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Oct

13

Move Over Health Care, Pass the Election Reform!

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I am now posting a three part editorial at TPM Cafe on the three goals, rules, and strategies for election reform.

dlw

Sep

4

Back from Hiatus

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I am glad to say that God has blessed me with the opp to continue along the path less traveled, apart from teaching Econ at a university. 

I am now blogging at “A New Kind of Third Party“.  A slogan that obviously borrows from Brian McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christian“.  This blog will be centered around my new activism focus on election reform that moves our political system from a duopoly to a contested duopoly, (meaning there is a significant possibility that another party can gain ground or displace one of the existing two main parties).

So I hope folks will consider reading my new blog.  I may be posting here as well on other topics, but I plan to post on a weekly basis. 

Oh and I just gotta say that I think the Republican Party’s ebullience over Palin is in part due to their belief that she’s restored the Reagan coalition between social and economic conservatives so that all they need to do is apply enough rhetorical spin-power to sway independents back their way to keep the presidency (and keep the Dems from forming a “permanent majority” again).

 dlw

Aug

1

Ingmar Bergman is Dead!

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But the quality of his films live on!

dlw

May

17

The End of the Anti-Manichaeist

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I’m done with blogging. 

I started blogging at the Anti-Manicheist the day or so after I lost my job as a professor of Economics  at a University in Mexico.  It was a place for me to pour my creative energies into and to explore different sorts of interests. 

Now, I believe I’m pretty close to getting another teaching job as a professor of Economics and I don’t think I need to blog anymore.  I want to pour more of my energies into teaching and working on projects that will get published. 

If you’ve been a lurker, please say hello.  I’ll still be interacting with people who comment and who knows maybe some of the ideas I’ve developed here will actually catch on…

 blessings!

dlw

May

16

Falwell, and the Religious Right, as seen by the World

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The Sad Truth of the Matter is that Falwell and Robertson have consistently displayed an ugly judgmental heavily politicized face of Christianity to much of the world.

I am sure he is probably weeping about that fact in Heaven right now.

dlw

May

13

Religious and Political Themes in Spiderman 3

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Kelly Candaele, the Producer of “A League of their Own” with Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna has written a very interesting commentary on Spiderman 3. 

The makers of Spiderman 3 scorn politics. Despite a rampaging destructiveness that sweeps across New York, there is no sign of the government outside of a desultory police force. There is no Mayor to bolster morale, no Governor to declare an emergency and certainly no President to scramble Air Force fighter jets. Rudy Giuliani should be outraged. Politicians, it is implied, would only make things worse. In other superhero moves like Superman and Batman, politicians were portrayed as corrupt at worst and benign at best. In Spiderman 3, the everyday wielders of political power are banished completely.

There is a curious religious dynamic at work in Spiderman 3 that reinforces the absence of viable social networks. Spiderman’s struggle with the dark seductions of power is an isolated and individual one. His triumph over internal evil takes place alone in a Cathedral tower, the church bells literally stripping him of the black sin of hubris. If power corrupts, then masculine power (women gather round when Peter Parker wears the black Spiderman suit) corrupts absolutely. This is comic book Nietzsche, Christianity feminizing — through sympathy, guilt and forgiveness — Spiderman’s temporary embrace of the will to power.

…

But Spiderman 3’s central and perhaps subliminal message is reactionary and anti-democratic. The mass of people are inert, victims of vast forces that are beyond their control. The debris of shattered windows and skyscrapers caused by these warring forces descends from above — as does deliverance. This is the antithesis of the democratic promise, that people freely joining together in a common cause can make history and determine their own fate.

dlw:He then holds up hope that the upcoming Harry Potter movie will preach a more democratic ethos.

dlw

May

12

A British Reporter Recounts the Pressures Faced While Reporting on Scientology!

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This is an extremely interesting article.

It gets into the pressures put on people who wish to expose the underbelly of this religion that boasts celebs like Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

It seems like a quite concerted group, as they did manage to get favors from authorities in London for the opening of a new £20 million Scientology centre there.

Scary, but not surprising.  It seems lots of religions have sought to wield political favor to pave the way for their advancement. 

I hope we can learn to seek an alternative route for Christianity that is far more Christ-like in overcoming evil with good without hypocripsy or fanaticism. 

dlw

May

12

Romney has No Comment on Upcoming Film on Historic Massacre by Mormons!

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Some think that the upcoming film, September Dawn, on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the slaughter of 120 men, women and children by Mormons 150 years ago on Sept. 11, 1857, could be the beginning of the end for Mitt Romney’s candidacy for president.

It seem “political” movies are here to stay.  Controversy makes for free publicity and film is an effective mass-media for changing people’s mental associations.

dlw

May

11

My Question for the Presidential Candidates

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Jim Wallis at God’s Politics asks for our input on questions for the Democrat Presidential Candidates at their Pentecost 2007.  I gave them the following question. 

Given that we have so many excellent candidates to choose from in the presidential primaries, what is the rationale for only allowing primary voters to vote for one candidate?  When you have several candidates to choose from, would it not be a simple amendation to the rules to allow primary voters to vote on behalf of at most three candidates?

I see it like this, I, like many Christians today, care very much about reducing poverty so when three top-notch candidates, like you all, support a truly significant reduction of poverty in the US and the Two-Thirds World, I would like to be able to vote for all three candidates.  Can you please call on all of the upcoming state primaries to allow us to vote for up to three candidates?  This would be a simple but significant change in our democracy, nothing more complicated like instant runoff voting. 

thankyou!

We’ll see if it (perhaps in a trimmed down version) gets asked.

I know that Hillary is currently in the lead, but I think that supporters of Obama and Edwards may be more likely to support each other, rather than Hillary.  And even if the party machines would be unlikely to make the change, it should still be part of a nat’l debate.  We most definitely could use better quality presidential candidates than much of what we’ve been given as of late…

dlw

May

10

Servant Leadership Must Be Willing to Step Down!

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Blair is finally doing the right thing by stepping down next month as Prime Minister.

Bush and Cheney show no signs of admitting they did wrong, much less letting go of their political power.

dlw

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