Read Full Story Here at Lezgetreal.com
We're hearing more and more stories like this of younger and younger children being 'bullied' to death, and in so many cases it's because they were rumored to be gay; perhaps a young boy was slight or shy, or a girl was a tomboy...
How do the parents of the children accused of doing the bullying sleep at night? How do they live with the thought that their child contributed to the death of another child? Or do they just shrug it off as "God's judgment" on someone who was sinning? These are children who have not had a chance to even know for sure if they're gay, let alone ACT on it!! Besides, since when does God use children to pass judgment on and take the life of another child? Get it right society, there's something wrong with a young child finding their life so intolerable that they are willing to kill themselves. They should be full of hope and joy at the thought of having a long life ahead of them, not so full of despair that they hang themselves, take too many pills, or find a gun and shoot themselves. (What kind of society allows 12 and 13 yr old children to get their hands on guns anyway?) These children are supposed to be our future! Don't you realize that each time a child dies, we lose a scientist who may cure AIDS, a doctor who may save your life, perhaps even a President?
WAKE UP SOCIETY!!!
Wednesday, September 29
Wednesday, September 22
Third drill to start advancing toward 33 trapped miners - CNN.com
Third drill to start advancing toward 33 trapped miners - CNN.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
While I am not denigrating Chile's attempts to get these miners out of the underground hell they've been trapped in, (as a matter of fact, I applaud them) I can't help but be reminded of the differences between the reactions of other countries to tragedy, and America's reactions to its tragedies. Somehow there appear to be disparities in America's reactions that just don't sit well with me.
Take Hurricane Katrina for instance. There are still people struggling to recover in Louisiana from the beating they took, yet Haiti is continually receiving attention, money, and relief efforts (Haiti in NY Times) some of which could be going to help United States citizens. I am not against other countries getting assistance by NO means, but when I see some of the poverty-stricken areas we have right here I have to wonder why we don't do more to help our own. America is supposed to be the richest nation on earth, so why are so many of our own starving to death? I just feel like in all of this attention on the crises occurring in other countries these days, the crises right here in America are largely being ignored. Yes, America needs a more accessible health care system, but what good will that do those who live in areas with no health care facilities? What good does the war on terrorism do to those whose biggest terror is the rats chewing on their babies at night, or the meth-addicted young man from next door breaking in to steal whatever he can and perhaps kill them?
There needs to be a balance! America needs to invest as much time, effort, and most of all money into feeding its own hungry before going out to feed another country's. We need to take care of our own disasters and crises before we can begin to take care of another country's. America, clean up your own backyard, and make sure your own children are fed before you go take care of your neighbor's!
While I am not denigrating Chile's attempts to get these miners out of the underground hell they've been trapped in, (as a matter of fact, I applaud them) I can't help but be reminded of the differences between the reactions of other countries to tragedy, and America's reactions to its tragedies. Somehow there appear to be disparities in America's reactions that just don't sit well with me.
Take Hurricane Katrina for instance. There are still people struggling to recover in Louisiana from the beating they took, yet Haiti is continually receiving attention, money, and relief efforts (Haiti in NY Times) some of which could be going to help United States citizens. I am not against other countries getting assistance by NO means, but when I see some of the poverty-stricken areas we have right here I have to wonder why we don't do more to help our own. America is supposed to be the richest nation on earth, so why are so many of our own starving to death? I just feel like in all of this attention on the crises occurring in other countries these days, the crises right here in America are largely being ignored. Yes, America needs a more accessible health care system, but what good will that do those who live in areas with no health care facilities? What good does the war on terrorism do to those whose biggest terror is the rats chewing on their babies at night, or the meth-addicted young man from next door breaking in to steal whatever he can and perhaps kill them?
There needs to be a balance! America needs to invest as much time, effort, and most of all money into feeding its own hungry before going out to feed another country's. We need to take care of our own disasters and crises before we can begin to take care of another country's. America, clean up your own backyard, and make sure your own children are fed before you go take care of your neighbor's!
Tuesday, August 24
Judge denies Troy Davis appeal | ajc.com
All the witnesses have recanted, there was no physical evidence whatsoever, and yet they still refuse to let him go?? What is there about this case that is making the government so adamant about putting him to death?
SAVANNAH -- A federal judge Tuesday denied Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis' innocence claim after a rare hearing.
The ruling against Davis sets the stage for Georgia officials to move forward with executing him for the 1989 shooting death of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer.
In June, U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. heard two days of testimony from witnesses seeking to cast doubt on Davis' conviction. The Supreme Court ordered the hearing for Davis a year ago.
Davis has been spared from execution three times as his attorneys pushed their argument that new evidence showed police ignored MacPhail's real killer as they rushed to pin the shooting on Davis.
