Burlington: The temperature's rising, it isn't surprising...

As we enjoy warmish, almost sultry, November days in Burlington, it's getting too darn hot around City Hall. On Thursday evening, John Odum at GMD wrote about new, bitter, heated letter exchanges surrounding this continuing, messier saga of Burlington Telecom and Mayor Bob Kiss's administration. He ends with,

"It's amazing to read this while considering how different the whole situation would now be if Kiss and Leopold had simply had a tried-and-true "mistakes were made," mea culpa-ridden press conference and pledged to work with the council when this all broke in the first place."

"Mistakes were made" and "mea culpa" are not the same. The former is in the passive voice, the latter, in the active. "Tried and true"? Nah, there's a lack of responsibility and accountability which doesn't cut it. All politicians rely on it with crossed fingers - moving on and hoping that settles it. A cloudy murk has settled over the Kiss administration. I don't think this is what the city's Ad Hoc Committee on Transparency had in mind when it met a few years ago. Why is it so hard to say "I am sorry, and I pledge to do better"?

Houston LBGTs in Mourning

Sad news - two stories via the Houston Press.

The Houston Voice has been given the axe. The paper had been around since the mid 1970s, and I read it regularly when I lived in Montrose. Apparently the paper had been in trouble for quite some time.

The chain that publishes the Houston Voice and other gay-community papers nationwide -- including the venerable Washington Blade -- has gone kaput.

Gawker and other media are reporting that Window Media, the financially strapped company that owns more gay news titles than any other chain, has shut everything down.

The Houston Voice website now gives you an error message, and the phone "is no longer in service."

Oh Mary! The venerable Mary's Lounge at Westheimer and Montrose has closed! I could tell you stories!

Mary's, the bar that many people think of as the gay bar in Houston history, is no more, a victim of unpaid rent.

But there's a scramble going on to try to keep as much of the place as possible, as a way to preserve a cornerstone of Houston's gay past.

A Facebook page has been set up to encourage ways to get artifacts from the 40-year-old place.

"The old sign with Ronald Reagan smoking that hung in the bathroom?" writes one commenter. "The old 'Mary's' sign that hung outside the building on the patio? What about any of the artifacts stored in the back building? Or some of the items from the back patio, like the motorcycle and statue?"

Tim Brookover, an activist in the gay community, is urging the GLBT Community Center board to get active in saving whatever can be saved. "Mary's contains a number of objects and artifacts that are significant to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender heritage," he says. "Our ad hoc Mary's heritage group, spearheaded by the GLBT Community Center, is seeking to get access to Mary's and, we hope, permission to remove at least some of the items. At the very least, we hope to document what is left with photography."

If those walls could speak...

Photo of Mary's mural (now gone) by eatcorndie on Flickr.

A Chemical Reaction at Main Street Landing, Burlington

A Chemical Reaction - Trailer from Brett Plymale on Vimeo.

The documentary, A Chemical Reaction, will be shown at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, November 18, at 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. An opening reception with the director and narrator will be held at 5:30. Tickets are $10 and available through the Flynn Box office (863-5966 or www.flynntix.org). The film tells the story of how one person helped create one of the most extensive chemical bans in North America.

Study finds relationship between Community Water Fluoridation and Premature Births in Upstate NY

The New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF) sent out a news release on a new study that links fluoride to premature births in New York. According to NYSCOF, "State University of New York (SUNY) researchers found more premature births in fluoridated than non-fluoridated upstate New York communities, according to a presentation made at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting on November 9, 2009 in Philadelphia."

According to the study by Hart et al.,

"... Domestic water fluoridation was associated with an increased risk of PTB [preterm birth] (9545 (6.34%) PTB among women exposed to domestic water fluoridation versus 25278 (5.52%) PTB among those unexposed, p <>10% poverty) and those of non-white racial origin. Domestic water fluoridation was independently associated with an increased risk of PTB in logistic regression, after controlling for age, race/ethnicity, neighborhood poverty level, hypertension, and diabetes..."

• See the study.
• Read the NYSCOF's news release.
  

Scared Shitless in Holland

Yesterday, using old "intelligence," police in The Hague raided a house they thought was full of illegal immigrants, but was actually a hostel for women and children. What's interesting is the perspective of two headlines for the same story.

