What's at Stake in the Deal for Gilad Shalit
by Jonathan Ben Efrat, December 2009
"...should Israel release 450 "heavyweight" prisoners in exchange for just one Gilad? In the TV studios the question swung between the personal and the national: on the personal level, everyone stands shoulder to shoulder with Noam and Aviva, Shalit's parents. But on a national level, many saw the price as too high. And even worse is the lesson the Palestinians may learn from the deal: that it pays to kidnap soldiers."
The Money Dream
by Stephen Muret, December 2009
'"This is the worst crisis in fifteen years," they said in ninety-nine. "This is black Monday. That was black Wednesday." The economic commentators are saying things like "I feel your pain" and "We all took a blow today." And you just shake your head. Nothing in your life has changed. You are at the bottom of the capitalist food chain, way down at the bottom, and you look up at the storms above you and they just don't affect you.'
Towards Resolving Thanksgiving Contradictions
by Emily Spence, December 2009
'I am sure that many European immigrants, who came to America during the last three hundred years, thought that they, too, were carrying out positive actions when they eradicated indigenous tribes at the behest of their community leaders. I am, also, convinced that many of those conducting the killings felt relieved that such a strange scourge (as the "dirty savages" seemed to be) was systematically obliterated.'
Notes from a Season at the Center of the Universe: Cecil Taylor at the Take 3
by Robert Levin, December 2009
"This is 1962. An increasing number of us live with the conviction that a seismic change in human consciousness is both possible and imminent. We also share a belief that the New Jazz, in its break with established forms and procedures, and with its resurrection of ancient black methodologies, is showing the way."
Anatomy of American Ignorance
Part Two by Bill Noxid, November 2009
"These are the people Obama continuously tries to "reach out" to. If Obama himself was being honest about the origin of this country and it's true history ( instead of the self-serving propaganda offered by the American educational system ), he would understand what motivates this unalterable hatred, and would recognize why these people will never accept him as President."
Running out of Fossil Fuels: A Cause for Glee?
by Emily Spence, November 2009
Imagine manufacturers trying to provide enough necessary (as opposed to frivolous) products, such as cans for preserved food, without the inordinate amount of energy that is, currently, being used in their creation. Imagine police, fire, school and hospital departments trying to run without electrical power. Imagine the seemingly endless miles and miles of farms across the globe trying to operate without the provision of manmade herbicides and pesticides (developed out of oil), as well as devoid of their gargantuan planting and culling machinery."
The Goldstone Report: Fierce but Toothless
by Yacov Ben Efrat, November 2009
"As things look now, the Goldstone Report will go to the shelf, the Occupation will continue, and so will Palestinian suffering. To cope with the present reality is more complex than putting people on the stand for war crimes. The reality is that Israel is ruled by the Right, which is nowadays attracting part of the Left. On the Palestinian side, the reality is a war between two rival factions that care more for power than for their people."
IF Stone: An Iconic Radical Journalist
by Stephen Lendman, November 2009
"ABC's Peter Jennings called him "a journalist's journalist." The New York Times featured his death on its front page (usually reserved for the rich and powerful) in a Peter Flint obituary titled, "IF Stone, Iconoclast of Journalism, Is Dead at 81." A quintessential muckraker, he described him as "the independent, radical pamphleteer of American journalism hailed by his admirers for his scholarship, wit and lucidity" over a career spanning 67 years."
A Eulogy for Simon Vinkenoog: Shamanism, Prophecy, and the Poetry of the 20th Century
by Louise Landes Levi, October 2009
"The prophet of the social realms reaches into the utopian
traditions & creates it for his time. The shaman, by definition, liberates
his listener, the qualifications between chant (or mantra), song & the common word are absolved."
The Police Are Rioting: Reflections on Pittsburg
by David Rovics, October 2009
"Ostensibly this great democracy had had the Bill of Rights enshrined in law for quite a long time now. Yet in 1914 a supporter of labor unionism could not make a soapbox speech on a sidewalk in this country without being beaten and arrested by police for the crime of disturbing the peace, blocking the sidewalk or whatever other nonsense the cops made up at the time."
