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Since our district’s superintendent has decided to actively fight the opt-out movement I have tried to engage him by sending him articles that document the folly of high stakes testing and writing letter’s explaining the opt out motives. I thought that we might enter into a civil discussion concerning government mandated public school reform as defined by the corporate elite.
I came across a Marion Brady article posted by Valerie Strauss. The Brady article hit some excellent points so I decided to forward it to the administrators of our district — superintendent

Winter is officially here. It’s the season of long nights and short days, of reflection and looking inward, and of thinking of ways to keep warm: scarves, gloves, fireplaces, cuddling… and soup. Ahh, soup.
When I want to remedy that “cold to the bone” wintertime feeling, a delicious steaming bowl of soup often comes to

A year ago, Tunisians were in the process of bringing down a corrupt leader. It all started on 17 December 2010 when Tunisian fruit-seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire outside the building of the local officials who had abused him. With that extraordinary act of protest, the Arab Spring began.
Driven to despair after his unlicensed fruit and vegetable cart — bought on credit — was confiscated by the police, Bouazizi expressed his refusal to submit to those who abuse their power the only way he could, by paying the supreme price. If only there had been another way for him to make the powerful aware of his plight.
One year later, several governments across the Middle East have been toppled by demonstrators decrying rampant corruption but still the question remains: Was his tragic sacrifice in vain?
The Arab Spring showed the power of ordinary people who demand accountability from their leaders.
It showed what happens to leaders who fail to protect their people from

Everyone has their favorite pizza place, whether it’s the dollar-slice joint serving up saucy cardboard (hey, you don’t need to defend yourself) or the brick-oven spot that’s so hot right now you couldn’t get a perfectly charred pie if you waited two hours. Dedicated food enthusiasts have more than one favorite pizza source. We have 20 (and then some).
Check out our 20 favorite pizza spots around the country (spoiler alert: one of them is in your house) and let us know in the comments where else we should be paying homage to one of the greatest foods humanity has ever

As countries go, Romania often gets a bad rap. What associations come to mind when you think of Romania? Maybe it’s roaming gypsies or hordes of stray dogs. Hardly makes you want to book a ticket on the next plane to Bucharest. What about its tourist highlights? It seems they often revolve around medieval sights and fortified

I often teach that Buddhism is about how to be truly happy, so I have been studying the new research field of “happiness studies,” which focuses on the objective measures and causes of happiness. Researchers have found three factors that reliably increase happiness as we grow older — gratitude, generosity and reframing (seeing your situation from a more positive perspective). Not surprisingly, the Buddhist tradition offers these same three factors as spiritual practices for cultivating happiness. I would add two more — curiosity and flexibility.

in collaboration with his NYU-AD seminar
Secular republicans saw, and some still see, the woman’s headscarf — interpreted by pious Muslims as a religious obligation — as the wedge by which Islamic law will enter the Turkish republic. One practice, its secular critics worry, will lead to another. Mustafa Akyol, a young modernist Muslim thinker, disagrees. “The headscarf is expected from Muslims,” he tells my students who have come here from New York University-Abu Dhabi, “but it is up to rational choice, like fasting for

This year Time magazine made The Protester its Person(s) of the Year. Beginning with the Arab Spring, mass protests (sometimes turning into civil war as in Libya and Syria) have spread to Greece, Israel, Spain, the United States, Canada, China and Britain. In each case there were local causes and reasons for the ignition of the protests.
But despite the initial causes, there is a common foundation to every one of these protests, a theme that was often overlooked in much of the mainstream

It is official now. The Ron Paul campaign, despite surging in the Iowa polls, is not worthy of serious consideration, according to a New York Times editorial; “Ron Paul long ago disqualified himself for the presidency by peddling claptrap proposals like abolishing the Federal Reserve, returning to the gold standard, cutting a third of the federal budget and all foreign aid and opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
That last item, along with the decade-old racist comments in the newsletters Paul published, is certainly worthy of criticism. But not as an alternative to seriously engaging the substance of Paul’s current campaign — his devastating critique of crony capitalism and his equally trenchant challenge to imperial wars and the assault on our civil liberties that they engender.
Paul is being denigrated as a presidential contender even though on the vital issues of the economy, war and peace, and civil liberties, he has made the most sense of the Republican

Midst increased pressure from sanctions and now facing a voluntary embargo that would curtail their oil exports to a wide spectrum of their important crude oil customers such as the European Union, Japan, Korea, Iran is coming under massive economic pressure to desist from continuing its not so clandestine program of developing a nuclear arsenal. The economic situation in Iran is becoming increasingly acute evidenced by its plummeting currency vs. the value of the dollar and other currencies (“Iran Threatens To Choke Route Of Oil Shipments” New York Times” 12.28.11). Clearly the sanctions and the prospect of an oil embargo would have a crushing impact on a crumbling

