Saturday, December 12, 2009

Afghanistan: Won't Get Fooled Again!


New World Notes News
Vol. 2 No. 49 -- December 13, 2009

Note: Entries in this blog are not transcripts of the radio
program. Rather, they are informal essays concerning the
program installment and its subject.

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #93, December 15:

Afghanistan:
Won't Get Fooled Again!

Executive summary

Three fine minds (& my own) cut through the BS about why "we" are rampaging across Afghanistan. Hartford activist Steve Fournier questions why Hillary Clinton calls Afghan suicide bombers "cowards" while the U.S. is bombarding wedding parties with aerial drones controlled from Nevada. Political scientist David Model (read aloud by me) lucidly explains the real reason for this war. Last, in a rousing speech, Afghan activist and ousted MP Malalai Joya--a young woman--brilliantly denounces the cruelty and hypocrisy of Bush, Obama, Karzai, the warlords, NATO, and the Taliban.

What is past is prologue

In 1964, when President L.B. Johnson ordered a large increase in U.S. military personnel in Vietnam, few Americans alive knew anything about the war's most obvious ancestor: the U.S.'s Philippine War of (circa) 1898-1905. The "large increase" in troops was called an "escalation" back in the 1960s, not a "surge." Political/military "Newspeak" was in full flower back then . . . but still less resplendent than it is today!

After the Philippines adventure, the powers-that-be waited 60 years (overlooking Korea) before serving up more of the same in Vietnam.

In 2003, so eager were the P-T-B to control the oil of the Middle East, that they launched the Iraq bloodbath/quagmire only 30 years--just one generation--after the end of its Vietnam predecessor.

(I recognize that "end" is a debatable term, as Vietnamese people are still being born deformed and dying young from the gazillion gallons of toxic defoliants the Americans sprayed on their country. To say nothing of the descendents of the GIs who did the spraying.)

In 2003, millions of American citizens retained vivid memories of the horrors of Vietnam. So launching the equally-unnecessary Iraq bloodbath/quagmire was a gamble. Which, however, has succeeded to the satisfaction of the powers-that-be.

Hartford activist/lawyer/Green politician Steve Fournier

I have certain doubts about the Nobel Peace Prize, but President Obama certainly deserves this decade's Chutzpah Up the Wazoo Award for starting yet another Philippines/Vietnam/Iraq combination bloodbath/debacle only six years after the launch of the last one--and before that one has come close to ending!

If you liked our little Iraq adventure, you're gonna really like the Great Afghanistan Escalation. And you'll simply love the Af-Pak Donnybrook! Coming soon to a theater-of-war near you!

Department of Adolescent Humor:

I said that David Model reveals the main reason that "we" are bombarding babies in Afghanistan. I don't want to tease the reader, but I don't want to spoil the suspense, either. So I'll just give a hint about the actual main reason: Afghanistan is Trouble with a capital T, which rhymes with P, which stands for . . . . No, not Pool, you knucklehead!

I'll give you another hint.

Three teenaged guys (circa 1965) were chatting about who was the sexiest woman in the world. One (let's call him Tinker) opines, "Marilyn Monroe, without a doubt!" Evans rebuts, "Nah, don't be a jerk: it's Brigitte Bardot!" Chance pipes up, "You guys are both full of [solid waste]. It's a well-known fact that the sexiest woman in the world is Marilyn Pippilini!"

Tinker and Evans are nonplussed. They exclaim in unison, "What?! Who the [heck] is Marilyn Pippilini?! "

Chance pulls out his wallet. Next to the rolled condom is a clipped newspaper headine. He shows it to Tinker and Evans. It reads,

Three Hunded Men Lay
Maryland Pipeline

This is one of two jokes from my adolescent years (circa 1965) that I still remember. The other doesn't bear repeating. All those dozens of Elephant Jokes . . . gone!

Recent offering by David Model

Notes and links

Steve Fournier's jeremiad recorded exclusively for New World Notes. See Steve's "Curent Invective" at http://www.currentinvective.com/ .

David Model's essay, "NATO's Chimerical Enemy in Afghanistan," from CounterPunch, condensed & edited for radio by K.D. Here's the original: http://www.counterpunch.org/model11132009.html.

Malalai Joya's speech in Vancouver on November 14, 2009, was recorded for CFRO by Alex Smith--http://www.ecoshock.org/. See also http://www.stopwar.ca/. About half of Joya's speech is reproduced in this installment of NWN. For the whole shebang and/or Q&A, see here: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/37338.

Malalai Joya's recent book is Raising My Voice. Jonathan Steele's interesting review of it in The Guardian is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/15/afghan-activist-malalai-joya

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "oppressive yoke") of WWUH-FM, a community service of the that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Malalai Joya


Coming soon -- Tuesday debut dates on WWUH shown:

  • December 22 -- Christmas Special ... including reflections on the sack of Fallujah (5th anniversary) and the sack of Gaza (1st anniversary)
  • December 29 -- Potpourri . . . including Israel's secret weapon in Palestine . . . the U.S.'s bloody foreign policy since 1898 (if not 1756) . . . and Obama, "the Banksters," & dancin' to The Monster Crash. Happy New Year!

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):


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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Michael Parenti on "Political Liberties and Economic Democracy"


Bread line, Louisville, Kentucky, 1937. Photo by Margaret
Bourke-White. All Graphics: click to enlarge.


New World Notes News
Vol. 2 No. 48 -- December 8, 2009

This week in New World Notes, radio program #92, Tuesday, December 8:

Michael Parenti on
"Political Liberties and
Economic Democracy"

Workers' Summary

The best parts of Parenti's lecture and Q&A at the University of Hartford on November 4 are here. Parenti argues that improvements in public policy--and in living conditions for the non-rich--resulted from struggle from "below," not from the goodness of the governing elites' hearts. Average citizens fought for greater political liberties as tools to compel concrete improvements in their lives.

