Note: revised version Oct 1, 2009
By Roland Michel Tremblay
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
The Marginal
17 September, 2009
As a sci-fi author and science consultant for films and television documentaries, I have made it my mission to seek out every alternate theory out there – no matter how crazy they may seem – to explore any possibility of new physics that might be uncovered and put to use. That is, until I came across something so perfect and convincing that I had to stop in my tracks.
talkingsticktv on Sep 17, 2009
Interview with Frances Moore Lappe author of “Democracy’s Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life” given November 6, 2005.
By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Creative-i
17 September 2009
“It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which is shall be worth doing, and be of itself pleasant to do; and which shall be done under such conditions as would make it neither overwearisome nor over-anxious.” — William Morris, ‘Art and Socialism’.
I first read William Morris’s News from Nowhere, his future history of a ‘return’ to an idealized vision of a pre-capitalist society, part feudal, part agrarian socialism, when I was a teenager, and perhaps oddly, I also read it as a science fiction novel.
Long dismissed by ‘purist’ Marxists as unworkable, in light of the fact that even the original socialist version of industrial society is no more viable than the capitalist one, perhaps it’s time to reconsider Morris’s allegedly utopian vision. And in any case, one can already see the outlines forming of some kind of small-scale, co-operative, community, small business type economy emerging on the back of the information technology revolution (minus all the corporate/state stuff of course) that has much in common with Morris’s vision. ‘All’ that remains be done is to get rid of corporate capitalism and its parasitic ruling political class.
submitted on Buzzflash
by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
Sept. 17, 2009
Dear Combat “Enablers” and other Troops,
I read an article in the Army Times recently that said 3000 more troops will be deployed to Afghanistan and 1000 more to Iraq.
“The troops are what the military calls “combat enablers” — noncombat troops who specialize in areas such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; explosives ordnance disposal; medical and mental health; and personnel administration. They will deploy in team-sized elements as opposed to larger units,” according to the article.
Thanks to Rick Rozoff for sending this to DS.
ČeskéNoviny.cz
Czech News Agency
September 17, 2009
Prague: The Czech Social Democrats (CSSD), the Communists (KSCM) as well as anti-radar activists today welcomed the U.S. decision to withdraw from its missile defence project that reckoned with a radar in the Czech Republic and a missile base in Poland.
CSSD chairman Jiri Paroubek and Jan Majicek, from the No Bases movement, called the decision by the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama “a victory of the Czech people.”
“I am glad that the decision proved that we were right….It was confirmed that there are no reasons for the establishment of the U.S. missile defence shield,” Paroubek told CTK.
by Sue Sturgis | Facing South
t r u t h o u t
Monday 14 September 2009
The North Carolina union organizer who was the inspiration for the movie “Norma Rae” died on Friday of brain cancer after a battle with her insurance company, which delayed her treatment. She was 68.
Crystal Lee Sutton, formerly Crystal Lee Jordan, was fired from her job folding towels at the J.P. Stevens textile plant in her hometown of Roanoke Rapids, N.C. for trying to organize a union in the early 1970s. Her last action at the plant — writing the word “UNION” on a piece of cardboard and standing on her work table, leading her co-workers to turn off their machines in solidarity — was memorialized in the 1979 film by actress Sally Field. The police physically removed Sutton from the plant for her action.
[…]
via t r u t h o u t | Real “Norma Rae” Dies of Cancer After Insurer Delayed Treatment
h/t: Brent
see
Kucinich: The Incredible Disappearing Public Option it’s Insurance Care instead of Health Care
Reframing the Health Care Debate by Jason Bryer
RussiaToday
September 17, 2009
The U.S. is to shelve the Bush administration’s plans for a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Barack Obama confirmed the decision in a telephone conversation with the Czech prime minister, according to the country’s media.
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