French Muslims feel marginalized in French society, and are kept largely segregated from opportunities even in their own enclaves.
Apparently, political progressives in Europe and America are worried the Charlie Hebdo attack will
encourage right-wing politics; thereby encouraging Muslims to further radicalize because they would then have no one to turn to but already radical extremists.
Is France a big enough country to continue to harbor so many violent, disenfranchised radicals?
Even a large country should not, of course; but the square mileage in France shouldbe one thing to make the country stop to think about housing 5 million people who may lack full citizenship.
If Marine Le Pen should be elected in France to succeed Francois Hollande, where would she suggest
as a place for French Muslims to go?
Britain has minority problems.
Germany has an increasingly vocal right-wing ... again.
Eastern Europe is not tolerant.
Perhaps the time has come to assimilate people with French citizenship, or at least begin the process.
If it's true that only 1% of France's Muslims are in sympathy with extremists, or jihadists, then 500,000 French citizens are dissatisfied enough with the country to fight it or agree with fighting it.
France, you don't have enough citizens to stay on the kill or be killed track with a half million of them.
You just spent tens of thousands of men and man hours of dangerously engaged work to find the Charlie killers. With the Euro in a nine year free fall, and Greece still on another baiil-out brink.
Is "manhunt" an effective way to plan to protect your citizens?
As long as President Obama keeps American dollars from making increasing oil purchases, and as long as he keeps those same dollars from having to compete with currencies of countries under sanction- a great many entities around this world with undiversified economies are going to use young, compromised citizens to express their own panic by offering mystical rewards where none seem available in this life.
Your countrymen and women could be more secure than to await the expressed bitterness of thousands, even in the persons of a few. Your citizens deserve better use of their resources, and of their pursuit of happiness.
As a country enjoyiing an advanced civilization, you need much better policy better ideas, going forward. You need more encouraging prevention.
Friday, January 9, 2015
Amedy Coulibaly
Why your life?
Why your own life for the privilege of non-state sanctioned killing?
This was not worth your life, sir.
None of this was worth your life.
Why your own life for the privilege of non-state sanctioned killing?
This was not worth your life, sir.
None of this was worth your life.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
The Search For Charlie Hebdo Killers
I don't believe for one moment an 18 year old suspect was mis-identified.
I can't even begin to believe one of the suspects "accidentally" left an I.D. in a car.
Maybe France has ignored minority populations a bit too long, and has no idea what is happening
in those communities which can so befuddle authorities.
Or maybe they don't want anyone to know the real linchpins of their investigations.
France, for whom are you searching? And who is helping these murderous guys? I don't believe we know.
I can't even begin to believe one of the suspects "accidentally" left an I.D. in a car.
Maybe France has ignored minority populations a bit too long, and has no idea what is happening
in those communities which can so befuddle authorities.
Or maybe they don't want anyone to know the real linchpins of their investigations.
France, for whom are you searching? And who is helping these murderous guys? I don't believe we know.
The NAACP In Colorado
Well, we live in America.
Our children are being gunned down in the streets by people paid to protect them.
We have to focus more specifically on whether our criminal courts call bombers terrorists,
not whether or not the media does so.
The media has the duty to follow the news once it is made. We are so accustomed to them of late
as a group, anticipating news, then commenting on it.
Whereas that is likely a profitable tack, monetarily, it hasn't yet proved fruitful for us inasmuch as their depiction won't necessarily help get laws and policies on the books, and enforced.
We very much need them to widely disseminate what is happening; but their power to guess is not
so much a force for the lasting base of safe passages we need in our communities.
Our children are being gunned down in the streets by people paid to protect them.
We have to focus more specifically on whether our criminal courts call bombers terrorists,
not whether or not the media does so.
The media has the duty to follow the news once it is made. We are so accustomed to them of late
as a group, anticipating news, then commenting on it.
Whereas that is likely a profitable tack, monetarily, it hasn't yet proved fruitful for us inasmuch as their depiction won't necessarily help get laws and policies on the books, and enforced.
We very much need them to widely disseminate what is happening; but their power to guess is not
so much a force for the lasting base of safe passages we need in our communities.
Fundamentalists: Get To Drawing...With Ink
If you feel your religion is unfairly depicted, draw it fairly.
