Prosthetic Conscience

Latest non-fiction books read

Instead of posting reviews, I’m going to try to catch up on a brief descriptions of books I’ve read recently or am reading, starting with the non-fiction.

• The Divine Right of Capital by Marjorie Kelly.

  A good book on the corporation, from a libertarian socialist perspective. Kelly champions the free market, but demonstrates how the legal and common-law structures surrounding corporate governance work against the free market and against economic democracy. The best and most important aspect of this book is that she demonstrates that the world view underlying corporatism is essentially the same as that underlying feudalism, based on the principles of Privilege, Property, Governance, and Sovereignty, as opposed to Equality, the Public Good, Democracy, Justice, and Revolution.

  The really interesting thing about this is that if you go to the book’s page on Amazon, the negative reviews all essentially paint this book as in favor of Marxist-Leninist state communism, when in fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. It’s fascinating how in some people’s minds, there can only be two possible positions on economics (corporate capitalism and state socialism). This book is more on the spectrum of individualist anarchism, though it’s actually very moderate (some would say wimpy).

• Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control, by Gary Kleck and Don B. Kates

  I’ve just started reading this. It’s been recommended as a good pro-gun book from a liberal perspective. I’m not sure how correct that description is, but it looks to be worth a read.

[ Posted: 16:48] | [ Category: /books] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

WTF Is It Now? is a great blog for headlines and attitude. I don’t think it contains much original reportage, but the author is far more obsessive-compulsive than I am about blogging every outrage-spawning event that takes place.

[ Posted: 14:43] | [ Category: /web] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Proposed constitutional amendment on corporations

This is the text of a constitutional amendment drafted by Marjorie Kelly, the editor of Business Ethics and author of The Divine Right of Capital. This amendment would eliminate corporate personhood, and provide a national definition of what a corporation is, which could be elaborated by state laws.

In keeping with equal treatment of persons before the law, the wealthy may not claim greater rights than other persons, and corporations may not claim the rights of persons. The public corporation is a semipublic body, composed of both property and persons, and these persons include employees. The public corporation is to be chartered by states to serve both public and private interests and is to be governed internally by democratic processes.

This could never pass as a constitutional amendment, of course, but it’s worth thinking about as a ground-rule about how we can think about corporations.

[ Posted: 14:21] | [ Category: /politics] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Radical Cheerleading

I’m really excited that some of my friends decided to form a Radical Cheerleading squad for the Fort Bragg demo coming up. What follows is some linkage related to Radical Cheerleading (sources of cheers, mostly). Some of these links are arguably NSFW, or at least link to things that are NSFW, unless your workplace is particularly progressive. I’m not real enthusiastic about protests these days (they’re too easy to ignore as “focus groups”, or the same old hippies doing the same old thing), but Radical Cheerleaders could breathe some life into them.

• Radical Cheerleaders
• Radical Cheers from the Victoria, BC squad. My favourites are “Riot, Don’t Diet”, and “Barbie Likes to Muff Dive”.
• Columbia, MO radical cheerleaders
• Pom Poms, not Bomb Bombs
• NYC Radical Cheerleaders have an excellent section of anti-war/anti-Bush cheers.

[ Posted: 09:17] | [ Category: /politics] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Student arrested for writing zombie fiction

From All Flesh Must Be Eaten: a high school student was arrested for writing zombie fiction. The authorities claim the story “outline[s] possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police.” The police have admitted they know it’s fiction, but still consider it a felony. A judge raised the student’s bond from one thousand to five thousand dollars, because of the “seriousness” of the charges.

Furrfu, what does it say about the world when I can’t decide whether to file a story under “Politics” or “Zombies”? I guess, as Lori said, if you let a child write zombie fiction, it could lead to an unhealthy adult obsession ;)

[ Posted: 08:13] | [ Category: /zombies] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]