About halfway through “Not Working,” DW Gibson’s painful, wrenching collection of interviews with Americans that have lost their jobs in the wake of the ongoing recession, the voices of the subjects all start to run together. The effect is disorienting: you realize you’ve been reading for about 200 pages, and you can’t tell which story is which, who lost which job, which part of the country has been the most ravaged, which industries have been stripped bare and left for dead and what, for the love of God, what is anyone supposed to do about it.

The stories are familiar and wide-ranging: executives, teachers, journalists, factory workers all speak with eloquence about the various ways in which they were let go. No doubt you know plenty of people who’ve had their livelihoods so abruptly evaporate, perhaps you yourself have suffered a similar fate – and yet, presented with such an onslaught of tragedy, it becomes hard for you, the reader, to process everything. The author, Gibson, presents you with no expert analysis, no comment, no stupid jokes to lighten the mood: at first glance, you don’t even really get a sense of who these people are so much as who they were before they lost it all.

Read the full review in the Daily News

Last week’s Anxiety post, “Control,” featured an interview with Dominick Brocato, conducted and transcribed by DW Gibson, the author of the forthcoming book and documentary film, “Not Working.” Many readers who commented wanted to know how Mr. Brocato was managing his various challenges — unemployment, illness and a lack of medical insurance among them — since the interview, which took place in July 2011. To provide that update to readers, Mr. Gibson contacted Mr. Brocato by e-mail and phone earlier this week.

DW Gibson writes: “When I contacted Dominick, I learned that he’d had surgery on his right knee (unrelated to his cancer) just the day before. I immediately suggested we talk later but he ignored the offer. True to my memory of him, he was at attention, instantly composed and engaged. His own words — “I am still a vital and vibrant person” — still echo in my head. The update below is composed of Dominick’s words from our e-mail correspondence this week and a follow-up conversation over the phone. ”

— The Editors

Read the excerpt on the New York Times‘ Opinionator

Tweets from Tahrir is a document that could not have existed before the digital age. Even if you went to all of those people in the aftermath of Tahrir Square and asked them to write down what they thought at the time, they would write down something different, because recollection always colours events differently. This is a genuine live stream of what took place.

We talked about Nicholas Carr, and the idea that deep reading is fading away. The theory is that you are distracted by hypertext links and no longer read in the conventional way – and that that alters your whole mood of reading, so your engagement level suffers. You’re not reading properly, you’re becoming lost in a maze of online distractions. The reality, I think, is rather different. When you look at a stream of tweets with the TV on in the background, you are synthesising the story. Your perception of events will be different from anyone else’s in the world, because you will light on different things. That is invaluable in not accepting the authority of a single news source or information source, but assembling your own understanding out of individual perspectives.

In the digital age one of the most overused phrases is: “This is a Gutenberg moment.” That was the moment when the printing press took away the Church’s monopoly on information, and suddenly anyone who had an idea or opinion could be distributed. The only Gutenberg moment that I have come across today is this one. Here you have a situation where the same kind of distribution is possible. It’s no longer the case that if you want to know what happened you have to go check the BBC. Because the BBC could be wrong, as could the individual who is telling you what they saw. But if you are following 300 or 400 people in Tahrir Square who are tweeting about what they are seeing in front of their eyes, and at the same time watching the BBC or Al Jazeera, you can weave together a picture of the situation for yourself.

Read the full article on The Browser

Cruel is a series of art and text about the meat industrial complex, the hidden lives of the victims of it.

From birth to death, animals live in a way of inconceivable suffering. They are bludgeoned, cut, hooked, their tails are docked, they are de-horned, their ears are punched, their testicles are gauged out, their beaks cut off, they’re branded, their babies are torn away, they are gassed, electrocuted, their throats are cut. Bred only to be slaughtered, their lives are concealed from us. Historically, small family farmsteads struggled but couldn’t compete with vertically integrated corporate-owned agribusinesses. Farmed animals moved out of the sunshine and off the grass, into confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), becoming units of production in the process. Biology and pharmaceuticals developed ways to keep the hapless “units” alive and growing rapidly, producing more meat, milk and eggs under ever harsher conditions: turkeys and chickens grew faster than ever but on less feed, meaning more profit. There was selection for those better able to withstand the greater stresses of confinement and mutilation.

See the slide show on The Huffington Post

Norman Finkelstein’s new book on the American Jewish community has been both widely praised and criticized by influential writers. So is the American-Jewish romance with Israel coming to an end? Are the American Jews known for their liberal views distancing themselves from Israel? Or is it simply an overstatement? Do they support the current Israeli policies? Does the Israeli lobby represent their views? And do they have a strong connection to the Holy Land? CT-ing with Norman Finkelstein, Daniel Pollak and Mouin Rabbani on May 16.

See the interview on CrossTalk

Over the summer and fall of 2011, I drove across the country from southern California to New York City. I made the trip with filmmaker MJ Sieber, playwright Mallery Avidon, and — when she could escape her job — my wife, Tasha Garcia Gibson.

We occupied blistering hot sidewalks, trying to catch people outside unemployment offices; we attended church services where congregations provided guidance for the unemployed; we stalked business reporters, distant relatives, and recognizable Facebook friends, trying to find those who were laid off in the five-year span from 2007 to 2011, those who would be willing to tell the story of the day they lost that job, the circumstances that led up to it, and the consequences that followed.

Read more on CNN

As if the peace movement hasn’t enough on its plate already, the military-industrial complex invents a new and easier way to wage war: the unmanned drone.

For the busy activist trying to grapple with the growing development of the drone wars, what’s needed is a well-written, easy-to-read book, coming from a committed nonviolent perspective, that lays out the issues in an accessible but not simplistic way. Thankfully, long- time Us peace activist, Medea Benjamin, has written the very thing: Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.

Benjamin teases apart the varying overlapping issues connected with the growing use of drones (or Unmanned Aerial vehicles as the military insists on calling them).

Individual chapters explore the birth and growth of the industry as well as their spreading use in armed conflicts from Gaza
and Afghanistan to Yemen and somalia. The legality of their use is also investigated, in particular their use for so-called ‘targeted killings’ and their impact
on civilians in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Read the full review in Peace News

American Presidents have long been criticised for being too in thrall to the Jewish lobby. That American Jews influence US foreign policy and that explains America’s unwavering support for Israel.

So what happens if American Jews fall out of love with Israel? That’s what the Jewish American academic Norman Finkelstein claims is happening. He says they are now so unhappy with what Israel is doing that they want to distance themselves from the country. But then he is nothing if not controversial. He, after all, is famous for accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust. And his actions have so incensed Israel it’s banned him from entering the country. Could he be right and if he is what does that mean for Middle East policy?

See the interview on HARDtalk