The fewer the desires, the more peace.
-Woodrow Wilson
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Thursday, September 20, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Supercapitalism is a new book by economist Robert Reich. I first heard about this new book from a Fresh Air interview with Terri Gross. Then, it seemed like every time I looked up somebody was talking about this book. At this point I feel I need to be forthright and disclose that Dr. Reich is my main man for economic policy. He is a true progressive in my mind. He believes government is created to do for the public good what the often limited resources of the individual or a smaller governmental institutions (state. and municipalities ) can't do. We progressives, believe the Fed should have major social programs like national healthcare, Social Security, and Unemployment insurance. The Federal Government's welfare is not for people to make a living off of (I don't see how anyone could do that anyway) but to give them assistance in times when they are in need.
In Dr. Reich's new book, he argues that the demand for low, low prices by consumers, and higher returns for investors has put corporations in a bind. On the one hand, the demand for lower prices means a need for lower labor cost, which
impacts US jobs one way or the other. On the other hand, the demand higher returns means keeping overhead down so you can maximize profit, this often results in companies downsizing or outsourcing. The pressure on the American Labor force effects workers' incomes, so basically our demand for these things put pressure on our jobs; we are slitting our own throats. Pretty insightful, don't you think? This book is next on my reading list, be on the look out for insights from the book as I read it.
Finally, here's some youtube footage of Dr. Reich discussing this book.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007
My blog has some new features that I am so excited about that I feel the need to point them out and explain them to you. First, I want to tell you about the Barrack Obama widget that links you to the latest videos his campaign has posted to youtube. I put this up not because
I am all that enthusiastic supporter of Obama, but because I support his embrace of the power of technology to get his message out. Most of
the candidates are using youtube, but Obama's camp has
gone further by widgetizing a feed to those videos on
youtube. The second feature I want to point you to is a flash audio widget that allows you to listen to and subscribe to the podcasts I am listening to. I am a big fan of podcasts. I have an mp3 player that has not one minute of music on it.I use it almost exclusively to listen to podcasts, And through podcastready, the application I use "to catch" my favorite products, you can get fed off of what I am feeding my head with. Thirdly and finally, another flash audio widget. This. widget streams audio to one special podcast that is particularly near and dear to my heart, and thats the podcast that I am myself producing for Tree of Life Ministries, Intl., a web-based ministry. that some minister friends and myself have started. With this widget you can listen to our latest podcasts right from this site, pretty cool I thought, Well, those are the new features I hope you find them useful.
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Monday, September 17, 2007
Few are agreeable in conversation, because each thinks more of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and listens no more when he himself has a chance to speak.
-Francois de La Roche Foucauld French author & moralist (1613 - 1680)
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Friday, September 14, 2007
Today on my way to the Farmer 's
Market to pick up some fruit, I
had one of those NPR driveway moments.
A driveway moment is when you can't
turn off the radio, can't turnoff
the car, can't get out of the car,
because you are captivated by a story
being run on NPR at the time. The
object of my intense interest was
a, story about methane gas geysers
in the fresh water lakes of the
near arctic north. It was ostensibly
just another story about the subtle,
but apocalyptic effects of global
warming, however as Melissa Block
related what she was seeing in the lake
I became more intrigued. She talked
about how the lake had the look of
a giant fizzing soda pop in the area
where the gas was rising out of the lake.
I think what really grabbed me was when they began describing what happened when open flame was
placed near the gas geyser,
a blowtorch effect was created. I guess I sat in
the car for about 5 minutes until they
finished the story, only us loyal NPR listeners know how subversive and disruptive NPR really is.
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Where does this guy get this stuff from? The Lord? Seemingly.
We love you nakedpastor, and as you continue to get naked, you will help us throw off some of our inhibitions and religious traditions. Take us back to Eden,we are ready to go there with you.
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Thursday, September 13, 2007
I was surprised when I ran across this little techno-political nugget that further illustrates how political campaigning is catching on to the power and utility of the web. Well, actually it appears that the Democrats get it more than the Republicans. And even more to the point, it looks like Barrack Obama and his people get it more than any other campaign. The other day I went by Widgetbox to see if they had a generic video viewers like the google audio widget, and ran across a gang of Barack Obama widgets. From a widget that plays the latest video produced by his campaign to one that tells you the details of his next speaking engagement. Go Obama, him and Edwards are running neck and neck for my vote and for most net smart/tech savy. But I agree with what many in the blogosphere are saying about Obama and Edwards, namely that they should join forces against Clinton.
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Today is two for Tuesday. We have a
quote and some video footage of the man behind the quote. Check it-out:
Not all conservatives are
authoritarians, but all authoritarians
are conservative.
-John Dean, author of Conservatives Without a Conscience
Update:
As you can see I was supposed to
post this tuesday, but I got busy producing my first podcast for
Tree of Life Ministries, Intl., a ministry that some friends and I have started up.
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Sunday, September 9, 2007
What do you think about how I blog in ink? Ever at least wondered how I do it? I have made a little screencast with Camtasia Studio that shows the rather tedious, but highly rewarding process that I go through to create a blog in ink with searchable text and hyperlinks using Build 52. I realize that ink blogs will never be anything more than a novel idea with limited market penetration, but I think ink or more specifically handwriting is more conceptually congruent with the very personal, self-reflective nature of most blogs. I mean a blog is really like a web diary, and when you think of a diary you don't think of text you think of ink. Then, most people don't have tablet pc's or umpc's which are
almost essential to be able to ink blog. As the tablet pc gets more and more mainstream maybe ink blogging will pick up few more adherents until then I guess its just you and me, Sumocat.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Listen to this indictment on self-help books issued by these two bestselling authors who wrote a book together called "Why We Read What We Read" based on extensive research of books on the Publishers' Weekly bestseller's list for the past 16 years. I'm thinking this could easily apply to the messages many prosperity gospel preachers of the televangelist bilk. To me they make believing and then prospering sound so easy even an adult could do it, which is very misleading. Living a life of faith is not easy as evidenced by the recent very public marital problems of popular prosperity gospel prognosticators, Juanita Bynum and Paula White. Booboo happens. Anyway, this is just an excerpt from a podcast I got of this Diane Rehm Show; you can get the whole show in its entirerity here.
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Monday, September 3, 2007
Today's youtube video of the day is a double platinum edition, because we have neglected to post anything in the last few days and I got a jonez. In all actuality, I ran across something interesting while I was researching) the original video I wanted to post by Howard Zinn. Zinn is an unlikely historian who does history research from an interesting perspective, that of the grassroots, common man.
This perspective is best exhibited in his seminal work "A People's History of the Unitied States." Google has scanned the entire book and you can read it at your leisure here.
While I was researching some links to Howard Zinn on the web I ran across
this second video of Mos Def reading an excerpt of a Malcom X speech referenced in Zinn's book "A People's History..." I had to include this clip, if only for the purpose of expanding our understanding of what is out here on the worldwide web. Let me qualify that I agree with Malcom X's post-hajj enlightened view of race and geopolitics. I can listen to his speeches from when he was a devout Black Nationalist under the tutelage of Elijah Mohammed and the NOI, but I can not agree with many of the generalizations and assumptions they posited, or the violence they prescribed. I also understand that that was a different time and milieu. Enjoy the videos.
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People are born originals, but most die copies.
-Not sure either Abraham Lincoln or Edward Young
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