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The Communitarian Update
Number 32
December 1, 2000
Media Watches Kids
Just 2 percent of teenagers were shown at home, while only 1 percent
were portrayed in a work setting. In contrast, the criminal justice
system accounted for nearly one out of every five visual backdrops
according to a recent examination of a month of network and local TV
news coverage of American youth. (Media Monitor, Sept./Oct. 20000)
RU-486 opposition on the Web
A graphic new Web site -- the "RU-486 Registry" -- by anti-abortion
activist Neal Horsley is up again after being shut down several times.
The site promises to list doctors who prescribe mifepristone and in
some cases even their children and where they attend school. (Wall
Street Journal, 11/14/00)
Join the Communitarian Dialogue
445 people have already participated in our new site for dialogues
covering topics ranging from right to own guns to parental privileges.
The dialogues are very UNlike chat rooms; serious and civil. To join
our discussion, first, go to http://www.ecircles.com Look for Public
Directory and then click on the link for "Society and Culture."
Click on the link to "Issues." Click on the link "Communitarian Dialogue"
Click on "Join this eCircle." Follow the directions for signing up.
Is Fast Food anti-Communitarian?
The Daily Lavigneri, an official publication of the Italian Bishops
Conference, said that fast food lacks the communitarian aspect of
sharing and ignores the holiness of food. Theologian Massimo Celani
said at McDonald's, people want a fast meal, which is exceedingly
individualistic. (NPR 11/10/00)
Casting Stones - Free Speech?
Professor Edward Said of Columbia was photographed in Lebanon throwing
a rock at an Israeli guardhouse. Nadine Strossen, the head of the ACLU,
and a fervent free speech advocate, declared that this act was a crime.
But Jonathan Cole, the Provost at Columbia, was much more lenient:
"No law was broken ... no criminal or civil action has been taken."
Be an endorser!
Since being reopened this March we have had over 100 new endorsers to
the platform! To read and endorse the platform, go to:
http://www.communitariannetwork.org.
Some recent endorsers include Irma Russell of Memphis, Tennessee; John McCutchen of
San Francisco, California; Rebecca Gildart of Ridgeland, Mississippi; and Douglas
Jones of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
Ban the Necktie!
South Padre Island, Texas has banned the necktie in a proclamation that
declares the tie "is detrimental to the welfare of South Padre Island
and its visitors and is hereby banished from our land and waters forever."
Tomorrow the world?
Anti-Smoking Laws Work
The lung-cancer rate fell 14 percent in the past decade in California,
which took a leading role in adopting tough anti-smoking laws and initiating
public-health campaigns, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Other regions reported only a 2.7 percent decline. (WSJ, 12/1/00)
Is DNA Sexy?
Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA
double helix, was called racist and sexist after a recent lecture at UC
Berkeley. Watson argued that there is a link between skin color and sexual
activity. "That's why you have Latin lovers," the San Francisco Chronicle
quotes Watson as saying. "You've never heard of an English lover. Only an
English patient."
Subscribe to the Responsive Community
Visit The Responsive Community on our web:
http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/rcq.
If you would like to receive a FREE sample of our publication for yourself
or your organization, please let us know at comnet@gwu.edu, or call (800)
245-7460. Same--to subscribe.
New Publications
Experiments Against Reality: The Fate of Culture in the Postmodern Age
by Roger Kimball (Ivan R. Dee, 2000) In this essay collection, Kimball
attempts to reinstate truth as a vital criterion in criticism. "Experiments
Against Reality demonstrates what criticism can be if you take away all
the theoretical scaffolding inherent in, say, a deconstructionist, structuralist
or feminist reading." (NYRB)
Subnational Democracy in the European Union: Challenges and Opportunities by
John Loughin et al. (Oxford: January 2001) The book explores ways in which
democracy is understood and practiced at the subnational (regional and local)
level in the 15 Member States of the EU.
Emile Durkheim: Law in a Moral Domain by Roger Cotterrell (Stanford University
Press, 1999) A comprehensive examination of the legal ideas of this classical
social theorist. It sets out to challenge
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