Sunday, March 30, 2014

Resources for March 30, 2014

Dialogic Cinephilia: Resources for March 28, 2014


Zinn Education Project: Women's History Month and Labor History -- Florence Reece was an activist, poet, and songwriter. She was the wife of one of the strikers and union organizers, Sam Reece, in the Harlan County miners strike in Kentucky. In an attempt to intimidate her family, the sheriff and company guards shot at their house while she and her children were inside (Sam had been warned they were coming and escaped). During the attack, she wrote the lyrics to Which Side Are You On?, a song that would become a popular ballad of the labor movement. Read more about this song in the children's book "Which Side Are You On? The Story of a Song". Learn about more women in labor history here.


Global Uprisings: Footage from the student demonstration in Madrid on March 27th




"10 Things They Won't Tell You About Money in Politics." Open Secrets (2014)











Potter, Gary. "Fundamental Violence: Protestant Fundamentalism and Violent Crime." Uprooting Criminology (November 11, 2013)

Carlin, Dan. "Vlad and Dianne." Common Sense #272 (March 22, 2014) ["Russia annexes the Crimea and the intelligence community's biggest supporter, Sen. Feinstein turns against the CIA. How can Dan choose between these two stories? He doesn't. He deals with both of them in this episode."]

Cheves, John. "Kentucky Lawmakers strike deal on state budget, but Rupp Arena out of luck." Lexington Herald-Leader (March 30, 2014)

Bodhi, Bhikkhu. "Of Budgets, Values and Visions." Truthout (March 30, 2014)

Friday, March 28, 2014

Resources for March 28, 2014

Hélène, C. "Police arrest Alexandria workers as strikes continue nationwide." Libcom (March 26, 2014)

Kouddous, Sharif Abdel. "3 Years After Revolution, Egypt Faces Deadly Polarization & Growing Militancy." Democracy Now (January 30, 2014)

Kouddous, Sharif Abdel. "Egypt’s Courts Further Repression with Journos on Trial & Mass Death Sentence for Morsi Supporters." Democracy Now (March 26, 2014)

Chris Hedges and Hamza Yusuf. "Does God Love War? (A Dialog on Religion and the State)." Unwelcome Guests #306 (May 14, 2006)

Dialogic archive: Chris Hedges: Journalist/War Correspondent

Morris, Earl. "The Unknown Known: Errol Morris’ New Doc Tackles Unrepentant Iraq War Architect Donald Rumsfeld." Democracy Now (March 27, 2014)


Egyptian Winter by Brandon Jourdan
"Two years after the revolution in Egypt began, unrest continues across the country as the political and economic situation worsens. As the current government consolidates its power, the demands of the revolution may seem further away than ever. Still the revolution has opened up new spaces for political action, spurring public debate on issues that have gone unacknowledged and unresolved for too long.

This short documentary looks at some of the reasons motivating revolutionaries to keep taking the streets, the obstacles that they are facing, and the tactics that they are using. It looks into the current economic and political problems facing Egyptians, the growing independent union movement, black bloc tactics, and the response of women to sexual assaults."



Global Uprisings ("Global Uprisings is an independent news site and video series dedicated to showing responses to the economic crisis from around the world. Brandon Jourdan and Marianne Maeckelbergh have been travelling, researching, and making short films about responses to the economic crisis and current uprisings. Their short films and articles detail social movements in Spain, Greece, the UK, the US, and Egypt. These films and articles cover the riots, demonstrations and occupations in the UK, large-scale housing occupations and demonstrations in Spain, massive and continuous general strikes, and self-reduction campaigns in Greece, the ongoing revolution in Egypt, and occupy movements within the United States. Throughout the project, they have also collaborated with collectives and media makers such as the Mosireen collective, Grit TV, Deep Dish TV, Big Noise Films, Democracy Now, and David Martinez.")

