News roundup 07/27/13 – Serial killers, Biggest problem with workforce, A new Bosnia?

Links within this post, to the headlines:
The Single Biggest Problem With America’s Labor Force
New serial killer in Cleveland
Troubling official statements in Burma violence
Report Finds Gradual Fall in Female Genital Cutting in Africa
T. Rowe Price raises downtown safety concerns
Rae Dawn Chong Blasts Oprah Winfrey

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The Single Biggest Problem With America’s Labor Force

Underemployment

Bodies of Three Women Found Wrapped in Garbage Bags in Fetal Position in Cleveland Neighborhood

I had never heard of Anthony Sowell before.  I have to wonder whether the ethnicity of his victims plays any role in his relative obscurity as compared to, say, Ted Bundy.

Radical monk unhurt in bomb blast

Troubling quotations:
He is the chief proponent of a movement known as 969, which reformist President Thein Sein’s office has described as a “symbol of peace”.
* * *
Reuters investigations in two of the hotspots of unrest – Rakhine state and the central city of Meikhtila – have revealed the violence was on both occasions fanned by monks who led Buddhist mobs.
* * *
The president’s office, which says it wants to foster peace, tolerance and unity in ethnically diverse Myanmar, has described Wirathu as “a son of Lord Buddha”.
Previous post: “Sitra Achra, the Flipside”

Report Finds Gradual Fall in Female Genital Cutting in Africa

Those who don’t know what the term means can consult this Wikipedia article.  In many nations it’s a routine practice to take a razor and shave off a girl’s clitoris, normally in early childhood.  As a result, when she becomes a woman, she will have no access to sexual gratification.  All sexual intercourse, then, is for her in effect no different from rape; all sexual gratification in relationships is the sole privilege of her male “partners.”

The report finds a generation gap in attitudes and practice:  younger women in some places are less likely to have been victims of this procedure, and also less likely to approve of it.  Yet the quotation unsettles me: “We need to create conditions so they can act on their beliefs.”  As reprehensible as the practice is, I am not sure Western folk have the right to impose Western values on anyone.

T. Rowe Price raises safety concerns as it weighs headquarters options

But Elspeth Reeve seems to me to want us to believe there is no crime in America.

Rae Dawn Chong Blasts Oprah Winfrey In A Recent Radio Interview

I never heard of Rae Dawn Chong before, and am no particular fan of Oprah Winfrey.  But for Ms. Chong to spew this language in any public forum about anyone degrades her mightily in my esteem.

I never encountered the term “field N—–” before.  Now I grasp that it is the counter-partner to the term “house Negro,” which Mohamad at the shelter used to use to dismiss the President.  The “house N—–” was a slave suitable to work in the master’s house, given her or his propensity to seemly rather than unseemly manners and conduct.  The “field N—–” would be kept in the fields, given his or her opposite propensities.

No slave has toiled on a plantation in this country since 1865, and it offends me to hear such terms used to disparage anyone.  The N-word itself simply perpetuates the slave mentality, and diminishes everyone who uses and hears it.  IMO no one has any right to use it.

* Change your diet, chapter 3

(Reblogged 2014/04/09.)

How Swearing at Work Could Ruin Your @#*! Career

[See also the William Tell Show page, “Word of the Day.”]

talk show host, on air talent, talk radio, radio talk show, the homeless blogger

* Change your diet, chapter 2

(Reblogged 04/02/14.)

Friday 06/01/12 we were working on the assembly line, and the music they had on the PA was WQSR 102.7 “Jack.”  I didn’t mind; it was an interesting change of pace.

At mid-afternoon this one song came on that made me feel tense.  What song, I don’t recall and it doesn’t matter.  The music made me feel tense.  That’s what this post is all about.

The earlier post entitled “Change your diet” was all about words.  One needs also to be aware of the feelings and attitudes music itself brings out in you, and choose accordingly.

Being forced to hear one song, one time, one day, isn’t likely to make much difference in my life.  I am more concerned about what you choose to listen to habitually; what you swim or bathe in all the time.

There are too many guys now walking around with chips on their shoulder, not to mention what may be in their pants.  You don’t need to be one of them.  You don’t need to be listening to music that makes you want to be one of them.

If the station or show or “artist” you’re listening to leaves you feeling angry, looking for trouble, ready to step up to somebody, wanting to prove you’re a man — change the station.  Toss that CD in the trash.

Choose music that gives you a positive outlook on life, a positive sense of yourself.  You might can get some ideas from the music I choose for the show; see The William Tell Show “Music” page.

* Change your diet

(Reblogged 03/26/14.)

Garbage in, garbage out.

I spent Memorial Day at Dunkin’ Donuts writing “A star is born.” As of noon, I’d developed the plan to wrap up about 3:00 and, on my way back to the shelter, check out this new strip joint on The Block.

I finished just in time, bought smokes at a convenience store, and headed for the bar …

… which will remain nameless. No show was happening. The bartender was in no rush to take my order. Not one female made a move to pay me any mind.

The killer was Weezy comin’ out the juke box with language I wouldn’t use in the presence of a whore.

The time had come to write this post.
I got a Heinie and a Corona, chugged them both down, and left.

Garbage in, garbage out.

Some people choose to swim in filth.

Would you choose to swim in a septic tank?
How long can you swim in there without swallowing some deadly poison?

(A little-known Baltimore fact: in the block north of City Hall, the “municipal building,” where you can pay your parking tickets and water bills, is named after a man who deserves to be a hero. Abel Wolman played a major role in putting chlorine into America’s drinking water. Before then, American tap water — like tap water in most other countries — was not safe to drink. Wolman’s work saved many tens of thousands of lives that would otherwise have been lost to cholera, typhus, or other deadly diseases.)

If you wouldn’t swim in material filth, why swim in a filth of ideas?

As an adult, you can choose what does or doesn’t come into your home.
You choose what music, if any, your children “swim in” in the car.
At any age, you choose what goes into your CD or mp3 player.

You choose what to buy.

You choose what you feed your mind.

If it has one of those “explicit” stickers on it, buy something else. Play something else.
If it’s already in your house, put it in the trash, where it belongs.

Your quality of life will improve.

[See also the William Tell Show page, “Word of the Day.”]

talk show host, on air talent, radio talk show, the homeless blogger