Are "We" all Crazy?

Readers want 'crazy' park ban benched

New York Daily News

"This whole idea is just absurd!" wrote one angry New Yorker in response to The News' story about a woman ticketed for sitting on a park bench in a Manhattan playground.

Cops cited Sandra Catena, a 47-year-old belly dancer, on Saturday as she sat in Rivington Playground on Forsyth St.

A sign at the entrance of the playground cites several prohibitions, including: "Adults Except in the Company of Children." Catena said she did not see it.

After confronting the woman for sitting in the playground alone, the two officers issued her a summons.

Catena now faces 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted. Her case goes to court in November.

Still, nearly a third of the three dozen responders said they agreed with police and parks officials who said the law was in place to protect children from pedophiles.

"It is wonderful to designate safe areas for children and those who do not belong there must learn not to use those facilities," one woman wrote. Another quipped, "If you're that tired, walk into a deli, buy something small and sit down."

"Let's give credit where credit is due. The woman was ticketed 'within minutes' of sitting alone on the bench. Great response by police," wrote Tom, of Matawan, N.J.

Originally published on September 28, 2005

One Person's Efforts

One at a time

Here's a note from Cheri:


If you are interested in helping a New Orleans family and know where your money is going, please take a look at this update on a family my daughter thought she could help, then did something. This is the beginning of her quest, I'm not documenting the whole thing, but just the beginning of what she wrote and the update on how its going. Its amazing what happens when we work together.

Dear Family & Friends:This is really important. If you’ve been wondering how to help some of the people who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina then listen up. There’s a way to help a family directly, to know where your money and material things went, and to know how your contributions impacted them.Just 45 minutes ago I was listening to NPR Radio (89.3) and heard about a family Selwyn & Chiquita Smith who have been relocated to McKinney, Texas as a result of Hurricane Katrina.As soon as I walked in the door I called 411, got the phone number to the Best Western where they were staying and called them. Sure enough, they were registered there. I spoke with Chiquita’s sister-in-law who is also living in the hotel. So far they have gotten their 3 children enrolled in school, and now Selwyn is looking for a job, but he only has 2 pair of shorts. In Louisiana he was a loan officer, and is hoping to find a job in sales or something similar.

-------- Original Message --------
Hello Everyone:I want to update you on what's gone on this last week, and to personally thank everyone for their responses, and to those of you who have given so far. If I have left out anyone’s giving, please shoot me back an email. I’ve heard but not been able to confirm everything.Ca-Trece and I are both busy collecting and packing up NEW & gently used clothing, shoes, accessories and the like. Today I shipped out 3 huge boxes of clothes via UPS, and they should arrive by Wednesday, or Thursday at the latest. I know that Ca-Trece was packing up brand new sneakers, T-shirts and clothes for Mom and the daughter today, so we’ll have more on that later.We’ve gotten emails on donations of everything from money, to gift certificates to clothes to jobs for both Selwyn and Chiquita.

Here’s what I know so far.

FYI: The Target WEDDING Gift Registry is up and working. Please visit and enter the couples name under Bride or Groom. Thanks.

----------Thanks to Lena Cole Dennis and Karen Earl of the Jenesse Center for FedExing a $300 Sam’s Club/Walmart Gift Certificate.

Dear Crystal: We are sending by fed ex $300 in gift cards for Walmart/Sam's Club.-

---------Thanks for Fleace' of BlackWeekly.com for suggesting I use Evite, and for sending out a blast to all of BlackWeekly and for offering space on the site to add photos, and messages from our donors.

I have all the space you need! :-) You can set-up an evite and list everything that is needed, with a link to PayPal (you must setup an account for the smiths). Then when people RSVP they can list what they a buying, evite will need track of the list. If you need me to help, just call!––Fleace'

----------Thanks to Donna Brown for shopping for the family at Pottery Barn.

----------Thanks to Rena Braud:

Hi Crystal, Good to hear from you!! I will send them items needed via the Target Registry. Please have Selwyn contact me via phone or email. I can give him Real Estate referrals to jump start his career in TX. Talk with you soon.

----------THANKS Thanks to April Crocket:

Hey Catrece: Exactly what area are they living in? I think you mentioned Frisco. If that is the case, we do have a barbershop/salon called Skillz Salon in Plano (Midway and Park Blvd.) We also have Salon Suites in Frisco called Salon Estetica. She will need to contact the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to get a Texas Provisional Cosmetologist License. She can go online to:http://www.license.state.tx.us/ and download the form or call 1-800-803-9202 or (512) 463-6599.
The contact person for our salons is Eric Nichols (214) 801-1892 and he would know what we have available. Take Care, April

----------Thanks to Kibi Anderson:

I posted a donation in the amount of $75.00 to go towards helping the Selwin & Chiquita Smith Family on the Jenesse Center web-site.

