The Boston Marathon Bombing: Impact and Implications

On this episode of the "There is No Spoon" show, we have a detailed discussion of the recent tragedy in Boston and its aftermath. We talk about the impact of the bombing and the aftermath in Boston itself, as well as how it was seen internationally. Also, we discuss the role the media played in the tragedy, particularly the repercussions of the "Disaster Journalism" that resulted. This includes issues of race, ethnicity, "otherness", and simply exercising and excusing poor journalistic practices. Finally, we dive into the question of Miranda rights, as well as what role, if any, Islam and Chechnya have in the debate. On the show are members of the No Spoon team, including Boston-area artist and teacher Jen Palacio (Twitter link), political scientist Fouad Pervez (Twitter link), and Professor of Law and Policy at the Lahore University of Management Sciences Junaid Ahmad.

When Sports and Politics Collide - with Dave Zirin

Dave Zirin, the sports editor of the Nation magazine (who you've probably seen on TV or heard on the radio at some point) joins Ibrahim Abdul-Matin and Fouad Pervez from the No Spoon team to discuss several recent sports events and the political issues underpinning them. In this episode, we discuss Florida Athletic University's decision to sell their stadium's naming rights to a private prison company, the problems with the NCAA as an institution, the role of big money in college sports, baseball academies as sweatshops in Latin America (arguably the most under-covered sports story in the past few weeks, related to Hugo Chavez's death), and the NCAA basketball tournament. Be sure to get Dave's new must-read book, "Game Over: How Politics Has Turned the Sports World Upside Down", which recently received a glowing review in Sports Illustrated. We had technical issues (when taping, Dave's video was frozen and inverted in black and white, hence the references to Ghostface Zirin - YouTube apparently just gave him a blank screen in the final cut), but Google couldn't stop the latest No Spoon episode!

The Banal Militarism of Hollywood

(Reposted from Foreign Policy in Focus: click here for the original) The latest Academy Awards ceremony, which crowned the well-intentioned but fatally flawed Argo as the year’s best film, merely formalized the nearly universal acclaim that director Ben Affleck has received for his gripping CIA drama set in Iran. It also said a lot about what’s wrong with Hollywood today.

Guns are not made in the Ghetto

On Tuesday, Feb 12, 2013 President Obama gave his first State of the Union address of his second term.  Front and center was the issue of gun violence, both in his speech and in the audience.  Most notably, guests Nathaniel and Cleopatra Pendleton, parents of Hadiya Pendelton, attended the address as guests of the President and Mrs. Obama.  Hadiya was gunned down in Chicago just days after performing with her high school band at inauguration.  Along with Hadiya, the President mentioned the mass shootings of Aurora, Colorado, Oak Creek, Wisconsin, Newtown, Connecticut, and Blacksburg, Virginia as reasons for congress to vote on gun control measures.  Alongside the gun control debate we are hearing some discussion of mental health and the need to address mental health in our health care system.  The issue of mental health and its connection to gun violence raises a lot of issues around race, class, and how the two are actually related.  In this first YOUTUBE episode of the No Spoon Show, Fouad Pervez, Reggie Miller, and Fatima Ashraf of the collective team up with American Muslim Health Professionals to discuss mental health and gun violence.  Khizer Husain, President of AMHP, speaks about the definition of mental health and discusses his efforts in Washington with the Department of Health and Human Services to bring this issue to the forefront of our country's overall health care discussion.  Maryum Khwaja, licensed therapist and parter at Nasiha Counseling, LLC in NYC brings an experienced perspective to the table, having served as a therapist for over 10 years in the tri-state area.  Watch and learn. 

About Ending Perpetual War...

There was a lot of hoopla in my city last week, as President Obama was re-inaugurated amidst large crowds. Given the centrality of Obama to our blog (we started this 4 years ago after his initial inauguration, with some of our first posts devoted to capturing the movement that developed around him that catapulted him into the presidency), I though it'd be useful to write down a few thoughts about inauguration #2. The main takeaway from his speech was that he seemed far more bold on domestic politics: the references to climate change, Stonewall, and immigration were much stronger stances than he was willing to make in his first inauguration. Second-term presidencies can bring about more activism, obviously. But, for me, the most interesting part was his discussion of the need to end perpetual war (d'uh, I do international politics). Like so much about Obama, a lot of liberals applauded this (supposedly) brave statement and felt optimism about further distancing ourselves from the Bush years. But...yeah, as seems to be frequently the case with liberals and Obama, they didn't pay attention to what he has actually done. The press didn't do a particularly good job with this either, analyzing his words more than his actions. Perhaps Barry O is really committed to shifting away from militarism. But, the reality is, he's got to walk away from a lot of his own policies to do so.