Tidbits - January 29, 2015 - Boehner, Bibi, Israel, Iran; SYRIZA & Podemos Inspire Us; Civil Rights Lessons-Selma & King; and more...

Reader Comments - Boehner, Netanyahu, Israel and Iran; Labor in the 21st Century; Public School Poverty; Billie Holiday; Pete Seeger; The New Europe - SYRIZA and Podemos; 'American Sniper'; Social Security; Agent Orange; Ukraine; Martin Luther - Militant Radical for Our Times; more... Resource: Energy Democracy in Greece; Announcements (New York)- Sri Lanka Killing Fields documentary; Anniversary of Malcolm X Assassination

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Tidbits - Reader Comments and Announcements - January 29, 2015,Portside

Re: Behind Obama's Back: How Netanyahu's U.S. trip Was Cooked Up

He might as well be inviting the Grand Dragon of the KKK...it's a move intended to divide the country and set up the effort and the attempt for a coup.

It doesn't matter if the MIC, the bankers and the top one percent are furious about Kennedy's refusal to declare nuclear war on Castro or Obama's refusal to fight a proxy war for Israel, the expected result is the same and somewhere a group of people are preparing for an assassination attempt or an armed coup d'etat.

Domestic right wing extremist terror is a real thing, and Americans are in the dark about it. They do not believe that anybody would ever attempt such a thing.

They were wrong once, and they're wrong now.

Jeffery Haas
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Begin's single greatest political triumph was selling the idea that to criticize the state of Israel amounted to Anti-Semitism. I knew a Conservative Rabbi (religious, not political) back in the 80's whose house was vandalized after he wrote an op-ed piece suggesting that the US should stop vetoing UN resolutions calling on Israel to abide by International Law - swastikas were painted on his front door!

Jim Walther
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Goes back to the revelation that Nixon was in contact with South Viet Nam fall of 1968 and derailed peace talks with North Viet Nam.

Priscilla Brownlee
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Likud is meddling in US politics to an unprecedented extent. Mr Boehner's complicity is tantamount to treason. The Constitution gives treaty negotiations to the President, and conspiring with foreign powers to cripple that effort (regardless of the identity of the foreign power) should be considered a crime. Here's hoping that the Isreali people turn Mr Netanyahu and is party out of office in the coming elections. Once saner leaders are in place, maybe peace will be a possibility.

Jonathan Pisano
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 30 January 1799, currently codified at 18 U.S.C.  953) is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994.

If Israel didn't have nuclear weapons, then Iran wouldn't want nuclear weapons.

Dale Ezelle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Netanyahu needs to stay out of our political system. He has done this way too often...remember Romney in 2012? I support Israel...doesn't mean I have to support Bibi Netanyahu or Boehner. This was a sleazy and underhanded effort to trash the negotiations with Iran. You can imagine the outcry from Netanyahu if we tried to affect the outcome of his reelection bid or undermine his power in Israel. I have no problem with Netanyahu coming to speak...as a,tater of fact I would welcome it...dialogue is good. But needs to be done properly and through internationally recognized protocols, consistent with our Constitution and laws...not behind the executive branch's back.

Jim Smith
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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This months white daddy.  Last summer it was Putin. Republicans just need a big white dictator to feel safe.

Mary Bowman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: First, Stop The Self-Flagellation: How Unions Can Thrive in the 21st Century
(posting on Portside Labor)

Thanks to Lance Compa of Cornell for adding some common sense to the debate on the future of our labor movement. I have had enough gloom and doom and "reinvention" talk to last a lifetime. Most of this talk never deals with the biggest problem we face: we are a national trade union movement in the era of the global corporation. We have to become an international labor movement to deal with that reality, so that our (still quite respectable) power is joined with the power of workers in other countries who work for the same employers.

Jeffery Hermanson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Unions and trade Unionists like my brothers and sisters in the AFT are not going anywhere. The more that "they" try to destroy us, the stronger we get.

Marshall Bennett
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Faced With Land Seizures, Defiant Nebraskans Vow to Halt Keystone XL

GO NEBRASKANS!

america, where you neVer REALLY "own" property... confused emoticon (ya jist keep re-buyin' it & re-buyin' it with taxes and even then, it can be "seized" like this...

Susan Buckner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: More than Half of US Public School Students Live in Poverty, Report Finds

This story and several others on the topic do not appear to be accurate.  If you read the NYT story it appears that many individuals who are not poor now qualify for the free lunch program because if a majority of a school's individuals qualify, then the whole school does.  Plus the standard used might not strike a lot of people as real "poverty."  I think this Guardian story does a disservice to the real story.

