"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long
habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in
defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. "

Thomas Paine  -  Common Sense  -  January 1776

 
 
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Libmansworld Suggested Reading List - Some Are Online

Libmansworld Current Documentary List/Online Videos - Place Cursor here for further explanation.

All online videos can be searched for at Google Video or YouTube

 

 

WHO IS RICK WARREN AND WHAT DOES HE BELIEVE?

by Libmansworld

"Whose side is God on?"  is a question Jimmy Orr asked in a recent article for the Christian Science Monitor. It appears that Rick Warren, the founder and senior pastor of the 22,000 member Christian Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California and author of many Christian books and an influential Evangelical minister, may have been attempting to answer that question when he interviewed Barack Obama and John McCain.

As an atheist, I think it important to clarify first and foremost what foundational views move Rick Warren because I am immediately suspect of any individual who claims that he or she has gained insight and understanding from a "supernatural being" who is able to "watch" each and every one of our behaviors for its record book of judgment as well as "see" each and every one of our thoughts more extensively than anything George Orwell imagined. So what does Rick Warren believe? To answer that question, I don't think it's unreasonable to get that information from Rick Warrens Saddleback Church.

  1. God is bigger and better and closer than we can imagine.
  2. The Bible is God’s perfect guidebook for living.
  3. Jesus is God showing himself to us.
  4. Through His Holy Spirit, God lives in and through us now.
  5. Nothing in creation “just happened.” God made it all.
  6. Grace is the only way to have a relationship with God.
  7. Faith is the only way to grow in our relationship with God.
  8. God has allowed evil to provide us with a choice, God can bring good even out of evil events and God promises victory over evil to those who choose him.
  9. Heaven and hell are real places. Death is a beginning, not the end.
  10. The church is to serve people like Jesus served people..
  11. Jesus is coming again.
"... it's instructive to notice that we're all atheists with respect to Zeus and the thousands of other dead gods whom now nobody worships."

Sam Harris, author of The End Of Faith, in a NEWSWEEK exclusive God Debate: Sam Harris vs. Rick Warren

To my Christian acquaintances and friends who believe in such views as above, I cannot give ground since none of these views are capable of verification except through personal experience and a specialized reward called "grace" which enables "one to be chosen."   Such a  view holds no more weight for me than one who claims that there are 7 fairies that live on the tip of my nose and those fairies have the ability to direct me in my day to day affairs if I were to "open my heart" to the fairies. Of course all our views come from some form of personal experience. So if one chooses to argue with me on this point then he or she may have at it.  But, the Earth is NOT flat, the Earth is NOT the center of the known universe, and, all disease cannot be cured by bleeding to let out devilish spirits. Such facts did not come via mere personal experience let alone the Christian bible.

We are living in a time when science is putting aside the superstitions of the past. This is a hard large rock for religious people to swallow as their God Vision is being pushed to the sideline due to one scientific discovery after another. As for myself I put no weight in Rick Warrens's views. I do not doubt Rick Warren's talents - some have been given more than others. But when Rick Warren interprets "reality" with a 2000 year old text full of inaccurate facts, misogyny and values that most of us would find repulsive, I suggest we give Rick Warren some pause as he picks his way trough his bible while hearing his "god" speak to him.

dennetHomo Superstious, i.e. humans, have always utilized delusions in times of crisis and time of plenty, and so it has been the case with me at times in my life. But, as Christopher Hitchens has stated in his book God Is Not Great   "Religion has run out of justifications. Thanks to the telescope and the microscope, it no longer offers an explanation of anything important. Where once it used to be able, by its total command of a world view, to prevent the emergence of rivals, it can now only impede and retard—or try to turn back—the measurable advances that we have made."

I do agree with Rick Warren when he states we will be known by our deeds. Our deeds are the accounting of the human species. The history of our deeds, as long as we have a history and it is not rewritten by those who believe we do not deserve all the facts, will be the facts of who and what we are: and lest we forget, our deeds do have consequences.

