Why do the lambs remain silent? (tags)
James Madison (1751-1836), one of the founding fathers of the constitution, proclaimed that every form of government should be designed "to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority".
Only a progressive tax revolution can stop the climate collapse (tags)
There is an urgent need for a pluralistic opening of the economic sciences, so that the argumentative dispute about the ethically correct interpretation of market-competitive interaction relations and the status of market logic again becomes a normal part of economic discourse.
"We have delegated our moral judgment to the markets" (tags)
"Yes, we can" was a call to solidarity and common goals. The legend that everyone in America can rise as high as their talents can carry them goes back to Ronald Reagan. Access to education should not be a substitute for policies that directly address the roots of inequality and the dignity of work.
Against the neoliberal denunciation of the welfare state (tags)
No economist is so misunderstood and misinterpreted as Adam Smith. Many consider him to be an advocate of the "free market" and narrow-minded egoism. What a mistake! Smith saw an important and strong role for the state.
From Ayn Rand to Paul Ryan: Capitalism as Morality (tags)
Society doesn't play any role in Ayn Rand's perspective. Rand reduced persons to the bourgeois who only thinks in economic categories and only needs to respect himself and no one else - unlike the citizen engaged in society and actively championing enlightenment.
What is a Crisis? A Retrospect on the 2008 Economic and Financial Crisis (tags)
The economic guild interprets crisis through an ideological lens. The financial crisis is redefined as a state debt crisis. Illuminating the systemic causes of crisis or discussing the crisis proclivity of the capitalist system is not possible anymore.
Why has the US gone mad? (tags)
Donald Trump blames scapegoats. Why does the US permanently seek new conflicts, send terrorists to Syria, organize the Ukraine coup, escalate with North Korea and threaten to bomb wherever it siuts them? The real reason could be that the US is bankrupt.
Adam Smith as Philanthropist (tags)
The market can only fulfill its technical function when its rules and mechanisms are politically fixed and governmentally monitored...Adam Smith's theory has nothing to do with neoliberals and market radicals who preach the sleek state, low taxes for businesses and low wages.
Poisoning the Well, or How Economic Theory Damages Moral Imagination (tags)
Markets are human inventions. Today's neoliberal economic dogma creates myths that strengthen the most powerful, most greedy, and most short-term economic actors and undermines the normal longings of people.Structures must change
How Much State Does the Social Market Economy Need? (tags)
The use of property is only legitimate within the limits of the public interest. Whoever takes a risk must bear it and be liable for the losses. The state has the political task of laying down effective rules for risk assessment, liability and providing transparency. Distributive battles intensify.
Why are the Lambs Silent? (tags)
Techniques-fragmentation and propaganda- make serious violations of moral norms by the ruling elites morally and cognitively invisible to the population. With many examples, professor Mausfeld gives insight in the management of our democracy and how people are kept in apathy.
Israel Jails Soldier for Eating Pork (tags)
Israel
Anti-Israel Radicalism's Genocidal Nature at UC Davis (tags)
Again the anti-semitism at the heart of the BDS movement surfaces
IDF Soldiers Denounce Israeli High Crimes Against Peace (tags)
Israel
Video: Moral Mondays Are Back in Business (tags)
The first Moral Monday since court struck down the North Carolina General Assembly's new rules — interpreted by many as measures designed to silence the Moral Monday Forward Together movement — singing, praying, chanting, and civil disobedience arrests looked a lot like what we saw from Moral Monday in 2013.
Sweet sound of global philanthropy (tags)
Bernard Hours is an anthropologist and honorary director of research at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD). His latest book is Développement, Gouvernance, Globalisation: du XXème au XXIème Siècle”, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2012
Straight Talk on Israel (tags)
Israel
class war
Solidarity, social justice and sharing open doors while deregulation and trickle-down mythologty lead to exploding inequality and generalized insecurity. Karl Marx asked why capitalism cannot solve poverty, unemployment and exploitation.
Greece must deny to pay an odious debt (tags)
In times of harsh neoliberal austerity and limited national sovereingty, the denial to pay an odious and illegitimate debt is a moral, political and social need. (by Nicolas Mottas/American Chronicle)
It’s Secularists That Are Poisoning Discourse, USD Professor Says (tags)
According to University of San Diego professor Steven D. Smith, the coarsening of our public discourse shouldn't be blamed on religious people arguing issues on the basis of moral values. Instead, it's secular people who consider themselves "rational" and "scientific" who have intimidated religious people from expressing their views openly and forced them to "smuggle" in their perspectives in ostensibly secular terms.
Prostitution Ads on Craigslist and Moral Majority Matters (tags)
Why does society call it “adult” if adults don’t have the right to freedom and liberty in the first place? Why does any government think it has a right to “dictate” morality to the American people and treat them like they are eternal adolescents? This zealous effort on the part of government employees and law enforcement is a thinly disguised attempt to dictate more oppressive “Judeo-Christian” morality in our country that is supposed to have a separation of church and state Unfortunately plenty of people still live with the “scourge” mentality that sexual pleasure and the reality of lust is somehow sinful and evil.
Truth in the Service of Empire: Response to Yvonne Ridley's 'Truth about US justice' (tags)
In my view, the prima facie “Truth about US justice” is that “truth” is in the service of empire! The madam Ambassador of the United States to Pakistan has only executed the core purpose of her post rather faithfully in the service of her empire. “Truth” in these times, like everything else, including science, politics, history, literature, cinema, and of course political-science, is continually put in the diabolical service of empire.
Diario Siglo XXI. Fernando Lugo, el deterioro moral y la industria del sexo (tags)
Diario Siglo XXI. Fernando Lugo, el deterioro moral y la industria del sexo
Religion vs. the Sprinkler Police (tags)
When it comes to my yard, a middle ground is unachievable if it means a dead ground. My religion and moral value system require healthy greenery; which in turn, benefit the animals and insects who depend on my yard for sustenance.
Spreading the Wealth: A Review of Unjust Deserts (tags)
The foremost ethical question is, given that we owe most of our productivity to a common social inheritance, to what extent can we say that we have "earned" our personal wealth? There is a growing consensus in favor of a new robust public compact to regulate our shared conditions.
A Posthumous Concern, Another kind of Racism (tags)
VETERANS OF THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES in the Far East (Usaffe) here at home and in America thought that, at long last, the US Congress was poised to pass legislation addressing their generations-old claim for benefits. But as the American economy unraveled, politicians began sniping at the bills (pending before the US Congress) aimed at increasing the benefits of Filipino veterans. Filipino-American veterans groups and lobbyists began to fear that the promise to bring the bill to a vote in the US House of Representatives would fall by the wayside. No one, of course, predicted that the US Congress would be plunged into a crisis atmosphere by US President George W. Bush’s proposed bailout, which the US Senate and House Democrats have agreed to, but whose approval has been delayed and, possibly, foiled by a group of House Republicans anxious they will be defeated in November if they vote for a bailout.
Moral victoriana en el gabinete presidencial (tags)
Se cuenta que Hoover sobrevivió a la gestión de siete presidentes, que no pudieron destituirlo por el costo político que les implicaba, y sobre todo por los chantajes que realizaba en base a detalles de la vida sexual de los mismos.
Without Ethics the Economy Runs into the Wall (tags)
Only 27% of Germans think the population benefits when business does well. Only 40% believe the economy and the population sit in the same boat. With tendencies to screen itself socially and give priority to its own goals, the economy loses the important capital of trust.
System criticism is often repressed. Private vice does not bring public virtue. Everyone pursuing self-interest does not usher in public welfare. Inequality, growth, competition and market fundamentalism are not panaceas or inevitabilities but false securities.
Conscientious Objector Status—Who Should Decide? (tags)
It is a fallacious and legalistic straw man ploy for any society or organization (such as the Department of Defense) to arrogate, as definition, that an individual must oppose “all” war on religious or ethical grounds to be considered a “conscientious objector”. Simply to be “conscientious” means to act from one’s “own” conscience—not from the collective hearsay of any particular group or on legalistic grounds of some corporate presumption. The individual conscience is the moral compass of conscientious authority.
We in the Sisters' Association in Mindanao, an aggrupation of some 360 nuns coming from more than 40 congregations in Mindanao, renew our call for Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down. We have been unequivocal in the past. We continue to be unwavering in spite of the perceptible absence of a uniting spirit within the Church. But we are inspired by the Church as people of God where the Spirit permeates to bring about righteousness and morality in governance and in our communal life.
CNN's Lou Dobbs Promotes Killing People to Save Consumer Goods! (tags)
Seeing that consumer goods including money,gold and jewellery can be replaced and that human life cannot where is the ethical or moral precept of this Texas law that condones the murdering of fleeing burglars?
Forrest Church Speaks on God and America in San Diego (tags)
Forrest Church, Unitarian-Universalist minister and son of the late Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), spoke October 4 at the Unitarian-Universalist Church in San Diego on the history of the relationship between church and state in the U.S. His message, surprising in front of a progressive audience, was that religion shouldn't dominate politics but it shouldn't be read out of the public sphere altogether either. Many progressive causes, including the abolition of slavery and the 1960's civil rights movement, were headed by religious leaders.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? The Controversial Peter Singer (tags)
I had the opportunity to eat, drink and make moral calculations with the Father of the Animal Rights Movement, philosopher Peter Singer.
A recent article brought home the shocking truth of today’s new world order by contrasting the social outrage expressed against Richard Nixon for his minor offence of a break and enter (Watergate) with today's social complacency in the face of half-a-million civilian dead in Iraq. The office of president of the USA has become an experimental position where corporate placed buffoons are allowed to reign ruin on the world. The “bouquet of flowers, mission accomplished, WMD, give war a chance”, administration has got it wrong from the start yet ‘bouquet’ Wolfowitz has been promoted to the president of the World Bank, where he continues to bungle and lose to other interests (China). The incompetent clown, Bush, remains president and the criminals who benefit remain behind the scenes profiting on the misery of others!
Doing the Wrong Thing in Afghanistan: Depleted Uranium: The Definitive Moral Paradox (tags)
By Michael Clarke
The Second American Revolution : Religion and Capitalism (tags)
A brief examination of the 'family values' of a happily married couple.
Ralph Nader: “Americans Need Moral Courage!” (tags)
Ralph Nader spoke at a campaign rally, in Baltimore, MD, on behalf of Kevin Zeese, who’s running as an Independent for a U.S. Senate seat. Nader called his former press secretary, “a great candidate.” An activist’s activist, Nader said a vast majority of Americans need a dose of “moral courage.” They have allowed “a few,” to rule over the many. “Democracy,” Nader said, “isn’t a slogan. People need to get motivated, show up and get organized.”
My letter to the Mayor about the farm (tags)
The city of Los Angeles has a solemn legal and moral responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its residents. That responsibility demands the city's immediate intervention on behalf of the South Central Farm.
“Any Palestinian that is not focused first and foremost on defending the land and people against Israel's escalating aggression and colonialism, and prefers instead to fight for scraps from the master's table, is truly working against Palestinian interests, and against any possibility of a peaceful settlement.” - Hasan Abu Nimah, former representative of Jordan at the United Nations.
The cable networks have decided to torture Americans by broadcasting the spotlight whore, Gloria Allred, ad nauseum, dousing viewers with her overly-priced two-cents worth.
From Abortion Rights to Reproductive Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freed (tags)
A press release regarding an upcoming abortion rights and social justice conference.
Higher Authority: On Powerlessness and Fate (tags)
The egalitarian brutality of this natural disaster that wiped out fishing villages and exclusive beach resorts at the same time emphasized the inequality and injustice of world society with all its moral paradoxes.
Consevative's Almighty Values Debunked (tags)
Aren't you sick of hearing about the Conservative's Almighty Values?
The pain of war is so great that many Americans want to comfort those involved by supporting a form of collective denial about the choice that soldiers make when they kill in an illegal and immoral war, such as the current occupation of Iraq.
MORAL MAJORITY BACK IN BUSINESS (tags)
Received this email, subject GODS WRATH, no text, just attachment named 3999....below is the list of addressees...the first is who it was from....judge for yourself...
America had better change her ways (tags)
"Maybe it's time for our country to look at our own moral stature before we go out to change others."
the shifting political landscape (tags)
There is an opportunity for the US government here to save face in this moment of crisis, and lead by addressing realities on a more balanced basis
Example of Moral Choices (tags)
Many people want to act morally, and then feel that in the workplace they cannot. A letter I sent seems to work well. With alteration to the specific topics, supervisors with even a little sense of morality will usually respect this type of letter.
Who Owns the Sky? Reviving the Commons (tags)
"Not since the Golden Age of the 1890s has so much public wealth been shoveled into private hands with such brazen efficiency. Timber companies, corporate ranchers and foreign mining companies.. are plundering our national patrimony.."
Why didn't he just outbid Saddam so we could invade with UN approval. You know ol' Bubba would have just taken Chirac out for a night of whoring and it all would have been cool!
The old Republican conservatism, like that of Barry Goldwater, was essentially libertarian. But a new pack Republicans, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, are exuberant about issues the old gaurd deplored, like abortion and gay rights.
The New Morality(TM) of Capitalism (tags)
During the Great Depression, Pres. Roosevelt used social programs (ex. The Hoover Dam) to employ miilions of Americans because continued despair would've led to the same Fascism that devoured post-WWI Germany. Today's right-wing pundits call such policies "immoral" and FDR a "Communist".
Soldiering is for others (tags)
And who is to do it? Certainly not the neoconservatives. They use such terms as moral clarity and the need to project our power — but it is to be done with someone else’s body. A conversation I had with a budding neocon reveals their version of moral clarity. Who was included when he said ‘we’. He looked at me as if I were a bit dense and said, ‘We, the United States.’ ‘Does that mean you?’ I asked. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘the guys in the army.'
With a $38 billion state deficit, California is labeled the nation's basket case. The election to recall the governor will be held this fall. It will determine if Bush and his gang will gain control of the state.
"America's favorite conspiracy theory: the moral argument" (tags)
It's later in the article when Kinsley gets into the conspiracies: "Why did Bush want this war? His ostensible reasons were unconvincing. Whatever we may find now in the rubble of Baghdad, he never offered any good evidence of a close link between Iraq and al-Qaeda or of weapons of mass destruction that could threaten the U.S.
another Letter to the Editor, commenting on a stray student
conscientious objector deserves our support
What to do with photos of dead Iraqis on cover of USA Today/NYT? (tags)
After seeing the past few NYT and USA Today cover photos, it doesn't seem that images of death are going to be the force that turns Americans off of this war.
guerra a la guerra de los amos (tags)
Lo que sigue es un volante contra la guerra capitalista difundido en Asturies (spain); sentimos muy mucho no tener ni papa de inglés, de modo que si alguien está de acuerdo en el contenido y tiene posibilidad de traducirlo, que lo haga. Mientras tanto, lo dejamos a disposición de los hispanohablantes de allá. No war but class war!
The Lone Ranger Rides Again (tags)
Let it be said before we know the outcome of the war in Iraq that America and the world are inordinately lucky to have George W. Bush as America's president.
Bush turns the corner in response to demands from the left.
War
Answering Moral Blackmail (tags)
Are millions of Canadian, American and In the midst of worldwide protest against an impending war with Iraq, the Bush Administration and its allies have trotted out their trump card...
A peace and love message from townhall.com
UN will sink into irrelevance -- Good! (tags)
The United Nations is on the verge of demonstrating finally and fatally its moral bankruptcy and its strategic irrelevance: moral bankruptcy, because it will have made a mockery of the very resolution on whose sanctity it insists; strategic irrelevance, because the United States is going to disarm Iraq anyway.
Conscientious Objection (tags)
Information on Conscientious Objection. As the war rhetoric increases, and newspaper editorials appear calling for reinstating the draft, its time to review how to stand in Conscientious Objection.
Pt. 2, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (tags)
Offered in the revolutionary spirit of Sor Juana Ine`s de la Cruz,Emma Goldman,Mother Jones, Mother Teresa,Lucy Gonzalez, Harriet Tubman, & Dorothy Day .
Majority rule is moral cannibalism. (tags)
From the book "Restoring the American Dream" by Robert J. Ringer.
Is cowardice a solution for reactionary attacks against IMC? (tags)
This is the letter of "support" for IMC Switzerland written by Urbana-Champaign IMC.
Moral Capitalism?
banner: "oops! there goes the moral high ground" (tags)
this banner was also hung above the 101, at the mulholland drive. it reads "oops! there goes the moral high ground" sorry for poor photo quality