Lost Liberties? Salon has an interesting two part series on the tensions between antiwar protesters and law enforcement. Part 1: "Outlawing dissent: Spying on peace meetings, cracking down on protesters, keeping secret files on innocent people -- how Bush's war on terror has become a war on freedom." Part 2: "A thousand J. Edgar Hoovers: State and local police are taking it upon themselves to investigate antiwar activists -- and in the computer age, the threat to our civil liberties is even greater than it was in Hoover's day." Does Protester = Criminal?
posted by homunculus on Feb 20, 2004 - 2 comments

"The Media vs. Howard Dean." Salon (subscription or Flash ad viewing required) observes that the media have been doing everything in their power to attach negative labels to US presidential candidate Howard Dean. Will the adage that "there's no such thing as bad publicity" prevail? Meanwhile, the Internet is increasing in relevance as a news source, according to a recent survey. Which websites do you peruse for political coverage, if any?
posted by Eloquence on Jan 13, 2004 - 67 comments

Dirty Bombs
Federal investigators have documented 1,300 cases of lost, stolen or abandoned radioactive material inside the United States over the past five years and have concluded there is a significant risk that terrorists could cobble enough together for a dirty bomb. (warning - Salon link)
posted by Irontom on Nov 10, 2003 - 13 comments

What's Not To Love About A Good Hatchet Job? Christopher Hitchens gleefully chainsaws into JFK; while Neal Ascherson demonstrates the more elegant approach towards character assassination with a nice "Drunken Stalinist Bastard" piece on Kennedy's Cuban Missile buddy, Khrushchev. Meanwhile, in the streetfighting, eye-scratching category, Laura Miller rips Chuck "Fight Club" Palahniuk into tiny pieces. What lowest of low instincts makes us relish such gratuitous - yet somehow richly deserved in the Grand Scheme Of Things - slaughters? (Warning: Sorry. Possibly unethical direct linking of a Salon Premium article. If your conscience objects, please go through the usual channel.)
posted by MiguelCardoso on Aug 25, 2003 - 33 comments

Ed Rosenthal found guilty. Is this man so harmful and dangerous to our society that he deserves a harsher sentence than child molesters?
posted by spazzm on Jan 31, 2003 - 77 comments

Salon Opens up Premium ... sort of. Salon will now let you read premium content in exchange for viewing an ad. Is this a signal that paid content isn't working for them, a groundbreaking way to bring in ad revenue (as they claim), both, or neither?
posted by risenc on Nov 20, 2002 - 35 comments

Linking to hate. Do links to hate-filled websites help to promote hatred or do they help to combat hate by exposing these sites to broader scrutiny? How does Google fit into the picture? (No direct links to hate groups)
posted by joemaller on Oct 29, 2002 - 13 comments

Robert Young Pelton, At first the media complains because they're not getting enough information, they're not being allowed to cover the war. Then when they get to know everything, after the 120-day window, nobody cares anymore. Because once they start spelling it out and saying, "Wait a second, these guys are all from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Why aren't we fighting a war in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and Egypt? Why are they our allies?" And then those are the tough questions that never really get asked, because the public doesn't really care at that point. Is disbelieving major news organization reports a neccessity to get the real stories?
posted by bittennails on Apr 24, 2002 - 14 comments

Lucas: Powerful reteller of myth - or galactic gasbag? Salon has a scathing review of Lucas' claim that the basis of the Star Wars saga is in "man's oldest stories" and that he was guided by Joseph Campbell.
"With 'Star Wars' I consciously set about to re-create myths and the classic mythological motifs," Lucas says. "I wanted to use those motifs to deal with issues that exist today."
Hogwash, says author Steven Hart. Star Wars is based not on "The Odyssey" or the "Upanishads", but on Asimov, Heinlen, Herbert and other 20th century S.F.
posted by rshah21 on Apr 10, 2002 - 32 comments

I hate to post from Salon but this just torqued my ass! "The Vatican has come up with new guidelines for the Roman Catholic Church to handle pedophilia accusations against priests, ordering church officials worldwide to inform it swiftly of such cases and declaring them subject to secrecy..."

