Journalism

When John Lennon sang “Imagine there’s no heaven” in 1971, rock critics called the song “utopian.” But 40 years later, researchers have found that religion is indeed disappearing in nine countries . . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE.

In a striking act of interfaith solidarity, 30 Jewish Studies faculty from seven campuses of the University of California have called on the Orange County district attorney to drop criminal charges against 11 Muslim students.
. . . continued at Huffington Post HERE

Ramona Ripston, who is stepping down as head of the ACLU of Southern California after almost forty years, is both a visionary who transformed the meaning of civil liberties and a dynamic and beloved figure on the LA left.  Her most significant achievement was expanding the practice of civil liberties law to include litigating for economic justice.
Continued at TheNation.com: HERE.

100 faculty members at UCI, including five deans, have signed a letter to the Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas calling on him to drop criminal charges against 11 students who disrupted a speech on the UCI campus by the Israeli ambassador to the US last year.
. . . . Continued at Huffington Post HERE.

On what would have been Ronald Reagan’s hundredth birthday, we find the past offers lessons for the present: does the United States have to fight a war when it is attacked by a ruthless group of militant Islamic fundamentalists? Reagan’s response to attacks on US forces in Beirut in 1983 suggests a way out of the Afghan war for Obama: invade Grenada.
. . . . continued at TheNation.com HERE.

The Arizona legislature is considering a proposal to authorize the carrying of weapons on campus by faculty members. The idea is simple — in case of trouble in the classroom, somebody needs to be able to blast away at problem students. But the question arises, should all faculty members be armed?
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

A new batch of Nixon White House tapes and documents were released by the National Archives in 2010, putting the former president back on page one. Herewith, the top ten:

10. “The Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks.” –to Chuck Colson,  White House hatchet man, Feb. 13, 1973.
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

Remembering John Lennon on the Diane Rehm Show, along with Philip Norman, author of John Lennon: A Life, and Richard Harrington, former music critic for the Washington Post: Listen HERE.

It was 30 years ago today: Dec. 8, 1980, on what would turn out to be the last day of John Lennon’s life, he did an interview promoting his new album, “Double Fantasy.” He talked about the sixties: “The thing the sixties did was show us the possibility and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.”
. . . Continued at TheNation.com HERE.

At a high school in Riverside in 1991, student Aaron Salinger wrote the lyrics to “Imagine” on the stripes of an American flag as an art project. It was Lennon’s birthday and the Persian Gulf War was underway, and Salinger and his friends carried the “Imagine” flag in an antiwar demonstration. Aaron’s mother, Sharon V. Salinger, now dean of undergraduate education at UC Irvine, remembers being summoned to the principal’s office after Aaron was suspended for “desecrating the flag.” . . . Continued at LATimes.com HERE.