A protest against Reebok for not firing rapper Rick Ross over sexist and violent lyrics outside the Reebok Flagship Store In New York on April 4, 2013.
In the song “U.O.E.N.O,” Ross raps: “Put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it. I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.”
The drug mentioned in Ross’ song is “molly,” which is a slang term for a powerful form of the psychoactive drug MDMA, commonly called ecstasy.
His lyrics sparked outrage from fans and activist groups.
Reebok released a statement on Thursday announcing it had severed ties with Ross.
“Reebok holds our partners to a high standard, and we expect them to live up to the values of our brand,” the statement read. “Unfortunately, Rick Ross has failed to do so. While we do not believe that Rick Ross condones sexual assault, we are very disappointed he has yet to display an understanding of the seriousness of this issue or an appropriate level of remorse. At this time, it is in everyone’s best interest for Reebok to end its partnership with Mr. Ross.”
Ross took to Twitter in early April to seemingly apologize for the lyrics he used in his song. He tweeted: “I dont condone rape. Apologies for the #lyric interpreted as rape. #BOSS”
Two hours later he attempted to apologize again: “Apologies to my many business partners, who would never promote violence against women. @ReebokClassics @ultraviolet.”
Vibrations are who and what we are; vibrations come from withinus. It is these vibrations that are the result of one’s breath, rhythmically touching our vocal cords, allowing our ideas to be shared by skillfully shaping our lips and tongues, and inspiring these vibrations into words.
The vibration of sound travels at 1,120 feet per second to communicate a deeper energy; one that starts from the original vibration of our thoughts. Just as the invisible but perceived vibration of sound has an effect, there is yet another unseen vibration that is lucidly received by our mind’s eye. It is this mind’s eye, also known as our 3rd eye, that receives and is influenced by the vibrations around us; in turn affecting vibrations that come through us, shaping our environments, our health, our attitudes and our emotional well-being.
This is a reality that is studied and well known by those whose purpose is to continue to manipulate the natural beauty and creativity of the mind of others for their own benefit. The Son of Man says, “in order to do a ‘progressive’ work we need to check our attitude”.
We need to look deep inside and truly examine our motivations and reasoning. If our claims to grow and become a truly united Nation are genuine, then they will be found in our attitudes towards realities that would require us to make such changes. When the clear and obvious results of our actions are not going as planned, but we insist on continuing on the same path, check your attitude… it will reveal your true motivation.
Is your motivation in supporting a certain political party rooted in ideas that are not originally your own? If so, it will be found in your attitudes towards the humbling fact that the major political parties decisions are for sale to the highest bidder. If your reasoning for taking an “anti-choice” stance on abortion is to choose where your tax dollars goes or to prevent the murder of a fetus, yet you support every war that some demons in a board room can dream up then ask yourself, “What is my real motivation?” The answer will be found in your attitude towards what is presented to you in the form of millions of dead bodies and billions of dollars spent towards death.
The Son of Man says, “There is NOTHING that is done in the dark that will not be exposed to the light. The vibration of your real truth will be revealed in your attitude. To those who have an ear, let them hear!”
Google is really showing us what technology is all about. I bet it never occurred to you that blinking could capture a picture of what you’re looking at?
The code, discovered by Reddit user Fodawim, suggests users will be able to use their eyes, fingers, and head to accomplish various tasks. For example, a “head wake” function, listed in the code as a head gesture, could turn Glass on or off. An eye gesture called “wink” could be used to take a photo or calibrate the device. And there’s a “guest mode,” suggesting you could share your glasses without also sharing the pics you’ve snapped using wink.
Google unveiled Project Glass in April, 2012. It has since been spotted on random Googlers (including Google cofounder Sergey Brin) in the wild and has been offered to select members of the public through its #IfIHadGlass campaign. Google Glass should be widely available in 2014, a time frame reaffirmed by Google’s Eric Schmidt in a BBC 4 radio interview today.
