Freedom to preach hate?

The headline says it all, doesn’t it?  It’s just so… so… Fox:
Social Conservatives Blast Hate-Crime Bill, Saying It Will Limit Free Speech
(Fox News) April 30 - A Senate hate crimes bill that would extend federal protection to gay and transgender victims is rousing the ire of social conservatives who say their right to free speech will [...]

It’s sort of a big deal.

Sorta.
So President Obama has been in office 100 days.
So?  And?
This arbitrary “landmark” is as phony as the media hype surrounding it.  No matter which President we’re talking about.
One hundred days is barely enough time to get your Cabinet in place, especially with the Partyof NO! placing holds on nominees and bottle-necking the process because of the [...]

A genetic link in autism?

This is really interesting stuff.  It definitely seems support to some of the stuff I’ve read over the past two years which indicates that autism can “run in families.”
A lot has been published and broadcast on this “breaking news” in the last 24 hours.  here are some of the btter stories I’ve seen so far.  [...]

Standing up for Darfur.

(The Huffington Post) April 27  – Five members of Congress and two Darfur activists had themselves arrested Monday outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., to draw attention to the continuing humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Uniformed Secret Service officers put plastic handcuffs on Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), Donna [...]

An open letter to the local chapter of the John Birch Society:

This letter is addressed to whoever left a leaflet stuck in my front door on Sunday,  April 26, the one advertising the showing of the racist, anti-immigrant propaganda film “Immigration Invasion” at (a location I will not discuss, on a date I will not disclose).  Ironically, I found it there after returning home from an [...]

Poem.

How to Read a Poem: Beginner’s Manual
First, forget everything you have learned,
that poetry is difficult,
that it cannot be appreciated by the likes of you,
with your high school equivalency diploma,
your steel-tipped boots,
or your white-collar misunderstandings.
Do not assume meanings hidden from you:
the best poems mean what they say and say it.
To read poetry requires only [...]

Cool Ska-turday sounds.

The Specials: “Ghost Town.”
(From back in the day when MTV had somethin’ to say…)

Just sayin’…

Ummm… this image seems to have upset some of our more conservative friends and neighbors…

But these?  Not so much, apparently…

Wonder why that is…

What I thought about at Meeting yesterday.

Today is the tenth anniversary of the infamous massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
Yesterday was the fourteenth anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Like you, I remember both of these days very clearly.  I remember first the feelings of bewilderment and confusion, then sadness, then anger, then total [...]

Poem.

Goldfish Are Ordinary
At the pet store on Court Street,
I search for the perfect fish.
The black moor, the blue damsel,
cichlids and neons. Something
to distract your sadness, something
you don’t need to love you back.
Maybe a goldfish, the flaring tail,
orange, red-capped, pearled body,
the darting translucence? Goldfish
are ordinary, the boy selling fish
says to me. I turn back to the [...]

Cool (old school) Saturday sounds.

Fairport Convention: “Now Be Thankful.”

“We’re American seamen. We’re union members.”

From Think Progress:
Yesterday, NBC Nightly News interviewed the brave crew members of the Maersk Alabama, who all survived an attack by Somali pirates. They discussed how they managed to capture one of the bandits and bind him up, and they had universal praise for Capt. Richard Phillips, who agreed to be taken hostage to save [...]

Blogging against disablism: May 1.

From Diary of a Goldfish:
Friday May 1 will be Blogging Against Disablism Day.
Blogging Against Disablism day will be on Friday, 1st May. This is the day where all around the world, disabled and non-disabled people will blog about their experiences, observations and thoughts about disability discrimination. In this way, we hope to raise awareness of [...]

Hate kills.

It will take seven minutes to watch this.  Watch it anyway.

Bullying kills.  Homophobia kills.  School districts need to wake up and some need to be sued.  They need to get the message that just having a “policy” in place isn’t enough.  The policy has to be the right policy, and it has to [...]

Poem.

Death Barged In
In his Russian greatcoat
slamming open the door
with an unpardonable bang,
and he has been here ever since.
He changes everything,
rearranges the furniture,
his hand hovers
by the phone;
he will answer now, he says;
he will be the answer.
Tonight he sits down to dinner
at the head of the table
as we eat, mute;
later, he climbs into bed
between us. [...]

Party down, v. 2.0.

Scenes from today’s tea whine and cheesiness party in Washington, DC.:

Maybe we should spend more money on edukashun…

“No, man, it’s NOT about Obama.  Really!”

“No, man, REALLY!  It’s NOT about Obama!!!”

Nope, nobody here’s a racist…

Nope.  Nobody here advocating violence…
UPDATE:  And this little jem from Chicago:

Maybe we shouldn’t laugh at these folks too much.
(Photo credits: The Washington Independent and [...]

Slow down… and live.

Today we bury our friend and colleague, Amy, who died last Wednesday.   Amy was on her way to work at our school that morning when she pulled into an intersection after her light had turned green, and her car was plowed into by a large pick-up truck which was speeding through the red light.  The car [...]

Party down.

This morning, I had to endure the every-other-year torture ritual known here in The Garden State as “motor vehicle inspection.”  Mrs. Agitator’s motor vehicle’s time had come due and off I went down the highway, so I could have the honor of waiting in line for more than an hour as I watched some nice [...]

Outta here.

Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster Harry Kalas died yesterday.  He was 73.  I have to say that many of us had noticed that, as spring training games began this year, Harry looked a bit more frail than he had when things wrapped up last fall.  His passing, then, came as a shock but not really as [...]

Blogging Against Theocracy… sorta.

Today’s the day I’ll post for the now-annual blog-a-bration known as Blog Against Theocracy.
I wasn’t going to do this this year because I haven’t been in much of a mood to post about anything these last few days, and because, frankly, I thought I didn’t have much to add to the conversation.  I still kind of [...]