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Richard Girard

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Richard Girard is a polymath and autodidact whose greatest desire in life is to be his generations' Thomas Paine. He is an FDR Democrat, which probably puts him with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in the current political spectrum. His answer to all of those who decry Democratic Socialism is that it is a system invented by one of our Founding Fathers--Thomas Paine--and was the inspiration for two of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, who the Democrats of today would do well if they would follow in their footsteps. Or to quote Harry Truman, "Out of the great progress of this country, out of our great advances in achieving a better life for all, out of our rise to world leadership, the Republican leaders have learned nothing. Confronted by the great record of this country, and the tremendous promise of its future, all they do is croak, 'socialism.'

OpEd News Member for 942 week(s) and 1 day(s)

165 Articles, 1 Quick Links, 770 Comments, 5 Diaries, 4 Series, 0 Polls

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(42 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Great Enemy of the Truth All of those who insist on the lone assassin theory in the murder of President Kennedy, are entirely dependent on the "magic bullet" theory in order to justify their claim that a single assassin committed the deed. This miraculous bullet went through JFK causing only a small tear in the trachea, and a small (2") bruise on the upper right lung; it did so while tumbling through some 300 degrees of arc in his body. Yeah, right.
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 19, 2010
Into a Thousand Pieces The conspiracy that killed JFK eats at my soul, and has for thirty-five years. Two of our three branches of government say it is a conspiracy in which elements of the third branch might have been complicit. The set-up for the assassination and cover-up afterwards says that elements of the Executive Branch were up to their necks in it. They wanted someone more pliant to their goals in the White House than JFK, like LBJ.
(22 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 28, 2011
The Communist Takeover of America Scott Walker's attack on Wisconsin's public employees is but the latest round of attacks by the oligarchs against organized labor, that started with the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. If you don't believe me, Read Congressman Hartley's comments on what his purpose was in putting forth the bill. The time has come for the American People to say not just "No!," but hell No!
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 21, 2013
The Judgment of History; Or Why the Breaking of the Oligarchs Avenges President Kennedy's Assassination--Part One When Kennedy died, workers in France dropped their tools and wept; 60,000 West Berliners gathered in the plaza where he had said, "Ich bin ein Berliner," following a torchlight procession; around the world, millions--including myself--wept for the man whom we loved as a brother, a lover, or a father. Fifty years later, I believe I know who was responsible. Their heirs are with us now, destroying this nation to our detriment.
Series: Killing Your Way to the Top (4 Articles, 9950 views)
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Social Capitalism We must find an alternative to laissez faire capitalism and state socialism: a middle road that, while it does not satisfy anyone completely, is not overly onerous to the vast majority of the American people. This is my very generalized overview of such a system, that I call social capitalism, to differentiate from anti-social, laissez faire capitalism.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 2, 2011
Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense I am tired of the followers of Ayn Rand using her so-called Objectivist philosophy to justify their being hateful, uncaring bastards to the rest of humanity. At a time like this, one must pullout the big guns to demonstrate how Un-American her philosophy is. In the Hagiology of American political thought, there is no bigger gun than Thomas Jefferson, although I admit it's like using a nuke to kill a gnat.
Kennedy Gravesite Arlington National Cemetery, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 24, 2014
The Judgment of History; Or Why the Breaking of the Oligarchs Avenges President Kennedy's Assassination—Part Four There is nothing new or unique about disagreements among the critics of the Warren Report. In fact, I would be more concerned if there wasn't disagreement: it is uncertainty about the exact nature and scope of the conspiracy to kill JFK that has kept the oligarchs from being lined up against the wall and shot years ago. That is why I have tried to keep my theory as simple as I can, so everyone can understand. Ready. Aim...
Series: Killing Your Way to the Top (4 Articles, 9950 views)
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 24, 2012
Making Sex a Crime If the American public wants to know what the ultimate goal of the Radical Right is in terms of abortion, contraception, and the rights of all of those who aren't white males, ask a prostitute, or as I prefer to call them, a professional sex provider. They have been dealing with the problem for 4000 years, and uptight feminists like Andrea Dworkin and Catherine McKinnon won't even talk to them.
(38 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 19, 2010
The Children of Cain The fear of conservatives has become palpable since the election of Barack Obama. Yet most of their fear arises from their own inability to adapt to circumstances. As the old Zen master said. "The might oak is uprooted in the typhoon, while the bamboo bends, avoiding destruction."
Katzenbach Memo to Bill Moyers, November 25, 1963, From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 17, 2014
The Judgment of History; Or Why the Breaking of the Oligarchs Avenges President Kennedy's Assassination—Part Three Americans hate conspiracy theories, except of course, the one's they believe in. With JFK's assassination there is a conspiracy that is provable beyond any doubt: the one to ridicule, downplay, and ignore anyone who questions the idea of Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin of JFK. This began with a White House memo to Bill Moyers on November 25, 1963, and has been government—and American media—policy ever since.
Series: Killing Your Way to the Top (4 Articles, 9950 views)
Chief Sitting Bull, From WikimediaPhotos
(17 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 11, 2016
Conformity is Death For a democracy, conformity in thought and action is a sign of the democracy's degeneration. Colin Kaepernick and others kneeling during the National Anthem is a good sign, not a bad one, because it says that people are willing to take an unpopular stand. Be proud, it shows that there is still hope to salvage our democracy from the oligarchy that threatens it. Hoka Hey!
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 23, 2011
Dumb and Dumbest If Obama is simply the populist stalking horse for Wall Street and the "banksters," we are screwed beyond all hope of salvation without a rising of the American people in a general strike. But as a person who suffers type III bipolar disorder, I have to hope we are not that far gone...Yet. The alternative is too horrible to imagine.
From ImagesAttr
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 18, 2012
Parabolic Thinking The most disturbing thing when you read Karl Marx are not his solutions to the world's economic woes, but his chillingly correct observances of "free market" capitalism's faults and pitfalls for the majority of the workers and others not in the "One Percent," the capitalists who would destroy human lives in search of an extra penny's profit.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 30, 2013
Real Feminism: A Male Perspective Right now, the only right in this country that women have that cannot be taken away by a single reactionary legislature, intransigent executive, or ultraconservative judiciary is their right to vote. It is the only right they have that is clearly delineated under the U.S. Constitution. Many women believe they don't need to renew the drive for the Equal Rights Amendment, and perhaps they are right. But if they are wrong...
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 27, 2009
The Cult of the Individual "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few--or the one." Thus spoke St. Spock of Vulcan in 1982's "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." For the last 25 years, we have fled away from this ideal, even when it was in our best interest to follow it, following the teaching of the Apostate Gekko "Greed is good." It is time to redress the balance between the many and the few, while we still have a country.
From ImagesAttr
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 5, 2010
War Pigs-A Rock and Roll Epistle We have not withdrawn from Iraq: in truth, we have barely holstered our weapon. We cannot afford to have ourselves committed in more than a hundred countries around the globe to maintain a commercial empire. It is time we learn to live within our mean, beginning with our foreign policy, and that means our military. It is time to break the hold that the military-industrial complex has had on the USA for sixty plus years.