 


IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A FREE LUCH FOR CORPORATIONS?

david cayYou may have heard there's no such thing as a free lunch, but David Cay Johnston says there is — and wealthy Americans do get richer because of it. In this April 14, 2008 speech, in audio form below, at the Commonwealth Club of California,Johnston, outlines how government-private sector collusion affects the middle class and the poor. David Cay Johnston was an investigative journalist for The New York Times now focusing on the subject of taxation. He is now an independent reporter. He most recently published "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill," about hidden subsidies, rigged markets, and corporate socialism.

This book follows " Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else," a New York Times bestseller.  Johnston received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting "for his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code, which was instrumental in bringing about reforms." He also won the Book of the Year award from Investigative Reporters & Editors.

richpoorsmall

oil drum


oilI would suggest watching the documentary "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power" which can be seen online in 8 episodes. Here are the links which may change over time: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8.

Oil is either owned or controlled by two groups: private non-governmental companies or national oil companies (NOCs) which are owned or controlled by the governments of oil-rich countries. NOC's manage over 90% of the world's oil, depending on how you count. Of the 20 biggest oil firms, in terms of reserves of oil and gas,16 are NOCs. In effect, NOCs remain firmly in control over the vast majority of the world's hydrocarbon resources.

The famous ''seven sisters'' -- Standard Oil, Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum, Texaco, Chevron, Exxon, and Mobil -- are no longer what they once were. Whereas they once hogged 80 percent of the world's production and reserves of crude oil and natural gas, today they hold less than 10 percent and are just shadows of their former selves.

In 1987 British Petroleum purchased the remaining 45% of Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) that they didn't already own, then in 1998, merged with Amoco (Standard Oil of Indiana), and in 2000 merged with Atlantic Richfield (ARCO). In 1998, Exxon (Esso, Standard Oil of New Jersey) merged with Mobil (Socony, Standard Oil of New York) to become ExxonMobil, the biggest oil company in the country, and third largest company in the U.S.  In 2001, Conoco (Continental Oil and Phillips Petroleum (Phillips 66) merged, to make ConocoPhillips, the 3rd largest oil company in the U.S., the 12th largest company, and the 6th largest oil company in the world.

It hsa been claimed that the new  state-owned enterprises are the basis for the astronomical price of oil and other associated calamities. According to Financial Times, these are the new villains: Saudi ARAMCO (Saudi Arabia), Gazprom (Russia), CNPC (China), NIOC (Iran), PDVSA (Venezuela), Petrobrás (Brazil) and Petronas (Malaysia).

oil suppliers to us

DOES OPEC SET THE PRICE OF OIL?

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) doesn't set the price of oil. But OPEC can set their production level. In today's complex global markets, the price of crude oil is set by movements on the three major international petroleum exchanges, all of which have their own Web sites featuring information about oil prices. They are the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX, http://www.nymex.com), the International Petroleum Exchange in London (IPE, http://www.ipe.uk.com) and the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX, http://www.simex.com.sg). Commodity traders are responsible for oil prices by bidding on oil futures contracts. There are many factors they look at when developing the bids that create oil prices:

  • Worldwide Supply/Demand Issues: Current supply in terms of output, especially the production quota set by OPEC.
    As an aside China is the second largest importer of oil only behind the US - the battle for oil has begun!
  • Oil reserves, including what is available in U.S. refineries and what is stored at the Strategic Petroleum Reserves.
  • Oil demand, particularly from the U.S. (as estimated by the Energy Information Agency . During the summer, forecasts for travel from AAA are used to determine potential gasoline use.
 

List of Petroleum Companies

Oil Production By Country

Oil Imported By Countries

Daily U.S. Oil Usage

Largest Oil Reserves

US Crude Oil Imports and US Total Petroleum Imports From Top 15 Countries

Oil Refineries Around The World

 

 

<img src="images/topcrudeoil_graph.jpg" width="505" height="286" />

US STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve
(SPR) is an emergency petroleum store maintained by the United States Department of Energy. The US SPR is the largest emergency supply in the world with the current capacity to hold up to 727 million barrels (115,600,000 m³) of crude oil. The second largest emergency supply of petroleum is Japan's with a 2003 reported capacity of 579 million barrels (92,100,000 m³).

