Andrew Ross | The Nation

Focuses on a protest in support of the graduate teaching assistant union (GSOC-UAW) in front of New York University's (NYU) Bobst Library after NYU's use of an antilabor ruling by U.S. President George W. Bush's NLRB to deep-six the union. Participation of AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, UNITE HERE president Bruce Raynor, UAW secretary-treasurer Elizabeth Bunn and high-profile New York City and state politicians; Denial of some of NYU's requests for special dispensations by the New York City Council as retaliation.

The article presents information on various socio-political developments around the world. Only 5 percent of the world's population is affluent enough to travel for pleasure, but tourism is now the world's number-one employer and its first-or second-largest industry. At more than $3.5 trillion a year the tourism industry, if it were a country, would have the second-largest economy on the planet. In another development, U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright got one thing right during her recent trip to the Middle East.

Presents various letters to the editor. Criticism to the use of anticommunist card in defense of science support; Correction of an article titled "Alan Keyes Does the Hustle," published in the previous issue of the periodical.

In any event, science boosters and patriots wounded by the defeat of the Supercollider did not have to look far for scapegoats; the Culture Wars had already produced a cast of culprits. The sequel, bankrolled and coordinated by the same rightwing groups and foundations, has probably already come to an Op-Ed page near you. Be prepared for another season of asinine anecdotes about feminist algebra, queer quantum physics and Afrocentric molecular biology, backed up by warnings that these people are battering rams behind which counter-Enlightenment irrationalism and pseudoscience lie in wait to claim the citadel.

In this article, the author focuses on the controversial issue of musculinity and feminism in commercial media, especially in television programs. In a recent event, elders of the Daytona Beach City, Florida, refused to play this year to MTV's "Spring Break," a weeklong televised spree of lascivious beach games organized around live musical interludes. A year earlier, they had taken offense at the hedonistic goings-on during the event in their town, including the now-famous drag queen RuPaul's fierce performance. The mostly white college jock audience responded with seriously muted applause. A major part of the women's movement has been devoted to arguing this much about femininity. This is not to say that sexism and homophobia should be accepted as part of the "diversity" of masculine culture. But it cannot be expected to eliminate these powerful masculine legacies simply by denouncing their most powerless manifestations, as in rap lyrics, in the name of moral hygiene, least of all when the offenders represent some of the most economically marginalized sectors of the population.