Picture of President Kennedy in the limousine in Dallas, Texas, on Main Street, minutes before the assassination., From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 30, 2013
The Judgment of History; Or Why the Breaking of the Oligarchs Avenges President Kennedy's Assassination--Part Two President Kennedy's assassination was the result of a conspiracy at the highest levels of our military, intelligence, law enforcement, economic, criminal, and reactionary-racist communities. It led directly to Vietnam, Watergate, and a profound distrust of our government from which we have yet to recover. It has in turn divided us, leaving us vulnerable to those responsible for the President's death.
Series: Killing Your Way to the Top (4 Articles, 9950 views)
Stepping Out, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 4, 2015
Bitcoin and Other Delusions We are all appalled by the seemingly sudden outbreak of police violence against Afro-American males here in the United States. There is nothing new here: the violence of law enforcement against American minorities, as well as the different and disenfranchised, is simply being caught more by cell phone cameras. Women are one of the most consistent recipients of police violence, and the most under-reported. This must stop...now.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 26, 2011
Mayday! Mayday! The reality is that there is no cause for fear of our deficit NOW! If and only if we continue with the high level of unemployment that we are currently experiencing, the two budget draining wars, and the Bush era tax cuts ar we in trouble. No, this is about finishing off the middle class that scared the oligarchs to death in the '60's and '70's, the middle class established by FDR and his Democratic successors. Screw them.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 9, 2011
Revolution-A Rock and Roll Epistle One of the resources I attempt to bring to my readers is putting together a number of articles I have seen in a coherent form to make a point. This is one of those. It points out how Wal-Mart is representative of all the corporations trying to crush the middle class, why the destruction of the unions have long been the first priority in destroying FDR's New Deal, and why we should emulate our revolutionary founders.
William Sharp (1749–1824), after George Romney Engraving, 1793, From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 29, 2019
Cognitive Dissonance The Neoliberal experiment, also called Thatcherism and Reaganomics, has failed, An estimated forty-seven percent of Americans live only one paycheck away from poverty, while the wealthiest 1/10th of 1% make more than 92 percent of the population combined. For this reason, any candidate who doesn't denounce Neoliberal economic and political policies and influences does not deserve our vote in 2020. Only one has:Bernie Sanders.
From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 19, 2012
A Festering Wound Those of us who keep in the public spotlight the murder of our 35th President in Dallas 49 years ago as a bunch of Don Quixote's tilting at windmills. It is imperative that the American people learn the truth about this assassination because of the implications it has on today's political economic reality. The oligarchs takeover of our nation started there, and has nearly reached fruition. This must not occur.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 11, 2012
I Am Spartacus! Right-winger Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" was not the first or even the best movie about men who would rather die on their feet than live on their knees. And Kirk Douglas's "Spartacus" (and the Starz series as well) say a lot more about how the One Percent would like us to live under their heel. They want to destroy our worth as human beings, and then treat us as slaves. I say thee, Nay!
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 24, 2011
Submitted for Your Consideration Sometimes you are shocked in your reading, and sometimes you shock your friends when you tell them what you read. Karl Marx is proving himself a prophet in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, written in 1844. He describes much of the detereoration of America's working and middle classes as if he were reading today's headlines. It was very nearly a Depends moment, it scared me so much.
John Stuart Mill, From ImagesAttr
(23 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 31, 2013
Libertarianism in Its Destructive Phase: Or Why Responsibility for Yourself Just Isn't Enough, Part 1 This is the first of two parts explaining why--like its left-wing counterpart, Marxism--Libertarianism is a Utopian idea that cannot possibly work in the real world, unless that world was populated by James Madison's angels (Federalist No.51). But like Marxism, it does have some good ideas that we should not ignore. the difficulty is separating the wheat from the chaff.
Series: Pulling Back Conservatism's Curtain (6 Articles, 8187 views)
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 10, 2009
A Policy of Annihilation Hawkeye Pierce in TV's M*A*S*H once said (paraphrasing), "War isn't hell. War is war, and hell is hell, and of the two, war is worse. Who's in hell? People who deserve to be there. Who's in war? Mostly innocents who have nothing to do with the war." Like Hawkeye, I'm tired of innocent men, women, and children paying for the greed of the powerful.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 18, 2011
The Four Horsemen of Calumny Being a Republican used to be respectable, back when Margaret Chase Smith was Senator from Maine. Of course in those days, conservatives weren't so stupid as to equate socialism and Stalinism. Only extreme reactionaries like Joe McCarthy and Ayn Rand did that. The American people were too smart to fall for such crap. Unfortunately, our educational system and media has declined since then.
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 12, 2011
Channeling Our Inner Hulk The assault on our Constitutional rights by the plutocrats like the Koch Brothers and their lap dogs like Scott Walker,have exposed the truth for any American not wearing a blindfold to see. I believe that what the Koch and Coors brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife, Rupert Murdoch, and the rest of the plutocratic elite have undertaken constitutes sedition, if not high treason. It is time for us to fight back while we can.
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Avalon The unsolved murder of President Kennedy is about to pay off for those responsible for that crime. Our nation stands within the shadow of an oligarchic corporate state, where the rich have all the power and all the rights, and the rest of us have the pain and responsibility. It is not too late to change course even in this dark hour; we simply have to work harder than the plutocrat's wealth.
From flickr.com/photos/88876166@N00/21581068289/: Bernie Sanders for President, From Images
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 18, 2016
You've Plunged a Dagger in My Chest, Yet I Live America has been at war with itself for almost fifty years. In Bernie Sanders we have our last best chance at peace. In Hillary Clinton we have a continuance of the guerrilla war that has been fought since the time of Nixon. And in Donald Trump, I see the potential for hell on Earth.
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 25, 2010
They're Foxed In the Head Fox News (or as I prefer to call them Faux News) are more than just the propaganda arm of the GOP. They are actually the propaganda arm of the oligarchic plutocrats for whom the GOP is the primary political arm. We must all go out in November and vote for the Democrats, even if we must wear a gas mask to the polls. The Democrats at least will respond to public pressure,which is more than you can say about the Re-Publicans.
Marx and Lenin Poster, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 30, 2014
The Continuing Allure of Marx and Lenin It used to be a badge of honor in this country to be well-read. The conservative reaction of the last fifty years against critical thinking and knowledge has changed this for the worse. This was due to the fear that being well-read would make you a "commie," like Marx and Lenin. This ignored men like Franklin, Jefferson, and Lincoln. The nation is much the poorer for it.
Series: Dying From Ignorance (2 Articles, 2600 views)
Edmund Burke 1771--Joshua Reynolds, From ImagesAttr
(15 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Libertarianism in Its Destructive Phase: Or Why Responsibility for Yourself Just Isn't Enough, Part 2 Part 2, as promised, although I did change the opening epigram to something more appropriate. Judith Ayers and Barbara Sostatia said it best, "Despite the libertarian rhetoric of individualism, we are all intricately connected, and have been given the opportunity to craft our communities and government together."
