A Way to Combat ALEC/NRA Gun Laws?
So. Gun politics seem to be about money and power. I want to get elected, I take pro-gun positions, take NRA money, promise to pass legislation and if elected, fulfill my end of the deal. I want a...
View ArticleCollectivism and One Person, One Vote
When I read Charles Koch's Editorial in the Wall Street Journal, I was struck by his use of the terms "collectivist" and "collectivism" as if they were the 21st century's most loathsome four-letter...
View ArticleParticipation in the Process/A Grain of Sand
Several comments in response to a recent diary I posted, Collectivism and One Person, One Vote, has had me thinking about participation in the political process. Of course, the right and responsibility...
View Article10,000 Shades of Grey
I have been following with interest several posts over the past few days that deal with how to respond when candidates are not closely matched to our ideals of what a candidate should be or what or...
View Article"The most important anti-corruption candidate in America today"
The past few weeks have been hard. There have been many tragedies that have rightly occupied the news and public discourse. I don’t like the feeling of being powerless in the face of all this. So I...
View ArticleBreaking: NYS AFL-CIO Withholds Endorsement From Cuomo!
My apologies for a "hit and run" diary, but I am at work and will attempt to flesh out this evening with further developments. In the meantime, excellent article with significant links to further...
View ArticleZephyr Teachout and the politics of positive speech
Words matter. Yes, actions speak louder than words. But before any action comes the word that describes it, and even if that word is spoken only to ourselves as we initiate the act, it matters. The...
View ArticleWhat's a governor to do?
Or better still, how should a governor "do," how should they govern? So do the rich and the powerful travel to the governor to press their case? Or should the governor go out among the populace they...
View ArticleWhat Elizabeth Warren and Zephyr Teachout have in common
Over the past couple of years, I watched in rapt fascination of the rise of Elizabeth Warren. On news shows (bless you MSNBC), her ability to see to the heart of complex issues and illuminate that...
View ArticleVoting Your Aspirations vs. Voting Your Fears
Voting your fears. We all know what "holding your nose when you walk into the voting booth" means. We live it all too often. It is understandable, especially these days when the lesser of two evils...
View ArticleIf you do it right, you'll get to vote TWICE in NY Gov. race
Andrew Cuomo is already on the ballot for the general election in the State of New York as the candidate of three political parties, regardless of tomorrow's outcome. So if Zephyr Teachout wins the...
View ArticleFighting Ourselves; A Plea for Unity
I have been absent from diary writing for quite some time. It has been a time of examination and reflection in pursuit of the answer to a question that I felt I needed to answer before writing again,...
View ArticleMaybe historical precedent can indicate a strategy for dealing with ISIL.
East Germany fell in less than two months due to a mass exodus of its citizens. Hungary opened its border with East Germany in August of 1989, and by the end of October, schools were closing due to a...
View ArticleTruth.
With all the vitriol being poured out these days… I have been struggling to write something that might help show a way out. Months of writing and conversations, and while I am closer than I was, it is...
View ArticleOn Being Wrong...
Today I had one of those lucky moments… I had just gotten into the car after grocery shopping, and Neil deGrasse Tyson was the celebrity guest for a news quiz on “Wait Wait,,, Don’t Tell Me!” He was...
View ArticleLessons from the sixties and seventies...
A couple of recent diaries have looked back at our accomplishments back in the sixties when we dared to dream big. It was a fun trip down memory lane. But then other images from the sixties and then...
View Article"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
Maybe my timing was wrong. Maybe the title was off-putting, or didn’t have that certain “zing.” But after the Clonezone fiasco of yesterday, I think that the topic needs to be revisited, and am...
View ArticleTo Be in a Constant State of Beginning
I had a friend many years ago who was quite unusual in his approach to life. His friends always called him Rick, his family called him Ricky. For some reason, I always called him Richard. He was a...
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Can we talk?
As part of the activities around International Women’s Day, I attended an event billed as “Conversations about Race, Gender and Sexuality.” An implicit sentiment that bounced around the room that was...
View ArticleA Small Force Consistently Applied Can Change the World
As I have read recently about states stripping rights away from the LGBTQ community and about court decisions stripping the ability to vote from citizens, I reflected on how easy it is for hard won...
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