“WITH VARYING DEGREES OF CONFIDENCE.“ White House sends message to Congress saying that Syria “may” (according to U.S. intelligence agencies) have used chemical weapons against its own population. This cautious wording seems both to move U.S. toward a view that a “red line” may have been crossed that would justify (overt) U.S. intervention in [...]
TOO BIG TO PUNISH: U.S. SHIP DAMAGES WORLD HERITAGE CORAL REEF IN THE PHILIPPINES AND BARELY SAYS “EXCUSE ME.” The commander and 3 other sailors are “relieved of their duties” after they ignored warnings and slammed their minesweeper ship into the Tubataha Reef. The $1.5 million fine against U.S. government is castigated as a loose-change “slap [...]
MERRY CHRISTMAS! WHILE YOU WERE UNWRAPPING GIFTS, CONGRESS GAVE THE GREEN LIGHT TO WARRANTLESS EMAIL SNOOPING. Federal agencies will be allowed to continue spying on the private emails of Americans after the Senate mysteriously dropped a key amendment to legislation that had been advertised as a way to protect the rights and privacy of [...]
THERE BE GIANTS IN THE EARTH. So says the book of Genesis, but a new report on the world ecosystem shows that giant trees, some as much as 300 years old, are rapidly disappearing from this earth. The causes, all involving “human intervention” in that ecosystem, are summarized by one of the authors [...]
Oil giant BP has been hit with a “record” fine from the federal government as liability for 2010′s deadly explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s only one step in a lengthy claims process over spill damage that will likely take many more months to conclude. But breathless coverage over the [...]
“THERE ARE ALWAYS WAYS TO WORK FOR PEACE.“ So says Kathy Kelly, describing some of her work with Afghan Peace Volunteers. Besides urging international action to demand and enforce a cessation of hostilities in the country, APV supports a collective of Afghan women who work to create vital supplies of bedding and warm clothing [...]
PRETEXT FOR WAR?—WHO IN SYRIA IS LAUNCHING SHELLS INTO TURKEY? As NATO condemns the Syrian government for “stray” shells hitting inside Turkey, General in charge of military operations in the area says it is uncertain whether they came from the government or from elements of the Syrian opposition and the Kurdish minority in Turkey, [...]
DRINKING BEER WITH BUSH OR PLAYING FLAG FOOTBALL WITH ROMNEY: WHEN ARE NEWS REPORTERS GOING TO DROP THEIR PRETENSES OF BEING OBJECTIVE JOURNALISTS? An Associated Press reporter confuses political news with a fashion review in describing Romney’s attire and other senseless details of Romney and his campaign aides playing a game with reporters and [...]
“THE WORST BUILDING IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND.” This was the label that Esquire Magazine bestowed in 2008 on the Ryugyong hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea. The pyramid-shaped 105 story building had already been under construction off and on for 21 years and remains “far from finished” today. A look at the building suggests [...]
“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 [...]
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