Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
The US and Gaddafi: The murderer calls for an investigation of the crime
The US and Gaddafi: The murderer calls for an investigation of the crime
The fox will now be looking into the mysterious disappearance of chickens from the hen house. What will he find?
The fox will now be looking into the mysterious disappearance of chickens from the hen house. What will he find?
Sunday, October 23, 2011
If It Was True In 1950...
"Our world is more and more given over to the power of words, and of words that have been in great measure emptied of their authentic content. Such words as liberty, person, democracy, are being more and more lavishly used, and are becoming slogans, in a world in which they are tending more and more to lose their authentic significance." Gabriel Marcel, 1950.
Friday, October 21, 2011
NATO Criminality
One ought to question why NATO forces, having taken Ghaddafi alive, did not protect their prisoner. Was it because he has always been a loose cannon and they could not risk his divulging aspects of his long history of associations with the U.S. and other NATO governments? This is how our government does business these days: like common criminals.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Dr. Johnson On Lying and War-Making
"Among the calamities of War may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages. A Peace will equally leave the Warrior and Relator of Wars destitute of employment; and I know not whether more is to be dreaded from streets filled with Soldiers accustomed to plunder, or from garrets filled with Scribblers accustomed to lie."
I would call this a conflict of interest.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Of Lying and War-Making
Today there does exist an indissoluble connection between lying and war: today, I emphasize, for we are not asserting that there is some necessary and logical connection between the mere notions of lying and making war. But in the actual world we are living in it is impossible not to recognize that making war is linked to lying, and to lying in a double form: lying to others and lying to oneself; and these two forms themselves, for that matter, are very closely linked and perhaps not even ideally separable from each other. --Gabriel Marcel, 1951.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died
30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died
Here's a beauty from Michael Moore that I missed last August...
Here's a beauty from Michael Moore that I missed last August...
Friday, October 14, 2011
The Story of Civilization
Since at least the urban revolution of 3,000 BCE, human civilization has been constructed upon violence and other forms of coercion. At some point in 2005, I believe, I decided, finally, to opt out. By that I mean I began to publicly advocate NON-VIOLENT resistance to and, ultimately, a NON-VIOLENT overthrow of the United States government.
The U. S. government ought not to take this personally, however; I advocate the same approach to every government. I am, by political conviction, a Chomskian Left Libertarian. Which is to say, an Anarchist.
I won't go into all of the twists and turns of thought and practice that led me to this political position, but I will offer a few milestones:
1. In Middle School I read a book (recommended by a friend) on the trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti; I read the New Testament for the first time then and also Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience and John Hersey's Hiroshima.
2. I went to law school and practiced law for ten years. There are few educations better suited to exposing the difference between the rhetoric of law and government and the reality of law and government than that--if, I hasten to add, you refuse to surrender your intellect and conscience. During this period I also read and wrestled with Leo Tolstoy's interpretation of the Gospel.
3. In late 2001 or early 2002, I emailed Noam Chomsky and asked him what he would suggest someone interested in Anarchism as a political philosophy should read. He quickly replied with his "short list." I got started...
These are but a few of the ingredients that led to my "conversion" to Left Libertarianism. The bottom line for me, I suppose, is that Anarchism and a commitment to non-violent non-cooperation with agencies of coercion are not at all unrelated ideas. In my view, you cannot have one without the other. The story of civilization as it has evolved over the last 5,000 years is one of violence. Consequently, any revolution that resorts to violence is not a revolution at all: it is, in fact, more of the same.
I will not participate in any violent revolution: it is a contradiction in terms.
I will, however, continue to call for the NON-VIOLENT overthrow of existing regimes, the summoning of popular assemblies to construct new constitutions, and a way of life that runs counter to civilization as it presently manifests itself all over the world.
The U. S. government ought not to take this personally, however; I advocate the same approach to every government. I am, by political conviction, a Chomskian Left Libertarian. Which is to say, an Anarchist.
I won't go into all of the twists and turns of thought and practice that led me to this political position, but I will offer a few milestones:
1. In Middle School I read a book (recommended by a friend) on the trial and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti; I read the New Testament for the first time then and also Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience and John Hersey's Hiroshima.
2. I went to law school and practiced law for ten years. There are few educations better suited to exposing the difference between the rhetoric of law and government and the reality of law and government than that--if, I hasten to add, you refuse to surrender your intellect and conscience. During this period I also read and wrestled with Leo Tolstoy's interpretation of the Gospel.
3. In late 2001 or early 2002, I emailed Noam Chomsky and asked him what he would suggest someone interested in Anarchism as a political philosophy should read. He quickly replied with his "short list." I got started...
These are but a few of the ingredients that led to my "conversion" to Left Libertarianism. The bottom line for me, I suppose, is that Anarchism and a commitment to non-violent non-cooperation with agencies of coercion are not at all unrelated ideas. In my view, you cannot have one without the other. The story of civilization as it has evolved over the last 5,000 years is one of violence. Consequently, any revolution that resorts to violence is not a revolution at all: it is, in fact, more of the same.
I will not participate in any violent revolution: it is a contradiction in terms.
I will, however, continue to call for the NON-VIOLENT overthrow of existing regimes, the summoning of popular assemblies to construct new constitutions, and a way of life that runs counter to civilization as it presently manifests itself all over the world.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The Silence of the Liberals
"Bad men could never do the harm they actually accomplish, unless they were able to induce good men to become, first their dupes, and then their more or less willing, more or less conscious accomplices." --Aldous Huxley
It astonishes me how Liberals close their mouths and avert their eyes when the crimes of Barack Obama are mentioned--the same Liberals who claimed to be outraged by the criminality of George W. Bush. Now that Obama has out-Bushed Bush with the extra-judicial killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the silence of the Liberals grows deafening.
Monday, October 10, 2011
The Extra-Judicial Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki
By ordering the extra-judicial killing of U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, Kcarab Amabo has shown himself, yet again, the Step-n-Fetchit of the ruling class.
His complete disregard of the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the United States in this matter--laws that he publicly swore to uphold at his inauguration as President of the United States, de-legitimizes his presidency.
A warrant should be issued for Amabo's arrest. The charge: homicide.
His complete disregard of the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the United States in this matter--laws that he publicly swore to uphold at his inauguration as President of the United States, de-legitimizes his presidency.
A warrant should be issued for Amabo's arrest. The charge: homicide.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Naomi Klein: Protesters Are Seeking Change in the Streets Because It Won't Come From the Ballot Box
Naomi Klein: Protesters Are Seeking Change in the Streets Because It Won't Come From the Ballot Box
It is time to occupy Washington, D.C. and shut it down with general strikes and demand a Constitutional convention.
It is time to occupy Washington, D.C. and shut it down with general strikes and demand a Constitutional convention.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
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