*****An Invitation from TSS*****
12/29/02
I'm speaking now not as a member of a specific group, but rather as a member of the human group. I'm not speaking for this side or that side, this cause or that cause, favoring or disfavoring any idea being fought over, for or against. Can't we hold aside all that for a moment? I'm trying to do that, but although it's terribly hard to do...it can be done. Look at us...just look at us...killing each other at a pace that puts former civilizations to shame, so to speak. From the physical environment to all the animals and living plants, to just how we address each other, and all the way to our physically harming each other...we are a disgrace...a disgrace despite all the wonderful and terrific things we have produced and become as a species. We act as if there's no accountability...we so-called stewards of life. We seem to think we can fight on and on for this or that cause without reprecussions...what fools we are...we don't even deserve to be called POOR stewards of life. The fact is, most of us individually, and all of us, synergistically/collectively, aren't stewards at all. Rather, we are a cancer, a parasidical growth on life...even though we, the humans with a "different" kind of consciousness, are supposedly "in charge" and believe we know better than anyone or anything else. What hypocritical hogwash we live and wash in...stewards of nothing, that's us. David H. Kessel...from "Stewards of Life" on 4/23/02 (A personal commentary in TSS)
12/22/02
"HOW I REGARD Americans..."
I regard the American man as a greedy and materialistic person who would sell his mother for money.
I regard the American troop as a bodyguard or mercenary who would EVEN sell his soul for oil.
I regard the American woman as easy.
I regard the American child as a victim of sex and violence.
I regard the American Congress as Zionists or Imperialists.
I regard the American Christian as a crusader.
I regard the American Jew as a devil.
I regard the American culture as culture of Eminem.
I regard the American media as toy in hands of the Zionists.
I regard the American flag as the flag of Israel or Nazi Germany.
I regard the American president as Hitler with no moustache.
guinness_aussie (32/M/Perth, Australia)...from Yahoo Message Board 12/24/02 01:29 am...
12/15/02
Yet, who will represent and inspire the young, enabling them to feel the joy of politics? Idealism isn't dead, it's just waiting to be ignited (among young people, minorities and the poor) or reignited (among the jaded middle-aged). Millions of Progressives, Greens, Democrats or Independents are yearning to get involved and change the way politics is practiced. These groups want government to work better and for more people. They yearn for political leaders who are authentic, who aren't afraid to take on sacred cows and tell it like it is, who have new common sense ideas. They are deeply worried about where Bush is taking the country. They are a powder keg waiting to explode.
Robert Reich...from "The Death of Opposition in America" which can be found HERE
12/8/02
"I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
Trent Lott...Thursday, Dec. 5...U.S. Senator from Mississippi (R) and Senate Majority Leader...at a "gala" honoring retiring Senator Thurmond (a racist if there ever was one...who ran for President in 1948 in a renegade "party" of "Dixiecrats" (As quoted in The Washington Post)
12/1/02
The last time I saw James the soldier hit him with the tip of his rifle. James then bent over and started shoveling wet sloppy mud. That day was the first time I was ashamed being white. I could move freely about and yet a man who was by far the best friend I had ever come to know was treated like a slave. Slaves whom on paper had been freed fifty years prior. The Negro was still kept enslaved by the white correctives of a white person‘s action. I just was guilty of the crime of not seeing it because of my privilege. Not giving the Negro a name or a face, they were faceless to me, they never had families. They never worried over and about children, they never wanted better conditions, for I denied their right to being human by not seeing them as beings of worth. I was caught in my own white blindness, which was never so apparent as when my boat moved away from the standing man who was black. The next I heard about James he had been killed by a new young police officer out of Vicksburg.
Vickie Spencer...from "James Gotten"...a short story based on Black Like Me. To read the short story, go HERE
11/24/02
It was a little thing, but piled on all the
other little things it broke something in me.
Suddenly I had had enough. Suddenly I could
stomach no more of this degradation---not of
myself but of all men who were black like me.
Abruptly I turned and walked away. The large bus
station was croweded with humanity. In the men's
room I entered one of the cubicles and locked the
door. For a time I was safe, isolated; for a
time I owned the space around me, though it was
scarcely more than that of a coffin. In medieval
times, men sought sanctuary in churches.
Nowadays, for a nickel, I could find sanctuary in
a colored rest room. The, sanctuary had the
smell of incense-permeated walls. Now it had the
ordor of disinfectant.
John Howard Griffin...from BLACK LIKE ME,
p. 130 (December 1 entry) For a summary of BLM,
entry by entry, go HERE
11/17/02
I define "managed care" generically to include
all the processes and systems, both overt and
covert, which are used to control costs, and influence
patient and physician behavior. This includes the
"management" of Medicare, Medicaid, and other
fixed payment groups by hospitals, as well as the
"management" of patients by health plans. Implied
in the word "manage," is the act of directing and
controlling. More specifically, in the health
care industry, "managed care" has become an
organized system designed to direct or control clinical
access and distribution for ends other than the
clinical needs of the patient. These ends include
efficiency, productivity, and cost containment,
even if meeting these ends requires the neglect or
obstruction of clinical care.
Linda Peeno, MD...from her testimony before the U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE---SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT, May 30, 1996. For complete testimony, click HERE
11/10/02
Keep this in the back of your head: About
3,000 Iraqi children are starving to death each
month -- outside the view of American
heartstrings. Suppose every month 3,000 Iraqi
children were lined up and we threatened to shoot
them if Saddam
Hussein didn't do what we wanted. Suppose we gave
orders
for the Marines to shoot them. Well, nothing
would happen
because Marines don't shoot kids. But that
doesn't mean America doesn't kill children. We
just starve them to death.
Scott Ritter...as quoted in "A
Call to Arms By an Enemy of War Against
Iraq"...by Courtland Milloy
11/3/02
When people now hear the term "mental
illness," virtually everyone acts as if he were
unaware of the distinction between literal and
metaphoric uses of the word "illness." That is
why people believe that finding brain lesions in
some mental patients (for example,
schizophrenics) would prove, or has already
proven, that mental illnesses exist and are "like
other illnesses." This is an error. If mental
illnesses are diseases of the central nervous
system (for example, paresis), then they are
diseases of the brain, not the mind; and if they
are the names of (mis)behaviors (for example,
using illegal drugs) then they are not diseases.
A screwdriver may be a drink or an implement. No
amount of research on orange juice and vodka can
establish that it is a hitherto unrecognized form
of a carpenter's tool.
Thomas Szasz...from "Mental Illness is
Still a Myth"...in Society, May/June 1994,
pp.34-39 from
10/27/02
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."
10/27/02
George W. Bush...as quoted in a
Business Week article on July 30, 2001...the third such time he's "joked" about it "on the record."
10/20/02
The Methodist Church, he says, is not pacifist, but 'rejects war as a usual means of national policy'. Methodist scriptural doctrine, he added, specifies 'war as a last resort, primarily a defensive thing. And so far as I know, Saddam Hussein has not mobilized military forces along the borders of the United States, nor along his own border to invade a neighboring country, nor have any of these countries pleaded for our assistance, nor does he have weapons of mass destruction targeted at the United States'.
Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the Board of Church and Society for the United Methodist Church (which has both Bush and Cheney as members)...as quoted in "Iraq War 'Unjustifiable', says Bush's Church Head" by Ed Vulliamy in New York, which can be found HERE
10/13/02
No Quote selected
10/6/02
In sum, no natural progression leads countries toward an increasingly healthy citzenry. Rather, as the political and economic fortunes of a country shift, and as the natural environment improves or declines, so too will the health of its population. Only by continued commitment to eliminating poverty and inequality and to protecting the environment can a nation guarantee that it will keep whatever health gains it has achieved.
Rose Weitz...from The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care: A Critical Approach (2001, Wadsworth)(pp. 112-113)
9/29/02
No. This is not acceptable. This is not the country we want to be. This is not the world we want to make.
The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood.
I rarely use the word "we" because it's so arrogant for one citizen to presume to speak for all of us. But on this one, I know we want to find a way so that killing is the last resort, not the first. We would rather put our time, energy, money and even blood into making peace than making war.
Molly Ivins from "Mr. Bush, Stop the Insanity"...9/26/02. To read the entire editorial, go HERE
9/22/02
We believe that peoples and nations have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great powers. We believe that all persons detained or prosecuted by the United States government should have the same rights of due process. We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and values are always contested and must be fought for.
