Author: Mike

Catholic Dissenter
Chris Kessing of Assumption College has a blog. Like everybody else, he blogs about Tom Lewis.

Anarchism begins in the home
Michael Iafrate, thinking about Howard Zinn:

From a radically Catholic perspective, since the central social reality is the Church, and not the state, it is more helpful to think of the family as the basic building block of the Church — the new society — rather than the basic unit of the state, or of society. Indeed, in Catholic circles you sometimes hear it said that the family is the “domestic church.” If, as I believe, the Church is (also) a political reality, an alternative social body and way of life that will always be at odds with the societies in which it finds itself, then the family, as the “domestic church,” will also be a revolutionary society that resists indoctrination into the system of domination and violence, or, drawing on Zinn’s terms, an ecclesial “pocket of insurrection.”

Worst op-ed ever
This NY Times anti-vegan op-ed is so bad, Erik Marcus issued an “emergency podcast.” You might want to compare the op-ed with the thoughts of an actual nutritionist, the staff of Vegan Outreach, or Isa Chandra Moscowitz.

Nameless Mike
One nice thing about digitizing videos as a WCCA volunteer rather than an employee is that I can post whatever I feel like on a particular day, without taking other things into concern.

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Here’s an interview from 2005 with vegan ultra-athlete Mike Benedetti, talking about his hikes of the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail. (This happens to be the first time I met Mauro. Kinda neat to have a recording of the beginning moments of a friendship.)

Rolling your own municipal network infrastructure
The cable/phone duopoly has done a cruddy job wiring our nation. DIY on the local level is one solution sometimes tossed about. Doc Searls shares his thoughts:

Q: Isn’t local infrastructure build-out a case of government competing with private industry?

A: No.  It’s a case of citizens finding a way to do what a protected duopoly cannot.  What we are doing is also not competitive.  We want to open our new fiber infrastructure to use by anybody, including cable and phone companies.  We have their interests at heart too.  By building out pure Net infrastructure — rather than competing with cable TV and phone systems — we are protecting and supporting their core businesses.