Social Justice News, 9-29-06

Hello all,
It’s been some kind of week. I’d like to describe it better, but I’d rather not use the appropriate adjectives with this audience. Come over to my house sometime when I’m dealing with (yet another) weed infestation in my flower beds, and you’ll get an earful. There’s been a little bit of good news this week and an awful lot of bad news. I only send out some of the news on this newsletter; some of the things I read are enough to drive a person to drinking. (Assuming one didn’t all ready have enough problems!)

The Scariest Thing Bush Has Done (yet): Okay, I am not an alarmist. It may be easy to piss me off, but it is not easy to scare me. Hey, I grew up on the streets –it takes a lot to scare a street kid. But this detainee bill scares the s*** out of me. Why? It’s not just the inexcusable violations of the human rights of alien detainees. Oh no; this bill allows Americans to be held as enemy combatants. What counts as an enemy combatant? Providing material support or succor to the ‘enemy’, whomever that is this month. Someone can be declared an enemy combatant by being found on the battlefield, a military tribunal, or any other commission the president appoints to do so. Oh yes, and such military combatants have no legal recourse to challenge their detainment or the conditions thereof, and they can be held indefinitely without trial. What counts as material support or succor? Hmm, good question. It’s not really defined. How about an American Muslim who unwittingly gives money to a charity later found to have connections with ‘terrorist groups’ (whatever the definition of that is on that particular month). How about someone who opposes the war? How about someone who speaks out against the president? Someone who belongs to anti-war groups? Someone who supports liberal causes? Someone who doesn’t like what the President had for breakfast this morning? How about the cook who made that breakfast, for the reason that the president didn’t like it? How about non-Christians? Gays? Jews? Muslims? Democrats? Remember, they have built all those ‘terrorist detention centers’ inside our borders, and done so publicly. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? It was in a newsletter some months back, or you can do a search on Halliburton Detention Camps.) Oh yeah, and Congress just approved the building of a fence along both the Mexican and Canadian borders.
Many disaster preparation experts advocate keeping a ‘grab and go’ back in your car and/or your closet in case you have to evacuate because of a natural disaster, a chemical spill, etc. Maybe we need to start keeping them in case of fascism as well! (Unlikely? Hmm, if you had told me three years ago that we would elect a 3 year old for a President who couldn’t form complete sentences, threw temper tantrums on live television, and invaded any country that disagreed with him, I would have said that was unlikely too. And that you were smoking something besides.)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6165621
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/26/1415250
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/29/150254

Middle Class Families Worse Off Than Ever: Evidence is mounting that the growing gap between rich and poor has gotten so bad its now eroding the middle class.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/28/news/economy/middle_class.reut/index.htm?postversion=2006092816

Gay Rights Movement From Hell Itself: Hate was everywhere at this ‘Value Voters’ Summit, but especially from this guy, who wants the gays mad at him, utters the word faggots more times than I’ve ever heard it in one place, and thinks the ‘anti-Christ’ will be gay. (BTW, the Book of Revelations never talks about an ‘anti-Christ, and the Jesus who comes back in that book is a warrior who wears a blood-soaked robe and slaughters indiscriminately. Gee, that sounds like the Prince of Peace to me!)
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/26/anti-gay-summit/

Cost Benefit Analysis Applied to Global Warming: Hmm, okay, so even if 20% of the world’s species die off, parts of the planet become a desert, coastal cities around the globe get inundated, millions (possibly billions) of people die, global warming may actually be a good thing –because some rich people will get richer and rich nations will get richer. Golly gee whiz, bring on the climate change!
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19918608.htm

Iranian Female Space Tourist An Inspiration: I couldn’t normally find a way to morally justify spending $20 million on what amounts to a personal vacation, but when it inspires many women and girls to follow their dreams and provides them hope, especially in a repressive country like Iran, that’s another matter.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/060926_ap_iran_ansari.html

40 Years for a 16 year old: Okay let me get this straight: the COO of Enron swindles millions of people out of billions of dollars, puts many –including children and seniors –into the poorhouse, almost single-handedly takes down our entire economy, and all he gets is a lousy 6 years in prison, while a teenager can smuggle cocaine and get 40 years? Yeah, that’s justice all right!
http://www.elpasotimes.com/search/ci_4388154

The Effort to Outlaw Birth Control: Look out ladies. First they want to outlaw abortion, and then take away birth control. Apparently they think birth control is not only abortion in and of itself, but that it causes more abortions, and it harms relationships between men and women. Hmm, I thought it was accidental pregnancies that did all of that. My bad.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0609240334sep24,1,3423926.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/09/contraception_the_next_big_tar.php

Website of the week: A website on energy. http://www.energybulletin.net/

UU Joke of the Week: UU's are basically good people, who, for the most part, try to live by the 10 suggestions.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Social Justice News, 9-22-06

Hey everyone,
I hope everyone had a good week. There’s a lot of new this week –more than I could fit in. Four of the stories are on Global Warming/Climate Change. I put them under a separate section aptly titled Global Warming below. The rest is a mixed bag. Unfortunately, not much of it is good news. I hope to find some better news next week.

Theocrats or Theofascists?: (Does it matter? I wonder.) The Right’s true colors revealed yet again. Personally, I think the argument they like to make about religious freedom is hilarious: You’re impinging on my right to religious freedom by not letting me impose my religion on you! The second link is to the ‘Stand For the Family’ event day this fall. (Anyone want to guess what that’s all about? I’ll give you three chances, but you’ll only need one.)
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1180.shtml
http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0041648.cfm

Georgia Photo ID Law Struck Down!: Poll taxes are unconstitutional, and have been since the Civil War, but apparently Georgia’s legislature forgot that.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14909537/

Strip Searches In School: Um yeah, okay. Next thing you know they’re going to have us all tagged, chipped, and beam Fox News into our brains everyday. This madness has to STOP.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/091806stripsearch.cfm

Toss Out the Geneva Conventions: Bush wants to do away with those pesky little laws prohibiting torture. Or rather, he wants to rewrite them. He seems to think its all right for someone to be tortured as long as they’re suspected of being a terrorist. Though for him of course, his idea of ‘torture’ is not getting his way. Which was obvious if you saw or listened to his temper tantrum at the press conference last week.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2006/sep/19/the-geneva-conventions/

You Stop That This Instant!: Big Brother can now shout at you from hidden speakers in London. Remember what I said above? Tagged, chipped….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=405477&in_page_id=1770

The Dark Side of Industrialization: You didn’t hear this on CNN. A European ship deliberately dumped its load of toxic industrial waste in Africa last month –sickening at least 26,000 people. The really bad thing –it wasn’t the first time something like this has happened. And it won’t be the last.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2361387,00.html

Pragmatists and Heretics: The new heresy is believing global economic growth can’t continue indefinitely. And true to form, I’m a heretic. Upton Sinclair once said: Only madmen and economists think infinite growth is possible on a finite world. Judging by some of the reports I see from the latter category, I wonder if all economists are madmen too!
http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=5570&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Global Warming
California Sues Automakers Over Global Warming: The suit seeks damages for past and current contributions to global warming by the big six automakers. While a good step, it does nothing towards making people take personal responsibility for the gas hogging SUVs they drive to and from work each day.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060920/bs_nm/environment_autos_dc_13

Sea Levels Rising Fast –Polar Route Through Arctic Opened: The Arctic is now melting so fast a region the size of Turkey disappeared in just one year –and a polar route to the North Pole has suddenly opened.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1621770.ece
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060920/sc_afp/climatewarmingarctic_060920111816

Believers Worse Than Skeptics: Those who believe in Global Warming and refuse to take action, even in their personal lives, are doing more damage than the skeptics –and doing so consciously.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1877286,00.html

Website of the week: www.pathtofreedom.com

UU Joke of the Week: You might be a UU if:-You have ever been in an argument over whether breast milk is vegan-When you dress for a formal evening out you wear a little black dress, pearls and birkenstocks (and your wife thinks you look great!)-You get Newt Gingrich confused with the Grinch who stole Christmas-You think the Holy Trinity is "reduce, reuse, recycle"-The only time "Jesus" is mentioned at church is when somebody trips or stubs their toe-Before going to dinner at a friends house, your child says, I'll remember to say my 'pleases' and 'thank yous' but I'm not going to say that dinner 'pledge of allegiance'.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Social Justice News, 9-15-06

You’re Out!!!! The people’s rebellion in Mexico has stepped up a notch. In case you have no idea what I’m talking about (and its even odds that you don’t, since the MSM haven’t been covering it) some of Mexico’s citizens finally got tired of the oppression and rebelled months ago in Oaxaca. Now they’ve actually kicked out the state government. Power to the people!
http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article2045.html

