PALESTINIANS JUST LOVE WORKING AT SODASTREAM’S (ILLEGAL) FACTORY TO MAKE ISRAELI FIZZY WATER. Or so says a promotional video for the company. This is one instance of Israeli entrepreneurs who shed “crocodile tears” over the economic condition of Palestinians in the West Bank in “industrial zones” near illegal Jewish settlements. Actually, these “zones” employ relatively [...]
“OUR GOAL WAS TO SHUT DOWN A PORTION OF AMERICA FOR A WHOLE DAY.” Producer of a new TV series, “House of Cards,” says this with a “laugh,” but it is no laughing matter to TV producers who are catering to a new kind of “binge-watching” among fans of particular TV programs. Rather than [...]
HELL ON EARTH: AUSTRALIA FACES UNPRECEDENTED WILDFIRE “CATASTROPHE” Proving that the in-your-face reality of unfettered climate change is not about to recede in the new year, a national disaster is unfolding only days into 2013 in Australia, where rampaging wildfires are burning huge swaths of the country. Australians are used to the annual “bushfire [...]
WHEN LOCAL NEWSPAPERS DIE, CAN THE DEATH OF COMMUNITY CITIZENSHIP BE FAR BEHIND? This question is addressed by Jessica Bruder in a feature article in the Christian Science Monitor. Her article is keynoted by a mournful style New Orleans funeral on the occasion of the drastic reduction of newspaper publication in favor of more [...]
THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS: THAT’S HISTORY, ISN’T IT? It is indeed history that 50 years ago the world approached self-annihilation, as a nuclear confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union brought the world to the brink of that catastrophe when the Soviet Union’s plans to place missiles in Cuba ran against the U.S. [...]
U.S. DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN: WE’RE NOT DOING THEM; BUT DAMN THEY ARE DOING GOOD! The U.S. government resists demands to release records on drone strikes, saying there is “no proof” that such a program exists but not hesitating to “leak” operations that are said to kill terrorist leaders. And of course in defining [...]
THERE IS NOTHING SO PERMANENT AS A TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT PROGRAM. John Glaser cites this saying attributed to Milton Friedman. It seems to capture the current situation of Libya in the aftermath of attacks on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi killed 4 people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. In “response,” President Obama sent [...]
“WE’RE LOSING THE COUNTRY. WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW IS (GREECE’S) LARGEST INVASION EVER.” This utterance by a member of a fascist party in Greece underscores the siege mentality behind the government’s recent rampage of the country seeking to expel “foreign-looking” people, using tactics of denial of due process for any who would seek refugee [...]
` THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN ENERGY IS NOT A PRETTY SIGHT. (Business Insider) ` With projects like the infamous Keystone XL pipeline from Canada through the heartland of America inexorably marching towards approval, the next chapter of America’s addiction to fossil fuels appears to be Canadian oil sands. The massive tar sands deposits in Alberta is home to perhaps [...]
A “LAKE SIDE SETTLEMENT” IN AFRICA HAS “MOVED” 22 KILOMETERS FROM THE BANKS OF THE CONTINENT’S LARGEST WATER RESERVOIR. (Africa News) Lake Chad in Nigeria and Chad continues to dry up at an alarming pace. The extended drought put the lives of 30 million people in the Sahel region at risk and precipitates an intense struggle [...]
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