Find a show you like and click the 
button. The show will be added to your My Playlist page and updated 24/7 with new videos.
Search Results
0 Views
23:00:00 12/18/11
TEDxUSC - Steve Connell - Finally Grateful
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 23:00:00 12/18/11
In dramatic fashion, Bovard Auditorium went completely dark and an emotional voice bellowed toward the top balcony that "the fight for a better world begins when you move out the phone booth as Clark Kent." The voice was that of actor, playwright, and national poetry champion Steve Connell reminding the audience who the real superheroes are. You could hear a pin drop as he explained that "it's not heroic to take a bullet when you know you can't be killed; being bulletproof is easy when you're bulletproof." Steve is an acclaimed actor, renowned playwright and a national poetry champion. His work has been featured on ABC, MSNBC, HBO, SHOWTIME, BET and MTV, and hailed by critics as "powerful theatre," "hilarious" and "brilliant." He has performed privately for Oprah Winfrey, Norman Lear, Quincy Jones, Maya Angelou, Julie Taymor and President Barack Obama and shared the stage with Black Eyed Peas, Robin Williams and Stevie Wonder. His play The Word Begins (written with Sekou Andrews) was nominated for three Helen Hayes Awards, including Best Acting and Best Original Play. It ran last January at New York's famed Public Theater and will headline the inaugural RADAR LA Festival in June. His hit one-man show 40 Days was an LA Weekly "Pick of the Week" and earned him Backstage West's award for Best Solo Performance of 2005. About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people
1 Views
11:41:00 06/22/09
LIONESS DOWN, SPIRIT SOARS
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 11:41:00 06/22/09
Neda Agha Soltan, a 27 year old philosophy student, died by the hand of the Islamic Republic's Basij militia on Saturday.
Photo: "A Voice for Neda" H
er name is Neda. Her name will always be Neda. When she fell and left it behind her, it was raised by hundreds, then thousands, now millions. Not was — her name is Neda.
Neda Agha Soltan was a 27 year old student of philosophy in Tehran. The bare outline of her story can only be provisionally pieced together from the unconfirmed snippets of discussion trickling out of Iran by her compatriots in freedom's cause. Perhaps one day soon, when journalism is no longer illegal in that country, her full story will be told.
It is said that she was standing on the sidelines of Saturday's forbidden protest, watching beside her father teacher. A wobbly cell-phone video shows the two of them together among the crowd. He is the grey-haired man in a blue striped shirt, she wears black.
If the gentle reader has not yet seen what happened to Neda (some news outlets are showing it), and is willing to have his or her heart broken yet again, then click the button while observing my strong content warning . Neda was alive at the beginning of this scene, but not at the end.
Direct Video Link The original upload carried the following description:> At 19:05 June 20th
Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st.
A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.
The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.
The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me.
Please let the world know. I've gathered from reading many Iranians (who have become like autonomous solo broadcasters) these past days that her name, Neda, means "Calling" or "Voice". The man believed to be her father is calling to her as she dies, which has been translated as:> "Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, don't be afraid. [obscured by others yelling] Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!" Courageous women have been the backbone of these demonstrations, according to many witnesses. I listened to an Iranian professor this morning talk about the phenomenon, which is not new. "Shirzan" is the Persian word he used for them, which he said Iranians will commonly use to describe such women without fear. It means "lioness" or "lion-woman," he said. Women have been estimated to comprise around 40% of the freedom protesters during the past 10 days.
No one knew whether the planned Saturday protest would go ahead or not, following the unveiled threat delivered by Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei on Friday. Everyone who considered going out of their house on Saturday knew that they could be risking their life. Mr. Moussavi had promised a statement in the afternoon, but it never came (his website has come under attack as well). Yet less than an hour after the planned meeting time of 4 pm, everyone who was following any of the many autonomous solo broadcasters (twitterers with a reliable reputation), knew that Tehran's people were in the streets again and were being foiled by huge numbers of riot police and Basijis already occupying their meeting places in the public squares. International media continued for hours saying the streets were quiet, while heads were already being cracked. CNN's not the "first name in news" anymore, and if they keep getting "Khomeni" and "Khamenei" mixed up and refering to demonstrators as "rioters" for defending themselves, they'll be the last name in news before long.
