Friday Evening Thread: Freaky Friday

I’m so glad to be indoors finally. It wouldn’t be so bad, if the dam snow wasn’t blowing every which way.

Alright Scandal fans, you’ve won!!! You’ve broken me down. Since I can’t make it home for Mardi Gras, soon as my sofa gets delivered, the first thing ima do is sit on down and I’m try to catch on to Scandal. I think I can get it free on my Amazon Prime account. You’ve won damn you, you’ve won!

I sense a theme with these videos…

Disabled goldfish swims with harness (VIDEOS)

A “buoyancy-challenged” goldfish is given a helping hand by its owner. In a video that’s gone viral, the disabled fish named Ada is seen swimming around an aquarium in a little wheelchair of sorts — a handmade harness that keeps her upright and prevents her from sinking to the bottom, CNET reported.

Turns out, the video was uploaded by YouTube user synirr in December 2010, but didn’t make its way around the Web until being posted on Geekologie.com this week.[....]

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/disabled-goldfish-swims-harness-videos

H/T Sarah Wolfe

CAUGHT: Whistleblower Reveals Silicon Valley Start-Up Paid Workers $2.66 Per Hour … In Pesos (VIDEO)

Bad news for cheap bosses and the GOP, good news for workers – Obama’s U.S. Department of Labor actually enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act.[....] As previously reported by Kurhi, the leading Sunnyvale, CA clean energy start-up had been underpaying 14 Mexican contract workers for two years, at the equivalent of $2.66 per hour in pesos.[....] Oh, and the workers often toiled over 50 hours per week and received no overtime pay. Kurhi’s colleague Brandon Bailey also reports that the workers were here on visitors’ visas, “which generally don’t allow [visa] holders to work while they are here.”

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wages and Hours division — via signed court order from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh — ordered Bloom Energy to pay $31,922 in back wages, $31,922 in damages, and $6,160 in civil penalties ($70,004.00 total). The Department of Labor requires minimum wage and overtime to be paid regardless of the workers’ immigration status.[....]

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/02/08/silicon-valley-start-up-caught-paying-workers-in-pesos/

H/T Elisabeth Parker

Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill To Strengthen America’s Mental Health System

As part of a wide-ranging effort to address gun violence in the wake of December’s mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a bipartisan group of senators has introduced the Excellence In Mental Health Act, legislation that aims to strengthen America’s mental health safety net by providing behavioral health care facilities more access to federal funding and consolidating disparate elements of the U.S. mental health safety net.[....]

[....] It is also encouraging that the bill includes mental health resources for veterans and substance abusers. Military suicides reached a record high in January, and substance abusers — as a group — are among the most likely to suffer from a co-occurring mental illness.[....]

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/08/1563311/bipartisan-mental-health-bill/

H/T Sy Mukherjee

miranda — – -FEBRUARY 8, 2013-KKK —***shakin my head***

— KKK plans huge rally in Memphis, Tennessee – -

—- -The Ku Klux Klan says it is planning the largest rally ever held in Memphis, Tennessee.

— – Though the bloodiest war on American soil was fought 150 years ago, racially tinged discord flared before its City Council voted this week to strip Forrest’s name from the downtown park and call it Health Sciences Park. It also voted to rename Confederate Park as Memphis Park and Jefferson Davis Park as Mississippi River Park. (ABC Chicago) — -

– — –<b<LOL – - -DEY -MAD!! – - -LOL – –

– - — OMG! – - -SAD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: – — ***head bow*** – –

— – Jazz Legend Donald Byrd Dead At 80 —

- —- –Influential jazz icon Donald Byrd (pictured) died Monday at the age of 80. The trumpeter’s passing was confirmed by his nephew, Alex Bugnon, and the cause of death is undisclosed, reports U.K.’s The Guardian.

