Authors for Reading Alongside Svetlana Alexievich’s Secondhand Time
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading…
Tag: Noam Chomsky
Can’t Wait for the USPS by Rob Trousdale (The Joy is Reciprocal)
A Response to a Letter from 4514 Chouteau Avenue How many times can one read the same 4 sentences? 14 and counting, I guess Your lines on Chomsky’s fire for linguistics Him, just diggin’ it…
The Real Crime of Cuba
The following comes from a 1990 discussion among U.S. and Canadian activists with Noam Chomsky. It may provide food for thought given the current focus on Cuba after the death of Fidel Castro. Look, the…
The Way It Looked in 1970 (Pessimism of the Intelligence, Optimism of the Will)
What can we do to affect the events that are to come? First, we must not make the mistake of placing trust in the government. The large upsurge of antiwar sentiment can be an effective…
Summer Reading, 2009
I recently found this in an old file… CHINA Annping Chin, The Authentic Confucius: A Life of Thought and Politics David Hinton, Selected Poems of Wang Wei D.C. Lau, trans. Mencius Andrew Plaks, trans.,…
Chomsky on Central America, 1985
Noam Chomsky, Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America& the Struggle for Peace, South End Press, 1985 The real victims of “America’s agony” are millions of suffering and tormented people throughout much of the Third…
The Way It Looked in 1988
Take a look at this morning’s New York Times (I had fifty cents to kill, so I bought a copy). There’s story about Israel, John Kifner, a pretty good reporter, is reporting about attitudes in…
The United States versus the Gospels
The crime of liberation theology was that it takes the Gospels seriously. That’s unacceptable. The Gospels are radical pacifist material, if you take a look at them. When the Roman emperor Constantine adopted Christianity, he…
Dear Isabel (Letter/10)
The End of June 2015 Page 12, paragraph 1 Can you tell me the names of journalists you respect whose work you could also accurately describe as “Self-serving, theatrical, and soothing”? The part of you…
Dear Isabel (Letter/9)
Monday 29 June 2015 Dear Isabel Glad you had friends visiting over the weekend and that you now have a little more space for your daily practices and chill time/spaces. Page 11, paragraph 1 Don…