The Ohio legislature knows that you're concerned about the algae blooms that threaten our state's drinking water sources, so they're rushing to pass legislation to address solutions. But until they recognize a major culprit to our water pollution — factory farms — and that drinking water all over the state is impacted, the Clean Dirty Lake Erie Bill will never achieve its supposed goals. Tell your state legislators that they must protect our drinking water by reining in factory farm pollution.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked you to take action on the Ohio Senate Bill that they're calling the "Clean Lake Erie Bill," meant to address the hazardous algae blooms that left half a million Toledoans without water last summer. The senate has since passed the bill without any significant improvements. Indeed, the bill got worse. And now the Ohio House has introduced their own legislation — but this bill is just as bad, so we're calling it the "Dirty Lake Erie Bill."

U.S. drone "pilots" refer to people they burn to death in places like Pakistan as "bug splat" because they look like bugs being squished to death on the pilots' video monitors and because it's easier to murder bugs than humans.

Hence the need for the brilliant artwork made visible to a drone (http://notabugsplat.com):

The human brain is a funny thing. Numerous human brains know that every human is a human, yet insist that various types of humans must be "humanized" before they can be recognized as humans. That is, even though you know someone must have a name and loved ones and favorite games and certain weaknesses and a couple of quirks that friends find endearing -- because each and every Homo sapiens does have such things -- you insist on being told what the details are, and only then readily admit that in fact this particular human is a human (and millions of others remain in doubt).

A drone killer must know that children have eyes and noses and mouths, hair and fingers. But this artwork presents it to the troubled brain of the humanization dependent observer.

This week’s FCC action should bring us a major victory for Internet neutrality. It’s an important victory, without which the online world that we’ve come to take almost as for granted as the air we breathe would risk being radically constrained. But it might never have happened without an unlikely political coalition a decade ago, a story that should remind us how even those divided by passionately felt issues can sometimes find powerful common ground.

“When it comes to protecting Internet freedom, the Christian Coalition and MoveOn respectfully agree,” read the New York Times ad. MoveOn was the largest progressive organization in America, and the Christian Coalition a key group for conservative religious activists. They’d been on the other side of myriad issues, but never teamed up on anything before.

Cities and states across the United States have been taking various actions against drones, while the federal government rolls ahead with project fill the skies.

Robert L. Meola has been working for years now to get Berkeley to catch up with other localities and claim its usual spot at the forefront of movements to pass good resolutions on major issues. Now Berkeley has acted and Meola says "This is NOT what I/we asked for."

Here's what they asked for:

Establishing a Two Year Moratorium on Drones in Berkeley
From: Peace and Justice Commission
Recommendation: Adopt a Resolution adopting a two year moratorium on drones in Berkeley.
Financial Implications: Unknown

And what they got:

Evan Knappenberger, veteran turned peace activist, put together the following data and map.

Needless to say, most of the dead in recent U.S. wars are on the non-U.S. side -- about 97% in fact. These are one-sided slaughters. But that doesn't mean there aren't deaths on the side of the aggressor. And beyond the deaths, far more injuries, and far more suffering PTSD and moral injury.

Needless to say, as well, both Republican and Democratic party leaders in Washington have supported these wars and continue to do so.