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Why Middle East news is so anti Israel

In this well documented article, a former AP editor explains why all major media outlet’s Middle East reporting portrays little Israel as the big, bad oppressor of the long-suffering Palestinians – no matter what the truth is.

most important story on earth headline

For starters, the AP alone has over 40 staffers reporting on ME affairs. And, AP and all other major news outlets’ Middle East reporters are only allowed to write stories that reinforce the “Bad Israel – Oppressed Palestinians” legend. The editors of major media publications simply refuse to publish any other type of stories. read more

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Why I’m so pleased to have TextWrangler back

Textwrangler iconMy Mac note-keeping app of preference is BareBones’ TextWrangler, which I also use for coding. I love TextWrangler because although it’s a very powerful program, it’s also light on cpu usage even when I open a lot of windows and files with it. Navigating and managing open files through multiple windows is made easy with drag and drop functionality. And TextWrangler saves files on quit even if I don’t and will bring up unsaved files on relaunch.

So, how did I manage to create and access notes over the past couple weeks after TextWrangler suddenly stopped working for me? Since any text editing program will open the plain text files TextWrangler creates, I found a well-reputed free substitute in Sublime Text 2 and used that instead. I was able to open my old files and create new ones without needing to use Apple’s TextEdit – which corrupts text files by adding way too much bloat code to them – but oh boy, did I miss TextWrangler’s features and simplicity. read more

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Untrained 9 yo Dutch girl sings like an angel

AmiraThe mature, angelic voice and astonishing range of a young Dutch girl has captured hearts and souls, including my own. The purity of 9 year old Amira Willighagen’s untrained operatic voice has brought me to tears, twice now. When asked by one Holland’s Got Talent judge how she had been taught to sing, confusion appeared instantly on the little girl’s face. You can just see Amira asking herself, “How does a person get taught to sing?” – she learned by watching videos with her brother. read more

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Alone is an illusion – always act with compassion

Saving a fellow pedestrian
We may feel sometimes that we are trudging through life alone, but this is just an illusion visited upon us by the yetzer hara to make us forget that we are united on Planet Earth as one people. In actuality, we affect each other in so many more ways than we may think and certainly, in many more ways than we can know.

This brilliant under-5-minute video shows how our small acts of kindness are part of the human chain that binds us together and ripples out to multiply the good in each – and in all – of us. read more

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Gotta believe somebody

Le Creuset Demi Tea Kettle
I bought a nice little Le Creuset enamel-outside tea kettle second hand and when I washed it up, I spotted a little rust where the body meets the spout – and in the bottom of the spout. I googled on getting rid of rust and came across a delightful post. The technique suggested is for good advice for removing rust from a cast iron pot (which mine isn’t, exactly), but the poster’s counsel on how to choose a method out of all those offered in the thread, is absolutely wonderful! See for yourself: read more

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Check the laws: pepper spray may be the only legal spray

pepper spray cops
For just a minute, forget that pepper-spraying cops in this photo are wearing skirts – because this photo depicts a story within a story, and let’s just talk about the protective benefits of pepper spray.

I’ve never thought of keeping attacker-proof spray around, but if I want some, it seems like pepper spray would be a better choice than mace or other sprays. Facebook friends like wasp spray, but the drawback is that according to Snopes, it’s illegal in many jurisdictions: read more

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Must-read on the sacredness of voting

FlagOn December 14, the New York Times published Op-ed Columnist Charles M. Blow‘s opinion America, Who Are We? Mr. Blow writes on “Politics, public opinion and social justice” and his thoughts are deep and persuasive.

Last week I spoke at a seminary and graduate school in New York about the protests following the grand jury decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases.

It was invigorating and inspiring to be among so many young people with so much passion about social justice, young people beginning to feel their power as change agents and brimming to exercise it by disrupting the status quo. read more

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How do you handle mail tampering?

TD Bank Envelope openedWhen I saw this bank envelope had been ripped open, I assumed my kids had opened it, then left it in the mailbox in the hallway my family shares with one neighbor. I looked inside and found the Visa debit card I had been waiting for. But it wasn’t my kids. So, my mail has been tampered with. What to do?

