Do you have 17 minutes? You might want to watch this moving presentation by Garth Lenz at TEDxVictoria.
Continue reading No other choice – leave the tar sands in the ground{ Thank you, Hallmark, for honoring this call to disarm for so many years }
Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation – 1870
Arise then…women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
Ladies and Gentlemen for the week of May 7 – May 11 we learned what it takes to be a leader! Oh yes Lee Scott Laugenour! I’m talking to YOU!
What does it take to be a leader? It depends on who you ask. According to Republican Ram Rod Radio a leader is out in front, answering the tough questions! A leader leads by example! And a leader is HONEST!
1.)A LEADER IS OUT IN FRONT, ANSWERING THE TOUGH QUESTIONS: Some of you guys remember last week’s Round Up where I called attention to Lee Scott Laugenour’s refusal to answer the simple question … Did you pay the MA State Income tax rate of 5.3% or did you pay the super Liberal rate of 5.85% I posted the question on April 25th => http://www.greenmassgroup.com/…
Finally on May 8th “Mr. I Want to Raise Taxes” comes clean when he said … But we’ll get to his answer in section 2 … “A Leader Leads by Example” . . .
The fact is, it took Scott 2 weeks to suck it up and answer the question. 2 WEEKS! 2 Weeks ON HIS OWN BLOG! These are the kind of constituent services you can expect from Scott Laugenour ‘s office, if ever elected. Scott’s response time stinks.
2.) A LEADER LEADS by EXAMPLE: Did Scott Laugenour pay the 5.3% MA State income rate or did he pay the 5.85% rate? For those of you who thought Scott Laugenour practiced what he preached … YOU GUESSED WRONG! Mr. “I want to raise taxes” chose to be selfish and paid the lower rate … Oh yes! Let’s take a minute and break it down … Scott believes we need to raise taxes probably on the rich because ya know they can afford it, but when it was his turn to pitch in for the lovely social programs that he wants everyone else to pay for … His wallet slams shut. Now I’m sure some of you are saying … But but but RRRR – you’re acting like Scott Laugenour has millions of dollars like Donald Trump … surely you must be joking? Well let’s look at it the situation . . . We got a guy that is running for office, he running on higher taxes and more social programs, HE ADVOCATES FOR RAISING TAXES … When the time came for our hero to pay up a few extra hundred bucks Scott Laugenour chose to keep the money for himself. NOT EVEN WHEN THE MAN IS RUNNING FOR OFFICE WILL HE KICK IN. The difference between paying 5.3% and 5.85% on $50,000 income isn’t even $300. Scott Laugenour had a chance to lead by example, to practice what he preaches, but in the stone cold still of the night Scott Laugenour turned his back on his ideals and he threw it all away for $300 … Scott Laugenour should be ashamed.
3.) A LEADER IS HONEST: This is probably the most disturbing part of Scott Laugenour’s behavior … he’s not an honest man. When he was forced to answer the question of which tax rate he would pay he offered this
I’m sure nearly all taxpayers join me in not paying it, especially in Western Massachusetts, where incomes are lower and the current unfair regressive tax system hits **us** especially hard. – Scott Laugenour
It’s tough growing up in Western Ma no doubt about it. “For the average guy” there are fewer employment opportunities, the salaries are indeed lower than say working in Boston, education, everything … no argument here. But seriously, to say Scott Laugenour is a down on his luck red neck in Western MA with few job opportunities and simply can’t afford to pay an extra $300 in MA State inc tax is simply not true. Scott Laugenour is NOTHING like his neighbors. Scott Laugenour is the former regional VP for Marriott Hotels. He does business strategy consulting for clients in the US and overseas. Went to college in Hawaii and jet-sets to Japan to be a language teacher. He’s full of crap. When you think of guys living in Western MA do you really think of ex Regional VP for Mariott Hotels? Seriously. Nice try Scott.
Continue reading Green Party Weekly Round Up: A weekly report that spotlights all things Green. – By RRRR : )Went to a talk on March 19, 2012 by Dr Joel Schwarz about a recent UNEP report on Short Lived Climate Forcers:
Integrated Assessment of Black carbon and Tropospheric Ozone and Near Term Climate Protection and Clean Air Benefits
http://www.unep.org/dewa/Porta…
Summary for Decision Makers
http://www.unep.org/pdf/Near_T…
The report focuses on three SCLF [short lived climate forcers] – black carbon, tropospheric ozone and methane [an ozone precursor*] – because reducing them will provide significant benefits through improved air quality and a slowing of near-term climate change.
