firenze sage—when is a corn pop not a corn pop? [breakfast cereal]

When is a corn pop not a corn pop?

 Kellogg’s will be redesigning Corn Pops cereal boxes after a complaint about racially insensitive art on the packaging.

The Battle Creek, Mich.-based cereal and snack maker said on Twitter Wednesday it will replace the cover drawing of cartoon characters shaped like corn kernels populating a shopping mall. The corn pop characters are shown shopping, playing in an arcade or frolicked in a fountain. One skateboards down an escalator.

What struck Saladin Ahmed was that a single brown corn pop was working as a janitor operating a floor waxer. Ahmed, current writer of Marvel Comics’ Black Bolt series and author of 2012 fantasy novel Throne of the Crescent Moon, took to Twitter Tuesday to ask, “Why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor? this is teaching kids racism.”

He added in a subsequent post: “yes its a tiny thing, but when you see your kid staring at this over breakfast and realize millions of other kids are doing the same…”

Kellogg’s responded to Ahmed on the social media network about five hours later that “Kellogg is committed to diversity & inclusion. We did not intend to offend – we apologize. The artwork is updated & will be in stores  soon.

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Firenze Sage writes:   Rice Krispies are anti Chinese ….  or is it cultural appropriation …. or maybe it is just breakfast?

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evil & history …. students know nothing important some say

  Students today know nothing  important some say.

According to Paglia, teachers at elite institutions are unable to see this decline in knowledge because their students often come from private schools and wealthy homes, which presumably still retain some elements of rigorous education.

The great majority of students, however, can be described in the following way:

“What has happened is these young people now getting to college have no sense of history – of any kind! No sense of history. No world geography. No sense of the violence and the barbarities of history. So, they think that the whole world has always been like this, a kind of nice, comfortable world where you can go to the store and get orange juice and milk, and you can turn on the water and the hot water comes out.

“They have no sense whatever of the destruction, of the great civilizations that rose and fell, and so on – and how arrogant people get when they’re in a comfortable civilization.

“They now have been taught to look around them to see defects in America – which is the freest country in the history of the world – and to feel that somehow America is the source of all evil in the universe, and it’s because they’ve never been exposed to the actual evil of the history of humanity. They know nothing!”

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Learning how to think is more important than “facts” and correctly circling the right answer on a multiple choice test.

Cameron Jackson

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Undocumented? Illegal? Go to East Palo Alto for full support services from the school district

Where to go if you are undocumented,  ‘homeless’ or need to ‘double up’ to keep housing costs down?

Go to East Palo Alto — just three miles from Stanford University.   The East Palo Alto  school district provides it all for ‘homeless’ students and their families: 3 meals a day, groceries, showers and overnight parking in a church lot.

East Palo Alto even  provides  an Uber or taxi if you need a ride to school.  

Families doubling up to keep housing costs down has long been a way of life in California.  Now, with the possibility of ICE enforcement more ‘homeless’ youth and their families  are ‘doubling up’ these days in the Bay Area.

East Palo Alto has the largest number of ‘homeless’ youth who are English language learners.

the above is written by Cameron Jackson.   Below is the complete story available in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel printed only part of its story in the print edition today, October 9, 2017.  Below is the complete story available online.

 

“The San Francisco Bay Area, with its Teslas, tech start-ups and $3,700 one-bedroom rents, is one of the most affluent regions in the country but also home to nearly 15,000 homeless children.

“Most of the students are in the urban areas, but they also live in the wealthy enclaves. They’re in Menlo Park, they’re in the San Ramon Valley, they’re even in Ross in Marin County, where the median household income tops $200,000. And they’re most certainly undercounted: parents report to schools whether their family is homeless, and they have plenty of reasons not to admit to it: fear of deportation, fear of the government taking their children away, and shame.

“According to the Department of Education, “homeless” means living in a car, motel, campsite, shelter, on the street or doubled up with other families due to financial hardship. In the Bay Area, most of those children are doubled up with other families, although in San Francisco hundreds are living on the street or in shelters.

The Bay Area has 420 school districts, charter schools and county offices of education in its nine counties, spread over 6,900 square miles from Cloverdale to Gilroy. But almost none have a higher percentage of homeless children than the Ravenswood City Elementary School District in East Palo Alto.

The Ravenswood district is less than 3 miles from Stanford University, yet has one of the highest percentages of homeless students in the state. More than 37 percent of the district’s 3,076 students are homeless, and of those, 96 percent live “doubled up” with other families, sharing a home or apartment or even a garage.

