Pelican Friday

For the next few months I'll be posting pictures of the pelicans that have landed in Slidell.

Pelicans on Parade began as a 2013 Leadership Northshore class project featuring public art to raise funds for Children's Wish Endowment of Slidell.

Currently there are about 45 pelicans around town. Businesses sponsor pelicans and local artists paint them. It's a great time to drive thru town and spot them.

Today's pelican was painted by Helio Zavalza and is located outside the Blue Bell Creameries right off of Exit 80.


Titled "So Many Fish"

Windows Wednesday

Taken during our last visit at the Creole Tomato Fest, I loved the flags. I forget what the small,colorful flags represented.

Windows Wednesday

Taken from the parking garage at One Canal Place, these windows are from another era. I would love to know their history.

SUPERIOR Douchebags

From deadspin.com


Atlanta radio station has fired three a$$holes that host some kind of sports radio program in the A.M. These three Einsteins thought it would be humorous to pretend one of them was former New Orleans Saints Steve Gleason. Yeah, they went that low.

For those of you who don't know who Steve Gleason is, watch this:



Steve is in the later stages of ALS. He types using a program that tracks movements of his eyes, and his 4,500-word column took him four hours to compose. Around the same time the column was published, an Atlanta sports talk radio show did an entire segment, based on the premise that his computerized "voice" is hilarious. It was really, really bad.



The three douche bags have been "fired" this evening.

statement: all three hosts have been fired.

"We deeply regret the offensive programming that aired this morning on “Mayhem In The AM” on 790 The Zone, related to former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason and his battle with ALS. We suspended the three individuals involved immediately following their comments and have since terminated their employment. 790 The Zone, our owners, sponsors and partners in no way endorse or support this kind of content. We sincerely apologize to Mr. Gleason, his family and all those touched by ALS."

Let's keep an eye out to see if they're reinstated. These are people who have no souls.

Hey, Atlanta......KARMA

A place to cool off

Taken on the second floor of the Old U.S. Mint Building at the Preservation Hall exhibit on the second floor. This is one of several interesting exhibits at the Mint, where you could spend a few hours away from the brutal heat wave we've been having. Enjoy!

Scuzzbucket of the Week

This is perhaps one of the worst stories of child abuse I've heard in a long time.

Jacqueline Trousdale is a monster.

From ABC15 news site:

Trousdale has been arrested after her 5-year-old daughter tested positive for methamphetamine.

The charges stem from test results of a urine sample taken from her daughter several months ago.
Police said they were contacted on October 14, 2012 by a relative who reported that Trousdale’s two daughters told their father and other family members their mother was injecting them with a drug and allowing men to molest them for money inside a hotel room in Tolleson Arizona.

The father told authorities he confronted Trousdale at the hotel, where she was in the bathroom consuming drugs with the eldest daughter present. According to court documents, the girls' father took the younger child with him, but the 6-year-old girl refused to leave her mother.

Prior child abuse allegations had been made with Phoenix police and Child Protective Services and, according to the documents, CPS had been looking for the children for a while.

The 5-year-old was interviewed and said she was given a shot in the arm and in the foot. A physical exam was also performed on the child, but there were reportedly no signs of sexual assault.

The victim did have a fever, was underweight and had a heart condition that had been untreated, according to the documents. She was taken into CPS custody.

On October 30, detectives found Trousdale in front of the Tolleson hotel and she admitted to using methamphetamine around her daughters, but said she usually used the drug when the girls were asleep.
On June 5, 2013, the lab results from October showed a urine sample from the 5-year-old contained methamphetamine and amphetamine.

Tolleson police found and arrested Trousdale on June 9.
According to police, Trousdale was seen putting something in her bra and was searched by a female detective who found the bra’s underwire removed and bent, and three screws, apparently taken from a light inside the jail holding cell. She was also charged with one count of theft.




Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/arizona-mom-jacqueline-trousdale-accused-of-injecting-daughters-with-meth#ixzz2W8f46z5m

Windows Wednesday

Taken during the recent Creole Tomato Festival somewhere on Decatur Street. Love that color blue!

Scuzzbucket of the Week

The not-so-honorable Judge Edith Jones

Judge Jones of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals addressed the University of Pennsylvania law school on February 20. Her comments were not recorded, but five students and one attorney who were in attendance signed affidavits swearing to what they heard.

The complaint alleges that Jones said certain ‘racial groups like African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime,’ and that they are ‘prone to commit acts of violence’ and be involved in more violent and ‘heinous’ crimes than people of other ethnicities.

The judge also allegedly said Mexicans would prefer to be on death row in the U.S. than serve prison terms in their native country, and that it's an insult for the U.S. to look to the laws of other countries such as Mexico.

Nothing like freaking JUDGES who reflect the problem in the U.S. with racism. Not a good role model, eh?

