Berea College Department of Women's Studies events for 2005-2006 (Open to the Public--Free)
October 21
11:55 a.m. 12:55 p.m. Peanut Butter and Gender
Phelps Stokes, Room 205, Lunch is Served
Fair Trade and the Struggle for Life in the Americas
Daysi Granada, Nicaraguan women’s movement leader, and advisor to Christians for the Poor, talks about ways that privatization of Nicaragua’s utilities have impacted her community, and the ongoing struggle of Nicaraguan civil society. Co-sponsored with Campus Christian Center.
November 2
11:55 a.m. 12:55 p.m. Peanut Butter and Gender
Phelps Stokes, Room 205, Lunch is Served
Under the Veil
Dr. Carole Garrison, Jewish American Professor and Chair of Criminal Justice and Police Studies, and Dr. Jaleh Rezaie, Muslim Iranian Professor and Chair of Computer Science at Eastern Kentucky University, describe the interfaith friendship that started and then grew from their journey to Jaleh’s homeland.Co-sponsored with Campus Christian Center.
November 9
3:00 p.m. Women in the Global Economy
Phelps Stokes
Room 204
Chiapas and the Sixth Declaration
Gabriela Martinez Lopez, researcher at the Center of Political Analysis in Chiapas, Mexico, will speak on the recent declaration of the Zapatista movement, and the work of indigenous women’s communities to claim their fundamental freedoms.
11:55 a.m. 12:55 p.m. Peanut Butter and Gender
Phelps Stokes, Room 205, Lunch is Served
Africa, Islam, and Female Circumcision
Dr. Abdur-Razaq B. Adesina, Islamic scholar and Fulbright lecturer from the University of Portharcourt in Nigeria, discusses the role of Nigerian women in African Muslim cultures. Co-sponsored with International Center.
November 21 (This is likely to be changed to December 5th)
5:00 p.m.
Monday Night Feminism
Conversations with bell hooks
Women' Studies Parlor
Second floor Phelps Stokes: light supper provided
Childcare upon request; Contact Barbara Lakes x3217
Special guest, Bandra Bartky, author of Feminity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression
November 30
11:55 a.m. 12:55 p.m. Peanut Butter and Gender
Phelps Stokes, Room 205, Lunch is Served
Opposing Currents: Politics of Water and Gender in Latin America
Sonia Davila, Bolivian-Mexican scholar and author of Opposing Currents, outlines the international debate on water rights and recounts the gender struggle against water privatization in Bolivia. Co-sponsored with International Center and SENS.
3:00 p.m. Women in the Global Economy
Phelps Stokes, Room 204
Water Wars in Bolivia
Sonia Davila, author of Opposing Currents, speaks about the role of women in the civil struggle to regain water rights in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
February 22
11:55 12:55 Peanut Butter and Gender
Phelps Stokes, Room 205, Lunch is Served
Power and Resistance in the Interstices
Muriel Shockley, doctoral candidate and faculty member at Goddard College, introduces her work with Cherie Sandoval on transnational collective efforts to resist the effects of neo-liberal globalization, violence against women, and war.
March 8
11:55 12:55 Peanut Butter and Gender
Phelps Stokes, Room 205, Lunch is Served
Feminist Philosophers in North America: An Audio-Visual Sampler
Dr. Joan Callahan, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Women’s Studies at the University of Kentucky, presents highlights of her national research project on influential feminist philosophers in the United States.
March 22
11:55 12:55 Peanut Butter and Gender
Phelps Stokes, Room 205, Lunch is Served
Radical Multiculturalism and Women of Color Feminisms
Dr. Maria Lugones, feminist philosopher and founder of Escuela Popular Nortena, shares her recent work on women of color feminisms and radical multiculturalism.
March 22
3:00 p.m. Women in the Global Economy
Phelps Stokes, Room 204
Modern Colonial/Gender Systems
Dr. Maria Lugones, author of Pilgrimages/Pereginajes:
Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions, discusses current schemes for understanding neo-colonialism and gender systems.
April 12
11:55 12:55 Peanut Butter and Gender
Phelps Stokes, Room 205, Lunch is Served
Date Rape Prevention as Social Justice Training: Transforming Male
Privilege and Creating Non-Rape Prone Campus Cultures
Dr. Pam Remer, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Kentucky, presents a model of campus rape prevention that challenges male privilege, rape myths, and rape-supported attitudes on the college campus.
April 21
11:55 12:55 Peanut Butter and Gender
Phelps Stokes, Room 205, Lunch is Served
Gender Lessons in School-Based Sex Education
Using her ethnographic data from middle school sex education classes, Dr. Jessica Fields, Assistant Professor of Sociology at San Francisco State University, applies a feminist lens to the oppressive lessons about femininity and masculinity at work in sex education programs for boys and girls.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Websites of the Day: October 20th
Melody Berger's F-Word Ezine has both non-fiction and fiction, with a global scope, and perspectives that are refreshingly unique.
Jodi Dean is a professor of political theory and an author of many books (I've read her edited collection Cultural Studies and Political Theory, but based on her writings on her weblog I want to very much tackle some of her other books.) Her weblog I Cite is a fascinating combination of writings on her intellectual pursuits, cultural interests and political observations.
Mary McDonald's Weltatem usually has one or two daily posts. Lately she has been writing about her travels around the world and posting on various global and national issues that interest her. What strikes me as important about her posts is that she always draws connections beyond the immediate context of the subject she is considering (connections that are original and make sense). I have found myself lately visiting her site on a daily basis.
I cannot get enough of Global Voices so it is now the homepage on my college office computer and I'm thinking about developing a writing project for my composition students based upon papers/research derived from explorations of the global voices postings. A hearty thanks to the host and contributors of this site!
Jodi Dean is a professor of political theory and an author of many books (I've read her edited collection Cultural Studies and Political Theory, but based on her writings on her weblog I want to very much tackle some of her other books.) Her weblog I Cite is a fascinating combination of writings on her intellectual pursuits, cultural interests and political observations.
Mary McDonald's Weltatem usually has one or two daily posts. Lately she has been writing about her travels around the world and posting on various global and national issues that interest her. What strikes me as important about her posts is that she always draws connections beyond the immediate context of the subject she is considering (connections that are original and make sense). I have found myself lately visiting her site on a daily basis.
I cannot get enough of Global Voices so it is now the homepage on my college office computer and I'm thinking about developing a writing project for my composition students based upon papers/research derived from explorations of the global voices postings. A hearty thanks to the host and contributors of this site!
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Green Smile
Green Smile left an interesting comment on a post at this site and being the curious creature I am I visited Green Smile's profile. This profile was great, causing me to laugh and think at the same time, so I checked out the linked blogs--I recommend you do the same. Politics, philosophy, activism and wit...
The Executioner's Thong
Mean Stream Media
A Bomb a Nation
The Executioner's Thong
Mean Stream Media
A Bomb a Nation
Monday, October 17, 2005
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Ernest Becker: Meaning and Alienation
"A large part of the evil that man unleashes on himself and his world stems not from a wickedness in his heart, but from the way he was conditioned to see the world and to seek satisfaction in it. He blindly follows out his unconscious urges in the frantic activity of daily life, and gets his satisfaction and his self-esteem. He fits himself into the bureaucratic-industrial machines of our day and gives his uncritical allegiance to the nation states that run these machines. He is part of an objectified structure, an ant doing his small part reflexively in a huge anthill of delegated power and authority. He follows orders, keeps his nose clean, and gets whatever satisfactions his character structure has equipped him to seek." (185)
Becker, Ernest. The Birth and Death of Meaning (NY: MacMillan, 2nd ed., 1971)
"The tragedy is simply this: that new meanings can only come from the creative depths of the life force within each individual; but the individual is the last one who believes in his right to develop unique meanings. He takes everything he needs uncritically from the society at large. As a result, man's meanings, instead of being free and open, are in fact 'instinctivized'--hardened into the mold of a standard social pattern." (198)
Becker, Ernest. Beyond Alienation (NY: George Braziller, 1967)
Ernest Becker: The Fragile Fiction
Ernest Becker: The Science of Humans
Becker, Ernest. The Birth and Death of Meaning (NY: MacMillan, 2nd ed., 1971)
"The tragedy is simply this: that new meanings can only come from the creative depths of the life force within each individual; but the individual is the last one who believes in his right to develop unique meanings. He takes everything he needs uncritically from the society at large. As a result, man's meanings, instead of being free and open, are in fact 'instinctivized'--hardened into the mold of a standard social pattern." (198)
Becker, Ernest. Beyond Alienation (NY: George Braziller, 1967)
Ernest Becker: The Fragile Fiction
Ernest Becker: The Science of Humans
Upcoming United Peace and Justice Events: Bluegrass Community and Technical College
(Anyone needs direction just leave a message in the comments)
October 18, 5-6:15 pm, in the Oswald Building Auditorium, JERROD FELICE, on fair trade
October 19, 3:30-4:30 pm, in the Academic Technical Lobby, DAYSI GRANADOS on resistance/struggles for life and livelihood in Nicaragua (she is coming here thanks to Witness for Peace)
October 20, 5-6:15 pm, in the Oswald Building Auditorium, BOB SLOAN, on mountaintop removal
October 18, 5-6:15 pm, in the Oswald Building Auditorium, JERROD FELICE, on fair trade
October 19, 3:30-4:30 pm, in the Academic Technical Lobby, DAYSI GRANADOS on resistance/struggles for life and livelihood in Nicaragua (she is coming here thanks to Witness for Peace)
October 20, 5-6:15 pm, in the Oswald Building Auditorium, BOB SLOAN, on mountaintop removal
Recommended Websites: October 16th
Magical realism is one of my favorite fictional styles/genres and this website is one of the best archival resources I have found:
Margin
I'm always researching media literacy issues because it is a vital skill for citizens in our society (that is ignored throughout the bureaucratic educational system--many individual teachers still teach it). Here is a website that has a great educational focus, is rooted in activism, yet still retains a sense of humor:
A great combination--also some great resources:
ACME: Action Coalition for Media Education
The folks over at the Bluegrass Film Society are putting together a big archive and regular post on film-related materials (including films available online). Check it out and feel free to share resources:
Bluegrass Film Society
Also:
Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents
Reporters san Frontiers/Reporters Without Borders
First Amendment Future
Margin
I'm always researching media literacy issues because it is a vital skill for citizens in our society (that is ignored throughout the bureaucratic educational system--many individual teachers still teach it). Here is a website that has a great educational focus, is rooted in activism, yet still retains a sense of humor:
A great combination--also some great resources:
ACME: Action Coalition for Media Education
The folks over at the Bluegrass Film Society are putting together a big archive and regular post on film-related materials (including films available online). Check it out and feel free to share resources:
Bluegrass Film Society
Also:
Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents
Reporters san Frontiers/Reporters Without Borders
First Amendment Future
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Merriam-Webster Word of the Day: Tontine
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
tontine \TAHN-teen\ noun
: a joint financial arrangement whereby the participants usually contribute equally to a prize that is awarded entirely to the participant who survives all the others
Example sentence:
When all the participants in the tontine but one were murdered, you can guess who the primary suspect was.
Did you know?
Tontines were named after their creator, a Neapolitan banker named Lorenzo Tonti. In 1653, Tonti convinced investors to buy shares in a fund he had created. Each year, the investors earned dividends, and when one of them died, his or her share of the profits was redistributed among the survivors. When the last investor died, the capital reverted to the state. Louis XIV of France used tontines to save his ailing treasury and to fund municipal projects, and private tontines (where the last surviving investor — and subsequently his or her heirs — got the cash instead of the state) became popular throughout Europe and the U.S. Eventually, though, tontines were banned; there was just too much temptation for unscrupulous investors to bump off their fellow subscribers.
tontine \TAHN-teen\ noun
: a joint financial arrangement whereby the participants usually contribute equally to a prize that is awarded entirely to the participant who survives all the others
Example sentence:
When all the participants in the tontine but one were murdered, you can guess who the primary suspect was.
Did you know?
Tontines were named after their creator, a Neapolitan banker named Lorenzo Tonti. In 1653, Tonti convinced investors to buy shares in a fund he had created. Each year, the investors earned dividends, and when one of them died, his or her share of the profits was redistributed among the survivors. When the last investor died, the capital reverted to the state. Louis XIV of France used tontines to save his ailing treasury and to fund municipal projects, and private tontines (where the last surviving investor — and subsequently his or her heirs — got the cash instead of the state) became popular throughout Europe and the U.S. Eventually, though, tontines were banned; there was just too much temptation for unscrupulous investors to bump off their fellow subscribers.
Fink Tank 3000: Maybe Bush is in Charge Now!
(Courtesy of Mason)
MAYBE BUSH IS IN CHARGE NOW!
by Fink
Fink Tank 3000
It’s a scary thought but doesn’t it seem like Bush is actually in charge now? It’s like Cheney is done taking the US Government for a test drive and handed the keys back to Bush, who can’t drive. Everything has spun out of control. A Republican White House can’t reign in a Republican Capitol Hill.
I picture Bush in a room all alone getting “things to do” lists from his secretary. He makes some calls but no one answers: not Karl Rove, not Dick Cheney, not Alberto Gonzales. (After all, in this tight-message administration, we shouldn’t know that Dick and Alberto were opposed to the Hiers nomination unless they wanted us to know.)
He may have to make decisions on his own now. Did Bush, in a moment of childish panic, shout from the Oval Office, “Harriet, can you come into my office? I need a Supreme Court nominee!”?
He tries to stem the growing unrest about his war in Iraq so he thinks like a typical CEO: “We’ll have a live video conference.” Yeah, those are always productive.
We really can’t know for sure because Cheney didn’t leave any evidence of his rule except for maybe a trail of slime. Maybe when Bush chooses his personal accountant to replace Alan Greenspan, we’ll understand if Bush is in charge or not.
MAYBE BUSH IS IN CHARGE NOW!
by Fink
Fink Tank 3000
It’s a scary thought but doesn’t it seem like Bush is actually in charge now? It’s like Cheney is done taking the US Government for a test drive and handed the keys back to Bush, who can’t drive. Everything has spun out of control. A Republican White House can’t reign in a Republican Capitol Hill.
I picture Bush in a room all alone getting “things to do” lists from his secretary. He makes some calls but no one answers: not Karl Rove, not Dick Cheney, not Alberto Gonzales. (After all, in this tight-message administration, we shouldn’t know that Dick and Alberto were opposed to the Hiers nomination unless they wanted us to know.)
He may have to make decisions on his own now. Did Bush, in a moment of childish panic, shout from the Oval Office, “Harriet, can you come into my office? I need a Supreme Court nominee!”?
He tries to stem the growing unrest about his war in Iraq so he thinks like a typical CEO: “We’ll have a live video conference.” Yeah, those are always productive.
We really can’t know for sure because Cheney didn’t leave any evidence of his rule except for maybe a trail of slime. Maybe when Bush chooses his personal accountant to replace Alan Greenspan, we’ll understand if Bush is in charge or not.
Friday, October 14, 2005
CFP: The Anticapitalist Struggles of Native Peoples in America (November 5th)
AMERICAN@ is a peer reviewed e-journal dedicated to American Cultural and Literary Studies. It hopes to provide an intellectual canvas where the cultural spaces and experiences of American Studies are theorized and rigorously explored within both global and local contingencies of the present and the past. AMERICAN@ is accepting paper submissions for its Fall issue 2005. This issue will have a special focus on The Anticapitalist Struggle of Native Peoples in America.
