http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cehvL2akWfk

So I've begun working with TOMS Shoes in Santa Monica, CA. What is TOMS Shoes? We're a shoe company, BUT

With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give another pair of shoes to a child in need. One for One.

This youtube video is a quick introduction to our mission at TOMS

Maybe you've heard of it?

www.Kiva.org is a social change non-profit that empowers individuals with internet access and a paypal account with the capacity to microfinance directly to borrowers in the developing world through no-interest loans. It's the same basic principles of microfinance that Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

After easily raising over $450 online for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital through the elementary school where I have been a teacher's aid through AmeriCorps *NCCC, I was on a high. Not long after, I spoke with my sister's boyfriend (who also happens to be an Adam) and he reminded me about a site that we had talked about before, but that I had since forgotten - www.Kiva.org.

What is this? 1984?!! we can not allow this to keep happening!

it is utterly absurd and anger-inducing; sure the kid may have gotten a bit excited, but for cops to think they are justified in grabbing and pulling at him, jumping him to the ground, and tasering him is absolutely unacceptable!



He is no threat! watch the videos below.

and no less, John Kerry stands back quiet while this happens, as does everyone in the room at the time. WOW... so sad... just imagine if every person in that room had had enough collective courage to stand together and say, "woah, what the f is goin' on here?!"



WRITE OUR CONGRESSMEN!

Within the past year ALONE..

 Mark Foley (R-FL)

 Tom DeLay (R)

 Ted Haggard (R)

 I. "Scooter" Libby (R)

 Bob Allen (R)

 David Vitter (R-LA)

and now...

Strapped: Why America's 20 and 30 somethings can't get ahead.

Great book; I read it in about 3 days. And I'd recommend it to anyone, so for this blog post, it is my recommendation to you.

Read a free excerpt over at www.StrappedTheBook.com and then go buy it.

Insert powerful quote here. "Gays are pedophiles who engage in a self-destructive and immoral life-style." - Anonymous Armed Forces General.

Sarcastic Author Response. Okay great, thank you worthy source, Mr. Anonymous!

Background. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", a law compromised by Clinton in 1993 after much right-wing "protest", is the one and only law in the United States that pointedly mandates firing someone because of his or her sexual orientation. A law that the very essence of which basically says, "We don't want to know... so we'll turn our backs, but if we find out that you're out, then you're out".

Point. To uphold such a policy, one that considers ignorance as bliss (i.e., "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"), and chooses rather to ignore the "issue" as if it weren't the 800 lb. elephant in the room, is to inherently acknowledge that this "issue" that you don't really want to know (or ask) about, must actually be bad and wrong, immoral or guilt-ridden. Is that what our military is really saying here about homosexuality? Yes, yes it is.

in case you have yet to see this short 26 second clip... read more

Following the Republicans' block of Senate's no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday (53-38, 7 short of the 60 needed), President W. offered this; "They can have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government."

A few Sunday nights ago, my Dad and I were watching a program on channel 13 about Iwo Jima which, presumably as intended, sparked me to think about war. The aged military man in his button shirt and typical old man khakis recalled how he had, more than once, seen a dead Japanese soldier on the ground at Iwo Jima. Looking for a souvenir of sorts on this particular occasion, the younger version of this man approached the body and upon seeing the soldier's wallet falling out of his pocket, bent down and opened it. He immediately found a photo of this now dead man with his wife and two boys. The American soldier says he paused, prayed and then proceeded to close the wallet, putting it back deep inside the other's pocket.

I say again, war is so f stupid. And here's a few reasons why.