Cool Saturday sounds.

The Tourists: “I Only Wanna Be With You.”
From when MTV was actually cool.  Recognize that lead singer?

“Ten Things You Can Do About the War in Congo.”

From The Nation:
The peace agreement signed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006 did not end the war. An estimated 400,000 women have been raped in the past ten years in what can only be called an act of femicide — the planned and systemic destruction of women. Women have suffered fistulas from rapes [...]

“Character education” required.

DALLAS (AP) January 27 — The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team by 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail message to a newspaper saying he would not apologize “for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity.”
Kyle Queal, the headmaster for [...]

Rest in peace, Friend.

An amazing Quaker activist and local hero, Lillian Willoughby, has died.
Philadelphia, PA (Daily News) January 26 – Lillian Willoughby had a vision of a world at peace.

She and her husband, George, dedicated Quakers, chased this impossible dream all over the world, conducting nonviolent protests against war and preparations for war for nearly 70 years.
They [...]

Support the Employees’ Free Choice Act!

Because it’s the right thing to do.
Video c/o the good people at SEIU.

Poem.

Let America be America again
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed –
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive [...]

Cool (& inspiring) Saturday sounds.

Pete Seeger & Friends: “This Land Is Your Land.”
If you’re a Pete Seeger fan, you might want to read this.

Tagged.

My favorite wild hippy chick, Liberality, has tagged me, which is kinda nice because I don’t get tagged very often.
Anyway, this meme has been around for a while.
Here goes…
The Rules:
1.  Link to the person who tagged you.
2.  Post the rules on your blog (done).
3.  Write six random things about yourself (see below).
4.  Tag six people [...]

Snark.

Yeah, I know it’s not very nice to gloat.  But.
Bill O’Reilly is apparently going to rant about this on his cable show tonight, so you know it must be good.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

My Alternative Invocation.

My contribution to  The Alternative Invocation….
Unprogammed/liberal members of the Religious Society of Friends like myself don’t traditionally go in for out-loud prayer.  Sometimes during meeting for Worship, Friends will feel led to rise and give vocal ministry, and that ministry may come out in the form of a prayer.  I once referred to one of Thomas [...]

“Obama would do well to learn from WWII.”

Tuskegee Airmen witnessed Allies’ moral failure
by Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
The invitation to tomorrow’s inauguration sent to members of the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black units of World War II pilots, is an important reminder of the long road America has traveled from the era of segregation to the election [...]

What SHOULD have been said tomorrow.

Yes, bad syntax, that, but whatever.
The invocation for yesterday’s festivites in Washington, DC.
A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009
Welcome to Washington!  The fun is about to begin, but first, please join [...]

Revising and extending my remarks…

… from Meeting for Worship yesterday. 
Really extending.
[Today] my students and colleagues and I all get a day off from school to celebrate the commemoration of the anniversary of the birth of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  On Tuesday, by administrative edict, all school work will come to a close at around 11:30 am [...]

Wev.

So I guess I need to post about this, even though I don’t want to.
Okay, so the Eagles lost.  Actually, I should say that the Cardinals won.
Forget the horrifically bad officiating that probably cost the Eagles two scores.  THAT will be what the Boo Birds whine about for the next week as they make excuses [...]

Poem.

Digging
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.
Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on [...]

Saturday with Lene (Lovich).

Lene Lovich: ” Lucky Number”
From back with MTV was about music.
(For Abbe and Suzy.)

You wanna know why?

You still need to ask why some of us are still upset about President-elect Obama selecting Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration this Tuesday?
Stuff like THIS is why:

Let’s see… I want to be sure I’ve got this right…
Rick Warren wants the “Christian men” in his movement to share [...]

R.I.P., Danger Man.

Patrick McGoohan, who I guess was best known here in the States for his roles on imported televison series such as Secret Agent and the classic The Prisoner, died yesterday.  He was 80. 
He was one of my favorite actors.
But THIS is where I first remember seeing him.  I NEVER missed an episode of this show [...]

Another poll.

Another question (#2, to be precise) from that Rasmussen poll.  Yes, that one.