Circle of Corporate Non-Blame/Shame!!Funny Comic "Pearls Before Swine"

Below is unfortunately so very true and common !!  Great comic.  How does mediocre or much worse corporate/stock performance entitle CEOs to pay of $9,000 per hour, or even much much more?!  Disgusting.  Why do the CEOs, etc. take the money and run?  If their boards are nonsensical, don't the individual CEOs/executives have any sense of proportion and shame?!

Last panel reads on the right:  "All blame disappears if you disperse it enough."

"How to Regain Your Soul" / "Heaven" Poems

Wonder

How to Regain Your Soul by William Stafford Come down Canyon Creek trail on a summer afternoon that one place where the valley floor opens out. You will see the white butterflies. Because of the way shadows come off those vertical rocks in the west, there are shafts of sunlight hitting the river and a deep long purple gorge straight ahead. Put down your pack. Above, air sighs the pines. It was this way when Rome was clanging, when Troy was being built, when campfires lighted caves. The white butterflies dance by the thousands in the still sunshine. Suddenly, anything could happen to you. Your soul pulls toward the canyon and then shines back through the white wings to be you      again. "How to Regain Your Soul" by William Stafford from The Darkness Around Us is Deep. © Harper Perennial, 1994.

Heaven by Carrie Fountain We spent months of our lives walking from Sears to Penney's, back when we were vague, a couple of ideas forming ourselves against the certainty of merchandise, in the presence of strangers, when no one knew us or wished to know us or could even perceive us as we passed, two girls, unsmiling, unwilling, not finished. When I think of what we looked like then I think of newborn horses: stunned and exhausted, still slick with the cumbersome fluids of birth. You were the leader. You'd stop at the waterfall by the food court, dig a coin from your pocket, and toss it over your shoulder into the fiberglass river, then turn, press a coin into my palm, and say, "Now you do it." We were hopeful. Our quarters slapped the water and disappeared beneath it. The little river went on, past the shoe store. And we followed it— we followed it as long as we could, longing toward this: the unseen, unwished-for present. "Heaven" by Carrie Fountain from Burn Lake. © Penguin Group, 2010

"Grace" Poem by Linda Pastan

Grace by Linda Pastan When the young professor folded his hands at dinner and spoke to God about my safe arrival through the snow, thanking Him also for the food we were about to eat, it was in the tone of voice I use to speak to friends when I call and get their answering machines, chatting about this and that in a casual voice, picturing them listening but too busy to pick up the phone, or out taking care of important business somewhere else. The next day, flying home through a windy and overwhelming sky, I knew I envied his rapport with God and hoped his prayers would keep my plane aloft. "Grace" by Linda Pastan from The Last Uncle. © W.W. Norton, 2002. Reprinted with permission.

It's the birthday of poet Linda Pastan (books by this author), born in New York City (1932). She's the author of more than a dozen poetry collections, including A Fraction of Darkness (1985),The Imperfect Paradise (1988), Carnival Evening (1998), and most recently, Traveling Light (2011). She once said: "I often write poems in my head to distract myself during hard times. ... Years ago, after a car crash, while I lay waiting for the ambulance, I actually finished a poem I had been working on, determined not to die before I had it right."

Pregnant Woman Stoned to Death by Family in Pakistan For Marrying For Love

Pregnant Woman Stoned to Death in Pakistan Buried

ISLAMABAD May 27, 2014 (AP)

By MUNIR AHMED Associated Press

The husband of a pregnant woman stoned to death in Pakistan says her family had to bury her before dawn over the gruesome injuries she suffered.

Mohammad Iqbal says his family buried 25-year-old Farzana Parveen around 2 a.m. Wednesday in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province.

The burial came as police launched raids over the woman's killing Tuesday by dozens in a mob in front of a courthouse in the city of Lahore.

He says his wife's father and brothers hit her in the head with bricks, killing her.

Iqbal says his father-in-law had filed a criminal complaint against him, accusing him of abducting his daughter. Authorities say the father described the attack as an "honor killing."

Farzana Parveen, 25, was buried in the presence of some 100 mourners from her husband's family at around 2 a.m. in a village graveyard in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, her husband Mohammad Iqbal said.

Pregnant Pakistani woman beaten to death with bricks by relatives

By Sophia Saifi and Jethro Mullen, CNN

updated 9:15 PM EDT, Wed May 28, 2014

Source: CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Farzana Parveen, 25, was beaten with bricks in the city of Lahore
• Her family was unhappy she had married a man against their wishes
• She was on her way to court when she was attacked
• U.N. commissioner condemns killing; asks Pakistan to do more to protect women

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A pregnant woman is beaten to death by her relatives outside a court building. And for what? She eloped with the man she loved rather than marry the groom chosen by her family.

The terrible fate of Farzana Parveen, 25, is one shared by all too many women in Pakistan and elsewhere.

She was killed in the name of "honor," on the grounds her actions had brought shame on her family.

"I do not even wish to use the phrase 'honour killing': there is not the faintest vestige of honour in killing a woman in this way," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement condemning the killing.

Pillay called on Pakistan's government to work harder to stop such killings and protect women from violence.

According to a report published in April by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 869 women in the country were the victims of honor killings last year. And activists say the true number may be much higher.

Parveen's killing is all the more shocking because it was so public.

She was beaten to death with bricks close to the high court in the eastern city of Lahore by a group of about 20 people, including her brothers, father and cousin, police said.

