taylor Marsh begins her post, by comparing Barack Obama speech to a con artist/minister's. Later in her article, Obama: Campaign, Cult or Mirage? she precedes to imply that messianic language has been embedded in Obama's campaign.

However, for quite a while something else is floating to the top of the message, and it isn't issues or answers. Oprah used it in South Carolina saying, "I do believe he's the one." Ben Smith entitled his post: Messianic rhetoric infuses Obama rallies. That was just the beginning. Inspiration is one thing. But the messianic language amidst the political reality reveals a fraud.

Ben Smith somehow believes that saying "he's the one" means a messianic person is expected.

In Winfrey's telling, the protagonist – an old woman who had survived slavery and the Civil War – would ask every child, "Are you the one? Are you the one?"

"I do believe I do today we have the answer to Miss Pittman's question – it's a question that the entire nation is asking – is he the one?" Winfrey said. "South Carolina – I do believe he's the one."

According to one academic discussion of the book by Christopher Mulvey, a professor at University of Winchester in the United Kingdom, the passage continues to ask whether the child is the one who will "carry part of our cross," a "messianic figure."

Why doesn't he ask a black church lady instead of an English academic?

If the comparison would go back through slavery, when one says "is he the one?"; it would mean Moses. To lead us out of the legacy of slavery, not to bear our pain. That is what I think Oprah believes, Obama is the leader.

It is interesting that a discussion about Barack Obama can not be complete without some religious inferences. He is either a Gospel of Liberation Christian or a Wahabist Muslim; now, he has become a messianic figure.

Mile Kidney Stones

The number of visitors has exceeded 10,000 visitors today. The majority of of those visitors having linked from this image of these polycystic kidneys. I didn't post the image, because you might want to choose whether to see. The image is rather gruesome. The person those kidneys belonged to is related to another blogger, whose blog I believe is dormant. In the past month I would say over 90% of the visitors have link to me from this image. I think interest might be due to a story about kidneys being stolen for transplant or Cojo's interview with Dr. Phil about his transplant experience. Cojo has Polycystic Kidney Disease, as do I. I had placed the link in my post Vanity and last year I had my native kidneys removed. I still have the disease, because its effects can affect other organs and your vascular system.

If this post causes more traffic, I hope that the visitors will follow the links and especially this one.

National Kidney Foundation

When you live your life under surveillance.

When do you feel that you have been violated? A few days ago, I was talking about being told that my bag and coat had to be searched, in order for me to enter a movie theater. Being searched is dependent on which theater you go to. It can be the same chain. Any way, when I was approached, I wanted to say that you can't search me, because I have rights; but I am not sure what rights I have in a privately owned theater. I know they can't force me, but they can put me out. I decide to ask for my money back and leave.

Thinking more about this. There would have been a level when it didn't bother me, if the reason had been for security and not food. Yes it would! I would prefer a metal detector. There had been a recent shooting inside the theater.

I want to know if they would stop searching customers if more people walked or boycotted the theater. Then I was reminded that in this neighborhood at some stores you have to be buzzed in and out, check your bags with a guard or someone, are followed without being ask if you need help, must have a government issued ID to be allowed to use a credit or debit card, are captured by cameras all over the store (you suspect in the dressing room) and if in a high crime district, cameras on the street when you leave. Since this is a part of your life, you don't get upset about the guard searching your bag or clothes. Life goes on.

The Personals

Single woman looking for single man over 50; who will not talk about how fit they are, how they save a buck, how they look younger, their astrological sign, how great they are at sex, kissing or snuggling, or talk about the audacity of other women not wanting to be their surrogate spouse or their porn queen.

Incorrigible

Yesterday, before going home, I had to stop by the Post Office. This took me past a school where young people, who have been expelled from other public school, attend. I notice none has any books, a notebook or even a book bag. Obviously these young people had not committed a crime, or they would be in the detention center, but now they were going to this school. What I didn't understand is why they would come to school on their own, taking the bus or walking, and not be interested in anything. They're wearing uniforms, in a public school it is not mandatory. I am not saying they are not coerced in some way, but if they were really incorrigible, would they not go to school, coercion or not. Could it be that they are just warehoused during school hours and nothing is expected? If something was expected, there would be homework and a least a few probably would have books, a notebook or a book bag. That is what I came to believe, seeing all those young people leaving school.

