Scholastic Book Sensation, Malala Yousafzai, a True Activist

Only three out of every five girls in Pakistan between the ages of 15 and 24-years-old are able to read and write. 

"How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?" Malala Yousafzai said when she was 10-years-old in September, 2008.

Yousafzai was shot in the head on a school bus in front of other school children when she was 14-years-old by members of the Taliban, a terrorist group our former Fascist in Chief wanted to invite to the White House when he was still president. Two other girls were also wounded on that bus. 

In January of 2009, the Taliban began enforcing their rules of shutting down 'all girls' schools, and in some cases, bombing those various educational facilities. 

This school in Pakistan school was bombed by the Taliban for teaching girls

On January 3, 2009, Yousafzai started blogging about the insane and nefarious rule of the Taliban, and living amidst their horrid regime rule. Malala and her father Ziauddin sent the blogs to the British Broadcasting Corporation which is why we know about the atrocities Malala has endured and survived. 

"Malala Yousafzai," a 48 page Scholastic book I acquired from the Rohnert Park Sonoma County library was a fantastic read, and I learned Pakistan became a nation in 1947 when it separated from India.

The Taliban allows girls in Pakistan to go to school now, if they stop going after the age of 10-years-old! 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

   

 

 

Mark Madness

 As a disembodied spirit in 1939, 25 years before I was born, I started the division I national championship in college basketball, on March 17 of that year. 

How did I form the NCAA Division I college basketball championship more than two decades before I was born? I'm very clever. 

Some sports gurus claim that winning the National Championship in college basketball is the hardest trophy to acquire in all of sports, and they have a solid point. There are more than 350 division I teams each for both the men and women's teams, and only 64 of those teams for both genders make the playoffs. Once the 64-team playoff tourney begins in mid-March of every year, it's a one and done game for every team. Simple, win, and play again until a single loss. 

To win the National Championship, the champs have to win six consecutive playoff games. This year's tournament of champions for both sexes did not disappoint. 

The New Jersey Saint Peter's Peacocks men's team made history when they became the first 15th seeded team entering the tournament to make it to the Elite 8, three wins shy of winning the national championship. 

I won't ramble on and on about every game I enjoyed while on Covid 19 leave, but last year's champions, the Baylor Bears from the University of Waco Texas erased a 25-point deficit in the second half to tie the North Carlina Tar Heels to force over-time. The Tar Heels knocked off last year's champions in OT, and made it to this year's championship game themselves, losing a thriller to the Kansas State Jayhawks.

This year's men's champions, the Kansas Jayhawks fought tooth and nail to reach the zenith of college basketball. Early in the tournament, the Creighton Bluejays from the University of Nebraska gave the Jayhawks a run for the money. At the halfway point of that game, there were four ties and nine lead changes. The Jayhawks led at halftime over the Bluejays, 39-38, and won the game by seven points, 79-72.

The North Carolina Tar Heels met the Duke Blue Devils, also from that state for the first time ever in the men's Final Four and won by four points to face the Jayhawks for all the marbles.

The Kansas Jayhawks set an NCAA championship game record when they came back from 16 points to beat the Tar Heels, 72-69 to hoist this year's Naismith Trophy, in honor of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.  

On the women's side of the spectrum of spectacular, history was made when the Connecticut Huskies played the South Carolina Gamecocks in the women's championship game in Minnesota in front of a sell-out crowd. The Huskies women's team made it to the Final Four for the 14th consecutive year, and their star player, sophomore guard, Paige Bueckers scored 14 points against last year's champion's, the Stanford Cardinals, to face the Gamecocks in the Finals.

It was the first time ever in the women's Finals, two national players of the year faced one another in the championship game. Bueckers was last year's Associated Press National Player of the year, and the Gamecocks, Aliyah Boston was this year's AP player of the year. 

UConn's women's coach Geno Auriemma, now 11-1 in title games with Gamecocks coach, Dawn Staley, 2-0. 

The South Carolina Gamecocks were the number one team in the nation from start to finish, and they were simply bigger and better than the UConn Huskies, winning easily, 64-49, to claim their second championship in school history under the same coach, Dawn Staley, who also coached the Gamecocks to a championship in 2017. Bueckers was interictal in cutting the Gamecocks lead to seven points in the 3rd quarter, but the Gamecocks with the aid of their senior guard Destanni Henderson had a fantastic time to have a season high, 26 points, and was the leading scorer for both teams. Boston, as usual, was dominant in the paint. 

Bueckers has two more years in the college circuit if she doesn't go pro early. As an 8th grader, she was a starter for Hopkins High School in Minnesota. 

Mark Izzy Schurr

    

  

"Blackkklansman," A Modern Moron Movie Review

 In Lieu of black history month, here's a review of this cool flick, the "Blackkklansman." 

This movie comedically and intellectually illustrates the subtle differences between black and white minds, and there are differences, soul brothers and sisters! In the 1980s I lived in Tennessee and the Kentucky state line for four years during my Army tenue, and I was engulfed in both white and black culture. 

In the 1980s, the N-word was heard daily by me for nearly a half decade, and the vast majority of the time it was used in jest by the black people, or brother's as they were most often called by each other and us white boys, or in my case, the "Crazy White Boy," as many of the brothers called me, and it fit, I was doing a lot of LSD then. 

For the most part, black guys didn't laugh under the influence of LSD, and us white guys laughed so much, our stomachs hurt. Subtle differences. 

This movie proves we can all coexist happily, while also expressing the harsh realities of unwarranted hatred for others based on insane Christian and political rhetoric.

"Blackkklansman" is the true tale of the real-life black police officer, Ron Stallworth who was the first African American cop at his Colorado police branch in the early 1970s. Officer Stallworth poised as a white man over the phone to KKK members. Stallworth was so convincing over the phone, the then Grand Wizard and National Director of the KKK, David Duke made him an official member of the KKK.  

Another white police officer on the Colorado force was used to meet with KKK members. Officer Stallworth exposed David Duke for the pathic racist he truly is, and nobody seems to care. Why this insane organization is allowed to continue to exist and still have members in congress and other forms of government is crazy to me.  

This movie is dedicated to Heather Heyer, the woman who was run over and killed by white supremist in Charlotteville, Virginia on Aug., 12, 2017, simply because she wasn't a racist, and our then President, the Racist in Chief, Donald J. Trump said these KKK killers were fine people.   

After Heyer was brutally murdered by white supremist, David Duke said this is the first step in what Donald Trump alluded to early in his campaign. It's the first step in taking America back, Duke said.

Rest in Power, Heather Heyer

Mark Izzy Schurr

 

 

Mind Journey

To flee the hallowed halls of hatred and trek to lands dominated by love and laughter. To dwell in a world with no wars or poverty, to live where there's nothing but beautiful ladies singing love songs.                                                                                                             Mark Izzy Schurr                                                  Picture Schurr Shot in Trinidad, 2021 & the last sentence is from the early 1930s movie, "The Depot," with Joan Blondell & Guy Kibbee as a homeless drunk who said the awesome line about beautiful gals singing love songs.   

Government IX

Custodians of chaos, their the vurluent vipers who instill fear and hatred to the   weak minds of their armies and citizens. How many generations will continue to slay the pawns of war as opposed to killing their kings. Idle words of peace and prosperity are shrouded in the addictions of savage emotions. Drones fly, children die. Smart bombs and blind puppets called presidents, Prime Ministers and dictators fuel my frustration of humanity. End the orange cult and jail Coupe A Lini already! 

 

Write Minded

The tombs of dead laughter admisdt the unwelcoming confines of California darken my dim memories of shared laughter. My soul yearns for the sanctuary of sanity along the ocean shores.                                                            Mark Izzy Schurr                                          Picture was Schurr Shot in Trinidad, Calif., in 2021. 

 

Art of Nature

 The sanctuary of satisfaction is a journey I have yet to comprehend. While trekking the eternal winds upon our dimensions, the nectar of my nemesis has been conquered. No longer following the dictates of society, save my own. Teetering on the edge of the unknown as seraphic minds absorb the stabbing sensation of wisdom. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

Picture is Schurr Shot along the northern coastal spheres of California.