If you think a non-Muslim religion is lacking- draw that.
Cartoonists may not have audiences of millions, but they draw what they believe.
In Detroit, we have the largest Muslim and Chaldean population in the U.S.
They aren't always so happy with Christians. Do they open fire on us? No. Of course not.
These American Muslims are as valid and as religious as you. Thankfully, they are not as murderous.
Detroit and Dearborn Muslims aren't always thrilled with the very large Jewish communities in
our immediate vicinity. Do they start shooting at them? They do not.
Are you deaf? You cannot hear what Muslims are saying, so you cannot depict the complaints?
Are you without tongues? You are unable to say publicly what bothers some Muslims unless you
do it at a killing?
You are not deaf. You have tongues. Use your most human facilities. That is what people do,
Are you without art skills?
Are you without imagination?
Are you without critical thinking satirical abilities?
Fundamentalists- you lack none of these things. Find them within yourselves and use them.
Many of you are artists.
Many of you are writers.
So many of you are evaluative thinkers.
When you kill, you do what any brainless brute can do. You further nothing new, nothing truly
generative. You do what you have no right to do, to people doing what is well within their own rights.
Charlie Hebdo is now more beloved than ever. We have you to thank for that, and for insuring
their work will continue. Was that your aim? No? Well, you did achieve it.
If you think a non-Muslim religion is lacking- draw that.
Cartoonists may not have audiences of millions, but they draw what they believe.
In Detroit, we have the largest Muslim and Chaldean population in the U.S.
They aren't always so happy with Christians. Do they open fire on us? No. Of course not.
These American Muslims are as valid and as religious as you. Thankfully, they are not as murderous.
Detroit and Dearborn Muslims aren't always thrilled with the very large Jewish communities in
our immediate vicinity. Do they start shooting at them? They do not.
Are you deaf? You cannot hear what Muslims are saying, so you cannot depict the complaints?
Are you without tongues? You are unable to say publicly what bothers some Muslims unless you
do it at a killing?
You are not deaf. You have tongues. Use your most human facilities. That is what people do,
Are you without art skills?
Are you without imagination?
Are you without critical thinking satirical abilities?
Fundamentalists- you lack none of these things. Find them within yourselves and use them.
Many of you are artists.
Many of you are writers.
So many of you are evaluative thinkers.
When you kill, you do what any brainless brute can do. You further nothing new, nothing truly
generative. You do what you have no right to do, to people doing what is well within their own rights.
Charlie Hebdo is now more beloved than ever. We have you to thank for that, and for insuring
their work will continue. Was that your aim? No? Well, you did achieve it.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Me And Stephen Hawking
Many years ago I saw a small documentary of Stephen Hawking's growing up in Britain. Most of the
best scenes came during the times when Professor Hawking was being a prankster.
He and his friends seemed to grow up playing. That's the childhood I always thought every person
should have. I so admired him and the film's producer for recreating those scenes, and for seeming to
so cherish them, though science had already defined the professor's life.
What prompted me to see the film was that I had come late to the reading of A Brief History of Time.
I knew the book was immensely important because I'd heard of the professor's work. So when I realized the film would show one week-end at The Detroit Institute of Art Film Theater, I felt compelled to see it, as it was 20 minutes then from where I lived.
At the start I thought the scenes and depictions were mainly quaint. I appreciated the stories, but didn't feel I was getting to somewhat know more of one of the most important minds in human history.
Then the filmmakers showed a clip of Professor Hawking's mom. She was talking through a slightly
exasperated laugh, saying something to the effect of, 'I asked Stephen when he graduated school to go to university, Stephen, I can understand if you didn't want to be first in your class, but did you have to
come in dead last?'
At that moment I got the picture of Professor Hawking I've had ever since. He must have been an
incredibly generous, an incredibly good-natured person.
Imagine a kid with that intellect not graduating with a reputation among the other children as a know-it-all, not gaining a reputation of being prone to correct teachers, not striving to skip a grade, not striving to 'place' in the hierarchy of class grade point averages. 'Staggering, I thought...simply an
astounding personality.'
The film took us into the start of Professor Hawking's university classes.
