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Hi everyone!
All this talk of health care today hits close to home, as a disabled writer living without health insurance. I struggle to get what help I can through public assistance, and know that I am lucky I live somewhere & fall within a narrow window where some options are available to me.
In my last Watercooler post, I mentioned that activists from the group ADAPT were planning action in Washington, DC to protect Medicaid from cuts. Today, over 100 activists were arrested handcuffing themselves in the Capitol rotunda, among them two of Occupy Austin’s best, and also actor Noah Wyle. ADAPT’s official twitter said that the police mobilized for arrest much faster than at previous actions, another sign of changing attitudes toward activism at our nation’s capitol.
I’m looking forward to some direct action later this week. During his campaign, Obama promised to provide protections against discrimination for gender identity and sexual orientation, an action he can take for about 20% of the nation’s workers with a single swipe of his pen. Queer people & their allies are now being told that this is no longer a priority to the administration. The Occupy Austin OccuQueers are joining Get Equal Texas this week in the first stage of an escalating series of actions.
Today’s musical selection is from Los Skarnales, a local favorite I had the pleasure of experiencing for the first time on Friday night. I was there to see reggae artist Collie Buddz, but it was one of those wonderful times when the opening act is just as engaging as the main event. Their energy was incredible. This video barely expresses what it’s like to watch them cavort around stage.
What did you do this weekend? What are you looking forward to this week? It’s an open thread, so tell me what’s on your mind.
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That’s a great high energy band … wow!
And Bravo to Adapt!
Looking forward to hearing the news from later in the week.
Well I built a small wooden box to set my Mac Mini on that will have a fan in it to help keep it cool.
And I did some Ham Radio using a digital mode called Psk31. It’s kind of likw chat but using radio.
I made a number of contacts – local and world wide.
What’s on my mind…. if a representative of your local ACLU asked what issues are of concern in your community , issues the ACLU can address in a presentation, what should the ACLU focus on explaining.?
I’m the spearhead person for this presentation scheduled for mid-June.
This week I’m spending reading,researching and talking with people in our community
to come up with an answer to that question. What should our local ACLU explain to us as citizens?
I know. they have a little gag where they say ‘let’s slow it down a bit’ and then play their fastest tune. They also sing a Salud! song every time people buy them beers.
Everyone at ADAPT is out, including the two Austin occupiers & Noah Wyle, and enjoying some delicious cold pizza (the official food of jail support :P ). Here’s a WaPo story that gives a hint about whats in store for Obama For America, with great quotes from our allies in GetEqual. Also this article from the Onion sums the state of US politics up remarkably well.
That sounds like a lovely way to spend a weekend!
Here in Austin anyway two of the most important issues are:
* Knowing your rights with police, because they are behaving with increasing violence here in Austin.
* Understand what is happening to our free speech rights, in light of issues like unconstitutional new rules on assembly & voting.
Good luck with your presentation! Maybe share some of your notes with MyFDL?
I just love this type of music! Thank you. This weekend I printed out a draft of something I am currently editing. Did that because I am old and old fashioned, and for some strange reason I need paper in my hand because it is easier to sort. Now, I feel bad. I have a tree next to the computer. This will not do, so time for the cutting and slashing. Can you relate?
The state of affairs with health care in this country is just so tragic and sad. Straight-up bullying, maybe with a different bow on the package, but still. What kind of a mean is that- wanting to cut just very basic needs to people who need it most.
And for what? A little bit of money. And here we are and it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.
-movie line. Fargo.
PS Is it your town, that has that badass bookstore?
Sometimes writers need paper! There’s a reason a number of years ago when I’d inherited a bit of money that I bought myself a nice laser printer. It’s so worth it to be able to print out my work and see it on some dead tree for editing or whatever. So yeah, I totally relate!
War on the poor has to stop and we have to rise up to demand that it does!
As to the bookstore — I’m not sure? Austin has a bunch of awesome bookstores. We have a few Half Price Books locations, Monkeywrench Books (volunteer run anarchist bookstore), Brave New Books (for the Libertarian set), Book People, Book Woman (Feminist bookstore)…
I’m sorry to hear you’re disabled, Kit. Guess I am too, though I usually say ‘currently disabled’, leaving room for not being so later, lol!
I do hope you’re not in pain; chronic pain has nothing to recommend it. Arrgh. That reminds me of Gilda Radnor asking Gene Wilder as she was dying:
“You know what’s funny about cancer, Gene?”
“No; what, dear?”
“Nothing; absolutely nothing.”
On to business, though. K. Canfield was going to teach us the ropes for blogging, and I have some questions (embedding Vimeos, for instance), but today I’m wondering that some charts and images folks are using aren’t attributed, but pass not having the big red ‘blocked’ sign. Which leads me to ask specifically about graphs and charts: do we need to ask permission before using them?
Also, is there something inherently more secure about Flickr, photo-bucket, etc. approved image sites? Brian Sonenstein had once reckoned that if we could get permission to upload images to Flickr, we could use them. If so, would they have to be uploaded as ‘Creative Commons’?
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Book People! Only been there once…loved it!
Alas, I am disabled with a chronic pain condition — Fibromyalgia. I was diagnosed at about 19 and have had it ever since (about to turn 34). I’m not on federal disability for it, because the court battle involved with that could take me years and I have set it aside for now. I’m (sorta) getting by on freelance writing & editing work and my blogging, but I’m about to apply for food stamps again.
It’s a life long condition, and I try to find the sense of humor in it, but Gilda probably had it about right. What a great woman she was.
Image approved sites have been selected because they are more secure from a computer security perspective, in that they have filters in place to make sure malicious code cannot slip through. You should still have permission to use anything, but you can certainly use your own photos or those you have permission to post by uploading them to Photobucket or Flickr first.
Flickr is a great resource because it allows you to search for creative commons images others’ have uploaded — you can do this in the advanced search screen. It’s where I go for at least 75% of my images as a blogger & editor. You should always give attribution though unless it’s your image or in the actual public domain (like some government images or charts may be). When in doubt, ask permission and give attribution though, whether it’s a chart or a photo.
I hope this answers your questions, wendydavis, but I’ll be happy to explain more if you need.
Ah, sweetie, I’m so sorry to hear that. I did bodywork for a few decades, and that’s a pisser. Might know a few tricks to help, and offer them later, unless interference is unwelcome. ;o)
As for the rest, I still have questions, but I’m a major train wreck today, and I just can’t deal with anything much. Hope it’s okay if I ask another day. Thanks for the help you did offer, though.