Hearing Voices
by Billy Marshall Stoneking, September 2009
"When the dramatist, Arthur Miller, remarked that he couldn't write a character until he could hear a character he articulated what is probably the single most important insight concerning the nature of mediumistic storytelling: the process of discovering character — of entering a character's inner life, and allowing your life to be entered by it — is and always has been, in essence, an aural experience."
A-Salaam Aleykom
by Yacob Ben Efrat, September 2009
"The words A-Salaam Aleykom go far deeper than their literal meaning. They express reconciliation, recognition, humbleness, and especially, they go hand in hand with Islam and its holy book — The Koran. Obama has decided to fight fundamentalist Islam with its own weapon, The Koran. He came to Cairo armed with verses from The Koran and their latest explanations proving that there is no reason for the schism dividing America and Islam."
Anatomy of American Ignorance
by Bill Noxid, September 2009
"It's generally not hard to find examples of the totality of mind control in this country, but last week produced a couple of rare examples. Arlen Specter's Town Hall meeting was evidently an important "test case" for the organizers of disingenuous dissent, and we got to see a variety of the false arguments. Just look at the two most obvious incidents..."
Why Won't Universal Healthcare Be Provided?
by Emily Spence, September 2009
"This additional difficulty concerned a way to dispose of the bodies since the majority of the deceased persons' kinfolk did not have sufficient funds to carry out burials or cremations. As such, the waterway served another function, which was corpse recipient, and Linda noted that, nearly every day, bloated water-logged remains could be seen quietly gliding downstream."
On America and Nobility
Editor's Note for the July 4th Issue, 2009
"My name is Jonathan Penton, I am a poetry editor from Texas, and I love America. I am variably proud of and ashamed by this love. I am aware that both feelings are pointless. I also love oranges, strawberries, strawberry Cisco, swordfish, chili, metaphysical conceits, and a host of humans who would rather I not. These are simple facts which do not require the adornments of pride or shame."
Constitutional Rubbish
by Joel S. Hirschhorn, July 2009
"Americans need a civics lesson. And so do politicians. Of all the wrong and delusional thinking about the US Constitution the one that is most thoroughly incorrect and routinely used for political propaganda purposes is that there are three coequal branches of the federal government."
FDA Throws Life Line to Antipsychotic Pushers
by Evelyn Pringle, July 2009
'In April 2009, Gabriel Meyers, a seven year old Florida boy, committed suicide by hanging in the bathroom of a foster care home. In the last few days of his life: "He was told his mother no longer had visitation rights, that he would probably be going back to Ohio, where he alleged he had been abused; the doctor changed his medication, he changed foster homes and he got a new counselor..."'
The Overpass
by Dean Kisling, July 2009
"The horror of the overpass is that it is so utterly ordinary, business as usual, another day in the life, accepted and taken for granted in all its grotesque ugliness, its assault on the senses and the world. All these strange floating containers of sheet metal and glass, and these creatures with their arms raised like zombies, with steering wheels in their fists, with their eyes pointed straight ahead..."
People. People Who Don't Need People
by Walter Brasch, July 2009
"From a pool of about seven billion, those hard-working geniuses at People magazine have managed to find the 100 most beautiful people in the whole wide world. And—get ready for the surprise—almost all of those beautiful people are rich American celebrities."
It's Time for the Madness to Stop
by Sheila Samples, July 2009
"They continued to march even after Henry Kissinger belched out the truth that Duty—Honor—Country is a one-way street because "Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy. And, it has long been a dead-end street for those captured or left behind on foreign soil..."
Obama and Bibi: Political Divergence, Strategic Symbiosis
by Yacov Ben Efrat, June 2009
"Netanyahu's agenda is clear: in American terms, he represents Republican-style positions on two fronts: he is politically right wing and economically neoliberal. Obama's agenda, by contrast, is for change: to break away from the conceptions and traditions of his predecessor, George W. Bush."
