57 Articles

Thursday, November 19, 2009
Art Photography: Night Zinnias
(4 comments) If Dracula had been a little more sensitive, instead of waxing euphoric over his howling wolves as his "children of the night", he might have gone on a moonlight walk (or flight) and admired some of the beautiful flowers of the night.

Monday, October 12, 2009
Poetry and Music Review of Caroline Herring's Golden Apples of the Sun
(6 comments) Caroline Herring's fifth CD, the Golden Apples of the Sun, has just been released. It is a tour de force of lyrical poetry, very moving music and powerful themes from this Mississippi song-writer with an increasingly international appeal.

Friday, September 11, 2009
A Poetic Reflection on 9/11: Zen and the War on Terror
There are, to simplify, two pathways one can follow in this world, two paradigms one can choose from to try to survive and prosper with. One is the path of Fear, the other the path of Love. Thus far America has been following the pathway of Fear. And look to what sorry state it has led us. Time to try the other approach.

Saturday, July 4, 2009
Photo Essay: Thoughts for the Fourth of July: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk for Peace
(2 comments) With 2 wars going, let us look at some people who feel very strongly that war in general is not only wrong but horribly threatening and destructive to all sentient life on the planet, particularly at this stage in the planet's evolution, where resources for survival are dwindling and social problems magnifying exponentially. Let us look at people who not only talk the talk about a peaceful world, but walk the walk to create it

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Stopping a Flu Pandemic: Is King Xerxes Thrashing the Waves?
(15 comments) As headlines get more and more shrill about the spreading new influenza strain, it is time to step back and take a sober look at this through the eys of a physician. What is an antigenic shift or a cytokine storm? How strong are the chances that this will become a pandemic, and are politicians, starting with Obama, and health officials blowing smoke when they tell us that they have things under control?

Saturday, April 4, 2009
A History of the FARC and Reviewing The FARC Revolutionist by Renate Vanegas
(2 comments) For most governments, revolutionary forces are guilty of committing acts of violence against civilians and igniting social turmoil. But for these groups, principle is their only weapon to achieve their much-desired goals, for their belief is that they are freedom fighters in search of peace in their respective community and justice for their countrymen. Such is the case in Colombia, where the FARC has struggled for decades.

Saturday, March 14, 2009
Ellis, a "Be Here Now" Folk Singer
(6 comments) Who is Ellis, this Texan/Minnesotan with the contagious laugh, big smile and beautiful voice? Is she becoming a leading light in a new generation of folk singers?

Sunday, January 11, 2009
Reviving the Embers of Guernica, a Poem
(3 comments) The world watches in anguish about Gaza as some of those who supposedly understand best the horrors of war and pogroms against civilian populations perpetrate a brutal pogrom themselves. While some governments work to end this nightmare and the United States works to heighten it, those of us with only our voices should realize we also have our hands, minds, feet and tongues to protest this outrage through all the arts.

Saturday, December 27, 2008
The Voice of the Wetlands Festival, Part 6: Cypress Triangle, Martin Luther King Elementary and Michael Franti Singing
(4 comments) Here is Part 6 of my series, the Voice of the Wetlands 2008. This time we return to the rebounding Lower Ninth Ward and Common Dround Relief to learn about efforts to restore the wetlands nearby, to visit Martin Luther King Elementary School and to enjoy a Michael Franti concert there.

Saturday, November 22, 2008
The Voice of the Wetlands Festival, Part 5: Brad Pitt and the Color Pink
(2 comments) Give me 50 Brad Pitts and I will transform the world. As the great architect Gaudi used to say, architecture reflects the soul of a people, and if Brad Pitt's Make It Right Project, in conjunction with powerful community efforts in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans are any indication of this, then the people of this ward are now experiencing a spiritual transformation and cultural renaissance.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Voice of the Wetlands Festival 2008, Part Four: Phoenix Rising in the Lower Ninth Ward
Continuing my Voice of the Wetlands Festival series, we are turning now to the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. This is the first place I revisited before I even drove to the Festival. As I explored the Ward, I found that there is a fabulous new spirit emerging there.

