Social Blogger. Artist. Photographer. ShortFilmmaker. Small Business Entrepreneur. Closet Actress. Native New Yorker. Thanks for stopping by to read my post!
“Sometimes it takes seeing your hometown–especially when its a big bustling metropolis like New York City–in the eyes of someone not from there to show you the wonderful things you take for granted.”
At least, that’s the case with me.
My pal Orlando was visiting me from Indianapolis this past July 4th weekend and as usual with him, he wanted to know and explore everything about NYC; where’s the best place to get a bagel; who’ll be voted in as next mayor; did you get caught in Supestorm Sandy; where do we go for the best pastrami 0n rye sandwich; where’s that place in Harlem where I heard you can buy a dashiki; is the Statue of Liberty easy to get to; what’s the next stop on this train; is that what the girls will be wearing this summer: shorts that look like panties; ever ate at this restaurant before; are we going to see the fireworks tonight? I’d have to goggle most things of course, but I secretly admit to myself that his excitement gets me excited about this old town. My grind is usually wake up at 6am, go to work, come home, eat dinner, turn on the tv for some white noise as I work on my computer, then promptly in bed by 2am (lol!).
I usually oblige my friend of everything but the one area I wasn’t at all comfortable or even wanted to go to was the World Trade Center memorial. Orlando is a middle school history teacher and he wanted to see the new buildings and the September 11 memorial to incorporate in a lesson for his students. All I knew about the memorial was that it had a water feature. That was it. I never really thought to go there either. I know of only two people who were at WTC who survived 9/11, and only one of them personally. I, like many New Yorkers. have let that event slip into my deep subconscious where all the other ugly, frightening memories wind up to be hashed out in my later, more reflective senior years. Or by a psychiatrist.
When I tell you that the moment I walked onto the concrete promenade of the site I was struck by the feeling of it being sacred ground, I kid you not. The feeling stayed with me the whole time I was there. With still plenty of construction going on in gated areas around the park, I still zeroed in on the sound of cascading water in an open area. We walked in the direction of signs that pointed towards the memorial which I was surprised to see was a gargantuan square hole dropped down several feet into the ground with sheets of water falling into it from all four sides.
The water pooled like shimmering glass on the floor of the well, then flowed into a square canyon in the middle. From any angle that you stood around the monument you couldn’t see the bottom of that middle canyon, giving you the impression that it was endless.
Mixed emotions of grief, mourning, endings and new beginnings flooded over me as I stood mesmerized by the simple cyclical process of the water. I thought about the cleansing effect of water, the cool smoothness of the dark granite base as the water rushed over it, the endless cascade of water — like tears — and the bottomless well that would never be filled no matter how much water flowed into it.
I thought about Life and Death as this never-ending cycle and how the two things are what unites everyone and everything on this planet.
And I thought about how little we really know about anything.
The names of the hundreds of victims of 9/11 who died at the WTC are engraved into the surrounding wide metallic railing and people took to sticking small American flags into the crevices. There was also a twin monument yards away on the other end of the promenade as were short backless concrete benches scattered all around. The site was still incomplete, but you can see that it will be beautifully serene when it’s completed. It was good for my soul to see something beautiful emerge from something so horrid. My only regret was that we couldn’t stay to see the monuments lit up at nightfall, but my friend had other parts of my great town that he wanted me to see.
“When woman is lost, so is man. The truth is, woman is the window to a man’s heart and a man’s heart is the gateway to his soul.”
~ JADA PINKETT SMITH
How is man to recognize his full self, his full power through the eye’s of an incomplete woman? The woman who has been stripped of Goddess recognition and diminished to a big ass and full breast for physical comfort only. The woman who has been silenced so she may forget her spiritual
essence because her words stir too much thought outside of the pleasure space. The woman who has been diminished to covering all that rots inside of her with weaves and red bottom shoes.
I am sure the men, who restructured our societies from cultures that honored woman, had no idea of the outcome. They had no idea that eventually, even men would render themselves empty and longing for meaning, depth and connection.
There is a deep sadness when I witness a man that can’t recognize the emptiness he feels when he objectifies himself as a bank and truly believes he can buy love with things and status. It is painful to witness the betrayal when a woman takes him up on that offer.
He doesn’t recognize that the [creation] of a half woman has contributed to his repressed anger and frustration of feeling he is not enough. He then may love no woman or keep many half women as his prize.
