Another new-age bird cage liner
A co-worker offered me a magazine to browse entitled Utne. Its parent organization lives by this credo: "The Utne Institute is an educational foundation devoted to promoting opportunities for community building, informing people of fresh ideas and solutions to contemporary challenges, and amplifying independent voices in the media." Sound wonderful? Be prepared to retch.
The institute's founder is based in Minneapolis, an aged '60s hippie named Nina Utne who proclaims herself the voice of peace for The New Human, trans-humanism, revolutionary mothers, daughters, and justice (I haven't quite figured out exactly who is being denied justice, like it matters to these people anyway.). OK, I get it, another New Age rag just like all of the other rags out there. But this is the first one at which I really took a hard look.
To give you an idea of the magazine's content that oozes out and overflows like a stopped-up commode, here are some recent articles:
- Feeling a Draft
- Tomorrow's cowards and conscientious objectors are getting ready now;
- Home Security
- Architects say building houses, not jails, will cut crime;
- The Big Organic O
- Forget Viagra and try all-natural aphrodisiacs instead;
- Subversive Gadgets
- Tech-friendly protesters have some cool new tools; and
- A River Runs Through It
- Read how hydroelectric dams kill fish, destabilize ecosystems, and make it hard for river-dependent Native American tribes to get three squares a day.
And of course, I cannot leave out the Editor's Note, Heartland, Letters, and First Thoughts sections, each chock-full of similar drivel and anarcho-leftist pap. After reading this publication, you would think that we were on our last leg, the Great Depression was alive and well, and America was spelled Amerika. Meanwhile, Nina and her comrades live in American suburban luxury, take advantage of all of America's guaranteed freedoms and bounty, and turn a neat capitalist profit to boot while they belittle the United States and the lives of 85 percent of its citizens.
Hey, but that's just my opinion. If you want to waste five bucks American or seven bucks Canadian, feel free.