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Abuse in the Teen Rehab Industry
2007-11-09 04:58:00
In 2005, the U.S. Government Accountability Office was asked to investigate the allegations of child abuse and neglect at residential "treatment centres" (also commonly known as "boot camps," "wilderness programs," or "behavior modification facilities"), including the deaths of 10 children. As mentioned before, these horrible places abuse kids on the parents' dollar. The report (PDF) just came out. From USA today:The congressional investigative agency selected 10 deaths to examine in depth and found reckless practices, inadequate training and misleading marketing. It also found what Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., called "horrific" examples of abuse.Other common problems included:? Ineffective management? Untrained staff? Inadequate nourishment? Reckless or negligent operating practices? Inadequate equipment The agency is examining how such facilities are regulated and is expected to make recommendations next year.Red Jenny
More About: Abuse , Rehab , Industry

Lib Lit: Progressive Partisan Fiction
2007-11-07 19:52:00
An article in the magazine Steve took home referred to a Canadian policeman who had died in Haiti. It stated that the police officer had died "for Haiti."At home, Steve greeted Ming who was in the living room editing their latest "Action Alert." Steve immediately emailed the author of the magazine article."Didn't you mean to write that the officer died 'in Haiti' rather than 'for Haiti'?" he asked.The reporter replied promptly and initially attempted to argue that there was no difference between writing "for Haiti" or "in Haiti." Steve replied asking if the reporter would write that the 9-11 hijackers died "for the US." The reporter then claimed that he had written "for Haiti" out of respect for the officer's family.Steve replied: "What about the families of the people murdered by Canada's allies in Haiti? Why must respect for the policeman's family involve misleading people about our crimes in Haiti and negating the humanity of our victims?"Steve received no further reply.E...
More About: Progressive , Fiction , Artis

Young Iraqis Blogging
2007-11-05 17:57:00
From Sunshine, a 15 year old Iraqi girl:Last night, I stayed awake, I am suffering from insomnia, there are a lot of things I think about, and most of the days I don't sleep immediately I spend an hour or two laying till I sleep, I walked towards the window and was watching the neighborhood, it was dark (the electricity was off), empty, and scary, like a ghost city, and I started to remember how crowded my neighborhood and it's street were, I am glad I didn?t forget that, anyway I came back to my bed and there was sound of far shelling, after an hour or two, mortars erupted from the neighborhood , and we heard 3 near by explosions..more>From A Star from Mosul, written by a young woman who is an engineering student:When my cousin drives me, I feel the need to keep talking, I just hate the silence. But because of my deep depression, and to keep myself from crying, I didn't talk much this time.. I concentrated on the road, something I rarely do (I still haven't learned the way to m...
More About: Blogging , Young

The Politics of Historicism
2007-11-03 15:12:00
Historicism enabled European domination of the world in the nineteenth century... [It] posited historical time as a measure of the cultural distance (at least in institutional development) that was assumed to exist betwen the West and the non-West. ...Historicism - and even the modern, European idea of history - one might say, came to non-European peoples as somebody's way of saying "not yet" to somebody else. Consider the classical liberal but historicist essays by John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty" and "On Representative Government," both of which proclaimed self-rule as the highest form of government and yet argued against giving Indians or Africans self-rule on grounds that were indeed historicist. According to Mill, Indians or Africans were not yet civilized enough to rule themselves. Some historical time of development and civilization (colonial rule and education, to be precise) had to elapse before they could be considered prepared for such a task. Mill's historicist argumen...
More About: Politics , Politic

Interesting maps of income and voting patterns in the USA
2007-11-01 03:38:00
Immediately apparent is that if the poor had all the votes, Bush would have lost in 2002 - even in many "red states". To paraphrase Krugman, contrary to popular myth, The Democrats' base isn't the "latte liberals". More interesting graphs and analysis here.Via Creative ClassRed Jenny
More About: Interesting , Income , Maps , Voting , Patterns

Tories say "nanner nanner" to Scary Veiled Women
2007-10-30 02:14:00
New bill to ban veiled votersOctober 27, 2007OTTAWA -- The Harper government yesterday introduced legislation requiring all voters - including veiled Muslim women - to show their faces before being allowed to cast ballots in federal elections.This same manufactured controversy is getting old. Do I have to bring out the parable of the old lady and the biker again?Some sectors of the population just love it when the mainstream legitimizes their bigotry. And politicians long ago discovered that they earn popularity points with them whenever they do or say something against marginalized minorities. Scapegoating can be good for the polls. The power differential means the bullies can have their way; how many Muslim women will get to vote on this bill?Red Jenny
More About: Women , Scary , Tories

