Merry Christmas!
Have a great holiday!
PEACE
Reality Bytes is a blog that addresses national and local politics. It will also include commentary about other non-political issues such as social commentary, religious commentary, food, and music.
Eatliz is an Israeli alternative/progressive rock supergroup formed as the serious outlet of Guy Ben Shetrit of punk rock band Infectzia in 2001. The band is known for its internationally awarded animation music videos and for reinventing itself in every live show, where the stage is a playground and every show is unique. The band members themselves describe their sound as "complicated pop".The following music video is both a great video and a great song. I love it because its a really artistic and creative video. Enjoy!
An exhaustive government survey of rape and domestic violence released on Wednesday affirmed that sexual violence against women remains endemic in the United States and in some instances may be far more common than previously thought.
Nearly one in five women surveyed said they had been raped or had experienced an attempted rape at some point, and one in four reported having been beaten by an intimate partner. One in six women have been stalked, according to the report.
“That almost one in five women have been raped in their lifetime is very striking and, I think, will be surprising to a lot of people,” said Linda C. Degutis, director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the survey. “I don’t think we’ve really known that it was this prevalent in the population,” she said.
"I owe it to myself, my family, and perhaps, most importantly, my country."
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A University of Vermont fraternity suspended over a survey that asked members who they would like to rape is getting a visit from a representative of the fraternity's national headquarters. The national Sigma Phi Epsilon organization says in a statement that is has instructed the chapter to cease all operation, pending further investigation. It says that any behavior that demeans women is not tolerated...Officials say a student reported the survey to the university over the weekend. School officials contacted the national fraternity and police to determine if any crimes have been committed.
PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- A small eastern Kentucky church is making huge headlines after it banned interracial couples from becoming members.
The former pastor defended the recommendation, stating it's "not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and community."
According to The Washington Post, the current pastor of the church, Stacy Stepp, said he allowed the vote but didn't agree with the decision.So you call for a vote to ban interracial couples. Only 15 of the 40 members don't walk out (props must be given to those who do), but the remaining fifteen, or 37.5% of the congregation, remain to vote and PASS the resolution. Now I understand democracy and democratic process, but when its used to infringe on the rights of a specific group of people based on their race, it ceases to be democratic.
"I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my negotiators cannot. The obstructionist Congress has shackled justice and delayed ambition for far too long. I am scared for my future. 2020 is too late to wait. We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty. We need leaders who will commit to real change, not empty rhetoric. Keep your promises. Keep our hope alive."
"My mommy's gay, but she doesn't need any fixing."This little kid is my hero. I don't care if mommy put him up to this, he still had the courage to tell this to a complete stranger, in front of a crowd, in a strange location. This child's bravery is beyond words.
GMAC Mortgage, the mortgage lender of Ally Financial Inc., is exiting the vast majority of its lending in Massachusetts a day after the state sued it and other lenders over its allegedly improper foreclosure practices, a decision the state's attorney general called an admission.So it must be something pretty bad to make Massachusetts "no longer viable" as a market to help people get homes. It's got to be something really, really bad to destroy the mortgage market for GMAC to the point where there's just ZERO business for them anymore.
The nation's fifth-largest mortgage originator said it "has taken this action because recent developments have led mortgage lending in Massachusetts to no longer be viable."
The House on Thursday approved a bill ending the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) that was set up to ensure states meet certain standards at the voting booth, and ending the public financing of presidential campaigns. The bill passed in a mostly partisan 235-190 vote...Really? REALLY?!? WTF? Suddenly you're concerned about $33 million over FIVE YEARS? *ugh* Makes me so stabby*. What's more important to a democracy? Saving chump change, or oversight of the voting process?
"There is no doubt that a voter suppression effort is underway in this nation," Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) charged on the House floor. "Abolishing the Election Assistance Commission, an agency charged with ensuring that the vote of each American counts, is just another step in the voter suppression effort and would completely remove oversight of the most important process in our democracy."
Republicans have said ending the EAC would save $33 million over the next five years. The GOP says the EAC has already served its purpose, and that any work it still does offering guidance to states can be transferred to the Federal Election Commission.
In a speech at MIT last night to discuss the packed sweepstakes to build a tech campus in New York City, Mayor Bloomberg said he prefers City Hall to the White House. Almost immediately after Mayor Bloomberg dampened recent speculation he’s eyeing a White House bid, he added fuel to the fire by explaining why a mayor would be the best person for the job."Whatchu talkin 'bout Bloomy?!?"
“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
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Isn't choice great! It's the "American Way"! Yay Freedom!*
"What is the point of teaching children facts if it only confuses them? It should be up to the American people to decide what's true! Doesn't that make common sense?"
Did you catch that? Any time a presidential contender has a subtle comedic dig taken at him by the lame-stream media, I applaud! Especially when its Santorum.
"In addition to his more modest house in Penn Hills, Pa., Rick Santorum also lived in this two-story residence on 3.76 acres in Leesburg, Va., until 2007. It was purchased new in 2001 for $643,361. The question of Santorum’s residency location was the catalyst for a frothy controversy spanning more than a decade, as detailed here."
"I may not be the guy that the girls are initially attracted to when they walk into the dance hall, but ultimately once you get to know all the folks, I'm the one you want to take home to Mom," Santorum said.I'm pretty sure that there's not too many mother's who are into Santorum... *cough*.... either way.
