tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1157482289708720792024-03-05T05:35:22.136-06:00GREENBERG RANTS . . .Current Events - The Arts - All Things Political - Media - Entertainment - JusticePaul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.comBlogger313125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-65466281069924157652015-07-21T14:44:00.000-05:002015-07-21T21:45:56.045-05:0010 Good Reasons Donald Trump Needs to Bow Out<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One day after Donald Trump made his <b><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/18/draft-dodging-trump-says-pow-mccain-not-a-war-hero.html">disparaging comments</a></b> about John McCain and veterans who were captured in the line of duty, his poll numbers skyrocketed. Go figure. Within 24 hours, Trump was showing a double digit lead over opponents whose profile had been significantly higher than his just weeks before. We are fully 16 months out from the election, so I don’t put a lot of weight on those numbers. Does anybody remember in 2012 when Rick Santorum sailed to the top of the heap? And we all know how long that lasted. So I say, don’t get too excited about the numbers. Still, it compels me to offer my top 10 reasons American needs Donald Trump to go away:<br />
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1. <a href="http://www.vibe.com/2015/06/donald-trump-mexico-diss/"><b> Insulting the entire Mexican population </b></a>was perhaps the worst way to kick off a presidential campaign ever. It shows that he believes in exclusivity, and that he does not value any of the decent human beings trying to forge a new life for themselves in America. He needs to read an American history book.<br />
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2. Trump is degrading the electoral process. Dignity still counts in the process. While it is true the last several elections cycles have been anything but dignified, Trump has taken the process to a new low. His public comments and his demeanor have been more than just undignified and certainly not worthy of a potential leader of the free world.<br />
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3. He plays to the crowd, rather than truly expressing his positions. Right now, we know he has very negative feelings toward our <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-nobody-wants-talk-about-immigration-crime-n390391"><b>immigration policies </b></a>and procedures. We know very little else about his positions on key economic, social and foreign relations issues.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playing to the crowd in Arizona</td></tr>
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4. Trump routinely conducts himself in an undiplomatic fashion. It may work in the New York real estate development world, but it will not work at a negotiating table with foreign leaders. He will not be able to dismiss an Angela Merkel or Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping. Their power, and the power of other world leaders have measurably increased over time, and without diplomacy, Trump will further dilute the world standing of the U.S.<br />
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5. All of Trump’s rhetoric and each of his speeches play to one segment of the American population. What about the rest of the people? What about minorities, women, veterans, Democrats, the traditional Republican base, the poor, the mentally ill, the unemployed, and many other population segments? If he were to be president, he would have to be the leader of all of America. He has shown no inclination to acknowledge key population groups.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/AP_GTY_donald_trump_john_mccain_split_jt_150718_4x3_992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/AP_GTY_donald_trump_john_mccain_split_jt_150718_4x3_992.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trump polled stronger after his remarks about McCain</td></tr>
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6. Speaking of veterans, after his debacle with John McCain, Trump was very vocal about his disdain for the Veterans Administration. He has, however, offered no suggestions on how he would make improvements. In fact, that is often Trump’s approach: He criticizes, but does not offer solutions.<br />
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7. Trump has indicated he will <b>s</b><a href="http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/Trumps-Self-Financed-Campaign-Means-Hes-Not-Going-Away-317633461.html"><b>pend whatever it takes </b></a>to win. Do we really want an American citizen to purchase the presidency with his wealth? By some estimates, the final cost of becoming President of the United States can easily approach a billion dollars. Trump has that much and more. The electoral playing field suddenly becomes more uneven than ever.<br />
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8. Regardless of how you feel about the American mass media, at some point, every President needs them. It might be to spread the word about proposed legislation or trade deals he or she feels is critical to the economy or national security. It might be about promoting a person he or she wants to appoint as Supreme Court Justice. There is any number of reasons a President can use media to his or her advantage – or disadvantage. Think Richard Nixon. Trump continues to alienate high profile media professionals, one by one. Consider this exchange with NBC’s Matt Lauer:<br />
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Media Backlash has been swift and unforgiving. The Des Moines Register, the largest newspaper in Iowa, published an editorial suggesting Trump drop out of the race now. "If Trump, our would-be commander in chief, doesn't like POWs, how does he feel about men and women killed in action?" the Register queried. Ouch. Meanwhile, The<b> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-note-about-our-coverage-of-donald-trumps-campaign_55a8fc9ce4b0896514d0fd66?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016&section=politics">Huffington Post</a></b> announced that all Trump-related content is now relegated to its entertainment page, calling his campaign a "side show."<br />
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9. Neither major political party is taking Trump seriously, with Republicans so far being much more vocal in their opposition. Democrats see him as a distraction from the race, while Republicans see him as an embarrassment. If Trump were to be elected President, he would have little or no support from the legislative branch of government, which means nothing much could get accomplished. Haven’t we really had enough of nothing much getting accomplished?<br />
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10. Americans almost never elect an extremist to the Presidency. They routinely fall by the wayside. Think Rick Santorum. Trump is free to spend a billion dollars of his own money, but he is not electable.<br />
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I could go on about Trump's life of privilege that has kept him out of touch with every day Americans; or his multiple and questionable draft deferments that allowed him to avoid the Vietnam war; or his multiple declarations of business bankruptcy over the years. But when all is said and done, Americans are smart. Trump is nothing more than an opening act for the <i>real </i>race to the White House.Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-76167919322516772862015-07-16T11:57:00.000-05:002015-07-16T17:13:04.101-05:00"A CHANGE IS GONNA COME"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i0.wp.com/radaronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/caitlyn-jenner-espy-speech-arthur-ashe-courage-award.jpg?fit=551%2C9999" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i0.wp.com/radaronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/caitlyn-jenner-espy-speech-arthur-ashe-courage-award.jpg?fit=551%2C9999" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You may have noticed the headlines lately all have one thing
in common – people keeping secrets. Consider Dennis Hastert, once the third
most powerful man in America, now accused of molesting teen boys when he was a
high school wrestling coach. And then there is Rachel Dolezal, the white woman
who was so convincing in her masquerade to be black, that she ultimately rose
to the position of state leader of the Washington NAACP. And then there is
Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt, who recently resigned after it was
revealed he failed to protect children from a pedophile priest by never
revealing that priest’s wrongdoing. Secrets. So many secrets, some
understandable, and others inexplicably vile.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then: The secret of all secrets: Caitlyn Jenner.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unless you have felt unduly forced to keep a secret about
your very personhood, it may be that you cannot understand some of these recent
revelations. While some of it baffles me, unfortunately I do understand the
feeling of being forced to keep a personal secret. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not understand the Charleston shooter, for
example, and I suppose no one ever will. But I do understand Caitlyn Jenner,
and in some twisted fashion I understand Denny Hastert, although I certainly do
not condone his alleged behavior. You see, I grew up in the middle of middle
America, in the middle of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. At that time, the 1950s
were really still alive and well, and the themes were conformity and
sameness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think of the 1950s as I do
of the color beige – uninspired, unenlightened, and safe – very safe. The country
had only recently experienced World War II, the “Big One,” as it came to be
called. People needed order and shelter – not just physical shelter, but
emotional and cultural shelter. Everything had been too uncertain,
unpredictable and frightening for too long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What America did not need during my formative years was anyone to rock
the boat.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://static.suite.io/article_images/orig/3f5f2aad-1e16-4acf-b81f-be21173db094.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://static.suite.io/article_images/orig/3f5f2aad-1e16-4acf-b81f-be21173db094.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The American Dream - 1950s style</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I guess I kept my secret because I knew not to rock anything
in landlocked, repressed St. Louis, MO. My secret would be no big deal in
today’s America, but back then, one was simply not allowed to be gay. People
like me were still considered mentally disordered and certainly abnormal. So I
kept my secret for 37 years. That’s a long time. When you consider the life
expectancy of an American male back in the 1960s was less than 70, one could
fairly state that I kept my secret for more than half of my anticipated life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Caitlyn Jenner, on the other hand, kept her secret for 65
years. Sixty-five years. If you are 65 or older, you know what a long, long
road it was to get there. If you are under 65, many of you still view 65 as
“old.” Imagine keeping a secret about your very being until you are “old.” Some
will say Jenner lived a lie for his entire life. Others will say Jenner lived a
“double life.” And still others will question how he could be so deceitful to
marry three unknowing women and father six children and four step-children. How
could he? How dare he!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t know Caitlyn Jenner, but I do not hesitate in
answering that question. Bruce Jenner did what was expected of him. He never
really felt he had a choice. Neither did I. Like Jenner, I grew up and got
married. Believe it or not, a trans sexual like Jenner is fully capable of
falling in love with a woman. And a gay man is equally prone to falling in love
– with a woman. It’s complicated. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bruce did,
and I did. But anyone with such secrets will tell you: Life catches up to you
and eventually, authenticity trumps conformity. Sooner or later, one must be
who one is, and respect oneself for being so. I believe that happened to
Caitlyn Jenner, and I know unequivocally it happened to me. What people like us
are most grateful for in life is the privilege of truth. There is no bitterness
about having felt forced to live less than authentically for so many decades.
There is only clarity and determination about living the legitimate life of
today.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.butterfly-maiden.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/authenticity-transparency-quote.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.butterfly-maiden.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/authenticity-transparency-quote.png" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would venture to say most trans sexual human beings are
not living in their truth because they feel the world around them will not
allow it. And I am more than sad to say that many, many gay men and women, even
in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, still feel too fearful to live their God-given
true lives. And I would go even further to say there are a number of other
secrets that we humans feel unduly compelled to keep in our pockets – poverty,
insecurity, shyness, illiteracy, dyslexia, disease, failure, mental illness,
depression, domestic violence, weakness – I could go on, and so could you, if
you are harboring your own covert self, deep inside. Each time we deny others
their birthright to be exactly who they were born to be, we fail in our
humanity. Each time any one of those people goes deeper and deeper into himself
or herself due to our judgmental intolerance, we shame ourselves, not them. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On July 15, 2015, Caitlyn Jenner took to the stage at the
annual ESPY awards and spoke her truth. Her speech was less about herself than
it was about the thousands of human beings who are still somehow unable to
speak theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Watch:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IF8gd2G91Kk?rel=0&showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Caitlyn Jenner’s provocative pose on the cover of Vanity
Fair was not a publicity stunt and it was not a “fuck you” to the whole world.
It was not frivolous, narcissistic or impulsive. It was a statement of
authenticity. Whether you praise or condemn Jenner’s methods of debuting
herself, just know that the thousands of photos you have seen of Bruce Jenner
over the past four decades were, each and every one, a lie. The only true image
of Jenner was the one the people are so polarized by – Caitlyn Jenner, 65, on
the cover of Vanity Fair.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-tolerance-implies-no-lack-of-commitment-to-one-s-own-beliefs-rather-it-condemns-the-oppression-or-john-f-kennedy-100762.jpg?width=400" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-tolerance-implies-no-lack-of-commitment-to-one-s-own-beliefs-rather-it-condemns-the-oppression-or-john-f-kennedy-100762.jpg?width=400" height="150" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not here to defend Jenner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am here only to inform those who may still
have Jenner and the thousands of others like her, locked into a compartment
labeled “abnormal.” My aim is simply to ask people to think bigger. That family
member that you have shunned or at least felt ashamed of? Are you sure you’ve
thought it through? Your son or daughter whose humanity is not what you might
have hoped for? Can you overcome your own socialization or dogmatism or likely
unfounded bias to consider his or her real self? Everybody wins when the failed
patterns of exclusion and discrimination are struck down. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-35097960987736898172015-07-09T14:25:00.003-05:002015-07-09T14:27:24.095-05:00THE SECRET LIFE OF "AMERICA'S DAD"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/32d1ca7f245ed02ff04320288a25e3ba7c7489a6/c=61-0-1555-1992&r=383&c=0-0-380-510/local/-/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2014/11/19/635519860557429655-AP-PEOPLE-COSBY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/32d1ca7f245ed02ff04320288a25e3ba7c7489a6/c=61-0-1555-1992&r=383&c=0-0-380-510/local/-/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2014/11/19/635519860557429655-AP-PEOPLE-COSBY.jpg" height="400" width="297" /></a></div>
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<br />
Scary, powerful, intimidating, threatening,
aggressive….these are some of the words used in recent days to describe Bill
Cosby. Prior to the recent and increasingly pervasive accusations of rape,
Cosby would likely have been described as “America’s Dad,” intelligent, funny,
influential and beloved. But now that his accusers number in the dozens, and now
that their stories are strikingly similar, Cosby has become persona non-grata
in entertainment circles and certainly an international disappointment. Could
this be the same man who once charmed us with kids and pudding, who elevated
sitcoms and made room for black families, who broke barrier after barrier
simply with humor and pathos? Indeed it is. But he is also the same man who
once said, “Civilization had too many rules for me, so I did my best to rewrite
them."</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although we can’t know how valid the many rape claims are,
the sheer number of women who have come forward bolsters the credibility of
each. This week the claimants' credibility took a significant leap when court documents from a 2005 case were unsealed by a judge. In those documents, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/08/business/bill-cosby-said-in-2005-he-obtained-drugs-to-give-to-women.html?_r=0"><b>Cosby admits procuring drugs for the purpose of having sex with women</b></a>. While
most of Cosby's accusers do not seek money, they do seek an apology and accountability from
Cosby. So far they have received neither. In fact, when an AP reporter interviewed
Cosby a while back about another topic, and then segued into questions about his accusers,
Cosby cut him off with an air of superiority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Watch:</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RI6z97Efw3I?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cosby’s non-communication about his accusers follows an <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/11/15/364297097/in-npr-interview-bill-cosby-declines-to-discuss-assault-allegations"><b>NPRinterview </b></a>just a day earlier in which he would not speak at all when asked
about the accusations. His attorney issued the requisite denial and refusal to
acknowledge the alleged victims. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Here I feel compelled to point out that some of Cosby’s
fellow national celebrities were readily sent to prison for sexual assault:
Mike Tyson, 2Pac and Darren Sharper, to name a few. Others, like Ceelo Green,
R. Kelly and Ben Roethlisberger were strongly suspected and accused of sexual
assault but to date have not served any jail time. It’s almost cliché now to
say that some men in positions of power tend to use it for sexual
gratification. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>We could say it speaks to
the multi-layered psyche of a male animal. And we could say an otherwise good
person may have a dark side. Or we could more accurately say, rape is rape.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The repetitive story that emerges from Cosby’s alleged
victims is that he preyed on young women in or around the entertainment industry,
that he routinely used Quaaludes to render them helpless, and that the victims
woke up not quite sure of why they were unclothed, but sure they had been
sexually assaulted. Here are a few thing we can be sure of: 1) Cosby admitted in the recently released documents that he had seven prescriptions for Qua<b>a</b>ludes. That would indicate he was "doctor shopping," or seeing multiple physicians for multiple prescriptions, without informing each doctor that he already had such prescriptions from the others. <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/phlp/docs/menu-shoppinglaws.pdf"><b>This is illegal in every state.</b></a> <br />
<a href="http://image.ec21.com/image/jkthem/oimg_GC06781062_CA06781102/quaalude_714_Lemmon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://image.ec21.com/image/jkthem/oimg_GC06781062_CA06781102/quaalude_714_Lemmon.jpg" height="320" width="184" /></a>2) Where there is smoke, there is
fire; not every one of these women can be lying about every single accusation.
For many of them it is humiliating and demeaning to have to describe what
happened to them; 3) Ultimately Cosby will indeed have to respond to the
accusations. That’s how things work in contemporary society. The story will
continue to grow via social and other media until Cosby either admits what he did,
or completely discredits all of the women who have come forward. That would be
quite a feat; and 4), Cosby’s career is not likely to rebound. NBC, Netflix and TVLand have already 86’d him
from the airwaves. CAA, the talent represenative company, has dropped him. After this week's revelations, Bounce TV, an Atlanta-based digital broadcasting company whose target audience in black viewers, dropped the Cosby Show reruns from its lineup. Disney even removed a statue of Cosby from its theme park. Cosby is no longer powerful enough to overcome such giant
corporate entities.</div>
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<br /></div>
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While it is true that none of us were there to witness any
of Cosby’s alleged crimes, we can draw some conclusive questions that need to
be addressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As mentioned above, where
did he get the Quaaludes and why was he always in possession of them when these
“opportunities” presented themselves? Who is and/or was complicit in keeping
Cosby’s veil of secrecy about these alleged sexual acts? It is not conceivable
that no one in Cosby’s inner circle knew what he was doing. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When one has enjoyed as much success and as many accolades
as Cosby, 78, one might tend to have an inflated view of himself. But the fact
is that Cosby is from another era, when sometimes men could indeed get by with
this type of thing. Before the Internet, before social media, before widespread
obsession with pop culture and celebrities, and before his alleged victims came
forward with these tales, Cosby might have pulled it off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, most of these alleged incidents
happened decades ago, and only now when privacy is almost a distant memory and
male dominance is not what it was back then, Cosby is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the deer in the proverbial headlights. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Because of a little something we have in America called the
“statute of limitations,” Cosby has not been charged with a crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prison is not a likely outcome here. But when
one has had the intense and long-lasting fame that he has enjoyed, perhaps the
loss of public respect and the loss of career is far worse than incarceration.
In fact, perhaps it is an incarceration of sorts. Since there does not seem to
be any type of judicial justice forthcoming, <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://punditfromanotherplanet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/wapo-drudge-cos.png?w=590&h=265" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://punditfromanotherplanet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/wapo-drudge-cos.png?w=590&h=265" width="320" /></a></div>
Cosby’s losses at such an advanced
age may be considered a type of justice. Certainly, for those women who may
have been harmed by Cosby, it is not the type of justice they desire. The
bigger picture for our society, however, is that the statute of limitations
should be revisited. Why is it that one American can commit a crime against
another American, and because a certain period of time has passed, the victim
cannot seek justice?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The takeaway from this story is this: We have somehow
elevated certain human beings to untouchable status. We, all of us, have
enabled entertainers and star athletes to bring forth their worst selves, at
our own expense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had O.J. Simpson been
O.J. Jones, do we not believe he would have been found guilty of his wife’s
murder? Had Bill Cosby been a tire salesman at Sears, would he have been able
to overpower and use women as he did?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Justice-dictionary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Justice-dictionary.jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition to <a href="http://cognoscenti.wbur.org/2014/11/24/bill-cosby-eileen-mcnamara"><b>revisiting the concept of the statute of limitations</b></a>, perhaps we should revisit our own ongoing obsession with
celebrities. Fame does not and should not equal exemption from prosecution for
crimes for which the rest of us must be accountable. Money and power should not
serve as manipulators of the American justice system. And Cosby? Well, people
come in layers, as they say, and as the layers of Cosby’s character area peeled
away, our disappointment in him is really of our own making. He was just a man,
like any other, and just as easily swayed by his own ego.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely he knows that now.</div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-72500019578099522472015-06-26T11:56:00.001-05:002015-06-26T12:02:04.522-05:00GAY AMERICANS: PUT A RING ON IT!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_x_fr7VwptaosHx9ro_ccx5OMMR8Ntqy-S0bOVL8_kJrlJBZDwDHgoYrX4BmkqxTKPmQmcHucS9uNdCWHsPuriOlO9BtYZsDQaelcHBhvtX116hJqiu4HJ6GlkAclleoxvlZP03k2OQ/s1600/gay+marriage+day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_x_fr7VwptaosHx9ro_ccx5OMMR8Ntqy-S0bOVL8_kJrlJBZDwDHgoYrX4BmkqxTKPmQmcHucS9uNdCWHsPuriOlO9BtYZsDQaelcHBhvtX116hJqiu4HJ6GlkAclleoxvlZP03k2OQ/s400/gay+marriage+day.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
One hour ago the Supreme Court of the United States issued
the historic ruling legalizing marriage equality throughout the nation. Those
of us who have lived long enough to witness or experience persecution and discrimination against
gay Americans from the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century until now are still reeling.
