income inequality - trees from space

this is great article, you can see income inequality from Google earth, poor neighborhoods have fewer trees than wealthier.  So "greening of the neighborhood" is directly proportional to income inequality.  Above is example from chicago, top is hyde park, Obama's neighborhood at the Univ of Chicago ("the only neighborhood where whites and blacks join together against the poor....") and Englewood, a neighborhood currently under renovation with a humongous federal grant, but still remains economically challenged (or poor). notice the green difference?

Ann Romney's $1000 shirt, John Kerry's thousand dollar ties

As Billy Crystal would say, " you look Maaarvelous!"  So ann's shirt is $1000 - how much do you think mitt romney's suit cost?  Or what about john kerry's thousand dollar ties - silk, hand painted by an artist from Provincetown, Mass).  there are Italian suits at Nordstrom for $3000, on the rack.  My british shirts cost couple hundred dollars, same with ties.  Look at the members of congress when they appear on cable, on Fox - look at their suits, their tailored shirts - seriously, a $1000 shirt for a woman is nothing controversial.  Voters need to take a closer look at how our politicians are dressed, the expensive clothes they wear - they are from the 1%, no one complains about Speaker of the House John boehner's clothes (they are mucho expensive, like the fake tan he wears - what is his tanning monthly cost do you think?)  Besides, the falcon on the front is the symbol of the US Air Force academy.

how much do you think Mitt's tailored shirt cost?  Or Obama's suits?  BTW, they look maaaarvelous too!

Tom Mix jumping Beale's Cut in Santa Clarita

Tom Mix was a real Oklahoma cowboy who ended up in hollywood pictures.  Above is the famous picture of him jumping Beale's Cut.  Supposedly, impossible.  the myth is that he did it, but several stunt men have taken credit, and there is some question if the picture is a composite or fake.  My read:  Mix was a stunt man himself, he jumped it, the picture might be touched up because of the poor focus, but its him and its real.  I dont doubt other stunt men jumped it.  Only Mix would be a "ham" enough to wave while jumping.  The cut isnt all that wide, i mean it is wide, but the horse is proportionate to the actual cut.  so the picture is "real." or as real as pictures were in the 1920's before photoshoot.

below is the type of car, a a1937 cord phaeton, in which he was killed.  supposedly, he was driving 80 miles an hour over a road with the bridge out, he swerved, went over the edge, was killed when his metal suitcase hit the back of his head.  what a way to go.  80 miles an hour in a Cord, at night, over a collapsed bridge.  maybe if he was on his horse he would have made it.

The Tom Mix Museum in Dewey Oklahoma.  I was there once with my sons, a former grad student was city manager there.  Small town, nice museum.  the only thing that ever happened in Dewey, other than some oil wells.  and steers.

whatever happened to Malcolm X's message?

so now i work in nursing, and i see black men coming in to the emergency room, after a crack binge, with track marks on their arms, dehydrated, needing fluid, food, sleep.  prescription drugs.  every week there are drug murders in pittsburgh, in the hill district.  sometimes in daylight - i mean, in the afternoon.  some teenage guy running across vacant lots in the lower hill, guy with gun chasing him, shot repeatedly, dead, murderer arrested, two lives lost.  black on black crime. home invasions.

What happened to malcolm X's message?

Is it possible for a young black man in america to grow up not hearing about malcolm x?  reading his autobiography?  seeing spike lee's movie even?

I had a student in my political film class, black man from the hill, we watched Spike Lee's film, Clockers.  "Another stain on the sidewalk."  black men selling crack to pregnant women, killing each other, ending up dead or in prison.  turns out, my student was dealing weed on campus, got pulled over 2:00 am in his smoke filled car, had 3 lbs of marijuana in the back and a loaded gun under the seat.  It was his last semester of college.  he almost graduated.  he is in in state penn now.  convicted drug dealer, felon.  is life is f'd.  what happened to him?  no hope after graduation?  easier to sell weed?  he wasn't paying attention to clockers movie?

Its not like the message isnt out there.  Black man shows up in ER last week, 1:00am, paramedics brought him and his sister, he passed out after smoking crack, drinking, he was overweight, awful circulation in his extremities. with him was his pregnant younger sister - she was with him while he was smoking crack?  What does this guy do for a living?  Can you have a job and drink booze and smoke crack at 1 am?  He wanted to eat (he couldnt, he was nothing by mouth because doc wanted to do stress test asap in morning), he wanted this, he wanted that, is the ER a freakin' hotel room?

I know, white folk do crack, meth, and of course they can afford cocaine and they have health insurance and  doctors who write prescription pain killers (legal addicts).  and i know, black folk get sent to jail for crack, white folk go to Betty Ford clinic.

But my point is, aren't these black brothers buying into the same slave mentality that brother Malcolm was talking about?  At the end of his life, Malcolm X preached universal acceptance, love, and saw his struggle as part of a global struggle against dominating power, the post colonial powers, what we now call "globilization" --  isn't his message still powerful?  relevant?

I am a 60 yr old white man and i am wondering....WTF?  What happened to his message?

Gray whale that died had swallowed golf ball

reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer was using the ocean as a driving range......

SEATTLE — A gray whale found dead in Washington state’s Puget Sound had been feeding on shrimp and also had some debris, including a golf ball, in its stomach, but scientists don’t know what killed the animal.

The stomach examination Monday found the shrimp, woody debris, algae, pieces of rope and plastic, the golf ball and some flat spongy material, NOAA Fisheries said.

Cancel USPS service: Cosmo Kramer versus Sen. Susan Collins

Sen. Susan Collins from Maine  defends the US Postal Service.  There was a Seinfeld episode about Kramer deciding that the USPS was outdated, because of email, and he resented getting Pottery Barn catalogs constantly.  the USPS is outdated, its an elephant for politicians who want to satisfy an older population who sees the local USPS office as the identity for their community.  Fact is, the sense of community has become so fractured in today's society, that the USPS office is about the only thing many small communities have for their "sense of place."  My opinion:  shut the whole thing down.  Contract out for delivery.  It would save billions of dollars. the example below is the problem: why should the federal government subsidize a national enterprise so someone in small town maine can send a letter to someone ten miles away?  Heard of email?  Phone?  send an attach file?  Facebook?  come on.....

Collins passionately defended a mail processing center in Hampden, a town in northern Maine. Closing it would mean that a letter sent from one town in northern Maine to another town just ten miles away would take a 600-mile roundtrip, she said.

we are NOT leaving Iraq - why?

New report:

A January 31 report from the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, for instance, estimated that the State Department will spend $25-$30 billion in Iraq over the next five years. The panel said that U.S. diplomatic operations in Iraq in fiscal year 2012 will spike to at least $3 billion, roughly a quarter of the State Department's global operations budget. Other State initiatives here--like the large and growing Office of Security Cooperation--will push the fiscal 2012 numbers even higher.

so one more time, why are we in Iraq?  Oil?  we are spending far more than we will ever get from oil.  Geo political influence?  what influence? Iran dominates Iraqi politics.  Does our presence help the Israeli -Palestinian conflict? No, its worse.  Looks like Israel is intent on keeping west bank.  so again: what are we doing there?  Even at the height of the British Empire, the height of european colonialism, at least those countries got something from their colonies.  what are we getting from Iraq? 

Obama cant get out, or wont.  who is keeping us there?  what is Obama facing?  some kinda cabal of industrial-military contractors, sunk cost military-diplomatic thinking that we just cant leave?

Australian think they should "cull" sharks: why not "cull" dumb ass divers?

here is a story about another shark attack in australia, this time a young boy was lost.  Tragic of course.  but why was the boy's dad diving in water known to have sharks?  What precautions did the dad take?  Sharks live in the ocean, duh.  Its not like they crawl up on land and attack us while we sleep.  we go out into their playground, in a black dive suit, dive underwater, act like we are seals or prey, and the sharks attack us.  Its out fault, not the sharks fault.  Sharks play an important role in ocean ecology.  there are plenty of places to dive without fearing shark attack in australia.  and there are ways of diving in shark waters and still be safe, like having spotters, calculating the time of day sharks are active.  Easiest just to avoid shark infested water.

and BTW surfers know there are sharks in the water, surfers paddle far out, in deep water, even in shallow water there can be sharks, when there is a shark spotting surfers feel safer because at least someone SAW the shark.  Sharks are there, we just cant see them.  Sharks wont attack a surfer while surfing, because the surfer doesnt look like prey when surfing the board on a wave.  but when a surfer is paddling, waiting for a wave, they look like a seal.  and you dont necessarily see sharks if they are swimming around you.  the whole dorsal fin thing (da da, da da, the shark soundtrack with the dorsal fin) is a myth.  sharks are invisible usually, they stay under water. you see the dorsal fin only in shallow water.  but surfers love to surf, so sharing the ocean with sharks is part of the challenge of surfing. Like jean paul sartre said:  "No complaining!"  (but i dont think he surfed......)