Dispatches From the Culture Wars
August 7, 2012
Summer Heat Stroke Edition

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`Your Land,' and Guthrie's, Preserved

By Larry Rohter

New York Times July 11, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/arts/music/your-land-and-woody-guthries-preserved.html

The Smithsonian Institution's "Woody at 100," a  three-
CD boxed set commemorating the centennial of Woody
Guthrie's birth, begins, as it must, with "This Land Is
Your Land," his most famous song. But instead of the
standard, sanitized lyrics taught to schoolchildren as a
kind of patriotic bromide, it offers an alternate
version with an extra verse that is a biting, defiant
and subversive jab at what today would be called the 1
percent.

Guthrie's political side is certainly on display, with
his left-wing sentiments in even sharper relief.  The
collection has 57 tracks, including 6 songs that have
never been heard on record and almost an entire CD of
performances from radio broadcasts and live shows. It
also contains dozens of Guthrie's drawings, paintings
and handwritten lyrics, drawn from the vast collection
bequeathed to the Smithsonian 25 years ago by the estate
of Moe Asch, founder of Folkways Records, the label for
which Guthrie recorded much of his best work.

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Sports Illustrated and Women: The Nine New Rules to Land
on a Cover

by C. Modiano

POPSspot - Power, Oppression & Privilege in Sport July
31, 2012

http://www.popsspot.com/2012/07/sports-illustrated-and-women-the-nine-new-rules-to-land-a-cover/

Under Terry McDonell - current Sports Illustrated Group
boss - SI's depiction of women has never been worse. SI
is a prime case study in the Title IX paradox: The 1972
legislation has helped bring sports participation of
women to historic highs, but related sports media
coverage has dropped to all-time lows.

Sports Illustrated's newest low can be traced directly
to McDonell's 2002 arrival as SI's Editor in Chief, from
an editorial history dominated by Men's magazines.  Last
year, The Atlantic's Eleanor Barkhorn kindly treated
readers with the "nine ways a woman could land an SI
cover." In this year's remix, her special spirit is
applied to McDonnell's 10-year tenure.  The full scope
of Sports Illustrated's sexism and McDonnell's mantra
becomes clear-- Objectification of women isn't a
swimsuit thing - it's the only thing.

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In Virtual Play, Sex Harassment Is All Too Real

By Amy O'Leary

New York Times August 1, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/us/sexual-harassment-in-online-gaming-stirs-anger.html

When Miranda Pakozdi entered the Cross Assault video
game tournament this year, she knew she had a slim
chance of winning but she was ready to compete. Over six
days of competition, though, her team's coach, Aris
Bakhtanians, interrogated her on camera about her bra
size, said "take off your shirt" and focused the team's
webcam on her chest, feet and legs.  Ms. Pakozdi, 25, an
experienced gamer and the only woman on the team, always
expects a certain amount of trash talk. But after she
overheard Mr. Bakhtanians defending sexual harassment as
part of "the fighting game community" , she forfeited
the game.

Sexism, racism, homophobia and general name-calling are
longstanding facts of life in certain corners of online
video games. But the Cross Assault episode was the first
of a series this year that have exposed the severity of
the harassment that many women experience, and a nasty
backlash on Twitter, in videos, on blogs and even in an
online comic strip, has moved the issue to more public
calls for change. Executives in the $25 billion-a-year
industry are taking note.

# # #

Larry Wachowski Transgender: 'Matrix' Director Reveals
Transition To Lana Wachowski

By Cavan Sieczkowski

The Huffington Post July 31, 2012

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/30/matrix-director-sex-change-larry-wachowski_n_1720944.html

The director of "The Matrix" and the highly-anticipated
not- yet-released film "Cloud Atlas" has become the
first major Hollywood director to publicly come out as
transgender. Lana Wachowski revealed she has
transitioned while promoting her new film, the New York
Post reported.  Lana has been transitioning for years
now, the Post reported.

This new clip for "Cloud Atlas," starring Tom Hanks and
Halle Berry, appears to be her first public appearance
since transitioning.  In the trailer, Lana introduces
the film with her brother, Andy Wachowski, and director
Tom Tykwer."Hi, I'm Lana," she says with her hair styled
in pink dreadlocks.

# # #

Professional Association of Innkeepers International
Condemns Innkeeper's Anti-LGBT Rant

http://www.innkeeping.org/news/99186/Innkeeping-Association-Condemns-Innkeepers-Facebook-Rant.htm

The board of directors of the Professional Association
of Innkeepers International (PAII) strongly condemned
the innkeeper at the Whitebriar Bed and Breakfast in NJ
who posted hateful remarks on Facebook about LGBT
people. They issued a statement urging all innkeepers to
support warm, hospitable experiences for all travelers,
regardless of their sexual orientation.  "B&Bs and inns
all across the world are known to welcome all persons,
including, lesbian, bi-sexual, gay and transgender
travelers. While we believe in freedom of speech, we
take issue with the extreme hatred displayed by the
innkeeper at the Whitebriar Bed and Breakfast. The
attack is an embarrassment to our industry and the board
of directors condemns the action of this individual
innkeeper."

# # #

Wary of limits on aiding gay people, group returns
Catholic grant

By Lisa Wangsness

Boston Globe August 02, 2012

http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/08/01/chelsea-community-group-rejects-grant-from-catholic-church/7L0NSck8UD1fjFB5sOoIUP/story.html

The Chelsea Collaborative, a Boston-area community
organization, has returned a $40,000 grant from the
Roman Catholic Church because the money could come with
too many restrictions against helping gay people and
working with organizations supporting gay rights. The
grant was for the Chelsea Latino Immigrant Committee,
which advocates for immigrant workers.  But a local
representative of the Catholic Campaign told the group
to avoid projects  that conflicted with Catholic
teachings, including "supporting the gay lifestyle" or
work involving the gay community.

Two weeks earlier, Executive Director Gladys Vega had
received an award from Mass¬Equality, a gay rights
organization, for speaking out on behalf of a
transgender woman badly beaten outside a Chelsea bar.
To avoid giving up such advocacy, the Chelsea
Collaborative returned the grant and withdraw its
application for next year.  Liberal Catholics say the
episode provides further evidence the church is
tightening the reins on antipoverty groups it funds, but
conservatives say restrictions on work conflicting with
church doctrine have not been enforced strictly enough.

# # #

Louisiana School Vouchers get dose of religion

BY Melinda Deslatte, The Associated Press

The Advocate August 03, 2012

http://theadvocate.com/news/3489257-123/vouchers-get-dose-of-religion

A Louisiana law mandating that "creationism" be given
equal time when evolution is taught in public schools
was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 and
since then, the state has banned promoting religious
doctrine in science materials.

But Louisiana's new voucher program will be paying for
schools that teach creationism and reject evolution,
bringing more than $4 million in taxpayer funding to
private schools in the school year that begins next
month. Superintendent of Education John White says
annual science tests are required of all voucher
students in the third through 11th grades, and the test
measures evolution. "In the event that there is basic
academic incompetence, we can intervene," he said.

# # #

A Working Assault Rifle Made With a 3-D Printer

By John Robb

POPSCI - The Future is Now (Popular Science July 26,
2012

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/working-assault-rifle-made-3-d-printer

Get ready. It's now possible to print weapons at home.
An amateur gunsmith called "HaveBlue" announced recently
in an online forum that he had successfully printed a
serviceable .22 caliber pistol. HaveBlue then used his
printer to make an AR-15 rifle. To do this, he
downloaded plans for an AR-15 receiver in the Solidworks
file format and fed about $30 of ABS plastic feedstock
into his late-model Stratasys printer. The result was a
functional AR-15 rifle.

While there are still some details to sort out, it's
pretty clear that making weapons at home using 3-D
printers from commonly available materials is going to
become much more commonplace in the near future. In
fact, as 3-D printing technology matures, materials
feedstock improves, and designs for weapons proliferate,
we might soon see the day when nearly everyone will be
able to print the weapons of their choice in the numbers
they desire, all within the privacy of their own homes.

# # #

'Vertigo' Tops 'Citizen Kane' in Poll of Greatest Films
of All Time

by Stuart Kemp

Hollywood Reporter August 1, 2012

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/vertigo-citizen-kane-greatest-film-of-all-time-357266

The BFI's Sight & Sound magazine survey puts Hitchcock's
psychological drama at the top of the charts in the
once-a- decade international critics' film poll,
published since 1962.

Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" no longer enjoys the
moniker of greatest film of all time. The movie has
occupied top billing in the British Film Institute-
published magazine Sight & Sound's once-a-decade
international critics' film poll since 1962. But that
crown, according 846 movie experts surveyed, has now
passed to Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." Starring James
Stewart and Kim Novak, Vertigo trumped Citizen Kane by
34 votes this time around; it finished second 10 years
ago, five votes shy of Kane.

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Cinnabon is first U.S. franchise in Libya

By Parija Kavilanz

CNN Money August 1, 2012

http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/01/smallbusiness/cinnabon-libya/index.htm

Cinnabon has opened a bakery-cafe in downtown Tripoli,
making it the first U.S. franchise to enter Libya.
Cinnabon, based in Atlanta, is also looking to enter
Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The Cinnabon push into
Libya had been planned for early 2011, and had selected
local franchise partners, selected a location and the
first shipment of products was on its way when the
country erupted in civil war.  The company, which has
more than 900 locations in 51 countries, plans to open
at least 10 Cinnabon locations in Libya in the next four
years.

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