A Quote
"I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work."
Colin Powell
on Face The Nation
Monday, December 18, 2006
Powell: We Are Losing In Iraq, Exclusive: Former Secretary Of State Says More Troops Are Not The Answer - CBS News
Powell: We Are Losing In Iraq
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2006
(CBS) The United States is losing the war in Iraq but sending more troops to Baghdad is not the best way to change course, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Face The Nation. Powell said he agreed with the assessment of the Iraq Study Group co-chairmen, Lee Hamilton and James Baker, that the situation in Iraq is "grave and deteriorating," and he also agreed with recently-confirmed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that the U.S. is not winning the war. "So if it's grave and deteriorating and we're not winning, we are losing," Powell told Bob Schieffer in an exclusive interview. "We haven't lost. And this is the time, now, to start to put in place the kinds of strategies that will turn this situation around." President George W. Bush is considering several options for a new strategy in Iraq. The most likely choice would be to send tens of thousands of additional troops for an indefinite period to quickly secure Baghdad. A 3,500-man brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent to Kuwait soon after the holidays, CBS News correspondent David Martin reported on Friday. The troops would be available immediately should the president order a surge into Iraq. There are about 134,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now. Powell, also a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not see the military benefit of flooding Baghdad with American troops. "I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work," he said, adding that the Iraqi government and security forces must take over. "It is the D.C. police force that guards Washington, D.C., not the troops that are stationed at Fort Myer," Powell said. "And in Baghdad, you need a police force to do that, and in the other cities, you need a police force to do that, and not the American troops." Powell also doubted that the U.S. Army and Marine Corps are large enough to support such an operation. "The current active Army is not large enough and the Marine Corps is not large enough for the kinds of missions they're being asked to perform," Powell said. "We need to let both the Army and the Marine Corps grow in size, in my military judgment." Asked directly what the U.S. should do in Iraq, Powell said: "I think that what we should do is to work with the Iraqi government, press them on the political peace, do everything we can to provide equipment, advisers, and whatever the Iraqi armed forces need to become more competent, and to train their leaders so that those leaders realize their responsibility to the government." Powell, who as a member of the Bush Administration pushed the international community to sanction the invasion of Iraq, said that we are not safer now after nearly four years of fighting. "I think we are a little less safe, in the sense that we don't have the same force structure available for other problems," Powell said. "I think we have been somewhat constrained in our ability to influence events elsewhere."©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc.
Powell: We Are Losing In Iraq
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2006
(CBS) The United States is losing the war in Iraq but sending more troops to Baghdad is not the best way to change course, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Face The Nation. Powell said he agreed with the assessment of the Iraq Study Group co-chairmen, Lee Hamilton and James Baker, that the situation in Iraq is "grave and deteriorating," and he also agreed with recently-confirmed Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that the U.S. is not winning the war. "So if it's grave and deteriorating and we're not winning, we are losing," Powell told Bob Schieffer in an exclusive interview. "We haven't lost. And this is the time, now, to start to put in place the kinds of strategies that will turn this situation around." President George W. Bush is considering several options for a new strategy in Iraq. The most likely choice would be to send tens of thousands of additional troops for an indefinite period to quickly secure Baghdad. A 3,500-man brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent to Kuwait soon after the holidays, CBS News correspondent David Martin reported on Friday. The troops would be available immediately should the president order a surge into Iraq. There are about 134,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now. Powell, also a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did not see the military benefit of flooding Baghdad with American troops. "I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work," he said, adding that the Iraqi government and security forces must take over. "It is the D.C. police force that guards Washington, D.C., not the troops that are stationed at Fort Myer," Powell said. "And in Baghdad, you need a police force to do that, and in the other cities, you need a police force to do that, and not the American troops." Powell also doubted that the U.S. Army and Marine Corps are large enough to support such an operation. "The current active Army is not large enough and the Marine Corps is not large enough for the kinds of missions they're being asked to perform," Powell said. "We need to let both the Army and the Marine Corps grow in size, in my military judgment." Asked directly what the U.S. should do in Iraq, Powell said: "I think that what we should do is to work with the Iraqi government, press them on the political peace, do everything we can to provide equipment, advisers, and whatever the Iraqi armed forces need to become more competent, and to train their leaders so that those leaders realize their responsibility to the government." Powell, who as a member of the Bush Administration pushed the international community to sanction the invasion of Iraq, said that we are not safer now after nearly four years of fighting. "I think we are a little less safe, in the sense that we don't have the same force structure available for other problems," Powell said. "I think we have been somewhat constrained in our ability to influence events elsewhere."©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Google: "Your needs may come first today as the Moon moves through your 10th House of The Public. This could present a problem, for it may be difficult to express yourself without intimidating others with your intensity. Rely on your charm to soften what you are saying. Don't push too hard or reality will have to push back. "
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Google: "You are in an admirable position and can make the most of the current situation, but you must take the initiative without overstepping your bounds. Make your move without upsetting or offending anyone else; otherwise you could isolate yourself. Instead of making a power play, try talking openly about your goals to build confidence in your team. This way they will want to be a part of your plan and can play a crucial role in your achievement.