Jourdan, Brandon. "New Documentary: Bosnia and Herzegovina in Spring." Global Uprisings (March 21, 2014) ["This short documentary tells the story of the uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina that started in early February 2014. Since February 5 2014, protests have swept across Bosnia and Herzegovina. The protests were started by workers from five factories in northern city of Tuzla: Dita, Polihem, Poliolhem, GUMARA and Konjuh. The factories had been privatized, bankrupted and stripped of assets, leaving the workers with large debts, no salaries, no health care and no benefits. The protests culminated on February 7, 2014 when several governmental buildings were set on fire in cities across the country, including the presidential building in Sarajevo. Under pressure of protests, four regional governments resigned. The protests were followed with mass popular assemblies, referred to as plenums, that quickly spread across the country."]

Desvarieux, Jessica. "Hundreds of Students and Faculty Occupy College Campus To Fight Cuts to Public Higher Ed." Truth-Out (March 25, 2014)

For Truthout Richard D. Wolff's Economic Updates: "Updates on labor struggles at the University of Southern Maine; how low interest rates hurt retirees; the super-rich getting state subsidies; Northwestern University athletes moving to unionization; the BBC on US unemployment; and Nestle's CEO vs. human right to water. Major discussions on income distribution vs. redistribution; Maryland cutting taxes on rich and leaving tipped workers' minimum wages at $3.63/hour; and a final segment on criticisms of capitalism. Response to listener's questions on Bill Gates' C-Span interview."


Merriam-Webster's Word-of-the-Day:

adscititious \ad-suh-TISH-us\

adjective 1 : derived or acquired from something on the outside; 2 : supplemental, additional

EXAMPLES

"We should choose our books as we would our companions, for their sterling and intrinsic merit, not for their adscititious or accidental advantages." — From Charles Caleb Colton's 1832 book Lacon

"I thrilled to crates of chilly hardware—coffee tins of rusty nails and mismatched bolts and nuts, odd attachments, gimcrack, rickrack, and adscititious crap…." — From William Davies King's 2008 book Collections of Nothing

"Adscititious" comes from a very "knowledgeable" family—it ultimately derives from "scire," the Latin verb meaning "to know." "Scire" also gave us "science," "conscience," "prescience" ("foreknowledge"), and "nescience" ("lack of knowledge"). "Adscititious" itself comes to us from "scire" by way of the Latin verb "adsciscere," which means "to admit" or "to adopt." This explains why "adscititious" describes something adopted from an outside source.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Resources for March 27, 2014

We Are Many:
Moderators: Tithi Bhattacharya and Anthony Arnove
Speakers: Alex Lichtenstein, Jesse Hagopian, James Loewen, Susan Curtis, Anne Wright, Staughton Lynd, Tiffany Montoya and Fernando Tormos
In honor of historian Howard Zinn and all the ordinary people he celebrated in his work, on Tuesday November 5, scholars and activists from across the country took part in a Read-in of Zinn's work on the campus of Purdue University and on campuses across the nation. The day marks the birthday of another fighter for social justice -- Indiana-born labor activist, Eugene Debs. The idea for the event was sparked when the Associated Press reported that the current Purdue University President Mitch Daniels, in 2010 as Governor of Indiana, tried to censor and ban Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" from Indiana schools. When the news became a national scandal, many students, faculty, and citizens of Indiana had expressed deep concern over the news that the President of one of our great public universities would have attempted such censorship. 'The Zinn Read-in Committee' envisions the event to be a commemoration of academic freedom and a declaration of anti-censorship. The event also symbolized the ongoing fightback in the United States against the privatization of public education, attacks on teachers and teachers unions, and the need for real democracy in both schools and curriculum. Zinn's A People's History of the United States is an important text for understanding the history of underrepresented populations; the fight for the right to teach this history is never separate from the fight to improve the material lives of students, teachers, minorities and workers around the world. The Zinn Read-in Committee encourages support for this event by any means possible.]


