Social Justice News, 1-26-07
Hey everybody,
Something really funny happened this week. I got a call from Newt Gingrich’s staffers. Yes, THAT Newt Gingrich. Apparently, I am on some kind of list as a conservative. Yes, I know your laughing… Anyway, they asked me if, as a good conservative (don’t faint from laughing too hard yet, I’m not to the good part) would I be willing to listen to a recorded message from Mr. Gingrich? For a second I thought about telling them that I’m a Democrat and hanging up, but then I decided to play along. The message was all about getting the GOP “back to basics” along with a lot of rigamorale about left wing nuts trying to hijack the country. I kept the phone away from my ear at first, afraid that I was going to get some kind of subliminal message through the phone: “You are now a conservative. Bush is right. Support Bush.” Apparently, according to him, in November people didn’t vote for the Democrats, but against the Republicans. All right, you could’ve fooled me! Then the staffer came back on the line and asked me for $200. After I hung up, I ended up in the floor laughing so hard I had to clutch my sides.
My new job is going okay, though they have some crazy things going on there. It’ll last for a while at any rate. I have to be at work at 7 in the morning, and I work till 3, so I won’t be able to go to the rally. My apologies –I hope it’s a great one! Someone please let me know how it goes.
Bush called for a 20% cut in gasoline consumption in his State of the Union, as expected. He wants to make it up with ethanol. One analyst pointed out that in order to replace 15% of our gas with ethanol and NOT lose any food production, we’d have to convert an area the size of Kansas and Iowa COMBINED to growing corn. No worries, we’ll just cut down a rain forest or two. That’s it.
Anyway, here’s the news.
FEATURED ARTICLES
Parent’s Angry over ‘Truth,’ Get Film Pulled: That’s right –angry evangelical parents have gotten Gore’s movie pulled from science classrooms in Seattle, and now it can only be watched if ‘balance’ material is presented. And here I thought science prevailed over religion in this country!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401807.html?sub=AR
Want to cut your carbon output? This is the article for you! Check it out.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/cash/story/0,,1994984,00.html
Big Brother and Big Oil: This is the best analysis of the Bush drama on Capital Hill this week (otherwise known as the State of the Union Address) that I’ve seen. It’s also a little bit worrying.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/bigoilbigbrother.php
Energy Fascism’s Rise: Maybe this will come true, maybe it won’t but the signs are there, and frightening!
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/46838/
GOOD NEWS
Climate Change Concerns Rising Fast: Worldover, the general public is (finally! –sorry, I couldn’t resist) starting to wake up to the reality of global warming.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070125/lf_afp/unclimateopinion_070125031842
CLIMATE CHANGE
IPCC’s Final Verdict: The World as we know it will be gone by 2100. Bye-bye mountaintop snowcaps. Bye bye 2/3 of the world’s species. Hello, climate change.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1995348,00.html
Are we nuts? We buy health insurance, life insurance, fire insurance, auto insurance, even though we may never need most of them. But we won’t do anything to stop climate change. So this author asks –are we nuts? I would say yes. We may be the first species in the planet’s history to commit mass suicide –and mass murder along the way.
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/011507Lindorff.shtml
Awakening the Giant: There are now hopeful signs that the American public is finally awakening to the reality of climate change.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-enviro2007jan20,0,3131999.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines
POLITICS
State of the Apocalypse: Global and domestic rampage, the failing war in Iraq, the changing climate, none of these were included in Bush’s speech the other night, now were they?
http://www.alternet.org/story/47127/
POLLUTION
Kid’s Lung Damage Caused by Roads: The exhaust from cars is causing mass damage to the lungs of kids who live next to the roads. Gee, I thought we drove cars to keep the kids safe!
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2186523.ece
ENVIRONMENT
The Sand Takes All: The Sahara desert is advancing relentlessly across Africa, while activists try to stop it, seemingly to no avail. Meanwhile, many villagers can’t see the connection between the continuous felling of trees and the desert’s advance.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6288445.stm
Criminals, Terrorists, or Something altogether different? An in-depth look at the “ecoterrorism” incidents in the past few years, and at those who committed them.
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/46847/
OTHER
110 SWAT Team Incidents EVERY DAY Last Year: SWAT teams were called out about 110 times every single day last year. Why? Terrorism? Hostages? No –to serve warrants. And guess who got hurt? Innocent adults and children. Gee, let’s just send out the paramilitary to arrest someone who didn’t show up to traffic court! What a bright idea!
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=10382
More Cooks, Waitresses, and Busboys than Farmers: Seriously. There are now more of these folks than those who actually grow food! If this continues, soon all food production will be in the hands of Monsanto and its ilk. And when that unsustainable system breaks down? Well….I think it’s a good time to learn to garden!
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070125/un_global_unemployment.html?.v=3
Website of the Week: Ecology Action. These folks do a lot of good work. (Full disclosure: I bought some seeds this year from their garden catalog.) http://www.growbiointensive.org/
UU Joke of the Week:
Conversation overheard:
Person A (Mainstream Protestant Denomination): I hear that you allow all sorts of weirdos in your church. Atheists, Buddhists, Pagans...
Person B (Unitarian Universalist): We allow Christians too -- we're very open minded!
Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca
Something really funny happened this week. I got a call from Newt Gingrich’s staffers. Yes, THAT Newt Gingrich. Apparently, I am on some kind of list as a conservative. Yes, I know your laughing… Anyway, they asked me if, as a good conservative (don’t faint from laughing too hard yet, I’m not to the good part) would I be willing to listen to a recorded message from Mr. Gingrich? For a second I thought about telling them that I’m a Democrat and hanging up, but then I decided to play along. The message was all about getting the GOP “back to basics” along with a lot of rigamorale about left wing nuts trying to hijack the country. I kept the phone away from my ear at first, afraid that I was going to get some kind of subliminal message through the phone: “You are now a conservative. Bush is right. Support Bush.” Apparently, according to him, in November people didn’t vote for the Democrats, but against the Republicans. All right, you could’ve fooled me! Then the staffer came back on the line and asked me for $200. After I hung up, I ended up in the floor laughing so hard I had to clutch my sides.
My new job is going okay, though they have some crazy things going on there. It’ll last for a while at any rate. I have to be at work at 7 in the morning, and I work till 3, so I won’t be able to go to the rally. My apologies –I hope it’s a great one! Someone please let me know how it goes.
Bush called for a 20% cut in gasoline consumption in his State of the Union, as expected. He wants to make it up with ethanol. One analyst pointed out that in order to replace 15% of our gas with ethanol and NOT lose any food production, we’d have to convert an area the size of Kansas and Iowa COMBINED to growing corn. No worries, we’ll just cut down a rain forest or two. That’s it.
Anyway, here’s the news.
FEATURED ARTICLES
Parent’s Angry over ‘Truth,’ Get Film Pulled: That’s right –angry evangelical parents have gotten Gore’s movie pulled from science classrooms in Seattle, and now it can only be watched if ‘balance’ material is presented. And here I thought science prevailed over religion in this country!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/24/AR2007012401807.html?sub=AR
Want to cut your carbon output? This is the article for you! Check it out.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/cash/story/0,,1994984,00.html
Big Brother and Big Oil: This is the best analysis of the Bush drama on Capital Hill this week (otherwise known as the State of the Union Address) that I’ve seen. It’s also a little bit worrying.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/bigoilbigbrother.php
Energy Fascism’s Rise: Maybe this will come true, maybe it won’t but the signs are there, and frightening!
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/46838/
GOOD NEWS
Climate Change Concerns Rising Fast: Worldover, the general public is (finally! –sorry, I couldn’t resist) starting to wake up to the reality of global warming.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070125/lf_afp/unclimateopinion_070125031842
CLIMATE CHANGE
IPCC’s Final Verdict: The World as we know it will be gone by 2100. Bye-bye mountaintop snowcaps. Bye bye 2/3 of the world’s species. Hello, climate change.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1995348,00.html
Are we nuts? We buy health insurance, life insurance, fire insurance, auto insurance, even though we may never need most of them. But we won’t do anything to stop climate change. So this author asks –are we nuts? I would say yes. We may be the first species in the planet’s history to commit mass suicide –and mass murder along the way.
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/011507Lindorff.shtml
Awakening the Giant: There are now hopeful signs that the American public is finally awakening to the reality of climate change.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-enviro2007jan20,0,3131999.story?coll=orl-opinion-headlines
POLITICS
State of the Apocalypse: Global and domestic rampage, the failing war in Iraq, the changing climate, none of these were included in Bush’s speech the other night, now were they?
http://www.alternet.org/story/47127/
POLLUTION
Kid’s Lung Damage Caused by Roads: The exhaust from cars is causing mass damage to the lungs of kids who live next to the roads. Gee, I thought we drove cars to keep the kids safe!
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2186523.ece
ENVIRONMENT
The Sand Takes All: The Sahara desert is advancing relentlessly across Africa, while activists try to stop it, seemingly to no avail. Meanwhile, many villagers can’t see the connection between the continuous felling of trees and the desert’s advance.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6288445.stm
Criminals, Terrorists, or Something altogether different? An in-depth look at the “ecoterrorism” incidents in the past few years, and at those who committed them.
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/46847/
OTHER
110 SWAT Team Incidents EVERY DAY Last Year: SWAT teams were called out about 110 times every single day last year. Why? Terrorism? Hostages? No –to serve warrants. And guess who got hurt? Innocent adults and children. Gee, let’s just send out the paramilitary to arrest someone who didn’t show up to traffic court! What a bright idea!
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=10382
More Cooks, Waitresses, and Busboys than Farmers: Seriously. There are now more of these folks than those who actually grow food! If this continues, soon all food production will be in the hands of Monsanto and its ilk. And when that unsustainable system breaks down? Well….I think it’s a good time to learn to garden!
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070125/un_global_unemployment.html?.v=3
Website of the Week: Ecology Action. These folks do a lot of good work. (Full disclosure: I bought some seeds this year from their garden catalog.) http://www.growbiointensive.org/
UU Joke of the Week:
Conversation overheard:
Person A (Mainstream Protestant Denomination): I hear that you allow all sorts of weirdos in your church. Atheists, Buddhists, Pagans...
Person B (Unitarian Universalist): We allow Christians too -- we're very open minded!
Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca
posted by RAS at 1/26/2007 07:03:00 PM
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