[PEN-L] Subject: Re: Sociobiological tripe about Jewish "intelligence"

[Seth Sandronsky]

Ed Sullivan, as a journalist before he became host of a popular US TV
variety show, said that Jewish basketball players excelled due to their
genetic traits of stealth, etc.

Seth Sandronsky

Date:Sun, 5 Jun 2005 02:20:55 +0100
From:Daniel Davies <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Sociobiological tripe about Jewish "intelligence"

There is actually a third thing; if the Askenazi-specific physiological
diseases arose during the last 1,100 years (ie more or less since the reign
of King Alfred) then that rather gives the lie to anyone who has a theory of
sociobiology which depends on our personality having been irrevocably fixed
during the Pleistocene Era.  These people aren't always too good at checking
for internal consistency.

dd

-Original Message-
From: PEN-L list [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Louis
Proyect
Sent: 03 June 2005 18:12
To: PEN-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU
Subject: Sociobiological tripe about Jewish "intelligence"

(Two things to note. This idea of Jewish "breeding" is no different than
Jimmy the Greek saying that blacks excelled at sports because of slave
plantation breeding techniques. Furthermore, it is interesting that Jared
Diamond endorses this nonsense.)

NY Times, June 3, 2005
Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes
By NICHOLAS WADE

A team of scientists at the University of Utah has proposed that the
unusual pattern of genetic diseases seen among Jews of central or northern
European origin, or Ashkenazim, is the result of natural selection for
enhanced intellectual ability.

[PEN-L] Emmett Till documentary

[Louis Proyect]

On June 1, the NY Times reported that Emmett Till's body was being exhumed
as part of a reopening of an investigation into his murder. The article
stated that "Federal interest in the case was heightened more recently by a
documentary, as well as the long-lost trial transcript. Its discovery was
announced this spring" and concluded with the following paragraph:

>>Reached by phone in New York, Keith Beauchamp, the documentary filmmaker
who helped reignite interest in the case, said that he believed authorities
were now on the right track. "What good is the legacy of Emmett Till," he
asked, "if you cannot find the truth?"<<

Full:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/national/01cnd-till.html

Yesterday I had the good fortune to attend a press screening of Beauchamp's
documentary at the Film Forum in NYC which has scheduled the film for
August
(http://www.filmforum.org/films/untold.html).
The director introduced the film with a stirring tribute to Emmett Till's
mother, who died two years ago--before the Department of Justice announced
that it was reopening the case.

This is the second documentary that I have seen about the case of Emmett
Till. The first, which appeared on PBS, prompted me to write the following:

In the summer of 1955 a 14 year old African-American from Chicago went to
visit his uncle Moses Wright in the Mississippi delta, where he eked out a
living picking cotton. Emmett's mother Mamie Till, who died recently,
warned him not to look at white women there and to get off the sidewalk if
he saw one approaching.

Born in 1941, Emmett Till was a high-spirited youth with none of the
submissive attitudes associated with growing up in the South. But he made a
fatal mistake. When in the nearby village of Money, Mississippi to buy a
soft drink at Roy Bryant's grocery store, he whistled at the man's wife.

That night Bryant and his hulking brother-in-law J. W. Milam descended on
the Wright household and seized Emmett Till at gunpoint. They drove him
back to their own place and beat him beyond recognition. They then drove
him to the nearby Tallahatchie River, tied a heavy cotton gin fan around
his neck with barbed wire, and threw him in the water. But only after
firing a bullet into his head--he was still alive at this point.

Perhaps if Till had been a native Mississippian, the case would have not
gained the notoriety it did. But his mother was determined to confront the
racist system that had taken her son's life. Her first act was to put her
son's battered body on display at a local church, where thousands of people
witnessed the effects of the sadistic beating. Since Mrs. Till had refused
to allow the mortician to clean up the damage, those in the procession were
shocked to see one eyeball hanging down the side of his face and a nose
battered beyond recognition. A photo of the disfigured youth not only
appeared on the front pages of black newspapers in the USA, it was featured
prominently on front pages all over the world.