Windows Wednesday

Taken from Woldenberg Park while we played at the Oyster Festival

I love how the windows reflect that beautiful sky. And my choice for the best food of the Fest was Borgne with their perfectly fried oysters and tasty catfish sliders.

Istanbul

There is hell going on in Istanbul, Turkey and if you're like me you've only heard grumblings of it.  Please read first person accounts of what's going on there.  

To my friends who live outside of Turkey:

I am writing to let you know what is going on in Istanbul for the last five days. I personally have to write this because most of the media sources are shut down by the government and the word of mouth and the internet are the only ways left for us to explain ourselves and call for help and support.

Four days ago a group of people who did not belong to any specific organization or ideology got together in Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Among them there were many of my friends and students. Their reason was simple: To prevent and protest the upcoming demolishing of the park for the sake of building yet another shopping mall at very center of the city. There are numerous shopping malls in Istanbul, at least one in every neighborhood! The tearing down of the trees was supposed to begin early Thursday morning. People went to the park with their blankets, books and children. They put their tents down and spent the night under the trees. Early in the morning when the bulldozers started to pull the hundred-year-old trees out of the ground, they stood up against them to stop the operation.

They did nothing other than standing in front of the machines.

No newspaper, no television channel was there to report the protest. It was a complete media black out.

But the police arrived with water cannon vehicles and pepper spray. They chased the crowds out of the park.

In the evening the number of protesters multiplied. So did the number of police forces around the park. Meanwhile local government of Istanbul shut down all the ways leading up to Taksim square where the Gezi Park is located. The metro was shut down, ferries were cancelled, roads were blocked.

Yet more and more people made their way up to the center of the city by walking.

They came from all around Istanbul. They came from all different backgrounds, different ideologies, different religions. They all gathered to prevent the demolition of something bigger than the park:

The right to live as honorable citizens of this country.

They gathered and marched. Police chased them with pepper spray and tear gas and drove their tanks over people who offered the police food in return. Two young people were run over by the tanks and were killed. Another young woman, a friend of mine, was hit in the head by one of the incoming tear gas canisters. The police were shooting them straight into the crowd. After a three hour operation she is still in Intensive Care Unit and in very critical condition. As I write this we don’t know if she is going to make it. This blog is dedicated to her.

These people are my friends. They are my students, my relatives. They have no «hidden agenda» as the state likes to say. Their agenda is out there. It is very clear. The whole country is being sold to corporations by the government, for the construction of malls, luxury condominiums, freeways, dams and nuclear plants. The government is looking for (and creating when necessary) any excuse to attack Syria against its people’s will.

On top of all that, the government control over its people’s personal lives has become unbearable as of late. The state, under its conservative agenda passed many laws and regulations concerning abortion, cesarean birth, sale and use of alcohol and even the color of lipstick worn by the airline stewardesses.

People who are marching to the center of Istanbul are demanding their right to live freely and receive justice, protection and respect from the State. They demand to be involved in the decision-making processes about the city they live in.

What they have received instead is excessive force and enormous amounts of tear gas shot straight into their faces. Three people lost their eyes.

Yet they still march. Hundred of thousands join them. Couple of more thousand passed the Bosporus Bridge on foot to support the people of Taksim.

No newspaper or TV channel was there to report the events. They were busy with broadcasting news about Miss Turkey and “the strangest cat of the world”.

Police kept chasing people and spraying them with pepper spray to an extent that stray dogs and cats were poisoned and died by it.

Schools, hospitals and even 5 star hotels around Taksim Square opened their doors to the injured. Doctors filled the classrooms and hotel rooms to provide first aid. Some police officers refused to spray innocent people with tear gas and quit their jobs. Around the square they placed jammers to prevent internet connection and 3g networks were blocked. Residents and businesses in the area provided free wireless network for the people on the streets. Restaurants offered food and water for free.

People in Ankara and İzmir gathered on the streets to support the resistance in Istanbul.

Mainstream media kept showing Miss Turkey and “the strangest cat of the world”.

***

I am writing this letter so that you know what is going on in Istanbul. Mass media will not tell you any of this. Not in my country at least. Please post as many as articles as you see on the Internet and spread the word.

As I was posting articles that explained what is happening in Istanbul on my Facebook page last night someone asked me the following question:

«What are you hoping to gain by complaining about our country to foreigners?»

This blog is my answer to her.

By so called «complaining» about my country I am hoping to gain:

Freedom of expression and speech,

Respect for human rights,

Control over the decisions I make concerning my on my body,

The right to legally congregate in any part of the city without being considered a terrorist.

But most of all by spreading the word to you, my friends who live in other parts of the world, I am hoping to get your awareness, support and help!

Please spread the word and share this blog.

Thank you!

For futher info and things you can do for help please see Amnesty International’s Call for Urgent Help