Blog
...yesterday was the sixth annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day.
The awareness day campaign was launched six years ago to address disproportionately high rates of HIV in the black community. While blacks make up 13.5 percent of the U.S. population, they are 47 percent of the 1 million Americans living with HIV, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Organizations across the country had outreach events planned Tuesday, including a Safer Sex Comedy Show in New York City and candlelight vigils from Florida to California.
The events are just one way HIV/AIDS service providers nationwide have developed prevention and treatment programs specifically tailored to reach black audiences.
Is that what it takes to reach black people? Safer Sex Comedy? I didn't attend but I would wager that it was never mentioned that HIV/AIDS, when it occurs, is the product of poor judgement. Unlike cancer, glaucoma or birth defects, HIV/AIDS is preventable 100% through modified behaviorial habits.
Meanwhile, people who live off the HIV/AIDS scare need to trumpet the threat real or imagined so don't look for anyone to come to their senses anytime too soon.
I've been saying for a while now that there is nothing like a war to flush out fair-weather libertarians such as Neal Boortz and Michelle Malkin. Add Thomas Sowell to that list (much to the chagrin of Jim Rutter).
Thanks to Lew Rockwell for the tip-off.
I thought this was funny. Ya know how Google runs context-sensitive ads in the right-hand column of this site? While reading The comments under this article, I saw an ad for the movie, Vendetta. Thinking it was the new movie, V for Vendetta, I clicked on it. It wasn't what I thought but what I saw interested me just the same.
Their parents came to Boston in search of the proverbial “American Dream.” But after witnessing the brutal shooting death of their father, brothers Sean (Baldwin) and Thomas Phelan (John Novak) grow up dreaming of vengeance - and pursuing it on opposite sides of the law. As Thomas builds a career and gains a foothold in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Sean rises through the underworld ranks to become head of the Irish Mob.
But the description never told us which brother was on the wrong side of the law! Bua, ha, ha, ha!
Former Philadelphia Flyers captian, Rick Tocchet and many celebs, cops, etc are being brought to "justice" in New Jersey in "Operation Slapshot" (someone is patting themselves on the back for coming up with that name - hey, marketing is everything!).
Tocchet 41, along with New Jersey State Trooper James J. Harney, 40, and another New Jersey man, James A. Ulmer, 40, were charged with promoting gambling (bookmaking), money laundering and conspiracy.
The charges came after an undercover investigation dubbed "Operation Slapshot" revealed that more than 1,000 wagers in excess of $1.7 million -- including several hundred-thousand dollars gambled on Super Bowl XL -- had been placed through the trio by "numerous former and current National Hockey League players," said state police Col. Rick Fuentes at a press conference in Ewing, N.J.
Uh, who are the protecting here? Oh, their own gambling ring, of course! But wait, there's more!
Fuentes also claimed the ring had an association with the Bruno-Scarfo crime family, "La Cosa Nostra," which operates out of Philadelphia and South Jersey.
So there it is. Make a barely tangential link to organized crime so we can not only bring in the feds but also invoke RICO which makes it all the easier for the State to protect its own gambling racket.
The last place I thought I'd see a glimmer of hope for American was during the bread and circuses surrounding the Super Bowl. However, the trailer that was shown for V for Vendetta looks awesome! There is a second, longer, better one on the offical movie site that must be seen.
I'm starting to notice a shift away from the notion of benevolence and toward critical thinking regarding our government and authority in general. No longer is it just teen rebelliousness driving a niche market for anti-authoritarian t-shirts. It's now mainstream and picking up steam. The Matrix series is an example that comes to mind along with The Village. Look for Washington to put a stop to all this nonsense as soon as they clean up steroids in baseball.
I turned my pop on to Google Earth recently and while poking around, he found what appeared to be a runway and an airplane on top of a building in Manhattan.
