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Boca de Sama Attack

Back in the day on October 12th, 1971, the small Cuban fishing village of Boca de Sama in the Eastern part of the island was attacked by boat. Gustavo Villoldo, a Cuban exile and CIA agent at the time, recently spoke of his role in the operation in a feature story published by the …

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Crisis and Hope in the Age of Obama – a New Talk by Noam Chomsky. Click here to Pledge

Noam Chomsky is a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is known in the academic and scientific community as the father of modern linguistics. Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as an anarchist-leaning political dissident, and libertarian …

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Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us

Dedicated life-long consumer advocate and three-time Presidential candidate Ralph Nader has recently added one more line to his already packed resume: budding novelist. Three years ago Nader began typing out on his Underwood Typewriter, his wildest political fantasies: a world where a group of 17 aging billionaires led by Warren Buffet spark a top-down/bottom-up rebellion against unrestrained corporate capitalism. In …

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The Genius of Darwin
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Scientists unveiled a major discovery this week: the complete skeleton of the oldest known evolutionary ancestor to modern man. About 4.4 million years ago, the female hominid weighing about 110 pounds and standing about 4 feet tall, roamed the forests of what is now Ethiopia. She has been nicknamed Ardi, short for Ardipithecus ramidus and is …

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The Senate Finance Committee this week rejected a government-funded public health insurance option as part of the massive overhaul of the American healthcare system. The move is seen as the direct result of vocal and sustained efforts over the summer by well-organized right wing groups mobilized indirectly by the health insurance lobby and egged on by conservative talk show hosts. Tens of thousands of …

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Lies My Teacher Told Me
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When students are asked what their least favorite subject in school is, they overwhelmingly say history. History classes tend to have the greatest percentage of semi-conscious students. Is that because history is just inherently boring? Historian and history-book critic James Loewen says no. After studying a dozen high school history textbooks, …

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George Carlin – It’s Bad for Ya
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More than one year ago on June 22, 2008, one of the greatest and most influential stand-up comedians of all time, died. George Dennis Patrick Carlin was 71 years old – he was struck by heart failure just one month after he performed his 14th and final HBO special, just …

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The Living Dead

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President Obama was recently asked by a world leader at the G 20 summit why in the course of the healthcare debate were some Americans depicting him as Hitler. The specter of facism and Nazi ideology conflated with the idea of socialism and hence government-run healthcare is a common thread in the talking …

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The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics

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As President Obama continues to push for reform of the nation’s health care system, right-wing resistance has encapsulated itself in emotionally charged, yet simple phrases. “Death panels,” “socialism,” and “government takeover,” are immediately recognizable and updated additions to today’s lexicon of conservatism. Obama, …

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Addicted to Plastic: The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle

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The Northern California city of San Jose just passed a ban on plastic bags. It’s one of the country’s strictest bans, and reflects a growing awareness across the nation, as one city after another adopts similar bans. Proponents of such bans explain that plastic bags generate mountains …

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