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Irrational America, Google vs. China, and Jill Filipovic
A year ago, we had a popular new president and the country seemed ready to make some major changes. Now, we've dissolved into anger, infighting, and the most cohesive group in the country at times seems to be the "tea party patriots." What happened to rational thought, reasonable argument, disputes that didn't end in name-calling and learning from those who disagree with us?
We ask Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason and contributor to the Washington Post, and Frank Schaeffer, author of Crazy for God and Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism), to talk about the problems with our politics, our discourse, our religious disputes, and why "moderates" don't get off the hook for this.
When he took office, Barack Obama promised to close the prison at Guantanamo within the year. This week, the anniversary of that promise brought a fresh round of protests at the capitol rotunda, since Guantanamo is still open. To mark another year of its existence, we thought we'd share some voices from those who've been inside. Thanks to the ACLU for this video.
From the Rainforest Action Network, we bring you this video on the destructive processes of harvesting palm oil. General Mills and Cargill destroy forests in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to harvest the oil, which makes it into many of the products and onto your breakfast table.
In recent weeks, the tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated in a strange place: cyberspace. Specifically, Google decided that it was no longer willing to continue censoring results on Google.cn, and may potentially shut down its operations in China. Google cited hacker attacks on human rights activists as its primary reason, but Tricia Wang, ethnographer and researcher of technology usage in low-income communities, and Alex Pasternack, editor of Motherboard.tv, note that there are plenty of other issues at play here: intellectual property, class issues within China, and more.
Jill Filipovic, editor at Feministe, weighs in on a recent decision by the New York State Bar Association to have an all-male panel of lawyers offer advice to women.
Republicans in Congress have been pushing for 100 new nuclear reactors--the first applications in 25 years started arriving in 2007. Longtime activist and author Judy Pasternak recently produced this report for the Real News Network on the continuing danger of nuclear power.
Finally, Laura asks Democrats to clarify what "security" spending is, anyway.
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By Irrational America, Google vs. China, and Jill Filipovic | guinea News Station on January 27th, 2010 at 8:05 am