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POPSJohn Cusack’s incredible new film, War, Inc The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they’re selling– their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
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POPSHarpooned: Greenpeace exposes scandal at heart of whaling While the scandal of stolen whalemeat is the most shocking, it's not the only revelation to come from this investigation. Further allegations from our informants that require investigation include: * Throwing tons of whale meat overboard daily because they did not have processing capacity for the increased quotas * Cancerous tumors being found and cut out of whales and the remaining meat processed for public sale * Targeted hunts to ensure maximum catch, not random "sampling" as required by the research permits * Harsh working conditions because of the increased workload from the increased quotas Download the full report
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POPSCluster Bomb Olympics With White House Backdrop (No, not the Onion)
Why: To generate public awareness of cluster bombs just two days prior to the negotiation of a global cluster bomb ban treaty in Dublin, Ireland on May 19. More than half the world’s nations will attend, but the U.S. government has refused to participate. Who: Organized by the US Campaign to Ban Landmines and co-sponsored by Amnesty International, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, CIVIC, Democracy in Action, Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers), Jewish Voice for Peace, Network of Spiritual Progressives, and Veterans for Peace. The event is open to participation by all ages. Those in attendance can sign a petition urging the Pentagon to stop using cluster bombs, which cause unacceptable harm to civilians. The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL) is a coalition of approximately 500 U.S.-based human rights, humanitarian, faith-based, children's, peace, disability, veterans', medical, development, academic, and environmental organizations dedicated to a
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POPSThe Sacrificer: Bush Quit Golf Over Iraq War When I saw this on the news (OLbermann's special comment was brilliant) I was flabbergasted...to think! Our Preznit had to give up golf 'cuz it wouldn't be proprewr! Such *solidarity* with the families of all the dead! **gag**
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POPSSchool Military Recruiting Could Violate International Protocol THIS HORRIBLE PRACTICE BY THE MILITARY HAS GOT TO STOP--OUR CHILDREN ARE NOT CANNON FODDER FOR STUPID OLD MEN'S WARS!! the U.S. armed services “regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment, heavily recruiting on high school campuses, in school lunchrooms, and in classes.” “The United States military’s procedures for recruiting students plainly violate internationally accepted standards and fail to protect youth from abusive and aggressive recruitment tactics,” said Jennifer Turner of the ACLU Human Rights Project. The increased aggressiveness of military recruiters is due in major part, according to the report, to the increased pressure to meet enlistment quotas caused by ongoing U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to which nearly 200,000 soldiers and marines are currently deployed. The pressure created by current military commitments has not only translated into enhanced recruitment efforts among children under 18. The armed forces have also lower
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POPSNader calls U. S. "corporate fascism" "We used to be able to challenge corporate influence in Washington, but they have so much power now that we can't. The corporations are laughing at us. They're daring us to try to take away their power," said Nader. The choice between a Democrat and a Republican is to Nader a "choice between horrible and terrible." He warned against voting for a candidate because they're not as bad as the other. "If you have a low expectation level of politicians, then they're going to oblige you," said Nader. Nader warned against continued complacency. "What's wrong with us? Are we the biggest suckers? Are we super-suckers?" He exhorted his audience at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian-Universalists to find their "constructive anger." He doesn't think it's too late to turn things around, but it will require, "people to break from corporate thinking." Nader called on Americans to reach out to each other, get active and organized, and to make demands for what they need and want. Nader cal
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POPSREJECTED SPOTS FOR THE ARMY'S CURRENT AD CAMPAIGN, "STRENGTH FOR NOW, STRENGTH FOR LATER." BY THE BR 2. "Vet" (Open on a short-haired, twentysomething YOUNG WOMAN as she puts on a white lab coat in an X-ray room. A door opens and a VETERINARIAN appears holding a domesticated white rabbit, which the VET pets as it purrs gently. She throws the YOUNG WOMAN a stethoscope.) VET: Now remember, people's animals are like members of their family. So it's important that we stress to them the gentle methods and safety precautions we employ while the pets are here in our supervision. Know what I mean? (Cut to the same YOUNG WOMAN at Abu Ghraib, smashing a prisoner in the face with the butt of her rifle, hogtying naked prisoners, posing in front of a naked dogpile of blindfolded prisoners with a "thumbs up" as a cigarette dangles from her lower lip. Cut back to the VET's office, where the YOUNG WOMAN responds.) YOUNG WOMAN: Yes, ma'am. (Accidentally laughs.) VET: What's so funny? YOUNG WOMAN: Nothing. Yeah, Be all you can be.