24oranges: "Police traumatise women and children by mistake"

DutchNews.nl: "Police raid women's hostel by accident"

Welch calls for investigation of Blackwater

Although Peter Welch voted with Republican wackos in September to defund ACORN without the House calling for an investigation, it's nice to know he reads Jeremy Scahill.

Transformed: A soldier who became a man of peace

Almighty God our Heavenly Father, guide the nations of the world Into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they may become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Today is the Feast of St Martin, Bishop of Tours, 397.

"The Feast of Martin, a soldier who fought bravely and faithfully in the service of an earthly sovereign, and then enlisted in the service of Christ, is also the day of the Armistice which marked the end of the First World War. On it we remember those who have risked or lost their lives in what they perceived as the pursuit of justice and peace."

Icon by the hand of Br. Leon Liddament, St. Seraphim's Studio, Walsingham, England. View more icons of St Martin here.

"In olden days in England, St. Martin was an extremely popular Saint, and his feast ushered in the great fast before Nativity. When St. Augustine of Canterbury arrived in Kent, he found in Canterbury a Christian church, ancient even then, dedicated to St. Martin. The location can still be seen in modern-day Canterbury."

See St Martin's Church, Canterbury, the oldest church in England still in use - here.

Collect for today:

Lord God of hosts, who clothed your servant Martin the soldier With the spirit of sacrifice, and set him as a bishop in your Church to be a defender of the catholic faith: Give us grace to follow in his holy steps, that at the last we may be found clothed with righteousness in the dwellings of peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Human Rights Activist Shadi Sadr Receives a 'Tulip'

NRC/international:

Shadi Sadr (35) is an Iranian lawyer and human right activist. Together with 2003 Nobel prize winner Shirin Ebadi, she is one of the most outspoken advocates for women's rights in Iran. She is the founder of Raahi, an organisation that provided legal advice to poor women until it was shut down by the regime, and she campaigned against stoning, a punishment mainly used against women.

The Dutch government has given her 2009 Human Rights Defenders Tulip for "her exceptional courage, perseverance and work in an environment of concern, where human rights are repeatedly violated," in the words of foreign minister Maxime Verhagen.
...
Sadr herself was arrested in July and detained for almost two weeks in the infamous Erin prison. She was interrogated not just about the protests by the opposition or her work for women's rights, "but about everything: conferences, contacts with foreigners, my whole life," she says in an interview with NRC Handelsblad.

"I was branded as one of the leaders of the women's department of the velvet revolution," Sadr says. (The Iranian authorities have accused the opposition of trying to overthrow the regime by means of a 'velvet revolution' at the instigation of foreign powers.)
It has been determined that prisoners have been tortured to death during interrogations. The opposition has also accused the authorities of rape

Sadr was not subjected to physical torture herself. "But at one point I was interrogated while in front of me more than a dozen young men were being mistreated. To me this was real torture. After half an hour I was numb. I was in a nightmare."

Her release was the result of internal and international pressure, she says. She was made to post the equivalent of 250,000 euros bail.

Sadr says she wants to go back to Iran, "but not to prison". For the moment she is living in Germany, where she has been given a 6-month scholarship for scientific research.

She is nevertheless "very optimistic" about the democratic future of her country. "It is a long process, and the costs will be high. But last week's demonstration has shown the government cannot afford to let down its guard for a minute. The security forces are being more aggressive than ever, and the opposition is braver than ever. There is fear, this is undeniable, and there is oppression, but people took to the streets regardless."

More Video of Abused Calves at Vermont Slaughter Plant

WARNING: Very graphic images:



This was at an organic farm in Grand Isle, Vermont skinning a still-living and squirming cow. USDA inspectors were present during the abuse. The Humane Society of the United States went undercover. FoxNews44 reports that the seven-week long investigation led to suspending operations at the Vermont slaughterhouse. The State of Vermont has not yet filed criminal charges - so please sign the petition for it to happen! There will be a Justice for the Calves Rally Saturday, Nov 14 in Montpelier, VT, in front the Statehouse, from 11 AM - 1 PM.

Best of Texas: Lyle Lovett

"Natural Forces," the new CD from Lyle Lovett is out. MadPriest has some more tracks from it.