contributions

Zen and the Art of #occupywallstreet
Pirsig, in his book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," points out that, "No one wears a placard stating the the sun’s going to rise tomorrow morning." It is obvious.
The media has yet to comprehend the Occupy movement because there is no leadership (incompressible), there is no list of demands (unquantifiable), and no one’s wearing a placcard saying the sun’s going to rise tomorrow morning.
This great zen koan applies to the media and (…)

Mister President Obama . The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington DC 20500
Mr President,
The month of October was marked by the release of one of the Cuban Five, René González. The scenes of René coming out of the prison, hugging his daughters, his brother and his father were deeply moving. René’s joy was profound, but it was not complete. Neither his wife nor his mother was there to welcome him, through lack of visas. His mother had been able to see him at the end (…)

By Nicola Nasser**
Surrounded by the Turkish veteran member of NATO in the north, the Israeli NATO partner and the navy fleets of the member states patrolling the Mediterranean in the west, the alliance’s Jordanian partner in the south, and in the east hosting a NATO mission in Iraq, which is expected to develop into the 12th Arab partner, and lonely swimming in a sea of the Arab and Israel strategic allies of the United States, the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad stands as the (…)

The United Nations’ cultural agency granted the Palestinians full membership on Monday, a step forward in their long-running efforts to achieve recognition before the world as an independent state.
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) became the first U.N. agency to welcome the Palestinians as a full member since President Mahmoud Abbas applied for full membership of the United Nations on September 23.
A huge cheer erupted in UNESCO’s General (…)

I got an email from a friend who is actively participating in #occupy Tulsa. She wanted me to sign a petition to "authorities" that says, "Allow members of the Occupy Tulsa movement to peacefully assemble and protest without insurance, permits, and curfews."
Arresting peaceful protestors who are exercising their constitutional right for a redress of grievances is illegal. Funny thing: the constitution makes no mention of restrictions, such as which public space can be used nor does it (…)

In September 2011 the UN held the Durban III meeting on racism (World Conference on Racism) at UN Headquarters in New York.
“Durban I” was the original 2001 meeting and “Durban II” was a review conference in Geneva in 2009, both conferences being subject to boycotts and walkouts by pro-Israel US Alliance members.
179 countries attended the 2011 Durban III meeting in New York but 14 boycotted in support of race-based, genocidal Apartheid Israel, specifically (in order of withdrawal) (…)

Venezuela
"...Hector Navarro, a socialist deputy of Chavez’s party in the Venezuelan National Assembly declared that the ’assassination’ of Gaddafi was ’a situation which cannot be permitted in the world,’ and that the beamed images when against ’every logic on human relations.’
Chavez stated that Gaddafi would be remembered as ’a fighter and a martyr,’ and opined that the conflict in Libya isn’t finished, because in the North African country ’there is a people, a dignity and the Yankee (…)

(San Francisco) - On Oct 28 it was 232 days since the world’s worst industrial disaster started March 11, 2011 at the six nuclear power plants at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan. Six reactors are involved, four reactors and/or reactor buildings exploded and the two remaining are questionable; they could explode at anytime.
Worse, there are four more giant billion watt reactors 6 miles, or 10 kilometers, south at Fukushima Daiani. These were damaged in the 3/11 earthquake but were idled and are (…)

Freedom of speech (FOS) is vital for democracy, for unimpaired scholarship and rational risk management in the interests of societal safety. But what about hate speech, racial vilification or speech likely to cause dangerous public disorder? Democracy, scholarship and risk management mean that freedom of speech must be sacrosanct but there is a place for formal, transparent, expertly-informed judicial process that would make findings on free speech excesses - but the only punishment of, (…)

The field of contemptible anti-gay activists has long been overcrowded, like a room full of teenagers frenetically rushing a concert stage. In this cacophony of crazy it is quite a feat to rise above the din. Yet radio host and Mission America President Linda Harvey is making a name for herself by fast becoming the most homophobic woman in the nation.
Unlike her more sophisticated counterparts, Harvey is a zealot without a filter who appears unable to finesse her fanaticism. She is (…)