September 11

(Please feel free to distribute widely, as long as my name is attached.)
Always Remember
By: Christine Faltz Grassman(written September 11, 2008)
As we once again approach mid-September
Let us take some extra time and energy to remember:
The morning that hatred and terror flew through the air,
The ones who died, the ones who just missed being there,
The ones who tried to find those buried in debris and despair,
The ones whose civil liberties have been lost,
Whose rights of citizenship were unceremoniously tossed
Viscerally, treacherously, unpatriotically away,
Merely because of the way some dress or the way they pray.
Let us remember children, parents, and spouses,
Who feel that they reside in eerily empty houses,
Who look at pictures and remember voices,
Whose lives are now bereft of former choices,
Decisions and memories to make together,
They wonder how life ended, and wonder whether
There was any pain, how much fear, how much hope,
And some days it still seems hard to cope.
Remember the ones who are fighting and dying,
In a war brought about by persistent lying,
Who were told Hussein was helping Osama,
But it was mostly Saudis behind the trauma.
Remember seven years of the one who hit the trifecta,
Remember your rights and try to correct a
Million wrongs done in the name of our country
The scandals and corruption, various and sundry,
The waste, the pain, the hardship, the spoils,
All for different gods and our planet’s oil.

Sarah

(with apologies to Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, unless they approve — in which case — awww shucks)

Wait a minute baby…
Pray with me awhile
Said you’d give them a bridge
But then you changed your mind

Hunting in the Alaskan woods
Where the gray wolf likes to make its home
And now your gun
It wants another animal,
When you shoot it down
Thank the Lord.

And they dread the sound of the dark wings
Of the aerial predator
Even moose met their match — she was praying
And leaving the traces,
Blood and oil in places

Hunting in the Alaskan woods
Where the gray wolf likes to make its home.
And now your gun
It wants another animal,
When you shoot it down
Thank the Lord.

Hold on
The night is coming if the starlet gets the House
I’d stay home at night all the time
I’d lose faith in us, lose faith in us.
Ask me and I’ll tell because I must

Sara, you’re the puppet in their act
Never doubt, it’s a fact
And now she’s out
The Madonna-Whore,
If she gets the House
Say goodbye.
Praying in the USA
Where evolution will cease to b
Science is gone
It doesnt matter anymore
When you pray her way
You’ll be home.

All she ever wanted
Was to know that we were praying
(there’s mental
In fundamentalism)

Condolences and Positve Thoughts for Those in Texas and Those Involved in the California Train Wreck

For loved ones waiting to hear, and who might hear the worst, for those who may yet have to endure pain, fear, loss, injury, disability, and struggle as a result of Ike or the train wreck in California, I send positive energy, heartfelt mind- and spirit-enveloping sympathy and empathy, and wish you all the best that you can all salvage from the despair and destruction you face now. May it get better quickly, and may you have whatever moral, financial and other support you all need. Hug the children tightly. This will always be with you; it will leave scars. But it will pass. You will go on; life will be different always, but you can face it. I send you much, much love, and all the healing power, if any, that my intentions might have.

The Semi-Literate False Christian Who Claims to Love Our Fine Country — a Model

Hey, Ralphie-boy. I’m going to use your “comment” to illustrate my point for everyone, then it’s bye-bye. I hate to give your loser lot attention, but since I’m a teacher, I have a soft spot for the semi-literate.
Start of “Christian” comment:
TYPICAL HATE AND WHINING FROM THE LIBTARD LEFT!!!!

AMERICA NEEDS A SARAH PALIN!!!!

FAITHFUL!!!!

BELIEVING!!!!!

RAPTURE-READY!!!!!!

ON-FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW EXCITING THAT AFTER THE COMING RAPTURE, SO MANY WILL REACH ALASKA TO ESCAPE THE CRUEL REIGN OF PIAPS!!!!

A FUTURE INSTALLATION OF THE MORNING AFTER WILL DESCRIBE THE ADVENTURES OF NEWLY-SAVED BILL O’REILLY AND SEAN HANNITY IN THAT VAST LAND AS THEY WITNESS TO THE ESKIMOS WHO WERE LED ASTRAY TO WORSHIP PAINTINGS BY THE SOVIET ORTHODOX CHURCH!!!!!End of brainwashed “Christian” comment)

(Wow! Those exclamation points. He was probably so excited writing, that was his *second* coming! Ooooh, onanism, you bad, bad boy).

Note, everyone, the inability to use real words, because of a substandard vocabulary, libtard. Ooooh, clever. But, rather than read the dictionary, try the New Testament. Maybe you’ll actually learn something about Christ and Christianity, instead of thumping your Bible but not reading it. There are dumbed-down versions in case you have trouble with the big words, like love, neighbor — that’s nay-bor, in case you were wondering. Sarah’s not on fire yet, but when Judgment Day comes, she’ll be a-smokin’. Then she can shine on.

America — I Love It, But It’s Full of Illogical, Gullible People

Read this — and you’ll agree. I couldn’t find definitive proof of authorship, so it’s unattributed. Brilliant, whoever did it.

I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re “exotic, different.”

* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a

state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you’re very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.

* If you’re husband is nicknamed “First Dude”, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

The Power of Teachers

There is a specific reason for this post, which I will get to shortly. But, as is often the case with my musings, I wish to preface the crux of the matter with some commentary, if you will indulge me for a moment.

Teachers have a tremendous amount of power. I think it would be a mistake for anyone, particularly parents or teachers themselves, to forget this. A good teacher can make a tremendous difference in a child’s attitude toward reading, toward expressing him- or herself through the written or spoken word, and can be an invaluable support for a troubled child. A mediocre teacher, or even a good teacher with excellent intentions but a misguided idea of his or her role, can do damage to a child’s sense of self, his or her autonomy, facility with self-expression, and overall comfort with being fully him- or herself.

I recognize that there are parents, guardians, and families who have no business with the serious responsibility of child-rearing. Unfortunately, it is profoundly difficult to develop clear-cut, well-defined rules and definitions for what is acceptable in a person or group raising our most vulnerable citizens.
Let’s be frank: Children are at the mercy of many, many variables over which they have little, if any, control. Decisions about their well-being are made daily, usually without consulting them, even when they are capable of stating an opinion or in some way participating in the process. Under the law, they can be assaulted by the people they love the most, and by teachers in some regions, if in the authority’s estimation they deserve corporal punishment. When they reach eighteen, the arbitrary age of adulthood, such treatment is no longer tolerated by our society. They are given the power to vote; before this time, they have been given the power, if they can see and can pass the requisite tests, to drive. Young men in this country are now considered old enough potentially to die for their country, even if their country is wrong, and even if they have not yet been permitted to take their first legal drink.

When young, they are not seriously consulted about the schools they attend, the places where they live, significant decisions of their homes and communities. They are often told their opinions do not count; their feelings in particular situations are deemed naive and irrelevant. Their flights of fancy and suggestions when they want to offer help if their elders are in need are scoffed at, belittled, brushed aside. In short, while we spend much money and make a lot of noise about “special needs” and “advocacy” and “parent involvement” and educating “the whole child” it often happens that a teacher or some other authority is discontented with some aspect of “the whole child” and seeks to mold that child, remove from him or her the rough edges that challenge the person’s own sense of order and of what is acceptable.

I am certainly not claiming to be a master teacher, and all of us can improve. However, I am a good teacher, and not because I have three degrees, and not because I write, read and speak well, though all of these, of course, play a role in allowing me to be an *effective* teacher. However, you can be a master in your subject, an excellent writer, speaker and reader who can impart these skills to most, if not all, of your students, and still manage to do harm to your students’ self-concepts.

While I have taught at risk youth for the entirety of my teaching career, ranging in age from thirteen to twenty-one, often with significant learning disabilities, I have always been extremely perceptive and understanding of the “culture” if you will, of young children.

I believe teachers must, when deciding what is acceptable work or behavior from their students, be cognizant of the age-appropriate mentality, humor, feelings, and insecurities of those children. I think a teacher (or parent) who attempts to weed out certain behaviors that are not violent or detrimental to the child or others betrays something central to childhood: its essence, its center: the right to explore, to take chances, to grow in different directions to see what works for him or her. Sometimes, this growth will cross a line; most of the time it will not. Teachers who do not account for individual aspects of the children with whom they work, however, are doing themselves and the children a tremendous injustice and disservice.

I am a big believer in allowing my students to write about whatever they like. It allows them to express themselves in ways that dry, boring essays do not. It also gives me an excellent, often intimate picture of my students’ lives and personalities. I do not censor my students other than to direct them to refrain from writing gratuitously violent and/or “group-offensive” material. When they are doing their homework or journal writing, they can curse, offer whatever objectionable opinions they might wish to state, and use vocabulary words however they wish, as long as the words are used accurately. This freedom of speech has enabled me several times over the years to intervene on behalf of some very troubled students, including cases of incest, rape, physical abuse, drugs, domestic violence — and it has also given me a glimpse of some beautiful, truly heart-warming, poignant and sentimental portraits of love of family, culture and friendship. It has been truly an honor, although sometimes soul-wrenching, to get to know my students this way.

Students e-mail me; the most trusted ones call. I have assisted students when they have been unjustly arrested, offered advice when they were arrested for cause, helped them with work after they have left my class, helped them get into programs they desired, written them recommendations that have gotten them internships, and gotten them out of perilous situations. Students have told me that they love me and appreciate me, and that they will never forget me — I have the written proof. When I was sick with pneumonia last year and away from school for a week, my class wrote notes and a colleague brought them to me. I still have them, and they mean more to me than any progress in test grades, reading or writing, because these are the things which demonstrate who students are, what they care about, what they find funny, etc. Significantly, these are the things, as far as I am concerned, that signal a true teacher.

So now, the crux:

This was posted last night on a GED instructors’ list, and sent to others as well. The opinions received thus far follow immediately afterwards. I will post all opinions the list receives. Feel free to add your thoughts.
(Names have been removed. If anyone wishes his/her name to appear with his/her commentary, please indicate that.)

OK, this is going out to a teachers’ list as well as to some people whom I respect and consider to be fair-minded and reasonable. What is your opinion of the following situation?
A nine-year-old fourth grader receives twenty spelling words. He has a precocious sense of humor and has, in the past, written sentences for spelling words that raised teachers’ eyebrows or made them laugh or scratch their heads. He has not, however, ever been told they were inappropriate.
A teacher told him that his sentences were inappropriate. He feels otherwise, as do his parents. They feel that he has a colorful sense of humor and that as long as he is not using pejoratives or cursing, or gratuitously violent, all should be accepted as long as the words are being used appropriately.
The teacher was told this by the mother and backed up by the father. She e-mailed the mother and asked to speak with her the next day, but before that conversation could take place, she informed the child that his sentences were inappropriate and she wouldn’t back off. If she didn’t like his sentences, he would have to write them over.
Here are some of the sentences in question:
For “chain,” “I will chain you up.
For “jail,” “We should send George Bush to jail.”
For “stay” “Stay right where you are or I will shoot.”
For “fade” “I am waiting for the smell of my fart to fade.”
The other sentences were more “average”. Apparently, the teacher took the mother’s note to the faculty meeting to get teacher reaction. The principal said the only one she had trouble with was the fart sentence, since “in elementary school, fart is practically a curse, and you wouldn’t use it in polite or professional conversation.”
The parents’ stance is that their child is an individual, and doesn’t like to concoct sentences unless he can have fun with them. He has been doing this for two years, and the principal stated that no other teachers complained, while the current complainer said “all teachers would agree with me” to the child.
So what do you folks think? Teacher or parents? If the teacher, how far should censorship of expression extend? If parents, what should they do about her reluctance to change her mind?
Comments thus far:

1.

This fourth grader — who shall remain nameless — has a mature sense of humor and a sharp intelligence. His teacher isn’t used to it, obviously.

I would suggest to him that he do what I did in fourth grade: Use the words to make a story. It always seemed like such an obvious opportunity that I couldn’t understand why my classmates didn’t take advantage of it.

I agree about the fart sentence, though. Just ask him to show you his work beforehand so you know when the teacher is about to have a coronary.

2.

Shalom. The only possible difficulty is the fart sentence.

(The next two are my personal favorites, and, taken together, espouse my philosophy — although I am somewhat more comfortable with some roughness of action, as long as it contributes reasonably to the sentence, story, etc.).)

3.

Personally, I thought the sentence re: the expelling of gas showed a wonderful, clear understanding of the word “fade”. It really communicated the sense of smell via the written word! It truly showed that he not only knew how to spell “fade”, but certainly knew its meaning! Isn’t that the purpose of “vocabulary” and “spelling” lessons?
As a three-year-veteran of teaching fourth grade, granted it was many decades ago, I think I would have used that sentence to show how, when writing, you can help people connect what they are reading to their previous experiences — even impolite ones such as expelling gas in a “inappropriate” situation.
Personally, I disliked the “violent” sentences, although those words, also, were used appropriately. (I guess, as a fourth-grade teacher, I would try to encourage reading, listening to, and watching OTHER types of fiction — beyond the superheroes stories with all the violent scenes. Also,. I would try to encourage and emphasize the idea that superheroes usually try to save someone who seems to be in need of help — and build on that idea, having him write stories of a superhero who helps ….(whatever situation he would like to help).
Personally, as a parent, IF IT IS FEASIBLE, I would try to have him moved to another section of fourth grade, with another teacher. IF IT IS NOT FEASIBLE, I would meet quietly and gently with the principal and see if the principal can gently help the teacher to loosen up a bit. If she is reacting that strongly to spelling sentences, probably/possibly she expects the CORRECT ANSWER AS WRITTEN IN THE TEACHER’S GUIDE — AND NO OTHER — in ALL curricula areas! I wonder if she would be inclined to ask students “What other way could this mathematical problem possibly be solved?” The principal MIGHT be grateful for an opportunity to help the teacher expand her horizons and her teaching style.
I shared your e-mail with He said, “The teacher should let the issue fade or stay in jail, since the chain of complaints makes her sound like a fart, which has as its SECOND definition in the Compact Oxford Dictionary (when used as a noun)
1) an emission of wind from the anus
2) a boring or contemptible person
Personally, I would NOT suggest sharing this sentence with either the teacher or the principal. But I would try my suggestions.
My heart hurts thinking of the situation!

4.

This is a teacher who should be gratified to have a child with an active and inventive mind who is exploring the limits of language, as well as the limits of his instructor! Had she an iota of imagination or wit she would be enjoying and encouraging this child. Anyone who has been in the company of a young child for more than five minutes would know that fart humor is the essence (pardon the pun) of the first and funniest joke. She REALLY needs to lighten up!!!! That is the extent of my commentary without using language that might be considered colorful and inappropriate.

5.
I would have to say that any teacher who gives “jail” and “chain” as
spelling words is going to have to deal with whatever sentences the
child wants. Also, if the school doesn’t like the word “fart,” it
needs to go on the list of banned words alongside racial slurs and
swear words, or again, it’s fair game.

6.
I think that the student had well thought out sentences.
Although a little graphic they would have passed in my class.
I would tell the student to use a little less graphics in the class
so the teacher or teachers won’t get in an uproar.
7.

I have to say I’ve been waiting for the smell of my fart to fade for 40 years and I’m still waiting for the smell of my fart to fade.

8.

I agree with the principal and would probably ask the child to use potentially “loaded” words sparingly, at least for a while. It’s
only September 18th and freedom of expression can cause the child to have a nightmare year. Yes, adults (teachers included) can be vindictive and are capable
of turning a child off to school.

9.

All words were used appropriately in a grammatical and syntactical sense. I would agree with the principal, however, on the fart sentence (even though, personally, I think it is hilarious!).
10.
The teacher has no sense of humor.

11.
If the child wrote “I am waiting for the smell of my gas to fade” would that have been okay with this prude? How often have you heard, ringing out in a classroom, a student say, “Hey, who farted?” Give me a break.

(This one is amazing.)

12.

This kid is on the way to being one of our top comedy writers!

“I will chain you up”???
Did anyone ever ponder the lyrics to the classic ballad “Prisoner of Love”? “Alone from night to night you’ll find me…To weak to break the chains that bind me…I need no shackles to remind me…I’m just a prisoner of love…” Check out the rest of the lyrics and tell me in retrospect it’s not a paen to B&S, LOL.

“We should send George Bush to jail”???
Obviously the teacher hasn’t read highly respected former L. A. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi’s latest book. If any of this kid’s sentences represents protected free speech, this one does.

“Stay right where you are or I will shoot”???
We’re involved in two wars and we’re incensed by the use of “shoot” in this sentence. To paraphrase the Bard, “Methinks the teacher doth protest too much.”

“I am waiting for the smell of my fart to fade”???
Wow, how did the late George Carlin miss this one? “…in an elementary school, fart is practically a curse…” In what elementary school? Where? What elementary school kid has ever said the word “fart” thinking it was a curse while the rest of the kids were howling in laughter. Curse words usually engender shock…not laughter unless we’re talking about Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, et. al. A quick-thinking teacher might have used the opportunity to teach the word “flatulence” while maintaining a sense of humor.

I think a nation that has survived 9/11 can survive these sentences. As for what words to censor, I can’t help but recall the late Buddy Hackett delivering a monologue and addressing the same issue. He asked the audience why people considered “hand” a perfectly un-objectionable word, but considered “ass” a “DIRTY” word. “Think about this…” he told the audience. “You’re walking down a dark alley. A guy comes up to you with a gun in his hand and says ‘Give me all your money!’ How do you feel? Now, think how you feel about this: You’re walking down the same alley and the same guy appears, only this time he’s holding the gun in his ASS!…”

Have a nice day, y’all.
I vote with the parents.

Well . . . Okay, If They Insist

My students told me I should be called Darediva. Ugh! I suppose it’s somewhat catchy . . I’ll try it on for size for a bit . . .

Price Gouging Because of Fuel Costs

Has anyone else experience this?
I have never heard of this with respect to fuel costs being passed on to customers via a “tempoarary charge” on a restaurant bill. My daughter Samantha and I went to lunch at the Jolly Fisherman, located at 25 Main Street, in Roslyn(516) 621-0055, , on Saturday, September 20. While the service was fine and the food delicious, we were astonished to receive a $2 “tempoarary charge” listed on our bill. When we inquired of “Marion” — who appeared to be a hostess, she told us that rather than print up new menus and “change everything” they are putting this charge on each bill to account for fuel costs.

This does not sit well with me. All of us must pay higher fuel costs — so we are now being asked not only to foot the extra money for our personal fuel costs, as well as those reflected in the higher prices of necessaries, but business owners’ as well. My husband owns a store, and although he raises prices when food costs increase, he has not passed on to his customers the $2 or $3 extra per delivery he is charged. Certainly, $2 per *bill* seems absurd.

Obviously, this potentially affects any individual who patronizes an establishment that avoids expending money to print up new advertising, menus, service lists/brochures, etc., and merely passes on a “temporary charge” to customers.Hey, maybe by the time this fuel travesty is over, they will have enough in their gouging fund to make those new menus — on which they will increase prices.
Note to blind customers who dare to visit without a sighted companion: Several staff members were freaked out by this. One even stuck her head into the bathroom after I entered to tell me to “lock the door” and to “call her when I got out”. I was worried she was going to offer to pull my pants down or remind me to wash my hands. Maybe they were afraid we would be like bulls in a china shop and knock over their plates or something, thereby forcing them to add more temporary charges to bills to pay for the damage. (grin). If that’s the concern, maybe they should get rid of their liquor license. Intoxicated patrons are far more likely to wreck the joint . . .

So, Rich Republicans are Closet Socialists

So you’re going along, spending money like water, a real financial high roller. Trickle down economics has provided you with a wonderful environment, free of oversight, regulation — you can spend, risk and invest to your heart’s content. Then, all hell breaks loose — hey, it’s a cycle, baby; sooner or later the bubble has to burst. And what’s that you want? Big government? Bailout? Your ass saved by your fellow taxpayers? Hmmm. Let’s see — if your middle-class neighbor on the other side of the tracks lost his house or went into major credit card debt, what would you tell your legislators to do about him or her? Those irresponsible, greedy proles who dare to want what you have, bite off more than can be chewed and swalloed . . . Hypocrites. Losers.

The Blind Shall Protest Blindness

No, sorry, it’s not what you think. It isn’t some tragic sob story about blind people bemoaning our disability. Rather, it shall be a protest of this piece of crap coming out Friday.
Just watched a little documentary on the making of the movie, the adaptation of Saramago’s novel that prompted me to write my book, which it seems will be published some time in November. I hope.
I plan to participate in a protest rally against this piece of rancid tripe this Friday. First, of course, I have to prepare my biting chants and slogans, and methinks I will rework the lyrics to Abba’s Fernando, in “honor” of the movie’s director . . . Stay tuned.
For those who are interested, there was one scene in the documentary where two crew guys were holding mikes and singing Stevie Wonder’s “I Just
Called To Say I Love You” and the morons were moving their heads around and clearly poking fun. Sounds like a real party of positive attitudes were born on that set.

Fernando (for the director of the horrific movie Blindness

Fernando (addressed to the director of the horrific movie Blindness)
By: Christine Faltz Grassman, Copyright 2008
(with apologies to Abba)

Verse 1

Can you hear the canes fernando?
We are here to tell you something that you really need to know
Beneath the city lights, Fernando
We stand outside this theater because you thought we wouldn’t care,
Can you hear our tapping canes?
And our voices in the autumn air

Listen to us now, Fernando
Every minute, every second of your movie is offense,
We are angry now Fernando
We are human beings, not metaphors, not caricatures of life.
And we’re not ashamed to say
That you and old Jose’ cause us needless strife.

chorus
Blindness is a disability,
Not tragedy, Fernando.
We are tired of the metaphors,
And closing doors, Fernando.
Though we know you meant to do it well,
You’re movie’s hell.
There is simply no good excuse,
For our misuse, Fernando.
There will never be a good defense
For why it never ends, Fernando.

Verse 2
Now we won’t accept, Fernando,
The disgusting treatment of the blind for entertainment’s sake,
Can you hear our canes fernando?
Do you understand that we the blind are asking for a break?
We have to fight much harder
Because of the liberties the media so often takes.
Blindness is a disability,
Not tragedy, Fernando.
We are tired of the metaphors,
And closing doors, Fernando.
Though we know you meant to do it well,
You’re movie’s hell.
There is simply no good excuse,
Four our misuse, Fernando.
There will never be a good defense,
For why it never ends, Fernando.
Repeat.

NFB FAQ on Blindness Movie

The National Federation of the Blind is the largest consumer organization of the blind in the United States. We have been attempting to dialogue with the idiots who brought Saramago’s disgusting novel to silver screen fruition, but they refused to attempt to see our points. Guess they still didn’t get over that white sickness thing they steeped themselves in. At any rate, rather than reinvent the wheel, here are all our objections, in a tidy little FAQ. I was really hoping my book, The Sight Sickness: A Blind Woman’s Response to Saramago’s-and Society’s-Blindness,would be published by now, but it appears that will not happen until November or December, so Meirelles and the rest will have to wait till then to have their chestnuts roasted on my fire. Well, not really. This Friday night, blind people across the nation will be protesting this pile of media manure. If you would like to join us, contact your local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind and join the protest nearest you. The Web site is:
http://www.nfb.org
Don’t worry; we allow sighted people to protest with us, and you will not have to guide us there, get us home, shepherd us around during the protest, tell us where to shit or piss, and we’ll even go all out and get dressed. Just to make you more comfortable, of course, because you know us.

Just ask Josie and ‘Nando. They have all the answers, cause they’re seein’ white. Maybe someone should blame the Klan

**NFB Blindness FAQ and Talking Points***

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Regarding the Movie Blindness

Q: What is the premise and plot of the movie Blindness?
A: Blindness is based on a novel of the same name by the Portuguese writer
José Saramago. The premise of the movie is that unnamed residents of an
unnamed city in an unnamed country suddenly and mysteriously go blind.
Those who experience the blindness see only a white glare, so the blindness
is sometimes called the “white sickness.” The blindness is contagious and
the government immediately quarantines the victims in an abandoned and
dilapidated mental asylum, with orders that anyone attempting to leave is to
be killed.

The prisoners are given food and supplies, but deliveries are inadequate and
become increasingly irregular. The asylum also becomes filthy because the
blind inmates, as portrayed in the movie, cannot find their way to the
bathroom and simply relieve themselves on the floor or in their own beds.
Some of the inmates die from infection, disease, or are shot by guards when
they try to escape or simply become lost and wander too close to the fence.

The inmates of ward one, led by an ophthalmologist’s wife who can still see
but feigns blindness to remain with her husband, fare slightly better than
the rest; the implication is that this is solely because she assists the
blind, portrayed as being unable to do anything for themselves. As food
supplies dwindle, another group of blind inmates, whose leader has acquired
a gun and dubbed himself “the King of Ward Three,” begins to terrorize the
others. The armed clique in ward three hordes all the food, extorting money
and valuables from the other inmates and eventually demanding sex with the
women from other wards in exchange for allowing the rest of the inmates to
eat. One of the members of this clique, who was born blind and is not a
victim of the white sickness, knows how to read and write Braille and is
given the task of taking inventory of the valuables stolen from the other
inmates.

When the women from ward one go to ward three to exchange sex for food, one
of the women is beaten to death as she is raped. The doctor’s wife later
kills the King of Ward Three, but the man who was born blind takes his place
as leader of the armed gang and threatens to avenge the “King” by killing
the doctor’s wife. Being blind, however, he is unable to shoot her and she
escapes unharmed. The rest of the inmates finally decide to do battle with
the gang in ward three; just before the showdown, someone sets a pile of
bedding alight, starting a fire that soon engulfs the entire asylum. During
the ensuing confusion, the man who was born blind shoots himself. When the
surviving inmates, including the group led by the doctor’s wife, escape the
burning asylum, they discover that no soldiers are standing guard and they
are free.

Outside the makeshift prison, everyone has gone blind and the city has
descended into total chaos; no government services or businesses are
functioning and nomadic groups of mostly naked blind people wander through
the streets, squatting in abandoned houses and shops for shelter and taking
food where they can find it—including in rubbish heaps. There is no
electricity or running water, so the streets and buildings of the city are
as filthy as the asylum was. Dogs that people used to keep as pets have
gone wild and roam in packs, feeding on refuse and human corpses. The home
of the doctor and his wife, however, is intact, and their group sets up
residence there. The movie ends just as they regain their sight—as suddenly
and mysteriously as they lost it.

Q: Have you seen the film?
A: Yes. Members of the National Federation of the Blind were permitted to
screen the film. Many other members of the National Federation of the Blind
have read the novel, and according to the filmmakers themselves, the movie
is “true to the book.”

Q: How will this film harm blind people?
A: Blind people already suffer from irrational prejudice based on ignorance
and misconceptions about our capabilities and characteristics. This
prejudice–which is based on ignorance and low expectations but is no less
harmful than prejudice based on ethnicity, religion, or sex–-is the cause of
the overwhelming majority of problems experienced by blind people, including
an unemployment rate that exceeds 70 percent and the lack of proper
education for blind children. This movie will further entrench myths and
misconceptions about blindness and blind people, thereby contributing to the
barriers to equal participation in society that we face.

Q: What is wrong with the way blind people are portrayed in the film?
A: Blindness falsely depicts blind people as incapable of almost everything.
Even accepting that most of the characters are newly blind and thus have not
learned certain skills needed to function effectively as a blind person,
their complete and utter incompetence is simply not credible to anyone who
has had even casual contact with actual blind people. The blind people in
the film are unable to dress or bathe themselves; they usually go about
naked or nearly naked and relieve themselves on the floor or in their own
beds. The doctor’s wife is shown helping him dress by holding his pants so
that he can step into them, and he comments at one point that she even has
to clean him after he has defecated.

In reality, even newly blinded individuals do not experience this level of
incapacity; they do not forget how to dress, wash, or use the toilet. The
blind people in the movie are portrayed as perpetually disoriented and
having no sense of direction or ability to remember the route from one place
to another. However, blind people regularly travel independently using white
canes or guide dogs. The blind people who are not completely helpless in
the novel and movie are depraved monsters, withholding food from the others
in exchange for money, jewelry, and sex. One of the worst of these
criminals is a man who was born blind and has adapted to his blindness, yet
he sides with the criminal gang of ward three, participating in brutal rapes
and attempting to kill inmates from the other wards. Thus, all of the blind
people in the film are portrayed either as helpless invalids or degenerate
criminals. The movie suggests that blindness completely alters the human
personality, resulting either in total incapacity or villainous evil.

The movie also makes it clear that blindness is cause for complete and
irreversible despair; one blind man comments, “I’d rather die than stay like
this.” Blind people, in fact, do live happy lives once they have learned to
accept their blindness and adjust to it. The movie also suggests that the
blind must always defer to the sighted; when the doctor’s wife leaves him
outside a supermarket so she can attempt to find food, he says, “I know my
place.” The dignity, worth, and individuality of blind people is constantly
denigrated in this way throughout the movie.

The National Federation of the Blind objects to this portrayal of the blind
because it simply isn’t accurate. Blind people are a cross-section of
society who happen to share the physical characteristic of being unable to
see. The blind are employed in almost every profession imaginable, have
homes and families, raise children, do volunteer work in their communities,
and generally lead normal, productive lives. To the extent this is not the
case, the problem is not blindness itself, but rather the misconceptions and
stereotypes that society holds about blindness and blind people. This film
will further those myths and misconceptions and deepen public prejudice
against the blind. Most members of the public do not know a blind person
and may therefore assume that this portrayal of blindness is accurate and
true. It is not, and the falsehoods in this film will damage the prospects
for equal opportunity, productivity, dignity, and happiness for blind people
throughout the world.

Q: Isn’t this just a matter of political correctness, or a difference of
opinion with the novelist and filmmakers?
A: No. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but not his or her
own facts. If an artist were to create a painting called “Elephant,” but
the picture in fact represented a giraffe, a camel, or a creature from the
artist’s own imagination, then any art critic–or any layman–would point out
that the picture does not, in fact, represent an elephant. The person
pointing out the inconsistency would not be accused of “political
correctness” or a “difference of opinion” with the artist, but would be
recognized as having good common sense. The portrait of blind people in
this movie is simply wrong; artistic license does not permit a writer or a
filmmaker to make false assertions about an entire group of people. The
stereotyping of blind people is just as inappropriate as the stereotyping of
African-Americans, women, Hispanics, or any other group of individuals who
share common characteristics.

Q: Isn’t blindness being used as a metaphor in the novel and film?
A: Yes, and this is one of the movie’s main problems. Blindness is simply
the physical characteristic of being unable to perceive things with the
eyes, but the author and filmmakers want it to be a metaphor for everything
that is bad about human nature. At the very least, blindness in this movie
represents lack of insight or perception; arguably it represents even worse
traits, since many of the blind characters engage in rape, murder, and other
forms of criminal behavior. Blind people, however, are not inherently
obtuse or incapable of discernment. Although we cannot see with our eyes,
we are aware of the world around us through our other senses and through the
alternative techniques we use to learn about our environment, such as
traveling with a white cane, reading and writing Braille, and using
technology.

Blindness is no more an appropriate “metaphor” than other physical
characteristics, like hair color or ethnicity. Movies in which all of the
villains have dark skin or a foreign accent are rightly criticized as
employing racial stereotypes. If a movie were to be made in which people’s
hair suddenly turned blonde and all of the characters with blonde hair were
vapid idiots, then people with blonde hair would rightly be outraged. In
today’s society, it should likewise be unacceptable for blindness to be used
as a stand-in for depravity, incompetence, and lack of understanding.

Q: Doesn’t your protest violate the First Amendment rights of the
filmmakers?
A: No. The First Amendment protects the production and screening of this
film, but it also protects our right to protest its production and screening
and to tell the public that it portrays blind people in an outrageously
false manner.

Q: Have you brought your concerns to the attention of the filmmakers?
A: Yes. We sent letters to officials involved with the production asking to
meet and discuss our concerns but they refused to respond.

Birth of a Nation and Blindness: Nearly a Century of Reinforcing Stereotypes — A Proud American Tradition

The White sickness has got a new disguise.
From:
http://www.africanamericans.com/BirthofANation.htm

On February 8, 1915, D.W. Griffith’s controversial silent film, The Birth of a Nation, premiered in Los Angeles, California. Released under the title, The Clansman, the movie debuted only after Griffith sought an injunction from the court. Although local censors approved the film, city council members responded to concerns about the racist nature of the picture by ordering it suppressed.

American director D. W. Griffith’s silent film about the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, one of the most controversial films of all time because of its demeaning portrayal of blacks.

The Birth of a Nation was first released on February 8, 1915. The film’s depictions of blacks as idling and brutish sparked a massive wave of protests from thousands of African Americans. The explosive controversy set off by the film revealed Hollywood’s power to reflect and to shape public attitudes about race, while it set the stage for what would be a decades-long struggle to improve the portrayal of blacks on film (see Film, Blacks in American). Unprecedentedly long-three hours (and 12 reels of film)-The Birth of a Nation chronicles the fall of the South during the Civil War (1861-1865) and the reemergence of white political domination over the interracial state governments of the Reconstruction era.

In the film’s final scenes, the Ku Klux Klan, described in a New York Times review as “a company of avenging spectral crusaders sweeping along … moonlit roads,” takes revenge for the attempted rape of two white women by black men. The film is based on the racist novels of Thomas Dixon, The Leopard’s Spots and The Clansman. It rushes through visually striking Civil War panoramas and melodramatic episodes about the plight of Southern soldiers and heroically depicts the rise of the Klan, all the while portraying blacks as lazy and weak or violent and dangerous.

Griffith’s innovative filmmaking techniques delighted critics and drew a national audience deeply enmeshed in a culture of lynchings, Jim Crowsegregation, and widespread antiblack sentiment. In its first 11 months in New York City alone, the film sold an estimated 3 million tickets. On Thanksgiving night in 1915, 25,000 Klansmen paraded through the streets of Atlanta, Georgia, to celebrate the opening of the movie. And when Griffith, the son of a Confederate soldier, presented his work to President Woodrow Wilson(reportedly the first screening of a feature film in the White House), the President allegedly declared, “It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.”

Black groups, while aware that a public controversy would only boost ticket sales, were quick to react to the film’s blatant racism. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sent copies of a scathing New Republic review to more than 500 newspapers and issued strong warnings that screening the film could spark rioting. The NAACP even managed to have some of the movie’s harshest moments deleted, including a scene proposing that blacks be sent back to Africa as a remedy for the nation’s ills.

But the efforts of the black organizations were drowned out by the film’s runaway box-office success. Perhaps the protesters’ biggest victories lay in rallying African Americans around a common cause, and in increasing awareness of the recently created NAACP and other black political groups. While the film is still praised by critics as a cinematic masterpiece, it has also become an important object lesson in how the relationship of popular media to public opinion can perpetuate racial stereotypes.

Something dangerous Blooming in this Berg

It is official: the poster boy for rolling in it (bullshit and billions) is seeking a third term. Never mind that in 2002 he was against such an animal, touting his respect for what the people want. But now, the New York tycoon thinks he can lead us out of the throes of imminent fiscal emergency. Hah! We know how well high rollers with nothing to worry about if they screw up do. If anyone thinks that a boy with billions is somehow more naturally able to save us from economic strife than someone who remains more in touch with the realities of middle-class finances, why don’t we remember just who is responsible for getting us into the bulk of this mess in the first place?

When you can pay for advertising, you can also guide the questions asked in polls, and pluck editorial favor from whatever media source you desire. And hey, if he screws up (he already has with the school system — served up a different brand of corruption than existed before, but it sucks nonetheless) — no worries. Someone will bail his billionaire butt out — probably us. Isn’t that a sweet deal?Hey, that’s the new Life, and Mikey likes it. If he plays his cards right, maybe he, too, can have his own doll, like presumptive VP Barbie, Or maybe his own lipstick — but it will go on the nose, and will be a familiar-looking brown.

Bruce, Billy, Barack, and Bucks

So much for grassroots, average people. I realize both campaigns have to get their loads of money from the money bags who must buy whichever guy wins the White House — hey, that’s how the system works — but really: I thought Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, despite their big bucks, were for the working class, the underdog, the common, average working Joe, Joeanne, Julio, Juanita, and Jones. Alas! Their joint concert benefiting Barack Obama will cost between $500 and $10,000 per ticket.
Ah, well: Barack was, after all, “Born to Run” — and if he wins, it’ll be fun to corner Sarah “I See Russian People” Palin and “Tell Her About It.” If we just continue “Keeping the Faith” we might avoid getting too “Close to the Borderline”. Just throw away any idea you had, however, of owning a “Pink Cadillac”.
Hmmm, I could really have fun with this; but I have to go get ready for my job that doesn’t pay enough to buy the next President and make him do my personal and financial bidding. Who knew that BS and a BJ cost so much these days?

