Clipmarks | LGagnon's clips

Howard Zinn at Boston Common

Fri, 25 May 2007 21:58:05 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: My one video on YouTube so far. Enjoy!

[Video]

Professor Howard Zinn, author of "A People's History of the United States," speaks at Boston Common's March 24 Anti-War Rally. I missed the first minute or so, but this video contains most of his speech.

Tags: zinn, politics, war, iraq, protest

The Non-Secret to Eating Right

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 21:28:53 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: An article by the author of "The Omnivore’s Dilemma."

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. I hate to give away the game right here at the beginning of a long essay, and I confess that I’m tempted to complicate matters in the interest of keeping things going for a few thousand more words. I’ll try to resist but will go ahead and add a couple more details to flesh out the advice. Like: A little meat won’t kill you, though it’s better approached as a side dish than as a main. And you’re much better off eating whole fresh foods than processed food products. That’s what I mean by the recommendation to eat “food.” Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.

Tags: life, health, food, nutrition

Mail a note for free

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:14:31 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: I couldn't clip anything from the normal version of the website, so I shut off my javascript to clip this. If you have Flash installed, you can visit the site to see what I would have clipped if I could.

Clip Source: www.takenote.com.au

Tags: internet, australia, mail

Genetic engineering creates zombie pigs

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:38:58 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: This is scary, and not just for the pigs. I'd hate to see this technology fall into the wrong hands, who would use it to alter humanity into a slave race. Unfortunately, it's probably already in their hands.

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

Factory farming techniques, most commonly used with pigs and chicken, often involve keeping animals confined in cramped conditions.
For pigs, who are highly intelligent, these conditions can lead to stress and aggression.
However, GM scientists are actively investigating ways to remove the stress and aggression gene from animals, effectively turning them into complacent zombies.
The professor said it might become technically possible to produce "animal vegetables" - beasts which are "highly prolific and oblivious to their physical and mental status".

Tags: news, life, health, science, biology, genetics, pigs, food

Wal-Mart's threat to America

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:20:43 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: After a recent discussion about Wal-Mart here, I thought I'd just let everyone know about some of the issues in question about them. Also if you haven't seen the documentary "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" yet, I suggest doing so; it gives even more info on criticisms that are not found in this article.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

This Bizarro comic is an example of the commonly cited criticism that Wal-Mart forces smaller, locally-owned stores out of business.

Several groups have criticised Wal-Mart's policies and/or business practices, including community groups, grassroots organizations, labor unions,^[1] religious organizations,^[2]^[3] and environmental groups. In particular, several labor unions have specific concerns regarding the company's anti-union stance, as well as several employee relations issues. Other areas of concern include the corporation's extensive foreign product sourcing, treatment of employees and product suppliers, environmental practices, the use of public subsidies, and the impact of stores on the local economies of towns in which they operate.^[4]^[5]^[6]

[hide]

Tags: politics, life, health, healthcare, business, wal-mart, walmart, environment, economy

Most Americans oppose troop surge

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:06:01 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

You make the call:

"The activist left is out of sync with the American public." - DLC leader Will Marshall on progressive efforts to prevent a military escalation in Iraq, 1/10/07

VERSUS

"The American public in general opposes the concept of an increase in troops in Iraq. A number of polls have shown that when given a choice between a set of alternative ways of handling the troop situation in Iraq, only about 10% of Americans opt for the alternative of increasing troops. The rest opt for withdrawal of troops." - Gallup Polling Company, 1/9/07

Someone please tell me why the media continues to quote people like Will Marshall as a credible voice with a credible perspective. I mean, honestly - what point, what level of sheer, unadulterated dishonesty disqualifies you from being quoted in major newspapers? And perhaps evenmore importantly, if a major agenda-setting newspaper like the LA Times insists on quoting someone with no credibility, how can they do so without even as much as a mention of the actual public opinion data refuting his insanity?

UPDATE: Last I checked, Tom Vilsack is the DLC's chairman. And last I checked, AP reported today that "Tom Vilsack called Tuesday for Congress to block funding for additional troops in Iraq." So what gives? Is the DLC's staff now not even listening to its own political leadership? And hey, here's an idea: maybe Tom Vilsack might want to make a call over to his friends at the DLC and tell them to stop attacking progressives and the vast majority of Americans? Just a thought...

