Showing posts with label Columbia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Columbia. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

COLUMBUS DAY CANCELLED

My blog was on hiatus this past summer (I was apparently way too busy gaining weight) Now that I that I am serious about eating less,  exercising more and losing weight - I have more time, and certainly more desire, to espouse my conservative right-wing positions. Today we examine Columbus Day.


Have you heard about this recent news from California?




Los Angeles cancels Columbus Day

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Columbus Day is no more in the nation’s second-largest city.
The Los Angeles City Council voted 14-1 on Wednesday to officially mark the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day on the city’s calendar — a day to commemorate “indigenous, aboriginal and native people.”
The day will remain a paid holiday for city employees, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The vote followed a contentious hearing, during which some Italian-Americans said the switch would eradicate a key portion of their history, while others argued that city lawmakers needed to “dismantle a state-sponsored celebration of genocide of indigenous peoples” and dismissed the idea of celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day on a different date altogether.
“To make us celebrate on any other day would be a further injustice,” said Chrissie Castro, vice chairwoman of the Los Angeles City-County Native American Indian Commission.
Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, a member of Oklahoma’s Wyandotte Nation tribe, had pushed for the change, saying Wednesday that the move would provide “restorative justice.” In a blog post prior to the vote earlier this week, O’Farrell said the “historical record is unambiguous in documenting the horrors” Christopher Columbus and his men imposed on the native people in present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Removing Columbus Day and replacing it with Indigenous Peoples Day is the appropriate action for this city to take,” O’Farrell wrote. “We must send a signal to Washington D.C. that there is no better day to honor our original inhabitants while highlighting the absurdity of celebrating a historical figure responsible for such profound suffering, still felt by generations of Indigenous People everywhere. This is more than symbolic. It is spiritually and morally necessary.”Councilman Joe Buscaino, a first-generation Italian-American, suggested replacing Columbus Day with a new name to celebrate “all of the diverse cultures in the city” before being the lone city lawmaker to oppose the switch, asking fellow councilors not to “cure one offense with another.”
With the change, Los Angeles joins a growing list of places that have already replaced Columbus Day — first recognized as a federal holiday in 1937 — with Indigenous Peoples Day, including Alaska, Vermont, Seattle, Albuquerque, San Francisco and Denver. Most recently, the Bangor City Council in Maine voted to rename the holiday, the Bangor Daily News reports.
Let's examine the lefty lunatic Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio (you know this guy, he spent his honeymoon with his new bride in that stronghold of freedom, Cuba. His Cuban honeymoon was a testament to his broken moral compass as well as his faith to the laws of the United States of America. Surely, though, I am digressing.) Mayor de Blasio has ordered a review of the Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus Circle in New York City. 

I have some questions for the Honorable Mayor of New York:
Should we not change the name of Columbus Circle as well? (Who might that be named after?)

Now I think that is good for local politicians to send these messages to our leaders in Washington.
You are familiar with Washington, it is the capitol  of our country. You might know it as Washington, DC.  Did you know what the 'DC" stands for? Here's the problem: District of Columbia. There is that pesky connection to Christopher Columbus, yet again.

from wikipedia:

"Columbia" (/kəˈlʌmbiə/kə-LUM-bee-ə) is a historical name used by both Europeans and Americans to describe the Americas, the New World, and often, more specifically, the United States of America. It is also a name given to the "Spirit of the Frontier" of which was used to illustrate Manifest Destiny among several other American political causes. It has given rise to the names of many persons, places, objects, institutions, and companies; e.g., Columbia University, the District of Columbia (the national capital), and the ship Columbia Rediviva, which would give its name to the Columbia River.
Columbia is a New Latin toponym, in use since the 1730s, for the Thirteen Colonies. It originated from the name of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and from the ending -ia, common in Latin names of countries (paralleling BritanniaGallia etc.)..

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Columbia University? This is a problem. Columbia University can trace its history all the way back to 1754. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in New York, and fifth oldest in the entire United States. It is widely considered to be one of the finest universities in the world.  This University surely would not tolerate any kind of so-called 'hate speech.'  For example, a bit more than a decade ago, the University invited the Honorable President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak. Aside from Ahmadinejad's fervent Holocaust Denial, he is a pretty good guy representing a country with clear cut moral values. Oops, I am digressing again. The real point is, that Columbia University is a home of political correctness.  Surely, this esteemed university will have to change its name. Can you imagine being a graduate of a university which was named after a person responsible for the genocide of the indigenous people of America? Let's talk about me. I don't know if I would feel comfortable sending my daughter to a university named after Osama Bin Laden. I wouldn't care how good the quality of the education was, it just would not seem right. But that's just me.

Hopefully this is obvious.  I do not think that Columbia University should change its name. I do think that it should change its slant away from politically correct, lefty, liberal thinking, but that is a different story for another blog post on another day.

I do not think that the statue of Christoper Columbus at Columbus Circle should be removed. And I don't think that one requires a formal review lefty intellectuals to come to this conclusion. 

I do not think that Washington, DC needs a new name either. 

And I certainly do not think that Columbus Day needs to be wiped off the calendar. 