When the killers came to trial, most people did not expect a fair trial
since the jury was composed exclusively of white men from the county. Mamie
Till and her associates did not even bother to wait for the verdict since
they knew it would be a foregone conclusion. When she wrote President
Eisenhower a telegram demanding a federal investigation, he did not even
reply. But an aroused black population was not ready to accept this state
of affairs, even if the murderers could not be brought to justice. Just 100
days later Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a
Montgomery bus and the rest was history. As the PBS website recounts:

>>Other local leaders courageously stepped forward after the Till murder.
Physician and civil rights leader Dr. T. R. M. Howard of the small,
all-black Delta town of Mound Bayou was already known in Mississippi for
his activism. Howard, whose life had been repeatedly threatened, had armed
bodyguards to protect him and his family. During the trial, Howard extended
this protection to the black witnesses and to Emmett's mother, Mamie Till
Mobley. After they testified, Howard, Medgar Evers and other NAACP
officials helped the black witnesses slip out of town.

After Till's murderers, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, were acquitted, Howard
boldly and publicly chastised FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover: "It's getting
to be a strange thing that the FBI can never seem to work out who is
responsible for the killings of Negroes in the South." In December 1955,
after the national black magazine Ebony reported that Dr. Howard was on the
Ku Klux Klan's death list and that several others on the list had already
been killed, Howard sold most of his property in Mound Bayou, packed up his
family and relocated to Chicago.

Momentum for a Movement

For Dr. Howard and others, the immediate impact of the acquittal of Till's
killers was increased repression in Missi

Re: [PEN-L] the policy contradictions of US-China trade dynamics

[Autoplectic]

On 6/4/05, Autoplectic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> 
> No Easy Answers on China Trade
> Politicians are calling for tariffs and currency revaluation, but many
> analysts say such measures won't work and may even backfire.



> China's currency, which is pegged to the dollar, is widely seen as
> undervalued, making Chinese goods cheaper in overseas markets. But even a
> 20% appreciation of the yuan would reduce America's overall trade deficit by
> only 0.5% next year, according to a study released this week by the Asian
> Development Bank. That's partly because imports from China will simply be
> replaced by imports from other low-cost countries.



Here's the ADB paper:

[PEN-L] corporatizing the blogosphere

[Autoplectic]

Sunday, June 5, 2005 · Last updated 11:31 a.m. PT

Corporations entering world of blogs

By NICOLE ZIEGLER DIZON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

When General Motors Corp. wanted to stop speculation this spring that
it might eliminate its Pontiac and Buick brands, Vice Chairman Bob
Lutz took his case directly to dealers and customers who were up in
arms about the possibility. He wrote about it on the company's blog.

"The media coverage on the auto industry of late has done much to
paint an ugly portrait of General Motors," began Lutz's entry on GM's
FastLane Blog, which the company launched in January.

The March 30 entry went on to say that widely reported remarks he made
to analysts the week before had been "taken out of context" and that
the automaker would not shed the brands.

A growing number of companies are stepping softly into the
blogosphere, following a path blazed by Microsoft Corp., Sun
Microsystems Inc. and others in the technology field.

The Internet journal format, they find, lets businesses expand their
reach, generate product buzz and encourage consumer loyalty - while
bypassing traditional media.

"When we feel that we need to get a direct response out there, we've
certainly got this bully pulpit to some extent," said Michael Wiley,
GM's director of new media. "It's a place where we can talk directly
to people unfiltered."

It's hard to quantify how many companies, executives and employees are
blogging but there are probably more than 100 official corporate
blogs, with hundreds more in the works, said Pete Blackshaw, chief
marketing officer for Intelliseek Inc., a company that analyzes and
tracks blogs.

In addition to Lutz, other notable executives who pen public blogs
include Richard Edelman, president and chief executive of the global
PR firm Edelman and Craig Newmark, founder of the online swap meet
Craigslist.org .

"I think that in two years ... we will look back and laugh that we
treated this as such a big deal," said Blackshaw, who said it's
inevitable that companies will adapt to the consumer-driven atmosphere
of the Web.

Done well, corporate blogs can create good word-of-mouth among
consumers who aren't reading business pages or thumbing through trade
magazines.

The FastLane Blog gets between 150,000 and 200,000 unique visits a
month, and Sun Microsystems President Jonathan Schwartz's blog gets
300,000 visits.

But bad blogging can easily backfire. Readers will pick up insincerity
instantly.

"Don't go toward fake blogs. Don't launch character blogs. Use a blog
for what it's for, transparency," said Steve Rubel, vice president of
client services at CooperKatz & Co., a New York PR firm.

