I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”.
OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.
http://aidsa.convio.net/site/T…
Hey, y’all 50 donations of $100 are matched today and tomorrow, so today would be a great one to make a sizable donation. AIDS Walk Austin is in less than a month – on Sunday the 19th. I’ve only raised 61% of my goal of $2,000, so I thought I’d share some music & ask for donations. If you want to skip the U2 song & my babbling, you can make a donation at my AIDS Walk Austin page. This is the 27th year for the Walk & my 27th year of walking it, and I really want step things up this year. And here’s me, talking about why I’ve walked every year of the Walk:
I haven’t forgotten Spike Lee’s School Daze, made in 1988, which took a look at the doings of black students on an HBCU campus during homecoming weekend. Coming to a theater near you on October 17, is a new film, also looking at black college students, but this time on a white campus.
Dear White People, “a satire about being a black face in a white place,” is a film offering from Justin Simien, who is making his directorial debut.
Winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent, Dear White People is a sly, provocative satire of race relations in the age of Obama. Writer/director Justin Simien follows a group of African American students as they navigate campus life and racial politics at a predominantly white college in a sharp and funny feature film debut that earned him a spot on Variety’s annual “10 Directors to Watch.” When Dear White People screened at MOMA’s prestigious New Directors/New Films, the New York Times’ A.O. Scott wrote, “Seeming to draw equal measures of inspiration from Whit Stillman and Spike Lee, but with his own tart, elegant sensibility very much in control, Mr. Simien evokes familiar campus stereotypes only to smash them and rearrange the pieces.”
From the White House:
In 2013, President Obama announced a series of executive actions to reduce carbon pollution, prepare the U.S. for the impacts of climate change, and lead international efforts to address global climate change.
At the U.N. General Assembly today, President Obama will participate in the Climate Summit – a meeting of world leaders that will showcase climate action commitments from governments, local leaders, and the private sector.
The President will give a speech at the summit that highlights the ambitious actions the U.S. is taking under his Climate Action Plan, while stressing that all major economies must step up to the plate if we are to avoid the dangerous consequences of climate change.
The single most important thing we as citizens can to do effect change is to vote. Not just in presidential elections but in every single election from school board on up. Elected officials make changes that impact us every day and the only way we can hold them accountable for their actions is to remind them that we vote – and that they are in office to serve us.
In 2008, 6 million Americans didn’t vote because they missed a registration deadline or didn’t know how to register. In 2014, we want to make sure no one is left out.
On September 23, 2014, volunteers, celebrities, and organizations from all over the country will “hit the streets” for National Voter Registration Day. This single day of coordinated field, technology and media efforts will create pervasive awareness of voter registration opportunities–allowing us to reach tens of thousands of voters who we could not reach otherwise.
I’ve dreamed of solar power since I first heard about it, some 45 years ago. I never really thought I could do it myself but behold –
UPDATE: The system went live about 2:45 pm 4/24/2014 – and produced 784 watts by just after sunrise this morning even though yesterday was overcast and rainy!
UPDATE 2: On Friday 9/18/2014 mid-afternoon we logged one megawatt hour of electricity generated!
Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings diaries give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
Greetings continued here: Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania (Part Deux)
With the mid-term elections heating up and a dozen issues being promoted as The Most Important Issue of Our Day, it is easy to lose track of an issue that really deserves our attention: Climate Change. It is, quite literally, an issue that we ignore at our own peril.
In New York City on Sunday, the People’s Climate March will serve to remind people of this vitally important issue and at least get it right-pathed even if it can’t be immediately addressed.
In September, world leaders are coming to New York City for a UN summit on the climate crisis. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution.
With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we’ll take a stand to bend the course of history. We’ll take to the streets to demand the world we know is within our reach: a world with an economy that works for people and the planet; a world safe from the ravages of climate change; a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities.
To change everything, we need everyone on board.
Sunday, September 21 in New York City. Join us.
The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.
From the White House – Weekly Address
In this week’s address, the President thanked Congress for its strong bipartisan support for efforts to train and equip Syrian opposition forces to fight ISIL. This plan is part of the President’s comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy to degrade and destroy the terrorist group, and does not commit our troops to fighting another ground war. America, working with a broad coalition of nations, will continue to train, equip, advise, and assist our partners in the region in the battle against ISIL.
In the coming week, the President will speak at the United Nations General Assembly and continue to lead the world against terror, a fight in which all countries have a stake.
Remember Hobby Lobby? That corporate use of personal religious freedom to make decisions about employees’ benefits?
Guess what? Did anyone really think that decision would stay put and never been seen again? Because Wheaton College decision came out 3 days later? But still, maybe, just maybe it could have been buried.
But wait! The Fundamentalist LDS, have decided not to pay kids to harvest pecans. The Department of Labor is investigating labor violations. FLDS leaders claim they do not have to testify because “religious freedom.”
So I wonder what else the FLDS have religious freedom for? Perhaps child sex assault? Do we need to let Warren Jeffs out of prison because of “religious freedom”?
Do Lutherans have the same protection? How about followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Judge David Sam is in a federal court, and overruled another judge who was a magistrate. I am not a lawyer and welcome the help of lawyers to explain this better. It just seems to be that “religious freedom” just became a huge legal reason to not do anything you didn’t feel like doing.
Ironically, the judge deciding the case chose to not investigate the religious beliefs:
“It is not for the Court to “inquir[e] into the theological merit of the belief in question,” Sam wrote, citing the Hobby Lobby decision. “The determination of what is a ‘religious’ belief or practice is more often than not a difficult and delicate task …. However, the resolution of that question is not to turn upon a judicial perception of the particular belief or practice in question; religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection.”
I think that any religious group could have cited Hobby Lobby in any variety of cases, and it is just luck that it happened here first. This is not limited to the FLDS. And please remember, this is not an opportunity for you to bash the LDS. If you need to do that, please write your own diary.
Please do not use this diary for LDS or Mormon bashing.