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December 07, 2005

12.07.05 | An Issue of Choice; Kamikaze Pilots and Suicide Bombers; Sex Toys for Republicans
December 7, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: The glass ceiling at home and the feminist problem with "choice"; Will Ferrell as George W. Bush, again; allegations that the US is profiting from trade in dead Iraqis' organs; Robert Fisk takes on the problem of "objective" journalism; re-thinking AIDS treatments, in Brazil; Kamikaze pilots and suicide bombers; Tim Wise on the pathology of white privilege; gold mining and the new conquistadors of El Salvador; the racial formation of Asian-Americans; how US anthropologists helped design "race-specific" warfare against the Japanese in WWII; and a few gloriously humorous tidbits scattered throughout this week's batch of Media Picks.

This Week's Picks:

  1. Homeward Bound
    “Choice feminism” claims that staying home with the kids is just one more feminist option. Funny that most men rarely make the same “choice.” Exactly what kind of choice is that?

    Linda Hirshman | American Prospect
    http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=10646


  2. VIDEO | Dubya on Global Warming
    Will Ferrell, as George W., talks about the dangers of global warming and gets attacked by a pop-up book.

    Earth to America! / (clip hosted on onegoodmove.org)
    http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/002648.html


  3. Hearts and Brains
    Secret European military intelligence reports indicate the transformation of the American humanitarian mission in Iraq into a profitable trade through the practice of American physicians extracting human organs from the dead and wounded.

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


  4. INTERVIEW | War is the Total Failure of the Human Spirit
    "For years now journalism has been cabined, cribbed, confined into a straightjacket of rules made in the 1940s in the original journalism schools in the U.S. If you're dealing with local journalism—a public inquiry, a legal case, a battle over a new hospital—it is correct to make sure everyone is equally represented. But in foreign affairs, in a part of the world that is cloaked in injustice, where thousands are torn apart and shredded by weapons every year, you're entering a new kind of world. One in which the standards of neutrality used in a small-town court case fall by the wayside because they are no longer relevant."

    Robert Fisk interviewed by Justin Podur | Rabble
    http://www.rabble.ca/rabble_interview.shtml?sh_itm=a37c84dbd62690c4c1abb1a898a77047&rXn=1&


  5. Area Cherokee In Violation Of Indian Removal Act Of 1830
    Authorities issued a warrant for the arrest and forced relocation of local carpenter and half-blooded Cherokee Indian Jonathan Silvers Monday, when he was found to be in violation of the federal Indian Removal Act of 1830.

    The Onion
    http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43197


  6. AUDIO | Rethinking AIDS Treatment: The Brazilian Model
    How Brazil is coping with AIDS, including sex worker education and free medicine for its HIV-positive citizens.

    National Radio Project
    http://www.radioproject.org/archive/2005/5005.html


  7. CARTOON | Republican Sex Toys
    'Nuff said.

    Tim Kreider | The Pain - When Will It End?
    http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly051130a.htm


  8. Japan’s Kamikaze Pilots and Contemporary Suicide Bombers: War and Terror
    An excellent analysis and comparison of Japanese kamikaze pilots and Palestinian suicide bombers.

    Yuki Tanaka | Japan Focus
    http://www.japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=458


  9. VIDEO | The Destructive Pathology of White Privilege
    LiP contributor Tim Wise is on a book tour for White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son. His book and speech explore the meanings and consequences of "whiteness," and discuss the ways in which racial privilege can harm not just people of color, but also whites.

    Tim Wise | Freespeech Network
    http://www.freespeech.org/fscm2/contentviewer.php?content_id=1161


  10. Resisting the New Conquistadors
    In the fields above Carasque, you can still find shrapnel from bombs the Salvadoran Air Force dropped on the village in the 1980s. Early this fall, signs of a new threat began appearing on the mountainside—survey tags left by a Canadian mining company searching for gold.

    Sean Donahue | The Narco News Bulletin
    http://www.narconews.com/Issue39/article1497.html


  11. Crossing Race and Nationality: The Racial Formation of Asian Americans
    The racial formation of Asian Americans was a key moment in defining the color line among immigrants, extending whiteness to European immigrants, and targeting non-white immigrants for racial oppression.

    Bob Wing | Monthly Review
    http://www.monthlyreview.org/1205wing.htm


  12. How US Anthropologists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons Against the Japanese
    During the Second World War, over two dozen anthropologists worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the institutional predecessor to the CIA, performing a variety of tasks ranging from covert-ops to desk-bound propaganda analysis. One 1943 OSS document, the "Preliminary Report on Japanese Anthropology," reveals that World War II-era anthropologists were recommending culture- and race-specific means of killing Japanese soldiers and civilians.

    David Price | Counterpunch
    http://www.counterpunch.org/price11252005.html


- Media Picks Contributing Editor: Adam Barker
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand and Brian Awehali


Posted by erin at December 7, 2005 03:47 PM

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