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Stirring humor into "Old Age"

No doubt everyone grows old in their own way.

But once you actually hit it — that three letter word, “old” — watch out: “An aged man is but a paltry thing,/A tattered coat upon a stick . . .”

So wrote William Butler Yeats, back in the last century, conjuring a mystical journey to the spiritual city of Byzantium in order to escape his entrapment in that word, and in the world that values only youth. Hey Bill, how does it feel to be so old?

Familiar tale gracefully blends feminism and fantasy

Feminism has a crucial role to play in modern life, but I sometimes wish it would leave our fairy tales alone. The results of its revisionist meddling are too often unconvincing and unsatisfying.

Remember last year’s Maleficent? It turned an age-old story on its head by revealing that the fairy (Angelina Jolie) who turned a princess into a “Sleeping Beauty” was not evil at all. No, she was merely wronged and misunderstood. Worst of all, we learned that the somnambulant princess could not be awakened by a kiss from the handsome prince, but only by a motherly peck from that same fairy.

How heartwarming. And how utterly unromantic.

Thank goodness Disney’s new live-action version of Cinderella doesn’t wear its feminism on its sleeve. It has nods to modern sensibilities, to be sure, but they’re handled with a lighter touch.

The Enemy Is Among Us?

Well friends, the verdict is in! If you are opposed to Israel’s slaughter of something like forty thousand Palestinians, mostly women and children, or the clearly enunciated plans by that nation’s government to ethnically cleanse the rest of historic Palestine, making the developing Eretz or Greater Israel a legally Jewish state, and are prepared to protest or speak up about it, then you are an antisemite Jew-hater and probably even a holocaust denier. If you are a student demonstrating against the slaughter you are increasingly being referred to by talking heads and the media as a pro-Hamas terrorist. That you must be condemned and sanctioned or even criminalized as a consequence of the labels is only fair in a country that apparently has come to believe that Jews and Israel, uniquely, cannot be criticized due to their cited ad nauseam victimhood and their anointment by God no matter what the First Amendment to the US Constitution relating to freedom of speech might say.

A Militarized Response

The Iron Heel of the State at UCLA: Eyewitness Account

“Biden Biden, Whattaya Say? How Many Kids You Kill Today?”

This was one of the militant chants of hundreds of students on May 1 at UCLA. I went to the university after covering the May Day rally in Hollywood, arriving around 4:00 p.m., and this is what I witnessed at the frontlines of the class struggle in Westwood:

I made my way on foot across the sprawling campus towards the epicenter of the unfolding action, the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment, led by Students for Justice in Palestine and UC Divest Coalition at UCLA. The first thing I noticed was the sound of helicopters hovering overhead and a heavy security presence. The latter included the LAPD, the LA County Sheriff’s Department, California Highway Patrol, UCPD and CSC, a private firm specializing in crowd management. Upon reaching Dickson Plaza, the rather large area was cordoned off with metal barricades.

Nuke Attack On Solartopia; Uncommitted; Reshaping The Electoral College

Linda explains that the extreme heat, pressure and radiation inside a nuclear reactor have embrittled Reactor Pressure Vessels, robbing nukes everywhere of their braking systems…rendering them all vulnerable to the next apocalyptic explosion.

As Linda says, we have far more battery storage in California than Diablo produces….so who needs nukes? Answer: NOBODY!!

MIKE THALLER of Progressive Democrats of America tells his personal horror show of what the San Diego utility has done to his electric bill (hint: it’s not pretty).

Ohio’s CONNIE KLINE tells us about the gargantuan pro-nuke bribery fire still melting the Buckeye State.

Green power pioneer RON LEONARD gets us to the solar nitty-gritty.

MAYA VAN ROSSUM tells us how Green Amendments can help shut the nuke industry.

STEVEN SONDHEIM offers his wisdom on saving the planet.

VINA COLLEY of southern Ohio warns us against the dangers of reviving the Piketon enrichment facility, which has “killed so many people in the community.”

VINNIE DE STEFANO gives us an update JULIAN ASSANGE just as Joe Biden has extolled freedom of the press at the National Correspondents Dinner.

The Community Festival Annual Meeting

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Thursday, May 2, 2024, 7:30 PM
The Annual Meeting will include a report on last year’s finances, awarding of funds from the ComFest Grants program to non-profit community organizations, and a chance to meet and network with ComFest organizers and other local activists. There will be cake!  
Location: The Big Room, 1036 S Front Street, Columbus.

Ohio Student Protesters Gain Momentum Statewide, Direct Actions Planned This Week

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Across Ohio, students are gaining momentum in the movement to end the ongoing genocide of Palestinians at the hands of extremist Israeli powers. This comes as part of a wider wave of direct action on college campuses nationally as young people call for change.

Preferential Contempt

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