This program includes fine parts on airport security, Saddam Hussein, the Maine anti-gay-marriage referendum, and Parenti's forthcoming book on organized religion, God and His Demons.

Egypt, 21st Century

Notes

www.michaelparenti.org

The first 20 or so minutes of Parenti's lecture--on the dislike of democracy by the Framers of our Constitution--with parallels drawn to the Classical world--are not included in this installment of NWN. This omitted segment is intellectually substantial and well worth hearing when you're in the mood for some serious history & political science. Some later parts are snipped as well. I've made a complete, uncut, unedited recording of the entire presentation and Q&A (1h, 12m) available for anyone who cares to hear same. The introduction is by University of Hartford President Walter Harrison.

Recorded live by moi.

Free subscription to weekly New World Notes email newsletter upon request. (Subscribers list is totally confidential.) The newsletter essentially duplicates the weekly blog entry--but some people like the weekly reminder.

Dr. Michael Parenti (plaid shirt)

Coming Soon -- Tuesday debut dates on WWUH shown:

  • December 15 -- Afghanistan: Won't Get Fooled Again!
  • December 22 -- Christmas Special ... including reflections on the sack of Fallujah (5th anniversary) and the sack of Gaza (1st anniversary)

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

"Freedom of Speech" by Norman Rockwell. No comment.



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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Is There a Right of Self-Defense? -- The US vs UK


New World Notes News
Vol. 2, No. 47 -- December 1, 2009

This week in New World Notes, #91 (December 1, 2009):

Joyce Malcolm discusses,
Is There a Right of Self-Defense?
-- The U.S. vs. the U.K.

Noted historian and legal scholar Joyce Lee Malcolm discusses the diverging English and American views of the ancient English right on which the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is based--the right of self-defense.

This legal right has been preserved in the United States but has largely been abolished in the United Kingdom. Malcolm's stories of the practical effects in England of this change fascinated her audience. Would you believe a homeowner jailed for holding a toy gun on burglars?

This program features the first two-thirds of a public lecture Malcolm delivered at the University of Hartford on October 7, recorded & lightly edited by yours, truly. The final third was included in installment #90, broadcast last week. You can listen to or download #90 (64 kbps mp3) at any time.

Next week: selections from Michael Parenti's lecture, "Political Liberties and Economic Democracy," recorded live on November 4.

"The Little Insurgent": Monument in Warsaw
commemorating the Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Click
photo to enlarge for detail. For more on the
Warsaw Ghetto (and its similarities to Palestine
today), see our photo essay, here.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):


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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Joyce Malcolm on the Meaning of the 2nd Amendment


All graphics: Click to enlarge

This week in New World Notes, radio program #90 (Tuesday, November 24):

Joyce Malcolm on the Meaning
of the 2nd Amendment

In a nutshell:

An offbeat look at guns & gun-banning. I tell of my own development from a capgun-slinging 7-year-old to a liberal-academic gun-banner ... to somebody who knows a little about guns & gun laws and thinks the NRA is not totally wrong about everything.

Then historian & legal scholar Joyce Lee Malcolm discusses the meaning of the 2nd Amendment & the recent landmark Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which affirmed the right of the individual citizen to keep & bear firearms.

Heller, though, applies only to the District of Columbia! Next year, in McDonald v. Chicago, the Court will decide whether the individual right applies to the rest of the country as well.

Joyce Lee Malcolm

Thought experiment

What do you understand this sentence to mean?--

  • A well-educated workforce being necessary
    to the prosperity of a free State, the right of
    the people to buy and read books shall not
    be infringed.

Does it, say, guarantee only the right of an employer to provide printed instructional materials as part of a formal job-training seminar?

Does it empower the government to ban the possession of racy novels or other literature having no connection with earning a living?

This week's song: Fred Eaglesmith, Time to Get a Gun

Miss part or all of our last 2 programs?

Our radio adaptation of the documentary Sir! No Sir! is good for the soul and good for the blood pressure. Learn more, listen online, or download the audio for future listening by clicking on this link.


No comment.

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut date on WWUH shown:

  • December 1 -- Joyce Malcolm asks, Is There a Right of Self-Defense? -- The U.S. vs. the U.K.

  • December 8 -- Michael Parenti on Political Liberties and Economic Democracy

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Malcolm's latest (Yale University Press, 2009)--nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize. More information at www.joyceleemalcolm.com .

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Saturday, November 7, 2009

Sir! No Sir!

Listen to or download Part 1 now (Broadcast quality 192 kbps -- 41 MB)
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Listen to or download Part 2 now (Broadcast quality 192 kbps -- 41 MB)
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Donald Duncan

This week and next in in New World Notes, radio programs #88 and #89 (Tuesday, November 10 & 17):

Sir! No Sir!
(2 Parts)
adapted to radio by K.D.

In a nutshell:

David Zeiger's fine video documentary makes great radio. Rebellion by America's soldiers & sailors (God bless 'em!) ended the Vietnam War. Recent reflections by anti-Vietnam-war vets & other activists--some famous, some obscure--mix with period (~1970) newscasts & other recordings. The famous ones include Army physician Dr. Howard Levy, Army "Green Beret" Sgt. Donald Duncan, and actor & activist Jane Fonda. I've adapted the 50-minute BBC-4 version of the documentary to radio. The longer, American version is available for sale on DVD.

NB: For the complete screenplay (U.S.-version), illustrated with hundreds of screen-capture photos, click here.

Top: Jane Fonda

Quoth the raven:

GREG PAYTON, U.S. ARMY: Guys were coming from all over the country, so you getting people coming in with different information about the black power struggle at that time, and black unity, and feeling real good about yourself. You had to really question what you were doing in Vietnam.

I remember one day this first-sergeant was talking about gooks [Vietnamese people]. To show you how naive I was, I didn't know that gook was a racial slur. I didn't really understand that. And one day he was talking about gooks and I remember, a light went off in my head, and I said, "Wow! A gook is the same thing as a nigger!"


