i’ll let the following teaser speak for itself.

visit The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard to see the bigger picture. it’s well worth your time!

The folks at First Freedom First have some powerful new advertisements out, posing some interesting questions to be considered during this election cycle. I include a couple below, because I think they’re both worthy of listening to.

Here are some of the questions FFF believes we should be asking candidates when they come to our areas. These are just suggestions, of course.

Here are suggested questions that you can use at Town Hall meetings or other locations where candidates for office will be gathering. You can copy and paste them into an email message to the candidates. Or, use these as suggestions to help formulate your own questions to candidates, to find out their views on safeguarding separation of church and state and protecting religious liberty.

1. Leaders on the religious right often say that America is a “Christian Nation.” Do you agree with this statement?
2. Do you think Houses of Worship should be allowed to endorse political candidates and retain their tax exempt status?
3. Do you think public schools should sponsor school prayer or, as a parent, should this choice be left to me?
4. Would you support a law that mandates teaching creationism in my child’s public school science classes?
5. Do you think my pharmacist should be allowed to deny me doctor-prescribed medications based on his or her religious beliefs?
6. Will you respect the rights of those in our diverse communities of faith who deem same-gender marriage to be consistent with their religious creed?
7. Should “faith-based” charities that receive public funds be allowed to discriminate against employees or applicants based on religious beliefs?
8. Do you think one’s right to disbelieve in God is protected by the same laws that protect someone else’s right to believe?
9. Do you think everyone’s religious freedom needs to be protected by what Thomas Jefferson called “a wall of separation” between church and state?
10. What should guide our policies on public health and medical research: science or religion?

Questions that I might ask:

1. Status Quo is often cited by the religious right as a reason for continuing the nation’s “business as usual”. Would you support the “Status Quo” after the example of the current administration, even when “business as usual” over the past seven years has proven harmful to our economy?
2. Our nation is comprised of many peoples, religions and creeds. Do you feel that politicians should be allowed to campaign on specific religious issues and promote specific religious platforms while continuing to draw benefits from the government (security details, etc) while campaigning?
3. Do you believe that when a veteran’s service is over, the government’s responsibility to the veteran ends, or do you believe that the government shares an ongoing obligation to veterans to provide qualified health care and psychological services to all veterans with no strings attached?

So, as the videos say, “What Would You Ask”? If you have a blog, please include one or more of these videos on it and ask your readers this question. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to ask your questions in the comments. And naturally, I encourage you all to visit the First Freedom Foundation and sign their petition in support of the separation of Church and State and religion liberty.

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{hat tip to TenGrainy Television} cross-posted at the otherwhirled

as seen on SorCrowTV and TenGrainy Television and OtherVision. watch it. share it.

my life in songs that i can only wish i’d written.

this album came out a while before The Elder and Unknown was born. it was (and still is) one of my favorites at the time surrounding her birth. this song just came up in my random playlist. not an exceptionally remarkable coinkydink, given that most of my on-computer was ripped from my CD collection, but remarkably apropos to the moment, anyway.

from Peter Murphy’s “Love Hysteria”

My Last Two Weeks

When I returned
You buried my last two weeks
My last two weeks
Of my new times
So it didn’t seem like
A wasted mouthful
A wasted mouthful
Because of a trip
That was trapped inside you

I was trapped inside you
And always imagined
That I could
I always imagined
Imagined I would
Conjure you up
Conjure you up
So it didn’t seem like
It didn’t seem like

I was conditioned
I was conditioned about that
So it didn’t seem like
A wasted mouthful
Am I untruthful
Am I untruthful
As a result of being
Maybe
Maybe it was too soon

The red rose
I liken it to the flicker of the pure
Fleeting moments
Precede our actions
Light that’s not burning
Light that’s not burning
No more lost sinking feeling
Tethered to your shoe
Tethered to you

We ask the controller
He sends us flames
Our lying bodies sleep
His whispered word says
Ah this is how
This is how it looks
From where we weep
Tethered to red rose
Tethered to your shoe
To the seven of cups
Tethered to you