Good morning
Well, I am starting this post in a new way. I am writing it on my iPhone using the talk to text thingy. You know, that app where you talk and it writes what you say. So far… it has disappeared on me once, and has gone black a couple of times so if it does work I will be amazed.
I feel like I’ve gone down the rabbit hole, into techie hell. (Actually isn’t it Apple “Genius” hell?)
Let’s get on with this post, whose theme song should be Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb…
With the Ebola virus making the rounds, and since I’ve been sick over the last two weeks…the words to this song hit home. (And now Boston Boomer is out for the count, hopefully she will be feeling better soon. )
During the rest of the post, the lyrics to Comfortably Numb will be in dotted here and there…starting with the title of this thread.
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?
Honestly? I wonder if the Ebola hysteria has caused people to lose it completely. Take this latest bit of…you fucking kidding me…out of Maine:
Maine school board puts teacher on leave after she traveled to Dallas – The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
The teacher, who has not been named, attended a conference 10 miles from the hospital where Ebola patients have received care.
A teacher at Strong Elementary School was placed on a 21-day paid leave of absence after parents told the school board they were concerned that she might have been exposed to Ebola during a trip to Dallas for an educational conference.
The teacher, who was not named, attended a seminar held by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium that is still meeting in Dallas.
“At this time, we have no information to suggest that this staff member has been in contact with anyone who has been exposed to Ebola,” the district wrote in a statement published on its website. “However, the district and the staff member understand the parents’ concerns. Therefore, after several discussions with the staff member, out of an abundance of caution, this staff member has been placed on a paid leave of absence for up to 21 days.”
It takes two to 21 days for someone who has been infected with Ebola to show symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
The decision to place the teacher on leave was made by the MSAD 58 school board Thursday evening, after parents and community members expressed frustration that they were not notified that the teacher would be traveling to Dallas, where the nation’s first Ebola case was diagnosed.
Wow. What can you possibly say about that?
Things have gotten almost up to 11, and I know that as the days get closer to Election Day 2014, certain politicians will continue to use the fear as campaign fuel.
Come on, now,
I hear you’re feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again.
I have some quick links for you now. Updates on some stories:
Darren Wilson says he feared for his life, struggled over gun with Brown | theGrio
Sounds like Wilson is taking his cue from Zimmerman.
The police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old in a St. Louis suburb last summer has told investigators that he was pinned in his vehicle and in fear for his life as they struggled over his gun, The New York Times reported.
Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson has told authorities that Michael Brown reached for the gun during a scuffle, the Times reported in a story posted on its website Friday night. The officer’s account to authorities did not explain why he fired at Brown multiple times after emerging from his vehicle, according to the newspaper.
You can read the rest if you want.
By the way, did y’all ever see John Oliver’s take on the Ferguson mess?
Now when you watch it, make sure you keep a mental note on the pumpkin festival (it starts at min 7:12)…and the big ass tank that is used to protect it…because it may just have a connection to this next story:
College Pumpkin Festival Careens into Violence and Arrests
Huge crowds including Keene State College students and visitors to an annual pumpkin festival in New Hampshire became unruly Saturday, leading to injuries and arrests.
College officials provided few specifics on the melee but said Keene State students and out-of-town visitors were involved. The school said in a statement that off-campus gatherings escalated at locations around the city.
Keene State student Ellery Murray told The Boston Globe she was at a party that had drawn a large crowd when people started throwing things. She said police responded in riot gear and used tear gas to break up the crowd.
“People were just throwing everything they could find — rocks, skateboards, buckets, pumpkins,” she said. “People just got too drunk.”
The Southwestern New Hampshire Fire Mutual Aid organization said on Twitter that several people were injured from thrown bottles at a party involving hundreds of people.
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan said state and local safety officials worked to defuse what she called “the situation.”
Hours after the commotion broke out, emergency officials said they were still working the scene and couldn’t provide any details.