The current inventory is displayed on the SPR's website. As of May 07, 2008, the current inventory was 702.0 million barrels (111,610,000 m³). At current market prices ($125 a barrel) the SPR holds over $88 billion worth of petroleum.

On May 13, 2008, the United States Senate and House of Representatives voted nearly unanimously to temporarily suspend the 70,000 barrel per day shipment of petroleum to the nation's emergency reserve. A temporary halt to SPR stockpiling is hoped to increase oil supplies and thereby reduce the cost of oil, although analysts are divided on whether it will have a meaningful effect to consumers. Shipments to the Strategic Oil Reserve would resume at the end of 2008. On May 16, 2008, the Department of Energy announced it was canceling oil shipments into the SPR beginning in July 2008 when the current purchase contract expires.

The United States started the petroleum reserve in 1975 after oil supplies were cut off during the 1973-74 oil embargo, to mitigate future temporary supply disruptions. According to the World Factbook, the United States imports a net 12 million barrels (1,900,000 m³) of oil a day (MMbd), so the SPR holds about a 58-day supply. However, the maximum total withdrawal capability from the SPR is only 4.4 million barrels (700,000 m³) per day, making it a 160 + day supply.

 

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
shimDaniel Patrick Moynihan

BEYOND BELIEFJust 40 years after a famous TIME magazine cover asked "Is God Dead?" the answer appears to be a resounding "No!" According to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in a recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine, "God is Winning". Religions are increasingly a geopolitical force to be reckoned with. Fundamentalist movements - some violent in the extreme - are growing. Science and religion are at odds in the classrooms and courtrooms. And a return to religious values is widely touted as an antidote to the alleged decline in public morality. After two edgecenturies, could this be twilight for the Enlightenment project and the beginning of a new age of unreason? Will faith and dogma trump rational inquiry, or will it be possible to reconcile religious and scientific world views? Can evolutionary biology, anthropology and neuroscience help us to better understand how we construct beliefs, and experience empathy, fear and awe? Can science help us create a new rational narrative as poetic and powerful as those that have traditionally sustained societies? Can we treat religion as a natural phenomenon? Can we be good without God? And if not God, then what?

This is a critical moment in the human situation, and The Science Network in association with the Crick-Jacobs Center brought together an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers to explore answers to these questions.

"We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence."
shim Bertrand Russell



American Civil Liberties Union mission is to preserve your first amendment rights, your right to equal protection under the law, your right to due process and your right to privacy.
Cato Institute is a public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C. intimately linked with libertarian principles but be aware of how seductive their ideas can be.
Center For Inquiry is a fantastic site dedicated to promoting and defending reason, science, and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavor.intcrogp
Center for Media and Democracy strengthens participatory democracy by investigating and exposing public relations spin and propaganda, and by promoting media literacy and citizen journalism, media "of, by and for the people."
Corp Watch is a research group supporting the campaigns which are increasingly successful in forcing corporations to back down.
Corporations and Health Watch analyzes corporate practices that harm health and campaigns to change these practices across six industries: automobile food, alcohol, pharmaceutical, firearms and tobacco.
Center For American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all.


SOCIAL CYCLES AND THE COMING GOLDEN AGE
BY MICHAEL NYSTROM ON RAVI BATRA

TOP 100 ARMS DEALERS IN THE WORLD - 2006

LATEST OIL RESERVES BY COUNTRY

THE WORLD'S 100 LARGEST ECONOMIC ENTITIES

WHO OWNS THE MEDIA?

