#respect for the Dixie Chicks
The Chicks (previously known as the Dixie Chicks) … have won 13 Grammy Awards.
Remember this from 2003?
Anti-war band the
DixieChicks have hit back at their critics – by posing naked on the front of a leading showbiz magazine.The Grammy-winning band suffered a massive backlash in America after they said they were “ashamed” President George Bush was from their home state of Texas. …
When you challenge a Trump supporter to defend the toddler’s latest indefensible lie, crime or moral outrage, they very often deflect by calling for “civility”. Let’s look for common ground.
That’s bullshit, of course. I ask that they instead unfriend me instantly.
So far as I’m concerned you’ll burn in the same Hell as this anti-Christ.
Forgive? Sounds good
Forget? I’m not sure I couldI’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go ’round and ’round and ’round …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rocco recommended this book.
Sometimes the truth is more unbelievable than fiction.
Ross Ulbricht (born March 27, 1984) is an American convict best known for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. …
Ulbricht’s online pseudonym was “Dread Pirate Roberts” …
In May 2015, he was sentenced to a double life sentence plus forty years without the possibility of parole.
Silk Road used Tor and bitcoin.
In March 2013, the site had 10,000 products for sale by vendors, 70% of which were drugs.
Ulbricht was charged with money laundering, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and conspiracy to traffic narcotics.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Ulbricht had paid $730,000 in murder-for-hire deals targeting at least five people, allegedly because they threatened to reveal Ulbricht’s Silk Road enterprise.
It’s possible that none were actually killed. Ulbricht might have been scammed for that money.
People died using Silk Road drugs.
Ulbricht justified his crimes with a B.S. personal philosophy that he was doing more good for the world than bad. He wasn’t.
There are still more questions than answers about Silk Road.
Deep Web is a 2015 documentary film chronicling the events.
Click PLAY or watch a trailer on YouTube.
Of many movies and books I’ve recently reviewed trying to become more aware of my white privilege, White Fragility is best.
That surprised me as the author is White writing for a White audience. Writing for me, a privileged white male who believes he’s anti-racist.
Click PLAY or watch DiAngelo on YouTube.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism is a 2018 book written by Robin DiAngelo about race relations in the United States.
An academic with experience in diversity training, DiAngelo coined the term “white fragility” in 2011 to describe any defensive instincts or reactions that a white person experiences when questioned about race or made to consider their own race.
In White Fragility, DiAngelo views racism in the United States as systemic and often perpetuated unconsciously by individuals….
DiAngelo linked to a study pointing out that children aged 3 upwards believe it better to be White in the USA.
She points out that white, males avowing to be Christian and heterosexual are at consistent advantage. Everyone else at a disadvantage, especially Black Americans.
That’s systemic racism.
The book is popular but has had a fair bit of criticism, as well.
Personally, I learned a lot. On the other hand, it’s not well written: too academic, frequently repeating the same bullet points.
Also, I wouldn’t sign-up for one of DiAngelo‘s lectures nor diversity training workshops. I find her arrogant and too defensive with those who challenge.
And here’s how comedian Ron Hart learned about his white privilege in 1994. As the only White guy in a comedy club.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Sites trusted by WikiTribune include
Reuters, Associated Press, BBC News
New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, Axios, Quartz, BuzzFeed Investigations, New Yorker, Guardian, Politico, Bloomberg, Nature
I like Economist, BBC, Guardian, Axios and Politico best. CBC is pretty good too.
A one woman investigation into her White Privilege.
Best part is when she went to meet her High School boyfriend. He had been in prison for 14 years. Out and clean for 3 years.
“Hello, Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea” follows comedian Chelsea Handler as she confronts and explores her personal and cultural impacts around white privilege.
Handler travels around the country speaking with a wide range of people on the topic of race including fellow comedians Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, and W. Kamau Bell, anti-racism writer and activist Tim Wise, a Republican women’s group in Orange County, CA, college students at an open mic night, and her former high school boyfriend in New Jersey.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Quite good.
I recommend the book, especially if you have an interest in the lives of women in India.
Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur.
There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own…
Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow—a sister Lakshmi never knew she had.
Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.
Henna art can get quite complex.
Alka Joshi was born in the desert state of Rajasthan in India. In 1967, her family immigrated to America. She earned a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts in San Francisco.
Prior to writing The Henna Artist, Alka ran an advertising and marketing agency for 30 years. She has spent time in France and Italy and currently lives with her husband on the Northern California Coast.
I can see the argument for being pro-life.
Nobody wants abortions.
But if you are pro-life you must also have a consistent life ethic:
… an ideology that opposes abortion, capital punishment, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.
Adherents are opposed, at the very least, to unjust war, while some adherents also profess pacifism, or opposition to all war.
The term was popularized in 1983 by the Catholic Cardinal Joseph Bernardin to express an ideology based on the premise that all human life is sacred and should be protected by law. …
In the States, many who claim to be pro-life also support the death penalty, support the right of untrained neighbours to own weapons of war.
They support wasting any amount of money on the military while denying basic health care and education to the young women who might consider having an abortion.
They are pro-birth, not pro-life. Once the baby is born they no longer care what happens to the child.
In support of UNICEF
The Bella’s are back together.
Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins, Alexis Knapp, Kelley Jakle, Shelley Regner, Hana Mae Lee and Chrissie Fit
American Dirt is a 2020 novel by American author Jeanine Cummins, about the ordeal of a Mexican woman who had to leave behind her life and escape as an undocumented immigrant to the United States with her son.
Lydia and her eight-year-old son Luca are the only survivors of the backyard barbecue massacre of her family by a drug cartel.
Her husband had been a journalist who was reporting the crimes.
Mother and son become two of the countless undocumented immigrants from Latin America who undertake the dangerous journey to the United States.
American Dirt debuted on New York Times best sellers list as the #1 on the list for the week of February 9, 2020.
The novel has been optioned for a film adaptation.
Oprah loved the book. I’d agree.
But many, especially Mexican writers, accused the author (American, born in Spain) of exploitation and inaccuracy in her portrayals of both Mexico and the migrant experience. A planned book tour was cancelled.
Personally, the book was insightful for me. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to appreciating the experience of a migrant trying to cross the Mexican border illegally.
It’s fiction. Not reality. I understand that.
Rick McCharles 
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.