Tag: Democracy

Benefits of coma

It would be mighty irresponsible for an individual to live a life with their head down only being concerned with where they’re headed. That isn’t a general criticism directed broadly. It’s a specific comment directed at one person in particular. Me.

Truth be told, I haven’t honestly always (as in very recently) been the most accepting of change — when it comes to myself, at least. Being so strong headed about certain behaviours has proven to be the least productive of my efforts going forward. Especially concerning matters of the heart. Hard lessons learned. And I’m working on it.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, I’m incredibly insecure about the “answers” I do have. And I hope that never changes. However as sure as I am about not being adequately informed about everything, I’m more than secure in proclaiming no-one is. As long as we refuse to listen and learn from each other we will never get to where we want and need to be…

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Time has come and gone

Yesterday Chris Hedges posted his weekly column over at TruthDig, This Hero Didn’t Stand a Chance, where he interviewed Tim DeChristopher. And very true to form, his piece didn’t stray too far from what I’ve come to expect from him and respect about his writing. He doesn’t mince words. He doesn’t fuck around. Time for that bullshit has long since passed.

For those who are unaware — it’s getting ridiculous, borderline criminal, how much news fails to be reported in the media these days — Tim is an environmental activist who, in the dying days of the Bush Administration, was successfully able to disrupt a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) auction of over 100,000 acres of federal land, in Iowa in December 2008, to the oil and gas industries for drilling. But it wasn’t until the Obama Administration came into office, who saw fit to “invalidate” the auction for reasons other than Tim’s participation — locking the public out of the decision to sell public land, for instance — took it upon themselves to charge Tim with a crime.

Long story short, he was found guilty of violating the “Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act,” in March of this year — seeing how the administration took nearly 2 month’s, after the auction was cancelled to charge him, I imagine it took prosecutors that long to find that provision to charge him with. And he’s facing a $750 000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. Even though he was able to subsequently raise the funds to pay for the land he had won, and offered payment to the BLM, they rejected it claiming Tim didn’t bid “under normal circumstances,” so they couldn’t accept. A somewhat valuable piece of information his jury conveniently wasn’t allowed to know.

And he’s still awaiting sentence…

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Time, as it always has, will tell

Well it’s been over a month since I’ve written anything here. For shame, I know. And what a month to be absent from commenting on events happening around the world! It’s quite a remarkable time to be in opposition to power!

I’m speaking, of course, toward the uprisings in North Africa, the Middle East and the American Mid-West. “It is not a good season to be a tyrant.” And it’s getting increasingly more difficult not to think these bullshit hierarchies — or the way they are ridiculously structured at least — are all beginning to level out.

Finally, a real reason for hope!

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Interesting Times Are ‘Underfoot’

In the past couple of days, quite possibly yesterday, Michael Moore released his latest film, Slackers United, for free on the internet. And I parked myself in front of my computer and watched it last evening. I have to give the man props for this gesture. Thank you kindly, Mike.

And I was left a number of strong impressions. A few good, mostly bad…

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