Recommended Reading

This section contains unedited writings originally published on other websites. The views expressed, as well as the credit and copyright, in each case belongs exclusively to the original author(s) and/or publisher.

Move over SOPA & PIPA: Here comes CISPA (by Anne Sewell)

April 6, 2012
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In the wake of SOPA and PIPA, there is yet another terrifying bill on the table. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (or CISPA for short) which is currently being discussed by Congress.   In Washington, Congress is discussing the best way to avert the ongoing cyberattacks and some legislators have put forward a new act which, if it passes Congress, will allow the government access to personal correspondence of any person of their choosing.   Much like the Big Brother tactics in the United Kingdom recently, this bill will likely cause an outcry of condemnation and criticism, as…

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The assault on public education (by Noam Chomsky)

April 5, 2012
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Public education is under attack around the world, and in response, student protests have recently been held in Britain, Canada, Chile, Taiwan and elsewhere. California is also a battleground. The Los Angeles Times reports on another chapter in the campaign to destroy what had been the greatest public higher education system in the world: “California State University officials announced plans to freeze enrollment next spring at most campuses and to wait-list all applicants the following fall pending the outcome of a proposed tax initiative on the November ballot.” Similar defunding is under way nationwide. “In most states,” The New York…

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The corporate titans take on the Internet (by Peter Frase)

March 16, 2012
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The fight over copyright is not a struggle between capital and labour, but one between different factions of capital. New York, NY – American politics is riven by an increasingly contentious debate over the status of intellectual property, especially copyright. On one side are those who argue that tougher enforcement of IP is desperately needed to protect the rights of creators, promote innovation, preserve jobs, and ensure economic growth. Opposing them are those who argue that the draconian enforcement of intellectual property rights will only curtail free speech and stifle economic activity, while entrenching the profits of a small class of…

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What Are Iran’s Intentions? (by Noam Chomsky)

March 9, 2012
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Published on Saturday, March 3, 2012 by The New York Times Syndicate. Written by Noam Chomsky. The January/February issue of Foreign Affairs featured the article “Time to Attack Iran: Why a Strike Is the Least Bad Option,” by Matthew Kroenig, along with commentary about other ways to contain the Iranian threat. The media resound with warnings about a likely Israeli attack on Iran while the U.S. hesitates, keeping open the option of aggression—thus again routinely violating the U.N. Charter, the foundation of international law. As tensions escalate, eerie echoes of the run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are in the…

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Coronary Capitalism (by Kenneth Rogoff)

March 7, 2012
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FRANKFURT – A systematic and broad failure of regulation is the elephant in the room when it comes to reforming today’s Western capitalism. Yes, much has been said about the unhealthy political-regulatory-financial dynamic that led to the global economy’s heart attack in 2008 (initiating what Carmen Reinhart and I call “The Second Great Contraction”). But is the problem unique to the financial industry, or does it exemplify a deeper flaw in Western capitalism? Consider the food industry, particularly its sometimes-malign influence on nutrition and health. Obesity rates are soaring around the entire world, though, among large countries, the problem is perhaps…

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The Israel Lobby Swims The Atlantic (by Grant Smith)

March 6, 2012
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Jeffrey Goldberg’s current cover story in The Atlantic, “The Point of No Return,”achieved massive distribution across a broad spectrum of old and new media in the United States. Some observers – including Glenn Greenwald in “How Propagandists Function” – noted how well the methodology and message of Goldberg’s piece serves the Israeli government’s efforts to push U.S. military action against Iran. Gareth Porter views it as part of an overarching strategy to keep the U.S. from restoring productive relations with Iran. A huge trove of newly declassified documentssubpoenaed during a Senate investigation reveals how Israel’s lobby pitched, promoted, and paid to have content placed…

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Free Market Health Care: True Stories (by Michael Parenti)

March 6, 2012
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I recently wrote an article about my personal experiences in dealing with the medical system while undergoing surgery (“Free Market Medicine: A Personal Account”). In response, a number of readers sent me accounts of their own experiences trying to get well in America.  Health care in this country is hailed by conservative boosters as “the best medical system in the world.” It certainly is the most expensive, most profitable, and most complicated system in the world, leaving millions of Americans in shock. None of the people who wrote to me had anything positive to say about the U.S. health system.…

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Power, knowledge and the universities (by Tarak Barkawi)

March 1, 2012
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Tarak Barkawi, associate professor in the Department of Politics, New School for Social Research recently published an article named “Power, knowledge and the universities” which appeared on Al Jazeera. He presents a number of conclusive examples to highlight contemporary problems with the intertwines of governmental, public and esp. corporate influences and interests in university education. Some representative quotes of the full article will be highlighted in the following: Institutions concerned with producing knowledge, whether universities, publishing houses, news media, think tanks, and so on, require power to do their work. They need money, of course, but also a legal and…

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Too big to jail (by Simon Johnson)

February 28, 2012
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Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF, and co-founder of a leading economics blog, BaselineScenario, a professor at MIT Sloan, and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics published recently published “Too big to jail” on project-syndicate. Though I highly recommend to read the whole article, the first paragraph sums it up quite nicely: Among the fundamental principles of any functioning justice system is the following: Don’t lie to a judge or falsify documents submitted to a court, or you will go to jail. Breaking an oath to tell the truth is perjury, and lying in official documents…

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How doctors die (by Ken Murray)

February 27, 2012
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Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could triple a patient’s five-year-survival odds—from 5 percent to 15 percent—albeit with a poor quality of life. Charlie was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice, and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with family and feeling as…

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The ethics of internet piracy (by Peter Singer)

February 25, 2012
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Recently an article by Peter Singer was published by project-syndicate, discussing the ethics of internet piracy.  While the whole article is absolutely worth reading, here are a few paragraphs that seem to catch the essence: If I steal someone’s book the old-fashioned way, I have the book, and the original owner no longer does. I am better off, but she is worse off. When people use pirated books, the publisher and the author often are worse off – they lose earnings from selling the book. But, if my colleague had not sent me the book, I would have borrowed the…

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