The Queensberry Rules of Discourse
by Iftekar Sayeed, June 2009
"Although I have so far never had sufficient cause to regret the day I taught myself logic, I fear the event may not be too far into the future. For I have found that men and women are as apt to hit below the belt in argument as a pair of unrefereed pugilists in the ring. And, of course, the experience can be excruciating! The analogy fortunately ends before one reaches the lower parts of the anatomy; it is a cultivated soft spot."
Over the Rainbow
by Stephen Lendman, June 2009
"In 1891, Baum moved to Chicago where he associated with reform elements. He saw the fallout of the 1893 depression, sided with working class people, consistently voted Democrat, then later marched in "torch-like parades" for William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 election. Yet he wasn't a political activist despite his sympathies with populist causes."
Obama and the Denial of Genocide: An Interview with David Boyajian
by Mickey Z., June 2009
'President Obama visited Turkey from April 6 to 7, where he did not use the word "genocide" when referring to the 1.5 million murders committed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire against its Armenian citizens from 1915-1923. As a candidate, Obama had promised several times to do so. His statement in Turkey that he had "not changed his views"—implying he still believes it was genocide—was still a clear breach of his promise to use the "G word."'
Why I Hate Twilight and My Life Sux: or Bite This, a (sort of) rebuttal of the Bitch article "Bite Me"
by Anne McMillen, June 2009
"This is a disemboweled woman being attacked for the crime of what...ignorance? Of living the American Dream of squirting out a couple of pups and then turning one of her possibly only pleasures—her escape into vampire fingerbang masturbation fantasies—into a 3000 page bonanza (or excuse me, I mean writing the next Great American Novel)?"
Against the Tortured Logic of Obama's Placebo Presidency: A Call for the Audacity of Hopelessness
by Phil Rockstroh, June 2009
"And not an uptick in public optimism, nor a surge of euphoria on Wall Street, nor the "invisible hand of the marketplace" sprinkling pixie dust will bring back the Olympian days of 2005, when the wise men of Washington and Wall Street knew the force of gravity was just a myth believed in by those embittered prophets of doom whose only joy in life is fantasizing the fall of their wealthy betters."
The Mill-Race: Overproduction, Interrupted
by Norman Ball, May 2009
"Overproduction is the phenomenon caused by capitalism's need to engage in perpetual labor-cost reductions in order to remain competitive. The effects of this downward spiral are ultimately self-destructive as they eliminate the worker's ability to purchase the fruits of his own labor. A society where the vast majority of citizens lack the wherewithal to consume much beyond a subsistence level becomes a plutocracy in a hurry."
The Economics of Turning People into Things
by Nitasha Kaul, May 2009
"Under conditions of economic uncertainty and social instability, a predictable pecking order gains credence — and those most vulnerable (low skilled, manual or factory labour, women and children, new immigrants) suffer disproportionately greatest through a circumscribing of the opportunities available to them."
Disney, Casino Capitalism and the Politics of Stealing Innocence
by Henry A. Giroux, May 2009
'Disney's recent attempts to "figure out the boys' entertainment market" include the services of Kelly Peña, described as "the kid whisperer," who in an attempt to understand what makes young boys tick, uses her anthropological skills to convince young boys and their parents to allow her to look into the kids' closets, go shopping with young boys and pay them $75 to be interviewed. Ms. Pena, with no irony intended, prides herself on the fact that "Children ... open up to her."'
Embracing Confusion's Alchemy: Rejecting the Seduction of Pseudo-Understanding
by Andrew P., May 2009
'High Strangeness, a book by Laura Knight-Jadczyk, paints a dire future for humankind as literal "food" for a reptilian alien race that has bred us for this gastronomic purpose, in much the same way as humans breed cattle for food. In this calamitous time of transition, centred around the year 2012, according to Knight-Jadczyk we will come to realize this terrible truth, and up to 94% of the human race will be "recycled" to make way for a new race.'
Hoping without Sleeping in El Salvador: The 2009 Presidential Elections, an International Observer's Perspective
Photos and Text by Luis Rivas, May 2009
"My delegation was made up as follows: Perla (unsure of her profession), Gaily (UCLA film student), Romél (UCLA film student), Claudia (Oakland/Bay Area lawyer), Parish (lawyer), Carla (unsure of her profession), Eyvin (lawyer with the Los Angeles County Public Defender, with a Ché tattoo on his shoulder like mine) and myself (sex shop worker, though I made it a point to tell most that I work in a regular video store)."
An American Outrage: Bernie, AIG, and Us
by Rosemary and Walter Brasch, April 2009
"We, as a nation, are outraged that executives at failed insurance giant AIG are receiving millions in bonuses paid for by taxpayer funds. In Congress, conservatives and liberals, many of whom were part of the problem of the subprime mortgage crisis, have united for the first time in years and have expressed their outrage. The President, who inherited this mess, is outraged. The media who had failed to adequately report this mess are outraged."
The Semantics of Illusion
by Jeff Gore, April 2009
"It was easy to be fooled into thinking that our financial system was a legitimate enterprise with "solid foundations." After all, the system seemed to work well for our parents. When it was our turn to invest, we were dazzled (and confused) by complicated terms typed on elaborate contracts printed on expensive letterhead, which were pushed across a rich mahogany table by men in crisp, clean suits with large salaries and offices in glassy skyscrapers."
Left Out of Obama's Health Care Summit
by Helen Redmond, April 2009
"Watching the breakout sessions streaming live over the Internet was both infuriating and surreal. The "stakeholders" sat side by side at the same table, laughing and smiling — among them, CEOs responsible for a health care crisis that has left 50 million Americans uninsured and that causes the needless deaths of 18,000 and 100,000 people every year, depending on who is doing the estimating."
Hip-Hop in the Crosshairs
by Tolu Olorunda, April 2009
"It must be clearly understood that the Hip-Hop industry has neither the will nor the desire to promote prophetic voices within the Hip-Hop realm — history has taught us that bitter lesson. Hip-Hop executives, disproportionately White and over 50-years of age, would rather have mega-star puppets, masqueraded as artists, who provide comfort to White Supremacist ideologies..."
Louise in Afghanistan
by Louise Landes Levi, March 2009
"In Kandahar, as said, you meet the beautiful boy from the train and you and him and his traveling companions all live together in a yellow room on a side street of the city. Osama Bin Laden isn't there yet. No one is there, only the Medieval Afghanis. One day you go to a village built on stilts. All the men and all the women and all the children are living on houses built on stilts. and all the men and all the women and maybe even all the children are smoking hashish, but not you."
A New Afghanistan Nightmare
by Ramzy Baroud, March 2009
"When US envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke met with Afghanistan's 'democratically' installed President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on February 14th, he may have just learned of the historic significance of the following day. February 15th commemorates the end of the bloody Russian campaign against Afghanistan (August 1978-February 1989)."
The Problem with "A Nation of Cowards"
by Bill Noxid, March 2009
"The most disturbing consequence of the election of the first African-American president is the delusional rush to pretend that this country that was founded (and continues to function) on genocide and slavery, is somehow 'past' racism. Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth, and the fact that society as a whole still refuses to face it is — as Attorney General Eric Holder stated clearly — nothing less than cowardice."
Toxic Plans for Toxic Assets
by Stephen Lendman, March 2009
"'What Geithner should have said was we have a horrible problem of too much borrowing, too much debt, and too much consumption. You know what we are going to do — we're going to borrow more, go deeper in debt, and consume more....These guys don't know what they're doing (and it's why) I'm shorting' the market."
Spirituality vs. Ecology: The Myth of Spiritual Ecology
by Andrew P., March 2009
"'After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.' These words were supposedly uttered in a public testimony to the US Congress by former President Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior, James Watt. Although there is no evidence that he actually said this, his testimony is often repeated in progressive circles as it succinctly encapsulates the environmentally-destructive perspective of America's religious right."
