links for 2010-01-08

"This is anecdotal, but I have become aware that the gamer approaches accessibility in different ways depending on when they were disabled. Not every time, but many times, when someone comes on to the site and asks the community for help, and they have been disabled all of their lives they look for a solution prescribed for them. If they have MD, they want a “MD solution” and if you tell them that this “Y Solution” will help them out, they are less willing to try it because it is not an “MD” fix. While those disabled later in life are much more willing to to try ANYTHING that works no matter if it is an X, Y, or Z. I can not answer definitively why this is, I have some theories, but it would take pages to explain what I think is going on. So this is a challenge, and sometime frustrating when you want to get a gamer back into the game, and you think you have the answer, and they rebuff you. I know that this has caused some frustration within the community."

"Walt Disney Co. no doubt expected kudos for breaking racial barriers in its holiday hit, "The Princess and the Frog," and that praise has come from some quarters. But the entertainment giant also finds itself receiving stinging criticism from conservative evangelical Christians on a Web warpath. Hollywoodjesus.com said the animated feature's preoccupation with voodoo, black magic, bloody amulets and Ouija boards was "too dark and extreme for this kind of kids' film." Christiananswers.net rated the movie "Offensive"; citing a Tarot card reading, soul transfer and implied reincarnation, the site called the film "demonic.""

"The weight of Latinos in the politics of states like California and Texas (where the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus claims 44 of the 150 members of the state House of Representatives) is already understood to be not only large but normal."

"The court threw out Washington's law because its criminal-justice system is biased against minorities. The problem isn’t with disenfranchising prisoners, it’s with a state legal system that unfairly throws so many people of color in prison that their voting power is diluted."

Bold As Love drops a list of the Best Black Rock (and black alternative in general). "Noisettes – Young Wild Hearts
The British trio, led by the captivating Shingai Shoniwa, adds 60s' soul, pop and even disco, to their punk based sound. This is the soundtrack of a band going to the next level."

"Hedy Epstein is what some might see as a contradiction in terms: a survivor of the Holocaust and also a staunch advocate for the Palestinian people. Born in 1924 in Freiburg, Germany, Epstein was 14 when she escaped from Nazi persecution via the Kinderstransport to England. Since her 1948 arrival in the U.S., Epstein has been an advocate for peace and human rights."

"Tinley Park resident Valerie Kenney was charged with a hate crime for an incident in which she verbally abused another woman in a grocery store and then yanked the other woman’s headscarf."