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Having trouble viewing this email? Click here to view it online. Saturday 25 February 2012 Bill Moyers | How Pop Culture Influences Political Expectations Bill Moyers, Moyers & Co.: "Film historian and culture critic Neal Gabler joins Bill Moyers to discuss how representations of heroism in movies shape our expectations of a U.S. president, and how our real-world candidates are packaged into superficial, two-dimensional personas designed to appeal to both the electorate and the media. As a result, says Gabler, we never get to the true pressing questions and issues of America." Read the Article and Watch the Video Remembering the Context of War Crimes: The Crime of War Itself Camillo "Mac" Bica, Truthout: "War cannot be understood, rationally or intellectually, by watching a film or by reading a book. To ‘know’ war, you have to experience it, live it, feel it in your gut - the anxiety, fear, frustration, boredom, hopelessness, despair, anger, rage, etcetera. In truth, warriors exist in a world totally incomprehensible to those who have never had the misfortune of experiencing the horrors of the battlefield." Read the Article Neither Stimulus Nor Austerity Will Solve This Crisis: A Third Way? Steven Hill, Truthout: "Few subjects have so bitterly divided our insecure times than the double-edged saber of stimulus vs. austerity. Consensus over which course will lift the current economic malaise has eluded the dueling experts. Without clearer signals of success, many nations have tried a confused mix of both - let’s call it ‘aust-imulus.’" Read the Article A Woman's Womb: America's New Sports Arena Connie Schultz, Truthout: "I always have thought my birth control was a whole lot of nobody's business. However, Santorum and that all-male panel of pontificates at the recent congressional hearing make clear that silence is not an option. Not if I - not if we - want subsequent generations of women to live long, healthy lives." Read the Article Top Five Initiatives to Watch Ahead of California's November Election Rene Ciria-Cruz, New America Media: "Thus far, voters will have two ballot initiatives to decide on in the June primary and three in November. However, deadlines are looming to get other initiatives on the ballot and people are quickly gathering signatures for the 65 petitions so far in circulation. [Here] are five contentious petitions that would have far-reaching impacts on ethnic communities if they make it onto the November ballot." Read the Article How Economists Tally Unemployment - and Its Affect on the Black Jobless Rate Shani O. Hilton and Hatty Lee, ColorLines: "When the black unemployment numbers dropped so steeply in January - from 15.7 to 12.7 percent - a lot of analysts were scratching their heads to figure out why. One told us that it was ‘quite surprising,’ but there would be no way to know what the numbers meant or whether they were accurate until we saw if the trend continued in later months. But why is that? We dug a little deeper into the process of tracking joblessness to find out." Read the Article The Republican Brain: Why Even Educated Conservatives Deny Science - and Reality Chris Mooney, AlterNet: "I can still remember when I first realized how naïve I was in thinking - hoping -that laying out the ‘facts’ would suffice to change politicized minds, and especially Republican ones. It was a typically wonkish, liberal revelation: One based on statistics and data. Only this time, the data were showing, rather awkwardly, that people ignore data and evidence - and often, knowledge and education only make the problem worse." Read the Article Cash of the Titans: Against the Noxious Fantasy of Limitless Growth Phil Rockstroh, Pacific Free Press: "The concept of endless economic growth, accepted as sacrosanct by both U.S. mainstream political parties, and internalized as the dominant mode of mind by the general population of the corporate/consumer state is mirrored in the exponential mathematics of a malignancy. Cancer, if given voice, would proclaim itself to be a believer in ‘free market values’…devoted to the principle of endless growth…until, of course, it would silence its own voice by killing its host." Read the Article Debt of Gratitude: Less Earning, More Learning Randall Amster, New Clear Vision: "I’d like to share a story, a personal story, a common story, an American story. For nearly two decades, I have carried the burden of a crushing student loan debt, well over six figures and impossible for me to fathom paying off in this lifetime…. I suspect that many people burdened by debt feel similarly and are often constrained to bear the pressures silently." Read the Article Does College Make Us Less Equipped to Change the World? Sara Robinson, AlterNet: "In this great meritocracy of ours, those of us who’ve made it through college are encouraged to feel like we’re something special…. It sounds weird and counterintuitive, but in my work with progressive organizations, I’ve noticed some specific ways in which the kind of thinking we learned in our classrooms actually makes us kinda dumb politically. Here are a few places college grads often seem to get led astray by their own educations." Read the Article Education as "Politically Contested Spaces" Paul Thomas, The Daily Censored: "Teachers have long been prone to being the tool of other people’s actions … To pretend to be objective, to wave off or deny the politics of teaching and learning, to shrug off our voices because we must do as we are told are all political concessions to those in power who are the ones using their politics to beg for our silence and inaction." Read the Article Click here for more Truthout articles BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return soon. 10 Reasons the GOP Wants to Ditch the Constitution Read the Blog at BuzzFlash Two Americans Killed as Afghan Unrest Enters Fifth Day Read the Article at The New York Times Gay Judge Refuses to Marry Straight People? Four Ways Sane Lawmakers Are Fighting Back in the Culture Wars Read the Article at Alternet Santorum: Obama "a Snob" for Wanting Everyone to Go to College Read the Article at Talking Points Memo The Two Sides of Rick Santorum Read the Article at the Los Angeles Times American Households Not as Reckless as You Think Read the Article at Mother Jones Romney Fails His Own "Moral Responsibility" Test, Can’t Balance His Campaign’s Budget Read the Article at ThinkProgress Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines ---------- Support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation by clicking here. To ensure you receive our messages please add the following address to your email address book: messenger@truthout.org Click here to Subscribe Our Privacy Policy Click here to Unsubscribe Truthout is a proud member of the Newspaper Guild/CWA, Local 36047