In July, 1987, John Mohawk spoke to the first National Green Gathering in Amherst, Massachusetts. In his keynote, he warned that industrial societies were threatening the very biology of the planet: climate change, species lost, acid rain, tears in the ozone layer, and biochemical disruptions (including reproductive) from toxic pollutants. Climate change has come [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Politics’
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man Review, Part 2
While I found some parts of John Perkins’ book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man slightly lurid and others pompous, my critique focuses on his admittedly vague suggestions for resolving current crises such as world hunger. This critique may apply to other techno-modern optimisms too.
But first a warning not to use my argument, or [...]
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Review part 1
I’m feeling wistful as we approach the tenth anniversary of the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in late November 1999 — what many of us simply call “Seattle”. It was the beginning of an era of strong anti-globalization protests in the US, which most people have never heard about, often accompanied [...]
Capitalism, Can’t Love it, Can’t Leave It, So Why Not Try Democracy?
It seems increasingly fashionable to dump on capitalism, a trend I heartily encourage. In particular, Michael Moore’s latest film can be expected to accelerate this trend, “Capitalism, A Love Story.” Check out the trailer here. While it hasn’t opened yet in theaters, Michael Moore has already started making the rounds, appearing on Amy Goodman’s Democracy [...]
Uncivil Disobedience
“You lie,” yelled the white South Carolina Congressman whose-name-really-isn’t-Joe in one of the more disgustingly racist moments in recent memory. Demonstrators in front of the White House chant “liar liar, pants on fire” culminating a summer of tea party fusillades railing against such absurdities as the claim that we have a socialist in the White [...]
Health Care Reform: Remote Area Logic
I’m a value-conservative and I favor major health care reform. It’s the answer to families who are under-covered currently, not to mention the 46 million with no health insurance at all (the free-market’s nagging failure). It’s the answer for small businesses which can’t afford major health care coverage for employees. It makes sense financially: France [...]
Outraged Austin Public Radio Listeners Protest Dropping DJs
Editor’s note: Community and even “public” radio as alternative source of news and music, but I’ve learned the hard way from my involvement at KRFC FM in Fort Collins about the need for “radio-activism” to keep such outlets open to a wider range of opinion and perspectives. I hope this won’t be the [...]
Clint Eastwood’s 2008 thriller Changeling proves axiom: real-life stranger than fiction
Clint Eastwood’s 2008 psychological thriller, Changeling tells the true-life story of mistaken identity, political corruption, and the marginalization of women in 1920’s Los Angeles. A single-mother, Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), is told by the police she will be reunited with her missing son, only to discover the boy is not really her son. He claims [...]
The Capitalistic Contradiction: Pushing Us Toward Depression
I’m not feeling optimistic about the economic chances of recovery. I think we are headed for a depression.
I’m hoping I’m wrong and that Obama is superman.
I think it is naive to project a recovery in 6 months to a year because that is how long past recessions lasted. Or because eventually a recovery is inevitable. [...]
Amy Goodman, Today’s Walter Cronkite?
As Walter Cronkite is eulogized, we keep hearing the refrain that he was the most trusted man in America.
Clearly Amy Goodman, “anchor” for Democracy Now! doesn’t fit that description. But she should.
Trained in radio, Cronkite soothed us; his was the voice of reason and rationality but also contained a deep well of emotion that broke [...]