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January 05, 2006
01.05.06 | The Politics of "King Kong"; Turning Teens Into Mental Patients; How To Write About Africa
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January 5, 2006 Edition |
| "The Best of the Rest of the Web" |
THiS WEEK: Letterman calls out Bill O'Reilly as the BS artist he is; reviews, old and new, of King Kong; how folks on the American Left have become more reactionary than their right-wing counterparts; the toxic air in Black America; turning teens into mental patients, one "mental health" screening at a time; how to write about Africa (hint: nudity, sunsets, and starvation); former counsel to the president John Dean points out some stark similarities between Bush and Nixon; the naming of names, and why it matters; the fading vision of a borderless internet; the childfree movement; anthropologist Maurice Godelier explores kinship and incest taboos; and more fascinating tidbits in this week's Media Picks.
This Week's Picks:
- VIDEO | Letterman 1 - O'Reilly 0
"I have the feeling that 60% of what you say is crap..."Late Show with David Letterman / Onegoodmove.org
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/002750.html#002750 - REVIEW | King Kong
Originally published in 1975, this review of the original "King Kong" discusses the subtexts of the film (much of which is still relevant in light of Peter Jackson's true-to-the-original remake): racism and the capitalist crisis of the 1930s.David N. Rosen | Jump Cut
http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC06folder/KingKong.html - CARTOON | King Kong, Pt. 2
Or, more simply put...Aaron McGruder | The Boondocks
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/bo/2005/bo051228.gif - The Real Left Behind Story: The Reactionary American Left and the Law of
Diminishing Returns
In 21st century America, we have entered a kind of Through the Looking Glass world where progressives are the real conservatives: We spend most of our time trying to stop something bad from changing to something worse, rather than potentializing positive social change. It is neo-conservatives who have become the new radicals, the Robespierres of the right-wing revolution.Christy Rogers | Dissident Voice
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Dec05/Rodgers1231.htm - The Toxic Air in Black America
Black residents in some cities have screamed just as loudly as white, middle class homeowners and urban conservationists about hacked up parkland, toxic dump sites, waste incinerators, garbage dumps, recycling centers, contaminated sewage sites, and power plants in their backyard. Call this racially-warped policy "PIBBY"—Put It In Blacks' Backyard.Earl Ofari Hutchinson | BlackNews
http://www.blacknews.com/pr/dirty101.html - Toxic Washout
The Natural Resources Defense Council summarizes the pollution data recovered thus far from New Orleans in the literal wake of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/katrinadata/sediment.asp - The Making of Mental Patients: Inside TeenScreen
TeenScreen, a mental health survey which professes to discover "mental illnesses" in teenagers, is the brainchild of psychiatrist David Shaffer of Columbia University, a paid consultant for pharmaceutical companies Hoffman la Roche, Wyeth, and GlaxoSmithKline. The stated goal of TeenScreen? To provide a "mental health checkup" for all 19,800,000 teenagers in the US. Should TeenScreen succeed in its goal, it is possible that no less than 14,058,000 American youth would end up labeled mentally ill and, far more likely than not, put on psychiatric drugs. And the estimated increase in pharmaceutical companies' monthly revenues? $1,290,524,400.Sandra Lucas | CounterPunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/lucas12302005.html - How to Write About Africa
Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls. Establish early on that your liberalism is impeccable, and mention near the beginning how much you love Africa, how you fell in love with the place and can't live without her. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. Blame the West for Africa's situation. But do not be too specific.Binyavanga Wainaina | Granta
http://www.granta.com/extracts/2615 - George W. Bush as the New Richard M. Nixon
Former counsel to the president John Dean comments on the recent revelation of President Bush's authorization of warrantless wiretaps, in contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and in disregard of the FISA Court. Dean notes that President Nixon's bill of impeachment listed illegal wiretaps, and parallels the points of view Nixon and Bush have expressed with respect to presidential power.John W. Dean | FindLaw
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=/dean/20051230.html - REVIEW | The Naming of Names
Around two thousand years ago, a Greek doctor named Dioscorides described a plant that he considered to be medically useful. It was called 'crocodilium', he said, and it was supposed to help people who were splenetic. When boiled and drunk, it 'causes copious bleeding at the nose'. Other characteristics, apart from the shape of its roots and seeds, and the fact that it grew in 'wooded places', were unfortunately obscure. What exactly was crocodilium? And why should anyone care? As Anna Pavord splendidly makes plain in this elegant and scholarly history of taxonomy, a science usually regarded as even dismaller than economics, such questions are far from insignificant. Exactly which plant is which, and what its relationship is to other plants, are matters central to our understanding of the world we live in.Charles Elliott | Literary Review
http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/elliot_12_05.html - Digital Borders
The vision of a borderless Internet is fast being replaced by the reality of one that is splitting apart and reflecting national borders. Far from flattening the world, the Internet is in many ways conforming to local conditions.Timothy Wu and Jack Goldsmith | Legal Affairs
http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/January-February-2006/feature_goldsmith_janfeb06.msp - Oh, Baby
Are the childfree a fast-growing, misunderstood movement—or just a bunch of mean ol' kid haters?Sarah Klein | Detroit Metro Times
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=8676 - REVIEW | The Labyrinth of Kinship
In Métamorphoses de la parenté, Maurice Godelier, explores kinship as the central concern of anthropology, and its place in French and British traditions of the discipline; the universality—or otherwise—of incest taboos;and the role of beliefs versus interests in generating them.Jack Goody | New Left Review
http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR27006.shtml
- Media Picks Contributing Editor: Justin Park
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin
Wiegand and Brian Awehali
Posted by erin at January 5, 2006 11:18 AM