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Dec

27

Let Their Be Guns! in the movie theater, to shoot noisy people

Filed Under Debates, Government, guns, Law | 16 Comments

From the New York Daily News:

A man enraged by a noisy family sitting near him in a movie theater on Christmas night threw popcorn at the son and later shot the father in the arm, police charged.

James Joseph Cialella, 29, of Philadelphia, first told the victim’s family to be quiet, then threw popcorn at the man’s son, police said. The victim told police that Cialella was walking toward his family when he stood up and was shot.

Detectives called to the United Artists Riverview Stadium theater in South Philadelphia found Cialella in the complex still carrying the weapon — a .380-caliber handgun — in his waistband, a police spokesman said.

The movie playing? The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

The theater chain? Regal.

Happy New Year indeed.

Hattip to this tweet from Davidinindy.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 6:07 pm December 27th, 2008 in Debates, Government, guns, Law | 16 Comments 

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Dec

27

Tennessean reports elevated levels of thallium, lead in water at TN coal ash disaster

Filed Under Energy, Environment, Government, Health Care, Media, Politics, Social Issues, Utilities | 11 Comments

The article is here.

What those levels mean isn’t clear or made clearer in the article. Much is made of the water downstream not being dangerous and the idea that the heavy metals will drop to the bottom of the river and then a system can be set up by which the safe water flows over that bottom without getting contaminated.

I don’t understand it all, but I don’t trust it either. This kind of incident is why we don’t trust – first TVA said that the pond that broke was not over capacity, but now that they’ve tripled the estimate of what was released, and that amount is more than double the capacity of the pond, it appears that the pond was in fact over capacity.

I’m a newbie to this, but the roll out of the information alone is not reassuring. Am I the only one who finds the uncertainty expressed by the very people hired by our government to manage such facilities and problems as completely bizarre and, frankly, unacceptable? I’m not interested in saying/hearing that it’s no surprise.  We should be surprised and we should demand more. Don’t go off on what the people get in exchange – what do they get in exchange? A 30 year shorter life expectancy and death by cancer (several articles reported that the incidence of cancer is hundreds of times higher in these areas than elsewhere in the country).

Enlighten me.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:02 am December 27th, 2008 in Energy, Environment, Government, Health Care, Media, Politics, Social Issues, Utilities | 11 Comments 

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Dec

27

The Progressive Year in Review

Filed Under activism, Barack Obama, BlogHer, Civil Rights, Culture, democracy, Education, Elections, employment, Energy, Environment, Gender, Health Care, Hillary Clinton, Immigration, Israel, Liberals, Media, Michelle Obama, Military, Politics, Race, Religion, Sarah Palin, Sexism, Social Issues, Voting, Women | Comments Off

You can read my thoughts about it here but for a teaser, here’s what I actually left out (until I added an addendum), so you can just imagine what I included:

The environment and energy: For progressives, probably a bad year, capped off with the TVA disaster that Kim Pearson wrote about here.  And it’s getting worse. On the other hand, with energy, maybe not so bad a year, in that the conversation has intensified due to record high gas prices this summer and I would even venture to say the prominence of Alaska in the presidential race. How have women figured in the debate and the solutions?

Science: Think of research, space exploration, innovation.

Education: Wow – cannot believe I left this one out! But then again, the progressive desires in education aren’t so clear cut (or, maybe they’re better described as conflicting), other than a commitment to education for all and eliminating the achievement gap.  Higher education, early education.  A major bill was passed that put some good incentives in place for higher ed and work in more public-service-oriented professions, but there’s no appropriation for it at this time.

Military: another wow I can’t believe I forgot this.  The presidential election helped focus on getting out of Iraq and it seems that while that goal may in fact get accomplished (and was pushed further this year than in previous years), the problem is that we’re now going to be on more fronts. This will be a big issue to watch. Here’s a good post by BlogHer speaker and expert Lorelei Kelly, Boomers: The Iraq War and Your Second Chance at Democracy that demonstrates progressive activism at its best.

State legislatures: I even wrote about this one on BlogHer! The New Hampshire senate is now a majority female legislative body.  There’s been some fascinating debate about whether the fact that the legislators are only paid $100/year (you read that right) increases, decreases or leaves untouched the significance of the accomplishment.

Women’s eNews: just this morning publishd a top 10 news stories article which you can read here.

I just thought of yet another one: kids and health insurance – SCHIP failed and that hits families hard.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:26 am December 27th, 2008 in activism, Barack Obama, BlogHer, Civil Rights, Culture, democracy, Education, Elections, employment, Energy, Environment, Gender, Health Care, Hillary Clinton, Immigration, Israel, Liberals, Media, Michelle Obama, Military, Politics, Race, Religion, Sarah Palin, Sexism, Social Issues, Voting, Women | Comments Off 

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