I guess Haliburton isn't getting enough phony contracts, so the remainder of us are supposed to buy
all the war equipment U.S. drones are replacing in our "armed" preparation of our Armed Forces.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Why Do We Keep Visiting The 1930s?
These references to Germany in the first half of the last century are so disrespectful- especially since
we did so much to create that situation.
We don't see 1863 as the First World War, but it may have been,
For more than two hundred years England, Portugal, France, and Spain got richer and richer from
slave colonies in the New World.
All Germany and Italy did wrong in those days was pay for all the work they needed to have done.
They were obviously late getting to the ship-building party for easy access to the west African coast
and the Middle Passage.
Within forty years of our Civil War, Germany was clearly suffering from having little to show for
the years leading up to their uniting the many small city-states in their territory. Italy struggled in the
same way.
No one is to blame for that; but the bitterness and resentment in those countries grew.
'Why should we be the hungry?' they fumed.
The war we call WWI blew the lid off that rage.
Nothing was settled by the 'end' of that war; therefore; within less than thirty years, the same agitant
countries, now including Japan for various reasons were even more desperate.
They turned on their own citizens, feeling the way to prosperity was exploitation.
They used the non-logic: No one cared when Armenians were recently subjected to genocide, so
no one will bother if we have to execute the same 'solutions' in our country.
Yet nothing could have been further from the most barbarous of truths.
Neither extremes of exploitation, attack, assault, rape, and kidnap with forced labor nor genocides
are reasonable paths toward enlarging human progress.
We can't stress enough how Jewish scientists undid the horrors of the 1930s with the invention of the
atomic bomb.
Lise Meitner, Niels Bohr, Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szillard, and many others with the 20th century genius needed to secure an awful solution to an awful scene came in many instances from tortured
flights out of Europe.
We added to the horrors by refusing to take Jewish children during the war we helped generate.
What was the excuse: 'The U.S. doesn't believe in breaking up families.'
What a naked lie that was.
we did so much to create that situation.
We don't see 1863 as the First World War, but it may have been,
For more than two hundred years England, Portugal, France, and Spain got richer and richer from
slave colonies in the New World.
All Germany and Italy did wrong in those days was pay for all the work they needed to have done.
They were obviously late getting to the ship-building party for easy access to the west African coast
and the Middle Passage.
Within forty years of our Civil War, Germany was clearly suffering from having little to show for
the years leading up to their uniting the many small city-states in their territory. Italy struggled in the
same way.
No one is to blame for that; but the bitterness and resentment in those countries grew.
'Why should we be the hungry?' they fumed.
The war we call WWI blew the lid off that rage.
Nothing was settled by the 'end' of that war; therefore; within less than thirty years, the same agitant
countries, now including Japan for various reasons were even more desperate.
They turned on their own citizens, feeling the way to prosperity was exploitation.
They used the non-logic: No one cared when Armenians were recently subjected to genocide, so
no one will bother if we have to execute the same 'solutions' in our country.
Yet nothing could have been further from the most barbarous of truths.
Neither extremes of exploitation, attack, assault, rape, and kidnap with forced labor nor genocides
are reasonable paths toward enlarging human progress.
We can't stress enough how Jewish scientists undid the horrors of the 1930s with the invention of the
atomic bomb.
Lise Meitner, Niels Bohr, Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szillard, and many others with the 20th century genius needed to secure an awful solution to an awful scene came in many instances from tortured
flights out of Europe.
We added to the horrors by refusing to take Jewish children during the war we helped generate.
What was the excuse: 'The U.S. doesn't believe in breaking up families.'
What a naked lie that was.
You Earn- But I Work
I guess people in this country don't understand the work/earn equation.
If I do the work, I need to earn a portion of the work product, or its equivalent.
The stock you own doesn't give you a right to all the labor I provide in a workplace.
I hope Democrats will take heed of that going forward, because Republicans have no intention
of doing so.
The Tea Party was originally going to address banks getting bailouts without limiting bonuses
or continuing worst practices against consumer protection.
Somehow, they let someone derail them into a glut of ideological nonsense.
We need advocates for instance, for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall.
I don't get what we are doing instead
If I do the work, I need to earn a portion of the work product, or its equivalent.
The stock you own doesn't give you a right to all the labor I provide in a workplace.
I hope Democrats will take heed of that going forward, because Republicans have no intention
of doing so.
The Tea Party was originally going to address banks getting bailouts without limiting bonuses
or continuing worst practices against consumer protection.
Somehow, they let someone derail them into a glut of ideological nonsense.
We need advocates for instance, for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall.
I don't get what we are doing instead
Again Paul Ryan Uses Fuzzy Thinking
What makes the American right wing cling so firmly to marriage as a completely valid way of life for
adults?
For every great marriage, there is one which isn't very nurturing.
Besides, so many marriages are absolutely dangerous, mainly for women.
Women are done more harm by men they know than by men who are strangers to them.
When a married woman is killed or otherwise lost to her family in some mysterious way, her husband is statistically the one who has done her harm.
People arrested and jailed in this country have often done nothing especially criminal. America
criminalizes any sort of behavior it wants to have as a way of disenfranchising its citizens. Persons
having only one parent are many times the ones who haven't the means to become free.
It takes money to get out of any sort of trouble here, and as we know, divorced families, especially
divorced moms, have fewer means than intact families.
However, people trapped in ugly relationships spawn many types of misery and dysfunction.
Russia, for instance, complaining so bitterly about children adopted by foreigners, has shown us
outlawing divorce gives a country many dead parents, many jailed parents, and many, many orphans.
