Friday, March 24, 2006

Other Items

Within the next 100 years, the growing human influence on Earth's climate could lead to a long and irreversible rise in sea levels by eroding the planet's vast polar ice sheets, according to new observations and analysis by several teams of scientists.
One team, using computer models of climate and ice, found that by about 2100, average temperatures could be four degrees higher than today and that over the coming centuries, the oceans could rise 13 to 20 feet -- conditions last seen 129,000 years ago, between the last two ice ages.
The findings, being reported today in the journal Science, are consistent with other recent studies of melting and erosion at the poles. Many experts say there are still uncertainties about timing, extent and causes.
But Jonathan T. Overpeck of the University of Arizona, a lead author of one of the studies, said the new findings made a strong case for the danger of failing to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat in a greenhouselike effect.
"If we don't like the idea of flooding out New Orleans, major portions of South Florida, and many other valued parts of the coastal U.S.," Dr. Overpeck said, "we will have to commit soon to a major effort to stop most emissions of carbon to the atmosphere."

The above is from Andrew C. Revkin's "Climate Data Hint at Irreversible Rise in Seas" in this morning's New York Times (Brad noted it). One of the few articles worth noting in what's a very "skimpy on news" newspaper today.

When the DN! entry was done yesterday, The Black Commentator's latest edition hadn't gone up yet. Now that it has, we'll note Margaret Kimberley's "Let Iran Have the Bomb" (Freedom Rider, The Black Commentator):

On August 6, 1945 the United States killed over 100,000 men, women and children at Hiroshima, Japan with the newly invented atomic bomb. Three days later a second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Some victims were incinerated into thin air, others fled in agony with their skin hanging from their bodies. Thousands more died in the weeks, months and years that followed.
The justification for this horror is the usual one for blood thirsty behavior. We killed people in order to help them, a convenient explanation for the perpetrators.
In fact, large numbers of civilian casualties were not an incentive for the Japanese to surrender. The napalm fire bombing of Tokyo and other cities created similar numbers of casualties but the Japanese didn't surrender after those human catastrophes. More than likely the Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan motivated the raising of the white flag. The mass murder of thousands served only as a test for a new weapon, a horrific experiment in mass murder.
The United States is still the only nation to use an atomic weapon on human beings. Keep that fact in mind when we are whipped into a frenzy of fear regarding the possibility of Iran developing a nuclear weapon.
Every impartial observer of Iran's nuclear program agrees that it is at least five to ten years away from attaining a nuclear weapons capability. You wouldn't know it to hear members of Congress, the lapdog press and the Israeli government.

Keesha, Lewis and Carl all noted Kimberley's latest in their e-mails.

From Iran to Iraq, Denise notes Matthew Rothschild's "Press Conference Confessions" (This Just In, The Progressive):

OK, Bush finally fessed up: U.S. troops are going to be in Iraq after he's out of the Oval Office, a day that can’t come soon enough.
At his press conference on Tuesday, Bush let slip that it’s going to be up to "future Presidents" to decide when all the troops can come home.Hey, let the next one deal with it.
But I'm glad Mr. Mission Accomplished all but confessed that he'll never be able to accomplish the mission.
That should encourage more Americans to demand the withdrawal of our troops.As he's done so many times before, Bush suggested that there's another turning point coming right up: this time, the formation of the so-called unity government.
But that'll be as effective a turning point as all the other ones: the capture of Saddam, the killing of his sons Uday and Qusay, the handing over of power by Paul Bremer, the formation of the provisional government, or the two elections the Iraqis have had.

Lynda noted Katha Pollit's "Affirmative Action for White Men, Chap. 4,651" (The Notion, The Nation):

It isn't often that someone owns up to flagrant sex discrimination in the op-ed page of the New York Times, so I suppose we should be grateful to Kenyon College dean of admissions Jennifer Britz for her honesty. In "To All the Girls I've Rejected" she admits what many parents of girls suspect: Boys have an edge in college admissions. In order to preserve "gender balance" and avoid the dreaded "tipping point" of 60 percent female enrollment, which supposedly makes a campus less appealing to applicants of both sexes, Kenyon puts the thumb on the scale for boys. The villain? Why feminism, of course: "We have told today's young women that the world is their oyster: the problem is, so many of them believed us that the standards for admission to today's most selective colleges are stiffer for women than men. How's that for an unintended consequence of the women's liberation movement?" Right: if only more parents had discouraged their daughters' aspirations, Ms Britz wouldn't have to reject them now. Why not: if only more boys worked a little harder in high school they'd deserve a place at Kenyon?

Lynda noted that yesterday evening and it didn't fit in the scope of "And the war drags on . . . (Indymedia Roundup)" so we're noting it here. We'll note again that Pollitt's finishing up a book and (like Naomi Klein) is on a leave (of sorts since Pollitt is contributing to "The Notion" which is The Nation's latest blog).

