PopConsumer

links for 2009-06-30

• Why Shelby Steele Is Right
  Steele may be right about our president. But the conclusions he draws are demonstrably shallow ones. As a nation, we must rid ourselves of this adolescent fantasy of an America free of blacks. Ellison had it right: “The nation could not survive being deprived of their presence because, by the irony implicit in the dynamics of American democracy, they symbolize both its most stringent testing and the possibility of its greatest human freedom.”
  (tags: race racism black politics unitedstates obama identity)

links for 2009-06-29

• No Smiting - 'The Evolution of God,' by Robert Wright - Review - NYTimes.com
  When people see themselves in zero-sum relationship with other people — see their fortunes as inversely correlated with the fortunes of other people, see the dynamic as win-lose — they tend to find a scriptural basis for intolerance or belligerence.” The recipe for salvation, then, is to arrange the world so that its people find themselves (and think of themselves as) interconnected: “When they see the relationship as non-zero-sum — see their fortunes as positively correlated, see the potential for a win-win outcome — they’re more likely to find the tolerant and understanding side of their scriptures.” Change the world, and you change the God....

  “If history naturally pushes people toward moral improvement, toward moral truth, and their God, as they conceive their God, grows accordingly, becoming morally richer, then maybe this growth is evidence of some higher purpose, and maybe — conceivably — the source of that purpose is worthy of the name divinity.”

  
  
  (tags: faith history psychology morality books)
  
  
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  Frank Rich - 40 Years Later, Still Second-Class Americans - NYTimes.com
  
  
  But 2009 is not then, and if the current administration really is worried that it could repeat Clinton’s history on Don’t Ask, that’s ludicrous. Clinton failed less because of the policy’s substance than his fumbling of the politics. Even in 1992 a majority of the country (57 percent) supported an end to the military ban on gays. But Clinton blundered into the issue with no strategy at all and little or no advance consultation with the Joint Chiefs and Congress. That’s never been Obama’s way.
  
  
  (tags: politics military marriage lgbt obama billclinton)
  
  

links for 2009-06-26

• Harry Allen Media Assassin
  By filling movies with white people, telling stories through white characters, making them diverse in mode, occupation, and outlook, especially when compared to non-white characters—by projecting them as dominant when they are, in fact, recessive; most humans are brown females—an understanding is rendered: White people are the smartest, most beautiful, most important beings of which we know. This understanding, in entertainment, serves an understanding of white people in all areas of activity by people: economics, education, labor, law, politics, religion, sex, and war, as that understanding, in those other areas, serves each other area.
  (tags: media movies racism privilege race)
• 'Certified Organic' may not be 100%
  Dealing with the elitism implied by the higher cost of organics means doing something about income inequities. If we want elected representatives to care more about public health than corporate health, let's work to remove the corruption from election campaign contributions. If Congress were less beholden to corporations, we might be able to create a system that paid farmers and farm workers decently and sold organic foods at prices that everyone could afford.
  (tags: organic agriculture business lobbying politics policy farmbill farming food law environment workers health sustainability)

links for 2009-06-25

• Jamie Court: CIGNA Exec Whistleblower Puts Wind In Health Care Reform Sails
  I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry. Insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and they make it nearly impossible to understand -- or even to obtain -- information we need. As you hold hearings and discuss legislative proposals over the coming weeks, I encourage you to look very closely at the role for-profit insurance companies play in making our health care system both the most expensive and one of the most dysfunctional in the world.
  (tags: healthcare insurance business politics policy lobbying)

links for 2009-06-21

• Atlanta Makes Way for New Public Housing - NYTimes.com
  “Atlanta’s plan signifies in a very clear way that the social contract that cities and citizens have with the poor has fundamentally changed,” said Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist ... who studies urban neighborhoods. “We’ve decided that the market can function to create housing and the role of government should be to move people into the market."

  Some researchers and policy makers say the model is succeeding. Thomas D. Boston, an economist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who has tracked Atlanta’s housing-project residents since 1995, said those who move are more likely to find work, their children were likely to perform better in school and they report higher satisfaction with their living conditions.

  The housing authority says the overwhelming majority of residents support the relocations. But critics say unsuspecting residents are forced into only marginally better neighborhoods. The vouchers, ... are often viewed suspiciously by landlords in wealthier communities.

  
  
  (tags: housing urbanplanning policy poverty)
  
  
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  Editorial Notebook - Hawaii Blues - NYTimes.com
  
  
  The islands have seen the disappearance of the Hawaiian kingdom, the decimation of its people and language. Today, Hawaii is the world’s hottest hot spot for threatened and endangered species. As the only island state, it’s the only one that faces an existential threat from global warming and rising oceans.

  Many people assume Hawaiian music is sweet and happy. Actually, much of it is solemn and melancholy. To hear Bla Pahinui sing his version of “Waimanalo Blues” — “the beaches they sell, to build their hotels,” is to glimpse the depths of the Hawaiian sense of loss.

  Visitors go to Hawaii to get happy and tan, and they carry home with them vast measures of good will, serenity and memories of joy and peace. Maybe it’s time to give some of that back to the suffering 50th state. How? Maybe by telling your representatives in Congress to support the Akaka bill, to give Native Hawaiians a measure of lost sovereignty, and right some old injustices.

  
  
  (tags: hawaii politics policy economy environment culture)
  
  
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  Working the Room for GuestofaGuest.com - NYTimes.com
  
  
  Wasn’t the social blogosphere jammed with similar sites? “Everything seems crowded,” Mr. Steele said, “until someone comes in and shows you how to do it right.”
  
  
  (tags: internet blogging business culture productplacement)
  
  

links for 2009-06-17

• Iconoculture: Trend Observation - Multiracial is fastest growing demo in the U.S.
  * Estimates by the Census Bureau show that multiracial Americans are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. (DiversityInc.com 5.29.09). * Prior to 2000, census survey takers could check only one race or ethnicity, even if they identify with more than one. But since 2000, the Census has allowed people to check more than one box. The result: In 2008, the number of multiracial citizens rose 3.4% to about 5.2 million Americans, or 5% of the overall population. People who check more than one box has increased by 33% (BlackVoices.com 5.29.09). * While checking more than one box is an option, the Census is still void of a "multiracial" category.
  (tags: multiracial census consumers identity)
• Editorial Observer - Even Now, There’s Risk in ‘Driving While Black’ - NYTimes.com
  All of this should come as sobering news to people who believe that the election of an African-American president moved the country into a new phase beyond racism. We may yet reach that goal. But we won’t do it by pretending that centuries-old biases were magically swept away in a single election. We can do it only by exorcising poisonous preconceptions that go to the very heart of who we are.
  (tags: race racism black)
• Why must health reform be isolationist? - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine
  American health care is not really a system at all. It's a market. In a market, people with money can buy what they want and many people are left out. So we thought, no, we don't want market-driven health care. We want a real system, something that covers everybody and doesn't depend on how much money you have.
  (tags: healthcare policy insurance business unitedstates global)

links for 2009-06-15

• Editorial - Doctors and the Cost of Care - NYTimes.com
  Doctors largely decide what medical or surgical treatments are needed, whether it will be delivered in a hospital, what tests will be performed, and what drugs will be prescribed or medical devices implanted.

  There is disturbing evidence that many do a lot more than is medically useful — and often reap financial benefits from over-treating their patients. No doubt a vast majority of doctors strive to do the best for their patients. But many are influenced by fee-for-service financial incentives and some are unabashed profiteers.

  
  
  (tags: healthcare medicine medicare business policy politics lobbying)
  
  
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  Policy and Profit - Following the Money in the Health Care Debate - NYTimes.com
  
  
  The nation spends roughly $2.5 trillion every year on health care, nearly a fifth of the American economy. Here is a primer on what the medical establishment stands to lose or gain as Congress engages the issue.
  
  
  (tags: healthcare business policy politics lobbying)
  
  
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  Many in Congress Hold Stakes in Health Industry - NYTimes.com
  
  
  The personal financial reports, due late last week from members of Congress, show that many lawmakers hold investments in insurance, pharmaceutical and prescription-benefit companies and in hospital interests, all of which would be affected by the administration’s overhaul of health care.
  
  
  (tags: congress personalfinance healthcare business conflictofinterest)
  
  
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  Media Cache - Politicians Fail to Grasp Peer-To-Peer - NYTimes.com
  
  
  What all this shows, if more evidence was needed, is that an anti-piracy strategy based largely on enforcement is bound to fail.

  In the United States, the recording industry has backed away from a legal campaign against file-sharers, realizing that suing its biggest fans is not a great marketing strategy. Now the U.S. music and movie industries are moving to make more content available legally....

  If consumers can figure out peer-to-peer, perhaps it is time for lawmakers to do the same.

  
  
  (tags: media music movies copyright technology internet marketing consumers law europe)
  
  
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  Barbara Ehrenreich - Too Poor to Make the News - NYTimes.com
  
  
  The recession of the ’80s transformed the working class into the working poor, as manufacturing jobs fled to the third world, forcing American workers into the low-paying service and retail sector. The current recession is knocking the working poor down another notch — from low-wage employment and inadequate housing toward erratic employment and no housing at all. Comfortable people have long imagined that American poverty is far more luxurious than the third world variety, but the difference is rapidly narrowing.
  
  
  (tags: poverty economy policy housing work workers)
  
  

links for 2009-06-13

• Should Shelby Steele Retract His Statement?
  So why isn’t it time to call out black conservatives for getting it wrong? At the very least, shouldn’t they have to show us precisely what fruit their anti-civil rights ideology has yielded? Shouldn’t they at least be compelled to answer some of these questions before they take off on the same old rants—this time against the first Latina Supreme Court justice nominee? By continuing to give Shelby Steele a place of privilege in its pages without requiring that he revisit and rethink his earlier theses, outlets like the Wall Street Journal engage in “a crude form of racial patronage.”
  (tags: race black conservative politics)

links for 2009-06-12

• What Tami Said: Is Tyler Perry writing for The Root?
  Pretending that professional black women are marauding about, breaking black men's hearts over poorly-moisturized feet and cold-weather beverages makes a humorous story, but also reinforces the meme that hard-hearted, over-educated, status-obsessed black women are to blame for the sorry state of black marriage. If only we weren't so demanding.

  Most women I know aren't holding out for six-figure bank accounts, multiple degrees and crazy "swagga." They do want a man with similar values and interests and life goals who treats them well and makes them tingle in all the right places.

  Since when is that too much to ask?

  
  
  (tags: race black gender women culture love marriage)
  
  

links for 2009-06-11

• De Gustibus - A Fish Lover Fights to Get Off the Hook - NYTimes.com
  In fact, farm-raised fin fish are really the cage-raised chickens of the sea: in many instances wild fish are harvested to produce feed for farmed fish (nearly 90 percent of the world’s fish oil goes into fish food), and it takes three pounds of wild fish to produce one pound of farmed salmon (other farmed species require even more). Aquaculture is also a local pollutant and a major consumer of antibiotics, and it has long been thought that escaped farmed fish will interbreed with and weaken wild fish.
  (tags: fish environment agriculture sustainability food)
• Foraging for Fruit Gains Popularity - NYTimes.com
  It was just another day of urban fruit foraging for Ms. Wadud, one of a growing number of people who looked around their cities, saw trees full of fruit and thought, “Delicious.”

  A year and a half ago, Ms. Wadud, who studied urban sociology in college and bartended at Chez Panisse, began organizing a little neighborhood fruit exchange called Forage Oakland. She did it as much to build neighborhood relations as to get her hands on some of that fruit.

  
  
  (tags: cities food agriculture oakland)