I’m going to be away from this spot, “It Is What It Is“, for a few days. I won’t have full access to a PC or laptop.
I still have the capacity to keep an eye on what happens in the blogosphere while I’m away.
I’m not able to just disconnect, particularly with what is going on in our world at this time.
There are so many problems, issues, conflicts, injustices, bigotry, destruction, killing, wars ….. We need to stay informed and educated about “happenings“.
I will leave you today with a message.
As noted above, we won’t find peace until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, as Mr. Sweitzer noted.
‘Tis the season …
We are all in this together. Be kind to on another.
This day, 35 years ago, marks the passing of English singer
and songwriter and former member of The Beatles, John Lennon.
(Born John Winston Lennon; Oct. 9, 1940 – 8 Dec.19, 80)
John Lennon was an English musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the members of the Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism and pacifism.
He was shot by “a deranged American gunman” (I refuse to use his name) in the archway of the building where he lived, The Dakota, in New York City on 8 December 1980.
Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono.
After sustaining four fatal gunshot wounds, Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital. He was 40 years old.
At the hospital, it was stated that nobody could have lived for more than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries. Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon’s death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota.
Lennon was cremated on 10 December 1980 at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. The ashes were given to Ono, who chose not to hold a funeral for him.
Karen Rodriguez is out to smash all the pop chart toppers.
After killing you softly with her Spanglish cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” the American Idol alum is back with another bilingual twist, giving Adele a run for her money with a raw and powerful rendition of “Hello.”
“I connected deeply with ‘Hello’ and after seeing how well it was received, I knew people would enjoy hearing it in a new way,” said Karen to VIBE Viva.
“I decided to give it a twist and write my own lyrical adaptation in Spanish, opting out of a literal translation. I wanted to express what the song made me feel, and I also wanted to stay as true to the melody and to Adele’s flow in the original.
But I am a bilingual artist, I love singing and writing music in both languages, and I hope this cover serves as a platform where I can gain more fans who genuinely love and appreciate the work I do!”
I am a citizen of the world
and my home is my abode:
Rivers, lakes and valleys
are my sources of life;
Trees, birds and mountains
are my pride!
I am a citizen of the world
and my home is my abode:
Seas, fishes and oceans
are my sources of hope;
Shorelines, rocks and beaches
are my cliches!
I am a citizen of the world
and my peace is your company:
My children, relatives and friends
are my sources of strength;
Their love, care and tender touch
are my tabernacles.
I am a citizen of mankind
and the whole world is my abode.
Santa Claus’s reindeer form an imaginary team of flying reindeer traditionally held to pull the sleigh of Santa Claus and help him deliver Christmas gifts.
They are:
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen.
I’m one of them. Which one do you think I am?
The 1823 poem by Clement C. Moore “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (also known as “The Night Before Christmas” or “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas“) is largely credited for the contemporary Christmas lore that includes the eight flying reindeer and their names.
The relevant segment of the poem reads:
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
with a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call’d them by name:
“Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer, and Vixen!
“On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Dunder and Blixem!
“To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
“Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
I’ve followed this family since their early days in Miami.
I know their story and how Gloria came to be the main singer of Miami Sound Machine. The band became a huge hit in the Latin community. Then Gloria “crossed over” into the American mainstream music scene.
It was all then about Gloria.
I remember their hits, I have all the CD and concert videos. I couldn’t forget the harrowing time of the bus crash, her fractured back, her rescue, her recovery, her rehab and her comeback … that blue dress singing “Coming Out of the Dark”.
And the rest is history!
In their personal lives, they had Nayib and finally a daughter, Emily. Her name honors her dad Emilio.
I’ve seen Emily dab here and there in music. She has it in her genes, her internal makeup and her talent has grown.
She has released an awesome video with an absolutely on target message.
If you ask Gloria Estefan, it feels like yesterday when her daughter Emily was a baby backstage at her sold-out concerts. Fast-forward to today and the 21-year-old college sophomore is totally grown up and ready to rock out on her own.
“I always think about it as a double-edge sword,” Emily shared on Today’s show when asked about following the same career as her mom. “I don’t even understand that saying because doesn’t a sword have one edge?”
She continued, “But the reality is they’re amazing golden footsteps to follow in so my biggest fear now is just being able to do the past justice.”
“I know that must people I know believe in me for my talent and for what I stand for but there’s always a doubt in my mind because there is no way of knowing when you are a descendant of the Conga Queen.”
As her parents focus on their Broadway musical appropriately titled “On Your Feet,” Emily is ready to prove she herself can turn the beat around. And yes, she’ll do it while wearing mama’s clothes.
“When I want to go shopping, I just go to the warehouse and grab her clothes,” Emily admitted while wearing Gloria’s retro pants and T-shirt. As they like to say, like mother, like daughter.
Singer Emily Estefan, the Miami Beach daughter of Gloria and Emilio, on Thursday released a music video in which she expresses her point of view to a ‘sterile and ominous’ world: F#ck To Be.
F#ck To Be prominently focuses on male and female gender roles and stereotypes.
