From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V10 #328 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, September 5 2001 Volume 10 : Number 328 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: feg reading ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: Robyn interview from "Strange Things Are Happening" ["Stewart C. Russ] Re: feg reading [steve ] Vain name ["Budd Leia" ] Re: Vain name ["Mike Wells" ] more pedantry, Romantic-style [Natalie Jane Jacobs ] Book Illustrators? [Mike Swedene ] Re: Book Illustrators? [Capuchin ] Re: Farewell fegs... at least for a while [Tom Clark ] Re: feg reading [Aaron Mandel ] de-cessna-ed ["Walker, Charles" ] reap#2 [Eb ] Re: Book Illustrators? [steve ] Fwd: delete at once ["Colonel of Truth" ] Re: Fwd: delete at once [Eb ] room for one MORE reap? [Eb ] Re: Fwd: delete at once ["matt sewell" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 09:03:59 +0100 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: feg reading btw, I just noticed that Lewis Carroll's Alice books have finally come out with Mervyn Peake's illustrations. They're lovely, but at #10 each, a little steep. published by Bloomsbury, as if you cared. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 09:09:18 +0100 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: Robyn interview from "Strange Things Are Happening" btw, anyone here want a nice article on The Dukes of Stratosphear to pass onto those Chalkhills folks? It was in the same issue of Strange Things, and while I scanned it, I haven't the time to OCR it. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 08:51:49 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: feg reading On Tuesday, September 4, 2001, at 03:03 AM, Stewart C. Russell wrote: > btw, I just noticed that Lewis Carroll's Alice books have finally come > out with Mervyn Peake's illustrations. They're lovely, but at #10 each, > a little steep. > > published by Bloomsbury, as if you cared. Also due in the US, including a slipcased set. - - Steve __________ The Bush/Nixon bond is a most peculiar union, given the immense class gap between the Man from Whittier and the would-be dynasty in Kennebunkport. And yet there's an important similarity between them after all. Despite the Bush clan's vast advantage, that crew is, oddly, just as thin-skinned and resentful as the Trickster. Like him, they never forget a slight, and always feel themselves impaired; and so-like Nixon-they tend to favor The Attack. - Mark Crispin Miller ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 15:32:19 +0000 From: "Budd Leia" Subject: Vain name Major news bulletin--driving in the car I actually heard something great on the radio--something, like, what -is -that, turn it up, oh my God Im in love (alright the station was WBIA, but still it was good to have it happen at all.) Alison Krauss, music not just pure and clear as a mountain stream but so pure and clear the sun streams right thru the stream to sparkle all the multi-colored pebbles beneath. A-ma-zing. - ----------------- Figured out who hommaged the opening first few pealing notes of "Bitterest Pill." And it wasnt Barry Manalow or Rodgers and Hammerstein after all;-)-- its a song I love and can even admit publically to loving. "Reflecting Pool" by Lets Active:-) And now, thanks to Brian H's post, I also sorta hear "All the Young Dudes" :-) - --------------------- Robyn interview: >" The sea is the mother." Since Ive been doing poetry in motion can't help say this sure reminds me of one of the good bits I memorized as an adolescent. "I will go down to the great sea mother, Mother and lover of men, the sea." - ---------------- Matt Come back soon, ya hear. >Before I go - does anyone have any good remedies for removing earwax? Heh heh, if I remember a Twilight Zone correctly, isnt that what earwigs are for;-)? - ----------------- There are some wonderful pun perks to having the middle name Lord. This is one of them: Eb: >Zzzzzzzz. Learn a new riff, 'kay? You Heathen -- Take not the name of the Lord in vain! (And thanks Eb, I love it when people hand things to me on a silver platter:-) More Eb: >Mention my name at the door, and they'll give you a complimentary > >Margarita So that -wouldnt- be taking your name in vain, eh?;-) - ----------- Steve and Ross on "Gothic" I actually paid money to see that. - --------------- Ross: While its been a while since I did Cordwainer Smith I till get a lump in my throat just thinking bout his stuff. That one where the people mutate grotesquelly just, well. And the Cat and Dog people and their stuggle. Its awefull and beautiful and in some ways true of all of us. Ive always thought it interesting the PK Dicks flawed but immenselly affecting novel with Scanners in the title may have been tiggered by Smith's short story. The plots are different but the