Thousands of Buddhist monks chant during a lantern lighting to celebrate Makha Bucha day at Dhammakaya temple
For more on this story, visit: Eyewitness: Bangkok, Thailand | World news | guardian.co.uk.
Writing the Ship | Daily Nutmeg
Earlier this month, Connecticut Congressman Joe Courtney caught a big blunder in the new film biography of Abraham Lincoln. One scene shows states voting to ratify the amendment abolishing slavery, with Courtney’s 19th century Connecticut congressional counterparts heard voting against the 13th amendment when in fact all four of Connecticut’s congressmen at the time voted in favor of it.
The error seems especially odd to Connecticut audiences, since the director of Lincoln, Steven Spielberg, also directed the only major film made about the Amistad.
The American People Need Real Spending Cuts
President Obama and other so-called progressives insist that the American people are not overly dependent on government. They also predict dire consequences if the automatic budget “cuts” known as sequestration take place March 1.
Both claims cannot be true. If modest across-the-board “cuts” — mainly cuts in the rate of growth — in military and domestic spending pose a threat to the American people and the U.S. economy, then the country is alarmingly dependent on government.
Federal spending has grown dramatically since the 1970s, with the biggest increases coming during Republican administrations. Spending today is hundreds of billions greater than in 2008 and much higher as a percentage of the economy. True, it is lower now than in 2009, but that year, a combination of George W. Bush and Obama “stimulus” spending, set a record.
The sequester consists of $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts in non-entitlement spending growth over ten years. To put that in perspective, Reason editor Nick Gillespie writes, “Remember that we’re talking about $1.2 trillion dollars taken out of a projected $44 trillion or so in spending. What kind of budget discipline is that?”
As that March 1 sequester approaches, the Obama administration warns of severe consequences for national security and economic security.
For more on this story, visit: The American People Need Real Spending Cuts The Future of Freedom Foundation.
Why the fracking boom may actually be an economic bubble | Grist
Surprise, Surprise ….
Fracking proponents like to use an evocative economic metaphor in talking about their industry: boom. The natural gas boom. Drilling is exploding in North Dakota and Texas and Pennsylvania. Only figuratively so far, but who knows what the future holds.
The Post Carbon Institute, however, suggests in a new report [PDF] that another metaphor would be more apt: a bubble, like the bubbles of methane that seep into water wells and then burst.
PCI presents the argument in its most basic form at ShaleBubble.org.
For more on this story, visit: Why the fracking boom may actually be an economic bubble | Grist.
Where is this?
I know this is probably an easy test for anyone who frequents downtown New Haven spots, but where is it? If it’s too easy, then just say you know where it is. If not, then take a guess.
Financing the Global Sharing Economy – STWR – Share The World’s Resources
A report by Share The World’s Resources demonstrates how governments could mobilize over $2.8 trillion each year to bolster the global sharing economy and prevent life-threatening deprivation, reverse austerity measures and mitigate the human impacts of climate change.
Humanity is facing a global emergency. Extreme poverty and climate-related disasters are taking the lives of over 40,000 people every single day and severely affecting many millions of others. At the same time, dramatic cutbacks in public spending on social welfare and essential services are making it increasingly difficult for many families to meet their basic needs, even in the richest nations.
For more on this story, visit: Financing the Global Sharing Economy – STWR – Share The World’s Resources.
Georgia Prepares for ‘Another Grotesque and Unjust Execution’ | Common Dreams
The state of Georgia is set to execute Warren Hill, a mentally disabled, African-American man, on Tuesday.
The state’s last execution was that of Troy Davis, prompting Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, to write that “the world community is again watching Georgia with great concern as it prepares to carry out another grotesque and unjust execution.”
Hill was given a death sentence after killing a fellow inmate while already serving a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend.
