No One Should Be Denied Any Treatment They Ask For!

After Being Denied Simple Diagnostic Test, 19-Year-Old Dies of Cervical Cancer (via Americans Against The Tea Party)

Access to proper healthcare should be available to everyone regardless of age, gender, or race. Had 19-year-old Sophie Jones received the proper treatment, she may not have died from cervical cancer. Sophie Jones was denied the smear test that could…

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I know they say "Politics makes strange bedfellows", but......

This is so utterly ridiculous that I can't even say anything about it! That the public, even the Republican public, would give any credence to this woman's views just totally blows my mind! I wonder if the Phelps family would open up and welcome her now that Fred is dead?

Susanne Atanus, Who Blames Gay Rights For Tornadoes, Wins GOP Nomination For Congress

The Huffington Post  | by  Samantha Lachman

Posted: 03/19/2014 1:52 pm EDT Updated: 03/20/2014 11:59 am EDT

Susanne Atanus, Republican candidate

A Republican candidate who believes that God dictates weather patterns and that tornadoes, autism and dementia are God's punishments for marriage equality and abortion access won the GOP nomination to challenge Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) in the Chicago-area 9th Congressional District.
Susanne Atanus, of Niles, Ill., garnered 54 percent of the vote in her Tuesday win over David Earl Williams III.
"I am not in favor of abortions, I am not in favor of gay rights," Atanus told the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper, in January.
She blamed natural disasters and mental disorders on recent advances in LGBT equality and legal abortions.
"God is angry. We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions," she said. "Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it's in our military, it will weaken our military. We need to respect God."
Atanus also reached out to the Windy City Times, an LGBT publication, in an attempt to explain her views.
"Everybody knows that God controls weather," she told the news site in January. "God is super angry," she added. "Gay marriage is not appropriate, and it doesn't look right, and it breeds AIDS."
Jack Dorgan, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, and Adam Robinson, chairman of the Chicago Republican Party, both condemned Atanus' comments and distanced the party from her candidacy.

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Well, at least this time the Republican Party had good sense, and cut ties with her!

All opinions voiced on this blog are strictly those of the author. 

And We Think Unemployment Is Bad Here!!

I've been unemployed (through no fault of my own, the contract ended) for over a year now; 14 months to be exact. I couldn't even begin to guess how many applications I've filled out, or how many people I've talked to... Job hunting has been my full-time day job, and unfortunately it's an unpaid one! I've talked to all kinds of agencies, learning along the way that there is no longer just one kind of agency, the "temp" kind. 

I've also learned that it's no longer only the biggest companies which use an agency for their hiring and firing. It turns out that HR is one more thing that American companies have outsourced.

Nothing in my experience compares to this though!

At Least 16 Nigerians Killed in Stampedes Over Jobs

ABUJA, Nigeria — At least 16 people were killed in desperate stampedes for government jobs in Nigeria when hundreds of thousands were invited to apply for fewer than 5,000 positions, officials and activists said Sunday.

Interior Minister Abba Moro held the applicants responsible, saying they "lost their lives through their impatience." Activists blamed his ministry and called for him to be fired. Emergency officials said the death toll could rise.

Stadium in Abuja, Nigeria on March 15, 2014 where several people were killed.

Nigerians are desperate for work, with official statistics putting the unemployed at 24 percent of the 170 million people or nearly 41 million unemployed. Unemployment among young people aged under 24 is even higher — 38 percent according to official statistics and nearer 80 percent according to the World Bank. 

Moro was quoted as saying by the official News Agency of Nigeria that many of the applicants "jumped through the fences of affected centers and did not conduct themselves in an orderly manner ... This caused stampedes and made the environment unsecured."

The Education Rights Campaign blamed his ministry for inviting more applicants than centers could accommodate and not providing enough security. The campaign, which called for Moro to be fired, gave the example of Abuja National Stadium, which has a capacity for 60,000. It said 65,000 applicants were invited and seven people died. The other deaths took place in Minna, Port Harcourt, Dutse and Benin City, Moro said.

The campaign said scores of people were killed. The Nigerian Red Cross and some hospital officials said many seriously injured patients were admitted, and some could die, raising the toll.

About 500,000 applicants were invited to apply for 4,556 vacancies at the Nigeria Immigration Service, according to Education Rights.

Applicants said they each paid 1,000 naira (about $6) — apparently for the right to write tests on Saturday at the application centers. The Education Rights Campaign said it was scandalous that the government had collected about $3 million from applicants and demanded the money be returned.

—The Associated Press

First published March 16th 2014, 3:47 pm

I Wanted to Share Knowledge of Black History, In Return I Get This!

I've always felt that the younger generations of children of color are not well educated when it comes to their history; society today is so hell-bent on erasing prejudice that they are also erasing something very important that young people need to have: a sense of their own identity, knowledge of who they come from and what their ancestors accomplished. It amazes me that most young people don't know who some of the most famous people in Black History are, and even if they recognize the name, they have no concept of the importance of that person life in relation to their own. Sure, they know the story of Rosa Parks, but how many of them really understand what it was she did? How many young people know who Dred Scott was? Or who Emmett Till was?  How many can tell you about the three young men who disappeared in Mississippi for helping black people to vote? (And they were not all of color!) Or about the four little girls killed in a church bombing?

I'm saying all this to sort of explain why I started doing 'The Little Known Black History Fact'. I have heard people on various radio stations and in print do them on occasion, and I found that I was learning about a lot of people and events that I knew nothing about (and I'm 50+!); if I didn't know about them I'm quite sure a lot of younger people didn't either. Hence, my choice to do it, partly because I love learning and partly because I'm hoping that others will learn some of these facts and keep history alive for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on. I'm not racist, I'm not prejudiced; I just want our children to know who they are! I want them to remember the past so it will not be repeated.

I got a message from someone I've considered (for years) to be a friend. She's also a blogger, and a popular one, so I'm thinking wow, someone giving me a review!! Imagine my shock when the message read "Your just so black."  That was it. No lol, no j/k, no nothing, just that one line. When I caught my breath, I began to try to make excuses; after all, she was a friend, so she didn't mean anything bad or hurtful by it, right? I couldn't come up with anything remotely innocent or humorous in it at all. Saying that to me made me feel like she thought I was being 'too' black; i.e. militant, angry, a revolutionary type. Just So Black. Makes me feel like this house nigga has fallen from grace and been denigrated to the fields...

So then I replied asking if she had a problem with that, I got no response. I don't know if I should be happy or not.

I wanted to share some little known knowledge! The month of February is not enough time to teach all the things that so many people of color have done. I wanted to give people a few small facts to hopefully make them proud of themselves, and look what I get in return… Sad.

"Black History Facts" Has Moved!

I've decided to give the Black History Facts feature its own space; popular opinion let me know that it could stand on its own, so, if you like reading them you'll find them at Little Known Black History Facts . I know I said I wasn't going to call it that, but it just seems to fit so well! Of course if someone has an idea for a better title, leave me a comment and let me know, I welcome your suggestions!

As for Bikini Bottom, it will still be here, lurking in the deep....

Black History Facts I Bet You Didn't Know!

March 5, 1770 - The Boston Revolution

There are many stories told about The Civil War, and about the part which blacks (then slaves) played in it. There's one name that most of us are familiar with though, and that is Crispus Attucks, the first  African American to die for the revolution, and one of the first patriots to give his life for the cause.

Crispus Attucks

There is an anonymous account of the bloody start to the Revolutionary War, The Boston Massacre, which is where Crispus Attucks lost his life. Here is an excerpt from that account:

This party in proceeding from Exchange lane into King street, must pass the sentry posted at the westerly corner of the Custom House, which butts on that lane and fronts on that street. This is needful to be mentioned, as near that spot and in that street the bloody tragedy was acted, and the street actors in it were stationed: their station being but a few feet from the front side of the said Custom House. The outrageous behavior and the threats of the said party occasioned the ringing of the meeting-house bell near the head of King street, which bell ringing quick, as for fire, it presently brought out a number of inhabitants, who being soon sensible of the occasion of it, were naturally led to King street, where the said party had made a stop but a little while before, and where their stopping had drawn together a number of boys, round the sentry at the Custom House. whether the boys mistook the sentry for one of the said party, and thence took occasion to differ with him, or whether he first affronted them, which is affirmed in several depositions,-however that may be, there was much foul language between them, and some of them, in consequence of his pushing at them with his bayonet, threw snowballs at him, which occasioned him to knock hastily at the door of the Custom House. From hence two persons thereupon proceeded immediately to the main-guard, which was posted opposite to the State House, at a small distance, near the head of the said street. The officer on guard was Capt. Preston, who with seven or eight soldiers, with fire-arms and charged bayonets, issued from the guardhouse, and in great haste posted himself and his soldiers in front of the Custom House, near the corner aforesaid.
– Anonymous, "An Account of the Boston Massacre," (1770)

On March 13, 1770 William Warren was found guilty of the crime of shooting Crispus Attucks twice in the breast, mortally wounding him. 

 How Did He End Up A Patriot Hero?

Crispus Attucks was considered to be the first hero of the Revolutionary War. He was a sailor on a whaling ship who may possibly have been forced to join the British Navy. Whether he was or not, Attucks did not like the way the British treated the American colonists, especially the high taxes the British charged them. He gathered a group of like-minded sailors, and led them in a revolt in protest of  British tyranny. Crispus Attucks and his band of angry sailors encountered a group of soldiers and began to throw snowballs and sticks at them. The British soldiers responded by shooting into the crowd of sailors and bystanders, killing Crispus Attucks and ten other people.(Biographies Crispus Attucks 1723-1770)

While there are differing accounts of how and why Crispus Attucks died, most accounts have one fact in common; Crispus Attucks was the first patriot, and person of color killed in The Boston Massacre, which is considered by some to be the start of the Revolutionary War.

Biographies Crispus Attucks 1723-1770. (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2014, from Houghton Mifflin Social Studies Civil War to Today: http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/tn/books/bke2/biographies/bk_template.jsp?name=attucksc&bk=bke2&choice=2&choice=5&x=58&y=17#comprehension