He doesn’t recognize that it’s his submersion in the imbalanced warrior culture, where violence is the means of getting respect and power, as the reason he can break the face of the woman who bore him four children.
When woman is lost, so is man. The truth is, woman is the window to a man’s heart and a man’s heart is the gateway to his soul.
Her husband Nelson Mandela had just been sentenced to life imprisonment, but she was still strong enough to say, “I will continue the struggle.”
1.
Winnie Madikizela was born on September 26, 1936 in the village of Mbongweni, Bizana, in the Transkei, South Africa. She was the fourth of eight children. Her father, Columbus, was minister of the Transkei Governments’ Forestry and Agriculture Department during Kaizer Matanzima’s rule. Her mother, Nomathamsanqa Mzaidume (Gertrude), a domestic science teacher, died when Winnie was only eight years old.
2.
Winnie attended primary school in Bizana and matriculated at Shawbury High School, where she distinguished herself as a person with exceptional leadership qualities. In 1953, she was admitted to the Jan Hofmeyr School of Social Work in Johannesburg. She completed her degree in social work in 1955, and was offered a scholarship for further study in the USA. However she turned it down and opted for a challenging position as the first qualified Black medical social worker at the Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg instead.
3.
She became interested in politics while working at the hospital. She was particularly influenced by the research she had carried out in Alexandra Township to establish the rate of infantile mortality, which stood at 10 deaths for every 1,000 births.
4.
In the mid-1950s, she became involved in the African National Congress (ANC). In 1957, she met Nelson Mandela. At the time he was on trial, along with 155 other people, in the now infamous Treason Trial following the civil disobedience campaigns of the early 1950s. They were married on 19 June 1958 in a Methodist service in the Transkei, after which Winnie settled in Mandela’s home in Soweto.
5.
By March 1961, the Treason Trial was over and the accused were found not guilty. By this time Winnie had given birth to two daughters, Zenani, born in 1959 and Zinzi, born in 1960. Between March and December of 1961, the Mandela’s enjoyed a normal family life, in the sense that they were all together. Throughout most of her married life, however, Winnie Mandela had to endure a forced separation from her husband. He was detained and imprisoned on more than one occasion and spent twenty-six years of his life on Robben Island. Although she had visitation rights during that period, she was unable to have physical contact with him.
6.
From 1962, Winnie was subjected to a virtually uninterrupted series of legal orders, which prevented her from living, working and socializing. She was banned under the Suppression of Communism Act for her part in the struggle and was restricted to the Orlando Township in Soweto. She started to work clandestinely for the ANC, which included participating in underground meetings and the printing and circulation of pamphlets.
7.
She decided to send her daughters to boarding school in Swaziland, in the hope that the girls could escape harassment and continue their education. In 1969, she was detained under the Terrorism Act and was placed in solitary confinement for seventeen months. In 1970, she was placed under house arrest. She repeatedly flaunted this order and was charged on a number of occasions.
8.
During the 1976 youth uprisings, she established the Black Women’s Federation and the Black Parents’ Association. Both these organisations allied themselves to the Black Consciousness Movement, an ideology which rejected all ‘White’ values and embraced a positive ‘Black’ world view. For this role Winnie was detained, in 1977, under the Internal Security Act and banished to Brandfort in the Orange Free State. There she helped set up a crèche and a clinic with Dr. Abu Baker Asvat.
9.
She returned to her home in 1986 and resumed her ANC activities. Although Winnie’s opposition to P.W. Botha’s regime earned her the title of “Mother of the Nation”, her conduct was not irreproachable. In a speech at Munsieville outside Johannesburg in 1986 Winnie propagated the barbaric necklace method of killing township dissidents and alleged police informers by saying: “Together hand-in-hand, with our boxes of matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country.” She was referring to the method of killing in which victims had a tire placed around their neck, were doused with petrol and set on fire.
10.
Her controversial Mandela United Football Club, a group of young men who acted as her bodyguards, caused some anti-apartheid groups to distance themselves from her in 1988.
11.
Winnie stood next to her husband Nelson when he was released from prison on 11 February 1990. However, she separated from President Nelson Mandela in April 1992 and was divorced in March 1996. After the divorce, Winnie established a museum at the Orlando home where she and Mandela had lived, and adopted the surname Madikizela-Mandela.
