This morning I shared a chuckle with my friend Rita over the hypocrisy of finance executives who are expressing dismay over today’s lack of morality in their ‘once noble profession’. Rita agreed when I said, “What they guys do was never good, but when they were able to strut around acting like they were taking care of people by taking everyone’s money and no one knew enough to challenge that image effectively, they could fool themselves into believing they were helping people. Things have become so polarized in our society that it’s become very clear what’s been really going on and now these guys are being called out on it. Naturally, they don’t like that: it’s uncomfortable for them.”
Danger looms for higher ed student diversity
The Supreme Court has agreed to consider if it’s lawful for colleges and universities to take into account the ethnicity of a student who applies for entrance when deciding whether to admit him/her. Most institutions of higher education have been required since 1978 to make room for students who may be lower-achieving academically than other candidates because they’re members of ethnic groups recognized as disadvantaged and need the boost of a handicap to raise their area of the playing field to a level which will statistically provide a similar admission opportunity as students coming from ethnic groups with history of better academic performance.
Help for low-income families to fight an eviction demand
I’d like to direct D to some resources that may help her fight eviction.
D writes:
Looking for an attorney who would be willing to help on a pro bono basis a young family with two adorable children (under three years old) to avoid eviction from their apartment. The apartment has not received the appropriate heat this winter, and thus their children are always sick. So they withheld their rent to try to get the landlord’s attention. Instead they received an eviction notice. The court date is this Thursday. Any help would be truly appreciated.”
The Wei Family loves World Happy Day
When I’ve been praying for something happens and my prayers are suddenly answered in the most offbeat way imaginable, I see the breath of G-d moving through my life. That was the case yesterday. Rachel Wieland posted that she was headed to the city to watch a screening of The Happy Movie yesterday on World Happy Day. Wow! This sounded like a fabulous idea so I dived onto the site to look for place to see it with my sons Ivan and Ari.
This was around 3pm. I found one screening in New Jersey and two in New York which had taken place at 11am yesterday morning and one way up in New York State and then one more – in Astoria, Queens at a social club, which was scheduled for 5pm. If the boys made it home early enough from Chinese school, we could just make it! So I loaded up my EZpass card, took a shower, got ready and when their ride pulled up I ran downstairs and told them to come on, we were going to see this crazy movie about happiness. I knew Ari wouldn’t want to go because he’s a high school junior and wants to do as little as possible with his family. It surprised me that Ivan didn’t want to go either. So I pulled the mother card out of my pocket and checked. Yep, it still says, Mom has the last word – I showed it to my sons and we headed to the car and New York City. On the way, we grabbed some Wendy’s for the boys. It was dinner time and they were hungry!
Congressman Payne, we’re praying for you!
One of my family’s favorite pols has colon cancer. Congressman Donald Payne is also the first – and remains the only – African-American to serve New Jersey in our nation’s House of Representatives. We hope friends everywhere will join Ari, Ivan and I in wishing you a complete and speedy recovery, Congressman. We look forward to a future with you standing front and center in New Jersey and national politics. Here are some success stories that will give you encouragement to stand strong!
Columbia prof asks: “Where did the benefits of technology go?”
Sometimes people ask such good questions they blow me away. I know I’m going to be asking myself this one for quite few days and I’ll be reviewing in my mind snippets out of Columbia Professor Steve Unger’s Feb 10, 2012 article and other answers I think of myself. It’s a great question!
As a young engineer, a half century ago (Wow! Time does fly), I was fascinated by the ideas I was wrestling with, mainly dealing with various aspects of what is now called computer engineering. I greatly enjoyed my work in research and development. But I did have concerns over possible misuse of what we were developing, particularly about possible military applications. I dealt with this mainly by avoiding work on military projects.
Film the police. Hold them accountable to society.
This YouTube video is so striking, it deserves a space all of its own. Some of its violence is brutal, shocking and from the filmers’ perspective, apparently pointless as well. The film’s title says it all: If You See Something, Film Something (Recording The Police is a Dangerous but Necessary Thing To Do). Make sure you watch carefully and observe what’s really happening, instead of what the police are suggesting that you see: in the very first scene, the police surrounding a man say something to him about putting his gun down, but he’s actually holding a snow scraper. And then they shoot him 8 times.
Erma Bombeck’s words on living well
I spotted this in the rest room of a domestic violence shelter for women and families during the 2011 end of year holidays. It struck me as so beautiful, and tonight I had a little time to find it on the web and post it. I hope you love it too. This is the wisdom shared by Erma Bombeck after she discovered that she was dangerously ill. Just a little heads up: some of these items are tear-jerkers . . .
Do elitist terms get in the way of political progress?
