tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81114702011-12-20T11:09:12.537-08:00An blog by a member of the Catholic peace movement, Pax Christi, to explore the nexus between contemplation and resistance. "The Christian must discover in contemplation, and in the giving of his life, those symbolic actions which will ignite the people's faith to resist injustice with their whole lives, lives coming together as a united force of truth and thus releasing the liberating power of the God within them." - James Douglass, Contemplation and Resistance.Boydnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-36032392231059761092011-01-16T14:27:00.000-08:002011-01-16T14:28:13.379-08:00

Obama's Tucson speech achieved its purpose superbly, as has his Presidency so far. That purpose is to render the effects of the current corporate takeover of democracy acceptable to the American public. What made the speech so effective is that it appealed to our innate desire for reconciliation at such a time. But, like his entire "reach-across-the-aisle" strategy, it hides a more important

Boydnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-71217797647545024982010-12-05T13:12:00.000-08:002010-12-05T13:15:42.514-08:00

Aurelius Augustinus is widely considered the most substantial Christian thinker of the earlyChurch and many, both Catholic and Protestant, consider him the greatest Christian theologianof all time. So it is significant that so little attention has been given to his economic philosophywhile his thoughts on war and other political topics have been so exhaustively examined.As with so much of

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-26482139721570083242010-12-05T13:09:00.000-08:002010-12-05T13:12:47.549-08:00

"These are people who believe in entitlement. These are arrogant elites who believe the rest of us don't need to know what they're doing with and to our lives. These are people see truth as a danger." David Michael Green, "What WikiLeaks Really Reveals" Common Dreams, 12/5/10 (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/05#comment-1686473) The key word here is not "truth", which they do indeed hate

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-74627204069285367562010-11-23T21:34:00.001-08:002010-11-23T21:34:38.799-08:00

“Sojourners is fundamentally mistaken, though, in their reading of our times. At this horrible juncture in history when crimes against humanity are committed daily by our government and in our names, it is not a lack of civility but the absence of outrage on the part of Christians and the Church that ‘is a sign of moral danger’ to our nation.” Brian Terrell, “A Convenant for Outrage”, 11/23/10.

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-13066765973826511472010-11-06T14:41:00.000-07:002010-11-06T14:44:08.849-07:00

“French riot police tear-gassed workers trying to block a fuel depot and broke up a picket at a key refinery serving Paris on Friday, hours before the Senate votes on fiercely-contested pension reforms.” - “French Unions: We Won't Pay For 'Failures of Global Finance'”, Agence France-Presse, 10/22/10. Why are the French rioting? Many of the governments of Europe now demand that severe austerity

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-12858899381291728602010-10-31T09:03:00.000-07:002010-10-31T09:06:23.115-07:00

Most of the left/liberal media seems to miss the growing irrelevance of our two-party political circus. We need ask a basic question about our political system: Why does it not seem to matter that candidates for public office don't even to pretend to engage the real issues such as global warming, the worst health care in the developed world, the catastrophe-prone nature of our financial system?

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-59126881946766518372010-10-26T18:13:00.001-07:002010-10-26T18:13:51.329-07:00

"The liberal class, despite becoming an object of public scorn, still prefers the choreographed charade. Liberals decry, for example, the refusal of the Democratic Party to restore habeas corpus or halt the looting of the U.S. Treasury on behalf of Wall Street speculators, but continue to support a president who cravenly serves the interests of the corporate state. As long as the charade of

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-37062801433932879382010-09-03T21:57:00.001-07:002010-09-04T06:56:03.293-07:00

So often I hear the despairing words, "Leave it to God! He will bring all to the light!" Yet I wonder, and I cry, "What if we are the light that He is calling and we cannot hear his voice?"

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-56993495015276868902010-08-08T08:02:00.000-07:002010-08-08T09:10:30.112-07:00

Mike Ely wrote the following concerning Abbie Hoffman, "And that’s the way you have to understand Abby. He wasn’t so much 'promoting drugs' (though obviously he was), but he was arguing that the new communities of youth and youth culture should actively work to politicize themselves even more — to see themselves as a oppressed by the society and the empire, and should more and more integrate

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-90515020970200086962010-04-25T11:06:00.001-07:002010-04-25T13:54:40.688-07:00

"For this revolution is not, in fact, concerned with liberating us from our poverty and misery, but rather from our wealth and our totally excessive prosperity. It is not a liberation from what we lack, but from our consumerism in which we are ultimately consuming our very selves. It is not a liberation from our state of oppression, but from the untransformed praxis of our own wishes and

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-64981871759484059232010-03-20T10:48:00.000-07:002010-03-20T10:49:32.233-07:00

We need the courage to make a break with the current U.S. political system. However, I have sympathy with Dennis Kucinich, who seems trapped, as many of us are, by choices made at an earlier time when conditions were less barbaric than now. When Dennis started his political career, unions were still strong and a liberal could take on powerful corporations and actually win, as Dennis did long

Boydnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-10387996228633932782010-02-19T22:16:00.000-08:002010-02-21T12:38:05.579-08:00

Raya Dunayevskaya - the founder of Marxist Humanism and a guiding light for those who dream of a rational and humane world.Our intention is to help build a revolutionary movement that will end the current corporatist domination of all aspects of modern life. In particular, the government's role as handmaid to the corporate agenda must end. There are many current models that we can look toward