Nearly 88 percent of Ravenswood students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, and 64 percent are English learners.

The district receives some federal grant money to help these children, but “that’s just a drop in the bucket. A Band-aid,” said Superintendent Gloria Hernandez-Goff. “Paying for these services ends up being a huge encroachment into the general fund. But we do it because kids can’t learn if they’re hungry, if they’re tired, if they’re distracted or worried. Our schools need to be a safe place where families know their children are cared for.”

The district also gets extra funding under the state’s Local Control Funding Formula, which steers money to schools to serve high-needs students, including those who are homeless, low-income, English learners or in foster care.

East Palo Alto provides the following services:   Ravenswood provides three meals a day, plus snacks, to all students regardless of whether they’re homeless and arranges for a food bank to give regular, two-week supplies of groceries to parents. The district also provides free uniforms for students, washers and dryers on school campuses, full-time counselors at every school, and arranges for families to get free showers at the local YMCA. A nearby Catholic church allows families to sleep overnight in the parking lot.

Transportation costs:   Perhaps the biggest expense, Hernandez-Goff said, is transportation. Children who bounce between homeless shelters are legally entitled to free transportation to school, so the district will send buses, taxis or even Uber to deliver the children to school every day. Homeless families tend to move frequently, and sometimes find themselves at shelters 20 miles away. By law, homeless children can continue attending the same school without having to transfer to a new school every time their family moves.

“It’s expensive, but we patch things together,” she said. “The bottom line is, the thing that has always unified this country is public education. Schools have always stepped up to address the needs of students. It’s not just about books — it’s so much more.”

In Ravenswood, most of the homeless families are Latin American immigrants living with other immigrant families. But in San Francisco, state data show, roughly half of the city’s 1,984 homeless students live on their own: teenage runaways escaping abusive homes or violence elsewhere.

No one knows exactly where these students live in San Francisco, but 300 a night sleep at the Larkin Street Youth Services shelter. Hundreds of others sleep in parks or under freeways, on friends’ couches, or trade sex for a place to sleep, according to Larkin Street’s executive director, Sherilyn Adams.

Amazingly, some find a way to get to school every day.

“A lot of these kids are not visibly homeless, and they often don’t want you to know they’re homeless,” Adams said. “Adolescence is a time of blending in, not standing out. So these kids face a lot of shame, a lot of isolation. Trying to do school work while figuring out where they’re going to sleep every night — they have a lot on their plate.”

In addition to the shelter, Larkin Street provides medical and behavioral services, street outreach and a drop-in center. Another nonprofit, Hamilton Families, contracts with San Francisco Unified to provide after-school tutoring and activities, field trips, bus passes, uniforms and other services to more than 800 children annually in the city.

In the East Bay, Oakland Unified saw its number of homeless students shoot up from 400 in 2014-15 to 635 in 2015-16 to 901 in 2016-17, largely due to the escalating cost of housing, the district’s homeless coordinator, Trish Anderson, said.

“Those numbers are real,” she said. “Rents are too high, and people are losing their homes.”

Oakland Unified provides a one-stop shop of services for its homeless families, including food, referrals to shelters and help enrolling in Medi-Cal. The district also provides immediate enrollment to homeless students, allowing them to waive much of the paperwork, and bus service to school. Like San Francisco, Oakland has a significant number of homeless youth who aren’t living with their families. Some find emergency shelter at DreamCatcher, an eight-bed shelter that provides a range of services for students as long as they remain in school.

Just north of San Francisco, San Rafael City Schools in Marin County goes to great lengths to identify homeless children and train teachers to accommodate them. In 2016-17, the district reported 625 homeless children at its eight elementary schools, one of the highest rates in the state.

As is the case throughout California, lack of affordable housing is the primary cause for the high homeless rate in the area. Immigrant parents working in the restaurant, housekeeping or landscaping sectors cannot afford to rent an apartment, so they share space with other families. Median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in San Rafael is $3,080, almost three times the national average.

“We definitely have affordable housing issues. Unfortunately, that’s not something officials are moving very quickly on,” said Julia Neff, accountability coordinator for San Rafael City Schools. “But it’s the school district’s responsibility to meet these students where they are. We do what we can.”