----------Thanks to Kathy Blount:

Let me know the details, and I'll send them cash.

----------Thanks to Kevin Harbour: I've got stuff to give now.

----------Thanks to Regina Kynard:

Hi Crystal: It's Regina. Let me know the details on sizes needed for the family and I will gladly assist. Thanks for including me and anyway that I can I will help that family. ––Peace and Love to you and yours!

----------Thanks to Joseph Duncan:

I have suits and shirts that should fit Selwyn as well as ties. I have given away most of my daughter's to small or otherwise unneeded clothes to a drive here last week but I may have a little more.

Forgive me if I skimmed over it but could you email me with the best way to get these things to them? Also, I don't have any direct contacts but I know Wells Fargo has a big mortgage presence in Texas. He can post (or re-create) his resume online at http://www.blogger.com/ http://www.wellsfargo.com/ and also view any openings in the area.

.... More pictures of the family will be available here or on their yahoo site (I'll post the address) by the end of the weekend. Please check back.
Sincerely,Crystal

..................................................

Crystal A. WrightAgency Director

Crystal@CrystalAgency.com

http://www.crystalagency.com/

Representing the best in Photography, Makeup, Hair & Fashion Styling

Crystal Agency

4237 Los Nietos DriveLos Angeles, CA 90027-2911
Main: 323.906.9600

Fax: 323.913.0900

Cell: 323.788.1336
--

Blessed are you when people hate you

Bigotry In The Name Of Jesus H. Christ

"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man."
Mathew 5:11

Jesus condemned bigotry and persecution in his name, which today happens to define the policies and actions of the modern right-wing who ironically embrace Christianity -- the teaching of Christ -- as part of their means. Throughout his documented life story, Jesus’ most incendiary comments and actions were aimed at, 1) Satan, and 2) the men who mixed business and religion. Does that second item sound familiar? Nary a single word which denounced same-sex marriage -- well, except in the Bible used by the right-wing and Christian Fundamentalists known as the "Fake Bible Which We Made Up To Suit Our Bigotry: Large Print Edition".

The Bible contains a lot of hogwash which, in a modern context, has little or no validity. The Bible tells us that anyone who comes into contact with a woman who is menstruating must do penance. The Book of Leviticus, the section of the Bible which is the cornerstone of the frightening Christian Reconstructionist movement, condemns homosexuality under pain of death. It also condemns the touching of pig flesh on Sundays... under pain of death. That would certainly make football interesting. Whoever touches the ball dies.

One of the most dominant arguments against same-sex marriage has been that the dictionary defines marriage as: "The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife". That's a pretty weak argument, no? The dictionary? At one point in time, a definition taught us that a sperm cell contained a fully formed little man called a "homunculus". Just because George W. Bush cites the dictionary definition of marriage as "between a man and a woman" doesn't make it right and justified. This from the same man who thought "misunderestimated" was a word.

Do Women Throat Sing?

Tuva News

Tyva Kyzy is about to arrive in the US

Tuva Trader is sponsoring Tyva Kyzy the only all-women Tuvan Throat Singing and traditional folk ensemble.

This extraordinary group is beginning a month long west coast US tour after 2 years of planning, dreaming and lot’s of hard work. As international popularity of Tuvan music has grown over the last decade and a half many have asked "do women throat sing?" We are very happy that people will now hear for themselves and we will do our best to bring the group to other areas for years to come. The group will also release their first CD very soon.

Tyva Kyzy will be in Washington State between October 1st and 15th, performing a number of concerts around the Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula before heading south to Portland, then the Bay Area and Santa Cruz.

The full tour schedule, tour posters brochures and links to the Tyva Kyzy website are available from the Tuva Trader home page. The group will also be doing some radio and print interviews, performances and a workshop or two. Please help to spread the word about the Tyva Kyzy west coast US tour to your friends in these areas: Seattle, Olympic Peninsula, Olympia, Portland, Berkeley, San Francisco and Santa Cruz.

http://www.tyvakyzy.com/

http://www.tuvatrader.com/

Also, keep an eye out for the great group Karashay Chirgil-Chin with Steven Kent. They will be performing in a temporarily transformed WW2 bunker in the Marin Headlands next month. Info & directions on their concert web page:

http://www.octavealliance.org/tunnel/

I saw their last performance in the Tunnel with Steve Sklar singing his wonderful khoomei. It was a great experience! Check out Steves site from time to time for great resources. His khoomei lessons and workshops come with my very high recommendation!

