Search results matching tag 'politics'

Vote early at the library

knightvision@evpl — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:01:00 GMT

Early voting at five EVPL locations begins Monday, October 15 and will end November 2.

Library voting locations:

Central Library (in the second floor Quiet Study Room)
McCollough Branch
Oaklyn Branch
North Park Branch
Red Bank Branch

Voting hours:

Monday-Thursday: noon-6:00 pm

Friday: noon-5:00 pm

Please note that polls will close promptly at the scheduled time, regardless of the length of the line. If you have not voted by poll closing time, we appreciate you returning another day to cast your vote.

Can't find the voting area when you get to the library? Just follow the signage and/or yellow footprints on the floor, or ask a staff member to point you in the right direction.

Thank you for exercising your right to vote!

Constitution Day -- September 17th

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:13:00 GMT

September 17th is the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. It's a great day to spend some time learning about this important document that affects all of us who live in the United States of America. If you click right here, you'll go to the National Archives page for the Constitution. You can read a transcript of the original and also look at images of the original document.

Here are some library resources for the Constitution:

The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation, written by Jonathan Hennessey with art by Aaron McConnell

The Annotated U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, edited by Jack N. Rakove

The Complete Idiot's Guide to the U.S. Constitution, by Tim Harper

U.S. Constitution for Dummies by Michael Arnheim

And for little citizens:

We the People: The Constitution of the United States of America, by Peter Spier

We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, with illustrations and forward by David Catrow

Colorful Fantasy Adventure

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:04:00 GMT

A few months ago I realized it had been a long time since I'd read any science fiction or fantasy novels. When I started making a list of titles to try, a friend recommended Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Now I'm recommending it to you because this is a book that has everything: mystery, romance, sword fights, political intrigue, religious debate, sarcasm and more!

Two strong female characters lead the story. Vivenna and Siri are sisters and princesses of Idris. Although Vivenna has been trained from birth to be the god king of Hallandren's bride, it is Siri who is sent to off to this foreign country to marry the god king. Vivenna, both confused about having her duty taken away from her and worried about her younger sister, takes off to Hallandren to rescue Siri from the god king.

The countries Idris and Hallandren have mostly opposite cultures, so both Siri and also Vivenna, who's been educated on the Hallandren lifestyle, experience major culture shock when they arrive in Hallandren. Idris is a quiet country with only small cities populated by worshipers of Austre, who strive to never be ostentatious. Their one god Austre is not someone they see, only someone who's good works they see. Hallandren is a bold country full of bright colors with a pantheon of gods, the most powerful of which is the god king. The Hallandren people can actually petition their gods in person at the gods' and goddess' palaces. Since the book takes place primarily in the capitol city of Hallandren, color is a very important part of the story.

Idris and Hallandren are about to go to war against each other and the two sisters, though separate, find themselves doing whatever they can to prevent it or make it easier on their beloved Idris. Meanwhile, in the court of gods, debate over the war becomes more and more heated. Most of the gods and goddesses are either strongly for or against the war, but Lightsong the Bold, a rather reluctant god, is not sure.

Each and every character brings something to this story, but some of my favorites are Vasher and his sword, Nightblood. Lightsong's high priest, who he nicknamed Scoot, is my favorite of the less central characters.The god king himself turned out to be more interesting than I thought he would.

At nearly 600 pages, Warbreaker is a little longer than most books I read, but it was well worth it. There really aren't any slow sections. Once I was in the last 200 pages, it became a real struggle to pull myself away from the story for anything at all!

To visit Brandon Sanderson's website, click here.

The Health Care Reform Act turmoil

SuDocQueen@evpl — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:33:00 GMT

Opinions and concerns abound about this issue, sometimes to the point that the facts get obscured. Can I separate all the facts from the fiction? Nope, I can be duped and sucked in as easily as the next person. But I can tell you where to go to form your own opinions undiluted by anyone else with an agenda. Thomas from the Library of Congress is an excellent site for following legislation and the workings of Congress. As a matter of fact, Thomas has made it easy for people right now. You don't even have to search for the House's health care bill. They've put up a direct link on the very front of their website. From that link, you can then read a summary of the bill, see what Committees it's been referred to, see who is sponsoring it, and read the bill word for word yourself. Be warned, the bill's over 1,000 pages long and very dense to read! That doesn't mean I think it's not worth reading; I'm just saying don't expect to skim through it on your lunch hour unless you belong to Mensa. :)

You can also get some very useful links from Congressman Brad Ellsworth's "Online Office." He has the PDF of the full bill, just as Thomas does, but he additionally has links to the committee work being done on the bill.

And while we're talking Congressmen, if you want to share your opinion, do you know who to share yours with? Indiana's Senators are Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar, while Evansville's Congressman is Brad Ellsworth.

Lastly, here's on other place I like to go when I'm inundated with opinions, http://factcheck.org/. They appear non-partisan to me. They've debunked pro and con statements surrounding the health care debate. And, their website/services don't exist solely for the health care debate (it just looks that way right now :). Take a look at their Archives or Ask Factcheck to see some of the other political issues they address.

