Sunday, July 28, 2013

Now is the time. The present has waited to long.

Longing for peace. In this file photo, a Palestinian man waves his national flag on the sidelines of a march organized by inhabitants of the West Bank village Nabi Saleh on December 21, 2012, to protect against the expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.

July 29, 2013
Agence France-Presse


WASHINGTON DC, USA (UPDATED) - Israeli and Palestinian (click here) officials resume direct peace talks Monday, July 29, after a 3-year hiatus, amid hopes US Secretary of State John Kerry's quiet diplomacy may this time carry some chance of success.

In a landmark agreement, the chief negotiators from both sides will meet face-to-face to draw up a plan for how the talks will proceed, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The dream of a Middle East peace deal has for decades been a chimera chased by US presidents but has stalled since September 2010, shot down by deep divisions and distrust between the two sides.

After months of dogged diplomacy, Kerry earlier this month, on his sixth trip to the region, wrested from both sides an accord setting out "the basis for resuming direct final status negotiations," Psaki said in a statement Sunday, July 28....

Teresa is out of rehab after a terrible seizure. I hope she is regaining her strength everyday.

I don't see the Palestinians being assimilated into a homogenous Israeli culture. They have a right to a homeland defined by unique people, their traditions and heritage. I am sure that is something Israel can appreciate.

With all the security the USA affords Israel there absolutely no reason to delay this peace accord any longer and not one more year. 

Palestinian children belong in their schools and doing after school homework, not training to be soldiers. That is not a playground anyone should approve of.

Palestinian boy Mahmoud Haniyeh, 13, crawls during a military-style exercise at a summer camp organized by the Hamas movement in Gaza City June 17, 2013. Tens of thousands of children from the Gaza Strip spend at least part of their holidays in special summer camps, arranged around a wide array of activities. Some, organised by the United Nations, offer sports, art and dance classes. Others, laid on by Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas, include fun and games, while seeking to reinforce religious values and awareness of the conflict with Israel. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Real life tragedy of the Maasi Mara Game Reserve.

This was July 2012. The wildebeest should be migrating about now in the Maasi region. 

I just don't understand what kind of education these folks could benefit from they don't already have?

You know there has been a lot of insults to the wildlife in Africa in recent years. The Serengeti Highway resulted in Gazelle through the windshields of cars.

I am all for improvements in quality of life, like vaccinations and reading and better sanitation and cooking skills. But, business? Highways? I would think they would have learned a lesson from the American Buffalo.

How do you reconcile the dedication of a Millionaire Mindset in completely changing the lives of people and the beauty of their country? There is just so much that can be done with migrating Wildebeest.

Reading Hemingway might be a real enhancement. A popular discussion around the tribal fire, but, then what? I just don't see a line of condos with a manmade swimming pool a part of the picture. The migrating Wildebeest IS the economy. There is no joy found in the lives of these people and their traditions?

ARSON HALTS WILDEBEEST MIGRATION! (click here)

A diplomatic row is simmering after Tanzanians living around the Serengeti Game Reserve allegedly set the area on fire to block the wildebeest migration.

The infernos that have lasted for two weeks have delayed hundreds of wildebeest from Serengeti plains gathered on the Mara River ready to cross into Kenya. Hundred of acres of the reserve in Northern Tanzania along the migratory routes are still on fire and have pushed back wildlife.

The spectacular Mara River wildebeest crossing is expected to kick off the annual tourism peak season in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.


Richard, excuse me, but rather than making peace with the humans and saving wildlife, why not tell them to go away? Tell the people to get a life, the Wildebeest already do.

Douglas Main, Staff Writer 
May 15, 2013 05:37pm ET
Newark, N.J. — Building an elevated (click here) highway across the Serengeti may not sound like the most feasible or wise idea. But that's exactly what Kenyan scientist and conservationist Richard Leakey proposed yesterday (May 14), saying it could be the best solution for humans and wildlife....

The DERIVATIVES of Wall Street. How do you reconcile the immorality in all this?

Derivatives is a term used in calculus. In the financial markets it is abstract and cruel. It is more cruel  than a Margin Call.

The Derivatives Market perverts reality. It takes a purchase of a company stock as if a virtual garage sale. It takes the 'entire' of the asset of a business turns it into a commodity, sends it on a time warp and plays with the value as if all were available for disposition. 

