Dispatches From the Culture Wars - `Banned Books' Edition
 September 18, 2012

 Published by Portside

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 Slain ambassador Stevens was member of local Chinook Tribe

 The Daily Astorian
 Chinook Observer
 September 13, 2012

http://www.dailyastorian.com/free/slain-ambassador-was-member-of-local-chinook-tribe/article_7ec80cf9-19fc-56a3-88db-628bc49c45fa.html

 Slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and his family
 are members of the Chinook Indian Tribe, the historic Oregon
 people who met Lewis and Clark at the mouth of the Columbia
 River, and the Tribal Chairman has put out a call asking for
 prayers on their behalf.  Stevens' mother Mary Commanday,
 well known in the tribe, received a call from President
 Obama to express his condolences.

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 Black Hills Auction: The Auction of the Sacred 

 by Winona LaDuke,  Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe)

 Indian Country Today Media Network
 August 16, 2012

 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/black-hills-auction-the-auction-of-the-sacred

 Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota is named for the
 cave itself, called Washun Niya, or the Breathing Hole of
 Mother Earth by the Lakota People.  Nearby cave Pe'Sla --
 the "Center of the Heart of Everything that is..." -- is one
 of the Lakota's most sacred sites.  On private property, it
 is scheduled for auction, destined to be diced into a set of
 300 acre tracts, proposed for ranchettes. Debra White Plume
 from Manderson tells me," We heard nothing about it until we
 saw the auction announcement". Meetings are being held in
 most of the Lakota nation this week, with hopes to protect
 Pe'Sla from the auction block.

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 Update: Pe' Sla Owners Accept $9M Offer from Tribes

 By Vincent Schilling 

 Indian Country Today Media Network
 September 12, 2012
          
 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/09/12/pe-sla-owners-accept-9m-offer-from-tribes-133746

 In a historic victory for American Indian tribes, the owners
 of the sacred site Pe' Sla have agreed to an offer of $9
 million to purchase 1,900 acres of land also known as
 Reynolds Prairie.  The cost will be shared among all the
 Lakota tribes in the region, including Cheyenne River,
 Rosebud, Oglala, Standing Rock, Yankton Dakota and others.

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 CUNY Administration Declares War On Rebel English Department

 By Angus Johnson

 StudentActivism.net
 September 15, 2012

 http://studentactivism.net/2012/09/15/cuny-administration-declares-war-on-rebel-faculty/

 On Wednesday the English department at Queensborough
 Community College voted not to adopt a policy of the City
 University of New York to reduce composition course credits
 from four to three. In so doing, they rejected the CUNY
 Pathways initiative, a proposal for streamlining and
 centralizing CUNY curricula which many faculty regard as
 antithetical to students' needs.

 Administrators didn't like this. And in fact they disliked
 it so much that Queensborough announced two days later that
 they're dismantling the QCC English department in
 retaliation.

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 Republicans' #areyoubetteroff Hashtag Backfires when Twitter
 Responds `Yes'

 By Elizabeth Mitchell

 MediaBistro.com
 September 7, 2012

 http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/areyoubetteroff-twitter-hashtag-backfires_b44570

 In an effort to use Twitter to promote Romney, the GOP
 purchased the hashtag #areyoubetteroff, and is paying
 $120,000 per day for the privilege.  The republicans
 expected people to answer, "No! We are not better off!
 Romney for president!" But the Twitterverse had an
 overwhelmingly different response. Instead, #areyoubetteroff
 was combined with the word "yes" more than 1,800 times in
 its first 24 hours, while paired with "no" only 600 times.
 Since then, the yes/no ratio has been an embarrassing 5 to 1
 and has spawned rebuttal hashtags like #iambetteroff and
 #betteroff.

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 Players' Support of Gay Marriage Alters N.F.L. Image
 
 By Adam Himmelsbach

 New York Times
 September 8, 2012

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/sports/football/players-support-of-gay-marriage-alters-nfl-image.html

 Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo has been an
 outspoken supporter of legalizing same-sex marriage, which
 caught the attention of Emmett C. Burns Jr., a Maryland
 state delegate who opposes it. Burns sent a letter to Steve
 Bisciotti, the Ravens' owner, urging him to "inhibit such
 expressions from your employee and that he be ordered to
 cease and desist such injurious actions." Infuriated,
 Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe sent his own blistering
 response to Burns.

