A couple of fascinating interviews
Friday, January 4th, 2008 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serai.
Over at NPR, there are a couple of really great interviews you can listen to:
Michael Pollan on returning to a diet that consists of actual FOOD
Pollan makes the point that what we buy in the markets isn't really food as that word is traditionally defined. Great stuff on the changes in the way we see and think about food, and why those changes have endangered our health and world.
David Cay Johnston on how the rich get richer
You've got to hear this one. Johnston's new book, Free Lunch, is about how over the last thirty years, our government has funneled more and more money away from 90% of the population and towards the pockets of people who are already rich. For instance, did you know that NONE of the sales tax you pay at big-box stores like Walmart ever actually goes to the community? That the burglar alarms touted as being life-savers on all those scary commercials are actually making our communities far more dangerous? This interview is incredibly informative, and seriously, SERIOUSLY pissed me off. A real wake-up call.
Much as I dislike the political reporting at NPR (for a supposedly liberal network, they sure do tow the Bush party line on a lot of things), these cultural segments often deliver some really interesting stories that don't get covered elsewhere.
Over at NPR, there are a couple of really great interviews you can listen to:
Michael Pollan on returning to a diet that consists of actual FOOD
Pollan makes the point that what we buy in the markets isn't really food as that word is traditionally defined. Great stuff on the changes in the way we see and think about food, and why those changes have endangered our health and world.
David Cay Johnston on how the rich get richer
You've got to hear this one. Johnston's new book, Free Lunch, is about how over the last thirty years, our government has funneled more and more money away from 90% of the population and towards the pockets of people who are already rich. For instance, did you know that NONE of the sales tax you pay at big-box stores like Walmart ever actually goes to the community? That the burglar alarms touted as being life-savers on all those scary commercials are actually making our communities far more dangerous? This interview is incredibly informative, and seriously, SERIOUSLY pissed me off. A real wake-up call.
Much as I dislike the political reporting at NPR (for a supposedly liberal network, they sure do tow the Bush party line on a lot of things), these cultural segments often deliver some really interesting stories that don't get covered elsewhere.
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Date: Saturday, January 5th, 2008 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, January 5th, 2008 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, January 5th, 2008 10:37 pm (UTC)I have a request in for the library book of Pollan's. I bought his Omnivore's Dilemma, but I is poor now... Loved Omnivore's Dilemma. I suspect I will want my own copy of this one though... Eventually.
I have one argument with Johnston. On the whole issue of alarms -- (1) those of us who have them in MY town have to pay an extra annual registration fee to cover for the cost of the police answering false alarms and (2) some of us have the alarms NOT for when we are away but for when we are home in our beds and we would like to be awakened if someone breaks in, however quietly, and have the horn scare the crap out of the creep. Since most of the robberies in MY neighborhood are done (and I have personal experience with this) by (1) teenagers on drunk/drugged/dare-you sprees and (2) incompetent amateurs (usually also drugged up), the horn is a very effective deterrent, since it scares them out of what little mind they have. A hot button with me, obviously, since I have been burglarized and had my car stolen right out of my driveway (it is now safely locked in the garage at night).
Everything else I really can give a rousing "Let's CHANGE this mess". The discriminatory policies and laws and "culture" that benefits the extremely rich and "screws" the rest of us is the definition of OBSCENE at this point. It MUST be stopped.