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Newest Blog Entries:
NYT Op-Eds (3)
"We need a national conversation about the dimensions of poverty or a chunk of working-class America could be calcified into an underclass" (Kristof); "The issue of covering contraceptives in health care plans has Catholic bishops in an uproar. Let’s try to talk through this in a calm, measured manner" (Collins); "Haiti’s culture of impunity must end with the prosecution of Jean-Claude Duvalier" (Guest Op-Ed)Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, February 9, 2012
NYT (5): National News
Finally, a "bailout" for homeowners; Washington effectively becomes 7th state to legalize same-sex marriage; House passes insider trading bill, despite G.O.P. excising of important provision; G.O.P. sees birth control as new "cultural wars" wedge issue; As youth watch less TV (but more media in general), older people watch more.Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, February 9, 2012
NYT (6): National News
Prop 8 is struck down by fed appeals court; Study finds U.S. Muslims no threat re terrorism; PA sets local taxes on fracking; Santorum up, Gingrich down, Romney stable; Manhattan D.A. drops rape charges against Commish Kelly's son; 30-year NYC battle over loitering (homeless) arrests ends.Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, February 8, 2012
NYT (5): National News
Initially opposed to it, Obama, seeing reality, relents on SuperPAC; GOP sees politics in Chrysler Superbowl ad, but Eastwood says "balderdash"; Cuomo decision on fracking likely to be postponed; Georgia Supreme Court ruling on assisted suicide likely to rekindle debate; NYS Senate moves to reinstate church services in schools.Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, February 7, 2012
NYT (5): National News
Ron Paul sets off firestorm with religious requirement for caucus; Colorado moves to undermine fed law on environment; School-based congregations bemoan new NYC law; NYC defends "scary" health ads; Giants win the Superbowl.Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, February 6, 2012
NYT Editorial & Op-Eds (10)
"Three major legal cases may influence the 2012 election, but the cases also illustrate how politics shape the Supreme Court" (Editorial); "Whether Barack Obama wins or loses in November, the Democratic Party’s attention will immediately turn to 2016" (Guest Op-Ed); "Whether you can obtain a job, credit or insurance can be based on your digital doppelgänger — and you may never know why you’ve been turned down" (Guest Op-Ed); "Anyone entertaining such dreams of the Internet as a refuge for the bohemian, the hedonistic and the idiosyncratic probably didn’t know the reasons behind the disappearance of the original flâneur" (Guest Op-Ed); "How do the laws and mores of different nations manage, if at all, the multinational companies that now govern our digital lives?" (Guest Op-Ed); "Romney’s Mormon faith is too central to his biography and identity to be swept to the side" (Bruni); "Web tools can turn the world upside down. Change.org has empowered ordinary people to close down homophobic 'clinics' in Ecuador, shine a light on sex trafficking, and force banks to drop fees" (Kristof); "Vladimir Putin has been unable to make the political, economic and educational changes needed to make Russia a modern European state. Will he step up?" (Friedman); "Can Callista transform Newt so that he can transform her into the First Third Lady?" (Dowd); "Half of the country wants to restrict or end abortion, but you wouldn’t know that from the coverage of the Planned Parenthood-Komen controversy" (Douthat)Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, February 5, 2012
Susan G. Komen and the Planned Parenthood Jihad
Posted by Michael Butler, Saturday, February 4, 2012Atheism in the US. The last big taboo. FT, Julian Maggiani
Posted by Alexander Harper, Friday, February 3, 2012The Christian right, alive and powerful – AlterNet – Salon.com
Posted by Michael Butler, Friday, February 3, 2012NYT Op-Eds (3)
"Mitt Romney has said that his comments about not caring about the very poor were taken out of context. But the more context you give them, the worse it gets" (Krugman); "At a time when political leaders never admit fault and rarely accept responsibility, Komen did both, and that's worth celebrating" (Rosenthal); "The viral phenomenon of 'Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus' and the debate that it prompted have a fogy offering advice on how to beat the fogies" (Brooks)Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, February 3, 2012
Spain’s new conservative leaders make rapid push to overturn liberal laws
Posted by Harry Sifton, Thursday, February 2, 2012Pakistan’s security state: Reading the Taliban | The Economist
Posted by Michael Butler, Thursday, February 2, 2012NYT (4): Foreign Affairs
Muslim Brotherhood "flexes muscles" and stifles a protest; Syria-Iran nexus may be fraying; Palestinians protest over price and tax increases; Annual intelligence report hypes dangers vis-a-vis Iran.Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Adbusters: Spiritual Insurrection, the Ultimate Culture Jam
We awoke one morning to the dark realization that humanity is being dragged into a black hole of ecological, financial and spiritual catastrophe … that our democracy has been seized by a corporatocracy … that every day two hundred species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become forever extinct … that a deluge of advertising is sleepwalking our civilization to the brink of insanity … and that unless we fight back in the most visceral and creative way possible all will be lost.- Adbusters
And yet, what sets our struggle apart in 2012 is that we are not fighting to save a distant future. We are not trying to prevent some terrible event that is still to come. This is not about our unborn grandchildren. Instead, many of us sense that the threshold has already been crossed; the tipping point has already happened and what we are fighting for is our present. We are living in that tragic moment of eerie stillness where the fatal damage has been done, widening cracks can be seen, yet the edifice still stands and business as usual continues … but for how much longer?