Hill is reported to have an IQ of 70, and The Guardian reports that
All medical specialists who have examined Hill now agree that he is “mentally retarded” – the designation of intellectual disability still widely used in the US – and should be protected under the supreme court ban. In an important break in the case, three forensic psychiatrists who had previously testified that Hill did not meet the legal criteria for “mental retardation”, and was thus eligible for execution, have in recent days announced that they now believe their opinion was wrong.
For more on this story, visit: Georgia Prepares for ‘Another Grotesque and Unjust Execution’ | Common Dreams.
Obama’s speeches are not just words — they are political action
The more we repeat the language of equality, freedom and social responsibility, the more those ideas come to dominate the public conversation. In turn, the character of public discourse determines what the news media promote and criticize, and what the candidates for public office must pay attention to. In this way, speech is political action.
What are some other deep truths we can promote through words? That individual initiative is possible only with the infrastructure and human capital the American public has provided for all of us. That health care is inseparable from life. That education is far more than taking tests or competing in the global economy; it is what makes us free and equal. That the environment is not just outside; it is inside us, with polluted air and water and pesticides destroying our health, now and tomorrow. That women’s rights are human rights. That great disparities in wealth destroy opportunity.
From such speech, political action can flow. The State of the Union on Tuesday is an opportunity for Obama to make the link, to show how particular policies emerge from general truths, to move us from hope to responsibility.
But in the end, only we as citizens can force the president and Congress to act.
How? By speaking out.
For more on this story, visit: Obama’s speeches are not just words — they are political action – The Washington Post.
Ash Wednesday 2013: A Good Day to be Arrested as an Advocate for God’s Creation
Ash Wednesday is a day of conscience, repentance and conviction; a day when we take stock of our personal lives – and of our life together on the planet; a day when we confess our self-indulgent appetites, our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our obsession with consumption of every kind. It is a day of profound, private self-examination, and yet it also includes a public witness – an ashen cross on our forehead to remind ourselves, and the world, who we are and whose we are. On Ash Wednesday, Christians acknowledge that we are accountable to the God who gave us life and who entrusted the earth to our care.
That we have not done a good job with that trust is news to no one. In his Second Inaugural Address, President Obama declared, “We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.” And he went on to say that our generation must respond “to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”
Because our generation is facing an unprecedented challenge – a challenge of our own making – repentance is essential if we are to find a way forward.
Ash Wednesday is a good day to be arrested because civil disobedience is a form of repentance. It was repentance of the sin of slavery that prompted Henry David Thoreau to lay out the principles of civil disobedience in the mid-nineteenth century. One hundred years later, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and hundreds of others engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience to prompt this nation to repent of the sin of racism and segregation.
Our generation must now repent of the sin of wrecking God’s creation. Our decades of science denial have now been exchanged for widespread recognition of the community-crushing effects of climate disruption, whether by way of wildfires, droughts, or superstorms.
These are the conditions in which the conscience of a nation can be born.
The Rev. Dr. Jim Antal is Minister and President of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ, the largest Protestant denomination in the Commonwealth. A climate activist, he provides national leadership in that area for the United Church of Christ.
For more on this story, visit: Ash Wednesday 2013: A Good Day to be Arrested as an Advocate for God’s Creation.
You Should Be Outraged by What Is Being Done to Our Postal Service
You are probably hearing that the Post Office is “in crisis” and is cutting back Saturday delivery, laying people off, closing offices, etc. Like so many other “crises” imposed on us lately, there is a lot to the story that you are not hearing from the “mainstream” media.
For more on this story, visit: You Should Be Outraged by What Is Being Done to Our Postal Service.
Soybean Farmer Takes Monsanto to Supreme Court
A single 75-year-old Indiana soybean farmer in rural southwestern Indiana is taking on the multibillion dollar agricultural giant Monsanto over the issue of who controls the rights to seeds planted in the ground.
When confronted with the David vs. Goliath nature of his battle, Vernon Hugh Bowman told The Guardian: “I really don’t consider it as David and Goliath. I don’t think of it in those terms. I think of it in terms of right and wrong.”
For more on this story, visit: Soybean Farmer Takes Monsanto to Supreme Court – Truthdig.
Eyewitness: Ghoramara island, India
A rise in sea levels has washed away more than 50% of Ghoramara island since the 1980s, prompting two-thirds of its population to leave. Daesung Lee has been selected as a finalist in the professional contemporary issues category of the 2013 Sony world photography awards for her images of islanders
For more on this story, visit: Eyewitness: Ghoramara island, India | World news | guardian.co.uk.
Amazon to build facility, institute sales tax in Connecticut
Amazon Plans to Invest $50 million in State; Revenue Collection to Begin in November
(HARTFORD, CT) – Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and Amazon today announced that over the next two years, Amazon will invest $50 million in Connecticut and create hundreds of new full-time jobs. The Governor made the announcement at the same time that he announced an agreement under which Amazon will begin collecting sales tax revenue in the state.
“All in all, this is a win for our state’s taxpayers, our main street retailers, and our workforce,” Malloy said. “Amazon’s multi-million dollar investment and the hundreds of jobs that will come with both the construction and operation of their future facility will unquestionably boost our local economy. Their agreement to begin collecting revenue is a great step, but federal action on this issue is still necessary.”
“These are two more significant steps that our administration is making to create jobs and maximize our revenues whenever possible,” Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said. “This will both put people to work and help balance the budget, and we welcome Amazon as our newest partner in our effort to create long-term prosperity for Connecticut.”
Continue reading “Amazon to build facility, institute sales tax in Connecticut”
What if foreign policy officials suddenly told the truth?
What if foreign policy officials suddenly told the truth? 1. “We’re never gonna get rid of our nuclear weapons.” 2. “We don’t actually care that much about human rights.” 3. “There’s not going to be a two-state solution.” 4. “We like being #1, and we’re going to stay there just as long as we can.” 5. “We do a lot of stupid things in foreign policy. Get used to it.”
For more on this story, visit: What if foreign policy officials suddenly told the truth? | Stephen M. Walt.
Secretary of Schlep – An FP Slide Show | Foreign Policy
Hillary Clinton traveled to 112 countries. Foreign Policy assembled a great slideshow.
For more on this story, visit: Secretary of Schlep – An FP Slide Show | Foreign Policy.
Camera club | Art and design | The Guardian
The Guardian Camera Club focuses on the world of photography.
Wenonah Hauter: Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America
The Executive Director of Food and Water Watch tells GRITtv’s Laura Flanders why voting with our forks won’t beat food company consolidation and why we need new federal anti-trust regulation and a stronger democracy too. Hauter’s book, Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America, is just out from The New Press.
For more on this story, visit: Wenonah Hauter: Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America | Common Dreams.
Dave Eggers: ‘We tend to look everywhere but the mirror’
Novelist and publisher Dave Eggers on writing, politics, the state of the States, and his latest novel, A Hologram for a King
For more on this story, visit: Dave Eggers: ‘We tend to look everywhere but the mirror’ – interview | Books | The Observer.
Jack Kerouac’s Naval Reserve Enlistment Mugshot, 1943
In October of 1942, after completing a voyage to and from an Army command base in Greenland (which he would later write about in Vanity of Duluoz), Kerouac left the merchant marine and returned to Columbia. That was lucky, because most of the Dorchester‘s crew–more than 600 men–died three months later when the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat.
Naval doctors at Newport found Kerouac to be “restless, apathetic, seclusive” and determined that he was mentally unfit for service, writing that “neuropsychiatric examination disclosed auditory hallucinations, ideas of reference and suicide, and a rambling, grandiose, philosophical manner.” He was sent to the Naval Hospital in Bethesda Maryland and eventually discharged.
For more on this story, visit: Jack Kerouac’s Naval Reserve Enlistment Mugshot, 1943 | Open Culture.