feelings, the almost overwelming pathos, are the same. Ive probobly written all this before, but the guy really touched me. Let me know what you turn up with your rereading Ross. >have a great labrodor weekend! I literally did. I got licked on the face by a choclate lab. Highlight of my weekend;-). - ---------------------------- Quail: >It was the suckiest piece of >suck that ever sucked. I mean, it's not like I was expecting >dinosaurs or anything, but it was just page after page of suck. Thats going in my commonplace book too -- under the, ahem, heading: "suckenest use of suck ever";-) And I always expect dinosaurs or unicorns or at least a nice fat prawn. - --------------- Oh, on Lemony Snicket. I loved the link and tried to talk Katie, a real live kid(and as of today 11 years old:-) into getting some of the books. Seems she's already read the first two and thinks they're well, "boring." Shes knee-deep right now in "The Witch of Blackbird Pond." - ----------------- Kay, who emerged from hell only slightly toasted but with some valuable observations as to the native customns. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 11:22:25 -0500 From: "Mike Wells" Subject: Re: Vain name Indeed a beautiful voice - I first heard her when Lyle Lovett came to town (with her brother Viktor Krauss in his band) and she guested on a couple of songs. I guess their family is from downstate somewhere. One of her better nuggets worth digging up is the vocal on Led Kaapana's "Waltz of the Wind" - a marvelous country/hawaiian release in it's own right, but much the better for her singing the title track. A good 'ole goose-bumper. Michael Percy Bysse Sherry ("just a small one please") - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Budd Leia" To: Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 10:32 AM Subject: Vain name > Major news bulletin--driving in the car I actually heard something great on > the radio--something, like, what -is -that, turn it up, oh my God Im in > love (alright the station was WBIA, but still it was good to have it happen > at all.) > Alison Krauss, music not just pure and clear as a mountain stream but so > pure and clear the sun streams right thru the stream to sparkle all the > multi-colored pebbles beneath. > A-ma-zing. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 09:28:52 -0700 (PDT) From: Natalie Jane Jacobs Subject: more pedantry, Romantic-style Keats was not actually a doctor (i.e. an M.D.), he was an apothecary. The difference was that doctors went to college and apothecaries did not. As far as I can tell, apothecaries (besides dispensing drugs) did the smaller, nastier tasks that doctors couldn't be bothered with, like changing dressings or blood-letting. They were sort of like male nurses in that respect. And oh, so low on the class totem pole - hence the critics' mockery of Keats. If he had been a doctor - upper-class enough to go to university - there might have been some snickering here and there, but a mere *apothecary* writing poetry was beyond the pale. Also, Keats was associated with Leigh Hunt, who had a bit of a reputation as a radical, so that made things worse. I forgot to mention another good book I read recently, "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons (?). It's making fun of some sort of genre that was popular in the 30's - some cross between D.H. Lawrence and Southern Gothic. Though I'm unfamiliar with the genre, "Cold Comfort Farm" is still hysterically funny. The novel is also set twenty years in the author's future, so there's a quaint SF element to it. (There's video phones, and people travel everywhere by two-passenger airplane.) In other news, my friend Ross (of Spacecats fame) mixed my band's demo, and it is now more-or-less listenable. He used Pro Tools, which is pretty neat - he even managed to seamlessly patch new vocals into a section where I sang off-key. Here I must add a shameless plug (because I promised) for Ross's new album, "Teddy Bears Gone Bad," recorded under the name Ross and the Hellpets. It's pretty good, sardonic pop with a lot of keyboards and girly backing vocals. Ross sounds like Mike Mills, so there's a Southern twang to the whole thing as well. Ross is a lost member of the Elephant 6 collective - he was in Neutral Milk Hotel for one gig, and also in the Gerbils with the gnomish Scott Spillane. He's also been in bands with John Fernandes (of OTC fame) and other E6 folks. (This is why he owns a pair of John Fernandes's shoes.) If you want to know more about his shady past, or are interested in the album (a mere $7!), his website is www.rossbeach.com. How's that for a plug?? n. - -- Natalie Jane Jacobs gnat@bitmine.net ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 10:16:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Swedene Subject: Book Illustrators? I am taking a course in Children's Lit at school. We are supposed to pick out our favorite illustrator and do a presentation on that person and the medium they worked in and the usual. It is supposed to help us learn presentation skills. Can anyone recomend any? Herbie np-> Weezer "Hash Pipe" Now Reading -> Anne Of Green Gables (for school) Ivanhoe (for school as well) Dune Messiah (for fun) Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger http://im.