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April 26, 2005

04.26.05 | Email Makes You Stupid; The Joy of Non-Penetrative Sex; Human Genes in Rice
April 26, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: Download illegal art; read about the White House's Office of Pre-Emptive War; why nothing says "I love you" like a lack of penetration; an actually surprising history of prisons; how email is making you stupider; a day in the life of a passive aggressive vegan grocery cashier; the editors of The Nation and the Economist debate Wal-Mart; words with Iranian comic artist Marjane Satrapi; a promising new community video portal site; GM industry is putting human genes in rice now; government spooks raid art exhibit in Chicago; as per usual, a WTO decision leads to severe repercussions for local industry in Namibia; and more, of course.


This Week's Picks:

  1. AUDIO / TORRENT | Illegal Art Compilation
    A compilation of songs that have been the subject of lawsuits, primarily for unauthorized sampling. Includes music by Negativland, Biz Markie, The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, and De La Soul. This is an audio history of banned music. (For those of you with better than dial-up speed internet connections who have not yet discovered BitTorrent technology, please do read over the Wikipedia entry, below, before embarking on a new era of democratic electronic media.)

    Stay Free Magazine / Downhillbattle.org
    Torrent:http://www.illegal-art.org
    [Wikipedia entry: "What is a BitTorrent?"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_torrent
    [Blog Torrent - The easiest and best bit torrent client.]http://www.blogtorrent.com


  2. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
    In August, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate "post-conflict" plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. Fittingly, a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction.

    Naomi Klein | The Nation
    http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050502&c=1&s=klein


  3. Abstinence Only!
    A celebration of non-penetration.

    http://www.abstinenceonly.com


  4. A History of the "Modern" Prison
    No doubt even many well-educated readers think that the prison—the place where dark deeds are darkly answered—is an ancient institution, a barbaric hold-over from barbaric times. In fact, the prison is of relatively recent origin, and this tells us a great deal about the pretentions and realities of modern times, and the wisdom and high degree of development of the ancients.

    Not Bored | Interactivist Info Exchange
    http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/04/23/1723208


  5. Emails Pose Threat to IQ
    The distractions of constant emails, text and phone messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled volunteers.

    Martin Wainwright | Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1465950,00.html


  6. Passive-Aggressive Vegan Grocery Cashier: A Day In The Life
    Return from lunch break. Remove Burt's Bees products from display next to register. Manager complains. Tell her I'm sorry, that from now on I will be more accepting of the exploitation of bees. She asks me to work every Saturday for the month. I accept, interested to see how many pork products are bought on Sabbath. Will make great entry in journal...

    Meredith Gray | McSweeneys
    http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2005/4/18gray.html


  7. VIDEO | What's Good for Wal-Mart is Good for America?
    Watch this webcast of a recent debate between the editors of The Nation and The Economist on whether or not Wal-Mart is "good for America."

    Free Speech TV
    Part I: http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/fscm2/videoviewer.php?video_id=1316
    Part II: http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/fscm2/videoviewer.php?video_id=1317


  8. Behind Closed Doors: An Interview with Marjane Satrapi
    In her new novel, Embroideries, comic artist Marjane Satrapi (author of Persopolis ) documents the ways in which strong-willed women in Iran have fought back against—in secretly gleeful silence or through overt rebellion—against misogynistic traditions and piggish men. Satrapi talks about geriatric sex, the appeal of the ass, and the promise of young women in Iran today, among other things.

    Noy Thrupkaew | Nerve
    http://www.nerve.com/screeningroom/books/interview_marjanesatrapi


  9. VIDEO | Demand Media Collective Video Blog
    There's lots of interesting video to watch on the web, but most video on the web is not particularly good or interesting to any one person—and it's usually hidden behind clunky interfaces. Blame the latter on people wanting to make money off of video they put online, and having to run you down a gauntlet of advertising before you get to the video. Netizens just want to watch good video, and this community video portal site facilitates easy access to that.

    Demand Media
    http://demandmedia.net


  10. GM Industry Puts Human Hene Into Rice
    Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops in a dramatic extension of genetic modification. The move, which is causing disgust and revulsion among critics, is bound to strengthen accusations that GM technology is creating "Frankenstein foods" and drive the controversy surrounding it to new heights.

