Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

Charities for Veterans and Military Organizations

“CharityWatch believes it is reasonable for a charity to set aside less than three year’s worth its annual budget for financial stability and possible future needs.”

disabledveteranI was reading this article in CharityWatch, Multiple Names + Exaggerated Programs = Two Related Charities, But Little Help for Vets or Cancer Relief. Ticked me off.

“Help the Vets (HTV) and Breast Cancer Outreach Foundation (BCOF) are two relatively new charities that share the same address and phone number, as well as the same family members in leadership positions, including the president. But of more concern to donors should be another shared trait between HTV and BCOF — the likelihood that most donations will go towards paying for-profit, professional fundraisers rather than for helping veterans or cancer sufferers.”

I found these grades of charities for veterans and military organizations in the Winter 2016/2017 Charity Rating Guide & Watchdog Report, so they theoretically have changed since then, though unlikely. The entities noted with a ? means that CharityWatch did not have enough information. Perhaps some are less than three years old.

“CharityWatch believes it is reasonable for a charity to set aside less than three year’s worth of its annual budget for financial stability and possible future needs. When a charity’s available assets in reserve exceed three year’s worth of its annual budget, CharityWatch downgrades its final letter grade rating. However, we continue to show what a charity’s efficiency rating was prior to being downgraded for those donors who do not wish to factor a charity’s high assets into their giving decisions.” (Those graded thus have two grades and a dollar sign.)

The listings in italics have a grade of B+ or better and therefore are ranked among the top-rated charities.

AdoptAPlatoon Soldier Support Effort: ?
Air Force Aid Society: A/F $
American Legion National Headquarters: D
American Studies Center: ?
AMVETS National Headquarters: D
AMVETS National Service Foundation: F
Armed Services YMCA of the USA: A
Army Emergency Relief: A+/F $

Blinded Veterans Association: D
Bob Woodruff Family Foundation: A-

Center for American Homeless Veterans: F
Circle of Friends for American Veterans: F
Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes: F

Disabled American Veterans: D
Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust: ?
Disabled Veterans National Foundation: F
Disabled Veterans Services: F

Feed Our Veterans: F
Fisher House Foundation B+
Foundation for American Veterans: F
Freedom Alliance: C-/D $

Gary Sinise Foundation: A
Good Charity: ?
Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind: A

Healing Heroes Network: F
Help Hospitalized Veterans: F
Help Our Wounded: F
Help the Vets: F
Homes for Our Troops: A

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund: A
Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America: A-

Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation: B-
Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation: F
Mission Continues: A
National Military Family Association: A

National Veterans Foundation: ?
National Veterans Services Fund: F
National Vietnam Veterans Foundation (DISSOLVED): F
Navy SEAL Foundation: A+/C+ $
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society: A

Operation Homefront: A

Paralyzed Veterans of America: F
Paws for Purple Hearts: F

Semper Fi Fund: A+
Soldiers’ Angels: B
Special Operations Warrior Foundation: A/F $

Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors: B+
TREA Memorial Foundation: ?
Troops Need You: F

United American Patriots: F
United Service Organizations: C
United Spinal Association: C-
United States Armed Forces Association: F
United States Navy Memorial Foundation: D

Veterans Assistance Foundation: C-
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and Foundation: F
Veterans of the Vietnam War & The Veterans Coalition: ?
Veterans Support Organization: F
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund: D
Vietnam Veterans of America: F
VietNow National Headquarters: F

Wounded Warrior Project: C
Wounded Warriors Family Support: A

About a fifth of these received a B+ or better. Over a third received an F.

MOVIE REVIEW: Sully

I got a great deal of enjoyment about the memes on Facebook about Tom Hanks in movies, that you wouldn’t want to travel with him.

sullyThe movie Sully should not have worked. There’s a major event, which you almost certainly know about because they wouldn’t have made the film otherwise. You KNOW it has a positive outcome. The picture shows the event TWICE. And yet the audience is on pins and needles, both times, including me.

This is fine film making by director Clint Eastwood about airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), where experience outweighs the machines. It is what happens when one man simply does his job every day in a professional manner. The one odd thing – and maybe this really happened – is that Sully’s dealing with his wife Lorrie are all on the phone, so one doesn’t get a real strong feel for her character.

The Wife and I saw Sully at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany last month and were happy to spend the 90 minutes. And I LOVED seeing the real people at the end, including many of the passengers.

