On Blog Sisters, Lisa English calls attention to a photo exhibition called “Family of Woman,” which opened in New York and which will be traveling to Los Angeles and Minneapolis next year. The exhibit is presented by the U.S. Committee for the United Nation’s Population Fund.
These are some thought-provoking quotes from that exhibit

sent as an email to Chris:
Well, I guess I’m still on your email list, so I’ll go ahead and thank you directly for the lovely broom. Of course I already have one, but one can always use a spare. In return I would be honored to mail you one of my copies of Erica Jong’s “Witches,” of which I have several copies, all but one received as gifts. But I won’t unless you tell me to.
Meanwhile, congratulations on your new site. That’s the kind of stuff that just might change the world (at least an important piece of the business world).
You are a worthy opponent, even though I think that, like some, you often play dirty. That’s why there are witches — or more accurately, women who cloak themselves in that kind of disturbing image.
as always
cybercrone

Shelley Powers has a really interesting post (and links to the perspectives of others) about her plans to replace her blogroll with a system of archiving and organizing the specific posts of others that she really liked. I like the idea, although there are two major reasons why I can

As I’m cleaning and cooking, I’m watching Steven Spielberg’s “Taken,” which I taped, since it runs for 20 hours. I was prepared not to like it, but as I get into the 4th segment, I find it fascinating the way he wove together the histories and myths of “the truth is out there.” The “cigarette man” from the X-Files, in his younger days, might be one of the central figures. His duplicity, immorality, total lack of conscience, and even pure evil, develop as the story line develops. What I found interesting was something that the child-voiced narrator says in relation to him — something about why people become that way — likening it to what we see often happening on the playground. “If you’re the one doing the pushing, you’re not going to be the one being pushed.”
(Addendum: Oops. He wasn’t the “cigarette man” because he died. Oh well. That’s what I get for jumping the gun.)

Welcome brand new baby boy Ruairi Michael O

Being relentless is one of my best qualities and one of my worst. It’s the one that allowed me whatever successes I had advocating for the arts and humanities in education — which are always the first to be cut out of the school budget and which many classroom teachers don’t understand how to integrate into what they already are teaching.
It’s also a quality that makes people and bloggers tell me “enough already.”
So my mantra for the coming year is going to be from my favorite translation of Lao Tsu’s Tao Te Ching, #8.
The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep into the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent.
In action, watch the timing.
No fight. No blame.
Not relentless like crashing waves, or incessant hail stones. Rather, relentless like the steady, even flow of clear, cleansing water. Here’s hoping.

Got this from Pearl Calico’s Corner. Roddick, a successful British business entrepreneur, has solid human values. I’m sure that her view of America is shared by most people across the Atlantic. She’s right, and it’s so tragic!

Here you go, Marek J. I already broke off my piece. (I’d like it better if it did taste like Godiva chocolate! Hey, there’s a commercial venture for you!)

Zycze zdrowia, szczescia i fortuny!
Niech sie spelnia wszystkie marzenia!
Wesolych Swiat!

Go here to read a wonderful sermon given at a Jewish temple last Friday by a Jewish man — a therapist, a healer, a poet, a writer, a man of wisdom and compassion. The title of the sermon is “Biblical Wisdom and Modern War.”
May we all find peace in the New Year.
For more information about Dr. Edward Tick, see www.mentorthesoul.com

The following, thanks to Lisa English. Read her entire posts on her site and/or Blog Sisters.
THE HOMELAND SECURITY WHODUNIT:
TOM PAINE.COM OFFERS $10,000 REWARD TO FIND OUT
Back in November, the Senate and House passed a Homeland Security Bill replete with goodies for special interests, but none so troubling as that mysterious rider which appeared out of nowhere, seemingly in the middle of the night, just prior to the vote. The rider created a wall of protection around the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, a large Republican campaign contributor. For a company facing expensive lawsuits stemming from an association between the vaccines it produced, and the high rise in autism among American children who were administered that vaccine, this rider – having nothing to do with Homeland Security – may well have saved Eli Lilly’s future in corporate America. Sadly, passage of Homeland Security put an end to those lawsuits, filed by parents who want to know the truth. Families must now file their claims through a special “vaccine court” where their cases will be heard. The quest for truth has been crushed.
Who was the person who slipped this rider into the bill at the last minute? Who out there is protecting the corporate backside of Eli Lilly? Politicians on the left and on the right claim they knew nothing about the addition. Many voted for the bill not realizing the rider had been included. Now, you and I both know that Washington DC is not exactly a haven for the modest. To the contrary, it’s home to politicians and pundits whose every breath is cause for a two-column write-up, so when nobody stepped up to the plate and took credit for this mysterious corporate litigation condom, families of autism and people of good will began to ask, “whodunit?” We just might get an answer to that question.
TomPaine.com has issued a $10,000 reward leading to the identification of that individual responsible for this clandestine piece of lawmaking. Read it all on their site..
I wonder if the arts money that heiress Ruth Lilly is spreading around is tied to this at all. Blood money? Then why to the arts? Because arts people are so hungry for support that they won’t criticize their benefactresses connections? Just wondering.