I Love This — Lyrics from Nas about Fox

I have wanted to put these here since I heard him perform it. Awesome stuff. Rupert and Fox: the purveyors of some serious crap, news and entertainment alike.

Go, Nas! Tell the truth.

So we look at what’s going on — this as an EXTREME aggression, um
I’m also hearing about it from EVERYWHERE!
It’s-it’s on the islands, it’s on the continent, it’s here: it’s everywhere!
And this is, if you will, a WAR — An all out assault by…

[Verse 1:NaS]

The sly fox
Cyclops
We locked
In the idiot box
The video slots
Broadcast
The Waco Davidian plots
They own YouTube, Myspace
When this ignorant xxxx gon’ stop?
They monopolizing news
Your views
And the channel you choose
Propaganda
Visual cancer
The eye
In the sky
Number five
On the dial
secret agenda
Frequency antenna
Doctor mind bender
Remote control
soul
Controller
Your brain holder
Slave culture
Game’s over
What’s a Fox characteristic?
Slick shit
Sensin’
Misinformation
Pimp the station
Over stimulation
Reception
Deception
Comcast digital Satan
The Fox has a bushy tail
And Bush tells
Lies and Foxtrots
So I don’t know what’s real

[Chorus]

Watch what you watchin’
Fox keeps feeding us toxins
Stop sleeping
Start thinking
Outside of the box and
Unplug from The Matrix doctrine
But watch what you say Big Brother is watchin’

Watch what you watchin’
Fox keeps feeding us toxins
Stop sleeping
Start thinking
Outside of the box and
Unplug from The Matrix doctrine
But watch what you say Fox 5 is watchin’

[Verse 2:NaS]

The Fear Factor got you all rattled up
O’ Reilly
Oh really?
No rally needed
I’ll tie you up
Network for child predators, settin’ ‘em up
Myspace pimps, hoes, and sluts
Ya’ll exploit rap culture, then ya’ll flip on us
And you own the post, and ya’ll xxxx on us
What is they net worth?
They gon’ try to censor my next verse?
Throw ‘em off the roof neck first
While I’m clicking my cursor
Reading blogs about the pressure they put on Universal
It gets worse while I’m clicking my mouse
While they kickin’ my house
They figured us out
Why a nigga go south
It’s either he caught a body, no sleep they watchin’!
I watch CBS
And I See B.S.!
Tryin’ to track us down with GPS
Make a nigga wanna invest in PBS

[Chorus]

Watch what you watchin’
Fox keeps feeding us toxins
Stop sleeping
Start thinking
Outside of the box and
Unplug from The Matrix doctrine
But watch what you say Big Brother is watchin’

Watch what you watchin’
Fox keeps feeding us toxins
Stop sleeping
Start thinking
Outside of the box and
Unplug from The Matrix doctrine
But watch what you say Fox 5 is watchin’

[Verse 3:NaS]

They say I’m all about murder-murder and kill-kill
But what about Grindhouse and Kill Bill?
What about Cheney and Halliburton? (Halliburton?)
The backdoor deals
On oil fields
How’s NaS the most violent person?
Ya’ll don’t know talent if it hit you
Bringin’ up my criminal possession charges with a pistol (pistol)
I use Viacom
As my firearm
And let the lyrics split you
Who do you rely upon?
They shoot shells at Leviathan
I’m dealing with the higher form
F**k if you care how I write a poem?
Only Fox that I love was the red one
Only black man that Fox loves is in jail or a dead one!
Red rum
Political bedlam
Don’t let the hype into your eyes and ear drum
Murdoch on Fox
Not 18 with Barracas
And he hate Barack cause
He march with the marchers

[Outro]

I pledge allegiance to the fair and balanced truth.
Not the biased truth
Not the liar’s truth
But the highest truth
I will not be deceived
nor will I believe
In the Propaganda
I will not fall for the Okey-Doke
I am tuned-in

[NaS]

Watch, cause they’re watching
Watch what you’re watching

Better watch, cause they’re watching
Watch what you’re watching

Me-Me-Media
Misleading ya

If It’s One Thing I Can’t Stand . . .

It’s simplistic, black-and-white, absolutist thinking. Check out this very average story from averagepolitics.wordpress.com that is supposed to convert liberals to conservatives — because, you know, it’s all just so cut and dried, so simple, so AVERAGE:

I think every liberal out there who wants more government programs and OBAMA as president should read this and think about it long and hard. In fact, after reading this, I would like for all liberals to explain to me why bigger government, universal health care programs, and all the good stuff Obama is preaching is such a good idea!

_________________________

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so
many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat,
and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to
support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch
Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she
had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that
her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he
thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher
taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The
self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth
and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing
in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA,
and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was
taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left
her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even
have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends
because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, ‘How is your friend Audrey
doing?’ She replied, ‘Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are
easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular
on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the
parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes because
she’s too hung over.’

Her wise father asked his daughter, ‘Why don’t you go to the
Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who
only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that
would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily
fired back, ‘That’s a crazy idea, and how would that be fair! I’ve
worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard
work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I
worked my tail off!’

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, ‘Welcome to the
Republican party.’

1. Let’s get this straight — we know, conservatives can only deal with straight, except when it’s in a rest stop bathroom. Everyone in America who is rolling in it worked hard for it and deserves it, and didn’t do anything unsavory at any time on his or her way up the proverbial bootstrap ladder. All those hours at martini lunches, at the country club, delegating the hard stuff to the peons who don’t deserve the tax breaks and corporate subsidies — dare we call it socialism? — are just the perks of creating wealth. Got it.

2. Everyone who isn’t making a whole lotta dough is lazy, parasitic, partying, and irresponsible. Check.

3. And that’s it. Politics, economics, society, ethics, in all wrapped up in a tidy little parable. Eureka! Oooh, how many did it take to screw in this light bulb that is flashing in my brain? I can’t stand the enlightenment.

In colloquial parlance . . . puh-lease!

“Meanness” Would Be Defecating in *Your Bed*, Jose’ Saramago! A Little Defensive, Old Man?

(My comments appear in parentheses.)

CBC News
Nobel literature laureate Jose Saramago has dismissed protests about a film adaptation of his book Blindness.

The Portuguese author called the picketing of theatres by a U.S. association of blind people a “display of meanness based on nothing at all.”

(Okay, given that an author who received a prize that is generally associated with humanitarianism must defend himself, we will give J.S. the benefit of the doubt — he’s an old man, after all, and perhaps he is dealing with Depends these days, so defecating and urinating in one’s bed, or not being able to make it to the bathroom on time might be something with which he has personal experience.

However, I don’t know any blind people, including those who went blind later in life, who can’t:

1. Dress themselves;

2. Bathe themselves;

3. Find their way in an area where they have spent considerable time.

How many of you sighted people use a mirror to clean up after going to the bathroom? How many of you parents have changed a baby in the dark and somehow managed to get him or her squeaky clean? It’s called dealing with your deck of cards, and finding ways of coping in a realistic, practical and socially acceptable manner, as opposed to running around naked, letting yourself degrade into less than animals (my cats kept themselves pristine as compared to the ‘characters’– or rather caricatures– in this book.

You dare, Saramago, level the word “meanness” at us when you clearly haven’t a clue what blindness is really like for most blind people in developed countries? A metaphor and allegory are only as good as the thing to which a comparison is being made, or those things, people, places, or ideas being represented. Yours, old man, suck. Oh, sorry, that’s not a good metaphor. They *bite*. They nip and tear savagely at the organizations and individuals who have been trying, and still try, to make the general public aware that blindness is not tragedy, is not chaos, is manageable, and does not require a sighted shepherd to get through the trials and tribulations, nor the wonderful aspects, of life. The human spirit can conquer irrationality, even if it remains blind.

Your equating irrationality with blindness, degradation with blindness, inability to function with blindness, has been done before, my dear; it is old, unoriginal, and erroeneous. I must say, though, it has been done better, as far as sentence structure. Didn’t your teachers ever tell you about run-on sentences? Methinks many of my students potentially have Nobel prizes in their futures — all I need do is tell them to throw the rules of grammar out the window — or flush them down the toilet. My students are sighted, so they always know where the toilet is, you know.

Have you ever seen the Birth of a Nation, Mr. Saramago? You were actually around when it was made, so your own decades of experience should have taught you that stereotypes abound in literature that authors claim are metaphors, allegories, and “creative” ways to express political beliefs. Griffith had his own social agenda and political beliefs, so surely he had the right to paint African-Americans as either weak and lazy, or brutish and rapacious, right? It was meanness of the highest order in which the NAACP indulged when it protested the film, wasn’t it? Oh, those nasty, whining, supersensitive people of color. Such *slaves* to their inability to see the beauty, the originality, the sheer talent imbued by a film director in his quest for social awareness of his mind-set. The ends justify the means, right, Saramago?

Here’s a little encapsulation of the protest I was part of last night. Don’t take it personally, though, Jose’. It’s just creativity in the interest of our agenda, to teach people some truths, to bring their social consciences up a little. Sound familiar?

Some chants:

1. Hey, Hey, bye-bye,

This Blindness movie’s gotta die.

2.

Hey, hey, ho ho!

This Blindness movie’s gotta go!

3.

Saramago got it wrong,

After blindness, life goes on.

4.

We live full and happy lives,

We don’t need no doctors’ wives.

5.

No more, Julianne Moore!

6.

About Blindness.

Awful movie.

Hey, hey, hey!

Stay away!

7.

Blindness is not tragedy,

This movie is a travesty.

8.

One, two, three, four,

We are not a metaphor.

9.

Hey, hey, it’s a mess!

This flick is nothing but BS!

10.

Do yourself a kindness,

Don’t see Blindness.

11.

It’s the worst we’ve ever seen,

This flick should be in quarantine!

12.

Hey, hey, oh no!

Shame on you, Mark Ruffalo!

You want to see meanness, Jose’?

If you think exercising our right to tell people the truth is “meanness” sugar, watch out, because I’m just getting started. I guess it’s easy to tell lots of people they are misguided from your place in the Canary Islands, and it’s easy to talk about metaphors and allegories about irrationality, but you clearly didn’t think of using race, ethnicity, (for example, Portuguese?) for your allegory.)

On Friday night, demonstrators turned up at about 75 theatres in 38 states.

Saramago has described his 1995 novel as disturbing allegory that depicts “a blindness of rationality.”

In the book, a mysterious epidemic causes people to see nothing but fuzzy white light, triggering the breakdown of social order.

“Stupidity doesn’t choose between the blind and the non-blind,” Saramago told Portuguese radio station TSF on Friday.

(Definitely true. You’re a role model for that statement.)

Miramax released a statement last month that said director Fernando Meirelles, an Academy Award nominee for City of God, had “worked diligently to preserve the intent and resonance of the acclaimed book,” which it described as “a courageous parable about the triumph of the human spirit when civilization breaks down.”

(I respect a director who takes pains to be true to an author’s work. Too many do not. I take issue with Meirelles’ choice of book. Furthermore, the documentary about the making of the movie, and the articles written about the cast and crew during the making of the movie, demonstrate how this “metaphor” and “allegory” degrade into misconceptions and ridiculous reinforcement of stereotypes about the thing being misappropriated by the awful metaphor — in this instance, blindness.)

(In a few weeks to a couple of months, a book that has plenty to say about the truth about blindness, as well as throws a few slings and arrows at government, will be published — The Sight Sickness: A Blind Woman’s Response to Saramago’s–and Society’s–Blindness. Meanwhile, Fernando, this was not a “courageous parable” you chose to bring to the silver screen. George Orwell was courageous. In the midst of the very people, places, events, and ideas he was talking about, he created allegories which weren’t afraid to make it blatantly obvious about whom and/or what he was talking: which countries, which dictators, which political ideas.

Rest in peace, George. (Eric). You knew how to use grammar, take a stand without being obtuse, and you avoided reinforcing societal prejudices about a particular group of people about whom you knew little or nothing. I hereby award you, posthumously and with great respect, the *Noble* Prize In Literature.

Ho, ho! Hey, hey!

Here’s a finger for Jose’!)

It’s Fox-Hunting Time: Response to Oct. 5 Post Editorial About the UFT and Teachers

Another disgusting example of how Bloomberg uses his billions — not only can he schmooze with Rupert Murdoch to gain support for overturning term limit laws so that he can grace us with his presence a third time — but he can ensure that nasty, uninformed, vitriolic editorials are written against teachers, most of whom are not in the classroom because of steps taken by the Department of Education.
1. About 1400 teachers are being paid while in the “Absent Teacher Reserve” — a pool of teachers created because the Department of Education closed down certain programs, resulting in these teachers not having assignments the following year. I was one of the teachers affected by one of these “reorganizations”. I was lucky enough to get an assignment. I assure you that virtually *none* of the teachers in the ATR pool have a single unsatisfactory rating from previous principals. So where is this bunch of assholes getting its information?
2. Principals are hiring brand-new, untried, young teachers because they *cost less* to hire, rather than seasoned veterans with *satisfactory* ratings. Mikey likes that, right Mikey? How do you think he got rich? The bottom line, baby: don’t spend more if you don’t have to; that’s just plain silly.

3. Overcrowded classrooms are a major problem. I teach 34 students whose reading and math levels range from third to sixth grade, and who I am supposed to get up to at least seventh grade in reading in order for them to move on to the next phase of preparing to take their GED’s. Most of these students should be classified as disabled because of serious learning disabilities. Some used to be, but have since been declassified — not the teachers’ faults. I have personally asked, on behalf of my fellow literacy instructors, for my district’s superintendent to model how this can be done with much greater success and efficiency, explaining that there are significant barriers to some fine teachers getting the results they desire for their students:
1. Students who are new to the language; students who have been sorely educationally neglected at home and at school; students who are homeless, abused, working one or more jobs, who have undiagnosed or ignored disabilities;
2. Old, substandard materials;
3. Not enough desks in the classrooms;
4. The building is not a healthy environment: we have renovations going on to address mold and damp conditions which have significantly contributed to documented respiratory problems for teachers, including one who had to be transferred because of substantial and permanent lung damage caused by his working in a room with black mold;
5. Ridiculous constraints on teacher autonomy in instruction;
6. Absurd edicts for our program’s classrooms, bulletin boards, and the like to adhere to dictates that do not apply in any meaningful way to the work we are trying to do;
7. No “safe room” for disruptive students;
8. Overworked guidance counselors and social workers who cannot adequately and quickly address serious student needs;
9. An utter lack of respect for teachers and an unwillingness to collaborate with us on the part of people at the top, despite some excellent administrators whose hands are tied because they are in danger of being transferred or worse if they try to advocate for us and our students;
10. A “my way or the highway” approach that comes straight from City Hall;
11. A Chancellor who hasn’t an ounce of educational administrative credentials who had to obtain a variance from the New York Board of Regents so that he could be where he is;
12. No real consequences for significantly disruptive students;
13. Uninterested, apathetic, or thoroughly unreachable parents or guardians;
14. Thoroughly absurd assessment tools for student intake and measurement of student progress . . .

And this is one program, in one district of the DOE. When you’ve got the bucks to spin the press, you can make demons out of just about anyone, and it’s easy to pick on the teachers. That’s why the UFT is there, to keep some modicum of fairness and standards when it comes to how we are treated. Is it perfect? No. Do I always agree with it? No. But I can assure you — without it, even a greater number of teachers would be unceremoniously and unjustifiably tossed — the older, the more likely, because they cost the most.

It isn’t just teachers, though, where money talks. Special education services are endangered as well, because the DOE wants principals to handle providing the services. Guess what: this causes serious trouble for students who need the more expensive supports.
I’m mostly talking about young adults going for their GED’s. You dig a little in the high schools, the middle schools, and the elementary schools, and you ask the right questions, look in the right places (assuming you can do this, as teachers are forbidden to speak with the media during school hours, blackballed if they do so at any time, and the DOE keeps tight rein on what is offered to the media, and tweaks the info when necessary), you would actually learn that the teachers are the heroes, not the villains, of the city school system. Hmmmm . . . actually, that’s what it says on the DOE’s advertisements, all over the radio stations, subways, and buses. You know the ones: recruitment of new teachers. New, cheap, idealistic, and young teachers — despite the fact that there are 1400 teachers waiting, wishing, hoping for assignments, who want to work, who could seriously take a major burden off the rest of our shoulders when it comes to classroom overcrowdeing. The DOE would rather waste taxpayer money and have teachers sitting there doing nothing, than have experienced teachers with satisfactory ratings step in and do what they should be doing: educating.
Last year, my school had eight literacy instructors; this year, we have five. But we have a waiting list for students, and an evening program had to be implemented.
Gee — sounds like we need more teachers. Where, oh where, can we find them?
Remember, folks: the Post is the black-and-white version of the Fox. Someone really needs to shoot the fox. It’s foul, fetid, rabid, and barking up the wrong tree.
Those test scores being used for evaluating teachers? Don’t even get me started on that. That’s a whole other can of worms. It just goes to show you: cunning, wild dogs don’t know shit except the piles they leave after circling and tearing the meat off the innocent prey.
Pardon me, while I squat and piss on the post. This territory has been marked. Bite me, mongrel moron.

It’s the Economy, Stupid — Jonny Doesn’t Want You to Remember His Days Before the Senate Ethics Committee

Remember Charles Keating? Hope he never dropped the soap, ’cause that would have brought him from a Savings and Loan crisis to a Shavings and Moan crisis. At any rate, John and Sarah “Also” Palin don’t want you to remember. (Actually, Sarah probably hasn’t even been coached on this one yet; she was probably too focused on the Alaska Independence Party at the time to know what was going on.)
Any time after noon Eastern Time today, check out the link in my blogroll I list here:
http://www.keatingeconomics.com
Pass the word. Tell everyone also.

Educational Reform: Keepin’ It Real and Hands On!

My son brought home a notice asking parents if they could purchase live crickets for the express purpose of feeding them to the class’s wildlife project: a frog and toad.
(My daughter says they did this when she was in fourth grade, but she didn’t bring home the notice on purpose, and the project bothered her tremendously.)

Now, don’t get me wrong–I’m all for frogs and toads getting their nourishment, and I recognize that nature is a cruel, nasty business where live creatures are routinely dined upon. Frankly, though, if you really want to teach my kids about nature, is it really “natural” to feed live creatures which have no possibility of escape (which they at least have in the wild) to the particular predator involved?
Additionally, not for anything, but more than half of my property taxes go for school–use some of that to buy the amphibian menu.
I will not purchase crickets, which I love, as they happen to help my insomnia tremendously at night–and send them off to be eaten.
I happen to like snakes, but I would never own one, because they require live mice; I also happen to like mice and rats; I’m not talking the ones running through the subway; I’m talking the brilliant ones who are cuddly, respond to their names, and actually can read a person’s moods. If you don’t believe me, I don’t care.

