Barbara Ehrenreich, an always-powerful voice for feminism and social justice, has put out an excellent-looking book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America [review by NY Times]. Ehrenreich spent three months trying to make ends meet in low-paid unskilled labor, the kind of situations faced by millions since the obliteration of welfare (it’s 6 years after the 1995 welfare reform, meaning that the first wave of people booted off the rolls by the five year restriction are now facing the increasingly troubled job market without anything resembling a safety net, without any chance to go to school to better their chances (since that doesn’t count as working for the purposes of TANF), and generally just in a pretty shitty situation. Ehrenreich’s time spent living in a trailer, so exhausted and in a neighborhood so desperate that she could only describe herself and her neighbors as canned labor, is a frighteningly real response to those feel-good liberals who proclaim the virtues of voluntarily living in poverty and complain about how frustrated they feel with their Palm Pilots and SUVs.

The New York Times has an interesting-looking review of On Hostile Ground, a documentary which gives credit where credit is due, by showing the heroic actions of three abortion providers who put their lives on the line every day to make women’s reproductive rights a reality.

A great interview with Alison Bechdel, cartoonist of Dykes to Watch Out For

Salon has an interesting article which does a great job of exposing the horror of Stalingrad, as against the theme-park version of it that occupies most of Enemy at the Gates.

Salon’s complete list of this year’s Oscar winners poses the musical question: Why in God’s name did Gladiator win Best Picture?! In actuality, Best Picture should have been Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, but, well, the Spike Lee bit will tell you why it wasn’t even nominated…