Monday, November 3, 2008
The Voice of the Wetlands Festival, Part 3: The Cajun and the Lake
(2 comments) Continuing with my series on the 5th Annual Voice of the Wetlands Festival that took place from Oct 10 thru 12 in Houma, Louisiana, that not only entertained us, but warned us about the crisis of the wetlands in southern Louisiana, now let us look at what is happening to a typical lake in the region, as well as meet Lee Richoux.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Voice of the Wetlands Festival 2008, Part 2: Passion for Music and the Wetlands
Well, they put on one heck of a great music festival, but just who are the Voice of the Wetlands and Tab Benoit, and what do they stand for? Why is it important that we save the wetlands, and how did they get so badly deteriorated? How do we go about restoring them anyway?

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Voice of the Wetlands Festival 2008, Part 1: Mr Bill and the Gulf Restoration Network
(5 comments) The 5th Annual Voice of the Wetlands Festival just took place from Oct 10 thru 12 in Houma, Louisiana, and what a hoot and, simultaneously, a deadly serious warning to all of us about the present and future crises of the wetlands in the Gulf states.

Monday, August 4, 2008
No War on Iran: Outside Little Creek Naval Amphib Base on August 2nd
(3 comments) On Saturday, Aug 2nd, some 50 activists rallied against war on Iran at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, headquarters for the Navy's ampbibious forces in the Atlantic. This was part of some 70 actions held nationwide against an attack on Iran.

Sunday, July 20, 2008
Bringing Karl Rove to Trial, Test Run
(1 comments) Karl Rove, who has left a wake of destruction throughout the planet by helping to usher in the most reactionary regime the United States has ever seen, has yet to be brought to justice for his many outrages, the latest of which is his arrogant refusal to testify before Congress. However, in Virginia Beach on Friday, July 18, some 40 protestors gave us an example of how that just might be accomplished.

Saturday, June 28, 2008
Ball Girls, Big Lies and Bombing Iran
(8 comments) What do a ball girl for a Triple A ball team and the Neocon propaganda campaign against Iran have in common? More than you think.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Nancy Pelosi's Lady MacBeth, Anti-Impeachment Oration (Satirical Poem)
Why is it that Nancy Pelosi continuously protects George Bush from impeachment? One can only speculate about what hidden thoughts course through her mind, but perhaps by contemplating the works of Shakespeare we can come to some sort of intuition. Is Speaker Pelosi perhaps really a cross between a xenophobic Lady MacBeth and patrician Marc Antony, plotting for and defending, against all comers, her favorite would-be emperor?

Sunday, June 8, 2008
Prime Minister al Maliki Meets with Old Pro Vidkun Quisling (Satire)
Nouri al Maliki, Prime Minister of the American puppet government of Iraq, raced to Oslo, Norway yesterday to confer with well-known traitor Vidkun Quisling on how best to sign Dick Cheney's security pact without looking like he had sold out his fellow countrymen.

Friday, February 15, 2008
Saul Williams - When The Clock Strikes Me
(1 comments) As C.L. Pagano recently wrote: "I don't know about you, but I lived through the 60s and I just know they're back! It's a feeling, it's the similarities of social unrest – and it's something more cosmic". She's not alone with this feeling. Many of us, such as Saul Williams, welcome this energy of transformation's arrival and are eager to channel it's healing power into the contracting veins of our dying civilization.

Saturday, December 22, 2007
The Murder of Christ
(4 comments) The abuse of children, those least able to defend themselves, is epidemic on this planet. And children are the closest to pure innocence, spontaneity and love, at least until the adults begin to pervert their characters. In fact, Christ said that we must become again as little children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But instead of heeding Christ's advice, so-called civilized nations murder and abuse children in torrents.

Monday, December 3, 2007
Is Osama bin Laden Dead? Part 4: Deeper into the Confession Tape
The linch-pin of the War on Terror has been 9/11, and the pin itself has always been Osama bin Laden. However, this pin is not made of stainless steel, but smoke and mirrors. In Part 3 we looked further into the video tapes right after 9/11 up to our first glimpse of the pivotal bin Laden Confession Tape. Now we will explore that tape further. Was it a legitimate revelation or a fraud, or even some of both?

Thursday, November 29, 2007
Gaza's Reality - from Occupation 101
(4 comments) Americans continue to know very little about conditions in occupied Palestine, where some 4,255,000 plus Palestinians live in pathetic to horrific conditions. This short video takes you inside a refugee zone in Gaza.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Reel Bad Arabs - Confronting Stereotypes
Media critic Jack Shaheen wrote a book that has now become a just-released film exploring Hollywood's decades-long history of stereotyping Arabs, a history with disturbing similarities to anti-Semitic and other racist caricatures throughout history. And these stereotypes have had a lethal effect on the collective American consciousness, not to mention foreign policy.

