Walking out on the war.

This I like.  A LOT.
LONG BEACH, CA (Press-Telegram, via Common Dreams) April 30 – West Coast dockworkers plan to walk off the job Thursday to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though the action doesn’t have the formal support of their employers or the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
It was unclear how [...]

As-salāmu`alaykum, y’all.

Because, you see, according to this quiz, I am “81%  Muslim.” 
And you?

“The New Economics of Hunger.”

(Washington Post) April 27 – The globe’s worst food crisis in a generation emerged as a blip on the big boards and computer screens of America’s great grain exchanges. At first, it seemed like little more than a bout of bad weather.
In Chicago, Minneapolis and Kansas City, traders watched from the pits early last [...]

Happy (favorite author) birthday.

Happy birthday to Harper Lee, born April 28, 1926.

My favorite scene.  Maybe of all time.

Holy guacamole! Another book!

(Cross-posted at The Spring Reading Challenge.)
I first heard of Shane Claiborne last year while listening to a downloaded podcast from the public radio series, Speaking of Faith. The episode was called The New Monastics, and it focused on a faith-based community of activists in Philadelphia, my hometown, so naturally it attracted my interest. Shane was [...]

Quote of the week:

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – Albert Einstein.
Posted in honor of those responsible for the No Child Left Behind Act, the reason why my eighth graders will lose four full days of classroom instruction to standardized testing this week, starting today.
Thanks, folks.

Feeding hungry corporations while millions starve.

The global food system feeds gluttonous corporations first by John Nichols
The only surprising thing about the global food crisis to Jim Goodman is the notion that anyone finds it surprising.
“So,” says the Wisconsin dairy farmer, “they finally figured out, after all these years of pushing globalization and genetically modified seeds, that instead of feeding [...]

Shakira Saturday.

Shakira: “Whenever, Wherever.”
Not just another pretty face.
WASHINGTON (AFP) April 22 – Colombian-born pop sensation Shakira went before the US Congress Tuesday seeking support for legislation that would provide US aid for basic education programs for children in poor nations.
“Education can really save lives,” Shakira, 31, told a press conference organized by [...]

Good grief! Another book!

The Blue Star is Tony Earley’s sequel to Jim the Boy, a book my wife recommended I read after it was first published in 2001. She had to push hard for me to read it, as I was at that time buried deep in a history/non-fiction phase, but she kept promising me that I’d “love [...]

Planet Autism, 4/27/08.

This is a cool story.  Really.
A path into the world by Robin H. Morris
The NFL draft is a machine, hardly designed for the faint of stamina. Fans line up at the doors of such landmarks as Madison Square Garden, or Radio City Music Hall this year, on a first-come, first-served basis and hope to hear [...]

Happy Earth Day.

Be nice to your Mother.

Friendly lab rats.

Went to Meeting Sunday.  Beautiful sunny day.  We threw open the big double doors on two sides, along with all the windows, and let the sunlight and the spring breeze (carrying a few bumbly-bees) waft through.  Lots of folks came, which is always nice.  No one rose to speak, though.  Maybe everyone was just diggin’ the [...]

Four W’s and an H…

(… because we already know about the “why.”)
I won’t be posting as much this week (I know, I know: I’ve said that dozens of times before, but this time I really mean it.).  State-mandated testing of my charges begins a week from today here in The Garden State, and I have a lot to do [...]

Which side are THEY on?

Funny how a song can just pop into your head as you read something…
WASHINGTON (AP) April 19 – Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are walking a delicate line as they promise to aggressively tackle global warming while trying to assure voters that they continue to believe in the future of [...]

Saturday Bragg.

Billy Bragg: “O Freedom.”
From his newest CD.  Enjoy. 
 

How true.

What he should’ve said:

“Are you two kidding me?  We’ve got a war in Iraq with no end in sight, another in Afghanistan that’s getting worse by the day, war criminals and torturers running the government, veterans coming home with broken bodies and broken minds, an economy that’s going down the dumper, gas prices shooting through the roof, hard [...]

Quakers, agitatin’.

(The Journal News) April 16 – Two aspects of American foreign policy in the past few years pushed Ethan and Rima Vesely-Flad to step up their protests against the government’s militarism.
One was the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, when the Israelis used American-made cluster bombs in civilian areas, they said. Another [...]

Dan Schorr nails it.

As usual.
Listen to the whole thing, in case you missed it.  Worth your time.  Got kind of a “wow” ending to it.

Jump-starting the Death Machine.

You know, I started out the day on a natural high.  I mean, a high.  All the hard work of our local teachers’ union paid off, as we helped to get our school budget proposal passed by a huge margin, the first budget to pass in three years.  We helped elect two solid, teacher-friendly, education-friendly [...]