MTPC has launched a new “kit” to help. The “Gender Marker Change Kit with New Passport Guidelines” is now available!  The kit, as MTPC describes it in their announcement:

MTPC’s Gender Marker Change Kit includes all the necessary forms and instructions to change one’s gender on all major legal documents: driver’s license, state i.d. card, Social Security Card, birth certificate and passport. The kit also includes detailed instructions on how to fill out the forms, what you need to include with the forms or bring in person to government office. The kit includes a sample attending physician’s letter for attaching to the forms required to change gender on birth certificates.

It’s an open resource and available for download by visiting MTPC’s site at their link, “Changing Gender Marker on Legal Documents“

In Massachusetts, starting in October 1, 2010, you may no longer text while you drive.  As if taking your hands and eyes off the road weren’t self-evident enough, the law makes it illegal to text while driving.  Here’s the full scoop as reported in Trucking Info:

Massachusetts has become the 29th state to ban texting while driving, bringing the country one step closer to a nationwide ban on texting behind the wheel.

The new Massachusetts law, signed recently by Gov. Deval Patrick, will fine adults $100 for texting as a first offense, $250 for a second offense, and $500 for a third.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has done a clear chart on which states ban what regarding cell phone use.  You can see it a their site:  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Cell Phone Laws

The State Department has revised its policy on changing passports for transgender people, announcing Wednesday night that a doctor’s note will now suffice in such cases.

Previously, the State Department had required that a person undergo sexual reassignment surgery before it would change the passport. The policy had outraged transgender advocates, who called for an updated approach.

Under the new policy, which takes effect Thursday, a doctor must attest that the person is undergoing clinical treatment for gender transition, State said. Limited-validity passports will also be available to applicants in the process of gender transition, the department added.

That’s pretty exciting news first thing this morning!   But what has prompted such an important change?   WPATH and the AMA!

State noted that its policy is “based on standards and recommendations of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), recognized by the American Medical Association as the authority in this field.”

The department also stressed that passport-issuing officials “will only ask appropriate questions to obtain information necessary to determine citizenship and identity.”

You can read the full article here at the Washington Post, “State eases rules for changing gender on passports”

You can also read the official statement by the U.S. State Department here: “New Policy on Gender Change in Passports Announced”

More news and other sources on this topic at Google News here.

Here is an excerpt from the official U.S. Medal of Honor Citation, our countries highest award for personal bravery:

While Staff Sergeant Monti was leading a mission aimed at gathering intelligence and directing fire against the enemy, his 16-man patrol was attacked by as many as 50 enemy fighters. On the verge of being overrun, Staff Sergeant Monti quickly directed his men to set up a defensive position behind a rock formation. He then called for indirect fire support, accurately targeting the rounds upon the enemy who had closed to within 50 meters of his position. While still directing fire, Staff Sergeant Monti personally engaged the enemy with his rifle and a grenade, successfully disrupting an attempt to flank his patrol. Staff Sergeant Monti then realized that one of his Soldiers was lying wounded in the open ground between the advancing enemy and the patrol’s position.

With complete disregard for his own safety, Staff Sergeant Monti twice attempted to move from behind the cover of the rocks into the face of relentless enemy fire to rescue his fallen comrade. Determined not to leave his Soldier, Staff Sergeant Monti made a third attempt to cross open terrain through intense enemy fire. On this final attempt, he was mortally wounded, sacrificing his own life in an effort to save his fellow Soldier.

Staff Sergeant Monti’s selfless acts of heroism inspired his patrol to fight off the larger enemy force. Staff Sergeant Monti’s immeasurable courage and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, and the United States Army.

You can read the Presidential address and more at Sergeant Monti’s Medal of Honor Page set up in honor of him by the U.S. Government.   Thank you Sergeant Monti for everything you did for us in the United States.

As we blogged about yesterday, Slideshare is a great Frugal Tech approved tool to help you share presentations, webinars and other material with others.  Well, as we down our first cup of coffee here at Beck’s Cafe it appears someone else thinks Slideshare is pretty good too: The U.S. Whitehouse!  Some of the materal they present includes sort of more mundane official greetings or pronouncements, but some other material is more weighty like Innovation in America, some presedential speaches, official U.S. reports on the environment and more.   You can reach the White House Channel on Slideshare at this link:  http://www.slideshare.net/whitehouse

There are some lessons I think.  Wendy, one of our readers, noted in a comment she left during our first article on Christine Daniels that:

The pressures from society, our families, the media, etc. can exert such a profound force on a transgendered person. I think if we can provide more friendship and love to others experiencing this major adjustment maybe we could prevent the suicides.

Wendy makes an important point that relationships are important and we couldn’t agree more.  Christine apparently had them but closed herself off to them.  What do we do then?  So many of us feel we can’t intrude in others lives but, maybe, there are red flags that should say, “propriety be damned” and we barge in anyway?

You can read the follow up article at The Daily Beast, “The Sad Struggles of a Transsexual Sportswriter“.

