February 2012
2 posts
December 2011
8 posts
November 2011
3 posts
How Wall Street Occupied America by Bill Moyers →
The revolt of the plutocrats was ratified by the Supreme Court in its notorious Citizens Uniteddecision last year. Rarely have so few imposed such damage on so many. When five pro-corporate conservative justices gave “artificial legal entities” the same rights of “free speech” as humans, they told our corporate sovereigns that the sky’s the limit when it comes to their pouring money into political...
October 2011
17 posts
3 tags
“If we have learned nothing else from the 20th century, we should at least have...”
– Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt
Couple arrested protesting N.C. gay marriage ban -... →
“it’s OK to resist laws that treat you less than equal.”
I’m proud to know these women!
“I’ll believe corporations are individuals when Texas executes one.”
– Sign carried by protestor at Occupy Los Angeles
Sixteen Trillion Dollars; Sixteen Tons →
Sixteen Trillion Dollars; Sixteen Tons
Erich Vieth | October 10, 2011
Sixteen is a number that rings a bell for me, because when I was a boy I used to listen to a song called “Sixteen Tons.” It was a coal miner song expressing the pain and futility of endless work without the possibility of getting out of debt. The song was made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford:
Now I see that the number...
Present at the Creation →
Frank Kameny, the modest, stubborn man who helped start the gay rights movement.
By Linda Hirshman|Posted Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011, at 4:24 PM ET
Gay rights activist Frank Kameny died Oct. 11, 2011.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.
Frank Kameny’s little house in Northwest Washington, with its falling gutters and swaybacked sofa, must be the most modest building ever named a historic landmark....
6 tags
cleaning my bowl: The Work of the Monk →
urbandiscount:
“This is an age that, by its very nature as a time of crisis…calls for the special searching and questioning which are the work of the monk [and nun and retreatant] in his [and her] meditation and prayer. For the monk searches not only his own heart: he plunges deep into the heart of that…
4 tags
Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in... →
…..But the biggest difference a decade makes is that in 1999, we were taking on capitalism at the peak of a frenzied economic boom. Unemployment was low, stock portfolios were bulging. The media was drunk on easy money. Back then it was all about start-ups, not shutdowns. We pointed out that the deregulation behind the frenzy came at a price. It was damaging to labor standards. It was...
Correcting the Abysmal 'New York Times' Coverage... →
“My home has been seized, I’m unemployed, there’s no job prospects on the horizon. I have two children and I don’t see a future for them. This is the only way I see to effect change. This isn’t a progressive issue. This is an American issue. We’re here to take our country back from the corporations,” he said, adding he fears for the future of the United States where corporations can now spend...
Meet Dorothy Cooper →
Dorothy Cooper is 96 but she can remember only one election when she’s been eligible to vote but hasn’t.
The retired domestic worker was born in a small North Georgia town before women had the right to vote. She began casting ballots in her 20s after moving to Chattanooga for work. She missed voting for John F. Kennedy in 1960 because a move to Nashville prevented her from registering in time.
...
Refused and Confused By LINDA GREENHOUSE →
“When you enforce the laws of the state, you don’t get to pick and choose.”
STATE FOR SALE →
Bob Phillips, the head of the North Carolina chapter of Common Cause, an organization that promotes campaign-finance reform, said that Snow’s loss signals a troubling trend in American politics. “John Snow raised a significant amount of money,” he said. “But it was exceeded by what outside groups spent in that race, mostly on commercials against John Snow.” Such lopsided campaigns will likely...
WatchCalvin, Marsha and Donna practicing poi on Folly Beach
"Class War" and the Lessons of History →
All the shouts about “class war” bring to mind images of rabid Jacobin mobs in 1793 hauling brave nobles and gentlemen to the guillotine. But if Rupert & co. really want us pondering that image, we owe it to ourselves to leaf back just a few pages to 1789, when the revolution began as a much more moderate thing, inspired by events across the ocean, in America.
September 2011
6 posts
‘War is a racket’: Lessons of 9/11 →
“US Marine Corp General Smedley Butler was correct when he wrote in 1935 that ‘war is a racket’. The last decade has been an exciting time for defence contractors, accruing billions in profits, often through no-bid contracts. Investigating the matter, the US Center for Public Integrity reports ‘publicly available data shows that Defense Department dollars flowing into non-competitive...
WatchThe alley cats have assessed our blind sight-hound and determined that he’s no threat to them. Grey kitty (Luna) often stalks him around the yard and today he’s picked up on this game of hers and was curious enough to seek her out. The black cat (Twitch) always watches from afar with trepidation but holds his ground. The nocturnal long-haired gray tabby (Gertie) flattens out into a...
The Uncontrollable Momentum of War →
“Over the last decade of war, many politicians have trusted charismatic, optimistic generals rather than their own instincts and reason. Concerns about the huge costs of the mission ($120 billion per year for the U.S. alone) and exaggerated fears about what would follow if it failed co-opted almost everyone: Afghan businessmen and foreign contractors, writers and academics. All continued...
August 2011
15 posts
“A ‘No’ uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a...”
– ~Mohandas Gandhi~
07 Aug 2011
maybeflamable:
My yard help wears armor. I live dangerously as you can tell.
6 tags
21 Reasons Rick Perry's Texas Is a Complete... →
Michele Bachmann: Crazy Like a Fox →
Since her election to Congress in 2006, Bachmann has earned a reputation as one of the lower chamber’s biggest bomb throwers. She has accused the president of harboring “anti-American” views, warned that census data could be used to round up dissenters into internment camps, and declared that the Treasury Department is quietly planning on replacing the dollar with a global...