    Geoffrey Lean | Independent
    http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=632444


  11. Secret Service Inspects Art Exhibit
    The night before the opening of a Chicago art exhibit, "Axis of Evil: The Secret History of Sin," two secret service agents showed up, tipped off by a local citizen. The agents not only took photos but demanded some artists' contact information.

    Matthew Rothschild | The Progressive
    http://www.progressive.org/mcwatch04/mc041605.php


  12. WTO Decision Threatens Namibia's Textile Industry
    As thousands of textile workers in southern Africa started losing their jobs during January because of the World Trade Organisation liberalising the market, questions began mounting over whether Namibia will face the same fate. Speculation is rife that other investors could follow suit as they pursue greener pastures and bigger profits. The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC), now invalidated by the WTO, limited imports of textiles and clothing from developing to developed countries to safeguard industries in developing countries and control the level of market access for developing country imports.

    Lindsay Dentlinger | Windhoek / AllAfrica.com
    http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200504220035.html


  13. Meat Packer's Union on the Chopping Block
    Today's meat packing industry relies increasingly on high-speed, treacherous disassembly lines. Perhaps that's why Tyson Foods, Inc.—a giant in a flourishing industry—is working to take apart a union that prioritizes safety over speed.

    Sasha Lilley | CorpWatch
    http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12122


  14. VIDEO | Cambodian Family Deals With the Deportation of Their Brother
    Borom Chea spent over seven years in federal prison and over three years in immigration detention, where he was moved around between 5 different states and 7 different cities, before finally deporting him to a country he hadn't seen since infancy. This is a short documentary on a refugee family's experience with the immigration policies that caused a member of their family to be taken away.

    Elena Shore and Min Lee | YO! Youth Outlook
    http://youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=c79d5323bcb05113a0308b419561a640


  15. Black Caucus Losing Cohesion
    The corporate Right has succeeded in establishing a "coalition of the willing" within the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), as shown by last week's votes on bankruptcy and estate tax legislation.

    Glen Ford and Peter Gamble | Black Commentator
    http://www.blackcommentator.com/135/135_cover_black_caucus.html


- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Rebecca Onion and Erica Wetter
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand and Brian Awehali

Posted by erin at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2005

04.20.05 | DIY Reparations; Delocator.net; The End of Oil (and Some Suggestions For What's Going to Replace it)
April 20, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK:

Panhandling for slavery reparations, and documenting it; why The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is still so damn relevant; Helen Caldicott confronts the latest propaganda touting nuclear energy as a viable way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; how a program to "help" suicidal teens is just a slick front for Big Pharma; Curtis White, author of The Middle Mind, goes on about the decline of rebellion and creativity, among other things; How Bush's biological weapons buildup impacts you; a new Middle East women-run satellite teevee station breaks new ground; giddily hyperbolic patent application prose touting new foam-wall technology ("It may help to colonize the moon, Mars, and beyond!"); Franklin Rosemont talks about surrealism, revolution and the life of Philip Lamantia; and David Suzuki says "pshaw" to environmentalists who decry windfarms for disturbing "natural beauty" and animal habitat.


This Week's Picks:

  1. VIDEO | Living Flag
    Flash video documenting Damali Ayo's DIY reparations program, in which she panhandles in various US cities for slavery reparations: "I choose various locations wearing a sign indicating the history of slavery in the United States. I offer people a convenient opportunity to pay for the unpaid labor of African Americans, the travesty of slavery, and the promise of reparations."

    Damali Ayo | FlashStories
    http://www.stories1st.org/flashstories

    More information from the artist: http://www.rent-a-negro.com/damali%20ayo%20dot%20com/pages/livingflag.htm


  2. The New Protestant Ethic
    One hundred years after the publication of Max Weber's classic text, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the fateful relationship between Protestantism and capitalism has been renewed in American political discourse. Except this time it is no longer the original convergence theorized by Weber between the spirit of Calvinism and acquisitive capitalism whereby Christianity was destined to be ultimately secondary to the unfolding historical project of capitalism, but the opposite. In a contemporary political climate marked by the resurgence seemingly everywhere of faith-based politics, capitalism and its historical correlate modernism have actually folded back on themselves, quickly reversing modernist codes of economic secularism and political pluralism, in the interests of being reanimated with the evangelical spirit of religious fundamentalism.

    Arthur Kroker | CTheory
    http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pi ck=451


  3. The Long Emergency
    What's going to happen as we start to run out of cheap gas to guzzle?

    James Howard Kunstler | Rolling Stone
    http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7203633?rnd=1113402874681&has-player=unknown


  4. Nuclear Power is the Problem, Not a Solution
    Anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott responds to the recent heralding of nuclear power as a panacea for the reduction of gases that contribute to global warming. While advocates claim nuclear power is "green and clean," the truth is very, very different.

    Helen Caldicott | The Weekend Australian
    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12835747%5E12332,00.html


  5. What I Didn't See in Iraq
    Congressman Jim McGovern reports from Iraq: "Everything we have been told about Iraq by the Bush Administration has either been an outright lie or overwhelmingly false. There were no weapons of mass destruction; we have not been greeted as liberators; and the cost in terms of blood and treasure has outpaced even their worst-case scenarios."

    Jim McGovern | The Nation
    http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20050502&s=mcgovern


  6. TeenScreen: Angel of Mercy or Pill Pusher
    Is TeenScreen an angel of mercy for suicidal teens, or a pill-pushing front group for Pharma?

    Evelyn J. Pringle | Dissident Voice
    http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Apr 05/Pringle0412.htm


  7. AUDIO | Imagining Something Better
    Hungry for more originality in what you read and see? Worried that creativity and rebellion are on the decline? In this interview, Curtis White (author of The Middle Mind) criticizes dominant narratives for their banality and destructiveness, discusses the duplicity of late capitalism's 'creative' and 'artistic' contributions, and calls for a revitalization of the imagination.

    C.S. Soong | Against the Grain
    http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio4 .11.05.mp3


  8. Misleading.gov
    A new HHS Web site misinforms parents about how to protect their kids from sexually transmitted diseases.

    Chris Mooney | American Prospect
    http://w ww.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9481


  9. Courting Armageddon
    How the Bush Administration's biological weapons buildup affects you.

    Heather Wokusch | Guerrilla News Network / Common Dreams
    http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/2195 /Courting_Armageddon


  10. Delocator.net
    At Delocator.net, you can type in your zipcode to find a local, independently owned café nearby. The idea is to create a network of people to support and preserve local businesses against the increasing encroachment of Starbuck's and other corporate-owned coffee shops. The site also offers a toolbox for those ambitious enough to make a delocator for other businesses-- hardware stores, drug stores, restaurants, etc.

    Delocator.net
    http://www.delocator.net


  11. I Want My 'She' TV
    A new satellite station run by women is delicately breaking new ground in the dialogue on women's rights in the Middle East.

    Will Rasmussen | Alternet / Christian Science Monitor
    http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/2172 0/


  12. Welcome To The Foam Age
    The following registration application was filed in 2000 with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Bighard.com, Inc., in anticipation of the company's initial public offering. "The primary business of the Company will be to provide a cost-effective and expedient means of fabricating various building and industrial products through the use of patented foam-wall technology. It may revolutionize the building of new cities and the rebuilding of old ones on Earth. It may help to colonize the moon, Mars, and beyond. Space is the Final Economic Frontier. Read on!"

    Harper's
    http://www.harpers.org/2001-0 4-WelcomeToTheFoamAge.html


  13. Poetry as Revolutionary Praxis: Philip Lamantia and the Surrealist Movement in the United States
    Beyond question, Philip Lamantia was one of the few truly great poets of our time, and a major player in the global resurgence of organized surrealism that began in the mid-1960s. His marvelous, luminous poetry is a liberating gift to definitive dreamers and seekers everywhere, resplendently anticipating what he called the "supreme disalienation of humanity and its language." The aim of this article is simply to summarize the story, heretofore unrecorded, of Lamantia's vital role in the history of the Surrealist Movement in the United States, and along the way, to correct at least some of the more egregious errors that have proliferated about him in the press and on the internet.

    Franklin Rosemont | Interactivist Info Exchange
    http ://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/04/10/0030203&mode=nested&tid=22


  14. The Beauty of Wind Farms
    While some groups of environmentalists decry wind farms because they disturb the 'natural beauty' and animal habitat, David Suzuki argues that it's time for a little perspective. "With the growing urgency of climate change, we cannot have it both ways. We cannot shout from the rooftops about the dangers of global warming and then turn around and shout even louder about the "dangers" of windmills. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges humanity will face this century. It cannot be solved through good intentions. It will take a radical change in the way we produce and consume energy - another industrial revolution, this time for clean energy, conservation and efficiency."

    David Suzuki | New Scientist
    http://www.newscientist.co m/channel/opinion/mg18624956.400



- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Rebecca Onion and Erica Wetter
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand and Brian Awehali

Posted by erin at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2005

04.12.05 Edition | Artist Smuggles Paintings Into NY Museums; North Korean Cunnilingus; The Pope's Legacy
April 12, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: A British graffiti artist has been breaking into museums and displaying his anti-war works; reason #6731 the Pope was a bad thing for humanity; the Women's Development Bank of Venezuela gets it right; Danny Shechter thinks the blogosphere is the new "Op-Edisphere"; check out LiP editor Brian Awehali's hypertext project, Thundralarra, adapted from an issue of Greg Hischak's glorious zine, Farm Pulp; Long live North Korean cunnilingus!; Because all those dystopic sci-fi movie scenarios weren't creepy enough as fiction, engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are working on a robot made of a swarm of smaller robots; how conservatives took the progressive low-power FM victory and turned it to their advantage; and the Palestianian Islamic resistance group, Hamas, and its junior sister, the Islamic Jihad, have decided in principle to join the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

 

This Week's Picks:

  1. Prankster Infiltrates NY Museums
    A British graffiti artist has managed to evade security and hang his work in four of New York's most prestigious and well-guarded museums. Two of the works carried an anti-war message.

    BBC Online
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/worl d/americas/4382245.stm


  2. Pope's Legacy Must Include War on Birth Control
    Caryl Rivers was writing a column on the assault on birth control in the United States when Pope John Paul II died. The Vatican's role in attacking reproductive freedom, she says, is a major part of the pope's legacy and should not be skimmed over.

    Caryl Rivers | Women's Enews
    http://www.womensenews.com/articl e.cfm/dyn/aid/2247


  3. Local Fox Affiliate Debuts Terror-Alert Van
    Touting itself as "the only channel with a terror-alert system designed to meet the specific needs of central Tennessee," Fox News affiliate WMFB-TV Channel 11 debuted its terror-alert van Monday.

    The Onion
    http://www.theonion.com/news/index. php?issue=4114


  4. Women's Bank
    Banking has long been seen as male territory with discrimination an occupational hazard for any female employee who dares attempt to make her way through the briefcases. But at the Women's Development Bank of Venezuela, Banmujer there is no glass ceiling. All the employees are women, and by offering small loans of around $1,000 per head, its aim is to increase the prosperity of women and transform them into entrepreneurial high-fliers.

    Diane Taylor | The Guardian / Venezuela Analysis
    http://www.venezuelanalysis.c om/articles.php?artno=1415


  5. Stop The March Madness
    Why college hoops players should get paid.

    Dave Zirin | Counterpunch
    http://www.counterpunch.org/zirin03312 005.html


  6. CARTOON | The Conservative Christian's Guide to Compassion

    Tim Kreider | The Pain
    http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly0503 30.htm



  7. American Media: Fighting for the Op-Edisphere
    Danny Schechter says the fight to be heard is moving from the op-ed pages to the blogosphere.

    TomPaine.com
    http://www.tompaine.com/articles/fighting_for_the_opedisphere.php?dateid=20050408


  8. VIDEO | Long Live North Korean Cunnilingus!
    This satirical video was apparently made by a conservative South Korean animation studio, which primarily makes anti-North Korean propaganda. But it's still pretty damn funny to read what Kim Jong Il might have to say about dialectical communism and oral-vaginal stimulation.

    Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries | Nerve
    http://www.nerve.com/video/weeklypic/002


  9. HYPERTEXT | Thundralarra
    Originally a project LiP editor Brian Awehali and former co-editor Jessica Clark produced for the managerially-doomed Britannica.com during the lunatic height of the dot.com "boom" in 2000, this interactive hypertext is adapted from an entire issue of Greg Hischak's superb zine, "Farm Pulp." Characters include a coyote in the lobby, a mime, the Bigfoot that lives in the basement, an operatic dryer, and a woman who loves her pet so much she has it stuffed. (Note that the "next" arrow on the very first page is almost occluded). Featuring a brief appearance from Salman Rushdie.

    Greg Hischak | Britannica.com / Farm Pulp
    http://www.britannica.com/thundralarra/


  10. A Tiny Robot Swarm
    The cartoon superheroes were frustrated. They confronted a menacing robot that quickly repaired any damage they inflicted. It was made up of a swarm of microscopic robots—so-called nanobots—that could change its function and shape at will. Suddenly the swarm became fluid and flowed away. That cartoon scenario may seem entertaining. But the reality is startling. Engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration want to pull off a similar trick.

    Robert C. Cowen | Christian Science Monitor
    http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/040 7/p14s01-stct.html


  11. With Wolfowitz
    It's about as close to consensus as the left is ever likely to come. Everyone this side of Atilla the Hun and The Wall Street Journal agrees that Paul Wolfowitz's appointment as president of the World Bank is a catastrophe... But what all this hand-wringing and wishful thinking reveals is a profound misconception about the role and purpose of the body Wolfowitz will run.

    George Monbiot | ZNet
    http://www.zmag. org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=7581


  12. Right-Wing Radio
    The story of low-power radio is a cautionary tale on how a progressive victory can quickly be turned to conservative gain. Thanks to Rupert Murdoch, Clear Channel, and Sinclair Broadcasting, the right wing has long dominated corporate media. Now religious broadcasters are busy pushing community radio right off the FM dial.

    Sarah Posner | AlterNet
    http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/2163 9/


  13. Joining Forces
    The Palestinian Islamic resistance group, Hamas, and its junior sister, the Islamic Jihad, have decided in principle to join the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). The historic decision, brought to fruition after prolonged internal deliberations, is expected to have far-reaching ramifications on Palestinian politics and inter-Palestinian relations, especially between the two largest political movements, the Islamist Hamas and nationalist Fatah.

    Khalid Amayreh | Al-Ahram Weekly
    http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/736/fr3.h tm


- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Adam Barker, Rebecca Onion and Erica Wetter
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand and Brian Awehali

Posted by erin at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2005

04.05.05 | On the Brink of Disaster; Kill Him Now; Devil's Dictionary
April 5, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: Poet Martín Espada tells Coke where to put it; Scott Ritter on the failings of US intelligence; Good news, people: 1,300 leading scientists can't be wrong—the Earth is on the brink of disaster; pharmacists refuse to fill birth-control prescriptions; the correlation between antidepressant use, depression, and homicide; looking for better uses for political leverage stemming from persistent vegetative state; McDonalds plans to pay rappers to advertise Big Macs in their lyrics; Norwegian rap group Gatas Parlament creates an anti-Bush video entitled "Kill Him Now," which was subsequently banned in Norway—under pressure from the US; wiretaps and searches are up 75 percent in the US; scientists faked data to help move forward a project to dump 77,000 tons of toxic defense waste and reactor fuel in Yucca Mountain; US army psychological operations plans to win the hearts and minds of Middle Eastern youth through comic books; and more, of course.

This Week's Picks

  1. Nuking the Spin
    A three part interview with former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who sets the record straight on his comments about Iran, shares his concerns about the threats facing America and discusses his hopes. Besides revealing facts about Iran and Russia, Ritter enumerates what he sees as the failings of the US intelligence operation, calling the CIA 'terminally ill', and draws the comparision between neo-cons and parasites.

    Larisa Alexandrovna | Raw Story
    Part 1: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=170
    Part 2: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=174
    Part 3: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=219


    2.
  2. On the Brink of Disaster
    Planet Earth stands on the cusp of disaster and people should no longer take it for granted that their children and grandchildren will survive in the environmentally degraded world of the 21st century. This is not the doom-laden talk of green activists but the considered opinion of 1,300 leading scientists from 95 countries who will today publish a detailed assessment of the state of the world at the start of the new millennium.

    Steve Connor | Independent UK / Energy Bulletin
    http://www.energybulletin.net/4987.html


    3.
  3. Some Pharmacists Say No to Filling Birth-Control Prescriptions
    An increasing number of pharmacists around the country are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth-control and morning-after pills, saying that dispensing the medications violates their personal moral or religious beliefs.

    Rob Stein | Common Dreams / Seattle Times
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0328-05.htm

    Join NARAL Pro-Choice America in telling our nation's biggest pharmacies (Wal-Mart, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreen's, and Eckerd's) not to stand between a woman and her physician. Send a letter speaking out against this trend:
    http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/pharmacy_petition


  4. AUDIO | Defiant Poet Takes on Coca-Cola
    A few weeks ago, poet Martín Espada gave a reading at Kansas University—an appearance funded, in part, by Coca-Cola, through the KU Endowment Association. Before his reading, however, Espada read a statement denouncing Coca-Cola for their atrocious labor record in Columbia and involvement in violent union-busting, and declared that he would be donating the entire amount of money Coke gave to the event to the National Food Workers Union in Colombia.

