Eideard

Michael Bloomberg, Christine C. Quinn, Mario Cuomo march in 2011 NYC LGBT Pride March
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Many New Yorkers and thousands of visitors this weekend may make last month’s Gay Pride celebrations seem tepid. Beginning Sunday, New York’s same-sex couples will become eligible for marriage licenses. Tens of thousands of those couples are expected to marry over the next few years, and their vows will resonate across America…

New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and city leaders must be cheering the economic shot in the arm as hotels, restaurants, caterers, florists and legions of vendors welcome the wedding and honeymoon brigades. Some estimate nearly $400 million in revenues for the state over the next three years.

These rewards are also the result of changing tides among American corporations and employers over recent decades. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s same-sex marriage legislation was endorsed not only by major corporations like Xerox and Google but by scores of smaller business owners across the state.

First, many employers already “get it.” Beginning in 1982 with New York’s Village Voice, thousands of employers have added spousal-equivalent work benefits including health coverage for their workers with same-sex partners. Today, nearly 60% of Fortune 500 companies do so…

If employers give equal benefits to same-sex couples, why worry about marital status? Ask employers in New Jersey, where same-sex civil unions are the law instead. Civil unions, domestic partnerships and other makeshift legal arrangements offer some measure of legal protection. But real-world experience shows that they do not measure up in crucial ways.

“Marriage lite” not only creates a social apartheid among families, it opens significant gaps, confusion and conflicts that businesses confront in areas such as survivor benefits, pensions and bankruptcies, along with disparate tax treatment at the state and federal level.

Keeping it simple and consistent are important to businesses…Furthermore, administering payrolls and maintaining accurate, timely benefits and tax withholding procedures can strain any employer. When you add the complexity that accompanies different marital and tax status for many couples, from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and workplace to workplace, it is another unacceptable and costly burden on business.

Sooner rather than later, chambers of commerce will recognize that their best interests are served by the simplicity, uniformity and cost savings that come with marriage equality across the nation…

Part of today’s political dichotomies is the decline in principles and standards of traditional organizations of all types. Churches, political parties – local and national, trade organizations and national business representatives like the US Chamber of Commerce have walked away from any pretense of representing a broad base.

Just as fundamentalist churches less and less often engage in dialogue with the broad reach of Christianity, the US Chamber of Commerce long ago turned its back on small business. In truth there are whole segments of American commerce ignored or deliberately affronted by the entrenched leadership of the Chamber. If you ain’t from Big Oil or Pharma or Insurance and Finance – just punch their meal ticket; but, don’t waste anyone’s time with issues outside of extraction taxes or capital gains.

Rev. Sam Trumbore

More than 700 religious leaders throughout New York have pledged to support the passage of a same-sex marriage bill.

Whether the petition signatures of 727 clergymen and lay leaders will help sway the state Senate — which has historically rejected the legislation — remains to be seen as advocates work to pass the bill by the end of the legislative session.

Ross Levi, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, said Tuesday the petition reinforces the message that the public embraces same-sex marriage. “There is not one religious point of view on marriage equality,” he said, pointing to the breadth of faiths, from United Methodist to Episcopal, that are represented on the petition.

The Rev. Samuel Trumbore, a minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany and a Times Union blogger, said same-sex marriage should be viewed as a civil rights issue, not a religious issue.

“If fundamentalists don’t want to do same-sex marriages, they don’t have to,” he said.

Also Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo repeated his support of the legislation.

Keep on rocking in the Empire State. Nice to see some folks practicing the sort of old-time religion that believes in people not the ideology of bigotry.

European politicians rejected three cost-cutting measures, which would have seen salaries frozen and travel allowances cut, in a move branded as “shameful”.

The first amendment to be voted down called for MEPs and senior EU staff to fly economy class for journeys of less than four hours around Europe instead of business class – a proposal that would have saved an estimated £20m a year.

They then rejected an amendment which recommended that “savings in the Parliament should start by its own members”, which called for no further increases in MEP salaries and their various parliamentary allowances in 2012.

Finally they rejected a third amendment which stated MEPs should not be paid for both being in the Parliament and travelling to or from it. MEPs receive an average flat rate allowance of £168 to cover the cost of travelling from their homes to either Brussels or Strasbourg.

MEPs are paid an average £83,000 per year, compared to MPs in Britain, who have an annual salary of £65,738.