I wonder if the local police put the military tank/truck thing to good use?
Another cop tale for ya, and yes it is in Georgia: Georgia teen forced to ground at gunpoint for seat-belt violation files $12.5 million lawsuit
The family of high school athlete who was pulled over and forced to the ground at gunpoint over a seat-belt violation has filed a $12.5 million lawsuit against the Waycross, Georgia police department contending the officer involved was only given a slap on the wrist for his actions, according to News4GA.
Saying “I could have been another Trayvon Martin case,” Montre’ Merritt explained to reporters how the traffic stop in front of his home where officer Officer Cory Gay held a gun to his head and ordered him onto the ground still haunts him.
“That night when it happened, I felt like I could have been another Trayvon Martin case,” Merritt said. “And just hearing how Mike Brown went about his case for doing the right thing. He still got shot. I just feel like I don’t want any of my friends or family, I don’t want that to happen to anybody.”
According to the suit, Merritt was pulled over by Gay on Jan. 18, in front of his home and instructed at gunpoint to get out of his car and on the ground where Gay handcuffed him. When Merritt’s mother came outside to see why her son was being arrested, the officer told her it was for a seat belt violation.
The Merritt family subsequently filed a complaint with the Waycross Police Department over Gay’s actions.
Following an investigation by police authorities, Gay was found guilty of using excessive force and was suspended for five days without pay. Gay was also ordered to take Judgmental Use of Force Training.
Unhappy with Gay’s punishment, the family filed the lawsuit against the police department.
Good luck with that.
Okay, if you have another 16 minutes…take a look at this segment from John Oliver’s show on Prisons.
Up next a story that reflects on another side of the prison system. I don’t know if you remember a horrible shooting and dual murder here in Georgia a few weeks ago, a young couple was kidnapped and held for ransom, only to be shot execution style. The woman, who was 7 months pregnant, was kept alive long enough to give birth to her daughter. They finally caught the people responsible, and as you can imagine…this is not the first murders the dudes have committed.
DA announces plan to seek death penalty in couple’s… | www.wsbtv.com
Friday, District Attorney Paul Howard announced a big decision to seek the death penalty for the two men accused of kidnapping and murdering a man and his pregnant fiance.
Channel 2 Action News learned the suspects were accused of a combined seven killings.
Families present for the announcement told Channel 2’s Kerry Kavanaugh they were shocked to see how many lives were impacted by just two suspects.
“I’m going (to) hope that justice will do what’s necessary because obviously it failed us before; they got out,” said Beverly Fowler, godmother to victim Briana Brooks.
The families stood united with Atlanta investigators who helped put two murder suspects back behind bars.
Friday, a grand jury handed up a 30-count indictment of Andre Gay and Richard Wilson.
“We will continue to do the job we need to do to make sure they are never released again,” said Atlanta Detective
If you can, watch Briana Brooks mother as she describes what happened to her daughter, it is emotionally wrenching.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said both Gay and Wilson have served time for prior murders. Gay, who was sentenced to life, was just paroled in January, but victims’ families were never notified.
“I believe that the parole board should personally notify the family members,” said Howard.
Howard thinks that should happen within 60 days.
Howard said he was shocked to learn what the state means by “electronic monitoring” of parolees.
“That does not mean they will wear ankle bracelets and it doesn’t mean that — the monitoring doesn’t go on during the entire time that they are on parole,” Howard said.
“Overwhelming that so many families are affected by two individuals who really don’t care for life,” Strong said.
Kavanaugh contacted the state parole board to get their reaction to these criticisms. A spokesperson emailed the following statement:
“The Parole Board recently met with DA Paul Howard to discuss the Andre Gay case and Mr. Howard shared information with the Board.
“Prior to this case, the Parole Board has been working on determining how additional notifications may be made to victims and law enforcement regarding board decisions and how new notifications above those that are statutorily required, can possibly be implemented.
