Archive for September 10, 2010
Burning Books
Americans — you think it’s OK to burn the Quran? Take it one step farther:
Springfield, MO—The Springfield-Greene County Library District will unveil new burning books displays this week at its six campuses. A prominent endcap will be constructed in each location that will house several books set on fire in an attempt to educate the public on past book burnings.
The burning of books has a long history as a tool wielded by authorities both secular and religious, in efforts to suppress dissenting or heretical views that are perceived as posing a threat to the prevailing order. The library says it wants to expose students both young and old to different and challenging ideas, because that is what free speech is all about.
“Holy freaking crap, they are burning books inside the library! That can’t be possible can it!?” said one library patron, Julie Kumlio. “I mean, there has to be a law against that these days, especially setting fires inside public buildings.”
A library spokesperson says a new canon of works will be torched each week to demonstrate the power of the destructive and symbolic act. “The burnings will begin in early September starting with ancient Chinese philosophy books, then Jewish holy books, followed closely by Roman history books and Torah and sorcery scrolls. By the end of the fall we hope to have moved onto more recent works including Christian books, the writings of Priscillian and even pop culture references such as the Beatles albums,” said the source.
Problem is, of course, where will it end?
Heads up folks. This is serious.
Bill Ritter: No Time for the Little People
The Fourmile fire is 56% contained.
Yippee!
The Fourmile Fire is 56 percent contained and could be fully contained in three to five days, officials said Friday evening.
The sturdy fire lines Thursday night and Friday, combined with favorable weather conditions in the coming days, should help crews contain the 5-day-old wildfire — the most destructive in Colorado history in terms of the number of homes destroyed.
“This is all good news for us,” said Jim Thomas, incident commander for the federal Type I management team — which took control of the firefighting effort this week.
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, who was on hand Friday at the Boulder reservoir [which, since Wednesday, has been closed to the citizens of Boulder, who own the damn thing] to meet with both the Fourmile Fire incident command team and a group of firefighters, lauded the ongoing intergovernmental cooperation and also firefighters’ efforts in holding the fire in heavy winds Thursday night.
Per the highlighted text above (emphasis mine), looks like our “Democratic” Governator doesn’t have time to meet with the little people.
Just sayin’.
Army Green is THE Color for Fall?
I’m hearing that Army green is the fashion color for fall.
Excuse me but I’m not going there. I will not buy anything that’s “Army green.”
I do not support anything related to killing people or to American imperialism.
When will the militarization of our society end?
When we’re flat broke from endless war.
Carly Fiorina — Did She Fire You?
Here’s the trailer for Robert Greenwald’s new project about Carly Fiorina’s history of firing workers. Who’s Carly Fiorina? She’s the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who was “forced out” (with millions in severance pay) — and who’s trying to buy her way into the senate in California.
Why would Californians want to elect someone who outsourced jobs to Asia and was forced out as the CEO of one of the premiere computer companies in the United States because she couldn’t play well with others and didn’t do right by the company?
Hello. Anybody home?
The Mosque at Ground Zero, Before it Was Ground Zero
Never mind a mosque community center two blocks from Ground Zero — why has it taken nine years for the media to get the word out that there was a mosque inside the Twin Towers?
Muslim Prayer Room Was Part of Life at Twin Towers
Sometime in 1999, a construction electrician received a new work assignment from his union. The man, Sinclair Hejazi Abdus-Salaam, was told to report to 2 World Trade Center, the southern of the twin towers.
In the union locker room on the 51st floor, Mr. Abdus-Salaam went through a construction worker’s version of due diligence. In the case of an emergency in the building, he asked his foreman and crew, where was he supposed to reassemble? The answer was the corner of Broadway and Vesey.
Over the next few days, noticing some fellow Muslims on the job, Mr. Abdus-Salaam voiced an equally essential question: “So where do you pray at?” And so he learned about the Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the south tower.
He went there regularly in the months to come, first doing the ablution known as wudu in a washroom fitted for cleansing hands, face and feet, and then facing toward Mecca to intone the salat prayer.
On any given day, Mr. Abdus-Salaam’s companions in the prayer room might include financial analysts, carpenters, receptionists, secretaries and ironworkers. There were American natives, immigrants who had earned citizenship, visitors conducting international business — the whole Muslim spectrum of nationality and race.
President Obama today at his presser:
Come on people!
Break Time
What with all the news about fires this week, I thought looking at a whole lotta water might be therapeutic (now if we could only smell it and hear it):
Davenport Beach, California. Via Darvin Atkeson on flickr.
White House Rejects Jimmy Carter’s Solar Panel
Did you hear about this? What a freakin’ opportunity lost by the scaredy cat White House:
Bill McKibben, an environmental campaigner from Vermont with a flair for showmanship, was rebuffed Friday morning in his effort to get the White House to reinstall one of the solar panels that President Jimmy Carter had placed on the White House roof.
They were removed by the Reagan administration, and some have been stored for years at environmentally active Unity College in Maine. Mr. McKibben and a group of students drove one of the panels down the East Coast in the hope of getting the Obama White House to accept it and return it to the roof to heat water for presidential showers and dishwashing.
Mr. McKibben met with three mid-level White House officials Friday morning who told him, politely, no dice.
What a stupid decision. Accepting the panel and agreeing to re-install it on the roof of the White House would have been such a positive, even if largely symbolic act. The country would have loved it and I bet the world would have loved it too. Not only that, it would have been a perfect way to highlight one of the big differences between Democrats (well, progressive Democrats) and Republicans and to point out how, had Reagan stuck with Carter’s proposals to ween us off of foreign oil, we’d pretty much be energy independent today.
Shorter reaction: What a bummer.
Rain Dance in Boulder Tonight
A group of Boulder residents are planning to host a “rain dance” at 6 p.m. today outside the Boulder County Courthouse, located at 1325 Pearl Street.
The dance is aimed at encouraging rain to fall on the still-active Fourmile Fire in Boulder County.
“Bring your rain stick and your friends,” organizers wrote in a news release Friday afternoon. “Let’s support all the good people in the mountains by calling in some refreshing water of love.”
We just might go. Friday night on the Pearl Street Mall is always fun.
At the Food Bank
Busy day at the food bank, though not as busy as it’s been the last several weeks.
We had the usual chili, rice and canned veggies but we were absolutely bursting at the seams with arugula, baby spinach, yellow peppers, GIANT zucchini, bananas, potatoes and corn.
A farmer brought in a huge bag of baby greens and some individually bagged baby spinach. A lady brought in six or seven huge zucchini she said were from her son’s garden. Two other ladies brought in a bunch of baby bottles, which, in the year and a half I’ve volunteered at the food bank, I’ve never seen offered to the clients. They also brought in a box of clothes for new babies — tiny t-shirts and knit caps — and some toys.
So, things are good at the food bank — today.
Good Morning
It’s a good morning because everything’s fine — we did not need to evacuate last night. Still, it’s a wonder the whole town didn’t burn down. The wind was gusting as high as 64 mph.
The “prepare to evacuate” order continues today but the area has been reduced and it doesn’t include my neighborhood anymore. Don’t think anyone will truly relax though until the fire is 100% contained. I think it stands at about 40% right now.
What a week.
