WE’VE FOUND PEROT’S CRAZY AUNTS AND UNCLES…
1203 by Jeff HessVia she who Writes Like She Talks…
30 April 2009
30 April 2009
I’M A REGISTERED DONOR… ARE YOU…?
1138 by Jeff HessURGENT APPEAL TO SAVE THE LIFE OF TWO-YEARS-OLD EVE!
SWAB YOUR CHEEK AND BE HER MATCH!Contact: Shayne Pilpel (561.982.2944)
Contact: Susan Weiss (440.349.1077)Two year old Eve has acute leukemia and is in urgent need of a donor so she can receive the transplant that can save her life. So far, no match has been found. Tissue type is inherited, like eye or hair color. Eve”s best chance of finding a genetic match lies with donors of Eastern European Jewish descent.
The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation, (800.962.8869) in conjunction with the Cleveland-based Mt. Sinai Healthcare Foundation, will be hosting a donor recruitment drive at the Mandel Jewish Community Center in Beachwood on Sunday, May 17 from 9am – 3pm and Monday, May 18 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm. You can find out if you are a match for Eve and countless other children and adults by joining Gift of Life, an affiliate of the National Marrow Donor Program and the worldwide donor registry. Testing is fast and painless, involving only a simple cheek swab. Eligible donors must be between the ages of 18-60 and in general good health. The goal for this drive is 1,000 new donors.
It is reported that one in 200 Americans will receive a transplant with marrow, blood stem cells or cord blood in their lifetime. One in 400 will require cells from another person (a donor). Only 30 percent of patients have a relative who is a match. The rest must search the unrelated donor pool. There is an urgent need to grow the registry of potential donors so that all patients have an equal opportunity to receive a transplant.
30 April 2009
29 April 2009
29 April 2009
WALMART WEDNESDAY…
1030 by Jeff Hess
It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.
WAS IT A DARE OR DID HE LOSE A BET…? Portland, Oregon, has perhaps the best local legislation and community policies in place to fight sprawl. That it has one Walmart surprises me, but the when the mayor agrees to be a Walmart greeter on a dare, you have to wonder what the feck went down. Keep reading…
KILLING THE PLANET, ONE SALE AT A TIME… Do you remember the Bissel Little Green multipurpose deep cleaner in this ad I posted earlier this week? Well, others agree that buying more cheap plastic crap from China to replace the cheap plastic crap from China you already own is no way to save the planet. Keep reading…
THAT”S NO, AS IN NONE, NADA, BUBKES… I like Chicago, a lot. I spent a very happy year there back in the mid-“70s. Chicago is a scrappy city, and that”s one reason why the lone Walmart in the city is a bit like one of those British military outposts miles from nowhere under the hot Indian sun. Keep reading…
GENDER IDENTITY IS BACK… The societal gestalt regarding homosexuals is shifting in the wake of the religious wrongs thrashing in the last national election. California”s Proposition 8, not with standing, states are shaking off the chains of ignorance and superstition. Keep reading…
AH, THOSE $4 PERSCRIPTIONS… I”ve been holding off for a couple of days on the bizarre story of drugs found at a traffic stop in Cedar City, Utah, hoping that something about the tale would make sense or those involved would be revealed to be common thugs lying through their teeth. Keep reading…
AH, THOSE $4 PRESCRIPTIONS… [UPDATE 1] All too often I slack in my duties to tell, as Paul Harvey put it, the rest of the story. There”s so much to talk about when it comes to Walmart, I find it difficult to stay on top of developing stories. But then there are stories just so feckin” weird, you can”t turn away.
MERCED COUNTY UNDERSTANDS THE RISKS… Even if proponents of a Walmart distribution center in Merced County, California can”t see any downsides to the project, the opponents can. A distribution center is a retail bridgehead for a full-scale invasion. The people are fighting on the beach.
Keep reading…
29 April 2009
29 April 2009
THANKS MOMS…
0819 by Jeff HessSarah Wilson Jones emails:
Mother’s Day is almost here. It’s May 10th this year. Do you usually end up in a panic the night before, rushing to find something for one of the most formative people in your life? Well, here’s something that could help you avoid that last-minute-rush-guilt-feeling, and something that makes a real difference in the world.
Yes, you could give your Mom coffee or tea. That would be swell. Or flowers. But does your Mom really NEED (or even want) any of those things? She really just wants to know you remembered her and remembered to honor her and say thank you.
