Ever since the Chinese government  invaded and occupied Tibet in 1959, the top leaders in Beijing have fostered the fiction that Tibet is part of China. The repression used to deny the independence of the Tibetan people, meanwhile, has amounted to cultural genocide. The recent uprising of monks and common people in Tibet and the neighboring region has exposed the brutal truth of Chinese policy.

No matter how much the Chinese government pretends the peace-loving Dalai Lama is a monster inciting bloody rebellion, no informed person anywhere on earth believes such wild propaganda. If fact, the Dalai Lama threatened to resign if Tibetan protestors continued being violent.

By the very same moral reasoning that caused the United States to boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the United States should boycott the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Sadly, that won’t happen. Read the rest of this entry »

Today are the pivotal presidential primary elections in Ohio and Texas. By late tonight, we may know whether Barak Obama can seal the deal or whether Hillary Clinton will continue her bid for the Democratic Party nomination at the convention in Denver this August.

Whatever the outcome today, Hillary’s campaign has become so shrill that she had to concede her shrillness during the silliness this past weekend on Saturday Night Live.

Clinton’s shrill attacks on Obama in recent weeks, like refusing on 60 Minutes to overtly declare she knows Obama is not a Muslim, convey much more than a desperate fear of losing the race for the presidency. Her snide behavior bespeaks a trait of vindictiveness and ruthlessness that many find distasteful.

If Hillary Clinton were to win the nomination, can her shrill voice compete with the sedate tones of John McCain? Unless she can lower her pitch an octave and practice daily mediation enough to project calmness instead of fear, my concern is that the visceral backlash could hand the election to the Republicans. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week my car blew it’s head gasket. I was to blame, and the expensive lesson keeps teaching me.

When I’d added antifreeze two weeks earlier, I should have bled the cooling system line, which I did not know to do. I’d learned auto mechanics on an old slant six Plymouth Valiant that I could take apart and put back together again with relative ease. These new engines are too complex for me.

Because I did not bleed the antifreeze line, according to my mechanic, an air bubble caused the temperature sensor to fail, which caused the fan to fail, which caused the engine to overheat, which caused the head gasket to blow, which caused antifreeze to enter the oil system, which then ruined the aluminum engine. Consequently, I now must replace that engine.

Well, I do not happen to have an extra $2,000 laying about this month, so I’ve begun an active search for more income, such as finding new clients. I was not prepared for the absurdity waiting “out there.” Read the rest of this entry »

Judah Freed is the featured speaker on how to change the world by changing yourself.
Sunday, January 27, at 10:30 AM, at the First Spiritual Science Church of Denver, 3375 So. Dahlia Street at Cornell Avenue (one block south of Hampden Ave.)

For information: http://firstspiritualsciencechurch.org
Call: 303- 756-3226

When the camera pans across the stage at the Democratic and Republican presidential debates, I’m hard pressed to find a candidate that feels authentic.

Look at the top tier candidates on the Republican side. Mitt Romney oozes insincere charm. Mike Huckabee feels like an “aw shucks” huckster. John McCain has earned a reputation for being the real deal, but even he’s apparently gone faux to appease the right wing of his party.

Now look at the top tier candidates on the Democratic side. Hillary Rodham Clinton initially tried to suppress her one moment of authentic emotion in New Hampshire, and now she’s smugly milking that moment for voter sympathy without taking off her practiced smile again. Barack Obama began with full presence, but the more he advances in the polls, the more he seems to be speaking by rote and saying what his handlers tell him to say, much like Robert Redford in the classic film, “The Candidate.” John Edwards lets his passion show when he talks about the widening gap between the rich and poor, but is he donating his millions to fund anything more socially significant than his own campaign?

The only two candidates who feel real to me are Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. They can afford to be themselves on stage because they both know the mainstream press has brainwashed the vast unthinking majority of Americans into believing these two outspoken candidates are not “viable.” While the two men agree strongly on defending our evaporating rights and liberties, they disagree just as strongly on monetary and fiscal policies. I wish we could bundle the two together into one progressive/libertarian super candidate that the corporate media could not ignore.

Meanwhile, the presidential campaigns continue with the press focusing on the horse race and largely ignoring the candidates’ positions on major issues beyond mentioning in passing which constituency prefers this or that position.

Between mostly fake candidates and mostly fake news coverage, what chance does democracy have? We might as well populate the stage at the presidential debates with inflatable dolls hooked up to iPod recordings.

A top New York magazine writer recently rejected a story pitch from me by saying, “I don’t tend to use self-published authors as sources.”

When I tried to explain the difference between self publishing and independent publishing, he was not interested. He’s apparently chosen to limit the range of his story sources to authors published by the big royalty publishers, which is fine. That’s his choice.

Yet the incident caused me to reflect on the fact that there’s rampant disrespect for authors who work outside the box of traditional publishing. Too many established journalists unduly dismiss experts like me because we’ve chosen to seek wealth by starting our own publishing ventures rather than going to royalty publishers.

Granted, if a royalty publisher offered me a deal that would realistically earn more for me than I could ever earn on my own, I’d be happy to sign the contract. Meanwhile, in the process of promoting my work, I’m facing prejudices against independent authors like me, and that bias causes me to write this blog today.

Are you willing to look objectively at the economics behind the most vital trend in the publishing industry since the advent of the chain bookstores? What is the difference between self publishing, independent publishing, and royalty publishing? What difference does it make for journalist seeking expert news sources?

Read the rest of this entry »