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   The Sentinel frames their  story as one about ‘homelessness’.  It’s really a story about undocumented youth and their families.  And it’s really   a story about how CA is addressing the sanctuary city issues.  And it’s a story about borders and whether  America should  have borders. Remember that young woman killed by an illegal who had been deported 5 times from the USA.  That’s when there was a huge surge in support for control of our borders.

written by Cameron Jackson 10/9/2017     DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

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Hepatitis outbreak in CA — where do homeless people poop in Aptos & Santa Cruz CA?

Where do homeless people poop in Aptos & Santa Cruz County?  This is a major health hazard beter  managed with  easy access to  portable toilets.

But few portable toilets  exist in Aptos and nearby  Santa Cruz, CA.

Most of the time, the bathroom  doors are  locked at most Aptos churches and in  most public facilities.

Since plastic bags are now outlawed, homeless cannot readily clean up after themselves.  There are a few portable toilets  — but not many.

The California hepatitis A outbreak is on the verge of reaching statewide epidemic status, as cases have spread through homeless tent cities from San Diego north to Sacramento.

California health officials have reported that at least 569 people have been infected with the hepatitis A liver disease and 17 have died since a San Diego County outbreak was first identified in November. Cases have migrated north to homeless populations in Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Sacramento over the last 11 months.

Although local and state authorities have tried to underplay the risks and severity of the outbreak, the most recent annual totals for cases of hepatitis A in the United States was 1,390 in 2015, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). California only reported 179 cases during the same year.

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Aptos Psychologist Dr. Jackson writes:     Are portable toilets just one more thing that  taxpayers  have to pay for?  Looks like yes.   Human poop is a  major health hazard in CA.

How might  churches and other community organizations help control disease problems related to human poop?  Let’s get the issues on agendas of various Aptos and Santa Cruz community organizations.Will that really happen?  Mmmmm.

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written by Cameron Jackson   DrCameronJackson@gmail.colm

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The Palestinian way: Marry your rapist

     More than 50% of  Palestinians — men and women  — think a woman should marry her rapist. That seems bizarre and  outlandish  by Western standards. The picture to left  shows a group marriage of child brides in  Palestine.

Below is a picture of an 11 year old who was forced to marry her rapist.

 Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and Palestine have similar ‘marry-your-rapist laws.

 Egypt is the worst country for women in the Arab world, closely followed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen, according to gender experts surveyed in a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll.

 These are the results of a U.N. Women study which finds horrifying attitudes and behaviors toward women in the Muslim world.

 64% of “Palestinian” men say that women who dress provocatively deserve to be sexually harassed. 52% believe that women who are in public places at night are asking to be harassed.

57% think that a woman should marry her rapist and 47% believe that women who are honor killed for bringing “shame” to their families usually did something to deserve it.

A third of “Palestinian” men say that women who don’t wear hijabs deserve to be insulted.

And the women aren’t much better.

More “Palestinian” women than men justify sexual harassment in public places. 54% believe that a woman who was raped should marry her rapist. 41% don’t think he should be prosecuted.

43% of “Palestinian” women agree that women who are out in public at night deserve to be harassed.

Half the population knew of an honor killing that had taken place in their community in the previous year.

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 Firenze Sage writes:   More dross from the religion of peace. 

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what next? police investigate plastic wrap for possible “hate-bias”

police investigate  a piece of plastic wrap on street  as “possible hate-bias”

We have indeed lost our minds. Investigate plastic wrap because students report possible “hate-bias”? What next?

University of Maryland campus police launched an investigation into a discarded piece of plastic wrap Tuesday after receiving a report about a “possible hate-bias” incident.

“Out of an abundance of concern, we are looking into this matter and conducting a review of our cameras in the area,” the department informed students via email, though The Diamondback reports that some students were upset when officers initially dismissed the object as garbage.

“Earlier today, we were notified of a knotted piece of plastic wrap laying on the ground in the 7500 block of Baltimore Ave. Police were notified out of concern for possible hate-bias,” the campus police department stated in its report on the incident.

“Preliminary investigation reveals that this type of material is used to contain loose items during transport,” the report added, but said the matter would be reviewed further “out of an abundance of caution.”

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Firenze Sage:   Beware your saran wrap is out to get you.

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UCLA hires student advocates — to “educate” peers about ‘whiteness’ and ‘patriarchy’

 

UCLA Hiring Student ‘Social Justice Advocates’ to Fight Against ‘Whiteness’ and ‘Patriarchy’

 This is not a drill.  Big Brother is taking names.

The backlash against the University of Arizona hiring “social justice advocates,” hourly employees who, as part of their duties, would be watching and reporting other students for “bias incidents,” was swift and pointed. Arizona only responded by changing the creepy job title, which generated another round of criticism.

