Tensions with New York City police go beyond racial issues: commissioner

Tensions with New York City police go beyond racial issues: commissioner
 Tensions between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the police are rooted in issues that go beyond racial relations, the police commissioner said on Sunday, a day after the funeral of one of the two officers slain a week ago in their patrol car.



You have to sympathize with the NYPD. Believing that you are being aggressively and unfairly policed is a horrible feeling.- LOLGOP

The World Is A Safer Place Without Saddam

• Taliban claims NATO 'defeat' as 13-year Afghan war draws to a close
• Bomber kills 11 Shi'ite pilgrims north of Baghdad: police
• Iran tests suicide drone in military drill
• International journalist deaths soar in 2014: press watchdog
• Palestinians to submit resolution for U.N. statehood bid
• North Korea Calls Obama ‘A Monkey’ Over ‘The Interview’

Few things are funnier than when Americans who despise America's government take time out to defend the Confederate flag.- John Fugelsang

NSA Response To FOI
Responding to a Freedom of Information lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Security Agency has reported instances when it violated individual privacy. The NSA says ‘the vast majority involve unintentional technical or human error.’



Republican Shenanigans

• 5 creepy Merry Christmas messages from the Right Wing
• GOP learns lessons from Sam Brownback's tax scare
• Republicans see diversity in their 2016 hopefuls
• O’Reilly: New York Mayor de Blasio ‘should resign’

The Pope is more pro-science than any Republican candidate for president. He'd be a heretic in today's GOP.- LOLGOP

Obviously, Fox Noise Is Not Strong In The Area Of Math
Fox News host Anna Kooiman speculated on Sunday that an AirAsia flight could have gone missing because international pilots were trained using the metric system.




Conservatives firmly back police union they firmly believe should not exist.- LOLGOP

Rock The Voter News

• Obama marks end of combat in Afghanistan
• Obama warns GOP he plans to use veto pen in 2015

Having to pay slightly higher taxes because you're rich is pretty much a sign you've already won.- John Fugelsang

Meanwhile, Back To Ebola
Roche Holding AG said U.S. health regulators have approved its Ebola test for emergency use in response to the world's worst outbreak of the disease in West Africa.

NYPD Commish Told Boys In Blue Not To Dis The Boss
The commissioner of the New York Police Department, Bill Bratton, has given strong backing to Bill de Blasio, denouncing the protest of rank-and-file officers who turned their back on the mayor at a weekend funeral as politicised and inappropriate.




Woman shoots up neighborhood, aims at police, but still alive thanks to the ultimate body armor-- white skin. - Top Conservative Cat

A Quick Look Back At 2014
From the rise of the Islamic State group to the truculence of Vladimir Putin, new tensions surfaced that may presage global shifts in power and prosperity in 2015.
Lots happened in 2014. The news was a daily parade of discrete events. Here are some, picked (almost) at random: Afghan opium production hit a record high, calling into question government control outside Kabul. More investment cash flowed out of China than in...






80's pop music + TV ads for life insurance = Demographic Harassment. - John Fugelsang

GOP: WE WARNED YOU THAT IF YOU RE-ELECTED OBAMA WE'D BE FORCED TO TAKE CREDIT FOR HIS ECONOMY- LOLGOP

Business/Tech News

• Oil rises to $60 per barrel, Libya fire supports
• OPEC will not cut output even at $20 a barrel: Saudi
• Saudi: Salaries will not be cut to curb spending
• Oil markets face uncertain future as OPEC targets competitors
• Russian Banks Warm to Shariah

"The U.S. is re-establishing relations with Cuba. But before President Obama can lift the embargo, it will need approval from the Republican-controlled Congress – or as Republicans who called Obama said, 'Close, but no cigar.'" –Jimmy Fallon

SONY Makes Money, Thanks North Korea.
In a landmark moment for digital movie distribution, "The Interview" has earned more than $15 million through online sales in its first four days of release.




"President Obama announced yesterday that he's pardoning 12 convicted felons. Political experts say the move could have huge implications for your fantasy football teams." –Seth Meyers

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Odd News

• What did ‘Back to the Future II’ get right about 2015?
• To ring in New Year, town will drop a giant nail
• Farmers say Christmas trees make great goat snacks
• Kayaker rescued on pond with Charlie Brown cutout
• Transit cops deliver baby on Philadelphia train

Time To Deflate Photo

I would love to fly over the Alatna River Valley, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska.


Peace.

Food is my favorite part of Christmas

Christmas Dinner - Costa Rica Style

Here's what I did at a 5 star Christmas dinner prepared by Angele.