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 11:15:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: Book Illustrators? On Tue, 4 Sep 2001, Mike Swedene wrote: > I am taking a course in Children's Lit at school. We are supposed to > pick out our favorite illustrator and do a presentation on that person > and the medium they worked in and the usual. It is supposed to help > us learn presentation skills. Can anyone recomend any? Hmm... Jules Pfeifer John Tenniel Don Wood J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 13:31:11 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: Farewell fegs... at least for a while on 9/3/01 8:55 AM, Yudt.Matthew at yudt@niehs.nih.gov wrote: > Before I go - does anyone have any good remedies for removing earwax? > My right ear has been totally blocked for over a week and the darn > peroxide solution I bought at the drugstore just ain't helping... Go to the doctor. I had this condition last year around xmas time and it was most uncomfortable. After two weeks I went to the clinic to have it taken care of. The nurse filled a huge syringe with warm water and sprayed it in my ear with monsoon force. Glory be, the clouds parted and the angels sang a song of beauty. Plus I got to see a crapload of ear jizz floating around in the basin. Double score! The nurse said they do this a lot; people just don't use preventative measures like they should. Once a month you should use that kit you purchased and this will never happen again. - -t "Wha?, Huh?" c p.s. good luck in your transition! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 13:45:53 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: Farewell pore gunk... at least for a while Tom: >Plus I got to see a crapload of ear jizz floating >around in the basin. Double score! This reminds me of those peculiar commercials for Biore facial strips...or whatever they're called. Instead of the usual cosmetics pitch of glamour and beauty, the thrust of the commercials seems to be "Dig it -- you can LOOK AT WHAT CAME OUT OF YOUR NOSE AFTERWARDS! EWWWWWWW. Hee hee hee!" Bizarre. It's odd, how many years women made do without these things. Now, it's like they're suddenly essential.... (Will any Fegwomen admit to taking the Biore plunge? ;)) Eb now: in a lousy mood ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 17:12:52 -0400 From: strange little woj Subject: Re: Farewell fegs... at least for a while when we last left our heroes, Tom Clark exclaimed: >Go to the doctor. I had this condition last year around xmas time and it >was most uncomfortable. After two weeks I went to the clinic to have it >taken care of. The nurse filled a huge syringe with warm water and sprayed >it in my ear with monsoon force. Glory be, the clouds parted and the angels >sang a song of beauty. why go to the doctor? you can do this yourself, or have a friend do it for you. my mom used to do this when i was a kid every week or so...although she didn't use a syringe or monsoon force. one of those big-ass eye-droppers with the plastic bulb on the end and firm pressure worked fine for my ears. woj ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 14:21:44 -0700 From: Eb Subject: reap Pauline Kael. (And Troy Donahue, belatedly.) Eb ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 17:49:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: feg reading On Fri, 31 Aug 2001, dmw wrote: > Some of the more warped of you feggy folk might enjoy the novels of Donald > Antrim, though -- i just read his first, _Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better > World_, and third, _The Verificationist_. Erudite, surreal, unreliable > narrator-driven, postmodern sort of things. I've only read his second one, The Hundred Brothers, which I thought was marred deeply by a Gilliam-esque "and then everything blows up!" ending. But then, most people seem to like Terry Gilliam more than I do as well. Does he drop all his plot threads on the floor for the denouements of the other two too, or should I check them out? a ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 15:50:34 -0700 From: "Walker, Charles" Subject: de-cessna-ed Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 22:13:07 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: The blubbering goes on...and on...and on.... Eb wrote: > Try as I might... > > ...I just can't accept that Aaliyah's death is an incalculable loss > to the music world. > > But boy, the world is working hard to convince me that it is. CHAs replies; i had never even heard of Aaliyah before the accident. but i dont watch as much tv as i once did. i suppose she meant a lot more to a segment of popular culture than i would have guessed. they are going to drag out her latest album for the next three years - releasing a single every six months or so and every movie project that she was a part of or was shelved they will flesh out into a movie with her name attached to it ala 2 Pack, or whatever he called himself. http://www.theweeklywalker.com - issue #48 is out now! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 16:46:54 -0700 From: Eb Subject: reap#2 http://cdnow.com/allstararticle/fid=285287 Grand Royal Records! Wow...wouldn't have seen this coming. Eb, wondering where poor Sean will end up ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 23:34:04 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: Book Illustrators? On Tuesday, September 4, 2001, at 12:16 PM, Mike Swedene wrote: > I am taking a course in Children's Lit at school. We > are supposed to pick out our favorite illustrator and > do a presentation on that person and the medium they > worked in and the usual. It is supposed to help us > learn presentation skills. Can anyone recomend any? There are only about a zillion. A trip to the children's section of a book store or library could give you a start. Maybe you'll find someone interesting. - - Steve http://www.bpib.com/illustra.htm (not all children's books) http://homepage.fcgnetworks.net/tortakales/Illustrators/links.html http://scbwi.org/member.htm http://www.everypicture.com/home.asp __________ President Bush met privately with top officials from the Salvation Army in May to discuss his "faith-based" initiative while the White House was reviewing a request from the charity for a regulation protecting it from local workplace nondiscrimination laws based on sexual orientation. - Dana Milbank, Washington Post ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 23:06:41 -0700 From: "Colonel of Truth" Subject: Fwd: delete at once Liberal elites have always disguised their innate conservatism By John Pilger At the Hay-on-Wye literary festival in May, leading members of the media and cultural elite assembled in the fine gardens of a Regency house to await the arrival of the great man. They included broadsheet editors, deputy editors, literary editors, ex-editors, novelists, actors and John Birt. Afterwards, there would be a "lecture about world affairs" for which a second division had paid #100 a ticket. Whispered jokes about Monica and cigars quickly turned to full-throttle obseqiousness when the great man ambled in. According to John Walsh of the Independent, "the whole garden party became a queue to shake Bill's hand, to be photographed and to rejoin their friends and discuss the experience". Clinton told them how he had brought peace to Kosovo, Northern Ireland, et cetera. That he had bombed and killed innocent people across the world, dispatched tens of thousands of Iraqi children and eroded the last of Roosevelt's New Deal cover for the poorest Americans was not at issue. Only sanitized questions were allowed; they touched on none of these crimes. The reward for this complicity was Clinton trousering $100,000. It was a vivid snapshot of the age of new Labour elites: a gathering of Blair's winners. There have been many such events since May 1997, celebrating fame, fortune and illusion. The latter included those staged at the Foreign Office at which, with the help of media celebrities, Robin Cook announced an "ethical dimension" to foreign policy and "the pursuit of human rights in the new century". Like at Hay, the gallery was from the liberal establishment: Amnesty, the voluntary organisations, editors, news readers. They remained silent or bowled lemons. That it was all an elaborate hoax, as they now know, was not an issue. A few weeks back, Michael Jackson, Channel 4's departing chief executive, told Observer readers that he had, no less, helped bring about "the profound social changes that have occurred in British society . . ." He cited Big Brother as representing "a melting pot for a broader, more understanding and inclusive society . . . an optimistic glimpse at the ease of presence between a group of people with different ethnicity, sexuality, religion, class and education". He related this to Blair's promised "classless society" and declared, Tony-like, that "we have a more prosperous economy than at any time in our past". The clear implication was that Channel 4, under Jackson, was the television equivalent of new Labour. One can appreciate his argument. The threadbare liberalism of the new Labour elite, its tame columnists, lords and terrified MPs, is said to be based on tolerance