Grayson gets cute

Watch out, Alan.  Now ya got Gee Duh-bya gunnin' for ya.

Click here and watch the short video.

AIDS Walk

A couple of weekends ago the wife and I joined the AIDS Walk Houston, a 5k hike to raise money and awareness.  

Before the walk began, the whole Sam Houston Park, adjacent to downtown, was totally packed with people.  I never heard an official estimate on crowd size, but my guess is we had at least 15,000 people out walking.  All ages, all sizes, all colors and all shapes.  
 

My company was one of the sponsors, so I joined their "team" and set a pledge goal of $250, the minimum. With less than a week from signing up to the actual walk, my co-workers pledged $410 and my wife got $805 in pledges from her co-workers.   A total of $1215; not bad for only six days. In total, over $615,000 was raised, which will benefit some 16 local agencies.

The walk route was west along Allen Parkway.  Slow traffic, keep right.

It was quite a colorful crowd, right down to Precious, the purple poodle pup.
 

The weather was simply outstanding: a perfect spring day, and the turnout was huge.  Lots of young'uns showed up, and all of them texting.
 

Ils sont partis!

 

Frankly, I don't know what I was thinking.  About all you can say is that I wasn't thinking. 

I have a recent history of multiple Morton's Neuromas - neuropathy - in my feet.  It's basically a pinched nerve in the foot, and it can be excrutiating.  

 
It's not so bad when sitting, but when I'm walking?  Watch out!  

 
Hey, WTF, let's do a 5k!  It's not really that far.  Only ... just over three MILES!

It's the wife's and my internet self-portrait.  I'm the one on the right, and yeah, she has a funny-shaped head.

I started out ok (thanks to some mild painkillers), but about halfway in, my dogs began howling.  Towards the last 1k, when I could see the "Finish" line in the distance, they were SCREAMING!  The sun broke out from behind a cloud and it got a little hot.  Foot pain, hot temperature....not a great combination.  I limped across the Finish line and sat down as quickly as possible.    
  

I figured though, oh, grow up, you have a little foot pain...people with AIDS and HIV can have it a whole lot worse than I do.   Indeed.

But I don't think I'll be doing another 5k anytime soon.

How are we doing on AIDS?

Hell No You Can't!

To A Skylark

Time for a poem.  This one is by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

(You can find :33 of a skylark vocalizations here.)

To a Skylark
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
 
Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.
 
In the golden lightning
Of the sunken sun
O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
Thou dost float and run,
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
 
The pale purple even
Melts around thy flight;
Like a star of Heaven
In the broad daylight
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight:
 
Keen as are the arrows
Of that silver sphere,
Whose intense lamp narrows
In the white dawn clear
Until we hardly see - we feel that it is there.
 
All the earth and air
With thy voice is loud.
As, when night is bare,
From one lonely cloud
The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed.
 
What thou art we know not;
What is most like thee?
From rainbow clouds there flow not
Drops so bright to see
As from thy presence showers a rain of melody.
 
Like a poet hidden
In the light of thought
Singing hymns unbidden,
Till the world is wrought
To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not:
 
Like a high-born maiden
In a palace tower,
Soothing her love-laden
Soul in secret hour
With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower:
 
Like a glow-worm golden
In a dell of dew,
Scattering unbeholden
Its aerial hue
Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view:
 
Like a rose embowered
In its own green leaves,
By warm winds deflowered,
Till the scent it gives
Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-winged thieves.
 
Sound of vernal showers
On the twinkling grass,
Rain-awakened flowers,
All that ever was
Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass.
 
Teach us, sprite or bird,
What sweet thoughts are thine:
I have never heard
Praise of love or wine
That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine.
 
Chorus hymeneal
Or triumphal chaunt
Matched with thine, would be all
But an empty vaunt -
A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want.
 
What objects are the fountains
Of thy happy strain?
What fields, or waves, or mountains?
What shapes of sky or plain?
What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain?
 
Whith thy clear keen joyance
Languor cannot be:
Shadow of annoyance
Never came near thee:
Thou lovest, but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.
 
Waking or asleep,
Thou of death must deem
Things more true and deep
Than we mortals dream,
Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream?
 
