Good News Friday

It’s been a busy week and I haven’t had a lot of time to collect this week’s good news. Still, we’ve got a healthy collection of good news this week. And you absolutely must scroll down to watch this week’s cool video. That’s an order.

• Ohio Senate GOP leadership killed its own “right to work” legislation, fearing it would only further mobilize Democrats.

• The rebuilt One World Trade Center is officially the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, standing at — you guessed it — 1,776 feet.

• Danish scientists believe they have found a cure for HIV.

• Scientists poking around in the brain’s hypothalamus have found the key to aging and have successfully tweaked it to shorten or lengthen the lives of lab mice. On further reflection, this actually might not be good news. I think we’ve all seen how this movie ends.

• Colorado expanded voting rights to include such things as same-day voter registration and mail-in ballots sent to every voter.

• Gov. Lincoln Chaffee signed Rhode Island’s Marriage Equality Act into law, becoming the 10th state to legalize same sex marriage.

• A lesbian couple in Kazakhstan made history by having Central Asia’s first same-sex wedding. The ceremony is being heralded as a big step forward for gay rights in Central Asia, despite the fact that the marriage is not legally recognized.

• Pirate attacks are down 75%.

• An elementary school in Queens, N.Y. is the first public school in New York — and possibly the entire United States — to have an all-vegetarian menu.

• A jury awarded $240 million plus back pay to 32 mentally disabled men who suffered decades of abuse while working at an Iowa turkey processing plant. The men were treated as “virtual slaves,” paid as little as $65 a month and living in rodent-infested conditions.

• Seventeen colleges and universities terminated their sports apparel contracts with Adidas in protest over how the company handled worker’s rights in Indonesia.

• Imam Daayiee Abdullah welcomes gay couples to worship in his D.C. mosque and says he’ll even perform gay marriage ceremonies.

• Roxbury, MA, elementary school principle fires school security guards to hire art teachers, and test scores improve faster than anywhere else in the state.

• Georgia’s Wilcox County High School held its first-ever integrated prom. You know, I’m glad the kids got to go to prom with their friends regardless of their race but did the people of Wilcox County, Georgia really have to wait for Facebook to be invented to knock down that barrier? Really??

• NASA is exploring renewable biofuels to fuel commercial jets.

• There’s been some backlash against five senators who voted against gun background checks.

• NBA player Jason Collins, most recently of the Washington Wizards, came out as gay.

• An openly gay soccer player is training with the L.A. Galaxy.

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• A Hendersonville teacher won the Country Music Marathon last week in Nashville! Wow. Hendersonville is a suburb of Nashville, and this marks the first time a local person has won the race. Let me add, it was cold and poured rain all morning — in fact, some streets near me flooded. This was one marathon which must have taken an extra amount of determination to finish.

• On a related note, the marathon route goes right past a local mosque, which opened its doors to runners and spectators who needed to get out of the rain. Volunteers from the congregation manned a nearby water station and cheered runners on.

• Tennessee teachers are grabbing all of the headlines! Congratulations to Kingsport teacher Stephen Woodward whose screenplay “Crush” won the WriteMovies International Screenwriting Competition.

• Keeping with the education theme, congrats to Volunteer State Community College’s student magazine The Pioneer, which won the College Media Assn.’s 2012 Apple Award for this marijuana-leaf themed cover design.

• A Hamilton County grand jury recommends that possession of small amounts of pot be legalized to reduce the number of criminal cases in court.

• Kenny Chesney started a fund to help the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. This is the kind of shit we have to do in a country without a functioning healthcare system: depend on the kindness and generosity of celebrities. Glad some are willing to step up.

• Nashville led the country in 2012 job growth, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And without further ado, here is the best video on the internet EVER:

May Day Message

Condemning the slave labor conditions that exist in Bangladesh and all over the world, Pope Francis has a very apt May Day message:

“Today in the world this slavery is being committed against something beautiful that God has given us – the capacity to create, to work, to have dignity,” the Pope said at a private Mass.

“Not paying a fair wage, not giving a job because you are only looking at balance sheets, only looking to make a profit, that goes against God,” he was quoted as saying by Vatican radio.

I wonder if those Catholic-owned businesses fighting the Obamacare birth control mandate — Freshway Foods, Domino’s Farms, Hercules Industries, Sioux Chief Manufacturing, etc. — embrace this church view as robustly as they do the one about women’s reproductive rights?

Meanwhile, in the streets of Bangladesh’s capitol, people are protesting for better working conditions and there are calls for the owner of that collapsed factory building to get the death penalty. He’s currently under arrest and charged with negligence, illegal construction and forcing people to work.

