Category: human rights

human rights, TV

Good Girls Revolt – season 1

Rick Mc

Good Girls Revolt is an American period drama streaming television series.

It only lasted 1 season. Too bad. I found it far more entertaining than Mad Men.

The series follows a group of young female researchers at News of the Week magazine in the revolutionary times of 1969. Women in the newsroom are relegated to low-level positions. Many researchers are more talented and better educated …

Based on true stories, News of the Week is Newsweek. In 1970, 46 women researchers, reporters and the magazine’s one woman writer staged a revolt. They complained to the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Finally, in 1972, Newsweek promised that by the end of 1974, one-third of the magazine’s writers would be women.

I like Chris Diamantopoulos as Finn. And Erin Darke as Cindy Reston.

Actually, all the cast is good.

Jim Belushi is cast against his usual character as pro-Vietnam war, Wick.

Grace Gummer (daughter of Meryl Streep) as Nora Ephron is a glimpse into the future. She went on to write Silkwood (1983), When Harry Met Sally… (1989), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993).

Here are just 6 reasons why Amazon’s “Good Girls Revolt” should not be cancelled

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

books, ethics, government, human rights, TV

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

Rick Mc

Faceless Killers is a 1991 crime novel by the Swedish writer Henning Mankell, and the first in his acclaimed Wallander series.

Happily, the audio book is read by one of my favourites — Dick Hill — of the excellent Jack Reacher and Harry Bosch series. Hill has 542 audio books, last time I checked.

Inspector Kurt Wallander is called out to a seemingly senseless and brutal murder on a Swedish farm.

Wallander is forty-two-years-old. His wife left him unexpectedly 3 months earlier. He’s constantly worried about his estranged daughter. And unsure whether his own elderly father can continue living alone out on another farm.

Also, he’s gaining weight.

Uncoordinated. Accident prone.

Near broke.

Troubled, to say the least.

Author Henning Mankell was a left-wing social critic and activist. 

But the themes of the book include Sweden’s liberal attitude regarding immigration, racism and national identity. The character Wallander is conflicted.

Kenneth Branagh is one of the actors who’s played Wallander in adaptations.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

ethics, government, human rights

Staying Quiet helps the Oppressor

Rick Mc

Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. 

Immediately after they were sent to Auschwitz, his mother and his younger sister were murdered.

Wiesel and his father were selected to perform labor so long as they remained able-bodied, after which they were to be killed in the gas chambers.

Wiesel and his father were later deported to the concentration camp at Buchenwald. …

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Quote by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller 
ethics, human rights, music

Miley Cyrus – Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl”

Rick Mc

I’d say Miley Cyrus was musical artist of the year for me in 2020.

Fierce.

She decided on a punk Lesbian anthem for the uber-MACHO Super Bowl crowd, for example. 😀

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

“Rebel Girl“ is a song by American punk rock band Bikini Kill released 1993.

… emblematic of the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s. …

Riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy, classism, anarchism and female empowerment. 

Click PLAY or watch one of the original artists’ versions on YouTube.

I was reminded of the song by Amy Poehler’s ‘Moxie’.

Apple, ethics, Facebook, good news, Google, government, human rights, internet, things getting better

Why we LOVE Stacey Abrams

Rick Mc

If you’re celebrating seeing Donald Trump and the worst of his deplorable followers driven off social media, thank Stacey Abrams.

She devoted years to building the Democratic Party in Georgia. Wrote a book about voter suppression and co-produced an Amazon Prime documentary, “All In: the Fight for Democracy.”

People in the know credit Stacey Abrams for flipping the 2 Senate seats from Republican to Democrat.

NOW the Biden team has control of all 3 branches of government for 2 years.

NOW the Biden team can enthusiastically regulate BIG TECH.

NOW Twitter, Facebook and pretty much every other major platform is banning Trumpy hate speech.

Thanks Stacey.

books, human rights, TV

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith

Rick Mc

Troubled Blood (2020) is the fifth novel in the Cormoran Strike series …

I ASSume Galbraith is a moral man — respecting human rights.

Cormoran Strike is as irritable and irritating as ever.

We can’t imagine why partner Robin Ellacott likes him as a boss — or for possible romance.

Happily, Robin finally divorced her husband. What a relief.

Troubled Blood is well written. But I enjoyed it least of the series, so far.

The 40 year old cold case is too long, too slow. I definitely couldn’t get into it.

More insight into Strike’s odd family was interesting. In fact, all the other story lines were engaging.

I’ll definitely be continuing with the series, even if it turns out Galbraith is a horrible person in real life.

books, economics, education, ethics, government, happiness, human rights, internet

The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly

Rick Mc

Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

The Inevitable is a 2016 nonfiction book by Kevin Kelly that forecasts the twelve technological forces that will shape the next thirty years:

  1. Becoming: Moving from fixed products to always upgrading services and subscriptions
  2. Cognifying: Making everything much smarter using cheap powerful AI that we get from the cloud
  3. Flowing: Depending on unstoppable streams in real time for everything
  4. Screening: Turning all surfaces into screens
  5. Accessing: Shifting society from one where we own assets to one where instead we will have access to services at all times.
  6. Sharing: Collaboration at mass scale. Kelly writes, “On my imaginary Sharing Meter Index we are still at 2 out of 10.”
  7. Filtering: Harnessing intense personalization in order to anticipate our desires
  8. Remixing: Unbundling existing products into their most primitive parts and then recombining in all possible ways
  9. Interacting: Immersing ourselves inside our computers to maximize their engagement
  10. Tracking: Employing total surveillance for the benefit of citizens and consumers
  11. Questioning: Promoting good questions is far more valuable than good answers
  12. Beginning: Constructing a planetary system connecting all humans and machines into a global matrix

Though it might sound scary, the book is surprisingly upbeat and optimistic about the future.

Kevin Kelly (born 1952) is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Review.

Amazon

 

books, ethics, gymnastics, human rights

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

Rick Mc

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling is a treat. 

A young adult novel, it’s ideal for younger kids too.

I grew up with Carol Johnston, the gymnast who was featured in the Disney  TV movie Lefty (1980)

Nobody called Carol “Lefty” back at Altadore.  We called her Carol, one of the best gymnasts in the club.

It was difficult for any other gymnast to complain about anything as Carol worked even harder — and never complained.

Carol passed away on May 11, 2019 due to complications from Early On-set Alzheimers, by the way.  Sad.  But her legend lives on.

She’s still a role model for gymnasts with physical challenges.

Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was born without them.

And when her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she’ll have to answer the question over and over again.

Her new life takes an unexpected turn when she bonds with Connor, a classmate who also feels isolated because of his own disability, and they discover a room at Stagecoach Pass that holds bigger secrets than Aven ever could have imagined.

There are sequels.

Click PLAY or watch the author on YouTube.