Speak your mind…opinions welcome, wanted, and appreciated

SuDocQueen@evpl — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:11:00 GMT

Hello out there to everyone in EVPL blogland,

I have a dilemma that I could use your help with. Every year I sit down to plan a workshop on useful government documents and websites (more websites than actual documents now-a-days) and every year I get overwhelmed with the glut of information I could offer… Do I focus on how to find useful health and nutrition information? Or on how to find those interesting statistics you always hear quoted from the Census and Labor Departments? Or what about consumer safety information? Or how to navigate Social Security’s website? Or how about following legislation? The list can go on and on. So, I’m opening the floor to all of you, the people that the government is trying to reach with all of this information. What do you most want to know about? What do you need help discovering? Let me know how best to help you.

My Land is Dying, by Harry Caudill

Bufkinite@evpl — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:38:00 GMT

Why review a 38 year old book? When I spotted this book, I remembered the name Harry Caudill because of his book Night Comes to the Cumberlands. I read that book after reading a chapter about Harry Caudill in a book of essays by Wendell Berry called What Are People For?

Now, I've been an admirer of Wendell Berry for years, and enjoy his writing - and his thoughts - immensely. Like Berry, Caudill (1922-1990) was a person who willingly tied his life to a place - the Kentucky Cumberlands - and he spent his life living and working in that place, and protecting what he found valuable in it. What he found valuable, it turns out, was the landscape, the people, and the culture that the two - put together - formed.

Published in 1971, My Land is Dying is a detailing of the history the exploitation of the Cumberlands' resources - first the virgin forest that blanketed the region, later the coal, and always the people. He details how the collusion of state government with business interests first disenfranchised, then impoverished, and finally drove from the land the vast majority of the inhabitants of the land. Caudill knows what he's talking about; he was a lawyer, and a good one. But he defended the defenseless, and saw time & again how victories at the local level would be reversed by higher level courts in the capital of Frankfort. His narrative of this slow, inexorable death is accompanied by pictures that show the devastation, and he spends time talking about people. Not in the abstract, but real folks with real names, like the widow Ollie Combs, who was arrested on her own land when she delayed miners by laying down in front of bulldozers.

Written 38 years ago, this book's message should be read more urgently today, both because the stakes are higher, and the truths that it speaks are undiminished: "No nation was ever more abundantly endowed with natural beauty than ours. Yet it is clear from this continuing record that no nation has been more heedless of its legacy. And no chapter of that record is uglier or more threatening than the chapter that continues to be written by the mining interests, whether below or on the surface of the land."

This book may be old, but it deserves to be widely read.

Official ".gov" web site of the office of the President Elect

Bufkinite@evpl — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:18:00 GMT

It's been said that Barack Obama ran a transformational campaign, and is a transformational political figure. Now, with the advent of www.change.gov, we have what looks like the beginning of a transformational Presidency. This is the official ".gov" website of the office of the President-elect. Not politics, but policy.

Top-of-page informational links include a Newsroom and Blog, a "Learn" link to biographical information on the Presidential and Vice-Presidential families, and an "Agenda" link with Obama adminstration policy statements in 25 different policy areas.

But the truly "transformational" part are the remaining top-of-page links. The "American Moment" link invites you to share your vision for the direction America needs to go. The "America Serves" link currently is not very fleshed out, but looks to become a clearinghouse to opportunities for citizens to volunteer for the Peace Corps, Americorps, and projected new government orchestrated volunteer organizations: Classroom Corps, Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. The "Jobs" link encourages anyone to begin the process of applying for a job in the Obama administration. Finally, the "About" link contains links for contacting the transition team, and a link to the GSA's "Transition Directory," a very interesting document which was developed to assist in-coming administrations work with the current administration to smooth the transfer of power.

Thanks to googler@evpl for bringing this site to my attention.

What do you think about this level of transparency? What is your vision for the first 100 days of an Obama administration?

The candidates on the issues

googler@evpl — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:44:00 GMT

There are a couple of good websites that outline the Sen. McCain's and Sen. Obama's stands on the issues. First, of course, are their own websites:

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

Recommended third-party sites include:

http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm

http://uspolitics.america.gov/uspolitics/elections/issues.html

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/issues/economy.html

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/

http://congress.org/election/home/

Fact vs Fiction in Political Campaigns

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:34:00 GMT

As elections approach, decisions about how to vote are being made. And political campaigns and candidates have been known to bend the truth in their efforts to get the votes. The PBS blog, Media Shift, had a helpful article this week, Political Fact-Check Sites Proliferate, But Can They Break Through the Muck? The non-partisan, fact-checking sites recommended are Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org, the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly's PolitiFact and the Washington Post's Fact Checker blog. The title of the Media Shift article refers to their observation that the partisan fact-checking sites are being used more that these non-partisan sites. Links to those more biased sites are also part of the article, but I'm not going post them here.

The Food We Eat: New Ways of Thinking About Food

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:01:00 GMT

Red Bank Branch has two upcoming events concerning our food and where it comes from.

On Wednesday September 24 at 6:30pm Marvin Kemper and Joe Schalansky of Seton Harvest will be speaking. Seton Harvest is a CSA, or community supported agriculture project.

Next, on Wednesday October 15 at 6:30pm Suzan Ozel of the River City Food Co-op will be speaking. The River City Food Co-op is a local source for whole foods, organic foods and local produce.

If you're interested in learning more about the food we eat, try these titles:

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements by Sandor Ellix Katz
Simply in Season: A World Community Cookbook by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Food by Gary Paul Nabhan
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver
Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty by Mark Winne
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser
Feeding People is Easy by Colin Tudge
Everything I Want To Do is Illegal by Joel Salatin