the lions den was established to keep people posted on major events happening in our life and to keep a family history, an online scrap book of sorts. we understand our shortcomings in keeping up with family and friends across the country, so this is our attempt to put the ball in your court.
the inspiration for the lions den came from our kids beniah and haneul, we want to be able to share their exciting developments with people who want to know. enjoy.
I don't typically push political issues on others but this I believe goes beyond politics. I hope you are in support of keeping systems in place to take care of children who are born into non-ideal situations. A great way for you, my pro-children friends, to walk the walk is by supporting adoption. We have a government that is not perfect but has done a great thing by offering adoption assistance to family's who welcome non-biological children into their family, this assistance is at risk of being eliminated if nothing is done. Please contact you Senators and Congressmen/women in support of HR 4373 and S 3616 and sign the petition below.
"Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people; before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His children; before you preach to me of your passion for your faith, teach me about it through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I'm not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as in how you choose to live and give." - Cory Booker (Mayor, Newark, NJ)
an unfathomable event happened in my voting district this weekend. to be honest, i still believe arizona and tucson specifically has a lot to offer. sb1070, liberal gun laws, failing school systems and all, this is where i live. receive it, reject it or redeem it? i choose the latter.
to be fair and balanced, below you can check out youtube sensation governor chris christie of new jersey sound like like an intelligent human being. this is not sarcasm, i don't know much about the new republican governor and i am a huge supporter of teachers and teacher benefits, but it was very refreshing to hear a politician answer a question directly and coherently. what you won't hear is question dodging or weightless talking points common amongst so many politicians today.
this article is pretty old, but here is just another reason to love chipotle (if their delicious burritos were not enough..which they are)
“Chipotle has been a leader in driving change in the nation's food supply,” said Batiste Madonia, sales manager with East Coast, in a press release. “When their representatives came to us to negotiate this agreement, we agreed that it was the right thing to do. With this framework in place, we hope to work with other companies that are looking to make similar improvements to wages and working conditions for Florida farm workers.”
What happened at Navarrete’s home would have been horrific enough if it were an isolated case. Unfortunately, involuntary servitude—slavery—is alive and well in Florida. Since 1997, law-enforcement officials have freed more than 1,000 men and women in seven different cases. And those are only the instances that resulted in convictions. Frightened, undocumented, mistrustful of the police, and speaking little or no English, most slaves refuse to testify, which means their captors cannot be tried. “Unlike victims of other crimes, slaves don’t report themselves,” said Molloy, who was one of the prosecutors on the Navarrete case. “They hide from us in plain sight.”
dr. ravitch adjusts her philosophy on our national education system, as seen here from a conference she spoke at in phoenix.
“nations like finland and japan seek out the best college graduates for teaching positions, prepare them well, pay them well and treat them with respect,” she said. “they make sure that all their students study the arts, history, literature, geography, civics, foreign languages, the sciences and other subjects. they do this because this is the way to ensure good education. we’re on the wrong track.”
the superintendents gave dr. ravitch a standing ovation.
ok, i'm a little behind on my blogs, i know this story was from last week, but i thought i would take some time out of my vacation to see what you all think. there is a news interview below with vice president cheney. the story may not be quite as compelling at the lepeau tucson interview at winterhaven, intriguing none-the-less. i heard this interview and then did a little research on waterboarding. according to this npr article, the united states has a history of punishing those who used waterboarding, including charging a japanese officer, yukio asano, with war crimes following wwii and a u.s. soldier who had a picture of him taken while supervising a waterboarding of a vietnamese soldier. asano was sentenced to 15 years hard labor and the u.s. soldier was court martialed.
the question is, does our vp dick cheney admit to approving a punishable crime and should charges be brought against him?
here are some snippets from the npr article on waterboarding:
"The thing you could not do in torture was injure the body or cause death," Peters says. That was — and still is — what makes waterboarding such an attractive interrogation technique, he says: It causes great physical and mental suffering, yet leaves no marks on the body.
Waterboarding may be widespread, but it has not been used everywhere. There's no evidence that either the Nazis or the Soviets used the technique, Rejali says. These regimes, he says, weren't concerned about public opinion, and so they often used harsher methods that left permanent scars or killed their victims. If anything, Rejali says, waterboarding has been an interrogation technique preferred by the world's democracies.