SUSAN SCHNALL, U.S. NAVY NURSE: I was a member of the Medical Committee for Human Rights. And then I remember also hearing about the B-52 bombers that were dropping leaflets on Vietnam, urging the Vietnamese to defect.

And I thought, well, if they can do it overseas, then we can hire a small private plane, load it up with leaflets, and drop the leaflets on military bases in the San Francisco Bay area. Thousands and thousands of leaflets.

At one point I know we were a little concerned about getting shot down, but nothing happened. Evidently they landed pretty accurately. That's what they testified at the court-martial.

And on my way driving in to the [anti-war] demonstration, I decided I was going to wear my naval uniform. . . .

David Cline

DAVID CLINE, U.S. ARMY: The third time I was wounded was on December 20, 1967, and we got overrun by North Vietnamese regulars. . . .

After the fighting ended, and the sun came up, they carried me over to this guy who had shot me. And he was sitting up against the tree stump, and he was dead. He had three bullet holes up his chest, and he had his AK [-47 rifle] laying across his lap. And the sergeant said, "Here's this gook you killed. You did a good job."

And I seen this guy, and he was about my age, and I started thinking, you know, "Why is he dead and I'm alive?" It was just a matter of pure luck. Then I started thinking, I wonder if he had a girlfriend, and how his mother is going to find out. And things like that.

And when you just went through an experience of that nature, and you find out that it's all lies, and that they're just lying to the American people, and your silence means that you're part of keeping that lie going, I couldn't stop. I mean, I couldn't be silent. I felt I had a responsibility to my friends, and to the country in general, and to the Vietnamese.

The last guy who I shot -- and I don't consider he was the first guy I shot, but it was the first guy I shot where I was shooting it out barrel to barrel with him, and looked him in the face afterwards -- and I felt a certain amount of responsibility to him. To make his death not be in vain meant that I had to try to advocate for the justice that he was fighting for. Because I believe he was fighting for his country. So I became involved in the [anti-war] Movement.

Top: Levy today. Bottom: Unidentified GI in Vietnam

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut date on WWUH shown:

  • November 24 -- Joyce Malcolm on the Meaning of the 2nd Amendment

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Unadvertised Special!

Rita Martinson sings that great song with which Part 2 ends, Soldier, We Love You. YouTube video -- complete, uncut, un-voiced-over, and in living color: (Click here).

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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford

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Top: at U.S. Capitol, April 23, 1971
All photos & drawings: Click to enlarge.


New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 44 -- November 4, 2009

This week in New World Notes, radio program #87, Tuesday, November 4:

Consumer Media Truth Commission
A l e r t !

Be Advised . . .
That the current installment of the radio series New World Notes--which installment formerly bore the title: "Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford" (hereinafter designated as "said crummy program")--has been renamed by order of the Consumer Media Truth Commission (hereinafter: the Commission) as:

"Mr. (or Ms) Kenneth Dowst Gassing On about the Supposed Good Old Days of

  • Appearing in Public with Unshorn Underarms and without Brassieres (both Genders)
  • Characterizing the Commission of Unapproved Activities of a Sexual or Pharmacological Nature (with or without inhaling) as "Striking Blows Against the Empire"
  • Unlawfully Burning Selective Service System Registration Cards
  • Committing Unapproved Acts of a Sexual, Pharmacological, First-Amendment, or Scholarly Nature
  • Failing to Support Economically America’s Barbers, Haberdashers, Pearl-Accessories Industry, Trouser Manufactures (other than Levi-Strauss and Wrangler), and Villager Clothing Retailers
  • Aiding and Abetting our (formerly, . . for the most part . . .) Brave and Patriotic Soldiers, Sailors, and Airpersons in Vietnam in their Commission of Insubordination, Sedition, Mutiny, Sabotage, Dereliction of Duty, A.’ing-themselves-W.O.L., Desertion, Displaying Disrespect to Officers, Failing to Kill Gooks When Lawfully Ordered, Marching in So-called "Peace Demonstrations,” Littering U.S. Government Property with Discarded Combat Medals, Testifying about U.S. Atrocities, Defecting to Canada and/or Sweden, Chanting ‘Hey! Hey! LBJ! How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?’ and Other Offenses."

The reason for this change-of-installment-title is:

Only nine (9) minutes of said crummy program reproduce Mr. (or Ms) Dahr Jamail’s inappropriate, unPatriotic speech in Hartford, Connecticut, of September 20, inst. -- the remainder of said crummy program being devoted to the aforementioned unPatriotic if false memories of Mr. (or Ms) Dowst, plus an overly-long if equally unPatriotic prerecorded song by one Mr. (or Ms) Jefferson Airplane and some cacophonous glam-rock "music" from, presumably, the mid-1980s.

This notice must be prominently displayed near every radio receiver capable of receiving broadcast-band FM transmissions and in the possession of a recipient of the "New World News" newsletter, except in the case of remote-control garage-door-opening appliances, in which case this notice may be affixed to a windshield, directly in front of the steering wheel, or other steering mechanism, of a motor vehicle containing an FCC-certified transmitting device designed for remote activation of said door-opening appliance, provided that both the appliance and the remote operating device are properly installed and functional.

CC.: http://www.dahr.org/ -- http://ivaw.org/

Top: Dahr Jamail in Bushnell Park, Hartford, CT, 9-20-09
Middle, Bottom: Washington, D.C., 9-17-07

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Top: Location & date unknown. Bottom: San Francisco, 1-27-2007.

Note: The radio program features my edited, condensed, 9-minute version of Dahr Jamail's Hartford speech of September 20, 2009. The complete, unedited, 16.5-minute speech (+ introduction) is available here.

