Daily Archives: 01/16/2013

(Community Matters) In less than 24 hours my opinion took a u-turn before I was even able to read the book.

update: a wise friend counseled me within the frame that John is just a true libertarian. Listening to his NPR interview took some of the sting out of the “fascist” characterization since it wasn’t said with animus.

I’m glad John’s taken the word back

(Community Matters) Stumbled onto this gay web series

youtube

(Community Matters) I’m hoping this documentary comes to Austin. It’s about stories and experiences of young, black gay men. Doesn’t only deal with homophobia but also racism within the LGBT community. It’s screen writer and director says it is centered around community and how young black gay men can build community.

(Community Matters) Today was one of those days when I had a lot of interesting meetings with interesting people. The most unexpected was with a freelance journalist who writes for Forbes, Newsweek, the International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal Asia (and author) Ioannis Gatsiounis. Not sure how we were connected (I forgot to ask), but he called Marfa Public Radio to find me. I hope he settles in Austin. He’d  be a good addition to our creative capital.

Ordering his collection of stories, Velvet & Cinder Blocks, and a nonfiction book, Beyond the Veneer: Malaysia’s Struggle for Dignity and Direction.

(Community Matters) I’m encouraged by the enlightened perspective of a House GOP member, Scott Rigell, R-VA.

“After I got into office and heard my Democratic friends make the case from the floor so many times that revenues were not high enough, I thought, well, let me either prove or disprove this,” Rigell said. “That took me on a journey of evaluating our budget and looking at historical data — I’m a data-driven person — and it led me to this conclusion: We have a revenue yield under the old tax code … of 16.9 percent. We have not run our republic on that level of revenue since 1959 — before Medicare and Medicaid were even on the table — so I knew that we had a revenue problem.” http://huff.to/W7fte6

Not surprisingly with this perspective, Rep Rigell has come out against holding the nation’s debt ceiling hostage to spending cuts.