politics
Crisis Lobbying
This is cold poli sci term I made up the other day. If my tone here comes off as sarcastic sometimes, please chock it up to repression caused by middle fingers I never flipped my old professors.
Crisis lobby. A crisis lobby is the strength of the appeal by the people affected by a crisis to bring their crisis attention so they can resolve it. The victims of each crisis beg for help and some people hear the call and do as much as they can. Unfortunately, all the people facing every other crisis are calling, too. Therefore, each crisis has its own 'lobby,' comprised of the victims (and/or potential victims), individual citizens who become activists to support them, NGOs, and any government officials they can reach.
Tuesday Open Thread
Food for thought:
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really
good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they actually change
their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really
do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are
human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot
recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
-- Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP keynote address
Humanity
So let’s imagine the apocalypse. Let’s assume that global warming – to put a contemporary (and highly probable) spin on it – has become irreversible. The climate is fated to change and change and change until the earth winds up, as Stephen Hawking put it, much like Venus— 250 degrees Celsius and raining sulphuric acid. We are doomed from this moment on. It’s a prospect that’s extraordinarily frightening. To face death is one thing. It is a personal struggle, but able to be handled because (and I am speaking for myself here, but I feel that it’s true with most) we have the knowledge that life will go on without us. We may die, but others are born and others live, and then they die, and more still are born, and so on. But death in the face of apocalypse?
Progressive music volume 1
Our movement is propelled by melodies and rhythms...theirs by lying and boring prose!!!!
So here are some of the songs that I feel propell our movement...
A few points before I get to the list of songs. I limited the numbers of songs by Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, I could make an entire list of just the songs of any one of them but I felt that I should try a get a variety of songs on the list. The only real criterion was that it speak about progressive values, it doesn't matter from which era the music was written, or the artist or the style of music. The songs are in no particular order.
And on to the list
Intelligence '08
To me, stupidity---or at least the very worst brand of it---is having the ability to fix a problem but not actually following through. I'm stupid for not fixing my door before my laptop was stolen. Live and learn. I'll never do it again. But what about when you're taught a lesson and you don't apply it? What if it's glaringly obvious, and you're told over and over again, at regular intervals, and it's hurting you all the time, and yet you still do nothing to fix it? What does that make you?
Conscious Listening: Bad Religion - Punk Rock Song
At the beginning, I was doing a daily series of posts called Conscious Listening, highlighting a social justice oriented song every day. I'm going to start it up again, but as a weekly (Wednesdays) thing.
Rethinking Accountability
I could use this post to take a political cheap shot at Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (AGAG), but I believe that recent criticism over the firing of US attorneys fails to address the fundamental problem of accountability that exists. AGAG has certainly created his fair share of problems since he replaced John Ashcroft, but the pattern of poor performance by appointed officials continues throughout the administration. Rumsfeld’s resignation amid general disapproval for his handling of the Iraq War is another high profile example.
Conscious Listening: Holiday in Cambodia
I’m starting a diary series, "Conscious Listening," featuring social justice oriented music. Every day I’m going to highlight song I like. I’ll include the lyrics and a little bit about the song, maybe something about the artist, maybe put it in a historical context, and maybe talk about why the song or artist or whatever is important to me, and anything else relevant or interesting.
Today’s song is Holiday in Cambodia by the Dead Kennedys, off their 1980 album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. The lyrics draw a contrast between Americans – specifically young Americans – living comfortable lives at home while a genocide was ravaging Cambodia.
Here are zee lyrics: