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This page was initially drafted on 31 July 1998 as a selection of the best links from the Robot Wisdom Weblog archives. A few layers of refinement have been added since then, with the aim of gradually constructing a concise introduction to net.literacy on each of these topics. So stay tuned!
The greatest thing about the Internet is the way it bypasses corporate priorities, and presents the other side of all news stories. Millionaire-journalists can't be trusted to challenge the system that's treating them so well!
Americans have been deceived into genuinely believing that the USA is the good guy on the international stage. If you still believe it, Noam Chomsky or Michael Parenti are the people I recommend for the counter-evidence.
Parenti's style is much more passionate than Chomsky's, but his works are much less available on the Net. If you can handle 8-minute RealAudio clips, these convey his passion best.
Chomsky's huge, dry archive is here. A much more accessible intro to Chomsky is the movie of "Manufacturing Consent". He also shows up on C-SPAN occasionally.
Basically, American foreign policy is dedicated to guaranteeing that the world's resources will enrich the owner-class, and to demonizing and destabilising any leaders (Castro, Qaddafi) who try to redistribute that wealth more fairly. This is pretty obvious to most of the rest of the world.
The recent (Jul98) rejection by the USA of the UN's international criminal court was not an odd fluke-- Clinton and Bush themselves could be tried for war crimes, and hopefully will be.
Search recent world editorials:
The progressive agenda is pretty well agreed on, with certain exceptions. (The Nation weighs those exceptions.) The newsgroup misc.activism.progressive serves as a clearinghouse for hundreds of updates a week, on every imaginable topic, from sources all around the world. NPR doesn't measure up. Pacifica does (in RealAudio, 30 mins/day, conveniently broken into separate stories, two years of online archives). Even Pacifica is under fire lately for drifting right. Find your local Pacifica station.
An excellent progressive portal called Common Dreams includes news headlines
Unfortunately, the tone that progressives take leans towards guilt-tripping, and can be an extreme downer if it's not leavened with passion and wit. (That's what makes Parenti such a treasure, and Limbaugh such a danger. Shock-jocks (etc) have a huge following on the newsgroups: Imus, Limbaugh, Howard Stern.)
I think the critical factor is the liberals' rejection of anger, leading quickly to tedium. Mother Jones and the New Republic are both failures here, imho, while The Nation keeps the flame alive. You can search the Nation's archive from here:
Another problem, discussed in this Nation essay, is that the progressive laundry-list of causes is too huge and un-prioritised.
Government is supposed to be funding projects for the common good. It's supposed to be raising the quality of life and giving our kids a hopeful future. It's supposed to be distributing the tax burden fairly. It's supposed to be encouraging humanity and discouraging inhumanity.
Instead, it's flooding the world with hi-tech death, raping nature, persecuting the free, and rewarding those most heartless.
One of the strongest and strangest areas of disagreement among progressives is in tolerance for Clinton. Dualistic thinkers automatically associate anti-Clinton attitudes with the right wing, but Clinton's record on human rights is as bad as any president's in this century.
Sam Smith's Progressive Review is one of the few sites that's consistently tracked Clinton's betrayals of the left, and he has a huge sorted archive of details that proves this. Another psychoanalysis of Clinton
Our economy is based on a subsidized weapons industry flooding the world with more and more deadly arms, and a drug war that amounts to genocide against blacks and hispanics. The connection between these two is vividly presented in Gary Webb's Dark Alliance series on how the CIA's policy was to look the other way if Contras smuggled coke. Robert Parry's Consortium also has good coverage of this, but best of all is Webb's new book (same title).
Webb's reporting was the first greatr demonstration of the power of the WWWeb to break a story internationally. His editor, Jerry Ceppos, eventually let himself be pressured into a false recantation, after a smear campaign begun at the Washington Post and picked up by the NY Times and LA Times. Some background
The Nation has a long, appalling, worth-reading-to-the-end piece on prisons for profit
One of the most serious problems we face is the power of corporations, and the difficulty in holding them responsible for their crimes. A nicely done historical argument against corporations
The McLibel trial is one of the most heroic efforts, with two penniless activists defending themselves for five years against McDonalds and its billions, for the ridiculous 'crime' of distributing brochures criticising McDonalds' corporate irresponsibility.
There's a book on the trial that's a must-read, but their extensive web coverage is next best.
This nifty little 'hoo for activists includes 25 links about Julia Butterfly: http://www.proactivist.com/links/
AIDS Awareness (10) Alternative Lifestyles (1) Animal Rights (7) Art (2) Calendar of Progressive Events (5) Cassini (5) Censorship (8) Children and Teens (9) Consumer Issues (3) Corporate Abuse (15) Death Penalty (4) Disabilities (3) Economics (8) Employment (4) Environment (18) Experiental Education (9) Feminism (16) Gay and Lesbian (10) Government Reform (4) Grants and Funding (3) Gun Control (4) Healthcare (5) Housing and Homelessness (15) Human Rights (18) Humor (10) Hunger and Poverty (6) Indigenous Peoples (9) Information and Resources (7) Investing (1) Iraq and the Gulf War (11) Julia Butterfly Hill and the Luna Tree Sit (25) Labor (10) Land Mines (5) Law (4) Marxism and Socialism (1) Medical Aid (3) Mens Groups (3) Miscellaneous Issues (9) Movies and TV (12) News and Media (21) Nuclear Power (2) Organic Foods and Gardening (2) Organizing (7) Ozone Depletion (1) Peace and Disarmament (17) Political Parties (2) Progressive and Liberal Ideology (3) Racism (8) Rape and Domestic Violence (6) Recycling (6) Religion and Spirituality (13) Reproductive Rights (6) Separation of Church and State (3) Solar Power (3) Student Activism (19) Taxes (3) Toxic Chemicals and Waste (4) Vegetarianism (12) Water Pollution (1) Welfare (6)
If you can handle 2 hours of streaming RealAudio, there's a great Chicago public affairs show called This is Hell every Saturday morning from 10am to noon. Funny abrasive progressives, doing news commentary and phone interviews with activist heroes including Gary Webb and April Oliver.
The Obsever launches a Human Rights Index
The upside of the Republican revolution is renewed activism at the state level
PR strategies and tactics to defuse activism
Another excellent speaker like Michael Parenti is Chuck Collins of UFE/Share-the-Wealth. Here's a page about their guerrilla theater group and their organisation for renouncing wealth.
The Nation celebrates the Columbus town meeting
Carolyn Chute's Wicked Good Militia
Augusto Boal's theatrical activism
Emailing congresspeople is worthless unless you declare you reside in their districts
An inspiring story of web activism against 'correctional boarding schools'
How to implement activist websites
Voter-info online
An archive of 500+ "progressive, activist, community-based, non-corporate" RealVideo and Audio shows
A brilliant initiative to let communities calculate their own quality of life
Start your own micronation. Maybe on a ship?
