No Words…
Month: June 2014
Costco is apparently the place to meet, and especially if you’re trying to meet politicians.
Hillary Clinton was at a Costco in Arlington VA., signing copies of net new book when Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor walked by. Pleasantries and a handshake were exchanged and the justice was quickly on her way.
Maybe he’s auditioning for a role on Fox, maybe this is a late edition of a midlife crisis. Whatever it is, Chris Matthews of MSNBC is losing his political grounds and others are beginning to take notice.
In a show last week, Matthews asked Liberals to stop “looking down our noses at teaparty people.”
Why? Because according to Matthews, the Teaparty people are are angry “about the failure of our system.” Matthews then goes on explaining what those “failures” of government are, you know, the things about our government that give the Teaparty people the right to be angry. These governmental failure, according to Matthews, are failure to “control the deficit, the debt and the border. Then the man who sometimes call himself a Democrat asked; “What good is government good at?”
Here is his reasoning;
This looking down our noses at tea party people has got to stop. They have a message. They’re as American as any liberal is. And they’re really angry about the failure of our system. I was over covering Eastern Europe when the wall came down. You know what people didn’t like? It wasn’t the philosophy of communism they didn’t like — it was the complete corruption of it, the failure of it to deliver to working people. That’s what this system is doing right now: We can’t control the deficit, we can’t control the debt, we can’t control the border. What good is government good at?”
If Chris Matthews cannot figure out “what good is government good at,” then I cannot figure out what good his show is good at. There are times when his vast knowledge of politics is apparent, and then there are other times when he ask these dumb questions and have us all wondering, and the dumb questions phase is becoming too unbearable!
Asking what good is the government is the founding principle of the teaparty movement. Those fools would like to abolish everything the government has achieved over the last 65 years, including Civil Rights, Voting, Taxes, FEMA, the Board of Education, to name a few. And they will be more than satisfied running around the streets with their Ozzie and Semi Automatic Second Amendment rights slung over their shoulders, blasting anyone they consider threatening because that person is in a car playing music at a gas station.
Yea, Chris Matthews cannot see the importance of government. “What good is government good at?”
Okay Chris…
Tony Gwynn passed away today at the age of 54, thus ending a battle with cancer dating back to 2010.
Gwynn was very private about his medical struggles but he had attributed them to years of chewing tobacco use.
Gwynn was a player of legendary proportion. A 15 time all-star, 5 time gold glove winner, 7 time silver slugger and an insane 8 time NL batting champ. Tony played the game like few could.
He was also an amazing ambassador to the game and his work off the field truly showed what a great person he was. Tony received the Roberto Clemente Award in 1999 for best exemplifying the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team.
Gwynn’s number 19 was retired with the padres and in 2007 he was elected the National Baseball Hall of Fame on his very first ballot with a whopping 97.6 percent of the vote.
Baseball will sorely miss Tony Gwynn. 
If you’re like many and cannot figure out what all the fuss about this Soccer thing and The World Cup, then have no worries. John Oliver has explained everything.
The recent decision in California regarding teacher tenure is causing a great deal of anxiety in public education and in those states where teacher tenure still has some meaning. The ruling that tenure is unconstitutional because it denies students the right to a decent education is an interesting take on the subject, but it obscures the truth about how tenure works and why it’s still needed.
I’ve already visited the subject, but it’s worth repeating that tenure is NOT, I repeat, NOT a guarantee of lifetime employment, no matter how many times the know-nothing reformers repeat that it is. Earning tenure merely means that after four years in one district, a teacher must get a due process hearing if a school district wants to fire them. In New Jersey, the tenure laws were changed in 2012 to streamline the process so it didn’t take years and a lot of money in order to fire a teacher. Now, an arbitrator hears the case and generally rules within five months, and their decision is final.
Opponents of tenure, and these are the people who want to privatize all government functions in the United States except the military, say that tenure, and unions, protects bad teachers and makes it almost impossible to fire them. They also say that seniority rules that protect experienced educators at the expense of newer teachers when there are layoffs are outmoded and result in many young, energetic educators being let go before they can even begin their careers. I will admit that there are teachers in classrooms right now who do not belong there and who should not be teaching. There are also middling teachers for whom a younger replacement might mean an improvement in children’s education.
But blaming teacher’s unions is not the answer. No, the real reform in teacher retention, training and development rests with the administrators who run the school districts and schools. They are the ones who have the ultimate power to evaluate and make hiring decisions about their staffs. If these administrators keep teachers who should not be in the classroom, then they will be the ones responsible when those teachers do not turn out to be effective educators.
