KK Ragtime Piano Piece by Kokonut

Ok. Finally got around to do this fun ragtime piano piece called KK Ragtime. Go over to my Ragtime Piano blog and watch me play in a video clip. Yes. You gotta go over there. But I promise, you'll enjoy my ragtime piano piece.

Deaf man asks if he will get shut out under Obamacare?

Here's a deaf college student, Noah Logue, from a local college in St. Louis asks a Democrat at a Townhall meeting whether if he'll get punished under "Obamacare." The question was a potent one since under "Obamacare" special needs citizen may not qualify. In short, if ya a poor kwipple, deaf, mute, blind or whatever limiting conditions you may have, you may not qualify under "Obamacare" when it comes to rationing medicine.

Emanuel, however, believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens...

Gee, what a nice warm fuzzy feeling knowing that some people do have hearts of gold! Oh, btw, Noah Logue speaks quite well for a guy with cochlear implants as some of you can tell. Though no need for him to sign in this situation. He did just dandy.

Here's the video.


Here's the note used by Noah at the meeting seen in the video.

CONCERNS FROM A VOTER WITH A DISABILITY
McCASKILL TOWN HALL MEETING
JULY 27, 2009

I am a young adult who is profoundly deaf with a cochlear implant, starting my second year of college in September.

I would not be able to hear anything without my implant, except maybe a jet engine.

With my cochlear implant, I can talk on the telephone, I can carry on oral conversations, and I can hear music. It has enriched my life tremendously.

Cochlear implant surgery is not inexpensive. Currently it costs between $50,000 and $60,000 per ear.

After this surgery it is important to receive the correct education afterward so the child can learn how to talk. It is expensive to educate a child who is deaf.

It is also expensive to provide services to a child who is deaf who is not oral. Interpreters are needed for them to talk to people who are hearing.

When my mother told me of the health bills being considered by the House and Senate, and how they impacted disabled people, I wanted people to know how that would impact me and how difficult it would be to succeed in life without the services I have received.

Ezekiel Emanuel, Rahm Emmanuel’s brother, who is involved in the wording of the House Bill said, “Medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those “who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens…” “.

Does that include me? If medical decisions are being made by the government; not by my doctors, my parents, or me, I would be determined to be too expensive to receive the services I need to be able to navigate my way in the world.

This is a bad plan for those with special needs. Tell Senator McCaskill to vote NO.

Noah Logue
St. Louis, MO

Hattip to Gateway.

My first language? English. Thank God!

My thots for the day.

In response to a question in a popular deaf/hh forum a question was asked what was your first language. I chimed in and said, "English, thank god!" And it's true with my background and upbringing I am quite thankful of the fact that my first language is the English language. Yet, a few forum members had a beef with my comment and proceeded to attack me for making a such benign comment. A sure sign of insecurity on their part. Suppose it would've been better for them to see me say instead, "English, omg, I wish it was never my first language!! I'm cursed!"

Look folks, if you're confident and happy with your language as your first language growing up then that's fine. I am truly thankful and grateful that my first language growing up has been the English language in the spoken, listening and written formats. I guess it is just a fact that some people are a wee tad bit too sensitive over my comment thanking the fact that my first language was (and still is) the English language in a deaf/hh forum.

Deaf/HH Ragtime Pianist Plays a Piece

Wanna see me play the piano a ragtime era piece called Black and White Rag?

Go visit my Ragtime Piano! blog and watch my play on my piano..

Matt Hamill in UFC 102 on August 29, Portland, Oregon

Though more than a month away (52 days to go as of today) it wouldn't hurt to remind people of Matt Hamill's next fight on August 29 against Brandon "The Truth" Vera in the upcoming UFC 102 fight. Matt Hamill has steadily improved his game with an 8-2-0 record.

This will be a good time to go if you live in Oregon or Washington since the fight will take place at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon (see map). Ticket costs anywhere from $50 to $600 dollars. There is an 8 tickets limit meaning that one can buy eight tickets at the same seating area for friends and families to stay together.

I plan on going but looks like I may be getting the upper seats. It's a good to go since I live about 20 miles away from Portland and this will be a good opportunity to go and watch, and meet up with Matt Hamill. If you are interested in joining with me, let me know and perhaps get adjoining seats for this event. And a chance to meet with Matt Hamill.

Also, a heads up. Look to my Kokonut Pundit blog for more upcoming news about Matt Hamill. I have done several interviews for my Kokonut Pundit blog with Matt in the past discussing his UFC quest. So, keep an eye out on this one folks.

Voluntyranny at Gallaudet University?

This is pretty much a continuation from my recent blog, Gallaudet's Community Service Requirement - a forced, mandatory volunteer program?

There are certain aspects or components that I simply disagree when it comes to mandatory volunteer service. I see it simply as more detrimental than beneficial since it relies on education on emotions rather than an intellectual one.

