Michael Brown

Dorin Johnson, witness to the murder of his friend, Michael Brown.


Ferguson Police Chief gives HIS side of the murder:


And THIS
from Anonymous.

Tributes to Robin Williams

There are SO MANY beautiful tributes on Facebook, I'd like to share them here.

from Astronaut Buzz Aldrin:

I regarded Robin Williams as a friend and fellow sufferer. His passing is a great loss. The torment of depression and the complications of addiction that accompany it affect millions, including myself and family members before me - my grandfather committed suicide before I was born and my mother the year before I went to the moon - along with hundreds of veterans who come to a similar fate each year. As individuals and as a nation we need to be compassionate and supportive of all who suffer and give them the resources to face life. ‪#‎RobinWilliams‬ RIP

RIP, Robin Williams

It's the day after the world found out that Robin Williams took his own life, giving in to the demons that lived inside of him.
It's the day we found out that how he did it made sure he wanted to die: he slit his wrist and hanged himself with a belt.

Oh, how I wish it didn't happen. Life is cruel every day. I pray every day, with thankfulness that I can get out of bed in the morning and love life. But there are SO MANY who are battling the same demons Robin gave into. They feel hopeless, can't find a positive thought, just feeling black inside.

There IS help for those of us with depression.



Please, put this number on your phone. You may never use it, but it's good to have when times are tough.

Writer/Director Kevin Levine's blog entry to Robin Williams is here. Give it a read.

Here is an excerpt:

ith apologies to Robin, we remain in utter shock. We even cry. We mourn the loss of an irreplaceable talent, a force of nature, and I think more than that, we mourn the circumstances. No one should suffer such emotional pain and hopelessness. Especially one who has brought such joy to so many.

I still am getting a lump in my throat when I think about this situation, probably will for the rest of my life. I thank God for sharing this brilliant person with us for 63 years and hope Heaven is laughing.

RIP, Robin Williams

Benghazi

I can't breathe.....

Over 100 Broadway stars, directors, producers, musicians, choreographers, designers and technicians from some of the most prominent productions gathered in front of the police station in Times Square on Tuesday. They wanted to send a message about police violence and the killing of Eric Garner. ‪#‎itstopstoday‬ ‪#‎blukluxklan‬






Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpfTos6NroM

Update: December 3, 2014

A grand jury decided not to indict a New York police officer in the apparent chokehold death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died shortly after being accosted by police for selling loose, un-taxed cigarettes in July. […]

Garner was about 350 pounds and suffered from asthma. In cell phone video that captures the moments leading up to Garner’s death, Garner is seen being wrestled to the ground by [NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo] who appears to have Garner locked in a chokehold, with an arm gripped around his neck.

Garner, a 43-year-old father of six can be heard in the video pleading “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”

Garner died en route to the hospital soon after. Pantaleo was placed on modified duty.


Above article is from: MSNBC.com

Good Thing to Remember

Message from a man with a past...

the world is SICK

In an article from "The Daily Beast", the description of what young children from an orphanage witnessed just after some "rebel" shot down a passenger jet over the Ukrane. I won't post the whole article because it is to awful. I feel so much sorrow for those children. Here is what I will take from the article:


"Maybe when the Torez orphans are grown there will be a truly definitive picture of what happened. For now, even the tragedy that left many local people in shock and heartbroken has not brought on a lull in the fighting. Ukrainian warplanes and helicopters continue to fly over the area all the time, and often they bomb with little accuracy or discrimination."

Why is it that - at this time - children are being victimized in so many places? Why children? Grown men have caused the haoc around the world and CHILDREN are suffering.

In Israel

In Gaza


And the story that Americans should be embarasssed about The children fleeing Central America.

PLEASE don't disregard the links. PLEASE read them. We need to know and somehow try to stop this


And it's not isolated to these three incidents. Child abuse is running rampant in the US. I don't want to google child abuse around the world.

This is fucked up, y'all. Pray for the children.

Please help

click here so I can earn money!
I am trying to supplement my monthly pension check.
Thanks!
I know it's tacky, but what the heck?

The issue at the border

Written by Robert Reich on Facebook:


I’ve been watching media coverage of angry Americans at our southern border waiving signs and yelling slogans, insisting that the children – most of whom are refugees of the drug war we’ve created -- “go home” to the violence and death that war has created, and I wonder who these angry Americans are. I also wonder where their parents or grandparents or other ancestors came from, and what they were fleeing from or hoped for when they landed in America. I’m not suggesting we allow in anyone who wants to come here, but these are desperate children. Whatever happened to the generosity, decency, and big-heartedness of this country? Emma Lazarus’s poem engraved in 1903 on the Statue of Liberty reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of our teeming shore. Send these, the homeless tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Why are we now allowing the hateful side of America to take center stage?

Really?

Hiatus is over - Scuzzbucket sentenced

Just came to see how long it's been since I posted here. Over 5 months!

I have absolutely NO reason. I'm retired, I'm working 2-3 days a week. I guess my brain had to retire for a while too.

So much going on in the world, so many scuzzbuckets everywhere. I'm going to start posting here again, at least once a week.
I need to use my brain a little more. Facebook is certainly a brain-pickling website.

Today the worst mayor of New Orleans was sentenced to a measly 10 years for being a cold hearted, evil, selfish, narcissistic, crook.

He hurt New Orleans in so many ways.

Nagin was convicted of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and other favors from businessmen looking for a break from his administration. He was convicted of 20 of the 21 corruption-related counts against him. Prosecutors said Nagin, 57, was at the center of a kickback scheme in which he received checks, cash, wire transfers, personal services and free travel from businessmen seeking contracts and favorable treatment from his city.