We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do -- we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world.
Not In Our Name: A Statement of Conscience Against War and Repression To read the entire Statement, go HERE
9/15/02
More important, perhaps, is the confusion of concepts in phrases like 'male power,' 'male violence,' 'male culture,' 'malestream thought,' 'male authority.' In each of these phrases a social fact or process is coupled with, and implicitly attributed to, a biological fact. The result is not only to collapse together a rather heterogeneous group...It also, curiously, takes the heat off the open opponents of feminism. The hard-line male chauvinist is now less lible to be thought personally responsible for what he says or does in particular circumstances, since what he says or does is attributable to the general fatality of being male.
That this is a point where argument and emotion have got tangled is not accidental. There is a basic theoretical problem here. The social categories of gender are quite unlike other categories of social analysis, such as class, in being firmly and visibly connected to biological difference. It is therefore both tempting and easy to fall back on biological explanation of any gender pattern. This naturalisation of social processes is without question the commonest mechanism of sexual ideologies. That biological difference underpins and explains the social supremacy of men over women is the prized belief of enormous numbers of men, and a useful excuse for resisting equality.
Bob Connell from Masculinity, Violence and War...in Men's Lives, Michael S. Kimmel and Michael A. Messner, eds. (NY: Macmillan, 1989)
9/8/02
No Quote Selected
9/1/02
If America is going to have a policy of justified pre-emption, in Henry Kissinger's clinical phrase, why not start by chasing out those sorry Saudi royals? If we're willing to knock over Saddam for gassing the Kurds, we should be willing to knock over the Saudis for letting the state-supported religious police burn 15 girls to death last March in a Mecca school, forcing them back inside a fiery building because they tried to flee without their scarves. And shouldn't we pre-empt them before they teach more boys to hate American infidels and before they can stunt the lives of more women?
Maureen Dowd from I'm With Dick! Let's Make War!...Published on Wednesday, August 28, 2002 in the New York Times
6/17/02---8/26/02
No Quotes selected
6/10/02
It is key that students realize that "another world is possible", even if they cannot yet conceive of what that world would be like. To this end, students in my classes are always encouraged (and often required) to participate in organizations and actions that help solve, not just study, our social problems. Though their projects are often modest, I ask my students to change the world. Having lived in New York City, Massachusetts, Bangkok, and now San Francisco and having taught almost exclusively in public schools, I have lived and worked with students, colleagues, and neighbors from every populated continent, literally dozens of ethnicities, and of various ages, abilities, appearances, and sexualities. This type of "everyday democracy" has deeply informed who I am and I try to convey this inclusive spirit to my students.
Dan Brook from...Human Education Should Be Humanistic: A Progressive Philosophy of Teaching Other statements of Philosophy of Teaching can be found HERE
6/3/02
Just because the F.B.I. brass hats are presently computer illiterate, do they think the public is totally ignorant of the ability of today's technologists to combine government surveillance reports, names on membership lists, and "data mining" by private snoops to create an instant dossier on law-abiding Americans?
Consider the new reach of federal power: the income-tax return you provided your mortgage lender; your academic scores and personnel ratings, credit card purchases and E-ZPass movements; your political and charitable contributions, charge account at your pharmacist and insurance records; your subscription to non-mainstream publications like The Nation or Human Events, every visit to every Web site and comment to every chat room, and every book or movie you bought or even considered on Amazon.com — all newly combined with the tickets, arrests, press clips, full field investigations and raw allegations of angry neighbors or rejected lovers that flow into the F.B.I.
All your personal data is right there at the crossroads of modern marketing and federal law enforcement. And all in the name of the war on terror.
This is not some nightmare of what may happen someday. It happened last week. Jim Sensenbrenner, chairman of House Judiciary, said the removal of restraints made him "queasy"; Pat Leahy of Senate Judiciary is too busy blocking judges to object. Some sunshine libertarians are willing to suffer this loss of personal freedom in the hope that the Ashcroft-Mueller rules of intrusion may prevent a terror attack. They won't because they're a fraud.
William Safire from "J. Edgar Mueller"...Published on Monday, June 3, 2002 in the New York Times...see CommonDreams for the entire column
5/27/02
Powerlessness, the denial of agency, is generally an extremely potent motive for individuals and groups. To be powerless is often humiliating and shame can be a powerful motive that fosters attempts to gain empowerment, to overcome domination. Indeed from slaves cutting of limbs to escape the chains of servitude, to masses enthralled with the empowering promises of a dictator, people seek empowerment. As Nietzsche suggested, to accept domination, to assent to slavery, leads to the sickness of a revenge denied. So too does fundamentalism dialectically foster subordination to power by establishing "micro-spheres" of empowerment that provide illusory realms of power. But at the same time, transgression of norms give one a power over them.
Lauren Langman and Katie Cangemi...from Transgression as Identity 2002
5/20/02
"My greatest fear is that I'll come face to face with my greatest fear"
Piglet...overheard while daughter was watching Pooh on Disney Channel
5/13/02
Ideology is not a false account of the human condition, but a partial and distorted one, the "truth of a false condition."
Norman Birnbaum...from "Beyond Marx in the Sociology of Religion?" in Beyond the Classics?. ed. by Charles Y. Glock and Phillip E. Hammond. NY: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1973
5/6/02
"[I]nsurance policies from the slavery era have been discovered in the archives of several insurance companies, documenting insurance coverage for slaveholders for damage to or death of their slaves, issued by a predecessor insurance firm. These documents provide the first evidence of ill-gotten profits from slavery, which profits in part capitalized insurers whose successors remain in existence today." SB2199 Sec. 1(a).
California Department of Insurance...Full details are HERE
4/29/02
Marriage and love have nothing in common; they are as far apart as the poles; are, in fact, antagonistic to each other. No doubt some marriages have been the result of love. Not, however, because love could assert itself only in marriage; much rather is it because few people can completely outgrow a convention. There are to-day large numbers of men and women to whom marriage is naught but a farce, but who submit to it for the sake of public opinion. At any rate, while it is true that some marriages are based on love, and while it is equally true that in some cases love continues in married life, I maintain that it does so regardless of marriage, and not because of it.
Emma Goldman...from "Marriage and Love"...1911
4/22/02
It has been the cause of countless arguments across the land and
now the truth is finally out: women do spend inordinate amounts
of time getting ready to go out, whether to the office, the
nightclub or even the shops.
New research shows it is impossible for a woman to take less
than 21 minutes to leave the house, regardless of where she is
going. A survey of 2,000 women by Marks -&- Spencer has found that
the average woman takes the equivalent of 10 working days a year
getting ready for work. Although that is down by two full days
on a decade ago, it still accounts for 27 minutes a day - and 10
per cent of women admit to taking more than an hour.
Amelia Hill...from "I'll be ready in 21 minutes, dear"
in The Observer on Sunday April 21, 2002. Entire article can be read HERE
4/15/02
In 1948, after the UN partitioned Palestine roughly 50/50 for Jewish and Palestinian states, Zionists launched a war, expelled most of the Palestinians, and formed the state of Israel on 78% of Palestine. In 1967, Israel launched a war and seized the remaining 22% of Palestine from Jordan and Egypt, as well as other Egyptian and Syrian territory. Since then, Israel has built settlements throughout the West Bank and Gaza strip occupied territories. It doubled the number of Israeli settlers in these areas during the Oslo "peace process" of the 1990s, in explicit violation of the Oslo accords. Israel built extensively in and around East Jerusalem, and it built access roads and other fortifications that bisect Palestinian territory throughout the West Bank.
In the deal the Israelis offered the Palestinians 18 months ago, Israel intended to retain about 25% of the West Bank it has essentially annexed, as well as the access roads, water resources, check points, etc. It was prepared to recognize a demilitarized Palestinian "state" comprised of 95% of the remaining land. Israel was thus willing to relinquish direct control over 95% of 75% of 22% of Palestine. Do the math and you see that Palestinians were supposed to accept a deal giving them less than 16% of Palestine.
