I recently received this sad “humor” forwarded by a very old friend from our high school and young-adult days.  (In spite of it, she’s actually a very nice lady – a retired nurse – normally caring, gentle, compassionate.  But she lives in Florida, and I can’t help but think she’s just fallen-in with a bad [...]

No matter whether you are a citizen activist, or an elected official – if you want to increase chances of getting your message or comments accurately quoted in the media, then using Twitter can be good practice! Here’s why: Its 140-character limit trains you [us!] to be CONCISE and BRIEF.  That GREATLY increases the possibility [...]

Normally, one can use a candidate’s position and policy statements to predict – at least somewhat – their probable performance if they win their election. However, on almost every significant position and policy he had taken, Willard [Mitt] Romney and his official spokespeople have issued totally contradictory statements. (Except about his ignoring his father’s well-justified [...]

First published by the Pittsburg Post Gazette April 8, 2012 5:47 pm By Michael Cudahy and Jock Gill If ever there was a moment for Americans to pay attention to the state of their democracy — or what is left of it — that time is now. As this country staggers out of the worst [...]

Forget peak oil. The population of the finite earth has now passed peak natural resources of ALL kinds. The destructive negative feedback loop powered by fear, greed, and power grabs, that is currently bedeviling much of the planet, is strong evidence that this condition is well known, even if none dare speak of it. As [...]

By: Farooq Hassan January 24th, 2012 “The Supreme Court (SC) heard Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in response to a notice for contempt on January 19, who told the seven-member bench that while he had the highest regard for it, but could not comply with its wishes. The PM said that he had not intended [...]

Tags: constitution, money laudering, Pakistan, president, supreme court

From:  Political Science Degree blog by  Phillip Donavan: 24 Aug, 2011  |  Written by Writer |  under Government, Politics When we speak of political systems, it’s difficult to determine what the most common types are. After all, many political systems are similar, or have similar roots. Many countries actually have republics of some kind — variants of democracy. [...]

Author: Robert David Steele Vivas Summary of Qualifications America needs a leader that is balanced, thoughtful, integrative, supportive of dissent and debate, and above all, educated enough to craft a national strategy for security and prosperity that will stand the test of time. I want a leader who is at least as committed to the [...]

Tags: democracy, electoral reform, government, intelligence, politics, security, Steele

I have some reservations about the notion that everything must be monetized for profit.  I am confident that both Benjamin Franklin and Adam Smith would have soundly rejected this monotonic focus on “profit”.  My limited experience in working with in development at the bottom of the pyramid is that for profit efforts create a situation [...]

Farooq Hassan has a new article: In a historical context, we have yet to conceptually realize the philosophical foundations of the 2008-2009 public affirmation of the country’s [Pakistan] judiciary. I do not recall a single modern historical precedent wherein the elected government of the day was almost swept from its incumbency by popular revolt that [...]