Posts Tagged ‘Peter Molenaar’
State Fair Angst
By Peter Molenaar “Angst” is a German word which has achieved vernacular status in the contemporary English. It means: anxiety with a little depression thrown in. For our purposes, the word connotes an omnipresent but less than full-blown anxiety, which normally remains repressed by the requirements of daily living. To the discerning eye, an under-current of angst was revealed among the gathered “masses” at this year”'s State Fair. We are the masses. Unfortunately, our angst has become a playground for dishonest politicians. So, the annual reaffirmation of Minnesotan identity has passed. The cow barn displayed again the Jersey Cow with beautiful eyes and baby face. The sheep were proudly groomed, snow-white and alert. Even the hogs were giddy. (more…)
Pull Together
By Peter Molenaar Given the unprecedented economic, political and military power of the U.S. ruling class, it may seem like a pipedream to believe that we “ordinary” folks can advance socially even by small increments. But when the foundations of this colossal power are examined, definite weaknesses are revealed. First, the system of corporate-capitalism is malfunctioning big time. Witness: the Wall Street meltdown, massive unemployment, stagnant wages, fruitless wars, and the developing life-threatening environmental crisis. Second, only 1% of the population now owns over half of all stocks and bonds and the richest 5% holds 60% of all our country”'s wealth. In reality, there are a few thousand families with hundreds of billions in assets who control the main financial, manufacturing, extraction, media, communications, transport, aerospace and real estate corporations. Clearly, the wealth behind the power is concentrated in the hands of an extremely tiny [...]
The Great Extinction
by Peter Molenaar July 17, 2010, a storm is brewing”¦ In the past 540 million years there have been five major events during which over 50% of animal species died. The most recent occurred 65 million years ago with the extinction of nearly all dinosaurs. What an incredible bonanza this was for the tiny ancestral shrew-like mamaliform whose gene pool was to explode and then radiate in every direction. As for the birds, they descend from that line of dinosaurs which included T. Rex. Surprisingly, the more archaic of present day birds have existed unchanged in form for merely one million years. The cormorants residing at Powderhorn Lake appear more ancient than that. From their island perch, our cormorants display horizontally spread wings bent vertically at the joint to declare: here I am. Their oil-drenched cousin, that iconic pelican, posed similarly before the camera. Moreover, elements of the old hadrosaur culture have been revived by our Powderhorn geese. Some [...]