Post office rep says, “First thing is to file police report, then we’ll give you the number to the inspection service and the matter gets referred over to them.”

Police officer arrived about 15 minutes after I called. He asked some questions and said I can pick up his report in 5 days at the violations bureau window. They don’t dust for fingerprints on an item like this, as it’s been handled by too many people. The officer gave me really valuable advice: that I can either replace my credit card and get a new number, or monitor my bank account for unauthorized withdrawals (there haven’t been any to date). He reminded me that replacing the card means I will need to contact any companies that make automatic withdrawals and update my data with them .. and suggested asking my bank if they will handle this as an automated service. read more

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#Afterthoughts: what disenfranchisement does

Friends share #afterthoughts in the days following #Ferguson and #EricGarner.

new age of slavery flag

Analilia Mejía, on Facebook

Analilia Mejia
07 Dec 2014 at 08:42
Watching a White Christmas for the first time this morning and all I can think of is that this exemplifies the economic disadvantage forced on people of color.. There are no black soldiers in the 151 Division, in fact no black characters asides for the AA car porter (whom at the time would have been discriminated against in employment, advancement and pay). All of the happy GI’s who created comfortable lives (enough to drop everything and head to Vermont) did so through their access to higher Ed, a growth in professional jobs and their ability to build equity in a newly created suburbia. Blissfully ignorant (or directly complicit) to the denial of the same benefit to AA GI’s. Redlining prevented home purchases and neighborhood covenants kept them out of suburbia (and its schools). Racism denied (and denies) equal access and advancement into more lucrative jobs and careers. The American Legion and VFW routinely denied claims of African Americans in pursuit of higher education, and those who did access it where barred by racist policies in many universities, or limited to increasingly strained HBCU’s and even then faced the hurdles of an inferior preparation by Jim Crow segregated AND unequal k-12 schools.. This all led to a wealth gap passed on through generations. Your comforts today are DIRECTLY influenced by your grandparents owning a home, generations of superior education impacts how well YOU did (much less if you went). This inequity is exacerbated today by the foreclosure crisis that disproportionately dismantles POC communities thanks to predatory lending. All of this didn’t happen centuries ago and hence we are past it. This systemic racism has tentacles that reach back into times of slavery, peonage re-enslavement, Jim Crow, the struggles of the civil rights era and into today with the subsequent dismantling of that dream through continued inequity in education, mass incarceration, an unjust justice system to name a few.. But much like those soldiers and Bing in that movie, most of white America is OBLIVIOUS to all of this. Insulated or intentionally blind. Lucky them, they get to dream about a White Christmas while black mothers are mourning their sons and WE continue to lose our belief in the system this holiday season… read more

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Gotta love these frank-speaking tekkies

How’s this for plain speaking? We don’t want your opinion, dude. Answer the poster’s question or STFU:

Please refrain from discussing your opinions on design and “why” the poster is asking the question, unless it pertains directly to the answer (or expands on it). In this case, it serves no purpose. We like to see direct answers, not monologues on what they should (or shouldn’t) be asking the question. This place is about getting answers. I hope you can appreciate how frustrating it can be to ask a question and have dozens of people respond with their opinions rather than simply supply the answer (as is found on many online forums). Thanks again for participating, but please, keep it on point. – cksum Jan 31 at 22:53 read more

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Using Gmail filters

I know I’m behind the 8-ball with Gmail use. Reason being, I prefer a client-side (runs on my computer) email application, but my trusted friend Eudora is not ever going to work with Mavericks, so I have to make a switch. I’m using Gmail while I choose a new app and learn how to convert Eudora emails over to it without losing the valuable data associated with it (like, dates, for instance).

Found this good tutorial on setting up Gmail filters. It’s well written, easy to understand and has graphics that assist with that. Maybe you’ll like it too. Or when you’re reading an email, use the more pulldown menu option “filter messages like this” to get to step 1 of the setup process. read more