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-90172726014055160222010-02-03T13:56:00.000-08:002010-02-07T17:45:05.359-08:00

One of the most widespread illusions propagated by media left and right is that politicians have a great deal of actual power to make changes. This illusion serves many useful purposes. It hides, however, the truth that at the very least several decades, politicians, including Presidents, have become mid-level functionaries in the power elite, essentially go-fers, not go-tos for that elite.It's

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-41137730432038261472010-01-23T10:58:00.000-08:002010-01-23T11:01:36.325-08:00

David Michael Green's recent article "How to Squander the Presidency in One Year" portrayed Obama as follows: "It's almost as if he were a Republican sleeper politician in some party politics version of the Manchurian Candidate, planted to arise on cue and destroy the Democratic Party from within."The truth is that there was no need for a Manchurian candidate - the Democratic Party had already

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-33209028160922618222010-01-17T12:08:00.000-08:002010-01-17T12:08:59.915-08:00

"True generosity consist precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the 'rejects of life,' to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands-whether of individuals or entire peoples-need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-5494552143724647382010-01-12T21:05:00.000-08:002010-01-12T21:05:45.531-08:00

Frank Rich's article belongs to the category of "Backhanded Apologias for Current Capitalism". It's a classic example of the genre, in fact. While seemingly a powerful denunciation of current Wall Street practice, it is in fact a subtly designed propaganda piece that supports the ruling economic class much more effectively than right-wing screeds.   Let's start with real perspective. "The

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-91293804441698582212010-01-10T12:55:00.000-08:002010-01-10T12:55:16.633-08:00

"Who narrates governs" - this key insight deserves development. As David Michael Green rightly points out in his recent article, "The Implosion of the American Political Consciousness", Orwell understands how power gains control over narrative. The most effective way is to "... just remove the possibility of imagining alternatives from the public's consciousness. Much easier. Much cheaper."

Boydnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-34320962110122893712009-12-25T12:23:00.000-08:002009-12-25T14:36:21.347-08:00

The primary weakness in most of the current movements for social change is their inability to form a coherent systematic analysis of the fundamental causes of the injustices we fight. This weakness is telegraphed in the very word "activist". Mark Rudd just published an excellent article in CounterPunch where he characterized the difference between "activism" and "organizing" as follows: "'...

Boydnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-68099860223805030112009-12-13T13:36:00.000-08:002009-12-13T13:43:49.461-08:00

"For myself, I have come in my time in college to an understanding of the beauty of MLK's philosophy of world peace. That violent force cannot ever be justified --that two wrongs don't make a right-- seems like second nature now. Obama's twisted pseudo-intellectual rationalization of war-mongering stands in strict opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ (love thy neighbor, turn the other

Boydnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-55971031396764123552009-12-08T21:13:00.000-08:002009-12-08T21:19:49.272-08:00

Over and over, we hear the same bemusement from liberal writers over the hypocrisy and sheer irrationality of Obama's war strategy. And their analysis is often devastatingly accurate. But they rarely examine the material motivations for this deception, preferring psychological explanations. As in this quote: "...this is 'the way we prefer to see ourselves and, therefore, the narrative that we

Boydnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-59208200043909213282009-12-05T22:07:00.000-08:002009-12-06T13:07:46.874-08:00

"The war is not supposed to be winnable, it is supposed to be continuous… all for the hierarchy of society… The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-60801513757901346172009-11-15T15:05:00.000-08:002009-11-21T20:56:45.022-08:00

History is constructed from the building blocks of material fact, not "hope" or "change". But those blocks can be moved by the human mind and the human spirit and their triumph will be eternal. One of the fantasies that currently dominates the debate on climate change is that of "green capitalism". The idea is essentially that we can keep the current economic system and maintain its growth

Boydnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-28145562196669312702009-11-10T20:16:00.000-08:002009-11-13T23:02:24.408-08:00

Why would the very countries who originated ecological science, who make their plans according to best scientific advice be so slow to deal with the latest findings of the world's leading researchers? Surely the irrationality of a Beck or Palin doesn't reach into the highest levels of the Western powers? According to the most widespread faith today, global capitalism, market mechanisms should

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-5679506172461363902009-11-07T10:30:00.001-08:002009-11-08T20:37:59.409-08:00

The capitalist system that has evolved over the past five hundred years represents a test of our capacity for self-awareness and imagination. The system that brought us unparalleled material abundance has also directly caused massive degradation of our natural and human ecology. Our challenge at this moment is to recognize the threat posed by our own behavior and counter it decisively. The

Boydnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-91444567149585524232009-11-07T10:02:00.001-08:002009-11-07T10:13:37.729-08:00

My admiration for Barack Obama continues to grow as he emerges as the master of the post-modern power grab. America has orchestrated a Latin American coup with the smooth efficiency of an executive's image makeover. The term Eva Gollinger uses for the new imperial strategy is "smart power" and she describes it as follows: "The Obama administration has opted for a mutation of these two concepts,

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-56521336793714912202009-11-05T19:33:00.000-08:002009-11-05T21:38:55.926-08:00

