Pinback
Pinback's JournalHas anybody applied for the Global Entry clearance?
I'm intrigued after reading this article:
TSA Precheck isn't worth your money and there's a better alternative few people consider (Business Insider, 4/9/2018)
Is the application process onerous? What questions do they ask in the interview? How does it compare to TSA Precheck in your estimation?
Trump's New Lawyer: Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children!
The date says Jan. 2017, but it was actually posted January of this year. At any rate, it's more relevant today than ever. Ruben Bolling is a genius.
10 Women With Cameras We're Inspired by Every Day
10 Women With Cameras Were Inspired by Every DayDisclaimer: This is from the education section of a commercial site (Adorama), but worth a look.
More at link: https://www.adorama.com/alc/women-with-cameras-were-inspired-by-every-day
This site has posted great photographs by ten contemporary women photographers, with links to more information about each. For example, Emmy-nominated director Lauren Meyer, who's currently in post-production for her documentary The Other Boys of Summer, about Negro League baseball players and the civil rights struggle in the United States as they experienced it.
This Peter Thiel associate is
trying to amplify generational divisions. Why, I wonder?
A key cornerstone of the Libertarian project is to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, both age-related social insurance programs and shining examples of Democratic Party achievement.
If younger Americans can be convinced that everyone of age to receive those benefits is a selfish freeloader, then they'll gladly take part in dismantling them.
And if older Americans can be convinced that they don't need to worry, because their benefits will be protected while they're snatched from younger generations, the Koch Brothers and their kindred vultures are happy.
That's why I'm fighting against this narrative. It's complete bullshit. Please delete this OP.
I'm fighting to save Social Security and Medicare, for my children, my nieces and nephews, and their children -- and all Americans in their generations.
Need I point out how ridiculous it is for this rich-guy venture capitalist to call me a sociopath, because of my birth year? Give me a fucking break.
Trashing thread. Not recommending.
No Way To Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
Time for this AGAIN, alas:
https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1823016659
My visceral reaction is to decry "compassionate conservatism"
as an oxymoronic concept.
Your thoughtful analysis helps me understand (thought not appreciate) the mindset that makes such a position appealing.
Emphasizing points of agreement (such as "Productive work is a societal good that should be encouraged" ) is a good start toward building consensus among parties that are arrayed across the political spectrum.
I could never support the GOP's goal of government-sponsored faith-based initiatives -- and I certainly don't subscribe to the right wing idea that beneficiaries of social programs are by definition slackers.
In a different area, there is -- for example -- a lot of potential for agreement among hunters & fishermen and environmentalists. Their interests are compatible in many ways. We need to focus on those points of agreement rather than excoriating hunters as "animal killers" or letting them paint us as "granola-eating tree huggers."
Full disclosure: I actually am a granola-eating tree hugger, but you get the idea. My granddaddy was a hunter and an environmentalist. There are more out there -- we need to find them and work with them.
These are discussions that we'll continue to have, and the answers may (and most likely will) be different in various states and districts. We need to inspire progressives to devote their energies to the cause, while not losing reasonable moderates who agree with us on some policies but not all.
Centrists lose me when they say "To hell with 'Leftists'" and focus only on how to attract and appease conservatives. Leftists lose me when they say "There's no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats."
Your post offers some insight about how to sift through these ideas and positions and find ways to win without resorting to either scorched-earth tactics or appeasement.
Great music from countries we're supposed to despise and fear
"Adouma" by Angelique Kidjo from Benin:
Not to mention you could actually learn something about the music.
The average Spotify listener generally has no idea who the band members are on the tracks they're listening to. I learned a lot about music and musicians' work by reading liner notes and personnel listings on LP covers, particular in the jazz realm.
I'd see the list of band members and think, "Oh, Ben Riley! He played with Monk -- this might be good." Or "Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder? I'm in!" Or I'd read an essay by Nat Hentoff or Ralph Gleason or Orrin Keepnews and learn something about the artists or the music -- often standing in a record store, where this new knowledge would send me to a different bin in search of new treasures to take home.
Same for rock music. And some helpful artists would even include lyrics for those of us unable to decipher words mumbled in a fake (or sometimes authentic) Southern accent.
And then, of course, there's the issue of rolling joints -- without the LP cover of Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die or Coltrane's A Love Supreme, who can craft a tight, seedless doobie anymore?
And the artwork! LPs allowed a fantastic flourishing of album cover art that is hard to match in a cramped CD booklet (or Spotify / Pandora interface).
Books Are Playing a Role in Elevating and Transforming Chicago Communities
This has me thinking about literacy programs in my area and what I can do to help:
- billmoyers.com
This post originally appeared at AlterNet.
Snuggled under scaffolding in Chicagos West Loop is an inconspicuous entranceway that leads to Open Books, a bookstore with over 54,000 used books on its shelves. Nearly all of the books for sale are donated, as are the 55,000 for sale online and the 20,000 more at its Pilsen location. This Thanksgiving will be the eighth anniversary of the first store opening, in Chicagos River North.
Here in the West Loop, Open Books is the anchor store for the space above it, the Literacenter, a co-working space of 123 Chicago-area literacy programs and organizations that range from theater and poetry to childhood homelessness support and books for prisoners.
Tim OBrien, Open Books executive director and a former Open Books volunteer says they process about 650,000 books a year. The book granting team hand-selects books to give to students, classrooms and homes, with a goal of capturing early readers with age- and interest-appropriate stories. If the student sees themselves in a character, if they identify with the story, theyll want to read more, says OBrien.
This, in turn, leads to community building. For example, cookbooks, especially for baking, are popular among young people because they foster engagement with a parent or grandparent; it gives the family something to read and do together.
The bookstore also supports multiple Open Books literacy programs, including creative writing workshops and a publishing academy.
More at link: http://billmoyers.com/story/open-books-transforming-chicago-communities/
Charles Barkley: Roy Moore should have been disqualified 'way before this women stuff came up'
Charles Barkley: Roy Moore should have been disqualified 'way before this women stuff came up'- AL.com, 11/25/2017
Barkley -- asked to weigh in on politics while in Auburn for the unveiling of a statue of him outside Auburn's basketball arena on the day of the annual Iron Bowl clash with Alabama in football -- told NBC's Vaughan Hillyard that Republican nominee Roy Moore should have been "disqualified" from the race long before recent allegations surfaced that he sexually assaulted teenage girls and behaved inappropriately around others in the 1970s.
"Everybody's going crazy over these sexual allegations, Roy Moore to me, when he brought in Steve Bannon should have been disqualified," Barkley said. "I don't understand. How can you have a guy who's running with a white separatist running for a political office?
"We've got a lot of black people in this state who are amazing people but to run a campaign with a guy as your chief advocate who is a white nationalist or white separatist, that should have disqualified Roy Moore way before this women stuff came up."
More at link: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/charles_barkley_roy_moore_shou.html#incart_river_home
Video:
https://twitter.com/VaughnHillyard/status/934488855142653952
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Member since: 2002
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