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Daily Archives: February 3, 2010
Time for State Leadership on Medical Marijuana
The Los Angeles City Council last week finally adopted a medical marijuana ordinance. Though not perfect, it balances the needs of local communities with those of patients who truly need access to medical marijuana. And it will rein in an out-of-control situation in which a federally banned substance has been sold for the last four years as hundreds of dispensaries proliferated in the city of Los Angeles, with no local regulations and ambiguous state laws to guide us.
To make the new ordinance work as effectively as possible, legislators need to clarify the state’s medical marijuana laws — Proposition 215 and its accompanying SB 420. Both are silent or vague on critical issues for the practical implementation at the local level.
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged access, Angeles, angeles city, City, control situation, council, critical issues, dispensaries, implementation, legislators, Los, los angeles city council, marijuana, medical marijuana laws, ordinance, proposition 215, situation, state, state laws, substance, week, work
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Have You Heard of the Interchange Fee?
As if you weren’t already feeling the pinch in this time of need and economic uncertainty, hidden credit and debit card interchange fees are chewing a hole in your wallet.
Never heard of interchange fees? Don’t feel lonely. Most people have never heard of them and the banks like it that way. Interchange fees are a percentage of each credit or debit card transaction that goes to the banks through network providers such as Visa and MasterCard. Out of every credit card transaction no matter how big or small, your neighborhood grocer, bookstore and small business owner loses a percentage of the sale. The amount paid depends on the interchange fee set by Visa and MasterCard. Business owners have no control over the fees and most consumers don’t even know that the cost of the mysterious interchange fee ends up being tacked on to the price of everything they buy.
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged business, business owners, card, credit, credit card transaction, debit, DON, economic uncertainty, fee, feeling the pinch, interchange, interchange fee, interchange fees, MasterCard, neighborhood grocer, network providers, percentage, small business owner, time of need, transaction, visa
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Successful Green-Building Mandates Must Focus on Aggressive Energy Reduction
CalGREEN is designed to address the myriad of activities which contribute to carbon emissions from all buildings, residential and commercial. Among the requirements of the new mandate are water use reductions, diversion of construction waste from landfills, and use of environmentally friendly finishes. Addressing these issues is laudable, but will it distract from the essential need to address energy first and foremost in order to achieve any significant reduction in GHG emissions?
Given that buildings are responsible for roughly 40% of global energy consumption, building codes are not properly addressing GHG emissions unless they are aggressively addressing building energy efficiency.
John McCain’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
“The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, ‘Senator, we ought to change the policy,’ then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to.”
John McCain, October 2006
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged day, John McCain, leadership, October, policy, responsibility, senator
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Sad About Haiti? Give to Our MegaChurch
Last week I wrote an article about solar-powered Bibles that are being sent to Haiti as aid. As a former Evangelical, I was trying to explain the psychology that turns a tragedy into a marketing opportunity for religions that need recruits. On a whim, I pulled up the website for Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Ok, it wasn’t a whim, it was a hunch based on past experience. At the time of the 2004 Asian Tsunami, I was researching local mega churches and ran across Mars Hill for the first time. I was appalled to see their home page recommendations for members: pray for the people in the disaster zone, give to Mars Hill church, give to our church building efforts in India. (Why wasn’t it “Pray for Mars Hill Church, give to the people in the disaster zone … ?)
There is little more sacred to me than compassion – the part of us that feels someone else’s pain as our own and seeks to alleviate it. My deepest spiritual values were violated by what Mars Hill was doing; I would say that the moral heart of humanity was violated.
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged aid, article, asian tsunami, Bibles, Church, Compassion, disaster, disaster zone, Haiti, hunch, India, marketing opportunity, Mars Hill, mars hill church, pray, religions, Seattle, spiritual values, time, week, whim, Zone
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Reimagining Books for the 21st Century
It is interesting that what we are witnessing right now is just simply the digitization of books formerly printed in paper. For over 500 years, books have been written and conceived with Gutenberg’s guidelines in mind (Gutenberg is the inventor of the mechanical printing press).
But since the advent of computers and now of the Internet, so many new possibilities have emerged — and yet the printed world has barely changed. The advent of Kindle, the iPad and other portable reading devices has so far simply resulted in turning analog print into digital print, while keeping the same linear prose format.
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged advent, digitization, Gutenberg, Internet, inventor, linear prose, mind, paper, possibilities, press, print, printing, printing press, reading devices
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Human Rights Soundbytes
About two weeks ago, I found a video on Facebook — it explained human rights. What made it interesting to me were a few things:
First, it started asking people on the street WHAT ARE human rights? People were better able to explain what they weren’t — but not what they were. No one seemed aware of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights spearheaded by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1948 after the vast devastation of WW2.
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged Declaration, declaration of human rights, devastation, Eleanor Roosevelt, facebook, Human, one, Rights, street, United, united nations, united nations universal declaration, united nations universal declaration of human rights, Universal, universal declaration of human rights, video
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Labor Steaming Over Scott Brown’s Early Seating
The labor community is fuming over the expedited plan to seat Senator-elect Scott Brown (R-Mass) this Thursday afternoon, arguing that Democratic leadership is torpedoing one of its most important causes — the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board.
On Wednesday, Brown shocked political observers by announcing that he was asking Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to sign his election certification papers and that he would present those papers to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) the next day. The offices of Patrick and Reid, both Democrats, insist they have little institutional power to delay Brown’s seating, even though the Massachusetts Republican initially pegged February 11th as his start date.
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged afternoon, Brown, community, Craig Becker, Deval Patrick, institutional power, labor, labor relations board, Leader Harry Reid, leadership, Massachusetts, massachusetts gov, national labor relations, national labor relations board, nomination, Patrick, plan, political observers, R-Mass, Reid, seat, senate majority leader, senate majority leader harry reid, Senator-Elect, Senator-elect Scott Brown, Thursday
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The Misery Lover in Your Life
In our ongoing quest for healthy friendships, those in which we feel appreciated, understood and where trust is at a premium, the misery lover’s modus operandi isn’t always immediately apparent. Since much of female bonding is environmental and age related, the misery lover starts out as a good friend to have. For example, the two of you share mutual interests and common experiences, which leads to trading confidences. Perhaps you both have controlling mothers-in-law, awful bosses, trying adolescent children. Or it might be that disappointing husband or long-standing partner that you have in common. Thus, you and your friend moan together over these topics and soothe each other when the going gets rough. This applies to women of all ages since the search for female friends who echo one’s sentiments is compelling.
But in the case of the misery lover, it’s all about you being down and out. This kind of friend functions best when, either both of you have a similar problem, or if you alone have a problem. In either case, she thrives on the negative and she’ll go out of her way to comfort you — while secretly rejoicing in your discontent. A big factor here is that this friend gets jealous of your happiness and therefore enjoys your unhappiness. This is all well and good until your circumstances change for the better and then she tends to disappear. Consider the following examples:
Posted in News, Original Content
Tagged adolescent children, bonding, case, discontent, female bonding, female friends, friend, friend functions, lover, Misery, modus operandi, mothers in law, mutual interests, operandi, premium, problem, quest, Trust, unhappiness
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