12.
From 1991, Winnie’s life was steeped in both achievement and controversy. In 1991, after the unbanning of the ANC and other political organisations, she was elected to the ANC’s National Executive Committee. In 1991, she was charged with the kidnapping and murder of 14 year old Stompie Seipei. Stompie was believed to be a police informant against the struggle.
13.
Consequently, Winnie was sentenced to six years in jail for the kidnapping. The sentence was reduced to a fine of R15 000 on appeal. Shortly after her conviction, in 1992, she resigned all her ANC leadership positions, including her position as Member of Parliament. In 1993, however, she made a remarkable comeback when she was elected president of the ANC Women’s League, a position which she held until 2003. After the 1994 election, Winnie was appointed deputy minister of Arts, Culture, and Science and Technology, but was dismissed in 1995 by Nelson Mandela following allegations of financial mismanagement.
14.
In 1997, Winnie was re-elected as president of the ANC Women’s League. In 2001, she was charged and in April 2003 found guilty on 43 counts of fraud and 25 of theft. She pleaded not guilty to the charges, which related to money taken from loan applicants’ accounts for a funeral fund, but from which the applicants did not benefit. Madikizela-Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison. In 2004, an appeal judge of the Pretoria Supreme Court overturned the conviction for theft, but upheld the one for fraud, handing her a three years and six months suspended sentence.
15.
After her conviction, she resigned as president of the ANC Women’s League (2003). She was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee at the 52nd ANC conference in Polokwane.
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen, has come up a novel approach that he thinks will help the growing movement wishing to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which signifies that corporations are “people”, allowing billionaires and corporate panhandlers to seduce politicians with unlimited “contributions”…very un-democratic…without having to disclose to the public any of its political funding activities.
Calling itself “a petition on steroids”, Cohen’s organization, StamStampede.org, operates around the idea that with tens of thousands of Americans legally stamping his messages on the Nation’s currency to #GetMoneyOut of Politics and as more and more stamped money spreads, so will the movement to amend the Constitution.
It’s just crazy enough to work!
“Every dollar you stamp will reach 875 people, if you stamp 5 dollars a day for a year, that’s over a million. Together, we can create a stampede that Congress can’t ignore.” ~StampStampede.org.
As of this posting, 15 states have voted in favor of an amendment specifying that corporations are NOT people. 150 Congressional members are needed to support it.
Spencer Overton is a professor The George Washington University Law School and a senior fellow at Demos, a liberal research organization, and he teaches and writes on voting rights. He is the author of the book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression.
Below are four questions put to Mr. Overton regarding the The Supreme Court’s decision today to strike down a central part of the Voting Rights Act, Section 4:
Q. How would you summarize the decision in a single sentence?
A. The court effectively rolled back an important provision of the Voting Rights Act, ruling that the Act’s formula requiring federal pre-approval of election changes for some states but not others was outdated because it was based on data from the 1960s and 70s.
Q. Did anything in it — or in the justices’ votes — surprise you?
A. I was not surprised by the votes of the particular justices.
Q. How will the ruling affect elections and voting? How will it affect minority turnout and representation?
A. Overwhelming evidence shows that many state and local politicians continue to win elections by unfairly manipulating election rules, and the court’s decision will only make this problem worse. The biggest problem will be the under-the-radar manipulation of election rules for local offices like city councils, county commissions, school boards, and sheriffs. These offices are often non-partisan and escape national attention, but make important decisions related to schools, criminal justice, health and family services, and economic opportunity that directly affect our daily lives. Local manipulation is a real problem—over 85 percent of all election rule changes rejected as unfair under Section 5 were at the local level. In Nueces County, Tex., for example, the rapidly growing Latino community surpassed 56 percent of the county’s population, and in response county officials gerrymandered local election districts to diminish the ballots of Latino voters. Without Section 5 protections to block this type of racial manipulation, voters in many areas like Nueces County will lack the thousands (and sometimes millions) of dollars needed to bring a lawsuit and stop these unfair changes.
Q. What’s next for the Voting Rights Act?
A. Congress should update the Voting Rights Act. First, Congress should update pre-clearance so that states and localities that have recently violated voting rights or do so in the future are required to submit their election rule changes to federal officials for pre-approval. Second, Congress should streamline litigation, so that it is more efficient and effective in stopping unfair election rules before they are used in elections and harm voters. Third, Congress should require that states and localities with significant minority populations disclose information about the effects of their election law changes—more transparency would deter bad activity.
Congress should update the VRA. In fact, in my opinion it should have done so in the period between 1970 and 2006, when the act was up for renewal . The corrupt political situations that were evident in the 60’s, which prompted the creation of the bill, showed themselves to be alive and well during the 2012 election for President of the United States. ~ A. Conton
Most people are familiar with the traditional uses for lemons to soothe sore throats and add some citrus flavor to our foods.
However the diversity of applications for lemons far exceeds general knowledge and once you read the following list, you’ll likely want to stock at least a few lemons in your kitchen 24-7. 1. Freshen the Fridge
Remove refrigerator odors with ease. Dab lemon juice on a cotton ball or sponge and leave it in the fridge for several hours. Make sure to toss out any malodorous items that might be causing the bad smell.
2. High Blood Pressure
Lemon contains potassium which controls high blood pressure and reduces the effect of nausea and dizziness.
3. Prevent Cauliflower From Turning Brown
Cauliflower tend to turn brown with even the slightest cooking. You can make sure the white vegetables stay white by squeezing a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice on them before heating.
4. Mental Health
Lemon water can also prep up your mood and relieve you from depression and stress. Long distance walkers and world travelers as well as explorers look upon the lemon as a Godsend. When fatigue begins, a lemon is sucked through a hole in the top. Quick acting medicine it is, giving almost unbelievable refreshments.
5. Refresh Cutting Boards
No wonder your kitchen cutting board smells! After all, you use it to chop onions, crush garlic, and prepare fish. To get rid of the smell and help sanitize the cutting board, rub it all over with the cut side of half a lemon or wash it in undiluted juice straight from the bottle.
6. Respiratory Problems
Lemon water can reduce phlegm; and can also help you breathe properly and aids a person suffering with asthma.
7. Treating Arthritis and Rheumatism
Lemon is a diuretic – assists in the production of urine which helps you to reduce inflammation by flushing out toxins and bacteria while also giving you relief from arthritis and rheumatism.
8. Prevents Kidney Stones
Regular consumption of the refreshing drink — or even lemon juice mixed with water — may increase the production of urinary citrate, a chemical in the urine that prevents the formation of crystals that may build up into kidney stones.
9. Keep Insects Out of the Kitchen
You don’t need insecticides or ant traps to ant-proof your kitchen. Just give it the lemon treatment. First squirt some lemon juice on door thresholds and windowsills. Then squeeze lemon juice into any holes or cracks where the ants are getting in. Finally, scatter small slices of lemon peel around the outdoor entrance. The ants will get the message that they aren’t welcome. Lemons are also effective against roaches and fleas: Simply mix the juice of 4 lemons (along with the rinds) with 1/2 gallon (2 liters) water and wash your floors with it; then watch the fleas and roaches flee. They hate the smell.
10. Anti-Aging
Lemon water reduces the production of free radicals which are responsible for aging skin and skin damage. Lemon water is calorie free and an antioxidant.
11. Fruit and Vegetable Wash
You never know what kind of pesticides or dirt may be lurking on the skin of your favorite fruits and vegetables. Slice your lemon and squeeze out one tablespoon of lemon juice into your spray bottle. The lemon juice is a natural disinfectant and will leave your fruits and vegetables smelling nice too.
12. Treat Infections
Lemon water can fight throat infections thanks to its antibacterial property. If salt water does not work for you, try lime and water for gargling.
13. Deodorize Your Garbage
If your garbage is beginning to smell yucky, here’s an easy way to deodorize it: Save leftover lemon and orange peels and toss them at the base under the bag. To keep it smelling fresh, repeat once every couple of weeks.
14. Keep Guacamole Green
You’ve been making guacamole all day long for the big party, and you don’t want it to turn brown on top before the guests arrive. The solution: Sprinkle a liberal amount of fresh lemon juice over it and it will stay fresh and green. The flavor of the lemon juice is a natural complement to the avocados in the guacamole. Make the fruit salad hours in advance too. Just squeeze some lemon juice onto the apple slices, and they’ll stay snowy white.
15. Purges The Blood
We consume a lot of junk food or food with a lot of preservatives and artificial flavours. This builds up a lot of toxins in the blood and body but daily consumption of lemon water helps to purify the blood.