While the city was reeling from the effects of Katrina, he schemed to make himself rich. In the midst of Nagin's loss of sanity, I created a website where you can review some of his antics and the reaction of the NOLA blogsphere. I apologize for bad links and missing pictures, but I will be working on updating my website soon.

Karma's a bitch, Ray-Ray. I hope it gets to you soon.

America the Beautiful (Superbowl 2014)

transcript:

BRENDA WOOD: But the fact that people are outraged over this ad is outrageous itself. People indignant that others would have the audacity to sing 'America the Beautiful' in a language other than English, when America was built on opening its arms to the world? The quote on the Statue of Liberty doesn't say 'give me your English-speaking only, Christianity-believing, heterosexual masses.' It says 'give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses tempest-tost.'
Have we forgotten that every one of us 'Americans' except for Native Americans, are descendants of foreigners?

That the English language is from England?

What makes America different from everywhere else is that we are a melting pot. We are not homogenous. It is our diversity that built this country.

How dare there be indignation over the very thing that makes us great.

And why not honor the beauty of that in song? What's so sacrosanct about this song that it can't be sung in other languages by other ethnicities, by those of diverse religions and diverse lifestyles?

A relevant question considering the words of 'America the Beautiful' were penned by a gay woman, Katharine Lee Bates, in 1895, an English professor at Wellesley who also wrote lovingly of her longtime committed relationship with another woman.

Transcript http://mediamatters.org/...
I cannot add anything to this wonderful mocking of the crazy.

Tweet on SB48 ads

I just went to http://t.co/d9QrpZilia and bought a crate of Doritos and a Mazarati, and I cant even eat or drive. #SBCommercials -SG

— steve gleason (@TeamGleason) February 2, 2014

Separated at Birth

Hanging on to Steve Gleason

2014 Superbowl Commercial.
I bet you'll tear up.

The End Game of Democracy

Pay attention, LISTEN.

Windows Wednesday

Dauphin Island, Alabama. Thanksgiving week. A family taking a walk at sunset past a camp where another family is preparing a meal for a cold November evening.

R.I.P., Peter O'Toole

One of my favorite actors died this weekend. Peter O'Toole passed away at the age of 81.

He was a man of many characters, but my all-time favorite was "A Lion in Winter" with Katherine Hepburn Here is a cut from the movie:

Okay, Blacks versus Whites...Let's stop the hatred

Christmas Tree Harvesting at it's best

This guy rocks

R.I.P., Frank Davis

Frank Davis, a local celebrity in Southeast Louisiana, has passed on at the age of 71.

Frank was well loved for his sense of humor, his fishing tips, his cooking demonstrations and cookbooks.
He was always cheerful and had a personality that brought light into the room.

CIPD, an autoimmune disease, had Frank going from using a cane to permanent bed rest in a month. Here is the last video I know of on Frank dealing with this illness.

For those of you who don't have any of his cookbooks, WWL TV has an archive at this link.

Scuzzbucket of the Week

From Blacknews.com
Mark Ciavarella Jr, a 61-year old former judge in Pennsylvania, has been sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison for literally selling young juveniles for cash. He was convicted of accepting money in exchange for incarcerating thousands of adults and children into a prison facility owned by a developer who was paying him under the table. The kickbacks amounted to more than $1 million.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned some 4,000 convictions issued by him between 2003 and 2008, claiming he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles – including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea. Some of the juveniles he sentenced were as young as 10-years old.

Ciavarella was convicted of 12 counts, including racketeering, money laundering, mail fraud and tax evasion. He was also ordered to repay $1.2 million in restitution.

His “kids for cash” program has revealed that corruption is indeed within the prison system, mostly driven by the growth in private prisons seeking profits by any means necessary.


- See more at: http://govtslaves.info/pennsylvania-judge-sentenced-28-years-selling-kids-prison-system/#sthash.8DQxk9ga.dpuf

R.I.P., Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela passed away today at 95.

Click here to read about this amazing man's life.

I love this quote from Mandela:

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion,” he wrote in “Long Walk to Freedom.”

Windows Wednesday

A view of one of the cabins at Fountainbleau State Park in Mandeville.

We stayed there in 1988 for a week and it was fantastic. Fully furnished, each cabin has a screened-in porch. Unfortunately the cabins were badly damaged by Hurricane Isaac and won't be repoen
\e until next year

Four Hands Boogie-Woogie

From WWOZ dot org;


Authored by: David Stafford
Submitted: Tue, 12/03/2013 - 8:41am
Tag(s): WWOZ Latest
This clip comes from a late 1980s TV how called Sunday Night (AKA Night Music) hosted by American saxophonist David Sanborn and English pianist/singer/composer Jools Holland. The latter is joined by Dr. John for some "four-hands" boogie woogie piano.

According to Sanborn** the "precise fingering and split second timing" required by such a duet make it "one of the most demanding and dangerous pieces of music to perform".

Giving Thanks

Taking an idea from New Orleans blogger, Glenn, I would like to make a list of everything I am thankful for this year.

- My husband and best friend. He knows me and loves me and takes care of me. And believe me, I can be a handful at times.

- The sense of sight. I am amazed everyday by things I see: the color of a cloudless sky, the beauty of a rose and the sweetness of the doves that gather in our backyard.

- My pets: a Lab, 3 mature cats, 2 kittens and a squirrel. They keep me laughing - and sometimes cursing.

- I'm grateful to be born at a time when the technology changes at lightening speed.

- Chocolate

- My friends and family. Thanks to Facebook, I can converse with my sisters much more often than before. My friends are
always ready to help when it's needed and for that I am eternally grateful.

- I am thankful for a friend that asked me to work for her in a flower shop. It's an awesome job, one I really love!

- My health. It's been up and down the past year, but right now I'm feeling good and am grateful for that.

- My proudest accomplishment: my daughter.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!