CURRENT WORLD POPULATION

HOMICIDE RATES AROUND THE WORLD

PRISON POULATION AROUND THE WORLD

TOP PERCEIVED PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD


Common Cause is a nonpartisan nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1970 by John Gardner as a vehicle for citizens to make their voices heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest.
Corp Watch
investigates and exposes corporate violations of human rights, environmental crimes, fraud and corruption around the world. We work to foster global justice, independent media activism and democratic control over corporations.
CSPAN.ORG is a private, non-profit company, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a public service. Our mission is to provide public access to the political process.
CQ Money Line is the most comprehensive and objective resource on money in politics.
Center for Defense Information is dedicated to strengthening security through: international cooperation; reduced reliance on unilateral military power to resolve conflict; reduced reliance on nuclear weapons; a transformed and reformed military establishment; and, prudent oversight of, and spending on, defense programs.
Capitalism Magazine in defense of individual rights. Always read with a critical eye!

who rules americaWho Rules America?, presents detailed original information on how power and politics operate in the United States. The first edition came out in 1967 and is ranked 12th on the list of 50 best sellers in sociology between 1950 and 1995. A second edition, Who Rules America Now?, arrived in 1983 and landed at #43 on the same list. Third and fourth editions followed in 1998 and 2002, and the fifth edition, upon which most of this web site is based, came out in 2006.

You'll find the following here: supplementary information and updates for readers of the 5th edition of WRA; an overview of the American power structure at the national level and an in-depth look at power at the local level; an overview of the Four Networks theory of power, which provides the best general theory of power and social change within which to situate the class-domination theory I've developed specifically for the United States; commentaries on alternative theories of power; a special section on the Bohemian Club & Bohemian Grove, including pictures of the club in San Francisco and the encampment in the redwoods; suggestions for activists on what they can learn from social science research; links to Web sites and books about power and social change in the United States; and much more.

Critiques Of Libertarianism subject is libertarianism including Objectivism. This is not an anti-libertarian site, despite its critical nature of particular aspects of libertarianism that are untrue or undesirable.
source watchDisinformation is designed to be the search service of choice for individuals looking for information on current affairs, politics, new science and the "hidden information" that seldom seems to slip through the cracks of the corporate-owned media conglomerates.
DraftResistence.org is specifically encouraging resistance to the registration laws of the United States, seeing registration as the necessary step toward conscription (the draft).
Earth Justice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment.
Electronic Frontier Foundation was created to defend our rights to think, speak, and share our ideas, thoughts, and needs using new technologies, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web. EFF is the first to identify threats to our basic rights online and to advocate on behalf of free expression in the digital age.
FactCheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.

bernays
Edward Bernays - 1891 to 1995

Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.

--------------------------------------------
WHAT IS "SPIN"?

--------------------------------------------

In public relations, spin is a usually pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favor of an event or situation. While traditional public relations may also rely on creative presentation of the facts, "spin" often implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics.

To get a better understanding of historical relationships between corporations, public relations and the media take some time to watch "The Century of the Self" in 4 parts. Even though this documentary has been around for a while it is more relevant than ever.

The 4 part series:

  1. Happiness Machines
  2. The Engineering of Consent
  3. There is a Policeman Inside All Our Head: He Must Be Destroyed
  4. Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

 

unconscious

The brain is essentially made up of 3 parts: the brain stem, the limbic system and the cerebral cortex. It is now known that the brain stem and limbic system, often called the Old Brain, is where nonconscious forces act on the cerebral cortex, the area of the brain where our sense of self is housed, and called the New Brain.

Some cognitive research has suggested that there are fundamental nonconscious forces or "drives" that are located in the old brain. And that these drives profoundly impact our conscious behavior, i.e. the New Brain, whether we realize it or not. Here are the drives:

  1. to nurture
  2. to be nurtured by
  3. to have sex
  4. to fight
  5. to flee
  6. to submit

To suggest that there are 6 and only 6 drives seems a bit presumptuous. But the fact that we are moved by these "drives" in a very real way is a fact that needs to be taken seriously. Given the fact that one can be directed with very little effort(hypnosis and crowd hysteria for example)and that one tends not to consider these directives consciously seems reasonable grounds for study. Such study derives its fodder from cognitive research.

