Friday, January 28, 2011

Military Rape


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 5 -- January 28, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio program #152, February 1, 2011:

Military Rape


In brief

Award-winning journalist Dahr Jamail--interviewed by Dori Smith, of Talk Nation Radio--discusses the extraordinarily high level of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) in the U.S. armed forces today. Essentially, MST is the rape of a soldier by a fellow soldier. Victims are of both sexes, but women soldiers are extremely likely to be victimized. Victims who report the assault are persecuted and denied therapeutic care; their rapists are promoted; and the Pentagon does nothing to fix the problem.

Jamail attributes the epidemic in part to changes in military training, which now "dehumanizes" soldiers much more than in past generations. Jamail also associates dehumanization with another military epidemic, PTSD.

Finally, distinguished journalist Robert Fisk, speaking in 2008, searches for the causes of U.S. soldiers' newfound delight in torturing people. He finds one in the same dehumanization produced by the new military training.

Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/
http://www.talknationradio.com/
Fisk excerpt courtesy of TUCradio.org

This week's music: Bruce Springsteen, Bring Them Home. See the music video here. Pete Seeger's Vietnam-era version is here.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "thumb") 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.

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.


Top: Dahr Jamail. Bottom: The Pentagon's response to the epidemic of rape and other sexual assault: a small P.R. campaign.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut dates shown)

  • February 8 -- Controlling the People (1): On the Job .

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



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Friday, January 14, 2011

Chris Hedges: The Corporate War on the People


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 3 & 4 -- January 14, 2011

This fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #150-151, January 18 & 25:

Chris Hedges:
The Corporate War
on the People

December 16, 2010: Hedges at an antiwar protest outside the White House. Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, and others later chained themselves to the surrounding fence. 131 were arrested.

In brief

Journalist, columnist, and former war correspondent Chris Hedges discusses the corporate attack on the American people and on the "liberal" institutions that once helped empower the people.

Part 1: How we got here. In the first of two installments, Hedges discusses how things got to their unhappy current state. He explores the mass-propaganda machine created during World War I, the rise of the public relations industry to serve corporate power, the campaign against labor unions and other liberal institutions, militarism, the replacement of traditional American values (such as thrift) with corporate values, and the sell-out of the Democratic Party.

Part 2: How to fight back. In the second installment, Hedges discusses totalitarianism, American-style; the Christian Right; why the Tea Party (rightly) hates the Liberal Establishment; the perfidy of the Democratic Party; U.S. parallels with the former Yugoslavia; the necessity of resistance; and the importance that the resistance be nonviolent.

Top: Master propagandist of the Wilson administration, George Creel manufactured American public support for World War I. After the war, Creel's techniques would serve the interests of the large corporations.
Bottom: Creel-sponsored propaganda film. Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

NWN #150 and 151 rebroadcast an interview conducted by Mike McCormick, of the radio program "Mind Over Matters," on December 2, 2010 (slightly condensed by me). http://www.talkingsticktv.org/ . Thanks to Mike for a fine interview and permission to rebroadcast it.

http://www.truthdig.com/chris_hedges

Chris Hedges' most recent book is Death of the Liberal Class (2010).

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "table") 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.

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.

Top: abandoned U.S. factory

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • February 1 -- Military Rape
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



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Friday, January 7, 2011

Helen Caldicott on the Three Global Crises


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 2 -- January 7, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio program #149, January 11:

Helen Caldicott on
the Three Global Crises

In brief

Famed antinuke crusader Helen Caldicott, MD, displays her signature combination of wit, compassion, passion, and technical expertise. She spoke in Houston on November 12, 2010.

Caldicott discusses, in turn, what she sees as the three greatest threats to life on earth--global warming, nuclear war, and nuclear power--and urges the audience to take concrete actions against each. She even suggests a few specific actions.

With preface by K.D. & a song by Tom Lehrer.

Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

http://www.helencaldicott.com/

Helen Caldicott's speech was recorded by Wally James. It was previously broadcast by Scooter, on "The innerSide" on KPFT-FM, Houston (http://acksisofevil.org/innerside.html). Thanks to both.

This week's music: Tom Lehrer, So Long, Mom (I'm Off to Drop the Bomb) [1965].

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "first floor") 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.

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 dates shown)

  • January 18 & 25 -- Chris Hedges: The Corporate War on the People. How we got into this mess, and what we can do to fight back
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



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Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Body Toxic



New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 1 -- January 1, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio program #148, January 4:

The Body Toxic


In brief

Journalist Nena Baker discusses the hazardous chemicals increasingly present in everyday products--pizza boxes, butcher paper, microwave popcorn bags, dental floss, tin cans, clothing, upholstery, you name it.

She focuses on a group of chemicals known as endocrine disrupters or hormone mimics. Examples include

  • bisphenol A (BPA)
  • PFOA
  • phthalates
  • brominated flame retardants (PBDEs)

These chemicals are doing serious harm to our bodies, and government agencies lack the power to regulate their use. There's some hope, though.

She spoke in Seattle on April 1, 2010.

Nena Baker and her book. An intact Teflon-like coating (PTFE) is bad enough, but the skillet on the book cover is scratched. And you worried about cholesterol from the egg! Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

Baker's talk is based on her recent book, The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-Being ( http://www.thebodytoxic.com/ ).

I have slightly condensed the talk, which was originally broadcast on Mike McCormick's "Mind Over Matters" in Seattle. The uncut version is here. Thanks again to Mike.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "long-suffering sighs") 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.

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.

Top: The bag is coated with a perfluorinated compound, PFOA, which migrates into the food, esecially as it is heated.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • January 11 -- Helen Caldicott on the Three Global Crises
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Sunday, December 26, 2010

TSA: Teaching Submission to Americans?


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 52 -- December 26, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #147, Dec. 28:

TSA: Teaching Submission to Americans?

In brief

Thousands Standing Around? Testicle Squeezers of America?

Which is better, a police state run by the Gestapo or a police state run by the Keystone Kops? Answer: Neither, but what we've got is the latter.

"Security" indignities at the airport are part of a larger pattern of decreasing civil liberties and increasing Executive Branch power. With some modicum of humor, we look at the TSA's airport excesses in their larger context.

Includes a comic audio collage contributed by Scooter (of "The innerSide," on KPFT), the song "Don't Touch My Junk," and commentary by Glen Ford and Paul Craig Roberts.

PS: I also like Too Stupid for Arby's.

Here's a video with plenty more:

It may be time for a remake of Luis Bunuel's 1977 film, That Obscure Object of Desire. Thanks to Homeland Security hysteria, that object is much less obscure than she used to be. Is that a jewel in her navel (below)? Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

This week's song: Michael Adams, Don't Touch My Junk

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.

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.

Top: Satire on Homeland Security's unceasing barrage of Terror Alerts. (Click to enlarge.) Bottom: Paul Craig Roberts, apparently on surveillance duty at the country club. Progressives and real conservatives like Roberts agree on many issues, among them defending the Bill of Rights.


Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • January 4 -- The Body Toxic, with Nena Baker
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Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christmastime Absurdities


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 50 -- December 18, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #146, December 21:

Christmastime Absurdities

Publicity photo for a performance of Ionesco's The Lesson--a classic of the Theatre of the Absurd. Most Photos: Click to enlarge.

In brief

This is a season of absurdities--in both meanings of the term--and Installment #146 of New World Notes explores them with a light touch.

(The second meaning--known only to those who majored in Drama, Philosophy, or English in college--refers to the unbridgeable gap between what exists and what the human spirit needs.)

With prose by me and AP ... and with comic-satiric seasonal songs by Roy Zimmerman, Hugh Blumenfeld, and Stan Freberg ... we celebrate the absurdities of the season. Some of which can be traced back to Biblical times.

Like, can anybody make sense of the historical Jesus? What's with driving the money-changers out of the Temple? What's so bad about currency exchange? American Express does it all the time. Now, driving the High Priests out of the Temple . . . that would have been 'way cool!

Included, at no additional charge: an update on the most absurd news story of last Christmas ... anybody remember? ... the Scam of the Alleged Underwear Bomber.

Roy Zimmerman in West Hartford, August 2008.
Photo by Kenneth Dowst.

Notes, credits, & links

This week's music:

  • Roy Zimmerman, Buy War Toys for Christmas
  • Hugh Blumenfeld, Long-Haired, Radical, Socialist Jew
  • Stan Freberg, Green Chri$tma$

Of the 3 recording artists who produced this week's Christmas music, one (Stan Freberg) is actually a Christian. You don't have to be Jewish to write a good Christmas song, it turns out!

Check out Tereza Coraggio's podcasts at http://www.thirdparadigm.org/ .

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.

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.

Top: Hardened Muslim-extremist terrorist Umar Abdulmutallab. On cap, note logo of terrorist organization, AQIWA (Al Qaida in Western Africa). Bottom: Stan Freberg, creator of the immortal Big Production Number, Green Chri$tma$.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • December 28 -- TSA: Teaching Submission to Americans? (Thousands Standing Around? Testicle Squeezers of America?)
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



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


PS: For fun, scroll down to the previous entry & check out these photos of an apparition that appeared in the ice cubes in my wine glass. (Please don't ask what ice cubes were doing in my wine glass.) Is it Christ? Sonny Bono? Saddam Hussein? Fr. Guido Sarducci? You decide! (Permanent link: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/2010/12/apparition.html .)