On November 3, Emily Estefan released her brand new video F#ck To Be. The concept behind the video shows Emily discovering and noticing a world that it is not what she expected instead it is very sterile and ominous.
“There are two POVs in the video, it is either what I see or what the mirror sees. It is me against the mirror. The mirror being expectations that I carry of myself, or what people expect me to be. I’m combatting the mirror, “ says Estefan.
F#ck to Be will be the first single from her forthcoming full length CD, Take Whatever You Want. Emily wrote, recorded, produced and performed her full album at Fairy Light Studios (her own studio in her college apartment in Boston, MA).
“Many people think I am saying “F” everything or everything sucks, but that is not true. I go in and out of these very different looks in the video that I don’t necessarily like for myself, but that doesn’t mean that I frown upon them, it just means that it is not me” said Estefan.
“later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?
it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.”
~Warsan Shire~
Warsan Shire (born 1988) is a Somali–British writer, poet, editor and teacher. Shire was born in 1988 in Kenya to Somali parents. She immigrated to the United Kingdom aged 1. Shire has a . As of 2015, she primarily resides in London.
There’s also a law known as the “Americans with Disabilities Act”.
There’s the “Golden Rule”.
Mainly there’s common sense.
This man truly believes that he’s above everyone and everyone.
He doesn’t care about badmouthing or disrespecting anyone. Remember the Mexicans, John McCain, Megyn Kelly, “illegal immigrants, Jorge Ramos, Black Lives Matter …. and so many others.
Donald Trump Slammed For Mocking Disabled New York Times Reporter Serge Kovaleski
Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Tuesday night Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump seems to mock New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a chronic condition called arthrogryposis which affects the movement of his arms.
Trump imitates Kovaleski while defending comments he has made over the past few weeks, asserting that members of the Muslim communities in New Jersey celebrated following the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers in 2001.
The New York Times has slammed Trump’s actions as ‘outrageous’.
(This is not direct discrimination, it’s lower than that).
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. In 1986, the National Council on Disability had recommended enactment of an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and drafted the first version of the bill which was introduced in the House and Senate in 1988.
It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, amended and signed by President George W. Bush with changes effective January 1, 2009.
The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that is intended to protect against discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964,[4] which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal.
~Donald Trump mocks disabled New York Times reporter~
~Published on Nov 26, 2015~
Donald Trump mocks reporter with disability
Donald Trump Criticized After He Appears to Mock Reporter Serge Kovaleski – New York Times Slams Trump’s ‘Outrageous’ Mocking of Reporter With Congenital Condition
A Muslim, sometimes spelled Moslem, relates to a person who follows the religion of Islam, a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the Quran. Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. They also follow the teachings and practices of Muhammad as recorded in traditional accounts called hadith. “Muslim” is an Arabic word meaning “one who submits (to God)”.
~BUDDHIST~
A person who followed Buddhism. This is a nontheistic religion or philosophy that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha, commonly known as the Buddha (“the awakened one“). According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BC.
~SIKH~
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism, a monotheistic dharma which originated during the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term “Sikh” has its origin in the Sanskrit words for disciple, student or instruction. A Sikh, according to Article I of the Sikh Rehat Maryada (the Sikh code of conduct), is “any human being who faithfully believes in One Immortal Being; ten Gurus, from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh; Guru Granth Sahib; the teachings of the ten Gurus and the baptism bequeathed by the tenth Guru”.
~HINDU~
Hindu has historically been used as a geographical, cultural or religious identifier for people indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. In contemporary use, Hindu refers to anyone who regards himself or herself as culturally, ethnically or religiously adhering with aspects of Hinduism.
The historical meaning of the term Hindu has evolved with time. Starting with the Persian and Greek references to India in the 1st millennium BC through the texts of the medieval era, the term Hindu implied a geographic, ethnic or cultural identifier for people living in Indian subcontinent around or beyond Sindhu river.
~CHRISTIAN~
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. “Christian” derives from the Koine Greek word Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach.
There are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict. However, “Whatever else they might disagree about, Christians are at least united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance”.
~TERRORIST~
A terrorist is a person who engages in terrorism. In its broadest sense, terrorism is any act designed to cause terror. In a narrower sense, terrorism can be understood to feature a political objective. The word terrorism is politically loaded and emotionally charged.
I’ve had enough, why we cannot get on with each other I’ve never known times so rough, Where ‘o’ where has all the love gone Why show the hate with a roadside bomb, Freedom riots crushed with tanks, Write about flowers and beautiful nature?
No thanks Stop the World I Want to Get Off! Countries with no one to kill rape the earth Destroying forests so fast leaving nothing but dearth, Then boffins who can’t make a car that can go slow That so many road victims so early to heaven must go. To top the hate cake 911 shook the world As the news and horror unfurled, Stop the World I Want to Get Off! I’ve booked a flight on the first shuttle leaving soon To live with that loving man who lives on the moon, I know those with love who are left will win in the end, but I must leave now or I’ll go round the bend.
It Is What It Is 