We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
 
Yet if we could scorn
Hate, and pride, and fear;
If we were things born
Not to shed a tear,
I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.
 
Better than all measures
Of delightful sound,
Better than all treasures
That in books are found,
Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!
 
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now!
 
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(c.1820)
Original Text: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound (1820).
First Publication Date: 1820.

Friday wrap

What a week...It IS hard to keep up sometimes.  Actually, it's impossible.  You have to pick your spots and apply yourself.

It's time for the Care2 Causes Friday wrap – and what a week it's been! President Obama's historic health care victory continues to be at the forefront of everyone's minds of course – whether they laud it and applaud it, or revile it and want to repeal it.  We have it all covered, and to make it easy for you, we have put it all in one place, so check it out and keep coming back as the story continues to evolve. We'll be sure to have the latest for you.

So grab your morning cup of joe, and let's get started with highlights from this week's health care reform posts. Then, when you're ready for your second cup, we'll move on to the rest of the week's favorites, and of which there was definitely no shortage!

They called Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) a "f****t."  They called Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) the infamous "n-word." It's getting ugly and only promises to get more so. As if it wasn't bad enough beforehand, Ann Pietrangelo points out in her post, What Do Meathead and Archie Have to do with Health Care Reform?, what a spectacle we're now putting on for the world in the days after the health care bill was signed into law.

Ann also gives us two posts with broad views of the history of the bill, complete with video, that puts it all in context for us.  And she blogs about how anti-reform protesters had the audacity to bully a peaceful demonstrator with Parkinson's Disease (they have since apologized).

Scott Pasch tells us what's in the health reform bill for you right away but how both the Republican, and the Tea Parties are doubling down to oppose it. Scott also blogs about two new polls comparing how the world view of conservative "Hatriots" in both the Republican Party and the Tea Party stand up to reality. Can there be two truths? Let numbers speak for themselves.

For another angle, read Ann Bibby's post about how the health care bill is a victory for student loans and Pell grants (really). Ann blogs about how the Obama administration was able to tie big changes in the way student loans are obtained and repaid to the health care bill.

Finally, Jessica Pieklo summarizes the legal challenges lining up against the health care bill. "When we examine the impact and the importance of these legal challenges, it is fair to place them in their social, historical context as part of a larger movement fighting against economic, racial, and social justice," Jessica points out.

Got that second cup of coffee in hand? It's time to move along to our other channels… First let's go from Capitol Hill and Health Care, to Animal Welfare… It may seem an odd transition, but it's been a stressful week, so maybe it's not as oxymoronic as at first glance.

How's this for stress? Heather Moore analyzes a MeatingPlace.com article suggesting that stressed-out animals make "high-quality" hot dogs. Read her reasoning behind why pigs belong neither in blankets, nor in buns.

More on the food–related front: Angel Flinn looks at the recent trend in do it yourself butchery, and questions whether DIY is a fad that's been intentionally engineered by the animal industry.

And fast food giant, Subway, comes out from under to make a decision that sits well with animal rights activists. As Nicole Nuss blogs, the company is promising to phase in the use of cage-free eggs, as well as give purchasing preferences to pork and poultry suppliers who opt for more humane methods of animal housing and slaughter.

If you have, or love, children and pets, Alicia Graef's post about antifreeze and coolant poisoning is an absolute must read. At the end of her blog Alicia asks us to take action and support legislation requiring manufacturers to add bittering agents to these now sweet-tasting products, and avoid thousands of poisonings annually.

As Sharon Seltzer blogs, this year's American Greyhound Track Owners convention had its lowest attendance in history. More than half of the tracks in the U.S. have closed because of lack of business. Greyhound racing in America is coming to the end of an era.

Animals take a stand on the Women's Rights channel this week as Tracy Viselli asks us to listen to the bunnies, and tell the Food and Drug Administration to end restrictions on emergency contraception. Tracy and the bunnies ask us to take action and tell the FDA to act now.

Is it time for Facebook to create a submissions screening process? Ximena Ramirez asks that question this week when she discovers Facebook groups continue to poke fun at rape. When is enough, enough?

So when is enough, enough, really? Over on our Civil Rights channel, Steve Williams writes A Tale of Two Proms. It's a story he has been following closely, about Constance McMillen, whose school chose to cancel prom rather than allow her to bring a female date. Read Steve's blog for the latest on the court's decision about the case, as well as a story about a Georgia student in a similar situation.

Are zero tolerance policies in school going overboard? Take a look at Judy Molland's Education channel post about twin nine year olds in Tennessee who were suspended from school because the part in their identical haircuts was deemed "ganglike." You be the judge.

Our Environment channel was overflowing with water stories this week. Monday was World Water Day, and as Beth Buczynski blogs, "water quality" was the theme. "Too bad no one told municipal governments around America, who have allowed the widespread use of a common weed killer to contaminate public water supplies," Beth notes.

In another World Water day post, Nancy Roberts asks us to take action and sign the Care2 pledge to protect water quality. Nancy highlights a new report and video exposing how the American public has been manipulated into drinking bottled water. "Can we make the easy, green choice to switch to tap?" she asks.

Here's something about water you will definitely want to know: At nine out of ten natural gas wells in the U.S., gas is released from deep underground pockets by fracturing rocks with a high-pressure water, chemical, and sand solution. As Jennifer Mueller reports, the process, known as "fracking," is not regulated by the federal government and, in fact, is exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, in spite of suspicions in six states that it's responsible for groundwater contamination. Jennifer's blog prompts us to take action and urge our representatives to pass the Clean Water Protection Act.

For our Trailblazers channel, I took a look this week at Jamestown Properties, a German commercial real estate investment company based in Cologne and Atlanta that has plans to green almost its entire $4 billion portfolio of buildings, all of which are located in the U.S. Green architecture is an everyday reality in Europe, will other companies in the U.S. follow suit?

Finally this week, we leave you with two pieces for deep reflection, so grab that third cup of coffee and go:

Peaco Todd blogs about global warming, evolution, "Climategate", and the convergence of science and belief, and ponders this: "While we seem to revere the idea of science, too many of our citizens (and students) confuse the roles of science and belief, to potentially disastrous effect." Just be sure to catch the Mel Brooks YouTube link at the end of her post!

And Kristina Chew discusses The Oppression of Motherhood vis a vis a recently published book by French philosopher Elisabeth Badinter, Le Conflit, La Femme et La Mère (The Conflict, The Woman and The Mother), which asks if women today are not oppressed by motherhood. She singles out the economic crisis, the green movement and American feminism as culprit.

Time for that fourth cup of coffee, and for you to let us know what you think. We know you will. 

From all of us at Care2 Causes, have a great weekend.

There is a whole lot more here.

Robert Ingersoll

I'm still reading "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll," a 12-volume collection of some of the best writing I have encountered.  This man was brilliant.  It's no wonder Ingersoll (1833-1899) isn't a household name, or that he is not treasured as a great American writer, dissecting religion as he does.  I cannot recommend these books highly enough.  Every freethinker should be familiar with his prose.

These volumes were first published in 1929.  They're not on the regular shelves of the Houston Public Library.  No, they place them in the out-of-print "Stacks" section, and they must be specially requested.  This guy was quite prolific. 

Here's a striking passage I just read from "Myth and Miracle."

"Whenever the spiritual have had power, art has died, learning has languished, science has been despised, liberty destroyed, the thinkers have been imprisoned, the intelligent and honest have been outcasts, and the brave have been murdered."

No shit.  Which reminds me, a lot of present-day Christians would like to see the U.S. be much less secular than it is and put under a religious persuasion, Jesus Christ-dominant, of course, as if that might produce a more-perfect union!

Anything but.  

Our Founding Fathers were quite right and bold to separate church and state as much as they did, and this nation would be wise to maintain and solidify that wall.  This is no time to backslide into barbarity, and that's what most religion is.

You want to see an example of a theocracy?  Look at modern-day Iran, or other Muslim-dominated governments.  A "Christian government" would not be much better.  Indeed, there have been religion-dominated governments throughout history, and the record is not pretty.  The sooner we can clean out the superstitious from our governments, the better we all will be.