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Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter! Drug Companies and Psychiatrists
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Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter!
Drug Companies and Psychiatrists
Partners in CrimeEugenia Tsao reports on the upcoming revision of one of the most important books in America, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Here’s where the drug lords, the shrinks and the insurance companies collude in establishing hundreds of bogus psychic conditions requiring the psychotropic drugs from which they reap billions every year. There are about 250,000 migrant laborers in Israel, mostly from the Philippines and Thailand. Meanwhile tens of thousands of Palestinians can’t find work. From Tel Aviv, Yonatan Preminger reports on Israel’s vicious employment strategy. Also in this latest newsletter Andrew Cockburn updates his CounterPunch world exclusive on how the U.S. has secretly helped build Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.
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Today's Stories July 13, 2009 Uri Avnery July 10-12, 2009 Alexander Cockburn José Pertierra John Ross Conn Hallinan Nikolas Kozloff Clifton Ross / Carl Ginsburg Michael Neumann Gilad Atzmon Jeffrey St. Clair Ellen Hodgson Brown Jim Goodman Christopher Bickerton Wendell Potter Dave Lindorff David Ker Thomson Anthony DiMaggio Raymond Lawrence Walid El Houri Stephanie Westbrook Roger Gaess David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
July 9, 2009 Ronnie Cummings Jonathan Cook Nikolas Kozloff James Bovard Norman Solomon Afghanistan: the Escalation Scam Allan Nairn Andy Worthington Tomas Borge Nadia Hijab Paul Krassner Website of the Day July 8, 2009 Saul Landau Dean Baker Winslow T. Wheeler Eric Walberg Ray McGovern David Rosen Dr. Mona El Farra Ron Jacobs Benjamin Dangl Alan Farago Website of the Day July 7, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Uri Avnery Brian M. Downing Gary Leupp Gregory A. Burris David Macaray Laura Flanders Alan Farago Greg Moses Dan Bacher Website of the Day July 6, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Diana Johnstone Nikolas Kozloff Gary Leupp Jonathan Cook Tim Wise Franklin Lamb Charles R. Larson Carlos Benemann Shepherd Bliss Jerry Kroth Karyn Strickler Website of the Day July 3-5, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Eamonn Fingleton Jeffrey St. Clair Mike Whitney Pam Martens George Ciccariello-Maher Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Anthony DiMaggio Roger Burbach John Ross Nikolas Kozloff Gareth Porter Andy Worthington Saul Landau David Macaray Adam Federman Jane Slaughter Labor's Vague Rally for Health Care Russell Mokhiber Black Caucus Muzzled on Israeli Kidnapping of McKinney Robert Jensen Robert Bryce Belén Fernandez Missy Comley Beattie C. G. Estabrook Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend July 2, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Nikolas Kozloff Wendell Potter Ellen Hodgson Brown Christian Christensen Iran: Networked Dissent? Patrick Irelan Binoy Kampmark Returning Iraq Nicola Nasser Brian Tokar Dan Bacher Website of the Day July 1, 2009 Vijay Prashad Alberto Vallente Thorensen Paul Craig Roberts Robert Weissman Manuel García, Jr. Victor Figueroa-Clark / Pablo Navarrete Norman Solomon Franklin Lamb Martha Rosenberg Diane Rejman Website of the Day June 30, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Benjamin Dangl Jonathan Cook Franklin Lamb George Wuerthner Todd Gordon Ron Jacobs Kenneth Libby Julian Vigo Website of the Day
June 29, 2009 Ishmael Reed Nikolas Kozloff Clifton Ross Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Conn Hallinan James G. Abourezk Ralph Nader Carol Miller Greg Moses Website of the Day June 26-28, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Doug Peacock Daniel Wolff Mike Whitney John Ross David Rosen Emily Ratner Gareth Porter Farid Marjai Nadia Hijab Paul Craig Roberts Fred Gardner Carl Ginsburg Paul Watson David Ker Thomson Farzana Versey Geoff Berne Todd Alan Price Ramzy Baroud Jeff Sher Dr. Carol Paris Despite My Arrest by Max Baucus, I Will Continue to Advocate for Quality Health Care for All Walter Brasch Adultery as Family Value? Glen Johnson Charlotte Laws Charles R. Larson Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend June 25, 2009 Kathy Kelly Jack Bratich Wendell Potter Charles R. Larson Alan Farago Jonathan Cook Gareth Porter Bitta Mostofi / David Macaray Mark Schuller Website of the Day June 24, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Dean Baker Andy Worthington James Bovard Diana Gibson / P. Sainath Gareth Porter Robert Alvarez Dave Lindorff Steven Colatrella Remembering Giovanni Arrighi Website of the Day
June 23, 2009 David Price Patrick Cockburn James Ridgeway / Dave Lindorff Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero Gary Leupp Brian M. Downing Robert Bryce Nicholas Dearden Yousef Munayyer Website of the Day June 22, 2009 Michael Hudson Esam Al-Amin Chris Floyd Jack Z. Bratich Atash Yaghmaian Laura Carlsen Paul Craig Roberts Vijay Prashad Fred Gardner Andy Thayer David Macaray Website of the Day