Series: Pulling Back Conservatism's Curtain (6 Articles, 8187 views)
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 6, 2011
Contra Rand I was asked by a conservative friend if I wished to see the movie "Atlas Shrugged." I told him no: I had no desire to economically support a cause which I felt was at the root of America's problems. The amphetamine addicted, serial killer infatuated, history deficient, borderline sociopathic writer of fiction has convinced millions of people (mostly in the U.S.) that "she has the answer." In a pig's eye.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 11, 2011
A "Cute" Depression is an Ugly Thing Depression is a word that describes both one of the most common and debilitating character disorders in psychiatry, and one of the two worst economic disasters that can happen to a nation. Neither can be solved by "just get over it," or "tough it through," in spite of what conservatives think. Nor can they be fixed with simple one size fits all solutions: the problems underlying them are much too complex. America has both.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 23, 2011
Work is a Four Letter Word Only two professions have it right: musicians and athletes. When they go to "work," they go to play. The modern workplace has so burdened us with neurotic worry and guilt that we are scared to blow our noses without permission. And for what? Jobs that are about as personally rewarding and secure as a Roman galley slave's. It is time for the American worker to reassert his freedom in the workplace against the oligarchs.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 21, 2011
Morality and Capitalism I originally wrote this article in Spring 2005, but due to its length, could not find anyone to publish it. It was only when my late friend Roy Murtishaw introduced me to OpEdNews that I found an outlet for my longer missives. With President Obama's latest adoption of Republican talking points (regulations are holding up the recovery, I fear that what I said about Bush can be applied to Obama.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 11, 2011
Working Class Hero-A Rock and Roll Epistle Does the recent debt ceiling compromise make you feel like a used Kleenex? If you think it is bad for you, my fellow Boomers, how do you think the younger generation feels who placed so much hope in Obama, and now feel betrayed by the system. We cannot permit this generation to fall into nihilistic apathy. We must teach them to have hope, even when they are betrayed, because the real power comes from them.
I told you to feed the poor and heal the sick, not bleed the poor to feed the rich., From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 7, 2015
Faith and Reason I am confused by the evangelical Christians I went to high school with. They think you should only have to give what you want to the poor, not what the poor need, and to be forced to do otherwise is wrong. Jesus said "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven..." (Mk 10;21 NIV) They forget that except for God's Grace, they too could be destitute, like those they hold in contempt.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 21, 2012
On Our Feet or On Our Knees This is not an article to provide you with new information on the evils that beset this country. It is a warning, a clarion call to all of us who love our country too much to watch it descend into the clutches of those whose only redeeming quality is their ability to make money. The great revolutions of this country: 1800, the Civil War, the New Deal were against the establishment of an aristocracy. The time has come again.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 23, 2010
I Will Fear No Evil Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, "All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can only, like invalids, act on the defensive." I pity the lot of them.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 30, 2012
Crass Materialism In the season of "crass materialism," I could not think of a better subject for me to pursue. Whether you are discussing the materialism of laissez-faire capitalism," or the Dialectic Materialism of Marx, we have reached a point in this world where any form of unabated materialism is a form of suicide. If we do not adopt a policy of sufficiency, and soon, our civilization will die.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Crime and Punishment "Equal Protection under the Law," guaranteed by the XIVth Amendment, has become as big of a joke as Chief Justice Marshall's "government of laws, not of men," in Marbury v. Madison. The Bush Administration is skating on every thing from violations of the Hatch Act to crimes against humanity, and it appears that Wall St. will never pay for their crimes. Time for us to follow our European brethren's lead. General Strike May 1st!
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 11, 2010
The Daft-Heartless Act The Taft-Hartley Act is to the American Labor Movement what the Fugitive Slave Act was to slavery. One of its authors--Fred A. Hartley--admitted in print that this was the first step to overturning FDR's New Deal. The Re-publicans are within sight of the Congressman's wet dream: a subservient and defenseless labor force who'll take what crumbs the rich will give them. the Democrats are our last worst hope.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Uncomfortable Absence of Safety The recent botched attempt to bring down an airliner landing in Detroit has once again focused the American People's attention on Islamic terrorists. All of the Jihadists in the world do not worry me as much as the home-grown variety, such as the people who killed Alan Berg and Dr. George Tiller. The jihadists will not bring down our republic, the Scott Roeders can. Something must be done, about them, and their enablers.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 10, 2012
Three G's and an E-flat, or Why Beethoven Rules! Something a bit different for the holiday season, and yet still the same. He was one of the most politically aware composers of all time, changing the title of his Third Symphony from "The Napoleon" to "The Eroica" when Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor. Lenin hated him, because his music filled him with tender emotions, ruining his revolutionary hard edge. Happy 142nd birthday Maestro, and thank you.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 15, 2011
Friend of the Devil-A Rock and Roll Epistle There can be no doubt that America is going to Hell in a hand basket. I would rather be a Friend of the Devil than any of those sanctimonious bastards in the GOP who have done nothing while one third of our nation has fallen into poverty, myself included.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 14, 2014
Wealth, Power, and Happiness It is not enough that the super-plutocrats are destroying the United States; they are trying to also destroy the World. Their avarice and pride, coupled with a healthy dose of narcissism, may spell doom for us all, if we don't take the weapon they are using against us out of their hands: Money. What use has anyone for a billion dollars? You can't spend it without making the rest of us miserable.
Series: The Madness of Selfishness (8 Articles, 8084 views)
'Dr. King 'I Have a Dream' Speech, From ImagesAttr
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 12, 2014
Teaching Civil Disobedience The plutocratic oligarchs in our country are intent on dumbing us down until we are little more than mindless robots that work ourselves to death at their behest. All work should have dignity: Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR and JFK saw it. Marx saw it, Theodore Roosevelt saw it and MLK saw it best of all. The Jeffco School Board's proposal is an attack on what they believed. Here's a list of some history they wouldn't allow taught
Series: Pulling Back Conservatism's Curtain (6 Articles, 8187 views)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Presidential portrait. 32nd President of the United States (1933-1945) Frank O. Salisbury Public Domain, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 6, 2013
A Past That Never Was One of our society's greatest flaws is its inability to learn even from our immediate past, let alone any lessons that we might garner from other times and other places. Ignorance is not bliss, and the past is far too often prologue. We must save our democratic republic from the predations of a pseudo-aristocracy while we still can.
Nietzsche1882, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 5, 2014
The Evil in the Hearts of Men I have always considered Nietzsche an important if flawed philosopher. He is the archer who fires his arrow at the bulls-eye, only to have the arrow swerve and miss its target. Thomas Farrell has written a series of articles about Nietzsche, Zarathustra, and love that has made me reconsider: What if Nietzsche's Will to Power was the Power of Love? What if the war of good and evil became one between love and selfishness?
Series: The Madness of Selfishness (8 Articles, 8084 views)
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Ghost of Ancient Hellas When you are looking for answers to today's problems, a short detour into the past can be very useful. Aristotle's Politics is still a useful touchstone in an era of instant world-wide communications, and civilization destroying nuclear weapons. The "democracy" he feared was rule by the rabble/poor, just as he feared oligarchy or rule by the rich. A storng, vibrant middle class underpinned the best form of government.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 23, 2013
Modern Conservatism, or: Who Says That We're Our Brother's Keeper? When attacking a political movement, you must start at the beginning and then cut the foundation out from under it. So let it be with Modern Conservatism. And with Dr. Russell Kirk and his book THE CONSERVATIVE MIND. The book was the intellectual foundation of Modern Conservatism, praised by Reagan and Goldwater alike. And, like Modern Conservatism itself, it was based on distortions, half-truths, and intentional omissions.