Saturday, December 16, 2006"
Saturday, December 16, 2006"
Friday, December 15, 2006
|  Description |
| Firefighter's Coat with Susanoo-no-mikoto and Sea Monster, Edo period (1615–1868), 19th century Dark blue quilted (sashiko) cotton with freehand paste-resist decoration Purchase, Irene Lewisohn and Alice L. Crowley Bequests, 1983 (1983.158a–c) |
|  | | Description Vase with cover, 1888–98 William De Morgan (British, 1839–1917); Manufacturer: Sand's End Pottery (British) Lustered earthenware; H. 13 3/4 in. (34.9 cm) Purchase, Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1923 (23.163.2ab) |
Description
| Water jar (mizusashi), Heisei period (1989–present), Nakamura Takuo (Japanese, born 1945) Stoneware inlaid with gold and silver; lid of lacquered wood; H. 5 in. (12.7 cm), W. 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm), D. 8 1/4 in. (20.9 cm) Purchase, Barbara and William Karatz Gift, 2001 (2001.735a,b) |
All neurons are firing now as mental sparks fly and communication becomes intermittent from static noise. Your key planet Uranus is electrifying your thinking and everyone may not be able to keep up with your quantum leaps of logic. Others might not recognize your brilliance today, for your mind is racing faster than you can speak. Don't waste energy trying to bring someone along on your ride. You can always fill them in on the experience later on.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
Aquarius
Have you been waiting to hear about a grant that you applied for, perhaps to create a piece of art, write a book, or make a documentary film, dear Aquarius? If so, you may have a lot to celebrate today, as news could come your way that you've been awarded the full amount you asked for! Don't be surprised, however, if there's a delay in receiving the actual funds. The project is still going to happen - but a little later than you had hoped. Relax, be patient, and wait! That's all you can do right now
Have you been waiting to hear about a grant that you applied for, perhaps to create a piece of art, write a book, or make a documentary film, dear Aquarius? If so, you may have a lot to celebrate today, as news could come your way that you've been awarded the full amount you asked for! Don't be surprised, however, if there's a delay in receiving the actual funds. The project is still going to happen - but a little later than you had hoped. Relax, be patient, and wait! That's all you can do right now
Comets
Unlike the other small bodies in the solar system, comets have been known since antiquity. There are Chinese records of Comet Halley going back to at least 240 BC. The famous Bayeux Tapestry, which commemorates the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, depicts an apparition of Comet Halley.......clic for more>>>
Unlike the other small bodies in the solar system, comets have been known since antiquity. There are Chinese records of Comet Halley going back to at least 240 BC. The famous Bayeux Tapestry, which commemorates the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, depicts an apparition of Comet Halley.......clic for more>>>
Scientists hope to dust off the origins of space and time
For more information about the Stardust mission, see www.nasa.gov/stardust
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
hope to dust off the origins of space and time
Material 'was around when the solar system formed more than 4 billion years ago'
Friday, December 15, 2006
By TOM PAULSONP-I REPORTER
It's only a fraction of a thimble's worth of dust, but scientists around the world are buzzing about it altering our view of how the solar system formed and perhaps, depending on what else gets teased out of these tiny specks, of how life arose on Earth.
"For the first time, we have a sample of the material that was around when the solar system formed more than 4 billion years ago," said Don Brownlee, a University of Washington astronomer and lead scientist for NASA's $212 million Stardust mission.
Earlier this year, the Stardust space capsule returned to Earth (the Utah desert, to be precise) after traveling 2.9 billion miles over seven years. Two years ago, the spacecraft encountered a comet known as Wild 2 and collected dust by flying through its "coma" -- the cloud of ice, gas and dust at the front of the comet.
Today, in Science magazine, Brownlee and about 200 other scientists report some of their initial findings in numerous papers. A photograph taken by the UW astronomer of a piece of comet dust -- encased in the aerosolized-glass substance known as "aerogel" used by Stardust to trap the dust -- is the cover art for the journal.
"We have found some amazing things," said the UW astronomer, citing as one example the discovery of a class of minerals known as calcium aluminum inclusions.
Holy cow! Calcium aluminum inclusions?
OK, even though most people likely haven't heard of this class of minerals, it turns out they are fairly interesting once Brownlee explains what they are -- and why finding them in an ancient comet was not to be expected.
"They are the oldest things in the solar system," he said, and they only form in extremely hot environments like that of a forming star, or the sun.
Yet comets such as Wild 2, according to the common wisdom, are formed of dust and ice to orbit out in the extremely cold regions at the edge of our solar system.
In short, comets shouldn't have any high-temperature calcium aluminum inclusions.
"That was, for me anyway, the biggest surprise," Brownlee said.
What this seems to imply, he said, is that the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago was either much more violent or the swirling proto-planetary material in space was much more "mixed" than most theoretical models suggest.
Somehow, Brownlee said, hot material that had to be created early and at the center of the solar system was transported to the outer, colder edges of our planetary system.
Comets such as Wild 2, which only recently got diverted closer to Earth by passing close to Jupiter's gravitational field, are thought to be some of the oldest, most pristine collections of the solar system's primordial building blocks.
"They are windows into space and time," Brownlee said. Everything on Earth, including every living creature, was built from this material, he noted. As the Joni Mitchell song said: "We are stardust."
Aiming to improve the knowledge of our planetary origins, NASA has launched several craft at comets over the years: Deep Space 1 flew past the comet Borrelly in 2001 and took pictures; Stardust actually collected comet material and brought it back; Deep Impact smacked into the comet Tempel 1 in 2005 to allow remote analysis of the exploded material.
So far, the evidence from these and other such missions has only raised more questions. Some of the comets appear to conform to expectations and are best thought of as a dirty snowball, a loosely packed pile of ice and dust. But Wild 2, for example, was discovered to have tall spires and canyons with sharp walls, ejecting huge jets of gas.
"These missions ... have caused a major rethinking of the origin of comets," said Michael A'Hearn, a University of Maryland astronomer who wrote an editorial in the journal accompanying the Stardust research reports.
