Kathleen Peine: There is new adventure afoot in the plunder and grab realm. Once again, it’s a pursuit of tangible, rapid wealth – this time it’s natural gas.
About Kathleen Peine
Kathleen Peine writes out of the Midwest United States; her pieces appear in DissidentVoice as well as Counterpunch. She welcomes reader feedback and can be reached at [email protected]
The Dangerous
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Kathleen Peine: Universal healthcare is off the table, of course. Because in America, our table is only open for fine dining. It’s that or nothing, kid.
Abandoned by the Spirits
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Kathleen Peine: Our hubris is that only humans matter, and it probably blinds us to a world that wouldn’t require us to self medicate with SSRIs (or whatever is handy).
This Is the Koan
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n case you’ve never heard of one- a koan is a device used to push past linear thought during meditation, forcing non-verbal, visceral enlightenment. It’s a technique used by Buddhist monks to reach a clean place of truth- without words, without reason. The question “what is the sound of one hand clapping?” falls into the [...]
It’s Pageant Time, Girl!
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Kathleen Peine: I just find it ticklish in a nice way that the Honey Boo Boo contingent, those taken for granted by the Republicans to always be in their camp, would stray a bit.
Anarchists Invade Tampa: Exceedingly Dangerous Treasure Boxes
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Kathleen Peine: I am pretty sure that anarchists won’t be showing up in the numbers that Tampa Convention organizers and security fear, mainly due to obvious constraints. The rain from Isaac will wash off the chalk.
Chick-Fil-A Lineup: Great Moments in Civil Obedience
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Kathleen Peine: The average American simply didn’t care. Until it involved fast food and sodomy, and a ridiculous perception that protecting free speech means supporting guys who use their money to advance hate.
The Ghost Dance
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It was said that if the dance was done with extreme precision and adherence to ritual, the oppression would stop. Wild game would return, and a new age would ensue. Sometimes a swirling trance was conjured, but this only increased the oppression.
MO Bitter Blues in the Jeff City Rotunda or Rush Limbaugh’s Big Head
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Kathleen Peine: It’s not the Hall of Universally Loved Missourians,” House Speaker Steven Tilley told the Kansas City Star in regard to the placement of the Rush Hudson Limbaugh III bust in the Missouri Capitol. “It’s the Hall of Famous Missourians.”
Debt Servitude: Glamorous Servitude and Sexy Debt
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Kathleen Peine: As those like my grandfather passed away, an opening was found since all Americans love the shortcut — suddenly a new spritz of respectability was placed on debt.
In This Campaign Season: An Opt Out Letter
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Kathleen Peine: This is a plea, really, to those who are bothering me with their hopes and aspirations during this bigtop extravaganza that is to be the final moments of our presidential campaign season.
Potent Blood
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Kathleen Peine: I hope many, especially in America, will remember the struggles and deaths of those activists in Chicago during the Haymarket riots, and consider the potent blood that is May.
Why Doctors Can’t Tell You the Truth About Fracking Risks
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Kathleen Peine: There’s something buried in a new law and it’s every bit as toxic as the chemicals used to unearth natural gas through that process called fracking. Lurking in that law is a form of enforced ignorance. The legislated ignorance is rapidly emerging to keep our public in the dark as anything and everything is tried to cover for the corporate coup that has already taken place
A Vicious Freedom Embraced: How America Has Shunned True Messengers
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Kathleen Peine: Emma Goldman’s speeches would be at home at an Occupy Camp or as a rebuttal to the radical right’s latest assaults.
They Hate Us for Our (Reproductive) Freedom
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Kathleen Peine: The barrage of late, regarding reproductive legislation shouldn’t be viewed as an assault only on women, but an attempt to curtail and contain the entire population, men included.
Unemployment: Shadows and Reality
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Kathleen Peine: The unemployment report came out recently, and Punxatawny Phil saw a service sector job — that means six more years of growth. Or something like that. It’s all very complicated.
Amphibious Open Marriages
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Kathleen Peine: Really, my only issue with a Newt Gingrich open marriage would be an assurance that I, as an American, would not have to participate.
What Americans Must Utter to Reclaim the Human
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Kathleen Peine: In much the same manner as Huck Finn, scores of individuals in America feel ill at ease with everyday imperatives. For some it’s the Imperialism, even if they don’t know what to call it. For even more it’s the degrading, soul eroding workplace.
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Just Not Enough Water
Kathleen Piene: Every comment from the parade of jackals running for executive office this year, every hypocritical utterance makes me wish the hot water in my shower could run for hours because that’s the only way I can think of to wash the rank nasty off me after being exposed to such filth.