Category: Social Behavior

Chelsea and Marc Mezvinsky

Religious Jews do not like inter-marriage!

It has been reported that Marc Mezvinsky is not Jewish because his mother is not Jewish.  However, there was a photo of him wearing a tallis (Jewish prayer scarf).  I also saw a Chupah (Jewish wedding canape) in a photo at the exclusive New York estate.

There was both a Methodist preacher and Rabbi officiating in the ceremony.  It must have been an interesting event.  Did they dance the Hora?  Did they sing Hava Nagila?  I hope they did both because it’s so much fun! 

There is no issue about inter-marriage until there are children.  In what faith will they be brought up?  If one can easily accede to the other there is no problem.  My next door neighbors are a similarly inter-married couple that apparently has one foot in each religion.  The children will decide their religion as adults.  Another friend of mine that was the product of a similar situation who started as a Christian until he met a “nice Jewish girl.”  

We should all wish Chelsea and Marc a long and happy life together!

Tragic Unemployment

We have Exported American Jobs

ALAN GREENSPAN, to David Gregory on “Meet the Press” on August 1, 2010: “I think we’re in a pause in a recovery, a modest recovery, but a pause in the modest recovery feels like a quasi-recession. Our problem basically is that we have a very distorted economy in the sense that there’s been a significant recovery in a limited area of the economy, amongst high income individuals … Large banks, who are doing much better, and large corporations … are in excellent shape. The rest of the economy, small business, small banks, and a very significant amount of the labor force — which is in tragic unemployment, long-term unemployment — that is pulling the economy apart.”

Apple Inc. the company responsible for the iPad, iPod, iPhone, and Mac computers, had revenues $15.7 Billion in the quarter just ended.  Their income before taxes was $6.136 Billion.  Their net income after taxes was $3.253 Billion.  Clearly the cost of making, advertising and distributing all their marvelous electronic gadgetry was the biggest issue for them.  It was not their taxes.  Of course lower taxes wouldn’t hurt.  This data was collected from Morningstar.

All of the items they develop are manufactured in China or other countries that have much lower labor costs.  That is the problem facing the United States and all major industrialized nations.  Manufacturers must make their products in low labor costs countries to be more profitable.

The problem surrounding service jobs is in many ways even more alarming.  Dozens of companies have sent their customer service departments to Asia.  My own experience confirms this fact.  Companies I have telephoned linking to a nation there include Citi Bank, Dell Computer, Earthlink, and the Los Angeles Times.  Labor  costs for those functions is at least one fifth the cost in the United States or Canada.

Where does that leave the unemployed Americans who used to work in factories or the service sector?  The 22 million people affected by the Great Recession will either take lower paying jobs than the ones they used to have or they will have to find other professions.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats have offered one worthwhile idea that will re-employ those who have lost their jobs during the past two years.  Lower taxes will not bring hundreds of thousands of jobs, that are no longer in America, back to these shores.  The lower taxes that Republicans promote will add to the $1 Trillion or more of unspent money that corporations are now holding for some future investments and even higher pay for their already well paid management.

You may want to read “Newsweek vs Businessweek: Growing American Jobs.”

White People are the New Minority

America’s demographic makeup is in a major state of change.  There is an estimated 46 million Latinos in the United States. 36% of California’s population is Latino.  In Los Angeles Latinos are estimated to make up almost 50% of the population.  Asians (we used to call them Orientals) make up over 13% of California’s population.  The result of the increasing numbers of non-Whites is frightening the White people.  They just aren’t used to the idea of being a minority.

The consequence of this situation has resulted in the anti-illegal immigration laws in Arizona.  The reports that most people in the United States support Arizona’s SB1070 law are caused by the fear of White people.

When I was 12 years old I walked down 103rd Street in Watts with a friend to his parent’s dry cleaning and laundry store.  For the first time I was part of a minority.  Other than my friend there were no White people on that street.  The changing demographics of America will mean that White people will have to accept that a new world has arrived.  There will be no choice.