The findings reported today are just the beginning. The Wild 2 dust particles have been dispersed to researchers across the planet, Brownlee said, and are being studied along many different lines, using all sorts of techniques -- including even the 2-mile long Stanford Linear Accelerator.
"I wouldn't say we've revolutionized our view of the solar system," Brownlee said. But there's no question now that we need to change our view of how comets formed and the role they played early in the formation of the planets.
MORE ONLINE
For more information about the Stardust mission, see www.nasa.gov/stardust
For more information about the Stardust mission, see www.nasa.gov/stardust
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
hope to dust off the origins of space and time
Material 'was around when the solar system formed more than 4 billion years ago'
Friday, December 15, 2006
By TOM PAULSONP-I REPORTER
It's only a fraction of a thimble's worth of dust, but scientists around the world are buzzing about it altering our view of how the solar system formed and perhaps, depending on what else gets teased out of these tiny specks, of how life arose on Earth.
"For the first time, we have a sample of the material that was around when the solar system formed more than 4 billion years ago," said Don Brownlee, a University of Washington astronomer and lead scientist for NASA's $212 million Stardust mission.
Earlier this year, the Stardust space capsule returned to Earth (the Utah desert, to be precise) after traveling 2.9 billion miles over seven years. Two years ago, the spacecraft encountered a comet known as Wild 2 and collected dust by flying through its "coma" -- the cloud of ice, gas and dust at the front of the comet.
Today, in Science magazine, Brownlee and about 200 other scientists report some of their initial findings in numerous papers. A photograph taken by the UW astronomer of a piece of comet dust -- encased in the aerosolized-glass substance known as "aerogel" used by Stardust to trap the dust -- is the cover art for the journal.
"We have found some amazing things," said the UW astronomer, citing as one example the discovery of a class of minerals known as calcium aluminum inclusions.
Holy cow! Calcium aluminum inclusions?
OK, even though most people likely haven't heard of this class of minerals, it turns out they are fairly interesting once Brownlee explains what they are -- and why finding them in an ancient comet was not to be expected.
"They are the oldest things in the solar system," he said, and they only form in extremely hot environments like that of a forming star, or the sun.
Yet comets such as Wild 2, according to the common wisdom, are formed of dust and ice to orbit out in the extremely cold regions at the edge of our solar system.
In short, comets shouldn't have any high-temperature calcium aluminum inclusions.
"That was, for me anyway, the biggest surprise," Brownlee said.
What this seems to imply, he said, is that the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago was either much more violent or the swirling proto-planetary material in space was much more "mixed" than most theoretical models suggest.
Somehow, Brownlee said, hot material that had to be created early and at the center of the solar system was transported to the outer, colder edges of our planetary system.
Comets such as Wild 2, which only recently got diverted closer to Earth by passing close to Jupiter's gravitational field, are thought to be some of the oldest, most pristine collections of the solar system's primordial building blocks.
"They are windows into space and time," Brownlee said. Everything on Earth, including every living creature, was built from this material, he noted. As the Joni Mitchell song said: "We are stardust."
Aiming to improve the knowledge of our planetary origins, NASA has launched several craft at comets over the years: Deep Space 1 flew past the comet Borrelly in 2001 and took pictures; Stardust actually collected comet material and brought it back; Deep Impact smacked into the comet Tempel 1 in 2005 to allow remote analysis of the exploded material.
So far, the evidence from these and other such missions has only raised more questions. Some of the comets appear to conform to expectations and are best thought of as a dirty snowball, a loosely packed pile of ice and dust. But Wild 2, for example, was discovered to have tall spires and canyons with sharp walls, ejecting huge jets of gas.
"These missions ... have caused a major rethinking of the origin of comets," said Michael A'Hearn, a University of Maryland astronomer who wrote an editorial in the journal accompanying the Stardust research reports.
The findings reported today are just the beginning. The Wild 2 dust particles have been dispersed to researchers across the planet, Brownlee said, and are being studied along many different lines, using all sorts of techniques -- including even the 2-mile long Stanford Linear Accelerator.
"I wouldn't say we've revolutionized our view of the solar system," Brownlee said. But there's no question now that we need to change our view of how comets formed and the role they played early in the formation of the planets.
MORE ONLINE
For more information about the Stardust mission, see www.nasa.gov/stardust
BBC NEWS Science/Nature Comets hold life chemistry clues
Comets hold life chemistry clues
By Jonathan Amos Science reporter, BBC News, San Francisco
The idea that comets delivered the chemical "seeds" for life to the early Earth has been given a big boost.
Scientists studying the tiny grains of material recovered from Comet Wild-2 by Nasa's Stardust mission have found large, complex carbon-rich molecules.
They are of the type that could have been important precursor components of the initial reactions that gave rise to the planet's biochemistry.
The first full analysis of the Wild-2 grains is reported in Science magazine.
"Whatever it took to get life started, the more variety of molecules you had in the mix and the more they looked like the kinds of molecules that life uses now then the easier it should have been," Dr Scott Sandford from Nasa's Ames Research Center told BBC News.
The Stardust spacecraft flew past the 5km-wide icy "mud-ball" known as Comet 81P/Wild-2 in January 2004.
The probe swept up particles fizzing off the object's surface as it passed some 240km (149 miles) from the comet's core, or nucleus. These tiny grains, just a few thousandths or a millimetre in size, were then returned to Earth in a sealed capsule.
Lab clues
Distributed among the world's leading astro-labs, the specimens are giving researchers a remarkable insight into the conditions that must have existed in the earliest phases of the Solar System when planets and comets were forming.