It was dusk and about 80°. Our appetizer: Creamed Tuna filled pastries on a bed of lettuce and baby tomatoes. Oooh la la!

The star of the Christmas dinner. The paella. Magnifique!

As you can see, hands were swooping in for the paella.

I bought a Christmas gift for Amalia, who is 11, a bracelet making kit on ebay. She was engrossed in her project.

Our Christmas dessert was a fresh baked yellow cake with a crunchy sugar crust, still warm, accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Selfishly, I forgot to take a picture because I devoured it immediately.

But the evening ended with a twist, after Jose lighted the Christmas candle luminaries, they soon caught on fire because of the 40mph gusts of wind that came out of nowhere! I missed that pic too!

It was a lovely Christmas celebration.

Now, we all can look forward to the New Year.

Peace, Costa Rica style. 

Merry Christmas

Just after 7am on Christmas morning, my friend Angele came by, to show me her new Christmas apron. Let the cooking begin! For Christmas dinner, Angele is preparing a paella filled with lobster, shrimp, chicken and sausage.  Oh, la la. I'll post some pix of the feast later.

Christmas Peace, Pura Vida style.

A Holiday In Florida

A Holiday In Florida

In high school, Stranahan Public School, my female service club would bring a frozen turkey and all the trimmings in beautifully wrapped food baskets to the needy, to all races back in the 1960s. We gave baskets to hundreds of families.

We had two female service clubs, both did charitable work. You had to be invited to join. There were a total of 80 girls chosen out of over 500 female students, in a student body of nearly a 1000. It was a honor.

I was in Juniorettes, sponsored by the Junior Women's Club of Ft. Lauderdale. We also volunteered at the only center for severely disabled children, the Sunshine School, run by my neighbor, who I babysat for. His brother had Down's Syndrome and was 16 at the time I started babysitting him. I agree with Sarah Palin on this wholeheartedly,  that it was wrong for anyone to make fun of her son.

I was 17 and look nothing
like that anymore,
except for the hair.

We would raise money throughout the years in a variety of ways for the holiday turkey baskets. The most popular and profitable was the Variety Show we held every year. My last year Juniorettes won first prize. It was a satirical short play on Fairy Book Tales. I was selected to design the set. I enabled the skills of our brother clubs in the construction of a giant Fairy Tale Book. I drew the characters and everyone joined in painting by numbers, I penciled in. We turned the 8 foot pages for our five skits.

The dialogue was clever and the audience loved it.

I was one of the Three Blind Mice making fun of the girl's locker room, which was right off our Olympic size pool, with a separate section for diving. I had a gorgeous public high school education.

80% of my public school teachers had  Masters or PHDs. Ft Lauderdale did attract many good teachers from around the country, including several military retirees. The teachers were mostly liberal in thought and very creative in their teaching methods and activities in and out of the classroom, it was encouraged.

The neighborhood I grew up in was very American middle class, except that the houses were in pastel colors.The guidance counselor was also my neighbor and I grew up with her 3 kids.

The female teacher who headed Juniorettes, would always remind us what we were raising money for, the people in need.

I have never experienced a similar joy as giving to those in need, be it a turkey basket or seeing the joy on the face of a disabled child creating his own art for the first time. Those experiences gave me the inspiration to get an additional degree in Art Education from the School of Visual Arts at FSU.

Most of my high school classmates went on to have amazing
lives. We had such a unique education. 75% of my graduating class went on to higher learning.

I was lucky enough to have taught at one of the top private schools in Florida. The Maclay School in Tallahassee. In 1972, with about 2 years of college under my belt, I was judged and approved for academic certification by the Independent Schools of Florida, which certified private school instructors, which was an honor in itself. I was made head of the lower Art Dept, grades 1-8. The new assistant headmaster who hired me, was my neighbor who watched me work my way through school, plus I was his landlord, as I managed an upscale 48 apt complex to help pay my way through FSU. He loved my art work and demeanor.

Maclay was very unique. Children were taking three languages starting in grade one. They were the children of Tallahassee's elite.

I designed sets for their plays and even designed their yearbook. I was guided by the head of the upper school art department, who had a doctorate and loved my enthusiasm. He taught me to teach the children with the influence of music. I often would play the children a song and would ask them to draw what they felt, be it, a reminder of a picnic or going to the park, or even their mama's cooking. That was always a fun assignment.

The Fine Arts building at Florida State University in 1974.

By the fall quarter of 1973, I was ending the last phase of obtaining my degree. I had to intern. So I resigned my position at Maclay School, as it would not qualify as an internship. FSU had strict rules.

My professor requested that I intern at an all poor, black school of farm worker's children in Gretna, Florida, grades 1-6. I agreed, easily, as it was only a 45 minute drive away.

I would play film strips provided by the State of Florida's Library system and then ask the children to draw what they saw. The art teacher I was interning for, Mrs. Pottinger (a white woman married to a state attorney in Tally) was amazed the first time I did it. I showed these poor, under educated children, their very first view of the solar system and our relationship to earth. They had no idea they lived on a planet.

I handed out black construction paper and  crayons, the supplies we already had on hand. The school's art budget was tiny.

What came next, was an explosion of art. I hung every drawing of all my grades in the hallways. The teachers were delighted, not only by the beautiful art, but by their students.

Mrs. Pottinger, who was a lovely woman, who truly loved teaching her students, asked me how I came up with that idea. I said, blame FSU, they had me write a detailed 200 page book, with 4 other students on art therapy lesson plans, the semester before, and I laughed. I told Mrs. Pottinger to request as many interns as she wants and to encourage the other teachers to do the same.

One little boy was in my first grade class. His name was Frankie. He was half black with red hair. Frankie was some white farmer's offspring with the help. He never spoke a word, not one. The kid refused to talk and rarey smiled.. He didn't even have a birth certificate, but the school guessed he was around 7 and thought he was mute.

I worked with Frankie from Sept to Dec. of 1973. On the last day, when we were making Christmas cards, Frankie walked up to me and gave me the Christmas card he made with a reindeer he drew. He said, "Thank you. I will miss you."

I was so stunned at first, then I picked that precious child up and hugged him while I swung him around the room. I said, "You can Talk, Frankie!" He nodded yes and said I was one of the few that paid attention to him. He was no mute as every teacher thought, including me.

I wanted to adopt that little boy. He was ostracized by his own family. I pray I gave that little boy hope and that he was able to find a good life.

I think of Frankie every Christmas.

I often wondered how much more successful Frankie and all students that didn't have a good public education, would have been if they attended a quality school, as I did in the same friggin' state.

When I relayed all this to my professor, a lovely black woman, who was highly accomplished in the art education field,  smiled at me and said, "I knew you would make a difference, Lisa, and they needed your help, that's why I requested you teach at a poor school. Now go out into the world and continue to educate people through art. The world is your oyster."

So here I am 5 decades later spreading my art therapy with pixels, instead of paint, all over the world. My professor was right, the world is my oyster.

I am truly blessed.

Thank you dear viewers, each and every one of you for inspiring me.

Best wishes for the brightest New Year ever.

Deep curtsy.

 Peace through art.

Happy Holidays From All Hat No Cattle

Let's try something a little different today. I want to pet your soul during this holiday season, and slightly step back from the ugly world of politics that permeates even our police system.


I have a little youtube, meme selection for you, of some religions or no religion, and a few funny quotes.



SONY is going to show THE INTERVIEW. I guess they got the courage after North Korea's computers were hacked. Thanks Obama! - AllHatNoCattle

Trying to explain to the child sitting next to me that a country version of Jingle Bell Rock is by definition an oxymoron. - John Fugelsang

Want to feel young again?This is when I fell madly in love with Joe Cocker because of this song. A young Leon Russell is tickling those ivories throughout the video. Wow. RIP Joe. Thank you.

For my Atheist Friends! 

It's time to put Christ back into Christmas. And fun back into funerals. - Jeff Tiedrich tweet

For My Christian Friends!

Here is a flashmob in Barcelona, Spain. Be patient because the crescendo is well worth it. Awesome and beautifully filmed.




On the 130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay homage to our city by means of the campaign "Som Sabadell" (We are Sabadell) . This is the flashmob that we arranged.






Ayn Rand helped the FBI investigate whether ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ was commie propaganda. - RawStory 





For My Jewish Friends!

Fox News viewers who lost the channel on Dish will never hear today's great economic news. The same is true for people who still have Fox.- LOLGOP







I Got You, Babe. My Favorite Rendition.






And for my Totally Political Friends!

Seeing "The Interview" is neither a patriotic act or an act of defiance against a brutal dictator--it's saving a Sony exec's ass. -  JC Christian Tweet




Robin Williams Being Robin Williams With A Dash Of Ben Stiller






Not sure what’s worse, that #ISIS is now hiring children or that they pay more than McDonald’s does.- Erik Bransteen

Time To Deflate Photo 

A Snowy Owl in the northern plains of Minnesota.


Peace and see you tomorrow on Christmas Eve!

