TMV has been experiencing some duendes (goblins, in Spanish) who have been stealing slippers and making the Chicago River green when it isnt St Patty’s, and messing with the hoists and levers in our posts and commenting sections. Our IT guy Tyrone says as we get closer to elections too, the hacking attempts have increased. And as of just a few minutes ago, he thinks it is all reset now onsite, so hopefully you wont experience any more glitches. My Ed. in Chief and I are ‘freeing’...

More from my files of refugees. Why do I collect these sad images? To not forget the Catholics, Jews, Roma, the halt, the elderly, the ill, the mentally challenged, the crippled, the mothers pregnant, the men and women who died protecting others who were killed anyway. To not ever forget. And to tell the stories, often by just showing the photo. And because my family is a family of refugees. These are Hungarian refugees, torn from their homes by the Nazis and whomever left, later marched away from...

The hidden history of WWII, and more recently Kosovo is gravely mis-stated. I collect images of those who tried to survive in near impossible circumstances of no food, not even a bandage, no privacy for their bodies, no ability to speak out without literally being shot to death on the spot. And even NOT speaking out, being taken to a mass grave site and shot anyway. Let us pray for all those of our world who are walking this path today. There are millions. And meanwhile let us not let the petty pass...

There is beauty for those who have the eyes to see it. There is peace for those who have the ears to listen to the facts about what beauty endures.

I collect and look at black and white photos, garage sale cast offs, collections of oddities of our world that someone chose to immortalize in what used to be called ‘film.’ This is a photo of two men piling spent howitzer shells at a sandbagged gun emplacement at Song Be. On the back of the photo is writ: Song Be, less than a hundred miles from Siagon, near the Cambodian border… US 1st infantry. What is not written is these gunners on the ground who have direct contact with gunfire,...

Warren Buffett bought 63 daily and weekly newspapers in the Southeast for $142 million from financially troubled Media General Inc. of Richmond, Va. Buffett said he might buy more newspapers. “Any time we can add properties we like, to management we like, at a price we like, we’re ready to go.” The newspapers are in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida. “In towns and cities where there is a strong sense of community, there is no more important institution than...

Homicides Los Angeles: Jan. 1, 2007 to April 30, 2012 about 25% our very young… age 17-23 are part of this stat of nearly 4000 murders over 5.5 years’ time. By cause Blunt force 234 Gunshot 3,013 Other 180 Stabbing 412 Strangled 42 Unspecified 93 By race or ethnicity Latino 2,027 Black 1,273 White 475 Asian 128 Other 40

I rarely ask you to read a long piece all the way through. I hope you will take a few minutes, and take a deep breath and read or pray (or if you’d like to cut to the chase, go to the last two stories at the bottom of the page) through these four stories within stories here with me in honor of MOTHER EARTH DAY. I thought to break these four good stories to you, up into four posts, but want you to have the benefit of what I work hard at in my signature style, that is, to tell ‘the story...

Tonight, Piers, whom I adore for being a shy outspoken reserved iconoclastic darling curly haired boyish mensch… cozied up to the Ann Romney statement (via Ann’s son coming on his show to defend his mother), refuting Miss Hilary Rosen’s remark inferring that Mrs Romney’s no expert on the lives of women, not having to work a day in her life. Just this Piers: Ann said over and over and over (in film clips today shown also on CNN) ‘Women CHOOSE”… “Some...

With some context about Ann Romney’s early life as wife and mother…. Mitt legally sidestepped the Vietnam military draft by entering college and then by marrying and then by having children right away. Back then, for those who knew of these deferments and had family who would sometimes help with college, it was a path many took, and it was considered differently depending on who was looking… the sons of the poor= expendable…. those sons who might amount to something=protected....

The announcement of second-degree murder which if found guilty of charge =25 years min without parole to life without parole. You cannot charge first-degree without going to a grand jury in Florida. She threw the book, it seems. Has to show a depraved attitude toward Trayvon in order to make a 2nd degree stick. The full evidences will tell the story. Florida has ‘sunshine law’… hold yourself tight for more potential circus if the judge as we’ve seen in past highly publicized/televised...

Mike Wallace was born Myron Wallace. His family’s surname was originally Wallechinsky. He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Russian Jewish parents Frank and Zina Wallace (neé Sharfman). His dad was hardworking and ambitious as a grocer and insurance broker. They sent their son through high school and then University of Michigan, where he graduated in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Mike was what used to be called ‘a frat boy,’ a member of the Alpha Gamma Chapter of...

Dear Brave Souls: That is just the signature greeting I use in my work as an author to speak to others on my facebook page and in my spoken word audio and books… because it is how I see most often, and also to offset the proliferation in our cultures of the too often seen, ‘listen here you s.o.b.’ Thus, Dear Brave Souls: There are many festivals and holy rituals at this time of year: One is Passover: The release from slavery in a land not of one’s own making, a time to remember...

So. Today is the anniversary of a voice silenced by hatred. Martin Luther King was assassinated this day 44 years ago. Martin King, denounced hate. I love Martin. Mainly because he left in his Letter from Birmingham Jail the four points to overturn injustice time and again… and the foremost was “self-purify” ourselves before we go making demands. THis– self purification before demands– is left out of most every moviemiento that starts strong, falters, falls into factions,...

I think well trained Dispatchers are in fact, multi-talented people who know about de-escalating situations when possible, and getting the stock rolling to help whenever possible. I just bolded aspects of the job I found interesting, or hadnt known about or understood before. Yours might be similar or different… The Job The Emergency Dispatcher receives complaints from public concerning crimes and police emergencies. Then the Emergency Dispatcher broadcasts orders to police patrol units in...

I’ve been self employed for 42 years. When I see 3 weeks paid vacation… it is slightly tempting … but in a whole other way, I sense three weeks’ vacation per year for a Emergency Communications Specialist is gratefully embraced and perhaps ought, just for rest and restoration’s sake, to be three weeks vacation TWICE a year. Orlando Police Department Communications Center Equal Employment Opportunity Plan The Orlando Police Department Communications Division is a state...

Citizens experiencing a true emergency phone 911 to talk to a dispatcher. By quickly determining the situation and location, a 911 dispatcher is able to communicate the necessary information to fire fighters, police officers or other emergency response technicians. Becoming a 911 dispatcher involves a lengthy application process followed by a three to six month training program. Continuing education is a necessary requirement for individuals in this vocation. How to Become a 911 Dispatcher in Five...

1. ARBITRATOR: A cook that leaves Arby’s to work at McDonalds 2. AVOIDABLE: What a bullfighter tries to do 3. BERNADETTE: The act of torching a mortgage 4. BURGLARIZE: What a crook sees with 5. CONTROL: A short, ugly inmate (I had to think about this one. . . but got it!) 6. COUNTERFEITERS: Workers who put together kitchen cabinets 7. ECLIPSE: What an English barber does for a living 8. EYEDROPPER: A clumsy ophthalmologist 9. HEROES: What a guy in a boat does 10. LEFTBANK: What the robber did...

We can speak of race. And yet, I can see assasinations by mentally ill and armed people… any armed person with an unbalanced mind, any person with poor judgment who is given a firearm … that the issue of who is target is not toward one race. One would have to ignore even a year’s or twenty years’ history in the US alone to think a shooting of a person of any race has only to do with race. Armed and mentally ill who also think ‘those blacks, those latinos, those hippies,...