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Dedicated to Intellectual Disobedience and the Pursuit of Understanding, the Last Bastions of Hope

   

        

Volume 1-2012                                                           

 

Lunar Eclipse 2010

 

 

Solar Flare (NASA)

2013: NASA anticipates large solar flares, possibly as large as the 1859 flares that fried telegraph lines throughout the U.S. and Europe

 

HOT THIS WEEK

FEATURES CURRENTLY AT RCJ

Are You A Slave? A Brief History of the Subject Suggests "Probably"

Moses, Wall Street, Human Nature and Grover Norquist

Concepts of Resistance - The RCJ Provides a Road Map for the OWS Movement

Lance Henriksen - World's Greatest Actor in Reflective Mode

Conspiracy - A Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the New World Order

Elections 2012

What Does it Take to be President?

Rating the U.S. News Readers

The Antidote to Michelle Bachman

Ship of Fools - Why Won't We Save Ourselves?

White House Solar Bomb

What Is Happening to Us?

The Cloud - What It Is

Background on Afghanistan

Economics 101

Global Economic Risks

Islamic Definition

Middle East

Second Amendment Remedies

Sam Broussard - Republicans

Treason

Why All the Zombies?

Gun Rights

Leadership Chronicles

 

FEATURED BLOGGERS

Is Belief In God a Sign of Weakness?

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal.

No, but it may be a signal for help, and not necessarily in a bad way.

God is a construction of peoples’ need to have an organizing influence in their lives, standards to live by, and some reason to carry on. In all of those ways, God and everything that comes with it – the afterlife, sense of well being and spiritual comfort, and purpose in all things – is truly helpful to people, as various studies have seemed to indicate. Belief is powerful, almost regardless of its details.

That God, and the belief therein, is a signal for help is endemic to the genesis of the subject, if you will pardon the pun.
Read Post - Comment

 

Letter to Conservatives: The Party of Wealth – Theirs
 

Sam Broussard - Writer, Songwriter, Musician, member of Steve Reilly and the Mamou Playboys

 www.sambroussard.com

Three of the front runners for the Republican nomination are now just memories, pundit fodder: Huckabee and Trump, and Palin recedes into political tinnitus. But the retiring of all three has one thing in common, and it’s money. Huckabee just bought a huge house in Florida and is enjoying his status and salary at Fox News. Trump is more at home on his reality show. And Palin is enjoying both Fox money and reality TV and will probably be the next Oprah Winfrey, although she’ll never get more than twenty percent of the viewers because only that percentage of Americans can identify with her spunky pride in her ignorance. And yes, she’s pretty.

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We Need A New Party!

Kenny Lee Lewis - Member of The Steve Miller Band, Guitarist/singer/songwriter, Novelist/screenwriter' www.kennyleelewis.com, www.stevemillerband.com

I am a rock star. Ok, ok, I am in a band with a rock star.  I am also a husband, father of three daughters, and a small business owner who pays his taxes like anyone else. I never got into politics until the last election and wrote and produced a non-partisan PSA video for Comcast called “Get Out and Vote” to help assuage voter apathy throughout this ailing nation. I didn’t vote for either one of the major candidates in 2008. I am all about trying to rally everyone to start voting again so we can possibly support a third political party that makes sense. If we can educate and get people out to the polls again, I believe that there could be a groundswell of voters who could turn the tides in future elections.
We need a party “by the people and for the people”. As corny as that sounds, it is a precept that our nation was founded upon and if we are to lift up and resuscitate this
suffocating political system, we are going to need a leader who actually leads rather than folds like a cheap stroller just to please his parties’ special interests.

(Use the link below to read Kenny's entire post (© Kenny Lee Lewis, 2011 - All Rights Reserved).

Read Post - Comment

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The RCJ Posts Issues Questionnaire on Obama - Obama 2012 – Where Do You Stand?

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal. He is also proprietor of A&E/IT Consulting firm Rick A Rice Consulting.

The Revolution Culture Journal (RCJ) invites you to participate in a little experiment to help us understand public perception of President Barack Obama, particularly as it relates to enthusiasm for his re-election in 2012.

We have identified 34 issues in U.S. foreign and domestic policy and devised a scale to determine how well respondents feel President Obama is doing with each. Use this link to go to the questionnaire.

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Bechtel’s Long-Term Commitment to Nuclear Disaster

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal. He is also proprietor of A&E/IT Consulting firm Rick A Rice Consulting.

Somehow the idea of using nuclear fission, and eventually nuclear fusion, to boil water, produce steam, drive turbines and produce direct current electricity has found its way back into the list of acceptable alternatives as an environmentally friendly solution. This bit of Houdini depends entirely on comparison to power generation through the burning of coal, which produces carbon emissions and is a primary contributor to rising levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) in our choking environment.

Read Post - Comment

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Applying Grover Norquist to Corporation Intellectual Starvation

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal. He is also proprietor of A&E/IT Consulting firm Rick A Rice Consulting.

In my career as a consultant, I have all kinds of opportunities to interact with different personality types at different levels of organizations. Some of these are of the kind that might make others feel that life is not worth living, but the advantage of consultancy is that my involvements are focused, short, and generally sweet, and then I leave the office dramas behind for a quick dip into the next kiln of opportunity. I am like a merry mercenary in that way, unexposed to the daily grind of the organizations with which I work.

Staff people, on the other hand, are subject to hierarchical structures and personality profiles, and their critical path issue is: a) whether or not to stay in the roles they are in, given the odds of rising up to a more satisfying position within the organization; or b) to cast their fates to wind, which is the job market.

So much of life happens at the initial sell-in.

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Appointment with Disaster - Republican Domestic Policy

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal.

While the rich are enjoying tax breaks they have no need for and U.S. corporations are holding on to record profits, padding their accounts to ensure that this is not their rainy day, but doing little to further the employment and domestic security needs of United States citizens, word comes that we are running out of money to provide help for a growing population of homeless (see the Huffington Post on this date).
Read Post - Comment

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Welcoming the Arab Street to U.S. Foreign Policy

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal.

I was all set to thank the progressive Arab world, or at least the 25 percent of it that is situated in Egypt, for taking charge of U.S. foreign policy and forcing it to make sense. Then those pro-Mubarak thugs showed up and shocked the global community back to reality.
Read Post - Comment

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Why Your College Student Can't Read, Write or Even Think

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher, Writer, A&E / IT Consultant

Back a hundred years ago, when I was in college, all the guys who were doing the best in the classes I took all seemed to be Viet Nam veterans going to school on government grants. They tended to stand out because they were older and far more experienced than their classmates. It seems unlikely that they were brighter, but they were fundamentally different in terms of focus and perspective in ways that seemed obviously helpful to them.
Read Post - Comment

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GOOD VISITS: Sites
Cracked.com
 

 

 

Being President of the United States

 

 

Did you ever stop to consider what it really takes, in the way of personal qualities and skill sets, to actually be the President of the United States of America. The job is unlike any other in the world. The President is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the U.S., the most powerful military collective in the world. He (so far it has only been "he's") is the Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Branch of government, meaning that he has high level administrative and policy execution responsibilities. He makes Federal appointments of judges and "czars" of various specialized functions, and he has a role in influencing the legislative process. He also has a huge ceremonial role as the face of the United States of America internationally.

There are various positions that might prepare a prospective President for any one of those duties and responsibilities, but there is no one training ground for it all. This is why presidents have staffs of people who do have specialized skills and experience to help him navigate the difficult challenges presented by each and every one of the duties the President assumes.

How successful a President will be, however, is entirely dependent upon the combination of traits and characteristics that he (or she) brings to the office.

The RCJ would like to believe that there could be some way to adequately assess an individual's qualifications for the office, and below we have a matrix that endeavors to plot and weight (in terms of importance) a wide range of qualifications that are germane to the duties of the office of President. We have then scored the candidates in terms of their qualifications for each aspect of the work. (Tim Pawlenty was still active as a candidate at the time of this ranking.)

