The Origins Of Rap Music

Many think that Rap Music is a recent movement in music arts. But I contend that this is not a correct fact. I give you my example of Rap that started with Country Music in September 1961. Yes it was Country Music that started the Rap movement when Roy Acuff composed and Jimmy Dean (yes of the breakfast sausage fame) performed the song, “Big Bad John.”

By November the song went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and won Jimmy Dean the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording.
So below I give you Jimmy Dean performing the first original Rap Song, “Big Bad John.”

Connecticut State Senate Just Passed The “Paid Sick Leave” Bill 18-17

Today the State Senate of Connecticut passed a bill 18-17 that will mandate that paid sick leave for what has been traditionally low paying wage earners. It is also expected to pass in the House of Representatives and the eventual signing into law by the Governor.

The bill passed with provisions that exempt certain organizations, as the bill will apply primarily to service oriented companies employing over 50 employees.

The paid sick leave is accumulated, one hour for every 40 worked, and the accrued time could not be used until at least 680 hours have been worked. At 680 hours, an employee would have accrued 17 hours of sick time; accrual has a maximum of 40 hours per year.

Up to 40 hours can carry over to the next year, but only a maximum of 40 hours could be used in any given year. If an employer currently offers vacation or personal time at the rate of 1 hour per 40 worked or better, the plan in place currently would satisfy the new law.

The items that the paid sick leave can be used for is quite expansive. One can use the time for illness, treatment, or injury to themselves, a child, a parent, or a spouse. A signed document by a health care provider is needed to take the time, and for a victim of sexual assault, documentation from a court or counselor is needed.

A significant part of the argument for the bill, supporting the implementation of paid sick leave, involves restaurant employees. Since so many of these employees are paid on the lower end of the spectrum, the loss of wages when one takes a day due to sickness is substantial. Thus, many choose to simply work sick, creating significant health risks in the food industry.

But often those without a paid sick leave program are those that employ workers close to or even below minimum, where a loss of wages would have the most impact. In the testimony given the legislature in March, many of the accounts were of low-wage earners that needed extended time off, nearly bankrupting them, and many stating that after missing significant time at work, they were laid off or fired.

The law would make retribution for using sick leave illegal. If an employer fired an employee for using sick leave, there would be penalties, up to $600 per occurrence and may include the re-hire of the employee.

Information provided by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) showed that 40% of workers in Connecticut have no sick time, 78% of food service workers have no sick time, and 77% of low wage earners have no sick time. According to State Comptroller Kevin Lembo, 257,000 employees that do not have paid sick leave currently would become eligible.

But while unions and workers lined up to support the bill, businesses and their representatives showed up to oppose it.
If Connecticut were to pass a paid sick leave bill, it would be the first state in the country to do so.

Let’s hope other States wake up and start to make provisions to protect workers rights instead of examples of Wisconsin or Ohio who are trying to force a submissive work force for the Koch Brothers by busting the unions in their state.

More Are Making Plans To Counter The Effects Of “Man Made Climate Change”

As many of my readers know, I have a real issue to those whom deny and voice their feeble arguments against “Man Made Climate Change.”

Just last week I was called by my insurance agency that has my home insurance, (I was in good hands with this insurance) as they wanted to go over some home insurance changes that came about from the head office. When I sat down in the local office, the agent went over some small issues. This national insurance is no longer going to insure Florida, and all coastal areas in states like Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, South and North Carolina, Virginia, etc. and Maryland. But because I live in the middle of the Delmarva Peninsula, they are still going to insure me but at a slight increase in premiums….an extra $20.00 per year about.

You may ask why this national insurance company is deciding to refuse to insure homes in these areas. In the insurance agent’s own words, because of the “Climate Trend Changes” these areas are going to be effected with sever flooding, and damaging weather occurrences. The insurance company decided if it were to insure these areas, it would cause “Sever Financial Hardship” to the company in the short term and near future.

Yes this “National Insurance Company” has reviewed the “Climate Change Facts” and made a conscience decision not to insure these areas of our country.

I would also like to add another story of a local TORNADO event here on the shore. My daughter is on the track team for the local high school. While at a meet last week, she took a picture of a TORNADO with her cell phone that developed on Kent Island right at the shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay here on the Delmarva Peninsula….we never get TORNADOS!!!! Hurricanes yes, TORNADOS NO!!!!

If we can see the changes here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I don’t know why anyone else can deny the changing events.