Dr Sandford led the organics investigation; some 55 researchers in more than 30 institutions. His team sees many delicate, volatile compounds that are quite unlike those familiar in meteorites that have fallen to Earth.
These Wild-2 compounds lack the aromaticity, or carbon ring structures, frequently found in meteorite organics. They are very rich in oxygen and nitrogen, and they probably pre-date the existence of our Solar System.
"It's quite possible that what we're seeing is an organic population of molecules that were made when ices in the dense cloud from which our Solar System formed were irradiated by ultraviolet photons and cosmic rays," Dr Sandford explained.
"That's of interest because we know that in laboratory simulations where we irradiate ice analogues of types we know are out there, these same experiments produce a lot of organic compounds, including amino acids and a class of compounds called amphiphiles which if you put them in water will spontaneously form a membrane so that they make little cellular-like structures."
No-one knows how life originated on the cooling early Earth, but it has become a popular theory that a bombardment of comets may have deposited important chemical units for the initiating reactions.
The Stardust results, also reported here at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, will give support to this idea.
Hot and cold
They will also allow researchers to "re-tune" the models they use to describe how materials were moved and mixed up in the early Solar System.
The Stardust mineral grains generally show a huge diversity, and, very surprisingly, there are materials incorporated into the samples that must have formed close in to the proto-Sun.
These include calcium-aluminium and magnesium-olivine fragments.
"They form in the hottest possible place in the Solar System, so it's quite stunning to find something like them in a body that came together in the coldest place in the Solar System," said Dr Don Brownlee from the University of Washington and who is the principal investigator, or lead scientist, on Stardust.
"There must have been some way of getting them from the new Sun to the outer fringes of the proto-planetary disc," commented Professor Monica Grady from the UK's Open University.
"There must have been major turbulence and currents and disc-wide mixing, which hadn't really been predicted."
The international team of scientists has used a wide variety of sophisticated laboratory analytical techniques to study the samples. But there is a realisation that technologies improve and some comet samples will be kept back for future study.
Just as with the Moon rocks returned by the Apollo programme, researchers are likely to be working on the Stardust samples for decades.
"The information from Stardust has been a revelation and will continue to be as we couple it with other comet data we get from Nasa's Deep Impact mission and Europe's Rosetta mission, which is coming up in seven years' time," said Professor Grady.
In the UK, scientists from the Open University, Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum and the Universities of Kent, Manchester and Glasgow have been involved in the analysis.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/5173992.stmPublished: 2006/12/15 01:12:56 GMT© BBC MMVI
Comets hold life chemistry clues
By Jonathan Amos Science reporter, BBC News, San Francisco
The idea that comets delivered the chemical "seeds" for life to the early Earth has been given a big boost.
Scientists studying the tiny grains of material recovered from Comet Wild-2 by Nasa's Stardust mission have found large, complex carbon-rich molecules.
They are of the type that could have been important precursor components of the initial reactions that gave rise to the planet's biochemistry.
The first full analysis of the Wild-2 grains is reported in Science magazine.
"Whatever it took to get life started, the more variety of molecules you had in the mix and the more they looked like the kinds of molecules that life uses now then the easier it should have been," Dr Scott Sandford from Nasa's Ames Research Center told BBC News.
The Stardust spacecraft flew past the 5km-wide icy "mud-ball" known as Comet 81P/Wild-2 in January 2004.
The probe swept up particles fizzing off the object's surface as it passed some 240km (149 miles) from the comet's core, or nucleus. These tiny grains, just a few thousandths or a millimetre in size, were then returned to Earth in a sealed capsule.
Lab clues
Distributed among the world's leading astro-labs, the specimens are giving researchers a remarkable insight into the conditions that must have existed in the earliest phases of the Solar System when planets and comets were forming.
Dr Sandford led the organics investigation; some 55 researchers in more than 30 institutions. His team sees many delicate, volatile compounds that are quite unlike those familiar in meteorites that have fallen to Earth.
These Wild-2 compounds lack the aromaticity, or carbon ring structures, frequently found in meteorite organics. They are very rich in oxygen and nitrogen, and they probably pre-date the existence of our Solar System.
"It's quite possible that what we're seeing is an organic population of molecules that were made when ices in the dense cloud from which our Solar System formed were irradiated by ultraviolet photons and cosmic rays," Dr Sandford explained.
"That's of interest because we know that in laboratory simulations where we irradiate ice analogues of types we know are out there, these same experiments produce a lot of organic compounds, including amino acids and a class of compounds called amphiphiles which if you put them in water will spontaneously form a membrane so that they make little cellular-like structures."
No-one knows how life originated on the cooling early Earth, but it has become a popular theory that a bombardment of comets may have deposited important chemical units for the initiating reactions.
The Stardust results, also reported here at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, will give support to this idea.
Hot and cold
They will also allow researchers to "re-tune" the models they use to describe how materials were moved and mixed up in the early Solar System.
The Stardust mineral grains generally show a huge diversity, and, very surprisingly, there are materials incorporated into the samples that must have formed close in to the proto-Sun.
These include calcium-aluminium and magnesium-olivine fragments.
"They form in the hottest possible place in the Solar System, so it's quite stunning to find something like them in a body that came together in the coldest place in the Solar System," said Dr Don Brownlee from the University of Washington and who is the principal investigator, or lead scientist, on Stardust.
"There must have been some way of getting them from the new Sun to the outer fringes of the proto-planetary disc," commented Professor Monica Grady from the UK's Open University.
"There must have been major turbulence and currents and disc-wide mixing, which hadn't really been predicted."
The international team of scientists has used a wide variety of sophisticated laboratory analytical techniques to study the samples. But there is a realisation that technologies improve and some comet samples will be kept back for future study.
Just as with the Moon rocks returned by the Apollo programme, researchers are likely to be working on the Stardust samples for decades.
"The information from Stardust has been a revelation and will continue to be as we couple it with other comet data we get from Nasa's Deep Impact mission and Europe's Rosetta mission, which is coming up in seven years' time," said Professor Grady.
In the UK, scientists from the Open University, Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum and the Universities of Kent, Manchester and Glasgow have been involved in the analysis.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/5173992.stmPublished: 2006/12/15 01:12:56 GMT© BBC MMVI
Gay News From 365Gay.com
Gay Students Have No Right To Meet School Board Saysby 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: December 14, 2006 9:00 pm ET
(Okeechobee, Florida) A Florida school district has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a high school student who was prevented from organizing a Gay-Straight Alliance at her school.
A lawyer for the Okeechobee County School Board argue that gay students are not protected by the federal Equal Access Act and that principal Toni Wiersma was following Florida state law in rejecting the club.
Students attempted to organize the club after Yasmin Gonzalez and her girlfriend were told they could not attend the school prom as a couple. The rejection was one of several incidents targeting LGBT students at Okeechobee High School.
When Wiersma told Gonzalez and fellow students Amber Sewell and Erica Rodriguez they could not form the club on school property they went to the American Civil Liberties Union which filed suit.
“Straight kids cannot turn their backs on the plague of violence and discrimination against gay and lesbian students,” said Sewell, who is straight and one of the GSA founders. “When students aren’t safe, we can’t learn. Only when we stand together will we find a solution.”
The GSA, which currently meets at a local restaurant, has elected officers and adopted a constitution. The GSA now has approximately 50 members.
The ACLU suit argues that under the federal Equal Access Act schools that allow any extracurricular activities to meet on campus are required to allow all extracurricular student groups to do so and to treat every club equally.
“Florida’s gay and lesbian students deserve schools that are places of learning, not training camps for intolerance, intimidation and violence," said Robert Rosenwald, Director of the ACLU of Florida’s LGBT Advocacy Project.
The school allows a number of extracurricular clubs – including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Key Club, and the Rodeo team – to meet regularly on school grounds.
But school district attorney David Gibbs says that the Equal Access Act can't be used in the case of a GSA and furthermore Florida law requires schools to teach abstinence, "while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage."
A ruling on the motion to dismiss the case is expected early in 2007.
Gay Students Have No Right To Meet School Board Saysby 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: December 14, 2006 9:00 pm ET
(Okeechobee, Florida) A Florida school district has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a high school student who was prevented from organizing a Gay-Straight Alliance at her school.
A lawyer for the Okeechobee County School Board argue that gay students are not protected by the federal Equal Access Act and that principal Toni Wiersma was following Florida state law in rejecting the club.
Students attempted to organize the club after Yasmin Gonzalez and her girlfriend were told they could not attend the school prom as a couple. The rejection was one of several incidents targeting LGBT students at Okeechobee High School.
When Wiersma told Gonzalez and fellow students Amber Sewell and Erica Rodriguez they could not form the club on school property they went to the American Civil Liberties Union which filed suit.
“Straight kids cannot turn their backs on the plague of violence and discrimination against gay and lesbian students,” said Sewell, who is straight and one of the GSA founders. “When students aren’t safe, we can’t learn. Only when we stand together will we find a solution.”
The GSA, which currently meets at a local restaurant, has elected officers and adopted a constitution. The GSA now has approximately 50 members.
The ACLU suit argues that under the federal Equal Access Act schools that allow any extracurricular activities to meet on campus are required to allow all extracurricular student groups to do so and to treat every club equally.
“Florida’s gay and lesbian students deserve schools that are places of learning, not training camps for intolerance, intimidation and violence," said Robert Rosenwald, Director of the ACLU of Florida’s LGBT Advocacy Project.
The school allows a number of extracurricular clubs – including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Key Club, and the Rodeo team – to meet regularly on school grounds.
But school district attorney David Gibbs says that the Equal Access Act can't be used in the case of a GSA and furthermore Florida law requires schools to teach abstinence, "while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage."
A ruling on the motion to dismiss the case is expected early in 2007.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Gay News From 365Gay.com
NJ Gov. Set To Sign Civil Unions Billby 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: December 14, 2006 - 5:50 pm ET
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(Trenton, New Jersey) A bill to allow civil unions for same-sex couples passed the New Jersey Legislature Thursday afternoon. It now goes to Gov. Jon S. Corzine who has said he would sign the legislation into law.
The bill will take effect in 60 days after he signs it. The first civil unions could begin in February.
"Love counts," said Wilfredo Caraballo, (D) opening debate in the Assembly. "The gender of whom one loves should not matter to the state."
The Assembly voted 56-19 to pass the bill. It was approved in the Senate on a 23 - 12 vote an hour-and-a-half later.
LGBT civil rights group had criticized the legislation saying it falls short of full marriage.
"Although it is disappointing that the legislature did not grant same-sex couples full marriage equality today, it is gratifying that we are achieving pro-active advances for equality instead of having to defend ourselves against attacks," said Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese.
"Same-sex couples throughout the state will now have access to hundreds of family protections that were previously available only to straight couples," said Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey.
"But civil unions are a temporary fix," Jacobs said. "We are going to keep pressing until same-sex couples and their families have access to the dignity and respect that only comes through marriage."
Lambda Legal said it expected to see problems arise as a result of the civil union law.