Dialogic archive: Howard Zinn (Historian/Playwright/Political Science)

Ali, Mostafa and Hani Shukrallah. "What Happened to the Egyptian Revolution?" We Are Many (June 2013)

Crawshaw, Steve. "10 Everyday Acts of Resistance That Changed the World." Yes! (April 1, 2011)

Hermes, Kris and Omar el-Shafei. "White-washing Human Rights Abuses and Suppressing a Popular Revolution; Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi Ousted Following Days of Massive Largest Anti-Government Protest." Law and Disorder (July 8, 2013)


Our schoolbooks would like us to believe that social change must always be gradual and peaceful. Sudden, abrupt changes are seen as disruptions of a “normal” functioning society. “Respectable” society looks upon mass protest, civil disobedience, strikes, disruption and revolution with horror. But fundamental social change rarely comes gradually. Industrial unions didn’t come to this country by the gradual addition, year after year, of a few new unions. On the contrary, mass industrial unionism came in an explosion of organizing and mass strikes over a period of about five years, from 1934 to 1938. The gains of the civil rights movement were achieved through heroic civil disobedience and mass protest in the face of systematic racist terror.

While governments caution the governed to act peacefully and to refrain from drastic action, they themselves reserve the right to use overwhelming force. There was nothing gradual about the invasion of Iraq.

Revolution is the ultimate social leap – a period when the gradual accumulation of mass bitterness and anger of the exploited and oppressed coalesces and bursts forth into a mass movement to overturn existing social relations and replace them with new ones. A few days of revolutionary upheaval bring more change than decades of “normal” development. Rulers and systems that seemed invincible and immovable are suddenly unceremoniously toppled. Revolution is not an aberration in an otherwise smoothly functioning society.

The last three centuries have been filled not only with wars, but also with revolutions and near-revolutions. A list of only some of these gives us an idea of the scope of revolutionary upheaval since the dawn of modern capitalism: the American Revolution (1776-87), the French Revolution (1789-94), the US Civil War (1861-65), the European revolutions of 1848, the Russian Revolutions (1905 and 1917), the German Revolution (1918-23), China (1925-27), the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), the Hungarian Revolution (1956), Chile (1973), Portugal (1974-75), Iran (1979), Poland’s Solidarnosc uprising (1980-81). This partial list is enough to put to rest the notion that revolutions are rare or unusual occurrences.

Paul D’Amato, The Meaning of Marxism (Haymarket Books, 2006)


Newman, Zak. "What's the Difference Between Force Feeding and Waterboarding?" Blog of Rights (March 24, 2014)

Kinzer, Stephen and William Murphy, Jr. "US Wars and Social Control (From Regime Change Abroad to the War on Drugs at Home)." Unwelcome Guests #304 (April 30, 2006) ["In our first hour, this week, Stephen Kinzer, whose book, Overthrow, details the US empire's long history of instigating regime change, both the public pretext and the real interests at play. In our second hour, William Murphy Jr speaks about the "War On Drugs"."]



Glenn Greenwald Speaks Out
Socialism 2013
Introduced by Jeremy Scahill and Sherry Wolf
Glenn Greenwald speaks via Skype to the Socialism 2013 conference in Chicago regarding Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA's mass surveillance program. Introductions by Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater and the filmmaker behind Dirty Wars, and Sherry Wolf, author of Sexuality and Socialism. #Socialism2013 #Snowden #NSA


Dialogic archive: Glenn Greenwald: Constitutional and Civil Rights Lawyer/Journalist


Democracy Now headline:
Egyptian General Resigns to Clear Run for Presidency

The head of the Egyptian military has stepped down, paving the way for his candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections. General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi led the coup that ousted Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, last July, and has overseen the ensuing crackdown that’s left hundreds dead and thousands behind bars. Sisi has a strong base of support and is expected to win. On Wednesday, one person was killed near Egypt’s Cairo University in ongoing protests against the sentencing of over 500 Muslim Brotherhood members to death. The protests come as over 900 additional Brotherhood members were ordered to stand trial on charges of terrorism and murder.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Resources for March 25, 2014

Dialogic Cinephilia: Resources for March 24, 2014

Powless, Irving, Jr. and Robert Venables. "Who Are These People?(The Onondaga Nation Encounters European Settlers)." Unwelcome Guests #302 (April 16, 2006)

Iraqi human rights activists and Iraq Veterans Against the War are determined to show the true costs of the Iraq War and hold the U.S. government accountable for the suffering and destruction it caused. Join them by tuning in to the People's Hearing on the Impact of the Iraq War this Wednesday at 6:30pm EST via CCR's live-stream.