Jews in America…

You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate this You Tube video.  Non-Jews should realize there are only 7 million Jews in America today. Yet many of America’s smartest and most creative people are Jewish.

One man, Irving Berlin, a Jew, wrote three of America’s favorite compositions.  White Christmas, Easter Parade, and God Bless America.  Jonas Salk was the man who found the cure for dreaded Polio.  “The New Colossus” is a sonnet by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), written in 1883 and, in 1903, engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the Statue of Liberty.

Please watch this video.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBmglA-yCCk

Mark Williams is the Tea Party Spokesman

You Be The Judge!  

 

Update: July 18, 2010, 4:28 PM PDT: David Webb, a spokesperson for the National Tea Party Federation, confirmed to CBS this morning that Williams was no longer affiliated with his organization because of the “clearly offensive” blog post. David Webb interviewed by Don Lemon on CNN refused to call Mark Williams a racist.  Instead saying the posting of the letter below was offensive.  Considering the fact that the Tea Party is a group of independent organizations can the Tea Party Express be booted out?

 

Mark Williams is an American radio host and author (Books: It’s Not Right Versus Left, It’s Right Versus Wrong; Exposing the Socialist Agenda and Taking Back America One Tea Party at a Time, 2010). He is based in Sacramento, California. Williams is an occasional guest on Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN and has appeared as a guest host on radio stations nationally and on the Talk Radio Network’s Jerry Doyle and Rusty Humphries shows. He is the spokesman for the Tea Party Express (and Vice Chairman of the Tea Party Express’ parent political action committee: Our Country Deserves Better PAC).  

The following letter posted by Tea Party leader Mark Williams in jest (he says) should be the real concern for all of us.  Today the attack is on Blacks. Will there will be an attack another group?   

 Dear Mr. Lincoln  

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!  

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.  

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.  

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!  

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.  

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?  

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.  

Sincerely  

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

Failed Drug War

In 1996 William F. Buckley, the conservative founder of the National Review pointed out that the “plague that consumes an estimated $75 billion per year of public money, exacts an estimated $70 billion a year from consumers, is responsible for nearly 50 per cent of the million Americans who are today in jail, occupies an estimated 50 per cent of the trial time of our judiciary, and takes the time of 400,000 policemen — yet a plague for which no cure is at hand, nor in prospect.”
 
Here we are in 2010 still fighting the same battle and losing by an even greater proportion.  Mexico is fighting a no win battle against drug cartels that has impacted that country’s tourist trade and brought death to more than 23,000 people since the Felipe Caldereon became president in 2006.
 
The NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY proposed by the Obama Whitehouse is a continuation of drug enforcement policies that have not worked in the past.  Just read the policy on the link above and you will realize that nothing new is proposed.  The Drug Policy Alliance tells you what you already know but do not want to admit. This is part of their web site:
Who really profits from drug prohibition?  
  
 
 

  • Organized Crime. According to the United Nations, drug trafficking is a $400 billion per year industry, equaling 8% of the world’s trade.
  • Arms manufacturers, the prison industry, and other special interest groups.
  • Corrupt Law Enforcement.

My idea is the legalization of drug use with the availability of drugs at relatively low cost with doctor’s prescriptions through pharmacies. 

Why won’t this happen? Think arms manufacturers, the prison industry, and law enforcement.  Those businesses are part of a really big and legitimate business! 

Betty White as a Pin-up Girl

This was found on the Toronto Star web site.  It was originally published July 13, 2010.

by Rod Hagwood, Sun Sentinel

Talk about your vintage Pin-Up girl.

Octogenarian-and-then-some Betty White is putting out a hottie 2011 calendar to raise money for one of her pet causes: The Morris Animal Foundation based in Denver, Colo.

The star of TV Land’s “Hot in Cleveland” will be seen in diva-on-the-divan kind of poses surrounded by a bevy of beefcake.

