Roma's Pizza and Italian Restaurant
7402 Greenville Ave
Dallas, Texas
Great Food!
Every Saturday 6:00 PM
Tuition $3
Sustaining the Academic Tradition of "One Fool at a Time"
Dallas Campus
Solicitation for Speakers
The Next Open Date is
November 5th
or any subsequent Saturday in the coming year
To Disquiet the Minds of the People
The original College of Complexes has been meeting in Chicago, IL, since January 6, 1951: wwwcollegeofcomplexes.org
Celebrating Meeting # 3,333 on July 11th.
Occupy Your Mind
Established Feb. 28, 2009
Weekly Free Speech Forum
College of Complexes
The Playground for People Who Think
Statement on Free Speech
Our constitution and laws encourage the freest possible exchange of opinions, ideas, and information. In part, that recognizes our worth and dignity as human beings. To forbid us to speak our minds demeans us and makes us more like slaves or robots than citizens of a free country. But as important as freedom of expression is for us as individuals, it is perhaps more important to society at large.
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1. Presentation by Guest Speaker
2. Questions and Answers
3. Remarks and Rebuttals
(5 minutes each / infamous)
Format:
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All meeting are open to the public. No reservations are required. The college maintains no memberhsip, and is operated on a volunteer basis.
If you would like to speak, or simply would like more information about the College of Complexes, contact the Program Coordinators
Tom Berry tomberry1@att.net (214) 321-6222 or (214) 738-3386 (cell)
Jim Peeler jpbridge@flash.net (214) 340-5338 or (214) 532-4452 (cell)
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and $5 Food or
Drink Purchase
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Watch Videos of Previous Presentations
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November 5th Meeting #340
Open
If you would like to speak contact the Program Coordinators Tom Berry
tomberry1@att.net (214) 321-6222 or (214) 738-3386 (cell)
November 19th Meeting #342
On Changing Yourself Before
You Try to Change the World
John Edmonson, longtime educator and Clinical Communicator for nonprofit, current Project Manager for Vascular Management Associates (a for-profit company, with a very important objective to prevent surgery and heart disease through good nutrition and stress reduction), will discuss how so many people with good intentions try to make change, and how many fail or actually end up causing great harm. He will argue that to really know how to change the world we must first know how to change ourselves. John will show that policies and procedures are important, but not as important as personal growth. He will ask and answer why we work so hard and don’t see a difference? And John will show that when we don’t put our personal growth first, not only are we slowing down change, but in many cases we create great harm. He concludes succinctly that to change the world, we must first change ourselves.
October 1st Meeting #335
Saving Election Integrity in Texas -
All Hands on Deck
Laura Pressley, PhD, who ran in 2014 for the Austin City Council, filed an historic election contest challenging electronic voting records that were not legally retained (a case that is currently in appeal) and concurrently has been educating voters and candidates how to take back their power with regard to electronic voting, will discuss the ramifications of how Mr. Keith Ingram, the Elections Director in the Texas Secretary of State’s office, has put forth last minute election administrative rule changes, that eliminate critical paper backup election records at the cost of honest, verifiable, and true elections in Texas. She will argue that with these proposed changes, paper backup records for Texas elections will suffer a similar fate—the removal of publicly viewable backup records to verify electronic election results in Texas. Laura argues further that this is the time we urgently need the assistance of Texas Governor Abbott (512) 463-1782, House Speaker Straus (512) 463-1000, and Lt. Governor Patrick (512) 463-0001, to step in and neutralize these efforts and ensure honest and fair elections happen in Texas. She concludes urging us to not allow paper back up records for Texas elections to be swept under the rug, that we insure honest and fair elections in Texas, and that we sound the alarm, call and email our State leaders today! Note: Dr. Pressley holds 4 US patents related to semiconductor device technology, is an entrepreneur, and has worked with the Texas Eagle Forum and Texas Legislature on science and technology issues. See Also:
October 8th Meeting #336
How the “Donkeyfants” are
Playing Us as Fools
George Palmer, JD, a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, currently a Management Consultant, will discuss “how the ‘donkeyfants’ are playing us for fools”. He will argue that we spend most of our time fighting between liberals and conservatives, Dems and the GOP etc., instead of requiring the candidates to address the issues, such as our 19 trillion dollar debt, our education system, the growing power of the 1 percenters, the declining “middle socio-economic group”, minorities, immigration, the environment, tenure of government employees, free speech and freedom of religion. George concludes that as “we spend all our time and energy fighting each other,” we have to redefine what our mutual problems really are, and work together to solve them, or as John Kennedy once said: “a new dawn, a new light, a new direction, a new frontier!”.
October 22nd Meeting #338
On Increasing U.S. Aid to the
United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency
Tessa McGlynn, Communications Director for the Dallas County Democratic Party, will discuss how over the summer she spent six weeks volunteering in Rashidieh Camp in Sour, Lebanon. Tessa will share her experiences about the conditions in the camp, and she will argue in support of increased U.S. aid to the United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency, which provides assistance and protection for some five million Palestinian refugees.
October 15th Meeting #337
Seniors Must Fight Back
Gene Lantz, President of the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund, Chairman of UAW Local 848 retirees, and talk-show host on KNON radio 89.3FM (His "Workers Beat" program comes on at 9 AM every Saturday), will discuss how the City of Dallas expects to have a November proposition to cut pensions for City employees. He will show how on the other side of the world, the government of Greece has had a series of proposals to cut pensioners. Gene will argue that everywhere in between, there are efforts to ease government budget problems by sacrificing the right to retire. He will show that in America, almost all pension funds are running out of money, and that the government's agency, Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) is supposed to back up pension plans, but it is running out of money too! Gene will show that virtually every politician has a plan to cut retirees, but hardly any of them, with notable exceptions like Hillary Clinton, have any plan to provide more money for the right to retire. He will argue and conclude that every senior and everyone who hopes to live to become a senior, should be aware that the pillars of retirement -- pensions, health care and Social Security -- are being undermined by unscrupulous corporations and politicians. Seniors must fight back!
October 29th Meeting #339
On Family and Civilization
Ken Sauter, BFA in Design from Carnegie-Mellon, MBA Letourneau University, raises the question: “What is the source of society’s problems?" He advises that we can point to criminals, various groups with unhealthy agendas, war, and any number of other problems that threaten our civilization. Ken makes the point that every societal problem begins with a family problem. He will go over the history of families, how civilization developed, how government developed, and how families built civilization. Ken will show how lack of family support creates criminals and other angry people who end up destroying society. He will make the point that children are the most precious resource of any civilization, and they must be protected and nurtured for civilization to thrive. Ken argues that it is when children are abused and used for someone else's purpose that dysfunctional families develop, bringing about anger, criminal behavior, and ultimately the destruction of society. He contends that there is a pattern that must be followed for society to be healthy and develop a highly functioning civilization, and will do his best to present that pattern.
December 17th Meeting #345
In Gold We Trust: America’s Great Panacea
Paul Benson, Professor of Humanities, Mountain View College, will discuss how a belief that gold-backed money would give America prosperity has been one of the most enduring panaceas in American political and economic life. He will show how America’s guardians of the gold gospel preached that the foundation of good government was the gold standard believing it to be the answer to all that ailed America. Paul will show that these believers in gold as a golden holy grail were sure that instituting a gold standard was essential to the economic and business viability of the country. Yet he notes there were others who despised the gold standard as a destroyer of American prosperity. Paul argues that the clash of these two points of view constituted the premier economic issue of the American Gold Century from 1871-1971. He shows: IN GOLD WE TRUST: AMERICA’S GREAT PANACEA will explore the impact of gold when it was the basis of the American monetary system. Prominent gold advocates such as William Howard Taft and William McKinley played their role while the leading lights of the anti-gold group, including William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, and William Randolph Hearst, anathematized gold. Even L. Frank Baum’s WIZARD OF OZ will be presented as an example of the strong western anti-gold bias which informed and even dominated Democratic Party political platforms for 100 years. Paul argues that America’s Golden Rules “those who have the gold, rule”, or “whoever has the gold makes the rules” will take new meaning in the context of the country’s great gold obsession. He will raise and answer the question: “Did gold bring life and vitality to America or did it devastate America?” Paul will conclude answering: “Is gold backed money a terrible idea?”
Sept 24th Meeting #334
On the State of U.S. Politics
John Beesley, English born author, retired after a long career with Xerox, (educated at London's Imperial College and the University of Dallas. BSc, DIC, PhD) will discuss how the current election season has thrown up a series of grotesque spectacles - a reality show that no TV producers could have created. He argues that the presidential selection process has produced two candidates with strongly negative ratings - while the Congress vies with used-car salesmen in public confidence. John explains that the fault lies, of course, in having a political system based on a 17th century institution, which, like an insect encased in amber, is frozen in time. He will explore and analyze the consequences of this frozen system - its divergence from Democracy on a path to Fascism.
Please Note Program Change
original program re-scheduled for November 19th