Another Year

This is the last few minutes of my birthday. Another year to ...

M. L. King Jr. Day

We have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life's highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished.

Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968

The Martin Luther King Jr,. Research and Educational Institute

Senator Barack Obama Speech at the Ebenezer Baptist Church

The Roland Report has the text version of todays speech.

There is no relgious test for president.

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

Unites States Constitution: Article II

That is the only requirement stated in the Constitution. So why this? Confirmed:Barack Obama Practiced Islam Who is behind these emails, articles and blogs that say Obama is Muslim not Christian and speaks of his mother's beliefs. They also imply that Barack Obama is a sleeper agent for Al Queda? More fear mongering!

The New Red Scare

Equating living in America as living in Soviet Russia, is really delusional. It irritates me when anytime a socialist policy is discussed, it is equated with totalitarianism; calling advocates pinko's and communist. I was reading a news article about California's Governor Schwarzenegger and his recent health care plan. It is being described as such.

So perhaps it's unwise to introduce a new government entitlement that costs north of $14.4 billion a year. But then, you have to understand the Kremlinology of liberal health-care reform: This effort has as much to do with politics as public policy.

A WSJ article; link may not last.

Kremlinology describing this governmental health care plan. The plan may not be a viable plan, but it hardly compares to the Kremlin. Its the Red Scare all over again, if you are not with us, you are a communist. Since this country began there has been a debate about what government should do, but never has a liberal point of view or some socialist policy been so vilified as now. It is now a way to make a person who thinks a policy might work, but isn't an ideologue, feel like a traitor. Its feels like McCarthyism has morphed into the conservative opposition.

The Reagan Year's - A perspective from an almost middle class person

During this season of presidential politics, I see a lot references to the Reagan Years. Those years were seen by some as a great transformation and Ronald Reagan as one of the great presidents. I did not become well off during those years, I guess it was because I was not well off. Doesn't make sense? Maybe, but I thought I give my view of the Reagan Years. Its not the broader picture, just how things were, in my world. I believe most people vote looking at their own world.

I did not want Ronald Reagan to be president, because of an interview I saw with David Frost in the late seventies. During that interview, I felt as if he were living in the nineteenth century. He saw America not with unlimited abilities, but with unlimited resources to be constantly exploited. I also got the feeling that if you were not better off, something must be defective about you. During his campaign, it amazed me that he got some people who didn't have a pot to piss in, to think they were the middle class or just like him. Some of those same people actually thought they got a tax break.

When Ronald Reagan became president I became poorer. Nothing trickled down to me. All I can say positive was that I was still working.

In my world his tax break gave the company I worked for, another leased BMW, not one piece of capital equipment. Raises were frozen for a year.

His tax break took my loopholes away, e.i. interest on auto loans, credit cards,etc. So my tax bill went up. I had always paid taxes before. I never thought that in itemizing deductions of that interest was the same as a corporate tax shelter. Who knew.

The high interest on money market and certificates of deposit only benefited those who had money saved in those instruments. For others it meant 14 to 18 percent on home mortgages and up to 21 percent on an auto loans. My savings had gone to purchase a home and luckily before the interest rates had gone up.

For some reason, even though the oil crisis was over, heating oil and gas kept going up; my utilities doubled.

I wasn't impressed with Star Wars, because sometime money will not make technology jump ahead. I wonder when people make that argument for government funding of the NIH for cancer, why they cant see that for the Defense Department.

I did not feel his blustering speeches to the Soviet Union sped its collapse. It was already happening and had been for some time. It just that Americans don't pay attention.

I guess for many he implemented the policies they wanted, but I wish they would stop anointing him as a great president. I think greatness would be agreed by everybody.

Wishing All
a
Happy New Year!

Old age is a bitch?

If Hillary Clinton looked like this,

would you have this used for this?

Maureen Dowd's take on this.