Devan Miller
The Tuva Trader
P.O. Box 515
Port Angeles, WA. 98362 360-
477-5445
info@tuvatrader.com

The Tuva Trader

Feynman Online!

With the Baptism Water

Throw the Girl Out!

A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians, the school's superintendent said in a letter. Shay Clark was expelled from Ontario Christian School on Thursday.

"Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, the girl's biological mother.

Defend the Dorts:

"The Association and all instruction given in its schools is based on the infallible and inerrant Word of God as expressed in the standards of the Reformed Faith (the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort and the Westminster Confessions and Catechisms."

One Puff or Two?

Just one to four cigarettes daily triples risk of dying of heart disease or lung cancer

Eurekalet.org

"Taking account of risk factors likely to influence the findings, the data nevertheless showed that light smoking endangered health. The steepest risk occurred between nought and four cigarettes a day.


Compared with those who had never smoked, those who smoked between 1 and 5 cigarettes a day were almost three times as likely to die of coronary artery disease.

While there was little difference in the risk of dying from any type of cancer, this was not the case for lung cancer."

Porn Trumps Terror

FBI forms anti-porn squad

'I guess this means we've won the war on terror,' one agent says'

. . . "Gonzales endorses the rationale of predecessor Meese: that adult pornography is a threat to families and children. Christian conservatives, long skeptical of Gonzales, greeted the pornography initiative with what the Family Research Council called "a growing sense of confidence in our new attorney general."

Congress began funding the obscenity initiative in fiscal 2005 and specified that the FBI must devote 10 agents to adult pornography. The bureau decided to create a dedicated squad only in the Washington Field Office. "All other field offices may investigate obscenity cases pursuant to this initiative if resources are available," the directive from headquarters said. "Field offices should not, however, divert resources from higher priority matters, such as public corruption."

Public corruption, officially, is fourth on the FBI's priority list, after protecting the United States from terrorist attacks, foreign espionage and cyber-based attacks. Just below those priorities are civil rights, organized crime, white-collar crime and "significant violent crime." The guidance from headquarters does not mention where pornography fits in."

What Did Happen at the Bridge?

What Happened and Why at the Gretna Bridge

. . . "initially Gretna police commandeered buses and used them to ferry more than 5,000 evacuees to a rescue site. But more and more kept coming, and after a day of this shuttling, he says, his small police force became overwhelmed."

Added Harry Lee, the sheriff of Jefferson Parish: "FEMA didn't have any food for those people in Gretna. They didn't give me any food. I didn't have any water. My obligations are to the people of Jefferson Parish."

Concluding the explanatory narrative, Burnett reported that Gretna officials had already been put on edge the day before by a mall fire set by "hooligans from New Orleans," leading to their decision to shut down the bridge to all pedestrian traffic.

Burnett did report the full story, but by doing something basic -- focusing on Lawson and Lee's point of view -- he illuminated a crucial aspect of a convoluted, touchy incident. Perhaps the easy answer of race -- or racism -- is not the only viable explanation. Perhaps Gretna officials, already having taken in thousands and fearing that things were getting out of control, felt they simply had no other choice.

At report's end Burnett asked, "Chief Lawson would like to know without communication, food, water, enough buses and gasoline, how long would it take another American city to reach the limits of its compassion?"

Red Cross and the Storm

The Red Cross Coming Home to Roost: Remember 9/11, Anyone?
Richard Walden

"The details are brief. The Red Cross responded to 9/11 by opening a few shelters to which no one came; tried to trace missing persons but were pushed aside when the World Trade Center site was dubbed a crime scene and police and FBI took over identification of missing persons; and, served coffee and

donuts to rescue workers at the World Trade Center site only to be accused of charging for them. (It later paid Daniel Bouley, New York's star chef, to cook for them after the news about charging for coffee was made public.)

The Red Cross' own 9/11 Liberty Fund indeed shows only $336,000 in US or state government reimbursement for what little it did do as a "first responder," a designation equal to police, fire and emergency medical service personnel.

They can indeed spend the money they have collected for Katrina -- $750 million as of September 19th -- on people and community institutions in need beyond what they will get back from FEMA and the state governments; but there is no history of them doing so to any significant extent. Local chapters, yes; it's their community's disaster. The national Red Cross, unlikely; they were the ones who did not appear in New Orleans and pulled out their local chapter from its own community."

Priest Pricks Kids

God made me do it

"I didn't think it was that big a deal. I can see the point now. I'll see to it that it doesn't happen again."
Rev. Arthur Michalka

CBS News

Katrina Google Maps

Overall Summary of all known Google Maps Hurricane Katrina Sites:
(Thursday, September 08, 2005 )

GoogleMapsMania.Blogspot.com

Unsaved Unwelcome!

Landover Baptist Church

Help Us Send Bibles to the Victims of Hurricane Katrina!
Food and shelter are worthless gifts that give these poor lost souls a false hope. The only real hope comes from the Word of God - The Holy Bible!

Cults: Our Handy Reference Guide
As this Christian nation opens its doors to more foreign trash, God's people are unfortunately exposed to exotic new ideas.

Win Free Tickets to Church!
Spend a weekend with God's favorite people!

---

Pat Robertson: Your Arms Are Too Short to Box with God

Tipping is not Democratic

"The origin of the word English word "tip" is less clear. One popular theory says it's is an acronym of "to insure promptness." Jesse Sheidlower, Principal Editor in North America for the Oxford English Dictionary, says that's wrong, because acronyms weren't popular in English until the 1920s. "Tip," says Sheidlower, "began as a verb in the seventeenth century, used in the language of thieves, meaning 'to give'." By the early eighteenth century, the meaning included "to give a gratuity to a servant or employee."

Money.cnn.com

" In its original form, a tip was a gratuity given voluntarily in return for or in anticipation of some service. The French were the first to make the tip mandatory: in 1955 a law was passed requiring every restaurant to add a service charge to every food and beverage bill, regardless of whether it was in the most simple cafe or the most luxurious restaurant. Most people were relieved, for it was thought that such uniformity would make life simpler. Unfortunately, even this did not solve the problem, for in many places and under a variety of circumstances, waiters and waitresses continued to expect an extra tip to be added to the amount that appeared on the bill. One should not judge these people harshly, however, because much of the money added as a "service charge" never got to the people who actually brought the food to the tables. Some of it went to the owner to cover the cost of washing tablecloths and napkins; some went to the dishwasher; some went to the barman; some went to the busboys. The little that remained went to the waiter."

Tips on Tipping

"This is a guide for people who are planning to tip and want to know the appropriate amount. If you think tipping in general is stupid, then don't tip. But don't complain that the minimum wage is too low. Don't complain that the only new jobs being created are low income."

Tipping Etiquette

"Restaurant workers in the United States make more than twenty-five billion dollars a year in tips, so it’s natural that people think of the custom as quintessentially American. But it wasn’t always. Tipping didn’t take hold here until after the Civil War, and even as it spread it met with fervent public opposition from people who considered it a toxic vestige of Old World patronage."

The New Yorker:
Check, please

Starbucks Gossip:
(Jim Romenesko)

Sept 3, 2005 -
Writer sides with those who frown on tipping at Starbucks

Sept 7, 2004 -
Tipping Debate

Sept 6 ,2004 -
More on tipping

Sept 2, 2004 -
Tipping Furor


The History of Tipping - From Sixteenth-Century England to United States in the 1910s

Tipping Is Plain Stupid!
~The Anti-Tipping Site~

Everyone's (evil) Grandmother

Published: September 05, 2005 7:25 PM ET updated 8:00 PM
NEW YORK Accompanying her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them."

The former First Lady's remarks were aired this evening on American Public Media's "Marketplace" program. She was part of a group in Houston today at the Astrodome that included her husband and former President Bill Clinton, who were chosen by her son, the current president, to head fund raising efforts for the recovery. Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were also present.

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality."

And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

Editor and Publisher.com    

Emergency Privatization

Where's the follow-up report?

June 3, 2004

"IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November. National weather experts are predicting an above normal Atlantic hurricane season with six to eight hurricanes, of which three could be categorized as major.

The IEM team will complete a functional exercise on a catastrophic hurricane strike in Southeast Louisiana and use results to develop a response and recovery plan. A catastrophic event is one that can overwhelm State, local and private capabilities so quickly that communities could be devastated without Federal assistance and multi-agency planning and preparedness.

Thomas said that the greater New Orleans area is one of the nation’s most vulnerable locations for hurricane landfall.

“Given this area’s vulnerability, unique geographic location and elevation, and troubled escape routes, a plan that facilitates a rapid and effective hurricane response and recovery is critical,” he said. “The IEM team’s approach to catastrophic planning meets the challenges associated with integrating multi-jurisdictional needs and capabilities into an effective plan for addressing catastrophic hurricane strikes, as well as man-made catastrophic events.”

IEM President and CEO Madhu Beriwal is the recipient of a special merit award from the Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Association ( LEPA ) for her work in New Orleans hurricane emergency preparedness. "

Innovative Emergency Management Incorporated
IEM Inc