June 19 - 21, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patrick Cockburn Al Giordano Henry A. Giroux Anthony DiMaggio Paul Craig Roberts John Ross Gareth Porter Carl Ginsburg Tommi Avicolli Mecca Joe Bageant Serge Halimi P. Sainath Jim Goodman Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Robert Fantina Harvey Wasserman Walter Brasch David Ker Thomson Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Ben Sonnenberg Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
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July 13, 2009 Cartoon VoicesSerf's Up in HollywoodBy DAVID MACARAY
Tinsel Town is addicted to “star power.” As evidence, look no further than SAG’s (Screen Actors Guild) latest contract with the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), and you’ll see that, while the Alliance is willing to pay A-listers top dollar, they continue to chip away at the incomes of those “marginal” actors who live off residuals and supporting roles. Your Alec Baldwins, Angelina Jolies and George Clooneys may not have to worry about what their cut of DVD sales will be, but thousands of lesser known (and, arguably, equally talented) SAG members do. Clearly, there are two classes of Hollywood actors: monarchs and serfs. Okay, three: monarchs, noblemen, and serfs. A question: What do the animated classics, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Cinderella,” “Peter Pan,” and “Bambi” all have in common? Answer: The voices were done by little known (often uncredited) actors, and not the big-name stars who regularly do voices today. While these were all wildly successful cartoons (still making money, incidentally) it’s fair to say that had the same Disney executives been around then that are around today, Tramp would’ve been voiced by Gary Cooper, and Snow White (1937) by Claudette Colbert. Of course, it’s not hard to see why the arrangement changed. Like everything else in Hollywood, it was done for money, the premise being that even though these animated features are kids’ fare, marquee stars would appeal to the parents and draw bigger audiences. But is that even true? If the kids begged to see “Ice Age,” would parents refuse to take them unless they were assured a “real” movie star was in it? No. More puzzling, if increased revenue was the goal, why not look for ways to cut costs, rather than raise them? You’d think the advantages of using “unknown” voices would be instantly obvious. Besides saving millions of dollars in salaries (Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy each received $10 million for “Shrek 2”), there’s ample evidence that no-name voices are effective. Consider: “The Simpsons” became a mega-hit without marquee voices; they did it with good writing and a talented ensemble of relative unknowns. The same goes for “Winnie the Pooh,” “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” and any number of other cartoons. They used second or third-echelon actors for the voices, and the results were spectacularly—and enduringly—successful. Not only are lesser known voices more economical, it can be argued that an anonymous voice allows us to embrace the character more fully because we’re able to “lose ourselves” in the performance. Which is more compelling? A cartoon animal with its own distinct personality, or one with Jim Carrey’s readily identifiable voice, where we’re forced to imagine Carrey sitting on a stool in a recording studio, wearing sweat pants and headphones, reading his lines? Also, what about spreading the wealth? No one is suggesting Hollywood should be in the charity business, but isn’t there such a thing as wretched excess? There are 120,000 SAG members trolling for paying gigs, and at any given time something like 85% of them are out of work. Does Cameron Diaz (who earned $20 million for the appalling “Charlie’s Angels”) really need to beat some struggling actor out of a job? And not to be snarky, but Diaz is an ex-model known for her striking looks rather than her acting ability. How can this woman’s “voice” be worth $10 million? I know a person, an actor, who is a tour guide at Universal Studios. He’s a master of voices—high-pitched squeaky ones, deep ones, funny ones, scary ones, dialects of all sorts, you name it. He’s articulate and has a wonderful sense comic timing. He could have played a caterpillar in “A Bug’s Life” (and done it for union scale). The absurdity of it all became apparent a few years ago, when I rented a copy of “Toy Story,” in Spanish. The more I think about this, the more hilarious a non-sequitur it becomes. Although all the voices in the movie were dubbed in Spanish, the film’s key advertising hook was that it starred Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. If you happen to come across the Spanish-edition of “Jaws” (which is titled “Tiburon” for “Shark”), you get to see Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfus speaking dubbed Spanish. It’s a little distracting, but at least you get to see them act. But the notion that someone can “star” as a voice in a dubbed movie is nonsensical. Even for Tinsel Town, where some weird things have happened—where, in a 1930 production of “Moby Dick,” the studio, looking for a romantic angle, insisted the writers provide Captain Ahab with a girlfriend—having the featured star of the movie not appear in the movie is pretty farfetched. David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright (“Larva Boy,” “Americana”) and writer, was a former labor union rep. He can be reached at dmacaray@earthlink.net
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
Spell Albuquerque:
Waiting for
Lightning
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