And who are these administrators? They are self-selected people who decide on their own to become principals and superintendents. There is no national or state organization that recognizes and encourages people who would be excellent administrators and sets them on a path to effective leadership. It’s the luck of the draw, and the deck is thinning in New Jersey due to Governor Christie’s support and signature on a law that limits pay for superintendents and other upper echelon school management. Yes, yes; I’ve heard the false argument that money doesn’t matter in education, at least where pay is concerned, because the false common wisdom is that teachers do not enter their field for the money. If you don’t pay people enough, though, then you don’t get good people to fill those jobs whose charge is to maintain and grow excellent teaching staffs.
It’s a terrible cycle and the California ruling will unfortunately reinforce the idea that if we could only fire incompetent teachers that our schools would improve. Of course, that would be true, but the problem is that schools wouldn’t only fire incompetent teachers. They would fire expensive teachers, union leadership members, teachers who cross administrators or don’t fit the boss’s vision of what a successful teacher looks like. It would also open the floodgates for purely nepotistic and corruptive practices that would make the schools worse. Facebook gave the Newark school system $100 million dollars; don’t you think that any corporation would love to make hiring and firing decisions?
There is far more to this reality than what the know-nothings are saying in response to the California ruling. Only time will tell if the political winds indeed do blow eastward in this country.
You want more? That’s easy. Simply go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
Aniruddh Chaturvedi
Aniruddh Chaturvedi came from Mumbai to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn., where he is majoring in computer science. This past summer he interned at a tech company in Silicon Valley.
During two years in the U.S., Chaturvedi has been surprised by various aspects of society, as he explained last year in a post on Quora.
Chaturvedi offered his latest thoughts on America in an email to Business Insider.
The most surprising things about America:
- Nobody talks about grades here.
- Everyone is highly private about their accomplishments and failures. Someone’s performance in any field is their performance alone. This is different compared to India where people flaunt their riches and share their accomplishments with everybody else.
- The retail experience is nowhere near as fun/nice as it is in India. Because labor is cheap in India, there is always someone who will act as a “personal shopper” to assist you with holding your clothes, giving suggestions, etc. In America, on the other hand, even if you go to a Nordstrom or Bloomingdales, there is almost nobody to help you out while you’re shopping. Shopping in America is more of a commodity / chore than it is a pleasurable activity
- This may be biased/wrong because I was an intern, but at least in the tech world, nobody wants to put you under the bus for something that you didn’t do correctly or didn’t understand how to do. People will sit with you patiently till you get it. If you aren’t able to finish something within the stipulated deadline, a person on your team would graciously offer to take it off your plate.
- The same applies to school. Before I came to the United States, I heard stories about how students at Johns Hopkins were so competitive with each other that they used to tear important pages from books in the library just so other students didn’t have access to it. In reality, I experienced the complete opposite. Students were highly collaborative, formed study groups, and studied / did assignments till everyone in the group “got it”. I think the reason for this is that the classes are / material is so hard that it makes sense to work collaboratively to the point that students learn from each other.
- Strong ethics — everyone has a lot of integrity. If someone cannot submit their completed assignment in time, they will turn in the assignment incomplete rather than asking for answers at the last minute. People take pride in their hard work and usually do not cheat. This is different from students from India and China as well as back home in India, where everyone collaborates to the extent that it can be categorized as cheating.
- Rich people are thin/ well maintained, poor people are fat. This stems from the fact that cheap food is fatty, rich people don’t eat cheap food — they tend to eat either home-cooked food which is expensive or eat at expensive / healthy places. Unfortunately, it is expensive to be healthy in America.
- Fat people are not respected much in society. Being fat often has the same connotations as being irresponsible towards your body. If you’re thin (and tall, but not as much), people will respect you a lot more and treat you better. You will also receive better customer service if you’re well maintained. This extends my previous point which mentioned that if you’re thin, you’re statistically likely to be rich. Reason why I know this is that I went down from being 210lbs to 148-150lbs. The way people started treating me when I was thin was generally way better than the way I was treated when I was fat. As a small example, the Starbucks baristas were much nicer to me and made me drinks with more care / love.
- Girls are not very promiscuous, contrary to most Hollywood films
- Almost every single person in America has access to basic food, clothing, water and sanitation. I haven’t been to states like Louisiana and cities like Detroit, but from what I can tell, nobody is scrambling for the basic necessities required for sustenance.
- Dearth of African Americans in technical fields. This probably stems from the fact that they aren’t given enough opportunity, broken families, etc. I’m pretty sure you can extend upon this if you’d like.
- It’s expensive to have brick houses in America, contrary to India where brick houses are the norm
- Emphasis on physical fitness / being outdoorsy — this is more of a California thing but I noticed families going on biking trips, boat trips, hiking, camping, barbecuing, etc. Americans take pride in the natural beauty of their surroundings and tend to make the most of it
- Americans waste a lot of food. It is very easy to buy in bulk because it’s so much cheaper and as a result a lot of wastage occurs.
