CALL ME MAGGIE

politics

  • Poll Quants & the Book of Life

    I’ve been unpacking my notions about the Society of Control a lot in the last few months. Primarily of late, this centers on developing the notion that control is about accounting… we use a mathematical model to translate the Life-World… Continue reading

    Poll Quants & the Book of Life

  • The Antidote to Ayn Rand < Truthout.org

    The last word of Ayn Rand’s dystopian novella Anthem is “EGO.” Grasping the significance of this forbidden word is a kind of divine revelation for the novel’s protagonist, signaling his emancipation from the benighted, collectivist society into which he was… Continue reading

  • Kanye West – Who Will survive in America « Whitezine

    Really bad ass unofficial video for Kanye West’s “Who will survive in a America…” Kanye West – Who Will survive in America « Whitezine | Design Graphic & Photography Inspirations. Continue reading

    Kanye West – Who Will survive in America « Whitezine

  • A Boon of Dandelions 5

    Creatures of emotion. & passion… reason is not our better power but our guiding power, our focus & adjustment. To sense, to cognize,  to remember, to imagine, to judge, to believe: these are all ways that we reason. Brought together… Continue reading

  • Speak the Truth & Shame the Devil!

    Calling lies “lies” and theft “theft” and violence “violence,” loudly, clearly, and consistently, until truth becomes more than a bump in the road, is a powerful aspect of political activism. Much of the work around human rights begins with accurately… Continue reading

  • The Book of Life

    A recent Truthout.org article speaks to our living in an impoverished age. The issue with our impoverishment arises from not comprehending how the “plutocracy” is a conceptual weapon, not only against the 99% but against themselves as well. One thing… Continue reading

    The Book of Life

  • The Great Chasm Twixt Rich & Poor

    I highly recommend to all my brothers & sisters of the ether that you pay some heed to this week’s issue of The Economist beginning with this piece… Disparities in wealth are less visible in Americans’ everyday lives today than they… Continue reading

  • A Boon of Dandelions 4

    Our greatest shortcoming: obsessive desire for certainty, compulsive appetite for the sure thing. Some will panic in the search; a few get utterly lost in trying to fix the “game.” Yet life is no play-thing to manipulate. The conviction that… Continue reading

  • Detaching-Letting Go-Releasing Yourself

    A nice blog entry from over at Miati Notes on Toxic Relationships that certainly goes to the heart of what I have been feeling over the last few days. As listening to Frank Herbert’s Dune this morning reminded me of… Continue reading

  • A Boon of Dandelions 3

    These past weeks since my brother’s death, fear has hunted me. Or better, I have hunted myself… for I have not been afeared of what might actually do me harm right now or even partially down the line of life.… Continue reading

  • Denton Drilling: Draft ordinance needs overhaul

    Denton, Texas’ draft ordinance concerning gas drilling gets an F from local citizens. Time for a do over. Last night, about forty dedicated citizens gathered to review the draft gas drilling ordinance and generate ideas for how to improve it.… Continue reading

  • Two Presidents, Smoking and Scheming – NYTimes.com

    Mr. President, your prep for the next debate need not consist of anything more than learning to pronounce three words: “Governor, you’re lying.” via Two Presidents, Smoking and Scheming – NYTimes.com. Continue reading

  • Combatting Knowledge with Opinion (and some Prayers)

    This is a nice follow up piece for the earlier link I posted today on why we are not ENTITLED to throw our opinions around without evidence and/or expectation of being challenged by those with broader knowledge: It is more… Continue reading

  • Becoming Empassioned

    Good piece. Opening ourselves up to the possibility of this Beautiful Order, we become conduits, energized by the dynamic force of the Encompassing Good. Letting-go of worry or fretfulness or obsession, we need not follow bliss as the blissful will… Continue reading

  • The Entitlement of Opinion

    The problem with “I’m entitled to my opinion” is that, all too often, it’s used to shelter beliefs that should have been abandoned. It becomes shorthand for “I can say or think whatever I like” – and by extension, continuing… Continue reading

  • Freedom of Religion Clause a “Shield” NOT a “Sword”

    A key insight in this opinion is that salaries and health insurance can be used to buy birth control, so if religious employers really object to enabling their employees to buy birth control, they would have to not pay them… Continue reading

  • Ending The War Between Athens & Jerusalem: LA Review of Books

    THE VIEW THAT ATHENS AND JERUSALEM represent two very different and antagonistic sources of Western civilization has long been a feature of the Western tradition. It dates back at least to Tertullian’s passionate second-century polemic against Greek philosophy. Those Enlightenment… Continue reading

  • The Pay-‘Em-or-Lose-‘Em Myth

    There was a time when I thought the arguments given for ever rising executive compensation were all examples of the slippery slope. Stupid me! I now realize that they are examples of a false dichotomy. How is it that I… Continue reading