Bold and Daring: The Way Progressive News Should Be
|
Looking At the Declaration of Independence With Today's Eyes
A commenter suggested that America was founded on the basis of individualism. I didn't recall that. So I decided to take a closer look at the Declaration of Independence to see just what it actually said-- and what it says about us today. I've bolded some parts that I think are particularly relevant today, with notes in italics. Please add your thoughts on how those great words from 1776 still apply today.
The news about supplements is horrifying and outrageous. People should go to jail for this.
rob kall
Support Opednews. Make a tax deductible donation to make OEN Strong.  Daily Headlines
Congratulations to the Greek people for democratically puncturing the smugness of the "moneymen". For far too long politicians have been paralysed by the dogma imposed by the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission, that the only way out of the economic mess we are in is austerity that hurts those most vulnerable, while the elite continue to accumulate wealth at an accelerating rate. The lack of imagination to think outside.
"The NY state attorney general's office accused four national retailers on Monday of selling dietary supplements that were fraudulent and in many cases contaminated with unlisted ingredients.
Another neoliberal project on the race-based economic disparities between whites and Blacks in Madison, WI.
A commenter suggested that America was founded on the basis of individualism. I didn't recall that. So I decided to take a closer look at the Declaration of Independence to see just what it said-- and what it says about us today. I've bolded some parts that I think are particularly relevant today, with notes in italics. Please add your thoughts on how those great words from 1776 still apply today.
By David Swanson
It's the Blind Partisanship Why did the peace movement grow large around 2003-2006 and shrink around 2008-2010? Military spending, troop levels abroad, and number of wars engaged in can explain the growth but not the shrinkage. Those factors hardly changed between the high point and the low point of peace activism.
Ukraine's Maidan- What have we done? A poignant letter written in its aftermath that will place you there and help you understand the fear Maidan unleashed last spring in Donbass.
"Carrying" has become so accepted, people treat their guns like cell phones. Look what happens.
This column is, not a movie review, but rather a consideration of the many political, social, and economic tragedies that, due the persistence of the Doctrine of White Supremacy handed down from the true victors of the First Civil War, the Confederate States of America, persist in our nation to this very day.
President Obama has submitted a budget proposal that (finally) signals a break from cuts and austerity. It largely pushes in the right direction. Republicans will oppose it -- even the parts they agree with. This budget pushes the country back toward sanity. This budget takes many steps in the right direction. But the Republican Congress will block it.
The United States has just made an exceptionally dangerous, even reckless decision over Ukraine. Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader who ended the Cold War, warns it may lead to a nuclear confrontation with Russia. Rule number one of geopolitics: nuclear-armed powers must never, ever fight.
This article informs the reader that it was the Egyptian priesthood that developed the belief in one-universal God. A God named Amen that has surfaced in the major religions of today. Jews, Christians and some Muslims announce His name at the end of a prayer or giving thanks for a requested outcome.
Saving Children from committing Bullicide in reaction to Bullies, by supporting Documentary "Bullies and Friends."
CURMUDGUCATION: Boston Consulting Group: Another Dark Horseman
Peter Greene has done an amazing investigative review of the Boston Consulting Group. What is BCG? Why do reformers in so many cities hire this management consulting firm? What is its connection to the Gates Foundation and Arne Duncan? HE WRITES:
Global warming slowdown: No systematic errors in climate models, comprehensive statistical analysis reveals -- ScienceDa
Skeptics who still doubt anthropogenic climate change have now been stripped of one of their last-ditch arguments: It is true that there has been a warming hiatus and that the surface of Earth has warmed up much less rapidly since the turn of the millennium than all the relevant climate models had predicted. However, the gap between the calculated and measured warming is not due to systematic errors of the models, as the skeptics had suspected, but because there are always random fluctuations in Earth's climate, according to a comprehensive statistical analysis.
Picking up on the smell of evolution: Researchers discover changes that let a species drastically change its lifestyle -
Some of the changes in genes, physiology and behavior that enable a species to drastically change its lifestyle in the course of evolution have been discovered by researchers.
By Tom Engelhardt
Engelhardt: I.F. Stone and the Urge to Serve They say you can't go home again, but recently, almost 44 years after I saw my last issue of the Weekly -- Stone was 64 when he closed up shop; I was 27 -- I found the full archive of them, all 19 years, online, and began reading him all over again. It brought back a dizzying time in which we felt "liberated" from so much that we had been brought up to believe...
