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March 20, 2006
03.20.06 | Remembering the Haitian Revolution; Misanthropy & Environmentalism; The God Fossil
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March 20, 2006 Edition |
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THiS WEEK: Remembering the first and only successful slave revolution in the Americas; the disturbing misanthropic legacy of environmentalism; a look at the notion of habeas corpus (and its suspension); why finding a stable job as a transgendered person—even in San Francisco—is next to impossible; new movement of scientists attempt to prove an evolutionary basis for the idea of god; the EPA finally admits Teflon may be unsafe; evidence increasingly shows that most salmon are now toxic; the growing acceptance of transgender children; and a handful of other interesting bits of information in this extra-large version of Media Picks.
This Week's Picks:
- AUDIO | The Haitian Revolution
It was a cataclysmic event, the first and only successful slave revolution in the Americas. In 1791 brutally exploited slaves on a small Caribbean island rose up and eventually won emancipation. Their story, a legacy that has inspired and instructed people and nations for centuries, is told in Laurent Dubois's Avengers of the New World.C.S. Soong | Against the Grain
http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio3.06.06.mp3 - New Poll Finds 86 Percent Of Americans Don't Want To Have A Country Anymore
Of those who were against maintaining an American nation, 77 percent said they believe that having a country is "counter to the best interests of Americans." Twelve percent said "the time and effort citizens spend on the country could be better spent elsewhere," and 8 percent said they just didn't care. - Caste From the Past
A handful of forgotten environmentalists from years past embodied a commitment to the dispossessed and the poor. In contrast, some of the most venerated conservationists demonstrated a decidedly misanthropic streak—and therein lies a startling and unsettling tension within the history of environmental activism.Matthew Klingle and Joseph E. Taylor III | Grist Magazine
http://www.grist.org/comments/soapbox/2006/03/08/klingle/index.html?source=weekly - AUDIO | Habeas Schmabeas
The right of habeas corpus has been a part of this country's legal tradition longer than we've actually been a country. It means the government has to explain why it's holding a person in custody. But now, the war on terror has nixed many of the rules we used to think of as fundamental. This episode of This American Life looks at the history of habeas corpus as well as its suspension in the case of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.This American Life
http://www.thislife.org/ra/310_bonus.ram - Transjobless
Imagine trying to find a job without a shred of work history. Welcome to the transgender job hunt.Tali Woodward | San Francisco Bay Guardian
http://www.sfbg.com/40/24/cover_trans.html - CARTOON | Faster Than FEMA
Aaron McGruder | The Boondocks
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/bo/2006/bo060303.gif - The God Fossil
In the 19th Century, scientific revelations about the age of the Earth and the development of animal species (and humans) led to the loss of faith of many intellectuals. But the 20th Century had a different legacy. While the technological sciences flourished, the end of the century saw science itself increasingly under attack by religious movements, business interests, and, at least in the US, an antagonistic presidential administration. Now, two scientists are working at the front of an obscure but growing field that seeks to prove a radical notion: that god is a product of evolution.Julia Reischel | New Time Broward-Palm Beach
http://www.newtimesbpb.com/Issues/2006-03-09/news/feature_print.html - Sane Britain Disappears
Until recently, liberal Europeans were keen to distance themselves, at least officially, from the ideological excesses of the current US administration. They argued that the neo-conservative enthusiasm for the "war on terror"—and its underpinning ideology of "a clash of civilisations"—did not fit with Europe's painful recent experiences of world wars and the dismantling of its colonial outposts around the globe. But there is every sign that the public dissociation is coming to a very rapid end. The language and assumptions of the "clash scaremongers" is permeating European thought, including the reasoning of its liberal classes, just as surely as it once did about the Cold War.Jonathan Cook | Al-Ahram Weekly
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/785/op11.htm - EPA Finally Admits Teflon May be Unsafe
While the polymers used in DuPont's famous "Teflon" nonstick coating for cooking pans have long been suspected to be unsafe for both humans and the environment, the EPA has, for the first time, taken a stance against the compound.Jeff Montgomery | The News Journal
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060309/NEWS/603090380/-1/NEWS01 - The Dam Truth?
The ever-increasing evidence that farmed salmon are so bad to eat that they should be declared poisonous convinces no one. The industry doesn't meet evidence with evidence, but simply denies what independent science is saying around the world. They get support from the Health Protection branch of the federal government whose studies (not their own, but evaluations of industry stuff) are 20 years out of date.Rafe Mair | The Tyee
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/03/06/DamTruth/ - CARTOON | South Dakota Abortion Ban Does Not Exempt Alien Impregnation
Don Asmussen | Bad Reporter
http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2006/03/15/031506-950x316-badreporter.gif - Trans Mission
Can a 6-year-old make up his mind about being a her? Parents at a recent conference say "yes."Doron Taussig | Philadelphia City Paper
http://citypaper.net/articles/2006-03-09/cb.shtml - "Receptacles for Psychiatric Drugs": Psychologists Take on Big Pharma
The group bills itself as the nation's largest patient education group for persons affected by ADHD, and says it provides consumer, patient, and professional information. But those familiar with the marketing tactics of ADHD drugs know all about the pharmaceutical industry's long history of concerted effort to increase drug company profits through the over-prescribing of attention deficit drugs to children.Evelyn Pringle | Media Monitors Network
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/28127 - Happy Meals, Unhappy Workers
Vietnamese workers making toys for McDonald's, Disney and Hallmark have orchestrated wildcat strikes demanding higher pay and better treatment—and in most instances, the Communist regime has placated them. But corporations dependent on a cheap, docile workforce have already threatened to pull out of the country, threatening Vietnam's burgeoning export sector and forcing the government to walk a delicate path between the demands of its citizens and the multinationals they court.Aaron Glantz and Ngoc Nguyen | CorpWatch
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13358 - AUDIO | Can't Stop Won't Stop
On this episode of Fire on the Prarie, Jeff Chang, author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation discusses his award-winning book and the history of hip hop. Also: Cornel West on democracy, from a recent speech at the University of Chicago.Aaron Sarver | Fire on the Prairie
http://www.fireontheprairie.com/site/main/show_ind/76/ - REVIEW | The Bread of Conquest
For over a century and a half of labor unrest, crop booms and busts, California has remained at the vanguard of agricultural production, leading many to wonder what accounts for its tremendous and sustained dynamism. That question is explored by Marxist geographer Richard Walker in The Conquest of Bread, an insightful, overarching look at California agribusiness that draws its name from an 1892 tract by Russian anarchist thinker Pyotr Kropotkin. Walker traces the golden thread of production from the cultivation of seeds, the manufacture of pesticides and fertilizers, to the processing and canning plants, slaughterhouses and refineries, and to grocery chains like Safeway and Lucky.Sasha Lilley | Monthly Review
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0206lilley.htm
- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Adam Barker, Justin Park
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin
Wiegand and Brian Awehali
Posted by erin at March 20, 2006 11:04 AM