Rubel follows blog news on his blog, Micro Persuasion, and runs his
company's unit of the same name, advising clients on blogging and on
podcasting, the suddenly fashionable creation of downloadable
person-to-person broadcasts.

He and other PR professionals can rattle off blogs gone wrong -
usually "fake blogs" that stir up the ire of bloggers by hiding the
fact that they are really ad campaigns, such as one McDonald's posted
in advance of a Super Bowl campaign about a Lincoln-shaped french fry.

Blogs that smack of press releases won't do the job, Rubel said. He
tells clients to see what's out there about their company or industry,
then decide whether they want to engage bloggers or even start their
own blogs.

One executive praised for his no-holds-barred approach to blogging is
Schwartz, who started Jonathan's Blog about a year ago. Sun also
encourages its employees to blog, and about 2,000 do.

For Schwartz, a blog was the natural way to reach out to the developer
community that Sun seeks to attract, a cynical audience that regularly
turns to blogs for information anyway. Schwartz often uses the format
to criticize analysts and rivals.

A post Schwartz wrote last August claiming Hewlett-Packard Co. had
abandoned an HP operating system, for example, resulted in a
cease-and-desist letter from the company - which Schwartz promptly
referenced and linked to on his blog.

"At the end of the day, the job of any good leader at any corporation
is to communicate," Schwartz said. "The hallmark of companies that
will find blogs useful is the company that cares about its perception
... and the integrity of its relationship with its customers."

Corporate blogs don't have to be controversial to work, though, as
evidenced by the five blogs operated by Stonyfield Farm, a New
Hampshire company that sells organic yogurt and ice cream.

The company's blogs include one for new parents to discuss baby issues
and another written by an organic dairy farmer.

CEO Gary Hirshberg got the corporate blogging bug while working on
Democrat Howard Dean's presidential campaign.

"I had been early on struck by the power of blogging for the Dean
campaign itself, and as I watched other campaigns get into it, I
realized this is comp

[PEN-L] Ward Churchill's wife comments on "investigation"

[Louis Proyect]

Dear friends and colleagues,

My apologies for not keeping you updated on a more regular basis regarding 
the ongoing efforts to discredit and/or fire Ward Churchill. Although the 
national media coverage has abated, the local media continues to attack 
Ward relentlessly and much of our energy has been absorbed into the current 
phase of the University's "investigation." There are a number of recent 
developments:


Status of the "Investigation":

As you know, in response to the political pressure brought on the 
University in late January, Interim Chancellor Philip DiStefano formed an 
ad hoc committee to examine Ward's "every word," to see if he had crossed 
some mythical boundary of free speech. In late March the ad hoc committee 
concluded the obvious – that what Ward had written or said publicly was all 
constitutionally protected expression.


In the meantime, however, it was open season in the media, where all manner 
of allegations have been thrown about. At first we attempted to respond to 
them, but soon realized that (a) Ward's responses were not being reported 
accurately, if at all, and (b) as soon as one round of spurious allegations 
was rebutted, another took its place. It is an endless game, pursued by 
forces with apparently endless resources.


Not surprisingly, the University felt it had to take some action against 
Ward in retaliation for his political positions, regardless of the First 
Amendment and principles of academic freedom. The Interim Chancellor's 
committee thus declared it had an "obligation" to investigate the 
allegations which had emerged and referred several of these to the 
University's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct (SCRM). The SCRM is 
currently reviewing charges of "academic and ethnic fraud" (discussed in 
more detail below) and is scheduled to make its initial report by June 23. 
The SCRM can decide to send any of these allegations to the Privilege and 
Tenure Committee for further investigation and possible punitive action, 
including dismissal.


Ward has continued to teach, finishing not only the spring semester but 
teaching a condensed "Maymester" course as well. He won a 2005 teaching 
award, voted on by students, but its sponsor (the alumni association) is 
withholding the award "pending the outcome of the investigation," despite 
the fact that the allegations have nothing to do with teaching.


Illegitimacy of the SCRM's Current Investigation:

On its face, the continuation of this investigation in any form is 
unconstitutional, arising as it does from the University's blatant attempt 
to suppress Ward's constitutionally protected speech. The pretextual nature 
of the inquiry is further illustrated by the fact that the current 
allegations are (a) factually unsupported, (b) all based on conduct well 
over a decade old and, in some cases, previously investigated by the 
University itself, and (c) come from political adversaries of extremely 
questionable credibility (to be charitable).


