independence Washington DC has lost all moral authority over Vermont. We need to exert our rights as a sovereign state. What would a politically independent Vermont look like? What could Vermont do if we spent our annual share of the cost of US military overstretch, $1.5 Billion, to build the local economy instead?
No summer movie season would be complete without a horror film.
This article, written by Joanne Poyourow (initiator of Transition Los Angeles), connects the big issues confronting us, which cannot be handled separately. The original article (with active links) can be found here or here.
To the 1Sky board of directors:
In your open letter to all people and organizations working to combat global warming, you ask how to move forward with urgency and clarity of purpose.
1) Understand the full scope of the problem.
Global warming is not a standalone issue. At the same time as we are trying to decarbonize our entire society and cope with the erratic weather events of early climate change, we are simultaneously being hit with peak oil and economic contraction.
Thanks to independent journalist Christopher Ketcham and the Huffington Post for this article about our emerging independence movement here in the once and future republic of Vermont.
Free Vermont! Long live the UNtied States.
Dennis Steele and young Vermonter at the Warren 4th Parade.
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There is an important difference between a principled philosophy of decentralism, and a self-serving ideology of libertarianism. In this week's New Yorker magazine, an illuminating and disturbing article by Jane Mayer profiles the billionaire Koch brothers and their massive influence on right wing politics.
If you oppose the basing of the F-35 in South Burlington, Vermont, please follow the link and sign and then forward the petition to other concerned Vermonters!
Overview of High Frequency Trading - What’s Driving the Markets?
Introduction to High Frequency Trading
Those who followed the results of my experiment in heating water with a special mound of composting wood-chips will be glad to hear that my mound is up to 115-degrees, a full year after we first built it.
See my previous posts on how we made our "Jean Pain Mound" at http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2009/10/02/energy-optimist-brown-mound-com...
And hear our most excellent home-grown, all-Vermont Funk band, Electric Sorcery !! Playing 2:00 PM at the historic Gathering Inn, Hancock, Vermont !
The doors of sound have been ripped off the hinges by Electric Sorcery who routinely electrify Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Towns are regularly woken out of their slumber by the by the wicked sound of this power trio.
Electric Sorcery takes psychedelic music firmly rooted in the 70s and adds their own special twist. Funky rhythms and psychedelic guitar riffs come together to create an intriguing sound that is sometimes very heavy.... This is a fun listen and anyone who gravitates towards the psychedelic sounds of the 70s needs to hear this… - SeaOfTranquility.org
Meet & Eat Greet & Drink
Saturday, September 25, from 2 – 4 PM
1295 Route 100
Diagonally opposite the Hancock Hotel
Please bring your concerns, your hard questions, and your ideas. The Independent vision for Vermont is all about you, your families and communities !
by Jane Dwinell and Dana Dwinell-Yardley
Check out this New York Times business section article on how (at least some) Americans in this down economy are moving away from "conspicuous consumption" and — wow, really? — finding that they're happier that way. It's worth a read.
Lesson of the day: frugality and sustainability equals not hairshirt discomfort or self-righteousness, but happy people. Huzzah.
OK, I'm late to the game in commenting on US District Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling overturning California's Proposition 8. But I haven't seen anyone comment on Walker's hilarious use of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia's writings to support his ruling that enshrines marriage as a fundamental right not be denied on the basis of sexual orientation.
Scalia wrote a dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court's 2003 6-3 Lawrence v. Texas decision that overturned a law against sodomy. In his dissent, Scalia says it's OK for a majority to prohibit sodomy because of a belief that it's "immoral and unacceptable," and says the same principle applies to same-sex marriage, adult incest, and bestiality. He decries a Supreme Court "that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda" and declares that courts have no role in protecting homosexuals from those who would exclude them from jobs, volunteer positions, or lodgings.
In short, Scalia is not a likely vote to uphold Walker's ruling, should the case get to the Supreme Court. Yet to build one of his findings of facts, that no state has ever required
that partners in a marriage be willing or able to have children, Walker quotes from Scalia's dissent in Lawrence v. Texas:
If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is ‘no legitimate state interest’ for purposes of proscribing that conduct * * * what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples exercising ‘the liberty protected by the Constitution’? Surely not the encouragement of procreation, since the sterile and the elderly are allowed to marry.
It seems like an impish poke, to use Scalia's dissent to bolster the case for same-sex marriage. Yet Walker chose not to quote, for some reason, the larger point that Scalia was making in his Lawrence v. Texas dissent:
Today's [majority] opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned.
Maybe that's because Walker anticipates that the Prop. 8 case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, will be the one in which the majority of the Supreme Court will finally agree to dismantle the legal distinction between heterosexual and homosexual marriages.
An interview with Dahr Jamail
Reposted from Counter Currents
State Dept. planning to field a small army in Iraq [EXCERPTS]
WASHINGTON — Can diplomats field their own army? The State Department is laying plans to do precisely that in Iraq, in an unprecedented experiment that U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky....
Already, however, the State Department’s requests to the Pentagon for Black Hawk helicopters; 50 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles; fuel trucks; high-tech surveillance systems; and other military gear has encountered flak on Capitol Hill....
The embrace of Burlington as the choice for the basing of the F-35 flies
in the face of common decency in 3 realms: concern for the health,
welfare and property of everyone who lives near the airport, concern
over rapacious and irresponsible government spending and the concern for
the misery, death and hatred of the US that is engendered by our
aggressive, imperialistic military policies.
Its been a busy 24 hours, folks! I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to get the F-35 counter narrative out to a wider audience. If any of you would like to make a statement on the F-35, I 'd be happy to post it to my blog:http://f35insouthburlington.blogspot.com/
WCAX: http://www.wcax.com/global/video.asp?clipId=4986211&autostart=true
WPTZ: http://www.wptz.com/news/24446088/detail.html
Reposted from Truth-Out
Frank Joseph Smecker: You begin your book Depraved Indifference: the Workers’ Compensation System with a staggering fact: ‘Every eight minutes in the US, someone dies from an occupational illness or injury.’ That’s incredible, in a really disconcerting sense– that’s more than 60,000 deaths per year… Can you explain how this nightmare has become a reality for so many?
White House condemns Wikileaks...
See here.