You might think the explosion of awful PR would serve as a warning for other schools — but you’d only think that if you haven’t been paying attention. The rest of you could have predicted that, say, UCLA wouldn’t want to be considered less “woke” than Arizona:

The University of California-Los Angeles is offering to pay students to serve as “Social Justice Advocates” who will “educate” their peers about “systems [of] oppression.”

The Social Justice Advocates program seeks students who want to help their classmates “navigate a world that operates on whiteness, patriarchy, and heteronormativity as the primary ideologies,” and comes with a quarterly stipend, the amount of which has yet to be determined.

“Social Justice Advocates will systems [of] oppression and how they intersect and build upon each other to maintain the status quo,” the description continues. “Most importantly individuals and the collective will be empowered through liberatory scholarship and practices and strengthening their emotional intelligence to create change within their spheres of influence.”

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Firenze Sage:  History majors alert. Remind the ignorant around you about who did this in the past.

 

 

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500 fainting couches needed — quick — at Orange Coast College in CA

fainting couches needed at Orange Coast College

 

Sociology professor bans Republican Club

Quick – we need 500 fainting couches over here.    

As Republican Club students  are not allowed to attend a  college discussion.
The  sociology professor cited an ‘expectation that this is a safe space event.’
A professor at Orange Coast College in California banned the school’s Republican Club from attending a public African American/Women’s round table discussion in March — apparently over “safe space” concerns.
Jessica Alabi, a sociology professor, apparently e-mailed three campus officials announcing that she would not allow the students to attend.
The e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Examiner, stated: Hi Kevin. I just told the Republican club that they could not come to the Curl Talk event. This event is an African American / Women’s round table discussion. I asked Vincent why was he doing this and I was very upset. He brought five people who kept saying that they were told that they could come to women’s history month events.  I just want everyone to be advised that the African American female students had and still have an expectation that this is a safe space event. If the college will not stand up to the Republican club, I have decided to stand up for myself and other students. Just wanted to keep you informed.
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Firenze Sage:   Sociology anyone??

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wood paneling oppresses students? oppressive to woodpeckers?

   

students think wood paneling is oppressive.

Wood paneling in student union oppresses students?   

 When the University of Michigan decided to renovate the century-old Michigan Union building, they thought it would be nice to get some input from students on the direction the renovations should take. In theory, not a bad idea.

 Unfortunately, the university forgot this is the outrage generation, and should have expected that a student would express concern that minorities are oppressed by FINISHED WOOD:

Anna Wibbelman, former president of Building a Better Michigan, an organization that voices student concerns about university development, stated at a student government meeting in late March that “ minority students felt marginalized by quiet, imposing masculine paneling” found throughout the 100-year-old building, the meeting’s minutes state.

“I believe it was an off-hand comment about how many students felt marginalized by the quiet nature of the building when they entered,” she told The College Fix via email.

It’s one thing to say you find certain architecture or design “oppressive,” as in stuffy or uncomfortable. It’s a whole different thing to call the walls racist.

This woman literally thought that students of a certain skin color would be freaked out by an old building. “Triggered” by architecture. And not even architecture that looks like a Klan hood or a penis. Just wood paneling.

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Firenze Sage:  Face it —  everything is racist until it isn’t.

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students act like tyrants? deny other students their voting rights…

alice in wonderlandStudents act like tyrants? My, my.

How some students deny other student’s their voting rights:

At Tufts, a group called Students for Justice in Palestine decided to place an anti-Israel divestment resolution on the school senate’s agenda on the evening before the Jewish holiday of Passover, at a time when many Jewish students would be unable to attend the student government meeting. More than 50 students emailed their “senators” urging them to postpone the vote until after the Jewish holiday. The senate ignored their request.

Similarly at Pitzer College, the student senate unexpectedly held a vote on Easter Sunday on whether to prohibit Student Activities Funds to be used for payment on goods or services from any corporation or organization associated with Israel. Many student senators were not present, and therefore unable to vote, due to their observance of Easter and Passover.

The resolution passed 22-0, with four abstentions.The author of the resolution claimed, absurdly, that the vote occurred on Easter Sunday and during Passover by coincidence. As for why she didn’t announce that the BDS measure would be taken up, the author admitted it was “because my intention was to have it pass.” “I have had enough intellectual conversation about why people disagree with me,” she explained

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Firenze Sage:  These folks have modeled themselves after the Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland).

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