Patricia J. Williams latest column, "Truth or Consequences" (Diary of a Mad Law Professor, The Nation), takes a sardonic look at Horowitz, et al.'s attempts to purge the campuses of those capable of actual thought:

OK, boys and girls, it's time for a pop quiz. Professional provocateur David Horowitz recently proclaimed that "there are 50,000 professors...who are anti-American, they're radicals, they identify with the terrorists, they think of them as freedom fighters. It's a huge danger for the country." If true, that would mean that of the approximately 400,000 tenured or tenure-track professors in the United States, about one in every eight is a threat to national security. And here we were worrying about terrorists sneaking in through Dubai Ports World! They're already among us, speaking our language, pretending to be neighbors, passing themselves off as citizens! Right here in River City!
Horowitz recommends that students use hidden recording devices to tape their teachers. He praises the high school student who secretly recorded Jay Bennish, his social studies teacher, comparing President Bush's foreign policies to those of Hitler.
But as a true patriot, I think we should expand the search for infidels. If it's that bad in the professoriate, why stop at schools? The percentage could be even higher in other professions. What, pray tell, are we doing about Volvo salesmen or Birkenstock wearers or chardonnay vintners? Who's recording them? And what of those who own French poodles?

That's the set up to a quiz that Brady advices "you don't want to miss." And speaking of things you don't want to miss, Democracy Now! -- remember to listen, watch or read today.

And we'll close by noting an e-mail that Susan wanted highlighted (you can sign up for alerts from The Nation, which is where this is from):

No document better frames and explains the 1960s than Tom Hayden's Port Huron Statement. A generational call for direct participatory democracy, it called for the extension of democratic principles to the workplace as well as the electoral arena. It opposed the dominance of the military-industrial complex and it held that greater democracy would lessen the alienation of the modern consumer society.
Recently re-released by Thunder's Mouth Press, the PHS continues to be relevant, both in diagnosing problems and prescribing prescriptions. Check out this new edition, which includes a lengthy new introduction by Hayden drawing the line from the past to the present.
You can also see Hayden talk about the PHS in a very special event with RadioNation's Laura Flanders and Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel next Thursday, March 30, at the venerable Strand Bookstore in lower Manhattan. He'll also be taking questions and signing copies.
Thursday, March 30, 6:30
The Strand Bookstore,
828 Broadway at 12th Street,
NYCFree of charge!,
NYC
Tom Hayden in conversation with Laura Flanders.
And, whether you can make it to the event or not, make sure to check out the Strand--one of NYC's legendary bookstores--next time you're in the area.
And all of you can listen to RadioNation with Laura Flanders this weekend. Broadcast each Saturday and Sunday from 7:00 to 10:00pm EST on the Air America Radio Network, and available for listening online, RadioNation also produces a one-hour version, which is provided free to noncommercial community and college stations.
This weekend's shows feature Chicago congressional candidate Christine Cegelis talking about what her narrow loss to Tammy Duckworth in the Democratic primary there means for growing progressive grassroots party activists, Nation contributor Esther Kaplan and Bitch magazine's Lisa Jervis dissecting the media outlets that wage the Right's war on women, Nation writer David Moberg discussing GM's historic buyouts, Grist magazine's Kathryn Schultz detailing the link between poverty and pollution, and playwright Peter Morris on Guardians', a new play on politics, morality and Abu Ghraib. All that and more, on RadioNation w/ Laura Flanders this weekend.

I only thought we were done. Ask something and a member can find it. Julia notes the following from HowardZinn.org (and note one event is this evening, the other tomorrow):

An evening of dramatic readings from Voices of a People's History of the United States:
Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove introduce and narrate an evening of dramatic readings from Voices of a People's History of the United States,
Friday, March 24,
6:30 PM,
at Cooper Union's Great Hall,
7 East 7th Street,
New York, NY.
With Kurt Vonnegut, Erin Cherry, Brian Jones, Opal Alladin, Deepa Fernandes, Andre Gregory, Suheir Hammad, Neal Huff, and Brenda Coughlin. Free.

On Saturday:
Book launch for Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal:
Join Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove for the launch of Arnove's new book Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, with foreword and afterword by Zinn.
Introduction by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!
Saturday, March 25,
1 PM,
at Quaker Friends Meeting House
15 Rutherford Place (at 15th Street),
New York, NY.
Suggested donation $5/$10.
About the book: Howard Zinn’s book Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, though it appeared five years before the United States eventually abandoned that war, argued with remarkable foresight that getting out was the only realistic option. Now, nearly forty years later, the United States is once again involved in a seemingly intractable foreign conflict. And, following in the footsteps of Zinn, Anthony Arnove (his co-editor on the widely acclaimed Voices of a People’s History of the United States) has written a book that will likely prove equally prescient.
Arnove sets out a compelling case for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Countering widespread arguments made in support of the occupation by conservatives and liberals alike, Arnove insists that the U.S. presence is the major source of instability and suffering for the Iraqi people. He challenges the idea that George W. Bush has ever been interested in bringing democracy to the country and explores the real reasons behind the invasion, which centrally involve control over strategic Middle Eastern energy resources. And he sets out a constructive vision for the antiwar movement, one that involves soldiers, military families, and the many communities affected by the occupation, who together can build a coalition to bring the troops home.
Praise for the book:
"An urgent book."-Arundhati Roy
"A powerful and compelling argument on behalf of withdrawal from Iraq."-Ron Kovic
"Anthony Arnove's analysis of the reasons for U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq is brilliant."-Cindy Sheehan
"A book that every American, regardless of political viewpoint, should read."-Richard Falk
"A compelling brief against America's new imperial venture."-Frances Fox Piven
"An impassioned, unflinching case for immediate U.S. withdrawal. Read this book and bring the troops home now."-Eve Ensler
For more information on the book, click here.To catch Anthony Arnove and Howard Zinn at other stops on the "Out Now!" tour, visit http://www.thenewpress.com/.

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