Bye Bye World: Artic Ice is now melting even in the winter.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0914-02.htm

Here Comes God: Set up the revival tents. Our noble, fearless leader, himself chosen by the Creator for his magnificent leadership abilities, predicts the third ‘Great Awakening’ of Christianity in America. No word yet on what this means for us non Christians, but I recommend keeping handy a bag packed with clothing, food, and a map showing the best route to Canada.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091201594_pf.html

Sick and Getting More So: A special report from Yes! Magazine on the state of healthcare in the U.S. Also, another article from Alternet. My advice: Don’t get sick.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/default.asp
http://www.alternet.org/story/41416/

More Scary Than Freddy: This may look like something out a Hollywood Horror flick, but its real, and worse than anything cooked up in the fevered imaginations of screenwriters and authors everywhere.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14737243/

Bringing Back Community: And making it sustainable.
http://hopedance.org/new/issues/58/article5.html

War Crime? What war crime? Our hapless leader is now trying to get rid of the War Crimes act. Apparently, its inconveniencing him in his quest to do whatever he wishes without restraints or consequences. Oh I forgot, those chosen by God don’t have to pay for their actions. My mistake.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060918/brecher

Website of the week: www.pathtofreedom.com

Government Joke of the Week: My favorite quote from Ann Richards, who passed away from cancer this week (and rest in peace, Ann): “Poor George, he can’t help it…he was born with a silver foot in his mouth!” And believe it or not, she was talking about Bush Senior!

UU Joke of the Week: Three children were talking about their religions. "I'm a Catholic," said one, "and our symbol is the cross." "I'm Jewish," said the second, "and our symbol is the Star of David." The third child said, "I'm a Unitarian Universalist and our symbol is a candle in a cocktail glass!"

On This Day (9/11 Essay)

Today is the 11th of September. This is no ordinary day. On this day the world changed. All the layers of protection we had used to insulate ourselves from the wider world, came crashing down along with the twin towers. Our naiveté was stripped away along with the illusion of safety we cherished for so long. We were suddenly confronted with the harsh reality of our world, and discovered it to be a scary place indeed.

When an emergency occurs people react rather than act. This instinct has saved countless lives over the course of human existence. But at some point the emergency subsides and it becomes time to think, to reflect, and decide upon the right response to the calamity that has beset us. After 9/11 we were in a collective state of panic. Fear possessed us for months upon end. This is perfectly understandable. But now it is five years later. Have we yet taken a step back to reflect upon what has happened? On 9/11 three thousand Americans lost their lives. Two national monuments were destroyed. Hundreds of ordinary men and women became heroes as they rose to the occasion. Many lost their lives in so doing. And how have we honored them?

In the past five years we have invaded two countries, one of which had nothing to do with 9/11. In so doing we also caused the deaths of thousands of civilian lives, many times the number that died on 9/11. Three major terror attacks have occurred around the world in the U.K., Spain, and India. Islamic fundamentalism has spread like wildfire the world over. Terror groups too numerous to count have sprung up everywhere. We have traded many of our precious civil liberties for the empty promise of security. Our nation has become divided. Brother against brother, ideology against ideology. Anything different is considered suspect. Hate crimes against and suspicions about Muslims have run rampant.

THIS is how we honor our fallen? By killing many times their number in more innocent lives, sacrificing our young men and women on the battlefield, and invading a country that had nothing to do with the attack? And what has been the result of this strategy? Our world is even less safe today than it was on that clear September morning split by the unimaginable horror in the skies. Obviously something has gone wrong. It is time to reevaluate our response to 9/11. Responding to violence with more violence solves nothing. It only results in a vicious cycle that costs more and more lives. It is time for us to try something different. But what?

I am struck by an odd coincidence. You see, today is not the only September 11 on which the world changed. A hundred years ago on this day something occurred which would shake the world to its very roots. In a colonial backwater known as South Africa a man named Mahatma Gandhi decided to resist oppression by nonviolence. His radical idea was to oppose an inherently violent idea, by peace. No fighting, no violence. Just peaceful resistance. As a result of his decision, several countries were liberated from colonial rule. A young preacher named Martin Luther King accepted the ideas as his own. A woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. Hundreds of children and teenagers marched for integration in Birmingham Alabama. Decades, even centuries of oppression were ended due to this one radical idea. And Gandhi’s legacy lives on to this day.

