Good morning!

Michelle Obama hardly ever gets written up enough for what she does as an amazing woman and FLOTUS. So when I find something written about FLOTUS besides her chic fashion sense (Which I do enjoy! But c’mon she has so much more to offer us, if we just can just get the opportunity to read and listen.), I get excited.

Michelle Obama, a Wonderful Woman Of The World, gave a wonderful warm, heartfelt, honest, living-in-the-real-world speech, when she spoke to graduating students on Senior Appreciation Day in Topeka, Kansas, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the landmark Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

So, just what is the landmark Brown v Board? Here’s the write from the L.A. Times. I was not familiar with all of the details, and perhaps you aren’t either:

Brown vs. Board of Education: Here’s what happened in 1954 courtroom

EDITOR’S NOTE: On May 17, 1954, a hushed crowd of spectators packed the Supreme Court, awaiting word on Brown vs. Board of Education, a combination of five lawsuits brought by the NAACP’s legal arm to challenge racial segregation in public schools. The high court decided unanimously that “separate but equal” education denied black children their constitutional right to equal protection under the law, effectively removing a cornerstone that propped up Jim Crow, or state-sanctioned segregation of the races.

Associated Press reporter Herb Altschull chronicled the decision and what it meant for segregation, which in 1954 permeated many aspects of American life. Using the style and language of journalists of his era, including a reference to Asians as “Orientals,” Altschull captured the uncertainty hanging over a society on the brink of seismic change. Here is Altschull’s compelling report. 

The Supreme Court ruled today that the states of the nation do not have the right to separate Negro and white pupils in different public schools.

By a unanimous 9-0 vote, the high court held that such segregation of the races is unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Warren read the historic decision to a packed but hushed gallery of spectators nearly two years after Negro residents of four states and the District of Columbia went before the court to challenge the principle of segregation.

The ruling does not end segregation at once. Further hearings were set for this fall to decide how and when to end the practice of segregation. Thus a lengthy delay is likely before the decision is carried out.

Dean Acheson, secretary of State under former President Harry Truman, was in the courtroom to hear the ruling. He called it “great and statesmanlike.”

Atty. Gen. [Herbert] Brownell was also present. He declined comment immediately. Brownell and the Eisenhower administration, like Truman’s, opposed segregation.

For years 17 Southern and “border” states have imposed compulsory segregation on approximately two-thirds of the nation’s Negroes. Officials of some states already are on record as saying they will close the schools rather than permit them to be operated with Negro and white pupils in the same classrooms.

In its decision, the high court struck down the long-standing “separate but equal” doctrine first laid down by the Supreme Court in 1896 when it maintained that segregation was all right if equal facilities were made available for Negroes and whites.

Here is the heart of today’s decision as it deals with this hotly controverted doctrine:

“We come then to the question presented: Does segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race, even though the physical facilities and other ‘tangible’ factors may be equal, deprive the children of the minority group of equal education opportunities?”

“We believe that it does.”

James C. Hagerty, presidential press secretary, told a news conference the White House would have no comment at this time. He noted that Warren’s opinion said formulation of specific decrees must await later hearings.

Gov. Herman Talmadge, one of the most outspoken supporters of segregation, hit back from Atlanta that the court’s decision had reduced the constitution to “a mere scrap of paper.”

“It has blatantly ignored all law and precedent and usurped from the Congress and the people the power to amend the Constitution and from the Congress the authority to make the laws of the land,” Talmadge said.

Thurgood Marshall, Negro attorney from New York who had argued the case against segregation last December, said he was highly pleased that the decision was unanimous and that the language used was unequivocal.

“Once the decision is made public to the South as well as to the North,” Marshall said, “The people will get together for the first time and work this thing out.”

He said he was not in any way fearful lest the final decree nibble away at the principles in the decision. Marshall said, too, he believes the people of the South will abide by the ruling. “The people of the South are just as law abiding as any other good citizens,” he said.

Marshall is a special counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which has spearheaded the drive against segregation. He said NAACP people will meet this week to discuss “what we are going to do.”

