Just another quality sports story…

“That’s how pure the U.S. Open was. You rooted for the underdog and the big dog.”

warm fuzzies…

If you have an energy fetish like me you will be BLOWN AWAY by this beverage. If you don’t like energy drinks and think Red Bull tastes like cat urine, this drink will CONVERT YOU INSTANTLY. From the makers of Voss artisan water comes a “crisp, clean, refreshing” new energy drink that not only tastes good but will kick you in the pants. Just take my word as a food connoisseur/snob that this beverage is the ambrosia of the energy drink world. Why are you still reading this?? Go buy it now!

ITS ANOTHER SIMPLE MARKETING PLOY.

No where do they claim to be healthier but for some reason, the mass population seems to believe that Baked! equals “this is me almost going on a diet and exercising to loose weight.” Let me assure you, eating Baked Lays is NOTHING OF THE SORT. Please take a second to stop and consider other things that are also baked: cake, brownies, cookies etc. Now are any of those things good for you?? Exactly. Marketing at its best.

Think about what type of additives they have to add to achieve the same consistency? Do you think that they’re not spraying down those delicious Baked! with delicious oil? Ridiculous…

Don’t be another consumer tool. WAKE UP PEOPLE!

And don’t get me started on trans fat….

Anyone that’s enjoyed my chili knows that the meal isn’t complete without the CORN MUFFINS. Friends and I have gone back to the store numerous times to purchase the precious accompaniment. Finally, a splendid article on MY FAVORTIE MUFFIN.

A look at the Ohio governor who is one of the few politicians getting it right…

Cool video…See what’s new in the bar world…

Person who’s never recyled anything in their life #1: OMG did you hear that there’s going to be a surprise Live Earth show in D.C.!! Garth Brooks is playing!!!

Person who’s never recyled anything in their life #2: HOLY HEMP!!! Have you seen my hippie dress and birkenstocks!?!?!

Person who’s never recyled anything in their life #1: I knew I shouldn’t have brushed my hair today…

Yes, Live Aid is gracing the District with its prescence as a late add to the annual Folk Life Festival. Against the many wishes of Republican lawmakers, SOMEHOW Al Gore managed to bring Live Earth to D.C. thanks in large part to the support of Native American’s, fancy that…

Despite all the warm fuzzy feelings I get from separating my empty bottles and cans after a long weekend of swilling, I refuse, and always will refuse, to recycle and here’s why: I’M BITTER. I’ll admit it. It’s not because Im lazy or I hate the Earth. I’m just outright bitter…

Umm I’m pretty sure the baby boomers didn’t do anything for me and look at us now…no ozone and a dwindling social security fund. Word on the street is there isn’t even GOING TO BE social security when its time for me to lounge poolside between shuffleboard games in Del Boca Vista. I’m going to have to resort to stealing batteries from CVS and selling them at BINGO games to get by when it comes time for me to retire.

Meanwhile, I have to put up with “global warming” (and yes it’s in quotes…don’t believe everything the media tells you not to believe), El Nino, tsunamis and hurricanes, the polar ice caps are melting, Venice is sinking, the Earth’s plates are shifting, droughts, harsher winters, etc etc. Absolutely ludicrous, BUT if you were to tell me that taking the time to recycle would alleviate just one of these things I might do it…that is if I were a blathering idiot and believed you.

I on the onther hand seem to grasp the fact that it doesn’t matter. Small scale will never matter. Sure Al Gore can stand on his soap box and preach sustainability and recycling until he’s blue in the face but until we better cap overall industrial emissions it will never happen. Until the ENTIRE world switches over to clean industry it will never happen.

Who are we to tell developing countries to reduce their emissions when it was our own Industrial Revolution of the 1800s that kicked off this world of smog that we live in? Sure each of us could do their part by driving feul efficient cars, recycling, rejecting styrofaom, reducing the daily ammount of freon used but that will only prove to be a linear solution to an exponential problem.

