‘Extreme Dishonesty’ – The Guardian, Noam Chomsky and Venezuela
The Guardian is normally happy to ignore him and his views. But when Chomsky expresses criticism of an official enemy of the West, he suddenly does exist and matter for the Guardian. That indicates what we already knew: that the liberal press is perfectly aware of the importance of Chomsky’s work. They just ignore it because it undermines the wrong interests.
Dean Baker on the debt ceiling deal
The protracted negotiations over the debt ceiling, as well as the final package agreed to by President Obama and the congressional leadership, show what happens when a small minority is allowed to gain control over national debate. While polls consistently show that the vast majority of the public sees jobs as the main problem facing the economy, there has been a well-funded crusade to ignore public opinion and make cuts to social insurance programs and other spending the top priority for Congress and the President.
To further this effort, the anti-deficit lobby has been willing to rewrite the history of the downturn and the deficit. The data clearly show that the large deficits of recent years follow from the downturn caused by the collapse of the housing bubble. Prior to the downturn, the deficits projected for 2009 and subsequent years were relatively modest. In fact, even with the tax cuts, the cost of the wars, and the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the debt-to-GDP ratio fell from 2004 through 2007.
Carroll in wonderland: how the Guardian misrepresents Venezuela
Samuel Grove:
The reality is that [Rory] Carroll has never intended to steer an even course between the Chavez government and its opponents. He has been far more concerned with titillating his readers by slandering the Venezuelan government. In the same piece in which the Guardian defended Carroll’s journalism, Butterworth notes that
[Carroll] considers Chávez’s personality to be part of the story. [He told me] “I try to give a sense of how bizarre and funny some things are…You have to get the tone right… the average reader knows when a piece is observational and can see for himself what is opinion.”
Readers can judge for themselves whether or not Carroll is getting the tone right. If by tone he meant misrepresentation, selectivity and bizarre omissions, it would appear, to this reader at least, that Carroll is fast becoming the butt of his own joke.
Forever Young, The Tragedy Of Bloodlines
Jim Rossignol:
Like the plight of an animal species on the verge of extinction, the lack of games comparable to Bloodlines is one of the great tragedies of our time.
Hyperbole aside, he’s right.
The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?
Marcia Angell:
Nowadays treatment by medical doctors nearly always means psychoactive drugs, that is, drugs that affect the mental state. In fact, most psychiatrists treat only with drugs, and refer patients to psychologists or social workers if they believe psychotherapy is also warranted. The shift from “talk therapy” to drugs as the dominant mode of treatment coincides with the emergence over the past four decades of the theory that mental illness is caused primarily by chemical imbalances in the brain that can be corrected by specific drugs. That theory became broadly accepted, by the media and the public as well as by the medical profession, after Prozac came to market in 1987 and was intensively promoted as a corrective for a deficiency of serotonin in the brain. The number of people treated for depression tripled in the following ten years, and about 10 percent of Americans over age six now take antidepressants. The increased use of drugs to treat psychosis is even more dramatic. The new generation of antipsychotics, such as Risperdal, Zyprexa, and Seroquel, has replaced cholesterol-lowering agents as the top-selling class of drugs in the US.
As Ms Angell then asks, “What is going on here?”
The Illusions of Psychiatry
Marcia Angell:
The books by Irving Kirsch, Robert Whitaker, and Daniel Carlat are powerful indictments of the way psychiatry is now practiced. They document the “frenzy” of diagnosis, the overuse of drugs with sometimes devastating side effects, and widespread conflicts of interest.
…
At the very least, we need to stop thinking of psychoactive drugs as the best, and often the only, treatment for mental illness or emotional distress.
Steve Hilton policy leaks show Downing Street divide over David Cameron aide
“Steve asked why the PM had to obey the law,” one Whitehall source told the FT of a meeting in March to discuss the government’s growth strategy. “Jeremy had to explain that if David Cameron breaks the law he could be put in prison.”
The Arrogance of Ownership
Dave Zirin, again, on the NFL labour dispute:
This is bigger than the NFL. This is about the arrogance of Capital in a period of austerity. The actions of the owners are little different from the arrogance of the Republican leaders of congress, Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Jerry Brown of California, Andrew Cuomo of New York and all who believe that it’s belt-tightening time for everyone but the fat-cats and to hell with democracy, due process, or any semblance of thought for the greater good. This is about those at the top of society who want “socialism” for the rich and an apocalyptic Ayn Randian nightmare for the rest of us.
Dave Zirin on NFL Players’ “Remarkable” Labor Victory and How the Bank Bailout Slam-Dunked the NBA
Dave Zirin:
I want to read a quote by a player named Troy Polamalu. This is what he said, and it just gives you an idea about how radicalizing this was. Troy Polamalu, All-Pro for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he said, “I think what the players are fighting for is something bigger. The fact is it’s people fighting against big business. The big business argument is ‘I got the money and I got the power, and therefore I can tell you what to do.’ That’s life everywhere. I think this is a time when the football players are standing up and saying, ‘No, no, no, the people have the power.’” I mean, this is a guy who is best known for doing Head & Shoulders commercials, and now he sounds like Big Bill Haywood. I mean, it says something that most people, when they know about what they know about labor, will hear that Troy Polamalu quote much more than they’ll know about some of the struggles that very few media organizations, like Democracy Now!, actually cover.
Newspaper websites: The British are coming
The Economist:
Whereas the Daily Mail chronicles supposed assaults on middle-class Britain by illegal immigrants, liberal politicians, germs and the BBC, the website specialises in breezy celebrity gossip. It is packed with pictures of women in bikinis.
The article itself isn’t anything particularly special, but this quote is gold.