But, you know, I was really giving this some thought this weekend, and I realized: I missed something growing up, shackled to the mediocre educational pursuits of reading, watching educational videos, and class discussion.
How can I, I thought, as a teacher and involved parent, really improve education for students everywhere, really bring lessons alive, truly hands-on?
So, everyone, be prepared for some real learning strategies.

(These are merely theoretical and rhetorical; no actual human beings or animals were harmed. Please don’t try this at home; this is only for the better schools with the financial and community wherewithal to make it happen. Education reform, baby! Get ready!)

1. The Wildlife Project:
Why put butterflies in tiny medicine cups or feed live crickets to amphibians? That’s toddler stuff, surely meant for the precocious preschooler in the elite programs that cost thousands of dollars, and where you have to sell your liver to get your kid in. Nay — by fourth grade, I say we bring in a wolf pack and a few lambs. Let kids see the real blood and guts of the wild; let ‘em hear the howls, the savage growls, — watch the guts get ripped out of the hapless lambs. Baaaaaaaah!

2. Science:
Recreate Ben Franklin’s kite experiment on a day with a big thunderstorm. If students refuse to volunteer, put their names in a hat.

3. Social studies:
1. Slavery:
Grab up all the little ones who do not yet know how to read and write, and have them wash the school from roof to basement, with no breaks for recess, bathroom or lunchtime. Ensure that parents do not interfere and teach the rudiments of reading and writing at home. If they disregard this order, the superintendent must send staff to remove their fingers, toes, or other body parts. Hey: we take illiteracy for our slaves seriously!Older students and staff should be supplied with whips, of course.
When we get to the rise of the Klan, they could lynch the school bully. Education! Hands on! Yee-haw

3. The Great Depression:
School lunches consist of day-old crusts of bread, and students are not allowed to bring in lunches or snacks. Notes are sent home demanding that allowances be stopped; cell phones, Gameboys, televisions and computers are taken away. Electricity is shut off in the school building, and toilet paper is rationed. Could do this for the study of Russia during the Stalin era as well.

4. I don’t want to get too graphic, but just imagine the learning one can do with the various wars, the Holocaust, Japanese-American internment camps, removal of Native American children from their tribes and forcing them to be assimilated in boarding schools. The possibilities are endless!
Let me loose, baby! I’ll make sure my kids and yours learn a thing or two. *Real* education is not for the faint of heart.

Just a little postscript:
The school where the hapless crickets are being fed to amphibians while students take notes on the occurrence has made it clear that “fart” is akin to a swear word. I guess studying the roots of the word flatulence and student demonstration after consumption of dairy and bean products is not in the cards . . .

Yet More Outrageous Treatment of NYC Teachers

I’m sure the NY Post, the Chancellor, and Mayor will feed us more BS about how these teachers are now going to be “wasting” taxpayer money. As you can see, they weren’t excessed for “endangering” student learning, or for reasons of moral terpitude, or because they received unsatisfactory ratings. My, my, where *are* all the lies coming from? Must be that nasty UFT. Maybe it’s the left-wing, pinko conspiracy trying to get Obama into the White House so he can ensure the invasion of our country by terrorists, and open the door for Satan to “disintegrate our nation.” No worries, though. Mikey’s working his magic to get himself a third term. Amen!

Canarsie Courier, September 25

Some Staff, Students Upset Over Canarsie H.S. Changes

Editor’s note: The following was written by two veteran members of the Canarsie High School staff, who want the community to be aware of the situation since it was announced last year that the school was being “phased out” and replaced by three smaller schools in the 1800 Rockaway Parkway building.

Although we are well aware that Canarsie High School is “phasing out,” let it be known that the remainder of the student body and staff is being treated unfairly.

Last Friday afternoon, prior to the end of the school day, four assistant principals, four counselors and 18 teachers were given their “walking papers” to become ATR’s (Absent Teacher Reserves) and “waste the taxpayers money” to sit and do nothing at other schools. Students were hysterically crying and screaming as they watched faculty members pack up never to return.

On Monday, there was utter chaos in the school. Teachers were re-assigned several periods to teach “out of license,” overcrowded classes, while students scurried all over trying to find out which class they belong in and who their counselors were now.

This is the second shake-up for students who not only had their principal replaced during the last school years, but were told that school was closing. Last week, the school was informed that the replacement principal would be leaving shortly.

By Monday, students should be smoothly sailing with the first marking period ending October 10, instead students programs were changed causing bedlam in the school.

The students who remain here should get the same education opportunities that all students in the public school system receive. A counselor that was removed, phoned to inform us that she is sitting in another school doing clerical work, while 2 others report they are sitting doing nothing all day!

ATRs get the blame for “wasting taxpayers money” when it is the NYC/DOE who is assigning them to unprofessional duties at other schools at the expense of the students. The blame should not be on teachers or counselors who want to do their job. Students are paying for the price for the mismanagement of the DOE.

Canarsie High School parents need to be informed of the injustice being done to their children by the NYCDOE. It is funny how there are funds for the “mini schools,” but no money to keep teachers and counselors here for the remaining CHS students.
*****
The following are excerpts from an E-mail sent by a current senior at Canarsie High School.

To Whom It May Concern:

I’m writing this so everyone can be aware of the disaster that is currently happening in Canarsie High School.
In the spring of 2008 I heard my school was going to be closed down and I was excited because of all the issues that was (sic) going around, but when I finally realized that Canarsie High School was coming to an Era, I was devastated and so was (sic) teachers, staff, and my fellow peers. Then a few weeks later there was a rumor that there were going to be three mini schools so we all were shocked because the same was done to South Shore and the outcome was a disaster, so we were all frightened.

So come the first day of school on September 2nd, I entered and was informed there were changes made throughout the building…and I walked around the school and saw on one side of the building students in uniform and new classrooms with new furniture and behind every classroom a sofa bed. I was shocked…everyone should receive the same value and equal education.”

I went to my Guidance Counselor and he explained that those were the new schools, so, from then on, I kept everything cool and attended classes daily. Then, around the second week of school the principal, Tyona Washington, reported she was assigned to a new school and will be leaving for “an opportunity and was taking it.”…A few days past (sic) and news was going around the school that she changed her mind and was staying, so that caused disruption throughout the classes in progress and we haven’t heard from her since.

Last Friday, September 19, my guidance counselor told me he has just received a letter from the DOE stating he was just excessed and reassigned to a part time position till (sic) he finds a school to work at. I felt like I was just stabbed because it really hurt that out of any staff member it would be him because I was losing someone very close to me. I was so emotional, I started crying hysterically not even realizing that it would make a change but it hurt not only me, but over 100 students gathered in his office crying and thanking him for his help and motivation.

Not only did they remove him but also our college advisor, so it’s just so much pressure on us during senior year to have to have new staff who (sic) doesn’t know us and for us to be reassigned to new counselors is just beyond ridiculous. They could have at least remained with us till (sic) the school year was done.

At that point I wanted to transfer to another school but I couldn’t because I would have been leaving a lot behind. I’m basically writing this to make a change for the better, because I’m a very great student and want to let everyone know what is currently going on at Canarsie High School and need help trying to get some of our staff back to Canarsie High School. Thank you for your time and cooperation!

Happy Birthday? Hmmm

Here I am, 39 years old, a day off thanks to those of my brothers and sisters who practice the Jewish faith, home with my kids, my husband expected home early. I have a lot to be thankful for, to count as blessings, and to celebrate.

Despite relentless and persistent continuing pain in my lower back and coccyx thanks to a quiet car backing into me in June, despite often feeling helpless and burned out by my students’ many needs and often horribly bruised psyches and self-images, the Department of Education’s mishandling of teachers, students, parents — education in general — despite significant concerns about my kids having to deal with a world gone mad in its pop culture, politics, apathy — I am physically healthy, somewhat mentally healthy, (grin), accomplished, loved, and blessed with a fantastic libido. (Hey, this is important to a thirty-nine-year-old woman — may it always be fantastic).

Yet, I am truly, truly troubled.
I am troubled by the literally billions of people living on less than $1 a day. I am troubled by our utter lack of ability as a race to find alternatives to war, violence, and prejudice. I am troubled by politicians’ disgusting penchant for lying, evading, unwillingness to answer the questions asked of them, but mostly their sheer disrespect for each other as human beings.
I am disgusted with the media, particularly the extinction of true and courageous journalism. I am overwhelmed by the feeling that until the Democratic and Republican parties are gone, that until religion ceases to be something we use to alienate ourselves from one another, demonize each other, and yes — kill each other, this world will never truly improve, and the vast majority of its citizens will continue to suffer unspeakable hardships that we in America cannot even imagine, and do not wish to imagine. While McCain and Obama slash at each other with frivolous nonsense, children are dying, people are being terrorized and tortured, disease is rampant, and human rights are becoming as rare as they were in the Middle Ages and before.

I know we are better than this.
I know we are capable of greater things. There are wonderful thoughts, deeds, and people out there. Why aren’t there enough to balance the scale more toward the positive energy than the negative? There seems to be utter imbalance everywhere. Is anything in this country, outside of this country, really going to change for the better based on America’s next president? I doubt it. The only thing which will change the negative momentum in this country, in this world, in this universe, is more vigilant and persistent consideration of people’s true fears, true desires, and true needs. The mean-spirited power structures currently perpetuated, or aided and abetted by, governments, media, corporations, certain active pockets of organized religion, and apathetic do-nothings who would rather “tune out” than work tirelessly for the betterment of us all, are eroding us: polluting our minds, souls and bodies. Happy birthday? Maybe. I’ll try.

Review: Blind Ambition (Subcontinent Films) — a Movie the Blind Need Not Fear

I recently had the good fortune and privilege of being asked by Carl Jacobsen, President of the New York State affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind, to travel to Atlanta, Georgia, to attend a screening of an independent film slated for release some time early next year. Several members of the NFB from across the country have been asked to attend screenings, because, unlike Fernando Meirelles and others involved with the foul (and delightfully bombing) travesty Blindness, the director and executive producer of Blind Ambition wanted the opinion of the blind with respect to the portrayal of the main character, an eighteen-year-old blind woman.

My husband and I traveled to Atlanta on the morning of September 27, and were driven to the Hilton Garden Inn after a much-needed lunch. (You know airlines these days.)
We arrived at the Palace Theater, where we chatted for a while with Director/producer Bala Rajasekharuni and executive producer Yatrik Mehta, as well as with two of the movie’s actors: Michelle Massey, who portrays the main character, Sapna Shah, and Soren Bowie, who plays Shane Smith, a young man with whom she begins a relationship as a result of their common interest: running.
There were quite a few others at the screening, including several members of the NFB’s Georgia and Texas affiliates, and members of the local Indian Cultural Center, which was conducting a fund-raiser involving showing the movie and attending a fine buffet dinner at an Indian restaurant afterwards.

Blind Ambition, refreshingly, does not focus on Sapna’s blindness, despite the title. The premise of the plot is Sapna’s burning desire to win, not merely run in, a local marathon. She does not wish to do this because she wants to prove some point about a blind person being able to run, nor because she wants to compensate for something she feels blindness has taken from her. I do not want to give away the reason, but I can say with certainty that a sighted young person could very easily have been substituted for Sapna.
Certain aspects of the story and various dynamics would have had to be changed, of course, but this movie could just has easily have been as funny, inspirational, and poignant with a sighted runner.

I am, however, delighted that writer Alpesh Patel chose to make the main character blind. She is shown using her cane at school, though it is somewhat disappointing that she is not shown using Braille, socializing in any meaningful way with her peers, or functioning in class. These would have been nice touches and a fantastic vehicle for offering some factual information about how blind students get things done in school. However, they were not necessary given the impetus of the film.

Sapna has an older brother, Surya (Deep Katdare), who has been away from home, trying to make his mark as an architect. He comes home unexpectedly, and is greeted rather coolly by his father, Dr. Shah, (Gulshan Grover), who is clearly not happy with him and is slow to forgive him for his absence. We are never specifically told what happened to Mrs. Shah, but the implication is that she died when Sapna was about seven years old.
Sapna and her brother are clearly very close. Although she resents his having left them, she is quicker to accept him back home with open arms and heart. She convinces him to help her with her quest to win the marathon, and he secures the assistance of a coach, Autumn Milestone, (Vanessa Angel), who initially wants no part of it, stating that “I am not going to be the one to break her heart.”

While there are aspects of the movie that will not sit well with blind individuals who are comfortable with their blindness, the comedic aspects, portrayal of family closeness, and poignancy of the movie distract from these disappointments. For example, when Sapna is “challenged” by Shane Smith (Soren Bowie) to go on a date (he believes she is an uppity, snobbish runner, and isn’t aware that she is blind), she needs her brother to apply her makeup, does not tell Shane she is blind, and her brother and a friend follow them and offer her instructions so that she can maneuver while pretending to be sighted. While this provides a glimpse into the often complex insecurities of the disabled because of the rejection we often face, particularly when it comes to social and dating situations, I simply cannot conceive of a totally blind person being able to pull this off. Too many variables can change during a simple date, and it is rather unrealistic. It is, however, done tastefully, and provides quite a few laughs, particularly when Surya makes wild animal noises into Sapna’s headset to prevent his sister and Shane from kissing.

I find it hard to accept that Sapna’s father is more than willing to have her go out on a date (he does not know her brother plans to “chaperone” via headset), but that he does not want her to participate in a marathon. He does not comment about her makeup, and he is downright mild when he dictates that his daughter is to return early. Additionally, this is Sapna’s “first date”. Is this because of traditional overprotection of daughters, or is it meant to convey the idea that as a blind person, she has never been asked on a date? This is not clear, but it is gratifying to see Sapna carry herself confidently and use her sharp wit and sense of fun no matter with whom she is dealing. This comfort with self, however, is somewhat negated by her desire to hide her blindness from Shane.
It was a bit of a stretch when Shane, after seeing a news clip that announces that his fellow marathon participant is blind tells her that she is a good runner and that she does not have to resort to lying to boost publicity. I truly do not know any totally blind people, no matter their level of competency with alternative techniques, their sense of direction, and ease with social situations who could fool someone by pretending to be sighted.
One aspect I really appreciate in this movie is the subtle, but strong, sexual tension between Surya and Autumn. While I am not one to reject overt passion in a movie, this one is clearly meant to be enjoyed by families, and Hollywood has thoroughly lost its grasp of how to imply and leave things to the imagination. The reasons for the “mixed message” Surya is receiving from Autumn is eventually revealed, and lends even greater emotional and realistic complexity, and is a nice touch as a subplot.

I genuinely enjoyed this movie, as did my husband and the blind people with whom I discussed it afterwards. I look forward to its release, and suspect my son (and perhaps my daughter) will develop a renewed interest in running after seeing it. I am very pleased that it is something I can watch with my children, that I can recommend to their friends and mine. I will be happy to pay for my ticket, and hope I will be able to do so sooner than later. This is one movie the blind need not fear.

Note: There is a scene in the movie which shows Sapna examining Autumn’s face after she asks for her permission to do so and explains that she is a “fan”. I pointed out that this was a rather common misconception of blind people–that we go around feeling faces to get a “picture” of others, and its history reportedly dates to a picture of Helen Keller touching faces. (Speaking for myself, I suppose it is only fair to add that there are people of whom I am a fan whose faces are the *least* of what I would like to examine, but not in public, which might prove rather awkward and embarrassing for the person in question.)

The writer reportedly feels that this gesture is more indicative of Sapna “looking for her mother” than wanting to see what Autumn looks like. Despite this, my concern was enough to warrant an announcement at the fund-raising dinner that a disclaimer would appear with the movie stating that it was not a common practice for the blind to touch people’s faces. Now *that* is respect.

** Congratulations and wonderful wishes for a lifetime of happiness to Michelle Massey and Brian Bedell, who will be married this weekend. **

Partial List of Credits
Blind Ambition (Subcontinent Films)

Bala Rajasekharuni – Producer and Director
Yatrik Mehta – Executive Producer
Alpesh Patel – Writer

Key Cast:
Michelle Massey — Sapna Shah
Deep Katdare — Surya Shah
Vanessa Angel –Autumn Milestone
Soren Bowie — Shane Smith
Gulshan Grover– Dr. Shah

Well, well, well Sarah Palin has her own Jeremiah problem, does she?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2008

PALIN MUST EXPLAIN ANTI-SEMITIC STANCE OF HER CHURCH

Call of McCain’s co-chair on “Jewish Outreach” has been missed or ignored by both the secular and Jewish media

October 7, 2008 (Fort Lee, NJ) — In a Shalom TV editorial, Rabbi Mark S. Golub, president of American Jewry’s national cable television network, expressed his concern that both the Jewish and secular media has not asked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to clarify her position on the intrinsic religious
integrity of Judaism and the Jewish People.

Golub points out that Governor Palin is a participating member of The Wasilla Bible Church whose pastor publicly preaches the need to convert Jews to Christianity. More specifically, Governor Palin was in attendance when the visiting executive director of Jews for Jesus preached that Palestinian terrorism
which murders and maims Israeli civilians is God’s punishment of the Jews for not accepting Jesus. Governor Palin’s pastor followed this sermon with a collection for Jews for Jesus and prayed that God would make their work of bringing Jews to Jesus successful.

The call for Governor Palin to clarify her own stand on whether Jews need to be converted to Christianity deserves prompt media attention since it comes from an official member of the John McCain presidential campaign, Fred Zeidman, who serves as the McCain campaign co-chair for “Jewish Outreach.”

In an interview on Shalom TV, Zeidman stated that Governor Palin not only owes an explanation of her views to the American Jewish community, but also owes an explanation to the American community at large–in the same way that Senator Barack Obama owed the American people an explanation of his
affiliation with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ.

For Golub, the lack of a Jewish follow-up to Zeidman’s call raises serious questions. Are American Jews reluctant to make an issue over possible anti-Semitic church movements? Are American Jews resigned to a double standard that would condemn anti-white bigotry but not anti-Semitism?