It will come as a shock to most Americans, but no presidential candidate — nor any candidate, nor any local, state or federal government — has developed a contingency plan in the event of a protracted oil cut-off. It is not even being discussed. Government has prepared for hurricanes, anthrax, terrorism, and every other disaster, but not the one threatened daily — a protracted oil stoppage, whether caused by terrorism or Iranian intervention in the Persian Gulf.
It is like seeing a hurricane developing without a disaster plan or evacuation route. Our allies have oil shortage interruption contingency plans, but America does

Last night I had an interesting exchange with a smart NYC high school senior, who challenged me on the notion: if you think women don’t mind walking around with black blankets over their heads in 120 degree heat, then you need to reexamine whether you think women are like you, that is, human.
I said the treatment of women is a human rights issue, not a “cultural” issue.
And this very smart young man called me out on this.
He said, well, do you think a global “monoculture” is a good idea? And should we “police” these cultures?
I had never heard the term “monoculture” before, must be a concept that entered the high school history/sociology classes since I graduated, but I get it: What would the world be like if every culture in the world was the same? Like eradicating fermented yak milk, blowfish sushi, Peruvian flautists, colorful Indonesian textiles, Irish jigs, Ukrainian folk dance… .
What would be the point of bringing cameras on adventure travel, right?
I also never suggested “policing” to bring universal human rights to women. I’m just suggesting that women have them.
Because we all DO agree that if a society practices slavery, or the systematic discrimination against (or murder of) an ethnic group that includes men, then that behavior is best discouraged, if not policed. No one has suggested recently that the eradication of those behaviors has produced a monoculture.
Would global cultures be less vibrant if women had universal human rights?
Are we losing cultural value when societies stop forcing women to cover their flesh for fear of inciting male lust and God’s displeasure? Do we risk becoming a monoculture when women are no longer being denied education, the right to drive, the right to choose when and whom to have sex with or marry, the right to divorce, and run for public office?
I am almost getting why our right wing idiots complain about morally relativistic

I know my story is your story, too.
Five years ago, I turned 50. It felt as though everything changed overnight. In my 20s, 30s and 40s, I charged ahead with life, first throwing myself into my career — I worked as a magazine publisher — and then, in my late 30s, meeting my husband, getting married and having children. Those busy years almost seemed like one long decade, during which I didn’t feel any different about how I looked or

With elections and transitions in numerous countries, the summer Olympics, the national cherry blossom centennial, a global climate change summit, a potential Mayan galactic alignment and much more on the horizon, 2012 promises to be a year to remember. In addition, for the Baha’i community, and particularly the North American Baha’is, 2012 will be a special year as they celebrate a unique centennial that is highly relevant for a time of change and transition.
For most of its formative decades, the central figures of the Baha’i community faced persistent imprisonment in Persia and the Ottoman Empire. There was, however, a brief period where Abdul Baha, the eldest son of Baha’u'llah and leader of the community from 1892 to 1921, was released from decades of imprisonment and circumstances allowed him to travel to Europe and North

When first asked to write on “what it means to write a gay love song,” I thought I’d take a stroll to my neighbourhood caf, where I do most of my writing and working, and by the time I’d arrived would have a definitive answer regarding the gay love song as one of the ultimates in queer defiance and political statement. But now that I’m here, I simply don’t.
To me, as songwriter, every love song I write is a gay love song. Perhaps it’s a weakness as a performer that I can’t sing something unless I truly believe in it (otherwise, I’m just too embarrassed), so when I sing of love, I sing only of the kind of love that I know. And that, for me, is always a big gay one.
I’m releasing a new EP of music titled For Paolo, and the title track is a love song I wrote for my Viennese

Showtime’s drama The Borgias is based on the infamous pope of that name and his even more infamous children. Like all good soapy historical dramas, The Borgias is full of sex, murder, inappropriate sibling relationships and very pretty costumes. Ahead of the release of the first season on blu-ray and DVD on December 27, I spoke with David Oakes, who plays black sheep of the family Juan Borgia. In this first part of a two-part interview we discussed Jeremy Iron’s Golden Globe nomination, what’s next for Juan in season two and what’s really going on with siblings Cesare and

