Kimi Blog – Page 35

20150523

Gay rights advance in Ireland and are defended by a Vermont mom

There's a big gay rainbow over Dublin, if that's not Jesus giving the Yes vote I don't know what is pic.twitter.com/p38LKtLgOv

— Karl (@karltims) May 22, 2015

In honor of Ireland’s historic vote to allow same-sex marriage throughout the country, Truthout’s Senior Editor William Rivers Pitt shared this fabulous Letter to the Editor from a Vermont mother addressing the community of neighbors that began tormenting her son from age 6, mercilessly bullying him and calling him a “fag” because he didn’t walk and have the same interests as other students. In 2000 Sharon Underwood wrote: read more

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Newark Students’ May 22 walkout and protest over 2000 strong

On May 22 2015, over 2000 students and supporters shut downtown Newark NJ down for several hours to create visibility and bring awareness to the horrors Newark students have experienced at the hands of Chris Christie, Cory Booker and Cami Anderson, who jointly created a plan to break the back of public education in this city.

Anderson’s “One Newark” plan has young children from a single family barred from attending the school local to their home and instead, being sent far outside their neighborhood to 4 different schools in different corners of the city. Each child must take 2-3 bus rides and spend an hour of commuting time each way to reach school. Throughout the city, public school students are denied books and sanitary food; the principals and administrative staff of the city’s most successful schools are fired; and police charges were filed against a PTA president for hanging flyers announcing the PTA’s next meeting. read more

20150518

Taking pix of or on a plane can get you clipped wings or worse

In the continuing saga of how weird America has become, HuffPost reports on the Kafka-esque rules concerning airplanes and cameras.

It’s not illegal or even against airline policy to take photos or video of airplanes, on airplanes or of airline staff. But if you do, the staff can decide to blacklist you, remove you from flights or create a report about your “bad behaviour”. They can also decide to do nothing and let you snap, or film, away without any consequences whatsoever. And by the way, these unpublished rules, not made accessible to the public, are subject to change without notice. read more

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Let evildoers fade into obscurity while we celebrate heroes

The day after the surviving Boston Marathon bomber was sentenced to death last Friday, May 15 2015, Boston Globe writer Kevin Cullen reminds us to let the evildoers fade into the obscurity of history, while we focus on the heroes. Kevin asks, “How do we forget the Tsarnaev brothers? How do we write them out of the narrative, so that the legacy of the attack on the Boston Marathon focuses on those worth remembering?”

…the Tsarnaev brothers made choices, too, and they actually had much, much more time to make them. They spent months listening to the jihadi propaganda that promised them paradise if they murdered innocents. They spent more months preparing their bombs, preparing their minds, dehumanizing the strangers they would kill and maim. read more

20150515

Empty hatred of Jews is being incited worldwide – but some people are not convinced

Stand With Us reports on the transformation of Jordanian born Abe Haak from Jew hater to ardent Zionist and shares excerpts from an interview with him. Mr. Haak gives this explanation for why Jews are increasingly becoming targets of hate in the world today:

Having failed five times to defeat Israel on the battle field, the Arab world is now intent on tarnishing Israel’s name globally, he said. Muslims and others who hate Israel are working together under “an umbrella coalition known as BDS, boycott, divest and sanctions,” and the movement is targeting Jewish youths on college campuses, “the softest part” of our society. read more

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33 brilliant tricks to keep your home organized

This is the best home item organizing list I’ve come across. I might be in love. Two of my favorites:

20150515

Why the 20 week abortion ban is unconstitutional, unjust and dangerous

keep abortion safe & legal Roe v. Wade established women’s constitutional rights to decide whether we will carry pregnancies to term. It is unconstitutional to impose any ban on abortions. Yet on Wednesday May 13, Congress voted 242 to 184 to ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. The ban will make it impossible for women to abort babies that are seriously ill, fail to develop properly or when a pregnancy threatens the mom’s life.