And for Golub, the issue goes far beyond the Jewish community alone. “It may well be that Governor Palin does not share the views of her church, her pastor, or the executive director of Jews for Jesus,” said Golub from his New Jersey office. “But Jews in particular, and all Americans who care about
church-state separation and religious tolerance in the United States, have a right to ask Governor Palin to clarify where she stands on the need to convert Jews. In America, one would not expect any public official to view any religious group–not Muslims, not Jews, not Christians–as a community of lost souls that must be converted. Yet this is the view of Governor Palin’s pastor and church community, and if the governor does share her pastor’s perspective on Jews–or on any other non-Christian group in America–one may wonder how her views might effect her public policy decisions were she to be elected in
November.”
For questions or comments on this news release, please contact _Alan Oirich_
(mailto:alan@shalomtv.com) at 201-242-9460 ext 7.

Hey, Jews for Jesus: Decide. Are you Jews, or are you Christians? If you’re Christians, you’re not Jews. If you’re Jews, you are not Christians. Duh.
Oh, wait, I get it. You’re anti-Semitic Christian evangelists with a gimmicky name. Got it. You betcha. Gosh darn it, that’s so clever. I’ll pray for you.

Jews for Jesus Damage Control

Matt Sieger’s comments with respect to my reprint of the press release regarding Jews for Jesus at Palin’s community church are very interesting. If one spends one’s time grading student papers over the years, and also reads literature written by various authors, one can, ninety percent of the time, determine whether particular statements have been written by the same person. If it were possible to truly prove it, I would bet money that the “damage control” about remarks being “taken out of context” was written by someone other than Brickner, probably an attorney or someone hired to do damage control for the McCain campaign. It is so truly enlightening when someone in his campaign is being marred by another in her church over which she has no control — imagine if you had to monitor the speech of every meeting you attended because you might run for — or get carelessly chosen — for political office one day.
Oh — and there is a name for the true “Jews for Jesus” — a sect that believed in promoting His teachings before Paul commandeered them and created a new religion. This sect was the Essenes, and they weren’t about converting anyone. They were about acceptance, nonjudgment, faith healing, and loving your neighbor. They didn’t use gimmicky names or go around trying to convince others they were wrong, or that things which happend in their lives, singly or in patterns, was God’s judgment. I’ll throw the facts around wherever I find them, Matt. If you spend your time and money trying to convince sincerely religious people to accept your belief system by explicitly or implicitly stating that their plights and persecutions are attached to their wayward faith, and those sincere believers are Jews — that’s a form of anti-semitism. Amen. Don’t forget: The truth shall set you free.

Vote for Barack (to the tune of “I Am a Rock” by Simon and Garfunkel

Election Day
In two thousand eight November
Let it be known
Gazing at that ticker on that financial Street of woe,
On another bunch of selfish, careless ho’s.

Vote for Barack
Right now he’s the right man.

John’s got balls,
Choosing someone cute and flighty,
Who cannot appreciate,
The damage we are causing to our planet earth,
And whose knowledge is profound and deepest dearth.

Vote for Barack
Right now he’s the right man.

Dont talk of war,
We’ve all heard the lies before;
Its seeping into history:
No weapons of mass destruction, or Iraqis in those planes,
Just lots of profit and loads of oil stains.

Vote for Barack
Right now he’s the right man.

Palin has her looks
And her hunting gun to protect her,
It’s a clear shot from the cold sky:
She sees that nearby country,
She knows all about it, too.
Way more by far than either me or you.

Vote for Barack
Right now he’s the right man.

Give Barack your one vote,
Cause we can’t afford more lies.

A Gem from England’s “The Guardian: British Bluntness At Its Best (wink, wink, wink)

From England’s The Guardian
Flirting her way to victory?
Sarah Palin’s farcical debate performance lowered the standards for both female candidates and US political discourse
Michelle Goldberg
guardian.co.uk

At least three times last night, Sarah Palin, the adorable, preposterous vice-presidential candidate, winked at the audience. Had a male candidate with a similar reputation for attractive vapidity made such a brazen attempt to flirt his way into the good graces of the voting public, it would have been universally noted, discussed and mocked. Palin, however, has single handedly so lowered the standards both for female candidates and American political discourse that, with her newfound ability to speak in more-or-less full sentences, she is now deemed to have performed acceptably last night.

By any normal standard, including the ones applied to male presidential candidates of either party, she did not. Early on, she made the astonishing announcement that she had no intentions of actually answering the queries put to her. ‘I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I’m going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also,’ she said. And so she preceded, with an almost surreal disregard for the subjects she was supposed to be discussing, to unleash fusillades of scripted attack lines, platitudes, lies, gibberish and grating references to her own pseudo-folksy authenticity.

It was an appalling display. The only reason it was not widely described as such is that too many American pundits don’t even try to judge the truth, wisdom or reasonableness of the political rhetoric they are paid to pronounce upon. Instead, they imagine themselves as interpreters of a mythical mass of ‘average Americans’ who they both venerate and despise.

In pronouncing upon a debate, they don’t try and determine whether a candidate’s responses correspond to existing reality, or whether he or she is capable of talking about subjects such as the deregulation of the financial markets or the devolution of the war in Afghanistan. The criteria are far more vaporous. In this case, it was whether Palin could avoid utterly humiliating herself for 90 minutes, and whether urbane commentators would believe that she had connected to a public that they see as ignorant and sentimental. For the Alaska governor, mission accomplished.

There is indeed something mesmerising about Palin, with her manic beaming and fulsome confidence in her own charm. The force of her personality managed to slightly obscure the insulting emptiness of her answers last night. It’s worth reading the transcript of the encounter, where it becomes clearer how bizarre much of what she said was. Here, for example, is how she responded to Biden’s comments about how the middle class has been short-changed during the Bush administration, and how McCain will continue Bush’s policies:

Say it ain’t so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced [sic] your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let’s look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I’m glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? … My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here’s a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.

Evidently, Palin’s pre-debate handlers judged her incapable of speaking on a fairly wide range of subjects, and so instructed to her to simply disregard questions that did not invite memorised talking points or cutesy filibustering. They probably told her to play up her spunky average-ness, which she did to the point of shtick – and dishonesty.

Asked what her Achilles heel is – a question she either didn’t understand or chose to ignore – she started in on how McCain chose her because of her ‘connection to the heartland of America. Being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills?’

None of Palin’s children, it should be noted, is heading off to college. Her son is on the way to Iraq, and her pregnant 17-year-old daughter is engaged to be married to a high-school dropout and self-described ‘fuckin’ redneck’.

Palin is a woman who can’t even tell the truth about the most quotidian and public details of her own life, never mind about matters of major public import. In her only vice-presidential debate, she was shallow, mendacious and phoney. What kind of maverick, after all, keeps harping on what a maverick she is? That her performance was considered anything but a farce doesn’t show how high Palin has risen, but how low we all have sunk.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008.

Joe the Plumber for President!

Who thinks so? Maybe he can clean out all the bullshit clogging politics, then maybe figure out what’s up the bull’s ass, making it so nasty and polluting.

Oil Slick

Isn’t it truly *astounding* that, despite all hell breaking loose on Wall Street, oil prices are dropping so much? What could it be? It wouldn’t have a thing to do with the upcoming election, would it? Nah. Can’t be. It’s just a wild coincidence, everyone. Do not let your conspiracy theorist soul get the better of you. It’s merely a natural fluctuation in the market. You betcha. We should ask Joe the Plumber, though. Just to be sure.

Look, McCain, Someone’s Got Your Balls, But Not Your Back

Go, Colin Powell. He’s still got it. This guy still has serious cohones, endorsing Obama. Bravo, baby! Bravo!
Yeah, we know what the rednecks are going to say. But the rednecks wanted, and still want, Iraq, and all the military and private contractor bs — so don’t even give them a thought, sweetie. Now that’s a maverick, Sarah. Take note, darlin’, cause y’all just lost him.

Thus Spake Patrick the Redneck

(My comments are in parentheses.)

If all white people voted race there would not be a black president for another 250 years.

(Yes, possibly so, and that would suit you just fine, wouldn’t it, Patty? Indeed, if all white people voted race — hell, we might still have slaves. Damn, this country just isn’t what it should be, eh, sir? Darn us equality-minded white people.)
It a shame what he did. If he knew 2 months ago who he would endorse (his words) why did he wait until 2 weeks before the election to announce?
(I congratulate you for remembering to place a question mark at the end of your interrogatory statement; *it’s a shame* you weren’t more diligent with the rest of your writing. Perhaps your poor writing is a reflection of your poor thinking?
To answer your rather infantile and unsophisticated question, he waited because it was a calculated decision based on the dynamics of the campaigns, the various crises facing the country, and perhaps his desire to see how the campaigns would stand up to the rigors of electioneering prior to making his announcement? You know, — like the announcement McCain made about picking Caribou Barbie to impress the disenfranchised Hillary fans.)
That says it all. Racist have no shame, esp. Powell. The guy who wanted V.P. at least offered is dissed again (he thinks) so he votes race in retaliation. One wonders how he made it as far as he did, and makes a lot of people glad he is a nobody now. You can Have him.
(For a nobody, you certainly are spending enough semi-literate energy trying to discredit his announcement. Wonder what tune you would be singing if he had announced he was endorsing McCain? Oh, I’m sorry — I didn’t mean to offer an idea that might provoke thought.)

2008 Election Apathy Rap

(All right, this is what you do when you’re home with pinkeye and the election is so near, and there are people talking about all the reasons they aren’t going to bother voting. This is both an ode to them and a criticism of them; all of you know how I’m voting — and I *will* vote. There’s some salty language, for those of you who don’t like that sort of thing, but I think you’ll appreciate most of it anyway.)

2008 Election Apathy Rap
Americans never vote in the numbers that they should,
And this year is so important, I really wish I could
Go to the polls and submit a wise, informed selection,
But I’m exhausted from every aspect of the 2008 election.
I’ll be sitting this one out; maybe at some local bar,
Or relaxing after work, strumming a guitar,
I’ll write a blog, watch YouTube,and contemplate the future,
Of our country that is bleeding as we flounder for the suture.

I’m gonna tell you why I refuse to cast my vote,
Listen up, fellow Americans, and feel free to take some notes.
Let’s start with the man of change, give him a really close look
I’ll tell you why I’m worried, why you should get beyond his books.

Chorus

America, America, do you hear what I say?
Listen to me, listen to me, we’ve gone too far astray.

I won’t vote for Barack, cause it rhymes with Iraq,
And when I hear the name Hussein,
it makes me more insane,
And admit it: the name Obama is way too close to Osama.
They always say it wrong on Fox, and a few other places,
People say he’s a Muslim, and that he’s got some traces,
Of domestic terrorists in his limited political past.
And America, let’s face it, there are still lots of racists,
Will the man even last
A few minutes in the White House, with these animals around,
Planning to get him, to bring him down?
Then there’s that Joe, just bidin’ his time,
Politics as usual, the boy is prime
Beltway grade, seasoned for sure,
Shoveling all that Washington manure.
He doesn’t even think he’s the guy for VP,
He told us so already: should’ve been Hillary.
So there you go, America, I won’t pick B.O. for the House
He’ll start to stink like the rest of them, a few months out.
And as for J.B., he’s a backwards BJ,
Just awaitin’ his chance if Barack is blown away.

Chorus

Let’s switch over to McCain, who once far too long ago
Knew how to be a maverick, not a lobbyist ho.
He had his own mind, ethics and Christian heart,
But now he’s become just another pandering old fart.
He’s flirting with the fundies, especially Caribou Barbie,
She’s a little fundie freak and a censorship harpy,
She’ll tell all your kids to just say no to copulation,
While one of her own is carrying the next effin’ redneck generation.
They want to cut your taxes, especially if you’re wealthy,
And they don’t really give a damn if you can pay to stay healthy.
They want to drill, baby drill, to add some heat to Mother Earth’s hot flash,
And they want to bail out the financiers when we have a market crash.
They want more young Americans to be killed or permanently maimed,
And to come home to crappy benefits; it really is a shame.

Chorus

Now let’s take a look at the two of them together,
Senators McCain and Obama: let’s start with talk about the weather.
Things are heating up, the ice is melting down,
The storms are getting fiercer, fewer polar bears around,
Forest fires raging and the water is an issue,
If any animal or plant out there should go extinct, neither one will miss you.
But what is this I’m talkin’ they both acknowledge the Earth’s crisis,
But you can keep polluting if you can pay the right prices.
Permit me to inquire, if sirs you will allow,
If I should choose to litter or produce methane like a cow,
If I should choose to run my SUV day and night,
Can I choose not to recycle if the price is right?
Or is that just for BP, Exxon, and tremendous corporate farms,
While Mom and Pop and old MacDonald can not do the planet any harm,
Cause we’re too poor to pay the price for adding smoke and waste,
To our air, and our soil, and the water we all taste.
Come on all you big ones: polluting earth’s for sale,
Just pay a little more to create that dirty hail.
Just a little money in the coffers will make it all okay,
We’ll spend on the cancer that your kids will get one day.
We’ll spend on a brand-new source of renewable energy,
While the folks in West Virginia are wheezing as they breathe.
Come on, you can afford it, to terrorize the earth,
It’s all a question of compromise, of what our lives are worth.
Chorus

Then there is the question of preemptive, endless war,
Fake weapons of mass destruction, and oil interests way off shore.
Imperialism is still alive, use terrorism as the ploy,
The word to stoke the fear, and bring Halliburton joy.
Who cares if not a single 9/11 hijacker came from Iraq?
What’s important is that we can still kick ass and make up all the facts.
Who cares if most of us don’t know Shiite or Sunni history, culture, or dynamics,
A Muslim is a Muslim and they’re always cause for panic.
Who cares if we don’t have a clue what the hell we are doing over there?
As long as we convince enough we’ve got bin Laden runnin’ scared.
Who would have the gall to question why we can’t just find the prick?
Throw enough lies and fear around and enough will buy your shtick.

Chorus

Now let’s talk about those issues, let’s talk about debates,
Which of them really answered questions that were asked, for goodness sakes?
All they do is get nasty, defensive, and they love those great sound bites,
Joe the Plumber, I’m not President Bush, and Debate Answer Lite.

No, I think I will sit this one out, no write-ins or Ralph Nader,
No lesser of two evils, cause I don’t know who’s the greater,
So if John McCain’s elected, I’ll just keep going as I am,
Cause Bush’s status quo is what lies behind his scam.
As for the change to believe in, the change we do need tendered,
I suspect it won’t be long before Obama has surrendered
To the partisan bickering and jockeying, back and forth across the aisle,
And I’ll read our Constitution with a sad, nostalgic smile.
Vote for whomever you wish, America, I hope he makes you glad,
But I suspect that soon enough you’ll know we’ve all again been had.
If some racist shithead strikes Barack, or Mortality strikes John down,
Joe the Player will carry on, or Sarah will don her Presidential gown,
Politics as usual or the First Mom’s theocracy,
It will be what we asked for in our fine democracy.
Chorus

For Those Still Undecided, or Too Lazy to Do the Comparisons

Bare bones, here’s how Obama and McCain view things.
Caveats:
1. I used information from early in the summer, since I strongly believe that as you get closer to the election, the BS starts piling up as nominees streamline their stump speeches, plans, and promises.
2. If you want something richer in detail, and with anotated links, it’s out there. This is just for those who want some basic info and do not want to bother doing the research. (You know you should, of course, but I know you won’t. So here’s hoping this helps a little.)

Iraq:
Obama does not (and did not) support war in Iraq; wants to remove troops gradually while rebuilding Iraq’s government and military. Wishes to facilitate Middle East leadres’ negotiation of issues in the region.

McCain: Has always supported war; believes it is necessary for security. Initially said the number of troops was not enough, and supported the troop surge. He does not want troops removed until Iraq has a stable government and until terrorist groups are neutralized.
(They both support our continued presence in Afghanistan.)

Health care:

Senator Obama says he believes that everyone should have health insurance. He wants to reduce the cost of health insurance so that more people can afford it; he wants the government to create a plan to help people who cannot afford to buy health insurance; wants to require parents to secure health insurance for their children.

McCain:
Says he believes everyone should have health insurance. Essentially wishes to accomplish this by cutting taxes and lowering the cost of health insurance so that people can afford to purchase it.

Global Warming:
Both maintain that they believe in global warming. Obama wants to limit greenhouse gases companies produce, and make possible their ability to buy permits which will allow them to produce more. The money from these permits would fund alternative fuel development. Obama wants to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by eighty percent by 2050.
McCain wants to reduce them by sixty percent by 2050; also wishes to permit companies to purchase permits to produce more than allotted greenhouse gas emissions; if companies do not go beyond the limits, they can sell their permits for cash. McCain believes we should spend money on developing alternative energy sources.

Economy:
Obama wants to raise taxes of those with incomes over $227,000. All others would have taxes lowered.
McCain says he wishes to lower everyone’s taxes. He believes that in order to stimulate the economy, those who make the most should receive the greatest tax relief.

Gay marriage:
Both say they support domestic partnership/civil union rights that would mirror the rights of heterosexual spouses, but do not support marriage for gays and lesbians as it exists for heterosexuals.

(Commentary alert: If all you care about is the issues and not a whit more, stop reading now. Otherwise, my own personal guide)
If you do not believe in “trickle down economics” like Reagan, Bush, and “I am not President Bush” McCain, vote Obama.
If you want a hope in hell of seeing anything good happen with science involving stem cell research, vote for Obama.
If you are worried about abortion rights being curtailed, vote for Obama.
If you are worried about religious fundamentalists having too big a hand in our government policies, particularly as they relate to science, medical research, and education, vote for Obama.
If you are concerned about our continued presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, realistically speaking, flip a coin.
both should probably worry you.
It’s nice to say there should be a timetable, but things are not so cut and dried, thanks to the fact that we went there in the first place, and substituted one brand of human rights chaos for another.
If you are concerned about our presence in Afghanistan, both should worry you again: either choose based on another issue, the cult of personality, or play eenie, miney, mo — or do a write-in. Or vote for Ralph Nader. Or stay home and reread our Constitution. (You might not recognize it.)
If you are concerned about global warming: Be afraid. Be very afraid. Both of these clowns want to sell the right to pollute. That’s like taking away the most dangerous weapons of mass destruction from someone’s planet-killing arsenal and allowing them to be bought back so the money can be spent on a program to neutralize the weapons — great, guys. Can’t alienate big oil though. Or the miners. Or huge corporate farms. Hey, anyone want to buy a permit to race your gas-guzzling car up and down the highway? Hey — I know — let’s make smoking completely illegal, then sell permits to smoke and spend the money on lung cancer treatment. Hmmm — we already are doing something like that, with those sin taxes. Oops. Never mind.

If you want the chance, particularly in certain parts of the country, to have your kids learn that the whole of science is a result of Intelligent Design, and all the other stuff, particularly Evolution, is bad science meant to pull you from the arms of your chosen Lord, vote for McCain. He’s not necessarily the problem, but take a look at his cute little runnin’ mate to see who he likes to cater to. You betcha.

