BROKEN: New epoch for the war in Congo
As many of you know, a new conflict has been brewing in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo for about a month. In short, the M23 rebel group marched into Goma yesterday, and now has control of the city....
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War to break in DRC over military labor dispute. You can do something to help.
Earlier this week, a rebel militia [M23] captured Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. The streets are calm (for now), but there are more than 1 million people without power or potable water. The water...
View ArticleSCOTUS to decide on DNA collection in rape case.
From RAINN:The US Supreme Court this month announced that it will decide whether it is legally permissible for police to take DNA samples from suspects arrested for violent crimes. The case is an...
View ArticleForward on Climate: The Problem with Novel Technologies
This week, we've had an impressive crop of diaries about the Keystone XL project -- an pipeline that hooks us more deeply into one of the more damaging fossil fuel extractions we've ever seen. Selling...
View ArticleKos Katalogue: Our Choices Matter
I am a consumer. As much as I hate the fact -- I still depend on consumer goods to survive. The overwhelming majority of what I buy is for comfort, though. I rarely ask myself if passing up a purchase...
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Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol 9.21: Coming Up Roses
Thanks for having me here today.I read Saturday Morning Garden Blogging often -- but I live on the west coast, so I usually read it late compared to when it posts. I am a great fan of this series,...
View ArticleCommunity Fundraiser: We reached our goal! And the single parent's double bind
Update: Tonya sends her thanks. :)It takes a village.In the United States, we have a habit of lying to ourselves about our independence. Our story is about individual freedoms and personal rights...
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Gothic Basin near Glacier Peak (photos)
The following pictures are from Gothic Basin yesterday. It's a rough hike, in fact, a lot of it isn't what most people would even call trail. It's more like a rock garden. It's steep and there are...
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Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 9.26
Good morning, gardeners. How is the weather treating you?My yard is a slug buffet. It's a freak show, seriously. We had a little rain this week in the Pacific Northwest. That made me happy, because I...
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Hummingbirds: It is so dry in the gentle wilderness.
I've been a regular visitor to the Sierras in California for twenty years. It's hard to express what that means to me, but I'm drawn there and I feel like I belong. The Sierra lets me co-exist. I fell...
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Hummingbirds: The Yosemite Rim Fire
Grocery store parking lot, 50 miles north of the fire. There is always something burning. Fires are part of the natural order of things, in fact, they play an important role in Sierra Nevada ecology....
View ArticleButterfly Woman: Food-like products are making us sick.
A century ago, there was a genuine and serious shortage of food in the United States. Agricultural science went to work to create more efficient ways of producing and storing food with the hope that...
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Saturday Morning Garden Blogging, Vol. 9.43
Oh, winter. One of the reasons I like vegetable gardening is for the food. It isn't just that it's homegrown, or inexpensive, or that I can choose what to have and how much -- it's the genuine...
View ArticleAre you kidding me, Rand? Teasplain for me, please.
We're comparing the GOP's systematic dismantling of women's control over their reproductive lives to Bill Clinton's consensual affair with Monica Lewinsky."Someone who takes advantage of a young girl...
View ArticleAre you kidding me Sean? You're not that stupid.
I just read Laura Clawson's Sean Hannity proposes adopt a woman birth control program, about one of Hannity's latest attempts to manufacture outrage among conservatives. How stupid does he think his...
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Women in Congo Paying It Forward Need Your Help
There is a community-based movement taking place in Democratic Republic of the Congo, supported by a program called Succeeding Together. It is structured to help women help each other by providing...
View ArticleAbortion, really? Boycotting projects on pro-choice websites.
I recently started telling people about a fundraiser here and at Motley Moose. The diaries I posted are Women in Congo Succeeding Together and Women in Congo Paying It Forward Need Your Help. Together,...
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Done! Brilliant Grassroots Project by Women In Congo FUNDED!
I understand ATM fatigue -- and if you have it, I am sympathetic. I am circulating this story just in case you don't. This great project needs just $314 before 4:00p PDT today, or all of the funding...
View ArticleBig Bang -- Gravity Wave Detection is Spectacular Evidence for Inflation
This is huge. See New York Times article, which (I think) wasn't yet published in time for any of the other diaries: Detection of Waves in Space Buttresses Landmark Theory of Big Bang.A ground-based...
View ArticleUpdate -- Goal Met! Community Fundraisers: The Big Lie. And please help Tonya.
If you think 15% of people are unemployed, you're thinking that the glass is half empty. 85% of people are employed. With odds like that, you must be a real loser to not be on your way to living the...
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Today is the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda
Well, the start of the genocide, anyway. It lasted 100 days and took roughly 800,000 lives. What most of us in the west do not realize is that this was a particular instance of extreme violence that...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: “I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of Him.”
Greetings, all, and thanks to remembrance for inviting me here. This is my first time hosting KTK. I had something prepared that was full of sweetness and light, when I learned that Gabriel Garcia...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Hinkin' thinkin' ... and spring.
Oh, spring.I'm still in a flurry of pulling weeds, and I'm way behind on yard stuff. My garden is getting to be a big slug buffet. The rainy season isn't quite over, and the sunny season is getting...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: "We will hold hands and succeed together."
Last March, folks here at KTK helped to support this fundraiser, by reccing, sharing, reposting, learning, or donating. A group of teenage, single mothers in Democratic Republic of the Congo are...