Series: Pulling Back Conservatism's Curtain (6 Articles, 8187 views)
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 6, 2008
Waging Slavery One of the major components of slavery is having no realistic course of action. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it is also the handmaiden of enforced collaboration, even against your own long term self interest.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 16, 2011
Occupying Our Time The Occupy Wall street is spreading faster than kudzu in hot weather. The big complaint from the media is that it seemingly has no purpose. Well let me suggest one: broad enough to include one of the 1100+ groups here in the U.S. plus all of those we are beginning to see sprouting up abroad. The restoration of human dignity for the 99% of us who aren't millionaires.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 4, 2010
Pacem in Terra Conservatism's greatest problem is that it will hold onto the past, even if it is dragging them and all that they love beneath the waves. They lay claim to a love for freedom, but only if certain conditions are met: no sex, no drugs, no rock and roll, no reading literature that might make you question the government or big business, no system of national healthcare for every citizen. The time has come to use our mind for us.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Against the Corporate State The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico proves two things things. You can't trust the large, multinational corporations, and even governments are helpless before their power UNLESS THE PEOPLE RAISE HOLY HELL! I think we are past due.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 29, 2011
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (Brotherhood) were the watchwords of France's Revolution 222 years ago. They are words we Americans need to remember as this election year approaches. There is a class war, and you and I, the people who that bloody elitist Ayn Rand and her ilk had the unmitigated temerity to call "parasites" are losing to the real parasites, Edmund Burkes idle rich.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 10, 2010
D-I-V-O-R-C-E; Dems vs Organized Labor The way President Obama and most of the rest of the Democratic Party has been treating organized labor has an equivalent in the non-political world: spousal abuse. The Dems had better wake up or discover that their "spouse" has taken the kids and left.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 16, 2010
The Nuremberg Defense Where does personal responsibility end, and collective responsibility begin? How much are we responsible if the system gives us no choice other than conform or suffer and die. If we do not commit a wrongful act, but are aware of its commission--even peripherally--what degree of responsiblility do we bear in letting the world know?
Confederate Lt. General James Longstreet, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 18, 2014
The South's Gonna Lie Again The re-emergence of Confederate thought and sentiment in the 21st Century is a carefully orchestrated piece of propaganda orchestrated over the last 150 years making Lee, Davis, and Jackson saints, and demonizing good men like James Longstreet. It is an immoral ploy, worthy of a look only due to it's growing success, beginning in the 1930's,and it's relation to todays oligarchs.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 31, 2011
Safecracking One of the constant refrains that I hear is "What good does it do to write the truth, if no one listens?" I think the greatest source of mental deafness is the lack of a good bulls**t filter, and time. The purpose of my articles is to give people a Reader's Digest condensed version of the facts, and what I believe they mean. The Purpose of this article is to help them build their own BS filter.
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 28, 2009
The Tao of Government Assume nothing and embrace the beginner's mind. Mao the dialectic materialist was wrong, power comes not from the barrel of a gun, but from our belief in its existence. Although the expression of power maybe very real, without the strength of our belief in it, government would fall like a house of cards.
From farm6.static.flickr.com/5156/5894062539_dff4c78611_n.jpg: Clarence Thomas - Caricature, From Images
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 30, 2015
We Matter! Clarence Thomas says we have no right to dignity. The reality is that without dignity and its handmaiden respect, we have no rights.
Abraham Lincoln memorial, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Of Prophets and Loss The prophets of the Old Testament fulfilled a very important function in ancient Israel: they reminded the Jewish people and their kings of their duties to both God and one another. In our secular world, we still need someone to remind us of our duties to the world, humanity in general, and one another in particular. We need people to remind us that we are our brother's keepers, and the Earth's stewards. We need more gadflies.
Der Schrei der Natur, 'The Scream of Nature' by Edward Munch, From ImagesAttr
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 14, 2014
In the Heart of Madness How does one stay sane in a world gone mad? Where narcissism is celebrated as a desired trait, and acting like a sociopath is considered the best way to get ahead in business. Selfishness is the one consistent symptom in all mental illness, so common we have to ask if it is not a form of neurosis in itself. We may never know: societies based on selfishness don't survive for long.
Series: The Madness of Selfishness (8 Articles, 8084 views)
.We Are All Prostitutes.., From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Ignorance of Reality Is Called Delusion The recent law-enforcement raid on Rentboy.com in New York City may at long last remove the blinders from the gay community on how precarious their position really is with law enforcement. They have refused aid to sex workers in their struggles, not understanding that, to many cops, gays and lesbians are every bit as No Human Involved (NHI) as any sex worker. Now thousands of closeted men's names are in police hands.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 22, 2010
A Terrible History We have to ask ourselves a simple question: in the murder of President Kennedy, is it really necessary to find a "silver bullet" to break open the case, or do we have sufficient information already to accomplish this task. I think we know enough, or very nearly enough, to figure out who the primary players were and why.
From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 15, 2012
Marxism for Fun and Profit Karl Marx is a perplexing historical figure. His insistence on a violent overthrow of all existing institutions makes him a pariah to disciples of Gandhi and King, his lack of empathy and self-awareness weakens his arguments. But what he meant by a Communist state has never been achieved, his observations on the pitfalls of laissez-faire capitalism are generally correct, and his, fully developing all human potential, noble.
William Sharp (1749–1824), after George Romney Engraving, 1793, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Cutting Our Own Throats Part One Economic inequality in America is destroying the hearts, the minds, and the very soul of the nation. Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison all spoke out against danger to the Republic of too much wealth being gathered in too few hands, and now their worst nightmare has come to pass. We mus act now, to prevent the plutocrats from establishing an oligarchic despotism, while we may do so without violence.
Series: Pulling Back Conservatism's Curtain (6 Articles, 8187 views)
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Democracy and Republic I am tired of the misrepresentation of our democracy by conservatives and libertarians. The type of democracy the Founders warned us against was a direct democracy, where the people voted on every law, much like the referendum system here in Colorado. We need to "rectify the language," as Confucius is purported to have said, and take caution with the meanings of the words we use.
From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 27, 2012
Paranoid-A Rock and Roll Epistle This is my last article before the election. I showed a friend of mine this article, and she said I was overstating the situation, that it was not quite so dire. She also said that I had named the article properly, because it expresses my--and many others--darkest fears of a Romney-Ryan victory. If God forbid it happens, I hope that I'm wrong and she's right.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 19, 2009
Forcing Their Hand If the Democrats do not stand up with Howard Dean, Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz, and the rest of us, they do not deserve to retain power in the Congress next November.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 24, 2010
War-A Rock and Roll Epistle "War (Huh, yeah),What is it good for? Absolutely nothing (Uh-huh, yeah)" So sang the late Edwin Starr in 1970, covering a song Barry Gordy was afraid to let the Temptations release. It reached Number One, and earned Starr Best Male R&B Vocal at the Grammys. If there were any real justice in the world, it would have earned him a Medal of Freedom, and a ticker tape parade down Broadway.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Dignitas The biggest casualty in the war on the middle and working class has been millions of American's dignity. In the military, one of the first parts of breaking you down to be a good soldier is robbing you of any sense of dignity you might have. The difference is, the military then builds you back up with a new sense of dignity tied to your membership in the military. The ownership class wants it to remain destroyed.