And I Thought my Bike Commute was Bad
2007-10-26 03:56:00
Every time I travel on somewhere my bike I experience the heart-pounding feeling of impending death, and plenty of frustration. It seems Torontonians, especially the uptownians, have not yet realized their beloved car culture is dying. My bike commute usually consists of at least a handful of the following: people honking randomly at me as if to say "what are you doing on MY ROAD?", the delivery vehicles in the bike lanes, the cars stopped in the no-stopping-zones, the drivers too lazy to signal their lane change, the three or four cars that go through every red light, and the bike lanes with a 4 lanes of traffic and a raises streetcar right-of-way in the middle (St. Clair & Poplar Plains). Or I get caught in traffic because some impatient yahoo in a huge car wondering what's the blockage ahead (not considering that the blockage is more huge CARS) has to pull all the way over to the right to have a look, leaving not enough inches for wee little me and my wee little bike to get thro...
More About: Bike , Thought , Commute , Mute

For One Brief, Shining Moment...
2007-10-26 02:49:00
... I came up in the Google blog search under "Laura Bush Breast". I had a whole bunch of perverts find this post on Laura Bush's breast cancer tour. I guess they were disappointed. I'm afraid it wasn't very sexy, what with the lack of boobs and all. Here, try these posts instead.Red Jenny
More About: Moment , Shining , Brief

White Woman in a Pant Suit Rescues the Dark Masses
2007-10-24 01:33:00
This article which I noticed while writing my last post annoyed me so much I though it deserved its own post. Laura Bush helps women in Saudi ArabiaFirst lady Laura Bush helped launch a screening facility in Saudi Arabia Tuesday as part of a U.S.-Saudi initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in the kingdom where doctors struggle to break long-held taboos about the disease.Bush's trip to Saudi Arabia, her first to the oil-rich kingdom, is part of a regional tour that aims to highlight the need for countries to share resources and unite in the fight against breast cancer."Breast cancer does not respect national boundaries, which is why people from every country must share their knowledge, resources and experience to protect women from this disease," Bush said in a speech at the King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh.Course we don't expect American pharmaceutical companies to share their knowledge, resources, and treatment drugs. "The cure for breast cancer can come from a researcher ...
More About: White , Dark , Woman , The Dark , Suit

Women Being Kidnapped and Sexually Exploited: Oh That's So Odd and Quirky
2007-10-24 00:55:00
In recent news of the odd, a man in a position of power extorts sexual favours from women prisoners in exchange for candy. Another man kidnaps a Malaysian woman who turns down his marriage proposal. Haha, that's so odd, so trivial, good for a laugh or two before I go read the real news. You know, the important stuff:Amazon.com makes lots of money. O.J. Simpson blah blah blah. AT&T makes lots of money. Laura Bush raises breast cancer awareness in Saudi Arabia. New York Times makes lots of money. Via Shakesville, with this comment:I don't understand why I need to explain why a woman being kidnapped should not be filed under "odd news," but, because I evidently do, here's the lowdown (again): In recent months, I've read under the heading of "Odd News" stories about a man branding his wife with a hot iron, a man coercing his wife into having plastic surgery to look like his deceased first wife, wives/girlfriends/exes being held against their will in various "odd" places including a...
More About: Women , Kidnapped , Ally

Terrorism as a Rational Act of Resistance
2007-10-21 22:55:00
I'm tired of hearing people say that suicide bombing and other such acts of terrorism are irrational. There are many ways to opine about suicide bombing: we can be morally opposed to the specific tactic, we can support it in theory but oppose it in practice, we can be opposed to the ideology behind it, we can support it in some circumstances and not others, we can armchair speculate about its effectiveness, etc. But we cannot really say that it is an irrational tactic. Resistance ranges from demonstrations, riots, general strikes, petitions, destruction of property or symbols, and "everyday forms of resistance" such as false compliance, theft, sabotage, foot dragging, popular discourse, etc. Acts of violent resistance are simply one other tactic, and potentially a powerful one, for the weak to influence the strong. As such, they are as rational as any other tactic. Irrational would mean there was no reason behind the act, that it was a senseless act of violence for no purpose. But ...
More About: Terrorism , Rational

