Tag: Culture

If King Were Alive Today, He’d Likely Protest Bush Policies

Trish

Celebrating amazing courage in the face of fear is what today is supposed to be all about. And when you realize what the followers of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went through, you feel kind of puny for not doing more to protest our presence in Iraq. Or at least I do.

King and the civil rights activists stuck to their pledge to wage a nonviolent fight for desegregation. But it’s a good thing improvised explosive devices weren’t around back then because people on the other team probably would have used them.

According to my hometown paper, you can’t throw a rock here in St. Augustine, Florida without hitting a site where someone, um, threw a rock during the civil rights struggle. A short list, with me substituting descriptions for the actual addresses, since you probably don’t need those:

The black dentist was beaten by the Ku Klux Klan, and his home was shot up, narrowly missing his pregnant wife and killing the family dog

A “safe house” at the beach: In the summer of 1964, King was moved to this house from [town], because of the fear for his life. Ironically, this house was then shot up and firebombed. King was not there at the time but returned later, and a famous photo (above) shows him pointing to the bullet holes.

House in the north part of town, near me: Nothing is there today but the brick steps. The house was destroyed by fire, believed to be arson, after the…family who lived there sent their sons to integrate previously all-white Fullerwood School. The investigation of this fire was so significant that it is included in the 700 pages of King’s Florida FBI file, now at the University of Florida Smathers Library.

Old Woolworth & Co. downtown: Just weeks after the first lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro, N.C., in 1960, Florida Memorial College students [a teaching college in St. Augustine for black future instructors] conducted a three-day sit-in at the Woolworth’s on King Street…[Another sit-in] in June 1963, resulted in the teenagers known as the St. Augustine Four spending six months in jail and reform school. They were finally released by the action of the governor and cabinet in January 1964.

A house in West Augustine: The home of Dr. Robert B. Hayling, a [black] dentist who was the best-known leader of the St. Augustine efforts. He was beaten by the Ku Klux Klan, and his home was shot up, narrowly missing his pregnant wife and killing the family dog. He later moved to Fort Lauderdale, but in 2003 he came back with his family for ceremonies re-naming the street in his honor.

On Saturday, King’s former secretary, Dora McDonald, died from cancer in Atlanta.

An Associated Press story Sunday said King entrusted his family to McDonald’s care when he was in jail or traveling, and it was McDonald who told Coretta Scott King that her husband had been assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.

In a 1989 interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, McDonald described her role as King’s secretary at Ebenezer Baptist Church and later at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as “a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job.”

McDonald never married or had children, and has no immediate survivors.

McDonald was working on a book about her life called, “Sharing the Dream: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Me.”

More for the Rest of Us

Buck Banks

This just in from High Times:

Steve-O (Steven Glover) is quitting all drugs, except for pot. “I’m going to make more money, have more sex, become more famous and quit smoking,” the CelebStoner stuntman told The Sun in England where he was born in 1974. “I’m quitting all drugs too. I quit cocaine and I’m off nitrous oxide. So now I’m just a pothead.

The co-star of the Jackass movies and MTV’s Wildboyz was arrested for smuggling pot into Sweden in 2003 as part of an “international drug smuggling skit” the Swedish government didn’t find so funny. He’d swallowed a condom filled with marijuana and hash at the Oslo Airport in Norway en toute to Stockholm. After boasting about the skit to reporters, Swedish police arrested and jailed him for five days.

Pahrump, Nev.: El Lugar Bueno ser Detenido

Trish

The town of Pahrump, Nev. is bracing for a crime wave after passing ordinances meant to show foreigners who’s boss.

Although Pahrump experienced a 32 percent drop in criminal activity in recent years (more about this in a minute), that was before so much stuff became illegal.

The ACLU will probably take legal action against the town. “People are nuts out there, totally nuts.”

First, there’s flying flags. Anyone who flies another country’s flag — say, just as a random example, Mexico’s — above an American flag, or worse yet, all by itself without an American flag, will get a $50 fine and 30 hours of community service.

Then there’s English. It’s now the official language of Pahrump, so don’t even think about speaking something else like — oh, off the top of my head — Spanish.

