How's this for irony? Even though you spend your whole life combating the forces of capitalism, you still might wind up on a t-shirt sold in a store owned by the GAP.Sunday 28 October 2007
activism
How's this for irony? Even though you spend your whole life combating the forces of capitalism, you still might wind up on a t-shirt sold in a store owned by the GAP.
Friday 26 October 2007
psycho
Last year in the United States, about 1.6 million children and teenagers - 280,000 of them under the age of 10 - were given two or more psychiatric drugs in combination. Over 500,000 were prescribed at least three psychiatric drugs. More than 160,000 got at least four medications together.SOURCE: Medco Health Solutions, 2005.
The Assault on Reason
Al Gore on Celebrity Culture
In his best-selling book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gore takes a harsh look at the media's fascination with flash over substance and celebrity culture. He discusses how rational, informed decisions on critical issues have become impossible in America, where "the 30-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking." Here are a few excerpts from the book that talk about how celebrity culture has mesmerized the entire nation.
American democracy is now in danger - not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in the environment within which ideas either live and spread, or wither and die. I do not mean the physical environment; I mean what is called the public sphere, or the marketplace of ideas.
It is simply no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse. I know that I am not alone in thinking that something has gone fundamentally wrong. In 2001, I had hoped that it was an aberration when polls showed that three-quarters of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on September 11. More than five years later, however, nearly half of the American public believe that Saddam was connected to the attack.
At first I thought the exhaustive, nonstop coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial was just an unfortunate excess - an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. Now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time: the Michael Jackson trial and the Robert Blake trial, the Lacy Peterson tragedy and the Chandra Levy tragedy, Britney and K-Fed, Lindsay and Paris and Nicole.
While American television watchers were collectively devoting 100 million hours of their lives each week to these and other similar stories, our nation was in the process of more quietly making what future historians will certainly describe as a series of catastrophically mistaken decisions on issues of war and peace, the global climate and human survival, freedom and barbarity, justice and fairness. For example, hardly anyone now disagrees that he choice to invade Iraq was a grievous mistake. Yet, incredibly, all of the arguments and evidence necessary to have made the right decision were available at the time and in hindsight are glaringly obvious.
It is too easy - and too partisan - to simply place the blame in President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have free press. Have they failed us?
Today, reason is under assault by forces using more sophisticated techniques: propaganda, psychology, electronic mass media. Yet democracy's advocates are beginning to use their own sophisticated techniques: the internet, online organizing, blogs and wikis. I feel more confident than ever before that democracy will prevail and that the American people are rising to the challenge of reinvigorating self-government.
In his best-selling book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gore takes a harsh look at the media's fascination with flash over substance and celebrity culture. He discusses how rational, informed decisions on critical issues have become impossible in America, where "the 30-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking." Here are a few excerpts from the book that talk about how celebrity culture has mesmerized the entire nation.
American democracy is now in danger - not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in the environment within which ideas either live and spread, or wither and die. I do not mean the physical environment; I mean what is called the public sphere, or the marketplace of ideas.It is simply no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse. I know that I am not alone in thinking that something has gone fundamentally wrong. In 2001, I had hoped that it was an aberration when polls showed that three-quarters of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on September 11. More than five years later, however, nearly half of the American public believe that Saddam was connected to the attack.
At first I thought the exhaustive, nonstop coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial was just an unfortunate excess - an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. Now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time: the Michael Jackson trial and the Robert Blake trial, the Lacy Peterson tragedy and the Chandra Levy tragedy, Britney and K-Fed, Lindsay and Paris and Nicole.While American television watchers were collectively devoting 100 million hours of their lives each week to these and other similar stories, our nation was in the process of more quietly making what future historians will certainly describe as a series of catastrophically mistaken decisions on issues of war and peace, the global climate and human survival, freedom and barbarity, justice and fairness. For example, hardly anyone now disagrees that he choice to invade Iraq was a grievous mistake. Yet, incredibly, all of the arguments and evidence necessary to have made the right decision were available at the time and in hindsight are glaringly obvious.
It is too easy - and too partisan - to simply place the blame in President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have free press. Have they failed us?
Today, reason is under assault by forces using more sophisticated techniques: propaganda, psychology, electronic mass media. Yet democracy's advocates are beginning to use their own sophisticated techniques: the internet, online organizing, blogs and wikis. I feel more confident than ever before that democracy will prevail and that the American people are rising to the challenge of reinvigorating self-government.
Monday 1 October 2007
Insanity Saturday
In all likelihood, most of the readers that visit this blog don't really care that much about the perspectives this writer has on sports. However, seven of college football's top 13 teams losing in the same week (to considerable underdogs) is not very likely either. So who knows?
An undersized, over-matched underdog stepped into the college football ring on Saturday and exacted some pretty devastating blows. The fight went something like this:
An undersized, over-matched underdog stepped into the college football ring on Saturday and exacted some pretty devastating blows. The fight went something like this:
- A left jab delivered from #18 South Florida (4-0) to #5 West Virginia (4-1) staggered the favorite with a 21-13 Bulls' win in Tampa
- Another stiff jab from Colorado (3-2) stunned #3 Oklahoma (4-1) with the Buffalo's Kevin Eberhart's career-long 45-yard field goal as time expired to send Colorado past the Sooners in Boulder
- No. 6 (5-0) Cal followed with a right hook to the lightly favored #11 Oregon Ducks (4-1) as the Golden Bears eeked-out a 31-24 win in Eugene
- Kansas State (3-1) followed with a flurry of punches that leveled #7 Texas (4-1), handing the Longhorns a painful 41-21 home loss
- Although down, the favorite was not quite out as Maryland (3-2) connected with another crushing blow in a 34-24 win over home team #10 Rutgers (3-1)
- Georgia Tech (3-2) added an uppercut that sent #13 Clemson (4-1) reeling as the Yellow Jackets emerged with a 13-3 victory over the Tigers
- The champ looked as if he would make a dramatic come-from-behind victory as #4 Florida (4-1) came back from a 14 point fourth quarter deficit to tie Auburn (3-2) at 17 before freshman Wes Bynum split the uprights for a 43-yard field goal as time expired giving the Tigers a huge 20-17 knockout win
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)