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The Cody Blog: The Cody News (June 2nd, 2005)

Thursday, June 02, 2005

The Cody News (June 2nd, 2005)

Former FBI agents debate Felt's ethics
San Francisco Chronicle - 2 hours ago
Within 24 hours of the revelation that Deep Throat was one of their own, former FBI agents were in a heated debate over the question: Did W. Mark Felt, the bureau's deputy director during the Watergate scandal, do the right thing when he leaked classified ...
The real question is: was there a clear authority to whom Deepthroat could have reported this? Or did he need to take it public?

Israel Releases 398 Palestinian Prisoners
All Headline News - 41 minutes ago
TULKAREM, West Bank (AHN) - The release is the final part of a February 8 truce in which Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon pledged to release 900 Palestinian prisoners. The 398 prisoners were released at ...
Nations need to be very careful when it comes to using prisoners as political pawns.

Investors are losing 2 friends
San Francisco Chronicle - 1 hour ago
Investors are about to lose their two strongest allies on the five- member Securities and Exchange Commission. Chairman William Donaldson will retire June 30, about two years before his term expires. Harvey Goldschmid is scheduled to leave in July. ...
No, investors are not losing two friends. Pro-business, pro-investor, and pro-consumer -- rather than mutually exclusive -- are one in the same.

Live 8 line-up 'hideously white'
BBC News - 1 hour ago
A campaign group has called the Live 8 London concert "hideously white" for not having enough black performers. Superstar Mariah Carey is the only act from an ethnic minority to perform at Hyde Park on 2 July, one of five global Live 8 concerts that day. ...
How wonderful that it's not a government entity or other regulatory body that is raising concerns about the racial make up of Live 8. Grass roots, anyone?

Building trust via nasal spray
Globe and Mail - 3 hours ago
By COLIN FREEZE. Shakespeare told us to "love all, trust a few," even to "trust none, for oaths are straws." Despite such warnings, trust has always been at the centre of all human dealings -- romantic, commercial ...
Yeah, right.

posted by Cody Willard at 6/02/2005 09:27:00 AM

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am as sensitive to race relations as anybody I know, but I don't have a real problem with the lack of black acts at Live 8.

If they made an effort to hire some big hip-hop names and they declined, what are they supposed to do?? I don't think it does the event and it's mission any good to bring in a B-Grade artist just to meet an arbitrary diversity mandate.

Again, I am hyper-sensitive to racism and prejudice, but I don't see it here.

6/02/2005 12:44:00 PM  
Blogger Cody Willard said...

Agreed, Joe -- I'm not seeing any overt racism in the lack of black performers in the line up. But my point is that there's the public is aware of racism to such a fine degree that they're actually pushing the press to report on the public's perceived racism here -- which is just great. I love checks and balances. Live 8 can choose to add black acts now or not -- but the public says you better think about these things when you put together a concert.

6/02/2005 01:00:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well said and agreed.

Would love to see Lady's Love Cool James at the show. E'rebody is a pretender when LL is rockin' the microphone.

If I had to take one album with me to a deserted album, it would be LL Cool J's Greatest Hits.

6/02/2005 01:51:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

deserted island...sorry

6/02/2005 01:58:00 PM  
Blogger BelowTheCrowd said...

All of which tends to ignore the fact that all of these "-Aid" shows over the years have accomplished little to actually help the people they claim to be concerned with.

I recall an old PJ O'Rourke column which was reprinted in one of his books. I think it was "Give War a Chance" but may have been one of the others. In any case, he basically ridicules the old USA for Africa effort. His key point at the time was that Africans were not starving for lack of food, they were being starved for a variety of political reasons, and that the people responsible were largely the African leaders themselves.

In another bit in the same book (I think) he describes traveling with a food convoy through Somalia -- a convoy that passed through and even camped out in richly planted fields with plenty of available crops on them.

In a discussion with one of the USA for Africa leaders, he finds himself in sharp disagreement. The guy he interviews suggests that if only the US could divert a few months worth of nuclear arms budget to food, they'd make a real dent. PJ suggests that a small nuclear weapon detonated immediately underneath Haile Meriam Mengitsu and his pals would be far more effective.

The problems today haven't changed all that much. And by and large they aren't problems that can be solved with lots of money or "awareness raising." Africa is a political basket case and poverty is but one result, often a result that is quite convenient to those in power.

So while it's nice that people are appropriately sensitive to ask questions about racism in their favorite charities, it would be even nicer if they could take a critical look at what those charities are accomplishing besides making the participants feel good about themselves.

6/03/2005 10:24:00 PM  

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