16. Make Soggy Lettuce Crisp
Don’t toss that soggy lettuce into the garbage. With the help of a little lemon juice you can toss it in a salad instead. Add the juice of half a lemon to a bowl of cold water. Then put the soggy lettuce in it and refrigerate for 1 hour. Make sure to dry the leaves completely before putting them into salads or sandwiches.
17. Oral Health
Lemon juice also stops bleeding gums and reduces toothaches
18. Lighten Age Spots
Why buy expensive creams when you’ve got lemon juice? To lighten liver spots or freckles, try applying lemon juice directly to the area. Let it sit for 15 minutes and then rinse your skin clean. It’s a safe and effective skin-lightening agent.
19. Create Blonde Highlights
For salon-worthy highlights, add 1/4 cup lemon juice to 3/4 cup water and rinse your hair with the mixture. Then, sit in the sun until your hair dries. To maximize the effect, repeat once daily for up to a week.
20. Make a Room Scent/Humidifier
Freshen and moisturize the air in your home on dry winter days. Make your own room scent that also doubles as a humidifier. If you have a wood-burning stove, place an enameled cast-iron pot or bowl on top, fill with water, and add lemon (and/or orange) peels, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and apple skins. No wood-burning stove? Use your stovetop instead and just simmer the water periodically.
21. Clean and Whiten Nails
Pamper your hands without a manicurist. Add the juice of 1/2 lemon to 1 cup warm water and soak your fingertips in the mixture for 5 minutes. After pushing back the cuticles, rub some lemon peel back and forth against the nail.
22. Cleanse Your Face
Zap zits naturally by dabbing lemon juice on blackheads to draw them out during the day. You can also wash your face with lemon juice for a natural cleanse and exfoliation. Your skin should improve after several days of treatment. Lemon water is also a cooling agent, best way to beat the heat.
23. Freshen Your Breath
Make an impromptu mouthwash by rinsing with lemon juice straight from the bottle. Swallow for longer-lasting fresh breath. The citric acid in the juice alters the pH level in your mouth, killing bacteria that causes bad breath. Rinse after a few minutes because long-term exposure to the acid in lemons can harm tooth enamel.
24. Treat Flaky Dandruff
If itchy, scaly dandruff has you scratching your head, relief may be no farther away than your refrigerator. Just massage two tablespoons lemon juice into your scalp and rinse with water. Then stir one teaspoon lemon juice into one cup water and rinse your hair with it. Repeat daily until your dandruff disappears.
25. Get Rid of Tough Stains on Marble
You probably think of marble as stone, but it is really petrified calcium (also known as old seashells). That explains why it is so porous and easily stained and damaged. Those stains can be hard to remove. If washing won’t remove a stubborn stain, try this: Cut a lemon in half, dip the exposed flesh into some table salt, and rub it vigorously on the stain. But do this only as a last resort; acid can damage marble. Rinse well. Use These Lemons To Clean – Easy and Effective
26. Remove Berry Stains
It sure was fun to pick your own berries, but now your fingers are stained with berry juice that won’t come off no matter how much you scrub with soap and water. Try washing your hands with undiluted lemon juice, then wait a few minutes and wash with warm, soapy water. Repeat until your hands are stain-free.
27. Soften Dry, Scaly Elbows
Itchy elbows are bad enough, but they look terrible too. For better looking (and feeling) elbows, mix baking soda and lemon juice to make an abrasive paste, then rub it into your elbows for a soothing, smoothing, and exfoliating treatment. Rinse your extremities in a mixture of equal parts lemon juice and water, then massage with olive oil and dab dry with a soft cloth.
28. Headaches
Lemon juice with a few teaspoons of hot tea added is the treatment of a sophisticated New York bartender, for those who suffer with hangover headaches–and from headaches due to many other causes. He converts his customers to this regime, and weans them away from drug remedies completely.
29. Chills and Fevers
Chills and fevers may be due to a variety of causes; never the less the lemon is always a helpful remedy. Spanish physicians regard it as an infallible friend.
30. Diptheria
Skip the vaccine for this disease. Lemon Juice Treatment still proves as one of the most powerful antiseptics and the strong digestive qualities of the fruit are admired around the world. With the juice every hour or two, and at the same time, 1/2 to 1 tsp. should be swallowed. This cuts loose the false membrane in the throat and permits it to come out.