For more than a decade, Davis has sought to present in open court his claims of innocence, including the testimony of seven key prosecution witnesses who have recanted or contradicted their trial testimony.
Davis' innocence claims have attracted international attention, including former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI urging that he be spared from execution. In recent years, Davis' scheduled execution has been halted three times -- on one occasion just two hours before he was to be put to death by lethal injection.
SAVANNAH -- A federal judge Tuesday denied Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis' innocence claim after a rare hearing.
The ruling against Davis sets the stage for Georgia officials to move forward with executing him for the 1989 shooting death of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer.
In June, U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. heard two days of testimony from witnesses seeking to cast doubt on Davis' conviction. The Supreme Court ordered the hearing for Davis a year ago.
Davis has been spared from execution three times as his attorneys pushed their argument that new evidence showed police ignored MacPhail's real killer as they rushed to pin the shooting on Davis.
For more than a decade, Davis has sought to present in open court his claims of innocence, including the testimony of seven key prosecution witnesses who have recanted or contradicted their trial testimony.
Davis' innocence claims have attracted international attention, including former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI urging that he be spared from execution. In recent years, Davis' scheduled execution has been halted three times -- on one occasion just two hours before he was to be put to death by lethal injection.
Saturday, July 31
The Movie "The Kid's Are Alright!"
There has been a lot of conversation going on about this movie, and there are some comments being made that just disturb the heck out of me. I think there are a few things that lesbians need to remember if/when they go to see this movie:
1. It’s just a movie! It’s a Hollywood construct, it’s make-believe, it’s a STORY that someone wrote, someone who was most assuredly straight, and even more assuredly MALE. This is the opinion of some scriptwriter somewhere who probably masturbates just thinking about 2 women in bed together. Why are we so stressed out about the opinion of some homophobic straight man? How does it affect us? So what if he portrayed the straight sex as hotter? If we had written it wouldn’t we have portrayed the lesbian sex as the better of the two?
2. We go to a movie to be entertained. If every time we go to a movie or watch a television program which has lesbians in it we dissect it and pick it apart, how are we going to enjoy it? I certainly don’t want to spend all the money a movie costs these days and go to a movie, only to have the only part that stands out in my head be the part with the lesbians. I want to either say “Wow, that was a good movie.” or “Damn, that was a rotten movie.” Then if I want to add something like “They coulda made the lesbian sex a little hotter.” fine, I’ll add it, but at least I’ll gotten something out of the whole movie.
3. We have come such a loooong way from where we used to be; how long ago was it that you never ever saw or even heard anything at all mentioned about homosexuals in the movies? And if you did hear anything it was always derogatory. It was usually about flaming queens or stone butches, and they were always portrayed in either over the top flamboyant roles, or gritty, motorcycle mama type roles. When did you ever hear of a movie with two normal looking women, in a relationship, with a family? Now we have it, and instead of saying “It’s about time; although they could have done it differently” we’re dissecting the movie, comparing the differences in the sex scenes!
4. Different people have different tastes in porno, and what turns them on. So what if they were watching gay males? I personally am turned on watching two men, and at one time had a lover who also was; we had two gay friends who’d let us watch them and we’d be so hot we probably would have burnt the covers if someone tried to put them over us!! Who cares about what they were watching? Why do you care? So it’s not what you’d watch, when you see a straight couple in a movie watching hetero sex do you denigrate the entire movie because they weren’t watching what you would have wanted them to watch, or doing what you would have wanted them to do in bed?
5. Most straight males have no idea what we do in bed, other than the basic muff-diving and toy-playing. How would you have wanted the filmmaker to portray either of those in an R movie? As a matter of fact, while we are a lot further than we were, we still are not to the point of total enlightenment in this society; to portray the two women the way women actually behave is still a taboo subject, and would probably have gotten the movie a much higher rating if not shelved entirely. I think that would have been a shame, since from what I’ve heard, this was actually a good movie. (No, I haven’t seen it.)
All I’m trying to say is, ladies stop being so hard on the movie. If it was a documentary and was supposed to be a true story representing true people, then it would be something to get so up in arms about, but come on, give it a rest, it’s just a movie! I think a lot of you need to stop going to movies with any hint of lesbianism in them and zeroing on that! No, most of the time they don’t get it right, but at least they are portraying us now! One day they will actually get it right, just like they finally stopped portraying blacks as mammies and shuffling “yes ma’am, yes suh” servants.
Tuesday, April 27
Shades Retreat Personal You
April 25, 2010
“We’ve been in a dream, now it’s time to go back to reality.”
This is a phrase I overheard this morning as we packed and swept and moved and washed and rearranged everything in preparation for the trip home. What was the dream?
Shades Retreat, Personal You.
3 days spent in the glory of nature at its best, surrounded by the beauty and energy that only a group of same gender loving women of color can engender.