I take the liberty of quoting recent e-mail correspondence from Noam 
Chomsky to a CU employee which I think embodies the response the University 
should have made under the circumstances:




Without reservations, I support Churchill's right to free speech and 
academic freedom, and regard the attack on him as scurrilous–and by now 
craven cowardice as well, as the state authorities and other critics 
pretend that the issue is (suddenly) his academic credentials and ethnic 
origins. That's a real disgrace.


As for his work, I've never read this article [on 9/11] and have no 
interest in doing so–in fact, would not do so as a matter of principle in 
the present context, for reasons that go back to the Enlightenment origins 
of defense of freedom of speech. I was interviewed by Colorado newspapers, 
and told them basically what I've just written. I was then asked what I 
thought of his earlier work, and told the truth: that I found it serious 
and important, stressing again that these comments have precisely nothing 
to do with the outrageous events now underway.


I have no idea what the plagiarism and other issues are, [but] if the 
charges were serious, they would have been brought up before. For what it's 
worth, there's no indication of that in anything of his I read–that is, 
nothing more than is standard in scholarship. . . . . Such matters are 
sometimes raised in the context of political persecution, by cowards who 
are desperately seeking to conceal what they are really doing. Seems pretty 
transparent in this case. Why now and not before?


Professor Noam Chomsky, e-mail correspondence of April 13, 2005

*

Needless to say, the University has not chosen a principled response of 
this sort. Despite the illegitimacy of the current process, Ward has 
submitted to the SCRM a detailed response to each allegation. He has not 
yet released these responses publicly, preferring to give the Com

Re: [PEN-L] Can America Stand Tall Again?

[dan scanlan]

The Dutch are really very tall.


Being so far north and nearly underwater, they have to stretch further
to get sun and stay dry, I reckon.

Dan

Re: [PEN-L] make my day

[Ralph Johansen]

I received a message off list in response to my post with this
concluding thought:

Think of the institutionalization of the suppression of information in
this country as the long-range spiritual death that we are facing that
is comparable to the biological death that DU is foisting on Iraq or Serbia.

Steve Martinot


Hans G. Ehrbar wrote:


I am disappointed that the use of depleted uranium by the US
military does not generate more outrage on this list.  If
nothing else, you should be concerned about it that this
contamination of other countries is a standing invitation to
explode a dirty nuclear device on US soil.

--
Hans G. Ehrbar   http://www.econ.utah.edu/ehrbar   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Economics Department, University of Utah (801) 581 7797 (my office)
1645 Campus Center Dr., Rm 308   (801) 581 7481 (econ office)
Salt Lake CityUT 84112-9300  (801) 585 5649 (FAX)

[PEN-L] Query - crash of empires

[Eugene Coyle]

Can you steer me to articles/books where the author contends that an
empire fell because of income inequality?

Gene Coyle

Re: [PEN-L] anti-capitalism as commodity

[Michael Hoover]

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 06/04/05 8:57 AM >>>
>At the end of the book, when Heath and Potter propose that capitalism
be
>tamed by "small, workable proposals" and "collective action" by
>governments rather than trendy protests, it as if they have forgotten
the
>whole history of postwar European social democracy. But the point of
this
>book is not to be comprehensive or mildly reasonable. It is to provoke
and
>get you thinking. In that it succeeds: the certainties of modern
>anti-capitalism will not feel as watertight again.

Interesting review, although as it points out Thomas Frank first came up
with this stuff. It reminds me a bit of the posture of Frank Furedi's
posture before he went completely over to the other side. There is
always a
temptation to hurl brickbats at the "trendy" left, from Naomi Klein to
Greenpeace. When Furedi first started doing it, it was wrapped in the
rhetoric of Marxism. Heath and Potter seem content to wrap it in
time-worn
social democratic formulas.
<>

appears that i missed post from which highlighted excerpt was taken,
went to pen-l archive to read review...

think that book was published last year in canada as _rebel sell:  why
the culture can't be jammed_ and in u.s. as _nation of rebels: why
counterculture became consumer culture_, british publication title
appears to be derivation of two, _the rebel sell: how the counterculture
became consumer culture_, heath and potter state in acknowledgements
that their greatest intellectual debt is to t. frank...

rather than suggesting that '60s counterculture has been 'sold out',
authors assert that idea of counterculture rebellion was false and they
note how entrepreneurial '60s counterculture was, heath and potter's
political marker is 'social justice' - they cite civil rights & women's
rights movements, welfare state - which they maintain is achieved from
within 'the system', they call for 'laborious process of democratic
action' in which people make arguments, conduct studies, assemble
coalitions, legislate change...   michael hoover









--
Please Note:
Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to 
or from College employees regarding College business are public records, 
available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail 
communication may be subject to public disclosure.

