The alternate realities of childbearing and child rearing:

As a young mother she [Bristol Palin] takes on adult responsibility. Conversely, lack of responsibility and self-regulation infantilizes adults … The produce department is stocked with misted bins laden with baby carrots, baby spinach, baby arugula, baby brussel sprouts. They should call the produce department "the nursery."  — The Progressive's Kate Clinton

I was married at 15 and pregnant at 17. Unfortunately, that first baby died through lack of assistance. It was only on the third day of labour that the baby came into the world lifeless. At the end of my second pregnancy I ended up with fistula because no-one helped me during birth. — Mariama Boubacar, 25, from the west of Niger tells her story to New Internationalist.
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In Ohio, those on the meal plan at a private liberal arts college are not insulated from skyrocketing food prices.  Students start Food Justice group; Monthly Review blogs it.

Editor of the ecosocialist journal Capitalism Nature Socialism, Joel Kovel fired from Bard for anti-Zionism.

Student occupation at New York University!
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RaceWire's Tammy Johnson on comic strip coverage of Obama: "In these strips, the face that pursued and captured the highest office of the land, the face that now is government, and holds the hopes and fears of millions, is a Black face. But with a sweep of a pen that face is used by comics to delegitimate, dehumanize and deflect from real issues. The daily sting of racial injustices experienced by millions is rarely addressed. These comics remind us that no matter who or how it’s delivered, the joke is still on us."

White supremacists recruit military personnel for their access to firearms and weapons.  The US military recruits white supremacists because standards have dropped due to increased needs.  In These Times' Jacob Wheeler on skinheads in the army.  

Would you like fries with that?  Help Balkinization explore gender and happy meal toys by reporting [...]More

At n+1, Brian Thomas Gallagher examines the superficiality in radical aesthetic of Shepard Fairey's iconic "Hope" portrait which mirrors Obama's progressive posturing.

Three weeks ago, as the world focused on the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, another massive campaign was moving ahead in northeastern Sri Lanka, pitting government forces against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).  Dissent has the story.

The Senate's version of the Stimulus Bill cuts women workers out in a serious way: Dollars & Sense blog.
 
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Alain Gresh on the situation in the Middle East after the recent Gaza War. Ralph Nader on the Clinton administration's key contribution to financial deregulation. John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff offer detailed analysis of the current financial crisis.More