"Although same-sex couples in New Jersey are better off today than yesterday, they are still not equal to other couples," said David Buckel, Marriage Project Director at Lambda.
"Their relationships will likely continue to be disrespected. By passing a law that marks same-sex couples as inferior, the government has paved the way for others to discriminate against them.
"Just as we saw happen with couples whose domestic partnerships were not recognized, so too are we likely to see similar hardships for couples in civil unions.
Currently only Massachusetts allows same-sex couples to marry.
Vermont permits civil unions, but the New Jersey measure is somewhat more positive, Garden State Equality said Thursday. The New Jersey legislation contains no language referring to marriage as "between a man and a woman."
A Republican attempt to insert that language in the bill as an amendment failed Thursday.
The bill also contains a provision establishing a commission that will investigate how civil unions fall short of marriage and report back to the legislature in six months.
Garden State Equality Chair Steven Goldstein said he has no doubt that the legislation is only a transition to full marriage.
Goldstein said that all five leaders in both houses now support marriage equality. He said he expects the law will be amended within two years to permit marriage.
The legislation came about as a result of an October ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court that same-sex couples should have access to the same rights and benefits as married couples. Whether to call those rights marriages, civil unions or something else was left up to lawmakers.
Saundra Toby-Heath, a plaintiff in the suit to allow gay marriage, told the Associated Press Thursday she doesn't know how whether she and her partner, Alicia Heath-Toby, would register in a civil union or wait in hopes that marriage will be allowed.
"I think the problem is that really nobody knows this is going to look like," said Toby-Heath, 53, who lives in Newark.
A study by researchers at UCLA shows that New Jersey florists, caterers, hotels and other businesses would bring in more than $100 million in additional revenue per year if the state allowed gay couples to marry.
The study's author, M.V. Lee Badgett, of the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, figured that half of New Jersey's 16,600 gay couples, plus more than 16,000 from neighboring New York and Pennsylvania and nearly 43,000 from around the country would tie the knot in the Garden State over three years.
The Assembly on Thursday also approved a bill to outlaw discrimination against New Jersey's transgender citizens. The vote was 69 - 5 with six abstentions. The Senate approved the measure earlier in the week.
The legislation now goes to the governor for his signature.
The new law will add a citizen's "gender identity or expression" as a basis for protection under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination
NJ Gov. Set To Sign Civil Unions Billby 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: December 14, 2006 - 5:50 pm ET
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(Trenton, New Jersey) A bill to allow civil unions for same-sex couples passed the New Jersey Legislature Thursday afternoon. It now goes to Gov. Jon S. Corzine who has said he would sign the legislation into law.
The bill will take effect in 60 days after he signs it. The first civil unions could begin in February.
"Love counts," said Wilfredo Caraballo, (D) opening debate in the Assembly. "The gender of whom one loves should not matter to the state."
The Assembly voted 56-19 to pass the bill. It was approved in the Senate on a 23 - 12 vote an hour-and-a-half later.
LGBT civil rights group had criticized the legislation saying it falls short of full marriage.
"Although it is disappointing that the legislature did not grant same-sex couples full marriage equality today, it is gratifying that we are achieving pro-active advances for equality instead of having to defend ourselves against attacks," said Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese.
"Same-sex couples throughout the state will now have access to hundreds of family protections that were previously available only to straight couples," said Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey.
"But civil unions are a temporary fix," Jacobs said. "We are going to keep pressing until same-sex couples and their families have access to the dignity and respect that only comes through marriage."
Lambda Legal said it expected to see problems arise as a result of the civil union law.
"Although same-sex couples in New Jersey are better off today than yesterday, they are still not equal to other couples," said David Buckel, Marriage Project Director at Lambda.
"Their relationships will likely continue to be disrespected. By passing a law that marks same-sex couples as inferior, the government has paved the way for others to discriminate against them.
"Just as we saw happen with couples whose domestic partnerships were not recognized, so too are we likely to see similar hardships for couples in civil unions.
Currently only Massachusetts allows same-sex couples to marry.
Vermont permits civil unions, but the New Jersey measure is somewhat more positive, Garden State Equality said Thursday. The New Jersey legislation contains no language referring to marriage as "between a man and a woman."
A Republican attempt to insert that language in the bill as an amendment failed Thursday.
The bill also contains a provision establishing a commission that will investigate how civil unions fall short of marriage and report back to the legislature in six months.
Garden State Equality Chair Steven Goldstein said he has no doubt that the legislation is only a transition to full marriage.
Goldstein said that all five leaders in both houses now support marriage equality. He said he expects the law will be amended within two years to permit marriage.
The legislation came about as a result of an October ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court that same-sex couples should have access to the same rights and benefits as married couples. Whether to call those rights marriages, civil unions or something else was left up to lawmakers.
Saundra Toby-Heath, a plaintiff in the suit to allow gay marriage, told the Associated Press Thursday she doesn't know how whether she and her partner, Alicia Heath-Toby, would register in a civil union or wait in hopes that marriage will be allowed.
"I think the problem is that really nobody knows this is going to look like," said Toby-Heath, 53, who lives in Newark.
A study by researchers at UCLA shows that New Jersey florists, caterers, hotels and other businesses would bring in more than $100 million in additional revenue per year if the state allowed gay couples to marry.
The study's author, M.V. Lee Badgett, of the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, figured that half of New Jersey's 16,600 gay couples, plus more than 16,000 from neighboring New York and Pennsylvania and nearly 43,000 from around the country would tie the knot in the Garden State over three years.