Friday's Congressional Record is already online
A scary, exhilarating look at a lean, mean, downsized university system
Lots of free legal advice from a reputable publisher
20 things you should know before suing your employer. Or before using your website to http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19981027S0016">advocate violence
And a moving book review about the early civil rights movement
What is an NGO? http://www.foxnews.com/news/national/1107/d_ap_1107_91.sml
alt.fan.jello-biafra, alt.fan.noam-chomsky
leftist activism: alt.activism, alt.activism.d, alt.politics.greens, alt.community.intentional, alt.housing.nontrad, alt.native, alt.org.food-not-bombs, alt.org.pugwash, alt.society.neutopia, soc.rights.human, trial.talk.politics.peace, alt.culture.jamming, rec.food.veg, rec.food.veg.cooking, misc.activism.progressive, alt.co-ops
rightwing issues: alt.individualism, alt.mindcontrol, alt.philosophy.objectivism, alt.society.resistance, alt.society.revolution, alt.survival, soc.politics.arms-d, soc.veterans, talk.politics.guns, rec.guns, alt.radio.uk.talk-radio, misc.survivalism, alt.skinheads, alt.skinheads.moderated, misc.activism.militia
underclass issues: soc.culture.african.american, alt.discrimination, alt.rodney-king, alt.society.labor-unions, alt.underclass.org
service organisations:
alt.org.jaycees,
soc.org.nonprofit,
soc.org.service-clubs.misc,
bit.org.peace-corps,
alt.peace-corps
Poison-manufacturer uses NAFTA to sue Canada. The science behind the Canadian NAFTA gas-additive suit
Ralph Nader savaged the IMF before Congress last week: [long, devastating] [Deja URL part1] [Deja URL part2]
The Irish Times has a gentle FAQ about the euro changeover
Norman Solomon calculates campaign spending per vote delivered: [Deja URL]
A disheartening gaze at lobbyists
The Progressive Review takes a righteous stand for proportional representation, along with their regular tidbits:
James Ridgeway fingers the top three mega-conglomerates in seven different sectors, in a series of hi-info tables
Greider on military waste: http://cnn.com/books/beginnings/9812/fortress.america/index.html
Michael Parenti is a GREAT political speaker who's put out a lot of tapes (fragments on the net in RealAudio format, if you can handle that). His newest book, "Blackshirts and Reds", is an attempt to rehabilitate communism. Preface
This site also offers the book's first chapter, documenting the forgotten story of how Mussolini and Hitler were funded by rich capitalists, to crush the labor movement.
And there's a horrendous compilation of the statistics of American misery ("37,000,000 regularly use emotion controlling medical drugs")
And a nice dismantling of the myth of free speech in the USA
The three online chapters of his "Against Empire" give a taut portrait of recent US imperialism
Mike Gallagher's censored series on Chiquita
The CIA used Xerox copiers for 60s spying
Covert Action Quarterly (which watches the watchmen) has probably the best archive of political exposes (well-researched, well-written, fearless)
An utterly horrifying long piece on the School-of-the-Americas' torture training (US-funded, US-hosted, US-designed)
A long, detailed history of US covert ops, especially in Central America, by Philip Agee
There's a database in Arkansas that's tracking down every detail it can on you, part two, part three
Special New Scientist report on bioterrorism
Since 1956, the NSA has had a secret deal with the Swiss company that supplies the world with crypto
How supermarkets track purchases
Terrifying CIA site for kids
The Nation features Edward Said on Palestine
That reverse-engineering law would be far worse than I realised
Chris Hitchens fetes nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
A surprisingly lively-looking webzine called Federal Computer Week advocates CIA PhotoShop pranking
Details on NJ's smartcard driver-ID
US policy on Indonesia as an extension of the Indian wars
I've wanted a timeline on CIA-Contra-crack
alt.politics.org.batf, alt.politics.org.ccr, alt.politics.org.cia, alt.politics.org.covert, alt.politics.org.fbi, alt.politics.org.misc, alt.politics.org.nsa, alt.politics.org.suopo
conspiracy theories princess di cnn sarin tailwind twa800 waco rules of engagement holocaust museum chiquita
Limited time offer: original Chiquita articles here: [300k textfile]
The Oscar-nominated Waco documentary is critiqued here, with full transcript, by a party who thinks it doesn't go far enough
Susan Faludi (the feminist) wants to interview men about the Waco holocaust as a broken American promise You can read a background interview with her
Someone has pirated the infamous Turner Diaries (McVeigh's racist handbook)
Expose on an especially medieval branch of the prisons-for-profit scam, by DC Dave
James Ridgeway reviews 17 of the most suspicious bodies in the Clinton Body Count
Supposedly Clinton's illegitimate son
Diana conspiracy theories: [Deja URL]
An incredible hour-by-hour reconstruction of Diana's last day, from a LaRouchite perspective: [Deja URL]
The Vatican massacre presents serious mysteries
Unabomber handwriting scan from an interesting archive of documentary evidence. Another scan, of a flowchart for Customs' searches.
