In addition to English and Scottish Gaelic, Scots English, which is related to ilder forms of English is widely spoken in Scotland. Following is the first installment of a documentary presenting the Scots dialect, as well as some songs based upon the poetry of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet.

Robert Burns poetry link

Followong is a link to a Robert Burns poem put to music and sung by Sheena Wellington.

Sheena Wellington song

This video introduces the Scots dialect.

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Mitt Romney does not want to speak about Barack Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright, He does not need  to, because Obama has done it himself, thereby saving Romney the trouble. Following is a trip down memory lane, as Obama speaks lovingly of his dear leader.

Here is an ad that people should see.

Here is a video in which Jeremiah Wright speaks of “liberation theology.

Following is a documentary on the proposed anti Obama ad campaign, a campaign that has now been scuttled. Despite this concession by the Romney campaign, bloggers can write as they please when opposing Obama.

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Barack Obama has always presented himself as having been born in the US, and therefore constitutionally fit to serve as President of the United States, If this is the case, then perhaps he should have told a literary agent in the early 1990′s, who according to Breitbart News described Obama as follows .

Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.  The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation.   He served as project coordinator in Harlem for the New York Public Interest Research Group, and was Executive Director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago’s South Side. His commitment to social and racial issues will be evident in his first book, Journeys in Black and White.

“Birther” speculation has been relegated to the edges of American political discourse. Indeed, with the non stop train of disasters throughout the Obama presidency,there has been no need to dredge up the past. It is now a matter of public opinion that Obama has represented himself as being Kenyan born.There is no question that Obama has lied about his place of birth. The only question is when.

Breitbart article

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A group of Mitt Romney supporters has declared its intention to run a series of ads linking Barack Hussein Obama to the rascist reverend Jeremiah, Wright, through whose sermons Barack and his wife sat for 2o years. Romney repudiated any such intended ad campaign, stating as follows.

“Unlike the Obama campaign, Gov. Romney is running a campaign based on jobs and the economy, and we encourage everyone else to do the same. President Obama’s team said they would ‘kill Romney,’ and, just last week, David Axelrod referred to individuals opposing the president as ‘contract killers.’ It’s clear President Obama’s team is running a campaign of character assassination. We repudiate any efforts on our side to do so.”

In short, Romney plans to run a “gentleman’s campaign. This is the same strategy used by John McCain, who wanted to be seen as a “nice” candidate.

Mitt Romney can do whatever he likes. To millions of Americans, Jeremiah Wright matters. Barack Obama’s character does matter. Barack Obama is, in the esteem of many bloggers anti capitalist and anti American. In addition, he seems eager to stir up racial antagonism to energise his base. Globe Tribune.Info is not an arm of the Romney campaign. We do not care about what “nice” Republicans think. We care about America. And we will be as negative as we please to defeat an anti American disciple of Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Because character does matter, and sometimes you have to be negative, Because there is just too much at stake.

The Hill article

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The political label that best describes this web site is “labour conservative”. It is based upon the idea that all people of all classes are part of a potentially harmonious whole, that workers and bosses need each other.In this conception of society, there is no class warfare but the regognition that all people are brush strokes in a grand painting, stitches in a tapestry that is diminished by the exclusion of any colour on the palate or any line on the canvas.We are far from actualising this ideal, but if it can exist in our hearts, it can exist in actuality.

I was reminded of some aspects of this ideal by the video presented here

Who is John Wolfe? Even in Arkansas, where he lives, his name recognition factor lags behind that of President Obama, For many Tennessee voters, however, the fact that he is not Barack Obama is enough to win their support. Mediaite,com reports that  a Hendrix College-Talk Business  poll of Democrats in Arkansas that was taken on  May 10 had Wolfe Wolfe getting 38 percent support against Obama’s 45 percent. In addition to Arkansas, Wolfe is  on the ballot in Texas’ May 29 Democratic primary. Any significant show of voter support for Wolfe could prove devastating for the Obama campaign, which is still hurting from the strong primary showing of  Keith Judd, a federal inmate in Texas who got 42 percent of the Democratic vote in West Virginia.

