seek justice, love kindness, walk humbly

inaugural reflections - one person's perspective

Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:06 PM EST

a reflection from a participant observer

Continue reading this entry ...

barack-obama, us-news, opinion, hope, inauguration, 44th-president

Presbyterian leaders OK gay clergy - Los Angeles Times

Seeded on Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:13 PM EDT (The L.A. Times)

Leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) overturned a long-standing ban on the ordination of gays and lesbians Friday, providing yet the latest example of a religious denomination struggling with how, and whether, to incorporate homosexuality into church life.

religion, ordination, latimes, sexual-orientation, presbyterian-church

Evangelical movement touts 'Jesus for president'

Seeded on Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:05 PM EDT (CNN)

They're spiritual misfits. Rabble-rousers. They packed the shell of the old Baptist church on Negley Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to hear author, Christian activist and fellow misfit Shane Claiborne stump on the campaign for a third party candidate, Jesus.

president, religion, jesus, christian, evangelist, radical, emergent-church, shaine-claiborne

Ubuntu 8.04: Upgrade or clean install?

Seeded on Sun May 11, 2008 8:13 AM EDT (linux.com)

Seeded by djd (Clipped by merrydeath)

Which path should you follow? Should you take advantage of Ubuntu's package manager and use it to upgrade your system to the latest 8.04 Hardy Heron release, or should you download a CD or DVD ISO image and do a clean install? Common wisdom says that doing a clean install is the …

technology, linux, ubuntu, upgrade, install

Beyond Rape: A Survivor's Journey

Seeded on Tue May 6, 2008 11:41 AM EDT (Cleve-Blog)

On Oct. 27, 1984, a headline on Page 14A in The Plain Dealer read: "Disgusted judge gives repeat offender 30 years for rape." The story followed standard newspaper protocol: In it, the victim was anonymous.

women, justice, poverty, prison, cleveland, rape, racism, us-news, grace, sexual-violence

Heavy Metal Islam

Seeded on Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:37 AM EDT (islamonline.net)

Seeded by Dennis P. McCann (Clipped by merrydeath)

WASHINGTON — In his book Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam, University of California-Irvine professor Mark LeVine explains why harsh melodies appeal to young Muslims in the Middle East.

music, rebellion, islam, world-news, heavy-metal

Spitzer Did Nothing Wrong

Seeded on Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:44 AM EDT (AlterNet.org)

The outrage over former New York governor Eliot Spitzer hiring an A-list hooker makes me feel like throwing a gigantic, crippling pile of superheavy biology and economics books at everyone in the United States and possibly the world.

spitzer, politics, ethics, prostitution, morality, annalee-newitz, economic-exploitation

Picturing Women: History of the Representation of the Female

Seeded on Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:39 AM EST ()

Seeded by Angel_C (Clipped by merrydeath)

The history of the representation of women is one that often pictures partial and full nudity along with other explicit depictions. Some contemporary artists have chosen to respond to such conventions in similarly explicit ways.

history, art, sociology, nudity, gender-issues, imaging-women

Well Done Thou Good and Faithful Servant

Seeded on Thu Jan 31, 2008 2:56 PM EST (blog.beliefnet.com)

John Edwards ended his campaign this afternoon at the same place he started it and with the same theme—ending poverty as a moral imperative.

politics, poverty, john-edwards, 2008-election, presidential-campaign, jim-wallis

Hillary Clinton and the Vagina Menace

Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:59 AM EST

By StacyM (Clipped by merrydeath)

If Ann Coulter told you once, she's told you a thousand times: Our country started going down the drain once we let women get the vote.

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women, politics, humor, men, gender, satire, feminism, 2008-election, hillary-clinton, double-standard

106

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Windows Vista, one of the worst products of all time, says CNET

Seeded on Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:28 PM EST (Crave / CNET)

Seeded by Smiling Jack (Clipped by merrydeath)

Any operating system that provokes a campaign for its predecessor's reintroduction deserves to be classed as terrible technology. Any operating system that quietly has a downgrade-to- previous-edition option introduced for PC makers deserves to be classed as terrible technology.

technology, vista

308

Are You Micro-Managing Your Mind?

Seeded on Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:09 AM EST (AlterNet.org)

One of the greatest traps in growing a business is also a pitfall for self management: if you don't trust your system, you can't let go of operational details and you'll limit your ability to create at a bigger level.

health, mental-health, getting-things-done, david-allen, worry, personal-management-strategy

Young Adults Are Getting Hit with Enormous Overdraft Fees

Seeded on Tue Nov 6, 2007 12:50 PM EST (AlterNet.org)

Few Americans are immune to the offers of quick, cheap and easy credit that surround us these days. Indeed, when brand-new adults first arrive on their college campuses, they are often greeted by a bank or credit card company before their resident advisor.

consumer, debt, us-news, bank-fees, overdraft, responsible-lending

Iraq: Millions Trapped in Their Own Country

Seeded on Tue Nov 6, 2007 10:51 AM EST (dahrjamailiraq.com)

BAQUBA, Nov 5 (IPS) - At least five million Iraqis have fled their homes due to the violence under the U.S.-led occupation, but half of them are unable to leave the country, according to well-informed estimates.

