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May 10, 2005

05.10.05 Edition | Conspiracy Theory Rock; National Masturbation Month; Why to Ditch Cheap Air Travel
May 10, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: Robert Smigel's suppressed "Conspiracy Theory Rock" short; Tamil hip hop artist M.I.A. on immigration, art, life, and liberation; the government is poisoning poor kids in housing projects; May is National Masturbation Month, so surrender yourself to self-pleasure, dear readers; A Daily Show spoof of Bush's energy plan; the modern day analog to the Scopes Monkey trial of 1925 kicks off in Kansas, pitting evolutionists and creationists against each other; Why flying is... well, just bad; Mike Davis looks at the ugly history of vigilantism in the United States; seeing Chile in Nepal; a look back at Bob Hunter, Greenpeace founder and pioneer of modern environmental activism; and more.

This Week's Picks:

  1. VIDEO | Conspiracy Theory Rock
    Robert Smigel's spoof of "Schoolhouse Rock" only aired once on Saturday Night Live before it was cut from the episode, and omitted from all future rebroadcasts. Evidentially, the particular conspiracy theories tackled in this satirical video hit a little too close to home.

    Robert Smigel | Saturday Night Live
    http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video /conspiracy.php


  2. INTERVIEW | M.I.A.
    Hip hop artist M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam), the daughter of a Tamil freedom fighter, speaks about the cultural politics of immigration, her role as an artist, and the global sound of London.

    Robert Wheaton | Pop Matters
    http://www.popmatters.com /music/interviews/mia-050506.shtml


  3. Harlem's Toxic Nightmare
    Black and Latino children are paying the price for the mismanagement that has many public housing projects saturated in pesticides and literally crawling with rats.

    Kai Wright | Alternet
    http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/21917


  4. May: National Masturbation Month
    Grab your balls and testify! Grab 'em right now, Brother! Don't grab 'em too hard. But don't be too soft on yourself either. And Sister, you just grab your holy vulva right where it feels good. Feel the power, the glory and the truth of solo sexual revelation! Finger yourself with joy! Stroke yourself into rapture! Surrender to self-pleasure. Testify to the truth of autoerotic ecstasy.

    Dr. Susan Block | Counterpunch
    http://www.counterpunch.org/block05072 005.html


  5. VIDEO | Bush's Energy Plan

    Jon Stewart | The Daily Show
    http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/videos_headlines.jhtml


  6. Vigilante Man
    The vigilantes are back. In the 1850s, they lynched Irishmen; in the 1870s, they terrorized the Chinese; in the first decade of the twentieth century, they murdered striking Wobblies; in the 1920s, they organized "Bash a Jap" campaigns; and in the 1930s, they welcomed the Joads and other Dust Bowl refugees with tear gas and buckshot. Their wrath has almost always been directed against the poorest, most powerless, and hardest-working segment of the population: recent migrants from Donegal, Guangdong, Oklahoma, or, now, Oaxaca.

    Mike Davis | Tom Dispatch
    http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtm l?pid=2378


  7. Kansas Begins Hearings on Diluting Teaching of Evolution
    In the first of three daylong hearings characterized here as the direct descendant of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a parade of Ph.D.'s testified today about the flaws they find in Darwin's theory of evolution, transforming a small auditorium into a forum on one of the most controversial questions in education and politics: How to teach about the origin of life?

    Jodi Wilgoren | Truthout/New York Times
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/050 605F.shtml


  8. Rising Number of Greens Ditch Cheap Air Travel
    Campaigners focus on environmental impact of flights.

    Anushka Asthana and Robin McKie | The Guardian
    http://observer.g uardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1474219,00.html


  9. Support for Iraq War at Lowest Level
    In a USA Today/CNN/Gallup run poll, 57% of the US public said that the Iraq War was not worthwhile; nearly half said that it was a mistake. Support for the war is now at the lowest level since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.

    Bill Nichols and Mona Mahmoud | USA Today / Truthout
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/050 405B.shtml


  10. Seeing Chile in Nepal
    "I am Chilean. Gagan [Thapa] is Nepali. Despite the distance between our countries, Gagan and I have a lot in common. I, too, became a student activist during a democratic transition, in Chile, a country that made the term "disappeared" famous because of the ability of Augusto Pinochet's government to make a person disappear from public view without a trace. If they turned up at all, they often turned up dead. Now Gagan is in danger of joining the list of what we in Chile called the 'desaparecidos,' the 'disappeared.' And I am seeing Chile in Nepal."

    Daniela Ponce | FreeNepal.org
    http://www.freenepal.org:8080/FreeNepal/action/discu ssion.do;jsessionid=3D31F275D60CA8291890CBD0545E8637?currentContentId=68


  11. The Original Mr. Green
    In 1971 he sailed a dilapidated vessel towards a US nuclear test to 'wake up the world'. With that stunt, Bob Hunter, who died last week, changed the face of environmental protest.

    John Vidal | The Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/g 2/story/0,3604,1475733,00.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 May 10, 2005 04:50 PM

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