Tags: news, politics, war, iraq, truth

McCain says Iraq was easy

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 23:47:03 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

RUSSERT: Go back, Senator, to 2002. The administration saying we would be greeted as liberators. John McCain saying that you thought success would be fairly easy.

MCCAIN: It was.

RUSSERT: In all honesty…

MCCAIN: It was easy, it was easy. I said the military operation would be easy. It was easy. We were greeted as liberators. Look at the films of when we rolled into Baghdad.

Umm, the whole point is, there is no "was."

Iraq "is."

At least Iraq "is" for families who get a knock on the door letting them know their loved ones were killed. Iraq certainly "is" for Iraqis...

Steve Benen writes:

To his credit, Russert was asking the right questions, reminding McCain of his now-embarrassing comments from a couple of years ago, in which the senator predicted an easy conflict. I’m paraphrasing a little, but Russert noted that McCain said the war would be “easy,” to which McCain responded, “It was easy.”

I’ve been anxious to know how McCain could possibly respond to some of his remarks from 2002 and 2003, beyond the obvious-but-honest, “I was completely wrong,” which he wouldn’t dare say. To be sure, it’s a political problem. McCain said on CNN in September 2002, “I believe that the success will be fairly easy.” A few days later, he said, “We’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.” Two months before the invasion, McCain boasted, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.”

The only thing worse than McCain lying and saying that what he really meant was that he believed that the military operation would be easy is if he were telling the truth and he believes that it really believes that the initial invasion was the only military operation...

Or if he thinks he was "straight talkin'" or whatever bullshit his PR team of scheisters has come up with...

Tags: news, iraq, war, politics, lies, mccain, stupid

John McCain: lying opportunist

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 21:31:50 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: If you think McCain is the anti-Bush Republican, you've thought wrong. This guy is just as bad as his supposed enemy.

Clip Source: www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com

Of course, you know what this means — it’s time to update the list of McCain’s biggest flip-flops as he transforms himself from maverick hero to right-wing hack. We’re up to 13 now.

* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.

* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but has since decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks. (Indeed, McCain has now hired Falwell’s debate coach.)

* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.

* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.

* McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June, he abandoned his own legislation.

* McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and began to reconcile with Norquist.

* McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands.

* McCain gave up on his signature policy issue, campaign-finance reform, and won’t back the same provision he sponsored just a couple of years ago.

* McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.

* McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.

* McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.

* McCain decided in 2000 that he didn’t want anything to do with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the ‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the Honorary Co-Chair for his presidential campaign in New York.

Tags: news, politics, war, iraq, media, lies, mccain, torture, abortion, taxes

Children are hitting puberty earlier

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 23:47:07 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Kids these days are growing up too fast -- in more ways than one. American girls are reaching puberty up to a year earlier than in previous generations, with some children showing signs of sexual development as young as age 3. In extreme cases, girls are budding breasts before they’ve even learned to read.

Researchers call this phenomenon "precocious puberty," which some say is on the rise. Forty-eight percent of African-American girls and 15 percent of Caucasian girls show physical signs of puberty by age 8, according to a study of 17,000 U.S. girls published in Pediatrics in 1997. In a subsequent study of more than 2,000 boys, lead author Marcia Herman-Giddens found that 38 percent of African-American boys and 30 percent of Caucasian boys showed signs of sexual development by age 8.

What’s going on? Although scientists have yet to prove definitive causes, many suspect that hormone-mimicking chemicals, obesity and stress all contribute to precocious puberty. The chemicals, often called endocrine disruptors, are of particular concern because they’re everywhere -- in food, water, personal-care products, some plastics and many consumer goods.

Parents can take practical steps to minimize their children’s risk for early puberty and encourage healthy lifestyles. These are key steps according to Sherrill Sellman, author of "What Women Must Know to Protect Their Daughters from Breast Cancer":

Avoid meat, milk and dairy products containing growth hormones

Buy organic produce

Minimize soy, which mimics estrogen

Choose green household products

Encourage children to eat well and exercise

Prevent children from chewing on plastic toys

Avoid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products, including vinyl shower curtains and toys and packaging that bear the number "3," indicating they’re made with PVC.

Tags: life, health, medicine, biology, food, drugs, plastic, children

Interviews with great intellectuals

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 04:49:46 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: So many interviews, so little time. As usual, I recommend checking out Chomsky, Zinn, and Klein's opinions.

Clip Source: www.mediaed.org

Naomi Klein
Author
No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies

Douglas Rushkoff
Author
Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say

Manning Marable
Professor of History and Political Science
Columbia University

Richard Falk
Professor of International Law
Princeton University

Rabbi Arik Ascherman
Executive Director
Rabbis for Human Rights

Michael Franti
Musician
Spearhead

Kevin Danaher
Co-founder, Director of Public Education
Global Exchange

Mark Crispin Miller
Professor of Media Ecology
New York University

Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor of Linguistics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Janine Jackson
Program Director
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)

Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor
TIKKUN Magazine

Ritu Sharma
Executive Director
Women's EDGE

Nawal el Saadawi, M.D.
Distinguished Visiting Professor
Montclair State University

Howard Zinn
Professor Emeritus of History
Boston University

Cynthia Enloe
Professor of Government
Director of Women's Studies
Clark University

Robert Jensen
Professor of Journalism
University of Texas at Austin

Michael Kimmel
Sociologist
Pro-feminist author

Michael Albert
Editorial writer and columnist
Z Magazine

Seth Ackerman
Media Analyst
Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting (FAIR)

Henry Giroux
Waterbury Chair of Education
Pennsylvania State University

Sut Jhally
Professor of Communication
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Michael T. Klare
Director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies
Hampshire College

Rob Okun
Associate Director
The Men's Resource Center of Western Massachusetts

Alisa Solomon
Professor of English & Journalism
Baruch College, CUNY

Lorraine Ali
General Editor
Newsweek Magazine

Robin Morgan
Author
The Demon Lover:On the Sexuality of Terrorism

Nancy Carlsson-Paige
Professor of Early Childhood Education
Lesley University

Diane Levin
Professor of Early Childhood Education
Wheelock College

Poets for Peace
Highlights from Event
November 30, 2001 Belquis Ahmadi

Tags: news, media, politics, war, iraq, life, philosophy, history, quotes, people, interview

Advertising Invades the Classroom (video)

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 04:31:41 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: A short video about how advertising is forced on to children in schools.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

For marketers who wish to reach the lucr

For marketers who wish to reach the lucrative youth market, the relatively uncluttered medium of the school environment represents the final frontier � access to a captive audience of millions of students. Meanwhile dwindling federal, state, and local funding for education has left many schools vulnerable to the advertiser�s pitch. As a result, commercialism has steadily increased in America�s public schools in recent years, often with little or no public awareness.

Captive Audience examines this growing phenomenon through numerous examples of in-school advertising; interviews with teachers, students, parents, and activists; and a case study of community action to oppose an exclusive soda contract in the Pittsburgh school district. Media scholars and critics � including Alex Molnar, Professor of Education Policy, Arizona State University; Henry Giroux, Professor in Secondary Education, Pennsylvania State University; No Logo author Naomi Klein; and Bill Hoynes, Professor and Chair of Sociology, Vassar College � offer a broad look at the issues at stake.

Captive Audience is a compelling expos� of the transformation of classrooms, hallways, cafeterias, and textbooks into advertising vehicles. It explores how education is short-changed and democracy is at risk when schools become marketplaces and commercialism goes to the head of the class. ... (more) (less)

Tags: media, life, health, education, advertising, marketing, schools, school, capitalism

Iraq vets returning badly damaged

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 04:03:49 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: Why our government wants to send even more troops to suffer through this is beyond me.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

But the number of injured has far outstripped the dead, with the Veterans Administration reporting that more than 150,000 veterans of the Iraq war are receiving disability benefits.

Dr. Imbascini just returned from a four-month deployment to Germany, where he treated the worst of the U.S. war wounded. He said that an extremely high number of wounded soldiers are coming home with their arms or legs amputated. Imbascini said he amputated the genitals of one or two men every day.

"I walk into the operating room and the general surgeons are doing their work and there is the body of this Navy SEAL, which is a physical specimen to behold," he told IPS. "And his abdomen is open, they're exploring both intestines. He's missing both legs below the knee, one arm is blown off, he's got incisions on his thighs to relieve the pressure on the parts of the legs that are hopefully gonna survive and there's genital injuries, and you just want to cry."

Pentagon studies show that 12 percent of soldiers who have served in Iraq suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. The group Veterans for America, formerly the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, estimates 70,000 Iraq war veterans have gone to the VA for mental health care.

New guidelines released by the Pentagon released last month allow commanders to redeploy soldiers suffering from traumatic stress disorders.

"As a layman and a former soldier I think that's ridiculous," Steve Robinson, the director of Veterans Affairs for Veterans for America, told IPS.

"If I've got a soldier who's on Ambien to go to sleep and Seroquel and Qanapin and all kinds of other psychotropic meds, I don't want them to have a weapon in their hand and to be part of my team because they're a risk to themselves and to others," he said. "But apparently, the military has its own view of how well a soldier can function under those conditions and is gambling that they can be successful."

Robinson said problems with the policy are already starting to arise.

Tags: news, war, iraq, health

Republicans jam Dems' phones, get sued

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 22:56:09 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon

Clip Source: www.signonsandiego.com

CONCORD, N.H. – State and national Republicans will pay $135,000 to settle a lawsuit involving a scheme to jam Democratic get-out-the-vote calls on Election Day 2002, officials said yesterday.

Republicans had hired a telemarketing firm to place hundreds of hang-up calls to phone banks for the Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters union, a group offering rides to the polls. Service was disrupted for nearly two hours.

Democrats had wanted more than $4 million in damages – the cost of seven months' work for the get-out-the-vote effort. Republicans said they should only have had to pay about $4,000 – the cost of rental and use of the phones.

The state party will pay $125,000 over five years. The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee will pay $5,000 each.

Tags: news, politics, republicans, republican, democrats, crime, election, phone

Toronto's Anarchist University opens for enrollment

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 19:57:15 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: Sounds like fun. I was hoping that some anarchists would eventually get together and start a project like this.

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

What's a free school?
Anarchist U is a free school. Of course, many schools are free of charge. However--to paraphrase Richard Stallman--to understand the concept of "free school" you should think of "free" as in "free speech," not as in "free beer." Free schools are schools that allow and facilitate students to pursue their goals in ways that work for them. Students are not forced to learn anything. Teachers are seen as resources of knowledge rather than as authoritarian figures. There has been a long tradition of free schools. Two examples are Summerhill and Stelton , both of which charged a fee.
So is there a fee?
No. Anarchist U is free of charge. In some classes students may have to cover for the price of books and photocopies. The total cost should be under $30 per class.

Link

Tags: news, politics, life, philosophy, internet, education, anarchism, anarchy, university, free

Chomksy on activism, anarchism, history, power, etc

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:44:46 GMT

clipped by: LGagnon
clipper's remarks: Noam Chomsky speaks on various topics, including his own life, his ideas on anarchism, on how power is legitimized, and activism of the past and present. Click on the link to see the video.

Clip Source: video.google.com

Conversations with History: Activism, Anarchism, and Power, with Noam Chomsky

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UCTV: UC Berkeley
59 min 8 sec - Jun 24, 2002
www.uctv.tv

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On this edition of Conversations with History, UC Berkeley's Harry Kreisler is joined by linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky to ... all » discuss activism, anarchism and the role the United States plays in the world today. [Public Affairs] [Humanities] «

Tags: politics, media, philosophy, history, science, chomsky, anarchism, anarchy, activism, power, interview

Clipmarks | LGagnon's clips

Howard Zinn at Boston Common

The Non-Secret to Eating Right

Mail a note for free

Genetic engineering creates zombie pigs

Wal-Mart's threat to America

Contents

Most Americans oppose troop surge

McCain says Iraq was easy

John McCain: lying opportunist

Children are hitting puberty earlier

Interviews with great intellectuals

Advertising Invades the Classroom (video)

Iraq vets returning badly damaged

Republicans jam Dems' phones, get sued

Toronto's Anarchist University opens for enrollment

Chomksy on activism, anarchism, history, power, etc