Commentary Update for January 6, 2003: The Crash, Censored Stories, Worst Corporations, 2002 in Review, Gender Bender, Kunstler

In recognition of new governor Jim Doyle's ascension to the throne, this week we repeat our interview with candidate Doyle from April 22, 2002. Today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a front page story providing some pre-analysis of Doyle's inaugural speech, and they quote me of all people. Must be running short of qualified pundits--although my prediction of olive branches came true in droves, as noted by Jeff Mayers and Melanie Fonder in their post-speech inaugural diary.

In other news:

*The Crash: My older brother Frank was in a terrible car accident recently, and he writes about the experience here. The damaged vehicle in the story looks a little bit like the Packers after Michael Vick got done with them on Saturday night.

*Censored Stories: In this month's Media Rant for the Valley Scene, I talk about 5 stories the Fox Valley media "censored" in 2002. Next month's rant will discuss the "top 5." Writing about censored stories was inspired by Sonoma State University's Project Censored, an insitute that has since 1976 identified the most censored stories in the US media. I wrote a brief review of Censored 2003 for the UW Oshkosh College of Letters and Science recommended reading list (scroll down).

*Worst Corporations: Every December Multinational Monitor comes out with a list of the 10 worst corporations of the year. This year's list they refer to as "bad apples in a rotten system." I think the same could be said about the 10 worst Fox Valley corporations of 2002.

*2002 The Year In Review: If you're like me, you find the mainstream print and electronic media "year in review" specials at best incomplete, but more likely inane and offensive. Rather than just whine about them, however, I decided to come up with my own year in review with Commentary as the center of the universe.

*Gender Bender: How bad is it for women in American politics? Allison Stevens tells us in The American Prospect. For John Nichols of the Cap Times, the one silver lining in politics for 2002 was the election the first woman Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton.

*It's About How You Live, Stupid: Author James Howard Kunstler is much too pessimistic for me, but his writing does crack me up. On-line he keeps a "Clusterf*ck Nation Chronicle." The latest installment includes some classic Kunstler: " . . . Americans lead frantic lives of anxiety and depression in places that are not worth living in, with all our collective wealth invested in depreciating cars, appliances, gadgets, McHouses, and all our hard-won social capital squandered. We've indentured our work-lives to hyper-mega corporations who have little to no investment in our home places and no concern for our well-being. The social institutions and commercial relations that used to add up to more than the sum of their parts -- that is, living organisms called communities -- lie in wreckage around us under a smokescreen of distracting infotainment. The eventual result will be a race to the bottom in terms of happiness, security, and life expectancy."

All the best,

-Tony