Hasta La Gadget!

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A 41-year-old Texas prisoner was put to death Wednesday evening for the slayings of three people during a robbery at their San Antonio home more than 21 years ago.

Arnold Prieto became the first prisoner to receive a lethal injection this year in Texas, which carried out 10 executions in 2014.

He was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. CST, 20 minutes after a lethal dose of pentobarbital began flowing into his veins.

Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Prieto replied: “There are no endings, only beginnings. Love y’all. See you soon.”

Prieto was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to die for the fatal stabbings of Rodolfo Rodriguez, 72, his wife, Virginia, 62, and Paula Moran, their 90-year-old former nanny who lived with them. Each victim was stabbed or cut multiple times with an icepick, screwdriver or knife.

The attackers took jewelry and about $300.

Prieto and two brothers related to the Rodriguezes were arrested in suburban Dallas seven months after the September 1993 killings.

No late appeals were filed in the courts to try to halt his punishment.

Prieto spurned a plea deal for a sentence of less than life in prison if he would testify against one of his companions.

“There was a way out,” one of Prieto’s trial lawyers, Michael Bernard, recalled last week. “We just couldn’t get there.”

The slayings went unsolved until informant’s tip sent San Antonio police to Carrollton, a north Dallas suburb, where a grandnephew of the slain couple implicated himself, his brother and Prieto.

Prieto was the only one of three to get the death penalty

At least a dozen other executions are scheduled in Texas in the coming months, including two next week. Last year, 10 condemned inmates received lethal injections of pentobarbital.

The Idaho House this week approved introducing a piece of legislation to add the words “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” to the Human Rights Codes. This means we will, after 9 years, finally get a hearing. This will allow people to share stories with legislators about the vital need to include these protections in the Idaho Civil Rights Codes.

Yesterday, I had the privilege to meet with Representative Brent Crane from Nampa. He’s the Assistant Majority leader in the House and was the one “no” vote to print the legislation and send it to committee. It was a good meeting. He gave us well over an hour of his time, and I really appreciated hearing his viewpoint. I also felt listened to.

He has said (and reiterated in our meeting) that he will not vote to Add the Words. Partly because he told his voters he wouldn’t support it and for him integrity means not changing his mind. Partly because he supports “traditional marriage” and partly because, as a business owner, he doesn’t want to be sued for not wanting to employ someone who doesn’t line up with his values. (He said it nicer than that. Sort of).

I’ve been thinking of our conversation. And I recognized how sincere his “deeply held religious beliefs” were. But it left me wondering how a large section of American Christianity has put people like Rep. Crane in the untenable situation of being unable to vote for justice and equality for all Idahoans just because of their sexual orientation.

I recognize he and the conservative, evangelical, and fundamental branches of Christianity see same gender relationships as “sinful”. (I don’t agree with them, but that’s a post for a different day.)

How did we get to a place where it is THE sin? Why are they behaving as if it is the only ‘sinful’ behavior against which we need to stand?

They think a business owner should be free not to serve LGBTQ people if it is opposed to their “deeply held religious belief”. Wouldn’t a business owner with such strong convictions also refuse to serve people who have been divorced (Matt 19:1-12)?

Wouldn’t a “bible-believing” business owner also refuse to serve adulterers (Exodus 20:14)?

Wouldn’t a Christian business owner also refuse to serve people who have murdered, lied, cheated, stolen, given false testimony, withheld aid from the poor, and not honored the Sabbath?

Here’s the Biblical reason to Add the Words:

Jesus never excluded anyone from social interaction because they were gay or trans. Nor did he tell his followers to do so. He ate with tax collectors (Mark 2, Matthew 9). He touched the unclean (Matt 8, Mark 1, Luke 8). He welcomed sinners. He spoke to women, he even requested water from a woman who had had 5 husbands (John 4).

If people want to continue to believe that gender identity and sexual orientation are sinful, then it seems perfectly reasonable (if damaging to their LGBTQ loved ones) to continue to not take part in those behaviors they feel are sinful.

But there is no biblical mandate to deny LGBTQ Idahoans equality under the law. Adding the Words will not require religious organizations to change their theology or practice. It will prevent people from denying housing, employment, or services to people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Jesus also never “ranked” sins. He also never tolerated the religious leaders who tried to do so. The biblical witness is clear that God wants us to feed the poor, take care of widows and orphans love one another, and welcome people in his name.

It is time to Add the Words and to stop using the Bible as the excuse for why we can’t.

WASHINGTON — With Republicans looking to block one of the biggest labor law reforms of the Obama era, Senate Democrats are telling the National Labor Relations Board that it has their support in speeding up the union election process.

In December, members of the NLRB announced that they would move ahead with new rules effectively cutting the time that employers have to stall or derail unionization efforts. The move infuriated business lobbies, which claim the reforms will infringe on employers’ free speech rights, while unions hail them as commonsense changes that will help workers vote in a timely manner.

The new GOP-controlled Congress has already signaled that it intends to pursue legislation aimed at neutering the NLRB, which is tasked with enforcing labor law on unions and employers. Business groups, meanwhile, have sued to gut the reforms.

In a letter to be sent to the NLRB on Thursday, 16 Democratic senators wrote that they “applaud” the board for pursuing the rules change. Democratic support in the upper chamber could be critical in avoiding a future budget bill rider that would block the reforms, should Republicans try to go that route.

“American workers gained the right to collectively bargain and unionize nearly 80 years ago, and out of these rights grew the American middle class,” says the letter, which was provided to HuffPost. “It is critical that we preserve these rights for the benefit of American workers and our national economy. Workers deserve to have a union representation election process that is free of stalling tactics and intimidation. These new NLRB rules will reinforce that right.”

The letter was written by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and signed by 14 of their colleagues.

Although the election reforms are just procedural changes, they could make it significantly easier for workers to unionize. Before an election, businesses often spend time disputing which workers would be covered by the proposed bargaining unit. But under the new rules, that dispute will be postponed until after the election, making it harder for employers to drag out the process.

The reforms will also speed up elections by allowing unions to file election petitions and other documents via email. In addition, employers will have to provide unions with the email addresses and phone numbers of workers eligible to vote.

The five members of the labor board are all appointed by the president, though by tradition three of them come from the president’s party and two from the other party. The new election rules were approved 3-2, with the two Republican members dissenting.

The rules are slated to go into effect in April.

The board first proposed the rules three years ago. Republicans have hammered the changes as opening the door for “ambush” or “quickie” elections, while business groups twice challenged them in court.

The first of those challenges was successful, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling that the board lacked a proper quorum when it devised the rules. The NLRB withdrew and later reissued the reforms. Now, with the rules put forth by a fully confirmed board, the business lobby’s case faces much longer odds.

Declaring that the reforms will “modernize” the union election process, the Democratic senators urged board members to push ahead despite the latest lawsuit.

“We believe this rule will restore balance and certainty to the union election process and strongly encourage you to vigorously defend this rule in the face of such challenges,” the senators wrote.

In part one of this new interview series, Changing the World From Within, Eckhart Tolle speaks to Suza about the violence in our world — and how human beings can lose their sense of humanity and empathy, inflicting suffering on one another.

Suza Scalora: We are constantly hearing about a world that is violent, chaotic and frightening. It seems as though we’re inundated with painful, horrific stories by way of the Internet, newspapers and other media outlets. The newest headline, for example, was about another possible beheading by the terrorist group, ISIS. How can we find inner peace with all this insanity around us?

Eckhart Tolle: There are many aspects to this. It is important to realize that a large percentage of what we hear or see on the news focuses on those places where there is violent conflict. These tend to be the more unconscious pockets of the planet, where there is still a considerable degree of collective unconsciousness.

SS: Can you explain what you mean when you say, “unconsciousness?”

ET: It is important to understand that when I call a person “unconscious,” I am not referring to somebody who has fainted or blacked out. I am referring to someone who is spiritually unconscious. This is to say that the person is completely in the grip of their ego – their false sense of self. The ego gives rise to a sense of separateness between oneself and others, or between “us” and “them.” A human being in the grip of the ego is identified with mental images or ideas about who they are. The mind creates these mental images, or stories. Then a person’s identity, their sense of who they are, is defined through those images or stories. When this happens, there is a tendency for the egoic person to compulsively judge others, thereby making them into enemies. The ego does this to strengthen its ultimately fictitious sense of self. Whatever a person thinks or believes is, of course, conditioned by the past: their upbringing, the culture they live in–including the collective belief systems of that culture–their education, family background and so on. A person who is in the grip of the ego is totally identified with the conditioned content of their mind.
Such a person’s thinking, as well as behaviour, is therefore completely determined by the ego. This is what I mean by the term “unconscious.”

SS: It seems that our Western culture is gripped by the ego as much as other parts of the world. Could you explain what it means for a pocket of the world to be more unconscious than another? What does it mean to be collectively unconscious?

ET: In the West, as well as some other parts of the world, the personal sense of ego tends to predominate, whereas in other areas there is a more collective sense of ego. This collective ego emphasizes the “we” rather than the “I.” The collective ego may be tribal, religious, nationalistic, or ideological. For example, there may be a religious or political belief structure that people identify with in the collective that makes up a large part of a person’s sense of self or identity. It is less these days than it was in the 20th century, when millions of people were in the grip of collective belief systems. For example, when Mao Tse-tung was in power in China, millions of people were totally conditioned by their collective belief system. This was also the case with Nazi Germany and Soviet Communism. When people are so identified with their collective belief system, their ego becomes enormously pronounced. This collective ego begins looking for “enemies” in order to strengthen the sense of separateness on which the ego depends for its survival.
The personal ego already has a strong element of dysfunction, but the collective ego is, frequently, even more dysfunctional, to the point of absolute insanity. The greatest atrocities that have been committed on the planet were perpetrated by the collective ego. For example, if you go back to the Middle Ages, during the Inquisition, it was a time in which torture and persecution was enacted in the name of religion. The Christian message was completely misunderstood and so the religion became an egoic mind structure. People committed atrocities because their entire sense of self was bound up with that belief structure. Even worse things, of course, happened in the 20th century–as we all know.