“This is awesome.”
A phrase I heard (and used) repeatedly. Even when it rained all day Saturday, and there was thunder and lightning which caused even the most studly among us to jump a bit, and blink like a startled deer, we had workshops in the common hall, which over the course of the weekend was anything BUT common. We shared meals there, we shared words there, we sang, we laughed and we cried. We cheered the poetesses, we cheered the artists, we cheered the founder of it all Kat Williams, and we even cheered ourselves. It was a weekend of discovery for some, reunion for others; a weekend of meeting women you’d only known online and putting a face to the words you’d only seen on a computer monitor. It was joy personified. We had workshops on sexuality, on reiki, on personal growth, on why did I get out of bed. We discussed love altars, facial cleansing, wearing a red glove, using crystals to heal and cleanse the body, focusing our energies positively. We listened to spoken word art that thrilled us, energized us, saddened us, made us think, and excited us. We watched studs with swagger strut, and we watched femmes glide seductively, breasts stuck out and hips rolling. It was a beautiful time of communion with like-minded sistahs, sistahs who gathered together to learn about themselves and about each other.
To get down to it…..
Shades Retreat was organized by “Kat” Williams, also known as the hostess of SippinonInk. She and her partner Tami Brown did a beautiful job of it, pulling off an event that seemed like a vacation, a seminar on empowerment, a college course in self, and a midtown coffee shop all in one. There were approximately 40 beautiful same gender loving women of color in attendance; several had traveled 8 hours to be there! Folks traveled from as close as “down the road a piece” to as far as Knoxville, Tennessee and Gainesville, Florida to take part in this wonderful first time event. Most of them had found Shades Retreat either through FaceBook or through knowing someone who knew about it. The fact that she was able to gather so many people to attend as well as so many fabulous writers, photographers, artists and speakers to present their work is a testament to Kat’s hard work, her personality, her dedication, her conviction, and her vision.
We were out in “the woods”; FD Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, GA. There was no cell phone service and no internet access, and the bathroom/shower was a communal building a “fur piece” away from some of the cabins. And cabins they were; wooden floored, with 12 rickety steel spring beds in each. Most of us brought air mattresses or sleeping bags; who knew what bugs may have made a bed in the mattress, or what avian visitor might have left a deposit? They were clean though, and well lit, and even though there was no heat/ac, we didn’t need it. Pajamas and a soft comforter were all that was necessary.
The food was simple but good, even the lone vegan (me!) and the vegetarians that were there left the table feeling satiated. Kat and Tami had planned a great menu, and if there were any problems in the kitchen they did a great job of not letting us know it! It seemed like the trays of food just appeared at mealtime; there was always enough, and it was always good.
The workshops; oh my, what can I say about the workshops.So many different subjects, presented by so many different women…. So many varied and eclectic topics, yet they all seemed to flow together into a huge tapestry of talent and knowledge which proclaimed “This is what SGL sistahs can do; this is how smart we are!
This year we planted the seeds; I can’t wait until next year to see what has grown from those seeds. I know that next year’s Shades Retreat is going to be even more spectacular event, so if you think you’d like to come to the next one, please make sure to join Shades Retreat on FaceBook so that you’ll be kept informed each step of the way. You don’t want to miss out!!!
“We’ve been in a dream, now it’s time to go back to reality.”
This is a phrase I overheard this morning as we packed and swept and moved and washed and rearranged everything in preparation for the trip home. What was the dream?
Shades Retreat, Personal You.
3 days spent in the glory of nature at its best, surrounded by the beauty and energy that only a group of same gender loving women of color can engender.
“This is awesome.”
A phrase I heard (and used) repeatedly. Even when it rained all day Saturday, and there was thunder and lightning which caused even the most studly among us to jump a bit, and blink like a startled deer, we had workshops in the common hall, which over the course of the weekend was anything BUT common. We shared meals there, we shared words there, we sang, we laughed and we cried. We cheered the poetesses, we cheered the artists, we cheered the founder of it all Kat Williams, and we even cheered ourselves. It was a weekend of discovery for some, reunion for others; a weekend of meeting women you’d only known online and putting a face to the words you’d only seen on a computer monitor. It was joy personified. We had workshops on sexuality, on reiki, on personal growth, on why did I get out of bed. We discussed love altars, facial cleansing, wearing a red glove, using crystals to heal and cleanse the body, focusing our energies positively. We listened to spoken word art that thrilled us, energized us, saddened us, made us think, and excited us. We watched studs with swagger strut, and we watched femmes glide seductively, breasts stuck out and hips rolling. It was a beautiful time of communion with like-minded sistahs, sistahs who gathered together to learn about themselves and about each other.
To get down to it…..
