I voted

As Rep. Peter King’s Muslim hearings approach, his past views draw ire. In 1985, the Irish government boycotted the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City, the biggest celebration in the Irish-American calendar. The cause of its umbrage was Peter King, that year’s grand marshal and someone the Irish government said was an “avowed” supporter of a terrorist organization, the Irish Republican Army.

Boston Review — Jan-Werner Müller: Making Muslim Democracies. This suggestive analogy between Christian and Muslim Democracy is not lost on Western politicians and intellectuals, but many of them have been at pains to reject it. One line of dismissal, pessimistic in its conclusions, argues that European Catholics only turned to democracy under instruction from the Vatican. Because Muslims do not have anything resembling a hierarchy or central institution of faith, the Christian Democratic example is, according to these critics, irrelevant.

More on conscious shopping. Glad I came across her work. Holiday Resources for the Corporate Idealist. In my TEDx talk, I spoke about the many people fighting the good fight inside companies, working towards better social and environmental practices — which can be a lonely job. If you’re one of them, make a New Year’s resolution to connect with folks in other companies doing similar work. Believe me, it will help sustain you through 2012.