Entertainment Overnight -- Valentine

With Sting and Chris Botti

Entertainment Overnight -- Valentine II

Mardi Gras Weekend!

It's Mardi Gras weekend, y'all, no matter where you live! Go get some red beans and rice or jambalaya or crawfish etoufee' or gumbo or a po' boy or SOMETHING!!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!

Why We Have Black History Month

What it's like to be Black in America.

How segregated school districts 

keep black children in poverty

How Home Ownership Keeps 

Blacks Poorer Than Whites - Forbes

Black People More Likely to Be Stopped 

by Cops, Study Finds

Blacks Are Most Likely To Be 

Arrested By Police

Black people twice as likely to be charged with drugs

Black people six times more likely to face drug arrest

Study: Whites More Likely to Abuse Drugs Than Blacks

Whites deal more drugs, but 

blacks get arrested more often

Black People Are Way More Likely To Be Killed By Police Than Their White Peers: Study

Black Americans incarcerated five times 

more than white people

Nonwhites Are 2/3 of US Prisoners

Kristof: U.S. imprisons blacks at rates higher 

than South Africa

U.S. Imprisons More Blacks Than Apartheid South Africa

What part or parts of any of this seems remotely fair or just or right?

Keep in mind, too, this is just a small portion of all the many, many statistics on America, Americans and how Blacks are treated in our nation and have been since the nation's inception.

This isn't "Black History" so much as what has been going on for the past 300 years and what's still going on and why we need to change it. Why we need to change all of it.

Links:

Slavery by Another Name

From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, the Role of Prisons

'13TH' Argues Mass Incarceration Is An Extension Of Slavery

The Case for Reparations - The Atlantic

Separate, Unequal, and Ignored

What Hope Looks Like

In light of Donald Trump leading in the polls and two elections for the presidency just now and all the shootings around the nation yesterday and today, I give you hope.

From a friend's Facebook page and post today. Friend Kevin Deen put this up. He lives in Waldo.

Inventions by Black Americans, Part I

What Are We Celebrating This Month?

Here they are, ladies and gentlemen--all the things we're celebrating here in America in this new October month:

Adopt A Shelter Dog Month
AIDS Awareness Month
American Cheese Month
Antidepressant Death Awareness Month
Bat Appreciation Month
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
(World) Blindness Awareness Month
Caffeine Addiction Recovery Month
Celiac Disease Awareness Month
Celebrating The Bilingual Child Month
Children’s Magazine Month
Christmas Seal Campaign (10/1-12/31)
Church Library Month
Church Safety and Security Month
Class Reunion Month
Co-op Awareness Month
Cut Out Dissection Month
Down Syndrome Awareness Month
Dyslexia Awareness Month
Eat Better, Eat Together Month
Emotional Intelligence Awareness Month
Emotional Wellness Month
Employee Ownership Month
Energy Management is a Family Affair-Improve Your Home Month (10/1-3/31/13)
Financial Planning Month
Feral Hog Month or Hog Out Month
German-American Heritage Month
Global Diversity Awareness Month
Go Hog Wild – Eat Country Ham
Halloween Safety Month
Head Start Awareness Month
Health Literacy Month
Home Eye Safety Month
Italian-American Heritage Month
International Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) Awareness Month
International Starman Month
International Strategic Planning Month
International Walk To School Month
LGBT History Month
Long Term Care Planning Month
Month of Free Thought
National Animal Safety and Protection Month
National Apple MonthNational Applejack Month
National Arts & Humanities Month
National Audiology Awareness Month
National Bake and Decorate Month
National Book Month
National Bullying Prevention Month
National Caramel Month
National Chili Month
National Chiropractic Month
National Cookbook Month
National Cookie Month
National Crime Prevention Month
National Critical Illness Awareness Month
National Cyber Security Awareness Month
National Dental Hygiene Month
National Dessert Month
National Disability Employment Awareness Month
National Depression Education & Awareness Month
National Domestic Violence Awareness Month
National Ergonomics Month
National Fair Trade Month
National Family Sexuality Education Month
National “Gain The Inside Advantage” Month
National Go On A Field Trip Month
National Kitchen & Bath Month
National Liver Awareness Month
National Medical Librarian Month
National Orthodontic Health Month
National Pasta Month
National Physical Therapy Month
National Pickled Peppers Month
National Pizza Month
National Popcorn Poppin’ Month
National Pork Month
National Pretzel Month
National Protect Your Hearing Month
National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month
National Reading Group Month
National Roller Skating Month
National RSV Awareness Month
National Sarcastic Awareness MonthNational Sausage Month
National Seafood Month
National Spina Bifida Awareness Month
National Stamp Collecting Month
National Toilet Tank Repair Month
National Window Covering Safety Month
National Work and Family Month
National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Month
Organize Your Medical Information Month
Pear and Pineapple Month
Photographer Appreciation Month
Polish American Heritage Month
Positive Attitude Month
Raptor Month
Rett Syndrome Awareness Month
Rhizomes and Persimmons Month
Rhubarb Month
Right Brainers Rule! Month
Self-Promotion Month
Spinach Lovers Month
Squirrel Awareness Month Link (Different Than Squirrel Appreciation Day in January)
Tackling Hunger Month
Talk About Prescriptions Month
Vegetarian Month
Wishbones for Pets Month (10/15 – 11/30)
Workplace Politics Awareness Month
World Menopause Month

