According to Ken Mollins (a good friend of Brandeis Students Against the Judge Rotenberg Center) and an anonymous source who works for the state, Massachusetts state police raided the Judge Rotenberg Center and left carrying boxes of evidence.
This is the beginning of the end for the Judge Rotenberg Center. More information to follow as we know more.
In case anyone missed it, today the California Supreme Court ruled that a statute limiting marriage to a man and a woman was unconstitutional, legalizing same-sex marriages in the state. Previously, only Massachusetts allowed gay marriage, and today’s action will hopefully represent a key turning point in the battle to eliminate institutionalized discrimination based on sexual orientation.
I strongly encourage everyone to learn what the status of same-sex couples in their home state is (this map, courtesy of Wikipedia, comes in handy). Aside from California and Massachusetts, seven states and the District of Columbia recognize some form of civil unions or domestic partnerships, a good step forward but still uncomfortably reminiscent of the “separate but equal” legislation that darkened race relations until the Civil Rights Act. The Defense of Marriage Act mandates that the federal government does not recognize any same-sex marriages, even those in MA or CA, thus denying all federal benefits of marriage from any gay couples.
TAPPED, the award-winning blog of one of my favorite magazines, The American Prospect, just wrote about an online effort, led by Brandeis’ own Mike Kerns and Jamie Ansorge, to have a national gas/carbon tax. Here’s what they had to say:
Having college kids argue on the Internet in favor of a $1/1 gallon of gas tax is probably not the best way to convince folks that higher prices at the pump won’t unduly hurt the rural poor. But that’s what a new Facebook group is all about:
Amazingly-and counter-intuitively-a tax on gas consumption will not hurt consumers, but rather will be a definitive stroke of government policy that causes America to lead the world into the cost-efficient, environment-friendly, democratizing era of alternative energy. And amazingly still, this is, via probability, as plain as fact!
Simply enough, there will be less of a market for gas, meaning less consumption and less pollution, while there will simultaneously be a new, direct form of funding for alternative energies, which will be demanded more highly relative to gas with the price increase. And, Voila!
And with the communicative power of technology, here it is possible. If 1,000,000 people simply click “join,” we can literally change the world, and, in a deafeningly defining way.
The enthusiastic group was founded by Brandeis student Michael Kerns. He links approvingly to the idea that revenues from a gas tax should be contributed to the Social Security Trust Fund, which would then allow for cuts in payroll taxes. The problem with that, though, is that if the gas tax truly succeeded in decreasing demand for oil, eventually there’d be a shortfall on Social Security contributions.
This as been the latest episode of Brandeis kids do the darndest things.
Facebook Group here, by the way.
Hi everyone, I hope you’re all looking forward to a great summer, and thank you so much for reading Innermost Parts and making us more successful in our first full semester than any of us thought possible. Over the past few days, I’ve been talking to Sahar about what our summer posting schedule should look like. I’m perfectly willing to keep posting new content at a regular rate over the summer, but we question whether anyone will be as interested. So I’m posing the question to you, our readers. What directions do you think Innermost Parts should move in over the summer, and will you keep reading? Any ideas or suggestion would be great; I’ve got a few ideas myself that I think could turn out to be intriguing.
Once again, have a great vacation everyone, and I’ll see you all in August!
This is not a joke… really.
Brandeis Students At Odds Over Israel
Yes, that’s right, our tiny little campus scandal has turned into a major scandal! Soon CNN analysts will be discussing how the UJ will rule, and how the result will affect the world.
I find it pretty silly that the Globe is touching this. It’s such a silly problem here at Brandeis, it’s even less of an issue for the rest of the Boston area.
Either way, Innermostparts.org has now been mentioned in a major media publication. Awesome.
Whenever I order cage-free eggs at Usdan, they force me to use styrofoam trays.
Why? Because in order to make sure I pay the extra 20 cents, cafeteria workers have to write ‘cage-free’ on my food, and marker doesn’t take well on ceramic plates.
Isn’t that something? A victory for animal rights is negated by increased environmental damage. Buying local often precludes buying union-made. Buying used makes it much harder to order sweatshop-free. Even buying political television advertising feeds millions into the mega-corporations that control the airwaves.
Life doesn’t have to work this way.
Please welcome Nelson Rutrick, who is the newest member of the Innermost Parts team. He starts off his tenure here with a special report. ~ Sahar
As a former member of the Student Union Executive Board, as the only EBoard to attend nearly all Senate meetings although it was not mandatory (besides the VP and Executive Senator), and as the only student who attended Senate meetings regularly who didn’t “have” to be there - I, sadly, have a lot of experience with the procedures of the Brandeis University Student Union. Sure, maybe attending all of these meetings makes me a loser in some sense, but it also gives me the ability to speak knowledgeably about what goes on in our Student Union.
I am working on finals right now, but I am a bit bored writing about the morality of political assassination and instead would prefer to clue in the non-insiders of the Student Union as to what really goes on there on this relatively new blog which often deals with the Student Union.
So I spent my Saturday affirming four separate times that I did not, in fact, call someone a dinosaur. Yeah, it was one of those days…
Read the rest…
For those unfamiliar with the commenting policy of innermostparts.org, please see this post here
Essentially. You must use a real name and you must use a real email.
Innermostparts is not a place to be a douchebag simply because you can be anonymous. That’s what The Justice Online is for.
The writers of this blog are often douchebags, but at least all of you know who we are.
Yesterday, Sahar, Loki and I sat through seven hours of ridiculous, and live-blogged the whole thing. We were mean, obnoxious, petty, and all-around assholes. But we did it for a reason.
If you were to tell anyone outside of the small group of people very involved in Brandeis Student Union politics (especially people who don’t go to this school) that there was a major, seven-hour long trial over the results of an election, they’d laugh. They’d think it hilarious. The Student Union might be important to the lives of students at the school, but really, its not that important. It’s not critical too much beyond egos. The trial yesterday was an orgy of absurdity. The live-blog was written the way it was because we wanted to reflect how silly the process was, as very few other people in the room seemed to really get it.
The trial is just another example of my problems with the Student Union. Shreeya’s final words of advice to the Senate, as President, were “Don’t take yourself too seriously.” The Union has a lot of influence over the University and it can be used for good and important things, but only if we don’t get bogged down in silly procedures and ego-motivated seriousness.
With that said, the liveblog was pretty ridiculous. I’ll apologize to anyone who took personal offense to anything said, but try to have a sense of humor about it. The trial was pretty funny, but only if you were looking for the comedic value in it and not taking yourself too damn seriously.