Showing posts with label participatory democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label participatory democracy. Show all posts

Friday, June 9, 2017

Brittmarie Janson Perez, What Was the Founding Fathers' True Legacy?


Brittie Perez has sent me another of her stellar statements about things happening in the world today, and I want to share it with all of you now. As you'll see, this is commentary about the implications of the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings, focusing on what happened on 7 June with Dan Coates and Mike Rogers. Here's Brittie's essay:

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

bell hooks on Worship of Death As Central Component of Patriarchal Thinking: Reflections on the Legacy of Antonin Scalia



The Constitution is a dead document, Scalia said.

• You can know that a society or a church is dead or well on the way to death when it proclaims that its foundational documents (a Constitution, a Bible) are dead.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Reader Writes: "How Do We Know That the Bigotry and Bullying 'in God's Name' Isn't What 'God' Is All About and What 'God' Wants?"



In a comment this morning responding to my posting yesterday featuring Tom Ehrich's observation that we in the American public square need to have done with the bigotry and bullying done in God's name and giving a very bad name to Christians, ClevelandGirl writes,  

Saturday, January 3, 2015

County Clerks in Florida Refuse to Permit Anyone to Marry if Gay Couples May Marry: Segregationist Roots of "Principled" Resistance to Marriage Equality



I remember it as if it happened yesterday. And as I read the announcements of several county clerks in Florida that, rather than marry same-sex couples, they'll shut down courthouse weddings for everyone, the memories come flooding back all over again:

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Definitions Belong to the Definer, Not the Defined: What We're Talking About as We Talk About Ferguson



Clever, but schoolteacher whipped him anyway, to show him that definitions belonged to the definers—not the defined (Tony Morrison, Beloved [NY: New American Library, 1987], p. 190).

Friday, July 4, 2014

On This Independence Day: The Supreme Court's Doctrine of Corporate Personhood and the Betrayal of Revolutionary Ideals of United States



On this day celebrating American independence, I think of two of my direct ancestors who gave their lives for the revolutionary cause — Robert Leonard, who came to America as a British soldier during the French and Indian War, where he helped secure the western Maryland frontier for the British, and who then remained in the colonies following his discharge from the British Army. He was killed as an American soldier at the battle of Camden in South Carolina on 16 August 1780.

Monday, June 16, 2014

New Book by Sister Teresa Forcades, És a les nostres mans: Democracy Possible Only When Predatory Capitalism Is Overcome



At Iglesia Descalza, Rebel Girl offers a translation of an article at the website of the Spanish daily ABC announcing the publication of Sister Teresa Forcades's new book, És a les nostres mans (It's in Our Hands). The book was published by DAU of Barcelona, and is, I believe, available at present only in Catalan and Spanish editions. 

Thursday, April 3, 2014

The Supremes' McCutcheon Decision: Surprise! White Men Who Own Things Count Most of All!



What was I saying just the other day about how money talks? Especially for the U.S. Supremes, a majority of whom are themselves (white) men who own things? 

Monday, October 21, 2013

Popular Science Shuts Down Comments Threads to Combat Internet Trolling



Alexander Reed Kelly's recent report at Truthdig about why Popular Science has shut down its comments threads catches my eye. We've discussed this issue here in the past (e.g., here, here, here, here, and here). 

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Today in History: Martin Luther King, Jr., Has a Dream



Today in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream Speech" in Washington, D.C. Videos of the speech are available online, but the family of Dr. King owns the copyright to the speech, and I have not embedded one of these videos in this posting for that reason. The American Rhetoric website has an audio version and the full text.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

"América": A Fourth-of-July Poem by Richard Blanco




For Independence Day, the Academy of American Poets has selected as its poem of the day, which is emailed to those on the poem-a-day mailing list of the organization, Richard Blanco's "América." Blanco is, readers will remember, the gay Cuban-American poet whom President Obama chose to declaim an inaugural poem at Obama's second inauguration (and here). Here's his poem "América":

American Independence Day: The Steep (and Ongoing) Price of Democracy




As the fourth of July approached, an idea occurred to me: it might be interesting to scout through your family tree and see how many direct ancestors you can spot who "gave Revolutionary service." The  phrase "gave Revolutionary service" is one lineage societies use, I understand (I don't belong to any of them, and am speaking from second-hand knowledge): they admit people whose ancestors were Revolutionary soldiers, but also those whose ancestors took the oath of loyalty to the new government during the war, or who provided provisions for Revolutionary troops.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

John Nichols on What Made Michelle Tick: $$$$$$

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John Nichols at the Nation on what has sustained Michelle Bachmann on the national political scene, despite her clownish statements about, inter alia, light bulbs and evolution (see Gail Collins at the New York Times): it's the $$$$$$. Nichols writes,

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Monday, May 27, 2013

A Personal Reflection on Neo-Confederate Clownery



A brief personal footnote about the neo-Confederate nonsense of the folks Frank Cocozzelli is studying (and I'm very glad Frank is keeping the spotlight on these folks): I was, of course, raised with much of that very same nonsense. With the exception of my one Irish great-grandmother, all of my great-grandparents were descendants of colonial Southern families that owned slaves at various points in their history, though some branches of these families also courageously pulled against slavery at some points in their history, due to religious reasons.

Frank Cocozzelli on Neo-Confederate Catholic Ideologues and the Fantasy of Nullification: Memorial Day Reflection




Early in May, I recommended an article by Frank Cocozzelli on the rising strand of neo-Confederate ideology in some sectors of the American Catholic right. Frank's article focuses on Catholic libertarian historian Thomas E. Woods.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Minnesota House Passes Marriage Equality Bill: Commentary from Various Sources




As expected, the Minnesota House did vote yesterday afternoon to advance the marriage equality legislation in that state. As David Badash notes at The New Civil Rights Movement today, the vote was 75 in favor to 59 against.