Check out the great video from Colbert Nation with Lawrence Lessig, who speaks about copyright laws. He’s the founder of the phenomenal Creative Commons, a new style of copyright (and where we source the photos for our blogs). takepart to learn more about Creative Commons. He’s also the co-founder of Change Congress which is working to bring citizens voices to our government.

photo by Tigerzeye, Creative Commons

Unless you live under a rock, it’s hard to be immune from the ongoing depressing news of our country’s economic state, the millions of citizens who’ve lost jobs, the millions who are falling into poverty and the increased number of homeless families because of these tough economic times.  While Obama has pledged a major economic stimulus package of $800 billion, but that doesn’t necessarily provide immediate relief for millions of impoverished Americans.

This is scary and depressing news. However, there’s a lot of things you can do to alleviate people’s suffering by donating food, volunteering at homeless centers and giving away gently used clothing.  If you’re a teenager, one cool way to donate clothes is through Teens for Jeans.  It’s really simple:

-between January 26th and February 22nd, drop off a pair of gently worn jeans to any Aeropostale store.
-you will receive 25% off your next pair of jeans from Aeropostale.

So, start cleaning out your closets and get ready to head to your nearest Aeropostale at the end of the month! takepart with Do Something for more details.

Window herbs. Photo by Broken Piggy Bank, Creative Commons

I have January jitters! Yes, it’s partly me trying to contain my extreme excitement at Obama’s inauguration next week.  But, this is also an intense time of year when people look deep within their souls to reflect upon their actions and thoughts over the past year and vow to change themselves forever, starting now.  Most of this inner-brooding is about how to burn off the candy cane and eggnog fat by switching to an extreme 1,000 calorie diet and workout every day for at least an hour, interspersed with toe tapping and taking the stairs at work, but, alas, reality tends to set in around March when most of us realize that our goals were a bit unrealistic.

I tend to set the bar a bit high sometimes in my life and on my blog (just ask my co-workers who think I need to give up my desk job and become a full-time farmer) for the personal lifestyle changes I encourage people to make. I know most people won’t become vegetarian, start milking cows to make yogurt or baking their own bread, so I’ve created a list of some easy, pretty realistic food changes you can try to make in the coming year. We all know that Obama was genuinely concerned about the price of arugula earlier this year (the aggravation bothered me enough that I needed to douse my pillow in lavender oil each night so I could fall asleep) and with the economy in such a bad state, I promise I won’t push for pricey arugula to be a required ingredient at any of your meals.

1. Meatless Mondays: Skip meat once a week for your health and the environment. For those of you who worry about missing your favorite meat flavor, don’t worry because there are plenty of tasty substitutes, such as Tofurkey.

2. Incorporate more fruit and vegetables into your diet. This can be as simple as adding sliced fruit to your cereal, mixing some veggies into your eggs and adding  some tasty veggies to your pasta sauce.  There’s lots of fantastic, easy recipes.

3. Skip calorie drinks  and go for the true zero calorie, free beverage–tap water!  If you’re concerned about your water quality, invest in a water filter. And, you won’t forget to drink if you invest in a sturdy, reusable water bottle.

4. Plant an herb garden. Whether you live in an apartment (like me) or a McMansion, you can easily grow some scrumptious herbs in a window.  Pluck some sprigs to add some zest to your meals.

5.  Eat dinner with others.  Turn off the TV and your phone  and sit down to one meal a week with friends and family. You’ll be a lot more relaxed and will experience what a meal truly should be–not a time to inhale calories on the run but an opportunity to savor a delicious meal with others.

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photo: Hayden, Creative Commons

With all of the chaos and media coverage devoted to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict (see my previous post about it here), it’s easy for media and the rest of us to forget about the ongoing war in Iraq. Yes, slightly fewer of our troops are dying. But they, along with plenty of ordinary Iraqi citizens, are still getting killed there every day. We’re still spending $2.5 Billion per week and we still have well over 100,000 troops and thousands of contractors and others stationed there.

