All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Snippets | Filosofa’s Word

For some reason that I cannot possibly imagine (sarcasm intended), my mood is on the upper end of the grumpy scale today, so I decided to vent a bit in the form of some very short snippets of snark!


The New York Times headline reads:  “The justices paused an E.P.A. plan to curtail air pollution, dealing a blow to President Biden.”  No, the justices dealt a blow to every living creature, present & future, on the planet!  This is not the first, nor likely the last time the Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the fossil fuel industry and against life (and they call themselves ‘pro-life’???) on Planet Earth.  And I’m just going to step out on a limb here and speculate that maybe, just maybe it has something to do with those little million-dollar gifts and treats that certain of the justices periodically receive.  On a surprising note, though, Justice Barrett actually voted against the other five eggheads.  Perhaps there’s hope for her yet?


And speaking of that noble body, the U.S. Supreme Court, they may have found a way around the recent hullabaloo over those gifts they’ve been taking under the table.  Legalize them!  Sure, make it legal for a justice to accept a trip, motor home, or other minor little perk worth a few hundred thousand dollars, then nobody can call it corruption!  In the case of Snyder v United States, the Court ruled in the usual 6-3 fashion that “gratuities” – that is, post-facto gifts and payments – are not technically “bribes”, and therefore not illegal. Bribes are only issued before the desired official act, y’see.  So, I guess that makes it perfectly legal to promise … oh, say Justice Clarence Thomas … an all-expense-paid vacation for him and his traitorous wife to be paid after he rules in favour of … oh, say cutting certain EPA environmental protections.  It’s legal … he didn’t get to go on the trip until after the ruling!


Yesterday, the Republicans in the House of Representatives were apparently working … wait, did I just say they were ‘working’??? … on the appropriations bills for next year’s budget.  They decided to cut the salary of Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas … to zero.  That’s right … by their reckoning he doesn’t deserve to be paid.  Said Republican Andy Biggs, the ‘brains’ behind the idea to eliminate Mayorkas’ salary …

“Alejandro Mayorkas—who was impeached earlier this year—doesn’t deserve a single penny from American taxpayers.”

And why, you ask?  Because they say they don’t like the way he’s handling immigration at the southern border … and this, after they refused to pass a bipartisan bill that would have ended many of the border problems!  The salary cut won’t go anywhere and Mayorkas’ full salary will be in next year’s budget, but it galls me that the damned eggheads who call themselves ‘conservatives’ are wasting their time and our money on such stupid games.  Perhaps it is they who should have their salaries de-funded!


Okay, I guess I’m done for the moment.  There is lots more I could snark about, such as the amount of money being thrown away on space exploration while people are starving, the ineptitude of certain congressional representatives, the latest mass shootings that barely got a mention in the media, etc., but I have vented enough for the moment and I have ‘stuff’ I need to do.  But stay tuned …

Source: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Snippets | Filosofa’s Word

फैशन / Fashion

अब नहीं परवाह किसी को बदनामी की, फटे कपडे पहन लोग गुरूर करने लगे हैं… नए युग में जन्म हुआ है नए फैशन का, कपड़ों पर लगे धब्बे बन गए उनके तमगे हैं… 🥇 …

फैशन / Fashion

The Wall – Haiku 2024 #ThursdayDoors – Suzette B’s Blog

West Arcade Entrance, St. Vincent Basilica, Avila Spain. Image credit: © sedmak | iStock

within faith’s limits

protected by unseen borders

outside the wall

 


Situated outside Ávila’s famous wall—Spain’s best-preserved and longest medieval fortifications dating back to the 11th century—stands St. Vincent Basilica (circa 11th-14th centuries.)

The featured wood doors (above) are the West arcade entrance to St. Vincent Basilica, Ávila, Spain.

The stone sculptures of saints on either side of the featured doors are unique in style in contrast to the usual entryway statues.

The sculptural forms here seem to depict movement as if— a moment of conversation was captured between the figures. A closeup of the featured door is below.

