Every time I see today’s date I think of my grandmother, who died on this day 26 years ago. I still miss her.

I'll be talking about gender in the Qur'an next Monday, March 7, from 7 to 9 pm in the parlor of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Arlington Center (630 Mass Ave). It would be lovely to have friends there ( Read more... )

Please sign this petition if you want women worldwide to have access to reproductive health care, including contraception and sterile supplies for childbirth. The UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) is one of the key organizations saving women's lives worldwide, and the US has repeatedly refused funding to it because of abortion politics. It's ( Read more... )

MassINC recently reported that the tax credits given the film industry cost Massachusetts taxpayers $323,838 per job in Massachusetts in 2009. Tax expenditures (special tax provisions) are generally a rotten way to create jobs, but they're one of the primary job-creation strategies of our state and country nowadays because they can be sold as tax ( Read more... )

I just read John Kerry’s speech from earlier today. In my opinion it says a lot of things that need to be said.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/01/if_you_read_only_one_john_kerr.html

I knew US tax rates were low in international terms, but I didn’t know how low. It turns out that we’re number 25 out of 27 OECD countries for which full data is available - only Turkey and Mexico are lower. This includes state and local taxes as well as federal ones. No wonder we’re having difficulties creating and maintaining a modern ( Read more... )

I had a good conversation with the Concord Coalition’s outreach person last week, and he sent me some useful materials in a follow-up email. I’ve continued to reflect, however, on whether I want to work with/for them. It would be wonderful to have colleagues and to be part of a larger structure - part of me hungers for that. But there are real ( Read more... )

A couple weeks ago I went to a conference co-sponsored by the Concord Coalition and the New England Economic Partnership. It was partly an economic forecast for New England (that part was on the front page of the Globe the next morning) and partly a discussion of the federal deficit and its likely impact and possible solutions. I was amused to be ( Read more... )

Someone mentioned a website where you tell it what foods you have in the house and it suggests recipes using those ingredients. I’m hoping someone can point me to that link again ( Read more... )

[Edit: Nixed on the grounds of the comment from yagagriswold. Back to the drawing board ... ]

I hope I’m not getting people sick of this name-choosing process! But I’d like to run one more idea past you folks:

Invest in Our Country:

A Pro-Tax NetworkThe primary issues I’m thinking about are ( Read more... )