August 31, 2022

Who all here has heard of Ammon Bundy?

I have only a peripheral knowledge of this guy and his antics, but this gem discusses his latest efforts in Right-Wing Religious Affrontery.

Ammon Bundy: Lying for Jesus, yet again.

August 26, 2022

A Little Girl Gets A Doll That Looks Like Her

Should be the simplest thing in the world, right?

Well, this child was filled with joy at receiving a doll with natural hair and her happiness warmed my heart. But it's also sad that this isn't just an everyday thing that parents and children of all colors can take for granted.

Excerpt from the article below, which ought to be re-printed in the "Journal of Duh", as in "duh,yes" we need toys that showcase ALL of us as as beautiful. Even growing up as a brown-eyed, brown-haired White child, I was vaguely confused by all the blond, blue-eyed baby dolls out there. Everybody talked about how much I looked like my family, so I knew that my baby dolls should look like me, but they didn't and it bothered me.

Of course, adoption is also a reality for many children and that conversation is worth having. I also don't think that it's a bad thing for a child to have a multicultural collection of dolls. But for a Black child growing up in this country, the value of having a doll that reflects herself back accurately is critical.


"After doing some research, I learned that toys influence how kids think, act and see themselves. When little girls can’t find dolls that look like them, it negatively impacts their self-esteem. So that’s why I created the Curlfriends (Zoe, Gaïana and Marisol): the first Healthy Roots Dolls and the first dolls with natural hair that you can wash and style. We call it their curl power."

August 21, 2022

Sharing a link that leads to some interesting reading.

You know how you sometimes click on something on the internet which leads you to content that includes more links and before you know it you've left the rabbit hole and discovered an entire rabbits' warren?

Well, this rabbit hole journey should lead to more sanity and clarity, not less.

OnlySky is a website devoted to secular conversations and values. I recommend it. It's a fairly recent resource, and they are still working out some bugs, but they have a lot to offer.

One recent article is this nice descriptive list of some important secular reading. 10 Eye-Opening Secular Books For a New Perspective.

Of course, by providing such links to these resources and reading, I run the danger of engaging in proselytizing. And as a non-believer, I certainly don't want to do that!

So, be forewarned, you may be exposed to ideas, concepts, viewpoints and information. Please gird your loins appropriately.

August 21, 2022

Fox News Reports That Biden is Getting a $500,000 Fence

OH NOOOOOO!

I'm not even going to link to the story because they don't deserve the traffic. But I read the umbrage-heavy headline that Biden's Delaware home was going to be protected by a $500,000 fence constructed at tax payers expense, (Italics mine.) and my eyes rolled so far back into my head they were in danger of getting stuck in the off position.

Obviously, the hypocrisy of making a meal out of a mere half a million dollar expense to protect the current president when far more money went into the former president's protection AND the guy made a personal profit over it is epic to exponential levels. It is also worth pointing out that the current president may be in more dire need of protective measures because the former president's fan base keeps amping up its rhetoric in calling for political violence.

Fox News keeps firing up its viewership making them more unhinged and dangerous; then when efforts are made to protect the serving president from the danger that they continue to foster, they get outraged.

August 19, 2022

A Psychiatrist Warned Us About Trump and The Potential For Violence in His Name

An article by Joshua Kendall in the September-October 2022 issue of Mother Jones is worth the read. He discusses the work of Bandy Lee, who has spent much of her professional life treating violent offenders in prison.

Dr. Lee spoke of her concerns about Trump in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump back in 2017 and was censured by the American Psychiatric Association for violating the Goldwater Rule which cautions against diagnosis of public figures that a given professional has not personally examined.

Below is an excerpt from Kendall's article:


'Since 1900, every time a Republican president has taken over, economic inequality has increased and the country has become more violent,' says Gilligan, now a professor of psychiatry at NYU. And as the government safety net has crumbled in recent decades, rates of murder, imprisonment, and poverty have been five to 10 times higher in the United States than in Western Europe, Canada, and Australasia. Lee and Gilligan had to circulate their data-driven paper on the political correlates of violent death rates for nearly seven years before they finally got it published in 2014 in a specialized journal, Aggression and Violent Behavior. 'My sense is that our study kept getting rejected not because it was lousy science but because editors wanted to avoid appearing too political,' she says."

The excerpt above includes a statement from another person who has worked with Dr. Lee's. The article in Mother Jones notes that the book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, which is a compilation of papers written by numerous mental health professionals, was a best seller.