Dialogic archives:

Resources for Re-Thinking the World

Social Movements/Resistance: Peace and Conflict Studies


Project Censored: Top 25 Censored Stories from 2012-2013





Dale, Tom. "Will Egypt's Mass Death Sentence Provoke More Violence?" Vice (March 25, 2014)

Monday, March 24, 2014

Resources for March 24, 2014

Brooks, Diane. "These Seattle Teachers Boycotted Standardized Testing - and Sparked a Nationwide Movement."Truthout (March 18, 2014)

Mayer for Mayor commenting on the Lexington Herald-Leader article "Rupp redesign project manager says project will likely need 'bridge funding' soon":
"In crony capitalism, success is not determined by a free market and the rule of law. It's instead dependent on the favoritism that is shown to it by the ruling government in the form of tax breaks, government grants and other incentives. Crony capitalism is a good description of our current Mayor's signature plan for downtown: Rupp Renovation. Here are some members of his hand-picked 47-member Rupp Arena Task Force who, without a single public representative on it, approved public money for the project, their position on the Task Force, and what they and their businesses have since made off the first $5.5 million installment in public money for the project they approved:
--Frank Butler (Technical Advisory Group), a former UK Vice President, gets $290,000/year in salary and benefits for "overseeing" the project.
--Urban Collage (support staff) gets $10,000 for urban planning.
--Lord, Aek & Sargent (via Stan Harvey, support staff) gets $250,000 for TIF funding knowledge
--NBBJ (Arena Feasibility) gets $2.78 million for beginning designs.
This amount totals $3.3 million of the first $5.5 million spent in public funds."


Dialogic Cinephilia: Resources for March 20, 2014


Electronic Frontier Foundation: 404 Day: A Day of Action Against Censorship in Libraries
On April 4th, EFF is bringing attention to the long-standing problem of Internet censorship in public libraries for 404 Day. Join us for a digital teach-in with some of the top researchers and librarians working to analyze and push back against the use of Internet filters on library computers. Everywhere.


Iraq War veteran and Occupy protester Scott Olsen wins a major settlement against the city of Oakland: Freedom Information Network: "Court Victory for Occupy Protester Scott Olsen Who Was Shot by Oakland Police" and NBC Bay Area: Iraq War Veteran Scott Olsen Reaches $4.5M Settlement in Occupy Oakland Bean Bag Case





Scott Ritter, John Stauber, Pepi Leistyna, Loretta Alper, and Tom Scott. "Stupefying the Group Mind (Managing the Class War with PR and TV)." Unwelcome Guests #301 (April 8, 2006)

Blum, William. Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995.

Uprising Radio: "Daily News Flash with Robert Jensen on Egypt Death Sentences, UN Women’s Rights Declaration, and Texas Oil Spill"

Mosher, Holly and Jonah Minkoff-Zern. "What is At Stake in Supreme Court’s McCutcheon Ruling?" Uprising Radio (March 24, 2014) ["In what some are calling Citizens United Part 2, the US Supreme Court will make a landmark ruling on the case McCutcheon v. FEC this week. If the Court rules in favor of McCutcheon, caps on individual donations to federal officeholders will be completely removed, eviscerating the last vestiges of untainted elections. ..."]

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Resources for March 19, 2014

The Universal Clock - The Resistance of Peter WatkinsbyGeoff Bowie, National Film Board of Canada




Dunn, Jeff. "The Top 10 Free Web Tools (As Chosen By You)." Edudemic (March 6, 2014)

Dialogic Cinephilia: Resources for March 18, 2014

Center for Constitutional Rights: TAKE ACTION: Speak out against the Bureau of Prison's use of experimental isolation units. The BOP has reopened a comment period about these units (a.k.a Communications Management Units - CMUs), where prisoners are given extremely limited access to calls and visits and are deprived of any physical contact with visiting loved ones, without due process. Two-thirds of CMU prisoners are Muslim, and others have been sent to these units in retaliation for their political and religious speech. Submit a comment and SHARE this info with others!





