Reprinted from BUSINESS INSIDER

A defiant, though occasionally jocular, Gov. David Paterson tried Monday to set aside the swirl of rumors surrounding his immediate future and get back to the business of addressing the gaping state budget problem.

[Note: This presentation was developed for the Colorado Agriculture "Big and Small" Conference in Brighton, on Feb. 26, 2010]

Reprinted from TRANSITION TIMES

Before I get into the presentation, a few words about where I’m coming from. As it happens, I grew up in a little farming community in northeastern Colorado—Yuma—where my family owned the local drug store (complete with soda fountain).

Last week I had the honor of speaking with Kathleen Krevetski of Rutland, Vermont who has worked hard to publicize the adverse effects of radiation from nuclear power plants on people's health, especially on women and children who are the most vulnerable. When I lived in Vermont, I personally witnessed Kathleen's struggle along with other Vermonters to organize for the closing of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, and I stand in awe of her and their accomplishment. Thanks to these dedicated activists, the Vermont Senate voted to close Yankee on February 24.

It may be a time of crisis, but it doesn't have to be a

time of catastrophe. It's in times of crisis that human

beings are often most creative and ingenious and that

they pull together most effectively to solve their problems.

Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of The Upside of Down

Reprinted from MM News at: http://www.mmnews.de/index.php/Englisch-News/No-return.html

James K. Galbraith belongs to the most distinguished economists in the United States today. In the following exclusive interview that was conducted for New Deal 2.0 in the USA and MMNews in Germany, he talks about the financial / economic crisis and the phenomenon of Peak Oil, points at future tasks and explains why he supports the Audit the Fed bill.

I never planned to be a history major as I groped aimlessly through my undergraduate studies for a subject that would enchant me. Not unlike today's college students, students of my generation were pressured to choose a major that would be marketable, but it was also the 60s, and we were, as Don MacLean calls us, a "generation lost in space." In those days it was more about what "called" you than what would ultimately become a practical means of earning a living. The times gave us that luxury.

A few months ago, I struck up an online friendship with the acclaimed author and academic Carolyn Baker. It was clear that we were both writing about similar things, but I didn’t realise quite how similar until I had the fortunate opportunity to review her latest book, Sacred Demise: Walking the Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization's Collapse. This fine text, and her generous appreciation of my work, was the catalyst for the ongoing dialogue that this article presents.

Ten years ago this moment, America was awaiting the inauguration of a new President. We knew that the new Bush administration would bring at least four years of darkness, but we had no idea how dark, nor that a second hijacked election would follow the first, nor the extent to which the influence of Bush II would extend into the future. Certainly, we had no inkling of 9/11 and that terror-both a politically and psychologically would overshadow every day of the coming decade. Nor could we have anticipated the trauma of the Bush years and its lingering legacy for generations to come.

It's time to act with great intention. There's work aplenty to do in this weary world and people engaged in that work. Find those people.

Tim Bennett, "What A Way To Go: Life At The End of Empire"

To everything there is a season, the biblical bard says. There is a time to sit and be, and there is a time to act. Personally, I could not live without the balance of sitting and listening alongside doing what I feel most called to do, and I encourage everyone in my world to incorporate a meditation or mindfulness practice to complement the conscious work that fulfills their purpose.