Because you might not see this on too many other “progressive” blogs…

What was God getting at?
by Leonard Pitts
(Miami Herald) November 30 – I was crammed into a middle seat. The guy in front was practically in my lap, and I had my arms drawn in tightly as I pecked furiously on the keyboard. God glanced over. “What are you working on?” he asked.
“A column,” I [...]

Poem.

You Begin
You begin this way:
this is your hand,
this is your eye,
this is a fish, blue and flat
on the paper, almost
the shape of an eye
This is your mouth, this is an O
or a moon, whichever
you like.  This is yellow.
Outside the window
is the rain, green
because it is summer, and beyond that
the trees and then the world,
which is [...]

Way cool Saturday sounds.

Some classic, soulful sounds to cool out your Saturday. 
Dig it, cats and kittens.

What can one say?

I’ve been trying to figure out how to comment on the slaughter that took place this week in Mumbai, India.
I’ve been following it as we all have.
I can make no sense of it.  There’s no logic or reason for it.
All of it is senseless.
It’s terribly tragic.  It serves no purpose.  It will advance no cause.
All [...]

Those Black Friday sales can kill you.

Especially if you work at Wal-Mart:
Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in “Black Friday” stampede
(New York Daily News) November 28 – A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.
The 34-year-old employee, a temporary maintenance [...]

Friday (Congo) baby blogging.

Happy holiday.

An open letter to the owners of Philadelphia’s professional sports franchises:

Dear gentlemen:
Over the years, the citizens of the city which your teams call home, and from whom you have gleaned hundreds of millions of dollars through ticket sales, merchandise sales, and tax infusions (the ones that built those beautiful palaces you call stadiums) have cheerfully and happily contributed to your wealth and success.
Now it’s time for [...]

Thanksgiving poem.

Thanks
Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions
back from [...]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful and peaceful day.

Today’s outrage from Congo: 11/26/08.

War is stealing Congo’s young
by Lindsay Branham
(CNN) November 25 – The border was hauntingly empty. No military, drenched in green, patrolling. No AKs slung over shoulders. No Swahili floating through the air.
Just the pitter-patter of rain falling to the ground and turning the dirt road into a river.
To the right some secondary school students [...]

Watching the defectives.

I enter Thanksgiving week thankful.
I am thankful for my wife and kids, and that we are all well and safe and pretty happy, all things considered. 
I am thankful for my job and my colleagues and friends, in spite of the stress that this school year has already brought me, and will continue to bring.  [...]

Stupid is contagious… and spreading.

White Extremists Lash Out Over Election of First Black President
by Howard Witt
(Los Angeles Times) November 23 – Bogalusa, Louisiana – Barely three weeks since America elected its first black president, noose hangings, racist graffiti and death threats have struck dozens of towns across the country.
More than 200 such incidents – including cross burnings, assassination betting [...]

A rescue mission for Obama?

Rescuing Sudan: A mission for Obama
by John Pendergast
(Philadelphia Inquirer) November 23 – There is one job President-elect Barack Obama could take on from Day One that – if he were successful – could save billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives. And the small price tag justifies the risk. The [...]

Shop No Sweat. Please.

Please check out this video about No Sweat apparel.  Yes, this is a shameless plug for the one business with which this blog is affiliated.  They do good work and they make cool stuff.  Click the banner and start your holiday shopping with a pro-worker, pro-union, anti-sweatshop, socially conscious company.

Poem.

Happiness
There’s just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.
And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not [...]

Cool Saturday ska.

The Specials: “Message To You, Rudy.”
It’s all Sue’s fault.  She started this.

How the f*** did we get here?

Florida teen commits suicide by overdosing on drugs in front of webcam audience
MIAMI (AP) November 21 – A South Florida college student killed himself by overdosing on drugs in front of a live online audience as some computer users egged him on, some debated his method, and others tried to talk him out of it.
Abraham Biggs, [...]

Friday (Congo) baby blogging.

The Peace Blogging picture submissions have dried up, folks.
Perhaps it’s time to take a look at something a bit more serious anyway…

Support the Employees’ Free Choice Act!

This week’s Right-wing meme of choice is to attack labor unions and working people who want to exercise their right to organize by blaming THEM for the woes of the auto industry, amongst other things.  Forget the fact that that, for example, GM has spent decades building ugly, unreliable, inefficient suburban [...]

“Will President Obama Finally Bury King Leopold’s Ghost?”

by Peter Erlinder

(Common Dreams) November 18 – November 2008 was the 100-year anniversary of the Congo’s conversion from the personal property of Belgian King Leopold II to a colonial possession of Belgium, itself. The King’s brutal rule, documented in Leopold’s Ghost, embarrassed the Belgians into switching “landlords” in 1908, but did little to ease the [...]