He remained a guy who wanted to do his requirement's, then get to partying.
Interviewers asked his friends from that time when they understood his capacity?
Most of them chuckled. 'We knew a short time after our university classes started. We had been up all
night for days working on our physics assignments. Several of us working together couldn't figure out
all the problems. Stephen came up to the room where we were studying, complaining we were taking to long. He was ready to party. He claimed he had figured it all out ages ago. Then he showed us the solutions he'd found. We knew then he was much, much different than any of us, or anyone we'd
ever known.'
The interviewer asked these other guys if they thought back then perhaps the work had been easier
than they first imagined.
Each one of the professor's friends answered firmly they knew what they were working on had been
very, very challenging. The film clearly showed each of Professor Hawking's friends experienced
an early realization of an amazing intellect in their presence soon after their college careers began.
The evident admiration and affection they showed for their friend and his abilities came through in this film.
I couldn't be satisfied even with both the book and the film under my belt. I needed to hear from this
unusually human and brilliant person.
So I got this bright idea to write to Professor Hawking's publisher. I did that.
Soon, I got a letter back from Professor Hawking!
I had written to him about admiring that he had so faithfully tackled the difficulty and time-consuming nature of his work.
That's when I found how effortless the professor's sense of humor was.
He said he loved his work so much he could never complain about it. He imagined he must be a bit like a sex worker who was happy with her profession.
I couldn't have imagined all those years ago the professor would be still working in 2014.
And I am tremendously surprised the professor is a bit older than me. I don't know why I was recently puzzled when the new film came out, and I realized Professor Hawking was born in 1942.
He has had a more productive life than so many of us with no motor neuron problem at all.
I don't have all the professor's books, but I struggled through 'A Briefer History of Time'.
I understand maybe 100 pages of On The Shoulders Of Giants, but I love it anyway.
I have to make it one of my life's missions now to find that letter!
best scenes came during the times when Professor Hawking was being a prankster.
He and his friends seemed to grow up playing. That's the childhood I always thought every person
should have. I so admired him and the film's producer for recreating those scenes, and for seeming to
so cherish them, though science had already defined the professor's life.
What prompted me to see the film was that I had come late to the reading of A Brief History of Time.
I knew the book was immensely important because I'd heard of the professor's work. So when I realized the film would show one week-end at The Detroit Institute of Art Film Theater, I felt compelled to see it, as it was 20 minutes then from where I lived.
At the start I thought the scenes and depictions were mainly quaint. I appreciated the stories, but didn't feel I was getting to somewhat know more of one of the most important minds in human history.
Then the filmmakers showed a clip of Professor Hawking's mom. She was talking through a slightly
exasperated laugh, saying something to the effect of, 'I asked Stephen when he graduated school to go to university, Stephen, I can understand if you didn't want to be first in your class, but did you have to
come in dead last?'
At that moment I got the picture of Professor Hawking I've had ever since. He must have been an
incredibly generous, an incredibly good-natured person.
Imagine a kid with that intellect not graduating with a reputation among the other children as a know-it-all, not gaining a reputation of being prone to correct teachers, not striving to skip a grade, not striving to 'place' in the hierarchy of class grade point averages. 'Staggering, I thought...simply an
astounding personality.'
The film took us into the start of Professor Hawking's university classes.
He remained a guy who wanted to do his requirement's, then get to partying.
Interviewers asked his friends from that time when they understood his capacity?
Most of them chuckled. 'We knew a short time after our university classes started. We had been up all
night for days working on our physics assignments. Several of us working together couldn't figure out
all the problems. Stephen came up to the room where we were studying, complaining we were taking to long. He was ready to party. He claimed he had figured it all out ages ago. Then he showed us the solutions he'd found. We knew then he was much, much different than any of us, or anyone we'd
ever known.'
The interviewer asked these other guys if they thought back then perhaps the work had been easier
than they first imagined.
Each one of the professor's friends answered firmly they knew what they were working on had been
very, very challenging. The film clearly showed each of Professor Hawking's friends experienced
an early realization of an amazing intellect in their presence soon after their college careers began.
The evident admiration and affection they showed for their friend and his abilities came through in this film.
I couldn't be satisfied even with both the book and the film under my belt. I needed to hear from this
unusually human and brilliant person.