for the new era's sexual and racial diversity. After all, look at all those black and gay ministers and female MPs. This is a con, of course. All it proves is that gays and blacks and females can be as reactionary and unprincipled as anybody. Recall the lemming-line of female Labour MPs who voted for a cut in benefits to single parents, mostly mothers, and the apologetics of the black minister Paul Boateng at the most regressive Home Office in living memory, and the machinations of the gay Peter Mandelson in playing court to some of the most ruthless capitalists on earth, including the purveyors of death in the British arms industry. That gays and females, blacks and Asians are capable of moronic behaviour in Big Brother is not "an optimistic glimpse" of anything. Like the pathetic cast of Jerry Springer, they merely provide a glimpse of the media elite's vicarious flirtation with low life for the sake of a buck and high ratings. No one denies that Channel 4 transmits some quite brilliant programmes, as it should, given its extraordinary remit and resources and the film-making talent in Britain; but these are fragments of its potential. Liberal elites have always disguised their innate conservatism and fixed the boundaries of public debate, and those currently in charge of Britain are no different. As Jackson says, the drugs debate is important, as is the issue of race. But neither will progress unless public resources are made available for care and rehabilitation, and for proper jobs and public services in places like Oldham and Bradford: in other words, unless the economics of social democracy, at the very least, drives them. "We have more young people in higher education than [ever] before", wrote Jackson. In fact, there are more indebted and despairing students than ever before. The proportion of working-class students has actually dropped since new Labour made so many of them pay. In his great work Equality, R H Tawney pointed out that the English educational system "will never be one worthy of a civilised society until the children of all classes in the nation attend the same schools . . . The idea that differences of educational opportunities among children should depend upon differences of wealth represents a barbarity." That is the situation today, with the divisions within state education reinforced by new Labour's veiled class conflict. As for "a more prosperous economy than at any time in our past", well, I suppose you have to admire the sheer nerve of TV executives on half a million quid a year. The truth is that Thatcher and her heir, Blair, have created a society that allows, among the top third, a gloss of prosperity, mostly on credit, while the majority either cope with mounting insecurity or vanish into poverty. Almost half the families of Britain live on this precipice of poverty. Nearly half the children in London are brought up in poverty. According to recent research at Cambridge University, roughly 250,000 children in the poorest households are worse off since new Labour came to office. Indeed, child poverty is 50 per cent higher than when Thatcher was elected. None of this is represented, in any sustained form, on television, and certainly not on the BBC, where the circus and propaganda of a single-ideology state dominate. It is only in recent weeks, since the events in Genoa, that the nation's dumbed-down news services have interrupted their chorus about the protesters' "violence" and begun to recognise the ferocity of state violence aimed at the anti- capitalism movement. Blair's defence of the Italian police and his gross lack of respect for the loss of a young life ought to have seen him grilled by those journalists who have access to him. But there was nothing: just gloating over Jeffrey Archer. Study the fine photograph in the Guardian on 20 July. There are the Blairs and the Bushes greeting each other. The wives are waltzing towards their unctuous embrace; the little Texan has a hand on the effete Blair's shoulder. Bush, whom the BBC still calls "the leader of the free world", is the unelected ruler of a dangerous, rapacious, essentially undemocratic plutocracy. Blair's leadership of this country, approved by one-quarter of the electorate, is barely legitimate. Both are extremists in the literal sense, prepared to use military violence against civilians. Blair pushes unpopular and violent domestic policies, commodifying almost everything that is ours, from healthcare to schools, policies designed to make winners and losers - with those who earn half a million a year the winners, and the children imprisoned behind a wall of economic hardship, far from the voyeuristic eye of Big Brother, the losers. The "optimistic glimpse" is not at Channel 4, but at the courage and intelligence and sheer strength of character of the young men and women, black and white and brown, gay and heterosexual, who faced the organised violence of the state in Genoa and Seattle and Prague, and will do it again and again. They represent a genuine "profound social change". Recently, the Asia vice-president of the financiers Goldman Sachs said: "This is an uprising as big as the revolution that shook the world between 1890 and 1920. Beware." Beware indeed. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 23:40:51 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: Fwd: delete at once >the media and cultural elite I knew this article would be propaganda, as soon as I read this phrase in the first sentence. >new Labour elites >the liberal establishment >The threadbare liberalism of the new Labour elite >the media elite's >Liberal elites And on and on it goes.... Eb ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 00:50:09 -0700 From: Eb Subject: room for one MORE reap? Hank Nasiff. Awwwwww. Eb http://hankthedwarf.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 09:14:22 +0100 From: "matt sewell" Subject: Re: Fwd: delete at once Cheers Eddie Great article - always been a fan of Pilger's... where did it originally come from? Cheers Matt >From: "Colonel of Truth" >Reply-To: "Colonel of Truth" >To: fegmaniax@smoe.org >Subject: Fwd: delete at once >Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 23:06:41 -0700 > >Liberal elites have always disguised their innate conservatism >By John Pilger > >At the Hay-on-Wye literary festival in May, leading members of the >media >and cultural elite assembled in the fine gardens of a Regency house >to >await the arrival of the great man. They included broadsheet >editors, >deputy editors, literary editors, ex-editors, novelists, actors and >John >Birt. Afterwards, there would be a "lecture about world affairs" for >which a second division had paid #100 a ticket. Whispered jokes >about >Monica and cigars quickly turned to full-throttle obseqiousness when >the >great man ambled in. According to John Walsh of the Independent, >"the >whole garden party became a queue to shake Bill's hand, to be >photographed and to rejoin their friends and discuss the >experience". > >Clinton told them how he had brought peace to Kosovo, Northern >Ireland, >et cetera. That he had bombed and killed innocent people across the >world, dispatched tens of thousands of Iraqi children and eroded the >last of Roosevelt's New Deal cover for the poorest Americans was not >at >issue. Only sanitized questions were allowed; they touched on none >of >these crimes. The reward for this complicity was Clinton trousering >$100,000. > >It was a vivid snapshot of the age of new Labour elites: a gathering >of >Blair's winners. There have been many such events since May 1997, >celebrating fame, fortune and illusion. The latter included those >staged >at the Foreign Office at which, with the help of media celebrities, >Robin Cook announced an "ethical dimension" to foreign policy and >"the >pursuit of human rights in the new century". Like at Hay, the >gallery >was from the liberal establishment: Amnesty, the voluntary >organisations, editors, news readers. They remained silent or bowled >lemons. That it was all an elaborate hoax, as they now know, was not >an >issue. > >A few weeks back, Michael Jackson, Channel 4's departing chief >executive, told Observer readers that he had, no less, helped bring >about "the profound social changes that have occurred in British >society >. . ." He cited Big Brother as representing "a melting pot for a >broader, more understanding and inclusive society . . . an >optimistic >glimpse at the ease of presence between a group of people with >different >ethnicity, sexuality, religion, class and education". He related >this to >Blair's promised "classless society" and declared, Tony-like, that >"we >have a more prosperous economy than at any time in our past". > >The clear implication was that Channel 4, under Jackson, was the >television equivalent of new Labour. One can appreciate his >argument. >The threadbare liberalism of the new Labour elite, its tame >columnists, >lords and terrified MPs, is said to be based on tolerance for the >new >era's sexual and racial diversity. After all, look at all those >black >and gay ministers and female MPs. This is a con, of course. All it >proves is that gays and blacks and females can be as reactionary and >unprincipled as anybody. > >Recall the lemming-line of female Labour MPs who voted for a cut in >benefits to single parents, mostly mothers, and the apologetics of >the >black minister Paul Boateng at the most regressive Home Office in >living >memory, and the machinations of the gay Peter Mandelson in playing >court >to some of the most ruthless capitalists on earth, including the >purveyors of death in the British arms industry. > >That gays and females, blacks and