Our faith in the system just got a significant boost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And those citizens who are much younger have
just been handed a freedom that many of us could not have predicted.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a gay man in America, I have experienced all of the
predictable barbs, shuns and injustices, just like every other gay person. I
know what it is to live your life in silence, rather than in sunlight. I lived
almost 40 years before I decided to live authentically as a gay American. That’s
a long time. I did everything they told boys to do who were born in mid-20<sup>th</sup>
century: dated girls, went to college, married a wonderful girl, worked in the
corporate system – but all in the guise of someone I really was not. My story
is by no means unique. Sadly, millions of American boys and men did just what I
did. The very last thing we ever expected was to be able to love another man
openly, and marry him. We are stunned, to say the least. How different our
lives may have been had this ruling come down 40 years ago, we will never know.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Inside all the joy we feel at the Court’s validation of our
freedom, there is still the realization that every time one reaches a socio/political
milestone, somehow "they" move the line up a bit further. So here is a list of
issues that still concern me in this slow and steady race to equality:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZBzmhXT8cb7RHjaV_f2QsYkIgT4nX5BLjTHmDH1F9BIG1qBKO05wEh43STEo2bGzpUe6jiH7DfSov5J6HQOUN1O80wTBnMF1h-eixY7KYO9zKqcwPbZmaroismb1G78K7EoGEsSUHJs4/s1600/gay+marriage+rally.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZBzmhXT8cb7RHjaV_f2QsYkIgT4nX5BLjTHmDH1F9BIG1qBKO05wEh43STEo2bGzpUe6jiH7DfSov5J6HQOUN1O80wTBnMF1h-eixY7KYO9zKqcwPbZmaroismb1G78K7EoGEsSUHJs4/s320/gay+marriage+rally.jpg" width="320" /></a>I never want to see another young boy or girl feel so
alienated from his or her family and peers that suicide seems the only answer.<br />
Never again do I want to see a person randomly and viciously attacked on the
street because of his or her sexuality. I do not want to see another working
adult denied career advancement simply because the good old boys club does not
admit gay members. I hope never again to witness a gay couple denied access or adoption
privileges to their children. There should not be one more child living on the
streets because his or her parents simply dismissed them due to their
sexuality. I don’t want to hear religious zealots tell me that we can pass all
the laws we want to pass, but same-gender loving relationships are still
immoral. I defy one more production company to produce a sitcom or a romantic
comedy in which one or more of the characters are gay stereotypes – it’s not
funny. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This morning, after the Court’s ruling, Jim Obergefell,
whose fight to be listed as the surviving spouse on his husband's death
certificate initiated this court case, said this: “It’s my hope that the term
‘gay marriage’ will become a thing of the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And our nation will be better off because of it.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We no longer need that term, if we ever did. We don’t even
need the term “marriage equality.” We only need the full recognition that love
is love, that people have a right to live their authentic lives, that
discrimination based on sexuality is taboo, and that marriage is just marriage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I, and many others, come from a time when who we were was
not acceptable at all. We were not “allowed” to be gay. So we tried our
damndest not to be gay, because everybody wants to be recognized and accepted.
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ukVDSbi1BWLNr7aKcQmTmfv8WSbnwwNY6-D8Gs9zsYmjKPIPr7oLLD7FzA60wTthqAwVob0OhV07Aq293ugACZgZ5rVxgyd5_3AncpTGQCHvaS5b5evMCV63YYdXiqSAY_fO7e8Y5mA/s1600/gay+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ukVDSbi1BWLNr7aKcQmTmfv8WSbnwwNY6-D8Gs9zsYmjKPIPr7oLLD7FzA60wTthqAwVob0OhV07Aq293ugACZgZ5rVxgyd5_3AncpTGQCHvaS5b5evMCV63YYdXiqSAY_fO7e8Y5mA/s320/gay+flag.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
We kept our mouths shut when our peers called someone a “fairy” or a “fag.” We
dutifully laughed along when someone told a “gay joke.” We did not speak up
when even members of our own families made derisive comments about gay people. (My
own father once said, “If they can send a man to the moon, surely they can find
a cure for homosexuality.”) And sadly, many of us were never able to truly be a
full-fledged member of our own families, simply because we had a secret that we
knew would just do us in if they knew who we really were. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Honestly, I thank God that I am alive to see what happened
in Washington, D.C. this morning. The air seems somehow clearer and more
breathable now. The joy that I witnessed on the faces of those on the steps of
the Supreme Court came right through the television screen and into my own heart. Civil rights were granted expansion in a way that would have seemed
impossible just a few years ago. And as President Obama said in his remarks
after the ruling, “Progress on this journey often comes in small increments.
Sometimes two steps forward, one step back, compelled by the persistent effort
of dedicated citizens. And then sometimes there are days like this, when that
slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me, thunder never sounded quite as harmonious and
welcome as it did on June 26, 2015.</div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-39296756490673160302015-06-24T19:48:00.000-05:002015-06-24T19:54:24.294-05:00WHY DO WE NEED THIS FLAG?<b><b></b></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshgyUJQHPNuM27bMziuj6dIfcE03OSFjLQCvW_Zgh3udEhMgIMDn3xE6Ec7gmlAVJvQ1apiAqzEgqTp9p_AOVszmTLFdQseGbHwUeuhjBP2A9pPzSyBj71Nt5bvBGZxBjTTsUDW_Loac/s1600/flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhshgyUJQHPNuM27bMziuj6dIfcE03OSFjLQCvW_Zgh3udEhMgIMDn3xE6Ec7gmlAVJvQ1apiAqzEgqTp9p_AOVszmTLFdQseGbHwUeuhjBP2A9pPzSyBj71Nt5bvBGZxBjTTsUDW_Loac/s400/flag.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Dylan Roof executed a plan to murder black people. He said as much. His aim, evidently, was to do his part to wipe out what he perceived as a threatening part of the American population, black people. Although he managed to murder nine human beings, he failed to achieve his goal. Instead of initiating the race war indicated in his "<a href="http://lastrhodesian.com/data/documents/rtf88.txt"><b>manifesto</b></a>," Dylan Roof has ignited the strongest, most activistic conversation about race this country has seen in decades.<br />
<br />
For a long time I have maintained my position that racism in America is far worse now than it was during my childhood in the 1960s. Back then discrimination was widespread and rampant, but organized hate was minimal compared to what it is now. According to the <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/?gclid=CjwKEAjwqqmsBRDGy_3h_eS80jYSJACS95CvGLOeZSqZjbCgbUzhYU4hjtZm595y1VkNbwDL04BUHBoCHHvw_wcB"><b>Southern Poverty Law Center </b></a>(SPLC), by the end of 2014 there were 930 known hate groups active in America. It is known that the majority of these groups are based in a white supremacy philosophy and lifestyle. White supremacy is simply the contemporary outgrowth of a time when it was legal in the United States for white Americans to own human beings.<br />
<br />
Some perspective: The SPLC reports that in the year 2000 there were 602 known hate groups in America. That’s just 15 years ago. That same year there were 194 known “patriot” groups. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaOUMMQLRwMzqPB6vDFLGBUx0Y4EdRWVhrO5ti1Vy4Tq6zSAQXhqVkSNhSphQvAhD-dgfccZyw_084e5wvsIIlAC2-TkFDzh4wPUeoPLhaK1zx0j8iSzYKdUp6ra8qKeXLyKiUxzzEryA/s1600/hate+groups.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaOUMMQLRwMzqPB6vDFLGBUx0Y4EdRWVhrO5ti1Vy4Tq6zSAQXhqVkSNhSphQvAhD-dgfccZyw_084e5wvsIIlAC2-TkFDzh4wPUeoPLhaK1zx0j8iSzYKdUp6ra8qKeXLyKiUxzzEryA/s320/hate+groups.jpg" width="303" /></a></div>
These groups were often armed militia organizations that identified as anti-government. After Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, that number rose continually, until by the end of last year there were 1,000 known such groups. Coincidence? I think not. In case I have to remind you, the President is black.<br />
<br />
Here is how racism has morphed into the mainstream since the 1960s. Back then, of course, there was the KKK. And there was the lesser heard of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/peopleevents/e_councils.html"><b>White Citizens Councils</b></a>, groups that fought desegregation of just about everything, although the primary focus was keeping the nation’s schools segregated. That was then, but as recently as 2007, the Council of Conservative Citizens, which is the modern outgrowth of the old White Citizens Council, had this to say on its own website:
<i>“We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAAWYvM1gvV5THuLDDEx7cXK-mJjz5Zlh6pNmiqOIiD9yxM2ncCiJHE46YfZ0ODFrWef6dttzbeB7CgOKx4NIS54FfLl-3E1Wmo1jkQLYRUuUDXVtFnPylgwl4nBbj3edBkK0pR2L3awk/s1600/citizens+council+vintage+flyer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAAWYvM1gvV5THuLDDEx7cXK-mJjz5Zlh6pNmiqOIiD9yxM2ncCiJHE46YfZ0ODFrWef6dttzbeB7CgOKx4NIS54FfLl-3E1Wmo1jkQLYRUuUDXVtFnPylgwl4nBbj3edBkK0pR2L3awk/s320/citizens+council+vintage+flyer.jpg" width="208" /></a></i></div>
<i>‘affirmative action' and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races."</i><br />
<br />
Today it is difficult for any group to gain national recognition or credibility if it overtly labels itself anti-black. So, instead we have become a nation of liberal vs. conservative as it pertains to all things race related. That’s unfortunate, because there are many fine politically conservative Americans whose ideology is sullied by hate groups that choose to fly under the banner of conservatism.<br />
<br />
Little did young Dylan Roof know that each shot he fired in the historic Emanuel <a href="http://www.emanuelamechurch.org/"><b>African Methodist Episcopal Church</b></a> in Charleston served only to ignite a fire under the American people. Rarely do we see the type of mass activism these days that we have seen in opposition to the display of the Confederate flag. And so, to all of the narrow-thinking Facebookers who keep sarcastically posting comments about how taking down the flag won’t solve anything, consider this: No one is trying to convince you that racism will end with the disappearance of the flags. No one is trying to convince you that your Southern heritage doesn’t count; it’s simply that there are parts of the Southern experience that we cannot in good conscience emphasize in contemporary America. The flag is a symbol of a time when a relatively young America made a tragic mistake in judgment, forcing human beings to become property. And most importantly, no one is trying to tell you what to think. If anything, you are being encouraged to think bigger – to be bigger.<br />
<br />
Despite public protest and widespread national support for removal of the Confederate flag from the State Capitol building, it took <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nikke-haley-confederate-flag"><b>South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley</b></a> <i>one full week</i> to publicly call for the flag’s removal. Still, that effort has to wind its way through the General Assembly, which actually adjourned on June 4. Lawmakers are due to return next week to work on budget considerations, and at that time it is expected they will take up the flag issue.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha0VglZWsjIa2L8hBBCoXx-8CtFDnvIDEQQd-7flThoYXKXQcM9KWP8HQbnfhPKu4p9UuJitXCCop-7v5G3JMwVdP3WMT059S25ZAFwnxQj13eToAR3WrKurxkNFs0vmwlF0cKt7mSous/s1600/haley+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha0VglZWsjIa2L8hBBCoXx-8CtFDnvIDEQQd-7flThoYXKXQcM9KWP8HQbnfhPKu4p9UuJitXCCop-7v5G3JMwVdP3WMT059S25ZAFwnxQj13eToAR3WrKurxkNFs0vmwlF0cKt7mSous/s320/haley+flag.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SC Governor Nikki Haley </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is a no-brainer. The flag clearly represents the historic, albeit unfounded supremacy of one race over another in America. The vast majority of Americans do not subscribe to this type of racism. The biggest online retailer in the world, Amazon has stopped selling confederate flag merchandise. EBay and Etsy have followed suit. So has Google Shopping. The biggest retailer, period, WalMart has stopped selling Confederate flags. The Governor of Virginia wants the Confederate flag symbol removed from state license plates. The speaker of the House in Mississippi wants the state flag redesigned to eliminate the Confederate flag symbol.<br />
<br />
Why should this issue wait another hour, much less another week in South Carolina? We would all like to believe that Governor Haley does not support the subordination of black citizens in South Carolina, particularly since <a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/45000.html"><b>blacks make up 27.9 per cent of the state’s population</b></a>, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Why doesn’t Governor Haley simply issue an executive order and have the flag removed? The Governor of Alabama has already done so, and the flag has been taken down from the state capitol building. Perhaps Haley is sending it to the General Assembly because it is not politically advantageous in her own state for her to issue an executive order. But, to paraphrase a certain U.S. president from yesteryear: “Governor Haley….take down that flag.”
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-42644883548970012972014-12-08T21:39:00.000-06:002014-12-10T09:12:18.614-06:00WE ARE ERIC GARNER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/eric-garner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://atlantablackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/eric-garner.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
Eric Garner was a 44-year old black American, married with six children, living in New York, about 350 pounds and 6’4” tall. I am a 61-year-old white American, unmarried, no children, living in New Orleans, 200 lbs, 6’1” tall. Garner reportedly had a string of about 30 arrests for petty crimes, and I have no arrest record. Eric Garner is dead and I am alive; yet I am Eric Garner. And guess what: You are Eric Garner.<br />
<br />
If that sounds confusing, just know that you and I are but one unlawful misstep away from an overzealous, ego-inflated law enforcement officer placing us in a chokehold and cutting off our air supply. Maybe our chokehold may come from smoking an illegal joint, or jaywalking on a busy city street, or carrying the wrong item in our luggage through airport security, or cutting in line outside of busy nightclub, or….you fill in the blank. After all, would our getting high, walking in the wrong place, packing a pocket knife in a suitcase or being over-anxious to get into a club be any worse than Garner selling untaxed loosies? If Officer Daniel Pantaleo, 29, could murder Eric Garner in broad daylight on a busy Staten Island street, couldn’t any unnamed, over-testosteroned 20-something who spent a few months in the police academy take me out just as easily? So, you see, I am Eric Garner and you…yes you are Eric Garner.<br />
<br />
And yes, indeed I did just use the world murder. I have watched the tape of Eric Garner’s takedown over and over again, and what I witnessed was clearly Daniel Pantaleo murdering Eric Garner.
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/NYPD-Chokehold-Death-Desk-Duty-597x385.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/NYPD-Chokehold-Death-Desk-Duty-597x385.jpg" height="206" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric Garner in a chokehold (Inset: Daniel Pantaleo)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
About Dan Pantaleo: Here are a few juicy items we have come to find out about the young cop who clearly saw no value in the life of Eric Garner: At the beginning of this year the NYPD settled a civil rights suit against him, after he and another cop stopped a convicted drug felon and made him and his friend drop their pants on the street and be searched. The officers then took the two to the station and strip searched them again. Since they were apparently unlawfully stopped, the two sued and each was awarded $15,000. Charges were dismissed. Charges were also dismissed in a separate case against a Pantaleo arrestee where the citizen alleges Pantaleo stopped him for no reason and filed a police report that accused him of crimes that were never committed. That person’s suit is still pending.<br />
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All of these suits hover around thousands of dollars charged to the NYPD. But that’s chump change compared to the $75 million Garner’s family will reportedly ask for in their suit against New York City. If you ask me, Pantaleo is a rather pricey employee for the city to keep, but so far he is still employed. Two days after Garner’s murder, Pantaleo had to surrender his gun and his badge, but he’s still on desk duty. One wonders how his hair trigger impulses will play out in the office setting, rather than on the street.<br />
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More about Pantaleo: After he cut off air supply to Eric Garner, while Garner lay on the street, barely<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.medicaldaily.com/sites/medicaldaily.com/files/styles/large/public/2014/07/21/eric-garner.png?itok=GIVF8paq" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images.medicaldaily.com/sites/medicaldaily.com/files/styles/large/public/2014/07/21/eric-garner.png?itok=GIVF8paq" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EMS worker checks for Eric Garner's pulse. No resuscitation efforts were made.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
alive, Pantaleo and his four fellow officers on the scene did nothing to try to offer medical assistance. For five full minutes. Long enough to die. During the fourth minute, EMS workers on the scene took Garner’s pulse, but did nothing to try to resuscitate him.<br />
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Reaction to Pantaleo’s power trip and ultimate murder of Eric Garner has been swift and widespread, including Mayor DiBlasio of New York, who says he now fears for the life of his bi-racial son. None other than Judge Andrew Napolitano, the senior judicial analyst for Fox News said there should have been an indictment for criminally negligent homicide.<br />
<br />
When Pantaleo issued a statement apologizing for Garner’s murder, Garner’s widow had this to say: "Hell no! The time for remorse would have been when my husband was yelling to breathe. No, I don't accept his apology. No, I could care less about <span id="goog_1993005967"></span><span id="goog_1993005968"></span>his condolences. He's still working. He's still getting a paycheck. He's still feeding his kids, when my husband is six feet under and I'm looking for a way to feed my kids now. No, I could care less about his condolences," she continued. "Who's going to play Santa Claus for my grandkids this year?”<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/535868899_102868835-e1417689778701.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/535868899_102868835-e1417689778701.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Esaw Garner</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I’m with Mrs. Garner. How could you not be? My greatest concern is the selection process for these young cops. First, every local and state police organization requires officer applicants to go through a psychological evaluation, but none of them make the details of the evaluations or the individual results available to the public. Just how deeply are we delving in to the psyches of these 20-something, over-aggressive males who are patrolling our cities? Are they being adequately tested for behavior traits such as impulse control? Are they being deeply questioned and investigated as to their beliefs about racial issues? What do the hiring agents at these agencies know about the applicants’ family and peer influences as it regards race? Why are there so many instances of police brutality and over-use of excessive force that go unpunished? Could there really be a citizen in NYC who believes Dan Pantaleo should be put back out on the streets of their city?<br />
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Think about that tonight and for many nights to come while you watch protests, demonstrations and even rioting in major cities coast to coast. The American public is speaking its collective mind about Eric Garner’s murder. That is because each of those individuals who braves the elements and spends his or her nights on the streets knows that they are all Eric Garner. We are all Eric Garner.
Here is a clip of Mrs. Garner’s interview<b></b> last Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Listen to her describe the disrespect with which the police treated her husband and her on a daily basis. Listen to the fear she lives with for her two young sons.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AsQc45bZyaE" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
Esaw Garner goes through her days in America in 2014 in fear. That is not what this country is supposed to be about. All Dan Pantaleo accomplished when he brutally murdered Eric Garner was to destroy an American family and bring to the surface the escalating problem of police brutality and the street war between police and the citizens they are charged to protect. When immature, 20-somethings are released on the street to “enforce” the law, having little life experience and almost no worldly wisdom from which to draw, we are all in danger. Put a gun in their hands and we are in mortal danger. If they have a history of falsely arresting people as Pantaleo has, the danger is even greater. America is fighting back now, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of citizens taking to the streets each night, from Ferguson to Staten Island, from Berkeley to D.C., from Detroit to Dallas. Speak up. Be heard. Don’t wait until nightfall, or until one of us Eric Garners is murdered again, or until someone else has to speak for you.
