The Unheard Voice of the Majority

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New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 16 -- April 18, 2010

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #111, April 20:

The Unheard Voice
of the Majority

Joe Bageant, with crummy truck, posssibly at Gunther's Garage

In brief:
Social critics from both Left and Right feel that we're lonely kooks muttering in the wilderness. That's what the Powers That Be want us to feel and, through their mass-media, make us feel. Guess what: (1) We're right & they're wrong; (2) we're the majority; and (3) Leftists and Tea Partiers agree with each other on many issues. More than we agree with the Powers That Be.

By way of proof, the show offers words by "minority" types the "mainstream" media seldom quote: African-Americans Mumia Abu-Jamal & Glen Ford, Afro-Caribbean Englishman Benjamin Zephaniah, Appalachian White Joe Bageant, & moi. (Yes, I know, it's an All Male Cast this week.)

Does any articulate thoughts & feelings close to your own?

The show courageously declines to play the song, "Smile on your brother / Everybody get together, / Try to love one another right now." However, we do go out on a bit of "Fingertips, Part 2" . . . .

Top: Mumia Abu-Jamal. Bottom: Glen Ford (at MIT, in January 2010)

Notes and Credits

The video of Benjamin Zephaniah's "Rong Radio Station" is worth a look. Thanks to fellow radio guy Tereza Coraggio, producer of Third Paradigm, for turning me on to it.

New World Notes installments from #10 are archived at A-Infos Radio Project/radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments.

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.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Executive Dining Room") 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.

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut dates shown:

• April 27 & May 1 -- Two-part interview with Dr. Michael Parenti on his new book about organized religion, God and His Demons

Top: Dr. Kenneth Dowst. Bottom: Benjamin Zephaniah

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Saturdays, 5:00 to 5:30 PM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
• Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New+World+Notes

"Feed the Naked": Comedian Jimmy Tingle

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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 13 -- March 31, 2009

This week in New World Notes, #57 -- March 31 & April 3:

"Feed the Naked":

Comedian Jimmy Tingle

A surprising amount of humor is heard on New World Notes. I'm as surprised as anybody. On the one hand, certain comedians deliver astute social and political commentary (George Carlin, Stephen Colbert). On the other hand, certain social/political commentators and activists sometimes are very funny.

This second group, larger than the first, includes Medea Benjamin, John Pilger, Michael Parenti, Kathy Kelly, Molly Ivins, Jello Biafra, and singer/songwriter Roy Zimmerman--to name only a handful of voices that have apppeared on the show so far. And James Howard Kunstler (next week) and Jeremy Scahill (the week after that).

As Monty Python used to say . . . before serving up a generous helping of more-of-the-same . . . And Now For Something Completely Different!

This week's radio show comprises an interview with stand-up comedian Jimmy Tingle intercut with selections from his recent CD, Jimmy Tingle for President (see http://www.jimmytingle.com/).

Tingle is a Boston-area institution--like Legal Seafood but better looking. He's known nationally and abroad, thanks to appearances in films and TV. He served a 2-season stint as the humorous commentator on CBS's 60 Minutes II.

I didn't know there was a 60 Minutes II, but these oversights happen when you deep-six the TV set. Alas, unlike Utah Phillips, I didn't have the wit to blast the damned thing to Kingdom Come with a 12-gauge shotgun. I assume he used a 12-gauge. It doesn't really matter. Even a .410 would do the trick, I should think. I'm just speculating, of course.

I would have given the program a more creative name, though . . . like Another 60 Minutes . . . or Son of 60 Minutes . . . or maybe 38 Minutes Plus Commercials.

Jimmy Tingle is a self-confessed, card-carrying Roman Catholic Massachusetts Liberal Democrat (RCMLD--pronounced "rice-mold"). Could he possibly be funny?

I mean, look at fellow RCMLD John Kerry. There was a laugh riot in 2004! How about Michael Dukakis? OK, maybe he was Greek Orthodox, but still. . . . Face it: the Democrats nominated Kerry just to make Al Gore look alive by comparison.

In any case, as Lance Itoh was always saying, "You be the judge!" No, he isn't the bicycle racer. Think back. . . .

Personally, I like him. Tingle, that is, not Itoh.

Entertaining the troops: Tingle on the picket line in Cambridge, MA,
during the Writers Guild strike, December 2007

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern) . . .

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford, CT) & http://wwuh.org/
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs, CT) & http://www.whus.org/
• Saturdays, 7:00-7:30 PM, KRFP-FM 92.5, Radio Free Moscow (Moscow, ID) & http://www.radiofreemoscow.com/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes/

Soon to Come -- Date of first scheduled broadcast [on WWUH] listed:

• April 7 -- Can Technology Save Us?
• April 14 -- Independent Journalism & Alternative Media: Jeremy Scahill
• April 21 -- Men and War

Poster by Ricardo Levins Morales (courtesy
Northland Poster Collective)

What the HECK is a Conservative?

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New World Notes News

Volume 2, Number 4 -- January 27, 2009

This week in New World Notes, #49 -- January 27 & 30:

What the HECK is a "Conservative"?

If memory serves, during the Presidential campaign, John "Songbird" McCain charged Barack Hussein Obama with being "the most liberal member of the Senate." To me, even if true, this would be low praise at best, like being the "most tolerant" member of the Ku Klux Klan or the roughest, toughest Teletubby of 'em all!

Seems to me that our Senators run the gamut from Eisenhower Republicans (Ted Kennedy) rightwards to people who call Mussolini a Commie because he supported public transportation (McCain and 53 others). With Obama just a step right of center.

Why most duck-hunters prefer daytime.

Bushism differs from traditional conservatism
in a few respects.

Incidentally, I have no idea how McCain gained the nickname "Songbird." According to an article in CounterPunch several months ago, it was given to him by his POW comrades back in Vietnam days. Has anyone heard details about what particular Asiatic tortures his evil captors inflicted upon the airman whom they knew to be the son of the commander of all U.S. forces in southeast Asia? I suspect the tortures involved being forced to read Asian Socialist magazine and eating locally-grown brown rice instead of Uncle Ben's.

But I digress. I'm old enough to remember when people who proclaimed themselves to be Conservatives advocated (1) limited government (2) "fiscal responsibility," including (3) balanced budgets; (4) maximum freedom of the individual from the heavy hand of government control; (5) local control of schools, even to the point of (6) abolishing the Department of Education; (7) avoiding debt; (8) restraint in military interventions abroad; and (9) oh, why go on? These principles are all so quaint . . . all so 20th-century!

Conservative icon

Conservative icon

Apparently not a conservative icon

So if the Cheney-Bush CABAL was "conservative," what the heck is a Conservative? By the same token--with Ted Kennedy a leading advocate of the "No Child Left Behind" anti-education horror--what the heck is a Liberal? But since no politician is willing to be called a Liberal, that's the less pressing of the two questions.

So in NWN #49 we explore what turns out to be a very interesting question . . . with important implications to our lives. After a general look around, we'll zero in on two contentious issues: The No-Child-Left-Behind fiasco of recent years and the school-integration-through-busing fiasco several decades back.

The show is mostly brilliant monologue, but the topic does give me excuse to play the two funniest songs about conservatives I've ever heard (not counting "Ballad of the Green Berets").

Yes, but you have to marry them first. T-shirt sociology.

TV commentatress Ann Coulter: GOP heartthrob.

Naturally, pointy-headed Liberals disagreed with Coulter's
plans for the European Union.

This week's music:

• Roy Zimmerman, My Conservative Girlfriend
• The Foremen [includes Roy Zimmerman], Ain't No Liberal
• Intro/Outro: Warren Zevon with Something Happens, Werewolves of London
  

Catch New World Notes . . .

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford) & http://wwuh.org/
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs) & http://www.whus.org/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes .

Duck-hunting at Wasilla Municipal Pool? Is this Sara Palin or Tina Fay? In either
case, she looks better in a patriotic bikini than Vice President Cheney ever did.
She also has a better grasp of elementary gun safety than Cheney. Note trigger-
finger kept alongside (not on) the trigger when there's no intent to fire imminently.
This summer I asked if America was ready for a Vice President who posed a
greater danger to game species than to her hunting partner. In November,
America answered with a resounding NO! Gul-durn Liberals!