The biplane on the roof sculpture was designed by some guy named Rudolph de Harak and executed by the sculptor William Tarr in 1969 (thanks Jack Ryan). Apparently it's a full-size model of a WW1 Sopwith Camel, complete with runway. It was put there to amuse inhabitants of surrounding scyscrapers, notably the WTC. Here's the only pic I could find, a satelite image------(you can see the plane and runway and "77")
Quote:
...the biplane on the roof of 77 Water Street in Lower Manhattan, a playful touch installed by the developer, the William Kaufman Organization.
If anyone from the government is monitoring this site, the owners of 77 Water Street in NYC will soon be swarmed by paramilitary forces. After all, how can anyone be allowed to be creative and whimsical while we're in a state of war?! Or perhaps they even inspired the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center!
Intersting but long history of the Denney Tag Company formerly headquartered in nearby (to me, anyway)West Chester PA.
"Tag Stringing Industry" in Daily Local News (February 27, 1917), in CCHS clippings file "West Chester Business Houses--Denney Tag."
Italian families in the boro's west end organized themselves to earn money by stringing tags for the Denney Tag company. Each morning, a horse and wagon delivered thousands of tags to the neighborhood, and in the evening, it took the finished work back to the factory.
The article goes on to describe how Denney went on the be a nation-wide company by simply doing the best job it could and pleasing its clients. However, the unions smelled blood and tried (and failed) three times to organize Denney.
1985-1986 "Denney Tag among first borough industries" in Daily Local News (May 4, 1991), A8.
The company faced a violent 8-month strike by Teamsters Local 107 in 1985-1986. Although the employees voted down the union in March 1986, the company lost money for the next three years.
"Yeah, good job, guys! If union members can't have those jobs, then no one will! How dare they defy the Teamsters!" - Doofus Uber Alles
Denney closed its doors in 1991. Founded in the truest spirit of enterpreneurialism over 100 years before, it was brought down by greedy unions. Makes me want to barf.
This interview with Scott McConnell on LRC caught my eye. Seems that McConnell, editor of Republican mouthpiece The American Conservative is now in recovery from his neo-con-edness. However, he noticably strains to agree with Robert Nisbet.
I think Nisbet is right. War is almost always a destructive and revolutionary force. I don’t think it’s always avoidable, and I recognize, without undergoing paroxysms of guilt, that a lot of the power and wealth of the United States, which we all have benefited from, are the fruits of war.
Although admirable that he at least questions King George's motives in this particualr war, I think McConnell would greatly benefit from Reading Economics In One Lesson.
Cindy Sheehan's ejection from the State of the Union address and subsequent arrest were all over the news the other day as they tried to paint her as a nut-job hippie. But did anyone know that she was there with the wife of a Republican congressman who was also wearing an anti-war t-shirt and ejected? From USA Today:
Police removed Sheehan and Beverly Young, the wife of Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, R-Fla., from the visitors gallery Tuesday night. Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Bush's arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young was not arrested.
Capitol Police did not explain why Sheehan was arrested and Young was not. However the unlawful conduct charge against Sheehan was being dropped, according to Deputy House Sergeant of Arms Kerri Hanley. And in a private meeting Wednesday, Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer apologized and planned to issue a statement, Rep. Thomas told reporters.
Hmm, the congressman's wife was not arrested. Only Sheehan. But the cops apologized so everything's alright. "You're free to go, Ms Sheehan. What's that? The president's speeech is over and he's already gone? Oh, too bad."
I never thought I'd live long enough to hear a bank CEO talk like this:
“The idea that a citizen’s property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it’s just plain wrong,” said BB&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Allison.
“One of the most basic rights of every citizen is to keep what they own. As an institution dedicated to helping our clients achieve economic success and financial security, we won’t help any entity or company that would undermine that mission and threaten the hard-earned American dream of property ownership.”
That sorta talk is normally reserved for Silicon Valley CEOs. But that was an official statement from BB&T Bank regarding their decision to NOT finance any project where preperty has been taken via eminent domain. There is hope!
Thanks to Reason Online for the tip.