They also receive a daily “subsistence allowance” of £265, they can be refunded up to £3,600 per year for other travel outside their own country, and be reimbursed for up to 24 return journeys within their own country. Members also receive up to £242,000 annually in staff salaries and office expenses and benefit from a generous health care and pension system. It is estimated that an MEP can cost around £400,000-a-year…

Marta Andreasen said: “This proves categorically and unambiguously that when the European Parliament speaks of austerity measures it applies to everybody else except the institution itself…

At the same time, MEPs gave their blessing to the multi-million-pound House of European History museum project and also voted to approve a 2.3 per cent increase in the Parliament’s budget for 2012 to £1.5bn.

I’m certain everyone who gets to contribute to the maintenance of politicians to this standard feels just tip-top about the expense. Right?

A founding patron of the Taliban in Afghanistan died in the hands of a younger generation of militants in the tribal badlands of Pakistan in the last few days, a victim of the vicious forces he helped create, Pakistani officials said Monday.

Brig. Sultan Amir, known by his nom de guerre, Colonel Imam, was captured by the Pakistani Taliban in northern Waziristan last March. Whether he was killed by his captors, or died of a heart attack as reported by the Taliban, remained unclear.

The demise of Colonel Imam comes 10 days after another veteran figure in the emergence of the Afghan Taliban, Gen. Naseerullah Babar, 82, died after a long illness at his home in Peshawar, in northwest Pakistan.

The death of the two men signified the end of an era of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that began in the 1970s, stretched into the American-backed mujahedeen resistance against the Soviet occupation and was followed by the coercive Taliban rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s…

Colonel Imam formed a close bond with Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader who welcomed Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan…

A weathered figure with a long white beard and white turban who looked to be in his 70s, Colonel Imam was initially trained by the Special Forces at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1974, and completed a master parachutist course with the 82nd Airborne Division…

A senior Pakistani government official in the tribal areas, Tariq Hayat, said Monday that he had been informed by a Pakistani official in North Waziristan that Colonel Imam was dead. The militants were demanding a ransom for the return of the body, he said. Only after the body has been reclaimed would the cause of death be known, Mr. Hayat said.

Chickens coming home to roost land in the Pentagon about as frequently as any other center for the training of imperial flunkies.

RTFA for the details. If you have watched American policy in South Asia for a spell you ain’t about to be surprised.

Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill on Tuesday to end tax deductions enjoyed by companies that close their U.S. plants and move overseas.

With a largely party-line vote of 53-45, Democrats failed to muster the 60 votes needed to clear a Republican procedural hurdle against the measure, which would also give employers a tax break to hire new U.S. workers.

Five members of the Senate Democratic caucus broke party ranks and opposed the bill, including Max Baucus, chairman of the tax-writing Finance Committee…

“Why in the world would millions of Americans who are losing their jobs be subsidizing operations that are closed up, and the cost of doing that, and sending jobs overseas?” Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow said.

The bill also takes on a hot tax topic known as “deferral,” the ability of companies to defer taxes on income earned abroad.

President Barack Obama’s budget aims to sharply curtail that practice. The bill would repeal deferral for companies that close or cut a business in the U.S. and start or expand overseas with the intention of importing goods for sale in the United States.

The Party of NO knows when to say, “Yes” – they just left out the part about to whom.

We come in peace!

Political and anti-war activists in the Midwest were the target today of searches the FBI called part of an investigation into the “material support of terrorism.”

Warrants led to the search of five residences and one office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said FBI spokesman Steve Warfield, who said there were no arrests. Two other searches were conducted in Chicago, Illinois.

Activist Tom Burke in Chicago said he and others in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan were served subpoenas to testify before a grand jury. He also said computer hard drives were taken from locations in both cities, as well as a cell phone in Minneapolis…

A coalition of groups represented on the Fight Back website released a statement condemning the raids as “harassment…”

The coalition came together after a large anti-war protest at the Republication National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in 2008, Burke said…

Jessica Sundin of the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee told CNN agents took a hard drive, paper files, photos, a cell phone and her passport during a search of her Minneapolis residence Friday…

Sending American weapons and troops abroad is not the solution to international problems, Sundin said.

“We’ve been unapologetic in our opposition to U.S. intervention,” she said.

It seems like old times, old methods, are never abandoned by the Kreepy Kops in Washington. And – as usual – it doesn’t matter whether there is a Republican or Democrat in the White House, “investigating” people who work for peaceful solutions as an alternative to Uncle Sugar’s armies – is still an acceptable tactic.

Rowie Meers has found the perfect way to support her melons – using old bras. She whipped out her undergarments to hoist up the fruit after her melon plants started drooping. Supportive customers then helped by sending in more than 40 unwanted brassieres to her farm during the summer. The mum of three says she found the answer to her problem ‘right under her nose’

Har!

