An effort by people in 90 countries to eradicate nuclear weapons, withdraw occupying armies and end wars.

Are you wondering how Obama’s job performance is going these days? It’s difficult to gauge how he is faring for a couple reasons. First, because he is so new on the job, there is not much to judge him on. Second, because we are going through such unprecedented times, it’s difficult to compare the present to other periods of history.

Barack Obama looks back to Lincoln, and in doing so identifies with a President regarded as our greatest. Lincoln presided over one of the most brutal conflicts in history. Barack also looks back to that preacher from Atlanta who sang We Shall Overcome and espoused nonviolence.

The United States – Israel relationship is unique. In 1989, Israel was officially designated by the United States as a Major non-NATO ally (MNNA). This has allowed Israel to remain an “unofficial” ally of the U.S. while at the same time conferring them a number of military and economic benefits.

Recently reported in the news, President George W. Bush asserted that the global financial crisis is “not a failure of the free market,” despite heavy evidence to the contrary. Upon hearing this, it occurred to me that before Bush clears out of Washington

They attend gay rights rallies with signs that exclaim “God Hates You! Die Fag!” They hang out at peace marches with shirts that read “Liberalism is a mental disorder.” You can hear them yelling out “terrorist” or “kill him” at campaign rallies.

Within America’s two-party system:

Fact: Democrats represent the economic interests of the middle and lower classes.
Fact: Republicans represent the economic interests of the upper classes.
Fact: The number of people comprising the middle and lower classes far out number those in the upper class.

Opinion: People should vote for the party that best represents their economic interests.

Fact: We [...]

Two new academic articles have got my attention because of their link to positive social change. The first article, found in Current Directions of Psychological Science, reports on the science of gratitude.

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

Our national politics is largely the stuff of illusion.  It is the stuff of spin. It is the manipulation of images to pluck the heartstrings, or to stoke the furnaces of emotion.
Any emotion will do: love, hate, fear, all are but instruments upon which politicians will play to move people to the polls, [...]

NUCLEAR threats and counter-threats are a subtext of our times, steadily, it seems, becoming more insistent. The July meeting in Geneva between Iran and six major world powers on Iran’s nuclear programme ended with no progress.