Shades Retreat was organized by “Kat” Williams, also known as the hostess of SippinonInk. She and her partner Tami Brown did a beautiful job of it, pulling off an event that seemed like a vacation, a seminar on empowerment, a college course in self, and a midtown coffee shop all in one. There were approximately 40 beautiful same gender loving women of color in attendance; several had traveled 8 hours to be there! Folks traveled from as close as “down the road a piece” to as far as Knoxville, Tennessee and Gainesville, Florida to take part in this wonderful first time event. Most of them had found Shades Retreat either through FaceBook or through knowing someone who knew about it. The fact that she was able to gather so many people to attend as well as so many fabulous writers, photographers, artists and speakers to present their work is a testament to Kat’s hard work, her personality, her dedication, her conviction, and her vision.
We were out in “the woods”; FD Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, GA. There was no cell phone service and no internet access, and the bathroom/shower was a communal building a “fur piece” away from some of the cabins. And cabins they were; wooden floored, with 12 rickety steel spring beds in each. Most of us brought air mattresses or sleeping bags; who knew what bugs may have made a bed in the mattress, or what avian visitor might have left a deposit? They were clean though, and well lit, and even though there was no heat/ac, we didn’t need it. Pajamas and a soft comforter were all that was necessary.
The food was simple but good, even the lone vegan (me!) and the vegetarians that were there left the table feeling satiated. Kat and Tami had planned a great menu, and if there were any problems in the kitchen they did a great job of not letting us know it! It seemed like the trays of food just appeared at mealtime; there was always enough, and it was always good.
The workshops; oh my, what can I say about the workshops.So many different subjects, presented by so many different women…. So many varied and eclectic topics, yet they all seemed to flow together into a huge tapestry of talent and knowledge which proclaimed “This is what SGL sistahs can do; this is how smart we are!
This year we planted the seeds; I can’t wait until next year to see what has grown from those seeds. I know that next year’s Shades Retreat is going to be even more spectacular event, so if you think you’d like to come to the next one, please make sure to join Shades Retreat on FaceBook so that you’ll be kept informed each step of the way. You don’t want to miss out!!!
Wednesday, April 21
About Work at Home programs
I'd never heard of Clark Howard before a friend recommended the site to me tonight. She said I should look into which sites he found were scams and which were not, and follow his advice to help me get a work-from-home position. Well, I've been perusing this site for several hours now, and I'm seeing more space devoted to what scams to avoid and questions/comments from people asking about different sites than I see what sites are NOT scams. It's a lot of material on this site to read to not find out what I want to know. Clark Howard might actually be the "Scam Guru" some people seem to think he is, but he is definitely not the one to go to for help in finding a legitimate work-at-home job. He's the one you go to to check up on the site that just sent you an email telling you how much money you can make by taking payments from people and sending out checks from your account to this company over seas. He can tell you REAL quick that you're going to get scammed - as if we didn't already know that!
in reference to: Clark Howard: Work At Home Help on clarkhoward.com (view on Google Sidewiki)Friday, February 5
Firefighters Disciplined After Failing To Check Shooting Victim - 11Alive.com | WXIA | Atlanta, GA
This is pitiful, that firefighters would not at the very least do more than glance at an injured person. I understand that they've probably had plenty of experience with gunshot wounds and death, but you would think that unless half the man's head was gone, they would have at least checked for a pulse or put a hand on his chest to see if he was breathing.
Firefighters Disciplined After Failing To Check Shooting Victim - 11Alive.com | WXIA | Atlanta, GA
Firefighters Disciplined After Failing To Check Shooting Victim - 11Alive.com | WXIA | Atlanta, GA
Saturday, January 23
Lisa Miller given 30 more days in hiding before arrest warrant
I have been following this story from the start, and it's unbelievable how long it's continued. I can't believe that the judge is still giving her chances. If this was a heterosexual couple, where the woman had taken the child away from an abusive husband, she would have been thrown in jail by now and the child given back to him. Because it's two lesbians though, we're to just totally disregard the fact that she's been ORDERED by a JUDGE to turn the little girl over, and HAS NOT!! This is so tooth grinding....
Lisa Miller given 30 more days in hiding before arrest warrant
Timothy Kincaid
January 22nd, 2010
From the Washington Post:
A judge is giving a Virginia woman at the center of a lesbian custody dispute 30 days to appear in court with her 7-year-old daughter or face possible arrest.
Despite all the accusations of judicial activism from the supporters of Lisa Miller, Judge Cohen has been, to my way of thinking, extremely generous in giving Miller chance after chance after chance to simply conform to the custody to which she agreed. And even though it is clear that Miller is actively thwarting the will of the court, he generously gives her more time.
Of course those who see the world in terms of good (Miller) and evil (militant radical deviant homosexualist bloggers like me) will continue to denounce Cohen as a tool of Satan and see this continued generosity as a sign of the miraculous hand of God.
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