31. Vaginal Hygiene
Diluted lemon juice makes a safe and sane method of vaginal hygiene. Though it is a powerful antiseptic it is nevertheless free from irritating drugs in douches and suppositories.
32. Forget The Moth Balls
A charming French custom to keep closets free from moths is to take ripe lemons and stick them with cloves all over the skin. The heavily studded lemons slowly dry with their cloves, leaving a marvelous odor throughout the closets and rooms.
33. Stomach Health
Digestive problems are the most common ailments but warm water and lime juice is the solution to most digestive problems. Lemon juice helps to purify the blood, reduces your chances of indigestion, constipation, eliminates toxins from the body, adds digestion and reduces phlegm.
34. Disinfect Cuts and Scrapes
Stop bleeding and disinfect minor cuts and scraps by pouring a few drops of lemon juice directly on the cut. You can also apply the juice with a cotton ball and hold firmly in place for one minute.
35. Soothe Poison Ivy Rash
You won’t need an ocean of calamine lotion the next time poison ivy comes a-creeping. Just apply lemon juice directly to the affected area to soothe itching and alleviate the rash.
36. Remove Warts
You’ve tried countless remedies to banish warts and nothing seems to work. Next time, apply a dab of lemon juice directly to the wart using a cotton swab. Repeat for several days until the acids in the lemon juice dissolve the wart completely.
37. Bleach Delicate Fabrics
Avoid additional bleach stains by swapping ordinary household chlorine bleach with lemon juice, which is milder but no less effective. Soak your delicates in a mixture of lemon juice and baking soda for at least half an hour before washing.
38. Clean Tarnished Brass and Polish Chrome
Say good-bye to tarnish on brass, copper, or stainless steel. Make a paste of lemon juice and salt (or substitute baking soda or cream of tartar for the salt) and coat the affected area. Let it stay on for 5 minutes. Then wash in warm water, rinse, and polish dry. Use the same mixture to clean metal kitchen sinks too. Apply the paste, scrub gently, and rinse. Get rid of mineral deposits and polish chrome faucets and other tarnished chrome. Simply rub lemon rind over the chrome and watch it shine! Rinse well and dry with a soft cloth.
39. Replace Your Dry Cleaner
Ditch the expensive dry-cleaning bills (and harsh chemicals) with this homegrown trick. Simply scrub the stained area on shirts and blouses with equal parts lemon juice and water. Your “pits” will be good as new, and smell nice too.
40. Boost Laundry Detergent
For more powerful cleaning action, pour 1 cup lemon juice into the washer during the wash cycle. The natural bleaching action of the juice will zap stains and remove rust and mineral discolorations from cotton T-shirts and briefs and will leave your clothes smelling fresh. Your clothes will turn out brighter and also come out smelling lemon-fresh.
41. Rid Clothes of Mildew
Have you ever unpacked clothes you stored all winter and discovered some are stained with mildew? To get rid of it, make a paste of lemon juice and salt and rub it on the affected area, then dry the clothes in sunlight. Repeat the process until the stain is gone.
42. Eliminate Fireplace Odor
There’s nothing cozier on a cold winter night than a warm fire burning in the fireplace — unless the fire happens to smell horrible. Next time you have a fire that sends a stench into the room, try throwing a few lemon peels into the flames. Or simply burn some lemon peels along with your firewood as a preventive measure.
43. Neutralize Cat-Box Odor
You don’t have to use an aerosol spray to neutralize foul-smelling cat-box odors or freshen the air in your bathroom. Just cut a couple of lemons in half. Then place them, cut side up, in a dish in the room, and the air will soon smell lemon-fresh.
44. Deodorize a Humidifier
When your humidifier starts to smell funky, deodorize it with ease: Just pour 3 or 4 teaspoons lemon juice into the water. It will not only remove the off odor but will replace it with a lemon-fresh fragrance. Repeat every couple of weeks to keep the odor from returning.
45. Reduce Asthma Symptoms
In addition to a general detoxifying diet, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice before each meal, and before retiring can reduce asthma symptoms.
* If you do consume lemon peel, stick to organic lemons to reduce your pesticide exposure.
