Category Archives: Politics

Politics

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Love & Relationships, Memories & History, Politics, Religion & Spirit, Times They Are A-Changing

Robert Bly, Poet Who Gave Rise to a Men’s Movement, Dies at 94 – The New York Times

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His most famous, and most controversial, work was “Iron John,” which made the case that American men had grown soft and feminized. It made him a cultural phenomenon

By Robert D. McFadden, Nov. 22, 2021

Robert Bly in 1975. He was a prolific poet, essayist and translator and had been a galvanizing force in the antiwar movement of the Vietnam era. Credit…Gerard Malanga

Robert Bly, the Minnesota poet, author and translator who articulated the solitude of landscapes, galvanized protests against the Vietnam War and started a controversial men’s movement with a best seller that called for a restoration of primal male audacity, died on Sunday at his home in Minneapolis.

He was 94. The death was confirmed by his wife, Ruth Bly. From the sheer volume of his output — more than 50 books of poetry, translations of European and Latin American writers, and nonfiction commentaries on literature, gender roles and social ills, as well as poetry magazines he edited for decades — one might imagine a recluse holed up in a North Woods cabin.

And Mr. Bly did live for many years in a small town in Minnesota, immersing himself in the poetry of silent fields and snowy woodlands.

Source: Robert Bly, Poet Who Gave Rise to a Men’s Movement, Dies at 94 – The New York Times

Current Affairs, Food & Drink, Politics, Science & Health

Maine passes nation’s 1st ‘right to food’ amendment | AP News

By PATRICK WHITTLE, Nov 3rd, 2021

FILE- Chickens follow Heather Retberg at her family’s farm, Sept. 17, 2021, in Penobscot, Maine. On Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, Maine voters will decide whether to pass the nation’s first “right to food” constitutional amendment. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine voters passed the nation’s first “right to food” constitutional amendment on Tuesday.

A statewide referendum asked voters if they favored an amendment to the Maine Constitution “to declare that all individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being.”

It was an experiment not tried before by any state.

Source: Maine passes nation’s 1st ‘right to food’ amendment

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Memories & History, Politics, Web & Technology

Will There Be Libraries in 25 Years?  | Time

By Brewster Kahle, October 22, 2021 1:21 PM EDT
Kahle, Founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. Member, National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Internet Hall of Fame
Getty Images

When I started the Internet Archive 25 years ago, I focused our non-profit library on digital collections: preserving web pages, archiving television news, and digitizing books. The Internet Archive was seen as innovative and unusual.

Now all libraries are increasingly electronic, and necessarily so. To fight disinformation, to serve readers during the pandemic, and to be relevant to 21st-century learners, libraries must become digital.

But just as the Web increased people’s access to information exponentially, an opposite trend has evolved. Global media corporations—emboldened by the expansive copyright laws they helped craft and the emerging technology that reaches right into our reading devices—are exerting absolute control over digital information.

These two conflicting forces—towards unfettered availability and completely walled access to information—have defined the last 25 years of the Internet. How we handle this ongoing clash will define our civic discourse in the next 25 years.

If we fail to forge the right path, publishers’ business models could eliminate one of the great tools for democratizing society: our independent libraries.

Source: Will There Be Libraries in 25 Years?  | Time

Current Affairs, Politics, Science & Health, Times They Are A-Changing

Alabama woman nearly killed by COVID while pregnant: ‘It all could have been prevented if I had gotten a vaccination’ | al.com

Updated: Oct. 19, 2021, 2:30 p.m. | Published: Oct. 19, 2021, 10:56 a.m.

Amanda Harrison holds her baby, Lake, outside her mother’s home in Phenix City, Ala., on Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. Harrison was put on a ventilator and later life support after becoming ill with COVID-19 in her third trimester of pregnancy. Doctors delivered Lake at 32 weeks and put Harrison on a type of life support called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to save her. Harrison, who was unvaccinated, is urging pregnant women to get vaccinated for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)AP

Sometimes when she’s feeding her infant daughter, Amanda Harrison is overcome with emotion and has to wipe away tears of gratitude.

She is lucky to be here, holding her baby. Harrison was 29 weeks pregnant and unvaccinated when she got sick with COVID-19 in August.

Her symptoms were mild at first, but she suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe. Living in Phenix City, she was intubated and flown to a hospital in Birmingham, where doctors delivered baby Lake two months early and put Harrison on life support.

Source: Alabama woman nearly killed by COVID while pregnant: ‘It all could have been prevented if I had gotten a vaccination’ – al.com

Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health, Travel

Review: Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams call for action in ‘Book of Hope’ : NPR

Published October 19, 20217:28 AM ET, By Barbara J. King

Damian Dovarganes/AP

In Mombasa on the coast of Kenya is a place called Haller Park. People flock there to see 180 indigenous species of plants and trees, and a variety of animals including hippos and giraffes.

In The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams (Gail Hudson is an additional author), discuss the park as an example of how our injured Earth can be restored and healed.

At one point the park was “a monstrous five-hundred-acre scar where almost nothing grew” because a cement company created a quarry that ravaged the land. The company’s CEO decided to repair the damage and slowly, year by year, with horticultural tending and introduction of wild animals, the area was transformed.

Source: Review: Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams call for action in ‘Book of Hope’ : NPR

Current Affairs, Politics, Science & Health

Unvaccinated Adults 11 Times More Likely to Die from Covid-19: CDC – Rolling Stone

Hint: A lot more likely

By Peter Wade

A visitor sits on a bench to look artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg’s “In America: Remember,” a temporary art installation made up of white flags to commemorate Americans who have died of Covid-19, on the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, October 2nd, 2021.
AP

Getting vaccinated can significantly reduce your chances of dying from Covid-19.

Like, really significantly. Throughout the month of August, unvaccinated adults were 11 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than fully vaccinated adults, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC also found that unvaccinated adults faced a six times as likely to contract the virus than fully vaccinated adults. The data marks the first time the CDC has released information about how Covid-19 risks can differ depending on vaccination status.

Source: Unvaccinated Adults 11 Times More Likely to Die from Covid-19: CDC – Rolling Stone