My admiration for Barack Obama continues to grow as he emerges as the master of the post-modern power grab. For the first time in U.S. history, America has orchestrated a Latin American coup with the smooth efficiency of an executive's well-managed image makeover. The term Eva Gollinger uses for the new imperial strategy is "smart power" and she describes it as follows: "The Obama

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-7577621577233994362009-11-01T14:24:00.000-08:002009-11-17T21:12:18.228-08:00

So far the accomplishments of Obama have been impressive:1) The defeat of the public option for health care and the guarantee of 46 million new customers to enhance health insurance industry profits.2) The rapid escalation of the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the delight of military contractors.3) The continuation of the war in Iraq when it faced almost certain termination.4) The expansion

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-24345954323724052922009-11-01T13:36:00.000-08:002009-11-07T10:23:37.511-08:00

Rage can be refreshing. For instance, contemplate the latest outrage by the Obama administration, "The Obama administration has, yet again, asserted the broadest and most radical version of the 'state secrets' privilege -- which previously caused so much controversy and turmoil among loyal Democrats (when used by Bush/Cheney) -- to attempt to block courts from ruling on the legality of the

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-20403593184548877312009-10-31T13:47:00.000-07:002009-10-31T14:08:18.031-07:00

The common wisdom about the current economic crisis is summed up well in a recent speech by David Korten of YES! Magazine: "From the late 70s onward, Wall Street market fundamentalists mobilized to roll back the rules to unleash a consolidation of corporate power and de-link it from public accountability. Their right-wing social-engineering experiment allowed Wall Street to colonize the Main

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-51270727735555624812009-10-29T19:44:00.000-07:002009-11-03T22:33:47.225-08:00

Clinton's words should send chills down the spine of lovers of peace, "I’m very pleased to announce that we’ve had a breakthrough in negotiations in Honduras. I want to congratulate the people of Honduras as well as President Zelaya and Mr. Micheletti for reaching an historic agreement." Zelaya and Micheletti have signed an agreement following the intervention in Tegucigalpa of a high-level

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-38670662219448734002009-10-17T13:54:00.001-07:002009-10-17T19:19:12.808-07:00

Either worshiping or hating the man Obama plays directly into the power strategy that is currently being implemented by the financial elite. Gandhi has shown us how to conduct the spiritual warfare that leads to genuine victory. Here he describes the physical qualifications required for a Satyagrahi (one who struggles nonviolently): "In the dictionary of the non-violent there is no such word as

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-48822258327702825202009-10-17T11:46:00.000-07:002009-10-17T13:54:36.255-07:00

Another rousing Obama success was recently noted by Glenn Greenwald: "...the surviving banks are bigger and more powerful than ever, thus maximizing our dependence on them, and the primary stated goal of the bailout (increasing lending) has not been achieved." The stated goal will not be achieved because it was never intended. More lending would lead to greater empowerment for those at the

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-63136619729035697482009-10-16T17:59:00.000-07:002009-10-26T19:17:58.007-07:00

The key insight of Naomi Klein's recent article "Obama's Bad Influence" is here: "Within forty-eight hours of the US announcement Italy, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Poland had pulled out. Unlike the United States, these governments had all signed the 2001 declaration, so they had no reason to object to a document that reaffirmed it. It didn't matter. As with the climate

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-10955413050135093882009-10-10T00:19:00.000-07:002009-11-07T10:29:00.750-08:00

"You have sacrificed nearly ten thousand American lives—the flower of our youth. You have devastated provinces. You have slain uncounted thousands of the people you desire to benefit. You have established reconcentration camps. Your generals are coming home from their harvest bringing sheaves with them, in the shape of other thousands of sick and wounded and insane to drag out miserable lives,

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-34077081956850212662009-10-03T14:19:00.000-07:002009-10-03T14:25:59.414-07:00

The news media serves many purposes for the ruling elite. However, these purposes would suffer damage if the media were to be too easily accused of propaganda. Therefore, dissident voices are tolerated and even rewarded because they provide the necessary contrast that is needed to reinforce the preferred voices. Viewers are conditioned to fall helpless victims to what is offered them. The

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-32439316154831777412009-10-03T10:31:00.000-07:002009-10-03T14:17:16.734-07:00

"Because a people disorganized becomes a mass that can be toyed with, but a people that organizes itself and fights for its values and for justice is a people that demands respect." - Oscar Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador, murdered by U.S. trained paramilitary fighters during Mass in 1980Only when our Christian resistance becomes serious enough to be reckoned with the transgressors, as Jesus

Boydnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-5633928013249019362009-09-27T17:32:00.000-07:002009-09-27T21:08:50.190-07:00

The typical U.S. anti-socialism meme resembles this recent post in Common Dreams: "Socialism goes against human nature. Humans are greedy creatures, just look at a toddler crying if it doesn't get the toy someone else has. In adults, the greed becomes more sophisticated and predatory. So I hate to agree with the scums on the Right, socialism IS utopia." - Common Dreams, "Is Obama a Socialist?"