Finally, illegal immigrants will henceforth be denied benefits from the town. Which is kind of a hypothetical denial anyway.

“We don’t have any” benefits, town manager David Richards says. “If we ever have any, they’ll be denied to illegal immigrants.”

Pahrump is having a kind of time-delayed reaction to those uppity immigrants who made their presence known last spring.

The ordinance’s sponsor, Michael Miraglia, a retired Illinois state worker, said the flag restriction was a reaction to nationwide demonstrations in May against a crackdown on illegal immigration. He said he didn’t like seeing protesters waving Mexican flags and demanding immigrants not go to work that day.

“In Pahrump, we had Mexican restaurants closed that day,” he complained. “Only one restaurant stayed open.”

Well then, you can understand the outrage. It was probably a chain restaurant like Chili’s or Taco Bell. I’d pass a law too, I guess, but the American Civil Liberties Union is being a party pooper.

[Nevada board member Lisa] Rasmussen said the ACLU would probably take legal action against the town.

“People are nuts out there,” she says. “Totally nuts.”

Maybe so, but we at Pensito Review have a soft spot in our hearts for Pahrump. The town, about 60 miles closer to L.A. than Las Vegas is, arrested one Jon Ponder last year for robbing the Bank of America. Don’t worry, Buck and I made sure our Jon Ponder had an airtight alibi. Still, we’re keeping an eye on the town, just in case.

Heading to Mecca for Hajj? Better Get Your Shots

Buck Banks

Holy vaccinations: If you are of the Muslim persuasion and plan to join a couple million fellow believers for the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, between Dec. 29, 2006, and Jan. 3, 2007, better make sure you have your vaccination records up to date. When it comes to the potential of the annual gathering of Allah’s faithful to serve as a giant petri dish for the world’s most popular diseases, the Saudis don’t mess around. Sounds like a good place to get really sick:

The congregation of so many people from different parts of the world in unavoidably overcrowded conditions within a confined area for a short period of time presents many public health challenges. The combination of physical exertion, overcrowding and any pre-existing health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, chronic chest conditions, renal and liver disease favour local and possibly international spread of communicable diseases, including meningococcal infections, influenza, tuberculosis and gastrointestinal infections.

This year’s vaccination requirements and advice have been issued by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj for the most serious communicable disease risks:

Meningococcal meningitis
All Hajj pilgrims are now required to submit proof of vaccination with the quadrivalent vaccine against meningococcal meningitis types A, C and W135Y as part of the Hajj visa application to Saudi Arabia. This should be recorded in a vaccination book showing the traveler’s full name.

Chemoprophylaxis against meningococcal infection will also be given to all people arriving in Saudi Arabia from countries in the African meningitis belt.

Polio
All travelers to Saudi Arabia are advised to ensure their polio vaccination is up to date. Travelers whose last dose of polio was more than ten years ago should receive a booster, using the trivalent tetanus, diphtheria and polio vaccine.

The WHO considers the following countries to be polio-affected (as of Oct. 4, 2006): Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Namibia, Nepal, Sudan, Yemen.

Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B virus is found in body fluids and can be transmitted either through skin breakages or by close sexual contact. Transmission through the skin may occur through the use of contaminated medical, dental, or other instruments; all pilgrims should consider hepatitis B vaccine. One of the rites of Hajj is for men to have their head shaved. Although the Saudi authorities provide licensed barbers who use a new blade for each pilgrim, other barbers may not conform to such standards. Shaving with a previously used blade could carry a risk of hepatitis B and other bloodborne infections, and so communal use of a razor or blade to shave each other should be avoided. Pilgrims should consider taking with them a disposable razor for this purpose. This will also help to protect against hepatitis C virus infection.

Influenza
Recent studies have shown a high incidence of influenza infections during the Hajj, and so it would seem prudent to regard all Hajj pilgrims as at risk. The Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia recommends that pilgrims be vaccinated against influenza before arrival, particularly those with pre-existing conditions (e.g., the elderly, people with chronic chest or heart diseases, or those with cardiac, hepatic or renal failure).

