Sexual Math: A Small Number of Partners Does Not Add Up to Happiness
By Rachel Kramer Bussel
Huffington Post and AlterNet
I'm not going to tell you exactly how many people I've slept with, partly because I don't know, partly because I stopped caring long ago, and partly because it's none of your business. But I will tell you it's more than French First Lady Carla Bruni's reported number: 15. Way more. I share that information to make the point that how and why we choose our sexual partners differs for everyone; there's no single perfect number that will make you: a) happy and b) not a slut.
But to read Virginia Ironside's recent tirade against Bruni's perceived promiscuity is to think you've landed back a few centuries. Any hint that we might have come a long way, baby, that there was ever such a thing as feminism, let alone the misguidedly labeled "do-me" feminism, is forgotten as Ironside leaves us with such gems as more than fifteen lovers means you're "starting to demean sex itself" and "it's no longer something special that you do only with the chosen few."
Ironside has a lot to learn about sex. I believe that sexual decision-making should be left up to the individual, based on their own desires and values, not some random standard based on what other people think. If your goal is to not be labeled a slut, and you're a woman, well, good luck. Have even one partner, wear a skirt too short, make out on a street corner and be ogled by a particularly nosy, nasty neighbor, and you're a slut, plain and simple. Reputation has little to do with actual sex acts and everything to do with perception.
Further, Ironside assumes that the only reason a woman would sleep with many lovers is for "experience," presumably meaning some kind of sex acts she hasn't done before. "It's unlikely Carla will ever be thinking: 'What might have been.' She's been there, done that and got the nightdress. But what would be the point of Carla -- or anyone else -- accumulating more lovers?" This viewpoint is what truly dehumanizes sex, turning it simply into a robotic, mechanical movement of bodies rather than a complex set of impulses, attractions and acts driven by all sorts of motives.
Your number of partners and how "special" the sex is are not necessarily related. To me, sex is special when it takes me somewhere I can't go alone (and I don't just mean orgasm). When I'm with my boyfriend, I'm certainly not thinking about my past bedmates, and I highly doubt he is either. If you're doing it right, you're fully in the moment, swept away, as it were. Sex is as special as we want to make it, and for some people, that means exclusivity, for others, casual sex, and for many, some amalgam of the two.
Ironside, like many casual sex detractors, needs to place sex within marriage or committed relationships above more temporary affairs in order to bolster her sense of her own morality. I might go that far -- 12, 13, 14 or, well, okay, 15 lovers -- but 16, and no man will ever want to touch you again!
During the fifteen years I've been sexually active (with some pretty long dry spells in between), I've been in monogamous relationships, been single, had one-night stands, threesomes, and hookups. I've slept with people I loved, and people who I'd just met. Some trysts were amazing, some were forgettable. But isn't that the same with everything we do?
I can tell you that one of the best lovers I've ever had was during a one-night stand. I was hopelessly besotted with someone else, so much so that I thought about him all the time, thrilled when he said hello to me, and was so locked inside my fantasy life I couldn't see my way beyond it. This other man sweetly propositioned me, and I turned him down, explaining my crush. "Maybe I can help you get over him," he suggested. And that's exactly what he did. We had a torrid night in his apartment, and he drove me home the next morning and shared some of his own heartbroken moments. It was hot, but also sweet.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Sci Fi Dimensions: Lisa Yaszek
Sci Fi Dimensions Podcast #3
Interview with Lisa Yaszek, author of Galactic Suburbia, a nonfiction book that explores the influence of female science fiction writers in the three decades following World War II. Yaszek is an associate professor School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech. She is also the curator of the Bud Foote Science Fiction Collection, one of the largest collections of SF literature in the world.
To Listen to the Interview
Interview with Lisa Yaszek, author of Galactic Suburbia, a nonfiction book that explores the influence of female science fiction writers in the three decades following World War II. Yaszek is an associate professor School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech. She is also the curator of the Bud Foote Science Fiction Collection, one of the largest collections of SF literature in the world.
To Listen to the Interview
Monday, August 11, 2008
Studio 360: Kimberly Pierce on Stop-Loss
Studio 360
Host: Kurt Anderson
No Surge at the Box Office
Why aren't audiences drawn to movies about the war in Iraq? Kurt surveys the landscape and talks with the latest director to brave the war movie marketplace -- Kimberly Peirce. Peirce's new fiction film about Iraq,"Stop Loss," was inspired by her brother, who came back from a tour in the Army and showed her the raw real-life videos combat soldiers were making. Produced by Eric Molinsky.
Kimberly Peirce
Kurt's conversation with director Kimberly Peirce continues. She sees a connection between "Stop-Loss" and her first feature, "Boys Don’t Cry:" “I think it was interesting seeing how a woman constructed herself as a man and how these young men also struggled to figure out what being a good man was.”
Listen to the Episode
Host: Kurt Anderson
No Surge at the Box Office
Why aren't audiences drawn to movies about the war in Iraq? Kurt surveys the landscape and talks with the latest director to brave the war movie marketplace -- Kimberly Peirce. Peirce's new fiction film about Iraq,"Stop Loss," was inspired by her brother, who came back from a tour in the Army and showed her the raw real-life videos combat soldiers were making. Produced by Eric Molinsky.
Kimberly Peirce
Kurt's conversation with director Kimberly Peirce continues. She sees a connection between "Stop-Loss" and her first feature, "Boys Don’t Cry:" “I think it was interesting seeing how a woman constructed herself as a man and how these young men also struggled to figure out what being a good man was.”
Listen to the Episode
As A New School Year Beckons...
... we here, at Dialogic, turn to Jerry Farber's underground critique of the indocrination machine:
The Student as Nigger (1969/1970)
The Student as Nigger (1969/1970)
Steven Wishnia: Both of My Grandfathers Were Illegal Immigrants
Both of My Grandfathers Were Illegal Immigrants (and Lou Dobbs' Would Be Today)
By Steven Wishnia
AlterNet
My grandfathers, like many other illegal immigrants, helped usher in the world's greatest period of working class prosperity.
Both my grandfathers were illegal immigrants.
Morris Passoff, my mother's father, came here from what is now Belarus in 1910, when he was 14. As he was by himself, he got a woman on the ship to pretend she was his aunt so he wouldn't be turned back at Ellis Island as an unaccompanied minor.
Avram Wishnia and Hinde Greenberg Wishnia, my father's parents, came here from Paris around 1929, about five years after they had emigrated there from Poland. My grandmother was able to enter the country as an immigrant, as her father was already a U.S. citizen, but my grandfather had to come in as a tourist. In early 1932, he was expelled because his visa had expired -- even though he had an 8-month-old Brooklyn-born son, my father. My grandmother went to work in an overcoat factory while her parents took care of my father -- who was what the contemporary anti-immigrant movement calls an "anchor baby."
My family history belies the central beliefs of that anti-immigrant movement: the argument that "our ancestors all came here legally"; the racist attitudes that immigrants are alien scum; and the idea that immigrants, especially illegal ones, drive down wages. Both my grandfathers became union activists, part of the movement that ushered in the greatest period of working-class prosperity in the history of the industrialized world. "In our organizing, we talk about the work immigrants did in the 1930s to create the good jobs we have today," says Annemarie Strassel, a Chicago-based organizer for UNITE HERE. "We want to revive that for the 21st century."
Morris Passoff got a job as a copy boy for the New York World, driving a horse cart to deliver stories from reporters in the field. On March 25, 1911, when he was 15, he was at work when a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. He watched as screaming workers jumped from ninth-floor windows with their hair and clothing ablaze, as the World reported. He moved up to the mailroom, bundling and mailing the newspapers, and eventually worked at two Yiddish-language dailies. He served on the executive board of Mailers Local 6 of the International Typographers Union.
"He had a real sense of himself as working-class," my mother recalls. "He always said, 'I am a worker.' Not 'middle class,' like they say today."
Avram Wishnia returned to Brooklyn in 1934 and worked as a presser in a clothing factory. He also served on the executive board of his International Ladies Garment Workers Union local. He stood up to Murder Inc. goons and corrupt business agents but was purged at the beginning of the Cold War for his communist sympathies.
Union wages and security, affordable (rent-controlled) housing and cheap college tuition were the tripod that supported my parents' generation as they moved into the middle class and beyond. But there are formidable obstacles to the current generation of immigrants doing the same. Changes in our immigration laws mean that most of the Ellis Island generation would not now be able to enter the country legally. The union movement is much weaker than it was in the post-World War II period. The post-Reagan economy has redistributed wealth from America to Richistan to the point that if Manhattan were an independent nation, it would have the most unequal economy in the world. And the illegal status of many immigrant workers is another weapon employers can use to intimidate them when they try to organize.
War on Workers
"Employers violate workers' rights every time we try to organize," says Eddie Acosta, worker center coordinator for the AFL-CIO. "It's the fear of being deported that makes people afraid."
Two of the largest recent roundups of illegal immigrants -- in which the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement charged hundreds of workers with identity theft for using false Social Security numbers -- took place at companies with histories of union-management conflict. The United Food and Commercial Workers were trying to organize at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, where 389 people were arrested and 270 jailed in an ICE raid May 12. And the United Steelworkers were beginning a drive to expand the union at the Chattanooga chicken factory that was one of five Pilgrim's Pride plants raided in April, with more than 300 people arrested.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
By Steven Wishnia
AlterNet
My grandfathers, like many other illegal immigrants, helped usher in the world's greatest period of working class prosperity.
Both my grandfathers were illegal immigrants.
Morris Passoff, my mother's father, came here from what is now Belarus in 1910, when he was 14. As he was by himself, he got a woman on the ship to pretend she was his aunt so he wouldn't be turned back at Ellis Island as an unaccompanied minor.
Avram Wishnia and Hinde Greenberg Wishnia, my father's parents, came here from Paris around 1929, about five years after they had emigrated there from Poland. My grandmother was able to enter the country as an immigrant, as her father was already a U.S. citizen, but my grandfather had to come in as a tourist. In early 1932, he was expelled because his visa had expired -- even though he had an 8-month-old Brooklyn-born son, my father. My grandmother went to work in an overcoat factory while her parents took care of my father -- who was what the contemporary anti-immigrant movement calls an "anchor baby."
My family history belies the central beliefs of that anti-immigrant movement: the argument that "our ancestors all came here legally"; the racist attitudes that immigrants are alien scum; and the idea that immigrants, especially illegal ones, drive down wages. Both my grandfathers became union activists, part of the movement that ushered in the greatest period of working-class prosperity in the history of the industrialized world. "In our organizing, we talk about the work immigrants did in the 1930s to create the good jobs we have today," says Annemarie Strassel, a Chicago-based organizer for UNITE HERE. "We want to revive that for the 21st century."
Morris Passoff got a job as a copy boy for the New York World, driving a horse cart to deliver stories from reporters in the field. On March 25, 1911, when he was 15, he was at work when a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. He watched as screaming workers jumped from ninth-floor windows with their hair and clothing ablaze, as the World reported. He moved up to the mailroom, bundling and mailing the newspapers, and eventually worked at two Yiddish-language dailies. He served on the executive board of Mailers Local 6 of the International Typographers Union.
"He had a real sense of himself as working-class," my mother recalls. "He always said, 'I am a worker.' Not 'middle class,' like they say today."
Avram Wishnia returned to Brooklyn in 1934 and worked as a presser in a clothing factory. He also served on the executive board of his International Ladies Garment Workers Union local. He stood up to Murder Inc. goons and corrupt business agents but was purged at the beginning of the Cold War for his communist sympathies.
Union wages and security, affordable (rent-controlled) housing and cheap college tuition were the tripod that supported my parents' generation as they moved into the middle class and beyond. But there are formidable obstacles to the current generation of immigrants doing the same. Changes in our immigration laws mean that most of the Ellis Island generation would not now be able to enter the country legally. The union movement is much weaker than it was in the post-World War II period. The post-Reagan economy has redistributed wealth from America to Richistan to the point that if Manhattan were an independent nation, it would have the most unequal economy in the world. And the illegal status of many immigrant workers is another weapon employers can use to intimidate them when they try to organize.
War on Workers
"Employers violate workers' rights every time we try to organize," says Eddie Acosta, worker center coordinator for the AFL-CIO. "It's the fear of being deported that makes people afraid."
Two of the largest recent roundups of illegal immigrants -- in which the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement charged hundreds of workers with identity theft for using false Social Security numbers -- took place at companies with histories of union-management conflict. The United Food and Commercial Workers were trying to organize at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, where 389 people were arrested and 270 jailed in an ICE raid May 12. And the United Steelworkers were beginning a drive to expand the union at the Chattanooga chicken factory that was one of five Pilgrim's Pride plants raided in April, with more than 300 people arrested.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
Austin Dacey: The Secular Conscience
The Secular Conscience
by Austin Dacey
Point of Inquiry
Austin Dacey serves as a respresentative to the United Nations for CFI, and is also on the editorial staff of Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry magazines. His writings have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times. His new book is The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life.
In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Austin Dacey argues that secularism has lost its sense of moral direction, ceding ground to religious positions it never should have. He explores the impact this has on the secular left's criticism of the New Atheists, and its approach to radical Islam. He discusses the reasons secular liberalism doesn't ally itself with the secularizing elements in the Islamic world, and why he thinks it should, also addressing "Islamophobia" and the "American Taliban." He explains why questions of conscience and morality, whether religious or secular in origin, should not be excluded from public discourse -- contrary to prevailing secular liberal opinion -- and also in what sense they should (and should not) merely be matters of private belief and freedom of conscience.
To Listen to the Episode
by Austin Dacey
Point of Inquiry
Austin Dacey serves as a respresentative to the United Nations for CFI, and is also on the editorial staff of Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry magazines. His writings have appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times. His new book is The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life.
In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Austin Dacey argues that secularism has lost its sense of moral direction, ceding ground to religious positions it never should have. He explores the impact this has on the secular left's criticism of the New Atheists, and its approach to radical Islam. He discusses the reasons secular liberalism doesn't ally itself with the secularizing elements in the Islamic world, and why he thinks it should, also addressing "Islamophobia" and the "American Taliban." He explains why questions of conscience and morality, whether religious or secular in origin, should not be excluded from public discourse -- contrary to prevailing secular liberal opinion -- and also in what sense they should (and should not) merely be matters of private belief and freedom of conscience.
To Listen to the Episode
J. Robert Parks: Whose Dark Knight?
Whose Dark Knight?
by J. Robert Parks
The G Spot
... what I like about Christopher Nolan's vision is he's smart enough to interrogate that position. While Batman's presence is necessary (this is a summer blockbuster after all), the movie and Batman wrestle with whether his style of vigilante justice is more harmful than not.
The film also calls into question certain axioms of contemporary entertainment (and government): 1) that good always triumphs over evil, so just sit back with a cold one and relax, 2) that the good guys are always good and therefore free to break the law whenever they want, and 3) that those bad things good guys do have no lasting repercussions. Batman is equated at times with a burgeoning fascism and, at other times, with how ancient Rome suspended its democracy in the face of violence and never recovered. There's also an amazing moment when Michael Caine talks about how he captured a bandit in Burma: "We burned the forest down." Anyone who doesn't connect that story to Vietnam and Iraq isn't paying attention.
But the politics are convoluted enough that some conservatives can legitimately claim Batman as their own. The Joker would likely run wild if he were not confronted by the unstoppable force of Batman. And Batman only locates the Joker at the end by spying on every citizen in Gotham. And most troubling for leftists of a certain view is that the film shows how easy it is for good intentions to be overwhelmed by awful realities and how those awful realities must sometimes be fought with violence.
Of course, few of the millions of people who've already seen the movie went because of Batman's politics. They went for the incredible set pieces, and on that score the movie delivers. The centerpiece of the film is a chase through the bowels of Chicago that ends with the most spectacular stunt I've seen in years. People literally burst into applause at the screening I was at, and rightly so. But that's not the only cool moment in the film. In fact, the movie's first 90 minutes are filled with them. And unlike Batman Begins, which relied too heavily on CGI, The Dark Knight goes back to old-fashioned stuntwork, beautifully using a variety of Chicago locations.
Audiences also went to see Heath Ledger, and again rightly so. His big entrance with a disappearing pencil is startling and awesome. But Ledger is more impressive in how he taps into the horrible madness at the core of the Joker and the awful random amorality behind contemporary terrorism. But Ledger isn't the only compelling actor. Gary Oldman as Police Commissioner Gordon is fantastic, Maggie Gyllenhaal brings panache to the role of girlfriend in peril, Aaron Eckhart almost steals the film as an upright D.A., and Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine do what they always do--bring flawless style and welcome comic relief.
It won't surprise readers to learn that I don't think The Dark Knight is the best film of the year, much less all time. The last hour drags a bit. And with so many great set pieces, it seems perverse to end with the dullest of the bunch. But there aren't many summer movies that excite both my senses and mind. Yes, I'm already looking forward to the next one.
To Read the Rest of the Response
by J. Robert Parks
The G Spot
... what I like about Christopher Nolan's vision is he's smart enough to interrogate that position. While Batman's presence is necessary (this is a summer blockbuster after all), the movie and Batman wrestle with whether his style of vigilante justice is more harmful than not.
The film also calls into question certain axioms of contemporary entertainment (and government): 1) that good always triumphs over evil, so just sit back with a cold one and relax, 2) that the good guys are always good and therefore free to break the law whenever they want, and 3) that those bad things good guys do have no lasting repercussions. Batman is equated at times with a burgeoning fascism and, at other times, with how ancient Rome suspended its democracy in the face of violence and never recovered. There's also an amazing moment when Michael Caine talks about how he captured a bandit in Burma: "We burned the forest down." Anyone who doesn't connect that story to Vietnam and Iraq isn't paying attention.
But the politics are convoluted enough that some conservatives can legitimately claim Batman as their own. The Joker would likely run wild if he were not confronted by the unstoppable force of Batman. And Batman only locates the Joker at the end by spying on every citizen in Gotham. And most troubling for leftists of a certain view is that the film shows how easy it is for good intentions to be overwhelmed by awful realities and how those awful realities must sometimes be fought with violence.
Of course, few of the millions of people who've already seen the movie went because of Batman's politics. They went for the incredible set pieces, and on that score the movie delivers. The centerpiece of the film is a chase through the bowels of Chicago that ends with the most spectacular stunt I've seen in years. People literally burst into applause at the screening I was at, and rightly so. But that's not the only cool moment in the film. In fact, the movie's first 90 minutes are filled with them. And unlike Batman Begins, which relied too heavily on CGI, The Dark Knight goes back to old-fashioned stuntwork, beautifully using a variety of Chicago locations.
Audiences also went to see Heath Ledger, and again rightly so. His big entrance with a disappearing pencil is startling and awesome. But Ledger is more impressive in how he taps into the horrible madness at the core of the Joker and the awful random amorality behind contemporary terrorism. But Ledger isn't the only compelling actor. Gary Oldman as Police Commissioner Gordon is fantastic, Maggie Gyllenhaal brings panache to the role of girlfriend in peril, Aaron Eckhart almost steals the film as an upright D.A., and Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine do what they always do--bring flawless style and welcome comic relief.
It won't surprise readers to learn that I don't think The Dark Knight is the best film of the year, much less all time. The last hour drags a bit. And with so many great set pieces, it seems perverse to end with the dullest of the bunch. But there aren't many summer movies that excite both my senses and mind. Yes, I'm already looking forward to the next one.
To Read the Rest of the Response
Barack Obama: Speaking Honestly to a Child
(This is great... exactly what I am thinking and it is good to hear a politico say it... you can sense the hesitation, but he had the courage to follow through.)
Source:
AlterNet: Obama Speaks the Truth to a Child, Right-Wingers Go Bananas
America is ... , uh, is no longer, uh ... what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don't want that future for my children.
Source:
AlterNet: Obama Speaks the Truth to a Child, Right-Wingers Go Bananas
Feminism (Archive)
Ongoing:
The Curvature: A Feminist Perspective on politics and Culture
Feministe
2008:
Sci Fi Dimensions: Lisa Yaszek
Jessica Valenti: The Sexual Double Standard
Rachel Kramer Bussel: Sexual Math
ABC News/Feministe/Curvature: Justice for Jamie Leigh Jones
Annalee Newitz: Using Sci Fi to Change the World
1892:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The Solitude of Self
The Curvature: A Feminist Perspective on politics and Culture
Feministe
2008:
Sci Fi Dimensions: Lisa Yaszek
Jessica Valenti: The Sexual Double Standard
Rachel Kramer Bussel: Sexual Math
ABC News/Feministe/Curvature: Justice for Jamie Leigh Jones
Annalee Newitz: Using Sci Fi to Change the World
1892:
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: The Solitude of Self
ABC News/Feministe/Curvature: Justice for Jamie Leigh Jones
(This should be getting more attention as it speaks volumes about the companies we are hiring to do our dirty work in Iraq and our government's ongoing attempt to cover-up any form of wrongdoing by these private contractor-armies.)
Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR
KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She Says
By BRIAN ROSS, MADDY SAUER & JUSTIN ROOD
ABC News
A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.
Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.
"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave. Jones described the container as sparely furnished with a bed, table and lamp.
"It felt like prison," says Jones, who told her story to ABC News as part of an upcoming "20/20" investigation. "I was upset; I was curled up in a ball on the bed; I just could not believe what had happened."
Finally, Jones says, she convinced a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone so she could call her father in Texas.
"I said, 'Dad, I've been raped. I don't know what to do. I'm in this container, and I'm not able to leave,'" she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.
"We contacted the State Department first," Poe told ABCNews.com, "and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen" -- from her American employer.
Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container.
According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by "several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally."
Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped "both vaginally and anally," but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers.
A spokesperson for the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security told ABCNews.com he could not comment on the matter.
Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter. In fact, ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case.
Legal experts say Jones' alleged assailants will likely never face a judge and jury, due to an enormous loophole that has effectively left contractors in Iraq beyond the reach of United States law.
"It's very troubling," said Dean John Hutson of the Franklin Pierce Law Center. "The way the law presently stands, I would say that they don't have, at least in the criminal system, the opportunity for justice."
Congressman Poe says neither the departments of State nor Justice will give him answers on the status of the Jones investigation.
To Read the Rest of the Report
More:
The Curvature: Jamie Leigh Jones May Get Her Day in Court; More KBR Victims Come Forward
Feministe: KBR Bans Cell Phones and Silences Rape Victims
Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR
KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She Says
By BRIAN ROSS, MADDY SAUER & JUSTIN ROOD
ABC News
A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.
Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.
"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave. Jones described the container as sparely furnished with a bed, table and lamp.
"It felt like prison," says Jones, who told her story to ABC News as part of an upcoming "20/20" investigation. "I was upset; I was curled up in a ball on the bed; I just could not believe what had happened."
Finally, Jones says, she convinced a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone so she could call her father in Texas.
"I said, 'Dad, I've been raped. I don't know what to do. I'm in this container, and I'm not able to leave,'" she said. Her father called their congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas.
"We contacted the State Department first," Poe told ABCNews.com, "and told them of the urgency of rescuing an American citizen" -- from her American employer.
Poe says his office contacted the State Department, which quickly dispatched agents from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to Jones' camp, where they rescued her from the container.
According to her lawsuit, Jones was raped by "several attackers who first drugged her, then repeatedly raped and injured her, both physically and emotionally."
Jones told ABCNews.com that an examination by Army doctors showed she had been raped "both vaginally and anally," but that the rape kit disappeared after it was handed over to KBR security officers.
A spokesperson for the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security told ABCNews.com he could not comment on the matter.
Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter. In fact, ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case.
Legal experts say Jones' alleged assailants will likely never face a judge and jury, due to an enormous loophole that has effectively left contractors in Iraq beyond the reach of United States law.
"It's very troubling," said Dean John Hutson of the Franklin Pierce Law Center. "The way the law presently stands, I would say that they don't have, at least in the criminal system, the opportunity for justice."
Congressman Poe says neither the departments of State nor Justice will give him answers on the status of the Jones investigation.
To Read the Rest of the Report
More:
The Curvature: Jamie Leigh Jones May Get Her Day in Court; More KBR Victims Come Forward
Feministe: KBR Bans Cell Phones and Silences Rape Victims
Paul Krugman: Know-Nothing Politics
Know-Nothing Politics
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times
So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.
And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.
Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.
What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”
In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.
What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”
Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.
Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French.
Let’s also not forget that for years President Bush was the center of a cult of personality that lionized him as a real-world Forrest Gump, a simple man who prevails through his gut instincts and moral superiority. “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” declared Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2004. “He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”
It wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina — when the heckuva job done by the man of whom Ms. Noonan said, “if there’s a fire on the block, he’ll run out and help” revealed the true costs of obliviousness — that the cult began to fade.
What’s more, the politics of stupidity didn’t just appeal to the poorly informed. Bear in mind that members of the political and media elites were more pro-war than the public at large in the fall of 2002, even though the flimsiness of the case for invading Iraq should have been even more obvious to those paying close attention to the issue than it was to the average voter.
Why were the elite so hawkish? Well, I heard a number of people express privately the argument that some influential commentators made publicly — that the war was a good idea, not because Iraq posed a real threat, but because beating up someone in the Middle East, never mind who, would show Muslims that we mean business. In other words, even alleged wise men bought into the idea of macho posturing as policy.
To Read the Rest of the Op-Ed Piece
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times
So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.
And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.
Now, I don’t mean that G.O.P. politicians are, on average, any dumber than their Democratic counterparts. And I certainly don’t mean to question the often frightening smarts of Republican political operatives.
What I mean, instead, is that know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”
In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.
What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”
Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.
Remember how the Iraq war was sold. The stuff about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds was just window dressing. The main political argument was, “They attacked us, and we’re going to strike back” — and anyone who tried to point out that Saddam and Osama weren’t the same person was an effete snob who hated America, and probably looked French.
Let’s also not forget that for years President Bush was the center of a cult of personality that lionized him as a real-world Forrest Gump, a simple man who prevails through his gut instincts and moral superiority. “Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man,” declared Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal in 2004. “He’s not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world.”
It wasn’t until Hurricane Katrina — when the heckuva job done by the man of whom Ms. Noonan said, “if there’s a fire on the block, he’ll run out and help” revealed the true costs of obliviousness — that the cult began to fade.
What’s more, the politics of stupidity didn’t just appeal to the poorly informed. Bear in mind that members of the political and media elites were more pro-war than the public at large in the fall of 2002, even though the flimsiness of the case for invading Iraq should have been even more obvious to those paying close attention to the issue than it was to the average voter.
Why were the elite so hawkish? Well, I heard a number of people express privately the argument that some influential commentators made publicly — that the war was a good idea, not because Iraq posed a real threat, but because beating up someone in the Middle East, never mind who, would show Muslims that we mean business. In other words, even alleged wise men bought into the idea of macho posturing as policy.
To Read the Rest of the Op-Ed Piece
One World Films: THE BOYS FROM BAGHDAD HIGH (Oct. 11/12)
(From Annette Mayer)
Just wanted to give you all a "heads-up" on a special film showing that One World Films will be sponsoring on Sat. nite, Oct 11 and Sunday afternoon, Oct l2 in celebration of the Central Ky. Council for Peace & Justice's 25TH anniversary. CKCPJ has designated 20 days in October for events to mark their anniversary, , and as we now are among their supporting organizations ,we thought we'd show a film (original thought, huh?).We will be showing the documentary, THE BOYS FROM BAGHDAD HIGH, (I just received permission from the director to show it... As always, we will not charge for the film showings. Sat. nite show will be at 7:00 in the theatre in the Library, and Sunday afternoon showings will be at 2:00 and again at 4:30 p.m ., also in the Library. I know there is a UK home football game that Sat., but the Athletic dept. is so sure that it will be "picked-up" on TV that as of now they cannot tell me the time for the game...afternoon or evening...so I've decided not to get anymore gray hairs and have scheduled the Sat. nite for 7:00 , and I'm sure there are 140 people in Lex. who won't be going to the game (Myself included) if it turns out to be a night game.Anyway, BOYS FROM BAGHDAD HIGH premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is the story of four high school seniors who were given basic instruction in film-making and then given a digitalcamera to record their senior year in high school. One boy is a Christian, another a Kurd, another a Shiite, and the fourth, a Sunni. The school is in a middle-class, religiously mixed district, and the boys have been raised by parents who saw themselves as Iraqis first and only secondary as members of a particular religion.We (OWF) are going to try our darnest to get high school seniors to see this film...it is very interesting..and maybe they won't complain about getting up in the morning, riding the school bus to school, and not having to worry about stepping on a mine or being shot on the way to school, or not having electricity to study at night.This e-mail is mainly to alert you to this film showing, and I'll keep you posted on it as if some plans do work out, we'll have some additions to the event. But, please, save the evening, or that Sunday afternoon.Hope you all are having a good summer. Stay cool.
Annette
Just wanted to give you all a "heads-up" on a special film showing that One World Films will be sponsoring on Sat. nite, Oct 11 and Sunday afternoon, Oct l2 in celebration of the Central Ky. Council for Peace & Justice's 25TH anniversary. CKCPJ has designated 20 days in October for events to mark their anniversary, , and as we now are among their supporting organizations ,we thought we'd show a film (original thought, huh?).We will be showing the documentary, THE BOYS FROM BAGHDAD HIGH, (I just received permission from the director to show it... As always, we will not charge for the film showings. Sat. nite show will be at 7:00 in the theatre in the Library, and Sunday afternoon showings will be at 2:00 and again at 4:30 p.m ., also in the Library. I know there is a UK home football game that Sat., but the Athletic dept. is so sure that it will be "picked-up" on TV that as of now they cannot tell me the time for the game...afternoon or evening...so I've decided not to get anymore gray hairs and have scheduled the Sat. nite for 7:00 , and I'm sure there are 140 people in Lex. who won't be going to the game (Myself included) if it turns out to be a night game.Anyway, BOYS FROM BAGHDAD HIGH premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is the story of four high school seniors who were given basic instruction in film-making and then given a digitalcamera to record their senior year in high school. One boy is a Christian, another a Kurd, another a Shiite, and the fourth, a Sunni. The school is in a middle-class, religiously mixed district, and the boys have been raised by parents who saw themselves as Iraqis first and only secondary as members of a particular religion.We (OWF) are going to try our darnest to get high school seniors to see this film...it is very interesting..and maybe they won't complain about getting up in the morning, riding the school bus to school, and not having to worry about stepping on a mine or being shot on the way to school, or not having electricity to study at night.This e-mail is mainly to alert you to this film showing, and I'll keep you posted on it as if some plans do work out, we'll have some additions to the event. But, please, save the evening, or that Sunday afternoon.Hope you all are having a good summer. Stay cool.