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Another urban hike on Labor Day, this time, six miles

I augmented the steps from my six mile urban hike with some walking in place while watching TV

Your Food Diary For:

BREAKFAST Calories
kcal
Carbs
g
Fat
g
Protein
g
Sodium
mg
Sugar
g
Egg - Poached Egg, 4 300 2 20 25 629 1
Biscuit Ham Slices, 4 slices 60 0 3 9 680 0
Quaker - Instant Oatmeal Packet 100 19 2 4 75 0

460 21 25 38 1,384 1
L U N C H
General Tso's Chinese Chicken 300 29 17 6 715 7
Vegetable Fried Rice 100 13 4 2 87 1
Vegetable Lo Mein 200 42 7 6 400 3
Brussel Sprouts Baked With Sauce 100 18 3 5 190 0

700 102 31 19 1,392 11
D I N N E R
Asian Chopped Salad 385 46 21 7 1,190 25

385 46 21 7 1,190 25
S N A C K S
Quaker - Chewy Granola 90 Calories, 2 bar 180 38 4 2 160 14
Add Food
180 38 4 2 160 14
Totals 1,725 207 81 66 4,126 51
Your Daily Goal 3,075 384 102 154 2,300 115
Remaining 1,350 177 21 88 -1,826 64
Calories
kcal
Carbs
g
Fat
g
Protein
g
Sodium
mg
Sugar
g
*You've earned 1,145 extra calories from exercise today
If every day were like today...   You'd weigh 230.1 lbs in 5 weeks     

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Here's another trip in the 'wayback machine.'  This time I return to my own blog posting from September 17, 2016.  It is not too difficult to predict some of the lefty loon ideas - they tend to get loonier with the passage of time. This statue in Chicago is still there. How likely is it to be there in the future?





Sunday, May 24, 2015

JABBA THE HUTT - NO MORE

In the same way that a person is usually incapable of being a fan of the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, or the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, or CNN and FOX NEWS... I am a Star Trek fan (not a Star Wars fan.)  Nevertheless, today I will use a character from Star Wars to illustrate that I no longer look like I recently did.

On August 21, 2014 my family spent the day on the world famous Jersey Shore, specifically the Asbury Park Beach before attending a beautiful wedding of our friend Jack and his bride, Esther.  My wife took a picture of me that I did not treasure.  In fact, I wanted no part of it. The photo made me feel ill. And here it is:
GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, AUGUST 21, 2014 (309 lbs)
As you can see, I could have easily played the part of Jabba the Hutt in any of the Star Wars films:
I look at my photo form August 2,1 2014 - and Jabba don't look so bad....

Fast forward to yesterday, the first day of the Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago.  The weather was glorious, and the temperature finally tipped over 80º F. (27º C)  I thought that this would be a good opportunity to try to replicate my August 21, 2014 photo - so I did.   My 13 year old daughter, Sara,  was the photographer.  Here is me today (well, actually yesterday.)
May 23, 2015 North Avenue Beach, Chicago, Illinois (218 lbs)
In the August 2014 photo, your Jabba the Hutt impersonator is (un)proudly wearing 50" waist khaki shorts and an XXL (extra extra large) t-shirt and a one-size-fits-all, Glenn Beck baseball cap.

In the May 2015 photo, your intrepid blogger, weighing 90 pounds less,  who much more closely resembles a normal human being is PROUDLY wearing a pair of 36" waist khaki Columbia™ shorts and simple L (large North Face™ t-Shirt) and just to be consistent, the same Glenn Beck baseball cap. Have I mentioned before that I am a fan of Glenn Beck?  


SATURDAY MENU

breakfast   Steel Cut OatMeal w/prune, two eggs, two strips turkey 'bacon'              505 calories
lunch        *Huge Supermarket Salad w/chicken, imitation crab, ham, egg, etc
                 red delicious apple, 4 Medjool dates                                                       1109 calories
dinner       Spinach salad w/hearts of palm, beets, cucumber, tomato, mushroom
                 4 ounces Black Angus Sirloin                                                                     339 calories

total calories   1953 calories

calories burned
elliptical 32 minutes 518 calories**

*One thing I know is that I really make a feast of a supermarket salad.  I add imitation crab, ham, chicken, tomato, onion, cucumber, beets, small portion of sunflower seeds, baby corn, small portion of chick peas, artichokes, sometimes maybe even ten croutons, hard boiled egg.  THE THINGS THAT I DO NOT INCLUDE ARE CHEESE AND DRESSING.  Previously I had estimated the calories of such a salad at 500 calories.   I am going to start estimating it at 750 calories.   I am extremely confident that at 750 calories I am wildly OVERSTATING THE CALORIES.   However, I believe it is better to overestimate than underestimate.  So, I will just assume 750 calories and 'know' that the actual number almost certainly has to be far less.

**today after my workout, I took the elevator 5 floors lower than my floor in order to WALK UP five flights.   I remember so well, when I was 300+ pounds attempting to walk up twelve floors from ground level to my floor, and although I managed it - I was winded beyond winded, and in order to complete this I needed to rest multiple times along the way.  Today I bounced up those five flights like it was absolutely nothing. So the next time I exercise, I am going attempt to WALK UP THE THIRTEEN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS from the 12th floor to the 25th floor where the fitness room is before I workout on the elliptical machine.  I know that I could barely accomplish this a year ago when I tried it.  And I better start doing some stair climbing if I am serious about training for and hiking up HALF DOME at YOSEMITESTAIR CLIMBING WILL BEGIN IN EARNEST THE VERY NEXT TIME I EXERCISE.  My building does not have a stair master machine, but I now intend to become a STAIR MASTER. Right now, I am a stair apprentice.

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More information regarding Jabba the Hutt (from Wikipedia)

Jabba the Hutt is a character appearing in George Lucas's space opera film saga Star Wars.  He is depicted as a large, slug-like alien.  His appearance has been described by film critic Roger Ebert as a cross between a toad and a Cheshire Cat.

Jabba the Hutt - profile
Species
Hutt
Gender
Male
Position
Crime lord
Homeworld
Nal Hutta;  resident of Tatooine
Affiliation
Hutt Cartel
The thing is.... I really did resemble this creature when I was 309 lbs.