Purist, idealist philosophies may be wonderfully utopian for some groups in any society. However,
no box can neatly sequester all life choices for every person all the time.
The box will break!
The matter is reflective of when, not if.
People like Ryan and his cohorts have no clear idea of when to stop trying to decide for every person.
adults?
For every great marriage, there is one which isn't very nurturing.
Besides, so many marriages are absolutely dangerous, mainly for women.
Women are done more harm by men they know than by men who are strangers to them.
When a married woman is killed or otherwise lost to her family in some mysterious way, her husband is statistically the one who has done her harm.
People arrested and jailed in this country have often done nothing especially criminal. America
criminalizes any sort of behavior it wants to have as a way of disenfranchising its citizens. Persons
having only one parent are many times the ones who haven't the means to become free.
It takes money to get out of any sort of trouble here, and as we know, divorced families, especially
divorced moms, have fewer means than intact families.
However, people trapped in ugly relationships spawn many types of misery and dysfunction.
Russia, for instance, complaining so bitterly about children adopted by foreigners, has shown us
outlawing divorce gives a country many dead parents, many jailed parents, and many, many orphans.
Purist, idealist philosophies may be wonderfully utopian for some groups in any society. However,
no box can neatly sequester all life choices for every person all the time.
The box will break!
The matter is reflective of when, not if.
People like Ryan and his cohorts have no clear idea of when to stop trying to decide for every person.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Criticize 'My Brother's Keeper'?
When President Obama says he is concerned about the future of young black men, he is by default
advocating for black women.
Most black women have their children while still relatively young.
When they have a girl, they worry. They plan to keep her safe.
Increasingly, when they have a boy, they gasp with a terror of what will keep him safe.
advocating for black women.
Most black women have their children while still relatively young.
When they have a girl, they worry. They plan to keep her safe.
Increasingly, when they have a boy, they gasp with a terror of what will keep him safe.
Why Terrorize New Yorkers And Their Neighbors?
I don't get it. Don't Cuomo and Christie know how awful September 11 is as an anniversary of horror
for New Yorkers and Jersyites? Why would they not have picked up the phone to put a stop to the
stranding of all those GWB motorists before 9-11 came up on the calendar?
What exactly did they hope to accomplish in the public? Did they really believe people would all try
to call the Mayor of Fort Lee?
Are they duncey?
It's their job to know what's going on when thousands are impacted.
It's their job to put a stop to mass trapping.
Why blame this on subordinates.
They both need to answer for this.
They spoke to each other on the phone, but not to stop the debacle.
for New Yorkers and Jersyites? Why would they not have picked up the phone to put a stop to the
stranding of all those GWB motorists before 9-11 came up on the calendar?
What exactly did they hope to accomplish in the public? Did they really believe people would all try
to call the Mayor of Fort Lee?
Are they duncey?
It's their job to know what's going on when thousands are impacted.
It's their job to put a stop to mass trapping.
Why blame this on subordinates.
They both need to answer for this.
They spoke to each other on the phone, but not to stop the debacle.
Rabid Ryan With His Atheist And Racist Pals
Does Paul Ryan realize we have no men in the inner city who draw welfare checks?
What is he talking about with this "culture of work" foul drivel ushering forth from his filthy mouth?
Who is he to ridicule an entire culture?
If inner city men don't work, how do they live, in the furtive imaginations of the right wing?
Does Ryan think people have to worship Ayn Rand and her ugly theories in order to have a worthy
culture? No wonder he and Scott Walker are such clots. Let them remain agglutinated then,
preferably outside the White House.
Scott Walker was completely useless as a Social Services of Wisconsin administrator. As such, the
taxpayers in Wisconsin payed someone twice to handle nearly every person's claim who eventually got services they qualified for during Scott's tenure.
Charles Murray and co. used nonsensical views to attach statistics to an intellectualized version
of the weeds growing in their twisted thoughts processes- weeds someone like President Obama could see growing from miles away, and therefore successfully skirt them.
Is Paul Ryan's 'culture of work' something he hasn't seen in generation after generation of inner city
men who bought so many homes in the cities after WWII?
These men weren't given an opportunity to buy their homes anywhere else.
And once the banks had sold the men their homes, they left the neighborhoods.
Many of the hardware stores left.
Butchers left.
Bakeries left.
Shoe repair stores left.
Grocers left.
Medical specialists left. Some General Practitioners
Dentists left, but thankfully were replaced.
So many established businesses left.
No concerns were left to take the places of these business, to hire people who had worked there previously, or been served previously, in most instances.
Minority businesses rarely got loans.
As jobs grew scarce, crime grew plentiful. Not vice verse.
When black people in my neighborhood finally got bank jobs around 1969, I worked for a while
in loans. Black men got loans at National Bank of Detroit for brand new Cadillacs.
Those who applied for used cars were turned down en masse.
Black men applying for home improvement loans in that year were turned down en masse.
Men who could not fill out the app very well because they spoke an Eastern European language
were nearly always loaned the cash they requested.
Most of the loans were granted to one company, though, not many individuals.
In Detroit, most businesses were liquor stores or beauty shops.
How many people can these businesses hire?
We do buy fast foods. So many inner city workers have those very low-paying fast food jobs.
Any businesses staying in our city,of course, had to endure continuously skyrocketing insurance costs.
So does R.R. believe the men he castigates should join the plumbers union?
Michigan is a right to work state so far in name only. How many Master Plumbers actually are
accepted for professional work here in Detroit? Our plumbers do good work, but aren't hired for
professional work at union wages.
How many of Detroit's professional electricians are registered with the state. and offered union work.
I worked with a teacher here in the city whose husband worked on the Detroit Metropolitan Airport
renovations a few years back. I knew he was an engineer, and she was a black teacher. I felt a surge
of pride when I spoke to her about it. I said, "It's very unusual for black engineers to get those
professional big jobs. So I see progress has been made."
She laughed a little, saying- "Oh, my husband is not black."
I remember thinking, 'do tell- same ole same ole'.
I know so many black engineers who did so well in school. When they get into the world of work,
they do the work; but someone else's name goes on the big projects.
Black guys are not hired as Journeymen nine times out of ten at best, and many times they are
not hired ten times of ten unless they get a municipal hire.
Black men in this city bury their male relatives who have worked themselves to death in many cases.
Black men work as hard in civilian life as they do when they join the armed services.
And for many, many years after Social Security began getting deducted form many of our paychecks
in this community, black men who worked for the deductions got no chance at all to collect payments. They had such a high death rate from getting the 'last hired, first fired' low seniority,
most labor intensive jobs.
When did Paul Ryan or Scott Walker ever get behind an inner city jobs initiative so they could
see if black men would apply for the jobs. Oh wait...they became leaders so that they could criticise
and vilify the jobless, not so they could work on unemployment issues. Why would leadership
suggest something of that sort?
These poisonous men have no leg to stand on when discussing our inner city cultures. Yes, we have
many.
Men in my culture have been working and soldiering in this country for 400 years. They can bet their
bottoms dollars no such thing can likely be said of their ancestors.
Plantations, ship building, (for trading and transporting African workers and the crops they brought forth) breeding farms, and many other detestable businesses built Wall Street,built Harvard, built the entire Atlantic seacoast, and funded the westward movement of American settlers across the plains
and into the mountains clear to the Pacific.
America was wilderness from 1492 until 1619.
In 1620, a year after the Africans arrived, for the first time a colonial settlement, inVirginia, declared a profit.
The work they did for centuries to come cost them dearly, is still costing their children's children's
children; but made it possible for America to receive the tired and poor ancestors of the Paul Ryans
and Scott Walkers in this country.
Poisonous little people like Ryan and Scott have to spew forth the filth in them, and so why not spew
it all over someone else's culture- not the one which sadly spawned them.
What is he talking about with this "culture of work" foul drivel ushering forth from his filthy mouth?
Who is he to ridicule an entire culture?
If inner city men don't work, how do they live, in the furtive imaginations of the right wing?
Does Ryan think people have to worship Ayn Rand and her ugly theories in order to have a worthy
culture? No wonder he and Scott Walker are such clots. Let them remain agglutinated then,
preferably outside the White House.
Scott Walker was completely useless as a Social Services of Wisconsin administrator. As such, the
taxpayers in Wisconsin payed someone twice to handle nearly every person's claim who eventually got services they qualified for during Scott's tenure.
Charles Murray and co. used nonsensical views to attach statistics to an intellectualized version
of the weeds growing in their twisted thoughts processes- weeds someone like President Obama could see growing from miles away, and therefore successfully skirt them.
Is Paul Ryan's 'culture of work' something he hasn't seen in generation after generation of inner city
men who bought so many homes in the cities after WWII?
These men weren't given an opportunity to buy their homes anywhere else.
And once the banks had sold the men their homes, they left the neighborhoods.
Many of the hardware stores left.
Butchers left.
Bakeries left.
Shoe repair stores left.
Grocers left.
Medical specialists left. Some General Practitioners
Dentists left, but thankfully were replaced.
So many established businesses left.
No concerns were left to take the places of these business, to hire people who had worked there previously, or been served previously, in most instances.
Minority businesses rarely got loans.
As jobs grew scarce, crime grew plentiful. Not vice verse.
When black people in my neighborhood finally got bank jobs around 1969, I worked for a while
in loans. Black men got loans at National Bank of Detroit for brand new Cadillacs.
Those who applied for used cars were turned down en masse.
Black men applying for home improvement loans in that year were turned down en masse.
Men who could not fill out the app very well because they spoke an Eastern European language
were nearly always loaned the cash they requested.
Most of the loans were granted to one company, though, not many individuals.
In Detroit, most businesses were liquor stores or beauty shops.
How many people can these businesses hire?
We do buy fast foods. So many inner city workers have those very low-paying fast food jobs.
Any businesses staying in our city,of course, had to endure continuously skyrocketing insurance costs.
So does R.R. believe the men he castigates should join the plumbers union?
Michigan is a right to work state so far in name only. How many Master Plumbers actually are
accepted for professional work here in Detroit? Our plumbers do good work, but aren't hired for
professional work at union wages.
How many of Detroit's professional electricians are registered with the state. and offered union work.
I worked with a teacher here in the city whose husband worked on the Detroit Metropolitan Airport
renovations a few years back. I knew he was an engineer, and she was a black teacher. I felt a surge
of pride when I spoke to her about it. I said, "It's very unusual for black engineers to get those
professional big jobs. So I see progress has been made."
She laughed a little, saying- "Oh, my husband is not black."
I remember thinking, 'do tell- same ole same ole'.
I know so many black engineers who did so well in school. When they get into the world of work,
they do the work; but someone else's name goes on the big projects.
Black guys are not hired as Journeymen nine times out of ten at best, and many times they are
not hired ten times of ten unless they get a municipal hire.
Black men in this city bury their male relatives who have worked themselves to death in many cases.
Black men work as hard in civilian life as they do when they join the armed services.
And for many, many years after Social Security began getting deducted form many of our paychecks
in this community, black men who worked for the deductions got no chance at all to collect payments. They had such a high death rate from getting the 'last hired, first fired' low seniority,
most labor intensive jobs.
When did Paul Ryan or Scott Walker ever get behind an inner city jobs initiative so they could
see if black men would apply for the jobs. Oh wait...they became leaders so that they could criticise
and vilify the jobless, not so they could work on unemployment issues. Why would leadership
suggest something of that sort?
These poisonous men have no leg to stand on when discussing our inner city cultures. Yes, we have
many.
Men in my culture have been working and soldiering in this country for 400 years. They can bet their
bottoms dollars no such thing can likely be said of their ancestors.
Plantations, ship building, (for trading and transporting African workers and the crops they brought forth) breeding farms, and many other detestable businesses built Wall Street,built Harvard, built the entire Atlantic seacoast, and funded the westward movement of American settlers across the plains
and into the mountains clear to the Pacific.
America was wilderness from 1492 until 1619.
In 1620, a year after the Africans arrived, for the first time a colonial settlement, inVirginia, declared a profit.
The work they did for centuries to come cost them dearly, is still costing their children's children's
children; but made it possible for America to receive the tired and poor ancestors of the Paul Ryans
and Scott Walkers in this country.
Poisonous little people like Ryan and Scott have to spew forth the filth in them, and so why not spew
it all over someone else's culture- not the one which sadly spawned them.
Malaysian Air
The fact that so many families are doing without loved ones is patently awful.
We have so much technology, and so much engineering and data capability in this world. How in
the world could a tin can weighing so many tons simply vanish?
In my humble opinion, if the person in charge of the flying eight days ago disabled the transponders
and all five radios, then flew toward a 45,000 ft altitude, he or she did this in order to make sure
everyone else on the lane passed out cold.
If the plane then got back down, the pilot surely knew how to fly under the radar.
These pilots could have worked in tandem, or one waited until the other was on some sort of break.
Because the two didn't ask to fly together, nothing can be assumed. For them to say, 'the next time
we do fly together, here's the plan'.
And if they are experienced, and at least one of them did have decades on the job, they would have
no trouble landing on an aircraft carrier. They would have no trouble hiding such a ship in rugged
coastline, especially if they disguised it.
Clearly if any of this is true, or even remotely true, the perpetrators are sociopathic psycopaths.
I made that term up for any who would plan to 'disappear' so many persons at one time, thereby
negatively affecting so many hundreds of lives at once.
Of course if this lane accidentally disappeared- and I doubt it, I stand corrected right now.
The only other theory I have is that our friends and neighbors mainly from China had a 'close
encounter'.
We have so much technology, and so much engineering and data capability in this world. How in
the world could a tin can weighing so many tons simply vanish?
In my humble opinion, if the person in charge of the flying eight days ago disabled the transponders
and all five radios, then flew toward a 45,000 ft altitude, he or she did this in order to make sure
everyone else on the lane passed out cold.
If the plane then got back down, the pilot surely knew how to fly under the radar.
These pilots could have worked in tandem, or one waited until the other was on some sort of break.
Because the two didn't ask to fly together, nothing can be assumed. For them to say, 'the next time
we do fly together, here's the plan'.
And if they are experienced, and at least one of them did have decades on the job, they would have
no trouble landing on an aircraft carrier. They would have no trouble hiding such a ship in rugged
coastline, especially if they disguised it.
Clearly if any of this is true, or even remotely true, the perpetrators are sociopathic psycopaths.
I made that term up for any who would plan to 'disappear' so many persons at one time, thereby
negatively affecting so many hundreds of lives at once.
Of course if this lane accidentally disappeared- and I doubt it, I stand corrected right now.
The only other theory I have is that our friends and neighbors mainly from China had a 'close
encounter'.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Paul Ryan- The Critical Thinker
Why can't Paul Ryan read anything beside Atlas Shrugged?
What did he mean in 2012 by "don't feed fish"?
He meant nothing. He spoke jibberish.
Why did he believe he heard a story about a child who believed love is a "brown paper bag"?
According to my eldest daughter, who has seldom been out of work during the past thirty years, Paul Ryan understands both the dignity gleaned from work, and that gleaned from knowing hungry children.
What did he mean in 2012 by "don't feed fish"?
He meant nothing. He spoke jibberish.
Why did he believe he heard a story about a child who believed love is a "brown paper bag"?
According to my eldest daughter, who has seldom been out of work during the past thirty years, Paul Ryan understands both the dignity gleaned from work, and that gleaned from knowing hungry children.
Putin The Masterful?
As usual, the right wing may be way off the mark in their world affairs assessments.
Didn't Putin wreck his own Olympic games and investments thereof with a badly-timed series of assaults on the personal liberties of peaceful Russian citizens who were deemed "gay"?
Didn't he have his bare breasted horse-riding hips handed to him on a platter when the Ukraine
deposed his hand-picked leader and sent him packing?
Isn't Putin reacting?
I don't blame him exactly. NATO would have been wiser to find a more diplomatic way to
entice Ukraine into the EU, with Russian blessings if possible.
But I'm no expert either, of course. I have read enough to know former USSR countries, territories,
and satellites were thought of by the Kremlin, as integral to each others' well-being, and to Moscow's stability.
Ukraine, for instance, has food. Crimea has an open sea port, passably unfrozen all year long, and
Russia has plenty of oil.
Putin could have been more proactive about preserving the unity in the Ukraine before the east and
west headed toward climax.
How is it so admirable to aggress after a crisis is underway? Prevention is leadership.
Why are we praising Putin for insisting al Asad remain as head of Syria?
He did that so to keep the U.S. Congress from voting in a war. I don't think he had a worry there
anyway. I guess he was just taking the path of least destruction. Tough guy.