The Assembly on Thursday also approved a bill to outlaw discrimination against New Jersey's transgender citizens. The vote was 69 - 5 with six abstentions. The Senate approved the measure earlier in the week.
The legislation now goes to the governor for his signature.
The new law will add a citizen's "gender identity or expression" as a basis for protection under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
11 Spring Street - Graffiti - New York Times
December 14, 2006
Last Hurrah for Street Art, as Canvas Goes Condo
By RANDY KENNEDY
It was as if someone had told devotees of Picasso’s “Demoiselles d’Avignon” or Matisse’s “Dance” that the Museum of Modern Art had changed hands and would soon be shut down for residential redevelopment, with all the art inside to vanish as part of the deal.
In this case the art is not hanging inside the building but is splashed all over the walls outside, in spray paint, wheat paste, rubber, plastic, metal, cardboard and various other unidentifiable substances, a story-high gallery of graffiti and street art that seems to have grown almost organically (and mostly unimpeded by the authorities) over the last two decades.
Depending on your point of view, the hulking 19th-century brick building at 11 Spring Street in NoLIta, a former stable and carriage house, was either a stunning eyesore or one of the most famous canvases and lodestars in the world for urban artists. When those of the latter view heard recently that the building had been sold and would soon be gutted and converted into condominiums, they considered it the end of an era. Bearing their cameras, they began showing up at the building over the last few weeks in a kind of mournful procession.
But inside the building over those same weeks, an unlikely tribute to 11 Spring’s history — and a brief reprieve for its artwork — was also quietly taking shape.
After buying the building several months ago, the new owner-developers, Caroline Cummings and Bill Elias, wanted to find some way to bid an appropriate farewell to its past. They admired the artwork, they said, even if there was no way it could remain on a building where buyers would soon be dropping millions of dollars on new condos.
They contacted Marc and Sara Schiller, longtime documentarians of street art whose Web site, woostercollective.com, collects thousands of pictures of such art from around the world. The group decided that the best salute would be to stage one last, thoroughly legal, art-making hurrah, inviting some of the best-known graffiti and street artists in the world, many of whose work already loomed large on the outside of the building, to take over the inside and completely cover five floors, 30,000 square feet of brick wall space, with work.
The art would then stay up only for a few days before the contractors moved in with drywall to cover up the interior works and pressure hoses to erase those on the outside. There would be no sponsors, no press releases, no payments to the artist and no artwork for sale. As much as it is still possible in today’s art world, it would be art for art’s sake, a fleeting salute to a fleeting form.
Now, after nearly two months of work by 45 artists, the show is almost ready. The building’s doors will be unlocked tomorrow for an open house that will continue through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. On Monday work will begin that will eventually seal most of the interior artwork behind pipes, wires and drywall.
“In a way the art is all going to disappear, but it’s also going to be sealed up in this incredible time capsule,” said Mr. Schiller, walking through the building Tuesday afternoon as more than a dozen artists continued to work on their pieces in a haze of aerosol fumes and sawdust.
Several of the artists involved in the project are still little known outside the street art world, but others have become highly successful designers, marketers and gallery darlings. Many converged on short notice from around the world to create artwork, some flown in and housed at the developers’ expense.
Shepard Fairey, a veritable rock star in the street art world, came from Los Angeles before jetting off again for the Art Basel fair in Miami Beach. D*Face, a London artist who once proposed to his fiancée by painting the question on 11 Spring Street, flew in from north of the Arctic Circle, where he had been commissioned to create an artwork for the Icehotel in Sweden.
And Jace, who created a piece on the building’s fifth floor that includes a frighteningly large mousetrap, made of wood and metal and baited with a huge bag of fake money — a clear jab at the development that is about to transform the building — probably won the prize for longest commute. He flew in from the island of Réunion, east of Madagascar, where he lives, spent several days in the building and then returned.
“It’s like a family reunion we’ve got here,” said one artist in from Milan who calls himself Bo and works with a partner, a small woman who calls herself Microbo. “Except some of the family you’ve never met before.”
The other evening, as music blared from multiple stereos, about a dozen artists were arrayed among the floors, still at work. One known as Lady Pink, a veteran New York graffiti artist, was applying the last touches to a large, pink supine version of the Statue of Liberty that was being impaled with a cross but seeming somehow to enjoy it.
Mr. Schiller, passing by the work with Ms. Cummings, smiled. “This is probably the most political work we’ve got in here,” he said.
Lady Pink smiled back. “Oh, it gets more political than this, believe me,” she said.
Downstairs two members of a younger generation of street artists, a pair of New York-based twins who call themselves Skewville, went outside to look again at one of their favorite pieces — one that will soon become history — a very realistic-looking fake air vent that, if you look closely, spells “fake.” Early one morning a couple of years ago, they bolted it to a wall above one of the building’s doors.
Ms. Cummings went outside to look at it with them and told them that she thought it was a great work of art. One of the twins looked at it and agreed. “Basically, she bought our piece for $10 million,” he said, “and the building was thrown in for free.”
December 14, 2006
Last Hurrah for Street Art, as Canvas Goes Condo
By RANDY KENNEDY
It was as if someone had told devotees of Picasso’s “Demoiselles d’Avignon” or Matisse’s “Dance” that the Museum of Modern Art had changed hands and would soon be shut down for residential redevelopment, with all the art inside to vanish as part of the deal.
In this case the art is not hanging inside the building but is splashed all over the walls outside, in spray paint, wheat paste, rubber, plastic, metal, cardboard and various other unidentifiable substances, a story-high gallery of graffiti and street art that seems to have grown almost organically (and mostly unimpeded by the authorities) over the last two decades.
Depending on your point of view, the hulking 19th-century brick building at 11 Spring Street in NoLIta, a former stable and carriage house, was either a stunning eyesore or one of the most famous canvases and lodestars in the world for urban artists. When those of the latter view heard recently that the building had been sold and would soon be gutted and converted into condominiums, they considered it the end of an era. Bearing their cameras, they began showing up at the building over the last few weeks in a kind of mournful procession.
But inside the building over those same weeks, an unlikely tribute to 11 Spring’s history — and a brief reprieve for its artwork — was also quietly taking shape.
After buying the building several months ago, the new owner-developers, Caroline Cummings and Bill Elias, wanted to find some way to bid an appropriate farewell to its past. They admired the artwork, they said, even if there was no way it could remain on a building where buyers would soon be dropping millions of dollars on new condos.
They contacted Marc and Sara Schiller, longtime documentarians of street art whose Web site, woostercollective.com, collects thousands of pictures of such art from around the world. The group decided that the best salute would be to stage one last, thoroughly legal, art-making hurrah, inviting some of the best-known graffiti and street artists in the world, many of whose work already loomed large on the outside of the building, to take over the inside and completely cover five floors, 30,000 square feet of brick wall space, with work.
The art would then stay up only for a few days before the contractors moved in with drywall to cover up the interior works and pressure hoses to erase those on the outside. There would be no sponsors, no press releases, no payments to the artist and no artwork for sale. As much as it is still possible in today’s art world, it would be art for art’s sake, a fleeting salute to a fleeting form.
Now, after nearly two months of work by 45 artists, the show is almost ready. The building’s doors will be unlocked tomorrow for an open house that will continue through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. On Monday work will begin that will eventually seal most of the interior artwork behind pipes, wires and drywall.
“In a way the art is all going to disappear, but it’s also going to be sealed up in this incredible time capsule,” said Mr. Schiller, walking through the building Tuesday afternoon as more than a dozen artists continued to work on their pieces in a haze of aerosol fumes and sawdust.
Several of the artists involved in the project are still little known outside the street art world, but others have become highly successful designers, marketers and gallery darlings. Many converged on short notice from around the world to create artwork, some flown in and housed at the developers’ expense.
Shepard Fairey, a veritable rock star in the street art world, came from Los Angeles before jetting off again for the Art Basel fair in Miami Beach. D*Face, a London artist who once proposed to his fiancée by painting the question on 11 Spring Street, flew in from north of the Arctic Circle, where he had been commissioned to create an artwork for the Icehotel in Sweden.
And Jace, who created a piece on the building’s fifth floor that includes a frighteningly large mousetrap, made of wood and metal and baited with a huge bag of fake money — a clear jab at the development that is about to transform the building — probably won the prize for longest commute. He flew in from the island of Réunion, east of Madagascar, where he lives, spent several days in the building and then returned.
“It’s like a family reunion we’ve got here,” said one artist in from Milan who calls himself Bo and works with a partner, a small woman who calls herself Microbo. “Except some of the family you’ve never met before.”
The other evening, as music blared from multiple stereos, about a dozen artists were arrayed among the floors, still at work. One known as Lady Pink, a veteran New York graffiti artist, was applying the last touches to a large, pink supine version of the Statue of Liberty that was being impaled with a cross but seeming somehow to enjoy it.
Mr. Schiller, passing by the work with Ms. Cummings, smiled. “This is probably the most political work we’ve got in here,” he said.
Lady Pink smiled back. “Oh, it gets more political than this, believe me,” she said.
Downstairs two members of a younger generation of street artists, a pair of New York-based twins who call themselves Skewville, went outside to look again at one of their favorite pieces — one that will soon become history — a very realistic-looking fake air vent that, if you look closely, spells “fake.” Early one morning a couple of years ago, they bolted it to a wall above one of the building’s doors.
Ms. Cummings went outside to look at it with them and told them that she thought it was a great work of art. One of the twins looked at it and agreed. “Basically, she bought our piece for $10 million,” he said, “and the building was thrown in for free.”
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
"Get out in the fresh air today in whatever way suits your fancy, dear Aquarius. It is important to exercise your lungs with some brisk physical activity or at least to refresh them with a ride in a convertible. This is a terrific time for you; you feel alive and joyous about the life you lead. Join with others in recognizing all that you have, and express your gratitude in whatever way is appropriate."
On political stage, pope slams gay marriage -- Queer Lesbian Gay News -- Gay.com
To the pope:
Stultorum infinitus est numerus! Damnant quod non intelligunt. Crudelius est quam mori semper timere mortem. Si vis pacem, para bellum. Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis. Fortitudine vincimus! - Memnoch the devil
(Infinite is the number of fools! People condemns what they don't understand.It is crueller to be always afraid of dying than to die. if you want peace, prepare for war. Times are changing, and we are changing within them. By endurance, we conquer!)
To the pope:
Stultorum infinitus est numerus! Damnant quod non intelligunt. Crudelius est quam mori semper timere mortem. Si vis pacem, para bellum. Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis. Fortitudine vincimus! - Memnoch the devil
(Infinite is the number of fools! People condemns what they don't understand.It is crueller to be always afraid of dying than to die. if you want peace, prepare for war. Times are changing, and we are changing within them. By endurance, we conquer!)
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Google: "A dream or a vision may lead you into a powerful situation now, for there is an unusual intensity to your desires. You are being drawn into unfamiliar landscapes, yet you will likely receive timely help from your friends. Don't be afraid to entertain your unrealized fantasies, for others will join your party, supporting you along your way."