January 2010
12 posts
Liberals and Military Dictatorships →
A good article by Edward Herman, who looks at the US’s current attitude to military dictatorships, focusing on Honduras.
(via Instapaper)
The Legacy of 1989, in Two Hemispheres →
Another perspective on 1989 comes from Thomas Carothers, a scholar who served in “democracy enhancement” programs in the administration of former President Ronald Reagan.
After reviewing the record, Carothers concludes that all U.S. leaders have been “schizophrenic” — supporting democracy if it conforms to U.S. strategic and economic objectives, as in Soviet satellites but not in U.S....
Remembering Howard Zinn →
Howard inspired me my entire adult life, more than any other single scholar or mentor. His writing ability always keeps me in awe as I often return to many of his works. I’ve read them all and re-read many. In fact, A People’s History has been the unofficial background text for every history course I’ve ever taught. Few people have Howard’s profound sense of social...
“Justice compels us to act even though our goals are not close at hand.”
– Simón Bolívar
“After all, acknowledging unfairness then calls decent people forth to correct...”
– Tim Wise
WatchHOWARD ZINN: “Holy Wars”
Live from Steve Ballmer's CES 2010 keynote →
6:36PM Half of the computers up on stage have died. They’re now manually restarting them, but they’ve missed a few.
Eliminating social programs has goals that go well beyond concentration of wealth and power. Social Security, public schools, and other such deviations from the “right way” that US military power is to impose on the world, as frankly declared, are based on evil doctrines, among them the pernicious belief that we should care, as a community, whether the disabled widow on the other side of town...
That Nicaragua might have the right to protect its airspace from ongoing US terrorist attack is next to inconceivable. The thought was virtually never voiced—which is reasonable, too, given the principle that US actions are defensive by definition so that any reaction to them is aggression, much like the “internal aggression” of the South Vietnamese in South Vietnam, “assaulting” the American...
Time for Citizens to Convene, by Ralph Nader →
Enough abuses have been documented. Enough power has been concentrated to shred our democratic processes and institutions. It is time to decisively shift power from the few to the many. Democratic power is the essence of progressive political philosophy, and the precondition for the emergence of a just society nourished by higher public expectations.
(via Instapaper)