Martin Luther King Jr.

It's a long video. If you have the time watch it. If you've never read King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, please take an hour and read it. It demonstrates a compassion and understanding for humanity that have rarely been seen in this world. This passage moves me every time.

"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."

I encourage my loyal few to embrace that understanding of collective responsibility and let it live on through your hearts and actions.

No 1 of Consequence

And now for something completely different

The Freakonomics guys wrote about something recently that intrigued me. While I am not an anarchist or anti capitalist at all I find something very intriguing about anyone who is trying to do it (life) differently. Because I appreciate different points of view I have created a new link list and added a link to Liz Seymour - Anarchist Mom. Her point of view is so reasoned it makes dumpster diving seem almost palatable. I am planning on making her blog a regular read, because I like alternative points of view.

Here are a couple of other alternative point of view sites for a different way of looking at finance.

Prosper is a community based lending site

Kiva is a community lending non profit for micro finance in the third world.

Both sites are very cool and are helping people.

No 1 of Consequence

No mas, I give up.

Back on August 6, I posted about a law that basically usurped the 4th Amendement rights from a lot of Americans. I intimated in this post that the democrats were asleep at the switch while this legislation was being pushed through.

No Best Man of Consequence sent me an e-mail last night quoting a New York Times article:

Congress accidentally gave President George Bush the power to conduct warrantless searches and seizures when it passed a wiretapping bill earlier this month. Democrats are embarrassed they voted without understanding language that would allow—among other things—some physical searches, and the collection of business records, without a court order.

Another quote from the Times:

“We did not cover ourselves in glory,” said one Democratic aide, referring to how the bill was compiled.


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This is sickening on a number of levels. How does one accidentally give broad powers in violation of The Constitution to the executive? How is a bill accidentally passed? I am certain I saw a Schoolhouse Rock episode once when I was a kid that detailed how tough it really is to get a law passed.



That YouTube video is 3 minutes long. Longer than anyone spent reading this pathetic piece of legislation. It also demonstrates that Congress doesn't actually debate laws anymore. They just sign them out of fear.

Scaredy cat signing quote from the times:

Though many Democratic leaders opposed the final version of the legislation, they did not work forcefully to block its passage, largely out of fear that they would be criticized by President Bush and Republican leaders during the August recess as being soft on terrorism.

Once again we have checkers playing politicians in a chess playing world. This isn't even hard folks. I bet if I asked my 13 year old son how he would handle this kind of criticism he could easily come up with a deflection strategy that would be viable.

How about this, and keep in mind I 've spent exactly 3 minutes thinking about it.

Hypothetical politician responding to hypothetical criticism that he is soft on terrorism when faced with passing legislation that significantly impacts the rights of American citizens.

"When taking my oath of office after the citizens of (insert state here) saw fit to elect me as their representative I swore to uphold The Constitution of the United States of America. This legislation, while it may be expedient, does not protect the bests interests of Americans because it impinges upon their civil liberties. Voting for legislation that oppresses law abiding citizens is a violation of my oath and I will not sign, EVER. This administration has refused to do what's hard, which is protect Americans from terrorism without infringing upon the freedoms that make this country what it is. Until President Bush and the republican party take freedom as seriously as I do, and are willing to do the hard work involved in protecting that freedom, we will not be safe from ourselves, much less terrorists."

Think that would send any critical right wing elements scrambling? I do. Imagine what someone who does political spinning professionally could come up with.

No 1 of Consequence

Civility

I just read this article by Joe Klein. It interestingly details how he was slightly misled by a politician only to be completely lambasted by left wing bloggers. The politician called to tell him the misleading statement was unintentional and apologized. He printed the apology and got crushed again by the writers carrying the banners of the left.

I am absolutely a left leaning guy. Some would say I lean so far left I am actually laying down. They might be right. :-) My point in this little foray back into the political is that the inability to argue points with civility is what prevents progress. If someone is hateful, spiteful and vindictive is drags down their entire cause.

I fall into it sometimes, as do most people. I freely admit that the mention of Ann Coulter causes me to lose all ability to reason. Overall though, I try and keep an open mind.

