A Winning Entry in a Short Story Contest: THE LONE WOLF by Renuka Vishwanathan

Renuka Vishwanathan is my classmate from high school and a very talented author.  Here is one of her pieces.


The site Tumbhi.com where her story appeared, will not allow me to copy and paste.  So I am providing the link.  


http://tumbhi.com/artifactDetails.html?actionFlag=getArtifactDetails&artifactId=16657

What Is He Thinking? Or Is He? Mitt Romney on Women's Health

Women's health care has become a hot subject of political debate.  It seems that Republicans are not just taking a moral high ground here wagging their finger at some supposed promiscuity, but they are threatening to eliminate every safety net available to women.  Romney shows his concern for the middle class tax payers claiming they should not be burdened with more taxes...but here's a solution.  The rich could be taxed.  Affordable health care, I would presume, would be popular with citizens? In any case-- a poor, unwed, single mother is a bigger burden on the taxpayer.  The taxpayer not only feeds her but her uncared-for children as well, for their lifetime. 
Romney in a speech at Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois launched his "off with their heads" tirade against Planned Parenthood (PP)  and Obamacare. Dressed casually in denims and rolled up sleeves, obviously to represent the common working man and disguise his millionaire status, he very grandly directed women to go elsewhere for their health care--"Well they can go wherever they’d like to go. This is a free society.” Just not PP it seems.  Free society?  Apparently not. 
What's more, Romney wants to free the nation from debt by making its people go broke.





In the local community college where I work, young women and not so young women struggle with their student loans and the high cost of healthcare. Their part-time jobs do not provide them enough income to buy healthcare.  PP is very important to them. Republicans have to deal with problems realistically--if women get pregnant, usually there is a man behind it. Why are women being specially targeted? Republicans have become little Oliver Cromwells.  They are even squeamish about sex education.

The Tennessee Senate  passed SB 3310, a bill to update the state’s abstinence-based sex education curriculum to define holding hands and kissing as “gateway sexual activities.” Just one senator voted against the legislation; 28 voted in favor. Since the bill specifically bans teachers from “demonstrating gateway sexual activity”, educators would be prohibited from even demonstrating what hand-holding is.                                      (thinkprogress.org)

Maybe they should support the gay marriage cause, no contraceptives or abortions needed. 
Who is to reason with people who believe all women are Jezebels, guns don't kill people or that when you fall and hurt yourself, the ground came up and attacked you.

Rabindranath Tagore's "Ekla Chalo Re"

A song by Rabindranath Tagore that inspires us to reach unafraid into the depths of our souls and find inner strength.  This song was the best feature of the film "Kahaani"(Hindi, 2012)

In Bengali
Jodi Tor Dak Soone Keu Na AsseTobe
Ekla Chalo re!
Ekla Chalo! Ekla Chalo! Ekla Chalo re!
Jodi Keu Katha Na Kai
Ore Ore O Abhaga
Jodi Sabai Thake Mukh Firae Sabai Kare Bhay
Tabe Paran Khule
O Tui Mukh Fute Tor Maner Katha
Ekla Balo re!
Jodi Sabai Phire Jai
Ore Ore O Abhaga
Jodi Gahan Pathe Jabar Kale Keu Feere Na Chay
Tobe Pather Kanta
O Tui Rakta Makha Charan Tale
Ekla Dalo re!
Jodi Alo Na Dhare
Ore Ore O Abhaga
Jodi Jharr Badale Andhar Rate Duar Deay Ghare
Tobe Bajranale
Apaan Buker Panjar Jaliey Nieye
Ekla Jalo re!

 

English Translation:
If they answer not to thy call,
walk alone!
Walk alone! Walk Alone! Walk Alone!

If they are afraid and cower mutely
facing the wall,
O thou of evil luck,
open thy mind and
speak out alone!
If they turn away,
and desert you when crossing the wilderness,
O thou of evil luck,
trample the thorns under thy tread,
and along the blood-lined track
travel alone!
If they do not hold up the light
when the night is troubled with storm,
O thou of evil luck,
with the thunder flame of pain
ignite thy own heart
and let it burn alone!

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Supreme Court

Actually, it was a scary thing.  Back in November of 2011, three Justices of the Supreme Court attended a fundraiser dinner sponsored by the Federalist Society, a self-styled association of conservative and libertarian lawyers, that is trying to overturn President Obama's health care law (Affordable Care Act).  They were Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas  and Justice Samuel Alito.  Makes one wonder how impartial the Supreme Court justices are.  Bob Edgar writes, "This kind of activity by members of our highest court undercuts any claim of impartiality in the health care litigation by the justices involved. Worse yet, it clearly violates the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges, a set of ethical standards the Supreme Court helps enforce on lower federal courts but has refused to impose on itself. The Code warns judges to abstain from speaking or serving as the guest of honor at any fundraising event." (Huffington Post, 11/14/11)

The Nine Justices of the Supreme Court

As to issues concerning legislation, Supreme Court Justices tend to vote along partisan lines, in favor of the President who appointed them.  After all, we've been through this before in the 2000 elections, when recounting in Bush vs. Gore was stopped by the Supreme Court by a partisan vote.  In the case of Obama Care, all eyes are on Justice Kennedy who will cast the "deciding vote", which means the battle has ended before it began. Where is the blindfold that these Justices are supposed to wear? What steps must we take to preserve the system of checks and balances.  First of all,  I think Supreme Court justices should have a term of service.  They seem to sit like glaciers on our legal system for billions of years.  Next, they should not be political appointees but rather, elected by a legal board comprising representatives from all the states.  Knowing Congressmen and Senators and hobnobbing with them should be considered a disqualification--the judges should don a judicial "purdah".


