Put away the flags by Howard Zinn (2006)

Image by Jagz Mario via Flickr

by Howard Zinn
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at The Progressive (2006)
3 July, 2010

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism — that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder — one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking — cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on — have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

In the Aftermath of the G20: Reflections on Strategy, Tactics and Militancy by Ritch Whyman

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Crossposted with permission from www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/

by Ritch Whyman
The Bullet
3 July, 2010

The events at the Saturday G20 demonstration in Toronto last week have provoked a series of responses already. This article is not meant to review the events of the day itself, but to look at the questions raised by the demonstrations and tactics used for the left.

Suffice to say the reaction of the police, in arresting, detaining, and brutalizing nearly 1,000 people in the largest mass arrest in Canadian history, exposes the serious attacks on civil liberties the left faces.

Naomi Klein: There has been a very powerful attack on freedom of expression in this country

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rabbletv | July 03, 2010

On Tuesday, June 29, Naomi Klein made a surprise appearance at Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QUAIA)’s Pride in Our Politics Cabaret. Making the links between the police repression of protest over the G20 and the slanderous attacks that groups such as QUAIA have experienced, Klein explained: “There has been a very powerful attack on freedom of expression in this country. A McCarthyite campaign against people who fall outside of the Harper government’s version of what we should be saying or doing.”

The quality of this video is not great – but the audio is worth a listen.

BP Oil Disaster Worst Case Scenario with Kindra Arnesen, BP Community Liaison

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UNITED OILED VOICES NETWORK | July 05, 2010

Kindra Arnesen tells team @PrjGulfImpact about the possible outcomes for the BP Oil Disaster including her worst case scenarios, why she is moving, and her fears for the next 60 days.

Project Gulf Impact – follow the truth, ask questions.

http://www.projectgulfimpact.com
http://www.Twitter.com/prjgulfimpact

Dr. Theo Colborn on the Health Effects of Water Contamination from Fracking

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Democracy Now!
April 14, 2010

World-Renowned Scientist Dr. Theo Colborn on the Health Effects of Water Contamination from Fracking

The Environmental Protection Agency has begun a review of how the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” can affect drinking water quality. We speak to Dr. Theo Colborn, the president of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange and one of the foremost experts on the health and environmental effects of the toxic chemicals used in fracking.

Independence From Empire… As Tears Go By by Philip A. Farruggio

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by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
3 July, 2010

I find myself crying a great deal lately. I have always suffered from anxiety and panic attacks…. Just not so many crying attacks. My former psychoanalyst, Dr. Perlowitz, always said that ‘ Crying ventilates the system’. Well, I must be pretty well ventilated by now. The main reason for my tears is the terrible state of affairs in our nation. They create phony wars and occupations, at the cost of almost one trillion tax dollars. Then they go ahead and bail out greedy and corrupt Wall Street firms ( another one trillion ) who conned millions of low income 9 to 5 Americans to ‘buy buy buy‘ homes they could not afford. On top of that, via their tightly controlled neo fascist talk radio and cable ( so called ) news shows, they have the nerve to condemn the victims of these schemes.

Gasland (must-see) (interview with Josh Fox on PBS)

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Updated: Jan. 23, 2012 and July 19, 2013

***

[Support Josh Fox at http://gaslandthemovie.com/.]

PBS

The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudia Arabia of natural gas” just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.

It Ain’t Gonna Happen, Frank by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
July 2, 2010

With his usual magnificent rhetoric, Frank Rich, Op-Ed columnist extraordinaire of The New York Times, recently laid out a grand agenda for President Obama and his administration, in order to deal with the mass disaster left behind for our nation by eight years of Bush-Cheney.  Frank said, in part:

[T]he debate over how to raise the president’s emotional thermostat is not an entirely innocuous distraction. It allows Obama to duck the more serious doubts about his leadership that have resurfaced along with BP’s oil.  Unlike his unflappable temperament, his lingering failings should and could be corrected . . .