La vida no es la que uno vivió, sino la que uno recuerda y cómo la recuerda
“I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”
One of the aspects of American democracy that works great is when the military doesn’t intervene in politics. In no way do I support McCain, but having retired generals criticizing presidential candidates sounds too much like Latin America (even if they are retired).
Then again usually it’s poor Third World countries that suffer this fate. Wait, are we a Third World country yet?
I finally got around to watching Michael Moore’s Sicko…
I’ve always had a thing against Mexican telenovelas because in my opinion they portray a whitewashed Mexico. There are too many gueros in telenovelas. Not to say that there are no gueros in Mexico, but they don’t constitute a majority of the population. Anyhow, I always thought that it was with racist motivos. I kind of changed my mind. When we were in French Polynesia over the summer the hottest telenovela (yes, the Polynisians watch Mexican novelas too) was Rubi. The telenovela was a hit in France and since we only got to see French channels we got to watch it too when we were in our room. While eating dinner one night the waitress asked Sonia if she was the actress who played Rubi’s sister? Can you believe that? Not that Sonia was getting confused with an actress but instead that in the South Pacific someone knew of a Mexican telenovela and followed it like my family now watches “Gaviota” in Destilando Amor.
What is my position on universal health care? I’m for it. Business and health do not mix. My experiences with health insurance companies has been horrible. From regular health care and prescription medicine to worker’s compensation and social security. Dealing with insurance claim adjusters can is like pulling teeth. One doctor says you’re injured, the other says you’re healthy; one says you can lift 50 lbs. and the other says you can only lift 5. It’s obvious that some doctors work for insurance companies while the rest actually practice medicine. Across the board it sucks. My parents have diabetes and they need insurance but no one will insure them because of their “preexisting condition.” If you’re sick you can’t get the insurance you need to help you stay healthy. You have hard working Americans having to drive across the border to recieve affordable health treatment and medicine.
The Porterville Recorder is on a roll son! Last week it was the CTA, this week is the CFA.
A fundamentally flawed system that forcibly takes people’s money to provide other people education might be expected to bear bad fruit. Californians may be about to reap the latest harvest in the union-authorized strike, pending action Sunday by the CSU Board of Trustees.
There are a host of underlying problems in a public university system, not the least of which is how it’s financed. CSU students pay only about a third of their education’s actual cost. Taxpayers pick up the balance. Another problem is the notion every person needs a college education, a contributing factor to the huge number of freshmen requiring remedial education in college.
I think it’s really stupid that the newspaper for a city with one of the highest unemployment rates would attack education. If there are no jobs shouldn’t people try to better themselves through education? Shouldn’t we look to have more of our kids go to college so that they can help develop our town instead of depending on Wal-mart distribution centers to sustain our local economy?
It must also be mentioned that the majority of all Porterville teachers are products of CSU schools whether its Fresno State or CSU Bakersfield. How in the world can the Recorder attack the CSU system when so many Porterville teachers have benefited so much from it. Unbelievable!
It’s the 16th but it doesn’t have the same feel of past years. It seems as though Mexico has taken a few steps backwards. This year’s election was supposed to further democratize Mexico but instead it seems as though we have returned to the days of the caudillo. I had faith in the IFE. I still do. With the hope of millions riding on clean elections I still have faith in the IFE. At this point I tend to believe the latest outcome than the words that are coming out of Lopez Obrador’s mouth.
Today, the Porterville Police Department decided that it was going to arrest students and ticket motorists taking part in the high school protests against that xenophobic bill making it’s way through the legislative branch of our government. Nothing new from our law enforcement, which is notorious for harassing Porterville youth. What a great opportunity to meet their daily quota.
Although the Central Valley doesn’t get much attention from the rest of the state, students have been making their voices heard. In Bakersfield nearly 4,000 students walked out today. As is normally the case, the youth are leading the demonstrations, especially here in the Valley where there have been walk-outs in Visalia, Porterville, Delano, and even McFarland. I wish there was more organization though. It’s times like these when I wish I was at the high school level. I really liked how the Spanish radio DJ’s in Los Angeles strategized their demonstration in downtown LA a few days ago. They were handing out American flags to the protestors. Not that I am in love with the stars and stripes but this is politics. You gotta convince the other side. You don’t want to alienate everyone. I have to admit though, that most have a false perception of protestors waving the Mexican flag. They’re not signaling some take over of the west coast (fuck you Victor Hanson). They’re NOT signaling allegiance to the mal gobierno. Waving the Mexican flag signals love of our people (el pueblo), love of our culture, love of our madre patria.