Boston Bomb Suspect Eyed in Connection to 2011 Triple Murder
This April 15, 2013 photo provided by Bob Leonard shows third from left, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was dubbed Suspect No. 1 and second from left, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, who was dubbed Suspect No. 2 in the Boston Marathon bombings by law enforcement. This image was taken approximately 10-20 minutes before the blast. (Bob Leonard/AP Photo)
By MICHELE MCPHEE
BOSTON April 22, 2013
In the wake of the revelations about the violent nature of accused marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, investigators in the Boston suburbs tell ABC News they are probing whether he may have been involved in an unsolved grisly triple homicide of a former roommate and two others. The murders took place around the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
“We are looking at a possible connection with the suspect in the marathon atrocity and this active and open homicide in Waltham,” Stephanie Guyotte, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex County District Attorney, confirmed to ABC News.
Tsarnaev, the alleged bombing mastermind who died in a fierce gun battle with police early Friday morning, had been training with one of the 2011 murder victims in an attempt to transition from boxing into a possible career in the brutal sport of mixed-martial arts.
The victims were found in a Waltham, Massachusetts apartment. They had their throat slashed, their heads nearly decapitated. Their mutilated bodies were left covered with marijuana.
It was a gruesome scene – but also perplexing to law enforcement. While drugs appeared to factor into the motive, the murderer left both the marijuana and thousands of dollars in cash behind in the Waltham apartment. While the investigation has been active for more than a year, authorities acknowledged they have had few leads.
Two law enforcement sources told ABC News that may now change, with the bomb attack prompting a fresh look into Tsarnaev’s alleged penchant for violence.
Even before the bombing, police records show, there was an indication of a rage growing inside of Tsarnaev. Court documents obtained by ABC News show in July 2009 he was arrested for domestic violence after his then-girlfriend made a frantic 911 to report she was “being beat up by her boyfriend.” The police report, which was redacted to hide the girlfriend’s name, says that Tsarnaev admitted to responding officers that he slapped her. The case was later dismissed.
Tsarnaev had also been close to one of the murder victims, 25-year-old Brendan Mess, investigators told ABC. The two had been training together in a local gym –each helping the other with a missing element from their fighting arsenal. Tsarnaev, a golden-gloves heavy weight boxer, lacked martial arts training. And Mess, an experienced jiu jitsu competitor, lacked boxing experience.
The two sparred together at an Allston, MA gym called Wai Kru. The gym’s head trainer, John Allan, provided a statement to the Boston Globe via Facebook message saying that Tamerlan “came into the gym to spar from time to time.”
Tsarnaev and Mess lived just a few blocks apart in Cambridge, in .
It was unclear if Tsarnaev knew the other men slain, Raphael Teken, 37, and Erik Weissman, 31.
The educational testing mania that has gripped the country over the past decade has bared a lethal truth: we are terrible at learning history. As a teacher of that subject, I have seen it become devalued as the focus on math, science and language arts tests have rendered history and social science courses less important in the curriculum. Some students even take a lower level history class so their homework load doesn’t interfere with what they consider to be more useful, and tested, offerings.
It turns out that the past is telling us what every working educator knows about evaluating both students and teachers based on a standardized test: it doesn’t work and can falsely label people as failing when in fact they are not. It’s as true now as it was in 1845.
The problem is the assumption that a sit-down test is the most effective means by which to assess a student’s learning, something that education reformers take for granted. The truth is that people learn using all manner of strategies, assumptions, exercises and habits. Students today are more active in their classrooms. The most effective teachers use interactive activities, technology, and differentiated learning strategies that are meant to allow all students to do something during the day that contributes to successful learning. They assess and evaluate their students over time, stressing skills and content knowledge that can ebb and flow over the course of a school year. Much of that can’t be measured with a test, no matter how the questions are worded. The NJ Department of Education is touting the new PARCC tests as the vanguard of a new testing system that will be rigorous, applicable to higher education and the job market, and technologically advanced.
So what. It’s still a sit-down test. And because it uses computers, it will filter out some students who don’t keyboard well, or have difficulty seeing the screen, or whose technology in school is spotty. This is no way to evaluate what students know or to judge how valuable their teachers are to their learning. It’s artificial, biased and deceptive.