At first glance, it appears that the Arab Spring has had an isolating effect on Israel, and damaged its regional position and strategic calculus. But this is only impressionistic, because the Arab Spring has coincided with changed domestic politics in Israel: a right-wing government more or less supportive of illiberal efforts among secular nationalists, religious Zionists, and the haredi.
Indeed, Israeli leaders and commentators themselves feed into this impression of the Arab Spring as a new development Israel must contend with. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees a dark tide of intolerance of religious fundamentalism diametrically opposed to Israel’s democratic values. The (not unexpected) rise of Islamist parties where open elections have taken place is a trend that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has called “very, very disturbing.” The Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff stated that these trends “are redrawing the range of threats faced by Israel.”
Others argue that the Arab Spring provides an opportunity for Israel to connect to the publics who have taken control of their destiny and will soon be in control of their countries, and together build a new Middle East.
But the reality is that the Arab Spring hasn’t changed Israel’s regional position or strategic calculus to any great degree — at most, it has augmented existing

“We know the statistics,” Jim Brown said firmly. “I’m sick of the statistics; we could fill a book with them.”
They hardly needed repeating. Standing in a school built atop a reclaimed strip mine, the McDowell County School Superintendent spoke about the pride he takes in the schools he leads, and of the admirable work they do against incredible odds. In this cafeteria, wall posters on one side warned pre-teens and teenagers about drug abuse, addiction and the consequences of unsafe sexual activity, while a large sign on the other proclaimed that here, “every student eats every meal, every day” — suggesting that many students would struggle with hunger

Man touching names on The Wall-Las Memorias during World AIDS Day event (photo by J. Emilio Flores)
Albert “Bobby” Tellez died of AIDS this year. His name was one of 11 etched on The Wall-Las Memorias Project monument marking World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, 2011.
The others died over the years, but only now, says Richard Zaldivar, Founder and Executive Director of The Wall, have the families of loved ones been able to face getting permission from the entire extended family to have the lost one’s name engraved on the public art project dedicated to AIDS in Lincoln Park, East L.A.
The other names belong to

What would American presidential politics look like if there was no primary and caucus system?
What if we had to wait for presidential nominations at the national conventions in late summer and early fall?
The primary system championed by progressive Wisconsin U.S. Senator Robert M. La Follette at the beginning of the 1900s has gone far afield from its original intentions to letting the people decide instead of the party bosses.
La Follette’s ideas of a primary that were originally based on populism, has turned into a disorderly system that promotes narrow and special interests, ideologically extreme candidates, and tons of money.
When it began in the very early 20th century by one of its champions Robert M. La Follette, the primary was only held in a handful of states and only in some cities where the corporate elites and political party bosses

Before Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment he was a confused twenty and thirty-something looking to learn how to live a spiritual life. Each time in this column we look at what it might be like if a fictional Siddhartha was on his spiritual journey today. How would he combine Buddhism and dating? How would he handle stress in the workplace? What Would Sid Do is devoted to taking an honest look at what we as meditators face in the modern world.
Have a question for this weekly column? Click here and I’ll get to it!
As a young Buddhist, I know that engaging in activities that push us over the edge into crazy town, such as getting drunk, one night stands, expensive shopping, drugs and so on, lead to confusion and recklessness. At the same time these activities are fun to do with friends and give us some sort of social

When LEGO announced that after four years of marketing research, the best they could come up with was a thinner, pinker version of their product, I admit, I laughed out loud. My first reaction wasn’t outrage, but incredulity. A billion dollars of marketing research bought you… LEGO Barbie? After marketers have carpet-bombed a pink, appearance-obsessed consumer version of girl power via every conceivable media outlet for the past decade, did you really expect to hear little girls express a desire for anything else?
Turns out I wasn’t the only one with a strong reaction to the new Ladyfig

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics must be congratulated for securing a 11/15/11 agreement with Johnson & Johnson “for reducing or gradually phasing out trace amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals” from Baby Shampoo, “one of its signature products.” However, this agreement is limited and restricted to the U.S. market.
There are three carcinogenic ingredients in Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, dioxane, formaldehyde and nitrosamine. Dioxane is a well-recognized carcinogenic contaminant in alcohol ethoxylates, a group of four ingrediens — laureths, oleths, polyethylene glycol and polysorbates. The second ingredient, quaternium, is a precursor of two carcinogens, formaldehyde and

What if social media, as it functions today, was merely the first step towards a new sophistication in human interaction? We must admit it has its fascinating aspects, as we are inherently social beings. Yet, watching the development so far, one thing is for sure, human interactions can be as subtle and sophisticated as an elegant waltz and as unsophisticated, clunky and childish as a game of dodge ball. Of course, the worst most unsophisticated versions of things appear first and become wildly popular. Just as music may have started with the beating of a primitive drum, now we have