In this column, all that you see below are representations of my views on the world and the world I dream to be. From things I have written to the work of others.
I really don't want to be a party to the premature politicization of the Boston marathon bombing because we don't yet know who did it or why, so any political talk at this point is really stupid, but this is too much: yesterday in a televised spee...
Gay marriage is most certainly a civil rights issue, and it's sad that it was not resolved ages ago, but we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking the race issue is behind us.
The brave and fearless Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has done it again. They have foiled yet another terror plot, and conveniently just before an election.
Dallas/Forth Worth Texas Project for a Participatory Society is a network/group for anyone in the D/FW metroplex advocating parsoc. Use this network/group to find, befriend, strategize, organize and get active with others in the area.
in promoting goods and services intended to fulfill sexual needs and desires, the market depersonalizes and dehumanizes some of the most intimate aspects of our lives
A radical queer response to the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Originally published on the Organization for a Free Society (OFS) website on 12/28/2010.
Link: http://www.afreesociety.org/on-dont-ask-dont-tell-and-supporting-our-troops/
In 1967 Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church called “Beyond Vietnam,” where he declared that his conscience would not allow him to remain silent on the question of Vietnam, on the horrors of war, on the threat of violen...
Is fair trade a radical movement aiming to transform global systems of production and exchange, or is it a marketing niche that delivers small benefits to Southern farmers and a clean conscience to Northern consumers? Schisms currently opening bet...
A review of Dada Maheshvaranda's book "After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action" which analyzes the failures of capitalism and communism from the perspective of the Progressive Utilization Theory (Prout).
The biggest issues in the US farm bill, both domestically and globally, are those of the Commodity Title. Historically these are multitrillion dollar market management issues, hugely affecting sustainability, (crop rotations,) farm income, food p...
Revenue Insurance was included in the 2008 Farm Bill in a major way, in the ACRE Program and also in SURE. Now, as the 2012 Farm Bill is being debated and introduced into Congress, Revenue Insurance represents the main direction of further change...
On December 21, at a solstice celebration in Lake Titicaca, high in the Andes, Bolivian president Evo Morales introduced the “Manifesto of Isla del Sol”
Along the borders with Bolivia, the U.S. Southern Command has established military bases in Iquitos (Peru), Concon (Chile), and Mariscal Estigarribia (Paraguay)
Bolivia's government entered 2013 on an optimistic note. Socialist-oriented projects aimed at shoring up national independence and protecting indigenous rights seemingly were on track
The Venezuelan oligarchy and imperialism have renewed their campaign of destabilisation against the Bolivarian Revolution. They risk unleashing the wrath of the workers and the poor
So great is the impact of this new political culture that the rightwing in Venezuela and in other countries has tried to take control, albeit unsuccessfully, of Chavismo’s codes and values
I am an atheist. I do not believe in the existence of god's or supernatural things such as the soul, Heaven, Hell and so on. While I am as my wife calls us, "unbelifable," I do have a place in my ideal society for believers so long as they have a place for me.
Chomsky speaks about the strategic isolation of Gaza from the rest of the Palestinian territories, the continued US/Israeli crimes, the corrupt Israeli prison system, the Israeli decision to choose expansion over security and many other US backed ...
He's one of the most influential intellectuals of our age -- cited in more academic works than almost any other living scholar -- and yet many progressives are not familiar with his libertarian socialist ideas. Noam Chomsky talks about anarchism, ...
On November 29, the Canadian-Palestinian Educational Exchange (CEPAL) in commemoration of the eleventh annual United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People Ms. Olfat Mahmoud, and featured keynote speaker, Dr. Norman F...
A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
William McDonough: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos: Our Word is our Weapon
Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff
Murray Bookchin on Anarchism and Marxism
Walden Bellow on Steps to a Post-Capitalist System
Paul Nicholson on Climate Change and Food Sovereignty
My Tastes
In this column, all that you see below are representations of my tastes. You will find what kind of music, art, interests and other things that give you further insight into my personality.
Art by Domi
Sell the Vatican, Feed the World
The Meaning of Life
Bonsai & Taiko
I used to do bonsai but Texas weather makes it too difficult. This beauty - Charley named her "Michaela" - passed away, RIP.
I made this taiko. I stained it. I hand-crafted the heads and swen them on. I tied the heads down in a nice tuning using hemp rope. A head is busted and I need to fix it. Even got some fat bachi to beat it with - which might explain the busted head!
Artophilia
Grounds Keeper Willie Van Gogh by David Barton.
Raging Bull by Lewis Tardy. This won the 2008 FW Main St Arts Festival Award for Best of Show.
Ralph Steadman is one of my favorite artists. That my wife's favorite writer is Hunter S Thompson only confirms we're perfect for each other. One of these days I will buy her one of his lithographs.
This is by George Condo, he did the art for Phish's album, The Story of the Ghost
Laughter Heals
John Cleese eulogizes Graham Chapman
Atheist melon...
Bill Hicks on Politics
Musicophilia
Loudon Wainwright - Daughter (my song for Lucy)
I am a huge T00L fan, in fact I am part of Tool Army. I have seen them live more than any other group. Their skills are breathtaking.
The songs: Don't Eat The Yellow Snow, Nanook Rubs It, St. Alphonzos Pancake Breakfeast, Father O'Blivion
I have had the privilege of seeing them live. Amy and I were front row. Absolutely amazing!
I got to see their last tour. Fucking awesome! This is Amy's song.
'We Are All Connected' (ft. Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye the Science Guy
I miss the shit out of Layne Staley.
Buddy Rich laying it down tight.
Slipknot's Joey Jordison showing how sick he is on the drums. Fast, clean and tight!
To Hold The Sun
You can find all kinds of images of people eating, holding or pinching the Sun. Some have taken pictures at angles where cranes and cacti are holding the Sun.
A Piece of Paper
I cannot think of the school but some art students were given the assigment of cutting out art pieces using one piece of paper. No ink or pencil. Amazingly gifted artists. It is art, music, language and the overall expression of our existence that is our most treasured gift.
This film by Jonathan Shockley is largely based on Thomas Ferguson's book Golden Rule. Many people appear in it, but it is based primarily on a 5 hour interview I conducted with Ferguson (with the help of 2 fellow youtubers), and on numerous appea...
This is an excerpt from the new documentary Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Politics by Jonathan Shockley. It is available to view online: http://goldenruledocumentary.blogspot.com/
Music, art, comedy, science, writing, radicalism, making the world a better place, being a good h... more
Music, art, comedy, science, writing, radicalism, making the world a better place, being a good husband, a good father, a good son, a good brother and overall good person. less
Awaiting authorization
The McGehee Library
The McGehee Library (In alphabetical order, for the most part):
We love to read, and decided to create this online bibliography so that people could use it as a resource to expand their own libraries. Our books are some of our most cherished possessions, and our (constantly expanding) collection is something we hope to pass down to daughters so that they too can develop (and cultivate) an intense love of reading.
Ironically, these aren't even all the books we have read - just the ones we own (all 625 and counting).
This past Saturday (10/24/09) Amy, Charley and I went to see the public performance of Michael Jackson's Thriller. It was put on by Thrill The World and over 4,000 zombies from around the world simultaneously dance the infamous dance. It was a lot of fun.
personal note: This passage, from the prologue to his autobiography, has been for years one of the most profound things I have ever read and identified with. It is a testament to the best of humanity.
by Bertrand Russell
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have scrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that the saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and thought it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