I don’t want to believe Mike/Christine is dead.  And, I especially don’t want to believe it’s from her taking her own life.  That cuts too close to home for our community.  Mona Rae Mason, of the National Institute of Health funded Transgender Project, has noted about transgender women from the study:

The rate of lifetime major depression in this study of male to female transgender persons was 54.3%. That is almost three times higher than the corresponding estimate for the general population.

Suicide ideation for this same group was at 53.3%, again three times higher than the general population.

Actual suicide plans and attempts, 35.0% in the younger group, and 27.9% in the older, are seven and 10 times higher than the NCS estimates. SEVEN to TEN times!

You can read more about Christine Daniel’s death at:

1. The LA Times
2. The Huffington Post
3. National Public Radio

L’Shanah Tovah Tikatevu!

And now a little fun for Rosh Hashanah: “A Rosh HaShanah Blessing” Courtesy of Koach

All of our readers are, no doubt, familiar with the Rosh HaShanah custom of eating an apple dipped in honey and other symbolic foods that express our wishes for the New Year. Here are some new ideas:

We should eat things that imply happiness, sweetness and prosperity – like Cheerios, honeydew, plums and Cream of Wheat (see Psalm 81:17).

To promote tolerance among Jews, we should drink orange juice, grape juice and apple juice.

To stress unity, we ought to eat things that stick together, like macaroni and cheese, and peanut butter.

To remind us of the need for love and good will, let’s have Hershey’s kisses and Life Savers.

We should avoid eating anything that sounds violent: no cereal that has the words “Smacks” or “Pops” in their titles, no artichokes, no squash and no Bazooka gum. Also, nothing that sounds meshuggah, like flakes, bananas, or fruit cake. And definitely no bologna!

Lastly, we should eat as many peas as possible, with the hope that this will finally be the year that we see peace in our war-weary world!

I’m sure everyone has their own memories of where you were or what you were doing.  If you don’t have a place to share them, feel free to share them here at Beck’s Cafe in comments to our post.

In 2006 we posted about 9-11 in stories and pictures and we talked about the September 11 Digital Archive.  That archive is still funded and still up on the web.  It’s a wonderful resource about that historic day and well worth your visit.

Sales of men’s underwear typically are stable because they rank as a necessity. But during times of severe financial strain, men will try to stretch the time between buying new pairs, causing underwear sales to dip.

And, when men’s underwear sags, well, the economy, inevitably, takes a dip too.  As The Journal reports it:

“It’s a prolonged purchase,” said Marshal Cohen, senior analyst with the consumer research firm NPD Group. “It’s liketrying to drive your car an extra 10,000 miles.”

According to retailers, the men’s brief’s sales started to dip when the recession took hold last year and sales of Men’s underwear is expected to dip 2.3% this year and only .5% next year.   The true creator of this MUI (mens underwear index) is actually Allen Greenspan, as reported in the Huffington Post.  What might his underwear drawer tell us now?

Curiously, women’s underwear sales do not seem to be an economic indicator, remaining stable in both sweet and sour economies.  One would presume that since women tend to do most of a family’s domestic shopping that they re-route some of the budget to their own needs – including that of underwear?

So how to make any sense of which towns or states allow it so you can stay out of jail? Well, we’ve perked up a way to figure that out pretty easily and that’s by way of the nifty “Governors Highway Safety Association’s Cell Phone Driving Laws” table. It’s very nifty. Basically the Association has listed each state in a table then clearly show what laws apply in that state. Wondering about North Carolina? Scroll down to “N” then and you’ll see if:

• The state has a ban on handhelds
• Are only school bus drivers disallowed from using a cell phone?
• Is text messaging on ban and if so for which kinds of drivers?
• How are the laws enforced? Do you go to the pokey or write a penalty check?

All in all very handy to have. Just don’t check it on your Blackberry, iPhone, or Pre while driving! You can reach this helpful resource at the Governor’s Highway Safety Association link HERE.

(Driving while texting photo courtesy of Irina Slutsky’s photos)

Now we know what you are thinking, “Technology and Africa” do not seem self evident on the surface.  Africa and Natural Resources or Africa and Food (when there is no hellacious drought) or Africa and Nigerian Internet Scams.  But Africa and Technology?  Yep.  They do.

And they do because ther are smart people everywhere on our planet and there are problems everywhere and many times smart people will solve their own problems.  Case in point for AfriGadget, a web site devoted to this topic:

• The photo at the beginning of this post is of a student who invented an automated fishing machine
• Another inventive group has come up with a way to charge mobile phones using bikes and scrap
• And yet another invention harvests water from volcanic steam vents

All in all, some pretty amazing technologies using local talent and resources to solve real local problems.  Smart people and smart solutions.

It’s pretty amazing using Twitter.  Since Twitter can work via SMS messaging, the Iranian government can’t shut down the communications network that has popped up to support the unrest revolution that is happening.   Go take a look at http://iran.twazzup.com/ and, if you are on Twitter, don’t forget to make your icon green in support of Iran Freedom by visiting http://helpiranelection.com/

(photo courtesy of Rob & Ale Photostream)

• Read The Bill @ http://readthebill.org/ is about a grassroots campaign to require “Congress to post all bills online for 72 hours before they are debated. That gives members of Congress – and you – three days to read legislation and consider how it could potentially affect each of us in our daily lives.”
• Open Congress @ http://www.opencongress.org/ “brings together official government data with news articles, blog coverage, and public comments to give you the real story behind what’s happening in Congress. OpenCongress is a free, open-source, non-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to help make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement.
• Earmark Watch @ http://earmarkwatch.org/ is a site dedicated to looking at congressional earmarks from 2008 and links to another site who is doing the same work for earmarks on bills for 2009.

