BUZZURRO

In UCLA different groups graduate at different times.

The university (UCLA) now has so many separate identity-group graduations that scheduling them not to conflict with one another is a challenge.
The women’s studies graduation and the Chicana/Chicano studies graduation are both set for 10 AM Saturday.
The broader Hispanic graduation, “Raza,” is in near-conflict with the black graduation, which starts just an hour later.

Planning was easier before a new crop of ethnic groups pushed for inclusion.
Students of Asian heritage were once content with the Asian–Pacific Islanders ceremony.
But now there are separate Filipino and Vietnamese commencements, and some talk of a Cambodian one in the future.
Years ago, UCLA sponsored an Iranian graduation, but the school’s commencement office couldn’t tell me if the event was still around.
The entire Middle East may yet be a fertile source for UCLA commencements.

In the words of the 1990s LA Riot Victim Rodney King, “Why can’t we all just get along?” (or at least graduate together.)

When I was in college there was one commencement ceremony.
Just one. It worked very well.
Hispanics sat next to Asians and Blacks and Whites.
Nobody felt intimidated to be graduating with another ethnic group.
We all listened intently for our names and once called went on stage excitedly to get our diplomas.
Some fraternity groups taped the letters of their fraternities to their caps, but other than that everyone wore the same graduation gown, except for magna cum laude and other people graduating with honors (based on educational merits-not race) No purple sashes for Vietnamese members or pink triangles for Lesbian and Gay people as Adolph Hitler would have them do.

Now, graduates (at UCLA) usually wear identity-group markers—a Filipino stole or a Vietnamese sash, for instance, or a rainbow tassel at the Lavender event.
Promoters of ethnic and racial graduations often talk about the strong sense of community that they favor.
But it is a sense of community based on blood, a dubious and historically dangerous organizing principle.

Now how are we supposed to exist in a country if everyone runs to their own groups to graduate from college of all things ?
College educated people should be able to live with diversity-no run from it.
One can identify strongly with a racial or ethnic group and still graduate in the mainstream graduation.
When I graduated with the mainstream population at my college my ethnicity didn’t change.
Neither did that of any Black, Asian, or Hispanic.
Gays did not become straight, Heterosexuals did not become homosexual, everyone was just happy to graduate.

I think this segregated graduation is a bad idea, something that would make all the civil rights leaders from the 1960s turn in their graves, but unfortunately many don’t think so.
If you read the article, the tragedy according to UCLA officials is not that separate graduations exist, but that they cant schedule them all.

My enthusiasm towards all things American is at risk, if this is true.

As you probably know, Paris Hilton was sentenced by a California court to 45 days in jail for violating multiple times a probation after being convicted for DWI.
She drove with a suspended license at 70 mph in a 35 mph zone, with her headlights off, and she failed to enroll a mandatory alcohol education class.

Today I learned that her parents, Kathy and Rick Hilton, thanks to their political influence, are trying to have her daughter pardoned by Ca. Governor Schwarzenegger.

“Kathy and Rick are exploring ways to try to get her sentence reduced,” a source said. “That includes approaching politicians, including Gov. [Arnold] Schwarzenegger.”

DWI is a quite hateful crime, because it puts other people’s lives in jeopardy. Drunk drivers are losers, post-adolescential losers, biologically but not psychologically mature losers, 30-40-50+ years old losers that never grew up… Many are the reasons why a person gets behind the wheel under the influence. In any of those cases, we are talking about human trash. We, in NM, have a big problem with many of those drunk scumbags out there who think getting drunk and then driving is socially acceptable, is cool.

The arrogant spoiled PH was given a chance when she went under probation, and she screwed it up when she repeatedly and severely violated street laws, so let her spend 45 days behind the bars.

I strongly hope she won’t be pardoned: that would be very un-American.

Many people know the name of the shooter at Virginia Tech. And many of those will also know some details about his days in high school and college, but what about the victims ? Some heroes were created that day. This post is written in tribute to one of them, Professor Liviu Librescu. Following is an article found at globeandmail.com:

In a letter addressed to Prof. Librescu’s wife Marlena, one student described how he climbed out the window, but paused on the ledge to look back.

“I saw your husband still standing there. He was holding the door closed and looking over his shoulder to make sure everybody else was safe. It was the bravest thing I have ever seen and I will always remember his courage,” the student wrote.

Another simply wrote: “I think he saved my life.”

He will be missed.

By now pretty much everybody has heard of the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech.

Today many people, both in the United States and abroad, have been saying that the awful incident was caused because there is no gun control in the US.
The tragedy in Virginia Tech has been used by many calling for a complete ban on handguns in the US. I think they are all wrong.

What happened in Virginia was caused by one completely deranged lunatic. If he were not around there would be no tragedy. He is the cause, not the guns. The guns did not shoot themselves. Therefore
banning guns won’t do anything to stop the next tragedy. The crazy lunatics who want to kill will still be free. If that person wants to murder a lot of people and then commit suicide after he/she will do it regardless of whether guns are available or not.
I don’t know if there is a right solution to use to avoid tragedies like this, but I do know that it is not a ban on all guns.

Having said that, I send my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the victims.

This is ridiculous:

When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft.

Frustrated, the State Department assigned a junior Foreign Service officer to find the names another way — by using Google. Those with the most hits under search terms such as “Iran and nuclear,” three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations.

