Posted on June 22nd, 2008 by Frenchdoc
This really makes me sad. I am a huge fan of George Carlin. I will miss his curmudgeonly attitude, his lack of patience for religious stupidity and wonderful use of all the subtleties and absurdities of the English language to unveil our social ills.
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Filed under: Arts & Entertainment, Democratic Daily, Entertainment News, Frenchdoc, Humor, In The News, Religion, Satire
Posted on June 20th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.
As a follow-up on my previous post on refugees, this video is part of the campaign to raise awareness and activism for refugees, worldwide.
Also, please see Charles Lemos’s great series of posts and photos on refugees at his blog, By The Fault.
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Filed under: Afghanistan, Democratic Daily, Equal Rights, Food For Thought, Frenchdoc, In The Blogosphere, International, Iran, Iraq, War, World News, YouTube
Posted on June 18th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released yesterday its figures (full report) regarding the global numbers of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs):
“UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres expressed concern Tuesday about the growing number of refugees worldwide after an annual survey said there were 11.4 million [...]
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Filed under: Afghanistan, Democratic Daily, Frenchdoc, International, Iran, Iraq, World News
Posted on June 15th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.
(Via Le Monde)
Today, the Council of Europe launched a campaign against most forms of corporal punishment, including slapping, spanking, hitting, mistreating, humiliating and any other practice that damage the dignity of a child. The campaign will consist in TV ads, the publication of a manual for parents on violence-free parenting [...]
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Filed under: Democratic Daily, Education, Equal Rights, Frenchdoc, Sociology, World News
Posted on June 15th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
I watched The Devil’s Miner (website) last night for the first time (it was originally from 2005) and what a film this is. The central question of the film is
How do we live in dignity?
Especially when you are 14 years old, living in Potosi, Bolivia, and you work at a mine inCerro Rico, “the [...]
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Filed under: Arts & Entertainment, BBC, Democratic Daily, Economy, Education, Equality, Food For Thought, Frenchdoc, Health, Healthcare, International, Movies, Religion, Sociology, World News
Posted on June 14th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.
It is detrimental, says Thilo Thielke in Der Spiegel , because it creates unfairness and dependency in many different ways. First, using the case of Kenya, Thielke invokes a classical concept of formal organizational behavior: self-perpetuation.
“The roads are in horrid disrepair, and they’ll stay that way for a while. As [...]
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Filed under: Democratic Daily, Economy, Food For Thought, Foreign Policy, Frenchdoc, International, Sociology, World News
Posted on June 13th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
Wow, that is unexpected. Tim Russert died of a sudden heart attack at 58.
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Filed under: Democratic Daily, Frenchdoc, In The News, Politics, Pundits, TV
Posted on June 12th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
Since I have just received my DVD of this great film, I thought I’d re-post the review I wrote at The Global Sociology Blog.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a wonderful and harrowing adaptation of the book of the same name by Jean-Dominique Bauby (”Jean-Do”, as everyone calls him). Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor [...]
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Filed under: Arts & Entertainment, Books, Democratic Daily, France, Frenchdoc, Health, Healthcare, Movies
Posted on June 12th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
Via Der Spiegel:
“When garden gnomes go missing in France, most are tempted to blame the shadowy Garden Gnome Liberation Front . The group has been linked to the disappearance of dozens of miniature garden residents over the years.
Not this time, however. Some 170 gnomes and other ornaments have been stolen in the north-western [...]
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Filed under: Democratic Daily, Frenchdoc, Humor, In The News, International
Posted on June 10th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
From Le Nouvel Observateur, we get this appalling story. Here is how it goes, a man sues a hospital because his baby is born handicapped due to neurological problems during labor. Pretty straightforward, huh? Not so: the child is now disabled because when problems arose during labor, the father physically prevented male ob-gyns and other [...]
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Filed under: Democratic Daily, France, Frenchdoc, Health, Healthcare, International, Religion, Sexism, World News
Posted on June 9th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.
Everybody should read Tony Karon’s blog, Rootless Cosmopolitan , as a general rule. But I want to point out one item:
“Converted to Catholicism, ‘e did. And now he’s out to save the world . The problem with the idea of a global conversation between Muslims and Christians refereed by Tony [...]
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Filed under: Democratic Daily, Foreign Policy, Frenchdoc, Health, Humor, In The Blogosphere, International, Political News, War
Posted on June 9th, 2008 by Frenchdoc
Elizabeth Pisani’s The Wisdom of Whores - Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS is a great book (along with a great website ). Elizabeth Pisani is an epidemiologist with years of experience working on HIV/AIDS (or sex and drugs, as she puts, which sounds a lot, well, sexier) at a variety of agencies, including [...]
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Filed under: Bigotry, Books, Bush Admin, Democratic Daily, Foreign Policy, Frenchdoc, GLTB, George W. Bush, Health, Healthcare, International, Religion, Science, Sexism, Sociology, Women's Issues