Welcome to My World

Social Justice News, 4-7-07

2007-04-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,
This cold snap has gotten everything messed up. Brrrr! My trees and flowers don’t know what to think. I had to shave my poodle this week because he got into some thistle and got his fur all matted. Predictably, it got cold the very next week. So now he’s in one of his little garage sale sweaters and keeps huddling under blankets and in my lap for warmth. He also looks like a naked mole rat. It’s quite funny, really.

FEATURED ARTICLES
Monitoring Criminals –From the Cradle On: Britain is going to start monitoring kid’s behavior to identify those who will begin criminals. They say that they can identify most future offenders almost from birth. I wonder, why not just go the extra step and lock them up as infants? Skip the middle man. Of better yet, just take DNA samples from fetuses, screen them for these “traits” and then force an abortion if they’re found. That way, you’ll have all your bases covered! Is it just me, or has Britain gone completely crazy? Orwell, you were SO wrong –things are much worse than 1984.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/28/ncrime28.xml

Have we hit the limits? A BBC reporter takes on the thorny issue of population growth and food production, and concludes that the only way to feed the burgeoning world population is with another ‘Green Revolution’. Will it happen? Not likely.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6496585.stm

Creation Science: A chilling description of this phenomenon from Alternet.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/49811/

GOOD NEWS
The EPA CAN regulate CO2: So said the Supreme Court yesterday, in a landmark ruling. Now if we can just get them to do it!
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/02/scotus.greenhousegas.ap/index.html

The New Rules of Food: An organization in the Midwest is trying to promote organic, sustainable, and fairly traded farm goods –and succeeding.
http://www.counterpunch.org/mammoser03232007.html

CLIMATE CHANGE
Perennial Arctic Ice Melting: The Arctic is losing its perennial (read: supposedly permanent) ice cap at a rate of 7-10% per decade. Which means it will be ice free within a hundred year. Simple arithmetic. But, that’s if things don’t accelerate. How fast has climate change been accelerating? Um, it might be time to sell that beach front condo…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070403/sc_afp/scienceclimatearctic_070403220958;_ylt=AkxshZ3gQkuEh074DrRRiCdrAlMA
The Lethal Non Solution: Turns out that some biofuels produce up to TEN TIMES the emissions of fossil fuels –in addition to other ecological and human rights atrocities.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/03/27/a-lethal-solution/

Check Your Climate Change Risk: A new website will check your home’s climate change risk for $30. Fair Warning: It seems to me that the model they use is a little outdated, and that things are much more dire than it would lead you to suspect. But its still a good ballpark.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2007-03-28-climate-risk_N.htm

We’re NOT in it together: It turns out that those suffering the worst from climate change, thus far, are the ones who had the least to do with it. The rich exploiting the poor. Gee, what a shock!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/earth/03clim.html?em&ex=1175745600&en=61f7d0ebcafa354d&ei=5087%0A

New Climates: Climate change may create entirely new climates, while destroying others.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/03/26/climate.change.ap/index.html

POLITICS
4% Inflation? Try 100% Government stats say inflation is running at 4%, but that excludes food and energy. Factor those in and its more like 100%. When was the last time you met someone who didn’t buy food or gas? And of course, the poor are being impacted the most.
http://www.counterpunch.org/stillwater03282007.html

The Lights Are Out: Nigeria is rich in oil, so why can’t it keep the lights on?
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/070325/1/47hnf.html

Vermont Considering Secession: Will it work? Who knows. But its an interesting idea. Unfortunately, several Southern states have the same idea –and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what their constitutions would be like.
http://www.alternet.org/story/50056/

POLLUTION
Plastics Running Away From Frisco: The City by the Bay has just banned plastic shopping bags. Score!
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2401714.ece

ENVIRONMENT
What if Coal is about to Peak, too? We’ll face an energy starved future, for sure. But I’ll also throw a party!
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/4/2/22553/79871

OTHER
10 Things Wrong With Sprawl: A very intelligent critique of our suburban development pattern.
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3641&src=QHA289

Happy as a pig in mud: It turns out that exposure to dirt makes us happy –which shouldn’t be a surprise, given our horticultural and forager roots.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6509781.stm

Website of the Week: The No Impact Man experiment blog. Check it out!
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

UU Joke of the Week: How many UU's does it take to change a lightbulb?
Why would anyone want to change a lightbulb?

Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

Social Justice News, 3-25-07

2007-03-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,
It’s been quite a week. Things have been hopping everywhere. Maybe it’s just because its spring, and everything is going through a period of rebirth and renewal. My turnips are up, and my potatoes, onions, carrots, etc are in the ground. I’ve resigned myself to not getting any peas thanks to this weather, and that way if I do somehow get some I’ll be extra happy. My bird feeder has lately been besieged by all kinds of different birds. I’ve counted six different types in the past week. I can only identify two of them by name –the cardinals and the finches –but I can tell the difference between the varieties. Why oh why doesn’t Audobon still give out birding guides? (Okay, I could buy one, but I’m too cheap –and too broke –to do so!)

FEATURED ARTICLES
I knew it was dry…but not this dry. We’re in the middle of the driest period in all the time -117 years –that the TVA has been keeping records. Chalk another problem up to global warming.
http://www.enewscourier.com/local/local_story_080221455.html

Department of Peace Controversy: America would be a bunch of wusses, say the detractors. Hmm, maybe if we were a bunch of “wusses”, almost a million people wouldn’t be dead in Iraq? Maybe we need more “wusses” in this country!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9083208

No More Bees = No More People (or much of anything else). Bees are dying at an incredibly alarming rate –up to 70% of the East coast bee population has died over the winter! Bees are important why? They pollinate crops, which produce food for, well, everything. Some thing GMO plants are to blame.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,473166,00.html

Why Environmentalists Sometimes Conspire Against Their Own Interests: Or, the Idols of Environmentalism. A must read folks!
http://www.orionmagazine.org/pages/om/07-2om/White.html

GOOD NEWS
Gore In Congress: The NY Times on Gore’s trip to Congress this week. For a blow-by-blow account, check out the website of Grist Magazine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/washington/21cnd-gore.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin2

CLIMATE CHANGE
Has the arctic tipped? Scientists are beginning to think so, as melting accelerates at a frightening rate. The latest projections show that the Circle could be ice-less in summers as soon as 2040! Maybe Bush will admit global warming is real when the White House (and his family’s ranch in Maine) get submerged by rising seas. Ya think?
http://www.countercurrents.org/cc-connor170207.htm

Plastic Daffodils and Climate Change: I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. How deep down the rabbit hole does the denial go? Hey people! Take the blue pill! The blue one!
http://transitionculhttp://www.commondreams.org/views07/0321-22.htmture.org/2007/03/20/a-host-of-plastic-daffodils/

Biofuels Causing Massive Deforestation: Chalk another problem up to the rush for biofuels. And these things are supposed to be green? Only in the sense of ‘greenbacks’, if you get my meaning.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0322-01.htm

Worse than the disease? Okay, the techno-fix crowd has come out with some really wacky ideas to fix global warming –mirrors in space, putting sulphur in the air, etc. read about some of them here.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070318.wclimatee0318/BNStory/Science/home

Are you scared yet? James Lovelock says you ought to be. If he’s right, that cabin on Hudson Bay that I keep talking about in jest will soon be awfully crowded!
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/story/0,,2034370,00.html

POLITICS

POLLUTION
China’s Rivers in Collapse: Oh hear ye, hear ye! Witness the result of worshipping the God of Economic Growth above all else.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IC24Ad01.html

ENVIRONMENT

OTHER
Marketing to the World’s Poorest: All right, its official: no one in the business world has any ethics (or shame) anymore. This is revolting1
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/03/19/PM200703194.html

Why more no longer equals better: An excerpt from Bill Mckibben’s latest book, Deep Economy. This looks like a really good book, and I’d be delighted if the library would get it. If anyone else agrees, you can call to request that they get it. The more requests they get, the more likely they’ll buy it! This is a rather long excerpt, but the second link has a shorter article along the same lines if you don’t have time to read the full excerpt.
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/49593/
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0321-22.htm

Website of the Week: Hillbilly Housewife. Fair Warning: This place is ran by a fundamentalist Christian and it shows (to put it mildly). But it is THE best place I’ve found for good, cheap recipes.
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

UU Joke of the Week: Arguing with a Unitarian Universalist is like mud wrestling a pig. Pretty soon you realize the pig likes it.

Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

Social Justice News, 3-16-07

2007-03-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,
Things have been crazy lately, though luckily they’re starting to settle down. The Chorus spring concerts were this past weekend and last night –and they both rocked. We got a standing ovation at Roberts. That was really cool. Even more cool is that my peach tree has its first ever blossom. I watched it open with my own eyes yesterday. I looked out the window of my office and saw something on the tree that looked like a bud. I kept watching –and slowly it started to unfold. The next thing I know it’s a flower! Woot! One of my profs the other day told me that Fox News is one of the “most credible, reliable, sources of news” –and she was serious. HA! That wasn’t so cool. Yesterday the pentagon finally admitted that the situation in Iraq looks like a civil war. They just now got that memo? How slow is communication in the government these days? I mean, come on –it took the Attorney General five months to discover eight of his deputies had been fired, and it took eighteen months or better for the military to discover that they’re in the middle of a shooting match? Gee, I wonder why these two sides keep shooting at each other? They must not like each other very much, huh?

FEATURED ARTICLES
Six Degrees or Less? The end of the world is nigh. And it’s all ready been written about in Nature. Just don’t expect most people to notice until Miami is under water. And then they’ll be complaining that no one warned them!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1480669.ece

Check out these projections! Temp increase, precipitation, frost days, and heat waves for the U.S. through 2100. Anyone else want to move North? I hear land is cheap around Hudson Bay.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-02-27-global-warming_x.htm

Rio Poor Take Over Bank: Some of Brazil’s poor got tired of being ignored by the rich bankers who are funding the illegal takeover of their land. So what did they do? They took over the bank!
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B82FEAF41-1208-42B9-A2AA-38A964A06CFB%7D&language=EN

GOOD NEWS
Australia Outlaws Incandescent Bulbs: Australia is giving the boot to the old-fashioned incandescent bulbs in favor of CFLs. Score one for the planet. Now if they’ll just sign on to Kyoto!
http://science.slashdot.org/science/07/02/20/1632204.shtml

CLIMATE CHANGE
Bush vs. the Polar Bears: Bush has picked another war he can’t win –this one against public support for the polar bears. I can’t wait for the polar bear to be listed on the ESA list. This is going to be a developer’s worst nightmare! (laughing evilly, ha ha ha!)
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/49162/

Sneak Preview of the next IPCC report: Buckle up folks, its going to be a bumpy ride. And while you’re at it, don’t buy any oceanfront property for oh, say a few hundred years. We may have a beach in Huntsville before it all done!
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0315/p04s01-sten.html

Stop BP: The green resistance movement is picking up steam!
http://www.counterpunch.org/schaefer03152007.html
What’s global warming? No, its not kids that don’t know. Apparently, many of our fellow adult Americans have never heard of it. I think these are the folks who watch Fox News and American Idol, think Bill O’Reilly is Jesus reborn, and that NASCAR is the greatest thing, ever. But hey, I could be wrong!
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/23/DDGDNO8ONL1.DTL

POLITICS
Say Vagina, get suspended: Several high school girls were suspended for using the word vagina in a recitation. The (male) principle didn’t like the word. Hmm, I wonder if he would have been so upset if the word used was the anatomically correct word for a certain part of the male body? Somehow I doubt it. Here’s the good news: Eve Ensler is going to appear at the school now. That principle ought to LOVE that.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/12/vagina.monologues.suspension.ap/index.html

Nuclear War: Why won’t the press really say what Bush is talking about with Iran? I’m not the only one that’s asking this question.
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0228-28.htm

Go ahead, send us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses: We’ll be happy to lock them up for you. And if we can make a buck doing it, all the better. So what if a nine year old is locked in prison for months or years? It won’t hurt ‘em!
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0228-25.htm

POLLUTION

ENVIRONMENT
Save the Bald Eagle! The bald eagle has rebounded in astounding numbers, and now it may be delisted as an endangered species –which will give developers the go-ahead to move into the prime eagle nesting grounds they’ve been eying for years.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7805391

Environmentalists and the Religious Right finding more common ground: This time on the issue of pollution, and what it’s doing to children and mothers.
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/48631/

OTHER
Welcome to Serfdom: Guess what? Free trade isn’t what its cracked up to be. A rising tide does lift all boats –as long as their yachts. The Land of Opportunity is leaving more and more people in permanent poverty. Welcome back to the Middle Ages. Go say hello to the Lord of the Manor, serf.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0223-09.htm

“Homosexuality is Immoral” says one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Well gee, thanks for insulting me and 10% or better of all humanity with your bigoted remarks, General. I suppose Abu Gharib was moral since those involved were all straight?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070313/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_gays;_ylt=AmuDqdebdpIVJlX3EdZ6hKGs0NUE

Mr. Eviction: This guy is despicable.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-evictlawyer14mar14,0,7826559.story?coll=la-home-local

Website of the Week: A brand new magazine, dedicated to conserving resources. Conserve Magazine: http://www.conservemag.com/

UU Joke of the Week: The Universalist thinks God is too good to damn him, while the Unitarian thinks he is too good for God to damn."
Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

Social Justice News, 2/23/07

2007-02-26T05:28:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
It’s been a crazy week. Both personally and for the world in general. Chlorine bombs going off in Iraq, immigrant children locked up in prison here, the weather haywire everywhere –all of its enough to make me want to bury my head in the sand! Work has been a nightmare; someone joked yesterday that they must have hung a sign out front that read “Psychotics this way please”. It was that bad. The day before one of my relatives, who I haven’t seen or spoken to in years and who doesn’t even live in town, came into the restaurant. To see me, and of course I refused. I don’t know how this person found out where I work, but I’m not happy about it.

FEATURED ARTICLES
Locking Up Family Values: Please, please, PLEASE listen/watch Friday’s Democracy Now. Or at least the first half hour. We are one step away from fascism. When will we learn? We did this crap to the Native Americans, to Chinese Americans, to Japanese Americans, and now to everyone else who immigrates here (or even pass through). This is how things started with Hitler –and when things in the country got really bad (mostly because of his policies, but that’s another discussion), he had a ready scapegoat and “final solution” at hand. You don’t think that could happen here? Remember what happened to the first people who inhabited these shores.
http://www.democracynow.org/

China to need dykes within a decade: Sea level is now rising so fast that China will need to build dykes within the next ten years to protect low-lying cities. Global whatsit?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070216/sc_afp/chinaclimatewarmingoceans_070216081935;_ylt=Aq4OgkeH99OGGB3FxvptdxNrAlMA

GOOD NEWS
The Mashpee Wampanoag Finally Win Federal Recognition: They are now considered a sovereign Native American Nation, after decades of trying to prove their status. I would have thought being there to greet the Pilgrims and hosting the first Thanksgiving would’ve been enough, but hey, what do I know?
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/02/mashpee_wampano_1.html

Investors Steamed About Global Warming: A group of investors is taking some companies to task for not responding to climate change. About time, too!
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0214/p02s02-usec.html

CLIMATE CHANGE
Winds Shifting, Dead Zones Expanding: Long stable wind and current patterns are changing thanks to climate change. This is causing even more dead zones and wiping out whole marine ecosystems, sometimes overnight. I’m not a pessimist by nature, but sometimes I agree with one of my friends, who looks at the issue of climate change and says “we’re ****ed”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2015826,00.html

Grim Future for West: Now isn’t the time to move to California, or any of the Sunbelt.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/03/MNGR9NUBLN1.DTL

POLITICS
Patents on Life: Yes, a corporation should be able to patent a gene that has existed pretty much since the beginning of time. Not. Well, not unless said corporation is really an entity named God.
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0213-25.htm

POLLUTION
Low-Level Toxicants Can Harm Brain: It turns out that even lower levels of mercury and other toxins can harms fetuses. Maybe there’s a reason the coal industry has blocked so many studies on mercury. The emissions from our power plant didn’t do you or your baby any harm. Of course not. Don’t you know that mercury is good for you?
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hslead0206,0,3014503.story?coll=ny-leadhealthnews-headlines

More Plastic Problems: More discussion on the fertility risks associated with plastics. Gee, maybe polyester and cheap cooking utensils weren’t such good ideas after all!
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/47849/

ENVIRONMENT
Bye Bye Honeybees? Colony Collapse is devastating the bee population all across the country. And since bees are vital to the pollination of most plants (including all the major food crops) this is Bad News. GMOs strike again?
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2867049&page=1

OTHER
Learning to Live as Voluntary Peasants (discusses The Farm): This is an interesting piece, and discusses several ecovillages with a focus on our neighbors just to the north, The Farm.
http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=100&Itemid=1

“Perfect Storm” of re-enactors: This is a hoot! But it’s a good thing neither the Civil Rights folks or the Confederate ones were in the mood for a uh, confrontation.
http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Columns/The_Fabricator/2007/02/08/Re_enactor_Perfect_Storm_Strik/index.shtml

Arrows for the War: These people are flippin’ mad. I can’t help but wonder what will happen to them as the economy tanks and depression sets in, Peak Oil starts affecting this country, and climate change becomes obvious. Will they still think having 6 or more children is a good thing when they can’t even feed three?
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061127/joyce

Website of the Week: A practical approach to organic gardening.
http://www.momsorganichouse.com/a-practical-approach-to-organic-gardening/

UU Joke of the Week: Jesus said to them, "Who do you say that I am?" The Unitarian Universalist Christian replied "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygma of which we find the ultimate meaning in our interpersonal relationships." And Jesus said "What?"

Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

Social Justice News 2-2-07

2007-02-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
My new job is going all right. I like it much better than the last one! Classes are about to kick my butt though. Two chapters and a paper per week per class –that’s a lot of work! One of my profs assigned two 60 page chapters. Talk about overload! No worries though, I’m handling it all right. Wait until the ground thaws so I can get out into the garden and plant, and I might have some problems then!
I’ve been baking my own bread for a couple of months now, but it’s all been plain old sandwich bread –whole wheat mostly. Tonight I got a little adventurous and decided to try my hand at cinnamon raisin bread. I’m not sure how it turned out (its still cooling) but I’m anxious to try it.
Molly Ivins died this week. Godspeed Molly –we’ll miss you. Meanwhile, Shrub is getting ready to attack Iran. But if you think Shrub is bad, meet Sam Brownback. He’s a Senator for Kansas who’s running for the Republican nomination. Here’s a man who (literally) makes his staff wash his feet once a year. Seriously. Folks, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. Which begs the question –is he running for President, or for Pharaoh?

FEATURED ARTICLES
“Iranian” Agents Abduct, Kill 4 American Soldiers: What’s this doing on a Social Justice Newsletter? You’re probably thinking to yourself. Well, we all know that Shrub is planning to attack Iran, and more and more incidents are being blamed on that country all of a sudden, coincidence like. Right? Well, check this out: these Iranians had AMERICAN weapons, wore AMERICAN uniforms, drove AMERICAN SUVs, spoke ENGLISH, and the leader of the assault team was BLOND. When was the last time you met a blond Iranian? Hmmm, Gulf of Tonkin ring a bell, anyone?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_sneak_attack

Terrorists Next Door, Typing at their computers: Yep, you heard that right. Bush and co. have expanded the use of the term terrorist again –this time to include anyone who SAYS anything that causes an ‘animal enterprise’ to lose money. The first victims? A group of activists who videotaped dogs being tortured at a lab and exposed the crimes.
http://www.counterpunch.org/laws01262007.html

GOOD NEWS
Nobel for Gore? Al Gore was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this week. Woot!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070201/ap_on_re_eu/norway_nobel_gore_1;_ylt=Ag4NnFuh8RKsAdzjLFX0xE9rAlMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

REAL Carbon Sequestration: Forget pumping CO2 into underground caverns. These folks are doing it another way –they’re planting trees.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070126/ap_on_sc/carbon_forestry_1;_ylt=ApSjgk4A7TPKmLtPp1.7T6VrAlMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

CLIMATE CHANGE
Environment more Important than Economy: Or so Canadians said in a recent poll. They, at least, have finally woken up. The question is, will they act on it or not?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070129.wclimatepoll29/BNStory/ClimateChange

Where have all the birds gone? Birds are disappearing at alarming rates in Britain. Of course, this is due to climate change, but since birds don’t vote, and can’t make campaign contributions, who cares?
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2193673.ece

Empty Gestures Won’t Save the Planet: Recycle but fly to Europe on vacation? Change out the lightbulbs but leave the heat turned up? Then this article (and me) are talking to you.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2184477.ece

Climate Refugees: All ready, tens of thousands have been displaced by climate change. Now experts are saying that will climb to 200 million this century. I would say that they’re too optimistic –with sea levels rising as they are, I expect that number to be ten times that, at least.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070201/sc_afp/unclimaterefugees_070201065856;_ylt=AgSd9qiip3qHhg3b5OGYcshrAlMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

POLITICS

POLLUTION
Orange Snow: Siberia has finally gotten some snow. There’s only one problem: it’s ORANGE. Anyone want to try telling me this is natural, much less harmless?
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/orange-snow-falls-in-siberia/2007/02/02/1169919501503.html

Ship it to China: So this is why are landfills aren’t overflowing with garbage –we just ship it to China! Gee, what a neat idea.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2186532.ece

ENVIRONMENT
Liquid Gold: Water is now more precious than gold in Australia, where people are (literally) facing a life or death struggle to obtain supplies, thanks to the increasing drought.
http://www.energyandcapital.com/editorials.php?id=352

OTHER
Website of the Week: Junk Science. Just for fun. This site is funded by the American Foxnews, Exxon Mobil, and Philip Morris.
http://www.junkscience.com/

UU Joke of the Week:
As we welcome our newest members and visitors, it is only fair to let them know what we Unitarian Universalists are like and what we expect.
We are friendly. If you are not friendly, out you go!
We are genuine people. Even our phonies are real phonies.
We are always sincere even if we have to fake it.
We aren't sure how ambivalant we should be.
We believe in tolerance and cannot stand intolerant people.
We are optimists. Anyone who doesn't look on the bright side depresses us.
We are more non-competitive than other groups.
We believe in equality; everyone is as good as the next person and a whole lot better.
Every Unitarian is a feminist, so he has to watch his language.
The organization is run democratically because the president insists on it.
We have our critics, but they are paranoid
We are prompt about being late to meetings.
Dogmatism is absolutely forbidden.
Freedom of belief is rigidly enforced.
And to this wonderful place we joyfully welcome you.

Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

Social Justice News, 1-26-07

2007-01-26T19:03:00.000-08:00

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

Gandhi's Legacy

2007-01-18T05:35:00.000-08:00

This is the second installment of my three part series on how empires are brought down. If this is your first time visiting, or the first you’ve read of this series, my purpose here is to discuss how empires fall, particularly how they are brought down from within. In the first essay I discussed violent revolts, and in this essay I shall tackle nonviolent rebellion. The third essay, entitled The Third Course, will sum up and discuss what I feel are the key factors in whether or not an empire is brought down successfully.

First, I am going to discuss my own feelings about nonviolence. That will be the first question that comes to mind for anyone who reads this. I consider myself to be a conditional pacifist. That isn’t a conventional term, so give me a minute to explain that. The tradition definition of pacifism can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifism For the most part, this fits me, as I do not believe violence is a legitimate way of solving problems. I am not a violent or aggressive person, and given my druthers I would and will live my life in as peaceful away as possible. That said, I am a child of the streets and as such am wise enough in the ways of the world to recognize that pacifism is a luxury. I have the highest respect for the Amish and the Mennonites; they are an amazing group of people. But they are able to live as they do because their neighbors are generally peaceful and orderly people who do not want to hurt them or take what they have. If that were to ever change, they would either have to let the intruders have their way or fight to stop them. In the world of Genghis Khan and his ilk, the Amish would simply have been wiped out.

Likewise, I am able to live my life peacefully at the moment because I live in a fairly ordered society. If I were suddenly plunked down in the middle of Darfur, I would immediately lose the luxury of being pacifistic if I wanted to keep life and body together. Therefore, I consider myself a conditional pacifist: I will not harm you, I will not be aggressive towards you, and I will never initiate aggression against another human being. But, I also believe in self-defense. If someone broke into my house tonight, I would have no compunctions against shooting them dead. Likewise, if someone invaded us with the intent of taking over our land and us, I would support fighting them and be ready and willing to fight myself.

That is what I mean by conditional pacifist.

But that is not the purpose of this essay. Its purpose is to explore the non violent route of bringing down empires, how and if it works, and what the advantages and drawbacks are. So, here is the essay.

*****

It happened one morning in early September, the 11th to be exact. No, not that September 11th –this one was in 1906. I have no idea what the weather was like, but perhaps it was a cool, crisp fall day just as our 9/11 was. On this day, a man did what had long been considered impossible: he brought down an empire. And he did it using unconventional means. There was no war, no attack, no violence of any sort. He simply walked away. And a few million others followed him. The beleaguered, battered, tottering British Empire couldn’t withstand a loss of support of this magnitude, and it simply crumbled.

The relevant question for this paper is, was what Gandhi did an anomaly or it a useful tool for bringing down an empire? I would argue that the answer lies somewhere in between.

There can be little doubt that Gandhi left behind an impressive legacy. Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks. The Children’s March. The Freedom Riders. Powerful images that evoke powerful feelings. The entire Civil Rights struggle in the U.S. and countless other social and liberation movements in other countries drew from the teachings of Gandhi. Without Gandhi, there might never have been the great social upheavals of the mid-20th century.

By now, astute readers will have noticed an important difference between these movements and the subject of this essay: these were movements for social change and the subject here is social revolution. The distinction is a very important one. Social change is relatively easy compared to revolution. The goal of such a movement is to change the society within its currently existing paradigms. The goal of a revolutionary movement is to change the paradigms themselves, thereby creating a new society. In the former example, the existing Empire merely changes a few of its rules to quiet the rabble rousers. After it’s over, the same Empire exists underneath. Basically the end result is a face lift of the prevailing Imperial structure. The goal of a revolutionary movement is not to change the Empire, but to bring it down.

Social Movements need surprisingly little support to succeed. The rule of thumb I was taught in my upper-level sociology courses was 3%. That’s all it takes to change the face of a society. That’s the reason some Equal Rights movements have advanced so rapidly. Take the LGBT rights movement, which has made incredible gains in only two decades. LGBT individuals make up at least 10% of the population of the U.S., and well over half are politically active. Add in their supportive friends, families, and other straight allies and you have a powerful force for change.

But again, social change is not social revolution. As an example, could 3% of an Empire’s population walking away bring it down? Probably, but it wouldn’t happen –except in the extraordinary cases were, like the British Empire in 1906, said Empire is all ready in rags and there is nothing to stop them. For one thing, were would they go? It’s easy for one person or a family, or even 100 of them, to walk away. It’s not so easy for 10,000 or 100,000 to do so –much less a few million. Those people still have to have food, income, clothing, and so on and so forth. Unless there are alternatives to those provided by the Empire, they will still be dependent upon it to some extent. It’s impossible for that many people to simply walk off into the woods.

There is one other example of people bringing down an Empire by primarily non-violent means. But this is an example of how NOT to do it, because said Empire was replaced by another that was far worse than the first. Two millennia ago, give or take a century, a young Jewish carpenter was executed in a rather hideous manner. His followers didn’t just disband, as was hoped for by the ruling elites of the time. Rather, they grew and became such a popular movement that the Empire was toppled. And thus, was the Roman Catholic Empire born with the passing of Rome. There is no doubt that this one was worse than its predecessor –after all, the Church not only plunged the world into the Dark Ages for over 1500 years, but they also burned some of the most priceless works in human history, destroyed the cultural heritage of millions, started countless bloody wars, repressed well over half the human race, and burned over 5 million women at the stake (just in the first 3 centuries), many for “crimes” that included midwifery. Ok, so that was my Catholic Church rant. I’m entitled to it –I am pagan after all!

In conclusion, if walking away from an empire won’t bring it down, and picking up arms won’t necessarily bring it down, then what are the necessary ingredients in a successful revolution? That will be the subject of my next essay, The Third Course.

As an aside, I would like to suggest that walking away is probably the best course to take if one is going to survive the collapse of an empire. To have the best chance of survival, one needs to be as far as possible from the seat of Imperial Power, and also be as independent from the services of the Empire as one can be.

First Day of Classes

2007-01-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my first day of classes. I’ve all ready figured out to watch the beauracracy of this school; last week I had to go up there on Friday to re-register and take care of my financial aid. That took most of the day, lol. Yesterday I got a call telling me that one of my classes had been changed from Monday nights to Thursday nights, and today they called telling me that they’d changed it back. So I was sure to leave early last night to get my parking permit before class. It took forever to find the police station, and when I did they needed all kinds of different documentation: class schedule, driver’s license, registration, insurance –it was worse than getting on a plane! That took nearly an hour. After that, I still had to find the building and a parking spot where I wouldn’t get towed. I ended up going into the wrong wing of the building (north versus south) and then it turned out they’d changed the classroom and the building! But I ran into two other girls in the class and we found the new location together, so that turned out well. And then when class let out a lot of us (me included) got an unpleasant surprise: there are three ways in and out of the university, and after seven they lock two of them (as in, they close and padlock big iron gates and the guards leave). So I went to the main entrance and found it locked, turned around and had to find another way out. There was a whole line of cars circling the school on those one-way roads looking for an open exit! It was actually pretty funny. Then when I did find the way out it let out into a strange neighborhood, and I spent 30 minutes finding the right way to get home!

The class itself was Personality. The prof is nice, and so eccentric one kid muttered that she must have become a shrink so she wouldn’t have to pay for one. I liked her though –and she worked 4 days of “distance learning” into the schedule to, as she was sure to let us know, help combat global warming. So yeah –I definitely like her.

Social Justice News, 1-12-07

2007-01-12T18:32:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
I’m feeling better this week but am still recovering. I have a bit of a cough left and still tire easily. Plus my sinuses are plugged up still. Bronchitis always hits me hard when I get it. I spent most of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in bed. Now that I’m recovering, I’m dealing with a seriously ill cat. We spent all day in the vets office, and I have to take her back in the morning for them to finish the tests. She’s curled up on my bed right now sleeping. I’m worried about her but she’ll be all right. If it’s not one thing it’s another, isn’t that how the old saying goes?

I don’t have many leads on the job front. If anyone hears of anything, I’d appreciate it if you’d pass the info along. I need something part time if possible. I’m in school full-time now, and I really can’t do that and work full time!

Featured Articles
Step it Up 2007: A campaign to fight climate change this year.
http://grist.org/comments/dispatches/2007/01/08/mckibben/index.html

Global Warming, Warring, and Warning: Amy Goodman’s take on last year.
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0111-28.htm

Justice, Farms, and Victory Gardens: A very good essay on sustainable food production. A highly recommended read!
http://www.energybulletin.net/24634.html

The 100 mile Diet, even in winter: This is an idea rapidly gaining traction, among both environmentalists and nutritionists. I urge everyone to read this article, and seriously consider attempting it –at least for a week or a month!
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/46472/

GOOD NEWS
Humans Are Causing Climate Change: Really? You don’t say? But now it’s (finally!) the official word from a U.S. agency. I thought they’d wait until the Washington Monument was flooded by the rising seawater, but hey, wonders never ease! (They’ll just wait to act on it until then, I’ll wager.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/science/10climate.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

CLIMATE CHANGE
Where ‘Truth’ Left Off: A review of the new climate change book, Heat, by George Monbiot.
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/46318/

Thinning Ice: How precarious is the polar bears position?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16409848/site/newsweek/?GT1=8921

Connect the Dots and Be Scared: Global warming is here. Not in 100 years, or 50, or even 20 or 10. but now. Follow the yellow brick road and see where it leads. Next stop on the Climate Express: Waterworld. I’m going to go out back now and start building a big boat…
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0109-33.htm

Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest: Why are weathermen across the country playing dumb? They should be bright enough to know what’s behind the wacky weather. So why don’t they just come out and say it? Maybe they’re afraid of scaring people. Me, I’m going back to work on that boat…
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0109-26.htm

Global Warming Pledge: A pledge people can take to help fight climate change.
http://www.culturechange.org/global_warming_pledge.html

Wake-up Call: Canada’s new environmental minister has called the wacky weather a “wake-up call” on climate change.
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/politics/news/shownews.jsp?content=n010847A

Rich versus poor: It’s the rich nations that produce most of the world’s carbon dioxide –producing more in a day than many countries produce in a year –but it’s the poor countries that have to suffer the worst consequences (so far). The rich party, the poor pay. Surprise surprise.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2137667.ece

I Love Global Warming: This made me hit the roof when I read it. It is almost too ridiculous to be true, but here it is: this guy is claiming the net benefits of global warming will outweigh any negatives –including drowning polar bears, etc. And he says that people who die in heat waves are “who are likely to die soon anyway”.
http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/free_forbes/2006/1225/038.html

Gore Part of the Problem: An interesting take on An Inconvenient Truth a friend forwarded to me. I am neither agreeing with nor endorsing this viewpoint, merely sharing it as a different (and interesting) perspective.
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Archives2007/FittsGore.html

Return of the Reaper: Tropical diseases have returned to Europe along with the heat. How long will it be before they spread further north? And before things like malaria and dengue fever come to the Southeast?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2534982,00.html

POLITICS

POLLUTION
Drowning in Rubbish: China is literally in danger of being buried in its own garbage.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK208804.htm

ENVIRONMENT
The Seas in Jeopardy: Unless something is done –and fast –the oceans as we know them will disappear forever.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Enviro/envHEAD01010707.htm

OTHER
Local Economies: Yes! Magazine is running a special on building local economies. Check out these links to some of the articles. They’re really good!
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1548
http://yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1545
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1579

Website of the Week: A really cool “green” website! http://www.groovygreen.com/

UU Joke of the Week: General Assembly: Where committees of UUs meet to form next year's committees.

Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

A New Phase of Life Begins...

2007-01-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

A new phase of life began for me yesterday. I officially became a Master of Science candidate. Until yesterday I was taking prerequisites and the like, and had just been admitted. But yesterday I registered for graduate classes. I was terrified –my hands were shaking as I signed the paperwork –but I am also excited. A sure sign that you’re on the right path is when you’re completely terrified. I am worried about how to pay for it, but I will figure it out.

My seed order from Bountiful Gardens came in yesterday as well, along with a copy of How to Grow More Vegetables. I had to break my Compact vow to buy the book, but I haven’t been able to find a used copy, and I judged it important enough to bend the rules for that. I finished off the day by making homemade vegetarian chili and cornbread, with as much of the ingredients as possible coming from the local farmer’s market. That’s a far cry from the way I used to be.
I also have broccoli and some cold weather flowers planted in a greenhouse on my windowsill. They haven’t sprouted yet, but I am checking them every morning for signs. I am like a child on Christmas morning, running in here to check everyday!

I am slowly changing my lifestyle, one step at a time. Thanks to all of you who are sharing this journey with me!

Social Justice News, 1-5-07

2007-01-05T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
This may be a short newsletter as I’ve come down with whatever the latest bug is that’s going round and I only want to head back to bed. I think I got it, along with two of my co-workers, from my manager, who insisted on coming to work last week while sick and contagious. I complained about this, because it ain’t right anywhere and most especially in food service, and was told to mind my own business, use hand sanitizer. Speaking of work and being sick, they have a new policy that goes into effect today; it’s called Don’t Get Sick. Or if you don’t get sick, don’t miss work or we’ll require a doctor’s note if you want to keep your job, even if it’s just a common cold. Since we peons don’t get Health Insurance, it would cost us $150 just to walk into a clinic, plus procedures. Even with insurance it would be twenty bucks or better –and that’s a lot to pay for a cold. So, they want you to work, sick or not, or lose your job. Which might not sound that outrageous, until you realize that the folks in the deli and the bakery are also not allowed to take any time off to recover –and one of them has been working all week with strep throat. Gee, I wonder how many folks are going to come down sick? I might get fired when I show up tomorrow without a doctor’s slip. It’s actually cheaper for me to lose this job and find another one than go to the doctor! Oh yeah, and they’ve got me scheduled to work the next ten days in a row, without a day off. Mostly nine hour shifts to boot –and school starts next week. Needless to say, I’m looking for another job.

GOOD NEWS
Polar Bears May Go on Endangered List: This is good news anyway you read it. But here’s something you might not know –whenever something is done in this country that affects or may affect an endangered species, it becomes subject to the ESA and must comply with it to avoid harm to the threatened species. Well, what threatens polar bears? Global warming. And what causes that? Pretty much everything. So, every new power plant, every new car sold, every new strip mall and subdivision, will suddenly become subject to the ESA. Corporate lawyers are (understandably) sweating bullets. Me, I’m sitting back and waiting for the lawsuits to start rolling in. And chuckling. The head of one environmental group alone (can’t remember which one right now, sorry) says they are going to file actions to challenge 19 new coal-fired power plants in the Midwest where they’re based –for a start. Nixon may have been a crook, but signing the ESA into law was one of the greatest things any President ever did for our country.
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3549

2006 Activist Successes: The past year wasn’t all bad news, as this article from Alternet shows.
http://www.alternet.org/story/46015/

Garden Girl Promo: An promotional video for an independent DIY show on permaculture, sustainable living, etc.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-882082844236943883&pr=goog-sl

10 Top Bizarro Environmental Moments of 2006: This is under good news because some of it is, and because all of it is funny, and we could all use a laugh right now!
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/12/29/183222/30

CLIMATE CHANGE
Hottest Year Ever: Predictions say that this year will be the hottest year ever recorded. But global warming isn’t real. Of course not. That would, like, require people to do, like, something.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2116873.ece

China’s Warning Paper: Excerpts from China’s first climate assessment report that are, in a word, scary. Who thought a communist country would admit the truth before our putative democracy?
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1227-02.htm

POLITICS
Want Bush to read your mail? Well, he can now according to the bill he just signed. Gee, whatever happened to the Constitution? I think you’ll find it in the storage cabinet of the White House, in the spot labeled ‘toilet paper. Assuming it hasn’t all ready been used, that is.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003508676_mail04.html

Europe’s Plan for Energy Dilemma: Europe has come up with a plan for tackling the energy dilemma. But will it work –and will people go for it? The politicos fear a revolt at the ballot box from the very idea of giving up life-long ‘entitlements’. (I say, let ‘em revolt, and then when Russia cuts off their oil and gas supply –either because of politics or dwindling supplies –and they’re sitting in the dark, say ‘I told you so’. Allright, I’m not that vindictive, but the idea does have a sort of appeal, at least to my cold addled brain.)
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/05/business/EU-FEA-FIN-Europe-Fuel-for-the-Future.php

Higher Taxes Aren’t Worst Disservice to the Poor: This article speaks for itself, and I really like this comment, about hurricanes in New Orleans: "Use your brains. If you are ignored when the sun is shining and the weather is fair, if no one cares about you when you get flooded after a little bit of rain, what do you think is going to happen to you in a big storm? You'll be left to drown."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/05/MTGUENCE8P1.DTL

POLLUTION

ENVIRONMENT
Southeast faces disaster: One final warning from the outgoing head of the National Hurricane Center. Think anyone will listen to him? Not a chance.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-hurricane3jan03,0,3484162.story?track=mostviewed-homepage

Highest Grain Prices Ever: Lester Brown has released a new article detailing how ethanol will (and is) affecting food prices worldwide.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2007/Update63.htm
and speaking of ethanol:

The Ethics of Biofuels: An excellent new paper from Sharon Astyk lays out 12 principles for the ethical use of biofuels, including some controversial ones, such as: don’t let people starve so your fat a** can drive a gas guzzling SUV.
http://www.energybulletin.net/24169.html

OTHER
A Year of Buying Nothing New: 3,000 people signed on for the Compact, which celebrated its 1 year anniversary January 1st. BTW, I am one of those 3,000 people, and I’m happy to take about it with anyone who wishes!
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/27/COMPACT.TMP

WWJD? asks a Jew: A surprising essay from someone of the humble carpenters own religious faith.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1226-21.htm

Holy Warriors of America: Turns out I wasn’t far off when I once thought to myself how most of our cops, at least here in ‘Bama, looked like textbook members of the Aryan Nation and the KKK.
http://www.alternet.org/story/46211/

Website of the Week: A blog from a Minnesota woman engaged in a journey towards sustainability. http://simplereduce.blogspot.com/

UU Joke of the Week: (this one made me laugh out loud)
How many members of a UUA committee does it take to change a light bulb?
Ten, of whom at least
five must be women
two black
three ministers
one Canadian
one youth
two elderly
two gay or lesbian
one Christian
one disabled
one a UUA Board member
and no more than three from any one UUA District!

I'm off to go back to sleep for a while, and then to make some rice-lentil stew to eat for dinner with some homemade bread I baked on Wednesday. Yes, I have been called a hippie. Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

The View from the Peak

2006-12-31T20:06:00.000-08:00

(Note: Tomorrow I should finally get around to finishing and posting the next installment of my series. Tonight this is a rumination upon the current situation of the world.)

History may well look back upon 2006 and 2007 as the final days of civilization as we know it. Things are changing, and that change may soon accelerate. The signs are everywhere: in decaying infrastructure, wars over oil, falling currencies and teetering economies, and in changing climates. You can see them if you look, and feel them in your bones.

I have always wondered what the folks living in the last days of Ancient Rome felt like. Now I think I know. We stand at the edge of a precipice and will soon go over, like it or not. Rome did not fall in a day, and neither will global predatory capitalism –but it will feel like it, and somewhere in an as yet unimagined future history teachers may cover our time in less than a day.

Or perhaps not, depending on how we choose. We stand at the most momentous crossroads of human history. There are so many converging catastrophes right now, the wonder will be if we don’t plunge into yet another Dark Ages. Peak Oil is here. Like it or not, we face the downslope of Hubbert’s Curve. The question before us now is how steep the slope will be. Climate change is also here. One-third of the world will become desert in my lifetime. Half the population of the entire planet will die of thirst or drown as sea levels rise. Many will starve to death as crop yields collapse. The world’s economies are on the verge of a major depression.

My only hope as we head into the future is that we will come through on the other side, and discover something far better than what we have now: a world and a society worth living in. This is my hope and my prayer as we enter into yet another new year.

Many folks are out celebrating tonight. I am home, quietly nursing a beer and trying to decide whether I should mourn the past or toast the future.

Bottoms up.

High Theater in Baghdad

2006-12-30T06:16:00.000-08:00

Saddam swung this morning. Not that this will surprise anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for a while, but I thought I would state the obvious.

I can't even pretend to have sympathy for the man. He was a total monster, after all. A power hungry sociopath at the least, a war criminal, and all the other atrocious things he's been accused of. But let's get real for a second; his fair trial wasn't, his judge was replaced in the middle of the trial, attorneys were assassinated left and right, they didn't even pretend to listen to his appeal, and basically said "go swing". And this is fair?