So I got this bright idea to write to Professor Hawking's publisher. I did that.
Soon, I got a letter back from Professor Hawking!
I had written to him about admiring that he had so faithfully tackled the difficulty and time-consuming nature of his work.
That's when I found how effortless the professor's sense of humor was.
He said he loved his work so much he could never complain about it. He imagined he must be a bit like a sex worker who was happy with her profession.
I couldn't have imagined all those years ago the professor would be still working in 2014.
And I am tremendously surprised the professor is a bit older than me. I don't know why I was recently puzzled when the new film came out, and I realized Professor Hawking was born in 1942.
He has had a more productive life than so many of us with no motor neuron problem at all.
I don't have all the professor's books, but I struggled through 'A Briefer History of Time'.
I understand maybe 100 pages of On The Shoulders Of Giants, but I love it anyway.
I have to make it one of my life's missions now to find that letter!
Get To Political Intersection/ Turn Right?
Speaker of the House in our new Republican U.S. Congress of 2015, Rep. John Boehner, tearfully accepted the gavel from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, sounding way less combative than he did when he was sworn in as Speaker in the last Congress.
I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.
In the last Congress Speaker Boehner had Eric Cantor on his heels just as he had Louie Gohmert and gang barking at him this time. 'Why so pale and wan fond lover' of this Republican House?
Or perhaps Speaker Boehner senses because hardly anyone voted in this 2014 election, he has more
room to legislate if he chooses to do so because though the House is Republican; it has a majority
without a mandate.
The tea party, which loves to shred any ideas of governance, can be vocal, and can be heard, but what
actual threats do they have to offer now since 2016 is not going to be a right-wing landslide? And if
some Democrats are willing to work with this Speaker on key pieces of legislation, the teas won't be
able to do more than whine through Dr. Seuss again and again on the Senate floor.
Nancy Pelosi, for her part, as she handed over the gavel, didn't hesitate to refer to her Italian heritage
almost in the same breaths as she praised former Governor Mario Cuomo, and slapped Chris Christie,
also a fellow Italian, by praising Speaker Boehner for loving his Ohio State football.
She seemed to be saying the heritage of principals and loyalties should often trump the heritage of politics.
If the former Speaker really feels this way, her leadership may keep Congress from moving too far right.
The Keystone Pipeline vote should be one which Democrats refuse to endorse, because so many Democratic constituents have voiced strong opinions about the negative effects it poses for them, and for its communities.
Immigration should be a firestorm; but it shouldn't turn the country right. So many Congresspersons
have actually suggested grave fines and jail times for persons who don't pass the new 'trials by fire'
for citizenship.
Senator Barbara Boxer has suggested severe fines and jail times for anyone found guilty of voter
fraud as well. So isn't that a voter suppression technique? Do we need a right-winged threat from Democrats regarding voter fraud? We don't have enough voter fraud to warrant the kinds of threats she suggests. So many voters will feel the possibility of false accusation from the threat of such stiff
and punishing personal prosecutions following any irregularity in any vote.
Extremists would use those laws as a 'voting death' penalty for many ordinary citizens fearing faulty
prosecutions from a country hostile to the power of the vote in poorer political constituencies.
Some would say the way Latino immigrants have already suffered so that so many other Americans could 'scream the dream', should be quite enough payment already for requesting citizenship. Perhaps the Hispanic Caucus will be vocal on many of those stories. I personally know a great many of them.
Congress should move as well on presenting municipalities with special prosecutors for police shootings.
But how does that fit into a right-leaning agenda? Democrats have to push to the left in order for policy to arrive anywhere near even the middle.
If Speaker Boehner wants to provide the jobs he has been asking about, he has a lot of room to get
infrastructure going and even to take credit for those jobs. Speaker Pelosi would help him do that
for the good of American public policy.
As the American population shrinks, we need more and more citizens to be well-educated professionals. We already have a lot of rich foreign nationals in our universities. If Speaker Boehner
wants to advance an agenda which will offer Americans good chances for critical thinking education
completion, I believe he could get help from Democrats.
Rather than tacking on absurd amendments to good legislation so that our country can be a haven for right-winged nonsense, why not 'get a fire goin' for real American progress, and take credit for
it?