If we could go back in time and undo all the damage that we have done to this planet?? HELL NO. I need my iPod dammit. Changing what we do can’t save the Earth from the overwhelming ills of human inhabitation. Innovation is the only way we can effect actual change… or at least slow it down…oh but we much rather kill people and assert our power. No time for that silly nonsense…

But really, why do people keep insisting that *I* “do something?”

What zones produce the most ammount of pollution? Residential?? Is my tiny Scion and air conditioner ruining the globe???? NO. It’s INDUSTRY DAMMIT. Why isnt this clear to everyone?? Stop telling me to recycle and go knock on the doors of big business for once. That’s what wrong with hippies that try to change things. They always want to be grass roots. They want to start a revolution. Door to door change. Well good for you but I’m doing 0.00001% of the damage that ExxonMobil does.

Stop “raising awareness” and putting on silly concerts and actually DO something. Make your money count. Force lawmakers to give big business and incentive to clean up their act. If you were really serious about the planet (and not just in it for the marketing popularity ::coughalgorecough::) you would start paying off bigwigs to do something because let’s admit it, that the way politics works- MONEY. Pay them to stop polluting and they will but until they have a fiduciary incentive to stop, THEY WON’T. I WOULDN’T..and I don’t – for the same reason they wont. There’s nothing in it for me.

While my generation is being bled out by baby boomers, I should be trying to save the world for the next generation?? a.) How self-affected would I have to be to believe that I COULD actually change the world? and b.) Umm if they’re not going to pay for my cruises when Im 70 I’m taking everything with me when I leave, including all this free air…

Someday someone will dig up my blog and marvel at a time when air was free…

Enjoy it while you can…

I sent this article to my mother (a school teacher for 30+ years) regarding the recent court cases ruled upon by the Supreme court regarding race and school…possibly one of the biggest race decisions in the Post-Brown era. The following represents our email chain/debate (mom is in italics):

okay, and how will this impact african americans? bussing was created to promote equality initially.

Well there are a couple of arguments:

The first argument is in line with the ruling of the courts wherein (not unlike my own situation with Cherokee Lane vs Ridgecrest) students (in this case a white student) wanted to go to the school right next to his home but was forced to ride a bus for 3 hours (ENTIRELY TOO LONG) to another school because of racial desegregation in the school district.

The second argument is that without redrawing the school district to bus students schools will go back to being predominantly white or black because it is most common for people of the same race to live in the same neighborhoods. Some argue this is because of comfort levels and it being a preferred choice but I’ve read several books that detail the extensive history of racial discrimination when it comes to homebuyers. Although there are laws now in place to protect against that, these laws are 1.) relatively new and 2.) are still to this day loosely followed. As far as housing goes the majority of neighborhoods are racially pocketed because of LONG STANDING racial discrimination whether or not the laws today are written to prevent that.

I suppose the real argument is whether or not bussing is still relevant and necessary and while I would love to think that is isn’t, I think its very naïve to think that anything regarding race is antiquated in this country. Race will always be an issue and I worry to think what that will mean for the deep south. Segregated schools only helps to further prejudice and add fuel to what may very well be a dying fire. I think I am very fortunate to have gone to an integrated school because I was able to make friends disregarding race as a factor and I hesitate to think how many kids will now not be afforded the same experience. Its tragic and dismaying but race issues will always be prevalent in America and looks to only GROWING as an issue as the immigration debate heats up. Many people forget that this country was built on immigrants. Hispanics are just the new Irish, the new Western European, the new Chinese…and it’s naïve to think that this country will ever be able to close off its borders to those looking to make a better life for themselves. That’s the American legacy and it won’t soon change. I’m not sure how this ran into an immigration rant but I’ll leave you with this thought: “What if the Native Americans had a stricter immigration policy??”

More reflection….

The problems and my solutions (to our faltering school systems):

PROBLEM:

School districts are draw to integrate particular school districts. The argument is majority of “black schools” do not provide the same level of education as say an affluent “white school.” Redrawing the district lines gives black kids the opportunity to attend better schools and afford them more opportunities.