It is nuts.

Then the derivative can be swapped and there can be more money based on more air contained in another companies assets. 

It is based on 'notional amounts.' Equity, interest, Currency, Total Returns based in values of LIBOR. And the consequence is they lose a lot of money. It's gambling based in values DERIVED from Financial Market Values.

There is no morality here. It is pure unadulterated greed. It does nothing to add to the value or PRODUCTIVITY of a company. It does not add assets to anything except individual accounts for those that WIN. 

Like an interest rate swap, (click here) a currency swap is a contract to exchange cash flow streams from some fixed income obligations (for example, swapping payments from a fixed-rate loan for payments from a floating rate loan). In an interest rate swap, the cash flow streams are in the same currency, while in currency swaps, the cash flows are in different monetary denominations. Swap transactions are not usually disclosed on corporate balance sheets....

Invisible money. What? You mean there aren't exchange rate swaps within the currency swap? What chicken livered investors you all are. 

They should be outlawed. There is nothing real here. It appears real because the numbers come from real investment paradigms, but, the PLAY is not based in something that actually and concretely happens with a company or a product. This is playing with market dynamics as if a game board.  The consequences are real, but, the dynamics are all contrived. There is nothing real life about it.


No one is going to stop this. No one.

This is the best moral program this country has ever put forth besides SSI and Medicare. 

If there are failures it will be in the states that decided late they were going to allow the federal government to write their programs and I won't feel bad, not one day. 

By Lena H. Sun
Maryland insurance (click here) officials approved final rates Friday for health plans to be sold in the state’s new online marketplace that are among the lowest in the country. The plans, which are for individuals, will be sold beginning Oct. 1.

The Maryland Insurance Administration approved premiums at levels as much as 33 percent below what had been requested by insurance carriers. For a 21-year-old non-smoker, for example, options start as low as $93 a month. Insurance Commissioner Therese Goldsmith reduced the premium rates proposed by every insurance carrier in the individual market, including some by more than 50 percent, according to an analysis by Maryland officials who will be operating the marketplace....
    

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is the USA's latest marine preserve.

Papahānaumokuākea Marine NM US Fish and Wildlife Photo Site on "flickr." 

...In all, there are 23 species (click here) found in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument that are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and there are undoubtedly many more that might be eligible for listing, especially in the case of terrestrial arthropods (Evenhuis and Eldridge 2004). Additionally, Papahānaumokuākea is home to 22 IUCN Red-Listed species.

Furthermore,Papahānaumokuākea contains countless endemics, often species that have ranges limited to a single island. Four endangered endemic land birds are found in the Monument, and nowhere else in the world....

Besides species of fish, marine mammals, turtles there are significant numbers of shorebirds and the food chain affiliated with all these larger species. The reason I note this island chain is the fact, like the Polar Bear, these species are dependent on their habitat. If these tiny islands were to succumb to sea level rise the terrestrial species would vanish and the fish species would be forced into chaos as their land based protections would disappear. It is also a World Heritage Site.

Papahānaumokuākea (click here) is a vast and isolated linear cluster of small, low lying islands and atolls, with their surrounding ocean, roughly 250 km to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Archipelago and extending over some 1931 km. The area has deep cosmological and traditional significance for living Native Hawaiian culture, as an ancestral environment, as an embodiment of the Hawaiian concept of kinship between people and the natural world, and as the place where it is believed that life originates and to where the spirits return after death. On two of the islands, Nihoa and Makumanamana, there are archaeological remains relating to pre-European settlement and use. Much of the monument is made up of pelagic and deepwater habitats, with notable features such as seamounts and submerged banks, extensive coral reefs and lagoons. It is one of the largest marine protected areas (MPAs) in the world.
 

The only way the plight of Detroit can be reconciled as a garbage dump is through hubris. Third World Happiness is Low Expectations. How was this allowed to happen? Why?