As I digress to entertainment, I have to admit today that I truly hated 'The Wire' because it seemed
to be a secretly right-winged wonder fantasy. But hey- I'm a Detroiter. I think Big Sean could have written "The Wire" in a much better way. I also have to admit I often watched the show because 'Bumpy' was just my guy.
In the 'Wire', all black people seemed angry with all other black people- all of the time.
Blah!
In the 'Wire' daytime is dark. Afternoon is dark. Night is dark. What a pain.
But if it's coming back, I will look for Bumpy.
I am waiting for the other shoe to drop.
In the last Congress Speaker Boehner had Eric Cantor on his heels just as he had Louie Gohmert and gang barking at him this time. 'Why so pale and wan fond lover' of this Republican House?
Or perhaps Speaker Boehner senses because hardly anyone voted in this 2014 election, he has more
room to legislate if he chooses to do so because though the House is Republican; it has a majority
without a mandate.
The tea party, which loves to shred any ideas of governance, can be vocal, and can be heard, but what
actual threats do they have to offer now since 2016 is not going to be a right-wing landslide? And if
some Democrats are willing to work with this Speaker on key pieces of legislation, the teas won't be
able to do more than whine through Dr. Seuss again and again on the Senate floor.
Nancy Pelosi, for her part, as she handed over the gavel, didn't hesitate to refer to her Italian heritage
almost in the same breaths as she praised former Governor Mario Cuomo, and slapped Chris Christie,
also a fellow Italian, by praising Speaker Boehner for loving his Ohio State football.
She seemed to be saying the heritage of principals and loyalties should often trump the heritage of politics.
If the former Speaker really feels this way, her leadership may keep Congress from moving too far right.
The Keystone Pipeline vote should be one which Democrats refuse to endorse, because so many Democratic constituents have voiced strong opinions about the negative effects it poses for them, and for its communities.
Immigration should be a firestorm; but it shouldn't turn the country right. So many Congresspersons
have actually suggested grave fines and jail times for persons who don't pass the new 'trials by fire'
for citizenship.
Senator Barbara Boxer has suggested severe fines and jail times for anyone found guilty of voter
fraud as well. So isn't that a voter suppression technique? Do we need a right-winged threat from Democrats regarding voter fraud? We don't have enough voter fraud to warrant the kinds of threats she suggests. So many voters will feel the possibility of false accusation from the threat of such stiff
and punishing personal prosecutions following any irregularity in any vote.
Extremists would use those laws as a 'voting death' penalty for many ordinary citizens fearing faulty
prosecutions from a country hostile to the power of the vote in poorer political constituencies.
Some would say the way Latino immigrants have already suffered so that so many other Americans could 'scream the dream', should be quite enough payment already for requesting citizenship. Perhaps the Hispanic Caucus will be vocal on many of those stories. I personally know a great many of them.
Congress should move as well on presenting municipalities with special prosecutors for police shootings.
But how does that fit into a right-leaning agenda? Democrats have to push to the left in order for policy to arrive anywhere near even the middle.
If Speaker Boehner wants to provide the jobs he has been asking about, he has a lot of room to get
infrastructure going and even to take credit for those jobs. Speaker Pelosi would help him do that
for the good of American public policy.
As the American population shrinks, we need more and more citizens to be well-educated professionals. We already have a lot of rich foreign nationals in our universities. If Speaker Boehner
wants to advance an agenda which will offer Americans good chances for critical thinking education
completion, I believe he could get help from Democrats.
Rather than tacking on absurd amendments to good legislation so that our country can be a haven for right-winged nonsense, why not 'get a fire goin' for real American progress, and take credit for
it?
As I digress to entertainment, I have to admit today that I truly hated 'The Wire' because it seemed
to be a secretly right-winged wonder fantasy. But hey- I'm a Detroiter. I think Big Sean could have written "The Wire" in a much better way. I also have to admit I often watched the show because 'Bumpy' was just my guy.
In the 'Wire', all black people seemed angry with all other black people- all of the time.
Blah!
In the 'Wire' daytime is dark. Afternoon is dark. Night is dark. What a pain.
But if it's coming back, I will look for Bumpy.
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