From the Stacks: February 24, 2006

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Utne receives some 1,200 magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, and zines. Add in hundreds of books, CDs, and DVDs, and it's a flood of media that lines the walls of our library and piles high on our desks. All the ideas, people, and stories inspire lively daily chatter, but can't all fit into our bimonthly magazine. So we've decided to share the gems here: Welcome to the fifth edition of "From the Stacks," a new weekly feature on Utne.com. Check in every Friday for the freshest highlights of the independent and alternative media.

Wanderlust takes us all from time to time, but when you just can't get away, reading vagabond missives can be the next best thing. Issue 53 of 2004 Utne Independent Press Award winner Moonlight Chronicles -- hot off the presses -- could be just what you need to (almost) feel the free and easy night sky pass blissfully over you. The newest issue delivers a daily sketchbook chronicle from intrepid peripatetic philosopher D. Price, taking you a'wandering through Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, and the writer's luminous ruminations. The pocket-sized booklet reads like an 8-year-old speaks: honest, charming, and, at times, blindingly brilliant. -- Nick Rose

Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote earlier this week about government agents in a public library, and quoted Benjamin Franklin: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." On the heels of reading this we've received the new issue of Statewatch, a watchdog publication "monitoring the state and civil liberties in the UK and Europe." Only the names have changed. This edition of Statewatch reports on the increasing ability for law enforcement and security agencies in Europe to access databases of people's fingerprints, DNA, and photographs; lists a dozen "incidents at sea" in late 2005 that resulted in the death of migrants; and provides background on the forced use of emetics in Germany on people suspected of having swallowed drugs. Included also: news clippings related to the military, prisons, and policing. -- Chris Dodge

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