SS: How does one become that detached from their humanity? How do people get caught up in this collective mindset?

ET: When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity- what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well. This causes a sense of separateness, on which the ego thrives.
If you are an Islamic Extremist, for example, you view others as infidels who do not share your belief system and so they are pronounced ‘evil.’ You can no longer sense the humanity, or Beingness, of those who don’t share your belief system. Once you have conceptualized a person, violence becomes almost inevitable. This is because you are not seeing them as a human being anymore. It becomes impossible for you to have any kind of empathy with another individual who does not fit into your collective mind structure.
We often ask, “How is it possible that human beings can inflict such suffering on their fellow humans?” The answer is that they are totally in the grip of the ego. The ego’s complete inability to have empathy for others explains how such atrocities can be committed on the planet. Jesus on the cross is reported to have said, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” In contemporary terminology, he probably would have said, “Forgive them, for they are completely unconscious.”

For more from Eckhart Tolle, please click here

These public high school students are not yet old enough to vote, but they had a lot to say about President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address.

Students at Hayfield Secondary School in Alexandria, Virginia, have been asked for the past few years by AP government teachers Ken Halla and Doug Zywiol to tweet their feedback to the president’s annual State of the Union address. Hundreds of tweets poured in from high school seniors during Tuesday night’s speech, until the hashtag #Hayfieldgovclass was trending.

The teachers told The Huffington Post that the assignment gets students excited about the speech. Students who don’t have access to Twitter get alternative homework. This year, the teachers said students seemed especially interested in Obama’s idea to make community college free.

“As seniors, they seemed very interested in hearing what he had to say” about community college, Halla said by phone. “There seemed to be kind of a spike in the tweets.”

The tweets reveal how teens felt about the president and the nation’s pressing issues. Here are some of their comments:

im still ticked off about women getting paid less than men. If anything i feel like that would be the easiest to change #hayfieldgovclass

— Timothy Vales (@NegaTIMity) January 21, 2015

#hayfieldgovclass I hope everyone realizes the reason there’s a gender wage gap is because more men choose to be in better paying fields.

— Evan Smoot (@evansmoot) January 21, 2015

Mom: Wow, Biden has a huge forehead!
Dad: It’s honestly a fivehead
#HayfieldGovClass

— Kathy Butler (@bathykutler) January 21, 2015

Why can’t we all be purple states and find a happy medium? #HayfieldGovClass

— MacKenzie Bellimam (@KenzieBell15) January 21, 2015

Preach women have the choice! Regardless abortion, child custody, body image, etc. #prochoice #hayfieldgovclass

— MacKenzie Bellimam (@KenzieBell15) January 21, 2015

Digging the recurrence of the theme of equality among ALL groups of people. #hayfieldgovclass

— brandon kremer (@HeyyoHomeslice) January 21, 2015

boehner is actually making me uncomfortable he looked like he was about to cry and puke at the same time #hayfieldgovclass

— brandon kremer (@HeyyoHomeslice) January 21, 2015

Boehner is about to lose his mind. Deep breaths my friend, deep breaths, #hayfieldgovclass

— ♠ (@heythereheldana) January 21, 2015

“I’m here to party.” #hayfieldgovclass #SOTU2015 #Hawaii pic.twitter.com/dgWh85vhW6

— John Dabeck (@jtdabeck) January 21, 2015

Congress should this, Congress should that, Congress won’t pass anything you say sooooo YA. #hayfieldgovclass

— John Dabeck (@jtdabeck) January 21, 2015

Remember that the torture reports stated that incidents of sexual assault occurred at the hand of CIA officials #hayfieldgovclass

— Katie Flowers (@Katie_Ladybug_) January 21, 2015

Think before you believe what the media is telling you! Thanks for bringing that up Obama #hayfieldgovclass

— Katie Flowers (@Katie_Ladybug_) January 21, 2015

Higher education should not be accompanied with crippling debt #hayfieldgovclass

— Buckshot LeFonque (@reese_no_puffs) January 21, 2015

Make college cheaper and I’ll like you more #hayfieldgovclass

— James Stearman (@JStearman23) January 21, 2015

The President has accomplished more on Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba in six years than Bush + Clinton combined. #hayfieldgovclass

— catherine (@Cat_Gross) January 21, 2015

Obama has done 98% of what he promised when running for office, why can’t so many people see that #hayfieldgovclass

— catherine (@Cat_Gross) January 21, 2015

Some dont like Obama butting in other country’s business but i feel like its the job of the president to do exactly that #HayfieldGovClass

— Timothy Vales (@NegaTIMity) January 21, 2015

Aye Obeezy, can you ask Michelle to give us our cookies back from last year? I really miss those joints… #hayfieldgovclass

— Mr. Clutch (@NickLaFlair) January 21, 2015

I really just want my cookies back #HayfieldGovClass

— Mr. Clutch (@NickLaFlair) January 21, 2015