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-23625712188263760592014-12-04T11:43:00.000-06:002014-12-05T12:39:37.500-06:00 WHEN KARMA MET COSBY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--O0ztsgCp--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/pqr9ruyg4c2ykh16oeyb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--O0ztsgCp--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/pqr9ruyg4c2ykh16oeyb.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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Scary, powerful, intimidating, threatening,
aggressive….these are some of the words used in recent days to describe Bill
Cosby. Prior to the recent and increasingly pervasive accusations of rape,
Cosby would likely have been described as “America’s Dad,” intelligent, funny,
influential and beloved. But now that his accusers number in the teens, and now
that their stories are strikingly similar, Cosby has become persona non-grata
in entertainment circles and certainly an international disappointment. Could
this be the same man who once charmed us with kids and pudding, who elevated
sitcoms and made room for black families, who broke barrier after barrier
simply with humor and pathos? Indeed it is. But he is also the same man who
once said, “Civilization had too many rules for me, so I did my best to rewrite
them."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although we can’t know how valid the many rape claims are,
the sheer number of women who have come forward bolsters the credibility of
each, and for the past several days a new woman has emerged almost daily. While
most of them do not seek money, they do seek an apology and accountability from
Cosby. So far they have received neither. In fact, when an AP reporter interviewed
Cosby about another topic, and then segued into questions about his accusers,
Cosby cut him off with an air of superiority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Watch:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uwI3IQK5qS0?rel=0" width="560"></iframe> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cosby’s non-communication about his accusers follows an NPR
interview just a day earlier in which he would not speak at all when asked
about the accusations. His attorney issued the requisite denial and refusal to
acknowledge the alleged victims. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here I feel compelled to point out that some of Cosby’s
fellow national celebrities were readily sent to prison for sexual assault:
Mike Tyson, 2Pac and Darren Sharper, to name a few. Others, like Ceelo Green,
R. Kelly and Ben Roethlisberger were strongly suspected and accused of sexual
assault but to date have not served any jail time. It’s almost cliché now to
say that some men in positions of power tend to use it for sexual
gratification. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could say it speaks to
the multi-layered psyche of a male animal. And we could say an otherwise good
person may have a dark side. Or we could more accurately say, rape is rape.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The repetitive story that emerges from Cosby’s alleged
victims is that he preyed on young women in or around the entertainment industry,
that he routinely used Quaaludes to render them helpless, and that the victims
woke up not quite sure of why they were unclothed, but sure they had been
sexually assaulted. Here are a few thing we can be sure of: 1) Cosby could not
have come by the Quaaludes <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>legally, so in addition to his alleged sex crimes,
he may be guilty of procuring illegal drugs;<br />
<a href="http://image.ec21.com/image/jkthem/oimg_GC06781062_CA06781102/quaalude_714_Lemmon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://image.ec21.com/image/jkthem/oimg_GC06781062_CA06781102/quaalude_714_Lemmon.jpg" height="320" width="184" /></a>2) Where there is smoke, there is
fire; not every one of these women can be lying about every single accusation.
For many of them it is humiliating and demeaning to have to describe what
happened to them; 3) Ultimately Cosby will indeed have to respond to the
accusations. That’s how things work in contemporary society. The story will
continue to grow via social and other media until Cosby either admits what he did,
or completely discredits all of the women who have come forward. That would be
quite a feat; and 4), Cosby’s career is not likely to rebound. NBC, Netflix and TVLand have already 86’d him
from the airwaves. Even Cosby is not powerful enough to overcome such giant
corporate entities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While it is true that none of us were there to witness any
of Cosby’s alleged crimes, we can draw some conclusive questions that need to
be addressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As mentioned above, where
did he get the Quaaludes and why was he always in possession of them when these
“opportunities” presented themselves? Who is and/or was complicit in keeping
Cosby’s veil of secrecy about these alleged sexual acts? It is not conceivable
that no one in Cosby’s inner circle knew what he was doing. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When one has enjoyed as much success and as many accolades
as Cosby, 77, one might tend to have an inflated view of himself. But the fact
is that Cosby is from another era, when sometimes men could indeed get by with
this type of thing. Before the Internet, before social media, before widespread
obsession with pop culture and celebrities, and before his alleged victims came
forward with these tales, Cosby might have pulled it off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, most of these alleged incidents
happened decades ago, and only now when privacy is almost a distant memory and
male dominance is not what it was back then, Cosby is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the deer in the proverbial headlights. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because of a little something we have in America called the
“statute of limitations,” Cosby has not been charged with a crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prison is not a likely outcome here. But when
one has had the intense and long-lasting fame that he has enjoyed, perhaps the
loss of public respect and the loss of career is far worse than incarceration.
In fact, perhaps it is an incarceration of sorts. Since there does not seem to
be any type of judicial justice forthcoming, <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://punditfromanotherplanet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/wapo-drudge-cos.png?w=590&h=265" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://punditfromanotherplanet.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/wapo-drudge-cos.png?w=590&h=265" width="320" /></a></div>
Cosby’s losses at such an advanced
age may be considered a type of justice. Certainly, for those women who may
have been harmed by Cosby, it is not the type of justice they desire. The
bigger picture for our society, however, is that the statute of limitations
should be revisited. Why is it that one American can commit a crime against
another American, and because a certain period of time has passed, the victim
cannot seek justice?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The takeaway from this story is this: We have somehow
elevated certain human beings to untouchable status. We, all of us, have
enabled entertainers and star athletes to bring forth their worst selves, at
our own expense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had O.J. Simpson been
O.J. Jones, do we not believe he would have been found guilty of his wife’s
murder? Had Bill Cosby been a tire salesman at Sears, would he have been able
to overpower and use women as he did?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Justice-dictionary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Justice-dictionary.jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition to revisiting the concept of the statute of
limitations, perhaps we should revisit our own ongoing obsession with
celebrities. Fame does not and should not equal exemption from prosecution for
crimes for which the rest of us must be accountable. Money and power should not
serve as manipulators of the American justice system. And Cosby? Well, people
come in layers, as they say, and as the layers of Cosby’s character area peeled
away, our disappointment in him is really of our own making. He was just a man,
like any other, and just as easily swayed by his own ego.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surely he knows that now.</div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-25439028474262373202014-12-02T14:16:00.003-06:002014-12-03T10:56:38.483-06:00LIFE IN A POST-FERGUSON WORLD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKG9hN5CtS6uV7W9_67PqYZiykVGfbYn2HB650XynyPN7KcKJh7-aRz6HIQUwFaY4HbwQ3X4upRB8pW-V4ObVq0HZLB_fZK8QdveV1G-JBuJOEMx_ICXzZyqRUytwkNDdTNkanjmhqMh0/s1600/Ferguson+split+screen+Nov+2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKG9hN5CtS6uV7W9_67PqYZiykVGfbYn2HB650XynyPN7KcKJh7-aRz6HIQUwFaY4HbwQ3X4upRB8pW-V4ObVq0HZLB_fZK8QdveV1G-JBuJOEMx_ICXzZyqRUytwkNDdTNkanjmhqMh0/s1600/Ferguson+split+screen+Nov+2014.jpg" height="354" width="640" /></a></div>
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Possibly the greatest visual irony I have ever seen happened
the night the Ferguson Grand Jury’s decision was announced. It was that split
screen on TV, one side featuring President Obama addressing the nation in his
appeal for peaceful protest, and the other side a live shot of Ferguson, MO erupting
in flames and violence. Obama read these words from Michael Brown’s father:
“"After the grand jury’s decision, we are asking for four-and-a-half
minutes of silence to remember why we lift our voices. We are not here to be
violent. We are here in memory of our son." As he read those words we
witnessed a scene of a police car being smashed and set on fire in the streets
of Ferguson.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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My initial reaction was to draw a comparison between what I
was witnessing in St. Louis, and what happened in cities nationwide in 1968,
the night Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. One could argue we are as racially
divided right now as we ever were in this country. Some might go so far as to
say we are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">increasingly </i>divided.
Almost a half century after the end of the Civil Rights Movement,
racially-based strife has once again caused flames in the night in major
American cities. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/15/article-2725535-208A527100000578-832_634x353.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/15/article-2725535-208A527100000578-832_634x353.jpg" height="222" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Demonstrators in New York City</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When protestors
gathered in Philadelphia and New York (left), it was clear that the East coast was
standing in solidarity with Ferguson. On the opposite coast, protestors in L.A.
and Oakland gathered at the same time, while the fires spread further through
Ferguson, and crowds thickened, even in almost freezing temperatures. Earlier
widespread hopes that the protestors would not appear in large numbers in
Ferguson’s frigid night were dashed when massive looting happened and even
gunshots were fired in the direction of the police.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The next morning marchers peacefully demonstrated in front
of the courthouse in Clayton, MO, near Ferguson. As I drove to work here in New
Orleans I saw about 200 black citizens lined up on a major street ready to
march. The important thing to remember, in my opinion, is that the
demonstrators in various cities are not marching or protesting only the killing
of Michael Brown. They are making a statement about the ongoing racial
inequities in our country. They are lifting their voices and offering their
physical presence to question why Michael Brown’s body was allowed to remain on
the steamy hot Ferguson pavement for four hours before anyone made an effort to
move him. They are trying to bring awareness to the inexplicable fact that
Ferguson’s police force is made up of 50 officers, but only three are black. And
in a larger sense the protests have everything to do with abuse of power by law
enforcement officers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/i/newscms/2014_48/786961/141130-darren-wilson-jsw-1211p_28db8e1928261678bbc94e65c24938c6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/i/newscms/2014_48/786961/141130-darren-wilson-jsw-1211p_28db8e1928261678bbc94e65c24938c6.jpg" height="229" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darren Wilson</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The journalist in me is trying very hard to remain objective
about what is transpiring right now in city streets coast to coast. As such, I
will never know why Michael Brown stole a box of cigars and allegedly punched a
cop. But I will also never understand why Officer Darren Wilson, a trained
marksman, saw fit to shoot so many times at Brown, and why when he did shoot
him he was not more careful to avoid a lethal shot. If you shoot somebody in
the lower part of the body, they are likely to live. If you shoot in the head,
they are not. The one question that has been asked more than any other in the
Michael Brown killing is, why didn’t Wilson wound Brown to subdue him, rather
than shooting to kill?</div>
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<br /></div>
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It is not the first time this question has been asked. In
2006, David Paterson, then a NY state senator from Harlem, and later Mayor of
New York City, tried to introduce a “shoot to wound” bill in the state
legislature. The aim of his bill was to require police officers to use minimal
force to subdue aggressors. Stipulated in that bill was a requirement for
officers who used <i>excessive </i>force that resulted in a suspect’s death to be
charged with felony manslaughter. There was such a vociferous outcry from law
enforcement that Paterson was forced to withdraw the bill. Other such bills
have been introduced in other parts of the country, to no avail. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Law enforcement officials hold that when a potentially
dangerous interaction is happening between a perpetrator and a police officer,
it often happens in seconds, causing the officer to use his or her training to
react quickly to neutralize the threat. That seems to be what happened in the
early stages of the Brown/Wilson interaction. Left open to debate is why Wilson
fired more shots at Brown after the initial wounding. The Grand Jury, in
refusing to indict Wilson, apparently found evidence to support Wilson’s
decision to keep firing. But to its credit, based on inconsistencies in Grand Jury testimony, the U.S. Department of Justice
announced that their investigation is still open and ongoing. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other element of the Ferguson rioting that offends me as
a journalist is the manner in which the rioting was covered by media. CNN saw
fit to keeps its reporters’ boots on the ground, even as gunfire was close by
and even as some of them were unable to speak after being overcome by teargas.
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.thehollywoodgossip.com/iu/t_v_full/v1416925150/video/cnn-reporter-hit-by-rock-in-ferguson.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images.thehollywoodgossip.com/iu/t_v_full/v1416925150/video/cnn-reporter-hit-by-rock-in-ferguson.png" height="222" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CNN's Sara Snider hit by a rock while reporting from Ferguson, MO</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Why does the company not value the safety of its employees over a street level
commentary? Second, it is clear the reporters from MSNBC, FOX and CNN were
actually chasing the story. By that I mean that even though rioting was not
taking place in the entire city of Ferguson, the reporters were actively
pursuing every outbreak of violence, no matter how minor, to seemingly
sensationalize the coverage. Oh, and about that split screen I mentioned
earlier: Why? The President of the United States was speaking to the citizens,
encouraging peaceful protest over violence, but CNN saw fit to show the fires,
looting and rioting at the same time. Why?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The media will ultimately move on to the “next big story,”
but do not expect the issues that have been raised after Brown’s death to go
away. They will not. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The massive
coverage will, however, fade away. Does anybody remember the round the clock
coverage of the plane that disappeared a few months ago?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Adrian Peterson coverage? The NFL
concussion coverage? Ebola? Boko Haram? All of these stories are ongoing, but
get very little coverage. Pretty soon the words “Cosby” and “Ferguson” will
join their ranks.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/eric-garner-police-brutality-ramsey-orta.jpg?w=640" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/eric-garner-police-brutality-ramsey-orta.jpg?w=640" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric Garner being killed by NYPD illegal chokehold</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Right now we are left with far more questions than answers
about Ferguson. So here is a little prediction for you: The issues raised via
Michael Brown’s death are probably going to stay in the headlines a bit longer
than stories usually do. Here's why: Do you remember the case of Eric Garner in NY, the man who was selling cigarettes illegally and was later killed by a NYPD officer using an <a href="http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2014/12/01/new-york-city-braces-for-grand-jury-decision-in-eric-garners-death/"><b>illegal chokehold</b></a>? The Grand Jury in that case is about to announce its
decision as to whether the cop should be prosecuted. It doesn’t take a rocket
scientist to know that if the Grand Jury says no to prosecution, all hell will
break out in the streets of New York City. And if we thought Ferguson erupted,
chances are New York will make Ferguson look like child’s play. And that is the
next big story. Stay tuned.<br />
<br /></div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-66177175299877372032014-10-16T15:31:00.000-05:002014-10-16T15:44:28.354-05:00FRIDAY NIGHT WITHOUT THE LIGHTS<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cdn.lightgalleries.net/4bd5ec19c88cb/images/10_27_10a-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.lightgalleries.net/4bd5ec19c88cb/images/10_27_10a-1.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Just think: Sayreville, NJ is
a borough that dates back to the beginnings of this country, but until last
week you may never have heard of it. Even though it was home to luminaries like
rocker Jon Bon Jovi and actors Dule Hill (<i>The
West Wing) </i>and Greg Evigan <i>(My Two
Dads)</i>, nothing exceptional calls attention to this town of under 50,000
residents. We know it is a majority Democratic town that strongly supported
Barack Obama, but voted mostly for Chris Christie for Governor. We now know that football is something of an
obsession in Sayreville, even though the Friday night lights are now dimmed
indefinitely.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s because we also now
know that several high school football players allegedly sexually assaulted
other students on school property. How
to put this delicately: Let’s just say the alleged perpetrators digitally
penetrated the alleged victims. High school students. In the locker room.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Seven of the accused have now
been charged in the attacks. Three of
them face aggravated sexual assault, criminal restraint and hazing charges. The
other four are charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact. All have been
suspended from school, and the Sayreville Superintendent, Richard Labbe, has
publicly stated that he is not sure if the football program will be reinstated.
<b><a href="http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2014/10/sayreville_football_team_sexual_assault_case_what_happens_next.html">The local prosecutor</a></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> is reportedly weighing options as to whether he
will attempt to try the seven boys as adults.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Here is what I know for sure,
and I do not have to be familiar with Sayreville to state this: These boys knew
exactly what they were doing. Their age has nothing to do with it. When a group
of people band together to restrain another person so that they can use their
fingers to penetrate the victim’s body, everyone involved knows that what they
are doing is wrong. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/10/13/nyregion/13ASSAULT2/13ASSAULT2-articleLarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/10/13/nyregion/13ASSAULT2/13ASSAULT2-articleLarge.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sayreville's longtime coach, George Najjar </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Here is what else I know: When that same group of people
commits the act repeatedly, there is clear intent to harm the victims. Intent
to harm and commission of sex crimes are very adult behaviors. Reportedly, there were four separate incidents
in the Sayreville locker room, and authorities now want to know who else on the
team witnessed the attacks on the younger players. The perpetrators should be
imprisoned. According to New Jersey law, some of the seven alleged rapists could face up to 20 years in prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">If this were an isolated
incident, it would certainly be horrific enough, but the fact is that similar crimes have
happened in many places in this country, perpetrated by many teenage boys. Last
May, for example, <b><a href="http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-news/20130523/teens-convicted-in-la-puente-high-school-sexual-hazing-case">three high school soccer players</a> </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">were convicted of crimes much like the Sayreville incident. The harshest sentence imposed was three months
in a juvenile detention camp. The other two boys got probation. In Greenfield, Iowa last April, members of
the high school wrestling team allegedly </span><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Former-Wrestler-Talks-About-Hazing-Incident-136946063.html">punished a younger wrestler</a> </b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">for missing practice by restraining him and
penetrating him with a jump rope handle.
CBS New York reported in March that three high school track team members
were accused of <b><a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/04/bronx-high-school-track-team-members-accused-in-violent-sexual-hazing/">violently attacking</a></b> another student athlete by hitting his
genitals with a bottle and then penetrating him through his clothing with an
object. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In August, 2013, five high
school student athletes in a suburb of Chicago were charged with restraining
and digitally penetrating a fellow high school team member. Other similar incidents have been reported at
U.S. high schools, but the pattern is clear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Also clear is the reluctance
on the part of prosecutors to charge the teens as adults. My guess is that had
said prosecutors been restrained and anally penetrated in a locker room, had
they experienced the terror of a sex crime, the humiliation of being so
victimized, perhaps they would not be so quick to afford these boys the light,
sometimes non-existent sentences they receive. These sex crimes are not rough
housing on the school playground, or bullying in the high school cafeteria.
They are <i>sex crimes</i>. In our society, sex crimes are severely punishable. They
are grownup transgressions that merit jury trials and imprisonment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/ca2c30a383450ee7a690a0e92c63ff2aa4bacf33/c=114-0-1887-1333&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/NJGroup/None/2014/10/13/635488215128776744-vigil-JT-101214-30105.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/ca2c30a383450ee7a690a0e92c63ff2aa4bacf33/c=114-0-1887-1333&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/NJGroup/None/2014/10/13/635488215128776744-vigil-JT-101214-30105.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sayreville vigil for alleged rape victims</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Unlike high schoolers of the
past, today’s teens have full access to the same reading materials, video
presentations and other informational sources as adults have. Today’s 16 and
17-year-olds are a lot savvier about the dark sides of society than teens in
the past. Everybody is wired or wireless and everybody has free entre into the
realm of adult-oriented information.
Increased awareness at a younger age may not be society’s first choice,
but it is the reality of our tech-flooded world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Maybe overexposure, or too
much information too soon in life has contributed to juveniles committing very
adult crimes. Who knows. But let’s not blame parents, schools, television,
movies, music and the Internet. It almost isn’t necessary to figure out who to
blame for 16-year-olds perpetrating heinous sex crimes against their peers.