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Friday, October 23, 2009

Michael Parenti on the Republic, the Empire, the Economy, & the Citizens

Listen to or download this radio program now (192 kbps -- 41 MB)
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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 43 -- October 24, 2009


This week in New World Notes, radio program #86, Tuesday, October 27:

The Republic, the Empire,
the Economy, and the Citizens:
An Interview with Michael Parenti

In brief:

In a telephone interview with me of October 13, acclaimed political scientist and Left political analyst Michael Parenti discusses

  • the costs of empire and who pays them
  • how national governments--no longer sovereign--act as the servants of transnational global corporate capitalism
  • the REAL crime committed by the many "rogue states" the US has invaded the past half-century
  • Can citizens turn an empire back into a republic? . . . and
  • What happened to the US's progress towards social democracy?

Notes

Michael Parenti will present a free public lecture on Wednesday, November 4, at 7:30 PM, in Wilde Auditorium of the Harry Jack Gray Center, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, CT. His talk is titled, Political Liberties and Economic Democracy. Reservations are required for this free event: call the University Box Office at (860) 768-4228 or 800-274-8587.

I'll be there recording the lecture (in the control room at the rear of the auditorium)--so please look me up and say hi. I'll be glad to see you again or else make your acquaintance!

More on Parenti: www.michaelparenti.org/

Photo by Harrison Bequette (photobucket.com). Click to enlarge.

This week's music: The Crown City Four, "Watch World War Three on Pay TV" (ca. 1960)

Credit where due

Thanks to Dr. Michael Parenti for his time, thoughts, & words. Thanks to the University of Hartford's Community Conversations Colloquium, Provost Lynn Pasquerella, & this year's colloquium steering committee for arranging & funding a public lecture by Parenti in November. Thanks to King Daevid MacKenzie for disinterring (from the ruins of its fallout shelter) this week's song. New World Notes is produced for WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail dot com.

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut date on WWUH shown:

  • November 3 -- Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford (9-20-2009)

Most recent book (2007). God and His Demons
(tentative title) is in the works.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

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Saturday, October 17, 2009

Can WE Save the Environment?

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This week in New World Notes, radio program #85, Tuesday, October 20:

Can We Save
the Environment?

Realizing that no leadership on environmental crises will come from our political "leaders," ordinary Americans have begun making changes on their own. But what to do?

The show explores several approaches people are taking and advocating--including bicycling, recycling tap water, modifying everyday behavior, and raising chickens ... then reads Derrick Jensen's essay on why only political action will make any difference at all ... and ends by advocating all of the above.

Bucky Buckaw (Robert McMinn) & friend

Credit where due

Thanks to producers Joseph C. McGuire ("Everyday Environmentalist") and Robert McMinn ("Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast") for audio rebroadcast here. Produced for WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT.

Derrick Jensen

This week's music: James McMurtry, God Bless America

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut dates on WWUH shown:

  • October 27 -- Michael Parenti interview *
  • November 3 -- Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford (9-20-2009)


Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Dr. Michael Parenti (plaid shirt)

* Footnote:

A voice frequently heard on New World Notes--Michael Parenti's--can be heard live and in-person, at the University of Hartford at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, November 4. The acclaimed and popular political scientist and political analyst will speak on "Civil Liberties and Economic Democracy," in Wilde Auditorium of the University's Harry Jack Gray Center.

Admission is free, but tickets/reservations are required. To reserve your free ticket, call the University Box Office at (860) 768-4228, or toll-free at 800-274-8587.

I'll be there recording the talk (in the control room at the rear of the auditorium)--so please look me up and say hi. I'll be glad to see you again or else make your acquaintance! (I'm the chubby, bearded guy in his late 50s.)

Catch my recent conversation with Michael Parenti on next week's New World Notes.



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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Women, War, & Violence

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Lisa F. Jackson filming The Greatest Silence

This week, New World Notes revives an early show you may have missed: "Women, War, & Violence" (originally NWN # 16, from April 2008), with a new introduction. In the chaotic fighting to grab the mineral resources of Congo, the armies have made the bodies of civilian women military targets. This psy-ops strategy is obscene but not illogical. Documentary filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson explains.

Jackson created the award-winning 2007 documentary film, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo.

Jackson receives Special Jury Prize at the Sundance
Film Festival, January 2008, for The Greatest Silence.

Then Ynar Mohammed explains to Amy Goodman why the plight of women in Iraq today is much worse--and women are much much more oppressed--than was the case under the dictator the Americans "liberated" the Iraqi people from.

The humanitarian crises in Congo and in Iraq remain greater and graver than the sad situation in Darfur, Sudan. So why is all our attention being channeled to Darfur? Could there be oil under the (increasing) sands of Sudan? Would a little "humanitarian military intervention" do any great harm to Exxon-Mobil? (Answers: [1] yes; [2] probably not.)


Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
Coming up in NWN (central Connecticut Tuesday playdates shown):
  • October 20 -- # 85: Can We Save the Environment? -- Maybe. But not by selling the car, turning off the electricity, eating vegan, and taking shorter showers, argues Derrick Jensen.
  • October 27 -- #86: Michael Parenti Special
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

REACTIONS: Helen Caldicott vs. Vermont Yankee

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New World Notes News
Coming up October 6 (Hartford-area broadcast on WWUH 91.3):

REACTIONS: Helen Caldicott
takes on Vermont Yankee (and the nuclear
noodleheads that run it for fun and profit)


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Vermont is the home of covered bridges ... maple syrup ... and an ancient nuclear power plant now seeking an operating-license renewal of 20 years. Famed antinuclear activist Helen Caldecott, M.D., speaking near the Vermont Yankee plant, explains why such facilities are killers when operating properly . . . and not nice at all when they (frequently) malfunction. A witty, scary, & funny talk.

Helen Caldicott, M.D.

Notes and Credits

Note: Broadcast schedule change: WHUS, 91.7 in Storrs--which used to air NWN at 7:30 AM on Friday--now airs it at 6:30 PM on Saturday. Listeners in Providence Plantation and eastern Connecticut can stop bemoaning their fate. Your favorite radio show hasn't been cancelled, after all. Nor has New World Notes!

