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Korporations Have Hijacked Our Schools

Here is a link to an article that details how our schools are being taken over by korporations for purpose of creating commodity style workers. It sounds like a conspiratorial type idea, but… I don’t know if we have a bunch of corporate types in a back room planning this, but the effect is the same. And I believe real. Korporations want compliant workers. Besides lower wages, I think part of the rush to H1-B workers and off-shoring was to get a more compliant workforce. My experience, having worked with a multitude of H1-Bs, is that they do not buck the system and accept whatever is dealt out. Korporations 1, workers 0.

The link: Our Public Schools Are Churning Out Drones for the Corporate State

For whatever reason there seems to be a head long rush to divide us into a classed society. A rush to divide us into a society of the educated and the poorly educated. Education does not seem to be valued any more for the sake of knowledge, but only for what it can do for you career-wise. Most of the Meta values I am aware of are not derived from the korporate workplace.

This two class society scares me in another way. For a democracy to really work well, it is better to have an educated population. To have a population that is not influenced by every Glenn Beck that comes along. A population devoted to the NFL and reality shows, is not going worry too much about state of the nation until it is too late.

Most of my adult life I have worked for large korporations that include several Fortune 500 companies. While I do not think I am exceptional or different, I have always chafed in these places. There is something about being stuck in a little gray cube 8 hours a day that is not conducive to the soul’s health. The folks that run these companies know that. So the question becomes how do we keep the work force under control, and with the illusion that this is what life is all about? They obviously think the answer is to hijack the educational system.  With control of the education system the values and skills that benefit the korporations can be instilled early and often. They are well on the way to doing that. Continue reading “Korporations Have Hijacked Our Schools”

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Matter of Perspective, I Reckon

It was a pretty Sunday afternoon, and Robin talked me into taking her for a ride in my Miata.  Truth is she really did not have to talk too hard. 

Well we rode there, and we rode here.  Did not really matter, we were just enjoying the spring weather and sunshine.  I decided to pull into Creve Coeur Park by Sailboat Cove.  I was hoping the snow cone stand would be open, but it wasn’t.

As we were driving into the parking lot Robin said, “Oh what a cute puppy.” 

I’m going to give myself a little credit as I did not say, “Huh?”…out loud.   It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about.  The cute young thing I had been eyeballing had a puppy on a leash.

It is all a matter of perspective, I reckon.

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The Not So Invisible Line

I crossed a line invisible to my ego, but apparently readily seen by others.  It is somewhat of a reverse of the Emperor’s new clothes. 

I live where I live in Memphis not because the apartment is particularly nice, or particularly inexpensive.  I live where I live because it is a half mile from the office and I like the convenience of that.   My grandparents fell upon hard times for a while, and they lived in what was called “the projects” back then.  Basically it was a lot of low income folks crowded together in subsidized housing.  This apartment complex reminds of that place and time.

I came home from work today and there were a bunch of kids playing outside.  This is something nice to see these days when so many kids are inside in front of the TV or video games.  Continue reading “The Not So Invisible Line”

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Blue State vs. Red State Explained

This one of the many things that float around the Internet. It may have been meant to be funny, informative or both. It was sent to me as Texas translations of Californiaese. I think it works very nicely to expain the difference between Red states and Blue states.

Enjoy.

      Blue States Red States
Arsenal of Weapons Gun Collection
Delicate Wetlands Swamp
Undocumented Worker Illegal Alien
Cruelty-Free Materials Synthetic Fiber
Assault and Battery Attitude Adjustment
Heavily Armed Well-protected
Narrow-minded Righteous
Taxes or Your Fair Share Coerced Theft
Commonsense Gun Control Gun Confiscation Plot
Illegal Hazardous Explosives Fireworks or Stump Removal
Nonviable Tissue Mass Unborn Baby
Equal Access to Opportunity Socialism
Multicultural Community High Crime Area
Fairness or Social Progress Marxism
Upper Class or “The Rich” Self-Employed
Progressive, Change Big Government Scheme
Sniper Rifle Scoped Deer Rifle
Investment For the Future Higher Taxes
Healthcare Reform Socialized Medicine
Extremist, Judgmental, or Hater Conservative
Truants Homeschoolers
High Capacity Magazine Standard Capacity Magazine
Religious Zealot Church-going
Reintroduced Wolves Sheep and Elk Killers
Fair Trade Coffee Overpriced Yuppie Coffee
Exploiters or “The Rich” Employed or Land Owner
The Gun Lobby NRA Members
Assault Weapon Semi-Auto (Grandpa’s M1 Carbine)
Fiscal Stimulus New Taxes and Higher Taxes
Same Sex Marriage Legalized Perversion
Overseas Contingency Operation 
War
Mandated Eco-Friendly Lighting   Chinese Mercury-Laden Light Bulbs
Global Warming or Climate Change 
  Weather & it ain’t rainin?
General Welfare of Americans
Gov’t Hand-outs at Taxpayers? Expense
Outdated History                
Constitution & Declaration of Independence
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Poor, Scared, Less Educated, and Left Behind = Conservative

