“Boston.com launched a new game today, the Snowplow Game, as part of new promotional campaign tied to the holiday season.

Players steer a snowplow through Boston after a blizzard, whizzing by popular city landmarks such as Fenway Park, the Citgo sign, and the John Hancock tower, in a quest to clear the streets and accumulate points, peppermints and snowflakes before time runs out. The top ten scorers will be ranked publicly on Boston.com, allowing players to compete for top honors.

The game was created by The Barbarian Group, who also developed the popular Subservient Chicken online ad campaign for Burger King.” (CyberJournalist.net)

“Over the last several years, former NYC police commissioner Bernard B. Kerik, President Bush’s nominee to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security, has become ‘a multimillionaire as a result of a lucrative partnership with former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.’ Indeed, the New York Daily News suggests, Kerik’s selection was less based on merit than it was on Giuliani’s ‘pull within the White House’ and ‘Kerik’s work on the campaign trail’ for Bush. Kerik’s record, however, raises serious question about his motives, ethics and ability to defend America. Kerik abruptly quit a critical job in Iraq, mismanaged rescue efforts in the aftermath of 9/11, used his official posts for personal enrichment and has been plagued by serious scandals. Here is a detailed look…” (The Progress Report – American Progress Action Fund)

“The Bush administration is sending mixed signals about its commitment to defending human rights at home and around the world. The White House is undermining America’s moral authority, as more nations begin to see the United States as a part of the problem instead of part of the solution. Moral leadership starts at home.”

“Critic says text is ‘window dressing’: Students at one of the area’s largest Christian schools are reading a controversial booklet that critics say whitewashes Southern slavery with its view that slaves lived ‘a life of plenty, of simple pleasures.’

Leaders at Cary Christian School say they are not condoning slavery by using ‘Southern Slavery, As It Was,’ a booklet that attempts to provide a biblical justification for slavery and asserts that slaves weren’t treated as badly as people think.” (Raleigh-Durham News-Observer)

“The Art Lab uses creative and artistic activities as research tools to gain an insight into people’s relationships with contemporary media culture. Instead of just talking to people in interviews or focus groups, these approaches get participants doing things, as a different way of getting inside their relationship to a particular topic.

…The Art Lab studies represent a new type of research in which media consumers’ own creativity, reflexivity and knowingness is harnessed, rather than ignored. In these studies, individuals are asked to produce media or visual material themselves, as a way of exploring their relationship with particular issues or dimensions of media. Examples, which appear in the projects section, include research where children made videos to consider their relationship with the environment; where young men designed covers for imaginary men’s magazines, enabling an exploration of contemporary masculinities; and where people drew pictures of celebrities as part of an examination of their aspirations and identifications with stars.”

“…(A) pack of 32 online cards featuring theorists and concepts close to the hearts of people interested in social and cultural theory, gender and identity, and media studies.

The twelve original, ‘official’ cards were released monthly during 2000-2001. During 2001-2003, the original twelve cards have been joined by twenty ‘bootleg’ cards made by fans. Why not view a random card?”

“It may seem stupid to write so much about Iraq in this space. Most of you agree with me that this is an unwarranted, illegal, bordering-on-genocidal war that needs to end ASAP. Those who don’t… won’t be convinced by anything I write.

So why bang on?

I’ve just read a book called At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace. It’s a memoir by Claude Anshin Thomas. At 17, he enlisted in the Amy and volunteered for service in Vietnam. His commanders told him he was bringing peace, but what he mostly did is kill:

…nearly every day that I was in Vietnam I was in combat. One of the many decorations I received was the Air Medal. To get an air medal, you must fly 25 combat missions and 25 combat hours. By the end of my tour, I had been awarded more than 25 air medals. That amounts to somewhere in the neighborhood of 625 combat hours and combat missions. All of those combat missions killed people….by the time I was first injured in combat (two or three months into my tour), I had already been responsible for the deaths of several hundred people.

When he came home, Thomas was still driven by rage. He joined the anti-war movement. He took drugs. He drank. He wanted to die. Then he cleaned up. But he was still tormented. Fortunately, he was invited to a retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh. Odd, he thought–my countrymen reject me, and yet this Vietnamese accepts me.

When Thich Nhat Hanh entered the room, Claude Thomas began to cry. ‘I realized for the first time that I didn’t know the Vietnamese in any way than as my enemy, and this man wasn’t my enemy.’

The first great lesson of this book is something Thich Nhat Hanh tells the veterans: ‘You are the light at the tip of the candle. You burn hot and bright. You understand deeply the nature of suffering.’

And then–and this is the part that has had me reeling for weeks–Thich Nhat Hanh goes on:

He told us that the nonveterans were more responsible for the war than the veterans. That because of the interconnectedness of all things, there is no escape from responsibility. That those who think they aren’t responsible are the most responsible.

Consider that: ‘Those who think they aren’t responsible are the MOST responsible.’

That’s every minister who presides over a service without mentioning Iraq. Every shopper who’s ‘in the holiday spirit’ and doesn’t want to be brought down by death and dying. Every parent who fails to talk about Iraq with the kids.

That’s you. And you. And you. And, sometimes, me. And that is why–even if I’m just touching base with the choir–I need to talk about this stinking war until, finally, we get it to stop.” (beliefnet via walker)