Welcome! "What's Happenin'?" is a casual community diary (a daily series, 8:30 AM Eastern on weekdays, 10 AM on weekends and holidays) where you can hang out, talk about what is going on with you, listen to music, talk about the news and the goings on here and everywhere.
Maybe you have seen some news stories that you think are not receiving enough attention and you'd like to post links to them. Maybe you'd like to just chat among friends about your life, your health, your family or social circle, your pets, etc. You can also post links to your own writings here on dkos or elsewhere. Perhaps you want to share some pictures or music or links to other things. This is your kind of place to talk about what's happening.
Just about anything goes, but attacks and pie fights are not welcome here. If that is what you want, find another place to do it. This is a community diary and a friendly, peaceful, supportive place for people to interact. This diary series is produced by the TeamDFH group but anyone who wants to join in peaceful interaction is welcome.
Good Morning!
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Drop in any time of day or night to say hello. |
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Friendship
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A RUDDY drop of manly blood
The surging sea outweighs;
The world uncertain comes and goes,
The lover rooted stays.
I fancied he was fled,
And, after many a year,
Glowed unexhausted kindliness
Like daily sunrise there.
My careful heart was free again,—
O friend, my bosom said,
Through thee alone the sky is arched,
Through thee the rose is red,
All things through thee take nobler form
And look beyond the earth,
The mill-round of our fate appears
A sun-path in thy worth.
Me too thy nobleness has taught
To master my despair;
The fountains of my hidden life
Are through thy friendship fair.
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News
Protesters Throng Frozen Moscow in Anti-Putin Protest
Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters marched on Saturday through a city gripped by bitter, Arctic cold, in a third major effort by Russians opposed to Vladimir V. Putin’s return to the presidency.
A series of similar actions in December shocked the Russian establishment with their size and giddy, infectious mood, as a famously passive part of the electorate coalesced into huge crowds that chanted “Putin, go away” and “We exist.” But the momentum seemed to dissipate during the month of January, as opposition factions squabbled and Mr. Putin’s victory in the March 4 election began to appear imminent and certain.
Then, of course, there was the weather — at noon the sun was a remote white disk above the horizon, and the temperature was measured at 20 degrees below zero Celsius, or —4 Fahrenheit.
Death Toll Is Said to Rise in Syrian City of Homs
Syria opposition leaders raised the death toll to 260 in a military assault Saturday on the ravaged central city of Homs, an attack that opposition leaders described as the government’s deadliest in the nearly 11-month-old uprising.
Reports were contradictory, given the difficulty of communications with Homs, and the Syrian government flatly denied the toll, calling it an attempt at propaganda ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting Saturday on Syria. But videos smuggled out of the city and reports by opposition activists showed a harrowing barrage of mortar shells and gunfire that left hundreds more wounded in the city.
“It’s an unprecedented attack,” said Mohammed Saleh, an opposition activist from Homs who recently fled to a nearby town to escape the mounting strife there.
UN: Afghan Civilian Deaths Up for 5th Straight Year
A United Nations report says more than 3,000 civilians died in Afghanistan's conflict last year, the worst annual toll in the decade-long war.
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said Saturday that 3,021 civilians were killed in 2011, an 8 percent increase over the previous year, and the fifth year in a row that the death toll has risen.
The report says insurgents were responsible for 77 percent of the Afghan civilian deaths. NATO-led and Afghan government forces caused 410 civilian deaths, a decrease of 4 percent from 2010. A further 279 civilian deaths could not be attributed to either the militants or the government forces.
Gay marriage bill advances in Assembly
After a long hearing that produced heated and emotional testimony Thursday, an Assembly committee voted 5-2 along party lines in favor of a bill from Democrats that would allow gay couples to marry in New Jersey.
The measure still faces votes in both houses of the Legislature, with the Senate vote set for Feb. 13. Republican Gov. Chris Christie has promised to veto the Marriage Equality and Religious Exemption Act if it reaches his desk.
Proponents touted the bill’s protections for religious organizations and affiliated groups that refuse to conduct a same-sex marriage as part of free exercise of religion, but that doesn’t address core religious concerns, said Rabbi Moshe Bressler, an Orthodox Jew from Lakewood.
Occupy D.C. camp raided by police
Dozens of U.S. Park Police descended on horseback and foot upon the Occupy D.C. camp in McPherson Square before dawn on Saturday to continue an enforcement of its no- camping rules launched earlier this week.
U.S. Park Police Capt. Phil Beck told protesters they would be clearing the area around the historic statue, where protesters had erected a blue tarp dubbed the “Tent of Dreams,” and checking to see if there was unauthorized bedding in tents.
Under the rules, protesters are allowed to conduct a 24 -hour vigil in the federal park but not camp out overnight.
Catholics plan counterattack on new contraception coverage
The Catholic Church reacted strongly Friday to a White House defense of new rules that will force many religious employers to provide contraception to their workers in government-mandated health insurance plans.
"The White House information about this is a combination of misleading and wrong," said Anthony Picarello, general counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He said the bishops would "pursue every legal mandate available to them to bring an end to this mandate. That means legislation, litigation and public advocacy. All options are on the table."
The new regulations were announced last month by the Department of Health and Human Services as part of an effort to guarantee that women receive free "preventive" healthcare services, including cervical cancer screening, breast pumps — and contraception. They require employers to include those services in their employee health insurance plans by August.
Hubble Telescope captures Milky Way galaxy's twin
An uncanny twin of our own Milky Way galaxy takes center stage in a new cosmic portrait by the Hubble Space Telescope unveiled Friday.
The amazing photo shows the galaxy NGC 1073, a barred spiral like our own Milky Way. The galaxy is located 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster).
By looking at cosmic wonders thought to be similar to our own galactic home, astronomers hope to learn more about the Milky Way, which we can see from only the inside.
HPV vaccine now recommended for all boys, CDC says
The HPV vaccine should be given to all males between the ages of 11 and 21, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said in its 2012 recommendations, that the human papillomavirus vaccine should be "routine" for all boys aged 11 to 12 years old and it also recommends "catch-up" vaccinations for males ages 13 to 21.
Last October, the committee first recommended the vaccine for boys, HealthPop reported, but the recommendations weren't formalized until they were published this week, according to the CDC. The recommendations are published in the Feb. 1 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Feb. 3 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.