Who are the CIA? This will tell you everything you need to know. Here’s where things really started to go wrong: 1947, the National Security Act, which created the National Security Council and the CIA, giving the CIA sweeping, ultra-secretive, unconstitutional powers, and near limitless budget through the legalized, covert
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Writings of J. Todd Ring: The Central Challenge Of Our Time
What is the central challenge of our time? It is not what most people think it is. It is not race or gender, or climate change, or the environment broadly, or issues of war and peace, or poverty, or justice, or equality, or fighting terrorism, crime or violence, WMDs and
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Collapse of Modern Civilization
More than 150 years ago Thoreau commented, “Our sills are all rotten.” He was right. It is for that reason that Western, and Westernized, “modern” “civilization” is collapsing. This could be cataclysmic, of course, (as in, an ecological holocaust), or relatively peaceful, (akin to the Maya abandoning their great cities
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Importing From China: A Virus? Or A Totalitarian Model Of Elite Control?
Someone prescient once said, “Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little security, deserve neither, and will lose both.” We would do well to remember those words now. And we are most definitely in the process of losing both, as we speak. But maybe we aspire to be
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Degeneration, Collapse, and Rebirth
What we are facing is systemic degeneration: ecologically, culturally, spiritually, intellectually, psychologically, socially, and biologically in terms of degenerating health and shortening life spans. This is the slow-motion collapse of a civilization. What is needed is not to self-medicate or mask the symptoms, or to manage the symptoms of degeneration,
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Lawrence Lessig – On The Tribal Problem of American Democracy.
Lessig speaks to the notion that the media divide in American culture lies near the root of many of the countries problems when it comes to their democratic process. “What is the role of education in a democracy? Must the electorate be informed? What happens when we are operating
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: Common Ground voting is closing soon, support my policy on Encouraging Youth Voter Participation and Improving Civic Education!
http://commonground.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Encouraging-Youth-Voter-Participation-Improving-Civic-Education/13731-25935 It’s on a Liberal website, but I think it’s a good non partisan idea that could have a positive impact on youth participation in the electoral process. Many American states allow for youth voter pre-registration, so this isn’t a radical idea – it works in other places, why not
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: New studies show babies have basically decent impulses and are strongly driven by moral imperatives
More research shows once again that compassion, empathy and mutual aid, and an instinct toward cooperation, are innate in human beings, confirming what the great Russian biologist and anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin had already amply demonstrated over a hundred years ago, in his monumental work, Mutual Aid. My but our
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: Family feuds in Ontario NDP as Horwath rushes to clamp down on dissent
Ontario NDP infighting is all over the news this week, as we saw sharp divides between Andrea Horwath’s office and others in the party. Long-time Ontario NDP’er and front-bench critic MPP Paul Miller was booted to the backbench this weekend, after a dispute between himself and Horwath boiled over The
Continue readingThe Liberal Scarf: Haven’t had a chance to vote for my idea on Common Ground? Take just a minute to support youth engagement and better civic education!
My idea is ranked 40th out of over 1000 ideas suggested, and is in the top 10 for the education section. To vote, simply sign up and agree with the idea!
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Key of Keys
Egoless divine pride: the most glorious concept I have ever heard – from Tibetan Buddhism. The Uttara Tantra elaborates: There once was a prince, who lost his memory and forgot who he was. Lost in forgetfulness and confusion, he wandered aimlessly, and became a homeless beggar. Years later, a minister
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Top Priorities of the 21st Century
If I were asked what I felt were the top priorities facing human beings today, in the 21st century, I would have to say there are four that top the list, in my mind. 1. Halt the global corporate coup. Defeat the corporate war on democracy, which is now escalating
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Alberta Liberal and Federal Liberal Cooperation? Lets Go.
I was talking to one of my friends around the the university the other day and I brought up Raj Sherman’s interview in the Calgary Herald on some form of cooperation between the two Liberal parties in Alberta. It was an off-hand comment and I didn’t really expect a conversation
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