(Community Matters)

CONTRARIAN – Slate “Press Box” columnist Jack Shafer, “In Defense of Inflamed Rhetoric: The awesome stupidity of the calls to tamp down political speech in the wake of the Giffords shooting”: “For as long as I’ve been alive, crosshairs and bull’s-eyes have been an accepted part of the graphical lexicon when it comes to political debates. Such ‘inflammatory’ words as targeting, attacking, destroying, blasting, crushing, burying, knee-capping, and others have similarly guided political thought and action. Not once have the use of these images or words tempted me or anybody else I know to kill. … Any call to cool ‘inflammatory’ speech is a call to police all speech, and I can’t think of anybody in government, politics, business, or the press that I would trust with that power.” http://slate.me/e8by02

(Community Matters) I like the idea of our friend Dr. Albert Cantara

Time for a news tracker like Politifact to begin tracking hate speech of political, religious, and other public figures. Call it “Politihate” and have the same meter to measure how out of bounds the statement is.

(Community Matters) My reading list almost always lengthens as a result of hosting a dinner party. From last night, the prioritized addition: The Emperor of Maladies: a Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. It came up as we were discussing the unsustainable growth of healthcare costs and historical inflection points – especially citing Thomas Malthus, Paul Erhlic and Atul Gawande.

Comfort Mexican food with Isabel & Dave Welland, Kip Keller, Christie Horne & Kevin Lalande, Diane Land & Steve Adler & of course my husband. Regrettably missing Suzanne & David Booth (hope our buddy Chandler feels better quickly).

(Community Matters) Yesterday, I resisted posting about Rep Giffords’ shooting and the consequences of rhetoric which may have contributed to the tragedy. Disappointed – but not surprised – to read the defensive chorus from the right charging “politicizing” as the topic has been raised. I think Nancy Pelosi crafted a generous and productive statement:

“I have concerns about some of the language that is being used … I saw this myself in the late ’70s in San Francisco. This kind of rhetoric … was very frightening and it created a climate in which … violence took place … I wish that we would all … curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made, understanding that some of … the ears that it is falling are not as balanced as the person making the statement might assume.’

Speaker Pelosi, in September 2009

I like our friend, Dr. Albert Cantara’s idea, a PolitiHate meter

(Community Mattters) Andy Tobias makes good points on what we’re not hearing in today’s rhetoric

(Community Matters) from the Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld’s (her last Advocate column as she moves to Equality Matters)

Posted on Advocate.com January 06, 2011 01:44:31 PM

View From Washington

For the last four years I have been proud to be part of a team at The Advocate that helped document an unimaginably historic time in the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality – what a younger generation refers to as “queer rights” even as the term tweaks the ears of an older generation of activists.

From covering the opening salvo in the primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in Iowa to relocating to Washington, D.C., to become part of the White House press corps, I have witnessed what has felt to me like a coming-of-age story in a movement for the basic dignity and humanity of a people.
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(Community Matters) I came upon this posting on Facebook and had to stop and think:

Let me get this straight. We the people bail out Goldman Sachs so that they can deal from the bottom of the deck and give Facebook shares to their cronies while circumventing public market rules. Where was that pitchfork again??

(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