In an era of hybridization and “mestizaje”, the indigenous component appears today with an unusual strength in the American continent, an alternative, a resistance to imperialistic policies. The effort to recuperate traditions, languages, together with the postcolonial desire of rewriting the history of the colonized peoples has found a good soil in the intellectuals of both the North and the South of the American continent. Translation and multilingualism have become common practices among the indigenous groups of America. Arnold Krupat, among others, discusses this phenomenon in his extensive critical production. A history of displacement and dispossession of the land has given way to revolts such as “the Zapatista insurrection” in Mexico portrayed by Leslie Silko’s Almanac of the Dead, where the indigenous struggle appears represented as a global class struggle in the light of Marxism. Russell Means, however, contests this Marxist approach in Ward Churchill’s Marxism and Native Americans. At the same time, grassroots and environmental activists have started to denounce the health challenging conditions of inferiority under which most indigenous communities, especially women, are forced to work and
live as well as the invisibility of their labor. We welcome papers that address these issues and/or related questions such as:
Bilingualism and translation Authenticity and cooptation
Neocolonization/postcolonial studies
Marxism/capitalism
History revisited Religión/Shamanism
Gender Studies
Individual/Tribal/National Identity and/or Politics
Environmental Issues
Representation of the indigenous anticapitalist struggle in the arts:
literature, film, painting, architecture, etc.
Please submit your original essays of 15 to 25 pages (4.000-7.000 words) and abstract (300-400 words) via e-mail as an attached document (Word format, MLA
style) with the subject “AMERICAN@ Fall 2005” to:
AMERICAN@inv.uhu.es
Deadline for submissions: November 5, 2005
For more information, check our website at AMERICAN@
AMERICAN@ es una revista electrónica dedicada a los estudios literarios y culturales de América. Su propósito es proporcionar un marco intelectual donde los espacios y experiencias culturales los Estudios Americanos sean explorados teórica y rigurosamente dentro de las contingencias tanto globales como locales del presente y del pasado. AMERICAN@ abre el plazo de propuestas para su número de Otoño de 2005, con una propuesta temática en torno a: La lucha anticapitalista de los pueblos indígenas de América
A pesar de encontrarnos en el momento álgido del mestizaje cultural, el componente indígena ha irrumpido con fuerza en el continente americano como alternativa, como resistencia y oposición al poder imperialista establecido. Entre la intelectualidad del momento ha surgido, tanto en Norteamérica como en Sudamérica, un esfuerzo por recuperar tradiciones y lenguas precolombinas a la vez que se ha desarrollado un deseo postcolonial por reescribir la historia de los vencidos, de los sujetos colonizados. Así, tradición y multilingüismo se han convertido en prácticas habituales entre los pueblos indígenas de América.
Arnold Krupat, entre otros, ha tratado este fenómeno en su extensa producción crítica. El sufrimiento causado a los pueblos indígenas por una política que les ha desplazado y desposeído del bien común que es la tierra ha llevado a revueltas como la Zapatista de Chiapas que Leslie Silko adelanta en Almanac of the Dead, novela que presenta la lucha indígena como una lucha global de clases al más puro estilo marxista. Russell Means se opone al uso de un enfoque marxista para analizar las condiciones de los pueblos nativos de América en Marxism and Native Americans de Ward Churchill. Al mismo tiempo, movimientos de base y activistas medioambientales han comenzado a denunciar la discriminación laboral que padecen la mayoría de las comunidades indígenas, especialmente las mujeres, en cuanto a condiciones sanitarias y a la invisibilidad de su trabajo.
Pueden enviar sus ensayos sobre estos temas y/o cuestiones relacionados como:
Bilingüismo y traducción
Neocolonialismo/poscolonialismo Marxismo/ capitalismo Reescrituras de la historia
Religión/Chamanismo
Estudios de género
Identidad y/o política individual/tribal/nacional.
Medio Ambiente Natural
Representaciones artísticas de la lucha anticapitalista indígena: literatura,
cine, pintura, arquitectura, etc.
Remitan sus ensayos originales de entre 15 a 25 páginas (4.000-7.000 palabras) y
resumen (300-400 palabras) via e-mail como documento adjunto (Formato Word format, estilo MLA) con el asunto “AMERICAN@ Otoño 2005” a: AMERICAN@inv.uhu.es
Plazo de propuestas: 5 de Noviembre de 2005
Para más información, consulte nuestra web: AMERICAN@
In an era of hybridization and “mestizaje”, the indigenous component appears today with an unusual strength in the American continent, an alternative, a resistance to imperialistic policies. The effort to recuperate traditions, languages, together with the postcolonial desire of rewriting the history of the colonized peoples has found a good soil in the intellectuals of both the North and the South of the American continent. Translation and multilingualism have become common practices among the indigenous groups of America. Arnold Krupat, among others, discusses this phenomenon in his extensive critical production. A history of displacement and dispossession of the land has given way to revolts such as “the Zapatista insurrection” in Mexico portrayed by Leslie Silko’s Almanac of the Dead, where the indigenous struggle appears represented as a global class struggle in the light of Marxism. Russell Means, however, contests this Marxist approach in Ward Churchill’s Marxism and Native Americans. At the same time, grassroots and environmental activists have started to denounce the health challenging conditions of inferiority under which most indigenous communities, especially women, are forced to work and
live as well as the invisibility of their labor. We welcome papers that address these issues and/or related questions such as:
Bilingualism and translation Authenticity and cooptation
Neocolonization/postcolonial studies
Marxism/capitalism
History revisited Religión/Shamanism
Gender Studies
Individual/Tribal/National Identity and/or Politics
Environmental Issues
Representation of the indigenous anticapitalist struggle in the arts:
literature, film, painting, architecture, etc.
Please submit your original essays of 15 to 25 pages (4.000-7.000 words) and abstract (300-400 words) via e-mail as an attached document (Word format, MLA
style) with the subject “AMERICAN@ Fall 2005” to:
AMERICAN@inv.uhu.es
Deadline for submissions: November 5, 2005
For more information, check our website at AMERICAN@
AMERICAN@ es una revista electrónica dedicada a los estudios literarios y culturales de América. Su propósito es proporcionar un marco intelectual donde los espacios y experiencias culturales los Estudios Americanos sean explorados teórica y rigurosamente dentro de las contingencias tanto globales como locales del presente y del pasado. AMERICAN@ abre el plazo de propuestas para su número de Otoño de 2005, con una propuesta temática en torno a: La lucha anticapitalista de los pueblos indígenas de América
A pesar de encontrarnos en el momento álgido del mestizaje cultural, el componente indígena ha irrumpido con fuerza en el continente americano como alternativa, como resistencia y oposición al poder imperialista establecido. Entre la intelectualidad del momento ha surgido, tanto en Norteamérica como en Sudamérica, un esfuerzo por recuperar tradiciones y lenguas precolombinas a la vez que se ha desarrollado un deseo postcolonial por reescribir la historia de los vencidos, de los sujetos colonizados. Así, tradición y multilingüismo se han convertido en prácticas habituales entre los pueblos indígenas de América.
Arnold Krupat, entre otros, ha tratado este fenómeno en su extensa producción crítica. El sufrimiento causado a los pueblos indígenas por una política que les ha desplazado y desposeído del bien común que es la tierra ha llevado a revueltas como la Zapatista de Chiapas que Leslie Silko adelanta en Almanac of the Dead, novela que presenta la lucha indígena como una lucha global de clases al más puro estilo marxista. Russell Means se opone al uso de un enfoque marxista para analizar las condiciones de los pueblos nativos de América en Marxism and Native Americans de Ward Churchill. Al mismo tiempo, movimientos de base y activistas medioambientales han comenzado a denunciar la discriminación laboral que padecen la mayoría de las comunidades indígenas, especialmente las mujeres, en cuanto a condiciones sanitarias y a la invisibilidad de su trabajo.
Pueden enviar sus ensayos sobre estos temas y/o cuestiones relacionados como:
Bilingüismo y traducción
Neocolonialismo/poscolonialismo Marxismo/ capitalismo Reescrituras de la historia
Religión/Chamanismo
Estudios de género
Identidad y/o política individual/tribal/nacional.
Medio Ambiente Natural
Representaciones artísticas de la lucha anticapitalista indígena: literatura,
cine, pintura, arquitectura, etc.
Remitan sus ensayos originales de entre 15 a 25 páginas (4.000-7.000 palabras) y
resumen (300-400 palabras) via e-mail como documento adjunto (Formato Word format, estilo MLA) con el asunto “AMERICAN@ Otoño 2005” a: AMERICAN@inv.uhu.es
Plazo de propuestas: 5 de Noviembre de 2005
Para más información, consulte nuestra web: AMERICAN@
Blogs of the Day: October 14th
Recommended blogs of the day:
Corporate-Alien Blog
View From Iran
Blogs by Iranians
Global Voices (Courtesy El Oso)
Introduction to Peruvian Blogs
Corporate-Alien Blog
View From Iran
Blogs by Iranians
Global Voices (Courtesy El Oso)
Introduction to Peruvian Blogs
Democracy Now: Independent Media in a Time of War
(This is for my students studying media, but I thought I would include it here just in case there are people who haven't heard of Democracy Now)
An independent news agency that is broadcast on our local national public radio stations and whose video broadcasts are all available on the Internet:
Democracy Now
An example of their programming is their documentary:
Independent Media in a Time of War
An independent news agency that is broadcast on our local national public radio stations and whose video broadcasts are all available on the Internet:
Democracy Now
An example of their programming is their documentary:
Independent Media in a Time of War
The New Issue of Project Censored's Yearly Report on the Top 25 Censored News Stories Has Been Published
An amazing resource--check it out and see what the mainstream media fails to report:
The Top 25 Censored News Stories of the Last Year--see if you can guess what was the number one censored story of the last year.
Project Censored's Archive of the Yearly Top 25 Censored News Stories--relive the failings of mainstream media.
Also check out their extensive resource guides
The Top 25 Censored News Stories of the Last Year--see if you can guess what was the number one censored story of the last year.
Project Censored's Archive of the Yearly Top 25 Censored News Stories--relive the failings of mainstream media.
Also check out their extensive resource guides
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Take the Holiday Pledge: Buy Nothing From Wal-Mart
(Courtesy of Fitz)
This is very easy for me because I quit shopping at Wal-Mart a long time ago, but I encourage everyone else to take the holiday pledge:
To Buy Nothing From Wal-Mart
-----------------------------------------------------
How about another pledge to do something for the poor/hungry in your community, perhaps involve the whole family and make it a new tradition?
This is very easy for me because I quit shopping at Wal-Mart a long time ago, but I encourage everyone else to take the holiday pledge:
To Buy Nothing From Wal-Mart
-----------------------------------------------------
How about another pledge to do something for the poor/hungry in your community, perhaps involve the whole family and make it a new tradition?
Michael Pokocky of Sophistica Threatens Thivai Abhor
This is a copy of an email I just received. It is a response to a comment I made after he invited me to visit his new weblog (removed from his site--it said, "this is new age mysticism, try to write something original"). Michael Pokocky has been spamming blogger emails with ridiculous claims. You can get a sense of his personality from these comments to a post here. This is the original email that invited me to visit Michael Pokocky's Sophistica:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
please take off your critic hat and visit the http://sophisticaworld.silkblogs.com
*it has just released version 1.05 of the manifesto.
* i believe your posted comment on annymoses was unjustified because you did not see the evolution of the manifest; all versions are there for you to puruse.
* fyi www.linkedin.com just launched Sophistica Linkedin Group and this is hard to do on such a site but its done. you'll see the linkedin logo on the site to join the club but attached is the logo that would appear on your profile if you join.
* fyi how can you critisize a painters painting when it's a work in progress? and still call yourself a critic. is that akin to not seeing a broadway play and writing a crtic on it for the nytimes?
* really i think there was a miscommunication here, because everybody else seems to get it including billionaire visionaries who have joined the sophistica group on linkedin.
have a nice day,best,_michael
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the email after he gets enraged at my comment:
From Michael Pokocky of Sophistica:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"you know nothing my friend and you disgrace what it means to be human; i'm not a politician; i'm a fucking artist and this is my work you are criticing like it were an academic paper; i don't capitalize; i write disjointed sentences; however i am farther up the food chain by intellectual spirit of creativity than you'll ever be.
so with that said you call the truce and why not show that you have good intentions by taking the time to understand the work in progress instead of offing a comment; we don't like people who are extremists and if you are one get the hell out of our way;
i'm telling you now that you have a choice; choose wrong and i will report you and i'll have my lawyers go over everything you've ever written and we'll file charges against you. This is not a threat but a warning to cease and desist harassment; there's such a thing as free speach my friend but harassment so that your google rantings at he expense other people's sites will rise because they happen to be the
site of the day you choose to harass, and all we have to prove is a history of intent and that's it strike one for you.
i am a reasonable man so i go on record to tell you to retract what you said; if not and i see it again i will report you my friend. hope you have a good lawyer.
best,_michael
i warmly await your apology sir Thivia Abhor and let's talk and get to know each other; perhaps we'll find we'd turn out to be good friends.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
please take off your critic hat and visit the http://sophisticaworld.silkblogs.com
*it has just released version 1.05 of the manifesto.
* i believe your posted comment on annymoses was unjustified because you did not see the evolution of the manifest; all versions are there for you to puruse.
* fyi www.linkedin.com just launched Sophistica Linkedin Group and this is hard to do on such a site but its done. you'll see the linkedin logo on the site to join the club but attached is the logo that would appear on your profile if you join.
* fyi how can you critisize a painters painting when it's a work in progress? and still call yourself a critic. is that akin to not seeing a broadway play and writing a crtic on it for the nytimes?
* really i think there was a miscommunication here, because everybody else seems to get it including billionaire visionaries who have joined the sophistica group on linkedin.
have a nice day,best,_michael
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the email after he gets enraged at my comment:
From Michael Pokocky of Sophistica:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"you know nothing my friend and you disgrace what it means to be human; i'm not a politician; i'm a fucking artist and this is my work you are criticing like it were an academic paper; i don't capitalize; i write disjointed sentences; however i am farther up the food chain by intellectual spirit of creativity than you'll ever be.
so with that said you call the truce and why not show that you have good intentions by taking the time to understand the work in progress instead of offing a comment; we don't like people who are extremists and if you are one get the hell out of our way;
i'm telling you now that you have a choice; choose wrong and i will report you and i'll have my lawyers go over everything you've ever written and we'll file charges against you. This is not a threat but a warning to cease and desist harassment; there's such a thing as free speach my friend but harassment so that your google rantings at he expense other people's sites will rise because they happen to be the
site of the day you choose to harass, and all we have to prove is a history of intent and that's it strike one for you.
i am a reasonable man so i go on record to tell you to retract what you said; if not and i see it again i will report you my friend. hope you have a good lawyer.
best,_michael
i warmly await your apology sir Thivia Abhor and let's talk and get to know each other; perhaps we'll find we'd turn out to be good friends.
Bush Administration Propaganda is Now So Obvious That Even Yahoo.com Is Deconstructing the Process
Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged
Also, for now, at Yahoo's Bush Administration page
Check out NPR's report:
Take One: President Bush via Satellite
and... drumroll please:
Bush Poll Numbers Sink to Ten Year Low
Makes you wonder who are the 28 percent that "think the country is on the right track" and what would it take for them to become discouraged with the president?
Also, for now, at Yahoo's Bush Administration page
Check out NPR's report:
Take One: President Bush via Satellite
and... drumroll please:
Bush Poll Numbers Sink to Ten Year Low
Makes you wonder who are the 28 percent that "think the country is on the right track" and what would it take for them to become discouraged with the president?
Harold Pinter Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature
(First read about this at Leiter Reports)
"Does reality essentially remain outside language, separate, obdurate, alien, not susceptible to description? Is an accurate and vital correspondence between what is and our perception of it impossible? Or is is that we are obliged to use language only in order to obscure and distort reality - to distort what happens-because we fear it? We are encouraged to be cowards. We can't face the dead. But we must face the dead because they die in our name. We must pay attention to what is being done in our name."
Oh Superman 1990
Harold Pinter
"Does reality essentially remain outside language, separate, obdurate, alien, not susceptible to description? Is an accurate and vital correspondence between what is and our perception of it impossible? Or is is that we are obliged to use language only in order to obscure and distort reality - to distort what happens-because we fear it? We are encouraged to be cowards. We can't face the dead. But we must face the dead because they die in our name. We must pay attention to what is being done in our name."
Oh Superman 1990
Harold Pinter
PBS: Frontline Documentaries
Many more available at the main page for the show.
“The Alternative Fix: Americans are Spending Billions on Alternative Medical Treatments. And Major Hospitals and Medical Schools are Embracing Them. But Do They Work?” Frontline (PBS: 2003)
“Ambush in Mogadishu: The Bloody 1993 Battle That Left 18 Dead, 84 Wounded and Still Haunts the US Military.” Frontline (PBS: 1998)
“Beyond Baghdad: A Journey Across Iraq—From the Kurdish North, Through the Sunni Triangle, Into the Shite South—and a Hard Look at the Prospects for Democracy.” Frontline (PBS: 2004)
“Chasing the Sleeper Cell: They Met Bin Laden and Trained in His Camps. And Their Capture Was Hailed As A Victory in the War on Terror. But Were These Americans Really an Al Qaeda Sleeper Cell Ready to Strike?” Frontline (PBS: October 2003)
“Dangerous Prescription: More Than a Dozen Dangerous Drugs Have Been Pulled Off the Market Since 1997. Why were they approved in the first place? An investigation of America’s drug safety program.” Frontline (PBS: November 2003)
“Diet Wars.” Frontline (PBS: April 2004)
“From China With Love: Did an FBI “Asset”, and Her Affairs with Two Counterintelligence Agents, Compromise U.S. National Security? A Story of Sex, Spyning and National Security.” Frontline (PBS: January, 2004)
“The Jesus Factor: How George W. Bush’s Religious Faith Has Effected His Personal Life and Political Leadership.” Frontline (PBS: 2004)
“The Plea: Nearly 95% of All Cases Resulting in Felony Convictions Never Reach a Jury. They are Settled Through Plea Bargains In Which a Defendant Agrees To Plead Guilty In Exchange For a Reduced Sentence. But What Are the Implications of a System That Relies on Pleas to Expedite Justice?” Frontline (PBS: June, 2004)
“Son of Al-Qaeda: The Inside Story of a Young Canadian Who Grew Up With Bin Laden’s Children and Was Groomed to Be a Terrorist—But Became Instead a CIA Informant.” Frontline (PBS: 2004)
“Tax Me If You Can: Inside the Bogus Tax Shelter Business—The Companies Involved, The Schemes Concocted, and How the Ultimate Victim is the American Taxpayer.” Frontline (PBS: February 20, 2004)
“Truth, War, and Consequences: It’s the Closest Thing to a Quagmire That Americans Have Seen in Thirty Years. Why Did the U.S. Go to War in Iraq? What Went Wrong? And at What Cost?” Frontline (PBS: October 9, 2003)
“The Way the Music Died: A Look at the Troubled Music Industry and Tough New Realities Facing Aspiring Artists.” Frontline (PBS: 2004)
“Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?: An Investigative Biography of the Man at the Center of the Political Crime of the Century.” Frontline (PBS: December, 2003)
“The Alternative Fix: Americans are Spending Billions on Alternative Medical Treatments. And Major Hospitals and Medical Schools are Embracing Them. But Do They Work?” Frontline (PBS: 2003)
“Ambush in Mogadishu: The Bloody 1993 Battle That Left 18 Dead, 84 Wounded and Still Haunts the US Military.” Frontline (PBS: 1998)
“Beyond Baghdad: A Journey Across Iraq—From the Kurdish North, Through the Sunni Triangle, Into the Shite South—and a Hard Look at the Prospects for Democracy.” Frontline (PBS: 2004)
“Chasing the Sleeper Cell: They Met Bin Laden and Trained in His Camps. And Their Capture Was Hailed As A Victory in the War on Terror. But Were These Americans Really an Al Qaeda Sleeper Cell Ready to Strike?” Frontline (PBS: October 2003)
“Dangerous Prescription: More Than a Dozen Dangerous Drugs Have Been Pulled Off the Market Since 1997. Why were they approved in the first place? An investigation of America’s drug safety program.” Frontline (PBS: November 2003)
“Diet Wars.” Frontline (PBS: April 2004)
“From China With Love: Did an FBI “Asset”, and Her Affairs with Two Counterintelligence Agents, Compromise U.S. National Security? A Story of Sex, Spyning and National Security.” Frontline (PBS: January, 2004)
“The Jesus Factor: How George W. Bush’s Religious Faith Has Effected His Personal Life and Political Leadership.” Frontline (PBS: 2004)
“The Plea: Nearly 95% of All Cases Resulting in Felony Convictions Never Reach a Jury. They are Settled Through Plea Bargains In Which a Defendant Agrees To Plead Guilty In Exchange For a Reduced Sentence. But What Are the Implications of a System That Relies on Pleas to Expedite Justice?” Frontline (PBS: June, 2004)
“Son of Al-Qaeda: The Inside Story of a Young Canadian Who Grew Up With Bin Laden’s Children and Was Groomed to Be a Terrorist—But Became Instead a CIA Informant.” Frontline (PBS: 2004)
“Tax Me If You Can: Inside the Bogus Tax Shelter Business—The Companies Involved, The Schemes Concocted, and How the Ultimate Victim is the American Taxpayer.” Frontline (PBS: February 20, 2004)
“Truth, War, and Consequences: It’s the Closest Thing to a Quagmire That Americans Have Seen in Thirty Years. Why Did the U.S. Go to War in Iraq? What Went Wrong? And at What Cost?” Frontline (PBS: October 9, 2003)
“The Way the Music Died: A Look at the Troubled Music Industry and Tough New Realities Facing Aspiring Artists.” Frontline (PBS: 2004)
“Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?: An Investigative Biography of the Man at the Center of the Political Crime of the Century.” Frontline (PBS: December, 2003)
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
We Will Not Be Intimidated: Acts of Police Repression/Violence Against Student Protesters on Three Campuses
(Courtesy of Virginia Blum)
We Will Not Be Intimidated
by Elizabeth Wrigley-Field
Z-Mag
The antiwar movement is back. The quarter-million marching past the White House on September 24 heralded its reemergence, and none too soon. For those of us on campuses, it was particularly gratifying to see evidence of the national student movement that is beginning to cohere -- with "College Not Combat, Relief Not War" contingents organized by the Campus Antiwar Network bringing together 2,000 students at the DC march and hundreds in San Francisco.
This student movement is significant, because it is students who are targeted daily by military recruiters asking us to leave school and become the next round of cannon fodder in a war most of us oppose. And it is the rising opposition to war among young people, and the grassroots counter-recruitment movement that began to take shape on campuses last spring, that has put the Army in its worst recruiting slump since 1979.
And yet events of the last week make it clear that students' right to dissent from the war, and from the recruitment taking place on our campuses, remains in question. At three different colleges in the last week -- Holyoke Community College, George Mason University, and UW-Madison -- students engaging in peaceful counter-recruitment were met with police repression. At Holyoke and George Mason, students
face ongoing charges from the school or the state. The ability of the student movement to grow, and to continue to challenge our schools' role in recruiting for the war, will depend on our defending our own right to dissent.
Holyoke Community College
On Thursday, September 29, 30 Holyoke Community College (HCC) students engaged in a peaceful picket of the Army National Guard recruiting table in the school's cafeteria, organized by the HCC Anti-War Coalition, a chapter of the Campus Antiwar Network.
The police assault began after Peter Mascaro, the head of campus security, snatched a homemade sign reading "Cops are hypocrites" from a student's hands, calling it "inappropriate." Officer Scott Landry then grabbed the student and, joined by three other officers, lifted him off the ground and assaulted him. When other students came to his defense, Landry then grabbed another student, Charles Peterson --who witnesses describe as playing a moderating role throughout the protest -- put him in a headlock, and sprayed mace in his face.
Around 20 state police armed in riot gear and gas masks then arrived in the cafeteria. When one student tried to leave, he found 10 to 15 police officers pointing their guns at him. Only with difficulty were the protesters able to peaceably disperse. (Pictures of this protest are available at Campus Anti-War )
The next day, Charles Peterson was visited at home by two members of the state police, who informed him that he is indefinitely banned from campus, and will be arrested for trespassing if he sets foot on HCC. In violation of the school's own rules, Charles has been denied any due process, and has not even been given the ability to speak to administrators about the charges against him. Since Charles -- in
addition to being a model student at HCC, holding the James Taylor Award for Excellence in Philosophy and serving as the Vice President for Academic Affairs on the Student Senate -- is also employed at the school, this creates a financial hardship for him as well.
The assault on student protesters and the administration's banning of Charles Peterson occurs in the context of an organized and confident right wing on the extremely polarized HCC campus. Officer Scott Landry, who led the assault on the students, is also the advisor to the College Republicans. While the assault was taking place, those College Republicans lined up behind the police to cheer on the
attack. Last year, the same group led a campaign of harassment and sexist intimidation against then-president of the HCC Student Senate, Angela Greany, after she passed a resolution opposing military recruitment on campus. In the climate created by this group, many students who had participated in Thursday's protest decided not to attend their classes on Friday for fear of harassment from right-wing
students.
George Mason University
On the same day as the assault on HCC's protesters -- Thursday, September 29 -- Tariq Khan was assaulted and arrested by police at his school, George Mason University (GMU) in Virginia. Tariq, a Pakistani-American who himself served in the U.S. Air Force, stood near a Marine recruiting table at his school wearing signs that said "Recruiters tell lies. Don't be fooled" and "U.S. out of Iraq, Israel
out of Palestine, U.S. out of North America."
Three right-wing students quickly surrounded Tariq, yelling at him and ripping one of the signs from his shirt. One of them, who claimed to be a veteran of the Iraq war, said he could not wait to return and kill more Iraqis. School administrators then arrived to question Tariq, followed by officer T.L. Reynolds, who threw Tariq on
the ground and put him in a choke-hold.
According to GMU student David Curtis, who witnessed the entire sequence of events, as Tariq's eyes were watering and his face turning red, he struggled to keep saying that he was not being violent and was being attacked for no reason. Officer Reynolds
picked him up from behind, slammed him into a stage (cutting his face), and threw him back on the ground, choking him once again. Two students (including one who had been harassing Tariq) and a non-security campus employee then assisted Reynolds in violently handcuffing Tariq. Police dragged him to a police car and threatened him with pepper spray. Throughout this experience, Tariq Khan repeatedly stated his own non-violence and innocence. (David Curtis's detailed account is available at
Campus Anti-War )
Despite requests for medical treatment and a lawyer, Tariq received neither, and was taken to the Fairfax Adult Detention Center, where he was charged with trespassing (on his own campus), resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. His treatment throughout echoes the racism of the U.S. treatment of Arab prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. As Tariq relayed to me, Officer Reynolds justified handcuffing Tariq by telling him, "I didn't know who you were, and what with 9/11 and everything, there's no telling what you would do." Another officer chimed in, "You people are the most violent people in the world. You're passive aggressive!" Officer Reynolds then warned Tariq to keep his mouth shut and avoid looking at anyone, because if
he so much as looked at an officer wrong, they would "hang you from the ceiling by your feet."
We will not be intimidated
The day before the assaults at HCC and GMU, 25 students at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison were threatened with arrest if they continued to peacefully protest military and CIA recruiters at their school's career fair -- even though no police officer or administrator was able to show them a campus rule they were
violating. It is clear that HCC and GMU are not anomalies. Campus administrators and right-wing forces on campus watched the counter-recruitment movement take off last spring, and they are determined not to allow their schools to become the sites of the new movement against military recruiters.
But no amount of repression can disguise a fundamental shift that has taken place in U.S. politics over the past few months. Cindy Sheehan's stand in Crawford ignited a sense among the antiwar majority that something can be done -- and the callousness of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina helped show why it must be. As hundreds of thousands marched in DC, a Rasmussen Reports survey found that 23% of Americans consider themselves part of the antiwar movement. For the first time in years, it is supporters of the war, not its opponents, who are on the defensive.
Our movement needs to defend students whose academic status, financial security, and physical safety are threatened by campus administrators and police. The HCC and GMU administrations were banking that no one would care what they did to their students. The over 700 phone calls of complaint HCC has already received -- and the statements of support that have poured in, from people ranging from Cindy Sheehan to other students who have faced similar repression -- show how wrong they were. This is the time to stand up for our freedom of dissent -- because we're right to oppose the war, right to oppose recruitment in our schools, and now, most people know it.
Call the HCC, GMU and UW-Madison administrations and let them know what you think:
HCC President William Messner: (413) 552-2222
HCC Campus Police Officer/College Republicans Advisor Scott Landry:(413) 552-2048
GMU President Alan Merton: (703) 993-8700
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley: (608) 262-9946
For more information or updates on the defense campaigns at all three schools, see Campus Anti-War
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field is a student at NYU and a member of the
Campus Antiwar Network who writes frequently on counter-recruitment.
We Will Not Be Intimidated
by Elizabeth Wrigley-Field
Z-Mag
The antiwar movement is back. The quarter-million marching past the White House on September 24 heralded its reemergence, and none too soon. For those of us on campuses, it was particularly gratifying to see evidence of the national student movement that is beginning to cohere -- with "College Not Combat, Relief Not War" contingents organized by the Campus Antiwar Network bringing together 2,000 students at the DC march and hundreds in San Francisco.
This student movement is significant, because it is students who are targeted daily by military recruiters asking us to leave school and become the next round of cannon fodder in a war most of us oppose. And it is the rising opposition to war among young people, and the grassroots counter-recruitment movement that began to take shape on campuses last spring, that has put the Army in its worst recruiting slump since 1979.
And yet events of the last week make it clear that students' right to dissent from the war, and from the recruitment taking place on our campuses, remains in question. At three different colleges in the last week -- Holyoke Community College, George Mason University, and UW-Madison -- students engaging in peaceful counter-recruitment were met with police repression. At Holyoke and George Mason, students
face ongoing charges from the school or the state. The ability of the student movement to grow, and to continue to challenge our schools' role in recruiting for the war, will depend on our defending our own right to dissent.
Holyoke Community College
On Thursday, September 29, 30 Holyoke Community College (HCC) students engaged in a peaceful picket of the Army National Guard recruiting table in the school's cafeteria, organized by the HCC Anti-War Coalition, a chapter of the Campus Antiwar Network.
The police assault began after Peter Mascaro, the head of campus security, snatched a homemade sign reading "Cops are hypocrites" from a student's hands, calling it "inappropriate." Officer Scott Landry then grabbed the student and, joined by three other officers, lifted him off the ground and assaulted him. When other students came to his defense, Landry then grabbed another student, Charles Peterson --who witnesses describe as playing a moderating role throughout the protest -- put him in a headlock, and sprayed mace in his face.
Around 20 state police armed in riot gear and gas masks then arrived in the cafeteria. When one student tried to leave, he found 10 to 15 police officers pointing their guns at him. Only with difficulty were the protesters able to peaceably disperse. (Pictures of this protest are available at Campus Anti-War )
The next day, Charles Peterson was visited at home by two members of the state police, who informed him that he is indefinitely banned from campus, and will be arrested for trespassing if he sets foot on HCC. In violation of the school's own rules, Charles has been denied any due process, and has not even been given the ability to speak to administrators about the charges against him. Since Charles -- in
addition to being a model student at HCC, holding the James Taylor Award for Excellence in Philosophy and serving as the Vice President for Academic Affairs on the Student Senate -- is also employed at the school, this creates a financial hardship for him as well.
The assault on student protesters and the administration's banning of Charles Peterson occurs in the context of an organized and confident right wing on the extremely polarized HCC campus. Officer Scott Landry, who led the assault on the students, is also the advisor to the College Republicans. While the assault was taking place, those College Republicans lined up behind the police to cheer on the
attack. Last year, the same group led a campaign of harassment and sexist intimidation against then-president of the HCC Student Senate, Angela Greany, after she passed a resolution opposing military recruitment on campus. In the climate created by this group, many students who had participated in Thursday's protest decided not to attend their classes on Friday for fear of harassment from right-wing
students.