DETROIT — I know an old woman (click here) who hasn’t opened her windows in a decade, afraid that what’s outside will climb inside. Inside, there is the stale odor of dead air.
I know another woman who called me about a corpse lying outside her window for six and a half hours. This was because of cutbacks at the morgue. No dignity in death here. They do it better in Baghdad.
I know of an 11-year-old boy who was shot, the bullet going clean through his arm. The cops rushed him to the hospital. There was no ambulance available. About two-thirds of the city’s fleet is broken on an average day.
I know a cop who drives around in a squad car with holes in the floorboards. There is no computer, no air-conditioning and the odometer reading is 147,000 miles. His bulletproof vest has expired. His pay has been cut 10 percent.
I knew a firefighter who died in a fire, but not from the fire. He died when the roof of an abandoned house collapsed on him and his brethren could not find him because his homing alarm was broken and did not sound. He suffocated.
In our town, the 911 dispatch system recently went down for 15 hours, and no one seemed to give a damn. When the system is running, the average wait is 58 minutes.
If this were New York, these stories would have ricocheted around the world. But this is Detroit, and nobody gives a damn. Even here people have been conditioned to accept these things as normal. This numbness, in a peculiar way, is a sign of strength. People here manage to get along somehow....

The NTSB Charter has been changed since 1974. Does the agency need a new one?

...In 1974, Congress reestablished the NTSB (click here) as a completely separate entity, outside the DOT, reasoning that "...No federal agency can properly perform such (investigatory) functions unless it is totally separate and independent from any other ... agency of the United States."...

"The Sterile Cockpit," (click here - ASRS is a branch of NASA) is often, all too often, cited in NTSB formulas for aircraft failures. In other words, the pilots were not following the rules. This rule is in the current charter and the NTSB is required to cite it if there was any indication on the Voice Recorder.

The Sterile Cockpit is used by Commercial Airline Manufacturers to explain away their liability is primarily assigned to pilots breaking the rules. It places liability on the Carriers and Pilots rather than anywhere else.

The Sterile Cockpit is a myth. The Cockpit / Flight Deck crew talk before leaving the ground. It is a matter of bonding between people who have never worked together and provides an opportunity for pilot and co-pilot to become comfortable with each other. IT is a myth built into the NTSB Charter that is used as a legal liability tool. Where are the Unions on this and why hasn't it been amended in the current Charter to reflect REAL LIFE scenarios and practicality? I mean I know Congress is worthless these days and obstruction is everywhere, but, this is life and death. How can the NTSB function completely in a positive outcome if they have to cite hideous and outdated regulations?

It's no secret. (click here) When a flight crew's attention is diverted from the task of flying, the chance of error increases. Over the years there have been dozens of air carrier accidents that occurred when the crew diverted attention from the task at hand and became occupied with items totally unrelated to flying. Consequently, important things were missed. Things like setting the flaps prior to takeoff, or extending the landing gear before landing. Things like monitoring altitude on an instrument approach, or using engine anti-ice for takeoff during a blinding snow storm....

"Sole Survivor" states all occurred at the age of 17 or younger. There is one characteristic young people share at that age. It is called the Epiphyseal Plate otherwise known as The Growth Plates. Growth Plates end their purpose at the age of 20.

Noted in this picture the Epiphyseal Plate/Growth Plate is boardered in majority by what is called "Spongy Bone." Cortical Bone is the hard exterior bone. Spongy Bone is known to physicians and surgeons as Cancellous Bone.It is illustrated here in the smaller picture.


This type of bone is very vascular. It has a lot of squishy properties. The squishy properties provides for compressibility. Compressibility allows shocks to the tissue to be absorbed without causing injury. All the Sole Survivors, as children, grew up just fine. 

I sincerely believe one of the reasons George survived was because he was actively kicking the bulkhead wall in front of him and absorbing the shock of the crash at the same time. He was seventeen. He stated his kicking drove him outside the plane while it burst into flames. Perhaps bringing knees to the chest to put the feet on the seat in front of you is a better strategy than bending over with a person's face in their lap. In that posture one can still reach the oxygen masks when they fall. It is not a position every passenger will be able to achieve, however.

It is not all positioning and bone, it is also physics. Planes are not crash proof. They never will be. 

I believe George's mental state after the crash was due to the fact he fought for his life at the time when he survived. He also had his mother. The trauma bond with the accident was significant and he ultimately returned to live in the city where he lost his father. He also suffered from elated invulnerability as if Superman. He tested his ability to continue to survive by racing cars at high speeds, etc. Trauma bonds will do strange things. Most of the survivors were bonded to the crash and it played a part in their daily lives thereafter.

