Earth Day

Coming up this Sunday, April 14 - EARTH DAY!  The Sierra Club says, "GET OUT!"

Why would you stay indoors during Earth Month when you could GET OUT? The Sierra Club's new GET OUT campaign and website will connect you with local events and activities, outdoor gear, fabulous Earth Day celebration ideas, and a few surprises that will knock your socks off (in exchange for flip-flops on the beach).

Visit GET OUT to…


PROTECT: Hundreds of local happenings, from outings to rallies to service events, offer ways to get involved and connect with other activists in your area.

EXPLORE: Whether you're looking for a day hike, overnight backpacking, or a visit to a far-flung destination, we provide hundreds of outdoor trips for all ages and skill levels.

INSPIRE: Give back to our heroes. Support military families by joining one of our local hikes and events for kids with parents in the services.

SUPPORT: Meet Jason Mraz, get a green makeover from Jessica Alba, have tea with Elle Macpherson, skateboard with Tony Hawk, or hike with Evangeline Lilly. Bid on these and other exclusive experiences that will be auctioned off on eBay to benefit The Sierra Club Foundation.

RE-PLAY: Give yourself closet space by donating used outdoor gear and apparel to support our local chapter and group programs.

WATCH: Our video of celebrities wishing America a "Happy Earth Day" will pump you up.

Bill Maher

Bill Maher is my favorite comedian, ever since George Carlin passed away.  I have great sympathy for "out" atheists like Bill, plus, he's got great writers.  

Someone recently compiled a Maher's greatest hits and put it online.  Here are some snips from it.  Follow the link at the end for more.

Best of Bill Maher: Political Quotes

“This is not a case of Democrats vs. Republicans. It’s sentient beings vs. the Lizard People.” –on ‘Birthers’

“Republicans stand by their convictions. Stupid, ignorant, world-destroying convictions based on disproven economic fantasies and ancient books full of primitive morality and magic people. But convictions, nonetheless.” 

“New Rule: Gay marriage won’t lead to dog marriage. It is not a slippery slope to rampant inter-species coupling. When women got the right to vote, it didn’t lead to hamsters voting. No court has extended the Equal Protection Clause to salmon. And for the record, all marriages are same sex marriages. You get married, and every night, it’s the same sex.” 

“I want you teabaggers out there to understand one thing: while you idolize the Founding Fathers and dress up like them, and smell like them, I think it’s pretty clear that the Founding Fathers would have hated your guts. And what’s more, you would’ve hated them. They were everything you despise. They studied science, read Plato, hung out in Paris and thought the Bible was mostly bulls**t.” 

“Hey birthers, wanna hear my theory? My theory was that Obama was born in America and you were born with the umbilical cord around your neck.” 

“A new biography came out that says that in high school Obama was a huge pothead … Mitt Romney had to respond to this and said, ‘It is appalling that Obama spent his teenage years goofing around and smoking pot when he should have been pinning down gay kids and cutting their hair.” 

“African American Congressman Bobby Rush wore a hoodie on the floor of Congress to make a point this week. And they threw him out. They said a hoodie is too scary for Congress. Too scary? Have you ever looked into Michele Bachmann’s eyes?”

“Being politicians, they all got to sharing their personal stories. Obama talked about his mother’s battle with cancer. Harry Reid talked about a kid with a cleft palate. And John McCain told how he once carried a brain dead woman through an entire campaign.” -on Obama’s health care summit.

“We had a national tragedy this week, and the President of the United States and Sarah Palin both made speeches on the same day. Obama came out against lunatics with guns, she gave the rebuttal.”

much more at the  Original.

Bangladesh

Atheists can learn a lot from the recent victories of the gay marriage movement.  How?  By "coming out" of the closet and announcing their atheism.  When Americans realize that their neighbors, friends, co-workers, even family members are atheists, acceptance will follow.  

