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Welcome to Swans Commentary http://www.swans.com/ April 19, 2010 Note from the Editors: Since our last publication, the Vatican has managed to bury its anti-Semitism kafuffle by digging itself into an ever-deepening hole with its assertion that celibacy is not to blame for pedophilia, but rather homosexuality. Now that it has unwittingly made suspect the sexual orientation of its priests, thereby acknowledging that you can't pray away the gay, how will the church justify its homophobic stance? We'll wait with bated breath for the next sacred spin. Meanwhile, on to more credible matters: Michael Barker's investigation into an ostensibly progressive magazine that works in the service of imperialism may take the breath out of unsuspecting progressives, yet it is essential that we understand these links if we wish to influence meaningful change. Charles Marowitz, for one, would like to see a return to honesty and fair play in politics, unlike what was revealed about the combatants in the battle over health care reform. Charles Pearson asks for a bit of outrage over price hikes, British politicians' greedy lobbying practices, and the scandal of privatization of the National Health Service, and from Harvey Whitney Jr.'s perspective a little knowledge would go a long way toward holding our leaders -- and the voters who elect them -- accountable for their decisions. Case in point: Ghana. Femi Akomolafe recently traveled to Paris to celebrate the fifty-third anniversary of her independence, concluding that Africans remain their own worst enemies... On Swans we strive to hold journalists and activists, along with voters and politicians, accountable, so Michael Doliner, who studied with Hannah Arendt, addresses Reuven Kaminer's distortion of Arendt's ideas on totalitarianism, while Louis Proyect takes Jared Diamond to task over his 2005 book, "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed." For his part, Paul Buhle continues to support radical art and recommends the new "World War 3 Illustrated #40" for the freshness of topics and treatment by old hands in the enterprise of radical politics and artist-activists. On the cultural front, Peter Byrne directs a short play in which the husband who just wanted silence gets his comeuppance. Le coin français features Jean-Claude Seine on "Justice sociale" and Jean Ferrat's ass (of the hooved sort), Simone Alié-Daram's analysis of the precautionary principle, Marie Rennard's look at the history of relics, and the poetry of Christian Cottard, who finds love a bit complicated. We close with the linguistic blending of Guido Monte and Novella Nicchitta, and your letters with an appeal to Jan Baughman to keep shouting, plagiarized praise for Gilles d'Aymery's "The Scourge Of Plagiarism And Scrubbing," two Shays converged in this polyglot, under-financed, small piece of art that keeps fighting for justice; and more. # # # # # All the articles and the Letters to the Editor can be freely accessed from Swans front page. Please go to: http://www.swans.com/ You can also access our past issues at: http://www.swans.com/library/past_issues/past_issues.html And you have access to almost 14 years of archives by date, author, and subject at: http://www.swans.com/library/archives.html Remember, what's free to you is not to us! To help our work financially please visit http://www.swans.com/about/donate.html # # # # # Swans (aka Swans Commentary), ISSN: 1554-4915, is a bi-weekly non- commercial ad-free Web-only magazine which provides original content to its readers. We encourage pulp publications to republish Swans Work in print format. Please contact the publisher at <aymery AT ix.netcom.com>. Please, do not repost Swans Work on the Web and other mailing lists: "Hypertext" links to any pages of Swans.com are authorized; however, republication of any part of this site, inlining, mirroring, and framing are expressly prohibited. (You are receiving this E-mail notification for you have expressed your interest in Swans and the work of its team. If you wish not to receive these short notifications, simply reply to this E-mail (delete the content) and enter the word REMOVE in the subject line.) Cordially, Gilles d'Aymery -- Swans "Hungry man, reach for the book: It is a weapon." B. Brecht ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