Gay marriage:
Obama is allowing himself to pander to the fundies and phobes. McCain is in the thick of the fundies and phobes: racists, xenophobes, homophobes. I don’t think this should be a deciding factor in a Presidential election, but I’m not you, so vote as you will, and for whatever reason strikes your fancy — most everyone else is doing it without much thought except to superficial matters. I have just three words for Obama: Loving vs. Virginia. Oh, three more. Ann and Barack. Can we say “double standards of love”?

If you’re thoroughly uninformed, and like to base your decision on scare tactics, like “Barack is really a Muslim” and “All those Saudis and that Egyptian on those 9/11 planes were really Iraqis” and “If we just keep spending money on a pointless bunch of military skirmishes, we’ll bring democracy to the Middle East” — vote McCain, baby. He’s your man.
If you want a chance in hell at change, and you figure Barack is experienced enough to run this country, but not experienced enough to be a jaded, corrupt piece of shit like most of the rest of them, vote for Obama.
OK now. Go out there and vote. Remember:
Bring your photo ID, just in case. You might be asked to show it, and this is allowed.
If you show up at the wrong polling location, get your butt over to the right one. If it’s too late to do this, you may cast a provisional ballot.
If you think you won’t be able to vote on Election Day, you may be able to vote early. Call your local Board of Elections or League of Women Voters, or check their Web sites, for info on this.

Michael Bloomberg Wins a Chance At a Third Term

I do not care if you love him, hate him, or have no opinion whatsoever. For public policy reasons, it is absolutely disgraceful and wrong for a city council to even *consider* overturning a decision placed before voters, and decided by them, — in New York’s case not once, but twice. In this instance, it is particularly gruesome that the beneficiary of the overturned law is someone who originally supported it. Then again, that is politics as usual, isn’t it?
I wonder how many city council members were subtly threatened with loss of business, or other quiet tactics, to gain their support. One rightly stated that he hoped his colleagues would be voted out. I’m not a city resident, so I can’t do a thing about that, but I agree wholeheartedly.

Imagine if Dubya suddenly woke up and said, “you know, Daddy, I want a third term. I want to be President longer than you were, longer than Billy boy, longer than Ronny. In fact, Daddy, I want to shoot for longer than FDR. I’m liking this gig. It’s a hoot.”
Then, with all the Bush money, party bullying, media exploitation, and smear tactics, the House and Senate, and 38 states, are convinced to amend the Constitution. This happens, despite loud and boisterous opposition on the part of the citizenry, political commentators, bloggers, and both state and fedral legislators — but not quite enough of them. Then, Bushie gets to run again.
He picks John as his VP to smooth some very ruffled feathers, buys Palin and her family a new wardrobe and some mmake-up, and they call it even. Voila! Then, Hillary manages to get enough support to force the Democratic Party to overturn their nomination, and no more Obama for President. Yippee! Voters be damned! You elected us. We’re in charge. Screw you, America.
Sounds good, right? No more thought, activism, opinions. Just let the elected officials run amok.No accountability. Free rein. Carte blanche.

What a precedent, New York. How proud we should all be.

Revisiting Bloomberg’s Victory Over Voters

From the Washington Post:

Council member Domenic M. Recchia Jr. advocated extending term limits because of the economic crisis. He paraphrased Abraham Lincoln, who ran for reelection in 1864 during the Civil War, saying, “When crossing a river, you don’t swap horses halfway.”

(You do if the horse is out of control and is leaving mounds of its manure all over the place, thinking it has the right to do what it wants because it’s a self-made thoroughbred. More significantly, the *voters* were able to decide whether or not they wanted Lincoln to stay; term limits weren’t being overturned by a bunch of idiots who believed they should be able to take that right from their constituents. Bad analogy, Dom. Better find a sharper arrow in your quiver, ’cause that was a really dull one that missed the mark, if the bulls-eye was sound reasoning.)

Speaker Christine Quinn said that “voters should have the choice to continue with their current leadership” as they face a deep downturn and a potential loss of 165,000 jobs.

(That’s right, honey; that means THE VOTERS should decide whether they want to overturn something THE VOTERS affirmed that they wanted twice. If this serious economic downturn is enough to keep Mike in office, then by all means, let’s have Congress vote us our next President — make sure he has lots and lots of money, though, because only someone with lots and lots of money could possibly save us. They did it so well on Wall Street, those financial whizzes, didn’t they? Just gives you such a bone-chilling shiver of confidence, doesn’t it? I’ve totally lost the respect I formerly had for both Koch and Cuomo. Let’s go, New York. Time to support the opposition, and make sure this manipulative loser doesn’t get the opportunity to screw up the school system further and cheat our city’s heroes — particularly firefighters and police, out of their outstanding, Bloomberg-given salaries.)

On Thursday, even as they voted, many opposition council members said the problem was not the issue of term limits itself. Council member Vincent J. Gentile said he might have supported a referendum if the mayor had chosen that approach.

(Of course. But Mikey knew the voters would not do his bidding.)

Now *these* are Christian values

This is an excerpt from an article by Jim Wallace in today’s “Huffington Post”:

I want to suggest a different approach this year and share my personal list of “faith priorities” that will guide me in making the imperfect choices that always confront us in any election year — and suggest that each of you come up with your own list of “faith” or “moral” priorities for this election year and take them into the polling place with you.

After the last election, I wrote a book titled God’s Politics. I was criticized by some for presuming to speak for God, but that wasn’t the point. I was trying to explore what issues might be closest to the heart of God and how they may be quite different from what many strident religious voices were then saying. I was also saying that “God’s Politics” will often turn our partisan politics upside down, transcend our ideological categories of Left and Right, and challenge the core values and priorities of our political culture. I was also trying to say that there is certainly no easy jump from God’s politics to either the Republicans or Democrats. God is neither. In any election, we face imperfect choices, but our choices should reflect the things we believe God cares about if we are people of faith, and our own moral sensibilities if we are not people of faith. Therefore, people of faith, and all of us, should be “values voters” but vote all our values, not just a few that can be easily manipulated for the benefit of one party or another.

In 2008, the kingdom of God is not on the ballot in any of the 50 states as far as I can see. So we can’t vote for that this year. But there are important choices in this year’s election — very important choices — which will dramatically impact what many in the religious community and outside of it call “the common good,” and the outcome could be very important, perhaps even more so than in many recent electoral contests.

I am in no position to tell anyone what is “non-negotiable,” and neither is any Bishop or megachurch pastor, but let me tell you the “faith priorities” and values I will be voting on this year:

With more than 2,000 verses in the Bible about how we treat the poor and oppressed, I will examine the record, plans, policies, and promises made by the candidates on what they will do to overcome the scandal of extreme global poverty and the shame of such unnecessary domestic poverty in the richest nation in the world. Such a central theme of the Bible simply cannot be ignored at election time, as too many Christians have done for years. And any solution to the economic crisis that simply bails out the rich, and even the middle class, but ignores those at the bottom should simply be unacceptable to people of faith.

From the biblical prophets to Jesus, there is, at least, a biblical presumption against war and the hope of beating our swords into instruments of peace. So I will choose the candidates who will be least likely to lead us into more disastrous wars and find better ways to resolve the inevitable conflicts in the world and make us all safer. I will choose the candidates who seem to best understand that our security depends upon other people’s security (everyone having “their own vine and fig tree, so no one can make them afraid,” as the prophets say) more than upon how high we can build walls or a stockpile of weapons. Christians should never expect a pacifist president, but we can insist on one who views military force only as a very last resort, when all other diplomatic and economic measures have failed, and never as a preferred or habitual response to conflict.

“Choosing life” is a constant biblical theme, so I will choose candidates who have the most consistent ethic of life, addressing all the threats to human life and dignity that we face — not just one. 30,000 children dying globally each day of preventable hunger and disease is a life issue. The genocide in Darfur is a life issue. Health care is a life issue. War is a life issue. The death penalty is a life issue. And on abortion, I will choose candidates who have the best chance to pursue the practical and proven policies which could dramatically reduce the number of abortions in America and therefore save precious unborn lives, rather than those who simply repeat the polarized legal debates and “pro-choice” and “pro-life” mantras from either side.

God’s fragile creation is clearly under assault, and I will choose the candidates who will likely be most faithful in our care of the environment. In particular, I will choose the candidates who will most clearly take on the growing threat of climate change, and who have the strongest commitment to the conversion of our economy and way of life to a cleaner, safer, and more renewable energy future. And that choice could accomplish other key moral priorities like the redemption of a dangerous foreign policy built on Middle East oil dependence, and the great prospects of job creation and economic renewal from a new “green” economy built on more spiritual values of conservation, stewardship, sustainability, respect, responsibility, co-dependence, modesty, and even humility.

Every human being is made in the image of God, so I will choose the candidates who are most likely to protect human rights and human dignity. Sexual and economic slavery is on the rise around the world, and an end to human trafficking must become a top priority. As many religious leaders have now said, torture is completely morally unacceptable, under any circumstances, and I will choose the candidates who are most committed to reversing American policy on the treatment of prisoners. And I will choose the candidates who understand that the immigration system is totally broken and needs comprehensive reform, but must be changed in ways that are compassionate, fair, just, and consistent with the biblical command to “welcome the stranger.”

Healthy families are the foundation of our community life, and nothing is more important than how we are raising up the next generation. As the father of two young boys, I am deeply concerned about the values our leaders model in the midst of the cultural degeneracy assaulting our children. Which candidates will best exemplify and articulate strong family values, using the White House and other offices as bully pulpits to speak of sexual restraint and integrity, marital fidelity, strong parenting, and putting family values over economic values? And I will choose the candidates who promise to really deal with the enormous economic and cultural pressures that have made parenting such a “countercultural activity” in America today, rather than those who merely scapegoat gay people for the serious problems of heterosexual family breakdown.

Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Deserves Your Vote Again, and Apparently for the Foreseeable Future Judging by What Dares to Run Against Him

Only an “advocate who wants to educate the people” would be fool enough to run against someone who is so well-informed, who cares about his constituents, and actually can have a conversation about the issues.

If you thought there were moments in the Presidential debates that were real cringe factors, you should have seen the Fuschillo-Gordon debate. Senator Chuck has nothing to worry about. Gordon did not even have the good grace to refer to him as Senator Fuschillo when answering a question. Ugh! Squirm factor. The only criticism I have of Senator Fuschillo is that at one point he answered a question that was asked of Gordon. But it was fine, since he actually had something to say. It would have been great, if he had the obnoxious streak I do, (which he doesn’t) if he had said, “Well, you know, I’m an advocate, and I believe in educating the people.”

UFT Rally for Absent Teacher Reserve Teachers and Teaching Fellows Threatened with Termination

Get Ready to Rally
Stand Up for the ATRs!

You may have heard about it from your Chapter Leader, or read something in the NY Teacher. The UFT Delegate Assembly voted on October 15 to organize a mass citywide rally to defend the more than 1,400 teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve.

“Therefore, be it resolved, that the UFT will organize a mass citywide rally to show our unity and strength, calling on the NYC Department of Education to reduce class size and give assigned positions to all teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserved who want assignments before any new teachers are hired.”

This action proposal was passed after a rank-and-file campaign gathered petitions from teachers in over 103 schools. Teachers are demanding a fight back against the victimization of NYC teachers in the press and in the schools. It’s a fight to defend teacher tenure against the union-busting teacher bashing of the DOE. It’s a fight for our students.
We are also fighting to defend several hundred new first-year teachers who are in the RTR pool and threatened with “termination” in early December if they haven’t found positions. They will be holding their own demonstration at Tweed Courthouse at 4 pm on Wednesday, November 5. Please turn out to support them!

We are all affected. If you’re not in the Absent Teacher Reserve now, you could be soon. That is what the DOE has in mind to bust the strong union structure in our schools, erode teacher tenure and try to pit newer lower-paid teachers against senior teachers. We need to stick together.

The UFT voted for the rally – now we need to make it real. We need to mobilize in the schools to bring out a big turnout of teachers, students and parents.

What you can do now:

• Raise the rally at your chapter meeting. Build a network in the schools!
• Get commitments from fellow teachers to attend and bring out others.
• Contact parents groups and community groups. Contact the local papers, cable TV channels and radio stations.
• Let New York Know What’s Going On. Assign ATR Teachers Before Any New Hiring Takes Place! Stop the Smear Campaign Against ATR Teachers! Stop Union Busting!
Stop Teacher Bashing! No “terminations” of RTR Teaching Fellows!

Obama Only Won Because He’s Black

Why are there people out there, some of whom I genuinely love, and generally have a tremendous amount of respect for, who are so amazingly moronic? My children heard this comment from three people today: “Obama only won because he’s black.” I recall a song by Public Enemy that went something like:
“White mother, white father: white baby. Black mother, black father: black baby. White mother, black father, black baby.” Let’s take a look at this truly ridiculous comment more closely, shall we?

1. There are obviously those who did, and, in fact, those who did not, vote for Obama because he is “black” or “African-American”. Personally, anyone who decided for him or against him for this reason alone is equally stupid.
2. The idea that Obama *won* because he’s black is insulting and offensive to those of us who carefully listened, read, pored over myth and fact, looked at our country’s current state, recent history, and projected future, and decided that we wanted Obama to be the one to lead us toward whatever is coming next.
3. I wonder: Had McCain won, would these imbeciles be saying: “Well, of course, Obama lost. Because he’s black.” Hey, either way, their warped logic and simplistic thinking works! Isn’t that neat? Tucked into a cute little melanin package, tied with a pretty, well-spoken BO — Barack Obama. Whoa, those deep thinkers. Is that because all the blood stops at their necks and never makes it to their brains? Maybe they’re just sore losers. Maybe they just enjoyed the idea of “spreading the wealth” so that Fannie Mae could have a golf outing, or Big Oil or Big Pharma could make more profits at our expense, while some kid with no control over his or her circumstances sits in an emergency room with chronic asthma because he or she doesn’t have health insurance. Hey, America: wake the fuck up. It’s not about race all the time. Sometimes, some of us — and I realize this is a terribly confusing concept for the narrow-minded who are enthralled by Barbie dolls with folksy vocabularies, or who are so easily frightened by difference, and buzzwords like “terrorists” — sometimes, some of us actually *think*. Try it some time. You might like it.

Kudos to Governor David Paterson! Bravo!

I was delighted with Governor David Paterson’s Town Hall Meeting, shown on PBS earlier this evening. I think he did an excellent job of explaining our extreme fiscal crisis, and if he manages to do what he says he wishes to do — keep the dramatic cuts which must be made to all facets of the state budget equitable — he will be worthy of tremendous respect.
As usual, he was good-humored and made the audience laugh, adding just the right touch of levity to a serious situation without overdoing it. I was relieved and very happy, given some of the recent media coverage he has received. He was informed, exuded confidence, and did not flinch from the truth. Kudos to Governor Paterson. I’m a harsh critic, and have been disappointed to the point of desiring a Valium, a good, stiff drink, or blood pressure medication when exposed to some of the media coverage and speculation regarding his blindness. Tonight, however, Governor Paterson did himself, and dare I say it, the blind in general, proud.

My Letter to President-Elect Obama Regarding Alleged Plans to Consider Joel Klein for Secretary of Education

Please send your own letters about this, and get others to do so.
Use the form at:
http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact

Subject: Very Distressed with Your Consideration of Joel Klein for Secretary of Education

Dear Senator Obama:

As someone who has been calling and blogging tirelessly on your behalf, and who is extremely glad that you are my President-Elect, I am deeply, deeply concerned that you are apparently considering offering New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel I. Klein the position of Secretary of Education
As a seriously frustrated employee of the New York City Department of Education (a literacy instructor of at-risk youth), a licensed attorney, and a parent who wants all children in addition to mine to be given educational opportunities which will make their lives better and increase the chance that the world will treat them as first-class citizens, I am literally begging you to throw this idea away *immediately*. Chancellor Klein is in his current position because of a variance granted by the New York Board of Regents. He has zero educational experience; he is essentially a failed lawyer. He views the school system, as does his accomplice, Michael R. Bloomberg, as a business, and its students as widgets. They spend millions of dollars on programs that add nothing of relevance or quality to children’s educations, have substituted one brand of cronyism and corruption for the one which existed prior to Bloomberg taking control of the schools, and have manipulated personnel, the media, and test grades to paint a picture of improvement which simply does not exist, and bears not the slightest resemblance to the reality within our schools.
Senator Obama, please: do not risk the chaos and tragedy you will be perpetrating upon our entire nation by bringing this menace to the United States Department of Education. Talk to the teachers. Send people to investigate the true state of our schools, particularly those like mine, for the neediest students on the brink of adulthood. (I work at (redacted) where we have 18- to 21-year-old high school dropouts, declassified or unclassified special education students, immigrants, ESL students, (English as a Second Language), and students woefully neglected and allowed to slip through the cracks during Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure of alleged successful reform.)
Please dig for the facts; the surface ripples with promise, but it hides poison.

(personal info redacted from this e-mail)

Candlelight Vigil for the Victims of the ATR (Able Teacher Reserve)

That’s right, I said “able teacher reserve.” You have a problem with that? Too damn bad. The rally on this group’s behalf, scheduled for 4:30 on November 24, is now, we are told, supposed to be a “silent candlelight vigil.” Makes you wonder why they’re trying to keep us silent. Makes you wonder if the DOE is afraid of the truth. Why be afraid, though? It has the media in its pocket, especially that scratchy, gnarled post. Anyone have a wax bobblehead of Bloomberg or Klein so we can shed some light on the subject?

The Agony of Da Back

Okay, it has been four and a half months since a quiet black Lexus backed out of a driveway and into me. My ankle, knee, and broken toe seem to have healed just fine, but my herniated disks have gone from bad to much worse, and I have nearly constant pain in the lumbar region and the coccyx. Have had MRI of the former, but only part of the latter. Tried physical therapy, am currently going to a chiropractor four to six times per week, and just started acupuncture. I am SICK OF BEING IN PAIN and TIRED of HOURS SPENT GETTING HELP THAT IS NOT HELPING. I become really bitchy because I try not to take pain medication every day, but it’s hard. I have to take two Vicodin now just to take the edge off, whereas before one helped nicely. When I take the two, I still have some pain, but with the added bonus of nausea. Basically, I can’t win.
People have told me that:
1. The chiropractor should have helped by now if it’s going to work;
2. It could take up to a year for any real benefits from the chiropractor;
3. Give the acupuncture a chance;
4. Get steroid shots (I *hate* needles, and the idea of having stuff injected into my spine freaks me out.)
So anyone with advice, please give it. I have been having quite a time at work lately; it is extremely difficult to put up with the various stressors in general, but when I’m in pain, it is brutal. Advice, positive energy, anything remotely helpful is appreciated.

