http://www.szcz.org/The website of Mitchell SzczepanczykSat, 25 Apr 2026 11:39:39 -0500clj-rsshttp://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-12-14-montreal-talks-democratic-planning/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-12-14-montreal-talks-democratic-planning/In August 2025, I gave two presentations for the inaugural conference of the International Network on Democratic Economic Planning, but.The first presentation I gave also happened to be the very first presentation of the entire conference, and it amounted to a progress report of a project called the Participatory Planning Interactive Prototype:Sun, 14 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-09-06-jeff-stewart-presente/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-09-06-jeff-stewart-presente/My very first tryout for the game show Jeopardy! took place in the fall of 1993 in Omaha, Nebraska -- the designated tryout venue for the Midwest United States for the 1994 Jeopardy! college championship. I was heralded by my dormmates as a lock to get on the show (they even threw a mid-hall party for me), and yet I didn't pass the qualifying test -- the only time in my life when I took the test and did not pass. But I did meet one person in Omaha -- in fact, I sat next to her during the test -- who did pass the test and qualified for the championship tournament and advanced to the final: a student from Michigan Tech named Keri Ellis.Sat, 06 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-07-29-summer-of-95/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-07-29-summer-of-95/Bob Harris in his book "Steal this book (and get life without parole)" wrote about the adventure he undertook when preparing for his first appearance on the game show "Jeopardy!". (Bob would later expound on his adventures in a book on the topic, "Prisoner of Trebekistan".) "For twenty-one days, I went down to the library promptly at 9 a.m. and disappeared into the Reference section like Shoeless Joe into a cornfield. By 7 p.m., I was home to watch the show, so I could study betting strategies, get a handle on probable categories, and evaluate my preparedness. At 7:30, I went back to the books for review, keeping notes on my day's discoveries. At no point did I ever work this hard getting my degree."Tue, 29 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-04-23-thoughts-on-justine-bateman/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-04-23-thoughts-on-justine-bateman/Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-01-19-more-words-inspire/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2025-01-19-more-words-inspire/Sun, 19 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2024-09-10-fallacy-bifurcation-examples-computer-science-economics/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2024-09-10-fallacy-bifurcation-examples-computer-science-economics/Tue, 10 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2024-05-27-last-name-vietnam-veterans-memorial/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2024-05-27-last-name-vietnam-veterans-memorial/Mon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2024-02-20-chris-geovanis-presente/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2024-02-20-chris-geovanis-presente/Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2024-01-28-future-chicago-economy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2024-01-28-future-chicago-economy/Sun, 28 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-12-16-drucilla-ronchen-presente/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-12-16-drucilla-ronchen-presente/Sat, 16 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-10-30-pseudocode-algorithms-computer-simulations-democratically-planned-economies/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-10-30-pseudocode-algorithms-computer-simulations-democratically-planned-economies/On October 26, 2023, the Journal of Information Economics published a paper I wrote titled "Pseudocode and Algorithms for Computer Simulations of Democratically Planned Economies". The paper outlines, in reasonably specific detail, the pseudocode for the computer code I helped write to research the feasibility of a non-market, non-command-planning, democratic economy.Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-09-27-google-promotes-25th-anniversary-hides-details-two-trillion-dollar-antitrust-trial/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-09-27-google-promotes-25th-anniversary-hides-details-two-trillion-dollar-antitrust-trial/Everyone knows that today marks the 25th anniversary of the debut of Google, not least because everyone sees the 25th anniversary Google Doodle (above) on the Google front page. Far fewer people know that Google is currently in the middle of an antitrust trial that deserves more attention and whose internal details are largely hidden from public view.Wed, 27 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-08-20-ftc-comments-corporations/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-08-20-ftc-comments-corporations/In April 2022 and August 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (the U.S. government agency tasked with ensuring fair business practices) announced a public comment period related to antitrust policy. I learned about this from The BIG Newsletter from Matt Stoller, and I thought I would submit comments to the docket, on the matter of my area of expertise -- that of media policy and media ownership concentration. I felt this this marks, or could potentiall mark, a change in policy from the past four decades of neoliberalism and lax enforcement of antitrust. I repost below my comments on the two rounds of comments on the docket.COMMENT - FIRST ROUND: April 20, 2022Sun, 20 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-07-29-my-npr-sunday-puzzle-appearance/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-07-29-my-npr-sunday-puzzle-appearance/Since 2013, I've been writing computer programs to solve the weekly NPR Sunday Puzzle challenges, partly because I think it's great fun, but also partly because I held hope (however dim) of getting on NPR to play the Sunday Puzzle. In my 2018 talk on using the Clojure computer programming language to solve the NPR Sunday Puzzle, I assess my hopes succinctly: "Maybe someday."Sat, 29 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-05-01-review-boss/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-05-01-review-boss/(By television screen capture, Fair use, Link)Mon, 01 May 2023 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-04-23-did-walmart-engage-capital-strike/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-04-23-did-walmart-engage-capital-strike/I wrote a letter to the editor to the Sun-Times which was not published, so I publish the letter here below.It sure seems like Walmart engaged in a capital strike in response to Chicago electing Brandon Johnson as the next mayor.Sun, 23 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-03-20-remember-protests-against-iraq-war/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-03-20-remember-protests-against-iraq-war/Image credit: Red Line Radio / Chicago IndymediaA week before the 20th anniversary of the 2003 escalation of the War in Iraq, I got the idea of writing an op-ed to submit to the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper -- particularly since I feared that there would not be much or any attention given to the anniversary. I wrote an op-ed which the Sun-Times informed me they had no room for, but they told me to feel free to resubmit as a letter about half the length of the original. I then revised and resubmitted it, and the Sun-Times to their credit published the letter. But I also wanted to share the original op-ed on which the published letter was based, which I do so below.Mon, 20 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-01-22-linguist-analyzes-100000-pyramid/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-01-22-linguist-analyzes-100000-pyramid/I enjoy Pyramid -- the wordplay game show reincarnated over the years and whose latest incarnation is The $100,000 Pyramid. While the regular game play of Pyramid is, frankly, kind of simple (a very loose word guessing game where the only challenge is not to say the clue word or parts of the clue word under time pressure), the bonus round is infinitely interesting, takes real skill, and merits some detailed analysis.Sun, 22 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-01-03-my-shoelaces-story/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2023-01-03-my-shoelaces-story/I was not a very smart first grader. I routinely tell the story as to how I was flummoxed by a first-grade subtraction assignment. The assignment encompassed a series of problems where I was to practice subtracting by one -- two minus one, five minus one, eight minus one, and so on -- to which I proceeded to give "one" as my reply to all of these problems. (I like to think my math skills have improved since then.)Tue, 03 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2022-12-25-soccer-match-seems-very-familiar/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2022-12-25-soccer-match-seems-very-familiar/In late 2022, the world was entranced by a high-stakes soccer match between two elite teams with a grand trophy at stake. The game ended 2-2 after full time, 3-3 after extra time, and was decided by penalty kick shootout.Sun, 25 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2022-06-03-days-of-our-lies-thirty-years/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2022-06-03-days-of-our-lies-thirty-years/It was May 1992, my last month of high school, and my high school humanities class had as its final project the production of a movie. My role was that of screenwriter, and I had submitted a movie script which I wrote; it was one of two scripts that were submitted for the class, and mine wasn't chosen. We made the film and we were told the film was going to be cablecast on GRTV Channel 23, our local public access cable channel, on May 26, 1992, at 8PM.Fri, 03 Jun 2022 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2022-01-05-covid-war/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2022-01-05-covid-war/About one hundred years ago, what we now call the First World War gave us, among other things, the notion of total war. Total war refers to the mobilization of the entirety of a country or society -- all the population, all the resources -- to contribute to the effort to win a war. The First World War, I think, merits being described as a total war.Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-11-21-science-killed-premise-dune/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-11-21-science-killed-premise-dune/The lynchpin of the novel Dune by Frank Herbert, and all subsequent media based on the book and its five sequels, is as follows: Humanity over tens of thousands of years has spread across the universe as a result of faster-than-light travel. Such travel requires on an addictive substance called melange, commonly called "spice", which gives its users the ability to see into the future. It would make sense: By being able to see into the future, a space traveler can avoid, you know, running your spacecraft into a sun or a black hole.Sun, 21 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-10-28-researching-third-way-democratically-run-economies-clojure-script/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-10-28-researching-third-way-democratically-run-economies-clojure-script/ On October 28, 2021, I gave an online slideshow presentation at the Chicago Clojure Meetup, entitled "Researching 'third way' democratically-run economies with Clojure(script)".Thu, 28 Oct 2021 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-07-22-astounding-trivial-pursuit-comeback-story/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-07-22-astounding-trivial-pursuit-comeback-story/The date of this post marks the twenty-year anniversary of I what I regard as my most remarkable trivia competition performance in my life.Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-07-10-review_capital_one_college_bowl/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-07-10-review_capital_one_college_bowl/G.E. College Bowl was a staple of broadcast television for more than a decade (1959 to 1970). Some time after College Bowl went off network television, College Bowl Company Incorporated (CBI), the company that ran College Bowl, organized a Campus Program, an annual competition which ran on college campuses from 1977 to 2008. Some of those completitions also got national airplay, including the national semifinals and finals in 1984 on NBC with Pat Sajak as host. Some players criticized the game's excessive bureaucratic rules, the question quality (or lack thereof), and organizational incompetence -- and in response they organized rival quiz tournaments like Academic Competition Foundation/Federation (ACF), National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT), and Testing Recall About Strange Happenings (TRASH).Sat, 10 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-05-22-open-letter-regarding-michigan-hb-4326-computer-code-foreign-languages-high-schools/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-05-22-open-letter-regarding-michigan-hb-4326-computer-code-foreign-languages-high-schools/Letter to: Representative Greg VanWoerkom Re: Michigan House Bill 4326Dear Representative VanWoerkom,Sat, 22 May 2021 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-02-14-everyone-associated-second-impeachment-trial-donald-trump-fucked/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-02-14-everyone-associated-second-impeachment-trial-donald-trump-fucked/Pardon the profanity, but I think everyone associated with the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump was fucked.Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-01-01-twenty-one-programming-languages-twenty-one-years/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2021-01-01-twenty-one-programming-languages-twenty-one-years/The date of this post -- January 1, 2021 -- marks twenty-one years since I first became a professional software programmer. By a happy coincidence, the number of programming languages I've worked on and learned in my life also comes to twenty-one. I've listed them below in alphabetical order, along with some remarks on my current thoughts about each language.Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2020-12-25-edinburgh-associative-thesaurus-clojurescript/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2020-12-25-edinburgh-associative-thesaurus-clojurescript/The Edinburgh Associative Thesaurus is a set of word associations; if you hear the word library what word would first come to mind? This is what researchers who published with Edinburgh University Press sought to find.The surveys took place among college students in the UK in the early 1970s, so the results will be understandably affected by biases of time, place, and demographics. Even so, I've found the Edinburgh Associative Thesaurus to be a useful tool, particularly for word games like Password and Pyramid, and particularly since such empirical data sets are difficult to come by. However, to my dismay, it appears that the main page hosting a web form for querying the Thesaurus is offline. (There are still copies of the Thesaurus data online.)Fri, 25 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2020-10-31-story-name-sign/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2020-10-31-story-name-sign/I was fortunate enough to take the ASL (American Sign Language) year-long sequence of courses during my first stint in graduate school. It was there that I first learned about name-signs: ASL signs that represent someone's name.Sat, 31 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2020-09-18-rbg/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2020-09-18-rbg/Zachary and I spent the evening tonight watching "Captain America: The First Avenger", and after the movie ended I checked my email. For some reason, I'm on the email list of the group "Americans for Limited Government", and they emailed out a statement regarding the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-11-29-audio-indymedia-20th-anniversary-encuentro-panels/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-11-29-audio-indymedia-20th-anniversary-encuentro-panels/ This is audio recorded from the panels of the Indymedia 20 Encuentro, held at the Rice Media Center in Houston, Texas, on the weekend of November 29 - December 1, 2019.Fri, 29 Nov 2019 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-09-14-health-risk-being-vegan/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-09-14-health-risk-being-vegan/Today marks my 26th veganniversary -- I had my last non-vegan meal on this date (September 14th) in 1993 and I've been on the vegan bandwagon ever since. For the first time since I've been vegan, there is research (that I know of) saying there is a negative health risk to this diet: a slight increase of the likelihood of having a stroke among vegans (and vegetarians) as compared to meat eaters or fish eaters.How much does this research change the overall calculus? Like I said, this marks the first time I've ever heard of a health risk being found regarding a vegan diet, and the needle hasn't changed (as far as I know) regarding the myriad other impacts on health and the environment. For me, for now, the benefits still outweigh the negatives, and I haven't been convinced enough to leave the vegan bandwagon. That could change (I frankly doubt it, but you never know) -- and being open-minded and keeping aware and letting the science guide one's choices are still, for me, the best approach.Sat, 14 Sep 2019 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-07-13-my-stephanie-hickey-story/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-07-13-my-stephanie-hickey-story/I was in Philadelphia in November 2015 for Clojure Conj, the premiere conference in the world for the Clojure computer programming language (one of my favorite programming languages). One of the off-hour events was Clojurebridge, an effort to teach Clojure to girls and women new to Clojure and new to programming. I thought this was cool so I took part.Sat, 13 Jul 2019 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-06-29-kunta-kinte-i-found-you/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-06-29-kunta-kinte-i-found-you/Whenever I find something, usually in the context of looking for the source of a computer bug, I tend to say the same quote:Sat, 29 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-06-01-in-memoriam-richard-english/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-06-01-in-memoriam-richard-english/It was late summer 1983, probably August, definitely a week before I was about to start third grade. My mother was driving my sister and I when we passed by North East Complex, where my godmother worked. My mother stopped the car so we could pay a visit to my godmother. I objected.Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-03-02-my-story-february-9-st-anns-st-matthias-trivia-event-numbers/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-03-02-my-story-february-9-st-anns-st-matthias-trivia-event-numbers/Number of members of my team: 2Sat, 02 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-02-13-big-data-analysis-2019-chicago-mayoral-race/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2019-02-13-big-data-analysis-2019-chicago-mayoral-race/The 2019 Chicago mayoral race has 14 candidates. Some weeks ago, I read this questionnaire on the WBEZ website, where 13 of the 14 candidates are asked 19 (not 20, as advertised on the article) yes-or-no questions. The article is useful, but it doesn't tabulate the results.Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-12-26-using-clojure-solve-npr-sunday-puzzle/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-12-26-using-clojure-solve-npr-sunday-puzzle/On December 18, 2018, I gave a presentation at the Chicago Clojure Meetup on the topic of "Using Clojure to Solve the NPR Sunday Puzzle". The video embed is below. The slideshow presentation itself is available here as PDF and here in ODP "LibreOffice Impress" format.Wed, 26 Dec 2018 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-10-13-sinclair-and-tribune/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-10-13-sinclair-and-tribune/On September 23, 2018, I gave a presentation about Sinclair Media Group and Chicago's Tribune Media at the Third Unitarian Church, Chicago. The following is a transcript of the presentation. You can also find the audio online here in MP3 or here in M4A.Sat, 13 Oct 2018 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-09-15-my-25th-veganniversary/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-09-15-my-25th-veganniversary/For most of 1993, I was practicing a vegetarian diet and learning about the impacts one's diet has on one's life. I was 19 years old, and I was thinking of going vegan as well; the harder difficulty in my mind was going vegetarian, since I had grown up with eating meat as part of my diet and was uncomfortable with the idea of a diet without meat. But once I took the plunge, going vegan was the much easier task to do.Sat, 15 Sep 2018 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-07-28-until-you-stay-dead-star-brand-computers/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-07-28-until-you-stay-dead-star-brand-computers/I have worked much of my career as a software engineer, and too much of my career has been devoted to addressing "legacy" code, keeping old code working, removing new bugs from old code, patching old code to do new things.Sat, 28 Jul 2018 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-05-26-my-2018-appearance-on-26-n-halsted/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-05-26-my-2018-appearance-on-26-n-halsted/Mitchell Szczepanczyk discusses Facebook, digital privacy, cryptocurrency, and other tech topics on "26 N. Halsted", a public affairs program on WCIU Channel 26, Chicago."Sat, 26 May 2018 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-01-01-my-story-suggestion-trees/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2018-01-01-my-story-suggestion-trees/I am a father to a little boy, but I have another child that I haven't talked about very much. This child dates back to 1988, has been indoors -- inside of a church -- exactly once, and has now grown to a height greater than a three-story building. This child, at this writing nearly thirty years of age, isn't human but is instead a tree, pictured above.Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2017-12-22-review-rps2044/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2017-12-22-review-rps2044/Let me first make explicit a few disclosures: I have known and interacted with Michael Albert of Z Communications in one capacity or another for more than twenty years. I've been a moral and financial supporter of Z projects for many years, I have written for Z Magazine in the past, I'm an alum of the Z Media Institute (class of 2005), and I even once helped with tech support for the Z website. Most critically, I have openly supported, and continue to support, the economic vision of participatory economics that Michael Albert co-invented, going so far as to help organize groups and events advocating the vision. If I sound like I have a horse in this race, I admit it: I do.Fri, 22 Dec 2017 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2017-05-22-bringing-us-to-tiers-ebook-now-online-free/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2017-05-22-bringing-us-to-tiers-ebook-now-online-free/In the summer of 2014, it looked dire for the future of net neutrality. The FCC had announced that it was going to cave to an industry plan to introduce "paid prioritization". And yet, people rallied -- in lots of ways, working the inside game and the outside game.Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2017-02-06-laquan-almost-ebook/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2017-02-06-laquan-almost-ebook/I wrote the contents of this post on January 17 and 18, 2016, in the months following the release of the video showing the assassination of Laquan McDonald by Chicago police, as the script for segments of an episode of Chicago Independent Television. My original plan was to revise the script as an ebook, complete with hyperlinks and references, and then publish it on Amazon Prime. However, I admit, I never got around to doing that. When I was finally motivated in 2017 to work on the book with intent for publishing it, I realized that the moment had passed -- too much of the political landscape had shifted, and the necessary revisions, particularly in Part Three, would require more effort than I had hoped, too much effort for too little gain. I didn't want the content to simply sit fallow, so at the very least I decided to post the script as is (or as was) on my website as a single lengthy post, which I do so below.Mon, 06 Feb 2017 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-12-14-candidate-unifying-theme-activism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-12-14-candidate-unifying-theme-activism/When will disaffected American whites realize that the clown they put in the White House will do nary a thing to improve their lives? The answer is, probably sooner than anyone realizes. I think it behooves those of us involved in justice work to have our act together when the disappointment comes. And make no mistake: Trump will disappoint.Wed, 14 Dec 2016 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-12-10-answers-questions-american-media-politics/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-12-10-answers-questions-american-media-politics/A Facebook friend of mine said that he was going to be interviewed on television about the intersection of American media and politics, a topic he said he didn't have much expertise in, and needed assistance to prepare for the interview. To help, I wrote a series of Facebook comments in response to his questions, written on October 27, 2016. I've consolidated those posts into a single convenient page here.Sat, 10 Dec 2016 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-11-09-words-to-inspire/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-11-09-words-to-inspire/There are plenty of reasons why we should be very afraid of what's to come in America in the next two years, at least. The Republican party, or the alien slugs that have taken over the carcass of the Republican party, didn't just win the White House. They also won the House and the Senate. No doubt they'll try to ram through and lock in every right-wing wet dream in the next two years: abolish same-sex marriage, abolish the Affordable Care Act, abolish the minimum wage, defund Planned Parenthood, overturn legal abortion, enhance drill-baby-drill, and on and on.Wed, 09 Nov 2016 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-10-05-syntactic-analysis-presidential-debate-september-26-2016/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-10-05-syntactic-analysis-presidential-debate-september-26-2016/I analyzed the syntax of the Presidential Debate of September 26, 2016 between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In this post, I outline what I did and a summary of my findings. TL;DR: Hillary Clinton talked less than Donald Trump, but she said more.Wed, 05 Oct 2016 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-07-28-behind-scenes-nicediceware/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-07-28-behind-scenes-nicediceware/Earlier in 2016, I released the first version of Nicediceware, my variant of Diceware that used English words that are longer and (hopefully) easier to remember.Thu, 28 Jul 2016 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-06-15-my-2016-appearance-on-26-n-halsted/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-06-15-my-2016-appearance-on-26-n-halsted/"Software Developer and tech guru Mitchell Szczepanczyk discusses net neutrality and other tech topics [on '26 N. Halsted', a public affairs program on WCIU Channel 26, Chicago]."Wed, 15 Jun 2016 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-05-27-thoughts-on-alcohol-and-pregnancy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-05-27-thoughts-on-alcohol-and-pregnancy/I barely discuss this fact, and this may be the first time I've ever mentioned this online: I'm a firm teetotaler. I don't drink alcohol; never have, never will. The one time I've never had anything stronger than church wine in my life was one time in my sophomore year of college when I ate soup that I didn't find out until after I ate it that it was made with unboiled wine. I was tipsy for much of the evening, I didn't like the sensation, and I was relieved when it wore off and I had full control of my faculties again.Fri, 27 May 2016 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-05-20-some-ideas-reimagining-iops/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-05-20-some-ideas-reimagining-iops/In response to a post about reimagining the International Organization for a Participatory Society, I wrote the following:Some ideas:Fri, 20 May 2016 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-05-01-introducing-nicediceware/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-05-01-introducing-nicediceware/I am a fan of Diceware, "a method for picking passphrases that uses dice to select words at random from a special list called the Diceware Word List. Each word in the list is preceded by a five digit number. All the digits are between one and six, allowing you to use the outcomes of five dice rolls to select a word from the list."Sun, 01 May 2016 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-04-17-reply-to-zombie-neoliberalism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-04-17-reply-to-zombie-neoliberalism/In response to an article by George Monbiot in the Guardian, I posted the following comment, quoting from a paragraph in the article:"Neoliberalism’s triumph also reflects the failure of the left. When laissez-faire economics led to catastrophe in 1929, Keynes devised a comprehensive economic theory to replace it. When Keynesian demand management hit the buffers in the 70s, there was an alternative ready. But when neoliberalism fell apart in 2008 there was ... nothing. This is why the zombie walks. The left and centre have produced no new general framework of economic thought for 80 years."Sun, 17 Apr 2016 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-03-26-favorite-movie-quote-dmhydwyp/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-03-26-favorite-movie-quote-dmhydwyp/The Hollywood Reporter recently released their list of what they deemed to be the best movie quotes from the history of Hollywood. Of course, the American Film Institute also has its vaunted list of what it deems the greatest movie quotes of all time.But both lists omitted my personal favorite movie quote of all time. It's easy to miss because it's from a movie little considered now (for good reason) -- the 1988 movie License to Drive. The movie has one, and only one, redeeming facet -- this quote:Sat, 26 Mar 2016 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-03-06-redesign-szcz-dot-org/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-03-06-redesign-szcz-dot-org/On February 6, 2016, I made public a redesign and restructuring of my personal website. This marks the first substantial redesign of my website in more than a decade, and the eighth such iteration of my personal website since I started writing on the World Wide Web. To review the history, now twenty years in the making:Just one month before I graduated from college, I set up my very first website (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~szcz) as an assignment for a class. The page even helped me draw the attention of a journalist with the New York Daily News, who interviewed me in the summer of 1996 about American phonology (accents). Unfortunately, it appears that this website does not appear to have a surviving archival copy on the internet.When I entered graduate school later that year, I set up a second personal page that, I am happy to report, has been archived.Personal pages set up on university servers were prone to deletion if the owner of the account left the university -- for example, if a student who set up a personal page graduated. That's why I set up an insurance policy of sorts by posting a copy of my personal archives on another, commercial site. The first such backup was on a site called GoPlay (http://www.goplay.com/~szcz); it was here that I garnered a bit of fame for my page on The Stanley Cup: A History of Abuse and Neglect. The page was cited by ESPN Radio and garnered a mention in print in a June 1998 issue of ESPN: The Magazine. Regrettably, GoPlay abruptly went out of business, and so I moved my webpage to....Geocities! Copies of this have also been archived.I had access to a second server at the University of Chicago's computer science department, when I was a graduate student there, which served as a temporary home for some things. Shockingly, as I write this, that page is still online.Even before the collapse of Geocities, I figured it was time to get my own domain. A boss of mine half-jokingly floated the idea to reserve mitchellszczepanczyk.com, but that struck me as a bit overlong for the shrinking standards of website domains. I tried to get szcz.com, which as I write this has apparently been used as a redirect. Plan B: Get szcz.org, which was available. The website could use a fresh look, and my design prowess was meager, so I asked a friend of mine to redesign my website, which I then coded as a dynamic webpage using the PHP web programming language.A bit after the heyday of blogs, I set up a blog using the Wordpress framework as a subsite of my main website. This then led to a half-decade-long split-mind existence of my website: a blog with relatively recent content, complete with updated code and doodads like categories and chronological archives and a search bar (even if it was still PHP) -- alongside my main website which hosted content from my radio show and long-form articles. Pages on one seldom referred to the other.I had considered a redesign and structural unification. But with what? I code for a living, but at the same time I don't want to get involved in too much code. I just knew it wasn't to involve PHP, which has its share of problems and which has fallen into disfavor, at least among developers, myself included. I had fallen in love -- hard -- for Clojure, so much so that I attended Clojure conferences (my first conferences for any programming language, it turns out). I did learn about a static-web-generator software package written in Clojure called Cryogen, and after review and when I got the opportunity in late January 2016, I decided to take the plunge. Over the course of a week, I worked to convert all my previous web posts -- from "both" websites -- into individual Markdown files; there are tools to speed the process along, but it took a while to work through twenty years of idiosyncracies.Sun, 06 Mar 2016 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-02-27-mccawley-demo-itbe/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2016-02-27-mccawley-demo-itbe/This is a screen-capture of a presentation I gave at the ITBE (Illinois Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages - Bilingual Education) Conference in Naperville, Illinois, on February 27, 2016.Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-11-18-lightning-talk-clojure-conj-2015/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-11-18-lightning-talk-clojure-conj-2015/I adapted my presentation on The Parse is Right as a Lightning Talk (a six-minute long presentation) at Clojure Conj 2015 (a major annual conference of Clojure developers).The video is online here for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, ClojureTV disabled video embedding so I can't include an embed on this page.Wed, 18 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-10-14-video-parse-right-using-clojure-clojurescript-examine-english/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-10-14-video-parse-right-using-clojure-clojurescript-examine-english/Wed, 14 Oct 2015 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-05-01-video-victory-net-neutrality-wars-personal-recollection-2006-2015/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-05-01-video-victory-net-neutrality-wars-personal-recollection-2006-2015/Fri, 01 May 2015 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-04-01-video-helen-morley-rahm-emanuel/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-04-01-video-helen-morley-rahm-emanuel/Wed, 01 Apr 2015 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-03-06-take-this-jeopardy-and-shove-it/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-03-06-take-this-jeopardy-and-shove-it/At this writing the next online qualifier for the TV game show Jeopardy! is scheduled to open March 30, 2015. And while I really, really hope and want to be a contestant on that show, I'm seriously considering skipping the qualifier.There's no doubt I can pass the test. I can pass nearly any knowledge test that these TV shows throw my way; I've passed the Jeopardy! test time and time again when I took it in person. That's not the problem. The problem is the next step: getting chosen to be on the show. And that seems to me to be an insurmountable obstacle, about which more below.Fri, 06 Mar 2015 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-02-04-my-nine-million-tvs/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2015-02-04-my-nine-million-tvs/I wrote and submitted the following essay for the TV Issue of Chicago Literati magazine. The essay wasn't accepted by Chicago Literati for publication, so I'm posting it here. I finished the essay on February 4, 2015.My Nine Million TVsWed, 04 Feb 2015 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-11-01-video-connection-between-global-warming-polar-vortex/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-11-01-video-connection-between-global-warming-polar-vortex/Sat, 01 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-08-25-remarks-fcc-proposed-comcast-time-warner-cable-merger/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-08-25-remarks-fcc-proposed-comcast-time-warner-cable-merger/These are the remarks I made to the Federal Communications Commission regarding the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable (FCC docket 14-57), posted on August 25, 2014. Note: The proposed merger received more than a million comments from the public, and was ultimately rejected by the government.My name is Mitchell Szczepanczyk; I live in Chicago and have been a Comcast customer for more than ten years. I object to the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable (TWC) for the following reasons:Mon, 25 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-07-10-ministry-truth-slaying-corporate-vampires/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-07-10-ministry-truth-slaying-corporate-vampires/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2014-07-10.mp3Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-05-04-video-profiles-cowardice-rahm-emanuel/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-05-04-video-profiles-cowardice-rahm-emanuel/Sun, 04 May 2014 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-04-07-ministry-truth-interview-chicago-mayoral-candidate-dr-amara-enyia/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2014-04-07-ministry-truth-interview-chicago-mayoral-candidate-dr-amara-enyia/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2014-04-07.mp3Mon, 07 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-10-27-koch-brothers-media/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-10-27-koch-brothers-media/This is the transcript of a presentation I gave at the Oak Park Main Library in Oak Park, Illinois, on October 27, 2013In this presentation, I would like to answer two main questions: One, what is the present American media footprint of the Koch brothers? Two, what would have happened if the reported Koch buyout of the Tribune's newspapers had been completed?Sun, 27 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-23-a-more-detailed-proposal-for-parecons-indicative-prices/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-23-a-more-detailed-proposal-for-parecons-indicative-prices/"Every economy has prices." I remember Robin Hahnel saying those words in one of the Shed Sessions produced by the folks at Z Magazine on participatory economics. What those prices reflect, and how those prices are calculated, can vary from economy to economy.The prices in contemporary capitalism reflect mainly two things: (1) supply and demand, taken as a single entity, and (2) bargaining power. Bargaining power can reflect power relations between buyers and sellers, or between capital and labor, or even between sellers in a market (ask any small-town merchant about Wal-Mart and about the bargaining power of its prices).Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-22-a-primer-on-the-koch-industries-and-the-tribunes-newspapers/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-22-a-primer-on-the-koch-industries-and-the-tribunes-newspapers/The New York Times reported on Sunday, April 20th, that Koch Industries, run by the infamous Koch brothers -- they of oil and global warming infamy -- is considered the frontrunner in the race to buy the Tribune corporation's newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.Understandably, revulsion is widespread over the very prospect, but many folks apparently need to be updated on a few things.Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-19-why-are-people-selling-guns-online-and-skirting-the-law-are-they-in-economic-dire-straits/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-19-why-are-people-selling-guns-online-and-skirting-the-law-are-they-in-economic-dire-straits/The New York Times (in a long-delayed follow-up from Mother Jones magazine) finally reported on a story of recent relevance that would have made an impact, on the same day that anything resembling meaningful gun control reform in the United States got squelched by the U.S. Senate. When president Obama called for a vote, he wound up getting nine votes in the the U.S. Senate this week, only to see them all go down in flames.The New York Times reported on the vibrant and massively secretive market for firearms purchased online. The Times found that 94 percent of the 170,000 gun ads posted on an online buying forum called Armslist were made by "private parties". Such a classification didn't require background checks or the keeping of records, and purchases can be made in cash. To quote from a post from Daily Kos:Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-18-is-consuming-news-bad-for-you/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-18-is-consuming-news-bad-for-you/I would characterize my news consumption habits as extensive. My Newsfire RSS client, which I use extensively for my news and updates retrieval, at this writing, has 108 feeds in it, of which perhaps a third are active at any given time. (I admit, I'm scanning some of the headlines as I'm writing this.) Among the biggest feeds I use are the RSS feeds for ZNet (radical news and perspective on domestic and world affairs), the Benton Foundation (news on media policy and media issues), Think Progress (progressive blog of news and analysis), the newswire of Free Press (more news on media policy and media issues), Democracy Now! (daily independent news), Hacker News (computer-and tech news and things of note), and The New York Times (my main source of corporate news).And yet, the argument has been made and made again: reading news is bad for you. A recent article in the Guardian makes a pretty compelling case. Reading news wastes time, makes us passive, kills creativity, is irrelevant, has no explanatory power, is toxic, inhibits thinking, and works like a drug. It is a bold statement to make in any context, but even more so that it was elevated by one of Britain's best known newspapers. Not everyone would promote a statement that's contrary to their industry and business model, especially one in such precarious straits as news. It would be as if the steakhouse Smith and Wollensky were urging folks to become vegan.Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-17-insert-here-random-ramblings-on-food-gamification-activism-and-parecon/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-17-insert-here-random-ramblings-on-food-gamification-activism-and-parecon/I help produce a monthly television show -- Chicago Independent Television, the monthly TV series of the Chicago Independent Media Center ("Chicago Indymedia"). In the most recent episode of the show, we had a segment about a corrupt Chicago politician -- Alderman James Cappleman -- who decided to crack down on "unapproved" efforts to feed hungry people in his ward (neighborhood). Citizens in his ward then staged a protest of Cappelman's aldermanic office in defiance. That protest included a public "feeding": one of the Chicago "branches" of the anti-hunger group Food Not Bombs offered food at the protest for anyone, homeless or not, hungry or not.In watching this segment, I was set thinking: "Wow. These volunteer activists are defying the local political system for what they believe with just the resources they have at hand. If there was a way that they could get other volunteers and other activists to help contribute, with resources and assistance... They could engage in socially-valued labor, and maybe even earn credit for their effort and sacrifice, and track the tasks that they do, make sure that they're balanced for desirability and empowerment, and coordinate larger requests with other groups, and -- HEY, WAIT A MINUTE!"Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-16-the-internet-capitalism-and-holding-back/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-16-the-internet-capitalism-and-holding-back/I'm currently reading Bob McChesney's most recent book "Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy". I'm lucky to have gotten an advance copy of the book, and I have interviewed Professor McChesney many times on my radio program, with another interview forthcoming. Moreover, I own and have read nearly all of Professor McChesney's books, which I count as invaluable and inspiring in my own work on activism, particularly on media and media policy. A speech Professor McChesney gave in 1998 (which I have an audio copy of) proved influential in my own evolution from observer to activist. So, it surprises me that I read something in a recent adaptation of "Digital Disconnect" (published in In These Times, and reposted on ZNet) which I disagreed with. In particular, this passage:[B]eneath the surface, there has been a rise in new kinds of economic ventures. In distressed communities like Cleveland, they are a source of promise for the future. We are beginning to develop some experience about what a democratic, post-capitalist economy might look like and how it could function. There will be markets, there will be for-profit enterprises, but under the overarching logic of the system, the surplus will be mostly under nonprofit community control.Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-15-the-importance-of-vision-in-activism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-15-the-importance-of-vision-in-activism/My apologies in advance for being more vague than usual in this blog post. The names have been scrubbed to protect the innocent and not-so innocent.Some years back, I had a conversation with a friend of mine who would be described as "left of center" and who has been active in political efforts. In this conversation, we talked about the role that vision plays in political activism. Then as now, I consider it a necessary guide to activism -- a map, a compass, whatever metaphor you choose, you need a destination in order to avoid the risk of running in circles. This friend I was speaking with, with whom I would agree otherwise on nearly everything political, disagreed with me on this point to my surprise, saying that work on vision should be postponed until after the revolution (those words weren't used, but that's my paraphrase for what was meant). The objection that was raised was: You wouldn't want to muddy the waters for letting people decide about the society they want by trying to suggest it to them in advance. (My attempts to try to convince this friend otherwise didn't work.)Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-14-a-ten-year-plan-of-activism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-14-a-ten-year-plan-of-activism/Last year, I devised what I called a "ten-year plan" of activism for myself to help build towards participatory economy. I'd like to share that plan here:Step One - Write a blog consistently to chronicle it all. (Status: Done!) :-)Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-13-my-mega-ambitious-dream-build-a-parallel-participatory-economy-online/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-13-my-mega-ambitious-dream-build-a-parallel-participatory-economy-online/Let me share two quotes:Quote one: Larry Page, one of the co-founders of Google, once gave the commencement address at his (and my) alma mater, the University of Michigan. He said: "I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. I know that sounds completely nuts. But, since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition."Sat, 13 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-12-a-birthday-promise-to-blog/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2013-04-12-a-birthday-promise-to-blog/Today marks thirty-nine years that I've been alive on this planet. I count myself as politically "aware" for the past twenty years, and politically "active" for the past ten years. I like to think that I've made helped make the world a better place now than it was when I arrived. I've helped with a few successes, some of which are included on my website. And yet, despite it all, I feel like the treadmill is moving faster than we can run. I feel like the work we're doing to improve things, to change the world, to save the world, isn't enough. I feel like time is running out, and that I have an obligation to do more, especially since "It's not clear to me how that will effectively lead to changes during the few years we've got left to deal with carbon. Climate science enforces a certain brute realism. It makes it harder to follow one's heart.".That's a quote from Bill McKibben, writer and activist on climate change issues. He's talking about the pressing issue of climate change, which if we don't change things widely and (relatively) quickly, Earth will more and more resemble Venus, and that's not a good thing. 200-degree (Fahrenheit) days will be common; the livable planet we all share and take for granted will be no more (what's left of society will have to dig underground like moles). But overcoming that issue of stopping our own inertia seems an intractable problem. Even in the face of certain doom and increasing evidence, we seem to be doing little more at the societal level than moving the proverbial deck chairs on the proverbial Titanic. We're heading to disaster, and arguably we (or some of us) can see it coming. We should be doing something to stop this, change course, slow it down, buy some time at least. But we're not.Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-12-27-ministry-truth-interview-robin-hahnel-book-people-people-case-participatory-economy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-12-27-ministry-truth-interview-robin-hahnel-book-people-people-case-participatory-economy/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2012-12-27.mp3Thu, 27 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-12-12-review-case-participatory-economy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-12-12-review-case-participatory-economy/This is a review I wrote and originally posted on the Amazon page for the book "Of the People, By the People: The Case for a Participatory Economy" by Robin Hahnel.Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-11-29-the-media-and-climate-change-a-race-between-media-reclamation-and-future-calamity/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-11-29-the-media-and-climate-change-a-race-between-media-reclamation-and-future-calamity/The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in the United States has jolted out of complacency wider public discourse on the issue of climate change. The near- universal concern seems to now be that, wow, we should really do something about climate change. The near-universal understanding, however, is that we probably won't -- at least certainly not to the degree that is needed to address the matter in any substantive way. Sure, we might mention the matter in passing at an election-night speech, but we very like won't launch a massive-scale retooling of the economy like that done to put humans on the moon or build an atomic bomb. Our unwillingness / inability to act is sometimes displayed to humorous effect, most notably by the Onion.But seriously, why not? Given that most Americans have finally seen the abstract and abstruse phenomenon of climate change made breathtakingly tangible, what's keeping us from acting? Some analysts have pointed out, quite rightly, the forces aligned in favor of the political and economic status quo -- particularly those of the fossil fuel industries, which profit mightily from the sale of fuels that have been implicated in a warming planet. Those industries use their profits to lobby and to buy advertisements that fall on the range of truthfulness from arguably misleading to outright lying. Winning change often means defeating one or more entrenched, seemingly intractable lobbies, but if that's what it takes then that's what it takes.Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-11-01-video-rush-limbaugh-protest/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-11-01-video-rush-limbaugh-protest/Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-11-01-video-inside-chicago-teachers-union-2012-strike/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-11-01-video-inside-chicago-teachers-union-2012-strike/Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-11-01-some-problems-with-nbcs-tv-show-revolution/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-11-01-some-problems-with-nbcs-tv-show-revolution/There are some problems I have with the new NBC TV show "Revolution". I've listed my concerns and grouped them as follows:Physics. The main premise of the show is that something causes all of the electricity in the world, and anything powered by electricity (e.g., cellphones), to cease functioning. We then see what the world has become in the fifteen years since this blackout -- much more agrarian, much less focused on entertainment, much more focused on survival. The electricity blackout remains unexplained five episodes into the show, but whatever explanation they can muster would have to account for the following: (1) It's very easy to generate electricity. The controlled use of electricity is simply the result of a magnetized piece of metal and a metal loop. (2) Whatever happened to cause the blackout didn't wipe out all the electricity in the world. Lightning is apparently still around because we heard a thunderstorm in one episode, and guess what causes thunder? Moreover, the blackout didn't seem to affect people, even though we would all die if the electrical activity within our bodies were to cease somehow.Sociology. "Revolution" depicts a society where the major institutions of contemporary society dissolve in the wake of the blackout, but the institutions that rise in their place are less plausible than seeing all the electricity stop. The major institution that we see in the show is the Monroe Republic and its militia, which with one notable exception, appears to be predominantly (or perhaps exclusively) white, male, and English-speaking. Suspending my disbelief that electricity would somehow be stopped is one thing, but it's enormously presumptuous to think that if we see the collapse of the dominant power structure (pun very intended), those individuals and who were repressed by dominant communities wouldn't immediately fight back. A torrent of vendettas would be unleashed: Street organizations and prison communities comprised mostly of young black men would certainly strike back against the police and authorities who have stepped on their necks for a long time. Spanish-speaking Hispanic communities, who marched in unprecedented numbers when faced with the threat of deportation, would now gain the upper hand against the Anglos who all but owned them. Many in the 99% percent, whose advantage of numbers would finally matter and who were held back by state power has vanished, would attack anyone even reasonably affluent. The hunters would become the hunted, and after fifteen years of that, I find it incredulous to think that what would result would be a bunch of English-speaking white boys.Geography: The blackout understandably also caused all modern transportation to grind to a halt. But at least you can at least walk everywhere. Heck, one character in the show who found herself in Seattle at the time of the blackout walked from Seattle all the way to Buffalo, then up and down the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., then back north and west to Wisconsin and finally to the Chicago area. Indeed, the Monroe Republic, we see from a map of the future North America, extends across parts of eighteen U.S. states. But extending one's will across more than a reasonable without contemporary energy sources is enormously hard. As an example, I happen to live about 20 miles from where I work, which I can certainly walk, takes a commute by train of about 40 minutes. But at a reasonable walking rate of four miles per hour, the same trip would take me five hours to traverse. Plus, that assumes I'd be able to find or get sufficient food for the trip (harder if there's no electricity and edible food becomes more of a crapshoot), and I don't get injured, and it doesn't rain or snow, and I don't run into anyone that would want to kill me or rob me or attack me for sport, and on and on. When everyone is preoccupied with day to day survival, it'd be hard to impossible to convince or coerce others to build a continent-wide empire while trying to get enough to eat. The novel World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler depicts a future society in upstate New York after cheap energy running out. The novel has its flaws, particularly since the assumption that we may face peak oil soon may not hold, but the novel is probably correct in that future society will be much more intensely local and that travel will be far more difficult.Biology: The advances in science and technology have helped humanity (or at least the more affluent portions of humanity) defend itself against many diseases. But in the wake of a blackout, that rug will be collectively pulled out from under us. Thus, the diseases we thought we had conquered in the past (except for smallpox and rinderpest, which have both been officially abolished) will be back with a vengeance. You'd figure that the characters in Revolution who would have survived renewed epidemics of measles or influenza would have their faces pockmarked with multiple scars, but no, they look reasonably good-looking; no scars or marks, nothing. Heck, most the men on the show don't even have stubble on their faces. But after fifteen years, most of the men on the show somehow remain clean-shaven, and the one major exception had a beard even before the blackout, which somehow remained well-groomed after all these years. If I go just four days without shaving, my face is a stubbly mess.The University of Chicago Department of Computer Science: There's a scene in the where the Matherson family pay a brief visit to the University of Chicago Department of Computer Science; we know because there's a sign saying so hanging from a concrete campus overhang. Only thing is, the campus where they're at looks nothing at all like the University of Chicago, which is replete with gothic-style buildings and certainly doesn't have signs overhanging from buildings. This is super-nitpicky of me to mention, I'll admit, but this brief scene did hit me close to home since I hold a degree from that very department.Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-10-01-video-iraq-war-9th-anniversary-antiwar-rally-march-march-18-2012/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-10-01-video-iraq-war-9th-anniversary-antiwar-rally-march-march-18-2012/Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-09-15-my-experience-at-the-2012-team-trivia-national-championship-and-how-we-came-this-close-to-winning-10000/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-09-15-my-experience-at-the-2012-team-trivia-national-championship-and-how-we-came-this-close-to-winning-10000/From May 2012 through August 2012, my family and I had earned, through a number of solid performances (including a number of wins) playing Team Trivia, a berth in the 2012 Team Trivia National Championship, held on the afternoon of August 18, 2012, with a top prize of $10,000. We could include up to six people in our team, and did we ever: we had a strong team, one with a chance to take the championship, but having played in games like this my whole life, I knew that you never know.Teams were told at the outset that, with a prize pool of more than $21,000 at stake, the questions would be harder than usual. Great, I thought (seriously). I like hard questions, as would my teammates, and that would hopefully improve our chances to win.Sat, 15 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-09-13-ministry-truth-interview-loretta-capeheart/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-09-13-ministry-truth-interview-loretta-capeheart/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2012-09-13.mp3Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-08-16-ministry-truth-interview-sue-wilson-media-action-center/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-08-16-ministry-truth-interview-sue-wilson-media-action-center/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2012-08-16.mp3Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-07-15-jeopardy-daytime-or-primetime/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-07-15-jeopardy-daytime-or-primetime/In Michigan where I grew up, Jeopardy! was always a prime time staple -- it aired at 7:30PM local time, even when it switched from the local CBS affiliate to the local ABC affiliate and back again. But when I moved to Illinois, I had assumed that it always aired at the same or similar time around the country and was shocked to find that it aired at 3:30PM on Chicago's ABC affiliate (whose scheduling division is evidently managed by stupid idiots). This sucks since I was seldom home at that time to watch the show. But it got me thinking: if Jeopardy! doesn't air for every station in prime time, how widespread is the pattern of not airing Jeopardy! in primetime?This is a question which we can quickly answer, and also inspire a geochart mashup, but more on that in a moment. The Jeopardy! website kindly provides a list of showtimes and channels, grouped by U.S. state, with an interactive map. One Python script later, and I have my answer: 229 stations air the show -- 90 of which (39%) air the show in daytime (which I define to mean before 6PM local time), while the remaining 139 air the show at 6PM local time or later.Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-07-05-ministry-truth-interview-andrew-jay-schwartzman-media-access-project/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-07-05-ministry-truth-interview-andrew-jay-schwartzman-media-access-project/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2012-07-05.mp3Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-06-01-video-fly-kite-rahm/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-06-01-video-fly-kite-rahm/Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-05-01-video-g8-chicago-brief-history/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-05-01-video-g8-chicago-brief-history/Tue, 01 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-04-08-the-meta-competition-for-a-participatory-society/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-04-08-the-meta-competition-for-a-participatory-society/The models for a participatory society are grounded in an ethos of solidarity rather than rivarly. We believe it is better for ourselves and our planet to explicitly help one another rather than harm one another. And we believe we have some concrete models of our values in order to put our values into some kind of tangible, everyday practice.The models in our present society -- those of racism; patriarchy, sexism, and heterosexism; the state; and the retentionist economies of capitalism, markets, and command planning -- are all grounded in an ethos of rivalry. Every person for oneself (every man for himself?), to hell with the rest. Upon examination or actual practice, these models of rivalry often result in destructive ends, which are claimed to be necessary or the best options currently available.Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-04-01-tasks-other-purposes/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-04-01-tasks-other-purposes/I recently published an e-book entitled "Slaying Corporate Vampires: A Proposal in the Age of Occupy Wall Street", which proposes and details the use of participatory economics as a lynchpin against corporate power. The end of the book lists a number of proposed tactics, and I'd like to excerpt here one of the tactics for discussion.The internet has provide a welter of resources, and should be utilized by proponents of [challenging corporations with paticipatory economics]. (I'm referring of course, to the internet least more or less as currently configured; if network neutrality isn't maintained and online freedom is squelched in large scales, corporations may grab that medium too.) Let me quote an email from one advocate of participatory economics who was also involved in some of the early development of Wikipedia, and referred to some principles of anarchism in Wikipedia's structure:Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-04-01-video-rahm-grinch/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-04-01-video-rahm-grinch/Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-03-21-some-thoughts-spurred-by-goldman-sachs/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-03-21-some-thoughts-spurred-by-goldman-sachs/The bridge-burning op-ed by Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith has spurred a great deal of commentary. But this blog post in particular piqued my interest. Some choice quotes:"This is not how capitalism is supposed to work. This is not "creative destruction" -- Schumpeter's vision of entrepreneurs disrupting inefficient systems and profiting from making them better -- this is simply the enrichment of a few smart, lucky men at the expense of everyone else. Theoretically, investment banks help allocate capital towards its most efficient use. They help governments and companies raise money, they help with mergers and acquisitions, and they create securities which should distribute risks or at least give clients more choices about the risks they take. But in reality, up to 80% of M&A; destroys value, opaque securities have created endemic risks in our society, and there are astounding conflicts of interests between clients and investment bankers -- the very same bank that is floating your company's shares has a long term relationship with the hedge funds who are purchasing the stock. Who is the bank really serving? It's not clear what has caused this system or how to get out of it. It's not just because corporate boards want to use the "top tier" firms to avoid potential litigation: the Big Four audit firms have an oligopoly which they don't seem to be abusing to the same degree. Has capitalism changed somehow? Has America simply stopped creating real wealth in other areas of society so the only thing to do now is to constantly shuffle it around in Manhattan?Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-03-01-video-saga-lake-shore-drive-antiwar-lawsuit-20032012/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-03-01-video-saga-lake-shore-drive-antiwar-lawsuit-20032012/Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-02-06-response-disclosure-rule-first-step-toward-quotas/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-02-06-response-disclosure-rule-first-step-toward-quotas/In Februrary 2012, the website TVNewsCheck published an op-ed against the then-proposed FCC's rule changes putting online the contents of a TV station's public file (a rule which the commercial television broadcasters lobbied against and wrote passionately against, but which curiously enough they never mentioned on the television stations they command). I felt that the op-ed -- a sad attempt at an argument -- deserved a response back, so I did in the comments form and repost my response here as a public service.This isn't an argument. It's bad comedy.Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-01-02-winning-eric-patton/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2012-01-02-winning-eric-patton/One of the most inspiring pieces I've ever read is the following essay by Eric Patton, originally posted in 2005 on the ZNet website but unfortunately is evidently no longer available there. I was able to recover a copy and make it available here; it deserves a wide audience.Sometimes, lefties wonder why regular folks don't "do more" or "care more" or are not more politically involved than they actually are. The question is fair. So, what's the answer, and where does the logic behind the answer ultimately lead? It may surprise you. The answer is actually a quite hopeful and empowering one.Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-12-01-video-rahm-emanuels-sordid-history/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-12-01-video-rahm-emanuels-sordid-history/Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-11-06-leading-media-democracy-stories-2011/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-11-06-leading-media-democracy-stories-2011/These are the prepared remarks for the presentation I gave at Media Democracy Day 2011 at Human Thread in Chicago.This is a list of what I deemed to be the most significant media-reform-related stories of the past year. For our purposes, I'll define "the past year" to include the time since Media Democracy Day 2010 in early November 2010. There are nine main stories in all ordered roughly by the amount of attention they've received, from most popular to least.Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-11-01-video-10th-anniversary-war-afghanistan/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-11-01-video-10th-anniversary-war-afghanistan/Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-10-01-video-inspiring-story-chicago-antiolympics-movement/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-10-01-video-inspiring-story-chicago-antiolympics-movement/Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-09-20-wants-millionaire-appearance-addressing-wants-millionaire-conspiracy-theories/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-09-20-wants-millionaire-appearance-addressing-wants-millionaire-conspiracy-theories/Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by randomness.I long ago promised a detailed breakdown, from start to finish and afterwards, of my own appearance on the syndicated version of the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, so here it is at long last. This is admittedly very late in coming, especially since I'm posting this on the fourth anniversary of my appearance, and the game has changed a lot in the years since. But I'm writing this not only to give my own definitive record and statement of what happened, but also to address (to some degree at least) a matter that has dogged my own appearance and which I feel needs to be addressed.Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-08-01-video-bradley-manning-contingent-2011-chicago-pride-parade/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-08-01-video-bradley-manning-contingent-2011-chicago-pride-parade/Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-07-01-video-single-payer-voices/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-07-01-video-single-payer-voices/Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-06-09-ministry-truth-interview-natalie-moore-lance-williams-black-p-stone-nation-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-06-09-ministry-truth-interview-natalie-moore-lance-williams-black-p-stone-nation-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2011-06-09.mp3Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-06-01-video-sights-sounds-may-day-2011/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-06-01-video-sights-sounds-may-day-2011/Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-05-23-i-didnt-expect-to-find-the-best-veggie-burger-of-my-life-at-a-boston-sports-bar-but/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-05-23-i-didnt-expect-to-find-the-best-veggie-burger-of-my-life-at-a-boston-sports-bar-but/Four days in Boston of parties, media reform activism, networking, and baby chasing amidst the 5th National Conference for Media Reform left us tired and hungry on the afternoon of Sunday, April 10th, still with a day to spare before we would leave town.The problem was, we were at the Boston waterfront, which is renowned for its affinity for fish (I suspect being so close to the ocean may have something to do with that), and I, having been vegan since September 1993, didn't expect to find anything (or much of anything) to eat. Worse, the nearest non-hotel restaurant we could find within ready walking distance was a sports bar, which made me even more leery of finding anything to eat, never mind anything worth writing a blog post about.Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-05-19-ministry-truth-interview-natalie-moore-lance-williams-black-p-stone-nation-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-05-19-ministry-truth-interview-natalie-moore-lance-williams-black-p-stone-nation-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2011-05-19.mp3Thu, 19 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-05-01-video-2011-national-conference-media-reform/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-05-01-video-2011-national-conference-media-reform/Sun, 01 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-04-21-ministry-truth-presentation-corporate-media-control-media-reform-struggles-part-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-04-21-ministry-truth-presentation-corporate-media-control-media-reform-struggles-part-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2011-04-21.mp3Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-04-01-video-legal-victory-chicago-peace-protesters/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-04-01-video-legal-victory-chicago-peace-protesters/Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-04-01-video-chicago-protests-eight-years-war/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-04-01-video-chicago-protests-eight-years-war/Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-04-01-video-chicago-stands-solidarity-palestine/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-04-01-video-chicago-stands-solidarity-palestine/Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-03-17-ministry-truth-presentation-corporate-media-control-media-reform-struggles-part-1/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-03-17-ministry-truth-presentation-corporate-media-control-media-reform-struggles-part-1/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2011-03-17.mp3Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-03-01-video-south-side-mock-funeral/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-03-01-video-south-side-mock-funeral/Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-20-the-most-clever-christmas-gift-i-ever-gave/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-20-the-most-clever-christmas-gift-i-ever-gave/This is Six:Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-17-ministry-truth-proposed-comcast-nbc-universal-joint-venture/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-17-ministry-truth-proposed-comcast-nbc-universal-joint-venture/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2011-02-17.mp3Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-03-ministry-truth-excerpt-3-2011-roundtable-torture-chicago-police/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-03-ministry-truth-excerpt-3-2011-roundtable-torture-chicago-police/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2011-02-03.mp3Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-01-video-update-net-neutrality/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-01-video-update-net-neutrality/Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-01-video-2010-midwest-march-peace-justice/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-01-video-2010-midwest-march-peace-justice/Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-01-video-chicago-independent-television/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-02-01-video-chicago-independent-television/Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-01-30-north-american-scrabble-players-last-names-ranked-by-scrabble-score/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-01-30-north-american-scrabble-players-last-names-ranked-by-scrabble-score/For a time, I played competitive Scrabble. I even won a couple of tournaments. I don't play very much these days, what with a new baby and being busy changing the world and all.But as a lark, I decided to try something: ranking Scrabble players' last names by using Scrabble's own scoring system. I figured my last name, with three Z's (30 points), two C's (6 points), and a K (5 points), would make me very competitive.Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-01-20-ministry-truth-excerpt-2-2011-roundtable-torture-chicago-police/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-01-20-ministry-truth-excerpt-2-2011-roundtable-torture-chicago-police/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2011-01-20.mp3Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-01-16-corporate-media-control-media-reform-struggles-presentation-third-unitarian-church-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-01-16-corporate-media-control-media-reform-struggles-presentation-third-unitarian-church-chicago/The following is the full originally planned speech given on "Corporate Media Control and Media Reform Struggles" at Third Unitarian Church, Chicago. An abridged version of the presentation was what was actually given at the church because of time constraints, but the full remarks deserve to be shared, and so I post the full presentation here.The author Stephen Pinker aims high in his book The Language Instinct when he writes in the introduction of his book: "I want to debauch your mind with learning". And I hope that this presentation will likewise provide a debauchery of learning. The title of this presentation is "Corporate Media Control and Media Reform Struggles", so I will provide a capsule history of media in the United States, focusing on the corporate control of media in the United States and the struggles to counter that, running through the present day, even alluding to events that occurred last month. The presentation is divided roughly by medium: print and newspapers, the telegraph and telephone, movies, radio, television, what I call "cross-media concentration", and the internet, with some summarizing remarks at the end. I will keep a roughly chronological flow in this presentation though I reserve the right to time travel, jumping on occasion from the past to the future and back again.Sun, 16 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-01-13-ministry-truth-excerpt-2011-roundtable-torture-chicago-police/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2011-01-13-ministry-truth-excerpt-2011-roundtable-torture-chicago-police/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2011-01-13.mp3Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-11-26-the-vice-of-corporations-and-the-virtue-of-markets/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-11-26-the-vice-of-corporations-and-the-virtue-of-markets/Corporations, as we've seen previously, have been the focus of repeated scorn and criticism, justifiably so since they can be deemed responsible for a great many ills in the world. Being able to hold them accountable for their actions, often real crimes, has been easier said than done -- often, not done at all. I promised in my last post to offer a strategy to attack corporations at once -- rather than one by one.I've discussed it before, but here it is again, put briefly: Attack markets. To describe it again with more words, it is to replace the economic institution of markets with another, better, economic allocation institution. How exactly that's to be done and what to replace them with are bigger questions which I'll tackle reserve for future posts. But in this post, I'll elaborate on the reasons why markets should be targeted and replaced.Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-11-06-media-democracy-day-2010-story-chicago-independent-television/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-11-06-media-democracy-day-2010-story-chicago-independent-television/At Media Democracy Day 2009, I had the good fortune to talk about the future of media policy, highlighting my work with the group Chicago Media Action. This year, I'm talking about another media-themed project that I'm a part of, but one themed to making media -- Chicago Independent Television, the monthly television series of the Chicago Independent Media Center, Chicago Indymedia. It's a show that in a news-magazine-like format covers the intersection of Chicago and social justice. In this presentation, I'll talk about the show's history and achievements, some of the short films we've produced over the years, a behind-the-scenes look at the production of an episode, some more philosophical words about the show, and a bit what the future might bring.In Hollywood, TV shows can sometimes spinoff from movies, and in a way that's how CITV started. The movie in question was "Where We Stood" -- a documentary produced by four Chicago filmmakers about the of March 20, 2003 antiwar protests in downtown Chicago and Lake Shore Drive on the escalation of the war in Iraq. (That film by the way was later aired on CAN TV, WTTW, and even ABC Channel 7; through those airings, Where We Stood earned a local Emmy nomination, though it lost to a pro-war documentary by the NBC affiliate in Milwaukee.) After one of the screenings of Where We Stood, members of Chicago Indymedia approached the producers of Where We Stood to consider the formation of a Chicago Indymedia video project, to continue the work stemming from Where We Stood. In the summer of 2003, a meeting at Chicago Indymedia's offices was held to agree to launch a project and have as its main focus the production of a regular TV series.Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-11-04-ministry-truth-interview-paul-durica-pocket-guide-hell-tours-reenactments/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-11-04-ministry-truth-interview-paul-durica-pocket-guide-hell-tours-reenactments/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-11-04.mp3Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-11-01-video-chicago-tifs-explained/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-11-01-video-chicago-tifs-explained/Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-10-14-ministry-truth-monologue-future-television-post2009/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-10-14-ministry-truth-monologue-future-television-post2009/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-10-14.mp3Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-10-01-video-net-neutrality-update/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-10-01-video-net-neutrality-update/Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-09-23-ministry-truth-interview-chicago-artist-political-activist-chris-drew/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-09-23-ministry-truth-interview-chicago-artist-political-activist-chris-drew/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-09-23.mp3Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-09-16-ministry-truth-interview-kathy-kelly/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-09-16-ministry-truth-interview-kathy-kelly/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-09-16.mp3Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-09-09-ministry-truth-interview-jude-ortiz-2010-conspiracy-tour-support-rnc8/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-09-09-ministry-truth-interview-jude-ortiz-2010-conspiracy-tour-support-rnc8/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-09-09.mp3Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-09-02-ministry-truth-interview-shirlee-rubenstein-gregory-koger-case/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-09-02-ministry-truth-interview-shirlee-rubenstein-gregory-koger-case/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-09-02.mp3Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-08-19-ministry-truth-interview-tom-tresser-cook-county-presidential-race-2010/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-08-19-ministry-truth-interview-tom-tresser-cook-county-presidential-race-2010/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-08-19.mp3Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-08-11-merger-isnt-comcastic/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-08-11-merger-isnt-comcastic/by Steve Macek and Mitchell SzczepanczykOn December 3, 2009, the cable giant Comcast announced plans to buy NBC/Universal from General Electric in a $28 billion merger.Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-08-01-video-jon-burge-police-torture-verdict/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-08-01-video-jon-burge-police-torture-verdict/Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-06-06-corporations-responsible-for-95-8-of-all-ills-in-the-world/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-06-06-corporations-responsible-for-95-8-of-all-ills-in-the-world/I had jokingly written on the Chicago Media Action website that corporations were responsible for 95.8% of all ills in the world. That's obviously grandiose to quantify the ills to such a precise percentage, but it's unquestioned that the modern-day limited liability corporation is the cause for a great many ills in the world, and that a great deal of forward- thinking progressive activism amounts to fighting one or another corporation, or many corporations at once. Some examples off the top of my head:Labor: Corporations are interested in maximizing their own profits at the expense of everything else, including their own employees. So unions and grassroots groups fight hard just to maintain or modestly raise their own wages while under long and harsh working conditions. The example of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers comes readily to mind: an organization of poor migrant workers in Florida working to help tomato pickers who labor from early morning until late at night six days a week by raising the wage of a penny per pound of tomatoes picked, and launching grassroots publicity campaigns against the biggest food retailers on Earth (e.g., Taco Bell, McDonald's, Burger King, Chipotle). Other corporations like Walmart have bitterly fought to prevent their own workers from organizing unions or joining already-organized unions, and examples of that are abundant.Sun, 06 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-20-ministry-truth-interview-green-party-gubernatorial-candidate-rich-whitney/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-20-ministry-truth-interview-green-party-gubernatorial-candidate-rich-whitney/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-05-20.mp3Thu, 20 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-13-ministry-truth-presentations-paul-street-cristobal-cavazos-2010-icjpe-conference/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-13-ministry-truth-presentations-paul-street-cristobal-cavazos-2010-icjpe-conference/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-05-13.mp3Thu, 13 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-09-the-invisible-hand-versus-the-invisible-foot/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-09-the-invisible-hand-versus-the-invisible-foot/By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was not part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it. -- Adam Smith, The Wealth of NationsIt's arguably the most delectable idea in all of economics -- the notion that markets, particularly free markets, harness the drive for private wants into the establishment for public needs. How would this happen? Robin Hahnel, in his excellent book The ABCs of Political Economy: A Modern Approach summarizes thusly:Sun, 09 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-06-ministry-truth-interview-doug-battema-academic-study-sports-media-united-states/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-06-ministry-truth-interview-doug-battema-academic-study-sports-media-united-states/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-05-06.mp3Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-02-the-weekend-of-march-7-big-trivia-win-and-the-birth-of-my-son/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-02-the-weekend-of-march-7-big-trivia-win-and-the-birth-of-my-son/You can add the weekend of Saturday and Sunday, March 6th and 7th, 2010, to the list of most memorable weekends of my life. My kochanie Bree, who was nine months pregnant but not officially due until March 17th, informed me on the morning of March 6th that her water had broken. Now, it appeared that the baby would be coming far earlier than expected -- so we scrambled to get as much done on March 6th before we'd have to go to the hospital. Problem was, we had a full day and evening of events scheduled for that weekend -- including a charity trivia tournament in Deerfield, Illinois. After discussing the situation and our options, we decided that I would go to Deerfield, and call in regularly for updates.I'm no stranger to the event -- I participated in it twice before. The Annual JA Trivia Night takes place every year at the corporate headquarters Baxter International around March as a fundraiser for Junior Achievement. The event is massive -- upwards of 50 teams, some 600 participants, attend the event. In 2010, the event was emceed by Dave Legler, who still holds the title as the biggest money winner in NBC's history, having won $1.765 million on the non-corrupt version of Twenty-One. (Disclosure: I've known Dave for years, since we are and have been members of the Game Show Congress, and have been a teammate of his both at the Deerfield event and at Game Show Congress events.)Sun, 02 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-01-video-may-day-2010-rally-march-part-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-01-video-may-day-2010-rally-march-part-2/Sat, 01 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-01-video-may-day-2010-rally-march-part-1/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-05-01-video-may-day-2010-rally-march-part-1/Sat, 01 May 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-04-22-ministry-truth-presentation-robert-mcchesney-death-life-american-journalism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-04-22-ministry-truth-presentation-robert-mcchesney-death-life-american-journalism/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-04-22.mp3Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-04-15-ministry-truth-presentation-john-nichols-death-life-american-journalism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-04-15-ministry-truth-presentation-john-nichols-death-life-american-journalism/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-04-15.mp3Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-04-15-video-tea-party-rally-counterrally-daley-plaza/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-04-15-video-tea-party-rally-counterrally-daley-plaza/Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-04-08-ministry-truth-interview-bertha-escamilla-citizens-against-torture/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-04-08-ministry-truth-interview-bertha-escamilla-citizens-against-torture/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-04-08.mp3Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-03-15-story-ministry-truth/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-03-15-story-ministry-truth/The following essay about my weekly radio program, The Ministry of Truth, originally appeared in WHPK Magazine, Volume 2, #1, published Winter Quarter 2010The start of my involvement with WHPK began when I ran into a friend of mine, Dan Liechtenstein-Boris. Dan himself had a show on WHPK in 2003 and granted me an interview. The interview was about media politics and the FCC, aptly fitting given my longtime involvement with political activism on media issues. So when we met up again by chance at a computer lab in the summer of 2004 in the basement of the Regenstein Library, the topic of our conversation turned to that interview on WHPK the year before and that he had a show on WHPK, after which he said those words that still resonate for me:Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-03-12-witamy-serdecznie-welcome-world-zachary-kauser-szczepanczyk/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-03-12-witamy-serdecznie-welcome-world-zachary-kauser-szczepanczyk/Zachary Kauser Szczepanczyk was born on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at 6:47 AM Central Time. He weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces at birth, and measured 20 inches in length.Zachary's full name comes from three different languages: Hebrew for "Zachary" (a variation of "Zachariah" which means "The Lord recalled"), Urdu for "Kauser" (which means "intelligent" or "wise one"), and Polish for "Szczepanczyk" ("son of Stephen [Szczepan]", even though this Zachary is a son of Mitchell). :-)Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-27-call-solidarity-gaming/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-27-call-solidarity-gaming/With the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver just wrapping up, I'd like to expound upon on a ZNet commentary written by Michael Albert around the time of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino. Albert's commentary, published on February 19, 2006, entitled "Olympics Parecon", said in part:"Leftists ought to realize that the reason [that athletes who tout the line that 'winning isn't important, it's playing well' are seen as pathetic] happens is because we live in a savage market economy in which the credo that winning is everything is imposed by market logic. If we deny it for sports, we may deny it more generally, and that is too dangerous a prospect to tolerate."Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-25-ministry-truth-interview-shawn-campbell-chirp-chicago-independent-radio-project/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-25-ministry-truth-interview-shawn-campbell-chirp-chicago-independent-radio-project/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-02-25.mp3Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-18-ministry-truth-interview-ra-chaka-citizens-against-torture-chicago-police-torture/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-18-ministry-truth-interview-ra-chaka-citizens-against-torture-chicago-police-torture/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-02-18.mp3Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-11-ministry-truth-interview-jessica-pupovac-independent-media-michael-tiller-case/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-11-ministry-truth-interview-jessica-pupovac-independent-media-michael-tiller-case/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-02-11.mp3Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-11-blog-comments-chicago-mayor-daleys-remark-where-antiwar-protesters/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-11-blog-comments-chicago-mayor-daleys-remark-where-antiwar-protesters/In February 2010, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley lamented with a straight face the paucity of antiwar protests, despite his active attempts to stop peace protests in Chicago. I posted the following remarks in response.I agree; there should be more antiwar protests, and more people participating in them. But there's a problem here: If Richard "King of Town" Daley is now lamenting the paucity of antiwar activism, why has he been fighting tooth and nail against grassroots antiwar activists for YEARS?Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-09-video-chicago-mayor-richard-m-daley-antiwar-supporter-antiwar-hypocrite/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-09-video-chicago-mayor-richard-m-daley-antiwar-supporter-antiwar-hypocrite/Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-04-ministry-truth-interview-joshua-brolier-gaza-freedom-march/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-02-04-ministry-truth-interview-joshua-brolier-gaza-freedom-march/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-02-04.mp3Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-01-21-ministry-truth-interview-jeff-phillips-dystopian-novella-turban-tan/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-01-21-ministry-truth-interview-jeff-phillips-dystopian-novella-turban-tan/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-01-21.mp3Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-01-14-ministry-truth-interview-earl-silbar-public-workers-unite/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-01-14-ministry-truth-interview-earl-silbar-public-workers-unite/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-01-14.mp3Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-01-07-ministry-truth-interview-marla-renn-2010-vancouver-winter-olympic-games/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-01-07-ministry-truth-interview-marla-renn-2010-vancouver-winter-olympic-games/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2010-01-07.mp3Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-01-02-awjchicago-indymedia-team-takes-third-place-annual-charity-trivia-bowl/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2010-01-02-awjchicago-indymedia-team-takes-third-place-annual-charity-trivia-bowl/Members of Chicago Indymedia teamed up with the Chicago chapter of the Association for Women Journalists (AWJ) to participate in the 2009 Trivia Bowl, a charity fundraiser organized by the Asian American Journalists Association - Chicago chapter (AAJA). The AWJ/Chicago Indymedia Superteam, as it was called, finished in third place among 18 teams of journalists from a number of corporate and non-profit media outlets.The event, held at Haray Caray's Restaurant in downtown Chicago on November 8, 2009, was an annual fundraiser for AAJA-sponsored scholarships, and featured five rounds of questions on Sports, In The News, Chicago and Illinois, Entertainment and Pop Culture, and a picture round, asked to participating teams.Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-12-17-ministry-truth-interview-dr-quentin-young-health-care-singlepayermedicare/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-12-17-ministry-truth-interview-dr-quentin-young-health-care-singlepayermedicare/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-12-17.mp3Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-12-10-ministry-truth-excerpts-media-democracy-day-2009-mitchell-szczepanczyk-veronica-arreola-robert-koehler/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-12-10-ministry-truth-excerpts-media-democracy-day-2009-mitchell-szczepanczyk-veronica-arreola-robert-koehler/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-12-10.mp3Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-12-03-ministry-truth-interview-ryszard-bester-anna-karewicz-wage-theft-among-polishamerican-workers/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-12-03-ministry-truth-interview-ryszard-bester-anna-karewicz-wage-theft-among-polishamerican-workers/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-12-03.mp3Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-11-19-ministry-truth-interview-andrew-friend-film-workers-republic/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-11-19-ministry-truth-interview-andrew-friend-film-workers-republic/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-11-19.mp3Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-11-12-ministry-truth-interview-jordan-estevao-showdown-chicago-against-american-banking-association/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-11-12-ministry-truth-interview-jordan-estevao-showdown-chicago-against-american-banking-association/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-11-12.mp3Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-11-07-pushing-first-domino-remarks-media-democracy-day-chicago-november-7-2009/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-11-07-pushing-first-domino-remarks-media-democracy-day-chicago-november-7-2009/This week marks seven years since the founding of the group I'm representing today, Chicago Media Action (CMA). A fuller recounting of CMA's history is online at chicagomediaaction.org, but one common theme to many CMA campaigns is I what like to refer to as "pushing the first domino". You can stand dominos on end in lines where a push of a single domino causes one domino after another to fall, and I think that is emblematic of a lot of CMA's work in the sense that we have taken media policy issues that were and are important yet not very widely known, even among activists, and worked to help raise their awareness. The hope is that increased popular awareness can lead to increased popular involvement at key points in media policy work, particularly when media policy on the whole tends away from public awareness and involvement.This domino metaphor fails in one crucial respect. It's pretty easy to push a single actual domino. But pushing that first domino on media issues is pretty hard, since it can take a lot of effort to get even potential allies up to speed on media issues. Luckily, that has improved dramatically in the past seven years, and not a moment too soon, since we all face an historic opportunity in what media scholar Bob McChesney has termed a "critical juncture". A "critical juncture" is a rare and brief period in a society where it's possible to dramatically change the institutions that produce media, far more possible than outside a critical juncture. Critical junctures occur when any two of the following three phenomena occur at once:Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-29-ministry-truth-interview-lynne-johnson-chicago-alliance-against-sexual-exploitation/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-29-ministry-truth-interview-lynne-johnson-chicago-alliance-against-sexual-exploitation/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-10-29.mp3Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-22-ministry-truth-presentation-steve-macek-history-radio-united-states/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-22-ministry-truth-presentation-steve-macek-history-radio-united-states/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-10-22.mp3Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-21-powerpoint-pdf-materials-participatory-economics-womens-economic-equity/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-21-powerpoint-pdf-materials-participatory-economics-womens-economic-equity/In 2008 and 2009, I helped create materials for the Economic Equity team of the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women, where I explored the connections between women's economic equity and the model of economics known as participatory economics.I'm making available here copies of the files (one in Microsoft) that resulted from that materials development. Please download and pass these around to folks who you think may enjoy and find these materials worthwhile, and do let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-15-ministry-truth-interview-cory-fischerhoffman-prometheus-radio-project-low-power-fm/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-15-ministry-truth-interview-cory-fischerhoffman-prometheus-radio-project-low-power-fm/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-10-15.mp3Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-11-video-vigil-dead-fisk-coal-burning-plant-pilsen/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-11-video-vigil-dead-fisk-coal-burning-plant-pilsen/Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-08-ministry-truth-interview-jonathan-eylerwerve-global-integrity/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-08-ministry-truth-interview-jonathan-eylerwerve-global-integrity/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-10-08.mp3Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-03-video-chicago-calls-end-war-afghanistan/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-10-03-video-chicago-calls-end-war-afghanistan/Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-09-24-ministry-truth-interview-adam-kader-chicago-worker-center/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-09-24-ministry-truth-interview-adam-kader-chicago-worker-center/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-09-24.mp3Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-09-17-ministry-truth-american-foreign-policy-presentations-robert-naiman-andy-thayer/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-09-17-ministry-truth-american-foreign-policy-presentations-robert-naiman-andy-thayer/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-09-17.mp3Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-09-10-ministry-truth-monologue-2009-crisis-american-broadcast-television/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-09-10-ministry-truth-monologue-2009-crisis-american-broadcast-television/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-09-10.mp3Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-09-03-ministry-truth-debate-between-paul-street-john-k-wilson-barack-obama-progressive/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-09-03-ministry-truth-debate-between-paul-street-john-k-wilson-barack-obama-progressive/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-09-03.mp3Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-08-20-ministry-truth-interview-ron-kunde-chicago-air-water-show-protests-peace/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-08-20-ministry-truth-interview-ron-kunde-chicago-air-water-show-protests-peace/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-08-20.mp3Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-08-15-video-2009-chicago-air-water-show/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-08-15-video-2009-chicago-air-water-show/Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-08-13-ministry-truth-interview-chris-mooney-coauthor-unscientific-america/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-08-13-ministry-truth-interview-chris-mooney-coauthor-unscientific-america/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-08-13.mp3Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-08-06-ministry-truth-interview-dr-anne-scheetz-regarding-singlepayer-health-care/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-08-06-ministry-truth-interview-dr-anne-scheetz-regarding-singlepayer-health-care/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-08-06.mp3Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-30-ministry-truth-radio-adaptation-montesi-maneuver-extended/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-30-ministry-truth-radio-adaptation-montesi-maneuver-extended/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-07-30.mp3Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-23-ministry-truth-interview-kari-lydersen-revolt-goose-island/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-23-ministry-truth-interview-kari-lydersen-revolt-goose-island/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-07-23.mp3Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-16-ministry-truth-interview-marty-conlisk-japanese-film-labor-beat-civil-liberies-media/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-16-ministry-truth-interview-marty-conlisk-japanese-film-labor-beat-civil-liberies-media/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-07-16.mp3Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-13-montesi-maneuver-extended-strategy-towards-participatory-economy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-13-montesi-maneuver-extended-strategy-towards-participatory-economy/You could select any topic that subsumes anything that might be called "left activism" -- the environment, war and militarism, labor rights, energy, education, media, electoral politics, food and drink, banking and finance, just to name a few broad topics. Chances are very good that one or more corporations hold a considerable, often overwhelming, degree of control and influence. The record documenting corporate influence and malfeasance is vast, and the efforts to combat corporations have been growing and gaining in influence. But one can aruge that their effectiveness has thus far been insufficient, and what is unquestionable is that those efforts must improve and escalate dramatically in order to secure a better future, or any future for that matter.How to do so is the topic of this presentation, and this paper outlines one possible strategy, which involves the structure of corporations, the markets in which they thrive, the resulting irony of the structure of corporations, the relation of that to participatory economics, and how that is a proposed key to increasing an anti-corporate opposition. I have presented some of the ideas in what follows in ZNet and in other fora, so some of what follows may not be new to some.Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-02-ministry-truth-presentation-joey-mogul-torture-home-abroad-law-enforcement-military-officials/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-07-02-ministry-truth-presentation-joey-mogul-torture-home-abroad-law-enforcement-military-officials/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-07-02.mp3Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-06-18-ministry-truth-interview-mud-stencilers-tamms-year-ten-campaign-art-illinois-police-torture/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-06-18-ministry-truth-interview-mud-stencilers-tamms-year-ten-campaign-art-illinois-police-torture/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-06-18.mp3Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-06-11-ministry-truth-monologue-dtv-transition-after-feb-17/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-06-11-ministry-truth-monologue-dtv-transition-after-feb-17/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-06-11.mp3Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-06-04-ministry-truth-presentation-participatory-economics-finance-university-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-06-04-ministry-truth-presentation-participatory-economics-finance-university-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-06-04.mp3Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-28-ministry-truth-interview-democracy-now-host-amy-goodman/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-28-ministry-truth-interview-democracy-now-host-amy-goodman/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-05-28.mp3Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-27-chicago-usa-take-world-trivia-2009-world-quizzing-championships/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-27-chicago-usa-take-world-trivia-2009-world-quizzing-championships/When: Saturday, June 6th, from 12pm to 2:30pm CT Where: Sulzer Regional Library, 4455 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago What: The Chicago locale of the 2009 World Quizzing ChampionshipsOn Saturday, June 6th 2009, game show contestants, trivia players, and other know-it-alls will gather in Chicago and at locations in 10 states to test their wits against others across the globe during the World Quizzing Championships. The two-hour written test taken by individuals will cover popular and academic trivia in the areas of culture, entertainment, history, lifestyle, media, sport, science, and world topics. Questions included in the quiz have been written by representatives in Belgium, Estonia, India, USA and the UK, with help from Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, and Norway. Additional countries that will be participating in the quiz include Bangladesh, Canada, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Switzerland with more being added.Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-26-video-chicago-protests-california-court-supporting-proposition-8/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-26-video-chicago-protests-california-court-supporting-proposition-8/Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-21-ministry-truth-presentation-jeremy-scahill-blackwater-xe/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-21-ministry-truth-presentation-jeremy-scahill-blackwater-xe/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-05-21.mp3Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-14-ministry-truth-presentation-dean-baker-recent-economic-crisis/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-14-ministry-truth-presentation-dean-baker-recent-economic-crisis/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-05-14.mp3Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-07-ministry-truth-presentation-qa-peoples-solutions-economic-crisis/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-05-07-ministry-truth-presentation-qa-peoples-solutions-economic-crisis/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-05-07.mp3Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-30-ministry-truth-presentation-caucus-rank-file-educators-chicago-public-schools/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-30-ministry-truth-presentation-caucus-rank-file-educators-chicago-public-schools/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-04-30.mp3Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-25-markets-corporations-parecon-presentation-albany-park-north-park-mayfair-neighbors-peace-justice/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-25-markets-corporations-parecon-presentation-albany-park-north-park-mayfair-neighbors-peace-justice/In this presentation, I'll address four questions pertaining to our economy. (1) What are some of the problems? (2) What solutions have been proposed? (3) What solutions would I advocate? (4) What can we do? This presentation is divided into four sections, one for each of these four questions. Note that in keeping with the panel I'll be focusing on the economy and economics, and if there's something here that's unclear or confusing, please ask after the presentation.Section One: What are some of the problems?Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-23-ministry-truth-presentation-paula-bradshaw-rich-whitney-automobile/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-23-ministry-truth-presentation-paula-bradshaw-rich-whitney-automobile/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-04-23.mp3Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-02-video-games-chicago-rally-against-2016-olympics/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-02-video-games-chicago-rally-against-2016-olympics/Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-02-ministry-truth-interview-jeff-frank-chicagos-antiprotester-disorderly-conduct-ordinance/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-04-02-ministry-truth-interview-jeff-frank-chicagos-antiprotester-disorderly-conduct-ordinance/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-04-02.mp3Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-26-ministry-truth-interview-jitu-brown-kenwood-oakland-community-organization-olympics-community-benefits-agreement/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-26-ministry-truth-interview-jitu-brown-kenwood-oakland-community-organization-olympics-community-benefits-agreement/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-03-19.mp3Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-19-ministry-truth-story-behind-story-march-14-2009-chicago-actions-peace-immigrant-rights/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-19-ministry-truth-story-behind-story-march-14-2009-chicago-actions-peace-immigrant-rights/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-03-19.mp3Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-16-despite-tvs-objections-chicago-finance-committee-passes-revised-tv-ordinance/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-16-despite-tvs-objections-chicago-finance-committee-passes-revised-tv-ordinance/by Mitchell SzczepanczykAt a March 16 public meeting, the City of Chicago Committee on Finance approved the Stone/Burke ordinance, which ostensibly sought to help fund CAN TV, Chicago's fleet of public access cable TV channels -- but not before some recent controversial changes were added to the ordinance which were publicly objected to by CAN TV.Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-14-video-palestine-march-14-2009-chicago-protest-peace-immigrant-rights/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-14-video-palestine-march-14-2009-chicago-protest-peace-immigrant-rights/Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-14-video-chicagotra-speech-march-14-2009-chicago-protest-peace-immigrant-rights/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-14-video-chicagotra-speech-march-14-2009-chicago-protest-peace-immigrant-rights/Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-14-video-highlights-march-14-2009-protest-peace-immigrant-rights/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-14-video-highlights-march-14-2009-protest-peace-immigrant-rights/Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-12-ministry-truth-monologue-tv-local-community-radio-act/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-12-ministry-truth-monologue-tv-local-community-radio-act/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-03-12.mp3Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-05-ministry-truth-interview-reese-ehrlich-dateline-havana/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-03-05-ministry-truth-interview-reese-ehrlich-dateline-havana/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-03-05.mp3Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-24-video-chicago-protests-against-defense-marriage-act/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-24-video-chicago-protests-against-defense-marriage-act/Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-24-video-2008-colombia-sugarcane-workers-strike-chicago-independent-television/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-24-video-2008-colombia-sugarcane-workers-strike-chicago-independent-television/Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-19-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-matt-joynt-unlympic-organizing-committee/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-19-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-matt-joynt-unlympic-organizing-committee/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-02-19.mp3Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-14-video-highlights-freedom-marry-actions-chicago-il/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-14-video-highlights-freedom-marry-actions-chicago-il/Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-12-ministry-truth-interview-ray-parrish-vietnam-veterans-against-war/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-12-ministry-truth-interview-ray-parrish-vietnam-veterans-against-war/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-02-12.mp3Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-05-ministry-truth-interview-jessica-gonzalez-hate-speech-media/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-05-ministry-truth-interview-jessica-gonzalez-hate-speech-media/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-02-05.mp3Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-03-video-press-conference-chicago-hearing-permit-6th-anniversary-march-peace-part-1/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-03-video-press-conference-chicago-hearing-permit-6th-anniversary-march-peace-part-1/Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-03-video-press-conference-chicago-hearing-permit-6th-anniversary-march-peace-part-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-02-03-video-press-conference-chicago-hearing-permit-6th-anniversary-march-peace-part-2/Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-29-ministry-truth-interview-leslie-fiedler-radios-populares/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-29-ministry-truth-interview-leslie-fiedler-radios-populares/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-01-29.mp3Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-22-ministry-truth-excerpts-cape-hope-torture-chicago-gitmo-interview-durbingaza-protest/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-22-ministry-truth-excerpts-cape-hope-torture-chicago-gitmo-interview-durbingaza-protest/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-01-22.mp3Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-15-ministry-truth-interview-ghada-talhami-gaza-israel-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-15-ministry-truth-interview-ghada-talhami-gaza-israel-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-01-15.mp3Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-08-ministry-truth-interview-neal-resnikoff-senn-high-school-chicago-education-arne-duncan/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-08-ministry-truth-interview-neal-resnikoff-senn-high-school-chicago-education-arne-duncan/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-01-08.mp3Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-01-ministry-truth-november-decision-2008-excerpt-bbc-radio-devon-commentator-alan-thomas/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2009-01-01-ministry-truth-november-decision-2008-excerpt-bbc-radio-devon-commentator-alan-thomas/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2009-01-01.mp3Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-12-25-ministry-truth-november-decision-2008-excerpt-rhymefest-zarakyah-ahmadiel/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-12-25-ministry-truth-november-decision-2008-excerpt-rhymefest-zarakyah-ahmadiel/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-12-25.mp3Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-12-18-ministry-truth-interview-mediageek-tribune-bankruptcy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-12-18-ministry-truth-interview-mediageek-tribune-bankruptcy/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-12-18.mp3Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-12-04-ministry-truth-interview-robert-mcchesney-political-economy-media-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-12-04-ministry-truth-interview-robert-mcchesney-political-economy-media-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-12-04.mp3Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-27-ministry-truth-interview-robert-mcchesney-political-economy-media-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-27-ministry-truth-interview-robert-mcchesney-political-economy-media-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-11-27.mp3Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-21-video-fcc-visits-chicago-raise-dtv-awareness/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-21-video-fcc-visits-chicago-raise-dtv-awareness/Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-20-ministry-truth-excerpts-presentation-dtv-transition-2008-flowtv-conference/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-20-ministry-truth-excerpts-presentation-dtv-transition-2008-flowtv-conference/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-11-20.mp3Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-13-ministry-truth-interview-alison-weir-americans-knew-media-coverage-israel-palestine/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-13-ministry-truth-interview-alison-weir-americans-knew-media-coverage-israel-palestine/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-11-13.mp3Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-08-video-protest-against-james-dobson-radio-hall-fame/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-08-video-protest-against-james-dobson-radio-hall-fame/Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-07-tv-ordinance-doesnt-pass-amid-recessed-city-committee-hearing/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-07-tv-ordinance-doesnt-pass-amid-recessed-city-committee-hearing/About 100 CAN TV staff and supporters, who filled a Chicago City Hall conference room for an October 31st finance meeting, left the conference room in disappointment when the meeting ended in recess before a vote could be called over an ordinance to help fund CAN TV.The meeting of the City of Chicago Committee on Finance ran about four- and-a-half hours without a break, from a listed 10AM start time until about 2:30pm. The meeting was called in recess by Chicago Alderman and Finance Chair Edward Burke (14th Ward) when the meeting recorder was forbidden from continuing to work, and there was no replacement recorder ready.Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-06-ministry-truth-interview-dave-zirin-peoples-history-sports-united-states/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-11-06-ministry-truth-interview-dave-zirin-peoples-history-sports-united-states/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-11-06.mp3Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-30-ministry-truth-interview-kathy-cummings-2008-candidate-senate/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-30-ministry-truth-interview-kathy-cummings-2008-candidate-senate/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-10-30.mp3Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-25-tv-funding-future-faces-key-ordinance-vote/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-25-tv-funding-future-faces-key-ordinance-vote/(CIMC) - On Friday, October 31, the City of Chicago Committee on Finance will vote on an ordinance which would provide a more stable funding stream for Chicago's fleet of public access cable TV channels.Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV) is the focus of a proposed city ordinance, which would assure stable funding from local and state cable revenues.Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-23-ministry-truth-interview-jane-sex-workers-outreach-project/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-23-ministry-truth-interview-jane-sex-workers-outreach-project/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-10-23.mp3Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-14-print-adaptation-montesi-maneuver-way-think-corporations-markets-participatory-economics-environment/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-14-print-adaptation-montesi-maneuver-way-think-corporations-markets-participatory-economics-environment/Regarding the future of humanity and of our shared natural environment, there are few threats greater than present-day corporations. One can readily brainstorm many examples of corporations and their horrible environmental actions, like Exxon-Mobil and the role it plays in exacerbating global warming. General Electric and their advocacy of the nuclear industry (including nuclear weapons), and Monsanto and the role it plays in the emergence and horrid consequences of genetically modified organisms.Proposals for action to oppose this state of near-total corporate dominance tend to be tame compared to the might wielded by these corporate empires. But before successful opposition can happen, successful acts of imagination must happen first, which the political left has been lacking for the most part. In this article, I spell out some new developments in the realm of what might be called "political imagination" and how that can mount a new initiative to hopefully oppose--indeed wipe out--corporate power.Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-09-ministry-truth-interview-bruce-gagnon-militarization-space/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-09-ministry-truth-interview-bruce-gagnon-militarization-space/http://www.szcz.org/audio/2008-10-09.mp3Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-02-ministry-truth-interview-lily-cavanagh/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-02-ministry-truth-interview-lily-cavanagh/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-10-02.mp3Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-01-video-casino-free-philadelphia-takes-chicago-billionaire-neil-bluhm/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-10-01-video-casino-free-philadelphia-takes-chicago-billionaire-neil-bluhm/Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-27-video-10th-annual-matthew-shepard-rally-march/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-27-video-10th-annual-matthew-shepard-rally-march/Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-25-ministry-truth-interview-wayne-besen-james-dobson-exgay-movement/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-25-ministry-truth-interview-wayne-besen-james-dobson-exgay-movement/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-09-25.mp3Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-18-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-st-paul-2008-rnc-crackdown-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-18-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-st-paul-2008-rnc-crackdown-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-09-18.mp3Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-11-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-st-paul-2008-rnc-crackdown-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-11-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-st-paul-2008-rnc-crackdown-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-09-11.mp3Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-04-ministry-truth-report-monologue-free-speech-zone-2008-chicago-air-water-show/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-09-04-ministry-truth-report-monologue-free-speech-zone-2008-chicago-air-water-show/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-09-04.mp3Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-28-ministry-truth-interview-soo-ji-min-illinois-caucus-adolescent-health/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-28-ministry-truth-interview-soo-ji-min-illinois-caucus-adolescent-health/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-08-28.mp3Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-28-video-reenact-68-historical-reenactment-1968-dnc-protest-grant-park/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-28-video-reenact-68-historical-reenactment-1968-dnc-protest-grant-park/Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-21-ministry-truth-audio-continued-aug-2-2008-war-iran-rally-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-21-ministry-truth-audio-continued-aug-2-2008-war-iran-rally-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-08-21.mp3Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-18-peace-activists-literally-fenced-2008-chicago-air-water-show/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-18-peace-activists-literally-fenced-2008-chicago-air-water-show/CHICAGO, August 18 -- In a brazen move against freedom of speech and against the Chicago peace movement, Chicago Police held peace activists at the 2008 Chicago Air and Water Show inside a fenced-off "free speech zone", as one police officer termed it. The "free speech zone", surrounded by a three- and-a-half-foot-high impromptu metal barrier serving as a makeshift fence, sat just south of eastern base of the North Avenue foot bridge, near the intersection of North Avenue and Lake Shore Drive.Peace activists and antiwar critics against the Air and Water Show have been a regular presence at the Show since 1993, who traditionally assemble near the North Avenue bridge. Activists and critics routinely decried the event's rampant commercialism and critiquing the Air and Water Show as being a giant commercial for the military and as a bonanza for military recruitment.Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-17-video-death-free-speech-2008-chicago-air-water-show/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-17-video-death-free-speech-2008-chicago-air-water-show/Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-14-ministry-truth-audio-aug-2-2008-war-iran-rally-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-14-ministry-truth-audio-aug-2-2008-war-iran-rally-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-08-14.mp3Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-02-video-war-iran-chicago-antiwar-rally-march/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-08-02-video-war-iran-chicago-antiwar-rally-march/Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-31-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-author-unmarketable-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-31-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-author-unmarketable-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-07-31.mp3Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-28-video-dtv-red-alert-public-service-announcement/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-28-video-dtv-red-alert-public-service-announcement/Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-25-process-trying-out-wants-millionaire/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-25-process-trying-out-wants-millionaire/I was asked about the process for trying out for the syndicated American version of the game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". The process for trying out is roughly as follows:"You'll sit down with about 140 fellow Millionaire contestant wanabees. First, you'll each take the same multiple-choice test. The test is reminiscent of the SAT or most any other standardized test: Scantron sheets, fill-in-the-bubbles, #2 pencils. In the case of the Millionaire test, you have 10 minutes to answer 30 multiple-choice questions (each question has four possible answers, just like on the TV show). You have to get some number of questions correct to pass, but they don't disclose publicly what that number is (though you don't need a perfect score; I know I've gotten some questions wrong on the test, but I still got a passing grade).Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-24-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-author-unmarketable-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-24-ministry-truth-interview-anne-elizabeth-moore-author-unmarketable-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-07-24.mp3Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-17-ministry-truth-monologue-atts-violations-recent-illinois-cable-laws/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-17-ministry-truth-monologue-atts-violations-recent-illinois-cable-laws/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-07-17.mp3Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-03-ministry-truth-audio-montesi-maneuver-presentation-st-louis/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-07-03-ministry-truth-audio-montesi-maneuver-presentation-st-louis/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-07-03.mp3Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-29-montesi-maneuver-way-think-corporations-markets-participatory-economics-environment/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-29-montesi-maneuver-way-think-corporations-markets-participatory-economics-environment/By Mitchell SzczepanczykFirst presented at the 2008 Gateway Greens Roundtable; Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri; June 29, 2008Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-27-video-surviving-climate-change-roundtable-st-louis/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-27-video-surviving-climate-change-roundtable-st-louis/Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-26-ministry-truth-interview-carrie-biggsadams-dtv-conversion/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-26-ministry-truth-interview-carrie-biggsadams-dtv-conversion/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-06-26.mp3Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-19-letter-week-time-out-chicago-magazine/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-19-letter-week-time-out-chicago-magazine/As someone involved in the Chicago political activist community, I appreciated seeing the "Building a better protest" cover on the May 15-21 issue of Time Out Chicago. I'm glad to see that political activism in Chicago gets some positive coverage in a town whose corporate media tend to dismiss or downplay grassroots political activism.However, I felt that Time Out Chicago should have given more local focus in its selection of local activst groups. Not to take anything away from the Chicago-area chapters of PETA or Greenpeace or A.N.S.W.E.R., but those are groups with local chapters all over America. In a magazine that's supposed to be about Chicago, I think that Time Out Chicago should have highlighted more of the uniquely Chicago-based political activist groups that are doing good work and deserve wider awareness.Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-19-ministry-truth-interview-julia-field-chicagoarea-codepink-john-mccain/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-19-ministry-truth-interview-julia-field-chicagoarea-codepink-john-mccain/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-06-19.mp3Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-12-video-congress-hotel-strike-5th-anniversary/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-12-video-congress-hotel-strike-5th-anniversary/Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-06-video-2008-national-conference-media-reform/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-06-06-video-2008-national-conference-media-reform/Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-29-ministry-truth-trenches-segment-featuring-dave-kraft-neis-nuclear-waste-dump-visit/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-29-ministry-truth-trenches-segment-featuring-dave-kraft-neis-nuclear-waste-dump-visit/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-05-29.mp3Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-22-ministry-truth-interview-rebekah-levin-jewish-voice-peace-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-22-ministry-truth-interview-rebekah-levin-jewish-voice-peace-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-05-22.mp3Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-15-ministry-truth-excerpts-ilcpj-2008-final-panel-ra-chaka-mitchell-szczepanczyk/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-15-ministry-truth-excerpts-ilcpj-2008-final-panel-ra-chaka-mitchell-szczepanczyk/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-05-15.mp3Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-08-ministry-truth-excerpts-ilcpj-2008-final-panel-james-thindwa-maria-gamboa/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-08-ministry-truth-excerpts-ilcpj-2008-final-panel-james-thindwa-maria-gamboa/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-05-08.mp3Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-04-video-nakbaawareness-counterpresence-walk-israel/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-04-video-nakbaawareness-counterpresence-walk-israel/Sun, 04 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-01-video-mayday-march-immigrant-labor-rights-2008/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-05-01-video-mayday-march-immigrant-labor-rights-2008/Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-24-ministry-truth-interview-john-k-wilson-author-barack-obama-improbable-quest/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-24-ministry-truth-interview-john-k-wilson-author-barack-obama-improbable-quest/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-04-24.mp3Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-17-ministry-truth-interview-jeff-leys-voices-creative-nonviolence/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-17-ministry-truth-interview-jeff-leys-voices-creative-nonviolence/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-04-17.mp3Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-11-dtv-tsunami-arrived/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-11-dtv-tsunami-arrived/By Mitchell Szczepanczyk (originally published in FlowTV)In a pair of previous columns for FlowTV.org, I've outlined the concerns over the conversion of television across the United States to an all- digital format, required by law to occur on February 18, 2009. While many of the benefits of the conversion have been touted, many of the growing concerns and problems involved with the conversion and its aftermath for perhaps 50 million American analog TV viewers have seen little light. While publicity and awareness have been increasing, that has not translated into improved actions. Indeed, we are now less than one year until the time the conversion is to take place and we stand well shy of the effort needed for a smooth conversion. Instead we are seeing the makings of a perfect storm on the DTV front, which like other perfect storms could leave a trail of ruin in its wake.Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-10-ministry-truth-excerpts-chicago-indymedia-march-20-2008-webcast-part-3-3/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-10-ministry-truth-excerpts-chicago-indymedia-march-20-2008-webcast-part-3-3/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-04-10.mp3Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-03-ministry-truth-excerpts-chicago-indymedia-march-20-2008-webcast-part-2-3/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-04-03-ministry-truth-excerpts-chicago-indymedia-march-20-2008-webcast-part-2-3/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-04-03.mp3Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-03-27-ministry-truth-excerpts-chicago-indymedia-march-20-2008-webcast-part-1-3/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-03-27-ministry-truth-excerpts-chicago-indymedia-march-20-2008-webcast-part-1-3/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-03-27.mp3Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-03-23-video-catholic-schoolgirls-against-war-holy-name-cathedral/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-03-23-video-catholic-schoolgirls-against-war-holy-name-cathedral/Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-03-06-ministry-truth-interview-2008-maurice-carney-friends-congo/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-03-06-ministry-truth-interview-2008-maurice-carney-friends-congo/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-03-06.mp3Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-03-01-chicagoans-compete-2nd-annual-transatlantic-quiz-march-15/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-03-01-chicagoans-compete-2nd-annual-transatlantic-quiz-march-15/Contact: Mitchell Szczepanczyk Email: mitchell@szcz.orgCHICAGO -- For the second consecutive year, Chicago's best trivia experts will participate in an international quiz competition along with other Americans against trivia experts in Canada and the United Kingdom. The event, the Second Annual Transatlantic Quiz, will feature participants in all three countries taking the same 240-question written test.Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-02-28-ministry-truth-presentation-inger-stole-1930s-advertising-reform/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-02-28-ministry-truth-presentation-inger-stole-1930s-advertising-reform/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-02-28.mp3Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-02-13-dtv-tsunami-approaches/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-02-13-dtv-tsunami-approaches/In an essay entitled "The Forthcoming DTV Tsunami", I wrote about the possible social ramifications of the conversion from analog television to digital television (DTV) slated for February 18, 2009. I argued that the conversion was poised to become a disaster for the tens of millions of Americans who use and rely on over-the-air television and don't have the money to get cable or satellite service, or buy a digital-ready TV set.In the time since that essay, we now have some answers to some of the questions I raised. The resulting picture is crystallizing -- and horrifying.Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-02-07-ministry-truth-interview-harold-feld-700-mhz-auction/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-02-07-ministry-truth-interview-harold-feld-700-mhz-auction/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-02-07.mp3Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-02-02-video-albany-park-north-park-mayfair-neighbors-peace-justice/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-02-02-video-albany-park-north-park-mayfair-neighbors-peace-justice/Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-01-24-ministry-truth-interview-danny-schechter-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-01-24-ministry-truth-interview-danny-schechter-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-01-24.mp3Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-01-17-ministry-truth-interview-danny-schechter-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-01-17-ministry-truth-interview-danny-schechter-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-01-17.mp3Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-01-10-ministry-truth-interview-dave-zirin-welcome-terrordome/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-01-10-ministry-truth-interview-dave-zirin-welcome-terrordome/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-01-10.mp3Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-01-03-ministry-truth-interview-amysue-mertens/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2008-01-03-ministry-truth-interview-amysue-mertens/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2008-01-03.mp3Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-20-ministry-truth-excerpts-2007-chicago-media-action-holiday-singalong/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-20-ministry-truth-excerpts-2007-chicago-media-action-holiday-singalong/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-12-20.mp3Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-13-ministry-truth-interview-cynthia-mckinney/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-13-ministry-truth-interview-cynthia-mckinney/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-12-13.mp3Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-09-video-im-dreaming-just-christmas-performed-members-kucinich-president-chicago-area-codepink/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-09-video-im-dreaming-just-christmas-performed-members-kucinich-president-chicago-area-codepink/Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-07-video-2007-chicago-media-action-holiday-singalong/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-07-video-2007-chicago-media-action-holiday-singalong/Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-06-ministry-truth-forthcoming-dtv-tsunami/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-12-06-ministry-truth-forthcoming-dtv-tsunami/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-12-06.mp3Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-11-22-ministry-truth-presentation-lisa-brooten-elephants-fight-media-reform-efforts-southeast-asia/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-11-22-ministry-truth-presentation-lisa-brooten-elephants-fight-media-reform-efforts-southeast-asia/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-11-22.mp3Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-11-15-ministry-truth-presentation-john-anderson-godcasting-march/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-11-15-ministry-truth-presentation-john-anderson-godcasting-march/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-11-15.mp3Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-11-09-forthcoming-dtv-tsunami/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-11-09-forthcoming-dtv-tsunami/By Mitchell Szczepanczykwww.flowtv.orgOn Wednesday, February 18, 2009, all analog over-the-air TV broadcasting in the United States ceases, and will be replaced with an all-digital broadcasting setup. The ostensible reason for this conversion to digital television (DTV) is to improve television. With freed television spectrum resulting from the conversion, public safety communications can be increased and improved, more TV channels can be created, and picture quality can improve.Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-11-08-ministry-truth-presentation-bob-mcchesney/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-11-08-ministry-truth-presentation-bob-mcchesney/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-11-08.mp3Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-10-25-ministry-truth-interview-steven-levin-corporate-takeover-illinois-nursing-homes/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-10-25-ministry-truth-interview-steven-levin-corporate-takeover-illinois-nursing-homes/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-10-25.mp3Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-10-18-ministry-truth-interview-walter-benn-michaels-trouble-diversity/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-10-18-ministry-truth-interview-walter-benn-michaels-trouble-diversity/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-10-18.mp3Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-10-11-ministry-truth-interview-maura-stephens-iraq-burma/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-10-11-ministry-truth-interview-maura-stephens-iraq-burma/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-10-11.mp3Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-10-04-ministry-truth-interview-nikolai-alexeyev/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-10-04-ministry-truth-interview-nikolai-alexeyev/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-10-04.mp3Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-20-video-behind-scenes-chicago-fcc-hearing/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-20-video-behind-scenes-chicago-fcc-hearing/Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-20-appearance-wants-millionaire/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-20-appearance-wants-millionaire/Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-20-video-extended-testimony-before-federal-communications-commission/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-20-video-extended-testimony-before-federal-communications-commission/Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-13-ministry-truth-monologue-2007-fcc-chicago-media-ownership-hearing/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-13-ministry-truth-monologue-2007-fcc-chicago-media-ownership-hearing/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-09-13.mp3Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-06-ministry-truth-interview-international-tribunal-hurricanes-katrina-rita-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-09-06-ministry-truth-interview-international-tribunal-hurricanes-katrina-rita-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-09-06.mp3Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-08-30-ministry-truth-interview-international-tribunal-hurricanes-katrina-rita-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-08-30-ministry-truth-interview-international-tribunal-hurricanes-katrina-rita-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-08-30.mp3Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-08-23-ministry-truth-monologue-update-2005-chicago-tv-license-challenge/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-08-23-ministry-truth-monologue-update-2005-chicago-tv-license-challenge/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-08-23.mp3Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-08-16-ministry-truth-interview-rozalinda-borcila-afghan-refugees-norway/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-08-16-ministry-truth-interview-rozalinda-borcila-afghan-refugees-norway/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-08-16.mp3Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-07-05-chicago-activist-discovers-hispanic-youth-harshly-treated-indiana-detention-center/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-07-05-chicago-activist-discovers-hispanic-youth-harshly-treated-indiana-detention-center/A Chicago-area doctor and activist has discovered a youth treatment facility in Indiana where ten Hispanic boys were placed under harsh conditions after a violent racially-tinged incident on May 7, 2007.The South West Indiana Youth Facility (SWIYF), a youth detention facility in Vincennes, Indiana, about 130 miles southwest of Indianapolis, describes itself on its website as a center which offers "residential treatment for 148 males and female youth, ages 9-21, in gender specific housing units and activities." SWIYF also serves to house undocumented immigrant youth from Latin America who are placed there precisely because they're undocumented.Thu, 05 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-06-21-ministry-truth-interview-michael-albert-remembering-tomorrow/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-06-21-ministry-truth-interview-michael-albert-remembering-tomorrow/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-06-21.mp3Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-06-14-ministry-truth-interview-davis-maciyalla-josh-thomas/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-06-14-ministry-truth-interview-davis-maciyalla-josh-thomas/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-06-14.mp3Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-06-07-ministry-truth-presentation-robert-jensen-academic-freedom-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-06-07-ministry-truth-presentation-robert-jensen-academic-freedom-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-06-07.mp3Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-06-01-video-coalition-immokalee-workers-victory-celebration/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-06-01-video-coalition-immokalee-workers-victory-celebration/Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-31-ministry-truth-presentation-robert-jensen-academic-freedom-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-31-ministry-truth-presentation-robert-jensen-academic-freedom-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-05-31.mp3Thu, 31 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-24-ministry-truth-interview-rick-kaempfer-author-everance/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-24-ministry-truth-interview-rick-kaempfer-author-everance/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-05-24.mp3Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-17-ministry-truth-interview-michael-maranda-chicago-digital-access-alliance/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-17-ministry-truth-interview-michael-maranda-chicago-digital-access-alliance/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-05-10.mp3Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-08-cable-regulation-chicago-media-action-response-chicago-tribune/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-08-cable-regulation-chicago-media-action-response-chicago-tribune/The Tribune's May 1 editorial "Bring on cable competition" adopts the enthusiastic tone of AT&T's advertising campaign when extolling the virtues of cable competition. But the Tribune does nothing to prove its contention that in other states, lower cable TV prices and a faster rollout of high-speed broadband service from cable providers has resulted.In fact much has been written about the extremely slow deployment of AT&T's U-verse television system. In the 19 months since AT&T signed its first statewide deal, there are only 20,000 subscribers to the U-verse service nationwide. And once introductory rates are removed from the calculation, there is little evidence that lower rates have resulted from AT&T's appearance in the market.Tue, 08 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-03-ministry-truth-interview-rick-ray-10-questions-dalai-lama/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-03-ministry-truth-interview-rick-ray-10-questions-dalai-lama/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-05-03.mp3Thu, 03 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-01-video-impeachment-trial-street-theater/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-05-01-video-impeachment-trial-street-theater/Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-26-ministry-truth-interview-jamie-kalven-view-ground-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-26-ministry-truth-interview-jamie-kalven-view-ground-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-04-25.mp3Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-21-video-silence-malachi-ritscher-chicago-play-concerning-famed-political-activist/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-21-video-silence-malachi-ritscher-chicago-play-concerning-famed-political-activist/Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-19-ministry-truth-interview-jamie-kalven-view-ground-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-19-ministry-truth-interview-jamie-kalven-view-ground-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-04-19.mp3Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-18-video-lobbying-public-access-tv-trip-chicago-springfield-il/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-18-video-lobbying-public-access-tv-trip-chicago-springfield-il/Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-15-ruling-expected-chicago-activists-freedom-speech-appeal/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-15-ruling-expected-chicago-activists-freedom-speech-appeal/Freedom-of-speech advocates and political activists are expecting a verdict this week in the case of a Chicago political activist who was arrested at a political rally for openly questioning police orders.Betty Resnikoff, a Chicago political activist, took part in a counterprotest in July 2006 near a rally in Chicago's Federal Plaza. The rally supported the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and concurrent bombing of Lebanon. Resnikoff was one of a group of protesters handing out leaflets opposing the bombing and the rally.Sun, 15 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-12-ministry-truth-interview-jan-lisa-huttner-women-film-film-criticism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-12-ministry-truth-interview-jan-lisa-huttner-women-film-film-criticism/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-04-12.mp3Thu, 12 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-06-activists-travail-triumph-over-tribune/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-06-activists-travail-triumph-over-tribune/(originally published in AREA Chicago) By Mitchell SzczepanczykIs Chicago's wealthiest news corporation breaking communications laws and getting away with it? How are they able to operate with such impunity, and what local groups are responding? Imagine a company which thrives on criminal activity, whose private profits come to no small part from the theft of public resources. What's worse, this company spends its profits on political lobbying to ensure that the laws it breaks to keep money flowing are changed retroactively, making legal its previously illegal actions. Worse still, the main law enforcement which oversees this company, rather than working to rebuke this company, is actually a longtime supporter of the company. And staff aid and abet the company, overwhelmingly leaving law enforcement to take higher-paying jobs in the very industry they "regulate."Fri, 06 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-05-ministry-truth-interview-maura-stephens-humanitarian-efforts-iraq/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-05-ministry-truth-interview-maura-stephens-humanitarian-efforts-iraq/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-04-05.mp3Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-03-chicagoans-compete-inaugural-transatlantic-quiz/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-03-chicagoans-compete-inaugural-transatlantic-quiz/Contact: Mitchell Szczepanczyk Email: mitchell@szcz.orgCHICAGO -- Chicago's best trivia mavens will take part in an international quiz competition along with other Americans against trivia experts in Canada and the United Kingdom in a first-of-its-kind transatlantic trivia competition. The event, named "The Transatlantic Quiz", will feature participants in all three countries taking the same 240-question written test.Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-02-review-silence-malachi-ritscher/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-04-02-review-silence-malachi-ritscher/The Silence of Malachi Ritscher a play by the theater group Theater 5.2.1 written by Kevin Kilroy, directed by Lewis LainOn November 3, 2006, Malachi Ritscher, a musician and political activist, doused himself with gasoline and burned himself to death in protest against the War in Iraq.Mon, 02 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-29-ministry-truth-interview-nina-klooster-marjorie-fujara-code-pink/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-29-ministry-truth-interview-nina-klooster-marjorie-fujara-code-pink/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-03-29.mp3Thu, 29 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-27-thoughts-march-20-antiwar-march-chicagos-michigan-avenue/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-27-thoughts-march-20-antiwar-march-chicagos-michigan-avenue/For the past three years, I had anchored Chicago Indymedia's live radio webstream for the M20 events in Chicago, which usually took place on a Saturday. Being on Saturday often meant there would be events all day, sometimes well in to the evening, and certainly plenty of events to cover and hear back from.This year, 2007, the Calendar Gods conspired to put M20 on a Tuesday and St. Patrick's Day on the Saturday prior. So Tuesday it is, and that meant that events would be abbreviated, so I opted not to organize a webstream this year. Believe me it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get anyone to call during a march, or even hear people during a march with all that chanting going on, or even have people hear their own cellphones with all that chanting going on.Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-22-ministry-truth-radio-documentary-michigan-avenue-antiwar-protest-march-20-2007/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-22-ministry-truth-radio-documentary-michigan-avenue-antiwar-protest-march-20-2007/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-03-22.mp3Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-15-ministry-truth-interview-eric-klinenberg-fighting-air-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-15-ministry-truth-interview-eric-klinenberg-fighting-air-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-03-15.mp3Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-08-ministry-truth-interview-eric-klinenberg-fighting-air-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-08-ministry-truth-interview-eric-klinenberg-fighting-air-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-03-08.mp3Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-01-video-chicago-indymedia-interview-kyle-snyder/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-03-01-video-chicago-indymedia-interview-kyle-snyder/Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-22-ministry-truth-presentation-open-university-left-participatory-economics/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-22-ministry-truth-presentation-open-university-left-participatory-economics/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-02-22.mp3Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-08-ministry-truth-open-letter-tribune-company/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-08-ministry-truth-open-letter-tribune-company/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-02-08.mp3Thu, 08 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-01-ministry-truth-interview-2007-maurice-carney-friends-congo/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-01-ministry-truth-interview-2007-maurice-carney-friends-congo/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-02-01.mp3Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-01-video-malachi-ritcher-memorial/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-01-video-malachi-ritcher-memorial/Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-01-video-brad-will-memorial/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-02-01-video-brad-will-memorial/Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-01-31-2007-national-conference-media-reform-chicagoan-reports-back/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-01-31-2007-national-conference-media-reform-chicagoan-reports-back/More than 3,500 people gathered in Memphis, Tennessee during the weekend of January 12-14, 2007 for the third National Conference for Media Reform. I was an attendee and presenter, speaking on the panel "How to Challenge a Broadcast License."The event, convened by the national media policy advocacy group Free Press, brought an assortment of organizers, activists, citizens, politicians, and high-profile celebrities. The range of media-themed topics was staggering. Topics included the assembly of radio stations (high and low power), creating "viral" media for online distribution, fighting to save the internet and public access television, expanding the range of opinion on dominant corporate media (including public television and radio), increasing diversity in media representation and ownership, and critiquing and challenging the major media and the policies that help shape them.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-01-18-ministry-truth-interview-linda-wasson-community-radio-middle-east/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-01-18-ministry-truth-interview-linda-wasson-community-radio-middle-east/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-01-18.mp3Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-01-04-ministry-truth-interview-candidate-dorothy-brown-2007-chicago-mayoral-race/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2007-01-04-ministry-truth-interview-candidate-dorothy-brown-2007-chicago-mayoral-race/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2007-01-04.mp3Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-12-18-heard-malachi-campaign-demonstrates-cold/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-12-18-heard-malachi-campaign-demonstrates-cold/About twenty people braved bitter winter cold to participate in a promotional action on December 3, 2006, on a highway overpass to commemorate a political activist who committed suicide to protest the war in Iraq.Members with the "I Heard You, Malachi" campaign organized the event held near the intersection of Grand Avenue and Peoria Street overlooking southbound lanes on Chicago's I-90/94 Expressway.Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-12-14-ministry-truth-interview-ben-joravsky-chicago-tax-increment-financing-districts-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-12-14-ministry-truth-interview-ben-joravsky-chicago-tax-increment-financing-districts-part-2-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-12-14.mp3Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-12-07-ministry-truth-interview-ben-joravsky-chicago-tax-increment-financing-districts-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-12-07-ministry-truth-interview-ben-joravsky-chicago-tax-increment-financing-districts-part-1-2/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-12-07.mp3Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-11-16-ministry-truth-residents-journal-beauty-turner-speaks-chicago-media/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-11-16-ministry-truth-residents-journal-beauty-turner-speaks-chicago-media/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-11-16.mp3Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-11-09-ministry-truth-robert-jensen-heart-whiteness/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-11-09-ministry-truth-robert-jensen-heart-whiteness/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-11-09.mp3Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-10-21-ministry-truth-interview-candidate-bill-dock-walls-2007-chicago-mayoral-race/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-10-21-ministry-truth-interview-candidate-bill-dock-walls-2007-chicago-mayoral-race/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-10-21.mp3Sat, 21 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-10-12-ministry-truth-interview-jeff-halper-israeli-committee-against-house-demolitions/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-10-12-ministry-truth-interview-jeff-halper-israeli-committee-against-house-demolitions/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-10-12.mp3Thu, 12 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-10-04-ministry-truth-interview-sam-kosha-persian-gay-lesbian-organization/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-10-04-ministry-truth-interview-sam-kosha-persian-gay-lesbian-organization/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-10-04.mp3Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-09-14-ministry-truth-excerpt-keynote-address-michael-albert-2006-sds-conference/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-09-14-ministry-truth-excerpt-keynote-address-michael-albert-2006-sds-conference/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-09-14.mp3Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-08-31-ministry-truth-presentation-bob-harris-prisoner-trebekistan-2006-game-show-congress/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-08-31-ministry-truth-presentation-bob-harris-prisoner-trebekistan-2006-game-show-congress/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-08-31.mp3Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-08-10-ministry-truth-interview-thomas-good-new-students-democratic-society/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-08-10-ministry-truth-interview-thomas-good-new-students-democratic-society/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-08-10.mp3Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-07-20-ministry-truth-two-segments-israeli-attack-lebanon/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-07-20-ministry-truth-two-segments-israeli-attack-lebanon/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-07-20.mp3Thu, 20 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-07-13-ministry-truth-interview-elvin-castellon-water-management-nicaragua/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-07-13-ministry-truth-interview-elvin-castellon-water-management-nicaragua/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-07-13.mp3Thu, 13 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-07-01-video-mayday-memories-2006/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-07-01-video-mayday-memories-2006/Sat, 01 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-06-22-ministry-truth-monologue-future-internet/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-06-22-ministry-truth-monologue-future-internet/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-06-22.mp3Thu, 22 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-06-15-ministry-truth-steve-macek-black-panther-party-chicago-journalism-review/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-06-15-ministry-truth-steve-macek-black-panther-party-chicago-journalism-review/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-06-15.mp3Thu, 15 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-06-08-ministry-truth-steve-macek-chicago-journalism-review/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-06-08-ministry-truth-steve-macek-chicago-journalism-review/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-06-08.mp3Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-06-01-ministry-truth-victor-pickard-rise-fall-late1940s-progressive-communications-policy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-06-01-ministry-truth-victor-pickard-rise-fall-late1940s-progressive-communications-policy/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-06-01.mp3Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-05-11-ministry-truth-interview-hate-crimes-seth-peterson-tommy-stovall/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-05-11-ministry-truth-interview-hate-crimes-seth-peterson-tommy-stovall/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-05-11.mp3Thu, 11 May 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-05-04-ministry-truth-part-two-two-voices-protest-chicago-march-18-2006/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-05-04-ministry-truth-part-two-two-voices-protest-chicago-march-18-2006/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-05-04.mp3Thu, 04 May 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-04-20-ministry-truth-part-one-two-voices-protest-chicago-march-18-2006/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-04-20-ministry-truth-part-one-two-voices-protest-chicago-march-18-2006/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-04-20.mp3Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-04-13-ministry-truth-affidavit-mohammad-saleh/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-04-13-ministry-truth-affidavit-mohammad-saleh/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-04-13.mp3Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-04-06-ministry-truth-mcdonalds-campaign-coalition-immokalee-workers/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-04-06-ministry-truth-mcdonalds-campaign-coalition-immokalee-workers/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-04-06.mp3Thu, 06 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-03-23-ministry-truth-chris-geovanis-followup-march-18-2006/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-03-23-ministry-truth-chris-geovanis-followup-march-18-2006/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-03-23.mp3Thu, 23 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-03-09-ministry-truth-chris-geovanis-march-18-organizing-indymedia/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-03-09-ministry-truth-chris-geovanis-march-18-organizing-indymedia/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-03-09.mp3Thu, 09 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-03-02-ministry-truth-end-blogosphere/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-03-02-ministry-truth-end-blogosphere/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-03-02.mp3Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-02-26-end-blogosphere/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-02-26-end-blogosphere/Blogs have gained a growing cultural and political impact in the United States and worldwide. In the United States, they've been credited with playing a key role the resignation of a U.S. Senate Majority Leader and the public repudiation of a longtime TV news anchor. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of the English language deemed "blog" its word of the year in 2004. The Technorati website boasts that it keeps track of some 28 million blogs worldwide.Undeniably, blogs and their collective identity known as the "blogosphere" have become an extraordinary phenomenon. And no matter what topics they may discuss or what political leanings they may espouse, they are all under grave and immediate threat.Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-02-16-ministry-truth-interview-rita-sand-net-neutrality/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-02-16-ministry-truth-interview-rita-sand-net-neutrality/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-02-16.mp3Thu, 16 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-02-09-ministry-truth-dave-zirin-super-bowl-city-brink/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-02-09-ministry-truth-dave-zirin-super-bowl-city-brink/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-02-09.mp3Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-02-02-ministry-truth-john-nichols-university-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-02-02-ministry-truth-john-nichols-university-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-02-02.mp3Thu, 02 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-01-19-ministry-truth-monologue-venezuelan-oil-chicago-politics/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-01-19-ministry-truth-monologue-venezuelan-oil-chicago-politics/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-01-19.mp3Thu, 19 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-01-12-ministry-truth-sudoku-activism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-01-12-ministry-truth-sudoku-activism/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-01-12.mp3Thu, 12 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-01-05-ministry-truth-stupidity-intelligent-design/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2006-01-05-ministry-truth-stupidity-intelligent-design/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2006-01-05.mp3Thu, 05 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-12-15-ministry-truth-interview-bob-mcchesney-tragedy-farce/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-12-15-ministry-truth-interview-bob-mcchesney-tragedy-farce/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-12-15.mp3Thu, 15 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-12-08-ministry-truth-robin-hahnel-2005-chicago-school-participatory-economics/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-12-08-ministry-truth-robin-hahnel-2005-chicago-school-participatory-economics/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-12-08.mp3Thu, 08 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-12-01-ministry-truth-keep-cards-overlap-poker-political-activism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-12-01-ministry-truth-keep-cards-overlap-poker-political-activism/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-12-01.mp3Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-29-keep-cards-overlap-poker-political-activism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-29-keep-cards-overlap-poker-political-activism/Since 2003, a growing number of TV shows depicting competitive poker have taken to U.S. television, and have proliferated on cable and even broadcast television. In fact, as I type this, ESPN is replaying coverage from the 2005 World Series of Poker. Televised poker, and poker itself, are now spreading furiously worldwide. Heck, I've even played in a charity hold-'em poker event myself.I must admit that I've found myself transfixed with watching this poker proliferation, and watching televised poker has become a breather of sorts from my constant stream of media and political work which includes a weekly radio show and podcast, regular print and web contributions, helping out with a monthly TV series, and my own organizing efforts around the politics of the U.S. media.Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-17-ministry-truth-oped-why-deny-chicago-licenses/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-17-ministry-truth-oped-why-deny-chicago-licenses/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-11-17.mp3Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-14-why-deny-chicago-licenses/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-14-why-deny-chicago-licenses/I am a Chicago resident, and I represent the listed Chicago-area party in interest for the FCC petition filed against nine Chicago-area TV stations and one of the petitions at issue in the "Deny the Petition" editorial published in Broadcasting & Cable on Nov. 7, 2005 (for the stations' paltry coverage of local election news).B&C calls the Chicago-related petition "nonsense" since "television news directors use the same criteria as other journalists do to determine what is newsworthy" and that "if there had been a mayoral election in Chicago, you can bet it would have been covered. Chicago is all about local politics."Mon, 14 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-10-ministry-truth-monologue-fcc-license-challenge-against-tv-stations/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-10-ministry-truth-monologue-fcc-license-challenge-against-tv-stations/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-11-10.mp3Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-03-ministry-truth-interview-kevin-pina-haiti-untold-story/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-11-03-ministry-truth-interview-kevin-pina-haiti-untold-story/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-11-03.mp3Thu, 03 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-10-20-ministry-truth-lionel-jeanbaptiste-international-tribunal-haiti/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-10-20-ministry-truth-lionel-jeanbaptiste-international-tribunal-haiti/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-10-20.mp3Thu, 20 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-10-13-ministry-truth-eric-patton-winning/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-10-13-ministry-truth-eric-patton-winning/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-10-13.mp3Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-10-06-ministry-truth-michael-albert-excerpt-participatory-economics/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-10-06-ministry-truth-michael-albert-excerpt-participatory-economics/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-10-06.mp3Thu, 06 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-28-lionel-jean-baptist-exit-cafe-report-haiti-inquiry-indictments/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-28-lionel-jean-baptist-exit-cafe-report-haiti-inquiry-indictments/This was a placeholder page for audio from this page. Unfortunately, it appears that the audio got lost and was not archived in the intervening years. Should we be able to recover the audio, we will link to it here.Wed, 28 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-15-ministry-truth-bob-harris-bush-katrina-many-outrages-little-time/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-15-ministry-truth-bob-harris-bush-katrina-many-outrages-little-time/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-09-15.mp3Thu, 15 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-02-community-internet-under-attack/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-02-community-internet-under-attack/Who might control the future of high-speed Internet? Will it be municipalities and communities that can make the Internet into a widespread and affordable public service like electricity or running water or big cable and telecommunications companies, like SBC, Comcast, and Verizon, who would redline communities and inflate prices to maximize profit?On the one hand, citizens across the United States can now set up their own affordable municipal Internet initiatives where entire communities can achieve high-speed Internet connectivity at relatively low cost, thanks to increasingly affordable technologies like under-the-ground copper wiring and wireless connections. On the other hand, in the wake of a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, major cable and telecommunications companies have been lobbying state legislatures to make such initiatives illegal, or legal only under highly constrained conditions. These companies rally under the banner of "telecom reform" in order to gain captured markets for themselves.Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-01-ministry-truth-interview-dave-zirin-whats-name-fool/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-01-ministry-truth-interview-dave-zirin-whats-name-fool/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-09-01.mp3Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-01-video-possible-future-video-internet/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-01-video-possible-future-video-internet/Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-01-video-standing-silent-witness/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-01-video-standing-silent-witness/Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-01-video-z-media-institute-2005/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-09-01-video-z-media-institute-2005/Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-08-18-ministry-truth-report-stadium-developers-threatening-historic-slavetrade-site-richmond-va/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-08-18-ministry-truth-report-stadium-developers-threatening-historic-slavetrade-site-richmond-va/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-08-17.mp3Thu, 18 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-08-11-ministry-truth-possible-future-video-internet/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-08-11-ministry-truth-possible-future-video-internet/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-08-11.mp3Thu, 11 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-08-04-ministry-truth-iww-labor-organizing-new-york-city-starbucks/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-08-04-ministry-truth-iww-labor-organizing-new-york-city-starbucks/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-08-04.mp3Thu, 04 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-08-01-video-national-conference-media-reform-st-louis/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-08-01-video-national-conference-media-reform-st-louis/Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-07-28-ministry-truth-curie-youth-radio-documentary-teen-pregnancy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-07-28-ministry-truth-curie-youth-radio-documentary-teen-pregnancy/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-07-28.mp3Thu, 28 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-07-21-ministry-truth-judas-goat-quarterly-end-world-news/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-07-21-ministry-truth-judas-goat-quarterly-end-world-news/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-07-21.mp3Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-07-14-ministry-truth-case-disappearing-world-tribunal-iraq/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-07-14-ministry-truth-case-disappearing-world-tribunal-iraq/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-07-14.mp3Thu, 14 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-07-07-ministry-truth-ironies-kelo-v-new-london-connecticut/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-07-07-ministry-truth-ironies-kelo-v-new-london-connecticut/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-07-07.mp3Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-30-audio-2005-z-media-institute/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-30-audio-2005-z-media-institute/I had recorded audio of many of the sessions from the 2005 Z Media Institute. However, the staff at Z Communications asked me to remove from public view the files of audio I had posted, out of privacy concerns. I have done so, and until further notice audio of that conference will remain offline.Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-23-ministry-truth-excerpt-noam-chomsky-woods-hole/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-23-ministry-truth-excerpt-noam-chomsky-woods-hole/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-06-23.mp3Thu, 23 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-16-ministry-truth-pilot-episode-activ8-radio/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-16-ministry-truth-pilot-episode-activ8-radio/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-06-16.mp3Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-02-ministry-truth-ben-scott-urbana/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-02-ministry-truth-ben-scott-urbana/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-06-02.mp3Thu, 02 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-01-illinois-coalition-wins-statelevel-telecom-victory/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-06-01-illinois-coalition-wins-statelevel-telecom-victory/Citizens groups and consumer advocates in Illinois claimed victory on May 31 as both houses of the Illinois General Assembly approved an extension of the state's main law on telephony and the internet.The Illinois Telecommunications Act was slated to expire in 2005. A proposed rewrite -- SB 1700, the "Telecommunications Reform Act of 2005" -- evoked popular concern. The bill appeared to grant considerable advantages to dominant telecommunications companies, including reductions in public service obligations and protections against price gouging. While the bill passed the Illinois State Senate, it didn't advance in the Illinois State House.Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-05-26-ministry-truth-seymour-hersh-urbana/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-05-26-ministry-truth-seymour-hersh-urbana/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-05-26.mp3Thu, 26 May 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-05-05-ministry-truth-political-economy-pledge-drives/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-05-05-ministry-truth-political-economy-pledge-drives/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-05-05.mp3Thu, 05 May 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-05-01-video-chicago-protest-imperialism-iraq-capsule-history/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-05-01-video-chicago-protest-imperialism-iraq-capsule-history/Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-28-ministry-truth-excerpt-presentation-independent-journalist-dahr-jamahl/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-28-ministry-truth-excerpt-presentation-independent-journalist-dahr-jamahl/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-04-28.mp3Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-21-ministry-truth-james-howard-kunstler-long-emergency/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-21-ministry-truth-james-howard-kunstler-long-emergency/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-04-21.mp3Thu, 21 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-17-illinois-senate-approves-rewrite-states-telecom-act/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-17-illinois-senate-approves-rewrite-states-telecom-act/On Friday, April 15, the Illinois State Senate approved a proposed rewrite of the Illinois Telecommunications Act, the main law in the state of Illinois which governs state policy involving telephone, telecommunications, and the internet.The bill had caused serious concern among community organizers since it would appear to allow considerable subsidies for dominant telecommunications companies, and would reduce public service obligations and protections against price gouging.Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-14-ministry-truth-tl246n-activism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-14-ministry-truth-tl246n-activism/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-04-14.mp3Thu, 14 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-01-video-art-palestine-depaul-university/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-04-01-video-art-palestine-depaul-university/Fri, 01 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-31-ministry-truth-chicago-protest-against-imperialism-iraq-capsule-history/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-31-ministry-truth-chicago-protest-against-imperialism-iraq-capsule-history/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-03-31.mp3Thu, 31 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-24-ministry-truth-conversation-andy-thayer-march-19-2005/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-24-ministry-truth-conversation-andy-thayer-march-19-2005/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-03-22.mp3Thu, 24 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-17-ministry-truth-interview-excerpt-rainforest-action-network/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-17-ministry-truth-interview-excerpt-rainforest-action-network/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-03-17.mp3Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-10-ministry-truth-chris-geovanis-civil-liberties-battle-brings-war-home/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-10-ministry-truth-chris-geovanis-civil-liberties-battle-brings-war-home/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-03-10.mp3Thu, 10 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-09-illinois-citizens-fight-newly-introduced-proindustry-state-telecom-bill/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-09-illinois-citizens-fight-newly-introduced-proindustry-state-telecom-bill/For months, citizens have anticipated a rewrite of the Illinois Telecommunications Act, the major state law in Illinois concerning the internet and telecommunications technologies like telephone and cable television.On Thursday, March 3, 2005, a new rewrite of the Illinois Telecommunications Act was indeed introduced before the Illinois General Assembly. But the proposed rewrite has caused much concern among community organizers.Wed, 09 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-03-ministry-truth-interview-michael-maranda-il-telecom-act/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-03-ministry-truth-interview-michael-maranda-il-telecom-act/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-03-03.mp3Thu, 03 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-01-illinois-telecommunications-act-future-internet-illinois-interview-organizer-michael-maranda/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-03-01-illinois-telecommunications-act-future-internet-illinois-interview-organizer-michael-maranda/In the midst of an ever-changing digital landscape, the digital future for the state Illinois will be likely be shaped with a 2005 rewrite of The Illinois Telecommunications Act. Though many questions are likely to be raised amid the rewrite, the main issue might be that of control. Will communities be able to create their own technological infrastructure based on community needs and desires and timetables? Or will communities be dependent on giant telecom companies like SBC and Verizon whose primary concern is profit?The state's digital future is very much up for grabs. One community organizer who is working on the Illinois Telecom Act is Michael Maranda, a Chicago resident who wears multiple hats as president of the Association For Community Networking, the co-chair of the Illinois Community Technology Consortium, and president of the Chicago Chapter of CTCNet (a nonprofit umbrella organization of community techonology centers).Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-26-efforts-succeed-now-delay-bill-kill-illinois-community-internet/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-26-efforts-succeed-now-delay-bill-kill-illinois-community-internet/Community organizers feared that a Illinois State Senate bill to obliterate the right municipalities to establish their own high-speed municipal internet networks would have been called this week before the Illinois State Senate in Springfield.But in a last-second turaround, the bill's sponsor did not make the call amid a flurry of increased this week attention critical of the bill.Sat, 26 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-23-ministry-truth-charlotte-fishman-whats-law/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-23-ministry-truth-charlotte-fishman-whats-law/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-02-23.mp3Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-17-ministry-truth-saul-landau-imperial-portrait/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-17-ministry-truth-saul-landau-imperial-portrait/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-02-17.mp3Thu, 17 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-10-ministry-truth-ward-churchill/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-10-ministry-truth-ward-churchill/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-02-10.mp3Thu, 10 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-03-ministry-truth-stanley-milgrams-other-three/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-03-ministry-truth-stanley-milgrams-other-three/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-02-03.mp3Thu, 03 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-01-media-odyssey/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-01-media-odyssey/"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future," quipped the Danish physicist Niels Bohr. Few people predicted the developments in of media politics and media activism in the past couple of years. This is a surprise, especially since predicting media politics for decades has been easy: Big Media is the handful of commercial corporate media giants including firms like Newscorp/FOX, Disney/ABC, Viacom/CBS, and Time Warner/CNN, who produce much of the media we see, hear, and read. And these Big Media giants get anything they want. Lately, Big Media wanted a series of dramatic changes to some key media ownership rules. The changes would have likely made a media already dripping in idiocy, violence, and commercials far worse, but who'd report it? The media? And Big-Media-friendly politicians dominated key regulatory positions, plus both houses of Congress, plus the White House, plus the Courts. Cakewalk.But in the past two years, a wide-scale media democracy movement has organized popular support and awareness, which derailed Big Media's big plans through activism, popular education, and a successful court order and lawsuit. In a stunning upset, we've won this round--for now. But in the wake of the 2004 elections, Right-wing national political forces are taking the stage for another two years of controlling all three branches of government, and commentators are making similarly dire predictions regarding the fate of our media. But at least one thing is different: we now know that we can defy prediction, that despite an ideological lockstep in the political realm, getting involved in media activism can make a difference, provided that we-- all of us--are working and organizing and speaking out. The payoff has been an outpouring of organizing and discussion on media issues since 2002 the likes of which Americans haven't seen in decades.Tue, 01 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-01-year-tv-funding-struggles-comes-end/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-02-01-year-tv-funding-struggles-comes-end/Throughout 2004, Third Coast Press reported on CAN TV, the network of Chicago public access TV channels, and the funding fight over its future. In January 2004, the cable company RCN had defaulted on due payments to CAN TV, which brought tremendous protest and record-setting fines against RCN. Not long thereafter, RCN filed for bankruptcy.In May 2004, Chicago Alderman Bernard Stone (50th Ward) had offered an ordinance to restructure the funding for CAN TV. The ordinance was passed by the city's Finance Committee, but didn't advance to the City Council. This led to months of negotiations with the Mayor's office. But both Alderman Stone and Mayor Richard M. Daley brought a revised version of the ordinance for approval. This ordinance would not have required the use of any of the city's money. Instead, it called for CAN TV to receive five percent of the city's cable franchise fee and allowed for additional funds to be collected from cable companies via the city's amusement tax.Tue, 01 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-26-ministry-truth-james-loewen-famous-everywhere-home/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-26-ministry-truth-james-loewen-famous-everywhere-home/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-01-26.mp3Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-20-ministry-truth-bunny-riedel-why-comcast/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-20-ministry-truth-bunny-riedel-why-comcast/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-01-20.mp3Thu, 20 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-13-ministry-truth-dave-zirin-fight-night-nba/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-13-ministry-truth-dave-zirin-fight-night-nba/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-01-13.mp3Thu, 13 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-06-ministry-truth-wto-derailed/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-06-ministry-truth-wto-derailed/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2005-01-06.mp3Thu, 06 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-01-video-working-bikes-cooperative/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2005-01-01-video-working-bikes-cooperative/Sat, 01 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-23-ministry-truth-game-parecon/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-23-ministry-truth-game-parecon/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-12-23.mp3Thu, 23 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-16-ministry-truth-essay-mel-giles-michael-moore-website/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-16-ministry-truth-essay-mel-giles-michael-moore-website/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-12-16.mp3Thu, 16 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-09-ministry-truth-protect-vote/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-09-ministry-truth-protect-vote/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-12-09.mp3Thu, 09 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-02-ministry-truth-love-im-neoliberal/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-02-ministry-truth-love-im-neoliberal/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-12-02.mp3Thu, 02 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-01-chicago-colo-new-internet-opportunity-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-12-01-chicago-colo-new-internet-opportunity-chicago/A community colocation project is an effort to pool together technical resources to provide no- or low-cost Internet resources and services to non- commercial groups and projects in a dedicated, secure, pro-free-speech environment. Community colocation projects are taking off in cities across the continent, and such a project is underway in Chicago. The Chicago Community Colocation Project (or "Chicago Colo" for short, "colo" rhymes with "polo") is an effort to build a colo for Chicago.Third Coast Press' Mitchell Szczepanczyk interviewed Terry Ott, a volunteer with Chicago Colo whose devoted involvement with the project includes roles as webmaster, mailing list administrator, and the lead investigator for colo space.Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-11-18-ministry-truth-power-protest/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-11-18-ministry-truth-power-protest/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-11-18.mp3Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-11-11-ministry-truth-ten-reasons-move-canada-four-years/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-11-11-ministry-truth-ten-reasons-move-canada-four-years/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-11-11.mp3Thu, 11 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-11-04-ministry-truth-nab-national-association-bastards/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-11-04-ministry-truth-nab-national-association-bastards/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-11-04.mp3Thu, 04 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-11-01-review-dick-man-president-john-nichols/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-11-01-review-dick-man-president-john-nichols/Review of Dick: The Man Who Is President by John Nichols November 1, 2004Dick: The Man Who Is President John Nichols The New Press 224 pages ISBN: 1565848403Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-28-ministry-truth-out-apathy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-28-ministry-truth-out-apathy/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-10-28.mp3Thu, 28 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-21-ministry-truth-tale-two-linguists/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-21-ministry-truth-tale-two-linguists/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-10-21.mp3Thu, 21 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-14-ministry-truth-day-life-joe-republican-optimism-uncertainty/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-14-ministry-truth-day-life-joe-republican-optimism-uncertainty/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-10-14.mp3Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-07-ministry-truth-two-sides-jail-prisons/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-07-ministry-truth-two-sides-jail-prisons/http://www.szcz.org/audio/tmot_2004-10-07.mp3Thu, 07 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-01-big-media-bodyslam-another-response-chicago-tribune/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-01-big-media-bodyslam-another-response-chicago-tribune/The very first cover of Third Coast Press featured an article in which I obliterated, sentence by sentence, an editorial published by the Chicago Tribune. The topic of the editorial involved a controversial series of media ownership rule changes approved by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). These rule changes would have made it easier for fewer companies to own more media outlets, and very likely made an over-commercialized, hyper-violent, ultra-dumb corporate media all the worse. The Tribune Company stood to capitalize on these rule changes, and editorialized last year to complain about the successful organizing efforts that had halted the rule changes and raised public awareness.On July 17, 2004, the Tribune was at it again, this time editorializing against a Philadelphia court ruling that overturned in their entirety the FCC's media ownership rule changes. Predictably, the Chicago Tribune reacted to this major populist victory by publishing an op-ed of complaint. Time to break out the explosives again, folks.Fri, 01 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-01-chicago-cable-stories-good-news-bad-news/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-10-01-chicago-cable-stories-good-news-bad-news/Victory in CAN TV funding effortsCAN TV is the fleet of public access cable television channels servicing the Chicago community. As Third Coast Press reported throughout the past year, CAN TV spent 2004 in a series of funding struggles. In 2003, due to a temporary freeze on RCN's operation in two cable areas, CAN TV's cable funding dropped by $630,000. In 2004, RCN defaulted on an additional area, putting at risk another $315,000. RCN officially petitioned the city to get out of its payment obligations to CAN TV in three out of four cable areas.Fri, 01 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-09-01-chicago-tonight-chicago-too-white-interview-study-chicago-public-television/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-09-01-chicago-tonight-chicago-too-white-interview-study-chicago-public-television/With mentions in the Sun-Time, the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Daily Herald, WBEZ, WZRD, WLUW, Free Press, Media Channel, and Current Magazine (the trade publication of public broadcasting), Chicago Media Action's study of WTTW's flagship news program Chicago Tonight" has generated a lot of buzz. The study, released last month, finds that Chicago public television, rather than living up to its mission of serving the underserved and unserved, is instead bowing down to "Elites, Affluence and Advertising". CMA member and Third Coast Press staff writer Mitchell Szczepanczyk sat down to answer some frequently asked questions about the study, and to set us straight on some frequently questioned answers about it.Q: What made Chicago Media Action decide to do a study of public television?Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-08-01-cooking-now-updates-some-media-activist-efforts/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-08-01-cooking-now-updates-some-media-activist-efforts/Regular readers of Third Coast Press are familiar with my regular entrees into the scene of media politics and media activism. There are a lot of bite-sized updates to share this month, so here's a smorgasbord of what's happening lately with some past media-related stories previously covered in Third Coast Press. Bon appetit.(1) CAN TV: May 5 ordinance passes key hurdle.Sun, 01 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-07-01-rapid-city-memories-chicago-media-activists-embark-roadtrip-south-dakota-face-fcc/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-07-01-rapid-city-memories-chicago-media-activists-embark-roadtrip-south-dakota-face-fcc/This is my recount of a trip I made to South Dakota to attend a May 2004 hearing held by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and how that hearing and that trip is important to Chicagoans and citizens nationwide. But first, some background.As many Third Coast Press readers may know, the FCC--led by market dogmatist Michael Powell (Colin Powell's son)--tried in 2003 to ram through a series of dramatic changes in its media ownership rules which would enable a single company to own most of the media in a single city. This threat to media and cultural diversity elicited an unprecedented outcry of protest against the FCC, as well as an emergency court order blocking the FCC's rules and a number of consequences which continue today.Thu, 01 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-06-01-public-access-crossroads-tvs-funding-crisis-comes-head-better-worse/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-06-01-public-access-crossroads-tvs-funding-crisis-comes-head-better-worse/CAN TV (Chicago Access Network Television, Chicago's fleet of public access television channels) found itself spending the year 2004 to date stuck in a struggle for its rightful funding -- a struggle which is poised to come to an end soon, one way or another.As Kari Lydersen reported in the March 2004 issue of Third Coast Press, the cable company RCN defaulted on January 8 on a $215,000 due payment to CAN TV. This was a sequel of the same old hackneyed script played out more than a year before when RCN defaulted on a $645,000 payment to CAN TV before public pressure and threats of city council fines forced RCN to pay up.Tue, 01 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-05-01-youre-air-ahead-please-how-own-radio-broadcast-how-too/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-05-01-youre-air-ahead-please-how-own-radio-broadcast-how-too/This is a first-person behind-the-scenes look of a live radio web broadcast held in Chicago to cover the March 20, 2004 peace protests. But our story actually begins in November 2003 in Miami.Representatives from 34 countries met in Miami in mid-November 2003 to implement a trade regime for the Western hemisphere at a ministerial of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The ministerial was met by tens of thousands of protesters from across the hemisphere. Authorities fought back with a citywide lockdown, hundreds of arrests, and massive numbers of police-caused beatings, plus wanton use of teargas and electroshock weapons.Sat, 01 May 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-05-01-everywhere-global-justice-multimedia-presentation-featured-citywide-arts-festival-launch/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-05-01-everywhere-global-justice-multimedia-presentation-featured-citywide-arts-festival-launch/On April 18, 2004, Chicago saw the kickoff of Versionfest, an annual festival devoted to technology, art, and activism. The kickoff took place across three closely connected Wicker Park art galleries -- buddY, Heaven, and High School.One of the featured events at the Versionfest opening was a multimedia presentation called We Are Everywhere, based on a book of the same name. The book is a sweeping, inspiring chronicle of the protest movements that have swept the globe in recent years, mainly against transnational economic institutions like the World Trade Organization, World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.Sat, 01 May 2004 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-04-01-how-now-wow-cow-chicago-activists-use-clever-media-tool-outreach-success/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-04-01-how-now-wow-cow-chicago-activists-use-clever-media-tool-outreach-success/One justified criticism of a lot of left political activist efforts is the lack of outreach, bringing in outsiders and people entirely new to such efforts. Instead, all too often, such efforts tend to congregate at events where the already converted already congregate. And what passes for outreach too often consists of dull, uncharismatic papers or flyers which are handed out or sold, glanced at, ignored or barely read, and then thrown away. But there's one Chicago project which is working to bring political activism to a genuinely new audience, and is succeeding.The project is called Compassion On Wheels, or COW for short. It consists of a van whose right side has built into it a 36-inch television screen and outdoor stereo speakers, all tied into DVD and VHS players loaded inside. The idea is simple: park the COW in or near an area with a lot of people or a lot of foot traffic. Then COW shows a video or movie which is apt to garner the attention of random passersby. The potential effect is two-fold: One, people are certainly attracted to the novelty involving a van with widescreen TV built into its side. Two, moving images can be arresting (if you're apt to be attracted to computer screensavers, you can understand the idea), and the right images can be educational, invigorating, even life-changing.Thu, 01 Apr 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-03-01-great-radio-hope-tale-two-radio-opportunities/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-03-01-great-radio-hope-tale-two-radio-opportunities/You may have heard that a nationwide radio network of liberal politics is poised to take to the airwaves sometime in spring 2004, but you might not have heard about another opportunity involving the radio and left-of-center politics.What's been getting most major media attention is a network originally called AnShell Media but since renamed Progress Media. It was first announced in February 2003, and got a big boost courtesy two Chicagoans, North Shore Democrats Sheldon and Anita Droby. (The Drobys have since sold much of their Progress Media claim to a New York investor.). Money talks in media, so this proposal got a fair amount of media attention. There's also be plenty of talking to come from the lineup of non-Republicans the network has assembled, including:Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-02-01-struggling-soul-wttw-public-broadcasting-private/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-02-01-struggling-soul-wttw-public-broadcasting-private/Chicago's major PBS affiliate, WTTW-TV Channel 11, spent 2003 as a veritable punching bag in a twelve-round bout. The first blow against the station involved allegations of financial impropriety, particularly regarding CEO Dan Schmidt's extravagant $288,000 salary and Lexus bonus. It became a one-two punch with layoffs of at least 56 jobs, a quarter of the station's workforce since January 2002. Add to this slugfest an accounting scandal where charges of embezzlement fly to the tune of $600,000.Then there was a lengthy feature article in the July 27, 2003 issue of the Chicago Tribune Magazine. The article reported how Schmidt's vision for WTTW may have led to financial disaster. Tribune reporter Jim Kirk described a vision of synergistic programming collectively called Network Chicago -- "An interlaced structure of television, radio, a newspaper, the Internet, and public events". But after three years of promotion and $22 million dollars of investment, the newspaper tanked, funding sources for the other ventures dried up, and Network Chicago remains little more than a vision. As a result, WTTW faces possibly the worst financial crisis in its nearly 50-years history.Sun, 01 Feb 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-01-01-big-media-response-chicago-tribune/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-01-01-big-media-response-chicago-tribune/On August 6, 2003, the Chicago Tribune published an editorial headlined "Big Media Confusion Reigns", which advocated support for the now-infamous FCC ownership deregulation efforts. Since then, the Tribune has not published a contrary opinion on the subject. In case you thought no contrary opinion existed, I present this rebuttal. (Actual quotes from the editorial are in italics.)Tribune: It isn't ofen that the National Organization for Women, the Christian Coalition and the National Rifle Assocation find themselves on the same side. They have been mobilized by an unlikely debate over how many eyes and ears one company can reach by owning television stations.Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-01-01-big-brother-grocery-store-rfid-fight-mccormick-place-activism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2004-01-01-big-brother-grocery-store-rfid-fight-mccormick-place-activism/This past September, Chicago played host to the formal unveiling of a major new surveillance technology, which may finally destroy what privacy we have left.That technology is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Each consumer item that you buy or use would be outfitted with a tiny computer chip.(I once saw a one-inch-long vial containing 150 such chips suspended in water with plenty of room to spare.) Each chip would be uniquely numbered and enabled to receive and retransmit an unending stream of high-frequency electromagnetic broadcasts.Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-10-15-how-digital-millennium-copyright-act-affects/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-10-15-how-digital-millennium-copyright-act-affects/"Coding is not a crime." -- AnonymousYou might be unfamiliar with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. By the end of this essay you will be familiar with this act and learn how, through this law, the University of Chicago Press--and particularly the Astronomy Group-- might get sued.Wed, 15 Oct 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-10-15-extraspecial-rant-bugbear-b/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-10-15-extraspecial-rant-bugbear-b/Roger Ebert wrote a now-famous review of the movie "North" which began: "I hated this movie. Hated, hated, hated, hated, hated, hated, hated, hated, hated this movie."I felt the same way on June 5, 2003 -- not about a movie but about a malevolent computer worm which warranted three separate email alerts on that day and the next. The worm is called Bugbear B, and I hate this worm. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate this worm.Wed, 15 Oct 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-10-15-entropy-lyrics-set-tune-yesterday-beatles/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-10-15-entropy-lyrics-set-tune-yesterday-beatles/Entropy "A Mathematical Theory" The word stolen or an escapee From those physicists--entropy.Entropy! Most written language has redundancy Reducing it is a well-worn plea. Oh, Entropy! Our decree! Give it the name "H", I think we all can agree. It's the lower bound We long for--entropy! Entropy!Wed, 15 Oct 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-09-05-sept-5-rally-support-marine-stephen-funk/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-09-05-sept-5-rally-support-marine-stephen-funk/CHICAGO, September 5 (CIMC) -- Nearly 50 protesters participated in an early evening rally on Chicago's north side, at the corner of Halsted and Roscoe, in support of Marine Corps Lance Corporal Stephen Funk. The twenty-one-year-old Funk, a conscientious objector who is also openly gay, faces a two-year prison sentence for refusing to participate in the U.S. war on Iraq.The rally's sponsors included the antiwar activist groups Refuse and Resist, Not In Our Name, and International ANSWER, as well as Queer to the Left and the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network. Bob Schwartz of the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network served as the moderator of the 75-minute-long rally. Representatives of each of the sponsoring groups took turns speaking at the rally, explaining the reasons for their support of Funk.Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-09-04-chicago-activists-rally-tribune-plaza-against-fcc/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-09-04-chicago-activists-rally-tribune-plaza-against-fcc/More than 15 protesters took part in a rally at Tribune Plaza on September 4, 2003. The rally was organized to protest against the FCC deregulation vote of June 2, which saw a significant repeal of the remaining media ownership rules in the United States. [Disclosure: The author of this article was also one of the organizers of the rally.]The rally proceeded in spite of an Philadelphia appeals court ruling on September 3 granting a stay against the change of the media ownership rules, which would have gone into effect on September 4.Thu, 04 Sep 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-09-01-congress-hotel-workers-escalate-strike-civil-disobedience-arrests/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-09-01-congress-hotel-workers-escalate-strike-civil-disobedience-arrests/Amid a morning of heavy rain, striking workers at the Congress Hotel made history by engaging in the first civil disobedience in front of the Congress Hotel. The action occured on Labor Day near the corner of Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago.At 10:51am, on September 1, 2003, twenty members of the striking union (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, Local 1), wearing light organge plastic rain ponchos, sat down across Michigan facing north, with arms interlocked. With hundreds of fellow strikers and media personnel watching, police immediately broke up the protest. The twenty were greeted with cheers and singing as police then escorted them to two police paddywagons parked in front of the Congress Hotel.Mon, 01 Sep 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-08-22-fcc-votes-deregulate-media-laws/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-08-22-fcc-votes-deregulate-media-laws/The corporate media supposedly had their day on June 2, 2003. By a 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission voted to rescind most of the ownership rules on media ownership, which would mean that one or two individuals could come to own most of the media properties in an entire city. After all, FCC chair Michael Powell claimed, consumers can get a diversity of views through the Internet--even though no Internet news source has been sustainably profitable and broadcast licenses are more lucrative than ever. And Powell also said that the courts would force the FCC to change its rules anyway--even though the courts are stacked with the same ideologues which greenlighted the deregulation.But the corporate media victory has been pyrrhic. The June 2 decision met with coordinated activist-led protests in cities around the country--a first. Chicago had its own protest on June 10 when Michael Powell came to a cable-TV-industry conference at McCormick Place; protesters even got to meet with FCC (and pro-deregulation) commissioner Kevin Martin. And before the vote, an unprecedented 750,000 citizens filed public objections with the FCC urging for a vote delay or for maintaining the rules. The most vicious comments of all may well have been filed by Michael Copps and Johnathan Adelstein, the two FCC commissioners who cast the two votes against deregulation.Fri, 22 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-08-16-reflections-chicago-air-water-show-protest-august-16-2003/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-08-16-reflections-chicago-air-water-show-protest-august-16-2003/My last visit to the Chicago Air and Water Show took place two years ago. It could have gone better: Pouring rain, only three visible protesters, and I found myself unable to refute the argument that war helps create freedom of speech.Not this year. Sunny skies (if trez hot). Dozens of protesters (one organizer told me that some 50 or more protesters and supporters were present throughout the day). And before I went to the protest, I studied up: I looked up the Espionage Act of 1917, the Smith Act of 1940, and the USA Patriot Act, all of which suggest that war doesn't create freedom of speech; on the contrary, each of these measures to constrict freedom of speech were passed during times of war (World War I, World War II, and the War on Terror/Afghanistan, respectively).Sat, 16 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-08-08-big-media-public-right-concerned/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-08-08-big-media-public-right-concerned/I co-wrote this op-ed which was submitted to the Chicago Tribune in the vain hope that they would respond to someone on the topic of media politics.Defenders of the FCC's recent deregulation efforts, such as the authors of a recent Tribune editorial (Aug. 6, "Big Media Confusion Reigns"), say Big Media "isn't really all that big." After all, some 300 different cable and broadcast channels provide more than enough options for those who don't like what the networks have to offer.Fri, 08 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-08-06-hyde-park-holds-hiroshima-memorial-nuclear-energy-statue/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-08-06-hyde-park-holds-hiroshima-memorial-nuclear-energy-statue/A group of more than 50 people attended a Hiroshima Day Memorial Ceremony held in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood in the early evening hours of August 6, 2003, 58 years to the day after the U.S. dropped a nuclear bomb upon Hiroshima, Japan.The ceremony was held on Ellis Avenue between 56th and 57th streets at the Henry Moore statue "Nuclear Energy". The statue is built on the exact location where in 1942 the very first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction was created, marking the dawn of the age of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.Wed, 06 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-07-05-media-celebration-success-say-organizers/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-07-05-media-celebration-success-say-organizers/More than 130 partygoers attended "We, the Media"--a party celebratng Chicago's independent media--held on July 4, 2003, at buddY (1542 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago). "We, the Media" was co-organized by members of three Chicago-area media groups: the Chicago Independent Media Center, Chicago Media Action, and Redline Radio. [Disclosure: The author of this article was also one of the event's organizers.]Redline Radio broadcast live from buddY for much of the duration of the nearly-eight-hour-long celebration. Four scheduled bands performed: The Chariots (the new name of the band formerly called "Monkeypox"), The Dirt Bikes, Tarnish, and an electronica music improv session. "We, the Media" presented local video selections from two local filmmakers: "The 7,000: Chicago's Hotel Workers Contract Fight" by Larry Duncan from Labor Beat, and "Selected Colonial Shorts" by Chicago-area filmmaker Scott Becker. The event also features three long tables full of locally-made and locally-oriented magazines, books, zines, flyers, displays, keyrings, bumper stickers, T-shirts and other assorted paraphernalia.Sat, 05 Jul 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-07-04-why-independent-media-guide/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-07-04-why-independent-media-guide/This was published as the afterward in the 2003 Chicago Indepdendent Media Guide.I got involved in independent media by accident. I happened to watch my hometown's public access channel one evening and I found the premiere episode of a news magazine series called "Days Of Our Lies" (not "Lives"). The very first feature story which aired on DOOL di scussed the increasing concentration of media ownership and how it affected news content.Fri, 04 Jul 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-05-23-media-deregulation-ignored-published-chicago-maroon-may-23-2003/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-05-23-media-deregulation-ignored-published-chicago-maroon-may-23-2003/On May 7, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting diversity in media ownership. This resolution flies right in the face of sweeping deregulation efforts that the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is proposing and could be implemented as soon as June 2.This possible deregulation stands to abolish six key rules on media ownership limits, including a newspaper/television cross-ownership rule (no firm can own a newspaper and TV station in the same market), a cap on radio ownership (no firm can own more than eight radio stations in a single market), and a cap on TV network ownership (no firm can own more than one of the four major TV networks). Removing any or all of these rules would likely unleash a huge wave of consolidation of commercial media firms and make our schlock-driven and commercially saturated mass media even more schlock-driven and commercially saturated.Fri, 23 May 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-05-15-unpublished-review-parecon-life-after-capitalism/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-05-15-unpublished-review-parecon-life-after-capitalism/I once saw a protest sign which read: "Communism is dead. Is capitalism next?" Perhaps so. After all, there are hints that the patient is seriously ill or in the intensive care unit: Seattle, Genoa, Enron, Argentina. If the answer to that protest sign is "yes and soon" then The Question remains, how might we best organize our economic affairs in an equitable manner in a world of more than six billion people?Parecon: Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert offers an answer: a system of PARticipatory ECONomics whose intent is an improvement in human relations and global sustainability by means of a number of integrated institutions. The author of Parecon, Michael Albert, is an author and system operator of Z Magazine's huge website ZNet. Parecon, a hybrid of manifesto and instruction book, represents Albert's latest attempt to articulate, synthesize, and defend the ideas behind participatory economics.Thu, 15 May 2003 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-04-02-report-thoughts-media-activist-midwest-forum-media-ownership-april-2-2003/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-04-02-report-thoughts-media-activist-midwest-forum-media-ownership-april-2-2003/Note: When I came home from this forum, I had heard word that an uncle of mine had died of a sudden heart attack. He was just 49 years old; I was one of his pallbearers.Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this report are solely those of the writer, Mitchell Szczepanczyk, and do not necessarily reflect those of any groups he is or has been affiliated with.Wed, 02 Apr 2003 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-03-21-report-m21-rally-marchdowntown-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-03-21-report-m21-rally-marchdowntown-chicago/In the wake of the historic M20 rally and march, a follow-up antiwar rally with even more protesters--and a far larger police presence--took place in Federal Plaza on March 21, 2003, followed by a march through downtown Chicago.The police presence was massive right away at M21. Coordinated fleets of hundreds of helmeted police on foot surrounded Federal Plaza from the scheduled beginning of the rally, accompanied by a full array of police on horseback (one protester said "Get those animals off those horses!"), plus five buses that didn't make an appearance until late the police attack on Thursday.Fri, 21 Mar 2003 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-03-20-dispatch-slogans-massive-m20-protest-downtown-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-03-20-dispatch-slogans-massive-m20-protest-downtown-chicago/In the wake of the historic M20 rally and march, a follow-up antiwar rally with even more protesters--and a far larger police presence--took place in Federal Plaza on March 21, 2003, followed by a march through downtown Chicago.The police presence was massive right away at M21. Coordinated fleets of hundreds of helmeted police on foot surrounded Federal Plaza from the scheduled beginning of the rally, accompanied by a full array of police on horseback (one protester said "Get those animals off those horses!"), plus five buses that didn't make an appearance until late the police attack on Thursday.Thu, 20 Mar 2003 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-01-14-name-lula/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-01-14-name-lula/(sung to the song "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow)His name was Lula, he was a lather. He sold candy, he made screws; his little finger he did lose. Making sheets of metal smoo-ooth. The sixth of seven kids; his older brother, dear forbid, Was arrested and beaten by the hand Of the military junta 'til he could not stand.Tue, 14 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-01-13-computers-illusion-randomness/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-01-13-computers-illusion-randomness/Here's a small computer program. Start with some number that we'll call SEED. (Most computers start with SEED equal to 1.) Multiply SEED by 1,103,515,245, then add 12,345 to that, then divide it by 65,536, then divide it again by 32,768. Take the remainder of what's left, round it up, and make it your new SEED and repeat this procedure every time you need some random number.This is a summary of the "rand" function, a common utility used for delivering "random" numbers. A common dirty joke among computer scientists is that computers can deliver random numbers, random values, random anything. But it's not true. John von Neumann, noted mathematician and computer pioneer, is quoted as saying "Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin."Mon, 13 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-01-13-democracy-darkness-skies/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2003-01-13-democracy-darkness-skies/I bought and read a copy of Timothy Ferris' recent book, "Seeing in the Dark," which is about amateur astronomy. I own eight books that Timothy Ferris wrote or edited, and I am a big Timothy Ferris fan, but when I first opened the front cover of "Seeing in the Dark," I read the blurb of the inside dust jacket of the book and found myself strongly (and surprisingly) disagreeing with part of what I read. I never get this worked up when I read Timothy Ferris. What fanned my flames was this passage:Astronomy is the most accessible and democratic of all the sciences: Anyone can get started in it just by going outside with a star chart on a dark night and looking up. A pair of binoculars suffices to see galaxies millions of light years away, and a small telescope can probe what Ferris calls the "blue waters" of deep space.Mon, 13 Jan 2003 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-12-08-mitchell-szczepanczyks-subanagram-generator/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-12-08-mitchell-szczepanczyks-subanagram-generator/In December 2001, I received an e-mail from my sister who teaches English to 5th and 6th grades. She e-mailed me to say that she gave her class the assignment to make as many different words as possible from the letters in the word "representative," and to ask me if I knew of any webpages that could automatically make a list of such "sub-anagrams." After a search of the web, I was unable to find such a page.But I work in IT and I study computer science. So I wrote such a webpage. Here it is.Sun, 08 Dec 2002 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-11-09-notes-open-source-revolution-economics/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-11-09-notes-open-source-revolution-economics/A Workshop by Mitchell Szczepanczyk at the Autonomous Zone, November 9,2002Sat, 09 Nov 2002 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-10-18-brain-dump-chicago-media-watch-pac-downtown-chicago-halloween-walking-tour/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-10-18-brain-dump-chicago-media-watch-pac-downtown-chicago-halloween-walking-tour/In past pro-democracy protests I've taken part in, I've taken something of an outsider's role, making myself removed from the main center of action as a means of reaching out beyond the (often insular) circle of protesters, to talk to those or bring attention to those who might otherwise steer away from the protest. Not this time. I got right in the heart of things. I got my plastic sword, my eyepatch, my black hat with a jolly roger on it, and my sash with a jolly roger on it, and my best pirate impression ("Arrgh, ye scurvy scalawags. Arrgh."). I grabbed a protest sign ("Mass Media: Weapons of Mass Distraction"), a basket full of candy, a bunch of flyers, and some other goodies (details below) and joined some compatriots (a fellow pirate, an angel of the public interest, a big-lipped googly-eyed something, and a guy with weird hair) for a Halloween protest.Oh, the things I do for democracy.Fri, 18 Oct 2002 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-09-17-review-greg-palasts-best-democracy-money-buy/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-09-17-review-greg-palasts-best-democracy-money-buy/If you read any U.S. newspaper on a regular basis, you're more than likely to get a perspective of the world that lends to believing certain things. The state of Florida did not illegally remove 57,700 voters from Florida voter rolls before the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election. The International Monetary Fund did not mandate higher fuel prices in Ecuador in March 2001, spurring subsequent riots from poor Ecuadorans. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was an accident and not a predictable consequence of money saving efforts like a turned-off radar and faked safety reports.If you believe any of these things, Greg Palast would like a word with you.Tue, 17 Sep 2002 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-09-16-fancy-mine-9162002-visit-university-chicago-economics-department-teachin-down-street/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-09-16-fancy-mine-9162002-visit-university-chicago-economics-department-teachin-down-street/"Now, knowing as I do that it behooves us to obey the decisions of the authorities and to believe them, since they are guided by a higher insight than any to which my humble mind can of itself attain, I consider this treatise which I send you to be merely a poetical conceit, or a dream...this fancy of mine...this chimera."-- Galileo Galilei, in a 1618 letter to Austrian archduke Leopold who asked him for a sample of his work.Mon, 16 Sep 2002 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-07-26-why-blog/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-07-26-why-blog/A blog (short for "web log") is a type of diary on a website, with the most recent diary entries at the top of the site and older entries further down and/or archived. A blog is typically automated in a way to allow one to quickly post thoughts and observations without having to handle icky computer code. Blogs on the Web are explosively popular: one survey on The Economist website said that (as of July 2002) there are some 500,000 bloggers worldwide and growing, due in no small part to a number of easy-to-use blogging services like www.blogger.com and the easy-to-pronounce www.xanga.com.And I'm not falling for it.Fri, 26 Jul 2002 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-07-24-report-aaron-mcgruder-scoop-jackson-chopin-theater/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-07-24-report-aaron-mcgruder-scoop-jackson-chopin-theater/On July 24, 2002, Robert "Scoop" Jackson (author of The Darkside and founder of XXL and Slam magazines) joined Aaron McGruder (cartoonist known for the comic strip The Boondocks) for an evening discussion before a packed audience at the Chopin Theater in Chicago. The theme of the discussion was Exploring America in Change, and topics of discussion included freedom of speech (in general and particularly post-September-11), blacks in the American mainstream media, and navigating one's way through big media and big moneyed interests.McGruder has gained particular fame for his sharp response to September 11. The New York Post famously suspended The Boondocks for a month and a half in response. Suspended, but didn't cancel. Nonetheless, McGruder received a flood of media attention for the suspension: a spot on ABC TV's Nightline, a feature piece in the New York Times, a full-page story in Entertainment Weekly magazine.Wed, 24 Jul 2002 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-05-02-fancy-mine-522002-only-12-cimc-newswire-original-content/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-05-02-fancy-mine-522002-only-12-cimc-newswire-original-content/"Now, knowing as I do that it behooves us to obey the decisions of the authorities and to believe them, since they are guided by a higher insight than any to which my humble mind can of itself attain, I consider this treatise which I send you to be merely a poetical conceit, or a dream...this fancy of mine...this chimera."-- Galileo Galilei, in a 1618 letter to Austrian archduke Leopold who asked him for a sample of his work.Thu, 02 May 2002 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-04-23-mistake-base-gateway-arch/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-04-23-mistake-base-gateway-arch/There is no dishonor in saying "I don't know"; there is great dishonor in saying "I don't care to know" and insulting those who do. What sort of standard for education is set by such arrogant ignorance? -- Carolyn Segal, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,, New York Times Letters to the Editor page, October 10, 2000.Let me make one thing absolutely clear: The Gateway Arch is safe. There's a mistake at the base of the Gateway Arch, BUT it's a typo and the Gateway Arch is safe. Even though the Arch weighs 43,000 tons of stainless steel and it can sway as much as 18 inches with sufficiently strong winds, the Gateway Arch is safe. I don't want to panic residents of St. Louis, nor the National Park Service, nor the four million annual visitors to 11 North Fourth Street, St. Louis, Missouri, 63102.Tue, 23 Apr 2002 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-04-07-s29-march-downtown-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-04-07-s29-march-downtown-chicago/I arrive at Michigan and Wacker for the Anti-(War|Racism) rally and march. And what do I see across the street?Police. Somebody's having a protest!Sun, 07 Apr 2002 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-04-07-minus-five/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-04-07-minus-five/This is my attempt at political humor. It's A satirical look at various recent current news events, written in the style (but not the ethics) of Steve (or Joe) Rosenbloom.Minus Five #1, posted July 18, 2001.Sun, 07 Apr 2002 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-03-17-bite-tongues/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-03-17-bite-tongues/(A single person stands in front of a blue outline of a map of the United States. Sixteen states in the map are colored red--Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.)At least 16 states have passed "English Only" laws--laws which would remove government requirements to provide government services to citizens in languages other than English.Sun, 17 Mar 2002 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-02-18-trip-shanghai/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2002-02-18-trip-shanghai/In December 2001, the planets aligned. I had a month off from school, I had a lot of vacation time built up at work, and airline rates were MUCH cheaper than usual. Plus, I had a friend who was living in Shanghai and invited me to come visit.So I did.Mon, 18 Feb 2002 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-09-25-report-9222001-daley-plaza-candlelight-vigil-peace/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-09-25-report-9222001-daley-plaza-candlelight-vigil-peace/Date and Time: September 22, 2001, 7:30 PM CDT Place: Daley Plaza, Downtown Chicago Most Famous Song By Slavemerchant-Turned-Priest John Newton: Amazing GraceWhen I arrived at Daley Plaza about 7:20 PM, I saw four vans from local media outlets--one from NBC, another from CLTV, and two from white, apparently unlabelled vans.Tue, 25 Sep 2001 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-08-19-protest-air-water-show-account/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-08-19-protest-air-water-show-account/The 43rd Annual Chicago Air and Water Show. August 18, 2001, noontime CDT. Official weather.com forecast for the Chicagoland area: Mostly cloudy, chance of rain, high around 70.Protests against the Show were set for the East End of the footbridge straddling Lake Shore Drive, two blocks north of North. I thought I might be able to stop by and advance (even a little) the cause of peace, freedom and justice in between renewing my library card and lunch.Sun, 19 Aug 2001 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-07-02-republican-physicist-vern-ehlers-national-missile-defense-essay/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-07-02-republican-physicist-vern-ehlers-national-missile-defense-essay/[cue Star Trek theme by Jerry Goldsmith]Personal Log. Stardate 06-23-2001, 1400 hours.Mon, 02 Jul 2001 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-05-24-essay-holiness-pope-john-paul-ii/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-05-24-essay-holiness-pope-john-paul-ii/Chicago, May 23, 2001. Pope John Paul II turned 81 last Friday.My sister once remarked that she is 3 popes old. That's true for me too, but she has been three popes old even before her first birthday. Most of that time has been taken up by the current successor to Peter, about whom I hold many feelings, some contradictory. I do not aspire to resolve these contradictions in this essay. But I hope to present my feelings and discuss them openly, to hopefully improve my own (and maybe others') understanding of these contradictory dimensions.Thu, 24 May 2001 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-05-03-may-day-afternoon-chicago/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-05-03-may-day-afternoon-chicago/May 1, 2001, 11:30 AM CDT, the Chicago Board of Trade. The Dow was up 77 points.I was there at that time to keep a promise I made in February 2001 to partake in 2001 May Day festivities, which began downtown at the intersection of LaSalle and Jackson. From the North, LaSalle butts up to Jackson for ming a T-shaped intersection. On either side of LaSalle street on the "underarms" of the T-shape, a raucous and noisy but peaceful crowd--in the dozens at first, but the hundreds later on--had assembled to announce its presence. Some brought portable speakers to announce their presence and give an earful to The Man. Among the visual regalia: posters, banners, flags, signs, an effigy of Ronald McDonald, and a large amorphous paper-mache black blob on a shopping cart written with the words "Corporate Monster".Thu, 03 May 2001 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-02-25-always-ruin-things/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2001-02-25-always-ruin-things/Two people on stage are sitting at a card table on an otherwise empty stage. Person Two has a deck of playing cards and plays solitare on the table. Person One tries to get the attention of Person Two, who remains seemingly oblivious to Person One and continues to play solitaire.Person One:Sun, 25 Feb 2001 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-12-10-meanwhile/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-12-10-meanwhile/(written on December 10, 2000)The counting and lawsuits continue in Florida.Sun, 10 Dec 2000 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-07-22-think/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-07-22-think/(A single person stands on stage, alternates between speaking normally and screaming at the top of her/his lungs. The transition occurs between screaming and speaking must take up as little time as possible.)Do you think that in 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues in Geneva first wrote the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that would eventually become the World Wide Web, or in 1969 when one research team at UCLA tried to send to another team at Stanford the very first email message, do you think they were thinking:Sat, 22 Jul 2000 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-04-26-quote-fest-part-two/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-04-26-quote-fest-part-two/Hard work has made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win._ --Nadia ComaneciWhat I think is extraordinary, apart from the inherent values in the ideas, is that we were experiencing ourselves a historical moment in the life of the internet, an example of how massive publishing power is in the hands of anyone with access to a PC.--Baz LuhrmanWed, 26 Apr 2000 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-02-13-szczicago-manual-style/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-02-13-szczicago-manual-style/A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Academic Quiz Competition Questionsby Mitchell Szczepanczyk of the University of Chicago Version 3.0Sun, 13 Feb 2000 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-01-05-circle-strife/http://www.szcz.org/posts/2000-01-05-circle-strife/(A single person stands on a bare stage except for a single pair of shoes near the rear of the stage. At the beginning of the play, the person stands near the rear of the stage right near the shoes. The person holds the shoes until taking the first step)Georges Melies was a French film director. He was one of the premier innovators of the cinema in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But he began his life working for his father making shoes.Wed, 05 Jan 2000 00:00:00 -0600http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-09-27-quote-fest-part-one/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-09-27-quote-fest-part-one/Real programmers can write assembly code in any language--Larry Wall, inventor of the Perl languageLord, Baseball is a worrying thing.--Stanley Coveleski, Hall of Fame spitballerMon, 27 Sep 1999 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-09-07-secret-microsofts-success/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-09-07-secret-microsofts-success/A single person stands on stage, holding a customer-response envelope made by the Microsoft Corporation.The Microsoft Corporation ranks as one of the richest corporations of all time. Microsoft is the first company to exceed five-hundred billion dollars in market value. If Microsoft were a country, it would be the ninth largest country in the world, trailing behind the five-hundred-fifty-three billion dollar Gross Domestic Product value of Spain.Tue, 07 Sep 1999 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-09-01-1999-kansas-board-education-ruling/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-09-01-1999-kansas-board-education-ruling/Here's a heresy of the 19th century: Species change over time.Here's a heresy of the 20th century: Natural selection is the agent of that change.Wed, 01 Sep 1999 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-08-27-stanley-cup-history-abuse-neglect/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-08-27-stanley-cup-history-abuse-neglect/"One of the great rules of hockey is: On the Stanley Cup, all germs are healthy." --George Vecsey, The New York Times, June 11, 1999Fri, 27 Aug 1999 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-08-22-used-acfweb-page/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-08-22-used-acfweb-page/something happened one day. I'm not exactly sure what. Apparently, the file that had my collection of ACFWeb links got corrupted one day. The HTML just stopped in mid-file. As a result, the page ended, and I wasn't terribly astute in making a backup for that page (a lesson learned the hard way).However, there may still be people who would expect the ACFWeb to be present. I would offer my apologies to the three or four of you out there. It's just that I don't have the heart to restart the web page--I'd rather work on learning. Moreover, there's a much cooler webpage maintained by Dwight Kidder that has a LOT of informative and interesting links, so there's no real vacuum that needs to be filled. To be sure, I could make such a page of my own, but see above.Sun, 22 Aug 1999 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-08-17-forget-agreeing-numerical-name-next-decade/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-08-17-forget-agreeing-numerical-name-next-decade/The last decade was the eighties. The present decade is the nineties. The next decade will be the...?Good question, and there's plenty of possible answers. The USA Today ran a contest soliciting names, and a May 26, 1999 episode of the Today show featured a song that dripped with wannabe decade names:Tue, 17 Aug 1999 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-08-08-disposing-computers-becoming-global-concern/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-08-08-disposing-computers-becoming-global-concern/Copyright (C) 1999 Nando Media Copyright (C) 1999 Scripps Howard News ServiceAugust 8, 1999 12:16 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - The world is rapidly becoming awash in computer junk, and no one knows what to do with it. The problem, experts say, is only expected to get worse.Sun, 08 Aug 1999 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-07-14-bs-science-fiction-literally/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1999-07-14-bs-science-fiction-literally/by Leander Kahney3:00 a.m. 14.Jul.99.PDT Hoping to inject some imagination into the pursuit of science, a British university is offering the world's first degree in science fiction.Wed, 14 Jul 1999 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1998-10-21-africanamerican-language/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1998-10-21-africanamerican-language/"There are two ways of talking. One way if you want a job, and that other way." --Chris RockFrom October 1996 to June 1998, I was a graduate student in the linguistics department at the University of Chicago. During part of my stay there, linguistics got some coverage in the corporate media and gained a greater degree of awareness in the public consciousness. (A great many interesting and poignant articles came my way during this time as well--hence the reason for this page.) The reason had to do with a December 18, 1996 decision by the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in Oakland, California. The district affirmed that the speech of inner-city African-Americans was different from that of other variants of the language, which could impede the education of inner-city African-American children. The OUSD chose to work with, rather than against, this fact.Wed, 21 Oct 1998 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1998-08-18-queen/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1998-08-18-queen/Two years ago, when I was a senior in college, I took a class in the history of mathematics. It had nothing to do with either of my majors, but I was so close to graduation, and I knew the professor teaching the class, and it sounded interesting, and I needed some extra class credits to graduate, so I took the class. Since that time, I've gotten to doing some other reading in the history of mathematics, although I hadn't been doing mathematics really. But in the last few weeks, I've decided to take the plunge, and get into mathematics more seriously.You see, I have this calculus book that I got for free from a garage sale last year. And lately, I've been doing some of the problems in the book, and I have to say, I have been having a LOT of fun with the book. I love doing the problems in the book. I've been getting a real thrill with the book--so much that I've been seriously thinking about getting or finding or borrowing books in other more advanced mathematical topics. And yet, I didn't care all that about doing math over the course of my education. Sure, I took a fair amount of math in high school and a couple of courses in college, but I didn't care for math then the way that I do now.Tue, 18 Aug 1998 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1998-08-17-academic-quiz-competitions-career/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1998-08-17-academic-quiz-competitions-career/One of my main hobbies for the past four years has been what has been called academic quiz competitions. I have been most fortunate to be a part of two of the premier programs in the world at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago. I have been blessed with a great deal of success in my career, earning all star commendations at least five times, and gaining national renown for my question writing prowess. I have also codified my philosophy to writing questions in the SZCZicago Manual of Style, my guide to writing academic quiz competition questions.Here is the list of intercollegiate tournaments that I have participated in as a player: the tournament (name and year), the team I played on, any additional roles for my team (editor, captain, question writer, etc.), and any all star commendations I've earned.Mon, 17 Aug 1998 00:00:00 -0500http://www.szcz.org/posts/1996-04-01-hippopotomonstrosesquipedalians/http://www.szcz.org/posts/1996-04-01-hippopotomonstrosesquipedalians/Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalians are really, really, REALLY long words. I had a penchant for learning these things when I was a kid. I still know many of these by heart. (My secret? Break them up into syllables first.) Here are some classics.Mon, 01 Apr 1996 00:00:00 -0600