“Nazi Medicine.”

I received the following the other day in an email sent to me from one of the finest educational organizations I know, the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education. It was originally an essay published on The Huffington Post. It’s a powerful piece of writing, and I wanted to share it with you. Feel free [...]

Yes!

WASHINGTON (AP)  17 August – The  Supreme Court on Monday ordered a new hearing for death row inmate Troy Davis, whose supporters say is innocent and should be spared from execution for killing an off-duty police officer almost 20 years ago.
Davis has spent 18 years on death row for the 1989 slaying of [...]

“Quakers make the right decision.”

by Rosemary Hartill
(The Guardian/UK) August 3 – Following the decision by the Religious Society of Friends on Friday to become the first historic church to say “yes” to same-sex marriages, Saturday’s Guardian ran an editorial entitled In Praise of .. the Quakers. It highlighted the long history of Quaker trail-blazing – in the reform of [...]

“Mr. to Miss, now teacher is resigning.”

Sad.
Mr. to Miss, now teacher is resigning
LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. (Philadelphia Inquirer July 23 – When word got out that Mr. McBeth, a popular substitute teacher at two South Jersey school districts was about to come back to class as Miss McBeth, it caused an uproar.
William McBeth had undergone sex reassignment surgery [...]

What a “radical” idea!

That Tyler Perry  What a “radical” he must be!
Tyler Perry Gives the Gift of Disney World to Philadelphia Campers
(Philadelphia Inquirer) July 21 – Six-year-old Creative Steps camper Dajuan Tucker doesn’t remember much about his last trip to Walt Disney World. He was only 4 years old and has vague memories of water slides and meeting [...]

Go, girl.

WASHINGTON, DC (Courier Post) July 9 – Physically and emotionally bullied as a fourth-grader, Jackie Andrews is fighting back.
She’s doing so not with taunts or fists but with an anti-bullying campaign the 16-year-old high school junior is developing with her sister Josie, 14, that might soon get a national audience.
Wednesday, the Andrews sisters, from Haddon [...]

What we’re (still) up against.

Prepare to be angry.
Montco swim club accused of racial discrimination
PHILADELPHIA, Pa (Philadelphia Inquirer) July 9 - Days before a Northeast Philadelphia day camp’s membership at a private suburban swim club was rescinded, several of the campers said they had heard racial remarks about themselves at the pool.
Parents and staff members of Creative Steps Inc. day camp [...]

Remember.

Twenty years ago today.

Well done, New Hampshire.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) June 3 – New Hampshire legislators approved a measure Wednesday that would make the state the sixth to allow gay marriage, and Gov. John Lynch said he would sign it later in the afternoon.
He had promised a veto if the law didn’t clearly spell out that churches and religious groups would not [...]

“What do Starbucks and Wal-Mart have in common?”

Actually, they have more in common that just this.
Wal-Mart sells cheap plastic crap made in overseas sweatshops.
Starbucks sells (burnt-tasting) coffee that tastes like crap.
Visit Stop Starbucks here.

What he said.

Seen in San Francisco on Tuesday.
(via Common Dreams)

“The new case against the death penalty.”

by Corianna Barrett Lain
Richmond, Va. (Christian Science Monitor) May 11 - This year, state budgetary crises have given death penalty opponents their most successful argument yet – money.
Just two states have abolished the death penalty in the past 40 years, New Jersey in 2007 and New Mexico in March. The cost of capital punishment played [...]

We have become what it is we claim to fear.

The United States is a terrorist nation.  We have now become by our own definition a rogue state.
Any claims to the contrary are simply empty rhetoric and basically lies or expressions of delusional thinking.
If we torture them, we are no better than them.  And if we do this, then we are the same as they are:
White [...]

Friday (somebody’s) baby blogging.

(A recent “Twitpic,” sent to me by Blue Gal.)
The caption read “A child in Gobay Village, Ethiopia, shows us his drinking water.”
Yes.  I said his drinking water.
As one commenter stated (pointing out the obvious), “Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?”

Way to go, Maine.

Actually, it’s the rest of the country that has a way to go.
Maine becomes 5th state to allow same-sex marriage
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) May 6 – Maine’s governor signed a freshly passed bill Wednesday approving gay marriage, making it the fifth state to approve the practice and moving New England closer to allowing it throughout the [...]

HUH?

WASHINGTON (CNN) April 30 – The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.
More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” [...]

Happy (human rights hero) birthday.

Happy birthday to Pete Seeger, who turns 90 today.
UPDATE: An essay on why Pete deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

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 [...]

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 [...]