Today’s decision was the first major ruling of the Supreme Court since Warren became chief justice last October, succeeding the late Fred Vinson.

The court confined its ruling to the question of the segregation of Negro public school pupils, but it obviously is applicable to the exclusion from public schools of any minority group — Orientals, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and so on.

Today’s decision was the latest in a series of court rulings wiping out legal restrictions on Negroes.

In previous cases the Supreme Court had:

1. Ruled that colleges must admit Negroes to study professional courses not open to them in Negro colleges.

2. Ruled that Negroes may not be excluded from train and bus coaches operated in interstate travel.

3. Ruled that Negroes may not be barred from eating in restaurants in the District of Columbia.

The “separate but equal” doctrine was set forth in a 7-1 decision on May 18, 1896, in a case involving Homer Adolph Plessy, who was part Negro.

Plessy boarded a train for a ride from New Orleans to Covington, La., and took a seat in a coach assigned to white passengers in violation of a Louisiana law which required segregation of whites and Negroes on trains.

The conductor asked Plessy to leave the white coach but he refused. A policeman arrested Plessy and took him to jail in New Orleans.

That set off a vigorous legal battle in which the Louisiana Supreme Court eventually upheld the state law. Plessy appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States and the decision went against him.

Justice Henry Billings Brown, who wrote that decision, said the Louisiana law was not in conflict with the U.S. Constitution since Plessy was not refused the right to ride in trains so long as he stayed in a coach restricted to Negroes.

Thus grew up the philosophy of “separate but equal” facilities. Warren, in today’s decision, wrote that the Plessy case involved transportation, not public schools. Inasmuch as he called special attention to the distinction, it is apparent that the court is not now dismissing all forms of segregation.

Warren said that when the 14th Amendment was enacted, “education of Negroes was almost nonexistent, and practically all of the race were illiterate. In fact, any education of Negroes was forbidden by law in some states.”

“Today, in contrast, many Negroes have achieved outstanding success in the arts and sciences as well as in the business and professional world.”

Warren noted that in the early 1870s when cases dealing with segregation first went to the Supreme Court, “compulsory education was virtually unknown” and that for this reason the question of school segregation was unimportant.

After the 1896 decision, Warren wrote, American courts began using it as a basis for decisions on all matters dealing with separation of Negroes and whites.

But it was not until the present cases were brought before the court, Warren said, that the “separate but equal” doctrine was challenged insofar as it might deal with public school education.

Warren noted that the lower courts, in finding against Negro appellants on the basis of the 1896 decision, maintained that the Negro and white schools involved had, in fact, been equalized “with respect to buildings, curricula, qualifications and salaries of teachers and other ‘tangible’ factors.”

But, the Chief Justice said, “our decision. cannot turn on merely a comparison of these tangible factors in the Negro and white schools involved in each of the cases. We must look instead to the effect of segregation itself on public education.”

The Warren opinion recalled that in an earlier decision dealing with the question of whether Negroes should be admitted to graduate courses in segregated universities, the court had said this:

“To separate them (Negroes) from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”

Reaction from Capitol Hill was swift and in some cases strongly critical.

Sen. [Richard] Russell of Georgia, leader of Southern Democrats in the Senate, termed the decision “a flagrant abuse of judicial power.” He said questions like that of segregation should be decided by the lawmakers, not the courts.

Other Southerners were plainly unhappy, but they did not go so far as Russell. Sen. [Marion Price] Daniel (D-Texas) said the verdict was “disappointing” and that he couldn’t see how the court could arrive at such a decision.

Sen. [Allen J.] Ellender (D-La.) said, “I am of course very much disappointed by this. But I don’t want to criticize the Supreme Court. It is bound to have a very great effect until we readjust ourselves to it.”

He said there would be “violent repercussions” if enforcement were ordered too quickly.

Rep. [Kenneth B.] Keating (R-NY), a strong backer of civil rights legislation, said “There is no doubt about the soundness of the court’s decision.”

