This will be a new “regular” feature.
Each Friday I'll post, rescue, reprint (regurgitate?) a few of the better, more interesting, funny, insightful or just plain awful comments from our virtual banquet of reader punditry from the preceding week.
http://www.greenmountaindaily.com/showComment.do?commentId=22358
zuckerman
So what hit your radar this week?
What missed mine?
Drop your links and thoughts in the comments.
Through extensive research (okay, I browsed their web site), I discovered the secret (these people are really not at all subtle) agenda behind the web site “Nation for Marriage.”
Take for example, their primary talking point:
Language to avoid at all costs: “Ban same-sex marriage.” Our base loves this wording. So do supporters of SSM. They know it causes us to lose about ten percentage points in polls. Don’t use it. Say we’re against “redefining marriage” or in favor or “marriage as the union of husband and wife” NEVER “banning same-sex marriage.”
Hey, this is kind of familiar. Don’t use the word “privatization.” Use the term “protecting our investment in the future.” Don’t say “torture” say “coercive methods via which to obtain critical and crucial information.” Don’t say “quagmire.” Say “global war on extremist ideologies among those evil evildoers of evil.”
But that’s not all. They also have some really nice gems about Why marriage matters.
Now, mind you, many opponents of same-sex marriage will tell you that it’s not about religion, but about an institution that’s been part of our lives for a very long time.
But here’s something interesting. Nation for Marriage thinks that you need three different versions of the explanation as to why marriage matters: Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish.
What can we learn from these different approaches to marketing based on religion?
Well, for one thing, Jews apparently like the color green, and are fond of the font Herculanum:
Catholics, on the other hand, clearly like stark color and contrast, and prefer a non Jewy, serif font:
Protestants, however, clearly have no taste at all:
And you know what else we learned? Cathoics and Protestants, unlike Jews, speak Spanish.
Their website also has some neat tools. Take for example, their Northeast Project page. You can use it to e-mail your legislator. I just used it to send a thank you note to my legislators in Vermont. Of course, one of my legislators is a friend so I’ll probably see him at the next jam session I go to, so this seems silly. But that’s Vermont for you.
How about the various threats that same sex marriage poses? You can read all about them on NOM’s handy little blog. On their blog you can learn about all sorts of things, like the threat of same-sex marriage being handed down through the courts!
“Unlike the people of California, the people of Iowa have no direct way to get this issue on the ballot so that they can take marriage back from the courts,” notes Maggie Gallagher, president of NOM. “Once again the most undemocratic branch of government is being used to advance an agenda the majority of Americans reject. Marriage means a husband and wife. That’s not discrimination, that’s common sense.”
Of course, just because they object to it done through the courts doesn’t mean they don’t object to it through the legislature:
“Even in states like Vermont where they are pushing this issue through legislatures, gay marriage advocates are totally unwilling to let the people decide these issues directly,” agreed Brown. “They’ve just about run out of courts willing to radically redefine marriage. The next step for gay marriage advocates will be to use these new laws to push Congress to overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and then use the federal courts to impose gay marriage on all 50 states.”
Now, admittedly, it is indeed a sad day for Vermont (emphasis mine):
But we take heart in knowing that this vote was not representative of what Vermonters understand marriage to be…
Which is interesting, as Vermont, like the rest of the country, seems to be a representative Democracy
The piece continues:
Today is indeed a sad day, but let all of us who understand that marriage is the union of a husband and wife redouble our commitment to ensuring that same-sex marriage does not spread throughout our nation, that religious liberty is protected, and ultimately that marriage is restored in these states as well for the sake of our children and grandchildren.
Hear that, people? It’s a virus. Like that HIV thingy!
But, really, how can you say no to this face?
Have we have no hearts? Clearly, Christians are under attack from the onslaught of same-sex marriage!
I will note two facts:
Be sure to thank your legislators, everyone. They’ll be here all week.
First, [the Obama Administration’s Justice Dept] argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue “would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security.” As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence.
. . .
Sad as that is, it’s the Department Of Justice’s second argument that is the most pernicious. The [Obama Administration’s] DOJ claims that the U.S. Government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying – that the Government can never be sued for surveillance that violates federal privacy statutes.
The VT Workers Cntr is organizing a Healthcare campaign on May 1st at the state capital building. If you want more info http://www.workerscenter.org/h…
Please come and support a good cause if you can
Loading ...Noted physician and author Dr. Helen Caldicott spoke last night at UVM, spoke Tuesday at Middlebury College, and will be speaking tonight in Montpelier and tomorrow night in Brattleboro.
Hear Dr. Caldicott tonight: April 9 5:30pm
The Chapel, Vermont College of Fine Arts, 36 College St, Montpelier, VT
I was lucky enough to have lunch with Dr. Caldicott yesterday and to be part of a panel discussion with her that was hosted by Margaret Harrington on CCTV Burlington yesterday afternoon. More about both those items in a later post.
