NEW YORK TIMES TAKES ITS LITTLE HATCHET TO A RACIAL DISCRIMINATION SUIT BY BLACK FARMERS. An article in the Times derogates a class action lawsuit against the USDA claiming what is a long-known fact, that this agency has conspired with local white racists to administer farm loans in a way to restrict opportunities for [...]
U.S NAVY PREPARES TO DEPLOY LASER “DEATH RAY” IN PERSIAN GULF After years of speculation that the Pentagon was working on a secret laser weapon project, euphemistically described as a “death ray” by observers, the Navy revealed the finished product this week. It’s a curious device that can shoot lethal laser rays at objects, [...]
‘STUDENTS-FIRST’ HAS AN AGENDA; AND IS A HARSH GRADER OF U.S. STATES ON THEIR COMPLIANCE WITH THAT AGENDA. Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor of Washington D.C. schools, heads the advocacy group that pushes an “education reform” movement based on downgrading of teacher tenure and promotion of teacher evaluation based on student performance on standardized tests. [...]
HOT TIME AT THE OLD BYRD RESEARCH STATION. Temperature readings at this oceanographic station in southwest Antarctica indicates that the ice cap is heating at twice the rate that climatologists had predicted, raising the image of likely melting that could raise ocean levels by a disastrous ten feet within a few years. (Common Dreams) [...]
THE ROAD TO ZERO WASTE MAY LEAD THROUGH THE FLANDERS REGION OF BELGIUM. By both citizen action and government enforcement, this Dutch-speaking section of Belgium is converting traditional Dutch cleanliness into a program of waste prevention and re-cycling through a multi-pronged movement to encourage source separation for garbage, massive private and corporate composting operations, [...]
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 [...]
IF INTRA-UTERINE DEVICES AND HORMONE IMPLANTS ARE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE WAYS OF PREVENTING PREGNANCY, WHY DO ONLY 8.5% OF WOMEN USE THEM? IT’S THE COST, STUPID! An experimental program in St. Louis dispensing free contraceptives demonstrates the validity of this answer. When given the choice of contraceptives without regard to cost, 75% of women chose [...]
“MARRIAGE IS THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIETY.” These opening words of the 1996 federal welfare-reform law symbolize the prejudice in American society to the favor married persons and to the disadvantage of those who live alone or in unmarried cohabitation. “Bridefare” public policies express this prejudice, whether in the form of “defense of marriage” insistence [...]
A LESSON THAT AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY NEVER SEEMS TO LEARN: IF YOU FEED A SCORPION IT WILL BITE YOU. British columnist Robert Fisk cites this saying in a survey of the dismal history of U.S. efforts to arm insurgent and opposition elements: from the support of the Afghan insurgency against the Soviet Union to [...]
“NATIONAL STARBUCKS APPRECIATION DAY” TO COUNTER THE CHICK-FIL-A ONE—DOES THAT MAKE A LOT OF SENSE? Cord Jefferson doubts it, noting that there is a vast difference between the two fast-food restaurants in their active support of either side of the marriage equality issue. For conservatives, the “day” made sense as contributing to the coffers [...]
Recent Comments