Important social issues

I'm starting this one off with a comment that Paul made in my last post. I agree with Paul that it's unclear what the big deal about accidentally showing a breast on TV is. However, what disturbs me more is how fixated the media is about this issue. Like a scene straight from Manufacturing Consent, it seems that the media can't get enough of the Janet Jackson thing. As a writer for The Nation points out, there has been much more airtime devoted to this issue than to many others, even those that are much more pressing. In what seems like the news-cycle that never ends, the latest incarnation is talk of implementing a delay during the Grammy awards to avoid 'similar mistakes.'

The Nation also has a pretty good roundup of the Democratic primary, including a (false) rumor that the Republicans are spreading about John Kerry using Botox. They get one thing wrong though -- they wonder where all the 'Deaniacs' that Dean was going to bring to the race are since he hasn't been doing so well. They conclude that the Deaniacs don't vote, but my better guess is that they're defecting en masse to other campaigns.

News organizations can't seem to get enough of Sharon's Gaza Plan. The New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor (which has this great picture accompanying the article), and the BBC all had articles featuring different aspects and repercussions of the plan.

The political maneuvering in Iran continues, with the Guardian Council reviewing, again, the list of banned candidates after reinstating 1 160 last week. Despite all of this turmoil, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced that the election will go forward as scheduled on February 20th.

In my other pet issue, the Prime Minister of France came out defending the headscarf ban, saying that the law was necessary because the wearing of headscarves takes on a political dimension. However, the best article I have read on this issue, hands down, comes from the Guardian today. In an exceptionally well-balanced piece of writing they thoroughly illustrate the sheer complexity of the social issues surrounding this bill, with a focus on how other European countries are dealing with their movement to multi-ethnic societies.

One of the problems that nations have to face with immigration is the backlash of the existing populace. It seems that this backlash has taken a political foothold in Britain, with the ultra-right wing British National Party poised to win seats in the upcoming European elections due to low voter turnout and recent surge in anti-asylum seeker stories. If you look at their website, you notice the slogan, "Working for People Like You," although all of the people in the pictures seem to be middle class and white.

In an article that could be placed under the heading "wither US intelligence?" the Guardian points out that Bush's inquiry into how US intelligence botched the WMD question in Iraq is actually the second major intelligence inquiry during his presidency, the first being the post-9/11 inquiry into how the hijackings occurred without government knowledge. An interesting article.

The high court of Massachusetts came back with a clarification to their gay-marriage ruling by stating that only full marriages, not civil unions, would be constitutionally permissible. The court issued its advisory opinion against civil unions, as asked by the state's Senate, with an argument that I personally agree with, that being that the it creates an, "inferior and discriminatory status for same-sex couples." Even better, and I need to quote this in full because it represents the crux of the argument:

"[The State] has failed to identify any constitutionally adequate reason for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples. Barred access to the protections, benefits and obligations of civil marriage, a person who enters into an intimate, exclusive union with another of the same sex is arbitrarily deprived of membership in one of our community's most rewarding and cherished institutions.''

Mel Gibson has (quite rightfully) decided to remove a section of his upcoming film, The Passion, that depicts the Jewish high priest declaring that the "[Blood of Jesus] be on us and our children." Given the very questionable historical veracity of this comment, not to mention that it is responsible for many of the anti-Semitic feelings over the last two centuries by Christians, I feel that this is an appropriate move.

Also, in brief:
- Deutsche Welle has an interesting article about some of the complexities involved in implementing green credits for businesses.
- The UN has issued a warning that tensions between Entrea and Ethiopia are increasing after three years of peace between the two countries.

And in the offbeat news category, a judge in Miami Beach sentenced a man to 2 1/2 hours of La Traviata after breaking a noise ordinance by blaring music in his car. Apparently this sentence has been given to hundreds of offenders, which prompts me to wonder whether the local Opera Hall has been doing increased business from converts.