You mean he brought water and poured water down your throat? No sir, on my face, until I became unconscious. We were lying that way, with some cloth on my face, and then Yuki poured water on my face continuously. And you couldn't breathe? No, I could not, and so I, for a time, lost consciousness. I found my consciousness came back again and found Yuki was sitting on my stomach. And then I vomited the water from my stomach, and the consciousness came back again for me. Where did the water come out when he sat on your stomach? From my mouth and all openings of my face ... and then Yuki would repeat the same treatment and the same procedure to me until I became unconscious again. How many times did that happen? Around four or five times, from two o'clock up to four o'clock in the afternoon. When I was not able to endure his punishment which I received, I told a lie to Yuki ... . I could not really show anything to Yuki, because I was really lying just to stop the torture.
tourture is tourture if it leaves marks or not. granted, it may not be as horrific as other methods, it is still torture. as important, it is not effective, as you see in the above quote, people will say whatever necessary to stop the torture.
in his book torture and democracy darius rejali reminds us in vivid terms that prisoners will say anything under torture - ibn al-shaykh al-libi, for example, helped establish the since-discredited "connection" between al qaeda and saddam hussein that was cited by president bush, george tenet and colin powell as grounds for invading iraq.
sorry, i have been a little off my game. volleyball playoffs were this weekend, we needed to beat a team that beat us twice this season to go to state. a match is 3 out of five and we lost by two points in the 5th game. i defiantly felt like i let my team down, it was hard having the energy necessary with everything else going on in my life.
i love coaching, they are an amazing group of girls. here are some highlights from the season:
- winning the ASDB tournament - when a ref. asked shannon is she touched the ball and she said, "yes", awarding the other team with a point - the way the seniors played on senior night - beating greenfields (one of our rivals) the last game of the regular season - finishing with a 20-5-1 record
I have heard a lot about Obama lately, he is a Muslim, a socialist, conected to ism, deeply connceted to a horrible group that registers voters.
Response here:
Why is it then I haven't heard so many negatives about Mccain? Is it because I live in a "red" state or hang out with many Christians? Is it because of race?
How crazy would it be if the roles were reversed?
Things to consider when pondering race, education and character of our presidential candidates:
- What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
- What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
- What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
- What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?
- What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car , when she no longer measured up to his standards?
- What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
- What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
- What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
- What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
- What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
- What if Obama had trouble reading from a teleprompter?
- What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes? And was never given a command position.
- What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?
- What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from distribution?
- What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?
Educational Background:
Barack Obama: - Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. - Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
Joseph Biden: - University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science. - Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
vs.
John McCain: - United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
Sarah Palin: - Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester - North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study - University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism - Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester - University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism
Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. I have already had eight years with a self-proclaimed "c" student.
Race isn't everything but it is a factor.
Character counts and both candidates have flaws, why is it that I keep hearing about Obama's?
why is it when a democrat talks about raising taxes he is a socialists, are taxes not a redistribution of wealth? do republicans not tax?
is it militarily irresponsible to not set goals or benchmarks for when certain things should happen? is it time to say to the newly formed iraqi government, we are going to do these things over the next year and a half, you do these things over the next year and a half then its time to turn things over?
im against all forms of abortion, is barak obama for late term abortions?
with the inspiring comments from my previous post i decided to post political questions to consider or respond to over the next ten days when deciding who to vote for. the first few pairs of questions will be bipartisan, questions i got from roger e. olson (phd, rice university) who is professor of theology at george w. truett theological seminary of baylor university in waco, texas and he offered these questions on the Koinonia Blog.
here we go...
what will happen to the poor in a john mccain republican administration?
what will happen to the not-yet-born in a barak obama democratic administration?
its that time of year, when poor josh and katie, scott and pam get to hear me rant about what an abomination it would be if mickey mouse turned up at the polls, because i'm sure that little rodent would vote democrat. its that time of year i get more and more fired up over issues and more and more questions arise.
i asked my co-worker the other day why the $750 billion bailout didn't go directly to homeowners to help pay off their mortgages, which would eventually get to the banks? he responded, that the banks are the backbone of our financial system and they need the money to loan out and keep our economy going. it's more immediate.
however, in reality many of these banks and lenders are holding on to the money to cover their own back-side.
its beginning to look like socialism is a good thing when the rich need it to stay...rich, but we still shouldn't consider setting up systems to help the poor and middle class.