The Arkansas primary is on May 22.

Mediaite.com article

Iranian rapper  Shahin Najafi fled Iran in 2005, narrowly escaping a sentence of 100 lashes as well as imprisonment. He is penetrasting and irreverent in his treatment of Iran’s theocratic society, as well as its icons, His songs address both religious figures in Iran today as well as deceased imams who are revered by devout Muslims. Some of his lyrics have been scrawled on prison walls in Iran. Now,Najafi finds himself in a prison of his own in Germany, where he is mow in hiding after a bounty has been put on his head by Iranian clerics.

Der Spiegel reports that Najafi has a $100,000.00 bounty on his head and has gone into hiding at a well concealed location, Fear of assassination has made the public performances through which Najafi supported himself  a very risky proposition.

Governments of nations in which subjects of fatwas reside should consider civilk and criminal actions in court against clerics who issue death threats, as well as those who threaten to carry them out  People who are threatened with death suffer from stress related maladies as well as loss of income that is compounded by relocation and security expenses.In addition,. the governments in which fatwa subjects reside are put to extra expenses in protecting individuals who are threatened.

In addition to voicing our concerns to elected representatives, buying even a single MP3 of Shahin Najafi would be a small display of solidarity that would put money in his pocket. zit would be good to see at least a million solidarity purchases made of Najafi’s music, which is good as both music and as social commentary.

Following are some songs by Najafi.

Der Spiegel article

Najafi song with English lyrics in comments

A Detroit woman has described life with a disability known as “face blindness”. People with face blindness can physically see a person’s face, but store no recollection of it for later use. Instead of remembering a person later on when she encounters them, Fishman will pass them by as though she has never met them before. Marcia Fishman,described life with her condition, known as prosopagnosia as follows when she was interviewed by CBS News.

She said face blindness makes it difficult to even watch a movie.

“I would get confused who the good guys were and the bad guys were,” she said.

Fishman said she compensates by memorizing body types and mannerisms and tells people up front about the condition so no one’s feelings get hurt.

Although Fishman describes an extreme case of this condition, I have suffered from face blindness to a lesser degree for many years. Immediate family and people I see on a daily basis do not present a problem, but I usually have to see someone several times before I can hope to recall their face with ease. Often, I will meet someone I saw regularly in one place and fail to recognise them in different surroundings.  Making conscious note of a non facial feature or an article of clothing is one solution. Voices and non facial features sometimes provide a way out of awkward situations.  If someone is walking with their child or with their dog, the combination will be easier to recognise. One of the worst situations to deal with is when a bank teller sends me to another line and tells me to come back to her, In such cases, I have learned to memorise an article of clothing that is somehow distinctive so I won’t be lost later on.

By sharing the details of her condition, Ms. Fishman is making it easier for others who suffer from face blindness, a condition with varying degrees of severity. The publicity attached to this condition makes it much easier for the misunderstandings it creates for those who are afflicted with it.

CBS News article

Prosopagnosia research center

The following is a 60 Minutes segment on prosopagnosia.

Autopsy results for 17-year-old Trayvon Martin show thathe had injuries to his knuckles when he died,according to WFTV in Florida

The autopsy results are consistent with George Zimmerman’s claim that Martin was beating him up beforee he pulled out his gun and shot the teen in self defense.

Legal experts who are monitoring the case generally agree that the autopsy results are better news for the defense than they are for the prosecution. Equally relevant are the substantial head injuries suffered by Zimmerman, injuries that were far more serious than was originally reported during the media feeding frenzy after the shooting.

A distorted picture of an unprovoked bias attack on Trayvon Martin in the media was a contributing factor to retaliatory bias attacks on whites. Although the Eric Holder Justice Department is already planning to charge Zimmerman with hate crimes, no such federal indictments are planned in the attacks that were made against whites as “payback”.

WFTV article

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Montenegro was the smallest of Yugoslavia’s six republics, with a population about a quarter of that in Brooklyn.It is also home to Grim, a band that was founded in 1999 and is classified as gothic heavy metal.

Following are some songs from Grim.

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