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-49076083829306242712009-09-26T20:50:00.000-07:002009-09-26T21:10:27.420-07:00

Erich Fromm, who has a section in the "Sane Society" called "The Principle of Nonfrustration" seems particularly relevant to the current ecological crisis. As Aldous Huxley said in Brave New World, the principle of the current world order is: "Never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today." Happiness has become the instant realization of wishes, and these wishes, moreover, are largely

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-6755320293315155552009-09-26T14:46:00.001-07:002009-09-26T21:11:06.350-07:00

I applaud Robert Jensen's spirited defense of the "narrow gate," in his recent article, Is Obama a Socialist? Reflection on the Degradation of Politics and the Ecosystem. His is one of many efforts to break through the constricted vision of twentieth century ideologies to embrace the many dimensions of liberation: economic, political, and even religious.The demonization of "socialism" plays a

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-52612693221301829092009-09-12T21:08:00.000-07:002009-09-14T10:29:47.464-07:00

If only it were just a matter of a squandered summer. Frank Rich's editorial in the New York Times this Sunday "Obama's Squandered Summer" focuses on the tactical and strategic errors of the Obama administration, but a shift of perspective quickly unblurs the actual scenery and highlights the superb successes Obama has achieved this summer. His behavior this summer appears incompetent only if one

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-12938702057577761952009-09-05T19:52:00.000-07:002009-09-05T19:56:03.074-07:00

Many liberal pundits have fallen into a frenzy of Obama-bashing, but they’re blasting at the wrong target. Obama is not the cause of this crisis. He stands at the end of a long trail of decisions made by powerful elites in business and government over many decades. These decisions box the type of decisions that can be made into tight crevices, into one of which Obama is now cramped. One man, even

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-18482939173485646122009-08-23T21:54:00.000-07:002009-08-23T21:55:37.020-07:00

There is a pattern in Obama's behavior. First, he makes a strong rhetorical flourish that apparently contains a ringing endorsement of liberal policy. However, on close examination, it is found to contain subtle hedging, a slight obscuring of the issue inserted to provide cover for later. This is usually followed by a lengthy phase in which right wing forces accuse him of "socialism" in various

Boydnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-73817047580972260502009-08-23T21:53:00.000-07:002009-08-23T21:54:08.497-07:00

The best way to understand this idea and its power is by considering a product such as a Nike tennis shoe. In some societies, teenagers have killed for a Nike. No one dies for not having a Nike, but having one fills a psychological need so powerful that it can sweep away moral inhibitions, even those regarding human life. There seems to be a mysterious and infinite being behind this commodity

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-91626456696200358512009-08-14T18:09:00.000-07:002009-08-16T11:47:17.719-07:00

The illusion that prevents the acceptance of liberation theology is that spirituality involves turning away from this world to another world where we will one day make our home. God has already given us our home. It surrounds us on all sides. In the conventional view of Christianity the things of this world are of little value or moment because they are destined shortly to be transcended by

Boydnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-52790763218629219332009-08-08T18:19:00.001-07:002009-08-10T01:16:51.192-07:00

The starting point of a Christian political system originates from the Fathers of the Church such as St. John Chrysostom: "There is something terrible about greed, any guilty of it shall be be expelled from the Church." The central principle of Christian communism can be described as follows: "Enjoying goods alone means losing them, harming both the social whole and oneself. The crucial idea here

Boydnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-66854564853944500082009-08-02T17:54:00.000-07:002009-08-02T19:51:46.824-07:00

The following is the first part of an essay which seeks to probe the empire for weaknesses arising from the economic crisis in order to identify a way forward for leftists. In the first part, I sketch out the current situation.The current economic “crisis” is a crisis only for the poor and the middle class, which is scheduled for extinction. This “crisis” represents the consolidation of the

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-82464417473895062592009-07-26T14:34:00.000-07:002009-07-26T14:48:07.956-07:00

"I realized I had never understood the true meaning of 'rubble.' Such and such was "reduced to rubble" is a phrase we hear. It is different seeing what demolished buildings actually look like. Buildings in which people were living. Buildings from which hundreds of broken bodies have been removed; so thorough a job have the Palestinians done in removing the dead from squashed dwellings that no

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-72185886294789635712009-07-24T14:59:00.001-07:002009-07-26T12:32:59.360-07:00

Until we feel the humanity of other peoples of the world, for instance Afghanis and Pakistanis and Hondurans, with the same intensity that we demand respect for our own, so far will our humanity be degraded and ultimately destroyed.But a larger vision needs to be invoked. Our denial of our duties to humanity works in both directions. We have refused our duty to help create a world where

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-18339876360873626892009-07-19T11:37:00.000-07:002009-07-19T11:53:03.493-07:00

Obama’s primary imperial mission is to reinstate U.S. dominance in those areas where it has waned in recent years due to movements of popular resistance. Today this drama is playing out primarily in Latin America and portions of the Middle East. His strategy, likely to be effective, is to subtly manipulate the framing of events so that the result will reinforce corporate domination while

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-4853539822023337482009-07-05T10:35:00.000-07:002009-07-05T22:25:34.993-07:00

"At 7.30 in the morning on 3 June, a seven-month-old baby died in the intensive care unit of the European Gaza Hospital in the Gaza Strip. His name was Zein Ad-Din Mohammed Zu’rob, and he was suffering from a lung infection which was treatable." - John Pilger, "Smile on the face of the tiger", June 11, 2009.In the Talmud, it says, "Whoever saves a single life is as if he saved the whole world,

