Though we live in a world of sound bites and 140-character-driven narratives, life is simply more complex than this.

When considering the recent uproar over the Fourteenth Amendment of our U.S. Constitution, this is the section that is under fire by many Republicans:

Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Okay, here is where I ask the obvious question. If being born here doesn’t make you a citizen, what does?

Somewhere along the way a mutation was engineered. You are now a Consumer. You have deformed into a buying machine. A Consumer is a Subject. In the days of Kings the Subjects had no choice. They were ruled by a superior social order or military force. In our day we actively accept being Subjects.

When I was updating my book on citizen activism,Soul of a Citizen, an activist rabbi who was teaching the book at a Florida university suggested I gather together a Ten Commandments for effective citizen engagement. Calling them Commandments seemed presumptuous, but I did draw together ten suggestions that can make engagement more fruitful.

It is a central pillar of my philosophy of life that if you live in fear the worst thing that can happen to you already has. While not wanting to get all fan-boy about things Frank Herbert did hit on a small “t” truth when he wrote that fear is the mind killer. This is why there are and have been acts of terror all through the history of our species. Using our ability to be afraid of the next horrible thing to influence the actions of people is something Sun Tzu and Machiavelli would both approve of. Fear makes your opponent do dumb things and ultimately makes them easier to defeat.

Which is why the current spasms of legislation in response to the attempted truck bombing in Time Square is so disappointing. We have a couple of proposals which under any other climate would be laughed out of Congress that are going to be taking up time over the next few weeks.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

The first one is the risible plan by Sen. Joe Lieberman (Putz- CT) to allow the State Department to determine if you are associated with a terrorist group. They could provisionally strip you of your citizenship. You could challenge it in court, but only after the fact, not before the decision was made.

Live Free or Die Alliance launches its new website and New Hampshire’s Virtual Town Hall. LFDA will be hosting online chats with politicians starting with Governor John Lynch (NH-D).

a brief synopsis of the mark up process in the house

Sojourner Truth reminds us that worth having requires work…and speaking up.