- By Sylvia Clute
We are so accustomed to the status quo that we think this is how it has to be. Old institutions are tenacious, and they have long tentacles rooted in history and in a multitude of choices made by our ancestors. Law, history, religion, science, and culture all play a role in keeping us entrenched in dysfunctional structures...
The world is going through a crisis. Although most governments have pledged themselves to help develop a peaceful, sustainable, and socially just world, it is almost as if humankind has been gripped by a collective death wish. Though this is a time of great danger, fortunately it is also a time of great opportunity. Today, we have the...
The struggle for our minds is about waking up to the great social and cultural change happening in our midst; pulling our minds away from distraction, ignorance, and old programming; and realizing the transitions that our physical and spiritual worlds are moving through. It is imperative that...
Back here on earth, the human comedy has been renewed for yet another season. Maybe 2012 will be the year a critical mass of the heretofore-uncritical masses wake up and hear the laugh track. That’s right, the laugh track. In these serious times when there’s definitely something funny going on, laughter is key. You laugh, and I say, “Fabulous. You’re off to a good start.”
Prostitution Among Medical Students? Things are starting to get out of hand when our youngsters have to turn to the "free market" to pay for their college education. Sex work among medical students is on the rise, claims a new editorial, published in the journal Student BMJ.
What should be done about prisoners? Should society lock them up and throw away the key? Or should we try to rehabilitate them (indeed, is it possible to do so)? Balancing the safety of society with the rights of prisoners is an old problem — and different solutions have been proposed. At this time, however...
- By George Lakey
While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of
democracy and economic justice.
It doesn’t take an expert to see that things are very wrong with the current legal status of cannabis. Our government says there is no accepted medical use for it, yet it holds a patent (#6630507) for medicinal use of cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants, and it distributes canisters of rolled joints to a few select patients in the...
Newt Gingrich said he “offered Freddie Mac advice on precisely what they didn’t do,” and warned the company that its lending practices were “insane.” Former Freddie Mac executives who worked with Gingrich dispute that account.
Federal judge Jed Rakoff, a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s office here in New York, is fast becoming a sort of legal hero of our time. He showed that again yesterday when he shat all over the SEC’s latest dirty settlement with serial fraud offender Citigroup, refusing to let the captured regulatory agency sweep yet another case of high-level criminal malfeasance under the rug.
More than six in 10 Americans see a widening gap between the wealthy and the less well-off in this country, and about as many want the federal government to try to shrink the divide, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer rights group, celebrated 40 years of progress with a festive gala on Thursday, October 20, 2011. Nearly 600 friends and supporters shared the night as PC reflected on decades of amazing accomplishments and looked to the future.
Most people agree on what they want out of life. They want the basics -- food, clothing, shelter, health. They want a beautiful and healthy environment. They want opportunities -- education, jobs, and personal growth. They want dignity, a spiritual life, love, peace...
- By Stuart Wilde
The point of freedom of speech was to allow varying political and social views to be aired so that people's desires and opinions could effect social change - it all sounded marvelous. Nowadays, we still have freedom of speech, providing you don't disagree with or touch upon any one of a hundred or so subjects that are considered taboo.
When the White House decided it was time to address the rising tides of anti-Americanism around the world, it didn't look to a career diplomat for help. Instead, in keeping with the Bush administration's philosophy that anything the public sector can do the private sector can do better, it hired one of Madison Avenue's top brand managers.
- By Riane Eisler
There are two fundamentally different models for all relationships: the partnership model and the domination model. These two underlying models mold all our relationships -- from relationships between parents and children and between women and men to the relations between governments and citizens and between us and nature.