ISB BLOG

Instead of making America great why don’t we make her decent? “Oh the shepherd is asleepWhere the willows weepAnd the mountains are filledWith lost sheep” Bob Dylan, “Ring Them Bells” I grew up on the myths, swallowed them whole, without questioning. No one ever told...

A note from the hottest country on earth “To cut a long story short: anarchists believe that for the most part it is power itself, and the effects of power, that make people stupid and irresponsible.” David Graeber, The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World Choose your...

But what is someone of my bent to do, where do I turn and to whom do I appeal? ”The revolution will not go better with CokeThe revolution will not fight germs that may cause bad breathThe revolution will put you in the driver's seatThe revolution will not be...

Our situation is more dire than people understand “The only unforgivable sin is dictatorship for the benefit of Fools, Voluptuaries, gilded Satraps, Prostitutes and Idiots.” W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America Warning: this will not be a hopeful piece....

Why Is It Always the Lesser Evil? Our California primary ballots are sitting on my desk, unopened as yet, as we wait for one of the Democratic candidates to emerge as a clear favorite. The Golden State’s “jungle” primary has scrambled the field, making it possible for...

We are force-fed fanciful notions of self-made titans with entrepreneurial genius. A couple of days ago I was driving on the lower Eastside of Santa Barbara where two corners of an intersection are occupied by gas stations. At one a gallon of regular gas cost $6.19...

We’re way past Orwell territory, past Pravda and the National Enquirer, past Father Coughlin and Joe McCarthy, past Jimmy Swaggart, past Jerry Falwell. The security failure at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner left me in an agitated and unsettled mood, not only...

As every day passes the last drops of American prestige ebb away. “Never let the weeds get higher than the garden” ~Tom Waits, “Get Behind The Mule” The weeds in our national garden plot have taken over, choking the sunflowers, the sweet corn, peas, strawberries and...

For nearly fifty years the dominant message in our society has been that collective action is not only impossible but an affront to individual freedom. I recently attended a lecture and Q&A with M. Gessen, one of the savviest observers of American and...

Otherwise the darkness now eclipsing the edge of town will become permanent. My wife and I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on April 7th at the KIA Forum in Inglewood. After the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Springsteen channeled...