**Featured door. West Arcade Entrance, St. Vincent Basilica, Avila Spain. Image credit: © AndresGarciaM | Stock

Source: The Wall – Haiku 2024 #ThursdayDoors – Suzette B’s Blog

Eu escrevo sobre histórias reais – Pensamentos.me/VEM comigo!

Eu não escrevo Contos de Fadas. Acredito que a vida é muito mais interessante quando acontece pelo lado de fora. ” Eu escrevo sobre histórias reais que ajudam as pessoas a pensar “. Aliás, não só pensar, mas diante de situações que são importantes para elas, saber a diferença entre o que é visto com um certo grau de utopia e a realidade. O lúdico é importante, mas para um outro universo. O final ” justo” dentro do que se pode compreender como tal, será fruto da escolha de cada um. Não posso dizer que esse é um final do tipo que acontece nos cinemas, coisas como ” foram felizes para sempre “. Por isso, acrescentei a  palavra ” justo”. Se a pessoa diante da capacidade de pensar, souber fazer escolhas saudáveis, o final tem esse sabor de felicidade, que é o que importa na somatória da vida. No mundo real, sobressai a razão, com uma leve pitada de emoção.

 

Marii Freire. Eu escrevo sobre histórias reais

https://Pensamentos.me/VEM comigo!

Imagem: Autoral

Santarém, Pá 27 de junho de 2024

Source: Eu escrevo sobre histórias reais – Pensamentos.me/VEM comigo!

Concrete blocks made from sugarcane waste – Darcy Hitchcock

Concrete is used around the world as a building material but the cement in it is a major greenhouse gas emitter. Researchers have figured out how to build blocks using the waste product from sugarcane. It’s so easy, you can make the blocks by hand, so this would be an ideal building material for developing countries like India that grow sugarcane.

Source: Concrete blocks made from sugarcane waste – Darcy Hitchcock

Florida: School Board Bans Book about Banning Books! | Diane Ravitch’s blog

At what point does Florida go from the absurd to the ridiculous? Or has that point already been passed? A school board in Florida voted to ban a book called Ban This Book.

I wish someone would explain to school board members, to Moms Restricting Liberty, and to Governor Ron DeSantis that whenever a book is banned, that book gets national notoriety and a big sales bump. Authors are thinking, “Please ban my book,” it needs publicity, and yahoos oblige.

Scott Maxwell, columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, writes:

The headline that made its way around the world last week looked like a joke:

“Florida school board bans book about book bans”

The story couldn’t have been more meta. Or more Florida. I half-hoped it was satire, but having covered Florida’s increasingly ridiculous education priorities in recent years, knew it wasn’t.

The Tallahassee Democrat explained that the Indian River County School Board voted 3-to-2 to ban a book called “Ban This Book.”

The book is a lighthearted yet poignant tale about a 9-year-old girl named Amy Anne Ollinger who, upon learning that her school is trying to censor books, decides to fight back by cultivating her own secret library in her school locker. It’s part comedy and part thought-provoker. Some of the book focuses on how Amy Anne doesn’t always go about things the right way.

A promotional blurb for the book says: “Ban This Book is a love letter to the written word and its power to give kids a voice.” Publishers Weekly said it celebrates “kids’ power to effect change.”

To that end, I have a new proposal for Florida’s book-banners: Before pushing to censor any book, you have to first actually read it and then prove you understood it. In this case, “Ban This Book” was written for 8-to-12-year-olds. So you might need to put on your thinking cap.

The story in Indian River got even more ridiculous when it revealed that virtually all the censorship stemmed from one person — a Moms for (so-called) Liberty member who objected to books by everyone from Toni Morrison to Kurt Vonnegut.

“She also got ‘Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation’ pulled from a high school,” the story said. “And, in response to her objection to a children’s book that showed the bare behind of a goblin, the school district drew clothes over it.”

OK, let’s stop here. If you’re a grown adult whose crowning accomplishments are to censor a book about the Holocaust, ban a book on book-banning and draw cartoon underpants on a cartoon goblin, then to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy: You might be an idiot.

So this is my plea today to my fellow Floridians during an election year: Stop electing idiots. Specifically, stop electing them to school boards.

Source: Florida: School Board Bans Book about Banning Books! | Diane Ravitch’s blog