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 [...]
WATCH YOUR MOUTH, JOHN KERRY. The new U.S. Secretary of State commits the unpardonable sin of comparing the suffering visited on innocent people at the Boston Marathon with the 2010 Israeli raid and killing of numerous passengers on a “flotilla” of vessels bound with humanitarian aid to breach the Israeli blockage of Gaza. Israeli [...]
EGYPT’S “MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD” LEADERSHIP HAS PRACTICED PRECIOUS LITTLE “BROTHERHOOD” TOWARD ITS MUSLIM BRETHREN IN GAZA. The post-Mubarak regime in Egypt was elected to the immense delight of Palestinians in Gaza as elsewhere, with the expectation that the new government would cease the collaboration of Egypt in maintaining the seige of Gaza by maintaining border [...]
U.S. DEVELOPING NEW EXCUSE TO DELAY WITHDRAWING FROM AFGHANISTAN. The U.S. government “reluctantly” agreed to transfer detainees from Bagram prison to Afghan ones, expressing concerns about a history of detainees being tortured in local prisoners. John Glaser sees this as a false reason for prolonging the American presence in the country, as human [...]
GOOD TIMES ROLL ON WITH THE U.S. ASIA-PACIFIC “PIVOT.” The 2011 decision to increase sales of arms to U.S. allies in the region to counter growing Chinese influence in the area is providing a bonanza of opportunities for the military-industrial complex. As a Reuters report puts it, “Fears resulting from China’s growing military spending [...]
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, [...]
“KINDNESS HOLDS A PLACE ON A PAR WITH INTELLECTUAL ATTAINMENT.” This admonition, given to incoming freshmen at Harvard University as they are required to take an oath to exercise “sensitivity” in their public utterances and demonstrations, highlights a tendency across the country for students on college campuses to be restrained in their “speech” [...]
“PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT OR RESOURCES TO DESIGNATED FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS.” It this sounds like a serious crime under U.S. criminal code, it is. But it’s a close enough characterization of much of Western actions in support of the “rebels” who have challenged government forces in both Libya and Syria. One American citizen in particular, [...]
U.S. MILITARY SLOW TO CONVICT SOLDIERS ACCUSED OF RAPE AND OTHER SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGES—BUT QUICK TO THREATEN DISCIPLINE OF A WHISTLE-BLOWER FROM MILITARY CRIME LAB. McClatchy Newspapers publishes a report on the disposition of such charges and shows that less than 10% of them result in convictions. In another part of the wider [...]
PUSSY RIOT IN RUSSIA: NOW THERE’S AN ISSUE INTO WHICH AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CAN SINK ITS TEETH. Diane Johnstone examines the behavior of the international “human rights” organization in going to the defense of a feminist punk-rock band “persecuted” by the Russian government for performing an allegedly “decadent” show in a Russian cathedral in which [...]
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