I just received this today. Please crosspost or forward to interested parties. Contact info is below.
~Kelly
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church of Southborough, MA is in immediate need of an interim Organist. This person will be responsible for playing in the 10:45am Sunday service and for working with the choir. This is an interim position that will serve until a new permanent Organist & Choirmaster is appointed.
For more information on St. Mark’s and this position please contact Rev. Phil LaBelle.
With the opening of the Sochi Olympic games on Friday there are all sorts of things going on right now to remind us that the world is full of both hateful bigots (I’m looking at you, Putin) and wonderful people (Canada, Scotland, that would be you.)
This is what has popped up in the latter category in my various news feeds today. Enjoy.
These are mostly what has been popping up on my Google+ feed lately. Some of them are doozies. Enjoy.
Continue reading “Recent news roundup- Political cartoon edition”
Today I read two very different but still related stories about things that happened in Hammond, Indiana due to the polar vortex. Both stories emphasize the plight of the working poor in the United States, and how extreme cold affects them in ways that many people may not have even considered.
The first was about a house fire that claimed the lives of three small children and put two others and their father in the hospital. The second was about a warehouse where workers were forced to continue working – without heat – even after the state had declared an emergency.
There’s been a lot of victory going around in the last few days, not the least of which was a few minutes ago when Geoff and I finally conquered the Massachusetts version of the ACA website. In the spirit of the season, it’s time to share some good news.
Both Apple and Radio Shack have decided to not open on Thanksgiving. Good for them.
Like Kelly had mentioned earlier, too many stores are trying to maximize their profits by extending hours as much as possible on Thanksgiving weekend. And they are doing it at the expense of their lowest-paid employees. It’s not like the CEOs are going to pull a late shift themselves that day. But the CEO class really can’t relate to their employees most of the time anyway.
And the supreme irony of this is that being open longer this Thanksgiving weekend is not likely to make the weekend more profitable. Things sold on Thanksgiving are generally done at the expense of Black Friday sales, rather than generating new sales. It’s not like people who avoid shopping that weekend or on Black Friday will suddenly decide to go shopping on Thanksgiving Day itself.
Of course, I don’t see a lot of people asking the question “what would happen if ordinary people had more money to spend?” either. In fact, there’s no shortage of people who complain about the lack of consumer spending without asking “how are regular people supposed to increase their spending when they are broke?” These same people trash talk the idea of raising the minimum wage while talking about how tough a time the very wealthy have with their taxes. Actually, not so much – especially when you look at the historical patterns.
As one of the broke people, I can definitely say that yeah, if I had a better paying job (or jobs), I would be able to spend more. And we’re trying to get that better job or jobs.
-Geoff
After more than a week, many survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines are still struggling to get basics like food, water and shelter. And places like Samar, Leyte, and Tacloban are now getting mentioned in the news all over the world. Samar and Leyte seem to have been hit the worst from the typhoon.
I know these place names. Not because I have ever been there (I haven’t), but because of their famous place in history – specifically, in the fall of 1944, when the Allied invasion of the Japanese-occupied Philippines led to what was the largest naval battle in all of World War Two, and possibly the largest in recorded human history.
Continue reading “Tacloban, Samar Island, and two very different storms”
This story is just amazing. It still seems like one of those things that happens in after-school specials or in one of those Hallmark channel movies.
Miles Scott, who at age five has already been fighting cancer for three years, lives in California and like many kids his age he loves superheroes. He especially loves Batman and would apparently wear the costume quite a bit. So the Make-A-Wish Foundation decided to turn Miles’ dream into reality by transforming San Francisco into Gotham City for a day.
But the most amazing part to me is how many people, many of them random strangers, became involved. Literally thousands of people.
One of Batman’s creators drew the little boy a comic featuring villain Bane retreating from Miles as Batkid. The mayor, the chief of police, the TV news, the San Francisco Chronicle, even President Obama, all got involved. And thousands of strangers (many of them carrying Batkid signs and such) showed up to cheer him on as he “rescued” people from villains that included the Riddler and the Joker.
The links I included have a lot of good photos and video. Watch, read, and try not to tear up. I dare you.
-Geoff
Now that Typhoon Haiyan has passed over the Philippines and headed west towards Vietnam, the people there have had a chance to begin initial assessments of the damage done, and it doesn’t look good. One observer has described the scene as “apocalyptic”. Some areas are so devastated that there is no communication from them at all. Accurate assessments of casualties at this point are impossible, but it looks as if the loss of life will easily be in the hundreds, if not the thousands.
If you have any ability to help at all, here’s some groups that are assisting with relief efforts: the Philippine Red Cross; the World Food Program; Shelter Box; and Americares.
-Geoff
Wow. Glad we don’t have a storm like this anywhere near us.
Super Typhoon Haiyan is definitely the strongest storm of 2013, and it may just be one of the strongest ones ever recorded, with sustained winds of 195 miles per hour and gusts of up to 230 mph. Imagine that. Good God, an EF5 tornado has winds of 200 plus miles an hour. And this is a tropical cyclone, causing damage over a much wider area. They probably won’t even know for a while just everything that it has done. The size and power of it are just mind-boggling. Hopefully the loss of life in the Philippines and other places in its path will be minimal. They seem to have been quite prepared, at least.
I will settle for some cooler weather and rain here, thank you very much.
-Geoff
The Books are Taking Over... 