Communities that Abide—The XIII Commandments

The manuscript for Communities that Abide is coming right along. The co-authors and I are working away, and it looks like I'll be able to start editing sometime within the next two weeks. I am shooting to have the book out in time for the 3rd annual Age of Limits Conference, which will be held over the Memorial Day weekend at the Four Quarters Interfaith Sanctuary in Artemas, Pennsylvania. I'll be running one workshop at the conference (on community formation) and moderating the discussion at another.

The Geneva agreement on Ukraine, translated

Lavrov

Semyon Uralov, odnako.org
 
The talks in Geneva resulted in an agreement that is in favor of all that is good and opposed to all that is bad. That's the basic gist of it; but what does that mean? Let's translate this memorandum from the language of high diplomacy into the language of the Ukrainian crisis.

RIP Mike Ruppert

Mike Ruppert has shot himself. This makes me very sad, but I certainly won't think any less of him for his decision to take his own life. Everybody has that option. I'll remember him for the happy times we had together, and for the big difference he's made in so many people's lives, opening their eyes to what's really happening in the world.

Business as usual

Ben Newman

[Update: After a lot of unthinking “but we Americans have guns!”-type comments, I held my nose and added a paragraph on that vile topic.]

Thinking about collapse is very useful because it allows you to prepare for it. And preparing for collapse is very useful too—from the pragmatic perspective of risk management. Consider the possibilities.

• If you prepare for collapse and it doesn't happen, then you look a tiny bit foolish.

• If you don't prepare for collapse and collapse does happen, then you look a tiny bit dead.

Now, which would you prefer to be, foolish or dead?

In the US, democracy is now a sham

Dran

[Guest post by Ray, just in time for April Fool's Day.]

The founding principle for this new form of government which emerged in the 18th century, was that the Common Man was the ultimate source of power. Citizen legislators would enact the laws and shape the nation’s destiny. But instead, our republic is now strong-armed by professional politicians. The two dominant concerns of these careerists are to STAY in power and to do the bidding of those who ENABLE them to stay in power. Anyone who doubts this statement might try explaining why campaign finance reform and term limits are perennially “off the table.” Actually, that is an understatement - they aren’t even in the building.