Anitra's Flock

Changing the "culture of corruption" will require more than your vote on Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Anitra Freeman) — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 07:48:00 +0000

I am more interested than ever before in the Congressional races in other districts. Changing the balance of power in the House and the Senate will be a beginning to cleaning up the abuses of power by an unchecked Republican party.

The pattern that the Republicans followed, however, was only the pattern followed by Democrats before them, when Democrats had been ensconced in an uncontestable majority for too long.

Every human being is morally responsible for our own actions. We can also make it easier for others to act ethically, or make it easier for them to act unethically. There are some people who act with equal honor whether anyone is watching or not. The majority will be more likely to act honorably when temptations are minimal and they are under constant scrutiny; when temptations are constant and scrutiny is infrequent, people are far more likely to act unethically.

The founders of our American system of government did their damndest to insure that everyone would be under oversight from someone, would have some competition waiting to pounce on every mistake, would have to share power with others that they had to negotiate with. In the late 18th century in which they operated, public literacy and the profusion of newspapers and pamphletting created an atmosphere of lively public scrutiny that they hoped to preserve with the Constitutional protections on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition.

The American public media, however, became less and less "public" with the growth of media empires. Public literacy declined, anti-intellectualism rose, it became a matter of pride to say that one was "not interested in politics." This may have been due to the rise of television and movies and the fall-off in reading, as argued in Amusing Ourselves to Death; it may have been because we didn't take our educational system seriously and let it become weak; it may have been because the larger a media empire, or any corporation, gets, the less attention it gives to the interests of actual consumers. ("You'll take what we give you, and like it!") All of these were factors, and more; and each factor affected the others, in a feedback cycle.

What happened to public debate when the media came under increasing corporate control was increasing sensationalism, increasing corruption, and decreasing relevancy to the realities of life for most Americans. This is the same thing that happened to political debate when the Democratic Party was in uncontested control of Washington DC. They became arrogant, corrupt, and out of touch with Americans, leading to the Republican Revolt of 1994.

After 1994, the power of the Republic Party grew until they, in turn, had uncontesed control of Washington DC -- the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, the Judicial Branch, and K Street. And, in their turn, they became arrogant, corrupt, and out of touch with Americans -- leading to the Democratic Revolt of 2006.

Are we going to Throw the Rascals Out and then sit back and wait for the next cycle of the same thing? Or are we going to revive the spirit of "government by the people" and tell both parties that they can no longer take us for granted? That we will be on their backs, watching their every step, holding their feet to the fire -- whether they are of "our party" or "the other one"? Are we going to start having a real public conversation about issues, instead of a shouting match of sound bites? Are we going to start doing problem-solving instead of ideology-slinging? Are we going to put the interests of American citizens above the interests of America's political parties?

Nobody else can do that for us. It will only happen if we do it.

National Debt Clock

noreply@blogger.com (Anitra Freeman) — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:49:00 +0000

The Gross National Debt

You can get a National Debt Clock for your own site/blog at zfacts

Cost of the War in Iraq

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To see more details, click here.

You can get your own Cost of War Counter at the National Priorities Project

Events August 6 - 9

noreply@blogger.com (Anitra Freeman) — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 23:49:00 +0000

On the morning of August 6, 1945 the United States Army Air Forces dropped the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima, followed three days later [noon, August 9] by the detonation of the "Fat Man" bomb over Nagasaki, Japan. More from Wikipedia: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Other links: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum A Photo-Essay on the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Chronology on Decision to Bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki Asia Society Special Report, August 03, 2000: The 55th Anniversary of the Bombing of Japan The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb Documents from the Truman Presidential Museum & Library The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II: A Collection of Primary Sources from the National Security Archive Hiroshima: Harry Truman on Trial, from History News Network Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki compilation at Answers.com Harvey Wasserman: Nagasaki, Orphan of History Every year since, there have been annual commemorative events on August 6 and August 9. Some organizations organizing events this year, nationally and locally: August 6 Coalition | Stop Bechtel Fellowship of Reconciliation Forgiveness Day In Washington State: Port Orchard United for Peace, Pierce County Not in Our Name, Seattle Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq

I am being blogged! :D

noreply@blogger.com (Anitra Freeman) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:31:00 +0000

Yowza! I haven't been using this particular blog much, so I had to go find it again. I did a search for blogs with the key phrase "Anitra Freeman" -- and found that other people had posted blogs quoting me. That is a surprise to lift the spirits, innit? :D

First, I found my Beltane poem quoted at Everyday Goddess -- and I have bookmarked that blog forever, I love her spirit!

Then I found my review of Merchants of Misery: How Corporate America Profits from Poverty quoted at the blog Bank-Notes . And that looks like one to bookmark. too. :)

Then I found Morning Has Broken. Morning Has ALWAYS Been Broken at The Super Man's blog -- and he has used a quote from it in his blog headline. Super-chuff. :D Looks like I'll have a new MySpace friend. :) (BTW: "If I saw 5 am on the sidewalk, I'd shoot it." seems to be the all-time favorite line from that piece.)

I was gratified to know that some of my articles on bipolar disorder are proving useful: Identifying Bipolar Disorder and Living with Bipolar Disorder are recommended at an online Bipolar Support Group.

I will have to keep an eye on me in the future. :D

Write On!
Anitra

Blogged with Flock

MySpace wonky

noreply@blogger.com (Anitra Freeman) — Fri, 26 May 2006 03:56:00 +0000

MySpace groups are wonked out today. GAHHHHHHHH! I officially hate MySpace.

I love the people there, which is why I want to talk to my groups, which is why I'm frustrated that the groups are down, which is why I hate MySpace.

Flocking

noreply@blogger.com (Anitra Freeman) — Fri, 26 May 2006 03:19:00 +0000

It seems to work... now let's see if the index is getting updated, too!

Something weird: I can see each blog entry, at its own address; at the main blog address, however, I see only the first one, and no index of the others. I'm not getting the full blog benefit: the rolling screenful of entries, the newest always at the top.

Aha! Once I log on to Blogger and re-publish the entire blog, the new entries show up on the main page.

That could get to be a pain. More experiment is in order...

First from the Flock

noreply@blogger.com (Anitra Freeman) — Fri, 26 May 2006 03:15:00 +0000

This blog post is made, not through blogger.com, but from the "blog editing" tool right in my Flock web browser. When I click "post," Flock will, in theory, log into my blogger account and post this.

In Flock, I can even tag each blog post!

Okay, here goes... Yes that posted. Take 2: Can I edit it and re-post? hmmm... Yes and no; it's been transmitted to Blogger, but I have to log on to blogger to re-publish it.

Anitra's Flock Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Anitra Freeman) — Fri, 26 May 2006 01:01:00 +0000

This is a test of the Flock web browser. This is only a test. If this had been a real blog, there would be some content in it. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog browsing.

If you were looking for Anitra's content, try: