Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where you can hang out, talk about what is going on with you, listen to music, talk about the news and the goings on here and everywhere.
Maybe you have seen some news stories that you think are not receiving enough attention and you'd like to post links to them. Maybe you'd like to just chat among friends about your life, your health, your family or social circle, your pets, etc. You can also post links to your own writings here on dkos or elsewhere. Perhaps you want to share some pictures or music or links to other things. This is your kind of place to talk about what's happening.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. If that is what you want, find another place to do it. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact. This diary series is produced by the TeamDFH group but anyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is welcome.
Good Morning!
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Life
Henry Van Dyke
Let me but live my life from year to year,
With forward face and unreluctant soul;
Not hurrying to, nor turning from the goal;
Not mourning for the things that disappear
In the dim past, nor holding back in fear
From what the future veils; but with a whole
And happy heart, that pays its toll
To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.
So let the way wind up the hill or down,
O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:
Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,
My heart will keep the courage of the quest,
And hope the road's last turn will be the best.
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News
Follow the link and watch the video to hear Gabby Giffords speak for the first time since the shooting.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Smiling, Talking 11 Months After Shooting
When Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords woke up in a rehab hospital in Houston weeks after she was shot by her attacker, Giffords stared off into the distance, seemingly unaware of where or who she was. No one knew if she would ever speak or walk again.
That moment, so full with hope and despair, was recorded by her husband, Mark Kelly, who documented much of her effort to battle back from her catastrophic head wound. She had to relearn even reflex motions as small as nodding her head. At her lowest point, Giffords was not even able to smile.
Now, for the first time since the attack at a Tucson supermarket, Giffords speaks publicly -- doing her best to sum up the nine months of pain and rehabilitation she's endured.
I was raised (in a very conservative church) to believe that suicide was a sin. My feelings are more nuanced now. But this story has made me wonder if suicide--in this context--could be an act of love that would be rewarded by God.
'Burning martyrs': the wave of Tibetan monks setting themselves on fire
On the posters, they call them "the burning martyrs". Above photographs of the 11 Tibetan monks, former monks and nuns who have set fire to themselves this year in an unprecedented series of demonstrations in Sichuan, south-west China, the question asked is: "How many more?"
Their images line the streets of Dharamsala, the Indian Himalayan foothill town which is a refuge to the Tibetan community in exile. And with seven suicide protests in the last four weeks alone, the question is ever more urgent. Most of those who have set themselves on fire have died.
On Thursday monks who have recently made the perilous journey across the Himalayas to exile in India claimed leaflets were circulating in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in China listing the names of scores of young people ready to publicly burn themselves alive to protest against Chinese policies.
This isn't a story about a man who killed another person. This is a story about the tragedy of warfare. The media might make it about a man, but let's not forget that this is really about war.
Soldier found guilty of murdering Afghans, sentenced to life
Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs has been sentenced to life in military prison with eligibility for parole in 10 years.
A military court-martial Thursday found Gibbs guilty of murdering three Afghan civilians, illegally cutting off pieces of their corpses to keep as "souvenirs" and planting weapons to make the men appear as if they were Taliban fighters killed in legitimate firefights.
He was reduced in rank to private and ordered to forfeit all pay and benefits. Gibbs already has served 547 days of pre-trial confinement, which will be subtracted from the 10-year sentence.
In 2005, Romney decided he wanted to be president.
For Romney, 2005 Was Key Year of Policy Shifts
To win election as governor of Massachusetts in 2002, Mitt Romney made a truce with liberal activists and cast himself as a moderating force within the Republican Party. If he becomes the GOP nominee for president, it may be because of steps he took to change those alliances during a few months of 2005.
Mr. Romney had once said he didn't "line up" with the National Rifle Association, but in May 2005 proclaimed "The Right to Bear Arms Day.'' He had rejected the label of either pro-choice or pro-life, according to an abortion-rights activist, but in July 2005 wrote: "I am prolife." He helped lead talks on a pact to control emissions but in December 2005 surprised some staff members by pulling out.
A "flip-flopper" tag has long dogged Mr. Romney. Less known is that his reputation as ideologically elastic was cemented over a 10-month stretch in the second half of his term as governor. Conservative interest groups that had once received a cold shoulder were extended a glad hand, while liberal groups often got iced out.
Holy Crap!
NJ students text parents to say bus driver drunk
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A New Jersey bus driver has been charged with drunken driving after a middle school student texted home with "Mommy I think our bus driver is drunk she's not driving right."
Westhampton police Sgt. Stephen Ent says Carole Crockett had a blood-alcohol level of 0.25 percent, five times the legal limit for operating a commercial vehicle.
Some of the 25 students on the bus called and texted their parents Tuesday afternoon to alert them. Twelve-year-old Dominic Rodrigues tells NBC Philadelphia ( http://bit.ly/...) that kids were yelling: "I don't want to die today!"
Fresh Start: Scientists Glimpse Unsullied Traces of the Infant Universe
By peering into the distance with the biggest and best telescopes in the world, astronomers have managed to glimpse exploding stars, galaxies and other glowing cosmic beacons as they appeared just hundreds of millions of years after the big bang. They are so far away that their light is only now reaching Earth, even though it was emitted more than 13 billion years ago.
Astronomers have been able to identify those objects in the early universe because their bright glow has remained visible even after a long, universe-spanning journey. But spotting the raw materials from which the first cosmic structures formed—the gas produced as the infant universe expanded and cooled in the first few minutes after the big bang—has not been possible. That material is not itself luminous, and everywhere astronomers have looked they have found not the primordial light-element gases hydrogen, helium and lithium from the big bang but rather material polluted by heavier elements, which form only in stellar interiors and in cataclysms such as supernovae.
Hope in the war against cancer!
Skin transformed for cancer fight
Oxford University researchers transformed skin cells into immune cells, which could be used to trigger a hunt for cancer.
It was achieved only in the laboratory, not in people, meaning any therapy is a long way off.
However, the researchers believe it will be possible.