Blueprint for the Disintegration of America

Written by celestina on December 10, 2007

Bumper stickers as the modern version of political activism… Photo by cesar bojorquez. (License: Creative Commons Attribution)Recently, there has been an increasing amount of talk centering on the possibility (or even probability) that President Bush and his administration are going to declare martial law and bring around a new fascist state. There has been a [...]


Considering The Vision: Dennis Kucinich

Written by celestina on March 9, 2007

Dennis Kucinich ran for President in 2004, and garnered at best 17 percent of the vote in the state primaries. He is back in the running for 2008, but the question remains: what does Kucinich think he has to offer that we haven’t seen before?


Considering a Vision: Rudy Giuliani

Written by celestina on February 27, 2007

In keeping with the promise made in my previous article, “Visionary Terms”, this is the first in a series of articles where we will explore both the history of the Presidential candidates and try to get a clear view of the vision they offer to the American people for their future. Rudy Giuliani once was, [...]


Visionary Terms

Written by celestina on February 19, 2007

The race for the 2008 Presidential election is off on a premature start, and the results are already being polled by the most respected polling firms. The promises are being rolled out by the truckload, the platforms are being polished and set up for viewing with the utmost fanfare and hooplah. None of this really [...]


Digging Dirt on Obama

Written by celestina on February 13, 2007

Like many of you, I sat down to watch the February 10th declaration speech given by Barak Obama with some trepidation and not a little cynicism. I had seen him speak before, and my original impression had been simply that he was an impressive speaker. Sitting through his speech on Saturday, however, I had to [...]


Where Orwell Was Right

Written by celestina on February 9, 2007

When contemplating similarities between our current western culture and George Orwell’s 1984, most discussions quickly turn toward debating the slow decline of personal privacy, the standards of government intervention, or a discussion of rat phobias. While all of these make for fascinating (if perhaps repetitive) conversation, it was not here that Orwell demonstrated his greatest [...]


Beyond Rational: How To Discuss Contentious Topics and Keep Your Cool

Written by celestina on November 30, 2006

In “civilized” society, we know that one of the cardinal rules is that there are certain topics one just simply does not bring up: politics, religion, money, and sex. The problem, of course, is that without these subjects most dinner parties devolve into inane conversations about the weather, and online communities such as Newsvine would [...]


Raising Diplomats

Written by celestina on November 17, 2006

This week’s news headlines run something like this: Russia, U.S. Disagree on Iran Sanctions Israel Vows to Respond to Rocket Attack China Declines APEC Meeting With Canada Bush Warns N. Korea on Nuclear Transfers …and so on. Notice anything missing? Diplomacy is an artform that has never been well understood by most, and in recent [...]