Jena Six Hearing Video
2007-10-19 03:29:00
Best line:Don't we have a system that is essentially using the criminal justice system to do what the Jim Crow system did in the past? Isn't it just an extension?Via Automatic PreferenceRed Jenny
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Guess Who's Running for US President?
2007-10-17 15:44:00
Hint: last week, before he announced his candidacy, he said:I am not ready to announce yet ? even though it's clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative.It's true. Stephen Colbert is running for '08.He'll be almost as good as this guy.In other breaking news (via PoliticsPlus) Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters.Red Jenny
More About: Running , President , Guess Who , Guess , Resident

Blogging Against Environmental Apartheid
2007-10-16 01:13:00
Today is some kind of blogging for the environment blog action day. So in that spirit, here are some excerpts from a speech by Van Jones (I've seen him - he is an amazing speaker): "Spiritually Fulfilling, Ecologically Sustainable AND Socially Just?" I want to suggest that there's a communication problem and there are two things that are happening. Number one: it's just very, very hard for white people to hear the pain of the subjugated people in this country. ...So we live together in these bubbles that touch, and we call that diversity, but we don't know each other. And when that bubble breaks for just a second and we're face to face with each other, it's very, very hard to hear that reality. But white supremacy, to use the provocative term, will reinterpret that experience for you; and make it not be about your inability to hear, but be about other people's inability to speak. This is one of the most remarkable things: if you can get this, all doors open. There is t...
More About: Environmental , Blogging , Envi

Update: Burma - It's not good news
2007-10-12 03:07:00
Harrowing accounts smuggled out of Burma reveal how a systematic campaign of physical punishment and psychological terror is being waged by the Burmese security forces as they take revenge on those suspected of involvement in last month?s pro-democracy uprising.The first-hand accounts describe a campaign hidden from view, but even more sinister and terrifying than the open crackdown in which the regime?s soldiers turned their bullets and batons on unarmed demonstrators in the streets of Rangoon, killing at least 13. At least then, the world was watching.Read all about it here.Red Jenny
More About: News , Good News , Update , Good

Nothing Like Commemorating a Revolutionary Leader by Slapping his Face on a
2007-10-10 02:23:00
Photo from BBC... 40 years after his death, Che - born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna - is as much a marketing tool as an international revolutionary icon. Which raises the question of what exactly does the sheer proliferation of his image - the distant gaze, the scraggly beard and the beret adorned with a star - mean in a decidedly capitalist world? Common Dreams>Red Jenny
More About: Face , Revolutionary , Leader , Mora

My Last Conversation With Aung San Suu Kyi
2007-10-05 17:21:00
By John Pilger, on Znet:As the people of Burma rise up again, we have had a rare sighting of Aung San Suu Kyi. There she stood, at the back gate of her lakeside home in Rangoon, where she is under house arrest. She looked very thin. For years, people would brave the roadblocks just to pass by her house and be reassured by the sound of her playing the piano. She told me she would lie awake listening for voices outside and to the thumping of her heart. "I found it difficult to breathe lying on my back after I became ill, she said." That was a decade ago. Stealing into her house, as I did then, required all the ingenuity of the Burmese underground. My film-making partner David Munro and I were greeted by her assistant, Win Htein, who had spent six years in prison, five of them in solitary confinement. Yet his face was open and his handshake warm. He led us into the house, a stately pile fallen on hard times. The garden with its ragged palms falls down to Inya Lake and to a trip wire, a...
More About: Conversation

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People
2007-10-05 00:19:00
Playing this weekend at The Brunswick Theatre in Toronto, Reel Bad Arab s shows the persistence of negative stereotypes of Arabs in film and the effect it has had in dehumanizing Arabs and Arab culture.Also a shorter trailer here. Also check out the trailer for Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working ClassRed Jenny
More About: Hollywood , People

Make Me a Reading List - Open Thread
2007-10-04 18:29:00
I've been so busy lately I've been unable to do the rounds and visit all of my favourite blogs. So I invite you to help me prioritize. Leave a comment with one of your most important recent blog posts with a short description, and, time permitting, I will visit it. Hooray for free links! Thanks everyone!In return, here are a couple of comics relating to Bush's veto of the children's health insurance bill:Red Jenny
More About: Reading , Open , List , Make , Thread