Keep up the good work -- we all have clinkers from time to time.

Tom Gallagher

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Who gets to live out the American Dream?

Vira Douangmany Cage
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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From Wealthiest Nation in History, to Third World Status in one generation. Nicely done. I didn't know entire countries could tank like basketball teams.

Hubert O'Hearn
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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"No one has the guts to let them (the poor) wither and die" -- John Johnston, Republican candidate for the Indiana House (he lost).

Dana Cochrane
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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this is terrible in a country as rich as ours. the media tries 2 give the impression only black american and latino american children r poor. fact is the majority of poor people in our country are white americans

Jim Pita
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The Hunting of Billie Holiday

Thank you for this excellent post here.

I may not always agree with some of the content Portside presents, but this rendering of the life and times of Billy Holiday, and the complex challenges she had to endure and survive through is nothing short of spectacular.

She was, and always will be one of the greatest vocalists of all time.  There will never be another Billy . . . no one can reach a bar set  that high.

However, it's the story of her life, one with which I am already familiar, which makes her so much more remarkable.

Charles Ostman

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Wow...how threatening MUSIC can be...."jazz sounded like the jungle at night"....Billie Holiday R.I.P.

Juanita Rodriguez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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She had a very challenging life, and left an eternal mark on society. She is truly my favorite singer of all times. Long live Lady Day.

Kim Patterson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I had no idea what she was put through by the Fed Bureau of Narcotics

Michele Hobart
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Lady Day, Jimi, Ray Charles and others (of all races) were geniuses, and their lives were cut short by heroin.

I'm a fan of legalizing "soft drugs," but heroin is a "hard drug" if you're my age, we've lost too many of our heroes. Let's legalize the "soft drugs"--as we have with alcohol (a "soft drug" ) and spend our tax dollars on treatment rather than on prosecution.

Lady Day, Jimi, Jim Morisson, and so many others might still be with us if buying "drugs" was like buying alcohol.

Ian Arnold
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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My all time favorite singer. U felt her pain. She emoted so well. Perfection. I wonder if this conspiracy is fact .... Alcohol is not a soft drug. As far as drug addiction and drug deaths, alcohol is the #1 killer.

Sean A. Powers
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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in my music life, i'm only two degrees of separation from billie. i played with harry "the hipster" gibson, who played piano for her. i've always thought that was totally cool.

Stephen Benson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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The War on Drugs is a war on us. It comes from corruption and proceeds in corruption. An unnecessary and destructive war.

Charles Decelles
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Sean A. Powers check out YouTube on what FBI Director Hover and Harry Anslanger did to get ther world drug laws passed. It's a fact!

Gary M. Ellerbe
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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A must read for any Billie Holiday fan. It just shows how powerfully threatening an outspoken musician can be to the controllers of our society.

LaTisha Tomblin Godfrey
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Lots of great musicians in those days did time for possession, some kicked and some didn't. We aren't all the same. The drug laws ruined Thelonious Monk's life even though he wasn't using. For artists who died in their seventies like Ray Charles, who knows how much that contributed? Sonny Rollins came out the other side and has been lucky to reach a ripe old age. If addiction had been treated as a disease back then, Billie most likely would have lived much longer.

Andy Frobig
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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it's funny how the "powers that be" are scared sh--less by the powers that always were!

Ellen Coffey
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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always wonderful to read. The comic art piece on Billie, in my book BOHEMIANS, goes over her rise and fall. Touchingly.'

Paul Buhle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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So amazing I had no idea of any of this. Thank you

Miana Bosshog Cornell
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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The extent of the U.S. government's racism, sexism, hypocrisy and cruelty is in full and flagrant evidence in this story. As is the real story behind who, how and why marijuana became a Schedule 1 narcotic---a travesty we are still living with. The War on Drugs has always been a war against people of color, the poor and the marginalized. We will never win the "War on Dugs" because we continue to need an underclass to keep our police, courts and prisons humming along, business as usual.

Paul Wasserman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Anslinger took a public health problem and turned it into criminal activity. Why? The fear that our women loved opium, loved cocaine and grass and there are very strong ethnic and racial ties to each drug. Henry didn't want white american women to be attracted to the Chinese, Hispanics or blacks and so made drugs illegal so our women would be safe from these influences. As time went on the women went from Tincture of Opium to Sherry then valium. Today, anything goes.

Gregg Fields
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Who Was This Pete Fellow?

