A recent Associated Press dispatch – headlined “Gadget May Help Sleepers Choose Dreams” – told the story of a new product that “can be programmed to help sleepers choose what to dream.” Made in Japan, the 14-inch gizmo is called “Dream Workshop.”

After so much progress has been made to ravage the natural environment all around us (fulfilling Francis Bacon’s recommendation that we torture Mother Nature for her secrets), it stands to reason that technology should also besiege our inner nature. But like wild animals and flighty birds, our dreams are loath to be tamed.

“The dream reveals the reality which conception lags behind,” Franz Kafka said. Yet overall, dreams are not very marketable. Experienced during sleep, they’re one of the few human activities left that can’t be bought or sold…

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When a federal judge compares George W. Bush to Benito Mussolini, is that newsworthy?

After the conservative daily New York Sun broke the story about a speech by Judge Guido Calabresi of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, few media outlets even mentioned what he had to say.

“In a way that occurred before but is rare in the United States … somebody came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution that had the right to put somebody in power,” Judge Calabresi told attorneys and law students at the American Constitution Society’s annual convention on June 19. “That is what the Supreme Court did in Bush versus Gore. It put somebody in power.”

The 71-year-old judge, who was born in Milan before his family left Italy in 1939, added: “The reason I emphasize that is because that is exactly what happened when Mussolini was put in by the king of Italy.” And Calabresi, a former dean of Yale Law School, went on: “The king of Italy had the right to put Mussolini in, though he had not won an election, and make him prime minister. That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in. I am not suggesting for a moment that Bush is Hitler. I want to be clear on that, but it is a situation which is extremely unusual.”

Referring to the Supreme Court’s post-election decision in 2000…

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Political myth-making goes into overdrive every four years. With presidential campaigns fixated mostly on media, an array of nonstop spin takes its toll while illogic often takes hold: When heroes are absent, they’re invented. When convenient claims are untrue, they’re defended.

Many supporters come to function as enablers — staying silent or mimicking their candidate’s contorted explanations to try to finesse the gaping contradiction. Fast talk substitutes for straight talk. A kind of “covering fire” across media battlefields makes it easier for the candidate to just keep on dissembling.

There are true believers, of course — people who believe every word that comes out of their own mouths when, for instance, they stand at the podium of the Republican or Democratic convention. Whatever the extent of their sincerity, only superlatives will do as speakers unequivocally praise George W. Bush or John Kerry…

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If journalism is history’s first draft, the death of Ronald Reagan has caused a step-up in the mass production of falsified history.

It’s mourning in America.

The main technique is omission. People who suffered from the Reagan presidency have no media standing today. It’s not cool to mention victims of his policies in, for example, Central America.

President Reagan lauded and subsidized the contra guerrillas — extolling them as “freedom fighters” while they terrorized the population in Nicaragua, killing thousands of civilians. And he proudly funneled large-scale support to governments aligned with death squads murdering thousands more in Guatemala and El Salvador.

With all the media-fueled mourning in America, there’s been none left for the victims of Reaganite policies in Angola, either. His tireless support for the guerrilla forces of Unita “freedom fighter” Jonas Savimbi deserves much of the credit for making Angola the artificial limb capital of the world…

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This year, Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign has two trains running that will collide at an unfortunate intersection — the Green Party’s national convention in Milwaukee. The collision course is bad news for all concerned.

Nader, one of the great progressive reformers of the 20th century, has been clear and consistent for months in saying that he will not seek or accept the national Green Party presidential nomination for 2004. Yet he has made it known that he would welcome the party’s “endorsement” — and there’s a move afoot to give it to him at the national convention that begins June 23. Under such a plan, Nader might then try to get his name on the ballot courtesy of the Green Party in some of the two-dozen states where the party has achieved ballot status.

After a high-profile run as the Green Party’s presidential candidate four years ago, Nader has emphasized that this time around he is an “independent” candidate. That’s one train running that is acceptable (though not preferable) for quite a few Greens. But there’s another train running that Green Party activists are just starting to find out about — and it indicates that Nader is heading in another direction.

Americans opposed to undue corporate power correctly fault the mainstream media for going easy on establishment politicians who contradict themselves whenever convenient. But it remains to be seen whether activists on the left — and their media institutions — are willing to be appropriately tough on Nader…

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For many years, health-conscious Americans avidly consumed margarine as a wholesome substitute for artery-clogging butter. Only later did research shed light on grim effects of the partially hydrogenated oil in margarine, with results such as higher incidences of heart disease.

Putting our trust in bogus alternatives can be dangerous for our bodies. And for the body politic.

For many years, staples of the highbrow American media diet have included NPR News and the New York Times. Both outlets are copious and seem erudite, in contrast to abbreviated forms of news. And with conservative spin widespread in news media, NPR and the Times appeal to listeners and readers who prefer journalism without a rightward slant…

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