John D. Rockefeller in 1885
Emperor of the Robber Barons, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 20, 2015
Children of a Lesser God, Part 1 In 1948, Harry Truman said, "Out of the great progress of this country, out of our great advances in achieving a better life for all, out of our rise to world leadership, the Republican leaders have learned nothing. Confronted by the great record of this country, and the tremendous promise of its future, all they do is croak, 'socialism.'" This has not changed in 67 years, but the real socialism today belongs to the rich.
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Forty Percent Solution President Obama needs to remember two Presidents on his Inaugural Day: Lincoln and Kennedy. Lincoln in his first annual message to Congress reminded all of us that without the worker, the capitalist's wealth could never exist. Kennedy reminded us in his Inaugural Address that if we did not help the poor, the rich could expect no safety.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 1, 2010
The Devil You Say Let us imagine for a moment that the beliefs of the Religious Right are not wrong in terms of what is going to happen, but how? What if their focus on who the Antichrist is should be directed at someone they trust, like, Glen Beck for example, rather than Barrack Obama? What if the Devil, feeling he could not be stopped, left a note in a half mad blogger's e-mail, bragging about his plan? The following is the result.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 10, 2009
Teacher's Pet The authoritarian Right and their GOP stupidity machine lackeys force me at times to turn articles into dissertations, because I do not know how well informed my audience is in the social sciences since Reagan & Co. placed them somewhere between recess and lunch in terms of relevance. The talk of secession makes me assume the worst, and rouses the spirit of Andy Jackson in me to go and hang a few gentlemen.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 1, 2010
To Our Children's Children's Children (A Rock and Roll Epistle) Any solution proposed by either party that does not take into account the long term well-being and advancement of our nation's children, deserves to be thrown immediately into the dust bin of history.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 23, 2012
Built on Shifting Sands Modern conservatism is a house, built on shifting sands. Its sole moral basis is "I've got mine, and I'll kill you if you try to take the smallest crumb." It lives by Burke's Vindication of Natural Society, which asserts that the sole purpose of the rest of us is to serve the rich. Is that with or with out gravy?
Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Mommouth Court, From ImagesAttr
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Fortitude versus Greed Too many libertarians think that their liberties begin with Milton Friedman's version of capitalism. This is a harmful and restrictive viewpoint, if one looks at history. If you want to have any degree of authority over yourself in this society--what most of us will recognize as being the definition of personal liberty--you must be responsible for yourself, and accept the obligations, and the duties, that you have to others.
Series: The Madness of Selfishness (8 Articles, 8084 views)
Keep Calm and Vote Pro-Choice, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 2, 2015
In a Perfect World In a perfect world being pro-life would mean protecting children from birth to adulthood if the parents could not, not only from conception. In a perfect world there would be viable alternatives to fetal cells for some types of research, and abortions would not be needed for cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. The current attack to defund Planned Parenthood is myopic, unrealistic, and bad policy.
Bernie Sanders September 2015 cropped, From WikimediaPhotos
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 14, 2016
We Are the Change The oligarchs are trying to solidify their position, and fully establish a neofeudalistic society based on wealth. Bernie Sanders represents our last best hope to stop them. Hillary slows the takeover. Trump represents something worse: a Fascist state, IMHO. The rest of the GOP are puppets with the oligarchs pulling their strings. Vote Bernie!
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 29, 2011
Let's Sit This One Out The three words at the start of our Constitution--We the People--make it a revolutionary document every bit as much as it is a legal one. Lincoln recognized that fact when he stated that we had the Constitutional right to change our Government, or the Revolutionary one to overthrow it. With one-half of our nation at 200% or less of poverty, the One Percenters had better take note.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, From ImagesAttr
(12 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Rights, Privileges, Franklin Roosevelt, and an Unfinished Revolution With Ken Burn's PBS series on the Roosevelts< I thought it very propitious to finally publish this article. In spite of their many faults, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt had one thing in common: their love of the average American. Together, they were responsible for every right and Protection that we enjoyed as workers and average Americans up to the Reagan counter-revolution of the 1980's. It's time to get those rights back.
Series: Dying From Ignorance (2 Articles, 2600 views)
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Regress of Grievances In case you hadn't noticed, the Re-Publicans want to place the recovery from the current recession on those it is hitting the hardest: the poor, the Working, and the middle classes. If tax cuts helped an economy, almost ten years of the Bush Tax cuts should have us living like kings. Instead the National Debt is $8 trillion higher and the unemployment rate has doubled
From flickr.com: Donald Trump's Southern Strategy, From Images
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 9, 2017
Resisting Evil I'm old enough to have watched the Watergate hearings. The Republican members of the Sam Ervin's committee did not disgrace themselves the way John McCain and other Republicans did today questioning former FBI Director James Comey. We have fallen so far in the last 45 years. Honor, love of the Constitution and the Country are now second to Party loyalty. I'm disgusted.
Thomas Jefferson 1800, From ImagesAttr
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 16, 2013
Cynicism Gets Us Nowhere. It's Time To Fight Back with the Other Ninety-Nine Percent! Is sequestration just the One Percent's way of trying to hit the American people with an austerity program? I think it is. and I also think it is time to give voice to our extreme displeasure on the impasse in Washington. Tea Party types say they fear the "tyranny of the Majority," but they seem to have no problem with a tyranny of a minority, as long as they are the minority. Let's end this NOW!
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Zen of Politics The ability to overcome those things which have ruled and ruined our existence is as important for the institutions of humanity as it is for individuals. Enlightenment is rarely achieved by accident, and is really only appreciated when it includes hard work. This is as true of politicians and political parties as it is of you and I. So I ask a simpe Zen koan: if a politician doesn't take a bribe, does anyone notice?
Joseph Siffred Duplessis (1725-1802)  Oil on canvas, circa 1785, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 1, 2014
Cutting Our Own Throats Part Two I consider the American Revolution and Constitution to be the positive culmination of the Age of Reason, as well as more than two thousand years of philosophical thought. It demonstrated that rights are not given to us by monarchs or governments, but by agreement of the governed amongst themselves. Any who would use the advantage of such government to take advantage of other citizens, deserves our opprobrium.
Series: Pulling Back Conservatism's Curtain (6 Articles, 8187 views)
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 21, 2015
Children of a Lesser God, Part 2 Twenty percent of our nation's wealth and fifteen percent of its income has been redistributed upwards, mostly to the top one percent of population in terms of wealth, over the last thirty-five years. This has left millions of Americans in despair, without hope for the future for themselves, or their children. As John Berger said, "the modern poor are not pitied"but written off as trash." God help us all.
Peace Be Unto You, From FlickrPhotos
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Love is at the Heart of Courage The people who would have power over us rely upon fear to achieve their ends. If we stand together against their attempts to use fear to make us cower before them, if we use love for our fellow human beings as the basis for the courage to say "NO!" to their attempts to make us back down for what is rightfully ours, then we cannot be defeated in our quest for a new and better tomorrow. "Love is at the heart of courage."
