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.
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Good Morning!
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Drop in any time of day or night to say hello. |
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A Few Quotes for This Morning
If people behaved like governments, you'd call the cops. ~Kelvin Throop
Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. ~James Russell Lowell
In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery? ~St. Augustine
The most important political office is that of the private citizen. ~Louis Brandeis
Democracy: The state of affairs in which you consent to having your pocket picked, and elect the best man to do it. ~Benjamin Lichtenberg
The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them. ~Karl Marx
Governments should not possess instruments of coercion and violence denied to their citizens. ~Edgar A. Suter
The cure for capitalism's failing would require that a government would have to rise above the interests of one class alone. ~Robert L. Heilbroner
Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. ~Louis Brandeis
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. ~Robert M. Hutchins, Great Books, 1954
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News
Occupy at the Rose Parade!
Anti-Wall Street protesters make a show at Rose Parade
PASADENA, Calif (Reuters) - Hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters sought to upstage the 123rd Tournament of Roses parade on Monday but were largely confined to the sidelines.
Several hundred protesters marched in a "human float" that followed behind the official parade, unfurling a 250-foot banner of the constitution and also displayed an approximately 70-foot octopus made of recycled plastic grocery bags.
"Everything is not coming up roses," one protester's sign said. Another read, "This is what Democracy looks like."
The next state up for anti-union forces...
A Gathering Storm Over ‘Right to Work’ in Indiana
INDIANAPOLIS — Nearly a year after legislatures in Wisconsin and several other Republican-dominated states curbed the power of public sector unions, lawmakers are now turning their sights toward private sector unions, setting up what is sure to be another political storm.
The thunderclouds are gathering first here in Indiana. The leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature say that when the legislative session opens on Wednesday, their No. 1 priority will be to push through a business-friendly piece of legislation known as a right-to-work law.
If Indiana enacts such a law — and its sponsors say they have the votes — it will give new momentum to those who have previously pushed such legislation in Maine, Michigan, Missouri and other states. New Hampshire’s Republican-controlled Legislature was the last to pass a right-to-work bill in 2011, but it narrowly failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto by the Democratic governor; an Indiana law would re-energize that effort.
A very cool idea...
Indies battle Amazon — by becoming publishers
Of all the booksellers I’ve met over the years, no doubt the busiest is Mitchell Kaplan. In addition to overseeing Miami’s venerated Books & Books stores, Kaplan is a co-founder of the Miami Book Fair, a former president of the American Booksellers Association, and the most recent recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award. So it was pretty surprising to see Kaplan himself when I read at his flagship store in Coral Gables last month.
Even more striking was the book Kaplan giddily showed me: a new anthology of stories by South Florida writers called “Blue Christmas: Holidays Stories for the Rest of Us.” (As a former Miamian, I’d written a piece for the collection.)
“Isn’t it beautiful?” he said, gazing at the deep-blue cover.
This has gotta feel strange while growing up...
Twins Born in Different Years – Times 3
It’s rare enough for twins to have different birthdays. But thanks to six timely deliveries flanking midnight Saturday, three sets of twins will grow up with different birth years.
In Minneapolis — one of the twin cities — Beckett Humenny was born 6:40 p.m. Dec. 31, 2011, followed by his sister, Freya, at 12:26 a.m. Jan. 1, 2012. In Buffalo, N.Y., Ronan Rosputni was born at 11:37 p.m., just 33 minutes before his brother, Rory, arrived at 12:10 a.m. (The Rosputni twins are shown in the photo above.) And in Tampa, Fla., Jenna and Leah Bear arrived at 11:59 p.m. and 12:00 a.m., respectively.
I still think this whole idea is kinda crazy...
Wis. Polar Bear Club head makes 60th icy plunge
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Milwaukee Polar Bear Club president who made his 60th annual New Year's Day plunge into Lake Michigan says it may not have been his last.
Eighty-two-year-old Garth Gaskey previously said he was quitting because of his age, the four stents in his heart and his daughter was unhappy about it.
A pretty cool reunion story...
Mom reunites with biological child 77 years later
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. (AP) — For most of her 100 years, Minka Disbrow tried to find out what became of the precious baby girl she gave up for adoption after being raped as a teen.
She hoped, but never imagined, she'd see her Betty Jane again.
The cruel act of violence bore in Disbrow an enduring love for the child. She kept a black and white photograph of the baby bundled in blankets and tucked inside a basket.
The Queen of Soul is getting hitched!
Soul singer Aretha Franklin is engaged
(CNN) -- Legendary soul singer Aretha Franklin is engaged to her "longtime friend and confidant," William 'Willie' Wilkerson, Franklin's spokeswoman said in a statement.
The "forever friends" are thinking about getting married in Miami Beach, Florida, with a reception afterward aboard a luxury yacht, the statement added.