Sunday, July 14, 2013

22 deaths

National Iraqi News Agency reports a Baghdad bombing claimed 3 lives and left fifteen injured, a Baghdad bombing claimed 10 lives and left thirty-four injured, a Baquba bombing claimed 2 lives and seven injured, a Falluja armed attack claimed the life of 1 police officer and left two brothers injured, a Falluja IED left three people injured, a Baquba bombing (suicide bombing) left 2 police officers dead and 1 civilian dead (ten more people injured), a Kirkuk attack left 1 Iraqi soldier dead and another injured, a roadside bombing outside of Falluja left a father and child injured, a Hilla cab driver was shot dead, a Falluja bombing injured two soldiers, a Mosul roadside bombing claimed 1 life and left two injured, That's 22 reported deaths.

While many ignore the violence or pretend to, NINA notes Iraqiya MP Talal al-Zobaie declared, " al-Maliki bears responsibility of failing to develop security plans preserve the security of the citizen, especially the bombings that hit a number of governorates and some areas in Baghdad, which targeted football fields, cafes and mosque that claimed lives of innocents people."

The football fiELds have always been a target but that's only become more so as though the World Cup inspired a few fantasies.

In other news:

The Bat Sengudo Show continues to produce new episodes:

Messud! Min! Bell! Periel!

The Bat Segundo Show, the long-running cultural radio program devoted to informed conversations with today's authors and idiosyncratic thinkers, continues its renewed commitment to original points of inquiry and suprise segues with four new shows, which you can listen to for free!

This latest quartet includes the incomparable Claire Messud, where we unpack the "unlikable characters" debate and contemplate the future of fiction in the wiretapping age, the courageous Anchee Min, who discusses how she escaped oppression in China and made a life in America while working five jobs, a return visit from Periel Aschenbrand, one of our early guests, for some saucy banter and ribald revelations, and some titantic talk with literary beefcake Matt Bell, resulting in one of the most bizarre "Subjects Discussed" lists we've had in 2013.

Follow Your Ears

You can also listen to our sister program, Follow Your Ears, a thematic investigative program, during the last Tuesday of every month. We recently aired a one hour show examining the dangers of unemployment discrimination and the present unemployment rate through those who have been looking for work for a long time, distinguished professors, and policy experts. It all starts with a man in a basement. Go to the main site for more.
You can also find all of our FYE shows on SoundCloud.

Periel Aschenbrand

Go to the Show
Periel Aschenbrand was one of Bat Segundo’s first ten guests. We meet up with her for the first time in eight years, to discuss her latest memoir, On My Knees, thank you notes, being introduced to Philip Roth as a “great writer,” judging other people, demonizing relatives in a book, and dental hygienists who may have killed their spouses.. (57 mins.)

Matt Bell

Go to the Show
Matt Bell, author of In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, joins us for a wide-ranging discussion on how to encourage imagination, James Joyce lookalikes, labryinths in fiction and video games, Nethack, the problems with depicting the quotidian, and how language creates mystery. (1 hour, 3 mins.)

Anchee Min

Go to the Show

Anchee Min toiled in Chinese labor camps, was punished and labeled as an outcast, and escaped to America. This one hour conversation covers how she overcame hardships, stared down loneliness, found solace in Michael Jackson, worked five jobs, and made it as a bestselling novelist. (1 hour, 4 mins.)

The Common Ills