Limbic System - A Room In The House Of The Nonconscious

The limbic system wraps around the brain stem and is beneath the cerebral cortex. It is a major center for emotion formation and processing, for learning, and for memory. The limbic system contains many parts, limbicincluding the cingulate gyrus, a band of cortex that runs from the front of the brain to the back, the parahippocampal gyrus, the dentate gyrus, and most notably, the hippocampus and amygdala. The hippocampus is involved in memory storage and formation. It is also involved in complex cognitive processing. The amygdala is associated with forming complex emotional responses, particularly involving aggression. The limbic structures are also connected with other major structures such as the cortex, hypothalamus, thalamus, and basal ganglia.

Limbic system structures are involved in many of our "emotions" and "motivations", particularly those that are related to "survival." Such emotions include fear, anger, and emotions related to sexual behavior. The limbic system is also involved in feelings of pleasure that are related to our survival, such as those experienced from eating and sex. Certain structures of the limbic system are involved in memory as well. Two large limbic system structures, the amygdala and hippocampus play important roles in memory.

As an aside:
See the works of V.S. Ramachandran , Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute. See V.S. Ramachandran documentary on the brain called "Phantoms in the Brain: Part 1 : Part 2"

Also see "The Century of the Self" to understand how we can be moved to behave by forces of which we are unaware when conditioned by the cultural milieu in which one is raised.

F.E.A.R. Forfeiture endangers American rights.
Free Press is a national nonpartisan organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates, and to generate policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector.
Greg Palast award winning Investigative Reporter.
Gyre.Org is an attempt to track the breakthroughs and implications of the next military and technological revolutions.
big media Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world.
Idealist.org is an interactive site where people and organizations can exchange resources and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps toward building a world where all people can lead free and dignified lives.
Implode-O-Meter tracks the housing finance breakdown: a saga of corruption, hypocrisy, and government complicity.
Journalism.org
research, resources and ideas to improve journalism.
Jurist legal news and research
'Lectric Law Library is one of the best free legal resources on the Web.
Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.
Multinational Monitor monitors multinational corporations around the world.
Media Matters For America is a Web-based, not-for-profit progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
Move On is a service – a way for busy but concerned citizens to find their political voice in a system dominated by big money and big media.

Of course the above is not as easy to follow as it is to understand. :)


New Politics Institute is a new kind of think tank helping progressives understand today’s transformation of politics due to the tumultuous changes in technology, media and the demographics of the country.
National Whistleblower Center  is a nonprofit, tax exempt, educational and advocacy organization dedicated to helping whistleblowers. Since 1988, the Center has used whistleblowers’ disclosures to improve environmental protection, nuclear safety, and government and corporate accountability.
Oligopoly Watch is an attempt to make sense of the business pages in the newspaper, particularly the stories about mergers and acquisitions.
Open Democracy is the leading independent website on global current affairs offering stimulating, critical analysis, promoting dialogue and debate on issues of global importance and linking citizens from around the world.
Open Society Institute is a private operating and grantmaking foundation, founded by George Soros, that aims to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform.
Progressive Policy Institute is a research and education institute defining and promoting a new progressive politics for America in the 21st century through its research, policies, and perspectives, while fashioning a new governing philosophy and an agenda for public innovation geared to the Information Age.

Libmansworld Freethinkers Website

"If you talk to God, you are praying;  If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia."
--Thomas S. Szasz, The Second Sin

In the United States the dominant religion is Christianity. Christianity is one of many religions around the world. With so many religions around the world it does not seem unreasonable to conclude that the "religion" phenomenon has been part of the human experience for quite some time. But in the U.S. Christianity is dominant - and current statistics state Christianity is dominant in the world as well. And as most people know the soil of Christianity is the Jewish religion which is expressed in the Old Testament.

The Judeo-Christian biblical god is a macho male warrior. Though he said "Thou shalt not kill," he ordered death for all opposition, wholesale drowning and mass exterminations; punishes offspring to the fourth generation (Ex. 20:5); ordered pregnant women and children to be ripped up (Hos. 13:16); demands animal and human blood to appease his angry vanity; is partial to one race of people; judges women inferior to men; is a sadist who created a hell to torture unbelievers; created evil (Is. 45:7); discriminated against the handicapped (Le. 21:18-23); ordered virgins to be kept as spoils of war (Num. 31:15-18, Deut. 21:11-14);spread dung on people's faces (Mal. 2:3); sent bears to devour 42 children who teased a prophet (II Kings 2:23-24); punishes people with snakes, dogs, dragons, drunkenness, swords, arrows, axes, fire, famine, and infanticide; and said fathers should eat their sons (Ez. 5:10) And are there bible contradictions? Consider the following and you decide: PSA 145:9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. And then on the other side of the god-coin, JER 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD:I will not pity, nor spare, or have mercy, but destroy them.

Want More Freedom From Religion ?

 

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts.
ProCon.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation whose purpose is to educate the public about controversial issues by presenting facts, news, and thousands of diverse opinions in a pro-con format.
Reason Online is the monthly print magazine of “free minds and free markets.” It covers politics, culture, and ideas through a provocative mix of news, analysis, commentary, and reviews. Reason provides a refreshing alternative to right-wing and left-wing opinion magazines by making a principled case for liberty and individual choice in all areas of human activity.
Reason Foundation advances a free society by developing, applying, and promoting the libertarian ideas of individual liberty, free markets, and the rule of law.
Rockridge Institute is committed to the democratization of knowledge about politics while deepening and broadening the public's understanding of the political world.
Sierra Club is America's oldest, largest, and most effective environmental organization.

secular humanism

Secular Humanism is a term which has come into use in the last thirty years to describe a world view with the following elements and principles:

  • We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems.
  • We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation.
  • We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life.
  • We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities.
  • We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state.
  • We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding.
  • We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance.
  • We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves.
  • We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity.
  • We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species.
  • We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest.
  • We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence.
  • We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity.
  • We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences.
  • We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion.
  • We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences.
  • We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos.
  • We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking.
  • We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others.
  • We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality.
  • We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.


Sustainability Institute focuses on understanding the root causes of unsustainable behavior in complex systems to help restructure systems and shift mindsets that will help move human society toward sustainability.
The Grist is a site dedicated to environmental news and commentary.
The Century Foundation is a nonprofit public policy research institution committed to the belief that a mix of effective government, open democracy, and free markets is the most effective solution to the major challenges facing the United States.
ThomasPaine.com is is an online public affairs journal of progressive analysis and commentary combining depth with immediacy to equip progressives to compete effectively in the 21st century’s marketplace of ideas.
Sustainable Food Laboratories mission is to accelerate improvement in mainstream food and agriculture systems so we can sustain a high quality life on earth.
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization that conducts investigative research and reporting on public policy issues in the United States and around the world.
The Foundation on Economic Trends is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to examine emerging trends in science and technology, and their impacts on the environment, the economy, culture, and society.
The National Priorities Project is a research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Located in Northampton, MA, since 1983, NPP focuses on the impact of federal spending and other policies at the national, state, congressional district and local levels.
Tax Justice Network campaigns for transparency in international finance and opposes secrecy. They support a level playing field on tax and we oppose loopholes and distortions in tax and regulation, and the abuses that flow from them. We promote tax compliance and we oppose tax evasion, tax avoidance, and all the mechanisms that enable owners and controllers of wealth to escape their responsibilities to the societies on which they and their wealth depend.
Tom Hartmann is an author and progressive liberal writer, author and talk show radio host at Air America.
Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
Wendy McElroy has her site for Individualist Feminism and Individualist Anarchism.
Wiser Earth is a community directory and networking forum that maps and connects non-governmental organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more.
World Future Society is a nonprofit, nonpartisan scientific and educational association of people interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future.
World Population Awareness goal is to preserve the environment and its natural resources for the benefit of people, families, and future generations. Unfortunately, with exploding population growth, excessive consumption on the part of the more well-off people in the world, errant technology, and corrupt governments, the environment is in trouble and the sustainability of the people of our planet is threatened.