[PEN-L] traffic control

[Chris Burford]

Following the marked success of the computerised congestion charge in
London, the UK government has trailed a pilot project for taxing care
road usage by the mile, at differential rates according time of day
and location. England is good country to test drive this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4610755.stm

This might replace the petrol tax. What is important for the wider
social control of capitalist society is that it would enable some
social control to limit the centralising effects of capitalism, and to
mitigate the contradiction between town and country.

It sounds possible, allowing for the glitches to be ironed out.

Remember capital is not against social control. It is only against
social control that is in the interests of working people. But if the
principle of social control is established, it is the eve of the
socialist revolution, provided the political consciousness rises.

Chris Burford

Re: [PEN-L] anti-capitalism as commodity

[Daniel Davies]

>> And so they
have failed to spot something important: that the counterculture of
the 60s and its successors have simply been examples of prosperous
westerners seeking social distinctiveness, as Veblen predicted. From
hippies to punks, from organic farmers to ravers, rebellious
subcultures are always entrepreneurial<<<

This was, IIRC, the pitch to investors of the "National Student Marketing
Corporation", which was documented in James Brooks "The Go-Go Years" and in
Adam Smith/George Goodman's "The Money Game" as one of the great stock
promotions of the late 1960s.  It was a horrific dog stock which never made
a cent, used some pretty psychedelic accounting practices and went down in
flames.  Just to suggest that this thesis has been put to empirical test and
didn't do so well.

best
dd

Re: [PEN-L] traffic control

[Jim Devine]

> Following the marked success of the computerised congestion charge in London, 
> the UK government has trailed a pilot project for taxing care road usage by 
> the mile, at differential rates according time of day and location. England 
> is good country to test drive this   This might replace the petrol tax. <

the petrol tax is needed to actively discourage the use of oil! it's
not just an indirect congestion tax.
-- 
Jim Devine
"Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way
and let people talk.) -- Karl M., paraphrasing Dante A.

Re: [PEN-L] traffic control

[Autoplectic]

On 6/5/05, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Following the marked success of the computerised congestion charge in 
> > London, the UK government has trailed a pilot project for taxing care road 
> > usage by the mile, at differential rates according time of day and 
> > location. England is good country to test drive this   This might 
> > replace the petrol tax. <

> 
> the petrol tax is needed to actively discourage the use of oil! it's
> not just an indirect congestion tax.
> --
> Jim Devine

-

Think positively; it's an *incentive* to walk, bike, skateboard etc.
around cities..:-)



-- 
"Life sure is weird but what else am I to know?" [Jason Pierce]

[PEN-L] the rain in Spain.........is nowhere in sight

[Autoplectic]

Spanish forced to ration water

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Monday June 6, 2005
Guardian

Water is being rationed in half of Spain to save it for domestic use,
as parts of the country suffer the worst drought for 60 years.

Weeks before the tourist season starts, swimming pools are empty, city
fountains are turned off and golf courses ordered to reduce watering.

Some reservoirs in the south-east are more than three-quarters empty.
With no fresh rain expected in the affected areas until the autumn,
authorities have decided they must protect domestic supplies through
the busy summer season.

Eastern Spain is the worst hit, with the north-eastern province of
Huesca deciding not to fill public swimming pools this summer and
public parks and golf courses throughout Catalonia ordered to ration
use of non-recycled water.

Barcelona has turned off its public fountains for most of the day as
the authorities impose restrictions.

The Costa Brava in the north-east and the region south of Alicante,
both big tourist centres, are among the worst-affected areas. Public
showers on the south-eastern beaches of Murcia have been shut off.

Spain attracts more than 50 million foreign visitors a year, including
14 million Britons, most of whom will arrive over the next four
months.

In 27 towns along the east coast near Alicante a stable population of
150,000 is pushed up to 1.1 million in August.

Water pressure has been reduced in some areas and 95% of towns in
Catalonia, which is experiencing its worst drought since 1945, have
imposed restrictions. A handful of villages in the interior of
Catalonia and Huesca are having to distribute water in jerry cans.

Crops in some areas are being left to wither as irrigation, which
accounts for three-quarters of Spain's water, is heavily restricted in
order to save water for domestic use.

Farmers near the south-eastern city of Elche say they have been told
they can only water their crops for eight minutes a day. But
authorities say there is just enough domestic water available to get
through the summer.

"Problems of supply may get to households at the end of September," El
País newspaper warned in an editorial.

But little rain is expected before then. And there are concerns about
next summer.

Spain's Socialist-dominated parliament last week cancelled plans by
the previous People's party government to divert water from northern
rivers such as the Ebro to the parched south-east.

"Now everybody loses. The only winner is the Mediterranean Sea ...
which is where all our left-over water will go," complained Mariano
Rajoy, the leader of the People's party.

Spain will, instead, build desalination plants along the east coast to
turn salt water into fresh water.

Environmentalists, who were opposed to diverting water from the north,
have complained that desalination is not the best solution and want
restrictions on building for tourism in the south-east.

Spain is estimated to be building around 180,000 holiday homes a year,
with up to 40% for British buyers. Water consumption in the Balearic
islands had increased 15-fold between 1980 and 1995, a recent WWF
report said.

The environment minister, Cristina Narbon, has announced an emergency
€370m (£249m) package to stave off the effects of the drought and
prevent domestic rationing.

But while one half of Spain gasps for water, the other is well
stocked. Spain's green north-west has abundant supplies and the Costa
del Sol in the south was not expected to suffer serious problems this
year.

-- 
"Life sure is weird but what else am I to know?" [Jason Pierce]

[PEN-L] Swans' Release: June 6, 2005

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.swans.com/
June 6, 2005 -- In this issue:

Note from the Editor:  "We need somebody like that who is highly
placed to tell us what's really going on. We know that we were misled
on Iraq," said George McGovern, when interviewed about the Deep
Throat revelation. "I wish there were somebody of the Deep Throat
time in this administration who are [sic] aware of what's going on."
Actually, we seem to have a pretty good handle on what's going on --
it's not a Deep Throat we need. It's journalists and a media willing to
actually investigate and report the real news; to follow the money
along a trail that leads all the way to the upper echelon of power -- to
the Old Set, with their unrelenting efforts to gain at any cost from what
others lose, as aptly described by Milo Clark. If you believe that
George W. Bush is campaigning so voraciously for an overhaul (not
"reform") of the Social Security system with your best interests at
heart, well, be sure to read the Editor's Blips for some insight into our
great leader's approach to propaganda... The meanings of words have
indeed been hijacked by the Old Set and are merely repeated by a
compliant and supine media. Philip Greenspan brings his usual keen
eye and sharp wit to this topic.

Think that the Old Set cares a whit about the safety of the water we
drink or the plastic-wrapped food we eat? Read how John Steppling
imagines a world in which exposure to phthalates in plastic may just
turn the Old Set into Girly Men and lead to the end of Empire. Does
the Old Set care that we and our children are getting fatter by the
minute and developing costly chronic diseases, while physical
education is slashed from schools for lack of funding, fast-food profits
are soaring, and pharmaceutical companies are spending billions of
dollars to find the magic weight-loss bullet? They could care less, as
Jan Baughman explains.

And do you think that the US antiwar movement or Democrats in the
form of Howard Dean, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton can take
down the Old Set? Think again. As Joe Davison aptly points out,
"when the best thing that's happened to a movement after three years
is the appearance of a maverick British MP in front of a US Senate
Subcommittee, then you know you've got problems." Well, we've got
serious problems... See Gerard Donnelly Smith's poem, Stalin's
Dream State, for a sobering look at the Old Set's New World Order.

The role of art in society and politics has been a topic of recent
conversations at Swans Café. So, here is more: Louis Proyect
provides a keen insight into the life and works of writer Saul Bellow,
whose literature reflected the struggles of his times but who lost touch
with his roots upon achieving insider status. In contrast, Charles
Marowitz offers an insider look at Peter Brook, with whom he
collaborated at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Brook, who
recently turned 80, remains unchanged in his intellectual acuity.

