childhood poverty

making good mondays- carol gee- has a post up on childhood poverty. i find it interesting- but not surprising- that the south dominates the childhood poverty rates. it is appalling to me with my tax rate that new york is also in that category.

Sphere: Related Content

SEXUALLY SEGREGATED EDUCATION: NOT!

As the mother of two daughters I must admit that there was a time when I was intrigued by the idea of separating boys and girls in our school classrooms. The idea, at the time, was that our first daughter would receive a high quality education without the unruly influence of high-spirited young men in the classroom, who might interfere with the educational process. In November, my husband (Enlightenment, PraetorOne’s father) and I had a beautiful menopause baby, a girl who we named Allison and the topic of Sexually Segregated Education was again brought to the front burner. Only this time I was dead set against it.Why?

Because for all intents and purposes Sexually Segregated Education is just that, a form of segregation and it is not being proposed because the people who created and who are currently promoting this movement think a great deal of women. Indeed I see a lot of self-hating women, and woman-hating men who are using pseudo science and over-generalizations to promote a very misogynistic agenda.

One proponent of segregation is Charlotte Allen of the Independent Women’s Form, who writes;

“The theory that women are the dumber sex…is amply supported by neurological and standardized testing. Men’s and women’s brains not only look different, but men’s brains are bigger than women’s ( even after adjusting for men’s generally bigger body size). The important difference is in the parietal cortex, which is associated with space perception. Visuoptical skills, the capacity to rotate three dimensional objects in the mind, at which men tend to excel over women, are in turn related to a capacity for abstract thinking and reasoning, the grounding for mathematics, science and philosophy.”

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

THIS Is Why Insurance-Based Healthcare Has to Go

As I’ve said a few times before, private insurance in this country has every reason in the world to drag their feet on (or flat-out deny) requests for treatment. If they wait long enough, the people in desperate need of treatments will die, saving the insurers millions that they can then use as bonuses for their CEOs. Executives of health insurance companies literally make a killing by making a killing.I don’t think that there’s a better example of the way private insurance in this country works than the example of Nataline Sarkisyan. CIGNA undoubtedly knew that if they stood firm, that nature would take its course and a big claim they might have had to pay would conveniently disappear. And of course, that’s exactly what happened.

Treatment decisions cannot be made by bean counters if a decent and just healthcare system is to exist. Healthcare decisions must be made by healthcare professionals. Now the wingtards always argue that this will just drive costs though the roof, and yet…… this country spends more per person on healthcare than any in the industrialized world, and we get far LESS value for our healthcare dollars than any “socialized” industrialized country gets. And right here, in front of you, is the answer as to why this works the way it does. Treatment decisions are made based on what is best for the INSURER, not what is best for the patient. We know of Nataline because of her family, but I guarantee you that day in and day out, every single day, many others will quietly DIE because treating them isn’t as cost-efficient as killing them is. Hell, the end of the year is coming up, and this might have shaved a bunch of money out of that bonus pool. What’s more important-one family that spends this Christmas grieving over the loss of a child, or a bunch of executives not getting to collect that extra swag at the end of the year? You don’t have to be a psychologist to figure out how the folks in charge at CIGNA would see it, do you?

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Help Save Pretty Bird Woman House…

Shark Fu has a simple but very important request. Please help save this important place by giving what ever you can. Visit AngryBlackBitch’s blog here.
According to a recent Amnesty International report, more than one in three American Indian and Alaskan Native women will be raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Domestic violence is also a serious problem. Often victims have nowhere to turn due to poverty, remote geography and tangled legal jurisdictions.

Local women’s shelters can make a dramatic difference in helping women cope with the effects of violence, and helping them escape from situations where further violence is likely.

Too often, these shelters are chronically under funded.

Zintkala Waste Win Oti (“Pretty Bird Woman House”) has run out of funding and will be forced to close in May if new resources can’t be found to fund it. It serves the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, which is on the border of North and South Dakota. The shelter was founded by Jackie Brown Otter after the kidnapping, rape and murder of her sister (whose Lakota name means Pretty Bird Woman).

As a shelter volunteer in my home town of St. Louis Missouri, I know how important local shelters are and I know how hard it is to keep the doors open.

Please help Pretty Bird Woman House keep the door open if you can.

Pretty Bird Woman House Chip In

Related Post by Andy Ternay over at Shakesville

Pretty Bird Woman House

Thanks.

Sphere: Related Content

More Fractured Christmas Carols…

Yes, another couple of ditty’s from the folks at Coalition For a Democratic America-Dusty

OH COME ALL YE STUDENTS
Based on “Oh Come Little Children”
by PraetorOne
Oh Come all you students, oh come one and all
To see a recruiter in high school halls.
There slickly they lie for the Bush war machine
So eager, so ready, so dishonestly
They say it is nothing, just think of the pay
The hell of the desert is too far away
Just sign on these papers, we know who you are
We simply won’t tell you that you’re off too war
Now praise our dear Jesus, the young soldier sings
As death and destruction, the Bush regime brings
The shrub in the office, sees death and gets high
While wounded young soldiers ask why must we die?

