Bet you haven’t heard this

Feature1- BraveFilmsStories we just didn’t have room to share with you

In writing this newsletter, we scavenge every source we can find for things we hope you will be interested in.  We save these ideas through the month, and then sift out the best when it comes time to start typing.  This means painful decisions about what to run… is it more important to write about police militarization or environmental abuse?  Is it more entertaining to tell you about the Sellwood Concerts or hidden camping destinations?  Is it more useful to know about synthetic oil or your car’s battery?  As you can guess, this process leaves us with a string of trails that seemed interesting but we just couldn’t follow to their ends.  Now that it’s the end of the year, we thought we’d share some of these stories we’ve collected… some are funny, some are profound, and some will make you think.  But we know you’ll find at least one thing to get you talking!RestOfNewsletter

Insane Homeless Policies

Homelessness is endemic in today’s America, but there are good ways and bad ways to address it.  Here are examples of both…

Political Polarization

Why is our society becoming increasingly polarized?  Partly because of the media we consume, and partly because research is increasingly showing there are biological differences in conservative and liberal brains.

Remember Democracy?

Snowden’s revelations were bad, but they’re part of a larger depressing picture.  We found many post-mortems on our fondly remembered democracy…

 


BP Gulf Spill Response

The 2010 BP Gulf spill was one of the worst environmental disasters our country has ever experienced.  BP has worked tirelessly to clean up the mess from the spill, but unfortunately they’ve worked harder on the PR mess than the environmental one.

Indoctrination Replacing Education

Education came under scrutiny this year as school boards began inserting revisionist history and revisionist science into textbooks.  Texas and Colorado were this year’s battlefields, but don’t worry… the fight will be coming to a much nearer school soon.

Ideas That Work

We don’t like to just harp on what’s wrong with the world; it makes more sense to figure out what to do to change it.

Endless War

If you’re dreaming about a peaceful society that doesn’t spend all its blood and treasure on war, then keep dreaming.  It’s not even that our leaders are particularly evil, but the structure that supports war is now permanent.

 

Online Car Sharing

Car sharing sites are becoming increasingly popular, and drew our notice when one of our clients used the fact that we maintain her car as a selling point for people who want to rent it.  Here are links to (and about) Getaround, the service where Stacey S. posts her car.

Legalized Marijuana

Legalized marijuana will be coming to Oregon in 2015.  We strongly supported this ending of a senseless prohibition, and here are several links that scratch the surface of why…

 


Goodbye To The Right To Trial

Our Constitution’s 6th Amendment guarantees the “right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury” among other things.   “Guarantee” and “Right” might not mean what we all think they mean, especially when trials become inconvenient to our corporate overlords…

Can You Hide ANYTHING From Big Data?

We all know we’re tracked online by both business and government.  But how deep does the tracking go?  Here are several stories that will shock you.

Pathetic Media

To make rational choices about the world around us, we need accurate information.  Long gone is the time where the evidence of our senses told us all we needed to know; now we rely on media instead.  And it sucks.

The Edward Snowden Saga Continues

Edward Snowden started dropping his bombshells in 2013, but nothing much has changed over at the NSA since.  It’s been an issue we’ve been following, but it seems every time we’re ready to write about it another bomb hits.  Here are some of the links we’ve almost written about on Snowden and the Deep State.

 


Brave New Films

Brave New Films”, brainchild of Robert Greenwald, produces documentaries and investigative videos “to educate, influence, and empower viewers to take action around issues that matter”.  “Overcriminalized” is just one good example of the high quality they produce.  This series of three films cover the criminalization of homelessness, using prison to treat mental illness, and drug war alternatives that work.  And these are just the tip of the iceberg.

How Bad Is Corruption?

Corruption in America (and of course, beyond) is nothing new, but the extent and effect are pretty amazing…

Flying Death Robots

Who doesn’t love flying death robots?  The current epitome of American technology, these terminators-on-wings project our military power around the world without the messiness of actual war.  So much potential for good, yet so much potential for abuse.  The subject is bottomless, but here are some of the stories that caught our attention…

Whistleblowers

In order for business or government to correct any mistakes, we have to know they exist.  Here are several stories that show most people would rather live in a comfortable fiction than an uncomfortable reality, and that anyone rocking that illusory boat will pay a heavy price…

The Brave New World Of Science

Not everything is doom and gloom.  The world we’ll live in tomorrow is being created in the science labs of today.  Tomorrow looks pretty amazing!

This entry was posted in 2014 December, Feature Articles, Newsletter Columns, Newsletters. Bookmark the permalink.