Sunday, November 11, 2007
Is Osama bin Laden Dead? Part 3: Confession as Theater
(11 comments) The linch-pin of the War on Terror has been 9/11, and the pin itself has always been Osama bin Laden. However, this pin is not made of stainless steel, but smoke and mirrors. In Part 2 we looked at videotapes that surfaced right after 9/11 and now in Part 3 we will continue to focus on those tapes up thru Dec 2001, including the confession tapes, yes, plural, because there was one, allegedly, that never quite made it to press.

Friday, November 2, 2007
Is Osama bin Laden Dead? Part 2: the First Tapes
(1 comments) The linch-pin of the War on Terror has been 9/11, and the pin itself has always been Osama bin Laden. However, this pin is not made of stainless steel, but smoke and mirrors. In Part 1 I point out how there was a rather broad consensus that he had died sometime in Dec. 2001. Has he been seen since? Not in any public instances, always just on videotape, or heard on audiotape. But what if these tapes are not really genuine?

Sunday, September 30, 2007
Is Osama bin Laden Dead? Part 1: December is for Dying
(3 comments) The linch-pin of the War on Terror has always 9/11, and the pin itself has always been Osama bin Laden. However, this pin is not made of stainless steel, but smoke and mirrors. There are just too many contradictions in the storyline that he was and is the Grand Vizier of the Forces of Evil arrayed against us. The biggest problem is that bin Laden may have been dead since Dec 2001, which means we have been suckered BIG TIME.

Monday, September 24, 2007
BREAKING NEWS FROM FOXX NEWS: SARKOZY WINS PROMINENT POSITION IN BUSH GALAXY
Breaking FOXX News: French President Nicolas Sarkozy, just elected to the French Presidency this past May, has wasted no time in flashing brilliantly like a comet in the Bush constellation of friends and allies, winning a key position within it on September 23.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Breaking News from FOXX News: Yet Another bin Laden Tape
In the past 24 hours al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, apparently not content with just one new message to the American people, has now released another videotape, which this time heavily attacks Americans' social habits, singling out Michael Vick for special criticism as a terrible role model for our youth.

Friday, September 7, 2007
Open Letter to the Presidents of Russia and China
(1 comments) All the storm warnings are there that the White House is poised to attack Iran on utterly specious grounds, with a clear ulterior motive, to carry out the Neocon agenda of turning the Middle East into an American super-colony. Gulag might be a better term. Moreover, this could profoundly damage the world economy, given the instability of oil prices and resources. What, then, are Russia and China doing to stop this?

Sunday, July 8, 2007
Red Alert: Has Santorum Let the Cat Out of the Bag?
(8 comments) Has ex-Senator Rick Santorum inadvertantly let the cat out of the bag about new Black Ops emanating from the bowels of Dick Cheney's office, the Pentagon, the CIA and other covert entities to hit America with staged terrorist attacks this year or next to regenerate their global drive for hegemony? Anything is possible with these criminals, so is this a Paul Revere moment?

Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Biloxi, Madmen and the Dixie Mafia
Step into the contradictory world of Biloxi, Mississippi, one of the great gambling centers of the South (even legally since the 90s) despite being nearly wiped out in '05. Biloxi, like one of its most famous native sons of the past, George Ohr, the Father of American pottery, keeps bouncing back from adversity. But not without a price, literally, because in Biloxi, only money really talks, as you will see in this photo essay.

Friday, June 1, 2007
OPERATION IRAQI GENOCIDE
(2 comments) Let's start dismantling our Orwellian government's Double Speak one cliche at a time, starting with one of the most odious. Their thought-forms must be neutralized and exposed for the negative energies and realities they hide.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Waveland, the Hurricane and the Rainbow
(1 comments) This is the fifth in my series of articles on post-Katrina conditions along the Gulf Coast, this time focusing on Waveland, which was as close to Ground Zero as it gets, and the lingering destruction shows it. But how many of you know that a rainbow began shining in Waveland after the hurricane, helping victims to recover.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Welcome to the Lower Ninth Ward, Where Tragedy and Hope Meet
(2 comments) This photo essay takes you to the scene of some of the worst flooding in New Orleans during Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward, where today, 20 months later, despite the heroic efforts of residents and volunteers, the challenge to rebuild still looms like Mt. Everest, with the Feds and city government more of an obstacle to recovery efforts than a source of inspiration and support. So groups like Common Ground have taken the helm.

