Showing posts with label George Carlin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Carlin. Show all posts

Saturday, June 18, 2011

George Carlin Tribute


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 25 -- June 18, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio program #172, June 21, 2011

George Carlin Tribute


George Carlin died three years ago, on June 22, 2008. Lacking much formal education, he proved to be an impressive thinker and political analyst. Originally a hit as a middle-of-the-road, Hollywood comic, his political thinking moved leftwards over the years. By the 1990s, he was America's preeminent Progressive comic and satirist--and more popular than ever. This tribute includes four of Carlin's finer routines from the 1990s, with introductions by me.

The routines presented are these (the titles are mine):

1. Religion = B.S.
2. Airlines English
3. War on Homelessness
4. Euphemisms


Notes, credits, & links

Two other fine Carlin routines--"They Own You" and "The Class System in the U.S."--are included in New World Notes #164 ("They Warned Us!," April 24).

Thanks to Scooter, of "The innerSide" on KPFT-FM, Houston, for the first Carlin routine.

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

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • June 28 -- John Pilger
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A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Saturday, April 23, 2011

They Warned Us!



New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 17 -- April 23, 2011



This week in New World Notes, radio program #164, April 26, 2011



They Warned Us!



In brief


The country is in a mess, economically, politically, in terms of civil liberties ... you name it! Well, it's not that nobody warned us where we were heading! Three prophets of years past combine wit, humor, and insight:

(1) Comedian George Carlin (2 routines from the 1990s) discusses the exploitation by the rich of everyone else, our non-functioning democracy, the falseness of The American Dream, class warfare, "divide and conquer," and Wall Street's determination to get your Social Security money for themselves.

(2) Political scientist Michael Parenti (early 1990s) corroborates Carlin on Social Security.

(3) Parenti goes on to discuss the U.S. government's & media's (then-recent or ongoing) propaganda campaigns seeking to drum up public support for attacking Libya, Panama, and Iraq--and for overthrowing the governments of Gaddafi, Noriega, & Saddam Hussein (respectively).

(4) Spoken-word artist Jello Biafra (2008, before the election) warns that Obama is just another "business as usual" politician dedicated only to reducing civil liberties, building the empire, and advancing the financial interests of the powerful corporations. (Just look at his voting record in the Senate!)


Below: Michael Parenti


Notes, credits, & links
New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "imprimatur") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.
You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net'>radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.
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.


Above: Jello Biafra


Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)



  • May 3 -- Peasant of the Dawn Very nice audiocollage by Virtual Renderings.
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):




A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net



Friday, March 19, 2010

Airport Security and Related Scams



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 12 -- March 19, 2010

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #107, March 23:

Airport Security and Related Scams

Precursor and spiritual ancestor of the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA): Mack Sennett's The Keystone Kops. Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Executive summary

Twenty years ago, airports and commercial aircraft were scenes of Orwellian mind-control (hear George Carlin in this installment). And those were the good old days! After 9/11, the police state--fortunately run by the Keystone Kops--seized our airports (hear Jimmy Tingle, Michael Parenti). As we lead up to the preposterous Underwear Bomber scam of last Christmas (hear me, Jim Hightower, & Jon Stewart), we hear from student Nicholas George, busted for trying to carry "learn Arabic" flash cards onto a plane. It is to laugh--and the show does (between screams of outrage).

Notes and Credits

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "What, me worry?") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.

http://www.jimmytingle.com/
http://www.michaelparenti.org/

Bottom: Maidenform bra ad, apparently from 1963. Somehow, the
extremely long-running "I Dreamed ..." ad campaign never tried, "I
dreamed I blew up an airliner with PETN explosives in my Maidenform
bra ... and panties." A pity.

Coming Soon -- Tuesday debut dates shown:

  • March 30 -- False-Flag Operations: An Intruduction
  • April 6 -- False-Flag Operations, Part 2

Terrorist suspect Nicholas George, here cleverly disguised as a harmless
backpacker and college student. The TSA, Philadelphia Police, and FBI
were too smart to fall for that old trick. George was busted for trying to
carry basic-Arabic-vocabulary "flash cards" onto a commercial flight.
Why do you think they call them "flash" cards, eh?! Good work, officers!
Mack Sennett would be proud.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Populist commentator Jim Hightower. The former Texas state
official (State Agriculture Commissioner) can recognize a scam--
such as full-body scanners in airports--when he smells one.



Saturday, February 20, 2010

Resisting Violence: Kathy Kelly (R) + LIVE on WWUH




New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 7 -- February 20, 2010

This Week EXCEPT on WWUH: radio program #103, Feb. 23:

Resisting Violence: Kathy Kelly


Last week's installment, "Not ALL Christians Are Evil," started off by whacking the Institutional Church--Protestant Division. This week's starts off by whacking the Roman Catholic Division. Outraged Catholic listeners are asked not to turn off the radio the instant they hear the late Cardinal Spellman described as a "fascist warmonger." Please wait for the "However, . . . ."

This "encore presentation" (with minor revisions) celebrates and features the great American and Catholic antiwar activist Kathy Kelly. She tells a touching and funny story about ordinary citizens who fought against the U.S. War Machine . . . and won. The hero(ine)s of the story happen to be ordinary citizens of Ireland. But who's to say it wouldn't work just as well at home?

Kelly says almost nothing about her religious beliefs--which, however, clearly underlie her antiwar crusade. Imagine! Two weeks in a row, we've managed to turn up some people (two of them still alive!) who believe that Christianity requires something other than killing "evildoers," stealing oil, and persecuting homosexuals! Who'd a' thunk?

(l. to r.:) Kathy Kelly, Australian Catholic Worker activist Ciaron O'Reilly,
and the five Pitstop Ploughshares, outside the courthouse, Dublin, 2006.

For details and more photos, please see the blog entry for the original incarnation of this installment: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/2008/11/resisting-violence-kathy-kelly.html . Note that the links to the audio file on that old page are to the unrevised, lower-audio-fidelity version (installment #39), of December 2008.

Listeners in central Connecticut--and all others--who wish to hear the updated version of the program (installment #103) can listen online or download an MP3 audio file for later listening. You'll find the download links at the top of this blog page.


This Tuesday, noon to 1 PM, on WWUH 91.3 and wwuh.org:

Special Hour-Long Live Show

In this special broadcast for Pledge Marathon Week, regular but brief appeals for money will punctuate a potpourri of insightful political/social commentary by a range of voices. You'll hear none of these voices on corporate-controlled radio or TV stations--neither the overtly commercial stations nor the ones dependent on grants from Cargill, Exxon Mobil, and other social ils. Plus we'll have a reflection or two by me and two or three songs (not by me).

Black Agenda Report Senior Columnist Margaret Kimberley

Pledges of support to any noncommercial, alternative, community-based radio station are always in good taste. Pledges of support to WWUH made by telephone while New World Notes is broadcasting--noon to 1 PM (Eastern) this Tuesday, February 23--are even nicer, as I'll be able to thank you on-air . . . unless you prefer to remain anonymous. A tally is made of the amount pledged by phone during each show--and the loser has to buy beer and pizza for the other 67 volunteer staff members. No, just kidding about the beer and pizza.

The phone number for pledges is 1 - 800 - 444 - WWUH ( - 9984). You can also pledge online at http://wwuh.org/ or else print out a form and mail in a check (same Internet address).

Words and voices included in this Tuesday's show come from people including

  • the late the Rt. Hon. Robin Cook, MP--a high official in Tony Blair's Labour government--denouncing the U.K.'s imminent invasion of Iraq and resigning from the Government (March 17, 2003). Ends with the first-ever standing ovation in the House of Commons. Then the next day they voted for war. Cook died in 2005
  • Margaret Cook--Robin's estranged divorced wife at the time of the resignation--in a stunning new appreciation marking the Chilcot Inquiry, titled, "I'm So Proud of You, Robin Cook" (February 7, 2010)
  • Margaret Kimberley on the Obama administration claiming the right--and attempting--to assassinate U.S. citizens (Don't the 5th and 12th Amendments sort of discourage this sort of thing?)
  • Jello Biafra, in the summer of 2008, predicting almost exactly what an Obama presidency would be like. Jello's batting average: .980. He failed to imagine assassinating American citizens or the magnitude of the strings-free giveaway of the nation's wealth to Wall Street
  • Michael Parenti, from a phone interview with me last October, discussing the real agenda of U.S. foreign policy
  • comedians Jimmy Tingle and George Carlin, proving that you can be serious and funny too. And that even the darkest tragedy can use a little Comic Relief. Yes, we do lighten up from time to time . . . at frequent intervals!
  • 3 Vietnam Veterans--Greg Payton, Susan Schnall, and David Kline-- recalling their and other GIs' rebellion against an evil and unnecessary war
  • urban poet Benjamin Zephaniah, showing the ill effects of bad media choice, in "(I've Been Listening to the) Rong Radio Station"--performed in the back of a cab driving around west London. Listener, beware! Don't let this happen to you!*

Robin Cook, denouncing the imminent Iraq War and resigning from
Blair's Labour Government, March 17, 2003. His speech prompted
the first-ever standing
ovation in the House of Commons. "Principled
resignation" is another bit of eccentric British behavior unknown in
the upper ranks of American government. Compare Colin Powell.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):


* Thanks to fellow radio guy Tereza Coraggio (http://www.thirdparadigm.org/) for finding & sharing the Zephaniah video from which I'll broadcast the audio.


Friday, January 8, 2010

The Kids Are All Right


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 2 -- January 9, 2010

This week's photos from the Copenhagen climate summit,
December 2009.

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #97, Jan. 12:

The Kids Are All Right

Workers' summary

To my surprise, young people today seem sharper, saner, more politically active, and more inspiring than several preceding "generations" of young'uns. Could there be hope for the future? We hear from George Carlin, trying & failing to sound like a pedophobe ... from Mari Oye and Leah Anthony Libresco, two young women in high school who challenged Bush on torture ... and from journalist Johann Hari, reporting from the COP-15 climate conference, on the wisdom & courage of the young protesters.

This week's music (from the musical, Bye Bye Birdie, 1960):

  • The Telephone Hour
  • from Kids!
  • from Fine, Upstanding, ...

Coming Soon

  • January 19 -- Cheap Junk and The Deindustrialization of America -- Welcome to the Third World! (Hope you had your shots!)
  • January 26 -- Lenny Bruce and the Meaning of Obscenity

Notes and credits

Johann Hari's article from Common Dreams online, December 16, 2009: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/16-5.

Amy Goodman's interview with Mari Oye and Leah Anthony Libresco (July 3, 2007) courtesy of democracynow.org: http://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/3/we_do_not_want_america_to .

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "inflexible deadlines") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail dot com.


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