Tag: Democracy

Why I’ve Decided It’s Time to Go

About 15 years ago, I was invited to speak to graduate students at Emory University and at Kennesaw State University (then Kennesaw College) about technology innovation. At the time, I was a huge advocate for exploring how technology could advance education. And while I had some significant concerns about technology, those took a rather distant backseat to the exciting potential… Continue reading

Occupied (Norwegian TV Series and beyond…)

TV Series If you haven’t watched Occupied (Season one is on Netflix.), you are missing a great Norwegian TV series! In the storyline, Norway has invented an abundant, clean, renewable energy source they are willing to share freely with the world. So, as responsible world citizens, they stopped their oil production. Russia, determined to have the European Union dependent on… Continue reading

Let’s Fix a Few Things…

Rather than doing a dance to celebrate the end of the attempted government coup by the “Tea (extortion) Party,” and the fact that their anti-democracy stunts have done nothing to reach their goals, I want to propose a few solutions to prevent this from ever happening again and to make Congress a bit more functional. “We the people…” should demand… Continue reading

Bill Moyers Sums It Up

He is wise, factual, and prescient. This video is well worth your time. Democracy is being subverted by the party of “No!” and their Teabagistanians’ lunatic jihad on Americans. If you or I broke the law of the land, we would be jailed. The party of “No!” has got to go!… Continue reading

What Could Be Worse than Pervasive and Perpetual Surveillance?

That all of our emails and phone calls and everywhere we go would be collected and stored by our democratic government was completely unimaginable to me just 10 years ago. Unthinkable! It’s the antithesis of free society! But we now live in a surveillance state. But to think that it will even get worse speaks to complete fascism. Hang On… Continue reading

It Just Doesn’t Add Up…

My grandfather and father both used the expression “horse sense*” as in, “It doesn’t make horse sense.” In other words, even the brain of a horse could figure this out. The following things don’t make horse sense to me. 1. That in the United States of American an adult can be clearly and emphatically told by the police not to… Continue reading

What Can Be Said?!

This graphic has been circulating the web… While nothing more needs to be said, I will add this thought: If our government were more representative of our nation‘s actual population in race, gender, age, and income brackets, the policies of this nation would be vastly different than they currently are. The average American is excluded from office, by design of… Continue reading

To Facebook Or Not To Facebook

That is a common question I get.  I recently read another article that sums up well why I do NOT use Facebook. 1.  I think the founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is a jerk.  According to the article in Wired, he “once joked dismissively about the ‘dumb fucks’ who ‘trust me’.”  I don’t trust the self-posessed, immature, opportunist.  He doesn’t have the… Continue reading

Increasing Transparency

I have always argued that, if you are funded with the public‘s money, the public has a right to know what you’re up to with that money.  Transparency in a democracy is essential.  It prevents such hideous excess as the city manager of Bell, CA, making over $1.5 million in publicly funded salary and bonuses, which in my mind is… Continue reading

Lessig @ TED

I have made no secret of my support of Larry Lessig‘s Change Congress effort. In his TED presentation, he clearly articulates the need for it, stating that government of, for, and by the people has certainly withered in our lifetimes. He presents a reasoned case for why changing the way we fund campaigns is essential to the survival of the… Continue reading