Greg Palast’s BBC crew of journalist-detectives chase down British Petroleum bag men, CIA operatives, nuclear power con men — and “The Vultures,” billionaire financial speculators who, through bribery, flim-flam and political muscle, take entire nations hostage for mega-profits.

The action begins when the Deepwater Horizon explodes in the Gulf of Mexico and a confidential cable arrives on Miss Badpenny’s desk from a terrified insider. He has the real, hushed-up facts of the disaster — which can only be found hidden in the files of a Central Asian dictatorship.

Palast sets off for Baku to investigate the sexiest Muslim woman on Earth and the whereabouts of millions of dollars in a brown valise. Then he jumps the globe to an Alaska Eskimo village after receiving an extraordinary note from the Chief of Intelligence of the Free Republic of the Arctic.

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Our Ultimate Fate May Depend Upon It

by Glynn Wilson

The very fate of our human species, yes, and your state too — as well as this country and the earth — may well depend on a compromise between science and religion.

Yes, you read that correctly. Not that I ever wanted to admit it before.

This will be a precarious journey with no guarantee of success like the fate of all life itself, from the beginning into the infinite future.

A top American scientist from Alabama writes that religion and science “are the two most powerful forces in the world today, including especially the United States.” That is from Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson’s book The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, which he wrote to Southern Baptist preachers who hold sway over millions of votes that could have a positive, or negative, impact on all kinds of government policies.

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He Shot Rock ‘n’ Roll Too

How many roads must a man walk down
Before they call him a man?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
– Bob Dylan

Glynn Wilson

Rowland Scherman at Art Folk, Inc., “We Shot Rock ‘n’ Roll” (See video, links and purchasing information below)

by Glynn Wilson

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Running into Rowland Scherman at the “We Shot Rock ‘n’ Roll” show the other day made me think of a story I picked up from a professor who taught a class at the University of Alabama on the history of “Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a story packed with advice about how to live life and succeed.

Scherman was in town for a special show at a downtown gallery since none of his works were included in the Birmingham Museum of Art show going by a similar name out of Brooklyn, New York. When I saw the announcement about the Museum of Art show, I planted the idea on Facebook to get Rowland back down here, since his name was not on the list of photographers and I knew he had some of the most iconic pictures from the beginnings of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

At the time Rowland was running Joe bar on Birmingham’s Southside in the early 1980s, I was a student of journalism and photography at the University of Alabama, fully engrossed in reading authors like Hunter S. Thompson, and ordering Bass Ale, because that’s what Thompson drank at the Watergate Hotel. Joe was about the only place in Birmingham you could get it then.

The professor in question, Jim Salem in Tuscaloosa, liked to say when the bus pulls up to the station, no matter what your dream, you better have your bags packed and be ready and willing to get on that bus and go. When opportunity knocks, that is, you get on the bus.

Photographer Rowland Scherman got on that bus, in 1957, and he’s still on it, although sometimes these days, it’s a train or a plane taking him to the big picture.

Let’s just say Rowland Scherman was there, for some of the most important cultural moments of the 1960s and beyond.

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My old friend Randall Williams of New South Books is on the hot seat on CBS’s “60 Minutes” for publishing a version of Mark Twain’s classic book Huckleberry Finn — with the word “slave” substituted for the word “nigger.”

Censorship? Or a great way to get the book taught in public schools again?

Sarah Palin may not have the biggest fan in former first lady Barbara Bush.

“I sat next to her once. Thought she was beautiful,” Barbara Bush said. “And she’s very happy in Alaska, and I hope she’ll stay there.”

Bush, along with her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, spoke to CNN’s Larry King in an interview set to air Monday.

President Bush discussed the Tea Party movement, and although he said “some of the ideas make a lot of sense,” he said he isn’t sure how the new movement will fit into the larger political landscape.

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The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

The news could not be any worse.

I honestly wish there was some good news to report. Sorry to say, there’s not any.

Well, the Crimson Tide did manage to pull out a victory over Ole Miss in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, football being about the only thing worth mentioning on the good side of the ledger in Alabama. But the Atlanta Braves were knocked out of post-season play last week, so baseball season is over. So much for sports.

I traveled to the Gulf Coast again last week for Shrimp Fest, hoping upon hope to see some signs of things getting better along the formerly beautiful Gulf of Mexico. I’ve spent a fair portion of my life visiting the Gulf, and lived in Gulf Shores and New Orleans for some very interesting runs over the years.

Alas, I came away with empirical data indicating that the air and water are still dangerous and may not get well anytime soon.

On the political front, the elections of 2010 are shaping up to be compared to Richard Nixon’s midterm elections in 1970 and his reelection campaign in 1972, when corporate and individual donations were secretly pouring in to the Committee to Re-Elect the President, otherwise known as CREEP.

Nixon said he was “not a crook,” but he was certainly a creep. No historical rehabilitation will ever exonerate him for that.

The record of all that illegal Republican campaign cash was stored in the president’s secretary’s desk, and is now in the National Archives and referred to as “Rose Mary’s baby.” Unfortunately, the Washington Post‘s investigation of the Watergate break in did not pick up enough steam to stop Nixon’s reelection, even though it did culminate in his impeachment and resignation after the election — and jail time for some of his cronies.

Is it possible that a similar scenario is developing this time around?

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Event to Honor 50th Anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird

United States Attorney General Eric H. Holder will be the keynote speaker during an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ms. Harper Lee’s book To Kill A Mockingbird on Tuesday, September 21 at 3:45 p.m. in the University of Alabama Law School’s McMillan Lecture Hall, room 287-288.

Ms. Lee, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, attended the University of Alabama School of Law during the late-1940s.

The law school will also announce a new national book award titled “The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Literature.” The Prize will be given annually to a published book-length work of fiction that best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society and lawyers’ power to effect change. Ms. Lee has approved the law school’s establishment of the prize.

The event is free and open to the public, but seating will be limited. Those who are planning to attend are advised that book bags, handbags or large coats will not be permitted within the Law School’s McMillan Lecture Hall.

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Sarah Palin says ‘Refudiate’ then compares herself to Shakespeare

Obviously, Sarah Palin is no Shakespeare. Perhaps a comparison to George W. Bush would be more in line with reality. He often used non-sensical words as well.

Obviously she was trying to tell so-called “peaceful Muslims” to “repudiate” a plan to build a mosque near the site of ground zero in New York, even though the plan is to try to build better relations with the Arab world — so perhaps we don’t have to continue fighting this religious war between the bin Laden’s and the Bushes for the rest of our lives.

But of course that does not serve the political interests of conservative Republicans running for higher office. They need an enemy to get elected. Rather than simply correcting her mistake and saying she meant to say “repudiate,” Palin made matters worse for herself by putting a tweet on Twitter as seen in the video above.

Playing around on Facebook myself the other day, I posted the line from Shakespeare’s play As You Like It, a comedy.

In the interest of helping readers to understand such things, here’s the full passage, followed by some interpretation.

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In Memoriam
Birders United

Theodore Cross, a bird photographer, author, publisher, and founder of Birders United, died in Sanibel, Florida, on Sunday, February 28. He was 86.

“All of us at Birders United are extremely saddened by the passing of our leader and dear friend,” the group said in a statement. “He will be deeply missed.”

Cross published two critically acclaimed books of his bird photography: Birds of the Sea Shore and Tundra and Waterbirds, which was published just a few months back.

The esteemed Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson said of Waterbirds, “It’s a masterpiece. I do not exaggerate when I say that the back-jacket photo of Great Blue Herons is a candidate for the most beautiful illustration of birds in existence, photo or painting.”

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