Steven Rosenthal...from a post on the Progressive Sociologists Network, Friday April 12, 2002
4/8/02
America needs more than a revival of the narrow family obligations of the 1950's, whose (greatly exaggerated) protection for white, middle-class children was achieved only at tremendous cost to the women in those families and to all those who could not or would not aspire to the Ozzie and Harriet ideal. We need a concern for children that goes beyond the question of whether a mother is waiting with cookies when her kids come home from school. We need a moral language that allows us to address something besides people's sexual habits. We need to build values and social institutions that can reconcile people's needs for independence with their equally important rights to dependence, and surely we must reject older solutions that involved balancing these needs on the backs of women. We will not find our answers in nostalgia for a mythical "traditional family."
Stephanie Coontz...from "The Way We Weren't"...from NATIONAL FORUM: THE PHI KAPPA PHI JOURNAL, Summer 1995. pp. 11-14
4/1/02
Many are calling for the Bush administration to intervene in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. And such intervention could help. Yet the Bush administration is making no effort to conceal that its heart lies elsewhere: in creating a coalition in the Islamic world that will support forthcoming U.S. attempts to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Though little evidence links Saddam to Osama bin Ladin or al-Qaeda, the White House has used the cover of outrage at terror to legitimate a new war in Iraq that will complete what the last Bush administration left unresolved.
All the more reason to ask the United States to move beyond its narrow concerns with overthrowing Saddam and instead show the Israeli people that they have no alternative but to end the occupation. The real pro-Israel forces are those willing to push Israel to change its policies.
Rabbi Michael Lerner and Cornel West from "Violence and Excuses in the Mideast"...April 2, 2002. Entire article can be found HERE
3/18/02 and 3/25/02
No Quotes Selected
3/11/02
Our Congress gave the President the ability to respond to the tragedy of September 11. We licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September 11th. But we the people and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response.
Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.
We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.
We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.
We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.
We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus.
We did not authorize assassination squads.
We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.
We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.
We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.
We did not authorize national identity cards.
We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.
We did not authorize an eye for an eye.
Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere,anyhow it pleases.
We did not authorize war without end.
We did not authorize a permanent war economy.
Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The President has requested a $45.6 billion increase in military spending. All defense-related programs will cost close to $400 billion. Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Representative...from a speech A Prayer for America given February 17, 2002
3/4/02
Disobedience is a dialectical concept, because, actually, every act of disobedience is an act of obedience, and every act of obedience is an act of disobedience. What do I mean by this? Every act of disobedience, unless it is empty rebelliousness, is obedience to another principle. I am disobedient to the idol because I am obedient to God. I am disobedient to Caesar because I am obedient to God, or, if you speak in nontheological language, because I am obedient to principles and values, to my conscience. I may be disobedient to the state because I am obedient to the laws of humanity. And if I am obedient, then indeed I am always disobedient to something else. The question is not really one of disobedience or obedience, but one of disobedience to what and to whom.
Erich Fromm from "The Revolutionary Character"...1963
2/25/02
Critical Thinking is not a hobby, critical thinking is a faculty. Critical thinking is not something which you apply as a philosopher and then when you are a philosopher you think critically, but when you are at home you have given up, taken off your critical thinking. Critical thinking is a quality, is a faculty, it's an approach to the world, to everything; it's by no means critical in the sense of hostile, of negatitvistic, of nihilistic, but on the contrary critical thought stands in the service of life, in the service of removing obstacles to life individually and socially which paralyze us. Erich Fromm from "The Art of Listening"
2/18/02
The Negro. The South. These are details. The real story is the universal one of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men (and in the process destroy themselves) for reasons neither really understands. It is the story of the persecuted, the defrauded, the feared and destested. I could have been a Jew in Germany, a Mexican in a number of states, or a member of any "inferior" group. Only the details would have differed. The story would be the same.John Howard Griffin...from the Preface to BLACK LIKE ME...1960
2/11/02
Well, I think when you say "that different," it's important to understand that you can - when the Germans transformed their armed forces into the Blitzkrieg, they transformed only about 5 or 10 percent of their force. Everything else was the same, but they transformed the way they used it, the connectivity between aircraft and forces on the ground, the concentration of it in a specific portion of the line, and it - one would not want to transform 100 percent of your forces. You only need to transform a portion.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld...interviewed by JIM LEHRER on Feb 4, 2002 on PBS ... Using Nazi procedures as model for changing U.S. Military
2/4/02
"It's that...you want something, but you know it's bad for you. So you deny it, and want it, and deny it, and want it--but it's just too seductive. So you give in, and then it just happens. But when it happens, it's not as bad as you thought. It's not half bad. In fact, it's good. It's really good. It's wonderful. It makes you feel better. You're a better human being. You're stronger. You understand yourself. You're in touch with yourself. You're not in denial. You're not remote and pure. You're alive and you're part of the real world.. You know what you want."Bruce Sterling...from DISTRACTION (NY: Bantam Books, 1998)...p.240
1/28/02
Morgan conceded that marijuana smokers are impaired for several hours after smoking. People who are high should not drive, babysit, mow the lawn or enter into marital contracts.Refering to John P. Morgan of City University of New York Medical School...January 2002...from Testimony before a U.S. Senate Committee
1/21/02
So, now that I've tried to reason with you about the flag and the history of the behavior of this nation it "represents"...its time to get a grip folks...it's time for me to let it all out...and here's apparently a bulletin for some of you...the American Flag, Old Glory itself, has never, never, never, and still doesn't, meant just ONE SINGULAR AND EXCLUSIVE thing. It all depends on whom you talk to, the conditions in which it has appeared, and who is doing the flying. Get over it, will you? Brace yourself for the reality that this piece of cloth, plastic, paint...you name it...means nothing...if it means everything. To some Americans and many non-Americans, it DOES INDEED mean hatred, violence, domination, ugliness, fear, and above all...hypocrisy. Deal with it. Don't just throw your ideological spears at me...live in the real world of politics, wars, exploitation, domination, occupation...and of course, money. Ideals? What ones? Whose? It's a symbol and it just isn't so simple to say just what it symbolizes, is it? Don't threaten me...don't you dare...cause after all, its MY flag too...and I, like millions before me and current, can see what we want to see when its waved in front of our noses...even if you don’t agree or like it. Do I want to burn it? No, what a waste of matches that would be. It doesn't mean enough of anything to me to actually take the time to put a match to it. Besides, why destroy the perfectly good work of a Chinese worker who made it? David H. Kessel...from "The American Flag"...in From My Perspective 1/19/02...entire commentary can be read HERE
1/14/02
Re: Other "Progressives"
How can they not see that the US government acts deliberately, and that it knows what it is doing? How can they not see that the government’s goals are not peace and justice, but empire and profit. It wants these wars, this repression. These policies are not mistakes; they are not irrational; they are not based on a failure of moral insight (since morality is not even a factor in their considerations); they are not aberrations; they are not based on a failure to analyze the situation correctly; they are not based on ignorance. This repression, these bombings, wars, massacres, assassinations, and covert actions are the coldly calculated, rational, consistent, intelligent, and informed actions of a ruling class determined at all costs to keep its power and wealth and preserve its way of life (capitalism). It has demonstrated great historical presence, persistence, and continuity in pursuing this objective. This ruling class knows that it is committing atrocities, knows that it is destroying democracy, hope, welfare, peace, and justice, knows that it is murdering, massacring, slaughtering, poisoning, torturing, lying, stealing, and it doesn’t care. Yet most progressives seem to believe that if only they point out often enough and loud enough that the ruling class is murdering people, that it will wake up, take notice, apologize, and stop doing it. Jared James...from "A Stake not a Mistake: On Not Seeing the Enemy"...October, 2001. To read the entire article go HERE
1/7/02
The U.S. Supreme Court says a corporation is a person, or at least must be treated like one when it comes to most constitutional protections.
Like the right to speak. And the right to act in the political arena giving campaign contributions, lobbying and advocating its agenda.
Now, if a corporation is in fact a person, with full constitutional rights, then it should act like a moral human person. And what is the fundamental basis of morality? Caring about others. So, a corporation, to act like a moral human person, is going to have to care about others, not just about its own bottom line. It is going to have to care about its human compatriots. But the vast majority of major corporations do not give a damn about human persons. As such, they are immoral to the core. Or, maybe even worse, they are amoral. We say, if you are not a human person, and you cannot act like a moral human person, then you should be stripped of your constitutional protections.
No right to speak, no Fifth Amendment rights, no right to participate in the political arena. You just produce your products, and go home. Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman...from Corporations
Behaving Badly: The Ten Worst Corporations of 2001. The entire article can be read HERE