October 2009
“So what is real wealth? We might say it is anything that has a real intrinsic...”
– David Korten
“There are two periods when Congress does no business: one is before the...”
– George Miller
Ayn Rand and the World She Made →
Yet while Rand took to wearing a dollar-sign pin to advertise her love of capitalism, Heller makes clear that the author had no real affection for dollars themselves. Giving up her royalties to preserve her vision is something that no genuine capitalist, and few popular novelists, would have done. It is the act of an intellectual, of someone who believes that ideas matter more than lucre. In...
“Consider the dynamics inherent in a dominator system. With a few on the top and...”
– David Korten
“A persistent pattern of violence against people, community, and nature is...”
– David Korten
my mom on america's most wanted (almost) →
My mom was almost on America’s Most Wanted. A couple months ago my mom’s friend’s neighbor was shot while he was standing in his driveway. He caught a stray bullet from a gunfight between drug dealers. The bullet passed through my mom’s friends fence to hit and kill him. 3 guys in a car made their getaway. Two were caught but the third is still on the loose. Much to the...
Conservatives discover generations →
The theory of William Strauss and Neil Howe, as I have mentioned, sees a period crisis in the life of the United States (and, I have concluded, of other nations as well) every 80 years or so (1774-1794, 1860-1872, 1929-45, 1908 - ?). Those crises are closely related to a generational rhythm that produces a new generation every twenty years. Each generation belongs to one of four archetypes,...
“And when you’re focused on achieving a certain goal, you can eliminate...”
– James Galbraith
“Clear proof of the irrational behaviour and irresponsibility of the new...”
– Mikhail Gorbachev
“In my five years in Iraq, all that I wanted to believe in was gunned down....”
– NYTimes.com
“Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God...”
– Martin Luther King
“If you were to travel back into time and spend time with second century...”
– Which Bible do the Bible Believers Believe?
Cable news: who cares? →
Now, we could be spending our time decrying the fact that Americans seem to have a strong preference for opinionated editorializing (be it Obermann or O’Reilly) over real solid news. Except of course that CNN hasn’t offered real solid news in a long time. Or we could bemoan the fact that a vitriolic ideologue like O’Really totals almost three times more viewers than the equally ideological but...
“Is this the best we can do? Forcing people to buy private health insurance,...”
– Dennis Kucinich
Study Suggests U.S. Could Use Fewer, Not More... →
Over 600,000 science and engineering degrees are granted annually from American universities.(1)
The US produces only 120,000 science and engineering jobs per year (much less lately; the number may now be negative).(2)
That leaves 480,000 graduates per year without jobs in their chosen careers. Add to this over 250,000 H-1B, L-1, and trade visas each year. Half a million Americans are...
“…42% of American men with fathers in the bottom income quintile remain there as...”
– Inequality Begets Inequality
Are Small Groups Just for White People? →
“Arizona has always been deeply dependent on federal spending, whatever its...”
– Rogue Columnist
What Does a Smart Brain Look Like? →
We all know someone who is not as smart as we are—and someone who is smarter. At the same time, we all know people who are better or worse than we are in a particular area or task, say, remembering facts or performing rapid mental math calculations. These variations in abilities and talents presumably arise from differences among our brains, and many studies have linked certain very specific...
Age of Spirit: An Interview with Harvey Cox
NS: The book describes Christian history in terms of an “Age of Faith,” an “Age of Belief,” and, now, an “Age of Spirit.” How neatly do these categories fit?
HC: Joachim of Fiore used that term “Age of Spirit” back in the 12th century. It is a term that is not without troublesome qualities. Joachim used it in a very immanentist, eschatological way: this would be the culminating age, and we wouldn’t need any priests, any hierarchies, or any doctrines; no mediation would be necessary, and all the pagans and heretics would unite with the Christians. He had a creative interpretation of the Trinity: that the Old Testament was the age of the Father, and then came the age of the Son, and then came the age of the Spirit. Some of his followers even started setting dates for the end of the world, and he was eventually declared a heretic after his death. Still, he was on to something. He recognized that society goes through transitional periods. Human beings need labels, but you have to be aware that the labels are always just that. You can stick them on, but you can peel them off as well. They help to organize thinking, which is why, after some hesitation, I chose to use that periodization, realizing that it would be problematic.
Fox News voted most ideological network, CNN most...
Do 14% of this set of poll respondents really believe Fox News is “mostly liberal”?
CNN “mostly liberal”? Wow, these political labels morph like Magellan…
Link (via think4yourself, soupsoup)
Black Tuesday? →
80 years ago today, on October 29th, 1929, Wall Street saw the worst day in its history. The shock of “Black Tuesday” came to an end, but the misery of the Republican Great Depression was just beginning. As a result of the disaster that followed three successive Republican administrations – and their cutting regulations and dropping taxes on the most wealthy from over 70 percent to under 30...
“Appearing cheerful is vital in a society where all of life monitored by an...”
– Joe Bageant
“Where is the open source search engine, the one that doesn’t link the...”
– Google uber Alles
Lifelogging Takes Another Step Forward →
Just your average lifelogger
Lifelogging – recording every single minute of your life (or as much of it as possible) – continues its unstoppable march towards the mainstream with the announcement that Vicon will soon release a life recording device called the Revue. The device is worn around your neck and automatically takes photos up to every 30 seconds. The Revue boasts an accelerometer,...
“There will be fighting, but this is not a war. It is a violent argument and it...”
– Informed Comment
Sugar as Brain Food →
Celebrating 40 years of the net →
At 2100, on 29 October 1969, engineers 400 miles apart at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) prepared to send data between the first nodes of what was then known as Arpanet.
It got the name because it was commissioned by the US Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (Arpa).
Any More Food? →
They say that current trends suggest a big food shortfall is coming, and that it will hurt the poorest and most vulnerable citizens on the planet. They worry that several trends are holding back agricultural innovation.
On the left, they see a romantic preoccupation with organic farming, which will never be sustainable. They see the paralyzing power of the precautionary principle. They see an...
Phoenix, Los Angeles lead list of job losers →
Los Angeles continues to suffer the nation’s worst employment losses, with 220,000 of its jobs disappearing during the past year, but Phoenix was hit with the biggest percentage drop, according to a report issued Wednesday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Phoenix lost 8.0 percent of its job base during the past year. The runners-up for that unhappy distinction were Detroit (down...
Is Leiberman just a traitor to the Democrats or... →
“I think some people are under the impression that the White House wants Fox News...”
– What Obama’s Doing With Fox News
“Why do congressmen and senators rail on the supposed awfulness of...”
– David Sirota
“The victory of industrialism over Luddism was thus overwhelming and...”
– Wendell Berry
Study: No Shortage of U.S. Engineers →
U.S. colleges and universities are graduating as many scientists and engineers as ever, according to a study released on Oct. 28 by a group of academics. But that finding comes with a big caveat: Many of the highest-performing students are choosing careers in other fields. The study by professors at Rutgers and Georgetown suggests that since the late 1990s, many of the top students have been...
“Keeping America’s neighborhoods safe requires our police forces to have...”
– William J. Bratton
“If belief in God were a consistent force for good, there would not have been...”
– Susan Jacoby
“How do you spell “hypocrisy”? Try this:...”
– Jim Hightower
Michael Moore: Catholic of the year? →