Black carbon and tropospheric (10 – 20 km above ground) ozone are resident in the atmosphere for a few days to three weeks (3-8 days for carbon, up to 4-18 days for ozone). Methane has an atmospheric lifetime of 12 years, ± 3 years.
“Full implementation” of all the identified measures could reduce future global warming by “0.5˚C (within a range of 0.2-0.7˚C)”. If implemented by 2030, this tactic might halve the potential increase in global temperature projected for 2050. “The rate of regional temperature increase would also be reduced” wherever they are put into practice.
These measures “could avoid 2.4 million premature deaths (within a range of 0.7-4.6 million) and the loss of 52 million tonnes (within a range of 30-140 million tonnes), 1-4 per cent, of the global production of maize, rice, soybean and wheat each year.” Benefits will be felt immediately “in or close to the regions” where black carbon, methane, and tropospheric ozone are reduced. The potential for emissions reductions, climate, health, and economic benefits are highest in Asia but gains can also be realized in Africa, Latin America, and wherever these measures are put into practice.
A few emission reduction measures “targeting black carbon and ozone precursors could immediately begin to protect climate, public health, water and food security, and ecosystems. Measures include the recovery of methane from coal, oil and gas extraction and transport, methane capture in waste management, use of clean-burning stoves for residential cooking, diesel particulate filters for vehicles and the banning of field burning of agricultural waste.”
All these benefits can be obtained with existing technology but require significant strategic investment and institutional arrangements to make them widespread, part of general and every day use.
*Ozone is not directly emitted. It is a secondary pollutant that is formed in the troposphere by sunlight-driven chemical reactions involving carbon monoxide (CO), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), methane (CH4), and nitrogen oxides (NO ). Ozone in the troposphere is the third most human-emitted greenhouse gas, after CO2 and methane. Ozone formation increases as temperature rises.
Continue reading Short Term Climate Forces: Black Carbon, Methane, and Tropospheric OzoneTo: Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Boston City Councilors, Governor Deval Patrick and Legislators
Whereas: Mayor Menino and the Boston City Council have granted Liberty Mutual $24 million in property tax breaks and Governor Patrick has given Liberty Mutual $22.5 million in state subsidies to build a new office tower in Boston near its existing office in Boston.
Whereas: These subsidies are being granted to a corporation so wealthy that it testified to City Council that it could build the $300 million tower with cash on hand, and is on the Forbes 100 list, earning over a billion dollars a year in profit.
Whereas: This subsidy money is being taken from essential city and state services including schools, libraries, parks, transit, youth jobs and community centers, even as their funding is being slashed.
Continue reading Revoke $46.5M in Tax Giveaways for Construction of Liberty Mutual Office TowerThe Green Party, while struggling to establish itself in the United States, is part of a global political movement that is continually gaining steam and finding traction in various nooks and crannies across the planet.
It’s always reassuring to find gains and breakthroughs happening in other countries, so this Global Greens report on the UK local elections is a good sign that people are increasingly open to new approaches, and that the Greens are offering something fundamentally different than the standard bearer political parties. From the European Green New Deal policies to the Scotland Greens’ focus on improving local councils, the Green Party is slowly finding its voice and its focus, and people are responding with their votes.
Continue reading Greens gain in UK local electionsI participated as a registered voter at the 2012 Lenox Town Meeting on May 3 at 7pm. My votes on the twenty-nine articles are recorded below with annotation.
It is important, in my opinion, for voters to know the voting records of candidates for office. In 2010 when I ran for office I also made my 2010 town meeting votes public.
Continue reading My Votes at 2012 Lenox Town MeetingLadies and Gentlemen for the week of Apr 30 – May 4 NOTHING HAPPENED. That’s alright the Green Party has had worse weeks in the past … so all in all not bad.
NOTE – I use Mon-Fri as my “week” since the news is usually slow on the weekends.
Continue reading Green Party Weekly Round Up: A weekly report which spotlights all things Green. – By RRRR : )Great video by the Green Party of England & Wales, but pretty universal.
Continue reading Vote Green Party – Make The DifferenceSolar IS Civil Defense – what we are all supposed to have on hand in case of emergency – flashlight, cell phone, radio, extra set of batteries – can be powered by a few square inches of solar electric panel. Add a hand crank or bicycle generator and you have a reliable source of survival level electricity, day or night, by sunlight or muscle power.
This is also entry level electrical power for the 1.5 billion people around the world who do not yet have access to electricity. Civil defense at home and economic development abroad can be combined in a “buy one, give one” program like the Bogolight (http://www.bogolight.com) which is a solar LED light and AA battery charger.
Solar IS Civil Defense and could be much more.
Continue reading Solar IS Civil Defense PSA