iraq, middle-east, refugees, world-news, iraq-war, dahr-jamail, displacemnt

Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web

Seeded on Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:07 AM EDT (The New York Times)

Seeded by Sally York (Clipped by merrydeath)

Several major research libraries have rebuffed offers from Google and Microsoft to scan their books, instead signing on with a nonprofit effort.

technology, google-inc, microsoft-corp, nytimes, computers-and-the-internet, colleges-and-universities, books-and-literature, libraries-and-librarians

'The Moment Has Come to Get Rid of Saddam'

Seeded on Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:07 AM EDT (nybooks.com)

The only thing that worries me about you is your optimism. —Spanish Prime Minister José Marìa Aznar to President Bush, from the Crawford Transcript of February 22, 2003

bush, saddam-hussein, george-bush, world-news, iraq-war

AlterNet: WorkPlace: Slavery Is Alive and Well in the U.S.

Seeded on Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:58 PM EDT (AlterNet.org)

What do you call it when those who cross the Mexican-U.S.

slavery, justice, farmworkers, us-news, modern-slavery, immokalee-workers, john-bowe, american-slavery

The Jena Six: Southern Trees Bear Strange Fruit

Seeded on Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:14 AM EDT (thewip.net)

I have always been deeply affected and influenced by music. Depending on my mood, I happily switch between drastically varying genres, but from age six when I first heard Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong deftly banter back and forth at one another, I was hooked on jazz.

justice, racism, us-news, equality, mychal-bell, jena-six, jena-6, jena6

Jena Six Day of Action - Cleveland, Ohio

Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:43 PM EDT

Today people across the nation gathered for a day of action to speak about and demand justice in the case of the the Jena Six.

Continue reading this entry ...

justice, protest, revolution, racism, us-news, citizen-journalism, activism, social-action, jena-six, jena-6

The Road from Media Ethics to Information Anarchy

Seeded on Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:19 AM EDT (pcmag.com)

The definition of "media" has undergone some major changes over the past few years.

technology, blogs, journalism, new-york-times, citizen-journalism, john-c-dvorak, traditional-media, journalistic-ethics

Most successful pirate was beautiful and tough - CNN.com

Seeded on Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:27 PM EDT (CNN)

You can keep your Bluebeards and your Blackbeards. The most successful pirate of all time controlled a fleet of more than 1,500 ships and upwards of 80,000 sailors -- and she did it all without the help of facial hair.

history, pirates, piracy, talk-like-a-pirate-day, tlapd, cheng-i-sao, chinese-history, female-pirates

Anti-authoritarian Cities

Seeded on Thu Sep 6, 2007 1:16 PM EDT (AlterNet.org)

Archaeologists have discovered that Brak, a Syrian city and one of the oldest urban areas in the world, was built in a way that completely defies conventional wisdom about how cities grow.

history, syria, urban-development, regionalization, decentralization, emergent-cities, brak, anciet-east

Urban Tubleweed -- the plastic scourge

Seeded on Thu Sep 6, 2007 12:53 PM EDT (AlterNet.org)

They're ubiquitous. They accompany us home each time we shop. They swirl about our oceans, they cling to our trees, they drift down our city sidewalks, they adorn metal fences, they're consumed by animals. They are an urban tumbleweed, a flag of the consumer era.

pollution, green, environment, world-news, plastic-bags, reduce-reuse-recycle

The Top Ten Reasons Marijuana Should Be Legal

Seeded on Wed Sep 5, 2007 4:12 PM EDT (AlterNet.org)

Seeded by Grey Wolf (Clipped by merrydeath)

Editor's note: There are millions of regular pot smokers in America and millions more infrequent smokers. Smoking pot clearly has far fewer dangerous and hazardous effects on society than legal drugs such as alcohol.

marijuana, us-news, prohibition, high-times

Google Sky launched.

Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:49 PM EDT

By Thura (Clipped by merrydeath)

Google has recently released Google Earth that allows you to explore the sky called Google Sky - confused? You won't be when you download or upgrade to Version 4 of Google Earth.

Continue reading this entry ...

google, technology, sky, google-earth

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Comments & Feedback

hi merry!

I haven't seen you around much but always enjoy your commentary when I do.

Did you know about the Toronto Vinemeet in August?
— nearing

NewsGuru here - I'm honored to leave a comment on MerryDeath's page. MerryDeath I think you're an excellent journalist and an even better person. This is probably only the second time in my year and half on the Vine that I've left a comment on a Viner's page and the pleasure is all mine. Keep up the good work!
— newsguru

If I gave up reading everything else on the Vine, and I did for awhile, I couldn't give up Merrydeaths column. She's addictive and I wouldn't give her up for anything.
— Dan Hallo, aka, Zoilus

miss j here; I had the enormous pleasure of lunching with merrydeath. That great smile is for real. She is spiritual & spirited, sure to make the world around her a better place.
— urbane gorilla

I'm not sure when you got the fourth and fifth vine branch, but I just noticed them and wanted to say congratulations. Your passion for news and compassion for others is much appreciated here.
— Jason Coleman