Sunday, April 29, 2007
Friday the 13th on Orleans Ave, Where America is Forsaking its Citizens
(3 comments) My third photo-essay (with 42 linked photos) takes us to the harsh reality of Orleans Ave, New Orleans, where there's a shameful lack of progress in recovery from Katrina, and a general callousness, if not outright malice toward this neighborhood's citizens, many of whom are still scattered to the winds. This is symptomatic of the halliburtonization of recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast, a modern term for carpetbagging.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Hidden in the Bayous
(3 comments) As I continue my series about the Gulf Coast, we take a look at lingering hurricane destruction in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, a typical city where much of the damage is really hidden from the casual tourist. You have to go off the beaten path, so to speak.

Saturday, April 21, 2007
Along the Gulf coast, Post-Katrina, Part 1: Pascagoula
(14 comments) While endless billions of dollars disappear down the black hole of destruction and profiteering that is Iraq, the real needs of the American people are being grossly ignored along the Gulf Coast, which is still reeling from the vast destruction caused by Katrina. Here is the first of a series of photo albums that highlight the lingering devastation.

Sunday, March 25, 2007
The Frat Boys and Their Holocaust - Is it One Million Now?
A new report by an Australian scientist is now putting the Iraqi death toll at one million. What will it take for Pelosi to enlarge her compassion beyond just the American dead to care about the Iraqi dead, or is that just collateral damage to her? America is now overseeing a Holocaust. Is that how we want History to rememeber us?

Sunday, March 4, 2007
Auditions for Mother Jones
Child-labor, even child-slavery are rampant in Africa and other areas. The rights of women and workers are under siege everywhere, while exploiters are devouring the entire planet. Robber barons and elitists are having a field day at the expense of the living. Just as the excesses of the 19th and 20th Century gave rise to fearless heroines who would fight like Hell for the living, so will today's excesses do the same.

Sunday, February 25, 2007
Army Veteran Arrested Trying to Petition Rep. Thelma Drake
(4 comments) The First Amendment was denied to an Army Vet on Thurs, Feb 22 thru the machinations of the office of Rep. Thelma Drake, Virginia. He was trying to deliver citizens' letters to her, but was arrested instead. This is a shot across the bow of American Democracy. If Drake gets away with this, what will the authoritarians think of next on the road to tyranny. It is time for us to take action.

Saturday, February 17, 2007
Jack Bauer, Wilhelm Reich and Confronting Fascism
(12 comments) It is time to resurrect the teachings of Wilhelm Reich regarding Fascism and the unnatural, mechanistic societies that generate Fascism by alienating us from our bodies, natural love and the universe, while entertaining us with psychotic, paranoid screeds such as Fox's "24", not unlike the bread and circuses of the Romans.

Saturday, February 3, 2007
Set Your Intention to Stop an Attack on Iran
(25 comments) It is time for progressives to focus their energies collectively on stopping an attack on Iran before it starts, as well as rejecting the demonization of 70 million of our brothers and sisters on our planet.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Hitler, Propaganda and Recycling Iraq as Iran
(3 comments) How many of you know that the very propaganda techniques employed with devastating effect by the White House and worldwide Neocon apparatus were first articulated by Adolf Hitler back in 1925 in his autobiography, Mein Kampf? His spiritual heirs are employing them today to manipulate us into war against Iran.

Monday, January 22, 2007
The Appeal for Redress from the War in Iraq
Members of the Armed Forces should be aware that they have a legitimate right through the Appeal for Redress mechanism to register their opposition to the war in Iraq, as well as the right in general to criticize the war, so long as they follow military protocol.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Confronting the Propaganda War Against Iran
The big lies are continuing to mount to demonize Iran. The White House and its faithful sidekick, Israel, are already engaged in low-level warfare against Iran and are setting the stage for a direct attack. It is time for progressives to escalate our own efforts to stop this insane rush toward mindless, massive destruction on yet another front.

