Songs for Saturday: Turlough O’Carolan, The Blind Irish Harpist

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Chuck Stanley

By: Chuck Stanley

Turlough O'Carolan

Turlough O’Carolan

Some three hundred years ago, if you had the pleasure of meeting him, he would have toldyou his name was Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin.  There is only one known authentic picture of O’Carolan. Obviously, this is a painting, because photography had not been invented then

Turlough O’Carolan was born in the year 1670 near Nobber, County Meath, Ireland. His exact birth date has been lost in the mists of time. He died on March 25, 1738 in Alderford, County Roscommon. In his 68 years, he composed some of the most beautiful harp music, not only in Ireland, but in the world.

There is a lovely statue of O’Carolan in Mohill, County Leitrim, where he spent much of his life. The image is copyrighted, so here is a link to the photo.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

NOTICE: Trolls

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Gene Howington

It appears the Troll Patrol has returned to spam our feeds. Since they rotate IPs and email, we cannot catch them all. Nonetheless, we are updating our blacklist as needed and – although not entirely in our control – we do apologize for thier trash cluttering the feeds. The Rules exist to give us the tools to take out the trash. So please pardon the mess while we clean house.

Gene Howington
Editor-in-Chief, Flowers for Socrates

Posted in FFS Update(s), Trolls | 8 Comments

Propaganda 104 Supplemental: Vizzini and “Terrorism” (Case Study) UPDATED

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Gene Howington

551px-Humpty_Dumpty_TennielBy Gene Howington

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”

― Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

As previously discussed, language depends upon words having commonly accepted agreed upon meanings. One of the key tactics of propagandists is mislabeling. Humpty Dumpty knew all about the power and purpose of mislabeling.

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Posted in Christianity, Fundamentalism, Government Propaganda, Islam, Media, Murder, Propaganda, Racism, War on "Terror" | 16 Comments

Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Has Reportedly Asked the FBI to Investigate a Threatening Tweet He Allegedly Received from the Son of a Mexican Drug Lord Who Escaped from Prison

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

DonaldTrumpElChapo

John Santucci of ABC News reported yesterday that presidential candidate Donald Trump had asked the FBI “to look into a threatening tweet he received in the wake of a post on the social network he wrote about Mexican drug lord El Chapo, who recently escaped from prison.” Sources told ABC that “The Donald” had “contacted the FBI’s Office in Manhattan on Monday.” Santucci added that Trump had been “tweeting about El Chapo’s escape to bolster his claims on immigration and border security.”

Neetzan Zimmerman (The Hill) noted that “Donald Trump’s victory lap over the recent escape of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman was interrupted Monday by a death threat issued from a Twitter account allegedly belonging to the notorious Mexican drug lord’s son.”

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Posted in Conservatives, Countries, DHS, Government, Humor, Immigrants, Immigration, Mexico, Politics, Propaganda, Society, United States | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Harper Lee Announces Third Novel, ‘My Excellent Caretaker Deserves My Entire Fortune’

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Bob Stone

1280

Finally, someone said it! 

From The Onion:  

NEW YORK—Shocking the literary world once again, acclaimed author Harper Lee announced through her publisher Tuesday the surprise release of her third novel, My Excellent Caretaker Deserves My Entire Fortune.

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Posted in Humor, Literature | 3 Comments

Justice Antonin Scalia: The Bard of the Bench? (With a Mark Fiore Political Cartoon Video)

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

Award-winning political cartoonist Mark Fiore said that it only seemed fitting “to use Antonin Scalia’s own words for a poetry slam, since the justice’s snarky dissents are filled with so many poetic gems.”  Fiore noted that the “Affordable Care Act victory was followed quickly by the same-sex marriage win, and Scalia’s dissents have become increasingly irate and colorful.”

Fiore:

Turns out, trying to bring health insurance to millions of people in the United States is not illegal and neither is letting two people who love each other get married.  Go figure.  Once the fulminating conservatives cool off, hopefully health insurance and marriage will become boring again and we’ll look back on this and laugh.

