Category Archives: Uncategorized

(Community Matters) Promise I’m not trying to be partisan here. I’m seriously interested in different perspectives when my friends and followers read this Frank Rich New York piece – please send me a note or comment.

(Community Matters) Planned Parenthood Merger About Efficiency, Advocacy

(Community Matters)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Community Matters) from Libby Sykora:

The Celebration of Life for Bettie Naylor will be held May 5th at 3:00 PM in the First United Methodist Church, 1201 Lavaca Street. Immediately following the Memorial, per Bettie’s wishes, we will celebrate her life at the Family Life Center located one block from the Church. Memorial donations may be made to Family Eldercare, in care of The Bettie Naylor Fund which was established in her name to provide care for aging LGBT seniors. The address is 1701 Rutherford Lane, Austin Texas 78754. May God wrap his arms around each of us and hold us close.

(Community Matters) Vindication?

Hat Tip: Arianna Huffington

(Community Matters) proud of my cousin Blue Chavez for riding 150 miles from Houston to Austin, raising money to fight multiple sclerosis.

my cousins Melissa (Blue’s wife), Audrey (his sister) & Sarah (his mom)

(Community Matters)

“Unkindness comes out of certainty; when we throw out certainty, we have the bare reality of consciousness, and another name for that is love.”

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(Community Matters) Congratulations to our “nephew” Brent – Northeastern State University Outstanding Senior Boy 2112

Brent’s actually Steven’s first cousin once removed but we’ve adopted him as a nephew. He lived with us last summer

(Community Matters) Mother Falcon headlined yesterday’s Tx Community Music Festival at Central Market North. The Festival continues all week with some super programming

Shawn Sides, Graham Reynolds, Peter Stopchinsky, Lana Lesley, Steven and I had planned dinner for last night, so shifted starters to Central Market, then retreated to the house. Evenings with this tribe extend late into the nights

(Community Matters) Reading about “‘cochineal extract’ — a colorant made from the dried crushed bodies of the female Dactylopius coccus Costa”  while reading Starbucks To Be Bug-Free in June in Culture Map.

. . . native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico.  They produce carminic acid as a defense against predators.  In the 15th century, carmine dye was used in Central America for coloring fabrics and became an important export. It’s still used in handmade textiles in Oaxaca.

Friends know of my fondness for Cochineal

(Community Matters) Mitt Romney has hired Richard A. Grenell, an openly gay spokesperson who worked in the Bush White House.

(Community Matters) Very welcome news – Israel’s conservative movement voted to approve the ordination of gay rabbis

The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, affiliated with the movement, will admit gay and lesbian students for training as spiritual leaders as of the upcoming school year.

In doing so the Israeli Conservative Movement is joining the American branch of the movement, whose rabbinical seminaries have been admitting gay students for some years.

The question whether or not to ordain gay and lesbian rabbis has been rattling the Conservative Movement in Israel and the U.S. for the past decade. Unlike the Reform movement that took to the question with ease, deciding firmly on the acceptance of gay rabbis. The Conservative Movement, whose rabbis see themselves bound to Jewish law, has been caught up in heated debate over the subject.