Gov. William B. Umstead of North Carolina said in a statement put out by his office that he was “terribly disappointed.”

J.M. Hinton, South Carolina conference president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said:

“Christianity and democracy have been given a great place in America through the elimination of segregation in public school and communism has lost a talking point.”

The appeals from the four states – Kansas, Delaware, Virginia and South Carolina – challenged the legality of segregation on the ground that it violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The District of Columbia complaint alleged violation of the 5th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment, put through shortly after the end of the Civil War, was designed to reinforce the rights of the newly freed slaves. It said that no state may deprive any person of due process or equal rights under the law.

The 5th Amendment gives all persons involved in court cases dealing with federal matters the right to due process of law.

Actually, the court did not decide the question purely on the basis of these amendments.

Warren wrote that the court “cannot turn the clock back” to the enactment of the 14th Amendment in 1868 or the imposing of the “separate but equal” doctrine in 1896.

“We must consider public education,” Warren wrote, “In the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the nation. “

“Only in this way can it be determined if segregation in public schools deprives these plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws.”

“Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments… It is the very foundation of good citizenship… In these days it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.”

“Such an opportunity where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”

The court minced no words in applying the “equal rights” section of the 14th Amendment to the issue of school segregation. It said:

“We hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the action has been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.”

It disposed of the “due process” section in this way:

“This disposition makes unnecessary any discussion whether such segregation also violates the due process clause…”

That was for the cases of the four states. But in the District of Columbia case, the court applied the due process provisions of the 5th Amendment, saying:

“We hold that racial segregation in the public schools of the District of Columbia is a denial of the due process of law guaranteed by the 5th Amendment to the Constitution.”

Warren’s opinion noted that enforcement of the court ruling raised “problems of considerable complexity.”

It was for this reason that the court ordered further arguments in the fall. Brownell and the attorneys general of all states where segregation is now permitted were invited to take part, so that appropriate decrees can be worked out.

Briefs must be filed by Oct. 1.

The decision was made public in a highly unusual manner. Normally, copies of Supreme Court rulings are given to reporters simultaneously with the start of their reading from the bench.

In this case, no copies were given out until after Warren had finished reading the opinion. Thus it was not until he was well into it was the full import of the court’s decision known— that segregation had been ruled unconstitutional.

No reason was announced for this departure from the usual practice.

The court had weighed the issues for a long time. The first arguments on the cases were held in December 1952. Rearguments were heard in December 1953, after the Eisenhower Administration took over.

And...I posted the video, so you could watch her full speech. It is 20 minutes but so worth it.  Powerful and moving.

 First Lady Michelle Obama Addresses Senior Appreciation Day

Readers: What an awesome speech. I am so moved. I love the way Michelle Obama puts the power into the hands of the young to bring about change. I HOPE they take it on.

Thoughts? Blog me.

Peace & love…to all.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

As promised, you can watch the live press briefing and premier of the Koch Brothers Exposed: 2104 Edition, live stream @ at 2:45 PM PST/5:45pm EST, right here!

KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED: 2014 Edition

Press Briefing and Premiere of Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition with Senator Harry Reid, Representative Nancy Pelosi, and Filmmaker Robert Greenwald.

On May 20th, 2014, Brave New Films will host a press briefing and premiere* of our upcoming documentary Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition with Senator Reid and several other congressional leaders. Senator Reid will be opening the event with statements about the Koch Brothers and the effect of money in politics. This will be followed by segments of our upcoming documentary and statements from several members of Congress who will share their plans to overturn Citizens United.

*****

Readers: I realize the live stream is right in the middle of the day but if you can watch it, I encourage you to. I think you’ll also be able to watch on Brave New Films.org as well if for some reason you can’t see it here. Although, I tried to get onto the site last night and couldn’t. Let’s HOPE we can all watch it today.

And then…Blog me.

In the meantime, here is a segment from the Ed Show interviewing Robert Greenwald:

Ed, Evelyn, Julie: Keep saying it, because I can’t say it enough – Get out and Vote out the republicans!

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

From Brave New Films.

KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED: 2014 Edition

*****

Readers: Stay tuned. If I am able, I’ll be posting it live tomorrow right here.

Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good evening!

Don’t even ask…:) Here’s tonight’s write. I haven’t posted something like this in a very long time.

Car Breakdown Distraction Ruse

We wrote last week about the tricks burglars use to get you out of your house, but there’s another sneaky distraction trick they’re starting to use that simply stops you in your tracks on your way in.

It’s particularly targeted at women who’ve been out grocery shopping and arrive home to find someone outside, in the street, with their car hood raised.

Seems like they’re trying to fix something and they wait till just the right moment, as the shopper unloads her groceries, to ask for water to put in their radiator.

The right moment, from the crook’s point of view, is when the shopper’s purse is left in a vulnerable position, either on their car seat or even on the door step, as the victim puts it down while they fetch the water.

It may seem incredible that a thief would go to all this trouble to set up a victim for theft but exactly this incident has been reported to police, most recently in parts of Canada.

It’s believed the trick actually starts in the supermarket parking lot where the thief scopes out his victim, follows her home and then quickly parks and lifts the hood on his car.

He may also have an accomplice in the car who actually steals the wallet while the front man distracts the victim with the water request.

But, of course, it’s merely one example of the wider crime of distraction that we’ve previously reported in How Crooks Use Distraction Scams to Trick and Rob You.

The correct action is never to leave your wallet unprotected while you help someone else — and, of course, never leave your home unlocked if you’re outside even for a few seconds.

*****

Readers: It may seem like you can’t trust anyone but better to err in your favor, and take all precautions. If you feel the hairs on the back of your neck start to rise, you know something is definitely up.

Bonet: This stats aren’t good, and I’m not surprised. All I can add is that I HOPE that Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen continues to be good at her life’s mission and that her charm, charisma, and just the right touch of persuasion prevails.

Alycedale: You crack me up. You are one crazy bad ass Bitch, and I mean that in the most complimentary, respectful way. Bring it on.

Got to run. Dinner is calling.  Have a wonderful evening everyone! See you in the morning.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2014

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

Any girl who creates programs and teaches philanthropy (Stanford University), and convinces billionaires to donate much of their earnings to support social causes, is considered a Wonderful Woman of the World in my book. Especially if one of those billionaires is Zuckerberg. Anything good that keeps him from pushing his money to influence the repub party.

Reading Vogue magazine ( Yes, there are some good articles in this magazine besides, how to look chic), I discovered this write.

When Facebook and Twitter Give Back: A New Philanthropy Guru and Her Silicon Valley Mission

Philanthropy guru Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen is guiding the titans of Silicon Valley to new heights of charitable giving.

One day in the summer of 2011, Brian Chesky, cofounder of the residence-sharing company Airbnb, paid a visit to the Atherton, California, home of venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. The two sat by the pool discussing whether Andreessen’s firm should lead the start-up’s next round of funding. Chesky, who was not yet 30 and had gone from maxed-out credit cards to more money than he knew what to do with, mentioned that he was interested in philanthropy. “I’ve got someone for you to meet,” Andreessen said. “My wife, Laura.”

They were introduced at the Allen & Co. media-and-technology power retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho. “I have a bit of a reputation there for cornering people to talk with them about philanthropy,” says Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, who hit it off with Chesky right away. Afterward, she visited Airbnb’s San Francisco headquarters and argued that philanthropy should be fundamental to the company’s mission.

The visit struck a chord. Airbnb’s engineers developed a tool to match people who want to donate shelter with those left homeless by natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy. The company also embarked on what’s become an annual community-service project in which all Airbnb’s employees may volunteer to spend a workday cleaning up parks and schools in San Francisco. To Arrillaga-Andreessen—a Stanford lecturer who has become a philanthropy guru in Silicon Valley—it is gospel that a young, idealistic workforce wants to create social good as much as it wants perks like free meals and dry cleaning. “She’s unconstrained in her view of what’s possible in the world,” says Chesky, who intends to announce philanthropic plans of his own later this year. “Other people try to find reasons things can’t happen. Laura tries to find ways that they can.”

