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Friday Funny Photo
Walmart adds gender identity, expression to non-discrimination policy
Walmart — the world’s biggest retailer and the largest private employer in the U.S. — has added gender identity and expression to its non-discrimination policy.
The company’s “Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Policy” already includes protections based on sexual orientation.
Company spokesperson Phillip Keene did not confirm when the new policy went into effect, only that the change was made “several weeks ago.”.
The Human Rights Campaign praised the news, calling it “good for business.”
“What matters in the workplace is how you do your job, not your gender identity or sexual orientation,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese, in a statement.
“As the nation’s largest private employer, Walmart shows that doing the right thing is also good for business. We urge them to continue to move forward by ensuring all of their LGBT employees receive equal benefits.”
Historically, Walmart has scored poorly on the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index, which assesses corporations on more than 30 specific policies and practices covering nearly every aspect of employment for LGBT workers. Last year, Walmart received only 40 out of 100 points, mostly for failing to include gender protections and partner benefits.
Serial adulterer Newt Gingrich: “gay marriage is a temporary aberration”
“I think this [gay marriage] is a temporary aberration that will dissipate. I think that it is just fundamentally goes against everything we know.” – Newt Gingrich, three time serial adulterer
Mr. Gingrich is hardly in a position to use the words “temporary” and “marriage” in the same sentence. If anyone can understand the juxtaposition of those two words together, it would be him.
I think it’s important to note that, given Mr. Gingrich’s lack of commitment to his earlier marriages, “marriage” itself is a “temporary aberration” in his world. Give it some time. I’m certain we’ll be seeing Mrs. Gingrich #4 anytime now.
Excellent marriage equality video from Australia
Clear, direct and creative.
Love it.
Forward, kids.
Bank of America to charge $5 monthly debit card fee
Seriously – it’s time to move to a credit union. Lower fees, better service.
CNN Money: Get ready for a new wave of bank fees. Bank of America will begin charging a $5 monthly fee at the beginning of next year for customers who make debit card purchases.
Whether you use your card for one purchase a month or 20, you will pay $5 per month starting in 2012. It doesn’t matter if you select “debit” or “credit” at the point of sale.
Bill Maher – It Gets Better
Al Qaeda’s Anwar al-Awlaki killed in Yemen
Big news today – the death of Al Qaeda’s Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who was a leading figure in al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.
The Obama administration has confirmed al-Awlaki’s death, and NBC reports that it was a U.S. drone that killed him. Al-Awlaki is be the most prominent Al Qaeda figure to be killed since Osama bin Laden’s death
No president since George H.W. Bush has had more foreign-policy successes happen under his watch than President Obama:
- The death of bin Laden
- The dismantling of al Qaeda
- The ouster of Khaddafy
- The end of combat operations in Iraq
Yet when you look at polls and Obama’s approval rating, he’s getting almost no credit from the American public, a la Bush 41.
Idina Menzel to tape PBS special in Toronto
From the Toronto Star: Tony-winner Idina Menzel would be filming her PBS special in Toronto on November 17-18 with the Kitchener Waterloo Symphone at Koerner Hall.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am about doing this!” enthuses Menzel from the set of Glee in California, “I’ve been honing this program for over a year and it’s full of things I love singing.”
Fans of the multi-talented performer will be glad to hear that Menzel’s favourites probably coincide with theirs and will, of course, feature songs like “Defying Gravity” from Wicked and “No Day But Today” from Rent.
Information on tickets for all performances will be available shortly by visiting www.IdinaMenzel.com.
The Tony Award winner has had a diverse career on stage and in film, television, and music, recently appearing in the television hit Glee, and is currently on a sold-out tour, performing with leading orchestras around the country. In 2009 Ms. Menzel co-starred with Josh Groban in the concert version of Chess: The Musical, recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall and broadcast on PBS. In December 2005 she completed her role as “Elphaba” in Broadway’s Wicked, for which she received a Tony Award for Lead Actress in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award nomination.
Spanish scientists trial promising HIV vaccine
Researchers at the Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) have successfully completed Phase I human clinical trials of a HIV vaccine that came out with top marks after 90% of volunteers developed an immunological response against the virus.
The MVA-B vaccine draws on the natural capabilities of the human immune system and “has proven to be as powerful as any other vaccine currently being studied, or even more”, says Mariano Esteban, head researcher from CSIC’s National Biotech Centre.
The trial demonstrated how the vaccine stimulates the production of lymphocytes B, which produces HIV attacking antibodies that block the virus from infecting healthy cells.
“MVA-B immune profile meets, initially, the requirements for a promising HIV vaccine,” says Esteban. Although it does not remove the virus from the body, the immune response induced by the vaccine could keep the virus under control by destroying the infected cell.
According to CSIC, “if this genetic cocktail passes Phase II and Phase III future clinic trials, and makes it into production, in the future HIV could be compared to herpes virus nowadays”.
Phase I clinic trials will also commence with HIV infected volunteers to test its efficiency as a therapeutic vaccine.
Read more at gizmag.com