Popova, Maria. "Obey: How the Rise of Mass Propaganda Killed Populism." Brain Pickings (February 6, 2013)



Dialogic archives:

Propaganda (Key Concept)

Chris Hedges (Journalist/War Correspondent)


Recommended short science fiction: Understand by Ted Chiang

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Resources for March 16, 2014

Center for Constitutional Rights:
"The United States has already changed in profound ways as a result of a decade-plus of global war, and US war-making has profoundly altered the lives of those outside of our country. We cannot simply end the 'war on terror'; we must grapple with the world it has created." CCR's Vincent Warren on the need for international bodies like the UN Human Rights Committee to hold the U.S. government accountable for post-9/11 crimes -- from arbitrary detentions at Guantanamo prison, to targeted assassinations around the world, and the toxic legacy of the U.S. military’s munitions in Iraq.

"As the Obama administration continues rallying its allies to hold Russia to its international law obligations in Ukraine, the international community had an opportunity this week to turn the magnifying glass the other way and question the U.S. government about its own compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)." CCR's Nahal Zamani reports on the UN Human Rights Committee's review of the U.S. government's human rights record.

Inside Job from dunyagercekleri on Vimeo.




Venezeula Analysis ("Venezuelanalysis.com is an independent website produced by individuals who are dedicated to disseminating news and analysis about the current political situation in Venezuela. The site's aim is to provide on-going news about developments in Venezuela, as well as to contextualize this news with in-depth analysis and background information. The site is targeted towards academics, journalists, intellectuals, policy makers from different countries, and the general public.")








Cohen, Andrew. "When Prosecutors Admit to Cheating." The Atlantic (March 4, 2014)

"Attorney for wrongly convicted Ryan Ferguson files $100M lawsuit." Crimesider (March 11, 2014)

Dialogic Cinephilia: Resources for March 14, 2014

Doctorow, Cory. "FBI recommended felony counts against Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio's cronies." Boing Boing (March 13, 2014)

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Resources for March 13, 2014

Dialogic Cinephilia:
Resources for March 8, 2014
Resources for March 12, 2014


Pinker, Steven. "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined." Radio Open Source (March 10. 2014)

Crawford, Jarmahl, Peniel Joseph and Isabel Wilkerson. "Stokely Carmichael and Black Power." Radio Open Source (March 6, 2014) ["Stokely Carmichael was a down-home organizer and radical off-beat visionary of racial equality in America 50 years ago, a quicksilver activist, theorist, street hero, preacher and prophet of black revolution in America and the world. He’s in the civil rights pantheon, for sure, but he’s still struggling in spirit with the leadership, especially the example of Martin Luther King; and he’s still a scarecrow in the memory of white America. Stokely Carmichael had some of Malcolm X’s fury and fire, and some of the comedian Richard Pryor’s gift with a punchline, too. “Black power” was his slogan that became a chant, that built his bad-boy celebrity and awakened a political generation but may also have been his undoing in the 1960s. So what does a half-century’s hindsight make of the man and his Pan-African vision? And while we’re at it: what would Stokely Carmichael make of black power today – looking at Hollywood, Hip Hop, the White House, and prisons and poverty?"]

Leonard, Christopher. "The Meat Racket." Radio West (March 7, 2014) ["Just a handful of companies raise nearly all the meat consumed in America, and among them, Tyson Foods is king. According to the journalist Christopher Leonard, Tyson wrote the blueprint for modern meat production. He says there’s no better way to understand how our food is produced than to know how the company works. In a new book, Leonard explores how Tyson mastered the economics of factory farming to rise to the top, and how it transformed rural America and the middle class economy in the process."]

New Dialogic archive: Animals





Center for Constitutional Rights: Since 2006, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has operated two experimental prison units called Communications Management Units (CMUs), where prisoners are given extremely limited access to calls and visits and are deprived of any physical contact with visiting loved ones, without due process. Two-thirds of these prisoners are Muslim, and others have been sent to the CMUs in retaliation for their political and religious speech. CCR is challenging these unconstitutional policies and practices in court, but we also need the BOP to hear from you. This week, the BOP opened up a 15-day period for concerned individuals to submit comments on their proposed policy that would govern the CMUs. Learn more about these units, and our clients, by reading this article, and submit your comments to the BOP using this link.

Hudson, David. "Věra Chytilová, 1929 – 2014: Best known for DAISIES (1966), Chytilová was a major figure in Czech cinema." Keyframe (March 12, 2014)

Smith, Noah. "Drones will cause an upheaval of society like we haven’t seen in 700 years." Quartz (March 11, 2014)

Saturday, March 08, 2014

Resources for March 8, 2014

Nuland, Sherwin. "The Biology of Spirit." On Being (March 6, 2014)["Dr. Sherwin Nuland died this week at the age of 83. He became well-known through his first book, How We Die, which won the National Book Award in 1994. But pondering death was for him a way of wondering at life. He reflected on the meaning of life by way of scrupulous and elegant detail about human physiology."]


Dialogic archive: "Gilles Deleuze 1925-1995 (Philosophy)


As a teacher, I'm not interested in just reproducing class after class of graduates who will get out, become successful, and take their obedient places in the slots that society has prepared for them. What we must do--whether we teach or write or make films--is educate a new generation to do this very modest thing: change the world. (15) -- Zinn, Howard. "Stories Hollywood Never Tells." The Sun #343 (July 2004): 12-15.


Godmilow, Jill. "Killing the Documentary: An Oscar-Nominated Filmmaker Takes Issue With The Act of Killing." IndieWire (March 5, 2014)

“Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth. And it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there.” ~ Kurt Cobain talking in November 1991 about the background behind the song ‘Polly’


“Look, I’m glad ‘12 Years [A Slave]’ got made and it’s wonderful that people are seeing it and there is another view of what happened in America. But I’m not real sure why Steve McQueen wanted to tackle that particular sort of thing.[‘Fruitvale Station’] explains things like the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the problems with stop and search, and is just more poignant. America is much more willing to acknowledge what happened in the past: ‘We freed the slaves! It’s all good!’ But to say: ‘We are still unnecessarily killing black men’ – let’s have a conversation about that.” ~ Samuel L. Jackson (source Sociological Cinema)





Center for Constitutional Rights reports:
"While President Obama criticizes Russia’s military intervention and asserts its international law obligation in Ukraine, here’s his administration disputing whether human rights treaties barring arbitrary killings, torture, and arbitrary detention, apply to the U.S. outside its borders (e.g. Guantanamo, CIA secret prisons abroad, etc). Next week, a United Nations panel in Geneva will question the U.S. government on its compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. CCR will be there to draw attention to U.S. civil and political rights violations at home and abroad."

Alexis Agathocleous and Gregory Koger of The Stop Mass Incarceration Network join the The Real News Network to discuss new details about the statewide mass hunger strike that took place last year in California prisons. As many as 30,000 prisoners participated in the 59-day peaceful strike against the state's barbaric solitary confinement practices.

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Gilles Deleuze 1925-1995 (Philosophy)

Biographies:

The European Graduate School: Gilles Deleuze - Biography

Wikipedia: Gilles Deleuze

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Gilles Deleuze

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Gilles Deleuze


Works from/about/inspired by Gilles Deleuze:

Benton, Michael Dean. "I am Past Imperfect." Dialogic (May 26, 2010)

---. "Notes on Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia." Dialogi (February 20, 2014)

---. "Response to a Message About the Threat of Islamo-Fascism." Dialogic (October 1, 2008)

---. "Transperspective Waiting." Dialogic (March 4, 2010)

Buchanan, Ian. Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus. NY: Continuum, 2008: 13-19.

Codrescu, Andrei. "The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess." Weekly Signals (March 17, 2009)

Foucault, Michel. “Intellectuals and Power: A Conversation between Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze.” Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. 1977: 207-208.

McCormack, Tom. "Madness and Civilization: Monsieur Verdoux and the meaning of Chaplin's cinema." Moving Image Source (July 22, 2010)

Shaviro, Steven. "Gamer." The Pinocchio Theory (December 15, 2009)






Resources for March 6, 2014

Greenwald, Glenn. "How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations." Intercept (February 24, 2014)

Ahmed, Nuwar, et al. "School’s Out: The Decimation of Public Education." Making Contact (February 18, 2014)





"Supreme Court Denies Review of NSA Warrantless Surveillance Case." Center for Constitutional Rights (March 4, 2014) ["Recent Snowden Revelations Showed Government Likely Spying on Attorney Communications"]

Culp-Ressler, Tara. "New Study Disputes Robin Thicke, Finds Sexual Aggression Doesn’t Actually Have Blurred Lines." Think Progress (march 5, 2014)

Haney López, Ian. "The Dog Whistle Politics of Race." Moyers & Company (February 28, 2014)

Lofgren, Ian. "The Deep State Hiding in Plain Sight." Moyers & Co. (February 21, 2014) ["Everyone knows about the military-industrial complex, which, in his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned had the potential to “endanger our liberties or democratic process” but have you heard of the 'Deep State'?”]


Dialogic Cinephilia archives:

Dirty Wars (USA/Afghanistan/Iraq/Kenya/Somalia/Yemen: Rick Rowley, 2013)

The Square (Egypt/USA: Jehane Noujaim, 2013)


McFerrin, Bobby. "Catching Song." On Being (February 27, 2014)

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Resources for March 4, 2014

Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "Interview with Alain Resnais on MON ONCLE D’AMÉRIQUE (1980)." (Personal Website: February 26, 2014)


Democracy Now Headlines for March 3, 2014:



McGovern, Ray and Timothy Snyder. "Who Is Provoking the Unrest in Ukraine? A Debate on Role of Russia, United States in Regional Crisis." Democracy Now (March 3, 2014)

Shelly, Deirdre. "XL Dissent: 398 Youth Arrested at Anti-Keystone XL Pipeline Protest at White House." Democracy Now (March 3, 2014)


Kalmár, György. "Body Memories, Body Cinema: The Politics of Multi-Sensual Counter-Memory in György Pálfi’s Hukkle." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)

Wilkerson, Isabel. "The Warmth of Other Suns: Isabel Wilkerson on the Great Migration." Making Contact (February 25, 2014) ["Should they go or should they stay? That was a question millions of African Americans living in the South asked themselves in the 20th Century. For many the answer was simple. Life in the South was hard and dangerous, with lynching, Jim Crow laws, and lack of economic opportunities. From 1910 to the 1960s an estimated 6 million African Americans left the South and moved North, in what became known as 'The Great Migration.'"]

Carlin, Dan. "Poking the Bear." Common Sense #270 (February 24, 2014) ["Ukraine has erupted in violence as protesters in Kiev oust the country's leader. Dan thinks U.S. efforts to clandestinely support or encourage one side of the conflict are dangerously short sighted."]

Cheves, John. "Beshear: Ky. will appeal federal judge's ruling in same-sex marriage case without Conway." Lexington Herald-Leader (March 4, 2014)

Statement from Attorney General Conway:

As Attorney General, I have vowed to the people of Kentucky to uphold my duty under the law and to do what is right, even if some disagreed with me. In evaluating how best to proceed as the Commonwealth’s chief lawyer in light of Judge Heyburn’s recent ruling, I have kept those promises in mind.

When the Governor and I were first named as the technical defendants in this lawsuit, my duty as Attorney General was to provide the Commonwealth with a defense in the federal district court, and to frame the proper legal defenses. Those who passed the statutes and the voters who passed the constitutional amendment deserved that, and the Office of Attorney General performed its duty. However, it’s my duty to defend both the Kentucky Constitution and the Constitution of the United States.

The temporary stay we sought and received on Friday allowed me time to confer with my client and to consult with state leaders about my impending decision and the ramifications for the state.

I have evaluated Judge Heyburn’s legal analysis, and today am informing my client and the people of Kentucky that I am not appealing the decision and will not be seeking any further stays.