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-33326628951150611682009-07-04T08:31:00.001-07:002009-07-04T15:28:20.669-07:00

Christians who truly believe that God can only be loved by doing justice to the oppressed must think through their convictions. To say that we are concerned about the poor, but that we have no competence in matters of social structure is a refusal of both responsibility and compassion. The attitude is well characterized by Walter Wink, a theologian whom I admire above all other living

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-68292403917533274012009-06-19T17:18:00.000-07:002009-06-20T23:28:50.498-07:00

To be a Christian is to fight for the poor. Not to fight for justice means not to know God. Therefore it is impossible to be a Christian and not to be a true communist, though the converse is not true.Christianity is fundamentally incompatible with anti-Communism since communism is the primary social legacy of the Christian path to truth. More to the point in these days of "hope" and "change",

Boydnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-52635046602859195912009-06-07T12:11:00.000-07:002009-06-07T12:24:15.134-07:00

The following ideas are from a long-time struggler for social justice, Marta Harnecker, now living in Venezuela:"1. Popular movements and, more generally, various social actors who are engaged in the struggle against neoliberal globalization today at the international level as well as in their own countries reject, with good reason, actions that aim to impose hegemony on movements. They don’t

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-37243511144114359142009-06-01T10:24:00.000-07:002009-06-01T10:28:57.386-07:00

The drumbeat of betrayal is relentless. So far Obama has broken every progressive promise. Let’s examine the record as laid bare in Paul Street’s recent article, “The Dawning Age of Obama as a Potentially Teach-able Moment for The Left”, znet, May 30, 2009, then we will examine the spiritual pathology that underlies the self-deception of progressives regarding “hope” and “change”. So far the

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-66514250270984109152009-05-24T17:50:00.000-07:002009-05-24T17:54:03.041-07:00

In the words of Brecht's Galileo, "Happy the land that has the rule of law, but sad the land that needs it." And few nations have starved for it more that the U.S. does at present. Barbaric as are Cheney's ideas about the necessity for torture, he is at least correct in declaring that there can be no middle ground regarding political commitment to the security state. Either one believes that

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-11593741985417315392009-05-16T17:32:00.000-07:002009-05-16T17:39:39.595-07:00

"Capitalism, in many respects, has become a failed system in terms of the ecology, economy, and world stability. It can hardly be said to deliver the goods in any substantive sense, and yet in its process of unrestrained acquisition it is undermining the long-term prospects of humanity and the earth." - "Capitalism in Wonderland", Monthly Review, April 2009.""The world is suffering from a fever

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-39293905563299082322009-05-15T19:05:00.000-07:002009-05-16T17:40:36.925-07:00

"Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the former Special Operations chief who is President Obama's new choice to lead the war in Afghanistan, rose to military prominence because of his single-minded success in a narrow but critical mission: manhunting. As commander of the military's secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) for nearly five years starting in 2003, McChrystal masterminded a

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-48385884035746326522009-05-15T17:20:00.001-07:002009-05-15T17:21:46.053-07:00

Every week I read Greenwald's columns with pleasure and outrage, but also with a growing sense of amazement. I'm befuddled at how he can pierce through Obama's policies and practices so surely without drawing the obvious conclusion. Look at the succession of "And this" phrases in this article. Do they not aim at an unmistakable target?How right he is that "...the notion that releasing or

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-75285785642672423052009-05-06T16:21:00.000-07:002009-05-16T17:33:54.958-07:00

Obama's contribution to Middle East peace is etched on the face of the boy in this picture. He continues to etch U.S. imperialist policy on the face of every Afghan and Iraqi just as the Israeli boot has printed its face on Palestinians for 60 years. Utterly devoid of the moral core of the man he most frequently imitates, Dr. Martin Luther King, Obama is incapable of understanding the root of the

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-86022162708948798202009-05-02T21:44:00.000-07:002009-05-02T21:53:13.344-07:00

Who owns the means of production will always be the critical issue. If you own my means of livelihood, my ability to feed my family, then you will control much about how I look at the world. If identifying with your interests is the difference between advancing in my career and losing my income, then your view of the world will pervade my thoughts, whether I like it or not. If, on the other

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-40329653513890718762009-05-02T14:03:00.000-07:002009-05-02T14:07:33.803-07:00

We need to start with a fundamental question, "Why do the actions of our leaders contradict their words, particularly their words about the seriousness of global warming?" Why do they seem so determined to abandon their children and grandchildren to a world of floods and droughts and escalating climate disasters? Why do they continually sabotage efforts to create sustainable energy sources?

