Sunday 31 May

the real news: multiyear sea ice

Bad For Democracy- Dana D. Nelson

Dana Nelson is a professor at Vanderbilt, and I believe Bad for democracy is her second book. Her publisher sent me a copy some time back, and unfortunately I've been busy with other matters, so I've just started on it. It does look promising, discussing the history of popular representations of the role of the president in US society, which she regards as generally anti-republican, in the classical sense, and far more often geared towards representing the president as the prime mover of government upon whose shoulders all power and responsibility lie, a phenomenon she terms presidentialism.

cross-posted at Dead Horse.

Day of Empire-Amy chua

Empires, race and power: Yale prof Amy Chua on "strategic tolerance"

from the UC Berkley youtube channel.

cross-posted at Dead Horse.

"Hunt people for Jesus"

Mimi writes:

It seems the evangelicals enjoy fertile proselytizing ground in the U.S. Army, according to an article by Jeremy Scahill in Common Dreams. Org:
"New video evidence has surfaced showing that US military forces in Afghanistan have been instructed by the military's top chaplain in the country to "hunt people for Jesus" as they spread Christianity to the overwhelmingly Muslim population. Soldiers also have imported bibles translated into Pashto and Dari, the two dominant languages of Afghanistan."
I remember when "separation of church and state" was a basic American tenet. Now it's "torture and kill for Jesus."

I couldn't find the Common Dreams link, but I found this at the Huffy Post, also via Scahill:

Trying to convert Muslims to any other faith is a crime in Afghanistan. The fact that the video footage is being broadcast on Al Jazeera guarantees that it will be seen throughout the Muslim world. It is likely to add more credence to the perception that the US is engaging in a war on Islam with neo-crusader forces invading Muslim lands.

[...]

The video footage was shot about a year ago by documentary filmmaker Brian Hughes, who is also a former US soldier. "[US soldiers] weren't talking about learning how to speak Dari or Pashto, by reading the Bible and using that as the tool for language lessons," Hughes told Al Jazeera. "The only reason they would have these documents there was to distribute them to the Afghan people. And I knew it was wrong, and I knew that filming it ... documenting it would be important."
The broadcast of this video comes just days after a new poll of White Americans found that, in the US, church going Christians are more likely to support the use of torture than other segments of the population. The Pew Research Center poll found: "White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did."

I'm reminded of this video I came across recently, regarding proselytizing efforts in India. I know nothing about the context of this video, nor how representative it may or may not be of what's going on at a larger scale(the still image, though intriguing, is not representative either):



cross-posted at Dead Horse.

regarding Arthur Silber

Arthur Silber "The Power of Narrative" has a new series going, but he is also in bad shape financially, and has called out for assistance from his readers, so I'm noting this to encourage you to help him if you are in a position to.

Strike TV: "unknown sender"

from tubefilter:

" Strike.TV has finally launched. It’s been a while since the picket lines of striking WGA writers last winter where the idea of a video portal for professional writers (read: WGA writers) could have a place to showcase their original web series while also owning the rights to all content. The idea seemed simple enough. Writers would head out and rally together resources — celebrity actor friends, camera ops, editors, etc. — calling in all the favors and waivers they could manage..."

The ghost of Fred Marriott and other things...

Polish folk instrument sees revival
(01:47) Report
Apr 30 - A Polish artisan has reconstructed the prototype of a cord instrument used in the Middle Ages, but long since disappeared.

Proof of massive sea monster:(02:13) Rough Cut; Peter Parker reports.
Apr 3 - Just 800 miles (1287 km) from the North Pole, paleontologists believe they have found the fossilized remains of a massive sea monster that lived 150 million years ago.
Predator X -- a new species of a Pliosaur -- is said to have been the most dangerous creature to have lived under water. The creature was about 50 feet (15 meters) long, had a head ten feet (3 meters) long and jaws armed with teeth the size of cucumbers.

Dr. Jorn Hurum, and his team of paleontologists discovered Predator X in northern Norway last October and says the new species of a Pliosaur was more fearsome in power than the land-based Tyrannosaurus Rex.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. JORN HURUM, PALEONTOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY OF NORWAY

Cucumbers?



Steam car races toward record
(01:59) Report; Stuart McDill reports.

Apr. 24 - A British team is looking to beat a 103-year-old speed record with their steam powered car.