What is necessary is to make it stop. In my mind, that happens when juveniles
start seeing other juveniles locked up for a long time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">And might it also be time to
take football down from the pedestal we have put it on? Word is that many, many
residents of Sayreville are livid that the superintendent of schools cancelled
the football season. It appears the some townspeople, while not unsympathetic to the
juvenile victims of the sex crimes, are far more passionate when they talk
about their outrage at the </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://footballmentaltoughness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/anti_bully_locker_room_60-850x405.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://footballmentaltoughness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/anti_bully_locker_room_60-850x405.png" height="152" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">season being prematurely terminated. What is going
on that the game of football has become of greater import than the well being of
their own children? It is largely varsity athletes that commit these crimes in
high schools. What is the message being sent to their peers when these varsity
rapists get away with it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Bottom line: In 2010, almost
10,000 minors were arrested for sex offenses, including rape, according to a <b><a href="http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10tbl32.xls">report from the FBI.</a> </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Their punishments and jail
sentences varied from state to state, but it is unlikely that many or any of
them are still in jail today. The numbers are telling us the story. All we have
to do is listen, and act. Keywords: ZERO TOLERANCE.</span></div>
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Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-74673491399880182142014-10-14T11:35:00.000-05:002014-10-14T11:50:25.768-05:00WHO'S RUNNING AND WHO'S NOT RUNNING IN 2016? Part Two <br />
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<a href="http://transatlantic-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/2016-us-presidential-election-460x250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://transatlantic-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/2016-us-presidential-election-460x250.jpg" height="216" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>In Part One, we took a look at potential candidates Hillary
Clinton, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie. Herein we look at three
conservatives and one wild card liberal who swears she is not running. Uh-huh:<span style="background-color: white;"></span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background-color: blue;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>TED CRUZ</b></span></span></span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is perhaps the most extreme
character in this saga. He enters with one glaring disadvantage; he looks a lot
like the infamous late Joseph McCarthy. But that may be the least of his
problems. Cruz, who was educated at Princeton and Harvard, is considered even
by some of his naysayers as brilliant. But his brilliance does not seem to
enlighten him as to the rights of all Americans: He opposes all things gay; he
was staunchly against renewing the Violence Against Women Act; has not shown
much regard for the environment; sees very little reason to impose gun control
on Americans, in any way; supports employers’ right to deny insuring birth
control. Cruz is an extremist, to be
sure. Remember when he threatened to shut down the U.S. government unless
Congress defunded Obamacare? Oh, and then there was that time that Cruz proclaimed
that Saturday Night Live executive producer <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/09/10/sen-ted-cruz-loves-saturday-night-live-and-hates-attempts-to-repeal-citizens-united/"><b>"Lorne Michaels could be putin jail </b></a>under this amendment for making fun of any politician."<o:p></o:p><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://c8.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/uploaded/pic_giant_021913_SM_cruz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://c8.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/uploaded/pic_giant_021913_SM_cruz.jpg" height="186" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ted Cruz</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That’s
when he twisted a proposed Democratic-backed campaign finance amendment so that
it would infringe on artists’ First Amendment rights. Good times, huh? Is Ted Cruz dangerous? You
be the judge.</div>
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<i>PROS</i>: First Cuban or Latino to win the Senate position he
holds; One of only three Latinos in the Senate, likely to garner a huge chunk
of the Hispanic vote; Knows the political game and knows Washington, having
served in the Bush administration; has some appeal to extreme right wing
Republicans.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>CONS</i>: Born in Canada, is he actually eligible to run for
President of the U.S.? ; not in good favor with traditional Republicans; comes
off as more of a dictator than an elected legislator; has been compared to
infamous dictators like Hitler; Americans are not known to elected bad boys or
extremist rebels to be leader of the free world.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background-color: #0b5394;"><b> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">MARCO RUBIO </span></span></b></span><br />
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), as far back as May, said
publicly that he does feel he is ready to be President. Here’s my take on that:
Anybody who’s relatively young and relatively new to the political game, who
has to actually state that he is ready to be President, is going to have a
tough time convincing the electorate. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/uploads/images/article-images/marco-rubio1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/uploads/images/article-images/marco-rubio1.jpeg" height="182" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marco Rubio</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Rubio, 43, may run, but if he does, it
will probably be just for the national exposure and to set the stage for a
future run. He probably needs to convince Republican stalwarts that he is the
future hope of the party, and that will take some doing when many he must
convince are, shall we say, in the Autumn of their days. He is pro-life,
supports state’s rights to decide on marriage equality; voted no on
re-authorizing the Violence Against Women Act; reportedly has a concealed
weapon permit, but does not carry a gun; believes that children of illegal
immigrants should be afforded state tuition rates; supported a $2.3 billion cut
to Florida public education. Oops.</div>
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<i>PROS</i>: Youth, vitality, personal appeal; ethnicity; willing
to take legislative risks even if it means alienating some more extreme members
of his own party.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>CONS</i>: Youth; ethnicity; inexperience. Probably lacks the
necessary gravitas to be President.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b>RAND PAUL</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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So far, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is the only potential 2016
presidential candidate to visit Ferguson, MO in the aftermath of the killing of
Michael Brown. While that speaks well for him, it may just be that he is
already courting the black vote. Good
luck with that, Rand. He uses every opportunity to <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rand-paul-not-waiting-for-2016-to-take-on-hillary-clinton/"><b>bash Hillary Clinton</b></a>, so
evidently he feels this is going to be a Paul/Clinton race. Is he a Tea Party
guy or a libertarian? That depends on when you listen to his rhetoric. Paul is
adamantly pro-life; says states should decide on marriage equality, but
believes redefining marriage is a threat to society; opposes anything that gets
in the way of the right to bear arms; believes raising the retirement age would
alleviate the social security shortage issue; voted no on reauthorizing the
Violence Against Women Act. Shortly after he became<o:p></o:p><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.kejda.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/rand-paul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kejda.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/rand-paul.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rand Paul</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
a senator, he proposed eliminating
foreign aid to all countries. Seriously. After he was roundly bashed about
that, he revised the proposal, which went nowhere. Rand Paul is an enigma of
sorts, in that he doesn’t tow the line for any particular party, and he does
very little to ingratiate himself to his colleagues. Still, there are those
that said he could be a formidable opponent.</div>
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<i>PROS</i>: Appeals to
those who support individual liberties; Works hard to spread his ideology coast
to coast; has risen quickly in the GOP ranks; <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>CONS</i>: Too many grey areas in his stands on critical issues;
probably too laissez-fare for many voters regarding government controls; not
exactly a media darling already; has made a number of anti-war statements that
make him come off as an isolationist; stated the the Civil Rights Act of 1964
unreasonably infringed on private businesses’ rights; as with Cruz, Ameicans
are not prone to electing extremists.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b>ELIZABETH WARREN</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Despite one denial after another after another, Senator
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is the subject of one of the most aggressive
presidential drafts in recent memory.
Ready For Warren is a political action committee that is feverishly
raising funds to pay for Warren’s presidential bid. What they will do with all
of that cash once Warren truly doesn’t run is anybody’s guess. The <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2014/08/22/elizabeth-warren-attorney-she-has-nothing-with-ready-for-warren/O7nOU8Z4bwAwFNRNrMFyNM/story.html"><b>Boston Globe</b></a>
even reported that Warren had her lawyer send a letter to the Federal Election
Committee disavowing any relationship between her and Ready For Warren. Despite<o:p></o:p><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.nymag.com/news/politics/warren111121_1_560.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://images.nymag.com/news/politics/warren111121_1_560.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elizabeth Warren</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
her protests to the contrary. Warren could still change her mind. And what if
she did? She’s an extreme liberal who adamantly supports abortion rights,
thinks churches should provide birth control, wants the minimum wage raised to
$10.10 by 2016, wants to end tax breaks for rich people, pushes for troop
withdrawal from Afghanistan, and need I go on? She’s a left-wing American’s
dreamboat. Except for weed, that is. She strongly opposes marijuana
legalization.</div>
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<i>PROS</i>: Provides
Hillary-haters a viable alternative; relative newcomer to Washington, not
tainted or jaded by political quagmire; forthright, determined demeanor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>CONS</i>: Inexperience with the Washington insiders;
Conservatives despise her and many are likely to launch hostile campaigns to
discredit her.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yes, yes I know I left out people like Joe Biden and maybe a few others. All in good time. Just be thankful Rick Santorum is not on the list. Stay tuned.</div>
<br />Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-63291866180356285152014-10-08T23:02:00.000-05:002014-10-09T19:21:48.335-05:00WHO'S RUNNING AND WHO'S NOT RUNNING IN 2016? Part One<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.chahal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/campaign_2016-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.chahal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/campaign_2016-2.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
<h4>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After
witnessing the prolonged political and public flogging of George W. Bush and
Barack Obama for the past decade, one wonders why any sane American would want
to be President. But a select few actually do aspire to the office, and right
now the foundations of several campaigns are being built, as each and every
potential candidate denies he or she is running. Adamant denials, evasive
answers to reporters’ questions, comical teases on late night talk shows –
these are the signature moves of candidates who would rather lie to the
electorate as long as possible, just so they don’t have to carry the weighty
responsibility of labeling themselves candidates. So, who are this year’s
liars? Who will don the mandatory navy suits or fashionless corporate ensembles
on the debate stage lineup in 2016?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Who’s running for President in 2016? Let’s review</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">:</span></h4>
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<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/4/11/1334162111818/Mitt-Romney-speaks-during-037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/4/11/1334162111818/Mitt-Romney-speaks-during-037.jpg" height="209" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">MITT ROMNEY</span>:</b>
Roundly defeated last time, and perhaps not the most gracious loser, Romney said as
recently as last week that he is not running. He lost the nomination in 2008 to
John McCain, and he lost the general election in 2012 to Obama. How much
rejection can one guy take, huh? If you’re a guy with an ego that has been fed
for decades by titles such as President and CEO of the 2002 Olympic Organizing
Committee, and Governor of Massachusetts (2003-2007), rejection may be
interpreted as a mere blip on the radar screen. Romney, however, is reported by
Bloomberg to have attended a power-gathering of Republican party donors at the $75 million
Manhattan duplex of fat cat Republican and NY Jets owner Woody Johnson. What
was Romney doing there? And <b><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-07/at-a-glittering-fifth-avenue-duplex-gop-money-searched-for-a-savior">Bloomberg reveals</a></b> he had a hush-hush tete-a-tete
with billionaire Rupert Murdoch.
Hmmmm….whatever could they have been discussing?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>PROS</i>: Political animal, knows how to walk the walk
with the big boys and girls; has been through the campaign rigors more than
once and proved he has the stamina; many Republicans with big money feel
comfortable supporting his aspirations; looks like a matinee idol – come on,
you know it’s true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>CONS</i>:
Political animal, knows how to walk the walk with the big boys and girls; has
been through the campaign rigors more than once and proved he has the stamina;
sore loser, who has made a number of snarky comments about Obama since his 2012
defeat; may never, ever, ever live down his <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2gvY2wqI7M">infamous 47%comment</a></b>. </span></div>
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<a href="http://blog.mlive.com/elections_impact/2008/06/large_hillary-clinton-end.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://blog.mlive.com/elections_impact/2008/06/large_hillary-clinton-end.jpg" height="245" width="320" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">HILLARY
CLINTON</span></b>: Speaking of billionaires,
<b><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-hillary-is-going-to-win-2014-10">Business Insider reports </a></b>that none other than Warren Buffett said recently,
“Hillary is going to run. Hillary is going to win. I will bet money on it, I
don't do that easily." One thing you can say for Hillary: she’s got
chutzpah and she has staying power. Most interesting about her play for the
2012 nomination was that people were not really yammering about the fact that
she is a woman. Up until then the big deal was whether we should or should not
elect a female, but when she ran that was not the main topic anymore. Clinton
is predictably coy about her intentions for 2016, but hey, it’s more than two
years away. Still, in September Hillary and Bill Clinton journeyed to Iowa –
yes, Iowa. When asked if she is running,
she said, “Well it is true, I am thinking about it.” Translation: “Yes, I’m
running.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>PROS</i>: The Clinton rock star aura is alive and well;
she has a global perspective now that many of her would-be opponents do not
have, simply because they have not had the opportunity to interact with world
leaders across the globe; already knows her way around the presidency; if
you’re a Bill Clinton fan, you’d like it that he would be her co-president
(come on, let’s be real here).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>CONS:</i> Hillary Clinton is without question, a polarizing figure in America. People
love her or they hate her; In 2016 she will be 68 years old. Is it a good job
to take on when you’re going to be in your 70s any minute?; She made some questionable moves as Secretary
of State. <b><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-benghazi-probe-peak-at-height-of-hillary-clintons-2016-campaign/">Benghazi looms</a></b> large over her.</span></div>
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<a href="http://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2014/07/18/9fee8ecd-da18-49f2-b01b-3a521eb28f08/thumbnail/940x470/61ca8e43e0714af823ab6798bf796bc6/ctm0718christie254384640x360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2014/07/18/9fee8ecd-da18-49f2-b01b-3a521eb28f08/thumbnail/940x470/61ca8e43e0714af823ab6798bf796bc6/ctm0718christie254384640x360.jpg" height="160" width="320" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">CHRIS
CHRISTIE</span></b>: It may just be that Chris Christie has good timing. Despite his
multiple missteps as Governor of New Jersey, he comes across as an everyman,
which has wide appeal to voters. He’s had much-publicized struggles with his
weight; he’s married to a regular woman, not a glamour queen or fashion plate.
During Hurricane Sandy he showed a willingness to reach across the aisle to
collaborate on restoring his state; in fact he boldly and effusively praised
Obama’s efforts at that time, which was a risky public move when you’re trying
to gain Republican support for a presidential run. Christie publicly stated
that he is considering a run, and that he would announce his intentions by the
end of this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>PROS:</i> Billionaire founder of Home Depot Kenneth
Langone has publicly stated he thinks Christie is the man to beat in 2016,. And
Langone is more than happy to help bankroll part of the effort; Since 2013 he has been chairman of the Republican Governors Association.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<i style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">CONS</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: Bridgegate. Enough said; by October,
Christie’s approval rating in New Jersey was at its lowest level in three
years, 49 percent; in September, Standard and Poor downgraded New Jersey’s
credit rating, the eighth downgrade since Christie took office. That does not
bode well for the potential leader of the free world at a moment when <b><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/china-overtakes-us-as-worlds-largest-economy-2014-10">China just overtook the U.S.</a></b> as the world’s largest economy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><a href="http://jpupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Jeb-George-Bush.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://jpupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Jeb-George-Bush.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">JEB BUSH</span></b>:
#Dynasty; #3sacharm?; #whatwouldGeorgesay? Are we ready for another Bush White
House? The buzz was always that matriarch Barbara Bush, 89, opposed the idea of
Jeb being president. But reportedly she has softened to the idea. So, that,
coupled with the ever-present macho Bushboy bloodline would seem to portend
another Bush candidacy. But even though
he is highly regarded in Florida, the rest of us do not exactly know where he
stands on a number of other hot issues.
The thing is that we voters only know three things about him: 1) Florida
seems to really like him – a lot. 2) He has some pretty moderate views on
immigration; and 3) He’s big on education and has reportedly made remarkable
progress in upgrading public schools in Florida.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>Pros:</i> Name
recognition – internationally; national reputation as a success in his home
state of Florida; he his married to a Mexican-American woman and has done very
well with Hispanic voters. Reminder: Hispanics are the largest minority group
in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>Cons:</i> Jeb
Bush’s wife, Columba, is known to be intensely private and one who avoids the
spotlight—not a characteristic that fits well with the expectations of a
contemporary first lady; the Bush name could actually work against him since it brings back murky memories of George W.'s last term.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<i>In Part 2, we’ll take a look at three potential candidates
who could be described as…ahem…a bit more extreme in their views on certain
issues, and that’s putting it mildly. Next time we’ll look at Marco Rubio, Ted
Cruz and Rand Paul. Hey, if nothing else, it’s going to be a colorful couple of
years in the wannabe presidential arena. Stay tuned.</i><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-34642651984406049522014-10-06T14:20:00.003-05:002014-10-06T14:41:44.794-05:00HIGHER TIMES IN THE USA<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YD-sEpFi_7Erp727-64-KXZ2dM73gUV9N_88kjKT_ba5m3393az2jc6cVQXtD73yF1fAqTTZsODth7JGNcjqkPNi_LyVj7Wp1FJU_18f3H9LDAQ4S69lO6OErvInvaHR8akcKPKC_6I/s1600/marijuna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YD-sEpFi_7Erp727-64-KXZ2dM73gUV9N_88kjKT_ba5m3393az2jc6cVQXtD73yF1fAqTTZsODth7JGNcjqkPNi_LyVj7Wp1FJU_18f3H9LDAQ4S69lO6OErvInvaHR8akcKPKC_6I/s1600/marijuna.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
Picture this:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re
19 years old, living in Texas, and you decide on a lark to make some pot
brownies. Then you decide to spice up the recipe a bit with some hash oil. You
sell the brownies to other teens for $25. Stupid? Yes. Danger to society?
Probably not. But in Texas, where some of the anti-drug laws are stiffer than
almost anywhere else in the nation, Jacob Lavoro’s misguided baking and sales
expedition could have landed him in jail – for the rest of his natural life. Fortunately,
prosecutors saw their way to reason and reduced the charges at the last minute,
but Lavoro may still do some jail time. The trial date is set for December, at
which time he still faces the possibility of <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/trial-date-set-for-teen-charged-in-pot-brownie-cas/nhGBp/"><b>two to 20 years in prison.</b></a></div>
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Lavoro’s case has further ignited the debate about marijuana
laws in this country, but anybody who thinks this national conversation is
something new need only harken back to 1948, when matinee idol Robert Mitchum
was busted for smoking at a party in Laurel Canyon, CA. Mitchum served two
months at a prison farm (whatever that is) before resuming his career. At the
time of his arrest, because the anti-drug movement was so big in Los Angeles,
Mitchum’s plight was highly publicized, to the point that he thought his career
would hit the skids. He was quoted as saying, “Well, this is the <br />
bitter
end of everything—my career, my marriage, everything." It was not, but in
those days, his assumption made sense.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60huYQ78-M3xJFYjIctyDohm14Q8bv0KwDofFf40ixxmfJvkMMmKfdQGN_HynunfvdqpVMRmSpxi_ujaYOne3wkGOPZQPoBCDG3iCtn1orAizxYpKmfN9-vL7vmNf8Vnv7zwXTG3obpE/s1600/mitchum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60huYQ78-M3xJFYjIctyDohm14Q8bv0KwDofFf40ixxmfJvkMMmKfdQGN_HynunfvdqpVMRmSpxi_ujaYOne3wkGOPZQPoBCDG3iCtn1orAizxYpKmfN9-vL7vmNf8Vnv7zwXTG3obpE/s1600/mitchum.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Robert Mitchum</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
What many people do not know is that as far back as the late
19<sup>th</sup> century, marijuana became a popular ingredient in many
medicinal products and was sold openly in public pharmacies. If you want to
know the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/etc/cron.html"><b>evolution of anti-marijuana laws</b></a>, click here.</div>
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By the 1960s marijuana was a full-fledged counter-culture
staple. The “Hippie” movement of the late sixties, coupled with the “free love”
trend among young people, spurred sales of marijuana to astronomical numbers
theretofore unseen. One might posit that the introduction of the birth control
pill begat the sexual revolution, and the addition of marijuana to the sexual
experience significantly enhanced everything. That “underground” image that
marijuana had for much of the 20<sup>th</sup> century has not abated much. But
here we are in 2014, and 23 states have legalized marijuana use for medical
purposes, and two states, Colorado and Washington have fully legalized its use
for anybody. </div>
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Last year, in a piece I wrote for <a href="http://news.discovery.com/human/health/-marijuana-gaining-acceptance-in-us-130814.htm"><b>Discovery News</b> </a>I pointed out that in many parts of the world, marijuana is not a big deal. In
Western Europe, South America and India, they’re looking at the U.S. and
shaking their collective heads at what a brouhaha we’re making about smoking
pot. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But last year, when then-Attorney
General Eric Holder and CNN medical expert Dr. Sanjay Gupta both publicly came
out in support of marijuana use, the tide of public opinion slightly changed.