About half of Helen Caldicott's hour-long speech in Brattleboro, VT (given April 10, 2009) is replayed in this week's installment. The audio is borrowed from Caldicott's radio series, "If You Love This Planet," #51 (August 2009). Link, below.

New World Notes is produced for WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford.

Song -- Tom Lehrer, "We Will All Go Together When We Go"

Series Overview -- Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Next Week -- On WWUH 91.3: Pledge Drive hour-long live special, Tuesday October 13, 12:00-1:00 PM (Eastern). Make a pledge during that hour and I'll thank you on-air. If you've already pledged (or whatever), you can still call and leave a message for me, and I'll receive it (and maybe read it aloud) a minute later.

Elsewhere & on the Internet: an Encore Performance . . . sorry . . . a re-run of NWN #16, "Women, War, & Violence," with a new introduction.


Great links. Really!

New World Notes Web page/blog: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/.

Hour-long Caldicott speech in Brattleboro, April 10, 2009:
http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/download/34913/40046/56726/?url=http://www.radio4all.net/files/jazzwilliams@gmail.com/3400-1-iyltp51.mp3

Isabel Vinson, her clothes back on, now displaying not her body but an admirable lack of contrition in this funny 4-minute radio interview. (First read the "hard-hitting political analysis," below.) http://www.ewiseradiotools.com/station_files/file_1177666610__.mp3

Historian, law professor, and legal scholar Joyce Malcolm in a free public lecture, Wednesday evening, October 7, at the University of Hartford. "To Heller and Back: Is There a Right of Self-Defense?" (Free) tickets/reservation required. For details, listen to this brilliantly witty announcement (1 min 16 sec): http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/download/36145/41329/58148/?url=http://www.radio4all.net/files/kdowst@hotmail.com/3415-1-joyce-malcolm_psa_192k.mp3.

For more info. on Malcolm, read this remarkably good info. sheet concocted by the university's P.R. office: http://hartford.edu/daily/Articles.asp?Mainid=6835&category=1

I feel a little proprietary here, as I was the one who recommended Malcolm to the public-lecture committee. . . .

And now for . . .

THE SORT OF HARD-HITTING POLITICAL ANALYSIS YOU WON'T GET FROM NEOFASCIST CORPORATE STOOGES LIKE GLENN BECK, SEAN HANNITY, & THE FOX TV-61 WEATHERMAN:

"Nudes, Not Nukes!"

Caldicott half- (maybe four-fifths-) seriously encouraged Brattleboro residents to hold a nude march demanding that Vermont Yankee be shut down. In fact, nude political protests are common enough in Brattleboro. Public lewd behavior is a ticket to the slammer in Vermont, as elsewhere, but public nudity itself is lawful.

Apparently nobody in Brattleboro has yet organized that march. (Better hurry, guys: the autumnal equinox went thataway!) But Benington citizen-model Isabel Vinson and photographer Remy Chevalier came up with a similar idea. The two photos, below, show (front to rear) Vinson, the Connecticut River (Yes, Hartfordites, that Connecticut River; we're downstream from the discharge pipes), and the Vermont Yankee "bomb factory," as Helen calls it.

Vermont Yankee and Isabel Vinson face off.

The lower photo was published on the front page of the Brattleboro Reformer, and the predictable howls of outrage from Offended Parents duly ensued. Why the fuss? Doesn't People put racier photos than that on its covers about 37 times a year? Ah, yes, but--if you look real closely at the Vinson photo, tilt your neck just so, and squint . . . you can see a nipple! They say.

I tried to see it ... honestly, I did. And I'm not saying it's definitely not a nipple. I'm just saying I think it's the top of a cooling tower in the background. One of the towers of Vermont Yankee that did not collapse from rust and rot and dry-rot in August 2007. Vinson herself says it's her nipple. Whatever. I'm tired of arguing. You be the judge.

Always the entrepreneur, I'm now in the process of moving to Brattleboro, where I'm setting up a storefront office. I guarantee that I'll cure any child-victim in New England of all the damage (s)he has suffered from exposure to women's nipples -- in 3 weeks--no more, no less--for only $1,500. For $1,750 I'll cover not just the nipple but the areola as well. Why take chances with the child you love?

For children who have been breast-fed, add an additional $1,500 to the price and an additional 3 weeks to the course of treatment. Damage this severe is very hard to cure, compared with the still-tragic but lesser injury done to children by leaving them in a room alone with the Brattleboro Reformer and a good magnifying glass. Why not toss in a loaded pistol and a pack of matches while you're at it, scum?!

Finally, be sure to ask about available discounts for treating TNO (traumatic nipple observation) suffered in areas where public nudity is perfectly legal (locker rooms, nudist camps, Vermont, etc.).

Note to VDMV: How about adding Live Modestly or Die! to the license plates? Apparently they tried it in Kabul, and it was a big hit. Or is that motto too close to New Hampshire's?

Note to Brattleboro Water District: I think it's time to stop adding maple syrup to the drinking water and to go back to fluoride. At least the psychotic side-effects of fluoride are well-understood and predictable!

A Brattleboro tradition

With the profits from my business treating traumatic nipple observation, I had planned to start another business: curing children of the effects of exposure to nuclear power plants. Nuke plants are just as bad as nipples, if not worse. But now I find that two people have gotten the jump on me. Apparently two pediatric oncologists are already doing outstanding work, one of them at the Royal Hospital of Sweden, in Stockholm; the other at the M.D. Anderson Clinic, in Houston. It is said that either can prolong the life of a childhood leukemia victim . . . often by 12, sometimes even by 18 months!

To judge by the expressed Parental Outrage, the effects of exposure to "routine releases" of radioactive tritium apparently aren't as bad as traumatic nipple observation. But they are harder to treat. What to do? Eureka! (he said, his eyes having moved downwards from Isabel Vinson's cooling tower). Traumatic Buttock Observation! Buttocks have got to be at least as common as nipples. Sure, per square inch, nipples are the second-deadliest visible organ of a woman's body, and buttocks far less detructive to the innocence of our children and teenagers. Per square inch. You can see where I'm going here. . . .