What will you be celebrating?

Happy Valentine's Day

25 Interesting Things You May Not Know About Valentine's Day

On this day: American history

With acknowledgment and thanks to The New York Times:

ON THIS DAY

On Feb. 25, 1870, Hiram R. Revels, Republican of Mississippi, became the first black member of the United States Senate as he was sworn in to serve out the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis.

Links:  REVELS, Hiram Rhodes - Biographical Information

Hiram R. Revels Biography

Hiram Rhodes Revels - Wikipedia

Quote of the day -- on age and life

"...as we get older, we come to see how useless it is to be selfish – how illogical, really.  We come to love other people and are thereby counter-instructed in our own centrality.  We get our butts kicked by real life, and people come to our defense, and help us, and we learn that we’re not separate, and don’t want to be.  We see people near and dear to us dropping away, and are gradually convinced that maybe we too will drop away (someday, a long time from now).  Most people, as they age, become less selfish and more loving.  I think this is true.  The great Syracuse poet, Hayden Carruth, said, in a poem written near the end of his life, that he was 'mostly Love, now.'”

--George Saunders, from his essay "Advice to Graduates

Valentine's Day II

Entertainment overnight -- Groundhog Day

Celebrating all Americans

And why, again, we need a Black History Month:

Bessie Coleman was an American civil aviator, the first female pilot of African American descent, and the first person of African American descent to have an international pilot license. She was born in 1892 in Texas, the tenth of thirteen children, and in school showed herself to be a lover of reading and mathematics. She enrolled in what is now Langston College in Oklahoma but was forced to return home due to lack of funds.

At 23, she moved to Chicago, where she heard stories from returning World War I pilots about flying during the war. Due to her race and gender, however, despite her interest in aviation, no American flight school or aviator would train her. Determined to become an aviator, Bessie went to France in 1920 and, a year later, earned her aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, becoming the first American of any gender to receive a license from that organization. She trained as a “barnstorming" stunt flier in order to make a living.

Known as “Queen Bess," she was well-known for her daredevil maneuvers, though her flamboyant style was often criticized by the press. Though offered a role in a film, when she learned that her first scene would show her in tattered clothes with a walking stick and pack, she walked off set rather than perpetuate the derogatory image of African Americans. In 1926, in preparation for an air show, her plane failed to pull out of a dive and began to spin, causing Bessie to be thrown from the plane, 2,000 ft. above the ground, killing her instantly. She was 34 years old. 

KCUR. Frank Morris and all our snow get big exposure

From and on NPR today:

Drought-Stricken Farmers 'Giddy' Over Heavy Snow

The snowstorms create some inconveniences for farmers, but they also bring much-needed water

by Frank Morris

Link: http://www.npr.org/2013/03/04/173241623/drought-stricken-plains-farmers-giddy-over-heavy-snow

More on Black History Month

Facts Celebrating Black History Month:

Fanny Jackson Coppin was an African American educator and missionary.

Born into slavery in Washington, DC in 1837; an a...unt purchased her freedom at the age of 12. Another aunt took the little girl in, but Fanny had to go out and work as a domestic, getting schooling whenever she could. By age fourteen, she was supporting herself in Newport, Rhode Island as a servant for author and Mayor George Henry Calvert, studying at every opportunity; struggling for education.

“ 'It was in me,' she wrote years later, 'to get an education and to teach my people. This idea was deep in my soul.' She attended Rhode Island State Normal School and then Oberlin College, where her achievements were amazing. She was the first black person chosen to be a pupil-teacher there. In her senior year, she organized evening classes to teach freedmen.

"After her graduation in 1865, Fanny Jackson was appointed to the Institute for Colored Youth, a Quaker school in Philadelphia. Within four years, she became head principal, from which position she influenced two generations of young people.

"In a letter to Frederick Douglass in 1876, she explained her commitment: 'I feel sometimes like a person to whom in childhood was entrusted some sacred flame…This is the desire to see my race lifted out of the mire of ignorance, weakness and degradation; no longer to sit in obscure corners and devour the scraps of knowledge which his superiors flung at him. I want to see him crowned with strength and dignity; adorned with the enduring grace of intellectual attainments.''