And then there's his hanging. They denied it was going to happen until it did, everything was done in secret, and the executioner's wore black masks. It happened at dawn no less. This reminds me of some melodramatic western. "As the sun slowly rose above the horizon on the last day of the year and cast the first of its hallowed rays on the High Plains, the condemned man climbed the scaffolding, a resolute look on his craggy, hardened face." Sounds like a Clint Eastwood script doesn't it?

Then there's the statement released from the White House, with a timeline of our Idiot in Chief's activities last night, which was careful to state he went to bed before the execution and was not awakened when it occured. Said statement caused me to snort hot coffee out of my nose. I'd be willing to bet he watched the whole thing on closed circuit TV. (Maybe with popcorn to boot!)

This whole thing has his fingerprints all over it. The "cowboy" who isn't, pretending to deliver justice to the wilds of Iraq. I can't help but wonder though, if he might have felt a chill as he watched this. Saddam was hanged for ordering the deaths of 169 innocent men. A war crime to be sure. But our President has caused the deaths of over 655,000 civilians since he started his little war. Not that I think he'll ever face a war crimes tribunal, mind you. But I wonder if he even noticed the similarities?

Breaking News -Massive Artic Ice Shelf Collapses Into Sea, Miles from North Pole

2006-12-29T07:30:00.000-08:00

I've copied the article in full below, and the link above it. The emphasis is added. Remember what I said in the last Social Justice letter? The tipping point has been reached. It's decision time. We have a choice to make, personally and collectively.

http://www.kare11.com/news/national/national_article.aspx?storyid=144846

Huge ice shelf discovered floating in Canadian Arctic
Courtesy: CBC News
A giant ice shelf has snapped free from an island south of the North Pole, scientists said Thursday, citing climate change as a "major" reason for the event.The Ayles Ice Shelf - all 41 square miles of it - broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 500 miles south of the North Pole in the Canadian Arctic.Scientists discovered the event by using satellite imagery.

Within one hour of breaking free, the shelf had formed as a new ice island, leaving a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake.Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, traveled to the newly formed ice island and couldn't believe what he saw."This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years," Vincent said. "We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead."

The ice shelf was one of six major shelves remaining in Canada's Arctic. They are packed with ancient ice that is more than 3,000 years old. They float on the sea but are connected to land.Some scientists say it is the largest event of its kind in Canada in 30 years and that climate change was a major element."It is consistent with climate change," Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 percent smaller than when they were first discovered in 1906. "We aren't able to connect all of the dots ... but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role."Laurie Weir, who monitors ice conditions for the Canadian Ice Service, was poring over satellite images in 2005 when she noticed that the shelf had split and separated.Weir notified Luke Copland, head of the new global ice lab at the University of Ottawa, who initiated an effort to find out what happened.Using U.S. and Canadian satellite images, as well as seismic data -- the event registered on earthquake monitors 155 miles away --

Copland discovered that the ice shelf collapsed in the early afternoon of Aug. 13, 2005.
Copland said the speed with which climate change has affected the ice shelves has surprised scientists."Even 10 years ago scientists assumed that when global warming changes occur that it would happen gradually so that perhaps we expected these ice shelves just to melt away quite slowly," he said.

Derek Mueller, a polar researcher with Vincent's team, said the ice shelves get weaker and weaker as temperatures rise. He visited Ellesmere Island in 2002 and noticed that another ice shelf had cracked in half."We're losing our ice shelves and this is a feature of the landscape that is in danger of disappearing altogether from Canada," Mueller said.
Within days of breaking free, the Ayles Ice Shelf drifted about 30 miles offshore before freezing into the sea ice. A spring thaw may bring another concern: that warm temperatures will release the new ice island from its Arctic grip, making it an enormous hazard for ships.

"Over the next few years this ice island could drift into populated shipping routes," Weir said.By

Rob Gillies, Associated Press Writer(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Social Justice News, 10-22-06

2006-12-27T09:05:00.000-08:00

(Note: This is being sent out late due to an internet connection outage. I hope everyone enjoys it none the less.)

Hey everybody,
The Grinch here. No, not really –I’m certainly not the Grinch, but you might think so after reading this newsletter! There’s not much good news this week, I’m afraid. Hey, I don’t make the news, I just pass it along. I’ve decided that there could just be one headline on every source of news –this, NPR, CNN, newspapers, etc: Thing Are Getting Worse. That pretty much sums it up. Thanks. Now I can have my coffee and go to work. Btw, this will be the last newsletter of the year. I’m going to take next week off. The next Newsletter will go out the first Friday in January.

I also noticed that I forgot to send last week’s newsletter out, so I combined it with this one. My apologies for that. I’m so tired from work lately that I haven’t had the energy to do anything. When I get home from work, I go to bed. When I get up, I go to work. I like this job –in a lot of ways it’s the best job I’ve ever had. There are a lot of things I don’t like however, and I don’t expect I’ll be keeping it long.

For those who are interested in my fight with City Hall, they did approve the layout of that subdivision, but this is the first of three steps so I’ve still got a chance to fight it. I’m working on options right now, including a possible petition. Some of these folks are out of their minds –the guy who owns this land wants to build not just McMansions on the first 50 acres, but Megamansions –bigger than the ones in Governor’s Bend across from the church. (Up to 38,000 sq ft it says on the plans for one lot.) This is completely ridiculous. No one needs a house that size. Furthermore, I find it deeply, completely, and incredibly immoral to own a house like that. I’ll let everyone know how it progresses.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas, Hanukah, and/or Kwanzaa (and a special Happy Solstice to all my fellow pagans out there).

GOOD NEWS
Because I’m Human: Why a straight man insists on writing about gay issues and stands up for gay rights.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1217-22.htm

CLIMATE CHANGE
I’ve got a couple of things to say on this subject this time, and they are really going to earn me the title of Grinch, but they need to be said so I’m going to say them. This may be the Christmas season, but I don’t see a reason to wait on this. Climate Change is here. It is not something that is going to wait until you’re dead and gone (for you older folks out there) and something that will only affect your kids and grandkids. It is here, now, in the present, and is only going to get worse unless we act now to stop it. This doesn’t just mean calling your congressman, recycling, buying a hybrid SUV, or hauling canvas bags to the grocery store with you. All those actions are good and I’m not trying to diminish them, but they are, at best, band-aids. The time has come and past for band aid solutions. It is time to take personal responsibility for how our actions affect the planet and to take decisive personal action to reduce our impact. The time for excuses, for shifting blame and responsibility onto others, for half-measures done only to make ourselves feel good, is over. People are dying. Seas are rising. Bears are no longer hibernating. The Amazon rain forest is in the middle of a drought –and will collapse if it goes on more than another year. Locally the daffodils are trying to bloom. In December!!!! The very future of our planet hangs in the balance. No longer is it a question of how our children and grandchildren will live in the future –but whether they will live at all. Every action we take has an impact on the planet, whether good, bad, or neutral. We each have a decision to make, one that can not be put off any longer. We stand at the crossroads of history, and what we each choose will help determine the future of all the Earth –or even if there is much of a future at all. Please choose wisely.

At the bottom of the newsletter I have copied an article in full from Sharon Astyk, a Jewish farmer in New York who runs a real good blog at http://casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/

What happens when a bear doesn’t hibernate? We’re about to find out. It’s been too warm this year for bears to hibernate. Other things also are not following their usual patterns. But global warming isn’t real. Right.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1221-01.htm

Let them wear hats! Or sweaters. Put on a warm pair of pants, for crying out loud. Someone else finally said it. Some of the “solutions” really aren’t, like programmable thermostats that are more of a bandaid than a help. I call them the easiest way to waste energy while feeling good about yourself. It’s going to take some real effort and work –gasp! –to save the world instead of just recycling or changing the thermostat. God forbid we have to change our lifestyles so that our grandkids can actually live.
http://www.energybulletin.net/23758.html

Swift Boat to Hell: Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not too much.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1217-23.htm

We are the solution: It’s time to stop putting the blame on others and start taking personal responsibility for our actions and how they affect the planet.
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/45381/

Look! The conservative’s solution to global warming! Hey, it could work…Before you email me in anger, yeah, I know that’s not funny. But it got your attention didn’t it? And I wouldn’t put it past the Idiot in Chief either!
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/12/MNGE5MTRI31.DTL

And slowly the land slid beneath the waves: Rising sea levels due to global warming are inundating low-lying islands and atolls. How long will it be before people start moving to higher ground?
http://www.countercurrents.org/cc-lean261206.htm

POLITICS
Welcome to Gattaca: This cop wants to create a database of the DNA of everyone –including newborns. This sounds like something from 1984, but it’s real.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006570242,00.html

They Came for the Immigrants: A stinging indictment of the recent actions taken by the INS.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1220-22.htm

TSA, or Grand Theater for Free: This is an op-ed, but he’s right: airport shenanigans under the TSA are more entertaining than most Broadway plays!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/business/yourmoney/17digi.html?ex=1324011600&en=db7ab439c0c47253&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

POLLUTION
Pollution = Infertility: An outright scary story on the reproductive problems brought on by all the stuff we are wantonly dumping into the environment.
http://www.alternet.org/story/45684/

ENVIRONMENT

OTHER
All of us are Children: A cool piece, and written by a UU.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1215-22.htm

100 Ways to Prepare for Peak Oil: I realize that some of my readers are skeptical about the whole PO thing, but I am sending this out as a public service. Plus, since oil usage and climate change are intimately connected –and I haven’t yet heard anyone here argue about the reality of climate change –then living more lightly on the earth can never be a bad thing. Furthermore, as long as we keep using a finite resource such as oil, there will come a day when half of it is gone, the very essence of Peak Oil “theory”. I consider this a major Social Justice issue, because we all know who massive price hikes will hit hardest and first. In addition, if major oil industry analysts like Deffeyes and Brown are correct, peak oil was reached on December 16th -2005. No one is arguing that worldwide oil production has gone down for a full year now, and even OPEC is admitting that there is a day when oil will peak, and that we are nearing it or past it. If OPEC, that master of duplicity and lies, is finally admitting to something like this, we’re in for a bumpy ride. The second link and the quote are to and from the latest OPEC report, where you’ll find the quote below (emphasis mine).
http://www.energybulletin.net/23645.html

"Furthermore, under any of these scenarios, and since peak oil output is not about the time at which oil will run out, but the time at which production can no longer be increased to cope with increased demand, it seems the only way the oil price can go is up.
This conclusion seems to be in line with the view held by the peak oil output advocates who argue that the ongoing oil price rises are mainly due to supply-demand imbalances. This is because we are at, or near, the production peak of world oil, if not on the downward slope of Hubbert’s peak curve. This is not to deny the role of other factors (such as geopolitical), but only to stress the importance of supply and demand for crude oil as the prime factor in determining the price of the commodity."
http://www.opec.org/library/OPEC%20Bulletin/2006/OB11122006.htm

The U.S. is Bankrupt: Another real shocker. Anyone who has to borrow money every single day to keep the lights on isn’t in the best financial shape. Why am I putting this in a SJ Newsletter? Partly because it’s urgent. When the GAO admits things are bad, they’re ten times worse then they look. Partly as a warning –get your finances in order NOW in case things hit the fan soon, which they probably will. And partly because it is a SJ issue –who do you think this will hit the hardest? Not the CEOs with their private jets and twenty million dollar summer cottages!
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/martenson/2006/1217.html

And the money goes to –the rich, of course! This article lays out in amazing detail just how bad and ugly the wealth transfer from poor to rich has been in the U.S. over the past several years. This is the last thing I expected to find in a magazine like Rolling Stone, but I’m glad it’s there!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12699486/paul_krugman_on_the_great_wealth_transfer/print

Filthy Rich versus Merely Rich: These two groups, the top .001% of all humanity are now fighting because one group thinks they should be as rich as the other. Unbelievable.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/30/opinion/meyer/main2218369.shtml

Left Behind, the Game: Scary. Enough said.
http://www.alternet.org/story/45767/

Website of the Week: Interesting. http://www.healthanddna.com/genealogy.html

UU Joke of the Week: Have you heard the latest UU miracle?
Someone saw the face of Ralph Waldo Emerson on a tortilla.

Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

So, how much do you care if your kids, or someone else's live or die?
That's pretty much the question, isn't it? How much do you actually care whether you children, or grandchildren, and the children of others get to live decent lives, or if they die horribly of starvation and disease? Because we say we care very much about the future, about sustainability, and the environment, that we worry a lot about climate change and energy issues. But most of us mostly act like we don't care.Don't misunderstand me, I'm not belittling the changes you've made. Those compact flourescent lightbulbs, the recycling, the moving closer to your job, those are important things. But they aren't enough, and we all know it. In order to stabilize climate change, we in the west need to make a 60-70% reduction in our energy consumption. Really, it is probably more, because those figures represent an overall reduction, but we can't ask people who just starting to use coal fired energy to get running water to make a 60% reduction, while we're switching to CFs and hybrid cars. But let's call it 70%. And we need to do it *NOW.* Check out this BBC interview transcript. http://tinyurl.com/5hyoq. It does not quite translate to "we're all gonna die" but it does mean that climate change is much more disastrous than even we've thought. That means within this century, while my kids and grandkids are trying to live most of the coastal cities in the world may well be underwater. There will probably be widespread drought and hunger. And, if the cascade effect of melting the permafrost does release enormous stores of methane, the planet may become uninhabitable.We cannot wait while each of us gets personally more comfortable with reducing our footprint - we have to do it big, and we have to do it today. We can't wait for cheap solar technology, we can't wait for biofuel algae to gas up our pluggable hybrids, we can't wait. The question becomes, what are you willing to do, what sacrifices are you willing to make from your own comfort and happiness in order to make sure that your kids, and millions or billions of other children in the world are not dead and dying in the future.Now I know parents and grandparents. In the short term, we'd all hurl ourselves in front of oncoming buses in order to protect the kids we love, and enable them to have good lives. So, I ask you all, why in hell are we destroying their chances of life and security right now? Why are we consuming the remaining fossil fuels, the ones that may ensure that they can have minimal things like insulin for diabetics and lighting, so that we can have air conditioning and cold beer? Whether or not you have children, I'm going to bet you have an investment in the future - the idea that someday someone will put a stone on your grave, or tell their children about Grandma Leah or Uncle Daniel. Or perhaps just the investment in the idea that the planet was not yours to waste, or in the idea that someday, someone will read Shakespeare like you did, or listen to a piece of music you loved or laugh at the same joke. So why in hell are we throwing that away.When I visited my family recently (burning a good bit of energy to get there), I was talking with my mother and step-mother, who are making real and meaningful changes in their lives. We were talking about paper consumption, and I mentioned that the next step in reducing paper consumption was probably handkerchiefs rather than tissues, and they both instinctively reacted with "ugh." Now I know what they mean, but let's be honest. For centuries, people used cloth handkerchiefs without dying. Is one's personal "ugh" reaction to handkerchiefs, or using your urine to fertilize your garden, or getting to know and butcher the animals you eat, or using a composting toilet really enough to justify the cost that we may be inflicting upon others? Remember, all of that stuff we react to with such hostility *belongs* to us - our wastes and the things we eat are part of us. We can try to pretend they don't really have anything to do with us, that we don't shit or pee, are never dirty or snotty, that the animal corpse on the plate was never a chicken or a cow, but no matter how hard we pretend, we're still killing, we're still shitting, and it is still our responsibility, no matter how hard we try to pass it off on others.The same thing has to do with our instinctive aesthetic assumptions, which are also hard for all of us (me too) to overcome - the fear of looking poor, or cheap leads us in all sorts of dangerous directions. But again, is it so terrible to imagine giving up your car and going to the bicycle, or giving up meat, or replacing that front lawn with edible plants, if the rewards are that someday, your grandkids, or the grandkids of someone who loves them just as much as you do, have enough to eat, home and shelter.Let's be honest, most of us who are adults now have had a lot. We're the wealthiest, most priveleged, most secure, luckiest people in human history. We haven't had to work hard for much. And we're in the odd position of probably being able to maintain our privelege for much of the rest of our lives, if we really work at it. But the cost comes in human lives. And not the lives of people who live out of sight, or downstream or in other countries - we've been doing them harm for decades and it hasn't bothered us much. But now the damage is coming home to roost. Do you want to keep your toaster and your hair dryer, or do you want your kids and grandkids to have food? And if you want them to have food, you have to be willing to give up your priveleges right now, to overcome your instinctive reactions, and also our instinctive urge to protect ourselves and what we have, no matter what the cost to others, and choose differently. We are going to have to give up things that we like and we love and we feel we need.I only hope that we find that what we really like and love and need most is for our kids, and our children's kids, to survive and flourish.Shalom,Sharon

Grocery Prices on the Rise

2006-12-21T17:51:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a short post, as it is Solstice and the last thing I want to do is waste too much celebration time on The Night The Light Returns blogging. But I wanted to write this up before I forget. I went to the grocery store. It was a nightmare in many different ways, not the least of which was the sticker shock. Prices have gone up since the last time I went in. A lot in some cases. They’ve been steadily increasing for a while now, but this sudden jump was quite shocking. Take oatmeal for instance. I keep several months worth on hand. When I start a container I write it on the list to replace. Today I had it on the list, and it has gone up 30 cents since I bought it last! Which wasn’t that long ago. Everything except the special loss leader items had increased in price by at least a few cents.

It’s not like this was unexpected. I knew it was coming and have made preparations, but I didn’t expect it to be this fast or this rapid. The question is, is this a fluke or it the first sign of an emerging trend? Is it just happening here or elsewhere? And if we are all ready having price increases of this sort, how much longer will it be before there are bare shelves in some stores?

At any rate, that’s enough gloominess for tonight. Happy Solstice everyone!

Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance

2006-12-19T13:51:00.000-08:00

“How do you bring down an empire?” The question came from a shrew-eyed history major in the study area of the liberal arts building. It was a rhetorical question; he was speaking to the wall. Propped up on his lap was a book on the history of Rome. No else paid him any mind. I don’t think anyone even noticed. I was seated nearby and heard the question. Startled, I looked at him. For an instant I thought he was talking to me. But then he went back to reading. The question haunted me for quite a while, and I was recently reminded of it.

How do you take down an empire? Assuming that you’re not a rival empire that is. History gives plenty of examples of people who have tried to bring down various empires. Some succeeded. Many more failed. How did they do it? What were the determininants? What approaches worked best? These are the questions I will attempt to answer in this series of essays. I have decided that there are three types of approaches: the Direct, the Indirect, and the Combination approach. I’ll cover the first in this essay and the latter two in later ones. I may follow up with a concluding essay. I am not yet sure.

First my disclaimer (otherwise known as my cover-my-own-ass-I-hope-because-I-would-look-really-bad-in-an-orange-jumpsuit statement): This series of essays is meant to be a rhetorical, thought provoking theoretical exercise. It is in no way meant to be taken literally as something that could or should be done to any currently existing legitimate government and certainly not to the United States government. This applies despite the fact that I consider our current government to be illegitimate and that it is repulsively, repeatedly, flagrantly, callously, shallowly, defiantly, haughtily, violating the most sacred of our documents –the U.S. Constitution –to the point where they are figuratively (and for all I know, literally) using it for toilet paper. And despite the fact that I once swore an oath to uphold said Constitution against ALL comers –foreign and domestic. And that, once again, I think the current incarnation of our government is hell bent on turning that precious document into toilet paper. This statement is made because I don’t like the thought of creepy men in black suits showing up on my door step. If I disappear, call the ACLU. And I guarantee you one thing: I’ll recite said Constitution word for word at my “hearing”, though I doubt many of them will even know what it says. (Article I, Section…)
Okay, on to the essay.
Let’s say you live in a vast, far reaching, very powerful Evil Empire (and what Empire wasn’t Evil? Name it! I dare you.) You want to bring it down. But how do you do this? How can you fracture something so much more powerful than you are? And preferably, do so without ending up dead yourself. As I said before, I see three approaches. The Direct Approach, the Indirect Approach, and the Combination Approach. I call the first approach the Luke Skywalker Method. If you can’t figure out what this one is (and you grew up in mainstream American culture) I suggest getting a CAT scan or taking an IQ test. The second I call Gandhi’s Way. That will be the next installment. Finally, I’ll get into the combination approach. If you can’t figure out how to reconcile Gandhi with Luke Skywalker blasting the Death Star, don’t worry –I haven’t yet fleshed out the details myself. But I have a good idea, and that’s enough to get started. Better to go off half-cocked as they call it then not go off at all! Okay, so where do we go from here? Aside from hell in a handbasket, which is where we’re going anyway. Read on…

Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance

Star Wars. We’ve all seen it. There’s nothing like those last few minutes of A New Hope, watching as Luke valiantly destroys the Death Star, and strikes a blow at the heart of Darkest Evil in the name of all that is good and the Light. Even if you’ve seen it a hundred times and you know how it ends, it still feels the same: the pounding heart, the mounting excitement, the go get ‘em! attitude you can’t help but feel. There is an instinctive, visceral feeling in that victory, one that can’t be adequately described in words but that everyone understands down deep where it counts. It is part of the primeval urge to fight for freedom that exists in every human soul writ large on the movie screen.

Darth Vader was not brought down by emails, or letter writing campaigns, or protest rallies. He was brought down by one teenager with too much bravado and too little of that fear and complacency we call common sense. To paraphrase Robert Heinlein, one pissed off man with a knife (or a TIE fighter) can be a lot more dangerous to TPTB than a nuclear warhead.