Massachusetts learned this lesson in 1845, and we still struggle against it today. If we truly wanted to evaluate students, we would test them using the same strategies effective teachers already use in the classroom. We would use portfolios, performance measures, written exercises that allow students to show content knowledge, but also editing and grammar skills, learning over time, and enable students to explain how they came to an answer either verbally or in an expository fashion. And oh yeah, we could have them answer some questions as they sit at their desks. But that wouldn’t be the whole kaboodle.
The problem with the above, real reforms, is that they don’t allow the politicians to blame unions, undercut collective bargaining, slash money to public education, promote private schools or play politics with the education system. The further problem is that real reform would require an acknowledgement that teachers would need to be intimately involved in the reform process, as opposed to those states, including New Jersey, where not one working public school teacher sat on the commission to overhaul the evaluation system.
It will be a long time before we can right these wrongs, and an even longer time before the students in our classrooms now will realize that they were guinea pigs in a political crusade that cared not a whit about what they learned, how they learned it or whether they could apply it to their lives as long as the testing companies, private enterprise groups and ignorant politicians got their cut.
Americans knew this in 1845. It led to cheating scandals and tooth-gnashing and teacher bashing. It’s too bad things haven’t changed.
Branden Lee is a blogger, screenwriter, producer, and actor, currently residing in Boston, MA. Follow Branden on Twitter and Tumblr.
Volleyball star Gabby Reece recently received a lot of backlash while promoting her new book My Foot Is Too Big For The Glass Slipper. According to the Today Show, Reece is quoted as saying “to truly be feminine means being soft, receptive, and – look out, here it comes – submissive.” Reece has stated she finds female submission to be a sign of power instead of weakness. Gabby has been married to pro surfer Laird Hamilton for 17 years.
Gabby Reece and Laird Hamilton
Feminists were of course up in arms for hearing a woman say that the key to a successful marriage involves “submission” to ones husband, but Reece claims she didn’t mean it that way. Reece claims she meant it more as a willingness to compromise.
In a relationship, there definitely needs to be compromise. The problem with Reece’s statement is that it sounds antiquated and misogynistic. Submission has the connotation of weakness and that of course is insulting to women, and anyone that would find themselves in the feminine role in a relationship, gay, straight, lesbian, etc…
Two equals in a relationship does constantly leave to conflict which leads to a failed relationship. If both parties constantly refuse to concede and fight until they get their way, that only leads to animosity. Bitterness and resentment are not the ingredients for a healthy lasting loving relationship.
It’s important to make sure that one person is not completely dominating the other party, and gives up their wishes and desires only to please another at their own expense because that leads to bitterness and resentment as well. When one half concedes on one occasion, the other half of the relationship must alternately concede on the next occasion to make sure that a relationship is in fact equal. No one wants to be with someone who doesn’t care about what they want. If your partner isn’t willing to give you what makes you happy, although it may not be what they want, then they are not the partner for you.
Personally I am very feminine and I do prefer very masculine guys. Although I am super feminine, I am definitely far from submissive. I am a spoiled only child who gets extremely angry if I don’t get my way. I prefer guys that are super laid-back and not picky over certain things, so I guess I do best with guys that concede at my whimsy, but I’m not looking for a complete pushover.
Ideally I do need a guy that does challenge me, but doesn’t try to dominate me. I do encounter many men that assume that I will submit to their will, like a repressed obedient housewife pre-feminist movement, though the second they say something that bothers me, I will fight back. Feminine gay men have to show their patriarchal chauvinist male partners that there will be a no nonsense taking strong independent woman as well.
Just because one may be submissive in the bedroom, doesn’t mean that translates to submissive overall in a relationship. Many may find that correlation, but the battle between linking femininity is so much more. It may be possible to be simultaneously seemingly submissive yet still maintain the power in the relationship. Boys are dumb and easily manipulated. Though not everyone has the expert manipulation skills to feign submissiveness into actual dominance.
In a perfect world there would be no dominance in relationships. There would always be equality, compromise, and never any abuse. Though we don’t live in a perfect world, and finding a relationship with all of those components seems impossible, though one should never remain in a relationship with abuse, especially physical. But a partner that do not compromise is a form of abuse, whether psychological, monetary, or emotional.