"Her school was centered on this dream. She expanded the curriculum to include an Industrial Department, established a Women’s Industrial Exchange to display the mechanical and artistic works of young women, and founded a Home for Girls and Young Women to house workers from out of town. Moreover, she persuaded employers to hire her pupils in capacities that would utilize their education.

"In the 37 years at the Institute, she trained some of the leaders of her race and helped to shape the patterns of Black education in the late 19th century.

"In later years, she accompanied her husband to Cape Town, South Africa, where she was an effective missionary, counseling African women. She returned to Philadelphia in 1907, broken in health but not in spirit. In her last years, she completed her autobiography "Reminiscences of School Life," which remains a record of a remarkable life. Fanny Jackson Coppin died in 1913 at age 76.

Link:  http://www.coppin.edu/info/200178/

Quote of the day

"...Prejudice and hatred built the nation’s slums, maintains them and profits by them…. Unless we start to fight and defeat the enemies in our own country, poverty and racism, and make our talk of equality and opportunity ring true, we are exposed in the eyes of the world as hypocrites when we talk about making people free."

--Shirley Chisholm, 1924-2005, First Black Congresswoman

 

Links:  Shirley Chisholm - Wikipedia

 

Shirley Chisholm Biography

 

The New York Times > Obituaries

 

Black Americans in Congress

 

Shirley Chisholm Quotes

The latest weather/snow forecast

 

Another Major Winter Storm... Starting Soon - Snowfall Forecast

*This forecast is subject to change. For the latest information, check back frequently for upda...tes*

SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

After looking at some fresh information, here is a look at our latest forecast regarding our next winter storm!

Our storm system will continue to dive southeastward from the Rockies today and will make its way eastward into the Texas Panhandle by the afternoon and evening. We are expecting snow to develop this afternoon across Western Kansas, although heavy snow is not expected. Some light freezing drizzle could accompany the snow with dry air aloft. The low will continue to push eastward tonight along the Oklahoma/Texas border with snow moving eastward across Western and Central Kansas. The low will undergo intensification as it moves into Central Oklahoma, which will lead to heavier snow development east of a line from Hays to near Liberal overnight tonight. The low will continue eastward with the heavier snow continuing eastward across Central and Eastern Kansas with lighter snow in Western Kansas on Monday. It is now becoming clear that heavy banding of snow could occur from South Central into portions of East Central and Northeast Kansas. The low will begin to push northeastward as it hits the Arklatex Region Monday night with snow ending by early Tuesday.

There is a chance that Southeast Kansas will see rain for most of this event before the heavy snow moves over the area Sunday night, which is why only 1-3 inches is shown in extreme Southeast Kansas. Heavy snow will come in to play for Southeast Kansas Monday night with 3-6 inches possible across much of Southeast Kansas.

As mentioned, the heavier snow is expected to fall east of a line from around Plainville to Liberal and into Central and Eastern Kansas where 6-12 inches is possible. Banding of heavier snow is expected to occur over South Central, East Central and Northeast Kansas where a foot or more of snow is currently expected.

3-6 inches is expected across portions of Southwest and North Central Kansas with lighter amounts of 1-3 inches over far Western Kansas as upper level dynamics do not look to support heavy snow at this time.

Gusty winds and blizzard conditions can be expected with this storm over Southern Kansas. Blowing and drifting of snow can be expected with the strongest winds occurring Monday and early Monday night. This will lead to low visibilities and possibly white out conditions which will make travel extremely difficult if not impossible.

Stay tuned...

 

Link: https://www.facebook.com/Capitalists/posts/487356071325006?comment_id=88418715#!/CirrusWeather?fref=ts

The latest snow prediction for Monday

Doubtful you're going to like this one, kiddies. (click on pic for better viewing, as ever).

 



From the US National Weather Service Kansas City Missouri:

 

This system is expected to bring light snow or rain showers to the area Sunday night through midday Monday, and accumulating snow from Monday afternoon through Tuesday. Although snowfall amounts are still uncertain, preliminary forecast amounts range from 5 to 10 inches across much of the area, with lesser amounts in far northwest Missouri, and the possibility of locally higher amounts in central Missouri. The track of this system can change, so please continue to monitor the forecast as we head into the weekend.

 

Have a great weekend, cats and kittens!  Enjoy it while you can.

The Kansas City weather forecast of the future?

I saw this weather prediction a few days ago:

Climate contradiction: Less snow, more blizzards

It seems appropriate for us, at least today.  We'll see how it plays out, of course.

Latest snow/weather forecast

 

Link: 41 Action Weather Blog