The Democrats are a damn disaster by Bruce Gagnon

by Bruce Gagnon
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Organizing Notes
May 27, 2012

President Obama: Stop the Wars!

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

I’ve spent my entire adult life trying to reign in the Pentagon budget in order that social progress could be maintained and flourish across the land.

Today’s headline in the Washington Post makes my blood boil: Panetta warns both parties on defense budget cuts.

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Commencement 2012 by Gary Olson

by Gary Olson
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.zcommunications.org, May 13, 2012
May 28, 2012

Commencement 2011 Graduates

Image by Merrimack College via Flickr

President Thomforde, trustees, faculty, families, friends, all those who’ve fed, nursed, counseled, salted icy sidewalks, provided security, and otherwise cared for those graduating today – and especially Moravian’s Class of 2012. To the class, please know that I treasure this honor.

Being aware of your tech-savvy lifestyles, I worried that I’d need to abridge my speech down to tweet-able length, send it you, and sit down. But then I remembered something: I don’t tweet or post on Facebook. I don’t own a smart phone. I had a cell back in 2010 but people kept calling me so I tossed it in my glove compartment.

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Jon Talton: The Great Disruption + Q and A

Colorful Old Oil Barrels

Image by L.C.Nøttaasen via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

May 26, 2012 by

Talk by Jon Talton, Economics Columnist at the Seattle Times on “The Great Disruption” given May 24, 2012 at the Common Good Cafe at University Temple United Methodist Church in Seattle, WA.

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The War on Gays by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
May 28, 2012

More than Pride: Equality, equal rights

Image by Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton via Flickr

The sentencing of Dharun Ravi for the hateful abuse that may have driven his gay roommate at Rutgers, Tyler Clementi, to commit suicide, or Barack Obama’s public acceptance of gay marriage, prevents many of us from seeing that life for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people is getting worse—much worse.

No one understands this better than the gay activist and pastor Mel White. White, along with his husband and partner of 30 years, Gary Nixon, founded Soulforce, an organization committed to using nonviolent resistance to end religion-based oppression.

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A Seminar on Palestine’s Prisoners – A Lament on Injustice by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
London, England
26 May 2012

“Israel is a parliamentary democracy represented by a very large number of parties, with universal suffrage for all citizens, regardless of race, religion or sex ….” (CIA World Fact Book, 2011)

mother of an administrative detainee

Image by frecklebaum via Flickr

This week a sobering and highly informative closed door seminar was held on the plight of Palestinian Prisoners, in the elegant surroundings of London’s Westminster Central Hall, a stone’s throw away from the Houses of Parliament and the 11th century Westminster Abbey, the all affirmation of stability and continuity – in starkest contrast to testimony at the proceedings of the meeting.

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Missile-Defense: Is it Working? By Bruce Gagnon

by Bruce Gagnon
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Organizing Notes
www.space4peace.org
Waterloo, Canada
May 24, 2012

Ballistic Missile Defense System Overview.

Ballistic Missile Defense System Overview. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the biggest questions in the space technology world today is will “missile defense” (MD) really work?  Recently we’ve seen articles making a case that it does not work and never will.  I would suggest that depending on where you are standing, a strong case could be made that MD is working quite well.  It’s all a matter of perception and definition.

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The Rise of Re-Use by Ralph Nader

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
May 22, 2012

Reuse

Image by mario giambattista via Flickr

Last week I read that the glitzy world of virtual reality created instant multi-millionaires and several billionaires when Facebook went public selling shares.

Last week I also noted the important real world problem of some 250 million tons of solid waste a year in our country alone.

Guess which “world” gets the most investment, status, fame, klieg lights, and attention of the skilled classes and the power structure?

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