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Uriah's Curse Humanity has been cursed with venal, selfish monarchs, consuls, high priests, presidents, and prime ministers since civilization first arose from neolithic farming communities. In the past, the worst of these miscreants were cast down by the people they governed and punished with exile and execution. It is imperative that our leaders now be held accountable, as a warning to future tyrants.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 22, 2011
Teach Your Children--A Rock and Roll Epistle It takes a community, to paraphrase Hillary, to raise a child in a free society. A child in a free society is not an automaton or drone, who meekly accepts his lot. He is a fearless being who believes his government should be more afraid of the people than the people are of the government. He is not impressed by wealth, position, or power; rather honesty, honor and conscience.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 13, 2010
Bomb Power: A Review of Garry Wills Newest Book Garry Wills's newest book Bomb Power is a short terrific read on the relationship between the Presidency and the National Security State since 1945. If you would like a basic idea of what is going on, without the political grandstanding, I strongly suggest that you read this book.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Tenth The Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution is without a doubt the most misunderstood Amendment in the Constitution. Unlike what so many on the Reactionary Right think,it is not a cure-all for what they see as abuses against their liberties by the Federal Government. In fact, if the past is prologue, giving power to the states will mean fewer rights and less power for the individual American,not more.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 6, 2012
Responsibility and Respect The conservatives continually cry out fro the Occupy Movement to act "responsibly," but without the respect that must go with it, democracy is impossible. The Athenians knew that 2500 years ago, but their Ayn Rands and Koch Brothers, Socrates and Critias, ignored it even then. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Signing of The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Governance Without Cynicism—Part 2 Wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, the free market's inability to provide for the public good, the failure of the free market to prevent cronyism, oligopolies and other evils; these are faults in a free-market economy for which libertarians have no answer. The increasing control of our country by corporations with no patriotism or morality makes our taking back our government a moral imperative.
Series: The Madness of Selfishness (8 Articles, 8084 views)
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 16, 2010
Off Center Thirty years of supply side economics has failed, just as it did during the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties. A realistic unemployment rate is 17%, a realistic poverty rate is 19% (BLS, Census Bureau). Trying to give workers a 2% break on FICA taxes is an attack to destroy Social Security, just as extending the tax cuts for the upper 2% of the population is. It is time for the richest Americans to pay their fair share.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Right is Wrong Hierarchy or not hierarchy: that is the question? Whether to suffer throught the immorality of the pseudo-aristoi as Jefferson named them, or to take arms against a sea of insipid rich folk, and by opposing, end them. It is an end devoutly to be sought. Someone should have reminded Paris Hilton that cocaine is nature's way of telling you you have too much money.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 4, 2011
Walking Like the Egyptians The same villians lie at the heart of Egypt's revolt that lies at the heart of America's economic problems: the greed of the World's banksters, and their utter indifference to the plight of their fellow man. Tunisia and Egypt remind us of our populist and revolutionary heritage, and prove that you don't need guns to overthrow your oppressors. May God bless and watch over us all.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 5, 2011
Simple As A-B-C Sometimes, the biggest arguments between the left and the right is an intentional misunderstanding by the right about the terms we use, including democracy. Neither the word republic or democracy is used in relation to the national government in our Constitution, and as Jefferson pointed out, democracy is the purest form of a republic, though not practicable above the size of a township.
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 2, 2012
Aiding the Evolution We are in trouble on Spaceship Earth. Instead of a group of Captain Kirks at the helm, we have a group of Captain Queegs, more interested in the disposition of their strawberries for the officer's mess than they are in saving their ship and crew. If we aren't careful, this spaceship may founder on the rocks of history, nature, or both. Kropotkin created the concept 110 years ago called "Mutual Aid." It is our last best hope.
Thomas Jefferson 1800 by Rembrandt Peale, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 4, 2014
Governance Without Cynicism Part 1 The cynicism of libertarians towards government is not a virtue. It is in fact a vice, preventing the libertarian from providing any useful assistance to his fellow citizens to fix the problems of America today. Until they overcome their cynicism, and provide useful input rather than Utopian platitudes, libertarians will be the spare tire of American politics.
Series: The Madness of Selfishness (8 Articles, 8084 views)
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 26, 2009
First Do No Harm The libertarian ideal has detoured down a dark twisted path since its inception by John Stuart Mill. It has become a creature that I suspect that Mill would not only not recognize, but openly repudiate.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 26, 2012
If At First You Don't Secede We once again have people who really should know better calling for secession. I am beginning to think Andrew Jackson may have made a mistake not taking the U.S. Army into South Carolina, and hanging the paleo-Confederates from every tree between Columbia and Charleston, in 1831-32 over South Carolina's Ordinance of Nullification. It probably would have prevented the Civil War 30 years later.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 22, 2010
Quo Vadis The Tea Party movement continues its hue and cry against President Obama and Health care reform, seemingly unaware that the real threat to their freedom lies in the hands and hearts of those who are providing them with financial support. The ghost of JFK warns us that we are much closer than five steps from tyranny, and if we do not hang together, we will surely hang seperately.
Thomas Jefferson 1821 by Thomas Sully, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 10, 2012
A Collective Sigh The best system of government in the world is worthless without responsible individuals to run it. Responsible humans of goodwill can take a piece of crap system and make it better than it has any right to be. However, no government will simply allow those who sill exploit their fellow humans to do so without fear of punishment. Martha Stout stated 1 in 25 of us are sociopaths; without government, they run things.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 30, 2008
Socialist Graces The long term political health of the nation is dependent not just on who we elect, but keeping ourselves informed about what is going on and using a critical view of history to determine the possible outcome of our actions. We can no longer afford labels that pigeonhole our opinions into a limited range of possible actions.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 8, 2010
The Last Time-A Rock and Roll Epistle My article "They're Foxed in the Head," elicited a lot of commentary, mostly asking why they should vote for the Democrats? It's quite simple: they are still a political party; the Re-Publicans are a Revolutionary Party, working directly for the corporate elite, and the Tea Party are their shock troops every much as the Red Guard was Mao's.
Charles Darwin, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 18, 2014
Discerning Our Reality There are many things in this world that are not what we believe they are. One of these is the next stage in human evolution. It is not super-intelligence, or unearthly psychic powers; it is the development of our compassion and empathy. Without these, any other development will lead to our ultimate destruction.
Series: The Madness of Selfishness (8 Articles, 8084 views)
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Hysterical Fantasy Everyone is entitled to their own opinion—not their own facts. Pat Buchanan showed such an utter disdain for the facts in his article "Did Hitler Want Peace?" that I believe he should receive a retroactive "F" for every history course he took from elementary school on. As that is impossible, I believe he should go on every broadcast and cable news show and apologize to all of the veterans of World War II, living and dead.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 12, 2010
Nowhere Man: A Rock and Roll Epistle One of the things which drives me most crazy are the people who think that there is nothing that they can do about the current state of affairs in this country. For Heaven's sake, go talk to a neighbor, call a talk show, contribute to a candidate who most closely mirrors your point of view, even if he has no chance of being elected. To do nothing makes your fears silf fulfilling prophecies.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Apology The Arab Spring. Wisconsin against Walkerism. Occupy Wall Street. The people are rising against their oppressors around the world, and the wolves are scared. Keep it peaceful, persevere, and we will win. Regrettably, not without cost.