Kirsten Ott walked down the aisle in a white strapless gown with an embroidered bodice and cascading ruffles. Maria Palladino, dressed in a white suit, waited for her at the end of the aisle with a minister. Surrounded by their family and close friends, the women committed to each other for the rest of their lives.

A beautiful reception followed. It had all the makings of a traditional wedding, but instead of calling themselves bride and groom, the couple used the terms bride and “broom.”

“Broom is a combination of bride and groom,” said Kirsten, who took Maria’s last name when they wed…

Both were relieved the special day they had planned for so long finally arrived.

Organizing a wedding can be challenging, what with finding the right photographer, the perfect cake, the prettiest flowers and, most importantly, the venue. It was even harder for Kirsten, because she had to find vendors who accepted same-sex marriage in Atlanta, Georgia, where the union isn’t legally recognized…

Kirsten and Maria turned to wedding magazines for inspiration while planning their 2008 wedding. But Kirsten said something important was missing. “There are tons of wedding magazines when you go into a wedding section at a bookstore, but we weren’t in any of them. Not one single gay couple. It was disheartening…”

Planning their wedding inspired the newlyweds to start their own wedding magazine geared toward engaged same-sex couples. Kirsten, a journalist, and Maria, a graphic designer, used their career backgrounds and personal experience to launch the online magazine Equally Wed…

The Palladinos discovered that more wedding vendors across the United States are now offering their services for two brides or two grooms. The magazine has a staff that spans the country. Employees find companies that cater to same-sex weddings and welcome couples to their honeymoon destinations. They list gay-friendly vendors that will make the cake, design the flowers or take pictures of the ceremony…

“It’s a ceremony in front of your friends and family, committing to this other person for the rest of your life … it doesn’t matter what sex you are or who, the sex or gender of the person you’re marrying.”

It’s a sound business in my neck of the prairie. There are just as many bible-thumping bigots as most places; but, the community as a whole recognizes the borderline criminality of such behavior. Same-sex marriages would be a daily occurrence in Santa Fe if our state government was endowed with either courage or common sense.

“Reach out and touch someone” — good advertising slogan, or evolutionary imperative?

How about both?

What Madison Avenue knew decades ago has been observed in brain chemistry. A simple phone call from mom can calm frayed nerves by sparking the release of a powerful stress-quelling hormone, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Biological anthropologist Leslie Seltzer tested a group of seven- to 12-year-old girls with an impromptu speech and series of math problems in front of a panel of strangers, sending their hearts racing and levels of cortisol — a hormone associated with stress — soaring…

Once stressed, one-third of the girls were comforted in person by their mothers — specifically with hugs, an arm around the shoulders and the like. One-third were left watch an emotion-neutral 75-minute video. The rest were handed a telephone. It was mom on the line, and the effect was dramatic.

“The children who got to interact with their mothers had virtually the same hormonal response, whether they interacted in person or over the phone,” Seltzer says.

The girls’ levels of oxytocin, often called the “love hormone” and strongly associated with emotional bonding, rose significantly and the stress-marking cortisol washed away.

“It was understood that oxytocin release in the context of social bonding usually required physical contact,” Seltzer says. “But it’s clear from these results that a mother’s voice can have the same effect as a hug, even if they’re not standing there.”

The study revealed that the support, diminishing of worry and concern, was lasting.

Mom is as important as ever.

Kenyan farmer Zack Matere pulls his mobile out of his pocket holds it up and takes a couple of photos. “It seems they have come back and are digging here again.”

He is referring to a group of people who have encroached on a water catchment area and are endangering the whole community’s water supply.

“When they came before, I took photos of what they were doing, posted them on my Facebook page and was able to get assistance…”

This is just one of the ways in which he uses the internet.

Not long ago it also helped him discover a cure for his dying potato crop. “I cycled 10km to the local cyber cafe, Googled “potato disease” and discovered that ants were eating the potato stems.

“I checked again online and found that one of the solutions was to sprinkle wood ash on the crop.”

“I think I am the only farmer in the area who uses the internet.”

It is not just the cost of accessing the internet that he thinks is restricting usage.

There is also a cultural barrier as Mr Matere is not convinced that all people would be content to browse via the phone in the isolation of their homes.

“The internet is quite an individual pursuit. But a noticeboard is more of a group thing.

“So if I post an item on a noticeboard on potato disease, for example, the community can read it, talk together and come to a decision.”

RTFA. Understand how a global phenomenon becomes useful to a unique community – in ways and through means literally foreign to folks in industrial cultures.

A lovely tale. Exciting to see another voyage of discovery upon the cybersea.