Or, as the write of Cryptogon (who is both brilliant and a bit paranoid) put it: “In Star Wars, what finally stopped business as usual on the Death Star? Was it thinking positive thoughts? Was it radiating love to Darth Vader? Was it sending letters to the editor? Was it holding focus groups and drinking organic wheat grass smoothies? Prayers? Waving signs? Voting? Faxing? Spray painting peace symbols on the bulkheads of various ships in the Imperial fleet? Were Darth Vader and the terrifying Death Star stopped by reading web pages? By sending emails? By listening to podcasts? By watching documentaries about The Empire on YouTube and Google Video?”

Not hardly. It was an untrained teenage kid playing soldier, along with the rest of the rebels. Though I must admit the image of spray painting Peace symbols on the ships of the Imperial fleet is more than a little attractive. (I personally would love to do that on the sides of the USS Ronald Reagan, for instance. It would be worth the jail term to see the look on the faces of the Neocons.)

I’m talking armed rebellions, insurrections, guerrilla warfare, insurgencies –anything that would fall under the category of open revolt. This is the tactic most commonly tried when attempting to take down an empire. It has resulted in the most memorable successes and the most spectacular failures. It also has the highest failure rate. But I’ll get to that later.

What makes this the most tried route? Well for one, it’s the obvious one. For the past few thousand years since the Imperial Meme took root in the human consciousness, whenever we are faced with a conflict, we pick up the nearest thing that would be a handy weapon and go at it. Well, most of us do. There are exceptions. I’ll get to them in the next post. This is also often the only route that has any chance of success. (You can write letters to Darth Vader until doomsday, and it ain’t going to do any damn good. That’s the truth. Sorry to be blunt for my fellow peace lovers. Sometimes the only way to get freedom is to fight for it.)

Does it work? Yes –and no. It depends. If there is one lesson history has dealt out over and over again: No Empire can defeat an armed insurgency in a vassal state. It has never, ever happened. Every Empire in history has been taught this lesson, most of them the hard way. This holds as true today as it was for the Egyptians, the Greece, the Romans, the Huns, the Mayans…you get the point. If you are an Empire and you are trying to pacify a conquered state (or rebelling colony) you are going to lose. Period. The British Empire learned this lesson during the American Revolution. The U.S. should have learned it in Vietnam, but instead is learning it again on the bloody sands of Iraq. (As an aside, Mr. Bush, allow me to tell you the truth: unless you turn all of Iraq into a lake of molten glass with nukes, you are not going to “win” this war. Even then, that would cause an uprising of other Muslims around the world who would be determined to bring you down. It ain’t going to happen. Deal with it.)

Now, if you are within the Empire and are rebelling you have a much lower chance of success. For one thing, Empires are big, tough, and wily. They didn’t get to be Empires by being soft and fat. If you are going to take one down you had better be fast, clever, and more deadly –and very, very willing to die for your cause. Chances are you will. Most armed rebellions end in failure. Many succeed, only to see the Empire they toppled replaced with a worse one, either imposed from without by invaders or rising from the ashes of the old one. Nature abhors a vacuum. When taking down an Empire, it is best to know what you intend to replace it with, before you topple it.

Here are what I think are the key reasons for the success or failure of many rebellions: 1.) What is the relative strength of the Empire at the time of the Rebellion? If it is a rising star or near peak, an armed rebellion is not only hopeless, it is suicidal. See the bloody results of all the rebellions in Ancient Rome. On the other hand, if the Empire is all ready going downhill, the odds are much better. The American Revolution is a good example of this one. 2.) How many rebels are involved? If it is just one guy and his buddies, he’d be better off staying home and getting drunk. (From a strategic perspective, that is.) But if the rebellion is popular, well staffed, well organized, and well financed then it’s another matter. Financing you say? Hell yes –even the Rebel Alliance had to buy gas from someone. 3.) Is there an alliance between members of various socioeconomic strata? What I mean by this is, foot soldiers and peasant farmers can often fight but they have no idea how to govern –which leads to things like the mess in France after Bastille Day. Put another way, Han Solo could fight but Leia knew how to govern. Both are needed for a successful rebellion. 4.) What’s the plan for toppling the Empire? Without, you’re screwed. Blunt yes, but the truth. 5.) What is going to replace it? As I said before, this is necessary not to storm the Bastille and end up with Napoleon. Even before the American Revolution leaders among the colonists were drawing up plans for an independent country, and it certainly helped that the colonies were pretty much functioning states on their own.

That’s it in a nutshell. The advantages of this approach are that it is obvious, direct, and feels good to the monkey part of our brains and the part that wants to fight for freedom. John Wayne busting the door down is one hell of an appealing image. The downsides: it’s bloody, costly, time consuming, has a high risk of failure, and will certainly result in the death of many, innocent and not, as well as untold destruction. Not the way I would take, given the choice.

So, is this the most valid option for taking down an empire? Or was Gandhi right, and nonviolence is the only way? (And does that even work?) And if not, what does work? What is the best route? Or is there even one? Perhaps there aren’t any easy answers.

The next essay will be titled Gandhi’s Legacy. In the meantime, any thoughts?

-RAS

P.S. Six gets you ten my phone is tapped before the next installment!

They have pissed off the wrong earth mother!

2006-12-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

All,
I need help with something, so I'm turning to everyone on this list because I know how many of us feel about these issues. I live nestled in the valley between Monte Sano and Chapman mountains. All the land next to me is owned by one man, who has decided to develop it. All of it. 420 acres. They are planning to cut down all the woods and put up yet another tract of paperboard McMansions. Uncounted numbers of wildlife live in these woods; deer, birds, squirrels -including several species of raptors on the federal protection list. This is an old growth forest they are planning to cut down to make way for this new monstrosity.

Naturally, I am going to do everything possible to stop it. They've all ready drawn up the plans and the city planning commission meets tomorrow to approve it. (Typically I just got the letter today. The meeting is at 5:00 pm in the Council Chambers on the first floor of the Municipal Building at 308 Fountain Circle. Public comments will be taken. I intend to be there of course, and I could really, really use some support on this. If you care about our local environment, please, please PLEASE come to this. If you can't come, please call and leave your comments, 256-427-5100. Michael Webb and Marie Bostick are the two commissioners in charge of approving this. Terry Properties is the developer. I am also going to start a petition to stop the subdivision. If you want to sign it contact me. I'll come to you if necessary. Email me, or call. I am also open to suggestions on other things I can do to help prevent this. I am going to call a lawyer I know later today. I am not going to let this happen if there is anything I can possibly do to stop it. I may lose the fight, but I have to stand up. They have angered the wrong tree hugging earth mother!
-Rebecca

"The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it." -David Orr, Ecologocial Literacy

"Americans spend more on trash bags than 90 of the world's 210 countries spend on EVERYTHING. Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?" -Me
"The largest one hundred corporations have incomes greater than half the member countries of the U.N." -Betsy Taylor, Center for a New American Dream.
"The Art of Anything Lies in the Details"-Unkown

Social Justice News, 12-08-06

2006-12-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
This is going to be a rather abbreviated newsletter, I’m afraid. It’s also late because I thought today was Friday and it turns out its Saturday so I’m up writing. I probably won’t get it sent out until Sunday sometime, so my apologies for that as well. I’ve been working 9 and 10 hour days at the new job and studying for finals, so I haven’t had as much time as I’d have liked to write this.

GOOD NEWS
Away from the Landfill: This group is tackling the huge problem of electronic waste one old computer at a time!
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=115409&ran=63053

CLIMATE CHANGE
Calculating the Value of Your Grandkids: I ain’t kidding. They’re talking about how to value your grandkids and their future lives/comfort/etc versus your own immediate gratification. Yep –that’s what we should do. Calculate the value of the future of the entire human race.
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=8374354&fsrc=RSS

Famines Ahead: Agriculutral researchers across the world are predicting that famines are coming along with global warming if new strains of crops aren’t found that can take the heat. The warming is expected to drop the harvests in some places by as much as half. Since we currently don’t produce enough food to adequately feed everyone, the results of this are clear.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6200114.stm

POLITICS
My Half-Assed Job: An Onion piece (it’s satire) about Rumsfeld, which hits really close to the bone!
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061120/rumsfeld

Your Terrorism Rating: Do you know what it is? Nope. You’re not allowed to know. DHS is now rating every person on a terrorism scale. You can’t see it, there is no appeal, and it stays on your ‘record’ for 40 years! (Oh yeah, and they can share it with contractors, etc too.) And another gross violation of freedom –starting next year, all travelers have to have permission to enter and leave the country.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Terrorism/wireStory?id=2691467

Airport Body X-Rays: Nope, this also isn’t a joke. They’ve started installing full body x-ray machines in certain airports, ones that can see right through your clothing. Now, the software is supposed to ‘cover up’ the um, private areas, but we all know how enterprising young software nerds can change things to their advantage. At any rate, as far as I’m concerned, my entire body is private!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061201/ap_on_re_us/airport_x_ray_screening

POLLUTION
Eggs in Male Fish: And other problems. The cause? Hormone altering chemicals dumped into the environment. Are humans at risk too? Look at the soaring rates of cancer, infertility, and other problems. Of course, industry says the two have nothing to do with each other. Maybe. But I’ll bet the day human men start developing eggs that the environment will get cleaned up real quick!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/03/AR2006120300992.html

22 Years This Week: It has been a full 22 years since the Bhopal chemical plant disaster –and the people who did it still haven’t faced justice.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1205-21.htm

ENVIRONMENT
Dare Not to Shop: A clarion call challenging us all to consume less.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1204-26.htm

OTHER
Creepy Visa Commercial: Okay, some might not find this creepy, but I did. The message in this commercial is clear –using cash is bad bad bad. The subliminal message is also that it makes the system slow down and is clearly “un-American”. As is anything different these days. Here’s an even more radical idea than paying for your lunch in cash –brown bag it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDTDgVgQ9ic&eurl=

Underground City for Sale: I’m including this for the sole reason that it falls into the category of surreal. The Brits built this complete underground city in the 1950s to house the Queen and government in the event of a nuclear war. Now it’s for sale. This begs the question: if they could build a complete underground city in the 1950s, what in the world have they got now?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1849406,00.html

Website of the Week: Mother Earth News: http://www.motherearthnews.com/

UU Joke of the Week: The clergy in other denominations have a hard time figuring us out.
One time at an ecumenical service the Episcopal rector said, "Let us pray. And for you Unitarians, do whatever it is you do."

Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

Creepy Advertising

2006-12-05T18:53:00.000-08:00

All right, there are some creepy advertising campaigns going on right now. For instance, here’s the new Visa commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDTDgVgQ9ic&eurl=
The message here is clearly that using cash is quite an “un-American” thing to do. Here’s something even more radical: don’t buy your lunch, brown bag it!

Oh yes, and then there’s the new cookies and milk advertising campaign. This campaign will encourage you to buy cookies and milk by making bus stops smell like them –thus activating your sensory receptors and all the unconscious baggage that goes along with it. As I said, these things are creepy!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/02/BAGE2MO35E1.DTL&type=printable

Social Justice News, 12-1-06

2006-12-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

Note: Hopefully this will finally post!

Hey everybody,
There is a LOT of news this week. I knew what kind of week it was going to be when I had enough to write two or three newsletters on Monday evening. I decided to include most of it, so some of them don’t have the full write-up I usually do. I just didn’t have time to do that for all these stories. On a personal note, I got a job!!!!

GOOD NEWS
Full Faith and Credit: There was finally a ruling this week in the nasty custody dispute between a former lesbian couple. They had a civil union in Vermont, and when they split, the one went to Virginia where gay marriage is outlawed after the court in Vermont ordered child visitation for her partner. A lengthy battle has ensued, which ended today. With these words: “The only question before us is whether, considering the (Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act), Virginia can deny full faith and credit to the orders of the Vermont court.” “It cannot.” The court not only ended the custody dispute, but unwittingly (or not) laid a precedent under which gay marriage bans themselves will eventually be challenged. After all, if the Full Faith and Credit Clause requires you to recognize what amounts to part of a divorce decree, how can they deny the relationship that caused it in the first place?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15937110/

Ethical Spending: “Green” spending has now surpassed alcohol and cigarettes for the first time, at least in the U.K.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6187338.stm

David vs. Goliath: Small farmers are finally taking on the big boys –and some of them are winning.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061125/BUSINESS/611250328/1003

CLIMATE CHANGE
Equal Justice Under The Law: It is inscribed above the grand marble steps, inside the building itself in numerous places, and on almost every souvenir sold in the gift shop. The question is, equal justice for whom? Corporations? The rich or super-rich? Politicians? Special Interest groups? All U.S. Citizens? All human beings? What about polar bears, penguins, and the majority of the world’s birds, all of whom are in danger of extinction due to global warming? Global Warming went to the U.S. Supreme Court this week. This may well be the most important case the Court has ever heard –more important even than Roe or Brown. Why? Because the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. At stake in the global warming debate is the future of the entire world –and this case may well tip the balance one way or the other.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/29/MNGE7MM1SN41.DTL

Butterflies, Ski-lift operators, and Polar Bears: What do they all have in common? They’re all on the move, trying to outrun climate change. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/25/AR2006112500877.html

Speeding Up: The increase in greenhouse gas emissions has accelerated to 2.5% annual growth, up from 1%. At this rate, we’re on target to make the high end of the IPCC emissions projections –which basically means the world is toast.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6189600.stm

Would you like some carbon dioxide with that? This 3 part series describes how our everyday activities contribute to global warming –and what we can do about it.
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1164336921318820.xml&coll=7
http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/116433871936410.xml&coll=7
http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/116433873536410.xml&coll=7

10 Questions for Al Gore: A nice interview Time has done with Al Gore.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1562957,00.html

Exxon Mobil Bans ‘Truth’ from Schools: This group of science teachers refused an offer of 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth because some members of their board who were major contributors didn’t like it. The most prominent one? Exxon Mobil. Gee, only corporate sponsored “science” is allowed in school these days. Who knew?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112400789_pf.html

POLITICS
Your brother robbed a bank; you’re DNA, please: Sound outrageous? Its not; the UK is now going to start collecting the DNA from relatives of those who commit crimes. The police will then target those families and others with “similar genes” when future crimes are committed. Gee, didn’t this happen in a bad sci-fi movie a few years ago? http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2016134.ece

No Sex Till 30!!!: The Bush Administration is extending its (complete failure) abstinence programs from teens to all adults under 30. Um yeah, that’ll work. So much for the privacy of your own bedroom. What happens next –sanctions against unwed, adult mothers? Hey, I wouldn’t put it past them to try!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-30-abstinence-message_x.htm?csp=34

Former General Says Rummy Okay Torture: Not only did he approve it, he wrote and signed a memo detailing what he considered acceptable. Sleep deprivation, etc. Something tells me this General will be called to testify at Rumsfeld’s war crimes tribunal in Germany. Mr. Rumsfeld himself may never be able to leave the country again without being arrested for war crimes!
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-11-25T164527Z_01_L25726413_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-RUMSFELD.xml&src=rss

POLLUTION
Stupid New Pesticide Rules: Sorry, but that’s the way I see it. Farmers will now be allowed to spray their pesticides directly over open water, including lakes and streams. Now, that’s a real bright idea. Don’t kill the bugs, make the pesticide makers lots of dough, and poison the waters. Down the line, the increased cancer rates will make Big Pharma and lots of oncologists happy. Good for everybody –as long as you’re a corporation. Is Bush TYRING to ruin the world? Oops, stupid question, never mind….
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1128-05.htm

Rubber Duckys and Cancer: Remember those cute rubber duckys you played with as a child? The ones still given to infants to play with? How about teethers, rattles, and baby dolls? Well it turns out that many of these toys contain bisphenol A –a chemical linked with serious health problems, including cancer. The EPA says there is no danger, but Europe has banned them, and now San Francisco is following suit. The toymakers are of course, suing to overturn the ban.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/19/TOXICTOYS.TMP

Forever Polluted: The mess created by this nuclear plant will never be entirely cleaned up.
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1042207.0.dounreay_will_pollute_for_decades.php

ENVIRONMENT
An “Unexplained” Epidemic: Asthma rates have gone up 60% in the last few decades, along with severe reactions to things like peanuts. The article says no one understands this epidemic –hmm, have they looked out the window lately? To paraphrase Robin Williams, when you have squirrels outside clutching their throats and going “Help me, I can’t breathe!” something is seriously wrong. My beloved cat I lost last winter had asthma –as does one of the two I’ve adopted this year. Hmm, let me see if can add two and two here…
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/health/28seco.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

OTHER
Stealing Water: In yet another place on this troubled globe, water has become so precious, so hard to get, that people have turned to stealing it. Mostly not to make a buck either –but to use it for their selves. Where is this place? Its not some developing country you’ve never heard of and can’t find on a map. It is, believe it or not, Australia.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/black-market-in-water-stolen-from-farm-tanks/2006/11/25/1164341447007.html

Evil and Powerful: A collection of all the awful things people are saying about women (mostly in the U.S.). Both funny and scary.
http://www.alternet.org/story/44979/

Dirty Tricks: Junk food companies are still pulling their old tricks in an effort to target kids. Surprised? Nah, me either.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1124-04.htm

Food or Ethanol? Demand for ethanol is driving up food prices.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=ayonmpI2Y1dA&refer=news

Phelps not like any Primitive Baptist I know: An Alabama Primitive Baptist discussed Fred Phelps recent visit to Bama.
http://www.demopolistimes.com/articles/2006/11/25/opinion/opinion9985.txt

Website of the Week: The Earth Policy Institue. http://www.earth-policy.org/

UU Joke of the Week: Do UU's ever pray?
Only when they think a Democrat is going to lose an election.

Have a good weekend everybody!

Social Justice News 11-24-06

2006-11-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
Happy Turkey Day. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday and got to their destinations safe and sound. There’s a lot of news this week. It was pointed out to me that I might be wrong about my statements on China last week. If so I apologize; I have never been to China and have no way of knowing what things there are like except for the stories that come out –which, as I’m sure everyone knows –are not entirely reliable. Someone also asked me about the Global Warming ideas I asked for a few weeks ago, and why I hadn’t sent them out as promised. Well, it was kind of hard to send them out since I didn’t get any. If you want to submit something, I’ll still take it.

Announcement: An Inconvenient Truth came out on Tuesday, and it includes an update from Mr. Gore which I sincerely recommend. There are rumors flying around again that the White House may be about to change its official position on climate change. It’s possible but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Even if it happens, I would bet it would only be for political reasons. I think George Bush has about as much chance of coming to believe in global warming as I do of ever going on a date! (I’d love to be wrong of course –if you think I am, send me your logic.)

GOOD NEWS
Hippies in the Woods: This long story, in the Washington Post no less, profiles the Earthhaven Ecovillage. It goes in depth into what these folks are doing. Below the article I’ve included the link to Earthhaven’s website.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/14/AR2006111400979.html
http://www.earthaven.org/

CLIMATE CHANGE
The Stakes: Human Civilization Al Gore himself responds to Viscount Mockton’s “scientific” debunking of global warming.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/19/nclim19.xml&page=1

Stop the Scare Stories: A newsweek editorial accuses Stern and others of publishing “scare stories” over global warming and wanting them to stop –so of course, they won’t affect economic growth. Um, let’s see, in the words of Al Gore, which do I prefer? Some bars of gold or the entire planet?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15563663/site/newsweek/from/RSS/

God will take care of it: Inhofe’s at it again. This time he’s saying not to worry about global warming, because even if its real, God is still up there and will take care of it and us. Ur, okay, I think I’m going to start building an ark now. It’ll be needed when both Greenland and Antarctica have melted.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/17/inhofe-hoax/

POLITICS
The Price of Protesting: The janitors who went on strike in Houston learned the hard way what the price of protesting in modern America is –being trampled and then arrested. So much for freedom of assembly.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/44532/

Obsessed with Gays: A comparison of the response of American and South African leaders to same-sex marriage.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1119-27.htm

POLLUTION
Would you like the glow in the dark floor or walls? Or how about the whole package?: The U.S. government made no attempt to clean up the uranium mines in the U.S. Southwest once they were abandoned. This has led to soaring cancer rates among the Navaho who now drink contaminated water and even live in radioactive houses.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-navajo19nov19,1,3773810.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

ENVIRONMENT
GM Crops May Cause Disease: So inserting fish genes into tomatoes and insect repellant into corn may not have been such a good idea. Gee, who knew?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SMI20061119&articleId=3912

OTHER
The Great Turning: Korten gives a talk to the citizens of Willits California describing his ideas on how to change (and save)our planet. If you haven’t read his book, The Great Turning, I recommend it. It is slightly repetitive but very good.
http://www.willitsnews.com/community/ci_4678772

Modern Day Heretic: A story of modern day heresy and its consequences. This is the tale of what happened to a Pentecostal Bishop after he asked himself one day “What if there is no hell?” It’s under last weeks story on the front page.
http://www.thislife.org/

Website of the Week: The Earth Policy Institue. http://www.earth-policy.org/

UU Joke of the Week: Do UU's ever pray?
Only when they think a Democrat is going to lose an election.

Have a good weekend everybody!
-Rebecca

Life in the Madhouse

2006-11-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

“Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here everyday…” So sang the old classic. That was my alma mater’s old fight song. People have long compared the rat race and even life itself in the modern world to a jungle. There is something about that imagery that appeals to us. Maybe it’s in our genes; after all we are descended from jungle dwellers. Whatever the reason it is no longer accurate. At least not for those of us here in the good ole US of A.

I realized this truth earlier today while I was starting the coffee. A lot of realizations happen to me at this time of the day when I am halfway between sleep and wakefulness. The news was blaring on the radio in the background. Suddenly it hit me. We don’t live in a jungle, we don’t live in a rat race. Those tired old metaphors are no longer accurate. Today’s world is a madhouse.