Dr. Caldicott co-founded Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization
of 32,400 medical professionals committed to educating their colleagues to the
dangers of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The international umbrella
organization, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.
If you miss tonight’s lecture, head to Brattleboro tomorrow, April 10 @ 7:00pm
Latchis 4, Latchis Theatre, 50 Main St., Brattleboro, VT (one door down from the main entrance)
Dr. Caldicott has spent 35 years as an advocate of citizen awareness regarding the world’s nuclear and environmental crisis. Her international campaign strives to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior needed to prevent environmental destruction.
Trained as a physician and thoroughly versed in the science of nuclear energy, Dr. Caldicott is a knowledgeable and inspiring speaker. During the 1970’s Dr. Caldicott was an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and served
on the staff of the Children’s Hospital Medical Center. One of the most influential women of the 20th century, she has received many awards for her
work. She is the author of seven books, including War in Heaven, (published in March 2007), Nuclear Power is Not the Answer (2006), If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth (1992), and Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do (1979). She
has also been the focus of several films, including Eight Minutes to Midnight, nominated for an Academy Award in 1981, and If You Love This Planet, which won The Academy Award for best documentary in 1982.
Dr. Caldicott’s lectures are free and open to the public.
Trained as a physician and thoroughly versed in the science of nuclear energy,
Dr. Caldicott is a knowledgeable and inspiring speaker. During the 1970’s Dr. Caldicott was an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and served on the staff of the Children’s Hospital Medical Center. One of the most influential women of the 20th century, she has received many awards for her work. She is the author of seven books, including War in Heaven, (published in March 2007), Nuclear Power is Not the Answer (2006), If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth (1992), and Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do (1979). She has also been the focus of several films, including Eight Minutes to Midnight, nominated for an Academy Award in 1981, and If You Love This Planet, which won the Academy Award for best documentary in 1982.
For additional information please contact Marketing Partners in Burlington at 802-864-6710.
(This was unique and some interesting comments follow it. – promoted by Christian Avard)
Vermont Exceptionalism
Vermont is exceptional. It is because it is the unique in the world: it was born free. Nowhere else ever was. How and why will follow, but, first a list of some of Vermont’s exceptional moments.
1777: Vermont’s first Constitution begins by banning slavery.
1798: Matthew Lyon goes to jail for criticizing John Adams under the Alien and Sedition Acts.
1824: Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, graduates the first African American from college in American history. His name: Alexander Twilight.
1836: Alexander Twilight elected to the Vermont Legislature, first African American elected to public office
1861-65: Vermont suffers the greatest per capita casualties in the war against slavery.
Sept, 1941: Vermont declares war on Nazi Germany three months before Pearl Harbor.
1953: Senator Ralph Flanders (R-VT) is first Senator to attack Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism.
1974: George Aiken ends a public career of over forty years of wisdom as Governor and U.S. Senator.
2000: Vermont creates the idea and fact of Civil Unions.
2006: Vermont elects first Socialist ever from any state to the U.S. Senate.
2009: Vermont legislates marriage equality. Not heterosexual marriage and gay marriage, but marriage.
Vermont is the only legitimate child of the Enlightenment. There were two bastards. France and the U.S. The French Enlightenment led to the French Revolution which was a mindless bloodbath leading directly to Napoleon’s tyranny and massive European bloodshed. With all the fine talk of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the U.S. was born with slavery which only was kind of ended by the bloody Civil War which the South still doesn’t know it lost. At least, the UK ended slavery through the legislative process and a generation before the Civil War.
Vermont found the balance between individual and community with the individual as member of a town. The mountains made grand estates impossible. Banning slavery as the first act set the tone for an entire history. Government was not the enemy; it was and is us.
It’s not a history of the rich and powerful. It’s also the young stoners sitting around ski hills and inventing the now Olympic sport of snowboarding. There are mountains with snow all over the world; yet, only a few places figured out how to have fun sliding down them.
At the end of my musical about Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, I have Ethan say what I believe.
“When you drive into Vermont,
you don’t need a sign saying
‘welcome to Vermont,’
you know you’re here.
When you see the magnificent color
of the leaves in the fall,
you don’t need a postcard saying ‘greetings from Vermont’
to know where you are.
You don’t need Irving Berlin
to describe Christmas in Vermont,
you know what it’s like.
No one needs to tell you.
You’re Vermonters,
and you already know about
our towns and our town meetings,
our rivers and our mountains
and all the amazing things Vermont and Vermonters have done.
I love this place. Take care of it!”
Whinge (rhymes with fringe) is Britspeak for whine. Much better word, and it sure fits our lady of Arlington, Cynthia Whinging. Apparently, she met with some members of the church I go to, St. James, Arlington about marriage and it was fairly ugly. St. James is the oldest Episcopal parish in VT and it dates from 1764. The first Mrs. Ethan Allen is buried in our churchyard. The names on our stained glass windows echo through Vermont history. I realize that Cynthia is the whinge with the lunatic fringe on top.
(While there might be a “duh – that’s what capitalist corporations do” factor here, we can’t put pressure on to fix it unless we know. Thanks for highlighting this, BP. – promoted by NanuqFC)
International Paper is adding diesel fuel to an existing alternative fuel process (Black Liquor)developed and in use since the 1930’s .By adding the diesel it would not otherwise have used IP is reaping millions in tax credits. A change in tax laws under the Bush transportation bill in 2005 allows tax credits for alternative fuel use .One feature of the transportation bill is a 50 cent a gallon tax credit for using fuel mixtures . This is blending of taxable fuels and alternative fuels like hamburger helper for traditional fuels to encourage new development of alternative fuels and cut emissions.See more about”splash and dash” here This existing Black Liquor process is described as “a neat, efficient process that’s cost-effective without any government subsidy.”
For a one month period IP received $71.6 million and it is said that it could be a billion dollars in cash per year .IP stock rose 12% on this news.
IP is gaining so much money from this credit and fears that the loop hole will be closed that they have been running full tilt before anticipating the credit may be closed off to them. In fact, the money to be gained from exploiting the tax credit so dwarfs the money to be made in making paper–IP lost $452 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone–that the ultimate result of the credit will likely be to push paper prices down as mills churn at full capacity in order to grab as much money from the IRS as it can.
Over production, over capacity and the poor economic situation for the paper companies has caused layoffs and furloughs in the industry. International’s Ticonderoga plant is closing for two weeks.
Chris Hayes in the Nation makes this observation……
Whether or not Congress gets around to turning off the spigot, the episode is a useful reminder of the persistently ingenious ways the private sector can exploit even well-intentioned legislation. Considering that the success of the Treasury’s recently announced plan to rescue the financial sector depends, in part, on the private sector not gaming the rules, the black liquor story seems particularly germane.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/2…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/envi…
Black Liquor: The Process
Since the 1930s the overwhelming majority of paper mills have employed what’s called the kraft process to produce paper. Here’s how it works. Wood chips are cooked in a chemical solution to separate the cellulose fibers, which are used to make paper, from the other organic material in wood. The remaining liquid, a sludge containing lignin (the structural glue that binds plant cells together), is called black liquor. Because it’s so rich in carbon, black liquor is a good fuel; the kraft process uses the black liquor to produce the heat and energy necessary to transform pulp into paper. It’s a neat, efficient process that’s cost-effective without any government subsidy.
It’s unclear who first came up with the idea-Ann Wrobleski, IP’s vice president for global government relations told me it was “outside consultants”–but at some point last fall IP and Verso, another paper company, formerly a part of IP, began adding diesel to its black liquor and applied to the IRS for the credit. (Verso nabbed $29.7 million at just one of its mills in the final quarter of 2008 for its use of mixed fuel.)
Despite the obvious contrivance of the procedure, Wrobleski is unapologetic:“The credit is supposed to encourage the use of green fuel.” Sure, I said, but isn’t it a bit weird you’re now adding diesel fuel to the process in order to take advantage of it? “It is what it is,” she said.
how even short news stories can rewrite history.
Tens of thousands of supporters of an anti-U.S. Shiite cleric rallied Thursday at a main downtown square in Baghdad to protest the U.S. military presence and mark the sixth anniversary of the fall of the Iraqi capital to American forces.
(Shiite rally marks anniversary of fall of Baghdad, Boston.com, 04/09/09)
Predictably enough this is an AP story calling Moqtada Al Sadr “anti-U.S.” although that phrase is tossed around with abandon by plenty of other so-called news sources.
The reality is Sadr is very much a pro-Iraq nationalists with his own political agenda and as such is adamantly opposed to occupation. We just happen to be the occupiers. (And did I mention that Sadr was given a lot of quiet credit by the US military for helping quell the violence in Baghdad?)
There has never been any indication that Sadr is opposed to the United States. But it sure makes reporting much easier … cookie cutters do that sort of thing.
But that’s not where the history rewriting ends: we’re not at the end of the faux news story yet!
The protest against the U.S. presence contrasted with the jubilation of six years ago, when crowds of Iraqis cheered as American Marines hauled down Saddam’s statue marking the collapse of his regime.
(ibid)
Yes … the AP is talking about this crowd:
(Photo credit Information Clearing House)
History can only be rewritten if we allow it. If we maintain memories and records and pass them on, those, like the AP, who have their own special version of history to support will not win.
Here's a link to my write-up of this week's historic vote for the Guardian (UK) "Comment is Free" website (fortunately for my bank account, they didn't actually get it for "free"…). I'd excerpt, but we have plenty on the issue already… I encourage commenters to stop by, though, as there are a few unpleasant responses.
Also: Michael Corcoran has a featured article for The Nation on the issue with similar themes, but more depth than in my li'l feel-good piece. A great read (even if he hadn't quoted me… am I being too self-promotional today? Cuz there's one more…).
And a final note, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post just named GMD Vermont's best political blog. Woo-hoo!