Cool Saturday sounds, island style.

Kirsty MacColl: “Mambo de la Luna.”
Because as you view this, we are off for a few days cruisin’ in the islands.
See you when (and if) I return…

“Camp Kill”?

How much lower can they go?
Pretty much so, apparently:
Elite U.S. Army Academy Lures Kids With Mud and Duty by Claudia Parsons
WEST POINT, NY (Reuters via CommonDreams) June 27 - Climbing ropes and crawling in the mud under barbed wire, dozens of American high school kids at an unusual summer camp vied to see who could get [...]

Fear of a head-scarfed planet.

One of my blogging buddies emailed me the other day with a question I need help answering.  She was very concerned about an anti-Muslim web site (no way I will link to it, sorry, but take it from me, it was positively Klan-like) that she’d seen, and about how these sites might effect impressionable folks [...]

“The Supreme Court’s Hostility to Organized Labor.”

By David Macaray, at Counterpunch
To anyone interested in the future health of organized labor, they should know that it just took a decided turn for the worse.  On Thursday, June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law which had made it illegal for employers to spend state-provided funds in their propaganda campaigns [...]

CESC!!!

Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas set up two of the three Spanish goals as Spain trounced upstart Russia, 3-0, in the second semi-final of the Euro2008 tournament today. 
This Gooner salutes you, Cesc.  You were outstanding.
Spain now meets Germany in the final this Sunday afternoon.  I’ll be somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean about that time, and [...]

The war at home, v. 9.

Not surprising:
WASHINGTON (AP) June 26 – The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.
The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the [...]

Tell Trader Joe’s to get its act together.

From the United Farm Workers:
[In a previous email], we told you about the tragic death of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez who died while laboring in a Stockton area vineyard in 100 plus degree heat. According to a Wednesday AP story, the San Joaquin County Coroner has officially confirmed that Maria died of heat stroke. [...]

Quakerism as a radical activity.

One of my conservative comment-leavers (I won’t call him a troll, because that would be mean and because he hasn’t been abusive – yet) told me that, with the post upon which he was commenting, I’d “truly come out on the side of hardline political radicalism, so [I] can’t hide in the Quaker shell,” exposing myself, I [...]

“I Didn’t Realize They Would Die.”

I saw this report on the ABC News last week (don’t ask me why I was watching that stuff, but it was on, so…) and this story continues to haunt me. 
(ABC News)  June 11 – More than a decade and the breadth of a continent stand between Evan Ramsey and the carnage he inflicted on [...]

Fire Imus. Again.

I was going to let this go, but I just can’t.
NEW YORK (AP) June 24 – Don Imus said Tuesday morning on his radio show that he was trying to “make a sarcastic point” with his latest on-air remarks about race, but that they had been misunderstood.
Imus resurrected his radio career six months ago [...]

Teaching as a radical activity.

Back in the day, I used to buy a magazine called Radical Teacher, which, I was recently happy to see, is still around, but which I used to get at one of our local big box bookstores.  When it disappeared from our store’s rack, I stopped getting it.  But a recent comment here prompted me to [...]

Hot wheels.

I started riding my bike to work each day (weather permitting) late this spring, when my state of physical fitness got me to the point where I could make the trip without wiping myself out before 7:00 in the morning.  I have no excuse not to, as the trip is relatively short and safe (only [...]

ESPANA!

Arsenal’s own Cesc Fabregas (# 10 above) scored the winning goal on penalties this afternoon as Spain knocked the whining, diving, gesticulating, histrionic, ankle-kicking, shirt-tugging, utterly annoying Italian side out of the quarterfinals of Euro2008.  (The real hero, however, was Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who made two fabulous saves during the dreaded shoot-out.)
While this means [...]

Malcolm and Tupac and Langston! Oh, my!

School rallies around dismissed Watts teacher deemed too “Afro-centric.”
(Los Angeles Times) June 12 -
Students and fellow educators are rallying behind a fired Jordan High School teacher they say was sacked for encouraging political activism among her students.
About 60 students rallied Wednesday at the Watts campus, while a colleague of the fired teacher said he and [...]

50,000.

Sometime yesterday, my hit counter passed 50,000. 
Not so much compared to some blogs, but a nice number for me to think about.
Anyway, thanks. A lot.

Cool Saturday sounds.

Ivy: “Edge of the Ocean.”
Great summer song.  Sorry ’bout the low quality video.

Today is World Refugee Day, 2008.

This is an issue about which very few of us probably know very much.  I know that, beyond the situation in Darfur and the plight of those in refugee camps there and in the neighboring country of Chad, I don’t know enough.
My good blogging buddy Catherine, who is an activist in this [...]

21.

Happy birthday to First Born Son, who turns 21 today.
You made me a father, my son.  And you’ve made me a better man.  I love you.

“Reading a book – an act of sedition?”

by Leonard Pitts Jr.

(Miami Herald) – June 16   I had thought it was just me.
In reading the cover story in the new issue of The Atlantic, however, I have learned that I am not alone. There are at least two of us who have forgotten how to read.
I do not mean that I have lost [...]

And you can’t have MY sons, either.

Brought to you by those pesky Birkenstock-wearin’ socialist types at MoveOn.org.