George Mason University
On the same day as the assault on HCC's protesters -- Thursday, September 29 -- Tariq Khan was assaulted and arrested by police at his school, George Mason University (GMU) in Virginia. Tariq, a Pakistani-American who himself served in the U.S. Air Force, stood near a Marine recruiting table at his school wearing signs that said "Recruiters tell lies. Don't be fooled" and "U.S. out of Iraq, Israel
out of Palestine, U.S. out of North America."
Three right-wing students quickly surrounded Tariq, yelling at him and ripping one of the signs from his shirt. One of them, who claimed to be a veteran of the Iraq war, said he could not wait to return and kill more Iraqis. School administrators then arrived to question Tariq, followed by officer T.L. Reynolds, who threw Tariq on
the ground and put him in a choke-hold.
According to GMU student David Curtis, who witnessed the entire sequence of events, as Tariq's eyes were watering and his face turning red, he struggled to keep saying that he was not being violent and was being attacked for no reason. Officer Reynolds
picked him up from behind, slammed him into a stage (cutting his face), and threw him back on the ground, choking him once again. Two students (including one who had been harassing Tariq) and a non-security campus employee then assisted Reynolds in violently handcuffing Tariq. Police dragged him to a police car and threatened him with pepper spray. Throughout this experience, Tariq Khan repeatedly stated his own non-violence and innocence. (David Curtis's detailed account is available at
Campus Anti-War )
Despite requests for medical treatment and a lawyer, Tariq received neither, and was taken to the Fairfax Adult Detention Center, where he was charged with trespassing (on his own campus), resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. His treatment throughout echoes the racism of the U.S. treatment of Arab prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. As Tariq relayed to me, Officer Reynolds justified handcuffing Tariq by telling him, "I didn't know who you were, and what with 9/11 and everything, there's no telling what you would do." Another officer chimed in, "You people are the most violent people in the world. You're passive aggressive!" Officer Reynolds then warned Tariq to keep his mouth shut and avoid looking at anyone, because if
he so much as looked at an officer wrong, they would "hang you from the ceiling by your feet."
We will not be intimidated
The day before the assaults at HCC and GMU, 25 students at the University of
Wisconsin at Madison were threatened with arrest if they continued to peacefully protest military and CIA recruiters at their school's career fair -- even though no police officer or administrator was able to show them a campus rule they were
violating. It is clear that HCC and GMU are not anomalies. Campus administrators and right-wing forces on campus watched the counter-recruitment movement take off last spring, and they are determined not to allow their schools to become the sites of the new movement against military recruiters.
But no amount of repression can disguise a fundamental shift that has taken place in U.S. politics over the past few months. Cindy Sheehan's stand in Crawford ignited a sense among the antiwar majority that something can be done -- and the callousness of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina helped show why it must be. As hundreds of thousands marched in DC, a Rasmussen Reports survey found that 23% of Americans consider themselves part of the antiwar movement. For the first time in years, it is supporters of the war, not its opponents, who are on the defensive.
Our movement needs to defend students whose academic status, financial security, and physical safety are threatened by campus administrators and police. The HCC and GMU administrations were banking that no one would care what they did to their students. The over 700 phone calls of complaint HCC has already received -- and the statements of support that have poured in, from people ranging from Cindy Sheehan to other students who have faced similar repression -- show how wrong they were. This is the time to stand up for our freedom of dissent -- because we're right to oppose the war, right to oppose recruitment in our schools, and now, most people know it.
Call the HCC, GMU and UW-Madison administrations and let them know what you think:
HCC President William Messner: (413) 552-2222
HCC Campus Police Officer/College Republicans Advisor Scott Landry:(413) 552-2048
GMU President Alan Merton: (703) 993-8700
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley: (608) 262-9946
For more information or updates on the defense campaigns at all three schools, see Campus Anti-War
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field is a student at NYU and a member of the
Campus Antiwar Network who writes frequently on counter-recruitment.
H-NET: A New Adjunct List-Serv
ANNOUNCING H-Adjunct: H-Net Network for Adjunct, part-time and temporary faculty at universities, colleges and community colleges
Member of: H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online
Sponsored by: AHA/OAH Joint Committee on Part-Time and Adjunct Employment
ABOUT H-Adjunct
H-Adjunct is an open, inter-disciplinary forum for issues involving adjunct, part-time and temporary faculty at universities, colleges and community colleges.
Like all H-Net lists, H-Adjunct is moderated to edit out material that, in the editors' opinion, is not germane to the list, involves technical matters (such as subscription management requests), is inflammatory, or violates evolving, yet common, standards of Internet etiquette. H-Net's procedure for resolving disputes over list editorial practices is Article II, Section 2.20 of our bylaws, located at:
Bylaws
H-Adjunct is currently edited by Howard Smead and Amy Kinsell.
Logs and more information can also be located at:
Adjunct
To join H-Adjunct, please send a message from the account where you wish to receive mail, to:
listserv@h-net.msu.edu
(with no signatures or styled text, word wrap off for long lines) and only this text:
sub H-Adjunct firstname lastname, institution
Example: sub H-Adjunct Leslie Jones, Pacific State U
Alternatively, you may go to Subscribe to perform the same function as noted above.
Follow the instructions you receive by return mail. If you have questions or experience difficulties in attempting to subscribe, please send a message to:
help@mail.h-net.msu.edu
H-Net is an international network of scholars in the humanities and social sciences that creates and coordinates electronic networks, using a variety of media, and with a common objective of advancing humanities and social science teaching and research. H-Net was created to provide a positive, supportive, equalitarian environment for the friendly exchange of ideas and scholarly resources, and is hosted by Michigan State University. For more information about H-Net, write to
webstaff@mail.h-net.msu.edu, or point your web browser to:
H-NET
Member of: H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online
Sponsored by: AHA/OAH Joint Committee on Part-Time and Adjunct Employment
ABOUT H-Adjunct
H-Adjunct is an open, inter-disciplinary forum for issues involving adjunct, part-time and temporary faculty at universities, colleges and community colleges.
Like all H-Net lists, H-Adjunct is moderated to edit out material that, in the editors' opinion, is not germane to the list, involves technical matters (such as subscription management requests), is inflammatory, or violates evolving, yet common, standards of Internet etiquette. H-Net's procedure for resolving disputes over list editorial practices is Article II, Section 2.20 of our bylaws, located at:
Bylaws
H-Adjunct is currently edited by Howard Smead and Amy Kinsell.
Logs and more information can also be located at:
Adjunct
To join H-Adjunct, please send a message from the account where you wish to receive mail, to:
listserv@h-net.msu.edu
(with no signatures or styled text, word wrap off for long lines) and only this text:
sub H-Adjunct firstname lastname, institution
Example: sub H-Adjunct Leslie Jones, Pacific State U
Alternatively, you may go to Subscribe to perform the same function as noted above.
Follow the instructions you receive by return mail. If you have questions or experience difficulties in attempting to subscribe, please send a message to:
help@mail.h-net.msu.edu
H-Net is an international network of scholars in the humanities and social sciences that creates and coordinates electronic networks, using a variety of media, and with a common objective of advancing humanities and social science teaching and research. H-Net was created to provide a positive, supportive, equalitarian environment for the friendly exchange of ideas and scholarly resources, and is hosted by Michigan State University. For more information about H-Net, write to
webstaff@mail.h-net.msu.edu, or point your web browser to:
H-NET
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
5 Police Officers Beating Up a Senior Citizen in New Orleans and Threatening Journalists That Film the Incident; Lewis Lapham "On Message"
I don't need to link this, you know what I am talking about.
This is not the isolated acts of rogue cops. This is the attitude of our "security" state to any citizen that is viewed as out of line.
Wake up America!
If you are still confused pick up the latest issue of Harper's Magazine and read Lewis Lapham's editorial "On Message"
Just as I was getting ready to curl up to dream with Kenneth Patchen's Journal of Albion Moonlight, I got a comment from Bill, of Thoughts on the Eve of the Apocalypse, telling me that On Message is now available online.
Thanks Bill and Marxmail
This is not the isolated acts of rogue cops. This is the attitude of our "security" state to any citizen that is viewed as out of line.
Wake up America!
If you are still confused pick up the latest issue of Harper's Magazine and read Lewis Lapham's editorial "On Message"
Just as I was getting ready to curl up to dream with Kenneth Patchen's Journal of Albion Moonlight, I got a comment from Bill, of Thoughts on the Eve of the Apocalypse, telling me that On Message is now available online.
Thanks Bill and Marxmail
Funk 'em If They Can't Take a Joke!
Wow, sitting at home and unwinding... a load of shit flowing from the brain-numbing boob-tube and what should bless my life? a documentary of one of the all-time best bands:
Parliament-Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove
Parliament-Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove
Thomas H. Benton: Productive Procrastination
(Melissa sent this to me as I wasted time before heading up to my office to spend my fall break vacation working on my dissertation.)
Productive Procrastination
By THOMAS H. BENTON
Chronicle of Higher Education
For the last 10 years, everything I've done that was worth doing has been done when I should have been doing something else.
Academics are often asked to admire the kind of writer who, after finishing the last sentence of a 500-page manuscript, takes a sip of coffee, inhales deeply, and begins writing the first sentence of the next book.
"Work! For the night cometh."
The academic life sometimes suggests 17th-century Puritanism. We learn early that we must publish immediately and continually. There is no release from guilt. Sinners all, we are disgracefully underproductive. We meet each other at conferences and are ashamed of the work we have not done. When someone else is blessed by success, it reminds us that we are not among the elect, and may never be.
"My new book came out last month. Seen the poster? How's your book coming along (loser)?"
I used to have a picture of Benjamin Franklin in my office. Franklin was born in poverty and obscurity, but he became the most famous American of his time. He reminded me to rise early, waste no time, work late, and take no pleasure in idle entertainments. Franklin's father -- who warned him that "poets were generally beggars" -- used to recite this proverb:
"Seest thou a man diligent in his calling? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men."
The Protestant work ethic that shapes the academic soul believes in meritocracy. The cream will rise to the top. If you are not a success, as the profession measures it, you have no one to blame but yourself.
But most professors also know the story of James Gatz, better known as the "Great Gatsby" of Fitzgerald's novel. As a boy, he too followed the path blazed by Old Daddy Franklin. Denied the affections of Daisy, his "Golden Girl," Gatsby attained all the accoutrements of wealth, but he remained unable to crack the social boundaries of East Egg. Gatsby was a bounder and bootlegger, but his tragedy is more moving, by far, than the self-satisfied winners of our cultural history:
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. ... And one fine morning --"
It is better, in my view, to leave some goals unattained, and some debts never paid. I've never quite trusted writers who set out to become the motivators of other writers. Slogans come too easily to them. They believe too strongly in autonomy. The drive to not procrastinate, to eliminate all of one's obligations ("neither a borrower nor a lender be"), is to embrace an idea of perfection and freedom that is unreachable.
"You too can touch the face of God, if only you buy my book and listen to my tapes."
Procrastinators, on the other hand, are humble. They live as mendicants instead of hucksters. They recognize life's limitations; instead of presenting themselves as exemplars, they begin every exchange with a plea for forgiveness.
"I'm sorry I'm late. Here is the work I promised. I hope you like it."
If anything, the literary world needs more people whose habitual expression is "mea culpa" rather than "tua culpa."
The romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a procrastinator of the first order. His publishers were always nagging him for overdue manuscripts. Most famously, he was interrupted while writing "Kubla Khan," by someone knocking at his door. He never regained his concentration, and the poem remains an evocative fragment. But it is hard to deny that the unfinished "Kubla Khan" is a more stirring instance of romanticism than, say, the whole of Wordsworth's Prelude, a finished poem that goes on for hundreds of tedious pages.
Melville shows us what can happen to people who always pursue the most daunting task instead of casting about for something easier. The White Whale is a metaphor for the blank page, which writers hunt obsessively with our harpoon-pens. Moby-Dick would have ended differently if Ahab had lost himself in the pursuit of whale oil or the search for The Rachel's missing children. A monomaniacal, Calvinist "isolato" is not necessarily a better model for the writerly life than the louche, remorseful "inspirato" that Coleridge was.
Shakespeare's Hamlet was a great procrastinator. There was always something to be done before getting about the business of killing his father's murderer. But can anyone deny that Hamlet performed an honorable service in dispatching that pedantic spouter of aphorisms, Polonius? Perhaps things would have worked out better for Hamlet and Denmark if he had never got around to killing Claudius, if he had procrastinated until the old poisoner succumbed to cirrhosis.
As Hamlet shows us, procrastination can be highly productive, provided one has plenty of things to do while working toward the most dreaded task.
I, for example, always like to have one writing assignment that I am not doing but actively working toward like a man shoveling his driveway. That method makes me respectably productive, just not on the one project that, for one reason or another, I regard as too daunting to begin.
Aside from procrastinatory writing, I have plenty of ways to avoid undesirable projects. First, I live in on an old farmstead with buildings in need of constant repair. Then there is the landscaping work: lawnmowing, tree pruning, and rototilling.
If the weather is bad, I can always organize my desk or rearrange my books. Or maybe I can just see what's in the fridge, or make a list of what should be in the fridge and go grocery shopping. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, one of my three little daughters will be lurking on the other side of my office door, and will say, "Play with me, Daddy!" Then I can come out, as if I am making a sacrifice, and play with the girls on the living room floor until they are tired and it is too late for me to resume writing.
If none of those options presents itself, I can always log on to the Internet, read some newspaper columns, see if L.L. Bean or Land's End has anything on sale, visit a number of online booksellers, and then search for some of my favorite collectibles on eBay.
If that doesn't satisfy, I'll probably make the rounds of about 30 academic blogs. If I am avoiding something particularly frightening, I might leave an extended comment somewhere and spend the next couple days dealing with the consequences. Sometimes I'll Google my name just to see if anyone is writing about me -- and then I'll appear like a demon whose name it is dangerous to mention.
When I am teaching, I can always spend more time preparing my classes. Sometimes I'll even find ways to schedule more meetings with my students, just to see how they are doing and to talk with them about the course material. Sometimes I'll troll the corridors, looking for colleagues to chat with. If I have exhausted all of those options, I can always make a list of all the things I am going to do tomorrow, this week, and possibly next summer.
For all the useful anxiety that procrastination inevitably provokes, I have never been happy after completing a long-postponed obligation. Relieved, yes. Or, perhaps, empty, deflated, and devoid of purpose. One should never complete a difficult project without having another one available to replace it. Without something onerous to avoid, I become unable to complete the minor obligations that once seemed like an escape from anxiety.
Fortunately, I'm procrastinating right now. It's much easier to write a column than a long-promised scholarly book chapter. I suspect you, dear reader, are procrastinating too.
But, fret not. The best advice I ever heard is that life is what we do when we are avoiding something else. There are already too many books chasing too few readers, and, perhaps, the best thing for most us to do is take some time to play with our kids, talk to our students and colleagues, cultivate our gardens, and live well.
Inevitably, our best books will be the ones we never finish.
Essay Link
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas H. Benton is the pseudonym of an assistant professor of English at a Midwestern liberal-arts college. He writes about academic culture and the tenure track and welcomes reader mail directed to his attention at careers@chronicle.com
Productive Procrastination
By THOMAS H. BENTON
Chronicle of Higher Education
For the last 10 years, everything I've done that was worth doing has been done when I should have been doing something else.
Academics are often asked to admire the kind of writer who, after finishing the last sentence of a 500-page manuscript, takes a sip of coffee, inhales deeply, and begins writing the first sentence of the next book.
"Work! For the night cometh."
The academic life sometimes suggests 17th-century Puritanism. We learn early that we must publish immediately and continually. There is no release from guilt. Sinners all, we are disgracefully underproductive. We meet each other at conferences and are ashamed of the work we have not done. When someone else is blessed by success, it reminds us that we are not among the elect, and may never be.
"My new book came out last month. Seen the poster? How's your book coming along (loser)?"
