Signs of Intelligent Life in the Murdoch Universe

Los Angeles Smog.
(Photo: Robert S. Donovan / Flickr)
Saturday 24 December 2011
by: Dr. Brian Moench, Truthout | Op-Ed

No one accuses The Wall Street Journal,
icon of the business world, of devoting
excessive column space to protection of
the environment or public health. On the
contrary, the WSJ has been an enthusiastic
part of the artillery in the conservatives'
war on science and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), which they
consider the epitome of evil, "job-killing
government regulation." So, I was startled
to read this subheading of a major article
in the WSJ on November 8. "Scientists Increasingly Link Vehicle Exhaust With
Brain-Cell Damage, Higher Rates of Autism."
Curiosity got the best of me, so I continued to read...   READ MORE

Occupy Wall Street, Mass Media and Progressive Change in the Tea Party Era: Our Window of Opportunity

(Photo: Sasha Kimel / Flickr)

Anthony DiMaggio and Paul Street, Truthout:

"Regular reporting of public anger at business elites has
led some to compare OWS to the Tea Party with regard
to both forces' 'insurgent,' 'revolutionary' themes and their
support for 'rebellion' against the status quo. Beneath and
beyond these easily noticeable similarities, however, deep
and fundamental differences significantly undermine the
core equivalence and parallels that are commonly posited
between the Tea Party and the Occupy movement."
READ MORE

Stop the War on Christmas: Cease Fire in Afghanistan

American soldiers during a push against insurgents in the Zhari district of Afghanistan, west of Kandahar city, on September 21, 2010. (Photo: Tyler Hicks / The New York Times)

Saturday 24 December 2011
by: Robert Naiman, Truthout | Op-Ed

"The Christmas truce has a rich history …
In December 1914, as war raged in Europe, Pope Benedict
XV called for a Christmas cease-fire … In one of the most compelling acts of mass civil disobedience in the 20th
century, rank-and-file troops carried out the action that the
Pope had called for, negotiating local Christmas cease-fires
on the Western Front…. Maybe, if we get busy, by Christmas 2014, the guns in Afghanistan will be silenced for good."
Read the Article

Lone Farmer Warns World as Nuclear Winter Looms

Naoto Matsumura, who believes he is the only person still living in the evacuation zone around the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, 12/18/11. (photo: Christopher Johnson)

As bitter winds blow around cesium and other radioactive particles spewed from the nearby Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's reactors, Naoto Matsumura lights a cigarette, which he considers relatively good for his health.

"I would get sick if I stopped smoking; I have a lot to worry about," says Matsumura, 52, who reckons he is the only person still living within a 20-km radius of the world's worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl.

According to reports from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency published in August, following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, and subsequent explosions at three reactors about 13 km from Matsumura's door, the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) has released 168 times more radiation than the atomic bombs that razed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945...
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Christmas Gifts for a Collapsing America

A homeless family holds signs asking for help. (photo: Change the World)

By Linh Dihn, CounterPunch

24 December 11

Homelessness Starter Kit, $29.99. For the myriad who were hustled by a bank into an impossible mortgage, then foreclosed upon. For the long-retired yet taxed right out of their own homes. For recent college grads who are jobless, of course, and too dispirited to return to their parents. Or for those who were simply laid off for no good reason and are now roofless, here’s a perfect gift for this holiday: Two pieces of cardboard, one to lie on, and one to create a begging and/or protest sign. As a bonus, we’ll include a list of suggested messages, completely free: WE ARE THE 99%, PREGNANT AND HUNGRY, I HAD A STROKE, I AM A WAR VETERAN, OCCUPY EVERYTHING DEMAND NOTHING, etc. For a Magic Marker, please add $1.99.

Military Contractor Gear, $499.95. For that aspiring mercenary in your family...
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The Bible and Ethical Economics

Mother Teresa of Calcutta feeding a hungry boy. (photo: unknown)

By Rick Salutin, Toronto Star

24 December 11

I'd like to join the war against the war against Christmas: a cause bravely championed by muffled voices in the catacombs like Bill O'Reilly at Fox News and Rex Murphy on CBC. So here are some Christmas presents from the Judeo-Christian tradition that I hope will find favour with deniers and those who just don't care if there's a God since it would make no practical difference. I'll draw from the Judeo part, since it's my background. You can call me Santa.

The early books of the Hebrew Bible contain some amazing laws from biblical times (packaged as divine commandments) that read like Christmas cards to people today who are drowning in debt or who've lost cherished homes. Take the law of the Sabbatical year: every seventh year, all debts are forgiven. (In addition the land must lie fallow - something under the tree, as it were, for environmentalists.) READ MORE

Will Dur$t'$ 2011 Xma$ Gift Wi$h Li$t

Political satirist Will Durst. (photo: WillDurst.com)

By Will Durst, Reader Supported News

24 December 11

Bah humbug everybody. And I imagine that sentiment is being echoed by more than a few of you overly familiar with the soft dark underbelly of this "happiest time of the year." Those of us who have been washed prone by the gushing holiday faucet of red and green greed and are dreading the repurposed solstice celebration as it drips down the gutter of melancholy revealing the regurgitated fruitcake of gloom and despair. Whoa. Wow. Sorry about that.

Then again; what the hell. Pass a cookie and another glass of nog and go easy on the nutmeg and heavy on the brandy, because this warm comforting holly jolly Xmas spirit needs be relit. And to honor all you brave and steadfast consumers setting new records in your patriotic quest to sink heavily into debt to honor the birth of that Jewish hippie kid; we hope to rectify the sins of omission perpetrated by the corpulent bearded one in the scarlet suit by offering up to the most deserving of us - this annual scathingly incisive yet always trenchant, WILL DURST'S 2011 XMA$ GIFT WI$H LI$T. READ MORE