Raqchel Maddow has it right here about Obama and Warren

When I first heard about this, I really didn't believe it. Barak Obama has make some...unfortuante choices in spiritual leaders before, but that was when he was a private person. But as Maddow says, he is inviting Warren into the nations inauguration.

Friday Five: Countdown to Christmas Edition

Songbird writes:
"It's true.
There are only five full days before Christmas Day, and whether you use them for shopping, wrapping, preaching, worshiping, singing or traveling or even wishing the whole darn thing were over last Tuesday, there's a good chance they will be busy ones.

So let's make this easy, if we can: tell us five things you need to accomplish before Christmas Eve."
1. Friday- Work, If I decide to go. Been fighting this darn sinus infection and now I sound like a bull frog. Tonight I have the Catholic Lesbians Wrapping Party where we bring and wrap presents for homeless children (from a NYC homeless organization) while eating pizza! Maybe I should stay home to rest up for that? But the cleaning lady is coming today, sigh.

2. Saturday-I'm getting a haircut, then going to a party for Hannukah given by a friend of Beloveds (and me too,) 

3. Sunday- As yet unplanned except Hannukah starts at sundown! I must get the gifts together! I will go to church... somewhere.

4. Monday- Work- enough said. Then therapy, and thank God for that! Second Day of Hannukah

5. Tuesday- Work-Closing session of a supported employment program review run by orthodox Jews in the depths of Brooklyn.  Third Day of Hannukah.

Most of my shopping is done. Plans for Christmas are usually low key. If Godchild's husband is working at the hospital-he's a surgical resident so there's a good chance. We'll probably make a plan for the three of us. Maybe dinner out then a movie. I really want to see Milk.

And for a little levity to help you relax:

Regarding the Governor David Patterson parody on Saturday Night Live

I guess it's only if you work with people with disabilities day to day, and see how competent we can be (and I add myself, but my disability is very mild compared to the people I see.) You can only realize how effective people can be on the job. SNL did not parody what Patterson did- use drugs, have an affair (both true) but what he had, a visual impairment. Something over which he has not control and despite which he has risen to the role of Governor. Go Dave!

According to the New York Times in 1994:

"More than four years after Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, a sweeping civil rights law covering people with physical and mental impairments, the number of disabled people entering the work force has not significantly increased, say experts in the field and advocates for the disabled.

Though the law, commonly known as the A.D.A., was intended to bring people with disabilities into the cultural, social and economic mainstreams, the number of disabled people who have entered the work force has hardly changed, even as the number of disabled high school and college graduates has continued to increase.

A recent survey conducted for the National Organization on Disabilities found that only 31 percent of disabled people age 16 to 64 were working part time or full time, down slightly from the 33 percent that were found to be employed in a similar survey in 1986."

Not much has changed today. Thank you Saturday Night live for helping the image of individuals with disabilities...NOT

''PEACE: The Biography of a Symbol''

The other day, I was listening to WNYC, my local public radio and they announced an upcoming show about the influence that professors have on the political views of students. I snorted in laughter as I remembered asking my sculpture prof what that button he wore meant. He explained in his condescending way (all the profs. were men by the way. A very sexist department.) It was a peace symbol and it was in the midst of the Viet Nam war. I later got more radical than he did and he criticized me when I was on local television talking about the women's movement (which had quite radical arms in those days.) 

Peace, Mr, Mitchel, wherever you are.

So today is the 50th anniversary of the symbol of that little button..

 
National Geographic Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Peace Sign with ''PEACE: The Biography of a Symbol''

WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--
The peace symbol. It is recognized around the globe and has become
an enduring cultural icon. For five decades, millions of people
worldwide, regardless of race or religious beliefs, have looked to the
peace sign to unite them. And the symbol's appeal continues with each
succeeding generation.

The story of the peace sign began in the spring of 1958 when peace
activists, clergy and Quakers in Great Britain organized a rally to
draw attention to the testing and stockpiling of nuclear weapons by
some of the world's most powerful countries. Gerald Holtom, a textile
designer and commercial artist from Twickenham, suggested the
demonstrators carry posters and banners with a simple visual symbol he
had designed. He created the symbol by combining the semaphore letters
N and D, for nuclear disarmament, and on Feb. 21, 1958, the symbol was
accepted by the District Action Committee.

On April 4, 1958, 5,000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square to
show support for the Ban the Bomb movement, then walked to the town of
Aldermaston, site of an atomic weapons research plant. The first peace
signs appeared during that march and a second Aldermaston march the
following year. From there it took flight, appearing on flags,
clothes, even scratched on walls and signposts, all over Europe.

To commemorate this anniversary, National Geographic Books is
publishing in April a tribute tracing the world-famous pictogram as it
evolved from a 1950s anti-nuke emblem to a defining icon still widely
seen and used today. PEACE: The Biography of a Symbol ($25), by Ken
Kolsbun, with Michael Sweeney, is a one-of-a-kind story about the
origin of the peace sign, the man who created it and its enduring
relevance through the past 50 years.

Easy to remember and reproduce, the symbol soon crossed borders
and cultures in a phenomenal way. It became a classic symbol, an icon
of peace for the people. Like a chameleon, the symbol took on
additional meanings during the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement,
the environmental movement, women's and gay rights movements and the
two Iraqi wars.

Kolsbun is a photographer, writer, historian, peace activist, game
inventor, landscape architect, husband and father who continues to be
active in the peace movement.

National Geographic Society
Alison Reeves, 202-857-7793
areeves@ngs.org

Life Experience Test

A lot of the things I missed had to do with committing felonies or things that didn't exist when I was inclined to do them. I was surprised about the creativity section, though, since I was an art major, worked in theater design and interior design and so I question the validity of this test.

Take the test and see how YOU compare