"The agenda [they] would impose on America — abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat — that's change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants. It is not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of change we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God's country."Let's play a little game. (1) Who said this quote? (2) When did they say this? (3) Who were they talking about?
CHICAGO, Ill. -- Every day she goes to work at O'Hare International Airport, Elda Burke faces the same dilemma.
Burke, 30, works as a passenger attendant at the airport, escorting the elderly and disabled to and from their gates by wheelchair. Even though the airlines describe this as a free service, Burke's employer has her working partly for tips, which is why her base pay is a low $6.50 an hour, somewhat like a restaurant server's, rather than the typical Illinois minimum wage of $8.25.
But unlike diners at a restaurant, many of the passengers Burke will be escorting on their holiday travels this week won't realize she's working for tips -- and by federal law, she won't be allowed to tell them.
"We cannot say anything," Burke says. "If we do that, they can fire us."
"Jefferson said that the people who want to be both free and ignorant are asking for something that has never been and will never be. Captain John Smith said in 1607 in the first English speaking permanent colony to the aristocrats who paid their way and didn't want to work, if you don't work you don't eat. There was a deep sense of responsibility.This disgusts me. This so called expert on moral values is saying that if you're not working you don't have a deep sense of responsibility. Unemployed? Go get a job you dirty hippie. Laid off or fired? You obviously didn't work hard enough to keep your job.
"Let me now take that and for a brief moment describe Occupy Wall St."Oh please do, since you apparently understand it so well...
"All of the Occupy movement starts with the premise that we owe them everything."
"They take over a public park they didn't pay for. To go nearby to bathrooms they didn't pay for..."Hey moron, if its PUBLIC it belongs to the PEOPLE. Those same PEOPLE that are protesting PAID for it with their taxes. Unless poor and middle class Americans don't count to you Newt...
"...to beg for food from places they they don’t want to pay for. To obstruct those that are going to work to pay the taxes to sustain the bathrooms and to sustain the park so that they can self-righteously explain that they are the paragons of virtue to which we owe everything."I've been to the protest and Chicago and fellow protesters are actually bringing food to the protest so people don't have to beg. Bet you didn't know that Newt, but I guess you also didn't go down to the protest yourself. And isn't one of the POINTS of the protest to Occupy Wall St; to obstruct those that are criminally destroying our country and stealing its wealth? Oh I forgot, in your world, only the 1% (there's that "we" again) pay taxes that really count.
“Now, that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying to them, ‘Go get a job right after you take a bath.”Let's talk about YOUR moral values Newt (no, you don't get the respect from me to call you "Mr.").
(g) Any person who uses tear gas or tear gas weapons except in self-defense is guilty of a public offense and is punishable byimprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or two or three years or in a county jail not to exceed one year or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, except that, if the use is against a peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2, engaged in the performance of his or her official duties and the person committing the offense knows or reasonably should know that the victim is a peace officer, the offense is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months or two or three years or by a fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment.I wonder when the Federal Government will step in and say enough is enough, that these protesters have the right to do what they want and that no police force has the right to treat them that way. In my last post I mentioned what happens when the corporate interests are protected over the rights of the people. Think fascism can't happen here? Watch that video again and then try answering that question.
“Sometimes they are arrested and then set free almost immediately. Sometimes they are arrested and, before being released, are charged with unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct or lack of press credentials.What is the role of the police? To protect the rights of the people? Or to protect the rights of the corporation?
Journalists covering the Occupy Wall Street movement’s protests and marches are not only exposed to police brutality but also to a sort of judicial lottery when detained. The situation varies from state to state, according to local laws, but the freedom to report news and information is being violated almost everywhere, not only for professional journalists but also for bloggers and for activists who want to cover the protests themselves."
Sound like something that might be happening here? Even in NYC, Mayor Bloomberg is the 12 richest man in America with a net worth of 19.5 BILLION dollars. It would seem that he has interests that need to be protected.
"Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite."
Don't think this can't happen here. Don't think that fascism and corporate interests can't dominate the interests of the people. We can either keep ignoring what's happening here, or speak out against it and act out against the corporate interests.
"The use of sonic weapons, the use of massive police, the changing of the rules of access to the park after the fact in violation of the agreement by which the park was created, the refusal of the authorities to allow access to the press, the arresting of journalists, the continued incarceration of people including a city councilman without bringing them to the courts - all of these are indicators that basic rights apparently no longer matter to those in control of power.
How the people as a whole respond to what has happened, including the coordination across multiple cities and the inappropriate intervention of the Department of Homeland Security into this situation, may represent the last chance to prevent this nation from slipping into fascism - corporate domination of the system without regard to the rights of persons ostensibly guaranteed by the Constitutions of the United States and the several states."
(1) austere quality; severity of manner, life, etc; sternnessIs this really "austerity"? Sure, the governments are cutting, cutting, cutting. But is it more than that? Can cutting to the 99% and giving to the 1% really be called "austerity"? What's a better word for it?
(2) strict economy
(3) reduced availability of luxuries and consumer goods, esp when brought about by government policy
First of all, lets not call it a "wealth gap". Young people in this country are poor. I have no shame saying it.
"WASHINGTON (AP) — The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt.
The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.
While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation."