Is This What We Call Freedom?
Posted on August 5, 2013 in Images and Political Cartoons
Mind Rape And The Christian Right
Posted on August 5, 2013 in Articles
The Article: Mind Rape and the Christian Right by Chris Hedges in TruthDig.
The Text: Noel Lyons, a member of the U.S. Ski Team from 1976 to 1981 and once one of the country’s top professional skiers, found herself in a Vail, Colo., hospital in the spring of 2010 after another round of binge drinking. “I had given up on myself,” she would say later. Her boyfriend and sister decided she needed rehabilitative help. Because their resources were limited, they turned to the free Total Freedom Program, a Florida ministry for women and men that identifies itself as Christian.
Cate Iannello, the wife of the leader of Total Freedom Program, “Pastor Guy,” met Lyons in July 2010 at the Orlando airport and drove her to what she called “the girls’ house,” a yellow ranch house in a nondescript neighborhood of nearby Ocoee. Lyons says she arrived “scared out of my mind” and holding a decorative pillow with the image of a buffalo on it. Because the pillow had “past associations” that could evoke demons, she was soon told to put it in the trash.
Lyons walked into the living room with the pastor’s wife. She met a woman there who introduced herself as Connie Prince, “the house mom”—a position Lyons herself would assume eventually. She was introduced to about five other “girls,” all white and ranging in age from the 20s into the 50s, who lived in the house.
James Baldwin On Race In America
Posted on August 4, 2013 in Videos
This video featuring renown American writer James Baldwin is over 50 years old, and it’s sadly still relevant.
Assessing The Real “Threat” Of Terrorism
Posted on August 4, 2013 in Images and Political Cartoons
Not included in this chart is the fact that you are approximately 9458238495 times more likely to be afflicted with a roommate/friend/acquaintance/family member who enjoys Nickelback than die from a terrorist attack. Now those are some terrifying odds.
Why Your Town Could Be The Next Detroit
Posted on August 4, 2013 in Articles
The Article: There will be more Detroits: Your town could be next by Robert Hennelly in Salon.
The Text: President Obama comes to Galesburg, Illinois (population: 32,000) today, where he is expected to once again hit the reset button on his domestic economic agenda for the rest of his second term. His advance folks know the appealing Norman Rockwell-like backdrop of this rural farming community. It is also the birthplace of Carl Sandburg, who as America’s poet, understood the power of pride in a particular place.
But these days, in a global economy where U.S. multi-nationals can stash hundreds of billions of dollars in profits in off-shore tax havens, the smart play to win all the marbles is to really be from no place in particular. There’s nothing to protect other than your data.
Take the sad case of the City of Detroit, whose name is now synonymous with a global brand “Detroit,” as in the auto industry. Detroit, the municipality, filed for bankruptcy. America’s 18th largest city, overwhelmingly African-American, just 400 miles northeast of Galesburg, was once a thriving industrial powerhouse of almost two million people. Now it has dwindled down to 700,000 residents who live in one of the nation’s most violent cities where it can take an hour for a 911 response.