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-27075134372989716242009-05-02T13:10:00.000-07:002009-05-02T14:02:45.605-07:00

"'Obama,' [Robert Sheer] writes 'seems depressingly reliant on the same-old, same old cast of self-serving house wreckers who act as if government exists for the sole benefit of corporations and executives.'" "As if"? Is there any shadow of a doubt here? The election of Barack Obama was one of the most effective marketing campaigns in recent history and has many lessons for activists. The first

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-70948297231641245692009-05-01T17:27:00.000-07:002009-05-02T12:34:03.596-07:00

Let's reduce it basics. Christians cannot approve torture - ever. Our souls are protected by God, not by the CIA. Human harm is the essence of sin because sin is an offense against God, whose image is humanity. Christians who approve of torture have renounced the faith - root and branch. Christ was tortured for their salvation - to approve of torture is to renounce salvation.Yet Obama and

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-16155500114436245082009-04-27T00:43:00.000-07:002009-04-27T00:48:31.631-07:00

The first job of the American Resistance is to understand the forces arrayed against us. The tendency to personalize political forces is a temptation which the corporate media encourages us to indulge and which dissipates the power of our critique. While people make politics and exercise power, their decisions are usually a response to forces that are not personal and in most cases, have little

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-23412440837277589012009-04-17T18:51:00.000-07:002009-04-18T08:55:01.113-07:00

"Generally bad people can do good things (even if for ignoble reasons) and generally good people can do bad things. That's why I care little about motives, which I think, in any event, are impossible to know. Regardless of motives, good acts (releasing the torture memos) should be praised, and bad acts (arguing against prosecutions) should be condemned." - Glenn Greenwald, "The Significance of

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-34851845972409249722009-04-10T21:59:00.000-07:002009-04-10T22:14:13.842-07:00

Sanity can be defined as follows: "The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself, is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity, without panic and undue fear." - Erich Fromm, The Sane Society.What Mark Danner describes in "The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means", the ground-breaking report just published in the New York Times Book Review, is an obsession with

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-45541794378453934572009-04-08T17:52:00.000-07:002009-04-08T17:54:04.793-07:00

The first thing we need to recognize is that war is being waged on us. Forcible imposition of debt peonage is just as much violence as carpet bombing. Someone once said, "Poverty is worst form of violence."That means we have to decide how to respond to the violence waged against ourselves and our brothers and sisters. There is a power in us that is independent of money and violence. There is

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-17580861451489762912009-04-06T20:24:00.000-07:002009-04-06T20:26:07.468-07:00

How just it seems that we should be reduced to the same status as those we have exploited these many centuries. How proper that those among us who share the name of Christian should share the fate of the wretched of the earth.Massive non-cooperation is what's needed now. Clearly, Obama is playing the role of confidence-building front man to allow the assets of the U.S. Government to be openly

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-17193790647818819652009-04-03T20:54:00.000-07:002009-04-04T10:15:14.591-07:00

"We want a welfare system that is adequately funded and treats clients with dignity and respect. We want high quality education and healthcare for all, independent of one's financial means. And we want all this paid for by progressive taxes on income and wealth. We know that this is perfectly possible and can be achieved through well-tried policies. Only poor priorities that stem from the power

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-22504823841255178732009-03-29T10:15:00.000-07:002009-03-29T10:21:24.281-07:00

We should seriously ask ourselves the question, "Why are Americans so passive in the face of massive economic violence perpetrated on themselves and their children?"It appears to me to be the result of one of the most successful social conditioning campaigns in history. Whatever relates to commodities and productivity has become supremely real; whatever relates to political obligations has

Boydnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-56784415880656015342009-03-27T18:21:00.000-07:002009-03-29T10:22:35.917-07:00

You won't hear the hate. You won't hear the weeping of the mothers. You will be smothered in "concern". But the Israelis will pay in their souls for what they have done to the people of Gaza. Watch them fall apart over the next few years, eaten from the inside out by what they have done, by the violation of their own soul, no other."Tell her, tell her about the army, tell her to be proud of

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-13296354425978647352009-03-27T17:12:00.000-07:002009-03-27T20:03:12.353-07:00

Obama's vision is timid and conventional and fails to challenge the ruling assumptions that have resulted in the current crisis. "Aside of the immense injustice and irony of this, the main macroeconomic consequence of these bailouts then is that the upper crust will emerge from this crisis even richer relative to everybody else, and literally by extorting hard cash from everybody else." -

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-30211056471721166672009-03-22T12:18:00.001-07:002009-03-22T12:33:41.226-07:00

Is the president really trapped? Is popular anger even worth noticing? Populist outrage can only be a force in American politics if it is possessed of a critique that cannot be easily undermined by the corporate media. In order words, popular outrage can only act as a force for change if it is informed outrage – anger that includes an alternative vision of how financial power could be

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-51556723096706196472009-03-22T12:18:00.000-07:002009-06-22T21:21:33.181-07:00

Is the president really trapped? Is popular anger even worth noticing? Populist outrage can only be a force in American politics if it is possessed of a critique that cannot be easily undermined by the corporate media. In order words, popular outrage can only act as a force for change if it is informed outrage – anger that includes an alternative vision of how financial power could be

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-20261618345116226632009-03-21T22:28:00.000-07:002009-03-21T22:34:07.936-07:00

While some may think that that Obama is dumb as a bag of hammers for serving the interests of the Wall Street elite, there is another way of viewing the matter. In this view, Obama has his role to play and, frankly, he is playing it brilliantly.One way to characterize Obama’s political decisions is this: “But if you're willing to risk the entirety of a potentially great presidency on making sure

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-68115829061169202712009-03-20T16:55:00.000-07:002009-03-20T19:07:30.741-07:00

