Bury Me Standing….

Okay then, what book that you read in your lifetime most impacted/educated you?

I’ll go for ‘Bury me Standing’, it taught me that they are few more oppressed groups on earth in our time than the Roma people – and because their history is largely a spoken one, rather than written, nobody even knows their true story.

And to this day, in Europe especially, they are treated like pure and utter scum. Another, largely, untold story, because, you know, Europe is so civilized.

And, of course, the ‘gypsies’, as a group, were, after the Jewish people, one of the chief victims of the Nazi regime, another story that has, on the whole, been ignored. A people with few friends.

How about you? Name your books.

Signs of the Times?

My rusty old brain is 98.27% sure I posted these pics before…. did I? 😕

I took them when I arrived for the We Are One concert in DC, two days before President Obama’s 2009 inauguration (Pete Souza need have no fears, his job is safe) – I’m sure lots of you saw the same, or similar, when you went to election rallies.

The funniest thing was the reaction of the crowd to the nutters, who were charmingly abusive, not least that of my sports nut pal who was especially upset by ‘sports nuts’ featuring on the banner between ‘porno freaks’ and ‘drunks’.

Was she as offended by, say, the ‘baby killing women’ and ‘Homos’ references? “‘Yeah! Of course! But WTF?! Sports nuts?!” (As a sports nut, I felt her pain).

Any way, it kinda struck me today, especially after seeing the photo in the post below, that back in January 2009 we could dismiss these people as freaks …. now, you know, it’s beginning to feel like this level of insanity and hate is the ‘conservative’ mainstream.

All that was missing from the banners was a racist slur or two, and a call for the Voting Rights Act to be shredded.

But, yep, ‘mainstream’ insanity and hate, 2013 style.

The Taliban, America-style

@ConnieSchultz

Chat Away

A salute to the sporting day…

Rise and Shine

Weekly Wrap Up: Connecting Continents: Watch the West Wing Week  Google+ Hangout: The First Lady spent her Sa… http://t.co/adK0XjbheR

— White House Blog (@WhiteHouse_Blog) July 5, 2013

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Payroll survey is understating jobs growth, & will be revised up when re-benchmarked to QCEW. http://t.co/6kjpCLJkqi pic.twitter.com/056LJuLiH6 — The Lovely Plains (@DaRiverZkind) July 6, 2013

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Public and Private Sector Payroll Jobs: Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama http://t.co/QzONvrFJke via @calculatedrisk pic.twitter.com/UV9gy85AJX — The Lovely Plains (@DaRiverZkind) July 7, 2013

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How the Republican approach to economics has and will continue to hit Americans’ wallets and cost lives. http://t.co/KoTcgrJn2n — The National Memo (@NationalMemo) July 7, 2013

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Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly met with former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush today in Kennebunkport: http://t.co/bOn6yAW0Xe — Shushannah Walshe (@shushwalshe) July 6, 2013

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Protester with AR-15 takes nap outside Gabby Giffords’ NH event. pic.twitter.com/A9cfwmg4NA — Steve Peoples (@sppeoples) July 5, 2013

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On Tour Giffords’ Actions Speak On Gun Control http://t.co/mSPu8mjC1a strategizng, she doesnt say much, doesnt have 2 pic.twitter.com/8bIuLzF8Mw — The Lovely Plains (@DaRiverZkind) July 6, 2013

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  Live Blog-Updates   CBS News aviation and safety analyst Capt. Chesley Sullenberger told KCBS it was possible that ongoing construction at San Francisco International Airport will be examined as a factor in the Asiana Airlines crash that killed at least two people.Sullenberger, the famed Bay Area pilot who landed the “Miracle on the Hudson” flight, said the construction might have been a contributing factor impacting landings at the facility. He said that the FAA-mandated construction is intended to increase the safety zone of the runway by moving it farther away from the seawall near where the plane crash landed.

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Chesley Sullenberger: San Francisco airport a unique place to land http://t.co/V31gl6VZYo — CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) July 6, 2013

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CNN…..The Most trusted name in news………I am wondering when Wolf will be put out to pasture?

Wolf: “Where could they possibly be?” Outlines some options. Reporter at SFO, calmly: “We don’t know.” — Philip Bump (@pbump) July 6, 2013

“My fear, Richard, is that people were sucked out” of the hole at the tail, says Wolf, who worries about the air pressure at sea level. — Philip Bump (@pbump) July 6, 2013

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Early this week, Benjamin Netanyahu discovered that he doesn’t have a party. The Likud’s institutions were captured − democratically − by representatives of the ideological right. Later on in the week, he also discovered that he no longer has a bureau: Its chief, Gil Sheffer, announced that he will leave after the holidays in the fall. He will ride off into the sunset with National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror just as Netanyahu’s policy adviser, Ron Dermer, abandons the bureau, perhaps on his way to Washington, and after cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser has also walked the walk.

Discovering he has no party @IsraeliPM finds himself with no loyal aides, either http://t.co/Is8IBiSnor “He has no 1” pic.twitter.com/qeM0b64Amk — The Lovely Plains (@DaRiverZkind) July 6, 2013

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