It is an excellent documentary. It makes many, many interesting and insightful points.

 

Who do you trust with the economy? The banks? How do you reconcile that?

By Jason Stein and Patrick Marley
July 26, 2013


Madison — A Democratic senator (click here) is upset that some 3,000 union state workers won't immediately share in the 1% pay raise put forward by Gov. Scott Walker's administration for each of the next two fiscal years.
Those employees have to wait for contracts to be negotiated over their wages with the Walker administration. In the past, pay increases for nonunion employees and separate contracts for union workers containing their pay increases were typically handled around the same time out of fairness, according to Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) and his office.
"Passing a state employment compensation plan without including any represented state employees reeks of punishment," Erpenbach wrote Thursday in a letter to Walker... 

Every household in the USA knows the more disposable income exists the faster the economy grows. The largest pool of purchasers is good for Wall Street. No, it is not good for Wall Street, it is VITAL for Wall Street. I don't know of one company that grows income to stockholders based on loss of GDP of a nation. 

Gus Lubin
April 9, 2010

Normalized to 1979, (click here) the top 1% have seen their share of America's income more than double. The bottom 90% have seen their portion shrink....

Investment Banks remove wealth from a country. They merge, they buyout, they horde money. They treat property as assets and not part of a whole.

Unions expand economies, return wealth to a large and diverse group of people, provide equity to a companies view of their assets and demand solvency to their members to pursue the American Dream. Unions make companies take notice of their investment in their workers and how productivity depends on experience and commitment. There is not one financial institution that can grow an economy the way Unions can. Not one financial institution can increase the quality of life of a large number of people to find integrity in WORK.



Allow these intelligent and loving creatures to become extinct? How do you reconcile that?


Despite our overwhelming hubris, humanity did not invent the concept of naming individuals. (click here)

Dolphins have been doing roughly the same thing for millennia.

Dolphins are incredibly smart creatures. Not only do they have the mental capacity to bond with humans and learn the complex routines taught at places like SeaWorld, but they're also smart enough to coordinate underwater attacks, and even plot out horrific acts like aquatic sexual assault. On a less terrible note, they also "name" one another, according to recent findings by researchers at Scotland's University of St. Andrews....

by Russell Tenofsky
March 5, 2013
 
New findings (click here) published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggest that bottlenose dolphins use “signature whistles” to identify themselves and are able to learn and recognize the “names” of other dolphins. This cognitive ability, known as “referential communication with learned signals,” was always thought to be unique to humans....

We are now a nation without a conscience. We had a close call this past week again in the Gulf of Mexico. Still? We are looking the other for the sake of oil way still?

Oil is more important than life. Life is nothing without oil. Oil is more important than fisheries and the people taking care of them and those providing this nation seafood for generations of families. Oil drilling is vastly more important than quality of life? You have got to be joking. 

An Institute for Marine Mammal Studies veterinary technician lifts a dead bottlenose dolphin.

February 24, 2011
By Nina Mandell

Trouble may not be over (click here) for the Gulf Coast after dead baby dolphins were discovered in Mississippi and Alabama, bringing the number of dead dolphins to a total of 28 this year, according to reports.
The four baby dolphins make a total of 18 dead baby dolphins this year – 10 times the annual average, AOL Travel reported
"We're definitely keeping a close eye on this situation,” Blair Mase, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marine-mammal stranding coordinator told the Sun-Herald....


And we don't need health care reform? How do you reconcile that?

Adam Taylor and Samuel Blackstone  
Jun. 29, 2012, 2:44 PM

...In that same year, (click here) a report from the Commonwealth Fund ranked seven developed countries on their health care performance — the US came dead last.
So, what can we learn from the report?...

The Affordable Care Act is a huge program. The USA is a huge country. I don't appreciate the politics when retired and resigned elected officials can receive the best this country has to offer while others die outside access. I really don't appreciate it.

And for all those that have criticism; where is your plan? Where is your coverage for over 300 million people? I haven't never, ever heard a viable alternative.

The Affordable Care Act provides for care. It provides for access. I provides for quality of life and longevity. How do you reconcile living without it?

How do you reconcile the hypocracy?

I am sure one can still be purchased. (click here)

I don't have any hoodies. I just don't. I never valued them since I read an article in the New Zealand Herald about Vitamin D deficiency in school children. 