Unfortunately, I read a lot of reviews before I saw the film. A few of those folks thought that the National Transportation Safety Board members were somehow persecuting Sully for his arguably risky maneuver. Whether it actually happened that way – movies based on real life are not supposed to be documentaries – I thought the questions from the NTSB folks were quite reasonable, in an attempt to learn for future situations. If they were a little too “villainous”, it served the story.

I got a great deal of enjoyment about the memes on Facebook about Tom Hanks in movies, that you wouldn’t want to travel with him, lest one be captured by Somali pirates (Captain Phillips), get stuck talking with a volleyball (Cast Away), get stuck in an airport (The Terminal), or get stuck in space (Apollo 13).

Mourning edition: Donald Trump

Now the media who wanted him, have him,

mourningI was watching 60 Minutes on Election Day evening because watching early returns are not good for one. And there were stories about war, pestilence, and America’s toxic political mood, which prompted “viewers to invoke divine intervention.” It showed, as though we didn’t already know, that we are a fractured people, unfriending political opponents.

I can’t help but think how much America really wanted Trump all along. The Daily Kos blamed his rise on the (deliberate) failure of TV news, and one could make that case. Hey, it’s all infotainment!

But the comedians wanted him too. Just this past weekend, John Oliver made an impassioned final plea for Americans to reject Donald Trump, during which he shows himself, back on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, begging Trump to run.

And when he DID run, Stewart, before he retired in August 2015, thought DJT quite amusing. The news organizations loved the boffo ratings of the Republican debates, which were four TIMES greater in the summer of 2015 than four years earlier. It was all great theater, I suppose, but I never thought it was all that humorous.

Finally, on the late, lamented Nightly Show in December 2015, they were doing a skit when a couple of the actors, Mike Yard and Ricky Velez, told host Larry Wilmore that doing Trump schtick just wasn’t funny anymore. I noticed recently that someone was complaining that the comedians were all bashing Trump more than Hillary; I figured it was penance.

The 16 Republicans who ran against him were largely intimidated that he might slap a nickname on them. The guy’s been in the public eye since the 1970s; where was their opposition research?

And now the media who wanted him, have him, ironically a guy who has promised to be a threat to press freedom, who inspires claims of Lügenpresse (lying press), and gins up his followers to intimidate specific reporters.

Yeah, yeah, maybe Bernie could have won, and easily, I think, because he had passionate followers, one of the reasons I supported him in the primaries. And maybe the FBI director James Comey’s announcement of a new investigation less than two weeks before the election sunk her.

I admit I don’t understand why these angry people think Donald Trump, of all people, is the fellow to fix things. But the people wanted someone who insults people and abuses women and hypocritically attacks others for the same misdeeds he’s been criticized for, whose rhetoric encourages extremism, and who eschews science. The people have spoken.

Obviously, I think “the people” are wrong. I realized it fully last April, when my daughter expressed interest in seeing Donald Trump when he was in Albany. She didn’t support him, just wanted to see him. And I vetoed it, not for political reasons, but because I worried for her safety and mine. THAT’S who we just elected President. (NOW will he release his income tax returns?)

This is a blow I have to muse upon a bit more.

ADDENDUM: I wrote on Facebook yesterday:
Ah, it’s November 8. According to Wikipedia, what happened on this date?
1519 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Montezuma welcomes him with a great celebration.
1644 – The Shunzhi Emperor, the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, is enthroned in Beijing after the collapse of the Ming dynasty as the first Qing emperor to rule over China.
1923 – Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.
Anything interesting happening today?

What Do We Tell The Children? “Tell them, first, that we will protect them.”

R is for Rainbows

I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.

double-rainbow-lrgBecause I was bereft of a topic, I decided to Google the word rainbows. Interesting things I found:

About Rainbows

Author Donald Ahrens in his text Meteorology Today describes a rainbow as “one of the most spectacular light shows observed on earth”. Indeed the traditional rainbow is sunlight spread out into its spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets. The “bow” part of the word describes the fact that the rainbow is a group of nearly circular arcs of color all having a common center.

Think You Know Rainbows? Look Again

Although the most common rainbow is a single crescent containing every color from red through violet, if you pay close attention, you will discover that rainbows come in a surprising variety of colors and shapes. And scientists are finally figuring out why.

