Re:Action

About: How to learn more about, or get involved in, the issues featured in Mother Jones

Reversal of Fortune
Happiness: Lessons From a New Science
Economist Richard Layard mixes serious research with New Yorker cartoons in this look at what makes us smile (Penguin, 2005).

"Beyond Money"
300 studies on happiness, packed into 25 pages, available at psychologicalscience.org.

Happiness 101
Tal Ben-Shahar's "Positive Psychology," a.k.a. "Happiness 101," is one of Harvard's most popular classes. His latest book, Happier: Finding Pleasure, Meaning, and Life's Ultimate Currency, comes out in May (McGraw-Hill).

Breaking the News
Free Press
Learn more about this media reform group's efforts to promote locally owned media at freepress.net. Its tips for how you can weigh in on FCC rulemaking are at stopbigmedia.com.

Prometheus Radio Project
Tune in to prometheusradio.org to meet the activists who beat the FCC in court. Check out Rob Gurwitt's profile of the group's cofounder and "Director of Electromagnetism," Pete Tridish, at motherjones.com/tridish.

Hearusnow.org
Get information on how deregulation affects your media choices—and pocketbook—at this site, run by Consumers Union.

Who Owns What
Look up who owns your local media outlets with the Center for Public Integrity's Media Tracker at openairwaves.org/telecom. The Columbia Journalism Review tracks big media holdings at cjr.org/tools/owners.

"Losing Signal"
In the September/October 2001 issue of Mother Jones, Brendan Koerner explores how the digital age transformed the FCC into a powerhouse. Read it at motherjones.com/losingsignal.

Sunni, Shiite?... Anyone? Anyone?
"Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?"
Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein posed this question to counterterrorism officials and members of Congress. Their answers weren't pretty. He describes his findings on his website, jeffstein.info.

The Shia Revival
The Iraq War has shaken the delicate balance between Sunni and Shiite, writes Middle East expert Vali Nasr (W.W. Norton, 2006).

When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World
Hugh Kennedy chronicles how the capital of present-day Iraq was once the heart of a medieval Islamic renaissance (Da Capo, 2005).

Wounded
Dr. Ronald Glasser, author of the Vietnam classic 365 Days, examines the physical and psychological aftermath for American soldiers injured in Iraq (George Braziller, 2006).

"Iraq Index"
Download the Brookings Institution's weekly data dispatch at brook.edu/iraqindex.

"Unembedded"
View this striking collection of recent photographs of the human toll of occupation and civil war at motherjones.com/unembedded.

"Coming Home"
Paul Fusco's photographs of seven American soldiers' funerals appeared in the January/February 2005 issue of Mother Jones. View them at motherjones.com/cominghome.

Thrown to the Assassins
Refugees International
Read more about what it calls "the world's fastest growing crisis" at refugeesinternational.org.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The agency is trying to raise $60 million to assist Iraqis uprooted by violence. Learn more about its efforts at snipurl.com/unhcriraq.

Hail Mary
Ave Maria, Florida
Avemaria.com provides updates on the town for "every family, every lifestyle, and every dream."

Born-Again Abortion Clinics
"The Last Abortion Clinic"
Read pbs's Frontline interviews with the directors of shuttered abortion clinics and the anti-abortion activists who forced them to close their doors at snipurl.com/lastclinic.

Exhale
This hot line provides counseling for women who have had an abortion. Find out more at 4exhale.org or call 1-866-4EXHALE.

The Celibates of Ocalan
Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History
Susan Meiselas presents the history of the Kurds with a mesmerizing collage of photographs and interviews (Random House, 1997).

Theotheriraq.com
Visit friendly Iraq! Or so says this site sponsored by the government of Iraqi Kurdistan.

"The Talented Mr. Fakhravar"
Laura Rozen reports on the rise of an Iranian dissident who may be following in Ahmed Chalabi's footsteps in the November/December 2006 issue of Mother Jones.