PROGRESSIVISM: Robert Reich / “What’s at Stake in the 2012 Election”
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Category Archives: Metaphysics
RELIGIOUS SATIRICAL POETRY: Bill Moyers / “The Poetry of Philip Appleman” / VIDEO
Bill talks with and invites readings by renowned poet, novelist, and editor Philip Appleman, whose creativity spans a long life filled with verse, fiction, philosophy, and religion. The author of nine books of poetry, three novels, and six volumes of non-fiction, Appleman’s most acclaimed work includes explorations of the life and theories of Charles Darwin. A scholar of Darwin, Appleman edited the critical anthology Darwin, and wrote the poetry books Darwin’s Ark and Darwin’s Bestiary, earning him praise for illuminating the “overwhelming sanity” of Darwin’s thought with clarity and wit. Appleman’s latest poetry collection is Perfidious Proverbs.
ASTROPHYSICS / PHILOSOPHY: Neil deGrasse Tyson / “A Fascinatingly Disturbing Thought”
h/t: Planet Atheism
h/t: Our Daily Train
LOGIC: “The Burden of Proof”
MUSIC – PROGRESSIVE ROCK: Rush / “The Trees” / 1978
There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the Maples want more sunlight
And the Oaks ignore their pleas
The trouble with the maples
And they’re quite convinced they’re right
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can’t help their feelings
If they like the way they’re made
And they wonder why the maples
Can’t be happy in their shade
There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream ‘Oppression!’
And the oaks, just shake their heads
So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
‘The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light’
Now there’s no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet,
Axe,
And saw
ATHEISM: The Complete Idiots Guide to Atheism
PHILOSOPHY: George Carlin / “The End of America and Social Stratification” / “Religion and Consumerism”
Part 1: “The End of America and Social Stratification”
Part 2: “Religion and Consumerism”
COMMUNITY ACTIVISM: Bill Moyers / “How Citizen Power Can Save a Library”
In this web-exclusive Bill Moyers Essay, Bill professes his lifelong love for libraries and their strong cultural value, and points to a crisis in public library funding across the country. But he also shares a unique and controversial community effort in Troy, Michigan that kept its library from becoming a political casualty, and serves as “a reminder of what can happen when we act together.”
Watch the full video below that explains how the Tea Party put the library in jeopardy, and how the town — with the help ad agency Leo Burnett — successfully fought back.
POLITICAL SATIRE: “Less Is More”
h/t: truthdig.org
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
~ John F. Kennedy
XENOPHOBIC BIGOTRY: Robert Reich / “Excluding Outsiders or Coming Together for the Common Good: What’s the True Meaning of Patriotism?”
[…]
[R]egressives have no interest in preserving or protecting our system of government. To the contrary, they show every sign of wanting to be rid of it.
In fact, regressives in Congress have substituted partisanship for patriotism, placing party loyalty above loyalty to America.
The GOP’s highest-ranking member of Congress has said his “number one aim” is to unseat President Obama. For more than three years congressional Republicans have marched in lockstep, determined to do just that. They have brooked no compromise.
They couldn’t care less if they mangle our government in pursuit of their partisan aims. Senate Republicans have used the filibuster more frequently in this Congress than in any congress in history.
[…]
So when regressives talk about “preserving and protecting” the nation, be warned: They mean securing our borders, not securing our society.
Always Question Authority 