Message From Arecibo

real life heroes

blek le rat

Jonny Quest

start something

Somebody 

asked me 

why I do this 

my answer was

"If I don't do it, 

who will ?"

world peace

paradise or oblivion

get involved...you live here

trouble maker

Civil disobedience 

becomes a sacred duty 

when the state has become 

lawless or corrupt.

Mahatma Gandhi

the art of asking

what will it take ?

thrivemovement.com

watch thrive now

Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici

"By the power of Truth,


I, while living,


have conquered the Universe."


Ideas are bulletproof.

manifesto

hobbits be here

Handmade house for $5,000.

Handmade Houses: A Guide to the Woodbutchers Art

who fights for the workers ? UNIONS DO !

The Wisconsin State Capitol bulged with thousands of union members, including teachers, Thursday protesting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's bill that would limit union bargaining rights.

Wisconsin is one of about 30 states with collective bargaining laws covering state and local workers. The Wisconsin Education Association Council, the biggest teachers union in the state, says they understand the budget crisis but feel the legislation will strip away the rights of workers.

"We know these are tough times and we have made it clear to the governor and legislators that we are prepared to do our part to help our state recover. This isn't about protecting pay and benefits - it's about protecting the right to collectively bargain. That's what's being stripped away here - the rights to be represented," council president told ABC News.

President Obama told WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee that public workers should be ready to give up some slack. He did, however, call Walker's plan "unduly harsh."

Today, it was widely reported that Senate Democrats disappeared as a protest, making a vote on the bill impossible. (read more)

..................................................................................

A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English) is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labour contracts (collective bargaining) with employers. This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. The agreements negotiated by the union leaders are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other non-member workers.

The origins of unions' existence can be traced from the 18th century, where the rapid expansion of industrial society drew women, children, rural workers, and immigrants to the work force in numbers and in new roles. This pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour spontaneously organized in fits and starts throughout its beginnings, and would later be an important arena for the development of trade unions. Trade unions as such were endorsed by the Catholic Church towards the end of the 19th Century. Pope Leo XIII in his "Magna Carta"—Rerum Novarum—spoke against the atrocities workers faced and demanded that workers should be granted certain rights and safety regulations. (read more)

people power

One Human Family

"Whether we like it or not, we have all been born on this earth as part of one great human family. Rich or poor, educated or uneducated, belonging to one nation or another, to one religion or another, adhering to this ideology or that, ultimately each of us is just a human being like everyone else: we all desire happiness and do not want suffering. Furthermore, each of us has an equal right to pursue these goals.

Today's world requires that we accept the oneness of humanity. In the past, isolated communities could afford to think of one another as fundamentally separate and even existed in total isolation. Nowadays, however, events in one part of the world eventually affect the entire planet. Therefore we have to treat each major local problem as a global concern from the moment it begins. We can no longer invoke the national, racial or ideological barriers that separate us without destructive repercussion. In the context of our new interdependence, considering the interests of others is clearly the best form of self-interest.

I view this fact as a source of hope. The necessity for cooperation can only strengthen mankind, because it helps us recognize that the most secure foundation for the new world order is not simply broader political and economic alliances, but rather each individual's genuine practice of love and compassion. For a better, happier, more stable and civilized future, each of us must develop a sincere, warm-hearted feeling of brother and sisterhood"...Dalai Lama. (read more)

your reality

turn off your tv

"We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true. But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds. We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube. You eat like the tube. You raise your children like the tube. You even think like the tube. This is mass madness -- you maniacs! In God's name you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion.

"So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of the sentence I am speaking to you now. Turn them off!!"

-- Howard Beale, as played by Peter Finch, during his live studio broadcast of the Network News Hour (video clip)

turnoffyourtv.com

tron

lapidation

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (Persian: سکینه محمدی آشتیانی, born ca. 1967) is an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and murder, and since 2006 has been under a sentence of death under in Iran. An international campaign to overturn her sentence was started by her daughter and son, Farideh and Sajjad Mohamamadi e Ashtiani, and it brought widespread attention to her case in 2010, when prominent media sources claimed that she was sentenced to be executed by stoning. Iranian authorities denied that this method of execution would be used, and gave her a stay of execution in September 2010.

Mrs. Ashtiani had allegedly committed adultery with the man who murdered her husband, Isa Taheri. Taheri was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Taheri was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

In 2006, Mrs. Ashtiani was brought on her first trial, charged with the murder of her husband. She was found guilty of murdering her husband, and sentenced to death by hanging. Her sentence was commuted to 10 years imprisonment, like Taheri's, in 2007.

In September 2006, her case was again brought up in a different court, this time tried for adultery. She pleaded guilty but later recanted her confession. She was convicted of adultery while still married, and sentenced to death by stoning, and an additional sentence of 99 lashes.

The international publicity generated by Mrs. Ashtiani's plight led to numerous diplomatic conflicts between Iran's government and the heads of certain western governments. Due to the reaction of the international community, the execution had been stayed indefinitely.
(read more) (freesakineh.org) (Du'a Khalil Aswad video)

get mad ...

There is no "America"

i met the walrus