There is, even if not as jubilant as the outrageous "Mission Accomplished" charade a few years ago, celebration that ... the war is over.
 
There is only one problem with this problem: the war is not over!
 
And the war can never be over... until the truth is told.
 
How many were killed? Innocent people killed? and WHY?
 
How many have committed suicide (including US soldiers and Iraqis)? and WHY?
 
How much has this cost? and WHY?
 
How transparent, honest, decent, and truthful has the Government been in communicating the reasons for this "war" alongside the tactics used? and WHY?
 

If you are speaking at NAME, please let me know.  Thanks, Shirley

"The average person today consumes almost three times as much information as what the typical person consumed in 1960, according to research at the University of California, San Diego." http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129384107&sc=fb&cc=fp

Recently, I’ve got so much interested in astronomy and watch many doc films that I had bought sometimes ago on the subject; stars, supernova, black hole, dark energy, dark matter, pulsar, quasars, galaxy formation, and so on. In my reflections, I got to know that star formation (still a mystery), evolution and death are the core for the knowledge of a lay person like me for learning astronomy. I got to read an article on Stars from nasa website:
 
 
http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/star_worldbook.html
 

It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk.
 
 
 
Bertolt Brecht

With little surprise to most Black Americans, once again another celebrity managed to allow the word "nigger" to slip out of their mouth in the public domain. As a nation still trapped in illusions of race and one that rejects notions of the prevalence of racism, most media outlets and mainstream social pundits, prefer to use the euphemism, "the N word," when discussing who is allowed and not allowed to use the term "nigger" in public spaces and discourse. However, it is about time we stop being timid about the word nigger, in order to grapple with its real consequences and significance to most Americans. In the past few years, at least four public personalities have accidently spoken the word, "nigger," publicly.

 
I have been thinking about this topic for some time, and have written about it periodically in this blog over the past few years so I am pleased to share an article that I have just had published in the Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies. Below are a few paragraphs from the article, and the rest can be downloaded at
 
http://www.jceps.com/index.php?pageID=article&articleID=175 

The link:  http://libcom.org/library/change-world-without-taking-power-john-holloway
refers to the whole book of John Holloway with the title "Change the World without Taking Power". The very first statement simply reveals the content of the book:
 
"When we write or when we read, it is easy to forget that the beginning is not the word, but the scream."
 
I like to share some other similarly hot statements put forth by Holloway:
 
"Our anger is constantly fired by experience, but any attempt to express that anger is met by a wall of absorbent cotton wool."
 

A blog devoted to the promotion of peace.
Objectives of Engaging Peace
1. Promote optimism concerning the possibility of peace
2. Explore how people in power and the mainstream media persuade citizens that various forms of government-sponsored aggression, such as war and torture, are justifiable
3. Present examples of serious conflicts that have been resolved without warfare
4. Demonstrate that a major pathway to peace is through responsible activism

http://www.educationnews.org/commentaries/opinions_on_education/97166.html.  
The following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School on June 25, 2010
 
 
Here I stand

Tim Wise has just posted his rebuttal to NYT Op-ed columnist Ross Douthat's dishonest and absurd critique of affirmative action programs in college.  On his facebook page he states,  "Sorry it took so long, but it takes longer to debunk lies than to tell them, apparently...Pass it around"
 
Here Douthat's July 18th NYT Op-ed entitled "The Roots of White Anxiety":  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/opinion/19douthat.html?_r=1&ref=rossdo...