Annette
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Audra Wolowiec: On "Symbiotaxiplasm"
From Lines:
Symbiotaxiplasm is a term conceived by the social science philosopher Arthur Bentley (a contemporary of John Dewey, see Art As Experience) that describes an action of interconnectedness. By breaking down the word we get something like this: a transparent substance that facilitates interdependent relationships by way of connecting various organisms. A sticky sort of we-are-all-in-it-togetherness? Perhaps this is something similar to what Marcel Duchamp meant by the infrathin—a poetic term describing the infinitely small difference between two things, like feeling the warmth left on a vacated seat, or smoke from a pipe mingling with the odors in the room—a capricious amount that attempts to quantify a difference that exists primarily on an emotional level.
Symbiotaxiplasm is a term conceived by the social science philosopher Arthur Bentley (a contemporary of John Dewey, see Art As Experience) that describes an action of interconnectedness. By breaking down the word we get something like this: a transparent substance that facilitates interdependent relationships by way of connecting various organisms. A sticky sort of we-are-all-in-it-togetherness? Perhaps this is something similar to what Marcel Duchamp meant by the infrathin—a poetic term describing the infinitely small difference between two things, like feeling the warmth left on a vacated seat, or smoke from a pipe mingling with the odors in the room—a capricious amount that attempts to quantify a difference that exists primarily on an emotional level.
Dialogic's Recommended Bands/Musicians/Venues
(Emphasis on independent music/venues--always in progress. Feel free to suggest music from anywhere in the world. Venues are listed with their location and the bands are listed with haphazard musical descriptions/labels and homeplace if outside of Lexington, KY. If you don't like how I describe your "sound" feel free to let me know. Bands/Venues are listed as I am able to see them live... Buy local when you can--always support independent music!!!)
Alela Diane (Nevada City, CA: americana/folk/psychedlia/ethereal vocals)
Alien Blue (a fusion of mutant blues with haunting vocals and intense, contemporary guitar playing)
Al's Bar (Lexington, KY)
Argo Lynn (Appalachian Zen)
Blitzen Trapper (Portland, OR/Mixed Genre Alternative)
Broken Carousel Orkestra (gypsy appalachian howling monkeys...not the usual acousto folk punk...)
Chaosome (Lexington, KY DIY Collective
David "Skinny Devil" McLean (Blues/Progressive/Rock)
The Dame (Lexington, KY)
The Dialectics (Hip Hop/Soul)
For Stella (Rock/Blues/Punk)
Froseph (Winona, MN: Folk/Afro-Beat/Jungle)
Idaho, Alaska (Acousmatic/Shoegaze/Psychedelic)
Kentucky Theater (Lexington, KY)
Mercy Lounge (Nashville, TN)
Our Man Flint (Punk/Rock/Psychedelic)
Rain Junkies (Americana/Rock)
Sexual Disaster Quartet (Soul/Funk/Jazz)
Skinny Devil Music Lab (Guitar Heaven)
Smuttynose (Acoustic/Folk/Pop Punk)
Wesley Houp (Delta and Piedmont Blues)
What Happened When (Progressive/Rock)
Alela Diane (Nevada City, CA: americana/folk/psychedlia/ethereal vocals)
Alien Blue (a fusion of mutant blues with haunting vocals and intense, contemporary guitar playing)
Al's Bar (Lexington, KY)
Argo Lynn (Appalachian Zen)
Blitzen Trapper (Portland, OR/Mixed Genre Alternative)
Broken Carousel Orkestra (gypsy appalachian howling monkeys...not the usual acousto folk punk...)
Chaosome (Lexington, KY DIY Collective
David "Skinny Devil" McLean (Blues/Progressive/Rock)
The Dame (Lexington, KY)
The Dialectics (Hip Hop/Soul)
For Stella (Rock/Blues/Punk)
Froseph (Winona, MN: Folk/Afro-Beat/Jungle)
Idaho, Alaska (Acousmatic/Shoegaze/Psychedelic)
Kentucky Theater (Lexington, KY)
Mercy Lounge (Nashville, TN)
Our Man Flint (Punk/Rock/Psychedelic)
Rain Junkies (Americana/Rock)
Sexual Disaster Quartet (Soul/Funk/Jazz)
Skinny Devil Music Lab (Guitar Heaven)
Smuttynose (Acoustic/Folk/Pop Punk)
Wesley Houp (Delta and Piedmont Blues)
What Happened When (Progressive/Rock)
Open Source: 4 Part History of Cuba
Open Source
Host: Christopher Lydon
(I) What's Coming in Cuba?: A Conversation with Patrick Symmes
Is Cuba, after Fidel Castro, in for a Velvet Revolution? or a civil war? or more of the same?
The marvelous Patrick Symmes, who has a keen ear for Cuba’s own prophets, is haunted by the miserable chants of a woman in Central Cuba who told him, “we’re going to suffer… we’re going to suffer!” But will the suffering come from a settling of scores when Raul Castro, too, is gone? From raw violence along color lines, or between have-nots and have-less? From a homecoming of the children of Miami exiles? From a mad rush to condos and every other kind of money-making development? From drugs, drug-money and guns?
Patrick Symmes hung his remarkable history of the Cuban revolution on a single school picture — and the family stories of about 250 boys who went to prep school with Fidel Castro at the Jesuits’ Colegio de Dolores in the 1940s. The New York Times Book Review listed The Boys from Dolores among the ten best books of 2007.
To Listen to the Episode
(II) Cuba for the Long Run: Adrian Lopez Denis
Adrian Lopez Denis finds it laughable that even the best of the Anglo-American media, The Economist and The New Yorker, made iconic covers of cigar smoke (and crushed cigar butts) when Fidel Castro bowed out of office — a man who quit smoking 40 years ago, in a country that has produced a generation of creative young survivors since the heyday of the 1959 Revolution.
Adrian is a social historian at Brown (Ph.D from UCLA), and the son of a medical doctor in Cuba. He likes to say that only George W. Bush sees the transition in Cuba these days as a turning point of any kind. He sees nothing spectacular coming out of Cuba soon, “no headlines in the next five years,” much less a civil war.
Adrian’s emphasis in our conversations is always on the continuity of informal realities in Cuba: the vitality of the informal economy, the power of family networks and the “transnational households” that keep Havana and Miami connected, and the pleasure-seeking “culture of informality” that overwhelmed the commissars from Eastern Europe. An authoritarian tendency is part of the long Cuban tradition. So, too, is a profound problem of racial suspicion and discrimination, a legacy of slavery that the Revolution only chipped at. So in Adrian’s account of Cuba, nothing is quite what it seems or what any of the slogans suggest. And most of the consequences Cuba deals with are the unintended ones.
To Listen to the Episode
(III) Cuba on our Minds: David Kaiser’s JFK
The journalist and diplomat William Attwood is the exceptional spirit in David Kaiser’s new history of the JFK assassination, The Road to Dallas. Attwood leaps off the page as a man of imagination and mettle who (on a first reading) might have saved the Kennedy brothers and redrafted hemispheric relations.
Out of LOOK magazine and the Adlai Stevenson campaigns in the 1950s, Attwood came into the Kennedy administration as JFK’s ambassador to Guinea in West Africa, with a long-standing free-lance interest in Cuba. In late October, 1963, Attwood was looking for high-level permission to renew a conversation with Fidel Castro in Havana, specifically to pursue indications from Castro that, as Kaiser writes, “if the United States would lift the economic blockade against Castro, he would evict the Soviets from Cuba.”
But nobody in the Kennedy command was interested in anything that sounded like a relaxation of hostilities with Castro after the Bay of Pigs fiasco (April 1961) and the Missile Crisis (October 1962). In the fateful autumn of 1963, McGeorge Bundy in the White House, Robert Kennedy himself and the chiefs at State, Defense and the CIA all “agreed that it would be better for Attwood to return to private life before meeting with Castro.”
A golden opportunity so narrowly missed, as I remark here in conversation with David Kaiser. But Kaiser, the much-praised historian at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I, brings me up short. I’d mistaken a double twist in his book. Kaiser says: “The men who wanted to kill JFK” — notably the Mafia and the fiercest of the anti-Castro Cubans in the U.S. — “would not have been pleased by any attempt to normalize relations with Castro. On the contrary…” JFK might have sealed his fate more certainly by encouraging Bill Attwood’s detente initiative.
In a round of conversations about the obsessive lure of Cuba, this is a historical digression on the eternal question of Who Killed JFK. We seem to be coming closer to the eternal answer, with Cuba at the core.
Our guest David Kaiser argues (to me, persuasively) that Lee Harvey Oswald was the triggerman and fallguy for a diversified conspiracy of men and interests that wanted President Kennedy dead. Oswald was the “who” that killed Kennedy, but the historian’s emphasis after nearly 50 years is on the “what” that killed him. In a story crackling with lethal ironies, the “what” was the convergence of two passionate public campaigns of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The first, by the mob-infected Kennedy brothers, John and Robert, was to crush organized crime in America. The other, initiated by the Eisenhower administration, was to eliminate Fidel Castro and Communism from Cuba, by virtually any means imaginable, including assassination by American mobsters. Oswald, in David Kaiser’s telling, was a multi-purpose assassin who with minor shifts of circumstance might have shot Castro before he ended up shooting Kennedy. But he seems to have been working the mob’s plan on November 22, 1963; and of course it was the mob’s man Jack Ruby who, two days later, shot Oswald in Dallas police custody to shut him up.
It is still a hair-raising tale of a host of men — Richard Helms, Sam Giancana, Jimmy Hoffa, Loran Hall, Carlos Marcello, David Atlee Phillips among the scores — with Cuba and killing on their minds. “Where did these men find the audacity to kill a president of the United States?” Kaiser asks. He believes JFK had compromised his immunity by taking girls from Frank Sinatra and by playing the assassination game against Castro. He argues that RFK lost official immunity by the recklessness of his vendetta against Jimmy Hoffa. “All these men knew that Hoffa’s comment about the attorney general — that Robert Kennedy would not rest until Hoffa was behind bars — was true for them as well. These were desperate times that called for desperate measures?”
Kaiser clarifies the story of a crime, the killing of a king, that — as Olive Stone’s JFK suggested — touched each of us, and the country, with some of Hamlet’s madness.
To Listen to the Episode
(IV) Cuba in Our Ears: Ned Sublette
In his irresistible, virtually danceable history of Cuba and Its Music, Ned Sublette’s grand argument is that Cuba was, and remains, the locus of the “tectonic collision” of the deepest plates of African and European musical expression. And because the traffic in slaves to Cuba was so huge (more than to all the rest of North America) and went on so long (into the 1880s), also because African religion, and drums, were never inhibited in Cuba as they were in the United States, Cuba was the place where the African musical aesthetic put down its strongest roots in the new world. This is the “aesthetic” that Ned Sublette describes in his book, underlying all the Cuban music we’ve heard from the mambo craze to the Buena Vista Social Club and beyond.
...
Listen to Ned Sublette count the ways in which our music comes from Cuba, and let your ears decide. Jazz drum kits, he says, added hi-hats to simulate Cuban polyrhythms. He makes it clear that Richard Berry’s rock’n'roll classic “Louie Louie” and Richie Valens’ “La Bamba” were straight steals. All rock’n'roll, Ned Sublette likes to say, is derived from the Cuban cha-cha-cha. And then there’s Dizzy Gillespie’s own wondrous account of his historic alliance with Chano Pozo.
To Listen to the Episode
Host: Christopher Lydon
(I) What's Coming in Cuba?: A Conversation with Patrick Symmes
Is Cuba, after Fidel Castro, in for a Velvet Revolution? or a civil war? or more of the same?
The marvelous Patrick Symmes, who has a keen ear for Cuba’s own prophets, is haunted by the miserable chants of a woman in Central Cuba who told him, “we’re going to suffer… we’re going to suffer!” But will the suffering come from a settling of scores when Raul Castro, too, is gone? From raw violence along color lines, or between have-nots and have-less? From a homecoming of the children of Miami exiles? From a mad rush to condos and every other kind of money-making development? From drugs, drug-money and guns?
Patrick Symmes hung his remarkable history of the Cuban revolution on a single school picture — and the family stories of about 250 boys who went to prep school with Fidel Castro at the Jesuits’ Colegio de Dolores in the 1940s. The New York Times Book Review listed The Boys from Dolores among the ten best books of 2007.
To Listen to the Episode
(II) Cuba for the Long Run: Adrian Lopez Denis
Adrian Lopez Denis finds it laughable that even the best of the Anglo-American media, The Economist and The New Yorker, made iconic covers of cigar smoke (and crushed cigar butts) when Fidel Castro bowed out of office — a man who quit smoking 40 years ago, in a country that has produced a generation of creative young survivors since the heyday of the 1959 Revolution.
Adrian is a social historian at Brown (Ph.D from UCLA), and the son of a medical doctor in Cuba. He likes to say that only George W. Bush sees the transition in Cuba these days as a turning point of any kind. He sees nothing spectacular coming out of Cuba soon, “no headlines in the next five years,” much less a civil war.
Adrian’s emphasis in our conversations is always on the continuity of informal realities in Cuba: the vitality of the informal economy, the power of family networks and the “transnational households” that keep Havana and Miami connected, and the pleasure-seeking “culture of informality” that overwhelmed the commissars from Eastern Europe. An authoritarian tendency is part of the long Cuban tradition. So, too, is a profound problem of racial suspicion and discrimination, a legacy of slavery that the Revolution only chipped at. So in Adrian’s account of Cuba, nothing is quite what it seems or what any of the slogans suggest. And most of the consequences Cuba deals with are the unintended ones.
To Listen to the Episode
(III) Cuba on our Minds: David Kaiser’s JFK
The journalist and diplomat William Attwood is the exceptional spirit in David Kaiser’s new history of the JFK assassination, The Road to Dallas. Attwood leaps off the page as a man of imagination and mettle who (on a first reading) might have saved the Kennedy brothers and redrafted hemispheric relations.
Out of LOOK magazine and the Adlai Stevenson campaigns in the 1950s, Attwood came into the Kennedy administration as JFK’s ambassador to Guinea in West Africa, with a long-standing free-lance interest in Cuba. In late October, 1963, Attwood was looking for high-level permission to renew a conversation with Fidel Castro in Havana, specifically to pursue indications from Castro that, as Kaiser writes, “if the United States would lift the economic blockade against Castro, he would evict the Soviets from Cuba.”
But nobody in the Kennedy command was interested in anything that sounded like a relaxation of hostilities with Castro after the Bay of Pigs fiasco (April 1961) and the Missile Crisis (October 1962). In the fateful autumn of 1963, McGeorge Bundy in the White House, Robert Kennedy himself and the chiefs at State, Defense and the CIA all “agreed that it would be better for Attwood to return to private life before meeting with Castro.”
A golden opportunity so narrowly missed, as I remark here in conversation with David Kaiser. But Kaiser, the much-praised historian at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I, brings me up short. I’d mistaken a double twist in his book. Kaiser says: “The men who wanted to kill JFK” — notably the Mafia and the fiercest of the anti-Castro Cubans in the U.S. — “would not have been pleased by any attempt to normalize relations with Castro. On the contrary…” JFK might have sealed his fate more certainly by encouraging Bill Attwood’s detente initiative.
In a round of conversations about the obsessive lure of Cuba, this is a historical digression on the eternal question of Who Killed JFK. We seem to be coming closer to the eternal answer, with Cuba at the core.