While atheists are one of the last groups that can be openly discriminated against, things could be much worse.  I could be living in  Bangladesh.

Flires and Luna

Flires.  That's how some people from "the South" pronounce the word "flowers."  Come to think of it, that's how some Irish pronounce it.  Bloomin' fliers!   

It's springtime, so here's a few pics JFSAG from our front yard:

My mother's favorite iris just happened to be planted by the builder when we built this house six years ago.  This year they are blooming, and blooming, and blooming...

wider...

Nice crop of French Breakfast radishes.  

Pulled up all of the fennel recently.  It was leaning wayyy out into the street.  Street grime adds an extra "earthiness" y'know?

...one of the red amaryllis in the NWQ, one of seven growing spaces at the house...

...and the striped one, for lack of a proper name.  There are four other flower shoots just behind this one.  

This amaryllis is producing three different flower stalks, from one plant!  This one is a new member of NWQ.  There's a mountain of dill to the left and a sea of tomato plants to the right.  And a plumeria stalk in the middle that hasn't decided if it's going to have survived the winter or not.

This weekend, Mr. Whitewing Dove and Luna, our cat, had a classic faceoff.  Until this day, Mr. Dove, while ostensibly protecting Mrs. Whitewing Dove (while she was busy laying a couple of eggs in the nest they built right outside of our window) was content to fly against the window ... repeatedly smash into the window, actually.  

This time Mr. Dove perched on the window ledge just inches from Luna and paced back and forth, making a continual rather pissed-off sounding hooting sound, presumably aimed at the cat.  Poor Luna went insane bouncing back and forth on her side of the window until she finally accepted the fact that she could not actually touch Mr. Dove, so she just sat, and watched.  Poor tortured kitty.

I still have not been able to catch Luna making that wierd teeth-chattering sound she makes when she sees "prey" out the window but cannot get to it.  If I could catch that on video and post it on YouTube, I bet it'd go viral, 'cause I ain't never seen any other cat do this.  Catching her in the act with the right lighting has proved elusive, so far.  

hash bash

Continuing from the previous post ... It was the 42nd annual Hash Bash on the campus of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, that bastion of freethinking pot smokers.

Politicians join call for marijuana reform at 42nd annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor

Surrounded by thousands of cheering supporters and clouds of smoke at Saturday's Hash Bash, state Rep. Jeff Irwin pledged to fight for the legalization of marijuana in Michigan.

Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, said he's still planning to introduce a bill to decriminalize cannabis in the state, which he called a first step toward more sensible drug policy.

His bill would follow Ann Arbor's model and make it a civil infraction — instead of a crime — to possess an ounce or less for personal use.

"Make sure you pick up the phone, write an email, and encourage your friends to do the same," Irwin said, calling on the ralliers to get active and reach out to lawmakers.

Irwin pointed to the successful 2012 campaign to legalize marijuana in Colorado and said he wants to see Michigan follow Colorado's lead to end the war on marijuana.

Police estimated about 3,000 people attended the rally on the University of Michigan Diag, which they said was a little smaller than it's been the last couple of years.

Just as many or more were out at the festivities surrounding the Monroe Street Fair afterward near the law quad area, said Diane Brown, spokeswoman for the U-M Department of Public Safety.

Brown said campus police made 16 marijuana arrests and issued five alcohol possession citations, one MIP, and two trespassing citations. She said a few people were cited for selling items they shouldn't have, such as bumper stickers.

Police reported no major incidents, though Brown said five people had to be taken away by ambulance for seizures most likely as a result of synthetic marijuana.

The 90-minute rally at the 42nd annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor featured a long list of speakers who repeated calls for marijuana reform.

Hash Bash organizer and Michigan Moms United founder Charmie Gholson called for an end to what she described as a "ridiculous ongoing civil war against marijuana."

"The feds still hate you and want you in prison, my friends," she told the crowd. "They're hunting us and putting us in cages."