I know he says he is a religious man. I'm sorry I don't believe a bit of it. He was KGB.
He is still, deep down, in his politically furtive imaginings, Kremlin loyal.
Didn't Putin wreck his own Olympic games and investments thereof with a badly-timed series of assaults on the personal liberties of peaceful Russian citizens who were deemed "gay"?
Didn't he have his bare breasted horse-riding hips handed to him on a platter when the Ukraine
deposed his hand-picked leader and sent him packing?
Isn't Putin reacting?
I don't blame him exactly. NATO would have been wiser to find a more diplomatic way to
entice Ukraine into the EU, with Russian blessings if possible.
But I'm no expert either, of course. I have read enough to know former USSR countries, territories,
and satellites were thought of by the Kremlin, as integral to each others' well-being, and to Moscow's stability.
Ukraine, for instance, has food. Crimea has an open sea port, passably unfrozen all year long, and
Russia has plenty of oil.
Putin could have been more proactive about preserving the unity in the Ukraine before the east and
west headed toward climax.
How is it so admirable to aggress after a crisis is underway? Prevention is leadership.
Why are we praising Putin for insisting al Asad remain as head of Syria?
He did that so to keep the U.S. Congress from voting in a war. I don't think he had a worry there
anyway. I guess he was just taking the path of least destruction. Tough guy.
I know he says he is a religious man. I'm sorry I don't believe a bit of it. He was KGB.
He is still, deep down, in his politically furtive imaginings, Kremlin loyal.
The Concert Was A Smash
After the concert, a good time was had by all at the Afterglow.
The strolling dinner had begun at 5:30pm. The concert was at 8.
By the time 10pm came around, Ms. Battle was doing the "cupid shuffle".
One reason this concert was so important for The Brazeal Dennard Chorale, was that its members
have gone down to about twenty members.
Ms. Battle wouldn't do the concert unless the choir could amass at least another twenty members
ready for the evening.
So, many former members came back in time to rehearse for the one evening.
Now the Chorale hopes some of those old members will keep coming back for awhile.
Possibly, some others are not up to the professional musical rigor of the regular weekly program.
Only special concerts answer the call of a week of four hour rehearsals every day!
I know...concert educations aren't all that important these days.
The strolling dinner had begun at 5:30pm. The concert was at 8.
By the time 10pm came around, Ms. Battle was doing the "cupid shuffle".
One reason this concert was so important for The Brazeal Dennard Chorale, was that its members
have gone down to about twenty members.
Ms. Battle wouldn't do the concert unless the choir could amass at least another twenty members
ready for the evening.
So, many former members came back in time to rehearse for the one evening.
Now the Chorale hopes some of those old members will keep coming back for awhile.
Possibly, some others are not up to the professional musical rigor of the regular weekly program.
Only special concerts answer the call of a week of four hour rehearsals every day!
I know...concert educations aren't all that important these days.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Kathleen Battle Is In Detroit!
She has a fabulous, classically operatic voice.- storied at the New York Met.
She will sing in our Classical Roots concert.
Dr. Augustus Hill will conduct some of the music, and his chorus, The Brazeal Dennard Chorale
will sing.
Leonard Slatkin is conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at our Orchestra Hall here.
Ms. Battle is famous.
Leonard Slatkin is Americana famous.
Orchestra Hall is famous for its acoustics.
Classical Roots is semi-famous.
Dr. Hill is a master at black music with a dual degree Ph.D. in theory and composition from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, as well as a Ph.D. from the U of M in choral conducting.
Recently, Dr. Hill and the Chorale won a Gold and Silver medal at World Choir Games in Ohio.
(Funny aside: one of the presenters at World Choir Games looked at the Chorale with puzzlement
saying, "You don't look Brazilian!")
Orchestra Hall is sold out for tonight, or nearly so.
Brande Everett is not famous. However, she does have some solo parts in tonight's concert.
One of her best pieces can be heard on soprande.com from a concert done in Ireland.
The rehearsals for tonight's concert are a pretty good story.
The chorale does Classical Roots every year. They didn't know a famous opera singer would sing
with them this year. They still aren't quite sure how she chose them.
These rehearsals have been going on all week.
On Monday Ms. Battle was chanting "I chose you!" She had a lot of changes to make, and she wanted total cooperation.
As the week wore on, I guess people snapped into shape, so she became more amenable to what would happen with them on concert night.
Then Leonard Slatkin got onto some artistic temperament shrugging over how Ms. Battle wanted
the music for her spirituals with the DSO. He admitted he hadn't known what a spiritual was until
Dr. Hill told him last year. But he is the conductor, so she has to work with him.
She talked about cadenzas and plagels and the choir felt some "diva" had begun to show up in her.
Late in the week professionals seemed to be in all areas of the hall, offering critiques.
Ms. Battle spoke then through her assistant.
When she spoke to the choir in person she let them know to pronounce the words in the spirituals
the way the original African American composers spoke.
She would not allow any sort of broadcast or taping.
At one point when Ms. Battle felt she was looking at a camera light, she threatened to phone
her management company.
She insisted to the DSO that the Brazeal Dennard Chorale stay on stage for the entire concert.
Kathleen Battle is from Cleveland; but here she is a true citizen.
She called Dr. Hill "Gus" as a sign of their professional camaraderie.
Slatkin, however, kept calling him, 'Mr. Hill".
We Detroiters are so proud on this concert and of our continued committment to the African
American spirituals.
Wish us luck for tonight.
She will sing in our Classical Roots concert.
Dr. Augustus Hill will conduct some of the music, and his chorus, The Brazeal Dennard Chorale
will sing.
