Monthly Archives: December 2009

(Community Matters) Especially surprised by the margin of loss.  I’m still glad they tried and that they counted the votes.  My LGBT friends in NY now know who to support and who to organize against.

Isn’t a punch in the gut; we’re used to losing at the ballot box on this issue – still, much progress has been and will be made.

Popular votes nor legislative ones didn’t end racial discrimination and probably won’t end LGBT discimination – in the case of marriage, I still expect it will be the S. Ct first.  Given Kennedy’s Colorado opinion, I don’t dismiss his support.

(Community Matters) Worth reading – not just a piece by some radical lefty, this from a distinguished professor of law at Harvard and the person selected by Congress and the President to oversee the financial industry bailout.

Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can’t make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.

(Community Matters) Gotta be kidding me.  I wasn’t aware.  Must see Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in a Streetcar Named Desire.

not to mention Joel Edgerton

(Community Matters) The Red Book – Jung’s confrontation with the unconscious (1913 – 1930), translating his emotions into images and grasping his fantasies that were stirring underground. It documents the founding of analytical psychology.

I know it’s Steven’s belated birthday gift, and I can’t seem to put it down

that’s okay, he’s still asleep and no fighting over it

(Community Matters) We’ll my clock is finally back on my preferred schedule – waking up between 3 and 4am feeling perfectly refreshed.  I’m so much more productive on this schedule.  Admittedly, I usually need a tiny nap during the day or early evening.

Also, I’m back to feeling 100%.  Driving back from OK, I was feeling a little ginger.  Monday night feared I was coming down with the flu.  Mostly recovered yesterday and stayed in with the exception of one meeting.  Good thing, much better today.

(Community Matters) An on-fire art form is pecha kucha.  Here’s a demo describing the US Senate by social graphs

this isn’t strictly speaking pecha kucha since only 15 seconds per slide; pecha kucha actually allows 20 secs each

(Community Matters) musings from a VC in NYC on Obama and governance

(Community Matters) Article in today’s NYT –

That race remains a serious obstacle in the job market for African-Americans, even those with degrees from respected colleges, may seem to some people a jarring contrast to decades of progress by blacks, culminating in President Obama’s election.

But there is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field — in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven.

I’m stifled by this, don’t know what to think.  It’s hard to believe there is still this level of institutionalized discrimination.  And, I know there is, has been and will probably always be a bias toward familiarity.  I’m wondering how much familiarity crosses over into discrimination.  I’ve always seen it more as inviting people you know and friends of existing employees to apply, thus the value of posting and advertising positions to achieve greater diversity.  But, would many really turn off a candidate because of their race?  not in my perspective yet the story begs the question

(Community Matters) Remembering too many friends no longer with us

(Community Matters) Well, I’m having to fall back on trusting the President.  Many times I’ve said I can’t imagine trusting any other person in the oval office quite as much.  President Obama doesn’t believe he has all the answers, he listens to all sides and encourages vigorous debate.  I’ll assume his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan is the right decision for now.

(Community Matters) more preliminary recommendations from scientists warning that the low dose radiation could increase occurrence – inconclusive study.