grist for the mill

State brierfs: White lawmaker calls Black Caucus ?racist? - Wednesday, 09/28/05: "Tennessee Black Caucus member Rep. Larry Miller, a Memphis Democrat, said no white lawmaker has ever asked to join. He said the group's bylaws mention only black lawmakers but said it might consider admitting a white lawmaker ? just not Campfield.
'He is using this as a joke. This is an insult coming from him,' Miller said. 'Why he chose to focus on the Black Caucus, I have no idea other than he is crazy and a racist.'"

Sequential Tart: Redirected Male - Neil Kleid (vol V/iss 10/October 2002): "TIME: Comics aren't a race. No one is telling you your comic needs to be on the stands next week. Let's say you have a story idea, right? Now you need the time to write it. Okay ? Brian Bendis has said on more than one occasion he writes while he's biking. He carries a pad with him and jots down ideas as he does his exercise. I do the same thing when I'm jogging. I write while I'm on the subway. I write when I'm in the bathroom. You find the time. Doing comics is a lot like school ? you have to set time aside to do your homework. Schedule an hour. One hour of your day when no one bothers you, nothing distracts you. During that hour you set a goal ? five pages of script, one page of pencils. There's no rush ? you're not on DC Comics deadline here, right? Take it easy, do the best work you think you can.
Think about this ? how much TV do you watch? How often do you find yourself sitting for hours in front of video games ? be honest with yourself. I haven't watched TV in a while ? maybe its 'cause there's nothing I like on, I dunno ... fact is, I'm worlds more productive without it. Look at your daily schedule, re-budget your day, and figure out what you can do to find that one hour to be productive. Again, this is no race.
But remember ? you need to put the time in in order to get the work done. It's just not going to happen any other way."

Transracial and Transcultural Adoption: "People choose to adopt transracially or transculturally for a variety of reasons. Fewer young Caucasian children are available for adoption in the United States than in years past, and some adoption agencies that place Caucasian children do not accept singles or applicants older than 40. Some prospective adoptive parents feel connected to a particular race or culture because of their ancestry or through personal experiences such as travel or military service. Others simply like the idea of reaching out to children in need, no matter where they come from."

MedlinePlus: Men, black men and high blood pressure: "'If this is the kind of a person who really watched what they ate, didn't get fat and exercised, their blood pressure would be borderline,' he continues. 'The same person without a genetic disposition would have a lower blood pressure.'"

DESIREE COOPER: Parents raising kids to be wimps: "What has spawned a generation of hyper-protective parents? Marano said she believes that the professional approach to parenting has been part of the problem. With so much information about how to be a good parent, there's pressure to do it right."

Bush administration brings abortion case to the Supreme Court: "WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a ban on a procedure that critics call 'partial birth' abortions, setting up a showdown that could be decided by the president's new choice for the court. "

WHY CAN'T WE ALL GET ALONG?: Racial tensions seem to be rising, but some are working to bridge the divide: "Livonia, the whitest city in the nation of 100,000 or more residents, and Detroit, the country's blackest big city, represent the racial polarities that historically symbolize southeast Michigan, which for years has been the nation's most segregated metro region, according to U.S. Census figures.

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2006 RACE FOR U.S. SENATE: GOP takes chance on Butler: "The question, state Republicans admit privately, is whether he can win over the white, suburban and rural religious conservatives critical to Republican electoral success."

None Dare Call It Stolen (Harpers.org): "Even so, the evidence that something went extremely wrong last fall is copious, and not hard to find. Much of it was noted at the time, albeit by local papers and haphazardly. Concerning the decisive contest in Ohio, the evidence is lucidly compiled in a single congressional report, which, for the last half-year, has been available to anyone inclined to read it. It is a veritable arsenal of "smoking guns"-and yet its findings may be less extraordinary than the fact that no one in this country seems to care about them. "

[SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ARTICLE FROM OCTOBER 2001 ] Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Drowning New Orleans -- [ CIVIL ENGINEERING ] -- A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. Human activities along the Mississippi River have dramatically: "The boxes are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all. If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. 'As the water recedes,' says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, 'we expect to find a lot of dead bodies.' "

Agent 007 on Publishing

Lost in the Flood - Why no mention of race or class in TV's Katrina coverage? - By Jack Shafer: "What accounts for the broadcasters' timidity? I saw only a couple of black faces anchoring or co-anchoring but didn't see any black faces reporting from New Orleans. So, it's safe to assume that the reluctance to talk about race on the air was a mostly white thing. That would tend to imply that white people don't enjoy discussing the subject. But they do, as long as they get to call another white person racist. "