Since when does being a Catholic priest exempt you from the law? Vatican II was supposed to bring Catholicism to the people and that included allowing man's laws to permeate the pontifical sphere that has protected so many priests for centuries. We expect holiness from these men, allowing for human failing and error; however, no one should be above the law!
posted by gloege on Jan 10, 2002 - 26 comments

Rodney Dangerfield Suffers Heart Attack: As this article illustrates, the man is a national treasure - here's hoping he makes a swift recovery.
posted by ryanshepard on Nov 25, 2001 - 10 comments

Wacky headline courtesy of Salon. Looks as though their copyeditors were hurried off to Salon Premium, as this is a 'free' story.
posted by KLAX on Nov 20, 2001 - 17 comments

Judge rules against anti-war student So is this censorship of an unpopular position, or covered by the "fire in a theater" argument? Creating an "anarchy club" seems a little odd.
posted by owillis on Nov 1, 2001 - 46 comments

salon starts charging for "staff-written copy." I guess I should start saving anything I want from the archives now.
posted by aflakete on Oct 1, 2001 - 20 comments

PETA vs. Britney Boy, it's hard to pick a side to root for in this fight. The paragraph that caught my attention, though, was this: the spotted cats are supposedly going to be prowling the [MTV's Video Music Awards] stage around the scantily-clad popster (and self-proclaimed virgin) as she wails her new hip-hop-flavored tune, "I'm A Slave 4 U," while simulating an orgasm on stage a la Madonna. Yeah, except that Madonna was at least consistent in her portrayal of sexuality as healthy and fun. A self-proclaimed virgin faking orgasms on nationwide TV, on the other hand, sounds like a heapin' helping of bizarro mixed messages.
posted by Shadowkeeper on Sep 5, 2001 - 30 comments

As the technology industry lays off thousands, a division of the German conglomerate, Siemens, takes a different approach. I like the idea of having a sabbatical of sorts with half pay instead of simply being laid off. Of course, this would never happen in the U.S. - we love laying people off here and contributing to overall unemployment and higher welfare rates. Just look at what Salon has to say about it.... (note, you need to scroll down to midpage).
posted by gloege on Sep 5, 2001 - 5 comments

Critics call Abercrombie & Fitch catalog soft porn. I can't comment on the catalog itself, since I haven't seen it; I just had to laugh out loud though when I read this sentence: "Boycott organizers contend the company... is wooing younger customers and using sex to popularize its image." Oh, the horror! Also striking was A&F's spin on it, calling it " the Norman Rockwell of 2001." Clearly, a divide in perceptions. Can anyone who has seen the offensive/inoffensive material in question explain why it is/isn't any different from the marketing practices of, oh, say, everyone else?
posted by topolino on Jun 22, 2001 - 23 comments

USA's new popular export: Their ignorance. A comedian who specializes in political and cultural satire, Mercer's most popular schtick is "Talking to Americans" -- a "Candid Camera"-esque routine in which he travels the United States asking people ridiculous questions to exploit their ignorance about their northern neighbor.
posted by adnan on May 28, 2001 - 57 comments

Another question of journalistic integrity, however this time we were meant to notice. My question is, what was Michael Stipe's role in this ruse?
posted by Oddsea on May 25, 2001 - 8 comments

Yeah, sorry another bloody Salon story but wait, this one's different:
Salon outlives its predicted date with Death by more than a week!
Of course it might have something to do with the erroneous data that they lodged with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Watch this space! When a company runs out of money something has to happen.
posted by lagado on Jan 23, 2001 - 10 comments

Not the first time a soldier has come out of the closet, but nonetheless remarkable. Do you suppose the girl is grounded? What is the proper parental punishment for this? (Warning: Salon link)
posted by Niccola Six on Dec 15, 2000 - 3 comments

A salon link? "It's [Salon] become boring. Way too safe and predictable with its left-leaning bias,"
posted by tiaka on Nov 30, 2000 - 2 comments

I agree with Scalia on this one. (Cue 'Twilight Zone' theme here.)
posted by black8 on Nov 1, 2000 - 6 comments

Milosevic is a bad, bad man. Not that we didn't know this before, but.... really.
posted by shylock on Oct 3, 2000 - 3 comments

How cereal creators die.
posted by gluechunk on Aug 28, 2000 - 4 comments

Pregnant women on death row. I don't understand why this is an issue. I'm not commenting on capital punishment here, a problem in itself, but what's the rush? Why not just wait until the child is born?
posted by evilmaryellen on Jul 26, 2000 - 70 comments

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Human Genome Project completed!!!!!
posted by grumblebee on Jun 25, 2000 - 7 comments

42! The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy is now real, and you can get it on your cell phone.
posted by owillis on Jun 12, 2000 - 6 comments

Hate vs. Hate Film critic Roger Ebert criticizes Hatewatch, a catalog of hate sites intended for people who hate hate. My commentary is a bit too long for the front page, so I put it on my log. Choose your poison.
posted by baylink on Apr 14, 2000 - 11 comments

Laetitia Casta has been elected as France's new millennial Marianne, symbolizing the embodiment of the Republic and symbol of the Revolution. In protest to the election of a supermodel to represent France, a french villiage has named a main square after an "ordinary woman" in the villiage.
posted by mathowie on Feb 21, 2000 - 0 comments