“The Parole Board’s supervision of offenders on parole in the community is consistently under review to ensure those on parole are in compliance with their supervision.
“The Parole Board is committed to public safety and will continue to make supervision of offenders its number one priority.”
See, how the hell did these guys get approved for release to begin with? I don’t know but this is a perfect example of the criminals that need to remain behind bars.
Relax.
I’ll need some information first.
Just the basic facts.
Can you show me where it hurts?
After this next video segment from Oliver…you will be hurting between your head something fierce!
Unbelievable, innit?
In endangered animal news: Death of white rhino in Kenya leaves only six animals alive in the world | Environment | The Observer
An endangered northern white rhino has died in Kenya, a wildlife conservancy has said, meaning only six of the animals are left alive in the world.
Suni, a 34-year-old northern white, and the first of his species to be born in captivity, was found dead on Friday by rangers at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy near Nairobi. While there are thousands of southern white rhinos in the plains of sub-Saharan Africa, decades of rampant poaching has meant the northern white rhino is close to extinction.
Suni was one of the last two breeding males in the world as no northern white rhinos are believed to have survived in the wild. Though the conservancy said Suni was not poached, the cause of his death is currently unclear.
I hope his death was natural causes…read more about Suni’s life at the link.
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
We started the post off with the results of Ebola fear mongering is bringing folks here in the US, Digby had an interesting graphic on her blog yesterday:
Hullabaloo-Fear for all
It was interesting at least…
The rest of today’s post will have links dealing with fun stuff…yeah we are half way through, so you can either keep going…or come back later, but the next series of links deal with a huge inflatable butt plug that was installed in some plaza in Paris.
Art for controversy’s sake: If they’ll build a giant ‘sex toy’ in the middle of Paris, then surely anything’s possible
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a tree, apparently. The 80ft green structure called Tree has attracted at lot of attention since it appeared in Paris’s Place Vendôme. Created by Paul McCarthy, an American artist, as part of his exhibition Chocolate Factory, the installation is officially described as a Christmas tree. Social media wags, however, have suggested that it looks more like something rude (ask your mother). Vandals took it a step further yesterday when they cut the cables holding the structure upright, forcing security guards to deflate and remove it.
Surely Tree is exactly what a great work of public art should be – controversial. Just like the adjacent Vendôme Column was, back in its wild youth. That now venerable monument, constructed between 1806 and 1810 to commemorate Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz, was first attacked by a mob on horseback in 1816. That attempt to dislodge Napoleon’s statue from its perch failed, but the Vendôme Column has been dismantled and rebuilt on several occasions since. As for obscenity, is Tree really that much more blatant than the Vendôme Column and the many other giant phallic symbols that hide in plain sight in civic centres the world over?
Yeah, more at the link…but for now…it is a flaccid butt plug.
Giant Butt Plug in Center of Paris Deflated by Prudish Vandals
An 80-foot inflatable butt plug by American artist Paul McCarthy was cut down from its supports early Saturday morning by vandals, forcing authorities to deflate the installation that many prudes in the city of Paris saw as an eyesore.
According to The Guardian, the vandals waited until the attention of security guards was elsewhere and then cut the cables keeping the sculpture, titled “Tree,” in place. Police are investigating the incident; it had only been two days since the sculpture was inflated in Place Vendôme.
During the inflatable butt plug’s grand unveiling on Thursday, one man’s response was to slap McCarthy in the face three times, “yelling that he was not French and that his work had no business in the square, before running off,”Le Monde reported.
The FIAC (a French contemporary art fair), who was responsible for bringing “Tree” to Paris, said they will reinflate McCarthy’s work “as soon as possible.”
Artist converts huge buttplug into huge condom in Paris square. pic.twitter.com/kacXI2QIy3
— beaubodor (@beaubodor) October 18, 2014
Now, a group of links on women, starting with a great quote and photo editorial from actress Danai Gurira for Byrdie | Tom & Lorenzo Fabulous & Opinionated
“The Walking Dead” actress Danai Gurira is featured on Byrdie photographed by Justin Colt and styled by Zoe Costello.
