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FDA Throws Life Line to Antipsychotic Pushers
by Evelyn Pringle, July 2009
'In April 2009, Gabriel Meyers, a seven year old Florida boy, committed suicide by hanging in the bathroom of a foster care home. In the last few days of his life: "He was told his mother no longer had visitation rights, that he would probably be going back to Ohio, where he alleged he had been abused; the doctor changed his medication, he changed foster homes and he got a new counselor..."'
The Overpass
by Dean Kisling, July 2009
"The horror of the overpass is that it is so utterly ordinary, business as usual, another day in the life, accepted and taken for granted in all its grotesque ugliness, its assault on the senses and the world. All these strange floating containers of sheet metal and glass, and these creatures with their arms raised like zombies, with steering wheels in their fists, with their eyes pointed straight ahead..."
People. People Who Don't Need People
by Walter Brasch, July 2009
"From a pool of about seven billion, those hard-working geniuses at People magazine have managed to find the 100 most beautiful people in the whole wide world. And—get ready for the surprise—almost all of those beautiful people are rich American celebrities."
It's Time for the Madness to Stop
by Sheila Samples, July 2009
"They continued to march even after Henry Kissinger belched out the truth that Duty—Honor—Country is a one-way street because "Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used" as pawns for foreign policy. And, it has long been a dead-end street for those captured or left behind on foreign soil..."
Obama and Bibi: Political Divergence, Strategic Symbiosis
by Yacov Ben Efrat, June 2009
"Netanyahu's agenda is clear: in American terms, he represents Republican-style positions on two fronts: he is politically right wing and economically neoliberal. Obama's agenda, by contrast, is for change: to break away from the conceptions and traditions of his predecessor, George W. Bush."
The Queensberry Rules of Discourse
by Iftekar Sayeed, June 2009
"Although I have so far never had sufficient cause to regret the day I taught myself logic, I fear the event may not be too far into the future. For I have found that men and women are as apt to hit below the belt in argument as a pair of unrefereed pugilists in the ring. And, of course, the experience can be excruciating! The analogy fortunately ends before one reaches the lower parts of the anatomy; it is a cultivated soft spot."
Over the Rainbow
by Stephen Lendman, June 2009
"In 1891, Baum moved to Chicago where he associated with reform elements. He saw the fallout of the 1893 depression, sided with working class people, consistently voted Democrat, then later marched in "torch-like parades" for William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 election. Yet he wasn't a political activist despite his sympathies with populist causes."
Obama and the Denial of Genocide: An Interview with David Boyajian
by Mickey Z., June 2009
'President Obama visited Turkey from April 6 to 7, where he did not use the word "genocide" when referring to the 1.5 million murders committed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire against its Armenian citizens from 1915-1923. As a candidate, Obama had promised several times to do so. His statement in Turkey that he had "not changed his views"—implying he still believes it was genocide—was still a clear breach of his promise to use the "G word."'
Why I Hate Twilight and My Life Sux: or Bite This, a (sort of) rebuttal of the Bitch article "Bite Me"
by Anne McMillen, June 2009
"This is a disemboweled woman being attacked for the crime of what...ignorance? Of living the American Dream of squirting out a couple of pups and then turning one of her possibly only pleasures—her escape into vampire fingerbang masturbation fantasies—into a 3000 page bonanza (or excuse me, I mean writing the next Great American Novel)?"
Against the Tortured Logic of Obama's Placebo Presidency: A Call for the Audacity of Hopelessness
by Phil Rockstroh, June 2009
"And not an uptick in public optimism, nor a surge of euphoria on Wall Street, nor the "invisible hand of the marketplace" sprinkling pixie dust will bring back the Olympian days of 2005, when the wise men of Washington and Wall Street knew the force of gravity was just a myth believed in by those embittered prophets of doom whose only joy in life is fantasizing the fall of their wealthy betters."
The Mill-Race: Overproduction, Interrupted
by Norman Ball, May 2009
"Overproduction is the phenomenon caused by capitalism's need to engage in perpetual labor-cost reductions in order to remain competitive. The effects of this downward spiral are ultimately self-destructive as they eliminate the worker's ability to purchase the fruits of his own labor. A society where the vast majority of citizens lack the wherewithal to consume much beyond a subsistence level becomes a plutocracy in a hurry."
The Economics of Turning People into Things
by Nitasha Kaul, May 2009
"Under conditions of economic uncertainty and social instability, a predictable pecking order gains credence — and those most vulnerable (low skilled, manual or factory labour, women and children, new immigrants) suffer disproportionately greatest through a circumscribing of the opportunities available to them."
Disney, Casino Capitalism and the Politics of Stealing Innocence
by Henry A. Giroux, May 2009
'Disney's recent attempts to "figure out the boys' entertainment market" include the services of Kelly Peña, described as "the kid whisperer," who in an attempt to understand what makes young boys tick, uses her anthropological skills to convince young boys and their parents to allow her to look into the kids' closets, go shopping with young boys and pay them $75 to be interviewed. Ms. Pena, with no irony intended, prides herself on the fact that "Children ... open up to her."'
Embracing Confusion's Alchemy: Rejecting the Seduction of Pseudo-Understanding
by Andrew P., May 2009
'High Strangeness, a book by Laura Knight-Jadczyk, paints a dire future for humankind as literal "food" for a reptilian alien race that has bred us for this gastronomic purpose, in much the same way as humans breed cattle for food. In this calamitous time of transition, centred around the year 2012, according to Knight-Jadczyk we will come to realize this terrible truth, and up to 94% of the human race will be "recycled" to make way for a new race.'
Hoping without Sleeping in El Salvador: The 2009 Presidential Elections, an International Observer's Perspective
Photos and Text by Luis Rivas, May 2009
"My delegation was made up as follows: Perla (unsure of her profession), Gaily (UCLA film student), Romél (UCLA film student), Claudia (Oakland/Bay Area lawyer), Parish (lawyer), Carla (unsure of her profession), Eyvin (lawyer with the Los Angeles County Public Defender, with a Ché tattoo on his shoulder like mine) and myself (sex shop worker, though I made it a point to tell most that I work in a regular video store)."
An American Outrage: Bernie, AIG, and Us
by Rosemary and Walter Brasch, April 2009
"We, as a nation, are outraged that executives at failed insurance giant AIG are receiving millions in bonuses paid for by taxpayer funds. In Congress, conservatives and liberals, many of whom were part of the problem of the subprime mortgage crisis, have united for the first time in years and have expressed their outrage. The President, who inherited this mess, is outraged. The media who had failed to adequately report this mess are outraged."
The Semantics of Illusion
by Jeff Gore, April 2009
"It was easy to be fooled into thinking that our financial system was a legitimate enterprise with "solid foundations." After all, the system seemed to work well for our parents. When it was our turn to invest, we were dazzled (and confused) by complicated terms typed on elaborate contracts printed on expensive letterhead, which were pushed across a rich mahogany table by men in crisp, clean suits with large salaries and offices in glassy skyscrapers."
Left Out of Obama's Health Care Summit
by Helen Redmond, April 2009
"Watching the breakout sessions streaming live over the Internet was both infuriating and surreal. The "stakeholders" sat side by side at the same table, laughing and smiling — among them, CEOs responsible for a health care crisis that has left 50 million Americans uninsured and that causes the needless deaths of 18,000 and 100,000 people every year, depending on who is doing the estimating."
Hip-Hop in the Crosshairs
by Tolu Olorunda, April 2009
"It must be clearly understood that the Hip-Hop industry has neither the will nor the desire to promote prophetic voices within the Hip-Hop realm — history has taught us that bitter lesson. Hip-Hop executives, disproportionately White and over 50-years of age, would rather have mega-star puppets, masqueraded as artists, who provide comfort to White Supremacist ideologies..."
Louise in Afghanistan
by Louise Landes Levi, March 2009
"In Kandahar, as said, you meet the beautiful boy from the train and you and him and his traveling companions all live together in a yellow room on a side street of the city. Osama Bin Laden isn't there yet. No one is there, only the Medieval Afghanis. One day you go to a village built on stilts. All the men and all the women and all the children are living on houses built on stilts. and all the men and all the women and maybe even all the children are smoking hashish, but not you."
A New Afghanistan Nightmare
by Ramzy Baroud, March 2009
"When US envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke met with Afghanistan's 'democratically' installed President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on February 14th, he may have just learned of the historic significance of the following day. February 15th commemorates the end of the bloody Russian campaign against Afghanistan (August 1978-February 1989)."
The Problem with "A Nation of Cowards"
by Bill Noxid, March 2009
"The most disturbing consequence of the election of the first African-American president is the delusional rush to pretend that this country that was founded (and continues to function) on genocide and slavery, is somehow 'past' racism. Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth, and the fact that society as a whole still refuses to face it is — as Attorney General Eric Holder stated clearly — nothing less than cowardice."
Toxic Plans for Toxic Assets
by Stephen Lendman, March 2009
"'What Geithner should have said was we have a horrible problem of too much borrowing, too much debt, and too much consumption. You know what we are going to do — we're going to borrow more, go deeper in debt, and consume more....These guys don't know what they're doing (and it's why) I'm shorting' the market."
Spirituality vs. Ecology: The Myth of Spiritual Ecology
by Andrew P., March 2009
"'After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.' These words were supposedly uttered in a public testimony to the US Congress by former President Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior, James Watt. Although there is no evidence that he actually said this, his testimony is often repeated in progressive circles as it succinctly encapsulates the environmentally-destructive perspective of America's religious right."
Labouring on Labour Day
by Barry Pomeroy, February 2009
"In order that your ability to pick potatoes might be examined more closely than an interview can give credence to, in order that you might gain the experience necessary to get a potato picking job in the future, in case you are too young to be a serious potato picker and are therefore not worth wasting the effort of a generous boss in training you, I ask you now to pick some potatoes."
Islamic Rationalism and Environmentalism
by Zeeshan Hasan, February 2009
"So monotheist faith requires us to ultimately give up on rationality as a means of understanding reality. This may seem like a high price to pay, but the only thing that we actually lose is metaphysical speculation; metaphysics being the philosophical investigation of reality through pure logic. However, the fact is that metaphysics never had a strong basis to begin with."
World Bank Help For Pakistan's Education — A Poisoned Chalice?
by Pervez Hoodbhoy, February 2009
'A 2006 World Bank report on the HEC's performance, issued by a team led by Benoît Millot, reads like a paean to the HEC. Written in impeccable English, and embellished with impressive charts and diagrams, this 109-page report finds no fault, nor questions any assumption of the-then prevailing authorities, and proclaims that "HEC has placed quality improvement of the higher education sub-sector at the centre of its agenda".'
The Celebration Will Not Be Televised
by Daniel Barenblatt, February 2009
"A number of people I spoke with in New York said they could not remember experiencing anything like the collective, heartfelt expressions of euphoria: The cheers, applause, dancing, group hugs, whooping and cheering, curb-side partying, strangers high-fiving, puffing victory cigars down sidewalk strolls and all-around champagne-popping involving everyone in sight, into the wee-hours of the morning."
Beyond Left and Right: A Spectrum of Ideological Vapidity
by C. Derick Varn, February 2009
"The language of human rights is fundamentally either dishonest or imperialist: dishonest in that it assumes universality when there is almost no way to justify it without appealing to the God (or, more subtly, natural law) or it is imperialist in that framework of rights given by the state should be exported to the world."
Focus On The Family's Toxic Corn Pone Letter From 2012
by Robert Weitzel, December 2008
"Commander in Chief Obama proves to be a total wimp, which emboldens Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists who eventually seize control of Iraq, imprisoning, torturing [imitation is the ultimate form of flattery] and putting to death millions of "American sympathizers" in that country."
Is There Such a Thing As Society?
by Aseem Shrivastava, December 2008
'The question is far from rhetorical. Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister during the 1980s, and one of the chief architects of the economic policies that lie discredited on the heap of economic history today, once dared to say that "there is no such thing as society." She added: "there are individual men and women and there are families." That's all. We live in a world of Robinson Crusoes, each maximizing private gains for themselves and their separate families.
