It is Winter Solstice today.

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Chuck Stanley

By Chuck Stanley

In the northern hemisphere, the day with the least amount of sunlight and most hours of darkness. The southern hemisphere recognizes today as Summer Solstice, the day with most hours of sunlight. The precise moment of Solstice depends on where you are, due to time zone differences. At my location, Winter Solstice will happen at 6:03 PM, EST. At that moment, the Sun will be directly above the Tropic of Capricorn. If one is using Universal Coordinated Time, the Solstice will happen at 23:03 hours. UTC is the agreed on time as a standard around the world. It is based on Greenwich time, where the Royal Observatory is located on the Prime Meridian. The transit circle is part of the main telescope’s mechanics, and still works. It is also called Zulu Time in aviation circles.

During Winter Solstice, if you go far enough north, the sun never actually rises above the horizon. Light is more akin to dusk at the Sun’s highest elevation in the sky. The converse is true during Summer solstice. I was in Anchorage, Alaska during the week of Summer Solstice a few years ago. They have a golf tournament that starts about midnight. The reason is that Earth is tilted at exactly 23.5º on its axis, relative to the Sun.

More over the flip.
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Posted in Astronomy/Astrophysics, Christianity, History, Holidays, Music, Scotland | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Celebrating the Solstice with Winter Poems

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

Photograph by Elaine Magliaro

Photograph by Elaine Magliaro

The winter solstice begins this evening. I thought I’d post some poems for the winter season today.

Toward the Winter Solstice
By Timothy Steele, 1948

Although the roof is just a story high,
It dizzies me a little to look down.
I lariat-twirl the cord of Christmas lights
And cast it to the weeping birch’s crown;
A dowel into which I’ve screwed a hook
Enables me to reach, lift, drape, and twine
The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs
Will accent the tree’s elegant design.

Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause
And call up commendations or critiques.
I make adjustments. Though a potpourri
Of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs,
We all are conscious of the time of year;
We all enjoy its colorful displays
And keep some festival that mitigates
The dwindling warmth and compass of the days.

Click here to read the full text of the poem.

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Posted in Art, Literature, Poetry | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Profitship! Cashing In On Public Schools…with a Mark Fiore Video

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

Posted by Elaine Magliaro

As a former public school educator, I have been extremely concerned about the efforts to privatize public schools in this  country, the mania for standardized testing, the demands for more and more charter schools, and the claim by many school reformers that all of our public schools are failing. Here’s an article and a video that speak to my concerns about what is happening in this country in the name of school reform.

Excerpt from ProfitShip Learning (The Progressive):

A top rightwing think tank has devoted more than $30 million to spread the message that public education is failing. According to a report by One Wisconsin Now, the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation is a major underwriter of this propaganda effort. Bradley spent millions on shoddy research, media punditry, and a lobbying campaign to promote the idea that public schools have failed and to push school vouchers and other privatization schemes as the “solution”.

Large, national charter-school chains have been major of the beneficiaries of the campaign to fix “failing” public schools. Among them, Rocketship––“a low-budget operation that relies on young and inexperienced teachers rather than more veteran and expensive faculty,” according to a report by economist Gordon Lafer for the Economic Policy Institute.

Not all charter schools are bad. Some offer high-quality, alternative models classrooms that are enriching for kids. But over the last decade, the charter school movement has morphed from a small, community-based effort to foster alternative education into a vehicle for privatizing public education, pushed by free-market foundations, big education-management companies, and profit-seekers looking for a way to cash in on public-education funds.

Profitship! Cashing In On Public Schools

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Posted in Education, Media, Politics, Propaganda, United States | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

From Democracy Now!: More Information about Ferguson Grand Jury Witness 40

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

Last Wednesday, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez spoke with William Bastone, the lead author of The Smoking Gun article that exposed the identity of “Witness 40.” On Monday, The Smoking Gun identified “Witness 40” as Sandra McElroy–a “bipolar Missouri woman with a criminal past who has a history of making racist remarks and once insinuated herself into another high-profile St. Louis criminal case with claims that police eventually dismissed as a ‘complete fabrication.'” McElroy told the grand jury that Brown charged at Wilson “like a football player.” It is now believed that McElroy lied “about witnessing the shooting, which occurred 30 miles from her home.”

Was Key Grand Jury Witness in Michael Brown Case a Racist, Mentally Ill, Lying Ex-Felon?

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Posted in Courts, Criminal Law, Evidence Law, Government, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Media, Missouri, Racism, Society, States, United States | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

St. Louis Prosecutor Bob McCulloch Says He Knew “Witness 40” Lied to the Ferguson Grand Jury

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro
Robert McCulloch St. Louis County Prosecutor

Robert McCulloch
St. Louis County Prosecutor

By Elaine Magliaro

Mike Hayes (BuzzFeed) has reported that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch admitted during a radio interview with KTRS on Friday that he let witnesses who he knew were lying testify before the Ferguson grand jury. McCulloch told radio host McGraw Milhaven, “There were people who came in and, yes, absolutely lied under oath. Some lied to the FBI. Even though they’re not under oath, that’s another potential offense — a federal offense. I thought it was much more important to present the entire picture.” The Ferguson grand jury chose not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

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Posted in Criminal Law, DOJ, Equal Rights, Evidence Law, FBI, Government, Jurisprudence, Justice, Law Enforcement, Local Government, Missouri, Politics, Racism, Society, States, United States | Tagged , , , , , | 238 Comments