It's Groundhog Day 2015! That means we get to enjoy not only six more weeks of winter -- but six more years of these new flying monkey senators -- Tom Cotton, Cory Gardner, Shelly Moore Capito, Thom Tillis, Mike Rounds, Steve Daines, David Perdue, and the Grande Dame of them all -- Joni Ernst!
Each car has to be clean, smoke-free, no major accidents reported to Carfax, no flood damage, no major body work, and something that I know when I sell it to a customer, it will be a great car.It's because I take so much care in vehicle selection that I give a free one year bumper-to-bumper warranty on these auction vehicles. It's my way of saying "thank you!" for trusting in me and the service that we provide here.
Boehner knows that pro-Israeli lobbies are key political donors, so his aim is to increase their contributions to Republicans and decrease them to Democrats. If this requires selling out an American president, Boehner is ready to do so. If it means embroiling the American people in yet another Middle East war, he appears ready to do that as well.
Jeb Bush's bond with Barack Obama on education poses 2016 challenge for him
"This scintillating article by Alex Leary in the Tampa Bay Times" SAYS DIANE RAVITCH, explores the curious but close alliance between Jeb Bush and the Obama administration. Jeb, Arne, and Barack are on the same page. They all believe in testing, high-stakes, charter schools, closing schools, and the Common Core.
Chicago: City for Sale; by Diane Ravitch
Rick Perlstein reports that Chicago is the national leader in privatization of public property and services. Mayor Emanuel has become the master of privatization, building on his predecessor's legacy. The link to is an eye-popping article: "Emanuel made a new appointment to the city's seven-member school board The appointee, Deborah H. Quazzo, is a founder of an investment firm called GSV Advisors, a business whose goal- to drum up venture capital for "an education revolution in which public schools outsource to private vendors such critical tasks as teaching math, educating disabled students, even writing report cards...Quazzo has invested her own money in companies that sell curricular materials to public schools in 11 states on a subscription basis..Thus a key decision-maker for Chicago's public schools makes money when school boards decide to sell off the functions of public schools
In North Korea, crippling sanctions against the government make it difficult for ordinary people to access the basics needed for survival. The unresolved Korean conflict gives all governments in the region justification to further militarize and prepare for war, depriving funds for schools, hospitals, and the welfare of the people and the environment.
During the Tuesday broadcast of Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough claimed "climate alarmists" are denying science by opposing the extension of the Keystone oil pipeline. Joe started by complaining about the "lefties" in the Democratic Party who take it "to the extreme" when they should be worried about working-class voters.
Could Texas education get any worse? It could. Sad.
China spending to build 40,000 miles of global high speed rail compared to Obamacare or US War costs
China spending to build 40,000 miles of global high speed rail compared to Obamacare or US War costs.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said on Sunday morning he does not regret calling Code Pink protesters "low-life scum" after they interrupted a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing by yelling at former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. While he is used to people exercising their free speech rights at these hearings, McCain said, this one was different because he felt like Kissinger was in danger of physical harm. McCain went on to call the Code Pink protesters "terrible people." For their part, Code Pink responded to McCain's original comments, saying McCain should be focused on helping the next generation clean up "the bloody legacy left behind by Kissinger for years to come."
Sen. John McCain called President Barack Obama's relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "the worst that I've ever seen in my lifetime." McCain, who ran against Obama in 2008, said Obama was not entirely to blame, although he said the president also expected too much from Netanyahu. "The president had very unrealistic expectations about the degree of cooperation that he would get from Israel, particularly on the Palestinian issue, as well as the nuclear issue with Iran," he said.
By John Nichols
Not So "Fresh": Political Careerist Scott Walker Has Been Running for a Quarter-Century 
Scott Walker is a political careerist who has sought office -- as a winner and loser -- more times that Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz combined. Walker has a lot more experience contending for public office than most of the other Republicans who are preparing to run in 2016.
By David Swanson
Born at War Foreword to America's Oldest Professions: Warring and Spying (available in Kindle version free this week.)
