Web links related to the Back of the Book program of May 28, 2001

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Okay, so our colleagues from Off the Hook probably have a RealAudio streaming web cast going. At 9:37 PM last night it was working, so good luck. At that time the new, permanent MP3 stream was not working. I hope that at least one of them's going okay for you.

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I'm glad to see that the First Amendment has come through some recent litigation allowing a book critical of Gone With the Wind. The is just one more instance of copyright holders trying to suppress free speech in the interest of keeping a franchise on a work they never created. There is a lot of this going on these days. If the copyright holders are allowed to get away with this then no one will be allowed to publish anything. I believe in copyrights, but there have to be limits!

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I've spoken about the creeps calling themselves “The Taliban” before. True to their colors they are now continuing to act like a bunch of Nazis by forcing Hindus to wear yellow “badges” sewn to their clothing which identifies them as Hindus. Of course the Taliban say it's for the Hindus' own good. But the Hindus don't seem to agree. Looks like the Hindus, at least, have some sense of history.

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It seems that some relatives of women murdered during the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692, are determined to get their ancestors' names officially cleared in the 21^st Century. Jeez, it's about time, isn't it? Surely the politicians can take time out from accepting graft payments and grandstanding to pass a law exonerating by name those who were murdered in the name of superstition over 300 years ago, can't they? Or would some of the right wing Christians oppose that legislation? I bet that if the Taliban ever read about the Salem Witch Trials they'd approve.

Margot Adler, one of our former WBAI colleagues, is a self avowed witch and has even published a book on the subject.

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In other news of organized superstition, I read part of a wire story about an artist named Alma Lopez who is having a problem because of her digital print work entitled “Our Lady,” which is on display at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I call her work “The Bikini BVM” because many of we ex-Roman Catholics refer to the mythical Blessed Virgin Mary as “The BVM” in derision, and because others are referring to the flower covering as a bikini. In my opinion the opposition to her work is at least as much motivated by its source as by the treatment of its subject.

The BVM sure gets around a lot. Lucky thing there are folks who keep track of her itinerary.

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I don't know what's going on, but some wacky stuff is getting more and more air time on WBAI. A publicity hound named Richard Hoagland has been one of the people getting this attention. His Web site makes it seem like he's a big deal with a real point. But his points fall apart, and so does his credibility, when you read a Web site that actually examines his claims.

Ironically, this is all happening at the very time that even more images are coming in from the Mars Global Surveyor showing the “Face on Mars” to be a simple, and mundane, natural geological formation. While you're there be sure to take the hike on the “Face on Mars”

There are really more interesting things to look at on Mars, and they are more interesting because they are real.

Another whack-job named, ironically, Jim Marrs has even been featured on one of the early morning drive time programs on WBAI. Guys talking about the influence of space aliens may get more listeners than WBAI has had in the past, but this wacky stuff is no substitute for programming on issues that really do affect people, or even humor that's intentional!

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And of course we got through some of the mail backlog. We read some hard copy mail, but we can't put that on line. But here's the E-mail that we got to on the air.

Our first E-mail is from Fernando, who is writing a lot lately. As I said on the air, “cold fusion” was never real. At best it was an error, at worst a hoax. Here's a good piece about it from Scientific American.

The intro is Barracuda by Heart, and the outtro is Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty. And I'm glad Walden likes the program.

I asked if people wanted to hear more of Pickles of the North on the program. Here's one answer below.

The above was about that bogus storm we got back in March, and the below card is for St. Patrick's Day, but it's expired. It worked when I got it though!

Those last two paragraphs above gave us some pause during the program. I think that even Fernando sees the humor of it now. It is indeed odd what they will and will not sell via the mails these days.

Oh, this next one doesn't seem to have made it onto the air. I guess it's sort of a web exclusive.

This next one was huge and took up way too much room to put on this page. also, it would violate the copyright of the folks who are publishing it. So I've just given a link to the issue he references.

Actually, that's a paraphrase of a Warren Zevon song which our colleague Uncle Sidney Smith plays on occasion.

I think our next correspondent here doesn't understand the Internet or its structure. The Internet was here before Yahoo! and it'll be here after yahoo! is no more. Building a parallel Internet is not only a waste of effort, it would actually be impossible because the Internet would make that a part of itself anyway.

As for the privacy concerns, those are real. I know that I do not give out my Social Security Number to anyone. I suspect, however, that Walden's fears are a bit overwrought.

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There are a lot of issues that we can't talk about on the air at WBAI. But there is an Internet list called “Free Pacifica!” which you can subscribe to, and these issues are discussed there. If you subscribe to it you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

If you want to subscribe to the “Free Pacifica!” list just click on this link and follow the instructions, and you'll be subscribed. Could open your eyes a little bit.

The above list has occasionally produced a high volume of E-mail because of the attention that these issues have drawn. If you would prefer to subscribe to a low volume list that only provides announcements of events related to these issues then subscribe to the FreePac mailing list.

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