Results of a <b><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2013/10/22/gallup-poll-finds-58-of-americans-favor-legalizing-marijuana/">Gallup poll</a> </b>released late last year indicated that 58 percent of
Americans favor the legalization of marijuana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Among respondents aged 18 – 29, that figure rose to 67 percent. The most
interesting finding of that poll was that support for legalization had jumped a
full 10 percent from just one year earlier. </div>
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I am from a generation that counted getting high among its
routine activities. I went to college with kids who were high in class. I lived
with a roommate who smoked first thing in the morning. I smoked and smoked and
I’m still standing and functioning rather well. The vast majority of us did not
move on to cocaine or heroin or any of the other life-threating drugs<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLdXlybN3_aJJXbHkqCzzbaVKZHciFGXa_U9GQXASuOto_H8rOeQphAQcho0L1xLkFy9OacFZczDFcsQINhhyAaAJjEvw_SqkN3XhysXxqsNTSIQlQdXT0eo2vVLLjAO5Ph8R-VJwtls/s1600/marijuana+girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLLdXlybN3_aJJXbHkqCzzbaVKZHciFGXa_U9GQXASuOto_H8rOeQphAQcho0L1xLkFy9OacFZczDFcsQINhhyAaAJjEvw_SqkN3XhysXxqsNTSIQlQdXT0eo2vVLLjAO5Ph8R-VJwtls/s1600/marijuana+girl.jpg" height="176" width="320" /></a></div>
that are
often the subject of anti-marijuana activists worries. Is marijuana a gateway
drug to something really, really bad? I think not. </div>
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In preparation for the Discovery News piece, I spoke with
Nora Valkow, M.D., the Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the
National Institutes of Health. Valkow is against legalization.</div>
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“Studies show that 9 percent of those exposed to marijuana
will become addicted,” Valkow said. “If you are less than 17 or 18 years old,
that goes up to 16 percent.”</div>
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Even for the majority of teens who do not become addicted,
Valkow said there are additional known health risks.</div>
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“My main concern with marijuana is the potential detrimental
effects it can have on the developing human brain,” she said. “Exposure in
adolescence can ultimately affect cognitive performance, mood and motivation
and drive. Marijuana can also have adverse effects on adults. If you are taking
it with a high content of THC it can make you psychotic.”</div>
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I tend to agree with Valkow about adolescents smoking pot. I
think there should be an age restriction placed on the purchase and use of
marijuana. I certainly do not want to see a group of middle school kids
gathering in the schoolyard<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>having a
group bong experience. There needs to be reasonable caution built into
marijuana laws. We are a paternalistic society, so that reasonable caution
would <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwzqNLxLHx9aY5FodgF6YXjsnbI-7G-LT7x1iESJcg-lAytv77PS_ECCw2J2ZLK_nwvqrBVfXqiEsy5h0q2TXQkGiKkkQ1onff5nP5zc51Ffyj3ykwN150BvBM9JVXLKdCx2sj7VDD6h4/s1600/marijuana+sign+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwzqNLxLHx9aY5FodgF6YXjsnbI-7G-LT7x1iESJcg-lAytv77PS_ECCw2J2ZLK_nwvqrBVfXqiEsy5h0q2TXQkGiKkkQ1onff5nP5zc51Ffyj3ykwN150BvBM9JVXLKdCx2sj7VDD6h4/s1600/marijuana+sign+1.jpg" /></a></div>
certainly extend itself to young people who Valkow rightfully said are
not developed enough yet to risk compromise to their cognitive abilities.</div>
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To those who are so vocal about their moral misgivings about
marijuana, I’d like to know why they feel comfortable with the overabundance of
sugar that enters the majority of Americans’ bodies. I’d like to know why they
feel accepting of the abundance of cholesterol in our diet. And why, oh why, do
they so welcome the inordinate amounts of sodium we consume? I could point out
the obvious, that cigarettes are still legal in the U.S., when we have had full
information about the fatal outcomes of lifelong smoking, for decades.</div>
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I would further point out that the big pharmacy industry in
America has somehow slid statin drugs into legality, even though they have been
proven to have serious side effects that even the FDA warns against: liver
damage, memory loss and confusion, type 2 diabetes, and muscle weakness. Why?</div>
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<a href="http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012"><b><br /></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012"><b>The FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for 2012</b></a> revealed that upwards of 750,000
Americans were arrested that year for marijuana law violations. <a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-facts/10-facts-about-marijuana"><b>The Drug Policy Alliance</b></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>reports that of total
arrests for marijuana law violations, more than 87 percent were for simple
possession, not sale or manufacture. There are more arrests for marijuana
possession every year than for all violent crimes combined. According to an
<a href="https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/new-aclu-report-finds-overwhelming-racial-bias-marijuana-arrests"><b>ACLU report</b></a><b> </b>from last year, black
people are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than
white people despite comparable usage rates. Furthermore, in counties with the
worst disparities, blacks were as much as 30 times more likely to be arrested.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgVDvr9_JyZqAKMZk6_P-2n8fMg4LOq7UIGazBV8YBFC2GeHWEsG77GCmqa6Bg-FTbZDgMxdTVOVhPzOn9CfD-i4FHX9LH53gpbk6X5nJDphB5Y6X6N-VqF1qhim5FwHHaCzhavrT47Y/s1600/marijuana+store.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgVDvr9_JyZqAKMZk6_P-2n8fMg4LOq7UIGazBV8YBFC2GeHWEsG77GCmqa6Bg-FTbZDgMxdTVOVhPzOn9CfD-i4FHX9LH53gpbk6X5nJDphB5Y6X6N-VqF1qhim5FwHHaCzhavrT47Y/s1600/marijuana+store.jpg" /></a>Just like the good folks at ACLU, I support states to
legalize, regulate and tax marijuana as a consumer product. I support the right
of American citizens to found and operate businesses built around marijuana
sales and use. I support the right of our citizens to peacefully and without
government intervention, smoke marijuana in their own homes at any time. I also
support the formation of trade organizations like the <a href="https://thecannabisindustry.org/"><b>National Cannabis Industry Association</b></a><b> </b>to nurture marijuana-related businesses that will
significantly enhance our national coffers and advance the interests of freedom
of choice in America. In the end, I believe legalization is not so much about
money or morals or a great high or anything other than that freedom of choice.<br />
<br /></div>
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</div>
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Tonight when you get home from work, when you take a couple
of hits from your marijuana pipe, consider this: If you live in Oklahoma,
Texas, Louisiana, Florida or Arizona, your state has the harshest marijuana
laws in the country. If you want to know the penalties for marijuana possession
and use in your state, <a href="http://www.theweedblog.com/state-by-state-marijuana-laws/"><b>click here</b>.</a></div>
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As usual, I am encouraging you to speak up if you want to
see changes in the law. Here’s how: Email your senators. Find their <a href="http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm"><b>email addresses here</b></a>.</div>
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Email your representatives in Congress. Find their<a href="http://www.contactingthecongress.org/"> <b>email addresses here</b></a>.</div>
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</div>
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Email your governor. Find the<b> <a href="http://people.smu.edu/rhalperi/governors.html">email address here</a></b>.</div>
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Just as you should speak up for your freedom of choice
regarding marijuana, you already have the freedom to be heard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I say lift every voice.</div>
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</div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-58559624876453634642014-10-02T13:55:00.001-05:002014-10-02T14:33:40.255-05:00READING, WRITING & RAPE: A Cautionary Tale<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/content/dam/ajam/images/articles_2014/sexual_assault_campus_021314.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://america.aljazeera.com/content/dam/ajam/images/articles_2014/sexual_assault_campus_021314.jpg" height="400" width="640" /></a></div>
</div>
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The first time many of us became aware of college-age males
abusing college age females was back in 1986, when Robert Emmet Chambers, Jr.
strangled Jennifer Levin in Central Park, just behind the Metropolitan Museum
of Art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chambers, who would later be dubbed
by the press <a href="http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/not_guilty/park/1.html"><b>“The Preppy Murderer” </b></a>eventually admitted that Levin died while
the two were engaging in rough sex in the park. Accident, said he. Not so, said
the prosecution. Chambers, after pleading the charges down to manslaughter,
served 15 years in prison. Some (many) say he got away with murder by not being
sentenced to life in prison. (Full disclosure: He’s back in prison right now,
serving a sentence for illegal drug possession and use).</div>
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<br /></div>
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Fast forward to 2010. University of Virginia student
Yeardley Love was found dead in her apartment. Long story short: Her on
again/off again boyfriend <a href="http://www.nbc29.com/story/16673511/george-huguely-murder-trial-timeline"><b>George Huguely was found guilty </b></a>of murdering her by
bashing her head against the wall of her apartment repeatedly. Both in their
early 20s, and both accomplished lacrosse players, their short relationship had
reportedly been volatile and possibly violent before the night Love died.
Huguely, for his part, had a trouble past, some skirmishes with the law and a
history of alcohol abuse. Huguely is serving a 23-year sentence.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/06/01/article-2645516-1E64634800000578-940_634x695.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/06/01/article-2645516-1E64634800000578-940_634x695.jpg" height="320" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NFL Vet John Elway and his son, John, Jr.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Now, pull yourself all the way up to 2014, when former
Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway’s son pulled his girlfriend from a car by
her hair after an argument. He then shoved her to the ground when she tried to
get back inside, causing scrapes to her knees. After that he ran from the scene
and went straight to his father’s house. Elway, Jr. was <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26558941/john-elways-son-gets-probation-domestic-violence-case"><b>charged with assault</b></a>, a
charge that was inexplicably later reduced to disturbing the peace. His
ultimate sentence? Probation, with a year of mandatory domestic violence
counseling. No jail time. No compensation for his victim. No record if he
successfully completes his counseling. No accountability. I guess because the
girl didn’t die like Jennifer Levin and Yeardley Love? Or maybe because his dad
is universally worshipped at the altar of NFL greats. Either way, John, Jr.
beat the rap, bigtime.</div>
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How much of this brand of domestic abuse is happening on and
off of college campuses coast to coast is unknown. That is largely because of
two things: First, many young girls do not report rape or beatings simply
because they are afraid or ashamed; and, unfortunately, many academic
institutions sweep these cases under the campus rug simply to safeguard their
reputation and attract future students. The <a href="https://rainn.org/statistics"><b>Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network </b></a>(RAINN) reveals that 60 percent of rape victims do not report their
attacks to police, and 40 percent of victims are under the age of 18. </div>
<br />
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Most disturbing is the reluctance on the part of the
schools, coast to coast, to turn over their findings about these attacks to
police. Even when a school’s internal investigation determines that a victim’s
story is credible, the schools often bury the information or do not turn it
over the police until years later. Consider the case of Sasha Menu, who was a
student at the University of Missouri. In 2011, Menu checked herself into the
university’s hospital. On her admittance forms, under a category that asked
about sexual assault, Menu reportedly wrote “Rape/Football player.” <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140128113554-erin-dnt-howell-univ-of-missouri-rape-allegations-00003930-story-top.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140128113554-erin-dnt-howell-univ-of-missouri-rape-allegations-00003930-story-top.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sasha Menu</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
She also
revealed she had discussed her attack with her academic advisor. The advisor
denies this. She was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and her
parents moved her to a hospital closer to home. It was not until April of this
year that the University revealed results of an independent investigation into Menu’s
claims of assault, and vowed to change its policies regarding such attacks.
Unfortunately, it was too little too late for Menu, who had committed suicide
three years ago.</div>
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Why did it take four years for the University of Missouri to
own up to its negligence?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is it only
now that the Columbia, MO police department is investigating the attack on
Menu? Could it be for the same reason that students at Columbia University
filed a <b><a href="http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/04/students-file-federal-complaints-against-columbia-university-for-allegedly-mishandling-rape-cases/361172/">federal complaint</a> </b>earlier this year that claimed rape perpetrators and
their victims are treated unequally by the school? The claim is that victims
are discouraged from reporting their attacks to police, and that perpetrators
are allowed to remain on campus and in school. </div>
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<br />
<a href="http://columbiaspectator.com/news/2014/04/24/students-file-federal-complaint-against-columbia-alleging-title-ix-title-ii-clery"></a></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://manbehindthelensdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/sw3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://manbehindthelensdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/sw3.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Demonstration at DePaul University, Chicago</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Also this year, in Chicago, DePaul University students
publicly accused administrators of covering up sexual assaults on campus. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similar complaints have been lodged by
students at Vanderbilt, University of North Carolina, Notre Dame, Eastern
Michigan University, Dartmouth, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>University of California at Berkeley, John
Hopkins University, University of Oregon, Yale, Columbia
University, Amherst University, Florida State University, – need I go on? Campus domestic violence and rape knows no
geographic or economic boundaries.<br />
<br /></div>
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Way back in 1972, <a href="http://knowyourix.org/title-ix/title-ix-the-basics/"><b>Title IX</b></a>, a part of Education Amendments, made
it clear that any school that is awarded federal money is to be held legally
liable if administrators are aware of and ignore campus sexual harassment or
assault. Several current complaints lodged by student groups refer to Title IX
in their statements. Further, the <a href="http://knowyourix.org/clery-act/the-clery-act-in-detail/"><b>Clery Act </b></a>of 1990 has specific requirements
for universities and colleges regarding sexually violent incidents. The Clery
Act also requires schools to disclose annual crime statistics. </div>
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In April of this year, the White House released <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/29/fact-sheet-not-alone-protecting-students-sexual-assault"><b>new guidelines</b></a> for institutions of higher education to fight the national rash of
campus sexual assaults. The guidelines came from a presidential-appointed task
force that revealed a startling statistic: One in five college age women are
attacked on campus. One in five. If you are reading this and you have a
daughter away at school, wake up please. If you have a son that you’re sending
away to school, wouldn’t it make sense to pounds some good sense into him about
respect for other human beings, before he has an opportunity to succumb to peer
pressure? Further, the panel found that only 12 percent of these incidents are
reported. If you are a victim of such an attack, speak up. </div>
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From the outside looking in, aren’t there some obvious fixes
to this epidemic of campus violence? First, in many of campus rape cases, there
are observers or multiple participants. Let’s train students to intervene when
necessary and protect victims or potential victims. Second, the government
needs <br />
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<a href="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/17/01/28/170128909d4b45ef436fad624a6a28ff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/17/01/28/170128909d4b45ef436fad624a6a28ff.jpg" /></a></div>
to get serious about cutting funding to Title IX entitled schools every
single time a case of campus rape is proven and not acted upon by the
administration. Third, campuses need to crack down on frequent incidences of
binge drinking, an activity that often precedes sexual or other domestic
violence. And finally, campus administrations need to quit resisting student
protest groups and setting them up as adversaries. Instead, they need to listen
and act upon the students’ complaints.</div>
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And once we get things straight on college campuses, some of
the same steps need to be taken in the U.S. military, the American corporate
system, hospitals and anywhere else gender inequality rears its head in a way
that potentially foretells incidents of violence, domestic or otherwise.</div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-55839945362618797092014-09-29T15:05:00.000-05:002014-10-01T22:16:21.355-05:00THE NEW NORMAL: THE POLICE AS PUBLIC ENEMY<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="http://failuretolisten.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/police_brutality_rally.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://failuretolisten.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/police_brutality_rally.jpg" height="368" width="640" /></a>Levar Jones, 35, an assistant manager at a Subway store, was
stopped in his hometown of Columbia, SC on September 4 for a seatbelt
violation. After Officer Sean Groubert, 31, a State Trooper instructed Jones to
produce his license, Jones, who was standing outside the vehicle, reached in
the front seat to comply with the order. When he turned around, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29373115"><b>Groubert fired four shots</b></a> in rapid succession, one hitting Jones in the hip. Nobody knows why
Groubert fired, but other citizens will not have to worry about him, because
once the powers that be saw the videotape from Groubert’s dashcam, Groubert was
fired and charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature for
the shooting. He faces 20 years in prison if convicted. He will likely also face
civil charges for assault or even federal civil rights charges over this
incident. It bears mentioning that Groubert is white, and Jones is black. Here
is the video from Groubert’s dashcam.</div>
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What you just witnessed could happen in your town or my
town; in Peoria just as easily as in Poughkeepsie. Detroit, Provo, Anchorage,
St. Louis, Galveston, Jersey City, you name it. Nationwide, urban, suburban and
state police forces are hiring young people (mostly male), who complete what
many might consider minimal training before being let loose on the streets,
with firearms and a type of authority with which most people their age are
unfamiliar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>State Trooper training in
South Carolina lasts 17 weeks. That’s it. Poof. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four months and you’re a cop. No college
required, just a high school diploma or a GED. Oh, and you can do all of this at
the tender age of just 21. Some of these rookie cops are so young they still
live with mom and dad.</div>
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For the moment, let’s travel north to Brooklyn, NY, where
that same 21-year-old can become an officer with the NYPD with six months of “intensive”
training. Presumably, the unnamed Brooklyn officer who<a href="http://nypost.com/2014/09/24/pregnant-woman-slammed-to-the-ground-by-police-caught-on-video/"> <b>tackled a very pregnant Sandra Amezquita</b></a> to the ground on a city street had undergone that training. Amezquita
was trying to intervene as officers arrested her 17-year-old son. Before she
was violently forced to the ground, she was struck in the abdominal area with a
police baton. Another woman, who tried to help Amezquita was forcefully pushed
to the street by another officer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again,
there is a video. Watch:</div>
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Of course both of these incidents come just weeks after
Officer Darren Wilson, 28, shot and killed Michael Brown, 18 in Ferguson, MO,
after Wilson considered Brown a suspect in the theft of some cigars. Wilson is
a four-year “veteran” of the Ferguson police department, having served two
years before that on the Jennings, MO police force. Wilson started his career
at 22 years old.</div>
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While I cannot authoritatively comment on the personal lives
and backgrounds of Groubert, the unnamed Brooklyn cop or Wilson, let’s just say
there is an obvious pattern of brutality and abuse in these cases, and they are
not isolated incidents. Jones was complying with Groubert’s order; Amezquita
was visibly pregnant, and Brown, unarmed, allegedly had his hands up in the air
when he was shot. </div>
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As usual, the numbers tell the story:<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> </span></span><br />
<ul>
<li>The FBI reports that a white police officer shot
a black citizen on an average of twice a week in the seven years from 2005 to
2012 in the U.S.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Between 2003 and 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice
reported that 4,813 people died while in the process of arrest or in the
custody of law enforcement.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>The FBI stats indicate about 400 U.S. citizens
each year are killed by police officers in acts of “justifiable homicide.”
Compare that statistic to six in Australia, six in Germany and two in
Australia.</li>
<li>As opposed to those citizens killed each year,
in 2012 (the most recent year stats are available), 48 law enforcement officers
were killed in the line of duty.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>The Lavar Jones incident is the 32<sup>nd</sup>
officer-involved shooting in South Carolina in 2014, according to the South
Carolina State Law Enforcement Division.</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Black Americans are killed by law enforcement
officers in an inordinately higher percentage than white Americans. Case in
point: Chicago. In 2012, there were 57 police shootings in Chicago. Fifty of those shot were black, according to the city's own published statistics.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/sean-groubert.jpg?w=640&h=383" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/sean-groubert.jpg?w=640&h=383" height="191" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Former S.C. State Trooper Sean Groubert </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Having chewed on these and many other statistics for the
past several days, there are a number of elements of this street war culture
that occur to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, every local and
state police organization requires officer applicants to go through a
psychological evaluation, but none of them make the details of the evaluations
or the individual results available to the public. Just how deeply are we
delving in to the psyches of these 20-something, over-testosteroned males who
are patrolling our cities? Are they being adequately tested for behavior traits
such as impulse control? Are they being deeply questioned and investigated as
to their beliefs about racial issues? What do the hiring agents at these
agencies know about the applicants’ family and peer influences as it regards
race? Why are there so many instances of police brutality and over-use of
excessive force that go unpunished?
<br />
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
As mentioned earlier, Grouber has been heavily charged in
the South Carolina case, and the buzz now is that his attorney will use Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a defense. We have no way of knowing if he suffers
from PTSD, but the big question will be whether the South Carolina State Police
even monitor their officers for PTSD. Is
it even a topic of consideration? And if there is a<a href="http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25991455/police-officers-struggle-ptsd-but-treatment-can-bring"><b> rash of PTSD</b></a> permeating our
local and state police forces, how many other disordered, heavily armed cops
are freely roaming our streets in or out of uniform?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
To add to all of this, there appears to be a type of arms
race between citizens on the street and law enforcement officers. There is an
increased availability of firearms to almost everyone in this country, at the
same time there appears to be a diminished respect for human life on both
sides. That disturbing trend certainly showed itself in Ferguson, MO, when law
enforcement produced military style weaponry and defense vehicles in
preparation for violent rioting which never came.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I see our current cultural shift this way: Once everyday
Americans become fearful of the police, rather than trusting, fewer and fewer
will depend on law enforcement when the need arises. Already <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ionenewsone.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/cocclough-allen.png?w=660" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ionenewsone.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/cocclough-allen.png?w=660" height="189" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Former NOPD Officer Joshua Colclough and Wendell Allen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
some citizens in
heavily populated urban areas express their fear of calling the police. At the
same time, once police begin to view citizens as alternately enemy combatants
and expendable, no one is safe even in their own homes. Best evidence? In 2012,
in my town, New Orleans, police executed a drug raid on a local home. One of
the officers, Joshua Colclough, was walking up the stairs in the house when
resident Wendell Allen appeared at the top of the stairs. Allen was unarmed and
shirtless, and his hands were visible. Officer Colclough instantly shot Allen dead.
