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Newest Blog Entries:
Chris Hedges: So Goes the Newsroom, the Empire and the World
go to article"We are cleverly entertained during our descent. We have our own version of ancient Rome’s bread and circuses with our ubiquitous and elaborate spectacles, sporting events, celebrity gossip and television reality shows. Societies in decline, as the Roman philosopher Cicero wrote, see their civic and political discourse contaminated by the excitement and emotional life of the arena. And the citizens in these degraded societies, he warned, always end up ruled by a despot, a Nero or a George W. Bush" - Hedges
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Tuesday, July 22, 2008
NYT Magazine (2)
Desegregation is no longer about race, but about class; and a faith-based Democratic convention?Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, July 20, 2008
NYT Book in Review: “Heavy Metal Islam”
"The Islamic world has a surprisingly active heavy metal subculture."Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, July 20, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (3)
"The thing about visionaries like Al Gore is that they don’t imagine what’s easy. They imagine the benefits to be reaped once all the obstacles are overcome" (Herbert); "Why is Barack Obama going wherever he’s going at all? Anybody he needs to talk to would be happy to pick up a phone" (Collins); "In order to move forward, the Afghan people need access to books and other printed materials" (Guest Op-Ed)Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, July 19, 2008
Looking back at Life’s moments
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Tuesday, July 15, 2008NYT Op-Eds (2)
"Neither party in this presidential campaign has been forthright with the public about the true extent of the crises facing the country" (Herbert); "If Barack Obama’s message of stepping up is “talking down,” then so be it" (Blow)Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, July 12, 2008
AlterNet: Ecstasy Is the Key to Treating PTSD
Posted by Michael Butler, Sunday, July 6, 2008NYT Op-Eds (4)
"The fierce urgency of now that drives the family movie “Wall-E” and its yearning for change is absent in both the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns these days" (Rich); "We need a national Truth Commission to investigate abuses in the aftermath of 9/11 and to begin a process of soul searching and national cleansing" (Kristof); "University affirmative action programs, whatever their benefits, are no remedy for the problems of the black poor" (Stephen Carter); "How to dodge mates who would maul your happiness" (Dowd)Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, July 6, 2008
Research spending isn’t all about the money
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Sunday, July 6, 2008AlterNet: Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?
EDUCATION! It all starts with education. Look at where we are at! MBPosted by Michael Butler, Thursday, July 3, 2008
NYT: The ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire
"Baby boomers, hired in large numbers during a huge expansion in higher education that continued into the ’70s, are being replaced by younger professors who many of the nearly 50 academics interviewed by The New York Times believe are different from their predecessors — less ideologically polarized and more politically moderate." [See also the accompanying graphic.]Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, July 3, 2008
To Senator Obama, from a Dirty Fucking Hippie … [[this is a (what else?) MUST READ]]
go to blog post"..we marched. We staged sit-ins and teach-ins. We burned draft cards and blockaded induction centers. We declared 'summers of love'. We stuck daisies into rifle barrels aimed at us. And some reacted, as you said, 'by attacking the symbols, and in extreme cases, the very idea, of America itself'. Because the 'very idea of America itself' had become so distorted that it allowed for the napalming of children in their villages, and Mutually Assured Destruction through thermo-nuclear war, and the killing of presidents and civil rights leaders, and the destruction of the environment, and police riots against protesters, and the exploitation of migrant workers, and the oppression of blacks, and the subjugation of women, and even the slaughter of protesting students" - Two Roads in Daily Kos
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Ignorant America: Just how stupid are we?
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Wednesday, July 2, 2008Hanna Rosin: American Murder Mystery (in the Atlantic Monthly)
go to articleThis is a fascinating look at what happened after they knocked down all those high rise housing projects in the inner cities .. basically just whacking a big mole and creating a lot of little dispersed, smaller high crime area moles. How about a real comprehensive anti poverty program? Anyone? Bueller? - mab
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, June 30, 2008
A blind eye on soldiers’ suicides
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Monday, June 30, 2008NYT: Obama Supporters Take His Middle Name as Their Own
Politically astute homage, or "mindless" obsession?Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, June 29, 2008
A New Social Contract
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Sunday, June 22, 2008Fund Health Care, Not War
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Sunday, June 22, 2008Obama’s Father’s Day speech: Raising hopes
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Tuesday, June 17, 2008What We Owe Our Young
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Monday, June 16, 2008NYT: So Young, and So Gadgeted
This is actually quite scary, and has truly frightening future ramifications...Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, June 12, 2008
Population: What to Do When There Are Too Many of Us | Environment | AlterNet
This is the iceberg and we rarely address the problem. We only see the tip. The bulk is below. Population is our most serious threat. This planet is struggling to supply the needs and wants of those who are living now. The future means something needs to give. Don't tell that to the politicians and the clerics who want more votes and souls. MBPosted by Michael Butler, Wednesday, June 11, 2008
NYT Op-Eds (2)
"Jobless and ignored, 4 million young people are left to drift" (Herbert on unemployment); "America's next moral threat isn't sexual. It's financial" (Brooks)Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, June 10, 2008
America’s Democratic Collapse
Posted by Bill Swiggard, Tuesday, June 3, 2008NYT: Texas Loses Court Ruling Over Taking of Children
And it's about time! No one is suggesting that there are not some questionable practices occurring at the compound. But the State of Texas WILDLY overreacted by simply removing ALL the children; separating them from their families, and moving them to temporary foster homes hundreds of miles away - sometimes separating siblings. What has been left unspoken is that the quasi-terrorist tactics used by the State of Texas may actually have caused GREATER damage to these children than if they had simply been left where they were, and removed individually if and when actual physical or other abuse was strongly suspected or proven in individual cases.Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, May 30, 2008