Reverend Ruben Thinks He Represents All of New York

Another so-called Christian, a minister no less, is threatening to hold his fellow elected representatives hostage to his religious ideology. Ruben Diaz (D., Bronx) has stated that he will not caucus with his fellow NY Senate Democrats, thereby forfeiting Senate control, in this time of fiscal crisis, foreclosures, unemployment increases, concern about our local and national short- and long-term future, if any of them brings the issue of marriage equality for gays to the floor. Now I really do not care what you believe about homosexuality. I really do not care if you are another moronic Christian who does not know how to read the Bible and take Jesus at His word, and love your neighbor as you would love yourself. (No, Ruben, that doesn’t mean you have to give your gay neighbors a hand job. It just means that if you are a Christian, you really had better talk a little more with the Lord, because He would not approve of your hateful, insecure, raving blackmail.)

I’ll bet there are some hard-line “Christians” out there who do not think Hispanics should have the right to represent Americans. I’ll bet they would prefer if Hispanics were not allowed to marry non-Hispanics. Hell, there are lunatics out there who have all sorts of ideas about who should be what, do what, and do whom, and how they should do whom to express their affection, lust, or love. Why is Diaz so horribly threatened by the legislative process? There are elections for a reason: so that constituents’ representatives can bring to the fllor what is important to said constituents, not the whims or mortal terror, and fears of damnation of one or two or three of them?
Imagine holding the issue of marriage equality over the heads of his fellow legislators, who have just as much right to be as big an asshole as he, and effectively stall the legislative process by playing ideological games like this.
What is going on; is he a closet compassionate neocon?
Uh-oh, Rev, get your ass out of that closet; you never know who might be standing behind you. Might be some right wing politician who loves rest stop bathrooms. You know those who evangelize this loud and this savagely against something . . . it really makes you wonder.
Whether you are loving this guy for his stand or thinking he’s an idiot, this kind of behavior is despotic precedent that smells just like Bloomberg’s bullying the New York City Council to overturn term limits. If the people want their reps to bring this issue to the floor, who the hell is he to stop that from happening? Who is he to commandeer the legislative process? I think his constituents should jam his phones, his e-mail, and protest in front of his office, and visit him in Albany and make his life a living hell until he gets off his soapbox and keeps it in the pulpit.

Deepak Chopra Blames Ignorant Twits like Dorothy Rabinowitz

Actually, he doesn’t, because he is too evolved to play the Blame Game. So, after my hiatus, let’s start delving:

I highly recommend going to today’s edition of the Huffington Post and reading Michelle Haimoff’s article about her interview with Chopra. I also highly recommend listening to the full interview when it has been put up. It’ll be worth your time, whether it’s preaching to those of us who already know this, because we actually pay attention and look behind the bullshit, or whether you’re a die-hard right winger who will need to scurry off and ingest reruns of Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and Hannity on your computer or other handy technology to try to drown the truth so that you can remain as ignorant, psychotic, and fundamentalist as the terrorists you hate so much (and who your tax dollars helped invigorate).

Since it is highly doubtful that Murdoch’s devil spawn (OK, he didn’t found the WSJ, but he likely doesn’t want to admit that to anyone), will print these letters in their entirety, here they are. Pass it on. Now, Dorothy dear, close your mind, click your heels together three times, and repeat to yourself over and over: “Ignorance is strength. Ignorance is strength. Ignorance is strength.”Sheesh. She got a little *too* intimate with the scarecrow.

(Uncensored response of Deepak Chopra to Dorothy (Toto, I don’t think my brain is working anymore” Rabinowitz)

To the Editors,

I think it does a disservice to the Wall Street Journal’s integrity to run personal attacks of the kind directed against me by Dorothy Rabinowitz. Since your newspaper whole-heartedly cheered on the disastrous war in Iraq, I can understand why you continue to mount a rear guard action in defense of the Bush administration’s approach to militant Islam.

That approach involves unilateral militant aggression without the slightest care for the effect being made on the vast majority of peaceful Muslims. Now that the right wing can no longer continue this discredited policy overtly, Ms. Rabinowitz and her ilk have adopted a fall-back position. Attack anyone who suggests a new way.

I stand by my remarks and have full confidence that the Obama administration will adopt a “root cause” approach of the kind I endorsed. The very thing Ms. Rabinowitz derides is our best hope for peace.

Deepak Chopra

(And now, the uncensored letter of his son, Gotham):
As many already know, my father Deepak Chopra (along with thousands of others) has taken a vow of non-violence in all his actions and words. As a result, he’s unable to respond that aggressively to an article written by Dorothy Rabinowitz in Monday’s Wall Street Journal critical of his response on CNN and elsewhere to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Fortunately, I haven’t taken the vow.

In her opinion piece, Ms. Rabinowitz charges that Deepak has over-simplified the issue of global terrorism. How ironic considering the profound over-simplification of her article (not to mention the recklessness of it) entitled DEEPAK BLAMES AMERICA.

The same way she questions Deepak’s authority on the subject, I have no idea what qualifies Ms. Rabinowitz as an expert in this regard but she clearly appears to be no student of history. If she was, she would understand the context in which this latest terrorist attack appears to have occurred. To summarize: in the 80’s the CIA financed the militarization of Afghan rebels to resist Soviet expansion in the region. At the same time, the US also subsidized Pakistan’s intelligence agency the ISI to train and provide tactical support to those same Islamic militants.

Fast forward to the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Soviet’s pulling out of Afghanistan, and the United State’s subsequent withdrawal of support from the region as well. The result: a vacuum filled with a lot of guns and rage. After 9/11, in an effort to once again re-establish control of the wild proliferation of fundamentalism in the region, the US returned to the Indian subcontinent with a bit of sound and fury only to find the mess they left behind and the deep ties between the ISI and the Mujahadeen turned Taliban. In other words, there is a distinct link between the rise of Islamic militancy in the Indian Subcontinent and the US activities there over the last few decades. Allegations that the group of terrorists that perpetrated the Mumbai attack has links to a Pakistani-based terror group and that they actually launched the attack from Karachi seems pretty solid. Is it too much to ask for a WSJ journalist to tie this all together?

Let’s get to the heart of the matter, though, which is about constructing a solution for global terrorism, not just assigning blame for it. To hypothesize that this is simply a problem restricted to Arab and/or Islamic parts of the world is plainly naïve and reckless. To deny the inherent tangled hierarchy of ongoing conflicts in Israel, Iraq, and Kashmir that pit opposing ideals against one another with the supply of billions of dollars into the oil industry, ground zero for which is the American ally Saudi Arabia, and the even more profitable arms trade that subsidizes all sides of these wars showcases Ms. Rabinowitz’s unprofessional lack of understanding.

Our collective inability to construct a well thought out creative solution that goes beyond declaring a “war on terrorism” or insanely cheering on continued “shock and awe” campaigns in Arab regions around the world is a complicit part of the ongoing problems we face. Yes – America for all the democratic ideals for freedom and liberty it declares to the rest of the world – does indeed have a fundamental responsibility to stay true to them and be held accountable when we fail to even give the appearance that we care for them, as unfortunately the Bush regime has shown the last 8 years. We can no longer afford the delusion that we have no part in a global community plagued by the sickness that is Islamic fundamentalism largely brought on by economic disparity and ideological hypocrisy, not to mention myopic policies, oil money, and arms sales that nurture it. To pretend otherwise is to perpetuate and encourage more brazen attacks. To think that this creative solution should not appeal in some way to the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, the vast majority of whom are not terrorists, is plain negligence.

The goal here is not to demonize the US and pin all of the world’s problems – and certainly terrorism specifically – on the US and/or its foreign policy. But clearly as we enter a new era and Presidency, we have an opportunity to contemplate a new cohesive strategy for dealing with the plague of the 21st century – Islamic fundamentalism. Part of that is to examine our own recent political history. We need to look at CIA activities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq specifically in the 70’s and 80’s to prop up the Mujahadeen who would become the Taliban and in Iraq. Let us recall that the CIA brought Saddam Hussein, who at the time was a thug in exile, back to Iraq and installed him as President. This was done to combat Soviet expansion in Asia and to guard against Iran’s growing Ayatollah Khomeini steered fanaticism. Debate all you want the merit of these operations and what they would eventually lead to,… in fact that is what we must do.

Now let’s get personal. In her piece, Ms. Rabinowitz cites Deepak’s lack of compassion and empathy for the victims of the attacks in Mumbai. That’s funny – I didn’t notice her sitting at our Thanksgiving dinner table last week, a decidedly somber event that coincided with the attacks in the country where our family is from and many still live. We were downcast not only because of our cultural connection to India but our personal connections to several friends who were literally in the Taj, the Oberoi and some of the other sites when the attacks took place. For 48 hours straight, my mother, father, sister, brother-in-law, and wife reached out to countless family members, friends, and colleagues, fearful each time that we were not able to connect with someone, assuming the worst. Fortunately for us, no one we know closely so far is amongst the dead.

The same can’t be said for many of the devoted people and hotel staff who made our stays, business meetings, late night drinks and kebabs extravaganzas at the Taj and Oberoi so memorable and meaningful. Many of those that survived the attacks, even after they have lost so much – their colleagues and even families in some cases – are the same resilient people that are today pledging to rebuild these cultural and business epicenters to be stronger than ever. That, Ms. Rabinowitz, is also part of the re-construction and diplomacy plan, and my family plans to be there as soon as the doors open once more. Will you?

Or is it less troublesome for you to remain ensconced in your a priori knowingness and dispense judgment on those who bother to travel the world and engage in dialogue with people of all different perspectives?

As an entrepreneur with a business that employs several dozen in India, I travel to India at least once a quarter and feel like I have a pretty firm grasp of what’s on the minds of the citizens of Mumbai right now. My father travels to India just as regularly, not to mention the over two-dozen other countries that he visited last year alone. As a journalist, I also happen to have spent considerable time in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Chechnya, Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Kashmir, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia, sometimes sitting across from some of these terrorists and engaging them in dialogue and debate. That’s not to say that I empathize with them or their cause: I don’t. But I do bother to acknowledge them, which may be the first step in trying to understand the warped psychology of their minds. Only then can one presumably start to refine a real plan for eliminating it, if even that requires deployment of precise military means to excise the cancer that are terrorist sleeper cells. But to think the solution ends there is naive.

Then again, that clearly is not Ms. Rabinowitz’s intent because there is another complicit part to all of this – the media. Dorothy Rabinowitz, for example is an incredibly accomplished journalist and certainly someone with the intellectual capacity to understand the complexity of the issues if she wanted to. And yet instead of writing a thoughtful piece on the Mumbai attacks, she and the WSJ choose to publish a salacious article under the heading of DEEPAK BLAMES AMERICA which clearly is all about generating controversy and news. They were successful in creating publicity over this imaginary story-considering all the subsequent coverage, including my father’s appearance Monday night on the Fox News show Hannity and Colmes in which the article was cited (both Fox News and the WSJ, of course, are owned by News Corp/Rupert Murdoch…another story for another day). Of course, ultimately the real goal of the media, news networks included, is more viewers, more readers, and more buzz. The consequence is that it fuels a public that wants simple three-word headlines and analysis that doesn’t rely on understanding the history or context in which events occur. It’s a brave new world for media everywhere because someone is always watching and blogging.

That’s where the “Marshall Plan for the Muslim world,” that Ms. Rabinowitz sarcastically cites in her article, comes in. That, by the way, was my idea that I lent my dad for his appearance on Larry King! I happen to think a long-term holistic and strategic plan that helps rebuild the blasted ghettos of the Arab world, where so much of this hatred festers, is the only reasonable solution to the militant trend that we see proliferating around globe now.

Here’s the thing – and the final point – I’m a first generation American and proud to be so. I believe the US needs to take a strong leadership role in eradicating the planet of terrorism. I certainly don’t think I have the knowledge or experience to shape that policy and never claimed to. But as concerned and proud citizens it’s our responsibility to challenge our leaders to come up with new ideas, learn from the mistakes of our past, and be very conscious of the world they are shaping for our children.

It’s not at all an easy solution and there will likely be mistakes in the future but it would behoove us as a nation to not (sic) learn from some of the ones we have made in the past. The war in Iraq comes to mind. It’s a worthy debate whether or not the war can be qualified as a success. But part of the discussion has to be an acknowledgment of the facts – that somewhere between 400 thousand to 1 million Iraqi civilians have perished. Some may argue that that is the price of war and long-term peace and security in the region. Others will say that beyond the immediate cost of those lives is how that has galvanized another generation of Islamic militants.

It’s a good and important debate to have as it will ultimately fuel new policy. Gitmo and Abu Ghraib also have to be part of that same discussion. As does the fact that Saddam Hussein, the late dictator we love to hate so much, as noted above, was originally a prop of the US after an American sponsored coup. For years, the US was well aware of his brutal tactics with his own people including the infamous torture chambers and rape rooms and yet tolerated them because of the so-called broader strategic security interests in the region. To pretend that that was the reason the US decided to “liberate the Iraqi” people is revisionist at best, but really just flat out wrong. That one’s for you Sean Hannity – another accomplished and intelligent journalist who knows better than to lean on that false crutch for his ongoing cheerleading of the war.

I’m open to debate on all of the above but prefer to do so with those that are actually serious and solution-oriented, not just in search of more readers or a higher rating. Today, in the face of great danger around the world and more looming terrorist attacks, we all have to be willing to ask ourselves how we can actually contribute in a meaningful way to constructing a long term sustainable and peaceful planet. Maybe I am the naive one because I still believe in our spiritual patriarch Mahatma Gandhi who said if you want to see change in the world, start with yourself.

Maybe I will take that vow after all.
(Nah. I have a lot of respect for your dad, and anyone who can take, and live up to, a vow of nonviolence, but I must say: I liked your letter more. Peace)

Back to My Back Pain

So here I am, nearly six months after the accident (Christmas Eve will be the six-month anniversary), and I finally have what might be the beginning of an answer to my pain. It would have been lovely if the idiot orthopedist I went to originally had listened to me when I told him where the majority of the pain was, and sent me for an MRI of the coccyx right away. Instead, he sent me for the wrong MRI, which had to be repeated. Then, that MRI didn’t show the entire coccyx, so back I went again this past Friday. Meanwhile, I have been to a physical therapist, massage therapist, acupuncturist, and literally went to a chiropractor an average of 4 times per week for months, with no discernible relief, often with worse pain. I’ve taken far too much Vicodin than I should (but not nearly the amount I wanted to take), which resulted in nausea, listlessness, and moodiness. I’ve been contemplating getting cortisone injections. I’ve gained weight because I am not on my treadmill every day, as I was prior to the accident. My dr. says I should swim, but I don’t have a pool, and with my schedule, and transportation being what it is in this county, this is not really feasible. I can’t take off work for a few weeks to get this all straightened out once and for all, which frankly, would be the best bet.
So now the results of my MRI show that I have a five- or six-year-old fracture in my coccyx, but the muscle striations show that part of the bone involved in the original fracture was recently bent in a vertical position. My chiropractor is attempting to locate an orthopedist who specializes in this type of injury. This is something I could have started investigating this summer, and receiving treatment for, when I wasn’t working. What a waste of time, the insurance company’s money, gas used going to and from appointments, hours lost from work, and a profound loss of quality of life for myself, my family, and my husband and me.
I can’t imagine what we would do if I was at a point where I was so debilitated that I was forced to take unpaid leave from work. It is something I have started resenting not being able to do. As far as I am concerned, that orthopedist is nearly equally responsible for my pain as the woman driving the car. He should have paid more attention to what I was telling him, especially when I asked him outright: “Shouldn’t I get an MRI of the coccyx?”
The guy is a moron. So, now what? Only time will tell, but I hope it changes my tale — and my tail — soon.

A Peek Into This Teacher’s Heart

I’m so excited. This has really lifted my spirits. I got a call just now from one of my most motivated past students. She told me about how well she is doing, asked about goings-on with people and everything else at the program, and asked for feedback on an assignment she was given. She eased my mind about another student I have been thinking and worrying about for months. I carry around all these little question marks inside for the students I have had. I know it is too much to hope that everything is terrific for all of them. Some were truly struggling with difficult, trying obstacles. But I hope with every fiber of my being that whatever happens, each one of them manages to make the best of it and eke out mostly positive results, even if it takes time, a little tragedy, and a lot of struggle. There are some who haunt me, just because of what they were trying to accomplish despite things that they simply should not have to shoulder. I wish so strongly that I could get in touch with them, or at least get a message out to them. I would name them, in the hopes that someone would get word out, but if it’s one thing I know about my students, most don’t want to be called out for any reason. Still, I wish every day that I could get a snippet of news about as many of them as possible . . .
The hardest cases tug at me in my dreams as well as when I’m awake. I think sometimes it’s the hardest part of being a teacher of at-risk youth. If I somehow manage to lower their risks just a tiny bit, and maybe lower them a lot for one percent of them, that’s something. Not enough, but something.