SOLUTION:

Draw neighborhood district lines along socio economic groups. While this still poses some of the same problems as along racial lines it brings the issue away from race and to what is really the problem. There is a lack of discipline, poor parental involvement, etc among the majority of students in poorer neighborhoods.

PROBLEM:

While each school in the district is given the same amount of money (by law, disregarding additions due to security funding) good teachers would rather teach in affluent neighborhoods but you still can’t get good teachers to teach at bad schools. Bussing disenfranchises those that were fortunate enough to attend the “good” schools in the first place by forcing them to go to a lesser school.

SOLUTION:

Offer premiums to teachers that are willing to teach at (for the sake of argument) “trouble” schools. For instance School A in affluent neighborhood offers starting teachers $48,000 versus School B in poor/black neighborhood which offers $55,000 starting salary. (I have no idea what teachers’ salaries are but you get the idea)

PROBLEM:

Kids are forced to bus to schools sometimes over an hour away. This also poses the problem that parents will likely be far away from their children in the event of an emergency like severe illness, school shooting etc.

SOLUTION:

Make the rule that bussing cannot be more than 30 miles away from your home. If there are no poor neighborhoods within 30miles then so be it. No bussing. Keep it realistic.

Final thought:

Is the question how do we ensure racially integrated school systems OR how do we create better schools?…I think the latter is far better question to ask…if every school was a good one would we even be discussing this???

a good school is only as strong as the parents. parents who can afford or have the savvy to find exposure for their children, parents who have a higher learning background, parents who find the time to support their children’s interests, and parents who are active in school affairs create a child who takes advantage of what is offered and blossoms. usually economics plays a big part in this.

imagine what your career in school would have been like if you had gone to our neighborhood schools,

interesting.

True but you can’t control parental involvement. If the question is “how do we makes schools better?” parental involvement isn’t a factor that the government can affect (at least not directly). We can affect teacher’s salaries. We can affect the priority of education in governmental agendas. We can create diverse school populations. We can affect school security. Etc etc etc. A plausible solution to this country’s faltering school systems lies in some aspect we can directly change.

do you honestly think that the school systems will strive to achieve diversity since the supreme court ruling? as you know schools are not equal. have you seen “separate but equal,” a movie? i feel like all we 60′s and 50′s folk tried to do to make equality play a part in the lives of black kids has been cut back tremendously. i also fear the precedents in other life avenues this decision will effect–like jobs, housing, scholarships, college acceptance.

The ruling in essence does not overturn Brown v. Board but rather upholds equal protection under the law (14th Amendment). For the same reason it was illegal to force black kids all to go to the same school, it’s just as illegal to force kids to go to schools that outside the reasonable realm of transportation.

Schools will not attempt to achieve diversity because that will never be in their best interests because that is not how they are judged. They are judged on test scores and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.

These cases don’t overlap with the Bakke decision and affirmative action lives on (well mostly). This is far from a slippery slope decision just an interesting one in the way that it will affect school districts in many areas across the south. I wouldn’t view this decision as a step backwards but rather a natural progression of the law already in practice. Although the redistricting of schools along racial lines has good intent, it is questionable to what extent it disenfranchises others. It is very clear that affirmative action disenfranchises whites in a way that many people refer to as “reverse racism.” In the end if we wanted to be completely PC race would never play an issue but by acknowledging that race is still a factor we let the ills of racism fester beneath the surface of social awareness.

It like me going up to someone and saying “you’re white but I still want to be friends with you.” You can see a person or you can see a white person and how we perceive people is innate and deep rooted but is merely a social normalization. It is socialized from a very young age and continues to fragment our society because too many people aren’t even aware that their perceptions are skewed.

Along those same lines its similar to the phrase people love to use for Barrack Obama, “he so articulate” And what most black people hear is “he’s so articulate FOR A BLACK PERSON” and thus they are offended.

By allowing people to use race as a qualifier for anything don’t we just feed the monster? Race will always be relevant as long as we allow it to be.

My rant for the day…