Hopefully, the Supreme Court justices will make a decision that promises vision and changes the way people think about health care. A consistent 5-4 split is not justice, it is a mockery of it.  Remember that Brown vs. Board of Education returned a unanimous verdict.  "Today Brown is a nearly universal icon of social progress, while Roe remains an object of great controversy. But, for better or for worse, both cases represented efforts to change the everyday reality of American life. With Brown, the justices were tearing down barriers to racial equality; with Roe, the justices were eliminating laws that prevented access to abortion."(Cohn, The New Republic, 3/29/2012)
This bipartisan politics is only obstructing the growth of revolutionary ideas. America needs to change the way it conducts business.

Flush the Rush

Sandra Fluke testimony

Even conservative women must have wrinkled their nose in disgust at Rush Limbaugh's harsh, inappropriate and perverse invective against 
Ms. Sandra Fluke on March 1, 2012. Sandra Fluke is a law student at Georgetown University. She spoke to an unofficial hearing called by the Democratic party about her college's lack of health insurance coverage for contraceptive pills. Not only did Limbaugh reveal his ignorance of the uses of the birth control pill, he revealed his ignorance of health insurance system and to top it all, he let the entire country know that he has a sick yearning to see sex videos.  (Maybe Dharun Ravi could help here).  Although Limbaugh apologized for the words he used--he had called Ms. Sandra Fluke a 'slut' and a 'prostitute'--he maintains that contraceptives should not be covered under health insurance.  Maybe he prefers to pay welfare for women and children and their food stamps instead.  He is so busy condemning women for not taking responsibility for their actions and indulging in sexual promiscuity, he is so busy talking, that he is not putting on his "listening ears" as Judge Judy would say, and recognize that taking contraceptives is a way of assuming responsibility.  Besides, birth control is not the only use for the pill... 

Likes to be a voyeur

34  sponsors of his radio show decided the words he used mattered more than his views and withdrew support.

No one was more horrified than musician Peter Gabriel  whose song "Sledgehammer' was playing during Limbaugh's rant. "Peter was appalled to learn that his music was linked to Rush Limbaugh's extraordinary attack on Sandra Fluke. It is obvious from anyone that knows Peter's work that he would never approve such a use. He has asked his representatives to make sure his music is withdrawn and especially from these unfair aggressive and ignorant comments."

I wonder if he thinks when 'slutty' women prostitute themselves for sex, they share intimacy with parrots instead of men like him.  He has been married four times, he can't think babies are brought by storks.  Men don't need to be accountable?  I have an idea.  Maybe the women can save money (and the country too), conducting their lives Lorena Bobbitt style.

"No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show," Carbonite CEO David Friend said in a statement. "We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse."

President Obama called Ms. Fluke personally and said Fluke’s parents should be proud of her.

Stinky Limbaugh-ger!!

Billboard House

Mendoza at the Hostetler home

A Buena Park (Calfornia) home has donned a neon green and orange painted exterior as an advertisement for the marketing firm Brainiacs from Mars. In return, the firm pays the mortgage for the house as long as the Hostetlers, the owners, are willing to sport the advertisement.  

Full front view

Romeo Mendoza, CEO of Brainiacs from Mars, has had to remove the 9 foot long company sign from the top of the garage along with the Facebook and YouTube signs immediately after the photo shoots because they violated city zoning regulations.  Mendoza thinks the colors alone will serve the purpose. He hopes to paint a 1000 more, if the idea gains popularity. Right now he is advertising his own company.  Brainiac From Mars  screened 40,000 applications to choose this particular house.
Brainiacs from Mars Facebook page is filled with pictures of houses posted by hopeful homeowners. Says Debra Carter, "I'm going to dream of yellow, green, and orange. Visualizing my home in these colors every day since I put in my application and keeping my fingers and toes crossed. I am open to any shade of any color any time!"

Companies will now speak to us in colors.   Remember, orange and green is for Brainiacs from Mars. Each company will represent a color and in time will test our memory. Who'd have ever thought that advertising would keep Alzheimer's away...The idea may catch on.  I like how it helps people keep their homes but I certainly wouldn't want to live on a street that looks like Munchkin land,

Munchkin Land

 

Las Vegas

or Las Vegas at night time all the twenty-four hours long.

    

"The World is too much with us", complained the poet Wordsworth in the 19th century.  We can feel its intrusion now more than ever into our private lives. The situation may be unavoidable but what's next?  Advertising in our textbooks? Or is that already here?

Go JC Penney!! Go to JC Penney

Ellen DeGeneres

I've always shopped at JC Penney: I like their merchandise and I like their prices.  Now, after they firmly supported Ellen DeGeneres as their spokeswoman, I am proud to be shopping there.  A conservative group called "One Million Moms" objected to Ellen DeGeneres because she is gay. They claimed that hiring her would promote "immoral" values.  If you look on their site, they are objecting to Macy's "two groom" advertisement as well.  I hope they can find other places to shop. OMM  is confusing "traditional values" with bigotry and prejudice.  They would learn a lot more from the organization called Million Moms Challenge which raises awareness to promote healthy mothers and children all over the world.  Unfortunately, the worthy Million Moms Challenge organization got a lot of hate mail from confused Ellen fans.

On "CBS This Morning," Thursday (Feb 2, 2012), JCPenney chief executive officer, Ron Johnson, said the company "shares the same values" as DeGeneres and that the decision to have her as a spokesperson was a "no-brainer."

 And what does Ellen say about this? "They[OMM] wanted to get me fired, and I’m proud and happy to say that JCPenney stuck by their decision to make me their spokesperson. Which is great news for me because I also need some new crew socks. I’m really going to clean up with this discount.”