So, instead, you could make a donation to the Café Femenino Foundation, a non-profit organization which supports women-owned coffee cooperatives in coffee producing countries. And let your Mom know that you did so in her name. Specifically, you could Continue Reading »
28 April 2009
28 April 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
0819 by Jeff HessI learned of her death when I heard the funeral announcement on the radio. I was ironing shirts and listening to the sports report on the local AM station, finding out the playoff scores. When the baseball coverage ended, it shifted to local events. When I heard her name, I felt faint. I let the iron lay were it was and ran to turn up the radio. I can still smell the scorched cotton of the ruined blouse I left behind. I”d never heard her full name before, though I knew it. She only went by Jean, saying Renata was a German name because she”d been born while her dad was stationed in Germany. She was American, and Jean was an American name.
I sat in front of the radio, waiting for it to cycle around to repeat the announcements. It was still there. Her funeral was to be the following afternoon at 1:00 at Sacred Heart, with internment to follow at North Lawn Cemetery. I only owned one dress, and it was red. In effort to be appropriate, I bought black stockings to wear with it. I talked a girlfriend, who ran with a different crowd and didn”t know Jean well, to attend with me. I”d never been to a funeral before.
We walked across town, wobbly in our high heels, to Sacred Heart and found seats in the back of the church. The sanctuary was nearly empty, with only Jean”s immediate family and grandparents in the front rows. The family”s stoic silence met the priest”s words and I tried to mimic their quiet dignity. When we were invited to come forward to view her body, I froze. Linda, my firiend, pushed me out into the isle. I didn”t want to go, but didn”t know how to escape the procession. Jean wore a white dress and held a white Bible. I”d never seen her in a dress before. Her auburn hair, usually in a ponytail, lay on her shoulders. This wasn”t Jean. It was a stranger I didn”t recognize. As I stared, the priest sprinkled Holy Water on her and motioned for the casket lid to be closed.
I stumbled back to my seat. The organ began playing and we were supposed to sing. But the words stuck in my throat and I feared I would vomit. I couldn”t make the words come out – only choked sobs. The family turned to look at me, with disgust I was sure. I couldn”t raise my eyes to know for sure. The song mercifully ended and the pallbearers stepped forward, including her twin brother, Dan, the first boy I”d ever kissed. Walking up the isle carrying her body, he didn”t meet my eyes.
No one offered us a ride to the cemetery. I didn”t expect them to. Her parents had never approved of me and considered me a bad influence. I probably was, which made me an attractive friend for a rebellious young teen, I suppose. So I stood there on the curb in my red dress, and watched the hearse pull away.
28 April 2009
28 April 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
0648 by Jeff HessUltimately, topless coffee shops merely give coffee shop owners an opportunity to concentrate less on the virtues that make a coffee shop appealing. Imagine, for example, two coffee shops in close proximity to each other, competing for each other”s business. One has 27 different kinds of beans, a wide range of fresh muffins, clean bathrooms. The other has half-naked women who are almost good-looking enough to be Hooters girls and $2 donuts. Human nature being what it is, the latter shop will do at least as well as the former, and probably better, until the former decides to go topless as well. When its owner discovers that with topless waitresses in his arsenal, he doesn”t have to offer 27 kinds of beans or replace his muffin stock each day, he won”t.
28 April 2009
THE ROCOCO MEDIA WATCH…[UPDATE 5]
0632 by Jeff Hess27 April 2009
27 April 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
0646 by Jeff HessAndrew Sullivan posts and writes:
Article 1.
1. For the purposes of this Convention, [The UN Convention on Torture, which Ronald Reagan signed and championed] torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession…
Article 2.
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
Just ask yourself: reading this language and knowing that president Bush ordered the waterboarding of a man for 83 times to get evidence linking Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda, is it really a matter of debate whether the last president of the United States is a war criminal? How is one able to come to any other opinion?
How is one?
27 April 2009
26 April 2009
26 April 2009
25 April 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
1736 by Jeff HessThis isn’t about “overzealousness”: it’s about enforcing the law. Clinton not killing bin Laden wasn’t against the law. And there is a difference between good faith mistakes and a criminal conspiracy to violate and make a mockery of the rule of law. That’s why a real investigation of all of it – including the alleged results – needs to take place and take its time. Give it two years to report, to allow emotions and tempers to cool. Then and only then make a decision on prosecution, so that there is no scintilla of haste or heat.
One more suggestion: ask Patrick Fitzgerald to run it.
25 April 2009
THE ROCOCO MEDIA WATCH…[UPDATE 4.1]
1305 by Jeff Hess25 April 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
1126 by Jeff HessC”mon George, finally do something for someone else – someone not wealthy.
Yeah, George, come on already…
