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[This one's for Lissa...]
Smile
Today's going to be a good one
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A sampling of news & views available from the New Media likely to be ignored by the Old.
Let me say this clearly so there are no misunderstandings: some of the protests against President Obama are howls of rage at the fact that we have an African-American head of state. I'm sick of all the code words used when this subject comes up, so be assured that I am saying exactly what I mean.
"When "Tea Party" leader Mark Williams ap-pears [sic] on CNN and speaks of "working-class people" taking "their" country back from a lawfully elected president, he is not just protesting Obama's politics; he is griping over the fact that this country's most powerful positions are no longer just for white men."
"Black skin has meant something very specific in this country for hundreds of years. It has meant "less than," "not as good as," "separate than," and even "equal to." It has never meant "better than" unless you were talking about dancing, singing, or basketball. Obama represents "better than," and that's scary for people who think of black people as shaved gorillas."
“It’s totally bizarre, what’s going on,” ... "It’s a very bad situation, particularly in a year when healthcare reform is such a big issue.”
“while the debate goes on over the cost of insuring everyone, a new study reveals the cost of not doing it. The Harvard study says nearly 45,000 American deaths every year are linked to a lack of insurance.”
“the only national physician organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to implementing a single-payer national health program.”[Our professional media.]
"For two years on the campaign trail, this was what I heard from women, that they were being crushed, crushed by the current structure of our health care. Crushed."- Michelle Obama [speech]
Of 100,000 white females born alive, those still alive at age 90: 28,082.
Of 100,000 black females born alive, those still alive at age 90: 21,627.
Of 100,000 white males born alive, those still alive at age 90: 16,145.
Of 100,000 black males born alive, those still alive at age 90: 10,432.
"It is extraordinarily disappointing that it comes at a time when [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] and others are calling for a civil discussion."
[United Kingdom]
An article in the Albany Times Union promotes a controversy brewing in local schools in upstate New York. A controversy in that schools are willing to close their doors during Christian and Jewish religious holidays - but not Muslim holidays."One request we have seen is for a room during Ramadan for students to pray in, and many districts are attempting to provide those."
Interesting. A prayer room for Muslim students. What happened to the separation of religion and education, church and state? "Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back,"
"an ally we rely on has betrayed us, and exchanged us for its own, better relations with Russia, of which we are rightly afraid."
"I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,"

As reported Thursday, Time magazine this week published a rather lengthy article entitled, "Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?""Talk radio is only the beginning. Electronic populism threatens to short-circuit representative democracy." [?]
According to study after study, women are becoming more and more unhappy. This drop in happiness is found in women across the social and economic landscape. It doesn't matter what their marital status is, how much money they make, whether or not they have children, their ethnic background, or the country they live in. Women around the world are in a funk.
And it's not because of the multitude of crises we are facing. Women's happiness has been on a downward trend since the early 1970s, when the General Social Survey, a landmark study, began examining the social attitudes of women and men...
When you think about all that has happened over the last four decades -- with women securing greater opportunity, greater achievement, greater influence, and more money -- the decline in our collective state of mind seems to defy logic, and raises the vexing question: What in the world is going on?
There is a segment of society for whom traditional family values are increasingly irrelevant, and for whom spring-break sexual liberationism is increasingly costly: men and women in their 20s. [snip]
But delaying marriage creates moral, emotional and practical complications. The challenge, as always, is to humanize change.
The answer, even in the relational wasteland, is responsibility, commitment and sacrifice for the sake of children...
"I would remind the far right what the Apostle Paul wrote, " ... there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God." Hence, Obama is the U.S. president and leader of the Free World because he was appointed by God."