- Obsession with coffee — Starbucks, Dunkin’ etc is crowded with office-goers and students every morning. I don’t understand why they can’t drink or make coffee before leaving for work. Such a waste of money! ($5/day * 5days / week * 52weeks/year)!
- Split families, not having married parents, etc is not seen differently than the contrary.
- Support towards the LGBT community — it’s fairly normal to be part of the LGBT community; it’s not considered a mortal sin if you like someone in your own gender or if you aren’t comfortable being male/female/etc. Proof of this is the LGBT Pride Day held in every city etc.
- Smoking weed is seen the same as smoking cigarettes.
And here are some more things he found surprising about America, excerpted from his post last summer on Quora :
The way that stores price their products makes no apparent economic sense, and is not linear at all.
For example, at a typical store:
– 1 can of coke : $1.00
– 12 cans of coke : $3.00
– 1 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar : $3.00
– 12 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars : $7.00
The return policy on almost everything: None of my friends back in India believed me when I told them that you can literally buy anything, including food, and return it within ninety days for a full refund even if you don’t have a specific reason for doing so (most stores actually have a “Buyer’s Remorse” category under Reason for Return options while returning the product).
The pervasiveness of fast food and the sheer variety of products available: The typical supermarket has at least a hundred varieties of frozen pizza, 50 brands of trail mix, etc. I was just astounded by the different kinds of products available even at small gas station convenience stores.
Soda being cheaper than bottled water: It makes no sense that carbonated and flavored water with HFCS are cheaper than regular water, but hey, that’s just how it is.
The fact that there are full service rest stops with decent chain restaurants and big supermarkets every couple of miles on interstate highways
Fruit and vegetable prices, as compared to fast food prices:
– Bag of grapes : $6.00
– Box of strawberries : $5.00
– 1 lb tomatoes : $3.00
– McChicken : $1.00
– [McDouble] : $1.00
Unlimited soda refills:
The first time (and one of the last times…) I visited McDonalds in 2007, the cashier gave me an empty cup when I ordered soda. The concept of virtually unlimited soda refills was alien to me, and I thought there was a catch to it, but apparently not.
Slightly digressing, I’ve noticed that the typical fountain machine has a huge selection, including Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Hi-C, Powerade, Lemonade, Raspberry Lemonade (and/or their coca-cola counterparts)… The list goes on. This may not seem like much, but it is actually a lot more compared to the 3-4 options (coca-cola, sprite, fanta, limca) that most Indian soda fountain machines have.
Serving Sizes: American serving sizes are HUGE! I’ve noticed that entree sizes are huge as well. I am by no means a small eater, but it usually takes me at least 1.5 meals to finish the entree.
US Flag displayed everywhere: I was surprised to see that the US flag is displayed in schools, on rooftops of houses, etc. India has very strict rules governing the display and use of the national flag. Also, something that struck out to me was how it was completely normal to wear the US flag or a US flag-like pattern as a bikini.
Over-commercialization of festivals: I’m not denying that festivals like Diwali and Eid aren’t extremely commercialized in India, but America takes it to a whole new level. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc., and an almost year-round sale of Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc. items.
An almost-classless society: I’ve noticed that most Americans roughly have the same standard of living. Everybody has access to ample food, everybody shops at the same supermarkets, malls, stores, etc. I’ve seen plumbers, construction workers and janitors driving their own sedans, which was quite difficult for me to digest at first since I came from a country where construction workers and plumbers lived hand to mouth.
Also, (almost) all sections of society are roughly equal. You’ll see service professionals owning iPhones, etc. as well. This may be wrong but part of it has to do with the fact that obtaining credit in this country is extremely easy. Anybody can buy anything, for the most part, except for something like a Maserati, obviously. As a result, most monetary possessions aren’t really status symbols. I believe that the only status symbol in America is your job, and possibly your educational qualifications.
Chaturvedi ended his post with a link to a video of “America F— Yeah” from the movie “Team America.”
SEE ALSO: 17 crazy things that only happen in India
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-weirdest-things-about-america-2013-8#ixzz34jI1EdSi
From the looks of things, the judges were bored with their performance, until the Zimmers stopped in the middle of their performance and did this…
Wonderful!
The amazing Smoothini, coming to you straight from the Ghetto!
As seen on America The Not So Beautiful
June 13, 2014
By Mike Caccioppoli
There is something about former President Dubya Bush’s press secretary Ari Fleischer’s face that has made me want to punch his nose for quite some time now. Maybe it’s his passive aggressiveness that I hate so much. He likes to talk as though what he is saying is just commonplace and accepted when it is in fact Neocon bile of the worst order. He is like a little weasel hiding in the shadows, ready to come out whenever he feels he can give his old bosses a shot in the arm. He is the worst of PR flacks, he actually believes his own bullshit.
Today, Fleischer tweeted this..
Regardless of what anyone thinks of going into Iraq in 2002, t’s a tragedy that the successes of the 2007 surge have been lost & abandoned.
There are so many things about that tweet that make me want to give Ari boy a nice shot in his big nose. “Regardless” he begins. Regardless of the lies that were told to both Congress and the American people that got us into this shit storm of a war. Regardless of the thousands of American boys and girls who were killed because of that lie. Regardless of the fact that hundreds of thousands of civilians, MANY of them women and children were murdered because of that lie. Regardless of the economic crash that nearly put us into a depression, and would have if not for Obama and the Democrats saving the country. Regardless…
Fleischer calls the 2007 surge a “success.” Did I miss something? He means the “successes” that followed shortly after? The constant bombings and daily terrorist attacks? The continued deaths of our soldiers and Iraqi civilians? Also maybe Fleischer has forgotten that his boss proclaimed “Mission Accomplished” years before the alleged successful surge. If the mission was accomplished why was a surge needed? Doesn’t accomplished mean done..finished..completed?
No you see Fleischer is full of shit. He is a liar. He was a paid liar. He continues to lie. He said those “successes” were “lost and abandoned” This is what Fleischer tweeted back in 2011…
O decision on Iraq is right one. I was open 2 staying if he made the case it wld help w Iran, but Iraq war is over. It’s time
So Fleischer was before ending the war in Iraq before he was for continuing it. No not really. He just lies and lies and lies. And now that he and his war loving (as long as they don’t have to go to war themselves) neocon buddies like John McCain, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz want to go back to Iraq and do it all over again, Fleischer was just hoping we didn’t find that tweet from three years ago. I’m surprised he didn’t just erase it the way all right wingers do when they want to pretend they didn’t say something that contradicts what they are now saying.
So Ari boy and his buddies are now blaming…you guessed it… Obama.. on the Sunni insurgency! The immense balls they must have (except for when they are asked to go to Iraq and fight). Yes they blame Obama for an insurgency that would never be happening if the Unites States didn’t get involved in Iraq in the first place. Memory check: Dubya Bush was responsible for that. Yes since Saddam Hussein was the only guy who kept things in check in Iraq, once we caused his ousting and murder, all hell broke loose. It hasn’t stopped since and probably will never stop. Memory check number two: This is all Dubya Bush’s fault.
Doesn’t matter though. There is Ari Fleischer with his bullshit tweets and John McCain with his chest beating, telling lies about how it’s all Obama’s fault. How things were going so damn well when Dubya Bush was in control. Yes there will be people who buy it. You know who they are. I have said it here many times before. The black President haters who always find new and inventive ways to blame him for anything and everything. You and I know better.
You and I know that the people running this country in 2001 saw what a loser Dubya Bush was. They knew he had just LOST the election and had no political cache. So they came up with a way to give him some and it was Iraq (you can decide for yourself whether 9/11 was a part of that plan or just a coincidence). They knew that the country would get behind their President when it came to fighting “terrorists” in Iraq and the hated bad guy Saddam Hussein. That isn’t the only reason we went to war but it is the MAIN reason.
So we are here now. With more strife in Iraq. And the same people are saying the same shit. They love two things more than anything else..war and hating Obama. When they can combine those things they get all hot and bothered. The lies come fast and furiously.
Fleischer really is the worst of them because he is everything that is wrong with the chicken hawk. He is a phony intellectual who spews hateful garbage in the most benign way. He is a spoiled wealthy brat.. a boy who talks big and then hides behind the bigger boys. A tough talker without a tough bone in his body.
He makes me sick.
Mike.Caccioppoli@yahoo.com
@CaccioppoliMike
Visit America The Not So Beautiful
Back in January, Glenn Beck saw the light and admitted that he played a role in “tearing the country apart” with his lies and misinformation.
“I think I played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart and it’s not who we are,” Beck said, as he spoke to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. He continued, “I didn’t realize how really fragile the people were. I thought we were kind of more in it together and now I look back and realize, if we could’ve talked about the uniting principles instead of just the problems, I think I would look back more fondly.”
Well, that was then. Almost immediately after coming to terms with his destructive ways, Beck went to grabbing his part of the fragile fabric that makes up this nation and he continued to pull, ripping and tearing the country apart.
His most recent lie was telling his faithful followers that President Obama is getting ready to put Conservatives in Internment camps. Beck warned that the President and his policies are falling apart because of all the issues Obama is dealing with. Calling Obama a “spoiled child” Beck said that it is only a matter of time before the President gathers up all the conservatives and lock them away like the days of Hitler’s Germany!
Video
Women wear makeup for different reasons, like enhancing certain features or hiding certain flaws. In the video below, watch as Cheri Lindsay removes her makeup to reveal her feature or flaw. I think it’s wonderful!