Handel's Messiah: A Random Act of Culture

The Opera Company of Philadelphia Chorus, together with singers from a cross section of community groups, infiltrate a department store as shoppers and burst into a pop-up rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah," in one of 1,000 Random Acts of Culture. Watch the performers, delighted children, spontaneous videographers, and the entire public within earshot together "create culture."

Pete Seeger -- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

For a biographical account of America in song, look to Pete Seeger (1919-2014). This song of Pete's is the one he chose to sing on national TV in 1968, ending his more than decade-long blacklist, and showing that he hadn't made peace with war and injustice.

The Demise of Dr. Oz

Peter Janiszewski Public Library of Science
After some suave marketers used clips from Oz's TV show to sell bogus products, he faced a grilling from a panel of U.S. senators about his weight loss product claims. Oz then invited his Twitter audience, "What is your biggest question for me? Reply with #OzsInbox." Unfortunately for Oz, this strategy backfired. Horrendously. Immediately after Oz asked the question, Twitter gave Dr. Oz a hilarious slap across the face.

Blue Lives Matter

Ta-Nehisi Coates The Atlantic
Talking about "police reform" obscures the task. Today's policies are, at the very least, the product of democratic will.

The Climate for 2015: Everything’s Coming Together While Everything Falls Apart

Rebecca Solnit TomDispatch
We are skilled at assuming things cannot change and that we, the people, do not have the power to change them. Yet our country and our world have always been changing, are in the midst of great and terrible changes, and are occasionally changed through the power of the popular will and idealistic movements. The changing climate now demands that we summon up the energy to leave behind the Age of Fossil Fuel (and maybe some portion of the Age of Capitalism as well).

Christmas Comes Early for Children of FairPoint Strikers

NH Labor News
On October 17th, 2000 workers, members of the CWA and IBEW at Fairpoint Communications in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine were forced on strike. The company is demanding $700 million dollars in concessions. They are still on strike.

A Christmas Carol: The Alternative Ending

Bill Mosley (with apologies to Mr. Dickens) Washington Socialist
Cratchit handed Scrooge a leaflet, which the old man perused nervously. It listed the workers’ demands: a living wage, health benefits, safe working conditions, retirement pensions. “What?” bellowed Scrooge. “Have you all gone mad?”