[...] The Podcast : Episode 32 Episode 32 : Current Events, Obama’s Cabinet, Bailout Bullshit. You can listen to the show via the player to your right or click the link to download 32. Please get involved in the 1 Million Mad March. For more to come, visit 1 Million … [...]

Hi Bowen,
I haven’t even finished listening to this episode yet but I’m up to the part about the internets being our most uncensored forum, and it reminded me horrifically about an article recently published in my states paper. The section it was in is directed at teenages and usually has nothing to offer other than making sure 12 year olds know what’s “in”, but this time I just happened to flick through. I looked it up online so I could send it to you: http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2008/11/21/39741_attitude.html
I haven’t looked into it any further than this as of yet, but you can be sure I will. I do know how a protest is coming up, which you can have a look at here: http://www.myspace.com/nocleanfeed

Hola AH,
Another great episode, thanks for committing your valuable time to these even more valuable causes when the rest of us should probably doing the same but do not. Two topics really stood out for me this time around…

1) Gay marriage. I continue to fail to see why this is even a public discussion. Aside from the obvious fact that whom we date, fuck and/or marry is a personal issue, there are two reasons (I feel) why it logically should be excluded from any political discussion. First off, if we accept marriage as a religious institution, then the constitutional (though theoretical) seperation of church and state mandates that the government stay out. Secondly, if we accept that it is also a legal institution, not only should the church remain out of the picture, but then how can we constitutional legislate discrimination?

2) The economical bailout. You touched on the problem exactly as how I see it, especially in your Helliday episode: Capitalism. I’ve said it before and maintain that any society based on the buying and selling of material goods is morally flawed. I would like to think there is more purpose to my life on this planet than that. Here’s to all the “bad capitalists” out there! I can see fault in both sides, the greedy and foresight-lacking corporations as well as the greedy and ignorant consumers. Any money we throw at the problem, in my mind, will be a band-aid tactic the will only slow the bleeding on this gapping wound. When the band-aid gets old and falls off, we will just return to the same open wound. If we truly want to build a stable economy (notice I say stable, not growing for economic growth implicitly requires the [over]consumption of natural resources and consequent degradation of the environment) we need to start working with nature and not against it. We need to invest in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and a social mentality (as opposed to the all-for-me, entitlement mentality that currently exists). A return, if you will, to the original way of doing things; like indigenous cultures though with better technology.

As I have also mentioned before, I am currently a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Mexico. Though I live in an urban area, I primarily work with poor, rural communities. I believe a clue on the economic crisis the western world is facing can be taken from our philosophy here. We are not trying to lift these communities out of poverty by giving them money or encouraging them to buy more stuff. Instead, we are investing in training them how to start up their own eco-businesses, primarily tourism related but also organizing to sell goods that they can make (mainly artisan crafts). The point, we are not selling them a dream of economic stability based on the buying and trading of money nor of nonrenewable products harvested from the nearby forest but rather in the buying and selling of sustainable, renewable goods and services. Take a hint Washington.

Peace, love and unity to the AH and your loyal minions. :^)

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