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July 26, 2005

07.26.05 Edition | Don't Go To School; The Myth of Marriage; New US Flag
July 26, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: An argument against education; Seymour Hersh on the manipulation of the Iraq election; the myth of marriage; member of congress suggests—seriously—bombing Mecca; advice for female on-camera meteorologists; Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost;the real stakes in John Roberts' nomination; making music out of food; when fundamentalist Christians start making their own US flag...; new US military base cause for concern in South America; exposing industrial pollution; Dutch politicians play shoot-the-Muslim; the exciting future of hydrogen-powered buses, at least in Iceland; forced relocation for the Kalahari Bushmen; and more.

This Week's Picks:

  1. Workers Of The Real World
    For the past 20 years, we've been barraged by a relentless mantra: Education is the magic bullet to survive in the global economy. Virtually every politician, armed with rhetoric from academics, tells American workers that, essentially, they are too dumb to make it in the "New Economy." Save yourself, they exhort—go back to school. Prepare yourself—get an advanced degree. But this is utter nonsense.

    Jonathan Tasini | TomPaine.com
    http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050720/workers_of_the_real_world.php


  2. Get Out the Vote
    Did Washington try to manipulate Iraq's election?

    Seymour Hersh | The New Yorker
    http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050725fa_fact


  3. The Myth of Marriage
    A radical new book debunks the concept of marriage as a time-honored institution, and argues that we need to loosen up about it.

    Monica Mehta | AlterNet
    http://www.alternet.org/story/23400/

  4. Super-Powered Jesus Flutters in the Wind
    Can the U.S. really be a theocracy without a national Christian flag? Well, now it has one.

    Will Braun | The Society of Mutual Autopsy
    http://www.somareview.com/superpoweredjesus.cfm



  5. AUDIO | We Could Nuke Mecca?
    Last week, Rep. Tom Tancredo , R-Colo., had this on-air exchange with radio host Patrick Campbell:
    TANCREDO: "[If] we determine that [a terrorist attack] is the result of extremist fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites."
    CAMPBELL: You're talking about bombing Mecca.
    TANCREDO: Yeah.

    Tom Paine/Northeast Intelligence Network
    http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/Tancredo.mp3


  6. The Stakes in Roberts' Nomination
    Criticize Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts all you like for his anti-choice, anti-affirmative action, anti-environment stances; the key factor in his nomination, in fact, was his position on whether or not the Geneva Conventions apply to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay—and, more broadly, his commitment to support the ever-exapanding reach of executive power in the US.

    Bruce Shapiro | The Nation
    http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20050801&s=shapiro2

  7. It's Going to Be a Hot One
    A senior vice president at The Weather Channel gives some advice to female on-camera meterologists about their professional appearance: "Do you want to look old? That's what happens when you don't smile. And have a big nose."

    Harper's
    http://www.harpers.org/ItsGoingToBeAHotOne.html




  8. INTERVIEW | Crunch Time
    Does the sound of 3,255 people biting into apples count as music? And will it make the food industry change its ways? Musician Matthew Herbert explains all about his new album Plat du Jour.

    Pascal Wyse | Guardian UK
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1530688,00.html



    9.
  9. REVIEW | When Lost Is Found
    On the surface, it would seem that getting lost requires little instruction, and that few of us would want to improve whatever talent for it we might possess. But in her new book, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit offers a compelling case for a state more commonly avoided than aspired to.

    Mark Engler | In These Times
    http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2258



  10. Washington Secures Long-Sought Hemispheric Outpost
    US forces are now using the Mariscal Estigarribia airport base, which underwent construction in 2000 to allow for the reception of large numbers of troops and weapons and to also facilitate the landing of B-52 and Galaxy planes. With the facility having a capacity to hold 16,000 troops and its proximity to the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, Paraguay's South American neighbors are questioning Washington's intentions at Mariscal Estigarribia, fearing that they may include more than just drugs and terrorism.

    Mary Donohue and Melissa Nepomiachi | Council on Hemispheric Affairs
    http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2005/05.78_Washington_Secure_Long_Sought_Military_Outpost_Perhaps_At_the_Expense_of_Regional_Soverignty.htm


  11. AUDIO | Industry on the Attack
    What happens when academics expose the misdeeds of some of the most powerful corporations in America? Dow, Monsanto, Union Carbide, and other chemical companies have challenged the scholarship of historians Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, authors of Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, using controversial and troubling methods. (Encore presentation.)

    C.S. Soong | Against the Grain
    http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio7.20.05.mp3


  12. Norwegian Politicians Play at Shooting Muslims
    Members of one of Norway?s smaller political parties, the Democrats, recently held a paintball competition in which one group dressed up like ?Muslim terrorists.? John Arntsen, leader of a local chapter of the Democrats, explained their decision: ?This was both fun and useful... if the world keeps developing like it is now, with terrorism especially in Muslim circles, people can quickly have a need for knowledge about self-defense.?

    Aftenposten | Kjetil Olsen
    http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1083258.ece


  13. The Future of Transportation
    A visit to Iceland spurs dreams of a hydrogen future.

    Bill McKibben | Grist
    http://www.grist.org/comments/soapbox/2005/07/19/mckibben-hydrogenbus/index.html


  14. Uprooted After 30,000 Years
    The Kalahari Bushmen are one of the world?s oldest civilizations. For 30,000 years they have carved a life out the desert in what is now Botswana. But for the last decade the Bushmen—or San, as they are also known—have been inexorably driven from their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. In 1997 the government of Botswana began cutting off services and forcibly relocating them to camps and settlements outside the reserve.

    Richard Warnica | The Tyee
    http://www.thetyee.ca/Photo/2005/07/22/Uprooted/


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

Posted by erin at July 26, 2005 11:48 PM

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