Asians are capable of moronic >behaviour in Big Brother is not "an optimistic glimpse" of anything. >Like the pathetic cast of Jerry Springer, they merely provide a >glimpse >of the media elite's vicarious flirtation with low life for the sake >of >a buck and high ratings. No one denies that Channel 4 transmits some >quite brilliant programmes, as it should, given its extraordinary >remit >and resources and the film-making talent in Britain; but these are >fragments of its potential. > >Liberal elites have always disguised their innate conservatism and >fixed >the boundaries of public debate, and those currently in charge of >Britain are no different. As Jackson says, the drugs debate is >important, as is the issue of race. But neither will progress unless >public resources are made available for care and rehabilitation, and >for >proper jobs and public services in places like Oldham and Bradford: >in >other words, unless the economics of social democracy, at the very >least, drives them. > >"We have more young people in higher education than [ever] before", >wrote Jackson. In fact, there are more indebted and despairing >students >than ever before. The proportion of working-class students has >actually >dropped since new Labour made so many of them pay. In his great work >Equality, R H Tawney pointed out that the English educational system >"will never be one worthy of a civilised society until the children >of >all classes in the nation attend the same schools . . . The idea >that >differences of educational opportunities among children should >depend >upon differences of wealth represents a barbarity." > >That is the situation today, with the divisions within state >education >reinforced by new Labour's veiled class conflict. As for "a more >prosperous economy than at any time in our past", well, I suppose >you >have to admire the sheer nerve of TV executives on half a million >quid a >year. > >The truth is that Thatcher and her heir, Blair, have created a >society >that allows, among the top third, a gloss of prosperity, mostly on >credit, while the majority either cope with mounting insecurity or >vanish into poverty. Almost half the families of Britain live on >this >precipice of poverty. Nearly half the children in London are brought >up >in poverty. According to recent research at Cambridge University, >roughly 250,000 children in the poorest households are worse off >since >new Labour came to office. Indeed, child poverty is 50 per cent >higher >than when Thatcher was elected. > >None of this is represented, in any sustained form, on television, >and >certainly not on the BBC, where the circus and propaganda of a >single-ideology state dominate. It is only in recent weeks, since >the >events in Genoa, that the nation's dumbed-down news services have >interrupted their chorus about the protesters' "violence" and begun >to >recognise the ferocity of state violence aimed at the anti- >capitalism >movement. Blair's defence of the Italian police and his gross lack >of >respect for the loss of a young life ought to have seen him grilled >by >those journalists who have access to him. But there was nothing: >just >gloating over Jeffrey Archer. > >Study the fine photograph in the Guardian on 20 July. There are the >Blairs and the Bushes greeting each other. The wives are waltzing >towards their unctuous embrace; the little Texan has a hand on the >effete Blair's shoulder. Bush, whom the BBC still calls "the leader >of >the free world", is the unelected ruler of a dangerous, rapacious, >essentially undemocratic plutocracy. Blair's leadership of this >country, >approved by one-quarter of the electorate, is barely legitimate. >Both >are extremists in the literal sense, prepared to use military >violence >against civilians. Blair pushes unpopular and violent domestic >policies, >commodifying almost everything that is ours, from healthcare to >schools, >policies designed to make winners and losers - with those who earn >half >a million a year the winners, and the children imprisoned behind a >wall >of economic hardship, far from the voyeuristic eye of Big Brother, >the >losers. > >The "optimistic glimpse" is not at Channel 4, but at the courage and >intelligence and sheer strength of character of the young men and >women, >black and white and brown, gay and heterosexual, who faced the >organised >violence of the state in Genoa and Seattle and Prague, and will do >it >again and again. They represent a genuine "profound social change". >Recently, the Asia vice-president of the financiers Goldman Sachs >said: >"This is an uprising as big as the revolution that shook the world >between 1890 and 1920. Beware." > >Beware indeed. > > > >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at >http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V10 #328 ********************************