THE HEADLINES

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DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS: ISLAMOPHOBIA TAKES A SET-BACK.

Irving school officials, responding to a rash of complaints that school children were being “indoctrinated” with pro-Islamic propaganda, hired a “socially conservative” educator to evaluate these claims. What he found, instead, was that the school curriculum in fact lacked such propaganda, and that pro-CHRISTIAN bias was instead prevalent in the curriculum.

(Alternet)

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SYRIA AND THE “RED LINE”: UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

Developments in the strife-torn country take an unexpected turn as the Syrian government, faced with rebel takeover of some of its military bases, has begun firing Scud missiles in the direction of those strongholds. Reporters for New York Times cite military experts to the effect that Syria may be reacting to the “red line” declaration by President Obama that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria’s use of chemical weapons in the conflict. The thinking is that Syria may feel that, while it may get some scolding from the international community for the Scud attacks, they can indulge in such aggressive uses of “conventional” weapons because they do not cross the “red line.”

(New York Times)

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SOCIALIST EQUALITY PARTY HAS A FEW WORDS TO SAY ABOUT MICHIGAN’S NEW RIGHT TO WORK LAW.

2012 presidential candidate Jerry White cuts loose on the United Auto Workers and other unions in Michigan for their role in reducing organized labor to a state of total impotence in any opposition to efforts to curb the influence of workers on the auto-making industry, as Michigan becomes the 24th U.S. state to ban the requirement of union membership as a condition of employment. The right to work has become the license to destroy unions, and union “leadership” has collaborated deeply in the whole process by which workers have been forced to make “concessions” in wages and otherwise when they should instead be pushing non-negotiable demands. As White sees it, workers need a political party of “their own,” not one like the Democratic Party joined at the navel with the capitalist forces that control both major parties.

(World Socialist)

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OREGON: MOVING TO GIVE SUCKERS AN EVEN BREAK.

U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service, responding to the decline of sucker fish population in the Klamath Basin, declares the area as “critical habitat” for the species, opening the way for enhanced regulation to protect area waters from diversion to agriculture and other uses. This opens another chapter in the long-running battle between conservationists and farmers hoping to use the local water to irrigate their crops. The wheat crop ain’t so good Earl, better go fishing to catch our dinner.

(The Oregonian)

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GRINCH-Y FLORIDA LEGISLATORS GIVE SANTA CLAUS-Y RAISES TO THEIR TOP STAFF MEMBERS.

Hefty raises go into the Christmas stockings of the chiefs of staff and other management officials of legislators, while rank-and-file state workers get, as they usually have for several years, lumps of coal in their stockings as “austerity” allows no wage increases for themselves.

(Miami Herald)

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Quote of the day…

The vote at the U.N. yesterday is a great moment for us as citizens of the world. This is an opportunity to celebrate the process that allows a nation to come forward and ask for recognition.

Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, a large synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in a statement displaying crack in world-wide Jewish support for Israeli policy, as UN votes to recognize Palestine as a “non-member observer state.”

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