On Consumerism: I'm amazed they fail to mention that someone working at minimum wage nowadays, even at 40 h/wk, cannot afford basic needs, food, shelter, etc. Cutting those hours back to 30 h/wk, and it looks even worse. The link between cheap goods and exploitation must be made in the public mind before anything will change though. If the marketplace wants $1.00 shoes and shirts, they'll get sweatshops. (unless we get regulation on the selling of goods made in sweatshops LOL HAHAHAHAHAHAH, yeah right.)

And On Greenwald's Column: As I was reading it, I thought to myself "this is the sort of thing I'd hear about on "Democracy Now!", and then got to the Update section about how Greenwald is going on DN today. Ha!

It's too bad that not even NPR would pick up on a story like this, it seems to be quite a fascinating look at how America is viewed worldwide. Perhaps it doesn't fit into Fox News' "world in a minute" feature...

on the "naturalism" video: this is i think the second or 3rd time you've referenced this new name for freethinking skepticism.are you joining a cult, norm? :) the speaker, tom...clark, is it? is trying to connect determinism with buddhism and put a new name on it. an activity, i might say, worthy of werner erhardt or l.ron hubbard. jolly good, etc.

so as a drug person, i immediately recognized him as a drug person, so of course i understood everything he said. and it worries me, norm.

first he stays silent for 10 seconds and then tells us that because we didn't know what we were going to be thinking during that time, that we shouldn't worry about not having souls, that our brains work just fine.

then,addressing the obvious objection to that statement, he tells a story of his version of paradise, involving a determinist speeder getting picked up by a determanist cop. the speeder says " officer, you know i'm not to blame for my behaviour, which is predetermined by purely physical factors" and the cop, also a determinist, says" yes, of course you're right. but as a determanist i know that my fining you (tom actually says "giving you a warning next time", exposing his bleeding heart) will influence your beheviour in the future." and the speeder, a determinist, has to agree.

and thats paradise for ol' tom. then he says if a cartesian dualist believer in "souls" were in the same situation, he would say "fuck the cops! i'm an individual!" and go off speeding down the road.

this all starts about 45 min into the video, btw, so i'm not expecting any responses to this.:)

so he sums up by saying (and i quote. i stopped the fucking video, wrote it down, whooped out the window and did a huge bong hit) "so you see? the soul would actually defeat our (determinist) practices of keeping people in line".

i dunno, norm... my soul is telling me to rip this guys heart out of his chest and eat it in front of him while he still lives.

As I was reading it, I thought to myself "this is the sort of thing I'd hear about on "Democracy Now!"

Yeah, pretty sad that a blog committed to supporting the rule of law, substantive journalism, and rational discourse would be considered fringe lefty stuff.

Re: Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com (put him on your list of daily must reads)

I completely agree. I may sometimes not make it to the front page of the LA Times on any given day, but I always read Glenn. I attended Netroots Nation this year and when I interacted with other attendees and shared favorite blogs and I mentioned Glenn's they'd say one of two things, "He is scary-smart" or "Are you a lawyer?"-- but I find his writing very clear and accessible.

Re: The Gospel of Consumption. Since when has supply ever exceeded demand. I've noticed that people who preach this gospel already have all their fundamental needs met. Lots of people don't.

Norm,

I've been an avid Glen G reader for over a year now (not as long as I've been reading ogm). I've noticed that you have been linking to him more and more frequently lately.

So I chuckled when I read your editorial comment "put him on your list of daily must reads" which I interpreted as a kind of instead-of-ME-linking-to-him-everyday-just-go-ahead-and-read-him-yourself level of recommendation. And I couldn't agree with you more.

I find Glen to be absolutely relentless and tireless in his efforts to illuminate the failings of our msm, the current administration, and (most importantly) our Democratic party leadership.

What Glen does day in and day out makes the msm bobbleheads and editors look as shallow as a birdbath. His writing will suck you in, infuriate you, and propel you to take further action yourself.

Excellent piece from Orion -- it reminded me of Thoreau's little experiment, which resulted in one of the classics of world lit (Walden). HDT made the simple point that you could work less than a third of the year and have enough to live comfortably all year. His first chapter, "Economy" remains one of the most lucid social expositions ever printed.

So I chuckled when I read your editorial comment "put him on your list of daily must reads" which I interpreted as a kind of instead-of-ME-linking-to-him-everyday-just-go-ahead-and-read-him-yourself level of recommendation.

Oh my. Before I read the articles and comments, I thought that you all were disscussing some comment from Glenn Beck... opps..