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Friday, December 17, 2010

Apparition

Click to enlarge.
Photos copyright (c) Kenneth Dowst 2010;
Creative Commons license (Attribution--Noncommercial)*

Christ? Saddam Hussein? Sonny Bono? Hitler?

My son Jonathan says John Lennon, but I think that's a stretch. Mary says Fr. Guido Sarducci.

Whoever appeared in my wine glass on the afternoon of December 17, ... he looks not at all pleased with the state of the world. And can you blame him?

It's comforting to think of former Congressman Sonny Bono looking contrite. Doubtless, he's reflecting on his signature legislation, the Sonny Bono Give Corporations Copyright Protection FOREVER, Especially Disney, Act.

And what kind of nutcase would put ice cubes into a glass of white wine? All I can say is, If you've never tried Tisdale California Chardonnay, ... please withhold judgment. (At least I grasp the glass by the stem.)

Fr. Guido Sarducci?


* I retain copyright to these photos. I licence to you the right to reproduce them
for any noncommercial purpose, provided that you credit me as the
photographer. Fair enough?

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Friday, December 10, 2010

Why We Fight


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 50 -- December 11, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #145, Dec. 14:

Why We Fight

Payback for 9/11? Baghdad, 2003.
Most photos: Click to enlarge.

In brief

Not Frank Capra's propaganda classic of the 1940s but a different award-winning documentary with the same name. Eugene Jarecki's film won the Grand Jury Prize of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

A tapestry of many threads, Why We Fight depicts the U.S. war machine, the Military-Industrial Complex, and U.S. imperialism since World War Two. My much-condensed radio version follows just a few of the threads. It includes expert commentary by Gore Vidal, John S.D. Eisenhower, and the late Chalmers Johnson.

Interwoven is the story of Wilton Sekzer, a retired NYC cop . . . grief-stricken at the death of his son in the Twin Towers, yearning for revenge against the perpetrators, who he had been led to believe were the Iraqis. He sought a memorial to his son, and eventually a large bomb was dropped on Baghdad bearing the inscription, "In loving memory of Jason Sekzer" (see photo).

He now struggles with the knowledge that the Iraqis were innocent of 9/11 and that he had been deceived by his President.

Bottom: John S.D. Eisenhower, son of the president (Top), reflects on his father's distaste for war and distrust of the U.S. military establishment.

Notes, credits, & links

Over the past 10 years, Chalmers Johnson did much to popularize the term blowback . . . and the insight that the United States in fact is an empire. He died on November 20, 2010. Gore Vidal and Michael Parenti, likewise, have long argued that our republic has become an empire.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "spreading chestnut tree") 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.

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.

Top: Chalmers Johnson. Bottom: Wilton Sekzer (inset) and the memorial to his son Jason. Soon after the photo was taken, the Guided Bomb Unit (it appears to be a "bunker-buster") was dropped upon Baghdad.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • December 21 -- Christmastime Absurdities
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Friday, December 3, 2010

Killing Us Softly



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 49 -- December 3, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #144, December 7:

Killing Us Softly:
Advertising's Image of Women

In brief

A smart, funny, and important talk. With wit and humor, Jean Kilbourne shows the preposterous body images, emotional styles, sexuality, and attitudes towards violence that consumer advertising presents to women (and men) as desirable and normal.

Kilbourne's critique is far from radical, but it is very sound, very interesting, and in places very funny. Both men and women will find this talk well worth a listen.

Caption contest!

Vote for the caption(s) that best explain the five graphic images on this page. (Winners announced next week.)

  • WTF??
  • This can't be happening
  • Please, dear Jesus, . . .
  • I dreamed I incinerated Madison Avenue . . . in my Maidenform Bra
  • OMG
  • Seven inches? I'm supposed to be impressed?
  • How do I join N.O.W.?
  • [Write in:] ____________________________

Notes, credits, & links

Based on the video (Edition 3, year 2000). Condensed and adapted to radio by KD. This video is available on The Internet Archive ( http://www.archive.org/ ). An updated version--Edition 4, 2010--is available for purchase from the Media Education Foundation ( http://www.mediaed.org/ ).

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "unisex bathroom") 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.

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 dates shown)

  • December 14 -- Why We Fight. Not Frank Capra's classic but a new documentary on the post-9/11 world. Adapted to radio by KD.
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):


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

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