Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Annie Leonard guest spoke and showed "The Story of Stuff" at Foothill College

Annie Leonard is an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues, with more than 20 years of experience investigating factories and dumps around the world. She spoke at Foothill College and showed her movie, the Story of Stuff, which shows how stuff is created and at what cost to the environment.

She also recommended some books and web sites:

"Exposed": Deregulating Chemicals by Mark Shapiro. Here is a link that talks about the book

Our Stolen Future written by three authors,
Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers which chronicles the development of the endocrine disruptor hypothesis by Theo Colborn. Go here to visit their web site which continues to monitor and report on research related to endocrine disruptor.

Rules for Radicals written by Saul Alinsky. Go here to see a list of the rules.

Steady State Economy is a web site. The President, Brian Czech, of the site wrote an article on this.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Did you know all California state employees are required to sign a loyalty oath?

This outdated loyalty oath dates back to 1952 which was added at the height of anti-Communist hysteria. It requires that all California state employees sign it before they can be hired. Not signing it means you will not be hired. What does a loyalty oath promising to uphold and defend the Constitution have to do with working for the state in a non-military capacity?

Here is the text of the loyalty oath:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of
the State of California against all enemies, foreign and
domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the
Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the
State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without
any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will
well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about
to enter.

Visit this web site to see what happened to a teacher who was fired for refusing
to sign it.


Visit this web site to see what a UC Berkeley graduate student did to bring this
issue to light and to encourage resistance to signing it.