Pete and Obama locked 'twinkly eyes' at the D.C. mall on latter's presidential election day; as many watched on t.v. The President lost an opportunity to shake hands with "A Great!" Holly, thanks for the news.

Virginia Franco
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Pete Seeger and Selma

As you'll recall, Pete Seeger died a year ago this week.  I wrote this celebration of his life and legacy for Huff Post.  He marched and sang for social justice all over the world, including at the Selma march, even though the film "Selma" left out the constant singing during the four day march.  Feel free to repost this on your website if you'd like.
Thanks.

Peter Dreier
Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
Chair, Urban & Environmental Policy Department
Occidental College

Re: Can Podemos Win in Spain?

Praying that they 'can'! If it spreads here, this would be a welcome European invasion in the New World's 'settler nations'!

Furaha Youngblood
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Man - even if he's pretty far left, his assessment is basically true, though it goes well beyond national borders. Look at the hypocrisy going on right now in Davos Switzerland. Discussing what to do about climate change while flying 1700 private jets there, the most inefficient, fuel consuming, ozone depleting travel method possible. Oligarchic blind self-infatuation. The emperor's new clothes.

Dan Miller
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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It took Europe two world wars and a cold war to become politically mature. I hope we can learn more easily.

David Gilbert
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Thank You Greece!

The Greeks are getting tired of the bullshit from the western bankers who treat them as something to be wiped off the bottom of their shoes, well now the shoe is on the other foot -- go Greeks. Power to the people, right on!

Hollis Stewart
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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If they're smart, they'll follow the example laid out by Iceland.

D.j. Garcia
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Beyond reform: the reforms will always be reversible unless and until direct, participatory, protagonistic democracy comes home, spreading from the Consejos Comunas of Venezuela via a Comuna Internacional to Greece.

Matt Owen
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Greece: Is SYRIZA Radical Enough?

This is a thoughtful article, strongly in support of Syriza. It is knowledgeable and (for me) very useful to read. The amazingly powerful victory of Syriza is an historic event. Syriza faces powerful enemies - the extreme economic depression, misery and deaths occurring in Greece, an economic stranglel-hold by the major capitalist states, and the determined hatred of the major economic players in Europe. Syriza has accomplished so much in such a short time. Hurray for Syriza and its tremendous victory!!

Diane Laison
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Excellent article. Unfortunately too many left groups are just into posturing,rather than really improving peoples lives in real time.

Mike Glick
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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The dynamic by which central banks extended their control is summed up by British economist Richard Douthwaite:

**"Currencies produced by one group for use by another have been instruments of exploitation and control. For example, whenever Britain, France, or one of the other colonial powers took over a territory during the "scramble for Africa" towards the end of the (eighteenth) century, one of the first actions was to introduce a tax on every household that had to be paid in a currency that the conquerors had developed for the purpose. The only way Africans could get the money to pay the tax was to work for their new rulers or supply them with crops. In other words, the tax destroyed local self-reliance, exactly as it was supposed to do . . . Very little has changed. Over 95 percent of the money supply in an industrial country is created by banks lending it into existence. These banks are usually owned outside of our areas, with the result that we have to supply goods and services to outsiders even to earn the account entries we need to trade among ourselves. Our district's self-reliance has been destroyed just as effectively as it was in Africa, and whatever local economy we've been able to keep going is always at the mercy of events elsewhere, as the current world economic crisis is making too clear."

It is time to end this shit. See here

Markus O'Bryan O'Heffernan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The Davos Oligarchs Are Right to Fear the World They've Made

Look what's happening in Greece- plenty to worry about, Oligarchs. Study your history!

Michael A. Trujillo
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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even the architects of the crisis-ridden international economic order are starting to see the dangers. It's not just the maverick hedge-funder George Soros, who likes to describe himself as a class traitor. Paul Polman, Unilever chief executive, frets about the "capitalist threat to capitalism". Christine Lagarde, the IMF managing director, fears capitalism might indeed carry Marx's "seeds of its own destruction" and warns that something needs to be done."

Andrew Glynn
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: "American Sniper" - Dishonest, Racist Film Spawns Death Threats against Arabs and Muslims

Glorification of NRA White Supremacy's racist theology spawns hatred and violence against Arabs and Muslims. Shameful propaganda film promoted by Clint Eastwood. Shame on the sick people who are affected by such macho fantasies of power as destruction.

Barbara Tutor
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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In his "book" he states how much he enjoyed "killing savages" and if his family did not need him so much he would go back to doing the job he loved. (paraphrased) MOST OF THE TIME IF A PERSON STATES THEY ENJOY KILLING OTHER PEOPLE THEY ARE CONSIDERED IMBALANCED AND IF THEY DO KILL PEOPLE IN GREAT NUMBERS, THEY ARE CONSIDERED SERIAL KILLERS NOT AMERICAN HERO'S.

David Martinez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Eastwood continues to talk to empty chairs.

Tim Griggs
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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We wrongly invaded their country, they in turn protected what was theirs, and they're the savages? We wonder why the US is hated. If the shoe was on the other foot, what would your thinking be? Would we sit back and willingly let them take us over? How they treat their women, how they handle their politics are none of our concern. We can't force our fake democracy on people who don't want it, who have been fighting wars with other middle eastern countries for centuries. We have more than enough problems right here on our soil to solve, but that would not fill the coffers of corporations and the war machine who are making huge profits from wars.

Kathy Lammers
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I saw a trailer for 'American Sniper' used as a recruiting aid for the British Army on Sky TV.

Margie Bernard

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Eastwood said in an interview recently that he wants to show the evil side of life, the kind of inadvertent evil that even a good human being is capable of. It seems he's been at least somewhat successful.

Janet Norris
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I think it's important that you read the article because it points out that the way in which the film people choose to defer from the reality(or at least the book) and made executive decisions that were blatantly racist.

Hannah Moushabeck
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I just actually read the few pages of it today and his description of the "enemy" is nauseating. Really scarry too, to read about someone dehumanizing another human being and have that serve as justification for killing.

Kelcifer Rose
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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A sniper killed MLK and JFK.

Jim Brough
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Clint Eastwood is stuffing his pockets with the profits from his new film, but it is all blood money based on lies and propaganda well told.

Alan Gregory Wonderwheel
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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This is how the left views this? What a pity. I pray you are not most Americans and judging by the box office turnout, you're not.

Tommy Ledbetter
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Are you judging the man or his actions. Snipers have been around as long as the bow and arrow. Ask a combat vet if snipers are necessary,or ask if one saved his or a comrades life. Until you have that answer you cannot accurately judge.

Steve Macri
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Expanding Social Security Is the Cheapest Way to Bring More Security to America's Retirees

take off the freaking cap--it is that simple

Tom Stockton
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Yes it is. Make some noise to defend Social Security against the banksters and their pimps--GOP and CorpoDem.

Adam Francis Cornford
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Very successful program and has not cost the federal govt a dime! In fact they have raided it. Did they pay interest? dunno. Even if it did cost taxpayer money in the future, still worth it. Raise the income ceiling and take care of it that way. Our best program !!!

Marjorie Kramer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I can not understand why some people want to cut this program that helps the working people who have been the backbone of America. What kind of person takes from their Parents and Grand Parents to line the pockets of Billionaires?

James Ferguson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page


Re: Texas Used Junk Science to Restrict Abortions

Portside is an uninformed lacking in reality website

Ralph B. Breeden
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Accurate info this time.....

Pat Mitchell
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Uh, Ralph ....

Portside is not the source of the article. It's simply an aggregator. It collects articles that originate elsewhere.

This article originated on Slate.com, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/01/t… an on-line news magazine that is owned by the Washington Post. The author is an attorney with long experience on the subject and who argued Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the United States Supreme Court. That was a 1992 decision that essentially set the standards for examining laws that restrict the right to an abortion.

Graydon Wilson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Agent Orange: Legacy of the American War in Vietnam

A challenge for us all in USA to continue fight for USA funding and responsibility!

Leanna Noble
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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And the US use of depleted uranium will leave the same war crimes legacy all over the Middle East that Agent Orange left in the Nam.

Jerry Steele
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Someone needs to confront Jimmy Carter on his complicity with this crime when he goes on TV to get pats on the back for his anti-worm project in Africa, etc.

He could do more to make proper-- if inadequate-- amends for the crimes the U.S. committed against the Vietnamese people.

John Woodford

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An amazing people still suffering from our weapons left, much land still barren, agent orange damage clearly visible in children, etc

Melinda Brown
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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And now we have allowed ourselves to be drawn into another series of "politicians' wars" where we are poisoning our veterans with depleted uranium and subjecting them to TBI with the prospect of life long disabilities... what does it take for us to learn, when the same folks who scream the loudest that they do not trust the government are the very ones who elect candidates who push for wars like this???

Marco Daniel Summaria
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Satire - And the Unknown North Korea

So informative!  informative. I only knew part of that  history.  I remember during the Korean war being made practically physically ill hearing about the barbaric napalm assaults.

Joan Ecklein

Re: The New York Times: "Distortions, Lies and Omissions" on Ukraine

Long and worth reading. A bit vague at times but if you ever wonder about the NYT, forge ahead.

Jim Price
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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The US meddling in Ukraine continues with very dangerous implications. The US is sending military advisers and weapons, intending to escalate the crisis with Russia. Even if a hot war does not break out between US armed Ukraine and Russia, the economic impact of sanctions will economically damage Europe, not just Russia.

"...how can we possibly arm neo-Nazis in Ukraine while right-wing extremists and anti-immigration atavists rise all over Europe?"

The US must withdraw our troops and "military advisers" from Ukraine and follow Europe's lead on resolving the Ukrainian crisis.

John Jernegan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: James Baldwin, a Guide in Dark Times

"His essays on police brutality still burn hot, but his understanding of sex, self-knowledge and power demand equal attention now. Baldwin does not say that systems of power are unimportant. He insists that liberation is also a mandate on individuality: how one separates oneself from the "habits of thought [that] reinforce and sustain the habits of power"-in essence, how one comes into his or her humanity."

Anyone want to start reading James Baldwin together? It helps me to have a group. Maybe a good B.L.A.C.K. Reading Group candidate.

Chris McCamic
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: MLK's Radical Vision Got Distorted: Here's His Real Legacy on Militarism & Inequality

A Shift from A Thing-Oriented Society to A Living-Oriented Society!

Azar Nejad
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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So happy to see USAns rereading and rehearing MLK's words. So many of us didn't for far too many years.

John Dwyer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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There was a time (not that long ago) that his words were considered common sense. Or, at least when and where I grew up.

Les Anderson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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How exciting it is to see more and more recognition of MLK's full insight, vision, and articulation. When our schools start to teach his Riverside Church speech, "Beyond Vietnam," instead of a few words taken out of context from 1963, we'll begin to help our children have the legacy they deserve.

Kipp Dawson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The Uncompromising Anti-Capitalism of Martin Luther King Jr.

Hmmm maybe MLK was critically thinking about the propagation of injustice and the role of Capitalism. He probably looked at the role of Communism and how it is used to crush people. How is it wrong to study the causes of human suffering? Capitalism included.

Regina Westemeier
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: What Would Martin Say?

Stop Common Core in New York State

Heather Cottin
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: The Forgotten History of How Automakers Invented the Crime of "Jaywalking"

Interesting read of how the auto industry "stole" away the common area of the streets from the people.

Tim Conroy
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I'm mostly happy we have cars, but it involves a loss, and not only to the environment.

Laurie Sheridan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Ah, another tale of the closing of the Commons!!!!!

Carolyn Toll Oppenheim
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I've had to pay one of these insane jaywalking tickets, and I always thought it was stupid, but now I'm validated by historian Peter Norton! Thanks Peter!!

LA always seemed to me more like little islands of buildings surrounded by rivers of asphalt and cars. I wish I could live til the day when the gas runs out!

Scott McCampbell
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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Auto campaigners lobbied police to publicly shame jaywalkers by whistling or shouting at them - and even carrying women back to the sidewalk - instead of quietly reprimanding or fining them. They staged safety campaigns in which actors dressed in 19th century garb, or as clowns, were hired to cross the street illegally, signifying that the practice was outdated and foolish. In a 1924 New York safety campaign, a clown was marched in front of a slow-moving Model T and rammed repeatedly.

This strategy also explains the name that was given to crossing illegally on foot: jaywalking. During this era, the word "jay" meant something like "rube" or "hick" - a person from the sticks, who didn't know how to behave in a city. So pro-auto groups promoted use of the word "jay walker" as someone who didn't know how to walk in a city, threatening public safety.

At first, the term was seen as offensive, even shocking. Pedestrians fired back, calling dangerous driving "jay driving."

Freddie Rubalcava Jr.
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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This looks like Bathgate Ave. in the Bronx which was full of pushcarts and vendors as late as the 50s. My mother took us there to but curtain material and buttons

Chelsea Dreher
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Frank Fried, Presente!

His place in progressive history will be received joyously in generations to come.

Willie Williamson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: `Solidarity Forever' Written 100 Years Ago, Today

Solidarity Forever (Pete Seeger)
This is a worker's anthem by Pete Seeger. Thank you for watching comrades!

