Levy Rivers's List: culturally twisted

• George W. Bush was another matter. Karl Rove understood that we are in the midst of what historians call the “third evangelical awakening.” Bush exploited this opportunity, as in his third televised debate in 2000,

• The rhetoric, once again, masks racism through comparative oppressions - the prevailing misrepresentation of how the black vote, and also the Hispanic vote, supported anti-gay policies on the day that black history would be irrevocably altered.
• Gay is the New Black
• Offense #1: It presumes that, because we made significant racial progress through the election of Obama, somehow racism has been conquered while homophobia has not been. Obviously, racism hasn't been conquered, or that slogan would have never emerged in the first place.
  
  Offense #2: Such a slogan is designed to pit two marginal groups against each other, conveniently ignoring the fact that certain fundamental religious organizations whose congregations are overwhelmingly white were instrumental in enacting Proposition 8 in the first place.
• Offense #3: Presumed whiteness. The very fact that "Gay is the New Black" can position gayness in opposition to blackness is to completely erase and exclude black gays and lesbians, who include people like James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. "Gay" is supposed to represent whiteness, and, suddenly, as Baldwin wrote, "They require of me a song less to celebrate my captivity than to justify their own."

2 more annotations...

• Consider the hypothetical example of a money manager who leverages up his clients’ money with lots of debt, then invests the bulked-up total in high-yielding but risky assets, such as dubious mortgage-backed securities. For a while — say, as long as a housing bubble continues to inflate — he (it’s almost always a he) will make big profits and receive big bonuses. Then, when the bubble bursts and his investments turn into toxic waste, his investors will lose big — but he’ll keep those bonuses.

• The answer, I believe, is that there’s an innate tendency on the part of even the elite to idolize men who are making a lot of money, and assume that they know what they’re doing.

  After all, that’s why so many people trusted Mr. Madoff.

• Morris Brown College may not open its doors to students in the spring. The historically black college in Atlanta faces mounting bills as students, parents and faculty weigh an uncertain future. Stanley Pritchet, the school's acting president, discusses the crisis at Morri
• Morris Brown College may not open its doors to students in the spring. The historically black college in Atlanta faces mounting bills as students, parents and faculty weigh an uncertain future. Stanley Pritchet, the school's acting president, discusses the crisis at Morr

• Today, Israel may have earned itself another reputation - not just as a military power, but one that might be considered particularly merciless.

    

  The images of smoke plumes, destruction and death emanating from Gaza over the past few days are a somber reminder of the country's 2006 clash with Hezbollah and the great reality that years of neglect are wearing heavily on any hope for Arab-Israeli peace. Israel's deadly response on Hamas and residents of the Gaza Strip is increasingly looking like an attempt to regain an air of indestructibility, and less like a defense strategy

• Today, Israel may have earned itself another reputation - not just as a military power, but one that might be considered particularly merciless.

    

  The images of smoke plumes, destruction and death emanating from Gaza over the past few days are a somber reminder of the country's 2006 clash with Hezbollah and the great reality that years of neglect are wearing heavily on any hope for Arab-Israeli peace. Israel's deadly response on Hamas and residents of the Gaza Strip is increasingly looking like an attempt to regain an air of indestructibility, and less like a defense strategy. The embattled government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, still reeling from the ineffective military campaign of 2006, has but a few months left to salvage its reputation, as well as the beset image of Israel."

• THC, the main psychoactive compound of cannabis, produces hypothermic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Therefore, THC may have a neuroprotective effect against MDMA-induced neurotoxicity.
• HC, the main psychoactive compound of cannabis, produces hypothermic, anti-inflammatory an