Vectorborne diseases
Yellow fever
All travelers arriving from countries endemic for yellow fever must present a valid yellow fever vaccination certificate in accordance with the International Health Regulations. In the absence of such a certificate, the person will be vaccinated upon arrival and placed under strict surveillance for six days from the day of vaccination or the last date of potential exposure to infection, whichever is earlier.

Saudi authorities also require that aircraft and other means of transportation arriving from areas infected with yellow fever are requested to submit a certificate indicating disinfection in accordance with international health regulations.

Malaria
Malaria is not normally present in Medina or Mecca, but is a risk in other areas of Saudi Arabia including the southwestern region and rural areas of the western region. Pilgrims may also plan further travel before or after Hajj to countries in Asia and Africa, and should seek advice about malaria prevention. Pilgrims are advised to practice insect bite avoidance measures that also protects against other vectorborne diseases.

Helluva way to get to heaven ….

Murdoch Apologizes, Pulls Idiotic O.J. Project

Trish

Score one for the good guys.

The chairman of News Corporation issued a statement today announcing that it will not broadcast an interview with O.J. Simpson or publish the book he wrote about the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

“I and senior management agree that this was an ill-considered project,” News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch said in a statement released today. “We are sorry for any pain that it has caused the Goldman and Brown families.”

In an announcement on Fox News, an anchor said that the decision to cancel the TV special to air the interview and to shelve the book was prompted by viewer outrage.

News Corporation owns ReganBooks, which was to publish Simpson’s book.

Marines Reject Preaching Jesus

Trish

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a talking Jesus doll. Or not.

“We can’t take a chance on sending a talking Jesus doll to a Jewish family or a Muslim family.”

A talking Jesus doll has been turned down by the Marine Reserves’ Toys for Tots program.

A Los Angeles company offered to donate 4,000 of the 1-foot-tall dolls, which quote Bible verses, for distribution to needy children this holiday season…

Toys are donated to kids based on financial need and “we don’t know anything about their background, their religious affiliations,” said Bill Grein, vice president of Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, in Quantico, Virginia.

As a government entity, Marines “don’t profess one religion over another,” Grein said Tuesday. “We can’t take a chance on sending a talking Jesus doll to a Jewish family or a Muslim family.”

…According to the company’s Web site, the button-activated, bearded Jesus, dressed in hand-sewn cloth outfits and sandals, recites Scripture such as “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”

Whoa! Forget that new PlayStation. Give me a talking Jesus for Christmas!

NBC to Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Go Away

Trish

Does it never end? Now NBC is reportedly refusing to run ads for the documentary about the Dixie Chicks, “Shut Up and Sing.” Before we go on, view the trailer.

Looks good, right? I wish it were released a couple of weeks ago and in wide release instead of only heading to New York and L.A. theaters this weekend, but still.

The company distributing a new documentary about the Dixie Chicks has blasted the NBC and CW networks for allegedly refusing to accept a commercial spot for the film, which opens in four theaters Friday.

In a press release issued late Thursday, the Weinstein Co. said NBC rejected a spot for “Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing,” because the spot included material that “disparages President Bush.”

So who doesn’t? The point is, why is NBC refusing to comment on this?

The Weinstein Co. distributed a document from CW that referred to “concerns (that) we do not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot.”

…According to a source, the spot has been cleared for broadcast on CBS, MTV and on local NBC, CW, ABC and Fox affiliates in New York and Los Angeles, as well as on local cable systems, including local spots on Fox News and CNN.

Yeah, no appropriate programming. The network that gave us Must See TV, Saturday Night Live, and The West Wing finds an ad for a documentary about censorship and blacklisting “inappropriate” for its viewers.

There is also a blog associated with the film, called Shut Up and Post. PR readers need to go there and participate because it looks like it’s getting overrun with trolls. Check it out, and leave a note for our side.

A Story of Iraq, Katrina, and a Dismembered Girlfriend

Trish

I can’t get the report about the guy who dismembered his girlfriend in New Orleans and then committed suicide out of my head.

I am a hundred percent in the personal responsibility camp but it seems, even to me, like this story is evidence of the very bad karma George Bush has loosed upon our country

After Hurricane Katrina, Zackery Bowen and his girlfriend Adriane Hall appeared in news stories as examples of young people who had pressed on in the battered city despite evacuation orders and a lack of power and water.