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Jesus the King? Or Filter Kings?

What would you think about a minister who worked for the death-peddlers of big tobacco? Would you think that perhaps the minister was being just a wee bit less than a messenger of God? And what if the minister then decided to lie about taking payoffs from big tobacco? Would you consider these to be the actions of a holy man?It seems that perhaps Jesusistanis should be asking their new favorite boy these questions. For it does appear that Godly Mike Huckabee went out and preached against universal healthcare (which you’d think a Christian pastor might see as a good thing,) and he got paid for doing it by big tobacco (not something we usually associate with messengers of God.) Talk about your conflicts of interest! The man of God was on the payroll of mercahts of death, to preach AGAINST giving aid and comfort to those too poor to afford it! Is your head spinning yet?

Of course it isn’t. Huck’s a phony, a charlatan, and a thoroughly despicable figure. The more we learn about Huck, the more our collective stomachs turn. That any preacher could sign up to do the bidding of a tobacco company is disgusting in and of itself, but then lying about it adds a whole new layer of contempt to the disgust that we naturally feel at learning of this. Huck is a repulsive serpent, no doubt a direct descendant of the fellow that whispered to Eve back in the day.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Mychal Bell pleads guilty to Battery.

Jena 6 news has been lacking lately..here is the latest from FindLaw:

‘Jena 6′ Teen Pleads Guilty to Battery

MARY FOSTER Associated Press Writer

(AP) – JENA, La.-A black teenager whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate led to one of the largest civil rights protests in years pleaded guilty Monday to a battery charge.

Mychal Bell, 17, originally was charged as an adult with attempted murder in the beating of Justin Barker in December 2006. That charge was reduced before a jury convicted him in June of aggravated second-degree battery. An appeals court threw that verdict out in September and ordered Bell retried as a juvenile.

Under his deal, Bell pleaded guilty to a juvenile charge of second-degree battery in return for an 18-month sentence, with credit for 10 months he already has served. Bell had faced being placed in a juvenile facility until his 21st birthday.

Although he has about eight months left to serve for the beating of Barker, Bell is currently serving a separate 18-month sentence for previous unrelated juvenile charges. He has about 16 months left on that sentence, which will run at the same time as the sentence in the Barker case.

Bell also must pay court costs plus $935 to Barker’s family, testify should his co-defendants in the Barker attack stand trial, undergo counseling and be reintegrated into the school system, his lawyers said.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Babies pick cooperation

Co-operation … makes it happen
Co-operation … working together
Dig it!
Co-operation … makes it happen
Co-operation … working together

Funny how prophetic those words from Sesame Street, trying to teach young children a skill they know apparently already know. An interesting study comes out of Yale this month, babies as young as 6 months pick “nice” over “mean”. Babies watched as a “googly-eyed-toy” tried to climb a roller coaster hills. Another googly toy came along and either pushed the toy off the hill or helped it climb. They were then presented with the toys to see which toy they would play with.

Nearly every child picked the “nice” toy over the bad ones. They also picked “nice” toys over neutral toys, toys that neither helped nor hindered. There was no difference between girls and boys. When the toys had their “eyes” removed (their human feature) babies did not make these distinctions.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

What Do You Tell The Children?

We are about 9 to 11 days (depending on what list SSG Dizzy is on) from Iraq Deployment 3.0. I have been thinking a lot about what and/or how much to tell the children about where “Daddy” is going and why.

My babies are aged 7 and 5. They understand that Daddy’s job takes him away for long periods of time. Most times, lately, at least, they can count on their own hands how long Daddy will be gone.

The last two times SSG Dizzy was deployed, they were far too young to understand where Daddy was or even why he was gone, now they are much older and more inquisitive.

We don’t even lie to our kids about Santa, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. Our kids understand that these “beings” are imaginary, that they don’t exist. We don’t threaten them with the loss of a visit from one of these “imaginary friends”, because we want them to understand that it’s Mommy and Daddy’s hard work that provides them with toys and candy and cash, not some “secretive being” that they will never meet.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

people who think

there are many things that puzzle me but one that has continuously perplexed me is the complexities of the american ghetto. i still wonder how one of the richest countries on the planet can have such places- and how we can continue to live happily and wilfully ignorant that there are indeed folks in this country who are desperately poor and starving. yes, we do have a homeless problem. rather than get into that can of worms in this post, i want to highlight someone who i think should get a nobel prize or something- because he has a really, really good idea. how good an idea? a reallllllly good one. i doubt like hell it will catch on- but it is still something worth promoting and jumping on the bandwagon about. here it is- i won’t even paraphrase:

“Mr. Jones, who heads the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, which helps kids avoid jail and secure jobs, has an idea how to change that — a “green-collar” jobs program that focuses on underprivileged youth. I would not underestimate him. Mr. Jones, age 39, and a Yale Law School grad, exudes enough energy to light a few buildings on his own.”

read the article here at alternet

tags:environment, innovative thinkers, progressive movements, ella baker center for human rights, human rights

Sphere: Related Content

girl talk

I am just an average 42 year old woman trying to survive in this crazy world. I love the thought of writing but don’t always have it in me. That said, I am the mother of 2 teenaged boys and one 21 year old boy. Let me tell you life is not easy! and I fear every sin I have ever made is coming back to me through my kids. The world is a whole lot different than when I grew up. I wanted to write about the boys but the thing bothering lately are girls. I want to know what happened. Girls today are so thin that I wonder if we were all obese growing up. I watch the girls walk in the city and my neighborhood with the belly shirts and they must all be a size 2 or less. Do they eat?, or is it peer pressure, or have bodies changed over time? I fear for these girls’ mental and emotional states- which leads me into my next issue- sexuality. Lately, it seems, I have been witnessing a ‘new’ phenomenon. Girls today seem to be proud to be experimenting with bi-sexual or lesbian relationships, as well as, heterosexual. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but I think it is more chic in these girls’ minds and it’s ‘the cool thing’ to be with both. I have met many girls who find it chic and I wonder if their parents even know what they’re doing and with whom. Have they talked about protection? I fear someday these girls will grow up and regret what they have done. So what do you all think? I’d like to hear your opinions.

tags: teen issues, teen eating disorders, parenting 2007

Sphere: Related Content

circle of love

Michael won’t look at me. His dark eyes scrunch shut above the white mask and he tenses as I approach. A few minutes and a slit of eye, then a turning of the head. He’s furious with me, still, two weeks after I rescued him from certain death and confined him to this lonely room where he must stay until the tuberculosis wracking his lungs is no longer contagious, while he’s pumped full of drugs to combat the virus that’s destroying him. He hates the mask, he hates the gown, he hates me and this room and he wants his mother and she doesn’t want him.

I am angry too. I am angry with this child’s mother, a woman dying of AIDS and tuberculosis who refused to give her son the meds he needed to survive. When I took him from her care, it had been 14 months since he’d seen a doctor. His TB was active and he coughed constantly and his T-cells were nonexistent and his viral count sky high. He is five years old and he has AIDS. She says the meds make him feel bad and they do. That’s clear in this tiny tiled room on the second floor of a crappy hospital, the only place in the state that would have anything to do with this little boy. Now that he’s dosed up, he’s lethargic and his tummy hurts and he sleeps all the time.

He doesn’t know it, but his mother’s in the hospital too. She is refusing treatment and hospice is giving her comfort and care and attention. It’s more than her son is getting. I can’t be with him all day and the hospital staff can’t spare anyone to sit with him all day and this little boy’s soul, it seems, is shriveling while his physical health improves and he’s watched, but not touched, by the camera in the corner of his room.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Kentucky and coal mining

This video is the first for a blogger that goes by the name of BlueMuse

I happened on her today by chance. She is a member of the OOIBC, as I am. We carry their blogroll here on Sirens. The music in this video about the Coal mining companies is performed by her Uncle Dave Parker. Its a great video folks, and I hope you watch it all and visit BlueMuse’s blog. ITs called the Truth about Mountaintop removal. It ain’t pretty and its ecologically fucked up what we do for ‘cheap’ coal and energy. They rape not only the citizens of the area, they rape the earth.

 

Sphere: Related Content

A TALE OF TWO BOYS

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….

In the month of February in the year 1988 two boy children were born in this, our great city. One white, born with great physical limitations, condemned to a life of seemingly endless pain and sorrow. The second black, also born with what some consider a limitation but many more possibilities than the first boy. They both attended local schools, becoming part and parcel of this community.

The first was lucky enough to be born into a devoted family, extended family with many friends. He never lacked for love, care or such opportunities that his life afforded. He passed away in 2004 loved, quietly with dignity, after bringing laughter, joy, insight and tolerance into all the lives he touched.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

COLA

The price of food is up. It’s always up. Rarely does the price go down unless there has been some record breaking problem that an industry has had to endure, like a hard frost in Florida and California and all the oranges froze. The price goes way up for orange juice, but then comes back down when the groves are established again and the crop is plentiful.

Supply and demand. If the supply in the warehouses is great and the demand is low, the price comes down. The opposite happens when there is a demand on the item. This is how the economy is driven, so we are told.

Problem is, because of so many “drivers” making prices go up, and people still need these items as a matter of everyday middle class survival, the price tends to stay high no matter what the supply. Fuel prices make transporting goods across the country expensive. This is a driver that makes the prices stay higher.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Next Page »