Moral of the story? Just because you’re feminine doesn’t mean you’re submissive, and don’t let any dominant masculine party force you into bitterness and resentment with their failure to compromise. The same works vice versa. Feminine parties can be dominant and beat their masculine partners into submission.
Some may call this an extreme case of bad luck, but this man, Joe Berti, a software company chief executive, calls it being blessed. He explains that he ran the Boston Marathon on that fateful day of April 15th and escaped the bombings by seconds, then went back home to Texas just in time to witness the massive explosion at the fertilizer plant in West Texas.
So we mentioned Donald Trump and the very stupid partisan tweet he made in the midst of a national tragedy as FBI and local Boston police were trying to capture the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Trump joked about ObamaCare, wondering if the injured bomber would receive coverage.
You just know that Trump was not going to be the only Republican making an off-the-mark and uncalled-for “joke.” Here’s another.
State Rep. Nate Bell (R-Mena), wrote on Twitter, “I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine?”
LOLOL. Get it? Now how funny is that? Are you cracking up from all this Republican humor? Yea, me neither, and neither did a whole lot of folks. Feeling the pressure to explain himself, Mr. Bell offered this “apology” on his Twitter and Facebook page;
“I would like to apologize to the people of Boston & Massachusetts for the poor timing of my tweet earlier this morning. As a staunch and unwavering supporter of the individual right to self defense, I expressed my point of view without thinking of its effect on those still in time of crisis. In hindsight, given the ongoing tragedy that is still unfolding, I regret the poor choice of timing.”
Yea, he’s apologizing for the “poor timing.” I’m not sure when would be the appropriate timing for that “joke.” Maybe if less people died in the next attack he can try his humor again.
They just can’t help themselves. It is obviously hopeless for the Republican party if the leaders cannot figure out what’s appropriate behavior or common human decency.
Wow, America’s Sweetheart, Reese Witherspoon, was arrested last Friday for disorderly conduct in Atlanta, Ga.
Reese Witherspoon and her husband, Jim Toth, were pulled over early Friday, April 19, 2013 for suspected drunk driving. Jim Toth was driving the vehicle and made claims to the arresting officer that he only had ‘one drink for the night’, yet he blew a 0.139 into the breathalizer test which is quite a bit above the 0.08 legal limit.
Well, I guess Mrs. Witherspoon was not having any of it as she allegedly,
began to hang out the window and say that she did not believe I was a real police officer.
and
Do you know my name? You’re about to find out who I am…You are going to be on national news.
as stated by the arresting officer on the police report.
Both Reese Witherspoon and her husband were taken into custody; Jim Toth was charged with driving while intoxicated and Witherspoon with the aforementioned disorderly conduct.
Apparently, a more sobered up Witherspoon may have learned her lesson as she stated over the weekend that,
Out of respect for the ongoing legal situation, I cannot comment on everything that is being reported right now. But I do want to say, I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said.
Here’s the thing though, you’re rich and a taxi/driver could have been easily called to avoid this situation.
Spring is coming through to the East Coast and it’s time to get out and enjoy the beautiful (albeit, still a bit chilly) weather.
While you enjoy the weather- jogging, walking, biking, picnicking or chasing your kids and grandkids in the park- don’t forget to protect your skin.
Skin care simply means caring for your skin, our biggest organ, the one that protects us from an onslaught of potential hazards and diseases. Skin care has two goals:
1. Protect
2. Prevent
We can help prevent skin cancer and accelerated aging of our skin by protecting the skin from what is considered by doctors and skin experts as the skin’s number one enemy: the harmful UV rays of the sun.
Not to be contradictory, but a little bit of UV exposure is good. Natural sun light helps our bodies to make vitamin D, a substance necessary for bone strength and to fight certain diseases such as jaundice, rickets and psoriasis. Exposure to early morning light helps wakes us up and may even help ward off depression.
It’s the darn UVA and UVB rays that cause havoc on our skin.
The World Health Organization states, “Prolonged human exposure to UV solar radiation may result in acute and chronic health effects on the skin, eyes, and immune system.” The World Health Organization reports 2.5 million types of skin cancer diagnosed each year. Many are preventable.