One family member made a noose of rough cloth around her neck while her brothers smashed bricks into her skull, said Mushtaq Ahmed, a police official, citing the preliminary report into the killing. She was three months pregnant, he said.

So-called honor killings often originate from tribal traditions in Pakistan but are not a part of Islam. Although they're common in rural areas, Tuesday's attack in a public area of a big city was unusual.

Pregnant woman stoned by family members

Human rights activist speaks on violence

9-month-old fingerprinted and booked

Police officials said Parveen, who came from a village in Punjab, had refused to wed the cousin whom her family had selected for her, choosing instead to elope with a widower named Mohammad Iqbal.

The cousin intended for her husband was among the people who attacked her, police said.

Sudanese woman sentenced to death for her Christianity gives birth

'Barbaric' attack

The family had challenged Parveen's marriage to Iqbal in the courts, accusing him of abducting her.

The attack took place as she was on her way from her lawyer's office to the high court in Lahore, where she was expected to make a declaration that she had married Iqbal of her own volition.

One of Pakistan's leading newspapers, The Nation, expressed outrage over Parveen's killing.

"The familiar brand of barbaric 'justice' yet again triumphs over the written law of the land," it said in an editorial Wednesday. "Another case is settled outside the courts. Another woman, in search of justice, stoned to death, in the name of honor."

Farzana Bari, a human rights activist based in Islamabad, said the real number may be far higher than the Human Rights Commission's official count since many families don't report the crimes.

She said that in many cases, people outside the family don't step in to protect the victim.

"I've seen in the past people stand around and watch, and don't intervene because it is a private matter," she told CNN on Wednesday.

"I think honor killing is very much part of our culture. It is a cultural form of violence which is quite prevalent in certain parts of Pakistan."

Honor killings happen more often in rural, tribal areas, Bari said, but urban cases occur, too.

Since many cases are not reported, police have no record and rights groups that try to document what's happening must do so through media reports and incomplete data.

"There is no systematic information gathered in Pakistan that tells us the extent of the problem," she said.

Impunity said to encourage killers

And the killers often avoid prosecution.

Under an Islamic element of Pakistani law, known as the law of Diyat, the family of a victim is allowed to forgive the perpetrator, according to the human rights commission's report.

"Thus the victim's family usually is related to the perpetrator as well, and conveniently forgives their kin, absolving them of the murder," the report said. That possibility of impunity has "continued to encourage others to follow suit," it said.

Bari gave a similar picture and called for a change in Pakistan's laws to protect women and the vulnerable.

"Basically, the people have no fear of law because there is a culture of impunity and, as a result of that, people feel free and they can commit such acts outside the courts of justice," she said.

She blames such actions also on violent and extremist attitudes which, she said, drive people to act even if they are aware of the potential consequences.

"I think we must generally reflect on the sick mindset of the society," she said.

Police said they had arrested Parveen's father, whose name they gave only as Azeem. They said he had admitted to the killing and expressed no regret.

Search warrants are out for the other men accused of attacking her.

Why marrying for love should never mean death

Gunmen on motorbikes kill American doctor in Pakistan

Beautiful Tribute to Maya Angelou by Barack Obama/Twitter Remembrances/"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"-What A Life Lived !!

A BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE TO MAYA ANGELOU, BY BARACK OBAMA

What he said when he awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

By Mike Nizza on May 28, 2014

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ALSO: Why We Will Return to Maya Angelou, Again and Again

As we mourn Maya Angelou, who died today at 86, we can find no better tribute than this one delivered by President Obama at the White House a few years ago.

As a girl, Marguerite Ann Johnson endured trauma and abuse that actually led her to stop speaking. But as a performer, and ultimately a writer, a poet, Maya Angelou found her voice. It’s a voice that’s spoken to millions, including my mother, which is why my sister is named Maya.

By holding on, even amid cruelty and loss, and then expanding to a sense of compassion, an ability to love -- by holding on to her humanity -- she has inspired countless others who have known injustice and misfortune in their own lives. I won’t try to say it better than Maya Angelou herself, who wrote that:

History, despite its wrenching pain, 
Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, 
Need not be lived again. 
Lift up your eyes upon 
The day breaking for you. 
Give birth again 
To the dream.

(And upon presenting her the medal)

Dr. Maya Angelou. Out of a youth marked by pain and injustice, Dr. Maya Angelou rose with an unbending determination to fight for civil rights and inspire every one of us to recognize and embrace the possibility and potential we each hold.

With her soaring poetry, towering prose and mastery of a range of art forms, Dr. Angelou has spoken to the conscience of our nation. Her soul-stirring words have taught us how to reach across division and honor the beauty of our world.

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Mike Nizza is the editor of Esquire Digital and a recovering news rat from The New York Times, The Atlantic, and the deceased tabletoid The Daily.

I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou

A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.

Celebrities React To Maya Angelou's Death On Twitter

The Huffington Post  | By Julee Wilson

Posted: 05/28/2014 10:46 am EDT Updated: 15 minutes ago

Print Article

Award-winning author, poet and activistDr. Maya Angelou died Wednesday morning at age 86.

The news might be fresh, but celebrities have quickly taken to social media to remember the renowned writer and honor her enduring legacy.

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Maya Angelou Dies: Twitter Reactions

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Russell Simmons

@UncleRUSH

RIP to one of the greatest women this world has ever known. Thank you Maya Angelou for all of the gifts and knowledge you gave us...

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