How I Went From Casablanca To Hoosiers On The Republican Party

Posted on December 19, 2014 by mespo727272

By Mark Esposito

A fascinating trope making the rounds on the right-wing blogs this week (here‘s one from the Mothership) concerns Michigan Communications Professor Susan Douglas and her provocative article originally entitled I Hate Republicans. In it, Douglas lays out her indictment of the monolithic bandwagon of the Right and its clarion calls for a return to the good ol’ days when the “White Man’s Burden” was in full-flower and political power was the exclusive right of the rich and the Caucasian:

A brief review of Republican rhetoric and strategies since the 1980s shows an escalation of determined vilification (which has been amplified relentlessly on Fox News since 1996). From Spiro Agnew’s attack on intellectuals as an “effete corps of impudent snobs”; to Rush Limbaugh’s hate speech; to the GOP’s endless campaign
to smear the Clintons over Whitewater, then bludgeon Bill over Monica Lewinsky; to the ceaseless denigration of President Obama (“socialist,” “Muslim”), the Republicans have crafted a political identity that rests on a complete repudiation of the idea that the opposing party and its followers have any legitimacy at all.

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Posted in American History, Art, Blogs, Civil Liberties, Civil War, Conservatives, Constitutional Law, Courts, Democracy, Economic Policy, Economics, Education, Equal Rights, Fascists/Corporatists, Government, Heroism, History, Hypocrisy, Immigrants, Immigration, Jimmy Carter, Jurisprudence, Justice, Liberals, Movies, Neoconservatives, Oligarchy, Philosophy, Political Science, Politics, Presidents, Racism, Richard Nixon, RNC, Short Video, Society, Sports, United States, War | 20 Comments

FFS Update: Rule #1 Refinement

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Gene Howington

Rule #1 has been refined to better reflect this blogs policy.  It now reads as follows:

1) Civility is encouraged but the Ethic of Reciprocity applies.  If someone gives you insults back for insults given?  That’s just what you deserve.  If one has a position and advocates it, one owns it unless stating the position is some form of Devil’s Advocacy. If it is an abhorrent position that causes recoil and/or social rejection, then the problem might rest with the position first and the holder as consequence. If one does not like the consequences of being seen in a negative light, one should revisit their position(s) or live with it.  If disruptive behavior (or inherently disruptive or dishonest trollish behavior – flooding/spamming, manufacturing false consensus, deflection, etc.) becomes a persistent problem and disrupts the peace and utility of the commons that are the threads?  You will be warned. You might get a time out. You might get banned. This soiree has (very minimal) rules and bouncers.  Agreement is not required. Argument is a cornerstone of the marketplace of ideas. You will not run afoul of this rule for simply having and voicing an unpopular opinion. A good rule of thumb is DBAD.

Gene Howington, Editor-in-Chief

Posted in FFS Update(s) | 29 Comments

A Mark Fiore Video: “Cheney’s Torture Anthem”

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

Political cartoonist Mark Fiore says we should remember that the Senate’s CIA torture report “was sanitized by the CIA and approved by Republicans in the Senate before it was released…”  He added that we should also think what’s in the reports that hasn’t “been approved for public consumption.”

Fiore:

It’s shocking what was done to innocents swept up in the fog of war as well as what was done to the truly guilty. The most maddening part of this is the fact that these brutal torturers have destroyed any chance of bringing the truly guilty prisoners to justice. (Didn’t these guys ever watch Law & Order?) It’s hard to win a case in a legit court when you’ve tortured the suspect. 

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Posted in Government | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Stateside New Jersey: The State Paid Fees to Mary Pat Christie’s Firm After State Investment Was Terminated

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro
Chris Christie Governor of New Jersey

Chris Christie
Governor of New Jersey

By Elaine Magliaro

During the time that Chris Christie has spent serving as governor of New Jersey, the state “has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Wall Street firms as management fees on the state’s pension funds.” Although just a few hundred thousand dollars of that money has gone to a firm called Angelo Gordon, investigative journalist David Sirota thinks that the case warrants a closer look. In an article that he wrote for International Business Times, Sirota said that the financial firm Chris Christie’s wife works for has been paid fees by the state even after New Jersey terminated its investment with it. He reported that the New Jersey pension system had “terminated a $150 million investment in a fund called Angelo, Gordon & Co. in 2011…” Yet, he said, that did not “close the books on the deal.” Sirota added that in the three years since state officials ordered the withdrawal of the state’s money, taxpayers in New Jersey have still forked over hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to the firm. He noted that while the fees continued to flow, “Angelo Gordon made a prominent hire: Mary Pat Christie, wife of Gov. Chris Christie…” She joined “the company in 2012 as a managing director and now earns $475,000 annually, according to the governor’s most recent tax return.”

The information about New Jersey taxpayers continuing to pay “substantial fees to a firm that employs the governor’s spouse–years after state officials said the investment was terminated”–emerged when the Christie administration released documents following a public records request.

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Posted in Campaign Finance, Conservatives, Government, Investing, New Jersey, Politics, States, Stock Market, United States, Wall Street | Tagged , , | 21 Comments

“Oh God, It’s Mom.”: The Best C-SPAN Call…Ever!

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Elaine Magliaro

By Elaine Magliaro

The Brothers Wodehouse–Brad and Dallas–appeared on C-SPAN yesterday. Daniel Strauss of TPM said the two siblings “are on opposite sides of the political spectrum.” Brad is president of the liberal group Americans United for Change. Dallas, a conservative, is president of Carolina Rising. They were both on C-SPAN “to talk about their documentary, Woodhouse Divided,” when their mother Joy called into the program.

Dallas said the documentary “is the story of all families and and the kinds of stories they have around their thanksgiving tables and the conversations they’ll have with their extended families round the Christmas table.”

When Dallas recognized his mother’s voice on the phone, he could be heard mumbling, “Oh god it’s mom.”

“Oh God, it’s Mom.” (C-SPAN)

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Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments