Tuesday, October 27, 6:30-7:45 p.m. in the OB Auditorium, BCTC – Cooper Campus. Bryan Reinholdt, National Board of Directors, Iraq Veterans Again the War. Description: Veterans' movements have guided the country in the past, what's different now? Who is out there and how can we creatively sustain the anti-war movement? How can the anti-war movement approach Afghanistan? These and other topics will be addressed through the lens of an Iraq veteran serving veterans through the organization: Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).
Wednesday, October 28, 7:00-9:30 p.m., White Hall Classroom Building, Room 212, UK. Parts 3 & 4 of Appalachia. Description: The PBS documentary Appalachia was 10 years in the making and presents a balanced, insightful and in-depth view of the region.
Thursday, October 29, 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the OB Auditorium, BCTC – Cooper Campus. Michael Kessler, author and filmmaker. Description: The History of the Future, by Mr. Kessler, has been shown internationally. The film draws from the ideas of Albert Einstein and Buckminster Fuller. For more information, go to http://mkess.com/history.shtml.
Tuesday, November 3, 6:30-9:00 p.m. at the Kentucky Theatre, downtown Lexington. Description: Reel World String Band will perform union music at 6:30, followed by the union classic film Norma Rae at about 7:00 p.m. The event is in recognition of United Nations Day. Admission is only $5.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Peace and Conflict Studies, Part 1: Howard Zinn Archive
[Addition--rephrased this better after your comments in class :)]
For my students in Peace and Conflict Studies--but anyone, feel free to leave comments, questions and resources. To the students, I filled the chalkboard up, in class today, with names, resources and references, if you have any questions and/or comments, please leave them in the comments to this blog post. If you ask me a question about something I mentioned I will explain it in more detail on this website.
Example in the news:
We were talking about Cultural Hegemony today in class and the subtle ways in which the dominant culture tries to influence the way we perceive/understand/experience the world. This process is carried out constantly in a multitude of ways. Walking back to my office after class I noticed the Kentucky Kernel's front page story "Basketball Dorm Naming Rights Causes Stir Over Coal" and read the story ... I was struck by how it was such a clear example. Using money to build a dorm for the most influential cultural force in Lexington (UK Basketball--rivaled only by horse racing and bourbon). Why the insistence that the new building's name have the word "coal" in it? Why the charade that they want to honor the "heritage of the state and coal miners" (there is no insistence on the word Kentucky or workers/miners?)? Why does Gardner attempt to use his money to influence us to accept and support what he terms the "foundation of Kentucky’s economy for many decades, and it’s going to be the foundation for many decades to come"? If so, why the need to spend 7 million dollars to advertise the word "coal" on the dormitory of UK Basketball players (lets not be mistaken--this is advertisement)?
Then watch Mountaintop Removal Begins on Coal River Mountain -- Help Needed Now and think about how activist groups are trying to counter the hegemonic narrative Gardner is buying/producing.
Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States
Howard Zinn, Marilyn Young and Jonathan Schell: The Legacy of Robert McNamara
Howard Zinn: I Wish Obama Would Listen to Martin Luther King, Jr
Howard Zinn: The Lessons of the Iraq War Start with US History
Howard Zinn: An Interview With Howard Zinn about Anarchism
Howard Zinn: Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn’t Teach Me About American Empire
Howard Zinn: On War and Social Justice
Howard Zinn: On Teaching for Change
Howard Zinn: Democratic Education
Howard Zinn: On Civil Disobedience
Howard Zinn: If History is to Be Creative
Howard Zinn: The Problem of Civil Obedience
Howard Zinn: America’s Blinders
Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove: Readings from A People’s History of the United States
Howard Zinn: It’s Not Up to the Court
Howard Zinn: The Myth of American Exceptionalism
Howard Zinn: Our War on Terrorism
Thom Yorke and Howard Zinn: The Truth in the Hand of Artists
Related Materials that Explore the Issues We Discussed in Class Today
More Materials That I Discussed in Class Today
Thinking About Radical Democracy
Project Censored: Media Democracy in Action
Arundhati Roy: Instant Mix, Imperial Democracy
People’s Historical Documents; Radical Reader; Cultural Resistance Reader
For my students in Peace and Conflict Studies--but anyone, feel free to leave comments, questions and resources. To the students, I filled the chalkboard up, in class today, with names, resources and references, if you have any questions and/or comments, please leave them in the comments to this blog post. If you ask me a question about something I mentioned I will explain it in more detail on this website.
Example in the news:
We were talking about Cultural Hegemony today in class and the subtle ways in which the dominant culture tries to influence the way we perceive/understand/experience the world. This process is carried out constantly in a multitude of ways. Walking back to my office after class I noticed the Kentucky Kernel's front page story "Basketball Dorm Naming Rights Causes Stir Over Coal" and read the story ... I was struck by how it was such a clear example. Using money to build a dorm for the most influential cultural force in Lexington (UK Basketball--rivaled only by horse racing and bourbon). Why the insistence that the new building's name have the word "coal" in it? Why the charade that they want to honor the "heritage of the state and coal miners" (there is no insistence on the word Kentucky or workers/miners?)? Why does Gardner attempt to use his money to influence us to accept and support what he terms the "foundation of Kentucky’s economy for many decades, and it’s going to be the foundation for many decades to come"? If so, why the need to spend 7 million dollars to advertise the word "coal" on the dormitory of UK Basketball players (lets not be mistaken--this is advertisement)?
Then watch Mountaintop Removal Begins on Coal River Mountain -- Help Needed Now and think about how activist groups are trying to counter the hegemonic narrative Gardner is buying/producing.
Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States
Howard Zinn, Marilyn Young and Jonathan Schell: The Legacy of Robert McNamara
Howard Zinn: I Wish Obama Would Listen to Martin Luther King, Jr
Howard Zinn: The Lessons of the Iraq War Start with US History
Howard Zinn: An Interview With Howard Zinn about Anarchism
Howard Zinn: Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn’t Teach Me About American Empire
Howard Zinn: On War and Social Justice
Howard Zinn: On Teaching for Change
Howard Zinn: Democratic Education
Howard Zinn: On Civil Disobedience
Howard Zinn: If History is to Be Creative
Howard Zinn: The Problem of Civil Obedience
Howard Zinn: America’s Blinders
Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove: Readings from A People’s History of the United States
Howard Zinn: It’s Not Up to the Court
Howard Zinn: The Myth of American Exceptionalism
Howard Zinn: Our War on Terrorism
Thom Yorke and Howard Zinn: The Truth in the Hand of Artists
Related Materials that Explore the Issues We Discussed in Class Today
More Materials That I Discussed in Class Today
Thinking About Radical Democracy
Project Censored: Media Democracy in Action
Arundhati Roy: Instant Mix, Imperial Democracy
People’s Historical Documents; Radical Reader; Cultural Resistance Reader
Milos Stehlik: U.S. Imperialism Through Film
U.S. Imperialism Through Film
by Milos Stehlik
Worldview (Chicago Public Radio)
Hegemony takes many forms. In his regular film documentary, Milos Stehlik of Facets Multimedia looks at how the U.S. culturally colonized the world through film.
Is American cinema imperialist? In a word, “yes.” Sweetheart deals gave Hollywood special access to European markets after World War II. Exporting American films overseas was part of the Marshall Plan that reconstructed post-war Europe. American films were viewed as a way to oppose Communism by promoting the “American way of life.” U.S. films were dumped at cut-rate prices onto war-torn Europe, whose film industries were in ruins, under the guise of promoting the “free market.”
This scheme gave American films world-wide dominance. Today, entertainment is America’s largest export, with sales higher than any other industry, accounting for over 60 billion dollars annually. English-language films account for about 65% of the worldwide box office gross.
American film brilliantly executes its role as the sales agent for this “American way of life.” Though this way of life may never have existed in reality — it did represent a worldwide ideal: the nuclear family, the house with the white picket fence, boy gets the girl, the good guy always wins. American movies fueled the global fantasy: everyone else in the world wanted to be just like us – or just like we seemed to be in American movies.
Shopping malls, T-shirts, fast food – Hollywood films laid the path to globalization — brick by cinematic brick. Cultural imperialism blazed the trail for economic dominance: would McDonald’s or Pepsi or Coca-Cola be the global brands they are today without the Americanization of the global psyche by American movies?
To Listen to the Episode
by Milos Stehlik
Worldview (Chicago Public Radio)
Hegemony takes many forms. In his regular film documentary, Milos Stehlik of Facets Multimedia looks at how the U.S. culturally colonized the world through film.
Is American cinema imperialist? In a word, “yes.” Sweetheart deals gave Hollywood special access to European markets after World War II. Exporting American films overseas was part of the Marshall Plan that reconstructed post-war Europe. American films were viewed as a way to oppose Communism by promoting the “American way of life.” U.S. films were dumped at cut-rate prices onto war-torn Europe, whose film industries were in ruins, under the guise of promoting the “free market.”
This scheme gave American films world-wide dominance. Today, entertainment is America’s largest export, with sales higher than any other industry, accounting for over 60 billion dollars annually. English-language films account for about 65% of the worldwide box office gross.
American film brilliantly executes its role as the sales agent for this “American way of life.” Though this way of life may never have existed in reality — it did represent a worldwide ideal: the nuclear family, the house with the white picket fence, boy gets the girl, the good guy always wins. American movies fueled the global fantasy: everyone else in the world wanted to be just like us – or just like we seemed to be in American movies.
Shopping malls, T-shirts, fast food – Hollywood films laid the path to globalization — brick by cinematic brick. Cultural imperialism blazed the trail for economic dominance: would McDonald’s or Pepsi or Coca-Cola be the global brands they are today without the Americanization of the global psyche by American movies?
To Listen to the Episode
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Ron Gregg: Queer Performance, Youth and YouTube
Queer performance, youth and YouTube
by Ron Gregg
Jump Cut
In this paper, I analyze videos produced and performed by youth on the video sharing website YouTube which feature queer performance, particularly cross-dressing and/or same sex eroticism. I began this study before Oct. 2006, when Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube.com. What drew my attention was the incredible freedom expressed in the youth’s uninhibited and very public performances. Like many queer youth of my generation in the 1960s, I lip synced popular tunes myself, often adopting the cross-gender persona of Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, one of my divas, sometimes even engaging in a bit of cross-dressing to inhabit that persona. But I kept such performances in the private space of the bedroom. Also like most of my peers, we never discussed it outside of that bedroom.
The web has changed this by encouraging youth to make private performances public. YouTube offers adolescents what Francesco Bonami calls a “moment in which rationality gives way to visionary impulse, when the logic of our actions gives way to an extreme desire for freedom, a desire destined to be swallowed up by the infinite rules of the social game.” I wondered when I started this project, if it was possible that this destiny might change for these young producers recording and uploading their “impulses” to this virtual public sphere and connecting with a large network of vocal, like-minded friends. Would these young performers find themselves less “swallowed” up by and change the rules when they enter the adult world? Or would the corporate and moral authorities successfully discipline such youth and reassert their “rules” in this public space?
Without a doubt, the media attention that made YouTube a cultural phenomenon, the Google purchase, and the increasing clash of different ideological forces have changed YouTube. Many of the videos that I looked at more than a year ago are no longer available. There are any number of possible reasons for these changes: the producers boredom and withdrawal from YouTube; after seeing what their teenagers have uploaded and shared with the world, parents ordering them to remove the videos from YouTube; or maturity—they grow out of their YouTube videos with new interests and more freedom outside of the home. Others may have been scared by denigrating, anti-queer responses to their videos or by sexually suggestive come-ons by older viewers and exited the YouTube community in response. In some cases, the producers have shifted their videos from a public site to a private site, only available to those granted permission.
A few producers had their “user accounts suspended,” clearly for video content that was flagged as inappropriate or used copyrighted material. These suspensions suggest that Goggle increased the surveillance and removal of erotic and copyrighted material. But Google does not want to repress the creative and invigorating youthful energy that has helped to make YouTube the phenomenal success that it is. Thus, YouTube negotiates between youthful energy and conservative corporate and moral interests and continues to be a major site for adolescent queer speak and culture. Although some videos have disappeared, they have been replaced by an even greater number of new ones. They are also no longer just from the United States; YouTube is creating a transnational virtual community.
Since its founding in 2005, one of the most astonishing things about YouTube — and one of the ways it most fulfills Poster’s hope that the web will provide a forum to those usually excluded from cultural production — is that, at least, in its pre-Google days, evidence suggests that 12-17 year olds were YouTube’s primary producers and consumers. YouTube has provided amateur filmmakers and performers a virtual space where they can easily upload videos they have produced themselves and which they and/or their friends perform, making them available to a larger virtual community.
Many adolescents find that the sharing, response, and linking nature of YouTube builds a supportive community for their art and/or behavior. After sharing a self-produced video with the YouTube community, the young producer receives responses and ratings from viewers, which sometimes leads to discussions about the video’s aesthetics and content. Out of these discussions, small communities of like-minded “friends” connect and pass on video favorites between themselves, the larger YouTube community through their personal YouTube webpages, and to other linking sites. Each video’s webpage indicates how often the video has been viewed, lists comments by viewers, and links the viewer to other videos by the same producer as well as to her/his favorite videos by other producers.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
by Ron Gregg
Jump Cut
“The ‘magic’ of the Internet is that it is a technology that puts cultural acts, symbolizations in all forms, in the hands of all participants; it radically decentralizes the positions of speech, publishing, filmmaking, radio and television broadcasting, in short the apparatuses of cultural production.” — Mark Poster
"In the evolution of the individual, there is a moment in which rationality gives way to visionary impulse, when the logic of our actions gives way to an extreme desire for freedom, a desire destined to be swallowed up by the infinite rules of the social game." — Francesco Bonami
In this paper, I analyze videos produced and performed by youth on the video sharing website YouTube which feature queer performance, particularly cross-dressing and/or same sex eroticism. I began this study before Oct. 2006, when Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube.com. What drew my attention was the incredible freedom expressed in the youth’s uninhibited and very public performances. Like many queer youth of my generation in the 1960s, I lip synced popular tunes myself, often adopting the cross-gender persona of Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, one of my divas, sometimes even engaging in a bit of cross-dressing to inhabit that persona. But I kept such performances in the private space of the bedroom. Also like most of my peers, we never discussed it outside of that bedroom.
The web has changed this by encouraging youth to make private performances public. YouTube offers adolescents what Francesco Bonami calls a “moment in which rationality gives way to visionary impulse, when the logic of our actions gives way to an extreme desire for freedom, a desire destined to be swallowed up by the infinite rules of the social game.” I wondered when I started this project, if it was possible that this destiny might change for these young producers recording and uploading their “impulses” to this virtual public sphere and connecting with a large network of vocal, like-minded friends. Would these young performers find themselves less “swallowed” up by and change the rules when they enter the adult world? Or would the corporate and moral authorities successfully discipline such youth and reassert their “rules” in this public space?
Without a doubt, the media attention that made YouTube a cultural phenomenon, the Google purchase, and the increasing clash of different ideological forces have changed YouTube. Many of the videos that I looked at more than a year ago are no longer available. There are any number of possible reasons for these changes: the producers boredom and withdrawal from YouTube; after seeing what their teenagers have uploaded and shared with the world, parents ordering them to remove the videos from YouTube; or maturity—they grow out of their YouTube videos with new interests and more freedom outside of the home. Others may have been scared by denigrating, anti-queer responses to their videos or by sexually suggestive come-ons by older viewers and exited the YouTube community in response. In some cases, the producers have shifted their videos from a public site to a private site, only available to those granted permission.
A few producers had their “user accounts suspended,” clearly for video content that was flagged as inappropriate or used copyrighted material. These suspensions suggest that Goggle increased the surveillance and removal of erotic and copyrighted material. But Google does not want to repress the creative and invigorating youthful energy that has helped to make YouTube the phenomenal success that it is. Thus, YouTube negotiates between youthful energy and conservative corporate and moral interests and continues to be a major site for adolescent queer speak and culture. Although some videos have disappeared, they have been replaced by an even greater number of new ones. They are also no longer just from the United States; YouTube is creating a transnational virtual community.
Since its founding in 2005, one of the most astonishing things about YouTube — and one of the ways it most fulfills Poster’s hope that the web will provide a forum to those usually excluded from cultural production — is that, at least, in its pre-Google days, evidence suggests that 12-17 year olds were YouTube’s primary producers and consumers. YouTube has provided amateur filmmakers and performers a virtual space where they can easily upload videos they have produced themselves and which they and/or their friends perform, making them available to a larger virtual community.
Many adolescents find that the sharing, response, and linking nature of YouTube builds a supportive community for their art and/or behavior. After sharing a self-produced video with the YouTube community, the young producer receives responses and ratings from viewers, which sometimes leads to discussions about the video’s aesthetics and content. Out of these discussions, small communities of like-minded “friends” connect and pass on video favorites between themselves, the larger YouTube community through their personal YouTube webpages, and to other linking sites. Each video’s webpage indicates how often the video has been viewed, lists comments by viewers, and links the viewer to other videos by the same producer as well as to her/his favorite videos by other producers.
To Read the Rest of the Essay
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Deadly Mistakes
More resources:
Deadly Mistakes
Most students finish high school, and even college, without critically analyzing recent US history. With public discussion of past misadventures also lacking, how can citizens form educated opinions about today's crises?
In a series of short films, DEADLY MISTAKES? looks at US interventions abroad during the second half of the 20th century: the overthrow of the government of Iran, intervention and genocide in Guatemala, the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War, Somoza and the Contra War in Nicaragua, and the Cold War.