On yesterday’s MHP Show, Melissa let tennis star Serena Williams have it for her seemingly admonishment of the teenaged girl who was raped by two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio last summer.
Serena wrote in response to a query from Stephen Rodrick of Rolling Stone, who asked her about the rape. She said:
“I’m not blaming the girl, but if you’re a 16-year-old and you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you: Don’t take drinks from other people. She’s 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn’t remember? It could have been much worse. She’s lucky. Obviously, I don’t know, maybe she wasn’t a virgin, but she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that’s different.”
In Harris-Perry’s ‘Open Letter” segment of the show, she responded to Serena’s comment (see video):
And Ms Harris is absolutely correct. William’s attitude is one that many women share when they hear of rape–even I sometimes engage in such backward thinking at times.
It’s like there’s an automatic defense mechanism that pops up when you hear the word ‘rape’. A defense against the idea that people just go around committing such a horrible crime without somehow being severely provoked.
We hear about a rape and think, “What she was wearing? What was she doing there so late at night? Why didn’t she know any better? What did she expect to happen?
Not rape. No women ever expects or wants that.
Setting the responsiblity for rape on the shoulders of the victim gives the onlooker credence to believe that if they don’t behave or act like however the victim has done, they themselves will remain safe from such horrors. Of course we’re wrong.
When someone decides to harm another fellow human being, it’s their wrong decision, not the unfortunate victim’s. The most cautious, prudent and intelligent among us can still fall victim to someone’s evil intentions.
Saw the movie “Last Earth” this past Father’s Day and it was a blast! The flick had everything I like in a matinée sci-fi blockbuster: mind-blowing SFX, a mind expanding storyline, fast-paced action, great acting and a hunky leading man, in this case Will Smith.
On the surface the story appears to be about a young man desperately trying to live up to what he feels are the expectation of a heroic father and falling miserably short in his own eyes.
The big picture centers on the complexities of human nature and family bonding. A father tries to instill in his son everything’s he’s learned about surviving and thriving in an often times dangerous, hostile environment. It was no mistake that the message was particularly aimed towards black boys. The tagline of the movie ” Danger is real, fear is a choice” couldn’t be more poignant. “Last Earth” exemplifies the time when a boy ingests everything taught to him by his father and the breakaway moment when he decides to come out from under his protective wing, to fly on his own. To be his own man.
It is the timeless coming of age story that never gets old, and the real life father/son duo of Will and Jaden Smith only added to the narrative of a rite of passage that all boys of any nationality or race should go through, but often times miss out on.
Imagine my confusion then, when finally reading reviews on ” Last Earth” that called it a flop almost before the movie hit the theatres. Critics have the power to make or break a film because people will totally bypass seeing one based on negative reviews;
NY Daily News:“Summer 2013 has its first bomb, and sadly, it’s landed right on Will Smith.”
The Mirror:“The speaking clock has more emotional range than Will’s son Jaden Smith, with the trite scenes of him bonding with his father simply throw-your-hands-in-the-air bad.”
The Village Voice:“I fear Jaden might face online wrath for his performance here, especially thanks to the numb-tongued Kiwi accent he’s forced to adopt. He’s not bad, especially, but he is a kid asked to do the extraordinary: compel us as he pretends to do ridiculous bullsh–.”
DailyMirror on Twitter:“As Will Smith coldly instructs him to feel, to root in this moment now, to master his own creation, I felt the purest horror I ever have at a Shyamalan film: What if this is what Jaden Smith’s life is actually like?”
These comments left me wondering “What movie did they see?!” There were even cries of nepotism and that senior Smith used his tremendous star power in creating the role of his son in the movie Kitai Raige, for Jaden. Ummm…duh! There’s a long list of movie star parents who starred opposite their children in movies to help push their carreer’s along. That’s what parent’s do when trying to create a legacy. It’s obvious that Will Smith wanted the role to be a gift to his son and that it was meant to help propel the boy into the stardom that he now enjoys. And why the heck shouldn’t he? There’s room at the top of the multi-billion dollar movie industry for more than one black male and female superstar, isn’t there?
Will and Jaden Smith
I would say to those critics that Jaden Smith was the best part of the movie and that his performance held my attention until the very end. And I was clapping at the end (which I rarely do lol!) along with others in my Manhattan theatre audience!
So, I want everyone within the site of this blog to go check out “Last Earth” and if you loved it like I did, spread the word and make this movie the summer blockbuster that its supposed to be!