That’s right I said it: a madhouse. I live in the looney bin, and I haven’t even been committed! The entire friggin’ world has gone insane. The inmates are running the asylum, and they were elected by other inmates. I mean this seriously. From where I sit the world has gone nuts.

People are debating how much and what kind of torture is acceptable. Not whether or not you should torture people, but how much you can torture them and in what ways. Hello? Someone who prefers waterboarding over electric drilling does hold the higher moral ground, folks. People can now be held indefinitely without ever being charged. No lawyers, no trials, no evidence, no witnesses. The goddamn Nazis were given trials in open public courts –and these were pseudo-people who’d made lampshades out of human skin, among other atrocities!

Right wing groups are rising in power around the world. Iraq and parts of Africa are in total anarchy. Protestors were trampled in Houston, arrested, and then had their bail sat at $888,000 –more than murderers.

Government planners are devising ways to “win” a nuclear exchange –even after every human being on earth and most of the other species has been killed. Similar plans are being devised for biological and chemical attacks. The current attitude of the Neo-cons towards Iran is “nuke ‘em while we can”. These same enlightened folks also want to round up all illegal immigrants and all Muslims into the new internment camps Halliburton has built prior to deportation. Oh yes, and repeal the bill of rights, outlaw birth control, and turn the country into a Christian state, ala the Old Testament. Hello? Does this sound like the behavior of sane people?

Our economy is built on a house of cards. The stock market is hitting new highs almost daily, but foreclosures and defaults are at record levels. The official inflation and unemployment figures are at least several percent understated. PhDs are working in McDonald’s –and glad to at least have a job. More and more Americans are being pushed out on the street and/or can’t afford a meal. People who are going hungry are now “those with low food security” according to the new government report. Let me tell you something: if you can’t afford food, you don’t have any food security –cause you don’t have any damn food! One out of every six people in this country has no health insurance, and that number rises daily.

We’re told deficits don’t matter, and debts don’t matter. Our government may owe $30,000 to China for every man, woman, and child alive here today, but hey it don’t matter. Got ten grand on the credit card? No problem! The message is simple: buy, buy, buy. Go into debt. Mortgage your house. But buy that new ipod and the new PS3. And what do people do? Buy, buy, buy. There were fights over the PS3 last weekend and one person got shot. Over a game system. People now spend a third of their waking life from cradle to grave watching television –mostly junk at that. And this is good?

Oh yes, and then there’s the environment. Guess what? The way we live is unsustainable. Which is a shorthand way of saying are way of life will crash and burn one day if we don’t willingly change. Global warming is here, but we have Senators standing up and calling it a hoax. And that God will take care of the faithful, regardless. Those who do believe in climate change are not arguing about how to stop it, but rather how much of it can be allowed and how many species, people, and landmass it is acceptable to lose!!!! Of course, no one is going to give up their big screen tv to save the Beluga whale. Or even their own grandchildren, as several people have publicly stated. It’ll be their problem, and they’ll either deal with it or they won’t. Or so runs the thinking.

This sounds like the antics of a young child –or a delusional adult. But it is the way the majority of people in this country think and behave. Why aren’t more people standing up to stop this madness? Where are they at? Even the majority of clergy are egging it all. It is almost as if our population suffers from some sort of mass psychosis. From a psychological and sociological stance it is absolutely fascinating to watch. From the standpoint of a human being, and one who tries to be ethical at that, it is absolutely terrifying.

But what can be done about it?

Social Justice News 11-27-06

2006-11-17T17:57:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
Another busy week. I’ve mostly got over my cold, but it decided to settle into my ears and sinuses. Now I have a nasty ear infection. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another, I swear. It’s been another big week in the news. President Bush is in Vietnam this week. Can you believe it? He finally went. Of course, he’s about thirty years too late, but better late than never!

GOOD NEWS
White House Sued: For not putting out a federally mandated report on climate change. It probably won’t go anywhere, but hey, it’s a start!
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1115-01.htm

CLIMATE CHANGE
Senate Panel Attacks Kids Book About Climate Change: The U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works issued a statement that outright ridicules a new UN book aimed at explaining global warming to kids. Not only do they ridicule the book, but the statement is riddled with “facts” that either aren’t facts, or are distorted beyond recognition. (For example, they are right when they state that the interior of Greenland is still gaining ice. At about 4 cubic kilometers a year. What they neglect to point out however, is that the exterior of the icecap is losing ice at 42 kilometers a year! But it shows how desperate global warming skeptics have become, that they are now stooping to ridiculing children’s books!
http://epw.senate.gov/fact.cfm?party=rep&id=265811

Environment Be Damned: Apparently India’s people know the consequences of putting economic growth ahead of the environment –and they don’t care. Economic growth must come first, they say. Somehow I think they’ll change their minds when Mumbai is flooded by rising sea levels, but hey, what do I know?
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1841660,0094.htm

Drought Hitting the Table: The long-running drought in Australia is causing further hikes in the price of food, making it even harder for families to put dinner on the table.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/scorchedearth/drought-to-hit-dinner-table/2006/11/12/1163266401232.html

POLITICS
Bush to China: Stop Hoarding Money!!!: Apparently the Chinese save too much money. Or so said our President this week, who is urging them to buy more and save less. I thought this was a joke, but it’s the real deal. He also said the reason the Chinese save so much is that they don’t have either a pension system or a real health care system. Um, Mr. Bush, I think you got your countries mixed up. China has state health care and good retirement systems, plus an extended family ethic that says take care of your elders. Which country doesn’t have any of these things? Oh wait, that’s us. Oh my. (As a side note, if the Chinese started spending more, then they wouldn’t be able to loan the U.S. government the $30 million dollars per hour it needs just to keep the doors open!
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Bush_Says_China_Saving_Too_Much_Money_999.html

Power to the People: Unless your in Mexico, that is. The Mexican government is finally taking steps to suppress the Oxaca protestors. And what do these nefarious criminals want? They’re corrupt governor removed.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111006H.shtml

Silent Killers: All those unexploded bombs we, among others, have deposited in various countries are still killing –mostly women and children. And this is supposed to be honorable warfare?
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1114-08.htm

POLLUTION
Dump it on the Poor: Ports cause a staggering amount of problems to the environment, especially among the poorest people. Asthma, chronic lung diseases, smog are all some of the side effects of these operations. Some say we can’t afford to clean them up. But we can pay for the consequences? Um yeah, right. I smell something off here –oh yeah, that’s the smell of greed. My mistake!
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_4657812

OTHER
Breed to Succeed: I tried to improve on this headline and couldn’t it. I don’t read many things that scare the bejeezus out of me, but this is one of them!
http://www.alternet.org/story/44254/

Vehicle Hyprocrisy: Apparently, a lot of people want to have their cake and eat it too –at least when it comes to cars. I was amazed by how many hybrid owners also have SUVs!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15658052/site/newsweek/

Rape Epidemic: Hundreds of thousands have been raped in the brutal war in the Congo.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/congo/story/0,,1947147,00.html

Website of the Week: The Farm, one of the groups that presented at last month’s Sustainability Expo at The Flying Monkey. http://www.thefarm.org/

UU Joke of the Week: UU Prayer: "Dear God, if there is a God, if you can, save my soul, if I have a soul."

Have a good weekend everybody!

Thank God/Goddess/(Insert preferred deity) for Wal-mart!

2006-11-17T17:54:00.000-08:00

I mean that. Seriously. As much as I hate store (which is a lot), I’m glad they exist today. Why? That $4 prescription drug program of theirs. I finally went back to the school nurse because this cold wasn’t getting any better, and because I’ve had this throbbing pain in my right ear for the past several days. It turns out I have a really bad ear infection. And I don’t have any health insurance since I lost my job. Which means any meds have to be cheap. So they gave me a generic antibiotic (amoxicillin, which has me worried since I’m allergic to penicillin). I actually got the meds filled at my usual Target pharmacy but they’re matching the Wal-mart progam. So I got a prescription that would have cost $20 before this program started for only one-quarter of that. That’s an amazing discount. And one that really helps someone who’s unemployed and has no health insurance like me!

On a related note, I asked the pharmacist if there was anything I could do to help the swelling around my ear. He tried to sell me a twelve dollar decongestant. I said no thanks, and when I came home, made a poultice and put it on the ear. Five or ten minutes later the swelling was much better. If only the infection could be taken care of that easily!

Just Crazy Weather or Something More?

2006-11-16T08:15:00.000-08:00

The weather lately has been completely crazy, not just here but around the world. Where I live we broke our all time daily rainfall record –and not just broke it, but nearly doubled it! And it is STILL raining, with no sign of stopped anytime soon. This entire autumn has been like the rainy season in the tropics –it rains more often than not, and this is normally our driest season. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest, people are alternating between cold blasts from Alaska and storms from the gulf, many of them subtropical. (Read: tropical storms/hurricanes that form over cold water instead of hot. See the ‘Not a Hurricane’ story in last week’s SJ News.) One place reported winds that were hurricane strength. And here, we also had incredible winds yesterday. And let’s not forget the 1,000 year drought going on in Australia right now. I could mention a dozen other crazy weather patterns, but I think the point is clear.

There has also been a larger than usual number of earthquakes lately. Drug resistant TB is making a very strong comeback in Africa, and is spreading rapidly. Other tropical diseases are also spreading WAY outside of their normal range, and the avian flu is mutating so rapidly the panicked WHO docs can’t even track it. Oh yes, and lets not forget that the world grain harvest went down again this year. That leaves only 57 days of surplus supplies between the entire world and –gasp –famine.

Are all these just coincidences? Random unrelated events? I don’t think so. In fact, I’m sure of it. These are warning signs, the first major indicators. Climate change is here. If we are very unlucky, the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse –Famine, Plague, War, and Pestilence –will soon follow. To make matters worse, if world oil production goes down this month as well, it will have gone down for an entire year. The change isn’t enough to shout ‘Peak Oil’ yet, but it is certainly a plateau. How things will pan out remains to be seen but the ride has started. Buckle up your seat belt and hold on. This is going to be a rough one.

Interesting weather links (research credit for these goes to George Ure):
http://www.komotv.com/news/4643576.html
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/15/D8LDSD902.html

Social Justice News 11-10-06

2006-11-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

(Note, the last two social justice newsletters haven't been posted here due to technical problems.)

Hey everyone,

Good times are here again. That’s what the Dems are singing at any rate, after the elections on Tuesday. They even won some state seats here in Alabama. I’m not going to go into it too much below, because I’m sure everyone knows all about it and what it means by this point. I’m instituting another change this week. (Tired of them yet? LOL.) I’m going to create a new section just for good news. I know folks get tired of reading all the bad Social Justice News (including me), so I’m going to start this section. I promise to try and have at least one story in it each week, though I can’t guarantee more than that! Under the category of what were they thinking, last week our esteemed government accidentally posted a bunch of important military papers on a public website –including the complete instructions for how to build an atomic bomb! (Hello? How far have they dropped the standards for military intelligence? I know it was an oxymoron to begin with, but still!) The link’s been closed down by now of course –but not before the papers were copied and spit out all over the web. You would think all that money spent on “Homeland Security” would have been put to good use, but oh well.

I’ve been a bit sick this week. I lost my voice entirely for a couple of days but its now just starting to come back. As of today I am still unemployed, so if anyone knows of any job openings, send them my way, would you please? I would really appreciate it.
Now to the news.

GOOD NEWS
A Growing Trend: Literally. This story discusses the increasing popularity of local and organic produce.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/05/AR2006110500887.html

On The March: A huge rally to stop climate change took place in Britain this week.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1953695.ece

Green Roofs Popping Up All Over: More and more green roofs are being built all over –including in Maine!
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/061106roof.html

Katrina Cottages: These are pretty cool, and a good reaction to the McMansion trend.
http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article_CSM.aspx?cp-documentid=1209895&GT1=8800

CLIMATE CHANGE
Not a Hurricane: But almost. It was a ‘subtropical’ storm. Wonder why you didn’t see this on CNN or The Weather Channel? Hmm, now who wants to be the reporter to tell an all ready spooked country that what appears to be a hurricane is off the coast of –Oregon? Repeat after me: It’s not a hurricane, it’s not a hurricane. Climate change isn’t real, climate change isn’t real.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/shownh.php3?img_id=13951

Worst Drought in 1,000 years: Australia is withering under this drought, which shows no sign of ending soon. As Australia is expected to be one of the losers of climate change overall, it might become completely uninhabitable by the majority of its current residents soon. See Jared Diamond’s section on Australia in his book Collapse for a detailed summary of the problems facing our friends Down Under.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,1941942,00.html

It’s Hard to Explain, Tom: A mythical (and chilling letter) from the author to a future grandchild, trying to explain the lack of action on climate change.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1106-22.htm

A Hard Way, But One That Will Work: This story sets out some serious ideas that would work in the battle against global warming. However, most of these don’t have a snowbell’s chance in hell of being widely adopted, at least now voluntarily.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2437530,00.html

Evangelical Sermon on Global Warming: I never thought I’d see evangelicals getting on board with environmentalists, but hey, I ain’t complaining.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1109/p13s01-lire.html

It’s Not My Fault: So say the world’s worst offenders, including the U.S.
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/110106EA.shtml

Hardest Hit: Africa, all ready suffering so much, will be the biggest loser of global warming.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1959047.ece

POLITICS
He Admits It!!!!! This week Bush acknowledged the link between Iraq and oil for the first time. Next thing you know, he’ll be telling the truth the first time around. Not!
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110506Z.shtml

Forget Red vs. Blue: How your state votes may have more to do with the number of Wal-marts in it than the number of churches.
http://www.alternet.org/story/43972/

San Francisco Values: Hip hip hooray for Speaker Pelosi! (Sorry I couldn’t resist.) This commentator, who refers to Pelosi as “one tough woman” (she’d have to be, to take on Bush and company head-on) outlines her agenda for the first 100 hours of the new house session and also defines the phrase “San Francisco Values” that the Republicans have been bandying about: marriage equality, a decent minimum wage, universal healthcare, a lower than average poverty rate, impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Sounds good to me. No wonder the GOP are scared!
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=515662

O’Reilly Has Details of Women’s Abortions: Okay, someone explain to me how a tv talkshow host got something this personal, and why he hasn’t been arrested for it!
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15931493.htm

Rumsfeld Must Go!: What’s more shocking than the Army Times calling for the resignation of the Secretary of Defense? The Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Times all calling for the same thing –and all on the same day! I agree –toss the bum out, along with his cronies GW and Cheney.
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2333360.php

Water: The World’s Biggest Problem: Okay, so sewage, sanitation, and clean water may not be the glitziest ‘problems’ in the world today, but when you have 5,000 kids dying from lack of drinking water every 24 hours, and others going to school next to dungheaps twenty feet high, it’s time for people to wake up and quit ignoring the problem.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article1962786.ece

Israel Accused of State Terrorism at the UN Security Council: This didn’t get press coverage here (gee, I wonder why), but it’s about time someone stood up. Warning: This particular link is to Al Jazeera, so be careful about opening it on corporate networks, or you might end up wearing an orange jumpsuit.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9DB7DCAA-C83A-42CF-A2A8-D77602AD2051.htm

POLLUTION
Brain Damage from Pollution: Millions of kids may have suffered brain damage from exposure to all the toxic chemicals present in the modern world. And we wonder what’s causing the explosion of autism and other disorders? Hmm, let me see, what is one plus one again?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2442654,00.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/07/health/webmd/main2161153.shtml
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1108-08.htm

How’s that rocket fuel taste?: Perchlorate, one of the main solid rocket fuels in use, has been found in the drinking water of many different states. Gee, that gives a whole new meaning to the song ‘Running on Rocket Fuel’, now doesn’t it?
http://www.organicconsumers.org/perchlorate.htm

Environment
Eco-Rage: We’ve all heard of road rage, but eco rage? Hmm, without commenting on the overall morality of it, I think I can safely say that if more people were enlightened enough to have ‘eco-rage’ there wouldn’t be a need for it!
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=ec69320d-9c7c-4c1b-acf3-5853803777bc

Kansas Water Problem: The Ogallala Aquifer is running dry –and draining the nation’s breadbasket with it.
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101606EB.shtml

OTHER
City Design Causes Diseases: Sure, our cities may be car-friendly and easy to get around, but it turns out that’s part of the problem!
http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2353

Worst Blackout in 30 Years: Europe had the worst blackout its had in over 30 years this week. Why? Because they shut down some key transmission lines so a luxury cruise liner could pass. Um, yeah, that’s fair I think.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1959048.ece

Website of the Week: The google directory for Voluntary Simplicity. http://www.google.com/Top/Society/Lifestyle_Choices/Voluntary_Simplicity/

UU Joke of the Week: This is from Michael Feldman’s What Do You Know. I heard it on NPR last weekend. Can anyone say we have an image problem?

(In the middle of along monologue on hunting in Minnesota.):
Here in Minnesota we always lose a lot of Unitarians during hunting season. It’s nothing deliberate, mind. We’ve nothing against Unitarians. They’re nice enough folk. But they don’t know anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone whose cousin knows someone who hunts. They like to go out in the woods in their Birkenstocks with their looking glasses and try to spot the pelleted tail woodpecker and other rare birds, and so on and so forth. Then they do that in hunting season, and the next thing they know they’re in Unitarian heaven –which is just like Cambridge, but with no anger, no tears, and no animal products.

Have a good weekend everybody!

Social Justice News 10-27-06

2006-10-28T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
Let me apologize for this being late –I had internet problems. This is going to be a rather abbreviated newsletter. I’ve had one heck of a week, which included losing my job and having to file unemployment for the first time in my life. For the time being I am on the ‘don’t get sick’ insurance plan along with 47 million other Americans. That’s one out of every six people in the country –and many of the rest are terribly underinsured, with policies that will pay for catastrophic occurrences such as an automobile wreck or cancer, but not for your child’s ear infection or a routine colonoscopy. We are the only industrial country that does not have a national health insurance plan. It seems to me like that should be a social justice issue –so why is most of the country silent on the matter?

Anyway, I haven’t had time to finish the write-up on the sustainability expo. I hope to have that ready by tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s the news!

Cameras to Comb Crowds: The newest homeland security device comes straight out of Orwell; they want to be able to watch people’s every move in crowds and identify people by facial recognition up to 200 feet from the camera. Gee, Canada is looking better and better isn’t it? Now where did I put that passport and my copy of O Canada?,,,,
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002887.html

Ecodamage Pictured From Space: National Geographic has come up with a cool new satellite atlas of the Earth that specifically shows the ecodamage that’s occurred over the past few decades.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061023-environment-map.html

Deeper and Deeper: More and more young adults are increasingly desperate to find a way to afford the escalating costs of college. To do so, they are often turning to private loans –which have an interest rate as high as 23% and aren’t covered by any of the government protections. What this amounts to is a legally sanctioned way to turn unsuspecting teenagers into serfs for the rest of their lives.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/10/25/MNGKKLVHCK1.DTL

Ecosystem Collapse ‘Likely’: Based on the new reports of overshoot, this observer says that collapse of the earth’s ecosystem’s is ‘likely’ if things go on as they are. Likely? That has to be the understatement of the year! If things don’t change, collapse isn’t just ‘likely’ –it is absolutely guranteed.
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,1930722,00.html

Red River: No, this isn’t an exaggeration or a tale taken out of the Bible –this is real. The Yellow River in China has literally been running red since an unknown pollutant was dumped into it.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1550046,00.html

Here Come the Lawyers: Global warming has attracted the notice of the legal sharks. I can’t decide if this is a good thing or not!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15400060/
In the Dust: Economic ‘growth’ might be good for the bankers –but it leaves a lot of others behind. And that disparity is only getting worse.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/members/101606_leaves_water.shtml

Website of the Week: The Farm, an intentional community and one of the presenters at last week’s sustainability expo: http://www.thefarm.org/

UU Joke of the Week: A Unitarian hymn:
"Praise Be to Whom It May Concern"

Have a good weekend everybody!

Social Justice News, 10-20-06

2006-10-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
A lot of news happened this week. This newsletter is going to be longer than usual because of it, but I felt that all these stories were important enough to post. Some is good news, some not so good. One interesting tidbit that wasn’t online was an interview on NPR of a UU minister. This interview took place in DC at a protest against the torture bill on Tuesday. It was short, only a couple of minutes, but hey, at least it happened! I’d also like to remind everyone yet again of the Sustainability Expo this weekend. This local event is probably the best news of the week. I’ll include a write-up of it in next week’s News.

RIP Habeas Corpus: It’s common knowledge by now that King George signed the MCA the other day. While justifying it as necessary to protect the American people. The American people –or those in power? Below is Keith Olbermann’s take on it, and the second article is another piece that also has a video of Olbermann’s segment the night the bill was passed.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1019-24.htm
http://alternet.org/blogs/peek/43178/

And speaking of that bill, the next two stories should give you pause…

Teenage Artists, 1st Target for the Policy State: What happens when a 14 year old posts some artwork deriding our Commander in Chief? She gets yanked out of school and interrogated by the Secret Service of course! Um, yeah, somehow I don’t think an 8th grader is a danger to the President. What could she possibly do, ask him to help her with her algebra homework? (Oh wait, having to think might actually cause his head to explode –never mind.) Obviously, this whole incident had another motive –can anyone say intimidation?
http://www.counterpunch.org/pearcy10172006.html

Those Damn Quaker Terrorists: Protest now equals terrorism, or at least Bush apparently thinks that. Homeland (In)Security is now monitoring many peace groups and reading their emails, regarding them as having the potential to engage in terrorism. This includes –Quakers? Um, yeah. Pacifists are now equated with terrorists. Can you think of a better oxymoron than Quaker Terrorist? I can only think of one –Intelligent Bush.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1014-27.htm
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/150937

Showdown on the Badlands: Earlier this year the South Dakota legislature passed a draconian bill outlawing abortions in almost every instance –even for cases of rape and incest. The only exception was for cases where the mother’s life is danger. Now, pro-choice groups are fighting back –and they have a referendum on the ballot to repeal this repressive law. On the dusty, arid badlands of Dakota, a showdown is shaping up that could determine the future of women’s rights in this entire nation.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/43139/

Ice Loss Accelerating: Yet another report that confirms Greenland is losing ice at ever faster rates. Soon the rich will have to sell their beach front condos. Unfortunately, that won’t help the 1 billion people living in low-lying areas that would(WILL) be flooded when this ice sheet completely breaks up.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15334288/from/RS.2/

Planet Under Pressure: This six part series and special section describes in detail the environmental problems facing our world today. It has everything –pictures, effects, evidence. It covers drought, energy, food production, climate change. I recommend bookmarking it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2004/planet/default.stm

Problems in Africa: This multi-part series from NPR is a well-written account of many of the problems facing Africa today. Each audio component is short, only about 5 minutes, and there are transcripts for each. This series does a good job of describing many of the problems facing this troubled continent, but leaves out some others. Then again, I suppose you can’t mention on NPR things like overpopulation, the legacies of colonialism, and exploitive policies of the World Bank and the IMF, now can you?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6213358

No Fish Will Ever Swim Here: This fjord is completely devoid of life. The environment here has suffered a complete and utter disaster. All due to the dumping of spent fuel rods directly into the seas and rivers by the Russian government. And nuclear power is supposed to be green?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6058302.stm

Losing the Birds and Bees: No, not those birds and bees. The ones that pollinate crops and help us live. This article gives several potential causes, but I think the biggest one can be summed up in one word: pesticides.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15316711/

Pollution Hotspots: This article shows the ten worst polluted spots in the world. Warning: A couple of the pictures are rather graphic.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6063344.stm

No Permit? No Problem: Federal regulators have ‘temporarily’ suspended certain regulations designed to protect the fragile wetlands on the hurricane ravaged gulf. This will allow developers and builders to merely ‘fill in’ wetlands with their debris. Supposedly this is being done to speed the rebuilding. Um, have we forgotten Katrina all ready? Oh wait –all these companies made a lot of money off cleaning up and rebuilding after the storm, so it’s no skin off their backs if it happens again!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15305378/

Putting the State on Trial: Several peace activists in Europe have “won” (or at least, not lost) in cases where they were brought to trial for ‘criminally’ trying to stop the war. They did this by the tactic of claiming that their actions were lawful, and it was the war that was not. In effect, they put the state on trial as well as themselves.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/10/19/putting-the-state-on-trial/

“Take this Tag, Sir”: Airlines are trying to find ways to electronically tag passengers, and monitor their movements the entire time they are in an airport. Security, or Big Brother? Do you really need to guess?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6044310.stm

Bush Acknowledges Comparison with Vietnam: For the first time, King George has admitted to the resemblance between the Iraq War and the Vietnam war, at least insofar as the Tet Offfensive is concerned. Is he finally coming to his senses? I wouldn’t bet on it –this was the same day he signed the MCA.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2411583,00.html

They Voted To Allow Torture: This interfaith religious group, which includes UUs, has put the picture on their website on billboards in Connecticut. Check out their site (and the billboard).
http://www.reclaimingthepropheticvoice.org/

Don’t Use Economics to Find the Value of Sustainability: This essay shows the silliness of using Payback Analysis to calculate whether or not to do something sustainably. Even more importantly, he discusses his new solar water heater and how, between a rebate and the Federal Tax Credit, only cost about $3,000 out of pocket. That’s still not spare change of course –but it is within the range of many homeowners willing to save for a year or two to get it. And, as more people install these systems the price will go way down.
http://news-views.renewwisconsin.org/news/item.tcl?news_item_id=103470

Tired of the Bush***: A nurse in Atlanta was given a ticket for this “obscene” bumper sticker. The ticket was later thrown out but now she’s fighting back –by suing the county.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/16/sticker.suit.ap/index.html

Fascism Ascendant: A thoughtful provoking essay on the rise of fascism in America and our military. The author is a retired former member of the Army Rangers and Delta Force.
http://www.alternet.org/story/42884/

Website of the week: A wiki devoted to helping make the world a better place: http://betterplace.bullnotbull.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

UU Joke of the Week: Unitarian Universalism – Where all your answers are questioned.

Social Justice News, 10-13-06

2006-10-13T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,
Not much good news this week, I’m afraid. I did my best to balance it out, but it didn’t quite happen. The world is changing these days, and things are happening fast. I’ll try to find more good news for next week, I promise! But all of this is interesting and important so I didn’t want to leave anything out. So, to the news.

World Overshoot Day: Monday was the day on which we humans officially used up our ecological allotment for the year and begin living beyond our means. This means literally destroying the earth and her resources in order to support ourselves until January 1. The first World Overshoot day was in December of 1987. Now it’s in October. And human demand on the environment is growing by about 5.5% per annum. Currently we are about 30% into overshoot. A rule of thumb I remember from one of my eco books is that ecosystems tend collapse before the demands on them go beyond an overshoot of fifty percent. At our present rate of growth, that date would be: 2016.
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=overshoot

Balance the Wealth: This same group wants to balance the eco-wealth to prevent overshoot.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061013-footprint.html

655,000 Dead and Counting: The administration is dismissing this new study as ridiculous and flawed and that the official pentagon estimates are correct. Hmm, I have to wonder just who is more correct –military analysts who’ve never sat foot in Iraq and have every reason to lie, or researchers who went door to door inside the country to collect their data? Hello? When are people going to wake up? Have we become so inured to violence that numbers like these are no longer shocking?
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/10/D8KM6GL80.html

A Garbage Dump Twice the Size of Texas: So this is why all our garbage dumps haven’t filled up yet. We’ve been dumping lots of it in the Pacific Ocean. Now, that’s a real good way to deal with your garbage problem, isn’t it?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1011/p02s01-usgn.html

Forty Countries Face Food Shortages: Droughts, storms, and record temperatures have wreaked havoc on crop production world wide. The result is that more than forty countries may end up having food shortages this year. And the worst is Darfur –where a humanitarian disaster and genocide are all ready occurring.
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Forty_countries_face_food_shortages_10092006.html

American Prison Camps Are on the Way: A few weeks ago I mentioned the detention camps being built by Halliburton on U.S. soil. Here’s a very good –and scary –story solely about them.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/42458/

Why Does Habeas Corpus Hate America? Keith Olbermann’s take on the Military Commissions Act.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/10/olbermann-why-does-habeas-corpus-hate-america/

Danger Will Robinson! Danger! Even back in the forties the dangers of radioactivity were well known. So, given that, can anyone tell me WHY are we shooting depleted uranium shells all over Iraq? The consequences of all that uranium dust will affect the Iraqi population for thousands of years –and our own troops as well.
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2006/09/26/01233.html

6,200 Acres to be Protected: And mostly prime coastal real estate no less. And why? To save an endangered mouse. I’m glad this is being done obviously, but I wonder how well the mouse will be protected when sea level rises at least 3 feet in the next hundred years? Hmm…
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061013/APN/610131854

More than two terms? Several congressman are trying to build momentum to repeal the 22 Amendment, which limits Presidents to only two terms. Of course, this wouldn’t apply to our current President, any more than the new term limits applied to FDR. Or would it? King George has all ready given himself retroactive immunity for war crimes so why wouldn’t he go all the way if given the chance, and plop on a crown?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52246

Government Joke of the Week: This joke has been circulating for a while, but in quite a different form. You can think JonnyFire of Fuuse.com for the rewrite (and the picture). (What I want to know is who was flying the plane????)
An airplane is about to crash. There are five passengers on board, but only four parachutes.
The first passenger says “I am Payton Manning, the greatest football player in the game. Millions and millions of fans worship me, I am that important to the game.” With that he grabs the first chute and jumps out of the plane.
The second passenger, Hillary Clinton, says “I am the wife of the former president of the United States. I’m a Senator from New York, and have a good chance of being the first woman elected to the office of President.” She grabs the second parachute and bails out of the plane.
The third passenger, George W. Bush, says “I am the President of the United States of America. I am the smartest president in the history of the country, and cannot shun the responsibility to my people by dying.” With that, he takes the third chute and jumps out of the plane too.
The fourth passenger, the Pope, says to the fifth passenger, a young school boy of about ten, “I am old. I have lived my life as a priest should and so I shall leave the last parachute for you. You have the rest of your life ahead of you.”
The little boy responds by saying “Don’t fret old man… there is a parachute for each of us! The smartest president just jumped out of the airplane with my backpack.”

Website of the week: The Simple Living Network http://www.simpleliving.net/main/

UU Joke of the Week: A Unitarian Universalist died, and to his surprise discovered that there was indeed an afterlife
The angel in charge of these things told him, "Because you were an unbeliever and a doubter and a skeptic, you will be sent to Hell for all eternity -- which, in your case, conists of a place where no one will disagree with you ever again!

Social Justice News, 10-6-06

2006-10-06T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
This has been a busy week for news. I’ve tried to pull together as much as possible, but there was much more than I had time to look up.

Froogles –The No Shopping for a Year Challenge to Corporate Consumerism!: A good article about a group of folks who have pledged to buy nothing new (save food and the like) for an entire year:
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1800829.ece

Port Protesters Score Victory: Anti-war protesters arrested for trespassing in Washington state back in May will now have the chance to prove their actions were justifiable.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1004-12.htm

Dead Zones Have Doubled: Our seas are in worse shape than ever. Between all the sewage and fertilizer runoff, our seas are in danger of dying. And it’s only expected to get worse.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15118081/?GT1=8618

The Death Warrants of Millions: The latest results from the supercomputer runs on global warming are grim –and they may be far too conservative. By 2100, almost 1/3 of the planet’s land mass will be uninhabitable.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404255

The Human Factor in Being Green: How Cuba helped to overcome fossil fuels.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/in-the-battle-to-be-green-/2006/10/03/1159641321963.html

Foley Fallout: By now everyone has heard of the scandal surrounding Mark Foley and his “activities”. There’s a certain amount of black humor in this –no, of course not around his crimes; he committed arguably the worst possible crime anyone could commit and should be dealt with like any other predator. The black humor comes from the fact that he is a member of the “family values” party. This man is a “good” conservative gay-bashing bible-thumping Republican –who is himself openly gay. Furthermore, it’s apparently been long known in the House that he is a pedophile. Oh, it gets even better. This man was co-chair of the caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. The hypocrisy is astounding. And hilarious in that black humor kind of way. Furthermore, both FoxNews and the St. Petersburg Herald were given copies of the messages over a year ago and decided not to run the story. Supposedly, it was because ‘unfounded allegations of pedophilia against a congressman well known to be gay’ would have been devastating. Give me a break. And a barf bag. If the man had been a democrat they would have run the story. Not only that, but it would have been one f those ‘Fox News Alerts’ headlined “Liberal Homosexual Pedophile Run Amok In Washington”. This is what we our elected representatives have been doing?
http://www.alternet.org/story/42470/
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/03/america/NA_GEN_US_Congressman_Resigns.php

Non-Allegiance Equals Terrorism: Welcome to the Fascist Republic of America. Our Dictator-In-Chief has all ready stated that criticism dovetails with terrorism. Oh joy joy. The Founding Fathers must be turning over in their graves. Though I think that if Jefferson, at least, were still alive, King George II might not be sleeping so well.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100206A.shtml
http://infowars.com/articles/ps/terror_laws_torture_bill_bush_non_allegiance_is_terrorism.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-29-bush-war_x.htm?csp=34
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1004-35.htm

Over 2 Million Children Every Year: That’s how many kids under five die in India each year due to lack of clean water. And it’s only getting worse. This 3 part series from the New York Times explains in depth the struggle for water occurring in India as we speak. You won’t find this on CNN.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/world/asia/29water.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Where Do We Start?: This article discusses earth ships, and how they may help us move to a move sustainable lifestyle.
http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/sustainable-living-earthships/1/

Most Important Issue of the Day: This would be even funnier if it weren’t coming from an elected official. Ms. Musgrave thinks gay marriage, or rather stopping it, is the most important issue we face today. Oh yes, gays getting married is a much more serious problem than global warming, terrorism, fascism, etc. Um, right.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/27/musgrave-gay/

Website of the week: A whole bunch of eco-quotes. http://edugreen.teri.res.in/misc/quotes.htm

UU Joke of the Week: What two things do UUs and Dracula have in common?
They both have origins in Translyvania and they both shy away from the cross.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Social Justice News, 9-29-06

2006-09-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

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)

2006-09-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Social Justice News, 8-25-06

2006-08-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

Bush Pesticide Rules Are Illegal: Ole Dubya relaxed rules on pesticides so that producers didn’t have to ‘bother with’ the effects of their toxic chemicals on endangered species. Now a judge has thrown out those rules. One minor victory for the planet –and it’s endangered wildlife.
http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/006/judge-bush-administration-pesticide-rules-for-endangered-species-are-illegal.html

Six Steps to Beating Global Warming: This report outlines six ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions here in the U.S. However, in my opinion just cutting emissions, while absolutely necessary, won’t be enough. We need to find a way to capture some of the carbon dioxide all ready in the atmosphere. How can that be done? Some scientists are working on technofixes, but in the meantime there is a very simple, very effective, and completely natural way of sequestering carbon dioxide that every person can do. What is it? Plant a tree. That’s right. Every tree we plant takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The same for shrubs, flowers, etc. So if you want to help fight global warming, cut your emissions –and plant a tree!
http://www.pennenvironment.org/PEair.asp?id2=26153&id3=PE&id4=PEHP

I Fear God More Than Homeland Security: A Mexican woman is being sheltered in a Methodist Church in Chicago to avoid deportation –with the full compliance, and assistance of the churches pastor.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/22/1421217

Women Can’t Teach Men: A Sunday school teacher has been fired because of her sex. Her church has adopted a literal interpretation of the Bible, and says that means a woman can’t teach men or hold positions in the church. I don’t agree with it, but hey, I’m all about religious freedom and it’s their choice. I’ll let it pass, and without comment to boot. As long as they throw out all their polyester clothing and swear off shellfish as well.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/21/menonly.sundayschool.ap/index.html

South Africa’s Parliament Okays Gay Marriage: Another place may soon be on the right side of equality. Hmm, funny thing. This ‘Third World’ country is more progressive than we are. I wonder who really is the undeveloped one?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14499767/

FDA Okays Morning After Pill: Score! One more victory for women’s rights.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/24/morning.after.pill.ap/index.html

Website of the week: Another ecological footprint site, this one updated.
http://www.ecologicalfootprint.org/

UU Joke of the Week: It is said that when three UUs are together, among them on any subject there are at least four opinions!

Have a good weekend everybody.

Social Justice News, 8-3-06

2006-08-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

Oil Safari: One intrepid reported did what has long been considered impossible –he traced the gasoline from one station back to the ground from whence it came. The story is both insightful and intriguing. The first link is to the broadband site, which includes videos, audio files, an interactive map, and most interesting of all, a constantly running counter that shows how many barrels of oil our country has burned since you entered the site. The second link is to the story itself, for those of us who (like me) either don’t have broadband or prefer to read print stories. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/broadband/chi-oilsafari-html,0,7894741.htmlstory
http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-oil-about-story,0,2013022.htmlstory

Chicago Passes ‘Living Wage’ Law!!!!: Last week Chicago passed the first law in the nation to require a living wage for any of its workers. Granted, the law isn’t perfect –it applies only to employees of large retailers –but it’s a start!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5587612

Creationists Kicked Off Kansas School Board: Two of the Kansas school board members who voted to include ‘intelligent design’ in the classroom were voted out of office this week, much to the surprise of many.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/02/kansasevolution.ap/index.html

Tent Village: The growing controversy over the homeless in France. It should be noted that the controversy didn’t start until a well-meaning philanthropist started handing out tents to the homeless, and that most of the complaints are because of the ‘eye-sore’.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5612453

Confusion = Profit ABC has unearthed evidence that an electricity co-op in Colorado paid a global warming skeptic to produce ‘evidence’ that it wasn’t happening –all in the name of stopping customer complaints over its dirty, polluting, coal-fired power plants.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=2242565&page=1

It’s the Sun, Not that SUV: Yet another organization, this time of religious evangelicals, claiming that global warming isn’t happening, or that, if it is, the sun is the reason.
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0041403.cfm

‘Extra-Sunny’ (Satire): A satirical take on Bush’s determined denial of global warming.
http://www.bigfib.com/issue70/world4-en.html

Website of the week: A lot of interesting ideas for sustainable living.
http://www.eartheasy.com/

UU Joke of the Week: After the secular humanists came along, we said that UUs believe in One God - at Most.
Now, what with the 6th Source and the pagans, we say that UUs believe in One God - More or Less.

Handicapped Spots are for the Handicapped, Dumb A**!

2006-08-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

The blue Corvette is parked in the same spot everyday. It’s a real nice car, as are all corvettes. Brand new and shiny, it reflects the sunlight and gleams in the faint light of evening as much as the bright light of morning. Every morning it is parked in the handicapped parking spot nearest the back door of the building where I work. Most days there is a handicap tag in the window. The kind that hangs on the rear view mirror. Somedays the tag is not there but there is no real danger of a ticket being handed out here. Cops do not patrol business parking lots in this area.

For months I have walked past this Corvette on my way in and out of the office. I always go in and out the back way because it is nearest my desk. That car always catches my attention in the mornings. How could it not? The sun lights it up like a gleaming chariot. A car such as that promises speed, freedom, the wind in your hair, the American Dream. Or says the ads. My little Saturn is functional, practical, good on gas. It suits all my needs in a vehicle. I would never get something as impractical as a Corvette even if I won the lottery ten times over. That’s just not my style.

Still though, as I walk past that car every morning, I can’t help but wonder who owns it. Mostly because of where it is parked. It is strange, to see such a high end car parked in a handicapped spot. That the owner does not work for my company I have long known. Only one person here has a Corvette, an old, beaten-up model he got as a teenager and refuses to part with. Since my company is the biggest employer in the building, this knowledge only deepened the mystery. My natural curiosity peaked, I have been trying to spot the owner every morning for the last several months.

This morning I finally got my chance. I was a few minutes late, having been delayed by construction and an accident on the interstate. I parked as near the door as I could, as has been my custom since acquiring this contraption on my foot a few weeks ago. I was sitting in my car, the door open, trying to fasten the straps on my boot, when the Corvette came screeching into the parking lot. Engine growling, brakes squealing, he spun through the lot and past his accustomed spot. In the time it took to blink an eye he had whipped his Dream Machine around and backed into the spot. Intrigued, I watched him out of the corner of my eye while I finished adjusting the fit of the boot. Who was this strange man who was handicapped and at the same time could afford, and was capable of driving, one of the famed Corvettes?

The driver took his time getting out of the car. He checked his face in the mirror then took a comb and ran it through his brown hair. Almost as an afterthought he hung the handicap decal around the rearview mirror before stepping out of the car. I looked him up and down. Middle-aged, with a barely visible beer belly. A cigarette dangled from his lips. In one hand he held a latte. He swaggered –that was the only word for it –up to the smoking portico and lounged against a column while enjoying his deadly habit. Every now and then he took a swig of his drink from the cup with the Starbucks logo. His shirt was a Polo shirt. The real kind, not the $5 knock off that I am wearing today. No logo was visible on his pants, but they looked like real wool. His shoes I recognized as those popular with the executives of my company and many others. One pair is more than a week’s pay for the likes of me.

This man was not even remotely handicapped. He had no limp, no problems. His biggest ‘handicap’ was obviously his self-indulgence and his arrogant attitude. I am more handicapped than him, even without the broken foot. How had this man gotten a handicap decal, I wondered? Though the answer isn’t hard to fathom. It could be his mother’s, or his father’s, or he may have simply slipped the commissioner a fifty under the counter. It happens all too often in this world. And the result? People who really need such spots often can’t get them. During the last six months of her life my mother was in a wheel chair. Whenever we took her anywhere we had to constantly fight for such handicap spots. At least a dozen times I reported vehicles without handicap tags parked in spots marked for them. When I see such things I want to scream ‘Handicap Spots are for the Handicapped, you dumb ass!’

This man made my blood boil. As I approached him on my way in he deigned to notice me. Here I came, loaded down with all the things I bring to work everyday, with an obvious limp and a big ole black boot on one foot. He looked me up and down. Was that a little gleam of guilt in his eye? I hope so. He rushed to open the door for me. I walked through graciously and muttered a quick thanks.

Jerk.

Social Justice News, 7-27-06

2006-07-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m getting around better this week. Which is a good thing. Unfortunately, I can’t tell that by the way my foot is feeling. Oh well; it’ll get better in time. There’s a mixed bag of news this week –enjoy!

Washington Gay Marriage Ban Upheld: So much for equal rights in yet another state.
But a lawsuit challenging Maryland’s ban will go to that Supreme Court in December (see second article).
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060727/NEWS/607270368

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-gaymarriage0727,0,2896249.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Don’t Feed the Homeless: Las Vegas has made it illegal for anyone to feed homeless folks in city parks, thereby shutting down the mobile soup kitchens that they depend on. Apparently, these soup kitchens were making the parks ‘unusable’ by other city residents –meaning those with homes, food, and money. Orlando followed Las Vegas’ lead earlier this week.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0607250150jul25,1,1326773.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/26943

Hearsay May Be Used Against Detainees: This proposal would allow hearsay evidence to be admitted as evidence against the Guantanamo detainees. Gee, whatever happened to the burden of proof? Let’s see, the last time hearsay was used in the court was –oh yeah, the Salem witch trials. Maybe we need to resurrect the use of the term ‘witch hunt’.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/26/military.detainees.ap/index.html

Touring the North Pole for Signs of Climate Change: This NPR interview comes from a reported on board a Russian Icebreaker that takes people on tours of the North Pole. The fabled Northwest Passage, so long sought after by generations past, may soon become a reality.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5572495

Stop Flouting the Constitution, Mr. President: The bipartisan American Bar Association has determined that our Noble Leader’s use of signing statements is not only illegal, it violates the U.S. Constitution. Why do I think that he were of a different party –one that didn’t control Congress –the ‘I’ word would be in use? Gee, we can impeach a guy for having an affair but not for violating the Constitution?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/24/lawyers.bush.ap/index.html

Toxic Tin Cans: Those FEMA trailers so generously given to hurricane refugees may be poisoning the people they were meant to help.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14011193/

Website of the week: Do you know what YOUR impact on the planet is? Find out!
http://www.myfootprint.org/

UU Joke of the Week: Q: Do UUs ever pray?
A: Only when they think a democrat is going to lose an election.

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-07-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

I went to see An Inconvenient Truth again last night, this time with several members of my church. That movie is more scary than any horror movie I’ve ever seen. Then again, this is real –and it affects the entire human race and the whole planet, so how could it not be scary?

Afterwards a bunch of us went to a nearby coffee shop and had a discussion. Now, my church is a pretty enlightened group. We are UUs, after all. Everyone there knew going in what a big problem Global Warming is. And we’re all Liberals and involved in the Green Movement to one extent or another. So, I was astonished to discover how many of them passionately believe that we don’t need to worry that much –because our technology will save us.

I think I’m missing something here. Maybe it’s the definition of ‘save us’. Because the last time I checked, it was our technology combined with human nature that got us into this mess in the first place. If ‘save us’ is defined as keeping the human race from extinction and/or from destroying the planet, then I’ll buy it. But they seemed to think that it could stop global warming, preserve our civilization, and keep our lifestyles intact.

Hmm, in geek speak ‘Does Not Compute’. Now I love these people, don’t get me wrong on that, but I think that they are dead blind on this issue. How in the name of God is any technology going to stop this madness while also allowing us to maintain our wasteful, consumerist, disposable lifestyle? And that’s just for those of us in the first world; there are 6 billion plus people on this planet, and something like 80% of them do not live like we do. But they all want to, and it’s obvious why. So, do we deny them that if we are to continue living like that? We couldn’t even if we tried. It would also be highly unethical to oppress others in the name of self-advancement, no matter what the dictators of history and the modern day would say. But consider this: if even just China elevated all of its people to First World standards, it would DOUBLE humanity’s impact on the planet. Multiply that by another five.

Again, it does not compute. There is going to have to be a major paradigm shift in this world if we are to survive, much less conquer climate change. To take into effect the seriousness of this problem, just consider Greenland. It lost 52 miles of ice last year –some of that even in December. Furthermore, the rate of loss had doubled in the past five years. Let’s assume for a moment that this loss rate continues to increase linearly at 20% per year for the foreseeable future. In 45 years, the total amount of ice lost would be over 900,000 square miles. The total area of Greenland is only 822,000 square miles. Now, obviously this is a very simplistic model. It doesn’t take into account the volume of the ice, only the area, it doesn’t allow for the small amount of refreezing and new ice fall in winter –and it doesn’t take into account that such a system is really non-linear, and the acceleration rate increases exponentially as time passes. So, despite its limitations the message is clear –without immediate drastic action, the Greenland Ice Sheet will be gone by the time my as yet to be born children enter college. Sea levels will rise up to 20 feet world wide, inundating low-lying areas and displacing millions upon millions of people.

What I ask you, are the chances of anything being done to stop this in time? Or of any measures taken having effectiveness? In today’s world, I estimate the probability at just above zero.

Which brings me to my next point. The movie included a great quote from Winston Churchill:

“The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place, we are entering a period of consequences."

We have all ready entered that period of consequences. From here on there will just be more of them, and they will be harsher. The true consequences of climate change can not be measured in money, or property loss. Stronger storms, rising sea levels, droughts, all of these things also are not good measures. The true measure is in lives, human and otherwise. ONE human life lost unnecessarily is too many. Never mind more.

We passed that threshold long ago. The tragedies in Niger and Darfur are occurring partly because of the drought that has dried up most of Lake Chad. The drought was due at least in part to climate change. The thousands dead in the heat waves across Europe a few years ago, in the flooding worldwide, the deaths due to Katrina. All of these are due in part or in whole due to climate change. We are responsible for them as a species.

It will get worse. Many more are going to die. I do not mean to sound like a doomsayer; I am merely reading the writing that’s on the wall for all who have eyes to see. And it breaks my heart. I see every early death as a tragedy beyond compare. I wish with all my heart and soul that we can find a way to stop this madness before it’s too late. But I’m afraid it all ready is for too many. The question is now, not can we stop it before it gets too bad, but how much will we lose before we come to our senses?

Lebanon and Morality

2006-07-20T19:21:00.001-07:00

The longer I live and the more I experience the more I come to realize that there are very few moral absolutes in the world. There are very few firm lines, places where you can draw a line and say this is right and this is wrong; here is the light and here is the dark. Mostly, there are a lot of shades of gray in between light and dark. Or so I’ve come to find.

Take the situation in Lebanon for instance. There’s no real dispute that Hezbollah is a terrorist group. I define ‘terrorist group’ as a group that knowingly and deliberately attacks civilians. I don’t go in for the definitions that are bandied about these days and keep expanding; to hear some folks talk, any form of dissent constitutes terrorism! And I’m well aware that some governments fall under my definition of terrorist group.

Back to Hezbollah. Yes, they’re terrorists. And terrorism is wrong. Period. But –I can see what drives them to it. It doesn’t condone it, but it does explain it. It goes back to the old adage, desperate people do desperate things. Take away someone’s options and they will react by taking whatever is left. I may condemn their means, but I can’t condemn everything about them out of hand.

And then there’s Israel. Yes, they’re responding to the kidnapping of two of their soldiers. But –does that justify what they’ve done? They’ve not only attacked Hezbollah, but they’re pretty much destroying Lebanon a bit at a time. They’ve destroyed the airport and every bridge, bombed every major road, taken out factories, hospitals, schools. Not to mention residences and apartment complexes and everything else. Hundreds of Lebanese civilians are dead, and more will surely follow. If not in the fighting then in the humanitarian crisis that will inevitably come hard on the heels of the fighting. People will die from starvation, disease, and worse. All of this –over two soldiers? And we’re supporting it.

Both sides are in the wrong here. But is either side more wrong. And, how much more blood must be shed before this insanity is stopped?

The Miracle of Life

2006-05-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

It's no secret I love to garden. I love to plant something and watch it reach for the sun. There's very little else in life that give me that kind of satisfaction. I platned flowers this year, and I planted some of them a little too early. Those were coral impatiens, beautiful flowers. Two of them I put in pots on the front porch and the rest in my beds. A few days later we had an unexpected cold snap. The pansies and such were okay, but it killed off all the impatiens. Or so I thought. I waited about a week and a half and then got some flowers to replace them with. All the ones in my flower beds were brown and withered by this point. So were the two in the pots. But when I looked closely at one, there was the faintest hint of green showing through the soil. I didn't think it would make it, but I had to give it a chance. Slowly, as the days passed, it put out new shoots and began to grow. It was a four-inch plant when I planted it. This morning when I checked on it, it was six or seven inches tall and about twice that in width. And it full bloom.
You never know. Life is the greatest miracle of all.

Garbage, Garbage, Garbage

2006-05-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

My office is moving tomorrow, so today is the last-minute packing rush. They are throwing away tons of stuff -literally mountains and mountains of it. Not just 'trash' either; but unopened soda cans and everything else. They pretty much opened the company fridge and just dumped stuff in the trash so they won't have to cart it over! And that's just one example; it's happening all over the building. And they won't let anyone have it. Not only that, but when I suggested recycling the recyclables, they gave me a weird look and said "We don't have a recycling bin anymore -it was too much hassle, so we got rid of it."
Hello? This is ridiculous. This is what is wrong with our society -everything is throwaway these days. Including the people.

Life and Such

2006-05-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

Some random observations on life and such. I’ve changed so much in the past couple of years. Things I used to want I no longer do. If I ever did. I’ve grown into myself more. I’m more comfortable in my own skin. It’s easier to be myself now that I’m not constantly having to hide who that is! Though I’m still struggling with depression, I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. Which says a lot. I’m more comfortable supporting what I believe in. In fact, I’ve become a regular little firebrand. I have a gay marriage bumper sticker on my car. I won’t take it into Redneckville because of that, but I don’t car what anyone thinks of me anymore. When something’s wrong I speak up more often now than I ever did.

But back to dreams. It helps to know that I was raised in bone-crushing poverty. My family was often homeless during my childhood. There were times I happily ate out of trash cans. Between that and our consumerist culture I know why I wanted what I did. To put it simply: I wanted it all. The big house on the hill with the four car garage, and too many cars to fit inside. I wanted the expensive wood floors throughout, the skylights in the bathroom, the granite countertops, and the marble flooring in the bathroom. I wanted a walk-in closet the size of a bedroom (ok, I still want this, lol) and a Mercedes in the driveway. I wanted designer clothing and a high-powered career. Expensive vacations in Europe and a ski lodge in the mountains. Jewelry worth more than most people’s cars. Partly I wanted these things to prove to myself and others that I am worth something, and partly to make up for my childhood.

With the exception of that closet (I am a woman after all) I no longer want any of that. Part of it is that I don’t need it: nothing material will ever prove that I’m worth something, even if I became as rich as Bill Gates. Part of it is that I don’t need it and just don’t want it. Another part is my environmentalism, and another is that I simply don’t want to be a materialist. I’ve seen what it does to people now. I’ll never forget when this finally sank in. When I woke up one day. Intellectually I had known it all along, but it never penetrated until this one moment. It was one of those aha! Epiphanies that people sometimes have.

I was at work about a year ago now. I had my desk in a cube, but I worked in this itsy bitsy lab with about twenty other people. I usually had my headphones on to keep my claustrophobia from getting out of control. Well, I had just finished a meeting and this guy was telling me and the other lady how the closet in his new house was all ready too small. His wife’s stuff jammed it and he didn’t have any room. They had just finished this house a few months before. Thinking it was the size of my closet, I asked him how big it was. The answer: 40 x 24 feet. I was floored. My house isn’t 40 feet long, much less my closet! The other woman told him he’d better get busy planning his next house, because it wasn’t long before his growing daughter would need that much space.

While I was mulling this over, the conservation shifted along. Somehow it got to music, and this woman pulled out her brand spanking new mp3 player. It was state of the art, and held a gizallion songs or something. The other guy congratulated her; his only held half that many, and he would have to upgrade. She was ridiculously gleeful that she’d outdone him. Okay, but this was the same woman who the Thursday before this had been telling another woman (in private, they assumed I couldn’t hear because of the headphones, which is a bad assumption) about her money problems. They were barely making ends meet, and her husband was looking at taking on a second job. And yet, over the weekend, she had gone out and plunked down several hundred dollars on this mp3 player. She’d had to stop buying milk and eggs for her kids, and couldn’t pay the heating bill until a week after it was due, but she could afford this thing?

What the f*^#? I’m thinking by this time. So I get back to work, and I’m thinking this over. It gets even better. This was Monday morning; on Friday two of the other guys had been having a good-natured argument. They had been watching football for years together at the one’s house, because he had a big screen tv. Well, the other had just bought a plasma tv with an even bigger screen, and he was jiving his friend that when football season rolled around, they were going to have switch which house they watched it at. This upset the first guy to know end. Allright, so right after lunch that Monday when all this other stuff happened, he comes in and makes an announcement, in front of his friend, and everything: his brand-new, larger screen than the empire state building, plasma tv, had been delivered this morning. And everyone else started kidding him about one-upping his friend.

And this is normal behavior for engineers. Everyone has this one-upmanship going on. Who has the better clothes, the bigger and newer SUV, the biggest house in the best neighborhood. Who has the most amenities, who went on the best vacation, who has the most stuff, what you’re getting next. More more more more more more More More MORE!!!!!!!! All the time. It was then, when everyone was kidding this guy who had plunked down 7,000+ dollars on a tv (I had a good idea how much it cost because I’d been browsing Best Buy that weekend), when I had this epiphany. Why? Why all this stuff? Why this race to see who can acquire the most stuff? Who can consume the most and make the most? Our entire culture, and not just the world of engineers, is based on this mentality of He Who Spends the Most is the Winner. Well, that’s great, but when was the last time you saw a hearse with a luggage rack? Paupers and princes end up in the same place. It’s not necessary. And in the final analysis, when you look at the costs of all this, who’s going to be paying for it? Not the people gleefully rushing to buy an mp3 player with their grocery money. It’s going to all our children and grandchildren.

I realized two things in this moment simultaneously. One, I didn’t want to live like this. I really, really didn’t. And two, despite all my problems and my past, in a very real way I was better off as a person than these people. I didn’t and don’t need a big screen tv to boost my self-esteem and make me feel good about myself. Even with my dysthymia, most days I feel better about myself than that! At most, I’ll go out and buy some chocolate. Or go for a ride on my bike.

Where am I now, I guess? I want a simpler life than that. I don’t mean an easy, comfortable everything done for you life. Just one that’s not focused around materialism as the end all be all of everything. I want a good career, one I can feel proud of myself for. One I can help people in. And I want my little mini farm, with my green house, my garden, my chicken run, and my dairy cow. And I want things I didn’t let myself want until a couple of years ago: a partner and kids. I don’t think I’ll ever have them still, but I do want them.

I’m working to simplify my life and give it more meaning. Giving up my cable was the best thing I’ve ever done. In the past three weeks, I’ve watched two dvds and that’s all the tv I’ve seen. I haven’t vegged out in front of it like I used to do. I’ve had more quiet time, more time to think, and less distractions. I’ve been working on other things. Myself first and foremost.

Peace out.

Random Grumblings on a Rainy Morning

2006-04-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

I stopped at the store last night to get a couple of things. They had Barbie dolls on sale out front. I was walking by and looking at them and I remembered a couple of things I hadn't thought about in years. When I was a little girl, Barbies were all the rage. Girls brought them to school to play with at recess. Whoever had the most Barbies and the best clothes and so forth was the coolest of the day. In the game, Barbie was always married to Ken. For some reason this was the way things were 'supposed' to be. Now, I never played with the girls at school. But when I was home, I had about 3 barbies. Barbie, Ken, and Barbie's best friend, whose name I can't remember. In my game, Barbie and Ken were still married, because that was again the way things were supposed to be. But Ken was a truck driver and always on the road, so Barbie lived with and spent all her time with her best friend. The other thing I remembered was back in Kindergarten I got in trouble because I didn't like to play house the way we had to. Yes, we had to play house. The point was to teach us about family, societal, and gender roles. A few kids were chosen to be children each time, and the others were divided into Mommies and Daddies. I refused to be Mommy. Why? Two reasons. One was that Daddy got to go to work (which meant play with the trucks and legos and such) while Mommy had to stay in the pretend house and cook, clean, and play with the children. Who wants to do that? And the main reason I wanted to be Daddy was because I'd get to be married to a Mommy! I told my teacher this and her jaw dropped. She called my parents.I think the only person surprised by me being gay was me. :)

On another note, what is wrong with some people? A couple who lives in my subdivison was running radar on the road outside it yesterday. He'd pulled over one of our other neighbors. Nothing to build community like giving your neighbors speeding tickets. Then again, this particular cop is one swastika patch shy of full memebership in the Neo-Nazi party. Then I got into my subdivision and a little girl was playing with a ball in her yard. She threw it too hard and it rolled out into the road. Nothing wrong with that; it happens all the time. I stopped the car of course; well, the ball started rolling downhill and lodged under the front end of my car. So I put the car in park, got out, and pulled the ball out and tossed it to the little girl. Meanwhile, two more drivers had come up behind me and were honking their horns and cussing me. One started to go around, and stopped when I walked into the other side of the road to toss the ball.People. Can't live without 'em, but sometimes you'd like to.This morning it was pouring down rain. Princess loves all water except bathwater. Tiny doesn't mind baths but hates all other water. So Princess was playing in the rain and Tiny was refusing to go to the bathroom. I had to haul him in and out three times before he finally went. When we came back in the last time we were both soaked. My oldest cat was sitting on the table and gave me a look that clearly said: What do you expect, dumb ass? This is what happens when you bring a dog into the house.

Playful Today

2006-04-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

So cool, I'm really playful today. This is really weird, lol. I'm almost 23 years old. I can't be playing! I mean I'm playful like I was imaginary sword-fighting with the duster earlier. And I have the craziest impulse to go 'kidnap' Robbie from class and drag him out to mini golf. Or something. This is frickin' weird. But...okay. Better than being so depressed I can't stop crying my eyes out. Me and my dysthymia.It seems to be a little better this week -otherwise how could I feel this way?Anyway, I'm off to do housework and play in the sun.
Peace out!

Bad Mood

2006-04-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

So we had a tornado sandwich here last night. I had three tornados pass a few miles to the north, and two a few miles to the south. The closest one came real near the other side of my mountain. Like a mile near. If it had came a bit closer it would almost certainly have taken out my church, then lifted over the mountain and sat down right in my subdivision. And probably taken out both my house and the house of the other UU family down the street. Sure, and plenty of others too, but I can just imagine what the evangelicals here in town would make of that when it got round to them! Repent ye sinners, for the Lord has judged you!

There wasn’t much damage, except for the torrential rainfall caused water to seep into the baseboards and into my bathroom and walk-in closet. I will be having a conversation with the builder Monday morning. The whole house is still under warranty so he has to fix it. This morning I went out to check the property and discovered that one of my rosebushes has not one, not even two, but at least half a dozen buds on it! It’s not supposed to bloom for another year. I’ll see if it does or if these are false starts.

Of course, it was still overcast today and it turned cold again, which does NOT help my dysthymia. I’m rather proud of myself on the spending front though. All I got this weekend that I didn’t absolutely have to have was film for my camera, an extra dozen eggs, and one of those egg coloring sets. I’m going to color eggs for the kids at church to hunt next weekend. And I got a new lawn mower. I rationalized this because a) the lawn has to be mowed, b) the old one is broken and fixing it would cost more than the new mower and c) it’s cheaper to buy a mower than to pay someone to do it. This is a better mower anyway, much more sustainable. Not to mention cheap! It’s the old push mower type.

As usual, my own plans for this weekend are housecleaning and watching a movie. The last night I had someplace to go on Saturday night that wasn’t a church function was to my best friend’s 50th birthday party. In October. Quite obviously, I have no life. So here I am, sitting here Saturday night with nothing to do and completely, utterly depressed. Big surprise there on the depression. I am dysthymic after all. Having dysthymia is a lot like being locking in a glass house away from the world but observing everything. You keep trying to find the way out and instead end up getting discouraged because what’s the point? This, accompanied by nearly constant cynicism and depression. It limits my career choices; I want to go into the people helping professions but I have to be careful what I pick. Not social work (though that’s ruled out by being gay anyway), and not a therapist. Like the old joke goes, the only thing worse than a dysthymic shrink is a dysthymic preacher. So social work and psych are out, that pretty much leaves sociology. Becoming an academic. Oh well. It’s better than engineering. Or I could stay in engineering and go into civil and build roads. Only I don’t want to do that either.

In a way being dysthymic is an advantage. I’ll never a partner or family, and despite the advantages of that there are downsides I’ll never have to deal with. I’ll never have to figure out dating, or the whole couple thing, try to figure out a relationship or get married, never have to deal with in-laws, never have to worry about kids. And when I fall I know upfront that I’m going to get my heartbroken. Which is a sight better than the anxiety I’ve seen others go through! I may joke about wanting to date but I know better. I couldn’t function in that kind of relationship, and it wouldn’t be right to ask someone else to put up with my constant sourness. So that will always remain an unattainable dream, unless a miracle should happen and my dysthymia should go away. Right.
And I think I need a drink.

Spring is Finally Here

2006-04-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

Spring is here at last. The entire world is in bloom. At least my hemisphere, at any rate. Yesterday the trees in my backyard were mostly barren, covered only with a thousand tiny buds that would soon be leaves. Overnight they opened, and when I stepped out onto my patio this morning I was greeted by the sight of those beautiful young leaves, so green and new against the old, brown bark of the trees that had worked so hard to birth them. A thresh sat on one limb of my tallest tree, trilling its song to the dawn sun that was slowly rising behind my house. Its mate answered the call from above, where she was circling in the clear blue sky. They are building a nest in that tree. Soon I will have little baby birds chirping outside my bedroom. I am certain I will be quite annoyed with this development at six am on Saturday mornings, but I am overjoyed that of all the yards in my neighborhood, they have chosen mine in which to raise their family.

The roses in my front yard are thriving. One has grown several inches since I planted them only a few weeks ago. My pansies, snapdragons, and marigolds are in full bloom. I thought I had lost all of the impatiens in the cold snap last week, but wonder of wonders, one of them is slowly starting to recover. My dogs don’t know quite what to make of all these developments. At this time last year Tiny was not yet born and Princess was still new to this world, her eyes not even open. So this is their first real spring. It is an utter joy to watch them delight in something as simple as the first green blades of grass poking through the faded brown of last years final growth.

