Word for the year: Tergiversate

Or:

“to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.”

And thanks, Jennifer, for the link.

A little more reading with today’s piece…

To read the piece, go here.

To read more about “Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life in America,” go here.

To read John-Manuel Andriote’s column in “The Bulletin,” go here.

To read about Connecticut AIDS Resource Coalition, go here.

To read about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s report on the lack of ongoing medical care for Americans with HIV/AIDS, go here or here. To read some CDC statistics, go here.

To read more about the 30th anniversary of the AIDS crisis in America, go here.

To read more about Center Church, Hartford, go here.

Occupy’s next frontier:

Foreclosed homes, says Salon.

To read more about Occupy Goes Home, go here. The cool thing is they can raid encampments, but they can’t stop the movement. Sitting in the pews at Fourth and Forest church of Christ, we would be reminded by speaker after speaker that the church wasn’t the building, but the people. Rock on.

Since this is a democratic movement, what do you think the next frontier should be?

Who here among us is without sin?

So Rep. Barney Frank, the Democrat from Massachusetts, is not running for office next year, and said:

One of the advantages to me of not running for office is, I don’t even have to pretend to try to be nice to people I don’t like.

So, just for giggles: If you were suddenly out of your current, big-boy or big-girl circumstances, what would you miss least?

I would miss least someone trying to direct me. I don’t take direction well. Oh, who am I kidding? I don’t take direction at all.

You?

Before you run for President:

Maybe you should check this map and see if adultery is illegal in your state.

Reality bites

Or, as Mike the Heathen, who sent this, says: “Ho-ho-hold on a second:”

At the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School in Midland, Michigan, would-be Jolly Old St. Nicks are being trained to help children downgrade their Christmas expectations. According to the New York Times story, the recession has resulted in:

…a Christmas season in which Santas — including the 115 of them in this year’s graduating class of the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School — must learn to swiftly size up families’ financial circumstances, gently scale back children’s Christmas gift requests and even how to answer the wish some say they have been hearing with more frequency — “Can you bring my parent a job?”

While I appreciate the notion that children shouldn’t view Christmas as a non-stop me-session (I don’t think children should be encouraged to make Christmas lists — unless those lists are the things they intend to make or buy others), there is something heartbreaking about telling a child “No.” And I say this as someone who, as a mother, was skilled at saying no — except maybe at Christmas. Maybe I’m getting soft. Or maybe I think the recession shouldn’t affect Christmas.

If you’re reading the pleas for help that arrive daily in your mailbox:

It’s possible to suffer donor fatigue, but some charities have figured out a way to help donors stay on task. And thanks, Mike the Heathen, for the link.

So? Do you have favorites? Mine are Foodshare, Connecticut Food Bank, Heifer International, Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), and DonorsChoose.  I have been giving to Salvation Army, and then I just read this and now? I don’t know. Is it necessary that a charity’s stances jibe with your personal beliefs? I believe that it does.

How about you?

When is it OK for the government to remove a child from the family home?

DickG. sends this, a story of a 200-pound 8-year old boy who was removed from his family’s Ohio home.

The child was placed in foster care because officials thought his mother wasn’t doing enough about his excess weight.

Abbott and Costello do the economy

Read Barry Levinson’s take on the economics of the comic titans. And thanks, DickG., for the link.

Is it a democracy? Or a plutocracy?

Truthout has a helpful chart to help us decide (and thanks, DickG.):