Posted on June 24, 2008 by Jason Barr
This past weekend a tree sit protesting I-69 was “evicted” by DNR, the Indiana State Police, and other “law enforcement” agencies. My sister was right in the middle of (some of) the action, and she’s shared her story on her blog.
An excerpt:
I was just going to stay in the sidelines but through their disgusting behavior, [...]
Filed under: I-69, corporations, corruption, politics, resistance | No Comments »
Posted on April 23, 2008 by Jason Barr
“Military planners operate on the basis of military expediency, and individual soldiers are trained to operate on the basis of unquestioning obedience to their military superiors…In the realm of copybook distinctions it may be a simple matter to divide the bombing of a city into separate acts of willed destruction of a war production plant [...]
Filed under: politics, quotes, war | No Comments »
Posted on April 4, 2008 by Jason Barr
As you’re probably aware, on this day 40 years ago Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
Fewer people are aware of this speech he gave 41 years ago, today.
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 4, 1967
I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no [...]
Filed under: MLK, justice, memorial, nonviolence, peace, politics, resistance, war | Tagged: Submergent | No Comments »
Posted on March 31, 2008 by Jason Barr
People need to to read things like this before they ignorantly ramble about how great biofuels are.
At the bottom of page one it talks about the possibility of the Amazon rain forest turning into something like a savannah or even a desert. It wouldn’t be the first time human deforestation has caused a vital and [...]
Filed under: apocalypse, consumerism, creation, empire, global warming, history, politics, renewable fuels | Tagged: Submergent | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 11, 2008 by Jason Barr
Depending on which study one considers credible either 70% or 90+% of people in Indiana are opposed to construction of a new-terrain extension of I-69 from Indianapolis through southwestern Indiana. The major pocket of support is among business interests in the Evansville area.
This project is highly problematic for numerous reasons, including but not limited to [...]
Filed under: I-69, democracy, politics, resistance | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 6, 2008 by Jason Barr
You know, the kind that gets in your lungs and doesn’t come back out, that contributes heavily to cancer, emphysema, and other fun things. They want to make it easier for industrial pollution in the area to increase so we can breathe more of it - in an area that already compares with Los Angeles [...]
Filed under: creation, health, politics | No Comments »
Posted on February 26, 2008 by Jason Barr
An anti-I69 consulta will be held this weekend here in Evansville, Indiana to discuss resistance strategies and tactics. See the Roadblock Earth First! Stop I-69 website for more information.
Filed under: I-69, politics, resistance | Tagged: Submergent | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 19, 2008 by Jason Barr
Well, unless you live under a rock you’ve probably heard by now that 143 million pounds of beef coming from a particular meat factory in California have been recalled due to concerns over health and safety related to the improper health-related treatment of certain “downer” cows. A few thoughts:
1) I saw on the news today [...]
Filed under: agriculture, animals, consumerism, corporations, corruption, evil, government, politics | 6 Comments »
Posted on February 9, 2008 by Jason Barr
This morning, my grandfather sent me an email “action alert” from the American Family Association urging protest of the recent Berkeley, California City Council resolution that declared the downtown Marine recruiting office “unwanted” and urged the recruiters to leave town. This article does not respond to that issue, but rather to the subject line of [...]
Filed under: Augustine, Iran, Iraq, Isaiah, Latin America, civic mythology, consumerism, corporations, domination, empire, free trade, government, history, peace, politics, war | Tagged: Submergent | 4 Comments »
Posted on February 2, 2008 by Jason Barr
My friend Steven Kippel wrote this post, and I requested permission to reproduce it here. Just so no one who has a loved one involved with the military will hear this the wrong way, my brother is in the last stages of mission training before going to Iraq - so this is quite a personal [...]
Filed under: Iraq, consumerism, corporations, domination, guest, politics, war | 3 Comments »
Posted on February 1, 2008 by Jason Barr
Brandon Rhodes has written an EXCELLENT article at Jesus Manifesto called “Severing the Rhetorical Roots of the Empire“. In it he lists some quotes, inviting followers of Jesus to creatively rewrite them to displace idolatry and blasphemy with subversive truth, just as Paul and other early Christian authors rhetorically usurped Caesar’s place of privilege and [...]
Filed under: Jesus Manifesto, Paul, civic mythology, empire, justice, language, peace, politics, president, quotes, resistance | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 1, 2008 by Jason Barr
If anyone hasn’t read NSPD 51/HSPD 20, they definitely should. It basically states that the president can take over all functions of the government as well as some private functions (read: corporate business interests) in the event of a “national emergency”. It was released May 9 of last year.
For some reason every time I think [...]
Filed under: government, history, politics, president | 2 Comments »
Posted on January 29, 2008 by Jason Barr
I do not believe that one has to be anarchist to be a faithful follower of Jesus.
Let me say that again: I do not believe that one has to be anarchist to be a faithful follower of Jesus.
I say that lest I be accused of “theological” divisiveness over my “political” beliefs, as I have been [...]
Filed under: Bible, anarchy, authority, emerging, politics | Tagged: Submergent | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 29, 2008 by Jason Barr
Recently I read the excellent novel Imagining Argentina by Thornton Wilder. The book is set in Argentina under a military junta of the type the United States tends to support in our so-called “ally” countries. People are constantly disappearing, being abducted by agents of the regime, including the wife of Carlos. Carlos possesses a mysterious [...]
Filed under: catholic, corporations, government, imagination, politics, resistance | Tagged: Submergent | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 21, 2008 by Jason Barr
This is one of King’s most important speeches and yet one of his most little-known. Delivered on April 4, 1967, exactly one year to the day before he was assassinated, this speech provides a scathing denunciation of the practices of the American government on the world stage, particularly in Vietnam. King extends his methodology of [...]
Filed under: MLK, Vietnam, affluence, justice, memorial, nonviolence, peace, politics, resistance, war | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 5, 2008 by Jason Barr
Too often in our reading of the Bible, we make an easy association between words like “liberty”, “justice”, and other words that have political associations in our time, as well as words with other economic and social implications, and the usages of such words in modern liberalized political discourse. This error is often compounded by [...]
Filed under: language, liberalism, politics, postmodern | No Comments »
Posted on December 11, 2007 by Jason Barr
That is all - no trenchant analysis, no lengthy exposition. Just mentioning that Giuliani scares the hell out of me. I really think, given his autocratic methods while Mayor of New York and the decidedly neoconservative bent of his foreign policy advice team (including Norman Podhoretz who apparently prays for war with Iran) that if [...]
Filed under: politics, president | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 22, 2007 by Jason Barr
Washington Post article
What do you think? Who’s playing games with whose jobs at this point?
For my money I think the Administration would prompt Defense to encourage layoffs because they’ve already shown so little concern for the average American in all this that… well, what’s buggering a few more?
I think it’s good to see Congress finally [...]
Filed under: Congress, Iraq, politics, war | No Comments »
Posted on November 21, 2007 by Jason Barr
Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals is the title of a new book by Shane Claiborne (of The Simple Way) and Chris Haw (of Camden House).
I especially like this button:
There are some interesting images and such on the “counter-propaganda” link, especially the very powerful litany by Shane and Chris, with help from Christian [...]
Filed under: politics | 4 Comments »
Posted on November 15, 2007 by Jason Barr
This article from today’s International Herald Tribune gives an excellent example of what Chalmers Johnson calls “blowback”, from the title of his 2000 book (revised ed. 2004) Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, in which he essentially predicted a 9/11-like attack as one of the “unintended consequences” of American policy towards so-called “developing [...]
Filed under: Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, democracy, domination, empire, free trade, government, nukes, politics, terrorism | 1 Comment »