The Moderation Management group that meets here at the Society every Wednesday at 5pm was profiled in the Post-Dispatch this Saturday as a nontheistic alternative to AA. I hope that the article helps more people struggling with alcohol issues to find this group, which is lead by member Donna Dierker and is free and open to all.

Jone Lewis is the Leader of the Northern Virginia Ethical Society, and she has a recent blog entry that tackles head-on a hot-button question in marriage equality debates: Will equal marriage rights for same-sex couples require that multiple-partner relationships also have marriage rights? Jone argues clearly that these are very different issues that should not be conflated, and I’m grateful to have her thinking on this. Check out her blog.

How are you all feeling about the Supreme Court 5-4 decision to let corporations and unions spend as much money as they want on political campaigns? Billy suggests that Congress start dressing in NASCARlike suits with logos all over them.

A corporation, by its very name, is a collection of people. Most of those people don’t get to vote on who makes the decisions (unlike unions), so what the Supreme Court has done is to allow those at the top of the corporate food chain to decide for all those people below them not only whether they have jobs and where and how much they’ll be paid, but now also what kind of government we’ll live under. I only hope that the conservatives who voted this in will live to see one nation under the liberal Google and realize their error.

As a follow-up to my platform address yesterday (”Community Is Dead; Long Live Community”), I’d like to direct you to a list of 100 ways you can help build community in your family, work, neighborhood, and city, from bettertogether.org, a website devoted to helping revitalize community ties in America. If you’re looking for a New Year’s resolution, there are 100 great ones on that list.

Happy New Year everyone. I had a very nice time in New York and Connecticut with my and Billy’s families; it’s also nice to be back, even if it’s too cold to scoot!

I received several great gifts from our generous families, and I wanted to share three of them with you:

Vegan Brunch and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar are two new cookbooks from my favorite vegan cookbook authors, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. Having already enjoyed several of the recipes and with my mouth watering over several others (and the pictures!), I heartily recommend these books. Isa and Terry’s recipes are great for non-vegans too, because not only are they delicious but also they usually don’t have a lot of unusual ingredients.

The third gift was a donation in my honor by my mother to Finca, an international microfinance organization with a high rating from Charity Navigator (I don’t always agree with CN, but it’s a good place to start researching an organization). Microfinance has been a particular boon to poor women all over the world, and therefore to their children, families, and communities. Thanks Mom!

There’s now a video on youtube of me, Billy Dechand, Evan Gross, and Tom Rogers performing Billy’s song “Garbage” for the platform on the environment a couple weeks ago.

Thank you to all who enjoyed our performance, and even more thanks to all those who didn’t, but who understand the importance of diversity to ethics. Here at the Ethical Society, one Sunday we might have a rock band, another a classical guitarist, another organ, another African drumming, another Italian opera, another Native American flute, another a chamber group, another bluegrass, another jazz, etc. etc. etc. They all express part of what makes us human, and they all help to move and motivate some people toward better living.

I’m going on vacation tomorrow until January 3, so have Happy Holidays everyone, and a very Happy New Year, with less garbage in it.

THERE WILL BE NO MORNING PLATFORM SUNDAY DECEMBER 20. Sorry for the caps, I just don’t want anyone to show up and be lonely. Our winter solstice potluck and candle-lit program of music and stories will begin at 4:30 p.m. this Sunday (Dec. 20). If you want to help decorate, come by Friday morning between 9 a.m. and noon. Yes, Virginia, there will be snacks provided.

Sunday, December 27 we will be closed all day.

I am very grateful to be the clergy for a humanist religion, so that I don’t have to work on Christmas. I loved Christmas as a kid and still love it as a wonderful holiday of love, food, and lights, and I look forward to spending it with my family in New York City.

Sorry for the tardy announcement: there is a Humanist Network News podcast up interviewing some of the folks who attended the Atheist Alliance International/Richard Dawkins Foundation meeting in October, including yours truly. I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, so let me know if I said anything stupid.

I just read No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process, by Colin Beavan, and will be talking about it as part of my platform tomorrow, and I want to highly recommend it to everyone. I bought extra copies for the Society so that members can borrow it as well. It’s a book about a year of trying to live your values in a society that is not set up to help much, and it’s a wonderful read for anyone: environmentalist, environmentalist-wanna-be, or environmentalist?-over-my-dead-body. It would make the perfect gift for the whole world.

‘Nuff said.

repurpose:

(I know, one woman’s repurposing is another’s kludge, but it creates much nicer light than our old thick lampshade, and it makes us smile. Happy Thanksgiving!) *NOTE COMMENTS SECTION FOR FIRE HAZARD WARNING IF YOU TRY THIS AT HOME. USE CFLs OR COOLER BULBS, KEEP FABRIC FAR FROM BULB, DO NOT LEAVE UNATTENDED, ETC.*