The end of civilization as we know it!
2007-10-03 15:10:00
This funny video comes to us from Vote for MMP. Only 2:16 long. If you like it, rate it 5 stars and favourite it. We've only got a week left 'til the referendum.Just in case you need more information, here's Ten Reasons to Vote for Mixed Member Proportional (MMP).Red Jenny
More About: Civilization

Sending Good Vibes for Alabama
2007-10-02 03:33:00
I'm thinking of starting a new charity. I think I'll name it Magic Wands for Montgomery. Or maybeBunnies for Birmingham.This is necessary because, sadly for Alabamians, the sale of sex toys has been illegal in Alabama for 9 years (something that is unlikely to change following The United States Supreme Court's recent refusal to hear the case). An adult-store owner had asked the justices to throw out the law as an unconstitutional intrusion into the privacy of the bedroom. But the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, leaving intact a lower court ruling that upheld the law. Sherri Williams, owner of Pleasures stores in Huntsville and Decatur, said she was disappointed, but plans to sue again on First Amendment free speech grounds. "My motto has been they are going to have to pry this vibrator from my cold, dead hand. I refuse to give up," she said. Alabama's anti-obscenity law, enacted in 1998, bans the distribution of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for...
More About: Vibes , Good , Sending , Vibe

Happy 800 Birthday, Rumi
2007-10-01 04:13:00
Today is the 800th anniversary of the birth of the great Sufi poet Rumi . An interesting article on Rumi in Afghanistan here If anyone asks youhow the perfect satisfactionof all our sexual wantingwill look, lift your faceand say,Like this.When someone mentions the gracefulnessof the nightsky, climb up on the roofand dance and say,Like this.If anyone wants to know what "spirit" is,or what "God?s fragrance" means,lean your head toward him or her.Keep your face there close.Like this.When someone quotes the old poetic imageabout clouds gradually uncovering the moon,slowly loosen knot by knot the stringsof your robe.Like this.Excerpt from Like This. Illustration by ERIK VILET, from Rending the Veil.Red Jenny
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Troops refuse to fire in Rangoon - Possible army mutiny?
2007-09-29 05:38:00
The best outcome we could hope for in Burma would probably be if the soldiers were won over. That would be in keeping with the peaceful Buddhist ideals. Whether or not this is a real possibility has been debated by many others far more knowledgeable than me, but the reality is nobody knows. However, if this is true, it looks promising:Reports from Rangoon suggest soldiers are mutinying. It is unclear the numbers involved. Reports cite heavy shooting in the former Burmese capital.The organisation Helfen ohne Grenzen (Help without Frontiers) is reporting that "Soldiers from the 66th LID (Light Infantry Divison) have turned their weapons against other government troops and possibly police in North Okkalappa township in Rangoon and are defending the protesters. At present unsure how many soldiers involved." Soldiers in Mandalay, where unrest has spread to as we reported this morning, are also reported to have refused orders to act against protesters.Some reports claim that many soldiers...
More About: Army , Fire , Troops , Ossi

Winners of the "Latin America and the Millennium Development Goals" Journal
2007-09-28 23:36:00
Daniel San Juan Tolentino dug his own grave. A pile of earth fell on him and buried him. First Prize was awarded to this article on child labourers in Mexico. The quote is from one of the stories in the article, and refers to a 12-year old boy who was digging a ditch to prevent floods in the field where he worked. He was buried by an avalanche of mud. None of the daily rituals carried out by 26-year-old biology student Flávia Santiago, who is seven months pregnant and anxiously awaiting the birth of her first child, was ever experienced by Nadja Batista Borges, 29, who dropped out of primary school in the third grade. She, too, is pregnant. But with her seventh child.They probably love their babies equally. The difference lies in their addresses. Nadja lives in a 'favela' (shantytown) of Santo Amaro. Flávia lives with her husband in a comfortable apartment [in a well-off neighbourhood]. This quote is from the second place article about women and motherhood in Brazil, "Faces da ma...
More About: America , Journal , Development , Latin America , Goals

Because War Just Isn't Enough...
2007-09-26 17:06:00
As if invasion, occupation, destruction of infrastructure, unemployment, poverty, and displacement aren't enough... now they've got cholera, a truly horible and deadly disease.You know, if the American military had any intention of actually trying to win "hearts and minds", they might consider nutritious food and clean water as a start, rather than, say, this.Red Jenny

The Shape of a Mother
2007-09-25 17:13:00
The Shape of a Mother shows the beauty of the female form during and post pregnancy. One day I sat in a restaurant in Anaheim, California eating breakfast, when a woman passed by my table with her infant carrier in tow. As she lifted it up to fit between the tables, her shirt raised and I saw that, although she was at a healthy weight and her body was fit, she had that same extra skin hanging around her belly that I do. It occurred to me that a post-pregnancy body is one of this society's greatest secrets...I don't know about you but I think the photo on the right is absolutely gorgeous. You can see the life weight of her heavy breast and the aesthetic texture of her stretch marks. Whereas this photo is artistic, most of the other photos are more like snapshots. There are photos of lovely round bellies, babies, and stretch marks. This is a very cool site. Check it out. Reminds me of another really interesting project which shows photographs of normal breasts (Obviously NSFW).(Via ...

Media Face Off: OJ Takes on the Jena Six
2007-09-25 00:48:00
I watched television news this weekend. Typically I get my news online, or from a newspaper, but rarely from television. I think I forgot how limited and misleading TV news tends to be. I'm sure some experts have theories about why this is, but all I know is it is worse than print media. I was shocked to see no coverage at all of the Jena 6.So I thought I'd do a little experiment, to see whether the newsies think people are more interested in OJ Simpson, or in a new chapter in the ongoing struggle for African American civil rights.Google News (which is a highly balanced aggregator of diverse sources), offers me 15,599 results for OJ Simpson.How did the Jena 6 fare? Well, Google informs me there are 3,465 pieces. Apparently OJ's antics are just that much more interesting.This of course should lead any thinking person to question why one is considered newsworthy and the other is not. See my first Media Face Off: China's Stock Market vs. Migrant Workers.Red Jenny
More About: Jena Six , Face Off

The Revolution Will Not Be Motorized: Tomorrow is World Carfree Day
2007-09-21 19:29:00
Plan to be in Toronto this weekend? Check out the World Carfree Day festivities on Queen Street West.Why not have a parking meter party around 1:00 pm? Here's how:Scout out a parking spot where you'd like to spend the afternoonPark your non-motorized "vehicle" (bike, trike, roller-skates, dinky-car etc.) along Queen WestPay the meter: for $1.50 per hour the spot is yours! (Be sure to display your parking receipt on the "dash" of your "vehicle")Or, go a-paradin' at 6:00. Meet at 5:00 at Trinity-Bellwoods park. One tip: I don't suggest driving down to the parade (or if you have no other method of transportation, why not consider one of these). More festivities on Sunday. Details here and hereIf you feel so inclined check out these related links:Do Motorists in the US Pay Their Own Way? No. They are subsidized by taxpayers. Check out the UC Davis study (PDF) that proves it. Bookmark it for use the next time some taxpaying motorist complains about subsidizing public transit.And, yes...
More About: Revolution , Tomorrow , Motorized , The Revolution

Why I Am Not an Objectivist, #2311
2007-09-20 00:33:00
Ayn Rand on the theft of Native American Lands:They didn't have any rights to the land, and there was no reason for anyone to grant them rights which they had not conceived and were not using . . . . What was it that they were fighting for, when they opposed white men on this continent? For their wish to continue a primitive existence, their 'right' to keep part of the earth untouched, unused and not even as property, but just keep everybody out so that you will live practically like an animal, or a few caves above it. Any white person who brings the element of civilization has the right to take over this continent. Lawyers, Gun$ and Money> Hmm... Greenspan hearts Rand. Probably thinks they Iraqis live like animals in caves, too. Which is why the civilized Americans need to liberate their oil. Well, as long as we are all as selfish and greedy as possible, it will all work out in the end, right? ...right?Red Jenny

The Politics of Solidarity: Six Nations, Leadership, and the Settler Left
2007-09-16 16:06:00
The European settlers who colonized most of North America, were themselves uprooted from the land through capitalist enclosure and the commodification of land and labour ? a process later exported to the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the rest of the world. By becoming small farmers and independent commodity producers in the early stages of Canadian development, poor and working class settlers in North America clearly benefited from the theft of indigenous lands. However, over the past 100 years, capitalism has extended and intensified its reach. Non-native people have become increasingly concentrated in large cities (Canada has the most urbanized population per capita in the world) and have been integrated into the capitalist system as workers. Because of the inherently exploitative dynamics of capitalism, workers in North America have faced a decline in living standards since the neo-liberal offensive of the late 1970s.As William Robinson has argued, the contemporary resur...
More About: Politics , Leadership , Nations , Left , Lead