Coda

Christine Keeler, by Lewis Morley
(Click to remove chair)

As I type this, a verse from the 1960s comes to mind. An affair, recently ended, was revealed between the (married) Secretary of War for the U.K., John Profumo, and a young woman described as a "party girl," Christine Keeler. Keeler was said also to have been involved with a Russian senior naval attache' (in vulgar terms: spy) in London.

So far, so good, but then Profumo made an error of judgment. In March 1963--questioned about the affair in the House of Commons--the Secretary denied any improper behavior involving Ms Keeler. Public uproar over the scandal--particularly lying in Parliament(!)--weakened the Conservative government of PM Harold Macmillan.

A limerick was duly penned:

  • Look what you've done! said Christine,
    You've wrecked the whole Party machine!
    To lie in the nude
    Is not at all rude,
    But to lie in the House is obscene!




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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Can This Honeymoon Be Saved? (Part 2)

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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 38 -- September 22, 2009

Wall Street Bailout (Black Agenda Report)

This week in New World Notes, radio program #83, September 29:

Can This Honeymoon
Be Saved?

Part 2: Wealth Care, Si! -- Health Care, Non!

In many ways, Barack H. Obama embodies more of the hopes and fantasies of Progressives and Liberals than any of us imagined was possible.

For a start, President Obama is proof that American racism--like the old gray mare--just ain't what she used to be.

Furthermore, Obama is intelligent; he's articulate; he gives every appearance of being sane--at least by the admittedly low standards of the powerful. He's charming; he's good-looking; he projects a style that is both admirable and attractive.

Bottom: Jello Biafra (left, as zombie mayor), in RetarDEAD

In mid-2008, Jello Biafra said, of Obama, "He's a wonderful speaker, comes across as a cool guy you could actually hang out and talk to. . . ."

Jello ended that sentence with, ". . .if only that was reflected in his voting record!"

Jello went on to make a pretty good case that--when it comes to warmongering, destroying civil liberties, promoting government spying, kowtowing to Israel, and aiding and abetting corporate plunder, Senator Obama's voting record is right up there alongside Hillary's and Son-of-Cain's. In fact, on a few corporate-power issues, McCain's voting record was more progressive than Obama's!

Top: Mumia Abu-Jamal
Bottom: Dr. Kenneth Dowst

Well, listen to Jello for yourself! He's on this week's New World Notes. So are three other Left-leaning, articulate critics of current policies of the federal Executive Branch. They are

  • Glen Ford--Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report
  • Mumia Abu-Jamal--former newspaper reporter, convicted (in a highly questionable trial) cop-killer, long-time political essayist and radio commentator, and long-term resident of Death Row somewhere in Pennsylvania
  • moi--the best we could get on such short notice

Two songs complement the prose this week:

  • Obama Girl and The Man Himself, "Duet"
  • "Call it Democracy"--Bruce Cockburn's rocking critique of the gap between a government's professed democratic principles and the government's actions at home and abroad. Pronounced Co-burn.

Next Week:

NWN #84 -- REACTIONS: Dr. Helen Caldecott takes on Vermont Yankee

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):




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Monday, September 21, 2009

Can This Honeymoon Be Saved? (Part 1)

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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 38 -- September 22, 2009

This week in New World Notes, radio program #82, September 22 & 25:

Can This Honeymoon
Be Saved?

Part 1: War and More War

You don't have to be Jewish . . . to love Levy's Rye Bread, the famous ad slogan went. And you don't have to be a screaming, sanity-challenged, hyena-like Republican TV pundit reading from a script written by Karl Rove . . . to be getting flabbergasted by many things President Obama is doing in our name . . . and with our money, what's left of it.

I claim no special insight here. Many Progressives have been saying the same, some of them before I joined the chorus.

In the spring of 2008--before either party had selected a candidate for President--Jello Biafra warned that Obama's personal style was far more admirable and attractive than his voting record in the Senate. (We'll hear these remarks next week, in NWN #83.) Among other correct predictions, Jello said that an Obama plan for health care reform will show more concern for the financial health of the insurance industry than for whether the citizens live or die.


In a recent article, journalist and essayist Chris Hedges apologized for, in November, abandoning true Progressive candidates in favor of Obama:

Speaking in Hartford Sunday afternoon--on the U.S. government's ongoing and new military adventures--independent journalist Dahr Jamail declined to lambaste the president. But Jamail did stress repeatedly that Obama's wars and military occupations clearly violate international law, U.S. law, the oath each soldier was required to pledge, and the international conventions on war crimes that our country signed.

He urged his listeners to do more to support the GIs who are actively resisting the war . . . as Americans had done in the Vietnam era.

If only!

I myself concluded that Obama was just another money-grubbing politician when I read and heard his shameless pandering to AIPAC last year. He outdid even Hillary in demonstrating his complete fealty to whatever warmongers and ethnic-cleansers were running a certain small Middle-Eastern state.

But the AIPAC speech was just an especally clear example of the sort of behavior that's giving prostitution a bad name. Nor did receiving more money from the financial industry than any other candidate bode well.

Still, I wished and (audaciously?) hoped that my "take" on Obama was wrong, that my assessment was too harsh, that many of my dire predictions would be proved false.

Is it too soon to judge Obama?

Wall Street Bailout

The Official Synopsis:

Like the hysterical right-wing pundits--though for different reasons--Progressives are increasingly alarmed at Obama's actions & inactions. Using a wide variety of audio soures, we explore The Audacity of Betrayal & the government's astounding lack of "change we can believe in." This installment focuses (though not exclusively) on war, the military, and "defense" spending. First of two parts.

Next Week: Part 2 -- Wealth Care, Si! . . . Health Care, Non!