    Matthew Rothschild | The Progressive
    http://www.progressive.org/radio/29march05.mp3

    Read Martín Espada's statement here:
    http://www.killercoke.org/prespada.htm

    More about Coca-Cola's crimes and the movement against them:
    http://www.killercoke.org


    5.
  5. Death, Depression, and Prozac
    Jeff Weise, teen slayer of ten, including himself, at the Red Lake Indian reservation in northern Minnesota, was on Prozac, prescribed by some doc... How many times, amid the carnage of such homicidal sprees, do investigators find a prescription for antidepressants at the murder scene? Luvox at Columbine, Prozac at Louisville, Kentucky, where Joseph Wesbecker killed nine, including himself. You'll find many such stories in the past fifteen years.

    Alexander Cockburn | Counterpunch
    http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn04022005.html


    6.
  6. For Sale/Barter: My Body, in Persistent Vegetative State
    If, due to the absurd political state of affairs in this country, my persistent vegetative state and impending unplugging can be parlayed into some sort of political leverage, I wholly endorse using my predicament in whatever way possible for the purposes of passing legislation favorable to my general political and ethical outlook. Here is a list of top-tier causes I support and will continue to support, both while in my PVS and after my eventual death.

    Anonymous | Craigslist.org
    http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/65266930.html


  7. Big Mac Rap May Mean Artists' Payday
    Rap artists are accustomed to name-checking prestige car, clothing and jewelry brands in their lyrics. But if McDonald's has its way Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and 50 Cent may soon be giving it up for the humble beefburger. The fast-food giant is reported to be launching a campaign that will offer financial incentives to rap artists who mention its Big Mac burger in their lyrics.

    Richard Jinman | The Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1447179,00.html


  8. VIDEO | Kill Him Now
    Protesting U.S. foreign policy, the Norwegian rap group Gatas Parlament created this video entitled "Kill Him Now." Under pressure from the U.S., this was banned by the Norwegian government who claim that the video advocates direct violent action against President Bush, rather than peaceful protest. Consequently, it's become a major free speech issue in Norway. Check out the translated version, with English subtitles, before it's censored here as well.

    Gatas Parlament | iFilm
    http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2667824


  9. A Devil's Dictionary of the Bush Era
    For the last few years we have been ruled by lexicographers. Never has an administration spent so much time creating, defining, or redefining terms, perhaps because no one (since George Orwell) has grasped the power and possibility that lay hidden in plain sight in the naming and renaming of words.

    Tom Engelhardt | TomDispatch.com
    http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=2288


  10. Surveillance State: US Government Wiretaps, Searches up 75 Percent
    Hot on the heels of recent revelations that anarchist website flag.blackened.net was recently issued with an FBI subpoena to provide member IP addresses, the US Government has won approval to crank the 'surveillance war' against both real and imagined enemies up 75% from levels seen in the year 2000.

    Associated Press / Guerrilla News Network
    http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/1864/SURVEILLANCE_STATE_US_Government_wiretaps_searches_up_75_percent


  11. Yucca Probe Focuses on Possibly Faked Data
    E-mails by several government scientists on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump project suggest workers were planning to fabricate records and manipulate results to ensure outcomes that would help the project move forward. Yucca Mountain, approved by Congress in 2002, is planned as the nation's underground repository for 77,000 tons of defense waste and used reactor fuel from commercial power plants. From one email: "If they need more proof, I will be happy to make up more stuff."

    Associated Press / Truthout
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/040205Y.shtml


  12. Oil-for-Food is Small Potatoes
    Some days, it's hard to pick the outrage du jour, but hypocrisy is always an inviting target, and the United Nations oil-for-food scandal provides a two-fer - though the outrage isn't necessarily directed at the United Nations.

    Molly Ivins | AlterNet
    http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/21655/


    13.
  13. US Army Psyops to Produce Mid-East Comic
    An advertisement on the US government's Federal Business Opportunities website is inviting applications for someone to develop an "original comic book series". "In order to achieve long-term peace and stability in the Middle East, the youth need to be reached," the ad says.

    BBC News
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4396351.stm

- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Adam Barker and Erica Wetter
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand and Brian Awehali

Posted by erin at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)