” Sadly, the foot soldiers of Conservatism do not understand that they are winning a Pyrrhic victory, one which indicates a deep and systemic rot in this country, as opposed to a triumph of ideas and values that can lead us through the decline of empire and towards a brave new future.”  — From article below

It has long been very perplexing to me why blue collar workers and the poor would support Republican/Tea Party/Conservative values and positions.  Apparently, I am not the only one that feels this.  I have not phased it quite so eloquently, saying they were “shooting themselves in the foot”, as opposed to calling it a Pyrrhic victory, but same thought.

The mega corporations do not care about America anymore.  Profit is their god, and the planet has become open with all the Free Trade agreements.  A dollar made in Cambodia is the same as a dollar made in Flagstaff, as far as they are concerned.  I have no idea what the Tea Party wants except the demise of our government and thus our country.

What is that old Irish curse, “May you live in interesting times.”  Interesting are these times,  but they are also very sad.

Link to an article about how America has become more conservative.

Link is no longer valid.

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The Power of Poop

I found this very fascinating. This doctor and others are doing poop transfusions, taking the fecal material from healthy people and placing it in the intestinal tracts of unhealthy people. One doctor is claiming an MS cure. There is a type of diarrhea that is this is the preferred treatment. One fellow sees it helping Parkinson patients. There are still a lot of skeptics, but this starting to be some really serious research into these “transpoosings”.

I subscribe to the Freakonomics podcast which is how I came across it. Just so you know.

You can read the article, or download the podcast, or listen to it on this page. Enjoy!

Freakonomics-radio-the-power-of-poop/

An article on:  Mind-Gut Connection: Why Intestinal Bacteria May Have Important Effects on Your Brain

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Illustration of Michael Moore’s Stat About Inequality

More conversation about the wealth gap in this country.

From the referenced article, “Michael Moore joined the demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin on March 6, and mentioned that the 400 richest Americans have more money than all of their 155,000,000 fellow citizens at the bottom of the pyramid combined.”  As much as I dislike Michael Moore personally, I have to agree with his positions on many things.

Here is another way to think about this number. The current USA population is 311,000,000 more or less. Half of that is pretty close to 155,000,000. So 400 people have as much wealth as 1/2 of the total US population. Mind boggling.

400 = 155,000,000.  I started to quip, “in what universe”.  I then realized it is in our universe.

This is one of most dramatic demonstrations of that concept I have seen. You have to strain hard to see the white dot that represents the rich among the sea of “commoners”. Call me a socialist, but nobody needs or should be that rich. I’m back on the one pie analogy. In order to have an over sized piece of pie you have to take some from someone else’s piece of pie. Or in this case a bunch of someones.

Link was not longer valid….sorry

What really slays me is that our politicians seem to be on a tear to make these folks richer.  Call me old school, but I firmly believe that to whom that more is given, more is expected.

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This Land is Your Land

Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940 during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl days.  In this day of union busting, growing wealth gap, and some say outright class warfare, maybe we need to be reminded of Woody’s words.  This is land is for all of us, just not a few, and certainly not the corporations that seem to have hijacked our government.

By the way, the gal in the middle of the 3 women singing back up is Moncia Taylor who I do a website for…check it it out.

MonicaTaylorMusic.com

Enjoy!

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Innocent Man Freed

I regularly download several pod-casts from NPR.  I listen to them as I jog or drive.  The programs almost always seem to air at times I cannot listen, or cannot listen with attention.  So I time shift.  One of my favorites is This American Life with Ira Glass.

They recently reran a story that originally aired in February of 2005.  The story was very disturbing and uplifting all at the same time.  It is a crime story.  It is legal drama.  It is a story of redemption.  It is a story about a man who was randomly picked out of a mug book by teenager.  The young man claimed he saw a murder when in reality he did  not.  He was being bullied by the police detective during the interview and just wanted it over.  So he pointed to a face in a book.  That innocent face spent the next 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Either the police and legal system were lazy, incompetent, or overwhelmed, but the end result was prison.  The newly convicted man fortunately had a childhood friend who spent the next 21 years working to get him out of prison.  This is that story.  I am not ashamed to admit that by the end I had tears in my eyes. 

I go back and forth about the death penalty, but this story is a good argument against it.   Below is a link to the page on This American Life website that has the story and you can download the podcast and listen to it. 

This American Life : Episode 282 DIY