Editorial

COMMENTARY: Social Psychosis and Collective Sanity

We know from the sad experience of Nazi Germany or Khmer Rouge Cambodia that it is possible for whole nations to become mentally ill, with horrendous consequences. At the time, however, the Nazis or the Khmers had no idea that they were deeply out of touch with the reality that all people are equally worthy of respect and care.

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Occupy Movement Demands Home Mortgages Correction

On Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011 OccupyWashingtonDC.org teamed up with the Backbone Campaign, National People's Action, and the New Economy Working Group in a march from Freedom Plaza to the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA).

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COMMENTARY: Gays have rights too: The Caribbean Dilemma

A statement by the Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, that his government will not provide budgetary aid to governments that violate human rights including by discriminating against homosexuals and lesbians, has angered sections of Caribbean society. Read more

COMMENTARY/NEWS ANALYSIS: The Sinking Occupy Movement

The Occupy movement is submerging faster than it's growing. There are two manifestations of an underlying primary problem causing this in my town, Portland OR, and I suspect it's not entirely dissimilar elsewhere. Read more

OP-ED: Fahrenheit 11/11/11

Believe it or not, November 11th was not made a holiday in order to celebrate war, support troops, or cheer the 11th year of occupying Afghanistan.  This day was made a holiday in order to celebrate an armistice that ended what was up until that point, in 1918, one of the worst things our species had thus far done to itself, namely World War I.

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A Dad’s Point-of-View: Why Dad and Mom Need Social Media

I play tennis with an old friend who has a cell phone that probably came out around the time the first iPod came out. Heck, he doesn’t even know what an iPod is. Or how to text, use Twitter, or how to “like” a Facebook Page. IMHO (in my humble opinion), he is not being the best parent he can be. To be the best parent in these technological times, you must employ Social Media.

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OP-ED: What does Veterans Day, Friday, November 11, 2011, mean to you? To me it means….

Remembering American Patriots like Thomas Jefferson who said, “A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.” Read more

COMMENTARY: Why Ted Rall Is Wrong to Push Violence on the Occupy Movement

1. Don't You Know That You Can Count Me Out - In

Ted Rall's new book "The Anti-American Manifesto" (Seven Stories Press, 2010) advocates for violent revolution, even if we have to join with rightwingers and racists to do it, and even if we have no control over the outcome which could easily be something worse than what we've got. We have a moral duty, Rall argues, to kill some people.

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MANN TALK: Class Warfare

 In Tucker Countyfor centuries there grew a white oak. Its girth reached whatever in feet it takes to encompass a diameter of 13 feet. In 1913 this miracle of nature, more wonderful than a cathedral or a trade tower, was felled by lean mountaineers with axes and crosscut saws. The tree produced enough lumber to fill a train. The oak lumber left the state and became the floors and doors of some palatial residence far away from Tucker County.   Read more

OP-ED: Oh. Canada!

My sister just called to remind me that “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” is coming up.  That date, which marks the Armistice at the end of World War I, is observed in Canada as Remembrance Day.    Read more

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Judge Andrew P. Napolitano Makes a Good Companion for Ron Paul and Other Freedom Lovers

  Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely -- Lord Acton Read more

COMMENTARY: Occupy Together Not Occupy Bloodlust

Precedent   

There is an old adage for journalism: If it bleeds, it leads; we are reminded of this sentiment regularly. Earlier this year I wrote about our need to see Osama bin Laden’s body; the thirst for blood was alive and well after Muammar Gaddafi was killed as well. It is important to avoid such a reaction with the nonviolent Occupy Movement.   Read more

COMMENTARY: Dangers of Irrelevance...America In the World

Editor's Note: HNN Contributor Joe Honick sent this column to contributing editor David M. Kinchen with this note: "After seeing that President Obama's relevance at the G20 meeting [in Cannes, France] was less than powerful, the following from three years ago  might help with respect to our standing in the world and might be repeated" Read more

COMMENTARY: The National Election Ponzi Scheme: The Electoral College

Whenever government seems to overstep in the opinions of certain groups, from left all the way across to right, the single bastion of reference is a bunch of fellows known as the “Founding Fathers.”  Those courageous men (note: no women) were weighted with the huge burden of creating a new country on someone else’s land and declaring “all men are created equal” even if they had to make some exceptions for locals they called “Indians” (now Native Americans) and people of the Black race who got fractional status. Read more

COMMENTARY: Our Peace Surge in the Streets Is (Slowly) Working

Feints and baby steps in the direction of eventually ending a losing occupation are not enough. Hoping to meet a distant deadline for ending a war that cannot be justified for a single day more is not enough. A new misunderstanding should not be piled on top of other fantasies (the closing of Guantanamo, the complete withdrawal from Iraq, universal health coverage, etc.). But if we don't understand that we are beginning to move things in the right direction many among us will lose heart and others will miscalculate. Read more

