Paul Ryan: The “Individual versus the Collective” It appears that Paul Ryan is a rabid fan of Ayn Rand. According to clips I have heard on Democracy Now, he feels that almost every issue can be boiled down to – not a clash of civilizations – but a clash of philosophies: those who “defend the…
by Ysabeault d’Valar-Alba O Canada, Our hearts grieve so for thee. Justice and Peace, we long for these to be. With sorrowing hearts, we see thy wounds, the North once proud and free. From shore to shore thy bounty sold, for corporate greed and gold. But you shall arise, by shared love revived. We stand…
Creeping Fascism The fallout from the G20 continues unabated. Because of on-going digging by responsible media, we can now identify several of the most brutal police who used force, not only unnecessarily and gratuitously but also – it seems – with seriously doubtful legality. More importantly, ideological connections have been made between the boots on…
Why go out in the streets? Here are two reasons. The first is that whether you are in the street or in the four walls of “home” (however much that is, or isn’t), if you are poor, it’s true that you remain poor. But, at home, your poverty is intensified by your isolation: perhaps it’s…
“Democracy” is a gospel word in our culture. It’s sacred. But, when we use it, what do we mean by it? It comes to us, we know, via the Greco-Roman inheritance of “the West”: Demos (the people), Kratia (rule by). That seems clear enough – rule by the people – but do we have that? If we…
In the previous post I mentioned that there were two issues that seemed to be at the heart of the discord between me and those who had objected to my notice, via the congregational list serve, concerning my self-employment initiative. The first was the issue of “sanctuary” versus “economic activity” – which was the major…
As readers will know, I have been agonizing over the issue of indigenaity, in relation to spirituality and “immanential devotions”, through all of the postings so far. As a deeply Pagan person, the two core strands informing that conflicted spiritual orientation are: the Pagan heritage of Northwest Europe – what H.R. Ellis-Davidson identified as the…
Ysabeault d'Valar-Alba 