Betty and her boy-toys hit store shelves in September and The Betty White Calendar will retail for $12.99.

White is a long-time animal rights activist. Earlier this year White hosted “Saturday Night Live” after a grassroots Facebook campaign titled “Betty White to Host SNL (Please)” attracted 500,000 fans and Betty became their oldest host ever. Ratings were SNL’s highest since a 2008 show hosted by Ben Affleck.

Fresh off of her No. 1 Super Bowl commercial for Snickers, she is also the last surviving member of “The Golden Girls” cast (Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty all died between 2008 and 2010).White is also a veteran of top-rated TV such as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Mama’s Family,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Boston Legal,” “Malcolm in the Middle” and a whole host of game shows from “Match Game” and “Password” to “What’s My Line” and “To Tell the Truth.”

No Haiti Recovery

The Associated Press reported that Haiti’s president handed out medals to celebrities, aid-group directors and politicians for post-earthquake work.  Anderson Cooper of CNN was given one of those awards.

CNN and ABC both provided coverage of conditions in Haiti this week.  David Ono, a KABC anchorman reported from Haiti as well.  The reports were excellent but the stories were horrifying.  Despite all the interviews with well meaning people the government of Haiti is a failure.  There is no government in Haiti.  The broadcasts from Port- Au-Prince show that most of the rubble is still there.  It looks like the earthquake occurred yesterday.

I know Bill Clinton says things could be better than ever there.  There is no evidence that his predictions will come true.  Private aid groups do not have the power to change anything in Haiti.  Only the slightest change in weather could mean death to thousands.

Since there are no natural resources in Haiti and the country holds no political sway in any industrialized nation, no other country will provide sufficient aid to end its further decline to mass starvation and death.

About to be Stoned to Death

Ms. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is about to be stoned. That’s where they bury you up to your chest and hurl rocks at you until you die. The rocks can’t be too big.  The stoning must be painful and be a show of force by the powers that be.  The stoning of this 43-year-old mother of two has been ordered by a court in her native Iran, where the only legal code is Allah’s law, Sharia. It is the Islamic sentence for adultery, the crime to which Ashtiani confessed after serial beatings by her interrogators.  Reported to be a total 99 lashes.  She has been imprisoned for the last five years.  A Newsweek story said Ashtiani could be buried up to her breasts and stoned to death as early as this coming weekend.

Of course human rights organizations around the world have condemed the planned stoning.  The picture is not of her but conveys the message of what is about to happen in a country that holds views that are utterly different values than those of the Western world.

From the website Political Realities  L. D Jackson writes the following: I would have to agree with P.J. Crowley and then ask a question. If Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is guilty of adultery, then why isn’t the man with whom she committed the act being stoned to death as well? It’s just a thought, but it appears that the woman bears the brunt of the responsibility in such cases. That’s something that goes beyond my thinking, because the last time I checked, it takes two people to tango.

This situation highlights a stark reality about the Islamic world. They are very strict about a lot of things, but especially about their women. I fail to see how the treatment of these women is anything less than abuse and it makes me wonder how anyone in their society could stand idly by and watch it happen.

The Strangely Possesed

Does anyone remember Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny? You may have thought that the strangely possessed only appear on the big screen.  Well, guess again.

 

Congresswoman  Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Tuesday she does not want the United States to be part of the “global economy.”  Asked for her thoughts on the recent G-20 summit in Toronto, Bachmann said that she is concerned that the decade-old G-20 is trying to “bind together the world’s economies.” 

That is, of course, the purpose of the G-20 in an increasingly interconnected world — a statement from the G-20 on the international group’s website says it was designed to “bring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy.”

This is not the first time the Congresswoman has said some outrageous things.  On Chris Matthews Show, Hardball she said there should be an investigation to expose members of Congress who are pro and anti-American.

Then there is Rand Paul who questions the Civil Rights Act of 1964  and wants the borders open to everyone.

Paul apparently is following advise to stay clear of the media.  Bachmann seems to revel in her strange fame.