Archive for July, 2002
Reclaiming the Commons
This article starts off the latest New Democracy Forum on the Boston Review. It addresses the issue of whether there should be limits on how far we let markets encroach upon commonly held resources. The above link will take you to a selection of eight commentaries on this article, as well as a reply by [...]
The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page
If you are interested in Paul Krugman, you may wish to check out the Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page. It has links to the official web page as well. I found all this by reading Kaus’s blog on Slate. Of particular insterest was a link to Krugman’s recent post about the Rhinoceros Effect in which [...]
Dropping the Ball - The overrating of Six Feet Under. By Emily Nussbaum
Pretty much how I feel about the show.
“Six Feet Under may have won an outrageous 23 Emmy nominations, but it’s really just Ally McBeal in mortality drag: dream sequences, romanticized narcissism, fake-o self-conscious dialogue, meaning-of-life montages and all. The characters may be grown-ups, but the show isn’t about death and mortality at all; it’s about [...]
Guatemalan militia to get massacre reward
“The Guatemalan government is planning to reward the paramilitaries who took part in the massacre of tens of thousands of villagers during the country’s civil war. The decision has been criticised by civil rights groups, who say the government has still not paid reparations to many of the paramilitaries’ victims.”
Guardian Unlimited
The Fanta Clause By Rob Walker
“A more complete version of Fanta’s story is told in the book For God, Country, and Coca-Cola, by Mark Pendergrast. The Fanta brand’s roots are actually in Germany. Coca-Cola has been bottled in that country since 1929. In the late ’30s, the realities of war and the unpopularity of foreign-owned firms in Nazi Germany made [...]
More than 1.3 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan
I generally don’t post from the WSJ, because it requires a subscription, but this quote pretty much says it all…
“More than 1.3 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan — more than three times the number expected — forcing the United Nations to cut aid programs because of the shortage of funds, a U.N. official said [...]
Afghan Bus Hits Land Mine, 13 Die
“A bus carrying people to a picnic area hit a land mine in central Afghanistan, killing 13 passengers and injuring six others, a U.N. official said Sunday.
…
Two decades of war left an estimated 5 million to 10 million land mines littering Afghanistan, the vast majority of them left by the Soviets during their 10-year occupation.
The [...]
Corporate Scandal Trading Cards - Collect ‘em all! By David Plotz
“Unless you work for the Securities and Exchange Commission (and probably even if you do) the plague of scandals has left you as confused as an Enron auditor.
…
Here, to clear it all up, are Slate’s Corporate Scandal Trading Cards?
Flaws in U.S. Air War Left Hundreds of Civilians Dead
“The American air campaign in Afghanistan, based on a high-tech, out-of-harm’s-way strategy, has produced a pattern of mistakes that have killed hundreds of Afghan civilians.
On-site reviews of 11 locations where airstrikes killed as many as 400 civilians suggest that American commanders have sometimes relied on mistaken information from local Afghans. Also, the Americans’ preference for [...]
The Points That Prisoners Can Make
You really need to see the original article in the Magazine in order to appreciate the photographs. They are too small on the web page.
“Stolen from kitchen or infirmary. Broken off bunk frame or pried from Plexiglas desk cover. Secreted inside shoe or between belly and elastic waistband and spirited through ineffective metal detectors. Rubbed, [...]
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