One publication that will not lose touch with the reality on the ground
is Swans. Read the "Boonville News" in the Blips for some thoughts
on independent publications and the "alternative media." Last but not
least, John Steppling's amusing review of our previous edition (which,
hopefully, won't be his last...John's computer has melted down...) and,
of course, your letters, with usual support and gentle corrections.

As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and
foes) know about Swans.

 *

Here are the links to all the pieces:

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/mgc160.html
Old Set, Establishment And The Rest Of Us
- by Milo Clark

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/pgreen66.html
Have The Meanings Of Words Been Hijacked?
- by Philip Greenspan

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/johns08.html
Decline And Fall Of The Plastic Empire
- by John Steppling

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/jeb146.html
Funding A Rational Treatment For Obesity
- by Jan Baughman

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/lproy25.html
Saul Bellow In Retrospect
- by Louis Proyect

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/cmarow19.html
Peter Brook At Eighty
- by Charles Marowitz

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/gsmith49.html
Stalin's Dream State
- Poem by Gerard Donnelly Smith

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/oedav11.html
A Plea To The US Antiwar Movement
- by Joe Davison

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/desk020.html
Blips #20
- by Gilles d'Aymery

http://www.swans.com/library/art11/letter68.html
Letters

 #

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 . 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 si

Re: [PEN-L] make my day

[Ralph Johansen]

A Swedish friend said today that that since Chernobyl you can no longer
fish or swim in Sweden's lakes and rivers.

Ralph

Daniel Davies wrote:

I grew up in a corner of Wales that not only had two of our own large
nuclear reactors, but was also a major target for Soviet nukes *and*
caught the edge of the Chernobyl cloud.  Hence, I made it my business to
find out a bit about uranium.



best

dd

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from
http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm

Re: [PEN-L] anti-capitalism as commodity

[Doug Henwood]

Daniel Davies wrote:


 >> And so they
have failed to spot something important: that the counterculture of
the 60s and its successors have simply been examples of prosperous
westerners seeking social distinctiveness, as Veblen predicted. From
hippies to punks, from organic farmers to ravers, rebellious
subcultures are always entrepreneurial<<<

This was, IIRC, the pitch to investors of the "National Student Marketing
Corporation", which was documented in James Brooks "The Go-Go Years" and in
Adam Smith/George Goodman's "The Money Game" as one of the great stock
promotions of the late 1960s.  It was a horrific dog stock which never made
a cent, used some pretty psychedelic accounting practices and went down in
flames.  Just to suggest that this thesis has been put to empirical test and
didn't do so well.


The Baffler boys did a brilliant prospectus for the IPO of
Consolidated Deviance, which was going to market rebellion. It's in
their collection Commodify Your Dissent (Norton, 1997).

Doug

[PEN-L] Interview: Maureen Taylor, Detroit's grassroots City Council candidate

[Waistline2]

 
An interview with Maureen Taylor, Detroit's grassroots City Council candidate 
 
http://www.lrna.org/league/PT/PT.2005.6/PT.2005.6.4.html
 
By People's Tribune Staff 
 
Editor's note: The People's Tribune recently interviewed Maureen Taylor, who is a candidate for the Detroit City Council. Excerpts from the interview are below. 
 
People's Tribune: Why are you a candidate for City Council? How many city councilors are to be elected? 
 
Maureen Taylor: Detroit is in trouble, reeling from the epochal changes inherent in the economy moving away from industrial production to a hi-tech protocol. Machines for years used to aid and support the hands of laborers, but this new circumstance finds labor being replaced, resulting in millions of American workers and hundreds of thousands in Michigan being separated from lifetime jobs that fed their families. The fires of change are scorching Detroit, so revolutionaries run into the building carrying buckets of truth and understanding to save lives. I am a revolutionary, so my role is to step into the middle of this race pointing out why we are in the shape we are in. From the 149 residents who submitted signed petitions, the top 18 vote getters in the Aug. 2 primary will go on to vie to be the top nine vote getters in the Nov. 8 general election. Nine persons make up the Detroit City Council. 
 
PT: Detroit is known as the "Motor Capital" of the world, and Detroit was also known as a city with decent homes for workers. Is this still true? What is the economy looking like in Detroit? 
 
