Looks like Obama backed down – again!
Category Archives: News
The Journey to El Norte
On a sweltering June morning, Jason De Leon shrugs off his pack in a rugged gorge in Arizona’s Coronado National Forest. He hunches down over a scattering of water bottles, checking for dates, and asks a student to take the site’s GPS coordinates. Above his head, along the rock face, travelers have transformed a small, secluded hollow into a shrine lined with offerings: rosaries, crucifixes, candles, scapulars, and small pictures of saints, each bearing a printed prayer in Spanish. “Take care of me in dangerous places,” reads one card. “Protect me from thieves and in evil times,” entreats another. Nearby, a small engraved plastic pendant offers a more direct prayer: “The other side, Tucson, Arizona, 2010.”
This is an extraordinary article by Heather Pringle in one of my favorite magazines, Archaeology, that documents the massive flow of illegal Latin American immigrants through the desert Southwestern U.S. via the items they leave behind. It’s not a pretty picture, as the migrants – desperate for work and a chance at a better life – end up desecrating the environment and leaving mounds of trash. And, of course, who has to clean up that mess? The American taxpayer. As someone of Spanish and Mexican Indian ancestry, I guess I should feel some kind of connection to these people – but I don’t. They’re not really my people – whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. My people are American citizens – whether native born or naturalized – who respect this country and the laws that govern it. My paternal ancestry in Texas goes back more than 400 years. My people settled this state long before the Mayflower Pilgrims even set sail. Still, this editorial highlights a critical dilemma in 21st century America.
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Picture of the Day
GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum in a “prayer circle” at a church in Allen, Texas. This is so odd – a bunch of Texas evangelicals surrounding a Roman Catholic from Pennsylvania. It’s sort of like Custer being surrounded by the Sioux.
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Quote of the Day
“I think this week’s outrage over the Komen decision should be a warning to the Republican party about how quickly there was a mass outrage over further and further attacks on general women’s health. You could see the same backlash on attacks on contraception.”
— Kellie Ferguson, executive director of Republican Majority for Choice, cautioning her own party not to pick a fight over contraception.
Republicans for choice?! They must feel like rabbis at a Nazi roundtable.
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SLAVERY by Another Name
“SLAVERY by Another Name” is based on a book by Douglas A. Blackmon and produced and directed by Sam Pollard. Laurence Fishburne narrates this 90-minute documentary that challenges the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. It airs Monday, February 13, 2012 at 9:00 PM EST on PBS.
Unemployment Graph
This chart tracks the four-week moving average of initial jobless claims, beginning in January of 2008.
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German-Language Literature Gets an Upgrade
There’s never been a shortage of distinguished German-language writers: Heinrich Böll, Thomas Mann, Herman Hesse, Günter Grass, Elfriede Jelinek and Herta Müller – all winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature. But in the United States, there’s a shortage of German-language readers, and very little German-language fiction gets translated into English. Spanish and French are taught more often than German in American schools – in part because of our proximity to Latin America, but also because of the growing numbers of U.S. immigrants from Spanish- and French-speaking countries. But the literary output of Germany, Austria and Switzerland has had a harder time crossing over. It’s ironic in that, while the U.S. is one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world, most Americans trace their ancestry to Germany than any other particular country. And although the Chinese were the first to invent the printing press, Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg was the first to invent movable type in Europe. The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 exposed the world to more of Eastern Europe’s literary greats, and increased Internet usage in the past decade has drawn writers and readers closer. But, German scribes still seem relegated to some antiquitous past. An annual festival in New York City, Festival Neue Literatur, has been trying to change that for the past three years.
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Woman Breaks Silence About JFK Affair
Mimi Alford, who served as a White House intern in 1962, now claims she had an 18-month affair with John F. Kennedy in her new memoir, “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath.” First of all, you actually have to be known for something significant to write a memoir; a clandestine love affair doesn’t qualify. Second, Kennedy has been dead for almost half a century – even his wife and son are dead – and Alford literally comes out of nowhere to talk about this! Kennedy, a WWII hero and a true American, accomplished more in his short life than most people – including most presidents – do in a lifetime. If you want a more thorough examination of Kennedy’s life, either visit the official JFK web site, or read Chris Matthews book, “Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.”
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Picture of the Day
Krispy Kreme doughnut cheeseburgers. Where’s Michelle Obama when you need her?!
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Quote of the Day
“I don’t think we did anything wrong. I never had one of these sex abuse cases.”
– Roman Catholic Cardinal Edward Egan withdrawing his 2002 apology for child molestation scandals exposed when he was Archbishop of New York.
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