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POPSCOOKIE MONSTER SEARCHES DEEP WITHIN HIMSELF AND ASKS: IS ME REALLY MONSTER? BY ANDY F. BRYAN...he continues: "Me thinks me have serious problem. Me thinks me addicted. But since when it acceptable to call addict monster? It affliction. It disease. It burden. But does it make me monster? How can they be so callous? Me know there something wrong with me, but who in Sesame Street doesn't suffer from mental disease or psychological disorder? They don't call the vampire with math fetish monster, and me pretty sure he undead and drinks blood. No one calls Grover monster, despite frequent delusional episodes and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. And the obnoxious red Grover—oh, what his name?—Elmo! Yes, Elmo live all day in imaginary world and no one call him monster. No, they think he cute. And Big Bird! Don't get me started on Big Bird! He unnaturally gigantic talking canary! How is that not monster? Snuffleupagus not supposed to exist—woolly mammoths extinct. His very existence monstrous. Me least like monster. Me maybe have unhealthy obsession, but me no monst
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POPSThe Myth of "Underdevelopment" Yesterday's video "Economic Hitman" showed how the banking system is designed to bankrupt borrower nations. The long term goal is to extract resources as super low prices and to limit progressive poltical ideas. The method is simple: 1. make an impossible-to-pay-back loan; 2. negotiate collateral far in excess of the loan's value; and 3. collect The system works that much better when it's backed up with the capacity for overwhelming violence. Michael Parenti talks about the history and reality of so-called Third World "underdevelopment" and points out that Americans are next on the agenda: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/318.html - Brasscheck - Brasscheck P.S. Please share Brasscheck TV e-mails and videos with friends and colleagues. That's how we grow. Thanks
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POPSEnvironmental Amnesia While questioning what we buy, we've forgotten where we live continuing:...'I have steadfastly refused to frequent that part of town. But when my son needed a haircut for my father’s funeral, I found myself driving my old walking route to school, in search of a salon open on a Monday. It was supposed to be in here somewhere. While navigating the service roads, I tried hard to forget. But while my son was being pumped up in his pneumatic chair, I saw reflected in the mirror a retaining wall at the edge of the parking lot. I know that pattern of stones. I looked at them every day during math. I was standing in my fifth grade classroom. And the military recruiting center next door would have been the lunchroom. And that drive-through over there was the field where, every recess, my sister and Danelle and I ran, circling and whinnying like wild, wild horses." Good column --only clipped small part.
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POPSCivilization's last chance There's a number -- a new number -- that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A few weeks ago, NASA's chief climatologist, James Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several coauthors. The abstract attached to it argued -- and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper -- that "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm." Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points -- massive sea level rise and huge changes in rainfall patterns, among them -- that we'll pass if we don't get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them, judging by last summer's insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be behind us. So it's a tough diagnosis.
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POPSWorld CO2 Levels At Record High, Scientists Warn Scientists say the shift could indicate that the Earth is losing its natural ability to soak up billions of tons of carbon each year. Climate models assume that about half our future emissions will be re-absorbed by forests and oceans, but the new figures confirm this may be too optimistic. If more of our carbon pollution stays in the atmosphere, it means emissions will have to be cut by more than currently projected to prevent dangerous levels of global warming. Martin Parry, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s working group on impacts, said: “Despite all the talk, the situation is getting worse. Levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise in the atmosphere and the rate of that rise is accelerating. We are already seeing the impacts of climate change and the scale of those impacts will also accelerate, until we decide to do something about it.”
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POPSEthics and Capitalism Attitude Adjustment Consumers with high ethical expectations of companies doled out bigger rewards and punishments than consumers with low expectations. What each group was willing to pay for a pound of coffee based on production standards. Consumers with high expectations: Ethical standards - $11.59 Unethical standards - $6.92 Consumers with low expectations: Ethical standards - $9.90 Unethical standards - $8.44 The article also points out that "if 100% ethical becomes expected among consumers, anything less will be punished." Hmmm! Ethics cost more but perhaps we can get by with less. We'll see what the market demands
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POPSPangea Day joins audiences around the world The program was broadcast in seven languages. The live audience at Sony was about 1,200, joining crowds of 2,000 each in London, Rio de Janeiro, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, Mumbai, India, and Kigali, Rwanda, with smaller gatherings in other cities. At Sony, there were big video screens and a news ticker that listed a roll call of the cities and small towns participating (Each of the films and a one-hour highlight show was put up on the web at pangeaday.org right after the broadcast.)
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POPSPANGEA DAY A WONDERFUL SUCCESS It was a wonderful program--to see excerpts or a replay see the link above--WELL WORTH THE TIME! "We have the capacity and tendency to separate 'us' from 'them.' Once established, we're more tolerant to those we call 'us' and more brutal toward 'them.' But increasingly, science shows there's no limit to who we define as 'us.' Eventually, someday, there might not be any more 'thems.'" - Psychologist Robert Kurzban "How can films change the world? They can't, but the people who watch them can. By changing minds, we change the world." - Actress Cameron Diaz
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POPSHillary's Seeds of self-destruction But it’s an insult to white voters as well, including white working-class voters. It’s true that there are some whites who will not vote for a black candidate under any circumstance. But the United States is in a much better place now than it was when people like Richard Nixon, George Wallace and many others could make political hay by appealing to the very worst in people, using the kind of poisonous rhetoric that Senator Clinton is using now.
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POPSChange We Can Stomach--I Big Ag on the downslide? Now that argument no longer holds true. With the price of oil at more than $120 a barrel (up from less than $30 for most of the last 50 years), small and midsize nonpolluting farms, the ones growing the healthiest and best-tasting food, are gaining a competitive advantage. They aren’t as reliant on oil, because they use fewer large machines and less pesticide and fertilizer. In fact, small farms are the most productive on earth. A four-acre farm in the United States nets, on average, $1,400 per acre; a 1,364-acre farm nets $39 an acre. Big farms have long compensated for the disequilibrium with sheer quantity. But their economies of scale come from mass distribution, and with diesel fuel costing more than $4 per gallon in many locations, it’s no longer efficient to transport food 1,500 miles from where it’s grown.
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