Two types of damage harmful UV rays can incur: damage caused by sunburn (the scientific term is erythema) and the damage cause by photoaging. Photoaging is a fancy way of saying early wrinkles and sagging skin due to too much sun.
It’s Easy to Keep Skin Beautiful and Protected
We’ve all heard the statistics. But do you know how easy it is to take avoid preventable skin cancer and early wrinkles and sagging?
It takes about two minutes to protect skin in the morning and at night. You need two minutes twice a day and some very basic skin care products: a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer. There are other helpful products but these three are the essentials. Look for products that are free of alcohol, paraben and added fragrances. These products are more gentle and nourishing.
Protecting the skin- specifically your face and neck where most of the exposure hits- entails is washing the face, using a toner and basic protective moisturizer and an eye cream. Make sure the day cream has a SPF in it (or use a SPF on top of the moisturizer). Day creams act to protect the skin while night creams work to restore the stress of the day and heal the damage of the day.
We have enough on our plate to worry about. Skin cancer and premature aging don’t need to be among our list of concerns.
Beauty = healthy. Healthy is clean and protected. Wash, Tone, Moisturize. Two minutes. Easy and breezy and done.
Melissa AuClair works by day as a skin care and cosmetic consultant and a blogger and writer moving towards a location independent lifestyle by night. You can follow her on Twitter @melissaauclair or on her blog http://www.launchyourcreativelife.com/blog
It has been reported that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston Suspect #2, is awake, in stable condition, and responding to questions through writing.
Tsarnaev is recovering from wounds at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where earlier on Sunday, law officials claimed that Tsarnaev was not speaking due to being sedated because of his serious condition.
Now, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is awake and according to law officials,
responding sporadically in writing to questions … about other cell members and other unexploded bombs.
This is potentially great news as many were hoping he would be caught alive so that vital questions could be answered.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick stated last Saturday,
We are hoping, for a host of reasons, that the suspect survives…Because we have a million questions, and those questions need to be answered.
It is expected that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be charged with criminal terrorist activity and this may include charges on both the state and federal levels.
Whether or not the death penalty will be involved is unclear depending on if Tsarnaev will be charged on a federal level as Massachusetts has no death penalty.
Older brother and Bomb Suspect #1,Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died early Friday after a police shootout while attempting to escape. Tamerlan Tsarnev’s 6-month stay in Dagestan, Russia last year is currently being highly scrutinized and investigated as a possible connection to the Boston bombing attacks.
I’m at a loss of words on this one, so I’ll let the so-called “pastor” explain.
His rant on the roles of men and women really got interesting somewhere around the 51 minute mark in his sermon, where he went out of his way to explain that men are not better than women. But after making that point, Pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona explained that he is a dictator in his home and that his wife is happy to play the submissive role. She “was born to be submissive and subject to me,” he said.
Here’s the transcript and the video is below.
When it comes to authority, there is no equality. You say, “How does your home run?” A dictatorship. Any questions? It’s a monarchy, okay? Mono. One boss. Okay? That’s how my home is run. That’s how every biblical home is run, by the way, okay? And you say, “Oh, your wife must hate you!” No, women love that. Because they were born to fill that role. Just like I was born to be the husband and the leader, my wife was born to be the wife and to be submissive and subject to me. And she’s gonna be most happier doing what God created her to do, just like I’m going to be most happy doing what God created me to do!
And, you know, you say, “Well, that’s not true, because I talk to all these women that are just, you know, they just want to be a feminist and stuff…” You know what? Here’s what I’ve found over the years: The women who are screaming the loudest that they want to be a feminist and that they don’t want a man telling them what to do, on the inside, are really screaming the loudest, please tell me what to do. Please put me in my place. And, you know what? If you don’t believe that? You’re just ignorant. It’s that simple.
And, yeah, I’m sure that there are some reprobate lesbians out there that have a different view. But let me tell you something: A normal woman, on the inside, wants to follow a leader. She wants to follow a husband. She wants a man there that she can look up to, not look down on…
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