The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Everything I Know About Climate Change, I Learned in the Fifth Grade by Martin Musatov

When Torture Is Condoned, Is FISA That Shocking? by Wendy Cohen

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Nicole Hughes:

Baltimore Woman Turns Tragedy Into Art

Why Don’t We Do More to Stop Global Warming?

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Andy Kondrat:

Foods You Should and Shouldn’t Buy Organic

Paper or Plastic? The Environmental Impact

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Jon Popham:

The Energy Independence Bill: A Filibuster Odyssey

“Bruno” Fools Mossad Agent

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Gina Telaroli:

While Iran Tests Missiles, Test These 5 Iranian Films

Mao’s Out, Time to Capitalize On the Olympics

The Senate passed the FISA bill today giving telecoms immunity and allowing the government to spy on all Americans. Yes, this violates the privacy the constitution is meant to protect us from.   Spying…hmm… that doesn’t sound very American. But it also doesn’t surprise me.

This past week, I came across an article and radio segment about torture.   The former is a frightening piece in Vanity Fair where author Christopher Hitchens undergoes the controversial drowning technique and concludes, “believe me, it’s torture.”

And on This American Life, Ira Glass interviews Basim, an Iraqi national who worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. He talks about the time he had to purposely mistranslates in order to keep a situation from turning violent. And then Basim mentions the Abu Ghraib photos and how they changed the Iraqi’s perception of Americans. Before the photos were published, even if Iraqis mistrusted Americans, they viewed Americans as generally fair and ethical. But after the photos of Abu Ghraib were public, it was as if everything they perceived about Americans was a lie and it was even more difficult to believe we could do anything good.   Almost instantly, Americans were seen as less fair, ethical and evolved. (You can listen to the entire show here. Basim’s segment is about 20 minutes in.)

Does passing the FISA bill reinforce the perception of unfair and unjust America?

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A man who was almost undefinable - Hunter S. Thompson is the focus of Alex Gibney’s latest documentary:

While we mostly think of crazy and drugs when we think of Thompson today - his political mark can’t be denied

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Cindy Crawford has had an Eco-Awakening. The supermodel will now be writing a Green Beat blog about the environment on Vanity Fair’s VF Daily website. The former host of MTV’s “House of Style” admits she’s “no Al Gore” but rather hopes to be viewed as your typical working mother with children, concerned about their wellbeing and the future of the world they will inhabit.

Indeed, Crawford tells her “eco-awakening” started as a direct result of her children who attend a very environmentally aware school and made a habit of giving their mother guilt trips over unsound environmental practices around the home. She started by making little changes, one step at a time, like unplugging electrical items like toasters, television sets and cell phone chargers when not in use. Then she made the switch to recycled paper products (sans toilet paper) for her home paper needs–and now she’s considering buying the recycled T.P. after all. Lastly she looked into water filtration systems for the home in order to switch from wasteful plastic bottled water to tap. She started using a PUR filtration system at home and is now working with the company to design a reusable aluminum bottle for a program called “Thirsty for Change”.

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Fellow Takepart blogger Katie Halper recently talked about the annoying, backwards notion expressed last year in Vanity Fair that women aren’t funny and then the follow up piece in 2008 basically saying “woopsies! We meant to say to say that women are funny.” The while Vanity Fair discussion for lots of folks talking as bloggers continue to write about this absurd and annoying topic.

Can we just drop the lame debate that women are somehow comically inferior to men? Enough already. Yes some female comedians, as Christopher Hitchens says “often talk about things that women can relate to”relationships with men, babies, periods, shopping, love. As a man, I can’t relate to all that.” Well guess what? Some male comedians often talk about things that men can relate to-relationships with women, babies, their dicks, sports, love. And as a woman, I can relate to all that. I may not have the exact same experiences with some “men” topics but I can relate to the emotions behind those topics the same way an intelligent audience member should be able to relate to “women” topics. Our experiences may differ but most feelings are universal.

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Dear Hamilton Nolan & Gawker:

I want to thank you for your post supporting Christopher Hitchens’ claim that women aren’t funny. I also I want to apologize for not writing sooner, but between getting my bikini line waxed, shopping, trying, in vain to be funny, and dealing with PMS, I had no time– and was in no shape–to write anything. But I want to thank you for having the testosterone-drenched you know whats to say what nobody else, besides Christopher Hitchens and lots of men, will say: women comics Suck! And Christopher Hitchens Rocks! Responding to the unfunny and boring and (I know this is redundant) female-written Vanity Fair article Who Says Women Aren’t Funny, you write

The problem they [female comics] have is they often talk about things that women can relate to–relationships with men, babies, periods, shopping, love. As a man, I can’t relate to all that. That puts women comics at a distinct disadvantage when trying to win over me and my fellow men. This is obvious day, right here.

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Some post-writers strike sentiments lingered as Hollywood celebrated the 80th Annual Academy Awards last night. Variety reports that many like NBC prexy Jeff Zucker, acknowledged the celebratory feel caused by the Oscars happening and the strike ending saying “I think everybody was ready for a party, and to enjoy the chance to come and to have a grand time.”

Others still had left-over thoughts from the recent strike events such as best actor nominee George Clooney who repeated his strong wish that the Screen Actors Guild help the rank and file in his union stay employed by starting talks as soon as possible. “There’s no resolution yet,” he said. “We’re talking to all parties. We’re hoping to avoid a strike.”

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You know you’ve heard it (thanks Jerry Lewis!). Maybe you even thought it. But please, please don’t believe it when you hear: “women aren’t funny.”

Sure, there are some unfunny females lurking about, as there are also plenty of unfunny males out there too. But for some reason when the unfunny comic has a nice pair of breasts, she is suddenly a representation for her entire gender. When the male comic is unfunny, he’s just well, unfunny. When a female comic talks about female things (ie: childbirth, periods, food, fat, dating, sex, slut-hood) it’s cliche but when a guy talks about male things (their penis, sex, their penis, sports, their penis, issues with girlfriends, their penis) it’s apparently universally hilarious.

But this isn’t a post pouting about sexism in the entertainment industry. Nor is this a post about how I, as a strong and hilarious comic am living proof that females are indeed funny (yes that was a shameless “pat-on-the-back”).

This is a post about a group of fantastic females who aren’t complaining but rather celebrating being a funny female. Introducing “The Hysterical Festival.”

The Hysterical Festival is the brainchild of comedian/producer Desiree Burch and a series of Sunday afternoon mimosas. Hanging out with a group of female comedians sharing stories, eating junk food and getting bombed in the early afternoon, the idea came to her: what if this camaraderie could lead to a comedy revolution? What if the community that formed so naturally amongst these dynamic funny women could change the face of comedy…forever? It might look something like empowerment with a sense of humor. Sexy. Dangerous. Hysterical.

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