Saturday, December 16, 2006
Return the Lunatics to the Asylum
(2 comments) Let's not mince words. The lunatics running America are creating disaster after disaster globally and must be returned to the asylum, so to speak, as quickly as we can straight-jacket them. Iraq is already approaching the holocaust category, if not already within it, and will soon be comparable to Cambodia if Bush and company are not stopped. The horror there has probably already surpassed Guatemala's killing fields.

Saturday, November 25, 2006
Two Paths to Solving the World's Problems
Well, war and torture and Machiavellian intrigues have certainly ushered in a new Golden Age globally, haven't they, especially in the Middle East? Not! As the planet now descends into the lower circles of Hell, it is time to rethink our underlying philosophy. Or as Gandhi put it, he would become convinced that violence could solve the world's problems when someone could prove to him that darkness can dispel darkness.

Friday, November 17, 2006
WILLY PETE DOES FALLUJAH - Fallujah, the Guernica of our Times, Part 8
This is the last of a series detailing the destruction of Fallujah by the American military culminating in November of 2004. This article focuses on the horrific use of white phophorus against humans in the final assault, despite initial Pentagon denials. It also explores the concept of the Fascist Plague, a term first coined by Wilhelm Reich against the Nazis some seventy or so years ago. It is perhaps time to resurrect it.

Saturday, November 11, 2006
You want to know about WAR CRIMES? Falluah, the Guernica of Our Times, Part 7
This day, two years ago, the final assault on Fallujah by the American military had just begun. By the middle of that fateful November, 2004, most of the city would lie in ruins, a testament to modern barbarity. Ironically, the insurgency that this extreme operation was meant to decapitate would only spread, Hydra-like, to the rest of Iraq, while in Fallujah today, there are still insurgent activities.

Sunday, November 5, 2006
Fallujah, the Guernica of Our Times, Part 6
This is the 6th in a series of articles on the destruction of Fallujah, Iraq by the American military. This November is the 2nd anniversay of the final assault on that luckless city, which commenced, amazingly, with attacks on the hospitals. This article focuses on what happened to Fallujah General Hospital in particular in the first few days of Operation Phantom Fury.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Fallujah, the Guernica of Our Times, Part 5
This is the 5th in the Fallujah series, detailing the political and military situation inside Falluah between the first American assault in April, 2004 and the second offensive in November of that year. A formerly diverse, secular city was now transformed into a hunkered down, desperate enclave run by Sharia Law and the Mujahedeen.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Fallujah, the Guernica of Our Times, Part 4
This is the 4th of a series of articles recounting the destruction of Fallujah, Iraq by the American military during two assaults in 2004. This article brings us to the end of the 1st siege, examining civilian suffering and the role of independent journalists in telling the whole, brutal story, not the corporate media's sanitized version of events. We are indebted to those who risk their lives in pursuit of the truth.

Thursday, October 19, 2006
Fallujah, the Guernica of Our Times, Part 3
This is the 3rd in a series of articles first published in print-form only for the Southern (((I))) of Hampton Roads, Virginia this year, a series covering the tragedy of Fallujah, all but destroyed in two major assaults by US-led forces in 2004, the second assault in November of that year. As we approach the second anniversary of that final destruction, I am now submitting them online for the first time to help us remember.

Friday, October 13, 2006
Fallujah, the Guernica of Our Times, Part 2
This is the 2nd in a series of articles first published in print-form only for the Southern (((I))) of Hampton Roads, Virginia this year, a series covering the tragedy of Fallujah, all but destroyed in two major assaults by US-led forces in 2004, the second assault in November of that year. As we approach the second anniversary of that final destruction, I am now submitting them online for the first time to help us remember.

Monday, October 9, 2006
Fallujah, the Guernica of Our Times, Part 1
This is the first in a series of articles first published in print-form only for the Southern (((I))) of Hampton Roads, Virginia this year, a series covering the tragedy of Fallujah, all but destroyed in two major assaults by US-led forces in 2004, the second assault in November of that year. As we approach the second anniversary of that final destruction, I am now submitting them online for the first time to help us remember.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Protest Against Bush Attack on Iran
Protesters against an attack on Iran demonstrated outside the Naval Operating Base, Norfolk Virginia, this past Sunday as the nuclear carrier USS Eisenhower prepared for departure this Tuesday, leading a strike force headed for the coast of Iran.