Black USDA official resigns after saying she only 'did enough' for white farmer

There’s no doubt in my mind that racism is rampant in this country. Here’s just another example. Anyone can be a racist, regardless of their color. This nation doesn’t really want a “national dialogue” on race relations. Americans tend to hide behind false facades regarding racial equality publically, but privately many have issues with people of another color. Be it black, brown, yellow, or white. 

                                                                                                 

A black USDA official in Georgia has resigned after publicly admitting she didn't help a white man trying to save his farm to the "full force" of her power and instead referred him to "one of his own."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack accepted Shirley Sherrod's resignation, saying there was "zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA."

EMT accused of ignoring dying NYC woman is killed

Authorities say an emergency medical technician accused of refusing to help a dying pregnant woman during his coffee break was fatally shot near a New York City nightclub.

Police believe those accusations and the shooting were unrelated. I can’t help wondering if they were related, as in a relative (or friend) of the woman who died, getting revenge.

As It Stands: Reverse outsourcing: Americans taking international online jobs

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 07/18/2010 01:27:30 AM PDT

If you listen to or read national news, you've probably noticed stories about the economy doing better. Bean-counters in high places point at polls, statistics and other divining devices to assure us things are looking up.

At ground level, the average American still struggles to find a job, or to keep a job with additional duties due to downsizing with no extra pay. It's not a pretty picture regardless of what Wall Street thinks.

Stock traders live in a warped version of Disneyland where people make money without selling a real product. While their view from Cinderella's castle is rosy, most Americans are struggling.

So where will jobs come from? What can people do to make money when the economy is so tight and jobs are more scarce than untainted seawater in the Mexican Gulf coast? You may be surprised at the answer.

A couple of years ago I wrote a column about the outsourcing of American jobs, in particular about newspapers that had to lay off full-time American employees and outsource their jobs to countries like India and the Philippines. Now, in an interesting reversal, Americans job seekers are finding overseas work.

I don't know if that's a good thing. I'll leave that up to you. Corporations and small businesses in Australia, China, India, Pakistan and the U.K. are hiring U.S. workers online. Websites like Elance, oDesk, People Per Hour and Sologig are providing workers for these countries. Quality workers at bargain basement wages. READ THE REST HERE.

UPDATE:

Here’s some web sites that have picked up today’s column:

ONLINE JOBS

Nearshore Journal

Go4Outsourcing

 BizOpZine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.gyancallingcard.net/site/online-jobs/why_opt_for_online_jobs.php

Bummer: New Mexico faces medical marijuana shortage

State's small number of providers can't grow enough to meet demand

Len Goodman can't grow enough marijuana to keep up with demand.

He is one of just 11 growers approved by New Mexico to produce pot for all of the state's 2,000 registered medical marijuana patients, and his customers routinely wipe out his supply. Once a strain of marijuana is harvested, dried and cured, he sends an announcement that patients can place orders, and the pot is usually gone in 24 hours.

Tale of the monkey terrorists who shoot at American uniforms

The Taliban's training monkeys to gun down Americans? It's a bogus claim that's sparked some serious (and not-that-serious) fact-checking.

People's Daily Online started the monkeyshines in China a couple of weeks ago, with a report claiming that the Afghan Taliban was using bananas and peanuts in an experiment to teach monkeys how to fire machine guns and mortar rounds at soldiers wearing U.S. military uniforms.

The report even said the program was modeled after a CIA effort to train "monkey soldiers" during the Vietnam War, and quoted an unnamed U.S. military source as confirming the existence of the Taliban monkeys.

The fallout has been as hilarious as the original story: Taiwan-based Next Media Animation, which churns out CGI parodies like The Onion on ginseng, put together a video report on the killer monkeys. Over at Stars and Stripes, Jeff Schogol (the Rumor Doctor) went so far as to check with NATO officials, Chinese Embassy officials and a primatologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Schogol turned up no hard evidence of monkey mayhem, although primatologist Christopher Coe said he had heard unsubstantiated reports of monkeys being trained to jump into enemy trenches carrying grenades when India and Pakistan were at war.

Warning for Pet Owners: short-snouted dogs most likely to die on planes

 

Bulldogs, pugs, similar breeds made up about half of deaths in past 5 years

That cinches it! I was never comfortable with the idea of putting dogs in the cargo bay of a plane. When I read this article I immediately thought of my Pug Millie. Oh the horror!

Anyone that has read any of my stuff over the last three years knows that; one, I have a Pug named Millie, and two, I hate traveling by plane. Here’s one column to give you an idea of how I feel about planes: “Traveling by airplane, or fear and loathing in the not so ‘friendly’ skies” 

PHOTOS: left, Millie the Pug, and on the right there’s an unidentified Bull Dog via AP wire.

 

Get fired up for the next ‘Burning Man’ happening

I found a great resource for all things to do with the ‘Burning Man’ event. The name of the site is “Brave New Traveler”  and it has a lot of information and great photos by Ian MacKenzie.

 I’ve never been to this interesting event in the Black Rock Desert, but I read about it every summer. If it wasn’t so darn hot I think I’d consider going to it – at least once. I’m an old 60s era hippie (who’s 60) who still digs happenings like this.  

Golden State Warriors sold for record $450 million

Golden State Warriors owner Chris Cohan reached an agreement Thursday to sell the franchise for a record $450 million to Boston Celtics minority partner Joe Lacob and Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber.

I doubt this ownership change will make any difference. Just look at the starting lineup for next year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them finish in the league cellar again – something they’ve been doing regularly for decades. Who knows? Maybe they’ll win more games than last year just because there’s new owners to impress.

See early Kodachrome Images from the Great Depression

When we think of America during the Great Depression, we often picture it in shades of grey.  It was a grim era and nearly all of the photographs we see are in black and white.

Color presents an entirely different image. Go here to see numerous color photos taken during the Great Depression. It’ll take a couple of minutes to read the captions and view all of the photos, but it’s worth it for nostalgia nuts like me.

This is one of Dorothea Lange’s most famous photographs - a destitute mother in a migrant farm worker camp in California.

Lange was one of the many talented WPA photographers who recorded the history and conditions of the Depression across the United States.

Porky Pig allegedly beaten up at Six Flags theme park

Off-duty Six Flag employees accused of attacking dressed-up co-worker

Is nothing sacred? How could someone attack an iconic pig?

The clowns who attacked the worker wearing the Porky Pig outfit tried to lie their way out of it, but witnesses busted them.

Tha..tha..tha…That’s all folks!

Forget the war on marijuana - prescription drug abuse skyrocketing

400 percent rise in those admitted for treatment, government study says

U.S. officials reported a 400 percent increase over 10 years in the proportion of Americans treated for prescription painkiller abuse and said on Thursday the problem cut across age groups, geography and income.

The dramatic jump was higher than treatment admission rates for methamphetamine abuse, which doubled, and marijuana, which increased by almost half, according to figures from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.