Our days may be shadowed by this dark realization, but there is reason to be deeply optimistic for “where danger is, grows the saving power also.” Never before has the tantalizing possibility of a Global Spring, a worldwide people’s insurgency for democracy, seemed as close. For perhaps the first time in human history, we just might be on the edge of an everywhere-at-once revolution against the financial fraudsters, corporate lackeys and the ideology of consumerism that has brought the Earth to the precipice of collapse.
In this, the era of the total and transcendent indignato swarm, we look to each other, not to the masters above, to find out what it will take to pull off the ultimate culture jam: spiritual insurrection.
for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Tuesday, January 31, 2012
NYT Op-Eds (2)
"Look at Britain to see the tragic effects of a very bad idea" (Krugman); "The Police Department, with its immense powers, should not operate free from independent oversight" (Guest Op-Ed)Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, January 30, 2012
NYT Editorial & Op-Eds (10)
"The system for reviewing presidential appointments is broken. Changing the rule is a risky course, but it is the only way to get the nation’s work done" (Editorial); "A student movement led by Camila Vallejo and centered on reforming Chile’s educational system is upending the society" (Guest Op-Ed); "Millions of children take drugs to help them pay attention — but do they really help?" (Guest Op-Ed); "Focusing on public expectations of privacy means that our rights change when technology does" (Guest Op-Ed); "While Cynthia Nixon’s critics have good reason to worry about how her words will be construed, they have no right to demand silence and conformity from her" (Bruni); "Would it be ethical to produce, or take, a drug that makes us more likely to help others?" (Guest Op-Ed); "What is it about runways that brings out the fire in our cool president?" (Dowd); "There is a big gap in how C.E.O.’s and political leaders look at the world" (Friedman); "The power of the state can crowd out other forms of community" (Douthat); "Religious people are more likely to donate to charity" (Guest Op-Ed)Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, January 29, 2012
NYT (6): Foreign Affairs
Will Israel attack Iran?; In wake of growing violence, Arab League suspends monitoring in Syria; DC lobbyists drop Egypt as client; British hacking scandal continues, as 5 more are arrested, including a policeman; A book on two Muslim women "firebrands"; A book on how the Inquisition helped create the modern world.Posted by Ian Alterman, Sunday, January 29, 2012
Smirking Chimp (5)
Why the Occupy movement should do a little victory dance; Is Fox News actually destroying the GOP?; "Democracy vs. Plutocracy"; Are Schneiderman & Co. selling out?; "What Would Jesus Do?"Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, January 28, 2012
NYT (8): National News
Schneiderman & Co. get right to work issuing subpoenas; Was victory over SOPA/PIPA the result of "Lobbying 2.0?"; Economy grew faster than expected; Waning subsidies for wind and solar; Comparing pot to alcohol, CO hopes to pass relaxed regs on former; As Bloomberg deals with firestorm over anti-Muslim film, the sordid history of the NYPD vs. the facts; RI teen dealing with backlash over successful lawsuit against prayer posted in school.Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, January 28, 2012
NYT (5): Foreign Affairs
In Egypt, some demonstrators take on Muslim Brotherhood, others attack Syrian embassy; Activists take on Chinese gov't over pollution; Reversing bluster, Iran admits sanctions are hurting; Outrage in Pakistan over journalists as "morality police"; A short list of those declining to be knighted.Posted by Ian Alterman, Saturday, January 28, 2012
Up For Debate: German Court Bars “Mein Kampf” Again
The court is "concerned whether modern Germany can cope with the work that sowed the seeds for the Holocaust," because "This week, the government released the results of a two-year-long study showing that one in five Germans still harbored anti-Semitic beliefs." Is the court's decision a legitimate corrective? Or is it "paternalist" overreach and/or a form of censorship?Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, January 26, 2012
NYT Editorials & Op-Eds (4)
"President Obama has promised a full inquiry into the mortgage meltdown. Could this finally lead to clear results that hold those who broke the law accountable?" (Editorial); "The Supreme Court was correct to rule that placing an electronic surveillance on a suspect’s car violates privacy rights, but it left too many questions unanswered" (Editorial); "Evangelical concerns about Mitt Romney’s faith ultimately say more about the insecurities of the establishment denominations than about Mormonism itself" (Guest Op-Ed); "The Supreme Court’s decision to give a death-row inmate another chance presents a puzzle for anyone who witnessed the sharp right turn the Roberts court took during the 2006-2007 term" (Greenhouse)Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, January 26, 2012
NYT Editorials & Op-Eds (5)
"The United States is slowly recovering, but still struggling, and it is still in need of government action and strong political leadership" (Editorial); "There is absolutely no excuse for the New York Police Department’s decision to show a film about Muslims to more than 1,400 city police officers" (Editorial); "In the 21st-century economy, everyone is going to have to find a little something extra to stand out in their field of employment" (Friedman); "Mitt Romney, leaving us at wit’s end with his witless pranks" (Dowd); "Maikel Nabil Sanad’s experience illustrates the challenge facing Egyptian society if it hopes that democracy and pluralism will replace the Mubarak government" (Guest Op-Ed)Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, January 25, 2012
NYT (6): National News
NYT coverage of the SOTU; Indiana dems pull a "Wisconsin," disappear for anti-union vote; Kelly reverses himself, says he helped on NYPD anti-Muslim video (!); Is Obama plan for new task force on financial fraud a nod to the Occupy movement?; Christie will veto same-sex marriage bill, wants issue brought directly to voters; Oscar nominations are released.Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, January 25, 2012
