Dispatches From the Culture Wars - Culture Keeps Clashing
 Edition - August 21, 2012

 Published by Portside
 August 21, 2012

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 Rage Against the Machine's guitarist blasts Rage fan Ryan

 By Tom Morello

 Rolling Stone
 August 16, 2012

 http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-paul-ryan-is-the-embodiment-of-the-machine-our-music-rages-against-20120816

 Last week, Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan, the Republican
 architect of Congress's radical right-wing budget plan, as
 his running mate. Ryan has previously cited Rage Against the
 Machine as one of his favorite bands. Rage guitarist Tom
 Morello responds in this exclusive op-ed.

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 New Board Game Gives You The Thrills And Chills Of Urban
 Renewal

 by AJ Artemel

 Architizer News
 August 15, 2012

 http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/47351/new-board-game-gives-you-the-thrills-and-chills-of-urban-renewal/

 Toronto-based artist Flavio Trevisan debuted his board game
 The Game of Urban Renewal which simulates the fate of
 Toronto's Regent Park neighborhood, an intense locus of the
 city's urban renewal efforts since 1947. In the game,
 players can assume various roles like City Councilor,
 Developer, Community Activist,  Academic Urban Theorist,
 Resident of Existing Development to be Demolished, etc. and
 take turns spinning the `Decision Engine Wheel' to place
 various types of development (condominium, office,
 commercial, park, etc.) on the board.

 The most interesting part of this game might be the bulldoze
 option, as this simulates many actual urban renewal schemes
 of the 1950's and 60's. Entire neighborhoods were demolished
 to make way for concrete towers and interstate highways,
 planning decisions that North American cities are trying to
 undo today. The game forces players to make drastic
 decisions for their city's future, and subtly cautions
 against the heavy-handed approach.

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 Former ACORN Worker Can Sue Right-Winger on Privacy Claim

 by Matt Reynolds

 Court House News
 August 14, 2012

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/08/14/49281.htm

 A federal judge refused to throw out claims that a right-
 wing activist violated the privacy of an ACORN worker who
 was taped counseling defendant James O'Keefe.   Juan Carlos
 Vera sued O'Keefe and his associate Hanna Giles in Federal
 Court on privacy claims, after O'Keefe secretly filmed Vera
 at an ACORN office in National City in 2009.   The now-
 famous series of ACORN recordings featured O'Keefe posing as
 pimp, while Giles was disguised as a prostitute.

 O'Keefe claimed that Vera had no expectation of privacy when
 the conversation was taped.   But Judge Lorenz found a
 genuine dispute as to whether plaintiff's [Vera's]
 expectation of privacy was reasonable. "ACORN is in the
 business of providing counseling and support for the
 community on various matters," Lorenz wrote. "By its very
 nature, the organization handles personal matters with
 individual clients."

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 Occupy Opens Victor Martinez People's Library in Oakland

 Occupy California
 August 13, 2012

http://occupyca.wordpress.com/

 On Monday morning, the former 23rd Avenue Branch of the
 Oakland Public Library was occupied and renamed the Victor
 Martinez People's Library.  According to the People's
 Library, The building was part of a Carnegie Foundation
 endowment of four libraries given to the city of Oakland
 between 1916 and 1918.  The building was shut down as a
 public library in 1976 and has been vacant since 2010.  A
 group of activists opened this building again for use as a
 library, named the after recently deceased author, Victor
 Martinez, who overcame a young life of hard agricultural
 work to become a successful writer in the Bay Area.

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 Paleoanthropologist Leakey Says Evolution Debate Nearing The
 End

 Red Orbit - Your Universe Online
 May 27, 2012

 http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112543029/paleoanthropologist-leakey-says-evolution-debate-nearing-the-end/

 The debate over evolution will be a thing of the past within
 the next three decades, the son of archaeologists Louis
 Leakey and Mary Leakey has proclaimed.   Richard Leakey, a
 67-year- old, Kenyan-born Stony Brook University professor,
 paleoanthropologist, and avowed atheist, said that he
 believed scientific discoveries over the next 15 to 30 years
 will have reached the point that "even the skeptics" will be
 able to accept the theory put forth by Charles Darwin in his
 1859 book Origin of Species.

 "If you get to the stage where you can persuade people on
 the evidence, that it's solid, that we are all African, that
 color is superficial, that stages of development of culture
 are all interactive, then I think we have a chance of a
 world that will respond better to global challenges," he
 said.

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 Catholic Church Makes a Fortune in the German Porn Business

 by DIE WELT/Worldcrunch

 Worldcrunch 
October 29, 2011

 http://worldcrunch.com/catholic-church-makes-fortune-german-porn-business/culture-society/catholic-church-makes-a-fortune-in-the-german-porn-business//c3s3995/#.UCwYuJ1LRnH

 Weltbild, one of Germany's largest publishing companies,
 sells books, DVDs, music and more - including porn.  It also
 happens to be owned and operated by the Catholic Church.
 Weltbild is Germany's leading book seller, controlling 20%
 of the domestic bookstore market, and its online business in
 Germany is second only to Amazon. The 2,500 erotic books in
 their online catalogue include: "Anwaltshure" (Lawyer's
 Whore), "V"gelbar" (F-kable) and "Schlampen-Internat"
 (Sluts' Boarding School).

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 Fox News Wonders Why Team USA's Uniforms Are Not Patriotic
 Enough

 Huffington Post
 August 6, 2012

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/06/fox-news-team-usa-uniforms-patriotic_n_1746519.html

 Fox News had one burning question after Gabby Douglas' gold
 medal performance at the Olympics: how is the athlete
 showing her patriotism if her uniform lacks stars and
 stripes? "You know, Gabby had that great moment, and she's
 in hot pink " guest-host Alisyn Camerota said.

 Guest David Webb wondered, "What's wrong with showing some
 pride?" He likened the uniform choice to a "kind of soft
 anti- American feeling that Americans can't show their
 exceptionalism." "We're a very nationalistic nation," he
 said. "But over time we've also lost that jingoistic
 feeling."

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 Aboriginal Boxer Will Not Be Punished for Wearing Native
 Flag at Olympics, Receives Support From Across the Globe

 by ICTMN Staff

 Indian Country Today
 August 4, 2012

 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/08/04/aboriginal-boxer-will-not-be-punished-for-wearing-native-flag-at-olympics-receives-support-from-across-the-globe-127437

 Light heavyweight fighter Damien Hooper, Aborigine from
 Australia, entered the Olympic boxing ring in London wearing
 a T-shirt emblazoned with the Aboriginal flag before a bout.
 The move was a violation of International Olympic Committee
 (IOC) rules, which forbids the displaying of flags that
 don't represent competing nations.

 He could have been disqualified for his act of civil
 disobedience. Instead, Hooper got a warning and a reprimand
 from Australian Olympic chef de mission Nick Green, who told
 reporters that the boxer was "was extremely apologetic. He
 has confirmed with me that it was a `one-off' and that he
 won't do it again."  A spokesman for the IOC has confirmed
 they would not seek to punish Hooper, who in 2010 became the
 first indigenous Australian to win a junior world title.

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 Walmart OK's Monsanto GM Corn

 by Monica Eng, Chicago Tribune

 Reader Supported News
 August 4, 2012

 http://www.readersupportednews.org/news-section2/445-farm-and-food-policy/12777-walmart-oks-monsanto-gm-corn

 Rejecting entreaties from consumers and activists, Wal-Mart
 Stores Inc. says it has no objection to selling genetically
 modified sweet corn created by biotech giant Monsanto. In
 March, the group Food and Water Watch presented Wal-Mart
 with a petition signed by 463,000 people asking it to
 boycott the product. Environmental and health activists
 expressed surprise and disappointment at Wal-Mart's
 decision. Earlier this year, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and
 General Mills said they would not carry or use the
 genetically modified sweet corn.

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 Pussy Riot Remind Us That Revolution Always Begins in
 Culture

 by Suzanne Moore

 The Guardian/UK
 August 2, 2012 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/02-2

 Vladimir Putin is right to be frightened by Pussy Riot. They
 are essentially a concept and you can't stop a concept.
 Some people have their eyes on the prize -- freedom, freedom
 of expression, freedom to protest. I am talking about Pussy
 Riot, who are drawing the eyes of the world to what is
 happening in Russia. Pussy Riot - crazy punks, yeah? No,
 they are not crazy, daft or naive. They are being tried for
 blasphemy, a crime that took 51 seconds to commit, in what
 is still, nominally, a secular state. They now face a
 possible seven- year sentence, in a country where fewer than
 1% of cases that go to trial end in a not guilty verdict.
 They highlight what happens to any opposition to president
 Vladimir Putin and, indeed, they do look fabulous. If you
 want to see protest as art or the art of protest, look at
 these women and their supporters.

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 You Gotta Work the Culture If You Wanna Change the Politics

 by Rinku Sen
  
 ColorLines
 August 14 2012,

 http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/08/you_gotta_work_the_culture_if_you_wanna_change_the_politics.html

 Here is one lesson from the annual Creative Change retreat
 that the Opportunity Agenda hosts for people working at the
 intersection of arts and social justice.  People like me,
 who have been trained in the linear world of policy change,
 tend to have a very transactional view of art and culture in
 relation to their work, and politicos consider artistic
 projects valuable only if they increase pressure on a
 targeted decision maker, generate press for a campaign or
 attract celebrities to the cause.

 There's nothing wrong with any of these goals, but they
 don't fill the gap between what people believe and the
 policies we want to push. Every political strategy needs a
 corresponding cultural strategy.

 To win on workers issues, immigrant rights, prison issues
 over the long term, we have to change the way society sees
 workers, immigrants and prisoners. That takes more human and
 material energy than getting someone to make a poster for
 your campaign. The political organizer doesn't have to carry
 out the cultural strategy, but she should surely be active
 in creating one.

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 D.C. man orders TV from Amazon, receives a gun instead

 by Paul Duggan

 Washington Post
 August 8, 2012

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/2012/08/08/d96b55e4-e1a2-11e1-a25e-15067bb31849_story.html

 Normally, buying merchandise through Amazon, you get what
 you pay for.  Not always, though.  Seth Horvitz purchased a
 39- inch television through Amazon, but what he got instead
 was a tactical military-style SIG716 semiautomatic rifle
 with an empty magazine for 7.62x51mm ammunition and an
 owner's manual from the German arms company Sig Sauer.

 "I definitely knew it was a mistake," he said. "But it
 surprised me to see how easy it would be for a gun to show
 up on someone's doorstep - not just a gun, but an assault
 weapon."

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