Yet, commentators can assign a sinister legitimacy to a young black man that was wearing one when he died. I suppose he was asking for it. Attitude is everything I am sure. 


It is okay to spread personal information around the globe, but, the NSA can't protect the country?

The complaint is there is secrecy at the NSA that threatens to privacy of citizens.

So.

There are trillions of files at Facebook, too. 

How do you reconcile that? How do the people complain about the very personal information available in a blink of an eye to anyone while they complain about monitoring by the USA government to protect their very lives so they can put all their personal information on Facebook or otherwise for the world to see. 

There is NO prohibition of freedom of expression to anyone. If there is, where is the proof? Where are the prisoners detained without due process? Where is the personal information the NSA released without authority? Where are the foreign governments seeking sovereign dominance over information within the electronic networks in the USA.

All that exists currently is Executive Privilege. The NSA is a branch of the Executive Branch which has to disclose nothing if it is in regard to national security. I don't care of officials of the Executive Branch lied, they can be held responsible if the lies can be proven, but, in all honesty that will lead nowhere.

I don't like it. I have been a victim of email searches while Bush was in office. I caught them. I have no shame in my life and I don't keep secrets about faux agendas. I could not care less. They were paranoid, not me. They had grounds for nothing. Did it scare me? Why would it?

This is a political agenda with absolutely nothing to do with VIOLATIONS against AMERICANS. Where are the Americans that have been compromised because of this program? I want to know where these programs have turned innocence into guilt.

I have stated before; so long as the USA willingly runs wars for Wall Street benefit this will continue to keep the country safe. When the USA stops killing, the programs won't be necessary anymore. Until then, I'd rather be safe.

I still use the same email account, the same identity with the same focus. I have for nearly a decade since someone told me about Blogger. My first entry was about Iraq and just before the Christmas Tsunami hit. I could not believe the pictures entrusted to me from halfway around the world by basically people I don't know because I was blogging about the devastation and my knowledge to what occurred. I was blogging the science and little social content while honoring the dead and grieving their loss. Imagine an American grieving the loss of dead in Banda Aceh and Thialand. Imagine Americans worrying so deeply about their lives and what would come of them.

I suppose when a government is worried about the activities of the citizens in a way that might end danger, it just bother me. There are so many other profound problems than this stuff. Show me Americans behind bars without reason, without representation. Show me a democracy gone bad. Then maybe it might actually matter.

I worry more about 'the click' than the discovery of it. If one can't trust their secrets to the internet, then don't go there.

By Kari Rea

Jul 28, 2013 10:17am

...“The NSA has trillions of telephone calls (click here) and emails in their databases that they’ve collected over the last several years,” Greenwald told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “And what these programs are, are very simple screens, like the ones that supermarket clerks or shipping and receiving clerks use, where all an analyst has to do is enter an email address or an IP address, and it does two things.  It searches that database and lets them listen to the calls or read the emails of everything that the NSA has stored, or look at the browsing histories or Google search terms that you’ve entered, and it also alerts them to any further activity that people connected to that email address or that IP address do in the future.”...

Insincerity. How do you reconcile that?

No one doubts he is sorry. No one doubts he wants to return to politics again. No one doubts he is a tough politician. But. People sincerely are concerned about the sincerity of his approach to return.

It is a matter of trust.  People doubt the level of complete honesty accompanying the truth telling.

By Adam Gabbat
July 28, 2013

...Weiner's favorability (click here) rating has plunged from 52% to 30% in the new poll, which was taken on Wednesday – a day after the mayoral hopeful admitted he had continued to send pictures of his penis to women after he had resigned from office – and supposedly put his indiscretions behind him – in June 2011.
"These new revelations have cost Anthony Weiner the lead in the Democratic field," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.
"His negatives are at an all-time high. There's been a significant erosion in people's willingness to say he deserves another chance. They are more reluctant to grant that."...

It's Sunday Night



Song of Reconciliation by Susan Ashton (click here for official website)

Where there is love there is a peace
And in the cages that bind the bitter heart it is release
Hold it close to your chest, let it move and let it rest
For it is here to set your mind at ease
Where there is love there is a peace.

Where there is hope there is a dream
To rise above, to remit and to redeem
To go back, to go where there's no hurt or anger there
To find the song that you once could sing
Where there is hope there is a dream.

Where there is faith there is a chance
To alter the course and fight the winds of circumstance
Not to scar, but mend, not to break, but to bend
And not to know but to understand
Where there is faith there is a chance
Where there is hope there is a dream.

Where there is love there is a peace...

Buoy, oh buoy, oh buoy.

Bill this is not advocacy. The video of you is not advocacy. 

Let's start with the idea there is a "Civil Rights Industry." That is not so. There are advocacy groups such as The National Urban League and NAACP. They are not an industry. Not like "Millionaire Mindset" is an industry. I am sorry your ability to relate is limited to merchandizing.

Like ANY large organization there is paid leadership, but, that does not mean if there was no need for their services the organization would never disappear. Most of the supporting membership have other professions. 

Possibly my favorite example of a very successful African American citizen that was highly activist is Vernon Jordan. I can't count the number of Fortune 500 Boards he has been a member. At some point in his career Mr. Jordan has served as a Georgia Field Director for the NAACP, the Southern Regional Council, the Voter Education Project. He was executive director of the United Negro College Fund and President of the National Urban League. In any of these activist roles he never NEEDED the job.

The problem with the African American reality is ENTRENCHED in culture. When I worked with minorities populations I would hear earnest stories involving, "But, I did the program." My friends and acquaintances liked me and sometimes loved me as a sister. They took me seriously when I would speak about 'character' and 'limits.' What they meant by "But, I did the program," was over the decades the USA power structure has attempted to bring opportunity to the minority populations within our society. The folks focused by 'The Program' actually participated, but, in few numbers that would interpret into opportunity.

The focus on law enforcement when a entire populous is victimized by a majority culture has lead to a greater and nearly intractable problem. The success of rap artists that are violent and sexist is a surrender to the fact they are outside the power structure and outside the money structure. So, they created their own. That is not unusual for any society. When an entire minority population finds itself outside any opportunity to them they create their own areas of success. The Rap Culture is an example.

There is a reason there are Black universities and communities. And if you were ever identified by any government as a SUBVERSIVE your future as an African American could be limited if not destroyed forever. 

Let me remove this from the context of African American. The Jewish Community in it's earliest days in the USA, before there was an Israel, were completely ostracized by the majority culture of the USA. Their problems were religious. They were white folks, but, they didn't 'do the christian thing.' The Jewish people, like Rabbi Heller, bonded and congregated together and found a culture all their own. They were among the first practitioners of medicine and law in the USA. They became very good at what they did and they made money. It was small amounts of money in the beginning, but, in time we know what came of all those professions, now don't we.

Now, don't go there. Don't say, "Why aren't African Americans like the Jewish people then?" That is opportunistic dialogue that locks out productive understanding.

The point is there have been a lot of problems within the culture of the USA experienced by many populations. Why? Because of the foundation of this democracy is capitalism. NO, I am not going to start criticizing capitalism, but, what do we know about the cultural USA that supports capitalism? Supply and demand. Commercialization of values, etc.

The Jewish population valued education. They educated themselves. They found value in that education that translated into ways of life and OPPORTUNITY to earn a dollar and uplift the individual and ultimately the entire culture within the USA culture. Their skills were and are marketable and still today we find communities of Hasidic Jews that find comfort among their own. I cannot get the image of the community out of mind even today surrounding the death of the child in NYC.

Now, the history of the African American culture within the USA culture is very different. Did they immigrate as did the Jewish culture? Where were they educated? What opportunity was open to them when they were in poverty? Were they savvy enough with forty acres and a mule to fight back against continued oppression? 

I realize over the years there were lawsuits and opportunity contextualized within our society for our minorities. Appropriately so, at least we are not all damnable for our lack of ability to reach a larger consensus of success. But, the hurdles have been huge and there still are many. 

Currently, our society is not doing well with our minorities. The Hispanic Culture lacks the love and loyalty of our greater society to bring them home to the place they have known as their own for a long time. That is not acceptable.

Worse in some ways, but not exclusively African American, is the very real danger to our minorities illustrated in the grossly immoral death of Trayvon Martin. That young man's death was mired in political realities. That is not only dangerous that is genocidal. In at least theory. When a social culture starts to exonerate itself from an immoral death of a promising life there is a huge danger to our nation and our moral content in that. We cannot allow it to be propagated. 

We ended the physical lynching, but, as in the dragging death of Mr. James Byrd, Jr. it still continues in modern day USA. We have hate crimes legislation, but, it doesn't end the culture of death and killing. It doesn't even end the death and killing by police. As example: The young African American at his bachelor party the night before he was to be wed. Like. WHAT?

There is a stereotype of our minority communities. Those stereotypes have caused a culture to grow in the USA. A very dangerous culture. We cannot give it permission or validity. It has none. That hatred is part of the political paradigm in the USA and we have to stop it. It is taking lives and we can't stop the trend. Innocent minority people are scared of their own reality and their futures. In the USA? Come on, stop the blaming and take responsibility. 

I think there are issues that need to be dealt with that can take on a legislative capacity, but, the federal government is locked in intractable politics. So, here we are at impasse and no available solution EXCEPT the one we create ourselves. 

To invite President Obama into a public dialogue isn't going to happen. He stated openly and honestly this is an issue we have to discuss among ourselves. He stated that and now by this example alone his words are not accepted and taunted into a greater political advantage for the Right Wing. This can no longer remain a political issue. It has to resolve and we are required by every moral directive to end it.

Incredible to believe First Lady Michelle was correct in calling out the Democrats in 2008.

I think she said, "If he doesn't get this nomination he won't be back." Something like that. Does the First Couple deeply understand the African American reality? Yes, they do.

It is incredible to realize this is 2013 and the USA still needs lectures on race.

by Frank James

The days are few and far between (click here) when President Obama has intentionally reminded us that he is the first African-American president.

Friday was one.

The president did something no other holder of his office has ever had the life experience to do: He used the bully pulpit to, as an African-American, explain black America to white America in the wake of last week's acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.
Appearing unannounced before surprised reporters who were expecting the White House press secretary, it was Obama — "the bridge" as New Yorker editor David Remnick has called him — trying to span a divide. It was Obama trying to help white Americans comprehend black America's reaction to the Martin-Zimmerman tragedy....

I am impressed with Ford Motor recalls.

Ford has adopted a really interesting method to handle any defects in their automobile design. They catch it early and contain their costs.

Ford Motor has it's act together. This is the second recall whereby the number of autos on the street were minimized by early recall. It has nothing to do with image. There is every reason to believe the less up front a company is while delaying and denying auto dangers the more cars they sell. Ford is taking a modernized approach to their corporate image. It is understated and rock solid.

Ford is among the first to harness the morality of the USA Consumer. They are among the earliest company to seek understanding of alternative energies and support it. That is in the energy sector whereby electric cars are sincerely green. 

Ford Motors CEO recognizes the huge financial burden of enormous recalls while denying the problem, ie: Toyota and Jeep.

I am impressed by Ford for the 'entire' of it's corporate culture. Thank you. 



Ford recalls 33K+ C-Max Hybrids over crash safety concerns (click here)
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Ford Motor Company recalled more than 33,000 cars, over fears they might not protect occupants' heads in a crash.
The recall involves 33,021 C-Max Hybrids manufactured between Jan. 19, 2012 and June 25, 2013. The recall only involves models without the panoramic glass roofs.
There aren't any reported injuries, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found the car did not conform to safety standards during tests.
Ford will notify owners next month and fix the problem for free. Owners can also contact the NHTSA's Vehicle Safety Hotline at (888) 327-4236 or visit www.safercar.gov.

Recalls are going to happen. For all the testing that occurs with automobiles there are going to be those marginal problems that won't show up until their are larger numbers being used in the real world. Ford Motor has a future and it's corporate culture based in American morality is rock solid in that future. They are smart folks at Ford. They haven't disappointed me yet.

Ford Driving Skills for Life (click here) 

In 2013, Ford DSFL is doubling the number of students it reaches with its hands on driving programs to 40,000. This includes visits to at least 40 high schools in Arizona, California, Illinois, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia with an array of activities focused on common driving challenges faced by teen drivers. Teens will be able to experience real-world driving situations in a controlled environment using specially equipped vehicles. The hands-on clinics offer professional drivers and activities that build skills in five key areas: driver distraction, speed management, space management, vehicle handling and hazard recognition.

