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pagostino commented on the diary post How ‘This American Life’ Got Disability Wrong by Michelle Chen.
Thank you for the rebuttal/blow back. When you say that NPR’s “perspective is marred by ideological blinders…” it points to much broader issue than just this particular story. The decision on what topic to air or not to air involves a necessary and unavoidable bias regardless of the accuracy of its content. And in NPR’s [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post NPR Trashes The Disabled. by TomThumb.
NPR had a piece this evening on Guatemala’s judicial prosecution of crimes committed in the 80s and not once, not once, in the whole piece was it mentioned that American Corporations, the CIA and the Reagan administration were complicit in training “Death Squads”, destabilizing the country in the name of fighting Communism, etc…Instead they choose [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post NPR Trashes The Disabled. by TomThumb.
I have been wondering with so much under-reporting of the corruption, inefficienceies, waste, and collusion between corporations and gov’t why NPR choice to feature this story even if it was 100% accurate and not a distortion. Casting a shadow over a program designed to help the most helpless instead of going after the powerful Interests [...]
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pagostino wrote a new diary post: The Politics of Shyster-ism
I don’t recall coming across the term Shysterism in any of my political science classes back in my college days to describe a type of government that takes its meaning from the definition of the word Shyster: “someone who acts in a disreputable, unethical, or unscrupulous way, especially in the practice of low politics [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post Treachery of the Political Class by pagostino.
Hi Joan,
Gratified that you would like to quote from piece. Use and distribute as you please.
Thanks,
Paolo -
pagostino wrote a new diary post: Treachery of the Political Class
http://www.flickr.com/photos/school_projects/3346086713/ Giuseppe Mazzotta, in his ninth lecture on the Divine Comedy (http://oyc.yale.edu/italian-language-and-literature/ital-310 ) discusses Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia in connection with the disintegration of language that accompanies the pilgrim as he descends deeper into the pit of Hell. Dante’s “ethical map” in Canto XI includes a poetical portrayal of fraud and treachery. As Professor Mazzotta points out, whereas fraud is found among [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post Italy’s elections and the Five Star Movement by David Seaton.
Excellent post. My sister lives near Milan and teaches at a nearby University voted for 5 Star, while her son, around 30 voted conservative – which kind of puzzles me. Couldn’t agree more with you about the historical/institutional/structural barriers that exist in this Country that make a similar translation of popular discontent into electoral results [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post Leisurely Sunday Drive by pagostino.
My dad, a tailor from Italy, managed to save enough to buy a used 72 Toyota Corona Mark II Station and take his family of six children on Sunday drives, and to the doctor, school and all the other places that you had to go to and for which there was no public transportation for [...]
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pagostino wrote a new diary post: Leisurely Sunday Drive
A Sunday drive with the whole family packed together in the old station wagon staring out the back window at the yachts plying the inter-coastal waterway and pointing out to each other the palatial homes that sat on the beach shore as we drove north on AIA; stopping at McDonald’s for hamburgers and fries on [...] -
pagostino commented on the diary post Cornel West Explains Why He’s Bothered By Obama Taking The Oath On MLK’s Bible by marcospinelli.
Thanks for post…love Cornel West’s passion and intellect
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pagostino commented on the diary post I think I’m getting the fear by Cynicman.
After listening to MLK on the “Drum Major Instinct” on the blog link just before your piece, I got depressed too. I got depressed because there isn’t a morally forceful voice like MLK to shake the crusty harden slime off the eyes of the political elites. What we have before us is a public space [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post David Brooks Reports that the NYT Can’t Find Conservative Columnists Who Know Arithmetic by Dean Baker.
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pagostino wrote a new diary post: Stranger in a Strange Land
In 1961 Robert A. Heinlein created the unforgettable character of Valentine Michael Smith. My daughter, who is about the same age as I was when I first read Stranger in A Strange Land, gave me the new uncut version with 60K words that were edited out of the original as a Christmas present. It was [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post I Thought That I Heard You Sing by Isaiah 88.
Good post. You undoubtedly are familiar with the works of Chris Hedges, your thoughts are much in accord. On a recent clip on youtube Hedges related a story of how he managed to slip Howard Zinn’s a People’s History in a course he was teaching within a prison.
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pagostino commented on the diary post Obama’s obfuscation, Freud, and Portugese bread by pagostino.
Thanks for the Shelly quote. Not sure I digested it all. I had a friend who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Percy. I tried to read it, but it seemed more about argumentation among different Shelly scholars, instead of the work itself…so much written about someone who died at the ripe old age of 29…
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pagostino commented on the diary post Obama’s obfuscation, Freud, and Portugese bread by pagostino.
In reply to wendydavis: That’s the problem with Freud, one of many, his terms have very specific meaning within the psychoanalytic perspective he developed. But once you understand his terminology, it really opens up a unique approach to studying certain topics. Freud sees culture, which he uses interchangeable with civilization, as possible only through the [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post Obama’s obfuscation, Freud, and Portugese bread by pagostino.
I often get told by friends when I start my diatribes against NPR to chill and just let it go. But it’s like a stone in my shoe, it just bothers the hell out of me. Anyway, thank goodness for Democracy Now! If you didn’t listen to the program this morning, there was a great [...]
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pagostino wrote a new diary post: Obama’s obfuscation, Freud, and Portugese bread
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spottylogic/6328833767/ At President Obama’s recent speech at a Michigan engine plan he stated that the right-to- work legislation being pushed by Republican Governor Rick Snyder is “more about politics than economics.” The same day saw headlines that his Administration shifted position on accepting corporate donations and now is accepting up to $1 million dollars in [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post Lewis Lapham: Drugs and the National Security State by Tom Engelhardt.
Terence McKenna, co-author with his brother Dennis of The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching , gives you a great alternate view of drugs and their relationship to mind, consciousness, and evolution from the many diverse and erudite viewpoints. His YouTube lectures are a treat to the ear and mind. Also Bill Hicks and George [...]
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pagostino commented on the diary post Father Zossima and the modern doctrine of the world by pagostino.
Here is a link to a debate between the late Christopher Hitchens and Chris Hedges on religion and God that cover in contemporary political dialogue a topic which Dostoyevski covers in matchless prose between Ivan and Alexey and point to the timeless relevance of The Brothers Karamozov.
http://www.againstthegrain.org/program/509/id/511232/tues-12-20-11-christopher-hitchens-v-chris-hedges-religion
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