Happy:Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.
Change in leadership of the house (and possibly Senate); I'm not a huge "capital-D" Democrat, but of the two national parties the Democrats most reflect my priorities.
Six states had minimum wage increases on the ballot; all six passed.
It appears that Arizona will defeat the anti-Gay marriage proposition.
All of the anti-choice measures were defeated.
Sad:So many states approved anti-Gay marriage or anti-Civil Union measures (WTF! Why do you care if homosexuals have civil unions. Butt out!).
Arizona adopted English as an "Official Language" (they should receive the Failure to Face Reality Award!).
That in Texas not a single Democrat running for National or State-wide office received more than 39% of the vote.
Oh well, all in all the results are good and hopefully we will have a new national dialog and new priorities.
I was researching new quotes for my e-mail signature and developed a nice list that I feel summarize my social and political views. So, for what it's worth:
"Our modern industrial economy takes a mountain covered with trees, lakes, running streams and transforms it into a mountain of junk, garbage, slime pits, and debris."
~Edward Abbey
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"It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment."
~Ansel Adams
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"We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. A nation can flounder as readily in the face of moral and spiritual bankruptcy as it can through financial bankruptcy."
~Dr. Martin Luther King
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"The essence of the problem is about consumption, recognizing that a society that consumes one-third of the world's resources is unsustainable. This level of consumption requires constant intervention into other people's lands. That's what's going on."
~Winona LaDuke
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"Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners."
~ Edward Abbey
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"The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun."
~Ralph Nader
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"Economic advance is not the same thing as human progress."
~John Clapham
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"Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it."
~Henry David Thoreau
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"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death."
~Rachel Carson
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"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed."
~Mahatma Gandhi
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"In today's integrated world economy ... eradicating poverty may contribute as much to U.S. security as eradicating terrorism."
~Lester R. Brown
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"Even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat."
~William Sloane Coffin Jr.
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"Take any group of nice people on a trip; if five bad things happen to them in a row, they will end up as cannibals."
~Edward Luttwak
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"Civilization is tissue thin."
~Iris Chang
