Posts from — January 2009

Borrowed directly from Feministe:

Two of the most important women’s-rights-related bill-signings in the past few years.

The “Partial Birth” Abortion Ban Act of 2003:

And the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

The new White House cook, Chicago chef Sam Kass, has a lot to say about the national diet, beginning with the national School Lunch program…

The government subsidizes various agricultural industries, creating overproduction in commodities such as beef, pork and dairy. This overproduction depresses prices, endangering the vitality of producers. The U.S. government purchases the overproduction it has stimulated and then disposes of the excess by giving it to schools. In return for the government donation, the schools have to ensure that the lunches reach basic nutritional requirements as set by the government.

In 2003, U.S.D.A. spent $939.5 million dollars buying surplus commodities for School Lunch. Two-thirds of that bought meat and dairy, with little more than one quarter going to vegetables that were mostly frozen; and we should not forget that potatoes are the top selling vegetable in our country. The problem that arose is that between 80 and 85 percent of schools fail the basic government standards for the percentage of fat in the lunches due to the food it supplies schools.

Continues at New York Times

By Coretta Scott King
[from The King Center 's website]

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the timeless values he taught us through his example — the values of courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership. On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love, forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit.

We commemorate Dr. King’s inspiring words, because his voice and his vision filled a great void in our nation, and answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived by its noblest principles. Yet, Dr. King knew that it wasn’t enough just to talk the talk, that he had to walk the walk for his words to be credible. And so we commemorate on this holiday the man of action, who put his life on the line for freedom and justice every day, the man who braved threats and jail and beatings and who ultimately paid the highest price to make democracy a reality for all Americans. [Read more →]

Global Disconnects: The Internet & Human Trafficking
February 20-21, 2009 Berkeley, California

Brought to you by The Center for Race & Gender (UC Berkeley), Students & Artists Fighting to End Human Slavery (Northern CA), and The End Internet Trafficking Coalition (USA)

As the internet has become more and more a part of the everyday in the U.S. and the global north, questions have arisen: How has the internet used as a tool for violence, for the trafficking and sexual exploitation of people? How has it used as a tool for social change to counter violence? In 2008 the End Internet Trafficking Coalition formed to address the increasing usages of services on the web to exploit people through labor and sex violence. In an effort to further the conversations that began with a national call through emails to collaborate, the coalition recorded an online presentation on the issue. February 20-21, 2009, in a conference meeting titled, “Global Disconnects: The Internet & Human Trafficking” the coalition and collaborators will be meeting at UC Berkeley to address the complexities of human trafficking and the technoscapes of the web, as well as the prospects for countering human trafficking through theory and practice.

Foothill College Theatre Arts and the Foothill Muslim Student
Association present
One Night Only! Limited Seating!

Heather Raffo’s
9 PARTS OF DESIRE

Starring Luisa Sermol
Directed By Louanne Moldovan

7 pm SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2009

Foothill College, Lohman Theatre
I-280 & El Monte road, Los Altos Hills
(650) 949-7360

ORDER ONLINE AND MORE INFO:  www.foothill.edu/fa
$15/General
$10/Seniors and non-Foothill students
$7/Foothill Students and Staff

9 Parts of Desire
“God created sexual desire in ten parts; then he gave nine parts to women and one to men.”
–attributed to Ali ibn Abu Taleb, Mohammed’s son-in-law and fourth
caliph of the Islamic world, circa 650. [Read more →]

*She’s Geeky*
A Women’s Technology Conference

January 30-31, 2009
Mountain View, California
http://www.shesgeeky.org

She’s Geeky is an “unconference” for enthusiastic women in technical fields.  We  bring together women that don’t often have an opportunity to meet other women that share their professional interests and passion for geeky things.  (For a 3 minute peek women from the first She’s Geeky see http://bit.ly/shesgeekyvideo) [Read more →]

The Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Stanford University Feminist Studies Department, and Clayman Institute invite you to:

GENDER, PARENTING, AND THE LAW: A Symposium
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Stanford Law School
Open to the public; MCLE credit pending

Featuring:
Opening Speaker: Cherrie Moraga, writer, poet, playwright, co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back, and Artist-In-Residence, Stanford University
Keynote Speaker: Dorothy Roberts, Kirkland and Ellis Professor at Northwestern University Law School, author, Killing the Black Body

Panel topics include:
*Parenting and Labor
*LGBT Parenting
*New Reproductive Technologies and the Law
*Parenting and the Criminal Justice System [Read more →]