Monthly Archives: January 2011

(Community Matters) Our Austin ADL executive director, Karen Gross, & board chair, Steve Adler, presented their state of the organization reports today, and we all couldn’t be more proud. Admittedly on the shoulders of great staff and chairs from previous years, Karen & Steve led us through a magnificently successful year –  number of schools, students & teachers participating in No Place For Hate; the new, intergovernmental Hate Crimes Task Force launched and facilitated by ADL; fundraising, friendraising and branding.

Today was my last ADL executive committee meeting. I resigned (as I have from PeopleFund, PeopleTrust & AARO boards) in order to make time to help with the President’s reelection.  Steven and I have made incredible life long friends through ADL.  I owe Mark Salmanson for inviting me into this group 5 or 6 years ago

(Community Matters) from Towleroad

Senator John McCain, DADT’ repeal’s fiercest opponent in the Senate, has adopted a new position.

The Hill reports:

McCain signaled that he had made peace with the lame-duck bill to do away with the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian service members, of which he had been an outspoken critic.

“I think I have to do everything I can to make sure that the important moral, retention, recruitment, and battle effectiveness of the military is minimized as much as possible,” McCain said on Fox Business. “It is a law and I have to do whatever I can to help the men and women who are serving particularly in combat cope with this new situation. I will do everything I can to make it work.”

Added The Hill…”McCain said he would do whatever he could to help implement the policy’s repeal.”

(Community Matters) It’s not up yet but it’s coming – MiniDonations.  I met with Leo Ramirez this morning and am quite intrigued.

(Community Matters) on The Economist website

(Community Matters) Our neighbor, Prof James Galbraith in Foreign Policy

In the United States, the financial crisis has left the country with 11 million fewer jobs than Americans need now. No matter how aggressive the policy, we are not going to find 11 million new jobs soon. So common sense suggests we should make some decisions about who should have the first crack: older people, who have already worked three or four decades at hard jobs? Or younger people, many just out of school, with fresh skills and ambitions?

The answer is obvious. Older people who would like to retire and would do so if they could afford it should get some help. The right step is to reduce, not increase, the full-benefits retirement age. As a rough cut, why not enact a three-year window during which the age for receiving full Social Security benefits would drop to 62 — providing a voluntary, one-time, grab-it-now bonus for leaving work?

Hat Tip: AmericaBlog

(Community Matters) Another little red book, this one from a 93-yo French resistance hero, has created quite a sensation.

Indignez vous! (Cry out!) , a slim pamphlet by a wartime French resistance hero, Stéphane Hessel, is smashing all publishing records in France. The book urges the French, and everyone else, to recapture the wartime spirit of resistance to the Nazis by rejecting the “insolent, selfish” power of money and markets and by defending the social “values of modern democracy”.

“It’s true that reasons to cry out can seem less obvious today. The world appears too complex. But in this world, there are things we should not tolerate… I say to the young, look around you a little and you will find them. The worst of all attitudes is indifference…”  The Independent

Hat Tip: AmericaBlog

(Community Matters) a thoughtful essay on how the LGBT community should prepare for next steps

(Community Matters) Continuing on our quest to better understand fine spirits and wines, Graham Reynolds & I met at Vino Vino last night to try some Italians.

Neither Jeff nor Jerry were on site but we were ably led through the regions by a woman whose name I failed to write down.

After 6 or 7 whites, we settled on Palazzone as our favorite – my subsequent online research shows widely considered one of the best Brunellos in the region; also a tiny vineyard established by Richard Parsons (as in former CEO of Time Warner). Graham also especially liked the Coenobium for its outrageous herbs & spices (reminded him of a vermouth).

hmm, tried even more reds, though I’m not sure the best Italy had to offer. Might have to set up another Italian date to further explore. Of those we tried, Azienda Agricola Paitin ( a Langhe Nebbiolo Piedmont) won as the favorite. Kinda interesting, I’m just realizing whether gins, tequilas, mescals or Italians, we seem to arrive at consensus.

(Community Matters) Upitty women! S Ct Justice Scalia, a conservative icon, says hold on, you aren’t included in the definition of “citizens” in the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause. Chattel, that’s it, back to the days . . . .

(Community Matters) The Happy Marriage Is the ‘Me’ Marriage, in today’s NYTimes.

Interesting study about how couples who help sculpt each other in ways that help each attain their valued goals – the Michelangelo effect. I’ve often spoken about how choosing a mate is in part a selfish process. Yeah, yeah, of course the titillation of sexual & physical attraction, whit and chemistry but that doesn’t always signal sustainability. Knowing that you will help “complete” each other, foster, encourage and enable each others’ personal goals & aspirations . . . I’ve believed that’s what makes for sustainability. This article supports and better describes this concept.

I still remember a straight friend once saying her husband was a little jealous of us, kinda wanted to be a gay man, because who wouldn’t want to be an affluent gay couple with no kids, spending every day self actualizing.

(Community Matters) this AAS story about Cleigh’s house burning down and he and his cousin being rushed to the hospital. We spoke with a mutual friend just a bit ago who reached Cleigh and his care taker. Evidently Cleigh and his cousin mostly suffered smoke inhalation and expect to be released from the San Antonio hospital later today. House in uninhabitable but Cleigh’s evidently received many offers for help and places to stay.

(Community Matters) Haiti Suffers Year of Crisis with Nobody in Charge, from the Huff Post

I’m looking forward to seeing Anne Hastings, CEO of Fonkoze who has lived in Haiti for 16+ years, next week in NY as well as another friend who’s soon relocating to Haiti to oversee finances & development for an international NGO. Thinking I may schedule another trip to survey progress (or lack thereof) since July – perhaps in March or April, definitely after the chaos of their presidential election.