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 16, 2007
Choosing the Hardest Thing It is easier to do evil than it is to do good; but it is easier to do good than it is to undo evil. Fear and expediency are crippliing the body politic, and our gaovernments reputation both at home and abroad. We must rediscover the courage of our Founding Fathers, and take back our country before it is too late.
Portrait of Louis Brandeis., From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 16, 2013
We Need to Reclaim the Spirit of America's First May Day, and Fight and Strike Anew for Economic Justice! Our democracy has had few friends better than Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis. As the working man's advocate and virtually the only liberal on the court when FDR took office, this man lived the role of prophet and gadfly to the powerful, just as his Jewish forebears had done to the kings of ancient Israel and Judah. Men like Bernie Sanders, Alan Grayson, and Leo Gerard honor his memory by speaking truth to power.
Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche by Edvard Munch, From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 9, 2014
World Without Love--A Rock-and-Roll Epistle Poor Nietzsche. Thanks to his sister and his "friends," we cannot be certain how much of his work from 1888 on is his. I believe he lost his mind because he had suffered for most of his life being alone and unloved. Like most people who don't have enough love in their life, he believed that selfishness and the "Will to Power" were the answer to his needs. What he really needed was the power of love.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 29, 2010
Street Fighting Man--A Rock and Roll Epistle The Big Lie perpetrated for two centuries is that a Republic (and its child representative democracy) and laissez faire capitalism are the twin horses pulling a free society. How can this be when laissez faire capitalism has none of the institutional checks and balances that a republic--according to Adams, Jefferson, and Madison--require. The invisible hand of Smith is too easily bound by selfishness to serve this purpose.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 14, 2009
Incompetent at Every Level In the legendary words of Popeye the Sailor, "That's all I can stands. cuz I can't stands no more." The hateful crap that is running out of the far right hate machine about national health care,President Obama, liberals and progressives makes me want to scream! Enough of your lies, half truths,speculations, and deceptions! I am sick and tired of your paranoia, your selfishness, and the fanaticism, you reactionary poltroons.
James Madison 1816, From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Limitations The libertarians are horribly misinformed if they believe the majority of the Founding Fathers would agree with them, in toto. But they are correct that they would see the runaway Military-Industrial Complex as a monster requiring crushing.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Rebel with a Cause This one is for all the small "r" rebels out there, we broadcaters of the Emperor's lack of clothing to unite. The ERA did not pass in the 1970's, and it has returned to haunt us. The Right Wing, aided by pseudo-Marxist feminists more interested in ideology than goals prevented passage. The recent attack on women's issues is the result. Women's rights includes the right to use their bodies to mske money if they want.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 7, 2009
Racing to the Bottom Bigotry exists among people of every race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, level of education, and economic class. It can even occur within those boundaries. the only certain cure is awareness of the inclination in ourselves, and opposition to it in others.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 22, 2009
The Social Element of Social Capitalism "Women and children first!" cried the Titanic's Captain as she prepared for her final, fatal plunge. In our modern world, I believe that how we treat children and the opposite sex is a direct reflection of how we react to different and diverse peoples and ideas. There are few if any supporters of the ERA in the KKK; we need to examine the basis for this truth.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 13, 2010
The Year of the Jubilee The Tea Party Movement gets away with the most outrageous acts simply because they are white conservatives. If ACORN or the NAACP tried an armed march on the outskirts of Washington D.C.--spouting vicious rhetoric against the government in general, and a white President in particular--with AK-47's, M-16's and handguns, Fox News, Limbaugh and the rest would be screaming "Communist insurrection." The double standard must stop.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 31, 2010
Losing My Religion--A Rock and Roll Epistle We must always be careful what we put our "faith" into, our deepest and most profound belief. The works of man are never in the long term stand up to long term trial, and in the end, we will always be disappointed when we place any real faith there. Real faith is a cycle of faith-doubt-and reaffirmation of faith, and untested faith is not faith at all: it is idolatry. The Tea Party would do well to remember this fact...
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Nature of the Beast We are left with the choice of selfishness or survival of our nation as a democratic republic. There is nothing in-between. The oligarchs are poised to usher us into an era of darkness and serfdom, where Edmund Burke's ideal of idle rich and working poor as the only two economic classes is realized. We cannot allow this to happen.
Virtuvian Man, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 3, 2013
Human State We are rapidly approaching the most important crossroads in world history since the 1930's. Will our future be one of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness;" or shall humanity be reduced to a state of serfdom in service to the multinational conglomerates of the World. Shall our future be that of "Star Trek," or that of "Rollerball?" The choice is ours.
Thomas Jefferson, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 4, 2013
A Burden to The Poor Idolatry shrouds the American landscape like a pea-soup fog on I-5 in California: hiding in its gray expanse a multitude of pressing problems with stories of sports teams and the other manufactured celebrities whose existence makes no real difference in our day to day lives except as a brief distraction from our pain. It is time for us to throw down those idols, and take back our humanity while we still can.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 4, 2009
Like Band Aids for Chest Wounds Our current health care system in this country is broken beyond remedy or repair. If we permit the current health insurance reform initative to become law without a strong public option-meaning the ability to buy into Medicare-it is morally equivalent to putting a Band Aid on a sucking chest wound.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 2, 2009
How Much Is Enough We have seen the wealthiest one percent of our nation's population double their percentage of the nation's total wealth in the last thirty years, while most American's disposable income has been shrinking as healthcare and housing costs have gone through the roof. This concentration of wealth is due--as it always has been in America--to war profiteering:in this case the Cold War and War on Terror. Enough is Enough.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 1, 2008
The Presumption of Buggy Whips Arguing for more drilling for energy is about as effective in the long term as voting a subsidy for buggy whip manufactuers a century ago. We have, thanks to Reagan and the oil lobby, lost thirty years in our race for energy independence. the future is now!
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Keeping Them Honest Harry Truman said, "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know." Unfortunately, to do this article justice, I had to cover a lot of history of the GOP, before and during WWII. So I'm afraid it is long. But it also points out that the GOP has not changed tactics in the last seven decades, only refined them. People Like Eisenhower tried to make them honest, but it's not in their souls.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 29, 2009
Madness This article was originally published at OnLineJournal.com, in December of 2004, shortly after Dubya's re-election. Since it is no longer in their archives, I am republishing it here. While it is a bit dated, I bring it back to remind everyone that one victory does not mean the end of the war. Note my comment about coming economic troubles in the 22nd paragraph. I have modified and edited the piece to make it more readable.
The Temptations on the Ed Sullivan Show, September 1969, From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Ball of Confusion (That's What the World is Today)--A Rock-and-Roll Epistle "People were created to be loved, things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is that things are being loved and people are being used." And we use people like we do toilet paper. And all that the conservatives call for Austerity does is set us up to be the next Weimar Republic. No wonder this world's a "Ball of Confusion."
Series: The Madness of Selfishness (8 Articles, 8084 views)
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Feinting Spell The laws of unintended consequences again loom large in our sight, as proponents of the abolition or modification of the Fourteenth Amendment Cry havoc! Their real target is our rights to privacy, collective bargaining, and protection from abuse by law enforcement, all of which disappear with Equal Protection and Due Process if the Fourteenth disappears. Roe v. Wade, Mapp v. Ohio, Miranda v. Arizona, POOF! go away.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 27, 2007
Rights, Powers, Privileges, and Responsibilities The Declaration of Independence is a moral document, written not only to establish a new nation, but also to establish a basis for human rights and self-governance. We need to remember the courage of the Founders in this time, when we are challenged by the most immoral and repressive administration in our history.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 26, 2007
Sleight of Hand Can the XXVth Amendment to the Constitution be used to remove a president who's obviously mentally disabled?
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 26, 2007
Polarization It is time to stop the corpratists from playing us off one against the other. They started class warfare in 1981, and are on the verge of destroying the middle class. It is time for us find an answer between socialism and capitalism, and ram it down their throats.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 15, 2012
Transformers All of us can be agents of change, transformers if you will, but not if we blindly follow any doctrine or dogma of any philosopher or religion. As much as I love and respect Thomas Jefferson, I'm far more aware than most Americans of his "feet of clay." Like any good student of philospohy, I take the good and and throw out the bad, knowing that all of us are finite, transient, and imperfect.
The Logo fro 'The Prisoner', From ImagesAttr
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 22, 2014
I Am Not a Number! The modern oligarchic state, run through the corporations for the benefit of the plutocrats, is creating a world not of Star Trek hope, but of Rollerball despair and Prisoner paranoia. It cannot be allowed to stand. I am not a number; I am a free man!
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 13, 2009
Batting the Hornet's Nest Iconoclasts of the world unite! The Congress needs to deliver a word of warning to the Supreme Court, concerning interference with campaign finance reform laws. Article III, Section 2, paragraph 2 of the Constitution permits the Congress to place limits on those cases that the Supreme Court may hear. Congress, not unelected justices, should decide the limits on campaign finance.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 28, 2008
Fealty Mike Huckabee needs to learn from history, especially the religious wars of the Reformation, and the Council of Nicaea where what was God's was literally rendered unto Caesar.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Morality, Rights and Health Care FDR was correct on January 11, 1944, when he said that you cannot guarantee the political rights we enjoy under our Constitution, unless you guarantee the social and economic rights that make them possible. The Lord Chancellor of England pointed out in 1762, "necessitous men are not free men." They will do what they have to in order to survive. It is time that we insure that they don't have to sell their liberty to do so.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 1, 2010
Heavy Horses-A Rock-and-Roll Epistle The rank and file of the Tea Party needs to question its underlying assumptions before Tuesday. What the Plutocrats like Karl Rove and the Chamber of Commerce are really offering is not a return to some halcyon past that never was, but rather a dog eat dog, neolithic world where everyone who is not a multimillionaire ($3M+) is screwed.we need a return to the days of FDR's New Deal,where the ripooff artists went to jail.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Failure to Communicate It is not our education system that is failing us, it is we that are failing our education system. And in failing that system we fail succeeding generations and our country. Thomas Jefferson thought that funding for education was so important that even war did not take precedence over it. I believe that Jefferson was right, and we need to quit blaming teachers for our failure to fund education properly.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 24, 2007
The Caesar Factor Conservatives have lied about the actions and motivations of progressives since the time of Athens and Rome. It is time to begin looking at history with a more jaundiced eye, and from the perspective of the Caesar Factor: that fear and jealousy motivate the conservatives far more than avarice and anger motivate progressives.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, January 6, 2007
Ave Atque Vale The death of Gerald Ford has brought most of our nation into a state of mourning. We should always mourn the passing of every human being, but we must also remember that President Ford was responsible for many of our nation's current political problems.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Taxing the System There is a difference between the Law and Justice; between what is equal and what is fair. America's tax system is neither just or fair. Let's do something about it.
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, October 25, 2009
Racing to the Bottom We must consider not only racism, but every other form of bigotry and prejudice when we speak of America's future. Race, religion, class, sexual orientation, wealth, education: all of these and more deserve our attention when we our considering how to deal with the unthinking hatred that permeates so much of our lives.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, September 19, 2008
Illuminating Dichotomies The choice is self-interest or fairness in this election. Thirty years of self-interest has doubled the wealth of the top 1%, and left the middle class gasping for breath. "Greed is good?" Bullshit!
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Courage and Effort The Health Care Reform Act of 2010 can be the first halting step to overthrowing the the tyranny of the American plutocracy, but only if we are willing to keep unrelenting pressure upon the Congress and the President, in this election year to provide a public option, regulate the insurance industry at the Federal level, and end the antitrust examption. This will require both courage and effort.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Through the Past Darkly The oligarchic reactioaries have always relied on violence and intimidation to maintain their control. John F. Kennedy and Gaius Julius Caesar were both victims of the plutocrats lust for power. We must resist their evil, or face oppression.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 7, 2009
The Hope For Audacity How can you have "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," in our modern society without guaranteed access to healthcare? The answer is you can't. When Jefferson wrote the Declaration, medicine was more mumbo jumbo than science. Now its proper and early use all but guarantees you a longer and healthier lifetime. Healthcare is by extension a "positive" right, emulating from those inalienable rights.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 31, 2007
My Fairy Godmother Part 1 It is always interesting when my fairy godmother shows up, asking if I have another wish for her to fulfill. This time I had a doozy.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Risking It All When we consider risk in business, we should consider not only the investors who only risk their money, but the people who risk their lives and livelihood everyday. To do otherwise establishes a group of haves and have nots in our minds, even if we deny it with our lips and in our hearts.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 19, 2007
Disgust and Distrust If you believe anything George W. Bush and Company say, other than they want more power, then you are a fool.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Not Breaking A League I had thought we had settled the matter of secession in 1865. Apparently, I was wrong. I generally oppose the death penalty, but would make an exception with secessionists, following Andy Jackson's suggestion of hanging them from every tree between here and the coast.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 9, 2007
My Fairy Godmother Part2 First time I've been rejected by OpEdNews for the original of this article. And what is worse, I deserved it. Note to self: do not get overly involved in characterization. This is the second part of My Fairy Godmother (Pt 1 was in early February). This time Marge and I discuss election reform and corporations.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 22, 2009
No Crisis of Conscience Why are we even discussing prosecuting torturers? Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Five to One (A Rock and Roll Epistle) The ideals of the 1960s weren't wrong, we simply failed to persevere. As Elvis Costello once sang, "What's so wrong with peace, love and understanding?" The major advantage of the Right over the Left is that the Right is willing to put up with years of disappointment to achieve their ends; the Left, in Jim Morrison's words, "Wants the world and we want it...NOW!" It is time to prove we can outlast the right in a just cause
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Stalingrad On The Euphrates Asymmetric warfare and George Bush's ego are destroying the American Army in Iraq as surely as Marshal Zhukov's tanks and Hitler's ego wrecked the German Wehrmacht at Stalingrad. We must bring our troops home now, before our Army is destroyed.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 6, 2009
An Opening Manifesto Without responsibility, there is no true freedom. Without responsibility to others, there is no true freedom from others. Without responsibility for others, there can be no freedom for ourselves.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 14, 2006
National Insecurity Blanket The realtionship between corporate imperialism, illegal immigrats, and destruction of U.S. middle class.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 27, 2006
Delusional State of the Nation At the edge of a precipice, you can dig in your heels or jump. However, before you make your choice, make sure you are not deluding yourself about what is going on.

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