 The N.F.L. has long fought the stigma of a homophobic
 culture, but now, two pro football players have powerfully
 lent their support for same-sex marriage, taking a political
 figure to task in the process.  The support offered by Kluwe
 and Ayanbadejo is timely, because Minnesota and Maryland are
 among four states that will have same-sex marriage votes
 this November.

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 "In The Life," television's first LGBT newsmag, ending in
 December

 By Dru Sefton

 Current.org
 September 6, 2012

 http://www.current.org/2012/09/in-the-life-televisions-first-lgbt-newsmag-ending-in-december/

 In The Life, the first and only nationally broadcast
 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) newsmagazine,
 is going off the air from public television in December,
 after 20 years. ITLM has entered into conversations with
 other organizations to create a web-based, open-source
 repository of their video archive documenting the LGBT
 movement. They promised "additional details soon."

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 Faced with a Five-Page Limit, Lawyer Files Cartoon Amicus
 Brief with Proper Font Size

 By Debra Cassens Weiss

 ABA Journal (American Bar Association)
 September 5, 2012

 http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/faced_with_a_five-page_limit_lawyer_files_cartoon_amicus_brief_with_proper_/

 A lawyer who opposes the Justice Department's proposed
 antitrust settlement with three publishers of e-books has
 filed an amicus brief in the form of a comic strip. Bob Kohn
 said he opted for the unusual format after U.S. District
 Judge Denise Cote of Manhattan limited his brief to five
 pages. He calls the cartoon a "graphic novelette" and says
 it complies with court rules requiring 12-point or larger
 type and one- inch margins.

 Publishers Weekly suggests Kohn's comic strip is intended to
 reach beyond the courtroom. "His rendering is brilliant, and
 as a comic strip, the brief will be widely digestible for
 the general public who may not have the gumption to plow
 through a typical legal brief."

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 The Israeli Left Archive now Housed in Amsterdam

 http://israeli-left-archive.org/cgi-bin/library 

 The website of the Israeli Left Archive  is now hosted by
 the distinguished International Institute of Social History
 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  The Israeli Left Archive is
 devoted to the radical left and the women's peace movement
 in Israel during the sixties, seventies and the eighties.
 Collections include Women in Black; SHASI (Israel Socialist
 Left); Dai L'Kibbush; Yesh Gvul; Black Panthers (Israel);
 and many other groups.

 To assist readers who do not know Hebrew, there is a special
 collection of documents in English. There is also a special
 collection of posters and periodicals. The materials in this
 archive were collected by Dafna and Reuven Kaminer and the
 website was built by their granddaughter, Carmel.

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 "I'm Dreaming of a White President": Randy Newman on His New
 Song

 By Ben Yagoda

 Slate.com
 September 18, 2012

 http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/09/18/_i_m_dreaming_of_a_white_president_randy_newman_talks_about_his_new_song_.html

 Today, Randy Newman weighs in on the racial subtext of our
 presidential politics. His new song, "I'm Dreaming," which
 is available as a free download - is sung in the voice of a
 narrator who's not just unreliable but...well, here's the
 refrain: "I'm dreaming of a white President / Just like the
 ones we've always had." (In case we miss the reference to
 Irving Berlin's "White Christmas, Newman throws in a der
 Bingle-esque "buh buh buh" toward the end of the number.)

 He was inspired to write the song because "there are a lot
 of people who don't want a black person in the White House
 and they want him out." Although "I'm Dreaming" is released
 free of charge, Newman is encouraging listeners to donate to
 the United Negro College Fund.

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 BANNED BOOKS WEEK
 Sept 30- October 6, 2 012

 http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

 During the last week of September every year, hundreds of
 libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention
 to the problem of censorship. The 2012 celebration of Banned
 Books Week will be held from September 30 through October 6.
 The 10 most challenged titles of 2011 were:

 1.  ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
 Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually
 explicit; unsuited to age group

 2.  The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa Reasons:
 nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age
 group

 3.  The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins Reasons:
 anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language;
 occult/satanic; violence

 4.  My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to
 Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler Reasons: nudity; sex
 education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

 5.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by
 Sherman Alexie Reasons: offensive language; racism;
 religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age
 group

 6.  Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Reasons:
 nudity; offensive language; religious viewpoint

 7.  Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley Reasons:
 insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually
 explicit

 8.  What My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones Reasons:
 nudity; offensive language; sexually explicit

 9.  Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar Reasons:
 drugs; offensive language; sexually explicit

 10.  To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee Reasons: offensive
 language; racism

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