The New York Times ran two pieces today on Don't Ask, Don't Tell--that bit of Clintonite legislation that supposedly marked a compromise in which silence would stand in for explicit discrimination against lesbians and gays in the armed services. The first piece, covers the fact that in a pair of recent debates, the Democratic presidential candidates all spoke in favor of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell while all Republican presidential candidates argued for keeping the policy in place. The general line from the Republicans was that now is not the time to initiate such a change, because we are at war. This leaves open the question of whether they would support the change during peace time. read more »

Any readers with an ITunes account might consider this free download. It's an NBC News Special called Crisis in Darfur, hosted by Ann Curry and Nicholas Kristof. From the ITunes music store, scroll down to "Free on ITunes" and then click on "See All." You'll find it there, probably only for the week.

Like most Americans, I've let myself remain ignorant about Darfur. I'm trying to change that now. This episode is a nice place start just to learn more. Another place to turn to is the website www.savedarfur.org.

I'll keep GWH readers appraised of my own experiences on this. For now, I'd welcome comments from anyone else who'd like to suggest ideas, websites, and resources for those of us who no longer want to be ignorant about Darfur.

According to CNN and other sources, the FDA has now declared that clone meat is safe to eat and they are moving swiftly towards approving the sale and distribution of such meat. Currently the FDA is suggesting that clone meat does not merit any special labeling, not even a label that would announce to consumers that it is clone meat, despite the fact that 64% of Americans say they are uncomfortable with such meat. read more »

Jay Bakker and Marc Brown have an editorial posted on CNN. It explores the problems that Christianity has created for itself in the past few decades. I like the fact that it puts the blame squarely on Christians, and not on some invisible Christian-hating enemy. I also like that rather than giving some sort of answer for the major issues raised by Christians today, they focus instead on setting the terms of the debate. You should read it yourself, but the key passage comes in this discussion of Jesus:

"His parables and lessons were focused on love and forgiveness, a message of "come as you are, not as you should be." The bulk of his time was spent preaching about helping the poor and those who are unable to help themselves. At the very least, Christians should be counted on to lend a helping hand to the poor and others in need."

Seems to fit the goals of this blog nicely.

There's a small outpost of academic work called Future Studies that examines new and emergent trends and attempts to forecast how they will effect human existence in the future. Much of the focus for Future Studies has been on new technologies and new cultural forms surrounding those technologies. The Web has certainly been dominant, along with various claims that the Web as we know it will soon become obsolete.

I'm not particularly invested in Future Studies, but if I may be so bold, I'd like to suggest that they focus more on human continuities--those taken-for-granted aspects of human life that are fundamental to human existence. Perhaps more than anything else, our future is rooted in food. read more »

According to CNN, out-going Iowa governor Tom Vilsack is now the first democrat to throw his hat in the ring for the 08 presidency.

That's out-going governor, which is not the same as being an outgoing governor--you know, the kind of governor who plays saxophone at parties and goes on the Tonight Show. That's not Vilsack. read more »

The AP is now calling Virginia for Webb, which gives the Dems 51 seats in the House.

If the Republican surge in 1994 was the Contract with America, what should the Dems tagline be?

And since the contract was an actual document with an agenda, what would be the most constructive, bridge-building agenda that the Democrats could put forward now?

I went to a weekend concert of Sweet Honey in the Rock, who worked a number of pro-voting messages into their a cappella harmonies. Their advice: take your camera to the polls.

Given all the hoopla about voter suppression and voter fraud, as well as the new concerns about electronic voting systems, I think the advice is sound. Go with the assumption that you won't need it, but turn it on as you walk in the door. If something untoward happens, take a picture of it--a bad ballot, an intrusive political volunteer, a lengthy line--whatever prevents you from voting accurately and freely. If you have a digital camera with video capacities, capture it on video. read more »

I bailed on Governor Ed Rendell today.

Oh don't get me wrong. He's still getting my vote. But I bailed on him. I just walked out. See ya, Gov.

See, I had volunteered to help out at his HQ today. I was scheduled to arrive at noon and stay until 3pm. I had the impression that they were counting on me. That's what they said on the phone. "We're counting on you, Dustin." They even called 3 times this week to confirm that I was coming. That's a lot of human resources devoted to securing the volunteerism of yours truly. read more »

Growing up in Virginia, I never had the sense that my state government really did anything of importance. In middle school and high school we studied the constitutional protections for state-level governance (something I suspect history classes in the south emphasized more than other schools), the ways in which states' rights were challenged in the mid-19th century (it took me a while to realize that what I was taught about the civil war was a little askew from the actual history), and then we were told that any semblance of state-level power had deteriorated across the 20th century. read more »

I'm sure there are a number of positions amongst GWH bloggers and readers about the events this week in New Jersey. I'd like to outline my position.

To begin, what the courts did was relatively minor. New Jersey already had legislation in place to recognize same-sex unions. The trick was that this recognition was somewhat different from the recognition of marriage, and it accorded fewer rights and privileges to the unions as compared to marriage. The court's actions didn't create civil unions or gay marriage, they just said that the two existing forms of state-recognized partnership need to be equal. read more »

Flipping through this week's issue of Time, I was struck by an item in the letters section. Responding to a recent article by war correspondent Michael Weisskopf, who lost a hand in Iraq, reader Karen Howard of Redmond, Washington wrote:

"I very much appreciated Weisskopf's article and started to cry when I read about Specialist James Fair, the young man who suffered a brain injury, lost his eyesight and both hands. He weighs on my conscience because I have not reconciled myself to my responsibility for his injuries as an outspoken supporter of our liberation of Iraq. I have work to do on that, and it continues to keep me awake." read more »