The Hackenblog

Just Say No on EVERYTHING.

Click the link for all the reasons to say NO NO NO!

This has been a public service announcement from Cranky LA Woman Who Hasn’t Given Up On CA Yet.

“Carson Joseph said he had struggled to find steady work since being released from prison four years ago, and when he graduated from a new job training program last week he hoped it would finally give him ‘a step up on the ladder.’

“Joseph, 29, was among 22 residents from Nickerson Gardens and other public housing developments who graduated Friday from the Sherwin-Williams Home Work Painter Training Program.

“The two-week program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is funded primarily by Sherwin-Williams, Los Angeles housing officials said. It focuses on teaching students about asbestos, mold and lead-based paint and gives them materials and real-world experience painting units in their own housing projects.

“‘There’s more to just putting paint on the brush and then putting it on the wall,’ Joseph said.

“The program has been in existence since about 2003, but the housing authority of the city of Los Angeles brought the series to Southern California last year. Housing officials said that so far 91 people had been trained during sessions at Jordan Downs, Estrada Courts, Mar Vista Gardens and Nickerson Gardens.

“The two remaining sites for this year’s programs are in Rancho San Pedro and Ramona Gardens.”

~snip~

“‘I was all for it,’ Joseph said. ‘I thought it’d be a great opportunity for me.’

“He’s not sure whether it will lead directly to employment but said he is confident that the training will help. Bob Ballew, who works for Sherwin-Williams running the training courses, said 72% of the roughly 5,000 graduates of the program across the nation have found employment.

“‘In spite of all the negative, this is something positive,’ Ballew told the graduates Friday. ‘Even though the economy is bad, we hear the doom and gloom, there is still an opportunity to find employment.’”
Public housing residents learn tools of painting trade, by Amanda Covarrubias, LA Times, April 13, 2009

You know what they say at Homeboy Industries: Nothing stops a bullet faster than a job.

Thank you Sherwin-Williams for being cool enough to have a program like this and thank you City of LA for being smart enough to bring it here. I feel hope today, that’s probably a mistake on my part, but that I feel hope today.

“4. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum

“Country: Dubai

“As the current crown prince of Dubai, Sheikh is the first in line to be the city’s next Emir. The prince moved up two spots this year and is the only young royal to surpass a British royal according to our measure of influence. He’s known as a leader, as the chairman of the Dubai Executive Council and the president of the city’s Council and Autism Centre, and as a poet.”

And, of course, he’s Number 4. Yes, yes, the poetry thing is nice, too.

I love to hate these lists. Really I do.

Usually $7.50, but in honor of the latest issue, you can get them all for $6.00 each until May Day!

And eligible for Amazon Free Shipping, too.

Volume 1, Issue 1:

The Journal of Bloglandia, volume 1, issue 1, is a collection of the following blog essays: On Essays by Paul M. Rodriguez, Liberal Fascism: An Interesting Moral Question by Steve Gimbel, Paint Splatters & Pixie Dust by Dan Kelly, Ten Dates of Christmas? Ten Lords A Leaping: The Gallant Mariner by Deborah Teasdale, Vanity by Susan O’Doherty, The Pillory of Hillary by Becki Jayne Harrelson, Reparation… by TJ Bryan, Richer Than The Sum Of My Skirt by Birdie C. Jaworski, The Music’s Between Us by Kathy Moseley, How to Scare People With Statistics by Tom Good, Red Lipstick by Eva Lake, Barbarella: A Woman of her Time? by Patti Martinson, An Invert’s Manifesto by Chad Denton, Roadtripping by Molly Kiely. Cover by Seth Anderson. More information.

Volume 1, Issue 2:

Blog essays by Madeleine Begun Kane (Mad Kane), Paul M. Rodriguez, Anne Valente, Molly Kiely, Susan O’Doherty, TJ Byran, Ginger Mayerson, Molly Ian, Eva Lake, Joshua Finnell, and Ray Beckerman. Cover by Carol Colin. More information.

Volume 2, Issue 1:

Blog essays: Bruce Hahne, Proposition 8 Postmortem – From a Senior Volunteer; Inspector Lohmann, Vorocracy: Final: History’s Most Lethal Parasites; Joshua Finnell, The Bookmobile: Defining the Information Poor; Sara Aye, There is No Right Answer; Paul Rodriguez, Eclecticism; and Ray Davis, True Enough. Cover by Molly Kiely. Cover.

As always, there’s room in Vol 2, Iss 2 for more blog essays, so please see the Submission Guidelines on the sidebar for more information.

(via)

“DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – The Iowa Supreme Court cleared the way for gay marriage in the state on Friday by declaring a law that limits marriage to a man and a woman unconstitutional.

“The ruling makes Iowa the third U.S. state after Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the first in the Midwest, to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

“Gay marriage was briefly legal in California, but voters repealed it in a November 2008 referendum, though efforts are under way to revive the issue.

“The Iowa case, Varnum v. Brien, involved six same-sex couples who sued the Polk County Recorder of Deeds Timothy Brien in 2005 for refusing to grant them marriage licenses.

“A county judge sided with the couples and the state supreme court affirmed that decision and declared the 1998 Iowa Defense of Marriage Act — which restricted marriage to one man and one woman — unconstitutional.

“The key principle at the heart of the case was the doctrine of equal protection under the law, which the court said ‘is essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike.’”
Iowa becoms third U.S. state to allow gay marriage, Reuters, April 3, 2009

Congratulations to the people of Iowa. Especially to their wedding industry and divorce lawyers. I hope our Supreme Court comes through for us like the Iowa’s did.

This didn’t make the final edit, but it should have. I love this song and I hate folk music.

I recently bought a copy of A Mighty Wind and every time I watch it, I see something new. It’s amazing.