The most disturbing element of "official" Washington is its insidious nature, never presenting an honest accounting of anything of significant consequence to the people. The "truth" or @ least a close proximity is always hidden. What's reported by the gov't & its complicit corporate MSM is deception, distortion of the facts on the ground, misinformation or outright lies. It's all completely inscrutable & cannot be trusted.
Latest Articles
This article is vehicle for an URGENT MoveOn petition, found at the end. For busy activists seeking just an "executive summary" of why you should sign, read the first boldface section. But if you're seeking the best analysis I've seen of Liz Warren's standing among Democrats, please read the rest. It strongly argues why, without potent popular pressure, historians will vilify Warren as Clinton's useful idiot.
Standardized tests are supposed to assess the aptitude of every student in the US. But by all objective measurements, these tests themselves have failed. Does there exist a battery of tests that can do a proper assessment while not costing the taxpayer millions of dollars each year? We believe that the answer is yes, which is to say, we have discovered a solution to high-stakes testing that is both realistic and affordable!
 Best News Links from the Web
France's National Front on Sunday won the first round of legislative by-elections in the eastern Doubs department, in a special poll to replace Socialist MP Pierre Moscovici. The National Front (FN) candidate Sophie Montel won 32.6% of the vote, and will face Socialist Party candidate Frederic Barbier, who took 28.85% of ballots, in a February 8 runoff. Montel, 45, who won a seat at the European Parliament in elections last year, said she was "very satisfied" with the results, saying it confirmed the FN was becoming an established party in the region. A second victory in Doubs next Sunday would give the FN three seats in France's National Assembly. "This is a slap in the face for the UMP," the FN said in a statement referring to former president Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party, who came in third in the ballot. "It is also a failure for the Socialist Party..."
Australian Air Passengers Halt Deportation of Asylum Seeker
First, a general look at Australian system hosting asylum-seekers. Then, an example of how human solidarity with a person in disgrace can halt the action of a "conservative government" dismissing even valid reasons of a person looking for a shelter. An example of generosity from "common" people that should be generalized.
Chicago: Karen Lewis Spoke to City Club Today; by Diane Ravitch
Before a sold-out audience of City Club of Chicago, today Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis unveiled a new plan to level the playing field for thousands of students and their families as the city inches closer to the municipal election. "A Just Chicago: Fighting for the City Our Students Deserve," serves as a challenge to the status quo--Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, and others--to do what is morally just and protect the interest of working families, while fostering policies that eradicate poverty, inequality and racial injustice in our city and state. In the coming days we will present our contract demands and what type of investment the Board will make to ensure every child has a world-class education. If you want well-resourced schools, educators with tenure and job security it is going to cost money. We shouldn't shy away from this...
Strauss-Kahn, Former I.M.F. Chief, Goes on Trial in Sex Case - By DAN BILEFSKY NYTimes
" Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, went on trial Monday on accusations that he participated in a prostitution ring that extended from the north of France to Brussels, Washington and New York. In addition to shining a spotlight on a clandestine world of Champagne-fueled sex parties that prosecutors say were attended by lawyers, judges, police officials, journalists and musicians, the case is also spurring debate about sexual morality in France and the extent to which the private lives of public figures should remain private.Prosecutors say exclusive orgies were organized in major world cities by businessmen who were seeking favor with Mr. Strauss-Kahn, and that their money was used to finance prostitutes, including for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who sometimes sought out sex with several partners in one evening..."
Chris Christie Shows Fondness for Luxury Benefits When Others Pay the Bill - By KATE ZERNIKE and MICHAEL BARBARO NYTimes
"The governor, a Republican now preparing a run for president, shot to national prominence as a cheese-steak-on-the-boardwalk Everyman who bluntly preached transparency and austerity as the antidote to bloated state budgets. But throughout his career in public service, Mr. Christie has indulged a taste that runs more toward Champagne at the Four Seasons. He has also quietly let others pay the bills.That tendency -- the governor himself says he wants to "squeeze all the juice out of the orange" -- has put him in ethically questionable situations, taking benefits from those who stand to benefit from him...While previous New Jersey governors have flown commercial for trade missions, Mr. Christie flew privately for three. (His spokeswoman said he flew commercial to London.) He has taken family on all. He stays in five-star properties...read the details & ask SHOULD SUCH A MAN BE PRESIDENT?
Angelina Jolie on the Syrians and Iraqis Who Can't Go Home - By ANGELINA JOLIE;NYTimes.
