Category Archives: Uncategorized

(Community Matters)

InterVino San Cristobal

Hat Tip: Iliana de la Vega

(Community Matters) Not often I deeply regret missing a charity dinner but definitely this one honoring Mary Margaret Farabee and Paul Krugman as keynote. MM is one of the foundational philanthropic & civic catalysts in Austin as well as one of my earliest mentors,  and Paul Krugman is the world’s most important contemporary economist.

– not to mention for a great cause, the Texas Observer

(Community Matters) reposting from 2/2/2012: Glee: ‘Sexy and I Know It’

(Community Matters) Since resigning from President Obama’s campaign at the end of the year in order to take on the Pres/CEO role of MPR & KXWT, I’ve gained clarity about the real threat to our democracy – the fact that we are driven to only recognize what divides us, rather than what can unite us. Our failure to even acknowledge common values & principles but instead to vilify those who might interpret values differently, then to lash out in ways and with threats that none of us should tolerate . . . . these are the real threats to democracy in America. Photo:  Terry Jones, Quran-Burning Pastor, Hangs Barack Obama Effigy Outside Florida Church

(Community Matters) Hated missing last night’s Ernst & Young event. Congrats to the 2012 E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year winners: Brian Sharples, Alan Gilmer, Sam Hanna & Jonny Jones

Proud to serve on the EOY Advisory Board and as a judge for the Social Entrepreneur of the Year

(Community Matters) congratulations to our dear friend, Frank Fernandez, the 2012 E&Y Social Entrepreneur of the Year (Silverton Foundation sponsored)

(Community Matters) All four of us had a blast

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(Community Matters) Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Entrepreneurs Foundation Bay Area today announced that they will combine the corporate philanthropy services of both organizations to better serve companies that want to give back locally, regionally and around the world.
  
EFBA will be integrated into the community foundation’s business services unit to provide existing and potential corporate clients with a full range of strategic guidance about corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, and community involvement.
  
“The community foundation and EFBA have a long history of working together and we are excited that we will be now be able to work together as one,” said Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D., CEO and president of the community foundation. Carson said companies working with SVCF and EFBA will continue to receive the same customer service commitment while the integration is completed.
  
Diane Solinger, who has served as executive director of EFBA for 13 years, will join Google as the company’s new manager for employee social responsibility this month. She said today’s announcement will help take EFBA’s vision “to the next level.” (posted from my blackberry)
  

(Community Matters) Steven & I are in San Diego for a few days with Paulina & Eli

(Community Matters) Stratfor on counterinsurgency versus guerilla warfare

Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan have shown that the U.S. military is not very good at counterinsurgency. One could argue that the United States should improve its counterinsurgency capabilities, but there is little evidence that it could master such capabilities.

The alternative does not seek to win over the population but is designed to achieve very definable military objectives, from the destruction of facilities to harassing, engaging and possibly destroying enemy forces, including insurgents.

Special Operations Forces are highly useful for meeting these objectives, but we should also include other types of forces. The U.S. Marine Corps is one such example.

The type of government that Afghanistan has is not a matter of national interest to the United States. What is of national interest is that terrorist attacks are not planned, practiced or launched from Afghanistan. Neither occupation nor transformation of the social structure is necessary to achieve this mission.

Military intervention should be a rare occurrence; when it does occur, it should be scaled to the size of the mission.

(Community Matters) I gotta get this one – John DeMer’s The Mysteries of Marfa