On female struggles and feminism: “There’s a saying in Africa, if you give a woman empowerment, you empower a community, you empower men, you empower man. When women become empowered and live in their strength it’s beneficiary to others, and I think as young women today we sometimes forget that we are standing on the struggle of other women. Those women had to stand up to make a change, and they were not popular, and now we’re making them unpopular again.”
I especially love what the “Uncles” had to say about this editorial:
O to the MG, that shot in the Sacai is the very definition of FIERCE. Actually, scratch that. While that shit is FIERCE, it doesn’t hold a candle to that soundbite about feminism. GIRL. That was awesome.
Sorry for the RANDOM all-caps words, but WE tend to lose all control WHEN we see a fabulously fierce LADY in stunning CLOTHES saying really SMART things.
Damn you got that right! Click the link to see the other gorgeous shots…and to read another bite about her Walking Dead character, Michonne.
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I’ve got that feeling once again
I can’t explain you would not understand
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.
Here we go….UN Woman launches campaign in India for greater participation of men in promotion women’s rights | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis
The UN Women launched a campaign in New Delhi on Saturday, aiming at ensuring greater participation of men in promoting women’s rights and gender equality.
“We need boys and men to work with us. ‘HeForShe’ is a global solidarity movement to end gender inequality by 2030. The goal is to engage men and boys as advocates and agents of change in the effort to achieve equality. When women are empowered, the whole of humanity benefits,” UN Women Representative, Rebecca Tavares, said.
The ‘HeForShe’ campaign in India was launched by Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi. UN Women believes that it is critical to engage all stakeholders in support of women’s rights, including the active participation of men and boys.
This is good.
But all the talk over in Vatican City is sounding hollow on the women’s issues front: Our favorite Pope still needs to address one major issue | Grist
Pope Francis, a.k.a. the Ultimate Chill Dude Pope of All Time (UCDPAT), has been a publicity dream for the Catholic Church. Even on Grist, we’ve sung his praises for his love of public transit and calls to action regarding climate change. There’s just one little area, however, where ol’ UCDPAT’s climate action plan leaves a lot to be desired: contraception.
The draft document from the 2014 Synod on the Family (which comes to an end on Sunday) includes a significant reworking of the language used to address homosexuality, premarital cohabitation, and divorce. Let’s be clear: This is no small deal! That the Church would begin to make moves around welcoming gay, unmarried, and no-longer-married couples (for the record, that covers about 95 percent of the couples I know) into the Catholic community represents an enormous — and positive — step forward.
But guess what? When it comes to women, and the control that they can have over their own bodies, not much has changed.
The next link I have for you is a good one, from a couple of weeks ago: Men deserve everything women get: waiting periods, purity control and science-free sex education | Jessica Valenti | Comment is free | theguardian.com
Enjoy that one in full…it is so good.
This op/ed however…was published today: A woman’s option to freeze her eggs should never be a job perk – Comment – Voices – The Independent
Go and check that one out in full as well…it is good too.
Oh, and don’t forget to eat your Wheaties! A Former Secretary of State Is Now on a Box of Wheaties | Mediaite
Just finished my "breakfast of champions." Thank you @GeneralMills! #wheaties pic.twitter.com/f4K3sL6iXO
— Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) October 16, 2014
But with all these links on women, there was some sad news a couple of weeks ago: Jerrie Mock, First Solo Female Pilot to Circumnavigate the Globe, Dies at 88 – NYTimes.com
Jerrie Mock, who as a relatively untested pilot accomplished in 1964 what Amelia Earhart could not — becoming the first woman to fly solo around the world — died on Tuesday at her home in Quincy, Fla., near Tallahassee. She was 88.
Her grandson Chris Flocken confirmed her death.
When she took off on March 19, 1964, from Columbus, Ohio, Ms. Mock was a 38-year-old homemaker and recreational pilot who had logged a meager 750 hours of flight time. She returned there on April 17 — 29 days, 11 hours and 59 minutes later — after a 23,000-mile journey over the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea and the Pacific, with stops in the Azores, Casablanca, Cairo, Karachi, Calcutta, Bangkok and Honolulu, among other places.
She was stalled by high winds in Bermuda and battled rough weather between Casablanca and Bone, Algeria. She navigated 1,300 miles over the Pacific from Guam to tiny Wake Island, three miles in diameter, without the benefit of ground signals. Between Bangkok and Manila, she flew over embattled Vietnam.
“Somewhere not far away a war was being fought,” she wrote later, “but from the sky above, all looked peaceful.”
The thing she said when asked about why she made the trip is a perfect answer…
Ms. Mock and her husband, Russell, were half-owners of the plane, an 11-year-old single-engine Cessna 180 named the Spirit of Columbus (evoking the Spirit of St. Louis, the plane Charles Lindbergh flew in becoming the first to cross the Atlantic solo 37 years earlier).
The Mocks’ plane had been modified for the journey. Three of its four seats had been removed and fuel tanks were installed in their place. And the radio and navigational equipment had been augmented, although as she recounted in her 1970 book, “Three-Eight Charlie” (a reference to the plane’s serial number, which ended in 38C), she soon discovered that a crucial radio wire had been disconnected, leaving her cut off from the ground during the first leg of the trip, to Bermuda.
That summer, Flying magazine asked Ms. Mock why she had undertaken such a treacherous journey alone.
“It was about time a woman did it,” she said.
And that is all we have on links that focus primarily on women.
O.K.
Just a little pinprick.
There’ll be no more aaaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick.
Can you stand up?
I do believe it’s working, good.
That’ll keep you going through the show
Come on it’s time to go.
There is a story over at the Times which hits home for me: Unable to Meet the Deductible or the Doctor – NYTimes.com
Patricia Wanderlich got insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, and with good reason: She suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, spending weeks in a hospital intensive care unit, and has a second, smaller aneurysm that needs monitoring.
But her new plan has a $6,000 annual deductible, meaning that Ms. Wanderlich, who works part time at a landscaping company outside Chicago, has to pay for most of her medical services up to that amount. She is skipping this year’s brain scan and hoping for the best.
“To spend thousands of dollars just making sure it hasn’t grown?” said Ms. Wanderlich, 61. “I don’t have that money.”
About 7.3 million Americans are enrolled in private coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and more than 80 percent qualified for federal subsidies to help with the cost of their monthly premiums. But many are still on the hook for deductibles that can top $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for families — the trade-off, insurers say, for keeping premiums for the marketplace plans relatively low. The result is that some people — no firm data exists on how many — say they hesitate to use their new insurance because of the high out-of-pocket costs.
Once my family gets our insurance sorted out, I will have a long post about it, because it really is a frightening mess.
The rest of today’s links are in dump format:
Why some newspapers are abandoning endorsements Editors see a risk to credibility, and search for different ways to foster debate -: Columbia Journalism Review
Perhaps it is because of assholes like this?
Rick Perry’s demented world order: Why this man can get nowhere near the White House – Salon.com
Hey…in other turd news: Hurricane Gonzalo Sucked the Water Out of People’s Toilets in Bermuda
Okay, that was a stretch. But what about some other science links?
See one of the year’s best meteor showers, thanks to Halley’s comet
How Whooshes and Beeps Can Make Babies Better Listeners – The Atlantic
U.S. Dust Bowl Conditions Not Rivaled in 1,000 Years – Scientific American
Yeah up next….Book Reviews:
Their Struggles: Bristol Palin & Malala Yousafzai’s Memoirs, Compared -Now that is one hell of a compare and contrast theme.