Raising the level of debate in this nation is important. We have to ask more of ourselves and our countrymen. We have to focus our eyes on what is important and definitely learn to separate the things that aren't from the national stage. Publicly eviscerating people for making minor errors doesn't help anything or anyone.

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Some notes from the UK

- TV here sucks. It just out and out blows. I was stuck watching reruns of Bones last night and felt like it was almost a good show because I was that bored.

- I don't sleep well here. It is hard to be super productive when I am dog tired a lot of the time.

- My brother calls my international cell phone to talk about fantasy baseball. I love that.

- I found out that significant time in Geneva is going to be in my future. I am note sure how I feel about this. Of course it means I will probably hit platinum medallion status on Delta.

- I really like the guys I am working with here. This consulting bunch is fantastic. They are a LOT of fun to work with and while I don't enjoy being away from my family that much, it could be a whole lot worse than it is.

- The UK is so damned expensive I can't even begin to tell you. The US needs to get the dollar back under control and they need to do it very badly.

- I found yesterday I have a new boss... sort of, maybe two new bosses, it still hasn't fleshed out and I am not really thrilled about it.

- There is a 99% chance that I am going to start doing podcasts. I just need to figure out if I can record using my Skype headset and Polycom Communicator.

No 1 of Consequence

John Corzine, friend of gay Americans

Today the governor of the great state of NJ signed a bill that effectively allows gays to marry. I applaud New Jersey for its progressiveness and hope the rest of the United States will get its collective head out of its ass and stop one of the last forms of legal discrimination.

Read some of my thoughts about New Jersey and Jim McGreevey's homosexuality here.

Read some of my thoughts about homosexuality in general here.

An issue I care about

This is a picture of Myanmarian children who were rescued from a child slavery ring in Asian. The kind of life these children were headed for is unknown to me. They could have been bound for a life of slave labor or unspeakable sexual exploitation. Either way, the innocence that they were graced with at birth was stripped from them.

These kind of surrealistics horrors take place every day in every country, including this one. This article is about a murdering scumbag who ignored the cries of the 19 people stuffed in his trailer as they suffocated and died while trying to reach the U.S.

This is a link to the yearly Trafficking in Persons Report that our government is legally bound to prepare every year since the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 was passed. It is long, it is terrible, and for some reason I feel compelled to read it every year. I am not saying you should read it, I just wanted you to know that we live in a world where Human Trafficking is so prevalent that our government, and many others are statutorily obligated to track it.

No 1 of Consequence

Fishy fishy in the sea, won't you come and play with me?

A study was published that says there will be a global seafood collapse by 2048.

I think this is going to be the one that actually comes true. The global fishing economy is too huge and impacts too many people for there to be a global consensus on fish conservation.

The article says:

"Joshua Reichert, head of the private Pew Charitable Trusts' environment program, pointed out that worldwide fishing provides $80 billion in revenue and 200 million people depend on it for their livelihoods. For more than 1 billion people, many of whom are poor, fish is their main source of protein, he said."

In a six billion person world that is about 16% of the globe that depends on fish for its main source of protein.

What are the repercussions of a global seafood collapse. Mass starvation in third world coastal communities? An explosion in thirdworld brith defects and still birth as protein deficient mothers are unable to produce healthy babies? I don't know if either one of those things are true, but they easily could be.

No 1 of Global Environmental and Socio-Economic Consequence

What kind of world view do I have?

I do occasionally like a good quiz. I found this one today. It is mildly silly because a 32 question quiz can't possibly decipher my world view, but it didn't do a terrible job.

