• Home
  • About
    • Straight Up
    • Jan Herman
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

THREE DOTS

April 16, 2004 by cmackie

Marc Weisblott was one of blogland’s savviest culture commentators, but he
quit blogging. So said I on Monday. He read the item and on Tuesday began posting
again. This time he’s calling his posts radio
weisblogg
, “news and commentary about the evolution of AM/FM
etc.” Have a look while it lasts. You’ll see what I meant. …


The Burlington Free Press, in Vermont, was the first daily newspaper I worked at (as a
feature writer). They even put me to work writing the occasional editorial. This item, “Banned in
Burlington”
(via Poynter), would have caught my attention anyway.
But it’s particularly lousy news for someone who was proud to work there once
upon a time. …


This op-ed piece also grabbed my eye: “Improve the CIA? Better to abolish
it.”
It’s from February in the San Francisco Chronicle, but very timely
in view of George Tenet’s testimony earlier this week before the 9/11 commission. And it’s by the
historian Chalmers Johnson, the same guy who wrote with chilling prescience in “Blowback: The Costs and
Consequences of American Empire,”
a year before the 9/11
attacks:


Terrorism by definition strikes at the innocent in order to draw attention to
the sins of the invulnerable. The innocent of the twenty-first century are going to harvest
unexpected blowback disasters from the imperialist escapades of recent decades. Although most
Americans may be largely ignorant of what was, and still is, being done in their names, all are
likely to pay a steep price — individually and collectively — for their nation’s continued efforts to
dominate the global scene. Before the damage of heedless triumphalist acts and the triumphalist
rhetoric and propaganda that goes with them becomes irreversible, it is important to open a new
discussion of our global role …

Has the damage become irreversible? Johnson thinks so, as noted earlier this week.

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit

Filed Under: main

Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
Another strange fact... Read More…

About

My Books

Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

Straight Up

The agenda is just what it says: news of arts, media & culture delivered with attitude. Or as Rock Hudson once said in a movie: "Man is the only … [Read More...]

Contact me

We're cutting down on spam. Please fill in this form. … [Read More...]

Archives

Blogroll

Abstract City
AC Institute
ACKER AWARDS New York
All Things Allen Ginsberg
Antiwar.com
arkivmusic.com
Artbook&
Arts & Letters Daily

Befunky
Bellaart
Blogcritics
Booknotes
Bright Lights Film Journal

C-SPAN
Noam Chomsky
Consortium News
Cost of War
Council on Foreign Relations
Crooks and Liars
Cultural Daily

The Daily Howler
Dark Roasted Blend
DCReport
Deep L
Democracy Now!

Tim Ellis: Comedy
Eschaton

Film Threat
Robert Fisk
Flixnosh (David Elliott’s movie menu)
Fluxlist Europe

Good Reads
The Guardian
GUERNICA: A Magazine of Art & Politics

Herman (Literary) Archive, Northwestern Univ. Library
The Huffington Post

Inter Press Service News Agency
The Intercept
Internet Archive (WayBackMachine)
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Doug Ireland
IT: International Times, The Magazine of Resistance

Jacketmagazine
Clive James

Kanopy (stream free movies, via participating library or university)
Henry Kisor
Paul Krugman

Lannan Foundation
Los Angeles Times

Metacritic
Mimeo Mimeo
Moloko Print
Movie Geeks United (MGU)
MGU: The Kubrick Series

National Security Archive
The New York Times
NO!art

Osborne & Conant
The Overgrown Path

Poets House
Political Irony
Poynter

Quanta Magazine

Rain Taxi
The Raw Story
RealityStudio.org
Bill Reed
Rhizome
Rwanda Project

Salon
Senses of Cinema
Seven Stories Press
Slate
Stadtlichter Presse
Studs Terkel
The Synergic Theater

Talking Points Memo (TPM)
TalkLeft
The 3rd Page
Third Mind Books
Times Square Cam
The Tin Man
t r u t h o u t

Ubu Web

Vox

The Wall Street Journal
Wikigate
Wikipedia
The Washington Post
The Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)
World Catalogue
World Newspapers, Magazines & News Sites

The XD Agency

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit
This blog published under a Creative Commons license

an ArtsJournal blog

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in