The Collapse of the War Systemis the hopeful and predictive title of a 2007 book by John Jacob English, who’s actually Irish, and it may prove a valuable stepping stone for many trying to partially back their way out of support for endless war yet not prepared to acknowledge the more coherent and empirically substantiated wisdom of complete abolition. Whether any of the authors of the following books which I routinely recommend to people had read English’s book I do not know, but it also makes a nice lead-up chronologically and logically to them:

Thursday, October 4, 5-7pm, OSU Oval [near the Thompson statue]

The International Socialist Organization [ISO], in collaboration with other activist groups, will be hosting a protest and speakout to oppose sexism and the recent Kavanaugh nomination.

During the past several weeks, Dr. Christine Blase Ford has bravely spoken out against her sexual assault by right-wing nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. Disturbingly, the Republicans have vilified Ford and have continued to support Kavanaugh. This represents the intense sexism and rape culture promoted every day by the establishment.

We are in a political moment of intense attacks on reproductive and abortion rights. These are rights that our lives depend on and must be collectively fought for! At the same time, the growing #METOO movement is building solidarity among survivors who are demanding an end to sexual violence and rape culture. With the unfolding #Kavanaugh nomination, we must unite on campus and declare that we #BelieveFORD and all victims!

The Columbus Dispatch's opinion writers do not take its news coverage seriously.

A few weeks ago, the newspaper/website took down four Republican candidates for statewide office for being asleep at the switch while ECOT and its charter school kin ripped off Ohio taxpayers and Ohio public schoolchildren for $1 billion.

Taken to the woodshed were Attorney General Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Jon Husted, Auditor Dave Yost and State Rep. Keith Faber.

On Sept 9, the Dispatch endorsed former Congressman Zack Space, a Democrat, for state auditor over Republican Faber, while tagging the latter for his ECOT failures.

Two Sundays later, on Sept. 23, the Dispatch put on the blinders and ignored Yost's abject failure in policing ECOT while endorsing Yost over Democrat Steve Dettelbach for attorney general.

The Dispatch had little bad to say about Dettelbach, but forgot to mention that as U.S. attorney in Cleveland, Dettelbach brought down corrupt Cuyahoga County elected officials and sent them to jail.

I woke up today with what Devo would call an uncontrollable urge.

And the urge was urging...what?

To watch Downton Abbey?

No, grandma.

To learn the chords and lyrics to Carmen Ohio?

God, no. (There are lyrics?)

To send all my money to the Clinton Foundation so one person in Haiti might get at least a hamburger next week?

To paraphrase Adolf Hitler in Inglourious Basterds, "Nein, nein, nein, nein, nein" (I've counted the neins).

As I laid propped up on my three mismatching pillows, I eagerly dialed up on You Tube my guiltiest of pleasures: Deep Purple – the greatest British hard rock band of the '70s (Led Zeppelin being the worst) – and their 1972 or thereabouts live version of one of the greatest headbangers ever made. And I mean one of the two or three best ever, bubby.

No, not Smoke On The Water. Highway Star!

As we barrel towards Election Day, it’s become clear the Ohio Debate Commission wasn’t actually created to ensure robust debate for Ohio’s voters. On the contrary, it was meant to stifle any real discussion about the issues and keep Ohioans from knowing about all their options on the ballot in the gubernatorial race this year. Case in point – the recent debates held between the two major party candidates for governor, Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Rich Cordray, that excluded half of the candidates on the ballot, including myself, the Libertarian Party candidate, and Constance Gadell-Newton with the Green Party.

As was to be expected, all this exclusion did was allow for the “debates” to descend into the typical arguing and mudslinging Americans have become accustomed to in our duopoly-dominated discourse, as opposed to actual conversation about policies and the problems facing our state. DeWine and Cordray predictably attacked each other on their equally dismal records as attorney general, directly quoted their negative ads and blamed each other for Ohio’s opioid crisis, all while only offering big government solutions that waste more taxpayer dollars.