Strategists dream, a country’s nightmare. By nowPresident Obama’s Administration is well aware that the people of the United States do not want to become embroiled in another war in the Middle East. Or anywhere else in the world for that matter.
And yet, in the case of the civil war in Syria, the American people have no piece on the game board that gives them any leverage. What we want cannot be heard of the clamoring din of War and what will probably be this country’s further military intervention into the Syrian conflict.
G8 leaders.
Anyone with eyes can see that the G8 Summit will produce nothing in regards to a peaceful resolution to the region. Many doubt that it was even supposed to. Not with Russian President Vladimir Putin supplying Assad’s forces with sophisticated antiaircraft missile batteries, while at the same time looking for ways to assist Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in defending the demilitarized border between Syria and Israel.
Then there’s Republicans like John McCain claiming that’s it’s too little too late”, referring to the small arms and artillery Obama says he’ll donate to the cause of the Syrian rebels. McCain, some Republicans and Democrats alike, feel that the U.S. should ride into Syria on white horses and personally take down Syrian President Bashar Assad, something they think the rebels won’t be able to do left to their own devices. Never mind that there are Syrian people who are Alawites, Druze, Christians and Sunnis on the side of Bashar Assad, who don’t want to see the present government replaced by radical Islamic fundamentalists, a point that western and foreign media don’t seem to ever report on.
Subsequently, there may never be Peace in the Middle East. ideologically it sounds good. It’s a bright, shiny mantra that can be repeated when the prospects look dim, as it so often does. But it’s not based in any reality. The Arab occupied regions are fraught with strategic, geographical and political interests for the power brokers that are in fact the G8, including the United States.
And there’s just no option for peace with players like these.
And if your Dad is anything like mine was, the last thing he wants to do on his special day is to sleep-in, be served breakfast in bed, recieve gifts of love and be relieved of all household and childrearing responsibilities for the day. As opposed to my Mother, who expected all that, and deservedly so.
My Dad’s idea of a great Father’s Day? He’d be left undisturbed as he puttered around all day in the basement, the garage, and the back and front yards of our home to fix-up, breakdown, search for, find, lose again, analyze, build, paint, hammer and generally tinker around with all the myriad projects he simultaneously had going on in all these locations (he was Gemini, June 10th).
Dad would culminate Father’s Day with a delicious BBQ cookout in the back yard for the family. Before we’d know it, the smell of grilled food would come wafting through the house and we’d know it was that time!
His favorite things to grill were porgies and red snapper with a splash of beer. Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
2 lbs red snapper or porgies
4 limes, juiced
2 tbsp rub
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp garlic powder
3 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup of your favorite beer (Dad used Miller beer)
Preparation:
1. Ensure fish is clean, in a bowl, rub fish with lime juice.
2. Mix rub with oil and beer and rub over fish. As they say on the islands “You mus’ put he down overnight” which means it’s best if you marinate your fish overnight in the refrigerator. Alternatively, marinate for at least one hour.
3. Wrap fish in foil and grill over hot coals on the bbq for about 30 minutes, turning occasionally.
Weather not permitting, (although my Dad would just put up a pup tent and continued BBQ-ing while we watched patiently from the kitchen bay window) as an alternativel, preheat the oven to 190°C / 375°F / and roast the fish for approximately 45 minutes.
4. Enjoy with cool potatoe salad, fresh green salad, red beans and rice and corn on the cob.
Anthony Weiner seems to be holding his own…no pun intended…in the race for New York City mayor after announcing his intention to run back in May.
Weiner resigned in disgrace from congress two years ago after it was discovered he texted and twittered several lewd messages and photos of himself to several women.
Although its likely he’ll have to go through the fire quite a few times as voters decide whether they can forgive his past libidinous behaviour or not, Mr. Weiner should keep in mind that New Yorkers — and most folks for that matter — love a good comeback story.
And there’s certainly a need for his brand of fire to stir the pot of an already dull-as-dishwater mayoral debate, Christine Quinn notwithstanding.
Back in July 2010, I remember watching Weiner rip a new one for House Republicans after they successfully defeated a bill that was to provide up to $7.4 billion in aid to those first responders who became sick after being exposed to toxins following the 9/11 attacks;
That’s the kind of passionate debate I’m talking about.
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