The Localizer

Energy Bulletin: America's health threat: Poor urban design

2012-01-25T13:12:00.000-05:00

Read it here: America's health threat: Poor urban design | Energy Bulletin

Original article in The Chronicle of Higher Education here

Hail the Super PAC, an economic force to be reckoned with

2012-01-21T11:41:00.003-05:00

Whew. Just in time to avoid a second great depression, the Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 08-205 (2010) that corporations and other private entities could not be limited in spending on political campaigns and other political activity. Never mind the official clarification that corporations are indeed people overcoming the waffling that the Waite Court did in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (1886). This in itself corrected over a century of grave injustice to "people" who were not able to make full use of the 14th Amendment and other tools to get ahead in life. The real benefit to all of us, in addition to trickle down economics, is the economics of campaign spending. Now unlimited, this alone can be America's legacy going forward.

For it is now that we can make political spending the key sector of the economy outside of the military. With no limits, Super PAC's as well as official campaigns can purchase so much airtime that regular programming will struggle to compete. Printers will be working overtime; the U.S. postal service can blacken it's ledgers; manufacturers of buttons, bows, pencils, and other trinkets will gear up for three shifts and put American manufacturing on the radar again. Robo-calls can benefit us as a nation by getting our legs exercised walking back and forth to pick up the phone and our arms slamming it back down again (thus requiring a new phone purchase...up goes the GDP!), lengthy radio ads will allow radio personalities extra time to rest their pipes for the next segment, so much economic activity is being and will be generated by the campaign season that recovery is only a short step away.

But we shouldn't risk a downturn after the election this fall and thus should insure that campaigning is constant. Allowing the factories, phone lines, mail rooms, and television studios to go dark would be tragic and unjust. It would throw countless hard working Americans and Chinese out of gainful employment. As traffic and airplane accidents drop, military campaigns draw down, the productive financial sector shrinks, and more parents are shunning happy meals for their kids in favor of less profitable home cooked meals, we need something predictable to keep the GDP numbers up so that we can give something positive to elected officials for their platforms. We may even be able to import this model of economic recovery and stability to other nations as we've exported suburbia, mass consumption, and globalization of trade. It is the American way to share our successes with the rest of the world...or at least make them the fodder for our own.

Urban Land: Reinventing Historic Assets

2012-01-17T15:09:00.000-05:00

Link to article here: Reinventing Historic Assets: Tax credits for historic preservation are proven job creators that bring good construction salaries and other living-wage earnings to communities.

Have the Super-Rich Seceded From the United States? | Truthout

2012-01-11T09:26:00.000-05:00

Have the Super-Rich Seceded From the United States? | Truthout

NYTimes.com: With Work Scarce in Athens, Greeks Go Back to the Land

2012-01-09T08:48:00.001-05:00

WORLD | January 09, 2012

With Work Scarce in Athens, Greeks Go Back to the Land

By RACHEL DONADIO

"As Greece's economy plunges and unemployment rises, many Greeks are fleeing to the countryside and looking to the nation's rich agricultural past as a guide to the future."

NYTimes.com: Seeing the Building for the Trees

2012-01-08T20:32:00.002-05:00

OPINION | January 08, 2012

Gray Matter: Seeing the Building for the Trees

By SARAH WILLIAMS GOLDHAGEN

"How insights from neuroscience are changing architecture."

NYTimes.com: An Engineered Doomsday

2012-01-08T10:15:00.002-05:00

OPINION | January 08, 2012

Editorial: An Engineered Doomsday

"A lab-created bird flu virus needs to be destroyed, or better contained, and future research closely reviewed."

Editor: Destroyed? You don't say.....? This is another great example of why humanity has a short shelf life.

Earth Island Journal: How peak oil pricked the housing bubble

2012-01-07T11:53:00.002-05:00

Earth Island Journal: Material World

by Jason Mark

Find article here: http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/material_world/

Reuters.com: West readies oil plan in case of Iran crisis

2012-01-07T11:50:00.002-05:00

West readies oil plan in case of Iran crisis

click here for article

Truthout.com: Would You Blow the Whistle? Many Say Yes, but Perils Abound

2011-12-28T10:04:00.001-05:00

Article here: Would You Blow the Whistle? Many Say Yes, but Perils Abound

Financial Times: Oil price climbs amid Iranian threat

2011-12-28T08:33:00.002-05:00

By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran and Javier Blas in London

"Iran on Tuesday threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for a third of the world's seaborne oil trade, if the west imposes..."

