May 15, 2009 in We Think
As the revelations about the U.S. policy on torture continue, even as Speaker Pelosi and the CIA debate whether or not she knew about their plans to use excessive force with detainees we are reminded of Mark Fiore’s animated cartoon from April 22, 2009 featuring the character Fuzzy the Conciliation Caterpillar. Watch this video:
May 14, 2009 in We Think
It’s that time of year friends. It’s the season when some one begins an interplanetary hoax about cell phone numbers going public. We received an email this morning from one of our fans suggesting we pass this faulty bit of information to our friends.
This baseless rumor has been around for at least four years. (more…)
May 13, 2009 in We Think
DOCTOROW’s LAW:
“Any time someone puts a lock on something you own, against your wishes, and doesn’t give you the key, it’s not being done to your benefit.”
Cory Doctorow, an activist for technology issues, is also a science fiction novelist of renown, and a blogger.
We recently discovered video of a presentation he made earlier this year, during the O’Reilly Tools for Change for Publishing Conference, on the subject of Digital Rights Management or DRM. (more…)
May 12, 2009 in We Think
Today is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the woman credited with founding modern nursing, the reformation of the hospital system and the mathematician.
(more…)
May 11, 2009 in We Think
In March 2009 we got emails which hammered us for repeating information we’d received from some activists who submit information to us from time to time about topics of concern to them.
We were roundly criticized by some folks who actually read our articles. These folks are activists who had done their homework and tried to pull our coat to tell us what was going on with this interesting piece of legislation.
We read, as promised, the proposed bill. We did not see anything that looked like a red flag. So we went to one of the places we always go to check our facts. It’s the same place we would have gone if we’d had time back in March. (more…)
May 11, 2009 in Justice, We Think
Over the past weekend the White House Correspondents held their annual dinner. Only 14 presidents, beginning with President Calvin Coolidge in 1924, have attended this grand affair.
The White House Correspondents Association is in charge of the planning of the event. After all it is their dinner where reporters receive awards for journalism and students receive scholarships. They choose the hotel venue, the menu and the evening’s comedy host. It is a tradition since the 1940s for the correspondents and their guests-usually actors and other entertainers along with politicians to be entertained by the witty observations of the evening’s featured hired speaker. (more…)
May 11, 2009 in We Think
Just imagine you are a West Point graduate who is also an officer in the Army National Guard. You are fluent in Arabic and you recently came back from a tour of duty in Iraq. Then you received notice the military is about to fire you. You’re going to be getting a pink slip because you disclosed your sexual preference. You announced you are gay.
That’s what happened to Lt. Dan Choi. He is one of the founding members of Knights Out, an organization of 35 gay and lesbian military officers , graduates of West Point, America’s prestigious military academy for Army officers, who say they refuse to live a lie. The incongruity is astounding when you consider they’ve been trained as West Point cadets to not lie, to not cheat and to not steal.
These GLBT officers say the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law is illegal, immoral and unethical. They say it’s just plain bad law.
President Barack Obama agrees. (more…)
May 10, 2009 in We Think
That’s right. Jacob Zuma, who served time in a South African prison along with former President Nelson Mandela, is now the President of South Africa. Mr. Zuma is the fourth democratically elected president of South Africa since the end of apartheid. As they say in the vernacular, “That’s all good.”
The real, important news is the fact President Jacob Zuma has three wives. Polygamy is legally recognized in South Africa. (more…)
May 10, 2009 in We Think
“A baseball manager has learned a lot about his job from having played the game, but a parent has not learned a thing from having once been a child.”~ Bill Cosby
Happy Mother’s Day to all who are parenting, and those have parented and continue to parent.
It does not matter if you’ve given birth to the child or children you guide, you provide the consistency in their life; you are the reliable adult your young humans require for their development.
It does not matter if you are a mother who has given birth or a father who is acting as both mother and father to some youngsters, we honor you all. You males are very special mothers, and that’s one word, not two.
Raising children is an incredibly hard and risky business in which no cumulative wisdom is gained: each generation repeats the mistakes the previous one made.~ Bill Cosby
May 07, 2009 in We Think
This is great news for voters in Florida. This is great news for voters all over America.
Last month we told you about the proposed bill in the Florida State House and the Florida State Senate known as SB 956 / HB 7149. It was described as having the potential to be “the most repressive voter bill in the nation.” Here’s an update on that important piece of legislation.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, (ACLU Florida) in cooperation with the efforts of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People); American Association of Retired Persons,(AARP); Progress Florida, Florida Public Interest Research Groups,
(PIRG); along with the League of Women Voters and about forty other public interest activist groups, (more…)
My StumbleUpon Page