Sarah Palin, NY State Senate, and Life Update

So, okay, it took my daughter calling from Ohio, where she is with her dad, stepmother, and my poor son, who has mono since June 19, to get me to blog after all these weeks. She called and demanded, “Sarah Palin is resigning, and there’s nothing on your blog, Mom? I thought something awful must have happened to you.”
No, sweetie, that was last year. Just had a deposition on June 29 with respect to said “something awful” — and I’m definitely much, much better. Been off painkillers since some time in April, and have lost ten pounds of the 18 I gained while unable to exercise daily as I did prior to the accident.
Went to a fabulous Aerosmith concert at Jones Beach — and there’s something associated with that concert that I refuse to talk about because I don’t want to jinx something totally awesome that came out of it that is supposed to occur on September 14 at the MSG concert. Murphy likes to stalk me, so mum’s the word. Let’s just say returning to work on September 8 will not be the uppermost thought on my mind as the end of summer approaches.
My poor son missed wrestling camp, which he had been looking forward to since it ended last year, and next weekend, Sam, Braden, and I were supposed to attend Campabilities Long Island, where they were to be campers and I was to be a volunteer camp mom.
We’ll be going to Denver together this month, and Gary and I are planning to go on a Canada cruise in August. Other possible plans are going to DC with Braden and possibly to Cooperstown.
Oh, my poor Mets! Carlos, Jose, come back, come back! David Wright, what’s the matter, sweetie? On the road, he’s not too bad, but I swear, something’s off with him. There’s this disloyal bitch who sits behind us at our seats in Citi Field who is constantly bad-mouthing him. People have very short memories. He’s been with the Mets since 2004; she should check his stats. My daughter and I wanted to rip her tongue out at the June 19 game.
While I was at the Aerosmith concert on June 26, my daughter, her friend, and Gary were at the Mets-Yankees game, enjoyed the booing of A-roid, but had to suffer the Mets’ first loss at a game for which we had tickets. (I wasn’t there; this might explain it.)
Plus, when there was a question about which of the Mets people would most want to meet — David Wright, Francisco Rodriguez, or Johan Santana, (and the winner was David Wright), Loudmouth sputtered, “Yeah, I’d like to meet him, so I could fire him.”
This sent my daughter and her friend into a loud discussion for her benefit of which only shrill teenage girls are capable.
Meanwhile, Roe, her husband, Marisa and I had a great time, even though the concert started an hour and a half late, thanks to Mother Nature. So, I was wet before Steven even came out . . .
(Hey, the seats were all wet. Take your mind out of where you’ve got it.)
That’s the update for now. The biggest thing pissing me off at the moment is the NY State Senate. What a bunch of children! The highlight was a few weeks ago when the Republicans were saying the Pledge of Allegiance and the Democrats wouldn’t stand — and when one of them attempted to do so, he was pulled down. How fucked up, immature, and truly shameful. These morons, among other things, allowed Mayor Mike the opportunity to reach beyond the sunset of legislated mayoral control of the NYC Department of Education, , which needs serious modification.
If you or I so blatantly shirked our responsibilities at work, we would have to deal with serious consequences. These bozos shouldn’t get paid until they do what we elected them to do.
As for Caribou Barbie, she can only handle so much at once. If she wants to run for President in 2012 — she does, she will — she needs to study really hard so that she can memorize some facts about history, geography, foreign politics . . . you betcha.
In addition, how much does someone want to bet that Miss Sarah has a little scandal brewing that she decided to avoid by resigning? Can’t wait till that blows. Oh, the anticipation . . .
I read the full text of her cutesy little speech. “Only dead fish go with the flow.”
Yes, indeed, particularly in water polluted by corporations unfettered by health and safety regulations that protect the hard-working Americans Miss Sarah purports to advocate for — or is that just Alaskans?
Her parents’ refrigerator magnet, along the lines of, “You don’t have to explain yourself to anyone. Your friends won’t need to hear an explanation, and your enemies won’t believe you anyway.” One of those little sayings that Sarah would only apply to her special brand of Christian and right wingers, but that’s okay. No one whose friends are sheep need worry about explaining, since no one ever explains to sheep why they are slaughtered or sheared. Oh, that wild and wooly woman!
OK, Sam? Is that better?
Over and out, for now.

Brave Dame Sarah (a lovely remake of Monty Python’s “Brave Sir Robin”

From:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/07/quitter.php?utm_source=sbhomepage&utm_medium=link&utm_content=channellink
Quitter
Category: Politics
Posted on: July 3, 2009 4:21 PM, by PZ Myers

That wacky know-nothing up north, Sarah Palin, has quit her job as governor. She doesn’t give a good reason why; in an annoyingly chipper speech, she whines about the way she was being scrutinized for ethics violations, and the fact that she was currently an ineffective lame duck governor, and then announces that she’s stepping down from office. It makes no sense at all, and it does say something about the weakness of her character.

Brave Dame Sarah ran away.
(”No!”)
Bravely ran away away.
(”I didn’t!”)
When danger reared it’s ugly head,
She bravely turned her tail and fled.
(”no!”)
Yes, brave Dame Sarah turned about
(”I didn’t!”)
And gallantly she chickened out.

Bravely taking (”I never did!”) to her feet,
She beat a very brave retreat.
(”all lies!”)
Bravest of the braaaave, Dame Sarah!
(”I never!”)

Remember this if (when) she runs for president in 2012. Who wants a president who at the first minor crisis turns her office over to the vice president and runs away?

Letter to Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Re Marriage Equality

Subject: Disturbed by Your Apparent Opposition to Marriage Equality

Dear Senator Fuschillo:

I am writing with respect to what I understand is your intention to vote against marriage equality. While I am cognizant of your difficult position as a Republican and a Catholic, and I understand that many of my fellow constituents have a tendency to allow fear and viscera to guide their opinions rather than logic and compassion, I am hoping that I can, at the very least, convince you to abstain, if not to vote yes, to marriage equality.

1.

There is no reason why two people who wish to commit to one another should be barred from state-sanctioned matrimony because they happen to have the same genitalia and sex chromosomes. Using one’s religious beliefs as a basis for determining that this is not worthy of state sanctioning is in essence imposing one’s religious beliefs upon a class of people, and using the power of the legislature to do so is therefore unconstitutional.

2.
Using children as a method of propaganda against gay and lesbian couples is a trick which has been used before: mulatto children were (and by some, still are) considered inferior, “damaged,” or otherwise tainted by their foolhardy, interracial parents. There are many heterosexual couples who, all things being equal, make poor role models indeed, but they are not faced with a knee-jerk societal assumption that because of their “lifestyle choices” or innate, intrinsic natures, they should be barred from state-sanctioned commitment or the choice to bear and/or raise children. Disabled people, too, have been victimized by religious and social discrimination when it comes to marriage and having children.
On a societal scale, the children of same-sex couples are no more likely to do any better or worse than the children of heterosexual couples, or straight single parents. Similarly, those who are concerned about the “message” sent to young children if we allow same-sex marriage are splitting hairs: Those same-sex couples will still exist and live among us, and should not be expected to hide their love to any further extent than is expected of heterosexual couples. There are more than enough examples of inappropriate heterosexual behavior on television, on the Internet, in our schools, workplaces, and on our streets to keep us occupied. Creating myths of recruiting and brainwashing cults of gays and lesbians is puerile, dangerous, and hypocritical.

3.
Should one of my children desire one day to marry a person of the same gender, I want him or her to be able to do so. I want him or her to have the same property, medical, legal, and other rights that accompany the state of matrimony. I do not think it is my neighbor’s or my legislator’s or a faith’s place to withhold this right from any committed couple merely because of a visceral reaction to the manner in which they conduct their love-making. The same people and ideologies should not have this right in this instance any more than in the instances of the couple in question being mixed race, mixed spirituality, disabled, vastly different in age, etc. If and when children become part of such unions, they deserve the same status and protection as the children of other married individuals.
If, goodness forbid, a terrible accident, injury, or illness were to befall one member of the couple, the other should have the same rights as a heterosexual spouse.
4. Given the great many divisive, trying, and troubling crises and issues facing our state, our country, and our planet, it does no one any good to allow this to cloud our discourse and our legislative process. Let’s allow couples who wish to commit to one another to do so, and get on with the important issues which deeply and directly affect all of us as human beings, regardless of our religions, skin color, disabilities, and sexuality.

It is not fair to base this decision upon one’s visceral reaction, religion, propaganda, fear-mongering, or political posturing. This involves raw emotions: love, family, sensuality, — the strongest and most vital aspects of humanity. As compared to how this decision will affect the couples who desire the right to marry, what are the short-term and long-term direct effects upon the rest of us?
If marriage equality is passed in New York, as it has been in six other states, will anyone not directly involved even care without the help of press and propagandist spin doctors a few weeks after the fact?

Consider:
If one member of a same-sex couple had the money and desire to undergo a transgender operation, s/he would then be legally entitled to marry his/her partner.
It is rather ironic that an individual who feels comfortable with his or her body and sexuality would not have the same right. How disturbing and disappointing if New York was one of the states that legislated this absurd state of affairs, and how troubling to me that you would be part of such an injustice.

Sincerely,
Christine Faltz Grassman

Virginia Foxx: A Hoax For a Human Being

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 9:53 a.m. ET, Fri., May 1, 2009
New YORK – Judy Shepard doesn’t think Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., was sincere when she apologized for calling the 1998 murder of Shepard’s son, Matthew, “a hoax.”
“Attacks of lesser consequence have been said about Matt since the beginning… but I never expected it to be called ‘a hoax,’” said Shepard Thursday on “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

During a debate in the House of Representatives Wednesday, Foxx said that the death of Matthew Shepard shouldn’t be used to justify a hate crimes bill because it wasn’t a hate crime. Foxx said Shepard was killed during a robbery.

In a statement released the following day, Foxx said her comments didn’t convey what she meant to say. “The term ‘hoax’ was a poor choice of words used in the discussion of the hate crimes bill,” Foxx said.
Foxx said she relied on two news reports for her comments about robbery being a motive for the slaying. “Referencing these media accounts may have been a mistake, but if so, it was a mistake based on what I believed were reliable accounts,” she said.

Judy Shepard, who was present when Foxx made the remarks, was unconvinced by the clarification. “It’s apologizing for semantics but not her sentiment, her insensitivity or her ignorance.”

*********

Hey, I’ll bet that if those “news reports” actually exist, they were generated by a *Fox*-owned medium.

Somehow the cunning little bitch just yaps away as it rips the flesh from its prey. This one’s got an extra X — double X for the sex chromosome that made it in insult to women, especially mothers, everywhere. I think it should just add yet another X, to warn people of its lack of socially redeemming value and sheer obscenity.

When someone plans to say something so monstrously unfeeling in the presence of the parent of a victim, there really should be some effort to be extra diligent and careful. But *foxes* want the kill; they want the blood; they shit to mark their territory, and they act on instinct, not thought.

Pity it, Judy. It’s a victim of its nature.

Virginia Foxx: A Hoax of a Human Being

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 9:53 a.m. ET, Fri., May 1, 2009
New YORK – Judy Shepard doesn’t think Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., was sincere when she apologized for calling the 1998 murder of Shepard’s son, Matthew, “a hoax.”
“Attacks of lesser consequence have been said about Matt since the beginning… but I never expected it to be called ‘a hoax,’” said Shepard Thursday on “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

During a debate in the House of Representatives Wednesday, Foxx said that the death of Matthew Shepard shouldn’t be used to justify a hate crimes bill because it wasn’t a hate crime. Foxx said Shepard was killed during a robbery.

In a statement released the following day, Foxx said her comments didn’t convey what she meant to say. “The term ‘hoax’ was a poor choice of words used in the discussion of the hate crimes bill,” Foxx said.
Foxx said she relied on two news reports for her comments about robbery being a motive for the slaying. “Referencing these media accounts may have been a mistake, but if so, it was a mistake based on what I believed were reliable accounts,” she said.

Judy Shepard, who was present when Foxx made the remarks, was unconvinced by the clarification. “It’s apologizing for semantics but not her sentiment, her insensitivity or her ignorance.”

*********

Hey, I’ll bet that if those “news reports” actually exist, they were generated by a *Fox*-owned medium.

Somehow the cunning little bitch just yaps away as it rips the flesh from its prey. This one’s got an extra X — double X for the sex chromosome that made it in insult to women, especially mothers, everywhere. I think it should just add yet another X, to warn people of its lack of socially redeemming value and sheer obscenity.

When someone says something so monstrously unfeeling in the presence of the parent of a victim, there really should be some effort to be extra diligent and careful. But *foxes* want the kill; they want the blood; they shit to mark their territory, and they act on instinct, not thought.

Pity it, Judy. It’s a victim of its nature.

Each Time’s A Maybe — Rudy Giuliani, The Protector of the Sanctity of Matrimony

Each Time’s a Maybe
by Rudy Giuliani and the Cryptowhores
(Based on Three Times A Lady
The Commodores)

Thanks for the chances the state has given me
The memories are all in my mind
And now that I’ve come to the end of my campaign,
There’s something i must *straighten* out.
Hey, it’s once, twice, each time’s a maybe
And I love them…
Yes, it’s once, twice, each time’s a maybe
And I love you… I love you…

When we were together the moments I cherished
With every beat of my heart
To touch them,to hold them
To feel them,, to need them
The state could not keep us apart

Cause it’s once, twice, each time’s a maybe
And I love you. . . I love you.

Rudy Giuliani: The Champion of Straight Lifetime Commitment

Well, isn’t this a joke, and so symptomatic of the big problem with those opposed to gay marriage, including our hypocritical President. Civil unions, marriage equality: a game of semantics for the squeamish. Rudy is such a paragon of how sacred and untouchable marriage is, an icon of straight commitment, an unparalleled paragon of proper pairing. Tell us, Rudy: was the third time a charm? Did it take you three times to figure out that this just isn’t a feasible thing for gays — clearly, if you couldn’t do it right the first two times, the undisciplined perpetrators of child recruitment and crimes against nature surely couldn’t rise to the occasion.
This must also mean that gay folks should totally put aside any ideas of running for President . . . just look at Rudy, and you’ll know it’s not for you.

So Proud of My Daughter: National Day of Silence

My daughter sent the following email
to family and friends. Please note: GLBT equals gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender.
April 17 is the national day of silence. School students around the nation take part or a whole of a day to take a vow of silence. Adults can help with the cause. The day is a movement to protest against glbt discrimination and harassment in school for kids and in the outside world. It is really supposed to be during a school day but it is on spring break for me. So instead of handing out informational cards I am sending out this e-mail. I will not talk from eleven tomorrow morning to two thirty tomorrow after noon. If you would like, take time tomorrow to explain to peple that glbt people deserve the rights that straight people have. They are not bad or disgusting people! They deserve to live in a safe environment and have equal chances. A teen should not be afraid to go to school or talk to his or her own family! Sadly, glbt teens are a large population of people with depression or suicide cases. glbt problems are silenced all over so we will take time and be silent while educating.
Feel free to forward this e-mail. If you would like more information check out http://www.dayofsilence.org
Thank you.
Sam

Please Sign the “We Want to Read” Petition Against the Authors Guild’s Position on the Kindle 2’s Text to Speech Feature

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/We-Want-To-Read

So, Is Reading To Your Children Copyright Infringement?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.blind14apr14,0,2676842.story

Bias against blind book lovers
By Marc Maurer
April 14, 2009

I love to read, and I’ve been doing it ever since I was able. My wife
is also an avid reader. But my wife and I are blind, and because I
lead the Baltimore-based
National Federation of the Blind, we have many blind friends. And
although many of us read everything we can get our hands on, we can’t
get our hands on
very much to read.

There are services for us, of course. Government entities and
nonprofit organizations convert books into Braille, audio, or digital
form for our use. But
only 5 percent of all books published undergo such a conversion. A
few more are available as commercial audio books, but these are often
abridged, and
those that are unabridged are quite expensive.

Nowadays, a solution to the problem of reading material is
tantalizingly within our reach: the e-book. When Amazon released its
new Kindle 2 e-book reader
earlier this year, it announced that the device now includes
text-to-speech software and can read e-books aloud. Those of us who
are blind were filled
with joy at this news. For the first time in history, it would now be
possible, we hoped, for the blind to do something that everyone else
takes for granted:
purchase a brand new book and start reading it right away.

Our hope quickly turned to despair, however – and then to anger. The
Authors Guild doesn’t want the Kindle 2 to be able to read books
aloud. They say this
new capability violates authors’ copyrights. This argument has
absolutely no basis in copyright law. Reading a print book aloud or
having it read aloud
to you in the privacy of your home is not a copyright violation; the
only difference with the Kindle 2 is that a machine rather than a
human being is doing
the reading.

In the face of this specious attack from the Authors Guild, Amazon
initially took the legally and morally correct position that the
text-to-speech feature
of the Kindle 2 did not violate copyright law. But then the company
backed down, saying it would allow authors and publishers to decide
which books they
would permit to be read aloud by the device. Dismayed, we contacted
the Authors Guild. It claimed it did not oppose having e-books read
aloud to the blind,
as long as there was a national registry of blind people who would
then be allowed to unlock the text-to-speech feature.

This is wrong. The Authors Guild has no right to discriminate against
disabled readers by segregating us into a separate and unequal class.
If our sighted
friends don’t have to “sign up” to be permitted to read, then blind
people shouldn’t either. And once we buy a book, how we read it is
nobody’s business
but ours. When we told the Authors Guild this, they added insult to
injury by telling us that, if we wouldn’t sign up for a registry, we
would just have
to pay extra in order to use text-to-speech. Needless to say, this is
outrageous and reprehensible behavior from an organization of people
who claim to
support equal access to literature by all Americans. Instead of
facilitating the free flow of information, the Authors Guild is
making itself the arbiter
of who is worthy of access to the printed word.

The Authors Guild isn’t just discriminating against blind people.
People with other disabilities – especially brain injuries and
conditions like dyslexia
- would also benefit from the ability to have books read aloud to
them electronically. Groups representing many of these people are
joining us to protest
the position of the Authors Guild and Amazon’s craven response to it.

At present, very few of us buy books in any form. If we could have
e-books read aloud to us, however, we would happily pay for them. We
are an untapped
market consisting of some 15 million people to which authors and
publishers have never before had direct access. For this reason, the
position of the Authors
Guild is not only morally repugnant but also bad business.
Prohibiting the blind and others from reading commercially available
e-books just means that
authors and publishers won’t get our money. The guild’s position
hurts both authors and people with print disabilities.

In an age when how we get information is constantly and rapidly
changing, it’s important that people with disabilities have access to
it in the same way
that it is important for us to have access to physical structures,
goods and services. Amazon took an important step in the right
direction by including
a read-aloud feature on the Kindle 2, but the Authors Guild is now
trying to set us back. We are not going to allow them to stand in the
doorway of the
virtual bookstore to keep us out.
(My comments:
If you buy a book and read it to your child, is it copyright infringement? If you read it to your old granny, are the copyright police going to knock down your door? If you read your Kindle screen aloud, are you stepping on the toes of some luckless author?
Hey, maybe those in the Authors Guild just like the starving writer’s life, and do not want our money. They would rather have us wait for their books to be Brailled, recorded, or digitized by a nonprofit agency established for that purpose which then makes the book available through free programs, an annual subscription fee which covers all books made available through the agency, or some other similar vehicle which provides us with the books without our having to pay for them. This is not really as great as it sounds, as we don’t have unfettered access to whatever the reading public has, but hey, at least the Authors Guild membership does not need to saddle itself with the burden of accepting our money.
Amazon is just as wrong, however, in giving in to those purveyors of literacy pogroms for the print-disabled. If they want to be on Kindle, then the words should be available to be spoken by a crappy electronic voice as well as available on the screen for those with vision and those for whom accessing the written word is not laborious or impossible.