Skip to main content

Film Review: ‘Amy,’ an Intimate Diary of Amy Winehouse’s Rise and Destruction

Manohla Dargis New York Times
This documentary lets nobody off the hook. Discomfort is crucial to the film's complexity and is why it works as somewhat of an ethical and intellectual provocation. Mr. Kapadia isn’t simply revisiting Ms. Winehouse’s life and death, but also — by pulling you in close to her, first pleasantly and then unpleasantly — telling the story of contemporary celebrity and, crucially, fandom’s cost.

NLRB Strikes Major Blow to USPS-Staples Deal

American Postal Workers Union
The Postal Service violated the law when management entered into the deal with Staples without first bargaining with the union, the complaint alleges.

The Confederate Flag at War (But Not the Civil War)

Greg Grandin TomDispatch
“Northerners and Southerners agreed on little” in the years after the Civil War, historians Boyd Cothran and Ari Kelman write, “except that the Army should pacify Western tribes.” Reconstruction -- Washington’s effort to set the terms for the South’s readmission to the Union and establish postwar political equality -- was being bitterly opposed by defeated white separatists. “Many Americans found rare common ground on the subject of Manifest Destiny.”

Hillary Clinton Pledges to Defend Israeli Apartheid & Fight BDS Movement in Letter to Mega-Donor

Kevin Gosztola Firedoglake
“I am writing to express my alarm over the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or ‘BDS,’ a global effort to isolate the State of Israel by ending commercial and academic exchanges,” Clinton wrote [PDF]. “I am seeking your advice on how we can work together—across party lines and with a diverse array of voices—to reverse this trend with information and advocacy, and fight back against further attempts to isolate and delegitimize Israel.”

Why We Voted No: Young Greeks on the Referendum

Carmen Fishwick The Guardian
Greece’s young voters rejected the bailout package drawn up by creditors by around 2 to 1. Analysts had predicted that the ballot could be swung by the youth vote, with some polls suggesting that 80 per cent of young Greeks would vote against the plan.

The Destruction in Syria

Rabie Nasser Jacobin
As part of a series on the devastating civil war in Syria, Jacobin spoke to Rabie Nasser, a Syrian economic analyst who works with the Syrian Center for Policy Research. We discussed the social and economic disaster in the country, the role global and regional powers have played in the war, and how Syria may one day be rebuilt.

Food Faiths & Diet Religions

HARRIET HALL, M.D www.skeptic.com
This review of Alan Leinovitz's, The Gluten Lie, discusses how the author sees parallels between religious stories, fairy tales and nutrition myths.