Stop using the word Caucasian to mean white – Gene Expression | DiscoverMagazine.com.
Month: May 2014
Is America Going Insane (not a rhetorical question)
Is America Going Insane? (Not a rhetorical question)
Insanity is right. This kind of senseless violence is reported so frequently I am afraid the next generation will be so numb to it that society will simply slide into anarchy. Maybe the world of Mad Max isn’t that far off . . .
RIP IVY. — American Doll’s lone Asian doll discontinued
Reading the article in the link below brought back some bittersweet memories, and even greater disappointment. When my daughter was 8, my wife daughter and I took a trip from our Kentucky home (though our house is old, having been built in 1840, I am refusing to make any reference here to Stephen Foster or my Commonwealth’s state song) to Chicago to meet up wIth friends. The highlight of the trip was planned well in advance of our departure–a trip to the huge, beyond belief, American Girl Store and Salon. I remember well the smile on my daughter’s face when, after looking at rooms and rooms crammed full of (very expensive) dolls, all with European features, when we finally stumbled upon “Ivy”, the only Asian American doll among the thousands of dolls for sale. My wallet was nearly emptied as my daughter not only bought Ivy, but also matching outfits for her new doll and herself. She continuously stared at Ivy the rest of the trip and smiled up at me, asking, “Papa, She looks just like me, doesn’t she?” And indeed she did. Though, to be honest, the trip through that huge building crammed full of both dolls and little girls was not my favorite experience of the trip, my daughter’s smile made it not only bearable, but in some inexplicable way enjoyable.
For the foreseeable future, there will be no more Ivy’s or other Asian American dolls for sale at the AMERICAN DOLL store for all those little Asian girls like my daughter so accustomed at such a young age to feeling like an outsider in their own country.
Though, I have not seen any evidence of Ivy’s presence in our house in years, and my daughter is well past the doll phase and deeply into sports now, the story of Ivy’s demise did sadden me in an unexpected way.
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Daily Illini: Racial hate spewed against Asian American university president sparks action
Diversity and inclusion organizations on campus work to promote understanding – Campus – Daily Illini
News Republic
School Made Third Grade Student Pay To Use Bathroom
Jonathan Turley, a GWU law professor (who taught there when I attended, though I wasn’t fortunate enough to take a course from him) has an excellent and very active bog. If you don’t follow him or have not read any of his previous posts, I would encourage you to do so. This particular post addresses a situation so ridiculous I had to reblog it.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The mother of a third grade girl attending Mill Plain Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington is demanding changes in a school room program where students are required to pay to use the bathroom. The program was to be a lesson in money management where students received and worked for Monopoly Money to buy items in the classroom but the teacher required a payment of M$50.00 in order to use the bathroom.
Jasmine Al-Ayadhi told reporters her nine year old daughter, Reem, did not want to pay to use the bathroom and ultimately had an accident, causing her both discomfort and having to endure teasing by other children. In agreeing with the need to teach children the value of money Jasmine said, “Work for your money, to earn it, to buy like a little toy or a little squirt gun or a little ball. When it…
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For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Another excellent blog from Ancient Chridtian Wisdom
In the area of human sciences, laws of genetics and laws of behavioral interactions as well as rich descriptions of the processes that lead to sickness and to health are accepted by all as incontrovertible givens. Humanity conforms and acquiesces with nary a murmur or complaint. And yet with respect to moral values, the spiritual life, and liturgical practices, people feel that it is permissible, perhaps even desirable, to adjust and even discard the givens of faith, the givens of revelation, and even the givens of sin and holiness. It is as though the claims of science have such a hold on us that the claims of history and tradition may seem to be too much. And yet, the givens of faith can free the human spirit and open up horizons that scientific causality could never imagine.
That is why the desire to re-fashion Christian teaching or find a “new…
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Drug Abuse: Incurable Illness or Hedonistic Choice
I have several friends, including my best friend (formerly an excellent attorney, with a high income, a loving family, and a large number of friends) and a number or relatives who worked hard in college and moved up professionally, only to, in essence, trade all of the fruits of their hard work for a life of depravity, sacrificing everything important to them for an opportunity to score more drugs, requiring higher and higher doses of their drug(s) of choice to reach their “high.” More than one of my friends confiding in me that he had reached the state that he no longer felt high with the massive doses of drugs he was abusing-he now needed that large quantity to feel “normal” ( which I assumed meant avoiding symptoms of withdrawal.
Some of ny relatives/friends simply made the conscious decision to “quit partying” and have now had good jobs for years and apparently no longer “crave” the feeling of being high. I have other friends who hover near the bottom of their potential (professional, social, spiritual and appear to be moving, albeit slowly, toward becoming a productive membe of society again) and just when it seems they have turned the corner, they encounter another relapse, withdraw from (or even pick fights with) those few friends and family members who have not totally lost hope of a successful recovery (however low the odds may be).
As so often happens, I read an article in the excellent digital publication Aeon (which should be required reading by every human on earth) that discussed this very issue in great detail. It is far too well written for me to summarize so I will simply provide the link below:
terryclarke blog 