Nation wide there have been over 900 Tornados in just the months of April and May...twice as many as anytime in history for this time period!!!

I decided to complement this story by passing on more information of organizations making plans to be ready for the INEVITABLE events caused by “Man Made Climate Change.”

February 1, 2010
Pentagon released their report, “Climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked.”

The Pentagon’s primary planning document addresses the threat of global warming, noting that it will accelerate instability and conflict around the globe. In the report is language requiring the Pentagon Department to consider the effects of climate change on its facilities, capabilities, and missions to the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. The Department of Defense’s, “Quadrennial Defense Review,” officially released discusses the department’s “strategic approach to climate and energy”:

Climate change and energy are two key issues that will play a significant role in shaping the future security environment. Although they produce distinct types of challenges, climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked. The actions that the Pentagon Department takes now can prepare us to respond effectively to these challenges in the near term and in the future.

The QDR notes that climate change affects the Department of Defense “in two broad ways”:
First, global warming impacts and disasters will “act as an accelerant of instability or conflict.”
Second, military installations and forces around the globe will have to adapt to rising seas, increased extreme weather, and other effects of global warming:

Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease, and may spur or exacerbate mass migration. While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries around the world.

The military is working on not just responding to the impacts of global warming, but also mitigating the threat by reducing global warming emissions. Increased use of renewable energy and energy efficiency not only lessens the military’s enormous carbon footprint, but also delivers immediate security benefits:

Energy efficiency can serve as a force multiplier, because it increases the range and endurance of forces in the field and can reduce the number of combat forces diverted to protect energy supply lines, which are vulnerable to both asymmetric and conventional attacks and disruptions.

The consequence of the Pentagon's failure to prepare could result not just in lost dollars but also in lost lives.
There are five key areas in which effective military planning can be undermined by uncertainty over when and how the major carbon-emitting countries combat climate change.

First, climate change poses a threat to fragile states that lack the capacity to adapt to environmental shifts. The Pentagon needs to know if the military will be called upon to operate more often in countries that have collapsed or are on the brink of doing so. The risk of a regional conflagration sparked by global warming is particularly severe in east Africa and south Asia. How urgently should the Pentagon begin planning for such contingencies?

Second, the US military needs to know how significantly to expand its capacity to act as a first responder in times of natural disaster. Climate change will increase the frequency of large-scale disasters over the next three decades. But the scope of this threat will vary depending on what action is taken to minimize emissions. Although some of the emergencies created or exacerbated by climate change may be managed by the UN, the US military has an unrivalled capacity to act as a first responder in these situations.
Recall the Indian Ocean tsunami that struck a little more than three years ago: only the US could or would so rapidly have deployed and sustained the 15,000 troops, two dozen ships and 100 aircraft needed for the mission. But if the US military anticipates being called upon more often to respond to such disasters then it needs clarity about how soon it should invest more resources into planning such missions.

Third, the US military will have to conduct traditional missions in increasingly adverse weather conditions. Planners must decide how soon to invest in equipment that works better in storms, floods and other hostile climates.

Fourth, rising sea levels and other climatic factors could threaten the viability of bases on islands or low-lying coastal areas. The US military must know how urgently it needs to plan to protect or, in extreme circumstances, compensate for the loss of bases in strategic areas. The Diego Garcia atoll in the Indian Ocean, which serves as a major hub for US and British missions in the Middle East and is vital to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, may be at risk from climate change.

Moreover, expanding existing bases or creating new ones is often expensive and politically challenging. If the Pentagon had a clear sense of what steps were going to be taken to combat global warming, it might choose to invest more in developing its own offshore "sea basing" platforms that do not require host-country consent.

Fifth, the roles of the army and National Guard will need to evolve according to the degree of global warming. National Guard troops are responsible for responding when necessary to domestic natural disasters, but this may not be viable if their deployment overseas leaves the US short of troops and equipment at a time when extreme weather occurs more often at home. The Pentagon might need to begin helping to create a state-level home guard to take over domestic disaster duties from the National Guard.


May 20, 2010
National Academy of Sciences urges strong action to cut greenhouse gases.

The National Academy of Sciences released their report findings on the “most comprehensive report ever on climate change” suggests taxing carbon emissions. It also raises the possibility that global warming might make it necessary to shift vulnerable populations away from coasts.

In a sharp change from its cautious approach in the past, the National Academy of Sciences on Wednesday called for taxes on carbon emissions, a cap-and-trade program for such emissions or some other strong action to curb runaway global warming.

Such actions, which would increase the cost of using coal and petroleum, at least in the immediate future, are necessary because "climate change is occurring, the Earth is warming ... concentrations of carbon dioxide are increasing, and there are very clear fingerprints that link these effects to humans," said Pamela A. Matson of Stanford University, who chaired one of five panels organized by the academy at the request of Congress to look at the science of climate change and how the nation should respond.

What is so hard for me to understand that many in my Republican Party will believe that Man Walked With Dinosaurs, the Earth is only 10,000 years old, Evolution is not real, and will even point to the increase of hurricanes, tornados, coastal flooding, that these are all caused as a sign from God of the Earth’s near end. But if you show them the science facts of “Cause and Effects” of these occurrences, they will parrot the nonsense from conservative talk radio and Fox programming that this is not proven nor the case. “It is just made up stuff and has not been proven.”

National Insurance Companies are canceling policies for home owners against wind and flood damage along the coastal areas, and in some cases whole states, because they have looked at the science facts and realized the odds of more and drastic occurrences of weather damage in the near future.

The Pentagon has been convinced enough it needs to know what kind of environment to prepare for to allocate its vast resources efficiently. Planning for future contingencies is a long-term process, as force structure and weapons systems have to be co-ordinate at least a decade in advance to make combat reaction plans to compensate and take into consideration that “Man Made Climate Change” will affect everyone in every country around the world.

National Academy of Sciences has collected the data and has scientifically proven that “Man Made Climate Change” is occurring.

But for the lemming dumb asses who choose to believe Rush Limbaugh or any of his like, or their local Fundamentalist Preacher, that “Man Made Climate Change” is not occurring….I am speechless as it is just incomprehensible for me that people are so ignorant.

But I see wearing a “T” Shirt makes it so for some!?!?!?

A Word To The Wise For Election 2012

With the elections getting ready to go into full swing soon, there will be a lot of Republican Candidates promising how well they will bring the economy back with their proposals by addressing medical insurance, jobs, fuel cost, cost of government, or costs in general.

I know it will be tempting to many citizens because sometimes we try too hard to get to the greener grass, and in the process, we end up in trouble...

But way too often this just leads to making things worse and when you find yourself in trouble and you're stuck in a situation that you can't get out of, THERE IS ONE THING YOU SHOULD ALWAYS REMEMBER……
Not everyone who shows up...Is there to help you!!!!

Report Faults Mine Owner for Explosion That Killed 29

The first comprehensive state report on the 2010 Massey Energy’s “Big Branch Coal Mine” disaster in West Virginia by an independent team of investigators, has put the blame squarely on the owner of the mine owners, “Massey Energy,” concluding that it had “made life difficult” for miners who tried to address safety and built “a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable.”

Just as the preliminary findings by federal officials that the blast could have been prevented if Massey had observed minimal safety standards, but Massey was more interested in production and profits than the value of the 29 men’s lives that died that day, on April 5, 2010.

It was Massey’s pattern of negligence that ultimately led to the deaths of 29 miners in the worst American mining disaster in 40 years. For people in the mining industry, the report was surprisingly direct.

The report stated that it was poor ventilation negligence of the mine’s jury-rigged ventilation system was cited for 64 violations just in 2009 alone, equipment whose safety mechanisms were not functioning, lack of water spray designed to eliminate sparks caused by digging the coal, the track duster was often clogged where miners were reduced to carrying rock dust, the diluting substance, out of the mine by hand, and no lime was put down which would have made the coal dust less combustible.

I have heard my own Grand Father, who was a West Virginia Union Coal Miner, tell me that the “combustible coal dust would behave like gunpowder carrying the blast in multiple directions.” The official report stated that explosive coal dust, which had been allowed to accumulate, carried the blast through the mine, killing miners who were far from the original explosion.

The lack of air in the nearly three miles of tunnels, combined with coal dust and fumes, tormented the miners, the report said. One miner, Dean Jones, would come home so exhausted that, the report quoted his wife as saying, “I’d look over at the dinner table and he would be asleep.” “It literally felt like you were melting,” said Michael Ellison, a roof bolter who called in sick the day of the accident. Shortly into the shift, he said, “all of us looked like we had been standing out in a rainstorm, just soaking wet.”