While this score card below is in no way scientific - in fact, is totally subjective - the results we came up with surprised us, to say the least. We would encourage all people interested in U.S. politics to go through this type of process and preparing your own assessments of the candidates. - RAR

What Does It Take to Be President of the United States of America?
  REPUBLICANS DEMOCRATS
CANDIDATES► Romney Perry Bachman Pawlenty Paul Gingrich Huntsman Santorum Obama  
TOTAL QUALIFICATION POINTS 155 124 159 132 180 121 157 132 164  
Executive Administration Qualifications 8 2 4 5 5 6 5 6 5  
Knowledge of U.S. Federal Government System (0-3) 2 0 2 1 3 3 2 3 2  
Large Organization Executive Management Expertise (0-7) 4 1 1 3 1 2 2 2 2  
Expertise in Business Operations (0-3) 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1  
Educational Qualifications 15 9 15 14 22 21 24 13 24  
Knowledge of World Affairs (0-5) 2 1 2 3 5 5 5 3 5  
Knowledge of U.S. and World History (0-7) 2 1 3 4 5 5 7 3 5  
Knowledge of the U.S. Constitution (0-3) 2 1 2 1 3 3 2 2 3  
Knowledge of U.S. Federal Law (0-3) 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 3  
Knowledge of International Trade Agreements (0-3) 2 1 2 2 2 2 3 1 3  
Knowledge of Economics Principles (0-3) 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 2  
Educational Background/Credentials (0-3) 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 1 3  
Personal Qualifications 83 80 100 85 109 59 84 84 90  
High Level of Personal Intelligence (0-3) 3 2 2 2 3 3 3 1 3  
Organized Thought Processes (0-7) 4 4 5 2 5 5 5 4 5  
Poise (0-10) 7 6 7 3 7 5 5 5 7  
Physical Appeal (0-3) 3 2 3 2 1 1 2 1 2  
Personality Appeal/Charisma (0-7) 3 3 5 2 4 2 3 3 6  
Authoritative Presence (0-10) 5 3 3 2 5 2 4 3 6  
Decisive Nature (0-10) 5 7 7 3 10 5 5 7 3  
Provides Vision for the Future (0-10) 3 2 10 3 10 5 3 7 3  
Cares About People (0-10) 2 3 7 9 5 1 5 7 3  
Personal Integrity (0-5) 2 1 1 5 3 1 3 5 3  
Personal Wealth (0-4) 4 2 1 2 2 2 2 1 3  
Family Background (0-3) 3 2 2 2 2 1 2 1 1  
Shrewdness of Character (0-10) 7 5 7 3 6 6 5 3 4  
Good Personal Health (0-10) 10 10 10 8 6 4 7 8 10  
Married with Children (0-5) 5 5 4 5 5 1 3 5 5  
Free of Scandalous History (0-5) 5 4 1 5 1 0 5 3 5  
Has a Big Picture View of Things in General (0-10) 2 3 3 5 10 5 7 3 5  
Is Detail Oriented (0-3) 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 2 3  
Is Passionate About Things in General (0-10) 4 5 7 5 9 5 5 7 3  
Is Personally Approachable/Not Standoffish (0-10) 3 5 7 9 7 2 4 4 6  
Religious Affiliation (0-3) 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1  
Seems Genuine (0-5) 1 3 5 5 5 1 3 3 3  
Skill Sets 30 26 24 20 29 19 28 15 23  
Public Speaking Skills (0-4) 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 2 4  
Quick with Responses to Questions (0-3) 3 3 2 1 3 3 3 2 3  
Quick to Learn New Things (0-3) 3 3 2 2 3 2 2 2 2  
Capacity for Recognizing/Learning From Mistakes (0-10) 6 5 5 5 3 2 5 3 3  
Street Savvy (0-10) 7 6 5 5 5 3 6 2 3  
Articulate/Good Writer (0-7) 3 3 2 2 5 3 4 2 6  
Strong Negotiation Skills (0-10) 5 3 5 3 7 3 5 2 2  
Political Qualifications 19 7 16 8 15 16 16 14 22  
Understands Washington Politics (0-10) 5 0 5 1 9 10 7 8 5  
Committed to Political Dogma (0-3) 1 3 3 1 3 2 1 3 1  
Has the Support of His/Her Party (0-10) 5 3 5 2 1 1 2 1 6  
Compromises to Get Deals Done (0-5) 3 1 1 3 1 3 3 1 5  
Good International Representative for America (0-5) 5 0 2 1 1 0 3 1 5  


 

©Rick Alan Rice (RAR), September, 2011

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