Stephan:  If you read SR regularly, or have read my book The 8 Laws of Change  you know my views on the power of the quotidian choice. Here is another take on this subject and its power to make a difference in climate change.

Stephan:  One of the nastier characteristics of the Theocratic Right is their obsession with shaming the poor. One of the ways this is done in public policy is drug testing as part of qualifying for something from the social safety network. The presumption behind such laws being that, as all Theocratic Rightists "know" the poor, particularly the poor of color, are drug fiends, and tax dollars are being recklessly spent to enable them to indulge their habit. The obvious stupidity of this position -- how can people who can't afford food for their children spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on drugs -- made little difference to legislatures in Red value states. And so 13 states set up such tests, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent measuring piss from the poor. Oh, did I mention that the companies doing the tests had highly questionable financial relationships with state legislators who passed these laws? No? Well you can guess.  And the outcome? Read this report.

Stephan:  Here is the latest on the Koch brothers. If there is a despicable option that benefits them while hurting the rest of the world they can always be relied upon to take it.

Stephan:  While China, Europe, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Gulf States have spent their money building high speed rail, metropolitan light rail, parks, high speed internet, and high quality healthcare, child care and elder care, we have poured our billions into bombs, the F-35, and war. Looking back across the last 15 years it is obvious which was the better choice. I think this has only been possible for two reasons: Politics and corporate media have focused almost exclusively on producing and manipulating fear in the service of their profit. Second, because 64% of Americans have never been outside of the borders of the U.S. and as a result have little or no experience or understanding of what life in the rest of the world is like. If they have any image of life outside of the U.S. it is impoverished Africa or Latin America and by that standard we look great. Every time I fly outside the U.S. there are always a few people aboard who are making their first trip abroad. I recently was in Munich airport having breakfast before catching my next flight. At the table next to me was a family who were going home from what was apparently their first trip outside of American borders. Their conversation, which I could not help but overhear, consisted mostly of "Wow, did you see that.... I wish we had a highway like that one.... Boy this is better than our airport in Detroit..." And it is only going to get worse, as this important essay makes clear.

Stephan:  I have written about the almost unremarked trend of Roman Catholic charities and foundations owning an increasing number of hospitals in the U.S., and imposing their values on health care, particularly where women and sex are involved. (See my essay Science, Death and Consciousness) As this report describes if you are a woman, particularly a fertile woman, you would be well advised to do some research and find out who owns the hospital nearest to you and, if it is a Catholic institution you might want to identify an alternative and make sure that is where you are taken.