With gold-rush fortunes being made up and down Silicon Valley, the face of philanthropy in America is changing. The list of top gifts compiled by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, while still crowded with bequests and old East Coast families, is now punctuated by West Coast entrepreneurs and people in their 40s or younger. Arrillaga-Andreessen is the one persuading this new generation of tech tycoons to give their riches away. Look behind several of the most meaningful philanthropic gestures of recent years and you’ll find her pulling the strings. She has Chesky’s ear. She’s guided the giving of Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan; she’s close friends with Steve Jobs’s widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, another serious player in philanthropic circles. A typical evening in the Valley finds her and Anne Wojcicki, cofounder of the DNA-testing company 23andMe, conspiring over drinks about how to change the world—and gossiping about sitting next to Kevin Spacey at a black-tie dinner.

“Laura has an uncanny ability to walk alongside entrepreneurs and say, ‘OK—what’s next?’ ” Powell Jobs says. “ ‘How will you link your passion and your intellect to make an even greater impact in the world?’ She does this with charm, charisma, and just the right touch of persuasion.”

Laura’s persuasive charm is on full display when I meet her for coffee in the lobby of the Rosewood hotel in Menlo Park, California. Willowy and ethereal, she is dressed in a Gucci motorcycle jacket, an Alexander McQueen dress, tiger-striped tights, and thigh-high suede Robert Clergerie boots. Around her neck are two Tiffany crosses she always wears, one a gift from her husband (“my beloved”), the other a reminder of her late mother. After settling into a seat by the fireplace, she tells me she is preparing to break it to Marc that she wants to cancel their vacation to Hawaii. “I haven’t told my beloved yet,” she says. “But what I really want to do is work.” Among her occupations: teaching undergraduate and business school classes, running Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and heading a philanthropic-innovation lab called the Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen Foundation.

Her best-selling 2011 book, Giving 2.0, distills her research and thinking. People at all income levels derive satisfaction and meaning from donating time or money, she argues. Any expression of generosity should be accompanied by an embrace of the same risk-taking ethos and analytic rigor that drives start-up culture. “Moving from Giving 1.0 to Giving 2.0 is a transition from being reactive to being proactive, from emotionally based giving to strategically based, from isolated to collaborative,” she tells me. “So it’s not so much about what you give but about mitigating the risks of time, of money, of whatever portfolio of assets you’re choosing to invest.”

Her ideas have taken on added urgency since conflict between the have-littles and the have-everythings burst into the open around the Bay Area. On several occasions this winter, San Francisco activists have blocked the path of private shuttle buses that ferry tech workers to Apple and Google. The protests aimed to demonstrate that tech workers exist in a privileged bubble, untouched by the social problems of the community at large. “Some citizens of San Francisco still see Google as extracting value, and we need to change that,” says Marc Benioff, the cofounder of the software giant Salesforce.com. In 2010 he gave $100 million to build the new UCSF children’s hospital. “That’s why Laura’s work is so important. Tech companies and entrepreneurs need to be looked at as allies and not adversaries in the effort to make the world a better place.”

It was Arrillaga-Andreessen who advised Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan—relatively recent converts to philanthropy—on their $100 million gift to education in the city of Newark, New Jersey, in 2010. Since then, Zuckerberg and Chan have become the country’s largest charitable donors, giving $1 billion to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which supports social causes in the Bay Area. “Laura helped us create a framework of how to evaluate different opportunities and how to choose the ones that were actually meaningful to us,” Chan says. “She taught me how to hone in and focus on certain changes in the world we wanted to see happen—and empowered me to say no to things that weren’t going to help us in our core mission.”

Laura and her husband have become close friends with the Zuckerbergs, who come over for regular movie nights—usually pizza and a thriller chosen by Marc. She has also grown close to Zuckerberg’s friend and fellow Facebook founder Dustin Moskovitz, who at 29 has also become serious about giving away much of his estimated $6 billion net worth. Moskovitz’s wife, Cari Tuna, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, has taken Arrillaga-Andreessen’s Stanford course. The couple’s new foundation, Good Ventures, applies Laura’s ideas on evaluation and institutional effectiveness. Unusual in the world of philanthropy, it highlights its own mistakes.