Perhaps we should have had a different response to 9/11. Standing in the shadow of the ruin that was once the twin towers, perhaps we should have asked, not how do we get revenge for this atrocious act? But why did it happen to begin with? What would cause a young man with the rest of his life ahead of him to hijack a plane and fly it into a skyscraper? And not just one young man, but nearly two dozen! Religious fervor does not account for that. There was rage there, and desperation. Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies of 9/11 is that so many young men felt they had no choice but to end their lives in such a manner.

It is time for a change. We need a new direction. We have tried the path of vengeance and retaliation and that has done nothing but lock us into a spiral of ever increasing violence and death. Our soldiers are dying everyday. Our national psyche and our national treasury are both straining under the weight of a never ending war. The blood of thousands of innocents is on our hands. We can not change the past. But we can decide the future. This is not a struggle we can win by fighting. Violence begets violence. Evil begets evil. Let us instead take a different path. Let’s take a page from that first 9/11 so long ago. Gandhi, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King did not change the world by violence. They did so by peace. Their actions were borne from love. It is time for us to follow their example. We need to exit this cycle of violence once and for all. Let us today begin to walk a new path. One of peace, of love, of understanding. One that does not involve violence and domination of the weak by the strong. Let us make 9/11 a day remembered in the future, not as the start of the War on Terror, but as the day a turning point was reached in human history, one that set us on a path that would lead to true peace.

THAT is a far better way to honor the fallen.
May it be so.

9-1-06 Social Justice News

Global Meltdown: If you read nothing else this week, please read this story. More and more scientists are being amazed at how fast climate change is really proceeding –and it turns out we may be very near a very dangerous tipping point. Steps must be made NOW to stop this –and since governments won’t do anything, its up to us.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1860560,00.html

The Worst Environmental Disaster Ever: Caused by stupidity –and greed. Eager to find oil and make a quick buck an Indonesian oil exploration company drilled into a geologically unstable area –and instead of finding oil, punched a hole into a 9,000 foot deep reservoir of 5 million year old liquid sediment –and the resulting ‘mud volcano’ could spew toxic mud over the landscape for several hundred years.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,,1857057,00.html

California to Cap Emissions!: In the first legislation of its kind, and a major victory for the Earth, California is set to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years –and none too seen, either. They even think it will help the economy. Are you listening Mr. Bush?
http://www.energybulletin.net/19902.html

Church-State Separation a Lie!: Apparently, God intended this nation to be a religious theocracy after all. Or so says Rep. Kathleen Harris. Hmm, I wonder which God would work best? I vote for Athena, Goddess of Love. Let’s bring back the days of the Hippies! Free love, peace, and tie dye, mandated by the state.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/28/senate.harris.ap/index.html

Eating Local, Thinking Global: Do you know where your dinner last night came from? Well, it turns out it might have traveled across the country or the world.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5709576

Reckless Recruiting: How a ‘hidden draft’ is affecting our nation’s public schools.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/22/18299769.php

Oil Safari Author Arrested for ‘Espionage’: And reporting false news. Or so says the Sudan government, who arrested him in Darfur while he was working freelance for National Geographic.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/08/26/reporter.sudan.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

Full Throttle: The Greenland Ice Cap is now melting at three times the rate previously thought.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9717-greenland-ice-cap-may-be-

Hot Futures: Some in Sacramento are increasingly considering the possibility that all too soon, their city may actually be unlivable.
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=oid:148911

Sick of It: U.S. Soldiers are increasingly getting sick. Many think its because of the depleted uranium used in so many of the armaments of war these days, from casings to tank armor. The Pentagon claims its safe enough to ‘eat for breakfast’. Hmm, care to test out that claim, General So and So? How would you like your DU? Mixed in with your scrambled eggs, or shaken into your cereal? Hmm, good.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,71585-0.html?tw=wn_politics_6

Website of the week: I am neither endorsing nor condemning the views on this site, but I am posting it because of the amazing (and as far I’ve been able to determine it, accurate) population clock on the home page. Talk about mind boggling!
http://www.optimumpopulation.org/

UU Joke of the Week: What's the difference between Catholics praying and Unitarians praying?
Catholics cross their upper bodies, Unitarians cross their fingers.