IMPORTANT STUFF YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

A bunch of interesting news and links from the past week or so:

Project Censored list — Project Censored lists the top events of 2003-04 that went unreported in the media. Leading the list are the accelerating gap between rich and poor, and Ashcroft’s corporatist agenda.

US doctors and pharmacists refusing to dispense birth control pills — Members of right-wing religious groups are now arguing that the birth control pill is a form of abortion and urging their members to refuse to dispense it, and arguing that any employment action stemming from this refusal constitutes an infringement on their religious freedoms. So far twelve US states have passed laws protecting their ‘right’ to refuse to provide birth control pills to women, many of whom already have little or no access to abortion services.

Leading economist refutes benefits of outsourcing and offshoring — Paul Samuelson, the economist whose textbooks in the subject most of us studied in university, has refuted what he calls “the popular polemical wisdom” that the benefits of outsourcing exceed its costs. Because of historical distortions in the market, he says, outsourcing and offshoring can bring about large net disadvantage to first-world countries, and most notably to their workers and the environment.

Monsanto unleashes another monster — I reported recently that Colombian cocaine growers have now developed a coca plant that is resistant to Roundup, the Monsanto weedkiller that has been aerial sprayed in massive quantities by the US across much of Colombia in an attempt to eradicate the crop, devastating natural vegetation and helping to ruin that country’s agricultural economy in the process. Now Monsanto, which makes its money by selling patented seeds resistant to the poisons it manufactures, wants to sell a new patented grass, also resistant to Roundup, to golf courses. The move is opposed not only by environmentalists, but by the US Forestry Service and Bureau of Land Management as well. Genes from test batches of the new grass have been found as much as thirteen miles from the test area (as far as the test looked for it), raising fears that the new patented grass will proliferate across the country, supplanting natural grasses and transferring its DNA to new weed species that will be similarly weed-resistant.

TiVo, Replay agree to limits — In a sad acknowledgement of the strength of the entertainment media oligopoly, the makers of personal video recorders have agreed to incorporate new technology that will prevent multiple viewing of recorded pay-per-view programming.

Another great essay from Tony Kushner — As an antidote to the five stories above, Natasha at Pacific Views points out a great essay called Despair Is a Lie We Tell Ourselves. It’s a great remedy for the sense of hopelessness a lot of progressives are feeling these days. Last year I published excerpts from Kushner’s wonderful commencement address to Columbia College.