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Read and produced by Nicholas Fiscina.

Stories written by Nicholas Fiscina, Matthew Phelps and Gareth Sloan.

There is an entire segment of the population that doesn't want to deal with facts or science or anything they consider to be disagreeable, and they are called conservatives. In essence they have their own set of facts. In another era that would have gotten you institutionalized, today it gets you a job working for Fox News.

Below you can watch Rachel outline how much money BP has spent on spill response research in preparation of the kind of gusher we're witnessing in the Gulf of Mexico (hint: Nothing!).

 Some info on BP's police force that are busy keeping the media at bay in Louisiana and what the ACLU is doing about it.  An interview with Mac McClelland, a Mother Jones reporter who has been providing some of the nation's best on-the-scene coverage of the BP oil spill. And an interview with a survivor from the Exxon Valdez spill who discusses the toxic effects of being a part of the clean-up crew. Oh, and the first hurricane of the season is upon the Gulf.

 Here's a pair of stories from one of my favourite and clearly one of the best writers in the blogosphere, Glenn Greenwald. Beginning with a story about the intense animosity (jealousy) the recent Michael Hastings' Rolling Stone article about General McChrystal caused. What he calls the "universality of war propaganda," and its' ready acceptance by the MSM.

 Debunking the myth about trickle down economics (voodoo), how it hurt 90% of Americans.

 Australia's new PM is expected to deal seriously with the issue of climate change. A couple of cautionary articles from Science Daily about trying to geo-engineer our way out of the mess we're creating. It could lead to even more untenable consequences.

Before you watch this clip courtesy of the always wonderful and incisive Rachel Maddow, you might want to get yourself a little bag you can heave your disgust into. There are few words that don't delve into the scatological to describe the people at BP as they try find the upside of ecocide.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The behaviour exhibited by Toronto's police in this video that comes to us via therealnews.com is beyond reprehensible. They are violent, thuggish and deserve no respect or quarter. The explanation given by the police chief about the so-called Black Block being nearby as an excuse for the brutal and despicable response to peaceful demonstrators is a proven to be a bald faced lie in the video. This is our country, we should not stand by and tolerate this massive abusive of our freedoms. 

When did you first get the idea for this book?

It’s hard to say exactly, but in retrospect I think I’ve wanted to do something on this subject matter ever since I first started getting involved in subcultures when I was 12 or 13. There really were no underground scenes in my hometown on the South Shore of Boston and not too many kids from there were into punk or skate or whatever else, so if you were, you really stuck out. And you weren’t just judged by other kids because you weren’t wearing Abercrombie; you were judged by other kids’ parents, teachers, local cops, everyone. It wasn’t necessarily because people thought you were bad, but they wondered about you. In the end, though, I think that just made me more dedicated to being involved in those scenes, because I loved proving people’s presumptions wrong. Yes, I looked different and went to punk shows in other towns on the weekend instead of going to football games and house parties, but I was an honor student, I was the editor of the school literary magazine, I wasn’t messed up on drugs, and I loved my family.

For a long time I think my parents had a hard time with me “being different.” Not because they thought I was a bad seed, but because they wanted me to have the best life possible, whether that be in terms of good friends, good career opportunities, or whatever else. They didn’t want other people to judge me, and in turn, I’m sure they also didn’t want to be judged. As a parent, I’m sure you don’t want other people in town thinking that because your kid is different you somehow failed in your parenting. Once I realized that, I became even more resolute in my desire to, on the one hand, positively promote and contribute to subcultures, but on the other hand, to make my parents proud.

It took a long time for me to come up with the concept for this book, because it took a long time to figure out what exactly I wanted to convey. In the end, though, I’m very happy with it. Not only were the contributors excited to participate in it, but also my parents were very excited about the final product, which was huge for me.

If there is one thing that you want people to take from this book, what is it?

The world would be a far better place if we would take the time to try to identify with others on some level before judging or dismissing them. Also, there are a lot of people out there who think that choosing to live life against the grain is the easy, cop-out way that involves zero responsibility and a lax work ethic. Nothing could be further from the truth.

What demographic do you want to read this book, the people who know the scene, or the people who don’t understand the scene?

Both. I wanted this book to be something that the contributors, or in other words the individuals involved in subcultures, could be really excited about. This was a chance for them to celebrate their families and talk about a part of their lives that they don’t usually get asked about. This was also put together with the people not familiar with the contributors or their subcultures in mind, so that they might identify with them in some way or see them in a different light. Family is what pretty much all of us have in common, so my aim with the book was to put all participants on the same level, whether they be my friends, my family, or the legends who I admired when I was growing up.

What question do you wish an interviewer would ask and why?

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night panicking that maybe you should have taken that stable, corporate job seven years ago when you graduated from university? More often than I’d like to admit, but life’s too short to not try your hardest to follow your heart, and I’m happy knowing that I won’t wake up when I’m 60, unfulfilled, wishing that I had given it a shot.

Read a review of Gray's book here.