The full article can be found at:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/969649bc-30a5-11e1-9436-00144feabdc0.html

Thinkprogress: IEA’s Bombshell Warning: We’re Headed Toward 11°F Global Warming and “Delaying Action Is a False Economy”

2011-12-10T17:37:00.002-05:00

Link here: IEA’s Bombshell Warning: We’re Headed Toward 11°F Global Warming and “Delaying Action Is a False Economy”

Editor: Happy holidays!

Truthout: Words That Don't Work: Frank Luntz's Trap for Progressives

2011-12-08T09:14:00.001-05:00

Link to article here: Words That Don't Work: Frank Luntz's Trap for Progressives | Truthout

Editor: This article provides a lens into the confusing and ever shifting arena of political rhetoric which most people do not pay much attention to and often adopt the frames that their peers use. Even careful and strategic avoidance of the framing references used by political operatives risks the new terms or references being co-opted for negative connotation. It's a constant cat and mouse game and it is the landscape of American politics. The only way to approach this is to develop a complete ideological set of frames and introduce it as a novel platform to address the new problems, issues, and predicaments that humanity and nature find ourselves in. By introducing a completely new platform at once, the risk of having a specific term turned is absent. All issues are on the table simultaneously, all terms defined and explained, all problems clearly connected to sources. More on this soon.

Financial Sense: Why the Middle East Is Keeping Oil Traders, Politicians Awake at Night

2011-12-06T22:30:00.000-05:00

Link here: Why the Middle East Is Keeping Oil Traders, Politicians Awake at Night

Truthout: Marching Off the Cliff

2011-12-06T21:57:00.000-05:00

Link to article here: Marching Off the Cliff | Truthout

If We End Corporate Personhood We Can Define the Terms of a New Economy

2011-11-30T09:11:00.000-05:00

If We End Corporate Personhood We Can Define the Terms of a New Economy

Telegraph UK: Prepare for riots in Euro collapse, Foreign Office warns

2011-11-26T22:00:00.002-05:00

Link to article here: Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns

Washington Post: High oil prices fuel economic worries

2011-11-25T09:41:00.002-05:00

High oil prices fuel economic worries

Consumption is on the rise as world's producers struggle to keep pace.

Read the entire story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/oil-prices-rise-amid-global-economic-worries/2011/11/23/gIQAOZRVtN_story.html

Huffington Post: New Mexico House Votes 65-0 To Move State's Money To Credit Unions, Community Banks

2011-11-20T09:08:00.003-05:00

Article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2010/02/09/new-mexico-house-votes-65_n_456043.html

Truthout.com: The Need to Relocalize Our Economies

2011-11-17T20:35:00.000-05:00

Go to article here: The Need to Relocalize Our Economies | Truthout

Yahoo! News: The next financial crisis will be hellish, and it's on its way

2011-11-17T09:28:00.002-05:00

Go to article here: http://news.yahoo.com/next-financial-crisis-hellish-way-204303737.html

"There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner," says hedge fund legend Mark Mobius, "because we haven't solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis."

Citiwire.net: Bring Back the Rooming House?

2011-11-15T18:34:00.000-05:00

Citiwire.net » Bring Back the Rooming House?

Planetizen: The Top 100 Public Spaces in the U.S. and Canada

2011-11-15T18:31:00.000-05:00

Go to article here: The Top 100 Public Spaces in the U.S. and Canada | Planetizen

Editor: Let me know which of these spaces you've been to...

SHTFPlan: Outrage: Government Forces Private Citizens to Pour Bleach on Home-Grown...

2011-11-13T16:56:00.000-05:00

NYTimes.com: The New Progressive Movement

2011-11-13T16:15:00.002-05:00

OPINION | November 13, 2011

Opinion: The New Progressive Movement

By JEFFREY D. SACHS

"As before in history, the moment has arrived when people just can't take it anymore."