Frederick Crews wittily decimates the UFO industry
A well-designed Skeptic's Dictionary
alt.conspiracy, alt.conspiracy.abe-lincoln, alt.conspiracy.area51, alt.conspiracy.jfk, alt.conspiracy.nhs
alt.freemasonry,
alt.illuminati,
alt.masonic.demolay,
alt.masonic.members,
alt.masonic.youth,
bit.listserv.freemasonry
A superb long sampling of Mike Niman's book about the Rainbows. And his Rainbow glossary
A righteous drug encyclopedia (no hype)
Drug-imagery in ancient art
The Nation ponders the drug war
Nixon tried fighting drugs with treatment: http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWfeatdisplay.cgi?1998121704R
Alex Cockburn on how Citibank laundered drug money
Serious research on LSD continues
New Scientist has a special feature on pot
The big lie in most environmental debate is that trace quantities of poison can be ignored. Which is sort of like saying, "Well, I only threw one monkey wrench into the mechanism."
A great piece on Julia Butterfly's heroic redwood protest [includes nifty 2-min RealVid]
An obscure ecotopian experiment in Colombia called Gaviotas. More
Fashion millionaire Douglas Tompkins creates a Chilean ecology-preserve
A brilliant initiative to let communities calculate their own quality of life
Economics of endangered species: http://www.linguafranca.com/9812/fn.html
A heroic activist against trace pollutants
Poison-manufacturer uses NAFTA to sue Canada. The science behind the Canadian NAFTA gas-additive suit.
The many arguments against food irradiation
And horrible statistics about humans eating primate 'bushmeat'
Primate slave-labor in Thailand
A clear look at Monsanto's 'soy bomb'. Background on Monsanto
A book review about the failing fishing industry
Here's one source that doubts an earthquake caused Chernobyl. The purported quake would have been around 1:23:25 on this detailed timeline
Global warming in a remarkable very-long-term historic perspective: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~wcalvin/1990s/1998AtlanticClimate.htm
Gulf War syndrome theories: http://aan.org/display_story.phtml?ARTICLE_ID=264
talk.environment, talk.politics.animals, talk.politics.space, alt.energy.renewable, alt.org.audubon, alt.org.earth-first, alt.org.sierra-club, alt.planning.urban, alt.save.the.earth, alt.solar.photovoltaic, alt.solar.thermal, alt.sustainable.agriculture, alt.society.neutopia, alt.politics.greens, alt.corporate.accountability
alt.cesium, alt.destroy.the.earth, alt.kill.the.whales, alt.pave.the.earth, alt.pinecone, alt.traffic.atlanta, alt.food.veg.ted-altar, alt.gathering.rainbow, alt.barefoot, alt.cult.nudism, rec.animals.wildlife, rec.backcountry, rec.gardens, rec.nude, rec.outdoors.camping, rec.outdoors.marketplace, rec.outdoors.national-parks, rec.ponds, alt.music.world, alt.lifestyle.barefoot, misc.survivalism
alt.architecture,
alt.architecture.alternative,
alt.architecture.int-design,
alt.landscape.architecture,
sci.bio.conservation,
sci.bio.ecology,
sci.bio.paleontology,
sci.environment,
bionet.plants,
alt.earth_summit,
misc.industry.pulp-and-paper,
bit.listserv.biosph-l,
bit.listserv.ecolog-l
The virtues of the hippie movement are proved best in the health of their children. One of the first hippie communes, Morning Star, is memorialised in a fine online book called "Home Free Home". Another especially good startingpoint on Morning Star is Pam Read's memoir
Childrearing experts are full of crap
High school is a REALLY dumb institution. You should consider home schooling
Michael Milken wants to privatise the schools
An inspiring story of web activism against 'correctional boarding schools'
Witty contrarianism about free tuition, from Phil Greenspun
The happy puzzle of rising IQs
Are philosophers qualified to offer psychotherapy? [Deja URL]
A 500k expose on Scientology, its origins and its celebrities
Defense of romance novels: http://www.nervemag.com/Tetel/romance/