For a start...
(1) It is not a volunteer service, so do not call it as one.
(2) Volunteering comes from the heart to serve and help where needed on his/her own time.
(3) It is an obvious social engineering attempt by using "peer pressure" as a way to get students or people to feel guilty and that they must somehow comply and be "one of us."
(4) School officials and educators have disagreed that by making "volunteering" mandatory do not make much sense or that it is seen as a backward step.
(5) There is no spirit of volunteering taking place at all but rather something that is heaped upon instead.
(6) This is about substiting reason with emotions with little intellectual value.

I'm not alone in this at all. John B. Egger, professor of economics at Towson University, recently wrote an article in Academic Questions that the “service learning” trend undermines a free society and subverts the university’s purpose of training the mind.

“By attempting to substitute emotions for reason, service-learning contravenes the purpose of liberal education while chipping away at students’ respect for the social order.”

In other words, this mandatory community service or mandatory voluneerism serves more of an indoctrination purposes than not.

As I said before, volunteering comes from the heart on his own initiative and time. Mandatory volunteer as a requirement does not come from the heart.

According to Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky, who commented on the subject while a senior at Princeton University,

“this darker side of student volunteerism … can undermine young people’s respect for and interest in genuine volunteerism. … In their zeal to recruit Samaritans, colleges have attracted a great number of Pharisees.” Worse, Ramos-Mrosovsky documents cases of bad faith and out-and-out fraud on the part of students to game the service system. Examples include plagiarism, creating original projects to demonstrate leadership rather than participating in existing ones understood to be more beneficial to the needy, and taking credit for service actually performed by parents.

It's all about ideologies at work here and Gallaudet University is one of the many colleges and universities who are pimping this social agenda to new students under the guise of a "feel good" course requirement called "mandatory volunteering." Egger also wrote concerning his view of "good and evil" that this mandatory voluneeter business

“...suppresses and denigrates the individual in favor of a group or ‘society’ and views self-interest as a vice.”

In other words, it's all about peer pressure. And that mandatory community service is actually critical of “individualistic attitudes.” Something that we, as individuals, ought to be ashamed of. How ironic. That alone goes against the very idea of diversity and autonomous thinking. Social engineers are more interested in advancing their idea by using emotions where"charity is moral, but self-interested behavior that respects others’ rights is something for which one must atone." That is about how one shouldn't display individual selfishness but instead be selfless of oneself for the sake of many. These ongoing social engineerings are being done right under our noses.

Hey, I'm not that dumb to see the differences. Call it "voluntyranny." Call it as another form of "soft hazing" by doing something not out of the goodness of your heart but something done in order to earn those brownie points just to graduate. Now, suppose I "volunteer my time" by playing the piano for the public for free, does that count as a "community service" on my part? After all, my service would be free and that it is a source of free entertainment helping people enjoy and relieve stress and tension at the same time.

Gallaudet's Community Service Requirement - a forced, mandatory volunteer program?

Community service? It can be done while as a volunteer or it can be used to punished those who violate the law where judges dole out community service requirements to offenders. Community service punishment is also seen as the ideal sentence for those who commit misdemeanor crimes must do 80 hours of community service.

Juvenile court Judge Christopher Estes sentenced Pleajhai Mervin, Kenngela Lockett and her brother Joshua to at-home probation and community service, but spared them any jail time. Ms. Mervin, then 15, and Ms. Lockett were charged with the misdemeanors while Joshua Lockett was charged with felony counts of threatening a public officer and making criminal threats. He also faced misdemeanor charges for disturbing the peace.

The youths must perform 80 hours of community service and undergo anger management classes, but according to Atty. Carl Douglas, their lawyer, they could be entangled in the legal system until they are 23-years-old. He doubts that will happen because the teens “are good children,” he told The Final Call.

Now, Gallaudet University has a "community service program requirement" for new freshmen where it requires them to do 80 hours of community service in order to graduate.

Ironically, in Gallaudet University's Community Service Program Requirement, it states one of the things on what the program is about,

Understand first-hand obligation to contribute to the solution of societal problems.

Isn't one of societal problems also includes the forcing of a mandatory volunteer requirement on new undergraduate students in order for them to graduate?

The word "volunteer" means to do things on your own initiative and on your own time without anyone telling you when and what you must do in order to graduate from college? Volunteering comes from the heart when the person is ready to do so out of self-consciousness or realization. The words "community service program requirement" is simply an euphemism for mandatory volunteering requirement. The phrase "mandatory volunteerism" is an oxymoron. You cannot force people to volunteer. Mandatory volunteerism is the heart of Gallaudet's program could be seen as a stumbling block for those who want to graduate.

In a 2008 commentary letter about a North Carolina Senate bill that will add a community service requirement for graduation for almost every college in the state:

In 1999 and 2004 there were similar attempts on community service requirements at the University of California. Former system provost H.R.C. Greenwood reminded us that the university’s academic senate stated that "existing research on collegiate community service suggests that a graduation requirement impedes, rather than promotes, the fostering of an ethic of public service."

Indeed. I see that it does impedes the spirit of volunteering rather than promotes it.

So those of you thinking about going to Gallaudet University for the first time, maybe it's time to broaden your options first before deciding. It's time to develop your critical thinking skills on these matters.

UPDATE: See my recent blog, a continuation of this subject.