DON'T MISS THIS! In 4 years years of war, nearly half of Syria's population of 23 million people has been uprooted. Within Iraq itself, more than two million people have fled conflict and the terror unleashed by extremist groups. These refugees and displaced people have witnessed unspeakable brutality. Their children are out of school, they are struggling to survive, and they are surrounded on all sides by violence...Nothing prepares you for the reality of so much individual human misery: for the stories of suffering and death, and the gaze of hungry, traumatized children. The spread of extremism, the surge in foreign fighters, the threat of new terrorism -- only an end to the war in Syria will begin to turn the tide on these problems. Without that, we are just tinkering at the edges.Syria's neighbors have taken in nearly four million Syrian refugees, but they are reaching their limits.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) has brought on two more veteran GOP strategists for his national political operation. The addition of consultants Danny Diaz and Jon Downs is the latest move in Bush's effort to stockpile talent as he moves closer to launching a 2016 presidential campaign. The enlistment of Diaz and Downs, first reported by CNN, gives Bush's PAC two more well-known GOP operatives to guide his expected bid as it ramps up its messaging and advertising efforts.
Roald Dahl's Heartbreaking Take on Vaccines
Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn't do anything.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation will not face any charges in the US in relation to phone hacking and payments to public officials by News of the World journalists in the UK. "News Corporation was notified by the United States Department of Justice that it has completed its investigation of voicemail interception and payments to public officials in London and is declining to prosecute the Company or Twenty-First Century Fox," the company said in a regulatory filing.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, will go on trial in Lille on Monday accused of pimping, in a case that threatens to expose the double life of the politician once tipped to be the next president of France. The court is expected to hear how, while in Washington holding the most senior economic job in the world, Strauss-Kahn had group sex with prostitutes brought to him in Europe and the US, organised by French businessmen friends who wanted to curry favour with the man they thought would one day lead the country.
How to Be a Stoic - By MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI NYTimes.
"Thousands of people, for instance, participated in the third annual Stoic Week, a worldwide philosophy event cum social science experiment organized by a team at the University of Exeter, in England. The goal of Stoic Week is twofold: on the one hand, to get people to learn about Stoicism and how it can be relevant to their lives; on the other hand, to collect systematic data to see whether practicing Stoicism actually does make a difference to people's lives. A Stoic principle enunciated by Epictetus: "What, then, is to be done? To make the best of what is in our power, and take the rest as it naturally happens." ("Discourses"). I have for many years been attracted to virtue ethics -- a core of Stoic philosophy -- as a way to think about morality and a life worth living. I have also recently passed the half century mark, one of those arbitrary points in human life ...
The Obama administration is not playing along with Republican demands to reform the Social Security Disability Insurance program. Rep. Sam Johnson, the Texas Republican spearheading Republicans' disability push in the House, labeled the Obama budget a can-kicker. "With nearly 11 million people counting on the Social Security disability program, kicking the can down the road five years as the President proposes just doesn't make sense," Johnson said in a statement emailed to HuffPost. "All Americans deserve to hear answers from our President on how he will save the disability program that will go broke before he leaves office."
Our seas are in trouble: Extinction risk for 20-25% of well-known marine species -- ScienceDaily
Overfishing, pollution, climate change and destruction of habitats like coral reefs are all putting our seas in trouble but academics fear the risk is not being taken as seriously as concerns for the loss of animals and plants which live on land, experts say. Using the most comprehensive conservation data available for both marine and non-marine organisms, new research has shown that 20 to 25 per cent of the well-known species living in our seas are now threatened with extinction -- the same figure as land living plants and animals.
"We have no idea how long a technological civilization like ours own can last. Are we the first and only technologically-intensive civilization in the entire history of the universe? This 'astrobiological perspective' casts sustainability as a place-specific subset of habitability. While sustainability is concerned with a particular form of life on a particular planet, astrobiology asks the bigger question: what about any form of life, on any planet, at any time? If they use energy to produce work, they're generating entropy. Maybe everybody runs into this bottleneck. This could be a universal feature of life and planets. If that's true, the question becomes whether we can learn learn anything by modeling the range of evolutionary pathways. Some paths will lead to collapse and others will lead to sustainability. Can we gain some insight into which decisions lead to which kind of path?"
|
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기