The water disaster that could destroy California, how much NATO pays for dead Afghan children, and answers to frequently asked questions about health care reform.
On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.
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Militarizing Latin America
The United States was founded as an “infant empire,” in George Washington’s words.
Health Care Reform FAQ
Can Republicans really repeal it? Does it violate the 10th Amendment? How, exactly, does it reduce the deficit?
NATO’s Fire Sale—One Dead Afghan Child, $2,000
The family were offered “American compensation”—$2,000 for each of the victims. “There’s no value on human life,” said Bibi Sabsparie, mother of two of the dead. “They killed our family, then they came and brought us money. Money won’t bring our family back.”
Salvador Allende’s Internet
Cybersyn (or Synco, in Spanish) was computer network constructed in 1970 by an English/Chilean team headed by cyberneticist Stafford Beer ... .
The Museum of Bad Art
The pieces in the MOBA collection range from the work of talented artists that have gone awry to works of exuberant, although crude, execution by artists barely in control of the brush. What they all have in common is a special quality that sets them apart in one way or another from the merely incompetent.
The GOP’s newfound love of public opinion
One Republican leader after the next stood up yesterday to depict the health care bill as a grave threat to democracy because it was enacted in the face of disapproval from a majority of Americans.
The creepy tyranny of Canada’s hate speech laws
The far-right hatemonger Ann Coulter was invited by a campus conservative group to speak at the University of Ottawa, and the vice provost of that college sent Coulter a letter warning her that she may be subject to criminal prosecution if the views she expresses fall into the realm of prohibited viewpoints. ...
Old-school architect creates an iOpener
A taxi pulled up to Apple’s Fifth Avenue store one recent morning, and while the meter was running a pair of tourists dashed out to have their photos taken near the entrance, a glass cube of such incorporeal lightness that it seems in danger of floating away.
Uri Avnery: The Doomsday Weapon
It is already a commonplace to say that people who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat their mistakes.
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By DaEggman, March 24, 2010 at 11:01 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Hate speech laws are repugnant. How can we satirize the idiots that hate, if we can’t use their rhetoric against them…Being an atheist, I feel that any form of Neo-Christian Speak is rude (Coulter, Beck etc.), to say the least, but I would rather have them be free to speak it, than to have the hatred brewing behind closed doors. Censorship leads down a very dangerous road as people from any nation that practices it can tell you.
“The freedom to criticise ideas, any ideas - even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society.” Rowan Atkinson
Yes that is the drawback of hate speech laws. When and where do you draw the line? The whole idea of free speech isn’t that you can pay for it for politics. But as a means of letting all points of view out to be seen, heard and disagreed with. Canada & Europe made that mistake and this is the kind of tyranny you get. Too many here want to do the same thing, at least where their views are protected from criticism. We don’t want to go there ever.
Further ruminations on Canada and free speech. Not that anyone ever reads the
comments on this thread…
It may seem like prioritizing civility over free speech is a fool’s bargain until one
stops to consider that civility is the elemental expression of community. Community is the enemy of radical self-interest, and radical self-interest is the
sine qua non of the scorched-earth capitalism practiced and espoused by our
Neoliberal tormentors who have this country in a noose hold.
So when you hear Rush Limbaugh foaming at the mouth to Gomer Nation about
“hunting and exterminating” liberals, as he did yesterday, consider that there is a
little more method to the madness than it appears. It’s dog-eat-dog, baby. We’re
all cast members of “Survivor, American Edition”. And guess what? - the Coulters
and the Limbaughs will always escape the elimination round.
I suppose it’s irresistibly tempting for Americans to poke fun at Canada’s “inferior”
free speech laws. But after reading the official letter to Coulter, I was cheering the
fact that Madame Vagina Dentata was at last called out—not for her “political”
views, but for her hateful rhetoric.
It’s not as if stating your opinion in America doesn’t come with a price. Ask the
Dixie Chicks about it. Or maybe all those incarcerated “combatants” who are
going to get war tribunals instead of civilian trials to avoid giving them a platform
to air their dissenting views.
Too Soon to Tell: The Case for Hope, Continued
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By DaEggman, March 24, 2010 at 11:01 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Hate speech laws are repugnant. How can we satirize the idiots that hate, if we can’t use their rhetoric against them…Being an atheist, I feel that any form of Neo-Christian Speak is rude (Coulter, Beck etc.), to say the least, but I would rather have them be free to speak it, than to have the hatred brewing behind closed doors. Censorship leads down a very dangerous road as people from any nation that practices it can tell you.
“The freedom to criticise ideas, any ideas - even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society.” Rowan Atkinson
Report thisBy Night-Gaunt, March 24, 2010 at 10:59 am Link to this comment
Yes that is the drawback of hate speech laws. When and where do you draw the line? The whole idea of free speech isn’t that you can pay for it for politics. But as a means of letting all points of view out to be seen, heard and disagreed with. Canada & Europe made that mistake and this is the kind of tyranny you get. Too many here want to do the same thing, at least where their views are protected from criticism. We don’t want to go there ever.
Report thisBy WriterOnTheStorm, March 24, 2010 at 10:38 am Link to this comment
Further ruminations on Canada and free speech. Not that anyone ever reads the
comments on this thread…
It may seem like prioritizing civility over free speech is a fool’s bargain until one
stops to consider that civility is the elemental expression of community. Community is the enemy of radical self-interest, and radical self-interest is the
sine qua non of the scorched-earth capitalism practiced and espoused by our
Neoliberal tormentors who have this country in a noose hold.
So when you hear Rush Limbaugh foaming at the mouth to Gomer Nation about
Report this“hunting and exterminating” liberals, as he did yesterday, consider that there is a
little more method to the madness than it appears. It’s dog-eat-dog, baby. We’re
all cast members of “Survivor, American Edition”. And guess what? - the Coulters
and the Limbaughs will always escape the elimination round.
By WriterOnTheStorm, March 24, 2010 at 9:01 am Link to this comment
I suppose it’s irresistibly tempting for Americans to poke fun at Canada’s “inferior”
free speech laws. But after reading the official letter to Coulter, I was cheering the
fact that Madame Vagina Dentata was at last called out—not for her “political”
views, but for her hateful rhetoric.
It’s not as if stating your opinion in America doesn’t come with a price. Ask the
Report thisDixie Chicks about it. Or maybe all those incarcerated “combatants” who are
going to get war tribunals instead of civilian trials to avoid giving them a platform
to air their dissenting views.