Monday, July 12

Lesson Learned...





Education and Careers

Many people think that a college education is the only direction in which a high school graduate can go if they want to have a successful career without deciding to enter the military and spending 20 years in a military uniform and hope that you will not get killed in some foreign conflict...  of course, this is a biased opinion...  and, there is nothing wrong with a military career and perhaps the safest place to be is in the AIR FORCE and doing something on the ground...  like a mechanic...


However, if you decide that college is where you want to go...  then consider this advice...  Go to a Community College for your first two years...  

Reasons:

  1. Much cheaper
  2. Your first two years are BS General Ed courses
PLUS - if you happen to live in TN, your first two years are paid for by the Government of TN as a thank you for living here.  Talk about cheap...

Now, that you have your first two years out-of-the-way, any damn college in the nation (including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton) is likely to accept you for your 3rd and 4th years because the competition is less...

SECOND PIECE OF ADVICE
After you graduate, look for a job up North...  and yes, it is much colder up there than in the South but the wages and salaries are much higher as is the cost of living...  however, if you are not butt ass ugly and stupid, you can live relatively inexpensively for the first 10-12 years...  now, you are about 35 years of age...

Transfer or relocate down South...  Take your over-priced home and sell it and buy the same size house for 1/2 the price and save the rest in a tax free retirement account or open up an account in the Caymans that is not subject to US taxes.

Once you relocate, your salary may drop a little but you will still be making more than you really need, especially in East TN where the cost-of-living is 15-21% less than anywhere else (on average) in the USA...

ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE BIT OF FRIGGIN' COMMON SENSE AND PLANNING...

Karma


 

2009 Brooke Cosworth Double R Roadster











Critical Race Theory

Core Components:

1. The centrality and intersectionality of racism. Racism exists everywhere in American life –from within our own thoughts, to our personal relationships, to our places of work, to our educational and judicial systems. CRT says that racism isn’t just the actions of individuals but that it’s embedded in our institutions, systems, and culture. It is our way of life.
2. The challenge to dominant ideology. In law and other arenas there is a belief that concepts like neutrality, objectivity, colorblindness, and meritocracy can be fully actualized. CRT says, “not so fast, how can one be truly neutral on issues of race when racism is baked into the fabric of America?”.
CRT pointed out that claims of objectivity and color blindeness can be ways in which dominant groups camouflage their interests in order to get what’s best for them
3. The commitment to social justice. CRT as a framework acknowledges how all oppression interrelates and focuses on eradicating racism and other forms of oppression by centering People of Color and taking a stance on issues of social justice. People of Color have been fighting before this country was formed for justice and this has never stopped in some form or fashion.
4. The importance of experiential knowledge. CRT says that the lived experiences of People of Color however expressed (storytelling, family history, biographies, scenarios, parables, cuentos, chronicles, narratives) are crucial to understanding racism and oppression, that they are necessary in our quest for liberation. From the academic, to legal, to activist arenas lived experience must be taken seriously.
5. The use of an interdisciplinary perspective. CRT draws from many different fields in order to create a powerful and nuanced framework for engaging with race and racism. There is no one answer, no one discipline, no one path to freedom. CRT says let’s use all the tools in the toolbox to help educate folks so we can get free.


Documented Slavery Pages Found

About 2,000 pages of historical documents related to the lives of free and enslaved Black Americans from the 1600s to 1800s were discovered in the attic of a house in Maryland. The 200-year-old house was being demolished, and the papers were put up for sale by a local auction house.  Historians and members of the local Black community raised funds to preserve the documents and archive them for the public.

Thousands of papers, some documenting the auction and sale of enslaved Black Americans, were headed for the auction block themselves before Black historians and community members stepped in to reclaim ownership over their past.



“It was important to the community because this will connect the dots for people and the younger generation, to let them know how things were. To move forward, you have to see what the past was like,” said Carolyn Brooks, a community historian with the Chesapeake Heartland Project.

About 2,000 pages dating from the late 1600s to early 1800s were found in a plastic trash bag in the attic of a 200-year-old house near Chestertown, Md., as the owner, Nancy Bordely Lane, was cleaning it out this spring. The foundation of the house, built in 1803 on property that had remained in the family since 1667, was reportedly damaged and the structure was going to be demolished. The documents were headed for the garbage, but were rescued and delivered to Dixon’s Crumpton Auction in waxed seafood boxes, John Chaski, an antique-manuscript expert, told the Washington Post.

Darius Johnson, a Washington College alum, was one of several people who saw pictures of the documents up on the auction house’s Facebook page. After moving back to Kent County from Baltimore, Johnson became part of the Chesapeake Heartland project at Washington College, in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and local partners. For him, the documents couldn’t have shown up at a better time.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

GOOG MORNING M O N D A Y


 

The Serenity Prayer


 

Quantum Physics

Once again, quantum physics is calling our concept of reality into question.

If you are familiar with quantum physics, you know that on very tiny scales, the Universe is very weird. Particles act like particles and waves at the same time. An electron may be in one location, and then suddenly in another location, without ever passing through a point between those two spots. Or even a single particle can interact with itself.

But on the macroscopic scale, things are more “normal”. At least, we think. But perhaps quantum physics also affects us, as macroscopic observers. And recent research published in Nature Physics says for even macroscopic observers, quantum physics may call our reality into question.

Tenets Of Reality That Are True... Or Are They?
As macroscopic observers, we can say three things about reality.  TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE...

It's Never Too Early For Coffee


 

Sunday, July 11

Common Sense


 

Country Living

There are many more people living in the city and/or cities than there are living in the country...  and, like John Denver said, "thank God I'm a country boy..."  But, living in the country in Virginia or Kentucky of Mississippi, or Arkansas is very much different than living in the country in Tennessee, especially East Tennessee between Bristol (Bristol Motor Speedway) and Knoxville but not all the way southwest to Chattanooga.

From www.oyster.com:  Great Smoky Mountains Is America's Most Popular National Park. ... More than nine million people visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year, making it the most popular national park in the United States. It even beats the Grand Canyon, which comes in second and annually attracts about five million travelers.


And...  from where I live in East Tennessee, the Great Smoky Mountains is only about 40-60 minutes away, depending upon traffic and day-of-the-week.

It beats living in a Vertical Forest like the photo above...


Government


Summertime


 

Clueless


Diamond and Silk


 

ALLEGEDLY


A Few Sunday Funnies

 















SANFU




Time to Laugh a Little