While earnest news anchors were saying that no one had seen Mr. Moussavi on Saturday, those who followed the solo tweet-casters already knew that he had spoken to the demonstrators in Jeyhoon Street. Before long, his words were translated, posted and linked by the Iranian tweeters.
By late night in Tehran the truth was evident to all, finally including international media. A vicious crackdown was underway, an unknown number of the freedom movement had been killed, and protests were continuing in most (if not all) Iran's major cities. Tweets from eyewitnesses circled the earth in seconds, thousands of citizen videos were uploaded to sharing sites, there are no secrets any more — at least, nothing this big can be kept secret when technology and an adept people are present.
I'm in a time zone two and a half hours ahead of Tehran. At around 2 am on Sunday morning here, the screen of the AP satellite feed showed a caption warning agencies to be ready. (paraphrasing) "Standby. White House statement 3:10 pm. Standby." The time corresponded to 02:10 am Bangkok time, in other words, imminent. It was just before midnight in Tehran, and we all knew what had happened during the afternoon and evening there. The White House was finally ready to take a stronger moral stand after these latest brutal killings, I thought. It could have come days earlier, after Basijis had raided Tehran University, beating and killing a number of students in their dorms. Or, a day or two before that when Basijis shot up a crowd around one of their bases, killing at least seven. But better late than never. I waited.
Nothing came across the AP feed after an hour, then after two hours of staying awake refreshing some pages of those solo broadcasters, I crashed out around dawn. Sunday afternoon, I learned what the "Standby" was all about.
Can't a man enjoy his waffle(cone)? The White House statement was that the President had taken his daughters out for a Father's Day ice cream. Seriously! And that's not all. Bo got frozen Puppy Pops to go. (The photo is from an earlier ice cream excursion, I can't find any pictures from Saturday's fun.) Take a look at Patterico's juxtaposition of contemporaneous tweets out of Iran and Washington. Hey, did you know that real journalists use Twitter too? It's true! But only click on that one if you don't mind your heart being broken yet again.
Earlier, President Obama had said something which seemed stronger than the previous "concern" and "bearing witness."> "I'm very concerned based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made that the government of Iran recognise that the world is watching," Obama said on US television on Friday.
"And how they approach and deal with people who are, through peaceful means, trying to be heard will, I think, send a pretty clear signal to the international community about what Iran is and is not." Well, it nudged the concern and witness ideas ahead a little bit (if ya squint!). A later written statement added the mourning of innocent life lost to the bearing of witness and concern. The toughest line was, "We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people."
Those brave 21st century Iranians need to hear that the free peoples of the world are with them. The placards, chants and comments of the demonstrators have often asked specifically for this, and it would mean a lot for them to hear it unambiguously from the leader of the free world. Whether he makes a strong, principled statement on the urgent need for liberty and the dignity of Iran's freedom-seeking people, or sticks with the current weak expressions of concern, makes no difference to the ruling hardliners in that country. They are blaming Britain, France, USA and all western countries for fomenting the rebellion in any case. To hell with them — speak directly to those millions of Iranians who are demanding their fundamental rights. They are the only ones who count, and the only ones listening anyway.
So far, the Prophet of Cairo seems to be all Barack and no bite. His original "on the one hand, but on the other hand" stance (that dealing with Ahmedinejad or Moussavi makes no difference to him, that they are about the same) certainly did offend many of those risking life and limb for liberty, and they should expect clearer messages from a US president. For better or worse, those who want to live in a free(r) country have gathered together with Mr. Moussavi, demanding the fair election they have yet to receive. That alone means that the two are not the same.
A Life Magazine photojournalist disappeared on Saturday in Tehran. You can view his gallery here , with the following notification:> A NOTE TO OUR READERS: We are saddened to report that the Iranian photojournalist, whose pictures appear in this gallery, is missing. He has not been in contact with us; this morning we received the following email from one of his relatives. We will update this space when we have more details.
