September 12, 2017

Muslims on My Campus

I've written before about my encounters with Muslims on my community college's campus. The ease they display around the other students never ceases to surprise me. Well, today I had two encounters with Muslim students.

The first encounter was on the way in to the building where I teach. There was a young, very dark woman in a hijab talking on her phone just outside the entrance to the building. She sat on one of the benches and had a loud, animated conversation in Arabic. Dozens of other students walked past her, not taking any notice of her at all. One white girl sat down on the bench next to her and did her own thing, getting ready for her next class.

Meanwhile, the horrors of the Portland train attack come to mind, and I wonder if...No, better to not go there.

The second encounter was with an older man who came to me for tutoring. He had signed up for an 11 o'clock appointment, but he was having a lot of difficulty printing out his essay. The tutoring lab assistant worked with him for several minutes, and they finally got it printed. With only twenty minutes left in our session, I knew I needed to be quick in ascertaining his main difficulty. I started to read through his paper. "Ah, another 'Identity" essay," I thought to myself. According to his essay, he was a student, the head of a household, and a Muslim. Those were the three "identities" he chose to write about.

Does this man realize that in tRump's America, Sikhs are being beaten and shot when they are mistaken for Muslims? Does he know just how dangerous the words he uses in his essay to describe himself really are?

After tutoring, I walked down the hallway, and I noticed a large display board placed in the middle of the foyer. On it was an announcement about an upcoming discussion panel for DACA. In large letters and in no uncertain terms it assured the students that the college was committed to their safety regardless of ethnicity or religion.

I need not have worried. My college protects its students.

I went out to my car with smile to eat my PBJ.

September 3, 2017

Tweet Archive Reminds You How tRump Feels About Us Losers and Haters.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/516382177798680576


https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/484923950917353473


https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/405778664039534592


https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/352796146927796226


https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/327464749837189120

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Are you feeling the love? I know I am!

September 3, 2017

I EXPECT EVERYONE TO SPEND SUNDAY PRAYING!!!!!

BECAUSE I (tRUMP GOD EMPEROR) SAID TO!!!!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/904177758489776129

August 30, 2017

When are we going to see "President tRump Turnpike" in Houston?

I mean, it would only be fair since there is President George Bush Turnpike in Dallas. What did Bush do that was so much better than tRump? He didn't sell hats at a huge markup. That shows how stupid and unbusinesslike Bush was. Yes, I propose that we immediately name some highways in Houston after tRump.

Here are some suggestions:
Rio Donald, Rio FLOTUS, Rio Collusion, Lake tRump of Despair, Lake of Empty Promises.

There are plenty of erstwhile highways that can carry the tRump brand name.

August 29, 2017

tRump's 16 minute attention span for tragedy

First tweet today:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/902503724274331653

Very next tweet:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/902507855584092160



So his mind was fully focused on the tragedy in Texas for sixteen whole minutes! How does that bode for the years long cleanup after the hurricane is over?

August 27, 2017

If There Were a Harvey Scale Disaster in CA...?

Or some other blue state. Would he even schedule a trip to look at the devastation? Hey, if we are in for 3.5 more years of this crap, something is bound to happen in blue state at some point.

August 27, 2017

No More NAFTA....Again....

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/901804388649500672



Yes, Donnie, it's the worst trade deal ever made because you, with all your deal making prowess, were not consulted. However, it has worked for a long time now, and you are going to piss off our neighbors to the north and south.

August 27, 2017

Arpaio tweet timeline

From birtherism to support for president to pardon.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/225620165138726912

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/225647494141452290

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/711085025857372161

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/712756995330281473

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/901263061511794688

August 23, 2017

Is this Nazi support for real?

The first three posts in this new thread about visiting Yuma are from a Nazi? Please tell me it's a joke.

https://twitter.com/Nazi_Catcher/status/900151965815939073

https://twitter.com/Nazi_Catcher/status/900152067360137216

August 22, 2017

Child Specific Mines in Afghanistan: The Green Parrot

I came across the "Green Parrot" at a UN exhibit in Ireland two decades ago. When the Soviets were in Afghanistan, they dropped these small mines from helicopters, and they would self arm when they reached the ground. The mines were made from brightly colored plastic and had an interesting shape. They would draw the attention of small children who thought they were toys. No, the mines were not meant to be lethal. The Soviets just wanted the Afghani children to be armless or legless so they couldn't grow up to fight.

Think about that for a minute. The Soviets knew that they would be in Afghanistan for a long, long time, long enough that they would see these small children grow up and take up arms against them. That is the level of commitment the Soviets had. They were willing to be engaged in combat for decades AND maim small children.

So what is this brilliant plan that Fearless Leader has in store for us? Are we committed to maiming children over several decades, too? I recommend you read through these articles and ask yourself what atrocities our country is capable of as we march off to war in Afghanistan.
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link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3205978/Pictured-harrowing-plight-children-maimed-Afghanistan-thousands-landmines-scattered-country-decades-war.html

It's estimated that up to a million people have fallen victim to the sleeping weapons, which still kill and injure dozens of innocent Afghan children every day.

It's believed there are currently 10million mines spread around the impoverished country, which British and American forces left only last year after a campaign lasting more than a decade.

But the majority of the mines, in grazing fields, schools, paths and waterways all over the country, are the remnants of a war with Russia that ended in 1989. The Soviet Union went to war with the Mujehadien freedom fighters in 1979 and placed millions of mines during the ten-year campaign.

They were designed to flutter to the ground without exploding, but when stepped on, they take anything from one to 40 minutes to detonate. The cruel devices are intended to maim, with a small charge that is usually non-lethal, instead designed to destroy a part of the lower leg which will hamper a person's mobility for the rest of their life.
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Someone will counter argue that these mines were not necessarily meant for children. For that I have a second article for a rebuttal.

Link: http://www.pbs.org/pov/afghanistanyear1380/the-horror-of-landmines/

The Russian PFM-1, the so called butterfly mine, causes a third pattern of injury (Pattern C). This mine earned its nickname because it sports small wings that enable it to glide to the ground after it is released from a helicopter. A huge number of them were dropped during the conflict in Afghanistan. As has often been pointed out, the PFM-1 is particularly fiendish because it is a "toy mine" -- a weapon masquerading as a plaything. Specialists insist that the shape of the PFM-1 is dictated by function, but the fact remains that it is attractive to children.

A unique feature of these mines is that they are activated by distortion or cumulative pressure on their wings; in other words, they do not necessarily go off when first touched. In Afghanistan my co-workers and I were told several times that a child had taken the butterfly -- or "green parrot," as the Afghans call it -- and played with it for hours with friends before any explosion occurred. The term "toy mine" therefore seems totally justified. In our group's surgical experience of treating more than 150 victims of this type of mine, we have never seen a single injured adult.