Why hasn’t Iran emerged as a democracy?

According to this video by JustforeignPolicy.org, Iran once was a democracy. Until a foreign power crushed that democracy in 1953. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJRcOF7rEfQ[/youtube] The take-away message from this video: it doesn't have to be the way it is currently portrayed to be between Iran and the U.S. The history of relations between…

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Susan Jacoby argues that America has entered the “age of unreason.”

In this interview on Bill Moyers' Feb 15, 2008 show (see the video here), author Susan Jacoby argues that we are now struggling with ignorance as a political crisis. She argues that we are obsessed with small personal facts at the expense of important issues. Most Americans don't spend the necessary time to have a legitimate base of knowledge from which to make important decisions. Yet politicians dare not address this crisis of ignorance. They won't talk about the political significance of public ignorance, even though it is the widespread public ignorance of basic facts that "makes serious deception possible and plausible." Jacoby offers quite a few anecdotes. One of these anecdotes is about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's radio addresses during World War II. Roosevelt urged his listeners to go get a map and to look at the map while he talked about the significant events of that war. It's hard to imagine any political figure doing that today. Jacoby cites statistics indicating that only a small number of today's high school graduates have any idea of where the various countries of the Middle East are located on a world map on which the country boundaries are drawn. She takes it as a truism that our political culture is a reflection of our general culture. We don't want to learn anymore. We go to websites and we attend lectures only when we want to hear information that reinforces what we are ready know. Only a small minority of people are any longer willing to learn from people with whom they disagree. Jacoby blames this on the reduced attention span of Americans.It also has to do with the number of Americans who exercise critical thinking. One-half of Americans believe in ghosts. One-third of Americans believe in astrology. One-half of Americans do not believe in evolution. Jacoby party blames the media. The news media presents "truth as equidistant from two points." For example, evolution and creationism are presented as two equally valid viewpoints by the news media. Jacoby calls this tactic "dumb objectivity."She cites a shocking statistic (put forth by Stephen Prothero in a book called Religious Literacy): one-half of Americans cannot name Genesis as the first book of the Bible. This lack of information is shocking because huge numbers of Americans claim that the Bible is the most important book in the world. Here's more shocking statistics: 15% of Americans do not understand that the Earth revolves around the sun. Most Americans don't know how many Justices are on the United States Supreme Court. The ignorance goes on and on, and it is imperiling our democracy. It makes you wonder what we are spending our time doing. Here's a hint: you can find multiple magazine racks like this at most supermarkets. grocery-store-magazine-at-checkout-aisle-lo-res.jpg (Photo by Erich Vieth. Click to enlarge image).

Continue ReadingSusan Jacoby argues that America has entered the “age of unreason.”

Ralph Nader’s open letter to President Bush regarding the needless deaths of 58,000 Americans every year.

Ralph Nader recently sent a pointed letter to President Bush.   The letter concerned a annual national tragedy of 58,000 of needless workplace deaths.  Here is an excerpt (from Common Dreams): Dear President Bush: I was listening to your address before the self-described Conservative Political Action Committee gathering in Washington, D.C.…

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Terrorism Begins At Home (or “Kill or Be Killed!”)

Is anyone else struck by the irony that Homeland Security so often erodes First Amendment rights? Homeland Security has become obsessed about listening to personal phone calls and seizing people’s cell phones and laptops when they travel.  Ironically, there is no security for the victims of gunmen who shoot up college campuses and city council meetings.

At 48 years old, I can remember attending high school and college without any fear that someone would walk in and begin blasting away. The recent stories on the news, starting with last year’s Virginia Tech shooting, followed by a local killing rampage at a Kirkwood City Council meeting (5 dead, 2 critically injured, one of whom was the city’s mayor), and yesterday’s deaths on the DeKalb campus of Northern Illinois University, has me wondering what has changed? Is it my level of awareness or is it a change in the basic behavior and beliefs of Americans?

Initially outraged by the extremely cavalier treatment of US citizens with Muslim backgrounds who attempt to travel out of the United States, I now find myself feeling deeply saddened and frustrated that innocent folks are uselessly harassed while others, intent on venting their rage, are so easily able to take many lives in a few short minutes. Is there a connection here? I think there is.
 
For eight years now we’ve lived in an atmosphere of fear, created by and fed by an embedded media that supports a President and a government that speaks of terrorism and …

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