If we’re spending $2.5 Billion per week, what’s $592 Million?  And, what can you get for $592 Million? Well, thinking about the total number of US public schools that could be built, college scholarships given out or number of uninsured given health coverage. Or, how about a new Embassy?  It seems like our official there grew tired of operating out of one of Sadaam’s former palaces in the Green Zone.  So, they’ve spent some of our taxpayer dollars for a glossy, high-security embassy well within the-supposedly-safe-but-not-really-super-secure-Green Zone.

It’s time for us and our media to refocus our attention on the war in Iraq so that people remember what is happening there daily. If we can spend nearly $1 Billion on an embassy, how about redirecting our priorities to important pressing issues such as healthcare, global warming and education?  takepart by learning a bit about the recently deceased US troops and Iraqis. Make your voice heard: takepart to urge President Obama to end our war in Iraq.

photo: lapidim, Creative Commons

Discussions about the Israel/Hamas conflict have been strangely negligible on Takepart’s blog pages.  It’s divisive, controversial and upsetting, so why wouldn’t bloggers leap at the opportunity to write about it?  Yes, I’m Jewish person (I know a good kosher pickle and the best hummus in my town) who has lived in Israel and believes that Israelis and Palestinians should both have the right to live safely and securely in their own countries (2 states, 2 peoples). Those two things don’t make me qualified to be an expert on the situation (and certainly give me a bias), but I’m a concerned, opinionated blogger and so I’m going to take a stab at writing about this complicated international crisis. I’m upset that Israel is being bombed and I’m upset that Israel has invaded Gaza and killed hundreds of civilians.

The UN and international governments failed to stop Hamas’ constant barrage of rockets into Sderot and other southern Israeli towns for the past few years. How would the US feel if people in Mexico lobbed rockets into our border towns on a daily basis?

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Tolka Rover photo, Creative Commons

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington just released their list of the most embarrassing re-elected members of Congress. Although these awards are for Congress, since poor Rod Blagojevich is only the Governor of Illinois, he doesn’t qualify. But, since he seems to have been one of the more outrageous politicians of last year, I’d like to ensure he’s given the top honor by re-naming the awards after him.  No, I’m not referring to just the embarrassing news that his special Paul Mitchell black hairbrush needed to be ready for action at anytime by his aides and was referred to as “the football” but his more sinister behavior that led him to try to auction Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Top winners in the “Blagies” include Rep. Michele Bachman (R-MN) who invoked the ghosts of Senator Joseph McCarthy by saying President-elect Obama was anti-American.  Rep. Don Young (R-AK) who was tied to the Jack Abramoff scandal continued to be ensnared in bribery charges last year that he steered earmark funds to family and friends who donated to his Political Action Committee (remember how often John McCain brought up the sins of earmarks? I guess Young didn’t listen). Across the aisle, one of the Democratic Party’s icons, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), was outed as possibly violating House ethics committee rules and campaign finance laws.

While it’s amusing to read about these politicians who thought they could surreptitiously pass below the radar, it’s important for citizens like you and me to make sure they’re held accountable. takepart with Citizens for Responsbility and Ethics in Washington to learn how you can make our government open and accountable to all citizens.

If you read my blog regularly, you’ll probably notice my tendency to encourage people to eat lots of farmers market produce and shake their Turkish evil eyes at soda and junk food.  Yes, I’m an extremist by nature who is firmly in the locavore/vegetarian/no-sugar camp.  But, I’m trying to learn a few habits from more tempered individuals who love to wax poetic about moderation as the key to everything. So, I’m starting off the new year not with my salad fork but my ice cream spoon.

Yes, it’s freezing cold throughout much of the country and New Years Day ushered in the season for eating healthy food, buying gym memberships and trying to burn off your new eggnog hips, but who can say no to dining on some delicious GMO-free Vermont-made Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream in the name of open government and bringing citizen voices to it?  For the month of January, every time you purchase a scoop of “Yes, Pecan” at your local Ben and Jerry’s store, a portion of the sales will be donated to the Common Cause Education Fund which handles its public education and research.  Common Cause, founded nearly forty years ago, is a national leader in government accountability and making sure citizen’s voices are heard.

Yes, we did! elect Obama. Yes, we can! work  to ensure the new Administration rolls-back the policies of George W. Bush. The first step is to takepart to learn more about Common Cause and enjoy a scoop of delicious butter pecan at  a Ben and Jerry’s near you.

photo: maritimelight, Creative Commons

I just had the privilege of hearing Andrew Kimbrell, founder and director of the Center for Food Safety (CFS), speak at the Hazon conference today.  He’s able to deliver alarming news about the state of our food system in an engaging, humorous manner that leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat. Under his leadership, the center has had several important legal victories, most recently the Supreme Court decided in their favor against Monsanto (yea! Thank you CFS!). However, we’re involved in a major battle to change the industrial food system whose corporate forces are pushing for cloned meats and dairy in our food system, genetically modified organisms, inhumane treatment of animals (10 BILLION animals are killed every year in our industrial meat factories) and increased use of pesticides.

However, there are many personal changes we can make along with supporting the legislative and advocacy efforts of groups like Center for Food Safety and Hazon to develop a more equitable, environmentally sound, sustainable food system.  Those things are important but leave out a missing element which  explains why we’re gotten into the mess we’re in now. Overwhelmingly, we are disconnected to our environment and  food sources.  This spiritual disconnection has enabled for the dominant agri-business system of food production in the US.

He also remarked that we shouldn’t consider ourselves “consumers” but “creators.”   By choosing an interactive way of engaging in our society as creators, we will not just passively c0nsume but be active participants in our society.  In the Jewish tradition, God asks us to be his partners in his creation of the world and to be its ongoing keepers in its ever evolving creation.  Perhaps Kimbrell’s idea of consumers vs. creators is a way to re-energize our relationship with God (or however you connect spiritually) and all that has been created for us.  By reframing our connection with the world, we can take on more responsibility and accountability for our actions and duties.  If we become morally and spiritually in-tune with our food systems, we will realize that the terrible treatment of farm workers and meat processors, the inhumane treatment of farm animals, the tons of toxic pesticides applied to the foods we eat and the use of genetically modified organisms is not putting us in the highest spiritual or religious place but the lowest.  We’re at a serious juncture, and we all have the opportunity to become creators so that we can connect with each other, our food sources and our spiritual/religious traditions.

takepart to learn more about the Center for Food Safety.

photo: baalands, Creative Commons

This is the sixth night of Chanukah, the Jewish holiday where we light menorahs each night and eat a lot of food in oil.  Oil which was supposed to only last the heroic Maccabees one night lasted eight days.  Modern environmentalists have jumped on this oil story to promote anything and everything related to oil conservation.  This holiday is the poster-child for the movement to get us off of our oil dependence.

However, while oil is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming, agriculture also accounts for a substantial portion of greenhouse emissions. 1/5 of all emissions come from the livestock section.  The average American meal travels 1200 miles from field to your fork. So, what you eat does impact climate change!

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photo: Postville, Iowa by Prairie Robin, Creative Commons

Although those Communists were staunchly anti-religious, there are some religious underpinnings to their communal land structures that attempted to remove the hierarchal systems that are seemingly inherent in our current industrial agricultural systems (but certainly don’t need to be).  I’m not advocating for a Bolshevik revolution but for us to consider how our hierarchacal, agribusiness-dominated system of harvesting and distributing food is inherently oppressive to people, our health and to the environment.

I attended to two panels this morning at the Hazon conference about the seven-year Jewish land cycle and the recent scandal at Rubashkins of Postville, Iowa, the largest kosher meat processing plant in the US that is now bankrupt after their labor and animal violations were brought to the public’s attention.  The Rubashkins issue reinforced the dissonance between us and our food sources when we live within the framework of an industrial food system (whether it’s kosher or not).  The Orthodox Union, the certifier of kosher meats in the United States did not raise concerns about the documented violations at Rubashkins because their meat was meeting their kosher standards (which concern only about the actual cut of meat). However, Rubashkins’ workers, many of whom are undocumented immigrants, toiled under dangerous conditions without overtime pay or other benefits.

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