Gregory Heller

[l:http://www.civicactions.com/node/325|Fen blogged] about [l:http://www.thankyouharrytaylor.org|ThankYouHarryTaylor.org]. Dan also had a conversation with the organizer of the site and the [l:http://thankyouharrytaylor.blogspot.com/|coordinated actions this Saturday] to the "Thank Harry Taylor" for giving us all voice.

Last night I went to see the Eugene Jarecki documentary "Why We Fight" about America's propensity towards militarization and war. The film was disturbing. People will say it is “over the top” or slander it as “left wing liberal media propaganda”. Those people will continue to ignore the fact that there is something very wrong with a government that spends three quarters of a trillion dollars ($750,000,000,000) on its military each year. Which is more than on all other discretionary spending put together. When we put this into the context of the disaster in the Gulf Coast region, or the failings of our public schools, or the cuts to higher education funding, housing assistance, job training, health care.... well it just makes me want to throw up.

Anyone watching my del.icio.us bookmark feed recently has probably noticed a ton of links (well not a ton, more like 10) that I would file under [l:http://del.icio.us/GregoryHeller/Finance|finance] or [l:http://del.icio.us/GregoryHeller/socialresponsibility|social responsibility].

You may remember [gh:node/268|this post on the Disutility of Gift Giving] well, Gothamist has post today about [l:http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/12/28/too_late.php|gift giving] in the big apple, and the [l:http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/recycling/holiday_tips.shtml|Sanitation Department's suggestions for less wasteful gift giving]. Here are their suggestions:

But some people take it a step further. A bunch of international bloggers have launched the [l:http://greenlagirl.com/2005/12/03/starbucks-challenge-30-demand-an-answer-2|Starbucks Challenge]. They go into starbucks and ask for the Fair Trade blend. Tunrs out they weren't having universal luck finding it.