Catching the attention of young billionaires isn’t hard. Laura has an ease and informality—and her flowing strawberry-blonde hair and gray-green eyes give her the look of a Pre-Raphaelite maiden. She also stands out in a place most people come to from somewhere else; she’s a true “daughter of the Valley,” as Powell Jobs puts it. Her father, John Arrillaga, Sr., is a commercial real estate developer responsible for much of Silicon Valley’s physical infrastructure. Hers was a normal, even “humble,” childhood, she says—“one pair of pajamas, one jacket from the Sears catalog, one hour of TV on weekend mornings.” The house she was raised in was a Mission-style single-story ranch—ordinary for Palo Alto. Her first car was a $750 used Honda. She says she had no idea that her parents were wealthy until junior year of high school, when her father could no longer keep his name off the Forbes 400 list, and the story got picked up by the local paper. Philanthropy, she learned, was a family tradition. Her father, who grew up poor outside Los Angeles and attributes his success to a basketball scholarship to Stanford, began with a two-figure contribution to the university when he graduated in 1960. In 2013, he gave $151 million. The family’s name is on six buildings around campus.

Laura struggled with dyslexia as a girl and compensated by developing outsize interpersonal skills. She now calls it a gift. “I learned not to sleep much and to develop an amazing memory and absorb information in a different way than other people,” she says. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Another compensating mechanism, instilled by her father, was to be furiously detail-focused and goal-oriented. She writes two-, five-, and ten-year strategic plans for everything.

Three weeks after Laura was accepted to Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1994, her mother, Frances—never a smoker—was diagnosed with lung cancer. She was 52. Instead of starting school, Laura moved back home. “My mother was my best friend and soul mate,” she says. “We were inseparable. She and I did everything together.” Frances had committed her life to community-service organizations and founded two of them herself; when she died, 20 months after her diagnosis, her daughter was deeply changed. Instead of launching a start-up, Laura turned her focus to effective giving.

She met Andreessen at a New Year’s Eve dinner in 2005 hosted by their mutual friend Greg Waldorf (who, appropriately enough, became CEO of the matchmaking site eHarmony soon after). “Marc and I talked to nobody else for the next six hours straight,” she says. She, of course, wanted to know about his interest in philanthropy, and the fact that he sat on the board of Stanford Hospital passed her test. Eight months later, they were married.

The two have much in common, including a good deal of charming eccentricity. She takes her own coffee—Taster’s Choice hazelnut-flavored instant—wherever she goes. Both have had the same favorite restaurant for years: the plastic-menu diner chain Hobee’s, where Andreessen has permanently reserved a table. They display their affection unabashedly in public. “My partner Ben [Horowitz] will tell you that I was an unhappy, grumpy, irascible character before I met Laura,” Andreessen says. “My life was pretty different.”

Laura persuaded the six partners in the venture capital firm her husband and Horowitz founded in 2009—one of the Valley’s most successful and connected—to donate 50 percent of what they earn to charity. With early investments in companies like Instagram, Groupon, Zynga, and Pinterest, that amount is likely to figure in the billions.

“She was influential in how we should think and talk about it, how it will add meaning to the things we’re doing,” says Horowitz. “A lot of it was about how to make Silicon Valley a better place to build a company. She was very good at expanding that idea and saying there are a lot of people here who aren’t in these tech companies—the people who are taking care of kids, who are cutting grass. What did we think of their contributions to what we did? She made it seem ridiculous that we wouldn’t have a pledge like that—to get six guys to give away half their money.”

Laura’s other great love is modern art: She was recently flagged in tabloid captions as Kim Kardashian’s “philanthropist pal” when the two had a private tour of the James Turrell exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. An art-history major at Stanford, she collects work by American artists from the fifties, sixties, and seventies: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, Robert Ryman, and Agnes Martin, six of whose poetic, monochromatic paintings she and her husband own.

One of her closest friends is Pace Gallery president Marc Glimcher. The two visit museums, galleries, and art fairs together in New York and London. “She’s the kind of collector that dealers dream about,” he says. “She has real expertise, and she collects in depth. It’s not about ticking off a box. It’s about getting deep in there with what the artists are doing at the highest level.

“The art world can be debilitatingly cynical these days—you can really lose hope about what you’re doing,” Glimcher continues. “I have to say, Laura has played a big part in turning that around for me, restoring the idea that what you’re doing has real meaning.”

There are many of these “Laura changed my life” stories, not just from her husband and friends but also from former students. Several work in her office. When we arrive after breakfast, she greets everyone with a hug. “We completely blur the lines between personal and professional, and I love each one of our team members like a family member,” she says. She begins a meeting by handing out books as holiday gifts and reading a Billy Collins poem aloud. Then she serves a lunch she made herself: an avocado-and-orange salad, an organic green salad, and grilled chicken. She provides career advice for dozens of her alumni, who constitute a network of social entrepreneurs at innovative nonprofits like Kiva, Ashoka, Anjna, GuideStar, GiveWell, and Google.org, as well as the California-based Hewlett, Gordon and Betty Moore, and George Lucas Educational foundations. Still mostly in their 20s, her idealistic graduates are passionate about changing the world through philanthropy, and changing philanthropy through technology.

Over lunch, her former students discuss the use of drones for climate-change monitoring and an open-source disaster-relief model developed by the data-visualization start-up Ushahidi. One, Alexander Berger, talks excitedly about the organization GiveDirectly’s use of mobile payments to recipients in Kenya.

“What seems so powerful to me about this model is that you have the personal engagement that drives two-thirds of giving,” Laura says.

Berger enthusiastically agrees and imagines the way the model might evolve. “You can double a family’s income for $200, and they can send a text thanking you. It’s like donor crack.”

Afterward, Laura invites me for a walk around Stanford. It is a bright, cold day, and she looks like a rock star, or a very chic witch, in aviator sunglasses, a Rick Owens blistered-leather jacket, Givenchy motorcycle boots over suede leggings, and a Saint Laurent hat—all black. She shows me her favorite buildings, many of them erected by her father.

After about an hour, we end up in front of the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center, a building donated in memory of her mother. She shows me the garden in back, where she and Andreessen were married in a small ceremony.

The memories of her mother are still fresh, and there’s a catch in her voice as she talks about her. “She was an extraordinary advocate for those in the community who had no voice of their own,” she says. The months she spent caring for her have remained present in her mind. “It was the greatest privilege of my life,” she says. “That was the first time that I lived completely outside of myself, completely in service of another human being. Once I’d experienced the powerful, just overwhelming beauty of living in service, I knew that I could live no other way.”

*****

Readers: If you want to find out more on Arrillaga-Andreessen, and her mission, visit her website. As Arrillaga-Andreessen states, “A philanthropist is anyone who gives anything—time, money, experience, skills or networks—in any amount to create a better world.”

What do you contribute to create a better world? Whether your impacting one life or many, it’s all important. Blog me.

Howie: Thank you. It’s good to know you have our backs.

Alycedale: Happy to hear you are doing extraordinarily well. And I stand corrected. Yes, no doubt when a man is trying to put his hands on you without consent you are an insane man hating bitch. I know I would be too.

Ingrid: Sorry you had to go through that and glad that you got your due justice. As far as the wife, in my opinion, she should’ve thanked you. One can only imagine how many other women you saved from rape from this sick sorry ass husband of hers.

In my opinion, any woman who has been put in the horrific situation of being raped and was able to kill the bastard, is a Wonderful Woman Of The World. Because once a man rapes and gets away with it, he will most likely rape again. And a dead man won’t have the chance to harm another woman, ever. I HOPE I am never faced with having to defend myself like that, but if I am, there is no way he is getting away alive.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

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