From Wiktionary:

From Middle English reinbowe, reinboȝe, from Old English reġnboga ‎(“rainbow”), from Proto-Germanic *regnabugô ‎(“rainbow”), equivalent to rain +‎ bow ‎(“arch”). Cognate with West Frisian reinbôge ‎(“rainbow”), Dutch regenboog ‎(“rainbow”), German Regenbogen ‎(“rainbow”), Danish regnbue ‎(“rainbow”), Swedish regnbåge ‎(“rainbow”), Icelandic regnbogi ‎(“rainbow”).

XKCD (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License).
rainbow-xkcd

Bible verses about rainbows (Genesis 9:12-17 and others)

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth…”

Welcome to Reading Rainbow® Skybrary Family

Skybrary is a carefully curated, ever-expanding interactive library of digital books and video explorations designed to engage young readers and foster a love of learning.

rainbowbridge
Rainbow Bridge National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)

Rainbow Bridge is one of the world’s largest known natural bridges. The span has undoubtedly inspired people throughout time–from the neighboring American Indian tribes who consider Rainbow Bridge sacred, to the 85,000 people from around the world who visit it each year.

The Couch in Rainbow Colors: ‘L.G.B.T.-Affirming’ Therapy

Started in 2006, Antioch’s program is, to its leaders’ knowledge, the country’s first and only graduate-level L.G.B.T.-affirming clinical psychology specialization.

Voting in Albany County, NY 2016: the proposition and the D.A. race

A friend of mine suggested this, and I’m liking it: a write-in vote for Marquis Dixon for Albany County D.A.

note the proposals were on the same side as the candidates
See that, in 2012, proposals were on the same side as the list of candidates

[Those of you NOT voting in Albany County can skip this.]

A friend of mine is voting absentee and asked me to interpret the one proposal on the Albany County ballot.

Proposal Number One, County Proposition Number One
Local Law No “H” for 2016

“Shall there be approved in the County of Albany, Local Law No. “H” for 2016, entitled A LOCAL LAW OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY, NEW YORK, AMENDING VARIOUS PROVISIONS OF THE ALBANY COUNTY CHARTER AND LOCAL LAW NO. 8 FOR 1993 AS SUBSEQUENTLY AMENDED AND FOR THE PURPOSE OF INCORPORATING THE PROBATION DEPARTMENT AND THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS INTO THE ALBANY COUNTY CHARTER.”

I had no idea what that meant.

Subsequently, over the Columbus Day weekend, the Board of Elections has posted information. I’ve learned that the legislation would clarify language in the Albany County Charter. It would:

* Incorporate the county’s Probation Department and Board of Elections into the charter – seems pretty much administrative

* Extend the period in which the county executive may make an appointment to fill a department-head vacancy position to 90 days from 45 days, and the period in which the legislature may confirm the appointments to 60 days from 45 days – I assume this has been a problem

* Mandate a written designation of an order of succession for the offices of the county executive, comptroller, and sheriff – I like THAT

* Mandate that the county adopt an administrative code – it doesn’t have one?

* Require public hearing notices be posted on the county website – transparency I like, but why does that need a vote? Whatever

* Update various sections of the Albany County Charter by defining previously outdated or ambiguous terms and correcting language for clarity – sufficiently vague

Also important: I was looking at my sample ballot and noticed the words: PROPOSITIONS ARE L0CATED ON THE REVERSE SIDE OF THIS BALLOT. Don’t miss it!

Note that the charter revisions will NOT include any provision to downsize the county Legislature, unlike last year’s ballot.
***
You may be surprised to discover that there are candidates to vote for besides the President. There are members of the US House of Representatives, and for many Americans, a race for US Senate. Plus the entire New York State legislature – the Senate and the Assembly, is up.

Unfortunately, there are a number of judge races in this area, plus the Albany County District Attorney’s contest, that are running unopposed. I hate that, as it reminds me of the lesser days of Albany politics.

At the same time, there is an opportunity to help Marquis Dixonin the form of a YouCaring drive. We have an opportunity to help support his family by helping to remove some of the financial stress of more than 2.5 years of supporting Marquis while he was incarcerated.

A friend of mine suggested this, and I’m liking it: a write-in vote for Marquis Dixon for Albany County D.A. District Attorney David Soares supported sending Dixon, a 16-year old at the time of the offense, to adult prison for nine years for the theft of a pair of sneakers, a minor incident during which no one was harmed.

Last week the appeals court strongly repudiated Soares’ position, unanimously granting Marquis Dixon “youthful offender” status he should have initially had and reducing his sentence to the minimum of one to three years. This write-in vote will send a message to D. A. Soares that his punitive incarceration-based policies are unacceptable.

Ramblin' with Roger
Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial