Sunday, October 26, 2014

Via Quer Café? / FB:


#DesçaDoMuro


Via Humanity's Team / FB:


Bill Clinton at the 2014 HRC National Dinner


Via JMG: Eric Holder: Federal Government Now Recognizes Married Gays In 32 States


Via White House press release:
In the latest development following the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month to decline to hear any pending cases regarding same-sex marriage, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Saturday that the federal government will now recognize same-sex married couples in six new states: Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Last week, the Attorney General made a similar announcement with respect to seven other states: Colorado, Indiana, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Saturday’s announcement adds to that list and brings the total number of states where same-sex couples are recognized by the federal government to 32, plus the District of Columbia.

The Attorney General’s announcement means couples married in these states will now qualify for a range of federal benefits, including those administered by the Social Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs.

“With each new state where same-sex marriages are legally recognized, our nation moves closer to achieving of full equality for all Americans,” the Attorney General said. “We are acting as quickly as possible with agencies throughout the government to ensure that same-sex married couples in these states receive the fullest array of benefits allowable under federal law.”

In addition, the Attorney General also announced that the Department of Justice has determined it can legally recognize marriages performed in Indiana and Wisconsin this past June. These marriages were performed immediately after federal district courts ruled that those states’ bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, but subsequent developments created confusion about the status of those marriages. Based on the Attorney General’s announcement, however, those couples married during that period will now have their unions recognized by the federal government.
These updates always cause an uproar over on Free Republic.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Flower of the Day: 10/26/14

“Whenever you notice that you are trying to control life, turn your attention within and try to identify your fear, your hatred and desire to take justice into your own hands. This sometimes appears as a need to control, to take over the steering wheel. You can’t relax in the passenger seat. God wants to take you in one direction so that you can see new landscapes, but your controlling self wants to go the other way, be it out of fear, revenge or competition.”
 
Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


Discipline and Joy | October 26, 2014

Without spiritual discipline we are never going to wake up or advance on our journey through this life. But our discipline must be wedded to joy, and we must find pleasure in the myriad wonders that this life offers. 
 
- Joan Gattuso, "The Balancing Buddha"
 

Via Daily Dharma


The Longer View | October 25, 2014

Mindlessness, however petty, is reckless at its heart. It only postpones; it never takes us anywhere. Mindfulness, by contrast, is patient, careful. It takes a longer view. 
 
- Joan Duncan Oliver, "Do I Mind?"