Obama team decisions need to be placed in a broader context. They appear to have made decisions at the beginning of the crisis that have locked them into automatic behavior. Their first decision, perhaps implicit, was to commit to the banking system as it currently exists. They decided that there was no fundamental problem with investment banks, hedge funds, or the shadow banking system that

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-90970151360117377102009-03-14T16:46:00.000-07:002009-03-14T17:04:07.681-07:00

“The only way around this problem is to seize power from the elite, such that the people themselves become the power structure. The elite *as a class* must be destroyed.”This is the goal toward which we must aim and short-term strategies must never lose focus on the ultimate aim. A number of forces are converging in the present crisis. David Harvey’s analysis of the bailout strategy highlights

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-75582288604641632562009-03-07T18:12:00.000-08:002009-03-07T18:21:55.354-08:00

"...we assume it to be a makeover, a brand alteration, an attempt precisely to +reduce+ pressure on the system to change." Precisely. The ruling elite knew that pressure from below would start to mount from many easily identifiable forces, so they turned to their staunch allies in such times. The role of the Democratic party in the U.S. has always been to act as a lightning rod for social

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-26539589764648952622009-02-28T15:34:00.001-08:002009-02-28T22:16:59.641-08:00

Once upon a time, a major Catholic theologian named Johann Baptist Metz wrote a seminal essay called “The Church after Auschwitz”. In this essay, he cited the sad, profound words of Elie Wiesel, “The thoughtful Christian knows that it was not the Jewish people that died at Auschwitz, but rather Christianity.” This judgement applies not to the religion of Jesus Christ, but to that form of

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-29649223207739388432009-02-27T17:51:00.001-08:002009-02-27T17:52:26.847-08:00

The gushing enthusiasm over Obama has been manufactured in order to evoke the illusion of change. This illusion is extremely useful for many purposes, but primarily because it allows the same policies to be pursued with different apparent justifications. The masses by necessity live on hope. Nurturing this hope is a key factor in the continuing dominance of the command and control system of

Boydnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-45527971530737459792009-02-22T16:54:00.000-08:002009-02-22T16:59:44.209-08:00

The financial elites do not care about the anger of the American taxpayer because they don't have to. Obama’s decisions are implicitly controlled by the same financial interests that caused the crisis in the first place. A careful examination of his Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan (HASP) plan reveals the following: HASP will in most cases depend on the voluntary participation of

Boydnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-15387007025395883842009-02-20T23:57:00.000-08:002009-02-22T17:04:38.416-08:00

“Mr. President of the State of Israel, I am writing to you to intervene with the appropriate authorities to withdraw from the Yad Vashem memorial dedicated to the memory of Jewish victims of Nazism, the name of my grandfather, Moshe Brajtberg, gassed at Treblinka in 1943, and those of other members of my who family died during deportation to various Nazi camps during World War II. I ask you to

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-73057685150842671052009-02-14T13:53:00.000-08:002009-02-14T13:59:21.891-08:00

“The major problem now is that these entities -- the ones that ought to be applying pressure on Obama from the Left and opposing him when he moves too far Right -- are now completely boxed in. They've lost -- or, more accurately, voluntarily relinquished -- their independence. They know that criticizing -- let alone opposing -- Obama will mean that all those new readers they won last year will

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-87171816371913238012009-02-14T13:50:00.000-08:002009-02-14T13:52:44.583-08:00

The sad fact that Obama represents no change from the fundamental priorities of the Bush and Clinton administrations is rapidly becoming manifest. A renewed surge for the war in Afghanistan appears to be one of the few campaign promises he intends to keep. This week, his Attorney General explicitly endorsed Bush's policy on renditions and Bush's refusal to recognize the jurisdiction of US

Boydnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-85828126032346139562009-02-08T19:14:00.000-08:002009-06-22T21:22:01.606-07:00

The best operating system in the world did not require billions in venture capital. It was designed by students and hobbyists during their disposable time. In other words, it was designed and produced using socialist production methods and has now achieved “market” penetration that seriously threatens the “efficient” capitalist monster Microsoft. The name of this operating system is Linux and

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-10771568644849202952009-02-01T23:04:00.000-08:002009-02-02T00:53:31.938-08:00

“We can assert with confidence that the present system cannot survive. What we cannot predict is which new order will be chosen to replace it, because it will be the result of an infinity of individual pressures. But sooner or later, a new system will be installed. This will not be a capitalist system but it may be far worse (even more polarizing and hierarchical) or much better (relatively

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-29382348450799057472009-01-25T16:42:00.001-08:002009-01-25T16:44:14.711-08:00

Here is a story from Gaza contributed by Barbara Lubin, the well-respected humanitarian leader of the Middle East Children's Alliance, a non-profit organization working for the rights and the well being of children in the Middle East by sending s shipments of aid to Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon, and supporting projects that make life better for the children."There are so many stories to tell from

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-14731707129453208272009-01-18T16:12:00.000-08:002009-01-18T16:19:30.508-08:00

I'd first like to explain why I identify the Palestinian people of Gaza with Jesus Christ. Fundamental to the gospel is God's love and predilection for the weak and abused of human history. This is not based on their moral purity or piety, but because of who God is. In the Beatitudes, the word for "poor" is ptochoi, meaning the "stooped", the "dismayed". Note that it says nothing about