Insanity

New York Times calls for Cheney, Bush officials to be investigated and prosecuted for torture
In a blistering editorial published in the Monday edition of the New York Times, the editorial page editors are calling upon the Justice Department to open an investigation into the torture practices committed during the administration of President George W. Bush with an eye towards prosecuting those who “committed torture and other serious crimes,” along with former Vice President Dick Cheney and other major administration officials.

Now we just need to fix the damage W. did before the financial crisis in time for his brother to ruin everything- LOLGOP

The World Is A Safer Place Without Saddam

• N. Korea threatens strikes on US amid hacking claims
• 66 journalists killed in past year as attacks grow more barbaric: report
• Pakistan plans to execute 500 terror convicts, officials say
• Jordan hangs 11 men after eight-year death penalty moratorium
• Palestinians seek UN resolution to end Israeli occupation
• Exclusive: WHO says Syria opens Aleppo, other troubled areas for medical aid
• US Navy chopper crashes in Kuwait, minor injuries

I miss when we had a leader like Reagan who knew how to stand up to an oppressive regime by secretly selling it anti-aircraft missiles.- LOLGOP

North Korea Took Their Ball And Went Home
 An angry North Korea, now on the defensive over a U.S. accusation of hacking, is refusing to take part in a groundbreaking U.N. Security Council meeting Monday where the country's bleak human rights situation will be discussed for the first time.

Republican Shenanigans

• Sarah Palin shares tips for keeping ‘Christ in Christmas,’ which include buying her book
• Bill Kristol: Liberals owe dead cops a protest movement because unarmed black teens got one
• Dish Network dumps Fox News, setting off social media war on Facebook
• Fox News psychiatrist: Body cameras, de-escalation training are ‘an insult to police officers’

Gas falls below $2 a gallon! Tune into FOX to not hear more!- John Fugelsang

Well, One Less Racist Cop.
An  auxiliary officer with the Fairview Park Police Department, who had written that black people should be “exterminated,” resigned from the force last week.




A lot of the same guys calling Sony cowards for pulling The Interview were quivering over Ebola and hungry kids showing up at the border.- LOLGOP

Rock The Voter News

• How President Obama unwinds
• Secret Service report: White House needs a taller fence and more, better-trained agents

Some people wanted more decades of US/Cuba hate; and they would've gotten away with it, if it wasn't for this meddling Pope.- John Fugelsang

I Love This Pope More And More
Pope Francis lambasted the Vatican’s bureaucracy on Monday, saying some within the Church had a lust for power, were indifferent to others and suffered from “spiritual Alzheimer’s”.

BREAKING: Dow Jones closes up 400 points as Wall Street banks gear up for new housing bubble after Congress gutted financial reform.- Top Conservative Cat

So, The CIA Is Accountable To No One
 A panel investigating the CIA's search of a computer network used by U.S. Senate staff will not recommend disciplining the agency officials involved in the incident, according to the New York Times.


Business/Tech News

• North Korea's internet appears to be under mass cyber attack
• China Offers Russia Help Shoring Up the Ruble With Currency Deal
• U.S. Economy Pulling Away From Rest of the World
• In North Dakota, countdown looms for $5.3 billion oil tax break
• SKorea launches new trade dispute with US: WTO
• In latest TV spat, Fox News blocked from Dish Network

First full day without Fox News for Dish viewers. When the DTs set in, the only relief is to yell at BET for trying to get you health care.- LOLGOP




Federal Reserve
When the U.S. Federal Reserve ended its quantitative-easing program in October, it also ended the primary driver of U.S. stocks during the past six years. So long as the central bank kept flooding the markets with money, investors had little reason to worry about a broader economy limping along at 2 percent real growth.

This year: 2,506,000 jobs created and 9+ million gained insurance.
8 years of W.: 1,282,000 jobs created and 7.9 million lost insurance.- LOLGOP

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NOTICE: So sorry for not posting a new edition last Friday. I thought I had sleeping sickness. I could not keep my eyes open. I had no other symptoms other than heavy eyelids. That all disappeared by Saturday. Weird.

Thank you so much, Mary!

__________________________

Odd News

• Texas Theater To Show 'Team America' Instead Of 'The Interview'
• Worker spends 90 minutes stuck in mud up to waist
• Ivy League Frat Suspended For Using Beyonce Blow Up Doll In Photo
• Rudolph stamps guide tiny post office to success
• Among the year's oddest stories, animal tales were top dogs

Time To Deflate Photo

Sunrise at Maroon Bells Lake near Aspen, Colorado.

Peace.

 


I needed a sick day.
I slept most of the day. :(
I hope I'm not getting the flu.

Best wishes to all.