Leonard Slatkin is conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at our Orchestra Hall here.
Ms. Battle is famous.
Leonard Slatkin is Americana famous.
Orchestra Hall is famous for its acoustics.
Classical Roots is semi-famous.
Dr. Hill is a master at black music with a dual degree Ph.D. in theory and composition from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, as well as a Ph.D. from the U of M in choral conducting.
Recently, Dr. Hill and the Chorale won a Gold and Silver medal at World Choir Games in Ohio.
(Funny aside: one of the presenters at World Choir Games looked at the Chorale with puzzlement
saying, "You don't look Brazilian!")
Orchestra Hall is sold out for tonight, or nearly so.
Brande Everett is not famous. However, she does have some solo parts in tonight's concert.
One of her best pieces can be heard on soprande.com from a concert done in Ireland.
The rehearsals for tonight's concert are a pretty good story.
The chorale does Classical Roots every year. They didn't know a famous opera singer would sing
with them this year. They still aren't quite sure how she chose them.
These rehearsals have been going on all week.
On Monday Ms. Battle was chanting "I chose you!" She had a lot of changes to make, and she wanted total cooperation.
As the week wore on, I guess people snapped into shape, so she became more amenable to what would happen with them on concert night.
Then Leonard Slatkin got onto some artistic temperament shrugging over how Ms. Battle wanted
the music for her spirituals with the DSO. He admitted he hadn't known what a spiritual was until
Dr. Hill told him last year. But he is the conductor, so she has to work with him.
She talked about cadenzas and plagels and the choir felt some "diva" had begun to show up in her.
Late in the week professionals seemed to be in all areas of the hall, offering critiques.
Ms. Battle spoke then through her assistant.
When she spoke to the choir in person she let them know to pronounce the words in the spirituals
the way the original African American composers spoke.
She would not allow any sort of broadcast or taping.
At one point when Ms. Battle felt she was looking at a camera light, she threatened to phone
her management company.
She insisted to the DSO that the Brazeal Dennard Chorale stay on stage for the entire concert.
Kathleen Battle is from Cleveland; but here she is a true citizen.
She called Dr. Hill "Gus" as a sign of their professional camaraderie.
Slatkin, however, kept calling him, 'Mr. Hill".
We Detroiters are so proud on this concert and of our continued committment to the African
American spirituals.
Wish us luck for tonight.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
One Nightmare Leads To Another
In the 16th, 17th, and 18th century, Portugal, Spain, then England, and England by way of the
British colonies in North America, grew richer and richer from slave colonies first in South and Central America, and then in North America.
Even Rome by way of the Popes of the time grew their coffers.
British colonies in North America, grew richer and richer from slave colonies first in South and Central America, and then in North America.
Even Rome by way of the Popes of the time grew their coffers.
The Russia Reagan Created
The fall of the Soviet Union was highlighted in this country by the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
However, so many diplomats, statesmen, professors and journalists warned of the certainty of consequences like the ones we endure in present day Somalia, and with Al Queda.
We were also warned that Star Wars would destabilize the Soviet countries in such a way that they
would forever be subject to prisoner-of-war treatment by Russia and pro-Soviet forces.
Reagan refused to listen. As predicted, leaders of the collapsing Soviet Union who stopped getting paid by a bankrupt treasury, sold everything they could get their hands on,
to any group which could pay them. They didn't make political distinctions about possibly outfitting future terrorists. We were told that they wouldn't.
It took mammoth efforts and a tremendous fortune to track down the nuclear
materials which of course were still never all completely gathered or neutralized.
We got so many bad deals from the Reagan years. Present day Crimea and Ukraine are only the latest.
There was Georgia, Chechnya, and there will be more.
Many of us could care less about the former Soviet countries. We don't have to care. But Europe has
refused fracking. So when our aquifers are all oily enough for us have the energy we want
at cheap prices, Europe may trump us and the former Soviets to boot by selling us the fresh water
we need. Oil prices are way more stable when Russia and the Ukraine can agree on borders and
mutual autonomies. We need those prices stable, because we have begun to prize the greasy over
the universal solvent.
Humans can live much longer without food than they can without water.
And places like West Virginia already endure way more natural abortion and birth defect rates
than the country at large because of the non-quality of their water.
Maybe Right To Life should get on that band wagon.
Europe, America, and Japan all have aged populations. If we want to survive as the most powerful
economy in the world, we have to adjust to righting so many of the disgusting trends we embraced in the retarded Reagan presidency. Aids, for instance, put the last bit of dirt over the coffins of an
ailing health care industry, and closed so very many emergency rooms, mainly in heartland America.
Republicans went right along with those eighties policies whole-heartedly. Now we are paying
the price so much so that we have no choice but to overhaul our entire health care system.
The only truly fine-toothed comb medical centers came to be at university hospitals; and that has
put so very much pressure on university systems that many more middle-classed students are priced
out an education than has been true since WWII.
At the time, I'm sure America loved all these truly awful policies because Reagan's was a backlash presidency. But we have been
paying for these backward thinking excitements for so long now, we're hemorrhaging resources.
We are a country with miles of arable land we need to protect and to keep viable. The world is way
too interconnected now for us to think Putin's antics won't affect us.
As a matter of fact, I believe I'm feeling more of a pinch at the pump right now, like prices seemed
to be higher yesterday than they were last week. I can't see this as part of a good summer, at a time
when food prices are going up because we have emergency disaster drought conditions in California.
Besides, we can expect food prices in the fertile west Ukraine to go up now since they will need
the money, which means everything in Europe, in our trading partner countries will go up soon as well.