OK, progressives know that Bernie Sanders is unmistakably a good guy. He pointed out recently that in a country with such a huge gap between economic classes, and with so many low and moderate income people drowning financially, any talk about cutting Medicaid and Medicare is inhuman and should be unthinkable; he’s certainly right about that, and it’s great to have a national political representative speaking plain truths on the public’s behalf like this. But then, Sanders goes on to talk about health care reforms that are still needed and throws out that ridiculous term, “single payer healthcare.”
Postpone Colombian trade agreement until workers are treated right
It’s hard to understand why the Free Trade agreement the US has made with Colombia is a bad thing, but this article lays the issues out pretty well. Basically, workers aren’t treated too well down in Colombia and when labor activists try to step in and organize unions for the workers’ protection, the activists are, “assassinated, threatened, and intimidated, and the perpetrators enjoy almost complete impunity.”
Union leaders and other worker advocates, seem to be saying that the US should throw its weight behind trade embargoes to force Colombia to improve conditions for its country’s work force. That means a US moratorium on trade with Colombia and agreements to trade, until worker conditions are put right. A few days ago, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka wrote President Obama asking him to, “postpone indefinitely the implementation of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement”. How about it, Prez?
Wealthy steal children – that’s not news in the US
After Encarnación Bail Romero was arrested for being an undocumented United States resident, Judge David Dali ruled that because she was in jail, Encarnación had abandoned her son and was an unfit mother. The judge allowed Seth and Melinda Moser of Carthage, Missouri, to adopt Carlos, who is called Jamison by his new parents. Although Seth Moser has a criminal past, the judge ignored it. In 18 federal detention centers around the country this story is played out time and again. Now, ABC news reporters are showing the pain caused to families on both sides of the involuntary adoption issue whose lives are torn apart by difficult immigration issues.
Banks must give back to the people
You just know the Washington suits and Wall Street sharks are going to try to rip Obama into shreds for his effrontery. They’ll demand to know how the president could suggest that banks pay a fee to finance the restructuring of mortgages to lower interest rates, when just the restructuring alone is going to cost them money. Well, I understand that this interferes with these people’s notion that nothing should get in the way of their (apparently) G-d given right to endlessly make money on the backs of the 99%, but I’m awfully glad voices are emerging in America who stand up to these guys and tell them, “enough is enough.”
Block Facebook invites (without unfriending people)
When I create an event on FB it’s easiest for me to just invite everyone, but two friends messaged me today asking to be removed from my announcement list. They live far from me and aren’t going to attend any of my events. I found a really easy solution from CIO.com that requires my friends to take action, but it should work great. How to block annoying Facebook invitations without blocking your friends.
Log into your Facebook account and choose “Privacy Settings” from the drop-down menu at the top. Next, click “Manage Blocking” next to the last option, “Blocked People and Apps.” This will bring you to the settings page for adding friends to your restricted list and blocking Facebook users, as well as blocking app and event invites.
Intention to Deprive (Blacks, Latinos and Seniors)
There’s so much more intentional deprivation of what the vulnerable among us need to be well, than decent people imagine: of the poor, the uneducated and also, the elderly. Intentional deprivation of some leads to the humongous prison population in the United States and, as a cousin recently pointed out on Facebook, seniors suffer from a type of forced incarceration too. Tucked out of public sight in nursing homes where they, according to Laura, “have cold meals, lights off at 7pm, two showers a week, live in (rooms smaller than some prison cells) and pay rent at $4,000 a month!”. The cost for both prison and nursing home housing is unconscionably high and in some cases the service delivery is dismal too, because these facilities are increasingly, privately owned. That means investors are concerned more about profiting from owning these places, than they are about the welfare of the residents inhabiting them. In the case of seniors, oversight is also an issue.
BIGGER attacks on internet freedom
People have a right to privacy and also a right to develop our own minds and make thoughtful decisions. Every time major corporations and governments acquire one more way to track our activities and interests, compile statistics about what we like and what we do, and use that information to control our behaviour by limiting us, selling us and brainwashing us, our independence as autonomous beings is eroded. Privacy is not something we can give up on fighting for.
They’re still trying to pass a version of SOPA/PIPA – under the national radar
Why did Congress back off of trying to pass SOPA/PIPA legislation? In case you don’t understand how bad SOPA/PIPA are, here’s a fantastic explanation of what it’s all about for “privacy, liberty loving American(s)”. I guess it wasn’t because we scared politicians with massive protests and the blackout of many internet sites. Only days later, individual states are beginning to pass the same laws on a state by state basis. Believe me, this is a planned campaign and Hawaii is only the first. Monied interests are not going to give up the right they see as G-d given to make money on everything we do and to buy real estate inside our heads where they can camp out and dictate needs and wants to us. Make no mistake, this is more than a fight: it’s a war.