Enjoy “Happy Music” here:
THERE IS MORE. – - — –***tears**** annnnd —***smiles***

— –RIHEP –THANK U 4 YOUR SPECIAL MUSIC —-

- – –CONDOLENCES 2 FAMILY/FRIENDS/FANS — ***raises hand*** –AMEN

miranda — — -ANOTHER 1: :>) –Miami – Party Freaks – -:>) – - -

THIS – - —- By the time I could –CHECK IN – —I could ONLY do a —***rap pose*** – AT DA END!! — LOL – - -

— – -Freaks & Geeks – Dru Classic – — – WHEW LAWD!! :>) –

POU FAM♥ — — -DORNER is a – - -”DEAD MAN WALKING.”- -

—Somehow I’m thinkin’ that he told somebody of his THOUGHTS.—-annnd that he was ignored.—– – -TRAGIC!!—-

—- – -PRAYIN’ 4 the VICTIMS/FAMILIES. AMEN. — -

miranda – - -IMMA jus’ — – -***shake my head*** – - -LOL — -

– — -Freak Of The Week (Parliament & Funkadelic) - — – - WHEW LAWD! – - -:>) – -

miranda — – - -RE: – — Matiba NELSON MANDELA: – — – -

– - –Nelson Mandela’s granddaughters talk new reality show ‘Being Mandela’- –

– - — -Being Mandela stars Nelson and Winnie Mandela’s granddaughters Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway and Swati Dlamini. The series will give viewers a window into the daily lives of their close-knit family, and showcase some of their conflicts and personal aspirations.
“We realized this would be a great showcase for our country. We didn’t only just produce Nelson Mandela,” Swati said during an interview with theGrio.

Highlights include their first ever visit to Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. While there, the sisters see the jail cell where their grandfather lived, and also toured the limestone quarry where he worked.
THERE IS MORE. – — – [CURIOUS: ---Let him know. ] –

I’ve been meaning to share this with you fam but have been swamped with work.

Regarding the National Prayer Service on Thursday and the guest speaker Dr. Ben Carson.

I always suspected Dr. Carson had a chip on his shoulder and in spite of his professional accomplishments, an inferiority complex he never seemed to quite shake.

I remember watching him as guest speaker at one of the large right wing evangelical Christian “congregations” about a year or so ago.

They’d trotted him out as yet another cover for their racism and “proof” that they didn’t “hate” all black men – just the awful, awful one in the White House.

And boy, did Ben Carson play to his audience! Tearing into President Obama and denouncing the Affordable Care Act. The large all white congregation lapped it up of course. As he shamelessly sucked up to them.

So I was not shocked in the least to see him at the National Prayer Breakfast exhibiting his petty, small, know-it-all, notice-me-I’m-so-smart-and-can-match-that other black guy on the dais, spiel.

When a guy starts his speech by trying to convince the audience of his importance and detailing how many speeches he gives and how often, you know he’s pretty pathetic.

There was a certain gossipy, mean-spirited, small-minded quality to his speech, style and the general manner of the man himself. The more he spoke, the smaller he got. I was so embarrassed for him, but he seemed to lack the ability to feel any of it himself.

And he’s “just saying” retorts that punctuated his every attempted dig at the president – seriously, ugh!

There was no humility. None whatsoever. And nothing smart or impressive overall about the man particularly after he articulated his very selfish, greedy, unsympathetic, right wing talking points that dripped of contempt for the poor and revealed the absence of a heart and a blatant lack of empathy in a man who but for the grace of God, might have been one of that poor today.

This at a “prayer” breakfast no less.

No charity, no grace. His details of his “good works” was more an advertisement for himself and clearly not from that good and unselfish place.

A man who didn’t seem to posit in word or deed, the very lucky hand God had dealt him at several points in life. Yes he talked about his early troubles but it didn’t come across in the context of the very tangible miracle of how God and only God, turned things around by His grace.

Actually, if you listened carefully, you’d get a sense that this was a man who did not truly understand the magnitude of the gift and blessings bestowed upon him, outside of the accolades and pomposity that accompanied his achievements.

Maybe once upon a time he did. But not today. Not the guy who spoke at that prayer breakfast. He seemed to think it was all because of his significant brilliance which was earlier untapped.

And wasn’t it just so ironic that President Obama’s speech centered around humility.

What a shallow, sad, petty, undignified man Ben Carson is. And little wonder that he is the toast of the hate-filled right wing of this country.

He serves their purpose so well and does it too in the black face they desperately seek for cover.

Hope he enjoys the fanfare while it lasts. He strikes a very eery parallel to Alan Keyes. They both have more than one or two things in common.