Here at home, the owner of that West, Texas fertilizer plant remains happily free, despite the fact that the plant appears to have violated multiple regulations as well as common sense. I guess with this being Texas, the free hand of the market was supposed to protect those people who died or were injured when the plant blew:

Texas does not have an occupational safety and health program that meets federal requirements. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is therefore responsible for ensuring the safety of potentially dangerous workplaces like the West facility.

OSHA has inspected the West plant exactly once in the company’s 51-year history. That 1985 inspection detected multiple “serious” violations of federal safety requirements for which the company paid a grand total of $30 in fines. OSHA’s 1992 process-safety-management standard for highly hazardous chemicals is supposed to protect against disasters like the West explosion, but it wasn’t in place for that inspection.

Regardless, OSHA lacks the resources to undertake the kind of comprehensive inspection needed to ensure compliance with the process safety standard at small facilities like West Fertilizer Company. OSHA’s tiny staff of around 2,400 inspectors is spread so thin that it would take more than 90 years to conduct even cursory inspections of all eligible workplaces in Texas.

Freedom! This is what happens when you “starve the beast,” folks. I’m sure everyone would love to blame the federal government for this disaster, but you can’t be all Tenth Amendment when it suits you and then say the Feds should have protected you after the inevitable happens.

Speaking of inevitable, did you hear the one about the worker in Oregon who died after he fell into a blender at a meat processing plant? According to the news report,

An OSHA report on the plant in February found machines were not locked during the tear-down process for cleaning.

Or, less gruesome — but closer to home — what about the pregnant T-Mobile empoyee in Nashville who was told she had to clock out every time she needed to pee?

She tried to hold off on eating and drinking; she needed the health insurance the job provided. But the baby was suffering, Rifkin said, and she had to start drinking water again.

Finally, she said, her supervisor pulled her aside and told her to get a note from her doctor explaining that she needed to go the bathroom often. ”At that point, I thought my head was going to launch off my shoulders,” said Rifkin. “‘Are you serious? I need to get a note from my doctor to go to the toilet?’ This is a basic biological need.’”

But Rifkin did as she was told; she got the doctor’s note and cleared it with Human Resources. She was told that she could use the rest room any time she needed to, she said, but that she would have to clock out. When she returned from that bathroom, she would have to clock back in. “This meant I was out of work for five minutes,” she said. She had to write the hours down and turn it into her supervisor, just to make sure she wasn’t taking advantage of the situation.

Nope, whether you’re in a place like Bangladesh or right here in the U.S.A., it’s not exactly the best of times to be a worker. You’re either treated no better than a slave or your boss steals your wages and your health, safety and welfare are treated with contempt. So what if you fall into that vat of boiling gook, there are a hundred more just like you who’d kill for your job, right?

To quote Paul Hawkin and Amory Lovins,

People are often spoken of as being a resource — every large business has a “human resources” department — but apparently they are not a valuable one.

Indeed. This is what Republicans don’t understand. This is the message they missed in that 47% video. When you treat people like they aren’t valuable, like their only worth is in the profit they can bring you, you’re dehumanizing them. This is why capitalism needs to be counterbalanced with instutions that promote social welfare and the common good. Otherwise, it runs roughshod over humanity.

I’m glad that Pope Francis has highlighted the way capitalism is at odds with Christianity. I just wonder if that message will ever sink in.

“Just One Of Those Crazy Accidents”

Seriously?

For at least the third time this month, a young child has shot and killed someone. On Tuesday afternoon, a five-year-old boy fatally shot his two-year-old sister in Cumberland County, Kentucky with .22 rifle the five-year-old was given as a gift.

“It’s a Crickett,” Cumberland County Coroner Gary White told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “It’s a little rifle for a kid.”

The rifle, which was usually stored in one of the home’s corners, was inadvertently left loaded, according to White. The boy’s mother was home at the time of the shooting.

“The little boy’s used to shooting the little gun,” White said, before saying the shooting will be ruled accidental. “Just one of those crazy accidents.”

Give me a fucking break. What the hell is wrong with people? “Inadvertently left loaded!” “Just one of those crazy accidents!” Totally unavoidable! Nope, no negligence here! Move along …

You give a 5-year-old a gun — even a little gun, for a little kid — and you get predictable results. I’d say these parents should be locked up, except some idiot at the NRA decided it was a great idea to manufacture guns for kids because FREEDOM.

Sorry, but right now I can’t find any sympathy for these people.

First Draft Tuesday

Sandra Day O’Connor has some regrets. Welcome to our world.

“Our Life Together Can Be Better”

Rev. Jim Wallis was on The Stephanie Miller Show today. I just caught the last few minutes of the interview but someone pointed me to it over here on Soundcloud.

I recommend giving it a listen. Wallis is so refreshing. He’s a much-needed counter to the frothy-mouthed “gays and feminists caused x, y, z disaster” we usually get from religious circles. He’s promoting a new book about bringing back the old ethos of social responsibility and the common good; in fact, he told Miller the first line of the book is, “our life together can be better.” I really like that. I think we forget sometimes that we really do have a part to play in all of this. If we want everything to be better for more people, we can actually make it happen. We can, you know.

Wallis is supposedly of the evangelical persuasion, but he seems to spend all of his time and energy preaching about caring for the poor and marginalized and building a just society. Most evangelicals who cross my path seem to spend 99% of their energy trying to lead people to Jesus and little time worrying about them beyond that. If that’s all you get out of the Bible then I have no time for you.

Also, something I’ve noticed lately — and maybe it’s just because I’m somewhat disconnected from that world — but it seems like there’s been a real lack of Jesus-y stories in the aftermath of the Boston; West, Texas; and Newtown tragedies. You know how whenever there’s a horrible tragedy we always hear stories about how God stepped in and performed some kind of miracle? And then all the parties involved appear on The 700 Club and such to talk about it? And Christian musicians write songs about it? Martyrs pulled from the rubble and all that?

I’m thinking of Columbine shooting victim Cassie Bernall, who supposedly was asked if she believed in God with a gun to her head. The story was that Cassie responded yes (later versions of the story in Christian media had her being told to deny her religion and be spared, and Cassie refusing). Michael W. Smith wrote a hit song about it. Other witnesses disputed these accounts, but it didn’t matter, the story was trotted out as an evangelism tool. We got a similar story after the Heath High School shootings in Kentucky and the Aurora theater shooting.

Anyway, I haven’t heard any stories like this after any of our recent tragedies. Maybe I’ve missed them, or maybe this brand of religion is truly dying. It certainly doesn’t seem to be doing much for the people it’s supposedly trying to help — and yes, glossy multimedia marketing campaign, I’m looking at you. Those annoying “I Am Second” billboards have started popping up all over Nashville and people, they are everywhere.

I’m just trying to figure out how an artsy black and white photograph of Scott Hamilton or Darrell Waltrip topped by the words “I Am Second” is supposed to help someone working at the local multiplex who’s just had their hours cut because Regal Entertainment would rather give their CEO a 31% pay raise than pay for their employees’ health insurance.

This is the kind of stuff that worries people like Jim Wallis, and it should worry more church people. This is the kind of issue that makes the church “relevant,” not the production values on a multimedia marketing campaign. Just sayin’, guys.

Tin-Foil Hate In Ur Congress, Making Ur Laws

Hey everyone, gun control ain’t dead! There’s actually a bill in Congress that would ban ammunition purchases for six months! And, unbelievably, this bill has the support of far-right GOPers like Sen. Jim Inhofe Of Oklahoma.

What’s that, you say?

Yep, meet the AMMO Act (“Ammunition Management for More Obtainability,” cute, huh? Republicans love those clever acronyms). Will it stop suspected terrorists from buying ammunition? Crazy people? Convicted felons, domestic abusers, etc.? Nope. It’s directed at federal agencies:

The legislation would require the Government Accountability Office to conduct a report on the purchasing of ammunition by federal agencies, except the Department of Defense, and its effect on the supply of ammunition available to the public. The AMMO Act would restrict agencies from obtaining additional ammunition for a six-month period if current agency stockpiles are higher than its monthly averages prior to the Obama Administration.

This bill stems from some long-debunked conspiracy theories circulating around the internet about the Obama Administration stockpiling ammo to disarm the American populace and prepare for civil unrest (oddly, the bill exempts the Defense Department; seems some folks don’t really understand the meaning of the term “martial law”).

Anti-government “tin-foil haters” like Alex Jones and Pat Dollard are cheering the bill. Of course they are, they’re the very folks who have been flogging this nonsense in the first place. The fact that there is actual legislation in the U.S. House and Senate addressing one of their crackpot conspiracy theories is a huge win for them. It shows how far their influence has reached inside the Republican Party.

And make no mistake, this is unique to the Republican Party. Yes, during the Bush years some lefties pondered the government’s role in 9/11; some folks believed a false national security event would occur so the Bush Administration could declare martial law and cancel the 2004 elections. But these were commenters on blogs, maybe a far-left radio host or two. Not people actually elected to the United States Senate or a state legislature. Not people holding office and in a position to influence public policy.

Not people like Tennessee Republican Rick Womick, or the crazy lady in New Hampshire’s state house who bought Alex Jones’ “false flag” nonsense about the Boston bombings. The fact that the Republican Party is increasingly associated with these fringe conspiracy nutters shows just how far off the rails America’s conservative political party has gone. Wake up, folks. Michele Bachmann has plenty of company in that crazy train.

