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+ Robert Reich offers “Berkeley vs. Big Soda" by Robert Reich”. 

+ Truthdig offers “Driving American Politics Underground” by Chris Hedges. Excerpts: “We have devolved into what Alexis de Tocqueville feared—‘democratic despotism.’” / “Pundits and news celebrities on the airwaves engage in fevered speculation about whether the wife of a former president will run for office—and this after the mediocre son of another president spent eight years in the White House. This is not politics. It is gossip. Opinion polls, the staple of what serves as political reporting, are not politics. They are forms of social control. The use of billions of dollars to fund election campaigns and pay lobbyists to author legislation is not politics. It is legalized bribery. The insistence that austerity and economic rationality, rather than the welfare of the citizenry, be the primary concerns of the government is not politics. It is the death of civic virtue. The government’s system of wholesale surveillance and the militarization of police forces, along with the psychosis of permanent war and state-orchestrated fear of terrorism, are not politics. They are about eradicating civil liberties and justifying endless war and state violence. The chatter about death panels, abortion, gay rights, guns and undocumented children crossing the border is not politics. It is manipulation by the power elites of emotion, hate and fear to divert us from seeing our own powerlessness.”

+ "Why 99, you know we have to murder and kill and destroy in order to preserve everything that's good in the world." --Maxwell Smart to Agent 99

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+ On The Abundancetrek Blog I offer a brilliant statement by Barrett Lee on the importance of building a just society. He offers it in response to a quote by Jimmy Carter and a Facebook conversation which I highlight.

+ The God's Politics blog offers "Ten More Cliches Christians Should Avoid" by Christian Piatt. Here's one:

Love the sinner, hate the sin.
This is a backhanded way to tell someone you love them, at best. It also ignores the command by Jesus not to focus on the splinter in our neighbors’ eyes while a plank remains in our own. Bottom line: we all screw up, and naming others’ sin as noteworthy while remaining silent about your own is arrogant.

+ Truthdig offers "We Are All Aboard the Pequod" by Chris Hedges. Excerpt: "The self-destructive fury of the quest, much like that of the one we are on, assures the Pequod’s destruction. And those on the ship, on some level, know they are doomed—just as many of us know that a consumer culture based on corporate profit, limitless exploitation and the continued extraction of fossil fuels is doomed." | Read it all |

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+ updated at 12:47pm ESDT on Wednesday, May 9, 2012

+ Truthout offers "The People's Bishop" by Chris Hedges.  Hedges challenges us Christians to emulate what this courageous Bishop did: Get arrested over and over again on behalf of the people and stop supporting the plutocrats.

+ Spirituality and Practice offers an excerpt from The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work, and Your World by Claudia Horwitz.  Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat say that she "blends contemplation and social action in an appealing way." Here is an excerpt from the excerpt: "A practice is simply a habit that gives us energy and reminds us of what matters most. Every moment in our lives is a chance to be present and to open our hearts. How do we take advantage of this? How do we live each moment to the fullest? One way is by taking concentrated time each day to notice the peaks and the valleys with a tender awareness and without added drama."

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+ TruthDig offers “Where Were You When They Crucified My Lord?” by Chris Hedges. It begins: "The Occupy movement is the force that will revitalize traditional Christianity in the United States or signal its moral, social and political irrelevance. The mainstream church, battered by declining numbers and a failure to defiantly condemn the crimes and cruelty of the corporate state, as well as a refusal to vigorously attack the charlatans of the Christian right, whose misuse of the Gospel to champion unfettered capitalism, bigotry and imperialism is heretical, has become a marginal force in the life of most Americans, especially the young." READ IT ALL.

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+ updated at 2:22pm ESDT on Monday, October 17, 2011.

+ In "America's 'Primal Scream," Nicholas D. Kristoff offers some important reflections on the Occupy Wall Street movement. He says it's resonating because most of us are quite aware of the growing income inequality here in the USA and elsewhere. 

+ In "A Movement Too Big to Fail," Chris Hedges offers some important reflections on the Occupy Wall Street movement. It begins: "There is no danger that the protesters who have occupied squares, parks and plazas across the nation in defiance of the corporate state will be co-opted by the Democratic Party or groups like MoveOn. The faux liberal reformers, whose abject failure to stand up for the rights of the poor and the working class, have signed on to this movement because they fear becoming irrelevant."

+ In his latest sermon, The Myth of the Call, John Shuck has some very profound thoughts about the call of Abram and how it relates both positively and negatively to our current movements for compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance.  Here is the conclusion of that sermon:

The myth of the call is rooted in patriarchal spirituality. The figure is Abraham. He gets the divine summons to leave what is familiar, to leave his comfort zone, and to be a blessing. The call to be a blessing is a source of power that we can tap into in our contemporary movements for justice and peace, such as the movement taking place around the country. That call to go out and demonstrate, to dream of change, and to act is a powerful and necessary thing.

The shadow of the call is fanaticism. Abram’s call involved a displacement of the Canaanites and the willingness to kill his own son for this vision. There is delusion, fanaticism, carelessness, and ruthlessness associated with this call. Abram needs a partner. He needs a strong Sarai. Before going off to sacrifice their son, he might ask her opinion first.

If there is a call, it is to all of us. It is a call to be as well as to do. The values of relationship, companionship, diversity, wisdom, partnership, nurturing, and compassion will make our movement for social and economic justice stronger, more sustainable, and will enlarge that circle of blessing.

+ It is high time for us Presbyterians to do what some courageous, prophetic Methodists are doing. Go to http://johnshore.com/2011/10/17/methodist-ministers-to-perform-gay-weddings-despite-ban/.

By the way, some prophetic and courageous Presbyterians are doing GLBT weddings but more are needed.

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+ updated at 1:10pm ESDT on Tuesday, April 26, 2011

+ I love Baseball and particularly the Red Sox.  I waited along with the rest of New England for a team to finally win a World Series. 1918 was a long time ago.  I was a fan when they won the American League pennant in 1967 but lost the World Series in 7 games to the St. Louis Cardinals.  Then, in 1975, they lost in 7 games to the Cincinnati Reds.  And the same thing happened in 1986, this time to the Mets. But then, finally, in 2004, the miracle happened.  They lost the first 3 games in the American League Championship Series to the Yankees.  But then won the next 4.  They went on to sweep the Cardinals in the World Series. It had been 86 years.  It was a long wait for New England and all Sox fans.  Then, in 2007, the Sox won another World Series.

This year, the experts predicted a banner season for the Sox as they strengthened their batting line-up with some high salary talent and continue to have a strong pitching staff.  But it didn't start out the way the experts predicted.  They lost their first 6 games in Texas and Cleveland.  The Yankees came to town and the Red Sox showed some life, taking 2 out of 3.  But then came 3 more losses. 2 and 10! 

But now, Red Sox Nation is full of hope once again because our heroes have won 8 out of the last 9 including the last 5 in a row.  10 and 11.  Go Sox!

+ TruthDig offers "The Corporate State Wins Again" by Chris Hedges.  It begins: "When did our democracy die? When did it irrevocably transform itself into a lifeless farce and absurd political theater? When did the press, labor, universities and the Democratic Party—which once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible—wither and atrophy? When did reform through electoral politics become a form of magical thinking? When did the dead hand of the corporate state become unassailable?" Read it all.

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+ Spirituality and Practice offers An Excerpt from Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America by Chris Hedges. Here's an excerpt from the excerpt: "The commandments are one of the earliest attempts to lay down rules and guidelines to sustain community. The commandments include the most severe violations and moral dilemmas in human life, although these violations are often beyond the scope of the law. They were for the ancients, and are for us, the rules that, when honored, hold us together and when dishonored lead to alienation, discord and violence."

CONFRONTING THE TERRORIST WITHIN

TruthDig offers "Confronting the Terrorist Within" by Chris Hedges. Chris is always provocative and informed. He now writes regularly for TruthDig.

Excerpt 1: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when viewed from the receiving end, are state-sponsored acts of terrorism. These wars defy every ethical and legal code that seek to determine when a nation can wage war, from Just War Theory to the statutes of international law largely put into place by the United States after World War II. These wars are criminal wars of aggression. They have left hundreds of thousands of people, who never took up arms against us, dead and seen millions driven from their homes.

Excerpt 2: Barack Obama’s decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan and leave behind tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines in Iraq—he promises only to withdraw combat brigades—is a failure to rescue us from the status of a rogue nation. It codifies Bush’s "war on terror."

Excerpt 3: The dark motivations of Islamic extremists mirror our own.

Excerpt 4: The vain effort to purify the world through force is always self-defeating. Those who insist that the world can be molded into their vision are the most susceptible to violence as antidote. The more uncertainty, fear and reality impinge on this utopian vision, the more strident, absolutist and aggressive are those who call for the eradication of "the enemy."

Excerpt 5: The world is far more complex than our childish vision of good and evil. We as a nation and a culture have no monopoly on virtue. We carry within us the same propensities for terror as those we oppose.

Excerpt 6: Those who externalize evil and seek to eradicate that evil through violence lose touch with their own humanity and the humanity of others. They cannot make moral distinctions. They are blind to their own moral corruption.

I guess you can see what I mean when I say provocative. But, as I also said, he is informed. So we should not, indeed must not, ignore his analysis and insights. Our global policy needs to change. Chris Hedges should be taken seriously. Obama promises to listen to many points of view. I hope he listens to this one.

CHRIS HEDGES ON HEALTH CARE CRISIS

Truthdig offers "Curb Your Enthusiasm for Obama" by Chris Hedges. I'm a fan of Chris Hedges so when he writes a column about the health care crisis I pay attention. But, first, let me tell you about Chris Hedges.

He is the son of a Presbyterian Minister. He was a war correspondent for the New York Times. As a result of those experiences, he wrote War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning. He followed up with Losing Moses on the Freeway, a refreshing and challenging call to renew our commitment to the Ten Commandments. Last year he turned his focus to the dangers of extremist religion in America in American Fascists. This year he has given us 2 more important books. In I Don't Believe in Atheists, he has exposed the disturbing methods of the new breed of anti-religion atheists. His latest, Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians, deals with the huge failures of the military occupation of Iraq.

So, then, what does he say about the Health Care crisis? He offers convincing and disturbing evidence that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have any intention of taking on the huge insurance industry. So, the crisis is likely to get worse no matter who wins the White House or Congress. Here's an excerpt: "We face a health crisis. The Democratic and Republican parties, awash in campaign contributions from the beasts they should be slaying on our behalf, have no interest in addressing it. A report in the journal Health Affairs estimates that, if the system is left unchanged, one of every five dollars spent by Americans in 2017 will go to health coverage. Half of all bankruptcies in America are because families are unable to pay their medical bills. There are some 46 million Americans without coverage and tens of millions more with inadequate policies that severely limit what kinds of procedures and treatments they can receive."