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[Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>]

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From issue #22: "The Great White Way: An Interview with Daniel Kevles"

Long before Adolf Hitler hit his stride, American scholars and 
politicians worked to breed a better, whiter race. Historian Daniel 
Kevles discusses the United States eugenics movement, Fitter 
Families, and efforts to segregate, sterilize, and castrate the 
"unfit."
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/22/eugenics-daniel-kevles.html

Intro:

Imagine yourself in the heart of Kansas, at the annual state fair, in 
1928. Past the dunking booth and Ferris wheel, the stands selling 
corn dogs and cotton candy, farmers from around the state have 
gathered to show off the year's yields. Amid the horses, cattle, and 
hogs, a blue-eyed blonde family of four is displayed on an elevated 
platform. Over their heads is a large banner: fitter families contest.

Not unlike dog shows today, Fitter Family contests pitted American 
citizens against one another in a battle to determine whose facial 
characteristics, posture, health, and habits judges deemed the most 
fit. The winners were usually Aryans who, if not Christian 
themselves, could pass as models of godly living--which isn't to 
suggest that the contests were strictly a rural phenomenon. Fitter 
Family and similar contests were popular throughout the U.S., a 
visible face of a long-burgeoning movement that was quickly coming to 
a head: eugenics.

Continued at:
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/22/eugenics-daniel-kevles.html


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OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST

"Young Prospective Artist Finds Herself in a 'No Sketch' Zone"

Unbelievable. A museum guard apprehended a six-year-old from 
sketching the museum's paintings, telling her they were 
copyright-protected:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/news/010705_NW_sketcher.html
(via BoingBoing.net)

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"Clear Channel stations gave breast enlargement surgeries to women 
with best essays"

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/nation/2976208

You can't make this stuff up....

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In the early 1980s, you may or may not recall the music industry 
campaign to prevent people from making mixtapes. Whether you remember 
or not, the campaign slogan should sound familiar: "Home Taping Is 
Killing Music - and it's illegal."

Yes, the same crap the music industry is peddling today about file 
sharing, it peddled in the early 1980s, a period that saw the 
flowering of punk, alternative rock, and hiphop -- not to mention the 
enormous growth of the music industry.

Now the guys at Downhill Battle, who have down some great work 
fighting the copyright cartel, are selling a t-shirt poking fun at 
industry fear-mongering: "Home taping is killing the music 
industry.... and it's fun."
http://www.downhillbattle.org/postal/index.php


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New Yorkers: Don't forget!

Stay F---! presents:
JUMPIN' JIVE: MUSIC FILM SHORTS BEFORE MTV
at Southpaw in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Tuesday, January 25, 8 pm, $6
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/jumpin-jive.pdf

Films feature: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Charlie Parker & Buddy Rich, 
Django Reinhardt, The Delta Rhythm Boys, Fats Waller, Louis 
Armstrong, Louis Jordan, George Jones, and many more. With DJ Dave 
the Spazz from WFMU. Proceeds benefit Stay F---!