After two years of legal wranglings, Colclough backed out of a plea deal to
plead guilty to negligent homicide and was ultimately found guilty of
manslaughter. His sentence? Four years
in prison. Said Allen’s mother of her dead son: “He was my everything. He was
my superstar.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the record, the white Colclough was 27 at the time of
the murder (my word), and the black Allen was 20 years old.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Colclough’s case is not unique to New Orleans. Until law enforcement
agencies make applicant requirements more stringent, require more education for
recruits and take psychological testing and monitoring more seriously, how many
more Wendell Allens and Michael Browns will there be? And why are people like
Darren Wilson and Joshua Colclough immune from murder charges in cases like
theirs? Sure looks like cold blooded murder to me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fortunately, the citizenry is beginning to demand to be
heard. On Friday, September 27, a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/27/sandra-amezquita-rally-march_n_5893326.html"><b>citizen rally</b></a> was held in Brooklyn (right) to protest
police violence. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://static3.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/a_scale_large/5800-5/photos/1411880880-protest-held-over-police-action-against-pregnant-woman-in-brooklyn_5881395.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static3.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/a_scale_large/5800-5/photos/1411880880-protest-held-over-police-action-against-pregnant-woman-in-brooklyn_5881395.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
This came just after the pregnant Sandra Amezquita incident. In
Ferguson, MO, marchers recently held rallies demanding the resignation of
Police Chief Thomas Jackson. In New Orleans, still a hotbed or violent crime,
Police Chief Ronald Serpas recently resigned his post. Earlier this year, San
Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne resigned amid a number of controversies,
some involving officers’ unwarranted use of excessive force. One notable case
involved an officer who shot and killed a 25-year-old mother in her kitchen
because he believed she was about to attack him with a meat cleaver that turned
out to be a vegetable peeler with a six-inch blade. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Marchers at the New York rally demanded the resignation of
NYPD Chief Bill Bratton, carrying signs that said such things as “100
Chokeholds, 0 Cops fired; Who Runs this Town?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Who, indeed.</div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-69097462408195942602014-09-26T10:58:00.001-05:002014-09-26T11:21:12.337-05:00<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXOmE49ZNf9EcECwGIQnwGaf_C2WBI_qydkF8Y6wHDJDK1Gk_ZxolitVFzq09L2-zHIe5PiMk9XZSu7DFupnNNNWy-i4DbXsxFlqvr_0bBvpT0D4H0hn_keylJh3BzpFYJ7g7WokjJoU/s1600/big-brother-is-watching-you_scruberthumbnail_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaXOmE49ZNf9EcECwGIQnwGaf_C2WBI_qydkF8Y6wHDJDK1Gk_ZxolitVFzq09L2-zHIe5PiMk9XZSu7DFupnNNNWy-i4DbXsxFlqvr_0bBvpT0D4H0hn_keylJh3BzpFYJ7g7WokjJoU/s1600/big-brother-is-watching-you_scruberthumbnail_0.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">You may not know it, but you
could easily be on a government watch list for individuals who pose a terrorist
threat. I know; I know. It’s laughable
to you that you and your infant child and overworked spouse or partner may be a threat to
humanity as you board a plane to go see your in-laws that you probably don’t
want to see anyway. But your name may be front and center on a watch list. In
fact, hundreds of thousands of ordinary American citizens have made the “blacklists.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">But have you heard of
whitelists? These are the lists of certain Americans, such as legislators,
Senators, judges, Defense Department employees, Homeland Security advisors,
national intelligence workers and others who are eligible for expedited
screening at airports, simply by virtue of the nature of their employment. The assumption seems to be that no one
who occupies any of these positions could ever snap and put a bomb in his shoe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The reality of our government
watching every move we make, monitoring our behavior and deciding if we’re good
guys or bad guys has gone awry. Get
this: The FBI uses the term “reasonable suspicion” to call attention to any
American deemed even slightly risky. The problem is that such everyday things
as a Twitter or <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/article/2458621/microsoft-subnet/facebook-posts-can-land-americans-on-watchlists.html"><b>Facebook post</b></a> can pile the “reasonable suspicion” label on your
shoulders for the rest of your life. I, for example, write this blog about
sometimes rather controversial topics, and sometimes I take somewhat unpopular
stands on issues that I feel are unjust. Over the past five years I have
written pieces about such topics as
police overstepping their authority; the citizen movement for secession from
the U.S.; judges who make rulings based on their personal biases; citizens who
have been physical attacked by law enforcement
for videotaping arrests, and many others. Does that make me “reasonably
suspicious?” I think not. It makes me
one who honors the First Amendment to the Constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Therein is the rub: You can
exercise your rights in this country and easily be the subject of government
scrutiny. In July, the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/us-terrorist-database-growing-rapid-rate-223303875.html"><b>Associated Press</b></a>
reported that over the past five years, more than 1.5 million people have been
added to the U.S. government’s terrorist watch lists. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.federaljack.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/terrorist-watch-list.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.federaljack.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/terrorist-watch-list.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> Really?
Well, you have to understand how easy it is go make the list. And once
you’re on a list, other problems may confront you. If you are stopped for
speeding, for example, the officer has the ability to tap into a database that
indicates if you are on watch list. If you are on a list, the officer will many
times dig a little deeper into your life, and that traffic stop that might have
lasted 10 minutes turns into 30 minutes. I don’t know about you, but my boss
isn’t real impressed when I show up 30 minute late for work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What you also might not know
is that if you’re on a watch list, screeners at the airport have the right to
peruse your belongings in a much more invasive way. For example, they are
allowed to look at the titles of any books you may be carrying. So, if I’m carrying “The Communist Manifesto”
by Karl Marx, and/or the Q’uran, and if I happen to have made the cut for a watch
list because of my controversial views expressed in this blog, I can be
detained. The guidelines for screeners also indicate that when looking at these
books, they should examine the condition – “e.g., new, dog-eared, annotated,
unopened." If you feel inclined to wade through the full guidelines,<b><a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/07/23/march-2013-watchlisting-guidance/"> clickhere</a></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Meanwhile, just as our
government continually upgrades its capacity and authority to peek into our
private lives, so do other entities, such as credit card companies and
insurance companies. Exhibit A: Have you seen those little credit card reading
devices that mobile vendors use to accept your payment for services? Some drivers of cars for hire use them, as
well as landscapers, home improvement workers, etc. They swipe your card in the
hand held device and have you sign with your finger and the transaction is complete.
What you may not know is that not too long ago, the makers of Square Reader, a
highly popular device quietly and unceremoniously sent a change of terms to
vendors using their device. The terms
now read, in part:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>“…you will not accept
payments in connection with the following businesses or business activities; sales
of firearms, firearm parts or hardware, and ammunition; or weapons and other
devices designed to cause physical injury.”</i></span></blockquote>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEyLzEyLzA0LzA5L21vYmlsZXBheW1lLmJQWi5qcGcKcAl0aHVtYgk5NTB4NTM0IwplCWpwZw/282a3961/88e/mobile-payment-reader-square-coming-to-wal-mart-ad85aa5ef1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://rack.2.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEyLzEyLzA0LzA5L21vYmlsZXBheW1lLmJQWi5qcGcKcAl0aHVtYgk5NTB4NTM0IwplCWpwZw/282a3961/88e/mobile-payment-reader-square-coming-to-wal-mart-ad85aa5ef1.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So don’t look for a Square
Reader at your local gun show. Did someone fail to mention to Square Reader
that we have a little something called the Second Amendment, which clearly
protects your rights to keep and bear arms? Is it just me, or are we teetering
on a slippery slope here? What’s next? Should Square Reader stop accepting
payments for soft drinks with lots of sugar, or cigarettes, or vodka, or
marijuana in states where it is legal, or sex toys that offend some people? Since when do makers of these modern day cash
registers decide what everyday Americans can and cannot purchase?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Under my same “what the hell
is going on” category, I’d mention subprime loans for cars. If you’re a
responsible, well-healed citizen you may not be familiar with subprime loans.
These are loans that are made to people who may be high risk for repaying, such
as unemployed people or people with very low credit ratings, or people with a
lot of debt or a history of sluggishly paying their debts. And yes, the
interest rates are crazy high. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">But now comes new technology
that allows lenders to essentially control the vehicles for which they have
loaned you money. It is an ignition device that the lender can activate if
you’re late with one of your loan payments. They can disable your ignition from
afar until you pay what you owe. Not
only that, a few days before your payment is due, the device begins to beep,
and the beeps get louder and more frequent the closer you get to your payment
due date. And there’s more: the devices have tracking devices, so that if you
don’t pay your bill on time, the lender can easily and instantly find you.
Perhaps they will find you in the middle of an Interstate highway, or on your
way to a hospital to deliver a baby, or at a stoplight at a busy intersection,
with cars behind you blasting their horns because you are unable to move your
car. Watch:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/jK4W2nlUYdQ" width="420"></iframe><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Said one friend of mine in
her ultimate wisdom, “Everybody and their brother is in our shit now.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">That brother she mentioned is
“Big Brother.” As far back as 1977, a commission charged with examining privacy
among U.S. citizens stated, “The real danger is the gradual erosion of
individual liberties through automation, integration, and interconnection of
many small, separate record-keeping systems, each of which alone may seem
innocuous, even benevolent, and wholly justifiable.” Remember, this was
pre-personal computing, pre- digital communication and pre-electronic tracking
devices. How prescient. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://ih3.redbubble.net/image.12231863.9527/flat,550x550,075,f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ih3.redbubble.net/image.12231863.9527/flat,550x550,075,f.jpg" height="200" width="141" /></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">In the meantime, citizens
need to speak up about the loss of their rights, because history teaches us
that once a right is lost in this country, it never comes back. Don’t we owe it
to ourselves to get “everybody and their
bother” out of our shit, as my friend would say? I think we do. Our
long-departed buddy, Benjamin Franklin said it this way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>“It is the first
responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Just be prepared that when
you indeed do question authority, you may quickly be added to some watch list,
somewhere, and you may never, ever know it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-81063345697852058492014-09-18T10:54:00.000-05:002014-09-18T15:39:45.635-05:00NFL: DAYS OF RAGE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz3ckiL-bVTCxppsuFxljOAN6S0h2ZyvzkZ7UNI68GTCup-FGnjNwZjOf5opPL1dCXEERxAi_z2kvEZhvktkjlMS_lwlqsKKfaXAUCNAtxEkcON1hyphenhyphen-VKER9xwn_clcWCalTHWzUN02M4/s1600/nfl+domestic+violence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz3ckiL-bVTCxppsuFxljOAN6S0h2ZyvzkZ7UNI68GTCup-FGnjNwZjOf5opPL1dCXEERxAi_z2kvEZhvktkjlMS_lwlqsKKfaXAUCNAtxEkcON1hyphenhyphen-VKER9xwn_clcWCalTHWzUN02M4/s1600/nfl+domestic+violence.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson wants you to know he is “not a child abuser.” Peterson took to Twitter this week to say this: "I have to live with the fact that when I disciplined my son the way I was disciplined as a child, I caused an injury that I never intended or thought would happen. I am not a perfect son. I am not a perfect husband. I am not a perfect parent, but I am, without a doubt, not a child abuser ... Regardless of what others think, however, I love my son very much and I will continue to try to become a better father and person."<br />
<br />
These comments came after Peterson, 29, beat his son with a wooden switch, resulting in his indictment for “reckless or negligent injury to a child” on September 12, 2014. True to its own often negligent form, the NFL announced Peterson would indeed still play in the following Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints. After pictures surfaced of the child’s injuries from his father’s disciplinary action, the public outcry swelled. Along with all of the other recent NFL scandals, finally some advertisers began to either pull out or express their concern. It was only then that the Minnesota Vikings management announced that Peterson was suspended.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaft2ziumOfQKR4uRv15bQ6Jvl1kRChUwQ0NGgP4n1pPlIeFCRpy_5Rc7HP7nRB9kYIoxrYQ-0-Vv1F7Lk2YPydpDp1yOWUCRte19YKxTNjv5szoOiJcSV2QC5F_IplCrl05q9DEztUDU/s1600/nfl+peterson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaft2ziumOfQKR4uRv15bQ6Jvl1kRChUwQ0NGgP4n1pPlIeFCRpy_5Rc7HP7nRB9kYIoxrYQ-0-Vv1F7Lk2YPydpDp1yOWUCRte19YKxTNjv5szoOiJcSV2QC5F_IplCrl05q9DEztUDU/s1600/nfl+peterson.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adrian Peterson </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It has subsequently been reported that this was not the first time Peterson faced accusations of child <br />
abuse. In June 2013, another of his children reportedly showed wounds that were inflicted by his father. When asked by the mother how those wounds on his forehead came to be, Peterson told her the child had hit his head on the car. The mother asked if he was hitting the child at the time, and Peterson said, “Yep.”
No charges were filed in the 2013 incident. Peterson was not so fortunate this time.<br />
<br />
The NFL, to put it mildly, has been lax in its approach to its players’ bad behavior. ESPN’s Tom Jackson summed it up nicely: “We started the week with players beating up women and we ended it with players beating up children. We are in a very serious state here in the National Football League.”
So, what are we really dealing with here? From my perspective we are dealing with an industry – professional football – that necessarily includes a violent infrastructure. Watch football today compared with football 30 years ago, and the game is far more aggressive. There was some discussion of this on ABC’s “The View.” Here is what co-host Rosie O’Donnell said, and it makes<br />
sense to me. <br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/j62Fahkm_6E" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
Now, if you are a hardcore NFL supporter, and/or if you don’t particularly care for Rosie O’Donnell, you may have had some trouble hearing what she just said. But don’t shoot the messenger. Here we have an entire league made up largely of 20-something-year-old men, flooded with testosterone, making way too much money for any 20-something to handle. The NFL has really taken a sort of “boys will be boys” approach to these guys, and often turned a blind eye to their mistreatment of women, their abuse of alcohol, their use of performance-enhancing drugs and even their mistreatment of their own children. As stated above, shortly after Peterson’s indictment became public, the Vikings had still planned to play him in Sunday’s game.<br />
<br />
And therein is the essential problem: The NFL is all about its image, to the detriment of many people in the lives of its players. Not until something surfaces publicly does the NFL do anything about anything bad in their ranks. Not until the Miami Dolphins’ Jonathan Martin walked off the field and quit the team did the issue of bullying even enter the consciousness of NFL execs, even though they knew what went on in locker rooms coast to coast. In the Martin case, the chief bully was Dolphins lineman Richie Incognito, who had a history of overly-aggressive behavior on and off the field. In fact, he had become known as the NFL’s “dirtiest player.” With full knowledge of Incognito’s “issues,” the Dolphins did nothing until Martin walked. What “issues,” you ask? Well, shortly after being suspended by the Dolphins, Incognito attacked his Ferrari, valued at $295,000, with a baseball bat. By February of this year, Incognito was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. In August, the mentally disturbed, serial harasser was cleared by the NFL to play again, and he is free to sign with any team. The buzz is that he and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are pretty chummy right now.<br />
<br />
And of course, not until Ray Rice, 27 punched his then fiancé (now wife) to unconsciousness in an elevator did the NFL suddenly show a social concern about domestic violence. Just days later similar <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ray and Janay Rice</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
news emerged about
Greg Hardy, 26, who has been charged with throwing his girlfriend in a bathtub and onto a sofa covered with guns before threatening to kill her. Then came word that Arizona Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer, 25, was arrested for aggravated assault against his wife. That was just before we learned that San Francisco 49ers defensive end Ray McDonald, 29, was arrested on a felony charge of domestic violence. Earlier this month NY Jets rookie Quincy Enunwa, 22, was arrested on a domestic violence charge of “grabbing the victim by her ankle and pulling her off a bed causing her to strike and injure both her head and finger,” according to the police report.<br />
<br />
All of this follows the long-reported legal battle between the league and former players who suffered head injuries that in many cases debilitated them. Some even committed suicide. In the end, the Federally tax-exempt NFL, which reportedly takes in $9-10 billion dollars a year, settled the case for $765 million. If that sounds like a lot, it’s not. There are roughly 4500 players involved in the suit, many suffering from dementia, depression or Alzheimer's that they blamed on blows to the head. Once again, the NFL did nothing until the situation was made public. The suit alleges the NFL knew about the proliferation of head injuries, concealed the information and routinely sent injured players back onto the field.<br />
<br />
If anything good has come out of the NFL’s inexcusable “business model,” it may be this: The Ray Rice domestic abuse scandal re-ignited the national conversation about violence in relationships. Within two days of the Rice story being made public, The National Domestic Violence Hotline reported an 84 percent increase in phone calls. The Adrian Peterson child abuse case has resulted in a firestorm of discussions about neglect and mistreatment<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brett Favre</td></tr>
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of children. Hyper-awareness of potential long-term consequences of a football career has caused some players like Denver Broncos guard John Moffit, and Cincinnati Bengals guard Jacob Bell to quit football for fear of ending up physically damaged or dead. Even veteran NFL player Brett Favre came forward to say if he had a son he would hesitate to let him play the “violent game of football.”<br />
<br />
Let’s get real about the NFL. The league’s management certainly encourages overly-aggressive playing and often poor sportsmanship. Young guys just out of college are being paid exorbitant salaries, with no guidance in how to handle sudden fame and unlimited cash. Very bad behavior off the field is routinely overlooked, as long as the players bring money and attention to the franchise. Even criminal behavior is sometimes tolerated, so long as it doesn’t make headlines.
The NFL is now the emperor who has no clothes. We all know its dirty secrets and we are beginning to pay attention. The good news? Sponsors are speaking up – sponsors like Nike, Radisson Hotels, Verizon Wireless, Pepsico, Federal Express, Marriott and Cover Girl has all issued statements questioning the values of the league.<br />
<br />
And the NFL knows it’s in deep trouble, when none other than Anheuser Busch says this:
“We are disappointed and increasingly concerned by the recent incidents that have overshadowed this NFL season. We are not yet satisfied with the league's handling of behaviors that so clearly go against our own company culture and moral code. We have shared our concerns and expectations with the league.”<br />
<br />
I smell radical change in the air. Stay tuned.
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-47031807626630641042014-09-15T14:41:00.003-05:002014-09-15T14:42:35.989-05:00HANDS UP, HEADS BOWED<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here’s a tough question for you: What do the late Michael Brown, a young black man of Ferguson, MO and I, an older white man living in New Orleans have in common? Give up? The answer is simple: We went to the same high school and we grew up about 10 minutes from each other’s neighborhoods. Michael and I both attended Normandy Senior High School, albeit more than 40 years apart. I graduated in 1971 and Michael was a recent graduate. So what, you might ask.<br />
<br />
I started Normandy in 1968, at the tail end of the Civil Rights Movement, which is generally held to have taken place from 1954 to 1968. 1968 was the year both Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were killed. It was also the year that 10 white highway patrol officers opened fire on black protestors in Orangeburg, South Carolina, killing three teenagers who were about Michael Brown’s age, and injuring 28 others. In Orangeburg, authorities tried to justify their use of excessive force by claiming the protestors were armed. When the dust settled, no evidence was ever presented that they were armed. As “they” say, the more things change…<br />
<br />
When I was a senior at Normandy in 1971, the majority of the student population was white. But the black student population was increasing year by year, and there was an emerging undercurrent of racial tension on the multi-building campus. It played out this way: One morning in the cavernous cafeteria a chair went flying across the room and hit a young white girl in the head. From there the conflict escalated into a black vs. white uprising.<br />
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It was violent and somewhat prolonged. Another day when my school bus pulled into the massive parking lot behind several other busses, a school administrator approached the bus and would not allow us to disembark. We found out that a large group of black students had staged a “sit-in” in East Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus. Fearing violence, the school administrators decided to send us all back home. Another day a standoff between white and black students began early in the morning in the parking lot, and rapidly became an out-of-control situation that required St. Louis County police officers to surround the parking lot – again we were sent home. These incidents kept happening that year.<br />
<br />
Normandy High, once a relatively calm institution became a racial battlefield with armed security guards in each building. Much like Ferguson in 2014, the underlying racial tension in the school community would inevitably surface and permeate the culture. But unlike Michael Brown in 2014, those of us in 1960s St. Louis County (home to Ferguson and Normandy) never expected to fall victim to a street war with law enforcement.