It also looks at our present situation: nuclear weapons on a hair trigger, preventive war and the invasion of Iraq, and the war in Colombia.
These films ask whether any or all of these events and policies are mistakes? Are they justifiable or are they crimes? What should we learn from the mistakes of the past, and how can we apply these lessons to help shape America's future? What can we do to prevent future "deadly mistakes"?
The final three films look at where we go from here. They are entitled: "Mistakes or Crimes?", "Why do states pursue homicidal policies?", and "It's Your Future."
Amongst those contributing to these films are Father Daniel Berrigan, peace activist; Dr. Bruce Blair, former U.S. Air Force Launch Officer; General Lee Butler, USAF (ret.), former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Strategic Command; Noam Chomsky, philsopher and linguist; Lawrence Eagleburger, former Secretary of State; Dr. Jane Goodall D.B.E., primatologist; Rear Admiral Gene LaRocque, USN (Ret.); James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me; Ray McGovern, retired senior CIA analyst; Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense; General Merrill McPeak, USAF (Ret.), former U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff; Joshua Muravchik, author and foreign policy specialist; Ralph Nader; Grace Paley, author and peace activist; Marcus Raskin, co-founder, Institute of Policy Studies; Admiral Stansfield Turner, USN (Ret.), former director, CIA; Peter Weiss, President, Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy; RobertWhite, former Ambassador to El Salvador; and General Charles Wilhelm USMC (Ret.).
The second disc contains six extended interviews. They are:
James Loewen, author "Lies My Teacher Told Me": LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME
Lawrence Eagleburger, former Secretary of State: FOREIGN POLICY AND SAUSAGE
Rear Admiral Gene LaRocque, USN (Ret): CREATING TERRORISTS
Ray McGovern, retired senior CIA analyst: WE CALLED THEM "THE CRAZIES"
Robert White, former Ambassador to El Salvador: IT'S NOT MUCH MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT
Marcus Raskin, co-founder, Institute of Policy Studies: INSTITUTIONAL INSANITY IS APPROXIMATELY WHAT WE HAVE
Deadly Mistakes
Most students finish high school, and even college, without critically analyzing recent US history. With public discussion of past misadventures also lacking, how can citizens form educated opinions about today's crises?
In a series of short films, DEADLY MISTAKES? looks at US interventions abroad during the second half of the 20th century: the overthrow of the government of Iran, intervention and genocide in Guatemala, the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War, Somoza and the Contra War in Nicaragua, and the Cold War.
It also looks at our present situation: nuclear weapons on a hair trigger, preventive war and the invasion of Iraq, and the war in Colombia.
These films ask whether any or all of these events and policies are mistakes? Are they justifiable or are they crimes? What should we learn from the mistakes of the past, and how can we apply these lessons to help shape America's future? What can we do to prevent future "deadly mistakes"?
The final three films look at where we go from here. They are entitled: "Mistakes or Crimes?", "Why do states pursue homicidal policies?", and "It's Your Future."
Amongst those contributing to these films are Father Daniel Berrigan, peace activist; Dr. Bruce Blair, former U.S. Air Force Launch Officer; General Lee Butler, USAF (ret.), former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Strategic Command; Noam Chomsky, philsopher and linguist; Lawrence Eagleburger, former Secretary of State; Dr. Jane Goodall D.B.E., primatologist; Rear Admiral Gene LaRocque, USN (Ret.); James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me; Ray McGovern, retired senior CIA analyst; Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense; General Merrill McPeak, USAF (Ret.), former U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff; Joshua Muravchik, author and foreign policy specialist; Ralph Nader; Grace Paley, author and peace activist; Marcus Raskin, co-founder, Institute of Policy Studies; Admiral Stansfield Turner, USN (Ret.), former director, CIA; Peter Weiss, President, Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy; RobertWhite, former Ambassador to El Salvador; and General Charles Wilhelm USMC (Ret.).
The second disc contains six extended interviews. They are:
James Loewen, author "Lies My Teacher Told Me": LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME
Lawrence Eagleburger, former Secretary of State: FOREIGN POLICY AND SAUSAGE
Rear Admiral Gene LaRocque, USN (Ret): CREATING TERRORISTS
Ray McGovern, retired senior CIA analyst: WE CALLED THEM "THE CRAZIES"
Robert White, former Ambassador to El Salvador: IT'S NOT MUCH MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT
Marcus Raskin, co-founder, Institute of Policy Studies: INSTITUTIONAL INSANITY IS APPROXIMATELY WHAT WE HAVE
Worldview: The Legacy of American Empire - Puerto Rico
Worldview (Chicago Public Radio)
... [continuing a] week long series, The Legacy of American Empire, with a look at Puerto Rico. It is a self-governing, unincorporated territory of the United States. We’ll find out what that means.
To Listen to the Episode
... [continuing a] week long series, The Legacy of American Empire, with a look at Puerto Rico. It is a self-governing, unincorporated territory of the United States. We’ll find out what that means.
To Listen to the Episode
Friday, October 23, 2009
(Relax) Everything is OK!
I'm sorry that I point out what is wrong with the world, I have learned the error of my ways, and have come to recognize That Everything is OK!!!
(Courtesy of Marchman)
(Courtesy of Marchman)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Uprising Radio: Wendy Norris -- Media Coverage of Shriver Report Lauds Women's Progress, Ignores Shocking Disparities
Media Coverage of Shriver Report Lauds Women's Progress, Ignores Shocking Disparities
Uprising Radio
This week the NBC network is teaming up with California First Lady Maria Shriver to present a week of television programming on the state of 21st Century American women. The programming will be based on a new report called The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything.? The Shriver Report reveals that for the first time in US history half of all workers are women, and that mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of families. And yet, wage parity between the sexes is a long way off. Taking a look at the consequences of this dramatic socio-economic shift the report hopes to shape new policies to address the modern American family. There is also a deep look at the need for family-friendly benefits, child care and elder care. Also highlighted is the crucial role of immigrant women in the low-paying jobs of housekeeping and childcare which enable American women to enter the workforce at their expense, and the disproportionate ill-effects of the nation's private health insurance system on women. The Shriver Report is being heralded by the media as a major marker of women's progress and the
closure of the gender gap. But, according to investigative reporter Wendy Norris, the report's disturbing disparities in women?s well being are being downplayed or completely ignored.
GUEST: Wendy Norris, investigative reporter based in Denver, Colorado, working on assignment for RH Reality Check, editor and founder of Unbossed
Read Wendy Norris' article here
Read the Shriver Report here
Listen to this segment
Uprising Radio
This week the NBC network is teaming up with California First Lady Maria Shriver to present a week of television programming on the state of 21st Century American women. The programming will be based on a new report called The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything.? The Shriver Report reveals that for the first time in US history half of all workers are women, and that mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of families. And yet, wage parity between the sexes is a long way off. Taking a look at the consequences of this dramatic socio-economic shift the report hopes to shape new policies to address the modern American family. There is also a deep look at the need for family-friendly benefits, child care and elder care. Also highlighted is the crucial role of immigrant women in the low-paying jobs of housekeeping and childcare which enable American women to enter the workforce at their expense, and the disproportionate ill-effects of the nation's private health insurance system on women. The Shriver Report is being heralded by the media as a major marker of women's progress and the
closure of the gender gap. But, according to investigative reporter Wendy Norris, the report's disturbing disparities in women?s well being are being downplayed or completely ignored.
GUEST: Wendy Norris, investigative reporter based in Denver, Colorado, working on assignment for RH Reality Check, editor and founder of Unbossed
Read Wendy Norris' article here
Read the Shriver Report here
Listen to this segment
New Health Care Ad Featuring Heather Graham
Heather Graham ... mmmmmmmmmm... wait was there a message (just kidding)... I like this ad, very effective imagery and how they link it to American celebration of open market competition
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Worldview: Revolutions
Revolutions
Worldview (WBEZ: Chicago)
This week, Northeastern Illinois University hosts a conference on revolutions; from the French Revolution to Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution, we'll talk about the evolution and impact of these movements. Also, Professor Stephanie Shonekan talks about her new movie inspired by the life of a Nigerian women rights activist.
To Listen to the Episode
Worldview (WBEZ: Chicago)
This week, Northeastern Illinois University hosts a conference on revolutions; from the French Revolution to Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution, we'll talk about the evolution and impact of these movements. Also, Professor Stephanie Shonekan talks about her new movie inspired by the life of a Nigerian women rights activist.
To Listen to the Episode
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Underground Spiritual Game: 33rd Show - African Dance Party, Pt. 2
(Literaghost--if you listen to this and like it, let me know, I'll burn you a copy... great music!)
Underground Spiritual Game: 33rd Show - African Dance Party Second Hour
(Seeing Red Radio Productions)
Orlando Julius & His Afro Sounders – Mura Sise
Tabu Ley Rochereau – I Need You
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – Sankofa
Alèmayèhu Eshèté – Betchayén Tègodahu
NOMO – Bumbo
Etubom Rex Williams & His Nigerian Artistes – Akpaison
Les Volcans De la Capital – Oya Ka Jojo
Ry-Co Jazz – Mambo Ry-Co
Gbeti Madjro – Rythmo
Bola Johnson – Lagos Sisi
Peter King – Ajo
Os Kiezos – Princeza Rita
Fela Kuti – Fogo Fogo
To Listen/Download
Underground Spiritual Game: 33rd Show - African Dance Party Second Hour
(Seeing Red Radio Productions)
Orlando Julius & His Afro Sounders – Mura Sise
Tabu Ley Rochereau – I Need You
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – Sankofa
Alèmayèhu Eshèté – Betchayén Tègodahu
NOMO – Bumbo
Etubom Rex Williams & His Nigerian Artistes – Akpaison
Les Volcans De la Capital – Oya Ka Jojo
Ry-Co Jazz – Mambo Ry-Co
Gbeti Madjro – Rythmo
Bola Johnson – Lagos Sisi
Peter King – Ajo
Os Kiezos – Princeza Rita
Fela Kuti – Fogo Fogo
To Listen/Download
Chris Hedges: The Victims of Pornography
The Victims of Pornography
By Chris Hedges
Truthdig
This excerpt is taken from Chris Hedges’ newest book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
The Pink Cross booth has a table of anti-porn tracts and is set up in the far corner of the Sands Expo convention centre in Las Vegas. It is an unlikely participant at the annual Adult Video News (AVN) expo. Pink Cross is a Christian outreach program for women in the porn industry, run by ex-porn star Shelley Lubben.
In a convention exalting the pornography industry, Lubben’s table is not overrun with visitors, most of whom are male and middle-aged with cameras around their necks. The few men who make it to the far corner of the convention centre look curiously at its pink banner and walk past. The expo is filled with more alluring fare. There are numerous booths for porn producers and distributors, many with women in tiny skirts and bras who, often clinging to stripper poles, gyrate and bend over and spread their legs for groups of men. They simulate masturbation and flash their breasts for crowds of onlookers. Huge banners hang from the ceiling promoting new releases such as Slutty and Sluttier 6.
A local escort service, VegasGirls, has a booth about 100 feet from Pink Cross. There is a homemade wooden wheel with a flipper that looks like a middle-school shop project on its table. Those who spin the wheel can get various discounts or even a free visit by a “stripper” to their hotel room. Small, glossy cards are fanned out on the table, showing women in evocative poses and not much clothing, all with a first name, the agency’s phone number and the phrase “actual photo” emblazoned on the side of the card.
“You want to take a picture of my boobs, then you have to take my card,” a woman in front of the booth tells a camera-wielding, middle-aged man.
“If I call this number, is it you who will come?” he asks.
“Here, baby,” she says, giving him the card. “I will come.”
Many of the booths at the Sands Expo feature well-known porn stars. There are long lines of men waiting for a signed photo and the chance to have a picture with stars from the Wicked Pictures studio, including Kaylani Lei, Kirsten Price and Jessica Drake. The men usually wrap their arms around the women for the photo, always taken by a friend or someone in line. As they hug the women’s waists, the women sometimes playfully grab the man’s crotch or lick their lips. Huge plasma screens placed in the booths run nonstop porn, often featuring the stars having anal sex with multiple partners or giving blow jobs. The sheer volume of porn blasted throughout the convention floor by the sea of giant screens becomes, very quickly, numbing.
The porn films are not about sex. Sex is airbrushed and digitally washed out of the films. There is no acting because none of the women are permitted to have what amounts to a personality.
The one emotion they are allowed to display is an unquenchable desire to satisfy men, especially if that desire involves the women’s physical and emotional degradation. The lighting in the films is harsh and clinical. Pubic hair is shaved off to give the women the look of young girls or rubber dolls. Porn, which advertises itself as sex, is a bizarre, bleached pantomime of sex. The acts onscreen are beyond human endurance. The scenarios are absurd. The manicured and groomed bodies, the huge artificial breasts, the pouting, oversized lips, the erections that never go down, and the sculpted bodies are unreal. Makeup and production mask blemishes. There are no beads of sweat, no wrinkle lines, no human imperfections. Sex is reduced to a narrow spectrum of sterilized dimensions. It does not include the dank smell of human bodies, the thump of a pulse, taste, breath—or tenderness. Those in the films are puppets, packaged female commodities. They have no honest emotions, are devoid of authentic human beauty and resemble plastic. Pornography does not promote sex, if one defines sex as a shared act between two partners. It promotes masturbation. It promotes the solitary auto-arousal that precludes intimacy and love. Pornography is about getting yourself off at someone else’s expense.
To Read the Rest of the Excerpt
By Chris Hedges
Truthdig
This excerpt is taken from Chris Hedges’ newest book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
The Pink Cross booth has a table of anti-porn tracts and is set up in the far corner of the Sands Expo convention centre in Las Vegas. It is an unlikely participant at the annual Adult Video News (AVN) expo. Pink Cross is a Christian outreach program for women in the porn industry, run by ex-porn star Shelley Lubben.
In a convention exalting the pornography industry, Lubben’s table is not overrun with visitors, most of whom are male and middle-aged with cameras around their necks. The few men who make it to the far corner of the convention centre look curiously at its pink banner and walk past. The expo is filled with more alluring fare. There are numerous booths for porn producers and distributors, many with women in tiny skirts and bras who, often clinging to stripper poles, gyrate and bend over and spread their legs for groups of men. They simulate masturbation and flash their breasts for crowds of onlookers. Huge banners hang from the ceiling promoting new releases such as Slutty and Sluttier 6.
A local escort service, VegasGirls, has a booth about 100 feet from Pink Cross. There is a homemade wooden wheel with a flipper that looks like a middle-school shop project on its table. Those who spin the wheel can get various discounts or even a free visit by a “stripper” to their hotel room. Small, glossy cards are fanned out on the table, showing women in evocative poses and not much clothing, all with a first name, the agency’s phone number and the phrase “actual photo” emblazoned on the side of the card.
“You want to take a picture of my boobs, then you have to take my card,” a woman in front of the booth tells a camera-wielding, middle-aged man.
“If I call this number, is it you who will come?” he asks.
“Here, baby,” she says, giving him the card. “I will come.”
Many of the booths at the Sands Expo feature well-known porn stars. There are long lines of men waiting for a signed photo and the chance to have a picture with stars from the Wicked Pictures studio, including Kaylani Lei, Kirsten Price and Jessica Drake. The men usually wrap their arms around the women for the photo, always taken by a friend or someone in line. As they hug the women’s waists, the women sometimes playfully grab the man’s crotch or lick their lips. Huge plasma screens placed in the booths run nonstop porn, often featuring the stars having anal sex with multiple partners or giving blow jobs. The sheer volume of porn blasted throughout the convention floor by the sea of giant screens becomes, very quickly, numbing.
The porn films are not about sex. Sex is airbrushed and digitally washed out of the films. There is no acting because none of the women are permitted to have what amounts to a personality.
The one emotion they are allowed to display is an unquenchable desire to satisfy men, especially if that desire involves the women’s physical and emotional degradation. The lighting in the films is harsh and clinical. Pubic hair is shaved off to give the women the look of young girls or rubber dolls. Porn, which advertises itself as sex, is a bizarre, bleached pantomime of sex. The acts onscreen are beyond human endurance. The scenarios are absurd. The manicured and groomed bodies, the huge artificial breasts, the pouting, oversized lips, the erections that never go down, and the sculpted bodies are unreal. Makeup and production mask blemishes. There are no beads of sweat, no wrinkle lines, no human imperfections. Sex is reduced to a narrow spectrum of sterilized dimensions. It does not include the dank smell of human bodies, the thump of a pulse, taste, breath—or tenderness. Those in the films are puppets, packaged female commodities. They have no honest emotions, are devoid of authentic human beauty and resemble plastic. Pornography does not promote sex, if one defines sex as a shared act between two partners. It promotes masturbation. It promotes the solitary auto-arousal that precludes intimacy and love. Pornography is about getting yourself off at someone else’s expense.
To Read the Rest of the Excerpt
Truthdig: David Cole's The Torture Memos
The Torture Memos
Truthdig
Georgetown University law professor David Cole’s new book, The Torture Memos, investigates how key members of the U.S. Office of Legal Counsel rewrote the law to make torture legal.
To Listen to the Episode
Truthdig
Georgetown University law professor David Cole’s new book, The Torture Memos, investigates how key members of the U.S. Office of Legal Counsel rewrote the law to make torture legal.
To Listen to the Episode
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