Left voices, unfiltered, unedited, Ungagged.
The George Collins Book Club When you’re so desperate for book recommendations that you turn to a bald twenty-something burnout for help. Gods above help you. Tariq Ali – The Clash of Fundamentalisms “Despite the differences between [the three monotheistic religions], they are all affected by the world around them. Times change and they change […]
It’s not easy to keep your head above water in these politically turbulent times, but do we have a choice? I’d say that we don’t. The future is not ours to give up on. We all have our low points though and for me the world really shifted on its axis on 7th November 2016, […]
On Thursday (30/5/19) Lib Dem leadership candidate Jo Swinson commented that unequal access to university was due to a lack of investment in early intervention and lack of aspiration from young people, who don’t think that university is for them. She cited a town in her constituency where she claimed 80% of young people went […]
As I vacuum the dark green carpet while listening to an interview with author and Democracy Now! Co-host Juan Gonzalez, I’m struck by a particular statistic: 70% of the world’s population will reside in cities in the next two years. The implications of this, says Gonzalez, are gigantic for progressivism, as these cities will become […]
Growing up American feels like the old metaphor of a fish being removed from the river. The fish has no concept of water itself because the liquid home is all it has ever known. Once it is yanked from the stream, its worldview is shattered. A new world has been discovered and the fish […]
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, we learn from a computer named Deep Thought that the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is “42”. In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, we learn that the Ultimate Question that produces that Answer is “What do you get if you multiply six by […]
My father is one of the most hardworking people I know. He works as a university administrator in the provost’s office of the school he taught at for nearly two decades. He served as Chair of the Faculty Senate with no additional pay prior to accepting that position. He maintained his duties in the provost’s […]
“Every generation must fight the same battles again and again and again,” said Tony Benn in one of his more memorable speeches. “There is no final victory, and there is no final defeat.” Those who buy into what those trying to shift power from the ballot box to the market-place with austerity, balanced budgets, so-called […]
Yes, that’s a reference to Joss Wheddon’s space western Firefly. Under Ireland’s 2009 Defamation Act, “A person who publishes or utters blasphemous matter shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €25,000.” Seriously, Dail Eireann, what the fuck? Have you even HEARD of the […]
This trilogy is not like the Monty Python version, there will actually be more parts. Lots of folks say we need to abandon American exceptionalism. Some, like my Dear Uncle Napoleon, prattle on about British exceptionalism. Today, rather than taking on either of those two comparitively minor annoyances, I hope to kick the shit out […]