THE EMAIL: Hi im [photographer’s relative], when he go outside yesterday for he never came back home and also his friend and a lot of our young brave people, government arrested them [. . .] don’t let them suffer in those bloody hands. With thanks. Here's a sample of some of the proven reliable Twitter feeds. Most are in Tehran. The last two are hashtag searches (categories). #Neda sprang up on Saturday night. #IranElection is very high volume (beware of rumours and regime dis-information there).> Raymond Jahan (StopAhmadi)
Iranian Student (Change_for_Iran)
Alireza Sedaghat (IranElection09)
TehranBureau.com (TehranBureau)
madyar (madyar)
Iran (IranRiggedElect)
oxfordgirl (oxfordgirl)
persiankiwi (persiankiwi)
#Neda
#IranElection If you need to get caught up on the important developments over the weekend, there's no better place at the moment than Hot Air. AllahPundit is keeping on top of things very well, and these were continually updated on Saturday and Sunday . Also very good is NYT's The Lede Blog . The blog of the National Iranian American Council is worth keeping an eye on, for nuggets like this — which stuck in my mind last week (and I had a hard time finding it again). Posted on June 17 :> 9:47 am: In response to Ahmadinejad calling Mousavi supporters “brushwood and thorns” at the victory rally Monday, Iran’s most famous classical musician has ordered that Iranian government television/radio never play his music again. Mohammad Reza Shajarian told BBC Persian in an interview:> “Don’t broadcast my voice on Seda va Sima [IRIB Music channel] ever again: my voice is like brushwood and thorns, and it will forever remain brushwood and thorns!”
1 Views
13:51:00 06/05/09
THE NEWEST PHARAOH REACHES OUT
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 13:51:00 06/05/09
An Egyptian vendor displays a copper plaque in Cairo's Khan el-Khalili market a few days before the newest pharaoh's arrival yesterday. The inscription reads, "OBAMA, New Tutankhamen of the World".
Photo: AFP / Khaled Desouki N
o, I'm not making an incendiary wingnuttist joke, as can be seen by the photo here. Cairo souvenir vendors have been selling a range of 'New Tut' paraphernalia (the t-shirts are big sellers) in anticipation of the American Messiah's arrival in the Land of the Pharaohs yesterday. If his hosts are receiving him with this attitude, who am I to judge? Just go with the meme, I say. The President evidently felt the same way during a visit to Giza after his big speech at al-Azhar, pointing out a depiction of his own likeness on one of the pyramids.
His earlier arrival in Riyadh went without a gaffe — unlike his previous meeting with King Abdullah at Buckingham. It was interesting watching the raw video feed here, with several cameras offering close-ups as he appeared at the door of AF-1, and as he descended the stairway. But at the moment he approached the king, and as I watched intently to see how much of a bow would be performed this time , the view switched to a long distance shot from behind the monarch. Not a hint of a bow could be detected though, not even a slight dip. Just the customary Arab/French double kiss.
I could practically hear Press Secretary Robert Gibbs (who makes even Bush's Scott McClellan seem like a competent straight-talker by comparison) heave a sigh of relief. He won't have to come up with any more creative excuses . After the deep royal bow at Buckingham, Gibbs said it was absolutely necessary in order to shake hands, because the King is so very much shorter than The One. Yet this time, the handshake and the kisses could be accomplished without it. > "Greetings, Your Majesty. My, how much you have grown since our last meeting!" A better message could have been delivered if this had been Indonesia's S.B. Yudhoyono instead of Egypt's President-for-Life Mubarak.
Photo: AFP / Khaled Desouki After a few hours of meetings and sight-seeing (and receiving some heavy-duty gold bling from the king), it was a short hop to Cairo and the long awaited and over-hyped "outreach to the Muslim world" speech.
Excuse me for saying so, but this was the wrong venue for him to be proclaiming the hope and change message to the world's Muslims who hunger for democracy and freedom. Not all of them do, of course, but for those who are hungry for those things, a much better example of the possibilities could have been selected. And some Egyptians with those very aspirations agree with me on this .> "It is a disaster," said Wael Abbas a renowned journalist and blogger. "He shouldn't be coming to Egypt. It's not a free Muslim country.
