The twilight of the American Empire, it thus appears, will be remembered for its endless kill lists and its codification of murder. -Ben Schreiner  It is high time we learned to read the signs of the times. The epitaph above is taken from the recent Counterpunch article “Obama’s Endless Kill List.” In that article Schreiner…

In my view, ima­gin­a­tion is the cent­ral field of social trans­form­a­tion in the age of semiocapital.[2] Capitalist dom­in­a­tion is sus­tained by the per­sist­ence of men­tal cages that are struc­tured by the dog­mas of growth, com­pet­i­tion and rent. The epi­stem­o­lo­gical dic­tat­or­ship of this model – its grip on the dif­fer­ent spheres of human know­ledge – is the very ground of power. …

A few months ago, on July 21 to be exact, the world of journalism lost one of its bright lights. At the time I was completely unaware, was unaware in fact until a few days ago, that Alexander Cockburn even existed. It is probably a testament to my own erratic reading habits that I discovered…

I used to sleep at the foot of Old Glory, and awaken  at dawn’s early light. But, much to my surprise, when I  opened my eyes, I was a victim of the Great Compromise.  -John Prine  They said I would always remember where I was on September 11,2001. It was our Pearl Harbour, a day…

Misty G. Anderson Imagining Methodism in 18th-Century Britain: Enthusiasm,    Belief & the Borders of the Self Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2012, 279                 I grew up in a place where immediate heartfelt religion -the experience of conversion and being born again – was extremely important. The passing of…

 Medea Benjamin Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control  New York: OR Books, 2012.  A recent article in the New York Times, entitled “A Day Job Waiting for a Kill Shot a Word Away” chronicles some of the psychological disturbances facing drone pilots, as they routinely confront an “enemy” across the world from the safety of…

If anyone out there in the vast realm of virtuality follows this blog, even a little bit, you may have noticed that the last two postings had titles that seemed to suggest a commitment to a regular, even weekly, offering. You will subsequently have realized that such commitment is not forthcoming. My apologies.The following, in…

Robyn Ferrell Sacred Exchanges: Images in Global Context New York: Columbia University Press, 2012, 192 pages. $50.00 Time and again, as I read through Robyn Ferrell’s new book, the words of Frank Scott’s villanelle passed, unbidden, through my mind. Not steering by the venal chart, that tricked the mass for private gain.We rise to play a…

Today I came across a piece of news which further confirms some deeply disturbing trends in the Canadian political scene. I am reposting this article, because, it seems one small last-ditch effort, not so much to stave off the onslaught of barbarism, but at least to keep the awareness alive of what is happening .…

Giorgio Agamben The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government (Translated by Lorenzo Chiesa and Matteo Mandarini) Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011, 303 pages.  Glory, both in theology and politics, is precisely what takes the place of that unthinkable emptiness that amounts to the inoperativity of power. And yet, precisely…