shame on you

One thing Christians learn in December is that we should open our doors to those who need shelter. I remember the lesson from a book read to my class in grade school. The title of the book was 'Mary's Donkey', and the story was told from the perspective of the donkey carrying Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Each night the little group would look for shelter, and each night they would be turned away. Our teacher would read a section every day all through December, and the lesson for us kids was clear: Do better. Open your doors. Let people in.

Mexican American immigrants in California celebrate Las Posadas in December. Las Posadas is an enactment, over several days, of Mary's and Joseph's journey from house to house. They are repeatedly turned away, until finally they are let in at a house at the end of each day's procession. At that house there is a party with food, music, and candy for the kids.

The DREAM Act was a bill that would have provided a chance for children of undocumented immigrants to earn citizenship in the United States. The bill proposed that if you were brought to the US as a child, and if you completed at least two years of higher education or military service, you would earn the right to apply for a green card, and ultimately citizenship.

The DREAM Act was voted down by the Senate today.

It's a week before Christmas, in a country where no politician dares say they don't believe in God. Christians vote against core Christian values, in the middle of the holiest of seasons. And think nothing of it.

one counselor per 2400 students

Apple products - ipods, iphones, ipads, computers - are marked "Designed by Apple in California", evoking sun, palm trees, and capability. Here is a San Jose Mercury News article about the situation in East San Jose High Schools. That's California too.

'my father asked me to kill him'

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I like Keith Olbermann. He's a passionate guy, and his dad has been very sick for a long time. His point all through the health care debate has been that everybody should have the right to the same level care that his dad gets, regardless of whether they can afford to pay for it, or if they can afford to pay for private insurance. He thinks health care is a basic human right, and I agree.

'a glittering blonde', says the new york times

Seems these two people crashed the state dinner at the White House yesterday. (Yeah really, they did.) Anyone think a guy with a turban would have gotten that far?

you tell me

This is a two month old little girl. I've borrowed the photo from the front page of the November 16, 2009, online edition of the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. The headline says that a billion people in the world suffer from hunger. And then there is this pull quote from a UN expert: "There is no lack of food, it's a matter of social inequality."

It seemed to me that a mainstream American paper wouldn't use those words, 'social inequality', so to compare I looked up a similar story in the New York Times. It was the only story on global hunger that had a picture. Here is the photo they used:

And here is the quote from their UN expert: “The way we manage the global agriculture and food security system doesn’t work,” said Kostas G. Stamoulis, a senior economist at the organization. “There is this paradox of increasing global food production, even in developing countries, yet there is hunger.”

There you have it. The Swedes call it social inequality. To the Americans, it's a 'paradox'.

When I was a kid there were posters with photos of starving children on them on the walls of the school cafeteria.

No really, there was.

If I didn't know it before, I learned at the age of 7 that I was privileged. And they told me that with privilege comes responsibility. Where does it say that the readers of the New York Times couldn't handle the same truth?

out of office auto-reply

I just got this, in response to an email I had sent:

I am out of the office today on a mandated, unpaid furlough day due to severe state budget cuts imposed upon the California State University system. As a result, I will be unable to reply until my next business day or later.

Most employees of California State University, East Bay are being furloughed an average of two days per month from August 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010, due to deep cuts in State support for the CSU budget. Classes will remain in session on furlough days, but most administrative offices are closed. The Library, Student Health Services, and Student Housing offices will be open, but with reduced staff. The Bookstore and food service operations will remain open with possible adjusted hours. The University Police Dispatch Office and patrols will remain fully staffed.

Please refer to http://www.csueastbay.edu for a list of furlough days for the balance of the academic year. Thank you for your understanding during these difficult economic times.

For the record: All California State University employees are subject to a 10% pay cut. Even if classes won't be canceled during university-wide furlough days - meaning administrators are out - classes may be canceled for faculty furlough days. At California State University, East Bay, each faculty member has been asked to pick two unpaid furlough days per month during the fall quarter. Those days may or may not be teaching days.

the value of education

I had a letter from the California Faculty Association today. That's the union that organizes state employed university professors. They say that between 2002 and 2004 half a billion dollars was cut from the California State University budget. In January of this year governor Schwarzenegger proposed another $386 million in cuts.

Faculty have taken a 10% pay cut this year.

Why do I have a feeling the Schwarzenegger children are in private schools?

barbara calls it 'hideous'

Here is some news that will make you sick.

"boy"

Maureen Dowd in the New York Times on Joe Wilson:

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

Read the rest.

from sofia

Watch the short film Chicken a la Carte. It's not going to be what you think, and it might make you cry.

and that's a promise

I am not an American citizen. When someone asks me why, I tell them I have "lingering doubts." That's a line I have borrowed from a Seinfeld episode; it was Jerry's response when someone asked him why he wasn't an organ donor.

I am an organ donor, but it's true I have had lingering doubts when it comes to citizenship.

Proposition 8, which eliminated same-sex couples' right to marry, and the fact that California's Supreme Court voted yesterday to uphold it, changes that for me, though.

I'll become a citizen so that I can vote for equal rights in 2010, or 2012, or any year after that.

and do your part for everyone's right to marry

Listen to Regina Spector, and prepare to have your heart broken.