“A writer’s notebook is not a diary. Writers react. Writers need a place to record these reactions. That’s what a writer’s notebook is for. It gives you a place to write down what makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down what you noticed and don’t want to forget. A writer’s notebook gives you a place to live like a writer.” - Ralph Fletcher
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
If we can’t think for ourselves, if we’re unwilling to question authority, then we’re just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Our ignorance affects the world. -Immortal Technique via @RT_com
(Source: viperrecords.com)
You see, a college education isn’t just a private investment. It’s also a public good. This nation can’t be competitive globally, nor can we have a vibrant and responsible democracy, without a large number of well-educated people.
So it’s not just you who are burdened by these trends. If they continue, we’re all f*cked.
Robert Reich
(Source: robertreich.org)
Whether it’s farmers and public service union workers standing side by side in the Wisconsin snow, or social justice clergy and anarchists arrested face down on the streets of New York with a police knee on their necks; whether it’s soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan tossing their war on terror medals back at the NATO conference in Chicago, or economic justice activists swarming Bank of America’s headquarter in North Carolina–the old tried cliche of America as a nation of universally detached, self-centered, consumption-fixated beings has at long last been proven to be at least partially untrue.
Manny Jalonschi
(Source: politicususa.com)
“Don’t lecture us on democracy. We’re fighting for Liberal-progressive democratic values, including the right to a decent education, job opportunities and clean and transparent government.
Don’t talk to us of costs to the economy. The baby boomers ruined the world economy thanks to their collective avarice. […]
We’re tired of being offered the ‘choice’ of getting an unpaid internship or working for a call centre. We are tired of being told how well we have it by people who have their heads in the sand.
Worst of all, we despise how the establishment, the media, and government treat us as though we have no stake in the future of the province, of the nation.
Instead of scolding us, why not offer to help? Think about who will replace you when you retire.
Then ask yourself if we are worth investing in.
Taylor Noakes, One Quebec Student
(Source: hour.ca)
I think that the losses that JPMorgan reported—the CEO Jamie Dimon reported—and the way in which they’re presented, the fact that they’re surprised by it and the fact that they didn’t know they were taking these kinds of risks, the fact that they lost so much money in a relatively benign moment compared to what we’ve seen in the past and what we’re likely to see in the future — all of this suggests that we are absolutely on the path towards another financial crisis of the same order of magnitude as the last one.
Simon Johnson, once chief economist of the International Monetary Fund and now a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics
(Source: alternet.org)
I spent my Saturday morning watching @CNN and @MSNBC #ows #poet
(Source: fiftycunt)
99% v 1%: the data behind the Occupy movement
As poverty and inequality reach record levels, how much richer have the rich got? This animation explains what the key data says about the state of America today
(Source: mainstreamrevolution)
In the 1970s, Americans asked, à la John Kerry, who will be the last American to die for a lost cause in Vietnam? In 2012, many Afghans—including President Karzai—are increasing asking: Which Afghan will be the last to die for America’s misguided, hopeless war in Afghanistan? For each American killed in Afghanistan since 2001, probably a dozen or more Afghans has died, and the toll is mounting.
Robert Dreyfuss
(Source: thenation.com)