Though Scalia had some wins this Supreme Court term, it’s fascinating to see how unhinged he becomes in his dissenting opinions.  Amazingly, he even dissented while concurring!  As a cartoonist, I love this guy.  As a citizen, not so much.  Enjoy your Obamacare, go get married no matter who you love and be sure to enjoy the sputtering frustration of Scalia…

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Posted in Conservatives, Constitutional Law, Courts, Government, Health Care, Homosexual Rights, Humor, Jurisprudence, Poetry, Politics, SCOTUS, Short Video, United States | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

New Jersey High School Teacher Who Harassed His Students with Racial, Religious, and Homophobic Slurs Loses Appeal

Posted on July 11, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

schoolroom1By Elaine Magliaro

Justin Zaremba (NJ.com) reported this morning that Emilio Perez, a former New Jersey high school teacher who had been “convicted of harassing students using racial, religious and homophobic slurs lost his appeal Friday and will continue to be barred from teaching in a  New Jersey public school.” Zaremba said that Perez, who had been a computer teacher at the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical High School, “was convicted in 2013 of harassing four students and forced to forfeit his teaching license, both of which were the subject of his appeal.”

Zaremba:

According to the appellate court ruling, Perez made numerous harassing statements to students including:

– Insulting a Jewish student by saying “go count your money, that’s all you’re good for,” using expletives to refer to the student, insulting him for celebrating Chanukah, and telling the student to pick a coin off the floor because he’s Jewish.

– Calling an African-American girl “ghetto” and saying “we all know that black people steal.”

– Calling a student by a homophobic slur.

It was Perez’s behavior, according to the court, that caused a student to cut her wrists and another to harbor suicidal thoughts.

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Posted in Courts, Education, New Jersey, United States | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

The Guardian Reports That US Torture Doctors Could Possibly Face Charges after Report Alleges Post-9/11 ‘Collusion’

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

streckbettBy Elaine Magliaro

Last December, I wrote a post about James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, two psychologists who worked as interrogation advisers for the CIA. Mitchell and Jessen, both former members of the military, helped the government agency “implement its brutal interrogation program targeting detainees in the war on terror…” According to the Senate torture report, the psychologists were generously remunerated for services rendered. They were paid $81 million.

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Posted in CIA, Government, United States, War on "Terror" | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments

POETRY FRIDAY: “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

Paul Laurence Dunbar Circa 1890

Paul Laurence Dunbar
Circa 1890

SYMPATHY
By Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!

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Posted in Art, Equal Rights, Poetry, Racism, United States | Tagged , | 1 Comment

From the Equal Justice Institute: “Slavery to Mass Incarceration”–An Animated Short Film by Artist Molly Crabapple

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Elaine Magliaro

EJIBy Elaine Magliaro

On Tuesday, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) released a new video–an animated short film by acclaimed artist Molly Crabapple, with narration by Bryan Stevenson–that “paints slavery in the stark terms in which it existed…hundreds of years in the United States.” The video illustrates the history of American slavery – “a permanent hereditary system…tied to race” – “through Jim Crow discrimination and more recent injustices that are the legacy of that dark past.”

EJI:

The film illustrates facts about American slavery and the elaborate mythology of racial difference that was created to sustain it. Because that mythology persists today, slavery did not end in 1865, it evolved. Its legacy can be seen in the presumption of guilt and dangerousness assigned to African Americans, especially young men and boys, the racial profiling and mistreatment that presumption creates, and the racial dynamics of criminal justice practices and mass incarceration.

Travis Gettys (Raw Story):

It lays out the atrocities of the slave trade, which continued through the Civil War – and persisted afterward as punishment for black Americans accused of crimes.

Black Americans are routinely presumed guilty, an inversion of one of the constitution’s foundational principles, and imprisoned at a higher rate than whites, even for the same crimes, and police are far more likely to use violence against black suspects.

Slavery to Mass Incarceration

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Posted in American History, Art, Civil War, Democracy, Equal Rights, Government, Justice, Political Science, Racism, Short Video, Society, United States | Tagged , | 6 Comments