OP-ED: The Commonwealth at Its Turning Point: The EPG Report and CHOGM 2011

The report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on urgent reform of the Commonwealth dominated the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia.  It is now a seminal document in the Commonwealth’s history, and will remain the focus of attention for much needed change in the Commonwealth over the next few months.  The fact that some of the recommendations became matters of controversy between governments in no way diminishes the significance of the Report; if anything, the controversy has served to heighten its importance. Read more

EDITORIAL: Picking on Paul, Cain Unnecessarily Erodes Press Credibility

If the establishment media across the country ever want to know why their circulation is dropping through the floor, they need only remember their actions in the autumn of 2011.  The public expects the press to report the news and give professional analysis of that news--not playing favorites and not taking unnecessary shots at candidates they don't prefer. Read more

OP-ED: Global Warming Debate and the Native Indians, Part II

As we debate if global warming is real, what caused it, and whoʼs to blame, Mother Earth is not waiting for an answer. I believe she is starting to wobble.

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A Dad’s Point-of-View: When to Have Kids

There’s something remarkable I’ve discovered along my parenting journey. I learned this not from a so-called expert or any parenting book. I learned it from living life. It’s something not often discussed these days. It’s called, “Common Sense.” I like to say, “If it doesn’t pass the common sense meter, it probably isn’t.” When to have kids falls right into this notion and so often what I hear from young adults defies said common sense. Read more

OP-ED: Love Me Tender Premiered in New York

Did you know that Elvis Presley had Cherokee ancestry and that  November is American Indian Month? Read more

OP-ED: I Will Pack and Take a Train – Part 2

Now let me tell you something about the American European Express train.  And what I say is true not only of this train and this experience.  It can happen in the Russian Tea Room, or in the Steinway Piano Showroom, or at the Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel, or standing beneath the mythical expanse of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.  There are some places that, because of the eloquence of their architecture, the elegance of their décor, the inspiration imparted by their atmosphere, or the combination of all the above, lift us out of ourselves and make us into more.

 

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DEVOTION: All Saint's Day

We generally feel there are prerequisites for one being called a "Saint". In every era we do remember those who have gone before us...trying to show us "God's way".  Qualifying characteristics of a Saint usually are determined by what a person does for others in their lifetime. Read more

Report back: Yoo v. Pitts debate in Dallas

The topic was the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" and detainee treatment, when John Yoo, former Department of Justice official and author of the "Torture Memos" debated Chip Pitts, Stanford University law professor and former Chairman of Amnesty International, at the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
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MANN TALK: Hope Without Heaven

A pastor asserts unequivocally: “If Jesus were dead and in a tomb, as the case with all other religious leaders who ever lived, this  world would be shrouded in hopelessness. Where the Christ is not known, there is little hope.”       Read more

PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Bring Back Glass-Steagall and Turn National Banks Into Credit Unions

Thomas L. Friedman hit the nail squarely on the head when he suggested needed Wall Street financial reforms in a wide-ranging Sunday, Oct. 30 opinion piece in the New York Times: Read more

OP-ED: I Will Pack and Take a Train – Part 1

God!  I will pack, and take a train, and get me to England once again!”  -- Rupert Brooke Read more

COMMENTARY: Occupy the Winter of Our Discontent

Can occupations survive a winter of global weirding, escalated police brutality, and the corporate media's venom? Should they? In some parts of the country there will be no cold weather. In others, police abuses will result in larger occupations, not smaller. And it's certainly possible that for the first time in recent years an independent progressive populist campaign will survive the enmity of the corporate media.   Read more

COMMENTARY: A 51st State for Armed Robotic Drones

Weaponized UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), also known as drones, have their own caucus in Congress, and the Pentagon’s plan is to give them their own state as well. Read more

OP-ED: The Commonwealth: Will wise heads prevail?

A visitor to Perth in Australia during the week ending 30th October would be forgiven in believing that the City revolves around the 54-nation Commonwealth. Read more

ON THE RADIO: Listen to HNN Contributor Joe Honick on 21st Century Radio

If you want to hear HNN columnist Joseph Honick commenting on many of the topics he's written about in his columns, click:  Read more

COMMENTARY: Bake a bigger Occu(pie)

With the various Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, talk of economic and social fairness is in the air. Demonstrators are complaining about the vast inequalities in wealth and political influence between the rich 1 percent or so and the remaining 99 percent.

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OP-ED: Radiation Reporting: Blind, Idiotic, Corrupt — or All Three

The ongoing radiation catastrophe stemming from three out-of-control nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan has taken a back seat to far graver news events of late: Michael Jackson’s doctor, fund-raising by presidential hopefuls, the World Series, and Netflix stock. Read more

EDITORIAL: Caring a Little Less About Our State Politics

As we look ahead to yet another political year in 2012, now is a good time to reflect on the proper amount of time, energy, emotion, and effort supporters of a given candidate should spend.  We at HNN have always encouraged active voting and other civic participation.  Without that, our state would be in worse trouble than it is.  But a balance needs to be struck, as well. Read more