In addition to the hands-on clinics, Ford Driving Skills for Life will reach an additional 150 high schools with its safe driving materials, Web-based learning, partnerships with state highway safety agencies, fun contests and free educational materials for parents and teachers. 

You can find more information online at DrivingSkillsForLife.com.


He had intent. No one will ever convince me there wasn't an agenda within that jury room.

No, not every Concealed Carry Permittee has intent when leaving their home after making an observation and sentencing an innocent person to death.

Just because a person Conceal Carries does mean they ever plan on using that potential. Planning and potential are two different paradigms.

The Jury in Sanford was tainted and no one had to know anyone else within the trial room. The jury was tainted by media saturation. The more media coverage an incident receives the more long lasting it becomes as a significant event and the more people 'learn of it.' They learn of it by statistical CHANCE. 

Any commercial for a product never has impact by airing one time. That would be an introduction. The product has to be viewed at least seven times for a person to pay attention to it. 

The Superbowl is a completely separate topic. Those commercials even get pre-play exposure and are expected to be remembered. But, to make an impact there is a science that accompanies advertising. 

In the case of George Zimmerman, every time there as an event surrounding the case it was media exposure and an opportunity to introduce Stand Your Ground as 'in danger.' 

George Zimmerman had the entire gun industry attempting to influence the outcome of his trial. It got to the point every time the words Trayvon Martin, Stand Your Ground or George Zimmerman were spoken there was automatic gut reactions. Those gut reactions are what media lives for and seeks because it proves they are 'in touch' with an exponential number of potential consumers. The 'air time' becomes more valuable. I consider that media focus a from of 'repeat offender.' No conscience except that of profit driven viewership.

How does a media organization make their entire programming 24/7 as marketable as their commercials? 

Oh, "Gut Reactions," is where the tabloids live. No facts, just money. It builds it's own culture. It is what drives news these days. They compete as if tabloids to garner a following that translates into profit. The 'gut reaction' is important to get folks attention supposedly. Whatever.

Oh, fact check. It has it's limits and creates it's own culture. What good is a fact check is it doesn't say anything different?

Why We See Guns That Aren’t There (click here)


July 27, 2013

When George Zimmerman saw Trayvon Martin walking down the street in Sanford, Florida, he quickly assumed that the Black, hoodie-clad teenager was carrying a weapon. In Zimmerman’s own words, “He’s got his hand in his waistband. And he’s a black male. … Something’s wrong with him. Yup, he’s coming to check me out. He’s got something in his hands. I don’t know what his deal is. … These assholes, they always get away.”...

...The fact that George Zimmerman assumed so quickly that Trayvon Martin was reaching for a weapon smacks of obvious racial prejudice. It ended up being a tragic assumption that led to the death of an innocent young student, who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But was this mistake unique to Zimmerman in particular? Unfortunately, a 2002 study by psychologist Joshua Correll suggests that your average, run-of-the-mill college student might have made a similar snap judgment....

...Police Officer’s Dilemma... shooter bias...measured racism did not have any relation to shooter bias. However, one thing did predict performance on the task – the participants’ level of awareness that there is prejudice towards Black people in American society, even if the participant adamantly did not support those stereotypes....Did racism motivate George Zimmerman’s actions against Trayvon Martin? Probably. But does a person have to be racist to make the same split-second judgment? No....

Did the study in the 1940s change anything about the American Culture? No. There would not be an 'ethnic' Barbie until 1971 and no Asian Barbie until 1980. (click here) Why would any study on racism change anything for our minorities to prevent the real prejudiced danger surrounding their lives? KNOWING the prejudice exists is not enough. APPLICATION of the knowledge LEADS to that paradigm shift.

...A study from the 1940s demonstrated that young Black girls often preferred to play with White-skinned dolls over Black-skinned dolls, presumably because they were growing up in a culture endorsing the idea that White = Beautiful.... 

Our minorities are more than correct to make their perspective known. More than correct to 'call everyone out' on what they know about their own lives.

The research proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the Supreme Court decision about Section 5 was completely bigoted and without a sound scientific base. Now. where are the impeachments? They'll never come.

The Section 5 decision was leveraged for political purposes. The Robert's Court 'measures' it's opinion to justify the important extremist decisions. Those leveraged decisions allow a rebuttal of any of the opinions it is a politically activist court.