Petey's
Pipeline E-zine
Issue #53
June 4, 2007
Contents
Business
First Work
and Leisure
Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
Government Reform
Write Thinking Ampersand
Business
First (Editorial)
Work
and Leisure
Your
mission, should you decide to accept, is to click on each of
the following links and read the essay to which the link takes
you. Read Lloyd Gordon's article on the Onward Oregon blog first
(it provides context, however grim, in which the remaining essays
take on aspects of moral imperatives), then read the others
in any order of your choosing.
Read
them for enlightenment, read them for pleasure, but read them.
Absorb the information, contemplate it, understand it. Ponder
alternatives while allowing for unintended consequences. In
other words, "grok" the information, as Valentine
Michael Smith's Martians were predisposed to do, until you have
a thorough grasp of the overwhelming need to revamp modern society's
most basic concepts of economy, work, livelihood, leisure, and
sustainability.
Enjoy
the reading, and revel in the knowledge you gain. Just don't
make a job out of it.
Crude,
by Lloyd Gordon
The
Abolition of Work, by Bob Black
The
RICH Economy, by Robert Anton Wilson
In
Praise of Idleness, by Bertrand Russell
An
excerpt from Critical
Path, by Buckminster Fuller
Excerpts
from The
Continuum Concept, by Jean Liedloff
We
Don't Want Full Employment, We Want Full Lives!,
translated by Ken Knabb
• • •
For
an occasional dose of insight and opinion, read Petey's
Pipeline Blog.
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Random
Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings
Government
Reform
by Phil Hanson
With
so many challenges confronting modern society, plotting a course
of action to meet those challenges often seems impossible for
want of a starting place. But logic demands a starting place,
and the logical place to start is with government reform.
To
begin the reform process, "we, the people" must wrest
control of the government away from corporations. What better
way to begin than by revoking corporations' rights to citizenship?
Those rights were, after all, gained through a deliberate judicial
misinterpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution—a
huge error in judgment that essentially handed control of the
U.S. Government to the highest bidder.
Corporations
are good at taking care of business, they're just not good at
taking care of the people's business. Corporations have no legitimate
place in government, nor are they deserving of citizenship status
because they lack the soul and the conscience to be good citizens.
If we punished corporations for their moral and ethical misdeeds
to the same extent that we punish individuals, 95% of corporations
would be behind bars—or strapped to a gurney in an execution
chamber. Those in the remaining 5% would either be on probation
or on the lam.
Elected
officials beholden to corporate dollars rarely act in ways that
best serve the public good. By depriving corporations of their
ability to control elections, the electorate regains the power
to nominate and elect political candidates that serve their
interests rather than corporate interests.
In
conjunction with stripping corporations of their rights to citizenship,
ban them from making political contributions in any amount.
Simultaneously cap personal political contributions at $100
per candidate per election cycle, but also limit the amount
of money political candidates can spend on their political campaigns.
By controlling the amount of money used to finance elections,
we can change the government "of the wealthy, by the wealthy,
for the wealthy" to one "of the people, by the people,
for the people."
The
next step is to integrate more—and better—accountability
into the voting/elections process. A two-week long "Election
Day," vote-by-mail options, tamper-proof voter registration,
hand-counted paper ballots, and an accurate and verifiable documentation
of counted ballots are among the many things that should be
considered.
Then,
abolish the Electoral College. In this age of near-instant communications,
it's no longer needed. Allow the popular vote to determine the
outcome of presidential elections and forego a system that has
so much potential to give a minority undue power over the majority.
Finally,
hold elected officials accountable for their transgressions,
and impose harsh penalties when they stray away from the accepted
bounds of ethical conduct. Egregious lapses of judgment and
breaches of the public trust must not be tolerated. Demand excellence
in leadership. Demand accountability. Punish errant and derelict
politicians appropriately when they abuse their position of
power and authority. Given the proper incentives, politicians
will toe the line.
Once
citizens are firmly in control of the government, they must
establish priorities and devise a plan of action for the government
to follow. Among the top issues on the agenda must be environmental
protection, resource conservation, renewable energy, strategies
for a sustainable economy, public health and welfare, affordable
education, national security, and an equitable foreign policy
that treats other nations as equals in a global partnership
instead of like second-class citizens in a hegemonic dictatorship.
But these are subjects for future articles in this series.
Copyright
© 2007 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Write
Thinking
Ampersand
(&)
Symbolic
of the word and, ampersands are most frequently used in
informal writing (such as when taking notes) to save time and
space. In formal writing, however, there are only a few instances
where ampersands find legitimate use. Among these are:
•
As a stylistic device when writing certain corporate names
Barnes
& Noble Booksellers
Pacific Gas & Electric
Simon & Schuster
but
not
Henry
Holt and Company*
*See
exception in following paragraph
When
an ampersand appears as part of a company name, as on a letterhead
or logo, it should always be written that way. If and is
spelled out in the company's name on letterhead or logo, write
it that way except when it's included in a lengthy list of other
corporate names, which may or may not contain an ampersand or
the word and. In such cases ampersands are the accepted
norm to avoid textual inconsistencies and stylistic confusion
due to mixing of the two forms.
•
In abbreviations
R&D
(Research & Development)
R&R (Rest & Relaxation)
PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric)
S&L (Savings & Loan)
Spacing
around the ampersand to separate it from the letters is optional.
For instance, S&L, as written above, can also be written S
& L.
Caveats
include never using ampersands when the word and appears
in federal government agency names . . .
Fish
and Wildlife Service
Food and Drug Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
.
. . and foregoing the use of a comma after the next-to-last name
when the last two names in a series are separated by an ampersand.
Wade,
Tillman & Boggs
Eccles, Carlson, Baylor & Welles
Copyright
© 2007 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer
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