Their story came to a disturbing end this week: Bowen leapt to his death from a hotel, leaving a note that led police to a French Quarter apartment where they found a woman’s charred head on the stove, limbs in the oven and torso in the refrigerator.

Yes, if it were a movie I would be hiding my eyes during this part, but the obvious details aren’t all that’ve been bothering me. I am a hundred percent in the personal responsibility camp but it seems, even to me, like this story is evidence of the very bad karma George Bush has loosed upon our country.

[Bowen] served in Kosovo and Iraq as a military policeman, earning several medals including the NATO medal and the Presidential Unit Citation, which is awarded to military units that have performed a heroic act in the face of an armed enemy.

After his discharge, Bowen returned to New Orleans, where he was hired at several bars because of his good looks, charming manners, and long blond hair…

A fellow bartender told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that after downing rounds of Miller High Life and Jameson’s Irish Whiskey, Bowen would grow depressed when talking about his military service, indicating that there was an overseas incident involving a child that haunted him.

New Orleans is the perfect backdrop in this horror screenplay. After all, the town with one of the richest histories in America was rendered a practically Biblical backwater after the Bush administration left its residents to die and its structures to crumble.

Alligators have been dragged from abandoned swimming pools. Foxes had to be removed from the airport. Coyotes are stalking rabbits and nutria…in city streets. And armadillos are undermining air conditioning units.

In the year since Hurricane Katrina drove out many of the people of New Orleans, wild animals have been moving in. Some were blown in by the winds or redistributed by the floodwaters. Others were drawn by the piles of rotting garbage and by the shelter afforded by all the abandoned homes and tall weeds.

Responsible for killing his girlfriend and himself: Bowen
Responsible for sending Bowen to Iraq and ruining his life: Bush
Responsible for ruining the formerly great American city where the murder-suicide took place: Bush
Ruin, ruin, and more ruin: Bush

Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way, and I’m sure Bush supporters will leave nasty comments deriding me for doing just that, but it seems to me that this story is one more indication that there are consequences for what Bush himself calls “evil doing.”

Karma is often misdefined by the My Name is Earl model of direct cause and effect. A more accurate definition is the very simple idea that whatever you create more of in the world is what you, and others, are more likely to encounter. It’s the law of mathematics.

While Katrina was still a fresh crisis, Republicans loved to say there was plenty of blame to go around, meaning none of the blame was theirs. I’m not for a second defending the acts committed by this ruined man in this ruined place. But sometimes a story is so bad that you have to really think about it. And on this one, I just keep ending up at the White House door.

Repug Proposes Unorthodox Solution to School Shootings

Trish

Who says the GOP is not the party of ideas? A Republican who wants to be the next superintendent of schools for Oklahoma has burned the midnight oil to come up with a plan to keep students safe in the event of a school shooting.

Or, judging by the plan itself, maybe it was something green with buds that he was burning. AP:

“There are some rifles not even Webster’s Dictionary will stop.”

A candidate for state superintendent of schools said Thursday he wants thick used textbooks placed under every student’s desk so they can use them for self-defense during school shootings.

“People might think it’s kind of weird, crazy,” said Republican Bill Crozier of Union City, Oklahoma, a teacher and former Air Force security officer. “It is a practical thing; it’s something you can do. It might be a way to deflect those bullets until police go there.”

Hey man, pass the bong this way. Oh wow, you know what we should do? We should, like, shoot some books and make a video!

Crozier and a group of aides produced a 10-minute video Tuesday in which they shoot math, language and telephone books with a variety of weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and a 9mm pistol. The rifle bullet penetrated two books, including a calculus textbook, but the pistol bullet was stopped by a single book.

Crozier said the demonstration shows that a student could effectively use a textbook as protection in a school shooting.

For those not on drugs, it’s hard to respond to the idea seriously.

An Oklahoma Highway Patrol spokesman was skeptical.

“He probably needs to take a look at some ballistics tests,” Lt. Pete Norwood said. “There are some rifles not even Webster’s Dictionary will stop.”