I used to have a picture of Benjamin Franklin in my office. Franklin was born in poverty and obscurity, but he became the most famous American of his time. He reminded me to rise early, waste no time, work late, and take no pleasure in idle entertainments. Franklin's father -- who warned him that "poets were generally beggars" -- used to recite this proverb:
"Seest thou a man diligent in his calling? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men."
The Protestant work ethic that shapes the academic soul believes in meritocracy. The cream will rise to the top. If you are not a success, as the profession measures it, you have no one to blame but yourself.
But most professors also know the story of James Gatz, better known as the "Great Gatsby" of Fitzgerald's novel. As a boy, he too followed the path blazed by Old Daddy Franklin. Denied the affections of Daisy, his "Golden Girl," Gatsby attained all the accoutrements of wealth, but he remained unable to crack the social boundaries of East Egg. Gatsby was a bounder and bootlegger, but his tragedy is more moving, by far, than the self-satisfied winners of our cultural history:
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. ... And one fine morning --"
It is better, in my view, to leave some goals unattained, and some debts never paid. I've never quite trusted writers who set out to become the motivators of other writers. Slogans come too easily to them. They believe too strongly in autonomy. The drive to not procrastinate, to eliminate all of one's obligations ("neither a borrower nor a lender be"), is to embrace an idea of perfection and freedom that is unreachable.
"You too can touch the face of God, if only you buy my book and listen to my tapes."
Procrastinators, on the other hand, are humble. They live as mendicants instead of hucksters. They recognize life's limitations; instead of presenting themselves as exemplars, they begin every exchange with a plea for forgiveness.
"I'm sorry I'm late. Here is the work I promised. I hope you like it."
If anything, the literary world needs more people whose habitual expression is "mea culpa" rather than "tua culpa."
The romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a procrastinator of the first order. His publishers were always nagging him for overdue manuscripts. Most famously, he was interrupted while writing "Kubla Khan," by someone knocking at his door. He never regained his concentration, and the poem remains an evocative fragment. But it is hard to deny that the unfinished "Kubla Khan" is a more stirring instance of romanticism than, say, the whole of Wordsworth's Prelude, a finished poem that goes on for hundreds of tedious pages.
Melville shows us what can happen to people who always pursue the most daunting task instead of casting about for something easier. The White Whale is a metaphor for the blank page, which writers hunt obsessively with our harpoon-pens. Moby-Dick would have ended differently if Ahab had lost himself in the pursuit of whale oil or the search for The Rachel's missing children. A monomaniacal, Calvinist "isolato" is not necessarily a better model for the writerly life than the louche, remorseful "inspirato" that Coleridge was.
Shakespeare's Hamlet was a great procrastinator. There was always something to be done before getting about the business of killing his father's murderer. But can anyone deny that Hamlet performed an honorable service in dispatching that pedantic spouter of aphorisms, Polonius? Perhaps things would have worked out better for Hamlet and Denmark if he had never got around to killing Claudius, if he had procrastinated until the old poisoner succumbed to cirrhosis.
As Hamlet shows us, procrastination can be highly productive, provided one has plenty of things to do while working toward the most dreaded task.
I, for example, always like to have one writing assignment that I am not doing but actively working toward like a man shoveling his driveway. That method makes me respectably productive, just not on the one project that, for one reason or another, I regard as too daunting to begin.
Aside from procrastinatory writing, I have plenty of ways to avoid undesirable projects. First, I live in on an old farmstead with buildings in need of constant repair. Then there is the landscaping work: lawnmowing, tree pruning, and rototilling.
If the weather is bad, I can always organize my desk or rearrange my books. Or maybe I can just see what's in the fridge, or make a list of what should be in the fridge and go grocery shopping. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, one of my three little daughters will be lurking on the other side of my office door, and will say, "Play with me, Daddy!" Then I can come out, as if I am making a sacrifice, and play with the girls on the living room floor until they are tired and it is too late for me to resume writing.
If none of those options presents itself, I can always log on to the Internet, read some newspaper columns, see if L.L. Bean or Land's End has anything on sale, visit a number of online booksellers, and then search for some of my favorite collectibles on eBay.
If that doesn't satisfy, I'll probably make the rounds of about 30 academic blogs. If I am avoiding something particularly frightening, I might leave an extended comment somewhere and spend the next couple days dealing with the consequences. Sometimes I'll Google my name just to see if anyone is writing about me -- and then I'll appear like a demon whose name it is dangerous to mention.
When I am teaching, I can always spend more time preparing my classes. Sometimes I'll even find ways to schedule more meetings with my students, just to see how they are doing and to talk with them about the course material. Sometimes I'll troll the corridors, looking for colleagues to chat with. If I have exhausted all of those options, I can always make a list of all the things I am going to do tomorrow, this week, and possibly next summer.
For all the useful anxiety that procrastination inevitably provokes, I have never been happy after completing a long-postponed obligation. Relieved, yes. Or, perhaps, empty, deflated, and devoid of purpose. One should never complete a difficult project without having another one available to replace it. Without something onerous to avoid, I become unable to complete the minor obligations that once seemed like an escape from anxiety.
Fortunately, I'm procrastinating right now. It's much easier to write a column than a long-promised scholarly book chapter. I suspect you, dear reader, are procrastinating too.
But, fret not. The best advice I ever heard is that life is what we do when we are avoiding something else. There are already too many books chasing too few readers, and, perhaps, the best thing for most us to do is take some time to play with our kids, talk to our students and colleagues, cultivate our gardens, and live well.
Inevitably, our best books will be the ones we never finish.
Essay Link
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas H. Benton is the pseudonym of an assistant professor of English at a Midwestern liberal-arts college. He writes about academic culture and the tenure track and welcomes reader mail directed to his attention at careers@chronicle.com
Alix Spiegel: Freud's Nephew and the Origins of Public Relations
Freud's Nephew and the Origins of Public Relations
by Alix Spiegel
NPR
Years ago, Americans grabbed toast and coffee for breakfast. Public-relations pioneer Edward Bernays changed that.
Bernays used his Uncle Sigmund Freud's ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast.
He took Freud's complex ideas on people's unconscious, psychological motivations and applied them to the new field of public relations.
Read/Listen to the History
by Alix Spiegel
NPR
Years ago, Americans grabbed toast and coffee for breakfast. Public-relations pioneer Edward Bernays changed that.
Bernays used his Uncle Sigmund Freud's ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast.
He took Freud's complex ideas on people's unconscious, psychological motivations and applied them to the new field of public relations.
Read/Listen to the History
Umberto Eco: On Fascism
The Italian writer, linguist, philosopher and medievalist Umberto Eco
To read about these features of fascism:
Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt
Also:
Understanding Propaganda and the Need for a Strong Public Media
In spite of some fuzziness regarding the difference between various historical forms of fascism, I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism. These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.
To read about these features of fascism:
Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt
Also:
Understanding Propaganda and the Need for a Strong Public Media
Monday, October 10, 2005
Don Hazen: Wal-Mart Can Hide, But It Can't Run
AN ALTERNET EDITORIAL: WAL-MART CAN HIDE, BUT IT CAN'T RUN
by Don Hazen
AlterNet
Robert Greenwald's upcoming documentary about Wal-Mart's predatory practices is part of an unprecedented progressive media campaign.
Wal-Mart has taken advantage of the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to try to distract the public from the myriad controversies that have plagued it recently. The extent of Wal-Mart's sins includes lawsuits about discrimination, union busting, worker anger over backlogs of unpaid overtime, and health care and compensation policies that send many of its employees to welfare and food stamps.
It's true that Wal-Mart stepped up to the plate to help the hundreds of thousands of victims of Katrina; the Walton family has reportedly contributed $25 million to the cause. But with everyone in the immediate family right at the top of Forbes' 500, it's not the biggest stretch to their wallets. In fact, a recent report from the National Center for Responsive Philanthropy faults the family with the largest personal fortune in the world for a "rather low level of philanthropic giving," and judges the purpose of their giving to be "primarily self-interested."
Wal-Mart reportedly spends $4 million a day on public relations to obscure its corporate irresponsibility and position it as an American company that truly cares. But even $4 million a day can't hide the vicious business model of the largest corporation on the planet. With 1.4 million employees (larger than GM, Ford, GE and IBM combined), Wal-Mart's $258 billion in annual revenues make up 2 percent of the U.S. G.D.P.
In spite of its financial largesse, or maybe because of it, Wal-Mart constantly plays the miser. A congressional report in 2004 found that a typical 200-employee Wal-Mart store cost federal taxpayers $420,000 for children's health care, tax credits and deductions for low-income families. That equals about $2,103 per Wal-Mart employee, or an annual welfare bill of $2.5 billion for Wal-Mart's 1.2 million employees in America. What that boils down to is that Americans subsidize Wal-Mart so that its stockholders can continue to reap huge profits.
To Read the Entire Article
by Don Hazen
AlterNet
Robert Greenwald's upcoming documentary about Wal-Mart's predatory practices is part of an unprecedented progressive media campaign.
Wal-Mart has taken advantage of the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to try to distract the public from the myriad controversies that have plagued it recently. The extent of Wal-Mart's sins includes lawsuits about discrimination, union busting, worker anger over backlogs of unpaid overtime, and health care and compensation policies that send many of its employees to welfare and food stamps.
It's true that Wal-Mart stepped up to the plate to help the hundreds of thousands of victims of Katrina; the Walton family has reportedly contributed $25 million to the cause. But with everyone in the immediate family right at the top of Forbes' 500, it's not the biggest stretch to their wallets. In fact, a recent report from the National Center for Responsive Philanthropy faults the family with the largest personal fortune in the world for a "rather low level of philanthropic giving," and judges the purpose of their giving to be "primarily self-interested."
Wal-Mart reportedly spends $4 million a day on public relations to obscure its corporate irresponsibility and position it as an American company that truly cares. But even $4 million a day can't hide the vicious business model of the largest corporation on the planet. With 1.4 million employees (larger than GM, Ford, GE and IBM combined), Wal-Mart's $258 billion in annual revenues make up 2 percent of the U.S. G.D.P.
In spite of its financial largesse, or maybe because of it, Wal-Mart constantly plays the miser. A congressional report in 2004 found that a typical 200-employee Wal-Mart store cost federal taxpayers $420,000 for children's health care, tax credits and deductions for low-income families. That equals about $2,103 per Wal-Mart employee, or an annual welfare bill of $2.5 billion for Wal-Mart's 1.2 million employees in America. What that boils down to is that Americans subsidize Wal-Mart so that its stockholders can continue to reap huge profits.
To Read the Entire Article
Dale Allen Pfeiffer/Elizabeth Anne Pfeiffer: The Power of Delusion
The Power of Delusion
By Dale Allen Pfeiffer and Elizabeth Anne Pfeiffer
From the Wilderness
What is going on with the US population? How could anyone vote for George W. Bush? This guy shouldn't be in the White House, he should be in prison. And now, with the fascists vindicated in the White House and in control of the House and the Senate (and soon the Supreme Court), the future is wide open. We will likely see more war, more death, and the complete pillaging of the US economy and our social system (social security, medicare, school budgets). We could see not only the outlawing of abortion, but the criminal prosecution of any woman who obtains an abortion. We could see the reinforcement of the Patriot Act, the scrapping of the Bill of Rights, and the full establishment of a police state. We could see a nuclear attack, ecological devastation, and the impoverishment of the working class.
...
How can such a large percentage of the US population remain blinded by denial in the face of so much evidence which flatly contradicts their view of reality (and isn't such delusion a feature of psychosis)? When the rest of the world clearly sees and deplores what is happening, how is it that a majority of the US population-which prides itself on freedom of information and informed democracy-has not clue what is really happening? How is this delusion being maintained? Through a few simple techniques.
To Read the Entire Article
By Dale Allen Pfeiffer and Elizabeth Anne Pfeiffer
From the Wilderness
What is going on with the US population? How could anyone vote for George W. Bush? This guy shouldn't be in the White House, he should be in prison. And now, with the fascists vindicated in the White House and in control of the House and the Senate (and soon the Supreme Court), the future is wide open. We will likely see more war, more death, and the complete pillaging of the US economy and our social system (social security, medicare, school budgets). We could see not only the outlawing of abortion, but the criminal prosecution of any woman who obtains an abortion. We could see the reinforcement of the Patriot Act, the scrapping of the Bill of Rights, and the full establishment of a police state. We could see a nuclear attack, ecological devastation, and the impoverishment of the working class.
...
How can such a large percentage of the US population remain blinded by denial in the face of so much evidence which flatly contradicts their view of reality (and isn't such delusion a feature of psychosis)? When the rest of the world clearly sees and deplores what is happening, how is it that a majority of the US population-which prides itself on freedom of information and informed democracy-has not clue what is really happening? How is this delusion being maintained? Through a few simple techniques.
To Read the Entire Article
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Mary McDonald: Weltatem
Some good posts over at Weltatem on the current struggle over the next supreme court justice and the Indiana legislature's recent attempts to keep single women from having children through artifical insemination:
The Tyrannous Strategy of Low Expectations
Senator Deauthorizes My Womb
My Womb as a Trial Balloon
The Tyrannous Strategy of Low Expectations
Senator Deauthorizes My Womb
My Womb as a Trial Balloon
50th Anniversary of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl and Other Poems"
"In 2006, City Lights and poetry lovers ... will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the first publication of 'Howl and Other Poems' by Allen Ginsberg. Beginning in October 2005 and lasting through the fall of 2006, there will be a series of celebrations and commemorative readings." The site includes a history of this poem (first read on October 6, 1955, at the Six Gallery in San Francisco), and a listing of celebrations. From City Lights Books.
50th Aniversary of Howl
50th Aniversary of Howl
Friday, October 07, 2005
Matthew Rothschild: Civics Student... or Enemy of America?
(Courtesy of Susanne)
Civics Student...or Enemy of America?
By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive
AlterNet
Selina Jarvis is the chair of the social studies department at Currituck County High School in North Carolina, and she is not used to having the Secret Service question her or one of her students.
But that's what happened on September 20.
Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class "to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights," she says. One student "had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb's-down sign with his own hand next to the President's picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster."
According to Jarvis, the student, who remains anonymous, was just doing his assignment, illustrating the right to dissent. But over at the Kitty Hawk Wal-Mart, where the student took his film to be developed, this right is evidently suspect.
An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the matter over to the Secret Service. On Tuesday, September 20, the Secret Service came to Currituck High.
"At 1:35, the student came to me and told me that the Secret Service had taken his poster," Jarvis says. "I didn't believe him at first. But they had come into my room when I wasn't there and had taken his poster, which was in a stack with all the others."
She says the student was upset. "He was nervous, he was scared, and his parents were out of town on business," says Jarvis. She, too, had to talk to the Secret Service.
"Halfway through my afternoon class, the assistant principal got me out of class and took me to the office conference room," she says. "Two men from the Secret Service were there. They asked me what I knew about the student. I told them he was a great kid, that he was in the homecoming court, and that he'd never been in any trouble."
Then they got down to his poster.
"They asked me, didn't I think that it was suspicious," she recalls. "I said no, it was a Bill of Rights project!"
At the end of the meeting, they told her the incident "would be interpreted by the U.S. attorney, who would decide whether the student could be indicted," she says.
The student was not indicted, and the Secret Service did not pursue the case further.
"I blame Wal-Mart more than anybody," she says. "I was really disgusted with them. But everyone was using poor judgment, from Wal-Mart up to the Secret Service."
When contacted, an employee in the photo department at the Wal-Mart in Kitty Hawk said, "You have to call either the home office or the authorities to get any information about that."
Jacquie Young, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart at company headquarters, did not provide comment within a 24-hour period.
Sharon Davenport of the Kitty Hawk Police Department said, "We just handed it over" to the Secret Service. "No investigative report was filed." Jonathan Scherry, spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, D.C., said, "We certainly respect artistic freedom, but we also have the responsibility to look into incidents when necessary. In this case, it was brought to our attention from a private citizen, a photo lab employee."
Jarvis uses one word to describe the whole incident: "ridiculous."
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive.
© 2005 Independent Media Institute
Civics Student...or Enemy of America?
By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive
AlterNet
Selina Jarvis is the chair of the social studies department at Currituck County High School in North Carolina, and she is not used to having the Secret Service question her or one of her students.
But that's what happened on September 20.
Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class "to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights," she says. One student "had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb's-down sign with his own hand next to the President's picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster."
According to Jarvis, the student, who remains anonymous, was just doing his assignment, illustrating the right to dissent. But over at the Kitty Hawk Wal-Mart, where the student took his film to be developed, this right is evidently suspect.
An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the matter over to the Secret Service. On Tuesday, September 20, the Secret Service came to Currituck High.
"At 1:35, the student came to me and told me that the Secret Service had taken his poster," Jarvis says. "I didn't believe him at first. But they had come into my room when I wasn't there and had taken his poster, which was in a stack with all the others."
She says the student was upset. "He was nervous, he was scared, and his parents were out of town on business," says Jarvis. She, too, had to talk to the Secret Service.
"Halfway through my afternoon class, the assistant principal got me out of class and took me to the office conference room," she says. "Two men from the Secret Service were there. They asked me what I knew about the student. I told them he was a great kid, that he was in the homecoming court, and that he'd never been in any trouble."
Then they got down to his poster.
"They asked me, didn't I think that it was suspicious," she recalls. "I said no, it was a Bill of Rights project!"
At the end of the meeting, they told her the incident "would be interpreted by the U.S. attorney, who would decide whether the student could be indicted," she says.
The student was not indicted, and the Secret Service did not pursue the case further.
"I blame Wal-Mart more than anybody," she says. "I was really disgusted with them. But everyone was using poor judgment, from Wal-Mart up to the Secret Service."
When contacted, an employee in the photo department at the Wal-Mart in Kitty Hawk said, "You have to call either the home office or the authorities to get any information about that."
Jacquie Young, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart at company headquarters, did not provide comment within a 24-hour period.
Sharon Davenport of the Kitty Hawk Police Department said, "We just handed it over" to the Secret Service. "No investigative report was filed." Jonathan Scherry, spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, D.C., said, "We certainly respect artistic freedom, but we also have the responsibility to look into incidents when necessary. In this case, it was brought to our attention from a private citizen, a photo lab employee."
Jarvis uses one word to describe the whole incident: "ridiculous."
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive.
© 2005 Independent Media Institute
Susan Voyles: Woman Bounced from Southwest Flight for T-Shirt
(Courtesy of Melissa Purdue)
Woman bounced from Southwest flight for T-shirt
By Susan Voyles,
Reno Gazette-Journal
Reno, NV: A Washington state woman intends to press a civil-rights case against Southwest Airlines for booting her off a flight in Reno after fellow passengers complained about a message on her T-shirt.
Lorrie Heasley, of Woodland, Wash., was halfway home on a flight Tuesday that began in Los Angeles, wearing a T-shirt with the pictures of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a phrase similar to the popular film, Meet the Fockers.
Heasley said she wore the T-shirt as a gag. She wanted her parents, who are Democrats, to see it when they picked her up at the airport in Portland, Ore.
"I just thought it was hilarious," said Heasley, 32, a lumber saleswoman.
And she felt she had the right to wear it.
"I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war," she said. "Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane in midflight over a T-shirt. That's not freedom."
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said the T-shirt became an issue after several passengers complained. She said the airline's contract filed with the Federal Aviation Administration contains rules on passenger conduct.
Heasley said no one from Southwest said anything about the shirt when she waited two hours near the gate at Los Angeles International Airport. And neither the pilot, nor other crewmembers, said anything when she boarded the aircraft, Heasley added.
After the plane stopped in Reno at noon Tuesday, she and her husband, Ron, moved to the front of the plane. Passengers began complaining about the T-shirt as they boarded.
After several conversations with flight attendants, Heasley agreed to cover the words by cuddling up with a sweatshirt. When the sweatshirt slipped while she was trying to sleep, she was ordered to wear her T-shirt inside-out or leave. The couple chose to leave.
McInnis said the rules filed with the FAA say the airline will deny boarding to any customer whose conduct is offensive, abusive, disorderly or violent or for clothing that is "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive."
Allen Lichtenstein, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in Nevada, said Heasley's T-shirt is "protected" political speech under the Constitution. The real issue, he said, is that the airline allowed her to wear the shirt onboard and then objected only when people complained.
"That they changed rules in the middle of a flight simply because someone didn't like it and it might be problematic," he said.
FAA spokesman Donn Walker said no federal rules exist on the subject.
"It's up to the airlines who they want to take and by what rules," he said. "The government just doesn't get into the business of what people wear on an aircraft."
"At any point when a passenger has a complaint against another and it becomes an issue that could disrupt the flight, our attendants have the discretion to take the appropriate action," said Phil Gee, spokesman for US Airways.
Heasley said she is in touch with ACLU lawyers in Seattle. She wants Southwest to reimburse the couple for the last leg of their trip and pay for her gasoline, a $68 rental car from Avis and a $70 hotel bill.
Before leaving the plane, she said she was told the airline would reimburse her for the tickets for the last leg of the flight. After they got off the plane, they were told they'd be reimbursed only for the taxes on the tickets. McInnis said customer services officials are looking into the matter.
After fighting over the ticket prices, the couple got a hotel room in Reno, rented a car and got home Wednesday afternoon about 24 hours after they left the plane.
"I have always flown Southwest everywhere I go," Heasley said. "I will never fly with them again. They can disrespect somebody else."
The Reno Gazette-Journal is owned by Gannett, USA TODAY's parent company.
© Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Woman bounced from Southwest flight for T-shirt
By Susan Voyles,
Reno Gazette-Journal
Reno, NV: A Washington state woman intends to press a civil-rights case against Southwest Airlines for booting her off a flight in Reno after fellow passengers complained about a message on her T-shirt.
Lorrie Heasley, of Woodland, Wash., was halfway home on a flight Tuesday that began in Los Angeles, wearing a T-shirt with the pictures of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a phrase similar to the popular film, Meet the Fockers.
Heasley said she wore the T-shirt as a gag. She wanted her parents, who are Democrats, to see it when they picked her up at the airport in Portland, Ore.
"I just thought it was hilarious," said Heasley, 32, a lumber saleswoman.
And she felt she had the right to wear it.
"I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war," she said. "Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane in midflight over a T-shirt. That's not freedom."
Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said the T-shirt became an issue after several passengers complained. She said the airline's contract filed with the Federal Aviation Administration contains rules on passenger conduct.
Heasley said no one from Southwest said anything about the shirt when she waited two hours near the gate at Los Angeles International Airport. And neither the pilot, nor other crewmembers, said anything when she boarded the aircraft, Heasley added.
After the plane stopped in Reno at noon Tuesday, she and her husband, Ron, moved to the front of the plane. Passengers began complaining about the T-shirt as they boarded.
After several conversations with flight attendants, Heasley agreed to cover the words by cuddling up with a sweatshirt. When the sweatshirt slipped while she was trying to sleep, she was ordered to wear her T-shirt inside-out or leave. The couple chose to leave.
McInnis said the rules filed with the FAA say the airline will deny boarding to any customer whose conduct is offensive, abusive, disorderly or violent or for clothing that is "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive."
Allen Lichtenstein, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in Nevada, said Heasley's T-shirt is "protected" political speech under the Constitution. The real issue, he said, is that the airline allowed her to wear the shirt onboard and then objected only when people complained.
"That they changed rules in the middle of a flight simply because someone didn't like it and it might be problematic," he said.
FAA spokesman Donn Walker said no federal rules exist on the subject.
"It's up to the airlines who they want to take and by what rules," he said. "The government just doesn't get into the business of what people wear on an aircraft."
"At any point when a passenger has a complaint against another and it becomes an issue that could disrupt the flight, our attendants have the discretion to take the appropriate action," said Phil Gee, spokesman for US Airways.
Heasley said she is in touch with ACLU lawyers in Seattle. She wants Southwest to reimburse the couple for the last leg of their trip and pay for her gasoline, a $68 rental car from Avis and a $70 hotel bill.
Before leaving the plane, she said she was told the airline would reimburse her for the tickets for the last leg of the flight. After they got off the plane, they were told they'd be reimbursed only for the taxes on the tickets. McInnis said customer services officials are looking into the matter.
After fighting over the ticket prices, the couple got a hotel room in Reno, rented a car and got home Wednesday afternoon about 24 hours after they left the plane.
"I have always flown Southwest everywhere I go," Heasley said. "I will never fly with them again. They can disrespect somebody else."
The Reno Gazette-Journal is owned by Gannett, USA TODAY's parent company.
© Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Al Gore Speech at the We Media Conference in New York
(Courtesy of James Jewell, who also pointed out this priceless quote: "They placed a former male escort in the White House press pool to pose as a reporter - and then called upon him to give the president a hand at crucial moments.")
Text of Gore Speech at Media Conference
by Al Gore
Associated Press, posted at Breitbart
Excerpt:
Our founders knew all about the Roman Forum and the Agora in ancient Athens. They also understood quite well that in America, our public forum would be an ongoing conversation about democracy in which individual citizens would participate not only by speaking directly in the presence of others -- but more commonly by communicating with their fellow citizens over great distances by means of the printed word. Thus they not only protected Freedom of Assembly as a basic right, they made a special point - in the First Amendment - of protecting the freedom of the printing press.
Their world was dominated by the printed word. Just as the proverbial fish doesn't know it lives in water, the United States in its first half century knew nothing but the world of print: the Bible, Thomas Paine's fiery call to revolution, the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution , our laws, the Congressional Record, newspapers and books.
Though they feared that a government might try to censor the printing press - as King George had done - they could not imagine that America's public discourse would ever consist mainly of something other than words in print.
And yet, as we meet here this morning, more than 40 years have passed since the majority of Americans received their news and information from the printed word. Newspapers are hemorrhaging readers and, for the most part, resisting the temptation to inflate their circulation numbers. Reading itself is in sharp decline, not only in our country but in most of the world. The Republic of Letters has been invaded and occupied by television.
Radio, the internet, movies, telephones, and other media all now vie for our attention - but it is television that still completely dominates the flow of information in modern America. In fact, according to an authoritative global study, Americans now watch television an average of four hours and 28 minutes every day -- 90 minutes more than the world average.
When you assume eight hours of work a day, six to eight hours of sleep and a couple of hours to bathe, dress, eat and commute, that is almost three-quarters of all the discretionary time that the average American has. And for younger Americans, the average is even higher.
The internet is a formidable new medium of communication, but it is important to note that it still doesn't hold a candle to television. Indeed, studies show that the majority of Internet users are actually simultaneously watching television while they are online. There is an important reason why television maintains such a hold on its viewers in a way that the internet does not, but I'll get to that in a few minutes.
Television first overtook newsprint to become the dominant source of information in America in 1963. But for the next two decades, the television networks mimicked the nation's leading newspapers by faithfully following the standards of the journalism profession. Indeed, men like Edward R. Murrow led the profession in raising the bar.
But all the while, television's share of the total audience for news and information continued to grow -- and its lead over newsprint continued to expand. And then one day, a smart young political consultant turned to an older elected official and succinctly described a new reality in America's public discourse: "If it's not on television, it doesn't exist."
But some extremely important elements of American Democracy have been pushed to the sidelines . And the most prominent casualty has been the "marketplace of ideas" that was so beloved and so carefully protected by our Founders. It effectively no longer exists.
It is not that we no longer share ideas with one another about public matters; of course we do. But the "Public Forum" in which our Founders searched for general agreement and applied the Rule of Reason has been grossly distorted and "restructured" beyond all recognition.
And here is my point: it is the destruction of that marketplace of ideas that accounts for the "strangeness" that now continually haunts our efforts to reason together about the choices we must make as a nation.
Whether it is called a Public Forum, or a "Public Sphere" , or a marketplace of ideas, the reality of open and free public discussion and debate was considered central to the operation of our democracy in America's earliest decades.
In fact, our first self-expression as a nation - "We the People" - made it clear where the ultimate source of authority lay. It was universally understood that the ultimate check and balance for American government was its accountability to the people. And the public forum was the place where the people held the government accountable. That is why it was so important that the marketplace of ideas operated independent from and beyond the authority of government.
The three most important characteristics of this marketplace of ideas were:
1) It was open to every individual, with no barriers to entry, save the necessity of literacy. This access, it is crucial to add, applied not only to the receipt of information but also to the ability to contribute information directly into the flow of ideas that was available to all; 2) The fate of ideas contributed by individuals depended, for the most part, on an emergent Meritocracy of Ideas. Those judged by the market to be good rose to the top, regardless of the wealth or class of the individual responsible for them; 3) The accepted rules of discourse presumed that the participants were all governed by an unspoken duty to search for general agreement. That is what a "Conversation of Democracy" is all about.
What resulted from this shared democratic enterprise was a startling new development in human history: for the first time, knowledge regularly mediated between wealth and power.
The liberating force of this new American reality was thrilling to all humankind. Thomas Jefferson declared, "I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." It ennobled the individual and unleashed the creativity of the human spirit. It inspired people everywhere to dream of what they could yet become. And it emboldened Americans to bravely explore the farther frontiers of freedom - for African Americans, for women, and eventually, we still dream, for all.
And just as knowledge now mediated between wealth and power, self- government was understood to be the instrument with which the people embodied their reasoned judgments into law. The Rule of Reason under- girded and strengthened the rule of law.
But to an extent seldom appreciated, all of this - including especially the ability of the American people to exercise the reasoned collective judgments presumed in our Founders' design -- depended on the particular characteristics of the marketplace of ideas as it operated during the Age of Print.
Consider the rules by which our present "public forum" now operates, and how different they are from the forum our Founders knew. Instead of the easy and free access individuals had to participate in the national conversation by means of the printed word, the world of television makes it virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation today.
Inexpensive metal printing presses were almost everywhere in America. They were easily accessible and operated by printers eager to typeset essays, pamphlets, books or flyers.
Television stations and networks, by contrast, are almost completely inaccessible to individual citizens and almost always uninterested in ideas contributed by individual citizens.
Ironically, television programming is actually more accessible to more people than any source of information has ever been in all of history. But here is the crucial distinction: it is accessible in only one direction; there is no true interactivity, and certainly no conversation.
The number of cables connecting to homes is limited in each community and usually forms a natural monopoly. The broadcast and satellite spectrum is likewise a scarce and limited resource controlled by a few. The production of programming has been centralized and has usually required a massive capital investment. So for these and other reasons, an ever-smaller number of large corporations control virtually all of the television programming in America.
Soon after television established its dominance over print, young people who realized they were being shut out of the dialogue of democracy came up with a new form of expression in an effort to join the national conversation: the "demonstration." This new form of expression, which began in the 1960s, was essentially a poor quality theatrical production designed to capture the attention of the television cameras long enough to hold up a sign with a few printed words to convey, however plaintively, a message to the American people. Even this outlet is now rarely an avenue for expression on national television.
To Read the Entire Speech
Text of Gore Speech at Media Conference
by Al Gore
Associated Press, posted at Breitbart
Excerpt:
Our founders knew all about the Roman Forum and the Agora in ancient Athens. They also understood quite well that in America, our public forum would be an ongoing conversation about democracy in which individual citizens would participate not only by speaking directly in the presence of others -- but more commonly by communicating with their fellow citizens over great distances by means of the printed word. Thus they not only protected Freedom of Assembly as a basic right, they made a special point - in the First Amendment - of protecting the freedom of the printing press.
Their world was dominated by the printed word. Just as the proverbial fish doesn't know it lives in water, the United States in its first half century knew nothing but the world of print: the Bible, Thomas Paine's fiery call to revolution, the Declaration of Independence, our Constitution , our laws, the Congressional Record, newspapers and books.
Though they feared that a government might try to censor the printing press - as King George had done - they could not imagine that America's public discourse would ever consist mainly of something other than words in print.
And yet, as we meet here this morning, more than 40 years have passed since the majority of Americans received their news and information from the printed word. Newspapers are hemorrhaging readers and, for the most part, resisting the temptation to inflate their circulation numbers. Reading itself is in sharp decline, not only in our country but in most of the world. The Republic of Letters has been invaded and occupied by television.
Radio, the internet, movies, telephones, and other media all now vie for our attention - but it is television that still completely dominates the flow of information in modern America. In fact, according to an authoritative global study, Americans now watch television an average of four hours and 28 minutes every day -- 90 minutes more than the world average.
When you assume eight hours of work a day, six to eight hours of sleep and a couple of hours to bathe, dress, eat and commute, that is almost three-quarters of all the discretionary time that the average American has. And for younger Americans, the average is even higher.
The internet is a formidable new medium of communication, but it is important to note that it still doesn't hold a candle to television. Indeed, studies show that the majority of Internet users are actually simultaneously watching television while they are online. There is an important reason why television maintains such a hold on its viewers in a way that the internet does not, but I'll get to that in a few minutes.
Television first overtook newsprint to become the dominant source of information in America in 1963. But for the next two decades, the television networks mimicked the nation's leading newspapers by faithfully following the standards of the journalism profession. Indeed, men like Edward R. Murrow led the profession in raising the bar.
But all the while, television's share of the total audience for news and information continued to grow -- and its lead over newsprint continued to expand. And then one day, a smart young political consultant turned to an older elected official and succinctly described a new reality in America's public discourse: "If it's not on television, it doesn't exist."
But some extremely important elements of American Democracy have been pushed to the sidelines . And the most prominent casualty has been the "marketplace of ideas" that was so beloved and so carefully protected by our Founders. It effectively no longer exists.
It is not that we no longer share ideas with one another about public matters; of course we do. But the "Public Forum" in which our Founders searched for general agreement and applied the Rule of Reason has been grossly distorted and "restructured" beyond all recognition.
And here is my point: it is the destruction of that marketplace of ideas that accounts for the "strangeness" that now continually haunts our efforts to reason together about the choices we must make as a nation.
Whether it is called a Public Forum, or a "Public Sphere" , or a marketplace of ideas, the reality of open and free public discussion and debate was considered central to the operation of our democracy in America's earliest decades.
In fact, our first self-expression as a nation - "We the People" - made it clear where the ultimate source of authority lay. It was universally understood that the ultimate check and balance for American government was its accountability to the people. And the public forum was the place where the people held the government accountable. That is why it was so important that the marketplace of ideas operated independent from and beyond the authority of government.
The three most important characteristics of this marketplace of ideas were:
1) It was open to every individual, with no barriers to entry, save the necessity of literacy. This access, it is crucial to add, applied not only to the receipt of information but also to the ability to contribute information directly into the flow of ideas that was available to all; 2) The fate of ideas contributed by individuals depended, for the most part, on an emergent Meritocracy of Ideas. Those judged by the market to be good rose to the top, regardless of the wealth or class of the individual responsible for them; 3) The accepted rules of discourse presumed that the participants were all governed by an unspoken duty to search for general agreement. That is what a "Conversation of Democracy" is all about.
What resulted from this shared democratic enterprise was a startling new development in human history: for the first time, knowledge regularly mediated between wealth and power.
The liberating force of this new American reality was thrilling to all humankind. Thomas Jefferson declared, "I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." It ennobled the individual and unleashed the creativity of the human spirit. It inspired people everywhere to dream of what they could yet become. And it emboldened Americans to bravely explore the farther frontiers of freedom - for African Americans, for women, and eventually, we still dream, for all.
And just as knowledge now mediated between wealth and power, self- government was understood to be the instrument with which the people embodied their reasoned judgments into law. The Rule of Reason under- girded and strengthened the rule of law.
But to an extent seldom appreciated, all of this - including especially the ability of the American people to exercise the reasoned collective judgments presumed in our Founders' design -- depended on the particular characteristics of the marketplace of ideas as it operated during the Age of Print.
Consider the rules by which our present "public forum" now operates, and how different they are from the forum our Founders knew. Instead of the easy and free access individuals had to participate in the national conversation by means of the printed word, the world of television makes it virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation today.
Inexpensive metal printing presses were almost everywhere in America. They were easily accessible and operated by printers eager to typeset essays, pamphlets, books or flyers.
Television stations and networks, by contrast, are almost completely inaccessible to individual citizens and almost always uninterested in ideas contributed by individual citizens.
Ironically, television programming is actually more accessible to more people than any source of information has ever been in all of history. But here is the crucial distinction: it is accessible in only one direction; there is no true interactivity, and certainly no conversation.
The number of cables connecting to homes is limited in each community and usually forms a natural monopoly. The broadcast and satellite spectrum is likewise a scarce and limited resource controlled by a few. The production of programming has been centralized and has usually required a massive capital investment. So for these and other reasons, an ever-smaller number of large corporations control virtually all of the television programming in America.
Soon after television established its dominance over print, young people who realized they were being shut out of the dialogue of democracy came up with a new form of expression in an effort to join the national conversation: the "demonstration." This new form of expression, which began in the 1960s, was essentially a poor quality theatrical production designed to capture the attention of the television cameras long enough to hold up a sign with a few printed words to convey, however plaintively, a message to the American people. Even this outlet is now rarely an avenue for expression on national television.
To Read the Entire Speech
Burke: Merriam-Webster Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
burke \BERK\ verb
*1 : to suppress quietly or indirectly
2 : bypass, avoid
Example sentence:
The governor attempted to discreetly burke all inquiries into his alleged misuse of state funds.
Did you know?
When an elderly pensioner died at the Edinburgh boarding house of William Hare in 1827, the proprietor and his friend William Burke decided to sell the body to a local anatomy school. The sale was so lucrative that they decided to make sure they could repeat it. They began luring nameless wanderers (who were not likely to be missed) into the house, getting them drunk, then smothering or strangling them and selling the bodies. The two disposed of at least 15 victims before murdering a local woman whose disappearance led to their arrest. At Burke's execution (by hanging), irate crowds shouted "Burke him!" As a result of the case, the word "burke" became a byword first for death by strangulation and eventually for any cover-up.
burke \BERK\ verb
*1 : to suppress quietly or indirectly
2 : bypass, avoid
Example sentence:
The governor attempted to discreetly burke all inquiries into his alleged misuse of state funds.
Did you know?
When an elderly pensioner died at the Edinburgh boarding house of William Hare in 1827, the proprietor and his friend William Burke decided to sell the body to a local anatomy school. The sale was so lucrative that they decided to make sure they could repeat it. They began luring nameless wanderers (who were not likely to be missed) into the house, getting them drunk, then smothering or strangling them and selling the bodies. The two disposed of at least 15 victims before murdering a local woman whose disappearance led to their arrest. At Burke's execution (by hanging), irate crowds shouted "Burke him!" As a result of the case, the word "burke" became a byword first for death by strangulation and eventually for any cover-up.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Maude Barlow: The Global Water Crisis--Municipal Control of Water vs Control by Global Mega-Corporations
WHAT:
* Maude Barlow * author of "Blue Gold: The Battle to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water"
TOPIC:
** The Global Water Crisis: Local / Municipal Control of Water vs. Control by Global Mega-Corporations **
WHEN:
7:30 p.m. Wednesday October 12
WHERE:
Agricultural Extension Center
1104 Red Mile Place
Lexington
(see directions below)
Free & open to the public.
HELP SPREAD THE WORD DOWNLOAD, PRINT & POST THE EVENT FLYER
DETAILS:
Maude Barlow is Chair of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest citizen advocacy organization. She was the primary speaker at a Water Conference, held in Lexington last April by the University of Kentucky's Appalachian Center. Her 10/12 lecture will relate the Central Kentucky water situation to the Global Water Crisis.
Ernie Yanarella. Professor of Political Science, and Co-Chairman of The Center for Sustainable Cities, University of Kentucky will moderate.
Speaking at a Seattle Teach-In on water, 11/26/99, Maude was introduced as follows:
"Maude Barlow is one of the most inspiring battlers against globalization and corporate control of water on the whole planet. Campaigning against privatization and globalization of the planet's remaining fresh water, she has been on every TV
station in Canada and has given speeches in every Canadian city, and many American and European ones. She's tough, she's brilliant, she's fun ---and she wins."
"Maude is a major public figure in Canada. She is national chair of the 100,000 member Council of Canadians. Many Canadians say she could run successfully for Prime Minister of Canada--if she only would."
Following Maude's lecture, there will be a Question and Answer period for questions and comments.
DIRECTIONS:
Red Mile Place is on the southwest side of Red Mile Road, 3/10 (0.3) of a mile from the Versailles Road, and next to the entrance to The Fayette Seed Company. Colored balloons will be placed there to mark the entrance.
The Extension Center is a low red brick building at the end of Red Mile Place. There is some parking in front, more in the rear.
SPONSORS:
Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice (CKCPJ)
Co-sponsors:
* Communality: Faith Seeking Action
* The Environmental Program, U.K. College of Arts and Sciences
* GreenThumb, a U.K. Environmental Group
* Kentuckians For The Commonwealth - Central Kentucky Chapter
* United Nations Association of the Bluegrass
* Vote 'Yes'
* Maude Barlow * author of "Blue Gold: The Battle to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water"
TOPIC:
** The Global Water Crisis: Local / Municipal Control of Water vs. Control by Global Mega-Corporations **
WHEN:
7:30 p.m. Wednesday October 12
WHERE:
Agricultural Extension Center
1104 Red Mile Place
Lexington
(see directions below)
Free & open to the public.
HELP SPREAD THE WORD DOWNLOAD, PRINT & POST THE EVENT FLYER
DETAILS:
Maude Barlow is Chair of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest citizen advocacy organization. She was the primary speaker at a Water Conference, held in Lexington last April by the University of Kentucky's Appalachian Center. Her 10/12 lecture will relate the Central Kentucky water situation to the Global Water Crisis.
Ernie Yanarella. Professor of Political Science, and Co-Chairman of The Center for Sustainable Cities, University of Kentucky will moderate.
Speaking at a Seattle Teach-In on water, 11/26/99, Maude was introduced as follows:
"Maude Barlow is one of the most inspiring battlers against globalization and corporate control of water on the whole planet. Campaigning against privatization and globalization of the planet's remaining fresh water, she has been on every TV
station in Canada and has given speeches in every Canadian city, and many American and European ones. She's tough, she's brilliant, she's fun ---and she wins."
"Maude is a major public figure in Canada. She is national chair of the 100,000 member Council of Canadians. Many Canadians say she could run successfully for Prime Minister of Canada--if she only would."
Following Maude's lecture, there will be a Question and Answer period for questions and comments.
DIRECTIONS:
Red Mile Place is on the southwest side of Red Mile Road, 3/10 (0.3) of a mile from the Versailles Road, and next to the entrance to The Fayette Seed Company. Colored balloons will be placed there to mark the entrance.
The Extension Center is a low red brick building at the end of Red Mile Place. There is some parking in front, more in the rear.
SPONSORS:
Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice (CKCPJ)
Co-sponsors:
* Communality: Faith Seeking Action
* The Environmental Program, U.K. College of Arts and Sciences
* GreenThumb, a U.K. Environmental Group
* Kentuckians For The Commonwealth - Central Kentucky Chapter
* United Nations Association of the Bluegrass
* Vote 'Yes'
Critical Art Ensemble: When Thought Becomes a Crime
(Reposting of earlier report with updates)
FBI Harassment Continues
What Happened to Steve Kurtz
When Taste Politics Meet Terror: The Critical Art Ensemble on Trial
Critical Art Ensemble: Performative Critics of Corporate Bio-Technology Practices
US Government's Attacks on Performance Group Critical Art Ensemble
When Thought Becomes a Crime
US Government Paranoia in Action: FBI Abducts Artist, Seizes Art
Park, Paula. “Buffalo Case Highlights MTAs: Material transfer agreements can be misunderstood or considered an annoyance, say officials.” The Scientist (August 9, 2004)
Critical Art Ensemble's Online Performative Critiques:
Critical Art Ensemble. “Cult of the New Eve.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
---. “Flesh Machine.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
---. “Gen Terra: Transgenic Solutions for a Greener World.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
---. “Society For Reproductive Anachronisms.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
---. “The Therapeutic State.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
Critical Art Ensemble, Beatriz da Costa and Claire Pentecost. Contestational Biology.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
Critical Art Ensemble, Beatriz da Costa and Shyh-shiun. “Free Range Grain.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
Books by Critical Art Ensemble Available Online:
Critical Art Ensemble. Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media. (Autonomedia, 2001)
---. Electronic Civil Disobedience & Other Unpopular Ideas. (Autonomedia, 1996)
---. The Electronic Disturbance (Autonomedia, 2000)
---. Flesh Machine: Cyborgs, Designer Babies and New Eugenic Consciousness. (Autonomedia, 1998)
---. Molecular Invasion. (Autonomedia, 2002)
Action Site Set Up to Help Defend Critical Art Ensemble
Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund
FBI Harassment Continues
What Happened to Steve Kurtz
When Taste Politics Meet Terror: The Critical Art Ensemble on Trial
Critical Art Ensemble: Performative Critics of Corporate Bio-Technology Practices
US Government's Attacks on Performance Group Critical Art Ensemble
When Thought Becomes a Crime
US Government Paranoia in Action: FBI Abducts Artist, Seizes Art
Park, Paula. “Buffalo Case Highlights MTAs: Material transfer agreements can be misunderstood or considered an annoyance, say officials.” The Scientist (August 9, 2004)
Critical Art Ensemble's Online Performative Critiques:
Critical Art Ensemble. “Cult of the New Eve.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
---. “Flesh Machine.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
---. “Gen Terra: Transgenic Solutions for a Greener World.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
---. “Society For Reproductive Anachronisms.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
---. “The Therapeutic State.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
Critical Art Ensemble, Beatriz da Costa and Claire Pentecost. Contestational Biology.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
Critical Art Ensemble, Beatriz da Costa and Shyh-shiun. “Free Range Grain.” (2004: Online Visual and Textual Project)
Books by Critical Art Ensemble Available Online:
Critical Art Ensemble. Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media. (Autonomedia, 2001)
---. Electronic Civil Disobedience & Other Unpopular Ideas. (Autonomedia, 1996)
---. The Electronic Disturbance (Autonomedia, 2000)
---. Flesh Machine: Cyborgs, Designer Babies and New Eugenic Consciousness. (Autonomedia, 1998)
---. Molecular Invasion. (Autonomedia, 2002)
Action Site Set Up to Help Defend Critical Art Ensemble
Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
New Proposed Law in Indiana to Bar Unmarried Women From Having Artifically Inseminated Children
This would make a crime! You know just when you think it can't get any worse...
(Courtesy of Melissa Purdue and the Democratic Underground)
We just got a heads up about an upcoming article in NUVO.
A draft of the legislation which, among other things, bars unmarried
people from having children by articifial means is here
Here's a draft of the story that is running this week. It will be my cover story in two weeks also. Feel free to pass this info along to every one you know. This has to be stopped!!!
Keep fighting the good fight!
Laura
The Crime of "Unauthorized Reproduction": New law will require marriage as a legal condition of motherhood
By Laura McPhee
Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation that will make marriage a requirement for motherhood in the state of Indiana, including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."
According to a draft of the recommended change in state law, every woman in Indiana seeking to become a mother throu gh assisted reproduction therapy such as in vitro fertilization, sperm donation, and egg donation, must first file for a "petition for parentage" in their local county probate court.
Only women who are married will be considered for the "gestational certificate" that must be presented to any doctor who facilitates the pregnancy. Further, the "gestational certificate" will only be given to married couples that successfully complete the same screening process currently required by law of adoptive parents.
As it the draft of the new law reads now, an intended parent "who knowingly or willingly participates in an artificial reproduction procedure" without court approval, "commits unauthorized reproduction, a Class B misdemeanor." The criminal charges will be the same for physicians who commit "unauthorized practice of
artificial reproduction."
The change in Indiana law to require marriage as a condition for motherhood and criminalizing "unauthorized reproduction" was introduced at a summer meeting of the Indiana General Assembly's Health Finance Commission on September 29 and a final version of the bill will come up for a vote at the next meeting at the end of this
month.
Republican Senator Patricia Miller is both the Health Finance Commission Chair and the sponsor of the bill. She believes the new law will protect children in the state of Indiana and make parenting laws more explicit.
According to Sen. Miller, the laws prohibiting surrogacy in the state of Indiana are currently too vague and unenforceable, and that is the purpose of the new legislation.
"But it's not just surrogacy," Miller told NUVO. " The law is vague on all types of extraordinary types of infertility treatment, and we wanted to address that as well."
"Ordinary treatment would be the mother's egg and the father's sperm. But now there are a lot of extraordinary things that raise issues of who has legal rights as parents," she explained when asked what she considers "extraordinary" infertility treatment.
Sen. Miller believes the requirement of marriage for parenting is for the benefit of the children that result from infertility treatments.
"We did want to address the issue of whether or not the law should allow single people to be parents. Studies have shown that a child raised by both parents – a mother and a father – do better. So, we do want to have laws that protect the children," she explained.
When asked specifically if she believes marriage should be a requirement for motherhood, and if that is part of the bill's intention, Sen. Miller responded, "Yes. Yes, I do."
A draft of the legislation is available HERE
The next meeting of the Health Finance Commission will be held at the Statehouse on October 20, 2005 at 10 am in Senate Chambers and is open to the public.
To Read More Commentary and To Contact Boneheaded Homophobic Legislators Supporting This Legislation
(Courtesy of Melissa Purdue and the Democratic Underground)
We just got a heads up about an upcoming article in NUVO.
A draft of the legislation which, among other things, bars unmarried
people from having children by articifial means is here
Here's a draft of the story that is running this week. It will be my cover story in two weeks also. Feel free to pass this info along to every one you know. This has to be stopped!!!
Keep fighting the good fight!
Laura
The Crime of "Unauthorized Reproduction": New law will require marriage as a legal condition of motherhood
By Laura McPhee
Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation that will make marriage a requirement for motherhood in the state of Indiana, including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."
According to a draft of the recommended change in state law, every woman in Indiana seeking to become a mother throu gh assisted reproduction therapy such as in vitro fertilization, sperm donation, and egg donation, must first file for a "petition for parentage" in their local county probate court.
Only women who are married will be considered for the "gestational certificate" that must be presented to any doctor who facilitates the pregnancy. Further, the "gestational certificate" will only be given to married couples that successfully complete the same screening process currently required by law of adoptive parents.
As it the draft of the new law reads now, an intended parent "who knowingly or willingly participates in an artificial reproduction procedure" without court approval, "commits unauthorized reproduction, a Class B misdemeanor." The criminal charges will be the same for physicians who commit "unauthorized practice of
artificial reproduction."
The change in Indiana law to require marriage as a condition for motherhood and criminalizing "unauthorized reproduction" was introduced at a summer meeting of the Indiana General Assembly's Health Finance Commission on September 29 and a final version of the bill will come up for a vote at the next meeting at the end of this
month.
Republican Senator Patricia Miller is both the Health Finance Commission Chair and the sponsor of the bill. She believes the new law will protect children in the state of Indiana and make parenting laws more explicit.
According to Sen. Miller, the laws prohibiting surrogacy in the state of Indiana are currently too vague and unenforceable, and that is the purpose of the new legislation.
"But it's not just surrogacy," Miller told NUVO. " The law is vague on all types of extraordinary types of infertility treatment, and we wanted to address that as well."
"Ordinary treatment would be the mother's egg and the father's sperm. But now there are a lot of extraordinary things that raise issues of who has legal rights as parents," she explained when asked what she considers "extraordinary" infertility treatment.
Sen. Miller believes the requirement of marriage for parenting is for the benefit of the children that result from infertility treatments.
"We did want to address the issue of whether or not the law should allow single people to be parents. Studies have shown that a child raised by both parents – a mother and a father – do better. So, we do want to have laws that protect the children," she explained.
When asked specifically if she believes marriage should be a requirement for motherhood, and if that is part of the bill's intention, Sen. Miller responded, "Yes. Yes, I do."
A draft of the legislation is available HERE
The next meeting of the Health Finance Commission will be held at the Statehouse on October 20, 2005 at 10 am in Senate Chambers and is open to the public.
To Read More Commentary and To Contact Boneheaded Homophobic Legislators Supporting This Legislation
Stop White House Propaganda Funded by Taxpayers
(Courtesy of Dale Fitzgibbons)
A recent GAO report found the White House used taxpayer funds to create "covert propaganda." This administration has set aside a quarter billion in taxpayer dollars to push its political agenda.
Join me in urging Congress and the Justice Department to find out what's being done in our name and with our money. Demand full prosecution of all White House propaganda crimes
A recent GAO report found the White House used taxpayer funds to create "covert propaganda." This administration has set aside a quarter billion in taxpayer dollars to push its political agenda.
Join me in urging Congress and the Justice Department to find out what's being done in our name and with our money. Demand full prosecution of all White House propaganda crimes
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Garrett Scott and Ian Olds: Occupation Dreamland; Free Speech TV: Fallujah
Occupation: Dreamland is an unflinchingly candid portrait of a squad of American soldiers deployed in the doomed Iraqi city of Falluja during the winter of 2004. A tense and grimly humorous study of the soldiers unfolds as they patrol an environment of low-intensity conflict creeping steadily towards catastrophe. Through the squad's activities Occupation: Dreamland provides a vital glimpse into the last days of Falluja. The film documents the city's waning stability before a final series of military assaults began in the spring of 2004 that effectively destroyed it.
Occupation: Dreamland chronicles the escalating tension between its two main characters: the squad and the city. Beholden as they are to differing languages and worldviews the two antagonists collide repeatedly. A distinct sense of unease grows as the chain of misunderstanding and distrust tightens. Daylight patrols on bustling downtown streets turn from casual conversation to brief, confusing firefights while nighttime raids reveal a local populace caught in the middle. The narrative follows a downward spiral of civil destabilization and personal frustration, borne by individuals trapped on both sides.
Filmmakers Garrett Scott and Ian Olds were given access to all operations of the Army's 82nd Airborne. They lived with the unit 24/7, giving voice to soldiers held under a strict code of authority as they cope with an ambiguous, often lethal environment. The result is a revealing, sometimes surprising look at Army life, operations and the complexity of American war in the 21st century.
Watch Trailers
Also:
Fallujah: Documents the American Destruction of the City of Fallujah
Occupation: Dreamland chronicles the escalating tension between its two main characters: the squad and the city. Beholden as they are to differing languages and worldviews the two antagonists collide repeatedly. A distinct sense of unease grows as the chain of misunderstanding and distrust tightens. Daylight patrols on bustling downtown streets turn from casual conversation to brief, confusing firefights while nighttime raids reveal a local populace caught in the middle. The narrative follows a downward spiral of civil destabilization and personal frustration, borne by individuals trapped on both sides.
Filmmakers Garrett Scott and Ian Olds were given access to all operations of the Army's 82nd Airborne. They lived with the unit 24/7, giving voice to soldiers held under a strict code of authority as they cope with an ambiguous, often lethal environment. The result is a revealing, sometimes surprising look at Army life, operations and the complexity of American war in the 21st century.
Watch Trailers
Also:
Fallujah: Documents the American Destruction of the City of Fallujah
Julia Lesage: Abu Ghraib and Images of Abuse and Torture
A large link-archive of reporting, archives, analysis, etc...:
Abu Ghraib and Images of Abuse and Torture
Abu Ghraib and Images of Abuse and Torture
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Camille Paglia: The Magic of Images
From Arion: A Journal of the Humanities and the Classics:
“Young people today are flooded with disconnected images but lack a sympathetic instrument to analyze them as well as a historical frame of reference in which to situate them. I am reminded of an unnerving scene in Stanley Kubrick’s epic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, where an astronaut, his air hose cut by the master computer gone amok, spins helplessly off into space. The new generation, raised on tv and the personal computer but deprived of a solid primary education, has become unmoored from the mother ship of culture. Technology, like Kubrick’s rogue computer, HAL, is the companionable servant turned ruthless master. The ironically self-referential or overtly politicized and jargon-ridden paradigms of higher education, far from helping the young to cope or develop, have worsened their vertigo and free fall. Today’s students require not subversion of rationalist assumptions . . . but the most basic introduction to structure and chronology. Without that, they are riding the tail of a comet in a media starscape of explosive but evanescent images.”
Camille Paglia: The Magic of Images--Word and Picture in a Media Age
“Young people today are flooded with disconnected images but lack a sympathetic instrument to analyze them as well as a historical frame of reference in which to situate them. I am reminded of an unnerving scene in Stanley Kubrick’s epic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, where an astronaut, his air hose cut by the master computer gone amok, spins helplessly off into space. The new generation, raised on tv and the personal computer but deprived of a solid primary education, has become unmoored from the mother ship of culture. Technology, like Kubrick’s rogue computer, HAL, is the companionable servant turned ruthless master. The ironically self-referential or overtly politicized and jargon-ridden paradigms of higher education, far from helping the young to cope or develop, have worsened their vertigo and free fall. Today’s students require not subversion of rationalist assumptions . . . but the most basic introduction to structure and chronology. Without that, they are riding the tail of a comet in a media starscape of explosive but evanescent images.”
Camille Paglia: The Magic of Images--Word and Picture in a Media Age
Thinking About the Media, 4
Reclaim the Media
Public Knowledge
Center For Digital Democracy
Tactical Media
Bruce Girard and Seán Ó Siochrú: Communication in the Information Society
Manuell Castells: Information Technology, Globalization and Social Development
Robert W. McChesney and Dan Schiller: The Political Economy of International Communications--Foundations for the Emerging Global Debate about Media Ownership and Regulation
Cynthia Hewitt de Alcántara: The Development Divide in a Digital Age
Social Development and the "Information Revolution"
Civil Society Organizations and Service Provision
Richard Barbrook: Fractal Dreams--New Media in Social Context
UNRISD: UNited Nations Research Institute for Social Development
Becoming Noam Chomsky
Public Knowledge
Center For Digital Democracy
Tactical Media
Bruce Girard and Seán Ó Siochrú: Communication in the Information Society
Manuell Castells: Information Technology, Globalization and Social Development
Robert W. McChesney and Dan Schiller: The Political Economy of International Communications--Foundations for the Emerging Global Debate about Media Ownership and Regulation
Cynthia Hewitt de Alcántara: The Development Divide in a Digital Age
Social Development and the "Information Revolution"
Civil Society Organizations and Service Provision
Richard Barbrook: Fractal Dreams--New Media in Social Context
UNRISD: UNited Nations Research Institute for Social Development
Becoming Noam Chomsky
Robert Albro: Making Cultural Policy and Confounding Cultural Diversity
Making Cultural Policy and Confounding Cultural Diversity
Robert Albro
Cultural Commons
"Managing Cultural Diversity is one of the central challenges of our time."
– United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report (2004)
...
UNESCO has repeatedly emphasized that diversity is endangered by the ways globalization can encourage homogenization, that is, the specter of a global monoculture where we are all left to choose from the same cultural menu. Having concluded that diversity is subject to scarcity, UNESCO now seeks to manage diversity. The ICH and draft diversity conventions would also complement each other in how to handle diversity – the potentially nonrenewable resource. Understanding heritage as a source of diversity, both conventions task states with drawing up "inventories" of cultural "content" to safeguard by itemizing it, counting it, and listing it. In practice diversity becomes a kind of cultural inventory, which can be added to because cultural "content" is potentially extractable from any context, to be copied, appropriated, traded, or recirculated. Diversity turns into a question of access to the cultural public domain.
This brings us back to the contentious issue of "cultural goods and services" in the diversity debate. I have briefly considered different meanings of "diversity," pointing to transformations of meaning as the diversity concept is restlessly moved from context to context. One upshot is that we see how there is no stable subject or referent for diversity in the policy mode, that is, no "who" or "what." Indeed, as one presenter observed during a January meeting on the draft convention at the Smithsonian, "We don’t really have a policy language for the value of cultural diversity." But decontextualizing diversity could have sobering consequences for understandings of diversity contingent upon a particular context (e. g. territory) for the political recognition of cultural difference in pluricultural societies.
An obvious consequence is that the diversity concept has been harmonized with the market interests of nation-states, implicitly marginalizing the diversity of voices who might advance claims turning on the recognition of cultural differences within or between states, or outside of the cultural marketplace altogether. I have suggested that different UN initiatives coincide in the purpose of reinscribing diversity within a UN legislative and regulatory context. This context of intergovernmental cultural policy aligns diversity with national cultures, with the individual freedom to choose, and with state managed inventories of items understood as resources, which circulate in acts of exchange.
As understood with regard to debates over national cultural industries, diversity quickly comes to refer to a desirable variability or quantity of cultural products. Here the subject of diversity is the "individual consumer," a circumstance promoted by the ways "individual freedoms" are folded together with the "free flow of ideas," in a framework of "cultural liberty." Once cultural expression is taken to be an itemized or an extractable array of resources aligned with choice, it becomes almost natural to conceive of diversity as measured in terms of the greatest range of consumer choice within an ever expanding cultural marketplace.
To Read the Entire Essay
Robert Albro
Cultural Commons
"Managing Cultural Diversity is one of the central challenges of our time."
– United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report (2004)
...
UNESCO has repeatedly emphasized that diversity is endangered by the ways globalization can encourage homogenization, that is, the specter of a global monoculture where we are all left to choose from the same cultural menu. Having concluded that diversity is subject to scarcity, UNESCO now seeks to manage diversity. The ICH and draft diversity conventions would also complement each other in how to handle diversity – the potentially nonrenewable resource. Understanding heritage as a source of diversity, both conventions task states with drawing up "inventories" of cultural "content" to safeguard by itemizing it, counting it, and listing it. In practice diversity becomes a kind of cultural inventory, which can be added to because cultural "content" is potentially extractable from any context, to be copied, appropriated, traded, or recirculated. Diversity turns into a question of access to the cultural public domain.
This brings us back to the contentious issue of "cultural goods and services" in the diversity debate. I have briefly considered different meanings of "diversity," pointing to transformations of meaning as the diversity concept is restlessly moved from context to context. One upshot is that we see how there is no stable subject or referent for diversity in the policy mode, that is, no "who" or "what." Indeed, as one presenter observed during a January meeting on the draft convention at the Smithsonian, "We don’t really have a policy language for the value of cultural diversity." But decontextualizing diversity could have sobering consequences for understandings of diversity contingent upon a particular context (e. g. territory) for the political recognition of cultural difference in pluricultural societies.
An obvious consequence is that the diversity concept has been harmonized with the market interests of nation-states, implicitly marginalizing the diversity of voices who might advance claims turning on the recognition of cultural differences within or between states, or outside of the cultural marketplace altogether. I have suggested that different UN initiatives coincide in the purpose of reinscribing diversity within a UN legislative and regulatory context. This context of intergovernmental cultural policy aligns diversity with national cultures, with the individual freedom to choose, and with state managed inventories of items understood as resources, which circulate in acts of exchange.
As understood with regard to debates over national cultural industries, diversity quickly comes to refer to a desirable variability or quantity of cultural products. Here the subject of diversity is the "individual consumer," a circumstance promoted by the ways "individual freedoms" are folded together with the "free flow of ideas," in a framework of "cultural liberty." Once cultural expression is taken to be an itemized or an extractable array of resources aligned with choice, it becomes almost natural to conceive of diversity as measured in terms of the greatest range of consumer choice within an ever expanding cultural marketplace.
To Read the Entire Essay
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