MT: Detroit is still known as the "Motor City," even though that term is largely ceremonial because other cities may manufacture more cars than what are made in Detroit, since technology has taken over many of the tasks once performed by Detroit workers. However, while there has not been any significant reduction here in the numbers of cars built, there has been a devastating reduction of hired workers who used to build these cars, now put together using advanced technological robots. Almost the same number of automobiles is being built by one tenth, or even less, of the workforce. This change has ushered in all levels of attacks against our standard of living. Michigan ties Alaska with the highest unemployment. In places like Flint, Saginaw, Taylor, River Rouge and Detroit, unemployment estimates are as high as 50 percent, and these might be conservative figures. The elimination of income maintenance programs that Detroit has always had access to, like General Assistance, was the opening shot signaling war against Detroit workers. Since then, every safety net program that at least kept our heads above water has had reductions so that many residents are under water, or in our case, without water! The Detroit economy is in shambles. 
 
PT: You are chairperson of Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO).What is the purpose of the MWRO? 
 
MT: I began serving as state chairperson of the MWRO shortly after our beloved Diane Bernard started to get sick some nine years ago. Diane was the rock of leadership, skilled and steeled in her commitment to see poverty end. She was unbiased and unbought, and her untimely, premature death on Easter in 1999 remains one of the turning points in my life. My focus was forever shaped and I have been a re-committed soldier to MWRO since that day. MWRO is the advocate union for disenfranchised persons who need conflict resolution and support. We are a non-violent organization that uses the courts, legislation and civil disobedience in the streets as organizing tools. 
 
PT: MWRO is part of a coalition of organizations in the Detroit metropolitan area that believe that "utilities is a human right." What were the conditions that gave rise to this belief and the formation of the coalition? 
 
MT: Between June 2001 and June 2002, the low-down, back-stabbing Detroit Water Dept. shut off water at 40,752 separate households‹in one year! Welfare Rights only found out about this Human Rights violation two years later, and quickly moved to form a coalition to fight water shut offs. Residents in Detroit, from the city of Highland Park, and from the city of Hamtramck met for weeks before forming the Highland Park Human Rights Coalition. This group has picketed, demonstrated, written letters and made phone calls, and has led the fight to expose the local terrorism involved with turning off water in our community. This fight is a national fight. Other residents across the country not yet affected are already rallying to understand the dynamic of efforts to privatize public resources, and are coming on-line in new formations like the Water Warriors, a national group that focuses on exposing attempts to privatize water anywhere in the world. Water Warriors are based in America, and I am a member! 
 
The next step in the coalition is to move the fight to make access to fresh drinking water non-negotiable! We are looking into legislative methods that make this the case, a

Re: [PEN-L] Ward Churchill's wife comments on "investigation"

[Ralph Johansen]

What a clear, articulate letter. Ward is to be congratulated as well on
his choice of mates. I would like to have seen the summary and
attachments that accompanied this letter.

Ralph


Louis Proyect wrote:


Dear friends and colleagues,

My apologies for not keeping you updated on a more regular basis
regarding the ongoing efforts to discredit and/or fire Ward Churchill.
Although the national media coverage has abated, the local media
continues to attack Ward relentlessly and much of our energy has been
absorbed into the current phase of the University's "investigation."
There are a number of recent developments:

Status of the "Investigation":

snip

[PEN-L] Paying for college

[lbo]

I received an e-mail asking for help with grant writing for a woman's son's
college tuition fees which have sky-rocketed to $42k.

At this late date, I can't imagine there's much out there to apply for. I
remember scouring the blue book, which was a big book full of untapped
scholarships given out by clubs like the National Porkettes Association --
a ladies auxilliary to the pork (the other white meat) lobby. It handed out
money to women who wanted a degree in Home Ec.

Anyway, any thoughts for this woman? I'm going to suggest that she phone
the college. IME, universities will work with people to see that their kid
finishes school, especially if he's a senior. Which is to say, as I recall,
private universities are a little more flexible than they let on.




First, to say thank you for being attentive to my email. The type of grant
I want is for my son's college education.He is going to be a senior this
year and his tuition has increased to $42,000 for 2005-2006. I work two
jobs and last year sold my car so he can continue.I have another son in HS.
My husband (vet) died 6 years ago and with rent, gas(home) and prices
rising I'm at my wits end with coming up with the funds. Oh, my son
received a scholarship which the rising tuition costs has exhausted all of
it. So any ideas I will definitely consider.