Maybe the USDA will listen to us this time: Food and Water Watch helps you tell the USDA to reject Okanagan Specialty Fruit’s genetically-modified Arctic apple. Why not? They genetically modified the apple so that it doesn't turn brown when exposed to the air. You always hated it when the apple turned brown, right? Longed for nothing in life so much as an apple that didn't? Me neither. This is not the future I dreamed about when I watched all that Star Trek as a kid. This is the future where we allow Frankenappleseeds to take over organic apple orchards because someone either can't stand the sight of oxidizing apple or because someone thought it might be neat to see if he could inhibit the tyrosinase enzyme (which causes the browning effect). Corporations really do train people not to care about a damn thing, don't they?
Meanwhile, Camp Winton Eagle Scout Tim Griffin of Amador County, CA got fired by the Golden Empire Council, ostensibly because he violated a dress code, but more likely because he's gay. You may remember that the Supreme Court mooted the case of one James Dale in 2000, a long-time Boy Scout and assistant Scoutmaster whom the Boy Scouts kicked out for being gay; the Court ruled 5-4 against Mr. Dale, saying that the Boy Scouts had a First Amendment right to free association and that they didn't have to associate with gays. So changing the law so that Mr. Griffin must be reinstated is likely a long-term strategy; in the short term, nasty PR for the Golden Empire Council will have to do, and change.org helps you do that. Should be easier these days, what with even the current President and most recent Vice President supporting gay marriage.
Finally, tomorrow is the day for the Workers Stand for America rally in Philadelphia; you can get more information from the Workers Stand website. (And here's the Facebook page, if you're so inclined.) The rally begins at 11 am at the Eakins Oval, on 26th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway; the rally will feature speakers and musical performers, though they haven't announced exactly who those will be yet. They've even promised food -- though, seriously, you trip over good food in Philadelphia. Read over their Second Bill of Rights (loosely based on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's final Inaugural Address) and you'll find much to agree with -- including the suggestion that collective bargaining is a fundamental First Amendment free association right. My God, if corporations can be "people," why can't collective bargaining be a First Amendment right?
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