1. Wading into the Silence For the last five years of her life, Lebanese revolutionary and civil war survivor Nawal hasn’t uttered a word, not even to her twin children, Simone and Janine. They are exasperated and dumbfounded by their mother’s perpetual reticence. It isn’t until Janine obtains a box of cassette tapes containing 500 recorded hours of her mother’s silence that she is impelled to quest for her mother’s origins in her native land, and thus, the origins of her quietude. Simone eventually follows. Simone and Janine soon discover the horrific yet beautiful circumstances that precipitated the silence. In […]
HEMP FOR VICTORY: Twenty-Seven States Currently Considering The Legalization Of Medical Marijuana
Alabama – Alabama Legislature Considers Medical Marijuana Reform California – Tax and Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Connecticut – Connecticut Legislature Considers Medical Marijuana Reform Connecticut – Connecticut Legislature Considers Decriminalizing Marijuana Hawaii – Hawaii Legislature Considers Decriminalizing Marijuana Iowa – Iowa Legislature Considers Medical Marijuana Reform Illinois – Illinois Legislature Considers Medical Marijuana Reform Kentucky – Oppose Zero Tolerance ‘Drugged’ Driving Bill In Kentucky Maryland – Maryland Legislature Considers Medical Marijuana Task Force Maine – Maine Legislature Considers Expanding Decrim Law Minnesota – Minnesota Legislature Considers Medical Marijuana Reform Missouri – Missouri Legislature Considers Medical Marijuana Reform Montana – Montana […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
SOUND OPINIONS Van Morrison recorded and released his masterpiece Astral Weeks 41 years ago, and to celebrate he released a live version of the album. This gave Jim and Greg a perfect opportunity to look back at Astral Weeks with a Sound Opinions Classic Dissection. Astral Weeks didn’t produce huge hits, but as Jim and Greg explain, this record is unique from any other in Van Morrison’s collection, and in fact, in rock history. It melds rock, blues, folk and jazz in such a way that makes it hard to define. The jazz musicians who contributed to this sound were […]
CHANGE: Obama Lifts Federal Stem Cell Research Ban
EDITOR’S NOTE: We urge anybody that has some moral or ethical problem with stem cell research to tell it to this man. [Video: McCaskill for Missouri TV ad featuring actor Michael J. Fox talking about Claire McCaskill and stem cell research.] CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: As promised during the campaign, President Obama has lifted federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell research put in place in 2001 by President Bush. In announcing the policy change Monday morning, achieved by executive order, the president also signed a memorandum aimed at shielding the federal government’s involvement in science from political influence. The dual moves […]
RELIGULOUS: Study Says U.S. Losing Its Religion
USA TODAY: When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers. The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely. These dramatic shifts in just 18 years are detailed in the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), to be released today. It finds that, despite growth and immigration that […]
THIS JUST IN: Nutter Kills Trash Fee
INQUIRER: Mayor Nutter has canned a controversial but lucrative plan to charge Philadelphians for garbage service, saying there was too little time to enact the complex program before he presents his budget next week. By ditching the trash fee – which had evolved in recent weeks from a proposed $5 weekly charge to a per-bag fee – Nutter avoids alienating supporters who consider garbage removal a basic city service, and he escapes a tough fight with City Council, where many members had opposed the fee. But the decision will make it that much harder for him to close the city’s […]
WATCH THIS: The Dark Arts Of Football
This is some serious Jedi warrior shit, Jack.
CINEMA: La Dolce Vita Turns 50
LA DOLCE VITA (1960, directed by Federico Fellini, 174 minutes, Italy) On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 10:26 AM, Dan Buskirk wrote: Subject: Re: Slacking… Sorry for this undesired sabbatical, I got frozen out of Tuesday night THE WATCHMAN screening and missed the midnight screening last night. Will be back on the horse very soon. -db Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 13:14:59 -0500 Subject: Re: Slacking… From: jonathan.valania To: dbuskirk1 Grrrr. You can pay penance by giving me an appreciation of La Dolce Vita on the eve of its 50th Anniversary for this weekend. – – – – – – […]
TONITE: Unmasked And A Little Less Anonymous
BY ELIZABETH FLYNN Bob Troneiri is an institution in the Philadelphia bartending community. The man’s been slinging drinks for 16 years, and 12 of those years he’s been at Tattooed Mom’s. Every punk rock drunk in the city knows Bob, and if you’ve showed your true colors in Tattooed Mom’s like most of us, it’s guaranteed that Bob knows you. Now, we are all familiar with the phenomenon of bartender/artist, and we all know that the artist part of that equation fades a little bit more every year spent behind the bar. Very few people escape this trap, most end […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #12 The week that was in just five minutes, told by a stoned daisy with the obligatory voice of God. [cough, cough] And if you haven’t see it already, please check out Jon Stewart’s CNBC smackdown after the jump, it is quite possibly fake journalism’s finest hour eight minutes.
THE ECONOMIST: Stop The Madness
THE ECONOMIST: The failure of the drug war has led a few of its braver generals, especially from Europe and Latin America, to suggest shifting the focus from locking up people to public health and “harm reduction” (such as encouraging addicts to use clean needles). This approach would put more emphasis on public education and the treatment of addicts, and less on the harassment of peasants who grow coca and the punishment of consumers of “soft” drugs for personal use. That would be a step in the right direction. But it is unlikely to be adequately funded, and it does […]
STAY GOLDEN PONY BOY: New Polls Say Obama More Popular Than Ever, Republicans Not So Much
MSNBC: After Barack Obama’s first six weeks as president, the American public’s attitudes about the two political parties couldn’t be more different, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds. Despite the country’s struggling economy and vocal opposition to some of his policies, President Obama’s favorability rating is at an all-time high. Two-thirds feel hopeful about his leadership and six in 10 approve of the job he’s doing in the White House. “What is amazing here is how much political capital Obama has spent in the first six weeks,” said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with […]