According to this article on CNN, a mailman wants the national union to sanction kilts as part of the uniform. He says they are more comfortable for him and does not cause the same amount of chaffing for him. He brought this issue to the national convention and it was struck down. I say more power to him, more men should wear kilts if they want to wear them.
h/t Tengrain for first bringing this up
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Take that old white haired dude
I am not a fan of Paris Hilton at all, but I do really like this response to the whole McCain using her in one of his political ads.
See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.com
Oh and I know that someone wrote down that whole "my energy policy thing", but it was a great way of at least not making her seem to be the airhead that she always appears to be.
See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.com
Oh and I know that someone wrote down that whole "my energy policy thing", but it was a great way of at least not making her seem to be the airhead that she always appears to be.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Movie Review- God Grew Tired of Us
God Grew Tired of Us is the story of three men who were part of the Lost boys of Sudan. The Lost Boys of Sudan area group of over 27,000 men who were driven out of southern Sudan in 1987 due to civil war. After many years as refugees, approximately 3800 of them were given the opportunity to come to the U.S. to have new opportunities. This film profiles three of the men, but in talking about these three men it is a great case study all of those who cam to the U.S. The film begins with some history on the Lost Boys and their having to travel, first to Ethiopia and then later to Kenya where they had been living for about 10 years when they left for the U.S. We see some of the refugee camp life and the ways in which this large band of peoples, mostly male have become a large family as they have struggled to survive. The movie then goes on to show the mixed emotions that the men who get to leave are feeling, sadness in having to leave their home and their family, but also excitement to begin something new and maybe not have to starve and struggle for food as much. The rest of the film, about an hour, shows the adjustment of the men to the U.S. from learning about running water and electricity to having to get a job or go to college. We experience the joys and struggles of these men as they adjust to a life that is so different than what they were used to. We also get to see toward the end of the film one of the boys reunited with his mother who he had not seen in seventeen years.
The film is incredibly powerful in he range of emotions you go through, watching them at the supermarket right after they have come to the U.S. is really funny and also interesting. The struggles they have as they adjust to living in much more isolating conditions for them. As one of the men comment at one point that he was so used to living with a lot of people that the three other Sudanese who are living with him are not enough. Many of them discuss the importance of family and community relationships. They struggle with the ways in which they feel isolated from each other as they have to work two and three jobs at times, thus giving them no time to socialize with each other. They also comment on how unfriendly Americans are and how they seem to be more isolated from each other than the Sudanese or at least in the refugee camps they were used to. The ending where one of the individuals is now reunited with his mom is very powerful along with one of the other men going back to Africa to marry and then return with his bride. There are times at which this is a hard film to watch, but it is also a film that needs to be shown in schools so that children can realize how truly lucky they are to live here in the U.S.
The film is incredibly powerful in he range of emotions you go through, watching them at the supermarket right after they have come to the U.S. is really funny and also interesting. The struggles they have as they adjust to living in much more isolating conditions for them. As one of the men comment at one point that he was so used to living with a lot of people that the three other Sudanese who are living with him are not enough. Many of them discuss the importance of family and community relationships. They struggle with the ways in which they feel isolated from each other as they have to work two and three jobs at times, thus giving them no time to socialize with each other. They also comment on how unfriendly Americans are and how they seem to be more isolated from each other than the Sudanese or at least in the refugee camps they were used to. The ending where one of the individuals is now reunited with his mom is very powerful along with one of the other men going back to Africa to marry and then return with his bride. There are times at which this is a hard film to watch, but it is also a film that needs to be shown in schools so that children can realize how truly lucky they are to live here in the U.S.
Monday, August 4, 2008
UPDATE: Walmart is still evil
Wal-mart is of course denying reports they were trying to influence how their workers vote in November. They say they were just trying to educate their workers about new legislation. Hmmmmmm...yeah right... and I am a monkeys uncle. Anyway, here is the entire report from NPR.
h/t my mom
h/t my mom
Kids can't play anymore
As I was reading this article I started to think about how much we limit the amount of time that children can play. Kids just can't and don't go out to play as much as they did even when I was growing up and that wasn't that long ago. Now we have video games and TV for them to sit on their asses and do instead of going outside. But who can blame them when they stay inside when they are constantly told, don't do that you may hurt yourself, don't go there it is dangerous, it isn't safe for you to ride your bike out of the driveway, you need to stay right here. As a kid if i can't go anywhere, if I can't climb a tree or go to a stream and look at crawdads or ride my bike to my friends, what is the point of going outside? Sure the fresh air is good for you, but when all of the fun is taken out of playing why would you do it? We also don't show kids how to play anymore, if they are playing a sport, there are all kids of rule and the games have to be organized. They have to be playing in the soccer league or the baseball league or the whatever sports league. What happened to a whole bunch of kids getting together to play hide and seek or a big game of tag in the neighborhood? What happened to kids just playing touch football in the backyard or just throwing a football or frisbee around. I don't remember a lot of pick up games of football, but I sure remember a few.
And the whole trying to protect your kids every second of the day has just gotten out of hand. I know even at schools it has gotten to be a bit crazy. At my last job in NC, we had trees outside that were there for the kids to climb on, that was the purpose of them. We were specifically told that the kids could climb trees, now we didn't want anyone to get hurt so I along with a few other teachers would say that the kids can climb the tree, but we had to be there just to make sure stuff stayed relatively safe. I would just stand there and watch the kids climbing, with my arm out in case they fell. I am not sure I would have actually caught a child if they fell, but it would have been enough to slow them down. I also was able to make sure that there was only one child at a time in the tree and that other kids weren't shaking the tree to knock someone out of the tree. But other teachers banned the kids from ever climbing in the trees, cause they were afraid that child may break an arm. I understand the concern, but really kids need to have fun, they need to explore and use muscles that they can't use just by running around. I was amazed how many times I saw kids do amazing things like swing their whole body up on a branch or use some agility and planning to get from the top of a tree to the bottom or from one branch to another. Kids cannot learn these skills without experiencing them. I was never the type of kid who wanted to climb trees, but for those children who want to we should let them. They are gaining valuable experiences and learning to use muscles and thinking skills that they may otherwise never learn to use. And if they fall and break their arm, well that is what insurance is for and also they learn their own boundaries. If, as adults, we always set the boundaries for kids than how are they going to figure them out for themselves.
We also need to start to encourage children to have recess more too. They need these breaks in academics for a bit to re-focus and be ready for more learning. Learning can take place in all kinds of places including the outdoors and recess is a great time for kids to explore their environment. They can learn about nature and the world around them. They can learn to count the leaves or to write with sidewalk chalk. I even remember in seventh grade going outside to the nature center, sure I wasn't the most outdoorsy kind of kid, but it was still nice to get out and take a bit of a nature walk and go down to the pond or into the woods near the school. Even schools in urban environments can enjoy that kind of learning, take the kids outside to look at the trees or grass that are nearby for whatever bus or other animals are living in that area or just on a walk.
I am sorry if this was a bit rambling and did not seem to flow totally for you, but it all ties together in my own head. Kids need more fun and need to discover the world outside. How can we expect them to care about the environment if they have never been outside and looked at world around them?
And the whole trying to protect your kids every second of the day has just gotten out of hand. I know even at schools it has gotten to be a bit crazy. At my last job in NC, we had trees outside that were there for the kids to climb on, that was the purpose of them. We were specifically told that the kids could climb trees, now we didn't want anyone to get hurt so I along with a few other teachers would say that the kids can climb the tree, but we had to be there just to make sure stuff stayed relatively safe. I would just stand there and watch the kids climbing, with my arm out in case they fell. I am not sure I would have actually caught a child if they fell, but it would have been enough to slow them down. I also was able to make sure that there was only one child at a time in the tree and that other kids weren't shaking the tree to knock someone out of the tree. But other teachers banned the kids from ever climbing in the trees, cause they were afraid that child may break an arm. I understand the concern, but really kids need to have fun, they need to explore and use muscles that they can't use just by running around. I was amazed how many times I saw kids do amazing things like swing their whole body up on a branch or use some agility and planning to get from the top of a tree to the bottom or from one branch to another. Kids cannot learn these skills without experiencing them. I was never the type of kid who wanted to climb trees, but for those children who want to we should let them. They are gaining valuable experiences and learning to use muscles and thinking skills that they may otherwise never learn to use. And if they fall and break their arm, well that is what insurance is for and also they learn their own boundaries. If, as adults, we always set the boundaries for kids than how are they going to figure them out for themselves.
We also need to start to encourage children to have recess more too. They need these breaks in academics for a bit to re-focus and be ready for more learning. Learning can take place in all kinds of places including the outdoors and recess is a great time for kids to explore their environment. They can learn about nature and the world around them. They can learn to count the leaves or to write with sidewalk chalk. I even remember in seventh grade going outside to the nature center, sure I wasn't the most outdoorsy kind of kid, but it was still nice to get out and take a bit of a nature walk and go down to the pond or into the woods near the school. Even schools in urban environments can enjoy that kind of learning, take the kids outside to look at the trees or grass that are nearby for whatever bus or other animals are living in that area or just on a walk.
I am sorry if this was a bit rambling and did not seem to flow totally for you, but it all ties together in my own head. Kids need more fun and need to discover the world outside. How can we expect them to care about the environment if they have never been outside and looked at world around them?
Friday, August 1, 2008
YouTube Fridays
Yay it is back, I did miss not doing YouTube Fridays. So at Shakesville yesterday the Question of the Day was about songs from movies that you would be embarrassed if others knew you really liked. There are so many great candidates, but these two really stuck out for me.
The never ending story- Limahl
Magic Dance- David Bowie (From Labyrinth)
The never ending story- Limahl
Magic Dance- David Bowie (From Labyrinth)
The evil empire strikes again
Wal-Mart is at it again. This time they are discouraging their employees from voting for Obama in November. This article discusses how over the past few weeks Wally World has been holding meetings with their managers and department heads to discuss how a Democratic presidency would be bad for the company. Wal-Mart believes that a Democratic presidency would allow for more unionization of their workers and this would be bad for the company. They have been telling their personnel that if unions are allowed it would mean, employes would have to pay really high union fees, would have to strike without pay and Wal-Mart may have to lay off workers as a union would increase their labor fees too high for them to be able to keep everyone. So the same old, same old scare tactics that have been used forever.
These threats are not new for Wal-Mart as I learned when I was a personal care assistant for a young man with Cerebral Palsy and who was in a wheelchair. As part of the vocational program at the school, a job had to be found for the kids so that they could have something to do when they left high school. The young man I was working with and had been working with for the past year before that was found a job at Wal-Mart. So since he was working at Wal-Mart I had to go along with him and listen to the bullshit training videos and such. Well, it seems that as part of the new employee orientation Wal-Mart has anti-Union propaganda videos for the new employees to watch. We were told the exact same thing that they are now repeating here, unions would mean really high union wages that would take all of their money and that they would be forced to strike with no wages. The new employees were also warned that union organizers were everywhere and were sneaky. They would try to trick employees into wanting unions when the employees didn't really want them. Wal-Mart says that they try to protect their employees against these nefarious unions, but since we have that pesky freedom of speech thing, Wal-Mart cannot stop these pesky people from talking to you about unions.
I knew Wal-Mart was anti-union when I had to endure this training, but that they would sink so low as to make anti-union propaganda as part of their training seemed out of bounds to me. It really took a lot for me to sit there and listen to this video. I am not a 100% proponent of unions, they do a lot of really good things and have made very positive changes in the American economy, but there are downsides at times to large unions such as lack of local decision making abilities. But the fact that Wal-Mart is so scared of unions and is brainwashing their employees the same way is wrong. They also apparently didn't tell their employees who to vote for, but the Democrats would be the wrong choice. I wonder how many people will lose their jobs at Wal-Mart if they vote the "wrong" way. Will you get fired if you show support for Obama?
Yet another reason that I hate Wal-Mart and try not to go there most of the time although I have begun to slip a bit on that lately, this new information will toughen my resolve though.
These threats are not new for Wal-Mart as I learned when I was a personal care assistant for a young man with Cerebral Palsy and who was in a wheelchair. As part of the vocational program at the school, a job had to be found for the kids so that they could have something to do when they left high school. The young man I was working with and had been working with for the past year before that was found a job at Wal-Mart. So since he was working at Wal-Mart I had to go along with him and listen to the bullshit training videos and such. Well, it seems that as part of the new employee orientation Wal-Mart has anti-Union propaganda videos for the new employees to watch. We were told the exact same thing that they are now repeating here, unions would mean really high union wages that would take all of their money and that they would be forced to strike with no wages. The new employees were also warned that union organizers were everywhere and were sneaky. They would try to trick employees into wanting unions when the employees didn't really want them. Wal-Mart says that they try to protect their employees against these nefarious unions, but since we have that pesky freedom of speech thing, Wal-Mart cannot stop these pesky people from talking to you about unions.
I knew Wal-Mart was anti-union when I had to endure this training, but that they would sink so low as to make anti-union propaganda as part of their training seemed out of bounds to me. It really took a lot for me to sit there and listen to this video. I am not a 100% proponent of unions, they do a lot of really good things and have made very positive changes in the American economy, but there are downsides at times to large unions such as lack of local decision making abilities. But the fact that Wal-Mart is so scared of unions and is brainwashing their employees the same way is wrong. They also apparently didn't tell their employees who to vote for, but the Democrats would be the wrong choice. I wonder how many people will lose their jobs at Wal-Mart if they vote the "wrong" way. Will you get fired if you show support for Obama?
Yet another reason that I hate Wal-Mart and try not to go there most of the time although I have begun to slip a bit on that lately, this new information will toughen my resolve though.
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