It's a good thing we are positioned to expand trade in the Pacific Rim now. We have to educate our
manufacturing sector to perform more technologically sophisticated tasks as we relinquish some 20th
century skill level work to other nations. If we don't do this, especially when Russia seems to be co-opting all the countries once again who would like to be partners with countries we trade with already, China will move into that space because they are looking to do the same thing we're attempting: upgrade manufacturing centers to more technologically sophisticated wonders.
As we keep down oil prices, we need to keep down food prices as well. That means Republicans
are finally right if they will do what John Boehner says they will: cooperate with President Obama
in helping Russia to see it has to compete, not annex.
We have enough fresh water to keep our crops safe at this moment, but not if we threaten our water to keep energy prices down. Since it's hard enough to convince the oil and gas industry this is true as it
is, this year is a bad, bad time for crises to threaten oil prices here.
We have every reason to want to keep Russia and the Ukraine from stand-offs. Germany has a great
vested interest in this as well.
Why care about Germany?
Well, Germany is dependent on oil stability in that region as well land Germany and Duetchbank are the principal entities keeping Europe from deeper recession. We do need some healthy economies in our trading partners, after all, and we need NATO.
If Europe slips more quickly into recession at this time, how do we get paid?
I hope President Obama will do all he can do diplomatically, to calm the Russian aggression
without making Moscow feel too desperate.
However, so many diplomats, statesmen, professors and journalists warned of the certainty of consequences like the ones we endure in present day Somalia, and with Al Queda.
We were also warned that Star Wars would destabilize the Soviet countries in such a way that they
would forever be subject to prisoner-of-war treatment by Russia and pro-Soviet forces.
Reagan refused to listen. As predicted, leaders of the collapsing Soviet Union who stopped getting paid by a bankrupt treasury, sold everything they could get their hands on,
to any group which could pay them. They didn't make political distinctions about possibly outfitting future terrorists. We were told that they wouldn't.
It took mammoth efforts and a tremendous fortune to track down the nuclear
materials which of course were still never all completely gathered or neutralized.
We got so many bad deals from the Reagan years. Present day Crimea and Ukraine are only the latest.
There was Georgia, Chechnya, and there will be more.
Many of us could care less about the former Soviet countries. We don't have to care. But Europe has
refused fracking. So when our aquifers are all oily enough for us have the energy we want
at cheap prices, Europe may trump us and the former Soviets to boot by selling us the fresh water
we need. Oil prices are way more stable when Russia and the Ukraine can agree on borders and
mutual autonomies. We need those prices stable, because we have begun to prize the greasy over
the universal solvent.
Humans can live much longer without food than they can without water.
And places like West Virginia already endure way more natural abortion and birth defect rates
than the country at large because of the non-quality of their water.
Maybe Right To Life should get on that band wagon.
Europe, America, and Japan all have aged populations. If we want to survive as the most powerful
economy in the world, we have to adjust to righting so many of the disgusting trends we embraced in the retarded Reagan presidency. Aids, for instance, put the last bit of dirt over the coffins of an
ailing health care industry, and closed so very many emergency rooms, mainly in heartland America.
Republicans went right along with those eighties policies whole-heartedly. Now we are paying
the price so much so that we have no choice but to overhaul our entire health care system.
The only truly fine-toothed comb medical centers came to be at university hospitals; and that has
put so very much pressure on university systems that many more middle-classed students are priced
out an education than has been true since WWII.
At the time, I'm sure America loved all these truly awful policies because Reagan's was a backlash presidency. But we have been
paying for these backward thinking excitements for so long now, we're hemorrhaging resources.
We are a country with miles of arable land we need to protect and to keep viable. The world is way
too interconnected now for us to think Putin's antics won't affect us.
As a matter of fact, I believe I'm feeling more of a pinch at the pump right now, like prices seemed
to be higher yesterday than they were last week. I can't see this as part of a good summer, at a time
when food prices are going up because we have emergency disaster drought conditions in California.
Besides, we can expect food prices in the fertile west Ukraine to go up now since they will need
the money, which means everything in Europe, in our trading partner countries will go up soon as well.
It's a good thing we are positioned to expand trade in the Pacific Rim now. We have to educate our
manufacturing sector to perform more technologically sophisticated tasks as we relinquish some 20th
century skill level work to other nations. If we don't do this, especially when Russia seems to be co-opting all the countries once again who would like to be partners with countries we trade with already, China will move into that space because they are looking to do the same thing we're attempting: upgrade manufacturing centers to more technologically sophisticated wonders.
As we keep down oil prices, we need to keep down food prices as well. That means Republicans
are finally right if they will do what John Boehner says they will: cooperate with President Obama
in helping Russia to see it has to compete, not annex.
We have enough fresh water to keep our crops safe at this moment, but not if we threaten our water to keep energy prices down. Since it's hard enough to convince the oil and gas industry this is true as it
is, this year is a bad, bad time for crises to threaten oil prices here.
We have every reason to want to keep Russia and the Ukraine from stand-offs. Germany has a great
vested interest in this as well.
Why care about Germany?
Well, Germany is dependent on oil stability in that region as well land Germany and Duetchbank are the principal entities keeping Europe from deeper recession. We do need some healthy economies in our trading partners, after all, and we need NATO.
If Europe slips more quickly into recession at this time, how do we get paid?
I hope President Obama will do all he can do diplomatically, to calm the Russian aggression
without making Moscow feel too desperate.
Good For Mr. Steve Kornacki
Mr. Kornacki happens to be one of those principaled American journalists who realizes those weren't
cars stranded on the GWB, crossing New York and New Jersey, they were citizens.