Here is the major difference between my moment of youth and Michael Brown’s: When I was 18 years old, young black men were not being shot dead on pavements coast to coast.<br />
<br />
Does that sound like an exaggeration to you? Well, I could mention the obvious – Trayvon Martin – but let’s focus on those who have actually been shot by over zealous cops:<br />
• Inexplicably lesser reported is the case of Kimani Gray, 16, shot four times last year by New York cops after he left a friend’s birthday party. He was unarmed.<br />
• Just a few weeks ago Eric Garner (right)<br />
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was choked to death by a white police officer in broad daylight on a New York sidewalk, after being suspected of selling untaxed cigarettes. Garner was unarmed.<br />
• While riding his bicycle earlier this month, Dante Parker, 36, was tasered to death by police who were on the trail of a robber who was reportedly riding a bicycle. Parker was not that man. He was unarmed.<br />
• After an investigative traffic stop in South L.A., Ezell Ford, 25, was shot by police when he was reportedly face down on the ground. He later died during surgery. He was unarmed.<br />
<br />
And then came Michael Brown. And then came late nights of demonstrations in steamy Ferguson, MO. Ferguson Police Department somehow became armed with equipment from the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which runs a program called 1033 that has provided law enforcement agencies around the country with military style weapons.<br />
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What the hell are police officers doing with armored vehicles, grenade launchers and M-14s? By arming urban police officers with the same equipment that might be used in a military operation, there is an assumption made that all police officers are mentally, physically and psychologically prepared to use the weapons properly. Do we citizens honestly believe that the same cops who shot Erica Garner, Kimani Gray, Dante Parker, Ezell Ford, Michael Brown and scores of other young black men are to be trusted with the most high-powered weapons available in war efforts? I think not, and evidently I am joined in this skepticism by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder who told USA today, "It makes sense to take a look at whether military-style equipment is being acquired for the right purposes and whether there is proper training on when and how to deploy it.”<br />
<br />
Only about 20,000 people live in the six-square-mile municipality of Ferguson. The unemployment rate is considerably higher than the national average and the average income is substantially lower. The population is more than 60 percent black, but of the 53 police officers in the town, only three are black. That perfect storm of stats makes Ferguson ground zero for the renewed national debate about race relations. It is a sticky debate, because most of the participants have already made up their minds about how they view race in America. It is often difficult to persuade people to change their attitudes about race, but the debate that has been raging for hundreds of years has resulted in moderate societal change, albeit at a snail’s pace.<br />
<br />
For several nights after Brown was shot six times and mercilessly left face down on the August-hot street for four solid hours before being moved, I watched reports of police in full riot gear patrolling Ferguson. It was as if media [read: “CNN”] were waiting for an inevitable outbreak of violence. That violence never came. There were some tense moments, but overall it was peaceful. The only thing not peaceful about it was the sight of those cops and their tank-like vehicles and high powered weapons.
The resounding mantra of the protestors, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” <br />
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will haunt all of us for a long time to come. At this point, I say, put your hands down, bow your heads and think hard about where we are in our cultural racial division, and about where we came from. Ask yourself why no one is requiring greater diversity among the police forces in places like Ferguson? Why is there no-training in multi-cultural communication happening in those same forces? Why are we trusting officers with two to three years of policing experience with M-14s? How deeply are we really vetting individuals who decide to craft a career in law enforcement? And where will the inevitable next Michael Brown meet his untimely death? Perhaps in your town?
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-16174563502727164692013-10-17T14:55:00.001-05:002014-09-17T20:26:00.202-05:00WHY JOAN RIVERS MATTERED<div class="MsoNormal">
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Let me get this out of the way up front:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved Joan Rivers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I really did. I followed her career since she
was on The Ed Sullivan Show -- way, way back in 1967.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Watch for yourself:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EpPCFoXXhF0" width="420"></iframe>
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Even in that early routine you could already see what was
happening. Joan Molinsky, a gutsy, irreverent fireball of a person, had
invented Joan Rivers, a character she would carry with her for the next half
century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She would streamline the
character’s delivery over time, and she would glamorize the exterior, but Joan
Molinsky was always in charge. She ran the show. By her own admission, Joan
Molinsky was a driven, goal-obsessed laser of a human being who was going to
win big.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And she was going to do it via
the character she invented, Joan Rivers. She would much later in her life admit
publicly that she was probably absent too much as a mother, although certainly
loving and devoted. And she would also admit that in her adult household, her
husband and her daughter and she were always, all about “the career.”</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbf6HpqztNps15SR-Vmg_Fe96aprx0OF1Viwi2_dhiqyuJFEflcXVv2mcNc-fbtpmyZSS4BwZn7HuGsEUKMlLuiQdLgpyydu9wlhQiaDpU_Ks7FlwH3BuL-y16LeXunojEzJ7dIvr8-o4/s1600/joan+quote+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbf6HpqztNps15SR-Vmg_Fe96aprx0OF1Viwi2_dhiqyuJFEflcXVv2mcNc-fbtpmyZSS4BwZn7HuGsEUKMlLuiQdLgpyydu9wlhQiaDpU_Ks7FlwH3BuL-y16LeXunojEzJ7dIvr8-o4/s1600/joan+quote+1.jpg" height="150" width="320" /></a>Whether you loved Joan Rivers as so many of us did, or not, one thing is indisputable: She was a constant voice in the American culture for
most of our lives. She was more than a comedienne. She was a cultural
commentator. That’s what comics are, really. They chronicle what we see right
in front of us, but they find a way to build joy into it. As Americans
struggled to determine what brand of extremist Sarah Palin really was, Rivers
alternately referred to her as “a Nazi,” or “retarded.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As former vice-president Dick Cheney publicly
touted the wonders and appropriateness of “enhanced interrogation techniques”
[read: “torture”], Rivers pondered his humanity by posting this on Facebook:
“I’m surprised Dick Cheney got a heart after lasting all these years without
one.” When the FBI itself was offering $25 million for the capture of Osama Bin
Laden, Rivers brought him down to size with humor:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“How can we not find Osama? He’s on dialysis.
There’s one outlet in all of Afghanistan, find it and follow the cord.”</div>
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<br />
Nothing was out of bounds, and to Rivers, there was never
occasion to look at an audience and ask,“Too soon?” She survived in her
battleground of an industry by being constantly topical, strictly au courant. She was one of the first comics to inject humor into 9/11. And she was roundly
blasted for it in the press. As a woman who had clawed her way through a
jagged, uneven career, she had<br />
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little patience with those who were famous just
for being famous. She was merciless with Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had things she wanted to get off of her
chest, and she early on discovered the glory of free speech. It has often been
said of her that she simply said what the rest of us were thinking. That may be
a bit of a stretch, but she did verbalize all that was commonly forbidden, and
we laughed until we cried.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know we
did. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Rivers would often say, “Oh grow
up!”</div>
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I have never witnessed the outpouring of grief,
internationally, for an entertainer, as I have since Joan Rivers died. And I
get it. Smart people knew Joan Rivers was a finely-crafted, carefully evolved
character created and managed by her inner Joan Molinsky, the plainer, softer
launching pad for the fiercely driven star. Smart people knew there was a
genuinely loveable core underneath the take no prisoners, seemingly ruthless
exterior.</div>
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Here are three things I know for sure about Joan Rivers: 1)
Joan Rivers made all of us – even those who purported not to like her brand of
comedy -- laugh at ourselves and our world, for 50 years;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a room full of people, Joan Rivers was among the smartest minds in the
room; 3) What Joan Rivers brought to the table was nothing more or nothing less
than joy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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On behalf of about a bazillion people, thank you Joan
Rivers.</div>
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Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-31819879910120258582013-07-30T13:27:00.000-05:002013-08-09T20:33:23.501-05:00THE DREADED J-WORD: JOURNALISM<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Melissa Harris-Perry models tampon earrings. Really.</td></tr>
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It was a very embarrassing -one might say “humiliating”- week for journalism. One reporter wore tampons as earrings, live on air. Another tweeted a photo of himself almost nude, and a third reporter asked a highly respected scholarly researcher how he, a Muslim, could justify writing a book about Jesus. </div>
<br />
Could it get any worse for the broadcasting business? Well, yes it could. In addition to all of the above, which I’ll detail in a moment, there was beleaguered, way-past-his-expiration-date Rush Limbaugh who said this of Huma Abedin, wife of serial sexter Anthony Weiner: "It's relevant to point out here by the way ... Huma is a Muslim. In that regard, Weiner ought to be able to get away with anything.
<br />
<br />
“Muslim women don’t have any power, right?” he continued. “Muslim women are beheaded, stoned, whatever, if they drive, have affairs. In certain countries, Muslim women, if they’re raped, are killed -- it’s their fault."
<br />
<br />
Hmmm..did you know we behead Muslim women in America? I did not know that. Oh, and did someone forget to tell Rush that Huma Abedin was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan?
<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, none other than anti-journalist Glenn Beck rented a series of rooms in a downtown Salt Lake City hotel to display his collection of Nazi memorabilia, including hooded KKK cape, a swastika banner that was used at Nuremberg, a copy of Mein Kampf signed by Adolf Hitler, the love letters of Hermann Göring, a satin handkerchief with Hitler’s blood.<br />
<br />
Oy.
<br />
<br />
If you’re already starting to hyperventilate at all of the above, calm yourself and read on.
First, about those earlier-mentioned earrings. Melissa Harris-Perry, a relative newcomer to the cable news circus, hosts a Sunday round table talk show on MSNBC. After state troopers confiscated tampons, maxi pads and other potential projectile items from those entering the Texas state capitol building recently, Perry made light of the civic debacle this way:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/-7hYF_jjKYw" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
Upon seeing Harris-Perry don tampons on her lobes, satirist and cultural commentator Dennis Miller tweeted, “David Brinkley turning over so rapidly in his grave you could make chicken shawarma in it.”
<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"70 is the new 50"...Not</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Oh and about that above-referenced journalist who tweeted an almost-naked shot of himself: That would be Geraldo Rivera, 70, of Fox News. Rivera, whose checkered career spans five decades, tweeted the selfie with the tag line, “70 is the new 50.” No Geraldo, based on what we see in the photo, <br />
70 is 70, and my unsolicited advice goes like this: <i>Get dressed</i>.<br />
<br />
Compounding the tasteless episode were Rivera’s own words of attempted justification. He began by explaining he had had a long day at work, and he had a couple of drinks before breaking out the camera. Then he said, "And I never do tequila when I'm alone, but I had this new bottle that someone had given me. That second my fate was sealed. I said, 'Dammit, I like that picture.' I had learned how to use Twitter a couple of weeks ago and there I was."
<br />
<br />
Yes, Geraldo, there you were, but what about us? Do we really need to know that when you’re alone you like to do tequila shots and take naked self pics?<br />
<br />
Then there is the case of Lauren Green, also of Fox News, who conducted an on-air interview with religious scholar Reza Aslan. Aslan, author of <i>Zealot: The Life &; Times of Jesus of Nazareth</i>, thought he was to be interviewed about the research he did and the content of the book. But Green inexplicably decided to interview him about how odd she found it that he, a Muslim would write about Jesus. Watch:
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AQhMllQ-ODw" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
The Twitterverse exploded following Green’s disastrous interview. Tweeted one viewer:
“Me: ‘I’m an oceanographer.’ Green: ‘But you live on land.’”
<br />
<br />
It bears mentioning that all of the broadcasters mentioned herein are experienced adults who were most likely hired in part based of their editorial judgment (except perhaps Harris-Perry, who has no background in media, according to her own bio). Of course one can also be fired for editorial judgment issues – does the name Don Imus ring a bell? Why then, would any of these professionals say or do what I have described here?
<br />
<br />
In part, this can be explained by a lack of oversight on the part of news directors and the editorial brass. The game today is all about attracting and retaining viewers or listeners. Watch cable news networks often and long enough and you will see a plethora of incidents just as tasteless and unprofessional as the ones I have described here.<br />
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You are observing the pioneer days of the 24-hour news cycle. It may not seem that way, but consider that even the granddaddy of all round-the clock news, CNN is only 33 years old. Others, like Fox and MSNBC didn’t arrive on the screen until 1996. By then, the average household in America was either wired for cable or just about to be, which meant the American viewer was on the threshold of remote control roulette. After decades of having just three or four stations from which to choose, suddenly we were in the TV driver’s seat with up to 200 channels. Heady stuff.
<br />
<br />
From there, cable news stations went into what we could term a “cultural decline.” And now, this many years later, a host is wearing tampon earrings, another is naked on Twitter and a third evidently hasn’t read her interviewee’s book, so she decided to try to discredit the author instead of discussing his work.
Ugh.<br />
<br />
According the a new <b><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/163097/americans-confidence-newspapers-continues-erode.aspx">Gallup poll</a></b>,
Americans’ confidence in TV news is down to 23 percent of those who responded. That matches our lack of confidence in newspapers. To give you an idea of how bad the numbers look, in 1996 our confidence in TV news was at 46 percent. In 1980 our confidence in newspapers was at 51 percent. (These figures area based on responses when asked if consumers have “a great deal or quite a lot of confidence” in these entities.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jon Stewart -- The New Cronkite?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If that doesn’t disturb you, you should also know that among young people, high profile news broadcasters are not trustworthy. Who will ever forget the TIME Magazine poll in 2009 that found Jon Stewart of The Daily Show the most trusted newscaster in America. Huh? <br />
<br />
Therein is the danger of cable news networks putting people like Harris-Perry, Rivera and Green front and center. As if the journalism profession were not sullied enough by its own historical missteps, by promoting individuals who value entertainment over substantive content, the viewing public comes to equate their broadcasts with any other white noise that comes from our increasingly technologically- sophisticated televisions. The technology is at an all-time high while the content of what it projects is in the gutter.
<br />
<br />
I remember about a zillion years ago when I was in journalism school, NBC anchorman John Chancellor came to speak to us. He said, “You are about to enter the most noble profession there is. Keeping the citizenry informed about the issues that directly touch their lives is as important as any job can be. It’s a big responsibility that carries with it a rich history to which you will now contribute.”<br />
<br />
Those were some wise words. Compare that with a quote from Geraldo Rivera:
“I’m old, but I’m still cute and strong…and very butch.”
<br />
<br />
Fellow TV viewers..we’re doomed.
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-89159306502531960342013-06-24T15:50:00.000-05:002013-06-24T21:19:40.135-05:00BUTTER AND BIGOTRY: THE PAULA DEAN STORY<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdWpX1Mh2ghfcC38OmrhXgQxrGqep58E4-zPcghfaf06bkvdZXERmCFBRA5pe79RdqI2T2jYaNolIWw6nRT5TGVQsVyhVQxVp2XwrTzHO9XS0z3z_i4sdotia1oSAQXK6OAUxjtEZzGgMr/s1600/PaulaDeen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdWpX1Mh2ghfcC38OmrhXgQxrGqep58E4-zPcghfaf06bkvdZXERmCFBRA5pe79RdqI2T2jYaNolIWw6nRT5TGVQsVyhVQxVp2XwrTzHO9XS0z3z_i4sdotia1oSAQXK6OAUxjtEZzGgMr/s640/PaulaDeen.jpg" border="0" class="decoded" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdWpX1Mh2ghfcC38OmrhXgQxrGqep58E4-zPcghfaf06bkvdZXERmCFBRA5pe79RdqI2T2jYaNolIWw6nRT5TGVQsVyhVQxVp2XwrTzHO9XS0z3z_i4sdotia1oSAQXK6OAUxjtEZzGgMr/s400/PaulaDeen.jpg" width="400" /></a>Oh Paula. Paula, Paula, Paula. What fresh hell hath y’all
wrought now? First it was you pushing high fat and cholesterol cooking when you
knew you had diabetes, and now you’re slinging the word nigger. Some of us out
here – okay, many of us out here are not having it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I, for one, am not having it.<br />
<br />
About 30 years ago I moved to the deep South from the Midwest.
Where I grew up, we didn’t hear the word nigger much, and I did not use it at
all. I know for sure I never heard either of my parents use the word, and
neither did our neighbors or family friends. So all the people out there who
keep asking the question, “Come on, how many adults have never used the word
nigger?” should listen up. Many, many, many people know the demeaning,
condescending and fully non-productive nature of the word, and we do not use
it, ever.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://kansashumanities.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/waiter_wdc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" id="irc_mi" src="http://kansashumanities.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/waiter_wdc.jpg" style="margin-top: 25px;" width="214" /></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paula Deen would have us believe that she used it because
she’s “old” (66 is old?) and she’s from the South.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The latter, while certainly not an excuse, is
something I semi-understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I
moved to New Orleans in the 1980s, where I have been ever since, I was stunned
at the frequency at which the word is thrown around in daily conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember going to a very upscale cocktail
party in a private home when one of the blue blazered, white shirt and
khaki-pants (the Southern gent’s casual uniform) guests told me to “Get
yourself a drink – there’s a nigger walking around with a tray full of ‘em.” I also remember a sales director I worked with
in a luxury hotel saying to me, “I told that stupid nigger I needed copies of
this document for the meeting, but of course she’s too lazy to run copies.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also remember eating in that same hotel’s
employee cafeteria, when one of my co-workers said, “You’ll be lucky if you can
find anything edible in here – they cook nigger food mostly.” All of this
happened. And so much more.</div>
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To this day, at almost 60 years old, I’m still taken aback
every time I hear the word used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
get it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t want to get it. I don’t
want you to get it either. But I feel compelled to write a few things that I do
get about the ramifications of categorizing an entire population segment with
one ugly, unforgiving word:</div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span> Words are symbols. As symbols, words are
painfully powerful. By calling a black person a nigger, the speaker instantly
sets himself or herself up as superior to the person they are targeting. It is
a false superiority based on a culturally historical misconception that one
population group is superior to another population group. Key word:
misconception.</li>
<li> Having lived through the mid-20<sup>th</sup>
century Civil Rights movement, I know that what followed that movement was a
decades-long effort to evolve the word out of the English language. We who were
fostering that effort were making great progress until about the 1980s when hip
hop music evolved. The music insisted on using the word “nigga” routinely in
lyrics. That use of the word among black entertainers served only to perpetuate
its use among other population groups and to mainstream its use well into the
21<sup>st</sup> century. So to the many, many white people who ask the same question
over and over again – “Why is it okay for a black person to use the word, but
it’s not okay for us to use it?” – the answer is simple: It’s not okay for
anybody to use it.</li>
<li> The word nigger is used as a symbol for “less
than.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The user is essentially stating, “You
are less than I.” What I know for sure is that nobody has the right in this
life to decide if another person is less than anyone else. And that applies to
any number of other English words that need to be trashed – faggot, queer,
cunt, spick, kike, retard – shall I go on?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I think not.</li>
</ul>
</div>
So, back to “old” sweet Paul Deen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not believe Paula Deen is a bad human
being because she said “nigger.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
even believe Paul Deen is a bad human being if she ran a business in which<br />
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certain employees were treated differently because they are black.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe she is a flawed human being just
like you and I are flawed human beings. But there are consequences for bad
behavior, and Paula will now be subject to those.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I heard a guy who had been in prison for 21
years for a crime he did not commit, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>say
something very wise: “What I have learned over all these years,” he said, “is
that revenge doesn’t work. Accountability does.”<br />
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<br />
Paula Dean knew that exercising institutional racism and
false superiority was bad behavior. She knew all along that living in the South
was no excuse for categorizing black Americans as “less than.” She knew that it
was not okay to consider planning a plantation-themed wedding with all black
male waiters in white jackets, that the very idea was unacceptable, and a twisted, ill-conceived
tribute to a moment in American history of which we are all rightfully ashamed.
