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July 13, 2006
07.13.06 Breeder's Rights; The Puzzlemaster's Dilemma; The Moonies and the Sharks
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July 13, 2006 Edition |
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THiS WEEK: Does "reproductive rights" include access to fertility drugs?; new online graphic novel follows a young journalist documenting the Iraq war—in 2011; crossword king Will Shortz made his name penning word puzzles, but is making his fortune on a simple numbers game; G8 members planning a massive expansion of nuclear power in their home countries; meanwhile, the environmental movement is still plagued by the nuclear dilemma; how the Reverend Kevin Thompson of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church made a living on a $1.2 million baby-leopard-shark poaching ring; transgender writer and activist Kate Bornstein talks about her new book on suicide (and alternatives); Sylvia Federici discusses witch hunts, capitalism, and the connections between them; the yellow peril in Hollywood, then and now; and several other items of interest in this week's Media Picks.
This Week's Picks:
- Breeder Reaction
Reproductive freedom isn't just a matter of who gets birth control or who can safely access abortions—for queer people, the disabled, and older women, it's a matter of access to fertility services. As they're finding, it's much easier to get approved for fertility services if you're heterosexual, under 40, and "physically fit." But the screening at fertility clinics poses a simple yet difficult-to-answer question: Should there be a right to reproductive assistance?Elizabeth Weil | Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/07/breeder_reaction.html - The Puzzlemaster’s Dilemma
Millions of word freaks revere Will Shortz as the nation’s master of linguistic play, but the editor of the NY Times crossword puzzle isn't getting rich off his wordplay, nor off the documentary about him that premieres this weekend. It's his 50-book series of Sudoku puzzles—the ultimate puzzle for a postliterate world—that has him raking in the cash these days. Has Will Shortz’s moment in the sun arrived—just as the crossword is being eclipsed?Clive Thompson | New York Magazine
http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=New+York+Times+Crossword+Creator+Will+Shortz+Gets+Rich+Off+Sudoku+--+New+York+Magazine&expire=&urlID=18540857&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorkmag.com%2Farts%2Fall%2Ffeatures%2F17244%2F&partnerID=73272 - CARTOON | America's Flags Afraid to Leave Their Homes
Don Asmussen | Bad Reporter
http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2006/06/30/063006-950x314-badreporter.gif - G8 Plan: Global Nuclear Power
World leaders are planning a massive expansion of nuclear power in their own countries and across the developing world, according to documents drawn up for the G8 summit and leaked to the Sunday Herald.Rob Edwards | Sunday Herald / Infoshop.org
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060711105730601 - Thanks, But No Thanks
If someone had worked out how to cause a war within the environmental movement, they could not have developed a better means than nuclear power.George Monbiot | Monbiot.com
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2006/07/11/thanks-but-we-still-dont-need-it/#more-997 - ONLINE GRAPHIC NOVEL | Shooting War
The year is 2011, and Jimmy Burns, a young anti-corporate blogger has just seen his Williamsburg apartment blown to bits by yet another terrorist attack on New York City. He’s recorded the gruesome scene on his videoblog camera—footage Burns beams live to a freaked-out world and that makes him an overnight media sensation. Exploited by his own network (Global News: “Your home for 24-hour terror coverage”), enraged by the terrorists, and determined to tell the American people the truth, Burns takes off for Iraq to get the real story of a war that’s been raging for more than eight years.Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman
http://smithmag.us/shootingwar/index.php - The Moonies and the Sharks
How a Unification Church pastor went fishing for converts and snagged an indictment as America's most prolific poacher of baby leopard sharks.Robert Gammon | East Bay Express
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Issues/2006-07-12/news/feature_print.html - AUDIO | Hello, Cruel World
Tackling a subject of grave importance, Kate Bornstein, transgender actress, playwright, writer, and celebrated pioneer activist for the LGBTQI community, talks about her new book, titled Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and other Outlaws. Kate is widely known for her two previous groundbreaking books, My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely and Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and The Rest of Us. - AUDIO | Witch Hunts and Capitalism
Witch hunts, contends scholar and activist Sylvia Federici, went hand in hand with the emergence of capitalism and that system's attempt to control and discipline human labor. In her book Caliban and the Witch, Federici relates the repression of witches and of women more generally to colonial conquest, resource appropriation, and other past and current agendas of capitalism.CS Soong | Against the Grain
http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio7.11.06.mp3 - REVIEW | Perpetuating the Yellow Peril
The shameful depiction of minorities in television and film is hardly news. What makes Jeff Adachi’s new movie Slanted Screen special is that it offers a rare view of Hollywood from the inside.Lakshmi Chaudhry | In These Times
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2705/ - 50,000 Dead - But Who's Counting?
After famously telling reporters that they "don't do body counts," Pentagon officials now say that they have in fact been keeping a record of civilian casualties in Iraq for one year. And while that number remains classified, independent estimates suggest that at least 50,000 people have died in the country since the 2003 invasion.Juliana Lara Resende | Inter Press Service / Countercurrents
http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-resende110706.htm
- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Adam Barker, Justin Park
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin
Wiegand and Brian Awehali
Posted by erin at July 13, 2006 12:34 AM