Monday, May 26, 2014

Disabilities

New World Notes #325, 28:25 (May 27)

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Once again we "compare great things with small." First, Jess Wright tells the history of "disability" in America.  People with impairments are labelled "disabled" when the economic system doesn't need them to fill a job. When more workers are needed, many of the "disabled" become "able"--as in US factories during World War II.

Then KD reads & discusses a newspaper story about a tragic disability afflicting many women in America: gray hair. And about the awful consequences of failing to use hair dye.

Jess Wright talk courtesy of wearemany.org.  Thanks to Robin Upton, producer of "Unwelcome Guests" (unwelcomeguests.net), for acquainting me with this talk.




Monday, May 19, 2014

The Slippery Slope of Memorial Day

New World Notes #324, 28:29 (May 20)

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An anti-war, anti-militarism perspective on Memorial Day.

Journalist Robert Fisk explains that (and why) there's been no "Good War" after 1945. KD reads Howard Zinn's famous 1976 column on Memorial Day (which got Zinn fired from the Boston Globe). KD also reads and demolishes the beloved war poem, "In Flanders Fields." Plus Steppenwolf's classic antiwar song of the 1970s, "Monster."

This program was originally broadcast in May 2009.

Graphic by Max Grundy.
 

Monday, May 5, 2014

Climate Doom But Not Gloom

Part 1: New World Notes #322, 28:02 (May 6)

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Part 2: New World Notes #323, 29:13 (May 13)

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The human species is doomed, and we'll be gone by 2050, says scientist and ecology professor Guy McPherson. Irreversible, rapidly escalating climate change--caused by our hydrocarbon emissions and their aftereffects--will destroy our habitat sooner than most people expect. And no captain of industry, university president, or politician would risk damaging his or her career to save the species.

Part One: What to do? That's next week's installment. This week McPherson focuses on how serious the climate change situation already is--and how deeply mired in denial are all the leaders and all the institutions of the "civilization" that is responsible for the calamity. 

Part Two: First McPherson discusses whether any force will rescue us. Aliens? God? (In each case, probably not). Then he considers the ethical question, How should we behave in the face of our impending demise?

We end with a comic sketch by George Carlin, who--similarly--discusses ways of going out with style.

For both men, it's Doom yes, but Gloom not necessarily.


Introductions (to both parts) by K.D.

 Guy McPherson

Notes & credits

Guy McPherson is Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona.  His Web site is www.guymcpherson.com .

McPherson's words are from an interview in Winnipeg, Canada, February 7, 2014. Audio courtesy of the producer, Michael Welch, of Global Research News Hour on CKUW-FM, Winnipeg. Lightly edited and condensed by K.D.