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Oil exploration in Virunga National Park
Crossposted from here...Guest lodge at Virunga National Park.Virunga National Park is the jewel of the African rainforest. It is perhaps the most biologically and geographically diverse area on the...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Bridal Veil Falls and Lake Serene
May. Fair weather hiking season is underway in a lot of places. We had a lot of precipitation this year in the Puget Sound area, so it will be a while before we can get to the high places. There will...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Twin Lakes Trail
If you look in Washington State trail books, this trail is to Twin Lakes, somewhere near Wenatchee, Washington. These photos were taken last weekend, on Memorial Day...The hike is a little way out from...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 06/12/14: Have a safe hike.
View from the summit of Mailbox Peak, near North Bend, Washington.Last weekend, Mr. rb137 went on a "workout hike" to Mailbox Peak. He took the photos here from the summit. I don't go along on his...
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Saturday Morning Garden Blogging, Vol. 10.17
Maybe I could call this Gardening in the Dark. With Helpers.It's a long transition to perfectly blissful gardening with puppies. I want the yard to be compatible with our helpful garden buddies, but I...
View Article6th grade graduation speech...
This is a speech written for a 6th grade commencement -- by a 12 year old who wishes to remain anonymous. He or she has given me permission to post it here, and it is unabridged.When we were given this...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 6/21/14, America in the World
Happy Solstice, everyone. At my house we celebrate this day with the mantra, "May you walk in peace and love."I work in non-profit. In short, I translate perspectives from people living in a war-addled...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing, 06/25/14: Mountain Flowers
I'll let the flowers speak for themselves. The photos were taken on Rock Mountain last weekend.
View Article150 Years in Yosemite: Those Who Kill
As we celebrate 150 years of protecting Yosemite National Park, we have to look closer at how it became ours in the first place.The name itself -- Yosemite -- is a slur. It is a Miwok word that means...
View ArticleMarch on UN Climate Summit -- September 21
Do sign up and march if you can. It will make a difference.The US has been a primary source for the quicksand prior climate talks have encountered. They are slow realize their effect on the climate,...
View ArticlePeople's Climate March Blogathon – Blog Team Thanks Meteor Blades
Our UN Climate Blogathon starts tomorrow -- and we have a great panel of guests, as well as some Daily Kos writers planning to post. This summit is a big deal. The US has been blocking international...
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Beyond the Summit: Gorillas, Guerillas, Grit, and Green Energy
Dr. Emmanuel de Merode is Chief Warden of Virunga National Park in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has dedicated the past fifteen years of his career to protecting the National Parks...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: 9.25 Mount Dickerman
Greetings, all...I've not been around much for the past several months -- I've been up to more good than no good, though. Well, most of the time, anyway. And I do enjoy hanging out at KTK when I can....
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 01/15/15: Thank you, DK. You helped. A lot!
It's nice to see you all again -- meatworld has been chewing into my blogging time lately, so I don't get out as often as I'd like. I wanted to drop in and tell you about something wonderful, though. I...
View ArticleOne more thing anti-vaccers don't get...
I wasn't going to jump into this conversation, but I want to add another dimension to the discussion of the benefits vs. dangers of vaccinating. I feel qualified by the fact that my first-born child...
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The DR Congo Climate Factor, and the Road to 2016.
All photos in this post are by Prince Balume and Achilles Balume, and are posted here with permission.In 2006, DR Congo passed a new constitution, which is similar to our (US) constitution in many...
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: 2/25/2015
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your...
View ArticleSpiritSisters: It's All About Choice
This video is the work of one of the most brilliant grassroots organizations I know. These are women and men in DR Congo, turning the narratives about sexual violence upside down. They are changing the...
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Nuz Hounds Blogathon Fundraiser - Moar Pooties Edition
Nuz Hounds - Friends of Animal Nuz Presents the 1st Annual Animal Nuz Blogathon Fundraiser All Donations are Welcome!What is the Fundraiser for? Eric Lewis (ericlewis0) has been publishing Animal Nuz...
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Saturday Morning Garden Blogging, Vol. 11.20: Drought!
Vegetable garden is doing well. Zucchini glut? Check. Tomatoes? Check. Lettuce getting overwrought? A little...The thing is, I'm in the Seattle area. Summer doesn't usually start until July 1. In fact,...
View ArticleUpdated: Hillary details climate plan, Steyer gives blessing.
Hillary Clinton hasn't been quite so hawkish about the climate as other issues in the past. That said, she claims that she will unveil her plan at 7:00 CDT (5:00 Pacific) this evening...I asked HRC to...
View ArticleIn the shadow of death
Yesterday, we lost a father, a son, a brother, a friend. And as I sit with the lessons I've learned from his humanitarian world, it all seems so stupidly clear: the only thing that can really change...
View ArticleSaturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol 11.41: Do you live near a community garden?
The Seattle area has an extensive collection of community gardens, in fact, if you combine the spaces in the near suburbs with the P-Patch system within Seattle city limits, there are about 100...
View ArticleLet us move toward unity with grace, please.
I’ve deliberately stayed out of the primary discussions. After reading the news tonight — I really have to say something: It is true that history is being made, and I look forward to an entire general...
View ArticleWhat did Patriot Daily ever do for us??? And -- if you can, please help.
Patriot Daily’s circumstances are dire. She is suffering from metastatic bone and lung cancer, and she needs our help. Rather than write about that, though, I wanted to give new readers a glimpse at...
View ArticleAction Needed to Turn Washington State Blue.
Update: Please also have a look at Elect Michelle Rylands to Washington State Senate.Meteor Blades has a mantra —“Tell me what you do, and I will tell you what you believe.” Nothing could be more apt...
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