She knows that apologizing for her bad behavior and “begging” (her word) for
our forgiveness will not wipe out decades of subtle and not-so-subtle racist
behavior on her part. And rest assured, she is now being held accountable for
all of it.</div>
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Deen is a much-beloved figure among a lot of her faithful
fans. They, and believe it or not, I, do not want to see her lose her career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I do want to see is Paula Dean working to
regain her career, rather than simply stepping back into it once we are all on
to the next big story in America. FOOD Network has dropped her, and so has Smithfield hams. Rumor has it
that QVC, Kmart and even her publisher are considering doing the same. But
contrary to F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are second acts in America, but they
come with an uphill climb. I would point out that it was fully seven years ago
that Michael Richards (Kramer on “Seinfeld”) was banned for life from The Laugh
Factory (left)<br />
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after going on a much-publicized racial tirade after being heckled by a black audience member. You haven’t heard much about or from Richards since,
have you? Only now, all these years later is he slowly re-emerging in the entertainment
industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The uphill climb and all that,
you see? What about Mel Gibson? Remember him telling his girlfriend he didn’t
care if she was “raped by a pack of niggers?” Gibson, one of the biggest movie
stars in the world prior to his crazy rants, is now pretty much on the Hollywood
D-list.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://img.foodnetwork.com/FOOD/2007/05/03/pa1001_brownies_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="http://img.foodnetwork.com/FOOD/2007/05/03/pa1001_brownies_lg.jpg" border="0" class="decoded" height="239" src="http://img.foodnetwork.com/FOOD/2007/05/03/pa1001_brownies_lg.jpg" width="320" /></a>What I have learned about racism is this: Where there’s
smoke, there’s usually fire. If Paul Dean said she used the word “nigger” in
the past and that her husband still does, and if employees in her business say
she makes some business decisions based on the color of their skin, my
instincts tell me somewhere in there is some truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have also observed that otherwise really
fine people can be racist." That is their major flaw. And I have made a decision
for myself that the racism flaw is not acceptable to me. So I will not be
spending any disposable income on Paula Dean products. I will forgo learning
how to make Paula’s white chocolate cherry chunkies. That’s my choice. Others
will choose otherwise, and I predict Deen will rise again, but perhaps not to
the exalted, buttery level she once enjoyed.</div>
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I won’t patronize Paula Deen because I get who she is. I
have met her a thousand times in a thousand different faces and places in the
South. Racism runs way deep down here at the bottom of the United States. It is
alive. I often say that I believe racism right now is much worse than it was in
the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Teenagers who try to “act black?” Racism. White collar execs who perpetuate
the white man’s executive level in corporate America? Racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Broadcast and cable networks that rarely cast
a black actor in a lead role? Racism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of doing away with the Voting Rights Act?
Racism at the highest level possible. </div>
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My personal decision is not to receive it in my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is your decision?</div>
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-23578294201594277102013-06-14T10:59:00.000-05:002013-06-14T10:59:16.901-05:00OF CAFFEINE, COMICS AND SEINFELD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.tubefilter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/season2_episode1-poster-600x369.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.tubefilter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/season2_episode1-poster-600x369.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<span id="goog_34256054"></span><span id="goog_34256055"></span>When you are at work wasting time on your computer --- notice I said “when,” not “if” and you know who you are – you truly need to be watching Jerry Seinfeld’s web series, “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” GreenbergRants first clued you in about this series last year in a sidebar (those short takes we run in the left hand column on this page), and I wondered if the show would take off. Not only has it taken off, but it scored a second season on line, and it has a bigtime sponsor, Acura.<br />
<br />
Seinfeld is widely known to be a car enthusiast, so it makes sense that an upscale motorcar company would underwrite the series. If for some reason you still have not watched this series, just know that the premise is simple: Each episode features Seinfeld and one of his famously funny friends riding in a car hand selected by the host, on their way to a coffeehouse destination to have coffee and just talk.<br />
<br />
If you work in a cubicle, be careful when watching, because you are going to be laughing out loud and you may spit your own coffee all over your computer screen. It was during the first season that Seinfeld’s pal Larry David said, “You’ve finally made a show about nothing.” Who knew “nothing” could be this funny?
The second season will feature the likes of Sarah Silverman, David Letterman, Chris Rock, Don Rickles and Seth Myers, among others.<br />
<br />
Recently, BRAVO TV’s Andy Cohen spent a half hour talking with Seinfeld about the show. Even there Seinfeld was funny – the guy can’t help it. As a New Orleanian I’m especially keyed into Seinfeld right now because it was just announced he will do two shows to re-introduce the famed Saenger Theatre to the public this coming Fall. The Saenger was badly damaged during Hurricane Katrina and is now finally re-opening after eight years. Meanwhile, I’ll satisfy all Seinfeld cravings by watching “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. You can too - go to <a href="http://www.crackle.com/">www.crackle.com</a> Watch this:
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<script src="http://pshared.5min.com/Scripts/PlayerSeed.js?sid=281&width=560&height=345&playList=517817662" type="text/javascript"></script>
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Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-5811920625270252292013-05-23T09:40:00.000-05:002013-05-23T09:40:26.621-05:00ZACH'S STORY Last December, Zach Sobiech, 18, posted a video on YouTube of a song he wrote called <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDC97j6lfyc">“Clouds.”</a></b> Each day, thousands of kids all over the world post videos, but this one somehow caught the attention of more than four million people, once his story was revealed. Zach was diagnosed with bone cancer that spread throughout his body.<br />
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Zach’s story would be predictably tragic, were it not for his indomitable spirit and his true recognition that life is indeed a gift. Told he only had a few months to live, Zach decided to do just that – live. What follows is a short documentary about his last days of life, complete with a family that embraced every second, a girlfriend who risked her own emotional upheaval and friends and musicians who rallied to make every moment count. On Sunday, May 20, Zach died. His story is not so much about death as it is an affirmation of life. In the end, it's a joyful story. Watch. Please watch.
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Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-80594610211088851592013-04-20T17:04:00.002-05:002013-04-20T17:07:44.701-05:00THE UNITED STATES OF BOSTON<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There are a lot of us Americans out here who believe what happened in Boston is really indicative of a much more pervasive threat in America. The simple truth is that there are way too many human beings of varying nationalities who abhor all things American. We are roundly hated in many corners of the earth, and our one-time “impenetrable” borders are now anything but. Everybody is fully exposed now. We American citizens are seemingly dangerously exposed to unknown individual enemies with psychopathic intentions, and those very enemies are exposed to unprecedented law enforcement technology and countless cameras. We’re all naked in the worst way.<br />
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Those of us in my generation trace one of our earliest memories to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. From that moment, we progressed on through a number of other mid-to-late-20th century bloody assassinations, and right into the ongoing carnage of the Vietnam war. In between it all was the civil rights struggle that saw eruptions of street rioting coast to coast. We were raised on violence and mayhem. As children we saw our President shot through the brain. As teens we watched blood and guts in Vietnamese rice paddies every night on Walter Cronkite’s evening newscast. As young adults we were already inundated<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5hcV63UY2nuPjuhH_1T-36BPa9vVR9nnoMEuNg_WeymaLord58q5JZqJKNnofkw83QD_JesR0e2OUSlJz97IbIDfL8zdRmQY8zq_s8Z57G5eFUXM1vXWWmjpPKlXEGXsV8R-bB17lbk/s1600/murrah+building.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5hcV63UY2nuPjuhH_1T-36BPa9vVR9nnoMEuNg_WeymaLord58q5JZqJKNnofkw83QD_JesR0e2OUSlJz97IbIDfL8zdRmQY8zq_s8Z57G5eFUXM1vXWWmjpPKlXEGXsV8R-bB17lbk/s400/murrah+building.jpg" width="400" /></a> with unnatural acts of horror. By the time we were full adults, the Murrah Federal Building (left) was blown up in Oklahoma City. This time the carnage was the work of a disgruntled American angry at the government for another violent confrontation in Waco, TX two years earlier. And then the road winds around right into 9/11.<br />
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And now…Boston.<br />
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The day JFK was murdered, the U.S was about as low-tech as a developed nation could be. When the riots happened late at night in Washington, D.C. and Harlem the night Martin Luther King was murdered, many of us had no idea it was happening until the next day. Vietnam happened on our TV screens, but generally not in real time. Even so many years later when Oklahoma City happened, and later when the planes hit the buildings in NYC, although we watched it happen live on TV, there was not much social media happening and cameras in phones were not widely available yet.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmE3M9uwdBqKHHUmjDCG0wOdbKkziyXaxNEftfB7i1x0XtT0gnkdnC13l9p6A8SBAWj4vzwKIPMF1RFQIJCPmmiGpNuaoEjlZDhKUp1lpN2WEopSG3-lUMKTjY8d8O9Worndn-ENcZkzQ/s1600/infrared+image+two.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmE3M9uwdBqKHHUmjDCG0wOdbKkziyXaxNEftfB7i1x0XtT0gnkdnC13l9p6A8SBAWj4vzwKIPMF1RFQIJCPmmiGpNuaoEjlZDhKUp1lpN2WEopSG3-lUMKTjY8d8O9Worndn-ENcZkzQ/s400/infrared+image+two.jpg" width="400" /></a>But Boston? The world is so high tech now that not only did law enforcement rely heavily on private citizens’ phone photos, but the second suspect was caught after a helicopter used infrared imaging technology (right) to determine that he was hiding under a sealed canvas in a boat. Those in the know explained it to us laypeople as technology that senses heat<br />
to indicate there is an animal or human being in the targeted region. X-Ray vision, 21st century style.
Technology did in the Tsarnaev brothers. As one network reporter put it, the phrase “lost in a crowd” no longer exists in 21st century America. If not technology, what other explanation is there that the Tsarnaev boys were identified and targeted by law enforcement within 24 – 48 hours of the marathon bombings?<br />
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But there are other differences between Boston and the history-making violent events through which we have lived. Chief among them may be the fact that Chechnya, a country of just over 1.2 million citizens could be a threat to the mighty USA. It speaks to the undeniable shift in world security that these two boys were able to pull this off.
Another meaningful difference between Boston and past violent incidents is the complex fact that although they caught us by surprise with the bombings, we are no longer fully shocked that it could happen. We know now that terrorist attacks can happen anywhere, anytime. Three days after the Boston bombings a bomb threat at the New Orleans Marriott hotel forced its officials to evacuate the entire 41 floors and 1300+ guest rooms. Right here in New Orleans – we’re not a major U.S. center of commerce; we’re not a national government seat; we’re not even a tremendously populated city, compared to our more cosmopolitan sister cities. Yet even we have bomb threats.<br />
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The difference between Boston and other events we’ve witnessed is simply that now we know terrorism has no geographical preferences or boundaries.
So – we are Boston. And Boston is us. And that “new normal” that you hear bandied about in contemporary vernacular is real. The new normal can be summed up this way: We are not necessarily safe in America. We know that, and we navigate our way through life with that sort of hanging over us each day.<br />
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It is still the freest country in the world, but freedom has been somewhat redefined. It now means we are on camera most of the time that we are not at home. It means there is even technology being used that can determine if someone is indeed in their home at any given time. The new normal holds that we Americans are not internationally adored. In many places just the opposite is the case. And the new normal holds that those who would commit violent mass attacks walk right among us. The surviving Tsarnaev brother is described by some of his American high school and college classmates as a great guy, fun, and just “one of us.” So far, to a person they describe someone who they would never have known had it in for Americans.<br />
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Those are the necessary lessons of Boston. We are now the United States of Boston. I remember not so many years ago when we were all called upon to be the United States of New Orleans. It was a powerful feeling. The larger lesson I take away from these moments? That would be that unity is our true, best shot at national security.Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-88003830256249622422013-04-09T13:45:00.002-05:002013-04-09T22:14:09.537-05:00MY 7 OBSESSIONS WITH "MAD MEN" <div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
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<br />I’m one of those people who can’t get enough “Mad Men,” and after waiting almost a year for the show to come back with new episodes, Sunday night was a major event. Maybe it’s the focus on the 1960’s, the decade in which I grew up, and the uncanny social accuracy the creators achieve. The sets, the costumes, the drinks, the cigarettes, the music, the sexy overtones (more on that later!), but especially the mindset. How could our cultural status have appeared so sophisticated, but really have been so, so innocent? This new set of episodes appears to be set right around 1968, and if ever there was a year that altered the American psyche and the future of the society, it was that year. As one who is obsessed with the show, here are 10 objects of my obsession from the first new episode:<br />
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1. <b>THE CHANGING ROLE OF WOMEN</b>: Main character Peggy Olsen represents the antithesis of what women were supposed to be back then.<a href="http://landlordrocknyc.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/peggy-olson.jpg?w=584&h=459" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" id="irc_mi" src="http://landlordrocknyc.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/peggy-olson.jpg?w=584&h=459" style="margin-top: 70px;" width="320" /></a> Career-laser-focused, Peggy is in a new, more responsible advertising position, and true to form,her behavior is now mirroring the behavior of her male counterparts at her former ad agency. That’s what women thought they had to do back then, and well into the 1980s, actually. They believed they had to become men to make the unlikely climb up the corporate ladder. “Can you get me some coffee?” she barks from her office while working all night on New Year’s Eve and forcing her male subordinates to do the same.</div>
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2. <b>COUNTER CULTURE</b>: A few seasons ago there was an NBC TV drama called “American Dreams,” also set in the 1960s, in which the year 1968 was just touched on in the third season. Those who didn’t live through the “hippie era” were about to see how it changed some young people from innocents into members of a new societal counter culture. It got cancelled. “Mad Men” is about to pick up right where “American Dreams” left off, with a view of how some young people rejected convention and formed their own youth movement.<br />
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3.<b> SEX</b>: (As promised!) The birth control pill was only seven years old by 1968, and the HIV/AIDS scare was decades away, so sex was in the air, next door, in the office, at the holiday party, everywhere you can imagine. Back then, people blamed the more open attitude toward sex on the hippie movement, but truly it was a grownup phenomenon fueled by a widespread “because we can” attitude. Don Draper’s return to extra-marital flings in the first episode makes perfect sense. Comments now deemed inappropriate were de rigueur in the office back then. In the New Year’s Eve party scene in Don and Megan’s ultra-mod high rise apartment, a female guest who is in attendance with her husband, openly comes on to Don right in front of Megan. Later that same night, Don has sex with his neighbor’s wife. If only Sinatra were still with us to narrate that moment with his trademark “Ring-a-ding-ding.”<br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUeiV2DUahxi1kk3CB4ruIncfLDsMkeqKLmEDxP9mzXhLY0TEYQg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" class="rg_i" data-sz="f" name="zWP5xXqkLOxj7M:" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUeiV2DUahxi1kk3CB4ruIncfLDsMkeqKLmEDxP9mzXhLY0TEYQg" style="height: 168px; margin-top: 0px; width: 300px;" /></a>4. <b>DEATH</b>: Don Draper is focusing too often and too heavily on all things death-related. In one scene, a drunk Don questions the doorman at his apartment building, who had suffered a heart attack a while back and been declared clinically dead before being revived. “What did you see?” Don demands. “What was it like?” In another scene, Don plays the doorman’s death over again in his memory in slow motion. When Don attends a funeral gathering for co-worker Roger Sterling’s mother, he throws up in front of the entire crowd. In a rare faux pas, Don creates an ad campaign for a hotel/resort company that is rejected by the client, who says it strikes him as suggestive of suicide. Don’s got death on the brain.<br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT_RtWDlS2RyQsdt2B0Mnbrgi8ujghNbxTUJWqwll_7MVdckwK_EA" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="rg_i" data-sz="f" name="H-S5UMTicKkT_M:" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT_RtWDlS2RyQsdt2B0Mnbrgi8ujghNbxTUJWqwll_7MVdckwK_EA" style="height: 184px; margin-top: 0px; width: 252px;" /></a> 5. <b>VICES</b>: Cigarettes and booze are players in almost every scene in “Mad Men.” There is smoking in hospitals and at dinner tables, drinking at the office and even at funerals. When Roger Sterling’s secretary must inform him of his own mother’s death, he quickly pours her a stiff one, which she downs in one long gulp. On vacation in Hawaii, Megan Draper trudges down to a skeezy part of the beach to score a joint, which she victoriously brings back to the hotel room to smoke before she and Don have sex. Smoking pot was still considered sneaky, naughty, and yes…sexy. Very sixties.<br />
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6. <b>MEN’S BURIED EMOTIONS</b>: If you think men are denying their feelings orconcealing their emotions today, you really had to see 1960s men. Don Draper is great at withholding everything he feels and internalizing it all into some deep, dark tunnel of grey matter. And Roger Sterling, who barely blinked upon hearing of his mother’s death, cries wild tears upon hearing that his regular shoe shine man died – but only in his office, alone. 1960s men are accurately depicted in “Mad Men” as in emotional denial about everything and unable to converse with anyone in any circumstance about feelings.<br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTqn92w2-PWrbGDG1ry-EEj8bW8uFwKqNO2j93KNNvPrc4CddNRiQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="rg_i" data-sz="f" height="266" name="sRBhRK0DX6cj8M:" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTqn92w2-PWrbGDG1ry-EEj8bW8uFwKqNO2j93KNNvPrc4CddNRiQ" style="height: 182px; margin-top: -1px; width: 273px;" width="400" /></a> 7.<b>FASHION</b>:“Mad Men” captures the look of the 1960s better than
almost any fictionalized piece I have ever seen. In my first job out of
college (1975) I worked at a TV station in which we
absolutely had a woman of the Joan Holloway genre. Full figured, proud
of it, and dressed to accentuate all of it. The office attire is dressy,
tailored and dry-cleaned within an inch of its fibrous life. Men’s
fashion is stylized, but understated. But, as mentioned, it’s 1968, and I
predict soon we’ll see the leisure suits, chains, miniskirts, platform
shoes, etc. But by 1968, office attire was still very 1960ish. My hat is
way off to the costumers. Perfect.<br />
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Even with all of my above-mentioned obsessions, the real genius in the series rests in the writers’ words. For five seasons the writers have slowly and meticulously revealed that Don Draper is a human train wreck. Now it becomes more obvious: On vacation in Hawaii, he is on the beach reading “The Inferno,” of all things. Creator Matt Weiner walks a fine line of over-symbolizing… “The Inferno” was a bit much, but it fits with everything we already know about Don’s dark psyche.<br />
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The writers are also smartly and slowly working in references to Vietnam. So far the references are pretty benign, but 1968 was the year of the Tet offensive, a series of attacks by the North Vietnamese that escalated the war in an unprecedented way. Some say the Tet offensive did in Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, caused Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s military career to crash and burn and caused everyday Americans to truly realize we were in a war. How will “Mad Men” handle this new infusion of faraway blood and guts to influence its scripts? How will the writers balance their material between Wall Street, Hanoi and Haight Ashbury. That 1960s innocence I mentioned earlier? It’s due to fade to black in this season’s “Mad Men.” Why oh why aren’t you watching???!
Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115748228970872079.post-80942694450682707802013-03-24T11:36:00.001-05:002013-03-24T14:47:50.601-05:00BRILLIANT<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3KyvlMJefR4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Paul A. Greenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04725973263790798061noreply@blogger.com0