Ralph Tuttila
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

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I just saw this from over a week ago. Portside nicely linked the centenary of the song with Dr. King's activity as a union leader -- indeed, as Portside pointed out, one who was calling for a general strike of Memphis's Black workers -- when he was killed.

Daniel M. Rosenblum
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Why Do We Die?

It's a little embarrassing, reading such twaddle. It's a little embarrassing that fellow atheists can make the facts, the process, into a kind of thinking mans "religion", carved of science and facts. Gather as many as you want.

See, here's the thing - The processes involved may be interesting, even fascinating...but the processes ain't the problem...the thing is.

Quoting lines from a half assed movie scripts makes "us" look/sound like pimply adolescents...wondering about the stars and things grand.

Problem is when you're moving down the ever speeding ramp the mind reels and the gut churns contemplating the maw and oblivion...it's as much biological as psychological and pretending otherwise is a comic book grasp of the thing. There ain't anything grand is sight, nothing is more personal and less abstract. Look at it, stare at it some more. Then get back to us again.

The key was in your opening sentence "I finally got around to finishing."

Littlalex

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simple: WE DIE BECAUSE EVERYTHING DIES (that is, changes its form) AND WE ARE PART OF EVERYTHING. GET IT?

Walter Wallace

ENERGY DEMOCRACY IN GREECE - SYRIZA's Program and the Transition to Renewable Power

By Sean Sweeney
January 2015
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - New York Office

January 25, 2015 was a historic day: the people of Greece chose to break with austerity policies. They elected SYRIZA-the Coalition of the Radical Left-as the largest party in parliament, Alexis Tsipras will become prime minister. The importance of this victory for the left in Greece, Europe, and indeed the world should not be underestimated.

But now the hard work of actually governing begins. SYRIZA is entering government facing enormous economic, social, and environmental challenges. In addition, the party fell just short of the absolute majority (149 out of 300 seats) and will form a coalition government with the anti-austerity right-wing Independent Greeks (ANEL).

What practical programs can the new government implement now that will advance the party's commitment to the "ecological transformation of the economy?" In this Trade Unions for Energy Democracy working paper, Sean Sweeney proposes a bold energy democracy agenda that is consistent with SYRIZA's commitments. This paper analyzes the present neoliberal approach to energy policy and climate change in Greece and the European Union and proposes a clear path by which the Greek people can take control of their energy system and transition to a renewables-based energy economy that puts the needs of people and the environment ahead of corporate profits.

Read More Here:

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Inc.
275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114
New York, NY 10016

Documentary Screening: "No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka" - New York - Feb. 2

Monday, February 2, 2015; From 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM

CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
http://www.journalism.cuny.edu/
219 West 40th Street, Room 308
New York, NY 10018

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting invites you to a special screening of the documentary, "No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka."

"No Fire Zone" sheds light on the military offensive in the final months of the 26-year Sri Lankan civil war, documenting war crimes, summary execution, torture and sexual violence with direct evidence recorded by both victims and perpetrators on mobile phones and small cameras.

The filmmaker, Callum Macrae, will be on hand to discuss his work and his post-production efforts to raise awareness of the human rights issues .

"No Fire Zone" is one of five films to win this year's BRITDOC Impact Award, which celebrates standout documentary films that are changing the world. It also was nominated for an International Emmy Award.

Macrae has been making films for 20 years in the UK and around the world, including Iraq, Japan (in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake), Haiti and Africa - covering wars and conflicts in Cote D'Ivoire, Uganda and Mali.

RSVP to this free screening here.


Conversations in Black Freedom Studies - 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Malcolm X - New York - Feb. 5

Malcolm X and Black Radical Women

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Blvd
New York, NY 10030

Thursday, February 5, 2015 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Malcolm X was assassinated 50 years ago in February 1965. Women such as Betty Shabazz, Queen Mother Moore, Vicki Garvin, Yuri Kochiyama, Mae Mallory, Abbey Lincoln, Maya Angelou and Gloria Richardson were among the first and foremost to establish February as a month to remember Malcolm X's sacrifices for Black Liberation and had been key to Malcolm X's developing political vision before he was killed. However, in those fifty years, scholars have habitually neglected the role that such women played in drafting blueprints for the Black Power Generation.

Please join Gloria Richardson, Rosemary Mealy and Komozi Woodard in an important discussion of that central yet neglected role that women played in the radicalization of Malcolm X.  

Books for the Conversations in Black Freedom Studies series are available for purchase in the Schomburg Shop! Visit us and read up in advance!

Register here.

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