Bankers' Banks: The Role of Central Banks in Banking Crises
by Sam Vaknin, December 2008
"Ultimately, the state is the mother of all insurers, the master policy, the supreme underwriter. When markets fail, insurance firm recoil, and financial instruments disappoint — the government is called in to pick up the pieces, restore trust and order and, hopefully, retreat more gracefully than it was forced to enter."
Where have you been all these years?
by Elisha Porat, December 2008
"They won't need to wait, like me, ten years and more. They owe nothing. Not to the communal farm, not to the sheepfold, not to the young family that I had established. They won't have to hide, won't have to flee the call that prods them to sit down with a notebook and write. They are students, single, free, flitting between the centers of Hebrew literature."
When Spencer Met Hannibal: Recreational Cannibalism in the New American Century
by Jonathan Penton, December 2008
"It is the styleless, the stuttering, and the slovenly that Tom Bradley, expatriate, has championed with Lemur . And since it goes without saying that the ultimate American ambition is to become a newsworthy serial killer, it is only natural that he should choose this milieu for his heroic call to the average."
Some Thoughts on Obama
by David Rovics, November 2008
"Whether South or North, the prisons are filled with mostly dark-skinned people from places where you can graduate from high school without having learned how to read, where you can get asthma from breathing the air, where the police shoot first and ask questions later. They're in prison, but Barack Obama's not, he's on the TV giving a humble victory speech, quoting Lincoln."
Kill Jim Liebowitz
by Olde English, November 2008
This film is a work of satirical fiction. Any resemblance to any actual politicians, industries, or human behavioral patterns is purely the fault of somebody else.
Wrecked Iraq: What the Good News from Iraq Really Means
by Michael Schwartz, November 2008
"Even before the spectacular presidential election campaign became a national obsession, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression crowded out other news, coverage of the Iraq War had dwindled to next to nothing. National newspapers had long since discontinued their daily feasts of multiple — usually front page — reports on the country, replacing them with meager meals of mostly inside-the-fold summary stories. On broadcast and cable TV channels, where violence in Iraq had once been the nightly lead, whole news cycles went by without a mention of the war."
World Food Day: Global Crises' Double Standards
by Ramzy Baroud, November 2008
'The 25th annual World Food Day, marked on 16 October, was an occasion whose arrival and passing received little media attention or governmental fanfare. Evidently, much of the world media and governments are consumed with an economic crisis of epic proportions, which is perceived in the US as the worst such upheaval since the Great Depression. In the rest of the world, it's depicted as the worst economic crisis in recent memory or, as the BBC termed it, "the most tumultuous times on record in the global financial markets."'
This Time Is Different
by Stephen Lendman, November 2008
"Mountains of debt and multiple imploding bubbles are the problems. The housing one especially crucial for millions and the states where they live. It hits property tax revenues. Sales taxes from furniture, appliances, construction materials and other housing related products. Incomes taxes also from employment cutbacks at the same time demand for city services is increasing. Instead they're being cut for public health, education, the indigent, the elderly and disabled, and public workforces. All of which makes a bad situation worse. And according to some astute observers, it's only the beginning."
Bringing R-Evolution to Poetry: Roque Dalton et. al. for the 9/11 World
by Leigh Herrick, November 2008
"A poetry that fails to come into consciousness about the forces that will oppose it as a counter-force is a poetry that will fail to assist in any profound and permanent social change for those suffering under the oppressive structures within such a paradigm that the poetic consciousness would hope to address. Only by changing these structures will the inhumanity involved in them ever be arrested; only through an evolution in thinking can there exist an evolution in being that would lead to processes lending themselves to the dismantling of non-egalitarian society."
an excerpt from Art and Technology
by Michael Harold, November 2008
"Sometimes we call it entertainment. Sometimes we call it education. Sometimes we call it politics, or business or religion. But regardless of what we call it, we never allow people to become complacent in their response to the stimuli around them. We are always introducing new categories of stimulation and stimulus response. That is why the world loves our culture and wants to emulate us. Even when they hate our government, they still love our culture, our capacity to make people watch TV, for example."