Speakers said they continue to face attacks on their freedom, but they're hopeful they'll continue to make progress in getting lawmakers to listen to them.

They said there's never been a more exciting time for marijuana reform and they're slowly but surely winning the fight, city by city and state by state.

"This is a whole new era of marijuana. We're starting to be taken seriously," said Mark Passerini, a University of Michigan graduate and co-founder of the OM of Medicine marijuana dispensary on Main Street in Ann Arbor.

Passerini said he's seen marijuana help people with everything from stress relief to PTSD, muscle spasms, joint pain and arthritis.

"We love cannabis for all these reasons," he said, drawing applause from the crowd.

Channeling John F. Kennedy's famous 1961 inaugural address, Passerini issued a call to action: "Ask not what marijuana can do for you — ask what you can do for the marijuana movement."

Marijuana reform activist Tim Beck, described by some as the "godfather" of the marijuana movement in Michigan, highlighted the results of a new Pew Research Center survey that shows 52 percent of Americans say the use of marijuana should be made legal.

Beck said those in the minority who want to keep hassling people for using marijuana "don't get the picture" and need to get a life.

"It helps me physically feel better every day of my life," Chuck Ream, president of the Arborside medical marijuana dispensary in Ann Arbor, said of what cannabis has done for him.

Gholson said the war on marijuana is destroying families. She said she's tired of police "tasing kids for pot" and leaving them with arrest records that create barriers to education, employment and housing.

She said she's building a case for a lawsuit against police brutality and working with Irwin on an "asset forfeiture bill" so police can't seize people's assets before getting a conviction.

"I am perfectly capable of making my own health care choices," Gholson said, adding cannabis helps her deal with chronic pain, inflammation and even PMS.

"It does not make me a pharmaceutical drugged-out zombie," she said.

The mostly male crowd included a mix of young and old, many of whom lit up a joint during the rally, which spilled over into the Monroe Street Fair afterward. Some said they were there for the first time. Others said they've been coming to the annual event since the 1970s.

U-M graduate and Flint native Dan Skye, editorial director for High Times magazine, told the crowd the last Hash Bash he attended was in 1975.

He said he came over

to the Diag that day, smoked a joint, didn't think he got high, but later realized he was high while he was in a conference with his student advisor.

Skye said he'll probably never see marijuana completely legalized in the United States during his lifetime, but he issued a call to the next generation of activists to carry the torch.

"This is a dangerous plant?" he asked. "I mean, outlaw poison ivy first."

Matt Abel, a Detroit-based cannabis lawyer, urged ralliers to call state lawmakers to push for hearings on House Bill 4271.

State Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville, introduced the bill in February to let local communities decide whether to allow medical marijuana dispensaries after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that dispensaries handling patient-to-patient sales are not protected under state law.

The bill has 16 co-sponsors, a mix of Republicans and Democrats, including Irwin, but hasn't moved forward in the Judiciary Committee.

Jamie Lowell, co-founder of 3rd Coast Compassion Center in Ypsilanti, said he's been told by those working directly on it that the bill is expected to get a committee hearing soon.

"It's time to change the laws. Marijuana is not wrong," Abel said.

City Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, spoke just before Irwin. She talked about efforts by her and her colleagues on the City Council to craft regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries in Ann Arbor in response to what she called a badly written state law.

"This was not my issue," Briere stressed, but she said it was a problem that needed to be fixed. "If we could just get the people in Lansing to listen, we'd be so much farther ahead."

Briere said the people of Michigan, including marijuana users, deserve to have laws that they can obey and that respect their individual rights. She said it's not to anyone's advantage to be "cluttering up jails" with marijuana users when there are more serous crimes to worry about.

"We're all hung up because the state Legislature hasn't passed laws that make dispensaries legal," she said, urging ralliers to convey the "human need" to their representatives.

Original.

And now, a few things I picked up from the net. Click 'em to read 'em.  They're ... food for thought.