I too am changing as the days grow longer and warmer. Spring is the time of birth, or growth, and of renewal. I can feel all the new life entering the world and it gives me the first hope I’ve had in months. Winter is necessary. Aye, for life can not exist without periods of rest, and in the end the death that must come to all. But I dislike the starkness, the barrenness of it, and the sorrow that death must exist at all. Yet, where would we be without it? Life is precious only because of our mortality. If we were to live forever, what worth would one laugh, one kiss, one love hold? Because we must die, and because that death could come knocking at any moment, each of these is made precious to us. For we know that someday they –and we –shall be gone. And all that shall be left behind are memories of what was, and the love that was given.

Strange, to be thinking of Death at this time of Life new-born. But the two are forever entwined. I have spent the past couple of years seeking. I thought that I knew the path I would take in life. God and Fate had other ideas. I have spent the time since seeking my road, and the meaning of it all. Last night I dove down into the darkness, into all the pain and the suffering I have undergone. Today I am looking at the lighter side of things, of love and hope and joy. Once upon a time I lost God, only to find her in the veins of a leaf on an autumn day. And again in the eyes of a puppy who desperately needed a home, and who laid down on my feet at a street festival and refused to move. And has been both my biggest source of both joy and consternation ever since.

I have been lost for so long that I have no idea what it would feel like to be found. My previous anchoring was unsteady, one based on arrogance and pride. Both the natural results of being a teenager and having to shield oneself from the harsh reality of an unsafe world merely to survive. And when I found myself in a world where I no longer had to continually fight for survival, the dam that held back the swollen river of emotions from flooding my soul broke and I was swept out to sea. Ever since I have been lost there.

But slowly over the past few years guideposts have been emerging from the darkness. UU, my friends, the over-active lab puppy so eager to get her food in the morning she accidentally knocks me over and scatters it as often as not. I may not yet know who and what I am, but I have a clear sense now of my beliefs and my values.

And I think that maybe, just maybe, I am starting to gain a small glimmer of the meaning of Life. Or at least, the meaning of my life. And it’s nothing like what I was taught to believe or expected. It’s not about success, or money, or one-upmanship, not how many friends one has or how much, not achieving dreams or goals, not about being liked or earning points towards getting into heaven. And I may have learned it from my dogs.

I think that life just may be about one thing and one thing only: Love. Giving as much of it as you can to everything you can. Family, friends, neighbors, pets, even the Earth itself. This is how my dogs live. They don’t know fear, or anger, or jealousy, or hurt. All they know is love. Slowly I’m beginning to think that maybe that is why we are here as well. To love as much as possible. Even if no ever loves you in return, and if that love is never recognized by anyone. And despite all the trials and tribulations that go along with being alive.

Maybe this is right and maybe it’s wrong. But it’s the only meaning I’ve ever stumbled across that makes any sense to me at all. This revelation came to me while I was eating lunch, of all things. I still have no idea who or what I really am. And even the answer to this may change.

But it’s a start. And in the meantime, the sun is shining and spring is here. What more could I ask for?

Seeking in the Dark

2006-04-05T04:18:00.000-07:00

Seeking in the Dark

I was born
In the dark
No light to guide
A crooked path
No hand to hold
Clinging only to Hope
Crawling on hands and knees
Reaching for Light
That wasn’t there
Longing for an exit

There are only three universal truths for all members of humanity. We are born, we all will die, and in between we will know both joy and suffering. How much of each of these emotions each one of us shall experience is partialed out unequally. Some will have mostly joy, and some mostly suffering. And some shall know equal amounts of each.

But why? What is the purpose behind it all? Or is there one? Why do we live, why do we die, and what are we anyway? As Rev. Forrest Church said, if there is a meaning to life, then it must be universally accessible. Every person must be able to find out if they try hard enough.

Maybe the meaning of life is different for each person and that’s what makes it so hard to find. I am certainly still seeking that meaning. And it is nowhere in sight. I still have not adequately answered the relatively simple questions of who and what am I, much less made any headway on the hardest question of all!

Wearing this eyepatch the past couple of days has really made me think. With only half my vision, my normal clumsiness has gotten even worse and I’ve managed to bump into doors, hit my head on the mailbox, and half a dozen other things just from not being able to see out of both eyes. Yet, I tend to have about half that many accidents when I have the use of both eyes. So even then I don’t see anything.

How much does anyone really see? Not just everyday objects. I mean everything. Reality. God. The universe. I think we are all seeking in the dark. For the truth, for the Light, for what’s right and wrong. Some of us see more than others I’m sure. And I’m also certain there are those among us who are completely blind. And we all descend into darkness at some point or other in our lives. As Etheridge said ‘there comes a time we all know, there’s a place we must go, into the soul, into the heart, into the dark.’

I’m listening to that song now as I write this. It reminds me so much of my life up to this point. I was born in the dark, and have spent my whole life looking for a way out of it. The real me was hidden away for many many years as I fought to survive. ‘I’ve been here…sleeping all these years.’ It wasn’t safe for me to be who I am all that time. It wasn’t safe for me to be anybody, just a barely functioning robot struggling only for survival. And longing for escape.

There’s a question that haunts me sometimes. Who would I be if things had been different? I have part of the answer now I think. Sometimes when I look in the mirror I see her, not as my reflection but deep inside it. A confident, charming, and yes sexy young woman who knows who and what she is and is comfortable with the world and herself. Who doesn’t carry around the pain and the burdens that I do. She is not weary of the world and its ills. She has never experienced them. She is me and yet not me…she is the me that might have been. I can never be that young woman, but I can someday be something like her. Only tempered by the pains of care and refined by the burden of all the suffering I have seen and experienced. She is steel unforged; I am steel that has been hardened and tempered by the heat of the fire and is slowly being honed into a fine blade. I went through Hell after all, and survived. There’s something to be said for that.

Why? What is the reason for everything? Is there one? There has to be. I can no more imagine a meaningless universe than I can imagine there not being a God. Though at one point, I had no faith in Her. I could not reconcile what I had been through Then I matured enough to realize that God had nothing to do with it. I am still no closer to my answer of why. But at least –at least I am certain that there is a reason. That is more than could be said for the lost, lonely, aching 16 year old I once was. Seven years later I am not quite as lost or lonely as I was then, and am not in nearly as much pain. I am still in pain, and still have some healing to do, but I have come very, very far.

My path has not been easy. It has been broken, twisted, and winding. There have been no markers to mark the way and many obstacles have had to be overcome. And all of it in complete darkness. Only the hope of one day finding the Light has kept me going. I look at others my age and I don’t understand them. I am both older and younger than them in ways that are hard to explain. And just plain different. They have done things I never have and may never do –they have been in relationships, they’ve had families, some are married and have their own kids, they have been places and seen things I never have. I don’t get their jokes, their clothing, their music, or their behavior. And they don’t get me either. Most don’t understand how I can be so dour, so set apart, so …old. And I don’t see how they can be so care free and so young. They puzzle me. They’ve never been abused, much less to the extent that I was. They’ve never been homeless. They haven’t ever been without a decent meal, much less been hungry enough to eat out of the trash! None of them have ever seen blood spilt or watched another person die. They haven’t ever had to deal with the trauma I’ve undergone. Unlike them I have never known a loving family or any love in general. But I survived. Will I ever figure them out? I hope so. I just have to finish figuring myself out first.

In the past few years I have healed enough to slowly begin to see the Light. It has been a long, hard, and difficult task. And one that is not yet completed. Lately I have been descending back into the dark deliberately –down into the depths of my soul, where that little girl I once was still hides in terror. I have done so in order to find her and coach her towards the light above. One slow, small step at a time. Facing my past is not easy. There are parts of it I may never be able to look at directly. But facing it is necessary for me to grow and heal as a person. I am not a normal person, but I am human. Very, very human.

Where am I going with this? I’m not certain. Any more than I’m certain of where I’m going in life. I guess I’m taking stock of where I’ve been, where I’m at, and trying to figure out where to go from here. I’ve come so far in the past five years alone. Since coming of age I’ve admitted and even become proud of being gay, gotten my engineering degree, bought a house, found UU, and developed the first real friends I’ve ever had. I’ve even fallen in love twice, and gotten severely burned both times because both girls wanted nothing to do with me. I’ve even become quite the leader, which is still a surprise to me when I wake up and realize it. Sometimes I turn around and go wtf? What happened? It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in my first college class trying to remember to breathe. The first person in my family to make it to college –all that pressure!

When I started college I chose my major based on three things. What I would make, if I could do it –and whether or not I would have to do a lot of work with people. I wanted to make a lot of money, I could do anything I sat my mind to and knew it, and I wanted to avoid people as much as possible. I didn’t understand them and all they ever caused me was pain. So I walked the halls of first chemistry and then engineering for these reasons. The classes were easy. They rarely challenged me. But then, very little ever has. Even quantum physics was a breeze. Somewhere along the way something I changed. I discovered my favorite subjects weren’t the math and physics I spent so much time studying. They were psychology and sociology, philosophy and religion, English and poetry, history and cultures. But you couldn’t make any money in those fields. And, more importantly, they were people fields.

Somewhere in there I started to like people. I developed a deep need to connect with others. As my wounds began to heal I developed an intense need to be around humans. The inherent social tendencies of all apes, suppressed so long inside me for survival, began to emerge. At first I filled these needs by getting out and about. Spending an hour in Wal-mart surrounded by people was enough at first. But gradually I needed more. So I began to reach out, slowly at first. And I screwed up terribly. And more than once. I was like a child just learning to crawl or to walk. In some ways I often still am. I got involved in activities more and more. As I became more comfortable I was able to open up and even express opinions. Then when I started to notice things that need to be done I would step in and take charge and do them. By my last year in college I was serving as an officer in three different organizations. Two of them were service organizations.

I developed an intense need to and a liking for helping others. More and more over the past several years I have found myself involved directly in work to benefit others. Always unpaid and usually unnoticed. It’s become a driving force in my life, a passion unrivaled by anything else.

Last year I finished college and started working full time. I had done so part time before that of course, but always in different types of settings. Suddenly I found myself locked away in all-grey environments under fluorescent lighting and with virtually no human contact. And no windows anywhere. I’m lucky to see the sunshine twenty minutes each day on my way to and from work. And the work I’m doing isn’t nice; I work on missiles for the military, tapping on a computer all day. I can’t find a different sort of job in my industry. My new job has a better environment and better pay, but it’s basically the same sort of thing.

I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life. Or even another year. I have to do it that long –bills. But then I want to change. To what? I don’t know precisely. Yet. I want to dedicate my life to helping others. That much I know for certain. I know it in my bones the same way I know the sun will rise tomorrow. The how and the way still needs to be worked out. I don’t care so much for money anymore, as long as I make enough to pay the bills. I just …want to help.

So I’m seeking. In the dark, as always. Not on my hands and knees anymore. But stumbling forward cautiously, hoping not to fall off a precipice. I’m still healing from all that was done to me, and dealing with the chronic health problems I now have. I’ve healed enough to develop relationships with others, to take my first tentative steps into the world. Even to fall in love. Not once, but twice. A street rat in love –Aladdin without the genie. I’ve made my peace with the God I once ceased to believe in. And even to find a religion that accepts me for who I am and doesn’t persecute me. Hell, I’ve actually become an opinionated, annoying little so and so at times.

And I’ve started looking for the answers to the big question. Why, what, how. Life. The universe and everything. And I know the answer is far more than and yet as simple as 42. I’m made my peace with God, and she and my spirituality have become central to my life. But I’m at a crossroads once again –and as always, seeking in the dark.

Politics and Other Matters

2006-04-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

Another day in the life. The morning was hectic as usual. All three cats are still sick with the kennel cough, and my puppy ripped out his suture last night. It’s all right, and the vet said just to keep and eye on it and bring him in if it tries to reopen or anything. Princess was her normal overactive self, knocking me over while I was trying to put her morning food out. I keep hoping she’ll settle down one of these days, but somehow I don’t see that happening.

I was watching the news this morning. Bad idea, I know. But sometimes I just can’t help it. Yesterday what’s his name was found eligible for the death penalty. Does this surprise anyone? I doubt it, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of months. Especially after that show he put on last week. I think this is ridiculous though. Not because of any problem with the death penalty. Unlike most UUs, I’m actually pro-death penalty. There are a lot of reasons for that, and I won’t get into them here. But where this case is concerned, it’s flat out ridiculous. He wants to die. If he dies, he becomes a martyr for the terrorism movement. That’s all need to do –give them another martyr. Right. Send him off to do hard labor for the rest of his life. He deserves it. But don’t kill him.

Then there was Mister Tom Delay. He’s resigning from Congress and has announced that he won’t run again. He claims this is because of the Democrats. Wait a minute –he’s been indicted on money laundering charges, but his resignation from Congress is the other party’s fault? Riggghhhhhhtttt. And a pig just flew past my non-existent office window. Sorry, I’m going to have to throw the bullshit flag down on this one. Get a life, Mr. Delay. And learn to own up for your own mistakes.

In other areas, one of my best friends operation to determine whether or not she has ovarian cancer is two weeks from tomorrow. I’m nervous and a little terrified. She’s the first and best friend I have ever had. To me she is family. And I can’t stand the thought of any one else I care for having cancer. I think about it and get a lump in my throat. She’ll be okay, I’m sure, but I am still worried about her.

Random Thoughts on Monday Morning

2006-04-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Being a short-timer here at work, I have nothing to do, so I thought I’d update this blog with a long post. Last night I was getting ready for bed, and taking care of my ‘kids’. All five of them. I had to kiss each of them good night and tell them I loved them. And right before I laid down (just like right before I leave to go anywhere) I had to do the Cat Count: make sure I could find each of the cats, so I knew they weren’t locked in a closet or my office or anything. With my cats that happens on a regular basis. The same cat got locked into the laundry room yesterday morning and my office yesterday evening. Anyway, I was doing all this, and suddenly the thought struck me: I won’t always have them. Someday, they will all be gone. I may have new ones by then, but these will be gone. And suddenly I couldn’t breathe. For a long moment I stood there, overwhelmed by the emotions raging inside my heart. Then I did the only thing I could do: I found each of them, and in turn held them and kissed them and generally made sure they knew how much I loved them. I slept a whole lot better because of that.

This morning I had to keep reminding myself how much I loved them –because they all, every single one of them, caused some kind of trouble while I was trying to get ready for work. And this was on top of the Comedy of Errors that played out this morning. It’s not funny, but it is. I went to put my contacts in when I got up at six. Somehow, I put the right one in backwards. And it had a tear in it that I didn’t notice. Of course, I went to take it out right away. And couldn’t. It was stuck. I tried and tried, and couldn’t get it out. So eventually I had to go on and finish feeding the pets, letting them out to potty, etc etc. All while furiously blinking one eye and unable to see out of it at all. I kept stopping to try and get the dratted contact out, and couldn’t. Somewhere in all the chaos, between tripping over the cat who wouldn’t get out from underfoot, chasing down my poodle to give him his meds, and all the other chaos of early morning, the contact fell out on its own. And I didn’t realize it. So I kept trying to get it out –and I was tugging on my eye lens! Gradually, it dawned on me that this wasn’t working –and it hurt really bad to boot. So I finally figured it out, and put in another contact. And made it to work half an hour late because of it.

Speaking of work, I’m trying to figure out this career thing. Part of me feels like I have to limit my options because of the dysthymia nonsense, and part of me says that shouldn’t matter. I tend to be fine on the weekends –it’s sitting in this all grey environment under fluorescent lighting tapping on a computer and isolated from people all week that gets to me. I can’t do this for the rest of my life. Yeah, I’m changing jobs, but the work there is along the same lines. The biggest differences are the pay, the location, and the fact that they have some windows there. I’ve done the calculations, and without a miracle I’m going to be doing this sort of thing for the next five years. That’s how long it will take me to pay off all my and finish school for something else. Assuming I figure out pretty quickly what it is I want to do, and convince myself that I can do it. So I’m looking at another five years of not wanting to get up in the morning and hating my job. Five years. I’m not sure I can stand this line of work for that long.

And then there’s what do I want to do? I want to be in some kind of work where I can work with and help people. But I don’t know what. And I’m not sure how my ongoing battle should affect my choices. I know the majority of my problems are caused by my current work environment –but how much? And how well could I tolerate being around people 24/7? I don’t know the answer. I grew up so isolated and was so abused that I just don’t have the tools and the skills normal folks do!

And of course there’s love. Sigh. How many more times do I have to get my heart broken before I learn my lesson? Probably a lot more. I still won’t have gotten so much as a date by the end of it! I’m getting to the age where I’m just going to have to accept the fact that it isn’t going to happen for me. Not without a miracle at any rate. I could look for it, but the odds of finding it are about the same as if I don’t. Virtually zero. If I could turn that part of my brain off, I would. Just to avoid the pain that comes from longing so much! Sigh. There were three women at church yesterday that I am absurdly attracted to. One’s straight and the other two just aren’t interested or are a bit too old for me. And they all had to sit in front of me where I couldn’t help but see all three all through the service. Aaagggghhhhh. Maybe I should just join a community of monks. It would solve a whole set of my problems if I never had to see another attractive woman!

A Busy Saturday

2006-04-01T14:07:00.000-08:00

I’ve had a fairly good day so far. The weather is lovely here, really beautiful, so I’ve spent lots of time out in the sun. That really helps –especially after being under fluorescent glare all week long! I am certain my job has something to do with my depression. Until I was transferred out to this site I was doing much better. The awful environment, plus the fact that I hate the work, with the addition of much idle time to boot, I think has all combined to make it worse. (Not too mention the isolation.) I am so much better on the weekends than during the week that I have to look at the job as a cause. And the past couple of weeks have been much worse, because my self-esteem has been in the toilet. It involved a girl, of course. Imagine that! I thought we were friends, and yep, I’d fallen hard for her, but she made it clear she didn’t want to be so much as friends with me after all. So my self-esteem tanked and I’ve been in an episode of major depression for about two weeks, on top of my normal dysthymia.

This has been a busy day so far. I got up an ungodly hour for Saturday morning and went to Ms. Maitland’s memorial service. I didn’t really know her (I met her once) but she was a good person. 78, and everyone was talking about how they wish she’d been older. I’m like 78???? That is old! To me, at least. But then, my grandmother was 52 when she died and neither of my parents made it to fifty. So to me, 78 is a good long life. God grant me that I live that long. And when I’m gone, they can throw a party for all I care. As long as it’s in a UU church, and none of my blood kin are allowed to attend I’ll be happy wherever I may be. The service was lovely. My minister was excellent as always. I got there early because Eleanor needed help in the kitchens with the food, and stayed late help clean up. And I’ll be back there in a couple of hours for the benefit concert tonight. After I left I picked up my puppy at the vet. He’s doing great –running around like nothing happened. We took a nap together and I’m about to go out into the yard to do some work.

Like I said, a busy day.

2006-03-31T11:51:00.000-08:00

I'm actually feeling a bit better now. Sometimes I think my dysthymia is made worse by this d*** job. Especially when I'm bored out of my mind, like right now.

My little boy is out of surgery and in recovery, so I'm relieved. I played hooky from work at lunch and went to the store. I got the cookies I have to take to the funeral tomorrow, a candy bar, and that Turbotax program so that I can file my dratted taxes. It's time to pay my yearly homage to Uncle Sam and Uncle Al once more. Old Bush was on tv while I was out and about. He was using a lot of big words, and I've been trying to reckon the odds that he could define half of them without a dictionary. The man might have gone to an Ivy League school and be President, but I think the average fourth-grader is smarter than he is.

Another random thought: what is it that makes some people think it's all right to trash anything they please? Case in point: we have several recycling bins here at work. They are three times the size of the trash cans, bright blue, and have the white recyclings motto and logo all over them, including on the lid which you have to lift up to put anything in. And yet, people treat them just like trash cans, in fact worse, and dump whatever they please in there until they are so overflowing with rubbish and so disgusting they can't be used for actual recycling anymore.

Life Sucks Sometimes, or, I really hate myself today

2006-03-31T09:26:00.000-08:00

I'm having a crappy day. I woke up an hour early, my puppy is being neutered and I'm worried sick, it's about to pour rain, and my boss has been on my back all morning. My entire digestive system is acting up (no surprise there), every bone in my body aches, especially my old knee injury, and I just want to sleep for a week.

Mostly, I'm sick of living life this way. I work in an all grey cube in an all-grey room in an all grey building. I see the sun shine for about twenty minutes a day, on my way too and from work. When I'm lucky. I sometimes go days without speaking too another human being. I'm changing jobs in two weeks and going someplace that has windows, but I'm still going to be doing the same old crap as always. I don't want to be an engineer anymore; I hate it with a passion. Funny thing how hard I worked to finish my degree and yet how much I hate the work. I want to go back to school and do something else. I'd like to work with people. But I can't go back to school until I get some of these debts paid off.

And I couldn't do it anyway. My dysthymia tells me it's useless, I'm worthless and a complete failure of a human being. I'll never do anything good or great. I'll be dead before I'm fifty just like my parents and so what? My life is as grey as the cube I'm sitting in. And what's the point? It doesn't matter anyway. The world is going to hell in a handbasket. Nothing I say or do or think matters at all.

Part of me knows better. But that part of me is small and hard to hear. I've lived such a rotten existence for so much of my short life that it's hard to believe that anything else is real. When I feel like this I hardly have the strength to believe in God, whomever or whatever she may be. Much less anything else.
I want so bad just to be normal. Just so I could live like everyone else does. But that ain't gonna happen, no matter how much I want it or how hard I work to get it.