PS: Because the subject is such a bummer, I tried to make the show itself fun. You'll get to hear, among other sound sources, Amy Goodman; The Dixie Chicks; Obama Girl; an Al-Jazeera documentary; the trailer for the film, War of the Roses; and me.

Leaving Obamaland
(This and previous photograph courtesy Black Agenda Report)

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Sunday, September 13, 2009

David Rovics: Capitalism and Community

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David Rovics in Nablus

This week in New World Notes, radio program #81, September 15 & 18:

David Rovics:
Capitalism & Community
A Conversation, Part 1

As you've heard, journalist Dahr Jamail will speak on several occasions in Hartford and Windham counties (Connecticut), September 19-21. Beginning 7:30 PM of the 21st, in Wesleyan's Memorial Chapel, he'll be joined on stage by acclaimed singer-songrwiter David Rovics. All events are free.

Rovics' business motto is a good if uncommon one: Songs of social significance. His business model is even more uncommon. For the most part, he gives his musical recordings away via the Internet. (See "Resources," below.)

Rovics calculates that, if a musician of his echelon makes any money at all, the money comes from concert performance fees, not royalties on album sales and radio airplay. Every summer a pop star like Paul McCartney can buy a cottage on the Isle of Wight with his quarterly royalty check. With their quarterly royalty checks, normal musicians can buy a couple sets of guitar strings and a falafel sandwich.

Dahr Jamail

The political/social/economic/ecological concerns and stands in Rovics' music fit very nicely with New World Notes' own value set. In the 19 months this show has been on the air, we've probably played 85 recorded songs, and fully a third of them must have been by Rovics.

This week's installment of the show features Rovics. Here's the official synopsis:

In a phone interview, politically-engaged singer-songwriter David Rovics discusses two of the concerns that are central to his music: (1) Community and (2) the great enemy of community, Capitalism, American-style. Plus two songs by Rovics and commentary by KD.

Music this week:

  • David Rovics, Used To Be a City In This Town and New Orleans

Danbury Fair (1970s?)

Resources:

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Saturday, September 5, 2009

Labor Day Musical Special

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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 36 -- September 8, 2009

This week in New World Notes, radio program #80, September 8 & 11:


Labor Day Musical Special

featuring (in order of appearance)

David Rovics, The Day the Minimum Wage Workers Went on Strike. A classic celebration of the working class and of strength in solidarity . . . with some very nice banjo picking.

Mad Agnes, Katie. A witty and sharp critique of bourgeois life from the perspective of the long-suffering--and admirable--cleaning lady.

The Foremen, Workin' on an MBA. Comic satire of the cushy life, & boundless self-pity, of the men in the gray flannel suits--set to a tune that recalls a Mississippi chain gang.

Utah Phillips, Moose Turd Pie. Spoken, w/ guitar. Utah recalls (with only the slightest hint of exaggeration) the worst job he ever held.

Anne Feeney, Business News / Hallelujah, I'm a Bum! A beautiful rendition of an 1890's song about unemployment (yep: that "18" is correct!); a fine homage to Simon & Garfunkel's 1965 classic, "Silent Night / 6 o'Clock News"; and a good song on its own terms.

John McCutcheon, Doing Our Job. McCutcheon applies Cal Ripken's modest remarks upon breaking a major-league record to America's working people generally.

Base (Workers & Farmers): We Work for all. . . . We feed all.
Level 2 (Corporate fatcats): We eat for you.
Level 3 (Soldiers): We shoot at you.
Level 4 (Clergy): We fool you.
Level 5 (Kings, Presidents, etc.): We Rule you.
Top (Moneybag): Capitalism. Click to enlarge.

Coming soon (dates of WWUH Tuesday broadcast shown):

  • September 15--Can We Save the Environment? Maybe. But probably not by eating vegan, taking shorter showers, and swapping the car for a bicycle.
  • September 22--Can This Honeymoon Be Saved? (Part 1: War & More War.) Was eloping with Obama a terrible, terrible mistake?

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Lunch: Rockefeller Center (Photo by Charles C. Ebbetts, 1932)


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Friday, August 28, 2009

What Does Woman Want?

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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 35 -- September 1, 2009

This week in New World Notes, radio program #79, September 1 & 3:

Some more color in her life?

What Does
Woman Want?

from the blog, Traumdeutung*, by (apparently) Amy H. Konig:

Thursday, June 05, 2008

What I would like to know is: what do people mean when they ask, What does Hillary want? . . . Obviously, they want her to go away, and they want her to name her price. Whether you agree or disagree with this sentiment, though, it is clear that there are a vast number of ways to express it that do not involve quoting one of the most famous misogynist phrases in history.

Late in life, Sigmund Freud reportedly uttered the question “What does woman want?” (“Was will das Weib?”) to Marie Bonaparte. This phrase, which does not appear in the Standard Edition, has nevertheless become one of the founder of modern psychology's most famous quotations. When Freud asked this question, he meant to convey that the question itself is unanswerable: that women are simply one of the great unsolved mysteries (and problems) in life.

Along with his characterization of the female psyche as a “dark continent,” and his description of female desire as “veiled in obscurity,” this quotation is regularly invoked as evidence of Freud’s misogyny. It is perhaps one the most contentious phrases in all of psychoanalysis, and it has had a profound effect on Freud’s legacy.

http://amyhkonig.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-does-hillary-want.html (Emphasis added.)

To marry a nice Jewish doctor?

On New World Notes I have courageously risen to defend people nearly universally regarded as scum. I have said that Iran PM Mosadeq may not have been the Communist slavemaster the Shah and the U.S. and Iranian media (with a little help from the CIA) painted him to be 1953.

I have said that Lynndie England and Charles Grainer indeed may have done nothing to restore the honor of the Hillbilly community . . . but should not have been jailed for single-handedly introducing sexually perverted torture to Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, the CIA's "black sites" in Eastern Europe, and the Maryland State Training School for Boys.