I call them “tin-foil haters” because hate is exactly what these people are selling. It’s distrust of the government with a heaping pile of amygdala-tweaking fear thrown in, topped with a shining hero archetype. It’s the idea that only you, young Wolverine, have the exclusive truth and can save the world — or at least your corner of it. Only you can be the hero of this movie. And yes, I do blame Hollywood for a lot of this stuff. I can’t tell you how tired I am of seeing the White House or a national landmark blown up on the big screen (and hunky Channing Tatum alone can save us!). Hollywood, get a new storyline. This one’s played out.

By the way: if you think our government is too incompetent to regulate healthcare but is clever enough to pull off any of the convoluted conspiracy theories you’ve dreamed up, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Good News Friday

I’ve been super busy this week, but I haven’t forgotten you, blog family. Here’s your weekly dose of good news:

• Suck it, “Drill here, drill now” folks: renewables are the wave of the future and that’s not just tree-huggers talking, that’s free market reality:

By 2030, renewables will account for 70 percent of new power supply worldwide, according to projections released today from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Bloomberg analysts examined gas prices, carbon prices, the dwindling price of green energy technology, and overall energy demand (which, in the US at least, is on a massive decline), and found solar and wind beating fossil fuels like coal and natural gas by 2030.

That whistle you just heard was the green train leaving the station. Climb aboard or be left behind with your dead dinosaurs.

• And on an related note, an ALEC-sponsored bill to end renewable energy subsidies went down in flames in North Carolina.

• Fairfield, Conn.-based GE Capital announced it will stop lending to gun shops. As an FYI, Newtown shooter Adam Lanza’s father is an executive with GE.

• Congratulations to London-based artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, the first black woman to be short-listed for the prestigious Turner Prize.

• A breakthrough in diabetes research may someday eliminate the need for insulin injections.

• Philadelphia passed a sweeping LGBT equality bill.

• Europe seems to have finally realized that austerity does not work:

Europe is awakening to the fact that Austerity does not produce growth and the time to rein in debt spending is during booms, not on the heels of a major bust when spending is needed more than ever.

Wow. Meanwhile, austerity measures have been blamed for high unemployment across the Eurozone (not good news!) as public sector jobs have been cut. Hmm, government really does create jobs? Someone please alert America’s Republican Party and Democratic Party Blue Dogs, who are still clueless.

• Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher has been freed. If you’ve never heard of him, I wrote about his case here.

• Nine letters written by J.D. Salinger have been discovered.

• Members of the Teamsters Local 25 shielded mourners attending the funeral of Boston bombing victim Krystle Campbell from the Westboro Baptist Cult Church picketers. Union thugs outclass anti-gay bigots, gotta love it.

• Right-wing gasbag Rush Limbaugh is becoming increasingly irrelevant. First, The Hollywood Reporter left him off their list of the “35 Most Powerful People In Media.” But even more damning are the words of Republican strategist Frank Luntz, who told College Republicans at the University of Pennsylvania that Limbaugh and right-wing talk radio in general are a problem for the GOP:

And they get great ratings, and they drive the message, and it’s really problematic. And this is not on the Democratic side. It’s only on the Republican side…[inaudible]. [Democrats have] got every other source of news on their side. And so that is a lot of what’s driving it. If you take—Marco Rubio’s getting his ass kicked. Who’s my Rubio fan here? We talked about it. He’s getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others. He’s trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn’t the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him. That’s what’s causing this thing underneath. And too many politicians in Washington are playing coy.

Hoisted by their own petard.

• New York City unveils its Nissan all-electric Leaf taxis. All hail this super-quiet ride.

• The French parliament has approved same-sex marriage. I thought this happened last week but apparently that was just the French senate.

• There’s a wisteria tunnel in Japan, and I’m linking to a photo of it because it’s spring and I think wisteria is freaking awesome times a thousand. Love it.

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• The Tennessee General Assembly decided it had heaped enough humiliation on the state for the year and called it a day. The session was marked by infighting, legislative duds like “Starve The Childen” and “Don’t Say Gay,” and some John Birch Society craziness like “Agenda 21″ — all of which brought national attention of the wrong kind to the state. It goes without saying, this legislative dud was brought to you by the Republican supermajority. Go home, Tennessee Republicans. And stay home.

• Check out this solar-powered soda vending kiosk, made in Chattanooga. Perfect for Bonnaroo.

• The Nashville Zoo is playing an important role in preserving the endangered clouded leopard, with the birth of three cubs this spring.

This week’s cool video is an excerpt from a TED talk. Even capuchin monkeys know that unequal pay is wrong. Why don’t Republicans know this?