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-48893235265921317952009-01-17T12:44:00.000-08:002009-01-17T19:07:36.230-08:00

"An Israeli Apache helicopter pilot is refusing to take part in the ongoing onslaught against the civilians in the Gaza Strip.Captain Orr, who has flown dozens of combat missions over Gaza the past few weeks, said Tuesday that he decided to abort missions to avoid killing civilians after seeing children near his intended targets.He also expressed sorrow for civilian casualties, the people who

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-70691029854348153902009-01-10T21:47:00.000-08:002009-01-10T21:56:49.936-08:00

The image of the cross is the image of unjust suffering. The battle with the injustice which crucifies the poor, is the assertion of God. The practice of injustice or resigned passivity in the face of such idols and such injustice is the rejection of God. To make this suffering concrete, consider what happened in Zeitoun. The IDF raided it on Sunday, quickly establishing total control. The

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-87739475646210250582009-01-04T15:38:00.000-08:002009-01-04T15:45:16.689-08:00

They are the image of our pierced savior. Their crucifixion has been long and heightened with all the cruelties that contemporary ingenuity can dream of. Every day they cry out to God. But they have not been broken."He had no form or majesty that we should look at him,Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.He was despised and rejected by others;A man of suffering and acquainted

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-12992075880535569292008-12-31T16:59:00.000-08:002008-12-31T17:00:02.736-08:00

Dear Real News,There aren't two sides to the story of a real rape. One side has all the technological might on its side, the other has nothing but its suffering to offer. How can the RN continue its "equality" coverage? Can't it see through the illusion?How many news reports inform the audience that Hamas was the democratically elected government of Gaza? No one disputes that this government was

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-643778286002106762008-12-31T08:57:00.000-08:002009-06-22T21:22:28.924-07:00

"Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou belike unto him.Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise inhis own conceit."- Prov. 26:5-6Why does the dominant elite seem to consider the prospect of global warming to be a minor nuisance rather than the threat of overwhelming catastrophe as scientists portray it?Could it be that the dominant elite has become the victim of its own

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-15083542235720543862008-12-28T08:43:00.000-08:002009-01-03T21:19:50.927-08:00

"Beyond the pyrotechnics, however, there has been another kind of conflagration: what started as concentrated rage at the police has assumed the dimensions of a social rebellion, moving beyond the actions of a 'violent fringe' to involve large numbers of young people." - "Greek fire: from riot to social rebellion - Collective Reinventions", Dec. 20, 2008What the corporate owned media portrays as

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-31550598311543049972008-12-26T20:02:00.000-08:002008-12-27T18:55:07.669-08:00

What the ruling elite most fears is the conscious human being. The one conscious of the great inner power which each person possesses as soon as he or she becomes aware of the constant molding to which we are compelled to submit. Every media transmission converges to reinforce the message that we are powerless, that our actions are meaningless, that only the experts have the knowledge required

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-32312399901314608612008-12-25T17:24:00.000-08:002008-12-25T19:47:00.612-08:00

"The Kingdom of Heaven is not a kingdom or life in the clouds. Either it exists here or else it exists nowhere," - Hugo ChávezThe Christ child was born on earth, poor and human, to fight to make this planet the kingdom of heaven. He fought for equality and justice, had no reverence for metaphysical poverty, but strove to eliminate real poverty, poverty of soul and body."Christ was born to call

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-32281784597145174942008-12-24T20:06:00.001-08:002009-06-22T21:22:50.833-07:00

"The Israelis are criminals. They tried to starve 1.5 million people and intensified the effects of their evil (and illegal) food blockade by denying hospitals the equipment, drugs and bandages they needed." - Brian Cloughly, "Gaza's One-Sided Images", Dec. 31, 2008But like many other patients in Gaza he had been made to leave an overcrowded hospital to make way for the dying. Yesterday his house

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-12773837395875105812008-12-20T09:40:00.000-08:002008-12-20T18:42:35.289-08:00

The nature of capitalism was well-described by St. Thomas Aquinas, "The other kind of exchange is either that of money for money, or of any commodity for money, not on account of the necessities of life, but for profit, and this kind of exchange, properly speaking, regards tradesmen, according to the Philosopher (Polit. i, 3). The former kind of exchange is commendable because it supplies a

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-49344618499272579252008-12-19T22:57:00.000-08:002008-12-19T23:08:18.733-08:00

Capitalism is not an abstraction, it is a concrete fact that we live with every day. It has a nature that we can describe by observing what it actually acts like in the real world. That nature does not lend itself to increasing contributions to provide more and more of life's necessities first. It never has done that and it never will because the engine of capitalism is profit, not reasonable

Boydnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8111470.post-58470724175002896052008-12-19T17:01:00.000-08:002008-12-19T17:24:38.341-08:00

"It is so bad that people are only buying what they need." - The Betrayal of the Commons, Richard Thieme, Dec. 19, 2008. Thus ends the endless cultivation of depraved, inhuman, artificial needs so obsessively cultivated over so many decades, all ending with an ugly, swollen face in the mirror. "The world that collapsed was built on people buying things they didn't need. Then throwing them away

Boydnoreply@blogger.com1