Viagra for Her? The title of the photo is "Female Viagra."
I say it's Pepto-Bismol, and I say the hell with it.

And I say yet again--I believe for the fourth time, in print--that in the waning years of the (William) Clinton administration, the only public figure to display any class was the unjustly maligned intern, Monica Lewinski. And let her who has never granted a favor to a man who proved undeserving of her kindness cast the first stone.

Yes, Underdogs 'R' Us here at New World Notes.

A boyfriend who's not afraid to take charge?

Yet even I hesitate to defend a scoundrel, fool, and blackguard as notorious as Sigmund Freud. The man who invented--and ruthlessly enforced--patriarchal oppression of women, female genital mutilation, menstrual cramps, pain in childbirth, hysteria, cellulite, and the fin-de-siecle bourgeois Weltanschauung of Mitteleuropa.

Yes, that last crime is so great that it takes at least three languages (counting the "of") even to name it!

Thus, with trepidation do I question whether speaking "Was will das Weib?" indicates misogyny or rather . . . deep wisdom.

"Zipless f*cks," anyone?

With trepidation do I ask whether discourse that Amy Konig alleges to be "one of the most famous misogynist phrases in history" . . . in fact be "misogynist" or instead a stunning personal and philosophical epiphany--the moment a man, celebrated for his insight into the psyche, has a revelation akin to Saul's on the road to Tarsus and at last is struck by the profundity of Socrates' wisest statement (IMHO), "All I know is that I know nothing."

That the Times do a better job of news reporting? Here, in 2009,
they discover & report the female orgasm--36 years after Our
Bodies, Ourselves discovered it first. What next--"Ho Chi Minh
seen as likely winner of Viet Nam national election in '54"?

I assume that the blur by the model's mouth is her soul escaping
her body--only temporarily, one hopes. Yep: the literal meaning
of "ecstasy"! Bad Taste is Timeless. Note to Photo Editor: I don't
claim to understand Woman any better than Freud did; however,
to me, that cover photo does not capture "Desire." Two seconds
ealier, you woulda nailed it. Next time, pick a photographer with
quicker reflexes. On the difference between "desire" and "glorious,
wide-screen, Technicolor orgasm," please see Fear of Flying.

"When Freud asked this question [viz., What does Woman want?], he meant to convey that the question itself is unanswerable: that women are simply one of the great unsolved mysteries (and problems) in life. . . ."

Since "and problems" is in parentheses, I assume that Konig is reluctant to publicly attribute the notion to Freud. Strip away her parenthetical addition, and does anyone have any problems with the words that remain? Is it "misogynist" to have some sense of the universe's impenetrable (you should pardon the adjective) mysteries?

A little something from Tiffany's?**

"Along with [Freud's] characterization of the female psyche as a 'dark continent,' and his description of female desire as 'veiled in obscurity,' this quotation is regularly invoked as evidence of Freud’s misogyny."

Fantasizing about George Clooney and/or the young Sean Connery while making love to me, I can understand. But Jeremy Wallace?? If that fantasy isn't "veiled in obscurity," then will some kind person please explain the obvious to me?

An electric Dobro . . . and a man who really knows how
to use it?? (Chacun a son gout--pardon my French!)

Okay, I'll knock it off. I named the installment "What Does Woman Want?" just to be cheeky. I don't know the answer. I don't know if the question even makes sense. I don't know if such a thing as "Woman" even exists. And I've been married to one woman or another--actually, only a couple of them--for 33 years. I don't even know what Man wants. Well, apart from that.

For this installment, I had planned to broadcast audio of two different groups of young American women: (1) women of color engaged with issues of reproductive health care and (2) Moslems engaged with issues of social and personal freedom. My ambitions were larger than my timeslot, so we must postpone hearing from the latter group.

We shall hear (if God permits) former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders--no longer young but still feisty, funny, and intelligent--addressing the women's healthcare-advocacy group SisterSong in Atlanta.

Top: Dr. Jocelyn Elders

Music of the week

You'd never forgive me if I didn't follow (my condensed version of) Elders' talk with The Foremen's song, "Firing the Surgeon General." And postponing the Moslem segment freed up a few additional minutes, into which I transplanted*** one of the better male imaginings of a woman's inner life since Hemingway wrote "Hills Like White Elephants" and Joyce created Molly Bloom.

Incidentally, it's worth giving $3 to the @#^%&{!s that own Blockbuster in order to rent Back To School, in order again to see and hear Sally Kellerman, looking ravishing in red, breathlessly read the end of Molly's soliloquy in Ulysses to her Freshman English class. How anybody could pick Jeremy Wallace over Professor Kellerman is beyond me! Even Dangerfield is on my side on this issue. Pretty funny when he emerges from his classroom daydream shouting, "Yes! . . . Yes! . . . Yes!"


OK, now that I've finished showing off my degrees in English, let me say that the song in which a man does a half-decent job of imagining a woman's inner life is James McMurtry's "Fireline Road"--not "Firing the Surgeon General"--and we play this (the former) too. James, of course, is the son of talented novelist Larry McMurtry, whose best-known novels depict in gritty realism the . . . oh, never mind!

Coming soon (dates of WWUH Tuesday broadcast shown):

  • September 8--Labor Day Musical Special -- featuring songs by Anne Feeney, The Foremen, Mad Agnes, John McCutcheon, Utah Phillips, and David Rovics
  • September 15--Can We Save the Environment?

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Men who listen? Top billing?

Footnotes

* I assume Traumdeutung means "interpretation of dreams." For a lady who doesn't much care for that Dead White Male-chauvinist-Schwein from Vienna, Konig seems to be quite the Freudienne.

** One is reminded of the beauty and insight of those elegiac verses in Second Corinthians:

  • Men grow cold as girls grow old,
    And we all lose our charms in the end;
    But square-cut or pear-shape,
    These rocks won't lose their shape:
    Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend!

*** Qui transtulit sustinet (Connecticut state motto).

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