{"id":17989,"date":"2015-12-24T14:02:27","date_gmt":"2015-12-24T22:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=17989"},"modified":"2015-12-24T14:02:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T22:02:27","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-24122015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/squatchs-open-thread-24122015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch\u2019s Open Thread 24\/12\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is Christmas Eve and I am having Christmas dinner tonight with friends.  Tomorrow I will be seeing my mother so it is a relaxed Christmas for me.  Tomorrow, the furbabes and I will have a chicken dinner before I leave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Merry Christmas all!!!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle<\/strong> — Today’s took me 3:09 (average 5:08). To do it, <\/span>click here<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. How did you do?<\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Huffington Post<\/span><\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>— <\/span>Amid a spike <\/a>in anti-Muslim assaults, vandalism and death threats around the country since the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino and growing sentiment against the resettlement of Muslim refugees, congregations of all faiths have scrambled to think of ways to curb the violence and call for peace.<\/p>\n

In Washington, D.C., on Sunday, the Washington National Cathedral played host to an interfaith pilgrimage of Christians, Jews and Muslims who walked with each other from congregation to congregation, calling for the faithful choose "unity over extremism."  …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Along the way, they held signs quoting the Quran on unity and condemning extremism.<\/p>\n

"O humankind, indeed we have created you male and female and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know each other," said one (Quran 49:13). "American Muslims condemn ISIS and terrorism," read another.  …<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Embedded in all three Abrahamic faiths is the understanding that we are all pilgrims," added the Rev. Gina Gilland Campbell, the canon precentor at the National Cathedral. "A pilgrimage is a spiritual activity, done in community. It’s a journey toward something, and this pilgrimage brings us closer to God, and to each other.”<\/p>\n

What so many people do not understand, or choose not to understand, is that Judaism, Christianity and Islam have a common point of intersection . . . Abraham or Ibrahim in Arabic.  In Islam, Jesus is known as a minor prophet.  In Judaism, Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah is not reconised.  We all have more in common than we know, including our humanity.  And that humanity includes Atheists, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mother Jones<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — In the early 1900s, Lewis Hine left his job as a schoolteacher to work as a photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, investigating and documenting child labor in the United States. As a sociologist, Hine was an early believer in the power of photography to document work conditions and help bring about change. He traveled the country, going to fields, factories, and mines—sometimes working undercover—to take pictures of kids as young as four years old being put to work.<\/p>\n

Shorpy Higginbotham was a greaser at Bessie Mine in Alabama, working for the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company. Hine said the boy told him that he was 14 years old, but Hine suspected the boy wasn't telling the truth. At work, Shorpy carried two heavy pails of grease and was often in danger of being run over by the coal cars.<\/span><\/p>\n

Partly as a result of Hine's work (as well as that of Mary Harris Jones, whoMother Jones<\/em> is named after<\/a>), Congress passed the Keating-Owens Child Labor Act<\/a> in 1916. It established child labor standards, including a a minimum age (14 years old for factories, and 16 years old for mines) and an eight-hour workday. It also barred kids under the age of 16 from working overnight. However, the Keating-Owens Act was later ruled unconstitutional, and lasting reform to federal child labor laws didn't come until the New Deal.<\/p>\n

Things have changed in the US when it comes to child labour laws.  But in other countries, child labour is still accepted, partly because families need the income.  In some areas, children are treated as slaves.  Click through this pictorial essay.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think Progress<\/span><\/a><\/strong> — Last week, a cafeteria worker at an Idaho middle school was fired<\/a> for giving a free lunch to a hungry 12-year-old student. On Wednesday, after significant backlash against the school, she was offered her job back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Idaho State Journal<\/a> reported on Wednesday night that the worker, Darlene Bowden, would “have to think about” whether to re-accept the position.<\/p>\n

A petition on Care2, <\/span>Don't Fire a Kind Lunch Lady: Children Shouldn't Go Hungry!<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, keeps beating its target.  The newest target is 90,000 signatures with 88,472 actual signature.  I can appreciate the need to think about returning, but I hope the lunch lady does.  People are watching this Republican school board.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Universe<\/span><\/strong> —<\/p>\n

\"h5B2B36CE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… no wrapping required!<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Tutu_OR-600x338\"<\/a><\/p>\n

"I ain't no Rudolph!"<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is Christmas Eve and I am having Christmas dinner tonight with friends.  Tomorrow I will be seeing my mother so it is a relaxed Christmas for me.  Tomorrow, the furbabes and I will have a chicken dinner before I leave. Merry Christmas all!!! Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:09 (average 5:08). To do it, click […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-politics","category-35-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}