(…)
An initial Internet search yielded over 100 names, including dozens of Iranian diplomats who have publicly defended their country’s efforts as intended to produce energy, not bombs, the sources said. The list also included names of Iranians who have spoken with U.N. inspectors or have traveled to Vienna to attend International Atomic Energy Agency meetings about Iran.

It was submitted to the CIA for approval but the agency refused to look up such a large number of people, according to three government sources. Too time-consuming, the intelligence community said, for the CIA’s Iran desk staff of 140 people. The list would need to be pared down. So the State Department cut the list in half and resubmitted the names.

In the end, the CIA approved a handful of individuals, though none is believed connected to Project 1-11 — Iran’s secret military effort to design a weapons system capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Still we have not learned how important collaboration among federal agencies is for U.S. national security, as it was recommended by 9/11 Commission.

Wal-Mart opts for ‘Christmas’ marketing It won’t be ‘happy holidays’ this year; it will be ‘Merry Christmas’ ,the announcer announced on TV with a smile.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Christmas cheer seems to be a hot trend this season as several other retailers including Kohl’s Corp. and Macy’s, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc., are also stepping up their Christmas marketing. The moves respond to mounting criticism from religious groups that staged boycotts against Wal-Mart and other merchants after they eliminated or de-emphasized “Christmas” in their advertising.

“We learned a lesson from that. Merry Christmas is now part of the vocabulary here at Wal-Mart,” said Linda Blakley, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

‘Big Deal’ I sarcastically thought. On the one hand as a consumer who doesn’t celebrate Christmas it doesn’t really concern me, but on the other hand it does, and within a few seconds I changed my thoughts to ‘That’s good news.”

Why does it concern me you ask ?

Last year many stores and public places made a big show of removing the word ‘Christmas’ from everything from store sales to trees, as if Christmas was some type of vulgar curse word.

It’s not. It’s the name of a sacred holiday in the Christian faith. Even though I do not celebrate it, I was highly offended by these actions last year. Christmas is a religious holiday for Christians. It is not n interdenominational holiday for all Americans such as Thanksgiving and should not be stripped of its religious signicance and be treated as such.

Personally I celebrate Hannukah. I would be highly offended if some marketing expert decided to call it a generic holiday for everyone instead of a special holy day for Jewish people so why should things be any different for Christians?

They were offended too by what happened last year and rightly so. I was behind them 100 percent.
I’m glad that due to their pressure things are going to be different this year.

You would think that since I now live in a state so close to New York City where the twin towers were, and with a busy port to be now under the ultimate control of the United Arab Emirates, I would be against the Homeland Security deal of allowing them to control the ports, but I’m not.

There are good arguments both for and against allowing them to have ultimate control, but in the end I have decided that there will be no harm in this deal. Many people are arguing loudly either pro or con this argument, with the con argument winning I think.

For those people who have not been following US news, Dubai Ports World of the UAE will acquire Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (P&O), which is a British firm.
P &O Steam Navigation Company now currently run the US ports. It still will. Exactly the same unionized longshoremen will be physically operating our ports. Security will be managed by the United States Coast Guard, although they too are probably affected by the many new laws Homeland Security has created to prevent terrorism, so security might actually get tighter. The only real change is where the profits are going. Profits will now be routed to the UAE instead of England.

The UAE operates other major ports around the world, including Hong Kong, so its not like this type of arrangement is new to the international shipping industry.

I do not think the US should refuse to have any business with them because many of the terrorists who blew up the World Trade Center lived there for a time. Some of those same terrorists also lived in Florida too. Should we ban Florida companies from control of the ports too? No. I also don’t think the whole UAE government is a bunch of Islamofascists waiting to blow up the US either.

They have supported us since September 11, which is more then I can say for our European allies like France, Italy or even Britain which controls those ports now. Just because the terrorists flew into the US from Dubai does not make Dubai a terrorist haven. And just because they took in Michael Jackson doesn’t mean they want to screw everyone in the US either.

A few days after the execution of murderer Tookie Williams, several politicians in Graz, Austria, the birthplace of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger discussed removing his name from a stadium there.

In 1997 the stadium’s name was changed to Schwarzenegger stadium.
They were proud of their native son.
Many Europeans, the citizens of Graz included, abhor the death penalty and call it barbaric. They were dismayed to see their local son uphold the law of the land that he now governs.
They were no longer proud of their native son.

While the officials were gathering names for a petition to actually remove the Schwarzenegger name from the stadium, Arnold beat them to the punch and sent a letter to them asking them to remove his name. In addition he told them he no longer wanted the ring of honor that was given to him by the city.

“Graz will not have problems in the future with my decisions as governor of California, because officially nothing connects us any more,” Schwarzenegger told the daily Kronen Zeitung in an interview for Tuesday’s editions.
“The death penalty is law here, and I have to uphold the law of the land and the will of the people,” Schwarzenegger was quoted as saying, adding that he still considered himself “Austrian with all my heart.”
After hearing that, Siegfried Nagl, mayor of the southern city of Graz, said he wrote Schwarzenegger pleading with him not to return a ring of honor bestowed on him by officials in his birthplace in 1999 and reassuring him that most residents still admire him.

“I hope that very soon we’ll hear you say, ‘I’ll be back,’” Nagl told the actor-turned-politician, one of Austria’s most famous sons.
It seems that when Nagl pushed and felt a force pushing back, he changed his story. Whatta wimp.
Stand by your convictions, right or wrong. (In this case wrong. Hello ? Is anybody home ? California is not a part of Austria. Austrian laws do not apply there.)

Read the rest of the article here.