childbearing: misc.kids.pregnancy, alt.adoption, alt.infertility, alt.adoption.agency, alt.support.breastfeeding, misc.health.infertility
parenting: alt.child-support, alt.support.divorce, alt.support.step-parents, alt.support.single-parents, alt.support.foster-parents
childraising: alt.parents-teens, alt.parenting.solutions, alt.parenting.spanking, alt.housing.nontrad, alt.flame.parents, alt.parenting.twins-triplets, misc.kids.vacation
misc.kids.pregnancy, soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi, alt.missing-kids, soc.support.depression.family
misc.education, misc.kids, alt.kids-talk, misc.kids.computer, misc.kids.consumers, misc.kids.info, alt.recovery.phonics
k12.chat.elementary, k12.chat.junior, alt.teens, alt.society.high-school, k12.ed.life-skills
special schools: misc.education.home-school.christian, alt.education.distance, misc.education.home-school.misc, alt.education.disabled, misc.education.adult, alt.education.alternative, alt.support.learning-disab, alt.literacy.adult
school rules: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk, alt.comp.acad-freedom.news, info.academic-freedom, alt.education.student.government
higher ed:
soc.college,
soc.college.grad,
soc.college.gradinfo,
alt.college.us,
soc.college.admissions,
soc.college.financial-aid,
alt.commuter.students,
misc.education.science,
alt.flame.professor,
alt.college.fraternities,
alt.fraternity.sorority,
alt.college.sororities
The greatest social challenge facing humanity in the next century is to discover how far we ought to be living like our closest primate cousins-- the bonobos-- in pre-lapsarian promiscuity. (PBS's Nature finally told the bonobo-story straight: their only sexual taboo is mother with grown son.) For more on bonobos see science.literate#primates. Salon book review on gay animals
Nerve hosted a GREAT forum on female sexuality
Salon article on the academic study of masturbation
Annotated links page
New portal for romance (URLwire)
Gayness: A new gender emerging: straight fairies. A nice memoir of gender-confusion ca 1967. An explicit piece on male hustling as a spiritual path. And a fascinating meditation on the Mommie Dearest cult.
Childhood: Salon contrasts French and American sex-ed-for-toddlers An awful legal 'solution' to sexplay between teen brothers. A Tamagotchi-baby to teach teens responsibility. And Susie Bright argues high-school assassin Kip Kinkel didn't need tough love, he needed tender sex. Susan Faludi on Abe Rosenthal on Gloria Steinem on Bill Clinton. How some children's books can be seen as fetish friendly.
Profile of Camille Paglia
The straight-edge-punk FAQ proposes radical chastity. A good short piece on the Taliban dilemma.
Addressing abortion grief
Danny Yee offers a typically concise summary of "The Ovary of Eve" about the 18th C philosophies of preformation, And another review.
Susie Bright's very sweet appreciation of the Pam Anderson/ Tommy Lee bootleg sex video. Women-who-like-sex, on circumcision. Anticipatory nostalgia about Times Square sex shops.
For $40, you can get 40,000 unabridged images of Ana Voog's life since last August, at two-minute intervals
Do bicycle seats cause impotence?
women: soc.women, soc.feminism, alt.feminism.individualism, alt.women.attitudes, alt.women.supremacy, alt.fan.dirty-whores
alt.abortion.inequity, talk.rape, alt.support.abuse-partners, alt.support.abortion, alt.abortion, alt.support.menopause, us.politics.abortion
gay: soc.motss, alt.homosexual, soc.bi, soc.support.transgendered, soc.women.lesbian-and-bi
relationships: soc.singles, alt.wedding, soc.couples, soc.couples.wedding, soc.couples.intercultural, alt.support.loneliness, alt.support.shyness, soc.singles.nice, alt.love
men: soc.men, alt.mens-rights, bit.listserv.free-l, alt.dads-rights, alt.org.promisekeepers, alt.dads-rights.unmoderated, alt.support.househusbands
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