Reading these changed my mind that perhaps, for once, there is a group that cares about how our government is working for it’s citizens, for the people and by the people, regardless of political affiliation.  Now that really is a ray of sunshine.  You can read all about The Sunshine Foundation and the many projects they are doing to keep government accountable to the people by clicking to their site here.

Send your mousy mouse on over to Caprice’s Blog posting, “Community Organizer vs Governor“to see the difference between the two.

The historic implications of her visual are incredible when you think about … though the players today fall short of the original actors from the time of Jesus and Pilate.

The Candidate Calculator will help you determine who may best align with your position! Let’s face it, there are so many choices this time around WHO are you going to pick? It’s a puzzler that’s for sure, but as the Candidate Calculator recommends:

Answer the questions below to find the 2008 presidential candidate that best aligns with your beliefs. More than 1.5 million people have already filled it out. Give it a try!

Mark the column for Yes if you support the issue and No if you oppose it. After that, select how important the topic is to you. If you are unsure or have no opinion on a topic, just mark the Unsure column. You will be scored based upon how well you match the current views of each of the 2008 presidential candidates.

You should go visit the Candidate Calculator and see WHO lines up with you….then vote

Dog Fighting….wtf?? I thought that went out with the middle ages.

Apparently not.

Seeing that I am covered these days in plaster, html and php trying to re-furb Beck’s Cafe I haven’t really been paying attention to the news. But I’ll be darned right there in prime time was a report on Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, himself involved in a dog-fighting ring (see story on Vic by clicking to Yahoo News here) . Friends, we have now reached a time in history where the bizarre is commonplace.

Senator Byrd went on to say that this truly horrendous bloodsport is on the rise. Clearly some people have WAY too much disposable income and FAR too much disposable time on their hands. But is it really on the rise in general and how about here in Boston?

On the national front, it is just sad. We pulled up an article from CBS that did an expose in Chicago on dog fighting on July 19th, 2007. You can visit CBS2 in Chicago at this link HERE to read the full story, but just read this quote by a “trainer” of dogs for dogfighting…this is just one method they use to get those dogs “ready” to fight:

“We’d get 17, 18 bumblebees and put them in his food so that when he ate it, it would sting his gums he went nuts, driving him berserk,” Chico said.

Well now that’s a way to train an innocent domestic animal that is 95% of the time docile and man’s best friend. It’s nice to see the human race has reached the pinnacle of civilization and is now de-evolving.

I did a little snooping around over coffee on this heinous practice and thought I’d share the linkie love with you all. Diane Jessup, who started the Law Dogs program, has a gruesome piece on what dogfighting is all about, you can read her article at her site, “Working PitBull” at this link here.. It made my skin crawl. I’m not sure what kind of “men” dogfighting kinda guys are but it’ll make you scratch your head.

But what about the hard numbers on this “sport”. Is this on the rise or was this just an eye catching feature story for a slow July news month? Sadly, according to a CNN report during an interview with John Goodwin, an expert on animal fighting with the Humane Society, there are an estimated 40,000 professional dogfighters in the United States and purses for such fights can reach $100,000.00. Follow the money and you’ll find something. Sometimes what you find is good, this time what you find is bad. You can read the full CNN report on dogfighting at this link here.

What about here in Boston? Surely we are more “sophisticated”? Well, maybe not. Beck’s Cafe had an email exchange with Joanne Mainiero, Director of the Massachusetts Humane Society on this topic. She told us that Massachusetts does indeed have some illegal dogfighting rings around but that they don’t generally last very long. Usually they are caught quickly. But, she told us, the evidence of dogfighting is here even on an amateur basis with dead dogs found in yards. Pretty gruesome.

We asked Ms. Mainiero what could be done to help combat this practice and she had this advice. First, she suggested that all of us contact the NFL to suspend Michael Vick. The Humane Society even has a quick mailer set up so that you can send your sentiments on this subject over to The NFL Commish. You can reach the Humane Society web page with the “NFL, Throw the Book at Michael Vick” emailer at their site at this link here. Second, be on the lookout. The Humane Society has a fact sheet on this subject and you can reach it by clicking to the Human Society “dogfighting fact sheet” as this link here.

By…John T. Bird

We pause to remember those who died

With so much courage, so much pride

They’ll never come back, yet memories endure

To remind us of freedom: fragile, pure

We’re worthy of their sacrifice if we pause each day

Not just on the last Monday in May

Links of interest:
Remembering our fallen heroes: remember.gov
U.S. Memorial Day Site: usmemorialday.org

Thank you to any veterans reading this site today. I appreciate what you’re helping to keep our country free.