Happy (human rights hero) birthday.

Happy birthday to Cesar Chavez, born March 31, 1927.
Si se puede!
Sign the petition to support the National Cesar Chavez holiday HERE.

Spread the word to end the word.

We’re all friends here, right?
We respect each other?  We listen to each other?  We can speak honestly, in trust and love?
Cool.
So.
Do me a big favor.
It’s not that big a deal, but it means a lot to me and to a lot of other people.
STOP USING “-TARD.”  As in “retard.”  “F#&ktard.”  “Whatevertard.”
On your blogs, on your [...]

My plans for the weekend are now set.

I’ll be renting every Sean Penn movie I can get my (Mr.) hand(s) on.
Because it’s my time.
Yeah, dude.  Righteous.
So, what’s YOUR  favorite?

Poem.

Eagle Poem
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadly growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled [...]

We STILL all live downwind.

Thirty years ago today, the now infamous “accident” in Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, about 90 minutes from where I live (downwind), took place.
In 1979, I was a junior in college, still living at home in South Jersey.  I have to tell you that we were all terrified.  This was [...]

Yes, I’m a bad Quaker.

I was recently visiting the blog of one of my favorite Quaker authors, J. Brent Bill, and I found a post that started out like this:

“So you’re a Quaker?” I get that question a lot since I travel a good bit schlepping my books. People always seem a bit intrigued — as if surprised any [...]

Blasphemy.

What follows is wrong on so many levels…
Hollywood is planning on remaking The Three Stooges.
(Hollywood Reporter) March 25 – Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk.
MGM and the Farrelly brothers are finally slapping together their high-profile cast for “The Three Stooges,” a comedy project the filmmakers have been developing for years. Sean Penn is set to play Larry, and Jim Carrey [...]

“The MYTH of the ‘Powerful’ Teachers’ Union.”

Many thanks to NotSoccerMom for this:
Bill Maher Reveals His Ignorance… Again
By David Macaray
(Counterpunch) March 20 – There’s a myth circulating out there that not only threatens to ruin the reputation of America’s school teachers, but has the potential to side-track any realistic hopes of education reform.  It’s the assertion that “powerful” teachers’ unions are responsible [...]

To my troll:

Howdy, friend.  You visited my little blog today and left a whole lot of ungrammatical insults as “comments” on various postings here.  Then you told me that you knew I “wouldn’t post them anyway,” and so I guess you figured that gave you license to say even more insulting stuff, also ungrammatically and with many errors [...]

This week’s outrage from Darfur: 3/25/09.

Darfur refugees suffer as aid groups leave
KHARTOUM, Sudan (UPI) March 23 - The lives of millions of displaced people in the Darfur region of Sudan have been endangered by a move to expel aid workers from the country, observers say.

The groups were banned this month by Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir, who accused them of [...]

Tuesday in the city with Brandi.

Brandi Carlile: “The Story”
I don’t know from “Grey’s Anatomy.”  From the looks of this video, it’s about some very sad and oh-so earnest doctorly types, which is cool, except that I cannot stand hospitals because of my mild but chronic hypochondria, which is why I don’t watch medical shows.  At least [...]

News flash…

President Barack Obama LAUGHED on 60 Minutes  last night!
Can you freakin’ believe it?!?
The nerve of our sorta new President.  In the midst of this terrible economic crisis, while we’re fighting two wars and all that, he gets asked an inane question during a softball interview and he has the audacity of humor moment: he chuckled! 
He [...]

CEOs: Flunking out.

Teachers for CEO Merit Pay!
by Jesse Hagopian
(CommonDreams) March 19 – Pop quiz:
Chief Executive Officers, take out your #2 pencils and mark the letter that corresponds to the single best answer choice (remember, unlike on Wall St. your scores will be invalidated if you are caught cheating).
1) What have CEOs achieved in recent years that would [...]

Fired for fighting the good fight.

I can’t believe I missed this story last week…
Gay-themed film cost Oklahoma teacher her job
(USA Today) March 16 – Gay rights groups are complaining about the firing of a rural Oklahoma high school teacher who lost her job last week after assigning a play about the 1998 death of a gay college student. But the tiny [...]

Poem.

Here Where Coltrane Is
Soul and race
are private dominions,
memories and modal
songs, a tenor blossoming,
which would paint suffering
a clear color but is not in
this Victorian house
without oil in zero degree
weather and a forty-mile-an-hour wind;
it is all a well-knit family:
a love supreme.
Oak leaves pile up on walkway
and steps, catholic as apples
in a special mist of clear white
children who [...]

Cool Saturday sounds.

Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros: “Johnny Appleseed.”
Rock on.

Thanks, Gov. Richardson.

SANTA FE (New Mexico Independent) - [Last night], Gov. Bill Richardson signed his name to a law that abolishes the death penalty in New Mexico, saying, “This has been the most difficult decision of my political career.”

With his signature, Richardson made the Land of Enchantment the 15th U.S. state to ban capital punishment and pushed it [...]

Happy anniversary.

Celebrating six years of shock ‘n awe.
Total U.S. military deaths to date: 4259
U.S. wounded to date: 31,089 (official); estimates of the actual number: 100,00+
Total Iraqi deaths to date: 1, 320,110 (JustForeignPolicy.org)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Solas: “Coconut Dog / The Morning Dew”
We’re spending the evening with these nice folks.

Never again?

I did it again.
The time again has rolled around during the school year when the seventh graders down the hall are doing their annual unit on the Holocaust.  It’s a mandated part of their curriculum in social studies for seventh grade.
The teacher teaches them all about The Final Solution.  She pulls no punches and lays [...]