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Utopia According to Lightner Pt. 3
These past few weeks we've made decent headway in stepping further and further toward a pleasant and sustainable society. In part one, we established the purpose of Government, the definitions and...
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Utopia According to Lightner Pt. 4
Hello once again, friends! We're almost ready to wrap up this weekly essay on what I feel would make for a great society, and I feel like I have a good point to make in next week's article, which...
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Utopia According to Lightner Pt. 5
As Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times would say, "Good morning, afternoon, or evening. Please delete as appropriate." I'd hoped to be able to put a ribbon on this series with part five, however, I...
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Conclusions About the Planning of Utopia
After five whole weeks devoted to outlining an extremely rough basis for what one might consider a utopia, a word I used rather lightly as the antithesis of dystopia, I've been amazed at both the...
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“Snow Fall” Versus Scroll Kit
This past December, The New York Times published an online piece entitled "Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek." Written by esteemed writer John Branch, "Snow Fall" tells the dramatic tale of a...
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Al Jazeera America is On Its Way
As someone who has a deep interest in seeing the established news media in this country disintegrate, I can't tell you how excited I was to receive an e-mail this past week from Al Jazeera. The...
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And the Security Theater Continues
The Associated Press has reported (via The Washington Post) that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has shuttered plans to allow small blades and sports equipment to be carried on board...
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A Statement on PRISM and the NSA Issue
This past week it was revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been using its influence to spy on millions of Americans through a secret data-gathering program called PRISM. The revelation...
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Caught in a Web
With the problems our country faces in the way of overreaching government surveillance, increasing costs of living, diminishing wages, and politicians who proudly disregard their constituents, I've...
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We’re All Sentenced to Gay Marriage
I thought this article was going to be about the NSA. I thought we were going to continue to talk about how that traitorous Edward Snowden fled to Communist Moscow after hiding out in Socialist Hong...
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On the Topic of Domestic Spying
So the cat is finally out of the bag: The United States does, in fact, spy on its own citizens. They have been collecting cell phone data, e-mail, and online activity data for years. E-mail, much like...
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A Correlation of Causation
In the mid-1930s, during the height of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler was firmly in power. Nazi Germany was well established, and the xenophobic philosophy that exemplified much of the Führer's...
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Your Priorities Are Wrong
There are two major stories I'd like to comment on this week which are loosely related. You see, there's been an awful lot of (frankly) stupid things being said by both the media and by the people,...
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NSA Amendment Fails 205-217
The outcome of Wednesday's vote in the House of Representatives on Rep. Justin Amash's (R-MI) proposal to defund the NSA's domestic phone data collections program was certainly predictable. With the...
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Good News and Bad News of the Week
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was granted a one year term of temporary asylum in Russia, reported the Associated Press. The 30-year-old system administrator has been stuck in the transit zone of...
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Obama on Leno, and The Big Lie
President Barack Obama made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this past Tuesday, where he defended the NSA domestic spying programs, weighed in on the situation involving Edward Snowden...
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In Favor of Sweeping Change
With the approval ratings of both Congress and President Barack Obama slumping with regards to the economy, foreign policy, and other issues, it's interesting to note just how little it matters that...
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An Honest Question: “What Happened?”
Pfc. Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in the leaking of over 700,000 classified documents to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, revealing atrocities committed...
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Bill to Repeal the PATRIOT ACT and FISA
Here's something that flew right under my radar and something I'm sure might be of interest to readers of Independent Ideas — back at the end of July, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced a bill entitled...
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An Open Letter to Senator John McCain
By now you've most likely heard about Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and his blunder at the Syria hearing. For those who aren't aware, I'll sum it up quickly: Instead of paying attention, or at least...
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