Our guest David Kaiser argues (to me, persuasively) that Lee Harvey Oswald was the triggerman and fallguy for a diversified conspiracy of men and interests that wanted President Kennedy dead. Oswald was the “who” that killed Kennedy, but the historian’s emphasis after nearly 50 years is on the “what” that killed him. In a story crackling with lethal ironies, the “what” was the convergence of two passionate public campaigns of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The first, by the mob-infected Kennedy brothers, John and Robert, was to crush organized crime in America. The other, initiated by the Eisenhower administration, was to eliminate Fidel Castro and Communism from Cuba, by virtually any means imaginable, including assassination by American mobsters. Oswald, in David Kaiser’s telling, was a multi-purpose assassin who with minor shifts of circumstance might have shot Castro before he ended up shooting Kennedy. But he seems to have been working the mob’s plan on November 22, 1963; and of course it was the mob’s man Jack Ruby who, two days later, shot Oswald in Dallas police custody to shut him up.
It is still a hair-raising tale of a host of men — Richard Helms, Sam Giancana, Jimmy Hoffa, Loran Hall, Carlos Marcello, David Atlee Phillips among the scores — with Cuba and killing on their minds. “Where did these men find the audacity to kill a president of the United States?” Kaiser asks. He believes JFK had compromised his immunity by taking girls from Frank Sinatra and by playing the assassination game against Castro. He argues that RFK lost official immunity by the recklessness of his vendetta against Jimmy Hoffa. “All these men knew that Hoffa’s comment about the attorney general — that Robert Kennedy would not rest until Hoffa was behind bars — was true for them as well. These were desperate times that called for desperate measures?”
Kaiser clarifies the story of a crime, the killing of a king, that — as Olive Stone’s JFK suggested — touched each of us, and the country, with some of Hamlet’s madness.
To Listen to the Episode
(IV) Cuba in Our Ears: Ned Sublette
In his irresistible, virtually danceable history of Cuba and Its Music, Ned Sublette’s grand argument is that Cuba was, and remains, the locus of the “tectonic collision” of the deepest plates of African and European musical expression. And because the traffic in slaves to Cuba was so huge (more than to all the rest of North America) and went on so long (into the 1880s), also because African religion, and drums, were never inhibited in Cuba as they were in the United States, Cuba was the place where the African musical aesthetic put down its strongest roots in the new world. This is the “aesthetic” that Ned Sublette describes in his book, underlying all the Cuban music we’ve heard from the mambo craze to the Buena Vista Social Club and beyond.
...
Listen to Ned Sublette count the ways in which our music comes from Cuba, and let your ears decide. Jazz drum kits, he says, added hi-hats to simulate Cuban polyrhythms. He makes it clear that Richard Berry’s rock’n'roll classic “Louie Louie” and Richie Valens’ “La Bamba” were straight steals. All rock’n'roll, Ned Sublette likes to say, is derived from the Cuban cha-cha-cha. And then there’s Dizzy Gillespie’s own wondrous account of his historic alliance with Chano Pozo.
To Listen to the Episode
Democracy Now: Questions Raised over Whether Government Is Framing Dead Army Scientist for 2001 Attacks
Anthrax Mystery: Questions Raised over Whether Government Is Framing Dead Army Scientist for 2001 Attacks
Democracy Now
Host: Amy Goodman
The FBI’s prime suspect in the October 2001 anthrax letters case died last week in an apparent suicide. Bruce Ivins was an elite government scientist at the biodefense research lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. He was among the nation’s top experts on the military use of anthrax. But many of his colleagues have expressed deep skepticism over the FBI’s claims. We speak to anthrax expert Dr. Meryl Nass and blogger Glenn Greenwald.
To Listen/Watch/Read
Democracy Now
Host: Amy Goodman
The FBI’s prime suspect in the October 2001 anthrax letters case died last week in an apparent suicide. Bruce Ivins was an elite government scientist at the biodefense research lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. He was among the nation’s top experts on the military use of anthrax. But many of his colleagues have expressed deep skepticism over the FBI’s claims. We speak to anthrax expert Dr. Meryl Nass and blogger Glenn Greenwald.
To Listen/Watch/Read
NOW on PBS: Toxic Toys?
Toxic Toys?
NOW on PBS
Why does the United States remain one of the few developed countries to allow children to play with toys that some scientists say may cause infertility in boys? The toys in question contain substances called phthalates (pronounced "thal-ates"). While the European Union has banned these substances in products meant for children, there is powerful resistance from the chemical and toy industries to doing the same here.
NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa travels from California, where citizens have successfully gotten the state to pass a ban on phthalates in children's toys, to New York City's prestigious Toy Fair, and to Washington, D.C., to uncover some answers.
Phthalates help make plastic toys like some rubber ducks and teething rings soft and pliable. But scientific evidence suggests that exposure to phthalates (which are also used in dozens of other consumer items like, makeup, shampoos and shower curtains) may interfere with the sexual development of boys. Last year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban phthalates in toys. The toy and chemical industries sued the city to block implementation, claiming there's not enough evidence to warrant any action. A similar ban is set to take effect throughout the state of California in 2009.
Investigative Journalist Mark Schapiro, author of "Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power," tells NOW, "By refusing to close the loopholes in EPA laws that regulate chemicals in toys (and other products), the U.S. government is jeopardizing our health, alienating us from the global market, and erasing our role as a world leader in environmental protection."
Is the U.S. falling behind the European Union in regulating chemicals found in products we give our children?
To Listen to the Episode
NOW on PBS
Why does the United States remain one of the few developed countries to allow children to play with toys that some scientists say may cause infertility in boys? The toys in question contain substances called phthalates (pronounced "thal-ates"). While the European Union has banned these substances in products meant for children, there is powerful resistance from the chemical and toy industries to doing the same here.
NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa travels from California, where citizens have successfully gotten the state to pass a ban on phthalates in children's toys, to New York City's prestigious Toy Fair, and to Washington, D.C., to uncover some answers.
Phthalates help make plastic toys like some rubber ducks and teething rings soft and pliable. But scientific evidence suggests that exposure to phthalates (which are also used in dozens of other consumer items like, makeup, shampoos and shower curtains) may interfere with the sexual development of boys. Last year, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban phthalates in toys. The toy and chemical industries sued the city to block implementation, claiming there's not enough evidence to warrant any action. A similar ban is set to take effect throughout the state of California in 2009.
Investigative Journalist Mark Schapiro, author of "Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power," tells NOW, "By refusing to close the loopholes in EPA laws that regulate chemicals in toys (and other products), the U.S. government is jeopardizing our health, alienating us from the global market, and erasing our role as a world leader in environmental protection."
Is the U.S. falling behind the European Union in regulating chemicals found in products we give our children?
To Listen to the Episode
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
The Treatment: James Lipton
James Lipton
The Treatment (KCRW)
Host: Elvis Mitchell
The book Inside Inside not only takes a behind-the-scenes look at the television show Inside the Actors' Studio, but at its creator and host, James Lipton. This time, it's questions for the interrogator!
Lipton talks to Elvis about his inspirations, his adventures living in Paris during the post-war years, some of the guests he has had on the show--and Will Ferrell.
To Listen to the Episode
The Treatment (KCRW)
Host: Elvis Mitchell
The book Inside Inside not only takes a behind-the-scenes look at the television show Inside the Actors' Studio, but at its creator and host, James Lipton. This time, it's questions for the interrogator!
Lipton talks to Elvis about his inspirations, his adventures living in Paris during the post-war years, some of the guests he has had on the show--and Will Ferrell.
To Listen to the Episode
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Marty Klein: The War on Sex
The War on Sex
by Marty Klein
Truthdig and Reason TV
What do abortion, nude beaches and group sex have in common? According to author and sex therapist Marty Klein, they’re all targets of a coordinated war on sex. “The government,” he says, “has acquired more and more tools to regulate sexual expression over the last thirty years.”
To Watch/Listen
More:
Humanist Network News: Sex & Humanism
by Marty Klein
Truthdig and Reason TV
What do abortion, nude beaches and group sex have in common? According to author and sex therapist Marty Klein, they’re all targets of a coordinated war on sex. “The government,” he says, “has acquired more and more tools to regulate sexual expression over the last thirty years.”
To Watch/Listen
More:
Humanist Network News: Sex & Humanism
J.K. Rowling: “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”
(Courtesy of Teresa Webb)
Harvard Magazine
J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
To Watch/Listen to the Commencement Address
Harvard Magazine
J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
To Watch/Listen to the Commencement Address
John Pilger: Israel's torture of an award-winning young Palestinian journalist is part of a terrible pattern
(Omer, at the age of 22, also won the New America Media best "Ethnic Media Award" in Washington DC in 2006)
From triumph to torture: Israel's treatment of an award-winning young Palestinian journalist is part of a terrible pattern
by John Pilger
The Guardian
I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose establishment propaganda, or "official drivel", as Gellhorn called it. Mohammed shares the prize of £5,000 with Dahr Jamail. At 24, he is the youngest winner. His citation reads: "Every day, he reports from a war zone, where he is also a prisoner. His homeland, Gaza, is surrounded, starved, attacked, forgotten. He is a profoundly humane witness to one of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless." The eldest of eight, Mohammed has seen most of his siblings killed or wounded or maimed. An Israeli bulldozer crushed his home while the family were inside, seriously injuring his mother. And yet, says a former Dutch ambassador, Jan Wijenberg, "he is a moderating voice, urging Palestinian youth not to court hatred but seek peace with Israel".
Getting Mohammed to London to receive his prize was a major diplomatic operation. Israel has perfidious control over Gaza's borders, and only with a Dutch embassy escort was he allowed out. Last Thursday, on his return journey, he was met at the Allenby Bridge crossing (to Jordan) by a Dutch official, who waited outside the Israeli building, unaware Mohammed had been seized by Shin Bet, Israel's infamous security organisation. Mohammed was told to turn off his mobile and remove the battery. He asked if he could call his embassy escort and was told forcefully he could not. A man stood over his luggage, picking through his documents. "Where's the money?" he demanded. Mohammed produced some US dollars. "Where is the English pound you have?"
"I realised," said Mohammed, "he was after the award stipend for the Martha Gellhorn prize. I told him I didn't have it with me. 'You are lying', he said. I was now surrounded by eight Shin Bet officers, all armed. The man called Avi ordered me to take off my clothes. I had already been through an x-ray machine. I stripped down to my underwear and was told to take off everything. When I refused, Avi put his hand on his gun. I began to cry: 'Why are you treating me this way? I am a human being.' He said, 'This is nothing compared with what you will see now.' He took his gun out, pressing it to my head and with his full body weight pinning me on my side, he forcibly removed my underwear. He then made me do a concocted sort of dance. Another man, who was laughing, said, 'Why are you bringing perfumes?' I replied, 'They are gifts for the people I love'. He said, 'Oh, do you have love in your culture?'
"As they ridiculed me, they took delight most in mocking letters I had received from readers in England. I had now been without food and water and the toilet for 12 hours, and having been made to stand, my legs buckled. I vomited and passed out. All I remember is one of them gouging, scraping and clawing with his nails at the tender flesh beneath my eyes. He scooped my head and dug his fingers in near the auditory nerves between my head and eardrum. The pain became sharper as he dug in two fingers at a time. Another man had his combat boot on my neck, pressing into the hard floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of pain, sound and terror."
An ambulance was called and told to take Mohammed to a hospital, but only after he had signed a statement indemnifying the Israelis from his suffering in their custody. The Palestinian medic refused, courageously, and said he would contact the Dutch embassy escort. Alarmed, the Israelis let the ambulance go. The Israeli response has been the familiar line that Mohammed was "suspected" of smuggling and "lost his balance" during a "fair" interrogation, Reuters reported yesterday.
Israeli human rights groups have documented the routine torture of Palestinians by Shin Bet agents with "beatings, painful binding, back bending, body stretching and prolonged sleep deprivation". Amnesty has long reported the widespread use of torture by Israel, whose victims emerge as mere shadows of their former selves. Some never return. Israel is high in an international league table for its murder of journalists, especially Palestinian journalists, who receive barely a fraction of the kind of coverage given to the BBC's Alan Johnston.
The Dutch government says it is shocked by Mohammed Omer's treatment. The former ambassador Jan Wijenberg said: "This is by no means an isolated incident, but part of a long-term strategy to demolish Palestinian social, economic and cultural life ... I am aware of the possibility that Mohammed Omer might be murdered by Israeli snipers or bomb attack in the near future."
While Mohammed was receiving his prize in London, the new Israeli ambassador to Britain, Ron Proser, was publicly complaining that many Britons no longer appreciated the uniqueness of Israel's democracy. Perhaps they do now.
Link to the Report
More:
Democracy Now: Award-Winning Palestinian Journalist Mohammed Omer Details Abuse by Israeli Security Officials
'Israelis Assault Award-Winning Journalist'
Rafah Today: Archive of Omer's Reports/Journalism/Awards
From triumph to torture: Israel's treatment of an award-winning young Palestinian journalist is part of a terrible pattern
by John Pilger
The Guardian
I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose establishment propaganda, or "official drivel", as Gellhorn called it. Mohammed shares the prize of £5,000 with Dahr Jamail. At 24, he is the youngest winner. His citation reads: "Every day, he reports from a war zone, where he is also a prisoner. His homeland, Gaza, is surrounded, starved, attacked, forgotten. He is a profoundly humane witness to one of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless." The eldest of eight, Mohammed has seen most of his siblings killed or wounded or maimed. An Israeli bulldozer crushed his home while the family were inside, seriously injuring his mother. And yet, says a former Dutch ambassador, Jan Wijenberg, "he is a moderating voice, urging Palestinian youth not to court hatred but seek peace with Israel".
Getting Mohammed to London to receive his prize was a major diplomatic operation. Israel has perfidious control over Gaza's borders, and only with a Dutch embassy escort was he allowed out. Last Thursday, on his return journey, he was met at the Allenby Bridge crossing (to Jordan) by a Dutch official, who waited outside the Israeli building, unaware Mohammed had been seized by Shin Bet, Israel's infamous security organisation. Mohammed was told to turn off his mobile and remove the battery. He asked if he could call his embassy escort and was told forcefully he could not. A man stood over his luggage, picking through his documents. "Where's the money?" he demanded. Mohammed produced some US dollars. "Where is the English pound you have?"
"I realised," said Mohammed, "he was after the award stipend for the Martha Gellhorn prize. I told him I didn't have it with me. 'You are lying', he said. I was now surrounded by eight Shin Bet officers, all armed. The man called Avi ordered me to take off my clothes. I had already been through an x-ray machine. I stripped down to my underwear and was told to take off everything. When I refused, Avi put his hand on his gun. I began to cry: 'Why are you treating me this way? I am a human being.' He said, 'This is nothing compared with what you will see now.' He took his gun out, pressing it to my head and with his full body weight pinning me on my side, he forcibly removed my underwear. He then made me do a concocted sort of dance. Another man, who was laughing, said, 'Why are you bringing perfumes?' I replied, 'They are gifts for the people I love'. He said, 'Oh, do you have love in your culture?'
"As they ridiculed me, they took delight most in mocking letters I had received from readers in England. I had now been without food and water and the toilet for 12 hours, and having been made to stand, my legs buckled. I vomited and passed out. All I remember is one of them gouging, scraping and clawing with his nails at the tender flesh beneath my eyes. He scooped my head and dug his fingers in near the auditory nerves between my head and eardrum. The pain became sharper as he dug in two fingers at a time. Another man had his combat boot on my neck, pressing into the hard floor. I lay there for over an hour. The room became a menagerie of pain, sound and terror."