"He should speak in a Muslim country where they respect the rule of law." The most populous Muslim majority country on earth, Indonesia, would have been a much smarter choice. It would have sent a far more powerful message to "the Muslim world" had Obama been seen embracing the democratically elected President S. B. Yudhoyono rather than the Egyptian 28-year-long autocracy of Mubarak who jails, and yes, tortures his critics. Prior to his arrival Obama hailed his Egyptian counterpart as a "stalwart ally" — not exactly the change many are hoping for.
All that said, the major focus of the world's interest was the speech itself. As I watched it yesterday (conveniently timed at 5 pm here), I marvelled at his ability to appeal to everyone . Human rights defenders had parts to cheer, and the anti-Israel folks had other parts to cheer. People who believe America is a force for good could cheer at some points, and those who blame America for everything that's wrong in the world could cheer at others. It was striking to see this back-and-forth, "on the one hand... but on the other hand..." construction play out with the audience — cheering the "one hand" but sitting absolutely silent on the "other hand" in most cases. If you're wondering how to write your own Obama speech, see here . There's a definite pattern.
He seemed to be showing off his knowledge of Islam quite a bit, recalling the azan (call to prayer) he heard blaring from mosques during his youth in Indonesia, "at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk" (leaving off the mid-day one, the afternoon one, the night-time one, and the extra ones during Ramadan). He spoke of the zakat , and the hijab (but not the burqa). That last was troubling for me, and only one of the numerous instances of false moral equivalence that are easily spotted in the speech . There was implicit criticism of those who would deny women the right to wear hijab in his country, yet nothing to criticize those who would force women to wear it (or the burqa) in others. As the courageous author of "Infidel", Ayaan Hirsi Ali once said , "The veil is to show that women are responsible for the sexual self-control of men."
And, by the way, he actually said "hajib" in the speech rather than "hijab". I'll bet you won't find that in any transcript, but that's what he said.
There were many clever lines, well delivered (I especially liked, "Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons..."), but I was left with an uneasy feeling I couldn't put my finger on. It felt too much like pandering, to everybody at once. And if he could get away from those darn teleprompters and just speak with his heart from bullet-point notes, he could avoid the dizzying ping-pong head effect. And somebody needs to tell him to avoid that constant looking down his nose, jutting out the chin pose after applause lines. Way too much like Mussolini.
The moral relativism was just too thickly planted in those 55 minutes, and new policy or initiatives were absent. I had expected at least one solid new announcement among the platitudes, but I can't find any. There were far more apologies than there were policies. The esteemed Dr. Charles Krauthammer puts this very well, far better than I will ever do ( wai AllahPundit for the clip).
It would be great if at least a few of the establishment media personalities could manage to climb out of the Messiah's tank, or even poke their noses out, long enough to exercise their journalism degrees. What follows, if you have twelve minutes to spare, is a delightful instance of a very smart, well-spoken woman (Liz Cheney) figuratively pulling one of these personalities (Andrea Mitchell) up for a moment of air. Andrea was down pretty deep, and after a breath or two fights to get back down into the depths of that tank. Toward the end she pleads for time to "do my homework", so determined not to accept the truth is she. One doesn't skate around Liz Cheney that easily, as you will see.
The hardest truth here is that Liz knows her stuff, and Andrea unfortunately doesn't. They discuss yesterday's speech, then a couple of other very important subjects which most Americans still don't seem to have a clue about.
Truth Teaser: Liz' father never linked Saddam Hussein with the attacks of September 11, 2001. Strangely, most Americans apparently recollect exactly the opposite. Saddam's contacts with al Qaeda went back at least 10 years, and strangely, most Americans apparently recollect exactly the opposite. The intel services have never recanted this established fact (Liz misspeaks "recounted" rather than "recanted" I believe here). Saddam paid for terrorist attacks against Israel. I'm sure most Americans still don't get that either. Saddam could have easily given his known WMD technology to other terrorist-supporting regimes or terrorist groups.
But Barack says the overthrow of Saddam was an unnecessary "war of choice" after September 11, 2001. He really did. (Oh, but also that the Iraqis are far better off now without Saddam, so at least there's that.)
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy
Again, wai AP at Hot Air for the clip.
.