They were not pawns for Christie and Cuomo to disagree about as important or not important commuters.
No matter who ordered what, U. S. citizens were sitting duck victims of a terrorist act.
I am so glad this journalist and his colleagues have lead the charge to show our citizenship is worth a lot more than what someone can pay for, or play with to tickle the fancies of their narrow self-interests.
No group of citizens should ever be trapped in this way, and either Governor should have picked up
the phone to insist those cones come off that thoroughfare...especially in New York!
I have not seen so many densely stacked orange cubes in my lifetime.
Something colossal was clearly at stake for someone and something trumping public safety.
I am shocked that citizens didn't simply push those cones out of the way themselves.
cars stranded on the GWB, crossing New York and New Jersey, they were citizens.
They were not pawns for Christie and Cuomo to disagree about as important or not important commuters.
No matter who ordered what, U. S. citizens were sitting duck victims of a terrorist act.
I am so glad this journalist and his colleagues have lead the charge to show our citizenship is worth a lot more than what someone can pay for, or play with to tickle the fancies of their narrow self-interests.
No group of citizens should ever be trapped in this way, and either Governor should have picked up
the phone to insist those cones come off that thoroughfare...especially in New York!
I have not seen so many densely stacked orange cubes in my lifetime.
Something colossal was clearly at stake for someone and something trumping public safety.
I am shocked that citizens didn't simply push those cones out of the way themselves.
Our Most Heartbreaking Moments
At least 12 Years A Slave was based on a true story.
I thought the Harriet Jacobs saga would be the next slave story to hit Hollywood. For me, it was the
most brutal- aside from my great-grandma's story. But stories with black characters often give me
a big fat headache.
I left before Training Day was over. Denzel Washington was already dead. How many times
did the director need us to see him get riddled?
Jhango was terrible, not for the language, but because Carrie Washington got savaged.
I loved that Morgan Freeman finally told Miss Daisy he was interested in her mostly as a paycheck.
But truly, I haven't seen many of these movies since "Daisy".
Green Miles, maids, butlers, slaves...even Halle Berry had to get trashed- once in the film, then onstage accepting the Oscar.
I am happy, though. I just love "Boyz 'N The Hood".
Menace To Society was even better... an anthem.
It isn't a perfect or joyous description of us- but hey, it's in the hood. I know most of the doctors, lawyers, scientists, musicians, actors and actresses etc. come from here too.
Where else can we live?
In Michigan, for instance, we are replete with militias.
No, they are not equal opportunity employers.
I thought the Harriet Jacobs saga would be the next slave story to hit Hollywood. For me, it was the
most brutal- aside from my great-grandma's story. But stories with black characters often give me
a big fat headache.
I left before Training Day was over. Denzel Washington was already dead. How many times
did the director need us to see him get riddled?
Jhango was terrible, not for the language, but because Carrie Washington got savaged.
I loved that Morgan Freeman finally told Miss Daisy he was interested in her mostly as a paycheck.
But truly, I haven't seen many of these movies since "Daisy".
Green Miles, maids, butlers, slaves...even Halle Berry had to get trashed- once in the film, then onstage accepting the Oscar.
I am happy, though. I just love "Boyz 'N The Hood".
Menace To Society was even better... an anthem.
It isn't a perfect or joyous description of us- but hey, it's in the hood. I know most of the doctors, lawyers, scientists, musicians, actors and actresses etc. come from here too.
Where else can we live?
In Michigan, for instance, we are replete with militias.
No, they are not equal opportunity employers.
I Love Butterfly McQeen
Perhaps she didn't mean to do it, but she uttered the best and most memorable line in all of American
film, "Ah don't know nothin' bout birthin' no babies!"
None of the rest of it is as memorable to me. I know. Call me strange; but she summed up slavery, she summed up servitude, she summed up all in this world we could ever possibly owe this country
no matter what else might happen. And yet, we continue to give.
We continue to do without. That is the legacy of millions of sacrificial lambs. And the legacy of what much of Amercia thinks we should embody as is encompassed by what William Faulkner's narrator thinks of Dilsey in the last lines of The Sound and The Fury: "she endures."
film, "Ah don't know nothin' bout birthin' no babies!"
None of the rest of it is as memorable to me. I know. Call me strange; but she summed up slavery, she summed up servitude, she summed up all in this world we could ever possibly owe this country
no matter what else might happen. And yet, we continue to give.
We continue to do without. That is the legacy of millions of sacrificial lambs. And the legacy of what much of Amercia thinks we should embody as is encompassed by what William Faulkner's narrator thinks of Dilsey in the last lines of The Sound and The Fury: "she endures."
Saturday, March 1, 2014
POTUS: What Do You Mean?
Our kids don't need excuses. They have reasons.
We need excuses. We either shelter them and offer them real opportunity. or we don't.
We aren't Miniver Cheevy; but we also have reasons.
Trayvon didn't need an excuse. He was wearing Hollister.
Jordan didn't need an excuse. He was driving a Durango.
Jordan and Trayvon had very loving fathers. They could have done nothing more.
So what does this country want from us?
Or maybe we have enough savvy to be attractive to Burkina Faso. I hear it's nice there this time
of year.
We need excuses. We either shelter them and offer them real opportunity. or we don't.
We aren't Miniver Cheevy; but we also have reasons.
Trayvon didn't need an excuse. He was wearing Hollister.
Jordan didn't need an excuse. He was driving a Durango.
Jordan and Trayvon had very loving fathers. They could have done nothing more.
So what does this country want from us?
Or maybe we have enough savvy to be attractive to Burkina Faso. I hear it's nice there this time
of year.
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