From a constitutional perspective, Judge Heyburn got it right, and in light of other recent federal decisions, these laws will not likely survive upon appeal. We cannot waste the resources of the Office of the Attorney General pursuing a case we are unlikely to win.

There are those who believe it’s my mandatory duty, regardless of my personal opinion, to continue to defend this case through the appellate process, and I have heard from many of them. However, I came to the inescapable conclusion that, if I did so, I would be defending discrimination.

That I will not do. As Attorney General of Kentucky, I must draw the line when it comes to discrimination.

The United States Constitution is designed to protect everyone’s rights, both the majority and the minority groups. Judge Heyburn’s decision does not tell a minister or a congregation what they must do, but in government ‘equal justice under law’ is a different matter.

I am also mindful of those from the business community who have reached out to me in the last few days encouraging me not to appeal the decision. I agree with their assessment that discriminatory policies hamper a state’s ability to attract business, create jobs and develop a modern workforce.

I prayed over this decision. I appreciate those who provided counsel, especially my remarkable wife, Elizabeth. In the end, this issue is really larger than any single person and it’s about placing people above politics. For those who disagree, I can only say that I am doing what I think is right. In the final analysis, I had to make a decision that I could be proud of – for me now, and my daughters’ judgment in the future.

May we all find ways to work together to build a more perfect union, and to build the future Commonwealth in which we want to live, work and raise all of our families.

Monday, March 03, 2014

Resources for March 3, 2014

Law and Disorder podcast episodes:

"David Vivar and Laura Raymond -- The Drug War: Policing and U.S. Militarism at Home and Abroad; Kazembe Balagune -- Imagine: Living In A Socialist U.S.A"

"Marty Stolar -- Jury Trial Begins for Occupy Wall Street’s Cecily McMillan; Jody Kent Lavy -- Fair Sentencing Of Youth Campaign."


Roos, Jerome. "Venezuela: it’s the opposition that’s anti-democratic." ROAR (February 21, 2014)

Hedges, Inez. "Amnesiac memory: Hiroshima/Nagasaki in Japanese film." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)

Cho, Violet. "Thauk gya paw hee thwi deh thwi (Blood’s Oath to Beautiful Flower) — drama of insurgency in a Burmese Pwo Karen Film." Jump Cut #55 (Fall 2013)

Musgrave, Beth. "Citing new same-sex marriage ruling, Fayette judge allows step mother to adopt her wife's son." Lexington Herald-Leader (February 28, 2014)

Davies, Andrew and Penny Woolcock. "Gang Culture: On Screen and In Print." London School of Economics and Political Science (Literary Festival 2014: Recorded on 27 February 2014 in Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building.)

Hudson, David. "Alain Resnais, 1922 -2014." Keyframe (March 2, 2014)

Gillepsie, Alex, Philip Horne and Sandra Jovchelovitch. "Literary Festival 2014: More Tales from the Two James(es)." The London School of Economics and Political Science (February 23, 2014) ["... readings from the work of William and Henry James to explore the links between psychology and fiction."]


Merriam-Webster's Word-of-the-Day

decoct \dih-KAHKT\

verb 1 : to extract the flavor of by boiling; 2 : boil down, concentrate

The author has tried to decoct the positions the players in this complex situation have taken into two camps: those who are for the changes and those who are against them.

"Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is far better known as a bottled astringent than a native shrub. Its medicinal uses date back to the Native Americans, who taught Europeans how to identify the plant and decoct its leaves and stems into the now-familiar tonic." — From an article by David Taft in the New York Times, December 1, 2013

"Decoct" boils down to a simple Latin origin: the word "decoquere," from "de-," meaning "down" or "away," and "coquere," meaning "to cook" or "to ripen." "Decoct" itself is quite rare. Its related noun "decoction," which refers to either an extract obtained by decocting or the act or process of decocting, is slightly more common but still much less recognizable than some other members of the "coquere" family, among them "biscuit," "biscotti," "cook," and "kitchen." Other "coquere" descendants include "concoct" ("to prepare by combining raw materials" or "to devise or fabricate"), "concoction" ("something concocted"), and "precocious" ("exceptionally early in development or occurrence" or "exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age").