And then there is the controversy about the new Scrabble dictionary: New Scrabble Dictionary Disrepects The Game | FiveThirtyEight
Hmmm….how about some books about film directors?
New Book Explores Masculinity in Scorsese Films | New Republic
Silent Movie Bookshelf: Charlie Chaplin – A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd | Movies Silently
This next link is not a book review, but it is an article, originally published on December 6, 1954… about one of my favorite authors: In Praise of Oscar Wilde, on His Birthday | New Republic
Back to Hollywood:
Hollywood’s men in black: A history of cinema’s favourite colour from Brando to The Matrix – Features – Fashion – The Independent
Review: Princess Kaguya (Just Watch It Already!) | The Mary Sue
Early 20th C. Sphinx Recovered in California – Archaeology Magazine
Here is a hint…”I must have killed more people than Cecil B DeMile.” Jim- Blazing Saddles
This leads us to our history section of the thread:
A Century Later, Relics Emerge From a War Frozen in Time-Retreating ice in the Alps sheds new light on high-altitude battle in World War I.
Are Government Acts still translated into Norman French? – UK Politics – UK – The Independent
The Relationship of Light and Colour in Medieval Thought and Imagination-Medeivalist.net
A quick segue to court themed articles and links:
Horrible Legislation In American History : Lawyers, Guns & Money
Court vacates restraining order that barred journalist from contacting Georgia county commission candidate – The Washington Post
Georgia Reporter Served With Stay-Away Order After Writing Critical Profile Of Candidate
Now for something funny:
SNL’s Impoverished Africans Ask Bill Hader for More Than 39 Cents a Day, or Else… | Mediaite
You need to go to that link to watch the video clip…but don’t watch it while your drinking that 39 cent coffee…or you may choke on your java beverage.
We are getting near the end of our post…so the next few links deal with a subject that y’all know is quite an obsession for me:
Woman who slept with dwarf stripper at her bachelorette party gives birth to dwarf – NY Daily News
This is the headline that Digby thought was hilarious: Dwarf stripper impregnates bride-to-be at her bachelorette party – Los Angeles Strange News | Examiner.com
While reading that NY Daily News piece…this other midget story got my attention: Dwarf on dinner date with fiancée given coloring book, crayons by waitress – NY Daily News
That is horrible. How could the woman even confuse the dude for a kid? Go look at the picture.
And yes, I know I used the word “midget” …here is a look at that very thing: This Little Person Asked Passersby How They Feel About The Term, ‘Midget’
The term “midget” comes from midge — a small insect that resembles a mosquito.
It’s not a term of endearment, of course, but as Aaron Beelner pointed out in the video above, not too many people realize it’s a “very dehumanizing” way to refer to someone.
In a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday, Beelner walked the streets of New York City asking strangers about their thoughts on the term. He also pointed out that October is Dwarfism Awareness Month — a fact no passerby in the video knew.
Beelner stars in “The Little Tin Man,” a film following the life of a struggling dwarf actor that Beelner said is relevant to any minority group fighting for equality.
There are many variations of dwarfism, a condition where an adult’s height does not surpass 4 feet 10 inches, according to the Mayo Clinic. But the most common type among short-limbed dwarfs, achondroplasia, occurs in 1 in 15,000 to 40,000 newborns, as the National Human Genome Research Institute noted.
I still have a hard time giving up that word midget…sorry. I don’t mean disrespect. If anything my admiration is something beyond anything I can explain or control. It goes way back…
My cousin David and I at a family wedding…I’m around 4 years old, and look in the back of the photo…a midget in a tux complete with a flower in the lapel.
And that leads me to the final link. It has a combination of three things I adore, and I hope you love it too. The Men Of Flamenco: Meet The Dancers Who Turn Gender-Based Traditions Upside Down It is a photo gallery that includes Flamenco dancers…naked gorgeous men (The one photo on the cover of the book is tasty.)…and….
They are magnificent!
That post should have taken you all day! LOL
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.