Don’t get me wrong – I hate the idea of aborting a fetus this far advanced in term. But this is an important point: doctors who could perform an abortion of this type probably hate it more, so it will always be difficult to find a doctor willing to perform a late term abortion. Except when there is clear medical need. read more

20150514

Real companies don’t call to offer tech support: end robocalls

Consumer’s Union wants us to know about a robocall scam that has victimized way too many people:

Benita from Washington, DC, wrote in with this warning about a phone scam where the caller pretends to be offering tech support:

“Have you received a call telling you that they notice that you are having problems with your computer, and you should go to “run” and enter a code — which would allow them to take over your computer and repair your problem? This is a major SCAM and your computer will be corrupted. Hang up — do not continue call.” read more

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A short list of remarkable truth-telling journalists

After reporting on Colbert’s public attack on David Koch at a Time Magazine Gala, journalist David Harris Gershon shares his list of truth-telling US journalists we should honor and pay close attention to.

Honor, because they are ‘swimming upstream’ in an era of cowardly and self-interested reporting. He starts off with, “Stewart. Colbert. Maher (at times),” and expands his list to include:

As According to Fish and kovie point out, it’s important to recognize those journalists and political commentators who swim upstream in their efforts to serve as truth-tellers, such as (to name just a few of my favorites) Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Robert Scheer, Paul Krugman, Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald. read more

20150508

Obamas celebrate Native American youth with website & tribal gathering

The White House launched its new Generation Indigenous (Gen-I) portal to serve as a one-stop shop for Native youth.

The Gen-I initiative focuses on improving the lives of Native youth through new investments and increased engagement. This initiative takes a comprehensive, culturally appropriate approach to ensure all young Native people can reach their full potential. Gen-I will help improve the lives of Native youth by promoting a national dialogue and policies and programs to mobilize and cultivate the next generation of Native leaders. Key programs address: education, health and nutrition, juvenile justice, housing, and youth engagement. read more

20150503

What Google knows about you & how to manage some of it

6 links that will show you what Google knows about you. You can manage some of the information and other stuff you can find out about.

20150503

Get your mornings and your life under control – like the big guns do

World Economic Forum reports on the morning habits of 12 highly successful people. I especially like this one.

Andrew Yang, CEO of Venture for America, keeps his a.m. routine simple.

The first Yang does when he wakes up? Push the dog off him.

Next he’ll check on his wife and son. If his son is awake, he’ll spend time with him before heading to the office. If not, he hits the gym.

If he needs an a.m. pick-me-up, he’ll open a memo file on his phone and record three things he is thankful for. “The things I’ve typed on other days are still there,” he says. “It’s a long list. Always helps.” read more

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Why my husband is finally paying child support

For a long time – years, in fact – I didn’t want to point the law at my husband to help me collect unpaid child support. I thought about the welfare of his minor children in Colombia and the fact that as an undocumented immigrant my son’s dad could be jailed for a while and then deported. None of which wouldn’t do any member of two families any good.

But things change. So, what did change?

For one thing, our children grew up. Luís’ youngest child is older than my son Ari by about three years, which means that right now he’s about 23. He also no longer lives in Colombia – his mom re-married and took their son to Curação, where they live comfortably with her new husband. read more

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Facebook also blocks mention of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders

Facebook is 0 for 2 today. Doing a great job suppressing the progressive voice, which is not surprising given its founder is a great friend of conservative darling @corybooker and heavily supports the conservative agenda.

A few minutes ago I reported that Facebook wouldn’t let me share news about Newark’s new civilian police review board. Now they won’t let me share a Bernie Sanders quote either…

Most Americans, their reality is that they’re working longer hours and for lower wages ~ Bernie Sanders read more

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Facebook blocks news about Newark’s new civilian police review board

Facebook wouldn’t let me share a NJ.com article about Mayor Ras Baraka signing into law Newark’s new civilian police review board. This is what I wrote them:

Racists who rejoice in black and brown men being killed want to block this news from being shared. It’s completely legitimate content posted in a major newspaper about the signing into law of a Newark police review board.