Due to the lack of a union, the workers voice in such matters, miners who tried to remedy the situation were punished. When Dean Jones shut down his section for lack of air, a company boss, Chris Blanchard, “called the dispatcher and told him to tell Dean if he didn’t get the section running in so many minutes he’d be fired,” the report said. Mr. Jones, afraid for his job, complied.

As the largest coal producer in Appalachia, Massey used its leverage “to control West Virginia’s political system,” and through it, oversight agencies. Inspectors, whose job it was to protect miner safety, were cast as “ENEMIES,” the report said, with the company challenging their very legitimacy.

Politicians were afraid of the company, the report said, because the chief executive at the time, Don Blankenship, “was willing to spend vast amounts of money to influence elections.” (I want to interject that the Supreme Court has recently ruled that Corporations have the same rights as individual citizens)

Massey is in the process of being acquired by another company, Alpha Natural Resources, which has said it plans on retraining Massey employees after taking over in June. It has also hired Christopher Adkins, a chief operating officer for Massey, whose role in the disaster was strongly criticized in the report.

So concluded, one of Rush Limbaugh’s daily radio program at this time was spouting off how the “Miner’s Union” did not protect the miners of the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. “Yes Unions are worthless!!!” The problem with Rush’s comment was the “Upper Big Branch Mine” was a NON-UNION MINE and the miners had no recourse to have all of the “Mine Safety Sightings And Infractions” addressed by the company; the miners had no voice to protect themselves and 29 good men lost their lives when the mine exploded. RUSH LIES!!!!

So the next time you hear someone bad mouth UNIONS, you can tell them that this ATTITUDE is exactly what killed 29 good family men.

THIS IS THE END

This song is dedicated to the delusional ding-a-lings that think and project the Judgment Day being May 21, 2011……For the rest of my sane friends….I will see you tomorrow.

“Judgment Day” is May 21, 2011

Well I want to pass on, and I have it on good authority, that the world is going to start to end on Saturday, May 21st, according to Family Radio Worldwide and a number of religious believers. This ubiquitous prophecy that is posted on more than 5,000 billboards, posters, fliers and digital bus displays across the country. “Family Radio,” based in Oakland, Calif., is a nonprofit evangelical Christian group that has declared May 21, 2011, as the day of Armageddon. It has been funding the campaign to spread the word through an outreach program it calls "Project Caravan." Tom Evans, a spokesman for Family Radio, said the doomsday date is based on a complicated reading of the Bible and calculations that stem from the "7,000 year anniversary of the flood."

Family Radio also predicts massive earthquakes will strike all over the world on May 21, 2011 to herald the second coming of Jesus Christ. How do these Ultra Right Conservative Christians come to this date…..Because the Bible is written in CODE and Harold Camping has broken this CODE.

The thousands of billboards and fliers are Family Radio's way of blowing the trumpet. The radio network, which has 66 stations in the United States, is headed by Harold Camping.

A former civil engineer turned radio host, Camping, 89, is the president of Family Radio and is touring the country to spread his message of impending doom. It has been funding the campaign to spread the word through an outreach program it calls "Project Caravan."

Members of his fundamentalist flock show up to his presentations sporting yellow T-shirts, cheerfully disseminating word that the “Rapture” is almost here. The signs on their RVs proclaim, "Have you heard the awesome news? The End of the World is almost here."

Tom Evans said, “Camping and his followers believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. It is a manifestation of God's word." (OK….?)

While Family Radio says it has faith in the Bible, it has no use for organized religion and believes Catholics and Protestants, among others, have corrupted the word of God.
"If you're a Christian, you know that God does not elevate any man above any other man," Evans said.

Now one LITTLE draw back in the group's campaign is that Camping has predicted the end of the world before: in 1994, but Evans said, “Camping was thrown off a correct calculation because of some verses in Matthew 24." So when 1994 came and went, Camping headed back to the drawing board and came up with May 21.

So to all of my readers, I’m sure he got it right this time. (Yea Right)

So remember “Judgment Day” is May 21, 2011 and be sure to keep this day open for any plans.

These Ultra Right Conservative Christians also pass on the Bible passage:
“And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented FIVE MONTHS: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.” Revelation 9:5

This of course makes “The End of the World” October 21, 2011.

But before you start selling off your belongings, you might want to check your math. The real earth ending won’t arrive for another five billion years from now, when the sun runs out of hydrogen, evolutionary biologist and author, Richard Dawkins, claims.

I don’t know about you but I’m going with Science and Dawkins.