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. Cultural Creative 75% Existentialist 63% Idealist 56% Modernist 56% Postmodernist 50% Materialist 31% Romanticist 19% Fundamentalist 6% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com

This quiz pegged me perfectly. I am a cultural creative as they define it. I do believe in the divine, but I also believe in the ability for humanity to charter its own course through collective responsibility. I don’t mean communism. I mean community. One person reaching out, whenever possible to help his fellow man, even in small ways is the type of responsibility I am talking about. The problem is being conscious of the opportunities when they present themselves. I recently had an opportunity to reach out to someone and failed. It has really bugged me ever since. I was driving to the airport to pick my brother up. I stopped to fill my gas tank before jumping on the highway. As I was waiting in line I noticed a man standing near the register, having an animated conversation with what could only have been a belligerent credit card company. There was some sort of problem with the account, he needed to pay for his gas and he was having a problem. I doubt this was a poor person, based on his clothing and general stature, but he was clearly a man having a rough night. I could easily have eased his burden, in the hope that he would in turn ease the burden of someone else. I chose not to. It is still not entirely clear to me why. It is kind of a Pay It Forward philosophy, but a continuous one.

Let’s make it a running theme here. I will try and find a cool custom counter to code into the blog and each time one of my readers comments with a Community Moment (or a better name if you can come up with one) we will add it to the counter. Anyone who knows about html coding and/or knows of one that exists already, please feel free to forward it along to me. You get a link in exchange and a G-mail account if you want one.

How did you score on the quiz?

No1ofConsequence

Community Mindedness with a Homosexual Twist

Something cool and at the very same time sad is taking place today in my new hometown. On my ride into the office in the morning I listen to The Bert Show on the radio. Howard Stern isn’t on down here and I don’t have my Sirius Satellite Radio hooked up yet so my options are limited. Bert and his gang are kind of a watered down imitation of Howard. They aren’t bad to listen to, but I wouldn’t say there is anything edgy about them. They are non-political, kind of a decaf latte version of a morning show. However, they do some really good work around the city. When Hurricane Katrina flattened New Orleans, Georgia was flooded with refugees. Approximately 7000 children from Louisiana entered Georgia schools over a one month period of time, many of them had lost everything. The Bert Show organized a backpack drive to make sure that all the kids who came into the state had brand new school supplies, and a little money to buy new clothes with. They did an outstanding job on it. They also do something called Bert’s Big Adventure where they take sick and physically challenged children to Disney World. It is another very noble pursuit that has a lot of community benefit. That brings us to today.

One of the cast members, Melissa Carter, is an openly gay woman. Tonight she is hosting a Holigay party at a club here in Atlanta. They are hosting this party because the holidays are an especially troubling time for homosexuals who are not out or able to be out at their offices. She recently talked on the show about how homosexuals are still routinely discriminated against in the workplace and how coming out, or being open about their lifestyle can lead to the unemployment line. So it is a cool thing they are doing, to make a safe and enjoyable holiday event for the gay Atlanta community to bring their significant others to, but at the same time it makes me sad that this is necessary. Imagine it was still OK to fire people because they were Jews, or black, or whatever. It reminded me of something I wrote during the original incarnation of this blog. In relation to today’s topic I thought it was poignant to reprint it.

The gay population

Depending upon the statistics you believe, between 6% and 10% of the population of the United States considers themselves gay. At a population of 290 million that means that between 17,400,000 and 29 million gay people reside in the United States. For the sake of discussion let's say it ranges to the low end and the number of gay Americans comes in at a flat 20 million. That makes the homosexual community the third largest minority in this country behind African American and Latin American ethnic minorities.

How can we stomach discrimination against them? As a society that has grown and advanced socially and tried desperately to rise out of our own intolerance how can suggest that gay couples shouldn't be allowed to marry? How can we suggest that domestic partners don't deserve the same kind of social security and insurance protections that hetero couples do? How can we try and adopt a constitutional amendment that would define marriage and make homosexuals less than full citizens of our country? Wouldn't that be the same sort of legislative discrimination as counting slaves as 2/3 of a free person? Judeo-Christian ideas about marriage have no place in politics. I am a Jew, but I don't care what the Torah says about homosexuals. Society is a lot more complicated now than it was then and we understand a lot more about humanity. We should behave in a just and humane way towards our fellow citizens and that is the only ideology from the Old and New Testaments that matters. All men and women were created equal. All deserve equal protection under the law. All deserve equal protection in our hearts.

Prejudice is the child of ignorance, we need to get enlightened.

No 1 of Consequence