======================================================================
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
======================================================================
Welcome to Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ May 23, 2011
$$$ Many thanks to Perle Deutsch-Shadpour, Helen & Steve Mader, and CG
for their generous financial contributions. $$$
Note from the Editors: Hallelujah, here it is, May 22, 2011, and we at
Swans woke up alive today, having not been raptured -- we trust our dear
readers are still with us as well (if you're out there, send us a Letter
to the Editor to confirm...). With this farce behind us (until the next
nutcase prediction), we can turn our attention to the matters at hand,
with scandals aplenty and two high- profile politicos who are probably
wishing they'd been raptured out of their public and private hell --
Arnold Schwarzenegger with his admitted lovechild, and Dominique
Strauss-Kahn with his denied sexual assault. The former waited till he
left the California governor office to come clean; the latter was
charged before beginning his presidential campaign, leaving the 2012
French election landscape in shambles. At a time in which even the
mainstream media can't spell "Judgment" Day correctly, who are we to
judge? In fact, Gilles d'Aymery offers a different perspective on the
crimes of DSK -- not the alleged personal assault, but the wholesale
raping of nations he committed as head of the IMF. As always, a
perspective you won't read in the MSM, and worthy of deliberation.
History will judge America's intervention in the Philippines, and to
help set the record straight, Michael Barker continues his analysis of
the US meddling in that country's people-power movement. As for the US
role in Libya, Aleksandar Jokic asked in an Op-Ed if we are a morally
dumb nation, to which a high-ranking European military official took
umbrage. The critic declined a public debate, so Jokic answers his
charges herein, leaving the detractor unnamed.
Turning our attention to less judgmental matters, Peter Byrne reviews
the literary anthology edited by the Sarajevo-born American novelist
Aleksandar Hemon, "Best European Fiction 2011," and Isidor Saslav
recounts his undeniably memorable recent musical and operatic tour
through London, including a concert for his late friend, English
bassoonist William Waterhouse. Byrne returns with a conversation that
attempts to explain to a schoolboy the shrinking -- and growing --
middle class, while Femi Akomolafe converses about the significance of
Osama bin Laden's death. Raju Peddada celebrates a monument of
civilization and engineering feat, the F-1 engine that launched man into
space, and Bashir Sakhawarz propels us to Delhi with a short story of an
Afghan man's brief and jet-lagged layover with his intoxicating lover.
Old friend Martin Murie graces our poetry corner with an excerpt of
Casino Bear, and Claudine Giovannoni & Guido Monte's multilingual verse
take us to the Promised Land. We close with your letters, which judge
Gilles d'Aymery as utterly wrong and utterly right about the US economy
and its regressive tax system.
# # # # #
All the articles and the Letters to the Editor can be freely accessed
from Swans front page. Please go to:
http://www.swans.com/
You can also access our past issues at:
http://www.swans.com/library/past_issues/past_issues.html
And you have access to almost 15 years of archives by date, author, and
subject at:
http://www.swans.com/library/archives.html
Remember, what's free to you is not to us! To help our work financially
please visit http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html
# # # # #
Swans (aka Swans Commentary), ISSN: 1554-4915, is a bi-weekly
non-commercial ad-free Web-only magazine which provides original content
to its readers. We encourage pulp publications to republish Swans Work
in print format. Please contact the publisher at <aymery AT
ix.netcom.com>. Please, do not repost Swans Work on the Web and other
mailing lists: "Hypertext" links to any pages of Swans.com are
authorized; however, republication of any part of this site, inlining,
mirroring, and framing are expressly prohibited.
(You are receiving this E-mail notification for you have expressed your
interest in Swans and the work of its team. If you wish not to receive
these short notifications, simply reply to this E-mail (delete the
content) and enter the word REMOVE in the subject line.)
Cordially,
Gilles d'Aymery
-- Swans
"Hungry man, reach for the book: It is a weapon." B. Brecht
________________________________________________
Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