An ambulance was called and told to take Mohammed to a hospital, but only after he had signed a statement indemnifying the Israelis from his suffering in their custody. The Palestinian medic refused, courageously, and said he would contact the Dutch embassy escort. Alarmed, the Israelis let the ambulance go. The Israeli response has been the familiar line that Mohammed was "suspected" of smuggling and "lost his balance" during a "fair" interrogation, Reuters reported yesterday.
Israeli human rights groups have documented the routine torture of Palestinians by Shin Bet agents with "beatings, painful binding, back bending, body stretching and prolonged sleep deprivation". Amnesty has long reported the widespread use of torture by Israel, whose victims emerge as mere shadows of their former selves. Some never return. Israel is high in an international league table for its murder of journalists, especially Palestinian journalists, who receive barely a fraction of the kind of coverage given to the BBC's Alan Johnston.
The Dutch government says it is shocked by Mohammed Omer's treatment. The former ambassador Jan Wijenberg said: "This is by no means an isolated incident, but part of a long-term strategy to demolish Palestinian social, economic and cultural life ... I am aware of the possibility that Mohammed Omer might be murdered by Israeli snipers or bomb attack in the near future."
While Mohammed was receiving his prize in London, the new Israeli ambassador to Britain, Ron Proser, was publicly complaining that many Britons no longer appreciated the uniqueness of Israel's democracy. Perhaps they do now.
Link to the Report
More:
Democracy Now: Award-Winning Palestinian Journalist Mohammed Omer Details Abuse by Israeli Security Officials
'Israelis Assault Award-Winning Journalist'
Rafah Today: Archive of Omer's Reports/Journalism/Awards
Sandra Steingraber: Environmental Amnesia
(Courtesy of the talented photgrapher Michael Itkoff who sent me some of his pictures... one of which was used with this essay)
Environmental Amnesia: While questioning what we buy, we've forgotten where we live
by Sandra Steingraber
Orion Magazine
...
DURING THESE TEN YEARS of running and speaking, I’ve noticed two opposing trends. The first is that people increasingly believe that their health is affected by hazardous materials in the environment. And they know a lot more about hazardous materials. Pesticides in strawberries. Lead in lipstick. Bisphenol A in water bottles. But there is decreasing knowledge about the actual environment itself. Public awareness is specific to chemicals in consumer products—which are produced elsewhere (increasingly China) and brought into our homes. The location of those homes on former orchards (where arsenical pesticides were used) or near old toxic-dump sites (where drums of solvents were buried)—these matters seem blurrier and blurrier to the folks in my audiences. In fact, I’ve had to start explaining the word “Superfund,” as it doesn’t seem to ring any real bells for a lot of people—including people in communities where Superfund sites are present. (Superfund sites are the nation’s worst toxic-waste sites. There are 1,305 of them, and they are named for the “super” fund of money put together by Congress in 1980 to clean them up, a trust that went bankrupt five years ago.)
I was recently invited to Rockford, Illinois, to speak about toxic chemicals. That seemed appropriate because Rockford is the site of a longstanding Superfund site. Solvents used by former businesses had drizzled into drinking water wells. Rockford is famous within toxicology circles because of the bladder-cancer cluster that was discovered here and because it was here where researchers figured out, in the 1980s, that the level of solvents in human blood is predicted not by the amount of water drunk from the tap but by the length of “shower run times.” In other words, inhalation is a bigger route of exposure to solvent-contaminated drinking water than drinking it, and showering provides the biggest dose. And yet only two people in my college audience knew about these studies—or even knew that Rockford had a Superfund site. Even the local emergency-room physician hadn’t heard the news.
WHAT’S INDUCING THIS EPIDEMIC of environmental amnesia? Maybe one contributor is the long silence of the federal government on environmental catastrophes of all kinds. In the breach, activist groups have tried to protect the public. In need of positive messages and deliverable results, they focus on individual solutions. Don’t microwave in plastic. Buy organic. There is no place in that discussion for the barrels of waste buried atop the aquifer. The very mention of them fills a room with paralyzing despair.
Or maybe we’re now spending so much more time with consumer objects than with our natural environments that we have forgotten how to think about them. Sport water bottles are real to us—polycarbonate? or stainless steel?—but creekbeds are fuzzy concepts.
Or maybe our unremembering is a wall against grief. My own elementary school—along with the field, playground, and wooded path to the crosswalk—was razed years ago to make way for discount shopping.
To Read the Entire Essay
Environmental Amnesia: While questioning what we buy, we've forgotten where we live
by Sandra Steingraber
Orion Magazine
...
DURING THESE TEN YEARS of running and speaking, I’ve noticed two opposing trends. The first is that people increasingly believe that their health is affected by hazardous materials in the environment. And they know a lot more about hazardous materials. Pesticides in strawberries. Lead in lipstick. Bisphenol A in water bottles. But there is decreasing knowledge about the actual environment itself. Public awareness is specific to chemicals in consumer products—which are produced elsewhere (increasingly China) and brought into our homes. The location of those homes on former orchards (where arsenical pesticides were used) or near old toxic-dump sites (where drums of solvents were buried)—these matters seem blurrier and blurrier to the folks in my audiences. In fact, I’ve had to start explaining the word “Superfund,” as it doesn’t seem to ring any real bells for a lot of people—including people in communities where Superfund sites are present. (Superfund sites are the nation’s worst toxic-waste sites. There are 1,305 of them, and they are named for the “super” fund of money put together by Congress in 1980 to clean them up, a trust that went bankrupt five years ago.)
I was recently invited to Rockford, Illinois, to speak about toxic chemicals. That seemed appropriate because Rockford is the site of a longstanding Superfund site. Solvents used by former businesses had drizzled into drinking water wells. Rockford is famous within toxicology circles because of the bladder-cancer cluster that was discovered here and because it was here where researchers figured out, in the 1980s, that the level of solvents in human blood is predicted not by the amount of water drunk from the tap but by the length of “shower run times.” In other words, inhalation is a bigger route of exposure to solvent-contaminated drinking water than drinking it, and showering provides the biggest dose. And yet only two people in my college audience knew about these studies—or even knew that Rockford had a Superfund site. Even the local emergency-room physician hadn’t heard the news.
WHAT’S INDUCING THIS EPIDEMIC of environmental amnesia? Maybe one contributor is the long silence of the federal government on environmental catastrophes of all kinds. In the breach, activist groups have tried to protect the public. In need of positive messages and deliverable results, they focus on individual solutions. Don’t microwave in plastic. Buy organic. There is no place in that discussion for the barrels of waste buried atop the aquifer. The very mention of them fills a room with paralyzing despair.
Or maybe we’re now spending so much more time with consumer objects than with our natural environments that we have forgotten how to think about them. Sport water bottles are real to us—polycarbonate? or stainless steel?—but creekbeds are fuzzy concepts.
Or maybe our unremembering is a wall against grief. My own elementary school—along with the field, playground, and wooded path to the crosswalk—was razed years ago to make way for discount shopping.
To Read the Entire Essay
In Our Time: Greek Myths
Greek Myths
In Our Time w/ Melvyn Bragg (BBC)
Are you a touch narcissistic? Do you have the body of an Adonis? Are you willing to undertake Herculean tasks or Promethean ventures? Perhaps you have an Oedipus complex?
If you answer to any or perhaps all of these you owe something to the Greek myths, a collection of weird and wonderful stories that, like Penelope’s shroud or the needlework of Arachne, was constantly woven and unpicked across centuries of Greek and Roman civilisation.
The myths have a cast of thousands including mighty Zeus, Jason and the Argonauts, wily Odysseus, beautiful Aphrodite and Cerberus, the three-headed dog. They are funny, shocking, quirky and epic and have retained their power and their wisdom from the ancient world to the modern.
Contributors
Nick Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London
Richard Buxton, Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Bristol
Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University
To Listen to the Episode
In Our Time w/ Melvyn Bragg (BBC)
Are you a touch narcissistic? Do you have the body of an Adonis? Are you willing to undertake Herculean tasks or Promethean ventures? Perhaps you have an Oedipus complex?
If you answer to any or perhaps all of these you owe something to the Greek myths, a collection of weird and wonderful stories that, like Penelope’s shroud or the needlework of Arachne, was constantly woven and unpicked across centuries of Greek and Roman civilisation.
The myths have a cast of thousands including mighty Zeus, Jason and the Argonauts, wily Odysseus, beautiful Aphrodite and Cerberus, the three-headed dog. They are funny, shocking, quirky and epic and have retained their power and their wisdom from the ancient world to the modern.
Contributors
Nick Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Classics at Royal Holloway, University of London
Richard Buxton, Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Bristol
Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge University
To Listen to the Episode
Aditya Chakrabortty: Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive
(Courtesy of Democracy Now)
Secret report--biofuel caused food crisis: Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive
by Aditya Chakrabortty
UK Guardian
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.
The news comes at a critical point in the world's negotiations on biofuels policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next week in Hokkaido, Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and come under intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use of plant-derived fuels.
It will also put pressure on the British government, which is due to release its own report on the impact of biofuels, the Gallagher Report. The Guardian has previously reported that the British study will state that plant fuels have played a "significant" part in pushing up food prices to record levels. Although it was expected last week, the report has still not been released.
"Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat."
Rising food prices have pushed 100m people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel prices as "the first real economic crisis of globalisation".
President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."
Even successive droughts in Australia, calculates the report, have had a marginal impact. Instead, it argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices.
Since April, all petrol and diesel in Britain has had to include 2.5% from biofuels. The EU has been considering raising that target to 10% by 2020, but is faced with mounting evidence that that will only push food prices higher.
"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period.
It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.
Other reviews of the food crisis looked at it over a much longer period, or have not linked these three factors, and so arrived at smaller estimates of the impact from biofuels. But the report author, Don Mitchell, is a senior economist at the Bank and has done a detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, which allows much closer examination of the link between biofuels and food supply.
The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact.
Supporters of biofuels argue that they are a greener alternative to relying on oil and other fossil fuels, but even that claim has been disputed by some experts, who argue that it does not apply to US production of ethanol from plants.
"It is clear that some biofuels have huge impacts on food prices," said Dr David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser, last night. "All we are doing by supporting these is subsidising higher food prices, while doing nothing to tackle climate change."
Link to the Report
Secret report--biofuel caused food crisis: Internal World Bank study delivers blow to plant energy drive
by Aditya Chakrabortty
UK Guardian
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.
The news comes at a critical point in the world's negotiations on biofuels policy. Leaders of the G8 industrialised countries meet next week in Hokkaido, Japan, where they will discuss the food crisis and come under intense lobbying from campaigners calling for a moratorium on the use of plant-derived fuels.
It will also put pressure on the British government, which is due to release its own report on the impact of biofuels, the Gallagher Report. The Guardian has previously reported that the British study will state that plant fuels have played a "significant" part in pushing up food prices to record levels. Although it was expected last week, the report has still not been released.
"Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat."
Rising food prices have pushed 100m people worldwide below the poverty line, estimates the World Bank, and have sparked riots from Bangladesh to Egypt. Government ministers here have described higher food and fuel prices as "the first real economic crisis of globalisation".
President Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."
Even successive droughts in Australia, calculates the report, have had a marginal impact. Instead, it argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices.
Since April, all petrol and diesel in Britain has had to include 2.5% from biofuels. The EU has been considering raising that target to 10% by 2020, but is faced with mounting evidence that that will only push food prices higher.
"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period.
It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.
Other reviews of the food crisis looked at it over a much longer period, or have not linked these three factors, and so arrived at smaller estimates of the impact from biofuels. But the report author, Don Mitchell, is a senior economist at the Bank and has done a detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices, which allows much closer examination of the link between biofuels and food supply.
The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact.
Supporters of biofuels argue that they are a greener alternative to relying on oil and other fossil fuels, but even that claim has been disputed by some experts, who argue that it does not apply to US production of ethanol from plants.
"It is clear that some biofuels have huge impacts on food prices," said Dr David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser, last night. "All we are doing by supporting these is subsidising higher food prices, while doing nothing to tackle climate change."
Link to the Report
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Books Worth Reading: What is Speculative Fiction?
(Courtesy of Darwin's Orphans)
What is Speculative Fiction?
Books Worth Reading
The kind of fiction I like to read the most, and that I tend to focus on here, falls under the broad umbrella of “speculative fiction.” I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the traditional genre labels of science fiction, fantasy and horror. The definitions that are most often applied to these genres seem so limiting, and they leave out a wide swath of really great books.
All three of these genres have one thing in common: The stories concern elements that do not exist in the so-called real world. In other words, they speculate about what might be possible but, in our everyday experience, isn’t.
In science fiction, the speculations must be grounded in the principles of science; they might not be possible now, but someday they could be, which is why science fiction is often set on future Earth or on another planet. The subjects of science fiction are space travel, dimensional travel, time travel, post-apocalyptic societies and technological innovations.
In fantasy, however, the speculations are usually based on magic and the supernatural. These speculations must follow rules, but they are not the rules of science. Generally, fantasy stories take place in imagined worlds (but not necessarily another planet) or on a fictional historical Earth.
Horror, on the other hand, most often takes place in the present day, in the world in which we live. But it introduces a fantastic or supernatural element, usually a monster of some kind. Horror also differs from fantasy in that it, by definition, should be frightening and dark.
But what about fiction that doesn’t fit neatly into one of these three categories? For instance, where would Neil Gaiman’s American Gods be classified? It is set in the modern-day world, but with its cast of mythical gods, it shades more toward fantasy than horror, although it does have horrific elements. Or what about David Mitchell’s excellent novel Cloud Atlas? This experimental novel is set in several different times, in the past, present and future, including a post-apocalyptic society. But it doesn’t read like traditional science fiction.
To Read the Rest of the Post
What is Speculative Fiction?
Books Worth Reading
The kind of fiction I like to read the most, and that I tend to focus on here, falls under the broad umbrella of “speculative fiction.” I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the traditional genre labels of science fiction, fantasy and horror. The definitions that are most often applied to these genres seem so limiting, and they leave out a wide swath of really great books.
All three of these genres have one thing in common: The stories concern elements that do not exist in the so-called real world. In other words, they speculate about what might be possible but, in our everyday experience, isn’t.
In science fiction, the speculations must be grounded in the principles of science; they might not be possible now, but someday they could be, which is why science fiction is often set on future Earth or on another planet. The subjects of science fiction are space travel, dimensional travel, time travel, post-apocalyptic societies and technological innovations.
In fantasy, however, the speculations are usually based on magic and the supernatural. These speculations must follow rules, but they are not the rules of science. Generally, fantasy stories take place in imagined worlds (but not necessarily another planet) or on a fictional historical Earth.
Horror, on the other hand, most often takes place in the present day, in the world in which we live. But it introduces a fantastic or supernatural element, usually a monster of some kind. Horror also differs from fantasy in that it, by definition, should be frightening and dark.
But what about fiction that doesn’t fit neatly into one of these three categories? For instance, where would Neil Gaiman’s American Gods be classified? It is set in the modern-day world, but with its cast of mythical gods, it shades more toward fantasy than horror, although it does have horrific elements. Or what about David Mitchell’s excellent novel Cloud Atlas? This experimental novel is set in several different times, in the past, present and future, including a post-apocalyptic society. But it doesn’t read like traditional science fiction.
To Read the Rest of the Post
Christopher Hichens' Waterboard Session
After 5 years of avid support of American war efforts and torture tactics, Christopher Hichens finally goes through a sanitized waterboard session and within 11seconds he changes his mind:
Vanity Fair: Believe Me, It’s Torture
AlterNet deconstructs the video and Hichens
Vanity Fair: Believe Me, It’s Torture
AlterNet deconstructs the video and Hichens
Media Matters: Fox News airs altered photos of NY Times reporters
(Courtesy of AlterNet
Fox News airs altered photos of NY Times reporters
Media Matters
Summary: During a segment in which Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade labeled New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe "attack dogs," Fox News featured photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe that appeared to have been digitally altered -- the journalists' teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe's hair moved further back on his head.
To Read the Report and Watch the Original FOX Attack Piece
Fox News airs altered photos of NY Times reporters
Media Matters
Summary: During a segment in which Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade labeled New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe "attack dogs," Fox News featured photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe that appeared to have been digitally altered -- the journalists' teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe's hair moved further back on his head.
To Read the Report and Watch the Original FOX Attack Piece
SciFiDimensions: Cory Doctorow on Little Brother
(This interview is jammed with intelligent speculation about growing police states and terror hysteria. Doctorow is also a spokesperson for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Doctorow is also one of the greatest examples of the creative commons ethos. I just picked up this book for my nephew ;)
SciFiDimensions
Cory Doctorow - Interview with the author of the new young adult science fiction novel Little Brother (April 2008 from Tor Books). In addition to being a freelance journalist and copyright/ technology advocate, Doctorow is one of the co-editors of BoingBoing, one of the most popular blogs on the internet. His personal website is Craphound.
To Listen to the Episode
More:
SciFiDimensions: Review of Little Brother
Boing Boing TV: Make Your Own Little Brother How-To Video
SciFiDimensions
Cory Doctorow - Interview with the author of the new young adult science fiction novel Little Brother (April 2008 from Tor Books). In addition to being a freelance journalist and copyright/ technology advocate, Doctorow is one of the co-editors of BoingBoing, one of the most popular blogs on the internet. His personal website is Craphound.
To Listen to the Episode
More:
SciFiDimensions: Review of Little Brother
Boing Boing TV: Make Your Own Little Brother How-To Video
Friday, July 04, 2008
Happy 4th of July!
Just something to think about as you chow down on barbecued meats, chug those cold beers and watch the militaristic displays in the sky:
Orwell, Torture and the War on Terror
Mike Davis: Evil Paradise--An Artist's Vision of Dubai in the Future
(This essay is from 2005, but I dug it up because I got the book below.)
Evil Paradise: An Artist's Vision of Dubai in the Future
by Mike Davis
Socialist Review
Mike Davis asks if the road to the future ends at Dubai.
The narration begins: As your jet starts its descent, you are glued to your window. The scene below is astonishing - a 24 square mile archipelago of coral-coloured islands in the shape of an almost finished puzzle of the world. In the shallow green waters between continents, the sunken shapes of the Pyramids of Giza and the Roman Coliseum are clearly visible. In the distance are three other large island groups configured as palms within crescents, and planted with high-rise resorts, amusement parks and a thousand mansions built on stilts over the water. The 'Palms' are connected by causeways to a Miami-like beachfront chock-full of mega-hotels, apartment high-rises and yacht marinas.
As the plane slowly banks toward the desert mainland, you gasp at the even more improbable vision ahead. Out of a chrome forest of skyscrapers (nearly a dozen taller than 1,000 feet) soars a new Tower of Babel. It is an impossible half mile high: the equivalent of the Empire State Building stacked on top of itself.
You are still rubbing your eyes with wonderment and disbelief when the plane lands and you are welcomed into an airport emporium where hundreds of shops seduce you with Gucci bags, Cartier watches and one-kilogram bars of solid gold. The hotel driver is waiting for you in a Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph. Friends have recommended the Armani Hotel in the 160-storey tower or the seven-star hotel with an atrium so huge that the Statue of Liberty would fit inside, but instead you have opted to fulfil a childhood fantasy. You always have wanted to be Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Your jellyfish-shaped hotel is, in fact, exactly 66 feet below the sea surface. Each of its 220 luxury suites has clear plexiglas walls that provide spectacular views of passing mermaids as well as the hotel's famed 'underwater fireworks' - a hallucinatory exhibition of 'water bubbles, swirled sand, and carefully deployed lighting'. Any initial anxiety about the safety of your sea-bottom resort is dispelled by the smiling concierge. The structure has a multi-level failsafe security system, he reassures you, that includes protection against terrorist submarines as well as missiles and aircraft.
Although you have an important business meeting at the internet city free-trade zone with clients from Hyderabad and Taipei, you have arrived a day early to treat yourself to one of the famed adventures at the Restless Planet dinosaur theme park. Indeed, after a soothing night's sleep under the sea, you are aboard a monorail headed for a Jurassic jungle. Your expedition encounters some peacefully grazing Apatosaurs, but you are soon attacked by a nasty gang of velociraptors. The animatronic beasts are so flawlessly lifelike - in fact, they have been designed by experts from the British Natural History Museum - that you shriek in fear and delight.
You polish off the afternoon with some thrilling snowboarding on the local black diamond run. Next door is the Mall of Arabia, the world's largest mall - the altar of the city's famed Shopping Festival that attracts 5 million frenetic consumers each January - but you postpone the temptation. Instead you indulge in some expensive Thai fusion cuisine at a restaurant near Elite Towers that was recommended by your hotel driver. The Russian woman at the bar keeps staring at you with almost vampire-like hunger, and you wonder whether the local sin scene is as extravagant as the shopping...
The Sequel to Blade Runner?
Welcome to paradise. But where are you? Is this a new science fiction novel from Margaret Atwood, the sequel to Blade Runner or Donald Trump tripping on acid? No, it is the Persian Gulf city-state of Dubai in 2010. After Shanghai (current population 15 million), Dubai (current population 1.5 million) is the world's biggest building site - an emerging dreamworld of conspicuous consumption and what locals dub 'supreme lifestyles'.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
More:
Contextual Musings pointed me toward these latest architectural monstrosities planned for Dubai:
Dubai's Moving Skyscraper "Dynamic Tower" Planned For 2010
Evil Paradise: An Artist's Vision of Dubai in the Future
by Mike Davis
Socialist Review
Mike Davis asks if the road to the future ends at Dubai.
The narration begins: As your jet starts its descent, you are glued to your window. The scene below is astonishing - a 24 square mile archipelago of coral-coloured islands in the shape of an almost finished puzzle of the world. In the shallow green waters between continents, the sunken shapes of the Pyramids of Giza and the Roman Coliseum are clearly visible. In the distance are three other large island groups configured as palms within crescents, and planted with high-rise resorts, amusement parks and a thousand mansions built on stilts over the water. The 'Palms' are connected by causeways to a Miami-like beachfront chock-full of mega-hotels, apartment high-rises and yacht marinas.
As the plane slowly banks toward the desert mainland, you gasp at the even more improbable vision ahead. Out of a chrome forest of skyscrapers (nearly a dozen taller than 1,000 feet) soars a new Tower of Babel. It is an impossible half mile high: the equivalent of the Empire State Building stacked on top of itself.
You are still rubbing your eyes with wonderment and disbelief when the plane lands and you are welcomed into an airport emporium where hundreds of shops seduce you with Gucci bags, Cartier watches and one-kilogram bars of solid gold. The hotel driver is waiting for you in a Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph. Friends have recommended the Armani Hotel in the 160-storey tower or the seven-star hotel with an atrium so huge that the Statue of Liberty would fit inside, but instead you have opted to fulfil a childhood fantasy. You always have wanted to be Captain Nemo in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Your jellyfish-shaped hotel is, in fact, exactly 66 feet below the sea surface. Each of its 220 luxury suites has clear plexiglas walls that provide spectacular views of passing mermaids as well as the hotel's famed 'underwater fireworks' - a hallucinatory exhibition of 'water bubbles, swirled sand, and carefully deployed lighting'. Any initial anxiety about the safety of your sea-bottom resort is dispelled by the smiling concierge. The structure has a multi-level failsafe security system, he reassures you, that includes protection against terrorist submarines as well as missiles and aircraft.
Although you have an important business meeting at the internet city free-trade zone with clients from Hyderabad and Taipei, you have arrived a day early to treat yourself to one of the famed adventures at the Restless Planet dinosaur theme park. Indeed, after a soothing night's sleep under the sea, you are aboard a monorail headed for a Jurassic jungle. Your expedition encounters some peacefully grazing Apatosaurs, but you are soon attacked by a nasty gang of velociraptors. The animatronic beasts are so flawlessly lifelike - in fact, they have been designed by experts from the British Natural History Museum - that you shriek in fear and delight.
You polish off the afternoon with some thrilling snowboarding on the local black diamond run. Next door is the Mall of Arabia, the world's largest mall - the altar of the city's famed Shopping Festival that attracts 5 million frenetic consumers each January - but you postpone the temptation. Instead you indulge in some expensive Thai fusion cuisine at a restaurant near Elite Towers that was recommended by your hotel driver. The Russian woman at the bar keeps staring at you with almost vampire-like hunger, and you wonder whether the local sin scene is as extravagant as the shopping...
The Sequel to Blade Runner?
Welcome to paradise. But where are you? Is this a new science fiction novel from Margaret Atwood, the sequel to Blade Runner or Donald Trump tripping on acid? No, it is the Persian Gulf city-state of Dubai in 2010. After Shanghai (current population 15 million), Dubai (current population 1.5 million) is the world's biggest building site - an emerging dreamworld of conspicuous consumption and what locals dub 'supreme lifestyles'.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
More:
Contextual Musings pointed me toward these latest architectural monstrosities planned for Dubai:
Dubai's Moving Skyscraper "Dynamic Tower" Planned For 2010
BBC Radio: Pirates
Pirates
BBC Radio: World Service Documentaries
Part One
Nick Rankin takes a journey through history looking at pirates past, present and future.
Part Two
Nick Rankin travels to Africa to find out how modern day pirates are ruling the high seas.
Part Three
Nick Rankin explores the world of intellectual piracy - the stealing of ideas.
To Listen to the Episodes
BBC Radio: World Service Documentaries
Part One
Nick Rankin takes a journey through history looking at pirates past, present and future.
Part Two
Nick Rankin travels to Africa to find out how modern day pirates are ruling the high seas.
Part Three
Nick Rankin explores the world of intellectual piracy - the stealing of ideas.
To Listen to the Episodes
Jeff Vandermeer Interview of Paul Barnett aka John Grant: Science Has Been Corrupted
John Grant and Paul Barnett Agree: Science Has Been Corrupted
by Jeff Vandermeer
Clarkesworld Magazine
...
How did you come to write Corrupted Science?
The book grew naturally out of a previous nonfiction book of mine, Discarded Science (2006). The earlier book was concerned with notions and hypotheses which over the centuries science had, as it were, deposited by the wayside — from the flat earth to the music of the spheres to Creationism, the luminiferous aether, and beyond. While I was writing it, it became apparent to me that there was a qualitative difference between those notions that were wrong simply because of people's lack of information — their position along scientific history's timeline, in effect — and those that were wrong because people were deliberately making them wrong.
To take a single example, when Ptolemy maintained that the Earth was the center of the universe, this was because he didn't know any better: it was a reasonably logical guess considering the state of knowledge in his day. Centuries later, however, when Copernicus and Kepler and Galileo had shown there was a much better explanation for the behavior of the heavens and the Roman Catholic Church was trying to suppress that better explanation, the Vatican was guilty of deliberately corrupting science. The motivation in this instance was a doctrinal one — much like the motivation for most Creationists/IDers today, now I come to think of it. Of course, there have been lots of other motives that have led people — both scientists and non-scientists — to corrupt human knowledge. Personal gain is an obvious one, as is self-deception, but the various ideological motives clearly are likely to have far wider-scale effects. Just think for a moment of the bad anthropology that was used to justify the Nazis' attempted genocide of "lesser races".
So the subject of the corruption of science seemed to me to be an important one.
...
What would you really like readers to take away from the book?
That the corruption of science, being more truly phrased as the corruption of human knowledge, is IMPORTANT.
We all suffer whenever someone indulges in the wholesale falsification or suppression of knowledge. The most serious suppression of knowledge at the moment is in connection with global warming, where media and corrupt or just plain dimwitted politicians have conspired in the idiotic pretense that there's still debate within the scientific community about the reality. There ain't. There's debate about some of the details, but the only dissent within the climatological community about the reality of global warming is from a handful of mavericks. All power to those mavericks, but their rather noisy existence doesn't imply that the climatological community is riven with doubt.
Because of the media/political pretense, the most important player in the quest to ameliorate the complete hell that's facing our children and grandchildren, the USA, has done almost completely nothing for what may very well have been the crux years — those years in which something could have been done to stave off the worst.
I thought at least the current crop of US presidential hopefuls had cottoned on to the urgency of the need to take action. Now I discover that two of them — McCain and Clinton — are proposing a "holiday" from gas taxes this summer, to encourage consumers to drive more miles than they might otherwise do — i.e., to add more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. It's hard to imagine quite how imbecilic one must be to imagine this could be a good thing.
But it's not just at the political level that seeking to corrupt others' knowledge is a dangerous and indeed criminal act. As I say, it affects all of us. Look at a whole list of cases where drug companies have suppressed knowledge of harmful side-effects some of their products can display. I could go on almost indefinitely!
To Read the Entire Interview
by Jeff Vandermeer
Clarkesworld Magazine
...
How did you come to write Corrupted Science?
The book grew naturally out of a previous nonfiction book of mine, Discarded Science (2006). The earlier book was concerned with notions and hypotheses which over the centuries science had, as it were, deposited by the wayside — from the flat earth to the music of the spheres to Creationism, the luminiferous aether, and beyond. While I was writing it, it became apparent to me that there was a qualitative difference between those notions that were wrong simply because of people's lack of information — their position along scientific history's timeline, in effect — and those that were wrong because people were deliberately making them wrong.
To take a single example, when Ptolemy maintained that the Earth was the center of the universe, this was because he didn't know any better: it was a reasonably logical guess considering the state of knowledge in his day. Centuries later, however, when Copernicus and Kepler and Galileo had shown there was a much better explanation for the behavior of the heavens and the Roman Catholic Church was trying to suppress that better explanation, the Vatican was guilty of deliberately corrupting science. The motivation in this instance was a doctrinal one — much like the motivation for most Creationists/IDers today, now I come to think of it. Of course, there have been lots of other motives that have led people — both scientists and non-scientists — to corrupt human knowledge. Personal gain is an obvious one, as is self-deception, but the various ideological motives clearly are likely to have far wider-scale effects. Just think for a moment of the bad anthropology that was used to justify the Nazis' attempted genocide of "lesser races".
So the subject of the corruption of science seemed to me to be an important one.
...
What would you really like readers to take away from the book?
That the corruption of science, being more truly phrased as the corruption of human knowledge, is IMPORTANT.
We all suffer whenever someone indulges in the wholesale falsification or suppression of knowledge. The most serious suppression of knowledge at the moment is in connection with global warming, where media and corrupt or just plain dimwitted politicians have conspired in the idiotic pretense that there's still debate within the scientific community about the reality. There ain't. There's debate about some of the details, but the only dissent within the climatological community about the reality of global warming is from a handful of mavericks. All power to those mavericks, but their rather noisy existence doesn't imply that the climatological community is riven with doubt.
Because of the media/political pretense, the most important player in the quest to ameliorate the complete hell that's facing our children and grandchildren, the USA, has done almost completely nothing for what may very well have been the crux years — those years in which something could have been done to stave off the worst.
I thought at least the current crop of US presidential hopefuls had cottoned on to the urgency of the need to take action. Now I discover that two of them — McCain and Clinton — are proposing a "holiday" from gas taxes this summer, to encourage consumers to drive more miles than they might otherwise do — i.e., to add more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. It's hard to imagine quite how imbecilic one must be to imagine this could be a good thing.
But it's not just at the political level that seeking to corrupt others' knowledge is a dangerous and indeed criminal act. As I say, it affects all of us. Look at a whole list of cases where drug companies have suppressed knowledge of harmful side-effects some of their products can display. I could go on almost indefinitely!
To Read the Entire Interview
Speaking of Faith: Einstein and the Mind of God
Einstein and the Mind of God
Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett
Einstein's God:
Part one of this series takes Einstein's science as a starting point for exploring the great physicist's perspective on ideas such as mystery, eternity, and the mind of God.
Einstein's Ethics:
Part two of this series delves into Einstein's Jewish identity, his passionate engagement around issues of war and race, and modern extensions of his ethical and scientific perspectives.
To Listen to the Episodes
Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett
Einstein's God:
Part one of this series takes Einstein's science as a starting point for exploring the great physicist's perspective on ideas such as mystery, eternity, and the mind of God.
Einstein's Ethics:
Part two of this series delves into Einstein's Jewish identity, his passionate engagement around issues of war and race, and modern extensions of his ethical and scientific perspectives.
To Listen to the Episodes
Adventures in SF Publishing: Dan Simmons on The Terror
(Lexington doesn't have a cool independent genre bookstore that I can browse on slow days. I like the aesthetic experience of picking up various new books and leisurely deciding on one that I think will be good. Back in San Diego where I grew up that store was Mysterious Galaxy and imagine my surprise when not too long ago I found out that some of their booksellers produce a SF podcast show. Next week I will be back in my homeland and I will definitely make a trip to this independent bookseller and later on the same trip I will be in Portland, OR so I can stop by Powells [again, imagine my surprise when opening my union benefit package yesterday and finding that it includes a discount benefits from this bookseller]! Now, if I can somehow manage to stop by San Francisco's City Lights Books... As for the interview below, Dan Simmons is a powerful, literate writer--I recommend listening to the fascinating historical inspirations that led to his writing The Terror)
Dan Simmons
Adventures in SF Publishing
To Listen to the Episode
Dan Simmons
Adventures in SF Publishing
To Listen to the Episode
Speaking of Faith: Steven Waldman "Liberating the Founders"
Liberating the Founders
Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet
Warning: this conversation may not mirror what you learned in school. The culture wars of recent years, journalist Steven Waldman says, hijacked Americans' understanding of the country's founders and of the meaning of religious liberty. This hinders people from grasping what is really at stake in the current debates about the relationship between government and religion. It may even distort the wisdom we might bring to young democracies around the world.
To Listen to the Episode
Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet
Warning: this conversation may not mirror what you learned in school. The culture wars of recent years, journalist Steven Waldman says, hijacked Americans' understanding of the country's founders and of the meaning of religious liberty. This hinders people from grasping what is really at stake in the current debates about the relationship between government and religion. It may even distort the wisdom we might bring to young democracies around the world.
To Listen to the Episode
The Black and White Years: "Power to Change"
(I heard this song early this morning and it has been haunting me as an appropriate anthem as we celebrate the last 4th of July of the Bush II administration. Then when looking for lyrics online I came across August 1's excellent review.)
Drink Up The Black & White Years' Self Titled Debut
by August 1
MOG: The Music Blogging Network
...
The catchy “Power of Change” is an example of the intricate soundscapes the group creates. The song begins with a hyperactive bass drum beat as well as a distantly echoing and indistinct vocal which you don’t realize is there until subsequent listens. The vibrant, quickly-bouncing reggae-tinged guitar kicks in while the punchy bassline just flat out jumps about with glee. A short clipped drumbeat & insistent hi-hat join in joyfully. As all the aforementioned is going on, a fuzzy, reverb-soaked synthesizer makes you feel like you just entered the stratosphere on a rocketship that is doing laps around the universe — all this before Mr. Butler starts his aching, gruff and warbly vocal. It’s a deceptively complex song that gradually builds with kinetic energy to an explosive climax. You won’t be able to keep your body from involuntarily moving, guaranteed. Yet the lyrics have a depth that belies the energy, since the song talks about the need to change from our usual destructive human behaviors.
To Read the Rest of the Review, Watch the video of "Power to Change" and listen to "Hysterical Sickness"
Drink Up The Black & White Years' Self Titled Debut
by August 1
MOG: The Music Blogging Network
...
The catchy “Power of Change” is an example of the intricate soundscapes the group creates. The song begins with a hyperactive bass drum beat as well as a distantly echoing and indistinct vocal which you don’t realize is there until subsequent listens. The vibrant, quickly-bouncing reggae-tinged guitar kicks in while the punchy bassline just flat out jumps about with glee. A short clipped drumbeat & insistent hi-hat join in joyfully. As all the aforementioned is going on, a fuzzy, reverb-soaked synthesizer makes you feel like you just entered the stratosphere on a rocketship that is doing laps around the universe — all this before Mr. Butler starts his aching, gruff and warbly vocal. It’s a deceptively complex song that gradually builds with kinetic energy to an explosive climax. You won’t be able to keep your body from involuntarily moving, guaranteed. Yet the lyrics have a depth that belies the energy, since the song talks about the need to change from our usual destructive human behaviors.
To Read the Rest of the Review, Watch the video of "Power to Change" and listen to "Hysterical Sickness"
Radio 360: Music For Strange Moments
A new favorite music podcast. I have been playing this show non-stop the last couple of days. A hearty thanks to DJ Darkhorse:
Radio 360
Radio 360
Thursday, July 03, 2008
This 4th of July: Lexingtonians Let Mayor Newberry Know What You Think About the "CentrePointe" Project
(Courtesy of Audra Pace and Preserve Lexington)
Mayor Newberry has been the #1 advocate for leveling our entire block. He helped Dudley Webb spring this "CentrePointe" project on us in the dead of night, and has also left the public and even our our Council members in the dark. Though Newberry wants us to give our tax dollars to the Webbs, he hasn't bothered giving us input or even listening to us.
Here's the plan. Newberry will be marching in the parade this 4th of July, which starts at 2:00. Let's get a huge crowd gathered in front of what was The Dame and Busters, and when Mayor Newberry walks by, give him the verbal "greeting" that he so richly deserves.
We'll get local TV and print news covering the event if our turnout is big enough, I can assure you.
More on Centerpointe development:
Tom Eblen: Council arrived late to the CentrePointe ball
Mayor Newberry has been the #1 advocate for leveling our entire block. He helped Dudley Webb spring this "CentrePointe" project on us in the dead of night, and has also left the public and even our our Council members in the dark. Though Newberry wants us to give our tax dollars to the Webbs, he hasn't bothered giving us input or even listening to us.
Here's the plan. Newberry will be marching in the parade this 4th of July, which starts at 2:00. Let's get a huge crowd gathered in front of what was The Dame and Busters, and when Mayor Newberry walks by, give him the verbal "greeting" that he so richly deserves.
We'll get local TV and print news covering the event if our turnout is big enough, I can assure you.
More on Centerpointe development:
Tom Eblen: Council arrived late to the CentrePointe ball
Minnesota Public Radio: A critical look at the presidential nominees
(Amy Goodman is the highlight here as she goes right to root of the problem of our democratic election process and she directly challenges the audience to be a part of the solution. Part of the 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival)
A critical look at the presidential nominees
Minnesota Public Radio
Media panelists assess the qualities of the presumptive presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama, during an event at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado.
Guests
David Brooks: New York Times columnist and senior editor at The Weekly Standard. Contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, and commentator on PBS "Newshour with Jim Lehrer."
Amy Goodman: Co-founder and host of "Democracy Now!", a daily radio and television news program.
Stuart Rothenberg: Editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report.
Arianna Huffington: Co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post.
Jonathan Alter: Editor and columnist at Newsweek. Moderator of the panel discussion.
Jim Wallis: Founder and editor of Sojourners Magazine.
To Listen to the Roundtable Discussion
A critical look at the presidential nominees
Minnesota Public Radio
Media panelists assess the qualities of the presumptive presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama, during an event at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado.
Guests
David Brooks: New York Times columnist and senior editor at The Weekly Standard. Contributing editor at Newsweek and the Atlantic Monthly, and commentator on PBS "Newshour with Jim Lehrer."
Amy Goodman: Co-founder and host of "Democracy Now!", a daily radio and television news program.
Stuart Rothenberg: Editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report.
Arianna Huffington: Co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post.
Jonathan Alter: Editor and columnist at Newsweek. Moderator of the panel discussion.
Jim Wallis: Founder and editor of Sojourners Magazine.
To Listen to the Roundtable Discussion
Todd Gitlin: Eight Strategies We Use to Navigate the Ceaseless Flood of Media
The Fan develops a visceral, emotional attachment to certain genres or celebrities. This attachment requires a choice (I'll pay attention to New Wave and ignore folk music), and it leads to membership in a community of connoisseurs, or believers.
Where the fan works by affirmation, the Content Critic works by aversion. He is on the lookout for all of the crappy songs and biased news, all the ways in which the media fail politically and aesthetically. If the content of the media could somehow be improved, the world would too.
The Paranoid believes that They are programming Us. Television (the usual culprit) is an addiction, a hypnotic agent. If we are at a loss, drifting or suffering, it must be because They--the Government, the Liberal Media, the Media Monopoly, the Zionist Occupation Government--are pushing the buttons. Though it is extreme, paranoia is a warped version of legitimate fear.
The Exhibitionist glories in media exposure--the cast of MTV's The Real World, the painted spectators holding NBC signs at sports events, those who broadcast their intimate lives via 24/7 webcam. Commanding the attention of spectators, the exhibitionist achieves some exemption from the anonymity of the torrent, some power apparently without risk. But because this power is risk-free, it is trivial.
The Ironist knows that media are nothing but weightless contrivances, so she surfs with ease and without committment, amused and aamused to be amused. She can enjoy the spectacle on two levels--as a faux-naive fan (who always liked the smile of that faded star) and as a knowing insider (who knows that the faded star started touring again because she was broke). The media have adopted, or co-opted, the ironist's style, with the glorification of kitsch and ads that wink knowingly while they continue to pitch.
The Culture Jammer, like the critic, believes that images are power. The difference is that he will directly attack those images, defacing or refacing them. In order to redistribute power he's an active transmitter rather than a passive receiver. Whether he's hacking into a corporate site or unfurling anti-consumer banners in the Mall of America, offense has become the jammer's defense.
The Secessionist knows that media steal our time, and therefore our lives and human capacities. Because the media are beyond reform, she does not bother to displace, jam, supplement, or critique them. She rations television, planning one day to get rid of it, and abstains from cell phones and e-mail whenever possible. She knows how the media can seduce if you let your guard down.
Because the media are politically pacifying, life-throttling, mind-sapping, even physically damaging, the Abolitionist refuses to accept their existence as a good argument for their continued existence. Only one valid question about the media torrent remains: How do you launch the revolution to dry it up?
(Source for this is Adbusters July/August 2002)
Democracy Now: Groundbreaking Lawsuit Accuses Big Oil of Conspiracy to Deceive Public About Climate Change; John Holdren on "Global Disruption"
Democracy Now
Groundbreaking Lawsuit Accuses Big Oil of Conspiracy to Deceive Public About Climate Change
Attorney Stephen Susman helped file a groundbreaking lawsuit earlier this year on behalf of 400 Inupiat villagers in the Alaskan town of Kivalina who are being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by global warming. The suit accuses twenty oil, gas and electric companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Peabody, of being responsible for emitting millions of tons of greenhouse gases causing the Arctic ice to melt.
To Listen/Watch/Read
"Global Disruption" More Accurately Describes Climate Change, Not "Global Warming" - Leading Scientist John Holdren
Leading scientist John Holdren says “global warming” is not the correct term to use; he prefers “global disruption.” “‘Global warming’ [is] misleading. It implies something that’s mainly about temperature, that’s gradual, and that’s uniform across the planet,” says Holdren. “In fact, temperature is only one of the things that’s changing. It’s a sort of an index of the state of the climate. The whole climate is changing: the winds, the ocean currents, the storm patterns, snow packs, snowmelt, flooding, droughts. Temperature is just a bit of it.”
To Listen/Watch/Read
Groundbreaking Lawsuit Accuses Big Oil of Conspiracy to Deceive Public About Climate Change
Attorney Stephen Susman helped file a groundbreaking lawsuit earlier this year on behalf of 400 Inupiat villagers in the Alaskan town of Kivalina who are being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by global warming. The suit accuses twenty oil, gas and electric companies, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Peabody, of being responsible for emitting millions of tons of greenhouse gases causing the Arctic ice to melt.
To Listen/Watch/Read
"Global Disruption" More Accurately Describes Climate Change, Not "Global Warming" - Leading Scientist John Holdren
Leading scientist John Holdren says “global warming” is not the correct term to use; he prefers “global disruption.” “‘Global warming’ [is] misleading. It implies something that’s mainly about temperature, that’s gradual, and that’s uniform across the planet,” says Holdren. “In fact, temperature is only one of the things that’s changing. It’s a sort of an index of the state of the climate. The whole climate is changing: the winds, the ocean currents, the storm patterns, snow packs, snowmelt, flooding, droughts. Temperature is just a bit of it.”
To Listen/Watch/Read
Watching the Directors: Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
Watching the Directors
Terry Gilliam has an identifiable aesthetic and a constant thematic affection that floats through all his movies - films like Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. To discuss such a weighty filmmaker, we are joined by Duke Senter from the Degree of Separation podcast and veteran of the Tarantino and Kubrick episodes. So sit back and enjoy the mammoth episode with an extra 30 minutes of discussion that the studio wanted to cut and mangle, just like they did with Baron Munchausen.
To Listen to the Episode
Watching the Directors
Terry Gilliam has an identifiable aesthetic and a constant thematic affection that floats through all his movies - films like Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. To discuss such a weighty filmmaker, we are joined by Duke Senter from the Degree of Separation podcast and veteran of the Tarantino and Kubrick episodes. So sit back and enjoy the mammoth episode with an extra 30 minutes of discussion that the studio wanted to cut and mangle, just like they did with Baron Munchausen.
To Listen to the Episode
Marilyn Brown: Fewer Students Read Between Lines
Fewer Students Read Between Lines
By MARILYN BROWN
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Despite a decade of education reform, tens of thousands of Florida's high school students don't read well enough to survive in the work force.
•This year's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results revealed just 38 percent of 10th graders are proficient in reading.
•About one fourth of Hillsborough County high school students - 12,088 - were placed in remedial reading classes in 2007-08.
•Nearly 35 percent of students who entered Florida's community colleges in 2006 were required to take remedial reading.
•College entrance exam reading scores are not improving. SAT scores remain basically flat in Florida and ACT reading scores in Florida dropped four points in 2007, nine points below the national average.
Now, after years of focusing on young readers, educators are turning their attention to high school students who need help. In addition to the reading class Hillsborough County requires for all ninth-graders and the remedial classes for the district's weakest readers, middle and high school students will have new curriculum in August emphasizing higher level thinking skills.
"The No. 1 problem in secondary education in our state and in our country is a decline in literacy in high school," said Don Gaetz, a former superintendent and chairman of Florida's Senate K-12 education committee.
State Education Commissioner Eric Smith notes recent statewide progress - the percentage of 10th-graders scoring in the lowest level has dropped from 32 percent in 2001 to 20 percent this year - but says "it's not even close to being adequate."
Gaetz, superintendent in Okaloosa County from 2000 to 2006, figures there are two reasons, echoed by national experts:
"We quit teaching reading in fifth grade," and, "In general, no one is responsible for the literacy of a high school student."
To Read the Rest of the Article
By MARILYN BROWN
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Despite a decade of education reform, tens of thousands of Florida's high school students don't read well enough to survive in the work force.
•This year's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results revealed just 38 percent of 10th graders are proficient in reading.
•About one fourth of Hillsborough County high school students - 12,088 - were placed in remedial reading classes in 2007-08.
•Nearly 35 percent of students who entered Florida's community colleges in 2006 were required to take remedial reading.
•College entrance exam reading scores are not improving. SAT scores remain basically flat in Florida and ACT reading scores in Florida dropped four points in 2007, nine points below the national average.
Now, after years of focusing on young readers, educators are turning their attention to high school students who need help. In addition to the reading class Hillsborough County requires for all ninth-graders and the remedial classes for the district's weakest readers, middle and high school students will have new curriculum in August emphasizing higher level thinking skills.
"The No. 1 problem in secondary education in our state and in our country is a decline in literacy in high school," said Don Gaetz, a former superintendent and chairman of Florida's Senate K-12 education committee.
State Education Commissioner Eric Smith notes recent statewide progress - the percentage of 10th-graders scoring in the lowest level has dropped from 32 percent in 2001 to 20 percent this year - but says "it's not even close to being adequate."
Gaetz, superintendent in Okaloosa County from 2000 to 2006, figures there are two reasons, echoed by national experts:
"We quit teaching reading in fifth grade," and, "In general, no one is responsible for the literacy of a high school student."
To Read the Rest of the Article
Lexington, KY 4th of July Parade: One Earth, One Chance
(Message from Claire Glasscock)
4th of July Parade
Downtown Lexington
2:00 pm
Walk with us! Meet us on Midland Ave. at 1:00 pm, position #23
Theme:
One Earth, One Chance
The Franciscan Peace Center, the Unitarian Universalist Environmental Task Force,
and BCTC's Peace and Justice Coalition, ask that people nurture the earth
and the rest of humanity by living simply.
The entry includes one of the new high-mileage "Smart Cars" decorated with origami peace cranes, and a dove - symbol of peace. The group's message is that peace and care for the earth are intimately linked.
________________________________________
Voices from Hiroshima:
Nuclear Weapons Abolition:
Now or Never
Featuring two outstanding visitors from Hiroshima, Japan
2:30 – 4:00 p.m., Saturday,
July 12, 2008
Unitarian Universalist Church
3564 Clays Mill Road, Lexington
Free and open to the public
Presenters:
Ms. Miyoko Watanabe, Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivor and official witness for the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. She will describe her experience to remind the audience of the effects of atomic and nuclear weapons, and raising a cry of warning about the future.
Steve Leeper, Chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation (the peace & international relations arm of the City of Hiroshima, Japan). He will make a presentation about why the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation believes that nuclear weapons are about to get out of control. Many people believe such weapons will be used in the next year or two, and if we do not make substantial progress toward disarmament in the near future nuclear weaponry will spread throughout the world.
Sponsors Include: Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, Footprints for Peace, Franciscan Peace Center, Unitarian Universalist Church, BCTC’s Peace and Justice Coalition
4th of July Parade
Downtown Lexington
2:00 pm
Walk with us! Meet us on Midland Ave. at 1:00 pm, position #23
Theme:
One Earth, One Chance
The Franciscan Peace Center, the Unitarian Universalist Environmental Task Force,
and BCTC's Peace and Justice Coalition, ask that people nurture the earth
and the rest of humanity by living simply.
The entry includes one of the new high-mileage "Smart Cars" decorated with origami peace cranes, and a dove - symbol of peace. The group's message is that peace and care for the earth are intimately linked.
________________________________________
Voices from Hiroshima:
Nuclear Weapons Abolition:
Now or Never
Featuring two outstanding visitors from Hiroshima, Japan
2:30 – 4:00 p.m., Saturday,
July 12, 2008
Unitarian Universalist Church
3564 Clays Mill Road, Lexington
Free and open to the public
Presenters:
Ms. Miyoko Watanabe, Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivor and official witness for the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. She will describe her experience to remind the audience of the effects of atomic and nuclear weapons, and raising a cry of warning about the future.
Steve Leeper, Chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation (the peace & international relations arm of the City of Hiroshima, Japan). He will make a presentation about why the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation believes that nuclear weapons are about to get out of control. Many people believe such weapons will be used in the next year or two, and if we do not make substantial progress toward disarmament in the near future nuclear weaponry will spread throughout the world.
Sponsors Include: Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, Footprints for Peace, Franciscan Peace Center, Unitarian Universalist Church, BCTC’s Peace and Justice Coalition
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
David Brin: "Star Wars" despots vs. "Star Trek" populists
(From way back in 1999, but I still think Brin's response to Lucas' mythos is relevant to our current situation.)
"Star Wars" despots vs. "Star Trek" populists: Why is George Lucas peddling an elitist, anti-democratic agenda under the guise of escapist fun?
By David Brin
Salon
Well, I boycotted "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" -- for an entire week.
Why? What's to boycott? Isn't "Star Wars" good old fashioned sci-fi? Harmless fun? Some people call it "eye candy" -- a chance to drop back into childhood and punt your adult cares away for two hours, dwelling in a lavish universe where good and evil are vividly drawn, without all the inconvenient counterpoint distinctions that clutter daily life.
Got a problem? Cleave it with a light saber! Wouldn't you love -- just once in your life -- to dive a fast little ship into your worst enemy's stronghold and set off a chain reaction, blowing up the whole megillah from within its rotten core while you streak away to safety at the speed of light? (It's such a nifty notion that it happens in three out of four "Star Wars" flicks.)
Anyway, I make a good living writing science-fiction novels and movies. So "Star Wars" ought to be a great busman's holiday, right?
One of the problems with so-called light entertainment today is that somehow, amid all the gaudy special effects, people tend to lose track of simple things, like story and meaning. They stop noticing the moral lessons the director is trying to push. Yet these things matter.
By now it's grown clear that George Lucas has an agenda, one that he takes very seriously. After four "Star Wars" films, alarm bells should have gone off, even among those who don't look for morals in movies. When the chief feature distinguishing "good" from "evil" is how pretty the characters are, it's a clue that maybe the whole saga deserves a second look.
Just what bill of goods are we being sold, between the frames?
* Elites have an inherent right to arbitrary rule; common citizens needn't be consulted. They may only choose which elite to follow.
* "Good" elites should act on their subjective whims, without evidence, argument or accountability.
* Any amount of sin can be forgiven if you are important enough.
* True leaders are born. It's genetic. The right to rule is inherited.
* Justified human emotions can turn a good person evil.
That is just the beginning of a long list of "moral" lessons relentlessly pushed by "Star Wars." Lessons that starkly differentiate this saga from others that seem superficially similar, like "Star Trek." (We'll take a much closer look at some stark divergences between these two sci-fi universes below.)
Above all, I never cared for the whole Nietzschian Ubermensch thing: the notion -- pervading a great many myths and legends -- that a good yarn has to be about demigods who are bigger, badder and better than normal folk by several orders of magnitude. It's an ancient storytelling tradition based on abiding contempt for the masses -- one that I find odious in the works of A.E. Van Vogt, E.E. Smith, L. Ron Hubbard and wherever you witness slanlike super-beings deciding the fate of billions without ever pausing to consider their wishes.
Wow, you say. If I feel that strongly about this, why just a week-long boycott? Why see the latest "Star Wars" film at all?
To Read the Rest of the Essay
"Star Wars" despots vs. "Star Trek" populists: Why is George Lucas peddling an elitist, anti-democratic agenda under the guise of escapist fun?
By David Brin
Salon
Well, I boycotted "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" -- for an entire week.
Why? What's to boycott? Isn't "Star Wars" good old fashioned sci-fi? Harmless fun? Some people call it "eye candy" -- a chance to drop back into childhood and punt your adult cares away for two hours, dwelling in a lavish universe where good and evil are vividly drawn, without all the inconvenient counterpoint distinctions that clutter daily life.
Got a problem? Cleave it with a light saber! Wouldn't you love -- just once in your life -- to dive a fast little ship into your worst enemy's stronghold and set off a chain reaction, blowing up the whole megillah from within its rotten core while you streak away to safety at the speed of light? (It's such a nifty notion that it happens in three out of four "Star Wars" flicks.)
Anyway, I make a good living writing science-fiction novels and movies. So "Star Wars" ought to be a great busman's holiday, right?
One of the problems with so-called light entertainment today is that somehow, amid all the gaudy special effects, people tend to lose track of simple things, like story and meaning. They stop noticing the moral lessons the director is trying to push. Yet these things matter.
By now it's grown clear that George Lucas has an agenda, one that he takes very seriously. After four "Star Wars" films, alarm bells should have gone off, even among those who don't look for morals in movies. When the chief feature distinguishing "good" from "evil" is how pretty the characters are, it's a clue that maybe the whole saga deserves a second look.
Just what bill of goods are we being sold, between the frames?
* Elites have an inherent right to arbitrary rule; common citizens needn't be consulted. They may only choose which elite to follow.
* "Good" elites should act on their subjective whims, without evidence, argument or accountability.
* Any amount of sin can be forgiven if you are important enough.
* True leaders are born. It's genetic. The right to rule is inherited.
* Justified human emotions can turn a good person evil.
That is just the beginning of a long list of "moral" lessons relentlessly pushed by "Star Wars." Lessons that starkly differentiate this saga from others that seem superficially similar, like "Star Trek." (We'll take a much closer look at some stark divergences between these two sci-fi universes below.)
Above all, I never cared for the whole Nietzschian Ubermensch thing: the notion -- pervading a great many myths and legends -- that a good yarn has to be about demigods who are bigger, badder and better than normal folk by several orders of magnitude. It's an ancient storytelling tradition based on abiding contempt for the masses -- one that I find odious in the works of A.E. Van Vogt, E.E. Smith, L. Ron Hubbard and wherever you witness slanlike super-beings deciding the fate of billions without ever pausing to consider their wishes.
Wow, you say. If I feel that strongly about this, why just a week-long boycott? Why see the latest "Star Wars" film at all?
To Read the Rest of the Essay
Open Source: Douglas Blackmon--The Truth about Jim Crow
Douglas Blackmon: The Truth about Jim Crow
Open Source
Douglas Blackmon of the Wall Street Journal has written a newsman’s history book with staggering implications about racial reality in America today.
The heart of the story is that slavery in the American South ended not with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the end of the Civil War, but at the onset of World War 2. That is: state-sanctioned brutal and abusive bondage ended less than 70 years ago, well within the living memory of millions of Americans, black and white. The gap between “slave time” and now is not five or six generations, but one or two at most.
The sidewalks of Atlanta today were paved in the 20th Century with millions of bricks made by “slaves by another name” — by black men the city had seized and leased over to the ex-Mayor James English’s Chattahoochee Brick Company. Some of Atlanta’s finest families were in on neo-slavery, in Blackmon’s telling — men like Joel Hurt of Atlanta’s Trust Company. No guard could ever “do enough whipping for Mr. Hurt,” it was said. “He wanted men whipped for singing and laughing.”
Slavery by Another Name is Doug Blackmon’s complete revision of the Jim Crow story, with an astonishing breadth and depth of documentation and none of the old sugar-coating or vagueness around phrases like peonage and sharecropping. “Neo-slavery” was the hard-core of a public-private system that undid the freedoms that came with Reconstruction for most of thirty years after the Civil War, and then enforced a new reign of terror over all African-Americans in the South.
Slavery by Another Name is hard reading that ought to be required. At a moment of reckoning around race in our country, Doug Blackmon, a studious child of the Mississippi Delta, has offered a monumental contribution to an agonizing re-learning of who we all are.
To Listen to the Episode
The Website for the Book
Open Source
Douglas Blackmon of the Wall Street Journal has written a newsman’s history book with staggering implications about racial reality in America today.
The heart of the story is that slavery in the American South ended not with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the end of the Civil War, but at the onset of World War 2. That is: state-sanctioned brutal and abusive bondage ended less than 70 years ago, well within the living memory of millions of Americans, black and white. The gap between “slave time” and now is not five or six generations, but one or two at most.
The sidewalks of Atlanta today were paved in the 20th Century with millions of bricks made by “slaves by another name” — by black men the city had seized and leased over to the ex-Mayor James English’s Chattahoochee Brick Company. Some of Atlanta’s finest families were in on neo-slavery, in Blackmon’s telling — men like Joel Hurt of Atlanta’s Trust Company. No guard could ever “do enough whipping for Mr. Hurt,” it was said. “He wanted men whipped for singing and laughing.”
Slavery by Another Name is Doug Blackmon’s complete revision of the Jim Crow story, with an astonishing breadth and depth of documentation and none of the old sugar-coating or vagueness around phrases like peonage and sharecropping. “Neo-slavery” was the hard-core of a public-private system that undid the freedoms that came with Reconstruction for most of thirty years after the Civil War, and then enforced a new reign of terror over all African-Americans in the South.
Slavery by Another Name is hard reading that ought to be required. At a moment of reckoning around race in our country, Doug Blackmon, a studious child of the Mississippi Delta, has offered a monumental contribution to an agonizing re-learning of who we all are.
To Listen to the Episode
The Website for the Book
Voices from Hiroshima: Nuclear Weapons Abolition--Now or Never (July 12, 2008)
Voices from Hiroshima:
Nuclear Weapons Abolition:
Now or Never
Featuring two outstanding visitors from Hiroshima, Japan
2:30 – 4:00 p.m., Saturday,
July 12, 2008
Unitarian Universalist Church
3564 Clays Mill Road, Lexington
Free and open to the public
Presenters:
Ms. Miyoko Watanabe, Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivor and official witness for the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. She will describe her experience to remind the audience of the effects of atomic and nuclear weapons, and raising a cry of warning about the future.
Steve Leeper, Chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation (the peace & international relations arm of the City of Hiroshima, Japan). He will make a presentation about why the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation believes that nuclear weapons are about to get out of control. Many people believe such weapons will be used in the next year or two, and if we do not make substantial progress toward disarmament in the near future nuclear weaponry will spread throughout the world.
Sponsors Include: Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, Footprints for Peace, Franciscan Peace Center, Unitarian Universalist Church, BCTC’s Peace and Justice Coalition
Nuclear Weapons Abolition:
Now or Never
Featuring two outstanding visitors from Hiroshima, Japan
2:30 – 4:00 p.m., Saturday,
July 12, 2008
Unitarian Universalist Church
3564 Clays Mill Road, Lexington
Free and open to the public
Presenters:
Ms. Miyoko Watanabe, Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivor and official witness for the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation. She will describe her experience to remind the audience of the effects of atomic and nuclear weapons, and raising a cry of warning about the future.
Steve Leeper, Chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation (the peace & international relations arm of the City of Hiroshima, Japan). He will make a presentation about why the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation believes that nuclear weapons are about to get out of control. Many people believe such weapons will be used in the next year or two, and if we do not make substantial progress toward disarmament in the near future nuclear weaponry will spread throughout the world.
Sponsors Include: Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, Footprints for Peace, Franciscan Peace Center, Unitarian Universalist Church, BCTC’s Peace and Justice Coalition
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